I am so glad we can home school our kids.

So today, I read a stirring article of how an 8th grader’s choice in attire has made him, literally, a criminal.  Jared Marcum got sent to the office at Logan Middle School, Logan, WV by the old bat lunch lady:

over wearing this shirt:

Now young Jared refused, so they brought in:

Who then put Jared in these:

Put him in front of this guy:

Where he might have to pay:

And or spend a year:\

While the rest of us in the country say:

This matter isn’t about a t-shirt.  It’s about a few bruised egos of a school official, a police officer, and a judge who will not allow some young punk to stand up to the system.   Beginning with a grossly bitter (and probably liberal) cafeteria worker’s dislike for the NRA,  He decides to make a statement in a way that isn’t vulgar, offensive, or anything, but yet, because the lunch lady can’t handle it and the cop can’t handle his defiance, the kid is now a criminal.

Now it’s funny because back in April 2012, the ACLU strangely argued a case for a kid wearing this:

The way I see it, I bet this kid would get student of the year if he wore this:

Seriously?

1) Starting off with the aforementioned XBone and the issues with it – it’s almost like XBone is doomed already:

• Kinect is always big-brother watching and listening – this might be innocuous enough, but after the entire NSA thing, Kinect’s nosing around your life may be uncomfortable.
• Trying to put Gamefly and GameStop out of business and then blaming the publishers for their draconian used game and 24-hour ET-phone-home policy is something that gamers will see right through.
• Killing the ability to play 360 games on the new console…that’s a LOT of money to just sit there collecting dust.

2) Windows 8 (or as I call it, Windows Hate), just simply seems to be fizzling worse than Vista did.  This is nothing new, considering that the industry only really forgave MS once when changing the GUI interface from Program Manager to the Chicago style with the start button that has been long duplicated across multiple platforms.  However, now I must wonder if, by ramming the idea of the Metro interface into the PC market without offering the Chicago interface as an alternative, that the industry has pretty much going to be unforgiving. One might consider this with the mild backoff with Windows 8.1 that is going to give users back the  Start button. And as an extra swipe, I literally cannot stand Microsoft’s new look and design.  It’s so flat, so unremarkable, it’s like a first year web design student made it.  I like depth and with simple coding structures using CSS3 and JavaScript, it’s very easy to do.

3) Microsoft’s poor showing into the tablet market has made their attempts at making the Surface something that people would want over Android-based tablets and Apple iStuff almost laughable.  Maybe they’ll wise up like HP did, firesale out all of their tablets and realize that by giving Office for free on tablets isn’t going to compel the market into their software subscription model.

These days, Microsoft just isn’t the company it once was.  It’s dominance is slipping away each time it attempts to move the market into its corner (of does anyone believe that the market share for Internet Explorer at 12.6% an accident?).  The way I see it right now, Xbone is going to backfire, Windows 8 isn’t going to do any better than Vista did, facilitating the onset of Android-powered notebooks and set-top boxes, and Windows Phone and Surface tablets are going to really just be a one-off.

If Microsoft doesn’t start listening to its customers, they’ll go where Apple nearly went.  When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in ’96, it was on the brink of disaster because it failed to innovate.  What Microsoft is doing is not innovation.  Apple mastered the art of creating things that people find they can’t live without.  Microsoft hasn’t quite got there yet.

I guess I can’t blame them for trying, since this is what they’ve done all along.  But still – I don’t see the community going Microsoft’s way this time.

Tobacco – Plenty of warnings about how smoking and dipping snuff can cause lung, mouth, and throat cancer, as well as being more and more noted as powerfully addictive and socially unpleasant.

• Minors under the age of 18 cannot legally purchase tobacco products (and most every convenience store checks)
• Cannot smoke in a lot of places – many states disallow smoking in public or anywhere near a school or within 15′ of a doorway.
• Cigarette trafficking laws prevent buying in one state of low taxation to sell in a state of high taxation.

Food – Not maintaining good eating habits can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other physical issues.

• New York City bans carbonated drinks greater than 16 oz.
• Numerous regulations on identifying nutrition facts on every label, so people can avoid foods with high amounts of fat, sodium, and cholesterol.
• Numerous regulations regarding vending machines in schools

Alcohol – Can lead to liver damage, alcoholism, and driving while impaired.

