I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas!
Thank you for your loyal readership and support, you know who you are! 😀
Please, let our thoughts and prayers be for those up in Newtown, CT, those who are recovering from hurricane Sandy and those in America and around the World — who have nothing to celebrate this day and this week.
This posting in dedicated to them.
http://youtu.be/zxSENC1jCsY
(Via Fox News)
Sorry, but this, goes well beyond stupid right here:
Twenty children killed in Newtown, Connecticut, and a huge outpouring in response: wall-to-wall media coverage, an avalanche of flowers and stuffed animals, a river of ink in editorials, nationwide flags at half mast, memorial funds and much, much more.
Tens, hundreds, thousands of children killed in Afghanistan. Response: almost nothing.
Are Afghan children any less precious? Or does it make a difference that the killers were wearing American uniforms, piloting US helicopters and fighters, and operating drones?
This right here, is a perfect example of why I cannot take the far-left serious at all. Comparing a tragic event like Newtown to a war; what an out of touch, liberal buffoon!
Here is hoping that mass shooting finds Robert Dreyfuss in the middle of it. America would be such a better place for it. 😡
This guy must be in competition with Cornell West.
I hate to be the one to say it, but, sadly, it is true:
It was two weeks before Election Day when Mitt Romney’s political director signed a memo that all but ridiculed the notion that the Republican presidential nominee, with his “better ground game,” could lose the key state of Ohio or the election. The race is “unmistakably moving in Mitt Romney’s direction,” the memo said.
But the claims proved wildly off the mark, a fact embarrassingly underscored when the high-tech voter turnout system that Romney himself called “state of the art” crashed at the worst moment, on Election Day.
To this day, Romney’s aides wonder how it all went so wrong.
They console each other with claims that the election was much closer than realized, saying that Romney would be president if roughly 370,000 people in swing states had voted differently. Romney himself blamed demographic shifts and Obama’s “gifts”: federal largesse targeted to Democratic constituencies.
But a reconstruction by the Globe of how the campaign unfolded shows that Romney’s problems went deeper than is widely understood. His campaign made a series of costly financial, strategic, and political mistakes that, in retrospect, all but assured the candidate’s defeat, given the revolutionary turnout tactics and tactical smarts of President Obama’s operation.
You see, there used to be a time in this Country, when the Republican Party and the Conservative movement actually stood for something; and that is a Constitutional Republic. A Constitutional Republic is what The United States of America was founded as, and not a Democracy as is parroted by some of the idiots on the left and some of the idiots on the so-called “Right” as well.
The Republican Party and the Conservative movement in this Country used to stand for social, economic and military restraint. Nowadays, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party both stand for unlimited spending, hippy-style social policy, high taxes, totally ignoring the United States Constitution and runaway military. This is why the American people did not vote for Mitt Romney or any of the so-called Republican “Players” during this election. Because all they saw was Democratic Party, and Democratic Party Lite.
American’s economy is in shatters, and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are both to blame for it. Instead of being adults and making the tough calls, on what needs to be done. Like ripping out the so-called “free trade” agreements and putting back in place the tariffs that would pay down our debt, and fund our social safety net — the Republicans are refusing to allow taxes to be raised on anyone making over a million dollars a year and the Democrats are squabbling over any and all cuts made to the social system.
As for Americas economy, why it is totally in shambles is because of the idiot transformation that took place during the Nixon years. America essentially ended the The Bretton Woods system and began a system of Keynesian economics. This caused America to print more money, than they had to back it up in gold. Which causes inflation and devaluing of the US dollar. Again, this was done, by both parties and is why we are where we are today.
Instead of actually fixing Americans problems through sound policy; the Republican Party would rather pick a fight with AFL-CIO and the UAW to try to crush the labor movement in this Country. After doing this, they really actually expect to be elected in those Union friendly states. My friends, something is horribly wrong the Republican Party.
Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election for one simple reason: Romney allowed himself to be framed by the liberal media as a rich, out of touch, elitist who could have honestly cared less about the middle class in this Country. Mitt Romney might actually be a very moral person and a very capable leader. But, when you have the money he has, you get painted in that fashion.
Another thing that is wrong with the Republican Party and the Conservative movement was written about by Patrick J. Buchanan in his 2005 book, “Where the Right went Wrong.” Since that time, the Bush Presidency has ended and it was thought for a time that the neoconservatives in this Country would be relegated to the backwoods of politics for a very long time.
