Blame the 1st

Schools of Education are the 'Academic Slums'

2012-01-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

Before I share the following insightful column by Walter E. Williams, let me state that I view the problem with our educational system being the fault of the system itself, not with teachers (though it really doesn’t help when teacher unions lobby against reform to the system). As the son of two public school teachers, I realize that there are many good teachers who do work hard and often for very little pay (though most teachers are hardly poor).

But let’s be honest: not all teachers are the inspirational heroes portrayed in movies where one teacher single-handedly turns around a failing inner-city school. Many are incompetent dunces who shouldn’t be given any authority over our children’s education. Again, I don’t blame the teachers, I blame the system—and the system needs serious reform, especially if it’s churning out education majors the way this column describes:

Larry Sand's article "No Wonder Johnny (Still) Can't Read" -- written for The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, based in Raleigh, N.C. -- blames schools of education for the decline in America's education. Education professors drum into students that they should not "drill and kill" or be the "sage on the stage" but instead be the "guide on the side" who "facilitates student discovery." This kind of harebrained thinking, coupled with multicultural nonsense, explains today's education. During his teacher education, Sand says, "teachers-to-be were forced to learn about this ethnic group, that impoverished group, this sexually anomalous group, that under-represented group, etc. -- all under the rubric of 'Culturally Responsive Education.'"

Education majors are woefully lacking in academic skills. Here are some sample test questions for you to answer. Question 1: Which of the following is equal to a quarter-million? a) 40,000, b) 250,000, c) 2,500,000, d) 1/4,000,000 or e) 4/1,000,000. Question 2: Martin Luther King Jr. (insert the correct choice) for the poor of all races. a) spoke out passionately, b) spoke out passionate, c) did spoke out passionately, d) has spoke out passionately or e) had spoken out passionate. Question 3: What would you do if your student sprained an ankle? a) Put a Band-Aid on it, b) Ice it or c) Rinse it with water.

Guess whether these questions were on a sixth-grade, ninth-grade or 12th-grade test. I bet the average reader would guess that it's a sixth-grade test. Wrong. How about ninth-grade? Wrong again. You say, "OK, Williams, so they're 12th-grade test questions!" Still wrong. According to a Heartland Institute-published School Reform News (September 2001) article titled "Who Tells Teachers They Can Teach?", those test questions came from prospective teacher tests. The first two questions are samples from the Praxis I test for teachers, and the third is from the 1999 teacher certification test in Illinois. According to the Chicago Sun-Times (9/6/01), 5,243 Illinois teachers failed their teacher certification tests. The Chicago Sun-Times also reported, "One teacher failed 24 of 25 teacher tests -- including 11 of 12 Basic Skills tests and all 12 tests on teaching learning-disabled children." Yet that teacher was assigned to teach learning-disabled children in Chicago. Departments of education have solved the problem of teacher test failure. According to a New York Post story (11/14/11) titled "City teacher tests turn into E-ZPass," more than 99 percent of teachers pass.

Textbooks used in schools of education advocate sheer nonsense. A passage in Enid Lee et al.'s "Beyond Heroes and Holidays" reads: "We cannot afford to become so bogged down in grammar and spelling that we forget the whole story. ... The onslaught of antihuman practices that this nation and other nations are facing today: racism, and sexism, and the greed for money and human labor that disguises itself as 'globalization.'" Marilyn Burns' text "About Teaching Mathematics" reads, "There is no place for requiring students to practice tedious calculations that are more efficiently and accurately done by using calculators." "New Designs for Teaching and Learning," by Dennis Adams and Mary Hamm, says: "Content knowledge is not seen to be as important as possessing teaching skills and knowledge about the students being taught. ... Successful teachers understand the outside context of community, personal abilities, and feelings, while they establish an inside context or environment conducive to learning." That means it's no problem if a teacher can't figure out that a quarter-million is the same as 250,000. Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar's text "Methods that Matter" reads, "Students can no longer be viewed as cognitive living rooms into which the furniture of knowledge is moved in and arranged by teachers, and teachers cannot invariably act as subject-matter experts." The authors add, "The main use of standardized tests in America is to justify the distribution of certain goodies to certain people."

Schools of education represent the academic slums of most any college. American education can benefit from slum removal.

Random Friday: Wendy’s "Hot Drinks" Music Video

2012-01-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to a new installment I would like to call Random Fridays—where I take a break from politics as usual and share something, well, out of the ordinary.

Today I’m sharing a music video in a series of training videos created by Wendy’s in the early 90s. Yes, instead of instructing new employees how to serve their food, Wendy’s decided to train them a’la Schoolhouse Rock-style music videos. I must say, the concept is rather ingenious, and the music very catchy.

The music videos included songs such as “Cold Drinks,” “Chili Can Be Served With Cheese,” “Grill Skills,” and the one I’m featuring, “Hot Drinks.” I learned about these videos from SpoonyOne’s riff on them, and both he and I agree: of all the videos, “Hot Drinks” is the best. It really makes me crave a hot drink, even though I rarely drink anything hot. Heck, most of these videos make me crave Wendy’s. (Fortunately, there’s one down the road from me!)

Anywho, here’s the video, along with the lyrics. Enjoy!

Coffee, decaf, hot tea, and hot chocolate,
Those are the hot drinks that you serve so get it,
Hot cups come in two sizes,
Small and large are filled as the need arises.
Coffee’s holding time is 30 minutes, that’s how long,
It can stay there before it starts to taste too strong.
HOT HOT. Careful when you pour it.
Hold it steady upon the counter let it set.
Pour it in until the coffee reaches the line.
Pop a top on it.
get’s a lid, every time. Wendy’s coffee tastes so fine.

Hot Drinks, really get you goin’.
Warms you up, when you feel you’re slowin’
Wendy’s we always serve it right away.
Add a smile and have a nice day.

Next is decaf you brew it just like coffee.
Use the orange pot it makes it easier to see.
But if you’re using the packets in your store.
Put it in the small cup and furthermore.
Add hot water up to the line and stir it in.
Put a lid on and serve it on the tray again.
Get a small cup when you’re ready for hot tea.
Fill with hot water it’s easy as can be.
Put the lid on and serve the teabag on the top.
If they want lemon it’s very nice,
don’t think twice, give the guest a juicy slice.

Hot Drinks, really get you goin’.
Warms you up, when you feel you’re slowin’
Wendy’s we always serve it right away.
Add a smile and have a nice day.

Grab a small cup when you’re makin’ hot cocoa.
Pour the packet and then you add your H20.
Use a clean spoon and stir till it’s all mixed up.
Toss the spoon out and
put the lid, on the cup, things are really looking up.

Hot Drinks, really get you goin’.
Warms you up, when you feel you’re slowin’
Wendy’s we always serve it right away.
Add a smile and have a nice day

Atheist Temples?

2012-01-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to claim that atheism isn’t a religion (and technically it’s not) when there are atheist holiday displays, atheist “de-baptism” ceremonies, atheist summer camps, atheist chaplains, and soon—atheist temples.

I kid you not: a British atheist plans on constructing an "Atheist Temple." (And no, this article is not from The Onion):

Philosopher and author Alain de Botton has called for a series of "temples for atheists" to be built around Britain, allowing the non-religious to have impressive buildings to call their own.

De Botton's most recent book, Religion for Atheists, calls for unbelievers to copy the major religions and build grand architectural masterpieces to inspire a sense of perspective in people. He argues that a temple doesn't need to be dedicated to a religion: "You can build a temple to anything that's positive and good. That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective".

He added: "Why should religious people have the most beautiful buildings in the land? It's time atheists had their own versions of the great churches and cathedrals. A beautiful building is an indispensable part of getting your message across. Books alone won't do it."

Putting his money where his mouth is, De Botton has begun work on just such a temple. The first has been designed by Tom Greenall Architects, and is a concept for a 46-metre-tall black tower, sat in the City of London. The height is symbolic of the 4.6 billion-year age of the Earth, and right at the bottom will be a millimetre-thick band of gold that represents humanity's brief existence within that life.

"Even the most convinced atheists tend to speak nicely about religious buildings," said De Botton. "They may even feel sad that nothing like them gets built nowadays. But there's no need to feel nostalgic. Why not just learn from religions and build similarly beautiful and interesting things right now?"

If atheism isn’t a religion, why does it need its own building? Atheists already complain that churches and other houses of worship are wastes of space and resources, so wouldn’t an atheist house of worship be an even bigger waste? After all, those places cold have been used to build schools or hospitals or anything else more beneficial to society. Instead, it’s being used as a monument for non-belief—in other words, nothing!

Which raises an interesting question: just what would an atheistic “worship” service look like? Probably like the Church of Atheism from Metalocalypse: “Oh God, whom we do not believe in, let us all not pray for you who does not exist.” (And then the agnostics start picketing!):

Happy 25th Birthday To Me!

2012-01-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I turned 25—a quarter of a century! Happy birthday to me!

Yes, I know this announcement is late, but hey, yesterday I was too busy celebrating my birthday, so can you really blame me?

Thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Birthday yesterday. As a gift to myself—and everyone else—here’s a Eurobeat remix of Pinkie Pie’s Singing Telegram (Ooh, this is my jam!):

Failtastic Atheist Billboards

2012-01-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

This article probably won’t bode well with my atheist followers—all three of you!

A Minnesota atheist group released the following pair of poorly-designed and face-palmingly stupid billboards:

Ah yes, the “all babies are atheists” argument: justifying disbelief by claiming that minds incapable of comprehending complex thought share said disbelief. (In that case, all houseflies are atheists too!) The argument goes that, since babies are born without belief in God, and that they need to be taught belief in God, that belief in God is, by default, false.

Let’s ignore the fact that the existence of God is so blatantly obvious within nature that mankind is without excuse (Rom 1:18-20). To show how much this argument fails, allow me to articulate it in full:

“You only believe in God because you were taught to believe in God. If you weren’t taught to believe in God, or you were born in a society that didn’t believe in God, then you wouldn’t believe in God. Therefore, belief in God is false.”

Now replace the word “God” with anything else (gravity, germ theory, evolution) and you’ll quickly see why this is a stupid argument. Even most atheists agree that “all babies are atheists” is a poor defense of atheism.

As for not wanting children to be indoctrinated, it’s hard to believe that atheists want children to think for themselves when they send them to atheist summer camps, write atheist children’s books, and write articles on raising atheist children.

Also, if you don’t want your child indoctrinated, don’t send them to public school. If Christian schools teach children to follow Christianity, and Jewish schools teach children to follow Judaism, and Islamic schools teach children to follow Islam, what do state schools teach children to follow? This may explain why most atheists merely replace their faith in God with faith in the government.

My Thoughts On Obama’s State Of The Union Address

2012-01-25T14:56:00.000-08:00

I have none!

I didn’t bother watching it last night. I had better things to do than listen to an incompetent defend his four years of failure and beg for re-election. “I know I haven’t been the hope and change I promised I was going to be, but if you give me another chance, I promise to be the promise I promised. Promise!”

From what little I heard about the address, the only thing that caught my interest was that he promised to sign a bill to ban insider trading by Congressmen: “Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, I will sign it tomorrow.” Sounds good. Would such a bill ever stand a chance getting passed in Congress? Does a skinny dipper stand a chance in piranha-infested waters?

Here’s what An HONEST State of the Union Address would have been like:

Ron Paul Redditors FTW!

2012-01-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

I regularly peruse Reddit—in fact, it’s my main news source, especially r/politics. I usually just scan the headlines, though I will often skim through comment sections of certain intriguing posts, which make for equally intriguing discourse.

One notable example is a recent post—a self post by a libtarded moonbat no less if the title is any indicator: To Ron Paul supporters on reddit: could you please tell me why you support ron Paul when his libertarian views give enshrine free market capitalism and give corporations more power?

The post obviously argues that a free market would allow corporations to run wild, thus placing the economy at risk for another crisis. Of course, this argument is bullpucky, and fortunately, many redditors (Mostly Ron Paul fans) have pointed this out eloquently in the comment section. I suggest reading the comments alone just to pick up on a few good counterarguments.

I rarely leave comments, but I did in this post. Here’s my response:

So if we “deregulate” the economy into a free market, the corporations will have free reign and run wild? Problem with that logic: America is the 4th most overregulated country in the world (behind Japan, China, and India), and corporations already have free reign and run wild!

Limbaugh: Ron Paul "Like An Islamic Terrorist"

2012-01-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

At this point, is anyone shocked by what neocon Rush "The Hutt" Limbaugh says anymore?

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh reacted to news that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) might have been detained by the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) by saying that it would have made more sense if they detained his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

“Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has been detained by the TSA at the Nashville airport,” Limbaugh announced on his show Monday. “Now if this had been Ron Paul, you couldn’t really blame the TSA.”

“You have to admit Ron Paul almost sounds like an Islamic terrorist sometimes,” he added with a chuckle.

Night Of The Voting Dead

2012-01-24T13:17:00.000-08:00

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson informed the Justice Department that 953 ballots had been cast by voters listed as dead. This can mean one of two things: either there was massive voter fraud during the primary, or there was a nuclear fallout spawning a zombie apocalypse in South Carolina. I think the latter explanation perfectly explains how Newt Gingrich won first place. Only a brain dead zombie (or necon—but I repeat myself) would vote for Newt!

This Week In Review (01/23/2012)

2012-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

• SOPA shelved due to internet protest. On January 18, Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, and other websites protested anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA by redirecting visitors to information about the bills and what they could do to fight them. As a result, over 4.5 million people signed an anti-SOPA petition and over 8 million contacted their representatives, overwhelming Congress’ switchboards and servers. The protest proved successful, as over 13 Senators dropped their support of PIPA while SOPA was shelved altogether. This is a victory not only for internet freedom but also democracy, as this proves that people can have an influence on their government when they place enough pressure on politicians. But this fight is far from over. These bills have only been temporarily set aside, and could very well return, stronger and worse than before. As long as the internet provides citizens with the free exchange of ideas and information which threaten those in power, government will always attempt to control and censor it. Speaking of which…

• Megaupload shut down due to piracy charges. The popular file-sharing website was shut down by the federal government under charges that it allowed for the illegal sharing of pirated material estimated to have cost copyright holders over $500 million in lost profits. Seven executives, including the site’s founder, have been indicted. How ironic that the day after the defeat of the bill which would have allowed the federal government to censor websites on charges of piracy, the federal government shuts down a website on charges of piracy. I believe The Amazing Atheist put it best: “The government had the power to do it all along! They never needed SOPA. They never needed PIPA. All that was was a justification for the stuff they were going to do anyway.” Of course, as internet wisdom dictates, if you mess with the internet, the internet messes with you. After Megaupload was shut down, internet hacker group Anonymous helped flood traffic to the website of the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, thus shutting them down.

• Occupy Congress kicked off January 16. And boy was it a real bust! Despite the liberal media praising it, the protest only managed to garner a few hundred protesters instead of the over ten thousand it claimed it was going to have. Add the fact that donations have been dwindling and protests across the country have been getting evicted, and the Occupy movement could very well be going through its death throes.

• Newt Gingrich wins South Carolina primary. I can forgive the fact that voters supported Gingrich and Romney over Paul. What really disturbs me is that 42 percent of Evangelical Christians supported Gingrich (an adulterer who divorced his cancer-stricken wife, claiming she wasn’t pretty or young enough to be the wife of the president) while only 13 percent supported Paul (a man who’s remained faithful to the same woman for over 53 years). Then again, to Evangelical hypocrites, whose divorce rate is higher than that of other faith groups, divorce is less of a threat to the “sanctity of marriage” than is gay marriage (or, in the case of South Carolina, interracial marriage).

• Ron Paul booed for endorsing the Golden Rule at SC Debate. “If another country does to us what we do others, we’re not going to like it very much,” Paul said of our foreign policy and War on Terror. “So I would say that maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy: don’t do to other nations what we don’t want them to do to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and wonder why they get upset with us?” And as can be expected, Ron Paul was booed—no less by an audience of conservative Christians whose very religion was founded upon the teachings of Christ—one of which was “do unto others what you would have others do unto you.” But then again, when have conservative Christians actually cared about their own religion, other than forcing the parts they support onto others?

• Ron Paul proposes bill to repeal indefinite detention provision. The bill would repeal Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which allows for the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects, citizen or otherwise, without warrant, without trial, and without a lawyer—in other words, it allows the president to wipe his ass with due process and other Constitutional rights protected by the Fourth amendment, all for the sake of fighting the War on terrorism. Will this bill pass? One can only hope. It probably won’t.

• Rick Perry drops out of the presidential race and endorses Newt Gingrich. So now the Republican candidates are narrowed down to an adulterer, a flip-flopper, a theocrat, and a true Barry Goldwater conservative who probably won’t be nominated. Somehow, if Obama wins a second term, I won’t be surprised—disappointed, but not surprised.

Dumbass of the Week

Chris Dodd, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America: Following the successful protest of SOPA, Dodd criticized it as a "dangerous gimmick" and an "abuse of power" on behalf of Google and other websites involved with the protest. “It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests." Abuse of power, huh? Corporate interests, huh? You mean it's not an abuse of power when the entire entertainment industry lobbies for a bill to have the government censor websites that may curtail its corporate interests, but apparently it is when websites fight against said bill which would undoubtedly hurt them the most? Pot, meet kettle!

Pony Sunday: The Last Roundup

2012-01-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to Pony Sunday. Well, only three more episodes in this season! Time really flies, doesn't it. Anywho, here are my thoughts on this week's episode The Last Roundup:

• Derpy Hooves talks!
• What exactly was Derpy doing hopping on that thundercloud?
• Considering how easy the town hall could collapse simply by bumping into it or sitting on the floor, was it really Derpy’s fault that it was ruined, or was it getting old and needed to be condemned?
• Background ponies in crowd: Bon Bon, Lyra, Caramel, Berry Punch, Carrot Top, Lily, Rose Luck, Dinky Doo.
• A politician obsessed with money? Huh. Go figure!
• Yeah, get used to Pinkie Pie talking a mile a minute. She does that a lot in this episode. To the point that you want to shoot the TV (or computer) just to make her stop!
• Carrot Top and Dinky Doo are riding the train.
• Pinkie mentions Sarsaparilla (which she also mentioned in her daydream about the Grand Galloping Gala in Ticket Master).
• One of these days, Pinkie Pie is going to give some pony (specifically Fluttershy) a heart attack.
• Meme Alert: Pinkie Pie limbering her lips.
• It’s the pony mailman’s birthday! (Side note: This week will be my birthday!)
• Gee…I wonder why Apple Jack didn’t come back? (Obvious answer is obvious!)
• Big Macintosh crying = Daaaawwwwww!
• Error: Carrot Top and Caramel are working at the rodeo, and apparently don’t know who Apple Jack is. (Berry Punch is also at the Rodeo).
• Question: Why doesn’t the train have a bathroom for Pinkie Pie to use? Most all trains have one!
• Does Dodge Junction look like Appaloosa to anyone else?
• Berry Punch steps off the train.
• New Background Pony: Cherry Jubilee!
• Anyone else thought that they were going to make a beans fart joke? (Then again, it probably was best that they didn’t. Wouldn’t have been appropriate).
• Obvious I Love Lucy reference is obvious!
• Wild Bill Hickcock and Calamity Mane!
• Meme Alert: Rainbow Dash nodding and smiling.
• Anyone else expect Cherry Jubilee to fire them all after the incident?
• Meme Alert: Dramatic closeup of Pinkie Pike slurping up cherry mess.
• Cherry Changas are real. But they’re not mashed up cherries in a tortilla that’s deep-fried. They’re a cocktail made from cherry vodka, cherry juice, club soda, and gummy bears. (A kids show referencing alcoholic beverages?!)
• Yeah, this is the part that made me want to shoot the TV. Annoying Pinkie Pie is annoying.
• Pinkie Pie said Kumquat. You know someone is going to edit this scene and make her say something naughty! :D
• Return of the Pinkie Promise!
• HOLY **** ON A **** SANDWICH! Pinkie Pie is pissed!
• HOLY **** ON A **** SANDWICH WITH **** ON TOP…WITH A SIDE HELPING OF ****! It’s official: this angry version of Pinkie Pie is creepier than Pinkamena Diana Pie!
• Apple Jack:“I’ve got to get the heck out of Dodge!” XD
• Dinky Doo is in Dodge City!
• Fluttershy stops for the bunny.
• How very lawyer like for Apple Jack to defend breaking her promise. Does anyone else feel it’s out of her element of Honesty for Apple Jack to be lying through this episode?
• Um, what was Apple Jack thinking? Even if the others didn’t manage to jump over the train, they could have easily waited until the train passed by and then continue chasing after her. In fact, I was expecting the joke to be that the train finally passed and the others just walk over to her.
• Why did the others leave Pinkie and Rarity behind? I mean, it’s not like they were that far behind! They could have easily met on the way back to town and then take the train back home.

Bill Maher Supports SOPA

2012-01-21T16:10:00.000-08:00

As anyone who follows my blog can tell, I vehemently disagree with Bill Maher on pretty much everything. However, I do consider him to be a broken clock in that, even though he’s mostly wrong, he occasionally gets a few things right, like how 9/11 Truthers are batshit insane, or how Islam is not equal to Western culture.

Unfortunately, last night was not one of those occasions where he was right, and one of the many where he was wrong—dead wrong!

On his show Real Time last night, Maher came in defense of SOPA, complaining about how internet piracy stole profit away from his crappy anti-religious propaganda film documentary Religulous and how people only hate the bill because they’re freeloaders who want free shit.

But perhaps the most ironic part was how his guest panelist Buddy Roemer, a Republican presidential candidate, corrected him on his bullshit (mostly due to him not having read the bill). A right-winger the voice of reason on a far-left show? Maher’s pothead moonbat audience must have had their brains explode on that one (what little brains they had)!

In perhaps what was the biggest surprise of his show tonight, Bill Maher defended the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, even as the bill has been temporarily shelved, arguing that “there is a moral dimension” to online piracy and dismissed concerns that the bill would harm internet freedom as a “red herring.” He jokingly called online piracy “caucasian looting” and insisted that even if pirates are ‘just because you’re sitting at your computer in your pajama bottoms doesn’t mean you’re not stealing.”

Maher admitted that he has not read the proposed legislation, which could penalize websites that merely link to infringing material, but he explained that his more hawkish views in the piracy debate came from his reaction to online users downloading illegal copies of Maher’s comedy-documentary Religulous. Maher claimed so many people downloading the film ate into its profits.

However, Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer came out strongly against it, arguing the whole point of the bill was to give the government more power to manage the internet. Matt Lewis, contributor for The Daily Caller, brought up the controversial provision of SOPA, that if a link to any pirated material is found on a website and someone (like a copyright holder) makes a complaint, the government could take the website down in response. And with Jennifer Granholm getting applause for her praise of internet advocacy, Maher was alone in voicing any support for the bill, quipping that the protestors’ main goal was “We want more shit!”

Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:

Another irony is that Maher has been in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is supposed to be for the 99% and against the 1%; but by supporting SOPA, he is supporting the 1% over the 99%, as this bill, supported largely by the entertainment industry (the 1%), would destroy jobs (for the 99%).

Why Occupy Wall Street Sucks

2012-01-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

After months of protesting the wrong people, the Occupy Wall Street movement finally got a clue and went to Washington D.C. on January 16 to stage Occupy Congress.

And boy was it a real bust!

Despite the liberal media praising it, the protest only managed to garner a few hundred protesters instead of the over ten thousand it claimed it was going to have. Add the fact that donations have been dwindling and protests across the country have been getting evicted, and the Occupy movement could very well be going through its death throes.

People keep asking me why I don’t support the Occupy movement. After all, my hero Dr. Ron Paul supports it, many protesters are libertarians like myself, and the protests are against things I oppose like the bank bailouts, drug war, and Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Sadly, those are the only issues I agree with them on. Everything else (when they can manage to articulate them) is nothing more than Marxist utopian wet dreams which sound good on paper, but would do more harm than good if implemented in real life.

The following list of demands was posted on Occupy Wall Street’s website a few months ago. The website claims that the list was an unofficial one posted by a single user and thus did not represent the views of the entire movement. That may be so, but I think it still perfectly articulates why I think the movement is so wrongheaded.

So without further ado, here is the list of demands, followed by my common-sense rebuttals:

Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Unionize ALL workers immediately.

But what if I don’t want to join a union? What if I don’t want my job performance limited by needless union restrictions? If employees want to voluntarily band together to negotiate with their employers for better wages and working conditions, they should be free to do so, but only if others are free not to join if they don’t want to. That’s called freedom of association.

“But unions represent the will of the working middle class,” I hear you say.

Then why do big labor unions support SOPA and PIPA? They claim the bills would help save jobs lost through online piracy—which is obviously false, as both bills would wind up costing jobs.

And what about teacher unions? Do they help the middle class when they lobby against offering students life-saving medicine, or transforming failing public schools into more efficient charter schools, or implementing education reform in general? Since when did job security take precedence over our children’s education?

Can we please end this false dichotomy of “Unions good/Corporations evil”?

Raise the minimum wage immediately to $18/hr. Create a maximum wage of $90/hr to eliminate inequality.

Ah yes, the $20/hr. minimum wage fantasy. Tempting idea, but how will companies compensate for it? A multinational corporation making record profits could easily pay their errand boys $20/hr. (perhaps even more), but what about a local mom-and-pop restaurant forced to obtain a second mortgage on their home just to start their own business? Would they be able to pay their busboy $20/hr. to bus tables and wash dishes? I highly doubt it.

And that’s the problem with minimum wage: it kills entry-level jobs, thus hurting small businesses and poor people—in other words, the 99%!

And then there’s “maximum” wage. Hey, here’s an idea: if you really care about inequality, why not just have an equal set wage across the board? That way, everyone gets paid exactly the same? That’s the Marxist mantra: “All work is equal!” Because the work of a janitor mopping the bathroom floors is equivalent to that of a CEO who manages the very existence of the company, right? Right?!

As with minimum wage, maximum wage sound good—on paper—until market forces hit companies with a heavy dose of reality. Case in point, both Ben & Jerry’s and Herman Miller had significant caps on their top employee’s salaries, but when faced with economic hardships, forcing them to seek new management, they were forced to drop these caps.

Maximum wage makes it difficult to hire for top-level positions just as minimum wage makes it difficult to hire for entry-level positions. Businesses get hurt. Workers get hurt. The 99% get hurt.

Institute a 6 hour workday, and 6 weeks of paid vacation.

Let’s see here: 6 hours a day x 6 days a week x 50 weeks in a year – 6 weeks of paid vacation = WHO THE HELL IS DOING ALL THE WORK IN THIS COUNTRY?! In other words, you want workers to be paid more for working fewer hours? And you expect businesses to compensate for this how?

Institute a moratorium on all foreclosures and layoffs immediately.

No real opinion on this, other than economic martial law probably isn’t the best term of action. Martial law period rarely is.

Repeal racist and xenophobic English-only laws.

So expecting people to learn English in an English-speaking country is racist and xenophobic? I always thought it was common sense. Go figure!

Open the borders to all immigrants, legal or illegal. Offer immediate, unconditional amnesty, to all undocumented residents of the US.

So anyone should be allowed to wander into this country and set up residence? Even if they’re convicted criminals? Even if they have a contagious disease that may spread and cause a pandemic? (Swine Flu, anyone?)

Look, I get it: America is the “Great Melting Pot” built upon immigration. And I do want people to come into this country and make a better life for themselves. But is it too hard (or xenophobic) to ask that immigrants come into this country legally and with proper documentation, that they apply for citizenship, pay taxes, and learn our language and customs so they can better integrate into our society? Or is that racist of me?

And concerning amnesty for illegal immigrants: how well has that worked out in the past? Nixon granted amnesty. Carter granted it. Reagan granted it. Clinton granted it. Both Bushes granted it. Anyone else seeing a pattern here? Immigrants illegally enter country. We grant them amnesty. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I’m sorry, but what’s the point of amnesty again? Because it’s obviously not curbing illegal immigration.

Create a single-payer, universal health care system.

“You don’t want universal healthcare?!” I hear you cry. “Do you want people to die without healthcare, you immoral social Darwinist?!”

As a matter of fact, no, I don’t want people to die without healthcare. And no, I don’t want universal healthcare.

You know what else I don’t want? Hospitals that turn over bed sheets in order to save on laundry bills. Cancer patients being denied life-prolonging medicine because they cost too much. Pregnant women being forced to give birth in a hospital hallway because other hospitals are too full. Hospitals where patients are more likely to starve than prisoners. Clinics where hip operations are 20 percent more likely to go wrong. Tens of thousands of hospitals being shut down due to budget cuts. (Need I continue?)

So yeah, color me unimpressed when socialists brag about Britain’s universal healthcare system, because gleaning through British newspaper headlines gives me a different perspective. Even the British Health Secretary says the system is royally screwed beyond reason. You may want a healthcare system where hospital wards have worse conditions than most third world countries. I don’t!

Yes, our healthcare system has problems. No, universal healthcare is not the solution. There are plenty of smaller, less radical solutions we can implement to improve the system we already have—and we don’t even have to spend a dime!

Pass stricter campaign finance reform laws. Ban all private donations. All campaigns will receive equal funding, provided by the taxpayers.

I don’t like special interests hijacking our elections either, but I highly doubt repealing corporate personhood is the solution, and if you feel that corporations should be sued and taxed, then neither should you, as corporate personhood makes that possible. Even the ACLU supported Citizens United. Hard to argue with them.

Institute a negative income tax, and tax the very rich at rates up to 90%.

Progressive liberals keep insisting that everyone pay their fair share in taxes, yet insist that the rich pay more in taxes (even though statistics show, time and again, that the rich already carry the lion’s share of the national tax burden). Wouldn’t it make more sense to institute a flat tax across the board, allowing everyone to pay at the same rate? The rich would still pay more than the poor, but at least it would be at an even rate.

But no: taxing everyone equally is unfair and taxing some more than others is fair. Up is down. Left is right. Slavery is freedom. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. That’s liberal logic!

Pass far stricter environmental protection and animal rights laws.

As with overall regulation, environmental regulations have been exponentially increasing, not decreasing. The EPA alone has increased their federal regulations from over 7 thousand rules in 1976 to over 169 thousand in 2009. Hard to argue for far stricter regulations when we tax cow farts and regulate farm dust.

“But we need stricter regulation to prevent another BP oil spill,” I hear you rebut.

You mean the same BP oil spill that occurred on federal property, was caused by an industry regulated by an inept federal bureaucracy, and whose economic liability was capped by the federal government (allowing for such risky behavior in the first place)?

And screw animal rights. Animals are not human beings. They don’t have the mental cognition to recognize the concept of rights. This isn’t to say that we should abuse them, just that we shouldn’t give them the same legal standing as humans.

Allow workers to elect their supervisors.

No real opinion on this.

Lower the retirement age to 55. Increase Social Security benefits.

Social Security comprises 20 percent of our federal budget and is quickly going bankrupt. And you want to put more people onto the system?

“It’s not going bankrupt!” I hear you say. “It’s solvent until 2036!” (Which is just a positive way of saying that it’s going broke by 2036.)

Progressive liberals keep telling us that public policy needs to change with the times. And since life expectancy has been increasing since Social Security was first passed (back when most seniors probably weren’t expected to live past 65, and thus be on the dole for that long), shouldn’t the collection age for Social Security be raised? Or is that akin to shoving Grandma off a cliff? (You know, as opposed to allowing Social Security to dry out completely!)

Create a 5% annual wealth tax for the very rich.

Please refer to my response to “Institute a negative income tax, and tax the very rich at rates up to 90.”

Ban the private ownership of land.

“Oh you right-wing conservatives and your obsession with property rights! Those are the only rights you care about, aren’t they?”

Actually, no. I do care about other rights. But I also care about property rights (something most progressive liberals don’t care about). You want to know why? I need but give one example: Kelo v. City of New London.

This controversial Supreme Court decision involved Susette Kelo whose house (the very first she had ever owned), along with those of other home owners in New London, Connecticut, was threatened to be seized through eminent domain and sold to a local corporation. The Court ruled 5-4 against her and the other homeowners, claiming that such economic development fell under the definition of “public use” under the Fifth Amendment. Their land was seized, and was supposed to go to an economic redevelopment plan that promised over three thousand jobs and over 1 million in tax revenue. Instead, this “public land” remains today a barren lot, the site of a city dump.

Don’t believe in private property rights? Believe the government should hold all property in common? Then you support this court decision! You may not agree with it personally, but you support the decision behind it. You support the government seizing another person’s land and doing with it as they please, even if it means reducing it to a useless city dump.

I, on the other hand, believe everyone has the right to the fruit of their labor, and that includes property. If man is not entitled to his own property, then how can he be entitled to his own body?

Make homeschooling illegal. Religious fanatics use it to feed their children propaganda.

In other words, ban the only form of schooling that’s actually educating our children. Ignore the hundreds of studies that show that home-schooled children outperform their public-schooled peers on standardized tests. Ban homeschooling and private schools. Make education a government monopoly. Because monopolies make everything better, right? It worked for the phone company!

To show just how draconian and backwards this would be, only a handful of countries have banned homeschooling. One of them is Brazil—which isn’t exactly known for its excellent educational system!

Reduce the age of majority to 16.

I don’t even trust 16-year-olds with driving, let alone voting. Some of them may be intelligent, but most of them are complete idiots. But if they want to vote, they should also be expected to pay taxes and join the military. You can’t have the privileges without the responsibility.

Abolish the death penalty and life in prison. We call for the immediate release of all death row inmates from death row and transferred to regular prisons.

So you’re all for building more prisons? Where else are we going to put all these inmates?

I don’t support capital punishment anymore (as it doesn’t deter violent crime), but I still support life imprisonment, at least for the most violent of offenders. Not everyone can be rehabilitated!

Release all political prisoners immediately.

Only item I agree with.

Immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Make that two items I agree with.

Abolish the debt limit.

So America should be allowed to infinitely pile up debt? Anyone else see a serious problem with this?

Here’s a saner solution: why not pay off the debt we already have? Instead of worrying about how much we can max out on our national credit card, let’s do something to eliminate the debt we already incurred. And yes, that means cutting spending. There are no other options. We spend too much. We need to cut back. And we should start with the three items we spend the most on: military and entitlement programs. Combined, that’s 60% of our federal budget. There’s no excuse for that. Slash military spending. End all wars. Withdraw overseas military bases. Reform entitlement programs. It won’t be much, but it would be a good start.

Ban private gun ownership.

Ignoring the fact that gun control does nothing to deter gun violence, as cities with the strictest gun laws also have the highest violent crime rates. Under gun control, only three people own guns: the police, the military, and criminals. But forget criminals! At this point, with the militarization of our police—something that OWS protesters know all too well—the police pose a larger threat than criminals! And you seriously want to give them more power over law-abiding citizens? More power to the police state then!

Strengthen the separation of church and state.

There’s no official state religion, and there’s no state church. Separation of church and state seems to being doing a good enough job.

Let’s not forget that separation goes both ways: not only is it separation of church from state, but also state from church. If the church can’t interfere with the state, then the state can’t interfere with the church. Sounds fair, right? So why do progressive liberals support taxing churches and dictating employment standards for religious organizations?

What we really need is a more lenient interpretation of church/state separation. Does it really make sense to cut the microphone of a valedictorian for mentioning Jesus in their speech, or to prohibit a school-age student from hanging his “Happy Birthday Jesus” ornament on a state capitol Christmas tree, or to suspend a student from drawing a cross during a school assignment, or prevent Mother Teresa from being commemorated on a postage stamp, or prevent a pair of crossbeams from being featured in a 9/11 memorial museum? I respect separation of church and state, but good grief do some people take it way too far!

Immediate debt forgiveness for all.

Isn’t it ironic to protest bailing out big banks but to demand the forgiveness of all debt?

“That’s totally different!” I hear you cry in protest. “Those bailouts went to corporate fatcats! The bailouts we want will go to struggling Americans, especially students burdened by student loan debt.”

Fine. College students shouldn’t have to graduate with a crushing amount of debt—most of which was caused by the student loan bubble created by the federal government subsidizing student loans! But how, pray tell, do you suggest relieving them of this debt? With taxpayer money? So you want to raise taxes during an economic crisis when most are scrapping the bottom of the barrel as it is? How will that help the 99%?

Oh, I see: you just want to raise taxes on the rich. They clearly don’t pay their “fair share” in taxes. The top one percent only pays 40 percent of the nation’s income tax and 27 percent of the nation’s tax burden. Lazy freeloaders! They should pay 400 percent! That will solve everything (even though merely confiscating all wealth from every billionaire in the country would barely make a dent in our deficit).

End the 'War on Drugs'.

That makes three things I agree with.

Unfortunately, that’s all I can agree with. Everything else, as I clearly demonstrated, is dangerously naïve! Don’t get me wrong: I would love to live in a world where I had a $20 minimum wage and six weeks of paid vacation, where all student loan debt was forgiven, and where the government gave everything from healthcare to education for free (and by “free,” I mean at the expense of Bill Gates and other rich people). I would also love to live in a world with lollipop trees and Mountain Dew oceans. That’s not happening anytime soon, and neither are any of those utopian demands.

And this is why I fear Occupy Wall Street. If these moronic protesters actually managed to get any of these insane demands fulfilled, the result would not be a progressive socialist Keynesian utopia. It would be a dystopian wasteland brought about by an eventual economic collapse. And I wouldn’t want to live in said world, not without a good shotgun. (Oh wait, I forgot, firearms would be banned! Ah crap!)

SOPA Vs. My Little Pony

2012-01-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

What fate may befall Ponyville if the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is passed:

Art by Niban-Destikim

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Don't let bad bills hurt good ponies. Join the fight against SOPA!

Educate yourself and others.

Contact your representative.

Sign this petition.

The fate of the internet (and Ponyville) rests in your hands!

SOPA/PIPA Protest Tommorow

2012-01-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow begins the day-long internet protest of SOPA and PIPA—two bills which threaten to censor the internet in the name of fighting piracy. Websites like Google will post links to anti-SOPA information on their front page, while other sites like Reddit and Wikipedia will blackout altogether. Hopefully, this protest will help raise awareness of these two bills and the danger they pose towards internet freedom—and considering that the mainstream media (most of which is owned by the corporations supporting the bills) has remained silent, it will probably be one of the only ways most Americans will be made aware.

So far, the fight against these bills has proven strong and successful. Over the weekend, Obama has voiced opposition towards them, forcing Congress to shelve SOPA—at least until they reach a “consensus.” Also, the provision which would have allowed the federal government to block access to overseas sites accused of piracy has been lifted.

But the fight is far from over, and now is not the time to relax. If anything, we need to keep up the resistance, which is why this protest will still continue as planned, even with the recent shelving of SOPA. The future of the internet is at stake here.

For me personally, if either of these two bills passes, it will mean the death of my two favorite websites. First, That Guy With The Glasses, whose reviewers feature copyrighted material in order to review movies, music, video games, and other forms of entertainment. For Doug Walker and other reviewers, SOPA will literally cost them their livelihood, which is why they went so far as to travel to Washington in order to address this bill before Congress.

And then there’s Equestria Daily, the unofficial My Little Pony blog that streams the newest episodes once they come out. Now considering that Hasbro and the show’s production team endorses the site, even sending them official material, it could very well be safe from the clutches of SOPA. But you never know. SOPA could very well kill it. (And then where will I watch the new episodes?)

So for everyone who values internet freedom, do your part and fight these bills. Inform others about them, because obviously the media won’t. And contact your representatives. Tell them you do not approve of these bills and will not re-elect them if they vote for either. And if they do vote for either, come election time, vote them out!

This Week In Review (01/16/2012)

2012-01-16T18:18:00.000-08:00

• SOPA has been shelved. Congress decided to drop support of the controversial bill (which would have amounted to internet censorship) after President Barack Obama stated that he would oppose it. So finally Obama decided to grow a pair and actual oppose bad legislation that would have royally screwed the American people. Too bad he didn’t do that with the NDAA. (Internet censorship = Bad! Indefinite detention = Good!) But I’m not giving Obama the credit for this. The real credit goes to everyone on the internet who has been fighting this bill tooth and nail, including sites like Reddit and Wikipedia who have threatened blackouts. Good job guys! Keep up the good work!

• Ron Paul wins second place in New Hampshire primary. First he wins third place in Iowa, now second place in New Hampshire. Could he possibly win first place in South Carolina? Does he have a chance as the Republican presidential nominee? Well, as much as it pains me to say it, and it REALLY pains me to do so, probably not. Look, like every other Ron Paul fanboy, I desperately want this man to be president. I really do. But if I had to be realistic, I have to admit that he doesn’t stand a chance. The man simply isn’t electable. Republicans don’t like him because he doesn’t want to invade other countries on a whim, and Democrats don’t like him because he doesn’t want to increase spending and taxes during an economic crisis. Of course, most Americans won’t vote for him simply because he wants to legalize pot and prostitution (because obviously prohibition has worked out for both of them). He’s simply too “radical” for the “status quo.”

• U.S. Marines were caught on video urinating on Taliban corpses. Shortly after the video went viral, the marines were identified and are now pending disciplinary action. But seriously, is anyone shocked by this? Our troops aren’t exactly known for their good behavior, from torturing and humiliating prisoners in Abu Ghraib to killing innocent civilians for fun in Afghanistan. But then again, when our own military approves of torture practices (excuse me, “enhanced interrogation techniques”), can we expect our own troops to act any better? (Oh, and Rick Perry defended the Marines. Again, is anyone shocked by this?)

• Secretary of Defense admits Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. “Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability, and that’s what concerns us,” Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta stated during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation. So even the Secretary of Defense himself admits that Iran doesn’t pose a nuclear threat. Will this prevent potential war with Iran? Oh, hell no! The Republican Party has been drooling over the idea of another war ever since we pulled out of Iraq. In fact, Rick Perry suggested that he would send our troops back into Iraq. Sigh. Those warmongering neocons are just like the mob: Just when you thought we were out, they pull us back in!

• Jon Huntsman drops out of presidential race. And not a single flip was given in the Republican Party. Aside from Ron Paul, Huntsman was one of the few (if not only) Republican candidates who could be considered sane, which is why he was largely ignored and marginalized by his own party. Then again, it’s hard to call him “sane” when he supports the TARP bailouts and NDAA, and endorsed Mitt Romney after quitting the race.

• Stephen Colbert announces presidential run. Following a poll which showed that most South Carolina voters favor Colbert over Jon Huntsman, Colbert announced his presidential run on his show and ceded his Super PAC to fellow satirist Jon Stewart. His first political ad attacked Mitt Romney as “Mitt The Ripper,” arguing that “If Mitt Romney truly believes corporations are people, then Mitt Romney is a serial killer” for forcing corporations out of business as head of Bain Capital. Now obviously Colbert isn’t seriously running for president, but is his presidential run any less farcical than that of the other candidates? If Donald Trump could be considered a “serious candidate,” why not Colbert?

Pony Sunday: Baby Cakes

2012-01-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to Pony Saturday—or rather, Pony Sunday. Yes, my fellow bronies, I moved it to a new day. I simply can’t review the new episode on the same day.

Anywho, here are my thoughts on this week’s new episode “Baby Cakes.”

• Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s babies: Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake! Dawwwwww!
• It’s the return of Nurse Redheart.
• 1st Song: “Happy, Happy Birthday to you and you today…”
• LOL! Pinkie gets kicked out of the maternity ward. (But not for long!)
• One twin is a pegasus and the other is a unicorn. Pony genetics are confusing.
• 2nd Song: “You’re A Month Old Today!”
• Meme Alert: “Where’s Pinkie Pie? Here I am!” (Now let’s loop it for 10 min.!)
• I feel sorry for ponies. They have to change diapers with their mouths. Eww!
• Who else loves Pinkie Pie’s watch? I want one! :D
• Did anyone else expect the babies to throw up over Pinkie? They looked more like they were going to throw up rather than burp.
• Anyone else think Pound Cake is going to get a cutie mark in martial arts?
• Why didn’t the Cakes think of asking Pinkie Pie to babysit before traveling all over Ponyville asking the other ponies?
• Fluttershy: “You understand don’t you? You’re not mad at me, are you? Please don’t be mad at me!” (You’re—going—to LOVE ME!)
• Typical Twilight Sparkle: Writing a report summarizing her other reports to the Princess. XD
• Man, those caterpillars are hungry!
• “Gotta Dash”? Gotta Blast!
• Why doesn’t Rarity want to babysit? She doesn’t even give a reason why. She could have said she was working on a dress or something.
• Mr. Cake: “Pinkie Pie, how would you like to babysit for us?” Pinkie: “I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule.” LOL! XD
• Pinkie: “Responsibility is my middle name! Pinkie Responsibility Pie!” No, you’re middle name is Diana! XD
• And on cue, once the parents leave, the babies cry! “Uh Oh” indeed.
• Pinkie Pie: don’t quit your day job. Stand up is obviously not your thing.
• 3rd Song: “Oink!”
• “First you jiggle your tail (Oink! Oink! Oink!), then you wiggle your snout (Oink! Oink! Oink!), then you wriggle your rump (Oink! Oink! Oink!), and shout it out (Oink! Oink! Oink!)!”
• Love the babies’ reaction! Perfectly conveys “WTF is this $#!+!”
• Pinkie Pie Flour Count: 1 (Get used to Pinkie getting doused in flour: it’s a running gag!)
• "Nom Nom Nom!" :3
• Pinkie Pie Flour Count: 2
• Man those babies are fast!
• Did Pinkie filling the bath with all those toys remind anyone else of this Sesame Street skit?
• Pinkie Pie Flour Count: 3
• Pinkie’s wet mane doesn’t compare to Rarity’s! :D
• Did Pinkie Pie’s diaper predicament remind anyone else of this Fluttershy fan art?
• Pinkie Pie: “These babies won’t listen to reason. And don’t get me started on their taste in stand-up comedy.”
• Way to take things the wrong way, Pinkie Pie!
• The rubber chicken makes the same “Squee!” sound as Fluttershy! LOL! XD
• Pinkie Pie: “Pound Cake, this is a crib. It is only to be used for napping, sleeping, and on occasion with permission, as a pretend old-timey Western fort.”
• Those babies sleep on command!
• Man, the episode’s atmosphere quickly turns into that of a horror movie. (And this is why I love MLP:FIM!)
• OMG! It’s the spider walk from Exorcist!
• Okay, I call BS! Scootaloo can’t fly, but Pound Cake can—at 1 month!?
• Spider-Pinkie, Spider-Pinkie, does whatever a Spider-Pinkie does!
• "Nom Nom Nom!” :3
• Pound Cake can fly—at one month—and fast! Again, I call BS!
• “Mmm, Razzleberry!”
• Pumpkin Cake can levitate herself and other objects, pass through objects, and unlock locks and unbound chains. Damn, she’s more powerful than Twilight!
• Dawwwwww! Pinkie Pie cries. Just like she did in Part 2 of “Elements of Harmony.”
• And the babies douse themselves in flour!
• Pinkie: “Let me check my schedule. I should be free a week from—never!”
• And the babies can talk! “Pinkie.” “Pie.” Man, these babies are gifted!

