January 21, 2019

A list of anti-gun rights companies

Dana Mathewson

Not exhaustive, by any means. And some are less "rabid" than others. I'm glad that Walmart isn't all that nutsy, because we get a number of prescriptions from Sam's Club, and shop at Walmart in lieu of Target.

I know not all of you are "into" guns, but remember the "First they came for the Jews..." item. With Democrats holding an increasing number of seats in Washington, and in state governments, we are facing an unprecedented attack on many of our rights, not to mention our wallets!

https://www.gunpowdermagazine.com/avoid-supporting-these-companies-if-you-value-your-gun-r ights/?awt_l=5DZcm&awt_m=hjtg2pK0xHtbXZc

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Be Careful Who You Challenge

Dana Mathewson

Townhall.com knows what they are doing by having Kurt Schlichter pen a column on Monday. His slashing, bellicose style makes for feel-good reading for people on my side of the aisle, and I hope for you too.

Herein he gives us one called

Everyone Who Takes on Trump Ends Up Crushed



I, for one, hope the President has time to read it; or at least that somebody near and dear to him does, and tells him that he has fans!

What is this eerie power Donald Trump has to select the perfect enemies, enemies whose own myriad failings often cause them to commit ritual suicide whenever they face him? He usually doesn’t even have to do anything – these goofs do it to themselves.

His latest victim is BuzzFraud, that listcicle-curating web site for millennial geeks that had the mainstream media in a 24-hour festival of onanism over a report so full of Schumer that even Mueller and his pack of Democrat activists had to shout, "Yo, chill.”

It’s not like BuzzFraud had a lot of journalistic credibility to start with, but props to them for managing to gather up every iota of once and future integrity, hauling it out in front of everyone, dousing it with 91 octane premium, and tossing in a match.

And in the White House, serene as the government shutdown continues, Trump smiles.

Nancy Pelosi made the mistake of buying her own hype and thinking she could go troll-to-troll against him. Big mistake. She thought she could high-hat him by kinda/sorta rescinding her State of the Union address invitation. "Take that!” sneered the mainstream media, pretending that her concern for security during the shutdown was the motivation and not her terror at the thought of the President having a huge audience hear him explain why the Democrat position of letting murderers, rapists, drug dealers and welfare cheats flood into our unprotected country is a bad idea.

So, Trump waits until she and the rest of her pals are on a bus ready to jet off to party in Europe with a fig leaf stopover in Afghanistan and then he pulls the plug. We get delightful footage of dejected ugly Americans filing off the bus, their boondoggle delayed until they do their damn job. Glorious.

[...]

See, Trump’s an equal opportunity brawler. It’s not just Democrats he smashes. It’s the Fredocons too. Take Mitt Romney, please, preferably to one of the Third World hellholes where he outsourced American jobs. He got crushed by Trump, and he’s still seething over how Trump publicly teased him with the Secretary of State job only to snatch it away at the last minute in front of everyone. Now, utilizing the keen instincts and street smarts that let him be publicly body-slammed by Candy Crowley, Mitt has decided to channel Jeff Flake and become the Voice of Neo-Conscience in the Senate. His Twitter feed could consist entirely of him tweeting "We’re better than that” and "Oh, well, I never!”

And no one cares. But you know that in the back of his well-coiffed head, he’s thinking "Mitt 2020? Maybe….” Hey Mitt, 2012 called, and it’s laughing at you.

Then there’s Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit. You know, the Most Brilliant Woman Ever who got beat by the guy the smart set called a "moron?” Now she’s been reduced to occasionally sobering up long enough to send out a trial balloon about how she’s totally coming back too in 2020.

"Yes, okay, that’ll totally be a thing, ma’am. Here’s your morning Chardonnay. There, drink it all. Yes, it makes the pain go away.”

[...]

And thank goodness that Trump not only likes to fight but knows how to win. The GOP softies would have folded long ago in the face of media finger-wagging and howling Democrats. But not Trump. He enjoys crushing his enemies, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of those who identify as women, as well as woke males who use Gillette products.

