Belle of Liberty

Letting Freedom Ring

Saturday, August 25, 2012

The Joke's on Obama

Obama took great umbrage at Mitt Romney’s mild humor yesterday, when Mitt told a Michigan crowd, “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate.”  The crowd cheered, the Mainstream Media gasped, and Obama was said to be furious, his campaign staff dubbing Romney, “The Birther-in-Chief.”

Romney’s spokesman quickly pointed out that that Romney has never doubted Obama’s claims to having been born in Hawaii; he was just having a little fun.  Romney (rather disingenuously) said he wasn’t trying to take any swipes at the president.   Why on earth not?

Meanwhile, Conservative pundits were gnashing their teeth in angst over how the Media would use this remark against their candidate, especially coming on the heels of the Akins problem – which is going away, although so is Akins and his chances for the Senate seat.

Conservative guys and gals – calm down and get a grip.  You’ve been so well-programmed (with the exception of Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who have been ostracized by the Media to teach the rest of us a lesson about fighting back) to let Liberal comedians and reporters make hits on you and your candidates, and allowed them to bash you into a corner, that you’ve completely lost your sense of humor.  You’re as serious as a heart attack, and the Liberals know that turns young voters off.

Admittedly, Romney’s attempt at humor was mild at best.  Isn’t that what you wanted?  To not be funny?  But at least he gave it a try.  The Narcissicist-in-Chief is famous for his over-sensitivity and his thin skin.  He doesn’t really know how to either tell or take a joke, either.  That’s what he has comedian hack writers for.

All is not lost for the Conservative cause of humor.  There is a website, The Barack Obama Jokes Website that has a full serving of Obama Jokes, from one-liners to story jokes.  “Don’t be afraid to laugh at politically incorrect Obama jokes!” the site tells its visitors.  “Most of the Obama jokes on the Web are as mild as the softball questions that Obama gets from the smitten reporters and reporterettes of the press.

For instance:
                                    Obama’s 2013 New Year’s Resolutions:

            10.       Party with Secret Service one last time.
 9.        Pack up White House silverware.
              8.       Cut prices for Presidential pardons.
              7.       Fire up the paper shredders.
              6.       Erase the teleprompter memory banks.
              5.       Treat Hillary Clinton to a complementary shave and a haircut.
              4.       Get medical marijuana card.
              3.       Ask Chris (“I feel a tingle up my leg”) Matthews for a date.
              2.       Appoint Joe Biden head of the Obama Museum & Library.
              1.       Confirm reservations for flight to Moscow.

Or how about this:

Joe Biden and Barack Obama are the perfect running mates.  Biden can’t answer even the simplest question and Obama has three different answers for every question.

Or these: 

Obama has sold more guns to the drug cartels than all of the other Nobel Peace Prize winners put together.

Obama is notorious for avoiding press conferences and has never met a question he didn’t hate.  Here are some BO Q&As: 

Q.  Why did Obama step on the cockroach?
A.  He hates competition.

Q.  What will Obama do if Romney challenges him to a debate?
A.  Practice in front of his mirror. 

Q.  Why does Obama keep jacking up the cost of gasoline?
A.  So voters can’t afford to drive to the polls in November. 

Q.  What does Barack Obama call illegal aliens?
A.  Undocumented Democrats.

Q & As not your type of humor (they’re not Obama’s type, either)?  How about this then? 

Obama ordered Congress to set aside a billion dollars for a new research project.  He wants to know why global warming goes away in the winter.

If you didn’t like Romney’s very mild birther joke, you’ll really hate this one: 
 
Obama is getting tired of people who say that he doesn’t have a birth certificate.  He actually has several.
 
Unemployed?  Don’t go “postal” like that guy yesterday at the Empire State Building.  Layed off?  Laugh it off, instead.
 
America has lost five million jobs under Obama.  Don’t worry, though; Obama says he’ll send Joe Biden to go look for them.

 

Hungry for some humorous payback?

 Obama’s Favorite Foods:

Favorite Breakfast – Eggs Rover Easy
Favorite Soup - Chicken Poodle
Favorite Burger - Quarter Pounder with Fleas
Favorite Sandwich – BLT:  Bulldog, Lettuce and Tomato
Favorite Mustard -  Greyhound Poupon
Favorite Yogurt Drink - Mango Lassie
Favorite Japanese Food - Terrieryaki
Favorite Vegetable - Collie Flower
Favorite Snack - Puppyseed Bagel
Favorite Dessert:  Dog Pound Cake

You get the idea.  We don’t want to give away all of the website’s jokes.  They welcome visitors to submit jokes.  They have about 57 pages of them, so far.  As many states as Obama thinks there are in the union.

