Wednesday, 24 June 2015

By on June 24th, 2015 in culture, politics

08:40 – The paper this morning is full of articles about state governments banning the Confederate flag and retailers pulling Confederate flag merchandise from their shelves. I’m not sure what the furor is about. I understand that the Confederate flag offends many people. So what? There’s no Constitutional right not to be offended. There is a Constitutional right to Free Speech. If retailers choose not to sell Confederate flag merchandise, fine. That’s their right. But the government does not have the right to ban its production, sale, or display.

To those who claim that the Confederate flag is a racist symbol, I say bullshit. There were two major symbols that represented the two sides during the War Between the States. The Union flag represented just that: a powerful centralized government usurping States’ Rights. The Confederate flag represented just that: a confederacy of sovereign states. That’s it. Period. It had nothing to do with race. Both whites and blacks fought voluntarily on both sides. Union soldiers were fighting to force sovereign states to abdicate their sovereignty in favor of a centralized federal government. Confederate soldiers were fighting to preserve their states’ sovereignty. The bad guys won. It’s that simple.

The Greek farce continues. Yesterday, briefly, it seemed that Greece, or at least Tsipras, might be ready to give in to the Troika demands. The problem is, Tsipras reminds me of the reason the Brits don’t trust the Irish. Back in the day, the Brits and Irish had many pitched battles. The Brits might capture the Irish chieftain and demand surrender. He’d surrender, but the Irish troops would continue fighting on. Their position was the the chieftain had surrendered on his own behalf, but he certainly wasn’t authorized to surrender on their behalf. So the Irish would elect a new chieftain, and the Brits would be left holding the bag. Think of Tsipras as that Irish chieftain. He may surrender to the Troika, but the Greeks will simply throw him out and elect someone new. Which is what’s about to happen to Tsipras, and he knows it. So today he’s a lot more intransigent than he was yesterday.

And it gets worse, because the Troika is not a monolithic bloc. The real problem now is that the IMF rightly says that Greece’s debt burden is unsustainable and the only option is to write it off. The IMF won’t participate in any further Greek bailouts unless the EU and ECB write down their Greek debt holdings. But they can’t do that, even though they know Greece will never pay them back, because recognizing the loss makes it obvious to their taxpayers (AKA voters) that their governments have wasted their hard-earned money by giving it to a deadbeat. So, no deal without the IMF, and the IMF won’t participate unless the eurocrats commit political suicide.


64 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 24 June 2015"

  1. OFD says:

    An interesting staht to summuh, looks like.

    Our regional elites fall all over themselves repudiating their own history and culture in favor of the mobs.

    And our European cousins are about to enter some territory many of them have seen before, only with new technologies and consequences.

    Dead calm here today, unlike yesterday, and sunny with blue skies. Off to do errands, chores, and other assorted b.s.

  2. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Our heatwave is to continue through Friday, although the highs are now only to be low to mid 90’s rather than high 90’s. By Sunday, the high is supposed to be in the low- to mid-80’s, with a low in the 50’s, which we haven’t seen for a while.

    I don’t believe I’ve ever owned anything with a confederate flag, other than perhaps a toy soldier set when I was in elementary school. I remember that the Union soldiers were cast in blue plastic and the Confederates in gray, but I don’t recall if there was a flag with the set.

    Back before I met Barbara, I dated a girl from South Carolina. On one visit down there, Lee said that her grandmother wanted to meet me and warned me that grandma was Old South. When I came face to face with her, the first words out of her mouth were, “What’s your position on the War Between the States?” I replied, “The wrong side won, ma’am, and the South will rise again.” Lee told me later that Grandma told her I was a keeper.

    And I’m watching the South rise again, although it’s not fast enough for my taste.

  3. nick says:

    92 deg F at 9am, with 63%RH and a misery index of 105deg.

    The day is just getting started, and I want to hide inside all day.

    Can anyone point to the last time a politician DID commit political suicide by doing the right thing?

    Or the last time one acted selflessly?

    Serious question.

    nick

  4. nick says:

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/06/shock-video-black-teen-beats-kicks-white-girl-holding-her-toddler/

    watch the video. Note the body language of the attacker. PAY ATTENTION.

    Watch the guy doing the monkey dance when the girls are in the distance.

    Is there ANY doubt left in your mind that these kids are savages?

    Exercise for the reader, what would you have done if you were walking the dog in this park? What if you were armed? What are your LEGAL options?

    nick

  5. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Exercise for the reader, what would you have done if you were walking the dog in this park? What if you were armed? What are your LEGAL options?

    I already had no doubt that the underclass are savages and behave accordingly.

    Walking the dog: Colin would go berserk, and he is a very intimidating dog who is protective of women. Even a half-hearted threat display would have sent those punks running. In full-blown threat display, Colin is pretty much Cujo.

