Why I don't like foreigners

There are lots and lots of reasons to dislike foreigners, immigrants, and people who aren't like us. 
Look what we're having to put up with, courtesy of WGN in Chicago:

An elderly couple says Cook County sheriff’s police on a drug raid smashed into their Southwest Side house late Thursday night, terrorizing them before admitting they had the wrong house.

With her husband already asleep, 84-year-old Anna Jakymek was just turning out the lights when she heard loud noises at the back and front doors about 11:30 p.m.

Ok, let's start there.  What kind of name for an American is Jakymek?  Americans should be named Smith, Jones, or Patterson.  

Her initial thought was that her 89-year old husband had fallen out of bed, but she realized something else was happening when she looked into the front room.
“I see maybe 20 guys come in and see the door knocked open,” she said…
Son Andrew said the most potent drug in the home is aspirin.

Right.  With a name that sounds like something from a bad brewpub?  Jakymek?  I'm not buying it. 

“They don’t smoke, drink or even watch TV. They believe in America,” he said.
He added that his father, Andrij, suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease and has terminal cancer.
“He won’t even take pain medicine,” he said…

Andrij ??  Andrij ?? Someone named Andrij isn't rolling up a fat one every night?  Gimme a break.

His mother, he said, called him after the raid at the request of the supervising sergeant on the scene. When he got there, he said he was told the officers had raided the wrong home.

“When I arrived the officer explained they had misinformation, but said his job was over, and he was leaving. They left a copy of the warrant, but he absolved himself of any responsibility for the raid or the damage,” Andrew Jakymec said.

Don't these freakin' foreigners know that there's a drug war going on?  And that we're in a constant battle to save people from....themselves? 
Can Andrew Jakymec pull his Eastern European head out of his rear end long enough to see the truth?  We need to preserve the monopolies of the Mexican Drug Lords and the Afghan Opium Poppy farmers. 
Every once in a while, somebody's gonna get hit with friendly fire.  Don't try playing the victim card just because you have a funny name.
We're in a drug war.  Love it or leave it.  

He estimated the damage to broken doors, locks and windows at up to $3,000.
“Everything was violently opened. Cabinets were ripped open, clothes and sheets were everywhere, and pieces of wood where the doors were rammed were all over the place,” he said.

Radley Balko is claiming that the Jakymeks came here in the 1960's from the Ukraine.  Something about escaping Soviet oppression. 
Well, if they're going to be bitching and moaning every time our police bust up the wrong house looking for small amounts of marijuana, they can take their asses back to Russia. 
How are we going to justify building a border fence without a drug war, Mr. Radley Balko? 
How can we "save and create" jobs for border patrol guards unless we continue our twin policies of drug prohibition and sharia law? 
Do you think we can continue fighting in Afghanistan for the next century without giving our enemies a monopoly on opium products?  Why, if we were to end prohibition, the Taliban would go broke in a month.  Then who would we fight?  
Now that I've had time to think about it, what kind of name is Balko?  It doesn't sound Texan.   

Remember: Foreigners bad.  Drug war good. 

Mario Vargas Llosa has won the Nobel Prize for Literature

Mario Vargas Llosa, a self-described "classical liberal", has won the Nobel Prize for literature. 
("Classical liberal" is what the rest of the world calls libertarians.) 

I don't know how they allowed this to happen.  I mean, the man can WRITE ! 
Heads will roll.

Another "Instalanche"

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has looked upon my typing and smiled. 
This is my second "Instalanche" - that's what they call it when Reynolds links to something you wrote and sends you a small fraction of his 300,000 hits per day. 

If I'd known this was gonna happen, I would've used spell-check. 
Go here.  I'm the 4th link from the top. 
And yes, being excited about this makes me a total geek. 

Albert Mohler and Christian Yoga

Since everyone else is attacking Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky, I can't help but jump on the dogpile. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.
Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."
"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.

Well, it will soon be Christianity, if enough people decide that it is. 

Sometime around the year 325, people decided that "The Trinity" was Christianity.

About 1500 years after that, Protestants decided that Infant Damnation was no longer part of Christianity.  They invented something called "the age of accountability".  It worked, it was handy.  Everyone felt better.  The Catholics already had a place called Purgatory, so it helped us keep up with 'em.

Religious beliefs are fluid.  They change.  They evolve. 

Tortillas were not a part of traditional Christianity, since Christianity first grew and developed in the Middle East.  Tortillas originated someplace in Latin America, perhaps more than 10,000 years ago.  Many Christians, even in Louisville, Kentucky, have been known to consume tortillas. 

Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."

Good lord in heaven, what a bass-ackward witch doctor is Albert Mohler.  Let's start from the top:  Christians kneel.  Christians clasp their hands in prayer, as a gesture of supplication.  Christians sometimes lift their hands, with their palms turned upward, as if to receive whatever heaven is offering.  Christians bow their freakin' heads.  Those are the examples most likely on display in the Protestant churches of Louisville. 

Branch out geographically and historically, and you'll find examples of Christians fasting, mortifying the flesh, flogging themselves and going through all sorts of other contortions to escape the idea that "this" is all there is. 

It boils down to this:  Yoga is different from anything that Dr. Mohler grew up with.  It's also a threat.  You don't need Albert Mohler with you if you're going to practice yoga. 

There's nothing in the curriculum at Dr. Mohler's Louisville Angel Factory that prepares him for this.  If current trends continue, theologians will suddenly discover a pre-existing Baptist/Yoga tradition that goes all the way back to W.A. Criswell. 

I could go on and on with this, but I'm starting to break out in stigmata. 
 
The picture came from Christian Yoga magazine.
Additional pic at the request of Cedric Katesby (see comments).  This statue depicts Mother Earth being nuzzled by an infant Al Gore.  Also from Christian Yoga magazine. 
I don't think Cedric gets out much. 

On house fires and ObamaCare

You've probably heard about the South Fulton Fire Department - the one that wouldn't put out a house fire because the homeowner hadn't paid his yearly $75.00 fire protection fee. 



This thing is a great parable/metaphor for about a dozen different things, but let's hit some of the high points. 

* Let's start by saying that most of us would've put out the fire if we owned a fire truck.  We would have done it at no charge.  Once.  Maybe five or six times.  But after that.... 

* People fear what would happen if libertarians got their way and more and more government services were privatized.  (People wouldn't have access to government services if fees weren't paid, etc.)  Well, that's already happening with government services, isn't it? 

* Do you think that a lot of people who had not yet paid their $75.00 fee to the South Fulton Fire Department have now done so?  In a hurry?  Ya think? 

* If the South Fulton Fire Department had put out this fire, do you think anyone in his right mind would have paid the $75.00 fee next year? 

* If you were in the business of putting out fires for people who had paid a yearly $75.00 insurance policy, how many fires could you put out for no charge before you went bankrupt ?  Would anyone ever pay your $75.00 insurance policy if they knew that you were always on call and willing to sacrifice your time, equipment, and/or life for no charge? 

* And now the big one.... Once ObamaCare goes into effect, insurance companies won't be able to turn away people who haven't been paying insurance premiums.  If you're willing to pay a (relatively) small fine up front, they have to take you as a customer and start paying all your medical bills.  Will anyone in his right mind pay for insurance before he gets sick? 

* I'm going into metaphor overload.  Have a good day ! 

Top Secret Blogger Meetup - Campisi's in Dallas, October 4, 2010

About a month ago, I got an email from Nick Rowe of the P.O.W. in the People's Republic of California blog.  He was going to be in Dallas for a conference and wondered if we could get together. 

Of course we could get together !  We met at Campisi's in Dallas, and had a great time.  The world's problems can consider themselves solved.    Paul Krugman, resident Obama apologist for the New York Times, can consider himself mocked.  My misunderstandings about who insures banks against robbers can consider themselves eliminated.  The mysteries of Mormon underwear remain unsolved. 

Nick has now experienced Shiner Bock.

I would have invited more people to this gathering, but Nick (not his real name) works as an economist in a semi-government job, and must keep his identity a secret.  Those who labor in The Belly Of The Beast (or at least its pancreas) have to be careful about campaigning for sanity.   

Dr. Ralph, of The Journal Of Post-Ralphaelite Thought, took time out from supporting godless socialism long enough to meet us, knock back a few, and take these pictures.  He was careful about not revealing Nick's true identity.

Here's Dr. Ralph, still looking somewhat like Leon Trotsky, and Nick:

One of the many cool things about being alive in the year 2010....the world is getting smaller and smaller.  Dr. Ralph, Nick and I didn't even know each other three years ago.  We started pounding our interests into the internet, and next thing you know we're all sitting in the same booth, eating spaghetti.  Go figure. 

Good times, good times. 

Illinois or Mexico? Guess who has to pay higher interest

From Bloomberg News, via Newsalert, via Instapundit:

Illinois capital-markets director John Sinsheimer and Citigroup Inc. bankers took a globe-girdling trip from the U.K. to China in June to persuade investors that the state’s $900 million of Build America Bonds were a bargain.


