FU!: US needs to rethink on free speech: Hina

Via Hans

 

 In the wake of anti-America protests in many parts of the world over an anti-Islam film, the US needs to rethink about its concept of free speech, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said.

“It is not good enough to say it’s free speech, it should be allowed. I think if this does provoke action against American citizens or Americans anywhere else in the world, then maybe we do need to rethink how much freedom is OK,” Hina told CNN in an interview.

“Is freedom to the extent of harming lives also OK? So, I think we need to find a way to manage this in a civilised manner in trying to bring all of our, you know, all of our minds together,” Hina said. “I think what we need is more tolerance for each other’s views. What we need is to be able to give mutual space for us to be able to demonstrate what is culturally, religiously important to us and not to hold each other, not to judge each other for that. “To give that space and to be able to create some space for ourselves. And really we have to be sensitive to religious sensitivities,” she said.

*Hina said she does not want to ‘go deeper into discussion’ when asked one does not see massive demonstration or violence emerging because of ugly things that are said about other religions in the Arab and Muslim world, whether Christians or Jews. 

*Can't imagine why, bitch.

More @ The Nation

Another gorgeous September day off the Emerald Isle Pier

Steering America into Disaster: Obama Radicalism and Public Complacency

 

Mike Scruggs

By late in the evening of April 14, 1912, the crew of the RMS Titanic had received eight iceberg warnings from six different ships. Most unfortunately, they were not heeded. Some of the iceberg warnings were not even reported to the bridge. An attitude of complacent confidence in ship and crew prevailed. Near midnight, going at close to full speed, her lookouts spotted a huge iceberg dead ahead. Unable to alter her course and speed in time, the Titanic struck and scraped against the iceberg on her starboard side. Within three hours that magnificent ship, thought by many to be unsinkable, sank into a watery grave, carrying 1,503 of her passengers and crew with her.

Complacency is often the father of disaster. Most people are reluctant to believe that their lives could be radically changed for the worse by government policies that the mainstream media are either praising or helping to obscure. Media and public inattention to government policies and actions are equivalent to ignoring iceberg warnings.

President Barack Obama has been steering the United States into economic, social, military, and foreign policy disaster for nearly four years. Political author Norman Podhoretz describes him as a “lethal combination of incompetence and radicalism” that has made him “into one of the worst presidents in American History.” Yet according to several polls, over 47 percent of a complacent and poorly informed American electorate is ready to re-elect him president.       

Podhoretz’s assessment of Obama’s dismal economic record is substantiated by 43 straight months with the U-3 Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rate over 8.0 percent. But the U-3 rate significantly under-reports unemployment. Obama claims to have created 4.5 million jobs, but the net job creation over his term in office is only 415,000, considerably less than what would have been created by population growth. In fact, the labor participation rate of 63.5 percent is at the lowest level in over 30 years. The American workforce has been reduced by a net 5.0 million workers. This indicates that the real unemployment rate is closer to 11.5 percent than the reported 8.2 percent. The less familiar U-6 rate, which includes both those who have become too discouraged to look for work and those forced to part-time, is over 15 percent.  There are 23 million Americans looking for a full-time job but cannot find one. Yet there are 8.2 million illegal immigrants holding jobs in the U.S, and Obama is unlawfully passing out several million amnesties for them. This is an outrage, but Obama does not care about jobs for American workers; he cares about making illegal immigrants into grateful new Democrat voters.

Obama and the Democrats have failed in their responsibility to provide annual budgets. Federal spending has exceeded Federal revenues by deficits exceeding $1.0 trillion in every year of his term, and the national debt is now $16 trillion, exceeding the total annual production of the U.S. economy. How are we going to pay it off? On September 13, the Federal Reserve made a desperate move to “fix the job situation” by introducing a new stimulus package that will buy $40 billion in mortgage bonds monthly for an indefinite period. This will cause the price of bonds to rise and interests rates to fall, resulting in an increase in the money supply, when we are already running up huge fiscal deficits and the national debt. This inflation of the money supply is the equivalent of just printing more money. Using monetary inflation as an economic “stimulus” is going to be a heavy burden on retired people and others on fixed income. In fact, it will hurt the vast majority of American workers and small businesses.

