For those wondering where Allah is, I've found him. Male modeling is much more lucrative than blogging. - Sophie
M2RB: Poison, live Donnington
Oh my god look what the cat dragged in
Livin' my life sin after sin
Night rolls up and I do it again
Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in
By Tim Dowling
Yesterday, in tribute to the spirit of enterprise that saw Kyle McDonald swap a red paperclip, via a series of trades, for a house, I invited your offers for this very fineblue pencil. Thanks for your offers - we've now started trading.
The
first transaction was agreed, if not exactly completed, earlier this
morning. Chris Greaves of Toronto, who is very likely still sleeping and
therefore unaware of his good fortune, was rewarded with the blue
pencil, in exchange for a pink highlighter and a paperclip. It was by no
means the best offer I had - someone actually offered a week in an
Austrian holiday home - but Chris did follow instructions and send a
picture along with his offer to saturdayguardian@googlemail.com.
Frankly, this was not quite the pace I'd hoped; the paper clip
represented a step backwards, although I guess the highlighter made up
for it.
Penguin posing pouch. Unworn. Fits all. Then
things started to look up, with the highlighter-and-paperclip desk set
combo snapped up in exchange for a "penguin posing pouch for men"
offered by Caroline No Last Name Supplied. The posing pouch appears to
be a one-size-fits-all affair, and I think we can safely say it's never
been worn, although to be honest I didn't ask too many questions. In any
case this product sells for £8.99 on Caroline's adult toys website, sinnersnetwork.co.uk, and will be shipped directly to our next successful trader. The Tuscan villa edges ever nearer.
Please email a description and photograph of the item you would like to trade to saturdayguardian@googlemail.com.
We will contact you if we'd like to take you up on the trade. Please
include a phone number where we can reach you. Don't delay - our
deadline is Friday morning, and we're still a couple of trades short of a
holiday home.
Incidentally, there have been several unkind emails
suggesting that this exercise is lame, unoriginal and well behind the
curve. I resent the implication that any of this was unintentional.
"Look What The Cat Dragged In" - Poison
I went to bed too late and got up too soon
My poor head still spinnin' from too much booze
I got a foot in the gutter a foot in the grave
I ain't seen home in the last three days
[Chorus]
Oh my god look what the cat dragged in
Livin' my life sin after sin
Night rolls up and I do it again
Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in
No tell, motel, hotel bed
If it wasn't for the sunlight I'd swear I was dead
I got a girl on the left of me
a girl on the right
I know damn well I slept with both last night
[Chorus]
I'm late for work on Monday and my boss is bitchin'
Can't get out of bed cause my head's still spinnin'
My hair's in a rat's nest, I look like hell
Half alive or half dead, I just can't tell!!
Leave you, move on
To a perfect stranger
You talk I walk
Wanna feel the danger
See me with him and it's turnin' you on
Got me saying getting me back it'd be another song
Get outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
Way outta my way
Got no more to say
Instead
of roads and bridges, Obama-sized government funds stasis and
sclerosis: The Hoover Dam of regulatory obstruction, the Golden Gateway
to dependency.
By MARK STEYN
On the evidence of last week's Republican campaign events, President
Obama's instant classic – "You didn't build that" – is to Mitt Romney
what that radioactive arachnid is to Spider-Man: It got under his skin,
and, in an instant, the geeky stiff was transformed into a muscular
Captain Capitalism swinging through the streets and deftly squirting his
webbing all over Community-Organizerman. Rattled by the reborn Romney,
the Obama campaign launched an attack on Romney's attack on Obama's
attack on American business. First they showed Romney quoting Obama: "He
said, 'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else
made that happen.'" And then the Obama team moved in for the kill: "The
only problem? That's not what he said."
Indeed. What Obama actually said was:
"If you've got a business, you, you didn't build that. [Interjection
by fawning supporters: "Yeeaaaaah!"] "Somebody else made that happen."
Since the president is widely agreed to be "the smartest guy ever to
become president" (Michael Beschloss, presidential historian), the
problem can't be "what he said" but that you dummies aren't smart enough
to get the point he was trying to make. According to Slate's David
Weigel, the "you didn't build that" bit referred back to something he'd
said earlier in the speech – "somebody invested in roads and bridges."
You didn't build those, did you? Or maybe he was referring back to "this
unbelievable American system we have that allowed you to thrive." You
didn't build the system, did you? Or maybe he was referring to the
teleprompter. You didn't build that, did you? Well, unless you're Rajiv
or Suresh from the teleprompter factory in Bangalore, you didn't. Maybe
he was referring back to something he said in a totally different speech
– the Berlin Wall one, perhaps. You didn't build that, did you? Who are
we to say which of these highly nuanced interpretations of the
presidential text is correct.
