Kennon’s Space

“If things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border,” she said. “This is one NAFTA, it’s one area, it’s one continent and there should be some parity there.”

The above quote is from a news source I rarely read and almost never reference because I really hate Fox News for the way they stood by all those Bush years and rarely if ever called him to task on his crushing of our rights in the name of the “War on Terra”, but this article really jumped out at me and I need to make a comment on it.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a buffoon. The above comments are the kind of unthinking idiotic statements that get made by other non-thinking government functionaries like some public school officials when they institute stuff like “Zero Tolerance” for drugs or violence on campus. Treating our border with Canada the same as we treat our border with Mexico in regards to “Homeland” Security (I still hate that phrase it makes me think I should Heil Hitler after saying it)  is just plain asinine. After the bogus memos coming out of her office about returning vets being potential terrorists and the complete BS about the 9/11 attackers coming into the country from Canada I think Miss Napolitano should step down and let someone with a little more geo-political sense fill the seat she is taking up in the administration.

So a real quick note here about news reporting with an agenda. Here is a story from CNN about the little boy in Florida who accidentally shot himself in the head with an improperly stored weapon. It never ceases to amaze me how some folks will jump on any opportunity to push their agenda capitalizing on an accident like this.  So I read the story and the first half of Rich Phillips’ piece is news, somewhat factual and informative, and mostly impartial. But then, 3/4’s of the way through the author sticks this little tidbit in:

The CDC says three children per day, on average, died in accidental incidents in the United States from 2000 to 2005, the last year data are available.

Now on it’s own like I have posted it here this reads fine. About three children per day die from accidents in the US per day. But when it is embedded in the middle of a news story that is focusing on how a family improperly stored their firearm and surrounded on both sides with pieces of information directly pertaining to guns suddenly the casual reader could easily assume this statistic meant that three children per day die from accidental shootings. Maybe I am just reading too much into this but read the article for yourself and see. So then two statements later the author says:

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says that 34 percent of children in the United States live in homes with at least one firearm, so people have to be aware.

…so people have to be aware…Here is a link to the actual CDC statistics this article is referring to. So from looking through all of those links on the left there you will probably notice what I did…accidental shootings didn’t even get listed as a cause of accidental death of children 0-19 from 2000-2005. The incidence of accidental shootings is so low is doesn’t even merit it’s own category.

So not to add any further pain to the parents whose son is now in critical condition but, at 12 years old that boy is old enough to have been taught proper gun safety. In a home where children are taught how to respect and handle firearms safely even a weapon stowed improperly is of little danger to anyone living in the home. So the moral of this story is two-fold, store your weapons and ammo properly instead of hiding them, and teach your children gun safety early and review it often. With the right to keep arms granted to us by the US Constitution also comes responsibility.

Warning…it looks like the federal government is now going to be regulating CO2 emissions…you know that gas that we all expel (some more than others) when we exhale. This could mean dire consequences for porn theaters, sporting events and gyms alike!

Ms Jackson concluded that these impacts would fall disproportionately on people who were poor or in ill health, and on indigenous groups.

Well that makes sense since most of the people in the US are poor and getting poorer due to Obama’s whiz-bang budget and his policy of crushing the value of our currency.

The EPA’s next step will probably be to grant the ‘California waiver’

Whew…I guess I am safe for now…but what about all those poor souls who live in the other 49 states? I hope they don’t all move here so that they can breath.

The agency says it will “conduct an appropriate process and consider stakeholder input”

Hmm I wonder if that means they are going to ask us how often we feel like we need to breath? Maybe we can avoid some of this unpleasantness through self-regulation. I personally would agree to decreasing my own physical excersion but I am not sure if that is possible without passing into some kind of catatonic state.

The endangerment finding also empowers the EPA to regulate the other five greenhouse gases included in the Kyoto Protocol – methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride

I guess this means that we will be banning beans soon too?

So while you are reading this try not to laugh too much when you check out the headline on this article. After all, laughing expends more oxygen thus increasing your personal CO2 emissions…

Excerpt from an email from Campaign for Liberty President John Tate:

“Campaign for Liberty’s very own Steve Bierfeldt has become an unexpected Internet sensation — and the latest target of over-reaching federal government agents.

You see, Steve was detained by Airport Police and TSA officials shortly after the Campaign for Liberty regional conference in St. Louis.

The officials rudely berated and harassed Steve for 30 minutes in a secluded room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.   Fortunately, Steve was able to record nearly all of the interrogation with his cell phone.

Steve’s alleged “crime”?  Carrying $4,700 in checks and cash from Campaign for Liberty, along with various other materials from our conference.

The local and Federal agents harassed Steve.  They were belligerent, cursing and using insulting language.  They threatened to turn Steve over to the DEA and the FBI, all the while refusing to inform him of his legal rights or explain how cash and checks threatened airplane or airport security.

Throughout the interrogation, Steve remained polite but resolute and declined to answer the invasive questions without an adequate explanation from these federal and local agents as to why they needed to be answered.  Without telling Steve what law he was accused of breaking, they continued their harassment.

Although they grew increasingly frustrated that he remained committed to exercising his rights, intervention from another officer eventually led the police to reluctantly release Steve.

Last Wednesday, Steve appeared on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch to discuss the flagrant violation of his rights and to promote the importance of each of us defending our civil liberties.”

Here is a link to the Washington Times write up.

Here is the coverage on Fox News.

A great article by the WSJ detailing yet another instance in which we see that the Federal Government is evil regardless of who is at the helm. I sure hope those enemy of my enemy Puppet Theater fans who voted for Obama instead of real change are feeling pretty stupid right about now. So much for any hope of them repealing the “Patriot” Act.

