Welcome *hackhack* to Los *coughwheeze* Angeles

I took this picture on New Year's Day.  I was listening to the Rose Bowl on the radio as I was driving up Highway 2, and everyone kept talking about what a beautiful day in Pasadena it was. 

This shot is from the Angeles National Forest.  You can see downtown Los Angeles at the center-left, and if you squint at center-right you can see the blimp that was flying over the Rose Bowl during the game.

I'd like to point out that it is NOT a cloudy day.  There was barely a cloud in the sky.

That, my friends, is the smog of Los Angeles.  That is the poison that I'm forced to breathe in every single day.  Driving up Highway 2, the air was literally brown.  It's like living in some futuristic, dystopian movie.  And this was a day where the locals were singing praises about how clean the air was!

I cannot wait to leave this shithole.

Morning

There is nothing like waking up, shuffling to the bathroom, taking a good hard piss, and getting smacked in the face by the smell of asparagus.

It's like a dirty wet sock full of nickles.

Won't stop me from gorging on it again in the future though.  Mmmmmmm....  asparagus.

Hey.....

Was there some awards show last night?


Who won?

I am not alone

I am not the only person who thinks that DubStep music sounds much like what you would get if you fed a humpback whale Alka-seltzer and ExLax, then recorded the resulting sounds.

As an added note, Matt Walsh wrote a post regarding modern pop music, specifically Beyonce.  There's 630 comments when I looked at it.  I won't go into what I think about the comment writers, especially those who disagree with Mr. Walsh, save to say that their preference in music matches with their argumentative skills quite nicely.

I think I've said it before, but it took fifteen hundred years to go from blowing in animal horns and beating on drums while chanting rhythmically to full orchestral pieces that bring tears of joy to your eyes.  And then it took less than two hundred years after that to go back to music that is, in essence, blowing animal horns and beating on drums while chanting rhythmically.

One hundred thirty-seven years to go from this:



To Miley Cyrus.

Here's to hoping the pendulum swings back the other way sometime soon.

Once again

Proving that Sarah Palin was and is still more qualified to be President than Barack Obama.

After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next.

We have three more years of the Obama Horror Show, watching the world burn while Obama fiddles.

25 Signs You've Grown Up

Stolen from here.  List is below, with my comments.

1. Your potted plants are alive. And you can’t smoke a one of them.  (Never did smoke my potted plants)
2. Having sex in a twin-sized bed is absurd.  (Posh.  Have sex where ever you can)
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.  (Crap)
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to sleep.  (Crap!)
5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.  (Crap crap!)
6. You carry an umbrella. You watch the Weather Channel.  (Nope.  I look outside)
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hookup and breakup.  (CRAP!)
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 7.  (Um.....  crap.)
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as ‘dressed up.’  (Nope, they still do!)
10. You’re the one calling the police because those darn kids next door don’t know how to turn down the stereo.  (CRAPPITY CRAP!)

11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.  (Ewwwwww......  crap.)
12. You don’t know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.  (Taco Bell closes?)
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.  (Yeeeeaaaaah....  crap.)
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald’s.  (Blue Wilderness, actually.  Wait.  Crap.)
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.  (Nope, I have a rockin' couch.)
16. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 p.m.  (Zzzzzz....  CRAP!)
17. Dinner and a movie = The whole date instead of the beginning of one.  (Dinner AND a movie?  Crap!)
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 a.m. would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.  (Cra...  *ralph*  ap.)
19. You go to the drugstore for Ibuprofen and antacids, not condoms and pregnancy test kits.  (And Tiger Balm.  CRAP!)
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer ‘pretty good stuff.’  (I do home vinting.  HA!)
21. You actually eat breakfast foods at breakfast time.  (Define "breakfast", because Bacon is for every meal....)
22. “I just can’t drink the way I used to,” replaces “I’m never going to drink that much again.”  (Hell, I said that back in my 20's.  Aww, crap)
23. Over 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.  (CRAAAAAAP!)
24. You don’t drink at home to save money before going to a bar.  (I don't really go to bars.  Never did.  Just my thing.)
25. You read this entire list looking for one sign that doesn’t apply to you! 

I guess I'm not all the way grown up yet!  Yay me!

Bill Whittle time

As an aside, I'd really, REALLY love a chance to visit the PJTV studios, given that I'm actually in the area.

When I first heard...

...the audio of Dingy Harry Reid standing on the Senate Floor and claiming that all the bad stories about Obamacare were a bunch of lies made up by the Koch, I almost drove off the road.



I just really don't know what to say in the face of that kind of evil.

Yes, I said it.  Evil.  Smearing the victims of the legislation that you passed by a legislative loophole as "liars" is evil.  Disregarding the claims of the people who have been damaged by the legislation you have passed through trickery and deceit as "liars" is evil.  Lying to get a massive bill passed, and then calling all the people injured by that bill "liars" is EVIL.

Harry Reid is a perfect spokeshole for the Democrats; vain, petty, corrupt, greedy, lying, and evil.

And those are his good qualities.


I'd meant to post this yesterday.  Got caught up in stuff.

The M4/M16 debate rears it's ugly head again

I can't say I like the M4 or the M16.  I don't.  There are a lot of reasons for that.  Many of those reasons are detailed here.  However, the one huge problem that the gun has, and I've gone over this multiple times, is that it's a gas-operated system.  The gasses from the expended round are fed back into the bolt to push it back and cycle the feeding operation.

The gun shits where it eats.

That's bad.

What's good is that you can fix that problem without having to buy a whole new weapons system.  Replace the gas tube with a gas piston, which keeps all the carbon and crap and heat out of the chamber.  Will it cost a bunch to refit all the rifles and carbines in the US military?  Yes.  But not nearly as much as buying all new guns.

So, let me state once again...

If X is an unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip of water under pressure, then an expert is an unknown drip under pressure.

Read this list of seven foods that used to be bad for you.

1.  Coconut oil:  never really used it, and to be blunt, I never really heard anything about it until now, but let's just lay out for the point of argument that the "experts" were wrong about it. 

2.  Coffee.  "It'll stunt your growth!  Blah blahblahblah!"  Yeah, whatever.  I've been drinking the stuff since I was 14, and I'm taller than everyone in my family except my brother.  And I won't get into what he did to stunt his growth.

3.  Whole Milk:  At this point, if you're still afraid of a normal amount of fat in your diet, you've been brainwashed by the FDA and various other government entities.

4.  Salt:  The great heart killer, right?  Sodium!  OOOOooooOOOOOOooooooo!  Except that if you exercise regularly, you know you need salt.  When I went to my first Estrella War, the snacks for the fighters involved pickles, pretzels and orange slices.  We wanted to get salt into them, because they've been sweating so much that without the salt they would go into various forms of heat injury, no matter how much water they drank.  You need salt to survive, folks. 

5.  Chocolate:  Dude, if chocolate were that bad for you, entire generations of women would have died off by now.  They did not.  Point made.

6.  Popcorn:  Because the death rate for Americans increased when popcorn was invented?  No it didn't.....  so why consider it bad?

7.  Eggs:  I've spoken about this before.  Eggs are a wonderful source of protein, not to mention that they perform so many different roles in the kitchen that modern cuisine probably wouldn't exist without them.  Let me give you just one example:  Mayonnaise. 

So many government experts have been wrong about food for so long that I'm amazed that anyone actually listens to the crap that spews out of their mouths.  You want to know what foods to eat?  Take a gander at what folks have been doing for centuries.  What did they eat?  You want to know what happened if they didn't eat the foods they needed?  THEY DIED.  You don't see too many vegans in Colonial America, m'kay?

The neighbor's orange tree is in bloom

My entire backyard smells like perfume.  It's a delightful change from the nasty smell this place normally has.  Too bad it can't last all year.

The Publik Skool Sistim

Folks, I wasn't a big fan of the publik skool sistim to begin with.  Common Core just made my distaste for publik skool even worse.  Do please follow that link and watch the video to see examples of how badly our children are being screwed with in their supposed education.

The Publik Skool Sistim in this country is not educating our kids.  The Publik Skool Sistim is teaching our children to be uneducated and ignorant drones.  I honestly believe that the Publik Skool Sistim is designed to provide a permanent slave class to the elites who go to private schools or some other schools that actually teach and educate the children.  A slave class that is incapable of learning anything beyond what they've been fed for twelve years in publik skool.

