Man burned to death on Halloween as onlookers cheered thinking it was part of the entertainment

Investigators have confirmed that a man who burned to death at a Los Angeles Halloween party accidentally set himself on fire while light a cigarette.

Video of the tragic event shows Gilbert Estrada engulfed in flames and flailing around helplessly as other party-goers continue to dance around him.
Estrada had gone to the West Hollywood Carnaval dressed as a sniper in camouflage. According to the Los Angeles Times, the costume was made from burlap sacks and straw.

More @ Daily Mail

Video: Machine Guns vs. Drones at Big Sandy

Via Bearing Arms

Texas A&M law prof says it’s time to repeal Second Amendment

 

Penrose also noted that she tells students in her constitutional law courses that the entire United States Constitution is an obsolete document.

“Why do we keep such an allegiance to a constitution that was driven by 18th Century concerns?” she asked, according to CTNewsJunkie. “How many of you recognize that the main concern of the 18th Century was a standing army? That’s what motivated the Second Amendment: fear of a standing army.”  (I guess brain-dead thinks we don't have the same concern today.)

More @ The Daily Caller

231,000 Americans: Leave Ground Zero cross alone

 

Nearly a quarter of a million Americans are on record in support of the presence of the Ground Zero Cross in a museum marking that terrible terror attack by Islamists on Sept. 11, 2001.

They have signed onto a brief being submitted by the American Center for Law and Justice in an attempt in court by a coalition of atheists who want the cross removed from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York.

The cross is the result of the collapse of the Twin Towers. It is made up of steel beams twisted, sheered and re-formed by the incredible forces in the collapse of the buildings.

It was found by rescue workers in the aftermath of the terror attack and served as an inspiration for them and others.

More @ WND

Survival & Preparedness Gift Ideas

 

If you are new to survival or want to find good gift for survivalists or preppers you know we have some suggestions. I updated our Survivalist Gift Guide from 2012 with new prices (but kept the old ones, so you can see what became more expensive and what cheaper). So make sure you check out our old guide for more gift suggestions.

When you read this, please also keep in mind that family gatherings and holidays are great options to talk to friends and family about survival and preparedness. Give someone some fire steel or basic survival set and head out to show them some survival skills after you had food. All fancy tools and preps are worth little compared to good working survival group so hopefully you can use the time to help more people understand why survival and preparedness is common sense (and our current way of living dependent on system is non sense).

We also have give away. If you share this post on Facebook or add a comment with another suggestion for great survival or preparedness related gift here on the blog you can win one of my favorite survival knife the Ontario RAT-5 Knife. We announce winner on 1st of December.

Here are our suggestions for survival and preparedness gifts for this years holiday season.

More @ SHTF School

'Human Rights Abusers' Elected to UN Rights Panel

 

NEWSMAX

VERBATIM

China, Russia, and Vietnam all received more votes than France or Britain for membership on the United Nations Human Rights Council — and Cuba got the most votes among Latin American countries.

"This is a black day for human rights," declared Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group, following the vote on Tuesday.

"Despite the much-vaunted 2006 reform, which scrapped the discredited Human Rights Commission and created a new and supposedly improved council, today's election of the world's worst human rights abusers means that we are back to square one. Instead of reform, we have regression."

The HRC is supposedly "responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations," according to the U.N.
But the election of China to the council "calls into question the council's credibility," said Britain's Edward McMillan-Scott, a vice president of the European Council, in comments reported by CNS News.

"Numerous reports by the U.N. itself have highlighted degrading and inhumane treatment that is routine in China: forcible abortions, religious persecution, the oppression of minorities, etc."

Of the 14 countries elected to a three-year term on the 47-member group this year, six are designated as "not free" by Freedom Watch, a Washington-based watchdog organization that grades nations according to their record on political rights and civil liberties: Saudi Arabia and Algeria in addition to China, Russia, Vietnam, and Cuba.

A simple majority of the General Assembly's 193 members is required to win a seat, but election is limited to a set number of members from each of five regions.

Two seats on the council were available for Latin American nations. In secret balloting, Cuba got 148 votes, more than two democracies: Mexico (135) and Uruguay (93).

Vietnam got 184 votes and China and Russia each received 176, while France got 174 and Britain 171.

Next year's council will have 24 "free," 12 "partly free," and 11 "not free" member nations.

During negotiations in 2005-6 to set up the new council, the United States proposed that countries subjected to U.N. Security Council sanctions for human rights abuses or terrorism should be barred from membership. The proposal was defeated.

"The prospect of rights-violating regimes joining the HRC — and then using it to protect each other — was a major reason for the decision by the Bush administration to shun the council, a decision reversed by its successor in 2009," CNS News reported.

After Tuesday's vote, the State Department expressed "regret that some countries elected to the Human Rights Council have failed to show their commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights."

In July 2013, envoys from both Syria and Iran announced that they would attempt to run for an HRC seat in 2014.

