Searching for Where the News Can Be Found

Or a Personal Quest for Journalistic Quality

I've always been fascinated by history and current events (which is simply "live" history), seeking out knowledge wherever I could.  This dates to the stone age before the Web, back when we had to read newspapers, magazines, books, and watch Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News. Eventually, as cable finally made its way into our family life, there was the news addict's dream made real by CNN and then the quick fix provided by CNN Headline News.  Heady (or headliney) times, it couldn't get better than this! 

Of course, it wasn't easy to get some of the quality newspapers as The New York Times and The Washington Post were only available at the library. But I did have a subscription to Newsweek for a couple of years that I treasured.  That fell by the wayside due to a lack of money brought on by disability, but in the early 1990's I purchased my first computer, a Packard Bell 486SX-25 with a 2400 baud modem in it.  After perusing bulletin boards on dial-up, I received one of those unavoidable America Online floppies in the mail.  I joined the service and began to find news in virtual print once again.

Watching Less, Reading More

In the meantime, various cable news networks had popped up and while available on satellite TV, I felt there had been a decay in quality slowly becoming evident.  By the mid-90s, format changes were making it all feel more tabloid like, more entertainment and personality driven.  Cable news hit its zenith during 1991 when covering Operation Desert Storm and never quite hit that level again.  I watched it less and less.

So I turned toward content I could find online, though it wasn't easy or convenient to find.  The Web came into being and I dipped my toe in the water via AOL's built in browser.  As internet service became available locally, I signed up to the very primitive connectivity in my rural area.  After giving up on it and returning to AOL, the service finally became reliable and I signed up again using OS/2 Warp's Web Explorer to crawl around the new web.  I remember that new place called Yahoo just starting up, then Netscape taking the web browser to a whole new level.  By that time the OS wars were over and I was stuck with Windows95. At last came a new piece of software that looked like it would fulfill all my dreams of news gathering in one place.

A News Junkie's Dream

That program was called Pointcast and it was wonderful!  I could set it up to download the news from all sorts of sources, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.  It all flowed into the program in the background when I was dialed into the Net and I could read it once disconnected.  That was needed, because even a 56k modem in 1996 took awhile to get any content off the copper wires.  It was bliss, news nirvana, and I couldn't stop extolling it to others I knew.

Of course, it didn't last.  The infrastructure wasn't there yet for so much data being downloaded at once, it was overloading servers in business environments which were the main users of Pointcast.  Missed opportunities and the rise of Yahoo killed the endeavor within a few years.  I mourned that software's passing almost as much as OS/2 Warp's.

Signs of the Times

Thankfully, the newspapers and news cable stations had discovered the value of the Internet by then.  It meant I had to read while online, but the content was still there.  However, I started to see the same symptoms of rot that I'd seen with news TV.  The New York Times in particular was becoming less a journalistic bastion of integrity than a source of polemics.   By 2003, the Jayson Blair scandal broke and I wasn't surprised, as my trips to their website had gone from multiple times a day to once daily. The rot had become visible. At that point, it was a slow road to infrequently visiting the once venerable institution.  These days, articles are written the same way as editorials and there really is no difference.

At least The Washington Post kept it's integrity, I told others. For the most part, it did until the 2004 election drove it over the edge.  While not going into the absolute free fall that has turned the Grey Lady into a very bad joke, it did become more openly partisan.  Of course it was always a left wing newspaper, but a very respectable one.  After John Kerry's loss in the Presidential race, the paper began to go down the same road as it's New York rival.

This was unpleasant to recognize, because I didn't feel like I had much in the way of alternatives.  Oh there was the rising blogosphere, but that wasn't developed enough at the time.  Talk radio never appealed, because it is primarily personality driven with a penchant for theatrics.  NPR is possibly the best antidote for insomnia, between its nonstop leftist slant and gray drones speaking in the academic cadences of those who've never really lived life. 

Signal Degradation

What of cable news?  Infotainment at best, rarely any journalism present these days.  Sensationalism is the main content, with talk radio style theatrics thrown in. Not a surprise as many shows are hosted by talk radio hosts. Most cable news networks are far left, with MSNBC on the lunatic fringe side of the spectrum and CNN catering to the left base.  Fox News is still tabloid in style, which I despise.  At least they report the stories the other networks refuse to, since that is where the ratings and eyeballs are. I feel as if I am praising Fox with faint damning's. The other networks are more concerned with being an active component of the Democratic Party than in being journalists. That includes the tattered remnants of the once proud broadcast network news shows.


A New Media:  Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss?