So, to wit:  After undergoing the indoctrination sessions in your local Publik Skool Sistim, your children will not be able to do math, but they'll know how to masturbate by the fourth grade.  Isn't that all just progressive and stuff?

Imagine a stranger came up to your son on the playground and said: “Hey little boy, if you touch yourself it’ll feel good and tingly. I drew some cartoons of kids masturbating. Wanna see?” What would you do? Would you shake his hand and thank him for the helpful sex ed lesson? Or would you call the cops and see to it that this sicko has to alert the neighbors every time he changes his address?

There is no discernible distinction to be drawn between the creep on the playground and the public school official who approves this kind of material for children. This is child abuse, plain as day.

I would destroy the Department of Education faster than my dog jumps on a dropped piece of steak if I could. 

Challenge Accepted

A while back my team was discussing different breakfasts we had enjoyed (any military unit will have at least one discussion a day regarding food), and we began tossing around concepts for food that we might like.  Of course, bacon featured heavily.  So did coffee.  And chocolate.

Chocolate coffee bacon?

Challenge accepted.

I picked up a pork belly, and today mixed up a rub with all the requisite ingredients.  Salt, pepper, sugar, dark roast coffee, cocoa powder, and some spices.  I'm going to let it cure for at least a week, probably two, and then cold smoke it nice and slow with some plum wood that a friend gave me.  I'll cook some up before I go into work, pass it out, and tell them all to bow to the king, baby!

Mmmmmm.... Breakfast

A post over at C&S made me think back to the first time the Ragin' Mrs. made the Breakfast of the Gods...

Highlighting the .gov Thuggery

You have got to read this entire post from Claire over at Knowledge is Power.  It is just another example of how the Federal Government can ruin people's lives with it's bureaucracy and stupidity.

How my day is going

I'm the pedestrian

The Bobs of the world

Back when I was a young troop at Fort Riley, I was put in charge of a special young soldier.  We're going to call him "Bob".  I won't mention is actual name on the blog, because there might be a chance that there's a websearch on his name, and quite honestly I don't want to get pulled into any crap that Bob may have started.

Bob was my gunner.  Now, I had a team leader, but that team leader was more interested in nailing every female in my company than actually leading his team, so Bob got dumped on me.  This was a repeating occurrence, and was one of the reasons I got out of the military after my first hitch.  That's another story in and of itself, but I digress.

Bob was a momma's boy.  There's no other way to put it.  This kid was used to having everything handed to him on a silver platter.  Every mistake was not his fault, it was someone the fault of someone else.  Every problem was a major catastrophe.  Every failure was due to someone else, not this young troop.

Let me give you an example:  We were going to a Field Training Exercise.  FTX.  There was a packing list for every FTX.  Part of the Troop Leading Procedures for an FTX was to conduct an inventory of your Soldier's gear to make sure he was bringing everything on the packing list.  Everything got laid out in the Soldier's room, and you made sure that every item was there.

So this is Fort Riley.  In January.  It's friggin' cold, OK?  Even if the temperatures weren't horrible, the wind chill was sure to bring things down into sub-zero ranges.  You brought your cold weather gear to the field.  Period.  Failure to do so would result in possible frostbite, chillblains and hypothermia.  You didn't joke around with your snivel-gear.  So I conduct the inspection, make sure that every troop I was responsible for had their gear laid out, and told them to pack it up and get it ready to go.  Bob was included in this inspection.

So we get out to the field.  Bob is the gunner, remember?  So he's up in the turret.  Lots of wind up in the turret, especially when you're doing 45 down a dirt road in the training areas of Fort Riley.  Cold weather gear is a must-have.  But guess what Bob didn't have?  His parka.  The one piece of gear you must have if you're riding in the turret of a Humvee in January on Fort Riley.

Now, having conducted the inspection where I made sure that Bob's parka was included in the gear that he must bring, I was out of my mind trying to figure out why Bob didn't have his parka.  I racked my brain trying to figure out where I had failed to ensure that Bob didn't have his parka.  Did I fail to see it in the inspection?  No, my checklist clearly showed where I had not only seen the parka but ensured that I had told him to bring it.  Did I fail to mention that you needed a parka in January in Fort Riley?  No, that had been part of the pre-movement briefings.  Then why the hell didn't Bob bring his damn parka?

You want to know the reason?  Would you like to know the excuse he gave me?  Because his rucksack was heavy, and so he left his parka behind to keep the weight down.

I'm being serious here.  This despite the fact that as MP's, we threw all our gear into a damn vehicle and didn't have to actually hump it all over hell and gone.  Bob's rucksack was heavy, don't you know!

And to top it all off, the little shit told me that it was my fault for not double and triple-checking his gear, because being given a direct order to bring his cold weather gear only ONCE wasn't good enough.  I guess the briefing where we told him about frostbite and losing various appendages to the cold weather wasn't good enough.

That slimy little shit ended up wearing my parka for the duration of the field problem, because a leader does not let his troops go without gear.  I won't say what his punishment was, but rest assured that my wrath did not go unfulfilled, especially as I spent the entirety of the field problem wearing just my BDUs and a polypro shirt.  I actually gained quite a bit of fame during that field problem, dealing with Bob and his whining for weeks on end.  I think the platoon leadership was amazed that Bob was not only alive at the end of the FTX, but that I had gotten him to actually fulfill his duties while we were out.

The Democrat Party is Bob.  They constantly manage to screw things up, then blame everybody but themselves, and then demand that everyone else make up for their lack of brains/brawn/willpower/self-discipline.  The GOP is my teamleader, who dumped his responsibility onto me and left me to deal with his failures.  I'd like to point out that Bob was wearing MY parka, not my teamleader's gear.  Again, there's a reason I got out of the Army after five years. 

I'd say Obama is a Bob, but he's not.  He's deliberately trying to fuck this country over, and he's succeeding, with the aid and comfort of the Bobs in the GOP.

The Tea Party is me.  And you.  And everyone who is doing what they are supposed to do, while also trying to make sure that the Bobs of the USA don't fuck us straight into failure.

Bob eventually went AWOL, much to the relief of every person who was responsible for him.  He was dropped from the rolls after a month.  He was arrested three months later, doing 105 in a 65 MPH zone in his mommy's Mercedes.  No, I am not making that up.  Not only did his mommy not send her little precious snowflake back to the military when he showed up on her doorstep, she treated him like her precious little boopsie and let him live at home and drive her fancy car until he finally got caught being a dumb-ass once again. 

As a conservative, our representation in Congress is mostly AWOL.  There are a few folks who have good people in place.  Ted Cruz.  Mike Lee.  My own representative, Raul Labrador.  My Senators, who actually vote as the conservative people that they campaigned to be.  But the leadership of the GOP?  We can't count on them to go AWOL.  We have to vote their asses out of Congress.

I doubt we can do so.  We're screwed.  But we still have to try.

I spent a number of years as a civilian, and I don't regret one single day that I had after I left the Army,  The years I spent out of the military taught me more than I can type in one post, and I grew immeasurably. And in the end, I re-enlisted, and made damn sure that I never suffered another Bob, or another team-leader like the one I had.  It's time to buck up and do the same on the political front.  I've seen report after report that Ted Cruz is one of the most hated Senators.  And he's hated by the GOP.  He's ostracized by the GOP.

That tells me who we have to make sure gets sent home.

Gee, why don't people like California?

This state just needs to fall into the ocean and drown.  For the good of the rest of the country.



This shithole, this filthy cesspool of a state, should not be allowed to infect the rest of the country with it's stupidity, ignorance, and evil.

Busy day today

Sorry, no free ice cream.

Your musical post for the day

Unfortunately, our parish has experienced what must come to all people, and a dear member of our church as died.  So I'm learning the Requiem Mass.  There are some parts that are more difficult than others, such as the Sequence.



By the time I PCS, I'll be a font of musical knowledge that may or may not get used at my next duty station.

Liberals try to explain Tea Party Racism

You have got to see this - a guy goes to some protest and asks a bunch of progressives if they think the Tea Party is racist.  They all say yes, of course.  And when asked for examples of racism from the Tea Party....  well....



That's friggin' beautiful right there.

UAW loses in Tennessee

Thank God for Tennessee.  The only thing the UAW is good for is jacking up the cost of building cars, and funneling huge amounts of cash to the Democrat American Communist Party.  There is absolutely no reason why any sane person would want to have the UAW take over their working arrangement.

Look at what the UAW did to the Big Three in Detroit.  Why would you want that to happen to your jobsite?  Your company?

It's a horrible time to blog

I'm tired, I'm half-soused on scotch, and I'm pissed off.  So naturally, I'm going to type away.

Ann Barnhardt has a letter up from a Staff Sergeant who is leaving the US Army because of the various flaws that he sees in the leadership. 

I can no longer wear the uniform knowing that I am lending my skills to this government which directly attacks the Constitution that I swore to uphold.  I told one of my friends recently that my ‘problem’ was that I was giving the regime legitimacy every time I put the uniform on.  Every senior person I have talked to about this thinks I am either nuts, anti-social, prejudicial to good order and discipline or something of that stripe.  All of them are waiting on their precious pensions or are too afraid to have THEIR commanders come down on them.  I pointed out that we swore to do this at the cost of our own lives, so what is a promotion, or a career or a pension compared to that?  Is any of those things worth your soul?  I had the opportunity to double my pay and pension and cover myself in glory one more time, but I have chosen to really tork off my chain of command by asking to rescind my application to WO School and not reenlist.  To many of my friends and co-workers, this is a complete 180 and hard to understand.

All emphasis in the original. 

Now let me state up front:  I do not have any disagreement with the problems that he lays out.  The civilian government is, on it's face, a tyrannical dictatorship.  We have a President who violates the Constitution on a daily basis.  We have a Senate who has assumed as it's main duty the blocking of any bill that might attempt to reign in the President's action.  And we have a bureaucracy who attacks the portion of the country who just wants to be left alone, and is aided and abetted by the dictator in the Oval Office and his flunkies in the Legislature.  We have a Supreme Court who waves their hands and magically turns a mandate into a tax, and who twists itself into pretzels in order to find the unconstitutional to be constitutional. 

In short, this country is fucked.  And I'm not even approaching this from the moral angle. 

The Staff Sergeant writing Miss Barnhardt goes on to describe a young Lieutenant making one of the stupidest statements I've ever heard from a commissioned officer, and that's saying something.  All in all, he can no longer support the government that controls the military that he loves.  I get it.  Lord, do I ever understand where he's coming from. 

So why haven't I done what he has, and walked away from the military?  I mean, if I no longer believe that my government is a constitutional government and is instead a collection of tyrants all jockeying for position in the new banana republic, why am I still here?

Because someone has to limit the damage.  Someone has to be damage control. 

I truly wish I could sit this Staff Sergeant down and lay it out for him.  Yes, Obama is a dictator.  Yes, this country is fucked.  Yes, shit will hit the fan.  And when that shit hits the fan, and when Obama or the next tyrant orders the military to fire on Americans who simply want to protect their rights and their liberties, who will be there to tell them "NO!"?

You want to know why I'm still in?  There's your reason.  Because for every stupid Lieutenant there needs to be a Senior NCO to pull him aside and tell him exactly how much of an idiot he is.  Because when that stupid young Lieutenant passes along the order to fire on Americans, there needs to be a Non-Commissioned Officer to pull him aside, pull his head out of his ass, and proceed to remind him of his Oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.  There needs to be people to remind the younger Soldiers that unconstitutional orders are ILLEGAL ORDERS, and you have an OBLIGATION TO DISOBEY THEM, just as you have an obligation to disobey orders to commit war crimes or violations of the Geneva Convention.

And I also need to be one of the people teaching the new Soldiers exactly what their duties are, and what constitutes an illegal and unconstitutional order.  Someone has to try to make sure that the military doesn't turn into just another wing of the Democrat American Communist Party, Enforcer Branch. 

And that Staff Sergeant who's turning down a WO spot and getting out is leaving behind his opportunity to do that teaching as well.  

And should it come to it, there needs to be people to stand up to the Field Grade and Flag officers, who can and will look them in the eye, and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, and illegal, and immoral, and unconstitutional.  And if I get cashiered out for doing so and lose my precious pension, which may or may not be worth the paperwork it's written on, then so be it.

Where is it easier to effect a change, outside or inside?  Why would I leave when I still have the opportunity and the ability to make sure that my troops, the Soldiers that I lead, will choose the right path when the time comes?  And make no mistake, that time is coming.  We're too far gone to go back now.  We're on the downhill slide, and increasing speed.  But as long as I can make sure that my troops follow the Constitution, and live up to the values that the military claims to stand for, then I'm going to be there.

We already know that there are military leaders who would target Americans who want liberty instead of government tyranny.  So who is going to stop those leaders when they're told to attack the people in this country who actually believe in the Constitution and the rule of law?  We need good people in the Army.  Yes, the government is an unlawful group of criminals.  That means we need Soldiers with integrity, honor and loyalty even more than ever before.  We need people who will resist becoming political pawns.

It's a hell of a lot easier to influence people from the top, rather than the outside looking in.  THAT is what I would tell that Staff Sergeant.  He is in a position to have a huge affect on his Soldiers.  Leaving now means that leadership disappears.  And that would be the real crime.

Rotting from the Head

So the Ohio National Guard decided to have themselves a training event.  I've been in a few training events myself, so I understand their nature and how important they are for the troops to practice what they do.

In just about every training event I've been in, the enemy was from a place with names like "Krasnovia", or "Eastern Nowhereville", or some made up name.  It doesn't really matter what the name is, so long as you get to practice what you do, right?

But what about the motives of the enemy?  After all, the reason you're practicing is to deal with real-world examples of what you would go up against, right?

Well, maybe not.

Documents from an Ohio National Guard (ONG) training drill conducted last January reveal the details of a mock disaster where Second Amendment supporters with “anti-government” opinions were portrayed as domestic terrorists.

The ONG 52nd Civil Support Team training scenario involved a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”

Portsmouth Fire Chief Bill Raison told NBC 3 WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia that the drill accurately represented “the reality of the world we live in,” adding that such training “helps us all be prepared.”

 You get all that?  2nd Amendment supporters are now domestic terrorists.  And the Army is training to put them down.  And it gets better!

In the disaster-preparedness scenario, two Portsmouth Junior High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas, acting on orders from white-nationalist leader William Pierce.

 So 2nd Amendment supporters are racist terrorists!

Look, these kind of words and images have meaning.  It is training, after all.  And it seems that the Ohio National Guard is training their people to think of pro-Constitution folks as racist domestic terrorists. 

 Apparently last year the Ohio National Guard did the same thing, only with a Left-Wing group.  They apologised for upsetting the liberal snot-wads the very next day.  Because everyone knows that there's no such thing as a liberal domestic terrorist, unless you count Bill Ayers, Bernadette Dorn, Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan (although he may not count since he was Palestinian and they're all just terrorists), Students for a Democratic Society, Weather Underground, Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, the shooter from the National Holocaust Museum, and damn near every perpetrator of a mass shooting in the USA in the past three decades.

And everybody knows that Democrats can never be racist, even though they started the KKK, had a Grand Kleagle as a Senior Member of Congress until he finally kicked the bucket (that would be Grand Kleagle Robert C. Byrd), filibustered every civil rights law that came across Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson's desk, (which ended, ironically enough, when he became Vice President and then President and was forced to sign all those bills he had filibustered into law), and can be found today insulting and demeaning any black person who has the balls to step off the Democrat Plantation, just to name a few examples.

Look, someone up the military Chain of Command in Ohio had to approve this.  There is some General or Colonel who looked at this plan and said "Yep!  Looks good!  Go with it!"  And rather than using real world examples of what they might go up against, they decided to indulge in the Democrat American Communist Party wet dream of "Right Wing Domestic Terrorism". 

Well, at least they tipped their hand.

!!!!!

Just in case you haven't seen it

It's...the...law? pic.twitter.com/qg9iTYT1JJ
— Slublog (@Slublog) February 11, 2014

With every delay, the Democrat American Communist Party is admitting that their law is a complete, total and abject failure.  If it were a success, it would be fully implemented by now. 

Ragin' Dave's Quote of the Day

From J Cal Davenport, who describes the blissful ideal of a liberal life free of any responsibility:

But isn’t this what liberalism is? The mentality of someone with too little experience to appreciate what it took to get here? 

