Where do you go

When your conspiracy theories are too kooky for MSNBC?

Apparently, you go to Al Jazeera.

Watch this “report” on the Koch Brothers (aka: The Kochtopus)

This is a special kind of crazy. It’d be cute if it wasn’t slightly frightening.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons, The Left is Never Right | 3 Comments

Here they go again

You will all remember back in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security issued a report stating that that all Tea Party folks, as well as all former military personnel, were possible domestic terrorists,,and that anyone who has a Gadsen Flag bumpersticker should be treated as armed and dangerous at traffic stops by local police.

A large portion of the country, being profiled by their government as possible terrorists, did the appropriate thing and yelled at the government representatives who were still friendly to them, and thankfully, the report was shelved.

It is now nearly three years later and, it’s back.

Well, not so much the report itself. But one of the main authors of the report, Daryl Johnson, was giving testimony to Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) committee.  For those not quite up to speed on committee assignments, that would be the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing was titled “Hate Crimes and the Threat of Domestic Terrorism” and Mr. Johnson got to sit in front of a governmental body and go MSNBC all over the place.

Here is a PDF of his testimony.

Mr Johnson attributes every single bad thing that has happened over these past three years to “Right Wing Extremist Terrorism”. Oddly enough, he can’t really find any left-wing terrorism during this same time period.

I guess he was hibernating or somesuch during the Occupy riots that flooded America last Fall.

Anyway, the report may be gone, but the people behind it are still highly respected by those currently in power in the Executive and Legislative branches.

Two side issues I’d like to just point to real quick about this: First, for those is the states where Romney is within the margin of error of Obama, your third party vote stands a chance of bringing this report back. This happening also means federal officers who will profile you and then enforce unjust laws upon you during an Obama second term. Secondly, thank your deity of choice that Sharon Angle lost. If Harry Reid wasn’t there to be Senate Majority Leader, the smart money says Durbin would have gotten the spot.

Posted in The Government is Not Your Friend | 6 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day

RID THE WORLD OF THOSE SAVAGES!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Reason #96 to carry while on your own property

Gators are not so much a problem up here. We worry more about the furry gators (aka: coyotes) here at Firebase Blue (outside the fence, not inside).

Also, is it me or is his leg wound a little close to the femoral artery than it should be for him to be laughing?

Posted in Heroes, Comrades and Brothers | 2 Comments

Navel Gazing in the First Degree

I love watching The West Wing. Call me whatever name you like, it won’t change my mind. I own the box set.

So when the Huff-a-ton Post linked to this campaign commercial from the Michigan state Supreme Court race, I had to watch it.

Btw, you Michiganders, watch that ad and make sure to NOT vote for that person. The buzzwords in the ad put her to the left of Obama.

Anyway, I don’t like watching vids at high-end sites like HP, so I bopped on over to The Tube to view it. Whilst guffawing at the ad, I gazed upon the sidebar vids and found this video from the Chicago Institute for Western Civilization:

You can tell a hardcore, professional navel gazer from a novice because the novice will not come up with their own “problem” to spend 45 minutes “solving”.

Take some time this weekend and see how quickly you can solve their question. It won’t take long.

Btw, I bought my WW boxed set used, so don’t go accusing me of funding Sorkin’s latest drug binge.

Posted in Dare To Be Stupid, Freaks, Mutants, and Morons, The Left is Never Right, Useful Idiots | 1 Comment

The Answer is Qui

In the ongoing war the left has on the freedom of speech they don’t approve of or makes them look bad, John Aravosis’ hyper-leftist AmericaBlog and it’s “Deputy Editor” Chris Ryan asks this question about the French weekly paper, Charlie Hebdo, and their latest “Draw Mohammad” cartoons:

“Just because they can legally print it, should they?”

The answer to that question is: Oui.

If they are able to print it, willing to print it and accept the backlash/criticism, then yes. If they are not committed to doing those things, that is where the gray area might start. However, the last go-round with the Islamists got the Charlie Hebdo offices firebombed, so I’m pretty sure they know what they’re getting themselves into.

Posted in The Left is Never Right, Useful Idiots | 2 Comments

Something most talking heads miss

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a theory as to a big part of why our economy is still sputtering along, instead of motoring nicely.  That theory is basically this:

The professional class is mobility impaired.

Not something most people think about, really, but I keep hearing about all these companies with tons of jobs and they can’t find bodies to fill them.

Why?

Partly I think it has to do with a lack of qualified people (since we as a society tend to worship entertainment heroes over intellectual ones), but I don’t think, for the most part, that training is the issue.  I think it’s the fact that during the housing bubble, people like me bought houses we could afford.

Wait, what?!

