IT'S NOT JUST THE CREAM POLICE ANYMORE...NOW IT'S BLACKWATER MERCENARIES AS WELL

All is well. Nothing to see here. Move along.

OMG! A THREAT TO THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE NATION ITSELF! CALL THE GOAT GESTAPO!

Of all the problems going on in the world and the nation today, especially economic, you would think the fed.gov might just have something important to do rather than hassling the few people left who are engaged in the business of farming in general and milking in particular.

First, from one of the gang over at FRUGAL'S:

“We have a very small farm in the middle of nowhere. This morning we were doing morning chores and just starting to milk (goats) when a car pulls in the driveway and out come 3 people from the USDA wanting to know if we sold raw milk. I said no. They went on to ask why we advertised (Realmilk.com) and I told them that at one time we sold milk a long while ago. I did not want to answer their questions. They stated that they could go and get a warrant if I did not answer their questions. Now we have not sold raw milk in about 2 years and live just outside a town of about 2500 people. If the USDA can come all this distance to harass us for selling a food product, what is the government capable of?”

What the hell do these idiots have against milk anyway? And where in the Constitution does it say Fed.gov has any right whatsoever to dick around with it? But wait, there’s more, further proof that the government is completely out of control and has to create business for itself.

Then we have SENATE BILL 510, or the “Drop your overalls and bend over, Farmer Jones” bill, a 12-point plan to destroy the remaining 8 independent farmers in the country.

#1 All food production facilities in the United States will be required to register with the U.S. government. No food will be allowed to be grown, distributed or sold outside this bureaucratic framework unless the FDA allows it.

#2 Any food that is distributed or sold outside of U.S. government control will be considered illegal smuggling.

#3 The FDA will hire an army of new inspectors to enforce all of the new provisions in the bill.

#4 The FDA will be mandated to conduct much more frequent inspections of food processing facilities.

#5 The fees and paperwork requirements will be ruinously expensive for small food producers.

#6 S. 510 would place all U.S. food and all U.S. farms under the Department of Homeland Security in the event of a major "contamination" or an "emergency". What exactly would constitute a "contamination" or an "emergency" is anyone's guess.

#7 S. 510 mandates that the FDA facilitate harmonization of American food laws with Codex Alimentarius, which impinges on US sovereignity.

#8 S. 510 imposes an annual registration fee on any facility that holds, processes, or manufactures food. It also includes draconian fines for paperwork infractions of up to $500,000 for a single offense. Just one penalty like that would drive a small food producer out of business.

#9 S. 510 would give the FDA tremendous discretion to regulate how crops are grown and how food is produced in the United States. Basically, farmers will now be forced to farm exactly how the federal government tells them to. This could be a particular problem for small farmers selling direct to the public, many of whom are organic farmers because that is what their market wants to buy. It is feared that the U.S. government would soon declare that many organic farming methods are "unsafe" and would outlaw them.

#10 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to impose a quarantine on a specific geographic area. Basically the FDA would have the power to stop the movement of all food in an area where a "contamination" has been identified. This would be very close to being able to declare martial law.

#11 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to conduct warrantless searches of the business records of small food producers and organic farmers, even if there has been no evidence at all that a law has been broken.

#12 Many farmers are concerned that S. 510 would eliminate the right to clean and store seed. Saving and using your own seed is a traditional frugal practice of many farmers.

Then there’s a few more nails in the small farmers’ coffins from, you guessed it, the EPA.

“Lincoln ticked off examples of onerous EPA intrusions: unworkable "spray drift" pesticide regulations; proposed ambient air-quality standards that would impose impossible dust-reduction requirements on farmers; "wetlands" regulations that put even bone-dry areas off-limits to agricultural use; an ideological bias toward environmentalists when resolving Clean Water Act lawsuits.”

Who seems to be miraculously untouched by all of this? You guessed it again. MONSANTO! Now, apparently it’s just not enough to have a complete monopoly on everything ag from seed to slaughter and a nice collection of the best politicians money can buy. No siree. Now they need mercenaries (many of them former Federal agents…go figure) from Blackwater to infiltrate and spy on groups who oppose genetically altered foods.