The lack of perspective to realize what must be pulled down to make room for a new liberal edifice?  The naïve rejection of “any ancient or admitted authority?” History began before each of us was born. To put it another way: you didn’t create the free and prosperous nation in which you live. Someone else made that happen.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps it is too much to expect most Americans to make something of themselves while avoiding abject poverty in the period of the greatest prosperity the world has ever known (an outcome largely the result of a virtuous independence, responsibility and reliance on institutions besides government, but I digress…).

Emphasis in the original.  And I put it up, because I'm long past trying to actually argue with liberals, as they are either A) completely and totally ignorant and/or indoctrinated, and thus easily manipulated by their government masters, or B) the people pulling the strings to make the easily manipulated dolts, drones and morons do what they want.  So what can I do?  Well, I start by shaming them.  And my goal is to either shame the ignorant into actually learning something, or get them to just shut the hell up.

Either works for me. 

This is why we're not voting ourselves out of this mess

We are now at the point where unelected bureaucrats create a new entitlement program that spends over half a trillion dollars, and there's not a damn thing people can actually do about it.

The committees’ report does not provide a complete picture of how Treasury, the IRS, and HHS conspired to create this new entitlement program. Treasury and the IRS have refused to show certain documents to congressional investigators. Even when they are willing to share documents, they allow investigators to review them only briefly, without taking notes.

The IRS has shown itself to be a completely immoral, politically charged thug-ocracy wholly devoted to the Democrat American Communist Party and the destruction of the Republic.  It needs to be destroyed.  As Insty put it, "Heads should roll. And I’m not even sure I mean just figuratively, if this is true." 

I'm willing to get that if you started hanging the IRS leadership from lamp-posts in D.C., these problems might end pretty quickly.

My friends are so awesome

So several months ago, I was teaching one of our friends from church how to make wine and mead.  We got to discussing our favorite brews, I mentioned a beer that I had in Wisconsin that I couldn't get in California.  As far as I know, you can't buy it outside of that state.  Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout from Sand Creek Brewing Company.  It's like liquid awesome in a bottle.  It's one of the best beers I've ever had, truly.  The Ragin' Mrs. and I used to go to the brewery and sit in the tap room, and sample everything they had.  It was just good beer.

So anyways, I extoll the virtues of Oscar's to my pal, and we make a whole bunch of mead.  I don't give it a second thought.  So yesterday, that family and mine get together for dinner and a belated Christmas gift exchange (long story).  We got some gifts for their kids, and they made a pair of nice earrings for the Ragin' Mrs.  And then they pull out this big box.  I open it.  It's a case of Oscar's Stout, straight from Wisconsin.  They had called up the brewery and purchased a case, then had them mail it to their house.  I was able to have Oscar's Stout for the first time in close to two years.

Have I mentioned how awesome my friends are?

No, No, No, No, NO!

So the Ragin' Mrs. and I are doing research on distilling.  In case you don't know, we home-brew.  We make our own wine, mead, and cider.  We got into it partly because the Ragin' Mrs. has an allergy to sulfites, which are found in just about every commercial wine, and partly because we honestly believe that we need to know how to do certain things.  We don't currently do any distilling, because we just don't have the room. 

But part of our research has been of the legal variety, because the last thing I want to do is spend time in jail just because I want to make my own whiskey or vodka.  You can legally brew 200 gallons of wine for your own personal consumption.  I can tell you that I've never come close to brewing 200 gallons, even with brewing year-round, and we give a LOT of mead away to our friends and family.  But home distilling takes you into a whole new level of legalities, and it all revolves around whether or not the government gets its money.  Taxes, baby.  Taxes.

So the Ragin' Mrs. looked up this particular web-page, and read a sentence that she rightly deduced would give me fits:

By making and selling your own moonshine, you may be stealing up to $25 per gallon from taxpayers.

No, no, NO!  Wrong answer! 

Every penny the government takes from us in taxes these days is taken with the threat of force if we do not comply.  In short, the government is STEALING FROM US.  Avoiding the excise taxes associated with booze is NOT stealing from the taxpayers!

This kind of backwards, government-minded thinking would mean that taking a lower-paying job to avoid a higher tax bracket is now somehow "stealing from taxpayers".  Growing your own food and not purchasing it at a store is now "stealing from taxpayers".  Building furniture instead of buying it at a store is now "stealing from taxpayers". 


The mindset expressed at that webpage quite honestly makes me want to vomit.  It is the mindset that thinks of the Government as the master, and the citizens as slaves who exist to fulfill the wishes of their government slave-owners.  It is the mindset that leads to greater government intrusion into our lives.  And it.  Is.  Wrong.

Quite honestly, that's the kind of mindset that makes me want to set up a still, just to piss in the government's Cheerios. 

I suppose that there are various arguments against moonshine out there that are valid, but claiming that it's wrong because the government doesn't get it's cut, when the government is already taxing the holy hell out of everything we touch or earn, is not going to cut it.

Ow

I ran up to the Griffith Observatory today.  If you've ever taken a look at the place, you'll see it's on top of a BIG FRIKKIN HILL.

My legs hurt.

The Democrat Response

To the CBO report on Obamacare seems to be "Well, who needs jobs anyways!  You don't need jobs!  Jobs just tie you down!  Don't be tied down, man!"

I mean, the Democrat Party just came out of the closet and proudly announced that their major constituency are people without jobs who are completely dependent on the government, and they are going to grow that constituency as quickly as possible.

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.  You know the worst part?  The Democrats are rallying behind the cry of "WHO NEEDS JOBS ANYWAY!" as hard as they possibly can.  We are living in a country where the majority of voters are essentially demanding that the few tax-paying citizens who are left pay even more so that the parasites can vote themselves an even larger portion of the budget.

This will not end well.

 I truly do hope that twee bitch suffers from every malady that Liberalism infects on a society.

!!!!!

OK, now that's funny!

If you've been following the latest gun news, where some company put out a round that is essentially tin-foil shaped like a hollow-point round that looks bad-ass but really wouldn't do much, and everyone pretty much started mocking it the moment the adverts came out....

The mockery continues.

Look folks, they've been making bullets for centuries now.  Other than some aerodynamic shaping, they've remained pretty much the same ever since they rounded one end and flattened the other.  There's a reason for that simple fact.  When you figure that reason out, you can pretty much shake your head at all the NEW!  AWESOME!  BOO-LIT DESIGNS!

Here's yer free ice cream

Seneca Street in Downtown Seattle, looking across I-5.  I don't know if you can click it to make it bigger - seems Blogsnot is having some fun with larger photos.

I honestly believe that Seattle is one of the most beautiful cities in America.  Too bad it's full of crazy fuckheads who make living there miserable.

When you get a dog

You always think of the beginning.  You never think of the end.  If you thought of the end, you might never get a dog.

But if you never got a dog, you would never understand the joy between the beginning and the end.  So you don't think of the end, until it comes.

I got nuthin'

There comes a point where you either come home and do something productive, or you come home and drain a bottle of scotch and beat yourself unconscious with the empty bottle.  So in that vein, I'm outta here for the day.  I won't go into details.  My job sucks, take that for what it's worth.

In the meantime, enjoy some NSFW postage.

SEAHAWKS WIN!

43-8!  Good lord, that was a butt-whuppin'!  I did not expect that from Payton Manning.  Hell, I didn't expect that from Seattle! 

Truth be told, I think any of the top four NFC teams would have beaten Denver this year.  The NFC was just that much better.

Wrong House

Kinda like the message scrawled on the turret shield just below a Ma-Deuce:  Free Photo.  Smile and wait for flash.

!!!!!

Rat-faced Communist tyrant fleeing sinking ship

Nostrildamus is leaving Congress after 40 years of destroying America as hard as he possible could.  Henry Waxman is one of the biggest pieces of shit to ever foul the halls of Washington D.C., and he's going to go home and continue to live fat off of the American taxpayer, when he should spend the rest of his life covered in tar and feathers.

Fuck him sideways with a chainsaw.  I hope he dies gasping for breath in a government hospital while a doctor tells him "Sorry, Obamacare doesn't cover that."

The Bison Party

Doug M over at Knowledge is Power came up with the idea of the Bison Party.  SondraK has a bison as her current blog avatar.

