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It has been a busy couple of days here at chez Murphy with Thanksgiving on Thursday and then my now extended family decided to all come back and do it again yesterday so blogging has been light from me.  It has ALSO been very light from pretty much all the other Groksters as most of us got hit with power outages.  Yeah, *I* had power but the rest were pretty much part of the 200,000 other New Hampshireites that did without – news reports say this was the fourth largest state wide power outage event in history.

Anyways, catching up bit by it and this caught my ear on Fox News this morning as I played back yesterday’s DVR’d Special Report on the Walmart protest:

Protester with bullhorn, call and response:  “IF WE DON’T GIT IT?”   “shut it down!“

Really?  Is this another instance of the Union

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TMEW and I are no longer spring chickens, I guess.  I think we knew this, innately, but really haven’t wanted to face up to it directly (but few of us do, right?).  Well, reality has a way of intruding on one’s outlook – and it is persistent.  Like many, I was outside on Thanksgiving Day  trying to get rid of the snow so that our guests could get into the driveway and up to the house – wet, heavy and in a lot of places, just plain compacted “cement”.  And my back decided to let me know of ITS reality and all but quit on me (even with the John Deere snowblower).

Both the Youngest and the Eldest came over quickly and spent the next hour or so doing the rest of the cleanup – the pathway up to the house, finished snowblowing the driveway, raked the roofs, cleared out the mailbox on the street, and removed the veritable ice ridge at the end of the driveway from the plow trucks.  And that’s when it hit me…

….just like I used to do for my parents when my two were those ages.. 

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Michael Yon, former Special Forces and combat reporter, gives his takes on why there was no attempt to “shoot to wound”:

Ferguson: Why did the officer not shoot Brown in the legs?

Many people are innocently asking this question. The answer could go on for pages, but to be succinct, a couple handfuls of reasons:

1) This ain’t the movies
2) Most police do not fire their weapons much. Most are not great shots.
3) He would have to be an incredible shot to be crazy enough to fire wounding shots.

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Obamacare is in force and the big corporations that were in Crony Capitalism mode are slowly understanding that the only person that matters is Obama.  Deals struck with him, like all of his campaign promises, have expiration dates.  Matters not whether much money and efforts have been expended on his behalf earlier – you’re no longer needed.  From Yahoo News (reformatted, emphasis mine)

Exclusive: U.S. CEOs threaten to pull tacit Obamacare support over ‘wellness’ spat

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration’s challenge to certain “workplace wellness” programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter. Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs.

The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers who participate and penalize those who don’t.  But recent lawsuits filed by the administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), challenging the programs at Honeywell International and two smaller companies, have thrown the future of that part of Obamacare into doubt.

The lawsuits infuriated some large employers so much that they are considering aligning themselves with Obama’s opponents, according to people familiar with the executives’ thinking.

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I guess this is, in part, the cover for Obama to start repatriating those Islamic fighters that have worked to kill Americans – after all, doesn’t “belligerants” sound more like just misguided people with an anger management problem?  Such is the Obama Administration trying all of the linguistic tricks in the books in support of his EVIL (not misguided, EVIL) policy in letting dangerous killers free to go back to the battlefields to kill again – Federation of American Scientists:

When it comes to Department of Defense doctrine on military treatment of detained persons, “unlawful enemy combatants” are a thing of the past. That term has been retired and replaced by “unprivileged enemy belligerents” in a new revision of Joint Publication 3-13 on Detainee Operations, dated November 13, 2014.

Hot Air adds more:

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This should enrage all taxpayers (emphasis mine, reformatted):

IRS staffers who owe back taxes will in some cases still be eligible for bonuses next year, the agency said this week.

In a statement, the agency said it would keep employees who willfully skipped out on their taxes from getting performance awards, but would be more forgiving of those who made honest mistakes. John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, announced a new round of bonuses this week for 2014, to be paid out early next year. “It’s important to remember that not everyone at the IRS is a tax expert — some work in non-tax specific areas in occupations ranging from IT programmers, administrative professionals to human capital specialists,” the IRS told The Hill in a statement this week. “Where employees have been found to have made unintentional tax mistakes, they would generally still be eligible to receive performance awards they have earned.”

How ’bout those that haven’t PAID their taxes – at all?  John Koskinen – this is the guy that has waged a one man snark war against the CongressCritters in trying to find out who said and did what in the IRS / Lois Lerner targeting of Conservative / TEA Party groups in denying them tax status given to others.  It was clear that he’s stonewalled them – after all, how many months has it been that he’s obfuscated and outright lied about the “missing” Lerner emails that have just magically appeared?

