Sunday, December 29, 2013

Sunday Animals: Ever seen a bird fishing? Using bread for bait?

Well, if you'd been frittering your life away watching YouTube videos like I do, you'd have seen it years ago!

Atheist Billboard Contest

Make your own atheist billboard

2013: A Year of Inspiring Democratic Quotes

"You Can Always Leave" "No, Statist, You Can Shove Your Aggression Where the Sun Don't Shine!"

H/T to TC

Not Real People

Though they look pretty damn real. Except for the unhuman sizes for many of them. I'm not sure how I really feel about this kind of art, it reminds too much of "photo realism", which, while it takes talent, doesn't indicate true genius (and is unnecessary; just take a freaking photograph). Picasso, now there was an artistic genius, and the works he's most famous for are anything but an exact copy of reality.

Still, you can gaze with amazement at the work of Ron Mueck, former model maker and puppeteer (he worked on the excellent film Labyrinth, which proves, maybe, that he's more a craftsman than an artist). In any event, he's no Picasso.

See more at the link below:

I Thought These People Were Weird. Then A Closer Look Left Me Absolutely Speechless.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Commentator on the Phony Left

They are the enemies of free speech and expression. I see no difference between them and communists. None. I rarely see them defend anything on liberty. It's always ban this, censor that, control this, regulate that, tax, tax, tax. Their whole outlook is rooted in control.-A&E Brings Back Phil Robertson

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

The Wolf Of Bedford Falls

Strange Comments of the Year

Nut country comments show up at SE from time to time. Here are some unpublished gems still "awaiting moderation":

i wanna fuck your website and i wanna kill you mother fucker !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111

My comment: All right, my blog will get more sex than I do, and my first real death threat to boot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111

ya sure. you jews won't publish it.Wheres the other 2 posts that you didn't publish. Because this site isn't freedom of speech.

My comment; Rumors of my Jewishness have been greatly exaggerated (yeah, I flirted with converting once, but don't go crazy because of that one little lapse in judgement)

we are in the mid east to fight a war so the CHOOSEN POEPLE people can control the area and its resorses. The CHOOSEN POEPLE leaders have taken over the U.S. and are using our children and resorses to fight in these areas for their people. I mean it is quite ovious,just turn on your T.V. and see who is running it.Come on McFly's. They even now have spinned that the Christian religion is CHOOSEN POEPLE and the tards are believing it.Look who has pulled almost all the scams on wallstreet and in the banking industry,then just walk scot free because most of your polatiction are jewish. I mean wake up retards.I know this blog isn't going to get posted because the CHOOSEN POEPLE run this site and most others.

My comment: okaaaaaaaaay

I'm all for universal circumcision

My comment: And I'm all for the universal suicide of ignorant morons

Hahahaha in school

My comment: You're suspended!

i am spam

My comment: Good, I'll have you for breakfast with eggs

Mark Twain's Letter from Santa

My Dear Susy Clemens,

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me... I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters--I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too... But... there were... one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock ...

There was a word or two in your mama's letter which . . .I took to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to the door. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak--otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be . . . and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susy Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much." Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall--if it is a trunk you want--because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know . . . .If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag--else he will die someday . . . . If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and someone points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call
"The Man in the Moon"

No, Wahlberg, No!

I actually like most of mark Wahlberg’s movies, but I won’t be seeing Lone Survivor, “based on a tragic Navy SEAL mission in Afghanistan in 2005.” Wahlberg, in an interview with Parade, was asked: “What were your biggest takeaways from filmingLone Survivor?” His answer: “It takes a very special individual to become a SEAL. I felt it was so important to give the guys who never came down off that mountain their due. My wife couldn’t talk for 45 minutes after she saw the movie. All she kept thinking about were the sons and fathers and mothers and daughters out there fighting for our freedom. You take it for granted.”Fighting for our freedom? This has got to be the most overused phrase of 2013. All I ever think about is the sons and fathers and mothers and daughters of the thousands of U.S. soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan. They won’t have their loved ones with them at Christmas because they died in vain and for a lie in Afghanistan (or Iraq).-One Movie You Won’t Want to See on Christmas Day

TSA's 12 Banned Items of Christmas

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Would Walmart Shoppers Prefer "Always High Wages" ?

Walmart touts "Everyday Low Prices," but we asked its customers to support 'Everyday High Wages" instead. We posed as representatives of "15 for 15," a make-believe organization advocating that Walmart raise prices by 15% and use the extra cash to pay its low-skilled workers $15 per hour. The surcharge would be added to customer's bills at checkout, just like a gratuity at a restaurant. Not surprisingly few shoppers supported our cause. Even those who felt Walmart workers should be paid more did not want to pay higher prices themselves to make it possible. Those demanding higher wages for Walmart's workers should consider the importance of low prices to Walmart's customers.-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLr5oWfoWRY&feature=share&list=UUIjuLiLHdFxYtFmWlbTGQRQ

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Sunday, December 1, 2013

ObamaScare

With the Patient Affordable Care Act now actively being integrated into American society, many still have no clue what its after-effects will actually be.

Here’s the reality: The pain is coming and if you have yet to experience it in the form of higher insurance premiums, you can be assured that you’re going to feel it very soon in one way or another.

Our entire economy is about to get hit with a sledgehammer.-ObamaScare: Our Entire Economy is About to Get Hit With a Sledgehammer

Friday, November 22, 2013

“Just Doing Their Jobs”

It gets better.  In response to the arrest, the local Sheriff stated the following:

Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess says he hasn't seen the video and doesn't need to, because it won't tell the whole story. He says Aytes was just doing his job.

That’s right.  The Cumberland County Sheriff just pulled the Nuremburg defense out of his ass and people are taking it seriously.  In case you are wondering what the Nuremburg defense is, it comes from back when the surviving Nazis were on trial for crimes against humanity, their main defense was that they were just following orders.

These are dangerous times we live in.  The police arrest people for petty, stupid offense and ignore a huge majority of the real violent crimes that actually go on.  Wouldn’t want them to place themselves in danger after all.  They are police, not heroes.

The other laughable thing about that statement is that Aytes was following orders, but from the video I don’t see any orders being given to him.  In other words, he was acting without cause and the sheriff is backing him up despite the fact that he is clearly out of line in making the arrest.

