Veterans’ Day — Thoughts While Sitting on the Shoulders of Giants

“We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.”

— Metalogicon, John of Salisbury, 1159

Veterans Day was last week. I had been waiting about six hours to find out whether a relative of mine would be admitted to the VA hospital, or sent home. I was her ride, so I felt like a hostage in the waiting room in government health care hell, moving from one row of vinyl-covered straight chairs to another, when not forking over dollars to the Starbucks kiosk or a vending machine for the caffeine that keeps me conscious.

I talked on my cell phone to my wife, for the umpteenth time, as she handled the unpleasant family situation we were immersed in to our necks.

A series of squeals came from down the long hallway, to my right, loud enough my wife could hear them.

The preponderant age in this VA hospital is probably in the 60s, so the voice of a child is not a common event. This was a toddler, running ahead of her slightly-embarrassed, twenty-something mother, who was trying to corral her without making more of a scene in the process.

I wondered what brought people from this young demographic to a VA hospital. Visiting the toddler’s granddad, or even great-grandfather? Then I saw the wheelchair.

Rolling along at a stately pace, about ten feet behind mother and child, in a humming electric wheelchair, was more likely the reason for the visit.

Dad — not the mother’s dad, but the toddler’s, I was sure — trailed this parade up the hall.

He was not more than twenty-five, although the scar tissue made a better estimate difficult. The stumps of his legs projected ahead of the chair, and were covered up to the cut cuffs of his sweat pants with scarring that looked like the remains of extremely severe burns.

He guided his chair with what remained of his right hand, and his left arm hung as if it did not have enough strength to be of much use. His scalp was bare, except for the scarring, which seemed to have taken away his eyebrows and most of his left ear. I thought, “There’s what an IED survivor looks like.”

His eyes were clear, though, and his head upright. His face didn’t show any particular indication of the pain — physical and mental — that is probably with him every hour of his life. In fact, when I saw that bearing, I thought, “Marine.”

I am not a Marine; in fact, I have never been in any branch of the service. However, I have noticed a posture, a certain stance, a quiet dignity that seems to accompany most Marines, in or out of uniform; in or out of active service. I have no idea whether this young man was a Marine or not, just a feeling. I don’t know that he was an IED survivor, but there are thousands, by now.

Members of the other branches of service are also seen with this self-contained demeanor that bespeaks  greater age and experience than the calendar would allow. They also carry their scars, visible and otherwise.

This demeanor says, “I have seen the worst the world has to offer; you hold no fear for me.”

I had the impulse to speak to the wheelchair driver, but he seemed to be intent on navigating along behind what I am sure was his family. I was unwilling to violate that, any more than I would presume to carry on a conversation with a member of an honor guard carrying the flag at a funeral.

He rolled on by, and I told my wife I would explain later the childish noises she was hearing over my phone. This short, late, but momentous Veterans Day parade came to the end of the hallway on my left, and turned the corner. The child’s excited speech, and the wheelchair’s electric whine faded away.

My the memory of that moment will not.

Belated Happy Veterans Day.  Belated Happy Marine Corps Birthday.

I remember that I sit on your shoulders. We all do.

Thank you, and thank God for you. I wish you well.

The Fort Hood Killer — Another Misunderstander of Islam?

Before we contemplate the “misunderstanding” that allegedly drove allegedly Muslim Major Nidal Malik Hasam to — allegedly — kill or injure more than 40 people, let us contemplate the real misunderstanding, in the media and government. It must be misunderstanding that keeps these people from figuring out what any sane person can see plainly, with no help from “experts” and apologists.

Islam is not just a religion. It’s a political ideology, like Communism or Nazism, and like those ideologies, it has a blueprint for conquering the world. If Major Hasam, as widely reported by witnesses, shouted, “Allahu Akbar!” (Allah is great!) as he fired at his fellow soldiers, he was only following the tenets of that ideology.

Osama bin Laden, Mohammed Atta, al Qaeda, Hamas, the PLO, Iran, Hizbullah, et cetera ad nauseum, are just following this blueprint, as well. To understand that the Major appears to have been following it does not require  religious prejudice or rabid xenophobia. All it takes is a look at the facts.

If you want a crash course in Islam, without the political correctness and multiculturalist smog that permeate the media and government propaganda, go to Robert Spencer’s site, Jihad Watch.

Get comfortable, and read the section under the “Islam 101” link.

If you’re not quite ready for this exercise, read on a bit, and head to Jihad Watch later.

The motivation of the alleged Fort Hood murderer can be found in the following words:

009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

What’s this? Some Christian hate speech, fabricated to sully the “Religion of Peace,” as Dubyah used to call Islam?

Nope. Sorry! It’s from the Koran, the central authoritative text of Islam, allegedly dictated to an Arab allegedly named Mohammed by the Archangel Gabriel.

Is this quoted from some corrupted, altered, evilly-manipulated Koran text found on some Islamophobic Website produced by the vast, Judeo-Christian Conspiracy? Sorry, again! I pasted this directly from the Web pages of the University of Southern California’s (named with apparently accidental irony) “Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement.”

Discerning critics may note that this verse, the 29^th of the 9^th Surah, is presented in English. Well, I don’t speak or read Arabic, but then, neither do most believers of Islam. Most Muslims live not on the Arabian Peninsula, but in the Asian Pacific, Africa, South Asia and elsewhere.