Kinda makes sense when you think about it.  Big, powerful creatures who just want to be left alone and will absolutely fuck you up if you mess with them.

I'd like to see the Tea Party use this as their mascot...

24 hours away from Anarchy

MauserMedic, in the post below, comments that without power the people of Los Angeles would be fertilizer in two weeks.  I responded that it would be more like three days.  But after thinking about it, the time might be even less than that.

One of the officers I work with, who did a lot of strategic planning before this assignment, was on a group who's focus was extreme long-term planning.  One of the phrases that was beaten into people's heads was that the vast majority of Americans living in urban areas were 24 hours away from anarchy at any given moment.  And we're not talking the anti-government wishful thinking type of folks here.  We're talking all-out lawless riots, murder, theft, mob-rule anarchy.

Think about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Most folks didn't have the three days of supplies in their home to last until FEMA arrived, and they had plenty of time to get ready.  Why didn't they have it?  Well, a huge chunk of the population in New Orleans is the Free Shit Army.  They don't plan ahead.  They don't prepare.  They just sit with their hand out waiting for Uncle Sugar to shit another EBT card into their lap.  And thousands of people ended up in the SuperDome crying and screaming and carrying on as if the Zombie Apocalypse had occurred, when in reality civilization was coming to their aid every single day.

That big chunk of that population is present in every single major US city.  There isn't a single metro area in the USA that doesn't have a size-able portion of the Free Shit Army living in it.  Most of them have no idea what to do if the power goes out.  They've never had to prepare for a think in their lives.  They live on the government plantation, and like the slaves they are, they just wait for Master to come and give them their daily meals.

So the power goes out.  Water goes out.  Traffic does not move.  Nobody comes and gives them their free shit.  Got no TV.  Got no X-Box.  What happens now?

Riots.  Anarchy.

A lot of it will be contained just by the simple fact that the Free Shit Army can't maneuver very well outside of metro areas.  The Hillbilly side of the Free Shit Army tends to live in areas where they can be self-sufficient in terms of getting enough to eat and drink, so they'll just hunker down rather than look for trouble.  But the urban FSA?  If you're a person who has planned ahead, you MUST take the FSA into account, because they'll be coming for what you've got.

I live in LA county.  Don't think I haven't gone over this crap in my head time and time again.  How to secure the house.  How to get the hell out when that time comes; what routes to take, which guns to have in my wife's hands and in mine.  What food and water to take, and what gear. 

In an emergency, there would be a large portion of the population here in LA that would be just fine, and there would be a bigger portion that would eat itself and everyone around it.  I don't plan on being eaten.

Indescribable

I really don't think there is any way for me to convey the cavalcade of stupidity that is the traffic in Los Angeles.  There are no words in the English language that can make you truly understand what it's like to drive on these roads.

Take 13 million people.  Now make them some of the dumbest bastards you've ever seen.  Now toss in greed, arrogance and narcissism.  These people are so self-absorbed that they have absolutely no idea of what goes on outside their car.

Now remove any ability to speak and comprehend the English language, traffic laws or rules of the road.

Add in various drugs and alcohol in about 15% of all drivers.

Add in illegal immigrants who are unlicensed, uninsured, and unable to actually drive in a modern vehicle on modern roads.

It is a daily struggle to not grab people, pull them out of their vehicles and beat them to death with a tire iron.  I have not seen such a clusterfuck of selfish, rude, arrogant, ignorant, ass-hatted fuckwits in my life.  My car's horn is about worn out.  I cannot describe one single event that sets me off, because every trip in the car is one never-ending stream of events that break every known rule of civilization, violates various traffic laws, and completely destroys plain, simple decency.  

I cannot wait to leave this polluted, filthy shithole.  Los Angeles is a cancerous tumor on America's ass. 

UPDATE:  I'd like to mention that all of the above fuckwittery happens on dry roads with clear, sunny skies.   It's not like a bunch of Southerners suddenly dealing with a blizzard.  These people are driving in perfect conditions, and they're still unable to drive a car without fucking up something!  I mean, it's like living around a bunch of idiots who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, and given the type of pedestrians I've seen they might not be able to do that!

Working out

I use www.mapmyrun.com to keep track of all my running.  It's kind of my self-motivation, looking back and seeing what I've accomplished.  One of the things that the website does is keep track of your totals and flash them on the screen.  So far, since I started keeping track (August 2009) I've run over 3,000 miles.

I've run across the USA.  That's a hell of a jog.

Ragin' Dave's Quote of the Day, Naming the Evil edition

John C. Wright, found over at Vox Populi:

In sum, their philosophy consists of the single principle that no philosophy is valid. Their ethics consist of a single precept that making ethical judgments is ‘judgmental’ that is, ethically wrong. Their economic theory, socialism, consists of an arrogant denial that the laws of economics apply to economic phenomena. Their theory of psychology says that men do not have free will, because cause and effect is absolute; their theory of metaphysics is that subatomic particles do have free will, because cause and effect is statistical, approximate, uncertain, incomplete, and illusory. And on and on. All their thought is one self-refuting statement after another.

Philosophically, theologically and morally, the modern mindset is an end-state. Once a man has utterly rejected reason, he cannot reason himself to another conclusion. Once he has rejected morality, he has no sense of honor to compel him to live up to a philosophy more demanding than narrow selfishness.

If that doesn't sum up the Obamanation, I don't know what does.  And it certainly nails the type of people who fill my current cesspool living space of Los Angeles.

Read the whole thing, and Vox's commentary on it as well.  In order to defeat the enemy, you must know the enemy.

Another bloviating waste of time

I'm not listening to the State of the Union address.  I have no need or requirement to listen to that lying piece of crap lie even harder for hours on end.

D&D turns 40

Damn, has it been that long?

My brother and I got into D&D when everything you needed came in a single box.  You would rub the numbers on the dice with crayons to get them to stand out, as they were stamped yellow plastic that you couldn't see otherwise.

Then Advanced D&D came out.  I had a first generation Monster's Manual.  Way back when computers had big floppy disks (ask your parents, kids!) my dad had a dot-matrix printer, and my brother and I were able to develop a printable character sheet on Dad's IBM computer, which made us rather popular with the other kids who role-played.  I played all the way up through high school, got into some other games, and then just kind of dropped them all when I graduated high school - between moving around, working my tail off and later joining the Army, I never had the time or the people to play.  But it was fun, and I don't regret all the nights I spent playing. 

 Forty.  Geesh.  It can't be that old.  I can't be that old!  Are we sure it's turning forty?

Cum Jubilo

For those folks out there who aren't familiar with the traditional Latin Catholic Mass, the parts of the mass that are typically sung (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benidictus, Angus Dei) have different music for different events.

For those who don't feel like looking up the translations of those parts, they are:

Lord Have Mercy (typically spoken, not sung, even in Novus Ordo masses)
Glory to God
Holy, Holy, Holy
Lamb of God

Keep in mind that church songs are simply prayers put to music.  The parts of the Traditional Mass have been sung and re-sung for centuries; it only makes sense that at some point, some priest or monk would say "Hey, why don't we change it up a little bit?"  The Missa de Angelis is the typical mass that most people learn, and I've been able to find it just about everywhere.  The Orbis Factor mass is supposed to be sung during normal times in the liturgical calendar, when there isn't a specific season that we're celebrating.  It's one of the oldest masses the Church as sung, and it sounds like it - very Byzantine.  And Cum Jubilo is used for masses honoring the Blessed Virgin.  This is what I'm practicing right now

It's a bear to learn, and I've got to have it down pat by February 2nd.  Yay me.  Here's just the Kyrie:



I suppose if I'd been able to focus on this, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this week has been a kick in the balls.  Grrrrrr.....

Ah well, off to learn some more music.

Yesterday was a bad, bad day

Bad enough that the Ragin' Mrs put a chilled glass of scotch into my hand the moment I stepped in the door, and didn't let it run dry until I poured myself into bed.

That woman is a keeper, I tell ya.  Thank God I've already married her, otherwise I'd have to kill all the men around me to ensure they didn't steal her away.

Davy wants

Oh yes, we wants it, the preciousssssssss!

I'm going to have to buy this mug and take it to my office.

Oh yes.  We wants it so very much....

!!!!!

Dear Cunt-Face Cuomo

Fuck you, fuck your whore of a mother, and fuck the father you never knew because he didn't pay for the first time.

