Monday, December 10, 2012

Some Goodies from Ol' Remus


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In a dusty corner shelf of the room was a set of thirty-year-old textbooks from the mid-1960s, and although my memory cannot now relinquish their title, their contents burned themselves into my brain. I was astonished to find what I would now consider an upper-level college textbook under color of what in the high schools used to be termed "civics." This text contained a very detailed understanding of political theory, constitutional law, ...  I spent the rest of the day in slack-jawed amazement, perusing what a student in a working-class town was expected to know before the mavens of education began tinkering with the curricula of our schools.
--Glenn Fairman at americanthinker.com art-link-symbol-tiny-grey-arrow-only-rev01.gif 

What was once a tyranny by the king has become a tyranny of the majority foisted upon an unwilling minority. Voices of opposition are now ignored as politicians scheme in various ways to ensure their re-election. We have come full circle. Our rights are imperiled, our commonwealth under threat. Our list of grievances is clear. We await a new Thomas Paine.
--Dennis Lund at americanthinker.com

Generations of Americans have grown up with the distinct impression, if not overt belief, absorbed within the public schools and through the mainstream media and Hollywood, that without the federal welfare state and its "anti-poverty programs," millions of Americans would lie groaning in the streets, hungry, destitute, and homeless.
--Loran Blood at americanthinker.com  

 How bad is Detroit? One Detroit man found police so unresponsive when trying to turn himself in for murder that he hopped a bus to Toledo and confessed there instead... It once gave the keys to the city to Saddam Hussein
--Matt Labash at weeklystandard.com 2008 

137 shots fired by police - Police in East Cleveland say they found no gun and no shell casings in the car from which one unidentified officer said he heard a shot fired at or near him. Two people were killed, Timothy Ray Russell, the driver, and a passenger, Malissa Williams.
--Ed Krayewski at reason.com

Who killed America?


 

Often when watching American films from the 1940s or '50s, rather than the story line I focus on what was things that were not consciously intended to be part of the film. Hitchcock movies are especially good for this. So are the Bogart movies. Try Dark Passage (1947) with Bogart and Bacall, about an escaped convict who befriends a woman who agrees to help him find who really killed his wife. 

If you can do it without crying, watch the background scenery of San Francisco in mid 20th century. Notice how magnificent the city seems, how clean, how broad and sunlit the horizon. This is film noir but even the induced murk fails to cut off the sense of unbounded promise that exists just beyond the camera's focus. Watch the pace of the city that appears in the background, the people walking down the street, the way they interact, the way they dress. Look at how an unspoken code of manners is guiding every person in the background. See how the man in the suit opens the door for the lady in the dress. 

Notice the assured masculinity of the men, the charming femininity of the women as they get off the train. That's not intended to be in the film. They didn't have any opinions about all this in 1947; it just was. Look at the man casually talking to his friend on a street corner, there is an ease and congeniality that is terrifying to watch. Or the couple sharing a cup of coffee in a cafĂ©, they have all the time in the world. 

You forget to wonder who killed Vincent Parry's wife, and are instead crushed by a question that becomes very personal and bitter: Who killed America?

The Republic Must Be Rebuilt As There Is No Other Alternative

 

We lost the republic long ago. Within Remus's lifetime, loyal constitutionalist patriots have gone from the majority to a tolerated minority to a designated hate group and now, presumed terrorists. Meanwhile, the collectivists—the Democrat Republican Progressive establishment—are openly consolidating their power, strutting on the national stage like Mussolini in front of a mirror, their witless minions shouting down deviations from DC's two party one-party line. 

DC has taken on the classic structure of totalitarianism: feuding official fiefdoms with fuzzy and overlapping authorities, all burrowing into the formerly private lives of the populace, legal cover provided by a Byzantine tangle of laws and impenetrable codes, a form of lawlessness in itself, as it's meant to be. In this pervasive fog and fear they needn't be lawful other than by their own calculations.
Socialists cannot be and never have been bound by law, or said another way, under socialism the legality of an act is determined by its compliance with collectivist theory, retroactively where convenient, and not by a body of law that can be known in advance. The citizen is quantified, society is qualified, i.e., the citizen's actions are measured against the putative good of the "masses". In the republic now gone, society was measured in terms of the good of the citizen. The republic's sole purpose was to guarantee the citizen's liberty against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This was the Constitutional basis of the legal system, the reason for equality under the law, and the only justification for war. 

But this is in the past, we are well into the collectivist 'personality cult' phase. There's no longer a question of retrieving the republic, it must be rebuilt. What lies between now and then can't be known. What is known is this: collectivists can mount an insurgency like no other, ruthless, patient and unwavering, but once successful they remain insurgents and without exception descend into a Darwinian orgy of power lust, visiting excesses on each other and the populace until the nightmare consumes the realm.

There's no need for ol' Remus to flog the best among us to do this or that in response, even if he knew what to do. Besides, they aren't the best because of what they do, they're the best because of what they are. What needs to be done flows from that so it's enough that they are what they are. They're an anonymous and nameless and timeless meritocracy with a provenance that predates the republic—they need the internet like Jefferson needed the newsreel—and they shall rise among us, the republic shall flourish anew. Just how, ol' Remus hasn't a clue, but he doesn't have to, Thomas Paines and Benjamin Franklins and Thomas Jeffersons have ever walked among us. Their time has come again.

More @ Ol' Remus

NC: Whitford Plantation

Whitford Plantation New Bern North Carolina Outdoor Wedding Venue  
New Bern North Carolina Waterfront Weddings 

Located just 9 miles from downtown historic New Bern and close to North Carolina beaches, Whitford Plantation resides on the land once owned by Confederate colonel and war hero, John Nathaniel Whitford. 

 Col John Nathaniel Whitford

The southern plantation style home is a perfect outdoor wedding venue and features a salon and dining room with views of the river.

Over sized doors lead out to the columned porch and down the old brick walkway to the lawn and dock. We can accommodate up to 250 guests for a outdoors cocktail themed event and seated dinner under a tent.

We can accommodate smaller functions inside the house. From ”Black Tie Elegant” to ”Dress Casual,” Whitford Plantation can offers you creativity and flexibility in your event planning.
We look forward to helping you celebrate the special events of your life.

Sincerely,

Anne Robertson
Owner/Manager
252 638-7871
anne@whitfordplantation.com

Alabama v Kearsarge

VERBATIM 


 

  Painting by W.G, Mitchell

No account of the engagement between the Alabama and Kearsarge is more concise than the testimony of her Captain,  Raphael Semmes, acknowledged by everyone who knew him for his honesty. It is absent of any of the many conjectures or hypothesis put forward at a later date, or by those who might have a reason to attempt to discredit a great ship, its Captain and crew.

" Sir:-- I have the honor to inform you, that, in accordance with my intention as previously announced to you, I steamed out of the harbor of Cherbourg between nine and ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th of June, for the purpose of engaging the enemy's steamer Kearsarge, which had been lying off, and on the port, for several days previously. After clearing the harbor, we descried the enemy, with his head off shore, at the distance of about seven miles. We were three quarters of an hour in coming up with him. I had previously pivotted my guns to starboard, and made all preparations for engaging the enemy on that side. When within about a mile and a quarter of the enemy, he suddenly wheeled, and, bringing his head in shore, presented his starboard battery to me.

 By this time, we were distant about one mile from each other, when I opened on him with solid shot, to which he replied in a few minutes, and the action became active on both sides. The enemy now pressed his ship under a full head of steam, and to prevent our passing each other too speedily, and to keep our respective broadsides bearing, it became necessary to fight in a circle; the two ships steaming around a common centre, and preserving a distance from each other of from three quarters to half a mile. 

When we got within good shell range, we opened up on him with shell. Some ten or fifteen minutes after the commencement of the action, our spanker-gaff was shot away, and our ensign came down by the run. This was immediately replaced by another at the mizzen-masthead. The firing now became very hot, and the enemy's shot, and shell soon began to tell upon our hull, knocking down, killing, and disabling a number of men, at the same time, in different parts of the ship. Perceiving that our shell, though apparently exploding against the enemy's sides, were doing him but little damage, I returned to solid-shot firing, and from this time onward alternated with shot, and shell.

