Change I Can Believe In

Amazing - a government proposal I actually agree with because it increases competition! The Chairman of the FCC has proposed doing away with cable/satellite TV boxes. An astounding 99% of all cable and satellite customers have to rent the darn things and as Chairman Wheeler points out:

"... over the past 20 years, the cost of cable set-top boxes has risen 185 percent while the cost of computers, televisions and mobile phones has dropped by 90 percent." 

The CNET reporter goes on to note that:

"The average pay TV subscriber spends an average of $231 per year renting set-top boxes and related devices (like remote controls) from their TV provider."

Ouch! That's crazy, especially since the technology exists to allow all this to reside in the Cloud and download digitally to TV sets on demand. 

Stein's Maxim for organizations, whether public or private, is that they will operate for themselves except to the extent they are forced to do otherwise by external forces. Cable companies and any monopoly are prime examples of this maxim. Ideally competition is what induces a change (hello Google Fiber) but, in its absence, a legitimate kick in the booty by a government agency will do instead. It's time.

www.cnet.com/news/its-time-to-kill-the-cable-box-with-apps/

It Had to Happen

Oyvez! The first trans-species person has announced her arrival on the trans scene. "Nano" says that she was born a cat, albeit in a human body. This may conjure up images of a sinuous Nastassia Kinski in the 1982 movie Cat People, but don't go there. No, our feline friend Nano is of a much more domesticated variety as evidenced by the picture. One waits with baited breath to see where the trans train takes us next. 

conservativepost.com/the-slippery-slope-is-here-woman-says-she-was-born-a-cat-and-psychologists-say/

Honey, I Shrank the Church!

As a former Episcopalian, I read articles about the old church as they come across on the net. We left the church in 1990 for another denomination and have been saddened by the steady decline of the church in which both were raised and all our children baptized. 

"Vibrant health" is not a term that has applied to the Episcopal Church for a long time but even so I was shocked to see that even by the church's own estimates it has now shrunk to only 800,000 "realistic" (e.g. - people who show up on more than just Christmas and Easter) members:

"The Church of England has 44 dioceses with 26 million official members, 1.2 million “realistic” ones. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has 111 dioceses with 2.4 million official members, 800,000 “realistic” ones."

Holy Schnikey! Almost 50 years later and they still haven't figured out what's going on? Apparently not because it was just put on what is tantamount to probation by the worldwide Anglican Communion for its gay marriage stance. 

Back in the day when we were members, "official" membership at its high water mark in 1966 was a little over 3.6 million. By 2002 this had shrunk to 2.3 million people. Now, only 14 years later, even that number has been chopped in half. My advice to other Christian denominations who want to grow - look at what the Episcopalians are doing and do exactly the opposite. 

www.the-american-interest.com/2016/01/27/african-bishops-against-sexual-liberation/

(Tip o' the hat to Lisa Wipf)

We Wanna Be Like Them!

That seems to be the unstated animating force for much of the Left, speaking of Europe, of course. The Europeans seem to be well on the way to permanently putting themselves out of business, however, in the face of the new barbarians. Take Denmark.

A 17-year old girl was recently attacked while out for a night on the town. The would-be rapist was busily trying to pull her pants off when she hosed him with a big dose of pepper spray causing him to stumble off in disarray. In a blow for truth, justice, and the Danish way - she has been arrested and fined for using pepper spray. The attacker's ethnic background has not been released but he could not speak Danish -hint, hint.

Shouldn't be surprised. During much of modern European history the response to evil has been to assiduously ignore it and when it finally burst in full flower, giving up was the order of the day. These are the earmarks of an exhausted culture, one that finds nothing important enough to be worth defending, not even its own survival. Thanks, but I'll pass. This is not civilized behavior - this is a death wish. 

www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/27/girl-in-migrant-sex-attack-town-fined-for-defending-herself-with-pepper-spray/

With Friends Like This...

