National Post, Canada's CONSERVATIVE newspaper?

I think not.  Comments made in response to this article in the Toronto (Red) Star.  Which, predictably, is 100% fear and loathing propaganda.

The point of getting rid of the gun registry was supposed to be that it criminalized farmers and hunters. But now the Conservatives are delisting sniper rifles and the kind of semi-automatic used in the Norway massacre. Why do farmers and hunters need sniper rifles that can pierce armour from a kilometre away? If the registry is to be killed, shouldn't the government tighten up other controls on dangerous weapons?

Here's three big time "conservative" scribblers take:

Barbara Kay: I think guns are fine for people who need them to hunt or just like them for shooting at targets. But I don't get the semi-automatic thing, since it's only purpose is to mow down enemies by spraying bullets around so promiscuously some of them will kill. They're unsportsmanlike for hunting, obviously, and it doesn't take any special marksmanship to use them.

Kelly McParland: The issue is whether anyone needs to own these guns. The whole anti-registry battle was fought over the issue that farmers and hunters should be allowed to have guns. But no one needs these weapons, so why aren't they just banned?

Jonathan Kay: I don't pretend to understand the gun obsession. But my sense is that gun nuts see their guns as a sort of symbolic totem that allows them to control their fate and protect themselves in a society that is chaotic and communalistic. And that the bigger the gun the more powerful is their sense of self control.

Are you frickin' kidding me?

And they wonder why their damn newspaper keeps losing money.

The Phantom

Security theater... of the absurd!

Apparently, the United States of America has quietly stopped policing its borders.  Amazing.

"Orders have been sent out from Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C., to Border Patrol sectors nationwide that checks of transportation hubs and systems located away from the southwest border of the United States will only be conducted if there is intelligence indicating a threat," the release says.

Those who have received the orders said agents may still go to train and bus stations and airports if they have specific "actionable intelligence" that there is an illegal immigrant there who recently entered the country. An agent in Washington state said it's not clear how agents are supposed to glean such intelligence, and even if they did, under the new directive they still require clearance from Washington, D.C., headquarters before they can respond.

 What are they doing instead?

The situation is similar in upstate New York, where an agent told the AP - also on the condition of anonymity - that a senior manager relayed the new directive during a morning roll call last month. Since then, instead of checking buses or trains, agents have spent shifts sitting in their vehicles gazing out at Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where few illegal immigrants cross.

"They're already bored," the agent said. "You grab the paper every day and you go do the crossword."

Why does this crossword need done  so urgently by so many agents?

Current and former Border Patrol agents said field offices around the country began receiving the order last month - soon after the Obama administration announced that to ease an overburdened immigration system, it would allow many illegal immigrants to remain in the country while it focuses on deporting those who have committed crimes.

In English, that means the Border Patrol has been ordered not to arrest illegals so the INS doesn't have to process them, and so that Barry can get more of that much needed illegal Mexican vote.

All in all, a great time to be a drug mule.

The Phantom

Sometimes... one is at a loss for words.

Coming to you from Small Dead Animals, a link to a person so fundamentally mental... I'm unable to really grasp what his malfunction is.

The Conservative government's bill to scrap the requirement to register long-guns comes with a surprising clause: it requires the Commissioner of Firearms destroy all records of registered long-guns.
<snippage>
But, personally, I find the destruction of any kind of government data utterly abhorent and contrary to the concept of open government.

In response, I'm posting publicly a copy of the gun registry database I received via the Access to Information Act in 2007.

We used this data in an Ottawa Citizen series called "Rapid Fire" that explored issues involved in gun ownership in Canada.

So here we have a guy, Glen McGregor, who views government records of private citizen's personal property as being so holy, so important, that he's going to post HIS OWN REGISTRY. To, you know, save it. Or something.
Here's what he says about himself, right off the mast head of his web page:

Ottawa Citizen reporter covering government, politics and anything else that interests me. Specializing in data journalism and Twitter evangelism. This is just a place to dump Hill droppings and other found items that are too long for Twitter. Follow me there at @glen_mcgregor or email me at sushiboy21@gmail.com.

Ottawa Citizen reporter. Uh HUH. Nice three day beard dude. You look mahvelous.

And we all wondered -why- the media never ever EVER gives us the straight unvarnished goods in a gun related story. Its because DICKHEADS run it.

My comment on Little Glenny's blog was this:

So Glen, is it ok if I dig up your address and post it on my blog? How about a Google map and a StreetView of your house too? And maybe a list of your major appliances and more expensive possessions, you know, just in case anybody's interested?

Love to hear your opinion on that little undertaking, dude.

Currently awaiting moderation, as of 10:22 pm. So we'll see what Little Glenny has to say. I'm not expecting anything too coherent, I must say.

The Phantom

Barry gathers his troops.

Barry must be having a cow.  He's in Hollywood assembling the First Propaganda Division of Barry's Army.

Among the small group of industry insiders who were invited to attended the early-morning meeting with the president at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel were: Weinstein Co. studio head Harvey Weinstein, CAA managing partner and music head Rob Light, ICM president Chris Silbermann, Modern Family creator Steve Levitan, Atlantic Records chairman Craig Kallman, producer/songwriter Bruce Roberts, talent manger and producer Jason Weinberg, UTA music agent Rob Prinz, talent manager and producer Eric Ortner, Island Def Jam senior vice president Karen Kwak, Warner Bros. Records president Livia Tortella, talent manager Greg Mertz, ID PR publicists Kelly Bush and Mara Buxbaum, talent managers Bruce Flohr, Michael Green, Steve Moir and Bill Silva, Universial Music Publishing Group executive vice president and head of creative Tom Sturges, entertainment attorney Chuck Ortner and actor/activist Kal Penn.

The event was not a fundraiser, and attendees were not asked to donate to the Obama reelection campaign. But those invited have been ardent supporters of the president and were identified as "influencers" with the ability to help Obama shape the national political conversation heading into a tough race in 2012.

Their donations will be more in kind than in money, no doubt. I do believe we will be treated to a big bunch of socialist propaganda movies over the next year.  Huzzah.  And as previously noted, people wonder why media company stocks are circling the bowl...

The Phantom

Duh alert... Media company execs are MORONS.

This just kills me.  Check it out:

The rapid adoption of tablet computers like iPad has not reversed the slide in paying customers for news, as many media company executives had hoped the devices would.

