Ken Nelson

Joseph Stack’s straw broke today. He burned down his house, apparently with wife and daughter in it. They escaped. He then stole a small airplane and flew it into the IRS offices in Austin, TX. He died. Nobody in the building died.

His “manifesto”/suicide note can be read here. Some call it “insane”, and parts certainly are rambling and incoherent, but other parts cut right to the bone:

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system?  Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.  Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.  The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is.  If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

Given how many “We can help you fight the IRS” ads I see on TV, and given my personal experiences with the IRS and their erroneous, evil, ways, I’m surprised we don’t have more Joseph Stacks.

I’m not condoning what he did, he does seem to have “snapped”, but I can sympathize, and empathize, with the stress and futility he felt.

You see, I too, believe that all this will end in violence. I’ve stated that fear many times on this blog, while at the same time stressing my personal situation didn’t warrant it yet.

So you can call Mr. Stack insane, or whatever your political sentiments rationalize, but you can’t hide that millions of people feel the same futility he did – and when situations become futile, violence is next.

So don’t condone it. Don’t support it.  But also don’t be surprised by it.

vs
Who has a better balance sheet?

Toyota struggles. It reminds me that no matter how good you have it, things could go severely haywire overnight. Everything could fall to pieces and you stand there wondering “what the hell just happened”.   I know, it’s happened to me. And I survived only because I’d prepared for just that occasion. Prepared emotionally (how to handle problems), financially (building up reserves), and in relationships (people willing to help). They all work together.

The point… Toyota will suffer, but survive and thrive. They have the corporate culture to do so – and.. .A VERY IMPORTANT AND… they have bazillions in the bank.

Compare and contrast to the U.S.     How does our culture look? Is it getting smart? Less corrupt? Which direction would you say our culture heads?  And how much, exactly, do we have in the bank? And what trend do our finances follow?

In other words, I’d bet on Toyota more than us right now.

I know it isn’t patriotic to say we suck, but looking at the details, I can come to no other conclusion. Sorry. 

Pollyannas will cry “this is the greatest country ever”. I’d mildly correct “was”.

 
Taxpayer debt better used elsewhere

Seth says:

We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.

Wouldn’t the last few years have been different, and more productive, if we hadn’t “saved” the domestic unionized car industry? Or crazy risk taking banks? Or over the last decades if we hadn’t kept “saving” social security?

All these things mentioned must fail. The only question is when and who feels the pain. The ENTIRE game of the last 30 years has been politicians keeping the pain from their voters for as long as possible.

It would be better if those that failed felt the pain the most, don’t you think?  Instead we’ve wasted trillions and ensured that the ultimate failure will be felt extremely by everyone.

Wouldn’t it be better if the trillions of debt, assuming we were going to do it anyway – a safe assumption, had been spent on truly productive things and not temporarily saving failures?

I’ve told a fib or two in my day.  Mainly stuff like “what a cute kid”.  And I’ve changed my opinion on issues. And, in business, I’ve made promises I couldn’t deliver on. When that has happened, I’ve taken my lumps from customers.

Lots of liberals accused President Bush of “lying”. “Bush lied People died” they chanted. But I’ve never read or seen any account of an actual lie by President Bush.  Policy differences aren’t lies. Bad intelligence isn’t a lie.

Yet, with our current President, lies happen like snow. He literally cannot tell the truth about anything.

And he gets away with it.

Victor Davis Hanson documents 13 lies. He could have documented hundreds. I’ve written dozens of “Casual Lies”  posts, and I’ve never had any of my liberal readers correct any of them.  I’ve been called names, but never corrected.

The man lies, about everything.

And that bugs me a lot. It bugs me that liberals I respect, like my Dad, seem to ignore or tolerate it. It bothers me that other political “leaders” don’t call him on it. It bugs me that the media doesn’t call him on it.

But what really bothers me is that we now live, apparently, in a country filled with people that find such blatant, obvious, lying okay and a normal part of their political process.

Something ain’t right in this country… I’d like to think we don’t deserve Obama, but deep down, I suspect we really do.

From adversity springs opportunity

I don’t know much about Haiti. Long ago I did an area study of Haiti for an Army unit I was in. But the details have long skipped my brain.