“There is no news. There is only the truth of the signal. What I see. And, there’s the puppet theater the Parliament jesters foisted on the somnambulant public.” – Mr. Universe, Serenity.

Wow bet someone at the Globe is going to get fired for printing this piece. Speaking out publicly against the church of Gore tends to land you in big trouble. The author of this article hits the nail on the head when he points out:

“But considering how much attention would have been lavished on a comparable run of hot weather or on a warming trend that was plainly accelerating, shouldn’t the recent cold phenomena and the absence of any global warming during the past 10 years be getting a little more notice? Isn’t it possible that the most apocalyptic voices of global-warming alarmism might not be the only ones worth listening to?”

*GASP*

With some 14,400 candidates competing for just 440 seats around the country, there were fears that violence might erupt when the results were announced, given the large number of losers, all with access to guns.

But those fears have also proven unfounded, so far.

I thought the above quote from this article regarding the recent democratic elections in Iraq to be quite amusing. The author points out that over 14000 people in Iraq ran for around 400 or so government seats. So their assumption was that when the results of the election were announced there would be violence because of the citizen’s ready access to firearms. By their own admission they were wrong.

Then I started thinking of another news piece I read today regarding the murder of dozens of unarmed protesters in Madagascar. I bet some people living in Madagascar wish they were living in Iraq…kind of weird.

On a side note…I was, and still am opposed to the invasion of Iraq based on a number of reasons. Primarily because no link between Iraq and 9/11 or WMD were ever found so the whole thing was sold to us on completely false pretense. That set a very dangerous precedence for America regarding pre-emptive, unprovoked  invasion of another sovereign nation. But now that we have really stuck our foot in it, I sincerely believe that as long as democracy holds, Iraqis will be much better for it 10 years from now than they would have been otherwise. The ends doesn’t justify the means in this situation. But in my opinion if 10 years from now the Iraqi people live in a moderately progressive democracy it will come damn close.

You’ve gotta wonder sometimes….especially when even trusted and respected news sources like the WSJ print articles like this without any kind of rebuttal on some obviously ridiculous, almost parody-like silly comments. Let me give you a brief synopsis. According to some ultra-right wing Russian nationalist the US will dissolve into several disparate states at some point in the next 2-3 years…Take a look at the map at the bottom of the article to full appreciate the stupidity of this former KGB analyst’s theory, and his obvious complete lack of understanding of the geo-political climate here inside the US.

First off I think the esteemed Professor Panerin completely lacks even a basic understanding of the American culture. This is a culture that is strongest when there is massive internal disagreement. The whole concept of American freedoms is based on the concept of diversity. This is an idea you never fully understand until you are immersed into it. And it is a concept that will guarantee the cultural dominance of America for many centuries to come. Governments of Russia, China, Japan, and other homogeneous cultures do not have the ability to adapt, grow, shrink, and otherwise change on short order like that of America. Case in point, after a 12 year politically conservative dynasty who drilled “Just Say No” into our subconscious we elected a man who admitted to smoking pot to the White House. After 8 years of moderate left wing political rule under the Clinton administration we elected a fundamentalist right wing Christian to the White House. Even after he was given the opportunity to show us his true right wing, hawk colors in the first 4 years of his administration we sent George W back for another 4 years. This last November we pulled a complete 180 degree turn and sent a man to Washington who bears a name in the style of the culture we have been politically and media trained to hate, Barak Hussien Obama. No where else in the world could this happen. Even our closest sister nations like Canada and the UK the opposing parties are very much just different shades of socialism.

Think of the diverse political and culture beliefs internal to the US as those of a functioning household. Siblings, all the states and communities within those states struggle and strain against one another to sit at the table with all the others. Many times there are fights between these siblings and ideals collide dramatically. But it only takes the mere shadow of an outside threat to unify the house against the external threat. Like the big brother who teases and tortures his little sister every day will instantly drop all regard for his own personal safety to defend her against a neighborhood bully so did the men and women of every state within the US rush to military recruiting depots in the year after 9/11 to go to Afghanistan.

If you know me, or have read any of my previous posts you will know that I am no fan of the federal government. But things are a long way from all out civil war, and if China, or the EU or Mexico, or Russia has any designs on absorbing, annexing or otherwise influencing how the US will look in the next decade they have another thing coming. The whole problem inside the US today is the feeling of outside control…outside our own communities the last thing that will happen is for the people of Alaska or Texas, or Oregon to replace Washington D.C. with Russia, Mexico or China. And to allude that anything like this could ever be possible demonstrates that Professor Panerin’s credentials on the U.S. are fictional. With analyst and intel like this is no wonder the Soviets are dead.

One of the scarier articles I’ve ever read. 15,000 troops on active deployment here domestically in the US. I am pretty sure this will be just the beginning. How 15,000 soldiers will be better equipped to defend us against domestic terror threats than an additional 15,000 US Marshals or ATF agents or FBI agents or local law enforcement agents is so fucking far beyond me it isnt funny. This whole thing is just an excuse to suspend Posse Comitatus again. Bush tried to use Katrina to take care of it a few years ago but got some pushback…so now we just need to wait for the next President and a terrorist attack for it to be taken down again, maybe permanently.

I’m sorry but honestly I’d much rather see those funds spent on beefing up local law enforcement and emergency response systems in the specific communities. Sheriff depts, city police forces and local paramedics are people who live and work every day in those same communities they are responsible for. They know the people, the know the culture and they know the area much better than some scared 20 year old from 1000 miles away in a flak-vest toting an M-16. Trust me, I’ve been the kid in the flak vest so I’ve seen this situation from both sides. This plan represents a level of security whose cost in liberty is too high.