Delusional

I have a cousin who is an avowed atheist.  She swears that she's a good person without needing external rules and guidelines imposed by an "imaginary friend/sky daddy." 

Given the things I've seen her post to FB, I would...not agree with her.  At all.  

I mean...

Yeah, let's look at this.  

I didn't particularly want to teach the kids that Santa brings gifts for kids on Christmas.  It's dumb.  And I'm really kind of sick and tired of the ruse--this is going to be the last year, since I have teenagers.  But it was useful while they were smaller to use the ruse to get them once-a-year expensive toys, and not have them begging us to get them expensive shit year-round.  

That said...there's no fucking way I think this  picture is remotely funny.  What the actual fuck.  

This isn't schadenfreude.  This is deliberately causing pain to a child. Hurting a child for the fun of it.  

I know she'd probably protest that it's "art," and "it's a joke," and "it's AI generated."  

Thing is...I've messed with AI art.  Bing Image Creator is actually a lot of fun to play with, and you can make some really gorgeous pieces with it.  

AI art is made by inputting descriptions.  This art was designed by someone who thought it was funny--was fun--to make a little kid cry on Christmas morning.  

This is the least of what I've seen her post.  

She mocks Christians by cherry-picking things from the Bible--that slavery's okay,* and polygamy,** and that horrific punishments, like "an eye for an eye" were allowed and encouraged.***  

And yet...

...and yet.  

Christians are not the ones posting things that show joy in deliberately causing pain, much less deliberately causing pain to the innocent among us.  Christians are not the ones suggesting that dissenters should be raped and tortured to death (yes, I've seen her post things like that).  

Full disclosure: yes, I laugh my ass off at people hurting themselves.  I think the shocked dismay that people who are suddenly thwapped with the consequences of their own freely-chosen actions and decisions is hilarious.  

I do not think causing pain to children is funny.  Nor do I think it's funny when a child  actively hurts him or herself because the adult in charge of their well-being either dropped the ball, or set them up.  

Nor do I think it's funny for adults to get hurt because someone lied to them, or set them up for the sake of a video prank.****

Love thy neighbor as thyself.  Love your neighbor as you would yourself.  TREAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU WOULD TREAT YOURSELF.  

It's not a difficult concept.  It's the base command in Christianity.  Love God, and love your neighbor. 

That is what makes a good person.  And atheists are far too prone to allowing the monkey-side--the fallen side--full control over their actions toward their fellow human beings.  Atheists are far too prone to dehumanizing those that don't march in philosophical lock-step with them.  

Atheists don't just go tribal--they go full monkey-band primal. Because they lack the guidance--the reason--to be better than their own worst impulses.  To do better than their own worst impulses.  

You know, my cousin swears she loves children.  That she'd never hurt them.  

Yeah.  I don't believe her.  And I won't let her be anywhere around my kids unsupervised.  

*Slavery isn't okay.  And the rules around slavery in the OT? Those put limits on how people were allowed to treat their slaves, and turned slavery into indenture.  The Israelites were required by God to offer freedom and adoption to their slaves every few years.  This, in contrast, to how horrific slavery was literally everywhere else, was a MASSIVE social change for the better.  

**Polygamy was everywhere.  Men died early and suddenly, and a woman alone was at enormous risk of victimization and violent death...or death of exposure and starvation.  

***An eye for an eye was a hard, upper limit, not a "this is the least of what you can expect." If someone puts out your eye, you're not allowed to do more and worse to him, much less his entire family, blood-line, city, and/or tribe.  Remember Jacob's sons, and what they did when their sister was taken in marriage without family permission (aka, "raped" which had different legal definitions in OT times). 

****It's not funny when teens self-harm because of the trans trend.  It's not funny when teens hurt their futures because they're told they must go to college, whatever the cost and however much debt they have to take on to get there.  It's not funny when people choose one focus over another because their advisors lied to them about income potential ("you'll keep a higher percentage!" but not "you can't charge as much, so your actual net will be far lower.").  It's not funny to sneak up on people and sucker punch them on video (although it's funny as hell when the jump-scare pranksters get shot).