So, loosen up, Conservatives.  Don’t take yourselves so seriously, and definitely stop taking the propaganda media so seriously.  Nobody in their right mind takes Joe Biden seriously.  Give yourselves a break and a day off from angst, frustration, guilt, and self-flagellation.  Visit The Barack Obama Jokes website. 

 

Friday, August 24, 2012

Smart Growth Towers

Mom always said that the little town of Bloomingdale, N.J., population approximately 7,500, existed in a bubble.  She said one day that bubble would burst and the crowded, outside world would burst in.  Mom and Dad were from that crowded outside world, New York City.  The locals weren't too happy when our development of modest homes was built on this former picnicking hill.  They felt a bunch of city slickers were invading their rural community.  They were right; sort of.

My parents moved to Yonkers, N.Y., but found they couldn’t afford the gentrified taxes of Westchester County, and after a stint in California, moved to New Jersey, which at the time had low taxes and plenty of jobs.  Bloomingdale, to their sophisticated minds, was a backwater.  No library (to speak of), no high school, no traffic lights, no sidewalks in our “low-density” development, and virtually no crime.  They were willing to sacrifice the cultural temptations of the city to have us grow up safe.

Mom didn’t think too much of the provincial locals, but she had own garden and a backyard where she could keep an eye on us and feed the birds.  Bloomingdale was surrounded by woodlands and we could go hiking and breathe relatively fresh air.  The only pollution was the Butler Rubber Factory, a fact of life for the students at the high school.

Then Route 287 was finally finished.  Driving along Union Avenue, which connects to a Rt. 287 interchange, we knew Bloomingdale’s days a rustic, Colonial-era town were numbered.  The most likely target was the very tract of land that’s now being developed.

As noted in a previous log, the prime suspect developer was Long Island-based Avalon communities, and the guess was correct.  The local newspaper, the bi-weekly Suburban Trends, finally reported on the story.  And locals have been up in arms for months about this development.

The contractors have been blasting away every day for weeks to remove some 30-tons of rock to make way for a high-density – “high-density” as in literally high - apartment/condo building that will house 174 units on 11 acres of land.  On that small a parcel, the only way you could fit 174 units in is if you build up.

This means, in all probability, a building between 20 and 30 stories.  No structure in Bloomingdale is that high, not even the fire tower in Norvin Green State Forest.  What’s more, the building will either have no parking at all, or an underground parking garage.

Union Avenue is a winding, two-lane country road, sparsely populated at its eastern end, cutting between hillsides.  Another, even larger complex of 300 units is planned on the other side of the road.  Union Avenue will not be able to handle that much condensed traffic.  The prospect that the road will have to be widened and straightened is practically foregone conclusion.  That will mean wiping out a number of homes.  Now we know why they made the new firehouse out of warehouse tin, and farther away from the more populated area of the flats and the hilltop development.

We were also amazed some years ago at the routing of a NJ Transit bus along sparsely populated Union Avenue, where there are scarcely any riders.  The mystery is solved.  We knew and yet the development is still an unwelcome shock.  Townhouses are ubiquitous in northern New Jersey and no one would have thought twice about it.  A monstrous, 30-story high rise in the midst of our little country town, though, is something of a culture shock.

Avalon Bay.  Now why would a developer name its high-rise building, in the midst of swamp and woodland, Avalon Bay?  Avalon Woods, Avalon Springs, Avalon Gardens, maybe.  “Bay” suggests an ocean.  An ocean resort.  An expensive clothing line specializing in resort wear.  We’re miles from any noticeable shoreline.  But the Long Island-based company is not.  Long Island is all about the ocean and the beach.  We suspect that they’re marketing to Long Island residents who find themselves encroached upon by crime, crowding, and corruption.  Their shoreline residences – some literally right up against the water – are no longer insurable.  How do you appeal to island residents to buy a high-rise condo in the middle of the woods?  You call it “Avalon Bay.”

