Take back your rights!

Why it passed

2010-03-25T10:51:00.003-04:00

According to the local "news" paper, including quotes from people in the street and letters to the editors, supporters of the just-passed health-care nationalization fall into two categories: Elitists who intend to run the lives of all of us, and drones and parasites who intend to let them, and who intend to sponge off the working and productive people.
One street person, described as a "senior" and, worse, a UTC (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) professor, states flatly she's glad it passed because she's a senior and has a cancer-stricken daughter.
One letter writer whined he had to make a choice between paying his mortgage or his insurance premium payments.
Sure, that's a tough choice. And the alleged professor is in a tough spot.
But -- and here is an important aphorism -- a need is not a right.
And it certainly is not a right to someone else's money or property ... or life.

A real news flash

2009-01-25T19:35:00.002-05:00

Check this headline: "It's Obama's White House now."
That's on the front page of the TFP Thursday, 22 Jan 2008.
It really is news. Probably most people didn't realize the deed had been transferred from the people, or, really, the federal government to Mr. Obama.
Of course the real story is the continuing boot-licking by the "news" media.

Who Is Ron Paul?

2007-05-09T14:53:00.000-04:00

Although the actual vote, the general election, is not till November 2008, oy the politicians are already at it -- campaigning -- hot and heavy.
Strangely, there is one candidate who is actually worthy of the American mantle of president: Ron Paul.
Please type in "Ron Paul" for a Google search.
You will likely be pleasantly surprised.
Also strangely, there are a couple others who rank above the "lesser evil" category, though not so above as Dr. Paul.

Partisanship and dishonesty

2006-07-17T21:23:00.000-04:00

Though I won't have the filthy thing in my home, and I will certainly NEVER pay for it, still I do occasionally see the raggedy Times Free Press.
In anticipation of the August 3 election, the two editorial pages have begun publishing endorsements.
It is no surprise the Chattanooga Times editorially endorsed Terry Stulce, one of the Third District candidates for Congress.
After all, his Marxism lite is very much in line with Times editorial policy over the years and decades I've been reading the publication.
What is or should be surprising, though, is that no one in the editorial department, or even the news department, has yet bothered to contact the other Democratic Party primary candidate, Brent Benedict.
Mr. Benedict made a minimum of five efforts to contact the editorial board by telephone, and left a voicemail message each time.
He was in the publication's offices and handed his card to a minimum of 20 people in the news and editorial and other departments.
He was in the publication's offices to talk with Free Press editor Lee Anderson, who is right wing but obviously more open minded: Mr. Anderson had already set up an appointment to talk with Mr. Stulce.
Brent Benedict tried at that time to see the Times editorial page editor, who supposedly wasn't in.
I know for a fact the Benedict campaign sent to the news room the contact phone number, the contact fax number, the e-mail address, and the Web site of Brent Benedict, which also contains all the contact information.
"Without fear or favor"?
Hah!
A Times endorsement does not, of course, mean very much to the open-minded and thinking people of the area; in fact, a Times endorsement is likely viewed to be as good a reason as any to vote for the other candidate, whoever it might be.
In this case, though, open-minded and thinking people of the area will want to vote for Brent Benedict anyway, for other reasons, because Brent Benedict is so much closer to the values and philosophy of most of the people of the Third District.
To those voters who have not yet decided: I urge you to check Brent Benedict's Web site at http://www.brentbenedict.com.
For contrast, also look at http://www.stulceforcongress.com.

Journalists go to school?

2006-05-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

Among biased and partisan newspapers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is as biased and partisan as they come, but it is even less literate than, say, the over-rated New York Times or the loathesome Washington Post.
Here is a headline in the AJC, 1 May 2006: "Georgia's season of unhealthy air."
Since we all need and appreciate air, I was sorry to learn it was ill.
I wondered if it was ill because of allergies, hence the "season" in the headline, or if it was ill because it had caught some kind of flu -- and avian flu would seem very likely since air, at least around here, is just full of birds.
Or, I suddenly realized, perhaps it was unhealthy because of an accident.
No, it was none of the above. It turned out the air was not really unhealthy; it was not destined to be hospitalized, or even to have to go to a clinic or a doctor's office.
No, the air was merely a victim of semi-literate "editors."
What the raggedy "news"paper should have said was that the air was "unhealthful," that it was allegedly full of pollutants, such as, perhaps, the fog emitted by semi-literate writers and editors.
Like the good, mind-numbed robots so prevalent throughout the "news" media, the AJC is in lock-step with the drumbeat against "the epidemic of obesity," and shrieks in horror that school-age young'uns have -- well, "had," since today, 4 May, there seems to be a new decree -- access to such poison as (gasp) Coca-Cola -- which, interestingly enough, was born and bred in Atlanta.
Yet that those same children are being fed a terrible education does not seem to matter very much. There are no shrieking "news" stories or editorials decrying the poison being fed in the guise of "facts" and information from the government schools.
And why should it? If those kids really did learn to read and write, they would never subscribe to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I'm from the FDA and I'm here to help

2006-05-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

FDA says, "no way, man" to marijuana, but here is a story about a drug the FDA said "Oh, yes" to.

FDA probing death linked to new antibiotic

Other cases of severe liver damage reported in patients taking drug

Updated: 12:37 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - Researchers reported Friday three cases of severe liver problems, including one death, in patients at a North Carolina hospital after they began taking a novel antibiotic.

Federal regulators said they were reviewing an unknown number of U.S. cases involving the drug, telithromycin, and were consulting with their counterparts overseas.

One patient at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., died after taking telithromycin, which is marketed as Ketek, researchers at the hospital said. Another required and received a liver transplant, while the third recovered from drug-induced hepatitis after treatment with Ketek was stopped.

