Quote of the Day, Classic Rock Edition

So, while listening to the radio on the way home from prison, er, I mean work, today, the Eagles came on with the song "Yes I'm Already Gone." Picked up on a set of lyrics I hadn't noticed before, but are amazing in their profundity.

"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains

And we never even know we have the key."

Chew on that for a bit, and think about how many places it applies in your life. Talk about being able to set yourself free . . .

Another Reason I Love My Wife

She turns me on to videos like this:

No Connection, Really

Yeah, like I believe what Iran says. Surely there's no connection between this story and and Iran starting to put the fuel rods in their nuclear reactor. And it's purely defensive, cause they have shown themselves to be non-aggressive. *eyes rolling*

Iran Commissions Un-manned Bomber

Yeah, I'll grant them that the bomber itself can't reach Israel, but it carries 4 cruise missiles. Notice that their range is not mentioned. Wanna bet those missile will be nuclear capable soon?

Maybe Isreal will get smart and go pre-emptive. Either way, get ready for the ride.

TYRANNY! PELOSI STYLE

Via WRSA, had to pass this on. It is some major thinking material, and should definitely have you either outraged or ready to vote the freedom-haters out of office, or both. Don't bother reading the comments. They're pretty worthless. I can't get back those minutes of my life. Don't waste yours.

Do watch the video, though.

TYRANNY! PELOSI STYLE - Nealz Nuze on boortz.com

Why I Love My Wife

For my birthday, my wife, a wonderful artist, did three charcoal drawings for me. One is of us at our wedding. Another is of Thomas Jefferson. The third, as well as my favorite (don't tell her I said that), is a rendition of this statue of George Washington:

Now, compare that pic to her drawing:

Notice anything different? No? Okay, let me zoom in for you:

For those of you who still don't realize it (though I'm guessing almost anyone who would visit my blog would recognize the difference), the cane has been replace with an AR-15 pattern rifle. Now of course I don't think Washington would have ever held a rifle with the barrel in the ground, but it's just a nice, symbolic picture. I wouldn't have said anything to my wife about it until I walked into the bedroom and found my rifle in the same condition as in the picture. No-No. Come to think of it, that means she was handling my loaded rifle, and has no idea how it operates . . . or what/where the safety is for that matter . . . She does know what the bang switch is, though, and not to touch it, so I guess we're alright. But I digress . . .

I guess this drawing goes to show my wife knows me, even if she doesn't understand me. What more could I ask?

The Broken Window Fallacy

Via Conservative Scalawag comes this video. If only we could convince the "ruling class" that economics and growth really are this simple.

On Continuing to Blog

I have decided that since I am now on the USDOJ radar, it's time to stop blogging. Or not. I find it interesting that they stumbled across me by doing a Google search for Mike's blog, which they surely already know the location of. It's not like I didn't already have suspicions of being on one of the phony watch lists, so it's all good, just now it's probably official.

Now, as far as blogging goes, regular readers have probably noticed a lot of silence in the past month or so. Life happens. I'm planning to do less writing about what I read online, seeing as how most of it is linked to in the "Daily Reads" section of the sidebar. Those folks generally have some stuff that is worth reading. My focus is going to be more on offline reading. I've been working on several things, but if I keep letting myself get caught up in posting what everyone else is writing, I won't have much time for meaningful reading and writing myself. Well, between that and the internet being an extremely distracting place . . . So, the plan is to continue my offline studies and share what I find important or interesting here. I hope that will be much more useful to you than me being a parrot.

And Lance, I haven't forgotten about the UN guns items. That's still in the plans. I'll work on having that in the near future.

Until then, carry on and keep getting ready for whatever the future holds.

The "Elite" Ruling Class

Via Mike, been meaning to link to these for a couple weeks, but I hadn't had time to finish them myself. Finally did this morning. Both are lengthy, but worth the time to read.

Works and Days � Pity the Postmodern Cultural Elite

The American Spectator : America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

"This Week" with Christiane Amanpour

So, in an extreme rarity, due to some issues my wife was having, I was not able to attend worship this morning. So I did some reading, and kinda halfway listened to a show that was being advertised as what you could call actual journalism on ABC. That would be "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour. Curious as to whether it would be as advertised, I especially paid attention when her first guest was Nancy Pelosi. Of course you can find videos for it on the ABC website, but I'll just link to the transcript here. Now, as far as Amanpour goes, she did seem to be about as neutral as they come. Perhaps, I just didn't have time to catch bias, but she asked fair questions. On the other hand, I'd like to point out a few things Pelosi said in the interview. Perhaps I'll interjects some comments.

