QOTD

Excerpted from the article "Why Men Fight" by Robert R. Reilly (LINK)

Here is the political program: Inject sexual tension into combat units by mixing genders, which results in an explosion of sexual harassment; then blame the military and insist that it transform itself – not to fight the enemy and win wars – but to fight sexual harassment.
Should it be their job to kill or to be killed? Retired four-star general Volney Warner said that, “I remain convinced that women are better at giving life than taking it.” What kind of society seeks to put its women, it’s life givers, directly in harm’s way – to endanger that which is most precious to it? The answer is a society that no longer knows what women are or why men fight to protect them. In turn, it asks men not to be men – not to be protectors. What is there left to defend in such a society?
If you want men to have nothing to fight for, this is the way to proceed.  

Two handy grammar articles on conjunctions

Yes, you CAN begin a sentence with "and" or "but"!  Differences discussed between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/can-and-or-but-begin-a-sentence/
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/01/can-i-start-a-sentence-with-a-conjunction/

 Article 1: "When most of us were in school, our English teachers made a point of forbidding us to begin a sentence with “and” or “but.” It’s one of those lessons that stuck, and writers today go to extreme lengths to avoid it. Is it really forbidden, though? Or is it just a myth?"

Article 2: "No, young lady, it is an unspeakable offence against the English language, and I will mark any such errors with a large red circle and make a public example of you by reading out your ungrammatical prose to the whole class.’"

: )

QOTD

On Thoreau:

"I believe Thoreau was first and formeost a spiritual man, a prophet in some ways, as from his post there at Walden Pond he foresaw the many challenges that would face mankind if we continued, as we did, at full speed into the industrial age. He had already witnessed men who led lives of quiet desperation as they sought satisfaction and fulfillment in material gains, and he knew this futile effort would only increase as new industry brought more goods to be obtained and more hours were spent working to earn the money to pay for such goods. The instruction from his masterwork, Walden, to 'simplify, simplify' has for 154 years now summed up his message that satisfaction cannot be found in material things and the statement from his essay 'Walking' that 'Wildness is the preservation of the world' reminds us that nature offers us salvation as it stands as a testament to purity and truth, while at the same time it calls us to recognize what is most natural within ... the natural state of man is to Thoreau a spiritual one. This is a theme that is present throughout all of his work. - Cathryn McIntyre

Article: Obama's Official Snub Of Thatcher Funeral Shows How Small He Is

A mind-numbing one-two punch today:
LEFT TO THE GUT

This snub shows Obama places partisan politics above leadership or statecraft.

His strange antipathy toward the British is well known — he insultingly returned the bust of Winston Churchill to the U.K. after it was loaned to the White House in friendship after 9/11, among many slights.

He also despises everything Thatcher stood for — free men and free markets — in favor of a socialistic state, based on both his policies and his past.

"Obama's Official Snub Of Thatcher Funeral Shows How Small He Is."  Investor's Business Daily, 16 April 2013. URL: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/041613-652130-obama-downplaying-thatcher-funeral-proves-his-smallness.htm#ixzz2RABne04P



Bonus: RIGHT UPPERCUT TO THE CHIN

Idiocracy in Action: A land full of 0bozotrons Ripe to Be Harvested for Subversion

Is it any wonder how he was re-elected?

My zero T.V. household

Great article yesterday on  NPR - the cable t.v. hawkers are afraid, very afraid: (LINK). It's been a year and about four months since I cut the umbilical.  To reflect, I'd say it's been satisfying getting my time back.  I simply lost interest, with the majority of shows catering to dullards, specializing in the profane, debasing our sensibilities, and peddling "infotainment" to mostly the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of pop culture, I keep up with what's going on (especially '80s).  Full disclosure: I watch two shows. One is "The Walking Dead", but on the other side of the spectrum is PBS News Hour or Nova when I can catch it.  I also like Craig Ferguson if I'm ever up that late.  I refuse to keep a t.v. in the bedroom.  I'd rather reach for a magazine, short story, or Imprimis in the morning, something light and imaginative at night, or just good old talk radio. 

I remember a telemarketer calling, more than one, trying to test the waters, looking  for vulnerabilities and the means to bring me back. I've done battle with a grizzled vet who could care less and a more idealistic college graduate who wouldn't quickly succumb to my arguments against plugging back in. I have a few handy references to back myself up - the time when Dateline NBC falsified their data, newscasting dirtbags, or shows like the Kardashians and Maury.  The barrage of media in all forms contributes a great deal to the malsocialized, spoon-fed, attention-deficient public; I asked the kid coming over today looking for a quarter what he'd do with it.  He said he'd "buy an iPad with it."  I said, "That scooter you have there looks a lot more fun than an iPad." 