If this is the best all the King's horses and all the King's men can
do to put Humpty Dumpty's silver-tongued oratory together again, they
might as well cut to the chase and argue that accurately quoting
President Obama is racist. The obvious interpretation sticks because it
fits with the reality of the last three-and-a-half years – that
America's chief executive is a man entirely ignorant of business who
presides over an administration profoundly hostile to it.
But, just for the record, I did "invest in roads and bridges," and so
did you. In fact, every dime in those roads and bridges comes from
taxpayers, because government doesn't have any money except for what it
takes from the citizenry. And the more successful you are, the more you
pay for those roads and bridges.
So here's a breaking-news alert for President Nuance: We
small-government guys are in favor of roads. Hard as it may be to
credit, roads predated Big Government. Which came first, the chicken
crossing the road or the Egg Regulatory Agency? That's an easy one:
Halfway through the first millennium B.C., the nomadic Yuezhi of Central
Asia had well-traveled trading routes for getting nephrite jade from
the Tarim Basin to their customers at the Chinese court, more than 2,500
miles away. On the other hand, the Yuezhi did not have a federal
contraceptive mandate or a Bloombergian enforcement regime for
carbonated beverages at concession stands at the rest area two days out
of Khotan, so that probably explains why they're not in the G7 today.
In Obama's world, businessmen build nothing, whereas government are
the hardest hard-hats on the planet. So, in his "You didn't build that"
speech, he invoked, yet again, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate
Bridge. "When we invested in the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate Bridge,
or the Internet, sending a man to the moon – all those things benefited
everybody. And so that's the vision that I want to carry forward."
He certainly carries it forward from one dam speech to another. He
was doing his Hoover Dam shtick only last month, and I pointed out that
there seemed to be a certain inconsistency between his enthusiasm for
federal dam-building and the definitive administration pronouncement on
the subject, by Deanna Archuleta, his Deputy Assistant Secretary of the
Interior, in a speech to Democratic environmentalists in Nevada:
"You will never see another federal dam."
Ever. So the president can carry forward his "vision," but it
apparently has no more real-world application than the visions he
enjoyed as a member of his high school "choom gang" back in Hawaii.
Incidentally, I was interested to learn from David Maraniss'
enlightening new biography that, during car-chooming sessions, young
Barry insisted all the windows be rolled up so that no marijuana smoke
would escape. If you can seriously envision President Obama opening a
21st century Hoover Dam, you need to lower the windows on your Chevy
Volt.
The Golden Gate Bridge? As Reason's Matt Welch pointed out, the
Golden Gate cost at the time $35 million – or about $530 million today.
So, for the cost of Obama's 2009 stimulus bill alone, we could have had
1,567 Golden Gate Bridges. Where are they? Where are, say, the first
dozen? If you laid 1,567 Golden Gate Bridges end to end, you'd have
enough for one Golden Choom Bridge stretching from Obama's Punahou High
School in Honolulu over the Pacific all the way to his Occidental
College in Los Angeles, so that his car-chooming chums can commute from
one to the other without having to worry about TSA patdowns.
A stimulus bill equivalent to 1,567 Golden Gate bridges. A 2011
federal budget equivalent to 6,788 Golden Gate bridges. And yet we don't
have a single one.
Because that's not what Big Government does: Money-no-object
government spends more and more money for less and less objects. For all
the American economy has to show for it, President Bob the Builder took
just shy of a trillion dollars in stimulus, stuck it in his
wheelbarrow, pushed it halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge, and tossed
it into the Pacific.
Instead of roads and bridges, Obama-sized government funds stasis and
sclerosis: The Hoover Dam of regulatory obstruction, the Golden Gateway
to dependency. Last month, 80,000 Americans signed on to new jobs, but
85,000 Americans signed on for Social Security disability checks. Most
of these people are not "disabled" as that term is generally understood.
Rather, it's the U.S. economy that's disabled, and thus Obama
incentivizes dependency. What Big Government is doing to those 85,000
"disabled" is profoundly wicked. Let me quote a guy called Mark Steyn,
from his last book:
"The evil of such a system is not the waste of money but the waste of
people. Tony Blair's ministry discovered it was politically helpful to
reclassify a chunk of the unemployed as 'disabled.' A fit, able-bodied
40-year-old who has been on disability allowance for a decade
understands somewhere at the back of his mind that he is living a lie,
and that not just the government but his family and his friends are
colluding in that lie."
Millions of Americans have looked at the road ahead, and figured it
goes nowhere. Best to pull off into the Social Security parking lot.
Don't worry, it's not your fault. As the president would say, you didn't
build the express check-in to the Disability Office. Government built
it, and, because they built it, you came. In Obama's "visions," he
builds roads and bridges. In reality, the President of Dependistan has
put nothing but roadblocks in the path to opportunity and growth.
What's the worst thing that could happen to you?
Take a chance tonight and try something new.
You're getting boring.