    If that didn’t suffice, I’d draw my pistol and fire one round into the ground. Worst case, it’d be a misdemeanor charge, and I doubt the cops would even charge me.

    If one of the punks showed a weapon, I’d blow him away. Self defense.

  6. Al says:

    I’ve got a feeling that before all is said and done, the American taxpayer will be on the hook for helping to bail out Greece and the EU.

  7. Chad says:

    War Between the States

    I thought you southerners preferred “The War of Northern Aggression” 🙂

    I stopped trying to argue with people that the Civil War was about states rights and not slavery, but it always felt like I was the only one on that side of the argument. Gets exhausting. If people want to believe we went to war with ourselves simply over slavery alone then let them. I’ll just roll my eyes when they’re not looking. I do that a lot.

    Totally agree with your view of the Confederate flag controversy. Unfortunately, that flag has been somewhat hijacked by the white supremacist crowd to the point that displaying it is synonymous with racism in many people’s eyes. I think it’s horribly irresponsible for all of the politicians and corporations (especially in the South) to be doing this sort of knee-jerk policy making.

  8. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    We already are on the hook. We’re the major contributor to the IMF, and my guess is that Greece and the EU will end up stiffing them. Billions of US taxpayer dollars down the drain.

  9. Dave B. says:

    Can anyone point to the last time a politician DID commit political suicide by doing the right thing?

    Or the last time one acted selflessly?

    The closest thing in my lifetime would be President Ford pardoning President Nixon.

  10. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I had ancestors who fought on the Union side in the Civil War. They were wrong to do so. I also had ancestors who worked with the Underground Railroad. They were right to do so.

    The benefit to those who try to make the CW/WBTS/WONA about race is pretty obvious. They need to drive wedges between the races to keep stirring the pot.

    Outside of a few hard-core abolitionists, Northerners didn’t much care about slavery. Outside of the relatively small percentage of Southerners who owned slaves, they didn’t much care, either. And many of those slave owners were family farmers rather than plantation owners, and most of those small farmers treated their slaves reasonably well. Most small farming families treated their slave or slaves as valuable property. They’d no more abuse a valuable slave than they would a valuable horse. Many others treated their slave or slaves as pretty much family members. They ate the same, had similar quarters, medical care at least as good as family members, and so on.

    That’s not to minimize the state of slavery, which all moral people oppose. It’s just to say that being a slave had little practical effect on the day-to-day life of many slaves. They were forbidden by law from running away, but the vast majority of them wouldn’t have run away even if they’d been allowed to. Where would they go?

    It reminds me of Tom Jefferson’s wife. She was and remained a slave, but it had zero practical effect. She loved Tom and he loved her. They had children together. She was his wife in every respect that matters, and he treated her as his wife just as she treated him as her husband. He abhorred slavery, but he was realistic enough to know that he couldn’t change the world, or if he could it would be only slowly. So he did the next best thing and changed his immediate world.

  11. nick says:

    For those less familiar with violence, some crash course

    From http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/five_stages.html

    The Five Stages of Violent Crime:
    Crime and violence are processes that take time to develop. The attack is not the first step, the preliminary triangle must be built. There are five distinct stages that are easily identified:

    1) Intent

    We don’t have the beginning of this but the black girl is clearly decided to defend or enforce her control of the territory. The black girl announces her intention, and tells the white girl what to do to avoid violence “Get off the bench or I’m gonna kick your ass.” (see also http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/violencetypes.htm)

    2) Interview

    Her partner starts challenging the white girl, to see how she’ll respond. She doesn’t. So…

    3) Positioning

    Both black girls close in, trapping the white girls in a sitting position, against the immovable bench. The attacker moves to the side, flanking her. Note that this behavior is legally defensible as a known pre-attack indicator, when they split up and continue to approach, it’s on.

    4) Attack

    Pre-attack indicators – she shifts into an attack stance, her arms start moving (swinging) involuntarily. Both black girls are looking around. That glance around is to check for witnesses, and is a pretty good indicator that attack is imminent.

    Note too, the filming audience knows CLEARLY what is going to happen. They started filming (at least 2 people) and the commentary repeatedly says she’s going to get her ass kicked. Those familiar with violence have no problem recognizing it.

    ” A criminal (or even a violent person) doesn’t want to fight you; he wants to overwhelm you.”

    And she does.

    5) Reaction- video ends so we don’t see it

    Learn from this folks.

    nick

  12. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Yet another reason why I’m determined to relocate far away from the underclass. The suburbs just don’t cut it any more, and even the exurbs are becoming questionable. Small towns are still reasonably safe from such atrocities, and likely to remain safe (or at least safer) for the foreseeable future.

