Author Archives: Lyle

Project ‘Fast And Furious Gun Restrictions’

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The more I see on this scandal with the BATFE, the more it stinks.  Here are several issues I have, in no particular order.  To me they’re obvious quirks in the story that aren’t being discussed.  If someone knows of these being brought up and addressed, please do share;


The Old Media are actually covering this to some extent.  They don’t cover anything unless it in some way promotes the leftist cause.  They’re actually being critical of the BATFE, but wait.  The “problem” is being spun as one of too few restrictions.  BATFE is bad, not because they’re idiots or self-serving thugs looking for more funding, or outright criminals or tyrants, but because they didn’t stop gun purchases.  Keep an eye on this.


Very large purchases of guns were supposedly “allowed” to take place.  We’re being asked to believe that Mexican criminals purchased up to dozens of guns at a time, on several occasions.  First; if these were real straw purchases wherein there was a genuine worry about secrecy, they’d take place in dibs and dabs, so as not to attract attention.  Second; why would powerful Mexican cartels with international influence be interested in paying hundreds of dollars more, per gun, in the U.S. compared to getting them at global street prices?  Even the cartels would know about our background check system at gun stores, yet these purchases supposedly took place at gun dealerships, where they would know that such large purchases would attract immediate attention.  But they did it anyway?  Too many stinky points.  I say the purchases were engineered, either by, or in close cooperation with, BATFE, and not simply “allowed”, as we’re being asked to believe.


We’re told that hundreds of these guns were found at crime scenes (I think I heard the number 800 dropped the other night).  What?  Really?  Hundreds?  That’s an awful lot of clumsy, absent-minded, criminals, isn’t it?  Leaving their guns, so painstakingly straw-purchased at inflated prices at U.S. retail dealerships, behind at crime scenes to be found in very short order by our super heroes?  Stinky, stinky, stinky.


A big government operation, not to shut down Mexican cartels, not to investigate corruption in Mexico that’s threatening people in the U.S., not to revisit the effects of our War On Drugs, but instead to draw attention to how our evil gun rights in the U.S. lead to death and destruction in other countries.


These issues aren’t being brought up in the press or by the Congressional “investigations”.  Nope.  Instead it’s all about; “You bastards! Why didn’t you guys stop gun sales?”  All this after Obama promised anti gun rights groups he’d be doing something for them “…under the radar“.


I think the indignation we’re hearing from the press and from Congress is all feigned.  Good Cop, Bad Cop.


My younger brother and I put together a list of socialist tenets many years ago.  It’s been lost to computer upgrades and internet evolution, but one of those tenets was; “When restrictions on freedom produce disastrous results, freedom is to blame and the solution is more restrictions.”  Look for it in this case.  It’ll happen, I guarantee.  It’s in the DNA of it.

This Public Servant Bit Needs More Discussion

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This is an addendum to the post below.


As stated; as a public employee, as a public servant, your job, your individual tasks, your pay and the very existence of the department for which you work, exists purely at our (The People’s) pleasure.  It is our prerogative to alter this relationship, to dismiss you, or to eliminate your department entirely, at a whim.


As a public servant, you have no “right” whatsoever to a particular salary, or to a particular job, etc.  If we decide we must lower your pay or dismiss you altogether, your proper response would be something like; “I understand.  Thank you for the opportunity to have served you.”  At that point you are free to go your own way and prove your worth in the marketplace as you see fit.  May you live long and prosper.


If you decide, on the other hand, to get hostile about it and start in with the name-calling and the threats, what can We The People conclude about the relationship we’ve had with you?  Look at me when I’m talking to you!


In private practice, a servant that gets hostile with the home owner will probably result in the police being called in on a domestic disturbance.  At the very best it would result in an unflattering reference when you apply for another job.  This is OUR house.  If the hostility continues and becomes threatening, what are we to do?  If the police aren’t able to help us get you public servants under control, well then, what?  What are we left with for options in that case?  You aren’t going to get your way, let me just put it like that.  Not for long, I can tell you.  This is OUR country.