Fuck the horse you rode in on, fuck the goat that spawned it, and fuck the mountain they grazed on.

From this day forth, the State of New York shall ever be known as the state that only allow people who think that killing babies for the sexual convenience of the mother is sacrosanct.

From this day forth, the State of New York shall ever be known as the state who only allows people who hate the Constitution of the US, and the 2nd Amendment contained therein, to reside inside it's borders.

From this day forth, the State of New York shall be known as hostile to all Christians who actually know and understand their faith.

I will never do business in New York.  I will not purchase anything from a company in New York, and I'm not ever going to visit that festering cesspool of a city for as long as I live.

In conclusion, die screaming, and go to hell.

Yours,

Ragin' Dave.

Earworm

Got a case plus of mead bottled tonight.  Came out damn good, albeit a bit light in the alcohol (10%).  Great flavor.  The Ragin' Mrs. approves whole-heartedly.  Now I have to try to find that variety of honey again.  Maybe in the summer, when it's in season.

I've had this song in my head for the past two days.  You're welcome!



It's got enough of a Celtic lilt to it that I keep humming it around the house.

All those people wetting their diapers about Richard Sherman and his ten-second rant after he made the decisive play in the NFC Championship?

Get over it.

The guy was so hopped up on adrenaline that I doubt he could have given a calm interview if you paid him a million bucks.  On top of that, he'd just made a mad play against a player who had been yapping at him all night, and had gotten in his face at a charity event previously. If I had been in his shoes, you would have had to bleep out about half of the words coming out of my mouth. 

As for his claim to be the best cornerback in the NFL?  Well, let's see here....  exactly how many times did the Niners throw at his side that game?  Kapernick knows just how damn good Richard Sherman is, which is why he never challenged him until that last throw, and how did that work out?  Mmmm-KAY then!

I'm not going to be arrogant enough to claim that the Seahawks are going to win the Superbowl; Denver and Payton Manning are damn good, and they've got a lot of weapons.  Still, it's the #1 offense going against the #1 defense.  This is going to be a hell of a game.  And I don't know if Denver can shut down Seattle's run game.  The Niners had a much better run defense than Denver has, and Lynch eventually wore them down and got some big runs against them.

And don't be fooled by Russel Wilson's low passing yards - if Wilson had the kind of weapons that Payton Manning has, he'd be putting up 500 yards a game.  As it is, he's got decent receivers, and he's finding ways to get the ball in their hands.  That TD catch by Kearse, when he had a defender draped on him like a cheap suit?  Golden Tate's catches and kick returns?  They might not be All-Pro, but they don't need to be.  They just have to win games.  And the last time I checked, that's what they've been doing. 

So much data

And so much of it has been proven to be skewed in order to advance the Leftist religion of Global Warming.

Yes, it's a religion.  Yes, it's based on total and complete bullshit.

There's nothing I can really excerpt.  You have to go look for yourself to see just how badly the actual true data has been jimmied in order to make the Church of Global Warming seem plausible. 

!!!!!

Chivalry

My wife still giggles at me some times for being old fashioned.  I carry the groceries from the car.  I open the car door for her.  I open the house door.  I try to be chivalrous.  It's the way I was brought up, and the way I think all men should be brought up.  But I don't think I've ever seen a concept such as Chivalry put into words quite like this:

I said that chivalry — unlike the anti-chivalry movement — had a point. This is it. Chivalry calls for the strongest to serve and honor the weakest, realizing that the other option is for the strongest to dominate and abuse the weakest. Chivalry is one of the things that separates us from gorillas and wolves and rats. We, as chivalrous men, are called to use our strength in service to women, children, the infirm, and the elderly. 

(.....)

In the mean time, as a routine matter, chivalry is still essential. Men should carry bags, and hold doors, and pull out chairs, and offer seats to women, not because women are incapable of standing or opening their own doors, but because of what these acts represent — what they say. And what they say is simple: “I am bigger and stronger than you, but I will use my strength to honor you and protect you. I will not hurt you. I will not take advantage of you. I will humble myself before you and serve you.”

  (Emphasis in the original)

This guy gets it.  There comes a point in a man's life where he has the power and the ability to abuse just about anyone and everyone around him if he so chose to do so.  The whole point of Chivalry is to raise a man up from being just another animal, and make him a real Man.  Take away that code, take away that way of thinking, and you're just an ape hitting another ape with a stick, no matter what form that stick takes.

BOOM!!!!!

Seahawks win!  HELL YES!

I've been rooting for this team since 1984.  Success has been few and far between until lately.  I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this.

And the fact that we beat the Niners?  Oh, that's just the icing on the cake.  There are a lot of good teams we could lose to, and while I would be disappointed, I wouldn't be upset.  Losing to the Niners makes me upset.  Beating the Niners makes my smile.  I'm happy as hell to send those bastards home.  Buh bye, boys!

Sometimes you just need to be reminded

I've heard often enough that if the media were actually doing it's job, Rush Limbaugh wouldn't have one.

Well, let's use that phrase again, shall we?  If the Republican Party were doing it's job, the Tea Party wouldn't exist.

One more face of evil

That smirking, botoxed mug with the fake smile plastered on it....

That's a face meant to scare little children, not sell anything.

Busy day today

Let me make it up to you.

What the hell?

Obama ships the children of illegal aliens to their parents living in the USA?

Seriously?

In a letter obtained by FoxNews.com, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., asked newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson a string of questions about the apparent policy. The practice came to light last month after a federal judge in Texas claimed immigration agents were intercepting human smugglers transporting children at the U.S.-Mexico border -- and then delivering those children to illegal immigrant parents in the U.S.

So let me get this straight - Obama is aiding and abetting the smuggling of children across the US border?

How is this not an impeachable offense?

What is the Presidential oath again?  Something about executing the laws of the country and protecting the constitution......

There is no excuse for that rat bastard to pollute the Oval Office.

Anyone seen anything to offset this news?

I doubt any of my readers need it stated to them

But Chris Christie is not electable as a Republican.  DrewM lays out why at AoSHQ, but the bottom line is this:  The things that make the GOP establishment flog their dolphins over Christie are the very things that would drive away the voting base of the GOP faster than McCain or Romney.

Christie's making of the kissy-face and hugging of Obama during the election last year?  That should have been the nail in his political coffin.  Bridgegate?  Bah, that's chicken-feed.  Christie giving a figurative blow-job to Obama just weeks before the election?

Screw you, Christie.  Let me quote Drew just once here:

You can talk about a “big tent” all you want but if it’s big enough to include people who endorse a significant part of ObamaCare, you don’t have a tent, you have an open-air bazaar where everything is negotiable, including core principles.

The GOP leadership sold their core principals a long time ago.  That's why they're shitting all over their voting base, aka the Tea Party.  And that's why they'll continue to lose, as long as the people running the GOP care more about getting invited to the right cocktail parties inside the Beltway rather than turning this country around from the disaster we're rushing toward at top speed.

We all know Obama is a liar

But the depth and breadth of which he lies, and the sheer amount of bullshit shoveled by the Democrat Propaganda Machine, AKA the media, still makes me want to puke.

Minutes after the American consulate in Benghazi came under assault on Sept. 11, 2012, the nation's top civilian and uniformed defense officials -- headed for a previously scheduled Oval Office session with President Obama -- were informed that the event was a "terrorist attack," declassified documents show. The new evidence raises the question of why the top military men, one of whom was a member of the president's Cabinet, allowed him and other senior Obama administration officials to press a false narrative of the Benghazi attacks for two weeks afterward.

Un-fucking-real.  And as to why the top military brass allowed Obama to continually lie on National TV about it being due to a YouTube video?  Obama has been firing flag officers left and right, so make up your own mind there.  Either they weren't there to testify, as in "General Smith has retired, gentlemen!" or they care more about their careers than they do about removing that god-damned Constitution-shredding communist from the Oval Office. 

Everything Obama says is a lie.  Every promise he makes is a lie.  Every explanation he gives is a lie.  And every motive he claims is a lie.  If people can't see that by now, then it's because they're refusing to see it.  Willful ignorance.  Which makes them our enemies.

Voter Fraud in New York City

Really?  Huh, you mean that a major Democrat power center isn't an untainted well of innocence?

Who woulda thunk it?

