We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Excellent videos on this post:The Alchemists of Wall Street Video Documentary - Why It Needs to Matter What Companies Do and Not Focus Only On the Price of Stock With So Called Value - Attack of the Killer Algorithms
The Victimology of Hillary Clinton - Even though her 2008 campaign took advantage of racially
charged attacks on Barack Obama, she still think she's the one who had
it tough.
It's the job of the press to hold everybody's feet to the fire, and to carry nobody's water (to the fire, as it were). The American press had a reputation for fearless pursuit of the truth, once upon a time. Or maybe that's a myth. Still, as the MSM has turned Progressive-partisan over the past 40 years or so (thus resulting in the emergence Conservative radio, FOX, etc), press fearlessness is gone.
In Watergate, we were outraged that Nixon ordered the IRS to go after political foes — even though the IRS refused to do his bidding. A Nixon ally was forced to whine that the IRS was controlled by Democrats. There was evidently little or no evidence that IRS power was abused, because the second Article of Impeachment against Nixon charged merely that he “endeavored” to sic the IRS on enemies.
In the Obama administration, on the other hand, we know that the IRS went after political foes. We don’t know whether the president was involved, but if Nixon’s IRS had targeted liberals because it believed it had an implicit go-ahead from the boss, wouldn’t that be fairly disturbing also? Would a breezy dismissal from Nixon make you feel better?
The purpose of the NHS is political, not medical. In the UK, in our Coronation of the State as our Bountiful Lord, it is the Crown, the dole is the Orb and State Education is the sceptic sceptre.
Those who question the State threaten to leave you without medical treatment, leading to a horrible death, or starve or be illiterate. Yet a Slaughterhouse like the Mid-Staffs can kill on a scale that an early 1940s German bureaucrat might admire, and nothing happens until hospital the pile of corpses becomes too obvious for excuses not to be shuffled out.
Put a couple of thousand of hormone-intoxicated boys and girls in the same place, in the same dorms (and in the same bathrooms) in a place with no rules which encourages kinky sex and sexual adventurism, then add alcohol and various other recreational drugs, and it seems guaranteed that some bad things will occur. That is not to excuse sexual violence at all, just a prediction based on common sense. Lots of people are dirtbags, but Bill Clinton set the new national standard for sexual liberation.
Why? I was never convinced about the adventure in Iraq in the first place. Contra Dick and Liz Cheney, this has nothing to do with American freedom. The greatest threats to American freedom come from our own government. Governments will use any excuse to impinge on individual liberty.
I entirely understand why eating tacos and drinking Margueritas on cinque de mayo is a racist act and offensive to lunatic grievance-seeking Latinas and Latinos who own that bogus holiday, but I still do not understand what is offensive about "redskin."
In the US, it's a silly narcissistic badge of something to be part redskin. I am 1/16th, can prove it, and I stupidly think it's cool.
Indians aren't really red-skinned. It was a term based on the habit of eastern Indians coating themselves with bear grease to stay warm in winter and, I think, other Indians decorating themselves with reddish make-up.
One of Bush's major errors was creating the Dept. of Homeland Security. Something like that was bound to become trouble in the future. It has produced a police/surveillance state which, I would suggest, no American wants: Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?
What do traffic cameras on my semi-rural Main St. have to do with preventing another 9-11? Nothing, but they are getting a nice shot of me waving crazily at the camera as I park in front of the hardware store to buy a door hinge.
"Just stopping in to get a door hinge," I shout out to the camera as I wave. "Harmless errand."
You do not have to be paranoid to get creeped out by this stuff, and the NSA. It's not American. I would abolish it all. The FBI was enough.
As Kipling explained, the Middle East, like Africa, defeats all intentions:
Take up the White Man's burden-- The savage wars of peace-- Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest (The end for others sought) Watch sloth and heathen folly Bring all your hope to nought.
Voters in Virginia finally had enough with the big lie of illegal immigration: Those who want open borders are largely either ethnic activists and chauvinists who wish open borders on the south, but would never extend such laxity to other ethnic groups (e.g., La Raza activists would oppose 1 million Chinese, Nigerians, or Ukrainian nationals trying to cross illegally into the American Southwest), or want access to cheap labor, with employers pocketing the profits while the state and thus the taxpayer pick up the inevitable social costs of their exploitation of labor.
Yesterday, we saw that voters don’t like being called names by those who are both hypocrites and nakedly self-interested in putting their own selfish agendas over the concerns of the less well-off.
“The ones we are losing are convicted felons, aliens from special interest countries, and other high risk individuals. We are so overwhelmed and preoccupied by the flood of juveniles and family units that we cannot use our resources to catch the more serious aliens,” the agent states.
The USA is being played for fools, naive fools. If you want to join our club, apply for membership.
The 
A book: 
Have any of our readers read this book? 
I entirely understand why eating tacos and drinking Margueritas on cinque de mayo is a racist act and offensive to lunatic grievance-seeking Latinas and Latinos who own that bogus holiday, but I still do not understand what is 
Fun 
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