And Rightly So!

Ouch.

The Obamas have themselves raised legitimate questions about their love of country. Unfortunately, those legitimate questions have been drowned out at times by illegitimate ones spread by mass e-mails. Those have rightly been called “smears” by the Obama campaign.

But still, in his Monday speech Obama again gave cause to question not his patriotism, but his belief that America is a great nation. He said, “what makes America great has never been its perfection but the belief that it can be made better.”

Really? America isn’t great because of what it is now, but because of what it might become?

They do cause us to ask the questions they claim we have no right to ask. I do question whether he even likes this country. I don’t think he or his Mrs. Messiah are proud of America; in fact I believe they are ashamed. Therefore, in my opinion he has no business in being our President.

HOUSTON — A Texas man who shot and killed two men he suspected of burglarizing his neighbor’s home was cleared in the shootings Monday by a grand jury.

Joe Horn, 62, shot the two men in November after he saw them crawling out the windows of a neighbor’s house in the Houston suburb of Pasadena.

….

“He wasn’t acting like a vigilante,” Lambright said. “He was well within his rights to do what he was doing.”

The men Horn killed, Hernando Riascos Torres, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, were unemployed illegal immigrants from Colombia. Torres was deported to Colombia in 1999 after a 1994 cocaine-related conviction.

As it should be. Had those two men not been committed a criminal act, then they would not have been in a position where Mr. Horn had to make the choice to defend his neighbors property. But since they were undocumented, and unemployed, illegal immigrants, perhaps they were just stealing the property from Americans that other Americans won’t.

But the Fox News story from the AP is pretty factually based without alot of editorializing.

Wait till you read this piece from ABC News commenting on the case. Here are some excerpts:

In the Lone Star state, where the six-gun tamed the frontier, shooting bad guys is a time-honored tradition, and Horn’s case centered on a Texas state law based on the old idea that “a man’s home is his castle.” The “castle law” gives Texans unprecedented legal authority to use deadly force in their homes, vehicles and workplaces. And no longer do they have an obligation to retreat, if possible, before they shoot.

There is nothing I hate worse than some academic or reporter that acts like I should have to runaway from my house and belongings because some goblin scumbag makes the choice to invade and steal. And I highlighted some of the nice editorial comments that definitely show where their biases lie.

Horn fatally shot the burglars, two illegal immigrants from Colombia named Diego Ortiz and Miguel de Jesus. Stephanie Storey, De Jesus’ fiancée, wanted to see Joe Horn prosecuted.

“This man took the law into his own hands,” she said. “He shot two individuals in the back after having been told over and over to stay inside. It was his choice to go outside and his choice to take two lives.”

First of all, Ms. Storey, your illegal immigrant fiance, it was HIS CHOICE to go inside another person’s house and begin commiting crimes. Had he simply gone to work, or been at home with you instead, he’d still be alive. Oh, and BTW, someone please show me the law that the commands of a dispatcher are the law of the land that must be obeyed at all costs….

“In most situations, calling 911 is the best remedy, not calling out for your 9-millimeter,” Diepraam said.

That’s right, because Mr Assistant District Attorney, the police are only 5-10 minutes away when you have seconds to act. Good call douche… good call…

You can go read the rest… but I like the idea that home invaders now have the option to assume room temperature at the home owners request….. And ABC News….. you criminal-loving commies…. suck it….

NEW YORK — The World Trade Center’s owner on Monday scrapped the schedule for the prolonged rebuilding of the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying nearly every project is delayed and over budget and that the latest estimates are unrealistic.

Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, issued a report listing more than a dozen issues that have slowed rebuilding and have raised costs. These included an over-budget transit hub, the process of dismantling a condemned tower where another is going to be built and construction around a city subway line.

…………….

Ward said a committee of developers and government agencies would set new “clear and achievable timelines” by the end of September.

………….

Ward proposed a committee to oversee new timelines that includes private developer Larry Silverstein — in charge of building three of five towers — the Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. rebuilding agency, the mayor’s office, the foundation building the memorial and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Two years ago, in the last year of Pataki’s administration, the agency said it had expedited development at the site by renegotiating a 99-year lease with Silverstein and shifting responsibility for who would build what.

It set clear deadlines and penalties, including $300,000-a-day payments to Silverstein if the agency didn’t deliver land on time. The agency has paid Silverstein over $14 million in penalties after missing those deadlines.

I’ve got an idea, get the government out of the way… if private industry can build it, they will, and in half the time and cost that any government agency says it can…. and guess what…. the government welfare of $300,000 dollars a day paid to the private developer needs to stop. It doesn’t give him one damn incentive to make anything happen himself if he can rake in 14 million in taxpayer dollars… If there was a private contractor that was getting fleeced at the rate of 300,000 grand a day, the land would be available yesteday.

