Limited Government

Why should there be any limits on the power that government can have over us? This is mostly for you leftists out there.

Either government should have absolute limits or it is only limited by its whims.

I want to know what you folks think.

You'll have my explanation later.

Dueling Bloggers

Moonbatty gets two mentions in a row. She poses the question of whether or not consenting adults should be allowed to challenge each other to a duel to the death.

More importantly, she wonders which of the following 'nutty right bloggers' as she called us would win if we all dueled each other:

Difster (That's Me!)
Citizen Grim
JimmyB
Macstansbury

Here's my take on the situation:

Citizen Grim appears only to be armed with a video camera (see his profile pic). It also seems he’s played a lot of first person shooter games which could give one some unrealistic expectations about combat. He’s young and inexperienced. I’d pick him off last.

JimmyB. (according to his blog) is a life long NRA member but a cursory search of his blog turned up no evidence of military training. In a four way duel I'd take him down first.

Macstansbury has been complaining about getting old and falling apart. His reflexes are probably slower than mine. I could find no evidence on his blog of weapons or military experience. Still, there is a degree of toughness that comes with age. He'd be in my sights next.

I have USMC infantry training and I know how to use a weapon. I don't go to the range as often as I'd like but my pistol is an extension of my hand and I frequently do quick sight exercises. Yeah, I’m getting a little older but a couple of minor events have shown me recently that my reflexs are as fast as they’ve ever been. I see in slow motion in dangerous situations. I suppose I could call it Matrix Vision.

I here by declare the duel of ‘Nutty Right Wing Bloggers’ to be Difster.

In the interest of fairness and honesty here are a couple of bloggers I wouldn't be entirely comfortable dueling:

Bane
Kim DuToit
and probably
Vox

I'd sure want them watching my back in a firefight though.

Cast your vote in the comments.

Church and State

The following is a response I wrote on Moonbatty's blog about the separation of church and state. References to what other people have said are a response to the comments made on her blog.

The Constitution says nothing about the separation of church and state. It's a term that was first used by Jefferson in a letter to a Baptist church. What Jefferson meant by the phrase is that the government would not interfere with the church.

What the Constitution does say is simply that the government is not supposed to establish a religion. It simply means that the government is not supposed to have an officially enacted church organization. Examples of countries that do are England, Norway, Iran and many more.

What the Constitution says about establishment of a religion had NOTHING to do with ENDORSEMENT or RECOGNITION of religion, particularly the Christian religion in its various forms and denominations.

From day one, the very people who wrote the Establishment clause endorsed the role of Christianity in the government. That wall that Jefferson talked about was only supposed to operate one way. As was mentioned above, pronouncements of days of prayers were there from the beginning.

The government was not meant to be devoid of religion. It was never imagined that the government wouldn't or shouldn't pass laws based on Christian principles.

Gay marriage is another issue altogether, but it's only a corrupt government that gives legal credence to marriage at all; it's another method of control. My religion should define whether I am married or not, not the law.

If it were not for the fact that government has 'legalized' marriage at all, we wouldn't even have this debate because other than it being enacted in to law, the majority of the public would not accept the change in definition of marriage from being between a man and a woman to 'two people'.

Historically speaking, there is far more precedent for polygamy than there is for homosexual 'marriage'. Homosexual marriage is not marriage at all, it is something else. Homosexuals can form relationships etc. including legal contracts that, in essence give the same rights as marriage already but it's still not marriage because marriage means something other than what they are practicing.

Back on topic.

The government passes laws based on Christian principles but it does not force anyone to practice a particular religion. Someone above mentioned that removing parking meter restrictions accommodateto accomodate church parking is forcing people to practice religion. HUH? That's asinine. Do you also refuse to take Christmas off of work because it's a Christian holiday?