These days, the blogs are where to find information that the left wing media suppresses. Still, there is a huge amount of emotionalism to this new media and one has to sift them to get good information.  It reminds me very much of the yellow journalism days of the 1800's.  The idea of journalistic integrity is a late 20th Century idea and I often wonder if there ever has been such a thing.  But trying to obtain that illusion at least keeps things more grounded in reality and honesty.

Currently, society in the United States is fragmenting rather than uniting.  The rise of blogs is a good indication of that, with the constant wars fought between even those claiming to be on the same side.  Just search for LGF or LittleGreenFootballs along with the word 'banning' to see the kind of wars that get fought, as that blog goes further left.  Of course, that is an exaggerated example as that blog has turned into an intolerant, totalitarian cult-like place.  Once upon a time it was in my links on this blog, but hasn't been for some time now.


Looking Across the Pond

So where to find the news?  I suggest reading the full links from various blogs, getting the original articles in case things have been misinterpreted or spun. You have to work to find out the truth, don't expect anyone to deliver it to you on a platter. For traditional news that hasn't totally degraded, check out newspapers from the United Kingdom, such as The Telegraph and The Times. It was a link on Drudge that inspired me to write this post, as I discovered I was part of a trend.  Imagine that, me being trendy!

It appears that there are more than a few of us American news junkies reading the newspapers of Great Britain to get news about our own country we don't get in print here.  What a sad and alarming thing statement that is!  I don't think our newspapers are dying due to a lack of an audience, but due to becoming completely out of touch with the majority of Americans. 

The Death of an Independent Media?

Now there is talk of the government bailing out the liberal newspapers, consolidating the leftist message by turning them into possessions of the government.  Because the majority of the federal government is made up by bureaucrats, it doesn't matter which party is in possession of the Oval Office.  Those faceless feds tend to be very liberal, which means the papers will be semi-official organs of big government no matter what.

Pravda anyone?

Sadly, that question won't mean a thing to many too young to remember the Soviet Union.  When a government controls the news, there can be no freedom.  It is up to us, the American people, to prevent this from happening.  Do we have enough people willing to fight for their freedom in this fragmented society?  It isn't enough to defend the Constitution, we must make sure that a vibrant and independent media exists, otherwise the First Amendment is just words.

Me, I'm wondering if I'll have to keep searching for honest journalism in the future.  The fact I'm looking to British newspapers for news isn't good.

The Decline of Polite Culture and Other Items of Interest

I started this blog for the purpose of being something of a journal so that I could look back and see what was going on in my life.  Unfortunately, between being a private person and not having much of a life, I see most of my posting being about things outside of my control.  That is, politics and world events. 

Ah well, it beats being a narcissist, I suppose.

In case anyone else is reading, a few things that caught my interest while being quite ill the past two weeks:

Victor Davis Hanson has a wonderful piece on the decline of polite behavior that is well worth reading through.

If you want good insights into the problems of the Middle East, few countries embody all the difficulties faced more than Lebanon.  That's where Michael Totten's work has been invaluable and his account of meeting Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader is absolutely fascinating. Read the whole thing.

Drew Emmer at Wright County Republican has posted Gov. Mitch Daniels' (R-Indiana) op-ed on the coming reduction of tax revenues governors across the United States will be facing.  It is time for government to tighten their belts just like everyone else. There are a lot of people struggling financially right now, including me.

Facebook is not a secure or safe place to be, unfortunately not a lot of people know how to make it safer.  Several weeks ago, a young friend of mine had his laptop infected by a hostile ad on Facebook that took quite a bit of doing to kill.  Watch out for anything claiming to be an antivirus that spawns popups like crazy!

I Know Seminary Is Hard, But...

Also found this on Drudge today: a report on a Satan worshipping teen setting fire to a church in California.  It turns out the fire was set in the chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Orangevale.  Being a Latter-day Saint myself, of course it caught my attention.  Since the fire was set shortly after 7 AM and the girl is fifteen, I knew she'd done it during Seminary.

One of the best things about my church is the religious education program that encompasses more than just 'Sunday school.' Since I converted late in life, I missed out on two of the better ones, Institute and Seminary.  Where Institute is for college & college aged members, Seminary focuses on that most precarious of times in one's life -- the teenage years.  In a modern world filled with all kinds of self destructive behaviors pushed by our culture, it is a refuge for kids trying to make the shaky transition from child to proto-adult.

Every school day morning, teens go to seminary early in the morning, before public school classes begin.  That requires a real commitment by the teen and by their parents, who have to get up just as early to run them to Seminary classes.  Besides teaching the Gospel, this requirement of hewing to a daily routine teaches perseverance and the ability to make and keep commitments. Yes it is hard to make that daily commitment and see it through.  That's no reason to set a pew on fire, however tempting that may be in the throes of teenage angst. 

A quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley illustrate the simple blessings that can come from attending:

“We urge all for whom it is available to take advantage of it. We do not hesitate to promise that your knowledge of the gospel will be increased, your faith will be strengthened, and you will develop wonderful associations and friendships”

Sadly, it appears this young woman hasn't taken full advantage of what has been offered her, instead she has allowed herself to be led down a dark path.  When kids start worshipping Satan, there are major problems below the surface.  That's why I'm gratified to see how the local Church and authorities are handling this in a truly Christian way -- by requesting that she not be punished and that she be given the counseling she so obviously needs.

In dealing with such cases, we need to follow the example of the Savior on the cross who said of those who crucified him, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34

70 Years Ago in Poland and Obama's Appeasement Fetish

I was reading The Drudge Report today and ran across the following fact.

September 17, 1939, Joseph Stalin attacked Poland as part of a deal with Hitler to split the country.  How do you commemerate this day if you are President Barack Obama?  You sell out the Poles to the Russians again! Representatives from the administration are in Poland and the Czech Republic to tell them the missile defense shield is off, something Putin has been demanding for some time. For a newly elected president who was supposed to be so intelligent, so smooth, so diplomatic and knowledgeable, Obama and company have shown themselves to be utterly tone deaf in foreign dealings.

There is a chance this callous behavior isn't born of ignorance and stupidity, though.  News has come down that Russia will be assisting Venezuela in obtaining nuclear technology.  The same Chavez run socialist state that has given assistance to Iran, a state rushing headlong toward the atomic bomb. Meanwhile, recent diplomatic caving ins to Iranian and North Korean negotiating demands puts us in a very weak position regarding nuclear proliferation. The pattern of wooing enemies and alienating allies from Honduras to Poland suggests a desire to oppose everything America has stood for in the last century.  It appears to be a rejection of everything done to protect the United States in the last sixty years.

At one point, people thought Jimmy Carter was the worst comparison to Obama that could be made.  Right now, he's making Carter look good by comparison. We live in very dangerous times and weakness is the last thing we need to be showing right now.

Eight Years from 9/11

I remember when the numbers 911 came in for emergency calls and it took awhile to adjust to that, but in the end they became a standard part of the language.  Those numbers took on a whole new meaning eight years ago today. Instead of "nine-one-one" the first thing I think when I see the numbers in "Nine-Eleven."  It is a simple but profound change that affected many others, I suspect.

So I will remember the lives lost that fateful day and most likely will watch United 93 on DVD again.  It is difficult to because of the anger it provokes, but I vowed to never forget that day. Sadly, too many people have fallen prey to insane conspiracy theories or moral relativism regarding the events that cost over 3,000 people their lives.  The evils of Islamic fundamentalism still exist and we are slowly becoming complacent again. The consequences of that will not be good.

ACORN Has a Problem with Prostitution

Yes, ACORN, those community organizers who once had President Obama as a trainer, have a problem with prostitution.  What is bad about that, you think?  All of us should have a problem with prostitution, after all it is degrading and dehumanizing.  Well, ACORN's problem isn't that they oppose prostitution, it is that they more than condone it no matter what they publicly say.

Two young journalists in training decided to concoct the wildest scenario they could and approach an ACORN office in Maryland with it.  The premise was simple: a young would be politician and his girlfriend/prostitute are looking for federal help in finding housing for her to use as a brothel for underage El Salvadoran girls brought into the country illegally.

That should have been crazy sounding enough to get them tossed out, right?  Or get the police involved at the very least. Instead, the ACORN workers went out of their way to show them how to use this all for a tax shelter while giving practical advice on how to avoid the fictional pimp harassing the "prostitute." They didn't bat an eye at child prostitution and exploitation either, advising them to only declare three of the girls as dependants for tax deductions.

So what, you say?  Just a couple of bad eggs in one office don't show a problem in the organization.

Well... the two young investigators went to an office in Washington, D.C. next and check out what happened there.  Big Government has done a great thing exposing this story.

ACORN is a profoundly evil organization and needs to be shut down ASAP.  The fact they are getting billions of dollars from the stimulus is horrendous given their behavior and voter fraud cases going forth in the courts. Good grief, they are encouraging child prostitution!  I can't think of a more evil thing.

The two workers in the first video have been fired, but the big media is refusing to report on this outside of Fox News, talk radio, and conservative blogs.  There is something very, very wrong with our country right now, when such evil is being protected by the media.  I doubt we'll see much in the way of punishment for ACORN, they are joined at the hip with the Democratic Party and especially Obama.

Just disgusting.