What I do remember is that Haiti is corrupt. Haiti is uneducated. Haitians speak Creole. Most good land in Haiti is used to grow exported food items.  None are these traits seem useful for building a country.

Tyler Cowen speculates that Haiti, as a functioning country, no longer exists and that it is just a matter of time til the US or UN come in and govern it.

Should that happen it isn’t inconceivable that the Haitians of 20 years hence have much better lives and view the earthquake as the start of the new Haitian beginning.

No matter where you are, you have to start from there. So once we get past helping people survive, what is the future for Haiti?

I don’t know, but I seems that unless we nation build it, it doesn’t have one.

I’m not advocating we do so, yet anyway. It just seems that we can’t have something that bad, so close to us, and not firmly address it.

That said, I have full faith that President Obama will do whatever is right for US unions in this matter.

We got George, an 8 to 9 year old Black Lab, from Best Friends a couple of years ago. He was overweight when we got him.  We got some off, but it was hard because he just was having trouble exercising.   I’d actually given up taking him on walks because he couldn’t go very far, maybe 1/2 a mile. He looked to be in such pain, I didn’t think it was really doable. The Vet gave us medicine for him, but it seemed to do little good.

But this school break I decided to walk him, and me, twice a day. Going as far as either of us could manage. I’ve got lower back problems, walking hurts. And I’m  taking medicine for pre-diabetes, rapid heart rate, and high blood pressure. You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but I’m a wreck (largely due to an accident a couple years back).

But, I figured,  we will just see what either of us can do.  I had two goals… get George “frisky” again, and get me off my meds through diet and exercise.

This was George, this morning, about 3.5 miles into a river walk:

And once I took him off the leash, he led the way, ranging here and there. Like a dog. Two weeks ago, he would be on leash, 30’ behind, struggling just to move one foot in front of the other.

Congratulations George!

As to me…. well, the resting heart rate just before I wrote this was 101, the BP 190/87, and well… I’ve got a ways to go. I suspect, due to a broken pituitary gland (courtesy the afore mentioned accident) that my body chemistry is just screwed up and though I may be 45 years old,  6’, 180lbs, 13% body fat, my innards will not function well no matter what I do. 

C’est le vie!  I enjoy the walks and will continue to do them as long as I can.  I think this afternoon we will strap on the leash again and walk to Chili’s (about 2 miles) for dinner.

BTW: Fritz, our 2 year old dauschund, easily ranges 3 miles for every mile we walk. His legs may be little, but he has abundant energy.

Email is a communications medium, not a collaboration medium. When confused as a collaboration tool, efficiency plummets.

Ben Casnocha

Did survivors and their kids squander their sacrifice?

Last week my brother recommended I catch up with the History Channels ‘WWII in HD”.  It shows new footage of World War II, much in color, and in high definition.  The show is excellent, and I’ve watched 7 of the 12 episodes… but I stopped.

Why?

I couldn’t bear to watch the effort, suffering, misery, and anguish knowing what lay ahead. I felt so bad that the World War II’s generation that survived and their kids had screwed up so badly what the folks I was seeing had fought for.

I’m curious as to what the surviving veterans think of the state of the country they fought for now?  When I talk to them, as I do to most I see wearing a Veterans jacket or hat, they don’t seem particularly thrilled.  I’m not sure if the negativity is a function  of where I live (conservative southern Utah), or if it applies across the board.

In England, an enterprising younger person, asked WWII veterans to write him about this topic:

But was it worth it? Her answer – and the answer of many of her contemporaries, now in their 80s and 90s – is a resounding No.

They despise what has become of the Britain they once fought to save. It’s not our country any more, they say, in sorrow and anger.

England is further on the path to ruin than we are, especially with regards to poor immigration policies – which was a common theme of what the veterans wrote about.

Anyway, maybe I’ll get back to WWII in HD…. eventually.  Right now, it is too hard to view.

 
An inspiration to gangs? Maybe.

A new trend is on the rise… Black gangs attacking whites while videoing the assault for resale later.