All of this could be a backdoor approach to gun control, as well. In Frenchtown, Montana, a woman defended herself and her dog against a raiding black bear with a ZUCCHINI! Just imagine if Fed.gov hadn’t “allowed” this woman allowed to have a garden! She would have been defenseless against the 200-pound beast, and probably killed.

The blood will be on your hands, Fed.gov!

First they came for the zucchini, then they came for the milk, then they came for vegetables people actually like to eat, then they came for the assault rifles…

Gun Nut Roundup Sept. 2010

Obama Blocks Sale of "Assault Garands"

Fearing that the weapons could fall into the hands of "terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions" the Obama Administration has blocked the planned importation of surplus M1 rifles and M1 carbines from South Korea.  "The transfer of such a large number of weapons -- 87,310 M1 Garands and 770,160 M1 Carbines -- could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes," a State Department spokesman told FoxNews.com.

Speaking on the side of reason was David Kopel of the conservative Independence Institute, who noted, "Any guns that retail in the United States, of course, including these, can only be sold to someone who passes the National Instant Check System.  There is no greater risk from these particular guns than there is from any other guns sold in the United States."

"We are working closely with our Korean allies and the U.S. Army in exploring alternative options to dispose of these firearms," concluded the State Department wussy.  Grrrrrrr!

Blarney Castle Doctrine

While the individual right to keep and bear arms seems to be holding its own here in America, it has all but been extinguished in most parts of the world.  So it's refreshing to hear a little good news from the Emerald Isle on the subject.  According to IrishCentral.com, "Irish homeowners can now legally use guns to defend themselves if their homes are attacked under new legislation." 

Apparently the potato hustlers have learned from the experiences of their stiff-assed Brit neighbors as well as their well-hung American cousins.  In jolly olde England there is no recognized right to self-defense and guns are banned.  Consequently, "hot burglaries" (where intruders enter the home while the homeowner is present, often assaulting them in the process) are commonplace in the U.K. and their violent crime rates are now higher than America's.  Meanwhile, in America, even in the most liberal jurisdictions there is some right to self-defense, especially in ones own home (the legal concept often referred to as "castle doctrine").  In America, hot burglaries are almost unheard of because burglars fear a buckshot lobotomy.

In another refreshing twist, Irish police officials are supportive of the new self-defense law.  I'd say this good news calls for a drink, but I'm sure the paddies are way ahead of me.

NRA Endorses Culver

In a move surprising to several, the National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Democrat incumbent Iowa governor Terry Culver over Republican challenger former governor Chet Branstad.  When asked why they endorsed Culver, NRA spokesman Peter Hornblower said, "Is that the fat one or the one with the big, cheesy, gym mop moustache?  Never mind.  Whichever one we endorsed has been a real stand up guy for whatever it is that we here at the NRA stand for."  Political observers speculate that the endorsement was because Culver signed an NRA-backed "shall-issue" bill for Iowa earlier in the year.  [See Gun Nut Roundup April 2010.]

Meanwhile, Iowa Gun Owners, the state's homegrown organization for gun nuts, endorsed the furry-lipped challenger Chet Branstad.  Branstad had a "100 percent pro-gun response" to the group's candidate survey while Culver did not even return the survey.  This may not have been a deliberate political snub by the Culver camp however.  Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Culver campaign staffer said that the governor mistook the survey for a wonton wrapper and devoured it.

I GUESS I'M STILL HAVING SOME TROUBLE WITH THE WHOLE "RELIGION OF PEACE" THING

I'm sure we've all seen the CNN video above. It's bad enough. This is a link to the UNEDITED VERSION. None of this is for the young, the squeamish, or the faint of heart.

Then we have MORE STONINGS.