Kettle calls pot black

2006-05-02T09:41:00.000-04:00

Big news: FDA won't admit marijuana has any medical benefits.
Here is part of one version of the news story:

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The FDA said in a statement that it and other agencies with the Health and Human Services Department had "concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use."

A number of states have passed legislation allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, but the FDA said, "These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective."

The statement contradicts a 1999 finding from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, which reported that "marijuana's active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting and other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials."

Hypocrite-in-chief Bill Clinton had a "Drug Czar" who was an accused war criminal (during the war against Serbia) who frequently made the claim that the government (meaning the federal one) had never accepted there were any medical benefits in marijuana.

Following is, in contrast, a minor news item from 2001, as reported by the Associated Press.

MEDICINAL POT PIONEER ROBERT RANDALL DIES IN HIS HOME JUNE 2, 2001 – Robert Randall, who made history in 1976 when a court gave him access to government supplies of marijuana to treat his glaucoma, died at his home of AIDS-related complications. He was 53. A federal court ruled 25 years ago that Randall's use of marijuana was a medical necessity. Two years later the government cut off his access to marijuana. Randall sued for reinstatement of the drug and won. He kept on smoking pot with federal permission until his death.

Illegal immigration problem solved

2006-04-29T11:39:00.000-04:00

Worry warts, including racists, need no longer be concerned about immigrants swarming in from Mexico.
Here is the beginning of the news story that surely will lay those worries to rest:

Updated: 8:46 p.m. ET April 28, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Congress approved a bill Friday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin for personal use — a measure sure to raise questions in Washington about Mexico’s commitment to the war on drugs.
The only step remaining was the signature of the president, whose office indicated he would sign it.

So, why will they be coming to America, the United States part, when life in Mexico is going to be so much more pleasant?
At the same time, a lot of the United Statesians we don't want will surely be encouraged to move south.
Adios, amigos.

Separatist movement calls it quits

2006-04-03T18:18:00.000-04:00

After 40 years of trying for independence, the ETA movement is declaring a cease fire, according to reports.
ETA, those reports say, will continue to seek autonomy via politics instead of violence -- after some 800 killings.
The end of the conflict means some of the secrets of the separatist movement are being made public.
One of the seemingly strange rules governing ETA was that every member was ordered to have at least two back doors in his home.
Turned out it wasn't such a strange dictum after all: They just didn't want, in case of a raid by the Spanish police, to get caught with all their Basques in one exit.

Now we learn if there really is a God

2006-04-03T17:30:00.000-04:00

Here is the April 3, 2006, headline:

Arrest Warrant Sought for Rep. McKinney

Cynthia McKinney, D-of course-Ga., is, a flaming lunatic.
As a member of Congress, where she is a colleague to liars, thieves, morons, psychos, and others who are, to be blunt, Members of Congress, she still stands out.
She's even crazier than the rest of them.
Her latest bout of psychosis involved hitting a Capitol policeman.
His crime: He didn't recognize her and she wasn't wearing her identification badge, so he did his job, trying to prevent unauthorized entry to the Capitol.
Naturally, being the vicious, slimy, and mentally unstable racist she is, she accused the officer of being a racist.
The most sorrowful note, so far, is that that usually fine actor Danny Glover has publicly stood up for her, probably -- deservedly -- destroying his reputation ... no, of course he won't be harmed. (In Hollywood, it would be far more damaging to his career if he made a movie endorsing, say, Jesus Christ and Christianity.)
Harry Belafonte did, too, but he has been a hopeless case for many years now.
Other professional blacks have gone to her defense and some of her most racist constituents have ralled and demonstrated in her support.
Though recent history doesn't give us much expectation, still we can hope that, for once, justice will prevail and the very mis-representative Cynthia McKinney will spend at least some time in jail.
Selah.

Chutzpah

2006-01-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

Surely everyone knows by now the classic example of extreme chutzpah: A young man murders his parents then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (Slimeball-Mass.) demonstrated another example in his outrageous questioning of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
Kennedy, a member of what is sometimes called "the most exclusive club in the world" (and sometimes "the world's greatest deliberative body" and sometimes "a disgusting collection of morons and crooks and other politicians"), had the chutzpah to question Alito for his possible, probable, membership in some organization of alumni of Princeton University.
Reportedly Alito actually listed his membership on a resume and application for some position in the Reagan administration, but in recent years he has disclaimed any activity in the group and, when told of some politically non-correct position the group took, he expressed disagreement with and opposition to that position.
Still, Kennedy persisted in asking and asking and asking about that group, although Alito's membership goes back nearly as many years as Kennedy's killing of that young woman in his submerged car.
Kennedy, though, kept trying to use guilt by association: The group's magazine said bad things; Alito was a member of the group; therefore Alito must believe bad things.
OK, let's use Kennedy's own ... uh, "reasoning" seems too complimentary to apply to Kennedy, but, heck, we'll be polite to the scumbag and use it.
Alito must be a racist because he was a member of a group whose magazine carried articles of racist flavor?
Then Kennedy must be a racist because he is (and God only knows why the lunatics and morons of Massachusetts outnumber the sane voters) a long-time member of the United States Senate, and its members have included the fiery racist Theodore Bilbo (D.-Miss.) (and surely it's not just a coincidence both Bilbo and Kennedy were/are known as "Ted") and the doddering Robert Byrd (KKK-W.Va).
Turnabout being fair play, Sen. Byrd must also be a woman abuser, since he is a member of that club to which Sen. Kennedy (Swine-Mass.) also belongs, and from which Sen. Kennedy (Drunk-Mass.) has never been expelled or even criticized for his pawings and verbal assaults upon women, including waitresses in otherwise posh D.C. establishments. (They can't be too posh if they let Kennedy in.)
Alito's wife was in tears as the hypocritical scum, including Joe Biden (Plagiarist-Del.), attacked and attacked, and talked and talked and talked and talked, expressing their vicious partisanship, and, in fact, using up most of the time alloted for the alleged questioning of the nominee.
Being a politician's wife, though, she had to return and pretend to smile, but I would have a lot more respect for her if she'd say what she really feels, that Kennedy, Biden, and the other partisan and mean-spirited members of the U.S. Senate were what the rest of us know: Liars, hypocrites, thieves, bigots, racists, and just general all-around scum, advocates of all that's wrong and dirty in American politics.
Obviously I too am being a bit marshmallowy, not fully venting my anger and disgust and contempt at those scurvy pigs who make up the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, people who are so low, so rotten, in fact, they even -- temporarily, I'm sure -- make the Republicans seem almost like human beings.

