I'm still on Ed Snowden's side

Until I hear about some actual damage or loss of American life due to the Snowden leaked documents, I believe him to be a whistle-blower rather than a traitor. Of course the government hacks will call him unpatriotic and criminal and treasonous, but as far as I can tell all he did was expose practices that the US government shouldn't have been doing....and that is spying on American citizens by collecting communications data without a specific reason to do so.

The US government has been hiding behind "counter terrorism" for too long as an excuse for the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, and phone call collections. The potential for abuse far outweighs the possibility of stopping a terrorist act.

There isn't a politician or government hack alive that would hesitate for one second if plowing through a private citizen's phone records gave him a political advantage somehow.

Here's how I see the results of the Prism program in the future: Some citizen exposes a President, Senator, or CEO who's the friend of the President as a criminal of some kind and in order to shut him up and discredit him, the President's chief of staff tasks the NSA to plow through this poor guy's phone records for the past 20 years and then expose any questionable patterns they find.

That's how it'll happen. Pretending that there are rules in place is self-delusional in the extreme. If the Clinton's and Obama's can sick the IRS on political enemies, you don't think people like them in positions of power would hesitate to use the NSA to intimidate critics?

Here's Snowden's Hong Kong interview.......click on over to the 6:00 mark...or watch the whole thing and see if you don't agree.....

                       .

Afghan war, now less popular than root canals

A newly released poll of the American people shows that support for the 12-year long war in Afghanistan, if you can even call it a war rather than a quagmire, has dipped below 20% for the first time. It also reveals that most Americans want US troops out of Afghanistan before the Dec-2014 beginning of draw-down.

First, who're these a-holes who still support the war? 20% means that one out of every 5 people polled works at the Pentagon or for a defense contractor because they're the only ones who're enjoying this.

Can anybody tell me what we've accomplished in 12 years? Who have we gotten rid of that won't come back the day after we leave? I'll be happy to entertain any and all arguments for our continued participation in this costly fool's errand.

Climate-change dingbats on a mission to prove there's less ice, get stuck in ice....hahahahaha

In case you missed this bit of ironic hilarity over the weekend, a boatload of global-warming scientists, while gathering proof that global warming is shrinking the antarctic ice mass, got their ice-breaking ship stuck in the ice because the antarctic ice shelf was much larger and thicker than it's ever been. Heh heh heh.

The AP, Reuters, and all the major propaganda arms of the democrat party(ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC), all but ignored this juicy fact. As global warming sycophants, they cannot bring themselves to poke fun of morons who get themselves in trouble trying to validate what the world knows is a myth.

So join me in pointing and laughing at the ineptitude and stupidity of people who still think man has any effect at all on the climate of Earth.

Here we see a forlorn global-warming scientist, staring teary into the ice, and asking of God by way of his own reflection there, and therefor of himself by way of God, "Where did it all go wrong? What life decisions could I have made differently? I wonder if my shipmates will eat me first."

Phil Robertson has defenders aplenty, he needs more mockery

How's this for a bit of pop-culture irony?

Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty compared homosexuality to bestiality, and not in a good way ;-), but his whole life is dedicated to tricking ducks into thinking he wants to have sex with them.

Sorry for the light posting......I have a good reason

So I should probably explain the dearth of posting over the holidays. It started with a weird medical day back on the 26th. I spent about 7 hours at an American Family Care to be seen about the unexplained swelling of my right calf and the low-grade fever that seemed to accompany it.(The resident clinic at UAB where I always go, had no appointments until like mid January.)

When they finally got back with the blood tests, my d-dimer level was elevated.....this is indicative of a possible blood clot. OK so the doctor delivering this news seemed a tad panicked and therefore so was I, because while other things can cause d-dimer to be elevated, none of them can kill you in the next 30 seconds.
Apparently "possible blood clot" triggers an automatic trip to the ER in order to rule that out first, and I felt lucky that I was able to convince him to let Dianne drive me there and not call an ambulance.
UAB did the ultrasound to test for clots and thankfully they came back completely negative, which left unexplained cellulitis as the cause of the swelling and fever. After a Vancomycin IV we were discharged from the ER at like 10:30.
In all the madness, I had forgotten to eat and realized I hadn't since 7:00 breakfast. Thankfully Wendy's is open 'till 1:00 and that Double with fries went down nicely.
It was a crap day to have spent it like that, but finding out I didn't have a blood clot was a relief.
So I guess you'll still have ol' Ed to kick around for the foreseeable future. Any way, I haven't felt much like writing since I've been sitting on the couch with my leg elevated watching movies and plowing through season 3 of Breaking Bad on Netflix for the past few days. 

