Monthly Archives: April 2011

This had quote of the day written all over today.

“Of course they want that, but we live in a world of gravity, friction, and taxes.”

It’s amazing how many people don’t seem to understand this, especially those who know nothing about engineering.

So Robb posted something about government lists yesterday.  It is another example of the government discriminating and criminalizing those who might disagree with them.  Here is the list Bill Quick created:

So how does a person qualify as a potential domestic terrorist? Based on the training I have attended, here are characteristics that qualify:

• Expressions of libertarian philosophies (statements, bumper stickers)
• Second Amendment-oriented views (NRA or gun club membership, holding a CCW permit)
• Survivalist literature (fictional books such as “Patriots” and “One Second After” are mentioned by name)
• Self-sufficiency (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies)
• Fear of economic collapse (buying gold and barter items)
• Religious views concerning the book of Revelation (apocalypse, anti-Christ)
• Expressed fears of Big Brother or big government
• Homeschooling
• Declarations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties
• Belief in a New World Order conspiracy

So like Robb most of that list for me is a big fat yes.  About the only real things on that list that I am not currently a part of and will not be in the future is the “New World Order” conspiracy.  Which makes sense since according to some people, the fact that I’m a Freemason makes me a part of the New World Order.  But that’s a completely different story, suffice it to say I fit every single one of those brackets, and I don’t doubt the fact I’m a Freemason probably counts against me when it comes to the government.

Previously we saw how the DHS was labeling different groups of individuals and how they were being classified as terrorists.  What is most disturbing though from that PDF that was released was how they described lawful acts as being grounds for being classified as extremists.

It is becoming apparent that the only way to stay off any list at this point is to be a blindly following sheep.  If you do not have blind faith for the government to protect you, provide for you, and that it is completely infallible and will not fail you are on a list.

Couple that with a license to handle and manufacture explosives, a blog for the world to see, and other lists many have had to volunteer information to remain law abiding, there is no longer a way to escape being on a list.  The best you can do is to be in the middle or towards the bottom.  If you’re at the top, you’re just the canary in the coal mine.

So, I took a working lunch today so I could leave work early.  The downside of that is I have to drive through downtown Pullman at the height of rush hour.  Right now I’m really wishing I had just worked late and put in the extra time.  

Here’s why:

It doesn’t look like she did a lot, but you’ll notice the cosmetic part of the bumper is actually torn on the right.

On the right hand side of the cut out for the hitch receiver there is a bright green patch.

Since she was in a Ford Fusion (sadly I didn’t have my camera with me), she went under my bumper and impaled her radiator on my hitch receiver.  My hitch peeled her hood up, she was dripping radiator fluid and her I even removed the ford logo from her grill.  She removed the full size spare from my rig.

You can see it was pushed forward and sheered free, and busted part of the mount casing in the process.

She bent the wiring bracket for the hitch wiring back as well.

Due to this whole incident I had to move my spare tire into the back of my explorer.  Instead of it being used for cargo, it is now relegated to moving the tire that is supposed to be underneath.  Boomershoot is coming up fast and I’m going to need my cargo space back ASAP.

To top it all off I got about half way home about 45 minutes after the accident and I started feeling my neck stiffen up.  I’ve now got ice on it and it’s creeping down my back.  I must say 2011 is turning out to be one craptastic year.  The wife was abruptly fired from her job last week, they used her disability as the excuse.  She had quit another job to take that one.  Now we have decreased income and Earth Fucker Lite has to get fixed.

I know better than anyone how much worse this could have been, but this incident was preventable.  All the other driver needed to do was pay attention and not worry about crap that is inconsequential at the immediate moment.  At least it wasn’t Junior.

Apparently the State Department is looking at changing the application information requirements for a US Passport.

If you plan to apply for a passport and you don’t have rock-solid proof of citizenship, you might soon be asked to fill out an insanely detailed passport application, form DS-5513, by the State Department before you can receive your papers.

