There must be new-fallen snow in hell and I’m sure I just saw a pig fly-by since I just read the latest Ted Rall piece and he actually berates the big-’O’ as being dumber than, gasp!, Sarah Palin! Oh, say it isn’t so, you prognosticator of the national leftward-turning-progress! You messiah of the left, of all things progressive! I usually love Ted’s column just as much as I enjoy reading democrats.com for the sheer, unabashed, glorious stupidity and absurdity that can be found there, but today I am a true fan. 
)) Read his column for yourselves. Please!
This is pretty hard to believe, but then that makes it all the more believable as no one could possibly make this up! JP Morgan has been hired to administer the customer service phone lines in Florida for the food stamp program. This is the same JP Morgan that received bailout funds from the Feds and the state of Florida. Ready for this? )) They hired call centers in India to handle the lines! So, if you are unemployed/displaced in Florida, and possibly saw your job/career shipped overseas to India, and you want to call the food stamp program for information, you are talking to someone sitting in Bangalore who displaced a call center employee in the States! )) Wow! Original story
Joe Stack is, was, a software engineer who today has chosen to end it all and attack an IRS building in protest to his perceived treatment. He leaves behind a suicide note that should be read by everyone reading this. It is available at these links: link1, link2, link3. Whether or not you personally agree with his actions, it’s important to see what an average man has been driven to once utterly destroyed by our economy and regulations. Here in California, with our 20%+ unemployment, one has to wonder at what point the social fabric we all count on will show signs of strain, and at what point it will break. Joe’s level has been reached. It is sad that he has chosen this as his ultimate revenge on the government.
There is a new victim of ClimateGate – Yvo de Boer – the soon-to-be-EX UN climate chief has resigned his position. Apparently he is upset that the poor countries and the rich countries cannot come to an agreement – or what is more likely that the rich countries don’t want to throw money down the drain appeasing the UN bureaucrats that have convinced (brainwashed?) the poor countries into believing that ‘global warming’ will destroy them in a few years. Read the full story here. We should all be thankful that reality has won against absurdity and the UN will (hopefully) now leave everyone alone and stop predicting gloom and doom as extrapolated from the fevered imaginations of some pseudo scientists calling themselves ‘climatologists’. Has ClimateGate not been a lesson? Has the outing of Al Gore as a global warming profiteer not been enough to blow the lid off this scam? Maybe this will do it.
This article outlines some actions that the Greek government is taking to fight its financial crisis. Wage and tax reform is a a great step for the very-left Greek government, but it contains an item that raised my eyebrows and is perhaps the pre-cursor of things to come in this country: no financial transaction between corporations and persons or other corporations above 1,500 euros is allowed to be completed on a cash basis. Only credit and debit cards may be used. This is an obvious attempt to prevent tax-evasion strategies in the underground economy, though it seems to elude the government of Greece that if such draconian and anti-privacy measures were not taken, perhaps those transactions they are trying to bring above ground and document would not have been made underground in the first place. This also means that anonimity of both parties to a transaction above 1,500 euros is effectively destroyed, with big brother able to account for every penny of your or your corporation’s pocketbook. Why the fuss? Well, suppose you wanted to work with a corporation on a corp-to-corp basis and wanted to give the corporation the write-off on the payment for your labor while keeping your income effectively underground. You incorporate and receive payments from the client corp to reap benefits of numerous tax reduction strategies, but now, since you bill semi-monthly and your total for each check is above 1,500 euros, you need a merchant account and direct IRS reporting of every penny coming in. Finally, guess what the answer is to the question of why should we care what the greeks do to get out of their crises? Maybe I’m wrong, but the Greek strategy is going to look mighty appealing to Washington when the US financial house of cards comes crashing down here on our shores!
We’ve all been hearing about states’ rights being infringed by Federal agencies and legislature, and now, finally, there is someone in local law enforcement that is standing up against this dangerous practice – Sheriff Mack. Take a look at his website here and read about his quest to educate all local county sheriffs in all 50 sovereign states of the Union about the rights that they have in the face of any future incursion by the Federal authorities. Please read his materials – this is important. The next step is for local law enforcement in Montana and the other states that have passed/are passing intrastate gun freedom acts to commit 100% to helping enforce these laws when the Federal agencies inevitably move-in to crush the will of the citizens of those states to exercise their freedom to control their internal commerce free from Federal control. If a Montana citizen buys a weapon that is covered by the Made in Montana law, for example, that which is not permitted under Federal guidelines outside of the SOT licensing (automatic and silenced weapons are two examples that come to mind), and the ATF swoops-in for the kill, the local Sheriff must commit to protecting his constituent from the attack, and if need be to summon the other state agencies such as the ‘National’ Guard to help enforce the law, arrest the ATF agents attempting to violate the resident’s and the state’s rights, and keep the peace. I hope Sheriff Mack helps in this as well as continuing his current efforts.
This story outlines part of the Obama arrogance that promises to sour relations with China for the sake of meeting the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama may well be a great man who really is working for peace, but whether Obama should meet with him to spite the Chinese is another question. Its not like the Dalai Lama needs validation from Obama to keep up his pressure on China. Why then is Obama about to seriously anger a major US creditor precisely when our ‘quantitative easing’ is destroying the dollar? Hmmmm…..the plot thickens!
Lew Rockwell blogs here about a raid by a local PD in Massachusetts in which 20 guns were confiscated from a private individual who confided (to his wife apparently) that he felt that Armageddon was imminent. No threats. No intent to commit any crimes. Wow. Talk about the thought police state in action! This is a truly frightening development that should terrify anyone who is afraid of a government overstepping its authority on all levels. In this case we’re not talking about a federal alphabet soup agency, but rather a local PD, but it is ironic that any government agency thinks that by preemptively arresting thought-violators they are making anyone safer. If anything, they make the next 10,000 guys who are afraid of government overstepping bounds go on that much more of a hair-trigger, becoming more jumpy and ready to head for the hills.
Here is a great quote from Lew: “Since it is unacceptable for people to believe that government agents will carry out paramilitary raids to confiscate firearms, a paramilitary force was sent to Girard’s home to confiscate his firearms.”
Be afraid, be very afraid! I only hope the victim in Massachusetts gets off and sues the local PD for harassment, wrongful imprisonment, and violations of his civil liberties. Where’s the ACLU when this sort of thing happens? (That was rhetorical!) )
From the ‘this cannot be true!’ category: a British airline (BMI apparently) has chosen to appease its Muslim clients by displaying an in-flight electronic map that does not show the state of Israel, but only shows the city of Haifa, though spelling it in Arab transliterated fashion. They show a normal map on all flights to Israel from the UK. How very nice of them to do so! I’d say that anyone who is flying to Israel from the UK should steer clear of this airline! Source Article