Get all of the damned agencies out of the way and let the private sector fix this…

Here’s an example of how government welfare programs exist just to exist. Remember, all this help comes at a cost to some. And here in NH the costs are going up starting now…

THE GOAL of public assistance programs ought to be helping the truly needy who have nowhere else to turn. The real goal, however, is to enroll as many people as possible, thus justifying the program’s continued existence and expansion.

Take New Hampshire’s primary fuel assistance program, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, for example. It provided aid to more than 35,000 households this past winter. It has firm financial eligibility guidelines. And yet the state’s administrator of the program told the New Hampshire Sunday News last week that families should apply even if they think they are not eligible.

“I talk to people all the time that self-screen,” Celeste Lovett said. “They should not do that.”

Why not? Lovett said people should apply because the state can help them find other assistance, either government aid or private chairty. But there are other reasons.

By federal law, Washington will cut future LIHEAP funding if the state does not use all of the current year’s grant. Every applicant the state can help will in turn help the state justify increased funding next year. Also, Washington provides bonus allotments to states that arrange for additional home heating assistance from other sources. So the state gets more federal aid if it can set up private funding for applicants who don’t get state assistance.

The program contains strong incentives for the state to sign up as many people as possible. So that’s what the state does

IOW, apply for assistance even when you know you don’t qualify- or- NEED it. By doing so, you help the state (government) inflate the numbers, get more funding (funds are OUR tax dollars) and assist more people to free up cash to pay for…cable TV, Internet access, cell phones and the like.

Meanwhile here in NH, our utility bills (for heat, lights and so on) are going up starting today. Any connection?

Feel free to write me in…

Duncan and partner escaping from High-Security Holding Facility

Yep, I’m back. Finished my 8 weeks of fun. And I can habla some espanol un poco. But I should be back and posting more regularly then before.

Had my fellow inmates looked like this though.. you probably wouldn’t have heard from me for a long, long time…
Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Beinart’s as liberal as they come- and he doesn’t try to hide this fact. He expresses himself in a way that doesn’t bring out anger and defensiveness among many on the right, though. Here he writes a piece that is thought provoking and, in some sense, challenging.

So is wearing the flag pin good or bad? It is both; it all depends on where and why. If you’re going to a Young Americans for Freedom meeting, where people think patriotism means “my country right or wrong,” leave it at home and tell them about Frederick Douglass, who wouldn’t celebrate the Fourth of July while his fellow Americans were in bondage. And if you’re going to a meeting of the cultural-studies department at Left-Wing U., where patriotism often means “my country wrong and wronger,” slap it on, and tell them about Mike Christian, who lay half-dead in a North Vietnamese jail, stitching an American flag.

And if anyone gives you a hard time, tell him he doesn’t know what true patriotism is.

…challenging to liberals, that is.

because he’s the one defending child rapists over their victims… even promising to attack them viciously on the stand….

Representative James Fagan has made several controversial remarks regarding tightening the reins on Jessica’s Law during a Massachusetts Legislature debate.
The Massachusetts Legislature debate, on tougher laws for repeat child rapists, saw Democrat rep. James Fagan make extremely controversial remarks regarding young victims.

James, who is against a mandatory sentence of 20 years for child rape under Jessica’s Law, said: “I’ll rip apart 6-year-old victims on the witness stand and make sure the rest of their life is ruined.”

“When they’re 8 years old they throw up; when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep; when they’re 19 years old, they’ll have nightmares and they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”

Well isn’t that just so sweet and nice…. Ofcourse the CNN link at the top doesn’t address the legislators party affiliation, I guess the upteenthousand layers of fact-checkers weren’t able to find that out.

But this is just disgusting. Pure evil, if you will. And it shows exactly where this scumbags loyalties and thoughts are with. If he is reelected after this, and I have no doubt that he will be in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, then the electorate should hang their heads in shame. This asshole wouldn’t last a day down here in Texas….

Yep. Moral relativism has definitely permeated deeply into the American family.

On the surface, the Jennings and their four children are a typical American family. But their youngest child, Jazz, is only in kindergarten, and already she is one of the youngest known cases of an early transition from male to female.

“We’ll say things like, ‘You’re special. God made you special.’ Because there aren’t very many little girls out there that have a penis,” said Renee. “Renee and I are in 100 percent agreement as to how we should raise Jazz,” said Scott. “We don’t encourage, we support. And we just keep listening to what she tells us.”

WTF, O? There aren’t very many little girls out there that have a penis BECAUSE THEN THEY WOULD NOT BE GIRLS, THEY’D BE BOYS!! And “we don’t enourage, we support”? What is that about?