Cartoon worth a thousand words

2006-01-04T13:32:00.001-05:00

Scott Stantis is usually referred to as "a conservative," by those in the "news" media who know only the black and white, the "red and blue" of two-dimensional non-thinking.
His daily strip is named, for a reason I don't know but should probably find out, "Prickly City."
Apparently its popularity is growing, even though it should. That is, pardon my Menckian cynicism, it really is a quality strip and its popularity is a surprise considering the generally low quality of pop culture.
His strip for a while replaced, in the raggedy Chattanooga Times Free Press, the better drawn and far less subtle "Mallard Fillmore," but Mallard was brought back, after what seems to have been a lot of public demand.
"Prickly City," though, presents some ideas that don't get much attention otherwise in the so-called "news" media, and I harp and harp that everyone really, really ought to read the comics pages for entertainment, yes, but also for some of the most profound commentary and some of the most brilliantly creative writing in modern American literature.
Here is the "Prickly City" strip dated 4 January 2006. Enjoy. ... Oops, though it is a good link -- in fact, a very good link -- you will get the latest installment, not the one referenced. Go look. Enjoy.

http://www.ucomics.com/pricklycity/

Veteran's Day, 2005

2005-11-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

Today we are supposed to honor veterans, those people who have served in the military, in war and in peace.
I would very much like to honor veterans: Let's have no more of them.
It is very much past time to rethink entirely the whole concept of government, that supposed objective agency of force.
Unfortunately government has become the primary agency of initiatory force.
As I write, the United States government, the George W. Bush administration, is engaged in a war of aggression.
So far, more than 2,000 men and women in uniform have been killed -- just from the U.S. forces.
Untold thousands of others have also been killed.
The horrors and fears and scars, physical and emotional, will remain for years and decades to come.
What governments do best is kill -- best but not always efficiently.
In the first Gulf War, more than half of the U.S. casualties were caused by "friendly fire."
During the Bill Clinton administration, the federal government attacked the women and children in a religious compound, using a weapon banned from international warfare, and some four score women and children were killed.
Haven't we had enough of mass killing, of mass destruction?
It is time, it is way past time to rethink the whole concept of government.
Let's have no more veterans. Let's have no more wars.

Waiting ... waiting ... waiting to ...

2005-10-20T13:15:00.000-04:00

News item from http://www.pikeonline.com/:
Jersey Joins Fight Against Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Oct 20, 2005
The Garden State has officially classified carbon dioxide as an air contaminant. New Jersey is one of the first states in the nation to take such a step.

So, what? Anyone in New Jersey must not exhale?
Boy the Jersey politicians are smart!
However, from what I've heard about that "Garden State," of the refineries and hazardous waste dumps, it might be better not to inhale in the first place, Bill Clinton or not.

Self-indulgence: My favorite "Mallard"

2005-10-19T18:12:00.000-04:00

Copyright by King Features. Created by Bruce Tinsley. Brilliantly created by Bruce Tinsley, this is from about June 18, 2001.

Paradox: Trust and no trust

2005-10-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

They eat horses, don't they?

2005-09-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

"Why Belgians Shoot Horses in Texas For Dining in Europe" is the headline on a story in the Wednesday, 21 September, issue of The Wall Street Journal.
Among the points made by writer Mary Jacoby is the whining by some people in their horror that some people, furriners mostly, don't just ride them and keep them as pets but (gasp!) some people actually EAT horses.
For Pete's sake. Haven't they ever heard of filly mignon?

Has Thomas Sowelled us out?

2005-09-08T22:28:00.000-04:00

Once again my heart aches as one of my heroes, columnist Thomas Sowell, once again seems to be endorsing the fascist state.
In a column of late August, he makes several remarks in his usual intelligent fashion: "Someone once said that a fool can put on his coat better than a wise man can put it on for him. The implications of that undermine most of the agenda of the political left."
And "What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey put it this way: 'Demagoguery beats data.'"
In fact, almost every comment in that "Random thoughts" column is a gem, of varying worth, but he almost negates it all with this: "One of the few encouraging signs to come out of France has been the ban on head scarves in schools there, despite protests these are traditional among Islamic girls. No one has a right to come into someone else's society and insist on playing by the rules of some other society. We in America need to understand that as regards language, among other things."
Such a strange, may I say ridiculous, comment is so unlike what I remember about Thomas Sowell, I wonder if he perhaps is on medication of some kind. If he perhaps needs some medication.
His opposition to religious freedom, his support of anti-freedom fascism, is, frankly, downright shocking.
The old Sowell would have suggested, rather than more state regimentation, that the Islamic girls attend private schools or be home schooled (and that if there ain't such a thing in France, then they should start it).
A few years ago, during one of his Harold Stassen-like presidential campaigns, Ralph Nader was on a C-SPAN show and was asked about a comment Dr. Sowell had made.
Nader sneered, in his expressionless way, to the effect that Sowell had made many mistakes in his public utterances over the years.
Well, up to that time, Sowell had made about one-millionth as many mistakes as Nanny State Advocate Nader had made.
Nader hasn't improved much, but Sowell seems to be declining in rationality. I hate to see it.

