Daily news sites

Consider The Source
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
************************

The Mainstream Media’s assault on evangelical Christian Conservatives is going to backfire on them. Some feel it has already begun.  Consider the number of major news outlets in financial trouble today.

First of all, it is wise to understand that the mainstream media in the US is the voice of the Democratic Party .... the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, if you will.    You must keep that in mind to be able to interpret what they disseminate as “news.” 

The MSM is out of touch with real Americans, especially real Americans who subscribe to the Christian faith… and to parse it even more… real Americans who subscribe to the evangelical brand of the Christian faith.  This disconnect has existed for decades now.  And yet, the MsM continues to flail about either not recognizing the problem, or intentionally ignoring it - even to their own detriment.

If the MsM had even the least understanding of the Christian faith, especially the Evangelical Christian faith, they would know that perfection is not required to be a Christian.  Making the attempt IS required, however.

The one tenant of the evangelical Christian faith that runs through their faith, as a binding thread, is that piece of scripture that says:  “For ALL have sinned and fallen short ….”  It is the commonality of ALL Christians. All Christians were sinners before becoming Christians and, guess what… they remain sinners afterwards!  The difference is “forgiveness” of those sins, AND, the sinner’s never-ending quest to live a life as nearly in accordance to the teachings of Christ as a human being, with all the frailties of humanity, can ever hope for.

The hallmark of the evangelical Christian is their ability to instantly forgive the transgressions of others upon the transgressor recognizing his/her sins, confessing them, and seeking forgiveness.  The arms of the evangelical church are flung wide open to accept, support, and even nurture those fellow “imperfect” Christians who have “fallen short”.  It is a hallmark of the faith.  To condemn the transgressor as somehow, worse than the rest of us Christians, is nothing short of hypocrisy… and hypocrisy is frowned upon as an arch sin, if there were, indeed, such a thing.

But you see, the Leftists and the MsM, which of course, is one and the same thing, have bought into their Hollywood version of Evangelical Christianity and they have come to actually believe their version is the true version.  It, apparently, has never crossed their minds that they could be wrong!  On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worse degree of “wrongness”, then the MsM and the Democratic Party would be stuck on ten!

There is nothing quite so amusing as to watch the finger pointing of the left as it tries, vainly, to justify it’s own short comings by pointing to the short comings of others.  They have honed it into a fine art. Having done so, they are totally unaware that it portrays them as kindergarten children seeking the acceptance of the adult in charge. But, finding an adult amongst the leftists is a near impossible task.  They are few and far between.  The end result is the increasing degree of pathos on the left.  They have become, absolutely, pathetic.

The Left, meaning the Democratic Party, and, of course, the Mainstream Media, have all made a devastating error in judgment by assaulting Christian conservatives. For in doing so, they have assured their own elitism, locked-in their self-perceived perfection, and validated what all us “bumpkins” out here in flyover country already knew… and that is… there are none quite so fallible as those who perceive themselves infallible.

So, we leave the MSM on the sidelines of this life to sneer and point fingers and catcall in the vain hope of drawing our attention away from their mistake riddled, pitiful existence, as morality judges.  They have become so captivated by their passion, that in their zeal they have forgotten their very own mantra: “Do Not Judge”! 

The scriptures teach us to “Judge not, lest ye be judged”.  The Great Teacher, Himself, the Rabbi, the Christ, also told us “Ye shall know a tree by the fruit it bears.”  In other words, “recognizing by simple observation” is NOT judging.  Therefore, this humble scribe, in order to cover his bases, asks your forgiveness for observing that the MsM is, once again, acting as the elitist hypocrites we already know them to be. That is, of course, a simple observation on my part. That said… alas, we must forgive them, too.

© J. D. Longstreet
***********************

VISIT J. D. Longstreet's "INSIGHT on Freedom" Face Book Page!!:   (Just click on the link for more conservative commentary by J. D. Longstreet and other popular conservative writers!) **************************************************Hypersmash.com

Ignacio (last name unknown)

Click to enlarge.

Surely we can get this to 6% if we give it one more shot! Just throw the whole kitchen sink at it Ben! For the love of all that is holy, do not taper! We need it all!

