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Yes, America IS Lost
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Yes, I fear that rare gem, Columbia,  is gone. Sunk beneath the waves of soft communism she has drowned in her own ignorance and apathy.

As I speak with more and more conservatives -- and a few liberals -- it is becoming clear that a growing number of Americans now believe that America is irretrievably lost.  The American optimist has finally been mugged by reality and, for the first time, can see clearly what we realists have been shouting from the rooftops for many years.

Already, freedom is in its death throes in America. The constitution, the very foundation of America, has been shredded, and kicked to the curb as the thundering sound of leftist jackboots reverberate off the marble halls of what used to be the seat of a government of, by, and for the people.

America has gone from "free state" to "police state" almost overnight.

Even as I write these few words I am cognizant that the government will snatch it right out of the ether and store it in a secret cavernous complex where it will remain for centuries --  just in case they decide to prosecute me for exercising what used to be speech protected under the First Amendment to the constitution,  But that was before we entered the Post Constitution Era in America. Now freedom is whatever the person in power over me says it is -- and nothing more.

I am become as chattel.

A great chasm has opened between those of us who treasure freedom and liberty and what used to be OUR government.  It is a gorge to wide to be bridged and to deep to be filled. It is a permanent reminder that we are "persona non grata."

In the early days of the deconstruction of America some of us held out hope that Americans would rise up and protect the constitution.  Sadly, we overestimated the patriotism of modern Americans. It hasn't happened -- and try as I might, I can find no sincere indication that it ever will happen.

Here on the Internet, the last outpost of free speech, conservative writers are sensing the gathering of leftist forces intent on wiping them/us out, stopping our voices, wresting control of our words from us through intimidation, old fashioned scare tactics,  and misusing the law against us.  None of this would be possible IF the Constitution was still the law of the land.  But it isn't.

Ignorance and apathy have done America in.

There was genuine surprise when Americans learned that various departments of government have been using their power against Americans who dared have a different political philosophy than that of the political left.  That ignorance was shocking to those of us who have been writing of just those violations of our constitutional rights by the government for years and years and years.   Like a white sail on an ocean of black it could not have been more obvious.  And yet there was surprise.

The apathy of those who admit to knowledge of a government gone rogue but whine as how they have no power to change anything so they just don't get involved was -- and is -- a cop-out that has -- or will -- cost us our freedom and force us into serfdom and slavery to the state.

Ayn Rand once said that “freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion.”  Even Helen Keller could see that THAT freedom is non-existent in America today.

America was to have been a "moral" country. Our government was to be built on Individual rights.  Individual rights are now gone and in their place we have socialist "collective" rights. Our national morality is even lower than that of Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.  This tends to happen when a people replace God with the state.
It has been said that "Free Stuff" did America in. There is much to be said in favor of that viewpoint.

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, N.J., some time ago, wrote an analysis of the 2012 presidential election.  In it he said: “It is a different world, and a different America. Obama is part of that different America, knows it, and knows how to tap into it. That is why he won. Romney lost because the conservative virtues – the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness – no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate. The notion of the ‘Reagan Democrat’ is one cliché that should be permanently retired. Ronald Reagan himself could not win an election in today’s America. The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff."  SOURCE:  http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/the-end-of-america-why-romney-lost/ 

Ayn Rand also said: "Traditionally and historically, the American people can be pushed so far, and then they stop it."   I would counter with Rabbi Pruzansky's words from above: “It is a different world, and a different America."

One is tempted to raise a glass in a farewell salute to a people so arrogant in their ignorance that they committed national suicide while still in their infancy -- not even 250 years old.

As I enter the winter of my life, I had hoped to have the satisfaction of leaving my country a better place for my progeny.  In that -- I have failed -- utterly.   As an old  southerner from the Carolinas, it is a part of my ingrown "Noblesse Oblige" to work hard, contribute to the betterment of society, maintain my honor ( and that of my family), and be generous in all things.  And yes, I know how high-faluting that must sound in this day and age, but in my day, no matter one's socio-economic standing in a southern community, one understood -- clearly -- that one had the OBLIGATION to attempt to live up to the Noblesse Oblige creed.  And, in my opinion, we were a better community, county, state, and nation for it.