It was in the '90s that I began to become turned off by cable, and my friends were probably somewhat taken aback. I don't pretend to be a saint, but back then, MTV had long since turned into 24/7 pulp trash (and zero music) with forerunners of the "reality" model like The Real World, Road Rules and Jackass, themselves harbingers of the Idiocracy to follow. So when I would leave the room when my roommates watched, they'd get confused, "What's the matter with him?" I was never above locker room talk in the frat house but the relentless drumbeat of s_x and scatology was overbearing as networks raced to the bottom in who could outdo whom in terms of shock value. I used to defend shows like Howard Stern for standing up for creative freedom and maybe - Anti-Puritanism? But I held onto something that I think is valuable, and that's a bit of modesty. Attention to modesty, well, elevates us from behaving like animals in the long run. It's...civility. Civility is good, civility promotes harmony, allows us to better resist pressures that make us want to clobber the clod in Wal-Mart with their pants hanging down off their asses or mumbling in line, cutting us off on the highway, not defending women, taking advantage of the elderly.

So, I'm happy with my decision. Maybe I spend more time on the internet, as seems to be the case with other emerging "zero-t.v. households". But there is just very little satisfying or worthwhile on t.v.

Your dog.

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."


- Unknown

America the Beautiful

Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Moments that define a man - How will you handle them?

From a good article I clipped by Mens' Health writer, Mike Zimmerman:

Choosing to Marry
- Will you want to be with her in 20 years?

Becoming a Father
-Kids' needs first, otherwise you suck at being a dad.

Receiving Your First Real Defeat
- Not losing a game, the adult defeats: loss of employment, divorces, estrangements cut deeply into the ego.

Becoming an Orphan
- No more training, no more adivce.  It's your turn to be the example.

Realizing You Don't Know Everything
- The younger you are when you figure this out, the better.

Article: "The Pop-Tart Terrorist"

By now, Americans may be numb to such imbecilities committed by the government institutions to which they entrust their children for instruction. Nothing surprises after that 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl was labeled a “terroristic threat,” suspended from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation because she talked about shooting herself and others with her Hello Kitty gun that shoots bubbles. But looking on the bright side, perhaps we should welcome these multiplying episodes as tutorials about the nature of the regulatory state that swaddles us ever more snuggly with its caring.

Government is failing spectacularly at its core functions, such as budgeting and educating. Yet it continues to multiply its peripheral and esoteric responsibilities, tasks that require it to do things for which it has no aptitude, such as thinking and making common-sense judgments.

Will, George. "The Pop-Tart Terrorist." The Washington Post, 08MAR13. URL:
"http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-08/opinions/37561409_1_toy-guns-school-counselor-bang

What's in a name? AP tries to radically alter language (again)

Agenda-driven language saboteurs strike again!  The Associated Press, which has a very broad reach in its decisions over journalists' use of modern language, oversees style or "word selection" more and more in news articles and has issued its latest decree:  Don't use the term "illegal immigrants".  It has chosen to put the full weight of its words behind a political issue, which is de facto editorializing in what is supposed to be neutrally reported news - fundamentally a big no-no, right?  Unfortunately, we've gotten away from that.  It's not as if this couldn't have been predicted; at some point, the AP ran out of punctuation and grammar issues to mediate and not content to just report the news, the establishment now has turned to meddling in politics for the benefit of issues cherished by destructive liberal forces.  News has lost most of its credibility anyway, just Google "The day journalism died" and you'll get thousands of results, unfortunately it's not as if information consumers will care.  One more hardly noticed straw on the camel's back.

Nothing would make the Democratic-owned press happier than a 100% postmodern, neutered audience that blissfully drives its Priuses while it wrests the final gasp for truth from its dying profession and emerging the legitimated Fourth Estate.  I disagree that the words "illegal immigrant" are emotionally charged.  I have seen people carrying signs that "humans aren't illegal", but they're terribly misguided.  The word illegal modifies the status or disposition of a person - an immigrant - the number of which constitutes a growing U.S. crisis - and not the person himself.

------------------------
Never ask a liberal or a journalist to pay attention to any facts; it may wreck the story. And it is the story being told which is important. Not the truth; not since journalism became a megaphone for a political party or the causes which they champion. ("Oldegrump1")
-----------------------------

The interpretation of words, the power of which is concisely detailed in the Bible, is the starting point for human affairs. In the Bible, we see that language used in the wrong way can hurt others and expose the soul.  It is a powerful and potentially injurious force. Words should be chosen carefully, although I'm not an expert in what the Bible claims.  At any rate, this idea holds water from personal experience alone and without tons of analysis or (dare I say it) deconstruction.  I do know the Bible encourages judgement in speech and acknowledges their transactional and metaphysical value.

Whether it's a jar at the store, your front door, or the words used in everyday language, when you see  tampering, be suspicious.  Intentional alteration of words' meaning, and thus IDEAS, especially by those who claim to be authorities on our means of communicating them, will not bring us nearer to truth.

The philosophy of political science

The interaction I had below with a professor became a defining moment for me that helped influence decisions I made in what to study, what I wanted to learn, and the importance of holistic views.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.



Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;

and everywhere life is full of heroism.



Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.



Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.



You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.



Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.



-Max Ehrmann, 1927

DIY: How to reinstall the pad for the Swiffer Sweeper Wet Jet mop

These things are great for bachelor-Americans: plastic and shiny out of the box, disposable and of limited use after gathering dust and forgetting the directions.  It's good they have some visible warnings - like "don't insert finger" in the robotic solution bottle impaler.  Reminds me of a blood-letting device from the Middle Ages, but still very tempting.