Concerning My Blog

2012-01-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry if it’s been awhile since my last post, and sorry if any of my more recent posts came off as less than substantial. Life has been keeping me relatively busy, especially this weekend.

Effective immediately: My weekly posts will be rescheduled.

“Pony Saturday” will now be “Pony Sunday.” Tomorrow, I will share my thoughts on today’s episode “Baby Cakes.” I will continue to post my thoughts on new episodes until the last one for this season, which is next month. Afterward, I will post my thoughts on the “Return of Harmony,” “Zero Tolerance,” and “Hearth Warming Eve.” And then it will all be random Pony-related posts until the third season this fall.

“This Week In Review” will be on Mondays rather than Sundays. I don’t know. I just don’t feel like posting anything after church on Sunday. And I usually have other things planned on that day anyway.

Hopefully once life is less hectic, I’ll feel like posting more substantive posts.

Top 11 Statist Arguments

2012-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

LordTHawkeye made the following video and list which I decided to repost and share. Enjoy:

11. Love it or leave it

Statists love to support their pet government by arguing that if you don't like it, you're free to leave whenever you want...of course ignoring the fact that you need the government's permission to leave and thus they can stop you if they so desire.
But what's really downright evil about this argument is how it's effectively blaming the victim. If a woman complains about how her husband beats her and blows all their money on booze, what would you think of someone who replied by saying it's her fault for staying with him?

It really takes a special kind of asshole to resort to a low blow argument like this and shame on anyone who ever has.

10. Taxation is not theft

When the mafia demands 10% of your income or else, it's racketeering. When the government demands 40% of your income or else, it's taxation and somehow is totally different. And my only question is HOW?!

"But Hawkeye!" they cry at me, "The government uses that money to help people! It's not stealing!"
All right smarty pants. Go rob a bank, donate a fair chunk of it to an orphanage and argue in court that you didn't steal the money because you used it for a good cause and let's just see how far that gets you!

I didn't think so.

Even if taxation was money legitimately owed to the state, how exactly does that justify threats of violence for non payment?

When you borrow from VISA and don't pay it back, what happens? They send your name to collections and you get your credit rating shot.
When you borrow from the mafia and don't pay it back, what happens? They send armed men to your house.

Now you tell me, which one sounds more like what the state does?

9. Without government, everyone will murder, rape, steal etc etc...

Ah yes, the original sin argument. Without god er...government rather, everyone would kill, rape and steal and it would be total disaster!
As our good friend Richard Dawkins said to a theist who tried to make this argument with regards to god, "Are you saying the only reason you don't murder, rape and steal is because you're afraid of punishment?" If that's the case, you're really in no position to be lecturing about morals.

Folks, I got news for you. We're not all that different. If you think you're the only moral person in the world, kindly get over yourself. I have asked for solid evidence for this claim for years and all I have to show for it is a pile of VERY weak anecdotes.

Besides, even if you were right, your idea still fails. A race of evil humans won't be good and moral on their own but they will vote in someone who will force them to? How, pray tell, does that make anything even resembling logical sense?

The only situation where a state could be argued is if most people are evil but only good people get into the government. There is no logical or emperical reason to believe that this is, was or ever will be the situation and I'd really like to know how such a group could remain in power if the rest of the population disagreed with them so passionately.

8. Who'll build the roads, take care of the poor, run healthcare, tie my shoes etc etc...

The answer to this is very easy: You will.
If we had no state, you'd have vastly more money with which you could use to help anybody you wanted to, fund any endeavor you thought was a worthy cause and nobody would try to stop you, that I can guarantee.

To those who argue that people wouldn't fund some project unless you force them, if you can't get people to voluntarily fund something, then it wasn't a worthy cause in the first place. Get over it.
And no, having a cause you deem worthy does not justify forcibly extracting funds because human lives are not yours to dispose of and no cause is so great that it deserves to be shielded from public scrutiny. Get off your high horse.

If you want funding, you prove your worth like the rest of us. End of story.

7. Without regulation, the rich will dominate us!

Stargazer summed this one up perfectly so I'll just paraphrase him.

"Can you name me one time in history where governments were not controlled by rich people? Just one, any one! Who were the richest people in monarchies? Who were the richest people in aristocracies? Who are the richest people in republics or democracies? It's always people with political connections. Governments do not help the poor, especially not in the long run."

And if you think public welfare is helping the poor, I think you'll find a midsummer stroll through South Bronx VERY educational. Before welfare, poverty was decreasing every year. After welfare, that came to a screeching halt. Case closed I'd say.

6. Redistribution of wealth

This is a term that somehow both amuses and infuriates me at the same time. Funny in how obviously it's a way to sugar coat thievery and infuriating in how so many actually play it straight.
The idea of redistributing wealth to make it more fair requires the presupposition that all the wealth belongs to a central authority who gives it out as it sees fit.
In other words, the fruits of our labors all belong to the state, a claim it has no authority whatsoever to make.
A truly fair economy is one where if you want something, you have to work for it. Those willing to put the most work in will get the most out. The alternative is effectively rewarding laziness while penalizing hard work and it doesn't take a prophet to predict where that eventually leads.

Redistribution of wealth is a notion which can charitably be described as dangerously misguided and uncharitaby described as glorified slavery.

5. What about the environment?!

Uh...dude? Governments are the biggest polluters in the world...by far! Even if you don't count wars which you should...

Next one please...

4. The "free rider problem"

Ah of course, a free society can never work because the free riders will drag us all to our doom!

Pray tell, how exactly does one "free ride" in a society where nobody is granted the right to initiate force? The occasional non payer will benefit from the safer streets made possible by private police? Why do you even care? He'll still have to pay if he wishes to report a crime commited against him and likely more since he hadn't been paying the regular fee but if that's his choice, who are you to question it? He simply feels the fee isn't worth his while for whatever reason and that's his money and thus his decision to make. You have no say in the matter. Accept it and move on.

Besides, anyone really concerned about free riders would do well to steer clear of the government who are not only the biggest free riders in the world with all their pork and wasteful spending but are also the biggest enablers of free riders through endless entitlement programs that just keep growing.

As a wise man said "I'd take a few free riders over an entire nation of unfree carriers any day of the week."

3. Safety > freedom

When the endless attacks on personal liberty become undeniable, some statists will fall back on this one. Yeah sure the state intrudes on your lives but it's all for your protection and hey! Freedom's overrated anyway!

This is another tragic case of claiming to solve a problem when in fact you have only deffered it over. Sure, if against all odds you managed to completely purge all guns from a society so that only the police and military have them, yeah you probably are pretty safe from being shot by a criminal.

One problem: What's going to protect you from the police and the military should power go to their heads? They are but mere mortals after all.

This argument is based on the flawed idea that safety and freedom work at cross purposes. The strength of one means the weakness of the other but nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is they go hand in hand. Freedom is a very friendly person that way.

You see, when people are free, they will naturally migrate towards whatever endeavors they personally feel comfortable with thus whatever proves itself the safest will naturally thrive while undue risk fades away.

To instead trust our safety to one elite and unaccountable group is quite literally putting all of one's eggs in one very flimsy basket which is anything but safe.

This is why our good friend Franklin warned us that those who sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither, because you sure as hell won't get either one in the end.

2. But Anarchy's never been done before!

Ah yes, the "Everything that can be done has been done already" angle. We all love this one.

If you want to really frustrate statists who resort to this argument, just ask them "Can you name me one society in history who kept their government small and unintrusive? A government that didn't overstep it's authority, grow uncontrollably and eventually collapse as inevitably as the tides?"
When he stands there with a blank look in his eyes, you'll know how much he actually cares about empericism and historical precedence...

The truth is, anarchism is all around you. The vast majority of your everyday life is self governed and you would never have it any other way. Spontaneous order and the excellence that comes from voluntary trade is everywhere if you bother to look.

Yes it is true that no society has ever dismantled their government with no intention of ever creating a new one but that's beside the point. A stateless society is an entirely new idea and one that has worked in every small way it has been tried. There is no reason to doubt that it can't work on a larger scale and to claim that you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that it can't is simply irrational fear of change talking. Let it go, it's not healthy.

1. The social contract

And then we come to this. The social contract, the idea that by living under a government, you agree to obey. Really now? That's it? The state is legit because a contract you obviously made up on the spot says so?

I've already many a time discussed the legal problems with this argument but that doesn't seem to dent the state worshippers. I've even pointed out how this is a completely wild card argument you could use to justify literally ANYTHING a government does. Is anyone seriously going to try and tell me that the holocaust was perfectly justified because if the Jews didn't approve, they should have moved away or voted in someone else? Yeah yeah, scream Godwin's Law until you turn blue in the face. I'm not comparing you to Nazis. I'm saying that your argument is so open ended that it could be used to justify the Nazis and that's why it fails and that's why you need to think your arguments through a little more carefully in the future.

What oh what kind of spin does it take to make such a completely illogical, baseless, freedom-hating, hypocritical non-argument look like a valid point?

The truth is this. Because governments only made semi-logical sense back when we used to believe in the divine right of kings. Since the king was supposedly directly chosen by god, that was proof that he should rule and be an exception to all of god's rules. Flimsy but at least it made SOME kind of sense if you accept the premise that God exists (as a side note: he doesn't)

Without divine right, all arguments for the state self detonate. I mean come on, the initiation of violence is bad so we need to give one elite group permission to initiate violence in order to stop the initiation of violence? Even a 5 year old can tell that makes no sense.

So while the smart people have gone on to start questioning the premises of the state's existence as a whole, the slower people (and that's the nicest term I can use), desperate to hold onto their dogma simply whipped out a replacement for divine right which came in the form of the social contract. Now instead of "You have to obey because the invisibile man in the sky that I can't even prove exists says so" it's "You have to obey because the invisible contract that I can't even prove exists says so." It's nothing more than feeble excuse making for elitism, fascism and barbarism and it needs to stop.

Pony Saturday: Family Appreciation Day

2012-01-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the return of Pony Saturday, everypony! Sorry I didn't review Hearth Warming Eve due to my somewhat hiatus, but I'll get to that next week, along with its new episode. This week, I share my thoughts on the newest episode "Family Appreciation Day."

• Not only does Granny Smith get more screen time and lines in this season, she gets her own episode! :D
• Is it just me, or is Granny Smith at times incomprehensible? (“That’s what I said!")
• This is one of the few episodes (actually, I think only) where none of the other Mane 6 appear.
• I know Big MacIntosh rarely speaks other than for “eeyup!”, but did “Applebuck Season” really have to be the only episode where he speaks more than that?
• That looks more like a rake than a broom.
• Is it mean to suggest that Granny Smith may have Alzheimer’s? She does keep forgetting stuff. (I’ll simply go with eccentric.)
• Diamond Tiara’s father is Filthy Rich. (He prefers to be called “Rich,” not “Filthy.”)
• Methinks Diamond Tiara no likey Zap Apple Jam.
• Funny how Apple Bloom didn’t have a problem with Granny Smith’s “silly ways” until Diamond Tiara came along.
• Is that Lily selling pots and pans?
• Apple Bloom has to carry Granny Smith’s gums—in her mouth! Bleh!
• LOL! at Granny Smith’s bee beard!
• And Apple Bloom is small enough to fit behind a beehive.
• “Are those fillies your friends?” HELL NO!
• “Half Pint” is officially the new “Blank Flank”
• I know this is a nitpick (like most everything else), but where are Snips and Snails in Apple Bloom’s class? It’s been shown in past episodes that they are part of her class. So where are they? Sick? Playing hooky? (Knowing them, I’ll go with the latter.)
• Somehow, I just like Sweetie Belle’s expression when she wakes up. XD
• Why weren’t Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle on the list for Family Appreciation Day?
• Also, why is Monday also considered “Family Appreciation Day?” Is it a weekly thing? If not, why not call it “Family Appreciation Week?”
• Third Sign: Ominous circle of crows.
• Did the treehouse recently add a lookout tower, or did I just not notice it until now?
• Scootaloo has an idea: hits lamp when she leaps. Nice visual pun!
• Does Granny Smith’s eccentricity remind anyone else of Arnold’s grandma from “Hey Arnold”?
• New Meme Alert: “Court Marshaled!”
• Nothing beats a medical degree with diagnosing illness than being a mother (o
or in Apple Bloom’s case, grandmother).
• Perhaps it would be better to pick apples when Big Mac and Apple Jack aren’t in the background.
• Zap apple tree uses Thundershock. It’s super effective!
• You have to wonder why ponies would need pigs? Cows I understand, since they give milk. But pigs? Do they eat bacon and other pork products. I thought ponies were vegetarian.
• Either the glass in the window was so thick that Cheerilee couldn’t see that Granny Smith was obviously being manipulated with ropes and was wearing fake glasses (which fell off, and required Apple Bloom to put back on), or she’s one stupid Smith.
• “She never wakes up from her nap!”
• Do the Zap Apples remind anyone else of Rainbow Dash?
• And Granny Smith doesn’t realize the telegram deliverer is Scootaloo? (Better question: Who sends telegrams anymore?)
• HA! Granny Smith said it! “My Little Ponies!”
• Apple Struddel gives noogies! (Just like another famous cartoon uncle!)
• Granny Smith looks cute as a filly. Reminds me of Pollyanna.
• You know, this episode really raises the question of just how old Princess Celestia is. She’s obviously older than a thousand, as the first episode implies. But just how long do alicorns live? Or are they immortal? ( But that just raises even more questions.)
• LOL! Granny Smith’s mother gets jealous of her father kissing Celestia’s hooves (and thus a thousand fanfics were born).
• Timber Wolves. Man do I love Equestrian mythology!
• I really love how everything crazy thing Granny Smith did in this episode had a reason for it (I.e.: you have to be “friendly” with the bees for them to make the best honey).
• Strangely enough, there is such a thing as Apple Jam (though not Zap Apples, unfortunately).
• Apple Bloom’s family first helped out Diamond Tiara’s. Oh, the bitter irony!
• The Apple Family founded Ponyville. Huh! Go figure.
• LOL! Silver Spoon (Diamond Tiara’s friend) is the first to applaud.
• Why did Granny Smith lick the chalkboard?
• Anyone else think Apple Bloom may one day get her cutie mark as a Zap Apple?
• You know, they never did explain why they hop over the water singing the alphabet.
• LOL! Diamond Tiara is forced to dress as a bunny and sing to the water. I just love when the bad guy gets their comeuppance! XD
• This has to be the first episode where no one writes a letter to Princess Celestia (or at least addresses her with the lesson they learned).

Sexist Frat E-Mail: Women Are Targets, Not People

2012-01-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

What really bugs me about feminists is how they always see sexism where none exists (i.e.: Feminist Frequency). That being said, I do understand that sexism and misogyny exist (just not to the extent that feminists perceive them to be).

Case in point: a fraternity member from USC’s Kappa Sigma chapter wrote an e-mail (referred to as the “Gullet report”) to his fellow members on how to be an effective “cocksman” and “pin-point sorostitiutes more inclined to put-out.” (In other words, it’s one of those immature rating systems that rate women on how hot and “easy” they are.)

I refuse to post the entirety of the e-mail, as simply talking about it makes me feel ashamed. If you can stomach reading about how male pigs can best “get laid,” you can read the e-mail here. But just to give you a glimpse of the sexism surrounding it, I’ll share this portion that pretty much sums it up:

Note: I will refer to females as “targets”. They aren’t actual people like us men. Consequently, giving them a certain name or distinction is pointless.

Women aren’t actual people like men?

I don’t normally condone violence, but if you’re a college-age guy and you run into some male pig who thinks like this, please shove them down the nearest flight of stairs. You’ll be doing the male gender a service.

Pat Robertson's 2012 Predictions

2012-01-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Who better to predict the 2012 presidential elections than the same ~~false~~ prophet who successfully predicated Armageddon in 1982?

CNN Strikes Again: Drops Feed Of Paul Supporter

2012-01-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

First CNN cuts off Ron Paul when he mentions the NDAA, now it “lost their connection” once a Ron Paul supporting solider starts endorsing his noninterventionist foreign policy.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Ron Paul was nice enough to bring that young man, Jesse Thorsen, onstage so he could finish what he had to say.

Unfortunately, Thorsen may have violated military protocol by expressing his support for a politican while in uniform. Sheesh! First CNN screws him over, then the military finishes him. There’s no respect from the establishment for Ron Paul and his supporters.

Bachmann Drops Out!

2012-01-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

Bachmann Ends Presidential Run

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead.
Which old Witch? The Neocon Witch!
Ding Dong! The Neocon Witch's presidental run is dead.

Paul Lost To Santorum?!

2012-01-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I woke up this morning, checked the Iowa caucus results, and needless to say, I’m mortified!

Yes, I’m glad Ron Paul managed to get into the top tier (though disappointingly in third place), and yes, I’m not surprised Romney won first place, but what baffles me is that second place went to, of all people, Rick Santorum.

What? Really?! Rick Santorum? Effing Rick Santorum? Ron Paul lost second place to Santorum?

My reaction:

I could comprehend Paul losing to Rick Perry or Newt Gingrich. But Santorum? Really? The same Rick Santorum who, in last year’s Iowa Straw Poll, as Jon Stewart so eloquently put it, “didn’t get half [the votes] Ron Paul got. He lost to the guy [Tim Pawlenty] who lost so bad he dropped out of the race!”

Methinks Fox News pimping out Santorum during the caucus may be to blame. (It's the only "news" source Republicans watch!)

Oh, and there's also the fact that Iowa Republicans moved the vote-count to an "undisclosed location." I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I’m not discarding the idea that this was a scheme to steal the vote from Paul.

(And in other news, Santorum's own nephew favors Paul over him!)

Santorum Quote-mine: “I Don’t Want To Help Black People”

2012-01-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

I don’t like Rick Santorum. The man claimed that John McCain, A POW who suffered at the hands of Vietnamese torturers, didn’t know anything about “enhanced interrogation techniques.” In short, he’s an idiot!

That being said, I also don’t like people being quote-mined in order to make them look bad, as was the case with the moonbat blogosphere making Santorum look racist by quoting him as saying “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better.”

Here’s the CBS News video and transcript showing the entire quote in context (emphasis mine):

[Welfare] just keeps expanding - I was in Indianola a few months ago and I was talking to someone who works in the department of public welfare here, and she told me that the state of Iowa is going to get fined if they don't sign up more people under the Medicaid program. They're just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is. I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money, and provide for themselves and their families. The best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling again.

So Rick does want to help black people (or rather, poor people), he simply wants to do so by giving them jobs rather than welfare. You know the old saying: “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” Sadly, in our current welfare state, this saying has long been forgotten, and we are worse off because of it, especially the poor and minorities.

Paul Cut By CNN Once He Mentions NDAA

2012-01-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

“Oh no! That presidential candidate we’ve been trying to ignore is talking about that indefinite detention bill we’ve been trying to ignore! Quick, cut the tape!”

ACLU Report Card Places Paul Above Obama

2012-01-03T11:53:00.000-08:00

You mean the Democratic president, who renewed the Patriot Act (twice!), ordered the assassination of an American citizen, and signed the bill allowing for indefinite detention, scored lower on civil liberties than the only Republican candidate who opposed all three? Shocking!

MSNBC Slanders Ron Paul, Badly Misquotes Him

2012-01-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

Since the mainstream media can no longer ignore Ron Paul (what with him leading the polls in Iowa), they have no other option but to marginalize him. Fox News did it. CNN did it. And now, MSNBC has done it:

Only in the world of Moonbats Spewing Nothing But Crap can Ron Paul saying "we're better off WITHOUT Jim Crow laws" be interpreted as "we were better off WITH Jim Crow laws"! Then again, can we expect anything different from the network that interpreted Rick Perry's "big, black cloud" quote as referring to Obama and not the national debt?

Amazing Atheist Defends Ron Paul

2012-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

You know Ron Paul has a good chance of winning when The Amazing Atheist (who's made video after video after video attacking him) starts defending him:

I’m no fan of Ron Paul, I’ve done several videos against him, I disagree with him on 60-70 percent of the things that he said, and yet I’m compelled to defend him from the mainstream media because they’re doing everything in their power to marginalize him and it’s obvious to everyone. All of the mainstream media and the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment, the two party establishment, the corporatist establishment, all they’ve accomplished by trying to marginalize Ron Paul is turn someone like me, who hates the guy, into someone who’s giving him a second look because, hey, if the establishment hates him this bad, maybe he should have my vote.

I mean, if it comes down to Ron Paul or Barack Obama, how can I in good conscience vote for Barack Obama, a man who doesn’t believe in anything that he f***ing says? Ron Paul at least believes in something. He at least has a real agenda that reflects a real philosophical value system, a real economic policy, a real foreign policy. And it’s not an economic policy I agree with. I probably at the end of the day agree more with Barack Obama’s stated policies than I do with Ron Paul’s, but the difference is I don’t know what Obama really wants. I think that what he wants is the furtherance of his own power, the continuation of the status quo. At least Ron Paul, for all his faults, for all his foibles, and they are many, at least he genuinely believes the shit that he says.

