If You Really Think It Matters Which Party Controls the Senate, Answer These Questions

Via WRSA


Please don't claim anything changes if one party or the other is in the majority. Anyone clinging to that fantasy is delusional.

If you really think it matters which political party controls the U.S. Senate, please answer these questions. Don't worry, they're not that difficult:

1. Will U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast change from being an incoherent pastiche of endless war and Imperial meddling? Please answer with a straight face. We all know the answer is that it doesn't matter who controls the Senate, Presidency or House of Representatives, nothing will change.

 More @ Zero Hedge

The Cultural Equality of Man: A Right-Winger Recants

Via comment by  Sioux on We Gotta Get Out Of This Place: Patriots Point Nav...

 

Today I come before the public to bare my soul, confess the evil I have done, and make a clean breast. I will state my crimes as plainly as a drunkard at a recovery meeting, who says, “I am an alcoholic.” In honesty only is there surcease.

My mea culpa: I have, for all my long life, thought some cultures superior to others. I was wrong, deeply wrong, perhaps unforgivably so. Cultures are all equal, as our great and reliable media, notably NPR and the New York Times, have told me.Cultures are just different, not better or worse. How can I have doubted it?

The blame for my rests entirely with me. I will no longer attribute my error to those false gods of the Radical Right: observation, common sense, morality, and an inability to escape the obvious.

For example, I find from Reuters:

M-44's

Tom
Enlarged
Toms

Mine

 Clickable

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David's.  See comment below.

German War Memorials

Via Nancy

 These two memorials in Bavaria honor the memory of French Waffen-SS soldiers who were killed at the end of the war by their own countrymen. I will not reveal the exact location of these, since left-wing extremists destroyed the 1st SS Panzer Korps memorial at Marienfels in April 2004. These 12 soldiers (some sources say 11), French volunteers of the 33rd SS Grenadier Division "Charlemagne," had been fighting on the Eastern Front but were in a hospital at the end of the war. They surrendered and were moving to a POW area, but were stopped by French forces under Gen. Philippe Leclerc. Declaring them to be "Boche" and traitors, Leclerc ordered them to be shot, which was done just before the end of hostilities. Their bodies were left lying on the ground, to be buried a few days later by American soldiers. A few years after the end of the war, they were reinterred in the local town cemetery. Their sacrifice is remembered each year by their comrades and other veterans.  (my sincere thanks to my friend Ralf Hornberger for showing me these sites)

Although the Marienfels 1st SS Panzer Korps memorial has apparently been rebuilt in Fretterode in Thüringen, the first memorial shown below, marking the site where these soldiers were executed and initially buried, was removed in October 2007 by local authorities. There is nothing there now but a bare patch of ground. This is yet another example of the extreme difficulty that Germany still experiences in dealing with its past.

 
The photo above shows Gen. Leclerc confronting the prisoners. Below that is the memorial where they were shot and originally buried. The memorial wreaths bear inscriptions such as "To Our Murdered Comrades," "If All the Brothers Remain Silent" ("Wenn alle Brüder schweigen"), "When All Become Unfaithful, We Remain Truly Faithful," "We Respectfully Honor the Memory of the Brave Heroes of the Waffen-SS," "Their Honor Was Loyalty."

***************************************

 Like many small towns in the U.S. (especially in the South), many towns and even small villages in Germany have war memorials to their sons who have fallen in battle. These tend to be more prevalent in Bavaria, and they start with memorials to the 1866 war of Prussia vs. Austria (when the Bavarians fought unsuccessfully for Austria). The memorials continue to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 (in which the Bavarians fought on the victorious Prussian side), and on to World War I. Some of the World War I monuments are large and elaborate, featuring sculptures that are both expressive and moving. Many towns later added the names of the World War II casualties to these earlier monuments.

It is instructive to note that in many cases, in contrast to the WWI names, the names of the missing in WWII far outnumber the names of the dead.

These monuments are the sites for annual memorial ceremonies, very similar to Memorial Day in America. These services take place on two Sundays in November - Volkstrauertag and Totensonntag (the last two Sundays before Advent).
                                              

“Tea Party to Scott Brown, Walt Havenstein, and NHGOP: YOU LOSE. Marginalize us, and you will continue to lose – it is that simple!”

 Scott Brown concedes defeat after Tuesday's election.

The tea party movement in New Hampshire is claiming two scalps in a battle with the Republican establishment that reflects a broader civil war poised to escalate if GOP leaders of the House and Senate compromise with President Obama on key legislative issues, including immigration and Obamacare.

In the wake of this Tuesday’s midterm elections, the New Hampshire tea party is drawing attention to the defeat of two GOP candidates the Republican Party establishment had backed heavily. In a wave election in which the GOP enjoyed historic gains, Walt Havenstein ran unsuccessfully against Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, and Scott Brown lost to sitting Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

More with videos @ WND

Ted Cruz Warns: Republicans Might Pass Internet Sales Tax After Election

Via avordvet

 

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) warned that some congressional Republicans hope to cooperate with Democrats in passing an internet sales tax after the elections.