It's all wonderful. And it's all here: https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/01/21/untitled-n2539336

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The Jeffe Class is the Real Problem

Timothy Birdnow

Here is a fine essay by Thomas Farnan in which he argues the Wall is not the real issue, but rather the Deep State. Until they are defeated no type of wall will stop the invasion of  migrating  vultures.

From the essay:

By the time of the last election, people where I am from—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—were noticing that everyone in Washington was droning the same monochrome politically correct Bush-Clintonism about everything. There really wasn’t much difference between Bush III and Clinton II.

Elected officials were not so much enacting and enforcing laws—which is the sole expression of their delegated authority—as they were defying laws to "do the right thing” so they would not be accused on CNN of starving children.

Immigration loomed large because it perfectly exemplified the problem: Washington was refusing to enforce immigration laws over ginned up moral qualms.

And, imagine that, the phony moral posing just happened to serve big money donors at the expense of workers who were having their wages driven down by abundant cheap labor.

It was not just immigration, though. The secretary of Health and Human Services was telling nuns to buy condom insurance and federal judges were intruding to order high schools to provide separate bathrooms, for boys, for girls, and for anyone who identified as something else.

People were fed up.
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"State of Emergency" nothing new

Timothy Birdnow

So, should the President declare a state of emergency and use that to justify building a border wall, we are supposed to be in a state of panic because nothing remotely like that has ever been done. Or so they say.

Over at Always on Watch we learn differently

From the post:

But the United States is no stranger to national emergencies.
In fact, the US has been in a perpetual state of declared national emergency for four decades, and the country is currently under 31 concurrent states of emergency about a spectrum of international issues around the globe..."

Here is CNN's list of "active declared emergencies:"

1. Blocking Iranian Government Property (Nov. 14, 1979)
2. Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Nov. 14, 1994)
3. Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process (January 23, 1995)
4. Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources (March 15, 1995)
5. Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers (October 21, 1995)
6. Regulations of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels with Respect to Cuba (March 1, 1996)
7. Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan (November 3, 1997)
8. Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans (June 26, 2001)
9. Continuation of Export Control Regulations (August 17, 2001)
10. Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks (September 14, 2001)
11. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism (September 23, 2001)
12. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Zimbabwe (March 6, 2003)
13. Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq has an Interest (May 22, 2003)
14. Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria (May 11, 2004)
15. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus (June 16, 2006)
16. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (October 27, 2006)
17. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions (August 1, 2007)
18. Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals (June 26, 2008)
19. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Somalia (April 12, 2010)
20. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya (February 25, 2011)
21. Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations (July 25, 2011)
22. Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen (May 16, 2012)
23. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine (March 6, 2014)
24. Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to South Sudan (April 3, 2014)
25. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Central African Republic (May 12, 2014)
26. Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela (March 9, 2015)
27. Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities (April 1, 2015)
28. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Burundi (November 23, 2015)
29. Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption (December 20, 2017)
30. Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election (September 12, 2018)
31. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua (November 27, 2018)

End excerpt.

These are all "state of emergency" actions taken. But this list does not even include the state of emergency declared during the Great Depression. On March 9, 1933 Franklyn Roosevelt declared a national emergency so he could implement controls over the national economy. That state of emergency has never been rescinded. With this state of emergency Roosevelt was able to implement much of his "New Deal" policy.

Trump should get Congress to fund this, but if he doesn't it would hardly be unprecedented. And in fact we DO have a state of emergency as America is being overrun by vultures seeking to pick our bones clean.

Until we stop thinking of these people as victims and start thinking of them as predators America will be at risk. The fact is, America as we know it will die, swallowed up as surely as the desert sands swallowed up the Edomites or Amalekites in ancient Palestine. nations die, and America is selling her own life quite cheaply these days.

AOW also has a list of things Congress has wasted money on in recent years.  Eye opening, if you ask me.

This can truly be called a Mexican Standoff between Trump and the House (and the Media).  A Mexican standoff can only end with outside intervention. That may be the coming new caravan, or the anger of laid-off government workers. Any way you slice it Trump can pull the trigger by making this declaration. At this point, he should.