However, Kristol, Podhoretz and the rest of that neoconservative clan had other ideas. They spend a good deal of money in foolhardy plans to try to bolster Mitt Romney’s bid for the White House. Which ultimately caused Mitt Romney’s loss in the election. Which makes one wonder if possibly the neoconservatives were a bit worried that Mitt Romney was not the defense hawk that they truly wanted in the White House and actually were trying to kneecap his Presidency.
The war in Iraq should have been a wakeup call to the media, to Americans and to the Conservative movement that unilateral war without proper constitutional authority was a disaster. Instead the Conservative movement and the Republican Party just buried Bush and his failures and are now making the case for all out war with Iran.
In closing: My friends, Mitt Romney was not the problem; the problem is that the Conservative movement that was, and the Republican that was, of long ago; has been replaced with a Democratic Party Lite. This is not an American Conservative movement. But, rather a horrible fraud. This is why the Republicans lost the election of 2012 — nothing more, nothing less.
Anyone who tells you otherwise, is a highly misinformed.
Others: Balloon Juice, Addicting Info, The Impolitic, Firedoglake, PERRspectives, The Political Carnival, Lawyers, Guns & Money, PoliticusUSA, The Moderate Voice, Washington Examiner, The Hill,Booman Tribune, Gawker, The National Memo, The Other McCain, Mediaite, Eschaton and Outside the Beltway (Via Memeorandum)
I have following the story for a very long time, and I finally am blogging about it:
A man and woman who lived in an Indianapolis house that exploded in November killing two neighbors and damaging scores of homes, have been charged with felony murder and multiple counts of arson for allegedly blowing up the home, prosecutors said.
Monserrate Shirley and Mark Leonard, who lived in the home that exploded, and Leonard’s brother, Bob Leonard Jr., were charged on Thursday in connection with the explosion and arrested on Friday, authorities said.
The personal property insurance on the home had been raised recently to $304,000 and photographs and personal financial records removed before the explosion, prosecutors allege.
The three face murder charges in the deaths of neighbors Jennifer and John Longworth and multiple other charges for the injuries to 12 other area residents in the blast and for the 33 neighborhood homes that had to be demolished, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry told a news conference.
This was a “thoroughly senseless act” that cost the lives of two young people, Curry said.
Investigators believe a programmable microwave that exploded from the inside out was the source of ignition and valves that regulate natural gas into the home and to a fireplace were removed, allowing gas to build up over hours, Curry said.
Authorities are still working to determine whether others were involved.
The three suspects are expected to appear in court Monday morning.
via Indianapolis home explosion: 3 charged with murder – chicagotribune.com.
When this originally happened, I had said that money was behind it all and I was correct. This was a tragic event and is what happens when greed gets the best of people. I believe, however, that they might not have thought that this much damage would be done, and that maybe a small explosion would happen and the house would just have burned. However, I also tend to believe that some sort of high-power explosive was used as well, and not just natural gas. I could be wrong about that though.
Either way, it is a sad situation, that people were only thinking of collecting an insurance policy and not thinking about the fact that other people in the neighborhood could have been, and were, ultimately killed. It just shows you where our society has gone nowadays. Unlike some, I will not use this tragic event to put a “Christian” shine or spin on this. But rather, I will simply say that I hope that the people who pulled this little morbid stunt, get the justice that they, and the families who were affected by it do truly deserve.
The only exceptions to that rule are where I submitted cross-postings of a few blog postings at Faith Writers and I also have an account at Nolan Chart, which is a libertarian site, to submit original writings.
This here is the reason, the story via St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
ST. LOUIS • Conservative talk radio host and commentator Dana Loesch sued the owner of the conservative website Breitbart.com Friday, claiming that although her relationship with the news and opinion aggregating website had gone “tragically awry,” Breibart.cοm LLC refused to let her work for the company or anyone else, forcing her into “indentured servitude in limbo.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court here, seeks at least $75,000 in damages, as well as a judge’s declaration that her contract had expired.
The suit says that difficulties managing the Breitbart “media ’empire’” or ideological conflicts or both had spiked the working relationship, creating a “increasingly hostile” work environment. When Loesch tried to terminate her work agreement in September, Breitbart refused and extended the agreement by a year, the suit says.