Sick Yet Again

It started with a sore throat on Monday, that lasted a couple of days before moving into the sinuses and now chest.  Oh for an immune system that worked right!

The brain no worky, so the only thing I have to post is what may be the prototype for the ultimate cat toy: levitating mice!

Is the US Dollar Dying?

One of my regular reads is the online edition of the Daily Telegraph published in the United Kingdom.  It was interesting to see what the most read stories were today and I think you will see a unifying theme in them:

1. Barack Obama accused of making 'Depression' mistakes
2. China alarmed by US money printing
3. UN wants new global currency to replace dollar

Then on the other side of the page was Gold hits $1,000

With the Obama administration printing more green to buy government bonds because the Chinese won't, you know something is wrong.  Then you hear that the Chinese are moving slowly over to gold in order to keep their investments from deprieciating radically and off in the distance alarm bells begin to ring.  Finally, there has been talk between Russia, China, and India about starting a new currency because the dollar isn't looking sound, but hey, that's just a bunch of wannabe's talking, right?  Except now the UN is talking the same proposal a few week later.  Yeah, there is something seriously wrong with the US dollar when the biggest holder of US debt is publicly complaining and planning to move to something else.

Is the dollar actually dying?  Time will tell, but one thing is certain -- it is very, very ill.

The Irony of Labor Day and Czars

One has to appreciate the irony of naming a holiday after work.  Yes, yes, I know that the holiday is a paean to the "worker" of Marxist theology, but it still is amusing.

Speaking of Marxists, Van Jones resigned from the position of Green Energy Czar this weekend.  If you are a reader of the New York Times or Washington Post, or an NPR listener, or broadcast networks viewer, you probably have no clue who he is or what happened. The media censorship on this has been profound, with only Fox News, talk radio, and bloggers (imaging that) covering his radical positions for the past few weeks.  In fact, the NY Times is still covering up what happened.

Essentially, Jones is a stated communist who has made racist statements against whites for years and when called out by Glenn Beck, had his organization start a boycott against Beck's television show. But what sunk him is he is a "truther," a person who believes the 9/11 attacks were either deliberately allowed by the Bush administration or were actually committed by the government.  Van Jones signed a petition indicating his belief in the first scenario.

Personally, I find his other beliefs far more appalling.  The following link is very NSFW (not safe for work or family viewing) but I feel he needs to be exposed.  This video Van Jones produced and appeared in shows what kind of people are being appointed as "czars" with no Senate approval by Obama. They are people who hate America and put on masks to gain power over the country.

Now another irony I find is that Obama and his fellow devotees of socialism are using the term 'czar' with great fanfare.  Lenin & Trotsky must be rolling over in their graves, that whole Russian Revolution thing must not be hip enough.  Instead, the modern Marxist in America is using the title of the dictator the Reds overthrew.  Doesn't get more ironic than that!

Oh the proletariat, what has happened to you?

An Eggcellent Guide

There seems to be a strong streak of silly running through model builders, with an almost fanatical devotion to Monty Python quotes for example.  Another thing that makes modellers happy is books that feature an insane amount of detail about a given aircraft, tank, or ship. 

This is what happens when the two meet.

Demented silliness at its best and a tribute to the sillier kits that Hasegawa puts out: the eggplane.

Captain Al

Continuing a series of posts about my late friend, Al Ulven.

As I've written before, Al loved to have fun and was pretty good at making his own if there wasn't any already in sight.  That skill served his desire for entertainment well, even as it occasionally exasperated others. Some of my more exasperated moments came as a direct result of Al fulfilling his retirement dream of owning his own boat.

I can remember him calling to say he had bought a boat which turned out to be a used Bayliner 2155 21" cruiser with trailer.  My father and I went to see Al's dream and Al gleefully showed off his first command -- Captain Al had been born. He even had a captains hat with the golden scramble eggs. It didn't phase Al that he didn't know much about boating or safety regulations. What mattered is that he had his ticket to fun in the sun on the Mississippi River.

It was love at first sight when Captain Al found his Bayliner and he adored the vessel over the years he owned it, though maintenance was far from his strong point.  It gradually faded from its initial glory, as he didn't have enough crew to regularly swab the decks and Al was slowing down a lot. We ended up assisting him on that and my dad did most of the maintenance work, especially during the spring and autumn when the Bayliner was either coming out of storage or going into storage.

While Al may have been slowing down physically, there was one thing he always liked:  moving at high speeds.  Fast cars entranced him, but were a little scary for him personally.  But the river looked open for miles upon miles and there he could race the wind.  At least until his deteriorating eyesite scared him one too many times.  More than once he had me get the Bayliner planing at high speed and enjoyed the ride, his face red from the wind and laughing gleefully the entire time.