Wasn’t it thoughtful, then, of three Islamic scholars, Yusufali, Pickthal and Shakir, to produce what they considered to be authoritative translations of the Koran from millennium-old Arabic to relatively modern English?

There are minor differences in the exact words chosen by each to render classical Arabic to English, but one certainly notices the common thread (“fight”) among the versions of 9:29 above, doesn’t one? Are these three guys Islamophobes? Certainly not. They are accepted by Islamic scholars as authoritative. Who are we to doubt them?

Of course, we could debate the “real” meaning of the word, “fight,” which is consistent among the translations.

Is it used in the sense in which John McCain was asking conservatives to “fight” for him in his emasculated 2008 presidential campaign?

Is it used in the way cheerleaders shout, at sporting events: “Fight, team, fight!”?

Well, only if the cheerleaders want their team to kill the other team. I know there are people who take their sports seriously, but I doubt the prevalent desire in any cheer squad, even in Alabama college football, is to exhort their team to kill, as in violently end the lives of, the other team.

If we want to assume that Islam means what it says, and says what it means, we should see what it says a bit earlier in the 9^th Surah, verse 5, as below:

009.005
YUSUFALI: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
PICKTHAL: Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
SHAKIR: So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

“[F]ight…” “slay…” “beleaguer…” “lie in wait…” “ambush…” Does anybody out there think the Koran is telling Muslims to smack our unbelieving knuckles with a ruler? To take away our Internet privileges? When modern-day terrorists quote the Koran in support of their actions, are they showing us their lack of understanding of Islam? Are they “hijacking” the Religion of Peace”? If we can’t believe the stated motives of the people who want to kill us because we are not Muslims, what are we to believe?

Well, we are told by the multicultural elite that the Koran is much more complex than it appears to be, and that we infidels are not qualified to interpret “fight,” “slay,” or “ambush” to mean what they seem to mean: “fight,” “slay,” or “ambush.” The Koran is just a part of Islam’s operating system, and you have to take into account other authorities, or you are just another misunderstander of Islam — like the terrorists.

You also have to understand the “Sunnah,” the “way of the prophet.” The Sunnah is the collection of writings apart from the Koran that describe the way Mohammed lived his life. He is the model man, if you are a Muslim. If Mohammed did it, it’s OK. If Mohammed didn’t like it, it’s forbidden.

There is this bunch of writings, the Hadiths, that are alleged to be contemporary accounts of Mohammed’s behavior, and transcriptions of his words of wisdom, which tell us how Mohammed acted, and what he thought, said and believed. An authoritative collection of these charming anecdotes is Sahih al-Bukari. This collection, like the Koran, has been translated to English by Islamic scholars who are regarded as the experts on those translations.

So, let’s have an infidel-eyeball at a Hadith or two, for an idea of what sort of model man Mohammed was. If Major Hasan wanted to emulate the model man, how would he act? Look at the way Mohammed treated some enemies of his, who had converted to Islam but changed their minds:

Volume 8, Book 82, Number 796:

Narrated Anas:

A group of people from ‘Ukl (tribe) came to the Prophet and they were living with the people of As-Suffa, but they became ill as the climate of Medina did not suit them, so they said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Provide us with milk.” The Prophet said, I see no other way for you than to use the camels of Allah’s Apostle.” So they went and drank the milk and urine of the camels, (as medicine) and became healthy and fat. Then they killed the shepherd and took the camels away. When a help-seeker came to Allah’s Apostle, he sent some men in their pursuit, and they were captured and brought before mid day. The Prophet ordered for some iron pieces to be made red hot, and their eyes were branded with them and their hands and feet were cut off and were not cauterized. Then they were put at a place called Al-Harra, and when they asked for water to drink they were not given till they died. (Abu Qilaba said, “Those people committed theft and murder and fought against Allah and His Apostle.”)

Hmmm. Well, it does seem that there is some propensity for hostility — even to the extent of violence — in the model man toward those unpleasant, thieving infidels. (Also, parenthetically, there is the unorthodox use of camel urine as medicine, which may be a hint as to the way “public option” health care is headed.)

In any case, for Muslims, the behavior of the model man is right, trumping any other standard of morality. Period. Did Major Nidal Malik Hasam do no less than follow this example? He couldn’t command hordes of troops, but he could kill some infidels, so he allegedly did.

Okay, maybe this “hadith” is just an isolated citation, taken out of context, mistranslated, seized upon by Christian terrorists to smear Islam – and fatally misunderstood by Major Hasam. Surely, there are no other such events in the history of Islam. Oh, wait:

Volume 1, Book 2, Number 24:

Narrated Ibn ‘Umar:

Allah’s Apostle said: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform a [sic] that, then they save their lives an[d - sic] property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah.”

The model man seems a bit intolerant of infidels, if I’m not reading too much into this passage. And this applies not just to camel rustlers, but to all unbelievers in Islam.

Well, maybe this bit of “Islamic Manifest Destiny’ was intended by the model man to be limited to the ancient, Arab world, and not the world as we now know it. After the alleged prophet Muhammad died, Islam cut way back on its ambitions to rule the Earth, right?

Uh, no.

First the Arabs, and then the Turks, extended the grip of Islam by force and conquest, following the example of the model man. A series of “caliphs,” absolute rulers of the Muslim empire, extended the domination of the lands by Islam to the gates of Paris and Vienna, spilling untold oceans of blood, and destroying the treasures and cultures of the lands they conquered.

If Major Hasam did what he is said to have done, he was doing nothing but following in the millennium-old footsteps of the model man. Visit Robert Spencer’s site, Jihad Watch, daily, to read about the latest depredations of those who follow the model man.