The government is perfectly within its right to ENDORSE religious concepts. Let's say that Congress tried to pass a law making Ramadan a national holiday. They would end up getting kicked out of office the next election or even getting recalled. The American people don't WANT Ramadan to be an official holiday. They do however want Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving (a religious holiday) to be officially recognized. If you want that changed, petition your Congressman. This applies on the Fed and State level. It's simply not going to happen. As long as the government doesn't establish Islam as a religion, any recognition it might give to its creeds is not unconstitutional regardless of how offended I would be by such a recognition. As near as I can tell, being offensive is still legal in this country.

All that being said, I believe that 'faith based initiatives' are a really bad idea. This is primarily due to the fact that the way the government operates now is already outside of Constitutional boundaries and these initiatives are just extensions of unconstitutional programs. The government shouldn't hand out money to churches for social programs because it shoudn't be handing out money to ANYBODY for social programs. These faith based initiatives are nothing more than socialism wrapped in religious garments. They need to stop. But it's not the religion that's the problem, the programs shouldn't exist to begin with.

We Won This Battle

...but we haven't won the war.

Harriet Meirs (aka Creepy McCrypto) has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court.

Democrats accused Bush of bowing to the radical right wing of the party.

Do I expect Bush to nominate someone who will be a strict constructionist on the Constitution? No, not really.

Just be thankful that this woman never even made to the confirmation hearings.

Oh The Irony

Bane posted a link to Splitting Images, a website of celebrity look-alikes.

It reminded me of a family I knew growing up. The dad in the family could have the twin brother of Sammy Davis Jr. except that he was white. His son could have been the twin brother of Eddie Murphy and he white also of course.

The irony in the whole situation is that they were racists and probably would become violent if you had told them who they looked like.

Shut Down The Schools

The public school system needs to be de-funded, the property sold off and a good portion of the teachers executed. Ok, not executed, perhaps just a good Singapore caning is in order.

Seriously though, we need to shut down the schools, or, as I like to call them, "Collectivist Education Camps."

Could someone PLEASE show me where in the Constitution of The United States of America, it says that the Federal Government is authorized to provide tax money to fund education for anyone.

'Money For Schools!' has been the clarion call of the socialists for many decades now and things are only getting worse. Is it even remotely possible that public funding of education is a fundamentally flawed idea to begin with?

Let's assume for a moment that I had the power to shut down all the public schools one year from today and taxes were reduced by the current amount of education spending:

1. The cost of private education would plummet - Thousands of private schools would pop up all over the country and competition for those students would be in full force. Just as there are restaurants of varying quality and price, the same would hold true of schools. There would still be expensive elite schools and there would be cheap private schools. I'd also wager that there would be a number of charity funded free schools. Private schools, unlike their public counterpart, keep the administrative burden low to maximize profit.

2. The quality of education would rise significantly- Rather than sticking your child in a 'one-size-fits-all' institution, parents could send their children to schools that suit their needs. Do you have an extremely bright child? Send her to a school for the gifted. Does your kid need a bit of extra help? Send her to a school that specializes in taking extra time to review concepts. There will be a special program that will fit just about every need out there. How do I know this? Because there is profit in it. Also, the schools will not tolerate students who are disruptive or downright criminal. The other customers (parents of the children) will complain and a business has to listen to its customers or they will go elsewhere. This will generally have a net effect of better behavior in all children because parents aren't going to tolerate their children continually getting kicked out of school.

3. Teacher salaries will rise - Yes, I said they will rise. Teachers will be paid according to their ability to teach. Lousy teachers will be forced out of the industry and schools will compete (there's that word again) for the best teachers. Average teacher salary will rise.

4. The economy will improve - After a generation of kids has been educated without the 'benefit' of government education, we will have a more productive class of workers who are better able to compete with China, India and other emerging economies. As it is, we are losing ground fast. Added to that will be the reduced social burden because properly educated people tend to be less dependent on government assistance so we end up with less people receiving and more people able to give.