On that image, I'm going to finish, for his various adventures on water require their own entries into the log.

Whoa! IRS to Run National Health Care?

The IRS will be the agency to determine who has acceptable health care under ObamaCare.

The IRS has been a loose cannon for a very long time, without any proper oversight.  Having them hunt down and punish people for having insufficient health insurance sounds great, doesn't it?  It would require a massive increase in personnel and power for this to be implemented.  Given their propensity to go after small fish and let the big ones off the hook when conducting audits, I doubt they would be any more fair dealing with health insurance regulation.

Does anybody rational think this is an intelligent idea?

The Creeping Cost of Bureaucracy or Baumel's Cost Disease

I'd never run into Baumel's Cost Disease before, but I find it most intriguing as it explains much of the runaway costs associated with healthcare, education, and government.  It also calls into question of how much we can cut from health care costs, especially when huge increases to the bureaucracy running it are proposed.  More paperwork means more labor, which means more money required, with any costs cut through other methods most likely negated.  Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the increased costs of managing health care would dwarf all savings from streamlining other aspects. 

The intimidating thing about Baumel's Cost Disease is that it applies to education and all forms of government.  The more rules and regulations piled on will increase expenses that will never go down.  Eventually, you get to a place where you can't afford any of it.  Sound familiar?

Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

A Suprising Newspaper Promotion

You would never see this in the USA these days.  The Daily Telegraph is giving away a voucher to pick up a free 1/72 Revell Spitfire Mk. II kit in the Saturday editon and another in the Sunday Telegraph for a 1/72 Revell Hurricane Mk. 1!  This warms my heart as it should any scale model builder and I hope parents take advantage of this opportunity across the pond.  Those two fighters were the backbone of the Royal Air Force in WWII, so a great chance at a history lesson is there besides teaching the joys of model building.

If such a thing were done here, it likely would cause a bunch of gray haired gentlemen to fight over the newspapers, I'm sad to say. The loss of hobbies where boys use their hands has been one of the more distressing changes in our society, as more passive forms of entertainment have taken over. You don't see that many youngsters building kits, they would rather be playing video games or watching movies.

As soon as my room is repaired and everything moved back in, I'll be eagerly getting back to finishing some kits myself.

Getting Closer to Real Transformers

This is a portable shelter that sets itself up with a push of a button.  Interesting to see if they get the costs down, I can think of quite a few applications for it from disasters to military.  I particularly liked the idea of it as a classroom for disaster stricken areas.

A Truly Useless Idiot

Sometimes there will be a public figure that gathers a following with rhetoric and positions that sound reasonable, even if you don't agree with them.  Then at a later point, the mask will come off and they will be revealed as nutcases or evil manipulators of the truth.

I haven't decided which Pat Buchanan is or if he is both.  But it is clear that he has very strong fascist leanings with his continued attempts to rewrite the history of WWII and Adolph Hitler in particular. There are so many things wrong with his statements in this article that I barely know where to begin.

First off, Hitler did want war, trying to make him out to be a peacenik who was forced to invade Poland is utterly deranged.  The British escape at Dunkirk enraged him as a failure to crush his enemy, he didn't let the troops escape.  The only reasons he tried peace attempts with Britain was due to his plans to double cross Stalin and invade the Soviet Union -- Adolf didn't want a two front war because of the drain on materials and troops. His dream of succeeding where Napoleon failed drove his foolish attack on the Soviets.

Then there is the farcical question about the Luftwaffe only having twin engine bombers.  The Nazi scientists were working on and did have four engine bomber designs, but they were at a low priority.  Why?  Simple answer:  they planned on having captured airstrips to fly their bombers from thanks to the blitzkrieg attacks being so successful at taking land.  The twin engine bombers were perfectly suited to this, where the four engine bombers needed large airstrips, as the US Army Air Force found out in the Pacific and England. Hitler's plans were concentrated on continental Europe and I often wonder what horrors would have happened if he's only had the one front war he expected.

Buchanan is either an outright liar or insane to be pushing this garbage, though history shows that both conditions are not mutually exclusive.  What is apparant is that Buchanan is a neo-Nazi, not just a sympathizer, but the full blown fascist that haunted the 20th Century.

He should be accorded no respect and his viewpoints widely publicized so that people will know what he really is.

Seventy Years Ago in Poland

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland in an act that would eventually plunge Earth into a second world war. The evils of socialism were fully unleashed at that point, with Hitler the fascist and Stalin the communist agreeing to split the country.  While this went on, Great Britain and France dithered about going to war, despite their alliance with Poland that required them to. 