You're all so boring, and I don't recognize the zombie you're turning 'to.
Don't worry cause tonight I got you.
You can take a seat, do what you normally do.
I'm about to let you see.
This is what'll happen if you ain't giving your girl what she needs.
Leave you, move on
To a perfect stranger
You talk I walk
Wanna feel the danger
See me with him and it's turnin' you on
Got me saying getting me back it'd be another song
Get outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
Way outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
Now I got a taste I wanna explore.
Ain't going to waste, no not anymore.
You're going hard now, to win my heart but.
So many times now, you've been comin' up short.
Don't worry cause tonight I got you.
You can take a seat do what you normally do.
I'm about to let you see.
This is what'll happen if you ain't giving your girl what she needs.
[Chorus]
Leave you, move on
To a perfect stranger
You talk I walk
Wanna feel the danger
See me with him and it's turnin' you on
Got me saying getting me back it'd be another song
Get outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
Way outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
No I ain't going home cause I wanna stay, but I won't be alone no how no way.
Now I've showed you what I'm made of.
This is what'll happen if you ain't giving your girl what she needs.
[Chorus]
Leave you, move on
To a perfect stranger
You talk I walk
Wanna feel the danger
See me with him and it's turnin' you on
Got me saying getting me back it'd be another song
Get outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
Way outta my way
Got no more to say
He's takin' your place
Get outta my way
M2RB: KISS, Quilmes Rock Festival, River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
You show us everything you've got
You keep on dancin' and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
Our fearless leader with a laser focus on jobs for America.*
Besides Not Meeting With His Jobs' Council Once, What's Obama Been Up To Since 01.19.12**?
Campaign Events Attended: 135
Fundraisers Attended: 106
Interviews Given: 33
Politicking: 36
Speeches/Remarks Made: 162
Press Conferences Deigned To Hold: 6
NCAA/NBA Games Attended: 3
State Dinners Or Other WH-hosted Events Held: 24
DC Social-Circuit Breakfasts/Lunches/Dinners Attended: 3
Cabinet Meetings Held: 1
Visits To Troops/Military Bases: 5
Meetings a/k/a "lunch(es) in the private dining room" with the Vice-President: 13
Meetings with Secretary of State: 14
Meetings with Secretary of Defence: 13
Meetings with Secretary of Treasury: 12
Meetings with Secretary of Commerce: 1
Meetings with Secretary of Agriculture: 1
Meetings with Heads of State: 30
Meetings with International Organisations: 16
Meetings with Senior &/or Campaign Advisers: 37
Meetings with DHS/FEMA: 1
Conference Calls Held: 1
Meetings with Private Sector Leaders, Community Groups, etc.: 6
Presentations of Presidential Medal of Honours, other medals,the
honouring of special Americans and foreign dignitaries, and the visitations of
injured soldiers: 12
Routine Presidential Duties*** Performed: 26
Foreign trips: 4
Vacations: 3
Rounds of Golf: 10****
Known Number of Hamburgers/Hotdogs Eaten: 4 cheeseburgers and 13 hotdogs
Meetings with President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness: 0
Paul Krugman says we are in a depression. Joe Biden has said that, for many Americans, it feels like we are in a depression. Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have said we are in a depression. Millions of Americans are in a depression and are taking anti-depressants because of the intense economic stress under which they are suffering regardless of whether we meet the technical definition of a "recession" or a "depression."
Ben Bernanke keeps issuing dire warnings about the fiscal cliff the Choom Van will sail off of on 01.01.13, if the assholes in Washington do not get their shit together. Paul Ryan says we have, maybe, 3 or 4 years before we hit a full-blown financial crisis and debt spiral. The Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the CBO and the OMB all say that Medicare will be bankrupt within the decade (Actually, it already is in the red and the IOUs it holds from the Treasury are only worth what's actually in the Treasury), the CBO's economic models can't even predict an American economy past the year 2037, i.e. the economy collapses, unless massive overhauls of the entitlement programmes are undertaken. The Europeans are telling us, 'STFU and get your own house in order before offering us advice."
Meanwhile, our noble, young President has meet with the Secretary of the Treasury and his own Council on Jobs and Competitiveness -- combined -- fewer times in number than he has been photographed eating hotdogs and hamburgers on different days in the last 6 months at some campaign event or courtside. Cue the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" music.
For all of you, who know someone planning to vote for Obama, here's a Sophie-gram for you to send them: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
*** National Prayer Breakfast, welcoming sports' champions, spelling and science winners, groundbreakings, etc.
**** Someone mentioned that 10 rounds of golf in the last 6 months seemed low for a President, who has played more than 100 rounds in his 3.5 years in office. It would have been in 2009, 2010, or 2011, but fundraisers and campaign events do cut into tee times and visits to the 19th hole. Never fear, if he (Allah-damned-forbid) somehow manages to get reelected, he'll be playing 10 rounds per month.
Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS
You show us everything you've got
You keep on dancin' and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
You keep on saying you'll be mine for a while
You're lookin' fancy and I like your style
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You show us everything you've got
Baby, baby that's quite a lot
And you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all nite and party every day
I wanna rock and roll
Jimmy got a gun
His whole world had come undone
From lookin' straight at the sun
Jimmy got a gun
His dog days had begun
Now, everybody is on the run
Because Jimmy got a gun
What could anyone do?
It was Jimmy's last I.O.U.
"All the other countries have strict gun laws while the
United States does not. If guns aren’t responsible for the increase
homicide rate, then what is?"
- Ric, 20 July 2012
Germany has very strict gun laws. In fact, the German
laws are far stricter than existing gun control in the US, or the
restrictions that are routinely discussed here. Germany has strict
licencing and registration requirements. Valid licences expire after 3
years. To even get a licence, people must past background cheques that
include a demonstration of characteristics such as the subjective
"trustworthiness" and convince the authorities that they have an urgent
necessity for a gun. Of course, Germany also has requirements against
licencing alcohol or drug addicts, those with mental disorders, people
with violent or aggressive tendencies, and felony convictions. With
all of this, Germany still holds the honour of being the host country to
3 of the 5 worst school massacres in the recorded history of
civilisation (Germany: Erfurt, 2002, 18 were
killed; Winnenden, 2009, 15 murdered; and Emsdetten, 2006, 11 murdered). The other two were: Dunblane, Scotland, 1996, 16 kindergarteners and their teacher were killed, and Columbine, Colorado, 12 students and 1 teacher were murdered.
In Britain, we have some of the most stringent guns laws
in the world, but they haven't prevented the country from being at or in
the top 5 of almost every crime category in the EU. Even with our very
strict gun laws, we still have gun crimes. Primarily, they are spree
killings like that occurred in Cumbria.
Following the Port Arthur massacre in Australia in 1996 where 35 people were murdered, media hysteria and
bipartisan political support for punishing gun owners increased. As a
consequence, gun laws were tightened and, fewer law-abiding citizens had guns, but the illegal arms
market and gun-hungry gangs multiplied exponentially. Against the assurances and predictions of the politicians, mainstream media, and gun control advocates, turf wars and tribal fights exploded after the Port Arthur
massacre-inspired gun laws. Take Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city.
Between 16 January 1998 and 19 April 2010, 38 crime figures
were murdered during the Melbourne Gangland Killings.
We all know the old saying that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and I'm sure that there are many proponents of gun control that have good intentions, but intentions, alone, must not be the manner in which we judge the success of a law or programme.
After the aforementioned Port Arthur Massacre, the government passed laws prohibiting civilians from owning or possessing semi-automatic long guns and/or pump action/self-loading shotguns. Another law restricted magazine capacity to 5 rounds for rifles. To purchase a firearm, both the weapon and the owner had to be licenced by the government. Finally, a prospective purchaser had to state an "acceptable reason" as to why s/he wanted to purchase the weapon and "cool off" for a period of 28 days while the government decided whether the reason stated was "acceptable." Only after the prospective purchaser kissed the government's ring and ass, along with receiving its blessing, was s/he issued a licence.
If you listened to gun control freaks, you'd think "That'll show those Jared Loughners and James Holmes!!!" If you bowed to the demands of Nanny Doomberg and the Brady Bunch, you'd think "LBJ may have said, 'I'll have those n*ggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years,' but we are going to keep 'em both alive AND voting for the next 200 years by taking away their Second Amendment rights!" If you had listened to Doctor Rebecca
Peters, New Zealand, which doesn't have gun control laws like Australia, would have a higher gun crime rate. Instead, it has a much lower rate.
Homicides > Overall homicide rate > per 100,000 pop.: 0.1827
Homicides > Non-firearm homicide rate > per 100,000 pop.: 1.1747
Homicides > Overall homicide rate > per 100,000 pop.: 1.3574
Mexico has very strict gun control laws...even more stringent than those in the UK. How's that working
out for the innocent people being terrorised by the drug cartels and, in
some cases, murdered with guns made available by the Obama
administration?
On the other hand, SWITZERLAND HAS THE SECOND HIGHEST GUN
OWNERSHIP RATE OF ALL INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES BEHIND THE US. 22% OF
ALL HOUSEHOLDS HAVE FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS; YET, THE GUN CRIME RATE IS
SO LOW THAT STATISTICS ARE NOT EVEN KEPT. The country has
a population of 6 million, but there are estimated to be at least 2
million firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000
pistols.
In the US, 60 million (or less than 20%) of the population own 200
million guns. In Switzerland, there are less guns per capita, but VIRTUALLY EVERY HOME HAS AT LEAST ONE WEAPON.
The army sells a variety of machine guns, submachine
guns, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers and cannons.