Are you kidding me? There are actually executive corner office types who were doofus enough to think that the -shape- of the computer people surf on would change their willingness to pay for something they can get for free?

"When it was launched, many observers believed that the tablet might help change the experience of news consumers and the economic ground rules of digital news consumption," writes the authors of the Pew Research Center report. "That belief was based on the sense that people would consume information on tablets largely through special applications or apps that provide content from a favorite news organization like the New York Times or one's local newspaper." The survey showed more than 70 percent still use the web browser or a combination of the web and apps to get their news. Just a fifth of tablet users use apps as their primary source for news.

Truly, there are some guys out there living in Fantasy Land. The reason nobody is willing to pay for the "news" is that it ain't NEWS.  Its propaganda for the American DemocRat party and obviously so. The whole blogosphere basically exists as a fact check on the "news". Furthermore nobody wants to live in the walled garden of the Apple Ap-store when the whole web is sitting there free to surf.

Sell that media stock my friends.  Those companies are dead ducks walking.

The Phantom.

Self Inflicted Wounds.

Apparently the people who live around Zuccotti Park are getting tired of the smelly hippies. Poor babies.

New Yorkers who live near the park where anti-Wall Street protesters have been camping out for more than a month are complaining that their quality of life has declined.

At a two-hour meeting Thursday night, some neighbors said protesters urinated in the streets and beat drums in the middle of the night.

"They're defecating on our doorsteps," said Catherine Hughes, a member of the area's community board, a representative panel that helps funnel local concerns to city officials.

That's what you get when you vote the way they always do. You asked for it, you got it. Toyota.

Lets be clear whose doorstep is getting crapped on here.  You live near Zuccotti Park, you've got some -serious- dough to blow on housing.  We're talking millions of bucks for a two bedroom condo.  That would be "million-S" in the plural.
So, what does a big huge bank account get you in NYC?

Some neighbors who attended the packed meeting called for the protesters to vacate Zuccotti Park, the plaza where protesters have set up their base camp.

But the board voted unanimously for a resolution that recognized the protesters' First Amendment rights while calling for a crackdown on noise and public urination and defecation.

Three local elected officials praised the resolution in a statement Thursday.

It gets you nuttin', is what.  Because the "three local elected officials" are  DEMOCRATS, one of whom is Gerold "The Mouth" Nadler. This doorstep-crapping, stairwell-pissing astroturf freak show is -their- personal clown circus, bought, paid for and put on by DemocRats, for the benefit of DemocRats, and screw everybody else.

My questions for today: how stupid are the hyper-rich of New Yawk?  Will they continue to vote for the guys who are happily throwing them under the bus just to get a cheap propaganda show on the TV? Do they realize that this mob could decide to BURN DOWN their apartment buildings pretty much any time?  Do they comprehend that their "local elected officials" are the sole reason that these Occupy Somebody Else's Private Property imbeciles are taking a dump on their twenty million dollar real estate?

Or is it more a matter of going along with the gag so the gravy train your zillions are coming from doesn't come off the rails?  Because zillionairs aren't primarily known for stupidity.

Just wondering.

The Phantom

Wag the dog 2011-style.

Reposted from Small Dead Animals, -proof- of the connection between Big Media, Barry's 2012 campaign, and the collection of pinheads known to the media as "Occupy Wall Street".  99% bullshit, 1% useful idiots.  We've got the email archive, which a mole helpfully posted to the web. Big Journalism's post on the subject is here, and really worth a look.

So just in case you've been wondering why the media is paying so much attention to some smelly hippies leaving raw sewage on private property they don't own in NYC, while they utterly ignored about a third of the country turning out for the Tea Parties, wonder no more.  Its a put up job.  Otherwise known as, the main stream media of the USA (and Canada!!!) is bought and paid for.  And we just proved it.  Again.

The Phantom

What is THE difference between the USA and Canada?

In Canada, this would be legal:

On September 22, 2011, H.R. 3011 was introduced in the House. It is entitled the "Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act of 2011" and it contains some curious language.
...

The language states that it would be illegal to "convey the impression" that you are representing the TSA, but this interpretation would likely be left to federal prosecutors.

In the past, satire was protected under the First Amendment, but it may soon be illegal to poke fun at the TSA or use its logo or even utter its name. Notice there is no exception in the above language for parody.

Political satire is as old as the Greeks and the Bible. But it may now become a punishable crime if this legislation is enacted.

Yes, my fellow Canadians, let's not fool ourselves.  In Canada the Parliament really can pass a law making it illegal to lampoon, parody, or otherwise mock government agencies and/or employees.  In fact, its been done already.  Right now our Supreme Court is grappling with the weighty issue of whether or not to ALLOW us to say mean things about members of certain protected groups.  Not to be mean to them mind you, just to say things about them.

In the United States, this law can't survive its first day in court.  Well, unless Barry and friends find a way to pack the court, of course.  Then all bets are off. 

Kind of like they are here in Canada, our courts got packed in the 1970's.  Frankly, its been pretty much down hill ever since Pierre Trudeau declared war on freedom in this country.

The Phantom

Ass-Backward into the Future!

One of the things I rage on about here constantly is that we have too much government.  This is best seen in the small things, like this:

A tree house is causing controversy in one Falls Church neighborhood after a father built it for his two young boys. Fairfax County officials are considering tearing it down because the tree house violates county rules because it was built in the front yard. He needed a permit first to build the tree house.

One of the other things I rage on about is our too-much-government looking the other way and allowing outrages to be perpetrated.  This is best seen in the large things, like this:

Occupy Wall Street is on the move ... uptown.

Why uptown? Because that's where the rich folks live!

Organizers are planning a march on Tuesday that will visit the homes of JP Morgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) CEO Jamie Dimon, billionaire David Koch, hedge fund honcho John Paulson, Howard Milstein, and News Corp (NWSA, Fortune 500) CEO Rupert Murdoch.

The millionaires and billionaires are being targeted for what event organizers called a "willingness to hoard wealth at the expense of the 99%."

Just so we are clear here: you CAN mob the house of people you don't like if you are part of a rent-a-mob for the DemocRat Party, but you CAN'T build a tree house for the kids without a permit.  And likely a bribe for the building inspector.

The Phantom

Andrew Coyne has been reading my mind.

It takes a little while to get to the good part, but this column by Andrew Coyne has goodness in it.

The Ontario Conservatives have lost three elections in a row with this same nicely-nicely, Clever Dick approach; the Manitoba Conservatives, four. At some point, you'd think it would occur to them: this isn't working. But it never seems to.

