Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Monday, October 25, 2010
One Little Omission: God the Creator
Up to :25 quite standard, oh, except for one little omission. What is the omission?
Robert Gibbs Asked Why Obama Leaves "Creator" out of Declaration of Independence
A Young Person Notices
I do not know if there is any connection to dissenting Christians but recently at least one pastor has been contacted by White House staff after he described Obama as "dangerous."
Checkpoints
Would Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry, and other Revolutionary era Founders approve of police checkpoints and warrant-less searches outside of war time invasion?
This is a checkpoint in Keene N.H. where there are random checkpoints (ostensibly for drunk drivers) or the pulling over of people without probable cause. There are those who would argue that this practice is a violation of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and removes the notion of “limited government.” The fact that some courts have allowed this is an example of how judges are often just another part of the government bureaucracy who do not respect the limits imposed by the Constitution nor do they recognize the limits of their office.
Would Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry, and other Revolutionary era Founders approve of police checkpoints and warrant-less searches outside of war time invasion? The British abused the warrant process and the King granted British troops the power to write their own warrants without the authority of a magistrate or a judge.
The activists also made a sign and stood 100 yards up from the checkpoint warning drivers of the checkpoint so they could turn off ahead of time.
It is somewhat more amusing to view the police detaining the man holding the sign while they try to think up something to charge him with, and seem frustrated when they cannot figure out a way to prevent the man from exercising his First Amendment rights.
It is important to point out that not all police believe checkpoints are constitutional nor do some judges. For many ordinary, average citizens who are pro-police they consider that police have better things to do to real crimes and to protect citizens.
Terrence Bressi went to court and won by fighting the random checkpoints.
On November 26th, I was stopped & seized for about the 50th time since the beginning of 2008. The seizure took place at an internal suspicionless Homeland Security checkpoint along Southern Arizona’s SR86 near mile post 146. SR86 is an East-West public highway located over 40 miles North of the border and never intersects the border at any point.
During the stop, Agent Gilmore admitted he knew who I was & all three agents told me I wasn’t being detained. Nonetheless, these facts didn’t stop the agents from refusing to allow me to go about my lawful business, choosing instead to escalate the encounter by requesting that I move to secondary inspection for more intensive scrutiny absent my consent or any clear suspicion.
While continuing to deny that I was being detained and refusing to allow me to leave, the agents threatened me with arrest for impeding their operations.
After close to eight minutes of being unlawfully detained, a Border Patrol supervisor eventually arrives on-scene and wastes no time in telling me that I’m free to go with no further scrutiny.
Given the circumstances surrounding this extended non-detention, the only reasonable explanation that can be attributed to the agent’s behavior is a desire to train the traveling public to be obedient to the whims of any federal agent.
Agent Gilmore's position
Dem in R.I. to Obama: Shove It
"He can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I'm concerned," Frank Caprio told talk-show host John DePetro during an interview on WPRO-AM.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Joe Walsh and Melissa Bean Debate: Illinois 8th Congressional District
There were no cameras allowed unless you had a “press pass”. There were roving camera enforcers that were looking for video cameras and promptly ousting them from the auditorium. The event began without a pledge of allegiance to Old Glory. So the people decided to pledge allegiance anyway.
The moderator stated that the Pledge took too long to recite so the audience was instructed that for the lack of time it would not be said: the Pledge took 12 seconds to recite. The moderator's explanation of her rules took 1:15 seconds.
The video taper was told that his Constitutional right to record the debate in a public forum at taxpayer's expense does not “apply tonight”. He was subsequently removed from the debate and barred from entering again.
Constituents Ask Why the Pledge Was Not Recited on a Taxpayer Funded Event
James Madison Urges Us to Vote on November 2nd
"Some, who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction.”
Federalist 41, James Madison
"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands;they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress…. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”
James Madison, referring to a bill to subsidize cod fishermen introduced to the First Congress
Nina Totenberg vs. Charles Krauthammer on Juan William' Firing
NPR's Nina Totenberg appears with Charles Krauthammer on the set of Inside Washington, as he asks why NPR did not fire Totenberg along with Juan Williams. Juan made the mammoth PC mistake of saying he gets nervous on airplanes when Muslims-in-garb are on the plane. Totenberg once said the "Good Lord" must be considering Jessie Helms, and maybe Helms or his grandchildren will get AIDS. Nina escaped the crude "mobile-firing - or any firing at all, Juan didn't.