"They knock a young white guy out with one blow to see if his knees will wobble and surround them and take their money," said the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs a Denver gang-prevention program. "It’s a joke."

I’m not sure what he means by joke… but if this happens to me,  or near me, I intend to respond very seriously. Fifteen of them are going down, permanently.    Why 15?  That is how many .45 ACP rounds are on me at the moment.

I wonder if Obama’s election has something to do with this trend?   If he can inspire militias, maybe he can inspire gangs too?

I noticed, for instance, when in D.C. recently, that many black people were rude to me.  I’d lived there in years past and found that, except in the case of the criminal element, black people were polite, family oriented and quite kind.  I don’t recall any rudeness the years I lived there, except during pick up basketball games – when I gave as good as I got.

But in the days I’ve been in DC since Obama, I’ve been treated rudely by blacks several times and in oddly mundane situations.

Perhaps his election empowered regular blacks to act out repressed dislike for my race?  And perhaps the same effect has been magnified by the criminal element within black culture and channeled into gang assaults on whites?

I don’t know. Am I even allowed to talk about it?   Can I say that a surprising number of black people were rude to me my last trip to D.C.?   It is true. It happened.  Dare I speak it?

I recall wondering where it was coming from.  Since the town was adorned with Obama everything it wasn’t hard to think of him as a possible source.  Since I traveled all over the country this year, including recently to Atlanta, and the rudeness was not encountered again -  I suspect it was a DC thing.

Well, more power to them, they can find out the benefits or drawbacks from being rude to people.  And I can handle a little rudeness from folks feeling their oats.  

But I draw the line at gang assaults. 

Benign                               Dangerous

Reporters writing about stuff they know nothing is always good for a chuckle.  I know this because I know a lot about computers, software, guns, and the military. When reporters write about these things they almost always make big mistakes.

Take this article on a perceived increase in militias in the United States. Why would there be more militias now (if there are – and I don’t know if there are)?

If the words sound familiar, there is good reason. It is rhetoric that was typical of the so-called patriot movement of the 1990s, amid similar circumstances: A Democrat, Bill Clinton, was in office. There was heightened interest in gun control legislation. Veterans were returning from the first Gulf War. Elaborate conspiracy theories were spreading.

<sarcasm>Hmmm… those darned pesky VETERANS again.  Why can’t we just animate them when we have a war and then put them in cold storage so they don’t come home and run rampant killing people and joining militias. What can we do about those dangerous VETERANS?</sarcasm>

Hey Reporter… these open militias are just wacky people, similar to eco-kooks, Dead Heads, nudists, and other eccentrics.  The ones you have to worry about will not be in a compound or running about in camouflage. The government has awesome guns and guys eager to use them. The government has air power! Fighting the government with guns is stupid.

The militias you have to worry about will plan, quietly, and then strike precisely at the soft underbelly of government.  Probably via assassination of openly corrupt politicians (can you name a few?) as well as with precise attacks on the infrastructure of government oppression.  I suspect they would go after the fuel of oppression….  our money.

What might that involve?   I suspect they would infiltrate key software engineers within the IRS information systems, and on signal cause mass confusion and distrust of the tax system. Externally and internally they would wage total war on IRS IT infrastructure. The goal would be to sow such distrust that it would cause massive non-compliance.  Would it work?  Sure. Especially so if they had people on the inside.  Nary a gun required – and much more effective.

Our government is big because it has access to our money. Take the money away, it shrinks. Simple.

But hey, this is just me thinking aloud and war gaming what would be effective. Don’t worry… I’m not planning anything personally. I’m not happy with our direction, but my personal situation is fine and requires no revolution.

But it only makes sense that somebody out there is contemplating similar.

Would Al-Qaeda do this?  Absolutely not. This would be HEALTHY for us, and they like our current self-destructive path.   The old adage of not getting in the way of a self-destructing enemy applies to them.

So, Reporter, it isn’t the wacky militias you see that will undermine your socialist utopia.   And if you really care about the country, Reporter, you would focus more on the government’s problems and not on eccentrics running around in the woods.

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Thomas Jefferson
3rd US President
Author “Declaration of Independence”

I’m not sure who said this, but I heard it this week:

“there are those who work for a living and those who vote for a living”.