RAPES

BE-HEADINGS

AND BURNING PEOPLE ALIVE

I forced myself to watch these and, no matter how hard I looked, I just didn't see a single one of the vast majority of peace-loving "moderate" Muslims rushing in to step in and put a stop to any of these atrocities.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND SHOTS ON SNIPING: THE MEN BEHIND THE TRIGGER

This is certainly not a training manual or a “how-to” course in sniping. It is merely a compilation of notes on sniping and the men who make snipers. To see the real military manuals in use today, see these:

USMC Manual

US Army Manual

Better than even the military manuals, IMHO, is Major John Plaster’s The Ultimate Sniper, which is THE book to have on ALL the aspects of sniping.

SELECTION OF SNIPERS

The military sniper is no longer just the man with the top marksmanship score who is one day handed a scoped rifle and told, “You’re our sniper.”

"Here ya go, Joe. You're now the sniper."

Since the Second World War, Korea in our case, various militaries have narrowed down the criteria to search for the best candidates.

The above method was actually pretty common in the U.S. Army during WWII. The Marine Corps developed a professional sniper training program using their competitive shooting teams cadre, but Army sniper training was conducted, if at all, at various local unit levels.

A Lieutenant Raymond H. Ross ran his own sniper training for his unit on Bougainville: “When selecting men to be trained as snipers, especial care must be taken to obtain individuals capable of acting on their own. This means steady nerves, physical strength and agility, patience and judgment. Above all they must possess good eyesight and be natural marksmen.”

The British Army of WWII required its sniper candidates in an official memorandum to be: “Picked men, and fit men, and proud to be such; the best marksmen, skilled in fieldcraft, confident in their self-reliance, possessed of great courage and unrivalled patience.”

The Middle East Command sought a man who was: (a) a marksman—not just a “good shot”; (b) armed with a specially accurate rifle with which he is fully acquainted; (c) skilled in fieldcraft, camouflage, and stalking; (d) courageous, self-reliant, and patient.”

The WWII German criteria for sniper selection included almost exclusively veterans with more than a year of combat service, as well as excellent rifle scores. They had to pass various shooting requirements to be accepted to the official sniper training courses.

Other criteria Germany’s top snipers included were: patience, perseverance, excellent sense of observation, calmness, good judgment, courage, the ability to “outsit” the enemy, and being a “tactician at detail.”

Yet another Germany Army source stated the prospective sniper needed, “…a deep knowledge of nature, in addition to cunning and rapidity of decision, and the capacity for independent action…Natural proclivity, passion for the chase, fanatical love of firearms…”

Japanese sniper candidates were selected by their platoon leaders, a good idea IMHO, as who knows their men the best…a paper pusher looking at records on some distant desk or the man who leads them in combat? It was customary that the candidates usually did have superior marksmanship scores. The vast majority held the rank of Superior Private, indicating that they were seasoned veterans.

Men of short stature were preferred to tall men. The Japanese reasoned that small men would present less conspicuous targets to hostile fire. Take heart, ye runts. It is interesting aside to note that Finland’s top sniper in the Winter War of ‘39-‘40 was only five foot tall. The wearing of glasses did not necessarily disqualify a soldier from becoming a sniper. Take heart, ye nerds.

The Russians in WWII noted the importance of being a keen observer:

“In order to be able to determine the location and nature of the enemy target by means of a few (very often barely noticeable indications) the sniper must possess a highly-developed sense of vigilance and faculty of observation.

It is claimed that in winter time a sniper discovered an adversary by his breath visible behind a stone or bush, and another behind a tree by some birds that picked up bread crumbs dropped by the soldier on the ground.”

In the days of the Cold War, Soviet snipers were, “…selected from conscripts who were physically fit, intelligent, had good eyesight and hearing, and quick reactions. Candidates had to be consistent in hitting a 300-meter target with iron sights.”

The Soviets also had female snipers (as well as pilots, anti-tank riflemen, mortar crews, etc.) during WWII. I was able to find no criteria for their selection, but knowing high-ranking men in the military hierarchy, I’d be willing to bet big boobs were a prime consideration.

Western armies try hard to avoid the hardcore sociopaths who just enjoy killing. The Captain Jim Land, who started building the professional sniper training program for the USMC in Vietnam, began the first psychological screening of sniper candidates.