One day, the police will just start indiscriminately killing people for no good reason in the name of officer safety.  They are brutal, murderous thugs with no moral compass and a desire to oppress those around them.  Do not trust them.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Interesting interview with Noam Chomsky

Topics covered: the balance between his academic and his political life; artificial intelligence and reverse engineering the human brain; why in his view both Deep Blue and Watson are little more than PR; the slow but substantial progress of our civilization; the technological singularity...

Abolish All Alcohol "laws"-Fuck the State!

California: These are ABC's most frequently asked questions about: ENFORCEMENT AND VIOIATIONS

Monday, November 18, 2013

Chinese Gold Rush

With each passing day, there is more and more speculation in the markets that China is accumulating and holding more gold than they’re letting on. China reports official reserves to the International Monetary Fund, but the nation is far from transparent on the real extent of their reserves. With just some simple math and extrapolation, it’s quickly clear that China’s demand and import numbers don’t match up to official reserve numbers. - What the Chinese know about gold ownership (and what we can learn)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

American Exceptionalism

As the workers go off every morning, lining up at Starbucks and preparing to earn their daily bread, American drones take off from secret silos somewhere in the desert, seeking out their intended victims – and some not intended. As the sounds of normalcy stream in through an open window – leafblowers in the distance, chirping birds crowding around the feeder, children brawling in the schoolyard – the news that the NSA is collecting our emails seems irrelevant. We go about our business, and the political class goes about theirs – the former quite ordinary, the latter quite another story altogether.

A new study shows our noble crusade to "liberate" Iraq killed half a million people. It is impossible to even imagine such a crime: the mind shuts down in the face of those numbers. I can’t even visualize half a million dead bodies – can you? And that doesn’t take into account the sanctions, which killed hundreds of thousands more, mostly old people and children. Nor does it include the number we killed in the first Gulf war – we’re surely up to a solid million dead by now.

Getting away with this is what we call "American exceptionalism." God (or Nature) punishes evil, eventually – but not us. We’re the exception.

But are we?

...

I won’t deliver a long lecture here on basic economics: there’s no room – and, really, no need. Because any ordinary person can see what is wrong with this picture: one cannot consume more than one produces. The average American used to understand this: the American political class, on the other hand, has always had its own arithmetic, one founded on the very same "exceptionalist" doctrine that has steered our foreign policy on its present mad course. Bound by no law but that which they legislate, Washington’s reckless hubris defies the laws of nature and the gods themselves. In short: they’re begging for that lightning bolt, as did Icarus – and look where he landed.-American Apocalypse, The case for divine retribution

Friday, November 8, 2013

Quote of the Day: Hunter S. Thompson

“Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear.”-Hunter S. Thompson

Climbing Nude Women

I don't know the story behind these photos, but who cares. I'm just glad they didn't include male climbers.

Climbing Nudes

Central Bank Monetary Cures Cannot Work

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Larken Rose on Voting, Shooting Cops and Authority

Hungry In America

People who think people are truly going hungry in America don't know the meaning of the word hunger. And yes, I know phony "liberals" will say it's a myth that people aren't hungry in the United States, but I don't listen to the intellectually dishonest.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

When A Pastor’s White Knighting Goes Wrong

A pastor alleges an atheist is beating his girlfriend and gets brutally beaten by said atheist for his white knighting.  Well, that’s not the headline that Breitbart is pushing (emphasis mine):

Police Chief Jarrod Campbell said in his eleven years with the department, he's rarely seen "an incident this brutal." Campbell is referring to Sunday's brutal assault on a pastor by a self-described militant atheist with a criminal past. The incident occurred following a sermon by Rev. Norman Hayes, 57, at the Bridge Community Church in North Hampton.

The suspect, 28-year-old James Maxie, of Springfield, Ohio, was attending the service with his girlfriend. According to Rev. Hayes, Maxie was vocally confrontational during the service as if "looking for an argument." After the service the couple approached Hayes. She told police that when Hayes asked if Maxie was abusing her, Maxie attacked him, striking him several times in the face in the church hallway. 

Why do I think that the pastor deserves the beating he endured?  For one thing, the pastor crossed a line.  I don’t care if you’re the pope, you do not ask a man’s significant other if he is beating her, no matter how angry the individual is.  Clearly this pastor was stupid enough practice white knighting in an already volatile situation.

What do I mean by white knighting?  Put simply, it is when a man goes out of his way to help a woman who is in perceived attack by a monster, usually another man.  In other words, the pastor was trying to play himself off as a savior of some kind.

And just in case you have any doubts as to my assertion, Maxie claims Hayes also told Maxie’s girlfriend that she was going to Hell for dating Maxie.  So we have a pastor who thinks he is saving some lost soul by insulting her boyfriend.

What really enrages me and makes me more sympathetic to Maxie is what Hayes says in the closing paragraphs of the original article:

"We believe there is hope for everyone," Hayes said, "but we also believe that regardless of that, people need to pay for what they have done, and I hope he has to pay for what he has done. Get put away for a while and not hurt anyone else. In my opinion, the next person won't be as lucky as I was.

Hayes requested a protection order against Maxie, which was granted by Judge Denise Moody. Maxie is being detained in jail in lieu of a $51,000 bond.

"I think he probably was sorry for the situation he was in. I think it is very easy to be sorry in that environment in front of a judge. Hopefully, he will be able to find forgiveness and new hope and some answers for his life."

Paying for he has done would involve paying your medical bills Hayes.  And also, last I checked, Jesus commanded us to forgive those who sin against us 77 times.  But no, you are differing to God for forgiveness that you are withholding from him.

This coward should not be a pastor.   In a just world, he would be defrocked.

Canadian Death Panels

Last week Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that doctors could not unilaterally ignore a Toronto family’s decision to keep their near-dead husband and father on life support. In the same breath, however, the court also confirmed that, under the laws of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, a group of government-appointed adjudicators could yet overrule the family’s choice. That tribunal, not the family or the doctors, has the ultimate power to pull the plug.-Canada Has Death Panels

Naked Skiing

A Thing of Beauty — Valhalla’s Naked Ski Segment

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Why the Gold Surge is Just Starting

"I Support an Orwellian Police State in America"

“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.”

Soros draws on his past to argue that the global economic crisis is as significant, and unpredictable, as the end of communism. “The collapse of the Soviet system was a pretty extraordinary event, and we are currently experiencing something similar in the developed world, without fully realizing what’s happening.”