The seven-country visit worked. The state sold one-fifth of the federally subsidized securities abroad the next month, tapping investors who are the fastest-growing source of borrowed cash for U.S. municipalities. Illinois, with the lowest credit rating of any state from Moody’s Investors Service, dangled yields higher than Mexico, which defaulted on debt in 1982, and Portugal, which costs more to insure against missed payments.

In other words, the children of the state of Illinois are going to be forking out Payday Loan-type interest rates.  All so their parents can support the political culture that produced Barack Obama, Rod Blagojevich, these 3 governors who have been to jail, Dan Rostenkowski, and the next mayor of Chicago. 

Mexico is a better investment.  I repeat, Mexico is a better, safer investment.  Look at these three guys.  Would you purchase a used hubcap from any of them???  Let it roll around in your brain for a few minutes.  According to people who evaluate risk, Mexico is a safer investment than Illinois. 

CAVEAT EMPTOR, dammit ! !

If you purchase the Illinois bonds, Obama is eventually going to print some money, give it to Illinois, and they are going to pay you back with .50 cent dollars.  Hide and watch.   
Mexico is a better investment. 

******
The Wanted Poster came from here. 

The Libertarian Purity Test

For everyone who thinks The Libertarian Party is too extreme, well, compare us to our friends in the Anarcho-Capitalist movement. 

When time permits, please take the Libertarian Purity Test. 

I scored a 105 out of a possible 160.

The test could use some clarification in places.  For instance, question #36 asks "Should we abolish welfare?"  I believe that publicly funded welfare could easily be replaced by privately funded welfare, and that's the way we oughta go.  So I don't believe we should "abolish welfare".  We should turn it back over to the churches, civic groups, benevolence funds, etc.

Question #42:  "Should the FDA and Medical licensing be abolished?"  Well, yes.  But only after some competing certifications have a chance to get themselves established.  Until then, we're like that video of Democrats stuck on an escalator.  We've forgotten how to walk. 



I would trust a Wal-Mart certification far more than an FDA certification.  Heck, the FDA has certified Oxycontin, but won't allow for marijuana.  Go figure.   

Anyway, it's nice to occasionally take a test that makes me seem moderate. 

Please post results below. 

On the difficulty of typing every day

I've noticed a trend. 

First of all, my overseas blog/Facebook buddy Obnoxio The Clown is hanging up his clown wig for the forseeable future. 

Here's something from his final post:

My inspiration to blog issues from a libertarian angle has waned. There's only so many times you can reduce things to first principles and argue the case and get the same stupid, meaningless counterarguments....

....The ****alition is not as astoundingly infuriating as the Labour Party were. They're just as ****ing inept, thieving, misguided and bossy, but they're much nicer about it. So that's fine.


I'm tired of trying to explain the concept of anarchism as something natural and workable to people who are happy to mindlessly defend extortion with menaces.



I can't even pretend that I will never, ever blog here again. My life may change again. I have no intention of deleting the blog, and I would be flattered to think that someone, somewhere may still find some of my writing interesting or inspiring.

I'll bet dollars to donuts that Obnoxio will be back within a month or so.  He won't be able to contain all the rage. 

Next, my friend Stephen M. Smith, of A Beginner's Guide To Freedom, is going through a dry spell.  He's only posted once in August, and about that many times in July.  Stephen is probably the best Libertarian writer in these United States. 
We asked Stephen about it at the last Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup, and he said something that all long-term libertarians have felt at one time or another.  (Or maybe I said it, and he agreed with me because I had beer in me....)
"How many times can you explain that all government activity is theft?  How many times can you point out the difference between government's stated goals and government's results?  After a while, you feel like the one-eyed man in the land of the blind."

Well, it ain't easy.  I know that the stuff I throw up here every day isn't always good or even coherent.  But somebody's gotta say it. 

Hit that link above to Stephen's site.  That post about "Lesson's Learned" is the best thing I've ever read about how our nation should go about escaping from the current fog.  I miss seeing that stuff every week. 

I hope Obnoxio and Stephen will find it in themselves to crank their sites back into action. 

In the meantime, here's a picture of Barack Obama picking his nose. 

He isn't Superman. 
He isn't our leader - he should only be an administrator (like every other politician). 
He doesn't have a clue about what's best for me, you or anyone else. 
Why would anyone give a Chicago Machine Politician this much power?
The Messiah is wearing no clothes. 
He picks his nose.   

Guys, you can always start with that. 

What Am I ??

Picture compliments of The Whited Mama.