  13. Jack Smith says:

    The City of New York ran a government-owned slave market and kept a cut of the proceeds throughout a major part of the 1700’s. (If I recall the article correctly, the City made its slave market a monopoly and shut down private competition.)

    When will be ban the NYC flag and remove any reference to mayors and councilmen of that period?

  14. DadCooks says:

    Obomber malfeasance at least, treason IMHO.
    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/24/as-negotiation-deadline-looms-u-s-reportedly-ready-to-offer-iran-high-tech-reactors/

    And Sovereign Man has a post on gun control:
    http://www.sovereignman.com/podcast/dangerous-phony-gun-control-logic-strikes-again-17192/

    The genie is out of the bottle and there is no way to put him/her (must be PC) back.

    My Dad was not just a Civil War Buff but an authority who was regularly invited to Colleges and Universities to speak and tell the real story of the War of Northern Aggression (this could never happen today). Every summer from 1955 to 1968 we spent 2 weeks touring the South and Civil War Battlefields. This was no traditional vacation, my Dad sought out the sons and daughters of the Confederacy. I heard the real story. To this day I get very angry when anyone talks about the Civil War being about slavery, it was first and foremost about State Sovereignty and State’s Rights. Many of the homes we visited and people we talked to still had strong feelings and in many we were the first “Yankees” allowed to cross their threshold, and these were not just “whites” but also “colored”. I have experienced a real shanty town, slept in a shanty, and ate real “soul food”. I wish I had the skill to fully relate the profound experiences I had and that unfortunately can no longer be had.

    I still want to live by the oath I took when I joined the Navy (yes, joined during Vietnam, not drafted) to “Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution of the United States”. Unfortunately to do so today would mean I would disappear and my family would suffer. Where are the Generals and Admirals who will enforce their oath? That’s right all “retired” by the Traitor In Chief.

    Yes, “Dad” got tweaked this morning by that article about us giving Iran advanced reactors. I need to go take a cool shower now…

  15. Miles_Teg says:

    “And I’m watching the South rise again, although it’s not fast enough for my taste.”

    Yeah, it is/will. But the North is falling faster, which makes the South look better.

  16. Miles_Teg says:

    nick wrote:

    “Can anyone point to the last time a politician DID commit political suicide by doing the right thing?

    Or the last time one acted selflessly?”

    Well, in 1972 the opposition leader in South Australia, Steele Hall, resigned as leader of his party, the Liberal and Country League, rather than be dictated to by a bunch of unrepresentative Neandertals in his own party. It took two election losses for his party to realise they were wrong and choose a new leader in Hall’s mould.

    Further back, in 1968/69, Hall was premier and introduced electoral reform that was bad for his own party, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. His government needed a sizable swing in their favour at the next election just to hold government, which didn’t happen. Hall reminds me of Cincinnatus, who voluntarily relinquished dictatorial power in Rome.

  17. Miles_Teg says:

    I could also mention John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia 1968-71, who voted *against* a motion of confidence in his leadership to stop infighting, and resigned. He was replaced by the execrable William McMahon, who was one of the worst ever Australian PMs. A number of Gorton’s enemies got their just desserts at the next election, which was the only good to come out of it.

  18. Lynn McGuire says:

    “The U.S. computer industry is dying and I’ll tell you exactly who is killing it and why”
    http://www.cringely.com/2015/06/24/the-u-s-computer-industry-is-dying-and-ill-tell-you-exactly-who-is-killing-it-and-why/

    I’m not sure that he is correct but there are definitely several serious issues, mostly centered around security.

    “Samsung Laptops Are Quietly Disabling Windows Update”
    https://www.petri.com/samsung-laptops-are-quietly-disabling-windows-update

    This is so wrong that I do not know where to start.

  19. nick says:

    @Miles, thanks for the examples.

    Do you think that doing the principled thing helped? You say that after the guy resigned you got a much worse guy. Eventually the tables turned, but was it worth it?

    And man, that was a lifetime ago, as was the example of Ford and Nixon’s pardon.

    Was it possible then (although rare) because that was before the rise of the professional politician and the morph to a ‘ruling class’ mentality? Or are we just seeing a matter of degree, with the intensity turned up?

    The call for term limits in the US comes to mind. It is against their personal interests but very much in the interest of the citizenry. I can’t see ANY modern politician actually voting for term limits at this point.

    nick

  20. Miles_Teg says:

    When Hall resigned in 1972 he was replaced by a very nice guy called Dr Bruce Eastick, who was a vet IIRC. He also had no traction with the public so the LCL lost the 1973 state election, held a year later. Two years after that Eastick lost the 1975 state election, which any halfways competent leader would have won, so Eastick was finally replaced by a reformist minded Liberal, Dr David Tonkin, an opthamologist who was originally a Hall ally.

