RANT: Gun quote send me on my Drug War rant. It’s all connected.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gaddy/gaddy49.html

Another Bright Shining Lie
by Michael Gaddy

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The state has many weapons in its arsenal to keep Boobus ignorant of their illegal, unconstitutional activities and in compliance with its confiscatory tax and slavery system. In all likelihood, the two most often used of these weapons are fear and prevarication.

Our new US Attorney General/Race Agitator, Eric Holder, last week used a bright shining lie in his advocating the introduction of a new Assault Weapons Ban. (AWB) He stated:

“Putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

What a crock; believing the fantastically wealthy drug cartels actually secure their weapons from America is analogous to taking a hamburger to a steak dinner. The drug cartels use their millions, if not billions, to purchase some of the finest weaponry that can be had, far exceeding the firepower of their state-armed opponents in both Mexico and the US.

*** end quote ***

I agree that Holder is peddling “barbara streisand”!

We could pacify the Mexico, Columbia, and Afgan drug lords with one stroke of a pen.

End the psuedo-Drug War now!

What does a Drug Kingpin do when WalMart becomes your competitor? Drive a cab.

All we have to do is recognize that people make bad choices. We just don’t have to use the guns or government to inflict more pain on everyone.

I’ve read estimates that there is a “residual addiction rate”. Some people you will just be unable to keep from being addicted; no matter what you do.

I’ve seen estimates that ending the drug prohibition will actually reduce the addiction rate to the residual since there will no longer be the allure of “doing something illegal” to the young people.

I’ve read estimates that the cost of “illegal” drugs will drop to the cost of aspirin and that the marketplace’s (i.e., WalMart, RiteAid, Walgreen, CVS) “drugs” will be USP grade. (No more deadly overdoses from too strong street drugs or side effects of it being cut with rat poison.)

And, what does the gooferment have to do to accomplish this. Absolutely nothing but pass a law decriminalizing drugs. Closing the DEA, BATF, and FDA would also be a good idea.

Why won’t they? Money, power, and a scary “issue”.

President Obama could pardon ALL non-violent drug offenders.

And a cow could jump over the moon!

It’s all “barbara streisand”!

The powers that be like it this way so this is the way it will stay.

We have to end this nonsense the same way “We, The People” ended alcohol prohibition. In the jury box.

When you’re in the jury room hearing a drug case, and no one got killed, vote “NOT GUILTY”. Don’t discuss it. Don’t preach. Don’t say anything but “The State didn’t prove their case!”

The Drug War will be over in a heartbeat. The Gun Violence will follow soon after that.

WalMart will be selling drugs. Think they will sell to children? Think they won’t offer help? THink that they will have gun battle with the near by WalGreens?

Over stuff that has the profit margin of aspirin?

It’s all “barbara streisand”! And, we put up with it!!

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Calling the Democratic budget and tax policy “socialistic”? Yes!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

http://pbsmonitor.blogspot.com/2009/03/bankrupt-republicans-call-obama.html

ROBERTO ANTONIO HUSSEIN
A critical look and commentary on the news as found on TV, radio and in the newspapers.

Sunday, March 1, 2009BANKRUPT REPUBLICANS CALL OBAMA DEMOCRATS “SOCIALISTS”
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Larry Kudlow, that Republican ideologue on CNBC, calls the Democratic budget and tax policy “socialistic.”

*** end quote ***

As a little L libertarian, I’m not pleased with EITHER “party”. At least the “conservatives” are closer the “truth” of freedom and liberty that the “Rockefeller Republicans” or any “Democrat”. I think that “socialism” is fair criticism from FDR onward. Probably even since 1913 and the various wars of colonizations (i.e., Spanish American and WW1). Unfortunately, we’ve lost the “American Revolutionary Dream” after the “Civil” War. Which more properly should be called the War of Northern Aggression or the Second American Revolution. Stealing the wealth of the productive class to “redistribute” it to the unproductive class is the hallmark of socialism’s promise. Like most gooferment efforts, it fails at that too. Funny how the benefits seem to accrue to the politicians, their friends, the bureaucrats, and the elite. Stuck on their way to the rest of us no doubt. National Socialism, Communism, European Socialism, Italian Fascism, or just Mercantilism. Call it what you want but it is NOT freedom and liberty. When we get back to the American Dream, we can take the plastic garbage off the Statue of Liberty and welcome everyone who want to work hard again. End welfare and all the gooferment intrusions and the people will thrive and provide. There ain’t no such thing as free lunch. No matter what politicians promise you; they can’t deliver it!

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POLITICAL: Tax increases in a recession?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html

Obama’s First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit
Plan Would Cut War Spending, Increase Taxes on the Wealthy
By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 22, 2009; A01

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President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.

*** end quote ***

Companies don’t pay taxes; people do. So raising the corporate tax is essentially a tax increase for everyone; poor included.