If the media and government can’t get past their own blindness and stupidity to the truth about Islam, at least you can.

Smart Grid Paranoia

Erica Lovley, (POLITICO.COM), 3/4/09 — Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill includes $4.5 billion in funding for the so-called Smart Grid, an ambitious plan to modernize the country’s electric grid that many Obama contributors are helping to shape.

Steve Holland, (Reuters) – ARCADIA, Fla., Oct 27 — President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced $3.4 billion in grants to help build a “smart” electric grid meant to trim utility bills, reduce blackouts and carry power generated by solar and wind energy.

Oh, don’t we feel good? The Obama administration is paying back GE, Google, IBM and Microsoft, among other evil corporations, for their support of Dear Leader’s presidential campaign. How? Why, they’re handing them a bag full of Scamulus Gigabucks to implement “Smart Grid,” the technology that is supposed to “modernize the country’s electrical grid.” What could be wrong with that?

See, our electrical grid has been patched and bandaged to keep it from repeating the sort of “cascading failure” that caused the Northeast Blackout of 2003, but much of the physical plant that makes up the electric power distribution system of the United States is old, obsolete, and subject to just such failures at any moment.

(Never mind that it is also terribly vulnerable to terrorist attack, either via the Internet or by any sufficiently insane country or extra-national entity with a few bucks to spend to loft a Scud from a freighter off the Atlantic coast, topped with a low-end nuclear warhead, and detonate said warhead a hundred miles above Washington or Baltimore, wiping out the whole system for months, or years. Never mind that.)

Why would the electric companies neglect their own infrastructure? Let me speculate: The big electric power companies are reluctant to put hundreds of millions of dollars of stockholders’ money into infrastructure improvements that will require a microscopic rectal examination by every regulatory agency and environmental group in North America to be sure that they don’t harm snails, owls and fish, or cause offense to favored ethnic groups, or allow career legislators to use them as punching bags when appealing to the aforementioned groups for campaign money.

And, these days, those greedy power company execs are probably wondering, “Is Obama going to nationalize us, the way he did the financial industry and the auto industry, and the way he wants to nationalize the health care industry? Will someone explain to us why we would want to sink money into improvements, when some Obama appointee may well wind up carving up our salaries and profit margins, or inventing regulations that make electricity so expensive no one can afford it?”

Well, now, simmer down. All this “Smart Grid” stuff is about is allowing the power company to reach into your house and instruct your dishwasher to run overnight, when power usage in your area is lower — your dishwasher, and any other appliance that has the right kind of microprocessor controller, and a connection to the Internet.  Never mind that you might want to set your own dishwasher’s timer to run later all by yourself, or that you have good reasons for wanting it done before bedtime.

Big deal, right? Oh, it may also allow Big Power to turn back the thermostat on your central heat system to 60 or so, on the next cold night, from your preferred 68. So, Global Warming takes the night off, and the house is a little chilly when you roll out of bed in the morning. So, it takes a while to get it back into a comfortable range, while you shiver in your bathrobe and sweats, in front of the coffee machine, waiting for it to receive permission from the Smart Grid to start perking. So what? We all have to make sacrifices, in this new world.

You’d like to warm up in the shower, but the electric water heater is still recovering from being put into “sleep” mode by Smart Grid, and it will be a while before there’s enough hot water to keep you from feeling like one of those Titanic passengers floating in the icy North Atlantic, waiting for Leonardo DiCaprio to shut up and drown.

You’d pass the time watching Fox News, but oddly, the new, microprocessor-controlled TV in the kitchen skips past Fox News and stops on MSNBC, and has been doing that for a while. You think about disconnecting the network line that connects that TV to the Internet, but (surely not!) the creepy tingle in your scalp may be less about the prospect of a cold shower, and more because the thought has wormed its way into your mind that someone has decided you are too easily influenced to be allowed to watch Fox News, and is using your power company connection to block it from your TV.

If you disconnect the network line from the TV, will somebody know, and just not allow it to power on, tomorrow morning? Fox News will just put dangerous ideas in your head, anyway. Might as well leave it connected, and do without Fox. That way, when your security system’s motion detectors indicate to Smart Grid that the kitchen is empty, it can turn the TV off, and save a few watt-hours. It saves you money, and allows the poor and unfortunate to use the power you would otherwise waste — or your self-righteous, vegan neighbor can use it to top off the charge in his little electric car.

So, what is there to be paranoid about? Sure, you flew that “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on September 12^th, and you sent $20 via the Internet to that independent Congressional candidate that pledged to put the Constitution ahead of any desire for re-election, even though he wasn’t running in your district. A couple other people in your neighborhood did, and, in fact, your congressional district didn’t go for Obama in ’07.

Wait a minute… I wonder if it ever occurs to the Obama Administration to tweak the Smart Grid to favor “blue states” over “red states?” Once you have the power over power, the possibilities are endless. As I wrote a while back:

Once you have a stranglehold on the generation and use of energy, you have a stranglehold on people.  Let’s just suppose that, on this sub-zero night over a large swath of the United States, the feds decide to provide a little object lesson about how the Constitution is no longer a limit on government power.  It would be a little brazen for President for Life Obama to instruct everyone to hold his or her breath for a few minutes, just to get an idea of what it would be like to be prohibited from emitting the bad pollutant CO2.  Might be a little hard to enforce, too, at this early stage in the Administration.