After the lapse of about one hour and ten minutes, our ship was ascertained to be in a sinking condition, the enemy's shell having exploded in our side, and between decks, opening large apertures through which water rushed with great rapidity. For some few minutes I had hopes of being able to reach the French coast, for which I gave the ship all steam, and set such of the fore-and--aft sails as were available. The ship filled so rapidly, however, that before we had made much progress, the fires were extinguished in the furnaces, and we were evidently on the point of sinking. I now hauled down my colors, to prevent the further destruction of life, and dispatched a boat to inform the enemy of our condition. Although we were now but 400 yards from each other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had been struck. 

It is charitable to suppose that a ship of war of a Christian nation could not have done this, intentionally. We now directed all our exertions toward saving the wounded, and such of the boys of the ship as were unable to swim. These were dispatched in my quarter-boats, the only boats remaining to me; the waist-boats having been torn to pieces. Some twenty minutes after my furnace-fires had been extinguished, and when the ship was on the point of settling, every man, in obedience to a previous order which had been given the crew, jumped overboard, and endeavored to save himself. There was no appearance of any boat coming to me from the enemy, until after my ship went down. Fortunately, however, the steam-yacht Deerhound, owned by a gentleman of Lancashire--Mr. John Lancaster--who was himself on board, steamed up in the midst of my drowning men and rescued a number of both Officers and men from the water. I was fortunate enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of the neutral flag, together with about forty others all told. About this time, the Kearsarge sent one, and then, tardily, another boat. 

Accompanying, you will find lists of the killed and wounded, and of those who were picked up by the Deerhound; the remainder, there is reason to hope, were picked up by her enemy and a couple of French pilot boats, which were also fortunately near the scene of action. At the end of the engagement, it was discovered by those of our officers who went alongside of the enemy's ship, with the wounded, that her mid-ship section, on both sides, was thoroughly iron-coated; this having been done with chains, constructed for the purpose, placed perpendicularly, form the rail to the water's edge, the whole covered over by a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of the armor beneath. 

This planking had been ripped off, in every direction, by our shot and shell, the chain broken, and indented in many places, and forced partly into the ship's side. She was effectually guarded, however, in this section, from penetration. The enemy was much damaged, in other parts, but to what extent it is now impossible to say. It is believed he is badly crippled. My officers and men behaved steadily and gallantly, and though they have lost their ship, they have not lost honor. Where all behaved so well, it would be invidious to particularize, but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of saying that Mr. Kell, my first lieutenant, deserves great credit for the fine condition in which the ship went into action, with regard to her battery, magazine and shell-rooms, and that he rendered me great assistance, by his coolness, and judgement, as the fight proceeded. The enemy was heavier than myself, both in ship, battery, and crew; but I did not know until the action was over, that she was also ironclad. Our total loss in killed and wounded, is 30, to wit: 9 killed, and 21 wounded."

            It is also useful to recall the content of John Lancaster's letter to the Times with subjoined extract from the log kept on board the Deerhound. Lancaster's account in reality differed little if any from Semmes; but his observations do confirm the unequal status of both combatants.

             'Sunday, June 10, 9 A.M. -- Got up steam and proceeded out of Cherbourg harbor. 10:30. -- Observed the Alabama steaming out of the harbor toward the Federal steamer Kearsarge. 11:10. -- The Alabama commenced firing with her starboard battery, the distance between the contending vessels being about one mile. The Kearsarge immediately replied with her starboard guns; a very sharp, spirited firing was then kept up, shot being sometimes varied by shells. In the manoeuvring both vessels made seven complete circles at a distance of from a quarter to a half a mile. At 12 a slight intermission was observed in the Alabama's firing, the Alabama making head sail and shaping her course for the land, distant about nine miles. At 12:30 observed the Alabama to be disabled and in a sinking state. We immediately made toward her, and on passing the Kearsarge were requested to assist in saving the Alabama's crew. At 12:50 when within a distance of 200 yards, the Alabama sank. We then lowered our two boats, and, with the assistance of the Alabama's whale boat and dingy, succeeded in saving about forty men, including Capt. Semmes and thirteen officers. At 1 P.M. we steered for Southampton.'

 
Many other accounts been written about the CSS Alabama’s final encounter with the USS Kearsarge and arguments persist arguments as to why the battle ended as it did, in the sinking of the Confederate ship. We now know that the Kearsarge's hull had extra armoured protection from a blanket of heavy iron chain; and that many of the shots fired from Alabama's guns fell short as a result of depleted powder; but there remains, one 'what if' factor that still generates much discussion and speculation by many. This of course is the third shot fired from the Alabama's forward 7-inch (178 mm) Blakely pivot rifle in the early stages of the battle. The 56 pound rifled shell is known to have struck a support beam, before lodging firmly in the Kearsarge’s vulnerable stern post, its impact binding the ship's rudder badly.

The Alabama’s shot however, failed to explode. Had it done so, the outcome of the battle might have been completely different. The resulting explosion would almost certainly have seriously disabled Kearsarge's steering and rendered her more vulnerable to attack, or at best, caused sufficient damage to sink the Union’s warship, and ended the contest there and then.


The preserved stern-post section with shell.
(Courtesy of the Navy Memorial Museum, Washington)

AFFIDAVIT OF Lord Monckton on Obama's Birth Certificate

 
 
AFFIDAVIT

I, the undersigned Christopher Walter Monckton, commonly known as The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Peer of the Realm, of Runhams Farm, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1NJ, being first duly sworn, do hereby state under oath and under penalty of perjury that the facts are true:

1. I am over the age of 18 and am a resident of the United Kingdom. The information herein is based upon my own personal knowledge. If called as a witness, I could testify competently thereto. I have a degree in Classical Architecture from Cambridge University. The course included instruction in mathematics. I am the Director of Monckton Enterprises Ltd., a consultancy corporation which, inter alia, specializes in investigating scientific frauds at government level, on which I advised Margaret Thatcher from 1982-1986 at 10 Downing Street during her time as Prime Minister. I have experience in the use of certain mathematical techniques which allow rigorous assessment of probabilities including the probability that a document has been forged. I have published papers in the reviewed literature on climate science and economics and am an appointed expert reviewer for the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report (2013) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I was this year’s Nerenberg Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

2. I am asked to give expert testimony on the probability, taking into account the published results of a law-enforcement investigation by the Cold Case Posse acting for the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, that the document purporting to be a digital photographic image of an original paper long-form Hawaiian birth certificate for President Obama that was personally endorsed by him at a Press Conference on April 27, 2011, and was thereupon posted on the White House website, is genuine.

3. I rely on the findings published by investigators acting at the instance of the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, in two press conferences, given on 1 March and 17 July 2012 respectively. At the second press conference, the Sheriff said he was now certain that the White House document was a forgery. Based on the findings of the law-enforcement investigation, I have conducted a probability analysis to establish the likelihood that the White House document is genuine.

4. Where a document contains what appear to be irregularities, they may have arisen by inadvertence or by design. Probability theory assists in evaluating the likelihood that all of the irregularities were indeed inadvertent.

5. The method is based on one of the earliest and simplest principles in the theory of probability, which arose from the mathematical study of the odds at games of chance. A simple heuristic will illustrate the method. Suppose that two dice are rigged so that they will always show a pair of identical numbers when thrown. Then the odds that a double-six, for instance, will occur are 1 in 6. On the other hand, if the dice are not rigged in any way, so that they land randomly, the chance of a double six occurring is just 1 in 36, for the face that lands uppermost on one dice is entirely independent of the face that lands uppermost on the other, and the probability that the first die will display a six is 1 in 6, and each time that occurs there is only a 1 in 6 chance that the other die will also display a six.

6. In general, therefore, the probability that a series of independent events will occur is simply the product of the individual probabilities that each of the independent events in the series will occur. Thus, with two dice each independently possessing a 1 in 6 probability that a six will show, the probability of a double six is 1 in 6 times 1 in 6: i.e., 1 in 36. With three such dice, the probability of a triple six is 1 in 6 times 1 in 6 times 1 in 6, or 1 in 216; and so on. The probabilities become rapidly smaller with each additional independent event.