5. More freedom - This is the most important aspect of my whole program. With a generation of children not receiving 13 years of socialist indoctrination, we would end up with a nation of people who are not likely to tolerate overt government control of their lives as adults. The resultant political change could spark a revolution. The government should not be controlling our children and the longer we allow it to happen, the further down the road to destruction we will go. Many of you will not send your kids to a public school and some of you are homeschooling. Your children will have an advantage as adults that is incalculable. They might very well be the leaders of the next revolution.

There you go kids, rip it apart. Your objections will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly with the weapons of cold hard logic and reason.

Difster's Rules Of The Road

1. Put on your turn signal BEFORE you start changing lanes, not when you're half way through your lane change.
2. If you're in the car pool lane, go faster than the traffic in the fast lane next to you. If you don't want to do that, there is no point in being in the car pool lane. Furthermore there is no requirement that you drive in the car pool lane because you're not alone in the car.
3. I expect to get cut off once in a while but don't give me the finger because you cut me off; it makes no sense. I didn't cause you to cut me off.
4. Unless you are an on-duty law enforcement officer in his proper jurisdiction, DO NOT attempt to regulate my speed by speeding up to block my lane change. I WILL cut you off and/or force you out of your lane.
5. The cost of your vehicle has no bearing whatsoever on your privilege to use the road. I give no more deference to a Mercedes than I do to a Dodge Neon.
   
6. When pulling out of a parking lot, please accelerate. You're on the thoroughfare now, parking lot speeds no longer apply.
7. If you are an Asian woman over the age of 40, your driving privileges are immediately and permanently revoked.
   
8. If you are over the age of 70, your driving privileges are immediately and permanently revoked without regard to race, gender or sexual predilection.
9. Don't get mad at the guys on motorcycles that split lanes. The space between cars IS a lane to someone on a bike. If you open your door to scare them, expect to get the living crap beat out of you.
10. Just freaking pay attention, the life you save may be mine.

***UPDATE: Proof that I was right on #8

Matildah Is On Crack

Yep, Matildah has a serious crack problem. I told her to quit but she keeps telling me no.

I know I shouldn't be sharing this kind of gossip but I'm just mean. Go read her blog, it will be readily apparant that she's on crack.

Everyone go tell her, "CRACK KILLS!"

Sadaam Hussein's Trial

Sadaam Hussein goes on trial tomorrow. I am providing you with a translated copy of the court record IN ADVANCE!

Judge: You are charged with crimes against humanity and being mean. How do you plead?

Hussein: Not Guilty!

Judge: You are guilty as charged and your sentence is death. Bailiff? Shoot the man.

Bailiff: Yes your honor. ***BANG***

Judge: That concludes today's procedings. Someone get the janitor in here.

Me Shock You Long Time

This is just weird. The Landover Baptist Board of Directors approved a $2.5 million budget to approve a 4 year investigation in to the Ab Toner, an abdominal exercise device that uses electrical pulses to stimulate the muscles and simulate exercise.

The reason they are investigating this product is that children are apparently using this device as a sexual gratification tool.

I would think a Christian ministry would have better things to do with their time and money.

Religion In Public Schools

Listen people, stop griping about the oppression of Christians in the public school system.

There should be no days off for Christmas or any other holiday. There shouldn't be any days off for any other religious expression. Quit expecting the government system to bow to your/our Christian beliefs. If you don't like the way it is being run, vote with your feet. Get your kids out; it's not that hard.

Get used to the fact that the government, even in George Bush's 'compassionate conservative' America, is not beholden to the Christian Collective. The school system in particular is founded on Marxist principles and should not be expected to adhere to Christian principles in any way shape or form. Just because the school system has done so in the past out of their need to accrue the power they wanted is no reason to assume that they did so willingly nor that they will continue to do so in the future.

Get over it and get your kids out.

We Know This Already

SUV sales are down significantly in the face of higher gas prices and the government didn't even have to pass any laws to make it happen. I would hope most of you already understand why.

Here's the article.