It peaked at 5.951% in November of 2000. Good times.

It peaked at 5.950% in May of 2007. What a party.

In July of 2013, it reached 5.872%. So close! At the rate it's climbing, it's practically a "sure thing" to breach 6% by June of 2014, although a new record could be set as early as February. There's only one Christmas season left between us and the ultimate goal! With nearly 19 million jobs at stake, what could possibly go wrong (again)?

There's nothing magical about the 6% barrier of course, other than the fact that we've failed to go through it twice so far. Maybe the third time's the charm? Or maybe it isn't? Who knows?

And as for 6%, I wake up every day thinking that for every 16 humans or so that I know (including babies and the elderly), at least one needs to be a professional & business services employee (accountant, lawyer, janitor, landscaper, groundskeeper, financial manager, office clerk, security guard, and so on). That's the only way our country can truly prosper. Never mind that we only needed about 1/3rd as many 60 years ago. Those were crazy times and not at all as prosperous as what we have now.

If we don't have very nice places for lawyers to do their lawyering and for financial managers to do their managerizing, then what will become of this great country of ours!

This is not investment advice.

See Also:
BLS: Industries at a Glance: Professional and Business Services

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Professional & Business Services Employees per Capita

Trend Forecast today: The Skirt(s)
In variations of shapes, colors and prints, these skirts are definitely a key piece in every closet and for all seasons. I'm looking forward to wear something like this in the Fall, paired with sweatshirts or sweaters but until then here are a few suggestions for this last month of Summer.
These colors are as a bag of jelly beans and I want them all!!
Happy Weekend!








                                                                                                Top: Roksanda Ilincic/ Here 

Click to enlarge.

If you are an optimist, I bet you were hoping that the parabola would be right side up. No such luck.

Should the 2nd order polynomial trend continue to its logical conclusion, then say goodbye to 1 million health and personal care store employees someday. Sigh.

Mall Rat Rap


Sorry, just a bit of e-commerce and monetary policy gallows humor, in very poor taste I might add.

This is not investment advice, but damn.

This post inspired by the following comment (as seen here).

I think "hanging out" and "being seen" account for a good deal of mall traffic. - Luke Smith

See Also:
Trend Line Disclaimer

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Two issues barely addressed by immigration reform activists, clergy, non-profit organizations, U.S. Congress and the Obama administration are the deportation of 800 ill patients by hospitals and U.S. Veterans.

El Paso, Texas - On Wednesday, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, 52, aka, "Pacific Drug Cartel Queen" was transferred from a South Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center to an El Paso ICE removal center for deportation. She is expected to be deported by next Tuesday or Thursday. Ávila Beltrán will be flown from Texas to Mexico City along with more than 130 other undocumented immigrants ordered to be removed from the U.S. under a program that discontinued turning them over to Mexican immigration authorities across the border from El Paso.

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

Julian Assange may very well be correct. However, his recent statement that "The only hope as far as electoral politics… presently, is the libertarian section of the Republican party,..." will undoubtedly displease the liberal progressives democratic party as well as the the republican party, perhaps especially the RINO's and the militaristic MIC wing of the GOP. Which of course gives one EVERY rational reason to believe Assange is absolutely RIGHT.

Campus Reform - “The only hope as far as electoral politics… presently, is the libertarian section of the Republican party,” said Assange, in response to a question about the recent swell of college-aged and youth-based support for libertarianism.

“The libertarian aspect of the Republican Party is presently the only useful political voice really in the U.S. Congress,” said Assange. “[I] am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues.”

Assange, who was speaking in an online video forum, hosted by the transparency organization OurSay.org, also praised American Journalist Matt Drudge saying he is responsible for breaking down the “self-censorship” of the American mainstream media.

"Matt Drudge is a news media innovator... It is as a result of the self-censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform and so of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship,” said Assange.

Assange is refreshing in his honesty and understanding of the fatal flaw present in not only the American political landscape but the politics of nations in the universal sense.

The story's completion.

Via: Memeorandum

August 16, 2013
Amazon’s Secret Plan to Sell You Everything!


Have I mentioned lately that we live in the era of exponential trend failures?

Bill Melendez

Click to enlarge.




