…Those imperfections are key to our continual search for true north beneath all the stars of good and evil. Those who forced our birth in 1776, carried with them bigotry and brutality, class and criminality. Yet, propelled as they were by a natural law embedded within them by an Almighty God, they struggled toward that more perfect union we still seek today.
Progressives do not see it that way, however. For them, it all gets down to one and only one principle for them: Government or God.
To make their world a reality, they must topple God, his Commandments, and the natural law undergirding our social mores. Slowly, surely, they have lured us from the pews into a segmented milieu where an hour of weekly worship is erased in favor self-absorption. Would that Sunday morning’s runners, ball-players, video games players, and social media mavens remember our dependence upon Him who gave us life, and act like it! Ironically, progressives have made self the current god in order to force their common good upon us all when disunity so fragments us we crave their solution to chaos.
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Not always, Mr. Obama
I’m on all KINDS of Democrat email lists, under a bunch of email addresses, just so I can keep up with what they are kvetching and hollaring about. Most of it I consider pure and absolute dribble but it must be effective with their base because almost all of the emails seem to be totally … Read more
Right To Know – when Government turns on the Citizens that own it
The ‘Grok chronicled the efforts of co-founder Doug Lambert and friend Tom Tardiff when the Belknap County Delegation wanted to hide how they voted for the new County Sheriff Wiggins. When the Delegation voted in secret, the 91-A demand was given, and the Delegation refused. It eventually went to court where Doug and Tom, pro se (acting as their own lawyers), were victorious and proved that the “Peoples’ work” must be done in public. This ruling set a precedent that has been used in some subsequent Right To Know (RTK) court decisions.
The problem is that if our government decides to NOT abide by both the letter and the spirit of the law and starts stalling tactics, starts to hide data, or outright refuses to obey the law, what’s a citizen to do?
Data Point – Are you ready?
With hurricane Harvey and Irma sucking up most of the cable news programs and it also being National Preparedness Month, I figured a coupla more data points might get someone’s attention that otherwise is part of that group that goes “Disaster??!?!? Quick, get to the grocery store / gas station!”.
- Stat 1: Federal spending on disasters increased 6698% from 1953 to 2009 (1)
Stat 2: Only 39% of individuals have a basic emergency plan (2)- Stat 3: 75% of health care workers claim to be unprepared (2)
- Stat 4: 44% of Americans don’t have first-aid kits in their homes (3)
- Stat 5: The survival rate for CPR has been calculated at 20% (4)
- Stat 6: 42% of Americans do not know an immediate family members phone number (5)
- Stat 7: Over half of Americans do not have copies of their critical documents (3)
Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative (Print Book) by National Academies, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy.
FEMA surveys
CDC surveys
AHA statistics
Pew Research Center
We’re lucky here in the Northeast this time around –
Well, this saves me a whole lot of words.
But if you need some to understand this, just let me know – I have more than a few thoughts about this. (H/T: Powerline)
Notable Quote – Steve Horowitz
The laws of economics are not suspended in an emergency, no matter what the laws of politicians attempt to do. When goods are more scarce, they will be costly to obtain, whether those costs are in terms of money or something else. The importance of letting market prices do their job and determining who gets … Read more
It’s like if you taxed most of wealth of millionaires…what difference would it make?
Seriously – those that are pulling them down, will it matter in a couple of weeks? How does this change your life other than “I remember when I beat the snot out of a hunk of metal and concrete and wasted a couple of rattle cans of paint…good times, good times”. Other than that, did … Read more
Data Point – And this while “Experts” are saying the economy is doing better?
Low unemployment, low interest rates, official inflation rate about nil, stock market at historical highs…and this (reformatted, emphasis mine): 78 percent of Americans with a fulltime job say they live paycheck to paycheck 71 percent of Americans say they are in debt – an increase from 68 percent last year. 56 percent of those … Read more
Blogline of the Day – Really, is anyone really surprised The Dealer worked with the Dems?
…
…It’s over.
The election is finally over.
Democrats finally have accepted the results.
Trump saw this, and cashed in on Wednesday. He is playing the Democratic Party leadership against the Republican Party leadership that for nine months have blown him off.
Indeed – what has the Congressional leadership done with Trump? Gorsuch and a number of anti-regulation legislation – one biggie and a lot of little stuff. None of it would hurt them politically. Easy-peazy.
And where do you think Obamacare got it?
The biggest reason for Obamacare’s rate hikes? Two of its most popular provisions, guaranteed issue and community rating. These are the technical terms for Obamacare’s ban on insurance companies denying coverage or charging people who are sick more.
The McKinsey report found that in Georgia, these mandates added between 44 and 52 percent to premiums. In Ohio, they were responsible for 41 to 50 percent of the hikes — and in Pennsylvania, as much as 62 percent. In Tennessee, guaranteed issue and community rating accounted for between 73 and 76 percent of premium increases.
Data Point – Private guns in the US
The number of private firearms in the United States continues to soar. According to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (ATF) figures just released, the number of firearms added to the private stock in 2015 was 12,945,416…The 2015 numbers bring the total number of private firearms in the United States to 388.5 million… And … Read more
Our Federal politicians never think that the money they spend isn’t theirs’
SHOT: House Overwhelmingly Passes $7.9 Billion Harvey Aid Package
By a 419-3 vote, the House of Representatives passed an initial $7.9 billion aid package to help victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana.