Cruz said party leadership could take up the bill in the lame-duck session, when recently-defeated Democrats would be able to support the bill.

“There are some voices in Washington who want a lame duck precisely so they can engage in corporate welfare and blame it on the Democrats,” Cruz told National Review Online.  “One of my greatest concerns during a lame duck is that we could see leaders in both parties pushing through a nationwide internet sales tax. That is one of the favorite causes of the corporate lobbyists on K Street, to jack up taxes on millions of mom-and-pop internet retailers. Now, that helps all the big businesses at the expense of the little guy.”

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place: Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War

Via Carl


This version of the "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" music video was created by Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum as part of its ongoing effort to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. The men who are featured in the video are all Vietnam Veterans who have helped to build the exhibit. "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" was one of the most requested songs by United States Armed Forces members stationed in South Vietnam during the war.

The music video was filmed in the museum's Vietnam Experience Exhibit. To learn more about the museum and our commemoration efforts please visit our website www.patriotspoint.org or visit our facebook page www.facebook.com/patriotspoint.org.

Centralism Trumps “Checks and Balances”

Via Billy


Well, we’ve just had an election and it looks to most people like the good guys won for a change.

However, voters need to be discerning enough to realize that not all those who appear to be good guys (Republicans) really are. Some of them are no better than the Democratic socialists, the only difference being the party label. Remember that the first two Republican candidates for president in this country, John C. Fremont and Abraham Lincoln, were both socialists in their worldviews even if they may not have officially belonged to any socialist ” Party.” You can check out the backgrounds of both of these individuals in the book Lincoln’s Marxists.

 More @ Revised History

Ferguson Protestors Deliver “Rules of Engagement” to Police

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CNN is reporting that the #Ferguson protestors have delivered to police a list of 18 “Rules of Engagement.” These essentially amount to a set of constraints on police response to the violence expected to result when the grand jury declines to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson for his self-defense shooting of Mike Brown, the 290-pound black adult male who, in what seems like an all too common moment of poor judgment, attacked and tried to kill the police officer.

I’ve embedded the list, as linked on the CNN site, below, but the first item is worthy of particular note:
1) The first priority shall be preservation of human life.
The irony fairy was unavailable for comment.

Anyway, here’s the whole list:

The Anti-Weasel Checklist: Notes on Understanding Immigration Issues


Mike Scruggs

We have a new and more Republican Congress, but will it be a more conservative and wiser Congress as the people have obviously mandated.  Two great nation-destroying dangers confront the nation. First, is the unconstitutional usurpation of immigration policy by President Obama. Second will be the tendency of many Republican leaders in Congress to place special interest donors and acclaim by the powerful liberal media above the common good, which could lead to disastrous an eventually nation-destroying compromises in immigration policy.

How do we cut through the platitudes, bromides, weasel words, and issue-avoidance dances to identify political leaders and candidates who are informed, intelligent, and courageous enough to fight for immigration policies that will best serve the American people and preserve our heritage of liberty? Based on more than twelve years of study and writing on immigration, I have prepared a brief anti-weasel checklist that also sorts out the uninformed and misinformed

Securing our borders is necessary but not sufficient to stop illegal immigration.

Almost every political candidate, no matter how liberal or out-and-out Marxist, says they will enforce border security.  Hence addressing border security alone is a common way of dancing around important immigration issues without really saying anything. Despite everybody saying they are for border security, nothing ever really gets done.  If the candidate only addresses border security, he or she is either hiding a liberal position or is not well enough informed to be elected to or remain in high public office.

Most illegal immigrants do not sneak across the border. Almost half simply violate their work, tourist, or student visas and become illegal. A common method of illegal entry is to come as a legal agricultural guest worker and then skip out to take a higher paying construction job. Good candidates for public office should be willing to support a system of monitoring visas and enforcing the law against those who have violated our trust

The most effective way to stop illegal immigration is to turn off the employment magnet by enforcing immigration law at the workplace.

If the magnet is turned off, few will come, and most of those here will go home on their own ticket. If you want real reform, do not vote for candidates who do not clearly support workplace enforcement and programs like E-Verify to screen out illegal work applicants.

Our present national E-Verify law is weak. It needs to be strengthened and guarded from debilitating amendments favorable to cheap labor special interests. Better yet, we need a new, strong national E-Verify law.  Some state E-Verify laws, e. g. Georgia, have proved very effective.