No, let’s just “accidentally” turn off the power to some states that didn’t go “blue” in the last election, but they’re going “blue” now, from sub-zero temperatures.  Not for long; just for a few hours — say, overnight…the first time, anyway.  Maybe, they will be offered some half-hearted explanation about a squirrel getting into the transformer, and the dang computers shut everything down, dumb computers, or Christian fundamentalist  terrorists, or something.  But don’t try too hard to be convincing, because the point is to make a subtle threat.

See?  If you don’t play by the new rules, will the Constitution keep you warm?  (Maybe you could burn your copy of the Bill of Rights on the kitchen table.  That’ll last a minute or two.)  Yes, your wood stove may tide you over for a few days without power, but a passing car carrying a government official might just see smoke coming from the chimney.  A DEA helicopter might be scanning in the infrared for indoor hydroponic pot farms, and see the heat coming from your fire.  Whoa, we can’t have that, can we? Spewing CO2 out into the publicly-owned air, melting glaciers and drowning polar bears? Tsk.

No, that would never happen. Sure, Obama said before the election he was about to “transform” our country. Sure, he keeps hiring people to important posts who profess an affection for socialism and even communism, and for mass murderers like Mao tse-tung. But surely, they have no intention of making those quirky political views into policy, right?

I’m just being paranoid. Right? Hey! Who turned off the lights?

YOU’RE TOO STUPID!

For decades, the government has been telling you that you’re stupid. Are you too stupid to get tired of that?

You are too stupid to buy a car you can afford, and one that gives you and your family a chance of surviving a collision, rather than one that will crush like a paper bag because it had to lose weight to meet CAFE standards.

You are too stupid to manage your own health care. You need the government to choose your doctor, and to determine if, what, when and how you will receive medical care; and whether you and your loved ones will die because their care is too expensive, or rationed to those in a more favored political class.

You are too stupid to decide for yourself what the truth is, so government will decide who gets to use “public” airwaves to tell you what to think.

You are too stupid to buy a toilet that flushes the first time, a light bulb that doesn’t contain poisons you need a HAZMAT team to dispose of, or to set your thermostat to a comfortable temperature, just because you are the one paying the utility bills.

You are too stupid to distinguish honest expression of news and opinion appearing on the Internet from scams and lies, so government will move in, as in China, and allocate Internet access to the sources that get bureaucratic blessings.

You are too stupid to know how stupid racism is – especially of you are white, or non-white but conservative – so you need government to impose racist standards on hiring, college admissions and just about everything else.

You are too stupid to be responsible for your children’s education. You don’t have an education school degree, so you are not qualified to provide your children with moral education, let alone to home-school them. Government will provide them with all the knowledge and wisdom they need, thank you very much. And government will encourage your children to bring their wisdom home and lecture you  for not buying a hybrid deathtrap car and for running too much hot water, and for not standing whenever Barack Obama appears on TV.

You are too stupid to examine the actual positions of political candidates and decide for yourself, based on those positions, which are more qualified for office. Instead, you need government to restrict the right to run for office to members of one or the other establishment political party. “Independents” and “third parties” should get every possible obstacle thrown in their way, because you are too stupid to see their names on the ballot. The burden of choice would overload your stunted intellect, and you would be incapable of making the right decision.

You are FAR too stupid to own a firearm, because firearms, all by themselves, cause crime and suicide. You are incapable of learning which end of the gun the round comes out of, or how the unload a weapon and make it safe, or how to distinguish a home invader seconds away from crashing through your front door from your mother-in-law getting a midnight snack.

Some of us are at the end of our patience with genuinely stupid, selfish, socialist, statist do-gooders telling us we are the stupid ones.

Are you?

Joe Wilson (R., SC) WAS RIGHT!

For when the "SOCIALIST" poster's 15 minutes of fame ends, my submission...

A Republican in Congress accidentally discovered his spine  and spoke the self-evident truth, and will now, no doubt, pay the price for it.

Just after the Liar in Chief stated in an address to a rare joint session of Congress — with such confidence  that one would almost think he believed it — that government health insurance would not cover illegal aliens (as if he knew which one of the dozen, thousand-page bills before the House and Senate would be adopted), Rep. Joe Wilson, (R., SC) is supposed to have shouted, “You lie!” I think he could have said, “Liar!” Either way, I agree.

Some of you may remember J. C. Watts, US Representative from Oklahoma, who, in 1997, identified some prominent  race hustlers and poverty pimps as, “race hustlers and poverty pimps.” Although a more accurate description of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and  their ilk was never uttered, Watts suffered through scoldings from gutless Republicans everywhere, and wound up leaving Congress to get a real job.

He is only now reported as showing some interest in getting back into the ring. I wish he still had that grip on reality that caused him to utter the truth in 1997, but, he is a Republican, and this is politics we’re talking about.  I can only hope.

I assume that Joe Wilson (not to be confused with the clueless weasel Ambassador and darling of the New York Times) will suffer a similar fate. Too bad, but Republicans in Congress speaking the truth would probably be too much for the country to bear.

Meanwhile, in other news, the Obama administration is hurtling down the road toward transforming a constitutional republic into a fascist “democracy,” and the vast majority of spineless Republicans in Congress smile and go along.

What a bunch of useless eunuchs.

A Town Hall Meeting Without the Meeting — My Congressman’s “Telephone Town Hall Meeting”

Ah, the miracle of modern technology. You can have a town meeting with your congressional district’s constituents, and never step outside the Beltway.

