"No Controlling Legal Authority" to Self Defense -- Sotomayor

I just heard a soundbite of the following question "Do you believe that an individual has the right to self defense?" and Sonia Sotomayor's response to it:
"I don't believe the court has addressed that issue.... but I could be wronnnnnnng."

Evading the question of whether or not an individual has the right to self defense calls to question her intelligence and her decency BIG TIME.

Charges are dropped based on the presumption of self defense all the time. People have been exonerated forever based on a determination of self defense. But Sotomayor, rather than simply say "Yes," the answer that God fearing human beings have been saying forever, demurred.

Let me observe that I have a right to demand that she promise not to introduce to the United States the kind of horrors visited upon our British cousins. They have been denied this basic right now for over a decade. Thus, I do not believe she was being stupid as some will claim. She is being devious.

This nomination is OVER.

Unless, of course, a majority of senators hate the innocent human beings whose inalienable right to life they have vowed to protect!

******************----------- U P D A T E -------------*************************

As reported by the Washington Post

COBURN: Thank you.

Let me follow up with one other question. As a citizen of this country, do you believe innately in my ability to have self-defense of myself -- personal self-defense? Do I have a right to personal self- defense?

SOTOMAYOR: I'm trying to think if I remember a case where the Supreme Court has addressed that particular question. Is there a constitutional right to self-defense? And I can't think of one. I could be wrong, but I can't think of one.

I am happy to report, based on the above report, that my memory stood up well to the test.

The Emmanuel Goldsteining of Sarah P

The Emmanuel Goldsteining of Sarah P is what I conclude has been an ongoing two step process we have been observing and often participating in.

1. The statists and their media want us to focus on Sarah Palin to get the focus off them.
2. They seem to want us to think of her as the embodiment of their opposition.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who do not recall details of George Orwell's novel "1984" I will mark* them as I mention them below: Emmanuel Goldstein* was the alleged leader of the opposition to the ruling party of the novel's totalitarian country. I say alleged because it was not clear if he exists or ever existed. He simply serves as the whipping boy for all bad things. And good party members were expected to participate in daily cathartic exercises called "The Two Minutes Hate"* in which images of Goldstein and his brotherhood* and allies were flashed across media (Ministry of Truth*) controlled viewing screens* everywhere (really everywhere) in the country.

I decided to write of this today because someone made the following proposal which seems to be the generic wish of most people who would rather focus on solving problems than the politicians who exploit them.

"There are a lot more important, even dire, issues we face right now. ... Certainly, our politicians have more important things to discuss right now than Palin’s future." -- Rob

I attempted to point out to Rob, "Well, good luck with that" It is not as if it is we who determine what the Ministry of Truth and party hacks will consider important and promote into a brouhaha. Another pointed out the threatened trials of GWB and his officials would also become prominent; they would be persecuted in show-trials such as those endured by alleged members of "The Brotherhood."*

Look. I know there are people who think George Orwell’s dystopic vision is passé for any of a number of reasons, some reasonable, some silly. Nevertheless, Sarah P, whether she or we like it or not, appears to be serving as our ruling class’ Emmanuel Goldstein.

If only she was subjected to simply two minutes hate every day.

It’s more like an industry has sprung up to deliver to us some variation of it 24/7. And it’s been going on every single day for coming up on a full year. Will there be a first anniversary doubleplus* hate session? Count on it!

(How about, instead, a first anniversary memorial session to remind us that once, long ago, it was still okay to be normal?)

She has so been the target of BOTH party’s core leadership that it is bordering on proof positive that the “two” parties share the same central command office.

It has become cliché to say that aiming at Sarah is deliberate so as to divert our focus from the widespread thefts and multifaceted constitutional violations. Well, duh!

Bottom line: The attention directed at Sarah is so obviously diversionary, it is logical to expect that if any birth certificate is eventually made public, it will be hers.