Nina Totenberg
Totenberg's actual quote from NewsBusters:
TOTENBERG: I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the Good Lord's mind, because if there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.
Krauthammer to Nina:
And I don't understand the inconsistency here. Why is it okay for Nina to express opinions, as she has tartly, sharply, unashamedly and openly, and she’s an honored correspondent there? In fact, they mention your status here on this show in your biography at NPR. And Juan, because he expresses his opinions, gets canned from NPR. That’s what the CEO said yesterday. In fact, the standard ought to be lower in the case of Juan because he’s an analyst, whereas Nina is a correspondent.
Totenberg responds in a manner of speaking along with other panelists. Krauthammer keeps asking why Juan Williams was singled-out, and ends with:
This is all highfalutin journalistic theory.
Most journalism today is in disarray. Andrew McCarthy points out the problem with Juan's firing is not Juan's firing. The real problem is our funding of NPR:
Why does a country that is trillions in debt, and in which people have unlimited options for obtaining information, need NPR? More to the point, why do we need to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which keeps NPR afloat?
And let's not forget the National Endowment for the Arts who gives many millions ($155M) to NPR each year, along with CPB's $400M.
Nina Totenberg, Robert Siegel Spoof Lady GaGa!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
League of Women Voters Says No Pledge: Audience Ignores Directions and Does It Anyway
In a debate between Joe Walsh and Melissa Bean in Illinois a patriotic event occurred.
The League of Women Voters hosted the event, but claimed there was no time for the Pledge of Allegiance before the proceedings. When someone asked why they would not allow the Pledge to be said, the moderator from the League (Kathy Tate-Bradish) harped, hemmed, and hawed for some time…until the audience just rose up against her and said the Pledge anyway.
Warns that Weather Underground networks still could be operating
The full series and other information has been posted online as well.
Will Obama admit extent of Iran's role in Iraq, laid bare by WikiLeaks? Doubt It.
The import and importance of the Wikileaks make it clear that the lethal contest between Iranian-backed militias and American forces continued after Obama sought to open a diplomatic dialogue with Iran’s leaders and reaffirmed the agreement between the United States and Iraq to withdraw American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence on Muslim Mafia
Retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, made an impassioned plea for Americans – especially Christians – to learn about the inner workings of stealth jihadists by reading "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," a book based on the covert penetration of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
No Free Speech is Safe Today: NPR Ends Williams' Contract After Muslim Remarks
Williams dared to be honest by uttering that which is in the back of all of our minds, if only for a second, when in an airport or on a plane in the company of Muslims.
NPR’s termination of Williams puts Americans on notice that anyone who utters a word that Muslims consider offensive will be demonized and punished.
NPR who receives taxpayer dollars had no right to break Williams’ contract. Defund NPR! After all, they have George Soros who donated $1.8 million to NPR for the hiring 100 news reporters, reporters who will spread Marxist propaganda in a declaration of war against all who repudiate progressivism.
Juan Williams: NPR Fired Me For Making "Bigoted Statement"
FOX News explains how NPR reported his departure: "Juan Williams' remarks on Monday night's episode of "The O'Reilly Factor" and said they were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices and that they undermined Williams' credibility as a new analyst with NPR."
The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol: Does NPR think Juan Williams is a bigot?
"I said what I meant to say," Juan Williams said in his defense.
Megyn Kelly vs. Islamist
National Politically-correct Radio
In wake of Williams firing, Republicans want NPR funding examined
NPR’s CEO, Vivian Schiller, stated that Williams has no “journalistic rule of ethics” and that he was “not compatible with the role of a news analyst on NPR”
The high corporate tax rate in the U.S. motivates companies to move activities and related income to lower-tax countries
Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda. Google’s income shifting helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization. Bloomberg's Melissa Long reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
Google 2.4% Rate Shows How $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tea Party Report by Special Interest Group: “Unless there’s something super dramatic in it, I just don’t see people’s minds being changed very much now.”