Turns out, not everyone was an idiot & bought a house where the payment was 50% of their take home on the hope that they could flip it in 9 months for an extra $100K.  Some of us bought a home.  Problem was, when the bubble burst, my home lost 30% of it’s value.  Now if I stayed there for 10-15 years, it wouldn’t be a problem.  I’d have paid down the mortgage enough that I could sell and move on without a profit, but also without bringing anything to the table.

But an opportunity appeared that I couldn’t pass up, and then my son was born, and the realities of personal & temporal economics demanded that my family relocate to Bellevue, WA (it was going to be Los Angeles, but I dodged that bullet!).  Now I’m lucky, as the rental market in Everett is doing very well, & we contracted with a management company & rented out our house.  Granted, we can’t demand enough rent to cover the mortgage, but it covers most of it, and we get a nice write off (I reckon this year, I will do well at tax time).  We also found a very nice place in Bellevue that is just 2 miles from my office, & five from my wife’s.  So all is good.

Still, a lot of professionals like me are stuck in cities where the housing market tanked hard, jobs vaporized, and they are unable to relocate.  They can make the payment on the house they own, but they can’t unload it, and they can’t rent it out.  They can’t chase opportunities, and companies can’t attract talent (except for kids fresh out of college).  And if they walk away from the mortgage, they trash their credit & risk losing the new job, & many new opportunities (since companies use credit checks nowadays).

I think everyone made a critical error when they focused on helping people stay in their homes that they could not afford, and did nothing for the people who wanted to unload and keep the economy moving by keeping the human capital in motion.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Obamacare Update

When your legislative body doesn’t read legislation before it votes on it, you get “breaking news” more than a year after the vote.

It took media researchers until nearly the end of June 2012 to find the 7 new taxes on middle income Americans included in the bill.

And now, just the end of last week they found a clause that changes how many hours an employee has to work in order to be considered “working full-time”, according to Obamacare.

The regulations, written by an IRS attorney, arbitrarily redefine “full time employee” as someone who works 30 hours a week for a business. Traditionally, most private businesses have defined “full time employee” as someone who works 40 hours a week. With this new regulation, the federal government is now removing the right of businesses to define “full time employee” as they deem appropriate for their unique conditions.

This new rule does this so that “more people” will be made eligible for mandatory employer provided health insurance. Sadly, even I can see that this rule is going to work exactly the opposite direction of its intentions.

Say you’re working a part-time job of 30-35 hours a week. You’re possibly able to hold down the fort with this gig, but you’re not making a single inch of headway. Or, maybe its not even keeping you above water. Well, thanks to Obamacare, your employer now has to provide you with medical insurance or face federally imposed fines. Now your job has been reduced to 25-28 hours a week and you’re definitely back to falling behind.

Or, maybe they don’t cut your hours. This now means that you are costing your employer more money, and since your employer is like every other employer and does not have a magic money tree they can use to pay your health insurance premiums with (unlike the employer known as federal government), someone, or more likely a group of “someones”, aren’t going to get as large a raise this year (if they get one at all).

Another option is that or your employer is going to have to increase prices of their product or service, possibly losing business in the long run.

Doesn’t that sound like fun!

Or, I suppose that your employer might be one of the 1200+ businesses who applied for (read: greased bureaucratic palms) and received an HHS waiver. In which case, you’re still screwed because your employer is an Obamanation lackey.

And since we’re talking about the Obamanation, you probably didn’t hear about this because our Chief Executive has the foreign policy chops of Jimmeh Cahtah, but the House Republicans have approved a bill that will voodoo away the waivers that Obama Executive Ordered into existence which give the states leeway to gut welfare requirements.

The bad news is that this process could take until January because the Senate is going to pretend to not notice it for a month or so AFTER coming back from their recess.

Meanwhile….

Awww shit.

Posted in The Left is Never Right, Useful Idiots | 3 Comments

Movie Time

I’m not sure how I missed these when they hit teh Tubes, so here they are now.

Red Dawn

I’m kind of worried about this one, even though I know how it ends. It just doesn’t look like it is going to be as good as it sounded a year ago.

This one on the other hand….

Atlas Shrugged: Part II

And if neither of those strike your fancy, then maybe you need to see my

Middle Finger

Seriously, buy some Drills

We Bring the Rock & Roll

Kick Your Ass in 17 Minutes

Posted in Kewel! | 3 Comments

As a father…

I just can not wrap my head around this guy.  I can understand wanting a new start.  I can get walking away from the wife & kids and creating new life elsewhere.  I can even see how offing the spouse for insurance money would appeal to some.

But burning your children to death…

Why couldn’t one of the arresting officers have picked that time to get trigger happy?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments