Hat Tip: BB
The liberal media continues to make a connection between “Operation Fast and Furious” under the Obama and “Operation Wide Receiver” under Bush, and major news outlets have made no effort to explain the difference.
MRCTV sat down with NRA president David Keene, who explains the fundamental difference between these two operations.
By: Chad Kent
CDN:
In this part of the clearest explanation of the Constitution you’ll find, Chad explains how the Founders used self-interest to their advantage in creating our government, as well as the proper role of the federal government.
By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings
A friend sent a collection of old photographs, a turn of the century history lesson of how folks of a different era managed to muddle through life. There were pictures of horse drawn carriages with the driver being pelted by a hard rain sitting atop his perch while his customers were protected inside the cab, folks huddled under a tarp fashioned into a makeshift home on the side of the road indicating hard times and vendors hawking their wares in the public square.
One photograph caught my interest, a locksmith in London from 1890 crafting a key in the public square; imagine that, locksmiths made keys back then. In a few years that might be an odd thought, locksmiths make keys.
Today’s locks are getting more and more sophisticated as they rely on electronic measures to accomplish what mechanical keys have done for hundreds of years. You can purchase a deadbolt for your house that is keyless; it depends on your proximity to the device with a special activator that sends an electronic beacon to unlock your door, no key is necessary. The same goes for your automobile, with a properly encoded device the doors unlock when you get within a few feet and there’s no need to turn an ignition switch to start the car; just push the button and you’re on your way.
One of the first magic tricks I observed at a locksmith shop was a fellow who crafted a padlock key out of a nail. He hammered the narrow piece of steel flat on his vice until it would slide effortlessly through the padlock’s keyhole. He then studied the edge of the flat steel looking for marks which were filed a little at a time until the crudely fashioned key turned inside the mechanism and the shackle popped open. I knew I’d met a second cousin of Harry Houdini; Wow!
Thirty five years later that memory of creating a key out of “nothing” remains important as it stirred within my imagination a desire to know how he accomplished the magic trick. If it hadn’t been awe inspiring I might never have spent my Saturdays at the locksmith shop learning how to work on various locks and cutting keys to fit them.
It’s sad that in the not too distant future some young man will watch a modern day locksmith aim his electronic synthesizer at a door, flip a toggle switch or adjust a modulator knob until a green light flashes from an LED and the door pop’s open. Wow, can you teach me how to make a key like that? Flash Gordon, Security Specialist, won’t need a file to create and sculpt a piece of metal into a working key just an electronic doo-dad and some very expensive computer programs; I still like the photograph of an old timer applying his skills to a raw piece of metal in the public square.
This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government & The American Constitution.”
By: Citizen Scribe
Hi, my name is Scribe, and I’m a racist.
I’m a racist because I oppose high taxes.
I’m a racist because I believe that the government should not control private businesses or private lives.
I’m a racist because I believe in the greatness of America, despite the blunders of those who govern her.
I’m a racist because I believe in the conservation of the Constitution.
I’m a racist because I detest communism and fascism and all other forms of total government.
I’m a racist because I believe that when someone identifies himself as an enemy, you should take him at his word.
I’m a racist because I believe that same principle applies to nations.
I’m a racist because I believe it is wrong to fund your enemies.
I’m a racist because I believe that “equality” applies to opportunity, not outcomes.
I’m a racist because I believe that “equality” applies to the application of laws, even to those who write them.
I’m a racist because I believe that a man’s worth is found in what he produces, not in the amplitude of his emotions.
I’m a racist because I believe that what a man produces and earns belongs to him, and not to someone who claims to “need” it.
I’m a racist because I believe that it is wrong to confiscate a man’s earnings because you think you’ll spend it better than he will.
I’m a racist because I believe that the sole purpose of education should be to effect competence in life, and not to inculcate a belief system.
I’m a racist because I want my leaders and legislators to tell the truth and keep their promises.
I’m a racist because I believe that art should serve morality and decency, not strive to tear them down.
Mostly, though, I’m a racist because I believe that color doesn’t matter and that character is everything.