It looked easy enough to bring back out of retirement.  Purchased new bottle of cleaning juice, and found some pads in the garage from Mom's last visit (or possibly the ex's - but on second thought, what would she be doing around any cleaning supplies?) and Googled the instructional .pdf for precision lock and load.  Unfortunately, the fruitless search for any existing manual or planned obsolescence hampered my efforts and the sanitary napkin round would not lock into place, so I combined manly know-how with '80s sensibility and produced an easy 3-step guide, yours for free unlimited consumer distribution.

LT Poopers says:

Cagey quote compendium

Recently collected quotes on:  populism, political correctness in academia, Chris Dorner, language, and more. Enjoy        - Cagey


"Their acolytes depicted the surge of the Tea Party in 2009 as unprecedented fanaticism, rather than the grassroots mobilization that democracies encourage. The partisanship of congressional Republicans, not much different from the partisanship of Democrats during George W. Bush’s second term, has been recast as sore-loser bitterness (tinged with racism)."
"On a range of issues -- from entitlement reform to guns to immigration to social policy -- conventional conservatism has been branded as feverish, know-nothing extremism. Aided by a media that shares all of Obama’s sensibilities, the trick has been a cynical wonder that keeps enabling the most ideological administration in memory to claim the middle ground."
-Artur Davis
Source: http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Obama-s-Increasingly-Imperial-Presidency







“It almost seems as though we’re looking for excuses for people to not have to take their commitments seriously,” Edwards told FoxNews.com. “It’s beyond political correctness; it’s almost like an excuse to do nothing. It’s like societal nihilism, where nothing matters.”

- Tammy Edwards on the University of Missouri's guidance to faculty to not schedule major events on pagan holidays.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/14/university-missouri-guide-asks-professors-to-accommodate-wiccan-pagan-holidays/?test=latestnews









"L.A. Mayor Tony Villar informs us that he 'will not tolerate this reign of terror' by C. Dorner. So his answer is to have the police shoot up suspected vehicles before ascertaining who is in them. Nice solution for a Progressive who wants to disarm responsible citizens and militarize the police. The panic they are exhibiting is the same response they claim is the reason why we must be disarmed. Don't buy into the Progressive plan to make every life episode a CRISIS and an opportunity for government to rob you of your earnings and claim to be the only ones to help. As Americans, we used to do it all by ourselves.

- Angry t.American

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276671/Christopher-Dorner-1-million-reward-Killer-cop-called-victims-father-taunt-death.html#ixzz2KdTZPKyC









"Since the 1960s, New Age liberals have been attempting to overturn core American values, especially by transforming the meaning of words that have long been in use. Similar to communist revolutionaries in Eastern Europe throughout much of the twentieth century, contemporary American liberals have discovered that the best way to alter behavior is to penetrate the mind by transforming our vocabulary."
"Finally, one of the key words liberals have gleefully appropriated is 'progressive.' Liberal values are cast as forward-looking, leading to a better, brighter future. And conservative values are tainted as leading Americans toward a dark, superstitious, bigoted and medieval past. In reality, “progressivism” is a philosophy that has already been tried and rejected numerous times: In the ancient world it was called Epicureanism and had short shrift as it was supplanted by polytheism and then Christianity; in the declining years of the Roman Empire, sexual permissiveness was rejected in favor of the intellectual and spiritual brilliance of Christianity; and in the twentieth century the promise of a social utopia based on government redistribution of wealth—communism—also collapsed. Thus, “progressives” harken to past models that invariably fail; conservatives see the bright future of a world that embraces the highest form of philosophy on earth, faith in God, in tandem with the best political and economic system ever created: democracy and free markets."

"Once we recognize that the liberal revolution always begins with words, we are armed to counter it."



- Dr. Grace Vuoto, "The liberal abuse of the English language"

"If you charged somebody with 50 crimes on what looked like a fairly simple thing, judges thought you were reaching and they would throw it out. Politically it looked bad -- but the culture has devolved to the point where that's just normal now," Reynolds said.
He believes the time may be ripe for a "loser pays" system in criminal trials. If a defendant is acquitted of charges, or charges are thrown out, the prosecution should bear the court costs of those charges.
"Prosecutors have absolute immunity from civil suit, so when they misbehave, when they engage in misconduct, there's no remedy for a defendant," he said.

On throwing everything at defendants and hoping something sticks - re: Aaron Swartz of RSS and Reddit

Excerpted from: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/15/win-at-all-costs-suicide-computer-whiz-prompts-look-at-federal-prosecutors/#content#ixzz2L2LVxq3T

I have long perceived a bias in the mainstream media and have for years been frustrated with its implications for our society and nation. The political slant inherent in modern journalism is no longer unexpected and is even tolerable when social and political issues are the topic of debate. When media bias begins to affect our national security, however, the threshold of acceptability is crossed. When media takes the side of our enemies because of political differences with our president, it's time to say ''enough is enough.''