So why did they dither?  I always thought Chamberlain was simply a weak fool and this article in the Telegraph reinforces that view.  I would submit that weakness is always rewarded with force, especially when dealing with dictators and I am watching the same behavior with Obama in his foreign dealings. Look for the violent and dangerous men of the world to take advantage of that in the years to come.

Is a New Concorde Needed?

Ran into this photo gallery at the Telegraph depicting renderings of a proposed super sonic transport (SST) being developed by Supersonic Aerospace International.  It is a pretty bird aimed at the business class traveler, essentially a Mach 1.6 private jet that is quiet enough to be used at more airports than the old Concorde SST.  Given the immense costs of fuel used to fly any "super cruise" plane, I don't see a valid market for it during hard economic times.  Sure there are some sheiks out there who would love such a toy, but even they have felt the pinch the last year. Unless there is a huge turnaround in the global economy in the next decade, the timing of the aircraft will be poor.

Interestingly, Lockheed's Skunkworks designed the 'QSST', or Quiet SST, plane. The lack of afterburners should reduce takeoff noise considerably, but the F-22A Raptor pilots have found that it is more economical to use afterburners to reach supersonic speeds and then throttle back to cruise.  It will require a lot more fuel pushing through the so called "sound barrier" of denser air from what they've said.

You can visit the home page of SAI here and get more information.

It would make a great model kit though, look at those lines!

Another False Flag Operation

In Denver, the Democratic Party Headquarters had its windows smashed in and efforts were made to blame Tea Party protesters.  So who actually got arrested?  Someone who had been on the payroll of an SEIU front group.  That vandal is no conservative and the question is being raised over what the local Democratic chair new about this.

Part of the problem the conservatives and libertarians have had understanding the opposition is comprehending that the end justifies the means to the left.  To some degree, they intellectually get that the other side lies and even the relativism involved, but they fail to understand just how far they will go to achieve their goals.  When you suffer from ethical relativism in addition to moral relativism, anything goes to win.  That includes posing as the other side to frame them for bad behavior.

Ironically, it would be a relief if Maurice had a grievance with the Democrats and did this for revenge of some kind, but I doubt that will be the case.  Instead, the political situation in the country continues to deteriorate and I think we'll be seeing a lot more unrest as the far left get frustrated.  Opposition is not something they handle well, much like adolescents.  With generations never growing up and raising following generations to be perpetual teenagers, we'll be seeing a lot more stupid acts such as this one.

Large and Small

Been an interesting couple of days in the news, so more links that caught my eye:

It has often surprised me how I find stories being reported in the UK on events in the USA that aren't getting a lot of attention, ones that should be.  Take designer children for instance.  I had no clue this was actually being done, now I find the specter of eugenics rearing its ugly head again reported in a foreign newspaper.  The narcisissm and selfishness of people is astounding, allowing immoral acts like this to be profitable.  Simply wrong and not good for our culture.

I refuse to "tweet." For those unfamiliar with the term, it is posting short little snippets on Twitter.  If Twitter (actually all texting) isn't a sign of the dumbing down of the West, I don't know what is.  Now it is being compromised, just like MySpace and Facebook have, with worm attacks. While not as severe, it shows the inherent weakness of social networking sites to data theft.  I'm on Facebook and never warmed to it due to the triviality of the atmosphere, so my checking in is getting more infrequent. Frankly, it is a stultifyingly boring time waster.

Two years ago, Rushford, MN flooded and amongst the losses was the Tenborg Community Center.  It was a great place to hold political conventions and meetings, located at a reasonable distance for people from Fillmore, Houston, and Winona counties.  I grew fond of the place and was saddened by it becoming a total loss, when I'd hoped it would be rebuilt or at least replace by a new one.  Now it looks very much like the financial disaster of our time is making it unlikely, unless help from private enterprise enters the picture. That's too bad, as Rushford is a good location.

Things could be worse. At least I don't have a former neighbor trying to blow me up with a mail bomb.  Even small towns have weird things like this happening these days, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by Houston, MN getting its share.  Fortunately, no one was harmed, but still...

Quote of the Day (or month as often as I've posted)

Two weeks ago, town hallers were supposed to be members of the Brooks Brothers brigade, Astroturf division. Now they’re well-armed anti-government militias. At this rate, they’ll soon be android ninjas with laser vision. Wait, strike that. They’ll be really racist android ninjas with laser vision.

Read the rest of Jonah Goldberg's piece on the administration playing the race card repeatedly.