Boy, are those future residents in for a surprise.  Well, we do have plenty of lakes – and rivers that flood.  Not that they’ll need them because this high-rise will feature a spa and a swimming pool, along with all sorts of green technology amenities.  And all they had to do was blast a hillside away to accomplish it.

Flooding is one of the primary concerns about this plot of land.  With the hillside basically gone now, the water won’t have anywhere to go.  Local residents are also concerned about water and sewage facilities.  There’s no sewage system down there.  They’re also worried about the COAH regulations.  So were the developers, apparently worried about frightening off wealthier prospects, and managed to get the number of COAH units knocked down from 27 to 9.

Such an influx of residents – depending on their demographics – could also overwhelm our tiny school system.  The closest school – the Martha B. Day school – was overcrowded from the day it opened in 1963.  Administrators had to add trailers to deal with the overcrowding.

Another concern is the nursing home facility next door.  How is the blasting affecting the sick and elderly residents?  It’s not likely that they’ll stay there long before Avalon buys them out, which would make way either for stores or a house of worship.  Wonder what The Alliance will have to say about that?  There’s a silver lining in every cloud.

The official account from the Trends is this:  The Bloomingdale Borough Council introduced an ordinance to allow for a program called “PILOT”, payment in lieu of taxes.  However, details of this strange financial arrangement will not be made public until the borough reaches a final agreement with the developer, although the town promised residents at an Aug. 14 that they would not enter into such an arrangement if it didn’t make financial sense.  A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4, 2012, with the vote tentatively scheduled for Sept. 6.

Avalon Communities brought a builder’s remedy lawsuit against the borough, according to the Trends, “and has been allowed to build a high-density housing development with state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) units.  In addition, the developer should get a tax discount on top of the other benefits it has derived by suing the borough.”

According to Mayor Jonathan Dunleavy and Borough Auditor Dieter Lerch, “taxes paid could be based on a percentage of the developer’s gross revenue for a project, or it can be based on a percentage of the project’s construction costs.  The amount of taxes then grows 2 to5 percent annually.  PILOT programs are typically in effect for 20 or 30 years.  Ninety-five percent of the taxes will go to Bloomingdale and the remaining five percent to Passaic County.”

Dunleavy hopes to pay down municipal debt with the additional taxes.  He said it would also be an investment in the borough’s “aging infrastructure” and would “stabilize taxes.”  The idea is that giving a tax break to the developer will bring in more tax revenue from the new residents.

But condominium owners don’t pay the same amount in taxes as property owners do, since they have no property.  Hence, the size of the development.

The tax question aside, this high-rise apartment building in the midst of a suburban town might as well be called “Smart Growth Towers.”  Avalon Communities is a multi-billion dollar company that specializes in “green development.”  This apartment building is exactly in line with the Smart Growth agenda of crowding human beings into small spaces, where they won’t own any property.

Roads will be widened, private homes will be subjected to eminent domain, more police will have to be hired, mass transit is already in place, the firehouse can easily be set back to accommodate a widened road, and Bloomingdale will be “transformed” from a quiet town that has only one traffic light to an inland version of Hoboken.  Bloomingdale, in time, will no longer be a place to raise families and tend gardens, but rather simply a place to bunk down until it’s time to go to work.

In keeping with Smart Growth’s agenda of placing communities near educational facilities, Passaic County Community College is right down the road.  Would that they had built the college when I was in school.  I would have had a two-minute to class instead of 45 minutes.

Bloomingdale’s taxes will rise with this high-rise apartment building, and another, even bigger 300-unit complex planned for the future.  If the Meer Estate tract is developed, the town’s existing schools will not suffice.  The town of Butler will probably end its receiving-student agreement with Bloomingdale and the town will (finally) have to build its own high school.   That means more tax money.  In a bad economy, a high-rise like this comes with good news and bad news.  Wealthier people will move in.  Businesses will follow.  But current residents likely will not be able to afford the prices, not even, or should we say, especially not, at the food stores.

We already have evidence of that.  Food prices at Pathmark in Kinnelon, where residents are quite well-to-do, are shockingly higher than they are at Shop-Rite of Oakland, a couple of hills away.  Just as in Vail, Colo., only two classes of people will be able to live in Bloomingdale – the wealthy and the service class.  As there are virtually no jobs in New Jersey, workers who can’t afford the commute to the city or the cost-of-living even in a town like Bloomingdale, will eventually take their Conservative, middle-class values and go away, just as the Liberals want them to do.