I just put down my overheated cell phone after a “telephone town hall meeting” with my US Representative, John Tanner, Democrat, of the Eighth District of Tennessee. I was in line to ask questions, but the time ran out before I could ask any of them:

1) Will you pledge to vote in a way that upholds the US Constitution, regardless of the political consequences?

and,

2) Isn’t a bill too big to read too big to vote for?

Those of us with questions unasked when time ran out were given an opportunity to leave a voice mail with the questions in it, along with contact information implying that there would be a reply. I did so. John Tanner has replied to my emails in the past, in terms that were at least polite, if not agreeable. I expect something similar — polite, but non-committal — from this.

I wonder how many others were left in line when the approximately hour-long call was over? There would be no YouTube videos of confrontations and protesters appearing online after this meeting, and no accounts of a town hall meeting running for hours while the host got an earful from disgruntled constituents. When this one was over, it was over. Except for the voice mail opportunity.

Of course, there would be no opportunities for the left-wing bloggers to show right-wing members of the “mob” brandishing swastikas or firearms, either, so it may have been a wash, in terms of propaganda value.

Here’s how it went.

Those of us who had pre-registered on the Congressman’s Website got an automated call from the Congressman at about 6:40 PM, this evening (Monday, August 31).  The call was from 202-226-9928, which returns from a reverse search as coming from the US Capitol. Comments on the search site are to the effect that it is a generic, “top number” in a rotation, meaning it shows up when the caller is using any number in the US Capitol. Calling that number back gets a message about it being a “non-working number.” Well, it is in Washington, after all…

I don’t know whether John Tanner was in DC for the recess, or if the call was initiated by a staffer who remained there. Was John hiding in a “secure, undisclosed location” from potentially irate constituents, or was that just a convenient point for originating the call? If all the callers were in Tennessee, how convenient could that be? Just wondering.

I was instructed to hang on, while some on-hold music kept me entertained… Well, it kept me reassured that I hadn’t been disconnected, anyway.

If this was a typical, automated conference call offered by a third-party service, as it appeared to be, it would not have been possible to call a number at this point and be admitted to the call as a “walk-in.” No appointment; no conference call; no interactive communication with the elected representative.

A seemingly automated female voice (probably from the conference call service provider) came on and advised us to enter “Star 3″ if we had questions, which I did, and I did.

A few minutes into the call, a live female (staffer?) voice came on the line with me, and I lost the audio from the conversation between the Congressman and his constituent while she talked to me. She asked me my name, location, and what my questions were. I read her the questions as I had prepared them, above. I assume all other callers had to present their questions in advance, as well.

I can’t claim that questions were screened according to content, although the opportunity was certainly there. From the composition of the questions that made it through in time, however, I have to conclude that any such manipulation of the audience would have been unsuccessful, if it was intended to show support for health care “reform.”  I have more to say about the tone of callers below, but the overwhelming majority of questions were anywhere from skeptical on the details of government health care, to flat-out opposed. If staffers were looking for calls in support of Obamacare, they must have been in short supply.

A live voice, male — probably a staffer — came on and said the same thing about punching Star 3, and gave us a pep talk about being patient, and keeping our questions short. The staffer introduced each caller, with a name and location, and the caller asked his or her question. Some questions included comments, and some went fairly long, but nobody appeared to be trying to make a stump speech.

Congressman Tanner, a self-styled “blue dog” Democrat, seemed to answer skillfully and forthrightly, with only a moderate amount of political tap dancing. Where the questions showed a bias on health care reform, the bias was negative, with the exception of one call. There were no hardball or hostile questions, but only one unabashed supporter of Obama and Obamacare, who sounded like a lifelong Democrat party hack, and indeed, described herself as a multi-generation Democrat.

Most questions included a preamble that was critical of the concept of government health care, ranging from concern over some particulars to blanket disapproval. Many callers were older (I hate the term, “Seniors”) describing themselves as of retirement age, up into their 80s. None of them mentioned health care rationing as a likely way their participation in government health care would end.

My concerns with the direction of the Obama administration go well beyond the particulars of health care “reform,” into what appears to be a (so far) successful, and (so far) bloodless coup d’etat, installing a socialist interim government over the dying remains of a constitutional republic, with an ambitious and unending series of piecemeal usurpations of power by the executive over the judicial and legislative branches.

If they pull this off, I expect history to repeat itself in the form of the socialist democracy’s rapid degeneration into a communist dictatorship. Too many of the people with whom Obama surrounds himself have expressed admiration for communist dictatorships to make this outcome seem unlikely.

Anyway, the call ended before I could ask my question, so I left a voice mail.

I sort of expected an outgoing message like, “You have reached the office of Representative John Tanner, member of the soon-to-be-irrelevant legislative branch of the former United States government. Please leave your questions, and an address where the White House can send ACORN thugs to provide you with end-of-life counseling. Thank you (beep).”

Okay, that wasn’t the message, but it will probably turn out to be about right, when the coup is complete.

And if the ACORN thugs show up in my corner of the Eighth District of Tennessee, they better bring some heat.

Hey, Senators — Like Obamacare? Lead by Example!

Despite a flurry of denials, the stubborn facts about Obamacare (formerly Hillarycare) include the following. Without limiting the expenditure of health care resources by denying care to some people, even taxing the “rich” 100% of what they make every year will not pay for a government-run health care monopoly. Even putting a $100 tax on every pack of cigarettes and on every quarter-pounder with cheese still won’t cover it.