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Frederick Douglass Republicans Can Save Our Republic
“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. ” —Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
Obama: Dangerous to Our Military
I think we’ve elected a man, in Barack Obama, who’s more dangerous to our military, and to the national security of this nation, than even Bill Clinton—and that pains me to say, but I believe that, to be honest and sincere, that we have elected a man more ill-equipped, more unqualified, than President Clinton. We’ve elected a man to the Presidency, at a time when we’re fighting a global ideological enemy—that is, radical Islamism and jihadism—and we’ve elected a man to be our commander-in-chief at a time when we’re fighting hot wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere. The damage he’s doing to our military, at a time that we’re fighting a war, to me, is egregious.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Ian Hunter, 05 October 2010, Brighton, England, Komedia
Entrance Onstage, not a song
Sea Diver
River of Tears
Big Mouth
Flowers
Is There Life After Death from You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic
Rain from the 1981 album Short Back 'n' Sides
Sweet Jane
Shallow Crystals
Wash Us Away
Somewhere
"Somewhere" is the P.J. Proby version.
Irene Wilde
Man Overboard
Dancing on the Moon
Walking With A Mountain
Roll Away The Stone
Cleveland Rocks from You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic
All The Way From Memphis
Saturday Gigs
All The Young Dudes
Barney Frank's Boyfriend Heckles GOP Opponent After Debate
Outside of a radio debate--at WGBH--Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) boyfriend James Ready heckles Sean Bielat (R-MA). (source: FlemingandHayes)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
America Rising We Will Take Our Country Back
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism." "But under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas
A Message from those that voted this disaster into office: We elected you on a promise of hope and change. We regret it. In 2010, we are taking our country back. Blue collar democrats, independents, and conservatives. We love our country. We are proud of our founders. And we will fight for our traditions. We dont want your "fundamental transformation of America."
News Analysis-French Protests
France has witnessed the most massive demonstrations as protesters in Paris and other large cities rallied to decry French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to increase retirement age from 60 to 62.
The strikes have closed hundreds of schools, refineries and train stations and grounded flights amid concerns that the situation could get worse.
Meanwhile, unions have promised to step up their protests in the coming days.
Gov’t Geniuses in Detroit Seek To Educate Citizens About Public Transportation
The government representative notes that she has a Masters degree in landscape architecture and regional planning which must be all that it takes.
She states: “it’s gonna take a huge effort to educate the public about the importance of public transportation.” Apparently she believes the people are too stupid to know what they need.
America's Mom Dies
Leave It to Beaver, "Beaver and Chuey," a moral lesson in tolerance and sensitivity. From Season 2, Episode 43: Beaver unknowingly insults a Spanish friend with a phrase Eddie taught him.
Billingsley had a sense of humor as well. She played a bit part as the jive talking passenger in Airplane.
Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Ian Hunter, 14 October 2010 Bristol England 02 Academy
Somewhere & All The Way From Memphis
Roll Away The Stone, Saturday Gigs, & All The Young Dudes
Just a snippet of Dudes:
Snippet of All The Way From Memphis
Soldier says ordered to delete Fort Hood videos
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Descriptive Billboard in Colorado
Handout photo shows a colorful billboard in Grand Junction, Colorado depicting US President Barack Obama as a suicide bomber, a gangster, a Mexican bandit and a gay -- with the ironic slogan "Vote DemocRAT." The poster has triggered a row in Grand Junction weeks ahead of crucial mid-term November elections.… Read more »
(AFP/Grand Junction Sentinel/Gretel Daugherty)
Whoopi & Joy Walk Out In Protest Over Bill O'Reilly's View
Michelle Breaks the Law
The law goes on to state: "Judges of election shall enforce the provisions of this Section" which did not happen.
First lady Michelle violated Illinois law--when she engaged in political discussion at a polling place.
She let voters including electrician Dennis Campbell, 56, take some photos.
"She was telling me how important it was to vote to keep her husband's agenda going," Campbell said.
According to a pool reporter from the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES at the scene, the conversation took place INSIDE the voting center, not far from the booths.
A top Ilinois State Board of Elections official reported to the DRUDGE REPORT that Obama--a Harvard-educated lawyer although her records are sealed--may have simply been ignorant of the law and thus violated it unintentionally.
Who does not know these simple rules of the law? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
"You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?" the official explained late Thursday. "I mean, she's pretty well liked and probably doesn't know what she's doing."
Who was the official talking about? Michelle or her husband?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Ian Hunter, Review, 10 Oct 2010, Union Chapel, London England (w/Oopsie Mamushka)
Wash Us Away
Man Overboard
River of Tears
Ships
Michael Picasso
Ian Hunter & Rant Band - acoustic gig
Union Chapel, Islington
I Wish I Was Your Mother
Waterlow
Irene Wilde
Soul Of America
Seadiver
Sweet Jane
Roll Away The Stone
All The Young Dudes
Sweet Jane
All The Young Dudes
Degrees of Separation – Obama, Socialist Scholars, and the East German Spy
Trevor Loudon has done the yeoman's work in identifying the connection between the radical Left and Obama. Building on this work, the book documentation of the socialist connection has been made by Stanley Kurtz.