Among the information that will be required to obtain your passport is the following:

• Birthplace and dates for parents, siblings, and spouse.
• Mothers address the year prior, year of, and year after your birth.
• Name of the natal doctor and dates of her appointments.
• Names of those who attended your birth.
• Addresses of all places in and out of the US you have lived since birth.
• Your entire employment history, with supervisors and contact information
• All the schools you attended with addresses and dates.

I could probably write up a nice spiel on how this rectal exam is pointless and only serves to harass honest citizens, instead I’m just going to point out the irony.

Mr. Obama, can you please provide the above documentation considering your proof of citizenship has been deemed questionable.

• Some are not fully sure of your moms location before, during and after your birth.
• No one knows the name of the doctor present at your birth, the certificate of live birth doesn’t contain the signature of the attending physician as a birth certificate does.
• Some are not sure which hospital in Hawaii saw your birth.
• Can you provide your entire employment history?
• Your school records are sealed.

If you are going to require it of any citizen, it shall be required of ALL public servants.  Just because they may only require this of some citizens doesn’t exempt them from having to do it themselves.  To require it of one, they should have to be willing to go through it themselves.

Dave Hardy over at Of Arms and the Law just posted something that has me completely non-shocked.

Of what a prosecutor friend once told me — that he was appalled to think of how all the power given a prosecutor these days could be used to entire ruin an honest man, or one who had made some minor error. Here’s a case from the 11th Circuit, applying what appears to be established law, holding that the prosecutor and his agents are mostly protected by absolute or lesser forms of immunity from a civil rights lawsuit.

My dad always told me a couple things regarding the law.

1. There is no correlation between the law and justice.
2. Prosecutors live by the mantra, “It takes a good prosecutor to convict a guilty man, it takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent one.”

Recently Uncle posted about a DA offering bonuses to prosecutors who hit conviction targets.  I’m seriously beginning to wonder if they are using convictions to just strip honest people of their rights and make them subservient to the state.

When I read the following all I could think was, that’s a good start. 

A Republican plan for the 2012 budget would cut more than $4 trillion over the next decade, more than even the president’s debt commission proposed, with spending caps as well as changes in the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, its principal author said Sunday.

I wouldn’t shed a tear if any and every last entitlement program was dead ended tomorrow.  Even more than that, I would prefer to see every government investment program done in as well.  The way investments work is risk and reward system.  The government programs have absolutely no risk, yet they promise huge payouts.  The question becomes how do they afford this?  That is quite simple, the government covers it’s losses by the use of force collecting the funds required from the those who pay taxes.

Government is force, those who vote receive entitlements from government are merely asking the government to steal on their behalf.

Yet another example of the exemption the political class provide themselves when it benefits them became apparent today, this time with regards to “green” policy.

As Leftlane pointed out in the original article about Obama’s new energy plan, there was already a loophole of sorts that would allow E85 approved vehicles including full-size SUVs to qualify as “advanced technology vehicles,” but now a new announcement by the U.S. Secret Service has revealed that federal vehicles used in certain capacities will also be exempt from the law.

These are the same people who have outlawed your standard incandescent light bulbs.  The government has no business being a nanny forcing people to expend money on a particular product.  If a homeowner wants to pay a higher electricity bill that’s his business.  Frankly I find CFLs considerably worse for the environment given the heavy metals, lead, and other materials required for manufacturing.  A CFL is actually hazardous waste, how many are going to be thrown out as standard garbage?  Couple this with the fact that fluorescent lights give many people headaches, lack of color quality for photography, and their inability to be used with dimmer circuits, you have to wonder why anyone would force this issue. 

It ends up it was political.  Doing this provided the excuse GE needed to close the last light bulb manufacturing plant they had in the states and move the work to China.  Remember the CEO of GE is buddies with Obama, and they escaped their tax burden for the year.

Anyone who thinks that “green” policies are done for the environment, wake the hell up please.  Politicians are using it to gain power.  You lead by doing, these people aren’t leading, they are forcing us to do this and it doesn’t actually benefit us or the environment.  I think Dogbert said it best.

What is really sad though is some would actually believe what Dogbert says in the second frame would actually be possible; laws of thermodynamics be dammed.

Nature at its best…good kitty!

This reminds me of Casey Heynes who finally beat the crap out of the bully.