Betsey Markey and Other Traitors

Traitors. Yep. that's the word...

by TL Davis at Washington Reb

"It seems that all of the representatives who threw their weight behind the passage of Obamacare in the last few days are staring defeat square in the face. As one of the people who walked the halls of Congress on that week, trying desperately to communicate with my representative Betsey Markey to encourage her that my business would be wrecked by the economic uncertainty of the bill, I couldn’t be happier. Had I not pleaded with her staff time and time again to let me impart the pleas I had personally; had I not visited her office three times in two days; had I not intreated her to save the jobs of the four or five people I had left working for me, I might be kinder, but I can’t.

There is a difference between passing legislation and transforming a nation from one thing to another. I submit that when the representatives of the people gather and in contravention of public opinion seek to effectively destroy the nation as it exists and endeavor to replace it with something of another form, what else could it be called but treason? Where there was a moment when the impact and import of the legislation had not been known, it could be understandable that one might support a bill offered by one’s political party, but when that legislation and the impact of it to society is known and still supported, there is no understanding.

The people had come to understand the law as moving the nation from an ostensibly capitalistic republic with some democratic methods toward an openly socialistic nation and they rejected it. There could have been no mistake that the people were not ready to give up the nation as founded. There could have been no mistake that the answer to this transformation was a resounding NO.

With this knowledge the representatives had a decision to make: would they support the legislation and move the nation into open socialism, or would they oppose the legislation and retain the government as founded? That answer was given to us on March 25, 2010 and people like Betsey Markey decided to thwart the efforts of people like me and to thwart the opinions and demands of the American people to establish for themselves the mantle of transformer. Now, today, the rest of the story can be told. Despite their efforts to put us under the yoke, they themselves face the same unemployment they have caused to spread throughout the land with their improvident actions.

These few, who knew what their votes would mean, what it would do to the nation as constructed and to the people who expected honest representation, committed nothing short of treason. It was, in effect, a coup that failed and now the conspirators must suffer the penalty of those Valkyrie conspirators of the last century. I believe that the whole of the supporters of Obamacare should be removed from office and cast defenseless to the people. Instead, I and others, have allowed for the orderly dictates of our republic to do the work with less upheaval, but this is a limited-time offer and is largely dependent upon the actions of the newly minted representatives we will send in the places of the conspirators.

Long live the republic!"

And my comment: Great post. I’m linking it at my blog. I’m in Colorado too. We may rid ourselves of one Betsey Markey, but barring a stunning upset we’re about to get another for governor. I’m preparing my escape while it’s still legal to leave.

I DO remember what the law was, back before everyone EXCEPT the criminals was a criminal. The Founders tried. They gave us the law of the land, our Constitutional Republic.

Knowing that law could always be twisted and abused, they gave us free speech.

Knowing that speech wouldn’t always hold sway, they gave us the ballot box.

Knowing that voting didn’t work infallibly either, they gave us nullification.

Knowing that even nullification might fail, they gave us the Second Amendment, and informed us of our right and duty to alter or abolish OUR OWN government, should it come to abuse us.

JFK said “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” This must be exactly what they wanted, because they’ve toiled diligently to bring us here.

So be it. Every mind ruined in public school, every name on a list, every moment under camera surveillance, every checkpoint, every warrantless search, every e-mail intercepted, every phone call recorded, every gun registered, every lie told, every dollar printed, every effort taxed, every citizen beaten, framed or killed by a cop, every shred of ludicrous propaganda, every plane into a building, every body scanner, every asset seized – none of these indignities will suffice to repress the American spirit when it is deprived of essential Liberty just one minute too long.

And time’s up.

Again we’ve patiently suffered through a long string of abuses, and this election is our 1773. Again, it’s business as usual for the ruling class. Again they take no heed, because again, we do not matter.

We all know what’s next. Pray we avert it, work to avert it, but make your decisions now. Be ready.

And many thanks to Western Rifle Shooters Association, where I spotted this!

Must Watch NIA Video: "End of Liberty"

The best video yet, from an organization that gets it. Do you???

Erik Scott Update

Bill Scott has posted a flurry of entries at the Erik Scott Memorial Blog. I particularly liked "Erik's Testimony: First Installment". There are some interesting developments - check them out...

The Bell Tolls for Benoit Mandelbrot

Larger than life mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot has passed away. He died last Thursday at age 85, of pancreatic cancer. Perhaps best known for his pioneering work on fractal geometry (he coined the term "fractal" and wrote the original book) Mandelbrot was also a significant intellectual force in the field of finance. His book "The (Mis)behavior of Markets - a Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward" was a best seller and won the financial book of the year award. Mandelbrot was the beloved mentor of Nassim Taleb who authored "The Black Swan". He and Taleb made frequent joint appearances on financial news shows as the present economic crisis unfolded.

I loved his wry, gentle manner of presentation, which was quite accessible to the layman. (He reminded me of physicist Al Bartlett in that respect, who can also tell us we're screwed, with a smile, and keep the audience chuckling.) Another giant of science, one of the most important mathematicians of the post WWII era, gone...

Camel's Back, Two Straws...

My dire prediction for the housing market is based on two recent developments. First is B of A's nationwide suspension of foreclosures. Expect this to spread until all foreclosures are halted for some indeterminate period. At issue is documentation, and whether anyone attempting to seize a house actually has the secured interest needed to legally foreclose.

This impacts not only pending and future foreclosures, but completed foreclosures. Also hit hard are past and pending purchases of foreclosed homes. If you bought a foreclosed home in the last couple of years, it's quite possible that the foreclosure wasn't properly documented, and title may now be in question. Among other things, this will develop into a title insurance crisis that could take years to resolve.

The second big development is the Countrywide Mortgage class action lawsuit. Among the many claims, plaintiffs have asserted that Countrywide and various retail lenders who wrote Countrywide paper deliberately shopped for high appraisals in order to overvalue properties. This will be easy to prove, as everyone familiar with this mess knows that "optimistic" appraisals have been used industry wide for at least the last decade.

That's called fraud. Every real estate transaction in America over the last 10-15 years is now in question, tainted by this universal practice. Many homes have changed hands two or three times in this time period, and every buyer has paid too much. They've been defrauded.

There's no statute of limitations on fraud, nor can such liabilities be discharged in a bankruptcy.

It's easy to demonize and marginalize subprime borrowers who can't pay their mortgage. But, how do you dismiss someone who did everything right, paid his loan on time every month but who was overcharged for his house? When those people realizes what happened, they'll sue. And they're sympathetic victims. Virtually every realtor, every appraiser, every mortgage broker and every bank in the country participated in this fraud, many knowingly and the rest looking hard in the opposite direction.

As this sinks in, the next realization is that the government was a willing participant. Government regulators looked the other way as taxes poured in from the incomes and purchases of contractors, realtors, appraisers, mortgage brokers and bankers, and from capital gains. Our government knowingly caused the mess, and was on the take from day one.

I expect a total loss of faith to follow on the heels of these revelations, and I doubt they can keep a lid on this until the election.

Republican Women vs. Democrat Women

Housing Meltdown: Panic Time

The bailouts to date went largely to financial houses for a reason - they were attempts to cover up the massive housing market fraud by filling the equity chasm with taxpayer dollars. Said attempts were blessed by politicians of both parties - all puppets of the very bankers who were in trouble. Nary a thought has been given to merely acknowledging, let alone finding a remedy for the staggering underlying fraud. I'm relieved that those days seem, at last, to be coming to a close.

As more lenders suspend foreclosures, more state attorneys general look into this mess and as more class action lawsuits are filed, it finally appears that this is coming to a head. At issue now is whether there remains any semblance of civil and criminal justice in America, or whether the bankers have corrupted even that.

Bad as they were, the housing/mortgage related problems we've seen up to now have merely been the warm-up. The real show starts soon. For a short and not at all sweet look at where we're at, read Ezra Klein Interviews Janet Tavakoli from the Washington Post. As Janet says in the interview, "this is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets"

A massive writedown is in the offing, and trillions of dollars of paper wealth will simply disappear when that happens. As this plays out, it will devastate the financial markets. Markets that have already priced Quantitative Easing II into the equation. Markets that are poised at recent highs, entirely unsupported by fundamentals. It's time to take a VERY defensive basic position with your investments. Food, gold and silver, household supplies, fuel and guns/ammo come to mind. (Anything Bernanke can't ruin.) Then cash, in hand, sufficient to pay at least half a year's payments. Only after that level of self-sufficiency is achieved should any money be at play in any market, and I'm at a loss to discern where such money might be safe through what's coming.

(Dang. I'm going to have to dust off my Jubilee article and re-post it...)

An Open Letter to Ted Nugent - "The Day I'll Join the NRA"

from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

Dear Ted:

First, I personally thank you for the valuable work you have done, and are doing, for the Second Amendment. You have used your talent, success, wit, and celebrity to fight for our freedoms.

Additionally, you are a member of the Board of Directors of the NRA. So this letter is directed to you in strictly that capacity. Why? Because I believe that you will listen. And you have the standing and respect within the NRA to actually do something regarding the issues I’d like to bring to your attention.

We at JPFO recently received a letter from an angry and very articulate fellow who took the vast majority of gun owners to task for not being NRA members. He rightly points out that there are more than eighty million gun owners and only five million members of any pro-gun organization, the NRA obviously being the largest.