Someone Doesn’t Know Their History…

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…as Dan here at UltiMAK said about this.


I’ve often said that the socialists are calling the anti-socialists socialists for not being socialist enough.  Or the Communists are angry at the socialists for not being communist enough.


Christie is being called “Hitler” for trying to cut government spending.  The name-caller would have more credibility if he simply called Christie a “snotty nosed poopy pants”.


There is the fact that the communists are often bitterly angry at Progressives (who believe in achieving the goals of Marx through progressive steps).  The communists think the time is right to pounce– to take off the masks and have the “People’s Revolution” right now.  The Progressives are still in progressive mode, so there is a real conflict, but invoking the name of a famous socialist, as an epithet, doesn’t help their case.


There is also some conflict between the National Socialists verses the global socialists (FDR, Stalin and Hitler all held the same basic tentets, but differed only on the details and the execution) but I’m no more interested in the details than in the differences between rival crime gangs.  They’re all enemies and they all have to be ground into the dustbin of history if we’re going to have a free society.


ETA; You public employees around the country seem to be terrible confused.  See, you’re not “The People”.  You’re The Government– our servants.  Big difference.  Your jobs, your pay and your benifits, exist at our pleasure.  It’s when you tell us what our jobs, pay and benefits etc. should be, that’s Nazi-ish.  Get it?


HT to Drudge.

Trunk Monkey!

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I’m not sure how well it’d work, but the idea is interesting.


HT to Castboolits.

Exposing Leftists

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College students are asked to sign a petition to impose Affirmative Action upon the basketball team (for diversity), to redistribute GPA points, ban conservative talk radio, etc.  Good stuff.  Enjoy.


What I took away was the students’ apparent total lack of ability, or preparation, for these discussions, meaning that high schools and universities aren’t encouraging such critical thinking at all.  I believe my son, who just graduated from high school, could give these petitioners a resounding talkin’ to.


HT to Glen Beck

And You Thought FEMA was All About Helping People

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Admit it– somewhere in the recesses of your mind, you thought there were only the best of intentions behind the creation of FEMA.


Little Grasshopper; I’ve been trying to get this across for some time now.  I know it’s extremely difficult, but you have to try harder to grasp this pebble from my hand.  People with good intentions want YOU TO BE STRONG ALL ON YOUR OWN.  In the harder times, when you fall down and get seriously hurt, they want YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN.  In the hardest of times they want YOUR REGION TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN.  If the end of the world seems to be upon you, they want EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO BE AS INDEPENDANTLY STRONG AS POSSIBLE.  Only then can Mankind face the biggest challenges and come out strong.


Creating a system that operated through coercion, funded coercively, which by its nature weakens charities and weaken individuals in favor of centralized power, is not the result of good intentions.  It is the result of hatred.  I know it’s extremely difficult, Little Grasshopper.  I know there are all those assertions of warmth and light and compassion, but those are deep, deep lies, all the more the egregious because of their mockery of love and compassion.


What evidence will it take to convince you?

More Shooting Last Week

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Dan here at UltiMAK put a new trigger on his Mosin, and since the snow has been out of the hills long enough to let the ground firm up, we had to get out to a favorite spot and try it.


Dan hit an aerial clay with the Mosin on his fifth shot, so I had a go at the clays with an M1 30 Carbine.  I did poorly – only three hits in about 40 rounds, whereas at time I’ve made 20% or better, which would have been 8 hits  On the 500ish yard targets, using a Rem 700 .308, I did a bit better, after some confusion over yards and meters.  My cold clean bore first shot was a near miss on a gallon jug.  Second shot was a hit, and by the third shot I felt it was not a matter of whether, but where I could hit the target.  The jugs don’t explode from the .308 fire at 500 yards like they do closer in, so I got to hit the same one twice.