So let me spell it out for them. Conservatives: unless you give voters a reason to vote for you, they will not. Until you trust in yourselves, they will never trust you. They can smell fear, and they can tell when people aren't being straight with them. Don't want to be accused of hidden agendas? Have an agenda. Don't think you can sell that vision? Find another line of work. You're in the persuasion business.

That's what I'm talking about.  You want to be a Conservative?  BE ONE THEN.  You don't think Conservatism can win? Join the Liberals!!!

The Phantom

Liberals win Ontario election.

We are -so- fracked...

The Phantom

BUSTED!

Eric Holder knew about Fast&Furious in July 2010. 

New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.

On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Yet internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious.

He lied to Congress. Like a Persian carpet.

How unexpected!

The Phantom

Russel Smith: dude, who cares what you think?

Here's an article by Russel Smith in the Blob and Snail that I read while sitting in the doctor's office yesterday.  Happily, I didn't have to buy the paper, because it generated a very strong wave of "WHAT! EVER!" through my neural network.  To wit:

We old farts did that tiring reporting/interviewing stuff for years before we were allowed to write our opinions on things. I still don't even aspire to this ideal of not being edited; not being edited doesn't seem like a benefit to me. I still have a deep-rooted (and unjustified) instinct telling me that something published has value only if it has been commissioned by someone else.

I am biased in this debate: I don't care so much about the young people's careers, I care about mine, and if they don't play along in the work-for-pay convention, then all of our incomes are undercut. This is why other trades have unions. But creators are not very good at solidarity.

Now, speaking as an Old Fart who writes for free, and purely for the purpose of expressing my opinion before the top of my freakin' head blows off, I have only this to say:

Dear Russel, if it wasn't for the likes of you infesting the Canadian publishing establishment for the last 50+ years, making the whole thing into nothing more than a machine for cranking out Liberal Party of Canada propaganda, maybe your career wouldn't be circling the bowl along with every other print media worker in this country.  You and yours have made Canadian newspapers, magazines, television and radio into a monolithic boulder on the Left side of the political spectrum.  Anybody who wants to do something that hasn't been given official approval by the LPC re-election committee is doing it on the Internet, and there's nobody to blame but YOURSELVES.  I bet almost as many people will read this little rant of mine as read your blather in the Blob, too.

Its probably not too late to change your career to welding.  Better hit the gym, steel is heavy.

The Exploding Phantom

Iggy speaks!

Here's an article in the National Post by none other than our dear ex-Liberal Party leader. Count Iggula.

It shows me two things.  One, the guys who ran this man's election campaign were utter morons.

Evil is a moral problem for everyone, difficult to acknowledge in ourselves, hard to understand in others, and difficult to defeat without committing lesser evils. Liberals - I count myself as one - have a special problem with evil, connected to our particular form of selfregard. Liberals like to believe we are tolerant, but evil, by definition, cannot be tolerated. We believe that politics ought to be deliberative, but we can't deliberate with evil. We think compromise can be honorable, but there are no honorable compromises with evil. We think politics ought to be governed by reason, but evildoers, while they may reason, are not reasonable.

If Iggy had showed up to the election with some of the uncompromising morality of that paragraph, he would have done very well indeed.

Two, thank God the guys who ran this man's election campaign were utter morons because this man can't walk his talk, even inside his own brain.

It is when Wolfe moves on from these general sentiments, which seem both admirable and true, to detailed examples of "fighting politics with politics," that the questions about his approach begin to arise. What would Wolfe do differently? No to the war in Iraq certainly, no to the torture memos. That much is obvious, but on other issues, his skeptical liberal realism is less clear as a guide to action than he supposes. Is Wolfe saying no to intervention in Libya, on the grounds that Qaddafi, while a thug, posed no strategic threat, and his crimes, while vicious, did not rise to a level that had to be stopped?

Its possible I've misunderstood The Iggster's intent here, but that reads to me like the Iraq War was a bad thing while the current Libyan Unpleasantness is a good thing.  Which is preposterous. And also is 180 degrees opposed to his previous views on the matter.

So, I'm content that Iggy is safely contained at Massey College, indoctrinating another generation of Torontonians  in the fine art of Liberalism, sucking and blowing both at the same time.  I'd prefer he be selling apples on a street corner in New York, but you can't always get what you want.

The Phantom

More home invasion fun in Philly.

Hits just keep on coming.

A critically wounded 2-year-old girl was among four people shot Tuesday night in South Philadelphia when a mob of girls charged a house and gunfire erupted in a dispute stemming from a high school fight, police said.

Turns out the high school girls were balked in their home invasion attempt called for backup.

Police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers said a fight among girls at South Philadelphia High School led to another altercation and, ultimately, the shooting.

Some of the girls from the high school fight showed up at the house of another girl on Bucknell, Evers said. "The girls were pushing into the house," Evers said.

Some neighbors got involved, and one girl called an unidentified man, Evers said. A group of men arrived at the scene and the fighting escalated. Two men pulled out guns and one of them began firing.

So, what does the police chief have to say about this?

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey also responded to scene and denounced a culture of violence among young people.

Uh huh. No help there, then.

My question is, at what point do the people in Philly sandbag the whole front of the house and start stealing road plates to armor the baby's bedroom?

The Phantom

You just can't escape the insanity.

As I've said many times, I never, ever buy the newspaper, I do not have cable TV nor rabbit ears broadcast TV, I do not listen to commercial radio.  And yet still I can't completely escape this sort of thing:

Outsourcing Christmas: Why the new Toronto disgusts me

Michael Babad's article (mbabad@globeandmail.com) is in the Blob and Snail today, and the headline was on my Report On Business news feed. I had to click on that, since Toronto disgusts me also.  Turns out for a different reason.

I know this is an obvious attack point for a bleeding heart, and I also know that governments at every level are scrambling to cut in the post-recession era. But still, getting rid of an agency that pulls together Christmas toys for underprivileged kids?

That's what Toronto's politicians decided yesterday with the Christmas Bureau, one of several measures to save about $28-million, The Globe and Mail's Elizabeth Church and Patrick White report. That's less than what had been proposed, and many things survived Mayor Rob Ford's quest to cut down the gravy.

Toronto is Canada's financial showcase, home to its banks and its premiere stock exchange, drawing business visitors from around the world. With a jobless rate of 8.1 per cent, is this really what we want to show the world?