7. The same technique may be applied to assessing the probability that a suspect document is genuine. The technique is particularly suitable for the testing of those documents in which the irregularities are so varied that unless they arose by design – as in the fabrication of a forgery – they cannot be dependent upon one another. If the irregularities arose naturally or by inadvertence, then they are very likely to be truly independent of one another, and their individual probabilities fall to be multiplied together to determine the probability that, overall, the irregularities occurred in a single document by inadvertence rather than by design.

8. The value of taking an explicitly mathematical approach to weighing evidence suggestive of forgery – particularly where the context is inescapably political – is that the test is, as far as possible, objective. Once it is accepted that certain irregularities exist and that the probability of each irregularity occurring by mere inadvertence is as stated, then the probability that the document is genuine becomes a matter of arithmetic. If any individual probability is thought unsuitable, a preferred value may be substituted and the calculation redone. The method and the results are explicit, transparent, and independent of any expertise or prejudice on the part of the mathematician. They may be independently reviewed by any other mathematician.

9. The first step in the probabilistic analysis of a document, then, is to list the individual irregularities found therein and to assign a reasonable and legitimate individual probability to each irregularity. I have had detailed discussions with the Sheriff’s investigators and with some experts so as to form a view on the probabilities that each of the errors that have been identified are inadvertent.

10. The investigators have said during their press conferences that one of their most serious concerns is that the White House document appears to have been fabricated piecemeal on a computer, inferentially by drawing together digitized data from several genuine birth certificates. Not the least of the reasons why the investigators have reached this conclusion is that the distribution of the electronic data between nine distinct “layers” is entirely uncharacteristic of a paper document that has been scanned to create a simple, digitized photographic image that may (0r may not) also have been processed either to sharpen the image using optical character-recognition software or to compress the file-size by using file-compression or optimization software.

11. The electronic data file of the White House document, when opened in Adobe Illustrator, can be separated into nine separate data “layers” and one clipping-mask path that groups the layers. Forensic experts for the Cold Case Posse established that these layers were not an artefact either of optimization or of optical character recognition. In any event, statements from the Governor of Hawaii and from the White House Press Office establish a chain of custody whereby no mention was made of any alteration or processing of the photocopied images at any point.

12. The electronic image was posted at the White House website in the form of a Portable Document Format (.pdf) file at 12.09 pm on 27 April 2011 using a programme called Macintosh Preview, which is recorded among the properties of the data file as the application that created it. However, I am told that forensic experts have deduced that a different software suite, Adobe Photoshop, was used to fabricate or alter the electronic image; then yet another program, Adobe Illustrator, was used to compile the various “layers” and export them as a .pdf; then, immediately before posting on the internet, Macintosh Preview was used in an unsuccessful attempt to erase the digital traces of the previous use of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and to reduce the file size.

13. A key reason for this deduction is that Macintosh Preview will not generate layers in the optimization process, though it will maintain any pre-existing layers generated by the user. For this reason, the investigators consider that the attributes of the layers in the White House document were fabricated before the file was optimized in Macintosh Preview. The presence of layers and their object-code attributes implies that Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator were significant contributors to and evidence of the fabrication of the electronic image, which was not derived from a photocopy. However, for the sake of caution I have taken no account of this irregularity.

14. No genuine electronic document image scanned, photocopied, or photographed from a paper birth certificate in a bound volume without further processing by way of optical-character recognition, file-compression, or optimization would be at all likely to contain more than one layer. Electronic images of scanned, photocopied, or photographed documents typically consist of a single data layer. Yet the White House document contains not only a single layer of 8-bit quality but also eight separate layers each of 1-bit quality, not one of them black. The meaning of “1-bit quality” is that each dot of colored light that comprises the photographic image (a “picture element”, or “pixel”), is represented in the electronic data file by a single binary digit (or “bit”). A bit may have the integer value 0 or 1, and is represented in any electronic circuit by a switch where 0 represents “off” and 1 represents “on”.

15. The meaning of “8-bit quality” is that each pixel is represented by a group of eight bits (called a “byte”), representing values from “00000000”, for zero, to “11111111”, for 255. Thus each pixel is digitally represented by an integer giving a different color value from 0 to 255. Each eight-bit “byte” in a color layer represents a distinct hue. Clusters of pixels of various hues allow millions of distinct colors to be displayed on a color TV monitor.

16. No optimization software generates any non-black layers of 1-bit quality, yet all of the 1-bit-quality layers in the White House document are non-black. No such software generates more than one layer of 1-bit quality, yet the White House document has eight such layers. No such software generates no black layer of 1-bit quality, yet none of the eight 1-bit-quality layers in the White House layer is black. No such software generates only one color layer, yet the White House document has a single color layer. No such software generates fewer than 50-150 layers for an image as complex as the White House document, yet that document possesses only nine layers.

17. Multiple layers of 1-bit quality each representing a distinct color other than black can only be created by an operator deliberately. If the document had acquired multiple layers as a result of optimization, it would possess only one 1-bit layer, representing all pixels that scan as black. This layer is akin to the edges of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. All of the non-black “layers” in standard optimization software would normally be of 8-bit quality. Each 8-bit color “layer” represents a single colored region entirely bounded by black pixels. Each layer, therefore, is not really a “layer” at all: instead, it represents the colored picture on a single “puzzle piece” bounded by black edges. In effect, the “puzzle pieces” form a “jigsaw puzzle”. When assembled, they comprise the entire image.

18. Any document that possesses multiple layers after automated optimization will possess only one layer of 1-bit quality with a black colour value. The remaining layers will be of 8-bit quality to represent the remaining colours within the image at various locations within the document. No such document would possess merely the single 8-bit colour layer that is present in the website copy of the birth certificate. In the data file for the White House document, the single 8-bit color layer represents the entire greenish “basket-weave” pattern of the readily obtainable “security” paper on which the black data were superimposed.

19. Yet a genuinely-created document that possessed layers as a result of a legitimate, automated optimization process would not have the background isolated on one 8-bit color layer: instead, the electronic representation of the basket-weave pattern in an image as complex as a long-form birth certificate would normally be distributed among as many as 50-200 separate “jigsaw-piece” layers each bounded by a black part of the image. The investigators have told me they regard the existence of the single 8-bit color layer representing the entire basket-weave substrate as compelling evidence that the data structure of the document indicates that it was fabricated layer by layer, and that it was not generated by any optimization program.

20. Where an event is certain not to occur, its probability is 0. Where it is unlikely to occur, its probability is less than 1 in 2. Where it is likely to occur, its probability is greater than 1 in 2. Where it is certain to occur, its probability is 1. Standing the gravity of the discrepancies between the distribution of layers in the image on the White House website and in an image created after processing by a normal optimization program, it would be legitimate to assign small probabilities (somewhat close to 0) at least to each of the following discrepancies: Multiple distinct layers of 1-bit quality, 1 in 10; none of the layers of 1-bit quality represents black, 1 in 10; a single color layer of 8-bit quality represents the entire basket-weave paper, 1 in 10. If each of these discrepancies were independent of the others, then the abnormalities in the distribution of data among the layers that are evident would have a combined probability of 1000:1 against their having occurred in the same document by inadvertence.

21. It is arguably more appropriate to regard these three probabilities as connected. It is possible that an untypical optimization program not known to the investigators was used. However, the investigators reviewed some 600 distinct optimization programs for the Windows operating system and the same 600 programs for the Macintosh operating system, and did not find a single program that created a layering structure in any way consistent with that which the White House document exhibits. Since it is difficult to demonstrate that no optimization program consistent with the observed layering structure exists, I have arbitrarily assumed that ten such programs exist, so that the probability that one of these programs was used is approximately 1 in 60.

22. The date when the copy was certified by the registrar, and the registrar’s stamp adjacent to it, each appear independently on separate layers of the White House document. Furthermore, these distinct layers contain no other data of any kind. No scan of an original document could possibly produce such separation of discrete items into distinct layers. The forensic experts tell me they regard this as definitive evidence that – contrary to the chain-of-custody account from official sources – the document was not photocopied but fabricated piecemeal. No legitimate document process would result in this separation of information into independent layers.