I feel much better now and should be back tomorrow complaining about the government, full-time. 

Dukes of Hazzard temptation level - 99

Heh heh, I would so consider this, especially if I were driving a souped-up muscle car like the General Lee.

Where Hershey's Kiss cookies come from

This is what the Elf on the Shelf does when you're not looking.

Try to get this image out of your head when you eat chocolate-kiss cookies over the holidays.

Merry Christmas.   ;-)

Neither Dixie Chicks or Phil Robertson situation are free-speech issues

Liberals predictably are incorrectly pointing out that the Dixie Chicks were treated unfairly, that their free speech rights were violated, and they got censored, all by the same people who're supporting Phil Robertson. 

The two situations are different and neither represent a free-speech issue. What happened to the Dixie Chicks was simply a market function. Patriotic country-music fans didn't like Natalie Mains apologizing for President Bush to a European audience and stopped buying their records and concert tickets. They weren't censored by the government. They were censored by their audience.

Phil Robertson's situation is not quite the same thing. He said something controversial and his employer punished him for it, not his audience. The irony is that the liberals who defended the Dixie Chicks on free-speech grounds are the same people who applauded A&E pulling Robertson off the air, thereby depriving him of the same speech. 

Supporters in both situations who're complaining about their first amendment rights to free speech should read the Constitution. It limits the government's regulation of speech, not the consequences of that speech. 

Sure, everybody has the right to free speech, but because speech is free doesn't mean that it doesn't come with possible consequences.....there's a huge difference between free speech and consequence-free speech. 

The Dixie Chicks wanted consequence-free speech, I think the Robertson clan understand and accept that Phil's public speech might come with negative consequences and they're prepared to live with that. The Dixie Chicks insulted their audience by offering directed personal criticism during their concert, and then got pissed off when that audience dared not continue buying their records.

Irony, in criminal form

Retailer TARGET reports that tens of millions of its customers may have had their credit and debit card information stolen. 

If only there was a term for choosing a specific group of people for directed criminal action.

I have no use for Paul Ryan

I'm kind of done with Paul Ryan. He colluded with Sen. democrat Patty Murray to use Obama-like gimmicks to double-count savings and vastly underestimate costs to their "bipartisan" 10 year budget bill. Just a cursory glance shows an actual increase in the deficit by $15B and nobody's even looked through the bill thoroughly yet.

I had my doubts about him when he teamed up with Romney, now I'm sure. Paul Ryan is a big-spending, big-government republican just like Boehner, Cantor, McCain, Romney, and Bush. And I have no use for any of them.

If the GOP machine trots out Ryan in 2016, I'll be sitting this one out.

Here he is, colluding with senate democrat Patty Murray to screw over the American people yet again.

Dan Bognino, one of the few who understand

This is Dan Bongino and he's running for congress in Maryland-6th.

An open letter to the establishment GOP.

I am serving you with divorce papers. For those who are unaware of what happened, the establishment wing of the Party has openly declared war on the grassroots. For those who say this fight is hurting the Republican "brand" I reply; it is those on both sides of the aisle who have betrayed their principles in the name of Party, that have destroyed their "brands". 

As for the GOP, we used to stand for something; a lean, effective government, vibrant and robust individual liberty, and a passionate defense of the value of hard work and a commensurate respect for your wages by consistently fighting for your right to keep more of them. Where do you stand now? I know where the grassroots does. 

This is our Party and we will demonstrate to the people we hope to represent that there is a group of people out there who refuse to be part of any "managed decline". We will only be part of a spectacular American resurrection. 

America's best days are ahead and you and your fellow insiders and cronyists and "Party before country" loyalists, on both sides of the aisle, can bathe in your titles and power now but understand that I, and many others, have dedicated our lives to draining the dirty water from the bathtub. 

Consider yourself served.