I read this fellow’s letter a couple of times, and could not fault him on his spirit or personal philosophy. What bothered me was that he was asking me to join the NRA.

Ted, the day I’ll join the NRA is…

1. When the NRA announces, from the rooftops, that the police have NO LEGAL DUTY to protect the average American citizen. Time after time, our courts have upheld this. If every American understood this, we would see gun ownership, and Second Amendment awareness, burgeon across our nation. The tide would resolutely turn in our favor.

One of JPFO’s finest projects was the book “Dial 911 and Die”. It is meticulously documented with actual court cites. Why didn’t the NRA, years ago, publish this material in a reader friendly format for nationwide distribution?

♦ Why didn’t the NRA, years ago, publish this material in a reader friendly format for nationwide distribution?

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

2. When the NRA aggressively presses to abolish all concealed carry permit laws. How has an unalienable right to self defense been demoted to a revocable government granted privilege? Unregistered concealed carry has been no big issue in both Alaska and Vermont for decades. Arizona just passed unregistered concealed legislation. It’s time for the NRA to start swimming strongly with this tide. Yes, it’s a victory for gun owners when a State like Minnesota finally allows registered carry, but we must see it for what it still is: an un-Constitutional infringement on our G-d* given right to self defense, see: "The Ten Commandments of Self Defense". It is also an obvious way to add more gun owner names to a list and database. (*Out of respect, observant Jews do not write out the name of the Almighty in secular texts.)

♦ How has an unalienable right to self defense been demoted to a revocable government granted privilege?

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

3. When the NRA calls for the complete and unconditional disbanding of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE). Gun owners should be appalled at the NRA leadership’s incestuous “good cop/bad cop” dance with the BATFE. For decades there has been a symbiotic, and liberty threatening, “good ole’ boy” relationship between NRA and BATFE. They should instead be mortal enemies.

♦ They should instead be mortal enemies.

The BATFE’s abuses are legion and despicable. These criminal acts crested like a bloody wave with the horrific deceit and treachery the agency displayed at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and then at Waco, Texas.

JPFO has produced a documentary about the BATFE called “The Gang” for which you kindly donated footage, showing you teaching teenagers how to use firearms safely. As you know, “The Gang” is not specifically about Ruby Ridge or Waco, it’s about how, with deliberate regularity, the BATFE criminally harasses honest gun owners.

Did you know that, back during the Administration of Ronald Reagan, President Reagan actually wanted to dismantle the then “BATF”? Who stopped him? The NRA! See this Time Magazine article that reports this hypocrisy.

The NRA has publicly stated that it wants to “work with” BATFE to punish the criminal use of guns, see: copy of NRA response letter. We don’t need these bucket headed, jack booted paramilitary goons playing cops in our lives. Let the local police, county sheriff, State police, or the FBI, do what they were assigned and sworn to do in the first place.

♦ We don’t need these bucket headed, jack booted paramilitary goons playing cops in our lives.

On top of that, tobacco is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. Give that authority to the FDA. Explosives? Wasn’t that an FBI specialty already?

And then there’s the firearms. This means “gun control”, and every single threat to our freedom that comes along with it.

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

4. When the NRA soundly condemns, and works tirelessly to abolish, the “Gun Control Act of 1968”. NRA lawyers actually helped to write this piece of totalitarian legislation. JPFO was the first to expose “GCA ‘68” for what it was: a near carbon copy of the Nazi German gun laws of the 1930s. See: "Gun Control" Gateway to Tyranny.

The NRA needs to “man up” and confess that it made a terrible mistake here. It needs to go on an Obama style apology tour of every State, and personally confess this sin to American gun owners. And then repent.

Gun registration (brought to you by GCA ’68) is intolerable in a free society. In Nazi Germany, Jews were forced to identify themselves with a yellow star. In America, our citizens are forced to identify their ownership of firearms with a form called a “4473” and concealed weapon permits.

♦ In Nazi Germany, Jews were forced to identify themselves with a yellow star.

Now, with the computer age fully entrenched in our society, a centralized database of all gun owners and their firearms’ serial numbers is just a mouse click away. The BATFE claims it would never do this. But they are already doing it with their phony 'eTrace' program. They actually share information about American gun owners with foreign governments! This could have ominous repercussions.

Let’s analyze why “GCA ‘68” even passed. It was because of the political assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Without those three murders, the American people would have scoffed at the idea of national “gun control”. The highly emotionalized loss of the lives of three public figures, tragic though it was, created enough manipulated hysteria in this nation to essentially throw the Second Amendment out the window.

But what about the hundreds of thousands of brave Americans who have died fighting, generation after generation, to protect our Bill of Rights? Instead of standing firm in the face of this 1968 “gun control” travesty, when a far more conservative America could have been effectively rallied, the NRA got in bed with the gun prohibitionists and actually helped pen the legislation. See: "NRA Supported the National Firearms Act of 1934"and GCA68.

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

5. When the NRA quits kowtowing to authoritarian police bureaucrats and takes a no compromise stand against the increasing paramilitarization of our local and State law enforcement agencies.

It’s time to quit building a standing army in America, masquerading as local SWAT teams and hooded “tactical units”. Federal money is lavishly splashed at these local law enforcement agencies. And, as we all know, payback day cannot be far away.

When push comes to shove, can we depend on local cops who have been suckling at the Federal teat, and attending Federal brainwashing seminars?

The NRA has to get in the face of all local police and ask them, point blank: “Will you ever assist in the disarming of the American citizenry?” Any cop who answers in the affirmative must be drummed out of the ranks.

♦ Any cop who answers in the affirmative must be drummed out of the ranks.

“To Protect and Serve” does not mean “To Disarm and Enslave”.

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

6. When the NRA assertively speaks to our active duty military personnel and respectfully (but emphatically) reminds them that any disarming of innocent Americans is a blatant and evil breach of their oath to uphold and protect our Constitution. The NRA needs to follow the lead of Oath Keepers in reaching out to both soldiers and cops.

That disgusting “czarette” Janet Napolitano, of Homeland Security, actually had the gall to imply that homecoming soldiers posed a threat because they could be “recruited” by “extremist” groups. The NRA should be at the top of that list of so-called “extremist” groups!

These hard line Leftists have to understand one thing: If forced to, we are unwilling to give them any quarter to protect our freedom. And every freedom loving American should expect that active duty soldiers, who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, will stand, gun in hand, by the side of The People if push ever comes to shove.

♦ These hard line Leftists have to understand one thing: If forced to, we are unwilling to give them any quarter to protect our freedom.

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

7. When the NRA forcefully and persistently brings up the uncontestable fact that every major genocide of the 20th Century was preceded by “gun control” policies. Disarmed millions became the victims of government sponsored or condoned mass murder.

What far too many American gun owners are so hesitant to face is that the greatest criminals in history have not been common street thugs. By a huge, huge factor, the greatest criminal element in modern history has been government-gone-bad.

The Founders didn’t pen the Second Amendment to protect us from muggers and rapists or burglars. That’s actually a secondary benefit. They penned the Second Amendment to protect us from our own government! See: "2A Today for The USA".

At one time in America, this somber ideal was actually taught in public schools. Now a kid can’t even draw a picture of a gun or take a “Goody Gun” cookie to school for lunch. The insane poison of political correctness runs amok in our nation today. Ted, you don’t put up with the p.c. garbage, why does the NRA?

♦ The Founders didn’t pen the Second Amendment to protect us from muggers and rapists or burglars.

NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…

8. When the NRA honestly and accurately “grades” politicians for their real position on the Second Amendment. Hillary Clinton’s and Charlie Schumer’s pet protégé Kirsten Gillibrand got an “A” rating from the NRA. This is insane.

Gillibrand is now on the band wagon for a reinstated “assault weapons” ban. The NRA: Suckered and betrayed once again.

Ted Nugent running for office gets an “A+” grade from the NRA. That’s the standard they must start with. We cannot grade on a bell curve when it comes to our freedom.

Our politicians must not simply be “pro gun”, they must be fervently pro Second Amendment. It is now time for zero tolerance for any form of “gun control”. Far too often, American gun owners have seen “A” graded politicians waffle and cave on gun law after gun law. If the NRA has to step away from any candidate to uphold our rights, so be it.

♦ Ted Nugent running for office gets an “A+” grade from the NRA. That’s the standard they must start with.

Millions of American gun owners will reject any candidate who betrays our G-d given right to defend our lives.

The time for any sort of compromise is over. We must now retrieve ground that has been lost to past retreats. It is time for the NRA to really start “walking the walk”. Radically downgrade every single politician who has betrayed us in any way in the past.

Ted, you have the clout and celebrity status to bring any or all of these issues directly to the NRA’s Board of Directors. You can also, through your website and fan base, expose countless younger Americans to these critical matters.

♦ You can also, through your website and fan base, expose countless younger Americans to these critical matters.

It’s time to give the American people a very loud wake up call regarding their freedom. No one can say you are shy, Ted. Please, make some of that trademarked Nugent Noise over these crucial issues.



Sincerely, and Yours in Freedom,

Aaron Zelman, Founder and Director of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Copyright 2010 Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Obama Plan: Flee to India After Mid Term Election

Just can't wait to get outta here...

Regrettably, it's a round trip.