10,000

I put my Site Meter up about last March. As of this writing I have 9,970 visitors. Some time on Sunday I will have had my 10,000th visitor. I realize that isn't much. I know Vox gets 2,000 visitors a day but I'll take what I can get. **It looks like Alli, from Fox Rants was my 10,000th visitor. Her prize is......NOTHING! Congratultions Alli.

It's you people that keep me blogging. What I write, I write for myself, but if no one else was reading it, I would slack off.

BillyD asked people the other day how people found his blog and why they keep coming back I wonder the same thing sometimes. And all you lurkers out there, speak up, I'd love to hear from you too.

I write what I write for me, but I'd like to know if there is anything particularly annoying about my blog or if there is something in particular you wish I would do more of? No, I am not changing the picture either, that's off limits. Anything else is fair game though and I will not be offended by any criticism.

Thanks for stoping by and I hope you keep coming back.

My Blogroll

I would like to direct your attention to the list of blogs I have linked to on the right. I've added a few people recently so go pay them a visit.

Drop in to Eaglewood's Nest for a while and let him feed you from his gullet.

Insolublog will make milk squirt out of your nose, even if you're not drinking any.

Go kick back at Katey's Kafe.

Or, drop in to Peakah's Pub and have a brew.

After you rest, you can go help relieve Rocinante's Burden. You might have known Roci from his previous incarnation as 'Insert-Name-Here' who was a regular at Vox's blog among others.

Perhaps you'd like a little Salt in your wounds.

Somebody got Triton Unleashed and he went all thermo-nuclear on me.

As if you're not already seething about illegal immigration! I VDARE you to visit that blog.

I also added the Alliance of Free Blogs (and most humbly applied for acceptance to same) with the required fake quote from Glenn Reynolds at the top. Joining the Alliance is just a shameless ploy to work my way up the TTLB Ecosystem.

***one more thing: If you have put me on your blogroll and I don't have you on mine, let me know.

Stupid Christians

My co-worker, ZR is a MySpace user (a sad bunch of individuals I know) and one of his friends posted a message with the title, "School is cancelled."

When you click on the message, there was a picture of Jesus on the cross with a message below it that says, "While Jesus was dying on the cross, He was thinking of you. If you don't repost this message, you are denying Him."

ZR, who is not a Christian thought it was dumb that he would post that with a misleading headline so he told me about it. Given that I am more inclined to logic and reason than superstition, I agreed that it was really dumb.

I told him to send his friend an email that said, "If you believe in God, send $100 to my PayPal account. If you don't, you're denying him." His friend did not give him any money of course and hopefully, the kid learned that superstitious threats are not a great way to spread the Gospel. We may never know.

Why do so many of us Christians fail to use logic and reason when attempting to tell people about our faith?

VDARE

Bryanna Bevins of VDARE was kind enough to include my comments to her in her latest article and link back to my blog.

I just learned of Bryanna last week when I found out about the illegal aliens who are accused of raping a 14 year old girl and I blogged about my findings here.

I welcome all of the VDARE readers who visit my not-so-humble blog and I hope you come back often.

Bryanna has also agreed to do a blog interview so you can all look forward to that as soon as her schedule permits. There are a couple of tough questions in there. I'm not going to go easy on her just because I happen to agree with her most of the time.

Coulter Hits A Hat Trick

Ann Coulter continues to turn on Bush and the GOP over Bush's picks for the Supreme Court.

Read Ann Coulter's last three articles starting with her article from 2 weeks ago.

Bob Shrum With A Good Cause
This is what 'advice and consent' means
Does This Law Degree Make My Resume Look Fat?

Keep up the good work Ann!

Agreeing With A Terrorist

Aaron Klien with WorldNet Daily interviewed Hamas chief Mamahoud Al-Zahar.

Yes, Al-Zahar is a murderous bastard who needs to die but I agree with a couple of things he said in the interview.

WND asked Al-Zahar: "If you knew President Bush were reading this interview, what would you have to say to him?"