I left the GOP around 2006 because I could no longer see much difference, if any, between the democrats and the establishment republicans who run the party. They're all DC insiders and they're all corrupt to the point that party loyalty and incumbency protection are the two most important items in their lives. The good of the country is way down the list.

Bognino understands the difference between the establishment GOP and the TEA Party conservatives. And you can toss us Libertarians into the mix of folks who're disgusted with the current GOP as much as we are with liberals.

Affluenza doesn't exist, just horrible parenting

This is the privileged A-hole on the right who got drunk and killed the four people on the left, but who won't serve any jail time because the judge bought the preposterous defense that he was a victim of "affluenza" or, he was so rich and spoiled by his parents that he didn't know right from wrong.

Would any sane person buy that defense when the loss of 4 lives occurred? Can we not as a civilized society expect somebody to be given the responsibility when something like this happens. Fine, if you are stupid enough to believe the boy shouldn't have to go to jail for a good long time, then are his parents not to blame for not teaching him basic human behavior in the modern world?

Somebody should go to jail, if not the kid, then both parents and put the kid in a state orphanage until he's 18, then kick him out on the street with just enough money for bus fare and a sandwich.

The families of the victims will surely go after the kid's family for wrongful death settlements or judgments, but if this happened to my family and the kid got off, I'd find a way to end his life and maybe his parents too.

Biden embarrasses himself and everybody around him

Alright gals, what's the only reason for you to cover a man's hands with your own when he's standing behind you like this, even if he is the VP? 

This is Aime Parnes a reporterette for The Hill newspaper and we all know what the lech Biden is up to. Good grief, this guy wants to be Prez?

Apparently the king has no testicles either....heh heh

So this is the final chapter of Flirt-gate in South Africa between Obama, Norway's PM, and a pissed off Michelle. Apparently during the seventh inning-stretch of Mandela's funeral, Michelle made Obama switch seats with her and then made him... put on an embarrassing display of public affection for her benefit. Does Obama even have testicles? I say no, Michelle keeps them in a silk purse in her handbag...heh heh.

I think I'm gonna hurl.

 

Obama, the boy President

Does this look like the somber observance of the death of a great world leader?

What it looks like is an adolescent frat boy with no manners, shamelessly flirting with a woman, as his clearly pissed off wife fumes beside him. Obama humiliated his wife like this in front of something like 81 foreign heads of state, various important dignitaries, and the whole world on TV.

Would like to have been a fly on the wall when Michelle got him in private back on AF1.

My thoughts on the minimum wage, in a pic

As you know, I'm a harsh critic of the existence of a minimum wage and an even harsher critic of those who think they have the right to force their employers, from whom the government already extorts money on their behalf, to pay them even more for doing the same menial work. Well, instead of going over it for the umpteenth time, I'll just let this picture speak for me.....

 Heh heh, this pretty much sums it up nicely. 

Obama snaps selfie at Mandela funeral

Here's President Obama reverently representing the US at the somber funeral of Nelson Mandela today.....just kidding, he's mugging for selfies with David Cameron and an unnamed hottie blonde chick. He's such a narcissist, notice how he's got to be in control of the camera to make sure he looks his best in the pic.

How disrespectful our adolescent in chief is. Everything's about him.

The narcissist in chief

The narcissist in chief marked Pearl Harbor Day the same way he marks every historical day of remembrance, with a picture of himself of course. And with worshipful dingleberries in the media like Chris Mathews to kiss his ass, why not?

US foreign bribery, a colossal waste of money we cannot afford

It is appalling to me how little return we get for our foreign bribery(aid). Many of the nations on which we shower taxpayer money secretly despise us or, as in the cases of Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Palestine, and others, are openly hostile toward us. I realize the budget for bribing countries to pretend to like us is a drop in the overall budget bucket, but the symbolism of wasting money like that seriously grates on me.

We aren't helping to feed the starving, house the poor. medicate the sick, or educate the stupid. We are bribing the rich officials who run these despotic countries to 1: let us put military bases there, 2:not publicly criticize US policies, regardless of how idiotic and self serving they may be, and 3:pretend to support our "coalition" when we invade the next third-world shithole to conduct regime change and impose our particular brand of democracy on them whether they want it or not.