We already know the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress heavily favor abortion. They would mandate child sacrifice if they could get away with it, and there is no reason to believe they won’t try it, some day. They will call it mercy, but death will ensue. And Obamacare will be spared the need to care for a few million unlived lives.

At the other end of life, Obama and his appointees in charge of creating and fleshing out this “public option” (read: you get your medical care from the government monopoly, or you go without, or both, in some cases – your option) are quite fond of preaching that there is some maximum age beyond which humans have little or no value, and thus no entitlement to medical treatment, except for “palliative care,” “comfort care,” “assisted suicide,” or outright, involuntary euthanasia – what used to be called “murder.”

Yes, fellow baby boomers, our most valuable contribution to the Hope and Change era will be to die soon, at minimal cost, and with minimal fanfare.

Were you born between 1946 and 1965? Get in line. You qualify. Show up at the Josef Mengele End of Life Care Center with your picture ID and living will, and don’t worry about cab fare home. You will be joined in line by the chronically and terminally ill of all ages, as soon as their medical bills hit the preset limit.

Just one question: Will our great leaders really lead on this effort to save the “public option?” Hah. Just kidding. We already know they have no intention of allowing themselves to be subjected to Obamacare. Their health care needs will continue to be met by the best and brightest in the medical community, in the poshest and most comfortable of settings, with no expense spared.

Some of these “leaders” have confronted a life-threatening illness which can only be diagnosed and treated by the most expensive means. What if they were to lead by example? Would they volunteer to cut costs by accepting some genteel form of suicide, or “palliative care,” or would they just let the rest of us step up and make the sacrifices?

How about the members of the most exclusive club in America, the United States Senate?

According to Wikipedia, “[a]s of June 30, 2009, 1 Senator is in his 90s, 3 are in their 80s, 19 are in their 70s, 36 are in their 60s, 32 are in their 50s, 9 are in their 40s, and 0 are in their 30s.”

Their list of Senatorial birthdays includes a grand total of one – that’s right, one – member born after the baby boomer era. Forty-eight of them were born before the beginning of the boomer era. Forty-six of the 100 members of the Senate are 65 or older. If they had to live with Obamacare, some of them would not live very long.

We know about Senator Edward Kennedy’s (age: 77) life-threatening illness. Has he decided to get in line with other Massachusetts residents in similar circumstances, and begin receiving “palliative care?” I haven’t heard about it.

Senator Arlen Specter also has a life-threatening illness. How about some “comfort measures,” Senator? No? Well, you must not agree with the eugenics (Oops! Sorry, they call it “bioethics,” these days) experts in the Obama Czar Corps that your life isn’t worth as much, because of your age (79 years), as that of a 25-year-old, and thus, that you should not receive expensive medical treatment.

Former senator Joe Biden is 65, this year. Shouldn’t he step aside and let a younger man be the vice president? Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, would be next in the line of succession to be president after Biden, according to the Constitution, but she’s 69. Statistically, there are bound to be some health time bombs ticking in that Botox-riddled body. Some of them could be expensive. Shouldn’t Madame Speaker make an appointment at the Mengele Center, too?

And, how about senators Robert Byrd (91); Frank Lautenberg (85); Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka (both 84)? Surely, they have lived long, rich lives, and should be willing to step aside (way aside) and let younger Americans have the benefit of the medical care these Senators would otherwise receive. A little end-of-life counseling, gentlemen?

Too bad the people trying to ram socialism down our throats aren’t subject to the hideous results of their decisions. They might take the trouble to read those thousand-page bills, don’t you think?

GUN CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL

This post started with some musings triggered by reading a couple of the densely-written and informative newsletters I just got as a result of joining Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (www.jpfo.org). JPFO is easily the most no-nonsense gun rights organization out there, with the possible exception of Gun Owners of America (gunowners.com), which I also respect very much. NRA has gotten fat and lazy, in my less-than-humble opinion, and has a bit too much in common with the compromisers and careerists in the Republican Party.

That aside, a slogan that may well have originated elsewhere started ringing in my head as I read the JPFO articles: GUN CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL. Control, as Jews who have not succeeded in forgetting their history know, is a prerequisite to subjugation and annihilation, and a people must be disarmed to be subjugated.

Any government that wants to abridge inalienable rights, regardless of the excuse given, wants control over people. That is the nature of government. Any government that is allowed to control you will do so. I’m not just talking about banana republic dictatorships, or the Russian and Chinese super-states. The United States government is no exception. Your city or county government is no exception.

When the dumbed-down, subsidized, emasculated, rootless, amoral, dependents constitute the majority, facts and principles will no longer matter. When that critical mass is reached, perception REALLY WILL BE reality, because there will be not be enough, free people left with a voice and a rational mind that are willing or able to speak out against the lies and propaganda – the “perceptions” peddled to us by government and the compliant, government-approved media.

If the government and media can cause you to be perceived as a slave, expect to be treated like one. If you can be perceived as prey, expect to be set upon by predators. If you can be perceived as meat on the hoof, expect to be treated like somebody’s cattle. It’s just that brutally simple.

It’s time for the defenders of gun rights to stand with other advocates of “inalienable” rights – speech, press, religion, redress of grievances, property, trial by jury, due process, etc. — and to realize that the loss of any of these rights is a loss of freedom  for all of us.