Personally, I’m still holding out for a third party candidate that I could vote for in good conscience, but failing that, I can see myself voting for Ron Paul if he gets the nomination. He probably won’t. It’s probably still going to be Romney. Romney’s still ahead in most of the Iowa polls and he’s way ahead in a lot of other primary states, but hey, it could be Paul! Paul has a legitimate path to the nomination which is something I will freely admit that I never thought would happen.

Examples Of Libertarianism

2012-01-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

One of the main criticisms against libertarianism, as a Daily Kos article recently demonstrated, is that there are no real life examples of libertarian governments, and therefore, no evidence that libertarianism works. While it is true that there are no completely libertarian countries, there are countries with libertarian policies which have been highly successful. Here are five examples:

• Hong Kong's Economic Policy (Laissez-Faire Capitalism)

• Chile's Pension Program (Privatization)

• Switzerland's Foreign Policy (Noninterventionism)

• Sweden's Education System (School Choice)

• Portugal's Drug Policy (Decriminalization)

I plan on writing an essay elaborating on this topic. As can be expected, much research will be going into it. If anyone would like to help contribute, feel free to send me links to articles on the five countries and their policies. I plan on having it finished sometime later this month.

Top 10 Epic Fails Of 2011

2011-12-31T17:38:00.000-08:00

No doubt 2011 has been a year of epic fail. So allow me to list what I consider to be the Top 10 epic fails of 2011:

#10: Weinergate “Scandal”

You know what I consider the worst part about Weinergate?

It’s not that Anthony Weiner tweeted his junk to a female constituent. Politicians have always been involved with sex scandals here in America since Jefferson. And for the most part, I could care less. Ron Paul could go Hugh Hefner on us and date a Playboy bunny every day of the week, and I’d still support his noninterventionist foreign policy and opposition to the Patriot Act.

And it’s not that libtarded moonbats like Rachel Maddow and Cenk Ugyur were quick to defend the man, only to wipe egg off their faces once he confessed.

No. the worst part was undoubtedly the Republicans. As was expected, the “Moral Majority” was quick to cast the first stone at Weiner for his lewd behavior.

Sarah Palin’s daughter had a baby out-of-wedlock. Larry Craig was caught soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. Mark Sanford had an affair with an Argentinean mistress. Herman Cain was accused of sexually-harassing two female employees. And yet it’s Weiner who’s forced to resign for tweeting his junk?

For folks who love to thump their Bibles, Republicans are clearly oblivious to the verse about “judge not; lest ye be judged”!

#9: Debt Ceiling “Crisis”

Biggest non-issue of the year!

Yes, you heard me right: contrary to what politicians and the media would have you believe, this debt ceiling “crisis” was barely a “crisis.”

For starters, the deadline had been changed three times earlier this year before it was August 2—previously having been May 31, April 15, and March 31. If reaching the deadline really meant an economic collapse (which it wouldn’t), then financial Armageddon would have occurred months ago.

And then you have the Republicans, who, despite having voted for a debt ceiling extension 19 times under Bush, decided to oppose extending the deadline under Obama. (Odd, don’t you think?)

Republicans didn’t want to raise taxes. Democrats didn’t want to cut spending. So once the deadline rolled around, Congress created a “Super Committee” (“Super” as in “Super unconstitutional”) that would decide how to reduce the debt. But, surprise: after over three months, the Super Committee failed to agree upon anything.

But then again, the debt ceiling really was much ado about nothing.

#8: Wisconsin Union Protests

I could easily list Occupy Wall Street as an “Epic Fail”—and trust me, a bunch of clueless protesters who don’t even know what they’re protesting is major epic fail—but that would be too easy. Instead, I’ll list the protests that sparked the entire protest movement.

Earlier this year, Wis. Governor Scott Walker proposed a budget repair bill to correct the state’s $137 million shortfall. One of the bill’s provisions required public sector union members to contribute a small percent of their salary to their pensions and healthcare premiums (which only seems fair considering they already contribute jack squat to their pensions and only half to their premiums), and prevented them from bargaining for wages higher than the rate of inflation.

Considering how they always preach about “shared sacrifice,” one would think that libtarded moonbats would be fine with this; but apparently, requiring union members to contribute to their own benefits and preventing them from siphoning taxpayer money during a recession is considered “union-busting” and is just cause for mobs (excuse me, “protests”) that makes the Tea Party look like a bunch of kind old grannies in contrast. (Actually, most of the Tea Party is a bunch of kind old grannies. But I digress!)

For an entire month, the Washington State Capitol was flooded with union thugs waving signs comparing Walker to Hitler (who actually spoke highly of trade unions). Public school teachers, many which received fake sick notes to attend, carried profanity-ridden signs and dragged along their clueless students. When the Capitol was finally closed off, protesters broke windows in order to sneak in. (And yet liberals are more civil than conservatives!)

After all was said and done, the bill was passed. But the union thugs swore revenge, as later this year, a petition to recall Walker has been growing.

And how did Walker’s repair bill fare? In only a few months, it helped lead to massive savings and job growth! So to all those union thug protesting this bill: YOU’RE WELCOME!

#7: 2012 Republican Debates

With Obama doing a piss-poor job as President, one would expect a lineup of presidential candidates whose intelligence and expertise would make them formidable opponents in the upcoming election.

What did we get instead?

A Texas cowboy whose solution to his state’s problems is to pray to God. A moron (excuse me, “Mormon”) who opposes Obama’s healthcare reform while his state has an identical system (which HE started!). An adulterer who received millions from the federal institution that destroyed our economy. A pizza man who claimed the Federal Reserve didn’t need an audit (months before the revelation of $7.7 trillion dollars in secret funds). A Jesus freak who claimed that John McCain didn’t know a damn thing about “enhanced interrogation techniques” (despite having suffered at the hands of Vietnamese torturers as a POW). And a brainless bimbo who considers incandescent light bulbs bans unconstitutional, but not torture practices or warrantless wiretaps. (Oh, and then there’s Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman!)

To add insult to injury, these unelectable nitwits appeared multiple times before a live audience on national television to say whatever stupid shit came to their minds (or lack thereof), leading to plenty of lulzy, if not shameful, moments.

And so, as a list within a list, here are the Top 10 “Epic Fail” moments of the Republican debates:

#10: Perry pretending to be offended that he could be bought for five thousand dollars.
#9: Bachmann admitting that the government needed taxes while claiming she would eliminate all taxes.
#8: Bachmann pointing out that Cain’s 9-9-9 plan turned upside down is 6-6-6.
#7: Gingrich defending his work for Freddie Mac, followed by Bachmann defending her criticism of him because Politifact said it was true (which it denied saying).
#6: Cain denying to Paul that he claimed the Fed didn’t need an audit.
#5: Paul having to correct Bachmann about Iran.
#4: The audience cheering Perry’s high execution count.
#3: The audience cheering Cain and Bachmann for their support of water boarding.
#2: The audience booing a gay solider for his question about the repeal of DADT.
#1: Rick Perry forgetting the third federal agency he would eliminate.

Looks like Obama’s getting a second term next year.

#6: Emergence of the Police State

Saying America is transforming into a police state would be highly inaccurate. As of this year, America has already transformed into a full-blown police state!

Hyperbole, you say? Let’s compare what the police can and can’t do:

The police can…

• …break down your front door if they suspect you’re destroying evidence.
• …search through the contents of your cell phone during a traffic stop.
• …use excessive force against an unarmed suspect, then demand a bystander’s cell phone at gunpoint and destroy it.
• …arrest a high school student for a harmless prank.
• …arrest people for selling lemonade on the White House lawn.
• …arrest people for dancing before the Jefferson Memorial.
• …arrest people for feeding the homeless in a public park.
• …arrest a woman for growing vegetables in her front yard.
• ...pepper spray protesters for standing around.
• …pepper spray a grandma, pregnant woman, and priest.
• …pepper spray college students sitting in a circle. (Hey, it’s essentially a food product!)
• …pepper spray and torture a man to death.
• …violently arrest a disabled man, dislocating four of his spinal probes.
• …shot a man for ribbing an officer and claiming he “sucked at darts.”

The police can’t…

• …be videotaped.

I rest my case!

#5: Federal Reserve Audit: $7.7 Trillion Secret Funds

How much is a trillion?

A stack of one million one-dollar bills would reach 358 feet (the height of a tall skyscraper). A stack of one billion dollar bills would reach over 35 thousand feet (the highest flying altitude of a jetliner!). A stack of one trillion dollar bills would reach over 67 thousand miles (one-forth of the way to the moon).

Now multiply that by 7.7!

That’s how much taxpayer money was secretly funneled to select banks and corporations over two years, according to a recent audit of the Federal Reserve. To put that in perspective, the economic stimulus was only $787 billion. The bank bailouts were $700 billion. Our national debt is over $15 trillion—though in light of this Federal Reserve audit, one has to wonder if it’s much larger. (And yet folks like Herman Cain believe the Federal Reserve doesn’t need to be audited!)

Jon Stewart probably asked it best: "How the f*** is it that Martha Stewart went to jail?"

#4: Penn State Child Abuse Scandal

Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually-abusing eight boys over a 15-year period.

Do I even have to explain why this was a bad thing?

Apparently so, since not only did assistant coach Mike McQuery witness one of the rapes and didn’t bother reporting it, but thousands of students rioted because their beloved coach was fired and arrested.

Perhaps the feminazis are right in accusing America of fostering a “rape culture.” (Nah! That would be giving feminzais too much credit that they deserve!)

#3: Gabrielle Gifford’s Shooting

I don’t know what’s worse: congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords being shot by crazed gunman Jared Lee Loughner, or Sarah Palin being accused of instigating the incident through her “violent rhetoric.”

Okay. To be fair, the shooting was far worse. But the accusations being thrown at Palin were no better.

Shortly following the shooting, Palin removed from her website a map with crosshairs over Democratic districts (one of which was Giffords’). This allowed liberals to accuse Sarah Palin and other conservative politicians of instigating the incident with their “violent rhetoric.” (Because heaven knows liberals have never used violent rhetoric!)

Never mind, of course, that Loughner was inconsistent in his political views (he was a fan of both Mein Kampf AND the Communist Manifesto). Never mind that he was a registered Independent who didn’t vote in the 2010 election. Never mind that a friend of his claimed he never watched the news or listened to talk radio (so how could he be exposed to “violent rhetoric”?). Never mind that Arizona authorities admit violent rhetoric had nothing to do with the shooting. And never mind that few Americans blame violent rhetoric for the shooting.

Such “facts” are irrelevant to libtarded moonbats like Bill Maher, who, appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, said that “the go to rhetoric for [the right-wing] is 'wouldn't it be fun to kill the people we disagree with.'” Obviously Maher of all people is perfectly eligible to preach about civility. This is the same man who called Sarah Palin a “cunt” and “dumb twat,” called the Tea Party movement a cult, wished the Pentagon shooter had killed Glenn Beck, accused President Obama of not acting like a “real black man,” and suggested that Democrats treat Republicans like Tiger Woods wanted to treat his mistress. (Oh, and he also claimed that liberals aren’t as mean as conservatives!)

#2: Norwegian Massacre

Crazed Norwegian white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik, believing that scary Muslims were taking over his country, killed over 70 civilians with the bombing of a government building and a shooting spree at a youth camp.

Again, do I even have to explain why this was a bad thing?

(Big shock: the man was declared clinically insane!)

#1: The NDAA, SOPA, and PIPA

One bill to rule us all, one bill to find us,
One bill to screw us all and in the darkness blind us.

This year has not been a good one for civil liberties. Not only has the police state gained more power (See #6), but Obama extended the blatantly unconstitutional Patriot Act (again!) and allowed for the assassination of an American citizen outside a battlefield.

But perhaps the biggest middle finger to Americans and their civil liberties came late this year in the form of three bills. (Think of them as early Christmas presents—the kind given by the Krampus, not Santa Claus!)

First was the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which allows the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without warrant, without trial, and without habeas corpus. Next is the Stop Online Piracy Act, which gives the federal government power to block access to websites that allows the streaming or uploading of copyrighted intellectual property (No surprise: the entertainment industry fully supports this bill!). And lastly is the Protect-IP Act, which is basically the Senate version of SOPA.

So if you thought it couldn’t get any worse than the Patriot Act or net neutrality, these three bills proved you wrong. They don’t just shove the Bill of Rights through the paper shredder: they shove it through the shredder, set it on fire, extinguish it with the piss and semen of a HIV-infected homeless drunk, feed it to the American people linked in a human centipede, and then once the bowel movement exits the last anus, re-feeds it to them 12 more times just to be safe. (Disgusted? You should be!)

And the biggest slap in the face? All three bills have received bi-partisan support! The NDAA was signed by a left-wing liberal Democratic president, and SOPA was supported by a left-wing liberal Democratic senator. The liberal Democrats take away your rights, and the conservative Republicans take away your rights. Does anyone still believe in the illusion of choice that is our two-party farce?

End the Left-Right delusion! Corporatism is the true enemy!

Failure of Feminism

2011-12-30T17:15:00.000-08:00

Feminism is the idea that we can make both sexes equal by focusing solely on the issues of one of them. - The Amazing Atheist

You have to feel sorry for feminists. They’re forced to live in a society where women have the right to vote, own property, attend school, run for office, work outside the home, and receive equal pay. Clearly their fellow women are still oppressed by the male-driven patriarchy!

The Amazing Atheist recently released the following video in which he eviscerates the feminist opinion that our “patriarchal” society favors men over women, giving several examples of how women are given preferential treatment.

Some of the examples he lists:

• Domestic violence against men is nearly as common as domestic violence against women, but it's not taken seriously by the media and it's not prosecuted heavily by our courts.

• Men are not treated anywhere near fairly when it comes to child custody and child support.

• While female genital mutilation is abhorrent to western civilization, genital mutilation of boys is commonplace and rarely challenged.

• Women are sentences to 40% less prison time than men for the same crimes.

In the end, he makes a very valid point: if we're to strive for equal rights among the sexes, then we must focus on the issues of both sexes, not one of them. "No one should be a feminist, nor should anyone start calling themselves something ridiculous like a masculinist. You can't be for the rights of one [sex] or the other. If you're truly for equality, you have to be for the rights of both."

The Compassion Of Dr. Ron Paul

2011-12-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul is a racist, you say? And he wants Americans to die without healthcare?!

I guess that’s why in the ‘70s he helped a mixed race couple deliver their baby when they were turned away by the hospital—and he made sure that they didn’t have to pay a bill! Only a sociopathic racist bigot would do such a thing!

The super PAC supporting Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) in his presidential campaign released a powerful 2-minute web ad this morning designed to hit back at stories about racist comments in newsletters with Paul's name on them that appeared in the 80's and 90's. The ad, produced by Revolution PAC, stars James Williams, a black man from Matagorda County, Texas. Williams says that when he took his wife -- who is white -- to the hospital in the early 70's, the hospital staff ignored her.

"Then Ron Paul came to my rescue. He just stepped in and went to work with my wife," Williams says, relating the story of how Paul delivered their stillborn child and made sure the Williams family never received a bill.

"He think of one human being just as much as the other. He's just an honest man and that's something we need now in this day and time. It's a lot of politics and no honesty," Williams says, transitioning to a political message. "When you have honesty, well, people will try to do anything to try to blot you out, and that's what they will try to do to him, is blot him out, because he will be honest, and we need more like him.

Magna Carta Favored The 1%?

2011-12-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

When you frequent reddit like I do, you tend to come across a lot of “herp-a-derp” comments, and boy howdy, did I stumble across the derpiest of herp-a-derp!

One of the top stories, What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success, claims Finland’s educational system is better than ours because it’s a total government monopoly. This lead to many comments about how America could never implement such an ideal system due to our fear of “big gumbmint”—which lead to the following comment:

That’s an anglo-saxon mindset paradigm that dates back to the magna-carta, and is used by the 1% to justify their demands to abolish government, whereas the true reason is that they don’t want to pay taxes and they don’t want the State to prevent them from doing the largest profits at the expense of everyone else.

You heard that right, folks: the Magna Carta—the very document that started our tradition of English Common Law, upon which all political discourse in the West has pivoted on, and which inspired our Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill Of Rights—was really a ploy by the 1% to skip out on their taxes and oppress the 99%. Before the clearly “anti-government” Magna Carta, life must have been grand for the 99%. I heard there were only two types of classes back then: masters and slaves!

Its comments like this that proves how badly America needs educational reform. I can’t believe such historical illiteracy exists.

The Magna Carta was the very document that bred the concept that every citizen was endowed with natural rights, that every citizen was equally protected under the law, and that no man was above the law—not the king, not the barons, not the aristocracy. In other words, it was clearly against the 1%—which back then was King John.

Ron Paul Not A Republican, But A Democrat?

2011-12-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. – Mohandas Gandhi

Now that Ron Paul is the frontrunner in Iowa, the neocons in the Republican Party can no longer ignore him—which only means they’ll start attacking him. The most obvious attack? That he’s not a real Republican!

That’s what disgraced ex-Navy Chaplin Gordon Klingenschmitt said on his radio program:

Ron Paul is to the left of President Obama on social issues: he wants to legalize marijuana, he wants to support homosexualizing the military and repeal DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, he is all about homosexual marriage. This is a man who claims to be a Republican but he’s a RINO, he’s a Republican In Name Only, because Ron Paul is openly a libertarian. He’s not part of the Republican Party, he’s wrong on all the issues that we care about as the church. So, because he’s so far left of even President Obama, he’s gathering support from Democrats.

In Iowa, the only reason Ron Paul is polling so high is because he’s getting crossover votes from the left-wing. And there are people who are trying to sabotage the Republican primary, they want to elect a Democrat, at least in his social conservative policies, Ron Paul is a Democrat, or is a libertarian. He’s anti-church, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, pro-homosexual, pro-marijuana, everything that we don’t believe in, the Democrats do believe in; everything that Ron Paul believes in, the Democrats do believe in.

I think that’s why they’re lining up and they’re trying to make it appear as if in the Republican caucuses in Iowa and in the different places around the country, that Ron Paul actually has some Republican support. I think he doesn’t. Ron Paul does not have any Republican support. Everyone who is a Ron Paul supporter is not a Republican, they are either a Democrat or a libertarian trying to take over the Republican Party.

Only Democrats support Ron Paul? I guess that’s why I’ve seen so many “positive” reviews about him on moonbat sites such as AlterNet, Daily Kos, and Huffington Post.

Oh wait. Those articles weren’t positive. They were negative! Democrats don’t like him. And neither do Republicans! (That must mean he’s doing something right!)

But Gordy does have a point: Ron Paul isn’t a Republican. He’s a conservative!

Unlike the neocons, who preach about limited government but never really practice it (as the eight years under Bush painfully showed), Ron Paul has remained consistent with his principles. He has opposed preemptive war, warrantless wiretaps, torture practices, crony capitalism, bank bailouts, drug prohibition, indefinite detention, and internet censorship—in other words, everything the Republicans have supported!

The Republican Party has failed to be the conservative party. It has failed to stand for limited government and fiscal responsibility, despite harping on such principles in their rhetoric. Aside from Ron Paul, it has failed to produce a conservative politician since the late Barry Goldwater. If the Republican Party wishes to redeem itself as the American conservative party, one that truly stands for a limited government, it must nominate Ron Paul as their presidential candidate. Failure to do so will only lead to its inevitable destruction.

Bachmann's Campaign Manager Endorses Paul

2011-12-29T15:12:00.000-08:00

When your campaign manager endorses your rival, as is the case with Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager endorsing Ron Paul, you know you’re doomed to failure!

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman Kent Sorenson tonight endorsed Ron Paul, one of her rivals in the Iowa caucus race.

“I believe we’re at a turning point in this campaign,” Sorenson said during his surprise announcement this evening at a Ron Paul rally in Des Moines. “… I thought it was my duty to come to his aid, just like he came to my aid during my Senate race, which was a very nasty race.”

The state senator from Indianola was greeted with a round of applause from the roughly 500 people gathered at the Iowa fairgrounds for the event.

Many rose to their feet and hoisted Paul campaign signs above their heads when Sorenson added: “We’re going to take Ron Paul all the way to the White House.”

Sorenson told The Register he had been thinking about supporting Paul for a couple of days, but that he didn’t make the decision to switch campaigns until this evening.

...

“The fact of the matter is that I believe we have a clear, top-tier race between Romney and Ron Paul,” said Sorenson, who also noted he believed the “Republican establishment” was unfairly biased against the congressman’s bid for office.

“We have a choice where we can elect more of the same like what we’re having in Romney, or we can elect someone who’s going to transform this country to get it back to what our founding fathers wanted, and I believe that’s Ron Paul,” he said.

And as can be expected, Michele isn't too happy about this.

Big Unions Support SOPA

2011-12-29T14:12:00.000-08:00

It should come as no surprise that many corporations, especially in the entertainment industry, are supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), considering they would most benefit from it. What may come as a shock is that many unions also support it—unions including AFL-CIO, the Teamsters Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. (Not surprisingly, these unions rank as some of the top all-time political donors!)

AFL-CIO official Paul Almeida advocated for SOPA during a House judiciary committee meeting in October, while officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the American Federation of Labor wrote to lawmakers defending the bill. In all of these cases, the unions claim that SOPA would help create and protect jobs otherwise lost to online piracy. (Big shock: IT WON'T!)

So can we all now stop pretending that unions are these noble defenders of the working middle class? Can we all stop with the false dichotomy of “Unions Good/Corporations Bad”? Because it’s clear from their support of internet censorship that they’re not! Unions are like the human appendix: during an earlier time in our evolution, they may have provided an important function, but now, they pose a dangerous risk.

Gingrich Favors Obama Over Paul

2011-12-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Gee, whatever happened to the Republican meme that we should vote for anyone over Obama? I guess closet fascist Newt Gingrich will make an exception for Ron Paul.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested he might not vote for Ron Paul as the GOP presidential nominee versus President Obama in 2012.

Gingrich, in an interview Tuesday on CNN, assailed Paul as not serious and unelectable; Gingrich said the Texas congressman must answer for a series of newsletters published by his office that contained racist and anti-Semitic language.

"He's got to come up with some very straight answers to get somebody to take him seriously. Would I be willing to listen to him? Sure. I think the choice of Ron Paul or Barack Obama would be a very bad choice for America," Gingrich aid on CNN's "Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" when asked if he would vote for Obama or Paul.

When first asked the question, Gingrich flatly responded with a "no," and later called the prospect of a general election matchup between Obama and Paul as presenting a "very hard choice."

"There will come a morning people won’t take him as a serious person," Gingrich said of Paul.

Yeah, don’t take seriously the candidate who’s been consistent with his principles. Just vote for Gingrich who received $1.6 million from Freddie Mac—the very institution that destroyed the economy, and who wants to court marshal federal judges for making “radical” rulings.

Republicans Are Greedy, Selfish—Blah, Blah, Blah!