Ill wind

2005-09-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

Second only to the death and destruction brought on by the floods after the federally non-maintained levees broke is the horror of the inevitable increase in federal intervention in everything.
Eventually we will, I fear, look back on the death and destruction as, in fact, a minor part of the harm from Katrina.
When our freedoms have been totally eroded, when government and its accompanying bureaucrats and thugs have taken over even the most private aspects of our private lives, we will still mourn the dead, but in some ways we might even envy them.

-- 30 --

2005-08-29T15:55:00.000-04:00

(((Following is a copy of an entry at Life and Hard Times Free Press, a blog about the local "news"paper in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Tennessee, and for the Northeast Alabama and Northwest Georgia areas. It contains a reference to this blog.)))

"Thirty" at the end of a submitted story meant the reporter had concluded.
It was a standard journalistic symbol back in the days of typewriters.
I don't know if much of anybody (other than one free-lancing writer friend) still uses it.
Jack Webb made a movie with the title of "--30--" way back ... and the best source I know of on that subject is http://www.imdb.com. Check it out.
Anyway, I'm saying "-- 30 --" because this is my last blog entry on the generally miserable Times Free Press, at least for the foreseeable future.
Last week, the Hamilton County Commission voted 5-4 (those numbers sound familiar?) to raise the local property taxes.
That was bad enough, but both the left-wing Times and the right-wing Free Press editorialists praised the decision as "the right thing to do," and praised the miscreants who passed such a vicious, not to mention ill-timed, proposal. (See http://www.morrisonhimself.blogspot.com for more comments on courage versus wisdom.)
As all people, even editors, know, gasoline prices have soared. Everything hauled by truck has, as a result, increased in price, including groceries.
Individuals and families are rapidly approaching financial crisis.
Businesses are cutting back on payrolls; individuals are cutting back on purchases.
Burdens need to be lessened, not increased.
The Times has probably never met a tax it didn't like, but the Free Press has usually, though certainly not always, called for restraint in government, thus opposing higher taxes.
The new tax won't be paid directly by me, since I'm a renter. I will, of course, pay indirectly.
The new tax will, though, be borne by the working and producing people, and maybe even by some employees of the "news"paper.
The amount of the tax is about the same as the cost of a subscription to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
I'm urging as many people as I can reach to drop their subscriptions, telling the publisher and editors that they're doing so because of the unconscionable support by the editorialists of the unconscionable tax increase.
The politician and editorialist excuse given for the increase is the usual one: for the schools.
Hogwash.
The government schools have already been given the largest percentage of the local property tax gouge, and they still have done a terrible job of educating the local children.
What is wrong is the same problem with every other government entity. The process is botched; the premise is wrong.
Essentially, everything a government touches it fouls. Government can do nothing without first initiating force, including threatening people to force them to hand over as much money as it can coerce.
Anyone who objectively peruses a government budget can see item after item after item that is, at best, non-essential, as usual wasteful and unnecessary, and at worst criminal.
Every time some budget-writing body meets, special interest group after special interest group appears and details why its particular pet project is absolutely the most essential, most vital project the body could possibly fund.
Why, the Acme Boulevard Property Owners Association plan to plant tulips in the median will just absolutely make the city or county, and, why shucks, it will cost only about $12,575, money well spent, obviously.
Immediate past County Commission Chairman Curtis Adams spoke on a local talk show about that process, saying something like, "Everybody who appeared was just the nicest person."
I interpreted that to be a wry comment along the very lines I'm taking: Everybody believes his project is worthy, and worthy of taxpayer support.
Maybe not quite worthy, though, of the interested people's putting up their own money.
Many a mickle, said my Scottish forebears, makes a muckle.
All those possibly nice but certainly not vital projects makes the eventual budget a vote-getter, perhaps, but definitely a burden on the taxpayers.
One supporter of the increase told me the teachers need more money.
Of course, I said. It is pretty hard to overpay teachers, considering not only what they do but what they have to put up with.
The local superintendent, though, is grossly overpaid. There are, as with probably every government agency and body and bureau, way, way too many administrators, way, way, way too many bureaucrats.
They are the eaters of substance, the destroyers of efficiency, the chief cause of waste. They are the misusers of money that could, indeed, be used to pay teachers more nearly what they deserve.
Still, it's not just the fouled-up school system that is burdening the county budget.
It is waste, such as all the taxpayer-funded trips one commissioner has made, many with racial overtones.
That commissioner, William Cotton, Jr., also is notoriously slow at paying his own tax bills.
Yes, that story was in the Chattanooga Times Free Press news pages.
So, Cotton wastes more taxpayer funds than any other commissioner; he creates more controversy than any other commissioner; he is slower to pay his own taxes than any other commissioner; and he pushes harder than any other commissioner for a tax increase on the producing and working members of the community.
Despite his hypocrisy and his evident corruption, his pro-tax position prevails.
The current commission chairman, Fred Skillern, was one of the "no" voters, one of the opponents of a tax increase.
The Times editorialist is proposing one of the tax increasers be named the new chairman.
Generally, across America newspapers endorse every kind of government growth. Sometimes they oppose seeming violations of part of the First Amendment, but generally they accept or even endorse every other Amendment's violation -- including the rest of the First beyond the "freedom of the press" clause.
Newspapers often, if not usually, endorse tax increases, except those on newspapers, of course.
Why, a sales tax on single-copy papers is ... why, it's unconstitutional!
So we've denounced papers as hypocrites, as enemies of freedom, as obstacles to prosperity.
It's time to quit buying the thing.
Oh, I will still see one occasionally. I do like the funnies, especially the current love fest with the "Blondie" strip approaching its 75th anniversary. (All the crossover references alone would make a great book.)
But, interestingly, all those funnies and many more are available on the Internet. For free.
I won't willingly and knowingly give my money to an enemy.
And the Chattanooga Times Free Press has announced itself the enemy of not only me, but of all the working and producing people, of all the people who prefer liberty to serfdom.
There will be no more copies of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in my home.