Slow Learners

Bloomberg reports a new form of subprime security: "asset-backed auto debt linked to loans to consumers with credit considered subprime"...

And investors, liking the high yields, are snapping them up.

Words aren't necessary...

...because a picture's worth a thousand of them.

h/t to WRSA...

I Smell a (liberal) Rat...

So the black-robed legislature is back in session, and newly minted Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is recusing herself from fully HALF of the cases on the court's docket.

I suspect that if I had the time to research those cases, I'd know why.

Erik Scott Inquest Results

During a long conversation with an out of state friend last night, I was asked why I hadn't followed through on the Erik Scott inquest. I didn't want to get sidetracked, so I promised to catch up on the story in print. Bottom line is, I have to admit to not having the stomach to follow the entire inquest into Erik's murder by Las Vegas police.

I understood that by any rational standard the process would be a joke. What I wasn't prepared for was the fury I experienced as the family sat helplessly through the proceedings. And fury is what it was - by the end of the second day, I could feel my blood pressure! The Scott family's attorney was present, but he was NOT allowed to speak. No cross examination, no objections, nothing. He was allowed to submit written questions(!) but the inquest wasn't required to show the questions to the "jury" - let alone read them out loud during the proceeding in a timely fashion. The whole proceeding looked like what you would expect to see in a corrupt third world hell hole, which is apparently just what Las Vegas is.

So it was that I only managed to watch the first two days of one-sided testimony. It was damning testimony, as expected, but if you were paying attention various details presented ranged from implausible to contradictory. Since the inquest ended, I've caught up on the low points (there were no high ones) from the third day on by way of print media.

Needless to say, the cops looked at themselves in their own mirror and liked the image they saw. In the kangaroo court that is a Clark County inquest, government marsupials painted a picture of Erik that was almost comically one-sided - as contrived and simplistic as an old western, with the good guys (cops) dressed in white and the bad guy (Erik) dressed in black. The farce ended with the jury ruling that the three cops who shot Erik seven times (five times in the back) were justified in killing him. (Right. Try shooting someone five times in the back and see if the cops let YOU get away with calling it justified...)

This isn't over. In fact, for those interested in the truth, it's just getting underway. From here on out, the Scott family will be able to speak. In court. They'll be allowed to present witnesses who contradict the "official" story, and to cross examine government witnesses. They'll also enjoy the power of the subpoena, which should lead to some very interesting revelations. And, thank God, the Scotts won't be compelled to sit silently while government thugs slander their son, which means I'll be able to watch again.

I hold out the hope that the truth will come out someday, by way of civil court or perhaps a federal civil rights case. Perhaps at that time the powers that be will have no choice but to prosecute the killer cops criminally. I also pray that something like the Innocence Project, which has secured the release of a large number of innocent people through DNA testing, will spring up to shine the light on all police misconduct. By freeing innocent people, the Innocence Project has had the delightful side-effect of killing the careers of a few dishonest cops and dishonest prosecutors. (See? The law of unintended consequences works just fine when you start out seeking the truth!) And, who knows? Perhaps the seeds of just such an effort are here: Amazing Police Corruption Website

Those close to me know my alarm and disgust at the transition of American cops from "peace officers" to "law enforcement officers" - a transition that pretty much took place during my lifetime. We commonly call this the militarization of the police, and it's an apt term. By temperament, armament and near-total immunity they constitute a domestic standing army, which the founders would have found intolerable.

One is now best off to avoid all contact with the police. It is unwise to call them, regardless of the circumstances, and even less advisable to talk to them - particularly if you are innocent. Which leads me to ask - again - what the hell's wrong with us??? Why do we put up with this? If you ask me, we are again shirking our birthright as Americans, and the large part of the answer is to be found here: Are Cops Constitutional?

Surprisingly, many of my fellow conservatives (liberty oriented people, supposedly) are so blindly pro-cop that over the last several years of speaking out on this mess, I've taken serious abuse and even lost friends for my position that America is descending into a police state. Well, I'll take it, and continue to protest, for whatever it's worth. Increasingly, I'm just saddened that this denial remains so pervasive that public opinion perpetuates abuse by cop, and that my countrymen must continue to awake to this problem through the needless beatings and deaths of family members.

Teach Your Children Well

Joe Sobran's untimely death prompted some re-reading of his work - or at least the small portion of it that resides in my library. Herewith one of my all-time favorites, penned in 1999:

"Because I write about politics, people are forever asking me the best way to teach children how our system of government works. I tell them that they can give their own children a basic civics course right in their own homes.

In my own experience as a father, I have discovered several simple devices that can illustrate to a child's mind the principles on which the modern state deals with its citizens. You may find them helpful, too.

For example, I used to play the simple card game WAR with my son. After a while, when he thoroughly understood that the higher ranking cards beat the lower ranking ones, I created a new game I called GOVERNMENT. In this game, I was Government, and I won every trick, regardless of who had the better card. My boy soon lost interest in my new game, but I like to think it taught him a valuable lesson for later in life.

When your child is a little older, you can teach him about our tax system in a way that is easy to grasp. Offer him, say, $10 to mow the lawn. When he has mowed it and asks to be paid, withhold $5 and explain that this is income tax. Give $1 to his younger brother, and tell him that this is "fair". Also, explain that you need the other $4 yourself to cover the administrative costs of dividing the money. When he cries, tell him he is being "selfish" and "greedy". Later in life he will thank you.

Make as many rules as possible. Leave the reasons for them obscure. Enforce them arbitrarily. Accuse your child of breaking rules you have never told him about. Keep him anxious that he may be violating commands you haven't yet issued. Instill in him the feeling that rules are utterly irrational. This will prepare him for living under democratic government.

When your child has matured sufficiently to understand how the judicial system works, set a bedtime for him and then send him to bed an hour early. When he tearfully accuses you of breaking the rules, explain that you made the rules and you can interpret them in any way that seems appropriate to you, according to changing conditions. This will prepare him for the Supreme Court's concept of the U.S. Constitution as a "living document".

Promise often to take him to the movies or the zoo, and then, at the appointed hour, recline in an easy chair with a newspaper and tell him you have changed your plans. When he screams, "But you promised!", explain to him that it was a campaign promise.

Every now and then, without warning, slap your child. Then explain that this is defense. Tell him that you must be vigilant at all times to stop any potential enemy before he gets big enough to hurt you. This, too, your child will appreciate, not right at that moment, maybe, but later in life.

At times your child will naturally express discontent with your methods. He may even give voice to a petulant wish that he lived with another family. To forestall and minimize this reaction, tell him how lucky he is to be with you the most loving and indulgent parent in the world, and recount lurid stories of the cruelties of other parents. This will make him loyal to you and, later, receptive to schoolroom claims that the America of the postmodern welfare state is still the best and freest country on Earth.

This brings me to the most important child-rearing technique of all: lying. Lie to your child constantly. Teach him that words mean nothing--or rather that the meanings of words are continually "evolving", and may be tomorrow the opposite of what they are today.

Some readers may object that this is a poor way to raise a child. A few may even call it child abuse. But that's the whole point: Child abuse is the best preparation for adult life under our form of government."

Originally written for http://mises.org

The Bell Tolls for Joe Sobran

The irreverent Joe Sobran, one of America's great conservative writers, has succumbed to complications of diabetes. He was just 64.

After years of stellar service at National Review, Sobran's opposition to the first Iraq war cost him his job, at the hands of CIA man William F. Buckley. It was Buckley who called him an anti-Semite, which prompted me to track down these entries from Joe's Dictionary:

anti-Semite: a person who’s hated by Jews

association, freedom of: discrimination

bigot: one who practices sociology without a license

bribe: an irregular transaction through which the citizen may get his
money’s worth of service from the government

civil rights: government power used in behalf of large groups

guilt: the deepest vested interest

isolationist: an American who thinks America should behave like other
countries

opinion polls: clever devices to make the hostages think they control
their captors

political correctness: the felt pressure of enlightened public
opinion, under which we sense that certain thoughts, though
technically legal now, are already destined to become taboo.

psychoanalysis: a form of aggression for humorless people

public opinion: what everyone thinks everyone else thinks

rich: politicians’ nickname for “other people” (as in “tax the rich”)

rights: authorizations for new areas of government control

rogue nation: a country that behaves like America

voting: trying to say something with a gag in your mouth

A big H/T to Joe, for contributing decades of principled articulate wit to the discussion.

Thank you, Sir, and Rest Peacefully...

End of an Era

Just saw an interesting statistic that drives home how far America has fallen as a manufacturing power: 2010 manufacturing employment is under 12 million. Last time manufacturing employment was this low was in 1941, before America ramped up production for WWII.

How will there ever be a real recovery, let alone a lasting recovery if we don't produce?

Housing Market: Fecal Matter, Meet the Whirly Thingie

Everyone knows that the summer months are the best months for residential real estate sales. So how did it go this year, in the summer of recovery?

2010 summer period: (June, July, August) 82,000 new homes sold (not seasonally adjusted). The worst summer sales period since record keeping began in 1963.

And how was August? Those numbers are just in, too:

2010: the worst August on record since 1963: 25,000 new homes sold (not seasonally adjusted). 1981 was the second worst August with 34,000 sales.

Yet the Dow is soaring(!). Perhaps the index should be loaded up with homebuilder stocks, so it could reflect reality...

Erik Scott Inquest Update

Well, results from the first day of the inquest are in.