Lessons learned were; 1. My Remington 700 trigger sucked as delivered, compared to Dan’s new Timney.  2. As a shooter/spotter team we suck at communication.  This happened at Boomershoot too– spotter on one target, shooter on another, and after many words thrown this way and that.  Very frustrating, and a waste of time and ammo.  We made a pact to fix that.  3. My rangefinder is not adequate beyond 400 or 500 yards, depending on conditions, and that is not acceptable.  I guess I know where my next 500 or so bucks are going.  4. See, I’m doing it right here– talking in yards, when I was in fact ranging in meters, because my scopes are BDC graduated in meters.  That’s been a source of confusion in the past, as I was accustomed to ranging in yards.  This time, I was ranging in meters, but still doing the corrections from yards to meters out of habit.  That of course wasted more time and ammo.  I seem to recall NASA (or was it JPL?) having a similar problem with a Mars probe that made an expensive crater instead of a soft landing.  OK.  Got it now.  Reading in meters, BDCing in meters.  No conversions.  5.  I don’t know how you can dope the wind when you’re shooting across a very deep ravine.  Surface clues aren’t necessarily applicable.  Come to think of it, I’m a lousy wind doper anyway.  Must fix that too.


I found out only recently that Timney uses the Remington trigger design, which means I could have adjusted my 700’s trigger a long time ago.  I knew the Timneys were adjustable for weight, engagement, and overtravel.  I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t taken apart my Remington strictly for the purpose of understanding every aspect of its design, as I’ve done with my other guns.  That means that only as of yesterday do I have a decent trigger after using this rifle, on occasion, for several years.  Much better now.  JEP (Joe’s Evil Plan) marches on.  We have to get right back out there very soon.

Breadboard Computers

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In the early days of radio, you’d have what we now refer to as a “breadboard radio”.  You’d buy, say, the power supply, or the power supply and the detector, mounted on a wooden board that resembled a breadboard.  You’d then add an RF amp, a VFO once those came available, an AF amp and so on, until you’d built up your desired system.  You’d then assemble the A and B batteries and set about to hooking it all up and aligning it so it would work.  In other words, you had to be something of a technician if you were going to have a radio, or you’d have to know a technician willing to help you with the hours upon hours of component selection and set-up.


I’ve said for years that we’re still in the breadboard phase of computer technology.  It is changing, but we’re still there.  Similarly, in the early days of the automobile it was not uncommon to purchase your chassis from one manufacturer, and take it to the coach builder of your choice for the body work and interior.


Son got a computer yesterday, along with a multi-track recording interface.  We selected the computer for high processor speed, a large amount of RAM, and at least a TB of HD.  We had to add a firewire card, making sure the available slots on the motherboard would accommodate the particular firewire card with the particular chip we wanted.


The damned thing still won’t work.  Something about a 32 bit verses 64 bit Win 7 OS, and something about a sound card, or sound card driver (we still don’t know which) that doesn’t allow for something referred to as “direct audio input”.  Never heard of it.  Don’t understand why the sound card is even a factor, since it was my understanding that the recording interface, and it’s related software, took care of all those functions.


A thousand bucks into it (and that’s a screamin’ good deal) and we’ve only begun to spend.  The technicians at the computer stores are of zero help, so now it’s to the digital recording specialists we know (I grew up in the analog, magnetic tape days, so I’m of little use), and to the manufacturer of the interface.


All this of course represents a business opportunity.


ETA; actually, you’d get either the A and B batteries or you’d get the AC power supply for your “radio set” once the AC supplies came available.  It took several decades for the complete system being sold as a unit to become the rule.  I have a 1931 Atwater Kent system that came in basic form as the old breadboard unit, though it was a complete, functioning breadboard set.  It also has the optional wooden cabinet, into which the breadboard slides, with the control knobs and frequency display mating up into cut-outs in the cabinet front.  The “dynamic loudspeaker” is another option in this set.  This one is the alternate to the free-standing loudspeaker, or to a mere headset.  It hangs on two hooks inside the optional cabinet.  Then it also has the optional coil loop antenna.  All components were sold by the same company and complimented one another nicely.  That’s about where we are with tower PCs these days, except that the components don’t always match up or work at all together.  Hence, putting together a computer system for some specific purposes is a hobbyist’s or technician’s activity, rather than a simple consumer purchase.