23. It would have been simple to place a genuine photocopy from Hawaii into a scanner, capture the electronic image, and then print from it the copies to be distributed to reporters at the White House press conference of April 27, 2011, uploading the innocent-seeming electronic image from the photocopied document and concealing entirely the rare – if not impossible – layering irregularities considered here. The presence of these irregularities establishes that the simpler route was not followed, as it would have been if the original document had been genuine, and that instead the image was pieced together electronically from several sources.

24. The two irregularly-layered stamps, if inadvertent, would not only be genuinely independent of one another but so rare as to be for all practical purposes impossible. Nevertheless, for caution I accord them a probability of 1 in 100 each, or 1 in 10,000 together. These irregularities, taken with the independent 1 in 60 probability of the layering irregularity, yield from the analysis of electronic irregularities alone a probability of only 1 in 600,000 that the White House document is genuine.

25. There are further irregularities in the presentation of the apparently mechanically-typed entries on the long-form certificate of live birth. Manual typewriters were in use in 1961. All mechanical typewriters then in use have fixed spacing: all letters, capital or lower-case, occupy the same width. A common width was the Elite escapement (typically 6 points wide, i.e. 12 characters to the inch horizontally; and 12 or 24 points line spacing, i.e. 6 single-spaced or 3 double-spaced lines to the inch vertically). Yet the White House document is poorly aligned both horizontally and vertically. To demonstrate how the alignments should have appeared on a genuine form, I invited forensic specialists to use a mechanical typewriter to enter data into a blank specimen form. The resultant image, overlaid with a red grid to show the regularity of line-spacing and letter-spacing compared with the irregularities in the White House document, is marked “M of B 1”, annexed and signed as relative hereto.

26. The experiment demonstrates how orderly the alignment of the typewritten margins, letters, words, and lines of text would have been if the original birth certificate had been created, like others in the public domain, by inserting a pre-printed form into a manual typewriter, aligning the carriage at the appropriate starting point at top left, and then filling in the form line by line. By contrast, the White House document shows how unnaturally irregular the letter, word and line spacings and alignments are.

27. In the White House document, the line spacing of the typewritten entries varies by 1 to 3 points (1/72 to 1/24 in.) above or below the usual 24-point (1/3 in.) double-spacing. That variability would not occur if the original document had been genuinely typewritten rather than electronically fabricated. The Hawaiian long-form certificate, like most forms of its day that were intended for typewriters, was designed precisely to allow double-spaced entries, so that once the first line entered was correctly registered all other lines of type would automatically fall in the right place within the successive form-lines as the carriage-return lever advanced the paper past the ribbon.

28. The rollers in a manual typewriter hold the paper firmly enough against the platen to avoid slippage. The numerous visible irregularities in the line spacing of Mr Obama’s copy birth certificate is very considerably beyond what would be expected, suggesting that the typed data in the form were placed by hand, or “eyeballed”.

29. The leftward foot of the letter “M” in “Male” is, as it should be, below the rightward foot, because, as the form-lines above and below it show, the page-image curves downward near the binding. By contrast, the word “Kapiolani”, unlike the word “Male” above it, does not curve downward to the left as it should have done if the image had been scanned from a bound volume, following the curvature of the form-lines above and below it.

30. The word “BARACK” is not aligned either to the curvature of the printed form-lines or – at its right-hand end – to the words “HUSSEIN” and “OBAMA” later in the line. Also, the year “1961” is below the adjacent month and day.

31. Variations not only line spacing but also in letter spacing are evident throughout the typewritten form entries. One consequence is that the three flush left lines on the document are not vertically aligned with one another, as all flush-left entries on the forensic experts’ document are. For instance, the whole word “Male” is offset by almost half a character to the left compared with the word “Kapiolani” two form-lines below it, indicating that one or the other word (or both) may have been imported electronically from another form and inserted. In a genuine document, all the typewritten letters and words on the form should normally have had the same vertical alignment.

32. The comma after the figure “4” is offset too much to the right, indicating that it may not have been typed but may instead have been “pasted” in position electronically during the composition of the image.

33. Many of the words towards the right-hand side of the form are aligned horizontally almost half a character farther to the right than the words on the left-hand side. This irregularity definitively demonstrates that the document was not typed line by line from left to right. It is unlikely that a clerk entering data into the form would have filled in the data on the left-hand side first and would then have removed and reinserted the form in such a way as to cause so substantial a misalignment when the right-hand half of the form was completed.

34. The typist would normally have inserted the form into the typewriter, aligned it, closed the rollers over the platen to hold the form firmly in alignment, and then typed the lines successively from left to right. If so, the systemic rightward shift that is evident in the letters and words appearing towards the right-hand side throughout the form could not have occurred. However, it is possible that this discrepancy arose because of parallax in the microfilm camera that was used to take different portions of the fabricated long-form birth certificate from other documents.

35. The variable letter spacing suggests that many of the typewritten letters were placed by hand, and not typed on a typewriter. For instance, the lower-case “a” appears several times on the form more closely to the right than normal, but the capital “A” does not. On a mechanical typewriter, the capital letter is carried on the same arm as the lower-case letter, so that if the document had genuinely been typewritten either the “A”s and “a”s would have been correctly spaced or they would all have been biased either leftward or rightward.

36. Word spacing is also variable in a fashion inconsistent with typewriting. Whole words are misaligned by 1 to 3 points (1/72 to 1/24 in., or one-sixth to one-half of a character), suggesting the words were individually “pasted in” as the document was fabricated piecemeal. Yet, for caution, I have taken no account of word-spacing irregularities.

37. Though it would have been legitimate to assign individual probabilities to each of the typewriter irregularities to which I have referred, for they would have been independent of one another if they were inadvertent, I have cautiously assigned a single probability of 1 in 10 to all of the irregular line spacings taken together as one irregularity, and a separate single probability of 1 in 20 to the irregular letter spacings, likewise taken together as one irregularity. Distinct probabilities for vertical and horizontal irregularities are appropriate because a typist creating a genuine document would have had to take two different actions to create both irregularities. Thus, based on the misalignments in the typing alone, the probability that the White House document is genuine is 1 in 200.

38. In addition to the irregularities in the electronic layering and in the vertical and horizontal spacings in the typewritten entries on the form, other unexpected features suggesting forgery are evident. Individual probabilities will be assigned to the most serious of these further irregularities.

39. A halo of white space is evident around the black portions of the White House document. The use of Unsharp Mask – a feature in the Adobe Photoshop software suite that also appears to a more limited extent in Adobe Illustrator, and whose purpose is to clean and sharpen the image – is one of many possible causes of the problematic halo effect. However, none of these causes apply where an original document is copied on to a photocopier, nor where that photocopy is in turn photocopied.

40. The Governor of Hawaii has said the original document was copied and given to Mr Obama’s attorneys. The White House Press Office has said the copy birth certificates it circulated on April 27, 2011, were taken from the copies received from Hawaii the previous afternoon. At neither end was anything done that could have caused a white halo around the typewritten entries on the form. The existence of the white halo effect, illustrated in an image marked “M of B 2”, annexed and signed as relative hereto, accordingly appears contrary to the course of events described by Mr Abercrombie and the White House Press Office, which do not mention any processing or alteration of the image that could have caused. I have assigned a probability of 1 in 10 to an inadvertent occurrence of the white halo.

41. The website copy of the birth certificate exhibits no chromatic aberration – the refraction of light when the lens of a scanner or camera comes across contrasts between colours (such as text against background). According to the investigators, this phenomenon arises from established physics. The aberration displays as a blue tint to the top and left edges of any black text character, and a reddish tint to the right and bottom edges. It can be seen in a genuine document if the viewer zooms in closely to a text area for observation, but it is absent in the White House document, though it is present in the printed copies of that image that were given to members of the White House press corps, indicating that the fabricated electronic file was printed out and then photocopied, creating the expected chromatic aberration, which is illustrated in the image marked “M of B 3”, annexed and signed as relative hereto. Accordingly, the account of events given by the Governor of Hawaii and the White House Press Office cannot be correct. Since forensic specialists have told me that the absence of chromatic aberration is definitive evidence that that version could not have been photocopied, scanned or photographed from a paper birth certificate, I have cautiously assigned a low probability of 1 in 100, rather than the more realistic zero probability, to the actually-impossible inadvertent absence of chromatic aberration in the White House document.