As anger rises, riots on the streets of American cities are inevitable. “Yes, yes, yes,” he says, almost gleefully. The response to the unrest could be more damaging than the violence itself. “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States.”-Soros Warns of Violent Riots In America, Financial Collapse, Government Clampdown

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Obamacare Eliminated My Insurance Coverage

This past Friday, I received a letter from my health insurance company.  It basically stated that my current plan was being eliminated due to regulations created under the Affordable Care Act and that I was now going to have to find another plan.

First and foremost: I do not have insurance from my current employer.  A while back, I took a contracting job and had to buy my own insurance.  So I choose a high-deductible plan that would cover only regular check-ups and then anything where I spend above 10,400 each year.  Since neither myself nor my family have chronic medical issues, we took that option.

Now this plan is considered invalid.  Under a law that describes itself as aiming to make healthcare affordable, I am forced to pay for a plan that is more expensive.  On top of that, if I have no insurance, I will get fined for not having it.

And then today, I went to eHealthInsurance to try and see what other options were available.  When I entered in basic information about me and my family, the search result came back empty.  In other words, there are no longer health insurance plans that are independent of my company.

So here’s the lowdown: Obamacare has regulated my insurance plan away.  There are no longer any insurance plans for me to buy.  And if I don’t have insurance, I will be forced to pay a fine.

The Federal government has brought financial harm to me and my family.  Obamacare should be repealed this year before the year’s end.

But it won’t.  Because poor people.  The rest of us mundanes are royally screwed over.  All because America is full of moral busybodies who want the government to help people they normally don’t care about.

So I’m left with less income because of this.  I am harmed because my plan is no longer valid according to our pathetic overlords who believe they are better than me.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Money printing now, money printing tomorrow and money printing forever!

The Federal Reserve was originally charged with the single mandate of maintaining price stability. In recent decades that mission evolved into a dual mandate of seeking price stability and full employment. I believe that a Yellen led Fed will return once again to a single mandate, but now it will focus only on employment. Based on her clear beliefs in the ability of dovish monetary policy to relive human suffering she will be inclined to dig in her heels into the ongoing QE program more than anyone else President Obama may have appointed. This is terrible news for the U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy.-Peter Schiff ‘Stimulus’ Will be the Answer to Everything

"The Fed will be looser for longer. The FOMC will continue to print money until the US economy creates enough jobs to reignite wage pressures and inflation, regardless of asset bubbles, or collateral damage along the way."-Rejoice: the Yellen Fed will print money forever

Wait a minute, didn't Zimbabwe already try that?

Lying "Liberals"

See Alison J. Ressler: "No Obamacare, social security or medicare for teabaggers. They don't BELIEVE in it, so leave them out of it!"

So, Alison, there is no individual mandate in Obamacare? And if I don't believe in Social Security I can stop having FICA deductions taken from my paycheck? NO, I have to pay for it regardless? I see.

Of course, Obamacare is a train wreck that doesn't work.

So, I'm sure many would love to be "left out" of Obamacare. And since Alison thinks "teabaggers" should be left out, I'm sure she must support the Republican's attempt to at least delay the individual mandate. Or perhaps, like many "liberals", poor Alison is just intellectually challenged and thinks Obamacare is a means-tested social welfare program rather than a REQUIREMENT to buy health "insurance". Or maybe she really thinks it's okay to force people to buy something and then deny them the right to use it. At this point it gets confusing, as it's not really clear what she means by "leave them out of it", because Obamacare is all about NOT leaving people out of it.

Peter Schiff Warns of Economic Collapse & Martial Law

Friday, September 20, 2013

Quote of the Day

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” - Voltaire

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Doctor gives man the finger

After it gets bitten off by his horse (stupid horse, if you were my horse, well, you've seen Westerns, haven't you, horse, you know, where the horse breaks its leg and a man gets a gun to put it out of its misery?)

So the guy put his chomped off finger on a Popsicle stick and takes it to the hospital, where it can't be saved. However:
Using the bladder tissue of a pig, Dr. Rodriguez made a template of Halpern’s finger and attached it to what was left.

The finger’s cells, bone, soft tissue, even nail grew into the mold.

Is this guy Dr. Rodriguez or Dr. McCoy?-S. FL Doctor Uses New Technology To “Re-Grow” Man’s Finger

But in the comments at the above short article, apparently this a technique that's been used before:

I had a nephew who sawed off the tips of two fingers in a construction accident a couple of years ago. He had this procedure performed through the VA and now has ten perfect fingers. (Good thing, too, as he is a guitar player!)

Well, I NEVER HEARD OF IT! Now I've got to keep it in mind in case some stupid horse bites my fingers off someday. Stupid horses!

Quotes of the Moment

From the first line of the first quote, you might think this is by a statist idiot, but actually, it's by someone who realizes "limited" government is a delusion of those who can't bring themselves to completely give up on state worship (and those who somehow don't know that corporations ARE the state in modern, fascist, crony capitalism).

Dear "Limited Government" fucktards,

How can the state protect you from corporations? The State IS A CORPORATION WITH A MONOPOLY ON FORCE. Corporations are CREATED, SUPPORTED AND PROTECTED BY THE STATE.

Without the state, there are no corporations.

Please stop being fucking stupid and advocating the myth called "limited government."

P.S. = Your Constitution has been in a constant state of violation since George Washington.

This second quote I throw in as a bonus and for discussion (it's in reference to the Navy Yard shooting).

brb I gotta go pretend to give a shit about people who got killed after they signed up to go kill people from other countries for a paycheck.

Both of the above are from Tom Jefferson.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

How Taxpayers Vote with their Feet: Q&A with Author Travis Brown

"We know that voters prefer to go where their income is most protected and most welcome," says Travis Brown, author of the new book, How Money Walks - How $2 Trillion Moved Between the States, and Why It Matters-http://youtu.be/jRff5Y_AzEk

She should have "branded" his parts with a machete

The victim explained to police that Jackson bragged about branding other women in the past and said he did it to her because she belonged to him.

Man Allegedly Branded His Initials On Girlfriend’s Vaginal Area

Caturday Morning Cartoons?

Obama Wants ‘Social and Behavioral’ Data Included in Health Records

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to require health care providers to include “social and behavioral” data in Electronic Health Records (EHR) and to link patient’s records to public health departments, it was announced last week.

Health care experts say the proposal raises additional privacy concerns over Americans’ personal health information, on top of worries that the Obamacare “data hub” could lead to abuse by bureaucrats and identify theft.http://freebeacon.com/government-seeking-inclusion-of-social-and-behavioral-in-health-records/

Peter Schiff's Stand-Up Comedy at NY's Funniest Reporter Show

Syria military option off table - but only for now

Syria has ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and promised to move forward with a plan within 30 days on the destruction of its chemical arsenal, which will be placed under international control for the duration of its (likely long) process of dismantling them.