City of Toronto has a nine billion dollar annual budget. That's $9,000,000,000 samoleans, kids. Rob Ford tried to cut some fat out of it, but every attempted program cut had its little base of support, its own little constituency of outraged simpletons up in arms. 
Examples from the article of things that were not cut are:

Last week, the executive committee removed several contentious cost-cutting proposals, including the closing of library branches and the elimination of 2,000 subsidized daycare spaces funded by the city alone.

An additional $600,000 in cuts were removed Tuesday. Services that were saved include:

– community environment days

– city staff support for the Toronto Youth Cabinet and the Seniors Forum

– the Public Realm's Neighbourhood Improvement Program

As well, a recommendation to sell the Toronto Parking Authority was removed.

Community environment days were too important to Toronto's survival to cut?
But, give them credit, the city council did manage to find sufficient spine to cut $28,000,000, that's TWENTY EIGHT MILLION BUCKS, among which was The Christmas Bureau. The cutting of which "disgusts" Mr. Babad.  He's disgusted the city won't be paying union workers for doing something churches already do faster/better/cheaper. This kind of thing is why we have churches.

And this guy is a business writer?  Are you kidding me?

The comments echo my discontent with Babad's apparent lack of fiscal common sense.

However the best part of this is the Mop & Pail didn't get a penny of income from my wasted ten seconds of reading this dreck.

The Phantom

Another good reason to disable cookies.

Turns out Facebook has been observing your internet browsing even when you are logged out.

Most would assume that Facebook stops monitoring them after they leave its site, but technology bloggers discovered this was not the case.

In fact, data has been regularly sent back to the social network's servers – data that could be worth billions when creating 'targeted' advertising based on the sites users visit.

The website's practices were exposed by Australian technology blogger Nik Cubrilovic and have provoked a furious response across the internet.

I used to think I was paranoid for disabling cookies, popups, Flash, Java and Active X crap.  Turns out no, I wasn't. It's not just that they know your name and where you live, they know every damn website you've ever visited.
Seems to me there's a real market out there for software to secure your browser against people like Facebook and Google.
Imagine what the -government- must be doing.

The Unfortunately Not Paranoid Enough Phantom

Gun control working as intended.

Gun control operating in the Real World.

ABOUT 11 P.M. on Sept. 9, dozens of youths with bats and pipes descended on a tidy residential area of Port Richmond looking for white teens who allegedly had attacked an African-American kid at Stokely Playground a couple of hours earlier.

Two fearful white teens [yeah, try little kids] spotted Mark LaVelle on Indiana Avenue near Belgrade Street and asked for help. Suddenly, the mob appeared. LaVelle, who said that he didn't know the two kids, who looked to be 13 or 14, ran with them into his nearby house.

Then it got ugly.

They were standing on his steps. One shouted, " 'Something's going to happen now!' " LaVelle recalled in an interview Friday at his house. LaVelle got nervous and went back inside, locking his door with a deadbolt.

But the attackers pounded on his front windows and kicked his wooden door so hard, it flew open and some of them entered his house.

"The first guy hits me with a pipe. The second guy knocks me in the face. All I'm hearing is my wife and kids screaming," said LaVelle, who feared that the next time they saw him, he would be in a casket.

He said that he was able to push the attackers out the door, but then a third man - who had a gun - tried to extend his arm. LaVelle grabbed onto the gunman's lower arm and shoulder so he couldn't raise the weapon. Then, police sirens screamed in the neighborhood, and the mob turned and ran.

I don't know what to say about this.  The same type of thing happened to me at age 19, and it scarred me for life even though I WON the engagement and left the other asshole bleeding on the floor.  First thing I did was go take up martial arts and become a fearsome looking son of a bitch.  Works great at scaring punks, sucks in a job interview, the nightmares don't go away.

This is a failure of not just social policy, this is a failure of basic civilization.  Roving bands of armed teenaged punks confident enough to attack a grown man in his own home, over nothing?  That's serious shit my friends.

When we hear about mobs of Muslims hauling a Hindu family out of their house in New Delhi and beating them to death in the street, we say "tsk" and wonder how a nation could allow such things. 

WELL NOW WE KNOW, DON'T WE.

The Completely and Utterly Disgusted Phantom

A hopeful sign: Hippie Punching back in vogue.

This picture is dedicated to Kathy, who'd have punched the hippie bitch herself had she been there.


Wall Street, 80 arrested, some pepper sprayed.

Police said 80 protesters were arrested or ticketed at multiple locations for disorderly conduct, blocking traffic and failure to obey a lawful order but the number could rise.

Officials said protesters did not have a permit for the march and one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer, causing a shoulder injury. The NYPD was investigating the use of pepper spray.

That's the total content of the article that deals with what actually happened. The rest of it is a tale of woe, poor little innocent protesters unjustly attacked by the Blue Meanies.

Hippie punching is never a bad idea, you ask me. Frigging little weenies want to play flash mob, push people around and screw up traffic, they should feel some pain.

A fine won't make much of an impression, but pepper spray in the eye is a memory that will last a lifetime. The stupid chick in the picture above won't be quite so quick to lip off to the cops next time, no doubt about it.

The Phantom Meanie

Update: Welcome Five Feet of Fury fans. Kathy Shaidle should have her own program on Sun TV. Or at least Ezra should shut up and let her talk when she's a guest. ~:D

Big Brother wants your medical records.

The latest shoe to drop from the Obamacare nightmare: Health and Human Services will have access to your medical records. Yes, for real.

In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.

Yes friends, the federal government WILL have complete access to every shot you've had (or skipped) since you were born, your meds, your vision tests, any psych info you may have confided to your doctor, hospital visits, medical tests like colonoscopies, blood tests or CAT scans, the WORKS. Pictures too.

Just imagine what a well-meaning bureaucrat could do with that. Ever had a depressive episode? No guns for you! Ever had a heart murmur? You get the Special Diet and a fine if you're seen at McDonalds! Over weight? EXERCISE PROGRAM! In front of the TV that watches you! We even have that already, its called a web cam. Funny how 1984 keeps cropping up all the time.
And just imagine the sheer cost of doing it. The database alone will probably cost more than a squadron of B2 bombers, government computer systems always do. Then there's the staff, the policy wonks, the oversight committees, the scamming...

Two words my friends. Tea. Party.

The "I can seeeee you!" Phantom

Stingray is watching you.

Very informative article about how the cops track cell phones that are not even in use.

Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries.

A stingray's role in nabbing the alleged "Hacker"—Daniel David Rigmaiden—is shaping up as a possible test of the legal standards for using these devices in investigations. The FBI says it obtains appropriate court approval to use the device.

Cops are behind the times with their Stingray.  Check it: right here on the Phantom Soapbox, the semi-autonomous flying WiFi and phone sniffer. Geeks built it for a giggle.  Its better than FBI kit.

Sometimes it is a burden to be so right, about so many things.  ~:D

The Phantom

Toldja!

Barry's going to have to fight for his nomination.  Told ya, told ya, told ya.  The giggle?  They think he's not LIBERAL enough!  It is to die laughing!

President Obama's smooth path to the Democratic nomination may have gotten rockier Monday, after a group of liberal leaders, including former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, announced plans to challenge the incumbent in primaries next year.

The group said the goal is to offer up a handful of candidates from various fields and areas where the president either has failed to stake out a "progressive" position or where he has "drifted toward the corporatist right."

"Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party's presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored," Mr. Nader said in a news release. "The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters."

I don't think these morons have a hope, but they DO have some MSM noise going now.  Enough noise for the Clintons to step into.

Barry = dead duck walking.  Stick a fork in him, he's done like dinner.

Go Tea Party!

The Phantom

This is the trial balloon for Hillary.

Here we go.  Remember I said Barry wasn't going to make the Dem nomination next year?  Here's the setup.

The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer's remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.

The finding in the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows a higher level of wishful thinking about a Hillary Clinton presidency than when a similar question was asked in July 2010. Then, a quarter of Americans held such a view.

"Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on," said Susan Dunlop, 50, a homemaker in New Port Richey, Florida. "I don't think she would have bent as much."

I've been noticing a lot of anti-Obama chatter on the MSM lately.  You don't normally see that kind of lipping off to a DemocRat prezzy, they save it for the Republicans.  So the shine has worn off, and now some of the other Great Powers in the 'Rat Party are going to buck the Chicago Machine and try to get their own horse to run.

IMHO, not being an expert or anything, we are going to start seeing a lot of these manufactured polls in favor of Hillary.  Possibly some more candiates will pop up as the deadline for the Dem nominations approaches.  Could be this is the trial ballon that launches the avalanche. Or not. 

But we shall see.

The Phantom

P.S. Even Hillary the grifter would be less of a disaster than Barry.  He's not even a thief, he's a saboteur.  Our one bit of good fortune is that he's an inept saboteur.

Obama going full-on Brownshirt.

Can't really think of another way to say it.  Totalitarian political fink line set up (so it says) by Barry's campaign.

Introducing AttackWatch.com

The smears didn't end with the 2008 election. President Obama's opponents are still using false allegations against the President and his record in an attempt to derail the momentum of this movement.

That's why we're launching Attack Watch—to provide a hub for the facts and fight back with the truth.

But we can't do it alone. We need your help to render these attacks ineffective and expose them as the worst kind of politics. There are lots of ways to get involved: join our Attack Wire to stay up to date on the latest from our opponents, help spread the President's message by signing up to volunteer, or donate to support this site and the campaign as a whole.

Check this news feed for updates in the coming weeks, and be sure to follow @AttackWatch on Twitter for breaking news as it happens.

Paid for by Obama for America

This is so 1932 I can hardly stand it.  AttackWatch, forsooth.  Sharpen up those entrenching tools friends. Reading this right after the bit on the Amish, it makes my brain hurt.

The Phantom

Amish terrorism... its the real deal!

Yes friends, those insane Christian terrorists are out there.  The brave constabulary of Graves County Kentucky has eight of these heinous criminals behind bars tonight!

Eight members of a traditional Amish sect were behind bars on Tuesday after refusing to pay fines for failure to display orange-red safety triangles on their horse-drawn buggies.

Graves District Judge Deborah Hawkins ordered the men jailed Monday in Mayfield, about 200 miles from Louisville in western Kentucky. The defendants contend that paying the fines would amount to complying with a law that violates their religious restrictions against wearing or displaying bright colors or relying upon man-made symbols for their safety.

Imagine the chaos that would result if just anyone could decide not to post the required safety signage on their vehicle! Judge Graves has her work cut out for her though, according to the article she has 44 more of these miscreants to deal with on Monday. 

Jail the lot of them, I say!  Comply! Submit! Bend your knee to the power of the almighty State!

All hail Obama!

Comrade Phantom, Acorn North.

Apropos of 9/11 memorials...

... here's why there aren't any yet. Paul Krugman thinks that:

Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

So naturally any decent monument to the dead would be a rallying point for Republicans, and the Krugmans of the world can't have that. Therefore, there are no monuments, ten years later.

But there is a Tea Party. So perhaps by 2021 there will finally be a decent monument to the dead.

And Paul Krugman will be reduced to posting anonymously on some obscure blog while The Phantom will post under my real name. Could happen.

Real 9/11 memorial.

This is what I'd have done, had it been up to me. Athena.


Fifty stories tall. Throwing her spear at Mecca. The tip of the spear is a full-sized F-15 Eagle. Only my version has her throwing a lot harder and looking a lot more dangerous. She'd have 3,000 helpers holding her re-loads. And the construction would be finished.

'Nuff said.

Obama gets results!

ObamaNation: Noo Yawk City...

In one of the bloodiest weekends in recent city history, 31 people were brutally shot in roughly 48 hours this weekend -- including three kids at a house party-turned-shooting gallery in The Bronx.

25 people had been shot as of Sunday night, but by early Monday morning, six more people were shot in three separate incidents in Brooklyn.

How bad is that?

The one-day crime wave mirrored the city's drug-fueled epidemic of violence in the 1980s and '90s, police sources said.

"Last night was unbelievable," one source said. "I can't remember a couple of hours like these since the days of crack."

That's pretty frickin' bad. What was Bloomberg's reaction?

Calling the chilling violence "just unconscionable," Mayor Bloomberg demanded that the feds step up their efforts to get illegal weapons off the streets.

"We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don't understand the value of human life," he said.

So no help there then, eh?

The Phantom

UPDATE: Final number for the weekend, 67 shot, ten dead.

Updated statistics obtained by NBC New York on Tuesday show that at least 67 people were shot between 12 a.m. Friday and 11:59 p.m. Monday. That includes nine on Friday, 10 on Saturday, 33 on Sunday and 15 on Monday.