Alas, it has come to naught. The "Shining City's" shining hour is spent.  The "Grand Experiment" has failed.

"O, Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine if each patriot's devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble
When Liberty's form stands in view;
Thy banners make tyranny tremble
When borne by the Red, White and Blue!
When borne by the Red, White and Blue!"

Here's to the legend of America!  We truly mourn your passing.

© J. D. Longstreet

    Hurricane Season Begins ... NOW
               A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
                            **************

Saturday, June 1st, marks the official beginning of the 2013 Hurricane Season. 

It is a date graven into the memories, and on the psyche of those of us who reside in the "catcher's mitt" of the Carolina coast.

Already, the experts are telling us to expect a busier than usual hurricane season for the Atlantic.

Those of us who live in Hurricane Alley ALWAYS expect a busy hurricane season. It's the way we survive. It's the way generations before us have survived.

The moment a storm slides off the western coast of Africa, we assume it is headed directly for Little River, SC.   Oh, it may zig and zag a bit, even a great deal, but we remain steadfast in our belief that THAT particular storm has our name written all over it.  Until it is north of Newfoundland it remains a threat -- at least in our minds.

Too often I have begun to enjoy a sigh of relief -- when a storm had moved north of my location -- only to have that storm make a complete loop and launch itself at the Carolina coast ... again.  (Yes, hurricanes can -- and do -- make 360º circles!)

For those of you who may be new to our region of the US, understand:  There is no such thing as a predictable hurricane nor a minor hurricane.

Remember Sandy, from just last year.  Well, due to media hype, and the active imaginations of folks unfamiliar with hurricanes, you would have thought Sandy was the worst hurricane ever! Not so! Sandy was not a hurricane when she went ashore in New Jersey.  In fact, Sandy was not even a tropical storm when she made landfall. She was, in fact, so weak at that point that she was only a sub-tropical storm!

"As The New American reported last year, Superstorm Sandy was “neither the largest Atlantic storm on record nor the deadliest. The National Hurricane Center reports Olga was the largest in recorded history with a wind extent of 600 miles, more than 100 miles greater than Sandy's. In terms of death toll, among the top 10 worst U.S. natural disasters reported by LiveScience are the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 which claimed 8,000 lives and the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 which killed 2,500.” Neither did it make the top 10 list of costliest hurricanes. ICAT's Damage Estimator, we reported, “ranks the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 as number one at more than $180 billion in 2012 dollars. The Galveston and Lake Okeechobee storms rank second and ninth respectively, and seven of the top 10 occurred before 1961. Hurricane Katrina is number four.” Nor are hurricanes more frequent today. As James Taylor writes, “NOAA reports a long-term decline in strong tornadoes striking the United States. The National Hurricane Center reports that the past 40 years have seen the fewest major hurricane strikes since at least the mid-1800s. Even Hurricane Sandy reminds us that the U.S. Northeast has experienced only one major hurricane strike since 1960, but experienced six major hurricane strikes during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, when global temperatures were cooler.”  SOURCE:  http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/14542-obama-vows-to-bypass-congress-on-climate-change

---AND --

SOURCE:  http://thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/13500-blaming-climate-change-for-hurricane-sandy

I have, in my office, hurricane tracking charts at the ready.  Plotting a storm's track is an excellent way to become better acquainted with a storm.  Comparing the track of the new storm to tracks of old storms helps one get a feel for the pattern of hurricane approaches to the Southeast and Gulf coastlines of the US.

                                   

Storm Names for
Hurricane Season
2013

The following names will be used for named storms that form in the North Atlantic in 2013. Retired names, if any, will be announced by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 2014. The names not retired from this list will be used again in the 2019 season. This is the same list used in the 2007 season, except for Dorian, Fernand, and Nestor which replaced Dean, Felix, and Noel respectively.