Part of Zahar's answer was: "Therefore, I say that President Bush puts in danger American interests when he chooses to fight against Islam and describes Islam in a negative way that makes him face 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. It is stupid that a person decides to push the West and Islam into a confrontation. Doing so puts in danger his own interests."

Although Al-Zahar and I look at things from a different perspective, he reaches the correct conclusion about Bush. We have been warned against foreign entanglements from the founding of the country. If Islam becomes a threat here at home then we need to do something about it but it's not a problem yet and the Muslims are reproducing faster than we are. I'm not saying we should cater to them either of course, but we could simply ignore them as a matter of foreign (but not domestic) policy.

Al-Zahar makes a thinly veiled threat that we're headed for a major confrontation with Islam and he of course thinks that Islam will win but the substance of his point is still valid in that is truly is stupid to force the West in to a confrontation with Islam.

As for the rest of the article? Like I said, the bastard needs to die, preferably while immersed in a vat of pigs blood.

The Police Are Always Right

Fox News reports the beating of 65 year old black man in New Orleans.

Read the story, who do you believe?

The Sharpton's and the Jesse Jackon's of the world are going to be whipped in to a frenzy over this because the guy was black and the cops were white. Could it be racially motivated? Sure. Could it just be a naked abuse of police power against a helpless citizen? That would be my guess.

Options Trading

I have a new hobby. I'm learning about options trading. I haven't put any money in to the market yet though. There are two reasons for that.

1. I don't have any.
2. Until I develop and/or copy a system and paper trade on it for a while, I'm not going to risk anything.

On the upside, I'm learning about some very interesting things such as Fibbonacci retracements, stochastics and synthetic calls.

When I run across something that I think will be particularly interesting to the general reader, I'll post it here. Perhaps I'll encounter some appropriate analogies to real life.

I Hate Backgammon

I think backgammon hates me more though. I don't mind losing a game of skill, but it's really frustrating to continually lose game that involves a high element of chance.

I actually just learned to play it the other day but I'm giving up on it. Just like cribbage or any of these other games where about half of it has to do with the hand you're dealt or the die that are cast. On those games, the odds always seem to favor the other person. My dad and my brother are exactly the opposite. It's strange.

I'll stick to chess, there is no luck involved in chess, either you make good moves or you don't; there is no middle ground.

I'll never get back the 4 hours of my life that I just spent playing that dumb game.

White Farm Workers?

Some farm workers in Collier County, FL are accused of gang raping a 14 year old girl. Before proceding, please follow this link to the Sherrif's report. One of the VDARE bloggers was kind enough to compile their pictures here.

Please notice in the police report that for each of the accused it says W/M/age.

So, I did the only responsible thing and called the Collier County Sherrif's Dept. and spoke to Deputy Heslipt (spelling unconfirmed) and asked why these men were listed as being white in ethnicity. The Deputy informed me that there is no place on the form for Hispanic. I also asked him if he could confirm the immigration status of the accused and he could not.

I went on to tell him that these statistics get reported to the state and to the DOJ and then asked whether listing them as white would skew the racial statistics for criminal reporting.

The Deputy put me on hold, came back about two minutes later and asked if he could get my name and phone number so the evening shift supervisor could call me back later.

I will keep you updated.

Thank you to 'tviper' over on Vox's blog who linked to the VDARE story in the comments.

Corporate Stupidity

My boss has a box trailer that he stores at an RV lot. It's a 24 foot car hauler but he just keeps other stuff in it. It's worth about $6000. The lot he keeps it in says that he has to have insurance on it. He thought it was already insured and it wasn't. Fine, call the insurance company.

First, they tell him that he has to bring the trailer to their office so they can make sure it's not damaged. Well, that sounds reasonable I suppose, but what a hassle. It would basically cost him most of a day to arrange the stuff in there so it didn't fly around, hook it up, haul it to the insurance office and then take it back and unhook it. I forgot to mention the best part, his premium is only $10.00/year. Yes, that's $10.00.