Rich folks have the ability to defer income and shit it and even “coast”. Watch how revenues “fail to appear”!

Stupidity!

Ignores the lessons of Kennedy and Regan.

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POLITICAL: Is Obama “foreign born”?

Friday, February 13, 2009

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88746  

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With Kreep out of town for a business trip, he did not respond immediately and the motion eventually was filed. It states that the records, which could reveal on what name Obama attended classes at Occidental and whether he attended on scholarship money intended for foreign students, “are of no relevance to this moot litigation.”

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What’s to hide, Mister President?

We will not be “shocked” if this comes out eventually that he was “foreign born”. As in, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca.

Inquiring minds want to know!

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POLITICS: The Drinking Age

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/131173.html

And Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds suggests inculcating respect for disparate ideological points of view and comes up with a specific idea that’s not only right, but do-able:

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   I will make one policy proposal. Some of my fellow libertarians hope that the Obama administration will put an end to the drug war. I hope so too, but I’m not too optimistic. Instead, I propose a smaller step toward freedom—eliminating the federally mandated drinking age of 21. This mandate was a creature of Elizabeth Dole (who is no longer in the Senate to complain at its abolition), and it has unnecessarily limited the freedom of legal adults, old enough to fight for their country, to drink adult beverages.

*** end quote ***

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I find the logic of prohibition incredulous. Even if we skip over the lack of a Constitutional basis for any Prohibition and the argument about who owns your body, it is unbelievable that a man can go to fight and die for a country that won’t let them drink.

At the very least, a military id card should trump ANY age restriction.

Argh!

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MONEY: What is a dollar?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rajiva/rajiva12.html

Fiat Law and Fiat Currencies – the Relic of Barbarians
by Lila Rajiva

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The free market arose wherever there were laws and systems like that – whether in Europe or Africa or Asia. One way to think about this difference would be to see it as the difference between a fiat money, like paper, and a real store of value, like gold. You can print all the money you want, but if there’s nothing to back it up, then you’re in a bit of trouble. Your creditors are unlikely to put much store in you as a credit risk, just as the world’s wringing its hands today over the dollar. Pretty soon, they come calling for their loans with cudgels and pitchforks.

Gold does not have the same problem, because there’s a limited supply of it. It has to occur in nature. It has to be found somewhere underground and then mined and refined. It’s an expensive business – that takes risk, time, and money. There are costs attached to it that someone has to pay. Paper money, on the other hand, can be printed any time you want. Just ask Ben Bernanke. He’s dropping it by the helicopter load from the clouds.

*** end quote ***

They are “counterfeiting value” by printing more money electronically. It’s slight of hand. To understand, you have to understand the answer to the question: “What is a dollar?” and proceed from there.

The answer is it’s NOW an imaginary unit, backed by the belief that you can exchange a green peice of paper for something. A Keynesian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian) will never talk about what the definition of money is. An Austrian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School) will insist that the pricing mechanism in the economy have commodity money. It USED to be tied to gold.

Sadly, as an Austrian, I think you are in for hard times. O is going to “finance” 2T$ in current spending. By monetizing it. A fancy word for counterfeiting. And, the value of the dollar is going down even further.

To understand, you have to go to Robinson Crusoe’s island, that economist’s use to simplify ideas. A fisherman, egg gatherer, and a fruit gatherer are on the island. (Magic; don’t ask questions yet!) They barter between themselves. After a while, 1 fish = 2 eggs = 4 coconuts. Due to the relative difficulty of effort. But the fisherman and fruit gatherer don’t deal directly. The egg gather is the middle man. Then a banker arrives. He creates money so that the Fisherman can deal directly with the Egg guy. He uses seashells. Then the value equation is 1 fish = 2 eggs = 4 coconuts = 8 seashells. The evil banker after a while introduces more seashells into circulation by spending them. So he get more stuff. Similarly through out the ages, the King (Government) seeks to enrich itself that way. When the currency is gold coins, it’s much harder. (I first learned this when I saw an exhibit at the Smithsonian of French Francs over time. The French Franc of Louis I was a gold hockey puck; Louis XIV’s was a very thin button. Inflation!) When the currency is pretty green pieces of paper, it’s much easier.

So there you have how O44 is goign to spend 2T$ that we don’t have.

Basically, it’s a “tax” on anyone who has a dollar or dollar denominated assets. By adding a “seashell”, the value of all the other seashells is adulterated. Watered down.

So who get’s screwed?

The Chinese have 5T$. There’s a lot of dollars out there. The poor and people on fixed incomes (i.e., the purchasing power of their few dollars goes down) get less for their money.

Who makes out?

The US Government mostly. People who have “valuable stuff”. Commodities, commodity producers, land owners, people who produce stuff that others want.

So that’s how O will spend what he ain’t got.