Progress-of

Altruistic ==► Casuistic ==► Craven ==► Shameless ==► Brazen ==►[TBD]

The decline of the seemingly intelligent Progressives, "blessed" with an abundance of influence, money and power, is one of life's very sad ironies.

Progressives have so bought into the idea of population growth being a zero sum game, they've been blind to their inevitable fate due their contribution to the progress of Zero's home game.

BTW, Zero may aptly fit the current puppet of the power-mad, but it is to another, older Zero to which I allude.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Original Sin was revealed for its essence when the snake saw that Eve had an ego through which he could gain access to her soul.

By telling her that God had lied to her and Adam; that the reason He didn't want her to eat of the Tree Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was that it would allow her to know what God knows.

That is the original sin.

The desire to be as God has been used to mislead and harm mankind from the beginning. We are merely His agent. We fall short in our pursuit of our purpose when we seek to be as Him, insisting that only achieving the Zenith of Perfection can we really be satisfied.

It is a foolish insistence. Time after time there are those amongst us who overreach. That displays more than dissatisfaction, more than ingratitude; a hubris without equal.

And yet, there it is like a willful childishness that too easily leads to death. And that appears to be the aim, all along, of our stalker.

The folly in trying to be what we are not meant to be is hinted at in the story of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."

Anticipate; Designate; Mitigate; Dissipate

• You are major strategist for a large government program.
  
• You know you will meet strong resistance.
  
• You review your plans to pinpoint where you are weakest so as to know where your opposition should attack.
• You discover that your weakest point cannot be adequately fortified.
• So, might there be there some way to blunt your opponent's attack?
  
• One strategy, a priori to widespread disclosure so that opponents lack time to ally and amass into too big a number, is to select an opponent -- preferably a hot-head -- who you fully expect will initiate an attack under circumstances controlled by you.
  
• What sort of circumstances would you choose, and what kind of opponent?

Arrange a forum where you choose the moderator and only comments and not debate are permitted.

Choose an opponent who has a checkered past or questionable connections and with whom other opponents would not choose to be allied.

• Expect that the reports of the interchange will be limited.
• Expect that your allies will connect all who attack your weakest position with the initial attacker whom you chose because others do not wish to be associated with him.
  
• Expect dissipation amongst attackers on your weak position as they labor around the obstacle of that opponent you picked.
• Expect opponents to bicker amongst themselves over whether or not his being there is good or bad or matters or doesn't matter.
  
• Expect many big names from whom you otherwise expected opposition to now exempt themselves from the battle. They've positions of respect to protect, and will not risk their reputations by attacking an obvious point that is closely tied to that pariah you had the foresight to pick.

The following video is of Ezekiel Emanual, BHO's chief health care advisor, being excoriated by an historian, who "coincidentally" works for a Lyndon LaRouche organization, at a forum where only comments are permitted.



Fully expect MSM to tar with a Lyndon LaRouche label all who point out the many ways ObamaCare really does resemble something out of the Third Reich.

The Cause of the Coming Conflict, Summarized

No man, and no lesser god, has the right to decide who may live and who may die in the manner that herds of animals are kept in check.
The difference between a life affirming religion and all the other belief systems is this central message.


Update: Obama says "We are God's partners in matters of life and death."

And So, What's the Consequence of Being Deemed Unuseful?

This story finally breaks the illusion that fear of radical human population control is nothing more than the product of a fevered imagination.

For instance, what is one to make of that item under the title Utilitarianism? "Saving the most socially useful?"

Mind you, this was no crackpot publication this appeared in, The Lancet, penned by Health Care Czar Ezekiel Emmanuel. And as you read on, as you should, you'll find there is much more to be opposed to in the proposed health care legislation that our country's leadership is trying to rush through Congress.

Here is the one thing that I think every American should mull over in their minds, most especially those who revere those who fought World War II, "The Greatest Generation."