LVPD is indeed going the character assassination route. They're going decades into Erik's past alleging drug use, although no illegal drugs were found in his system. These arguments have no legal validity, but when you don't have a real case you run with emotion.

The medical examiner admitted that Erik was shot five times in the back. His death was ruled a homicide, for whatever that's worth.

The medical examiner spent a long time on his tox results, with the help of giant charts. She made much of the fact that Erik had five times the lethal level of morphine in his blood when he was shot. (Apparently he was dead the whole time he was in the store.) If only the family attorney could have cross examined that bimbo on her lethal dose BS - but cross examination is not allowed in this marsupial court.

Once yesterday, the Scott family attorney lost all self control and dared to object to something out loud. He was scolded for being out of order, but I'm sure the cops wanted to shoot him for behaving erratically.

LVPD produced an eyewitness, a Costco employee, who testified that Erik drew his gun and aimed it at a cop. She swears that she was eight feet away and saw the whole incident clearly. Yet, she saw only one cop (??!?!?) and failed in several other ways to corroborate earlier police testimony. Again, we need cross examination...

The Scotts fully expect to lose at the inquest.

Stay tuned. (Or, if you wish to watch something less staged, I recommend Survivor, American Idol and Lady Gaga videos.)

A Few Statistics On That Pesky Recovery

1) (850 KOA Radio News) The unemployment rate here in Colorado rose three tenths of a percent in the last month.

2) (Federal Reserve) Americans lost $1.5 Trillion in household net worth in Q2 2010, which is the most recent data available.

3) (CNN) One in seven mortgages in America is at least delinquent if not in foreclosure.

4) (various) The residential foreclosure rate in August 2010 was 25% higher than in August 2009

5) (FDIC) Through August 2010, the annual bank failure rate is nearly 50% higher than it was in 2009 through August.

6) (AP) 2009 saw the highest increase in the poverty rate in America in the 50 years that the statistic has been tracked.

7) (US Gov) The number of Americans on food stamps has risen more than 50% in the last three years, to 41 million.

8) (NAR) There are 4 million homes currently listed for sale - a 12.5 month inventory.

9) (Moody's) Another 2 million homes will be seized by lenders between now and the end of 2011.

10) (Me) Boomers reaching retirement age at the rate of 4 million per year starting in 2011 will seek to downsize and simplify, adding far more high-end homes to inventory. That is, they will if they can get their damn kids to move out.

11) (Morgan Stanley) Nearly 8 million bank owned and foreclosure bound homes have yet to hit the market.

12) (Bloomberg) As of July 2010, sales of new and existing homes fell to the level on record.

13) (Me) The massive student loan debt of recent college grads, combined with limited job prospects, will prevent marriages, families and home purchases for years to come.

14) (Various) The problems in commercial real estate are far from over.

15) (Shedlock) There is little reason to hang onto an underwater home, and no reason at all to buy one right now.

16) (Me) Retiring boomers will begin to liquidate the stock that remains in their qualified plans, putting significant downward pressure on markets.

17) (Me) With younger Americans drowning in debt, the likely buyers for those stocks are furriners - Chinese and Arabs saddled with trillions of our declining dollars. Most American companies that aren't already foreign owned will be within 10 years.

18) (Me) Expect downward pressure on employment, wages, home prices, stocks and consumer spending for years - with luck a decade, much longer without.

19) (Me) Expect rising food/commodity prices and taxes during the same period.

20) (Me) There will be no recovery. Never. The burden of government debt guarantees that. You'll never again live in a period remotely resembling the last two decades of economic activity.

21) (Me) For those finding hope and change to be of low caloric value, I suggest stocking up on food, seeds, precious metals and ammo - pronto. This mess is just unfolding, and I suspect our only way out is forward through a collapse.

Letter to NSSF

Here's a letter I just fired off to NSSF president Steve Sanetti regarding the Erik Scott murder by LVPD. I'll post developments as they happen.

Dear Steve,

I am writing out of anger over the murder of Erik Scott by LVPD, and in concern that the next SHOT show is to be held in a city where such a thing could take place. If you are not familiar with this case, here are the basics:

Erik Scott was a West Point grad, an honorably discharged veteran, a Duke MBA grad and a medical service rep who made house calls to service defibrillators and pacemakers. He was shot outside a Las Vegas Costco store where he was shopping with his girlfriend. Scott was carrying concealed, with a valid permit. A Costco employee saw the gun when Scott knelt down and his jacket rode up, and set this mess in motion. LVPD cops were happy to join in, shooting Scott seven times just outside the store. Two rounds in front, one in the armpit and four in the back. No exit wounds. By the credible accounts (which do not include LVPD) Scott's gun never left the holster, nor was there ANY indication it would. He wasn't shot for anything more than the joy of shooting someone, by cops who have shot several others.

The department that killed him is the same department that issued his permit.

The shooting took place on July 10, but the inquest is just getting underway this morning. There is a massive cover-up underway, and LVPD has decided on the course of character assassination of the victim rather than accountability. This is part of a much larger problem in America - the militarization and corruption of the police - and all the bad actors in this drama know they have the full support of the Obama/Holder justice department, thanks to the undeclared but obvious federal war on gun owners.

FYI, I am 51 years old. I've been shooting since I was 11. At two times in my life I have been an NRA certified instructor, and have taught handgun classes for concealed weapon permit applicants. I am also an entrepreneur. In this economy and in our present national circumstances, I have been seriously considering starting a preparedness store and had planned to attend SHOT in 2011.

But now, I will not be coming to Las Vegas. Not for SHOT, nor for anything else. Never again. Clark county Nevada is not a safe place for gun owners.

This decision is reversible, but not without cleaning out the sewer that is the Clark County government.

The cops are shooting your industry's customers, on the sidewalks of the city where you're holding your next trade show. So, you have a role in this, whether you like it or not. If you think the "SHOT" industry is sustainable on government contracts, well, feel free to hold the show anywhere you please. But if you want to maintain the level of consumer support you presently enjoy, you will need to get the NSSF on the right side of this mess, pronto.

I've no doubt that venues for shows the size of SHOT are booked half a decade to a decade in advance. I don't expect you to move the show. But, I do expect you to let the hotels know that the cops they control (and they do control them) have gone too far, and that attendance may suffer to the point where their relationship with NSSF is in jeopardy. This situation needs to be dialed back, a lot, and the cops and the current bosses need to go. As in, to prison. Economic pressure will be more effective than moral pressure. (This is true everywhere these days, but it's particularly powerful in Las Vegas.) You can exert the same pressure on the Clark County commissioners, and I expect you to. Every correspondence should remind these clowns how much money SHOT brings to Vegas.

NSSF should address this on its website, and soon. There is a groundswell starting, and you would look good to be ahead of it rather than lagging behind. I think it would be a grand idea to set up a virtual SHOT show for people who are boycotting Las Vegas. People could browse a virtual show, presentations could be streamed live and archived, and company reps could devote a day or two to web conferences after the live show closed, with the same incentives and promotions they offered at the show. I would happily pay for access to such a thing, and just might proceed with my business idea under those circumstances. Your press release could start "Obviously, NSSF wants everyone to attend SHOT. That's what makes the show a success, and success of the show means success for the industry. But we understand that a lot of gun owners are boycotting Las Vegas in the wake of the repugnant killing of Erik Scott. We appreciate that position, and have set up a virtual SHOT show so those people can attend SHOT without patronizing Clark County, Nevada."

Under the circumstances, it's a shame that SHOT will be held in Vegas next year. By then, this is going to be a gigantic scandal. Erik Scott's dad Bill is an honest to God test pilot and an acclaimed aviation journalist, with years at Aviation Week and several published books. The LVPD thugs don't begin to grasp the connections this guy has, and is digging it's grave as you read this.

I'm sure you're aware of the rising disgust with the NRA. I hope the NSSF doesn't operate by a similar philosophy. I intend to find out, starting with this letter. It will be easy to organize a boycott of Las Vegas over this incident, and such is already underway. I'm helping with that, and, pending your response, I plan to contact every SHOT exhibitor as well. I will do everything I can to make this mess as big as possible, because this crap has to stop before America is completely lost to corruption and thuggery. I am not alone. That subset of gun owners that is highly attuned to liberty issues will be all over this long before your show opens. It is my hope that this subset of your market matters to you, but I understand the economic reality that the cops who shoot at us may represent more revenue to your manufacturers than we do, and that NSSF may be just that pragmatic. Time will tell.

My contact info:

omitted
omitted
omitted
omitted

My blog entry: http://invertebratenation.blogspot.com/2010/09/warm-blooded-murder-of-erik-scott.html

Bill Scott's blog: erikbscottmemorialblog.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your attention to this, and my apologies if the pungent nature of my words offends. Fact is, Americans have neglected the source of their liberty for a long time, and that neglect is now coming home to roost, with interest. I'm pretty angry, and expect to remain so for some time. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,

omitted


UPDATE: Had a nice reply from Steve Sanetti in my e-mail tonight. Prompt. Thoughtful. Not a form letter. As of now, NSSF is verifying the info...

The Warm Blooded Murder of Erik Scott

Warm blooded murder?

Yep.

In the Las Vegas desert sun, even the reptilian cops have warm blood.