Andy Barron - The Egocessary Prayer Candidate for Texas Governor

Since so many of you begin your Sunday morning devotions with a visit to this site....

Our text for today comes from the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, verse 5:

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Please put aside your bibles, and turn to your internet.  Visit the site of Dr. Andy Barron, who is running for Texas governor.  Dr. Barron's first priority is as follows:

Prayer as a priority - Since 1962 when prayer was eliminated unnecessarily from public schools there has been a steady decline in morals of our society.

The good doctor gives us more specifics on his Issues page:

■Prayer and Religious Speech Protected Under 1st Amendment



■Establishment Clause Requires the Government to be Neutral Toward Religion, and Does Not Justify the Exclusion of Religious Speech


■Legislative Prayer Is a Permissible Acknowledgment of Widely Held Religious Beliefs in this Country


■The Rights of Students to Pray at School


■The Rights of Students to Pray at Graduation


■Equal Access allows individuals and groups to use government facilities for prayer and worship on the same basis that other individuals and groups are given access.

By all accounts, Dr. Barron is a great guy.  He has already accomplished more good in the world than I ever will. 
Unfortunately, he is focused on reviving one of the problems that our nation's founders were trying to escape. 

Dr. Barron grew up in Texas and went to Baylor.  The organizations he belongs to are predominantly Protestant, so let's assume he's a Protestant.  

Dr. Barron and other Christian Protestants can pray any time, anywhere.  In between this paragraph and the previous one, I prayed a simple prayer.  "God, please let this be a great post, and if it's okay with you, please let it be emailed around the world.  Please help Kathie Glass be elected Texas governor.  I want a pony.  Amen." 
You can't stop me from praying, at least in the Protestant sense of the word.  You can't stop me, and I can't stop you.  The legislatures can legislate all they want, and it doesn't do a bit of good. 

But there's another kind of prayer, the kind that Jesus was irked about in this morning's Bible reading.  Dr. Brent Beasley (of my own Broadway Baptist Church) calls this "Egocessary Prayer"  (That's a play on words with the phrase "intercessory prayer", where you ask God for blog hits, election results and ponies).  "Egocessary Prayer" is the kind I grew up hearing in school, at graduation services, before football games, and before most public events.  It basically means "praying out loud in public". 

For instance....
Before a Mississippi private academy football game, a preacher gets on the microphone and asks everyone to bow their heads, and asks God to bless (so and so).  Then the preacher thanks God for (so and so), and asks that He keep our young men safe on the football field while they are trying to kill each other. 
Then the preacher outlines the plan of salvation, not because God is fuzzy on the details, but because the preacher's congregation needs to know that the preacher is earning his pay and trying to convert the Catholics and Episcopalians. 
Bonus points are given for length, style, use of verbs from The King James version, and for passion.  I once heard the equivalent of a double reverse backflip triple-axle, when a preacher at a graduation service shoveled in something about the superiority of full-immersion baptism. 
And then finally, the preacher says "we ask these things in your son's name, Amen."
Then you can go on with your football game, graduation, or city council meeting.

What will happen down in south Texas when someone is asked to lead a public school prayer, and a priest decides to take advantage of the teachable moment and educate everyone on how to pray with a rosary?  (Note to Yankees, Europeans, and Aussies: No one living north of Waco can imagine this ever happening.)
Is Dr. Barron prepared to purchase storage facilities for Muslim prayer rugs? 
Is there time before a high school graduation to perform the "Festival of Ramen", the only way known to appease The Flying Spaghetti Monster?  Will the schools have to make reasonable accomodations for all the tongs, salad sporks, colanders, and cheese graters?  And if you think kids coming to school in gang colors are a problem, just wait until those who have been Touched By His Noodly Appendage show up in full pirate regalia. 

There are only 2 reasons for Egocessary prayer, as opposed to praying silently:

1) To show off.
2) To evangelize. 

There's no point in the first one, and The Founders were opposed to the second.  End of story. 

One last thing about the Barron candidacy, check out this video.  It's only 30 seconds long. 

Regardless of how you feel about Andy Barron as Texas governor, regardless of how hard you work to get him elected, or whether you do everything in your power to prevent him from becoming governor, none of that matters. 
You don't matter. 
Polls don't matter. 
Effort doesn't matter.
Planning doesn't matter. 
Andy Barron wasted his time becoming a doctor/dentist.  If people's health/teeth were going to improve, it was going to happen anyway. 

Please check out the video. It's only 30 seconds long.  I don't know why I'm bothering to ask you to watch it, since if you watch it, it was bound to happen anyway. 



Aren't you glad you got it over with?