May the ghosts of the Pompton Mutiny haunt them.

 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Is America Headed for Civil War?

Lubbock County Judge Tom Head thinks so, if Obama wins a second term in office.  What’s Judge Head is asking for a tax increase in the district attorney’s office and the Lubbock County Sheriff’s office to beef up its security on the streets.

First, let us look into why any law enforcement officer, or any other American, would think a shooting war would be necessary:

·         We have a sitting U.S. president whose citizenship is in question.  This isn’t a birther issue about his birth certificate and whether he was born here, but rather, when he was ferried away by his mother and stepfather to Indonesia, whether he renounced, or his citizenship was renounced for him, in order to become an Indonesian citizen and be able to attend school there.
·         There are questions about his application to college – Occidental, Columbia and Harvard.  His college records would reveal whether he applied as Barry Soetoro, a “foreign exchange student.”
·         His mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a strident Stalinist-Communist.  The belief is that Davis inculcated the young Obama with is pro-Soviet-centered worldview, his anti-capitalism, and his black theology.
·         Obama admittedly associated with every pro-Marxist, Socialist student, teacher, and organization he could latch onto.
·         The president chose “community organizing” as his “profession.”  That is to say, he engaged in political organizing and fundraising for Socialist and union causes.
·         He chose Chicago as his base of operations, a city long known for its corruption, its violent unionizing, and its socialist and communist leanings.  In his first campaign, he engaged in smear tactics and other underhanded activities to eliminate his competition.  He also joined the church of Black Liberation Theologist Rev. Jeremiah Wright because Wright suited Obama as a black mentor.
·         His long-time associates, particularly David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, had familial connections with the Communist party and Frank Marshall Davis and the Daley political machine, and Rahm Emmanuel, his original chief of staff (now the mayor of Chicago), had professional connections.
·         During his campaign for the U.S. Senate, he was recorded in an interview saying that, if it were up to him, he would scrap the entire U.S. Constitution, throw it away completely and “start over.”
·         As president, he promised to “transform America”, transform being a popular Communist code word.
·         As president, he has courted America’s enemies and alienated its allies.  He gave $900 million to the Palestinians alone, as “appeasement money.”
·         He spent at least as much time campaigning for president in other countries as he did in the United States, avoiding Red States as much as possible.  His most notorious speech, hailed by the Media as a great address, was delivered at the Brandenburg Gate, where Hitler spoke, although we’re not supposed to make such hideous comparisons.
·         He regularly circumvents Congress, even in matters of war.  When he committed U.S. troops to the “war” in Libya, he never bothered to ask permission, or even notify Congress, but instead, asked permission of the United Nations.
·         He and Hillary Clinton are just about to commit the United States to a binding United Nations gun ban treaty, which would essentially eliminate our Second Amendment.
·         Although he blames his predecessor for the state of our economy, the deficit at its lowest is still higher than it was at its highest point during the G.W. Bush administration.
·         He’s rammed various ruinous economic plans down the American economy’s throat.  The most blatant of these is known as Obamacare, which will force Americans who don’t have health insurance to buy it whether they need or want it or not, make insurance so expensive for companies that they will drop their employee plans, and add more new taxes to America’s burdens.
·         Solyndra.  This solar panel boondoggle did nothing to solve the non-existent climate-change crisis, created no jobs at all, and did everything to satisfy Obama's environmental base, to the tune of $535 billion federal loan guarantees (taxpayer dollars), money we will never see from Solyndra, since it went bankrupt before it even opened its doors.
·         Deepwater BP.  Determined to make fossil fuels extinct, the Deepwater oil spill handed Obama a made-to-order excuse to shut down all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  He then handed our oil drilling industry to Brazil and Venezuela.
·         Keystone XL.  The Keystone Pipeline, from Canada to the Texas coast would have been the answer to the jobs, taxpayer money, and revenue we lost in the Gulf.  Obama claims that construction on the pipeline is “postponed” until after the 2012.  By which, Canadian Keystone will have already shipped the oil and natural gas to an eager customer – China.
·         Federal lands.  Obama has shut off all western Federal lands to shale oil drilling, which would solve our energy problems for about the next 200 years or so.  Instead, Obama is directing taxpayer money to inefficient, literally unsustainable alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.  The wind turbines are already a well-known catastrophe, killing wildlife, costing billions, and driving local residents crazy, while producing very little for the costly investment.  Solar energy has gotten better press, except that, of course, the whole industry is a Ponzi scheme.  But in addition, an article in a well-known science magazine discusses a plankton-eating, energy-absorbing mass out in the Pacific that literally eats sunlight, keeping the oceans from warming up, and contributing to cooler ocean temperatures, leading to the La Nina effect.  Don’t fool with Mother Nature.