Obama's health care geniuses* think that the term “useful individuals” is now safe to use in public, but it is for the first time since its frequent use by the Third Reich.

*-------------------------------- Update ------------------------------------

Friday, July 10, 2009 10:31:11 PM

posted by Avoiding_Sulla

Comment no. 27 to the FR thread inspired by the zombietime.com article John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, says: Forced abortions and mass sterilization needed to save the planet:

Adding this to the recent “Electing God” thread ... even I am finding it hard to believe that our alleged supermen think they can be this brazenly open.

It is amazing how rapidly this sort of thinking went from “Hush, don’t wanna disturb the sheep” to “Oh, what the hell?”

When this sort of thinking was relegated to but a few comments here and there, and when the only high profile websites were lunatics like the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) and The Church of Euthanasia, many of you could sit back and say “Oh, it’s only a bunch of lunatic fringies and some Ivory Tower Elitists.”

Well, guess what? That thinking is now ruling in our White House.

I pray you all think that now is the time to spread the word, given this mountain of evidence, that the lunatics have taken over the asylum right at the top.

Abnormal Futurists

The oddly constructed word postmodern was invented by "Progressives" to refer to the future they envision. It is mostly a suggestive word.

Whereas normal people say "but who can really foretell the future," after they tell us of their plans and wishes, "Progressives" know normal people may not like their plans. So when they observe that some thing or action is to their liking, rather than become enthralled and proclaim: "Yay! That's more like it!", they may observe that it is postmodern, and then laugh and say "whatever that means."

To comprehend how postmodernist thinking incrementally assails normal thought, notice how often you hear "whatever that means" whenever somebody uses the adjective normal. Indeed, did you use it before completing that sentence? That is a postmodernist reflex inculcated into us by those who we have permitted to dominate our culture.

The more you think about postmodern, it is hard to imagine a word that better proves how abnormal "Progressives" and their goals for the future are.

The Grievances that Incited the American Revolution

"Your country is a den of dopes," snarked Ms Ann Thrope.
"Your fans who run my nation's propaganda mills were too easily seduced for you to gloat," observed Pascal.

We are often gifted by Hollywood with productions that have a patriotic theme.

I viewed two clips from one of them put up today at the Belmont Club. It was from the 2008 TV series John Adams starring Paul Giamatti.

It was filled with a good mix of characters, some renowned, some unknown. Much of the action was filled with bathos, where with help from a swelling score, we are driven to patriotic nostalgia. Aside from the saccharin melodrama, there was something far more disturbing.

The film staged the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence as might have happened all around the colonies. Good. The actors in different scenes got to read and react to, or simply react to the reading of, our Declaration. Fine. And it was all put together in a good collage that conveys the feelings of hearing it for the first time.

But something was missing -- literally.

The viewer is given little more than a sense of pride in the product, plus much tight jawed resolve and dread due to --- what? Irritation? Discomfort?

Somehow, no doubt for editorial reasons that are above Joe Biden's pay grade, the long litany of abuses by King George III, written out at length in the Declaration of Independence, were completely left out of this reading. Not a single outrage was mentioned, many of which could have afforded the actors to demonstrate the hard feelings of the times.

And what is worse, I am sure most students today, and likely few of their parents, ever set eyes on that list of British excesses visited upon the colonies. Who ever reads the Declaration in its entirety?

Well, apparently I did. Long ago. It made an impression on me. Enough of an impression that I noticed the meat of the matter was written out of this Hollywood production. It is a production that could easily become part of misleading indoctrination for the next generation of grade school students.

Enough of an impression that its absence drove me to complain and publish after five months silence.

For your benefit, especially when you know people who are totally in the dark who might be awakened thanks to you giving them the facts, here is the list of grievances that our forebears found so intolerable that they formally revolted against the country that inflicted the tyrannies. My personal "favorites" are reproduced in bold type.