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says that one of her priorities is helping small business and proposes:

• A $15 minimum wage as her top priority, and;
• Another state agency, with all the tax support that requires, and;
• No action on the gigantic PERS unfunded liability that will send property taxes through the roof.

Does anyone else find this ironic? Pass the hemlock, please.

www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/kate_brown_puts_minimum_wage_h.html

Observation Point

"Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them."                                                                                          Lou Holtz

As John Hawkins comments, " Unfortunately, Lou Holtz is a man out-of-step with our whiny age."

townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2016/01/23/christians-conservatives-men-and-white-people-are-not-responsible-for-your-problems-n2108802                                                                                                       

You're Not the Only One

Charlie Brown deja' vu:

“It is not just about sterilization, abortifacients, and chemical contraception. … It’s about religious freedom, the sacred right, protected by our constitution. …” – Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Oct. 29, 2012, responding to the president’s HHS healthcare mandates.

Cardinal Dolan, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), 2010-2013, continued: “The president announced … the choking mandates from HHS would remain – a shock to me, since he had personally assured me that he would do nothing to impede the good work of the church … that he considered the protection of conscience a sacred duty. … There was still no resolution about the handcuffs placed upon … Catholic charitable agencies … just because they will not refer victims of human trafficking, immigrants and refugees, and the hungry of the world, for abortions, sterilization, or contraception.”

You're not the only one Cardinal. The rest of us well remember, " If you want your doctor, you can keep your doctor." Right. Abortion, religious freedom, healthcare - how many times do we all have to be Charlie Brown?

Peeling Back the Mask

A very interesting column today about Black Lives Matter and the interlocking Leftist groups that support it and other front groups. The Left, and by that I mean Communists and Socialists, are expert at changing masks to trot out the same old line: America is bad and must be destroyed. BLM and its fellow-travelers are just the latest iterations of this traditional Leftist attack. The author, former White House budget analyst James Simpson, pulls away their mask clearly and concisely. Pay particular attention to the funding lists if you want to know who is behind all of this - follow the money!

"We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, law-breaking, withholding and concealing truth… We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree with us.” – Vladimir Lenin

"That quote from the Soviet Union’s first leader captures the entire essence of the Left’s strategy. No matter what the issue, no matter what the facts, the Left advances a relentless, hate-filled narrative that America is irredeemably evil and must be destroyed as soon as possible. The BLM movement is only the latest but perhaps most dangerous variant on this divisive theme.

Communists use language and psychology as weapons. Their constant vilification is a form of psychological terror. It puts America and Americans on trial. The verdict is always guilty. Facts don’t matter because the Left does not want to resolve the problems they complain about. They use those problems to agitate and provoke, hoping conflict becomes unavoidable – thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their hatred is tactical.

Obama’s favorite Harvard professor Derrick Bell devised Critical Race Theory, which exemplifies Lenin’s strategy as applied to race. According to Discover the Networks:


“Critical race theory contends that America is permanently racist to its core, and that consequently the nation’s legal structures are, by definition, racist and invalid … members of ‘oppressed’ racial groups are entitled – in fact obligated – to determine for themselves which laws and traditions have merit and are worth observing…”

Bell’s theory is in turn an innovation of Critical Theory – developed by philosophers of the communist Frankfurt School. The school was founded in Frankfurt, Germany in 1923. Its Jewish communist scholars fled Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s, relocating to Columbia Teachers College in New York. Critical Theory – which discredits all aspects of Western society – rapidly infected the minds of newly-minted college professors, who then spread its poison throughout the university system. We know it today as political correctness."