1.5 Watts! Wow! No wait…

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I was over at friend, Cliff’s house last night.  He showed me his new LED light bulbs.  They’re awesome.  Nice spectrum, smaller than a regular bulb, plenty of light, no observable strobe effect from the power supply, and IIRC they used only 1.5 Watts.  Cool to the touch after being on for hours.


But wait.  This is the North.  With the low temps this Spring, we’re still heating our homes.  Therefore any reduction in the heat output of your lighting and other appliances has to be made up, one for one, by the home heating system.  Zero energy savings until we get warmer weather (outdoor lighting is of course exempt from this issue – any reduction in consumption means direct energy savings).


That means there will be maybe 120 days this year in which your ultra efficient indoor lighting pays off anything in this region.  Remember that when making your pay-off calculations.


Cliff is in the stage production supply business.  He showed me some of the new LED Par cans (stage lighting, in this case also computer [MIDI] controlled).  Stage lighting can be brutal on the performers, since even with the biggest, most powerful sound systems, it is the lighting that traditionally used the majority of the electrical power.  That’s why you’ve so often seen performers soaked in sweat.  We’ve been running the old, hot cans, and then running clusters of fans to try keeping the performers halfway comfortable.  With these new LED cans, it’s going to be much, much nicer to be on stage, and we won’t need to have the sometimes difficult to accommodate power requirements in our performance contracts.  This particular model also changes color by switching the LEDs, something like the way a color video display uses the different color pixels, which means no more screwing around with color gels.


Technology is wonderful, just so long as we keep the retarded politicians (but I repeat myself) out of our business.  Let them shovel shit instead.  With some training in shit shoveling, maybe they could be of some small service to humanity.  I’ve done it.  It can be quite important at times.

Quote of the Weekend

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“I never thought it would be this much fun.  I thought it would just be a bunch of learning.” – Josh – One of my nephews



My niece, Roz and her husband, Josh had been talking about getting firearms for protection, but they wanted to get some hands-on experience before making any decisions.  I’d been telling them for some time that I was willing to show them several different handguns and long guns, different action types and so on, and have them do some shooting.



They made it down from Spokane to Palouse, WA, with a stop in Moscow to hand the baby over to Grandmother, on Monday.  After a quick briefing at my place as I was loading up the pickup, we headed to the closest range, about 9 miles away on the edge of Garfield, WA.




“I’ve got a pickup load of iron, and lead” – Josh said it should be a country song.  I agree.



This is for Tam – This is why you need a full sized, extended cab 4 x 4 pickup with canopy.  You can carry a lot of guns, a shooting bench, a clay target thrower, 100s of pounds of ammunition and several people all at once.  The duals in the back are optional.


When we got to the range, there was another pickup there stuck in the mud, a couple dozen cattle out in the adjacent wheat fields, a man on an ATV and one on foot out trying to round up the cattle, and Officer Friendly standing in the parking lot telling us A) that the range was closed for Memorial Day, B) the other truck was stuck, and C) don’t go over there and try pulling him out because you’ll just get stuck too.



Long story short; I went over there and pulled the other truck out (easily) the cattle got put back into their proper field, and Officer Friendly, who so far as I could tell didn’t do much if anything, said “Thanks for helping out”.  I didn’t tell him what I thought.  I just said, “No problem”.
Roz and Josh had come all this way to learn about guns and do some shooting, and here we were at a closed range messing around with tow straps, mud, cops and cattle.  Sometimes you just have to roll with what’s thrown at you.



15 more miles to an abandoned gravel pit and we were in shooting heaven.  We went through the safety rules, the functioning and handling of the AR-15, position, grip, sight alignment, breath control, trigger control, follow-through…  Slow fire at 80 yards, rapid fire at 20 feet.  Same with handguns.  At several points along the way, Roz was laughing as she was popping off rapid double and triple taps with a Glock 20, and hitting her target. “Front sight front sight front sight!  Your group’s too small, speed it up!” Giggle giggle giggle.  I think the dot-sighted M1 30 carbine was the favorite “fun gun” of the day though.