A thought...

I've been noting a lot of noise surrounding Weinstein and his treatment of women.  More to the point, his assaults.  There've been a LOT of people coming forward, admitting that they've been harassed, molested, and/or raped.  It isn't just women, either--it's women, men, and children.  And from the sounds of it, it's endemic in the industry. 

Everyone knows of how Roman Polanski raped a thirteen year old girl, then flipped her over and raped her ass when she was afraid to fight him off for fear that she'd never be able to fulfill her dream of acting and told him she wasn't on the pill.  He ignored her protests, ignored her saying no, and forced himself on a child.

And Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn't "rape, rape," because she didn't fight. 

Several years ago, Corey Haim committed suicide.  Because he was repeatedly raped in his teens by directors he didn't name.  Corey Feldman almost self-destructed with drugs and alcohol for the same reason.  He still doesn't name them, but unlike all of  these other victims coming out as victims, he explained why.

It's not because he's afraid he'll never work in Hollywood again (he doesn't anymore; why would he be afraid of that?). 

It's because his predators have made it absolutely clear to him that, should he name names, they'll take him to court for defamation of character. 

They'd win, too.  They still have HUGE amounts of money rolling in.  They feel safe from being investigated, much less charged and/or convicted. 

The individuals howling for actors of all ages and sexes to name names either don't know this, or they don't care that the victims would be harmed again, would have to relive that trauma again during the lawsuits, would still lose, and all at the hands of the predators that had hurt them in the first place.

Yet another zinger from my mom...

So, I was talking to Mom on the phone, and pointing out that she's a door mat: people whine a little bit, and take advantage.  I also pointed out that she's far too prone to taking people at their word, and too sympathetic, and too ready to suggest that maybe the government "ought to do something to help people." 

Her response? 

"Well, maybe I'm too soft.  But you're too hard.  You have no compassion for people who are down on their luck."

Well. 

Fuck you very much, Mom. 

She's right, in a way.  When people are "down on their luck" through a string of bad decision after bad choice after stupid action, then no, I don't have compassion. 

In 2011, Joplin faced one of the biggest tornadoes that this area of the country has ever seen.  There was a path of destruction six miles long, and varying between 3/4 and 1 mile wide.  Many people lost homes all the way down to the slab. 

We weren't home.  Thank God, our home wasn't touched.  That evening, I gathered up all of the unopened diapers, deodorant, soap, outgrown baby clothes, wipes, and anything else I could think of getting together.  Including canned food for the shelters feeding volunteers and newly-made homeless. 

Because losing everything to a massive tornado?  That's down on your luck.  One spouse out of two losing their job (and the other getting wages garnished to pay child support on their unemployed spouse's children)?  That's down on your luck. 

Choosing to buy a car that's a little more than what you need (or honestly can afford)?  That's stupid.  Active stupid.  Paying the stupid tax every month stupid. 

Choosing to buy gormet level food on a fixed income when you REALLY CAN'T taste the difference?  That is, again, active stupid.

Choosing to not just get a tattoo, but finance the fucker?  Active stupid. 

Choosing time spent "protesting" over hours spent working, then complaining that you can't afford a $10/month pack of birth control pills?  Active stupid.

Choosing to try to stay in a minimum wage job* AND buy/rent things that your parents worked their asses off AND pooled their income with roommates for (such as: more than studio apartments)?   Active stupid.

Choosing to buy cigarettes over diapers?  Active, malicious stupid.  

Doing this while your kids are going hungry and whining about how you have no money for food or diapers does not spark compassion in me.  It sparks rage. 

And somehow, that is a "lack of compassion."