    Andrea (unused)
    Barry (unused)
    Chantal (unused)
    Dorian (unused)
    Erin (unused)
    Fernand (unused)
    Gabrielle (unused)

   

    Humberto (unused)
    Ingrid (unused)
    Jerry (unused)
    Karen (unused)
    Lorenzo (unused)
    Melissa (unused)
    Nestor (unused)

   

    Olga (unused)
    Pablo (unused)
    Rebekah (unused)
    Sebastien (unused)
    Tanya (unused)
    Van (unused)
    Wendy (unused) 

And so it begins.

It is a little eerie, at least to me, to be writing of hurricanes when our fellow Americans are digging out from tornadoes.  But such is weather.

Whatever happens during the 2013 hurricane season which ends, officially, on November 30th, we won't blame it on man-made global warming or climate change. See, I don't believe in "Global Warming."  I AM convinced that we have entered a global cool down, which will lead, over time, to the next mini ice age on earth.

Thomas Sowell is credited with having asked:  "Would you bet your paycheck on a weather forecast for tomorrow? If not, then why should this country bet billions on global warming predictions that have even less foundation?"

A very wise man that Mr. Sowell.

Even John Steinbeck seemed to understand the difference between weather and climate when he said:  "I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate."

As America is still digging out from last year's hurricane assault and yesterday's tornado rampage, we begin to focus our attention on the west coast of Africa where so many of our deadly hurricanes are born. Too, we remember the warning of Thomas Fuller who said: "In fair weather prepare for foul."

As I sit here writing,  the temperature is 82º, the heat index is 91º, the relative humidity is 59%, the sun is shining, I have a 4 MPH breeze from the south, and I am thinking "hurricane season."  I think Mr. Fuller would be proud of me!

© J. D. Longstreet

From Monkey in the Middle


From Bob (With Thanks)

"Pistol Packing MAMA MIA!"

And if LOOKS could kill, she wouldn't need a gun ... or a knife, or a sword, or a grenade, or a harpoon, or a flame thrower, or some poison, or an atomic bomb, or even Cloverleaf Food, ...


If Eleanor Roosevelt can have a gun, shouldn't we all be able to have a gun?

BTW:  Even then official pictures looked terrible!

Hot days are officially installed in the city and I'm not complaining at all! Sandals, easy tops and lots of prints to celebrate the Summer first days...



                           

                                                                                     Top: c/o Sugarlips.com/ Here
                                                                                     Pants: Paul & Joe/ option Here 
                                                                                     Bag: Lancaster Paris c/o/ Here
                                                                                     Sandals: Prada/ great option Here 
                                                                                     Necklace: Ananda c/o Sweep Street Jewelry/ option Here

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Wise words from a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Chicago Tribune - Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made a plea for preserving the impartiality and independence of the American judicial system in a lecture Thursday at Elmhurst College.

O’Connor, who addressed a crowded audience at Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel on the west suburban campus, delivered the Rudolf G. Schade lecture on history, ethics and law.

Although the U.S. judicial system is respected and emulated around the world, there are aspects of it that could be improved to better ensure impartiality and independence, she said.

O’Connor said she opposes the election of judges, and she believes the practice may create a misunderstanding of the role of a judge.

“I think there are many who think of judges as politicians in robes. In many states, that’s what they are,” she said.

People should expect a judge to rule on legal issues in a fair and unbiased way, but she said many people seem to think that judges are supposed to be a reflection of popular opinion, O’Connor said.

“They seem to think judges should be a reflex of the popular will,” she said.

Judges “need to turn a high-power lens on themselves” to avoid bias or the perception of bias as they consider legal issues and make decisions, she said...{Read More}

In today's politically charged and highly divisive climate the tendency towards overt judicial activism is ever present.

What say you?

Via: Memeorandum

These are some of the ideas I came across as I composed my letter to my elected officials in Congress. Feel free to use whatever you like but get your letters out daily!!! Here are the links to finding the contact forms for your U.S. Representatives and Senators online.

The IRS must be completely reformed in the wake of the agency targeting tea party and other conservative groups.

The IRS has violated it’s own regulations and the American Constitution by targeting and unlawfully delaying and obstructing conservative organizations’ applications for a determination of tax-exempt status, and the IRS has continued to bully and intimidate Conservatives.