    Hall was elected to the Australian Senate in 1974, tried for a lower house seat in 1977 and lost, but was preselected for a safe Liberal seat (Boothby, where I now live) in 1981 and held it ’til 1996, when he retired. He had a harder and less successful life than he should have, and Labor got a free run in the Seventies that they shouldn’t have.

    I think it was worth it because doing the right thing is worth it, just like Cincinnatus repaid the senate’s faith in him.

    Eastick, the guy who replaced Hall, wasn’t evil, and he was probably a good vet, but he was in over his head as leader.

    Back in the Fifties and Sixties here many politicians had outside jobs or demands on their time, the upper house of the SA Parliament only rarely sat after dinner. Now parliament is full of professionals who are kept very busy and feel they should get much better pay and superannuation. I’d say to them to get a new job.

    This is a guy I knew at Adelaide Uni in the late Seventies:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Piccolo

    I was a member of the right wing Liberal Club at uni, he was in the Labor Club. He was a twit and bigotted anti-American who relentlessly fought to get into public office. He was mayor of a significant outer suburb of Adelaide by around 20, was sacked from most or all of the worthwhile accounting firms in Adelaide for his abrasive style, which upset the firms’ customers. Eventually, he’d take the train into Adelaide every day and sit on a park bench so he didn’t have to tell his mum he’d been sacked from all these firms. Eventually he joined the employer of last resort in his qualification: The Australian Taxation Office (think IRS). He then stayed there until he got Labor Party preselection for a winnable seat, and won and held it.

    He is precisely the sort of person who should not be in politics.

  21. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Rand unfortunately is a pale shadow of his father. I didn’t agree with all of Ron’s personal beliefs, but no one could doubt that he stood without exception for individual liberty. They didn’t call him Dr. No for nothing. What we need is a whole congress full of Ron Paul clones. Not to mention the president and all SCOTUS justices.

    There have been a few others like Ron in recent memory, but no more than you could count on one hand.

  22. Miles_Teg says:

    Well, I like Rand more than a lot of the alternatives and would vote for him in a flash if I lived over there.

  23. OFD says:

    “Can anyone point to the last time a politician DID commit political suicide by doing the right thing?”

    There have been a handful here in the last forty years but I don’t recall the particulars offhand; prior to that was Nixon, who resigned, because he was clearly not in control of his administration and lost that round of poker, at which he’d been quite the operator during his Navy years.

    Gee, many questions from Mr. nick today…

    “Exercise for the reader, what would you have done if you were walking the dog in this park? What if you were armed? What are your LEGAL options?”

    Armed or not I would have slapped the shit out of all three perps and the dog would probably have assisted in the enterprise. They ought to know by now, from other vids on the net, not to fuck with big crazy old white dudes.

    “I had ancestors who fought on the Union side in the Civil War. They were wrong to do so. I also had ancestors who worked with the Underground Railroad. They were right to do so.”

    My Northern ancestors were Quakers by then and did not participate in that war; my southern ancestors (and their current descendants) lived in the Carolinas and I’d presume they were Confederates. But I don’t really know for sure; we seem to have lost contact with them all; I should look into it.

    I dunno about this, though:

    “It reminds me of Tom Jefferson’s wife.”

    I’ve seen documents from various “sides” on this history and will have to reserve final “judgement.”

    “Learn from this folks.”

    Indeed. Anyone could see that caper coming a mile away. With a little kid, the smart thing, unless armed, of course, would have been for them to just bail. Fuck it; not worth the risk to the child. On the other hand, the perps may well have not been satisfied with that. Good reason, if not carrying a firearm and knowing how to use it, to carry non-lethal stuff. A can of Raid woulda been just the ticket there.

    “When will be ban the NYC flag and remove any reference to mayors and councilmen of that period?”

    Not likely. No one knows or cares about that history, anyway. Hell, Yankees profited immensely from the slave trade and the wooden pews those Boston Brahmins sat on were made from materials carried on those ships. Yet they stuck up their noses at the South, and still do. Sent their sons off to fight that war with the admonition stolen from the Spartans, ‘come home with your shield or on it.’ After the Great Eliminator’s caper in 1863, many more of the Union troops, a shit-ton of them immigrants from Ireland and Germany, came to believe the bullshit.

    “I wish I had the skill to fully relate the profound experiences I had and that unfortunately can no longer be had.”

    Write them down like you did here or tape them; it’s “for the children,” ya know. Seriously. How will they ever know otherwise? Certainly not from the publik skools or the universities. Do it while you still can.

    I used to get pretty aggravated by all this kinda nooz, too, but have been recently simply noting it and then doing something about it, mainly prepping here, communicating with like-minded people, and recording the info and intel for the next generations, even though they may turn their noses up now. I predict the coming years will wake a lot of them right the fuck up.

    “I’m not sure that he is correct but there are definitely several serious issues, mostly centered around security.”