2011-12-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

Ho-hum! Yet another libtarded moonbat moaning about how the greedy, selfish Republicans don’t care about the poor and needy:

All year, Republicans have demanded an end to programs the middle class created to aid the majority, the 99 percent. The GOP wants to reverse the new banking regulations that were passed in an attempt to prevent another economic collapse caused by risky Wall Street practices. The GOP tried to to rescind the healthcare reform law that prevents insurance companies from terminating coverage when beneficiaries get sick and prohibits the practice of refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Influential Republicans this year have called for repealing laws forbidding child labor, laws guaranteeing minimum wage and laws protecting the environment. They’ve demanded elimination of federal funding for organizations like the Public Broadcasting System that educates preschoolers, Head Start, which provides opportunity to poor children, and Planned Parenthood, which uses 97 percent of its funds to provide general, obstetrical and gynecological medical care to women, many of whom are rural and poor.

Republicans have decided to be the party of Henry Potter [from It's A Wonderful Life], the “meanest man in the county,” a man about whom George Bailey’s father said: “he's a sick man, frustrated. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one.”

Like Potter, Republicans deride compassion and community as character defects.

In the Republican world, where greed is good, it was appropriate for Henry Potter to keep the $8,000 in Bailey Building & Loan money that George Bailey’s uncle, Billy Bailey, accidentally handed him.

Republicans are attempting to impose that selfish belief system on the selfless American people, people like the citizens of Bedford Falls who rush to the rescue of neighbors.

It won’t work, just like it didn’t in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Republicans will fail in their attempt to make America Pottersville because the 99 percent believe avarice is a sin, not a value. The GOP will fail because greed is not the American way.

Clearly, as the tile to the screed suggests, those mean ol' Republicans are trying to Transform America into a Selfish, Soulless Place. I guess that's why America ranks as the most charitable country in the world, and why people in red states give more to charity than those in blue states. (But I thought conservatives hated the poor?)

And I find it amusing that the screed claims Ayn Rand as “their self-centered mentor.” Ayn Rand was openly critical of conservatives, especially the Republican Party. In fact, she hated Ronald Reagan and urged her followers not to vote for him: “Mr. Reagan is not a champion of capitalism, but a conservative in the worst sense of that word—i.e., an advocate of a mixed economy with government controls slanted in favor of business rather than labor.” (Sounds a lot like the Republican Party today!)

Plus, I highly doubt that Rand, being an anti-religious atheist, would support a theocrat like Rick Perry (especially after his “Strong” political ad fiasco!).

$1.4 Billion Wasted Studying “Alternative” Medicine

2011-12-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

Does anyone seriously believe that coffee enemas can cure cancer? That prayer can cure AIDS? That aromatherapy can cure anything? Anyone with half a brain cell realizes that such bogus treatments won’t work. (And they don’t have to spend a penny to learn that!)

So why has our federal government wasted over $1.4 billion researching such quackery?

Thanks to a $374,000 taxpayer-funded grant, we now know that inhaling lemon and lavender scents doesn't do a lot for our ability to heal a wound. With $666,000 in federal research money, scientists examined whether distant prayer could heal AIDS. It could not.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine also helped pay scientists to study whether squirting brewed coffee into someone's intestines can help treat pancreatic cancer (a $406,000 grant) and whether massage makes people with advanced cancer feel better ($1.25 million). The coffee enemas did not help. The massage did.

NCCAM also has invested in studies of various forms of energy healing, including one based on the ideas of a self-described "healer, clairvoyant and medicine woman" who says her children inspired her to learn to read auras. The cost for that was $104,000.

A small, little-known branch of the National Institutes of Health, NCCAM was launched a dozen years ago to study alternative treatments used by the public but not accepted by mainstream medicine. Since its birth, the center has spent $1.4 billion, most of it on research.

A Tribune examination of hundreds of NCCAM grants, dozens of scientific papers, 12 years of NCCAM documents and advisory council meeting minutes found that the center has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on studies with questionable grounding in science....

"Some of these treatments were just distinctly made up out of people's imaginations," said Dr. Wallace Sampson, clinical professor emeritus of medicine at Stanford University. "We don't take public money and invest it in projects that are just made up out of people's imaginations."

Say what you want about the trillions of taxpayer money wasted on defense spending, oil and farm subsidies, and even the secret funds funneled through the Federal Reserve: at least it’s all going to something practical. The $1.4 billion wasted studying clearly bunk pseudoscience isn’t! You might as well set that money on fire. At least people can benefit from the heat. You can’t say the same thing about coffee enemas!

Demotivational Poster: United Nations

2011-12-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

United Nations by ~BlameThe1st on deviantART

Remember how the universe gave us all an early Christmas present by offing North Korean megalomaniac Kim Jong-Il? Well, not to be outdone, the United Nations has offered a belated Christmas present: a moment of silence for the Communist dictator.

If you’re shocked by this, then you haven’t been paying attention!

This is the same United Nations whose peacekeepers raped over 500 women and children in the Congo.

The same United Nations whose peacekeepers traded guns for gold with the Congolese rebels they were supposed to disarm.

The same United Nations whose peacekeepers traded food for sex with underage girls in West Africa.

The same United Nations who placed Libya on its human rights commission and Iran on its women’s right commission.

The same United Nations which passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation.

The same United Nations which passed a resolution permitting countries to execute homosexuals. (So criticizing religion is a human rights violation, but executing homosexuals for merely existing is not?)

If anyone still honestly believes that the United Nations is for human rights, then there’s waterfront property in the middle of the Sahara Desert I want to sell you. The United Nations supports human rights the same way the Catholic Church supports the scientific method. And yet folks like Ron Paul are considered insane for wanting America to opt out of this corrupt institution!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:17:00.000-08:00

On the first (and only) day of Christmas, my loved ones gave to me:

• A tote bag
• Two pairs of shirts
• A tube of socks
• A sushi-making kit
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Amazon Kindle Touch

Especially excited about the Kindle (Well, to be honest, I’m more excited about the latest Zelda game, but the Kindle is next best). I managed to download a few free books from the Kindle store (First book I downloaded: “The Second Treatise of Government” by John Locke)

Also downloaded a few free books (PDF format) from the Ludwig von Mises Institute, including three classics from Murray Rothbard: “The Ethics of Liberty,” “America’s Great Depression,” and “Education: Free and Compulsory” (Sadly, the text for “The Ethics of Liberty” was illegible, so I was forced to delete it).

Also tried downloading one of Stefan Molyneux ’s free books, but as with “Ethics of Liberty,” it was unreadable on my Kindle, so I deleted it.

Fortunately, I have a $25 gift card for Amazon, so I plan on BUYING some books. I have a few ideas of what I would like to get, but I'm open to suggestions. If anyone would like to recommend a few good books (to buy or freely download), feel free to do so in the comments below.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas!

A Chuck E. Christmas

2011-12-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve is upon us, and to celebrate, I’m giving you all an early Christmas present. Here’s a commentary by Cyberwolf087 on a Chuck E. Cheese Christmas show (because when you think Christmas, you think of a big rat with a Bronx accent!):

Trolling PZ Meyers and Ashley Miller

2011-12-24T10:47:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, libtarded moonbat Ashley Miller wrote a ridiculous blog post bashing Ron Paul, for which she received a lot of flack. State atheist PZ Meyers decided to white knight her by posting about how mean and nasty the commentators were.

Now, granted, many of the comments Miller received were uncivil to say the least, and no one deserves that much hate. However, that does not mean her opinion deserves automatic respect. Respect is something you earn, and when you make blog posts about how we need to place the collective over individual liberty, you deserve none.

I knew I could easily write a well-written, well-reasoned response to either Miller or Meyers, but unfortunately, their acolytes are immune to things like logic, reason, and evidence. So I did the next best thing: troll!

Here’s a comment I left on both Meyers’ and Miller’s blog. Enjoy:

Found you from a post by PZ Meyers. Thank you for creating this post bashing Ron Pul and those batshit insane looneytarians. Us enlightened progressive liberal atheists need to fight back against Ron “KKK” Paul and his legion of rich white privileged male followers. These regressive Randian free-market fundamentalist fucktards pose a dangerous threat, what with them placing individual liberty over the collective. We must all submit to the collective because individuality is the enemy of free-thought.

This is a very well-written, well-reasoned article. Clearly you has your priorities straight attacking Paul for not believing in evolution and for publishing newsletters with questionable content over 20 years ago. Those are clearly more pertinent and relevant issues than his foreign and economic policies.

Libertarians like Ron Paul are irrational for believing that people should be free to live their lives freely without harming anyone else, and that the federal government should mind its own business. Fools! Don’t they know that the government’s business is to get involved with our own? Of course not! Otherwise they would be free-thinking progressive atheists like ourselves! Otherwise they would allow the government to perform warrantless wiretaps and wage perpetual war and bailout “too big to fail” banks and redistribute the wealth and tax the rich (who clearly don’t pay enough!).

And what is with their obsession with the Federal Reserve? What could possibly be wrong with a private bank being controlled by the government with less transparency than the CIA? With the way they bitch and moan about it, you’d think it funneled $7.7 trillion in secret funds or something. You'd think it helped create the recession by slashing interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.

And why do they want to deregulate everything? Everyone knows that deregulation caused the recession—especially the repeal of Glass-Stegall! Obviously we don’t have enough government oversight. Again, with their bitching and complaining, you’d think that a new regulation is being created every two hours. Do they honestly believe that the market can regulate itself? Please! There are no real-life examples of the market regulating itself. We obviously can’t have regulation without government. Who else will tax cow farts and regulate farm dust?

If these free market fundamentalist fucktards love their ideology so badly, they should move to Somalia (which is obviously doing worse than it was under its former tyrannical government). Screw them having a say in our democracy like every other citizen. They should love it or leave it, those unpatriotic bastards! We don’t want a free market in this country, lest it becomes a shithole like Hong Kong. Everyone knows that countries with the freest economies are shit.

So thank Ashley Miller and PZ Meyers for standing up against the fringe minority that are libertarians. We free-thinking progressive atheists need to attack blind faith in the market by supporting blind faith in the government. Freethought and skepticism only applies to religion, never to the government. We must never question the government. Government is sacred. Government is benevolent. It never does any wrong (unlike the market, which always does wrong). Government is great. Government is good. I cannot cease singing of its praises.

Fed Apologism = Unintentional Comedy

2011-12-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

With Ron Paul railing against the Federal Reserve in his presidential campaign, and the Republicans trying desperately to mimic his “End the Fed” rhetoric, it was only a matter of time until someone would “Defend the Fed.”

Enter Salon columnist Gary Weiss.

In his recent column Ron Paul’s wacky but influential Fed policy, Weiss argues that, even though the Fed has been responsible for funneling trillions of dollars in secret funds, Americans should not be tempted by Paul’s’ “radical ideology” to “End the Fed,” which had once only been held by “ultra-right groups like the John Birch Society” (or ultra-left politicians like Dennis Kucinich).

But, you know, it’s really hard to take this column (which could easily have been written for the humor section) seriously when this is the opening paragraph:

The Republican Party, falling deeper into the clutches of Ron Paul’s radical ideology, has a new item on its anti-populist agenda: Castrate the Federal Reserve so that it no longer can promote job growth.

ROFL! What job growth?

I’m sorry! I’m laughing way too hard to continue reading, let alone typing. If you want a good refutation of this column, just go to the comment section and read some of the comments left by intelligent libertarians.

I'm sorry, but—LOL!

Demotivational Poster: 19% "Something Else"

2011-12-22T13:59:00.000-08:00

19 Percent Someone Else by ~BlameThe1st on deviantART

A CBS News poll showed Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney tied at 20 percent with Ron Paul in third place at 10 percent (the margin of error could have placed him at 16 percent).

So how did CBS Evening News cover the poll?

It showed Newt and Romney tied at 20 percent and “Someone Else” at 19%.

But can we really be surprised that the media is ignoring Paul?

Demotivational Poster: Tea Party Republicans

2011-12-21T10:18:00.000-08:00

Tea Party Republicans by ~BlameThe1st on deviantART

So let me get this straight, Republicans:

Your main criticism against Obama from the very start was that he was going to raise our taxes.

Your main reason for protesting Obama through the Tea Party was that he was going to raise our taxes.

You convinced the American people to give you a majority in the House of Representatives last year in order to prevent Obama from raising our taxes.

You signed a pledge to corporate lobbyist Grover Norquist promising that you would prevent Obama from raising our taxes.

You browbeat Obama into extending the Bush tax cuts so that he wouldn’t raise our taxes.

You almost allowed the country to default on its debt limit because you didn’t want Obama raising our taxes.

You allowed the Super Committee to fail because you didn’t agree with Obama and other Democrats raising our taxes.

And now you voted against extending the payroll tax (something Obama agreed with!)—THUS RAISING OUR TAXES!

(But then again, what else should we expect from the party that gave us “Read my lips: no new taxes”?)

And mark my word, allowing the payroll tax cut to expire will royally screw up America and its economy, especially for the poor and middle class, as it means more money taken out of their paychecks through taxes.

So next year, when you discover that your paycheck is smaller than it was last year, don’t blame Obama: blame Republicans! Consider it their early Christmas present (and by “Christmas present,” I mean “middle finger”) to the American people.

Kim Jong Il Dead!

2011-12-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

I interrupt my own holiday hiatus to give this important announcement: Kim Jong Il is dead!

First, Osama Bin Laden; then, Muammar Gaddafi; now, Kim Jong Il!

2011 has not been a good year for megalomaniac dictators.

Holiday Hiatus

2011-12-18T09:11:00.001-08:00

You’ve probably noticed that I didn’t upload a Pony Saturday post yesterday. I’m also not uploading a This Week in Review post either. In fact, I won’t be uploading any new posts for awhile. I’m away for the holidays right now, so no new posts until after New Years. Until then, have yourselves a merry little Christmas and a happy New Year!

Savage Offers Gingrich $1 Million To Drop Out

2011-12-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

I don’t know much about Newt Gingrich, other than he received $1.6 million from the very institution that brought down the economy. That’s all I need to know not to vote for him.

I also don’t know much about Michael Savage, other than he once claimed that Autistic children are merely “brat[s] who [haven’t] been told to cut the act out.” As someone with Asperser’s Syndrome, that’s all I need to know to despise him.

Having to choose between the two, I’m going with the lesser of two evils: Savage has offered Gingrich $1 million to drop out of the race.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Let’s hope and pray that Gingrich accepts. He’ll probably be easier to bribe than Perry, who has stated that he’s no cheap whore.

Virginia Tech Professor Advocates For Gun Control

2011-12-16T11:35:00.001-08:00

Two people were shot to death at Virginia Tech over a week ago, nearly four years after Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people in a shooting spree that climaxed with his suicide. As can be expected, gun control advocates are using these two tragic events to push for stricter gun laws, and since Rick Perry has advocated for looser gun laws that will allow concealed weapons on college campuses, they’re accusing him of wanting to start another Virginia Tech incident.

In a recent article for the Daily Beast, Virginia Tech professor Roland Lazenby detailed his traumatic experience four years ago, using it as a bludgeon against Republicans like Perry and an anecdote for stricter gun control.

I simply cannot imagine being in the same vicinity where a major killing spree occurred. I cannot fathom the trauma Lazenby had experienced and the nightmares that must have haunted him afterwards because of it. So I will forgive the man for being emotional. I cannot, however, forgive this man for using his emotions to push for failed policies.

[T]ens of thousands die each year around the globe from gun violence. In the United States alone, better than 31,000 people died from firearms wounds in 2007 with nearly 70,000 more suffering injury, according to the advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence. Of that number, 12,632 were murdered.

So often in the wake of these incidents I’ve thought of the helpless complaint from that officer in 2007: “We’ve got to do something about people having access to guns. I don’t know what, but we have to do something.”

In recent years, there has been a movement to allow registered guns on college campuses. Having taught 20 years of college journalism and taught in the public schools for three more, I can say that schools are often places highly charged with emotion and conflict. Only an idiot could posit that guns would somehow enhance that atmosphere.

You cannot be injured by a weapon that isn’t there. So you can argue all you want about Second Amendment rights, but many countries don’t have anywhere near our level of gun violence simply because guns are illegal or deemphasized. Unfortunately, in this country, the killing isn’t going to stop, not unless we stand up to the gun manufacturers’ lobby and begin dialing back our aggressive firearms culture.

The only alternative is to continue to endure the succession of shootings and killings and public trauma and to continue to accept the idea that we are impotent to do anything about it. From Blacksburg to Little Rock to Tucson, we are discovering one terrible day after another that that’s simply no way to live a life.

So Lazenby honestly believes that stricter gun laws would prevent another Virginia Tech incident. For a professor who taught at Virginia Tech, he seems painfully unaware that his school was a gun-free zone at the time of the shootings. Yet somehow the “gun-free zone” didn’t stop Hui from bringing a gun on campus and shooting the place up.

On that same note, Columbine High (another anecdote used by gun control advocates) was also a gun-free zone, and yet two students still managed to kill 15 people including themselves. Gee, it’s as if these stricter gun policies do nothing to prevent bad kids from bringing guns on campus and everything to prevent law-abiding students from doing so.

And to add insult to injury, over a year before the Virginia Tech shootings, a bill was proposed in Virginia that would have allowed college students to carry concealed weapons, but as can be expected, the bill was shot down. Who knows: maybe if students were allowed to carry guns, perhaps a brave college student could have stopped Hui once he started shooting.

NDAA Proves Obama Worse Than Bush

2011-12-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

The National Defense Authorization Act, which allows military personnel to detain anyone (even American citizens) indefinitely without charge or trial, passed the Senate 93-7, the House 283-136, and the Senate again 86-13. As for Obama, who promised to veto the bill, he has agreed to sign it.

Say what you want about Dubya: he may have passed the Patriot Act, which allows for warrantless wiretaps and record searches, but not only has Obama renewed the Patriot Act—twice, but he has also allowed for the assassination of an American citizen outside of a battlefield. Add the signing of this bill, which allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens, and you have a president who is officially WORSE on civil liberties than Bush.

So the question remains, why bother re-electing this man?

Even libtarded internet pundit Cenk Ugyur of The Young Turks is expressing his doubts:

I almost don't see the point in supporting Obama anymore. I'm not mincing words. I don't see the point....This so called Constitutional law professor has such little respect for our Constitution that he's willing to shred it like that, well, he's in some ways worse than a Republican. Why?

Now first of all, I think Newt Gingrich is a danger to the republic, right? But, is Newt Gingrich going to propose something worse than indefinitely detaining American citizens without a trial? I'm not sure I can think of anything worse!

The answer seems pretty obvious. Obama doesn’t care, and most of the Republican candidates (save Ron Paul) doesn’t care. There is only but one rational choice for president—the very candidate who has been consistently opposed to any trading of our liberties for security in the name of the War on Terror: Ron Paul!

Rabbi Removes Anti-Christian Anti-Tebow Blog Post

2011-12-15T12:01:00.000-08:00

Religious leaders say the darndest things, whether it’s Christian televangelists claiming that the Haitian earthquake was caused by a pact with the devil, or Muslim clerics claiming that earthquakes are caused by women in sexy clothing. But of the three Monotheistic faiths, you would think that Jews (being the most persecuted minority in the West) would be the least likely to spew religious bigotry.

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman would prove you wrong.

This left-leaning Rabbi released an anti-Christian blog post earlier this week bashing evangelical quarterback Tim Tebow. Apparently if he were to win the Super Bowl, evangelical Christians would cause all hell to break loose here in America.

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

Good grief! Seems like Hammerman has evangelical Christians confused with radical Muslims.

As could be expected, this post caused a serious backlash against Hammerman, as over the past week, in response to negative feedback, he removed the offending paragraph, then the entire blog post, then deleted his entire blog.

The Jewish Week, which publishes his blog, later issued an apology, as did Hammerman. Of course, one can only assume that Hammerman is only sorry that what he wrote caused such offense, and not for writing what he wrote in the first place, which makes his apology all the more insincere and cowardly.

Save The Economy: Slash Senators' Salaries!

2011-12-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

The country is 14 trillion in debt. Democrats don’t want to cut spending. Republicans don’t want to raise taxes. How can we possibly get out of debt?

Here’s a simple solution from someone on Reddit: pay senators the median salary in America!

The median US income is $49,445 per year according to the 2012 census.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf

The salary for congress is $174,000 per year.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

If we paid senators the median salary in America, we could save $12,455,500 a year. If we paid all of Congress that much, we could save $66,636,925. Of course, the senate wouldn't vote for that.

In other news, Ron Paul has proposed reducing his presidential salary to $39,336 – the median salary of an American worker. (Yet another reason why I love this man!)

This Week In Review (12/11/2011)

2011-12-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

• An 84-year-old woman claims to have been strip-searched at the JFK International Airport. During the week, two other elderly women also claimed to have been subjected to strip searches. The Transportation Security Administration has thus far denied such claims. Personally, I don’t know whether or not these women were strip-searched or not, but considering how the TSA has been infamous for blatantly violating our right to privacy for the sake of security, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true. If they can force passengers to undergo virtual strip searches, they can force them to undergo real strip searches.
• Rick Perry released a YouTube political ad declaring that he will “end Obama's war on religion.” (Of course, by religion, he means the Jesus religion, not the scary Allah religion.) And Obama has indeed been relentless with his liberal attacks against our religious heritage by…um…uh…well, he forgot to mention God in his Thanksgiving statement (as did Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum—but they’re not secret Muslims from Kenya!) The video has thus far received over 17 thousand dislikes.
• Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) claimed that President Barack Obama was the one who requested the indefinite military detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act. Really? You mean to tell me that same Barack Obama who authorized the assassination of an American citizen outside a battlefield and who has repeatedly extended the blatantly unconstitutional Patriot Act which allows for warrantless wiretaps also requested the provision allowing military to detain American citizens indefinitely without charge or trial? Huh. Go figure!
• Los Angeles voted to end “corporate personhood.” During a City Council Tuesday, the city voted to implement more regulations dictating how much corporations and other special interest groups can contribute to political campaigns, including legislation that would end “corporate personhood.” The vote is mostly symbolic, and therefore does not have authority behind it. As for my opinion, I’m not fully sure. While I agree that special interest groups have hijacked the political process for far too long, thus demanding much needed campaign finance reform, I’m just not sure about revoking corporate personhood. After all, it’s corporate personhood that allows corporations to be taxed and sued. Revoke corporate personhood, and you remove all taxes on corporations, along with their liability. Again, I’m not fully sure about this.
• Donald Trump has considered canceling his GOP presidential debate. The millionaire and former presidential candidate was going to host his own debate, but after most of the candidates (save Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum) refused to attend, he has since reconsidered holding it. Had the debate commenced as planned, it would have been American politics jumping the shark. (Scratch that! American politics already jumped the shark episodes ago!) At this point, there is not integrity left in our politics. Everything in our culture is nothing less than bread and circuses meant to entertain and delude the masses while the elites reign over them.
• President Barack Obama supported the decision not to allow the sale of overt-the-counter contraceptives to teenagers without their parents consent. Really? You mean to tell me that underage minors need permission from their parents or legal guardians in order to buy something like contraception? Do tell! Next you’ll be telling me they need parental permission in order to get their ears pierced or watch an R-rated movie.