·         Obama’s energy policy has nothing to do with saving the Earth, and everything to do with getting us out of our automobiles and into high-density communities, where we’ll be reduced to mass transit and bicycle riding, not to mention having fewer children and no property or material possessions. 
·         The Economy.  It’s all about the Community Reinvestment Act, stupid; which is all about the redistribution of wealth – our wealth.  If we follow the Socialist model, there will only be two classes in Society:  a very small, but very wealthy upper class, and the minions who serve them either through unionized government jobs, menial service  jobs (i.e., Burger King, K-Mart) or votes in exchange for government welfare.
·         America boasts the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and Obama intends to make it higher, all the while promising Americans new jobs.  He also plans the government take-over of more companies, not just the auto, insurance, and banking industries.  With the takeover will come more burdensome regulations that will make doing business overseas more attractive.  The only companies that will succeed are those, as in China, that do business with the government.
·         Our president, his family, and their entourage, have taken more vacations at taxpayer expense than any First Family in American history.  According to David Limbaugh, in his book, The Great Destroyer, “The U.S. military estimates that it costs $181,757 to operate Air Force One.  Frequently, the FLOTUS flies in Air Force Two, ahead of her husband, who joins them about four hours later.”  Limbaugh tells us that the Obamas went on a total of 8 vacations by the end of summer 2010.  Their Martha’s Vineyard vacation, “renting a $20 million estate at an estimated cost of up to $50,000 a week” was a holiday most Americans could not enjoy.    When the First Family spent their Christmas holiday in holiday, instead of staying at one of the nearby military installations, they opted to rent a plush home, completely with tropical waterfalls and a spa, for $3,500 per day.  Then there’s FLOTUS’ wardrobe.  She’s been compared to Jackie Kennedy in style and in excess.  She told France’s FLOTUS that being FLOTS “is hell and I can’t stand it.”  However, toting around $1,000 handbags and wearing $2,000 is some compensation for the inconvenience.  The president has the compensation of brewing his own White House ale and serving $199 bottles of wine to his guests.
·         Our president’s narcissistic tendencies alone should give us a clue of what he has in mind for the future.  In his speeches, which his Media cheerleaders glorify as a sign of his massive intelligence (numbskull Joe Biden exclaimed, in introducing his boss, that “his brain is bigger than his skull”), according to Limbaugh’s citation of Fox Nation, “as of the beginning of August 2010, ‘Obama [had] spoken some form of I or me more than 16,000 official times since he took office.”  Pity the poor soul who had to count all those personal pronouns.  He complains of any criticism, pouting that ‘they’ “treat me like a dog.”  Speaking of dogs, the President is so self-absorbed that even the family dog is named after him:  Bo.  BO.  Barack Obama’s initials.  Get it?
·         The Democrat Senate and 95 Republicans – including House Speaker John Boehner and VP nominee Paul Ryan (!) - just passed a bill eliminating the need for the President to confirm most of his cabinet and other appointments.  What were they thinking?!  This is part of the Constitution, the legislation that authorizes checks and balances.  Without it, there’s no curb on presidential powers at all.  Not that this president needs any, because he just does what he wants anyway.  That alone should alarm any sentient American.
·         Obama’s national security policy is abominable.  He has been in negotiations with the Muslim Brotherhood, ostensibly to release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, aka “The Blind Sheikh” who masterminded the now little-noticed Landmarks Plot, which involved blowing up the World Trade Center, the FBI Building, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and the George Washington Bridge in 1993 (all at once).  Rahman was in contact with Ramzi Youssef, who was arrested for the plot, who is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  Reportedly, Osama Bin Laden was the “godfather” of Rahman’s children.  Or Rahman was the godfather of Bin Laden’s kids.  Obama is planning, authorities say, to release Rahman by December.  Obama’s election is immaterial; according to Andrew McCarthy and other experts, Rahman will be released on the grounds that his “influence” on the terrorists is not sufficient evidence to keep him imprisoned for life.
·         Speaking of the War on Terrorism, federal officials are no longer allowed to speak of it.  Nor are military officials.  The phrase, along with “Islamic” terrorism – or anything else negative connoting Islam – has been removed from all military and federal law enforcement training manuals.
·         Obama just recently gave a free immigration pass to all illegal immigrants who were either brought to the U.S. under the age of 18 by a parent or were born here.  They will be given photo IDs.  The Department of Justice has refused to follow its own illegal alien laws and will not allow other states to do so, not even border states such as Arizona.
·         Speaking of the Department of Justice, Attorney General has completely stonewalled on providing Congress with more than 80 percent of documents pertaining to the DOJ’s Fast and Furious program, which sold automatic weapons to drug cartels in Mexico.  The weapons were never tracked, and were used in numerous murders of Mexicans and the murder of a federal agent, Brian Terry.  Holder claims to be totally ignorant of the plan, even though his Deputy AG was required to review it, and in fact did so, and reportedly notified Holder of the plan, although Holder denies reading any of the communications.
·         Finally, although Obama evinces a great disregard for billionaires, he depends on many of them, as does VP Biden, for campaign donations – and vacation homes.