Instead of treating the deal as a movie-style happy ending, Secretary of State John Kerry is grousing about the war it has apparently foiled, lashing the deal as “not enough” while pushing the idea that the US might still attack Syria unilaterally in spite of the deal, seemingly just for the heck of it.
-Kerry Slams Syria Deal, Pushes Idea of Attacking-Insists Syria's Pledge to Hand Over Arms Not Good Enough

Quote of the Day: Thomas Ligotti

“For the rest of the earth’s organisms, existence is relatively uncomplicated. Their lives are about three things: survival, reproduction, death—and nothing else. But we know too much to content ourselves with surviving, reproducing, dying—and nothing else. We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones.” -via Efilism/Antinatalism

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

My Raspberry Breakfast

So, last week I bought one of those little containers of fresh raspberries from the supermarket. It was $2.50 (on sale). I was going to have them over at least a couple of days, but took the whole container to work the next day (because I was rushed that morning) and ate them all for breakfast at my desk with some full fat Greek yogurt. There wasn't room in my yogurt container to add the raspberries, so I ended up forking them and dipping them into the thick, creamy, plain (the only kind I buy) yogurt. They was good!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Find the Cat

This should be easy for some of you, more difficult for others. I must admit I had to search a long time to find the damn cat, but it is there.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Holistic Evaluations of One's Life vs the Totality of Lived Experiences

"Creating other human animals who will needlessly suffer and die and then discounting the harm you have enabled to be experienced in the space-time continuum of their lives because of a particular verbal report they may have made at a given point in their life trajectory is only a strategy that an intellectually dishonest human animal can employ."

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Too Gay?

Gay "journalist" admits he doesn't care about Bradley Manning's fate, just wants to expose Russian anti-gay laws.

Journalist Jamie Kirchick used an appearance Wednesday on Russian network RT to protest recent anti-gay laws passed in Russia and was kicked off the show as a result. "Being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I’m going to wear my gay pride suspenders and speak out against the horrific, anti-gay legislation that Vladimir Putin has signed into law, that was passed unanimously by the [Russian] Duma, that criminalize homosexual propaganda, effectively makes it illegal to talk about homosexuality in public; we've seen a spate of violent attacks.” Kirchick said on air while putting on rainbow suspenders.-Reporter kicked off Russian TV for protesting anti-gay laws

This piece of shit doesn't care that RT has exposed US crimes. He has a one-track politically correct mind. Fuck him!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Economic Growth Largely An Illusion

If we had been growing as quickly as the official GDP indicates, why would our labor force have contracted so significantly? Why are we continuously replacing middle class jobs with lower paying ones? Why would we be using 3 percent less energy nationally than we did 10 years ago despite an 8.8% growth in population? Why would Americans be spending a higher percentage of their disposable incomes on basic necessities than they were 10 years ago? These trends don’t conform to healthy GDP growth. So maybe the growth is largely an illusion? - The GDP Distractor

Libertarianism in Ancient China

The Heroic March Of Anarcho-Capitalism

There Will Not Be Another Bell Before They Come For Me And You

With Glenn Greenwald’s partner being harassed by security forces at Heathrow, the last warning bell for totalitarianism has chimed. For upwards of a decade, activists of the Pirate Party have been warning that laws that are marketed to the public as being “against terror” or “against child pornography” are so vague and so full of exceptions to due process that they don’t make sense if they’re not actually targeted at creating a totalitarian society. With family members of reporters taken away for detention and harassment, the last warning bell has gone off – there will not be another bell before they come for me and you.

This was the last warning bell

Greenwald's partner, 28-year-old David Miranda, was held for nearly nine hours. He was reportedly passing through the airport on his way home to Brazil after leaving Berlin. Authorities seized his laptop, phone, and other materials.

The White House knew the move was coming.

Miranda, also speaking to Globo TV in Rio, said agents were asking him questions "about my entire life."

"I was in a room, there were six different agents coming in and out and talking to me," he said. "They took my computer, video games, cell phone, everything."

The detention was reported by The Guardian. Before releasing him, authorities seized Miranda's laptop, cell phone, video game consoles and USB sticks, Greenwald wrote for The Guardian.

"This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism," he said.

"It's bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It's worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic."-White House knew Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda would be detained

Monday, August 19, 2013

Disneyland in One Minute 30 Seconds

Matt Givot took his camera to Disneyland a few months ago and snapped images fast, really fast, roughly at a speed of one photo every two seconds. Why? He wanted to compress a trip to Disneyland into a minute-and-a-half thrill ride.-A day at Disneyland in 90 seconds? Yep, thanks to new time-lapse video

There have got to be some parents out there who wish it had been over in 90 seconds.

Legs that look like hot dogs

Legs That Look Like Hot Dogs (11 Pics)

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Lindsey Graham Dumbstruck by Yemeni Man's Eye Opening Testimony on Drones

...the Obama administration is arguably waging its most intense drone campaign ever in Yemen, with nine suspected drone strikes in the last 13 days and six in the last three...The fierce campaign comes on the heels of the White House announcing a major overhaul of its use of drones. With his speech in May outlining a plan to take the United States off its "perpetual wartime footing," the president gave hope to critics of his surprisingly robust drone policy that the strikes would soon be curtailed. But according to Josh Begley, a web developer who tracks drone strikes and runs Dronestream, U.S. drones have struck five times in Pakistan and 11 times in Yemen since Obama's speech. - The Sudden and Unexpected Return of the Drone War

If Those Fake Seinfeld Movies Were Real...

You know, "Sack Lunch", "Death Blow", "Prognosis Negative", "Rochelle Rochelle". Seinfeld mixed real movies with fake ones (The English Patient and Sack Lunch in the same episode, for example) but haven't you always wondered what the fake ones might look like if real? No? Well, then don't look at the poster below or the others at the link.

If The Fake Movies In Seinfeld Were Real, This Is What They Would Look Like

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Animal "Rights" Idiocy

I've presented my views on animal rights before. In a nutshell, they don't have any rights because they aren't human. I do think humans have a duty to manage animal resources, both domesticated and wild, as responsibly as possible, balancing human and animal needs, and to look out as much as possible for animal welfare. But any talk of animals being "equal" to humans is insane. Does a mouse have equality with a human being? If rats have infested a city and are spreading disease, must we not exterminate the vermin? Do rats have a right to reproduce at will, or vote in our elections (wait, they don't have any ability to understand the concept of voting, do they) but I think I make my point quite well.