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Climate hysterics skyrocket

Paul Driessen

Nancy Pelosi calls climate change the "existential threat of our time.” Jerry Brown says it’s as "devastating” as what the Nazis did in World War II. A doctoral candidate in the UK proclaims that the only thing that could save people and planet from cataclysmic climate change is cataclysmic nuclear war that "shuts down the global economy but stops short of human extinction.”

Let’s all take a deep breath. All this hysterical headline-grabbing gloom and doom is backed up by little more than computer models, obstinate assertions that the science is settled, and a steady litany of claims that temperatures, tornadoes, hurricanes and droughts are worse than ever before, and due to fossil fuels. There is no real-world evidence for any of this.

My article this week presents a number of inconvenient truths that obliterate claims that today’s weather and climate events are manmade and will be disastrous. It calls for an end to the politicized, money-driven kangaroo court process that has replaced honest, vigorous science – in a quest to end our fossil fuel use and roll back our living standards.

more...

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January 20, 2019

Playing with Polls for Fun and Profit

Timothy Birdnow

Daren Jonescu, my good friend in South Korea, discusses the recent Washington Post/ABC News poll showing the public blames Trump and the Republicans for the government shutdown.

Daren makes the following points:

Here is the poll’s lead question, and the one being cited, misleadingly, for headlines all over the moronosphere:

Q: As you may know, the federal government has been partially shut down because Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress and Democrats in Congress cannot agree on laws about border security. Who do you think is mainly responsible for this situation?

The results of the poll, unsurprisingly, showed Trump and the Republicans as 53% responsible, the congressional Democrats as 29% responsible, both equally responsible at 13%, "neither” at 2%, and "no opinion” at 4%.

First of all, if you asked this exact question in a vacuum, without the respondents having been primed in any way, or provided any context, I guarantee the result would show "Donald Trump and the Republicans” as mainly responsible. Why? Because Donald Trump is the only individual person named in the question, and of course he is an extraordinarily famous person.

Furthermore, by lumping Trump together with "Republicans in Congress” as a single option, Trump’s name recognition, as well as his being the only actual person named, forces respondents to provide the optically convenient and obviously desired poll result: Trump and Republicans to blame; Democrats not to blame.

Notice, further, that the accompanying story from the Washington Post, along with the piggybacking stories all over the internet, phrase the result as I have just done, namely that Trump and the GOP are "to blame” for the shutdown. But that is not what the poll asked. The poll question asks, "Who is mainly responsible?” Responsibility and blame are two entirely different things. I am responsible for the dinner I just cooked. I can only said to be "to blame” for it if you have judged it to be a bad dinner. By framing the question as a matter of "responsibility,” the poll invites respondents who are supportive of the GOP’s position to accept their party’s responsibility, without equating this with blame, which therefore pads the results on the side of "Republicans to blame,” for the purposes of reportage, when that is not what the result actually shows.
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A Hen's Story

Timothy Birdnow

Chancy Nancy tried to fly
an airline ticket she wouldn't buy
but money for a wall not found
so Chancy Nancy stayed a-ground

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Bernie campaign & lib media covered up sexual harrassment

Jack Kemp

A little background on the world of socialist utopias such as Bernie imagines. Ms. Jeffries took her story of sexual harrassment to the Forward, a Jewish socialist publication on some intellectual merit. A few years back, the Forward sold its old headquarters building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a building that had bust sculptures of Marx and Engels on its upper facade. The Forward has also recently announced it will cease publication of its hard copy edition and will now only exist online.


The Press Manipulated the Bernie Sanders

Often these days people tell me how they don't trust what they are told by the press. I tell them they don't know half the story. I read many news stories that I find interesting and then I decide I should dig deeper. It is very often surprising how the story turns out quite a bit different than what the MSM has led us peasants to believe.

When the story broke that there was mistreatment of women during the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign, I initially had a moment of schadenfreude and then moved on to other matters. Then the complexion of the story changed for me and should for you.

Virginia Jeffries wrote her compelling story entitled "I Was Sexually Harassed on Bernie Sanders' Campaign. And No One Cared" in the Forward, a Jewish national publication. Her story brought up many questions that led to finding out how the press seems to be using this story for their own interests.