Both Governor Romney and Texas Republican Ron Paul have indicated substantial disagreement with Fed Chairman Bernanke’s new policy, which seems designed to create a short-term illusion of economic recovery for the benefit of Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. But after the election, we will be stuck with its real and painful consequences. Such a policy will devalue the dollar. It is a dangerous step towards the ruinous hyperinflation that devastated Germany from 1919 to 1923.

Job losses and looming inflation are reason enough to send Obama packing on Election Day.  His foreign policy and efforts to cover up the dangers of Islamic radicalism and the Muslim Brotherhood range between inept and insane disregard for American security.  On the inept side, he let the “Arab Democratic Spring” turn into a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, endangering the security of Israel. In other actions, he has had the Defense Department and FBI purge any documents that Muslim reviewers considered a negative stereotype of Islam. Jihad can no longer be defined as “Holy War,” and Army training courses on radical Islam have been cancelled. The Justice Department is now considering making “Islamophobia” or any criticism of Islam a hate crime. First Amendment religious freedom for Christians is being pushed aside to appease U.S. Muslim Brotherhood front organizations and the Saudi-based 56-nation Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Last December, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton worked with the OIC to find ways to enforce a United Nations resolution to fight Islamophobia in the United States and other Western nations.

Most of the American media has been ignoring the iceberg warnings signaled by Obama’s autocratic radicalism. They routinely bury any embarrassing signs of inept decision-making.  Thus the public is poorly informed and ill prepared to discern the dangers of Obama’s radical agenda or to evaluate his management competence. The resultant public complacency portends calamity. Like the RMS Titanic, America is moving toward a high-speed collision with reality. Re-electing Barack Hussein Obama president will sink American freedom, prosperity, and security, probably forever.

Dedicated to Mr. Bowen

Via Traditions and Skills

My buddy. 

Mr. Bowen

Obama's new flag looks like bloody Benghazi wall

Via Cousin John

Circulating on the Internet is a combined image of a bloody hand in the last moments of life clutching at a wall at the U.S. compound in Benghazi where Ambassador Christopher Stephens was murdered and the U.S. flag redesigned with the Obama logo where the stars are typically placed.

 

The point being drawn – the similarity of the images – is a graphic criticism of the Obama campaign’s indulgence in the Obama cult of personality, while the Obama administration neglects to provide adequate security for our diplomatic personnel currently in danger as the Arab Spring turns to a Muslim Brotherhood radical Fall.

More @ WND

Fake Gold and Why You Should Invest in the Following Products

More reports are surfacing concerning 10 ounce tungsten filled “gold” bars. I had planned to write this article last month but now it is more relevant in light of this story. What do you need to protect yourself in purchasing gold and silver in the future? I purchased the following supplies for barter/banking considerations after the economic collapse.
First is a scale (or scales):

 

American Weigh AWS-100 Precision Pocket Scale 100 x 0.01g

Product Description - $11.39

 

More @ NC Renegade

The 21st Mississippi: The Flag That Never Surrendered

Via Peter DoréEnglish Friends of the South

Media Put 18,000 in Not-Quite-Full 5,000-Seat Arena for Obama in Wisconsin

 

President Barack Obama is having trouble drawing large crowds on the campaign trail. At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, his campaign was forced to move his acceptance speech from the 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium to the 20,000 Time Warner Cable Arena, citing weather as the excuse. But the media are always eager to help--for example, putting 18,000 people inside a 5,000-seat arena at an Obama event in Milwaukee on Saturday.

The contradiction was first noted by battlegroundwatch.com. Local media, including the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, reported that Obama had addressed "supporters who filled the 5,000-seat BMO Harris Pavilion, along with thousands more who sat in bleachers and stood on the pavement beyond the protection of the roof, even as wind and rain lashed down in the latter moments of the near 30-minute speech."