Animal Rights Protest in Barcelona.

Animal rights activists from the group “Animal Equality” staged a demonstration in Barcelona, Spain, in front of the Cathedral of Barcelona, during “Day Without Meat” event on March 20, 2013. Demonstrators simulated raw meat packaging found in supermarkets, by covering human models with fake blood and plastic sheets, in an attempt to raise awareness and move people to stop eating meat.

Question: When are they going to protest lions eating zebra meat?

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Why are the bees dying?

The impossibility of creating meaning/purpose when there is none

The only meaningful act that can be done in a meaningless and amoral universe is alleviate the suffering of sentient beings. Since there is no good reason for sentient beings to exist, it is both irrational and unethical to impose sentient beings into this amoral and meaningless universe where they will be subjected to unnecessary suffering and death. This is why antinatalism is the most ethically valid and logical conclusion to the implications of being the product of a crude materialistic process, i.e. evolution.-http://youtu.be/RLM0LZiy-jo

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Student Imprisoned Without Food or Water Gets Payback

Daniel Chong, forgotten in DEA cell, settles suit for $4.1 million

Calling Al Sharpton, come in Al, do you give a damn when the kid isn't black and the assailant is? Al? Al?...Jesse?

Natasha Martinez, 17, from Queens, New York, is in serious condition in hospital after being stabbed just after 11pm last night. The knife man is still on the loose.

The knife had pierced her back, arms, stomach and kidney, CBS 2 reported. Blood was splattered all over the side walk and a nearby car.

The suspect was wearing black pants and a white t-shirt and is described as a black male, approximately five-feet-six inches tall. -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381497/Queens-teen-Natasha-Martinez-stabbed-frenzied-knife-attack-outside-home.html

The Enslavement of Humanity

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Beanie Baby College Fund

The first takeaway that most folks will have from this film, Bankrupt by Beanies, is that the family made a bad investment call and sunk their dough into too many collectibles that didn’t appreciate. That notion is quickly dispelled by reading about the family members’ gonzo behavior, along with the inability to sell what they bought. Also, the father speaks to his “thrill” upon acquisition of each new stuffed animal, and he refers to the acquisition days as being “fun and exciting.” He notes that back in the day, he couldn’t understand why his wife and kids eventually grew weary of the family-hobby-to-nowhere.

The family is now stuck with a massive stockpile of unwanted fad toys. The Beanie Baby craze was just one small speck of lunacy that swept American culture as one fetish after another has become a beacon of civilization. The problem, however, was the boom-bubble “buy buy buy buy” mania that swept American culture, funded by easy credit (have pulse, will loan) that was enabled by government intervention and Federal Reserve policies. The video ends with this unfortunate statement:

The family still has between 15,000 and 20,000 beanie babies. But they admit despite how dire the circumstances are now, the beanie babies could come around again. “I guess we’ll see who’s crazy in 20 years,” the film ends.

Still, after 20 years, they have hope that the Beanie Baby lunacy will be reignited by some magical force. He waits and waits to hear from someone that he will cash out on a fixation that has long been six feet under. Unfortunately, the boom-bubble mentality breeds this kind of sentiment, as I have argued often. Inflationary policies have multiple social impacts that result in cultural carnage and ruined lives. Thanks to my sister, Christine DeCoster Sickler, for the link, as she remembers my position on this craze from 20 years ago.-Karen De Coster, No More Beanie Baby Bubbles

A Family Spent $100,000 on Beanie Babies to Put Their Kids Through College

Friday, July 26, 2013

You Can Always Leave

Below, Tom Woods replies to the common anti-libertarian argument that demands libertarians leave the country if they don't like the system, the rules, etc.

When Did I Sign This 'Social Contract'?

Friday Music Break

A long break if you listen to the whole album, but this was my introduction to Coldplay and remains my favorite.

How to Fold a T-shirt

I'm doing a small load of laundry as I write this. I ran out of clothes a couple days ago. No towels (been taking showers by drying off with paper towels), no undershorts (wore the same ones a couple days in a row, not wearing any at the moment), no T-shirts (except for one very old one that is stained yellow and has a bunch of holes in it, which I'm wearing right now), and I got by for socks by buying a package of new ones.

After my clothes are done, my folding is minimal because my folding skills are minimal. I don't even try to fold T-shirts anymore, I just stuff them as is as they come out of the dryer into my laundry sack (a plastic trash bag). So, I was hoping the video below would help me, but after watching it several times, I doubt I'll get the hang of this Japanese folding technique. Maybe you can do better as you're undoubtedly brighter and more dexterous than I am.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Smash the Job Culture!

We work even longer hours than our fathers, pay higher taxes, depend on two salaries to keep one household together, shove our alienated children into daycare and government education camps, watch our money steadily inflate away, and suffer mightily from a raft of job-related mental and physical ills.
We may not do manual labor. But we work even longer hours than our fathers, pay higher taxes, depend on two salaries to keep one household together, shove our alienated children into daycare and government education camps, watch our money steadily inflate away (while the TV tells us the consumer price index is holding steady) and suffer mightily from a raft of job-related mental and physical ills.
What’s changed but the details? For all our material possessions, we’re in the same old cycle of working, hurting, and losing.
And even though the FBI may not pay us a visit for complaining about it, rebelling against jobs is still a threat to the powers that be.
The government doesn’t have to worry about rebellion much, though. Because today we’re programmed from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed to value jobs, big corporations – and the things jobs buy us – over the real pleasures – and real necessities – of being human.-http://c4ss.org/content/12839

This Is Anarchism (In 10 Minutes)

Quote of the Day

Power is not to be conquered, it is to be destroyed. It is tyrannical by nature, whether exercised by a king, a dictator or an elected president. The only difference with the parliamentarian ‘democracy’ is that the modern slave has the illusion of choosing the master he will obey. The vote has made him an accomplice to the tyranny that oppresses him. He is not a slave because masters exist; masters exist because he elects to remain a slave. -Jean Francois Brient

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sheeple

xkcd

Confiscated Raisins - Small Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

"They want us to pay for our own raisins that we grew," says Raisin Valley Farms owner Marvin Horne. "We have to buy them back!"