42. A further irregularity is that no photocopied, scanned or photographed document would have incorporated a “clipping mask” that had the effect of truncating the display of certain data forming part of the document image. Yet the White House document has a clipping mask path that conceals the safety paper pattern within the margins. The investigators have told me this can only occur by deliberate manipulation and cannot result from any legitimate processing. Automated processing such as optimization can produce a clipping mask, but a genuine mask will only define the size of the layers and will never prevent display of data or parts of the image. The security paper in the White House document contains a white margin that conceals not only part of the pattern of the security paper but also some data coding numbers in pencil that are relevant to determining whether that document is forged. A genuine electronic image of the pattern on security paper would bleed to the edge of the document. However, I have taken no account of this irregularity, for those creating a genuine file may have wished to trim the security paper to minimize the data file size.

43. Mr Obama’s short-form birth certificate, when first published in 2008, had its certificate number blacked out. It is not easy to discern any legitimate reason why this should have been done. Indeed, a certificate number appears openly on Mr Obama’s long-form birth certificate. However, the number is out of sequence, and it is possible that the original blacking-out of the number on the short-form certificate was an attempt to conceal this irregularity. The certificate appears to be stamped as having been registered on Tuesday, August 8, 1961, on which date the number 10641 was assigned to it. However, the Vital Statistics for 1961 issued by the US Department of Health & Human Services show that 17,578 births occurred that year in Hawaii: an average of 48 births per day. Therefore, Mr Obama’s certificate should have been about 3 x 48 = 144 numbers less than the numbers issued to two girls, the Nordyke twins, whose certificates were registered three days later, on Friday, August 11, as 10637 and 10638. It should certainly not have had a number greater than theirs. An automated sequential numbering stamp was used, and batches of birth certificates were collected monthly, ordered by date and time of birth and then sequentially number-stamped in a special room by a single clerk trained for the purpose, precisely to minimize numbering errors. However, for caution I have assumed that 1 number in 25 might inadvertently be out of sequence.

44. The birth date of Mr Obama’s alleged father is two years out. It not impossible that the child’s mother did not know his father’s date of birth, or that the date was incorrectly entered. I have assigned a 1 in 40 probability to this event.

45. The alleged father’s race is described as “African” some 28 years before the term “African” or “African American” first came into general usage. In 1961, written rules forbade the use of such generalized racial descriptors, the term “African” being specifically barred. Ms Verna K. Lee, the registrar a simulacrum of whose signature appears on the White House document, drew the investigators’ attention to the list of codings that were used for statistical returns to the Federal Government: 1 White; 2 Negro; 3 Indian (includes Aleuts and Eskimos); 4 Chinese; 5 Japanese; 6 Hawaiian (includes part-Hawaiian); 7 Other Nonwhite; Unknown or not stated (Race of parents only). The word “African” is not listed. I have assigned a 1 in 25 probability to the occurrence of the explicitly-prohibited and then-uncommon use of the word “African” to describe the alleged father’s race.

46. Coding numbers added to the form in pencil adjacent to various of the typed data entries on the form are incompatible with the data that had been entered. Box 9 on the form, “Race of Father”, has “African” typed in it. Yet the coding is “9”, which stands for “Unknown or not stated”. Likewise, Box 12b, “Kind of Business or Industry”, has “University” typed in it, but is also assigned the empty-box code “9”. Since these two events may have been connected even if they were inadvertent, and bearing in mind Ms. Lee’s statement to investigators to the effect that mistakes were not made on her watch, I have assigned a single 1 in 25 probability to these events taken as one.

47. There are many further irregularities in the White House document, but I have not assigned probabilities to them. Had I done so, the probability that the document is genuine would have been still smaller than it is. Those irregularities to which I have assigned probabilities are as follows:

    Independent event Probability

    Multiple layers of 1-bit quality ) ┐
    No 1-bit-quality layer represents black ) 1 in 60 (combined)
    One 8-bit-quality color layer ) ┘

    Registrar’s signature-stamp on its own layer 1 in 100 (actually impossible)
    Registrar’s date-stamp on its own layer 1 in 100 (actually impossible)
    Line spacing irregularities 1 in 10
    Letter spacing irregularities 1 in 20
    White halo effect around black text 1 in 10
    Chromatic aberration absent 1 in 100 (actually impossible)
    Certificate number out of sequence 1 in 25
    Father’s birth date two years out 1 in 40
    Use of “African” against written rules 1 in 25
    Miscoding of Federal statistical data 1 in 25
    Probability that all errors were inadvertent 1 in 75 quadrillion

48. As the table shows, the probability that the White House document is genuine (in that each of the irregularities identified by the investigators occurred by inadvertence), is the product of the individual probabilities that the mutually independent irregularities were accidental: that is, 1 in 75,000,000,000,000,000.

49. Since there are 13 distinct irregularities to which probabilities below unity are assigned, even if per impossible the probabilities that each irregularity evident in the White House document was present by accident were as great as 1 in 2, the probability that the document might naturally exhibit all 13 irregularities at once and is accordingly genuine would still be as small as 1 in 213, or less than 1 in 8000. This demonstrates a relevant general result in probability theory: if many independent irregularities even with substantial individual probabilities come to light during forensic examination of a suspect document, the probability that the document is genuine must be small.
50. Likewise, even where there are as few as two defects in a forged document, each with a low probability of innocent occurrence, the probability that the document is genuine must be small. For instance, given that the isolation not only of the electronic data representing the registrar’s signature stamp but also of the data representing his date-stamp on distinct data layers are occurrences that forensic specialists in the examination of electronic documents consider could not possibly have occurred naturally, if the probability of each irregularity is taken as being small (say, 1 in 100 for each of the two irregularities, though the probabilities are likely to be much less than this), the probability that the two defects both occurred by inadvertence and that thus the document is genuine is 1 in 10,000.

51. It follows that if – as here – there are multiple irregularities in a document, most of which possess low probabilities of innocent occurrence, the probability that the document is genuine must be vanishingly small In my experience, I have never found a document which, when this probabilistic technique is applied, is determined to be so very nearly certain to be a forgery as the White House document.

52. One might also legitimately assign probabilities no greater than 1 in 100 to each of three irregularities in other identification documents pertaining to Mr Obama. First, there are numerous irregularities in the short-form abstract of his birth record published in the run-up to his 2008 candidacy, including an inconsistency between the text of the abstract and the form of words in use at the time when it was, on its face, issued. Secondly, the selective-service record signed by him carries a two-digit year stamp contrary to written rules issued by the Department of Defense specifying a four-digit stamp, which, as far as the investigators could discover, was invariably used on all other selective-service registration records at that time. Thirdly, his social security number carries a three-digit Connecticut prefix even though he had never lived there and all adjacent social security numbers with the same three-digit prefix that the investigators could trace were issued to residents of Connecticut. Taking these three additional irregularities together with the 13 irregularities in the White House document, the probability that Mr Obama’s identity documentation is true falls from 1 in 75 quadrillion to 1 in 75 sextillion.

53. Even if each of the 16 irregularities were assigned a probability no less than 1 in 2, implying that each irregularity is at least as likely as not to occur in a genuine document, the probability that the documentation is genuine would be 1 in 216, or below 1 in 65,000. Further, in this analysis I have cautiously left out of account several irregularities – such as the indication that Mr Obama’s social security number fails the official online “e-verify” check – each of which ought to be assigned probabilities no greater than 1 in 2, reducing the probability of genuineness still further. Whichever way the analysis is done, that probability cannot be other than vanishingly small.

54. In this analysis I have relied upon the published results of the Cold Case Posse’s investigation. To the extent that the investigators’ results are reliable and robust, and to the extent that the probabilities I have assigned to each individual irregularity that the investigators have identified are considered reasonable, my conclusion that the probability that the White House document is genuine is vanishingly different from zero necessarily follows. Even if the probabilities I have chosen were to be considered excessively low, the fact that there are so many independent irregularities, even if absurdly high probabilities such as 1 in 2 were assigned to each irregularity, would be sufficient to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that the White House document is a forgery.

55. The images marked “M of B 1”, “M of B 2”, and M of B 3”, annexed and signed as exhibits relative hereto, are the images referred to herein.