Breitbart.cοm LLC refuses to allow her work to be published and “sabotages” her attempts to find work elsewhere, the suit says.
This right here is why: because when you sign a contract, the person you sign with, basically owns you. The only way to get out of the contract is to go to court and ask a judge to release you out of your contract. Hence the reason for me never signing with anyone at all. Back when I was defending the right hardcore, I was asked to sign with someone once. It was not a huge amount of money, but the place seemed a bit shady at the time and I passed on it. I do not regret it either, because really, after my dealings with them, I never heard anymore about them. The site never came up and I asked about it. I was told they had “capital issues” and decided to not to put the site online.
Besides all of that; call it my independent spirit, call it my left leanings, call it my hatred of corporate shills; call it whatever you want to call it. But, when you are writing for a company of some sort, unless you are writing for yourself and have a LLC formed or something like that — you are a corporate writer. You are being paid by a company to spout talking points. This is why I shied away from that sort of a thing. I happen to be someone who has a rather quirky opinion on that.
Blogging was started by people who felt that the corporate ran and controlled media had a monopoly on the political, social and cultural conversation in this Country. People like Matt Mullenweg who basically took a piece of software that its original author abandoned and in open source terms, “forked” the software and created the software that about 90% of bloggers today use, including myself. Oh, there are others, like Blogger, TypePad and few others; but honestly, from what I am told, and from what I have experienced with one; they for the most part, do truly suck. WordPress is great, easy to use, and best of all, it is free! All you need, is a host, that can handle the traffic; and you are golden.
Now here is the part, where I start sounding like an old geezer, and I am too; I am, after all, 40 years old. (Puts on old geezer wig and costume…) (said in best old geezer voice that I can muster..) Back in the good old days of blogging, in 2006, we didn’t have these new fangled gadgets like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit for promotion tools; the only we were linked to, is if we e-mail the blog authors and prayed to God that they even linked to us!
But, seriously, the rise in social media, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit all make it very simply to promote a blog. The truth is, you really do not have to pay for promotion; well, unless you are like me, someone that everyone thinks is an creep, an asshole or worse and nobody wants to link to you, for whatever reason. Then you might have to pay for some promotion. Otherwise, today, all you have to do is find your target audience and use twitter, Facebook and the rest to promote yourself.
On the other hand; Blogging has also created a few unintended by-products. I will list them:
Another thing that bugs me about the whole political blogging thing; is that I have noticed that some people have to sell themselves out to be someone in the blogging world. I have noticed this on the right mostly. I have actually seen one blog, who I will not name here; actually write on his blog and I quote, “Good press can be bought!” I almost fell out of my chair when I read that. I do not know if he was being sarcastic or serious; but I thought to myself, “What a freaking sellout….” This is something that I have never done, changed my opinion, because some fat cat waved money under my nose. It has never happened and never will. My thoughts, opinion and worldview are not up for sale.
Everything, and I do mean everything on this blog; that I have ever written, was written because I happened to believe that thing to be morally right or wrong. I believe that the federal Government is not necessarily the “end all” of all what ails America. I disagree with the progressives that big corporations are what stops Americans for being all that they be. It is the Government that does this. It also is, in some cases,because of the people themselves. At the same time, I have supported Republicans and when they decided to lie to people, like me, who voted for them; I turned on them and decided that I wouldn’t support those who lie to their constituents. This did not happen, because some idiotic liberal fat cat waved money under my nose. This happened because I happen to agree with Patrick J. Buchanan, when he said economic patriotism and economic populism is dead. This is called having a moral compass and knowing the corporatists or crony capitalists are why unions were formed in the first place. Plus too, I am defending my family, the honor and legacy of my Father and my grandfather, who came here from the hills of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Dalton, Georgia to find work and make a better life for themselves and because the UAW and the organized labor movement, they were able to do just that. Most idiotic Republicans do not get that; which is their problem, not mine.