This is but one absurdity that Marvin and his wife Laura have faced during their decade-long legal battle with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Every year, the Hornes plant seeds, tie vines, harvest fruit, and place grapes in paper trays to create sun-dried raisins. And every year, the federal government prevents them from bringing their full harvest to market.

It's called an agriculture marketing order. Depression-era regulations meant to stabilize crop prices endanger the livelihoods of small farmers across the country, but the raisin marketing order is particularly egregious. An elected board of bureaucrats known as the Raisin Administrative Committee decides what the proper yield should be in any given year in order to meet a previously decided-upon price.-http://youtu.be/A8S4S49TyDk

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Giant Robot Storms San Diego Comic Con 2013

That's the criminal Obama administration for you!

The U.S. Department of Justice, overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder, has ordered the Sanford, Florida police department to keep possession of all the evidence from George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial - including the exonerated neighborhood watch volunteer's gun.

Sanford police confirmed on Thursday that the DOJ asked the agency not to return any pieces of evidence to their owners. Zimmerman was expected to get his firearm back by month's end.

The development is a sign that the criminal section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is seriously investigating Zimmerman to determine if federal civil rights charges should be filed.-Justice Department places 'hold' on Trayvon Martin trial evidence, including George Zimmerman's gun - which Florida law says must be returned to him

@MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Zimmerman (and his family) has received numerous death threats from pond scum masquerading as human beings, so he needs his gun more than ever now.

George Zimmerman is about to get his gun back, and defense attorney Mark O'Mara says he has "even more reason" to carry it now that many are angry over his acquittal. Zimmerman's Kel Tec 9 pistol will be returned to him, pending a decision about his concealed weapons permit. "Even more reason now, isn't there?" O'Mara said, when asked by ABC News if ZImmerman was intending to rearm himself now that he is a free man. "There are a lot of people out there who actually hate him, though they shouldn't."

O'Mara maintained that the presence of the gun did not escalate the situation between Zimmerman and Martin, but saved the former's life.

"I think that he feels truly in his heart that if he did not have that weapon that night he might not be here," O'Mara said. "[He] would have continued to get beat even though he was screaming for help."-http://youtu.be/UgRUkyfiRYI

video via: Guns.com

If...

If the dentist wasn't so expensive, I'd go more often. Just had bridge work started and a tooth pulled. My cost? Almost $1700, and that's with insurance. And, I chose all the least expensive options for treatment. I just hope I don't get another serious tooth ache, because right now, even a filling isn't in my budget.

George Donnelly: The Self-Ownership Principle is Bollocks!

The Self-Ownership Principle is Bollocks! (AYMFL 0006)

What if Trayvon Martin was White and George Zimmerman was Black?

The Best One

Friday, July 12, 2013

Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE)

Bizarre Borders

Bloodbath Coming?

Barack Obama convinced and inflamed millions of African-Americans that Zimmerman was guilty.  The Internet has spread this vile poison far and wide.
Accordingly Florida brought a seriously flawed criminal case forward that they knew would never survive in court.  It happened because of raw and malicious political pressure.  That has put millions of African-Americans on edge.   If the many thousands of tweets and other Social Media threats are any indication, America’s big cities are going to see a major bloodbath.
The police will quickly lose any hope of control because they have lost their edge.  It past riots and insurrections police has always had exclusive use of portable communications devices.  They could easily coordinate tactical peacekeeping efforts via two-way radios. 
The police have virtually no experience dealing with rioters with absolute communications parity.  The thought of this is really frightening.  I know that police academies have not really found a way to teach cops how to tactically or otherwise effectively  deal with hostile groups armed with relatively new communications empowerment. 
The game has been changed by millions of cheap, smart phones and the Internet.  Those taking part in violence will quickly outnumber police and coordinate ambushes with gasoline and paint thinner bombs that will defeat even the best police body armor.  Even young children will be texting the positions of police, their numbers and their vehicles.
Police will have little choice but to quickly retreat and it will be civilians fighting for their lives and property without significant law-enforcement resources.  
If you live in or near a large city it would be best to make plans to vacation or otherwise stay away from home as the Zimmerman trial winds down in the coming week or ten days.  At least try and remove your children to safer areas if you can.-http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/07/technology-and-american-summer.html

Mark Levin: Sarah Palin is constantly attacked by Bushies

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Could George Zimmerman Actually Be Innocent? Trayvon Martin Trial 2013 Thoughts From a Black Woman

"I know this will throw many off because I'm black but its something to consider..."-http://youtu.be/Fs9iV1HP3GU

The Commentator on the Zimmerman Trial

Now that the prosecution has failed in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman should be charged with first degree murder, they've decided, despite all evidence seemingly supporting Zimmerman's story, to instruct the jury to consider manslaughter and, erm, child abuse - since Martin was a minor. Basically, they're asking the jury to ignore the facts heard up until now and are shifting gears (in mid-air I might add) to try and get a conviction; any conviction.

Holy shit.

Doesn't look like the DA is out for justice. They're out for political blood.

From what I've seen, this is a textbook "reasonable doubt" case where the defense and credible witnesses have supported the Zimmerman version of the facts.

The DA is stretching on this one. Big time.

Here's the backstory to Trayvon Martin (the son Obama never had) and the madness of a corrupted PC system and the police force joined to conspire against maintaining a civil society by upholding THE LAW.

This was not allowed into the court. Yet, even without this, the defense proved its case.

Something stinks somewhere. I'm invoking cui bono?-http://friendlymisanthropist.blogspot.com/2013/07/george-zimmerman-da-not-out-for-justice.html

Anarchist Kid

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Is George Zimmerman a Masochist?

The Consequences of Free Money - Chapter Jackson with Peter Schiff

It's free! Swipe Yo EBT Free! Swipe Yo EBT It's free! Swipe Yo EBT Free! Swipe Yo EBT It's free You had me to get it all free You had me to get it all free You had me to get it all free You had me to get it all free

Chapter's World

-http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/its-free-swipe-yo-ebt

Lovelace

The trailer showcases Lovelace's small-town beginnings, her post-"Deep Throat" rise to fame and her later activism against the porn industry.-"Lovelace" trailer: Amanda Seyfried channels "Deep Throat" porn star

Hans-Hermann Hoppe: How to Respond to Paul Krugman

Quote of the Moment: The Coup in Egypt

The US government won't call what happened in Egypt a coup because that would require a cessation of appropriations of American taxpayer money to the Egyptian military -- and Israel and its American lobby oppose that. - Sheldon Richman

I'm Ћ Newest Symbol in Ћ English Language

Australian spends thousands to get new letter added to alphabet! Can't you see this headline if supermarket tabloids published such stories as this? No? Okay, how about Alien Advocates New Letter Be Added To English - Beginning of Outer Space Invasion of Earth? No? Did you see anything else? Did you notice I never once in all the words above used "the"?