Frequent use of terms like ''enemy,'' ''foe,'' ''bad guys,'' ''Jap,'' etc., to refer to our WWII opponents contrast sharply with the ''insurgents,'' ''freedom fighters,'' ''opposition forces,'' and other benign terms used today. Instead of stories praising heroic Marines decimated by treacherous ''Japs'' who lured their prey in by flying a flag of truce or by whistling the Marine Corps hymn, modern journalists use military setbacks to suggest that the entire military campaign is wrong-headed. Rather than proudly reporting the story of allied paratroopers who killed over 200 German soldiers on a Dutch bridge when they refused to surrender, modern reporters ignore the hostile fire taken by our helicopters from an Iraqi gathering and report that American troops murdered dozens in a wedding party. Rather than reporting the military victory the U.S. Navy narrowly won vs. the Japanese at Leyte Gulf and minimizing stories of the campaign's command-and-control failures, modern journalists now, as a rule, focus on the failures and negatives and minimize the positive. Rather than celebrating our armies' victory against the fight-to-the-death Germans in the Ruhr valley and ignoring the destruction of nearly every house and factory, our reporters today decry the wall of a mosque damaged in a firefight and ignore the fact that terrorists were firing at our boys from this supposedly sacred site.



Again, I am not surprised and generally not offended by the generic liberal bias of the mainstream media - it's become your trademark. The use of this bias to denigrate, demonize, and undermine the efforts of our military forces and our Commander in Chief and his staff in a time of war, however, does offend me. Your falling subscribership and ratings should tell you that many Americans are equally offended. I call on you to examine your biases and your practices ... and start supporting our troops, our President, and our nation in a non-partisan manner. Your political differences, as during World War II, should not be forgotten, but they should be put on the back burner when reporting on our war effort or national policies.

-Dr. Ted Miller





"Why does Beyonce get a pass, but Milli Vanilli don't? Outrageous."
- Cagey, on the Beyonce lip-sync scandal at the inauguration.






"Two comfortable institutions of the liberal media establishment, the Pew Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, have discovered once again that five times as many national reporters (34 percent vs. 7 percent) identify themselves as liberal than conservative. As for that broad middle of 54 percent that declares itself to be “moderate,” just consider them liberals with an honesty problem."

- Brent Bozell





"Trust and civility are the pillars on which any well-functioning democracy and free-market economy depend."

- Ted Halstead









"First published in 1909, London's story of a young sailor striving to win love and fame as a writer is a touching portrayal of youtful idealism and its demise. A blistering ritique of the magazine trade, it's also one of the best how-to books in American literature."

- Jeremiah Creedon









True?
Why is it that none of the disturbed and evil men, who steal guns, then go and kill movie-goers and children in school, has ever been identified as a conservative?

Ft Hood ~~ Registered Democrat ~ Muslim
Columbine ~~~ Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals
Virginia Tech ~~~ Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff ~ Registered Democrat
Colorado Theater ~~~ Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign;
Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal
Connecticut School Shooter --- Registered Democrat; hated Christians,
Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal Democrats."
Do you see a pattern here?

- UNK.







"Finally, the chickens have come home to roost for the too numerous law schools in this country. Too many law graduates, who do not go on to practice law due to a dearth of jobs, with too much student loan debt. Too many third, fourth, and fifth tier law schools, whose JD degrees are not worth much more than the paper they are printed on. Ironic, but appropriate, that this problem has spawned lawsuits aimed at law schools with over-inflated employment statistics."
"Our nation is facing a potential shortage of health care providers (primary care physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, PA's, etc...) as baby boomers are getting older, and yet, the number of law schools far outnumbers the medical schools. I don't think that the nation is facing a shortage of attorneys."
"While we all need good lawyers, the attorney glut is likely responsible for the abundance of frivolous lawsuits and our litigious mindset in this country. When my 6 year-old tells his sister "I'm going to sue you," in the midst of an argument, I realize, this has become an unfortunate part of our cultural fabric."

-UNK., quoted from multiple sources









"A couple of people mention that this lesbian has 'family values' being the mother of her son. Really? We have all kinds of males and females who have mixed up emotions and values because they have a missing father. There is no way that these women can provide the communications and teachings that a good father can provide to a son. Being a son has sexual impacts that can't be provided from a female no matter how hard they try. In this case, neither females have a good sensual relationship with a male to be able to transfer emotions and feelings that come from being male. The biggest issue in all of the liberation concepts is that we have thrown righteousness out with the bathwater and we have tried to provide justice in all relations and situations. We are a society that is on the edge of loosing consciousness as to what is right. We have taken the lowest road to allow anything to be seen as OK as long as it provides equality by allowing everyone to do whatever they want to do. The next thing will be do we allow men to have more than one wife if all the wives agree to living in a communal relationship or on the other hand, for one wife to have more than one husband. It will only be justice if we allow them to do what they want to do the same as we allow hetero or homosexual couples to do what they want to do. It is even being pushed that pedophiles should have equality to have sex with younger partners. You see when we throw righteousness out the window we have no clear foundation upon which to build society, and everyone ends up doing whatever they want without regard to others. Providing equality can also have backwards rebounds. What if all of the super rich started claiming equal rights for taxes. In other words, equality might be that everyone must pay 15 % of earned income without any kind of deductions. How would our courts handle such a trial when it is so freely giving out equality first one place and then another in all other areas, but not when it comes to taxes!"