Want more evidence of Obama’s unsuitability for office?  We knew he was unsuitable, inexperienced, narcissistic, anti-Capitalist, and anti-American before he was elected.  How much more evidence do we need?  Well, there are plenty of books like Limbaugh’s detailing his intentions, and even a movie, 2016, based on Dinesh D’Souza’s Obama tomes, about Obama’s socialist, communist proclivities.

If even half of what these authors, from Sean Hannity to Stanley Kurtz, write about him is true, we could face a civil war – that is, if Americans have the nerve to fight one.  My guess is they don’t, and what we’re facing is a political coup, of sorts.  Once he outlaws weapons, Obama will be able to arrest any American who threatens violence on grounds of treason (if you can believe it).

Once you are through either rolling around on the floor in satirical laughter or picking your jaw up off the floor, take the idea very seriously.  Fed up with America’s newfound transformation and betrayal, Israel is “seriously” considering launching its own defensive war against Iran (by the way, Obama has also personally overseen a drawn not just of our offensive weapons, but our defensive weapons as well).  If we’re bound to the United Nations’ treaty, we will be banned from assisting our former ally.  In fact, we’ve given so much military aid to the Middle Eastern nations, that our own weapons will probably be used against Israel.

If Obama does fire against one of the Arab countries, in violation of that treaty, he will then be in a position to surrender the United States to the U.N.’s international authority.  He’s very good at “apologizing”; he’s spent these last three years practicing his bowing.  This will be the automatic bow.

Don’t think it can happen?  Before Obamacare was passed, Conservatives and Tea Partiers thought there was no way he and Congress could get away with such a violation of the Constitution.  Yet, he did.  We didn’t think he’d get away with allowing illegal aliens to become citizens, but he is paving the way with his DREAM act.   If he manufactures a way to allow them to vote, being Democratic allies, we haven’t a prayer of winning the election or saving our country.

Obama displays all the personal attributes of a dictator or emperor.  He’s self-absorbed, narcissistic, arrogant, aloof, dishonest, disingenuous, and disconnected from the American people and the ideals of America.  He engages in cronyism and censorship.  He divides Americans and plays them against one another.  He misleads the young, disincentivizes the successful, bankrupts then nationalizes companies, ignores the elderly, and smears dissenters, critics, and opponents.

Once in power, dictators are notoriously difficult to unseat, as he knows very well.  With this in mind, he has carefully constructed a powerful bureaucracy around his rule, supplanting the duly elected Congress and corrupting our judiciary.  He knows what dangers an armed militia can pose, but he also has the law against violence on his side (dictators usually do).

Congress ought to have impeached for treason long before this.  With a Democrat Senate to support him, such a move would have been impossible, however.  The man should never have been elected in the first place, but the government machinery was too rich and powerful, and Conservatives had allowed themselves to be pushed into a corner and marginalized.

Obama has a bad economic record on his hands, which means the future of the election is not hopeless.  However, moderate Republicans are making our task more difficult.  Apt to corruption and cronyism, if they show signs of going along to get along, even a moderate Republican president could lead us down this same path, albeit not at the warp speed at which we’re now traveling.