Note that when investigators brought all of this to the attention of the Board of Elections, the BOE attacked the investigators.  They know about the fraud.  The know how it's perpetrated.  And they want it to continue, because that's how they hold onto their power, and any threat to their power will be dealt with.

Busy night

Cooked up steak and artichokes.  The Ragin' Mrs. and I had been sorely disappointed at lunch, which seems to happen quite often here in LA.  It seems that the restaurants around here are either too damn expensive, way too crappy, or both.  Yesterday we paid over $20 for lunch at a Mexican joint, and both of us thought the food was "meh", the service had issues, cleanliness of the place was off, and on and on and on.....

Like I said, it was a disappointment.

So steak and artichokes for dinner, and I spent the majority of my time before and after dinner bottling and brewing.  Got 21 bottles of Cherry Melomel bottled up and ready for a six month nap.  Started a three gallon batch of Pyment (grape juice and honey).  Did a few other things that needed to happen.  All in all, it was a productive night.

Now if I can just move that productivity to some other aspects of my life that need it.

Your dose of sphincter-clenching economic news

In one webpage.  Bottom Line Up Front - 91.8 million people are out of the workforce and no longer searching for work.

THAT is why the "unemployment" numbers are so low.  People have given up.  They've stopped looking for work.  And it's only going to get worse.

But the point now is to realize that when you have nearly 92 million people deserting the labor force in a country of 317 million (many of who are children too young to work), you have a catastrophic problem on your hands.

If anything, I think Roger L. Simon isn't being dire enough in his prediction.   I'm with Veeshir on this one...

Take off our bourbon approved 2% and you have somewhere  35% of Americans supporting everybody else.

That doesn’t make it any less fucking endy.

I just don’t see how that can last very long while our moral, political, economical and social betters are spending $1 trillion more a year than they’re taking in.

 The problem that the Left created is what we like to call the "Free Shit Army", or FSA for short.  The FSA is what the Democrats use to farm votes, and it's all paid for with government money to keep the slaves on the plantation.  But what happens when the money stops?  What happens when the EBT cards all flash zeroes?  We got a little taste of that last year, didn't we?

Just wait until the FSA doesn't get their monthly allotment of Free Shit, and see how long the cities go without being burned to the ground.

Stock up on ammo, folks.

Rage Spiral?

So, Lena Dunham, the woman who equated voting for her God, King and Messiah, Barack Obama, to having sex for the first time, now has her knickers in a twist about someone asking why she's naked on her show all the time.

Hey Lena - maybe you're naked all the time because you're a no-talent hack, and if you didn't have a steady parade of pussy and tits on your show you wouldn't HAVE a show?  Let's be honest here; when you're showing a a girl getting a pearl necklace, you're nothing more than soft-core porn on late-night TV.  The story-line DOES NOT MATTER.  And I'm pretty sure you know that.

And let's face it - by your own admission, you wet your panties at the thought of voting for your Marxist Messiah, so we already know you don't exactly have a great intellectual base to start with, don't we?  So you use what God gave you:  Two tits and a pussy, and you flash them for all they are worth.  Which is quite a bit, admittedly, but it would be nice if you were honest about it.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord

And let Perpetual Light shine upon him.

I found out yesterday that the gentleman from my church who passed away was in the Navy during World War II, on board the USS Chicago.  That would be the 2nd USS Chicago of WWII, not the USS Chicago that was sunk in 1943.  She spent quite a few months steaming around Japan, both before and after the Japanese Surrender.

You never know who you know, you know?

"We Unite These Intentions...."

Going to a funeral home tonight to pray the Most Holy Rosary with my church - one of our members has left this life, and so we're going to pray for him.

He doesn't have any family out here, and from what I understand none of his family share his faith.  I don't think any of his family will actually be there.  So his church family is going to show up and pray for him.

He'll be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next week.  I believe that says all that needs to be said about him as a man.

When I'm having a bad day

I just watch stuff like this.



Haaaaa!

There's something about watching other people be absolutely idiotic that just makes me feel better.  It's like "Yes, my day was bad, but not as bad as that!"

The New Official Conservative Hillary Campain Sticker

I gotta get these printed up.

!!!!!

Always running, and always running behind

Up early, teaching one of the kids from church the basics of running.  Go to work, bust my butt for a good while, come home, deal with various obligations, and finally eat dinner around 2000 hrs.

Now it's close to 2100, and I'm finally sitting down with a cigar. 

I think I now understand my father better than I have at any other time of my life.

Facepalm

I really don't think there is much that can be said to this kind of raging idiocy and stupidity, as the purveyor of said stupidity is most likely so indoctrinated that there isn't a single bit of reality that will penetrate her skull.  Let me quote the opening lines of insanity here:

Just to recall a basic fact: Intercourse/PIV is always rape, plain and simple.

This is a developed recap from what I’ve been saying in various comments here and there in the last two years or so. as a radfem I’ve always said PIV is rape and I remember being disappointed to discover that so few radical feminists stated it clearly. How can you possibly see it otherwise? Intercourse is the very means through which men oppress us, from which we are not allowed to escape, yet some instances of or PIV and intercourse may be chosen and free? That makes no sense at all.

That's right folks, according to Little Miss Radical Feminist the basic biological act that allows the human species to propagate itself is now classified as RAPE!

Holy Lunatic Liberal, Batman!  I really don't know how you can communicate with someone who is so far out in Loony-Liberal Land that they cannot begin to communicate in normal fashion with a normal person.

Really, the only way to deal with this kind of rampant stupidity is to point and laugh.  I read a few lines of the blog post to the Ragin' Mrs. and her response was on par with mine:  What a fruitcake.

I got ten bucks says that Little Miss Radical Feminist holds some sort of position at a state college or university.  And I love this comment from Twitchy:  "Was she dropped on her head?"

The Oldtime Strongman Blog

Via a link from Insty's place.  Interesting to see what folks were able to do without all the fancy, modern training equipment that we have today.

I've never been a big gym rat - I think the most time I spent lifting weights was in Puerto Rico, where I hit the gym for a year to try and bulk up a bit.  I grew disgusted with the other people at the gym, who seemed to be more interested in making love to their reflection in the mirror than actually lifting weights.  So I stopped the gym workouts, and focused more on pushups and core exercises at home, along with running.

Lately the folks I work with have been discussing other ways of getting fit, to include "bodyweight" training, where you use just the weight of your own body, or perhaps a few kettlebells added on for just a little extra weight.  One of my co-workers spent some time in a unit that brought in a former Russian Special Forces troop, who discussed their training and workout regimen, and they did an incredible amount of bodyweight training, the rationale being that you cannot always have a gym available, so train to use what you have.

A couple books that we've been reading - "The Naken Warrior", by Pavel Tsatsouline.  All about bodyweight exercises that have been used for centuries.  "Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy", by Bret Contreras.  I picked a copy of the book up at Costco.  It's got exercises for different muscle groups to allow you to tailor your workout based on what you need to work. 

Anyone who scoffs at only using your bodyweight can try to do a one-armed push-up.  Or a one-armed pull up.  Or a "pistol", which is a one-legged squat exercise.  It ain't so easy. 

OOLOOKSHINEY!

I have schoolwork to do, and my brain is racing down rabbitholes like a weasel on crack.  This ain't good.  Arrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I swear, just living in Los Angeles has made me dumber.  My brain just will not function the way it should, or the way it used to work.  I don't know if it's the stress, or the pollution, or the massive amounts of scotch and gin I have to drink in order to remain sane and not commit homicide as I drive through the hoards of incompetent fucking morons.......

I'm being serious here for just a bit - there isn't a single trip the Ragin' Mrs. and I take in our car that doesn't include at least one exclamation of "What the HELL is that person doing?"  If the people of LA went to a sane part of America and drove the way they drive here, there's a better than average chance that they would be pulled from their car and beaten with a tire iron.

For the good of the community, of course.

The comments went off the rails

But this post is still a good one:

One of the effects of feminism is that men of my generation have had a much wider opportunity to cook.  I can’t think of any men my age or younger who don’t know how to cook.  Moreover, I can’t think of any men of my generation or younger who don’t enjoy cooking.  This is in stark contrast to the women of the same generations, who (typically) view cooking as an indignity.  The reason for the difference in attitude boils down to what cooking is all about.  Cooking is an act of love, an act of service to others.  It is an opportunity to care for others in a very fundamental way, to literally nourish them through the work of your own hands.  This is precisely what troubles the modern woman so much about cooking (or cleaning, or changing diapers).  Serving others in the mind of a feminist is an indignity, so cooking, cleaning, or any other act of service and love is the object of revulsion.