From the moment he could speak, Jazz made it clear he wanted to wear a dress. At only 15 months, he would unsnap his onesies to make it look like a dress. When his parents praised Jazz as a “good boy,” he would correct them, saying he was a good girl.

When Jazz was two, he asked his mother a question that left her numb and frozen. “[He] said, ‘Mommy, when’s the good fairy going to come with her magic wand and change, you know, my genitalia?” according to Renee.

I very much doubt that this little boy just got this idea that he was a little girl just out of the blue. I am very curious where he learned the word “genitalia”. MY four year-old sure as heck doesn’t know that word, and my 15 month-old doesn’t have a clue ’bout gender at all, I doubt she even realizes she’s a girl. And unsnappinga onesie to look like a dress? Dresses for women is a cultural thing. Ever hear of a kilt? One could say the a robe is a dress in a different culture. I think that there might be some projection by HIS hippie parents and their so-called experts…

After all, even their rowdy twin boys, who are two years older than Jazz, had painted their nails growing up. But Jazz kept gravitating to girl things, insisting that his penis was a mistake.

Oh, I bet he learned it from his parents and from all of the “counselors” he was sent to. And I had the darnedest time trying to find out exactly what state this was taking place in. I am putting my bets for California or somewhere on the Left Coast™. Either that or Massachusetts….

And we wonder what is going wrong with our country and our culture…

RMS Celtic II
Built: 1901, Harland & Wolff, Belfast.
Yard No: 335
Funnels: 2 Masts: 4
Tonnage: 21,035 GRT
Dimensions: 213.4 x 22.9 m / 700 x 75.3 ft.
Engines: Quadruple Expansion by builders.
Twin Screw; 14,000 IHP; 16, max 16.5 kn.
Hull: Steel, 4 Decks, fcsle-105 ft, Bridge-334 ft, Poop-81 ft.
Cargo: 17,000 Tons.
Passengers: 347-1st Class, 160-2nd Class, 2,350-3rd Class

When the Celtic was launched on April 4, 1901, she was the last ship ordered by Thomas Ismay. She was the first of the class known as the ‘Big Four’. She was delivered July 11, 1901 and made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on July 26, 1901. Until 1903 the Celtic was the largest ship in the world.

On August 4, 1914 she was taken over at Liverpool for war service. On October 20 she was commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser with 8 x 6 in guns. She was then assigned to the 10th Cruiser Squadron on December 4, 1914. In January 1916 she was decommissioned and converted for trooping. On February 15, 1917 off the Isle of Man she was mined. Seventeen killed.

On March 31, 1918 she was torpedoed in the Irish Sea by UB-77. Six killed. On April 2nd she was towed to Liverpool and repaired there by Harland & Wolff. In 1919 she was returned to her owners and reconditioned at Belfast.

In January 1920 she resumed the Liverpool to New York service. Her passenger accommodation had been altered to: 350-1st Class, 250-2nd Class, 1,000-3rd Class. On April 21, 1925 she collided in the Irish Sea with Hampshire Coast of the Coast Line. The Celtic suffered only superficial damage. The Hampshire Coast was much worse off, but made port safely. On January 29, 1927 she collided, off Long Island, with the US Anaconda of the US Shipping Board. Little damage was done to either vessel.

In 1928 she was converted to Cabin Class only with accommodation for 2,500. On December 10, 1928, when entering Cobh harbor in a gale, Celtic was driven ashore and eventually became a total loss. The wreck was sold to Petersen and Albeck of Copenhagen and dismantled as she lay. The demolition was finally completed in 1933.

From many editorials today:
NYT:

In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a “militia.”

WaPo:

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, concluded that the amendment guarantees a right to bear arms for private use, such as self-defense, although nowhere is that explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.

Teh Boston Globe:

To arrive at this decision, the court performed a grammatical parsing that would confound the best English teacher, deciding that the first 13 words are merely “prefatory” to the “operative clause” of the one-sentence amendment, thus conveniently tossing aside the importance of “a well regulated militia” to the right to bear arms.

SO what do the people think? CNN asked us last night and within hours it was pretty clear:

Perhaps the editors didn’t read the amendment fully? Or maybe they don’t understand the words? As with all the anti gun fools, any mention of the 14 words in the last sentence mean nothing, because, peoples’ rights mean nothing. Self defense is not a part of the picture here. When people have the means to defend themselves, crime would become less prevalent. And this would end the need for a big chunk of local, state and federal law enforcement.