On July 10, 2010 Erik B. Scott, West Point grad, honorably discharged veteran, Duke MBA grad and medical service rep, was executed by Las Vegas police for the crime of shopping at Costco with his girlfriend. You see, Scott was in possession of a permitted concealed weapon, which permit was issued by the department that killed him.

This is part of a much larger problem in America - the militarization of the police. That militarization isn't helped by the fact that tens of thousands of departments use a version of IQ testing to deliberately hire people who are slightly BELOW average to average. Whether this is an outgrowth of affirmative action or a result of departments simply not wanting smart people looking at them from the inside, this is an intolerable practice. Then there's the fact that power corrupts, and the corollary fact that the police have far too much power these days.

I know this will anger many LEO's and .gov types, but the situation is completely out of hand. Cops have been getting away with executing people for years, aided and abetted by compliant coroners, prosecutors and judges. I would hope people's patriotism will eventually overrule their blind support of law enforcement and bring a halt to these murders.

The majority of police shootings I've studied are tainted, at best. Up till now, it has been all too easy to marginalize those they executed, and get away with the crimes. It's been obvious to anyone watching this that they would eventually screw up and kill a really good guy, and they did just that when they shot Erik Scott. He comes from an intact family. Father William Scott is an Honest to God test pilot and acclaimed aerospace journalist, with years at Aviation Week. This guy has contacts all over. Powerful contacts. He's giving them a chance to fess up to his son's murder, but sooner or later, his patience will run out.

Erik, from his bio, was an exemplary man. To reiterate: West Point grad. Honorable service. Graduate degree (Duke MBA) while working full time. The only blotch on his life was two failed marriages (not at all difficult to understand in a military man's life) and allegations of threats and violence, made during divorce proceedings by an ex, later dropped and subsequently sealed by the judge(!).

Sealed, that is, until the untouchables need to get away with his murder.

Lots of people carry guns. The ones who bother to get a permit are, by definition, the good guys. Costco apparently has a policy against carrying guns in their stores, which they don't post anywhere. (Dang. How many of us have carried into a Costco, not knowing our peril??) The Costco employee who set this mess in motion only saw Erik's gun because his jacket rode up when he bent down. He wasn't waving it around, and he wasn't acting erratically. He was SHOPPING with his girlfriend.

Did the employee ask him to leave? Don't know. We do know that Erik Scott informed the employee that he had a permit, that he was carrying legally, and that he then went back to his shopping. From there, the only thing we know for sure is that the employee called a manager.

Did the manager ask Erik to leave? Don't know. It's essentially a certainty that Scott told the manager he had a permit. We do know the manager called a security guard, who called the police. Now, I belong to Costco (did, anyway. Mine expired two weeks ago, and pending resolution of this case I have not renewed) and I know how they operate. Managers carry radios. That's how they communicate. I was in a Costco office once, too, talking with a manager about a special order. I saw where the security camera monitor sat, and it was not monitored by a live human being. In fact, there was a stack of paperwork on that chair. The security guard, wherever he was, has a radio too. It's pretty likely (obvious, actually) that the security guard who called 911 was at best acting on radio transmitted hearsay, and more likely was engaged in his own speculation (spelled L Y I N G) when he said Erik was acting erratically and that he might be on drugs. That's called false reporting, and when someone dies as a result, Costco is complicit in the death.

Is it possible that Erik Scott was asked to leave and refused? Yes. But we don't know, and Costco likely would have been trumpeting that long before now if it was true, as a CYA/PR measure. I'm guessing he wasn't asked to leave. Erik was a smart guy, and he was with his girlfriend. The only plausible response would have been for him to say "sure - I'll take my business elsewhere, and I'll leave just as soon as you refund my membership fee". That's exactly what I would have done.

Then there's the trigger happy cops. They screwed up big time on this one. They should have shot a Mexican or a black man, preferably one with a long criminal history. (And simmer down. I'm being cynical, not racist.) Anyway, how do you explain shooting a guy like Erik?

The answer is you don't explain it. You CAN'T explain it. You just don't kill West Point grads for shopping at Costco with their girlfriends. And here's where this turns truly disgusting. The cops are trying to smear Erik Scott in order to get away with it. They have managed to unseal the allegations made by his ex, and are trying to make hay of the fact that he was on painkillers, implying addiction, but conveniently ignoring the back injuries he sustained jumping out of military aircraft in service of his country.

A smart crime family, one that has gotten away with murder hundreds of times, takes their lumps when they finally get caught. Cops, though, aren't anywhere near that smart. They're untouchable, so they're smearing an outstanding man instead of fessing up. A man they killed in cold blood, entirely without cause. And, they've had plenty of time to figure out who the father is, and that he's not a man to trifle with. Yet on they go, digging their own grave...

The inquest, long delayed, will supposedly be broadcast live for the next three days on mynews3.com starting at 10 AM PST tomorrow - and it's a kangaroo court if there ever was one. The family and their counsel are not allowed to cross examine anyone, and only evidence deemed acceptable by the County marsupials will be allowed.

This isn't over, and I predict it will blow up big time. (Sure hope so.) Conservatives, who usually rationalize police violence because they support "law and order" will have a tough time swallowing this one. A really tough time. A lot of us are already choking, and the word is still spreading. And conservatives are the support base of law enforcement, at least as far as the public is concerned. Because of who the victim was, and who his father is, this case has the potential to blow the lid off this sordid aspect of police corruption nationwide, and I hope and pray it does. Killings by the police shouldn't be routinely swept under the rug in a free society, no matter what kind of people they kill. It's gone on long enough.

ETA: Eric Scott's father, William Scott, has a blog going about this. Here.

Vocabulary Word of the Day

OK, so I do one of these about six times a year. But, I've been ruminating on political correctness, which has it's origins in Marxism, so here you go: The word is Zampoliti

Zampoliti were Red Army political/cultural officers. One was assigned to (infllicted on) every unit, and was responsible for the maintenance of ideological purity. Zampoliti monitored all speech and thought, and set errant Soviets back on the straight and narrow when they drifted from unquestioning admiration of all things Commie. Can't have those conscripts poking fun at socialism, after all. Why, they might get all cynical and pretend to work or something.

Zampoliti were the thought police, and Orwell would have been proud...

Most of the time, their mere presence was all that was required to stifle independent or critical thought. However, the unit Zampolit could and did rat people out to Moscow, and ruined many a career.

This relates to modern PC in a rather sick way: Today, Zampoliti are alive, well and entirely homegrown. They're our own children. We pay dearly to have them transformed into political officers by our "educational" system. PC indoctrination begins at an early age in America, and reaches its apogee in college, with disastrous results for society. PC is censorship, censorship which works by instilling fear of the truth in people otherwise capable of apprehending it. PC prohibits the telling of many truths about our predicament. Of course, our predicament is dire, and these truths need telling.

I ran across this excellent video on the origins of PC by way of Billy Beck's blog two--four. It chronicles the entire sordid history of this form of censorship.

Watch it. Forward it. Do something to stem the tide.

Obama's Vacations

Martha's Vineyard. Chicago. Yellowstone. The Grand Canyon (do ya suppose he realized how we feel, peering into an abyss?) Send the wife to Spain. Take the family to Hawaii for 11 days.

Much is made of these vacations, which are certainly a perk of the office. All presidents do it, and the only thing that changes is which side is doing the complaining.

Enough. Far as I'm concerned, people should quit objecting and thank God the boy king only works part time.

Succeeding, Where the Soviet Union Failed

It happened gradually. Few noticed. Fewer complained. But here we are, on the cusp of totalitarianism. What's left of America is all about appearances.

The illusion of press freedom persists, but in reality the press speaks little truth, and much propaganda. The press isn't exactly controlled by the government, but the press and the government are in the same hands.

The illusion of democracy remains, too, but no recent election has offered a meaningful choice. Would things have been meaningfully different under President McCain? After all, he suspended his campaign to vote for the bailout, and campaigned for socialized medicine. Sure, there'd be a few more black Marxists stranded in academia, but what would really be different?

Then there's the facade of an independent judiciary looking out for our rights. Sure. What is the court, really, besides the mechanism by which the ruling class thwarts the public will? The court acts as a ministry of culture, imposing transformative laws like abortion, the elimination of gun rights and corporate control of vast areas of life that could never pass by an honest vote.

We have "democracy" that circumvents the will of the people, a "free" press in which only certain things are said, "education" wholly divorced from learning, a state war on religion, etc., etc., etc. We have handily demonstrated that if the masses of people have even vaguely comfortable lives, they will care about nothing else.

This vague comfort will soon be the only difference between the old USSR and the present USA. Pathetic, isn't it? But for the fact that the Soviets never quite managed the comfort part, we're damn near the same. We're succeeding, where the Soviet Union failed.

Flags

Bought a nice Gadsden flag from a Craigslist advertiser today. Noticed it's made in China. Checked, and found my US flag was made in China as well.

Apparently the only flags we still make here are the false ones.

Burning the Koran: The Sequel

Pastor Terry Jones' apparently never planned to burn any copies of the Koran. At least, that's what he says. He says the purpose of the entire stunt was to expose the dangerous aspect of Islam. In this respect, I regard his ploy as brilliant.