“For the sniper, there is no hate of the enemy, only respect for him or her as a quarry. Psychologically, the only motive that will sustain the sniper is knowing he is doing a necessary job and having the confidence that he is the best person to do it. On the battlefield, hate will destroy any man—especially a sniper. Killing for revenge will ultimately twist his mind.”

Other forces gladly seek out the blood-thirsty types. A favorite tactic of the Chechen jihadist snipers was to deliberately wound one man in an extremity. When medics or other soldiers came to aid the first casualty, they too were deliberately wounded. When it appeared that no one else was coming to their rescue, the sniper deliberately and coldly killed each wounded man one by one.

Iraqi jihadists posted on a Web site a list of “duties” of the insurgent sniper. This included: “Killing doctors and chaplains is suggested as a means of psychological warfare.”

“Apparently the Jap soldier not only would go to any extreme to avoid surrender, but would also try to see that no civilian surrendered...He had spotted a Japanese group—apparently father, mother, and three children—out on the rocks, preparing to drown themselves but evidently weakening in their decision. The Jap sniper took aim. He drilled the man from behind, dropping him into the sea. The second bullet hit the woman. She dragged herself about 30 feet along the rocks. Then she floated out in a stain of blood. The sniper would have shot the children, but a Japanese woman ran across and carried them out of range. The sniper walked defiantly out of his cave, and crumpled under a hundred Marine bullets.”

THE HUNTER

The comparison to, and call for, hunters in the sniping trade is widespread. Anyone who has spent hours shivering in a duck blind or a tree stand, low-crawled through prickly pear to get within range of an antelope, or just still-hunted squirrels knows a great deal of the sniper’s tasks already.

The most famous Soviet sniper of the Second World War, Vassily Zietsev, grew up hunting wolves. Finland’s top sniper of the Winter War, Simo Haya, was a lifelong hunter. Chuck Mawhinny, with a higher confirmed count in Vietnam than even Carlos Hathcock, made his choice in regards to joining the Army or the Marines upon which one wouldn’t ship him out until after hunting season. We all know Alvin York was a lifelong hunter in the Tennessee hills. Many Canadian crack shots were Natives, particularly Objiway, who had grown up hunting. Lord Lovat formed Lovat’s Scouts (half wolf, half jackrabbit) during the Boer War and introduced the Scottish game wardens’ Ghillie suit to sniping. Major Hesketh-Prichard, a noted hunter of dangerous game, formed the British School of Sniping Observation and Scouting to counter the superior German sniper threat in WWI. Then there’s the Aussies.

In WWII, the Australians were particularly noted for their marksmanship by both friend and foe, especially the Germans and Italians in North Africa. The best of the best were the ‘roo hunters. They were already familiar with the Lee-Enfield action and had to be, by profession, crack shots. Shooting a kangaroo and only wounding it caused the rest of the herd to scatter. Shooting it in the wrong place ruined the valuable hide. These skills served them extremely well in the Pacific and Burmese Theaters.

Germany’s top WWII sniper, Matthais Hetzenauer, with 345 confirmed kills, hailed from the mountains, wooded Tyrol country, said of the selection of snipers, “Only people born for individual fighting such as hunters, even poachers, forest rangers, etc. without taking into consideration their time of service.”

Land again: “The sniper is the big game hunter of the battlefield. He uses all of those skills regularly studied, admired, and accepted by people who would apply them to hunting deer, elk, or perhaps bear. Certainly, the sniper, like the big game hunter, must know and understand the habits of the quarry which he hunts. He must possess the field craft to be able to successfully position himself for a killing shot. Finally, the sniper must have highly developed marksmanship skills to effectively place a single bullet into his intended target. In short, a sniper must be self-reliant and possess the keen skills of a still hunter or poacher.”

The good hunter is a prime candidate for American snipers. In an interview with Major John Plaster before his death, Marine Corps Vietnam sniper legend Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hatchcock, when asked who made the best snipers, merely chuckled and said, “Country boys.”

AND, FROM THE "DAMN, THAT'S A GOOD IDEA CATEGORY"...