- "oakpalms"









"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: - Knowing when to come in out of the rain; - Why the early bird gets the worm;... - Life isn't always fair; - And maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies, don't spend more than you can earn and adults, not children, are in charge. His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding a...n unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility, and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers - I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone."

- UNK.









"Well look: if you're a hacker, and if you want to enhance your reputation within your peer group -- which is, let's not forget, comprised mainly of historically and geopolitically ignorant youngsters who believe that "V for Vendetta" is an accurate depiction of contemporary world affairs -- you don't go after genuine tyranny (which the educational authorities have left you ignorant about) but instead attack your own government, whose faults (but not virtues) have been drummed into you by your schools and by the media all your life. I don't blame the hackers at all. Its their parents and their teachers who are effectively guilty for what they've become."

- UNK.











ONE of the myriad ways in which the liberal mindset divides this country into "people groups" in order to destroy biblical resolve (destroying the family first, then the country).

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -Pres. John Adams And "United we stand divided we fall."

- So, divide us into people groups and we will fall as a nation.

- UNK.







"Your reputation is only something YOU care about."

- George Noory to someone expressing that the person's ambition for growth shouldn't be curtailed by fear of another's view.









"A class in being a better communicator: What a bunch of B.S."

- My friend Meat









Laymen

"When will the courts admit that Obama is unconstitutional?"



Dejonn

"When the Nation of a whole repents and asks God for forgiveness and help."



chhelo

"Agreed we as a nation should be on our knees asking God for forgiveness. Every morning we should all find ourselves in the position. If we did can you imagine the greatness of this nation."

-From a conversation about recess appointments
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/25/federal-court-obama-broke-law-recess-appointments/

It's like Reagan said about the Soviet Union. They're gonna implode of their own immorality. And he was right.

It eventually will happen to every communist or socialist setup. Now, some last longer than others. Even North Korea, at some point -- may not be in our lifetime -- but that's gonna blow up. Cuba's gonna blow up. The ChiComs are engaged in a shell game right now. The ChiComs wouldn't be where they are if it weren't for capitalism. They can't admit it so they're trying to keep communist control over as much of their society as they can.

The biggest fear that the ChiComs have is the people that live out in the country want to move to the cities. The ChiCom challenge, they've gotta create jobs in the countryside to keep the peasants there. If they overrun the cities looking for work, there's big trouble. But the ChiCom solution, the ChiCom route to economic power has been capitalism. So that's why I'm not going anywhere. It is gonna happen. It is gonna implode. It can't do anything other than that. As I say, it's what happens in the meantime. Just how damaged is the country going to be? And the potential for damage is great. I mean, real havoc is being wreaked here. This country is being divided purposely along racial lines and class lines.

I find it really stunning. We are going backwards in this country. We are separating people by class. We are separating people by race. We are not encouraging people to do better. We are not inspiring people to be the best they can be. We are essentially acknowledging that people are not very good and don't have much hope. Well, not "we." The Obama people are thriving by telling their voters who they ought to hate, who they ought to oppose, who they ought to try to eliminate, wipe out, in a political sense, and it's all based on race or other forms of ethnicity. It's terrible. And now the Gallup poll is out and we've lost our optimism. And I don't think it's a coincidence.

- Rush Limbaugh
Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/01/23/obamaism_will_fail_because_socialism_always_does




''I learned a lot doing 'Vice,' but I really didn't feel I could go any further, the way they were writing for the character,'' he explains. ''I read somewhere - I think it was Ron Howard quoting Henry Fonda - that unless you do something different every 18 months, change your career, scare yourself, you're not growing. I needed to keep growing.''

- John Diehl









"Start carrying yourself like royalty - not in arrogance - in humility, be proud of what God made you to be. You are not better than anyone else, but you are not less than anyone else. Now understand your father created the whole universe. Now start thinking like royalty. talking like royalty. Dressing like royalty. Acting like royalty. "

-Joel Osteen





"You were open to options that you'd never considered. That is the exploration that awaits you."
- STTNG - "All Good Things Must Come to an End."

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life."
- STTNG - "Peak Performance"




















"We used to be the land of opportunity, now we're the land of opportunists."

- UNK.

"Sociologically speaking America is like a teenager that doesn't want to grow up."

- UNK.





It's not bad when liberals do it. Just get over it. Republican bad, liberal good. It's simple as that. If you have trouble with it, too bad, you're probably racist anyway.

- UNK.





"I got no problem with women and gays serving in any job they qualify for, but I do have one comment. When my mom informed me I should have no problem with gays in the field with me because they weren't interested in me because I am afflicted with teh straight. I told her to head on down to the college and shower with the football team, because hey, they aren't interested in her."

- UNK.










Any random, medically normal man is going to be stronger than and capable of physically mistreating 95% of the female population.
Ladies? Listen carefully. The reason men are supposed to hold the door for you and carry your books at school and generally carry on with that "chivalrous" stuff that is nowadays called "patronizing" is to civilize them. It's to teach men how to behave around women, how to properly treat them and restrain themselves around women.
Now, ladies, if you're unhappy about the way you are treated - just beginning with the failure to hold the door - you can blame this feminist mentality. The perverse result of this barbaric ruling is going to be an increase of violence against women.