• He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
• He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
• He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
• He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
• He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

• He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
• He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
  

I considered inserting little editors notes along side some of the items in the list. For example [Ruby Ridge] could easily have fit along side one of the items. I decided against it because I simply want the grievances highlighted in one place because they so often are forgotten (as all statists would wish).

I invite others to add what they wish to this list at their own sites. But better, simply print out the list (maybe edited a little) and give it to one of your "liberal" family members. Ask them where the list originated. The ensuing discussion could be helpful.

The Ministry of Truth: Almost There

In the dystopic world of George Orwell's 1984, all news and historical records were governed by the Ministry of Truth.*

I have played with this cognomen over the years by identifying the mainstream media (MSM) with various appellations such as the Ministry of (mis)Information, and MinInfo whenever MSM's manner of coverage of a story revealed its bias favoring most any form of statism.

Over the last two years, unlike any time in my long life, the MSM has warranted the name Ministry of MisInformation more than ever. It got to be an open joke among my acquaintences of how open the bias could get.

"Have they gotten around to framing every picture of Bush wearing a dunce cap?"

"It can't be long before every frame of Obama has him walking on water."

As the bailouts came into play last year, I observed that once news sources like the AP and newspapers like the NY Times were bailed out, they would be well along to becoming official state organs along the lines of the USSR's Izvestia and Pravda, reporting and printing only what those holding their purse-strings wished to see made known.

Now, as if the MSM hasn't done enough to show they can be trusted to be good Ministry of Truth employees, I have to hand it to my old buddy Fran Porretto for succinctly showing how much more they are worthy:

America got to its current state because of permanent government deficit finance, government debasement of the dollar, government redistribution, and government meddling in the economy, most particularly the credit market. Not one of these things was contemplated by the Founders or authorized by the Constitution of the United States. Washington proceeded with them anyway. Not one economist of any standing would disagree that our troubles are rooted in the very policy arrogances I just enumerated. But politicians, to whom government is the one and only "solution" to any and every "problem," have proposed that we address our difficulties by intensifying the very practices that produced them.

It is a sad fact that such a concise review of the why, and excuses for, the Obama stimulus and the TARP before it, can only be found on a relatively obscure website. Nowhere in the MSM are they discussed as a consistent group of related issues where logic would bring the listener or reader to Fran's conclusion. The fact these facts are never allowed to be built into an argument filled with legitimate observations and concerns anywhere in MSMdom tells us how in love with total state control visible MSM employees either are (true-believers) or think they must demonstrate they are (cynical self-servers).

With such able employees already well stationed in various MSM outlets, how soon before the Ministry of Truth emerges, fully grown and indomitable?

[*Editor's note: In later years Pascal Fervor began referring to American media as the Agency of Lies because he saw that we were not an Orwellian world quite yet, and felt it best that he speak the truth while he still could. He also used the acronym SKUNCs instead of RINOs for much the same reason.] 

Gore This Tune Out of Your Head

H/T to The American Culture

Not Rocket Science: Voter Fraud Institutionalized

Stimulus Package ► $5 Billion to community groups ►A.C.O.R.N. gets its share (thanks to A.C.O.R.N. friend Obama) ►A.C.O.R.N. diverts much of that money to defend itself from voter fraud charges ►A.C.O.R.N. outspends states' attorneys and gets charges dropped ►A.C.O.R.N. continues as before, undeterred, invigorated.

Even FactCheck.org, a website with indirect connections to A.C.O.R.N. through The Annenberg Foundation, cannot dispute the above formula. This may be seen from reading its answer to questions about A.C.O.R.N. receiving funds from the stimulus package.

The bill does include funds for which ACORN would be eligible to compete - against hundreds of other groups.

Right. Which would incline a fair and impartial judge to ask: "How many of those hundreds of other groups has a former member and grateful friend in the White House?"

Well, Judd Gregg May Be a Wee Bit Smarter Than Charlie Brown

This serves as an update to my last post in which I posted the following cartoon.