Do "white privilege" and "political correctness" sound familiar? Lies, all lies. As Simpson points out, the truth about the United States and both its past and current history is an obstacle, so the Left simply lies and keeps lying loudly until the truth is drowned out. These are evil people but evil people who are persistent and dedicated and who will never give up. If the rest of us do not wake up and actively fight this evil, some day the kettle will have reached the boiling point and we will be cooked.


http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/the-roots-of-black-lives-matter-unveiled/

Observation Point

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for…"

                                                              Thomas Jefferson

Well Said

The Story Behind the Story

Oregon has hit the national news with the armed takeover of BLM offices in the Malheur area  of Eastern Oregon. This is clearly civil disobedience. Is it like that of Martin Luther King or the Quakers? 

Obviously the fact that the protesters are slinging AR-15s is a clear distinction and undermines the underlying point of what they are trying to protest. If they end the occupation peacefully and are willing to go to jail for breaking the law, fine. If not, they are just criminals and nothing more and delusional at that. But what are they protesting? This is the important part of this story that is being ignored or given cursory treatment by the media and it needs to be heard for the long term health of this country.

Rep. Greg Walden, the only Republican Congressman from Oregon, gave a very impassioned floor speech about the Hammonds, the ranchers going to prison. They are good people that he has known for 20 years and they are the victims of an arrogant, vengeful, and out-of-control Federal agency, the BLM. As Walden notes, 53% of his District is owned by the Federal government and the BLM and other agencies are treating the ranchers and farmers there like serfs in medieval England. The article about his speech is definitely worth reading, as is watching the video of it. A link is also attached with a background piece in National Review that reaches the same conclusion: the Feds are out of control. 

The Road to Serfdom is a book published in 1944 by Austrian-born economist Friedrich von Hayek that outlines where he saw the philosophical currents taking the United States. His work is very prescient because the Federal government is out of control and BLM's actions in the West are but a foretaste of what is to come. If the Left continues to have its way, we will all be serfs.

www.ktvz.com/news/walden-speaks...on...floor.../37287998

www.nationalreview.com/article/429214/oregon-rancher-protests-civil-disobedience-justified

(Tip o' the hat to George McGreer)

A New Anti-Terrorist Non-Strategy

Here's one for the the books. Chicago Airport Police have been ordered to run and hide in an active shooter situation. Great. 

There are 300 of them and all have all the training of regular police officers, including firearms training, but are unarmed. Higher-ups apparently don't want them to be at risk. Just a suggestion - give them weapons. A brilliant idea that even the union thinks is a good idea. 

Gun control types always chant to let the police handle this sort of thing. I guess the plan now is to have nobody protect the public. Heckuva plan. Will they give medals for the fastest sprinters? Remind me to connect anywhere but Chicago.

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/03/airport-police-officers-directed-run-hide-event-active-shooter/

Carryovers

Some odds and ends to usher in 2016:

1. A Houston mosque burned and the media was all over Trump for all but lighting the match. The rest of the story?

"Using surveillance video from other area businesses to identify the arsonist, Gary Nathaniel Moore, 37, was arrested and charged with starting the Christmas Day fire that devastated a Houston, Texas mosque. Moore is a devout Muslim who attended this same mosque for years, praying up to five times a day every day of the week."

www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/12/30/houston-muslim-charged-with-lighting-his-own-mosque-on-fire/

2. Did anyone else notice that Oregon is now going to automatically register to vote anyone who gets a driver's license? Remember that when the powers-that-be were pushing giving illegal immigrants the right to get driver's licenses (which Oregonians somewhat surprisingly rejected) it was promised that would never - no never - lead to them getting the right to do other things, like say vote. Thank you fellow Oregonians for tubing this scam. 

3. The Iranians, our good faith nuclear agreement partners per John Kerry, dropped a rocket with no warhead launched from one of its patrol boats just 1,500 yards away from one of our carriers as it transited the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Sure, no problem shooting at an American aircraft carrier in an area where it cannot maneuver. A run-up to practice the real thing?

www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-carrier-harry-s-truman-has-close-call-iranian-n487536

4. The President told NPR that he didn't realize that the public was so riled up about terrorism, which is probably true since he attends something less than half of his daily intelligence briefings.

Should be an interesting year.