Personally, I was very disappointed to read that Congressman Paul Ryan had signed the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act.  While it’s true that a Democrat Senate has blocked many Republican presidential appointments, it’s no excuse for passing an act that will make the path to tyranny even smoother.  If Democrat Senators have blocked presidential appointments, let the onus be on them, and report it to the public.  We have better communications channels now than we did.

The law is written now and these 95 Republicans are on record as having signed it; it is now their legacy, as it should not have been.  There is no worse mistake they could have made, even if Romney wins.  Akins’ foolish, junk biology statement pales beside this overturning of the Constitution.  An Emperor Romney will be no better than an Emperor Obama, and that’s just how our cheerleader press will paint Romney if he wins the election in November.

A month ago, I would have said that Judge Head’s warning was unduly alarmist.  Now, I’m not so sure.  A positive outlook is always preferable, but if no one supports that positive future, and in fact, picks up a shovel themselves and starts digging America’s grave, then it behooves us to reconsider looking over the gun catalogs, if only in self-defense.

 

 

 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Akins Solution

“It’s not the child that needs killin’.”  Rob Roy MacGregor, Rob Roy (1995)

That statement was fine for Hollywood, in 1995.  Perhaps it’s even an historical fact that MacGregor and his wife accepted a child conceived through the violent act of an enemy.  In the film, even the wife admitted she’d tried to “get rid of it” but couldn’t.   Mary MacGregor was perhaps very noble, but it’s a good deal to expect of a modern woman who’s been violated.

Even if on some level Akins may be right a la Rob Roy, as a politician he should have kept such sentiments locked away in his own breast.  As a Southeast Missouri blogger notes:  “Akin’s uncompromising brand of social conservatism…might lead him to say something that may give political moderates – the same moderates who don’t like the economic policies advanced by Obama and Senate Democrats – pause in the Senate race."

The blogger’s example of an Akinism is:  “America has the equivalent of the stage III cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in.”

As a matter of fact, it was a bold statement, but one Conservatives would agree with.  This hardly on a level with his admittedly off-the-wall statement about abortion in the case of “legitimate” rape.  Moderates give Conservatives just as much "pause."

According to the New York Times, “Asked in an interview on a St. Louis television station about his views on abortion, Mr. Akin, a six-term member of Congress who is backed by Tea Party conservatives, made it clear that his opposition to the practice was nearly absolute, even in instances of rape.

“’It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.  But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.’”

It would be interesting to know what this female biological process is, that can discriminate between rape and making love, and so “shut down” an unwanted pregnancy.  Millions of women are eager to hear, although pharmaceuticals companies would probably withdraw their campaign donations.

The Democrats spent over $1.5 million towards his campaign in his three-way primary, hoping he would say something like that.  Congressman Akins needs to return to his high school biology class.  The New York Times leapt on his statement and made sure they informed their readers that he is backed by the Tea Party

The interview was on a St. Louis television station, which asked him about his views on abortion.  Had he shortened his answer to the Rob Roy version, he might have survived the debacle with less political damage.  “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,” goes the old Abe Lincoln saw.

As for protecting the innocent, unborn child; well, that’s the harrowing legacy of rape.  There, Akins’ stance is a little more sympathetic (at least towards the child, if not the mother) and understandable.  In such a crime, there is no “good” solution.   Spare the child and you torture the victim, its mother, who must for nine months carry a reminder of the violent attack against her.  Abort the fetus and, in the view of some, you commit murder, the taking of an innocent life.  You also add fuel to the fire of pro-abortionists who reason that if the rape victim should not have to carry an unwanted child, why should they?

Akins deserves 100 lashes with a wet noodle for his ignorance of biology and making a stupid statement to prove it.  But perhaps he deserves a pass for his concern, if somewhat misguided, for the unborn children of a violent act.  If we had the death penalty for rapists (sexual criminals have a high rate of recidivism; some psychologists say they can’t be “cured”), such “unwanted” pregnancies would be “rare.”


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Next Item on Agenda 21's Agenda

The English have a saying: “What does that mean when it’s at home?”  Mom called me up the other day, demanding to know just what in the world was being built on Union Avenue in Bloomingdale.  I told her she was the former Dodge Reports reporter, who reported on all the building going on in Westchester County in New York in the Forties and Fifties:  she should tell me.