By way of the worldwide reaction he "facilitated" it's clear that Islam is indeed a serious threat. From the Islamic world's fury to the State Department's worldwide travel advisory, from the threats against the pastor himself to Gen. Petraeus' plea to abstain - this was brilliant all the way. For the last few days, everyone has been forced to acknowledege the violent nature of Muslims - this, even as many engaged in the conversation continued to delude themselves that there's a moderate wing of Islam to be found somewhere out there.

There isn't.

Many people cling to the gentler aspects of Islam, stated earlier in the Koran, while ignoring the Koran's clear instruction that with any contradictory aspect of the Koran, the passages found later in the text will be decisive. It's the only religious text in the world to supersede early peaceable statements with later violent ones as a matter of law.

And the matter of law is no small thing in Islam. I have written that religion and government are joint tenants in Islam, and that is precisely the case. Expanding on that analogy, I would add that government is the husband and religion is the obedient wife. It is obligatory for all Muslims to impose Sharia law - Islamic government - wherever they go. They are not to rest until it has spread worldwide. In this way, it is as expansionist a doctrine as communism, and just as brutally totalitarian.

Islamic law states unequivocally that all governments instituted by and for man must be abolished. Free speech does NOT exist, even conceptually. In fact, dissent with the Koran carries the death penalty. Obviously, freedom of religion does not exist either, nor do any of the other rights that distinguish us from slaves.

Under Sharia, homosexuals must be killed, thieves must have a hand cut off and men are to beat women. Honor killings are sanctioned, and such killings have already occurred in America.

All this spreads globally under sanctioned deceit. It is well known that the Koran sanctions lies to infidels (non Muslims) for the purpose of spreading Islam. In fact the Koran does more than sanction dishonesty - it mandates it. Thus, Muslims will stand there and lie to us for the purpose of defeating us. The fact that they lie as a matter of course is nowhere near as upsetting as the fact that so many westerners insist upon taking them at their word.

It's obvious that all Muslims must follow these tenets, or at the very least not speak out against them and act in support of those who do follow them to the letter. Philosophically, there are no moderate Muslims - Islam is a study in extremism, and it's simply not possible to follow the rules and be a moderate. When your leader and his written instructions are radical, so is your government/religion - period.

It's just as obvious that Islam is by definition at war with the entire non-Muslim world, and must remain so until our defeat or their extermination. And I didn't say this - they did!

Liberty is fragile. We've proven that here in America, without any help from Muslims. Now, they're at full throttle, assaulting our liberty right along with the best of our domestic enemies. That has led to a curious alliance between leftists and Muslims, despite the havoc Islamic law yearns to wreak on the behavior of the left. This is why I often call them Dhimmicrats.

I know that our government has long alliances with Al Qaida and other elements of Islam, and that those alliances are most unsavory. I know that our alliances are with the Sunni and that this is a big reason we are at loggerheads with Shiite Iran. It's a twisted web. And, I know that the Shia and the Sunni are at war with each other. It's on their own that I hope Iran uses their nascent nukes, and, who knows - they may oblige me. Regardless, the 1350 year track record of Islam supersedes those alliances and conflicts, and demands that we take Islam seriously as a threat in and of itself.

It strikes me that the rules of epidemiology should be applied to Islam. Wherever Islam takes root, the result is the same. They demand to be exempted from the law of the land, and to impose Sharia. Muslims multiply rapidly and recruit rabidly. (They have the shortest generational cycle on earth and they recruit at gunpoint.) Since it spreads virally, the appropriate response is to quarantine and disinfect, and all should take heed that antibiotics are useless against a virus once it has taken hold. The key is obviously prevention.

It is in no way an affront to our religious freedom to disallow the practice of Islam in America. In fact, a ban on Islam is the ONLY means of assuring that our First Amendment rights survive. It's a simple equation: they are free to practice their exclusive, all conquering, death dealing totalitarian "religion" elsewhere, so long as they leave us alone, and we remain free to practice our relatively benign melange of religions here.

Or we can surrender and convert.

Or we can kill them before they kill us, which is what it may come to anyway.

I don't see any other choices.

Anyone else have a feeling of "suspended animation"???

The still fall air brings not merely a portent of seasonal change, but of unease - of something ominous looming around the corner. I can't shake it, yet there's no movement - like that cartoon where you've stepped off the cliff but gravity hasn't kicked in yet.

The election looms, but with the suspicion that the Republican version of hope and change won't be much different than the one we're already living. And in a way, I dread the confirmation of that thesis even more than I dread the status quo. If I'm right, that's one more door closed behind us, and no new door open in front. So, the days crawl...

Work is strange, as customers and suppliers both seem to be waiting for some defining event that tells them what to do next. The seasonal aspect of my business should be picking up, but much seems to be on hold. So we go through the motions.

I expect a false flag event any day, but nothing, thankfully, has happened yet.

When I read a book, it's prep stuff or doomer fiction. It's what's relevant. We go to dinner at a non-prepper friends house, expecting a break from it all, and now they're worried. They repeatedly steer the conversation to preps. I gave them simple ways to start, and they actually wrote them down. I'm sure that's why we were invited.

I look at the financial news, but with a dark fascination - expecting to see the Dow plummet, or that Greece or California has imploded. Inflation is rearing it's head, particularly in food and household goods. Recent talk of more stimulus puts paid to all Washington's hot air about a recovery. It wouldn't surprise me at all to wake up, turn on the 'puter and find that the Arabs will only sell oil for gold from now on. Yet, here, too, a relative stasis.

So here I sit. It's right in front of me, yet it's strangely remote - like watching a movie of people waiting for the bad news, news that everyone knows is coming, but which never arrives.

Do you feel like you're just going through the motions, just waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Burning the Koran

No doubt all have heard of the little book burning scheduled for next Saturday, September 11th. Of course, at the heart of this is the pastor of a little church seeking his 15 minutes, which have been granted. One hopes he'll not be killed for his grandstanding.

What interests me most, though, is the reaction of the Islamists, who are hard at work revealing themselves for what they really are. I wish them Godspeed in this endeavor.

Obama's Pals: Kill 25 Million Americans

take a moment and see what an infiltrator of Obama's bosom buddy Ayers "Weather Underground" says of their plans for when they overthrew America and reflect on your own preparations...



This kind of thinking is alive and well on the left today. Get it? They plan to kill you. Prepare accordingly.

Sarah Palin's Odd Connection to Scientology

I've made no secret of the fact that I do not trust Sarah Palin. She is clearly a player in the machine, and likely the next pied piper of the right, poised to lead the Tea Partyers back into the Republican corral come 2012. She's always a bit too cheerful for the subject at hand, in which way reminiscent of Frances McDormand's dissonant character Marge in "Fargo".

Now I hear of a bizarre connection to Scientology. Seems her friend/adviser John Coale, who just happens to be Greta van Susteren's hubby, is a high level Scientologist. So, too, is van Susteren, if you care.

Nominally a Dhimmicrat, Coale jumped to Palin's side when Hillary lost the primary and has been there ever since. A quick Google search provided plenty of corroboration of this -

Thoughts on the "Ground Zero" Mosque

What follows is a comment I attempted to post HERE. I'm not sure it will appear, because it was, in this form, longer than blogger would accept. When I pared it down and resubmitted, I got a strange error message along with the standard notice that it had been saved for moderation. We'll see if it appears, and if not I'll try again. Meanwhile, here you go: "If Islam were merely another religion, there would be little debate over the proposed mosque. Sadly, Islam is far from being just another faith. Religion and government are joint tenants in Islam, and in practice, Islam is a system of government first - a brutal, militaristic, totalitarian system of government - and a religion - a government religion - second. Wherever it goes it insists on observing it's own law, and Islamic law runs contrary to the entire concept of individual liberty - including religious freedom - that we hold dear. Islam is the leading practitioner of slavery in the world today - first and foremost by intellectually enslaving all its followers, second by physically enslaving half its own (women) and third by physically enslaving all the subjugated in conquered lands. It is not just intolerant of all opposing views, it has a track record of brutally lethal violence against those views.

Just call them Dhimmicrats: in an expedience borne of mental illness, the left manifests a bizarre ease with radical Islam. The left's enemy is America, obviously, and the enemy of their enemy is their friend, right? Never mind what Islam has to say and do about leftist sacred cows such as aberrant sexual partnerships or women's rights. No worries there. As with all historical alliances with evil, this arrangement will work fine for them right up until it doesn't. Then, long past the point of no return, what they've known all along will be undeniable: with Islam, you're either at the table or you're on the menu. Of course, there's no room for others at the Islam's table, and Quisling makes a fine entree...

The argument that approximately 60% of Muslims are "lukewarm" is of little comfort, if one bothers with the obvious math: the remaining (approximate) 40% - the acknowledged fanatics and their ardent supporters - number somewhere north of 400 million. Beyond that, 600 million lukewarm followers (consent) are far more dangerous than 600 million standing united against the oppression (dissent). Western civilization cannot, as claimed above, prevail against 400 million enemy fanatics by "leading an exemplary life, as a true follower of Christ." It is at best naive to think that any group of humans can lead an exemplary life anyway. (We had a better chance at this than most, and look what we've done with it.) Then comes the obvious truth that there are times when such passivity is not just inappropriate, but immoral. As His crucifixion drew near, Christ himself admonished his disciples to buy swords, even if it meant selling their clothes. This is just such a time. Turning the other cheek accomplishes nothing beyond exposing the jugular. Christianity is not a suicide pact with evil, regardless of perverse insinuations to the contrary.