- UNK.,  on women in direct action/combat missions



Whatever happened to the notion of men defending women and children? We have turned reality on it's head. Women are not men, and men are not women. There "really" are differences between us! Yet, we continue to castrate men (figuratively), and try to force women into some kind of non-womanhood. We have lost our collective minds! We are not only living in a post-constitutional America, but in an insane and reprobate America.

- UNK., on women in direct action/combat missions






“I love you Los Angeles, I love each and every one of you. And don’t let the stupid fucking media tell you otherwise.”

- Justin Timberlake
"Maybe the anger is coming from the fact that the media really is f-ing stupid. The shallow, self-promoting, do-anything-to-get-the-story/picture mentality of the entertainment media is beyond nauseating. Timberlake got it right, and EVERYONE knows it." -Lightray9a
Source: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/02/11/justin-timberlake-sizzles-in-high-energy-show-but-insults-the-media-in-comeback

DR. BENJAMIN CARSON: There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everybody go along to get along, but that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run, in terms of solving our problems. And somebody has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to, you know, the bullies.

DR. CARSON: One of the things I also said during the speech is there will be some people who will say, 'but you’re a doctor and you’re a surgeon, you should be sticking to that.' And I mentioned the fact that five physicians signed the Declaration of Independence and were involved in the framing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and several other things.
There’s absolutely no reason at all that physicians, scientists, shouldn’t be involved in things that affect all of us. We’re people who've learned how to make decisions based on facts, empirical data, rather than on ideology, and one of the geniuses, one of the real things that made us a great nation, is that we brought people from all backgrounds into the legislative process. So that all of us would be able to place our interests there and we've gone significantly away from that.
And no one goes up to a lawyer and says why are you getting involved in this, that and the other thing. I don't see why they would say it to a physician, who has more education than anyone else in society.

DR. CARSON: There’s no question that [President Obama] has advocated, you know, basically a policy of tax the rich. And I have advocated a policy that comes from the Bible, which is a very fair policy of proportional taxation. If it was good enough for God, why wouldn’t it be good enough for us? The minute you deviate away from that, you begin to get into all kinds of biases. And one could legitimately make the argument that the rich pays too many taxes. The top 1% pays 37% of the taxes, the top 5% [pays] 59% of the taxes, but they don't make that much of the income. One could make that argument.
DR. CARSON: I'm very focused on education and getting the populace back to where it used to be -- like back in 1831 when Alexis de Tocqueville was so impressed -- because an uneducated populace will fall for anything.
And if you and you talk to most people, they mean well but they don't have much of a breadth of education, of knowledge, of understanding of what the real issues are and, therefore, they listen to pundits on television who tell them what they're supposed to think and they keep repeating that and pretty soon they say, 'Oh, well that must be true.'

- Your World, February 11, 2013





"...Words are power. If you can change the way people refer to anything, you change the perception. Like the difference between "illegal alien" and "undocumented worker", for instance. From a psychometric perspective, the first term is comprised of two highly negative terms, while the second contains one term with neutral loading, and one with positive loading. All part of "doublespeak", or any other form of propaganda. When you allow any group control of both language and information, then you can expect to see 'fundamental transformation'."

-Eva Landry
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/feb/13/illegal-immigrant-tells-congress-not-call-him-ille/

Article: Man facing prosecution after shooting two killer pit bulls

Aaaaaaand, I’m joining the NRA.  Right after I click "publish".

This was the last straw (see story, below). Guy in D.C. shoots pit bulls attacking some kid, and guess who’s going to be in hot water? Thank you, regulation nation! (Not that I’m anti-dog.)

D.C. police are investigating whether a man will face criminal charges for shooting a pit bull that was attacking a child in his neighborhood.
The incident unfolded Sunday afternoon, after three pit bulls attacked an 11-year-old boy as he rode his bicycle through the Brightwood neighborhood of Northwest, according to a police report.
When the man, a neighbor, saw the boy being mauled by the dogs, he went inside his home and got a gun. The man killed one of the dogs. The gunfire attracted the attention of a police officer in the area near Eighth and Sheridan streets, where the attack occurred. The officer responded and shot the other two pit bulls as they continued to attack the boy.

-Source: Washington Post (LINK)

Part of the reason a relocation to D.C. scares me is the rigidity of prohibitions on firearms for personal protection. And topically, as to the furtherance of anti-weapon legislation: For those wanting specifics on the proposed new bans, here’s the current list released on Drudge today:

http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Feinstein-Weapons-Ban-e1359047805173.jpg


No major comment except that it seems very kneejerk and will accomplish little.
Not all problems must be solved by legislation. Why is it that this “national dialogue” without fail will mention banning/arming yet include nothing on morality and culture? Why do we get copycats in these so-called well-to-do kids? The best responses you get are “Ban video games,” or in other locales, “Blame economics.” Why not civics/ethos? (Thanks ACLU, for removing the foundation for the western ethical canon from education.) Where is this train headed? To what degree does our now hallmark malaise of the body-politic factor into the “facts on the ground”?