Preliminary numbers indicate as many as 10 were killed.

New Jack City baby. Way to go Mayor Bloomberg, that gun control riff is really working.

Lefty stops pretending.

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

Bring it, Jimmy baby.

The Phantom

Today's kewlness: single molecule electric motor.

Yep. Electric motor made of one (1) molecule, driven and imaged by scanning tunneling microscope. The kewlness is extreme.

The butyl methyl sulphide molecule was placed on a clean copper surface, where its single sulphur atom acted as a pivot.

The tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope - a tiny pyramid with a point just an atom or two across - was used to funnel electrical charge into the motor, as well as to take images of the molecule as it spun.

It spins in both directions, at a rate as high as 120 revolutions per second.

But averaged over time, there is a net rotation in one direction.

By modifying the molecule slightly, it could be used to generate microwave radiation or to couple into what are known as nano-electromechanical systems, Dr Sykes said.

120 revs per second is 7200 rpm for gearheads. That's a respectable bit of spin. Motor for a mechanical creation the size of a bacteria? Hell yeah! Robots the size of bacteria. Sprinkle them on a junk heap and they'll print me a Ferrari.

The Phantom

Where money goes to die: government.

Our subject today is government waste as it applies to technology.  The specifics, Germany has lifted its ban on DOOM after 17 years.

As a result of the decision, Doom (released in 1993) and Doom 2 (1994) can now be freely distributed. The U.S. version of Doom 2 - Hell on Earth was excluded from the decisions as it includes two levels of Wolfenstein 3D, which includes "unconstitutional" symbols such as the swastika used by the Nazis. Wolfenstein 3D is listed as a "confiscated" video game in Germany.

According to the commission, the graphics and animations in Doom and Doom 2 are considered antiquated and not realistic. As the game has been generally considered as one of the most significant game titles in video game history and the U.S. Library of Congress decided to accept that game in its catalog of historically important media, the German commission argued that the game is historically significant.

Now, even though DOOM was one of my favorite things back in the day, (as our illustrious Arms Chest veterans will attest, hours and HOURS spent decimating aliens on the
Arms Chest Official Battle Simulator computer!) this is not really about that.

This is about the astounding amount of money involved in even having a commission that can decide to ban a video game in the first place.  Seventeen years ago some bunch of highly paid guys sat around and decided to BAN the most popular computer game in world history, and today some other bunch of guys decided the first bunch were wrong, also for very handsome pay.  I'm sure John Carmack is stoked about it.

Nobody involved seems to be asking the question, should government be doing that?  Because I think its friggin' insanity.  We'd all be better off if that whole commission and all its myriad support staff were out sweeping up dog poo in Berlin, even at full pay.  At least they'd be getting -productive- work done, instead of throwing rocks in everyone's path and f-ing up the world economy.

Just think of the numberless seat-warmers, chair polishers and Big Kahuna desk pilots we have in Ottawa and the provincial capitals doing jobs just like this.  Just think of the size of tax cut it would take to see them all out on the street looking for productive work.  Just phone up your MP and kick his butt for him.

TAX CUT NOW!

The Phantom

P.S. DOOM 4!!!! 

Big Brother says: "Its for your own good!"

Not a word of a lie, FDA proposes rubber tit registry.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- A federal advisory panel has recommended the creation of a nationwide database to follow women who have had silicone-gel breast implants for at least a decade after they had the surgery.

What does this mean?

While the idea of a breast implant registry is just in its beginning stages, it could potentially link some reimbursement to registration or else incentivize doctors in some other way to get their patients enrolled and to keep them in the study so longitudinal data could be obtained.

Patients may need an incentive too, to encourage them to go to follow-up doctor's appointments, fill out questionnaires, and participate in focus groups.

"You can have the most well-meaning company, but if patient doesn't want to participate, the study won't work," Maisel said.

It means if people won't volunteer for the study, you MAKE them do it.  Privacy schmivacy!

Because hey, more data is good, so lots more will be REALLY good, and everybody should get out there and do good.   And if you don't we will find a way to punish you.

The Phantom

The One blinks. Again!

Barry likes to play chicken, but he has no staying power. 

President Barack Obama, citing the struggling economy, asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to withdraw an air-quality rule that Republicans and business groups said would cost millions of jobs.

The surprise move—coming on the same day as a dismal unemployment report—reflected the energy industry's importance as a rare bright spot in adding U.S. jobs. The tighter standards for smog-forming ozone could have forced states and cities to limit some oil-and-gas projects.

In making the move, the White House clearly judged that it had more to lose from industry and Republican criticism than it had to gain from environmental groups who support the rule.

Somebody in the White House counted up all the fruitbat Lefties who show up for Sierra Club events and then counted the Tea Party turnout.  Looks to me Watermelons came up short, so under the bus they go.
Coming on the heels of the big Alberta to Texas pipeline deal, the Storm That Never Was and the Republicans making him move his speech from Wednesday to Thursday,  Barry is looking like a sap.  Poor Barry.

The Phantom

Here's why its cheaper to let them take it.

Modern American law precludes defense of property.  If in doubt, let them take it.  It will be cheaper.

An El Paso County jury on Friday awarded nearly $300,000 to the daughter of a burglar who was fatally shot in 2009 while breaking into an auto lot.

 Parents of the victim, Robert Johnson Fox, embraced their attorneys after a judge announced the jury's verdict, capping a two-week-long civil trial in which business owner Jovan Milanovic and two relatives were painted as vigilantes who plotted a deadly ambush rather than let authorities deal with a string of recent burglaries.

Interesting finding by police, knives are not really weapons.  Kinda.

Police said in a 145-page investigative report that the intruder had knives in his pockets and one strapped to his ankle, but never posed a threat to Milanovic or the other men, his father Ljuban Milanovic and brother-in-law Srdjan Milanovic.

So armed robbery isn't really "armed" if the robber doesn't have as good a weapon as you do.  Please note, the business owner and his two friends were NOT CHARGED BY POLICE, because it was a righteous shoot and the DA knew he wasn't going to get a conviction.

The situation in Canada is much, much worse. If you kill a robber you will be charged with murder even if the guy shoots you first.

I reiterate, LET THEM TAKE IT.  Because the robbers can't take everything you own or ever hope to, but their lawyers can.

The Phantom

Steve Jobs Resigns from Apple.

Hot off the Drudge Report, Apple CEO and the guy who created the personal computer in his mum's garage, Steve Jobs resigned his post.