Whose idiot?

2005-07-19T16:17:00.000-04:00

Seen on a bumper sticker: "There's a village in Texas that's missing it's idiot" [sic].
Yes, the idiot might be somewhere else, printing bumper stickers for the "I-Hate-Bush" movement.
Who's the bigger idiot? The fellow who got elected president? Or the one who doesn't know the difference between "its" and "it's"?

Double standard?

2005-07-13T14:12:00.000-04:00

Following a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, several members and former members of the Tennessee General Assembly have been indicted for accepting bribes.
They were supposedly given money to pass certain legislation from which a particular company would be able to profit.
One problem: The company didn't really exist; it was a front by the FBI.
Still, several Democrats and one Republican are accused of having taken the bait.
A few days ago, a vocal "moral leader" of the Tennessee Republicans called for the indicted Republican to resign or be thrown out of the legislature.
Times cartoonist Bruce Plante, Pulitzer Prize winner, immediately penned a vitriolic cartoon denouncing the "moralist" for not even giving the accused a fair trial before hanging him, for forgetting that even a politician is innocent until proven guilty.
On Tuesday, 12 July 2005, the same Bruce Plante, Pulitzer Prize winner, drew a cartoon of a man and woman staring at a poster, "Slime-Man" apparently a movie "starring Karl Rove."
The woman asks, "What are his super powers?"
The man answers, "Revealing the secret identity of heroes and sliming his way out of it."
On Wednesday, the Times editorial is headlined, "Karl Rove must go."
Last I heard, as of Wednesday afternoon, Karl Rove has not been proved guilty of anything, except being a Republican.
Granted that's a pretty bad sin, but it's not yet a crime.
Except, apparently, to cartoonist Bruce Plante, Pulitzer Prize winner, and whichever vitriolist of the Times editorial page wrote the editorial.
Double standard? or no standard?

Swiftian proposal

2005-06-24T17:21:00.000-04:00

Mel Shavelson is a name from some of the glory days of Hollywood.
You can look him up at http://www.imdb.com.
He has also written several books, including “Lualda,” which is credited to Melville Shavelson.
This excerpt is from page 149, copyright 1975:

One of the most important parts of a writer’s work in films is not writing the script but in telling the story to people so they will think it’s a lot better than what he wrote. You used to be able to make wonderful deals in Hollywood without ever writing down a word. In case you did make the mistake of writing it down first, there was a whole system evolved to get around reading it. Louis B. Mayer had a woman who was employed as his Story Teller, and it was her job to read all the stories submitted on paper and tell them to him out loud. Every writer felt if you could get to her in some way – money, sex, booze – you could persuade her to put more emotion into her telling of your story, but Mayer was too smart for that. He had her paid in MGM stock, so she had a vested interest in honesty. Maybe we ought to pay our Presidents in United States Bonds. And read the Constitution out loud to them.

Wait! Was Sowell right?

2005-06-24T15:01:00.000-04:00

See the entry two down.
The usually great Thomas Sowell said he hasn't seen any fascism.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe -- and here see the entry immediately below -- he meant what the Bush administration and its leftover Supreme Court have brought us is NOT fascism ... but communism.
The Bush administration and the Court have certainly acted as if and legislated as if and ruled as if each of us is property of the state.
Their premises certainly seem to be similar to those of Stalinist Russia, possibly more than those of Nazi Germany, but not much different from those of Fascist Italy.
However neo-conservative principles ... maybe "principles" is the wrong word for neo-cons ... Neo-conservatives seem to have a philosophy quite similar to that of Benito Mussolini, a warfare/welfare state dedicated to building an empire.
Definitions get confused here, though. Mussolini was a Marxist; communism was known, in the early part of the 20th century, as red fascism.
Under whatever label, though, it is we the people, we the individuals, we the possessors, supposedly, of inherent rights, who suffer and decline, and it is the state, the government, which grows and prospers.

Milk carton picture: Liberty

2005-06-24T02:12:00.000-04:00

Liberty is missing from America.
With the perhaps most egregious mis-ruling since ... possibly ever, the United States Supreme Court has declared the U.S. Constitution null and void.
Probably the single leading reason our ancestors came to these shores was the right to own property.
We say "the right to own property." What other culture, what other nation has ever been founded on such a premise?
"Own" property. What a glorious concept.
All that was done away with Thursday, 23 June 2005, in the case of Kelo et al v. City of New London, 04-108, by five mis-called "justices" who obviously have not the slightest idea of what makes a free country, what makes a free people.
Writing the minority opinion, Sandra Day O'Connor expressed horror, according to news reports, that the majority has merely empowered rich people, that moneyed developers will be able to use their power -- and in politics more than anywhere else, apparently, money IS power -- to acquire other people's property and make even more money.
Surprisingly, O'Connor is right, but, unsurprisingly, she focuses on only a tiny part of the problem: The real horror is that individual humans and their rights are not even mentioned, are not even considered.
One of the houses being stolen -- and that is not too strong a word, no matter how much money the thieves eventually pay for the object being taken -- belongs to a couple in their 80s. They have lived in their home for some 50 years, yet now discover they never really OWNED it. They were allowed the privilege of paying the mortgage, of spending their money on upkeep, of paying the taxes, but they have never really OWNED the property -- they were merely allowed to live there by the kind benevolence of the local politicians and bureaucrats.
That benevolence ends when some rich developer sees a method to become richer, by booting the residents out of their homes and destroying their homes and replacing their homes with something -- offices in this case -- that will bring in more money to the tax coffers of the local government.
Five members of the Supreme Court -- and I cannot call them "justices" -- have denied the history and tradition of the United States of America; they have denied the basic premise and very concept of human liberty.
They have, in the words of Henry Clay and repeated by Abraham Lincoln, blown out the moral lights around us; they have penetrated the human soul and eradicated there the love of liberty.