*Staying on minimum wage is NOT easy.  Show up on time every shift for sixty to ninty days, you get a raise.  Stay on for another two or three months, you get a raise AND a promotion.  Stick around long enough, and you're getting a decent wage and running one or two (or more) stores.  Staying on minimum wage takes effort.

I can't say I'm surprised.

Reports I've heard out of France put the toll at between 120-160 dead; some reports say the perps are also dead, others aren't sure.

I am...unsurprised, to say the least.  I am also, to some extent, unsympathetic.

The people of France, like us, choose their "rulers" in elections.  Their "ruling class" chose to permit the waves of invaders inside their borders, apparently without even bothering to check baggage.  That, in turn, both permitted and damn near encouraged the recent events.

I cannot feel sorry for people who invited in and welcomed those who seek wage war, with or without a nation* backing them up.

Does that mean that I'm going to be unsympathetic to our own people if it happens here?

In a word?  Yes.

To an extent.  However, I don't think they'll find Americans as easy of targets, unless they deliberately hit gun-free zones (which they likely would).  However, after what's happened in Paris, I strongly doubt otherwise law-abiding carriers will leave their means of self-defense behind.

Other than that...again, the American people have permitted gleefully placed in charge those who would welcome in our enemies with open arms (and perhaps the hope that those enemies will take out a few of those who vote against the socialist/fascist/progressive agenda, and remove enough "no" votes to change the political landscape).

So, yeah.  I'm not feeling a whole lot of sympathy.

I am not Charlie Hedbo.  I am not a Parisian.  I am not a victim.

And I don't feel too sorry for those who choose to be a victim in some weird version of Sister Bertha virtue signalling.  

*If world governments bothered asking the radicals, they'd find that the radicals see "islam" as their nation, rather than any particular acknowledged nation state.

Again, it's culture. NOT race.

So.  Recently, there was a black thug that got himself ventilated by a cop because he either (at the very least) started to drive away from a traffic stop that discovered his license was suspended, or (likely, but can't tell from the video) he grabbed the cop as he started to drive away, trying to drag the cop under the car. 

I say likely, because it's become a popular move with certain, inner city cultures. 

There is a certain crop of social justice warriors bullies out there that are aghast that black people almost invariably* have negative interactions with the police.   Well, maybe a large segment of the black population does have negative interactions with the police; however, how much of that is the fault of their own behavior?  They act out, getting up in the cop's face, and trying to intimidate them into going away.  They curse at them, act belligerent. 

How the fuck do they think police will react to a valid threat to their lives and safety?  Because that is what they are presenting themselves as. 

I've seen plenty of white people do the exact same things.  And I've seen whites have the exact same reaction from the police.

The neighbors from a couple years ago living in the house across and down from us with no electricity, heat, or water...their trouble with their kids getting yanked started when the cops saw the kids (three years, and eighteen months) playing in the unfenced yard, didn't see their mother watching them from the open door while she changed a diaper, and stopped to investigate.  She got belligerent and a bit nasty with them, her husband got verbally abusive, and their kids got yanked, and he got arrested.  No, he didn't get physical, just mouthy.  And no, he wasn't flung to the ground and beat--but he had been in the past, when he did get physical. 

He learned.  He learned from the consequences of his own actions, and he learned from watching what happened to others. 

You'd think that a certain segment of the population would be capable of learning the same. 

I am, by no means, trusting of the police.  The county cops around this area, yes, but not the city.  I've had too many belligerent officers (probably high school bullies) try to tell me and my family that we don't have the rights that I know we do.  I likely will not call the police for help with problems, and not unless it's absolutely necessary.

But.

We do not act, nor do we react, with the same stupid, saving-face behaviors that the tribal-minded inner city thugs tend to, so I am absolutely unafraid that we will be physically harmed. 



*Buried amonst the other stories are ones like this, or this, that don't fit the narrative of racist cops murdering innocent black choir boys. 

Sorta, but not quite.

So.  Ran across something last week that I've been ruminating on: "Skull-Stomping Sacred Cows: People are Dying Because We're Weak." 