On April 19, 2016, the day of the New York Democrat primary, Ms. Jeffries was volunteering for the Sanders campaign at the South Bronx office. A voter came into the office and after requesting some t-shirts "he stepped toward me, grabbed me by the back of the neck and began stroking me up then down from the back of my head to just under my shirt collar" Jeffries decided this was a clear case of sexual harassment and decided to report it to the staff who she thought would want to prevent anyone else from experiencing the same thing.

Jeffries goes on to describe how she first reported it to a young staffer and identified the person who accosted her by name. The staffer replied "it was a voter who harassed you, then there's really nothing we can do"

Jeffries tells the tale of how she worked her way up the campaign chain, with equal disregard. Level after level of personnel ignored her as she rightfully persisted in a quest to get someone to focus on the fact that the man had sexually attacked her. She finally approached the campaign manager, Jeff Weaver. He had John Robinson, the campaign chief operating officer, contact her.

Read the rest

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Ocasio-Cortez Press Conference

Jack Kemp

Reporter: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, where would we get the money for Medicare For All?

O-C: Simple, silly. We'll just have the government confiscate everyone's wedding bands and silver flatware and tea sets. And if that doesn't raise enough, we'll also confiscate all diamond wedding rings. They are symbols of oppressive patriarchy and women won't mind throwing off those symbols of oppression! Why I believe I got Nancy Pelosi to consider donating her wedding ring to the Movement. She said she would get back to me on that...but I haven't heard from her yet.

Reporter 2: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a follow up question. What if all those measures aren't enough?

Ocasio-Cortez: Oh, and then we authorize the police and FBI to rip gold earrings right out of people's earlobes on the street. Any bleeding that occurs will be covered by Medicare for All!

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NY "Higher" Education

Jack Kemp

NetZero Message Center

Morrisville is near Syracuse, NY.


College students in New York now have access to a higher education.


The State University of New York branch in upstate Morrisville plans to roll out a program next fall that will teach their students how to grow marijuana, according to WSYR-TV.

The anticipation of the Cannabis Industry Minor follows Governor Cuomo's call to legalize the drug.
The public college, known for its agricultural programs, aims to take advantage of their existing horticultural expertise to train those who want to work in the marijuana industry.

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January 19, 2019

I Sustain the Wings; Miller's Crashed Plane

Dana Mathewson

Bandleader Glenn Miller'€™s doomed plane possibly uncovered decades after disappearing during WWII.


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Retoxify Maleness!

Dana Mathewson

I think Kurt Schlichter may have said it best, here. The wimps on the P&G Board will not understand him, but that's just too bad.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/01/17/we-need-to-retoxify-masculinity- n2539123

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When environmentalism becomes corruption

Paul Driessen

Private property rights are under assault by increasingly powerful and unaccountable politicians, bureaucrats and activists, writes Colorado miner Craig Liukko. One aspect of that assault involves our mineral heritage. Far too many government agencies have become corrupt because they have been largely taken over by radical environmentalists, who know little about mining or society’s crucial need for minerals, who are ideologically opposed to mining, and whose ideologies too often make them think they are above the law, he says. They don’t want mining or drilling done properly and by the book. They don’t want it done at all.

They fail to recognize that miners find and develop major deposits of minerals that are essential for everything we make, use and do – including medical equipment, cell phones, computers, aircraft, aerospace, automobiles, wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and modern high-tech weapon and communication systems.

Part 1 of Craig’s passionate and informative article is appended below.

more...

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Trump clips Pelosi's wings

Dana Mathewson

In a stinging and curt letter, Trump said her trip has been "postponed."

He wrote:

"Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown. Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative."

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January 18, 2019

An Actor Who's Not A Leftist Nutcase -- And Proves It

Dana Mathewson

I love articles like this.


‘Forrest Gump’ star Gary Sinise says he’s dedicated to honoring wounded veterans: ‘We can never do enough’


Gary Sinise was prepared to play Lieutenant Dan Taylor on "Forrest Gump” long before he was offered the role.

The now 63-year-old appeared in the 1994 film, which depicts the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson, as well as the Vietnam War, Watergate and other crucial moments in U.S. history through the perspective of an Alabama man (Tom Hanks). Sinise plays Taylor, an Army officer who loses both of his legs in Vietnam.