Obamacare

Roundabout via Billy

The American Taliban

Via Billy

  

Next time someone calls your Confederate ancestors traitors you may ask them to contemplate…

That many Southerners (most of whom never owned any slaves) saw self-righteous New England Puritans as the Taliban (radical religious fanatics) of their time (e.g. Salem witch trials etc). It was their intention to force their will and ideology on the people of the South, an idea independent Southerners fiercely rejected…

The overwhelming majority of New Englanders had NO problem with slavery; in fact slavery began in the New England states and its citizens, particularly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, made fortunes from the slave trade, and it continued to profit from slavery right up to and throughout the war.

Like todays Taliban, New England Yankees were prepared to kill every man, woman and child in order to impose their philosophy and in the process rape, burn, loot and torture it’s way through the Southland. Northern media and the likes of General Sherman are documented as saying such, and this government-endorsed scorched earth policy continued with virtual perfection after the war with the near extermination of the Western Indians.

That said, fast-forward 150 years and imagine a Taliban style regime now dominating the Congress having been elected by less than 40% of the popular vote and presently threatening to invade your homes and impose its will on your people. (Considering today’s political climate, that’s not so far fetched, it’s happened already and history often repeats itself). Would today’s population submit to that form of rule or would it rebel and form a new government, one having the consent of the people as stated by our Declaration of Independence?

In this new scenario, should the Taliban win, all who oppose it would be called traitors…and guess who writes the history after that! (Good becomes evil, right becomes wrong, just like in the case of the War for Southern Independence)…Deo Vindice!

 DixieCol

“I Can’t Believe” This is Happening in America

Via Jeffery

My “I Can’t Believe This is Happening to America” list is growing larger by the day. It is so vast now, I can write a book. Would my book have an audience? Judging by the eagerness with which most Americans have embraced the transformational hope and change of our country to communist utopia, the answer is no.

I can’t believe New Yorkers have elected a blatant Marxist as their mayor. I can’t believe Terry McAuliffe is the governor of Virginia. The American men who fought in the Revolutionary War must be turning in their graves knowing that the hallowed ground in Virginia they defended against the British tyranny is now run by Marxist Democrats.

I voted last Tuesday, I took with me to the precinct a piece of toilet paper I found on my last trip to Romania, a “former” communist country where the apparatchiks went underground for a while and are now resurfacing with a vengeance. Twenty-four years later, the commies have not perfected the intricate art of making toilet paper – it was covered with splinters within the layers. On the bright side, this time toilet paper was available and I did not have to fight hundreds of people in line for three hours in order to purchase one roll. I showed my strip of toilet paper to the people who were checking I.D.s asking them if this was the kind of country they wanted. Most laughed, did not realize that I carried this over 7,000 miles with me, and turned back to their duties to make sure all the low information and illegal citizens voted. Why bother? It won’t happen here, we have everything, and we live in the land of abundance – for now.

It was a cruel joke to pretend that poll watchers were making sure voting was legitimate.  All illegal aliens in my county have driver licenses. There is no place on the driver’s license that says, illegal or non-citizen, you cannot vote. Dead people voted early and repeatedly. The 2010 Census said that our county’s population grew by 40 percent in the last ten years and most of that growth came from the illegal alien population. They are not hiding in the shadows as progressives/Marxists say, they are living around us with no fear of deportation or shame of criminality.

I can’t believe our government would make 12 ads portraying young people, Millennials, as promiscuous individuals whose only goal in life is to hook up and engage in dangerous sexual activities with strangers and in life-altering practices for self-gratification. This is America, they should not have to control themselves, they have the freedom to be immoral – if it feels right, do it. But not to worry, if they enroll in ObamaCare, the government will pay for all their mistakes, STDs, unwanted children, and all other purposeful missteps in life that have serious consequences.

I can’t believe 

More @ CFP

Gilded New York: Book Opens The Doors To The Glorious Mansions And Opulent Lifestyles Of The City's First Millionaires In The Late 19th-Century (Photo Essay)

Via WiscoDave

 

The Vanderbilts: Cornelius Vanderbilt was an American tycoon, businessman, and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history

 

The Gilded Years of the late nineteenth century and the start of World War I were a glamorous era in New York City as wealthy families sought to demonstrate their new position by building vast Fifth Avenue mansions.

Brownstone town houses were turned into dazzling mansions that became filled with precious objects, important painting collections and hosted elaborate parties and balls.

It was the rise of many familiar names that are still talked about to this day, The Vanderbilts, The Astor's, Tiffany & Co.

These families became New York’s first cultural philanthropists, and they supported the city's cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Opera, many of which were founded during the era.

Beautiful hotels, imposing railway stations and world-class museums were built. Those who designed these landmarks were influenced by the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris.

A new collection of pictures capturing the social and cultural history of these years have been brought together in a new book, Gilded New York. A number of the images are also on display at the Museum of the City of New York.

 

More @ Predictable History, Unpredictable Past