I agree with Rick Perry's idea that all, ALL foreign bribery be re-evaluated each and every year. We ask, "What have you done for America lately"? If the answer is "not much", then the bribery money stops and you can starve to death for all we care. We'll ask again in a year.

What is the proper function of government?

A good friend of mine over on Facebook posted this today and I thought in the age of Obama and his drive toward a collectivist oligarchy, this is as an appropriate question as any. What follows is a post by one of his friends which together paint an awfully bleak picture of our current government. Thanks Dion.......

What is the function of the United States government? Not its purpose as set forth in our founding documents, but the function it actually performs today. When pondering such questions, I always follow the money. In other words, I look at the budget. In my opinion, the function of the United States government is to redistribute wealth from productive citizens to a recipient class comprising certain protected categories of persons and those not working, as evidenced by the two-thirds of the budget that is allocated to wealth transfers. This includes wealth created by fiat, which comprises over 40% of the budget, because productive citizens must ultimately bear the inflationary costs of such policies. What do you think the function is of our government?

This is the comment by Dion's friend Adi.....

Dion, you have nailed what the function IS. I hereby post what the function of the 

government SHOULD be, with attribution to Milton Friedman
.
"Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the

nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from

crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good 

intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the 

cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a

referee, not an active player."

Exit question: how many democrat voters have ever in their lifetimes asked, "What is the legitimate purpose and function of government, and how far has our current government deviated from that.?

Thanks guys. 

Thorium fuel.....Earth's ticket to galactic inclusion

If Earth is ever to advance into what is certainly a burgeoning galactic community, we'll have to develop a fuel that is not fossil or nuclear as fossil fuels are the source of most wars, and nuclear is easily weaponized. I think this is the reason why aliens haven't contacted us yet.....we're too primitive.

Thorium-90, one of the densest elements, is a promising fuel source that would eliminate entirely industrial-age fossil fuels as well as dangerous Uranium-based nuclear fuels. Elon Musk should apply his considerable intellect full-time to this project.

I'm hopeful that if we perfect Thorium fuel and abandon fossil and nuclear fission as fuels, and in doing so solve virtually all the problems we have, the galactic community will embrace Earth as advanced enough to be invited to the party.

If we continue warring and killing each other over energy sources, the galactic community will continue to keep us isolated so as not to contaminate the peaceful space civilizations with our primitive, miscreant ways.

In-flight cell phone use is a bad idea....socially

The FCC is considering abandoning its ban on cell phone use before and during commercial air travel, but the government is thinking of stepping in and making rules itself. As it turns out, there is no danger to the airplane communication and cell phone use will not make the plane crash as we've been led to believe.

Look, I already hate my fellow passengers as it is. Being forced to listen to one or more of them have a one-sided conversation during an entire, say 2 hour flight, and I might strangle somebody.

People who use cell phones in public places where there are lots of people in close quarters are attention starved assholes who want everybody to overhear their conversation, but pretend they don't. The jerks who'll use cell phones on airplanes are the same people who glare at you for not keeping quiet so they can have a conversation on the elevator, or who can't put their phone down long enough to interact with a cashier at the Piggly Wiggly, or who kill people because they can't not be talking to their best girl friend driving from mall to shopping mall.

All that said, it's not the government's decision when you can and cannot use your cell phones. It's entirely up to the airline so let's hope they decide to discourage cell phone use during the flight. Most passengers hate listening to other peoples' cell phone calls and I suspect if an airline bans in-flight use, that airline will get lots of business until the rest follow suit.

NFL is decidedly anti-gun

Here's the Daniel's Defense ad that the NFL didn't want shown during the Superbowl.....

 

A benign ad for a gun manufacturer that espouses family and safety is not allowed, but a mostly naked slut eating a hamburger, ADT commercials that would terrify children, and always raunchy half-time shows are OK?

The NFL has a right to allow or not allow whatever ads it wants, but don't pretend that the silhouette of a gun is too scary for children or too political, when it allows dimwitted Bob Costas a full 3 minute anti-gun soliloquy during the season.

There was a time when blacks and whites and homosexuals couldn't kiss on TV, and jokes about masturbation, infidelity, and rampant porn references weren't allowed(and that's just a fair description of the Superbowl halftime show). Isn't it about time that gun manufacturers and retailers be part of the mainstream ad paradigm?