The original Federal E-Verify legislation was so weakened by amendments to please special interest political donors that many consider it semi-useless. North Carolina recently weakened its
E-Verify law to benefit special interests. Some state legislatures, heavily influenced by special interests, have gone so far as to issue driver permits to known illegal immigrants. The Oregon legislature passed such a bill, but the people demanded a referendum, and on November 4, the people defeated the Oregon legislature’s Measure 88 by 64 to 36 percent. Even the people of liberal states are getting fed up with lawmakers encouraging illegal immigration.

Watch out for amnesties that politicians refuse to call amnesties because of some gimmick or subterfuge.

 Should small fines and paying back a portion of unpaid taxes  make up for years of robbing American workers, honest employers, and taxpayers of their daily bread! Are people who have committed forgery, fraud, identity theft, and tax evasion really good candidates for American citizenship? Amnesty for ten to twenty million illegal immigrants would probably be the end of a once-great American Republic and a triumph for greed, corruption, and totalitarian socialist government.

Solving the illegal immigration problem is not just a matter of balancing law and compassion for ten to twenty million illegal immigrants.

What about the millions of American workers they have displaced?  What about their families? What about the 130 million U. S. workers whose real wages have been depressed by our failure to put our own people ahead of cheap labor profits? What about the crime victims?  Yes, we are importing higher crime rates! What about taxpayers? Does being a taxpayer make you fair game for continuous robbery? Where is compassion for law-abiding Americans who are suffering because of illegal immigration?

Watch out for those who say we have no choice but amnesty. This is a false dilemma and disingenuous nonsense.

They disingenuously raise the specter of rounding up millions of people and shipping them out in railroad boxcars. This is a false dilemma. Simply applying immigration enforcement at the workplace would reduce illegal immigration to pre-1986 levels within months, and in a few years most of those already here would pack up and go home at their own expense. The relatively small remainder could be cleaned up with consistently applied normal enforcement over a number of years.

Beware of analytically defective or disingenuous special interest economics.

Importing poverty does not increase national per capita wealth. Importing predominantly unskilled labor does not increase per capita wealth. Displacing American workers with illegal immigrants is not job creation.  For immigration to be positive, it usually has to raise the average skill and brainpower of a nation. New technology requires more skills and brainpower. That leaves less genuine need for unskilled labor.

However, don’t buy into attaching a green card to every science degree.

Because a naïve Congress has allowed U.S. companies to hire excessive foreign Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) graduates and workers, our own graduates and experienced science workers over 40 are having a tough time finding jobs in their fields. Highly qualified engineering graduates are waiting restaurant tables. U.S. engineering and science schools are the best in the world. What’s going on is not hiring the best and the brightest; it is hiring cheaper and younger foreign labor and getting a big boost to the next quarterly earnings per share report. American workers and their families are hurt. Their future opportunities are hurt, and America’s future will be severely damaged.

Beware of the common analytical error that making illegal immigrants legal benefits the economy.

The pubic cost of illegal immigrants does not go down just because they are legalized, nor does their tax contribution increase significantly. Because they are eligible for more benefits, the public burden increases significantly. See the Heritage Foundation Study 2013. Amnesty is actually very costly.

Beware of overly optimistic projections that economic freedom will turn low-skilled or poorly educated immigrants into instant Republicans.

This may sound appealing, but most research demonstrates this to be false. If it happens at all, it takes three or more generations. We don’t have the luxury of such long-term bets  By that time, we could have a totally socialist and radical social dictatorship. We are already close to being overwhelmed by excessive immigration, especially low-skilled immigration.

Illegal immigration is not the only problem. We have excessive legal immigration.

Excessive legal immigration and guest-worker programs have approximately the same
economic effect as illegal immigration. American workers are being displaced and their wages and standard of living lowered. Taxpayers pay a heavy burden for all low income workers.

There are other dangers that confront our Federal and State Legislators. It is the human tendency to place looking good over doing the right and best thing for the people.

Our legislators need to do their homework on immigration issues. This is not a trivial matter. We are already on the edge of permanently surrendering our freedoms and heritage to a radical social and economic Leftist ideology with strong totalitarian tendencies. President Obama is trying to change the electorate from Center-Right to Radical Left by  immigration. We don’t need to give him a friendly helping hand. One small slip could be enough to plunge the nation into irrecoverable catastrophe. The people have now clearly told Congress and their governors to stop Obama and his now radicalized party. We must put aside the desire to simply look good, or “compassionate” and strive to do the right, the wisest, and best thing for the people and their posterity. That is where true patriotism, honor, nobility, and compassion abide. Our leaders need to evidence a high regard for truth. They must have a courageous heart for opposing whatever is foolish, evil, or unfair. They must have the wisdom to discern wrong and the ability to look past the immediate consequences of legislation to its future consequences for all the people.

Beware of special interest influence on immigration policy.

We need immigration policies that benefit the American people rather than special interests. Immigration laws must be enforced and must protect American jobs, public safety, public health, national security, and the ever-burdened taxpayer.

