Quick Thoughts May 16th, 2013

Some more quick thoughts (yes, I know I am being lazy by rolling all these topics into one brief summary, but hey, considering how many readers I have, I don't feel too guilty):

1) I have been reliving a lot of old Genesis and Alan Parsons Project albums on YouTube.  Once a prog rock geek, always a prog rock geek!

2) I'm seeing more girls at the school I teach at wearing dresses with the hem line cut high in the front and long in the back.  To me, this is another baffling fashion trend.  The high scoop in the front naturally draws a guy's gaze upward, but not too far upward -- a sort of 'come hither' effect.  Girls, as usual, are probably clueless about this effect.  Who designs these things??

3) The IRS targeted Tea Party groups.  This is abominable, of course.  Equally abominable is the Tea Party's selective objectivity when it comes to federal abuses of power.  Most Tea Party 'patriot' types I know think leviathan's military overreach is just dandy.

4) The Justice Department going after AP phone data.  Seriously -- why do these abuses shock people anymore?  I am beyond convinced that far more disturbing scandals have yet to come to light.  Only the hopelessly deluded think that our government plays by the rules.

5) Pending California legislation would require gun owners as of 2014 to obtain a rifle safety certificate, akin to the current handgun safety certificate - a useless piece of paper that puts $25 in the state's coffers.  Another bill will create a registry of longarm sales.  These bills are authored by vacuous Democrats in San Francisco and other major metropolitan areas.  These people are hopelessly out of touch with ordinary gun-toting citizens who live in California's vast and mostly conservative rural areas.

6) I'm seeing headlines that suggest that all the recent scandals may be the undoing of the Obama administration.  I hope that may be true, but it begs the question: if Obama goes, exactly who would replace him?  There's no point in replacing a petty tyrant with another petty tyrant.

Bye for now!

Quick Thoughts for May 7th, 2013

Some quick thoughts, in no particular order:

1)  Syria

Once again, never take anything you here in the mainstream media at face value.  So far, we have been told by various sources that a) the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, and b) the rebels have used chemical weapons.  We know for sure that a) Assad is a punk, and b) the rebels consist in large part of Muslim fundamentalists.  It is a no-win situation for U.S. foreign policy, not to mention a possible financial disaster.  I pray to God we stay out.

2)  Israel Bombing Syria

Israel says the targets were shipments of weapons bound for Hezbollah.  Syria says the targets were research centers.  It's another no-win situation for us.  And as others have pointed out, if it's O.K. for Israel to preemptively strike at perceived threats in Syria, is it O.K. for Syria to strike at perceived threats in Israel (such as Israeli air bases)?  If you say no, then you are applying a double standard.  Hopefully you'll be honest about it.

3)  Boston

So much of the initial hysteria turned out to be completely unwarranted.  Also unwarranted, as in 'not having a warrant', were the house-to-house searches conducted by the police, all of which violated our 4th Amendment right to be secure in our persons against unreasonable searches.  Boston wound up being a colossal exercise in locking down a major U.S. city.  We should all be alarmed.

4)  Military Worship

A Facebook friend of mine posted a ridiculous story in which a teacher supposedly told her students that U.S. soldiers 'give' rights to students.  If one of my childrens' teachers told them anything like that, I'd be at the next school board meeting asking for that teacher to be fired.  That teacher showed a complete lack of understanding of where the founding fathers believed rights came from, not to mention no knowledge of how the founders viewed large standing armies.

5) Giving Glory to God

An entire track team in Columbus, Texas, was disqualified after one member violated the "excessive gesture" rule by pointing skyward after winning a relay.  The real problem as I see it is not that we're becoming religiously intolerant -- it's that we've created a society that celebrates mediocrity by giving a trophy to every kid on the last-place t-ball team while simultaneously punishing someone for celebrating a real accomplishment.  What kind of message does that send?

6)  Here Comes the Next Real Estate Bubble

Housing prices are creeping up again.  Most people think this is good, but only because they don't have a grasp of basic finance.  I'm the first to admit that I'm no financial guru, but I do understand the basics.  Historically, in order to lend money, the banks first had to have money to lend, which they received from depositors lured by attractive rates of return.  In order to cover the money being paid out in interest on deposits, the banks had to charge higher rates on loans.  Nowadays we are seeing a disconnect between these two rates: banks are charging historically low rates for loans, which suggests they have so much money to lend that they can't hardly give it away, yet at the same time they are not attracting depositors because interest being paid on deposits is also now ridiculously low.  Where's all this money coming from?  From the federal reserve, of course.  Like the previous bubble, this bubble will also burst sooner or later, and when it does, it's going to be much worse than Housing Bubble I.  Keep an eye on this one!