There are no details beyond his letter of resignation found here:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple''s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple''s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

I extend, for what its worth, my personal thanks to Mr. Jobs for everything his company and his work have done for me as an individual, my society and the world as a whole.  I wish him and his family well, and hope that his life is joyous.

The Phantom.

From our "this explains a lot!" file...

In case you were wondering why there's STILL no replacement for the space shuttle, despite the program being almost 40 years old this year, here's a hint:

...reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.

Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa's Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity "prepare for actual contact".

In their report, Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis, the researchers divide alien contacts into three broad categories: beneficial, neutral or harmful.

Here's the link and abstract at Elsevier Science.
I couldn't justify paying $31.00 for the actual paper to find out who paid for it, but my suspicion is that the US taxpayer did. Whoever paid got ripped off harshly, they just re-stated the plots from half the crappy Hollywood SciFi movies of the twentieth century.
Predictably, The Guardian takes a respectful tone to this bit of nonsense because it has Climate Change in it. Proving once again that you can't lampoon the Left, all you can do is report what they do, then point and laugh.

The Phantom

The Phantom Was WRONG! update:

Wow, I WUZ RONG! That almost never happens, but today it did. Underpaid, overworked NASA wretch Shawn Goldman reveals that NASA did not pay for this crapulous paper, he did it in his spare time with some friends. Therefore NASA is not guilty of wasting taxpayer money on this paper, and the Suspicious Phantom's suspicions were WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

However Shawn and his friends are still doofi, and the Guardian is still a propaganda rag unfit to line bird cages with. Here endeth the mea culpa.

Ooh, ooooh! I know this one!!!

Question on Liberalism 101 final exam:

Q: The chilllldrun isn't lurning.  Despite a No Child Left Behind federal law which punishes school districts when kids fail their exams, kids are still failing their exams nine years later.

The proper Liberal response is
A) fire teachers who's pupils score low consistently and hire new ones.
B) take over some school boards with many under-performing schools, fire a bunch of people and try again with new staff.
C) give people tax vouchers so they can send their under-performing child to a school designed to meet their individual needs
D)Shut the federal Department of Education completely, stop giving federal money to school districts altogether, and let the States do it.

E) stop testing the kids.

What would Obama do?  Think, think... eureka!

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

The plan to offer waivers to all 50 states, as long as they meet other school reform requirements, comes at the request of President Barack Obama, Duncan said. More details on the waivers will come in September, he said.

The goal of the [Republican, boo, hissss!] No Child Left Behind law is to have every student proficient in math and reading by 2014. States have been required to bring more students up to the math and reading standards each year, based on tests that usually take place each spring. The step-by-step ramping up of the 9-year-old law has caused heartburn in states and most school districts, because more and more schools are labeled as failures as too few of their students meet testing goals.

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press.

Awesome solution Mr. Obama sir, truly you are The One.

The Phantom

Three interesting hacks.

Found at Slashdot today, Techworld article containing three interesting tech hacks for your viewing pleasure.  We have the flying camera launched by a flare gun, the semi-autonomous flying WiFi and phone sniffer, and most interesting, the cellphone cloud software. No towers needed, straight phone-to-phone file sharing.

Enjoy!

The Phantom

Scandal? Or not so much? WIRED reports, you decide.

An interesting article on Drudge today. 

It seems an enterprising hacker bought a bunch of remote control gear on Ebay for a Burning Man project.  Wanted to have an autonomous vehicle driving around amongst the thousands of people at the festival (which totally isn't totally insanely unsafe or anything, right ?)  Turns out this surplus gear was from a failed project for the Pentagon.  The company was Ionatron, they were making a machine to blow up roadside bombs with electricity.  It was supposed to be a remote controlled, semi-autonomous vehicle that tooled along the side of the road with a big bug-zapper that would basically shoot lightning at any metal object buried in the dirt.  Didn't work all that well, company went bust, now the vehicle control gear is on Ebay.

This article is from WIRED magazine, and is one of a series that just buries Ionatron, the US military and their equipment acquisition program.  Here's the outrage quote:

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the Pentagon sank tens of millions of dollars into remote-controlled lightning guns that it hoped would fry insurgent bombs before they killed any more troops. Now, disassembled parts from the one-time wonder-weapons are being sold on eBay. At least one buyer snatched up the gear, hoping to use it in his latest art project for Burning Man.

All of which would make for a funny little story, if that buyer didn't discover that the multimillion dollar "Joint  Improvised Explosive Device Neutralizers," or JINs, were kluged together from third-rate commercial electronics, and controlled by open Wi-Fi signals. In other words, the Pentagon didn't just overpay for a flawed weapon. On the off-chance the JIN ever worked, the insurgents could control it, too.

"This is the hack of all hacks," says Cody Oliver, a freelance technologist in San Francisco. "And this is what they were selling to the government? Holy shit."

More specifically, here's the details of that "Holy shit":

Oliver kept going through the strange gear he had indirectly acquired from Ionatron. The wireless router that was supposed to be mounted on the robot was a standard Linksys model, the kind that filled countless homes with Wi-Fi. There was no encryption, and no password to protect the information. Anyone could've tapped in. "All the video, all the commands, there were all in the clear, over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi," Oliver says, his voice rising.

There was one difference, though, between this Linksys router and a standard one: The tell-tale blue plastic had been removed, and the serial numbers were carefully shaved off. As if someone didn't want the government to know that they were using commercial parts.

... ooooooh, sneaky! ...

Oliver eventually dropped the idea of using the Ionatron gear for Burning Man — and not because of Parish's threat. The gear just seemed too jury-rigged. Its network detector was a wire connected to the "on" light on the front of the router.

"I just don't trust it," he says.

Ok, so the whole thrust of the article is that the prototype gear was running off an unsecured Linksys 802-11 WiFi router. The author ignores that Ionatron wasn't in the autonomous vehicle business, they were in the mine-zapping business and needed a quick-and-dirty AV to strap the zapper onto for some field tests.  Seems the Marine Corps is still testing the mine-zapper idea, they put theirs on a truck instead of a robot.  Oh, and it looks like a pair of balls.  Which is hilarious, of course.