The bill is now on its way to the Senate — where some have said an increase to the nation’s debt ceiling could be tacked on — before it reaches President Donald Trump’s desk for final approval.“This is a chance to be your brother’s keeper,” Rep. Al Green (D-TX) said. “This is a chance for the unity that we express when we’re before the cameras to manifest itself in the votes that we cast here in Congress.”
CHASER: Not yours to give…Davey Crockett
One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:
Irma – the most fantastic (to date) of a hurricane eye wall
“This was taken earlier today by the new GOES-16 weather satellite, which has been producing some fantastic hi-res imagery of Hurricane Irma, This video, from NASA’s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) in Huntsville, AL, tops anything I’ve ever seen.” (H/T: Watts Up With That)
[Ironic] Blogline of the Day – if only Cecile Richards (CEO Planned Parenthood) actually meant it
“Here at Planned Parenthood, we firmly believe that every person has the right to live, work, and raise a family freely and without the threat of deportation or separation.” Unless, of course, that person is an unborn baby they abort and pad their profit line. Her high salary ain’t payin’ itself, dontcha know. (H/T: RightWingNews)
Notable Quote – He would certainly know what Nazi stood for!
Socialism as the final concept of duty, the ethical duty of work, not just for oneself but also for one’s fellow man’s sake, and above all the principle: Common good before own good, a struggle against all parasitism and especially against easy and unearned income.
*****
We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.
*****
We are convinced that socialism in the right sense will only be possible in nations and races that are Aryan, and there in the first place we hope for our own people and are convinced that socialism is inseparable from nationalism.
*****
Can’t kill Obamacare, can’t do tax reform, raising the debt ceiling, no infrastructure, no Wall…
…haven’t gone back to “regular order”, jammed up against funding deadlines and AGAIN have to pass a crappy “Continuing Resolution”.
But they seem to be all in on Obama’s unconstitutional DACA and “making it all better” – after years of whining this was THEIR job and not his.
So WHEN are the DC Republicans going to do their job(s)? Sure, passed a bunch of regulation busting legislation – I’ll take it. But this is not the “why we pulled the lever” – this is failure that, I think, makes 2005 and previous look like championship work (and that gave Democrats control in a lot of places including here in NH). I agree with the above- failure will not be rewarded. If those losers think that the Dems in their districts roasted them in their home district townhalls, just wait. Just wait.
And while we’re talking about Lefty Groups – Hey, Ray Buckley, how much have YOU sent?
No, not as NH Democrat Chair – just you? Are you proving out the thesis and conclusion of “Who really cares” (Dr. Arthur Brooks)? Oh, no? Because we’re ALL white supremacists? The tired, shopworn rhetoric is simple to divine; ANYONE who actively questions the Democrat agenda or passively tries to sit on the political sidelines … Read more
What’s a BOB?
Our hearts go out to those folks that have literally lost everything (and I suggest that if you wish to make a donation to help out, go to Samaritan’s Purse) but after watching the disaster that has hit the Gulf areas of Texas for days now, one has to wonder: what DO you do to prepare for that? Especially if you are one of the tens of thousands (millions?) that had to leave? Well, if you can’t “hunker down / shelter in place”, it IS time to get out of Dodge.
Like the image says above “Get a Kit, Make a Plan“. A lot of people look down on “preppers” as being kooks, freaks, extremists, and “just out there” and the National Geographic series “Doomsday Prepper” did their part to reinforce that outlook just like the liberal MSM did to the TEA Party. However, in our harried scheduled, just-in-time purchasing lifestyle, what DO you do when all of a sudden when normal life breaks down – completely? As the residents of a lot of the impacted areas found out, in some cases, there is no 911 to call and you quickly realize that YOU are your own first responder (irrespective of those that have chosen to outsource their basic self-responsibility to Govt, like J@Womenspeakup). What are you gonna due?
Data Point – Why do we have to pay more taxes than spend on the family and clothing expenses?
Reformatted, emphasis mine:
Americans on average spent more on taxes in 2016 than they did on food and clothing combined, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2016, according to BLS, “consumer units” (which include families, financially independent individuals, and people living in a single household who share expenses) spent more on average on federal, state and local taxes ($10,489) than they did on food ($7,203) and clothing ($1,803) combined ($9,006).
Blogline of the Day – People SHOWING they are better than Government
First one:
Houston is socially resilient. Texas’s culture may strike some as atavistic macho-cowboy silliness, but, as it turns out, when the water gets high you really want to have some atavistically macho cowboys around, particularly if they are in possession of the flat-bottomed boats favored by the justly celebrated “Cajun Navy.” The now-famous Houston Chronicle photo of a stoic-looking man wading through the flood waters while carrying an exhausted woman who is herself carrying a child is an iconic expression of certain realities that are not, whatever the voguish academic nonsense claims, “socially constructed.” Whatever the culture of Texas is, it is not a culture of helplessness.
Unlike what we saw with Katrina. Second one:
But what really works about Houston — and about America — is that line of guys saying, “I have a bass boat, a raincoat, and some rope — what can I do to help?” There’s no army in the world that can replace that, and no amount of treasure that can buy it.