And that's in spite of the fact that "the" is the most used word in English, beating out "be", "to", "of" and..."and". So why does "and" get its own symbol, and on our keyboards no less (the "&" known as the ampersand) while "the" is forced to remain a mere word made up of three letters? That's what Paul Mathis, Australian restaurateur, wants to know.

Aussie restaurateur Paul Mathis invents new letter of the Alphabet

Mathis has invested $38,000 into developing the symbol which he would like to see added as a 27th letter of the alphabet.

"The word 'and' is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol - the ampersand," Mathis told The Age. "Isn't it time we accorded the same respect to 'the'?"

Actually, I'm less interested in Ћ than I am in where the $38,000 went. Well, maybe part of it was for the app which you can download so you too (or should I be using "2") can begin using Ћ in place of "the".

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Microwave Not Heating Troubleshooting Guide

Visiting relatives this weekend and their microwave stopped heating. Very frustrating as the fridge is filled with those frozen dinners.

Unarmed Man Shot Dead By Police While Watering Lawn

This is from a few years ago, but the comments at the video are recent (some from today, actually) and it is consistent with the violent cop incidents taking place everyday that even Drudge is now reporting prominently.

Here is a perfect example of the citizen spy culture taking root in the USA with the "If you see something, say something" program encouraged by Homeland Security. A 911 call apparently was made after a neighbor mistakenly interpreted a man sitting on a porch as a "drunk with a gun." Officers arrived, ready for battle, and the man was killed . . . while watering his friend's lawn.-http://youtu.be/u6S7LRrCru8

"Police acknowledge they never asked the man to drop what they thought was a gun" (a spray nozzle for the end of a hose) "or spoke to him in any way", and yet they were "forced to shoot" and kill him. Of course they were "forced" to do it. They committed cold-blooded murder and the criminal police culture will protect its own (imagine, however, if you or I had shot someone dead in similar circumstances).

The evil (yes, EVIL) neighbor who called police to report an innocent man harming no one said on his 911 call "He's just sitting there with his legs crossed on the porch landing". Oh my god! What a threat! Just sitting there with his legs crossed! CALL THE POLICE!!! Another goddamned (yes, if there is a God you will burn in hell, you fucking cop-lover!) busybody calling 911 and the state's uniformed thugs for no good reason. The 911 operator asks the piece of shit statist if he knows what kind of "gun" the man is holding. He replies: "Basically what I can see, he's moving it back and forth, it looks like a little tiny six-shooter or something like that." This moron wouldn't know a gun if he saw it up close just before it blew a hole through his sick, freedom-hating brain. "Back and forth"? Oh yeah, he was watering! That's what you do when you're watering.

Don't Join The Military

Criminals vs Heroes

Am I a Head with a New Body or a Body with a New Head?

So we can now fix up headless horsemen? I guess it's coming. By the way, the title of this post was inspired by a recent DQ commercial where the guy (did the announcer call him Sam?) asks if the "5 buck lunch" is chicken strips, fries and a drink with a free sundae, or a sundae with free chicken strips, fries and drink. The connection? If he keeps eating that crap for lunch, he'll soon need a new body.

Head transplants have been attempted since the 1950s, when Russian scientist Vladimir Demikhov experimented with dogs.

Could an Italian Scientist Pave the Way for Human Head Transplants?

Apparently, they've (and that means the Russians) been experimenting with head transplants since the 50s! With dogs! Wait, wasn't that a low budget horror movie from back then?

Dr Sergio Canavero believes that the technology now exists that will allow surgeons to carry out the Frankenstein-style procedure, which has been tested out on animals since 1970.- 'First human head transplant now possible', neurosurgeon claims

Wait! 1970? What happened to those 1950s Russian experiments??? Oh, I forgot this part: Twenty years later, American neurosurgeon Robert White conducted a successful head transplant by moving the head of one monkey to the body of another. The monkey lived for several days, but because White could not connect the two spinal cords, the monkey eventually died.

Soooo, around 1970 was the first successful animal head transplant, with a monkey. Always the poor monkeys.

Would you donate your whole body, not just your organs, if you knew someone else would someday control it and use it for who knows what disgusting purpose? Don't touch my junk, bro, even after my head has gone to bodiless heaven!

Also, I wonder if this could be the ultimate answer to better sex change operations. "I'm a woman trapped in a man's body" becomes "I'm a man with a woman's body", which I guess makes the man-head now a woman?

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Protect Our Freedoms?

What was the last war truly fought to "protect our freedom? The Revolutionary?

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind

Guilty!

• I'm a RACIST for criticizing Obama.
• I'm a TERRORIST because I'm not afraid to stand up for what's right.
• I'm a TEA-BAGGER for supporting the Constitution.
• I'm a TROUBLEMAKER for asking unanswered questions.
• I'm a TRAITOR for blowing the whistle on my corrupt government.
• I'm a CONSPIRACY THEORIST for presenting documented facts.
• I'm a TROLL for uploading news, videos, quotes and U.S. atrocities.
• I'm ANTI- AMERICAN for supporting Constitutionalists.

Yep, GUILTY!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Brad Spangler on His Journey to Embracing Agorism

For more with Brad, check out http://c4ss.org, http://agorism.info and his personal blog http://bradspangler.com, which has one of the coolest taglines around - "the bottom of the rabbit hole." -http://youtu.be/5Ob2f5arcUI

Agorism is a libertarian social philosophy that advocates the goal of the bringing about of a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, thus engaging in a manner with aspects of peaceful revolution. It was first proposed by libertarian philosopher Samuel Edward Konkin III in 1975, with contributions partly by J. Neil Schulman.

Agorists consider themselves market anarchists, while many characterize it as a form of left-libertarianism. Agorists generally oppose voting for political candidates and political reform. Instead, agorists stress the importance of alternative strategies rather than politics to achieve a free society. Agorists claim that we can achieve a free society more easily and sooner by employing such alternative methods as education, direct action, alternative currencies, entrepreneurship, self sufficiency, and most importantly "counter-economics". -Agorism

Pic of the Day


Riddle of the Day

I curve one way, then the other, and I can make one thing many. What am I?