As we were wrapping things up, Josh came out with the money quote.



After all the talk and anxieties we’ve gone through at home regarding education verses understanding, teaching methods, self-organizing systems, etc., over the last few years, I can’t tell you how significant and how terrific it was to hear that.

Today We Mark The End of The World…

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…of end-of-the-world cults.  Yes I know– wishful thinking.  End-of-the-world cults are as old as history, and they’ll just keep right on coming and going, no matter how many times they’re proven wrong (much like socialism and jihad).  Eventually of course the world will end.  All Things Must Pass.  Then one of these cults will probably be proven right after all.  That’ll show us.


This should be a course of study in high school – “Introduction to End of The World Cults.”  Students could get involved by forming into groups within the class and starting their own end of the world models and doctrines.  I’m trying not to be too flippant because this is a very serious subject.


Religious and political leaders, or leader wannabes, and most hippies, find that people desperately want to believe in something that makes them extra special.  It is easy to convince people that they are part of a special group.  A group that has super duper important information, and that the rest of us will rue the day if we don’t take heed of it and recognize that group as The One, and so on.  It’s usually all about power.  Raw power and nothing else.  Algore and the Global Cooling, I mean Warming Now/Global Cooling Now/Oh What the Hell; Climate change cult is one of thousands of examples.  Most churches practice some variant of it also, and it always works on someone.  No matter what.  Since people can’t bear the thought that they’ve been duped to such a deep level– that they’ve been so, so very foolish.  They’ll do anything to explain it away somehow, to avoid the profound sense of embarrassment and shame.


That’s when the bullied become the bullies.  The cycle repeats.


I know, I know.  Trust me.  I’ve felt The Spirit too, I know exactly what you cultists are going through.  I was young and impressionable.  I deeply wanted to believe in something that would relieve me of my doubts, confusion, self-loathing or whatever it was.  And then there was that need to “fit in”.  That’s when they get you.  It’s a form of hypnotism, and it works on you because you want it.


It’s never going away, but you don’t have to participate in it.  When you let go of that garbage– that baggage people have used to control you, and live a life guided by principles, none of it can touch you.

Logical Contradiction

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NRCC Chairman, Pete Sessions, just sent out a letter.  First sentence;



While House Republicans are working hard to return our country to economic prosperity and strengthen and secure Medicare…


Let me see if can put this into perspective.  While House Republicans are working hard to run our economy for us (because we’re too stupid and/or evil to do it ourselves) and to try, once again, to make socialism viable.  ETS; Or are they working hard to free the economy so it can work, AND trying to make socialism viable?  They don’t say.  That’s about how I read it.

Critical Pedagogy Hits Home

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There’s been some talk about it lately and it’s been in the news, but it’s also been in your home town school for some time.  Here is a history paper, handed out in my son’s history class, complete with syntax errors, inexplicable asterisks, bad grammar, omitted words, and miss-numbering.  The kids were told to memorize it.  Keep in mind the title of the piece – “U.S. History”  This is all American.  Everything below is what made/makes us tick;



U.S. History
Philosophies — Foreign and Domestic


“What Made/Makes Us Tick”


1. Capitalism – Pure*** vs. Regulated


An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.


OK, right there; no mention of property rights, the acknowledgement and protection of which result in capitalism.  “Corporately owned” IS privately owned, but they must make a distinction.



Pure capitalism over time results in poverty, worker abuse, environmental destruction, a two class social structure, and governmental control by the wealthy.  All economic, political and social norms were control directly ad indirectly by the wealthy.  Even the presentation of religious views were seen through the eyes of the capitalistic values.(2-


Karl Marx would be giddy with pride seeing what our public schools are teaching my kids today.  There’s so much wrong with that one paragraph I don’t know where to begin.  For one thing, “governmental control by the wealthy” defines a corrupt government.  The acknowledgement and protection of property rights, which defines capitalism, does not lead to governmental control by the wealthy.  That’s a contradiction in terms, but you’re not supposed to notice.  Corrupt politicians lead to governmental control by the wealthy, and for that they should be arrested.