Pony Saturday: Secret Of My Excess

2011-12-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Welcome back to another Pony Saturday.

Sorry guys. I just wasn’t interested in this episode. It was a decent episode, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t find anything noteworthy to comment about. “Spike has his birthday. Gets greedy. Turns into a greedy monster. Learns the importance of generosity. Turns back into a cute baby dragon. The end!”

That’s it. That’s all the episode was. No cool song. No cool jokes. No cool cameos or background characters (except that this was the third time Zecora was featured this season). It was just an ordinary episode.

But if any of you guys enjoyed it, and found something interesting about it, let me know in the comment section below. Otherwise, enjoy the latest episode “Secret Of My Excess”:

Demotivational Poster: Rick Perry 2012

2011-12-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

Rick Perry 2012 by ~BlameThe1st on deviantART

I had no intention of voting for Rick Perry. But after watching his latest political ad, I have decided that—I’m still not voting for him.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.

As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.

Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.

You have to hand it to Perry: it takes real courage to go on national television and tell a country that’s predominately Christian that you hold the exact same beliefs that they do. And obviously, as a presidential candidate, the man has his priorities straight. He realizes that our greatest threat isn’t unemployment or the recession or our national debt or the many foreign wars overseas, but rather Obama’s war on religion (and by religion, he means the Jesus religion, not the scary Allah religion or any of that Aqua Buddha or Flying Spaghetti Monster schtick).

Yes, for the past three years, Obama has been relentless with his liberal attacks on our religious heritage, like that one time where he—um—and then there was the time where he—uh—er—hmm—just how has Obama been attacking our religion? Oh yeah! He forgot to mention God in his Thanksgiving statement—as did evangelicals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, but none of them are secret Muslims born in Kenya. (Only a true Muslim would attend the church of Jeremiah Wright for over 30 years!)

And this is why I no longer consider myself to be a “Conservative Christian” or affiliate myself with the “Religious Right” or “Moral Majority.” They simply don’t have their priorities straight. While most Americans are concerned about the economy and wars, Conservative Christians like Rick Perry are concerned about people of different sexual orientations laying down their lives to protect the freedoms we hold dear. (Support our troops—unless they’re faggots! Then boo them!)

If this ad is good for anything, it’s for inspiring appropriate video responses and spoofs:

"Holiday" Tree

2011-12-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

"Holiday" Tree by ~BlameThe1st on deviantART

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffe recently had a Christmas tree erected in the State Capitol, but instead of calling it what it is—a Christmas tree, he’s calling it a “Holiday” tree. The name change angered Rhode Islanders so much that protesters crashed the “Holiday” tree lighting by singing “O Christmas Tree!”

I know what many of you are probably thinking: “Who cares if the Governor calls it a Holiday tree rather than a Christmas Tree? Why not just let people call it whatever they want? Why does this matter?”

And you would almost have a point there—almost. In the end, this controversy is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, at least when compared to Congress contemplating a bill that would allow for the indefinite detention of anyone including American citizens, or the recent revelation that the Federal Reserve has been funneling $7.7 trillion through secret funds over the past two years.

But does this still matter? Yes.

Why? Because it’s dishonesty.

Yes, one can argue that it’s a holiday, and it’s a tree; therefore it’s a holiday tree, but in the end, it’s not just any holiday being commemorated by that tree: it’s Christmas! Calling it a “Holiday” tree is just concealing what it really is: A Christmas tree. You might as well call Jack-O-Lanterns “Holiday” lanterns, or Thanksgiving turkeys “Holiday” turkeys, or Easter eggs “Holiday” eggs, or Fourth Of July Fireworks “Holiday” fireworks. It makes just as much sense.

So why bother calling it a “Holiday” tree? To protect people who don’t celebrate Christmas from being offended? If that’s the case, why even bother erecting the tree in the first place? For that matter, why bother caring if people are offended? Last time I checked, Rhode Island was predominately Roman Catholic. Even if there are Rhode Islanders who don’t celebrate Christmas, I highly doubt they give a crap if a Christmas tree or Holiday tree or whatever you call it is erected in their state capitol building, and if they do give a crap, then “Bah-Humbug” to those Scrooges and Grinches! Every idiot who complains about Christmas decorations (especially Nativity scenes) should be boiled in figgy pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!

So, yes, this does matter because it’s another example of political correctness gone mad! It’s like saying “mentally-challenged” rather than retarded, or “post-traumatic stress disorder” rather than shell shock, or “collateral damage” rather than civilian deaths, or “enhanced interrogation techniques” rather than torture practices. Political correctness is nothing more than the language of cowards who can’t handle reality and who think they can alter it by changing the language—but as the infamous George Carlin pointed out, it just doesn’t work that way!

This Week In Review (12/04/2011)

2011-12-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

• The Senate rejected the Udall Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Bill. For those of you living under a rock (or who don’t use reddit), the NDAA (or S. 1867) allows for the indefinite detention of any civilian, including American citizens, without a formal charge or trial. The Udall Amendment would have nullified those provisions, but as stated, it didn’t pass. I would say that this is tantamount to shoving the Constitution though a paper shredder, but since I already use that metaphor with the Patriot Act, I think a better analogy would be that it’s more like shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder, setting it on fire, extinguishing it with the piss and semen of a HIV-infected homeless drunk, feeding it to the American people linked in a human centipede, and then once the bowel movement exist the last anus, re-feeding it to them 12 more times just to be safe. Does that metaphor disgust you? It should, as should this bill!

• Barney Frank will retire at the end of his term after 30 years in the House of Representatives. And good f***ing riddances! If any man is to be held responsible for our current economic crisis, it’s this libtarded moonbat, whose very polices and overall ineptness lead to the housing bubble and its burst in 2008. I’d say he’s the evilest piece of s*** in Congress, but calling him “evil” would imply that he had the intelligence to know that what he was doing was wrong—and Barney has no intelligence! This man kept assuring us for year that Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac could handle all those subprime mortgages. He said that they were "not in danger of going under"—only months before the housing bubble burst! Allow me to quote Brodie from Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back: “Here's the pulse. And this is your finger, far away from the pulse, jammed straight up your ass!”

• Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign. He claims that he’s doing so due to the sexual harassment allegations against him. I could care less whether or not those allegations are true or not. I’m far more disturbed by the fact that he’s a Federal Reserve shill who claimed it didn’t need to be audited, and who supports the Patriot Act and waterboarding.

• The Federal Reserve had funneled $7.7 trillion in secret bailout funds over two years. To put that in perspective, the TARP bailouts were only $700 billion. Our National Debt is $15 trillion! Jon Stewart asked it best: “How the f*** is it that Martha Stewart went to jail?”

• Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik has been declared legally insane. This means he will be placed in a mental hospital rather than a prison. So you mean to tell me that someone who kills 77 people in a killing spree is considered insane? Who knew?!

• Ron Paul has been banned from a presidential forum by the Republican Jewish Coalition. Why? Apparently, the RJC considers his views to be “misguided and extreme.” Oh yes: the only Republican candidate to oppose preemptive war, warrantless wiretaps, torture practices, bank bailouts, and drug prohibition is too extreme, but every other far-right neoconservative candidate who supports that crap is mainstream. Remind me again why I should vote for any Republican candidate over Obama?

• Dennis Kucinich has proposed a bill to end the Federal Reserve. The National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act of 2011 would place the Federal Reserve under control of the U.S. Treasury and implement new rules that would help curb the financial and monetary abuses that helped lead to our current economic crisis. In other words, this bill is the wet dream of every Ron Paul fanboy like myself. Does it stand a chance in Congress? (Does a snowball stand a chance in hell?)

• Scott Walker passed new regulations requiring citizens to buy permits to protest at the Capitol or other state buildings. So, yeah, obvious infringement of First Amendment right to protest is obvious. Scott, your approval ratings are in the toilet, and you’re on the verge of possibly being recalled. Do you really want to give Wisconsin more reason to boot your ass out of office? I’m guessing you’re taking the approach of “If I’m going down, I’m taking you all down with me!”

• The National Crime Prevention Council released a PSA as part of an anti-piracy campaign by Eric Holder. According to the minute-long commercial, piracy is responsible for every vice in the world, from lost jobs and child labor, to drug cartels and terrorism. I would tear this ridiculous commercial a new one, but the Amazing Atheist already did an excellent job doing so.

Pony Saturday: Sweet And Elite

2011-12-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

Salutations, filies and gentlecolts, and welcome to yet another Pony Saturday. Unfortunately, I don’t really have that much to say about it. Like “May The Best Pet Win,” I don’t think it’s bad, but it wasn’t one of the greatest by a long shot. But as always, here are the few parts I liked about this week’s episode Sweet And Elite:

• Awkward Celestia feels awkward about Rarity kissing her feet.
• Question: How the flying f*** does Rarity know a dumb hick like AC Turnip Truck? He says he met her at some Hoedown, but why would Rarity go to a place like that? She didn’t like the idea of the Sisterhooves Social. I doubt she’d like the idea of a Hoedown. My guess: AC was some dumb schmuck who bumped into Rarity, and has some affections for her, despite her not sharing any for him.
• I like how the female unicorn accompanying Fancypants just stands around in different poses. I’m guessing she’s his trophy wife, perhaps.
• We learn two new names of the Wonderbolts: Rapid Fire and Fleet Foot. Those two are the only ones with names, aside from Spitfire and Soarin.
• Not sure why Rarity couldn’t have said that Rainbow Dash was a fan of the Wonderbolts rather than just lie about her being their personal trainer.
• Does one of the rich Canterlot elites remind anyone else of Julia Child?
• Finally! Nine episodes in, and we finally get a decent song: “Every Pony Should Know.” Reminds me a lot of Rarity’s other song, “The Art of the Dress.”
• I absolutely adore her outfit and mane at the art gallery! (or as Sweetie Belle would say, “I really like her mane.”)
• Photo Finish is in the gallery.
• Rarity looks like a Carnival dancer at the auction. Not her best, in my opinion.
• Sitting right next to Rarity is a pony from the Grand Galloping Gala (the one that Pinkie Pie actually, um, I think dry-humped or something. I don’t know what she was doing).
• She wears he gala dress to the Opera.
• Prince Blueblood appears along the red carpet which she walks down, and she’s with him when she christens a ship. (Why she’s hanging around him after what happened at the Gala is beyond me).
• In case you haven’t noticed, the bell boy being trapped underneath her luggage is a running gag.
• Yeah, I don’t really get Rarity’s dilemma. I mean, c’mon: she’s been attending gatherings and parties all week. She can’t be expected to be at them all. Why would missing one event be that detrimental as opposed to skipping out on her best friend’s birthday? I call BS on this one. It only makes her decision to lie about skipping Twilight’s party seem like a major dick move that no one can sympathize with.
• 12 minutes in and we finally see the other main cast. Not that I’m complaining. I actually like the idea of dedicating entire episodes to one or two main characters. Too bad they decided to spoil that idea for this episode.
• Question: WTF was Pinkie Pie saying to Rarity when she was waking up? Is that even English, or Pony—whatever the language is in Equestria?
• Meme alert: “Balloons are super easy to pack!”
• Rarity just happens to wear fancy outfits when Opal is sick? Obvious BS Alert!
• What Opal is thinking: Death to master!
• Pinkie Pie’s Party Cannon: Every party needs one!
• Octavia is playing in the garden party band.
• Question: Since when does cake frosting have a scent?
• Better lie: She puts cake frosting behind her ears for good luck!
• “What’s with the croquet mallet?” “What croquet mallet?” “The one in your mouth” LOL! XD
• Why is it the woman with the best hair tend to have wigs? LOL!
• I like Twilight, but she dances like a dork. :(
• Also, I find it interesting that Twlight grew up in Canterlot, but she’s nothing like the others who live there. Must be the odd one out.
• Question: WHY DOES NOBODY RECOGNIZE THE MANE SIX? These six are the Elements of Harmony. They saved Equestria—TWICE! They have their own stained glass window in the castles, for f*** sake. They shouldn’t be laughed at as ruffians by these elitist snobs. They deserve more respect and recognition than that. Seriously, WTF?
• I love how Fancy Pants finds the ponies “charmingly rustic.” He’s not as snobbish or elitist as the rest of the ponies in Canterlot.
• And Rarity gets to tell her lesson to the Princess rather than write a letter.

Lady Gaga vs. Lady Goo Goo

2011-12-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

Anyone remember the scene from V for Vendetta where High Chancellor Adam Sutler got so pissed off at a parody skit of him and the terrorist V that he sent his secret police to arrest the people involved? Obviously nothing like that could ever happen in America, right? Right?

Well, okay, nobody in America has ever been arrested over a parody, but many have faced legal action.

For example, Lady Gaga recently took legal action against Mind Candy, creator of the popular children’s social networking and gaming site Mooshi Monsters, over a parody character of her, Lady Goo Goo, a cute orange baby that sings in the style of the artist she parodies.

Here in America, such parody and satire is protected under fair use; but over in Great Britain, where Mind Candy is located, copyright laws are much stricter, and thus Lady Gaga was able to take legal action against the parody character over there. This resulted in the Mooshi Dance music video being taken down on YouTube, and the prevention of Mind Candy from selling the parody song on iTunes.

I could go into detail about how ridiculous this legal action is, but fortunately, Chad Rocco from That Guy With The Glasses recently did a Familiar Faces episode doing just that. Enjoy!

Racist, Xenophobic British Woman On A Train

2011-11-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

I consider there to be two types of racism. The first type is imaginary racism—the type of racism liberals find in places where none exists. The second type is true racism—the irrational fear or hatred of other races, or the irrational belief that some races are superior or inferior to others. Sadly, most liberals focus on the former rather than the latter (as was the case with the campaign against “racist” Halloween costumes), and as such, tend to detract from true racism.

Earlier this week, a video showcasing an act of true racism went viral on the interwebs, receiving over 6 million views in less than three days. The video, My Tram Experience shows a British woman (allegedly drunk) yelling on a train about how minorities and immigrants had ruined her country.

What has this country come to? A load of black people and a load of f***ing Polish?...None of you are f***ing English. Get back to your own f***ing [countries]…Go do your own countries, don’t come and do mine. Britain is nothing now. Britain is f*** all. My Britain is f*** all now. Britian is f*** all. My Britian is f*** all.

…Go back to where you come from. Go back to…f***ing Nig-Nic-ag-gu-ah or wherever you come from.

…This is my British country. Until I let you lot come over…Yes, this is my British country. You ain’t British. You ain’t British. Are you British? You ain’t f***ing British! F*** off! You’re black. You’re black. You ain’t British. You’re black. Where did you come from?

…Look, at the whole f***ing tram. Look at them. It’s more black than it’s white. This is all black and f***ing brown people.

You just got to love the black guy sitting behind her. He almost gets up as if he’s going to clobber her, but decides she’s not worth his time.

Now it’s safe to say that most people would recognize this as racist and xenophobic. No one could possibly defend what this woman did, right? Right?

Enter YouTube user MarmiteMan4, an anti-Semitic (oops, anti-“Zionist”), BNP-supporting European nationalist who considered this woman’s action an example of bravery.

The woman in that video…showed extreme courage to stand up for her people and her country surrounded by people who absolutely hate her, and would probably do a lot worse to her if she didn’t have a child with her.

“Extreme courage”? Good grief! Perhaps in the sense that sticking a metal fork in a toaster requires extreme courage.

And then there’s this gem from TeutonicWarriorChick, a woman who once made a video warning about how the Jews controlling the media were trying to exterminate the white race through multiculturalism. This is here response:

Man that woman has balls! What do you think? Could you imagine anybody in America talking that way? No one in America would dare talk that way because whites are terrified of being called racist, because—you know what—racism is the number one crime in the world!

But of course, she thought that the woman was setting a bad example for the child by spouting profanity (though spouting racist, xenophobic crap is apparently more acceptable for children).

But perhaps the most facepalmingly stupid defense was the following comment Coughlan000 found in the original video’s comment section, which he shared in his video response:

“Let me remind all of you of a similar incident that happened in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 to a colored lady, Rosa Parks, who had the courage to stand up against racial oppression whilst on a bus, and the world rightfully applauded her actions. Now this woman has the courage to speak out about the melting pot nationality this country has become. Everyone condemns her. Her only fault is using the only type of language she knows to get her point across. I admire her courage for speaking out.”

So let me get this straight: a woman spouting racist nonsense by shouting down minorities on a train is the exact same thing as a woman standing up against racist nonsense by refusing to follow racist laws forbidding her from sitting next to someone of a different race? False equivalency FTW!

Fortunately, there are sane people like Coughlan000 to counteract the insanity of folks like MarmiteMan4, TeutonicWarriorChick, and the crazy bus lady. Otherwise, my faith in humanity would only continue to decline.

This Week In Review (11/27/2011)

2011-11-27T13:04:00.000-08:00

• Police pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters at UC Davis. The incident forced eleven protesters to receive medical treatment while two others were hospitalized. One of the protesters, who had been pepper-sprayed in his throat, was allegedly coughing up blood 45 minutes afterwards. Following the outrage over this act of police brutality, the police chief and two other officers were placed on administrative leave. Look, I don’t really care for the Occupy goons, but I don’t believe they deserve this. Nobody does! But hey, according to Megyn Kelly at Fox News, it’s no big deal, considering pepper spray “is a food product, essentially.”

• The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, or H.R. 3621) was discussed during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would give more power to the federal government to crack down on websites that allow for the streaming of copyrighted material or intellectual property. Think of it as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on steroids! I know many of you have been asking me for my opinion on this, and for the most part, I’ve been reluctant to address it, as I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. Earlier this year, there was talk of a similar bill (S.978) which turned out to be fake. But after reading about how big name websites like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL and Twitter have spoken out against this bill, I now realize this is serious business (and not in the 4chan sense of the term). You also know shit is real when the Nostalgia Critic speaks out against it!

• The “Super Committee” failed to agree upon any budget cuts. Yes. You read that right. The “Super Committee”—created because Congress couldn’t agree upon any spending cuts—failed to agree upon any spending cuts. Somehow, I’m not surprised by this. But considering that the very existence of the committee could be unconstitutional, perhaps this failure is a good thing.

• Occupy Wall Street protesters crashed a Ron Paul event. Yeah, remember how the Occupy goons crashed similar events held by Scott Walker and Eric Cantor? They did the exact same thing with Ron Paul—a politician who not only has spoken out against the bank bailouts and crony capitalism on Wall Street, but also the police brutality against the OWS protesters. Oh, the effing irony! But Ron Paul managed to be a good sport about it, chuckling afterwards, and asking “Do you feel better?”

• Obama omitted God from his Thanksgiving statement. What? Really? This is news? Yeah, you know who else omitted God from their thanksgiving statements? Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum! But then again, they’re not Democrats.

• Michelle Obama was booed at a NASCAR race. What? Really? This is news too? The wife of the president being booed in a state where most of the people didn’t vote for him and hate his guts? My, this is shocking and unexpected!

Pony Saturday: The Mysterious Mare Do Well

2011-11-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, fellow viewers, to yet another Pony Saturday. Well, I have to say that this week’s episode was 20% cooler than last week’s. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on The Mysterious Mare Do Well.

• Scootalo is the president of the Rainbow Dash fan club. Big shocker! (sarcasm).
• Snips and Snails are members. Real big shocker! (not sarcasm). But in all seriousness, nice to see them in another episode. I really like those two.
• Rescuing a little girl trapped in a well was no big deal? Obviously, Dash never heard of Baby Jessica.
• Question: Why is the road that leads down a cliff not closed off? Seriously, first you have a baby carriage nearly fly off, and then later on, you have a bus.
• I love how Rainbow Dash starts off modest, but then gradually lets the fame go to her head. Seems more realistic.
• Twilight: “Call me silly, but I think this whole hero thing may be going to Rainbow Dash’s head.” Pinkie: “You may be right, Silly!”
• Spike as reporter: cute! :D
• Pinkie: “Ah! Spikes a ghost!” XD
• The falling hot air balloon looks way too similar to Twilight’s. Couldn’t the animators at least have used a different color while using the same model? All I could think about was “Why did that pony steal Twilight’s balloon?”
• Did the Mysterious Mare Do Well’s costume remind anyone else of Darkwing Duck’s?
• Question: How did the Mysterious Mare Do Well make it all the way to the mountain in that short amount of time?
• I was thinking the exact same thing the pony on the bus was thinking: “Cut the catchphrase and save us!”
• Seriously, was anyone else getting annoyed when Rainbow Dash kept trying to say her catch phrase?
• Anyone else chuckle at the crane worker’s “Yay!”? LOL! Meme Alert!
• You have to wonder why people never run when something comes falling towards them. You’d think they would, but they always stand in place until someone saves them.
• Rainbow Dash’s expression = Priceless! (Not as much as her expression in Griffon the Brush-Off, though! ;))
• Question: The dam has an electric plant? Since when does Ponyville use electricity?
• It’s official! Granny Smith has made an appearance in every episode of Season 2 so far.
• Loved the reactions from the pony Rainbow Dash was helping open the jar for.
• Love how the cloud Rainbow Dash sits on matches her mood.
• The posters in the audience for the Mysterious Mare Do Well look like the title cards for Batman: The Animated Series. Epic Win! :D
• I was fairly surprised by Mare Do Well’s secret identity. At first, I thought it was going to be Twilight. But it turned out to be all the other five. I should have known, considering one of them had wings.
• Apple Jack names her back hooves Bucky McGoody Goody and Kicks McGee! XD
• It’s the return of the Pinkie Sense!
• Question: why didn’t her Pinkie Sense warn her of Rainbow Dash before she pounced on her and unmasked her?
• Pinkie: “The only thing that should be rubbed into any Pony’s face is chocolate cake.” XD

This Week In Review (11-20-2011)

2011-11-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

• Occupy Wall Street protesters were kicked out of Zuccotti Park. I’m basically with Lee Doren (How The World Works) on this: Zuccotti was a private park, and therefore its owner had the right to kick the protesters off his property, and unless the protesters had any actual demands, they were more or less camping out rather than protesting. In other words, this was hardly an infringement of the First Amendment.

• An 84-year-old woman was pepper-sprayed by cops at an Occupy Seattle protest. Seriously Seattle police, WTF?! I can understand the police throwing tear gas at protesters smashing windows and tossing Molotov cocktails, like they did at Occupy Oakland. At least those protesters posed as a threat. But an 84-year-old granny? Seriously?! What’s she going to do? Hit someone with her cane? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t care for OWS, as they’re a bunch of anti-capitalist morons, but I don’t care for police brutality either. The lesser of two evils is still evil. (You know what, I take that back: police brutality is more evil than anti-capitalist protesters—period!)