Additionally, the inspector general found that on many occasions the IRS made inappropriate and intrusive demands for information from conservative groups that applied for exemption under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

On May 29th, 2014 The American Center for Law and Justice filed a  lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of 25 Tea Party and conservative organizations against the U.S. Attorney General, Treasury Secretary, and Internal Revenue Service - including top IRS officials. (Read more here)

In the lawsuit, the ACLJ cited six counts arguing the federal government violated the Constitution, federal law, and even its own rules and regulations.

The IRS and the Obama Administration must be held accountable for these unlawful actions and reparations must be made on behalf of all Americans. It is not enough that certain parties be found guilty or that injunctive relief and punitive damages eventually be awarded.

The IRS must never again be in a position to target and/or intimidate any American group or individual because of race, religion, or political beliefs. The IRS must be completely reformed by Congress Now.

America no longer has any confidence in the IRS. This overgrown, complex, and corrupt agency has not earned the right to take on additional responsibilities that will effect the daily lives of all Americans. We cannot allow the IRS, as it exists today, to police Obamacare!

Now is the time to completely break this monster apart. Now is the time for comprehensive tax reform!

As FAREED ZAKARIA, wrote in Investor's Business Daily:

The U.S. tax code is at the heart of a system of institutionalized, legal corruption. The code is so vast because companies, industries and lobbying groups receive special preferences in return for campaign contributions, a cash-for-favors scheme that Washington would denounce as crony capitalism in any Third World country.

Ted Cruz Scares The Heck Out Of The GOPConservative Leader-In-Waiting?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*************** 
 Conservative republicans are focusing on Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.  I sense a collective holding of breath amongst the right wing of the Republican Party.  The same holds true, in my opinion amongst  conservative independents.
Cruz is talking old style conservatism.  It's the kind of conservatism that wins elections because it stirs the blood of conservatives, I mean, TRUE conservatives.

Many conservatives, myself included, are not yet ready to endorse Cruz simply because we have been burnt too many times in recent decades.  

And there is the problem, at least for me, of Cruz having been born outside the US. (Cruz is a Cuban-American from Texas who was born in Canada.)  Obama's eligibility problems for President aside, Cruz is a republican and we all now there is a separate set of rules for republicans.  To understand how that works one must understand this:  It is legal -- when the democrats do it.  Not so much when republicans do it.

The plain and simple truth is, that if Cruz does decide to run for president in 2016, he will be battered beyond belief for not being a "natural born" US citizen.  Understand this, too.  He will be attacked by both the Democratic Party AND the Republican Party.  There are many in the GOP of the country club set, the blue bloods, if you will, who see Cruz as a direct threat to their power -- within the party -- and they will do everything they can to insure failure for any Cruz presidential run.  Then there are those, like myself, who are not ready to climb aboard the Cruz band wagon until we learn whether or not he is a "penny match candidate."  (For you youngsters -- a penny match , back in the day, was famous for flaring up into a huge extremely hot flame for just a moment when struck, then quickly burn out leaving you with a small piece of worthless smoking charcoal in your fingers.)

At the moment, Cruz is hot. 

Conservatives are yearning for a true conservative champion. We are tired of staying home on election day.  We are tired of being told we MUST support the so-called conservative candidates the GOP pushes to the forefront in every campaign. 

Allow me to make something clear today:  Trues conservatives are NOT ready to support another Bush in the Oval Office.  And we are not going to support Rand Paul, a libertarian republican, for President, nor will we support Marco Rubio.  Rubio's immigration reform philosophy sunk any chance he had of getting to the Oval Office anytime in the foreseeable future.

The GOP is leaderless at the moment.  That is because, in my humble opinion, the internal leadership wants it that way.  The hierarchy of the Republican Party is its own worst enemy.  So long as the party remains splintered there is no chance a conservative can ascend to the leadership position. 

With an extremely important election coming up in 2014, the old guard republicans have a death grip on the upper echelons of the party and they will see it die a slow and painful death before they will relinquish power to a representative of the great unwashed conservative masses within the GOP.  Would you care to guess how they view Ted Cruz??