See Also:
When "Sure Things" Break (Musical Tribute)

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Click to enlarge.

Some trends are just not what they appear to be.



See Also:
Gold vs. Crude Foodstuffs & Feedstuffs

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

In theory, how far could gold drop in price relative to the basic necessity of food?

In the following chart, I'm adjusting the price of gold for inflation but instead of using the CPI I'm using the producer price index for crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs (which has doubled since 2000).


Click to enlarge.

It appears to me that gold could drop quite a bit more (relative to crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs). The exponential trend in blue has failed and the median is a long ways away. That doesn't mean that gold will drop of course. I'm simply saying that it could.

How to Live on a Deserted Island


Note that there is no mention of borrowing money to buy gold.

Monex: How to Buy Gold


I love the term "exclusive" to describe the account. Who would Monex exclude? Investors who would fold under the massive weight of a margin call?

As of 2006, I no longer own gold nor do I have any desire to buy it back at these prices (relative to the price of toilet paper anyway). That said, I figure it never hurts to buy a few extra large bags of rice at Costco though. Things happen.

In my opinion, we've replaced risk-free investments with risky free lunch investments. I'm not referring to gold specifically. I'm referring to the entire system. For example, here's another exponential trend failure. Check out dividends compared to crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs. Kind of ominous don't you think? That one definitely requires its own post. Coming soon to a blog near you! (Well, within 24 hours more than likely anyway.)

There is no safe store of value. - Alan Greenspan (1966)

We live in an era of epic exponential trend failures. Be careful out there. This is not investment advice.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Obviously I've got bathrooms on the brain as this is the second time this week I've written about them. All those pretty pictures have inspired me to do a bit of a refresh on my loo.

Left Heaping Bovine Scatology On NC Voter ID Law
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*****************************

I'm a Tar Heel and I am fed up with the unadulterated bunk, and that's what it is -- BUNK -- being spread by the Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media about NC's newly passed Voter ID law.

At first their idiocy was almost funny, but no more.  Now it is vicious and hurtful and condescending and designed to show North Carolina in a bad light and I will not sit idly by and allow it to pass without challenge. 

Leftists have come to the WRONG state looking for a fight,  for it is here, rest assured, that you WILL find one -- and find one quickly!
   
The first thing you need to know, dear reader, is that the democrats are out of power in North Carolina after having had their way and ruling the state for a hundred and thirty some odd years. And it's not looking REAL good for them in 2014, or 2016, either.

THEY ARE LIVID! 

They feel betrayed by the Tar Heel voters and they are flailing about much as a drowning man will do when faced with imminent death.

The displays of their infantile behavior is an embarrassment to a conservative state.  And, YES, North Carolina IS a conservative state.  Even the bulk of democrat voters in NC are conservatives.  Heck, even my own Congressman is a conservative democrat! 

They are also, more or less, powerless and scared witless now that the GOP is in charge.   The dems are worried that the GOP will use the very same tactics they, themselves, used -- AND honed to a fine edge (and a fine art) -- over the nearly century and a half of creating a Democratic Party Fiefdom here on the Mid-Atlantic Coast.

You also need to know that we have a mainstream media here in North Carolina allied closely with the National MsM which, as everyone knows now, is the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party. 

North Carolina is also the home of the university known as the "Vatican of Liberalism" in the USA.  Their journalism school produces some of the finest liberal-minded media people in the world.  They march out each spring determined to save the world FROM itself and FOR progressivism/socialism and, well, just plain ole Marxism.

So, now, along with Texas, NC has a huge target painted on its back and is preparing to defend itself from all the Democratic Party venom  that is already spewing from that leftist political "brood of vipers."

Oh, for the record -- there really are only 50 states in the union, contrary to what our President might think, and 34 of those states already have some type of Voter ID laws.  That is nearly three-quarters of the states! 

So, what sort of ID must one have to vote in North Carolina in 2016?  "The bill will require voters to show photo identification -- a driver's license, passport, veteran's ID, tribal card -- beginning in the 2016 elections. Student IDs are not an acceptable form of identification."  SOURCE:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/north-carolina-voter-id_n_3745253.html

Oh, and the HuffPo did thoughtfully add this:  "The bill does provide for a "free ID" to be offered at DMVs, though the state estimates that between 203,351 and 318,643 voters registered in North Carolina lack ID, and that providing them with one would cost $834,200 in 2013 and 2014, and $24,100 every two years after that."