• Newt Gingrich allegedly made $1.6 million consulting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if it wasn’t for the inconvenient fact that Gingrich has routinely criticized both companies during his campaign, even going so far as to insist that politicians involved with them be arrested. If that’s the case, should Gingrich be arrested? (Consistency? What’s that?!)

• 60-Minutes revealed that insider trading is legal for members of Congress. In other words, if a congressman, through his job, gets wind of a deal being made by a company, he can legally invest in it. If anyone else did that, they would be expecting a trip to Sing-Sing. (Wait! Is Sing Sing still running?) Just another example of what the state can do that ordinary people can’t. If we demand money from someone at gunpoint, it’s robbery; if the state does it, it’s taxation. If we invade someone’s private property and kill the people living there, it’s murder; if the state invades another country and kills its people, it’s called war. If we kidnap someone and torture them, it’s called torture; if the state does the same, it’s called an “enhanced interrogation technique.” But there is some good news, as a ban to insider trading by Congress is being considered in the Senate.

• Congress declared pizza as a vegetable in a school lunch reform bill. If you want any evidence of how incompetent our federal government is, this news story is it. Yes, apparently, pizza is now a vegetable because the government says it is. I guess the sky can be considered red if the government claims it to be so. From what I can gather, the decision was made because the bill, as it originally stood, would have eliminated items like French fries and pizza from school menus in order to meet nutritional quotas. So Congress, specifically Republicans representing their frozen food friends—er, I mean “lobbyists,” decided to pull some legalistic mumbo-jumbo by arguing that, since pizza contains tomato paste, and tomatoes are vegetables, pizza is therefore a vegetable. By that very logic, so are hamburgers if they’re served with lettuce and tomato. But hey, if the government says so, it must be true. Government is magic!

• Warrantless Cell phone tracking has been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. Nice to know that some judges in our higher courts realize that the Fourth Amendment exists. Now if only they could do something about the Patriot Act already!

• Bill O'Reilly’s book 'Killing Lincoln' has been banned from Ford’s Theater bookstore because of its many factual inaccuracies. To be honest, I neither care for O’Reilly nor Abraham Lincoln. I know most Republicans fawn over Lincoln as the ideal Republican, second only to Ronald Reagan, and perhaps they have a point: Lincoln did begin the Republican tradition of increasing the size of the federal government while stripping away individual liberties for national security. Under his leadership, he suspended habeas corpus, had journalists arrested and imprisoned, and approved war crimes committed by General Sherman. In other words, Linclon was a 19th century George W. Bush.

• PETA protests the newest Mario game over its Tanooki suit. The animal activist group claims that, by allowing Mario to wear a suit made from raccoon-dog fur, the game promotes fur, and thus cruelty to animals. If that’s the case, why didn’t PETA first protest Mario 3, which introduced the Tanooki suit over 20 years ago? In fact, why hasn’t PETA protested the Mario games up until now, considering that the main aspect of the game is to jump on turtles? Better question? Who takes PETA seriously? This is the same group that chastised Obama for swatting a fly on national television, calling it an execution. This is the same group that dressed up as KKK members to protest Westminster Dog Show, claiming that the American Kennel Club was trying to create a “master race” of dogs. And this is the same group whose batshit insane president, Ingrid Newkirk, wrote in her will that she wants her flesh to be cooked in a “human barbeque,” her skin fashioned into purses, her feet made into umbrella stands, her eye shipped to the EPA, her pointing finger shipped to Ringling Brothers, and her liver shipped to France. I think it’s safe to say that PETA are a bunch of trolls, either intentionally or unintentionally.

• Ron Paul reached second place in both the Iowa and New Hampshire polls. Is the media going to pay attention to this? Oh, hell no! We all know how the media treats him.

Pony Saturday: May The Best Pet Win!

2011-11-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to another…you know what? You already know by now!

Sorry. I just thought this new episode was, well, bleh! It wasn’t bad, just bland. But I’ll share with you the few parts I did enjoy. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on May The Best Pet Win!

• Opal coming out of the mutant pet’s mouth and scaring Rainbow Dash = Epic!
• Wasn’t thrilled by the song. It was good for the episode, but it was really forgettable. It didn’t have the ability to get stuck in your head like the other songs like “Winter Wrap Up,” “Cupcakes,” and “Art Of The Dress.”
• When the tortoise appear, it was pretty obvious he was going to be chosen at the end. Honestly, who didn’t see the ending by a mile away?
• Butterfly used Confuse Ray. Opal is confused.
• When Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” plays, you know shit just got real!
• Kind of ironic that none of the birds stopped to help Rainbow Dash when she didn’t stop to help any of them when they were stuck in the thorn bushes.
• Question: How did the turtle manage to catch up to Rainbow Dash in the gorge? Wouldn’t it have taken him longer to get there? (Obvious Answer: it’s a cartoon. If it was realistic, we would be here all day waiting for him!)
• Question: Where did the turtle get the bandages for Dash? (Better Question: How does a turtle administer First Aid?)
• Turtle helicopter? Nice! :D

ANTI-LIBERTARIANS CAN'T THINK - 24EvelJustin24

2011-11-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

“This entire libertarian philosophy is just so incredibly stupid and insipid. I mean, who would buy this shit?”

My fourth target in the series is 24EvelJustin24, who believes libertarians like Ron Paul are stupid for distrusting the federal government and not buying the “deregulation destroyed the economy” narrative.

VIDEOS FEATURED:

Kicking Libertarian Ass by 24EvelJustin24

LINKS:

Link #1: The amazingly accurate predictions of Ron Paul

Link #2: Corporate Profits Not Actually At Record High

Link #3: 12 Reasons Companies Outsource Operations Overseas

Link #4: Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crisis?

Link #5: The Myth of Financial Deregulation

Link #6: What Keeps Us Safe?

Link #7: Economic Milton Friedman Describes Hong Kong as an Example of the Free Market System

Link #8: Bank of America scraps debit card fee after consumer backlash

Link #9: The Free Checking Restoration Act

Link #10: Who Caused the Economic Crisis?

Link #11: Is Deregulation to Blame?

Link #12: The CRA Scam and its Defenders

Link #13: Economic Freedom & Quality of Life

Link #14: Bush's Regulatory Kiss-Off

Link #15: Did Deregulated Derivatives Cause the Financial Crisis?

Link #16: Ten Thousand Commandments

Link #17: U.S. Corporations Suffer High Effective Tax Rates by International Standards

Link #18: No Corporate Welfare

OTHER MEDIA:

Arguing with Idiots Theme Song

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Rape Doesn’t Exist?!

2011-11-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

As anyone who follows my blog can tell, I don’t care for feminists. They have a tendency to see sexism where none exists, like how advertisements “objectify” women in order to allegedly keep them submissive to the patriarchy. Focusing on such menial issues tends to distract from real sexism.

For example, following the suicide of an 18-year-old girl who had chronicled on Twitter the sexual abuse she endured from her father, some sleazy Moron—excuse me, Mormon—blogger Michael Crook wrote the following about her on his blog:

There are those who think she’s a victim. Not so!

I don’t care what did or did not happen to her. First and foremost, I don’t believe rape exists. When there are incidents that are classified as “rape,” or names that are similar, what usually ends up happening is that the “victim” tends to “forget” to mention immodesty, flirty actions, or other conduct on their part that contributed to the matter. A woman who dresses immodestly must accept accountability for her choice of attire.

If, in fact, this girl was being molested or forced into prostitution as the media outlets say her tweets claimed, then it was her fault that it happened, and continued to happen.

“I don’t believe rape exists”?

Just let that sentiment sink in for a minute, then wipe the vomit away from your computer screen when you’re done.

Yes, apparently, rape doesn’t exist because all accounts of rape are really the woman’s fault for dressing or acting like a slut, and therefore, she deserves it.

I don’t care what religion you subscribe to, that’s just revolting!

Yes, I do believe that women should take precautions to protect themselves by avoiding dangerous situations, like dressing promiscuously to a bar, or accepting a drink from a stranger, or walking home late at night unescorted—but I would never have the audacity to say that they deserve what happens to them if they don’t take such caution.

But oh wait, IT GET EFFING WORSE!

When Crook said he doesn’t believe in rape, he links to this post where he says this:

However, I also believe that...a woman should fight to the death defending her virtue, if in fact she does not consent to the sexual contact. If she doesn't do so, then I would call her motives into question.

Oh yes. You heard that right. If a woman doesn’t fight back, she’s obviously lying about her rape. If she had really been raped, she would have put up a fight and even died trying to prevent it. If she didn’t, then it’s all her fault!

And feminists complain that chivalry is sexist? Give me a break!

What makes this even worse is that Crook tries to sidestep his own tripe by claiming that it’s only his opinion. Yes, Crook, it is, and you’re entitled to it. As my blog’s name suggests, I believe everyone is entitled to free speech in order to express their opinion. So Crook has every right to say women deserve to be raped. But since free speech goes both way, I have every right to respond by saying that Crook is a sexist, chauvinistic, misogynistic pig who should castrate himself lest his genes contaminate the human gene pool!

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to watch Pinkie Pie sing Caramelldansen until I forget this blog post ever existed.

Think Progress Spins Story About Welfare Fraud

2011-11-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

With a name like “Think Progress,” you’re sure to find news without bias or spin, right?

Think Progress recently posted a story with the following headline: “Mississippi Woman Receives Three Year Prison Sentence For Feeding Her Family.” The story, however, tells how the woman was convicted for lying on her benefits application in order to receive over $4 thousand in food stamps. She had previously been convicted of four felonies and one misdemeanor, which would have made her ineligible to receive food stamps. And yes, she did claim to have lied in order to help her family, but the fact still remains that she had been convicted of welfare fraud, thus making the story and its headline very misleading. Worse, the story compares the woman’s three-year prison sentence to a two-year sentence of a man who stole $3 million in mortgage fraud.

Should the woman have received such a harsh sentence? Probably not. A lesser sentence would have sufficed, though she was probably given the harsher sentence because of her previous crimes, all which were drug-related—thus making her defense of “feeding her family” rather dubious (she may have been using the money for drugs).

Should she have been given a harsher sentence than the man who swindled $3 million in mortgage fraud? Hell no! The punishment should fit the crime. $4 thousand in food stamps should receive a lesser punishment than $3 million in mortgage fraud, though both sentences were passed in different courts—albeit in the same state.

But that’s my opinion. I want to know what you all think: Were the two sentences unfair? What about the Think Progress story? Let me know in the comments below.

ANTI-LIBERTARIANS CAN’T THINK - franks2732

2011-11-15T14:40:00.000-08:00

“Your ideology is the most disgusting and evil piece of shit put on this world.…Libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, this diseased neoconservative mind, is the reason why half the f***ing Western world, the English-speaking Western world, is f***ed!”

My third target is franks2732 who moans and complains about how mean and cruel libertarians and their ideology are.

VIDEOS FEATURED:

Anti Libertarian Rant by franks2732

Fucktard Of The Week: Kassiedill2 by Morrakiu

OTHER MEDIA:

Arguing with Idiots Theme Song

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Feminazi: Penn State Proves All Men Are Rapists!

2011-11-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

When you use reddit like I do as a source for news, you tend to run across the craziest stories and news articles, which is how I encountered this gem. Only feminists would be sleazy enough to spin a story like the Penn State incident to push their conspiracy theories about the “patriarchy” and “rape culture.”

Now is the time to point out that feminists have been describing this problem for decades, and while it’s always going to be a shock on some level to see how much social support rapists and those who cover up for them get, it’s entirely predictable if you’ve been paying attention. In fact, excuse-making for sexual harassment, intimidation, and assault is so common that feminists created a phrase to describe it: rape culture. For once when it comes to feminist terminology, Wikipedia is accurate, so I’ll refer to its definition.

Rape culture is a term which originated in women's studies and feminist theory, and describes a culture in which rape and sexual violence against women are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media all condone, normalize, excuse, or tolerate sexual violence against women. Examples of behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, sexual objectification and rape apologism.

The only part which I would correct is to suggest that it’s not just rape and sexual violence against women that is excused in a rape culture. As the Penn State situation demonstrates---and as did the Catholic Church scandal before it and as does the ongoing inability of our society to take prison rape seriously---rape of men and children is also papered over, blamed on victims, or even condoned in our society. The form rape culture takes is tweaked slightly depending on the victim, of course. You don’t see young boys being told they brought this on themselves by dressing sexy, as female victims of various ages generally hear, but the general idea is still there. When it comes to rape, much of society thinks that the problem isn’t that rapists rape. They believe the problem is those who try to stop rape. When a rapist is outed, far too many people in our society think the person to blame for the chaos that ensues is not the person who started it all by raping, but those who blew the whistle. Even and especially when it’s the victims who blow the whistle.

Rape culture? Good grief! Someone should inform the feminists that reported rapes against women in the United States have been in decline over the past 20 years.

Fortunatley, it seems that many redditors see this article for the bullpucky it is, as the following comments indicate:

• Rape culture? Seriously? What a bunch of trash!

It's more the bystander effect combined with people wanting to keep their job.

The entire concept of a 'rape culture' because of one man who did nasty things while 15 people didn't act out of a population of ~65,000 students/faculty/etc is sensationalism at its worst.

• I haven't heard any condemnation of the victims. The closest to "rape culture" so far is the Penn State riot over the firing of Joe Paterno, as well as the media's general unwillingness to thoroughly condemn Joe for his part in the scandal. The article seems to suggest that there is an active campaign by society to suppress what has happened. Quite frankly I don't see it.

• Typical feminist theory. Let's make this about violence against women even though the gender in question is male here. This is about sports and extreme worship of their program, not about a worship of sexual violence.

• Sorry, but the failure on the part of the people at Penn State was not due to a "Rape Culture" or thinking there was anything acceptable about a 60 year old man fucking a ten year old boy in the ass; but about money and keeping an untarnished image. They were scared of what exactly has happened, happening. They're going to pay dearly for this in the two areas that are most important to them.

Greed and ego overcame morality.

• I'd love to know in what sort of twisted universe feminists can somehow take credit for the coming out of male war rape victims (which incidentally outnumber women raped in war).

Need I remind feminists that for the better part of the 20th century they were probably the most aggressive agitators against male gay rights after the religious organisations?

Bachmann: America Should Be More Like China!

2011-11-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

From the woman who claimed that Aladdin promoted witchcraft, that Lion King promoted homosexuality, and that carbon dioxide wasn’t a dangerous gas, comes one of the most retarded suggestions ever: America should be more like China!

Why is this woman a Republican presidential candidate again?

Michele Bachmann made a curious suggestion during Saturday night's Republican debate.

Fielding a question about which social programs she would cut if president, the Minnesota Congresswoman said that China provided a good example of a society without a social safety net. The fact that China's government is resolutely socialist appeared to be lost on her.

Bachmann said that Lyndon Johnson's Great Society has "not worked, and it's put us into the modern welfare state...If you look at China, they don't have food stamps."

She continued, "They save for their own retirement security, they don't have AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children), they don't have the modern welfare state, and China's growing...and so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us, with the Great Society, and they'd be gone."

Daily Kos Speaks Out Against Black Bloc Anarchists

2011-11-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

While I don’t believe in anarchy, I do respect the opinions of anarchists like Stefan Molyneux, as they make cogent arguments against the state (though I disagree with their conclusions). I realize there’s a major difference between anarchists who make arguments against the state and “anarchists” who just want to smash things up, and as such, the black bloc anarchists at the Occupy movement do not represent the whole of anarchists and anarchy.

With that said, I can’t believe I’m sharing a Daily Kos blog post defending the Occupy movement:

To the black bloc "Anarchists", I would like you to listen closely to the gentleman in this video at the 3:17 mark . . . he has something important to say . .

You can see people in this video trying to prevent the destruction of property, and my hat goes off to them.

And I use quotation marks on the word Anarchist for a reason, because real Anarchists believe in breaking up corrupt power structures, not smashing windows. Any mindless clown with a brick can smash a window, that doesn't make you an anarchist, just a vandal. Though I am NOT an anarchist myself, the anarchists I have met do NOT endorse this idiotic smashing of property, and nor does Occupy Wall Street. I denounce this type of bullshit. It has NO PLACE in our peaceful movement.

To the cowards in masks who just want to break shit, you aren't helping at all, in fact, you are making things worse for EVERYONE. I have no idea what you have to offer anyone, you basically have nothing positive to add to the conversation we'd like to have. In short, F U, because your idiotic acts of violence and senseless damage of property is certainly going to be used to smear every peaceful person in the Occupy Wall Street movement, so not only are you not adding anything positive, the only thing you are adding is negative.

This Week In Review (11/13/2011)

2011-11-12T16:26:00.001-08:00

• Democrats won key elections in Ohio, Maine, Mississippi, and Arizona. I would say this was a big loss for the Republicans, but screw it: they brought this upon themselves! When they gained a majority in the House of Representatives last year, they promised they were going to create jobs. It’s been one year. How many jobs have they created? Zero! Zip! Zilch! Instead, they have been focusing on menial social issues like abortion. Don’t get me wrong, pushing back abortion is an important issue, but during harsh economic times, fixing the economy and creating jobs should be more important—especially when it’s the platform you ran on! As far as the economy goes, the most Republicans have done were make cuts to NPR and Planned Parenthood—not even a fraction of one percent of our budget (compared to defense spending, which makes up a lion’s share of 20%)! Let’s face it: the Republicans are the party of Epic Fail! They fail at creating jobs, they fail at fixing the economy, they fail at limiting the federal government, they fail at fiscal responsibility, and the just flat-out fail at being conservative. Let us pray that they’re replaced by the Libertarian Party as the country’s right-wing party.
• Rick Perry forgot the third government agency he wanted to eliminate during the GOP Debate Wednesday. “It’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education, and the, um, uh, what’s the third one?” Good grief! I want to say that Perry is just like Bush, but at this point, that would be an insult—to Bush! Perry is like him, only without the integrity or the intelligence—or rather, what little Bush has in the first place!
• Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually-abusing eight boys over a 15-year period. At this point, I don’t know which is worse: the coach raping a boy in the locker room showers, the assistant coach Mike McQuery witnessing the rape but not reporting it, or the thousands of students rioting because their beloved coach was fired and arrested. Don’t get me wrong: the coach raping the young boy is obviously worse, but the other two were no better.
• Bill Clinton released his new book Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy. Democrats and liberals love to brag about how the economy was all sunshine and lollipops under Clinton. But as with other liberal legends like FDR and his “New Deal” or LBG and his “Great Society,” Clinton and his “Golden Years” is just that: a legend—more specifically, a myth!
• Congressman Joe Walsh was caught on camera yelling at a constituent. During one of his “Cup Of Joe With Joe” events, Walsh was confronted by a woman who asked him about the banks’ responsibility for the economic crisis, to which he responded in a heated tirade. “It’s not the private marketplace that created this mess! What created this mess is your government which has demanded for years that everyone be in a home, and we have made it as easy as possible for people to be in homes. All the marketplace does is respond to what the government does. The government sets the rules. Don’t blame banks and don’t blame the marketplace for the mess we’re in right now. And I’m tired of hearing that crap!” As am I! Look, I think Joe was uncouth and uncivil in his response (and as a politician, that’s no good), but in the end, he was absolutely 100% right!
• A government mandate requiring tobacco companies to post graphic warning labels on their products was blocked by a federal judge. This comes as a sigh of relief, considering that the past week has not been a good one for common sense within our government—what with the US Court of Appeals declaring it constitutional for the federal government to force Americans to buy health insurance, the Senate striking down an attempt to repeal the Orwellian Net Neutrality, and the Supreme Court deliberating whether or not police need a warrant to slap a tracking device onto a vehicle. But seriously, did anyone really believe that those ridiculous graphic warnings would have deterred people from smoking? Somehow, I don’t even think the people pushing for the warning labels believed that!
• Grand Canyon National Park scraped its plans to ban the sale of plastic water bottles. As with the graphic tobacco warnings, did anyone honestly believe that this ban would have worked? Even if they banned the sale of bottled beverages at the park, what’s to prevent tourists from bringing their own? Either way, litter is still being created. On a side note, this ban came immediately after park officials had spoken with officials from Coca-Cola—a major donor to the park. Both parties deny that their conversation influenced the blocking of the ban.
• Michelle Bachmann and Herman Cain said they would reinstate waterboarding during the GOP Debate Saturday. New Rule: Politicians like Bachmann and Cain who think waterboarding is not torture should volunteer to be waterboarded themselves, and then decide afterwards whether or not it’s torture. Pretty sure they would be singing a different tune.
• Justin Bieber denies being the father of a 20-year-old woman’s baby. Is he or is he not the baby daddy of Mariah Yeater? Better question: Oh my God! Who the hell cares?

Pony Saturday: The Cutie Pox

2011-11-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

You know what day it is? That’s right: Pony Saturday! And today, I’ll be posting my thoughts on today’s newest episode: The Cutie Pox.

• Question: How can ponies bowl if they don’t have any fingers? Then again, how can ponies do anything without fingers?
• Bowling Dolls = Charlie’s Angels! :D
• And any bowling episode isn’t complete without a Big Lebowski reference. Did you catch it? (It was right when Scootaloo kicked her bowling ball all over the place, and it zips by three familiar faces—or at least three familiar faces in pony form.)
• One of the ponies in the bowling alley looks a lot like Rarity’s mom from the last episode.
• Apple Bloom bites into her bowling ball. Um, bleh!
• I believe this is the fourth episode to feature Zecora—one of my favorite ponies who isn’t one of the main characters.
• Did anyone else think of “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” while listening to Apple Bloom with a chipped tooth saying she wanted her cutie mark now?
• Yes, Zecora, just leave Apple Bloom alone with the flower you told her grants one’s desires after she told you how desperately she wanted a cutie mark.
• Nice to see another appearance from Twist, not so much Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon.
• Apparently, class can be dismissed if someone has a really special talent like loop-de-hooping.
• Yay! Apple Bloom turned into Miles “Tails” Prowler!
• Twilight’s mane transformed into Rarity’s with Apple Bloom’s loop-de-hoop! (And I guess Spike must like Rarity for her hair, since he was quick to become infatuated with Twilight.)
• Apparently, Apple Bloom knew what Apple Jack wanted her to do with the pie and plates she threw at her.
• Seems like we’re seeing more of Granny Smith in this season.
• Question: Why was Apple Bloom suddenly unable to control herself once she received her third cutie mark? See was able to control herself with the first two. Do your talents suddenly become uncontrollable at three?
• LOL! One of the diseases mentioned in Twilight’s book is “The Trots”!
• Question: Since Equestria is obviously in an alternate universe with geography unlike our own, is there seriously a French language, let alone a France, in that universe?
• Better Question: How will they translate that scene into French? She’s obviously not going to be speaking French!
• Continuity Error: Apple Bloom and Apple Jack visited Twilght Sparkle during the night, then they decide go to Zecora—in the day?
• Nice to see Lily, Daisy, and Roseluck reappear in this episode. (The horror! The horror!)
• Apple Bloom becomes Taz! :D
• Question: If the Seeds of Truth grow when someone tells the truth, shouldn’t they have grown when Pinkie Pie spilled the beans about eating Mrs. Cake’s corncakes? (Obvious Answer: Because then we wouldn’t have the moral of our story from Apple Bloom).
• Question: Did Zecora really disappear, or did she simply leave while no one was looking?
• And Apple Bloom got to write to Princess Celestia.