Executed this Seventh day of November, 2012, in London, England

_________________________________ Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Sworn to and subscribed before me this Seventh day of November, 2012

­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________________ Solicitor

Northern Jacobins and Political Slavery

 

 In the end, the radical abolitionists were used by the Republican party to cover their revolution that changed the Founders’ form of government. After the war the radicals drifted away “as the Republican….party’s narrow concerns and corrupt methods became apparent,” and it was clear that freedmen were provided the vote only to be herded to the polls to elect Northern political opportunists in the devastated South.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Northern Jacobins and Political Slavery:

“The North, [Lysander Spooner] argued, had fought for the principle that “men may rightfully be compelled to submit to, and support a government they do not want; and that resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals.” The result was that chattel slavery had been replaced by “political slavery.” Before the war the government had been “in theory at least” based on popular consent. “But nothing of the kind can be said now, if the principle on which the war was carried on by the North is irrevocably established.”

As for the argument that emancipation had changed the nature of the war, Spooner pointed to the well-established fact that slavery had been abolished “not for any love of liberty in general – not as an act of justice to the black himself, but only “as a war measure.”

Spooner and other ante-bellum agitators had assumed that humanitarian radicalism is indissolubly linked to anarchism or the rejection of all constituted authority. But it is possible, especially in a democracy, to believe in strong government as an expression of the popular will and an instrument of egalitarian reform. For Northern humanitarians of 1865…..Such reliance on government for the protection of the rights of the freedmen could be reconciled with the humanitarian impulse only by re-evaluating the role of the state and abandoning all vestiges of doctrinaire anti-institutionalism.

The common description of the [Republican] Radicals as “Jacobins” suggests that they had a belief in the unlimited power of the central government to legislate the general will and, what was more, a sense of themselves as uniquely embodying and transmitting that will. The proposals of Thaddeus Stevens and Wendell Phillips for the confiscation of Southern estates and division of the land among the freedmen undeniably defied the cherished rights of property in the name of a national democracy.

By 1867….”[Phillips] and a little band of abolitionists he represented, like Robespierre and the Jacobins, believed that their will was the General Will” and looked for the federal government to establish and maintain an equal political and social position for the Negro in the South, by as much force as proved necessary. They were groping for something like the modern concept of the welfare state – foreshadowed as it was by pragmatic programs of the time like the Freedmen’s Bureau – but their intense hatred of the white South prevented a rational approach.

In the end, they settled for the panacea of moderate Republicans – the purely political solution of giving the Negro the vote, denying it to certain classes of whites, There was the desire to get the Southern States readmitted to the Union under Republican control in time to deliver critical votes in 1868 and thereafter.”

(The Inner Civil War, Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union, George M. Frederickson, Harper & Row, 1965, pp. 190-192)

Surprise!:) He Was Red All Along

Via Billy

 

 by Al Benson Jr.

For literally decades we were assured that Nelson Mandela from South Africa was not a Communist, that this wild accusation was thrown at him only so the forces of apartheid  in South Africa could stigmatize him before the world. We were told his only crime was wanting equal treatment for blacks in South Africa, that he was really a South African patriot--and on and on the usual media drivel went.

Now that South Africa has basically gone Communist (is there a lesson for the US here?) we are informed that, guess what, Mandela was a Communist after all. What a surprise! Some of us knew this forty years ago in spite of what the media told us. Groups like the John Birch Society were smeared as "Red baiters" simply for telling the truth that Mandela had lied about.

In an article by Colin Freeman and Jane Flanagan that was on http://www.telegraph.co.uk appeared the following: "For decades it was one of the most enduring disputes of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle.  Was Nelson Mandela. the leader of the African National Congress, really a secret Communist, as the white-only government at the time alleged?...Now nearly half a century after the court case that made him the world's best known prisoner of conscience, a new book claims that whatever the wider injustices perpetrated, the apartheid-era prosecutors were indeed right on one question:  Mr. Mandela was a Communist Party member after all."

The articles continued: "But research by a British historian, Professor Stephen Ellis, has unearthed fresh evidence that during his early years as an activist, Mr. Mandela did hold senior rank in the South African Communist Party, or SACP.  He says Mr. Mandela joined the SACP to enlist the help of the Communist superpowers for the ANC's campaign of armed resistance to white rule."

Let's get one thing straight here. If Mandela was a Communist then his first primary concern was to further whatever agenda the Communist Party in his country put forward, and not to help black people. Communists are noted the world over for using black people as cannon fodder in their "wars of resistance." So if Mandela was, indeed, Red, then his first loyalty was to the Party and not his people.

The British researcher, after noting Mandela's Party membership, went on to talk about how "magnanimous"  Mandela was to all South Africans.  Anyone who knows anything about Communists knows they are not magnanimous people. That sentiment does not fit into their agenda for world governance, which, contrary to poplular opinion, they still have.

I wonder if Mandela's magnanimity extended to his wife, Winnie, who, while he was still in prison was noted for her practice of having her political opponents "necklaced." If you don't know what that term implies check it out on the Internet referencing it to her.

So it's all just another case of the public, world-wide, being lied to by the politicians and the media movers and shakers. So what else is new?

Singing In The Rain


TEA’D OFF: Ron Paul warns Republicans not to further anger their base

Image 

Ron Paul has a message for his fellow House Republicans trying to tame the Tea Party: Don’t. You’ll only make them angrier.

Paul is sounding the warning after GOP leaders booted four Tea Party supporters off the Budget and Financial Services committees in hopes of advancing a deal with Democrats that would keep the country from going off the fiscal cliff.

And Paul, retiring after 15 years in Congress, knows of what he speaks because he is a founder of the Tea Party movement.

The Texas representative told the Daily that the rare move by the Republican Steering Committee will harden the conservatives — three just wrapping up their first term — not soften them.
“They’re going to punish freshmen legislators? If you’re looking for dissension, then you’re going to get it,” Paul told The Daily. “These congressmen will never cave. They’re going to get the support of the people … They will become heroes.”

More @ The Daily

===============

Rep. Walter Jones surprised at being kicked off committee

 My representative.

 Rep. Walter Jones, a rare moderate Ron Paul Republican, said he was "very disappointed" and "a little bit surprised" he was booted from a plum committee assignment after he repeatedly voted against House Speaker John A. Boehner's wishes.

But the North Carolina lawmaker said he isn't angry, has no regrets and vowed to continue to vote his conscience.

"I'm not going to sacrifice my integrity for anyone or any party," Mr. Jones told a gathering of reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. "It's the price you pay. I didn't come up here to be a puppet for anyone. And I think the public back in my district, which is the most important, has seen I'm willing to do what I think is right."

Mr. Jones, who easily won a 10th term to the House last month, and fellow Republican Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona are losing their seats on the House Financial Services Committee, while GOP Reps. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan will lose their seats on the House Budget Committee.

Mr. Jones has voted against his party about 30 percent of the time, records show.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said Tuesday the party's steering committee made the decision "based on a range of factors," the Associated Press reported.

Mr. Jones said he learned won't be returning to the financial services panel "on the Internet" — not from his party's leadership.

The Republican, 69, said he wasn't worried about future reprimands from the speaker, joking he was "too old" to worry about such things.

"In the long run, any time, any leadership, Republican or Democrat, takes this kind of action ... I think you hurt yourself more than you hurt anyone else," he said.

He added that lawmakers' obsession with campaign fundraising is crippling Congress.

"This whole place is all about money. Money is more important than policy," he said. "Both parties are all consumed with raising money."
More @ The Washington Times

Why Obama Won Catholic Vote By Two Percent

 

VERBATIM

Every day, I am amazed by what people are willing to believe. People believe what they are told by authority figures without question. What’s even more stunning, however, is what people don’t know. On a daily basis, people buy products about which they know very little; they marry people whom they don’t know as well as they should; and they vote for politicians who stand in direct opposition to their core beliefs. I call these people “The Uninformed”; the people who go about their day taking in as little information as possible; and doing as little as possible to critically analyze what is going on in the world around them.

A new article on NPR.org goes into great detail regarding the breakdown of voter demographics that won Obama re-election. The article goes through many topics, but one brief data point caught my eye. According to NPR, Obama won the national Catholic vote by 2%.