According to news released shortly ago, Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Commerce.

An administration official said Gregg dropped out without warning for a position that he had expressed interest in just a few weeks ago.

Heh, heh. Maybe Obama's decision to let White House Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to run the 2010 census in violation of our constitution had something to do with Senator Gregg's decision. It has been viewed as an unprecedented WH power grab. The WH plan to run the census instead of the commerce department did not come to light until after Senator Gregg's nomination had been announced and he had accepted. Perhaps my cartoonist should redraw this piece by inserting a caricature of President Obama where Governor Lynch is depicted now.

To further quote the above article:

The unexpected withdrawal marked the latest setback for Obama in his attempt to build a Cabinet.

Well, we can only hope that President, uh, Bama's clear sightedness is considerably better than the luck he is having sucking good people into his cabinet,

One More Football Game Widely Anticipated

Mayor Bloomberg Should Have Taken Pascal's Advice

Had Mayor Bloomberg celebrated Al Gore Day today as I had proposed, he could have avoided this.



Alternate for when this embed gets pulled due to mikey bloomberg's thin skin is here.

Although Al Gore is known to walk all over RINOs, he's never been known to bite one.

Shadow? What Shadow?

As Bill Murray said: "This is the way it's gonna be for the rest of your life."

Something For "Al Gore Day" On February 2

Here's hoping that I get many more contributions of art soon. Contributors are welcome to submit here, but it would be more effective were the art posted at many more sites than this. Besides, I am enjoying the response so far to this riff on a celebrated American tradition. I'd love to share the catharsis it provides from the oppressive designs of dour Ecodoomers who worship Mr. Gore.

I hope and suspect that many others will eagerly host artful contribution for so important event as this. ;)

Let's Declare This February 2 "Al Gore Day"

Yes, it is time to initiate a viral meme on the Internet to honor our illustrious fearmonger protector of Mother Gaia. Let February 2, 2009 be declared Groundhog Al Gore day.

If, in the dead of this record setting cold winter, Al Gore comes out from whatever hole he's been hiding, it means he thinks the winter is going to be short. Let us hope he is finally right as too many people are hurting from this cold already.


***Update***

I thank Og the Neanderpundit for all the traffic he sent this way; but honestly that is not important. If I craved attention, I know how to get it well enough.

I am convinced that there is a limit to shamelessness. Hence, burdening the shameless with an avalanche of shame is the aim here. Hate him or love him, algore is the point man for the global warming hoax that will destroy whatever limits the statists still fear to violate.


Our public figures have become a largely shameless bunch.

• Carol Browner will become our next climate Czar despite her violation of trust and court orders when she was Clinton's EPA chief.
• Eric Holder will be made Attorney General despite his part in falsifying the records in order to kidnap Elian Gonzales for Fidel Castro, and his large part in granting pardons by Bill to that Rich Bastard and Puerto Rican terrorists.
• And Hillary going to State even as her hubby continues to accept gifts from foreign nations is merely the pièce de résistance today; tomorrow will surely present us with worse.

I believe that should enough websites start clamoring for Al Gore to come out of his hole so that we might be reasured that this vile winter will end sooner, even the most cynical political SOBs will start to hesitate just a wee bit more.

This is something WE can do. I hope to have cartoons soon.

*** Update 2 *** See here for our first bit of artwork.

Bad VeePee But Great Cabinet Choice

Barack Obama demonstrated wonderful good sense for his own security by whom he chose and didn't choose for Vice President.

Similarly, let us presume that Obama has been informed about Hillary by Lyndon Johnson's rationale for keeping J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI: "Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in."

Public Corporations Inquiry

Posted as submitted on 10-17-08 by Ombudsman

Establish a special prosecutor to investigate if there was collusion between and among different Boards of Directors to give each other bonuses. "You vote for mine and I will vote for yours."

This report shall be available within 15 months.