Nintendo GameCube Commercials Montage

2011-11-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

I love it whenever a new video game console is released, especially with the advertising behind it. I love to see how the new consoles market themselves, and somehow, they always seem to inspire you to jump out of your seat and rush to the nearest Wal-Mart in order to buy one.

I especially love watching old-school video game commercials. Though the games and systems themselves are outdated, the commercials still make them seem brand new and innovative.

In honor of the Nintendo GameCube’s tenth anniversary, the following montage of GameCube commercials was created by user CyberWolf087. Man, I remember these commercials well!

Welcome To The Police State!

2011-11-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

Should the police be allowed to slap a tracking device on your vehicle without a warrant? Obvious answer: No! Would such action be unconstitutional? According to the Fourth Amendment: Yes!

But hey, folks, this is post-9/11 America! We don’t take kindly to our own Constitution (especially the Fourth Amendment) around these parts. We need to actually deliberate such scenarios at the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court invoked visions of an all-seeing Big Brother and satellites watching us from above. Then things got personal Tuesday when the justices were told police could slap GPS devices on their cars and track their movements without asking a judge for advance approval.

The occasion for all the talk about intrusive police actions was a hearing in a case about whether the police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects. The outcome could have implications for other high-tech surveillance methods as well.

The justices expressed deep reservations about warrantless GPS tracking. But there also was no clear view about how or whether to regulate police use of the devices.

The justices were taken aback when the lawyer representing the government said police officers could install GPS devices on the justices' cars and track their movements without a warrant. To get a warrant, investigators need to convince a judge that there is reason to believe a suspect is involved in criminal activity.

"So your answer is yes, you could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month; no problem under the Constitution?" Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Not only that, government lawyer Michael Dreeben replied, but FBI agents wouldn't need a warrant either if they wanted to rummage through the justices' trash, use a low-tech beeper to track them or tail them around-the-clock with a team of agents. Dreeben said the court has previously ruled that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in those circumstances.

Justice Samuel Alito captured the essence of the court's concern when he said, "With computers around, it's now so simple to amass an enormous amount of information. How do we deal with this? Just say nothing has changed?"

Justice Stephen Breyer alluded to George Orwell's novel "1984" when he said surveillance in the past depended on human beings and their sometimes flawed memories. But computers don't have that problem, he said.

"The question that I think people are driving at, at least as I understand it and certainly share the concern, is that if you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States," Breyer said.

At this point, is anyone really shocked? Ever since the Patriot Act was passed, allowing for warrantless wiretaps and record searches, our Constitutional rights have been decreasing, and after ten years, we’ve transformed into a full-blown police state straight out of 1984.

Hyperbole, you say? As of now, the police have the power to break down your door without a warrant if they suspect you’re destroying evidence, search the contents of your cell phone during a traffic stop, pepper spray protesters for no real reason, and arrest people for victimless crimes like growing vegetables in their front yard and feeding the homeless in a public park.

But hey, at least there's one thing the police can't do. They can't be videotaped! Such a violation of the police's right to privacy can land you 75 years in prison. When the police have more of a right to privacy than the average law-abiding citizen, you know you're living in a police state!

Somalia Vs Free Market

2011-11-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Why is it that the stupidest talking points also tend to be the most heavily repeated? If I had a dime for every time I heard Somalia used as an example of libertarianism or free-market capitalism, my fortune could possibly rival that of Bill Gates.

Somalia has no form of government. That means it’s under anarchy. Libertarians and free-market capitalists do want government; they just want to limit its power over the people, especially the market. Therefore, Somalia is not an example of either libertarianism or free-market capitalism.

Unfortunately, such logic does not pervade the minds of libtarded moonbats like Sam Seder, who recently claimed that the best way to debunk libertarians is to simply let them talk.

The free market does not exist. There is no unencumbered market.…Maybe in Somalia.…That’s what a free market is. It is feudalism. It is who has got more guns…or swords, and arrows. They’re the ones who are going to…accumulate the most wealth. Capitalism can only function properly with strong government controls that protect consumers and workers from the excesses of capitalism. It’s not even the excesses. It’s the operation of capitalism.

I love how he assumes that libertarianism or free-market capitalism is about allowing whoever has the most guns the right to rule, even though both philosophies reject the use of force through the non-aggression principle. As one person said in the comment section: “Well, if that's his concern then it makes no sense to grant the state exclusive monopoly on the use of the biggest, baddest guns in society, does it?”

But Seder is half-right about the free market. There has been no true free market, as all markets have had some level of regulation, which is necessary to an extent. However, there are markets which are freer than others, the perfect example being Hong Kong. From Wikipedia:

As one of the world's leading international financial centers, Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterized by low taxation and free trade. The currency, Hong Kong dollar, is the eight most traded currency in the world as of 2010. Hong Kong was once described by Milton Friedman as the world’s greatest experiment in laissez-faire capitalism. It maintains a highly developed capitalist economy, ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom for 15 consecutive years. It is an important centre for international finance and trade, with one of the greatest concentrations of corporate headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region, and is known as one of the Four Asian Tigers for its high growth rates and rapid development from the 1960s to the 1990s. Between 1961 and 1997 Hong Kong's gross domestic product grew 180 times while per-capita GDP increased 87 times over.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the seventh largest in the world, with a market capitalization of US$2.3 trillion as of December 2009. In that year, Hong Kong raised 22 percent of worldwide initial public offering (IPO) capital, making it the largest centre of IPOs in the world and the easiest place to raise capital. Hong Kong's currency is the Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1983.

The Hong Kong Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Hong Kong is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the Second World War, Hong Kong industrialized rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in the 1980s. Since then, it has grown to become a leading center for management, financial, IT, business consultation and professional services.

Hong Kong is but the leading example. The remaining Top 10 freest economies are Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, the United States, and Bahrain. As for Somalia, it isn’t even listed on the Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings. So much for it being a libertarian free market paradise!

Race Realists are Sneaky STATISTS

2011-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” – Ayn Rand

If you believe in grouping people into collectives based upon their skin color, you have no right to call yourself a libertarian. If you believe one group of people has more rights than another, you have no right to call yourself a libertarian. And if you believe people of different races should remain separate, you have no right to call yourself a libertarian.

You simply cannot have racial segregation without a state enforcing it. TheTruePooka explains:

And please don’t put forward fantasies about everyone volunteering to merrily segregate into different cities and states according to race. Because that’s not going to happen. Putting forward such a premise is an absolute copout, a weak and feeble attempt to sidestep the issue and the fact that, even under the best of circumstances, a significant amount of force is going to have to be exerted to enforce this voluntary segregation. The only way they kept the population segregated prior to the civil rights movement was by reducing the rights of one group—black people in this case—so that they could justify and get away with force against them. You think it’s going to be any different now, you think that a city or state coded for black or white only population isn’t going to have to reduce the rights of the racial population that all of a sudden finds itself in the “shit out of luck” seats? Please! Either you people are very stupid or very naïve.…[S]egregationist ideology ends up being in direct conflict with one of the most basic principles of libertarian philosophy: that you don’t use force against others and infringe on their individuality. From a right-libertarian position, even using the slightest force to cause segregation, it is unacceptable. There’s just no way around it.

Having apparently struck the nerve of so many race realists, Pooka’s video was spammed to the point where he was forced to place his video in private. In fact, one person even flagged his video. Pooka points out the irony:

This dimbulb made use of the apparatus of our “state” here on YouTube, Google administration, to try to silence me and destroy my channel.

(sarcastic handclap)

Thank you. Thank you so very much for actually proving my point. It took one or some of you less than 24 hours to run to our internet version of the state for help, thus giving me the concrete proof I need to show without any doubt that my argument has strong merit.

Demotivational Poster: Michael Moore

2011-11-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

On Nov. 3, Occupy Oakland protesters forcibly shut down not only the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in America, but also several surrounding businesses and banks. The peaceful protests turned violent as protesters began smashing windows, spraying graffiti, and tossing Molotov cocktails. This resulted in dozens of protesters getting arrested and at least four being hospitalized.

When liberal filmmaker Michael Moore was asked on Piers Morgan Tonight what he thought of the violence, he simply answered, “there’s no violence coming from the Occupy protesters. This is a non-violent peaceful group.…They’re not destroying any property.” His response received applause from the studio audience.

Nearly a week earlier, Moore had appeared on the same show where he insisted that he was not part of the “one percent”—despite having made millions from his documentaries (which ironically berate the system from which he profits). To Moore, it did not matter that his income placed him in the same bracket as those he has been protesting, he did not consider himself part of the one percent because, as he put it, “even though I do well, I don’t associate myself with those who do well.” (This is sort of like saying he’s not overweight because, even though he’s fat, he doesn’t associate himself with those who are.)

At this point, is anyone really surprised that Moore lied on the exact same show twice? This libtarded moonbat has made his living peddling lies through his propaganda films—excuse me, “documentaries.” (On second thought, never mind. “Propaganda” best describes his films. Just search the dictionary and you’ll find his picture under “Propaganda.”)

In his first documentary Roger and Me, Moore portrays the negative impact that resulted from General Electric shutting down several plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Moore had messed with the chronology of events in order to fit his narrative, thus presenting a distorted and inaccurate one. Paraphrasing a review by critic Harlan Jacobson, New York Times critic Richard Bernstein wrote, “The film compressed events that actually took place over a long period of time and altered the sequence of some of them. The 11 plant closings affected 4 states, not just Flint. The 30,000 jobs lost in Flint were lost over 12 years, not the far shorter span suggested - though never explicitly stated - by Mr. Moore in ‘Roger and Me.’”

In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore featured several video clips of George W. Bush and his administration, including Condoleezza Rice, who was shown saying, “There is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11.” The clip suggested that Rice was claiming that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, thus justifying the invasion of Iraq. However, the full context of the quote reveals that the “tie” she was referring to was not Hussein, but radical Islam: “It’s not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11, but, if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that lead people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York....[This] has perverted Islam from a peaceful religion into one in which they call on it for violence. And they're all linked.” (Ah, quote mining at its finest, or rather worst!)

In Sicko, Moore accompanies a group of Americans to a Cuban hospital in order to receive free healthcare. He claims that the treatment they received at the hospital was the exact same treatment every Cuban citizen received. In reality, the hospital they visited was actually reserved for the privileged elites. Poorer citizens tend to visit more rundown clinics with poorer, filthier conditions. In fact, the film’s portrayal of Cuba’s healthcare system was so exaggerated that it was banned in Cuba in fear that it would create “a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”

And these are only a fraction of the lies Moore has made in his documentaries. (The website Michael Moore: Exposed provides a plethora of lies and distortions Moore has made in film and real life.)

Aside from being a pathological liar, he’s also a massive hypocrite. He profits from capitalism by making films against capitalism—and then he has the nerve to appear on television and claim he’s not part of the same “one percent” he and his fellow moonbats are protesting on Wall Street. Speaking of which, Moore is infamous for claiming “I don't own a single share of stock!” (And guess what: that’s a lie, too!)

At this point, calling Moore a liar is like calling him fat: it’s blatantly obvious, and anyone who doesn’t see it is blind (or liberal, or both)!

Demotivational Poster: Moral Majority

2011-11-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

CHRISTIAN, n.: One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin. (The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Pierce)

Why is it that politicians who espouse Christian “family values” also tend to be the most immoral sinners? Sarah Palin’s daughter had a baby out-of-wedlock. Larry Craig was caught soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. Mark Sanford had an affair with an Argentinean mistress. And now Herman Cain has been accused of sexually-harassing two female employees. And he still remains ahead in the polls!

So let's get this straight: if you're a Democrat who tweets his junk, you get forced to resign; if you're a Democrat who receives head from an intern, you get impeached; but if you're a Republican who harasses two female employees, you remain ahead in the polls? And Republicans are supposed to be the Moral Majority?

For the record, I could care less what Cain allegedly did to his female employees. American politicians have been involved in sex scandals ever since Thomas Jefferson. Don’t hate Cain because he’s a sexual pervert. Hate him because he’s a Federal Reserve shill! (No need to audit the Federal Reserve? Bullshit!)

ANTI-LIBERTARIANS CAN'T THINK: atticana

2011-11-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

"What always strikes me about libertarians...is that they are invariably white and middle class."

My second target in my series is atticana, who believes that libertarians are only morally-deficient atheists.

VIDEOS FEATURED

"Libertarians = Morally Deficient Atheists" by atticana

"We're not racists, BUT ..." by ZOMGitsCriss

OTHER LINKS

Economic Freedom and Quality of Life

Myth of the Robber Barons

Minimum Wage Equals Minimum Jobs

OTHER MEDIA

Arguing with Idiots Theme Song

Music by Kevin MacLeod

White Nationalism Is Like Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?

2011-11-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

New Rule: If you group people into collectives based upon their race, or defend people who do likewise, then you have no right to consider yourself a libertarian.

In his video Worst Argument Ever, Coughlan000 destroys "libertarian" greenghost2008 for defending “race realist” HeyRuka by claiming that White Nationalism is like having a favorite ice cream flavor.

How the hell is White Nationalism like having a favorite ice cream flavor? As greenghost explained: “It’s simply preferring people just like you. In this world, that very well has a racial context.”

Good grief. The problem with White Nationalists like HeyRuka, as Coughlan points out, isn’t that they prefer people of the same race: it’s that they consider their race superior to all others, want to maintain the purity of their race, and desire to eliminate everyone else of a different race. That’s like someone liking vanilla ice cream and wanting ice cream shops to serve nothing but vanilla ice cream.

But hold on, folks! It gets worse from here.

Coughlan released a second video in which he responds to the many responses he received from the first video, including one unintentionally lulzy personal message from a self-described racist.

If a white and a black have a child, not only their skin color mixes, but also their IQ. If one person has an IQ of 120, and the other has an IQ of 80, the end result is 100.

Coughlan gave an appropriate response: facepalm!

This Week In Review (11/06/2011)

2011-11-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

Since so many things happen over the week for me to create individual blog posts, I decided to create a weekly digest of the week’s events (along with my snarky commentary). And yes, I plan on doing this every Sunday.

• Nearly 650 thousand consumers have switched to credit unions over the past four weeks. This movement was in support of Bank Transfer Day yesterday, created to protest the debit card fees levied by big banks such as Bank Of America—fees which are the result of the costs created by the Durbin Amendment in the Dodd-Frank Law, which places restrictions on debit card transactions (and therefore the fault of big government, not big business). The protest has been largely successful, as Bank of America has since dropped its $5 debit card fees. In my opinion, this is the CORRECT way to handle big business: if you don’t like what a business or corporation is doing, take your business elsewhere! That’s how the free market works.

• Occupy protests forcibly shut down the Port of Oakland. The peaceful “protest” turned violent when protesters began smashing windows, spraying graffiti, and tossing Molotov cocktails. This resulted in dozens of protesters getting arrested and at least four being hospitalized. Look, I despise police brutality as much as the next libertarian, but when your protest degenerates into violent chaos, you’re pretty much asking for tear gas—especially when your actions (violent or not) actually hurt the people you’re trying to help!

• Herman Cain remains ahead in the polls despite his sexual harassment allegations. A Washington Post/ABC Poll shows Cain at 23 percent, below Mitt Romney at 24 percent and above Rick Perry at 13 percent. So let’s get this straight: if you’re a Democrat who tweets his junk, you get forced to resign; if you’re a Democrat who receives head from an intern, you get impeached; but if you’re a Republican and you harass a female employee, you remain ahead in the polls? So much for Republicans being the moral majority! (For the record: I don’t hate Cain because he allegedly sexually harassed a girl. I hate him because he’s a Federal Reserve shill! No need to audit the Federal Reserve? Bullshit!)

• ‘In God We Trust’ was reaffirmed as the National Motto by the House of Representatives. Yes, screw the fact that our economy is circling the drain, that we’re trillions of dollars in debt, that our entitlement programs are on the verge of bankruptcy, and that we’re currently engaged in perpetual war overseas. Our top priority should be affirming that our National Motto is ‘In God We Trust’—a motto that wasn’t added to our currency until 1957! Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against the motto or its appearance on our money. But this is not the time to be concerned about it. We have more pertinent issues to attend to. Good Grief! And Congress wonders why it has such a low approval rating!

• Ron Paul won the Illinois straw poll. As a Ron Paul supporter, I should be happy about this. But let’s face it: with the media ignoring Paul and pimping candidates like Romney, Perry, and Cain, I know he isn’t going to be the Republican presidential candidate. Don’t get me wrong: I’m still voting for him, and I urge everyone else to do the same, but the stark reality is that he’s unelectable in the Republican Party, considering he’s been against most of its agenda. Too bad he doesn't want to run as an Independent.

• Warren Buffet’s wife Elizabeth was called a “Socialist Whore.” In other news, the sky is blue!

• Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her husband Kris Humphries only 72 days after their wedding. A celebrity couple getting divorced? This has never happened before! I would say “who cares?” but I don’t even care enough to say “who cares?” (Yet apparently I care enough to mention it. Sheesh. This is a slow news weeks!)

Racists Are F'N Stupid!

2011-11-06T14:09:00.001-08:00

Coughlan616 released the following video debunking the four most asinine claims made by racists—sorry, I mean “race realists”:

1) There is a white genocide.
2) Anti-racist is code word for anti-white.
3) White people are genetically superior non-white, particularly when it comes to intellectual capacity and IQ.
4) Most white people are too brainwashed by political correctness and the media into saying anything OR they’re too scared to speak out because they don’t want to be labeled a racist.

Pony Saturday: Luna Eclipsed and Sisterhooves Social

2011-11-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the return of Pony Saturday. I apologize for not updating. Though as I said in a previous post, I had been on hiatus due to life in general.

I decided that for now and future Pony Saturdays that I would review the new episodes of the second season. Today, I’ll be giving my thoughts not only on this week’s episode “Sisterhooves Social” but also the last (and perhaps, most anticipated) episode “Luna Eclipsed.” (So Haha! The fun has been doubled!)

First, my thoughts on “Luna Eclipsed”:

• Spike dressed as a dragon? Funny or forced? I have to say forced.
• Question: Why was Granny Smith escorting three random fillies rather than Apple Bloom and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders?
• Pinkie Pie as a chicken. It really suits her!
• Pipsqueak: my newest favorite pony!
• Anyone else think that Rainbow Dash’s costume looked like the Shadow Bolts?
• Gotta love seeing Derpy Hooves being—well—derpy!
• Loved Zecora’s costume, especially her wig! (Or as Sweetie Belle would say: “I really like her mane!”)
• Question: If Nightmare Moon was imprisoned on the moon for a thousand years, how could she possibly come back to Equestria to “gobble up” little ponies on Night Mare Night? Continuity error!
• Question: If Nightmare Moon had been transformed back into Princess Luna, why continue the tradition of Nightmare Night? Isn’t that slightly disrespectful?
• Princess Luna’s portrayal slightly disappointed me, considering I’m used to her portrayal in fandom as a shy and reclusive pony like Fluttershy. Nonetheless, loved her Shakespearean accent. It suits her well. Also loved her mane!
• Only makes sense for a pony afraid of her own shadow like Fluttershy to lock herself in on the scariest night of the year.
• Loved the scene between Luna and Fluttershy! Funniest moment in the episode. Nice use of slapstick.
• Question: Why were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie afraid of Luna if they had both helped transform her back to normal from Nightmare Moon using the Elements of Harmony? Pinkie Pie claimed she was only having fun, but Fluttershy was legitimately frightened. Did she just forget that Luna was no longer Nightmare Moon.
• New Meme Alert: Luna: “Haha! The Fun Has Been Doubled!”
• Luna can change to Nightmare Moon whenever she wants. Who knew?
• Rarity wasn’t in this episode. I don’t care. She’s one of my least favorites. I don’t hate her. I just don’t like her either.

And here are my thoughts on today’s episode “Sisterhooves Social”:

• Rarity has parents! And they’re nothing like her. One would think they would be suave aristocrats like Rarity, but instead they’re Midwestern Hoosiers (Gosh golly, don’cha know!). This begs the question of where Rarity received her grace and sophistication.
• Question: How DOES one burn juice? LOL!
• Question: If Rarity’s sweater wasn’t supposed to be washed, as it shrinks in the sunlight, what was it doing in the laundry room? Moreover, how does she wash and dry it? I don’t think there’s electricity in Ponyville, so there’s obviously no dryer.
• Rarity needed rare baby blue sapphires for an extremely important client. Sapphire Shores, perhaps?
• LOL! Rarity needs to live in "organized chaos" to be inspired. Just like every good artist.
• Question: Sweetie Belle is sleeping over? In other words, she doesn't live with Rarity. So, what about in "Stare Master" when Fluttershy has to take her off her hands? Was she "sleeping over" then?
• Loved how Apple Jack and Apple Bloom reacted to Rarity’s remark of “uncouth.” (As described by Jeff Foxworthy: Redneck: glorious absence of sophistication!)
• Two fandoms died in this episode. As was clearly shown, Derpy Hooves is not the mother of Dinky Doo, nor is Berry Punch the mother of Berry Pinch (She’s actually the sister to Pina Colada).
• New Meme Alert: Apple Bloom: “One day!”
• Loved Granny Smith’s scene! ;)
• Really didn’t expect the surprise ending. Seriously, I wasn’t. Kudos to the writers!
• First episode where another pony, rather than Twilight Sparkle, writes a letter to Princess Celestia.

Chivalry Sucks? Benevolent Sexism?

2011-11-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

One would think that men showing common courtesy to women by opening doors for them or volunteering to carry something for them would please the feminists. Unfortunately, to feminists like healthyaddict, such chivalry degrades women as a form of “benevolent sexism”—whatever the hell that is!

Yes, apparently to healthyaddict, a man volunteering to do the dishes for a woman is sexist. So would it be less sexist to let the woman do the dishes—along with the rest of the house work? Wouldn’t that imply that women are only good for cooking and cleaning? Wouldn’t that be forcing them to conform to sexist gender roles?

Good grief. It’s sexist if you do, sexist if you don’t.

Thankfully, Coughlan000 made an excellent rebuttal to this nonsense:

If sexism, in any way, or prejudice manifested itself in the worst way possible, and that worst way happened to be people holding doors open for you, we’ve kind of won at that point, haven’t we?