Sowell sells out

2005-06-23T23:38:00.000-04:00

Who'd a-thunk it? Thomas Sowell endorsing big government intrusion. Incredible.
When his column of approximately 16 June (publishing date varying from publication to publication) appeared in our local "news"paper, I thought the paper had again put his name on somebody else's column.
Sowell -- usually one of my must-reads, usually, in fact, one of my heroes -- said this:
"Not only individuals but whole nations have lost their sense of danger after having been protected from those dangers."
He tried to make the analogy that people ignore polio vaccination because the vaccinations of previous years had so nearly wiped out polio that it seemed unnecessary, and the same attitude applies to the mis-called USA PATRIOT Act, which has prevented further acts of terrorism.
He ends his column:
"The Patriot Act is no closer to perfection than anything else human. It has costs, as every benefit has had costs, hard as it is for many among the intelligentsia to accept anything less than 'win-win' situations.
"'I have a real problem with fascism,' as one lady in a trendy California bookstore said fiercely, when discussing the Patriot Act. (sic)
"She was aghast when I replied, 'I hadn't noticed any fascism.'
"Have you?"
Well, gosh, Tom, how about the PATRIOT Act itself? How about continuing raids by jack-booted thugs on sick people growing or using marijuana? How about federal intrusion into what should be private acts between consenting adults, such as employment? How about federal mandates forcing states to get ever more personal and private data from individuals to be implanted on driving licenses in a new national ID bill? How about the threat to impose federal controls on blogs? How about the likely impending reinstatement of the military draft? How about ...?
The list goes on and on, and likely will get longer still.
Thomas Sowell has previously been one of the most intelligent, even wise, commentators in wide distribution, but this column was and is a shocker.

Marijuana, the Supreme Court, and Freedom

2005-06-06T16:51:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons it was too bad George W. Bush was re-elected: court appointees.
Of course Kerry was a terrible choice, too, so let's don't get distracted.
The point is simply that judges and justices seem to have NO concept of what the Constitution says and no concept of what freedom is and no concept of what justice is.
The Supreme Court today (Monday, 6 June) ruled against a sick woman's being able to grow her own medical marijuana.
NOTHING in the Constitution gives the federal government any right to control what that woman puts into her own body; NOTHING in the Constitution gives the federal government any right to control what that woman can grow in her own garden.
It is so strange: A Supreme Court rules the Constitution says a doctor can prescribe an abortion for a woman, and medical privacy says no government can interfere.
Yet if a doctor prescribes a natural product to help the woman medically, the Constitution says the feds can charge in, with guns pointing, to the woman's home, to the doctor's office, to, I suppose, any place the armed thugs of the federal government want.
Those Supreme Court "justices" sure do read selectively.
And what an irony: On this very date, 61 years ago, thousands of Americans died allegedly fighting for freedom.

Big L

2005-05-09T20:45:00.000-04:00

Last week, Harry Reid ...
You say "Who is Harry Reid?"
Oh, he is a United States Senator ("senator": mythical creature, half human, half horse) from the state so ill-favored by other senators it has been chosen to be a nuclear waste dump, a state that has gambling dens operating 24 hours a day, a state that has legalized prostitution -- he sort of represents that state.
Anyway, last week Harry Reid, speaking to a high school class, referred to George W. Bush as a "loser."
Maybe Mr. Reid has a different dictionary from any the rest of us use.
Loser? Dubya has a rich daddy, a pretty wife, and a big ranch; he was twice elected governor of a very large state ... and he defeated the presidential candidate supported by Harry Reid -- TWICE.
Is he a lousy president? Yes. At least as lousy a president as Harry Reid is a senator.
Is he a loser? Not as much as we are for having him as president ... and Harry Reid as a senator.

Terrifying lesson

2005-05-06T19:53:00.000-04:00

As the God-fearing, morality-driven, pro-Constitution, limited-government Republicans continue to shred the Bill of Rights and increase the size and scope of government, any of us who still want to believe in individual rights, who know to fear the power of government, will want the following ammunition to share with those who have not yet learned the terrifying lesson.
Please go to http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=114 for a stark reminder of what the governments of the United States and Great Britain did in 1945.
Go to http://www.serendipity.li/hr.html#Keelhaul and to http://worldaffairsbrief.com/keytopics/Keelhaul.shtml for another look at the shameful past of the United States government.
Is it at all likely the Bush administration can be trusted with unlimited power? With all the secrets of our private and financial lives?
All liberty advocates know, and we must tell everyone else, that a national identification system can and likely will lead to just exactly what allowed the murder of millions, of tens of millions, in Europe during the last 100 years.
Supposedly the West won the Cold War. In truth, the ideas of the East are winning.