Purchasers of these weapons require an easily obtained cantonal licence,
and the weapons are registered. Besides subsidised military surplus, the Swiss can buy other firearms
easily too. While long guns require no special purchase procedures,
handguns are sold only to those with a Waffenerwerbsschien (purchase
certificate) issued by a cantonal authority. A certificate is issued to
every applicant over 18, who is not a criminal or mentally infirm.
There are no restrictions on the carrying of long guns. About half
the cantons have strict permit procedures for carrying handguns, and the
other half have no rules at all There is no discernible difference in
the crime rate between the cantons as a result of the different
policies.
Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Swiss gun lobby, semi-automatic
rifles require no purchase permit and are not registered by the
government. Thus, the only long guns registered by the government are
full automatics. Three cantons do require collectors of more than 10
guns to register.
While there are around 200 million guns in the United States, only
about 20% of Americans own guns. There may only be 2 million guns in
Switzerland, a country of 6 million people, but nearly EVERY household
is armed.
Again, Switzerland — a tiny country — lags only behind the United
States in gun ownership; yet, gun crime is so negligible that statistics
aren’t even kept.
Switzerland's murder rate is about 40% lower than that of Germany. New Zealand's rate is than Australia’s. Finland and Sweden have very different gun ownership rates, but very similar murder rates. Kennesaw, Georgia requires every head of household to own a weapon. After this law went into effect, the
crime rate dropped 89%. Washington, DC, and Chicago have extremely
strict gun laws, but much, much higher crime rates than Kennesaw, Georgia.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
MORE GUNS DO NOT TRANSLATE INTO MORE CRIME AND MORE GUN CONTROL LAWS DO NOT RESULT IN LESS CRIME.
"Even when you take out the admittedly high murder rate
of Blacks, the murder rate for whites is still more than double that of
other European countries."
- Ric, 21 July 2012
We weren't discussing the murder rate. We were discussing the gun crime rate.
Of course, since guns aren't the only means of killing and meaning, our nannies have entertained all sorts of ideas and imposed some real doozies. Some of their greatest hits include redesigning the pint glass. Why? Because pint glasses lead to 5,500 stabbings in pubs every year. Have pint glass, will slash and stab! Considering mandates that pubs and low-end restaurants only be allowed to use plastic eating utensils because silverware can kill!! I'm a Mayfair girl, but give me a metal spoon and I bet that even I could create a shiv. Want a Swiss Army knife? Don't look on eBay-UK. Sales have been banned...somebody might get hurt.
After the London riots last year, sales on Louisville Sluggers on eBay-UK zoomed up 6,000% in a 24-hour period -- law-abiding citizens, lacking a right to bear arms -- armed themselves with a Ted Williams' "Bonefish Special." Aluminum baseball bat sales soared by 52,211% and the sales ofa particular type of aluminum billy club skyrocketed by 50,000% in one day! The government wasn't going to have any of that! The citizenry defending themselves against marauding miscreants, ne'er-do-wells, and feral children? Balderdash! And, before you could say "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!," the Holy Bat Ban! went into effect.
"Even if they are being bought by
respectable home and business owners, they should be banned from sale
temporarily. Vigilantism is not the answer. Get these
items off the shelves, we are all scared and angry in London and need to
know that measures are being taken to help us to feel safe in our
cities again. There
is nothing wrong with being vigilant, with being present on the streets
and helping the police. But this crosses the line when it
involves weapons. That just encourages the sense of fear – we want to
reduce tension and fear in the area. People with baseball bats roaming
the streets is not helpful: don't go on Amazon buying them. Hundreds of people in Walthamstow are helping run a respite centre for police. That's helpful."
- Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, a constituency in Northern London hit hard by looters
If you think that I'm kidding about the stance the British government has taken on the idea of an innocent subject defending himself/herself against malevolent actors, look no further than the case of Tony Martin.
Allegedly, a picture is supposed to say a thousands words; yet, this picture taken during the London riots last summer always leaves me speechless.
Keep in mind, too, that these are the nanny staters/police staters that are part-and-parcel of the mindset that brought you, albeit temporarily, the "fact" that"water doesnot hydrate," will send the WRAP police into your home to inspect your cupboards, look at your leftovers, and teach you how to recycle food; has used drones to determine if government employees, who ring up to report in ill, are running the streets; places "Smile! You're trash is on bin cam!" recorders that photograph every item that you place in your wheelie bin to make sure that you are complying with recycling laws; require your best friend to obtain a licence, pay around $150, and attend annual training sessions before she can babysit your child while you run to Tesco to pick up some eggs and milk, and disallow parents from entering many playgrounds without government background cheques. Further, this is the same Apparatchia that brought us what could easily be one of the finest examples for future historians to include in their tomes titled along the lines of "The Rise and Fall of the British Welfare, Nanny, & Police State Or How To Go From Being The Most Powerful And Deadly Military Force On Earth To Committing Suicide By Wheelie Bins And Hysteria In 300 Years":
In May of 2006, the
unemployed, single mum of 3, Donna Challice, persecuted and dragged into
court by the Exeter Council. Her crime?