    This has been a major problem since the internet got going real good; Jerry Pournelle recently passed on an article that relates the early history of the hacker group from Boston that went to the Congressional hearings down in Mordor back then and told the fuckers straight up that it was gonna be a huge security problem:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/06/22/net-of-insecurity-part-3/?hpid=z1

    I wouldn’t have worn a coat and tie for those bastards.

  24. ech says:

    Periodic table of the elements Battleship:
    http://teachbesideme.com/periodic-table-battleship/

  25. ech says:

    Outside of the relatively small percentage of Southerners who owned slaves, they didn’t much care, either.

    One third of the households in the Confederacy owned slaves.

    Yes, it was about States Rights. But the right that was being fought over was slavery, period. The average man may not have thought so, but for the leadership, that was the causus belli. See http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/what-this-cruel-war-was-over/396482/ for a selection of quotes from the governments of Confederate states.

    My mom’s family were Quakers that ran a stop on the Underground Railroad in Indiana. One joined the Union army and ended up in Andersonville, and live. My dad’s family were busy preparing to fight in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.

  26. nick says:

    44 000 homeless in one of our biggest cities.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3137548/Los-Angeles-launch-scale-crackdown-homeless-encampments-44-000-sleep-city-streets.html

    The economy is getting better! We’re in recovery! “Who you gonna believe, us, or your lying eyes?”

    nick

    Compare and contrast with

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3135728/Suited-City-worker-filmed-snorting-cocaine-London-Underground.html

    “I just like taking it.”

    nick

  27. MrAtoz says:

    I guess the 44,000 homeless will now get condos in the White Celibrutard Hollyweird area? Not in my backyard they will say. Sniff, send them to Vermont. Plenty of room around Lake Champlain to house them.

  28. DadCooks says:

    Well the EPA Chief has confirmed it, I am a climate change denier so I am not normal:
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/epa-chief-says-climate-change-deniers-not-normal/article/2566896

    @OFD, yes I am writing things down as I have fits of recall. It sure is handy to have technology so no matter where I am and have a recollection I can get it down before it passes. My Son has my Dad’s passion for history so he absorbs like a sponge and commits it to a journal he keeps. I also have thousands of photographs and slides from my family trips that jog my memory and are in the long slow process of being compiled.

  29. OFD says:

    “But the right that was being fought over was slavery, period.”

    I don’t buy that. It was Massa Lincoln’s war all the way, him and Stanton, his war criminal thug generals and his railroad and bankster cronies. He told them straight out he and the rest of us whites are better than them and they should seriously consider moving back to Africa. The Emancipation was one of the most cynical, war-mongering ploys ever concocted by any politician. He and Bismarck were twins separated at birth.

    The Atlantic Monthly? With the big top-of-page image of the Shaw Monument by Boston Common? They couldn’t include a few clips from the “Glory” movie? Yes, a long-time Boston egghead institution, and pro-abolitionist all the way. I trust Professor Clyde Wilson and the late Murray Rothbard on this history a lot more than I buy the Atlantic’s stuff. And boy oh boy, have they gone downhill in the last few years; a typical left-libtard rag catering to the middle-brow nabobs who fancy they actually have a say in anything today.

    To be homeless in LA…no thanks. I wouldn’t live in that shit-hole as a billionaire.

    “On the plus side, the study found the number of homeless veterans had dipped around 6 percent to around 4,000.”

    Why can’t these losers simply be taken out and shot? No one likes them. The cops are scared of them. The government is scared of them. Shoot the bastards.

    “Scientists found sewage in the city contained more traces of the class A drug than anywhere else surveyed. It is passed into the network in the urine of users.”

    There’s a potential market there for enterprising Londoners!

  30. OFD says:

    “Sniff, send them to Vermont. Plenty of room around Lake Champlain to house them.”

    You bet. We’ll find a use for them. Send the migrant Hispanics home to Guatemala and put the LA folks right to work on the cornfields and apple orchards in the summer and some nice logging work in the north woods in January.

    “I am a climate change denier so I am not normal…”

    There’s that “denier” and “denial” stuff again. We must be as bad as Holocaust deniers, amirite? Some of the left-turds think we should be imprisoned and/or executed, ya know.

    “…My Son has my Dad’s passion for history so he absorbs like a sponge and commits it to a journal he keeps. I also have thousands of photographs and slides from my family trips that jog my memory and are in the long slow process of being compiled.”

    Outstanding!

    Here it’s basically up to me, Mrs. OFD, and my next-younger brother. No one else gives a shit. I sent them all the info on our line back to the Mayflower and got crickets. Ditto when I sent them the intel on the line back to late medieval England. Maybe the grandchildren will care.

  31. Lynn McGuire says:

    I do believe in Climate Change. It happens daily, monthly, yearly, by decade, by century, etc, etc, etc.