A 75% turnover in the US House in 2010, tossing out incumbents, regardless of party, would be, as the joke about lawyers goes, “a good start.” All of the US Senate incumbents should fall. Only a third of the sloths in this little club of self-important buffoons is up for election every two years, but that, too, would be a good start.

This administration, with far too much groundwork laid by the Bushes and Clintons, is out to “transform” our country – into a socialist state.

In this “transformed” America, we will be allowed to vote on things that don’t matter any more than who will be kicked off the latest “reality” show, so we can claim to live in a “democracy.” The Founders intended to leave us a republic governed by laws that limited government and maximized liberty, but never mind that historical curiosity.

Meanwhile, the real, life-and-death decisions will be made by invisible, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. When the pretense of democracy is no longer useful, it will be abandoned, and we will have reached the last stage of the evolution of socialism: communist dictatorship.

Remember! The “transformation” of the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich was entirely democratic and legal, right up until the Reichstag Fire, when the Nazis bluffed their way into a state of emergency, and got what they really wanted: the suspension of all rights, and the acquisition of total power over the German people. The phrase, “Round up all the usual suspects!” suddenly took on real and ominous meaning for everyone not currently in favor with the Nazis.

In the unlikely event that a huge majority of incumbents can be booted from office in 2010, we still have the immense, unelected federal bureaucracy and the Obama administration and its “Czars” to deal with, so the country will still be far from secure.

The battle will only have begun, and we will enter the very dangerous period in which a regime historically has felt itself threatened, and thus becomes the most desperate of cornered animals.

That’s when things really get interesting.

Begging for Money, and Pretending to Care What Conservatives Think — The Latest RNC “Republican Party Census Document”

I’d like to thank the Republican National Committee for inspiring this post.

Yes, I got another of their “surveys,” today. They must not pay much attention to the ones people send back unless they also contain a donation, which mine have not for about a decade.

Just so the RNC knows I’m not just spouting off on somebody else’s “census,” here’s my survey’s special, secret registration number:

051680-790130

509576472

I’d give you my individually-issued “Voter District Code,” but I’d have to kill you.

I can only stand to plod through a few representative questions, because so many of them are focused on the trivial, while ignoring the monstrous. My replies, all of which go well beyond the largely meaningless “yes” or “no” options, follow each question.

Now, on to the “census document”!

ECONOMIC ISSUES

1) Should we unite as a party to oppose President Obama’s huge tax increase on the American people, particularly the new tax on dividends, capital gains and small businesses?

As much as I would like to help out those who receive dividends, et al, I am really more concerned about the free-fall path to a socialist dictatorship the Republican “leadership” has offered to Obama, by lying down and letting him and the Democrats walk over them like a cheap doormat.

This passive acceptance of socialism and wholesale violation of the Constitution (heard of it, Republicans?) got a real boost under “your” President, George W. Bush, and would have continued under McCain.

Remember the Bush prescription drug welfare program – up to then, the biggest single expansion of government spending since LBJ? Remember “No Child Left Behind,” taking an already-invalid public education system and saddling it with a huge backpack full of federal mandates and no way to pay for them? Gross negligence on securing our national borders? Micromanaging (and largely handcuffing) the military in Iraq and elsewhere? And, as a last hurrah, how about that financial sector bailout, courtesy of George W. Bush, the “compassionate conservative?”

With that for recent history, who could be surprised that Republicans in Congress have rolled over and let Obama put the wholesale government violations of the Constitution into overdrive? Has it escaped your notice, RNC,  that Obama has nationalized two auto manufacturers, and appointed 30-some “czars” – unconstitutional, unaccountable, un-vetted and unqualified in any respect other than as cronies of The One — to run nearly every aspect, of our economy and personal lives?  Why haven’t you Republicans walked out of Congress in protest, and gathered en masse on the Capitol steps to declare you would be no part of such an outrage? If you did, I missed it. The last time you showed that much backbone was during the “Drill here, drill now” campaign, which was encouraging, but oh, so brief.

DOMESTIC ISSUES

Is the Republican National Committee so morally bankrupt, cowardly, so self-serving and/or so terminally stupid that it needs to be TOLD to oppose illegal immigration, “card check,” trial lawyer welfare, a taxpayer-funded, Obama-worshiping  corps of  brainwashed, brownshirt thugs, and the “fairness doctrine” censorship program for all media, including the Internet?

Okay, that isn’t an actual question, but it should have been. Unfortunately, the short answer is, “Yes.” Over the last hundred years, it has become obvious that Republicans include a large contingent of progressives who share Woodrow Wilson’s and Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s goal of weakening the United States and its fundamental principles to the point of irrelevance, so that it can be absorbed into a transnational government.

From Theodore Roosevelt right through John McCain, Republican “leaders” have been leading us over a cliff into subservience to the UN or its equivalent, by promoting a politically-driven court system, an irrelevant, emasculated legislative branch, and real power concentrated in an enormous, unelected bureaucracy.

At least, Obama was honest when he told a campaign audience in Missouri, days before the election, that he was going to “transform this country.” That is just what he is doing. He is making more of what the progressives call “progress” toward transforming the United States of America into a post-Constitution, socialist pseudo-democracy in months, on its way to becoming a communist dictatorship, than his most ambitious predecessors made in nearly a century.