He’s betting that before the inflation comes, the economy will “restart” and we won’t notice. (Think LBJ and Carter!) It worked for Kennedy because he lowered taxes on the productive class and everyone was motivated to get to work. His quote was: “A rising tide raise all boats!”

Sadly, I don’t see O or his staff being that smart.

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INTERESTING: Bush’s RENDITION OK to Obama?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/obama_to_keep_renditions.html

February 01, 2009
Obama to keep Renditions
Rick Moran

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Rhetoric notwithstanding, Barack Obama does not want a terrorist attack on his watch. Since he and the Democrats decided to politicize the entire war on terror by making it a virtual crime for the president to do much of anything to protect us, he has suddenly woken up to the fact that much of what Bush initiated might not be such a bad idea if you’re a president who doesn’t want to be blamed for a mass casualty assault on America.

Hence, his hedging on keeping the Terrorist Surveillance Program and other programs that, while being controversial, nevertheless were effective at keeping America safe.

{Extraneous Deleted}

It also underscores the idea that Obama is a two faced hypocrite who pandered to his far left base during the campaign by savaging Bush and calling him a criminal but now that the responsibility is his, things take on a different light altogether and what Bush was doing is fine with him.

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Interesting how politicians can say one thing and do another?
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VETERANS: Get snubbed. No surprise there.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-unfinished-inaugural-business.html

Friday, January 23, 2009
A Little Unfinished Inaugural Business

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Among all the inaugural hoopla this week, there were a few incidents that we found disturbing–if not down-right offensive–because they took a direct shot at the nation’s military heroes, and the out-going commander-in-chief.

And we’re not referring to the smattering of boos and the refrain of “nah-nah-nah-nah, hey, hey…goodbye” that greeted George Bush as he arrived at the inauguration on Tuesday morning. These events occurred after Mr. Bush left town, at galas that commemorated the swearing-in of Barack Obama.

*** and ***

By comparison, the quadrennial “Salute to Heroes Ball” went on as planned, just as it has on every Inauguration Night since 1953. But this year’s event was noteworthy for its most prominent no-show: the new commander-in-chief. Barack Obama was the first president to skip the event, breaking a tradition that began with Dwight D. Eisenhower.
To his credit, Mr. Obama did attend the Commander-in-Chief’s ball, but the Heroes gala is no ordinary event. It’s been a staple of the inauguration for six decades and it’s chief sponsor is a powerful organization (the American Legion) that has been courted by every recent president and presidential candidate. Among those honored at the Heroes ball are the nation’s Medal of Honor recipients. This year, 47 of the 99 living MOH winners were at this year’s ball, where they were honored by Vice-President Joe Biden and other dignitaries.
Obviously, the president can’t make it to every inaugural event, but nine commanders-in-chief found time to attend. As for President Obama, he found time to attend something called the “Neighborhood Inaugural Ball,” aimed at D.C. residents. Apparently, living inside the federal district puts you higher on the social register than winning the nation’s highest decoration for military valor.
*** end quote ***

Sorry to hear this. Not surprised. Just sorry.
As a vet and an American Legion member, Liberals don’t value the military. Sometimes their disrespect is palpable. In this case, it’s subtle.
Argh!
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RANT: “Birth Control” is stimulus.

Monday, January 26, 2009

FROM THE DRUDGE REPORT

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpbc.htm

PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY
Sun Jan 25 2009 22:13:43 ET

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic “stimulus” package, claiming “contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”

*** and ***

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

*** end quote ***

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SOOOOOooooooo….

The “stimulus package” covers any social engineering that they want to do!

Get ready for more nonsense under that “cover”.

Here’s an insight into their “liberal” philosophy: “Humans are an expense”. Wonder when abortion, eugenics, and killing off the elderly come in? After all one way to control Medicare “costs” is to get rid of those expensive old “senior citizens”. But, oh year, they can vote. We need to pick on those that can’t!

Argh!

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RANT: possibility some GITMO prisoners might be set free in America

Friday, January 23, 2009

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17841_Page2.html

Why the Gitmo policies may not change
By JOSH GERSTEIN | 1/23/09 4:28 AM EST

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5. The orders downplay the possibility that some prisoners might be set free in America.

Obama ordered that when Guantanamo closes, any remaining inmates “be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” But Obama’s wordsmiths seem to have deliberately trimmed out any explicit mention of the explosive possibility of freeing prisoners on American soil.

While Obama’s aides seem to prefer trying prisoners in civil courts or freeing them abroad, there are no obvious charges to be filed against some of the detainees. Once Guantanamo closes, letting them loose in the U.S. may be the only option if other countries won’t take them.

Craig said he was “hopeful” that other governments will take many of the detainees, but some nations may not step up until the U.S. does. “One question a lot of countries keep asking is, ‘How many are you going to take?” Waxman said. “There may be some countries that want to earn some credit [with the] new administration…but I don’t expect this problem to go away.”

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I’m speechless!

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