    I do not believe that Climate Change is caused by human beings on a macro basis. It is caused mainly by the Sun and variable heat loss from the Earth. I guess that makes me a denier and a horrible person. Plus I drive a V8 powered truck.

  32. OFD says:

    ” I guess that makes me a denier and a horrible person. Plus I drive a V8 powered truck.”

    When will you be turning yourself in?

  33. MrAtoz says:

    I read that the Freddie Gray autopsy shows accidental death due to high impact, but a homicide because of negligent cops. I guess that means all but the truck driver are free? Wut da DA Mosby gonna do now? Looking like a moron.

  34. OFD says:

    Oh, those cops ain’t outta the woods yet; they’ll find something to hang on them. Should be a riot any minute now….where’s Sharpless and Jackwagon???

  35. ech says:

    The Atlantic Monthly?

    Sure, it’s a liberal rag. But the quotes are linked to the documents they came from – pronouncements from the state governments involved.

  36. MrAtoz says:

    Let’s see if Mosbama doubles down on the cops. I smell hand slaps coming. Mosbama will be praised as courageous. Probably get The Medal of Freedom from Obuttlicker before he leaves office.

  37. Lynn McGuire says:

    When will you be turning yourself in?

    I’m already here.

    I guess that I could be sentenced to pulling Obola’s limo around and providing myself as a footstool when he needs one.

  38. OFD says:

    “But the quotes are linked to the documents they came from – pronouncements from the state governments involved.”

    Understood. Selectively. There are plenty of other documents, letters and manuscripts they could have used had they been interested in any kind of balance. From my reading over the years, it appears to me that slavery here would have fallen apart and died out by the 1870s to early 1880s at the latest; it was not sustainable. Other countries managed to end it without getting a million of their own people killed and a whole section reduced to “the night they drove Old Dixie down…” extending into the present day, with seething tension continuing.

    ” I smell hand slaps coming.”

    Or worse. It’s yet another illustration that if there is a crisis, the State’s minions will then do everything possible to muck it up even further.

    “…sentenced to pulling Obola’s limo around and providing myself as a footstool when he needs one.”

    I don’t think they’ll let us out to do that kind of sentence. We’ll be confined to dungeons or shot out of hand, apparently. Deniers. Holocaust-level.

    Mrs. OFD mentioned the other day that El Paso was 111 in the morning. They don’t leave the hotel. It was not much better last week near Nashville.

  39. MrAtoz says:

    Only 107 in Vegas right now. Over 110 the rest of the week. I walk in the am when it is only around 90. Around 4L of aqua and a diet ginger ale down the hatch so far.

  40. SteveF says:

    re the alternatively domiciled: there’s a reason we don’t have a whole lot of homeless up here: they die. We have this thing called winter which is hard enough on people in houses.

    re climate change: Lynn is exactly right. Climate changes all the time. It even changes on Mars, which has not a single SUV.

  41. OFD says:

    “Around 4L of aqua and a diet ginger ale down the hatch so far.”

    I do that year-round here, esp. in the winter.

    “We have this thing called winter which is hard enough on people in houses.”

    No chit, homes. Hey, pretty funny about them two homeless guys still out there somewhere after, what, three weeks now?? With a thousand cops and choppers overhead and dogs and jeeps and guns…oh my! I was stuck at the car dealership for three hours today, another day devoured by locusts, and their tee-vee was on. Man, probably a good half-hour on that caper, with some Vampire State police major giving the scoop to the nooz hucksters.

    We can see the lights of the prison up in them Adirondacks as we be-bop on down the drag to the village here at night. Good luck to them if they show up around here; everyone’s packing iron.

  42. OFD says:

    “Climate changes all the time.”

    Heretics!

    Burn them!

  43. CowboySlim says:

    So an LA store owner opened in the morning, got the hose and washed the homeless defecation of the sidewalk in front of his store. Along came an LA city environmental Nazi and cited him for improper hazardous waste disposal.

    Outside of that, LA guarantees one’s freedom and civil rights.

  44. OFD says:

    “Along came an LA city environmental Nazi and cited him for improper hazardous waste disposal.”

    You bastid, you had me going there for a sec; you DID just make that up, didn’t ya?

  45. nick says:

    Well someone decided somewhere that you aren’t allowed to set up a drip irrigation system to keep them from bedding down in front of your place. Too cruel.

    nick

  46. OFD says:

    It’s just like I told Mr. Lynn; the system is so crazy right now that it’s getting as bad as the U.K.’s, where you, the homeowner, are broken into during the wee hours, beaten to an inch of your life and robbed, and then you, the homeowner, have the unmitigated gall to fire a load of birdshot into the perp’s ass as they’re going out the door. You, the homeowner, are arrested, charged, convicted and sent off to prison, while the perp sues you for damages and wins, and meanwhile you, the former homeowner, are castigated and crucified in the media, too.