Regulated Capitalism – has produced our nation.  Government regulates what industry can do within limits.  Environmental impact (air quality), worker safety, fair pay, fair trade, and business dealings are regulated by law.


The Fascisti would certainly approve of that statement, and they were committed Marxists.  Notice throughout this whole piece that there is no mention of human rights, or of America’s founding principles.  That would blow the whole thing though, wouldn’t it?



2. Expansionism


The belief that the nation must grow to acquire natural resources, new areas of trade, and living space. (Safety Value Theory – Turner Thesis)


3. Manifest Destiny (New Manifest Destiny)***


— Similar to Expansionism.  This was the belief that God had pre-determined (destined) the United States to expand.  It was an outgrowth of the Puritan ethic [God rewards those who work hard and live an exemplary life.]  The term eventually meant that the U.S. would eventually control the land from coast to coast.  This belief system motivated the “Western Movement.”  The acquisition of land and the displacement of Native Americans became justified in part by this belief system.  The Mexican War, the Southwest land, Northwest Territory, and Alaska are also acquired with belief system as the driving force for America to expand.


Nearly every country that ever existed has practiced some version of Manifest Destiny or Expansionism.  The American government did some terrible things to the Indians.  The innuendo I get from this is that there are wrongs remaining to be righted, which is actually being said elsewhere, complete with the “R” word (revolution) in the above linked video, as part of a school curriculum.



4.  Whiteman’s Burden – Anglo Saxonism***  The term is taken from a poem by Rudyard Kipling in which he states is was “the white man’s burden” to colonize the other nations for their benefit.  In practice it was the belief that:


God had chosen the Anglo-Saxon race to colonize the “less fortunate” peoples of the world.  In so doing they were to bring them education, the Christian faith, a Puritan work ethic, capitalism, health care, and the other “benefits” of our culture.


Ah, so America really IS racist!  Crap!



5.  Imperialism***


–,The control of one nation over another nation or territory for the purposes of acquiring natural resources, trade, and/or military advantage.  This is the core of U.S. expansion.  The acquisition of Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines are examples of imperialism.


Notice how they slipped trade in there, like trading with people in another nation amounts to Imperialism.  We bastards!  Those poor victims!



6.  Rugged Individualism


— The belief that individuals are to provide for their own needs without the help of others.  “I can do it myself.”  This was the pioneer spirit and the belief of the nation in the 1800s.  It worked against the average person during the latter part of the Industrial Revolution as corporations controlled the variables of life.  Working harder did not mean greater rewards for the worker.  It meant greater profits for the corporation.


The ideal of self sufficiency worked against the average person, eh?  So you’d be better off relying on others.  Notice too the repeated use of the word “worker”.  “Workers of the World Unite” then, I guess.  There are those evil corporations again, and the use of “profits” as an epithet.



7.  Social Darwinism


— Applying the theory of Darwinism, survival of the fittest, to political and social life.  The strong must survive to benefit the entire nation.  No sympathy for the weak, (poor, workers).  Laws and social customs were for the benefit of the fittest (rich, industrialist, upper crust of society).  When you combine the philosophies of Social Darwinism with imperialism, and Manifest Destiny., the world created was a tough one for the average person.


The Nazis were Social Darwinists, or I would say “Socialist Darwinists”.  Let’s be clear.



8.  Humanitarianism


— the belief that mankind should help others just because they can.  “Social Gospel” of the latter 1800s.


“Just because they can”, mind you.  Not because it’s the right thing to do.  Not because there are rich people who are, you know, actually human.



9.  Liberty/Freedom/Self-determination*


These fundamental beliefs began to take on a new meaning for many of society as the end of the century approached.  The empathy to “occupied countries” overseas and to the oppressed at home gains attention of a wider spectrum of society in the late 1800s.


Again no mention of rights, rights protection, or founding principles.  Instead it’s all up for grabs, depending on prevailing theories.



9. AMERICAN IMPERIALISM


It is easier to define American Imperialism by contrasting it with Imperialism.


