Monday, December 10, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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 überwelfare 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
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.
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.
More @ Guns America
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:
===========================
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.”
More @ The Nation
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
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.
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