    So the L.A. storeowner gets cited for improper waste disposal of waste left there by someone else; it’s a darn good thing he didn’t come by earlier and speak rudely to that person or persons, or he would have been arrested, too, and carted off to jail.

    I say let’s keep splashing this stuff all over the net and other media with pics and vids and addresses and phone numbers of the cops, lawyers, judges and bureaucrats who do this shit to us. They keep pushing and pushing, and they’re gonna find out this isn’t the U.K., O Kanada or Oz; peeps here are getting more and more riled and sooner or later there is gonna be some hellacious blowback.

  47. OFD says:

    This had me on the floor laughing; Chairman Jeff sez you can’t sing “Dixie” but “Sieg Heil” ist nicht verboten!

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/24/amazon-bans-confederate-flags-still-sells-nazi-merchandise/

  48. brad says:

    That didn’t take long: I wondered how long it would be before someone notices that swastikas aren’t forbidden, just frowned upon. Stupidity. Meanwhile, the story just a couple days later, where a black shot a bunch of blacks, still hasn’t hit the media. Won’t, of course, because you can’t label it “racist”.

    Oh, about the mass murders only happening in the US, and how you can solve them by outlawing guns? In Austria, this past weekend someone drove through a pedestrian zone, killing three and injuring 36 others. Cold-blooded as hell; the guy drove back and forth looking for people to run over.

  49. Tom Lucas says:

    Oh, I’m a good ole rebel, now that’s just what I am. And for this Yankee nation I do not give a damn. I’m glad I fought ag’in her and only wish we’d won. I don’t ask any pardon for anything I’ve done.
    I hates the Yankee nation and everything they do. I hates the Declaration of Independence too. I hates the glorious union, tis dripping with our blood. I hates to striped banner and fit it all I could.
    I fought with Robert E. Lee for three years thereabout. Got wounded in four places and starved at Point Lookout. I caughts the rheumatism a camping in the snow, but I killed a chance of Yankees and I’d like to kill some more.
    Three hundred thousand Yankees a stiff in southern dust. We got three hundred thousand before they conquered us. They died of southern fever and southern steel and shot. I wish they were three million instead of what we got.
    I can’t take up my musket and fight em now no more. But I ain’t gonna love em, now that is certain sure. I don’t ask any pardon for what I was and am, and I won’t be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.

    You can argue all you want about the causes and reasons behind the civil war, but this song pretty much sums up what the war really meant to southerners.

  50. Richard H. Brown says:

    It’s a Confederate Military Battle Flag! The Confederat National flag was changed 3 times.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#Confederate_flag

  51. nick says:

    @Brad, yep, and that “someone” was a jihadi.

    Funny how quiet they can be when it doesn’t fit the narrative.

    nick

  52. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I wonder how long it will be before civilized countries start to expel all of their muslims.

  53. dkreck says:

    They may be homeless and you can make them famous but they still are their own worst enemy…

    http://news.yahoo.com/homeless-man-featured-viral-video-died-alcoholism-los-234130646.html#

  54. OFD says:

    “Three hundred thousand Yankees a stiff in southern dust. We got three hundred thousand before they conquered us.”

    And the Great Eliminator’s armies and war criminal thug generals got three hundred thousand of them Southern boys, too, and laid them out in southern and northern dust. Then they went on to slaughter Native American men, women and children out West. We still don’t really know how many civilians died in that war, but a good guess would be another three or four hundred thousand, plus all the property destroyed and families torn apart. It was a hundred and fifty years ago and still a black cloud over this country, just like the stuff in Europe still torments those people from hundreds of years or a thousand years ago.

    Thanks a lot, Father Abraham!

  55. brad says:

    Well…from what I’ve read, the guy in Austria is Bosnian – which is a very “macho” culture – and his wife recently took the kids and left. We saw plenty of that crappy culture here, when refugees came in 20 years ago. The teens they brought with them – all testosterone-filled, macho idiots – did not fit well with Swiss culture. Said teens are now 30-35, and their kids are (mostly) better integrated.

    tl;dr: The guy may be muslim, but that is more-or-less incidental. It’s more that he flipped out when his woman stood up to him after he beat her up. What a blow to his fragile, macho ego, the poor guy…

    In case it’s not obvious, I really detest the cultural attitude these idiots come with. There was a case a few months ago: two of them cornered a girl in a school bathroom and were trying to rape her. Of course, their attitude is that they didn’t do anything wrong; she’s at fault for not putting out quietly; she got them into trouble.

    It’s not uniquely Bosnian, either. It reminds me rather intensely of certain rednecks in small town West Texas. Your sons have to be the toughest sons of bitches on the football field, and if they aren’t, by golly you’ll beat them until they are. So the kids go on to treat everyone else that way: younger siblings, girls, whoever. Hell, I once saw a high school athlete pick up his mother, put her across his lap and spank her, because she dared tell him what to do.