As Limbaugh said yesterday (in terms of economics, but applicable here):

“The low-information people are going to be stunned into reality at some point. There's no avoiding it. Now, hopefully we can hasten this with future elections. I know that looks bleak. But at some point, everything Obama believes in is gonna go down the tubes, because it always has. Call it whatever you want: Liberalism, progressivism. It is all built on a foundation of lies. The people who espouse it can't be honest about it.”

Source: Rush Limbaugh (LINK)



'Patton' tribute from college days



Cagey's listening to

Tears for Fears - Fish Out of Water (1993)




China Crisis - Feel To Be Driven (1983)





Love and Rockets - So Alive (1989)


Air - Lost Message (2009)


The Church - Fading Away (1990)



Duran Duran - Midnight Sun (1997)

The most inspiring stories of 2012

Who knows what really happens after death? All we have to go on is faith, and science and its skeptics aren't enough to disprove an afterlife. Excerpt:


Article: "Heaven is real, says neurosurgeon who claims to have visited the afterlife" (LINK)

Dr. Eben Alexander claims to have visited the afterlife (Twitter)Dr. Eben Alexander has taught at Harvard Medical School and has earned a strong reputation as a neurosurgeon. And while Alexander says he's long called himself a Christian, he never held deeply religious beliefs or a pronounced faith in the afterlife.

But after a week in a coma during the fall of 2008, during which his neocortex ceased to function, Alexander claims he experienced a life-changing visit to the afterlife, specifically heaven.

I am reading The Way of the Bow by Bigman and Sosnowski.  I will next read the Paulo Cohelo book by the same name.  There is something to the precision and grace of archery, maybe with similar sports, that speaks to a disciplined mind.  I realize there are "zen" and "non-zen" schools of thought with regard to Kyudo, I am predisposed to view it as a construct within which to lend some tangibility/understanding.  There is beauty of precision in archery that appeals to my desire for focus and balance, and it is gaining resurgence through popular culture.  Article: "Cool! Legally Blind South Korean Archer Wins First World Records At London Olympics"  (LINK)

According to NDTV Sports in India, “Im, 26, won gold medals in the team event in both the Beijing and Athens Olympics. He has only 10 percent vision in his left eye, and 20 percent in his right, meaning he is considered legally blind.

A scene depicting Archery in Kung-Fu, the television series

Neither here nor there

A hill rises to a brilliant sky burning out in Mudville during early winter. 

Happy 2013!

My fresh new Reagan calendar is live and five in the kitchen to motivate and inspire all who shall see it.

At the beginning of the new year, I'm reminded of a radio opener by host Rusty Humphries a few years back, which was extremely important: to reflect on the meaning of dignity, to carry ourselves with dignity, and to not give quarter to those who would denigrate it. 



SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Attention employees of and shoppers at Whole Foods:  I am not a threat to you nor your way of life.  Do not let my short bad haircut or good posture alarm you.  I merely want to buy my juniper berries and depart. 

NEWS

   Mass media outlets and obamatrons renewed their edict that guns and their owners were evil after the tragic Newton, CT shootings.  While people talked about installing armed guards in school and removing classes of weapons from responsible owners, one feature of modern society rose far beyond any others: the absence of God from anywhere near education.  News sources reported in 2012 Americans who say they are “religious” dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (LINK) to 60 percent. 
   These kinds of slayings are not necessarily new.  Despite that, I do think you can give some of the credit to the God-hating libs for the emergence of this type of behavior. Don't like or too smart for what you're taught in school or church, or at home? Rebel. Nothing's true unless it fits your definition, except that man knows everything and the Ten Commandments aren't the basis for our canon of laws, nor was Christianity responsible for any prior success of the American experiment.
   On the heels of that, a newspaper saw fit to express its not-so-subtle antagonism toward gun owners in Putnam Co., New York, with an interactive map showing the owners' addresses. (LINK) In response, a blogger published the home addresses of the Journal News.  In a master stroke of hypocrisy, the Journal News in turn hired armed security guards for its facility.  Not that the status of American journalism isn't decrepit enough to turn its back on its ideals of fairness - it is - but what is the point of "naming and shaming" those with firearms permits, and how would it be in the public interest? 

SPORTS

Super Bowl 2013 prediction:  Houston v. Falcons would be a great game.  Cagey on UFC: There's a difference between violence, or training to do that, and barbarism.  The UFC is a joke.

PERSONAL:

Thought for the day: I don't have a scrapbook; I have a scrapbox.  I used to keep that scrapBOX in order loosely by time, but it got impossible and is all mixed together - which is great for someone like me who looks for symbolism too much.

ADVICE:

"I'm glad you're sensitive, but don't be too sensitive."  Keep your thick skin, keep your armor on in the new year.
  I'm going to do my part to help uplift others this year and let people know who have suffered tragedies that they're in my thoughts, which maybe can do some good.  Even a small gesture can be magnified a thousand-fold. JN

PETS:

"If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness."
― Marjorie Garber

TASTE:
Chocolate ice cream drips on my hand and Gold Bond do not combine well.

http://www.whiskyforeveryone.com/whisky_basics/influence_of_peat.html
Dippin 'Dots was supposed to be the ice cream of the future and I could never afford it in college. I envied the people with $5 to spend on that stuff. Well, now that the future is here...? Then what? Was not entirely impressed by these things.
Has this been done before?  Cliche joke?  Well, I'm not joking.  I just got a bottle of ginseng, and another of gingko biloba.  When is the FDA ever going to get around from "evaluating these statements" that "haven't been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration?"  What the hell are they doing over there? Especially on some of the more well-known products like Ginseng, from which people have enjoyed its health benefits for thousands of years.
Finally, the best emergency frozen pizza ever: DiGiorno's Tuscan Pizza.