The announcement that staffers who owe back taxes could still collect bonuses

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From End of the American Dream comes this question:

“If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it?”

It goes on to talk about the safety net vs what I call the Govt hammock with the soft cocooning that eventually either convinces one to just lay there – or traps them there.  Yes, I have used the former (as I have said many times before) – a hand up.  And I have known those that have answered that question above with a resounding “YES!”  The carrot is dangled out there, by the policies of the Left, who believe that government kindness is only kindness offered by their mindset (without ever saying thank you for those that actually fund them) – it is only one’s sense of morality that says “thanks for the hand up – no longer needed” or (in the cases I have seen) “you owe me more – I want more”.

So EofAD lists some of the reasons why Americans are falling into that dependency disaster that the Government offers (reformatted, much left at the above link, emphasis mine):

Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system.  Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.  But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves.

The Left doth protest too much when they say “YOU are cold-hearted and selfish!” but again, the only thing that is important to the Left is that they think they’ve done good (again, via someone else’s money and detriment), their intentions are good – but being accountable for those results are immaterial.

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In many countries, that would be true.  But we aren’t most countries (at least, not yet) – it is clear that our radical Founding Fathers determined that our Rights pre-exist the formation of Government (e.g., I didn’t happen to be safe from illegal search and seizure or posses the self-defense rights simply because the Constitution was signed).  Our Constitution, the practical manifestation of the philosophy in the Declaration only enumerates those Rights.

It does NOT grant them.  In fact, the Constitution was written to tell those in Government that THEY DO NOT grant (and therefore, having the ability to rescind) RIGHTS!  So why is yet another Government school claiming exactly that??

Note the phrasing in two of the points:

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No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  -Matthew 6:24

This is very disturbing that clergy and churches agree to turn from preaching the Gospel to a more “social gospel” and now under the Government thumb leaning on the “sermon scale”, agreeing to sermonize about GAIA worship – simply to avoid taxes.  A modern tale of selfishness and self-justification?  Is this the nose of Government pushing its way under the Church’s tent side?  And especially in today’s political climate (in which the political infuses into almost every nook and cranny, thanks to Progressives – reformatted, emphasis mine; more background after the jump):

Churches in a Maryland county are being offered tax breaks for incorporating environmentalism into their sermons.

In Prince George’s County, 30 pastors have started preaching ‘green’ ministries to avoid extra taxes, the Washington Post reports.  The taxes depend on the acreage for all property owners, including churches, as part of Maryland’s “storm water remediation fee.”  Reverend Nathaniel B. Thomas of Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church said he attempted to challenge the fee and said:  “Once Uncle Sam finds a way to take your money, he doesn’t stop.”

Mostly because those behind that “way” believe it was always theirs to begin with – even that belonging to God.

Thomas acknowledged the people of his congregation have higher priorities than the environment, such as employment and family-related issues: “I know I’m not going to get a lot of ‘amens’ today,” adding, “The question is, are we taking care of what God has blessed us with?”  Thomas also voiced his support for environmental consciousness: “What God made was good, but it’s us that made it bad.”

Right – but it needed that Government to threaten you before you “evolved”?  That you had to look the “opportunity” square in the eyes (of the Tax Collector) and your hand on your collection plate to realize that you had “strayed from your First Calling”?

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Well, what will happen now in Ferguson?  I predict there will be rioting all over.  Just in watching the press conference, there were already questions whose main premise was “What, no justice for this black boy” with shades of “white power”?

The only justice these people were seeking had already been predetermined months ago, sans evidence.  Given the level of planning by professional agitators (make no mistake, while there are those truly concerning with this incident, there are those that are using this as an excuse – as typified by Lilian Lisa Fithian, the master planner of the “direct action” riots that were seen in Seattle when the WTO meetings were held there).  Lots of groups have been horning in on this tragedy for their own political purposes (e.g., New Black Panthers. Communist Party USA, et al).

And yes, Obama is making it all about him….again.

Fox News – protesters have already gone after cars and some store fronts.  Watching the livestream, protesters advanced on the police line and now there is a lot of tear gas in the air. Unverified reports of gunshots heard.  Car on fire.  Looting the Fergason Meat & Liquor – looting a cell phone store is “justice’…….how?  Like I said, simply an excuse.

Just look at the list of PLANNED cities in which there will be “action”:

• Albany, NY
• Albuquerque, NM
• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Baltimore, MD

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