Raining Friday Links

Don't know if I'm up to posting a real essay today, as I'm waiting for the rain to stop to mix a mad scientist brew of sand/concrete and Sheetrock plaster to repair the hole in my bedroom ceiling. Finally tore all the plaster down from the water damaged areas and was pleased to find the lath in very good condition, with only some mold. One repaired cheap sprayer and some bleach water later it was left to dry overnight. I suppose I should take photos of it now for the classic before and after shots -- that's assuming my improvised plastering methods work!

While I assume only bots are reading this blog, I'm going to start posting links to things I find interesting on the Net in case any human eyeballs ever find their way here.

First up, a video link to Milton Friedman on Donahue back in 1979. Friedman lays out why only capitalism works very succinctly and to great effect. He also quickly lays out why government isn't the answer.

Bolstering that last point -- the automakers are having to back the "Cash for Clunkers" program. It is a fine example of how the U.S. government runs things that they are having to be bailed out of their own stimulus program. GM being involved makes this even more surreal.

"Peace of Mind. Piece of Happiness." That's the slogan for the Japanese government's new ad campaign to sell their national debt to their populace. The Telegraph rather waggishly asks what slogan the UK could use.

On a more local note, Marty Seifert was in La Crescent as part of his campaign for Governor of Minnesota. I hadn't realized the number declaring to run was in the dozens! On the Republican side, I think he has the edge at the moment, coming off of successfully holding the caucus together in the Minnesota House of Representatives during the last session. Time will tell, of course.

The Rochester Tea Party Patriots will be holding a Health Care Freedom Rally Saturday at Noon in Rochester. Click on the link for details!

Related to Tea Party activities and health care concerns, across the Mississippi Representative Ron Kind D-WI had 800 people to deal with at his townhall in Tomah Thursday. From the article, it sounds like he got an earful. This shows how more intensely opposed the public has become to government expansion of health care. I don't remember this kind of civic involvement back during HillaryCare. Of course, the country wasn't broke back then and didn't have a possible second Great Depression looming.

On a lighter note, I've been watching how people slavishly buy the latest Apple iPod or iPhone when there are usually superior products for much less money out there. What I wasn't aware of is how technologically inferior products on the US market are compared to overseas. Just another sign of America's decay, as the article points out our falling rate of broadband penetration. Don't know if I agree on the "Wal-Mart factor" so much, I think being an 80% service economy might play into this. Or maybe it is that we have so many wide open spaces to play with that we don't need gadgets for entertainment as much as crowded Asia.

As I've gotten older, the less enchanted I've become with intellectual property rights. It seems that instead of coming up with more new and innovative product, individuals and corporations want to keep making money off of old things. With the rise of file sharing then torrenting and piracy of music, movies, television, books, and software this is surely being eroded. While I don't advocate piracy, I do think there needs to be some limits. Now the biggest torrent site, the Pirate Bay, is preparing to go legal. Reading the comments tells me that things have gone past being just college students looting music and there is a rebellion against any regulation of content. How much of it is ideological and how much is just greed is the question.

Last two articles were found on Blue's News, a gaming and tech website that occasionally has interesting oddball items.

The AP Reports on Consumer Prices

Boring sounding, right?

Well, if you are concerned with the economy, it stops being boring once you hit a specific line in the article.

Selected quotes from the article:

Prices fell 2.1 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest annual decline since a similar drop in the period ending in January 1950. Most of the past year's decline reflects energy prices falling 28.1 percent since peaking in July
2008.

Well that doesn't sound so bad, the high energy prices inhibited any chance of a recovery.

Some economists have expressed concerns that the economy could be headed toward a dangerous period of falling prices, something the U.S. has not experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Okay, that isn't positive sounding. Deflation has been a worry of mine for some time now.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday reported its first-ever drop in same-store sales for its overall U.S. business for the quarter. The world's largest retailer said a big factor was price deflation, primarily in grocery products like dairy.

If Wal-Mart is taking a hit, things are bad. They are the last redoubt of the consumer being squeezed for cash. Meanwhile, desperate efforts to prop up dairy prices are occurring in Wisconsin, as input costs are far outstripping returns. Are our dairy producers the canary in the coal mine?

The longest recession since World War II has kept prices in check as wage pressures disappeared because of heavy job layoffs. Companies have been unable to boost prices because of weak demand.

Now this is really not good, as we are a service driven economy with 80% of it being the service industry. With a good chunk of the spending vanishing due to debt, unemployment, and depressed wages, the main fuel for the engine of the economy is in short supply. We don't have manufacturing to pull us out of this one, or an influx of new workers like women after WWII.

The gist of the article is that falling prices have reigned in inflation and how great a job the Fed has done. Me, I'm concerned, as I've been watching for deflation as a sign of another Great Depression. Time will tell if these are warning signs or just bumps in the road. Better buckle your seat belts!