We aren't weak.  Well, the American people (the real ones, the ones that remember what it is to BE an American, rather than European, or a "citizen of the world") aren't.  Neither are our military branches. 

Our politicians--the ones in control, and the ones our enemies look to when they assess the rest of us--are.  They desperately want to be "liked." 

We are not up against a similar culture, like we were in WWI or WWII, where we fought (mostly) in Europe against others who come from the same racial and cultural heritage that our nation was built on.  No, this is more like fighting on the Pacific front: we have facing us an enemy that sees nothing wrong in acts that seem, to us, to be cowardly, or barbaric. 

The thing is, they seem that way because they come from different cultural roots.  Ones that we only sort of shared.  These roots are in the Old Testament of the Bible.  Ours are almost completely founded in Europe alone, or in the New Testament.  Theirs are formed by tribalism,* ours by feudalism.**

We have it within our culture to overcome and wipe out theirs.  We've done it before, when we had to (see the early colonial period when we were forced to defend ourselves from the aggressive aboriginal tribes).  We are capable of doing it again.

Should a massive attack happen that hits us in the nerve center of the nation (i.e., Washington, D.C.), I do believe that our declared enemies, those who've declared war on us time and time again, will find that we are capable of doing it again, and that what they perceive as weakness--an unwillingness to cause unnecessary harm, or to torture instead of a swift death, or the discipline to not charge screaming into the fight but to wait and aim until there's no way to avoid our shots--are not weaknesses at all, but a massive well of strength that they, in their fractured, tribal based culture cannot hope to match.   

*Tribalism is focused on family, then extended family, then tribe, and to hell with anyone else.  And if stabbing a relative in the back is necessary for your own advancement, it's for the good of the tribe.

**Feudalism, done right, is a ruling class that cares for and protects its everyday people, right down to the individual families.  Advancement is not handled at the point of a knife, but by proving merit and working hard.

We are not Europe.

Recently, New York passed a law that states that "assault" rifles must be registered with state authorities.  I recall reading in the article that followed it up some time later that less than 20% of "assault" rifle owners in the state registered their rifles.  I'm pretty sure it was probably fewer than that, should all of the facts be known. 

Connecticut, after Sandy Hook, passed something similar, swearing that they only wanted to know where they were.  I'm pretty sure more registered there than in New York, but probably not as many as they'd've liked. 

And now, they're sending out confiscation letters.  Granted, they're only sending letters to those they think own an evil murder rifle, but I doubt the rest are far behind. 

The government officials involved in this stupidity are forgetting something: those that meekly registered their rifles like they were told may be sheep, but those that chose to disobey the law that ran contrary to their rights stated in and protected by the second amendment are likely to use those very rifles to protect themselves and their rights from a tyrannical government. 

They've also forgotten that Concord and Lexington were prompted by a government gun grab. 

In the twentieth century, there have been numerous gun grabs throughout Europe and Asia: The Ottoman Empire in 1915; the Soviets in the '20s; the Germans in the '30s; China, Uganda, Guatemala, and Cambodia through the second half of the century.  In each case, gun registration was near-immediately (within a year or two) followed up by gun confiscation.  In each case, the citizens meekly and lawfully turned over their arms.  And each case was followed up by massive numbers of people murdered by the very governments they turned their guns over to.  Millions.  Tens of millions.  Mostly either minority ethnic groups, persecuted religious minorities, or political rivals. 

Many Americans are both aware of this and wary of this happening here. 

This nation was founded by men and women who keenly felt the injustice of a hereditary political class that controlled their lives to a huge extent, and thus, left for freer pastures.  Though some two hundred years of political neglect--almost entirely benign--those who made this land their home learned to govern themselves, and learned to like the freedom to be left alone that they'd found here. 