Consider this:  "The bulk of the conservative movement, and thus the base of the Republican Party, recognizes this reality. They have become increasingly alarmed at the fate awaiting the country if these radicals are not purged from the mainstream of American governance in the 2014 and 2016 election cycles. But when they look to the leadership of the Republican Party they see a nauseating deference to the party in power and the media -- in other words business as usual in Washington. Apparently the Republican Establishment believes it will eventually win when it is their turn if they just can find a way to bribe minorities, particularly Hispanics into voting for them."  SOURCE:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3001392/posts So, while the GOP establishment is content to "wait their turn" at the Oval Office, the GOP base, the conservatives, are chomping at the bit, leaning forward, rattling the trace chains, even threatening to overturn the wagon, all in an effort to get back in the fight with a real competitor, an honest to goodness conservative candidate, whom they can really trust  -- AND believe in --  AND support. 

At the moment the fire in the bellies of conservatives has been banked.  That accounts for the lackluster GOP these days.  Senator Cruz COULD be the fuel that will turn that conservative fire in the belly into a human blow torch again.

... or NOT!

The reason so many conservatives are holding back on Cruz today is that we get the feeling he is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!  It has been a long time since someone espoused the conservative platform so completely and, well, it is disconcerting.

So.  We'll watch a while longer "with hope in our hearts," as they say.

Problem with waiting is the crumbling of America as we wait.  The country is being eaten alive, from the inside, by the "marxocrats" of the left.  Their campaign to reinvent America as a police state is well on its way to fruition.  The recent problems with the Department of Justice, and the Internal Revenue Service are just bumps in the road. 

Conservatives can't wait much longer.

America can't wait much longer.

The "progressive overlords" of the Obama Administration, such as those in the  Department of Homeland Security, are growing stronger readying themselves for the day when the half of America that still values freedom and liberty says "ENOUGH" and rises up in righteous indignation to restore constitutional government to this once great land.

All that is lacking is a national leader for the conservative movement.  Is Senator Ted Cruz that leader in waiting?  Well, IS HE?

© J. D. Longstreet

Have you ever had one of those weeks? Those weeks where you feel like you are behind on everything and no matter what you try to get done, more things just pile on top? What do they say in Alice in Wonderland?

"The hurrier I go the behinder I get."

Yep, that's me this week sister. No worries though. I'll have met the bulk of my deadlines by the time Monday roles around and then I'll start myself fresh. I've never been so excited for a Monday.

So I'll stop by bellyaching and leave you with this beauty.


A bouquet for you.

Because flowers always make me happy, even the virtual ones!

But on the bright side, make sure to stop by Simply Baby this week, I'm talking nurseries.

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny



I knew there was a reason I like Juan Williams...

Lets have the debate America.

Via: Memeorandum

Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Alive And Well In The USA
DHS = KGB
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

It had not crossed my mind until a few days ago, but the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) seems to have just switched nations -- from the Soviet Union to the United States. (Gasp!)

OK.  Hold on a moment.

KGB, or Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, translated into English is:  "Committee for State Security."

So what, you ask?

So ... DHS stands for "Department of Homeland Security." Ummm.

Honestly, the only difference I see is that one is a "department" and the other a "committee."

Many conservative commentators have been warning for years that the US is becoming a police state akin to the old Soviet Union. 

What with the hearings going on in Washington currently on the abuse of power by the IRS and the Justice Department, is it any wonder that more and more Americans are questioning the the government's loyalty to the constitution -- AND to the citizens of the US? 

It has become clear that if you are a friend of the constitution then you are an enemy of the Obama Administration.  At least that now seems to be the position of our current government.

Consider this:  "Agents from the Department of Homeland Security posing as national “police” were deployed across the country this week to monitor and intimidate Tea Party activists, who were peacefully protesting the Obama administration and its abuse of the IRS to target conservative groups. The apparently unlawful spying and bullying has drawn outrage from analysts, experts, and commentators from across the political spectrum worried that the federal government is going off the rails.