I'd like to thank the HuffPo for including the paragraph concerning the free Voter ID's provided at taxpayer expense to those who don't have them.  Many reports have left that little bit of important information out of their reporting.  I can't imagine why?  Must have something to do with the template of their narrative.   

"The bill also reduces early voting by a week, eliminates same-day registration, ends pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds and a student civics program, kills an annual state-sponsored voter registration drive and lessens the amount of public reporting required for so-called dark money groups, also known as 501(c)(4)s."  SOURCE:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/north-carolina-voter-id_n_3745253.html

Nearly all the reports fail to mention that if a voter turns up at the polls without a valid Voter ID, he/she will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot, and they almost always fail to mention that the hours available to cast an early ballot remain the same as they are currently, and voters will have ten days in which to vote early.
 
Personally, I don't think the law is nearly strong enough.  Heck, I'd like to see requirements that a voter must have an IQ of over room temperature, be able to read and write, be able to prove citizenship in both the USA and in North Carolina, be fluent in English, cast all ballots between sunrise and sunset on one day -- Election Day.  And that's just off the top of my head.

In my, ahem,  highly exalted, unassailable, opinion, casting a ballot is not nearly difficult enough.  Men and women died to preserve that privilege for us. To lie, cheat and/or steal in an election is blasphemy, or ought to be.

The lawsuits coming North Carolina's way were expected.  That accounts for the law being so carefully written.

When listening to (or reading) all the polling out of the Tar Heel state purporting to show how unpopular the new Voter ID law is, first we ask that you determine who the polling company is, whether it leans right or left, and who paid for the poll.  You will be surprised. 

And remember this, dear reader.  When a majority of the voters of North Carolina elected a majority republican General Assembly (state legislature) and then turned right around and elected a republican governor, that meant the voters wanted a change.  That is exactly what Tar Heel voters did.  And, so far, the majority of North Carolinians like it.  I'd go so far as to say a heck of a lot of NC democrats like it, too, but as the democratic party is an authoritarian organization, those democrats supporting the new Voter ID law will be compelled to hold their peace and keep their own counsel.

Either elections have meaning or they don't. If they have no meaning -- then what's the point?

Look, I am convinced that anyone who really is interested in the future of North Carolina -- and America -- will WANT to vote.  And, if they really WANT to vote they will make sure they have the proper identification.  It ain't rocket science.

Consider this:  " ... some seem to think that asking for a photo ID for voting purposes is somehow a violation of civil liberties or an attempt to prevent people from voting. The really interesting part is that it is usually liberals claiming that it is conservatives attempting to prevent people from voting when a photo ID law would apply equally to both liberals and conservatives. Heck, they would apply equally regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, weight, sexual orientation, income, health, disability, race, wealth, intelligence, marital status, attractiveness, employment status and everything else. Is there something wrong with preventing the dead, the illegal aliens, the young (under the age of suffrage) and other non-qualified people from voting ... "  SOURCE:  http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/212534-list-of-things-that-require-photo-identification.html

Indeed!  What IS wrong with wanting, yea, demanding fair and honest elections?  And who, save for those whose intentions are unscrupulous, unlawful, and those who are morally defunct, would dare oppose a form of identification by which the people of a state can be sure the person seeking to cast a ballot is who he/she says he/she is -- and -- is, in fact, qualified to vote.

Everyone, and  I mean, EVERYONE knows there is far more to the democrat's opposition to voter ID than their plaintive cries of disenfranchisement.  It is pure superficial sympathy.

They are crocodile tears designed to elicit an empathetic response. 

It is simply another tool they use in manipulating the "useful idiots" who parade around on sidewalks allowing themselves to be humiliated and arrested -- making fools of themselves while the democrat bosses receive the accolades of the party hierarchy. 
No.  Here in North Carolina, this is about power:  Those who won it, those who lost it, and those who want it back. 

It's about power.  It's ALWAYS about power.

© J. D. Longstreet