Allegedly – and by accident -- putting non-recyclable rubbish in her green
wheelie bin. If convicted, she faced a £1,000
($1,851) fine. She was to be the first
person in the United Kingdom to be prosecuted under the Environmental
Protection Act of 1990, which permits local authorities to prosecute individuals,
businesses, and organisations, if environmental, emission, and recycling rules
are not followed.
At the conclusion of
the trial, Ms Challice was acquitted of all charges. The government had spent more than £6,000 ($11,106)
on the folly not taking into account the opportunity cost lost by shifting
governmental resources from the investigation and prosecution of “real” crimes
to an agenda-driven political farce.
One might think that
the verdict would have given the government cause to take a deep breath and
reconsider the rationality and reasonableness of this inane law, but one would be
wrong. Mike Trim, the Recycling Officer of Exeter
Council said:
'The cost of this
case to the council is £6,000, but it has been worth it because the cost of
contamination to us each year is £100,000 ($185,100). In addition, the cost in terms of climate
change is incalculable. We shall
continue to enforce them and prosecute.”
**eyeroll**
What gun control advocates ignore is the number of lives saved due to civilian use of firearms. Florida State University criminologist, Gary Kleck, analyzed data from the Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (1992-1998). Describing his findings on defencive gun use, in Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control, Kleck wrote:
"In general,
self-protection measures of all types are effective, in the sense of reducing
the risk of property loss in robberies and confrontational burglaries, compared
to doing nothing or cooperating with the offender. The most effective form of
self-protection is use of a gun. For robbery the self-protection measures with
the lowest loss rates were among victims attacking the offender with a gun, and
victims threatening the offender with a gun. For confrontational burglary,
attacking with a gun had the second lowest loss rate of sixteen self-protection
measures, bested only by another mode of armed self-protection, threatening the
offender with a non-gun weapon." (p. 291)
In Chapter 7, he quantified the benefit of gun ownership. According to his research of reported data, firearms are used in self-defence about 2.5 million times per year in the United States. If you doubt his findings, then even the 100,000lives savedas a result of defencive gun usage according to the National Crime Victimisation Survey
are worth the freedom of choice to own a firearm. These shootings are a symptom of cultural and mental rot. According to ABC News, "a San Diego woman identifying herself as James Holmes's mother spoke briefly with ABC News this morning. She had awoken unaware of the news of the shooting and had not been contacted by authorities. She immediately expressed concern that her son may have been involved. 'You have the right person,' she said. 'I need to call the police,' she added. 'I need to fly out to Colorado.'"
The guy was obviously a mental case and had exhibited disturbing behaviour of such a severe nature that his own mum KNEW he was responsible before being contacted by law enforcement. Society, i.e., his family, his physician, his school, local government, etc., failed. If his mum knew that he was the killer after the fact, but before being contacted, then a reasonable man can conclude that his actions were foreseeable. Thus, they might have been prevented if people had pursued legal means of commitment.
James Holmes was going to kill. He didn't need guns to do it either. Obviously, he was intelligent enough to build bombs. He could have used incendiary devices rather than bullets. OJ Simpson didn't need a gun. The 9/11 hijackers didn't need guns. Timothy McVeigh didn't need a gun. The Unabomber didn't need a gun. The Japanese Aum Supreme Truth cult didn't need guns. The 7/7 bombers didn't need guns.
As I have long said, when people say that they want to kill you, believe them. No one took Hitler seriously. Not many took OJ Simpson seriously.
Moreover, when people want to kill, they will find a way. Do you think most gun crimes are committed with legally purchased guns? Do you think that the Federal government could seize all of the weapons in this country when it can't prevent illegals immigrants and massive amounts of drugs from being smuggled into the country? Really? How's that going to work? We don't want to see your papers to determine your immigration status, but we are going to have to conduct a strip/cavity search to see if you are smuggling in any contraband, including weapons parts? After we stick our fingers up your rectum and vayjay, if you are a woman, -- provided they are clean -- we'll let you go have your anchor baby in a border hospital?
It's nuts. It's impractical. It punishes the law-abiding and will do nothing to prevent the law-breakers from obtaining guns on the street or the net. It infringes upon my rights and I am unwilling to give them up.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilised
nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police
more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!"
- Adolf Hitler, 1935
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
- Thomas Jefferson
Some interesting data...
AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN
It is a common
fantasy that gun bans make society safer. In 2002 -- five years after
enacting its gun ban -- the Australian Bureau of Criminology
acknowledged there is no correlation between gun control and the use of
firearms in violent crime. In fact, the percent of murders committed
with a firearm was the highest it had ever been in 2006 (16.3 percent),
says the D.C. Examiner.