In the early 1770s, that freedom started to be constricted.  The people were treated very unfairly (see the Declaration of Independence for further detail), and it chafed.  In 1775, the British government decided to quell the rebellion it could smell brewing before it got started, and misstepped.  King George III either didn't realize, or forgot, that the American colonies were made up of steel-spined malcontents that clanged when they walked.  And, in trying to seize the means for the colonies to defend themselves, triggered the very rebellion he feared in Concord an Lexington. 

Americans in 2015 are, for the most part, descended from these men who laid their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor on the line.  We are not sheep. 

And, most of all, we are not European. 

We will not lay down our God-given rights to defend ourselves just because some chattering, inbred nitwits in the hereditary political classes that have grown like a tumor in the heart of our nation tells us to.

Well, now.

If this doesn't go over like a shit-filled lead balloon, I don't know what will.  People who care about their families enough to bust their asses to move to the suburbs do so because they want to get away from inner-city dwellers.  It isn't a race thing--I had a black student last semester that desperately wanted to move their mama and younger brother out of Chicago, who had more of what it takes to get  and stay out than some of my lower/middle class white kids.  It isn't race, nor is it racism that makes people leave the cities. 

I grew up around poverty.  And it's a whole different mindset than middle to upper class.  One of the biggest differences is courtesy, and the ability to defer gratification. 

When I say courtesy, I don't mean fancy manners, nor yet the whole treating others well.  I'm talking about knowing what not to overshare.  No, people don't want to hear about your poop problems in public.  No, we don't want to hear about your ingrown pubic hair problems.  Nor yet your toenails, kidney stones, or any of your other various nasty health complaints.  Yuck. 

My mother does not have any sense of when this is and isn't appropriate, nor for who she can/should discuss this with. 

I think I've already discussed the inability to delay gratification and plan for the future being a strong predictor of a person's socioeconomic standing; however, this isn't limited to financial choices.  It's the choice to gang up and bully someone because they're the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood.  It's the choice to vandalize someone else's property.  It's the choice to get pregnant because there wasn't birth control available when somebody wanted some (and yes, that is a choice: even as a teen, I was entirely capable of choosing to do something else when life-altering consequences were possible).  It's choosing to disrupt class because somebody passed someone into a grade they weren't ready for, and can't keep up with, several times in the name of "social promotion" and "self-esteem," because they can't stand that other students want to learn. 

"Rich" families in "rich" neighborhoods (that aren't "rich" enough to pay the shake-down money that this will likely attempt to gather) left the inner cities to get their kids away from behavior like this.  I do not think they'll be happy when King Putt insists on bringing the inner city to their neighborhoods, and infecting their culture with the same rot.

And they sure as hell don't want it in their schools that they paid through the noses with property tax to get their kids into.  Schools are bad enough without disruptive influences that cannot be punished because "racism."

Pretty sure the "I didn't mean it like that" defense didn't work for Edward II.

Back in the early middle ages, a king appointed one of his courtiers to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury.  He assumed that his man would represent the interests of the crown rather than that of the Church. 

It backfired spectacularly.  Thomas Becket was ordained, and began representing the interests of the Church, which pissed off the king...to the point where Becket fled to the Continent for a few years.  Once he returned, during the reign of the following king (who broke tradition and was crowned elsewhere--a bad sign), things got worse: the king, Edward II, said something along the lines of "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"  The exact wording is under dispute, but what happened was that four knights, freshly returned from the Crusades, decided that this was a Royal Command, and went to confront Becket.  And then, they murdered him in the cathedral. 

Three years later, he was canonized.  No, the king wasn't directly punished, but that was pretty much a slap in the face, a "we don't believe you didn't mean it" from Rome. 

I see shades of that happening in San Diego, now.  San Diego has passed an anti-gang law that states that even those inciting gang violence, knowingly or unknowingly, or profiting from it in some way, are liable as conspirators.  And now, they've arrested a rapper--Brandon Duncan, aka Tiny Doo--under said law.  He faces prison for life with all of the charges laid against him.