50 Of The Best Prepper Websites And Blogs

Rise Of The Preppers: 50 Of The Best Prepper Websites And Blogs On The Internet

Quote of the Moment

If you think the NSA mass info gathering is justified, you are essentially saying there should be no restrictions on government spying on citizens. You are saying we should have no Constitution or Bill of Rights. You are saying things that are quintessentially and positively anti-American.-Jack Hunter

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Photo of the Day: Teaching Taxes


Actually, probably closer to 40 or 50% when you add all taxes together, federal, state and local, including sales taxes and property taxes, etc.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Web Users Stand With Edward Snowden

Does This Lingerie Model Really Need Photoshop?

Voluntaryism vs Anarchism

Voluntaryism is a popular ideology amongst people who like Anarchism but recoil at its leftist implications. By adopting the simple principle, “whatever is voluntary is ethical,” they believe that they have found the high ground, the ruler with which all other ideologies must be evaluated.

Some openly advocate a “rule by landlords,” a sort of extra-small minarchism where whoever owns the land can impose whatever laws he wishes on anyone who works or lives within his land. This is the “ultimate decision-making power” which defines the State: these landowners are effectively rulers over that land. Although they refuse to see this pretty direct deduction (but to be fair, even Rothbard was too blinded by his pro-property bias to see it), it is clear that the voluntaryists who hold to this ideology have nothing to do with Anarchism.

One famous example from the Mises forum is the question of whether we are justified in shaking off someone who is hanging for his life on a flagpole that we own. Many people there were of the opinion that “property rights” alone justified an act which is, to be clear, nothing more than murder.-The voluntaryist delusion.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Gorilla King

Heterosexual Awareness Month?

A Facebook page that states: Heterosexual Awareness Month is a month-long (July) annual observance of straight people and our growing struggle.

They also promote two special "days": July 6th Straight Pride Day – participants are encouraged to wear black to show support for heterosexuality, July 22nd International Day Against Heterophobia – a day set aside to bring awareness to the little known but serious issue of heterophobia.

Texas Heterosexual Awareness Month

Friday, June 14, 2013

The Question Libertarians Just Can't Answer - Answered!

Last week Michael Lind asked a silly question (“The question libertarians just can’t answer”): if libertarianism is so great, why hasn’t any country tried it?

The question is silly because the libertarian answer is obvious: Libertarianism is great for ordinary people, but not for the power elites that control countries and determine what policies they implement, and who don’t welcome seeing their privileged status subjected to free-market competition. And ordinary people don’t agitate for libertarian policies because most of them are not familiar with the full case for libertarianism’s benefits, in large part because the education system is controlled by the aforementioned elites.

Lind’s question is analogous to ones that might have been asked a few centuries ago: If religious toleration, or equality for women, or the abolition of slavery are so great, why haven’t any countries tried them? All such questions amount to asking: If liberation from oppression is so great for the oppressed, why haven’t their oppressors embraced it?-Roderick Long

Real Men Own Guns

Click image to enlage

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Ron Paul Isn't Surprised

Like most people, former representative Ron Paul (R., Texas) learned the details of the federal government’s far-reaching surveillance program when he read about it over the weekend. But as someone who has spent the last several decades warning of government’s encroachment on civil liberties, he wasn’t exactly shocked by the revelations.

“The thought of our government doing this wasn’t a bit of a surprise,” he tells National Review Online. “I assumed they had been doing it. They’ve had the authority to do it. I said that’s what the Patriot Act would end up doing.”-Ron Paul Reacts to the NSA

Ron Paul talking about computer surveillance in 1984

My Email Is Mostly Spam Anyway!

The National Security Agency: Evil or Incompetent?

Forget about Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden for a few minutes.  Well, forget about questioning their loyalty or patriotism.  To me, the question is probably just misdirection because it helps to distract us from the real question everyone should be asking: is the National Security Agency evil or just plain incompetent?

Let’s start with incompetent.  The argument for this is simple: do you really expect us to believe that they have to collect all of that data for the simple purpose of identifying terrorists?  Let’s be honest about Islamic terrorism: it barely ever happens in the United States.  Yes, there have been some serious incidents.  Yes lots of people have been killed by Islamic terrorism.  But let’s be honest about it: you are more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than a Islamic terrorist.

The sheer volume of data that the NSA is collecting in order to combat terrorism really just highlights how clueless they really are.  If they have trouble identifying the bad guys without clogging up Internet bandwidth, then they must completely lost as to who and where the enemy is, right?  There are simpler ways to go about identifying people with ties to terrorism.  Hell, even the supposed perpetrators of the recent Boston bombing were on watch lists long before they allegedly carried pressure cooker bombs there (I say allegedly because the official story has so many holes, it makes their documentation look like Swiss cheese.  And I hate Swiss cheese).

In fact, I would argue that because just about every American terrorist attack has been perpetrated by people that the Federal government has been watching at some point before the act, it seems like this whole argument of safety and protecting us is nothing but bunk.  It’s like if you were a child who was attacked by a dog and then in the hospital as you lay there gasping for air through your crushed ribs, your mommy or daddy told you that he or she knew the dog had rabies but decided to go get coffee instead of warning you.  That is how incompetent the NSA is if they are going to claim that they need this level of surveillance.

On the other hand, they could just be run by a bunch of evil bastards.  The kind who like to look through your XBox Kinect cameras and jack off to you jacking off to that porn game you got (yes, they do exist).  Or maybe the like watching your children dance.  Your underage children.  Or maybe they just want to know where you are so they can kill you.

Maybe I’m just exaggerating a bit, but in all seriousness, there has to be a larger use for this level of data gathering.  Considering that the warrants obtained under the USA PATRIOT Act are more likely to be used in Federal drug investigations than in actual terrorism cases, it is not a far-fetched assumption.

Why did Chief Justice John Roberts suddenly change his mind about Obamacare?  How did David Pretraeus’s private emails get leaked so easily?  With the NSA rooting through all of our online garbage, it looks like a no-brainer to me.

Usually in fiction, when you encounter a total surveillance state, it is usually some dystopic society.  Most of the time, the ideas of Big Brother watching you are portrayed as evil.  And yet here it is really happening and the prospect of the United States government being filled with evil assholes doesn’t seem to cross anyone’s mind.

So which is it really?  Are they evil or incompetent.  Either way, the U.S. Federal government is well beyond its Constitutional limitations and should be completely abolished, its assets seized by the American people, and its leaders exiled to Nigeria.

Or Siberia.  Or the upper atmosphere.  Whichever is easier.

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