Vikings are the new opiate of the masses, at least in MN
January 19, 2010 – 1:01 pmOh well, watch it while you can. Might as well have fun and enjoy it…:) Another parody, hope it stays up…
Source
- Our New Viking Song Minnesotans for Global Warming
Ed Schultz encourages listeners to vote multiple times in Massachusetts
January 19, 2010 – 12:45 pmMinneapolis history: crime, government corrupotion, labor disputes, and anti-semitism
January 19, 2010 – 2:05 amMinneapolis in the 20th Century: The Growth of an American City
Mayor Albert Alonzo Ames and corruption in early 1900s city government…
Minneapolis in the 1930’s: crime lords, contentious labor relations, The Citzens League and the 1934 trucker’s strike.
Minneapolis was the Capital of Antisemitism…
Source
Blaine High School: Training students to live in a police state
January 8, 2010 – 11:23 amSo here is the story. A janitor finds ammunition in a trash can Wednesday night.
The principal, Robert Anderson, doesn’t hear about it until Thursday morning.
So guess what he does? He arranges to lock down the school, calls the police, and allows thugs with government pay checks to subject Blaine High School students to pat down searches. Student Amanda Pfiefer says:
You had to put your hands against the wall, and they searched every single person in the classroom.–Amanda Pfiefer(KSTP 2010)
So here is a clue for our young students being conditioned to live in a police state. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. constitution recognizes your right to be secure in your person, papers, and effects. Specifically, it states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Fourth Amendment originally applied only to the Federal government. However, the courts, in Mapp v. Ohio, ruled that the Fourth Amendment is applicable to state governments by way of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.(367 U.S. 643 1961)
Now, the plain English meaning of this is that you, your papers, or effects, cannot be searched against your will, unless a judge has issued a search warrant, and this warrant must be backed by an oath or affirmation sufficient to establish probable cause.
Even so, we live in a country were rights recognized by the Bill of Rights are not recognized in practice. In practice, courts have held that probable cause is sufficient to conduct intrusive government searches, and that warrants are not always required.
For example, in Terry v. Ohio, another court case from 1968, police officers searched three men after watching them very obviously case a store for robbery, and found concealed weapons.(392 U.S. 1 1968) (They had acted very suspiciously, walking by and studying a store window, 24 times, and holding a conference nearby after every time they walked by the store.)
The line has been blurred, starting with Terry v. Ohio, which, by itself, seems to be a reasonable case. But it has been extended in practice, to the point where government officials believe they may pat you down, “for your own safety,” in high schools and airports simply because criminals exist, and they want to find them. This is a dragnet, done in the guise of concern.
Simply being a student in a large school that has one bad apple is not, in my view, probable cause to conduct dragnet searches on all students. If I were a student, I would simply refuse to be searched.
If thugs in uniforms search you anyway, you should also be aware that you can sue them personally, in a court of law, for violating your constitutional rights. See, for example, Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, in which government agents conducted a search, seizure, and arrest without probable cause.(403 U.S. 388 1971)
I would certainly love to see students sue the school district and police department for violating their constitutionally protected rights. I am not so certain that they would win–with the security is more important than liberty mindset that pervades society today–but I would like to at least see those in authority be forced to go on record distorting the plain English meaning of the fourth and fourteenth amendments even more.
It’s as though they studied the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, who famously rewrote the farm’s 7 commandments.
The authorities in Blaine also seem to have learned first, don’t teach the youth about their rights and heritage, and then you can do whatever you want, including rewriting and flagrantly violating those rights.
How many students at Blaine have taken a class studying the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, separation of powers, and their roles in theory and practice?
Consider this your first lesson.
Here is another clue: If the authorities were concerned about your safety, they wouldn’t lock you down in a classroom with an unarmed teacher, where you would be, if there were really a threat, sitting ducks.
Sources
- Brewer, John (1-8-2010) Ammunition found at Blaine High School prompts lockdown; no threat uncovered Pioneer Press
- Duchschere, Daune (1-7-2010) Student linked to bullets in Blaine StarTribune
- KSTP (1-7-2010) Ammunition Found, Blaine School Locked Down
- 367 U.S. 643 1961 Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961)
- 392 U.S. 1 1968 Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
- 403 U.S. 388 (1971) Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
Health care negotiations to be televised on C-SPAN
January 6, 2010 – 10:14 amThe mass media is finally pointing out these failed campaign promises.