Well, whoever said it, has it spot on. Our Democracy is a sham. Oh sure we vote, but the fix is in – we exist only to serve our political class (of either party).  Our Constitution has been compromised and/or ignored. I’ve little hope for our long term future. And I’m pretty worried about our short term.

So is my wife, as she is getting busy refreshing and revamping our disaster food storage supplies.

Of course TJ knew it all long ago didn’t he….

H/T/ Glenn Beck

"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God." (DA Form 71, 1 August 1959, for officers.)”

On the wall of my office is my commission as an officer in the United States Army.  In order to get it I had to swear an oath (above)  to defend the Country and the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to swear true faith and allegiance to the same.

This was given to me long ago and I never really gave much thought to anything but the foreign enemies part. Nor did we receive training in anything other than how to deal with foreign enemies (violently but with certain rules).   I had no training in identifying or defending against domestic enemies. And I had no training on what it meant to defend the Constitution.

I’m going to leave the Commission on my wall, because it reflects an achievement I’m proud of.  But if asked to accept it again, I’d be tempted to say “Gosh… I’m not willing to defend the Constitution as currently written, and I think you are a domestic enemy, is one out of three okay?”. 

Oh sure Ken, you say, you don’t like Obama so you call him a domestic enemy. I despised Clinton, but I would have accepted a commission from him.   I believe that Obama is a domestic enemy. I do not believe he likes or respects this country and I think he actively works against our interests and the good parts of our Constitution. I believe he and others in  his government have long term plans to subvert the freedom parts of our Constitution.

Not all parts though. I think there is one part he really likes.  And that leads me to the other reason I’d have a problem accepting a commission today… there are parts of our Constitution I would not be willing to defend.   In particular the 16th amendment – the right to tax us any darn well the Government wants to.   Put it in context with the other amendments, which detail what the Government can’t do, the 16th amendment is the most “unconstitutional” amendment one could imagine other than “this document is nullified”.

The 16th amendment led to the growth of government that threatens our rights and economic freedom and security.  Why defend it?

This is not to disparage any serving today. If I were younger I’d probably be serving as well – we clearly have foreign enemies that are actively fighting against us.

But… I’d do so with a sour taste in my mouth as I knew I’d only be willing to do a third of the job.

Rush is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

This pains me. Colbert was on the case in 2008.

I put this under Musings and Good Ideas because I didn’t have an Outrage category and I already have too many categories!

As an aside, a Rush Rock Band or Guitar Hero edition would certainly grace my game shelf…

(BTW: The video says “no longer available”, but it is, just click on it)

“Hey Jude”, by the Beatles, isn’t my favorite song by any means, but I do think it is an excellent song.  This graphical flow chart of the song shows great doesn’t have to be complex:

Chart via: Tumblr.com

Over the last few years I’ve learned guitar. As I’ve studied songs that I’m learning on guitar I’ve found that most songs are really quite simple in structure.

I saw this photo on the web recently:

and, having been a while since I perused Deuteronomy, I decided to check it out:

13 ¶ If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and ^ahate her,

  14 And ^agive occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a ^bmaid:

  15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:

  16 And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;

  17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

  18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;

  19 And they shall ^aamerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil ^bname upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

  20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:

  21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she ^adie: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

The gay protestors aren’t even close to using the passage as it is intended. Only if the husband was promised a virgin and can prove that he didn’t get one is the marriage invalidated and the woman stoned. See, it’s simple really!

But here we have a situation (non-virgin woman getting married) that must happen often in the population of Christians adhering to the Bible. Yet we have no reports of stonings or even of serious reprisals.

What gives?

Well here in we see the difference between Christianity and Islam. We’ve moved on. Our scripture and its interpretations advance. Islam is locked back in the 6th century.

The flexibility is how Christianity grew.  Islam took another route – fierce adherence to unchanging dogma backed by extreme force.  I know which I prefer.

So back to our gay protestors… what they are really saying is that since you’ve moved off of stoning false virgins, why not ignore the Biblical prohibitions against gay marriage too?

Good question.

That is why I don’t derive my views on gay marriage from biblical interpretations.