Friday, May 20, 2005

Blog Roll Addition

Arielle, I added you today. It is something I meant to do a long time ago, but I finally got off my lazy arse and did it.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Monster Debt

A quick reading of TGAMM (The Great And Mighty Mogambo) led me on a pursuit to find out the debt load here in the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve the mortgage debt for 2004 was $7.542trillion and the more current number for the remaining outstanding credit is a mere $2.127 trillion (trillions ya'll) $9.669 trillion total household debt. That is $69,070 for every person (140 million of us) in America with a job. Take out the gov workers and ya have $96,698 for every private sector job.

And then there is that pesky national debt of, as of 5-18-05, $7.768 trillion

Total: $174,381

Now compare that with the average annual income of $32,000... that's umm, hmmm 5.45 years income for every private sector job.

I'm needing a raise.

Polistasi Accountability

In Sweden a pair of cops were jailed and a third fined after failing to respond when a woman was being raped. This stands in sharp contrast to the polistasi here in Amerika. Here, they have no resposibility to the citizenry.

In Warren v. District of Columbia, two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third women, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate's screams had stopped, they assumed that the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs, they saw that, in fact, the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive ... (omitted, you can fill in the blanks here)" The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen" (Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)

Further the court in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, (109 S.Ct. 998 (1989) at 1006)held that no duty arose as a result of a "special relationship," (a SR is when the police know of a threat/danger to you) concluding that Constitutional duties of care and protection only exist as to certain individuals, such as incarcerated prisoners, involuntarily committed mental patients and others restrained against their will and therefore unable to protect themselves. "The affirmative duty to protect arises not from the State's knowledge of the individual's predicament or from its expressions of intent to help him, but from the limitation which it has imposed on his freedom to act on his own behalf"

Interestingly enough if they dont let you own/carry a firearm or any other weapon for that matter, they somehow dont see that as having imposed a limitation on you.

Now if we could just hold our boys in blue accountable for their actions...

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Niggles

The Scotsman has an article about annoying habits. According to the article avoid the following 'niggles'

• Fabricating anecdotes in a desperate effort to liven up a dinner party.
• Using cringe-making terms of endearment such as ‘babykins’ in public.
• Displaying fear during horror films (if male) - this is a turn-off for women.
• Racking up excess luggage charges by going over the top with holiday packing.
• Making a partner spend far longer than they want to on shopping trips.
• Laughing at your own jokes, oblivious to the fact that no-one else is.
• Complaining about partner’s clothes.
• Changing preset controls on the car stereo.
• Tipping clutter from coffee table on to floor to make way for TV dinner.
• Failing to replace loo roll when it is finished.
• Leaving wet towels around.
• Scattering clothes about the bedroom.
• Reading e-mails while claiming to be conducting an important discussion about the mortgage or similar subject.
• Using a fork as a backscratcher.
• Nose-picking.
• Burping.
• Clipping toe-nails, even if newspaper is spread on floor to catch clippings.
• Wearing tatty clothing.
• Getting drunk despite lack of any obvious excuse.
• Failing to control flatulence.
• Being late.
• Asking for explanations of TV dramas, causing partner to miss plot twist.
• Obtaining reassurance about clothing, then changing it anyway.
• Making any attempt to complain about any of the above.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Coming Soon: Indoor Shooting Range

Whistling Pines Gun Club will be opening in November of this year. A total of 18 lanes and a limited membership of only 3,000. I am interested, but would have to shoot more than I do now to justify it. Having said that, something a bit closer and not freezing at 8AM might entice me to go shooting more. Also, they will except most ANY caliber. This includes the massive new .500 S&W Magnum which no person in their right mind would want to shoot (tho I'd like to try it once) and shotguns (sabots too) and rifles up to the .416 Rigby.

On the same subject, I found a fun little addition for an AK-47 which makes me want to go out and buy one. A 100-round clip. The mag is so big it actually loops onto the barrel. I imagine this makes the rifle excessively heavy, but how cool would that be? And in a full auto mode it wouldn't last very long anyways.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

No king but King Jesus

Wes posted an item on the pledge of allegiance so I thought I'd add my two cents.

I was quite sure that I had posted on this beforebut I cant find it so I will sum it up. The Pledge was written by a socialist who wrote it to indocrinate children into the socialist way of thinking. Those words were not written by a patriotic man, nor a Christian. One thing most people do not know is that the hand over the heart is not the way it was to be recited. Rather, the original Pledge was recited while giving a stiff, uplifted right hand salute, which was criticized and discontinued during WWII. Nazis used the same salute, only palm down. And the "under G-d" bit was added by President Eisenhower in 1954.

So where does the Christian's allegiance lie? To Christ and Christ alone.
Mark 12:30 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment."
Deuteronomy 6:5 "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

This is where our founding fathers placed their allegiance. On April 18, 1775 John Adams and John Hancock were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke, a Lexington pastor and militia leader. That same night Paul Revere arrived to warn them of the approaching Redcoats. The next morning British Major Pitcairn shouted to an assembled regiment of Minutemen; "Disperse, ye villains, lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England." The immediate response of Rev. Jonas Clarke or one of his company was: "We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus."

If one must say a pledge, perhaps the some Ray Boltz lyrics would work
"I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
To the Lamb of God who bore my pain
Who took my place, who wore my shame
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
"