The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact either. It's actually quite the opposite. Only a jackass can claim to be honoring the First Amendment by welcoming practitioners of an enemy doctrine that spawns precisely the oppression it was written to prevent. It is not in any way contrary to the First Amendment to deny an oppressive state religion a foothold in America.

This is the difference between being legalistic, which we see everywhere these days, and being moral, which we hardly see at all. Any nation can write laws (they all do) but very few have ever produced a legitimately moral code. We did, and that's what once set us apart. America was built on that moral code, by the controlled immigration of people who wanted to actively live by that code and enjoy the freedom it produced. Quotas were set, and the importation of our enemies was once recognized for the madness it is. Such people came here, of course, but if they hated the place or couldn't make it, they mostly went back home. If they stayed, it meant they had found some measure of success and had succumbed to societal pressure to become part of things. No more. The notion that immigrants should assimilate has been replaced by a cowardly willingness to let them annihilate. Now we not only import the hostile, we look the other way as millions more sneak in. Once here, we educate them, subsidize them, build them foot baths at our airports and pretend it's OK that they impose themselves and their dark ways at any place and in every place, including ground zero.

It's not OK. Not at all.

Islam is not our greatest threat. Legalistic acceptance of the oppression it represents is what frightens me. I dread what's coming in America. With all the legalistic thinkers among us, embracing one form of oppression or another, we're gonna need real blind luck to avoid ushering in another police state after the current one collapses.

III

FPG"

More Mencken

A two sentence explanation of why we elected the boy king when we could have had Ron Paul: "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars. The men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." H.L. Mencken

Definitions

A liberal is a socialist in denial.

A communist is a socialist in a hurry.

A 'progressive' is a communist masquerading as a liberal.

New, Highly Resistant Superbug Gene

A dangerous new gene has surfaced, called NDM-1, that makes bacteria highly resistant to antibiotics. It's spreading from India, and there are now confirmed cases in America. More worrisome is that these weren't business travelers or regular tourists - they were health tourists who had traveled to India specifically for medical treatment.

Many westerners travel to India and Pakistan for cheap cosmetic surgery and other treatment, then bring the gene home with them. The Lancet has documented cases in the UK as well.

In what sounds like a work of bio-war fiction, this gene mixes with existing bacteria, causing essentially complete immunity to antibiotics.

Here's the link:

ABC News Article

Meditations On Inflation

"What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar."
-- Thomas Riley Marshall (VP of the USA 1913-1921)

"There are plenty of good five cent cigars in this country. The problem is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five cent nickel."
-- W.C. Fields response to above quote

Missouri Mandate

In any election, a high percentage win is called a mandate. 71% of Missourians have voted against Obamacare, just now, in a state where McCain eked out a pathetic 51% in the last presidential election.

Now THAT's a mandate, but don't hold your breath waiting for TPTB to acknowledge this fact!

Cat's Out of the Bag, PIIGS in a Poke, The Next Shoe to Drop, etc.

The next act in the Global Ponzi screenplay is the municipal insolvency crisis, bubbling ever closer to the surface of mainstream (un)conscoiusness. Watch for how shocked they will be at the "revelations"...

"beyod expectations..."

"surprising depth..."

"unanticipated sums..."

"startling revelations..."

Is my job at CNBC open yet?

Just a Number

Dear Reader turns 49 today. At least, chronologically.

Bet he wishes that was his approval number.

Pavlov's Bears?

We heard, of course, of the recent bear adventures in Montana. Topping that, our local honey brown wandered through again last week. As youth, our generation was aware that bears were dangerous. They might eat you, and you did not encourage them with food. This wisdom was lost along the way, to the extent that Jeff Cooper felt compelled to state and re-state the Gunsite Bear Rules. Apparently it is again time:

"Bears of all kinds are a great ornament to the wilderness, but you do not want them in your lap.

1. Be alert.
2. Remember that bears are not cuddly.
3. Never enter bear country without a powerful firearm and the skill to use it well.
4. Never camp on a bear thoroughfare.
5. Be alert."

To this warning I would add the text of a delightful sign posted, in a rare fit of humor and honesty, in a park up in socialist Canada:

Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.

We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advanced warning to any bears that might be close by so you don’t take them by surprise.

We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry “Pepper Spray” with him is case of an encounter with a bear.

Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper.

Are Cops Constitutional?

I didn't start out thinking this way, but over the years I have become an ardent critic of American law enforcement. As Acton observed, power corrupts, and it is no longer debatable that our cops have too much power. Over the years the ranks of all departments have swollen, and it is clear - crystal clear - that police forces have become highly militarized.

By numbers and disposition, the police now constitute a standing army.

I've no doubt the Founders would share my alarm and moral outrage at these developments. I've done what I can, largely with anecdotes, to wake people up. Now comes a fascinating and scholarly examination of law enforcement at the time of the Founding. Turns out that this was another thing the people did for themselves, and, as usual, did quite well. Much better, in fact, than it's done today, and with far more checks and balances. The notion of government paid cops was quite simply unthinkable at the time, as it should be today.

Here's the abstract: "Police work is often lionized by jurists and scholars who claim to employ "textualist" and "originalist" methods of constitutional interpretation. Yet professional police were unknown to the United States in 1789, and first appeared in America almost a half-century after the Constitution's ratification. The Framers contemplated law enforcement as the duty of mostly private citizens, along with a few constables and sheriffs who could be called upon when necessary. This article marshals extensive historical and legal evidence to show that modern policing is in many ways inconsistent with the original intent of America's founding documents. The author argues that the growth of modern policing has substantially empowered the state in a way the Framers would regard as abhorrent to their foremost principles."

And an excerpt: "Law enforcement in the Founders' time was a duty of every citizen.32 Citizens were expected to be armed and equipped to chase suspects on foot, on horse, or with wagon whenever summoned. And when called upon to enforce the laws of the state, citizens were to respond "not faintly and with lagging steps, but honestly and bravely and with whatever implements and facilities [were] convenient and at hand."33 Any person could act in the capacity of a constable without being one,34 and when summoned by a law enforcement officer, a private person became a temporary member of the police department.35 The law also presumed that any person acting in his public capacity as an officer was rightfully appointed.36

Laws in virtually every state still require citizens to aid in capturing escaped prisoners, arresting criminal suspects, and executing legal process. The duty of citizens to enforce the law was and is a constitutional one. Many early state constitutions purported to bind citizens into a universal obligation to perform law enforcement functions, yet evinced no mention of any state power to carry out those same functions.37 But the law enforcement duties of the citizenry are now a long-forgotten remnant of the Framers' era. By the 1960s, only twelve percent of the public claimed to have ever personally acted to combat crime.38

The Founders could not have envisioned 'police' officers as we know them today. The term "police" had a slightly different meaning at the time of the Founding.39 It was generally used as a verb and meant to watch over or monitor the public health and safety.40 In Louisiana, "police juries" were local governing bodies similar to county boards in other states.41 Only in the mid-nineteenth century did the term 'police' begin to take on the persona of a uniformed state law enforcer.42 The term first crept into Supreme Court jurisprudence even later.43

Prior to the 1850s, rugged individualism and self-reliance were the touchstones of American law, culture, and industry. Although a puritan cultural and legal ethic pervaded their society, Americans had great toleration for victimless misconduct.44 Traffic disputes were resolved through personal negotiation and common law tort principles, rather than driver licenses and armed police patrol.45 Agents of the state did not exist for the protection of the individual citizen. The night watch of early American cities concerned itself primarily with the danger of fire, and watchmen were often afraid to enter some of the most notorious neighborhoods of cities like Boston.46

At the time of Tocqueville's observations (in the 1830s), "the means available to the authorities for the discovery of crimes and arrest of criminals [were] few,"47 yet Tocqueville doubted "whether in any other country crime so seldom escapes punishment."48 Citizens handled most crimes informally, forming committees to catch criminals and hand them over to the courts.49 Private mobs in early America dealt with larger threats to public safety and welfare, such as houses of ill fame.50 Nothing struck a European traveler in America, wrote Tocqueville, more than the absence of government in the streets"

I debated editing out those annoying footnote numbers, but decided to leave them in to show how well the author documented this work. This is the kind of research it will take to force cops back into a respectable place in society, if it's possible at this late date. Here's the whole thing, well worth reading and passing around: Are Cops Constitutional?

H/T to Pete at WRSA, linked in my blogroll.

I just don't make their kind of money...

This fun little gadget allows you to compare your writing style with the more prominent published authors. Such clever things we do on the net!

Several of my posts brought this comparison:

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

A few produced this result:

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Doctorow is a blogger with, disappointingly, leftist leanings.

A couple yielded this:

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

One of these:

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

And one of these:

I write like
George Orwell

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I often re-read books, actually. That is the mark of writers I truly enjoy. Of all the authors named, only Orwell is one I re-read, and I try to read Animal Farm or 1984 roughly once a year. They were prescient the first time around, and just get fatter and fatter as the years pass. As writers go, I suppose Orwell's pretty good company, but he's certainly a small part of my reading list.

I took in a smattering of Poe(try) along the way, and there is actually a collection of Poe's work somewhere in my boxes of books. I read Doyle as a kid, of course, and Brown more recently. I wouldn't re-read Brown and haven't felt any inspiration to re-read Doyle, although I just might if the world would calm down a bit.