• Federal laws preventing the sale and consumption of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21
• Stiff penalties for alcoholic beverages in vehicles where it can be construed as driving while impaired.
• Laws forbidding trafficking liquors across state boundaries

Pre-Marital Sex – Can lead to unanticipated/unwanted pregnancy, emotional and psychological trauma, venereal diseases of wide assortment, as well as social and spiritual damage.

Yet we allow:

- Abortions darn near on demand – and pretty much government funded, with the liberals trying to allow for partial-birth – all of which ends in the destruction of human life.

- Discussions about sex in the classrooms as early as the formalative elementary years

- and, as of today, females of any age to procure the Plan B medication, even though they can’t legally give consent to have sex.

While we disallow:

• Classroom discussions that teach abstinence, in favor of so-called “reproductive rights”
• Controls of lewdness on television, radio, and other media, inviting kids to have sex younger and younger because they see it is cool (yet we discontinued cigarette commercials because of the same thing).
• Parental consent on any underage girl before seeking an abortion
• Warning kids of the dangers of pregnancy and abortion

And liberals don’t see anything wrong with this?  How is it that liberals can be so hell-bent on regulating things, but when it comes to sex, they start going all ape about individual liberty?  Seriously?

The whole thing is called cyber warfare and millions of dollars are being spent on both offense and defense.  It’s been going on for years, with countries waging war against other countries in cyberspace.  Hacking systems, stealing information, and plaguing systems with problems is all part of the game.  Every country that has an internet link and at least one computer has been involved in this.

While the Chi-Coms deny it over and over, the number one source of all the attacks against the Pentagon originate in China.  With millions of drones being funded by the government, the People’s Liberation Army spends a lot of online time testing and penetrating network defenses, digging into American systems to see what they can steal.

Last month, the Pentagon took one on the chin when a report surfaced about the Chinese hacking in and stealing data regarding US weapon systems.  The Pentagon released a stinging rebuke three weeks earlier, publicly accusing China of hacking, which they of course denied.

So is it any real surprise that the US is doing the same thing?  One only has to take a cursory look at the job boards regarding positions for blackhat hackers to come work in DoD.  Why?  Duh.

And it’s just not the Pentagon.  Chinese hackers have basically hacked every US company.  They’ve probably stolen the Colonel’s Secret Recipe, the original formula for Coke, and have decompiled the Windows kernel a million times over.  This is what is expected of an authoritarian capitalist society that continuously cheats to get an edge over American competition.

So is it any wonder that our country would be, right now, cracking through the Great Firewall of China?  China accuses the US of similar breaches, such as a roil with Cisco against Huawei and ZTE and suggests that we work together to solve the problem.  Yeah right.  They have every motivation in the world to continue and no compulsion to stop their cyber-espionage practices.

And if you believe this is not the case, you live in an idyllic world of sunshine and rainbows – and no terrorists.

Government is not the solution to the problem; government IS the problem.

It’s really coming down to trust.  With That One chalking up losses almost as fast as the Miami Marlins this year, the whole question of government trust.  And right now, it’s not looking good.

But then, who out there actually trusts or really ever trusted the government for anything?  Seriously, how many water-cooler conversations ever had a participant that said, “I really love and trust the government and I’m glad for it”.

Now, I am a conservative with a little bit of libertarian peppered in and I do recognize that there is a need for some aspects of government.

• State – We need a government to negotiate with foreign powers on behalf of the Union.
• Treasury – We need a government to print a unified currency for the Several States (and not print so much of it that we dilute the economy).
• Commerce – We need a government to regulate commerce between the states, not the overreaching aspects where abuses of power become so prevalent (healthcare anyone?)
• Defense – We need a government to call up troops that will defend the Union from enemies, foreign and domestic.

Past these, we need no other government – it should be held to the states (9th and 10th Amendments).

The issue here is one of trust.  And the president who promised us

• Benghazi – Who really knew what when.  And yes, it’s important.
• IRS – Why did they target conservatives and what’s up with the opulent spending?
• AP - Why can’t Eric Holder answer questions regarding the AP story that published a year ago that contradicted the White House’s claim that officials knew of no attacks planned on U.S. soil for the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death?
• In-Your-Face Appointments of Susan Rice and Samantha Power: Why?  Seriously, why put a liar in as your national security adviser and a known Israel-hating socialist and Soros-ite as the UN Ambassador?  Are you purposely trying to distort foreign policy and help terrorists?
• NSA Monitoring of Cell Traffic – Really?  This is transparency, Mr. Obama?
• Secret E-Mail Accounts for Internal Communications – Oh, that’s really transparent.