Sinise told Fox News he didn’t hesitate to take on the iconic role. Prior to the audition that would forever change his life, Sinise was already working closely with Vietnam veterans and had created Vets Night, a program offering free dinners and performances at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

"A full 10, 12 years [before filming], I’d been working with Vietnam veterans in Chicago,” he explained. "I had supported them in various ways, so when the opportunity came up to play a Vietnam veteran, a wounded Vietnam veteran, with a positive ending to his story, I very much wanted to do that. And I was blessed to be able to get that part and be in such a popular film, a good film. Lieutenant Dan has meant a lot to me.”

[...]

Since the making of "Forrest Gump,” Sinise has continued to dedicate his life to supporting the American troops. Throughout the ‘90s, Sinise worked on behalf of the Disabled American Veterans organizations. He also embarked on several USO handshake tours in 2003 and then formed the Lt. Dan Band in early 2004.

Sinise and his group then began entertaining the troops serving at home and abroad. Lt. Dan Band now performs close to 30 shows a year at military bases, charities and fundraisers supporting wounded heroes.

Then in 2011, the star established the Gary Sinise Foundation. According to its website, its mission is "to serve and honor our nation’s defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need by creating and supporting unique programs that entertain, educate, inspire strengthen and build communities.”

Not only does the foundation build custom Smart Homes for wounded veterans, but it also serves meals to deploying troops and hosts events at military hospitals.

 Sinise said America’s real-life heroes still recognize him as Taylor — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

"I found out that when I started visiting our wounded in the hospitals and walking into those hospitals, they would look at me and they would recognize me as Lt. Dan,” he explained. "They wouldn’t know what my real name as, but they’d call me Lt. Dan.”

Sinise added the countless wounded veterans he’s encountered over the years found inspiration in Taylor.

[...]

Sinise’s love for the American troops run in his veins. Sinise has veterans in his family going back to World War I. His grandfather, who served during the Battle of the Argonne in France, transported the wounded from the battlefield. His grandfather later had three sons and two of them served in World War II. Sinise's father served during the Korean War in the Navy. And Sinise’s wife of 38 years, Moira Harris, also has veterans in her family that she cherishes.

 Please read the whole article!  https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/forrest-gump-star-gary-sinise-says-hes-dedicated-to-honoring-wounded-veterans-we-can-never-do-enough

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January 17, 2019

State To (Possibly) Require In-Home Surveillance of Newborn Babies

Dana Mathewson

Right here in a nutshell is just one more reason liberals should NEVER be elected to public office!

If Oregon Governor Kate Brown has her way, the Beaver State will become the first to require universal home visits for newborn children in the care of their own parents.

Senate Bill 526, introduced this month in the Oregon Legislative Assembly as part of Brown's budget, orders the Oregon Health Authority to "study home visiting by licensed health care providers." Lawmakers went so far as to declare that SB 526 is an "emergency" measure — one that requires a resolution by the end of the year. The intro to the bill, the language of which has not yet been crafted, reads:

The Oregon Health Authority shall study home visiting by licensed health care providers in this state. The authority shall submit findings and recommendations for legislation to an interim committee of the Legislative Assembly related to health care not later than December 31, 2019.

Moreover, the 18 sponsors of the bill claim that its passage is "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety," and therefore "an emergency is declared to exist."

What's the big emergency? Apparently, the state of Oregon is concerned that some parents are raising their children without the watchful eye of Big Brother monitoring their every move — a big no-no in the view of the progressive left.

[...]

And Oregon is not alone in the push for "universal" home visits. Washington Governor Jay Inslee tweeted earlier this month, "My budget would also offer universal home visits. This gives every new parent the opportunity to get a visit from a nurse during the first few weeks back home with their newborn to share important information and build confidence."

My budget would also offer universal home visits. This gives every new parent the opportunity to get a visit from a nurse during the first few weeks back home with their newborn to share important information and build confidence. #waleg

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) January 15, 2019

While it's not clear whether either of these programs would be mandatory, the use of the term "universal" suggests that they would. It's frightening to think about what would happen to parents who refuse such visits.