7)  Amanda Bynes

I hate, hate, hate tweener t.v. shows and movies.  It's almost a cliche now that any tween starlet will have to demonstrate her ascension to adulthood by publicly degrading and/or humiliating herself, much to the titillation of the masses.

8)  Nullification

There is an increasing groundswell of activity in some state legislatures to pass bills that will nullify either Obamacare, gun control, or both.  To this I say, "Awesome!  About time!"  Now, if only those same legislatures would act to nullify all unconstitutional federal legislation, not just that part offensive to right-wing statists.

And that's it for this edition of quick thoughts!

April 19th, 1993

My faith in the federal government was deeply shaken on this day twenty years ago.  I don't mean that I was mildly perturbed -- I mean I was shocked speechless.  April 19th, 1993, was the day that a coalition of ATF agents, FBI, Texas National Guard, Texas Rangers (the state police, not the baseball team), and US Army special forces stormed the compound of a pseudo-Christian sect known as the Branch Davidians.  The Davidians had committed the unpardonable sin of resisting a smaller scale raid fifty days earlier, and the fact that they and their leader were a little kooky apparently blinded the average citizen to the fact the federal government carried out a military assault on its own people.  During the assault, government forces employed 50-caliber rifles, armored combat engineering vehicles, and CS gas; the highly flammable CS gas was later ignited by pyrotechnic tear gas rounds and flash grenades.  Seventy-six Branch Davidians were immolated in the resulting inferno, including twenty-two children under the age of eighteen.  One of the reasons then-Attorney General Janet Reno gave the go-ahead for the raid was the fear that these children might have been being abused.  I can't think of a worse abuse than being gassed and burned to death.  On that fateful day, many people died horrible, painful, and needless deaths, but something else happened as well -- I and many others were awakened to the fact that the federal government will stoop to any level to eradicate groups it considers threatening, no matter how small or imagined the threat might be.  Let us remain vigilant.

We've Not Heard the Last ... Or Maybe We Have

I'm kind of cynical by nature, and as I suggested in an earlier post, I have my suspicions about this whole Boston bombing mess.  The whole thing smacks of one of the FBI's bogus sting operations gone sour.  Anyways, now we learn that the bombers aren't Arab militants at all, and one is already dead.  How convenient.  The breaking news right now is that the other suspect is surrounded, but it won't surprise me at all if he winds up dead, too.  Dead men tell no tales, right, Janet?

It's Not Complicated

I had an interesting discussion with a student who, having had his head filled with the usual statist tripe regarding the War of Southern Secession, refused to believe that people have a fundamental right of self-determination.  In his mind, colonists seceding from England was good, but southerners wishing to secede from Mordor was bad.  But really, to borrow the tagline from the recent AT&T commercials, it's not complicated:  either one believes that individual liberty trumps the collective, or vise versa -- no matter what guise the vise versa comes in.  Lincoln cloaked his statist schemes in biblical language and abolitionist appearances, but on the inside he was pure collectivist evil.

Still Waiting

It has now been almost 24 hours since the Boston Marathon bombing, and still no one has claimed responsibility.  It seems likely to me that the longer we go without such a claim, the less likely it is that the bombing is an 'act of terror'.  'Terrorists' usually have agendas -- their attacks are politically motivated.  Their grievances cannot be addressed without knowing which group has been aggrieved.  Thus, if no one claims responsibility, is it not possible, or even likely, that the perpetrator wishes to remain anonymous?  If that's the case, we must ask who would not wish their link to the blasts to be known? 

Two more points to ponder:  1)  According to Faux News, the bombs were similar to devices seen in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The intended implication is so obvious as to not need stating.  However, it should also be noted that American armed forces would also be very familiar with such devices.  2)  According to at least one race participant, there was an unusually increased police presence in the area, including bomb sniffer dogs.  Why?  Was it an exercise gone wrong?  Did the police have a tip?

And some final thoughts:  Once again, in spite of all the extra security, the police, the bomb-sniffing dogs, the SWAT teams wearing digital camouflage and riding in armored Hummers, the state's security apparatus failed to protect the public.  Now, however, and regardless of the fact the bombing, though tragic, directly affected only a very small number of people, the state will no doubt seize upon this opportunity to fan the paranoia and convince a frightened public to accept more infringements upon its liberties.  All in the name of safety, of course.

The Jury's Out

Like everyone else today, I read the accounts and descriptions of the bomb blasts in Boston today, and I viewed the first photographs.  Unlike a lot of people, however, I'm waiting to see whether the attack is an actual terrorist act or a false flag operation.  Anyone who doesn't think a false flag operation is a possibility doesn't have a healthy enough suspicion of government.