The pavilion was not "filled"--a local reporter for Patch.com filmed empty seats in the bleachers at the side of the arena (see above). Nevertheless, the Journal-Sentinal played it safe, putting attendance at roughly 5,000-plus, a small but respectable turnout.

That's not how national media covered it. Darren Samuelsohn of Politico reported that the president addressed "a crowd the Obama campaign estimated at 18,000 in a city park overlooking Lake Michigan" in an attempt to "lock up" Wisconsin.

More @ Breitbart

70% of Spending Goes to Dependence Programs

More @ Scribe

Rand Paul forces vote but: Senate overwhelmingly rejects foreign aid cuts for Egypt, Libya and Pakistan

 

By a vote of 81 to 10, the Senate on Saturday defeated legislation that would have suspended foreign aid to Pakistan, Egypt and Libya in the wake of the violent anti-American demonstrations in those countries. All 10 supporters of the bill were Republicans.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul had threatened to hold up all Senate business until the bill was considered. He succeeded in forcing a vote, but couldn’t come close to passage.

“When nearly 80 percent of Americans believe foreign aid should be reduced – especially to countries that are not our allies – it is inconceivable why their views are ignored by so many in Congress,” Paul said in a statement. “I am far from defeated on this; I will continue to fight for this issue when Congress returns, and I will continue to call attention to the billions of American dollars – borrowed from China, among other places – being sent to governments that are not willing to respect and protect our interests overseas.”

More @ The Daily Caller

Obama to Release One Third of Gitmo Inmates

 

President Barack Obama is about to release or transfer 55 Gitmo prisoners, despite reports that the Libyan believed to be behind the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was a former Guantanamo inmate transferred to Libyan custody.

The large percentage of those scheduled to be released are Yemeni, according to a list made public by the Obama administration.

Obama stopped the release or transfer of Yemeni inmates in 2010, because the conditions in the country were viewed as too "unsettled" at the time.

A release or transfer of 55 inmates means Obama is moving out one third of the prisoners at Guantanamo. And while it doesn't represent a shutdown of the facility, it's certainly indicative of a move toward that end.

Could it be that Obama is trying to set himself up to campaign as the man who is taking steps to finally close Gitmo, just as he recently reversed the Afghanistan surge in order to campaign as the man who's winding down the war in the Afghanistan?

More @ Breitbart

Patriots of ’61 – Capt. Alfred Alexander Miller of Rowan County

 

Captain Alfred Alexander Miller

The son of John Cyrus and Sophie Propst Miller, Alfred Alexander was born 11 June 1835 in Rowan County. By occupation a farmer, he enlisted in June 1862 in the Rowan Militia which became Company K, 57^th Regiment, North Carolina Troops, mustered into service on 17 July, 1862.  The 57^th Regiment NCT was comprised of men from Alamance, Cabarrus, Catawba, Forsyth, Lincoln, and Rowan Counties. 

Capt. Miller was killed during a counterattack of the 54^th and 57^th North Carolina on enemy forces at Deep Run Creek south of Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862.  A Confederate staff officer recalled the action: “with Federal shells “singing and exploding” over and around them, the men formed a line of battle….[and] charged the enemy line with fixed bayonets…and with a Rebel Yell, a sudden rush….the enemy was driven out, killed or captured.” 

It is recorded that the evening before his death, “Capt. Miller held prayer services with his company, stating that he did not expect to survive the next day’s battle. That night, Capt. Miller wrote a last letter home asking that his children “be reared in the Faith.”

His earthly remains were brought home to Rowan County by Rev. S.D. Rothrock and buried in the yard of Bethel Lutheran Church, Franklin, North Carolina. 

(Sources:  Online genealogy; North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865, Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., NCDAH, 1998)

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

Dated: Americans use a gun in self defense every 13 seconds

 

I imagine they are used more these days.

Americans use a gun in self defense once every 13 seconds, according to a peer-reviewed study.