Imperialism is centered on Social Darwinism, Manifest Destiny, and White Man’s Burden.


There were never, ever, anywhere, any non-white Imperialists then.  You racist, you.



American Imperialism tempers those beliefs with humanitarianism and the beliefs of self-determination, freedom and liberty.  Our present foreign and domestic policies are motivated by this belief.


There you have it.  We’re an Imperialist nation.  Damn us all to hell.


This history lesson is a self-contradictory and confused jumble of omissions, lies, half truths and truths.  Would Karl Marx strongly disagree with any of it?

I Stumbled Across This Excellent Dissertation

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And it turns out to have been written by me, so I’m quoting myself.

In a discussion about capitalism, this was asked;

Does Need and Want enter the equation?
How does Marketing elbow it’s way in between Production and Consumption?

To which I replied;

Interesting question. I’d say that need and want are omnipresent in all interactions, but the basic equation is still the same. That production necessarily precedes consumption is obvious, whether or not the goods or services being consumed are both needed and wanted, or merely wanted. Each individual should be free to decided what he wants or needs to produce, what he wants or needs to consume, with whom he will trade, and how, in order to reach his goals. That includes the form of communication we call marketing.

Marketing is as old as humanity. Actually that’s a short sighted statement, because marketing, usually by males to potentially receptive females, has been going on for millennia in other species. Not sure where you’re going with that. I make widgets and want other people to buy them. They’ll never know I have these widgets available unless I advertize in some way. Often that advertizing is as difficult and expensive as the actual production but, just like the colorful feathers on the peacock, I can’t continue without it. If I believe my widgets are superior to widgets made by other producers, it is my want, my duty and my need to explain that superiority. That’s the communication between producer and potential consumer. That enables products of all descriptions to receive trial in the free market. The best performers will in the long run and overall, tend to win out over the lesser performers. Even products some people hate may do very well if there are enough who like them.

To the extent that the producer wants to produce and trade, and to the extent that the consumer wants and/or needs the product, marketing helps both.

If your thought is that marketing can and does steer people in directions they should not go, I would agree in many cases, though interference in that process can only have further negative consequences. Right at the start, legal interference denies the freedom that is the ideal in our society. Ultimately people are responsible for their personal choices, and reality will be the judge.

I may not like what some people spend their money on, I may not like the products some people offer, and I may not like how some people market their products. In a free society, that’s my tough luck. Everything has its costs, and the cost of liberty is that people I dislike may do things I dislike, so long as no one’s rights are being violated. Maybe instead I should find something to worry about that I can actually change. If I believe in my position passionately, I should have the freedom to get together with like-minded individuals and a) do better marketing of my own of a better product, or b) do an ad campaign of my own, warning others of the pitfalls of that other guy’s marketing. If I’m telling the truth, too bad for the other guy, and good for his unsuspecting customers. If I’m lying, he can sue me for defamation or some such, or his customers may ignore me.

The good thing about a truly free market (something no one alive has ever actually seen, by the way) is that people are free to make their own decisions. The bad thing about a free market is that people are free to make their own decisions. Our founding principles and documents acknowledge this dichotomy and uphold it as the ideal.

There are those who would put us in a situation where other people are making our decisions for us. That’s just trading retail bad decisions for wholesale bad decisions, with brute force being the operating system as opposed to free choice and rights protection. We know where that leads.

Alright, Classmates…

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We’ve been talking about this for several years here.  Who can tell us how Rand Paul utterly failed in this interview;


ETA; YouTube imbedding has been disable for this video, but you can still see it here.


Letterman make a pretty good attempt at it, but Paul is left like a deer in the headlights and didn’t even make the attempt.  As Rand herself would say; “Blank-out.”  Then she would go on to explain how the self described conservative voices are the worst, most deadly enemies of conservatism.


I give him a C minus as a junior high school student.  He did show having done some homework and some listening in class, but I’d flunk him from high school.  Maybe it was just nerves, but I don’t buy that.  You don’t forget your main point– the thing you’ve ostensibly been striving for all your professional life.  I kept waiting for it– fully expecting it, but alas.  Maybe he’s just another Republican.