From California to Florida and everywhere in between, armed DHS functionaries — part of the so-called “Federal Protective Service” (FPS) — intimidated and spied on peaceful activists, according to protesters in attendance. News reports were filled with pictures and videos of large Homeland Security trucks that said “police” in giant letters, along with armed DHS personnel dressed in “police” outfits. At a rally in Los Angeles, a DHS helicopter was even spotted flying overhead as federal “police” ordered protesters to get off of government property."   SOURCE:  http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/15505-homeland-security-police-monitored-tea-party-irs-protests 

The article at The New American continues:  "Why aren't DHS officers protecting the homeland against foreign enemies armed with explosives and hate? Perhaps because the Obama Administration is more worried about domestic ‘enemies’ armed with the Constitution and love of country,” wrote Sally Zelikovsky about the scandal in the American Thinker. She also said the administration sending out DHS agents to spy on Tea Party protests was “further evidence of the Soviet-style ‘War on Dissent.’ ”

“One would think they would be just a bit more circumspect and maybe even exercise a modicum of restraint before dispersing KGB, I mean, DHS agents to free speech rallies protected under the Constitution,” Zelikovsky continued in her stinging criticism of the department’s latest activities. “The fact that they did this so blatantly despite the scrutiny they are under is symptomatic of a government on the verge of a constitutional breakdown — a government that doesn't hesitate to bully the little guy while giving the Constitution the proverbial political finger.”  Source:   http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/15505-homeland-security-police-monitored-tea-party-irs-protests

Look.  It is clear to anyone with an iota of sense that our government is out of control.  Freedom and liberty are being curtailed.  Personal freedom is in serious peril in America today. 


The Department of Homeland Security should be abolished at once.  In fact, there is serious question whether we ever needed them, in the first place.

"It is clear that the DHS is not in the business of protecting us, it is in the business of protecting criminals and keeping us controlled. The DHS no longer plays any role in protecting of the U.S. citizens. It is time to defund and abolish it, sell all of its assets and ammo and return all the proceeds to the U.S. treasury for partial repayment of our debt or maybe using some of this money to reopen the WH for kids and the national parks to law abiding Americans."  SOURCE:  http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=406253

We couldn't agree more.

If DHS ever inspired confidence in Americans that time is long past.  DHS now inspires fear and loathing among the citizens of America. It is now seen as a thuggish strong arm enforcement agency of the police state, an adversary of the citizens of the country.   We want it gone!

© J. D. Longstreet

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

The story behind Liberty’s construction and the visionaries who made it happen Liberty Rising

For many years yours truly prided himself on being a principled conservative. One who believed in the notion that the individual could achieve anything they set their minds to achieving. I guess that is the old Horatio Alger theory for those old enough to remember exactly who that was.

My grandparents and parents, I only have one left now, brought me up to believe in fiscal conservationism. In other words not spending more than you were earning. Of course that meant after all expenses were met for the month and you were saving somewhere near 10% of your gross income.

I guess that sort of died the minute we all be came Keynesian converts. Sixteen trillion in national debt and still growing. With no end in sight. President Obama is doing the best he can given the mess he inherited. And no, I am not bashing GWB, the mess started long before he took office. His ill fated Iraq war merely exacerbated the situation.

Something else my grandparents and parents tried hard to teach me, although I didn't always heed their lessons, even in adulthood, I suppose many of us could say the same. Yes indeed, there are many times I miss the wisdom of my grandfather and grandmother. They would be 112 twelve and 106 years old respectively were they alive today. What deep and profound insight they had. They are in a better place now.

I know I'm sorta rambling, and before I lose the interest of my good readers I suppose I better get directly to my main point for penning this post. If you'll just bear with me for another moment.

Another thing my grandparents and parents instilled in me (and again I didn't always adhere to their example) was to always extend the right of free speech to the other individuals engaged in discourse before exercising my right to free speech. They always said that I wouldn't learn much by talking but that by listening to others I stood a great chance of learning. Throughout my business and personal life I found this to be true.

So, my point is why is it so difficult for conservatives, libertarians, and liberals to learn to listen. Our wonderful internet (again for purposes of this post specifically left and right political blogistan) is replete with educated, intelligent, and successful individuals that are willfully refusing to actively listen (read) to their opposition. Not only do they not listen they trash, without thinking or having any demonstrable justification for doing so, sincere and honorable individuals who are merely expressing their opinion and thereby exercising their FREEDOM of SPEECH. For this they are called all sorts of names and characterized unjustly simply because someone, usually a non thinking someone, disagrees.