She said she couldn’t tell because the construction site is all walled off.  “What are they hiding?!” she wanted to know.  So I asked what she thought it was.  She said whatever was going up there was very big; that the whole side of the hill leading up to the Martha B. Day School was stripped away. 

“I’ve got a mind to call the building department and demand to know what’s going on!” she exclaimed.

I told her she should do that (so I could report it on my blog).  A few days later, I asked her.  She said all she could learn was that it had to do with “high-density housing.”  High density, I asked. 

“Yes, that’s what they said.”

“Well, Mom, that means a high-rise apartment building,” I told her.  I said I would give her a copy of “Sustainable Communities:  Resources for Citizens and Their Governments.”  In fact, right after I post, I’m going to take a ride over to Mom’s house, which will take me past the site, and see what’s going on.  With my camera.  If I can’t get pictures from street level, I’ll take a ride up to the school.

Agenders has sent out a notice about two more public meetings on the N.J. State Development and Redevelopment Plan, one to be held in Toms River on Sept. 10, and the second in Jersey City on Sept. 12.  Note that both meetings are (once again) not only below the Route 78 line, which means Central Jersey.  Northern New Jerseyans will be forced to make a lengthy and costly ride to participate in these meetings, and an additionally dangerous one in order to go Jersey City.  The meetings are also, typically, inconvenient for working taxpayers.  However, we who are the unemployed will do what we can on your behalf.  It’s the least we can do for you.

The N.J. State Development & Redevelopment Plan is hazardous to our way of life.  The following is a sample of what will happen to US under this Plan:

Page 7, Section II, of the Plan states:  “New Jersey will be the national leader in coordinated private and public investment which supports sustainable communities.”

Sustainable communities are urban centers, like Newark and Camden, where people live high-rise apartments and walk or bicycle to work and to shop, where cars are highly discouraged, where taxpayers own no private property, and where our living space is decided by the government, and smart meters determine how much energy we may use.

The N.J. State Plan is dangerous to our way of life and our children’s future.  We must demand a complete re-write with property rights and freedom-of-living choice protections.

Please Contact Gov. Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno at 609-292-6000 or


Gerry Scharfenberger, Director, Office of Planning Advocacy, 609-292-7156

And please attend one or both of the last two hearings to voice your objections:

·         Sept. 10, 2012 at 1 p.m., Public Hearing, Toms River Municipal Complex, Council Chambers, 33 Washington Street, Toms River, NJ  08753

·         Sept. 13, 2012 at 1 p.m., Public Hearing, Jersey City City Hall, 2nd Fl. Council Chambers, 280 Grove Street, Jersey City, NJ  07302

Being a resident of a condo, I can attest that it is not a pretty picture.  Chances are you will be limited to one vehicle.  I am fortunate in that I have storage space.  In all likelihood, most future condo residents will not.  You will only own the space in which you live, and you will be subject to committee approval for any improvements which you might want to make to your unit.

While my complex allows some limited gardening, it’s not likely that yours will.  If they do, you will be directed as to what you may and may not plant.  You’ll be subject to the usual noise limitations and other various regulations.  You will most likely not be allowed a private washing machine and absolute will not be allowed to own a dryer, forcing you to use either your complex’s laundry facilities, or some laundromat nearby.

If you’re allowed pets at all, you will be limited to two (which is more than enough in my personal opinion).   The crowding will lead to the usual problems of crime.  Finally, you will be able to own no more personal items than you can store in your closets.  The rest of your personal property will have to be stored in expensive storage facilities.

New Jersey property owners and people who want to continue to be able to live in the suburbs and to eat food grown by rural farmers (which is everyone!) please take note: The New Jersey Draft State Development and Redevelopment Plan is holding 2 more "public input" meetings Sept. 10 and 13. The draft plan is a communist manifesto of UN-approved smart growth, regionalization, and redistribution in the guise of "an economic plan."

If this plan is accepted, it will “fundamentally transform” New Jersey into a Marxist state governed at the regional level, and in which suburbs and rural areas will be even more heavily taxed to support “priority investment areas” in the big cities. If this is not your idea of “Utopia” YOU should be at BOTH these meetings:

Sept 10: Toms River Municipal Complex, Toms River, NJ, 1 p.m.

Sept. 13: Jersey City City Hall, 2nd Floor Council Chambers, Jersey City, 1 p.m.

Please tell everyone in your groups what danger we are in.