I realize that my racism is a serious character flaw, and I’m working on it. Trouble is, every time I look at history and realize the horrific damage done by governments seeking to control everything, I find at least one more thing to be racist about.
In fact, I’m only now beginning to realize how racist it is for me to believe that God is not a sub-atomic particle.
*Sigh*
I guess the only comfort I’m going to find is among other racists like myself.
Me too, lil’ weasel. Me too! Because there was certainly a lot of information, entertainment and stimulation in this week’s entries… but then, there always is.
The Council has weighed in, made its judgment known and the results are hereby engraved in our marble archives here in deepest cyberspace.
The above is a tweet posted by lefty comedian Chris Rock on July Fourth, America’s Independence Day. One of the added benefits of writing this week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Gettysburg – A Fourth Of July Long Ago, was being able to reply to this ignoramus, include a tiny url link to it and remind him that today was also the anniversary of a great many white people dying to free his ancestors… and that he should be ashamed of himself.
I doubt it had any effect (it seldom does with that mentality), but it did make me feel good and apparently a few other people as well.
In any case, here’s a slice:
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass.Let me work. – Carl Sandburg
One hundred and forty-nine years ago today, brave men fought in and around a small town in Pennsylvania to determine whether the Union would endure or whether it would not.
The Battle of Gettysburg broke the tide of the advance of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and while the war itself didn’t end for another 22 months, Gettysburg decided the outcome.
Lee’s objective was psychological as much as strategic. By 1863 there was substantial sentiment in the North to allow the Confederacy to go its own way and end what had become an increasingly bloody, unpopular and costly war. By subjecting the North to the same sort of invasion the South had been subjected to – in essence, bringing the war home – Lee hoped to increase this sentiment and force the North to negotiate a settlement.
Gettysburg was very much an accidental battle. Neither side was really looking to fight here, but the armies accidentally collided, largely because Lee was deprived of Jeb Stuart’s cavalry in the early stages of the battle and thus lacked his usual awareness of where the Union forces were. Once the initial impact was made,on July 1st 1863 in a battle between Brigadier General John Buford’s Union cavalry division and two corps of Union infantry and two large Confederate corps that attacked from the north and northwest under General Richard Ewell, the armies came together and the battle was on.
In our non-Council category, the winner was Potluck – A Tale of One Tragedy and Two Campaigns submitted by The Watcher. It’s an absolutely wonderful piece that perfectly illustrates the difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, and I’m sure you’ll find it as illuminating as I and the Council did.
Here are this week’s full results. Only The Independent Sentinel was unable to vote this week and was affected by the 2/3 vote penalty:
Council Winners
Non-Council Winners
See you next week! Remember to tune in next Monday for the Watcher’s Forum question, where the Council and invited guests provide pithy short takes as a roundtable on a cutting edge major issue… don’t you DARE MISS IT! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!
By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal
While Russian military preparedness and arms technology is almost certainly much better than the Kremlin lets on, this is still significant.
From Russia Today:
A new multi-billion dollar agency will develop cutting-edge Russian weapons, after the Russian Duma overwhelmingly voted to establish the Future Research Fund (FPI).
Dmitry Rogozin
The FPI’s budget has not been finalized, but media speculation has predicted that it could be given more than $100 billion between now and 2020, though the funding is expected to be ramped up in steps.“After 20 years of stagnation it will be hard to catch up with the West’s weapons development the ordinary way,” Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin told the deputies ahead of the vote.
“We need a radical organization ready to take risks and work in the most promising areas. A real predator.”
The final vote tally was 425 for, 25 against.
Rogozin, who is the mastermind behind FPI and is expected to take charge of the new organization, is a divisive figure in Russian politics.
A journalist by education, he was widely known as a firebrand nationalist, who was once barred from running in an election for his xenophobic views. Since then, he has made a stunning political comeback, first serving as Russia’s prickly ambassador to NATO, before becoming one of the country’s most influential politicians.
Incidentally, while he was Russian Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin followed this blog on Twitter.
In Memoriam
|
|
|
Get your
2nd Amendment
Shirts
over at
Libertas |
|
|
Available at Amazon.com on Kindle and in Paperback.