As someone who has been involved in the homeschooling movement for more than 20 years, I have seen many attempts to increase the oversight of children taught at home by requiring home visits by a teacher or social worker. The basic premise behind these attempted power grabs is that parents cannot be trusted with the care of their own children — that an agent of the state is the only one qualified to ensure that children are being properly cared for. Without such surveillance, proponents argue, children are at risk for abuse and neglect, something they believe government agents can prevent, despite volumes of evidence to the contrary. In Oregon, in fact, children in the foster care system are abused at twice the national rate. One wonders how a state that can't handle the children currently in its care could possibly manage to surveil an additional 40,000 children per year, let alone pay for such a program (answer: it can't).

Anytime a state or locality has tried to draft legislation requiring home visits for home schooled children, the immediate response has always been, "What are they going to do next, require inspections for children from birth until they enter school?" The answer to that, of course, is yes. That has been the plan all along. Universal preschool, universal health care, universal free lunches — the lot of it — is just a surreptitious way for the state to monitor its citizens and control their behavior by handing out freebies.

 

Well! Two states not to live in, wouldn't you say? At least if you are of childbearing age. The article is here: https://pjmedia.com/trending/oregon-could-be-the-first-state-to-require-in-home-surveillance-of-newborn-babies/


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More On The Gillette Flap -- Why Did They Do It?

Dana Mathewson

One can't help but wonder how and why the decision was made to adopt an advertising campaign that was virtually guaranteed to alienate a large share of the company's customers. Power Line's John Hinderaker quotes, and comments on, an article from Glenn Reynolds, who suggests that perhaps the company is more interested in pleasing its officers -- who are also Leftists -- than its customers.

The Gillette anti-men ad that I wrote about here continues to spark controversy. Most in the advertising industry seem to think it was marvelous. This raises interesting questions: Why, exactly, do companies wade into the culture wars? Especially when they join a side that is either a minority or, at best, a bare majority? How does this make sense? Glenn Reynolds notes:

Adweek pronounced Gehrig’s group libel the "Ad of the Week.” Gehrig’s efforts were also recognized by Best Ads on TV.

Glenn’s comment is spot on, and explains much of what we see from our debilitated institutions:

This is another example of how the people running American institutions now tend to perform for an audience of their peers rather than focus on doing their jobs.

Doing their jobs, and serving their alleged constituencies. Like men who need to shave.

Here's the link to the Power Line article, which of course has the link to the Reynolds article: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/01/gillette-follow-up-why-did-they-do-it.php

BTW: The link given for the Reynolds article about just gets you to Instapundit. There is an article about the Gillette ad at that site, posted by Glenn Reynolds but written by Helen Smith, found here: https://pjmedia.com/drhelen/the-gillette-ad-the-war-on-men-is-a-war-on-trump/

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National Popular Vote - an Idea whose Time should never come

Timothy Birdnow

The Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly's organization, has an interesting essay against the National Popular Vote. I recommend everyone read it.

Here are a few excerpts:

The Electoral College protects us from Vote Fraud providing 51 individual elections in the states and District of Columbia not just one election which can more easily be stolen. The Electoral College protects us against the instability of nationwide recounts and endless lawsuits. The Electoral College has worked well for over 200 years providing a peaceful transfer of power.

NPV would make Nevada and other small population states meaningless flyover states for presidential elections. Only the big population states would matter…California, New York, etc.

National Popular Vote allows Vote-Stealing and the compiling of Fake majorities. If a state signs onto the NPV Compact, and a majority of their voters do not vote for the nationally declared "popular vote majority” candidate, their Electoral Votes are stolen, and added to the declared "popular vote majority” candidate. In 2016 that would have meant Hillary Clinton. Consider that NPV would increase the stakes for Vote Fraud leading to more political corruption.

The National Popular Vote Compact Violates the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution in Article I Section 10 Clause 3, "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress…enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State…” because Congress has never agreed to a National Popular Vote Compact. However, they are moving ahead ignoring Congress’ Constitutional role.

The NPV Compact states, that once States with electoral votes equaling 270 enact the Compact, it will become the law without ever passing Congress and without being sent to the states for ratification as required to amend the U.S. Constitution. The National Popular Vote Compact is an end run around the Constitution.