Now, you may say that 2% isn’t a big deal, but in my opinion, Obama should not have gotten a single Catholic vote, let alone a majority. Many of Obama’s views and political actions stand in exact opposition to what Catholics stand for.

1. The HHS mandate. Obama wants to force Catholic-run medical establishments to provide birth control and abortion-related services to patients. According to pittsburghcatholic.org: “The HHS mandate requires that every employer, including the church as employer, facilitate birth control, sterilization and abortion-related services in its health plans. This mandate would apply to all secular employers and faith-based entities.” They go on to mention that the only exemption is for organizations that serve primarily religious customers.

2. Obama’s record on abortion. While in Illinois, Barack Obama voted against a bill that would provide basic human rights to infants born alive following a botched abortion. Not only did he vote against it once, but four times. When questioned, Obama claimed he voted against the bill because it would undermine Roe V Wade. This was later proven patently false.

3. Obama’s approval of same-sex marriage. Though Obama’s support of same-sex unions is tepid at best–his positions on it have fluctuated for years–even basic approval goes against Catholic beliefs.
So why is it exactly that Obama was able to win the national Catholic vote by two percentage points? I’ll tell you why: ignorance. We live in a country full of people who are too stupid or lazy to take a critical look at anything.

We are told by the media that Obama wants to help the poor by implementing Obamacare and bailouts. Well, it must be true. We are told that all the hubbub about the HHS mandate isn’t a big deal. Well, it must be true. We are told so many things that aren’t true, yet there is such a dearth of critical thinking in this country that it all goes right over our heads.

It reminds me of a quote from Thomas Paine: “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

So many have lost the will to use reason before they cast their votes. Without reason, we are dead.

$770 Million from State Department for 'Mosque Makeovers'


"Seek vengeance, seek it for me. At last make liars forsake the lie and with truth, testify."

Comment by Joan Hough on Most Excellent: Tom Woods - Ron Paul Right, Though...

 

Half of America: I'd kill to protect my own

 Via Don

Only 58%? I guess the rest will say come kill me and my family, you know I'm not a violent person........::)

 

Nearly half of Americans would expect serious, sustained life-threatening civil unrest within two weeks of a major catastrophe, such as an EMP attack that would destroy electronics, according to a new poll.

Another huge percentage say they would expect further deterioration after two weeks, but for many, that development would be irrelevant, because they expect they would be dead by then.

The sobering new poll by Wenzel Strategies, a public-opinion research and media consulting company, also shows a stunning number of Americans say they would be willing to kill a neighbor under such circumstances.

The poll, conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 3 with a margin of error of 3.14 percentage points, showed 58 percent of Americans would be somewhat or very willing to kill someone if a member of their family was threatened with attack during an emergency.

But that would be because 50 percent expect that within two weeks of a catastrophic emergency, their home, person or family member would be physically attacked by someone desperate for food, money or commodities like gasoline.

More @ WND

Liberal Welfare State in Decline

 

VERBATIM

Even as the country deals with the crisis of the “fiscal cliff,” there’s another crisis waiting in the wings. “The second act will occur early in 2013 when the federal government will exhaust its ability to issue debt legally,” writes Heritage’s J. D. Foster.

As computer programmers would say, the seemingly endless series of crises isn’t a bug; it’s a feature, a fundamental debate over the future of the country.

With Obamacare in place, the left has finished building its dream: a liberal welfare state. Yet that dream seems likely to turn into a nightmare. Without massive tax increases on the middle class, the welfare state is simply not affordable. “The foundation is falling out from beneath the building just as they have finished construction,” quips Yuval Levin.

That’s why Charles Kesler, editor of the Claremont Review of Books, remains upbeat that the future of the country is conservative.

In a Heritage First Principles essay published before the 2012 election, he wrote:
If the bankruptcy of the entitlement programs were handled just the right way, with world-class cynicism and opportunism, in an emergency demanding quick, painful action lest Grandma descend into an irreversible diabetic coma, then liberalism might succeed in maneuvering America into a Scandinavia-style ĂĽberwelfare state, fueled by massive and regressive taxes cheerfully accepted by the citizenry.
But all that remains unlikely:
Odds are we stand instead at the twilight of the liberal welfare state. As it sinks, a new, more conservative system will likely rise that will feature some combination of more means-testing of benefits, a switch from defined-benefit to defined-contribution programs, greater devolution of authority to the states and localities, a new budget process that will force welfare expenditures to compete with other national priorities, and the redefinition of the welfare function away from fulfilling socioeconomic “rights” and toward charitably taking care of the truly needy as best the community can afford when private efforts have failed or proved inadequate.
His optimism about the future explains why Kesler’s book I Am the Change is subtitled Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism.

Despite the election results, it’s the left that faces an existential crisis. Conservatives, meanwhile, have detailed plans that can transform entitlement programs, reduce federal spending and debt, and hold the line on taxes. That’s worth remembering—no matter how the fiscal cliff talks end up.

RFK Jr. Rips Conservative Media

RFK Jr. Rips Conservative Media 

VERBATIM

Will America’s Kennedy Curse, where one morally ambiguous Kennedy proceeds to lecture Americans on one issue or another simply because his last name is Kennedy, continue ad infinitum?

This time it’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is under investigation for the murder of his wife.  Kennedy, interviewed by HuffPost Live, said that Fox News and other conservative media are splitting the country more than any time since the Civil War:

Twenty-two percent of Americans say their primary news source is Fox News. It's divided our country in a way that we haven't been divided probably since the Civil War, and its empowered large corporations to get certain kinds of politicians and ideologues who are in the United State Congress elected -- the Tea Party ideologues who control the Republican Party.

This from a man whose estranged wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, supposedly committed suicide last May 16. Her family has launched an investigation because, strangely enough, her death was ruled a suicide despite the fact that the noose tied around her neck was an intricate nautical knot that only sailors would know and she was found hanging high up from a 12-foot beam in the garage.

Investigators hired by Mary’s family want to know whether Mary was a sailor, “capable of tying a nautical knot for the noose,” or “could have climbed up to a 12-foot beam to tie the rope she used to hang herself in the garage.” Investigators also want to know which platform she stood on and if there were receipts for the rope she supposedly used. Kennedy’s actions in the days before his wife’s death are also being analyzed.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is the usual Kennedy family type: cheating serially on his wife and then dumping her when it was too much for her. They went to couples counseling, where Kennedy openly confessed his affairs in front of his wife, including one that lasted three years. “Bobby is a philanderer. Always was, always will be. And Mary knew that”, said a friend of Kennedy’s. A woman who knew him well admitted, “Once, my girlfriend and I were talking to him at a party, and he put his hand right up her dress. He smiled and moved on and I asked her, ‘Why didn’t you say anything?!’ and she said, ‘I was totally shocked!’ ”

Meanwhile, his wife said that Kennedy’s actions wounded her deeply, but as one friend of hers remembered, his wife said she never said she hated him, just said, “I wish he was a better man.”

The day before she died, Kennedy’s wife called him and begged him to “take care of her.” He told his wife’s caretaker he wouldn’t because “she doesn’t want to help herself.”

Mary had been troubled for years, using drugs and alcohol, but as a close family friend said, “She had cause. She was used up and tossed away by Bobby. That was awful.”

Kennedy had impregnated Mary Richardson before he was divorced from his first wife. They were married one month after his first divorce.

This charming individual is now criticizing the same conservative media that is on the side of traditional family values for dividing the country after dividing his own families with his constant cheating and emotional abuse.

It’s enough now. The Kennedy name, with its history of suspicious deaths, marital infidelity and lying to the public, paved the way for the Clintons and the current attitude of indifference to moral standards. It’s time to put that name back where it belongs: on the walls of post offices.

M1 Garand Sniper Variants M1C & M1D

 

Santa?:)

For those of you who have been following our Garands from the Government series, you probably remember back in the first article that we ordered two M1 Garand snipers rifles. They are called the M1C and the M1D, and as guns go, they are very different from each other. Both models are much more expensive than the other rifles available from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), and for the collector and military enthusiast they are far more exciting than run of the mill Garands. Sniper Garands were not a big factor in World War II, but they were the dominant sniper rifle in the Korean conflict, and many soldiered well on into the 1970s, serving in Vietnam and around the world. 