Withholding

2005-04-17T10:24:00.000-04:00

A couple of the better bloggers have been discussing taxes and the withholding aspect.
Back in the 1940s or so, a businessman named A.G. Heinsohn, who owned and operated Cherokee Knitting Mill in Sevierville, Tennessee (now more famous for Dolly Parton), aroused the ire of the Infernal Revenue "Service."
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Worst because the country was still living in the delusional fantasy that the socialist program promulgated by Franklin del Ano Roosevelt and his mis-called "New Deal" were benefitting anyone but the wheeler-dealers and bureaucrats; best because working people were still being paid weekly and in what was called "cash," though actually it was Federal Reserve Notes -- although the coins, at least, had some intrinsic value.
Mr. Heinsohn had waged a war of his own while the nation was engaged with the overseas fascists and socialists: He had been fighting, in self-defense, against some of those "New Deal" bureaucrats who were constantly demanding that forms be filled out and that the mills submit to various regulations.
Mr. Heinsohn told them, over and over and over, he couldn't obey certain rules because he didn't make the kinds of fabrics for which those rules were meant.
The bureaucrats would again demand compliance.
Finally the war, the one with the cannons and atomic bombs, ended.
The one with the bureaucrats continued.
Mr. Heinsohn escalated things a bit. He, in fact, went on the offensive.
His employees continued getting their weekly pay envelope, but Mr. Heinsohn started letting them have their "deducts," too. He gave each employee a separate envelope, filled with the amount of money demanded be deducted by the feral government. The worker was allowed to take it home for the weekend, to fondle, perhaps, and yearn over, but he had to return it on Monday, to be forwarded to the ferals.
Based on what reasoning and on what alleged laws I have never learned, but eventually Mr. Heinsohn was ordered to cease and desist in that nefarious practice.
For one brief shining moment, the very working man who was so allegedly loved and honored by the feral government and its component socialists, and fascists, was being allowed to see the actual amount he individually was "contributing" to the cause, the cause of the working man's enslavement.
The elitist socialists, and fascists, do actually know one thing: Don't let the workers learn the truth.

Each man's death ...

2005-04-12T01:15:00.000-04:00

When Father Karol Wojtyla was named pope, there were, of course, the jokes: “Pope Pole the First will wallpaper the Sistine Chapel.”
I like the following better, only in part because it’s mine: “What do you call a person who speaks three languages?”
Tri-lingual.
“What do you call a person who speaks two languages?”
Bi-lingual.
“What do you call a person who speaks only one language?”
An American.
“What do you call a person who speaks eight languages?”
Pope John Paul II.
Perhaps because it followed so closely after the killing of Terri Schiavo, John Paul’s passing – being forecast, being prematurely announced, being expected though it was – was still emotionally wrenching, even to this non-Catholic.
I was in my car, on my way to a friend’s, listening to – of all things – National Public Radio’s “news” broadcast and the segment of the announcement concluded with a musical selection: Leonardo De Amicis’ rendering of John Paul’s reading of the Beatitudes.
Perhaps I am supposed to be embarrassed, but I just sat in my car, bawling like a baby.
All the passion of the day and the previous days, all the sorrow of the departure of a great man, all the drama of the passing of a humane and decent person, all combined to overwhelm me and my emotions.
Lots of stories have been told of his humanity, of his decency, of his strength, of his courage.
One short segment of videotape, though, will always stick in my mind as symbolizing Pope John Paul II: Some tourists, probably American, were chanting, “We love you.”
He raised his hand and, apparently shifting mental gears to get into English, responded, “I … love … you … more.”
The world, with all its continuing problems and miseries, became a better place because of him.
Rest In Peace, Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II.

"Liberal" "news" media

2005-03-02T00:15:00.000-05:00

As the comment below illustrates, "liberal" at most "news"papers refers to the politics, not to the education.

Take back your language!

2005-02-18T16:01:00.000-05:00

Someone I know well, now a former journalist, said he gave up being an atheist because, if there were no Hell, "Where would we put the editors?"
Any of us who have written letters to the editor know what he means.
Here is an example. In early February, 2005, I wrote a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek pontification to the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press. Everything was spelled correctly, all the punctuation was just as it should be, and the grammar and style were perfect for what was intended.

Editor, Times Free Press

Dear Editor,
In your edition of Saturday last, you published a story on the new steeple for Ridgeview Baptist Church.
Your reporter – and editors – said the parcel of land upon which the church sits is “pie shaped.”
That is wrong.
The piece of land in question is more or less triangle shaped.
Pie are round.
Oh, I know some scientists and mathematicians go around saying “Pie are square,” but real people know – and I mean KNOW, know from real life, not from merely theoretical musings – that pie are round.
Now I will admit that cobbler can be square, but PIE are round.
Possibly what your reporter – and editors – meant was the parcel is shaped like a “piece of pie,” and perhaps the preferred term is “wedge shaped.”
Yours sincerely,
Professor Michael Morrison

Below is the moronic version the "news"paper published:

In your edition last Saturday, you published a story on the new steeple for Ridgeview Baptist Church. Your reporter and editors said the parcel of land upon which the church sits is “pie-shaped.” That is wrong.
The piece of land in question is more or less triangle-shaped. Pies are round. Oh, I know some scientists and mathematicians go around saying “Pies are square,” but real people know – and I mean know from real life, not from merely theoretical musings – that pies are round.
Now I will admit that cobbler can be square, but pies are round. Possibly what your reporter and editors meant was the parcel is shaped like a “piece of pie,” and perhaps the preferred term is “wedge-shaped.”

Pursuing happiness pursing liberty

2005-01-21T03:39:00.000-05:00

Spouses and sweethearts of those of us who pursue liberty too often just don't understand.

"Politics!" they sneer, wanting us to devote our time to other matters, including, especially, themselves.