    Meanwhile, deep underneath that super-macho facade is the quivering insecurity “am I man enough?” – fragile as hell, and the vulnerability can only be covered up with more violence. So I think I know exactly what kind of twerp this Bosnian guy was.

  56. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I think I’m going to invent a new culture that lets me do whatever I want to do and then blame that culture. Any prosecution of those acts would be culturally insensitive.

    I’ll sell membership to my copyrighted/patented culture for only $1,000 per person. Until I have a chance to get it set up on paypal, you can indicate your interest in joining by posting here.

    This is a limited time offer, and there are only 10,000 memberships available. First come, first served.

  57. nick says:

    It may be individually motivated, or he may of just felt freed to act. Either way, he chose a proven reliable and too often repeated jihadi method for his murder. I don’t think that was accidental or incidental. At the minimum it lets him ‘borrow glory’ in his mind and perhaps give greater meaning to his selfishly motivated act.

    There is a greater issue that I don’t have time to explore at the moment, of allowing in outsiders who don’t share ANY of the core values of the culture they are entering. In the USA, the idea of a melting pot that makes a stew called “Americans” only works if the outsiders willfully desire that goal. Time alone and exposure makes some inroads, but we’ve seen (for example) plenty of examples of atrocities from people who were embedded within a culture, but still completely reject it. Heck, we see it with our own far right and far left actively rejecting the freedoms and rights that allow them to exist.

    (got errands to run…..)

    nick

  58. nick says:

    @RBT, that describes the ‘burbclaves’ in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash- with his extraterritorialized franchise nations.

    nick

  59. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Never read him.

  60. OFD says:

    If the SHTF really badly here, we’ll probably see a lot more of that stuff as the not-quite-anymore melting pot/gorgeous mosaic disintegrates and we have all these weird-ass uber-macho Turd World cultures among us, not to mention our own white-trash sons of bitches who think nothing of batting around their gf’s and kids.

    “Never read him.”

    The first couple of books were OK and then it got tiresome. If I’m gonna sit with a huge fat book for weeks, it may as well be Greek, Roman or Euro/English epic poetry where I can “improve” my mind. Pretty much like “Game of Thrones” has turned out to be, or the LOTR super-franchise. Hell, pick up “Le Mort d’Arthur” or Derek Walcott’s version of the Odyssey.

  61. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Barbara and I are watching GoT and Boardwalk Empire. They both have everything I look for in a series: lots of cuties wearing good dresses.

  62. nick says:

    Re Neal Stephenson

    snow crash – his first real book – he’s credited with the first depiction of cyberspace, the “metaverse.” It’s set near future post economic collapse. Main character is a 14yo female skateboarding courier, and the last of the great freelance programmers, Hiro Protagonist. It is a classic of modern SF and worth the time. Apropos of some gun control discussion over at Larry Correia’s blog, it features a private citizen who had a nuke, which makes him a sovereign. NO ONE wants him to get mad. The opening 44 pages are some of the best writing of the time.

    Cryptonomicon- his second and I think best/most readable. Parallel story of a WWII cryptographer and his modern grandson, who is involved in setting up a data haven and crypto-currency. Teaches a lot about crypto and cryptanalysis. LOTS of little asides and vignettes that can be VERY funny. Nazi gold, a global conspiracy, underwater treasure, good fun.

    Diamond Age, he explores a society with super abundance, and no need to work, coupled with cheap transportation, and looks at the question of how you raise the next generation if they are born into the fruits of YOUR success. He usually has an educational goal in each book, and in this one it’s computing. One of the story lines meanders a bit, but overall a great read.

    Anathem- hard to categorize, lots of math and geometry jokes, speculation about the nature of the universe, liked it a lot better reading it without wine.

    his big trilogy, system of the world, explores all kinds of things, including Liebniz and the formation of the calculus, alchemical gold, many of the ancestors and relatives of characters in Cryptonomicon. Major time commitment, lots of fun, but my lack of historical knowledge of Europe left me feeling like I was missing a bunch of jokes.

    Reamde- features ransomware, online gaming, world spanning kidnapping and escape, much more of a modern techno-thriller.

    his newest, I haven’t read, but my wife likes it. Basically reading it in one sitting (if she didn’t have to go to work or care for the kids.)

    I’d recommend Cryptonomicon as a starter.

    nick

  63. James Longstreet says:

    If [the Civil War] wasn’t about slavery, then I don’t know what else it was about. – Confederate General James Longstreet

  64. James Longstreet says:

    If [the Civil War] wasn’t about slavery, then I don’t know what else it was about. – Confederate General James Longstreet

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