We are there, we've taken an oath to defend the constitution and therefore the American people.

Nothing like lip-service . . .

In my visits to afghanistan, the last time i was there was over mother's day weekend to visit the troops///and the four metrics that we have always used year in and year out on these visits have been about security. And the military tells us this cannot be won militarily solely.

Secondly, governance and ending corruption.....

So what we would like to see is for President Karzai be a more reliable, a stronger partner, ending the corruption, increasing -- improving the governance.

Yes, because it's so easy for corrupt leaders to teach others how to stop being corrupt!

Now to one that really requires seeing the conversation. Here goes:

AMANPOUR: Let's go to something much closer to home right now at the moment and that is the ethics conundrum with Representative Rangel.

How does your affection and your respect for him as a colleague square with what's going on right now and what you said and declared, that this is going to be the -- the -- the most ethical Congress ---- that you're going to drain the swamp of any kind of wrongdoing and corruption, etc.?

PELOSI: When I came in, I said we're draining the swamp. And we did. We have passed the most sweeping ethics reform in the history of the Congress. Any personal respect and affection we may have for people makes us sad about the course of events, but we have to pull the high ethical standard and none of our personalities is more important than that.

AMANPOUR: Can you see Congressman Rangel ever returning as chairman of the Ways and Means or in any position of leadership in -- in the House?

PELOSI: Well, the -- the Ethics Committee is working its will and

AMANPOUR: No matter what happens?

PELOSI: it's an elementary discussion, because what we have done is to wait and see what the Committee decides. I respect what they do. I'm totally out of the loop. It is independent. It is confidential, classified, secret, whatever. We don't know what it is. But we do respect the work that the members of the Committee do.

Draining the swamp? Somehow I haven't seen that in the last 18 months. More like filling it up. And what's all this about the Ethics Committee working its will. How about the will of the people, who are the only ones who really care about draining the swamp that is DC. Independent? Confidential, Classified? Excuse me, but it seems like something should be a little more public about this, especially considering that this Congress hasn't exactly been honorable.

Then in later discussion about the Bush tax cuts expiring, Pelosi doesn't seem to know what she's talking about:

Well, the -- the tax cuts for the wealthiest -- of the $250,000 and above -- were the -- the Bush initiative. I dont see any reason why we should renew a tax cut that only gives a tax cut to the wealthiest people in America, increases the deficit and doesn't create jobs.

That doesn't make any sense.

No, the only thing that doesn't make any sense is your ignorance, Madame Speaker. However, it does appear that she has one thing figured out:

This isn't about inter-party bickering. This is about a major philosophical difference as to whose side you're on.

She's right there, it is a major philosophical difference. On the side of the people (and Constitution) or one the side of government and totalitarian rule. Too bad what she says a few sentences before shows that she is still delusional (or just lying) about where she and her party stands, especially given the outright contempt they've shown for the people.

The Republicans are here for the special interests, we're here for the people's interests.

I don't know about you, but I vote for not just draining the swamp, but for removing the figurative corpses of those who were elected to be representatives of the people, but apparently died and became self-centered government zombies. Remember in November, this one and all that follow.

Common Sense

So, I finally finished reading a book I got months ago, probably at the end of last year. It is Glenn Beck's Common Sense. Inspired by Thomas Paine and his writing, it was a fairly good book, providing some insights I hadn't thought of. I believe though, that I enjoyed the end of the book much better, it being a printing of Thomas Paine's Common Sense. It is rather ironic, though, that Beck put it in there.

You see, all through the book Beck builds up a case against our government. Some of it is very compelling. Yet, in his call to action in the last chapter authored by him, he explicitly states that it is in no means a call for a violent revolution in America. It denounces it as being more harmful than the good it could ever do.

On the other hand, we have Paine, who throughout his writing builds up a case that taking up arms is the only way to create meaningful change for the better, denouncing the idea of reconciliation without remorse. For example, here is a paragraph from Paine's work:

Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, Come, we shall be friends again for all this. But examine the passions and feelings of mankind. Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon your posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural , and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than in the first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath you property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the hear of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.

That's some strong language. To be honest, I think that comparing Beck's evaluation of our situation with Paine's of the founders situation, Paine is closer to where we are now than Beck is.

Anyway, I would highly suggest reading Paine's work. I'm considering trying to scrape up the money and time to buy one of the compilations of his writings. You know, it's odd how the very men that liberals call "extremist" commentators (Beck, Hannity, etc) would have been seen as pantywaists by the founders (in my estimation). How far we have come, and I don't mean that in a good way this time.