In June 2008 the socialist Kurt Stand wrote an essay in prison entitled “Supporting Barack Obama: A Prison-Eye View of the Presidential Campaign“:
As to Obama, I vacillated, knowing of his past activism, but not seeing enough in his Senate record or campaign approach to sufficiently differentiate himself from Edwards or Clinton…
To go back to Obama, nobody knows what he will do, but if he is able to overcome our country’s racism and actually win election we can expect some initial efforts to rein in the excesses of the Bush Administration, some measures to ameliorate the worst conditions which people are experiencing in terms of rights, in terms of insecurity…
It will be up to those who want genuine social justice to build movements that give him the possibility of pushing further; finding out then whether he will or won’t remembering that the key will not be him but us (us defined as those who worked for his election, for social justice activists, the left) and what we do, how we organize. How we use the social solidarity the campaign is developing as the basis of a renewed social solidarity. Will that be enough—no, the structural roots of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, of neo-liberal economics, of the authoritarian aspects of our political culture won’t go gently in the night. Only, however, by working in good faith with attempts to improve what is, is it even possible to imagine the building of the necessary, broad-based, independent, radical formations able to press for deeper changes.
In sum, radicals and progressives ought to join those—including those in prison—who have already decided to back Obama, see where the campaign can take us, see what can then be accomplished.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Largest Purchase of U.S. Energy Assets by State-Run Chinese Company
Analysts expect few political or regulatory hurdles to the deal which I suppose means that no one in the Federal government thought that maybe the state-owned Chinese company might use these energy assets for their military. The company is said to increase its rig count in South Texas from 10 rigs to about 40 by the end of 2012. The Americans will be selling off its natural riches, in addition to hampering American companies with regulations, who would otherwise profit from the reserves, all in the hopes of raising cash, creating jobs, and finally getting the opportunity to buy back energy products that originally were the natural resources of the Americans.
Energy consumption in the world’s most populous nation has doubled in less than a decade, and the International Energy Agency reported in July that China surpassed the U.S. in total energy used in 2009.
China has poured some $20 billion in loans and direct investments into Brazil’s offshore oil exploration and production, for example. And last spring, the Chinese government loaned $20 billion to Venezuela to develop oil fields in its Orinoco River basin, with much of the work awarded to Chinese companies.All this comes on the heels of an Obama-appointed 7 October panel statement which concluded that the Obama administration was slow to ramp up its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, then overreacted as public criticism turned the disaster into a political liability. The staff of a special commission investigating the disaster stated their conclusions in four papers issued by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.
Obama benefited his pal George Soros by outsourcing American jobs to Brazil.
Ian Hunter, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, October 2nd 2010; 11 October 2010, The Journal Tyne Theatre, Newcastle England
Judging from this laudatory review I would imagine the reviewer really was in the audience.
Little Star, Letter to Brittania From the Union Jack
Michael Picasso
Roll Away The Stone
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, October 2nd 2010
Tracie on backing vocals
Boy
Sweet Jane
Walking With a Mountain/Rock 'n' Roll Queen
Letter to Brittania from the Union Jack/All The Way From Memphis
All The Way From Memphis
Roll Away The Stone/Saturday Gigs/All The Young Dudes
All The Young Dudes
Roll Away The Stone/Saturday Gigs/All The Young Dudes
School District Settles WebcamGate
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
What We Believe, Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise
Bill Whittle chalks out the basics of Tea Party Conservatism. In this segment, Bill talks about the advantages of small government and free enterprise.
AUDIO of Sharron Angle suggesting Sharia Law a threat in America
Here is a stab at transcribing the exchange in question, which comes at around the 43 minute mark:
- QUESTIONER: I keep hearing about Muslims wanting to take over the United States. And I want to know your thoughts about that. They are building mosques all over the place. They want to build one near [ground zero]. And they seem to be getting their way. On a TV program just last night I saw that they are taking over a city in Michigan. And the residents, they want them out. They want them out. I wanted your thoughts.
- ANGLE: We're talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe isn't a widespread thing. But it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it. My thoughts are these. First of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under Constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don't know how that happened in the United States.
- It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.
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