I never believed President Obama cared about what people thought.
Despite my doubts, I did attend a “listening to America” healthcare symposium once, at the behest of a friend. It was set up by President Obama’s “Organizing for America.”
Many college professors and medical doctors showed up, expecting to find a forum to share their thoughts on the matter, based on email invitations they had received.
However, “listening to America” was a fraud, where former Obama campaign officials present were merely interested in collecting names as a resource to use if a final push of support were ever needed.
Many of the attendees at the meeting became openly livid upon realizing the bait and switch, and expressed their disdain for the contempt showed by the former campaign officials toward the attendee’s time and considered viewpoints. No matter, the former Obama campaign officials quickly shut down all verbal protest, and continued to collect names of those willing to continue helping the cause, whatever that cause turned out to be.
The following useful idiots were not representative of the Organizing for America event I attended:
See also
Aircraft security for chattel: TAZER bracelets
January 6, 2010 – 1:39 amEMD Safety bracelets, also known as TAZER or TASER bracelets, seem like a bad joke. But this video makes it seem real.
It would be trivial for an evil doer to thwart this thing, or even use it as a weapon.
It has to be a joke.
Right?
It seems that even Fox News is shilling for the product.
Though their expert doubts the EMD (Electro-Musclar Disruption) aspect of the device will ever see the light of day…
A large percentage of the U.S. population are sheep, and such a device might very well receive significant support.
Just remember what you learned from Animal Farm: “four legs good, two legs better.”
Bahhhh. Bahhhh. Bahhhh.
See also
- Ruwaldt, Paul S. (2006) Department of Homeland Security Letter expressing interest in immobilizing security bracelet
- Original EMD Safety bracelet at lamperdlesslethal.com
- Black, P. Jeffrey and Jeffrey Denning (July 1, 2008) Want some torture with your peanuts? The Washington Times
Return of the soup kitchen
January 4, 2010 – 2:32 pmGrowing up under the reign of President Jimmy Carter, my mother would too frequently cook meatless spaghetti: Tomato paste over spaghetti noodles. My grandparent’s thermostat was kept at 60 degrees, it seemed, and we had to bring big heavy sweaters to wear, whenever we went over there–all part of Jimmy Carter’s energy policy. And, during that period of our country’s history, a friend’s father would good heatedly call out to his wife, whenever I came over around dinner time, “add another cup of water to the soup, we have company.” And don’t even get me going on the endless parade of boarders we kept–women who would have been homeless if it were not for my family’s hospitality in the form of cheap rent. High density urban living at its finest: 4 adults and two children on one floor of a duplex with one bathroom. But it helped make ends meet for all involved.
With the election of President Obama, hard times are here again. In honor of President Obama’s administration, here is a recipe for Ketchup Soup.
Ingredients: Several packets of ketchup. Add twice as much water. Bring to a boil. Serve.
I should feel bad that people are down and out, but, in reality, I don’t feel bad for at least half of them. Statistically, that is the number of my fellow citizens who supported the election of President Obama and other progressives. Over half the populace believed in and voted for a government that provides.
I should feel bad, though, because it’s not like they had much of a choice. Senator John McCain would have only been marginally better than Jimmy Carter, in my view.
In the public school system, along with lazy journalists and citizens, shares in the blame. In schools, children are taught that politics is the art of deciding who gets what, when, how. According to this philosophy, there is a big magical pie, and government’s primary function is to decide how to divy it up, without much regard to consequences or ethics. A common tenant of this method of teaching politics is the government that doles out portions of the magical pie fairly is the government that governs best.
Well, in reality, there is no magic pie. Wealth does not come from the federal reserve lending fiat money. Wealth creation is the result of hard work, planning, and raw materials being converted into durable goods. But wealth can be destroyed quickly if a country is made up of people who think “I’m gonna get mine, quickly, effortlessly, and with the help of my government”–a government that wields power.
Not surprisingly, during times like this, we have the revival of the soup kitchen. Here are some friendly people who run one such kitchen, with their holiday greetings:
If you have some extra cash this year, don’t spend it on imported goods made in a country that claims to be perfecting market socialism. Don’t bother saving it, either. Instead, buy American made goods.
Here are some resources and links to help find products still made in the U.S.A.