Many, probably the majority, yielded this:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Interestingly, Richard Mitchell's Underground Grammarian text a few posts down produced this same outcome, as did (with consistency) a few pieces penned by Jeff Cooper that I fed into the beastie. I've only heard the name - never read a thing Lovecraft wrote. It's intriguing that Mitchell, Cooper and I would test the same, since in both topic and style they rank among my favorite writers. This is getting interesting. So, I copied parts of letters I wrote 30 years ago, which consistently brought up Lovecraft's name as well.

That was long before any of Mitchell's works (and most of Cooper's, including all of his books) were published. If asked before today, I would have guessed that my own style might have been influenced by them. It now appears that just the opposite is true: Our style is our own, if we're genuine, and we're simply most attracted to the writers who think and express themselves the same way we do, regardless of the topic.

Makes sense!

Mitchell, Cooper, Fireplaceguy and now Lovecraft. That's another author I need to read, and he's now high on my used bookstore shopping list to infinity and beyond, at least until I satisfy my curiosity.

Running my words through this wringer was an interesting exercise. You never know what you'll find! Try it, a few times, for yourself, along with the words of a couple of your favorite authors...

Hasta la vista, baby...

...and if you'll allow me one more, will Ahnold become a REAL Austrian (of the von Mises kind) in this, his final role?

Yes, Kali-fornia belatedly declared a state of emergency over their finances.

Yawn.

After decades of advance billing, it's here: "Terminator 9: Fiat Money" Now playing everywhere. It's the only show in town, and the last picture they'll ever make.

You vill vatch it, und you vill liff it.

Along the laugh cynically/cry/scream/commit suicide continuum, I generally favor laughter. This recipe (with a bit of a scream folded in here and there) keeps the blood pressure down and the blood not spilled, which only they want. The cynicism topping is my fuel-saving shortcut to the truth.

Hence, and with a sardonic grin, I'm of a mind to start a pool: Will it be force (farce?) majeure/default? A bailout? Bankruptcy? Perhaps, if God feels any mercy for the rest of us, a 9.8 earthquake???

Pick your poison(s) and a date, prize to be determined...

Me? I vote for all of the above, in that order, commencing as soon as possible. I really didn't need that label on my new pry bar telling me that it contains something known to you Carnacs of the Environment to cause cancer, as if I was going to chew on the damn thing or stir my soup with it. And then there was the inoperable nozzle on the last gas can I bought. That was the last straw. I could shove it up your a** (wanted to, at the time) and it still wouldn't spill a drop. And maybe that's the point. You've converted it into an environmentally friendly safe-sex toy, one that closely mirrors what you did to your oil industry and, come to that, your entire state. Now you can't even self-immolate, which would certainly be the honorable thing.

Somewhere along the way, your imported/minority vote robots will turn on you, and they're smarter than you think. Hell, they're clever enough to unscrew that nozzle, and they'll burn your lesbian gay bisexual transgendered worker's welfare paradise to the ground for lying to them all these years and then betraying them in "the hour of their need". You'll also see the faces of a lot of your public employees in that madding crowd, and I'm sure you'll be sincerely shocked that your cannibal class turned on you...

Not me. I'll probably have to break down and buy a new flat screen and subscribe to cable, just to see the show. You, the kleptocratic screwers, will become the screwees, reaping what you've sown for lo, these many decades. Act surprised all you want, but being as foreseeable as tomorrow's sunrise, the popcorn will be ready at my house.

Economic oblivion couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. I do resent my forced participation, but at least I get to watch you stop twitching first. Since I'm prepared, I'll be watching from a comfortable vantage point, laughing on a full stomach.

One final question - will the last one of you turn off the lights or will Arizona have to do even that for you feckless girly-men?

Hasta la vista, you little babies. You did it to yourselves. And no, you won't be back. You're too well-marbled for that.

Sold Out

In yet another demonstration of the FACT that no branch of government cares what the law is or what the people desire, key provisions of the Arizona law attempting to stem the tide of illegal immigrants (invaders, if you're honest) were just struck down.

Further comment is unnecessary.

Recommended Reading

Searching through boxes of books for a now forgotten title, I came across "Less than Words Can Say" by the late Richard Mitchell, who wrote as The Underground Grammarian.

Somewhere, in yet another box, are his other three books and a thick stack of deckle-edged Underground Grammarian newsletters, a treasured library of pungent social commentary. The Underground Grammarian focused primarily on acts of war against the English language and the idiocy of educrats, but his tightly reasoned commentary meandered a far wider path than just academia.

Mitchell's writing will dazzle you. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but mostly you'll laugh. Here's a taste, particularly apropos in this dreary socialist era:

The Answering of Kautski

"Why should we bother to reply to Kautski? He would reply to us, and we would have to reply to his reply. There's no end to that. It will be quite enough for us to announce that Kautski is a traitor to the working class, and everyone will understand everything." - Lenin

TYRANNY is always and everywhere the same, while freedom is always various. The well and truly enslaved are dependable; we know what they will say and think and do. The free are quirky. Tyrannies may be overt and violent or covert and insidious, but they all require the same thing, a subject population in which the power of the word is dulled and, thus, the power of thought occluded and the power of deed brought low. That's why Lenin's bolshevism and American educationism have so much in common.

"Give me four years to teach the children,'' said Lenin, "and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.'' He wasn't talking about reading, writing, and arithmetic. He wanted only enough of such skills so that the workers could puzzle out their quotas and so that a housebroken bureaucracy could get on with the business of rural electrification. Our educationists call it basic minimum competency, and they hope that we'll settle for it as soon as they can cook up some way of convincing us that they can provide it. For Lenin, as for our educationists, to "teach the children'' is to "adjust'' them into some ideology.

Lenin understood the power of that ready refuge from logical thought that is called in our schools the "affective domain,'' the amiable Never-never Land of the half-baked, to whom anything they name "humanistic'' is permitted, and of whom skillful scholarship and large knowledge are not required. Lenin approved of the "teaching'' of values and the display, with appropriate captions, of socially acceptable "role models.'' He knew all too well the worth of behavior modification. He knew that indoctrination in "citizenship'' is safer than the study of history, and that a familiarity with literature is not conducive to the wholehearted pursuit of career objectives in the real-life situation, or arena.

On the other hand, Lenin knew that there was little risk that coherent thought could erupt in minds besieged by endless prattle about the clarification of values. He knew that reiterated slogans can dull even a good mind into a stupor out of which it will never arise to overthrow the slogan-makers. In this, our educationists have followed him assiduously, justifying every new crime against freedom of language and thought by mouthing empty slogans about "quality education.''

"Most of the people,'' Lenin wrote, not in public, of course, but in a letter, "just aren't capable of thinking. The best they can do is learn the words.'' If that reminds you of those bleating sheep in Animal Farm, try to forget them, and think instead of the lowing herds of pitiable teacher-trainees, many of whom began with good intentions and even with brains, singing for their certificates dull dirges of interpersonal interaction outcomes enhancement and of change-agent skills developed in time-action line. Lenin's contempt was reserved for the masses. These educationists, pretenders to egalitarianism, hold even their own students in contempt, offering them nothing but words.

If you think it too rash to charge our educationists even as unwitting agents of tyranny and thought control, consider these lines from a recent proclamation of the Association of California School Administrators:

"Parent choice'' proceeds from the belief that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education. In fact, educating the individual is but a means to the true end of education, which is to create a viable social order to which individuals contribute and by which they are sustained. "Family choice'' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the "wants'' of a single family rather than the "needs'' of society.

So what do you think? Would it suit Lenin?

And if you'd like to object, you'll see that these people also know how to answer Kautski. They'll just pronounce you an elitist, and everybody will understand everything.

FPG's notes: 1) "the power of thought occluded and the power of deed brought low" WOW! If only my use of the language were up to his!

2) Karl Kautski (Kautsky) lived in Germany, and was a true believer in democratic socialism (as if such a thing were physically possible). As such, he was a vocal critic of Lenin's totalitarian socialism. Kautski fantasized that socialism could be implemented fairly, and (in a glimmer of cognition) at least saw the Soviet reality of it as highly unfair.

It was this criticism that Lenin refused to answer, preferring to simply shoot the messenger. Kautski was probably the leading Marxist theoretician in Germany up through the end of WWI. He and his ilk plowed the philosophical garden in which National Socialism took root, although he personally became anti-war and anti-expansionist while witnessing the horrors of WWI. (When it comes to Marxism, one should apparently be careful what one wishes for.) As Hitler's power reached crescendo in 1938, he fled to the Netherlands where he died.

3) Look again at Mitchell's Lenin quote, which I now revise for our time: "Why should we bother to reply to Kautski the Tea Party? He they would reply to us, and we would have to reply to his their reply. There's no end to that. It will be quite enough for us to announce that Kautski teabaggers is a traitor to the working class are racist, and everyone will understand everything." - Nikolai Lenin Barack Obama, et al

See how they work? Over time, their tactics never change. As Mitchell put it "TYRANNY is always and everywhere the same". Identifying a totalitarian is the simplest of exercises, and we should all stop deluding ourselves that this current crew is anything but...

4) A search reveals that Mitchell's newsletters and books are archived at Underground Grammarian. Even his books are free downloads! If you care to think, it's a treasure trove.