The ACLU are protecting him, stating that he has a right to rap about whatever he wants--that the first amendment protects him and his art. 

I can, on the one hand, see their point. 

On the other hand, Duncan's defense strikes me as a cross between that of Edward II who implied that he wanted the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered, and that of the type of idiot that screams "fire!" in a crowded theater, then tries claiming that it was his right under the freedom of speech. 

Pretty much all of the gangsta rappers tend to incite violence, crime, and rioting.  Why shouldn't they be prosecuted under similar laws that normal people inciting riots are prosecuted under?

GAH!

We did some household shopping, today, right before Odysseus really buckled down and started studying.  One of the things I've been keeping an eye out for, for the pixie, is a new swim suit.  We started at Sam's Club with the household shopping (and damn it, I forgot the kids' vitamins!), and I spotted children's swimsuits.  For $10-12 each.  Sizes 4-14. 

So, I pull out the size 4, and look at it: the legs are butt-cheek-baringly high-cut.  For a four year old. 

I put it back.  The pixie sorta liked it, but was more like 'meh, don't care.' 

And then we hit Walmart for a couple of things.  Initially, it was going to be one thing, but the pixie decided she was hungry and wanted popcorn chicken.  So, we all went in.  And I decided to look for suits there. 

And I despaired: all of the one piece suits had the high cut legs that would wedgie in to show off the entire butt.  It's one thing to have this type of an option for adult women, but for little girls???  And that wasn't even the worst! 

A bikini.  An honest-to-god bikini. It comes in zebra print, too. 

Okay, people: What. The.  Fuck. 

What kind of sick fuck puts their two year old in a bikini?

And then wonders why we have so many more pedophiles becoming bolder and bolder?

Any case...I did what I could to find something that I deemed appropriate: a tankini with boy-shorts.  Found one in pink camo up top, and hot pink on the bottom.  She already likes it more than anything else I spotted, and I think it'll be cute without trying to sexualize a tiny girl. 

But still, my mind boggles...a bikini.  For toddlers.  

Incredible.

If the whole "furlough" of "non-essential" federal employees hasn't been bad enough, there's tons worse: scenic view pull-offs in South Dakota have been blocked off with orange safety cones to prevent people from pulling over to take pictures (not that that would actually stop someone really determined), and people have been evicted from their homes because they're technically vacation homes set up on federal land. 

So.  The "chief executive" who is the park department's highest point in the chain of command has shown how petty he is.  Now, let me show y'all a little bit more:

Intimidation tactics on full display.  More here.  Because we all know that those Vietnam vets are just explosions waiting to happen, and if they can just trigger one attack...

More petty, meanness on display here.  We must do what the Spoiled Brat wants!  The shutdown is hurting the children!

How about doing his damnedest to scare the shit out of Grandma by threatening to let her starve and freeze on the streets?

The worst, I think, is here.  This page was the Amber Alerts page.  You know, the page where the alerts issued by states were displayed, permitting people all over the country to potentially recognize a kidnapping victim, and get help. 

So.  Petty, mean, and evil.  What more do we need to know about the "leader" of our nation?

Really tired of the war on some drugs.

I really hate the way it's made felons out of those who live their lives in blindingly awful pain, and gotten desperate enough to seek remediation, legal or not. 

And then, once the federal government gets them slapped in prison, the government realizes "Oops.  That person isn't an addict or a dealer.  Let's fit them with a morphine drip so that they're not in pain.  But only while they're in prison."

One of the most effective painkillers out there is marijuana.  Most effective, and least likely to have really bad side effects.  And since it's classed on the same level as cocaine and heroin, it's illegal to even study to figure out how the hell it works.

I also really hate the sanctions that are aimed at meth.  One of the absolute most effective over-the-counter decongestants is one of the ingredients in meth.  So, the powers that be insist that none of us need to have easy access to something that makes daily life livable in the spring. 