The Republicans, meanwhile, grouse and pout about his methods, and wonder what will be left of the multinational corporations to which they have traded their souls for cushy lobbying jobs after they earn their cushy Congressional retirements. Will the big bucks still be there by the time they resign, or Congress is dissolved by executive order, or they are voted out of office by a contingent of ACORN thugs and illegal aliens, or…

FAMILY AND SOCIAL ISSUES

[Let me paraphrase and condense, for brevity]: Should Republicans allow Obama, Reid and Pelosi to pack the supreme court with liberal sock puppets, force taxpayers to finance abortions overseas, and allow partial birth abortion at home?

Sure, why not? Isn’t that what Republicans would have done if John McCain had accidentally won the election? And the loyal Republican base would be looking around, befuddled, wondering how this happened, and who is to blame.

HOMELAND SECURITY ISSUES

Are you (the former Republican voter, in my case) in favor of gutting the Patriot Act, and other […] laws that promote the safety and security of all Americans, blah, blah, blah?

Does it matter? We conservatives and Constitutionalists were in favor of a border fence, and it hasn’t been built. We still have the most porous border of any supposedly sovereign nation on earth, with thousands of illegals every week, including criminals and terrorists, pouring across like a continuous tidal wave.

Our Border Patrol agents are afraid to pick a place to go to lunch without the advice of an attorney, for fear of being blindsided by their administrators, or an Obama political operative. Bush gave them the back of his hand, as well. Ask former agents Ramos and Compean. Where was the RNC during that outrage?

We were adamantly and vocally opposed to laws that would allow illegal immigrants to stay and flourish on the taxpayers’ dime, and the titular leader of the Republicans was and is still promoting such laws.

Our troops are similarly hamstrung by stupid and self-defeating Defense Department policies, but the Obama administration is considering bringing the troops home to keep us in line, in the event of an emergency. What do you want to bet the civil rights hacks and community activists will be nowhere to be found when the troops get orders to bang on our doors and confiscate privately-owned firearms in some real, or ginned-up, national emergency?

Or, will that be left to Obama’s brownshirts, trained in “summer camps” at taxpayers’ expense to go out and throw their weight around, while the Republican Congressional leadership makes Elmer Fudd noises about being “vewy, vewy careful” with the civil rights of unfavored classes?

Are you in favor of air strikes against nations that harbor terrorists, and space-based missile defense?

Will any defense system ever get out of Congress without political and international law restraints so tight as to render it useless? Will Republicans care enough to do anything beyond casting safe, timid votes, and shrugging their shoulders in resignation when the Democrats bury them under procedural maneuvers? Will the Obama administration ever sign off on any air strike that doesn’t take out Israel or Taiwan? Not before consulting with Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, certainly. In other words, all questions about defense policy are moot.

FINALLY, THE INEVITABLE APPEAL FOR MONEY

I would go on, but I can’t stand it anymore. Besides, about all that’s left is the appeal for money, which was the point of the mailing in the first place. If I can’t give them $500, how about giving them $250? Hah.

Their last stand is, “However, I have enclosed $12 to cover the cost of tabulating my survey.” Shoot, if they can’t tabulate a stinking survey for a lot less than $12, they’re no better qualified to govern than the Democrats. But, we already knew that, didn’t we?

Besides, they’ll ignore the results and go with the path of least resistance anyway, so, what’s the point? I’d rather set a pile of money on fire, or spend it on a much more worthwhile cause, like buying somebody a copy of The 5000 Year Leap.

I’d buy the RNC a clue, but, talk about a waste of time and money….

Obama’s Health Care Memo to Boomers: Do the right thing: Die!

Office of Health Care Resource Conservation
United States Department of Health and Human Services
Washington, DC
July 26, 2009

Thomas D. Cox
[address redacted]

Dear Mr. Cox:

Our records indicate that you are sixty years of age as of your last birthday. The Office has made an examination your centralized medical records, according to HHS regulations.

This examination indicates that you have a combination of seemingly minor medical conditions that, when looked at in the aggregate by a computerized statistical analysis program developed in the Peoples Republic of China, indicate that you may be subject to one or more serious, major health conditions which would require extensive and costly medical treatment. Treatment of these conditions would consume valuable health care resources that are already strained meeting the needs of your fellow Americans.

Your Social Security records indicate an extensive work history. Your credit history includes several stays at vacation and recreation sites. These observations lead the Office to find that you have lived a full and successful life, and we congratulate you on your many accomplishments.

It is our finding, with due regard for the value and potential costs of your life to the greater society, that no more than thirty days from the issuance date of this letter, you should report to the nearest local clinic of the Office of Health Care Resource Conservation, for humane life termination.

Please bring positive identification, including a certified copy of your birth certificate, your Social Security card, and your federally-approved smart picture identification card. You should wear comfortable clothing, and leave all valuables, such as watch, wedding ring, cash and credit cards at home. If you use public transportation to get to your appointment at the clinic, your estate will be reimbursed for the expense

It is our duty to caution you against delaying your appearance at the center. Doing so will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest for contempt of government. As you may know, there is no trial afforded to anyone against who such a warrant has been issued. All civil rights normally accorded to you by government are suspended at the time this warrant is issued, because as of the date and time of issue, you are legally deceased.

We are sure that you will make the responsible decision, and that none of the above measures will be required, saving government resources and protecting your friends and family from the personal and financial stresses of being arrested for harboring a legally-deceased federal fugitive.

Again, we thank you for your long, productive life, and we fully expect that you will cooperate in this process. Please rest assured that your remains (after useful body parts have been removed) will be disposed of in the clinic’s ultra-high-efficiency crematorium in an environmentally sound manner, with the least possible Carbon Dioxide emission.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[signed]
Kathleen Sibelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services