• The National Self Defense Survey, as conducted by Florida State University criminologists in 1994, indicates that Americans use guns in self defense 2,500,000 times per year, which is once every 13 seconds.
• In about 30% of the defensive gun uses, the would-be victim believes that the gun “almost certainly” or “probably” saved a life.
• In more than 1/2 of the self defense gun uses, the would-be victim was under attack by 2 or more criminals, making a firearm the only viable means of self defense for most people.
• The overwhelming majority of these defensive gun uses were never reported by the news media.
• Gun ownership protects 65 lives for every 2 lives lost, and the overwhelming majority of of those lives lost are due to criminals who ignore gun bans anyway.

More @ Examiner

Force Protection Vehicle 60 mph Brake Stop

Via szhaman

Debate on concealed weapons at college campuses heats up at Georgia Tech

 Oleg Volk

For the past two years, dozens of states have debated allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on campus. The issue is heating up in the Peach State where Georgia Tech students say an uptick of campus violence, has made them uneasy. Some want the right to carry concealed weapons on campus.

“Concealed weapons holders are significantly less likely to be arrested or convicted of crimes than the remainder of the population," Robert Eagar of Students for Concealed Carry said. "However, the second they step on to the campus the argument is made they become irresponsible -- and can no longer carry their weapons safely."

Three Tech students were robbed near campus in Atlanta in August. More recently, a student asleep in his dorm room behind three layers of security woke up to a gun pointed at his head. He was unharmed, but robbed.  Students who fear crime on campus, rallied this week for the chance to protect themselves.

“We're not advocating for vigilante justice -- we're advocating that firearm is a last resort for defense,” Eager said. “Criminals know the population here at Georgia Tech is unarmed so we make an ideal target. Carrying high end laptops, cell phones, text book, whatever money you have. They know we have zero chance of defending ourselves against a criminal.”

More @ Fox

100 Days Until Taxmageddon

 

Americans For Tax Reform

VERBATIM

Sunday will mark the start of the 100-day countdown to “Taxmageddon” – the date the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.  They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2013:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped by President Obama and Democrat Congress in 2010).  The following tax hikes will occur on January 1, 2013:

Personal income tax rates will rise on January 1, 2013.  The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which the majority of small business profits are taxed).  The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.  All the rates in between will also rise.  Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.  The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
-The 10% bracket rises to a new and expanded 15%
-The 25% bracket rises to 28%
-The 28% bracket rises to 31%
-The 33% bracket rises to 36%
-The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family coming on January 1, 2013.  The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of taxable income.  The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.  The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

Middle Class Death Tax returns on January 1, 2013.  The death tax is currently 35% with an exemption of $5 million ($10 million for married couples).  For those dying on or after January 1 2013, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million.  A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors on January 1, 2013.  The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 23.8 percent in 2013.  The top dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 43.4 percent in 2013.  This is because of scheduled rate hikes plus Obamacare’s investment surtax.
Second Wave: Obamacare Tax Hikes

There are twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare.  Some have already gone into effect (the tanning tax, the medicine cabinet tax, the HSA withdrawal tax, W-2 health insurance reporting, and the “economic substance doctrine”).  Several more will go into effect on January 1, 2013.  They include:
The Obamacare Medical Device Tax begins to be assessed on January 1, 2013.  Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. Exempts items retailing for <$100.

The Obamacare Medicare Payroll Tax Hike takes effect on January 1, 2013.  The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits.  Starting in 2013, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate.

The Obamacare “Special Needs Kids Tax” comes online on January 1, 2013.  Imposes a cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited).  Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.  There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.  Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.  This Obamacare cap harms these families.

The Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions goes into force on January 1, 2013.  Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI).  The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2013, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.  These tax increases will be in force for BOTH 2012 and 2013.  The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 31 million families, up from 4 million last year.  According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 31 million.  These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level.  The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Full business expensing will disappear.  In 2011, businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment.  Starting on 2013 tax returns, all of it will have to be “depreciated” (slowly deducted over many years).

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.  There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place.  The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others.  Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.  The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.  Tax credits for education will be limited.  Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.  Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.  Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.  The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.  Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.  This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.”  This ability will no longer be there.