Anyone?


HT to theblaze.com

Allen West Spanks a Koran Thumper

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Interesting isn’t it, how the left has always hated America-loving Bible Thumpers, but has no problem at all with America-hating Koran Thumpers?


West would make a great president, I’m thinking.  Too bad the video isn’t subtitled.  The CAIR rep, when confronted by West, I think, responds; “Hakkalakka, Muhammad jihad! Derka derka!” but I can’t quite make it out so I’m not sure.  The CAIR people aren’t accustomed to having anyone correct their ridiculous assertions.  I guess they’ll have to start learning on the job.


Hat tip to Glen Beck, who mentioned this on the radio this morning.

Pure Awesomeness

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Where else can you find deuterium oxide (or would it be di deuterium monoxide?) uranium, thermite and jet engines for sale on one site?  Too much to mention.  Just look.

Collective Firing Rights

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There sure is a lot of talk about it, but little discussion of it.  Where is it written that public service employees (formerly known as public servants) have a right to collective bargaining?  Regular citizens have rights.  Government employees have responsibilities.  Do your job and quit yer bitchin’ or get out and get a real job– start your own business.  Whatever.  Just shut up and go away.  We never really needed most of you in those public positions in the first place.


I’m not so sure we should ever allow them to organize.  That’s what regular folks do, once in a while, and even then their employers have the right to collectively fire them.


Surely the public servants’ “right” to collective bargaining should come with the right to be collectively fired.  Maybe it’s time to grant them the latter, over there in Wisconsin.


Somehow an angry rent-a-mob of Marxist beatniks and global “One Big Union” socialist revolutionaries demanding more goodies from the pockets of taxpayers doesn’t sit right.  They’re certainly not what they want to be– equal in principle to civil rights marchers.  Not even remotely.


Since they’re pissed off at the state government and trying to stifle the democratic process therein, shouldn’t we be calling them Angry, Anti Government Protestors?  I’ll say they’re just exactly the same as Timothy McVeigh.  What the hell; they’re incipient terrorists.  If it’s good for the goose…


I say fire the lot, eliminate half the positions permanently, and cut all state taxes by half.  Tomorrow.  That would do for a start.  There’d be some breathing room for new start-up business and a rapidly shrinking deficit.  I don’t see a down side.

Our Fragile Infrastructure

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This recent post of Joe’s reminded me.  I don’t remember whether I posted about this before, but a couple years ago during a state highway upgrade outside of Moscow, Idaho, a fiber optic line was cut.  One little line.  Typically, we think of having a cell phone, a computer with internet access, a land line, and a radio as being diversified with regard to our communications.  Well, not necessarily.


When my cell phone was unable to reach anyone outside the Moscow area I tried the land line.  No go.  Then I tried to get on line and check e-mail.  Nope.  Then I turned on the radio.  More than one station dead.  It turned out that more than one cellular service, our local internet access, much of the land line traffic, and even some radio station feeds were using the same FO line.  I don’t know if that’s changed.


I view large scale electrical generation plants in the same light.  Your local food supply may depend on one or two highways and one rail line, and the stores have been relying on the “just in time” inventory method more and more.  A similar situation may exist in your local hospital.  I don’t know.  It costs money to keep extra rooms, beds, personnel and supplies available, much beyond the normal demand.


We tend to take a lot for granted.

Democracy

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de·MOC·ra·cy – Noun – 1. The takeover of a state government by a state employee’s union, often resulting in ever increasing tax rates, and the eventual bankruptcy of the state.


They’re actually shouting, “Freedom!  Democracy!  Unions!” as though the three were compatible, while the democrats refuse to allow a vote.  All this over a proposal that might get their 3.6 billion dollar budget deficit down to 3.3 billion.  In two years.


Via theblaze.com we find Noam Chomsky (yeah, that Noam Chomsky) wants what happened in Egypt to happen in Wisconsin, stating that the governor has “eviscerated” democracy in the state;



The blatant rejection of all reason is on parade.