Conservatives have always been about reducing dependency on the government because of the sheer number of abuses and potential for corruption.  It’s far too easy to watch as the government uses its faceless power to capture the destitute.

One might say the same about capitalism.  The thing is, I can work hard and gain a living and elevate my status in a capitalistic society – I’ve already done it.  With socialism, not so much – you’re at the wishes of the government and it all becomes about politics.

Politics, as a game, is played through flows of information.  With all the stifiling of information by the left, well, is it any wonder what’s going on?

So much for transparency, eh?

]]> http://rabidconservative.ws/2013/06/11/do-you-agree-with-reagan-yet-liberals/feed/ 0 tzonarin http://rabidconservative.ws/2013/06/05/obama-posts-known-liar-as-nsa/ http://rabidconservative.ws/2013/06/05/obama-posts-known-liar-as-nsa/#comments Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:04:55 +0000 Rick http://rabidconservative.ws/?p=3653 ]]> It’s staggering how “in-your-face” that Obama gets these days, even in the midst of extreme scandal.  Susan Rice is a disgrace and should be excoriated for publicly lying to the American people.  Luckily, she didn’t get put in as Secretary of State (already bad enough with Lurch in there), but having her anywhere close makes me wonder why.

So today, That One appointed the former UN Ambassador Susan Rice to his Cabinet as the National Security Adviser, which is astounding because she admitted to lying when she went on several Sunday talk shows and indicated that what happened in Benghazi were as a result of some YouTube video and not a premeditated, coordinated attack.

And the Main Stream Media is just sweeping it under the rug.  Meh.  Remember all the hullabaloo that they raised about Chuck Hagel being appointed as SecDef – and he was a Republican (albeit a RINO, but still).  The MSM is going to be utterly silent.

Except ABC of course, who had this go out on the Wednesday edition of Good Morning America:

“Susan Rice, of course, as you mentioned was the one that went on the Sunday shows right after the attack in Benghazi and talked about it being something that came out of protests in Cairo, a very controversial set of Sunday show appearances.”

Controversial?  It was patently false!  Why doesn’t ABC say something about that?  Stupid Disney newscasting.

I guess it makes sense.  We have a liar for a President who is now appointing liars into his cabinet.  That’s not unheard of.  The sad part is that we are taking this lying clown and putting her in the role of advising security.  Yes she has a long list of credentials.  Yes her history is known.  But here’s the thing – she was totally wrong about Benghazi.  Did she truly know or didn’t she?

If she did not know that it was terrorism and actually believed it to be  reactionary, then she’s basically incompetent, because we all had this pegged from the beginning and her being on Sunday talk was an insult to the American collective intelligence.

If she did know and tried to sell the American public a bill of goods by passing it off as a YouTube video, then not only is she a liar, but she’s grossly arrogant as well.

Can we forgive?  Sure – when she asks for it.  But we can’t forget it – since we are talking about the security of the nation here.

A truly sad day for America indeed.

What can we do to combat obesity in America?

Now, without all the context, it really did make me think – and from a Rabid Conservative perspective

Why don’t we just leave fat people alone and let them live their own lives?

Conservatives today are on the message of less interference in people’s lives, particularly by the government.  So to be consistent, I asked the question, “Why do anything about obesity at all?  Why do we have to do anything? Since when did it become a priority?

What, since Michelle Obama makes it a priority to take the cookie bags out of the schools and replace it with carrot sticks, because SHE feels people need to eat better?  Since when does Michelle Obama get the right to judge?

What, since Michael Bloomberg decides that it isn’t right that a person can buy a soft drink bigger than 16 ounces, so he outlaws it by legislative and executive fiat, as if he is an arbiter on health?

The way I see it, it’s these people who are hell-bent on “combatting obesity” that have the problem with it. The person who is obese may have the issues with self-image, physical health – or they may not! I personally know a number of obese people who love who they are and being “large and in charge”.

Anyone hear of Gabriel Iglesias?

Obese people, like everyone else, rise and fall by their decisions. If they choose to not eat healthy, not exercise, and not control their weight, then they have to live with the consequences of that. But this entire thing is built around emotionalism and a dislike for fat people.

Society today is really to blame for this – by telling people that if they don’t conform to an “ideal weight”. that aren’t “acceptable”. Our entire media and social culture is crafted to promote this – for the sole purpose of making money. Rather than the message of acceptance, society makes fun of derision (cases in point, American Idol, The Voice, and reality shows). All of this noise is carefully crafted to guilt people into changing into something that is more agreeable with the faceless “society”.