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending in tanks, escalating crisis


Ukraine's military accused Russia on Friday of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country's east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces.

Thursday's cross-border incursion, if confirmed, is a significant escalation of a conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people since the separatists rose up in mid-April and would call into question Russia's commitment to a two-month-old ceasefire deal.

More @ Yahoo

The Bullet That Could Make 3-D Printed Guns Practical Deadly Weapons



As 3-D printed guns have evolved over the past 18 months from a science-fictional experiment into a subculture, they’ve faced a fundamental limitation: Cheap plastic isn’t the best material to contain an explosive blast. Now an amateur gunsmith has instead found a way to transfer that stress to a component that’s actually made of metal—the ammunition.

Michael Crumling, a 25-year-old machinist from York, Pennsylvania, has developed a round designed specifically to be fired from 3-D printed guns. His ammunition uses a thicker steel shell with a lead bullet inserted an inch inside, deep enough that the shell can contain the explosion of the round’s gunpowder instead of transferring that force to the plastic body or barrel of the gun. Crumling says that allows a home-printed firearm made from even the cheapest materials to be fired again and again without cracking or deformation. And while his design isn’t easily replicated because the rounds must be individually machined for now, it may represent another step towards durable, practical, printed guns—even semi-automatic ones.

More with video @ Wired

Gear Review: Survival Slingshot Archer

Via avordvet

 Ultimate Survival Slingshot

The Survival Slingshot Archer is one of those pieces of equipment that I both like and dislike.  Allow me to explain.  First, let me admit up front that I’m no expert with a slingshot.  I used to make my own when I was a kid and I even owned a wrist rocket for a brief splendid period of time until my mother caught me shooting at things I shouldn’t have been shooting at and took it away.  After that I didn’t really have much interest in them until I was asked many many years later if I wanted to try out a fancy (by my standards) new slingshot.  Hell yeah!  Bring that baby on!

More with video @ SHTF Blog

“I’ll Kill You, Old Man!” Yeah… Not So Much

 http://www.wchstv.com/template/ugc/wchs/1524/nDzn09mh.jpg

A 31-year-old West Virginia man through to be behind a string of robberies is now dead after charging the senior citizen who refused to be a victim:

The homeowner told investigators he had been out of town and when he returned Tuesday, found his house had been burglarized, items were taken and the electric meter had been removed from the house. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, he said he heard some noises, and grabbed his gun to go check it out. That’s when he found someone across the road with a flashlight.

The homeowner, who is 65 years old, says he started toward the road to make sure the person moved along, and found Robert Andrew Carter, 31, of Campbell’s Creek in his garage.

Gun Ownership By The Numbers

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I predict the numbers of firearms owned in the United States will easily top 400 million well before this decade is out.  And to my mind, that’s a good thing.
How many guns are there in the United States?  While no one knows exactly, our most reliable estimates have put the numbers of firearms in the hands of United States civilians at 300 – 310 million, but I am convinced that number is no longer anywhere close to accurate.  I suspect the true numbers are a lot higher.

“White suburbs” soon legally forced to accept “racial diversity”.

Via Nancy

School-Desegration-in-Little-Rock

A new law which will be finalized by the Obama administration in December will allow the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) to chase down any areas which are ‘too White’ and force them to bring in non-Whites.

To do this, HUD will be mapping every US ZIP code, neighborhood, and block by its majority racial group. The data would then be used to force “White suburbs” to change their zoning laws.

New York Post explains zoning laws would be changed so that cheap housing would be built “to bring more low-income minorities into ‘white suburbs’.

5 Reasons Why Girls With Tattoos And Piercings Are Broken

Via Ryan

tattoo

No girl has ever improved her looks with a gaudy mural injected under her skin or a piece of metal dangling from her nostrils. There’s no man on Earth who has ever thought about his girlfriend or wife, “Man, you know what would make her even sexier? A butterfly emblazoned just over her ass.” Yet despite this objective reality, thousands of girls continue to mutilate themselves at an astounding rate, to the point where more girls now have tattoos than men. Here are the reasons why you should shun these girls like they’re lepers.

More Than 6 in 10 Americans Say Guns Make Homes Safer: About 1 in 4 U.S. Households Victimized by Crime

 Having a Gun in the House -- Safer or More Dangerous?

 The percentage of Americans who believe having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be (63%) has nearly doubled since 2000, when about one in three agreed with this. Three in 10 Americans say having a gun in the house makes it a more dangerous place.

More @ GALLUP

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 141105CrimeV_1

Twenty-six percent of Americans say they or another member of their household were the victim of some type of property or physical crime in the last 12 months, ranging from theft to sexual assault, according to Gallup's index of crime victimization. Since 2000, the percentage of households that have been victimized by crime has ranged narrowly between 22% and 27%. The percentage of Americans who have been personally victimized has ranged from 14% to 19%.

More @ GALLUP