Anyways, back to Dana Loesch and the Breitbart clans. Dana does not much like me. She is a feminist and I do not have much use for those sort of women. I am a hardcore Fundamentalist Christian, although, I don’t always act like it, but I digress — and me and Dana had some interesting exchanges on twitter a while back. So, I just sort of avoided her. I just do not believe that feminism is a Conservative mindset at all. I am someone of the Phyllis Schlafly and Patrick J. Buchanan camps, when it comes to that sort of stuff. Which is why I do not get along with those types at all. Plus too, I am a hardcore defender of the Military and those who serve in the Military, irregardless of political stripe. Dana, as I found out; made some very nasty statements about her Father, and Vietnam, that I felt were totally immoral. I realize her Dad was not the greatest in the world. But, in my humble opinion, no one deserves to be told that they should have ended up on the Vietnam memorial wall. I don’t give a flying flip what they did to their kids. That, my friends, is just damned wrong.
As for Andrew Breitbart, I never much cared for the man. A long time ago, Andrew made some asinine comments about Ted Kennedy, on the day he died. I understand someone not liking someone like Ted Kennedy; but making comments like that goes beyond the pale. After that, I never gave the man much thought, until he died. I took no pleasure in his death at all. But, unlike some, I did not act like he was some sort of perfect being, nor did I join in the chorus of those on the right, who acted like he was some sort of Conservative god or something. As for those who bought Breitbart’s company. I was never approached by them, thankfully. I felt the buying of the company and continuing it and profiting off the name of a dead man was sick and morbid. Which is why I linked to them sparingly on my blog. I felt that the Breitbart thing should have just ended, when his life ended. Which tells me much about the morality of those involved in the thing.
…and those are my thoughts. All 1929 of them. 😀
Update: The Lonely Conservative says something that I believe many writers should read:
Note to new bloggers: If you think you’re going to work for anyone out there besides yourself make sure you get a contract and have it looked over by a lawyer. If our own side is doing this to our own side, anything is possible. Make sure you protect yourself. I don’t think Andrew Breitbart would have treated his friends this way, but unfortunately, he is not available for comment.
I agree with that 100%. If something sounds and looks fishy, that it most likely is; which is what was the case with the person who contacted me. It just did not sound right, and the presentation sounded fishy. So, I passed and I am glad I did.
Live event ended.
Click here for the transcript, it is a PDF file.
I will post the video, once it become available on youtube.
Some food for thought….:
Why do I need an assault rifle you ask? I don’t need it for hunting. I don’t need it for home protection from a single invader, or even two. So I echo the sentiment of many gun control advocates; Why do I need an assault rifle, with a high capacity clip no less?
Here is why. I need an assault rifle because I live under the rule of a government who thinks it has the right to take away my assault rifle; a government who dictates who I can marry, what I can eat, drink, and smoke; a government who uses force to take my money away from me, who charges me rent (property tax) to live in my own home: a government who commits acts of war without the consent of the people, who murders it’s own citizens witout probable cause or due process; a government who has monopolized the currency with which I can trade my goods and services, then devalued that currency through inflation and taxation; a government which uses the tyranny of democracy rather than the freedom of a republic.
Rest the rest at: Why do I need an assault rifle? by SnakePit — The Daily Paul.
Interesting. I have no opinion one way or another on this one. Personally, I would only want to own a handgun for personal protection. But, I believe if one should want to own a firearm of this sort, they should be able to buy one and own it without some sort of hassle from the Government.
(Via Freedom’s Phoenix)
For this bit of backbone in the face of the idiotic nonsense over at Fox News Channel towards Hillary Clinton:
I believe that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is suffering from a concussion. She has never shied away from a fight (assuming the testimony would even amount to that), she has never declined to testify before in her decades of public service … and very significantly she has agreed to testify in January so they will hear from her.
If the Republicans wanted to hear from her earlier, why didn’t they just call her to testify earlier? and if she had said no, subpoena her? It is simple to do. The Republicans are in the Majority in the House of Representatives and had the power and could have summoned her / subpoenaed her to testify if they had wanted to.
Frankly, I do want to hear what she says about Benghazi — she is important to hear from on this serious matter – but I want to hear from her when she is in good health. There are many, many unanswered and very serious questions in my mind, and as the Secretary of State, it is her job to answer them. I would have liked to have had her testify weeks ago and answered the questions — but now that she is sick — the right thing to do is to wait until she is better.
I don’t agree with being snarky about someone’s health.
She’s a heck of a stand up gal for being an independent mind and not going along with the Company-led narrative about Hillary Clinton. I commend her for it.