As I have oft said I am a fiscal conservative and a social Libertarian. Perhaps a more accurate description of my philosophical and political beliefs would be to say I am a Classical Liberal in the vein of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. As such, certainly with respect to this post content, I find it necessary to criticize the failings of those who are supposedly most closely aligned with my view of liberty and freedom of speech and expression. IE: Lets clean up our own back yard before criticizing the backward of others. Or - I may disagree with what my political opposition is saying but I will defend their right to hold and state their vies. WITHOUT MALIGNING THEIR CHARACTER and GOOD NAME.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been what amounted to a feeding frenzy by conservatives on one individual that operates a liberal blog and consistently holds progressive views. Some which are perfectly rational and therefore bear serious consideration and thought. However, certain conservatives have found great sport in criticizing and attacking the person and their character rather than dissecting the views and arguments put forth by the blog author.

Attacking the person and their character as viciously and unjustly as some conservatives did of course says much more about THEIR OWN CHARACTER and LACK of INTEGRITY than it does about the progressive blogger who they choose to attract personally.

Rational Nation USA strongly, and on no uncertain terms condemns the classless activities of certain so called conservative commentators on sight A and site B. Scrolling back to older posts will be necessary. However, to aid in the search look for Hate Week on sight A and Nincompoopery on site B.

It is way past time to return to the civility all political partisans should extend their opponents and stick to attacking the idea and the issue, NOT the MESSENGER.

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Above Quotes: Thomas Jefferson

Happy Wednesday all! How is your week moving along? We are on day three of summer vacation and I'm already worn out. We've been spending a lot of time outside and playing many many games of 'library'. Basically I sit on the floor in their room and pick out books and the girls check them out. It is one of those great games that requires minimal brain power from me and keeps the girls occupied for hours. I am a game creating genius.


The hot item at 'the library' these days is my absolute favorite childhood book. The Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter. The fourteen bears are kind of like the Duggars of the literary world - 12 sisters and one brother who live with their mom and dad in the forrest. They have great adventures in the summer and winter (duh, as the title implies) but what I would pour over for hours were the pictures.


Each sister had her own tree and each tree was decorated differently. It was like House Beautiful for those under 10. You had traditional, mid century, chippendale, country; you name it they covered it. There is even a feature on how they decorated their front doors. Pure heaven.

My copy is well loved, shall we say, and over 35 years old. So just for fun I did some digging to see if I could get a new copy. And I can, for $641.70.

Excuse me?!

Apparently this book went out of print not long after my sisters and I got it for Christmas and it became quite the collectors item. They started a reprint in 2005 but it went back out of print in 2008 and has been 'a get' ever since. Who knew?

Makes me think twice about playing library with it. But part of what I love about the book is how used it is. One page even has a rug that has been colored in by...someone. I vividly remember doing it oddly enough. I was watching Punky Brewster at the time. Ah, like it was yesterday.

Do you have any items from childhood that were a glimpse into what you wanted to do when you grew up? Any happy memories about an old book? Ever color in a book? Yeah, me neither.

Sweden commends itself on its Multiculturalism.  The truth is that there is one group of people in Sweden that will not assimilate into Swedish society and culture.  No it isn't the Jews.  They have embraced Swedish culture, society while maintaining their religious ways.  It is Muslim minority that refuses to embrace Swedish culture.  They are demanding that the native Swedes (and everyone else) follow their faith, their culture barbaric ways.  In fact they have been rioting through out Sweden to force the Swedish Government to do as they say.

They also object to Jews not only living in "their" cities, but in Sweden.  And have embarked on a campaign to eliminate the Jew from "their" land.  And it looks as if they have succeeded in one case:  Malmö.

In the Swedish tourist guides, the city of Malmö is presented as "a paradise for ecologists", full of bicycles, bike paths and green areas. In addition, this third-largest and most prosperous Swedish city is a symbol of the "modern and cosmopolitan" soul of the Scandinavian country of equal opportunities, literacy, integration and welfare state.

In Swedish it is called "Folkhemmet", the home of all the people. Malmö is the symbol of this multicultural utopia on which for decades Sweden has built its model of integration (a country that called herself a "moral superpower").