To combat rampant political corruption, some Russians are proposing to go Old School...scratch that...go Medieval on the crooked SOB's. They would like to BRAND the hands of politicians caught doing dirt deeds.

Sounds good to me, although I would gladly settle for tar and feathers. I'll bet billions of dollars of unaccounted for public money would suddenly re-appear, maybe even enough to pay off the national debt.

IT'S NOT JUST BIG BROTHER DOING THE CENSORING

The truth is getting lost in the Amazon

A warmist coup seems to have taken place on Amazon, the online bookseller, writes Christopher Booker.

By Christopher Booker
Published: 7:00PM BST 11 Sep 2010

The proselytisers for man-made global warming have long exercised a tight stranglehold over the contents of Wikipedia. The editors of that online source of all knowledge are ready with lightning speed to ensure that its entries related to climate change are purged of any hint of dissent from the party line – and that entries for “climate sceptics” are given a viciously dismissive twist, Now it seems a similar coup has taken place on Amazon, the online outlet which is Britain’s largest bookseller.

Over the past year, Amazon’s list of global-warming bestsellers has been wholly dominated by sceptics, with my own book The Real Global Warming Disaster standing for months at number one. At the end of last month, however, all the more recent sceptical books were suddenly removed from the list. My own volume, Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion, Bob Carter’s Climate: The Counter Consensus and others have all vanished from the list, so that it is now dominated by titles pushing the prescribed pro-warming line.

One can see from our books’ individual rankings that they are still far outselling almost all the warmist tracts that Amazon clearly prefers, sometimes by tens of thousands of places, But if, by means of this cunning manoeuvre, Amazon ends up selling fewer books, at least some will perhaps be ready to commend them for such self-sacrificial dedication to the cause.

And, in further Newspeak, global warming is now officially "global climate disruption".

The White House wants the public to start using the term "global climate disruption" in place of "global warming" -- fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

"If this name doesn't work," added a shivering Al Gore, "We're gonna go with OMG AIIIEEEE WE'RE ALL GONNA FRIGGIN' DIE BOOGA-BOOGA DEATH CLIMATE SYNDROME. We'll keep changing it until we extort enough money from industry and the public to get my face carved on Mt. Rushmore."

Methinks they doth protests too much.

Gov't Radio Chips In Toddlers?

I wish I was joking about this one.  From the good folks over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

San Francisco - The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are calling for answers to critical privacy and safety questions that loom over a controversial federal program to track preschoolers with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips at George Miller III Head Start program in Richmond, California.

In an open letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department, ACLU-NC and EFF are asking officials to disclose what technical and security measures are used by the system to safeguard the privacy and safety of preschoolers, as well as what data is collected, how long it is retained, and who has access to the information. The letter also calls on officials to publicly address why and how the government decided to track Head Start students, and if the government plans to expand such tracking.

"This program allows for far more invasive surveillance than is required for attendance and other record-keeping for a Head Start program," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "We want to know how and when privacy and security issues were considered in the development of this program, and how many other schools will be pressured to implement this system."

BBB's suggested remedies: 1] End the federal government's unconstitutional involvement in education.  (Seriously, show me "education" in the federal government's enumerated powers listed in the Constitution.)  2] End state governments' virtual monopoly on primary education.  If there were more private, religious, and home schooling options readily available to parents, I guarantee you that most parents wouldn't choose to send their kids to a public school where their kids are radio-tagged like migrating caribou.  To learn more about school choice visit Alliance For School Choice.

Libertarian Senate Candidate/Airline Pilot on 9/11

From http://www.lp.org/

ATLANTA, GA - Chuck Donovan, candidate for U.S. Senator from the state of Georgia, issued the following statement on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001:

"Like most Americans, I took the attacks of 9/11 very hard. As a professional pilot, I took them personally. We pilots had been trained with a plan to deal with hijackers; a plan we were told included team members outside of our cockpits. September 11, 2001 showed us we were disarmed and alone.

"Nine years later, we Americans are more and more restricted from using the tools of self-defense. Far too often and in far too many ways, we find ourselves helplessly at the mercy of a government we cannot rely on.