[...]

NPV eliminates the geographic balance provided by the Electoral College which makes all regions of the country, states both small and large, liberal or conservative important in the Presidential election.

As author Janine Hansen points out, Hillary would now be President solely on the basis of the popular vote, a vote that may well have been stolen via illegal voting.

The framers of the Constitution did not want the United States to be a centralized imperium but rather a federated, diffused system with checks and balances. The Electoral College system was designed precisely with that in mind. The large states cannot dominate the small states, and the states control their own electors and how they are chosen as opposed to a national system run from Washington. In point of fact, South Carolina did not even have a popular vote as late as 1860; the state legislature chose the presidential electors. That was as it was intended; America was not supposed to be a democracy - rule of mob - but a representative republic.

We never would have HAD an United States if we had popular vote; states like Rhode Island would never have joined.

Another matter; how do you guarantee one man one legal vote? We never really do know the exact tally on the popular vote, because it is too chaotic to get an accurate count. Generally once the numbers are high enough to call a state the vote tally either stops or is largely done as a formality, without much effort put into it. If anyone thinks the NPV will improve things on election night they are sadly mistaken; all of our elections will become chaotic, and every vote will be thrown into the courts.

It's a terrible idea whose time should never come.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This Is What "Political Correctness" Has Led To

Dana Mathewson, with Hat Tip to David Dickinson

Victor Davis Hanson is one of today's most important writers. He's a member of the Hoover Institution, and one might well form the regular habit of accessing their site to read his work.

This article is called "A License to Hate," and describes how the Left and the Right became so alienated. Or perhaps I should say, how the Left became so alienated from the Right. I will give snippets, but you really do want to read the entire article!

Recently on CNN, former Republican politico and now Never Trump cable new analyst Rick Wilson characterized Donald Trump’s supporters as his "credulous rube ten-toothed base.”

Wilson was not original in his smear of the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump. He was likely resonating an earlier slander of Politico reporter Marco Caputo. The latter had tweeted of the crowd he saw at a Trump rally: "If you put everyone’s mouths together in this video, you’d get a full set of teeth.”

Was the point of these stereotypes that poor white working-class people who supposedly voted for the controversial Trump understandably ate improperly, did not practice proper dental hygiene, or did not visit dentists—or all three combined?

When challenged, Caputo doubled down on his invective. He snarled, "Oh no! I made fun of garbage people jeering at another person as they falsely accused him of lying and flipped him off. Someone fetch a fainting couch.”

It's easy to say that the Left takes this attitude out of a feeling of "sour grapes" because they were denied the White House in 2016, but that's not the case. They looked at the people who voted for Trump that way even before they voted for Trump. Indeed, it's probable that Trump is President because Hillary didn't bother to campaign for their votes. "Who needs 'em?" And it's sobering to think that if we didn't have the Electoral College. . .

Recently actor Jim Carey tweeted a picture of Trump supporters as apes, as if evolution is now operating in reverse as Trumpians descend into primate status.

Rep. Hank Johnson (who on prior occasions had referred to Jewish residents on the West Bank as "termites,” and believed that too many American troops based on the shoreline of Guam might "tip” the island over and capsize it) recently compared Trump to Hitler, and characterized Trump’s supporters—which included 90 percent of the Republican Party—as "older, less educated, less prosperous, and they are dying early. Their lifespans are decreasing, and many are dying from alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease, or simply a broken heart caused by economic despair." For former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump supporters are "virulent people” and "the dregs of society”.

Note the force of such dehumanizing invective that transcends political differences. Trump voters were not just mistaken in their political allegiances. Instead they looked like toothless zombies and stunk up stores, and are not quite human, and are destined to die off. And all this from supposedly progressive humanists, quick to demonize others who would mimic their venom.

Dr. Hanson doesn't point it out, but the Left looks at the Right with the attitude that conservatives are stupid, evil, subhuman troglodytes; not that they are perhaps merely mistaken in their political choices, as was once the case. It's gone far beyond that. How can conversations exist anymore?

At any rate, please read the entire article, found here: https://www.hoover.org/research/license-hate-0

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:45 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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