I hate to say it, but collective punishment doesn't work.  All it does is give the illusion that the government is doing something that should, in theory, work to thin out the supply of meth.

Only...it doesn't.  Some towns go as far as requiring a prescription for it.  Which only works if all of the stores in all of the bedroom communities and surrounding areas do likewise--which they haven't in my area.  What banning the over-the-counter sale is actually doing, then, is causing those who live and shop in the large town to take their money elsewhere...and buy the stock that was planned around the normal sales to the residents of a given bedroom community.  Causes a temporary shortage, but then things go back to an equilibrium.

This law was passed in Joplin before the tornado that ate half the town in 2011.  And there was a sharp uptick of meth cooks being caught, not because they increased in numbers, but because they had to move into the FEMA trailer parks, which were so crowded that it was impossible to hide that activity. 

Collective punishment doesn't work.  Prohibition doesn't work.

Actually, I take the first part back.  Collective punishment does work, but only if you remove protection from those guilty of the crime and permit those who get punished for no reason to beat the ever-livin' shit out of them. 

Sounds like a good solution for the meth problem.

Hope.

I recently realized one of the biggest difference in cultural attitudes between now and the Vietnam era can be encapsulated by the music.  You have



versus



and



 and



The anti-American and anti-soldier forces in the left have not won the youth.  You can hear that in the pop culture music.

Where are the parents?

You've got fourteen year old boys (more than likely in a single-parent household, being raised by a mother who has no idea who their fathers are) killing a woman, then posting pictures of themselves with the murder weapon(s).  You've got an eleven- and a seven-year-old mugging another woman at gunpoint, then attempting to carjack her.

The parents in both cases have failed so badly it makes me sick.  Somebody's going to wind up killing those kids out of self-defense in the next five years, just as "they were really starting to turn their life around."

What is it about modern parents?  Why the fuck are so many refusing to raise their kids?  Why are so many trying to be their kids' friends instead of their parents?

And why is no one teaching these kids right from wrong, and that wrong decisions carry consequences?

Bell ringers

Yesterday, we all went to Sam's Club.  There was a Salvation Army bell ringer right outside the exit.  He had white hair and a full, white beard, and a good-sized gut.  And glasses.  He looked like Santa Clause.  Played with the kids for a couple of minutes (and quietly called the imp a "cute little shit"--which he is, but Santa?  Don't say that where a four-year-old can hear you.), and then thanked us for letting him play with them, and wished us a Merry Christmas. 

I think he was the highlight of the kids' day. 

And UC Berkley's student government would like to boot Salvation Army volunteers from campus because "Allowing the Salvation Army to collect donations on campus is a form of financial assistance that empowers the organization to spend the money it raises here in order to discriminate and advocate discrimination against queer people." 

Okay, fine.  But if UC Berkley can ban Salvation Army bell ringers from campus, it's only fair that the Salvation Army ban those who carry a Student ID from UC Berkley from shopping at their second-hand shops. 

Honestly don't know how to react, here.

On the one hand, I love the judge's order that the deadbeat babydaddy stop procreating.

On the other...that's the executive judicial branch of government (thanks, Odysseus) poking its nose into a private individual's life and personal decisions. 

I don't know which I want to support: blocking babymaking by an individual who's proved to be an inferior provider to his children (making us pick up the tab), or the libertarian side that says it's not the government's business.

TANSTAAFL, bitch.

And your vote was bought for nothing but political promises.  We all know (or should, at least) the value of those. 

Last, but not least...where the fuck do you think that "bacon" comes from?  0bama's private stash?  He doesn't have one, honey, not big enough for all of the promises he made, and he wouldn't share it if he did.  That "bacon" you're demanding comes from the still-productive minority in your city, and the near-minority of the rest of the nation.  There aren't enough of those producing to pay for the leeches. 

Leeches like you and your city.

It's not the color, it's the culture, stupid.