"The government's reaction to 9/11 was to energetically use its' two favorite tactics; expand power at the expense of our liberty, and to spend lots more money. Neither the poorly named "Patriot Act" nor the new Department of Homeland Security held anyone in government responsible for their failures that day. They also failed to effectively deal with the clearly exposed lack of inter-agency coordination.

"Today all we have to show for the huge investment is a bigger, more bloated government that finds it impossible to protect us from someone like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, better known as the "underwear bomber." All the layers of bureaucracy were unable to take clear information on a known threat and act upon it. Our government makes a show of security, forcing experienced flight crew wearing layers of identification, to take off their shoes and belts, open their suitcases, or to wait at the border on return from international flights, yet someone like Abdulmutallab easily slips through the system.

"Our Federal government can only be relied upon to posture as a kind of Robocop. In reality, it is more like the Keystone Cops.

"The one small success on that terrible day 9 years ago was when free people on board United Airlines Flight 93 voluntarily joined together and resisted a deadly threat. Years later, it was free people once again, who stopped Abdulmutallab without the help of government.

"Today the threat of an overreaching, overspending government, using its authority to arrogantly step into every aspect of our lives, has finally become clear to many Americans. Benjamin Franklin warned us, 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.' Yet too many Americans remain unconvinced. If we fail to heed Franklin's warning, we will soon find ourselves without liberty or security."

Chuck Donovan is an international airline Captain who has over 30 years of experience as a professional and military pilot. Donovan's career in this no-nonsense profession, as well as his staunch support for small, fiscally responsible government, make him the best candidate for Georgia's new Senator.

You may learn more about his campaign at his campaign website.

The LP is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets and civil liberties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

So, where is the ACLU and their gang? You know, the ones who created the "Separation of Church & State" slogan to be used in lieu of the actual wording of 1st Amendment.


It would seem to me that, while we are really in a Depression rather than a perpetual season of "green shoots", and looking down both barrels of the greatest debt this country has ever known, we could put the taxpayer's money to better use than having the U.S. State Department renovate or build mosques in some 27 countries around the world at a cost in the hundreds of billions.


This is what I mean by some "religions" being more equal than others.


And, to be fair, this travesty began while Bush was still in office.

SORRY, I CAN'T EVEN MAKE JOKES ABOUT THIS SHIT

This is "Separation of Church & State"?

U.S. Files Discrimination Lawsuits On Behalf Of Muslims
The Obama Administration’s taxpayer-funded Islamic defense program has been quite busy this week, filing several discrimination lawsuits on behalf of Muslims in different parts of the country and holding Justice Department meetings to discuss prosecuting “anti-Muslim hate speech.”

The legal actions come on the same week that the White House and various federal agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security—hosted a special workshop to provide members of radical Islamic groups with direct access to U.S. government funding, assistance and resources. Read all about that here.

Now the administration is flexing its legal muscle in its ardent quest to befriend the enemy. A federal civil rights agency known as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed discrimination lawsuits against companies in Nebraska, California and Colorado for discriminating against Muslims by not accommodating prayer breaks and forbidding a headscarf on the job.

The government sued meatpacking plants in Greeley Colorado and Grand Island Nebraska for religious and racial harassment because dozens of Muslim employees were “denied prayer time” during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The lawsuit seeks changes to policies and procedures to accommodate Muslim workers, payment for past and future damages and punitive damages.

In a third lawsuit filed this week the EEOC claims that an outdoor apparel store discriminated against a Muslim female job applicant in northern California because she wore a headscarf known as a hijab. The company has a longstanding employee dress code banning any sort of head covering but the government asserts that in this particular case it’s discriminating on the basis of religion.

Also this week, the Justice Department met with a coalition of Islamic groups that demand the administration criminally prosecute anti-Muslim rhetoric as hate speech. Besides investing more resources to combat discrimination against Muslims, coalition leaders want Attorney General Eric Holder to “make a strong public statement” condemning hate crimes, harassment and discrimination against Muslims.