ENTERTAINMENT/CINEMA: 

• TRON 3 a definite possibility - yaaaa squitches!!!
• Satire has great promise in exposing American reality programs (LINK)

The show desperately needs a big name, so it approaches Vasquez, a Queens-born singer known for outrageous outfits, dating a gun-toting rapper and starring with her then-fiance in a universally panned movie (titled “Jinky” instead of “Gigli”).
She agrees to appear on the show, with a whopping caveat: They must adhere to a 78-page contract rider, which includes:
“Artist’s body to be insured with $1 billion dollar policy in case of injury. (Breasts, buttocks to be valued at $100 million each.)
“Crew to be forbidden to make eye contact with Artist at all times.
“Artist to be provided with chauffeur-driven limo . . . Limo to be a Rolls-Royce Phantom, white. Artist to select driver (male, under 25) from head/torso shots.”

• 2013 shall be the year during which I defend the honor of Christian Slater, one of the greatest actors of all time.

Finally, so much deconstruction going on w.r.t. Django Unchained.  Racist?  Appropriate material?  Who is "allowed" to explore the radioactive topic of slavery?  Should it be done with any humor?  I'm staying on the periphery.
STYLE:

Confirmed today it is still o.k. to wear cargoes.  The military still wears them too.  Scroll to the comments and witness the author receiving his beating:

http://chicago.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/if-you-wear-cargo-shortspants-everyone-around-you-thinks-youre-a-fool/

How to dress for the weekend:
http://www.esquire.com/style/tips/casual-clothes-for-men

Good guide to different fabrics, and some great arcane (Pan-Am era) vocab in there too:
http://thesharpsuit.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/a-visual-guide-to-matching-shirt-tie-and-suit-patterns/

LOGOPHILIA:
My three words banned for 2013: foodie, hoodie, smoothie, and most anything with the stupid diminutive -ie suffix. Phrases: "In the wake of" (annual resubmission #5).

  TRAVEL:

Found this solitary tree on the grounds of Fort Monroe, a fortification for coastal batteries
 dating from the 1830s,  which was recently turned over to the National Parks System.

MUSIC

the GCAS Spotlight for winter 2012: Steve Roach - Ambient

... and the 2012 GCAS song of the year: (LINK)

Something Ahead of you - The Fixx (2012)

... the 2012 GCAS Rad New Wave song of the year:

The Riddle - Nik Kershaw (1984) The songwriter had claimed that the lyrics were "bollocks", and I am cautious not to overanalyze, but the words, the syntax, the linguistic whole had to arise from somewhere, and I wouldn't completely dismiss the importance of the autre from playing a role in its composition.

Every local yokel yout's bringing weapons, black powder or weapon components to school

Is it a rite of passage to bring ammo to school now? I don't get it. At least this local school didn't go on lockdown.

Student brings bullets to VB elementary
Updated: Friday, 21 Dec 2012, 10:37 PM EST
Published : Friday, 21 Dec 2012, 10:37 PM EST

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Virginia Beach school officials say a child brought bullets to Woodstock Elementary Thursday. According to a message sent to parents and obtained by WAVY.com, the child brought two small caliber bullets to school.
“Please understand that at NO time was anyone in danger and there was NO weapon on school property,” the message said. Discipline guidelines have been followed, though it is unclear what those guidelines are. “We urge you to use this as a ‘teachable moment’ and talk with your children about the importance of doing their part to keep our schools safe,” the message continued
"Discipline guidelines have been followed, though it is unclear what those guidelines are." Why would that be - the press didn't have the handbook, or the guidelines are classified?  Actually, this kind of ambiguity usually allows for flexibility - a.k.a. employment of reason and common sense.  I read an anecdote from a commenter elsewhere about a kid turning something in he accidentally had in his backpack, can't remember if it was some .22 ammo or what.  Of course, THAT school couldn't dispense with the problem silently (imagine the teacher in the dilemma of having to employ common sense and dealing with it quietly vs. the possibility of losing her job).  The buck stops...  nowhere, due to paralitic fear due to the pervasiveness of regulatory overreach.   The big question becomes:  What should one call this age, or feature of endemic sociologic mistrust?  

The gold was in the quotes though: 

 "Teachable Moment". Sounds like an Obamatron spewing verbal dysentery.  See my previous thoughts on "teachable moments" by clicking HERE,

QOTD

This comes to mind today, while thinking about today's one-sided media blitz on the NRA, and a sensational UC Berkeley exhibitionist who is fond of leaving messes within the library stacks

"No-one under 60 can likely *remember* journalism before it embraced the self-aggrandizing subjective viewpoint." -unk.