An MSNBC host has showed her racist ass, recently.  She took a shooting that happened in Florida, and put a racist spin on it, lamenting that with white racism causing problems for young black men, "this is no country for young black men."

Bullshit, you racist bitch. 

What happened was a middle aged white guy getting gas asked an SUV full of thug wannabes to turn down their stereo.  They refused, things escalated, and he (quite reasonably, given the circumstances) thought he saw a shotgun being raised in the back seat.  So, he pulled his gun, and defended himself.

It isn't that these kids were black that caused the problem, it was the situation, and the culture that encouraged the teenagers to get belligerent; skin color doesn't act, culture does.

And a lot of Americans are getting bloody sick of tip-toeing around the thug culture because they're afraid of being labeled a racist.  We're getting called racist so often that we're beginning to not care anymore.

And the thugs are going to learn a harsh lesson: that the only places they'll be safe are the inner cities where leftist mayors disarm their populations, and Illinois.

Well, duh.

Two aspiring country artists went to a music studio at one in the morning, recorded a song, then robbed the studio!

Oh, wait...not quite.

It's not the color--which isn't explicitly mentioned in the news story, but is strongly implied by the "art" form--it's the culture.   The gangsta rap culture glorifies violence and theft; is it any wonder that two rap "artists" decided to rob the studio they used to record their "music"?

I'm gonna expand on my husband's post.

Odysseus wrote a "So what are you going to do about it?" response to the election.  Said it's time to stop identifying the problem (done), and start thinking about how to fix it. 

I've got a couple of points I'd like to expand on.  First, his first point under the personal.  He reminds everyone to keep 3-6 months expenses in cash, then stock up on supplies.  I'd like to expand on that point: after you've stocked up on cash and 3-6 months in emergency supplies (beans, bullets, band-aids), invest your ear-marked 15% of your income not in retirement accounts, but in real assets: precious metals (which need to be in your physical possession), property, or anything else that will hold value.  The next step is probably going to be the government raiding retirement accounts to keep up failing pensions, Social Security, and welfare.

Expanding on his fourth personal point--getting out and meeting people--as well as his second macro-scale point--get behind minorities and help them--anything left after funding your retirement and paying your bills (and keeping yourself fed) needs to go to helping your neighbor.  Don't give the money to soup kitchens.  Do it yourself.  Find someone that needs help, and help them.  Take them basic staples--canned veggies, canned meat, loaves of bread, and stuff like that.  Make sure they have what they need to stay healthy.  We've been doing that with our literal neighbors, as best we can.  Our income is mostly eaten up by our bills, so the best we've been able to do is make sure they have enough to eat, but we have done that.

Teach the poor that they don't have to rely on the government, that you, their neighbors, see them, and see what they need better than a government bureaucrat that doesn't look up from their charts and numbers, who gives them x, y, and z benefits, because that's what they're entitled to, whether they need it or not.  If they're having trouble paying rent one month, take it to your church, and see if you can find a way to help them.  If they're having trouble with their utilities, make sure they understand the cold weather rules wherever you are.  If they're having trouble making ends meet, but seem to have a job, sit down with them and see if you can help them figure out where the money's going (and don't get preachy if they smoke--that shit is the most addictive stuff on the planet, and has vicious physical withdrawal symptoms, including changes in brain chemistry, and related behavior changes), and if and how they can reapportion their income to work better for them.

Teach the minorities that what they're told about white people hating them is wrong.  We don't hate them, we hate their culture that shapes them into criminals.  We hate that the people shaping policy have locked them into an underclass by sabotaging their educations, and by letting them think that acting responsibly is "acting white"--going against their race.  Interact with them, where it's safe.  In tutoring football players on my campus, I showed more than one bitter, angry, young black man that white people aren't afraid of them because they're black, but because they're angry and unpredictable, and their culture espouses violence.

And most of all, do not vote for another Republican candidate.  Send them to the scrap-heap of history.  Teach the politicians that they are our servants, not our masters.