After going around in circles with them, the manager finally says that he can just take some pictures of it and send them in. We went down to the lot and I held up the newspaper for the day up to the trailer and we took some pictures. The newspaper was to prove that the pictures were current. He send them in.

Nope, not good enough, we need you to bring it in. He flatly refused. He finally got someone to agree to come down to the lot and look at it. Which they did and the trailer is in perfect shape so there was no problem.

His prorated insurance premium for the year? $1.

Who is this insurance company? Well, let's just say it's not ZZZ.

It's The Drug War Stupid

It appears that the current case before the SCOTUS regarding the assisted suicide law Oregon passed has more to do with the drug war than death.

Read this story carefully and see.

**Yes, I know, three posts in one day, something must be wrong with me.

And For His Next Mistake...

Alan Greenspan is retiring in less than four months and we still have no idea who might succeed him as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bush is hinting at nominating an unknown for the position. From the article: Bush has made it clear that he wants to pick a candidate with whom he has some personal rapport, as he did when he nominated Miers, the White House counsel and a longtime associate, for the Supreme Court. This gives me no comfort whatsoever.

As far as I'm concerned, the only candidate that Bush should nominate is one who vows to shut down the Federal Reserve. I know that's not going to happen, but I can't imagine that whoever gets the nod will even come close to implementing policies to curtail the runaway devaluation of the dollar. We are headed for disaster and it probably matters very little who is at the helm when the ship goes down.

I nominate Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams for the position.

Gimme A Break

The police were called in Rhode Island, because two 6 year old boys were punching each other out over a pacifier.

What is a 6 year old boy doing with a pacifier? Maybe the other boy was just trying to keep the other kid from continuing his embarassment.

I may be jumping to conclusions here but I'm guessing that there is no hint of a father because I can't imagine any father allowing his six year old son to suck on a binky.

On another note, the article says the mother called the police to have the fight documented so she wouldn't get accused of abuse for the scratches on her son's face. Perhaps there is a little history there?

The whole story just stinks of an over-reliance on government intervention to solve problems.

George Will Turns On Bush

George Will has some harsh words for Bush over the Miers nomination among other things. Miers just doesn't have the requisite experience to be a Supreme Court Justice.

Bush promised us Supreme Court nominees in the mold of Scalia and Thomas and he has clearly broken that promise. I'm just glad I didn't vote for him. Still, he made a promise to the American people and it's a big one.

Even if there is a slim possibility that Miers turns out to be a fine jurist, there is no reason to confirm her. I agree with the columnist, she's the wrong pick.

Orson Scott Card Reviews Serenity

Actually, he review everything but go read this article.

Is it possible he might be offering Joss Whedon a shot at directing Ender's Game? That would make an awesome movie it was done right.

Movie Review: Serenity

Serenity is based on the Sci Fi Channel series (imported from Fox) Firefly. I've only seen one episode of the show (which I really liked) so I'm not going to offer up a 'compare and contrast' to you.

The movie opens almost immediately with an anti-government sentiment. There are several children sitting at small desks in a peaceful outdoor classroom listening to their teacher praise the Alliance for beating down the rebels who would not submit to Alliance rule. One child asks why they would not submit since the Alliance simply wants peace and prosperity. In the the back of the class there was a little girl by the name of River. Without looking up she says, "Meddling, people just want to be left alone."

To have a movie open up with a line that is the epitome of what all freedom loving people want was really a treat. I knew I was going to like the movie before I saw it, but from that scene I was hooked.

I'm not going to get in to the plot of the movie, just go watch the trailer. I will tell you however that the chemistry between characters was awesome. The dialog had a backwater, hick edge too it that they pulled off very well. The special effects were not over done. The movie was funny and tense and highly entertaining.

I can't think of a better movie with an anti-government message that I've ever seen. Up to this point, the best movie of the year has been Batman, but now it's bumped down a notch. You have to go see this movie. I know Bane has been waiting for it.