Phony-Ops build the Obama Myth Memorial Day is about celebrating the triumphs of our men and women in uniform, living or dead. And, yes, it is certainly about remembrance of their sacrifices, and about mourning, though that mourning is vivified with the knowledge that their deaths were not in vain; that their sacrifices served noble ends, and that those ends -- the advancement or preservation of freedom - gave their sacrifices great worth and meaning. Ironically, as Mr. Hodges tells us, Kalashnikov took his inspiration not from the well-machined weapons of the German army but from the redoubtable M-1 Garand carried by American GIs during World War II. For its part, the U.S. Army eventually followed the German example, choosing a light, finely machined, small-caliber weapon that until 1964 had been the province of local law-enforcement officers. When the Vietnam War heated up, the M-16 (designed by Eugene Stoner) was adopted wholesale by U.S. forces. In the hands of trained warfighters, it is actually a better weapon than the AK-47, an assessment that Mr. Hodges heatedly rejects and that, in any case, detracts not at all from the weapon's fame and ubiquity.
Obama's appeal is that he is new and different, an agent for change. He is actually a hard left Chicago machine politico, just more of the same pandering, self aggrandizing, shady dealer. Why don't people see this? IMO, most people are just emotional.
Interstate Larceny New York wants to tax Amazon.com which is headquartered in Seattle.
This internet tax stuff has a really straightforward solution. The company's Point of Sale is the same place as their legal location, and whatever sales tax applies at that POS will apply to an internet order to that company. So, Amazon is in Seattle, okay, apply Seattle sales taxes - state and local.
The system we have wow is stupid. S-T-U-P-I-D. In South Dakota, for example, state law is that SD sales tax applies to whatever Internet or mail-order purchases made. So if I buy from Amazon, *I* am expected to go down to the local tax office, fill out the forms and attach copies of my receipts and pay taxes... on goods that were not sold in South Dakota. What is wrong with legislators who thought up this nonsense? Naturally no one does it except political office holders who might get in trouble for 'not paying their taxes'.
Will this cause tax competition between states, where low sales tax states find Internet businesses moving there to give their customers the best deal? Probably. What is wrong with that? Perhaps states should have an incentive to lower their sales taxes, and those that set their taxes too high should lose businesses.
For Liberals, Soldiers Are Victims
For liberals, war is a no-win proposition. Since Vietnam, a compromised and venal United States engages in conflicts with enemies -- if they can be called that -- who are, at the very least, the nation's moral equivalents or, perhaps, like the Communist North Vietnamese, its superiors. Soldiers, when not despised by liberals (again, see Vietnam) are pitied as dupes, under-educated and unemployable youths who sought paychecks in the military.
And the consequences for these youths being duped into military service? Mental and emotional illness, drug and alcohol addiction, rage and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, the latter is practically a rite of passage for men and women exiting the military, or so seems the liberal belief.
AK-47
Intended to be maintained by the illiterate conscripts of the Red Army, the AK-47 eventually showed itself to be ideal for peasant armies, rebel guerrillas, child soldiers and drug lords. There are millions of Kalashnikov's automatic rifles in combat around the world. So iconic is the gun that it appears on the flag of Mozambique, crossed with a hoe as one of the essential implements of national liberation. For all we read of weapons of mass destruction, the homely AK-47 – costing as little as $100 from a Bulgarian factory – is the true WMD. It has killed far more human beings than all the nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons ever employed.
But it is not true, as Mr. Hodges would have us believe, that the AK-47 is the nemesis of American warfighters in Iraq. Most casualties there are inflicted by roadside bombs. "Small arms fire" now ranks third as a slayer of our soldiers and Marines, behind such mundane traumas as traffic accidents.
I don't believe I will buy this book. The AK-47 is a great battle rifle for most armies. You know that is 200 years some yahoo is going to show up at a fight with an AK.
Plfleger reveals himself
Selected exerpts:
"They told me it was down," Pfleger said. "Their live streaming had been down all day, and they didn't know whether it was back up. . . . I regret the dramatization that I was naive enough to believe was just going to be kept among that church."
This one is the best:
"This is a dangerous time in America, the freest country in the world," Pfleger says, "where you have to whisper your thoughts."
Oh please. Pfleger is a bigot, a racist, and a demagogue. He knows that his beliefs are ugly and unacceptable to civilized people. He tries to hide his bigotry from the general population, and was prepared to share is repellent views only with a church full of similarly minded racists.
"Dangerous time in America", my butt. He is entitled to have his ugly, dark opinions. No one is going to arrest him for expressing his views. He is upset that he was caught on camera so that people other than fellow racists were could see for themselves what he said. And THAT is what he is complaining about. Its an entirely self serving argument which makes his previous apology look insincere.
I am not a catholic, but the Catholic Church should defrock him now that they have incontrovertible proof of his behavior. Removing him from his post was a good start.
Followup:
Clinton is upset about the Vanity Fair article I blogged about on sunday. Aside from the name calling, Clinton referred to "... thenational media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama" and "It's all about the bias of the media for Obama".
Well, no kidding. Previously, the media was in your corner, Bill. They covered for your sleaze and scandals and ate up every word you said, ignoring the gaffes and believing the fatuous lies. Now they aren't covering for you anymore, and they have a new fatuous liar to fawn over.
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create...." -- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819.
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