- Vermont Teddy Bear
- Arc LED Flashlights
- Mag Flashlights
- Nalgene Outdoors (water bottles and other “hydration necessities”)
- Still made in the USA
After all, you can either buy American, or buy Americans soup. And if you buy the soup, in the end, you’ll find yourself drinking it with your fellow peasants.
Sources
- Zahn, Drew (December 12, 2009) Sign at homeless camp: ‘Welcome to Obamaville’ World Net Daily
- Zeldes, Leah (January 21, 2009) Waste not (want not) Chicago Sun-Time
North Metro Photo’s New Home
January 1, 2010 – 3:14 pmI visit Rob at North Metro Photo, who has obtained a new domain for his blog. He has a great eye and interesting compositions. Welcome him to his new domain name: NorthMetroPhoto.com. Happy New Year Rob.
It’s time to start intelligently profiling airline passengers
December 27, 2009 – 12:42 pmBefore Christmas, the United States magnanimously decided that airlines could keep passengers locked down on tarmacs for no more than three hours, after a spat of nightmare news stories of passengers being kept against their will for much longer periods of time.(Lowy 2009) But there are loopholes in the new regulations big enough to park a 747–for a longer period of time than a reasonable person would deem, ah, reasonable.
But it got worse. There was an attempted terrorist attack on Christmas, in which a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, claiming to be acting in concert with Al Qaeda, attempted to take down an aircraft, with explosives sewn into his underwear.
Fortunately, real men were also on board the aircraft, and foiled the attack and apprehended the perpetrator.
Unfortunately, the government and airline security experts have reacted by holding all passengers suspect, and decreeing that passengers must now stay in their seat, and are not allowed to access to their carry on baggage during the final hour of flight.(Maynard 2009)
Chattel take off their shoes before going through airport security
It is interesting how the press runs interference for inept government and corporate lords. Most interesting, since it is apparently voluntary.
For example,
“It was very, very, very strict, but they have to do it,” said Asefash Abebe, a Seattle resident who spent the holidays with family in Ethiopia and changed planes in Frankfort, Germany. “They are doing it to protect us.”(Maynard 2009)
Grandma subjected to airline security x-ray
Unbelievable. Seeking the opinion of a guy named Asefash Abebe as though his approval Draconian measures matters to Americans who still believe in freedom.
Reminds me of George Orwell’s little published preface to Animal Farm titled “The Freedom of the Press.”
…intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face…(Orwell 1945)
After several publishers refused to publish his masterpiece, Animal Farm, Orwell was chastising self censorship by the press of criticism of Stalin’s government in England. But the type of self-censorship he was talking about can be found today in other arenas, such as hiding legitimate criticisms of government security regulations.
No snow globes allowed
My own unfashionable opinion is the airline industry and our government has contempt for its customers and citizens. Which is why I fly only when absolutely necessary (only a few times since 2001). After 9/11, I decided that I will drive as far as 10 hours before I’ll get on an airplane again. And I have, so far, been able to keep this policy.
So what is my solution? Profiling. Research shows that most actual and attempted terrorist attacks carried out against the airline industry have been the work of Muslims. Yes, it is sad that innocent and peace loving Muslims will have to suffer additional scrutiny, but it is more efficient and less Draconian than treating all airline passengers as criminals.
Of course, such reasoned measures will never be taken. Instead, the liberal dystopia will continue its irrational march toward equal distribution of misery.
Sources
- Lowy, Joan (12-22-2009) Gov’t Imposes 3-Hour Limit on Tarmac Strandings Associated Press
- Orwell, George (1945) The Freedom of the press iprimus.com.cau
- Maynard, Micheline and Liz Robbins New rules keep plane passengers in seats The Seattle Times
See also
- Smerconish, Michael (2004) Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11 Running Press
1.75 million for 35 years in prison
December 17, 2009 – 9:25 pmJames Bain was recently found to be wrongfully convicted of a rape, after spending 35 years in prison. He is now automatically entitled to $1.75 million in compensation for his trouble. He certainly deserves it.
When asked if he was angry, Mr. Bain said: “No, I’m not angry, because I’ve got God.”
Merry Christmas, and I’m glad you’re finally free.
[Update: His comment about lock me or free me is alarming, but I assume he's just inarticulate on a very emotional day.]
Sources
- Stacy, Mitch (December 17, 2009) Fla. man exonerated after 35 years behind bars Associated Press