So what do we do about obesity in this country? Nothing on a national scale. We need to stop with all of this “war on obesity” stuff and encourage personal responsibility. The government can no sooner even aid in combatting obesity than it can to change the climate (as if so-called global warming even exists). The government does nothing particuarly useful but consume resources and argue with itself about who gets what tax dollars that are ladled out on the population.

Conservatives need not fall into that emotional trap either. Mind your own business and leave fat people alone. It’s not for us to judge, so it’s not for us to fix.

That being said, I would like to take this time to deal out some castigation for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse D-RI, who decided to use this tragedy as a platform to rail against the GOP regarding so-called global warming.  Instead of just simply offering his sympathy and support, this Democrat decided to rant:

“You drag America with you to your fate. So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want. I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”

You unbelievable scumbag.  While we all have our differences regarding things like the economy. diplomacy abroad as well as domestic matters, talking about the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’, and the like, this is not the time to attack the GOP.  Seriously?  How dare you dishonor those who died with your political diatribe?

And this thing may not yet be over.  This area may still have more of these to deal with, and rather than sounding calls to help those people, you sit in your nice Washington office and gripe at your political opponents while people are asking for aid – saying we’re ‘in this together’:

“So, you may have a question for me. Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

You offend me, sir.  These folks don’t need your rants – they need prayers and support.  If we are so much “in it together”, then when can we expect that you will arrive in Oklahoma to help the people there?

Yeah, we didn’t think so either.

And then, there is this story where IRS not only was beating up conservative groups who criticize the government, but also, someone on the inside leaking the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential donor information, specifically, that Mitt Romney’s PAC had donated to NOM.

Churches for years have had this “gag order” where their tax-exempt status would be threatened if they spoke anything remotely political from their pulpits.  Now my church has three words for them: bring it on.  There’s a growing sentiment that if a church actually gets it’s tax exempt status pulled because of what it preaches, that it will trigger a First Amendment lawsuit under the free exercise clause.

And then, there’s the insanity that’s coming with respect to ObamaCare(less).  Turns out, with next year’s return, there will be an additional form – a form that will require the taxpayer to submit information about their Qualifying Health Plan, to ensure that we’re all complying like good little drones.  That’s going to really increase the nightmare

Is all this at all surprising?  Not really.  This is the kind of strong-arm political machinery that has Chicago written all over it – and namely Obama.  This is the way that Obama knows to do politics and is the Chicago way.  Or do we all think Rahm Emanuel is such a great and up-standing guy?

Well, an hour later and the call just wrapped up, so I will stop writing.  The lady asked graciously thanked me for my patience and asked if there is anything more she could do for me.  My response, “No, ma’am – I think y’all have plenty of other business and other customers to get to.”

Stay Rabid my Friends..

We’re getting the big story wrong, over and over again.” – Scott Pelley, CBS Anchor

No surprise in those statements, which were delivered to listeners at Quinnipiac University.  Sadly, we see Scott Pelley lamenting about how the media just keeps getting things wrong, and yet, if these people would just get back to the basics of journalism, reporting the news, all the news, wherever and however it is, no bias, no nonsense, we would actually have a decent media in this country.

There are the two big reasons in my mind:

1. The Main Stream Media is way too involved in the political machinery of the country.  Whether it be left or right wing (and it is really mostly left wing here), journalists aren’t reporting the news; they are working to further a political agenda.  This is why we’re not hearing stories about Kermit Gosnell and we’re not seeing huge amounts of motivation to investigate and report on the entire Benghazi thing.  But when Todd Akin makes his classic flub concerning “legitimate rape’, one that USA Today has since reported he would take back, the media rips into that like a pack of hungry wolves to a pile of meat.

2. Journalism today is not about reporting the news, it’s about making money through sensationalism and deep investigative analysis, which really just equates to some anchor droning for eight hours during a crisis that requires “continuing coverage”.  And yes, all the major news organizations do this, because it’s about viewership. But there are lots of stories to report – thing is, we don’t always see them, particularly the good news. What we see are stories that are meant to grip and hold us to the television for eight hours.

I’m sure there are other reasons, but these two are the biggest.  It’s a shame really, because people today are getting away from the major networks and going to the internet, because the journalism field just isn’t what it is.  Perhaps, Scott, if journalism was more about getting to the heart of the truth, without hiding anything from the public, without worrying about the ratings, we would see a rebirth in the Nightly News.

I’m not holding my breath.