These CMP guns were mostly made during Korea, where both the M1C and M1D were used extensively. The condition on the guns is excellent and though both of the famous Garand Snipers have been extremely rare through the years, a recent re-importation of rifles from Greece that had been on loan has provided a entirely new wave of extremely collectible and shootable guns that will be the stars of any Garand collection. This article outlines what makes the two models different and what you can expect if you decide to buy one from CMP, as well as how to make your own versions of the M1C and M1D from an M1 Garand that you already own. We also cover the optics that were used on the guns back in the day, as well as some new replicas from Gun Parts Corp.

Snow and ice

Via Cousin Colby

The Petraeus Legacy: A Paramilitary CIA?

I no longer speak kindly of General Petraeus nor his Army which is my ex-Army.

To Brock Townsend at America's last pocket of sanity, Free North Carolina:

After reading Legacy of Ashes, I didn't think the CIA could sink lower.  The CIA was already the world's premier drug cartel and money launderer so Petraeus had to do something new.  Make it into a killing machine.  I'd award that Broadwell woman the Medal of Freedom for bringing him down ala Samson's Delilah.  I have lived too long.

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While much of the media focus on l’affaire Petraeus has centered on the CIA director’s sexual relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, the scandal opens a window onto a different and more consequential relationship—that between the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. In a behind-the-scenes turf war that has raged since 9/11, the two government bodies have fought for control of the expanding global wars waged by the United States—a turf war that JSOC has largely won. Petraeus, an instrumental player in this power struggle, leaves behind an agency that has strayed from intelligence to paramilitary-type activities. Though his legacy will be defined largely by the scandal that ended his career, to many within military and intelligence circles, Petraeus’s career trajectory, from commander of US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to the helm of the CIA, is a symbol of this evolution.

 “I would not say that CIA has been taken over by the military, but I would say that the CIA has become more militarized,” Philip Giraldi, a retired career CIA case officer, told The Nation. “A considerable part of the CIA budget is now no longer spying; it’s supporting paramilitaries who work closely with JSOC to kill terrorists, and to run the drone program.” The CIA, he added, “is a killing machine now.”

Navy SEAL Killed in US Hostage Rescue



A US Navy SEAL was killed in Sunday's rescue mission in Afghanistan that freed an American doctor kidnapped by the Taliban, the White House said. 

"Our special operators in Afghanistan rescued an American citizen in a mission that was characteristic of the extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism that our troops show every day," the White House said in a statement.

"Tragically, we lost one of our special operators in this effort. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, just as we must always honor our troops and military families."

Dr. Dilip Joseph, the U.S. citizen rescued on Sunday, was abducted on Wednesday in the Sarobi district of Afghanistan's Kabul province, according to NATO-led forces.

It was not known how the SEAL was killed or if anyone was injured during the rescue mission.
U.S. General John Allen, commander of NATO-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, said he ordered the mission in eastern Afghanistan when intelligence showed that Joseph was "in imminent danger of injury or death."

More @ Newsmax

Mayan's

Comment by Deborah on Unserious People

 

 Our only real HOPE now is if the Mayan's were correct.

Why Romney Lost -- Election Not Just about Economy

 


Mitt Romney was a highly qualified and articulate presidential candidate, but he lost to the incumbent, Barack Obama, whose first term record on economic and fiscal policies was both dismal and dangerous. Moreover, Barack Obama had pursued increasingly radical social policies antipathetic to American religious and cultural traditions. His foreign policies resulted in huge power gains for the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, jeopardizing regional peace and the security of Israel. In addition, the President shows little regard for the Constitution or its limits on his authority and actions. Yet Romney lost because several million conservative Republicans, who normally vote, did not vote.

In retrospect, this could have been anticipated and overcome. Many conservatives had become disenchanted with George W. Bush and John McCain. In 2012, they were looking for a presidential candidate more in line with their thinking, not only on economic, fiscal, and national security issues, but also on Constitutional, cultural, and social policies. Many of these disenchanted, normally Republican-leaning voters stayed at home rather than vote for McCain in 2008, who along with Bush and Democrat Ted Kennedy had tried to push an amnesty for about 12 million illegal immigrants through Congress in 2006 and 2007. In addition, McCain frequently tried to ingratiate himself with the liberal mainstream media rather than paying any real attention to conservative concerns about jobs and a changing social environment in America, with which they were increasingly uncomfortable.

Some of them were also uneasy about Romney’s Mormon faith. A June 2011 Gallup poll of registered voters indicated that 22 percent of them were not comfortable voting for a Mormon. This response was more common among Democrats with 27 percent uncomfortable voting for a Mormon against 18 percent for Republicans. However, only about 7 percent of those who said they were not comfortable voting for a Mormon said they absolutely would not vote for a Mormon. This is only 1.54 percent of the electorate, but enough to make a difference in a closely contested election. However, almost all candidates have some background issue that turns way 2-5 percent or more of the voters.

Gallup conducted another poll of registered voters in June 2012 that showed similar but improving results regarding Romney’s election prospects.  Discomfort with voting for a Mormon had dropped to 18 percent. The survey showed that 24 percent of Democrats, 18 percent of independents, and 10 percent of Republicans were uncomfortable voting for a Mormon. Judging from the demographics of this survey, the strongest opposition to Mormon candidates is among black Democrats.

In at least one North Carolina instance, Obama operatives targeted Evangelical blacks on the Mormon issue, pointing out that the Mormon Church once prohibited blacks from being ordained as clergy. This helped overcome the difficulty Evangelical blacks were having with Obama’s newly announced endorsement of same-sex marriage. This was combined with an overall appeal based on racial loyalty.

To set the record straight, the Mormons have never excluded blacks from membership, but from 1852 to 1978, they did exclude them from the Church’s lay-priesthood.  After 34 years, the issue was resurrected to counter the discomfort black families and churches were having with Obama’s social radicalism.

White evangelicals, especially conservative blue-collar and modest income white-collar families, were abandoned as a hostile voting segment by the Obama campaign, but they did not get much encouragement from the Rommey campaign. I do not believe Romney lost many votes among these conservatives because of his Mormon faith. According to a Pew exit poll, 79 percent of white Evangelical Protestants (23 percent of the electorate) voted for Romney, the same percent that George W. Bush got in 2004. A recent Barna Group survey also indicated that their combined classification of “Evangelical and “born-again” voters (38 percent of the electorate) supported Romney with 60 percent of their vote, just short of Bush’s 62 percent in 2004. Besides Barna’s combined evangelical-born-again classification, another 39 percent are what Barna calls “notional” Christians. These either call themselves Christians or are members of Christian churches, but their surveys indicate a lack Biblical understanding or commitment to the faith. These voters favored Obama over Romney 57 to 41 percent. The remaining 22 percent of voters either claim other religions or religious skepticism.  Both of these groups favored Obama over Romney by about 69 to 29 percent. Unfortunately for Republicans, this classification is growing.

The Barna Group does not use self-descriptions or church membership to classify respondents into various religious belief categories. It uses nine survey questions on respondent beliefs about salvation, Jesus, the Bible, and personal commitment to define the categories. One result of their findings, which may be surprising given some major differences between Mormon and more traditional Christian theology, is that 34 percent of Mormons fall into the evangelical-born-again faith category, a higher percentage than many Christian denominations. On social issues, the Mormons are very close to conservative Protestants and Catholics.

About 84 percent of Mormons voted for Romney. According to the Pew Survey, 66.5 percent of white Protestants and 57 percent of white Catholics voted for Romney, while only 31 percent of Latino Catholics voted for him.

I believe there are two main reasons why Romney lost. First, Romney failed to convince a substantial percentage of blue-collar and lower income white-collar conservatives that he was a dependable conservative who would not wobble on issues like immigration and “affirmative” action (racial preferences), which are affecting their incomes and job prospects, and media-driven social radicalism and political correctness, which are threatening their children’s understanding of their religious and family values. Millions of them did not feel compelled to vote.  Second, Obama was able to quietly exploit the Mormon issue to overcome the objections of black Evangelicals to his radical social policies.