Alabama Civil War cemetery, nearly lost, dedicated in northern Virginia today

Via Billy

 

View full size 

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans spread red Alabama dirt across the new cemetery at Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park in Bristow, Va. (Mary Orndorff Toryan | Birmingham News)

Descendants of Civil War soldiers carrying buckets of red dirt from Alabama gathered Saturday to formally dedicate a 151-year-old restored cemetery that was nearly lost to the march of suburban development in northern Virginia.

Not until the restoration work of a local Eagle Scout candidate, guided by county historians who
recently gained ownership of the site, did the 90 or so soldiers from the 10^th Alabama Infantry Regiment have a marked and permanently preserved resting place.

The new cemetery, at Camp Jones in the Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, is now registered with Prince William County and on the official tour trail of the Civil War site not far from Manassas. About 150 people, including 50 from Alabama, watched as a new Alabama stone monument was unveiled and the dirt and water was spread across the cemetery.

"I was giving our boys their last drink," said Linda Currey of Albertville. She and her husband, David, ferried the water from the spring near where the 10^th Alabama gathered the night before leaving for Virginia in 1861.

More @ AL

Obama to Condemn Christian Filmmaker Before United Nations

Via Cousin John

 

Not only are we seeing the White House and State Department call more attention to the Mohammed-mocking "Innocence of Muslims" than any terrorist network ever could've hoped for, but the President's indefensible scapegoating of the film and filmmaker to draw attention and blame away from U.S. security failures apparently knows no bounds.

Next week, Obama will denounce the film in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor previews the president's speech to the UN General Assembly next week:

"UNGA always provides an opportunity for the President to put the international situation in context, and to put forward a vision of US leadership. I would certainly expect the President to address the recent unrest in the Muslim world, and the broader context of the democratic transitions in the Arab World."

"As he has in recent days, the President will make it clear that we reject the views in this video, while also underscoring that violence is never acceptable[.]

My God, between the media and the Obama White House, we are finally witnessing Orwell's "1984" blossom to life.

As our economy slows, incomes shrink, unemployment creeps up, and poverty explodes -- the media assures us we're in "recovery" and that our frustrations should be taken out on "Emmanuel Goldstein," also known as "America's Successful."

More @ Breitbart

Newspaper Ad Revenues Plunge to ’83 Level

 

Newsmax

VERBATIM

The ad revenue collected by U.S. newspapers has dropped sharply ever since online news sites began rising to prominence, reaching the same level in real dollars that it had way back in 1983.

Total revenue for print newspapers stood at $20.6 billion in 2011, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Revenue stood at $2 billion in 1950 and rose steadily through the years, reaching $20.5 billion in 1983 and topping out at $48.6 billion in 2000.

But it has been on the decline since that time, when some papers began to offer online versions and web-only news sites gained in popularity.

The sharpest drops came in 2009 (down 28.6 percent) and 2008 (17.7 percent).

Classified advertising revenue in particular has taken a huge beating in recent years, dropping from $19.6 billion in 2000 to just $5 billion last year.

The situation is even worse for print newspapers when inflation is taken into account. The $2 billion in revenue earned in 1950 is equal to about $20 billion today, so revenue in inflation-adjusted dollars has now fallen back to 1950 levels.

Online revenue for newspapers, meanwhile, has risen from $1.2 billion in 2003, the first time figures were reported by the Association, to $3.2 billion in 2011.

Newspapers haven’t been able to compensate for the drop in total ad revenue by increasing revenue from circulation. That revenue stood at $9.98 billion last year, compared to $9.96 billion in 1996 and $10.2 billion in 2007.

Michael Berry on the $NAACP$

Via Billy

Heh!:)

Mormons, Romney and the White Horse Prophecy

 

.............I do know, dear readers, beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are in the last or latter-days of the American Empire. Prepare and get ready, for this will not be pleasant; most empires go down quickly in war, economic calamity and destruction.

So if someone is going to ride in on a white horse to save America and much of the world from a horrible future, he or she had better get here quickly. Personally, I believe individual human action, free-market thinking and an end to elite institutions like central banking, fiat money and our closed political system is the best solution.

More @ The Daily Bell