Here's a little history of Dave:  I learned to cook at age 12.  My first job was in a restaurant.  I got the Ragin' Mrs (who is a CHEF) to start dating me by cooking her dinners for a week straight.  And if the crap hit the fan, I could make sure my family ate.  If I had to start all over from the bottom again, I could always find work cooking.

I know more than just mac and cheese.  I can cure my own bacon.  Cure my own hams.  Make my own sausage.  Make my own bread.  I can smoke meats, bake, saute and stir up a mean red pasta sauce.

This made me very, very popular in the military.  Take a platoon of guys who have had nothing but chow-hall food for months, and cook up a batch of jambalaya...  you've got friends for life.

One of the ways the Ragin' Mrs and I show appreciation for each other is cooking for each other.  We cook for our friends.  We cook for our family.  And it is always appreciated.

If you have kids, teach them how to cook.  Period.

The Dangers of Photoshop

I mean, just take a gander at these, if you will.

(uh, NSFW if you really need to know).

Best part about yesterday

Was waking up early and going running.

Barely anyone on the road.

Almost no-one on the running trails. 

No traffic noise.  Little to no air traffic noise.  Just miles and miles to run in peace.

I haven't had that in a loooooooooooooong time.

Happy New Year

Insert rambling diatribe about what I want here.

Blah, blah, blah.  Blahblahblah.  Blah.  Bubublah.

Ever get the feeling that you're living in a never ending loop of suckitude?  Yeah.  The only thing special about the new year is that the old year is finally over, and I'm that much closer to leaving this fucking shithole.  I feel like I've been run over.  Twice.

I guess they're trapped in ice that doesn't exist

The Polar Ice Caps are Melting!  There are no Americans in Baghdad!  We are slaughtering them at the gates!

Dude, when you're trapped by record amounts of ice IN THE SUMMER (yes, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere) then maybe, just maybe you might want to revisit your little theory, mmm-kay?

But no, like the Obamabots in San Fransicko who refuse to change their beliefs even while they get hammered by Obamacare, Liberals and other ProgNazi spawn treat their pet theories like religions, and refuse to let go no matter how hard the truth hits them.  Record amounts of ice in the North?  Global Warming!  Record amounts of ice in the South during summertime?  Global Warming!

All we can do at this point is laugh at them.  Long, hard, and loud.

Don't know what it is

About girls on the beach that I love so much.

Goatee

I don't shave when I'm on leave.  It's nice to not scrape your face off if you don't have to.  So for the past few days I've been rocking a goatee again.  I'll shave the sides of my face and my neck just to look somewhat groomed, but I leave the rest of my face alone.

The Ragin' Mrs. met me when I was a civilian and had facial hair.  She never saw my chin until I re-enlisted and shaved for the first time, some three years after we started dating.

To be honest, I can't wait until I retire and can grow it again.  It makes the morning ritual that much easier.  I miss having a goatee.  Seems odd to want something so simple, but there it is.

How I loathe this facist state

If you'd like to find a gas station that sells non-ethanol polluted fuel, there's a map for that!

Now, look at Kalifornia on that map.

The ethanol they put into gas steals at least three miles per gallon from me.  My little Scoot has a ten gallon tank, and when I run non-ethanol, I get at least 250 miles from that tank, and that's in stop-and-go traffic.

Put in the ethanol crap, and it drops to 210-200 per tank.  I have to purchase a gallon and a half MORE of the ethanol crap to drive the same distance as normal, unpolluted gasoline.  And gas ain't cheap here in this filthy fucking fascist freakshow of Los Angeles. 

I cannot wait to leave this fucking hell-hole for good.  I'm going to piss on the "You're Leaving California!" sign they have at the border, and I'm never looking back.  And never coming back.  Fuck this commie-run septic-tank of a state.  It could fall into the ocean and I wouldn't give a shit.

Driving

I have spent a huge chunk of the past week driving around various states visiting various family members for the holidays.  I am loving being able to sit down on my own couch and read up on the news that I've missed.

Boise State got it's ass handed to it in Hawaii.  And the team lost it's head coach to the University of Washington.  Gotta see how they're going to rebuild with their new coach, who's a Boise State guy from a few years back.

Obama is on vacation pissing off the locals in Hawaii.  Hey, you fuckers voted for that shithead.  YOU deal with him!

Phil Robertson is back on Duck Dynasty on A&E.  It seems that if the whiney douch-nozzles want to keep their cash flowing, they'd better tell the Facist ProgNazis at GLAAD to go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut.

Meh.  I'm going to have a cigar and do some more catching up.

Did you all have a great Christmas?

I spent half the day in my PJs, and ate so much that all I could do was lay back and rub my swollen stomach.

Life was good.

With Angelic Host Proclaim....

Gloria en Excelsis Deo

I love Christmas music, especially when it's well sung.

Almost there

But this song is too beautiful to only have it one night.

Need better speakers

So, about the Duck Dynasty kerfluffle

Look, the Duck Commander folks are going to be fine, on or off TV.  Let's not forget that Phil Robertson was a multimillionaire with his own wildly successful business before he ever got on TV, OK?

With that being said, I think A&E just screwed the pooch.  Hard.  They knew who the Robertsons were.  They knew what the Robertsons believed.  That's the hook to the entire show!  And Duck Dynasty has a huge audience of people who are happy to see hard-working Christians on their TV sets.  People who pray over their dinners, and enjoy watching a TV show where a family prays together before they tuck in to their meal.

So A&E caved to the tiny minority and suspended Phil Robertson "indefinitely".  How'd the rest of the Robertson clan react?  Well, just like you might suspect:

We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm.  We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty.

I was reading somewhere else about how the Robertsons had signed a contract and they couldn't get out of it without paying a load of cash, and blah blah blah.  Someone else responded "You have no idea just how much "Screw You!" a redneck can come up with when he puts his mind to it."  I have no doubt that the Robertson clan is going to either get their way with A&E, or find some other place to do their show.  Or for that matter, to simply fold up shop on the TV show and go back to being wildly successful millionaires in Louisiana.  But I've heard that Glenn Beck has already put out an offer to bring Duck Dynasty to his Blaze TV.

Now, wouldn't THAT be a hoot?

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

You know a guy has hit his target when he writes a blog post denouncing Atheism, and he gets 1,430 comments on it.

Wow.

Well done, Sir!

By all means read the article, and if you have the time read some of the comments.  They're....  instructive.

Remember, kids....

Bleach is our friend.  Always keep some handy.  You never know when you'll have to completely disinfect the bathtub.  We filled it up, dumped bleach into it, and let it sit overnight to make sure anything in there was dead.

Woo. Hoo.

You want to have fun?  Try plunging your toilet, only to have sewage back up into your bathtub.  Then go outside to the spot where the pipe meets the sewer and see water (you wish it's only water) dripping into the crawlspace of your house.

Yeah.  I should be in bed right now.

UPDATE:  Tree roots.  You could actually smell them as the snake was cutting through them.  There were at least four sections where the plumber had to back the snake out and push it back in to deal with the roots.  We'll see how long his clean-out job lasts, but with the sweet-gum trees around here, it's only a matter of time before they plug it up again.

Reno erat Rudolphus

HAHAHAA!

*snort*

You want to know how you love someone?

It's when you hurt when they hurt.

When they cry, and you feel that stab in your soul.

It's not some teenage infatuation, or some pop-music ideal of love.  It's sharing the sorrow that they have, and both wanting to take that pain away, and yet understanding that they have to undergo that pain on their own, yet still suffering with them.

Every description of love seems to involve the glassy-eyed, Romeo and Juliet, "Let's die for each other!" kind of love.  I've seen every few novelists actually get into the painful side of love; the part where you hurt in your soul because your loved one hurts.  I suppose it's because so much writing today is done in a politically correct, pussy-whipped sparkly-vampire novel, and that sucks, because it takes away so much of the actual experience.

But then, if the writers haven't experienced it, how can they write about it?

Meh.  I've drank to much.