I suspect most of us pursuers actually hate politics. I know I'd much rather spend my time reading and listening to classical and/or Celtic music or watching classic movies (even if I do have to watch them on a channel owned by the loathesome Ted Turner).

Despite my druthers, I do spend a lot of my time messing around in and with (spit, spit) politics.

I do so because I want to be able to read, listen to music, and watch movies.

In other words, my hope is that, by working as hard as I can at reclaiming liberty, with the desire and expectation of eventual success, then I will be free, not only of political servitude, but to spend my own time in my own pursuits.

Granted the discussion of liberty-oriented philosophy is itself also a pleasant pastime, but the actual practice of politics is not necessarily so.

We need and want to get all our freedom-loving friends and allies and kinfolks to join us in pursuing liberty. We want them to join us only in part because we are tired of being lonely; we also want them to join us so we can win that much sooner, and then we can join them in those other pursuits, whatever they might be, our spouses and sweethearts prefer.

Take back your rights! And soon!

2005-01-20T04:18:00.000-05:00

The Bush administration is, as we write, preparing its inaugural festivities. Maybe, though, the Lord will smile upon us and the weather will be so terrible, all the Republocrats will have to stay inside.

Will the United States of America survive four more years of generally not overly competent welfare state fascism?

Probably.

But the future of freedom is not, at this moment, very bright. If more genuine patriots -- people who love this country because they love freedom -- don't get active and begin real efforts to bring back our Constitution, freedom will die completely.

It's nearly comatose now.

That atheist fellow has tried to prevent prayers and any mention of "God" during the ceremonies, but he needn't have bothered: God has given up on U.S. politics a long time ago.

Congress and intelligence

2004-12-08T23:40:00.000-05:00

The headline says Congress has passed an intelligence bill.
It's about time!
Congress has long shown a complete disregard for intelligence. Congress has, in fact, shown no intelligence for many years.
Congress is in desperate need of some intelligence.
Perhaps most of its members might not be accurately described as stupid, but they sure do frequently act as if they are.
I mean, for example, passing bills they haven't read.
Then out in public, asked about a certain measure, they have to say, "Well, golleee, we didn't know that was in there."
Stupid?
Probably.
Lacking intelligence?
Definitely.

Say no to the Nanny State

2004-06-30T19:58:00.000-04:00

Someone needs to tell Ralph Nader to heed the words of sometime philosopher Marge Simpson.
She tried unsuccessfully to have chocolate banned from Springfield, and after the judge realized he had overstepped his authority, Marge said profoundly:
"I guess you just can't use the law to nag."
Amen.
Now it is time for us to take back our rights.

Don't accept a lesser or a least of evils

2004-06-30T12:43:00.000-04:00

I asked yesterday, "So are our choices only statist candidates, advocates of a fascist welfare state?"
I answered, correctly, "No."
You've seen the Bush-Ashcroft administration initiate a war, ponder bringing back the military draft, increase federal spending to obscene levels, and impose and try to impose federal restrictions on private and personal relationships and actions.
Let's be honest: Cutting taxes was one positive move by the George W. Bush administration, but it was almost negated by the increased spending, especially when so much of it is pork.
The other old party alternative is John Kerry. If he were (God forbid) president, we would see more of the same, except with higher taxes.
A Ralph Nader administration might be bearable because of a bipartisan gridlock (that is, the Republocrats would not cooperate, simply because of party politics). Still a (shudder) President Nader would try desperately to institute an omnipotent Nanny State.
All three of the above presidential candidates are advocates of a fascist welfare state, one that regulates and regiments and controls individual lives.
Individuals who prefer freedom, who believe they own their own lives and are not property, are not cogs in the giant machine of the giant state -- these are the types of people who originally built this New World, and they were the Founding Fathers of what started out as a free country.
(Oh, yes, I know there were anomalies, but basically and essentially these United States were free.)
So who can individualists and freedom seekers vote for?
One man: Michael Badnarik.
Michael Badnarik is the Libertarian Party candidate.
You can find more information about the Libertarian Party at
http://www.lp.org
and I hope you will link there.
Also, every chance you get, contact your friendly neighborhood "news" medium and ask sweetly, "Say, why don't you ever mention the Libertarian Party?"
And please share any answer you get with me.
Also please remember: If you don't make some kind of effort, you never will regain those freedoms with which you were endowed by nature and which supposedly were protected by the Constitution.
Take back your rights.

Another election already?

2004-06-29T23:43:00.000-04:00

It seems like only yesterday the United States was going through the turmoil surrounding the voting in Florida, and here it is already time to turn George W. Bush out of office.
Unfortunately, the so-called "news" media are telling us our only other choice is John Kerry, and perhaps Ralph Nader.
In fact, there are at least six national parties.
Perhaps seven if the Reform Party still counts, and it doesn't with me. (It imploded in 2000, with a strange attempt by John Hagelin, who was already and perennially the candidate of the Natural Law Party, to become its standard bearer. Hagelin used the bizarre charge that Pat Buchanan was attempting to "hijack" the RP, even though Buchanan had entered the primaries -- and won. At the moment, the RP seems to have only about seven state organizations. Even more strange, it offered its ballot status, limited as it is, to Ralph Nader.)
Nader gets some mileage from the "news" media -- after all, he is pretty much their creation, and ideologically he's their boy -- that he is an Independent candidate.
And something called the Committee for a United Independent Party and its wholly owned subsidiary, Choosing an Independent President, or ChIP, have taken to touting Nader.
Apparently they don't know, or don't care, that Nader has formed some kind of party with name Populist Party.
His reason is that many if not most states make it nearly impossible for an independent candidate to get on the ballot, and only slightly less so for a party candidate.
So are our choices only statist candidates, advocates of a fascist welfare state?
No.
Please return often and we'll talk about a real choice.