Quote of the Day

"[G]overnment, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."

~~ Thomas Paine

The Video that CBS Doesn't Want You To See

with a tip of the hat to Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism site, here is an example of what the Lame Stream Media is trying to censor out of the public arena.

Scraping Bottom?

I'm not sure whether this one comes in under the "who will watch the watchers?", or the "jobs Americans will not do", or what heading.
Know much about jails? Other than the fact that the 'residents' are generally not-nice people? Perhaps you hope that those who are in charge are of a better grade than those who are incarcerated. The record shows that while that may often be true, and I've known some good people, there are some who are standing on the wrong side of the bars, and I've known a few of them as well. (Happens if you live a while).
The record shows also that on those occasions where the security of the system is compromised, it is often with the connivance -- or the incompetence -- of those entrusted with running the system. It happens, and it happens often enough that GENERALLY those at the top, those especially responsible for the integrity of the system, exercise great care in the choice, training, and oversight of their underlings.
It's embarrassing when that falls through.
Probably you wonder where this is leading.
Would it surprise you to find that an employee at a large jail was an illegal alien? Or that she had worked there for nine years? And not merely an employee like a porter in the kitchen, but someone having contact with inmates? Me too. Happened in Dallas County, Texas. One Maria Elvia Ross, age 34. You can read about it here in the Dallas Morning News.
So we not only are so short of criminals that we must import some, but then we must import their keepers as well???
Are there no Americans willing to work as a turn-key?

Oh, and don't blame Obama for this one. She's been on the job since 2001. W was setting the tone at the time.

Remembering What We Celebrate

More than 200 years ago, a radical document was published. It's still radical today, and would not be approved by our President, the majority in our Congress, much of the Supreme Court or nominees to same. It would likewise be opposed by most of academia, the rulers of our media, and the various other self-anointed shapers of the public opinion. Certainly it is anathema to the Transnational Progressivists, the North American Union crowd, the thugs in SEIU and ACORN, and of course the UN and it's spawn.
But it means a lot to some of use nonetheless.

Read it and weep for what we once had.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Quote of the Day

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

-- Edmund Burke

Sobering Reality

This gets a tip o' the hat to the incomparable Jerry Pournelle, whose site linked to the article.

Despair is a Sin. But ....

One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.

And if that doesn't make you pause, I don't know what will.

Various Outrages for the Day

I haven't really been keeping up on this as well as intended. Not for lack of material, certainly.

Let's see. Under the heading of "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande", we have the story of a person arrested for rape. After having been deported NINE TIMES. I think it is fair to say that this guy has no intention whatsoever of obeying the law or of respecting the territory of the United States. Being deported at all is an accomplishment these days, given the aroma of criminal nonfeasance in office that seems to pervade. Being deported that often is remarkable. As I said, obviously he didn't learn the first 9 times, I doubt that he will learn ever. Hang him. Rape is one of those crimes that, historically, earned the death penalty anyway. Hang him. And there is room on the gibbet for his apologists and enablers.

Then, under the heading of manifestly criminal non-feasance in office, we have the announcement that those persons at the federal level whose sworn duty is to apprehend and remove illegal aliens may refuse to process those illegals apprehended in Arizona. Read it here.

It is a bit funny to have it revealed that most of the high and mighty who have been criticizing the Arizona law have never bothered to read it. Or who have ignored the fact that it essentially is a duplicate of the federal law. Or that it is largely matched by a long-standing law in California. It is just that enforcement has been ignored, by all political parties. A funny take on the matter is up on YouTube, but you can also find it here.