The illusion was that a prosperous society, indifferent to religion, ideologically welcoming and tolerant, would heal any trauma of integration.

In the industrial area that at one time housed the shipyards of Kockums, now stands the symbol of the city, the famous skyscraper modeled on a human torso, a creation of the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

The dozens of ethnic groups in Malmö are united in one organic body. Yet according to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, while the old industrial city becomes "a international melting pot full of optimism," the Jewish families are leaving it.

Malmö is the city that serves as the symbol of the Swedish Jewish community. The main synagogue of the "Judiska Församlingen i Malmö", founded in 1903, is one of the few temples preserved from that era in Europe. Most similar synagogues in the continent were in fact destroyed under Nazism.

The city of Malmö will soon be Judenrein. Free of Jews. As the Dagens Nyheter notes, a growing number of Jewish families are leaving due to Islamist anti-Semitic attacks.

Malmö, capital of the prosperous province of Scania, had a 2,000-strong Jewish community in the 1970s. However, only 500 remain there today, explains the newspaper. “The majority have moved to Stockholm or abroad.”

Sweden, which was famously neutral during World War II and served as a refuge for Scandinavian Jews, is a prototype of Europe's new anti-Semitism. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and the Jewish centers were bombed, worshippers were abused on their way home from the synagogue, and "Jude S--- destroys Hollviken" and "You shall be gassed" were mockingly chanted in the streets.

Indeed, it is part of a tragic, but unavoidable, process: the New Europe will be a Jews-free continent. It begins with Malmö and it ends with Rome.

It is not just the Swedish Muslims who physically persecute and intimidate the Jews (in Malmö (the most common name for newborn boys is now Mohammed).

Ilmar Reepalu, the Left-wing mayor of Malmö who had been in power for 15 years till last January, choose to not protect the Jews but to express sympathy with the terrorists. The Swedish governments have also forsaken the Jewish people. In Malmö you see Jews running after leaving the synagogue. Yet the Swedish court system did not convict anyone of hate crimes in Malmö in 2010 and 2011, despite registering 480 complaints.

In Malmö, the Jews who arrived through ferries and fishing boats, after being rescued from the Nazi concentration camps, or who fled to Sweden from communist Poland in the 1960s, are leaving their former sanctuary. In Poland, these were the "f---ing Jews". In Malmö they became the "f---ing Poles". Now they are the "f---ing Jews" once again. Europe's cycle of anti-Semitism is closing in again.

As it is closing in in Brussels, from where many Jews are leaving for Tel Aviv due to anti-Semitism. Immigration to Israel was slightly down worldwide in 2012, but figures from Western Europe were up. CNN recently ran a special "The exodus of Jews from France".

Malmö and Brussels are not Chelmno. There are not gas chambers in the Swedish or Belgian city. But the ultimate goal is the same as that of Reinhardt Heydrich's "Final Solution": a Jew-free continent.

Last year journalist Espen Eidum detailed in a book how Stockholm aided the Nazis during WW2 as their neighbours fought and lost a decisive battle against the German invaders. Particularly, Sweden aided Heydrich's troops through the use of the railways to transfer Jews to death camps.

Are we witnessing the same seeds of that betrayal?

The Israeli government should help Europe's Jews to resettle in Israel as it did with the Mizrachi Jews after 1948. If you look at Sweden as a multicultural kaleidoscope, turning the three mirrors in the tube, what future will the Jews of Europe have? None.

My continent has no room for living Jews.

Source

Congratulations Malmö!  You will be Judenrein soon and then your nation, Sweden will become free of Jews.  You have embraced a people who believe that they (And everybody else.) should live in the 7th Century not the 21st.  A people who will kill the non-believer, force women to cover themselves in heavy black blankets for "modesty" sake, and who wish to rule you under their barbaric Shar'ia Law.

You have thrown out of your Jewish neighbors.  A people who value education, liberty and freedom.  And you are seeing on your street the true nature of the Muslims you have imported and encouraged on your streets each night.

I wish you, the native-born Swede, all the best in your Dhimmitude.  You deserve it!