Even Australia's Bureau of Crime
Statistics and Research acknowledges that the gun ban had no significant
impact on the amount of gun-involved crime:
In 2006, assault rose 49.2 percent and robbery 6.2 percent.
Sexual assault -- Australia's equivalent term for rape -- increased 29.9 percent.
Overall, Australia's violent crime rate rose 42.2 percent.
Moreover, Australia and the United States -- where no gun-ban exists -- both experienced similar decreases in murder rates:
Between 1995 and 2007, Australia saw a 31.9 percent decrease; without a gun ban, America's rate dropped 31.7 percent.
During
the same time period, all other violent crime indices increased in
Australia: assault rose 49.2 percent and robbery 6.2 percent.
Sexual assault -- Australia's equivalent term for rape -- increased 29.9 percent.
Overall, Australia's violent crime rate rose 42.2 percent.
At
the same time, U.S. violent crime decreased 31.8 percent: rape dropped
19.2 percent; robbery decreased 33.2 percent; aggravated assault dropped
32.2 percent.
Australian women are now raped over three times as often as American women.
While
this doesn't prove that more guns would impact crime rates, it does
prove that gun control is a flawed policy. Furthermore, this highlights
the most important point: gun banners promote failed policy regardless
of the consequences to the people who must live with them, says the
Examiner.
Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum it's the sound of my gun.
Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum it's the sound
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her whole world's come undone
From lookin' straight at the sun
What did her daddy do?
What did he put you through?
They said when Janie was arrested
they found him underneath a train
But man, he had it comin' Now that Janie's got a gun
she ain't never gonna be the same.
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Tell me now it's untrue.
What did her daddy do?
He jacked a little bitty baby
The man has got to be insane
They say the spell that he was under the lightning and the
thunder knew that someone had to stop the rain
Run away, run away from the pain yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Run away run away from the pain yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
What did her daddy do?
It's Janie's last I.O.U.
She had to take him down easy and put a bullet in his brain
She said 'cause nobody believes me. The man was such a sleeze.
He ain't never gonna be the same.
Run away, run away from the pain yeah, yeah
yeah yeah yeah
Run away run away from the pain yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Everybody is on the run
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Because Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Janie's got a gun
As you peel back the skin from an orange
Remember how you got all of this?
Well, all of this
Is never ever coming true
There's nothing you can do to change it
You don't have to do the crime to do the time
It's just guilt by association
"For those commenters whining about why the tea party is being perceived
as dangerous, your anti middle class and radical pro gun policies are a
major determinant. Couple that with spitting on black congressmen and
wishing death on poor people without insurance; and you shouldn’t be
surprised why middle America thinks of you as dangerous."
Yeastie Noyz a/k/a Uppereastside, 20 July 2012
Before we get to the main topic, let's slay some of your strawmen:
Picnic held for the community of Oakland by the gentle-as-Mary's-little-lamb, Occupy Oakland
"...why the tea party is being perceived
as dangerous..."
Granted, I haven't updated it since 3 December 2011, here are 498 incidents of criminal behaviour resulting in arrests of Occupy members. The offences range from simple trespass to aggravated rape.I'll also make sure to leave links to some of my posts documenting the violent, destructive, anti-semitic, and rather gauche behaviour exhibited by scores of Occupiers below.
None of us will hold our breaths while you compile your list of examples of 'dangerous" behaviour of or actions taken by the Tea Party.
I have a suggestion for you: Why don't you ask the Tea Party to join Occupy in a PPV event? Let America decide who's most dangerous. The Tea Party can appear with their Gadsden flags, breeches, Betsy Ross dresses, powdered wigs, and clean-up equipment and you can bring all of the above. Y'all can let your freak flags fly....high and proud!!!
We can get John Walsh to host and call it "America's Most Dangerous. We Report. You Decide."
Oh, do us a favour and don't forget to bring the fruits, flakes, and nuts...we (sort of) miss 'em:
Gettin' buggy with it...
An extra from an off-off-off-Broadway production of Mulan?
Somehow, I think Chairman Mao would have thrown him back.
Why do they never demand free soap and other personal hygiene products?
And, of course, calling for the violent overthrow of the United States government is not the sign of a dangerous individual or organisation. Nope. Never.
"One
of the speakers said the solution is nonviolent movement. No, my
friend. I’ll give you two examples: French Revolution, and Indian
so-called Revolution.
Gandhi, Gandhi today is, with respect to all of you, Gandhi today is a tumor that the ruling class is using constantly to mislead us. French Revolution made fundamental transformation. But it was bloody.
India, the result of Gandhi, is 600 million people living in maximum poverty.
So, ultimately, the bourgeosie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class.
Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”
- Occupy Los Angeles speaker, 10.01.11
More contestants in the Democrats' "Just Your Average, Hard-Working, Middle Class American" Spokesperson Contest
"...your (sic) anti middle class..."
Sorry, but the Tea Party is primarily comprised of the middle class. As I have told you repeatedly, Barack Obama lost the middle class vote in 2008 by 20 points. You have little understanding of the composition of the Tea Party. According to Gallup, Tea Partiers are fairly mainstream in their demographics. Per the Los Angeles Times, Tea Partiers are"average Americans and 41% of them are either Democrats or Independents." While the New York Times
has made its manifest dislike of the movement quite apparent, even it
has taken the time to look into the demographics of the Tea Party and
not make assumptions, as you and your ilk continuously do.
I have never attended a Tea Party event nor is my financial situation representative of 99% of most people and you should refrain from assuming that all libertarians, conservatives, Tea Partiers, Republicans, "limited government types," etc., are fat cat corporate jet owners. Unlike you, the overwhelming majority of them can't afford to live on the Upper East Side...even in the basement.
Mohawks! Getcha Mohawks! Middle Class Accountant From Wichita, Getcha Mohawk Heeeeyah! Not!
Middle-class Americans are not European Socialists. They are a different breed of cats. Europe is very different from the United States.
Europeans have never really been free. They have been serfs, pawns,
indentured servants, slaves, the conquered, the vanquished, subjects,
meat for grinding war machines, prisoners, concentration camp victims,
comrades behind a wall built to keep them from leaving their countries
(as opposed to a fence designed to keep out people, who lack the host
country's permission to enter, which the illegal
immigration lobby odiously compares to the Berlin Wall), and
dependents. For most of the history of Europe, its residents have been
ruled by monarchs or dictators. For brief, fleeting moments, they have
had elected leadership that may or may not have governed according to
the will of the people. Now, against the will of the majority of
Europeans, the continent is reverting to type. Instead of several
monarchs or dictators, we see darkening clouds on the horizon and the
curtain of iron once again rising in the form of the Dictatorship of the
European Union. Americans wouldn't put up with most of the shit that Europeans do because they enjoy their freedom.
If you think messages like the one below is going to win the middle class, you are an Allah-damned fool.
Do they look like supporters of the American middle class to you?
"...wishing death on poor people without insurance..."
THE HYPOTHETICAL DID NOT INVOLVE ANY "POOR PEOPLE," YOU DUNCE.
The transcript from the Tea Party Express Republican Debate in Tampa, Florida, on 12 September 2011, courtesy of CNN:
BLITZER: Thank you,
Governor. Before I get to Michele Bachmann, I want to just -- you're a
physician, Ron Paul, so you're a doctor. You know something about this subject.
Let me ask you this hypothetical question.
A healthy
30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you
know what? I'm not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance
because I'm healthy, I don't need it.But something terrible happens, all of a
sudden he needs it.
Who's going to pay
if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?
PAUL: Well, in a
society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to
take care of him.
BLITZER: Well, what
do you want?
PAUL: But what he
should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My
advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not be forced --
BLITZER: But he
doesn't have that. He doesn't have it, and he needs intensive care for six
months. Who pays?
PAUL: That's what
freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to
prepare and take care of everybody --
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: But
Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?
PAUL: No. I
practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out
of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the
churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals.
(APPLAUSE)
PAUL: And we've
given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume
responsibility for ourselves. Our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do
it. This whole idea, that's the reason the cost is so high.
The cost is so high
because they dump it on the government, it becomes a bureaucracy. It becomes
special interests. It kowtows to the insurance companies and the drug
companies, and then on top of that, you have the inflation. The inflation
devalues the dollar, we have lack of competition.
PAUL: There's no
competition in medicine. Everybody is protected by licensing. And we should
actually legalize alternative health care, allow people to practice what they
want.
If you have the money, but decide not to insure your house and it burns to the ground, should I feel obliged to pay for it to be rebuilt?
You people claim to be pro-choice, but you are not. "Live free or die" is just something kewl to put on a licence plate to you. How dare anyone expect you to live by it!
On many occasions, I have told you that I am young, healthy and fairly wealthy. I could pay for my medical care out-of-pocket completely, if need be, but choose to carry a major medical policy. Because of authoritarian, do-goodering, social justice pushing Mrs Kravitzes like you and Barack Obama, I no longer will have that option in 2014. I will be forced to purchase an expensive policy with bells and whistles that I neither want nor need. Why? Because you want me to subsidise others. Should the kid down the block with 3 accidents and 6 speeding tickets be able to demand that your auto premiums skyrocket so that his can fall? Should I have to pay more for health insurance so that fat smokers can pay less?
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber
barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's
cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated,
but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end
for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
- C S Lewis
As I always say:
PROGS ARE ONLY PRO-CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO UTERI, RECTUMS, AND POT. PERIOD.