Oh Joy, History Repeats Itself

When Hitler decided he wanted to invade Poland, he sent SS troops dressed as Polish soldiers to attack German outposts on the border. With this false flag attack, the Nazi regime had their justification to go to war -- after all, those villainous Poles had attacked the Fatherland! So how does this relate to the title of the post?

I believe history repeats itself as variations of a theme, as composers have done their own takes on other compositions. Much of the tune stays the same, but enough changes to make the new version distinct. Today we have a struggle against an ever encroaching government and those who wish to keep their constitutional rights. The current administration is a product of the Chicago political machine, which means anything is allowed against opponents. Think mafia, because organized crime is a big part of the machine.

So we've seen SEIU goons beat Ken Gladney down and shove a camera in the face of a woman capturing their thuggery. That's the obvious behavior that the ObamaCare supporters had hoped would go the other way for propaganda purposes. Then there is the more sly method of propaganda staging.

Much ado has been made by Nancy Pelosi and others about the swastika's and Hitler pictures at the Tea Parties, with an inference of the protesters being Nazi racists themselves. It has been carefully worded to make that impact, while retaining the core of truth that the signs were depicting Obama and company as the Nazi's. At the Tea Parties I've attended, I haven't seen any and the comparison has been to the communists. That isn't to say there haven't been comparisons or signs elsewhere.

But look at this, we have a bonafide false flag operation being run by Democratic Representative John Dingall's supporters. Having someone carry that around and then hand out lit pieces for Dingall afterward smacks of complete arrogance. Or is it just the security of knowing the media will cover up for you? Still, the purpose is clear, to justify continued verbal demonization of the opposition to the health care bill.

So we have false flag operations going on, as I'm sure this isn't an isolated case, plus we unions being used to pack townhalls to prevent dissent. It may be the Chicago way, but it isn't the American way.

It's like they want a war.

Thugocracy

You know that the ancient Chinese curse of "May you live in interesting times" is true when the unions start rolling out to suppress free speech while claiming protesters are "attacking America." You can't make that kind of idiocy up, though you can satirize the mass media instructions/marching orders given out of Washington. Of course, in the left's view of the 1st Amendment, it is only valid when they protest and when confronted with an opposing view, they are entitled to slap down the opposition. Or just close the doors on anyone who wasn't snuck in the side door in an effort to pack a townhall meeting.

Hey, if someone opposes the Obamacare bill, the White House has asked that people submit their name to a list they are archiving. “These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Nothing intimidating about that!

Then there is the lie about astroturfing (creating fake grassroots, a specialty of the Chicago machine's Axelrod) being spread, with insurance companies, Fox news, or the RNC organizing too well dressed protesters. Which is very silly indeed, as I have been to multiple Tea Party rallies and they are made of a wide political range of people indeed, including Republican haters. Top that off with Republican "insiders" ie: the reigning political class in the party, aka country club Republicans thinking the protests useless and plebian and it becomes clear who is really astroturfing. But don't forget, it is organized mobs causing all the fuss, according to the Democrats.

All of this is like playing with matches in a drought stricken forest. With the ever increasing reach of the federal government into literally all aspects of everyday life, the American people are getting more than uncomfortable. There is a sense that too much control is being taken away from individuals, aggravated by the severe economic downturn that shows no real sign of abatement. That is the motivation for these protests and the people who attend them.

In Discourses, Nico Machiavelli wrote that peoples are "extraordinarily revengeful toward those who have destroyed their liberty." He relates an account of the city of Corcyra in Greece during the Pelopennesian war. Ancient Greece broke between two camps, the Athenians and the Spartans, with the people of Corcyra being torn politically. The upper class nobles wanted an alliance with Sparta while the people wanted freedom and alignment with Athens. Subsequently, the upper class took over and instituted dictatorial rule that lasted until the Athenians were able to render aid to the people of the city.

The populace rose up and imprisoned the nobles in one prison, then set about executing them in cruel ways. Of course, that caused a prison uprising which ended when a crowd of the people marched on the prison. They collapsed its walls and upper story on the nobles to crush them.

Machiavelli concludes, "We thus see how true it is that a liberty which you have actually had taken away is avenged with much greater ferocity than is a liberty which someone has only tried to take away."

At the moment, with cap and trade passed and Obamacare being rushed through, people are waking up to the threat of their freedom to make choices being taken away. That's dangerous enough to cause trouble on its on. Adding in union thugs and a refusal to listen to constituents to the mix takes it from being a threat to an actual denial of liberty. If that threshold of perception is crossed, things can explode.

And one last time for the confused, please click on the difference between grass roots and astroturfers.