Either way, it was at age three, my Dad taught me these words. He didn’t teach me about guns, although he owned many. My X took care of that- when he was active USMC. These words cannot be forgotten, wisked under the carpet, or misinterpreted.
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Over the weekend 36 people were shot at in Chicago. Nine died. No one is allowed to own guns except the police. Gun control works.

NOT.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

This is good. Now, this doesn’t mean those cites and towns with “strict” gun control laws will have to loosen up these controls. But it does mean no further controls can be placed upon the peasantry. It also means these “strict” laws can be made less strict, which would result in less crime, less death among the innocent. An educated gun owner knows how to shoot NOT to kill unless it is absolutely necessary.

A well armed people are willing and able to protect themselves. Everyone should be taught, from an early age, how to use a gun for self defense. Taught properly, safely. There would be no better deterrent to crime if criminals knew their victims could defend themselves via the gun. Unlike the stupid fucks who want to ban guns for all, the SC sided with our Constitution and with the people.

Now, let’s start pushing for less control. More education for kids and teenagers, on how to safely defend themselves.

• Is Obama the Manchurian Candidate?
• What’s not fair? How about me working to support my family, and much of my tax dollars go to illegals’ welfare, health care, schooling, ect ect?

  “It’s not fair,” said Ms. Lopez, 27, a legal resident. “They’re working to support their families. This shouldn’t have happened.”

• I know a little about this life:

  Many of the children forced into prostitution are either runaways or what authorities call “throwaways” — kids whose families have shunned them. Officials say they are preyed upon by organized networks of pimps who lure them in with shelter or drugs, then often beat, starve or otherwise abuse them until the children agree to work the streets.

  Well, they’re not beaten until they’ve actually worked the streets for some time- proving that they can bring home the bacon…and in today’s world street work means posing for provocative pictures, which are put up on web sites that men from all over the world can see….and pick and choose which young girl he wishes to pay for…the men fly from city to city, paying for 4 hours of sex with the (often) preteens…and fly back home in time for dinner with the wife and (preteen?) kids. It’s BIG BUSINESS -this American Girl Sex Trafficking - and it’s all arranged on the Internet, services bought and paid for, raking in BILLIONS every year. Sex. Sells. More sex sells when it’s a young under-14 American girl.

• Human Events interviews it’s readers. Today: George Krauss- frequent commenter here at ARS!
• Teach on Nancy Pelosi and the Fairness Doctrine:
  

  He also points at that she is 100% behind bringing the “Fairness” Doctrine back. Of course she is, as are most liberals. They cannot compete in the radio market, no matter how hard they pay stations to carry their programming. Even most liberals do not want to listen to the drivel emanating from liberal studio’s, which is shown by the ratings of liberal programming on the radio, in particular Air America (believe it or not, it is still in business. Completely subsidized, though.)

• This is how soft hearted, weak knee’d and limp dicked men think:
  

  No Moral Ground to Oust Mugabe Alone

  Blood on his hands is not a disqualification to rule.

  Robert Mugabe is indeed an odious ruler with blood on his hands. But since when is that a disqualification to rule? The world has long been full of rulers even more odious and bloodthirsty than he.

  Gah it makes me sick to know such men live in this world. Using a straw man argument and turning it into an excuse for horrible leadership. I take this to mean it’s moral to kill and rape and burn and otherwise harm innocent citizens.

• HIV testing required? In NYC’s Bronx. 75 people out of every 100,000 have AIDS…
• The Tanc rolls over McCain. And rightly so.
• I see a lot posts at blogs about this MEN DOING HOUSEWORK meme. I think those who post on this have ISSUES. Really, I do. Perhaps the men in the post authors aren’t doing their fair share? Or something…it comes up often enough where I have to wonder. And FWIW, reading through the comments, I will say there is nothing more hawt than a GOOD looking, well toned hot sweaty nekkid MAN doing the dishes…
• Always On Watch’s Question Of the Week:
  Oil Costs. And leadership.

Portsmouth NH harbor yesterday morning before we set out for a day of sailing. And fishing.

Yeah. I think I just heard you say that you said it was okay for children as young as 1 to be married? Oh really…. that’s what I thought…

Call it marriage, Islamic style.

Saudi marriage officiant Dr. Ahmad al-Mu’bi told Lebanese television viewers last week that it’s permissible for girls as young as 1 to marry — as long as sex is postponed.

Al-Mu’bi’s remarkable comments also included an explanation that “there is no minimal age for entering marriage.”

“You can have a marriage contract even with a 1-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of 9, 7 or 8,” he said. “But is the girl ready for sex or not?” What is the appropriate age for sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and tradition,” al-Mu’bi said.

Boy, he almost sounds… like a liberal… no absolute morality.. whats good for you might not be good for me…. moral relativism at its finest….

Speechless…