This Noah Shachtman guy is a pretty good writer. He had me going! In truth, I was all set to post this as an outrage piece myself... until I took a look at the comments.  Its a sobering thing to realize that you're a sucker for a line of patter, and I was one right up until I read this comment:

Common practice in defense industry to use COTS products (Consumer off the shelf).  Far cheaper during prototyping than custom fabricating equipment before concept is proven.  Considering this didn't really make it out of development and into production, its not surprising it was not locked down or made with more rugged equipment.  They have to make it through proof of concept before money will be sunk into producing them with military grade equipment and then it has to make it into production before they'll start locking everything down.

This article, like most defense articles on this site, is reaching hard to find something to criticize with selective reporting or just simple ignorance of how defense development is done.

And then my brain said "duh". 

Its a hurry-up prototype of a vehicle control, NOT the finished product.  Which they surplussed and it ended up on Ebay because its a piece of crap. Some guy probably fired it together in an all-nighter so he could have something that would run and drive the next day. Like I've never done that myself.  This is a genuine "Column deadline approaching and I've got NOTHING!" kinda article.

So there you have it my friends.  Like most MSM productions these days, your WIRED subscription is a waste.  You will be dumber and less informed after reading it. 

The "almost had me" Phantom

DROP THE MILK AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!

Here's a new one for the "Should you be more worried?" file. We know that the US Dept. of Education has its own SWAT team, for arresting people who don't pay their student loans on time.  Turns out the Dept. of Agriculture has a SWAT team too, or can at least borrow one.  Why would the DoAg need a freakin' SWAT team you ask?  Two words my friends: unpasteurized milk!

(NaturalNews) The raid on Rawesome Foods by a combined force of agents from the FDA, Dept of Agriculture, CDC and the LA County Sheriff's office wasn't the only SWAT-style armed raid that took place today. Sharon Palmer, a mom and owner of Healthy Family Farms was also arrested and taken to jail. A third woman, Victoria Bloch, the LA County liaison for the Weston A Price Foundation (www.WestonaPrice.org) , was also reportedly arrested, NaturalNews has learned.

All three are reportedly being charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. What crime? The "crime" of advocating raw milk for consumers!

As NaturalNews previously reported (http://www.naturalnews.com/033220_R…), the SWAT-style raid was conducted like a terrorist operation, where the cops immediately went after Rawesome's cash and then began vandalizing and destroying the store's entire inventory. This raid was an act of economic terrorism against a legitimate, ethical business selling wholesome, healthful products to a very happy group of members.

Added to the charges against these heinous criminals was the dastardly terrorist plot to sell "mislabeled cheese".  I couldn't make that up.

UPDATE #2 (4:30 PM CST): A spokesperson for the Weston A. Price Foundation has learned that authorities are charging Victoria Bloch with conspiracy under California Penal Code Section 182a. Sharon Palmer is reportedly also being charged with conspiracy and a charge related to 'mislabeling cheese.' Similar charges are also believed to be pending for Stewart. Natural News reports that an LAPD squad car was also involved in the raid.

Now as a person trained in physical therapy, I have to say I'm not aware of any scientifically proven health benefits from consuming raw milk and cheese compared to the pasteurized variety, although there's all kindsa nutty ideas about it out there all the time.  I am aware of several unpleasant diseases you can catch from unpasteurized dairy products, a couple of which can kill you deader than a mackerel. Like tuberculosis, to name one. Plus, we're talking California here.  So I'm fairly certain that these people are a bunch of deluded hippies and healthfood phreaks.  They probably smell funny too.

But I'm somehow doubting that being a deluded hippie, smelling funny and selling raw milk to people who JOINED A CLUB whose specific purpose is selling raw milk could possibly be so illegal and dangerous as to rate a dynamic entry raid from a full-on SWAT team, followed by trashing the guy's premises.  It's not like the milk was going to blow up, right?

Here's something else to worry about.  The mainstream media is joining in with the DemocRats to smear the Tea Party.  No big surprise, but now they're really ramping it up.

MSNBC host Martin Bashir interviewed Stanton Peele, a psychologist and an "expert on addiction," this afternoon. Bashir urged Peele to psychologically evaluate supporters of the Tea Party. "It reminds us of addiction because addicts are seeking something that they can't have," Peele said. "They want a state of happiness or nirvana that can't be achieved except through an artificial substance and reminds us of the Norway situation, when people are thwarted at obtaining something they can't, have they often strike out and Norway is one kind of example to one kind of reaction to that kind of a frustration."

Bashir later asked: "So you're saying that they are delusional about the past and adamant about the future?"

"They are adamant about achieving something that's unachievable, which reminds us of a couple of things. It reminds us of delusion and psychosis," Peele responded.

So it looks like they're going to go all-in with the "Tea Partiers are dangerously insane terrorists" thing.  Maybe we should all think about that a little bit, particularly in light of the number of non-Justice, non-military government departments that seem to have SWAT teams at their beck and call.

Just sayin'.

The Phantom

Oh look, NASA satellite doesn't match the Warmie Watermellon computer models!

Warmies took another one in the groin today. Yay!

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

"The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show," Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. "There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans."

In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.

But hey, I'm just a conservative/right wingnut/Nazi/climate denier/mass murderer by proxy, what do I know?

Tell you what I know.  I know its going to take more than a bunch of mouthy college kids trying to guilt me over Anders freakin' Brevik to make me ignore -facts-.  Go ahead, reach for that button you commies. We unhooked it when you weren't looking.

The "No Pressure" Phantom

Atheists: the new hate cult?

This little outrage just caught my eye.

A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit to stop the display of the World Trade Center cross at a memorial of the 9/11 terror attacks. The "government enshrinement of the cross was an impermissible mingling of church and state," the American Atheists say in a press statement.

These guys are going to a whole lot of trouble and a whole lot of people are going to spit on them in the process, so what's the big deal?  Quoth the atheists:

"The WTC cross has become a Christian icon," said Dave Silverman, president of the atheist group. "It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn't be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross. It's a truly ridiculous assertion."

Call me a fundie if you must, but that quote doesn't sound like a guy who thinks there is no God. That sounds like a guy who thinks there IS a God and hates him. Like, super duper hates him.  And is going to pop a head gasket if he has to look at another cross ever again.  (Also sounds like a pencil necked little dickhead, but that's a different post.)

The Phantom Cultist Crasher

Its official, middle class white people are the true terrorists.

Bad white people!

The video is part of Homeland Security's $10 million dollar "See Something, Say Something" program that encourages Americans to report "suspicious activity," which in every case throughout history has been a trait of oppressive, dictatorial regimes.

In the course of the 10 minute clip, a myriad of different behaviors are characterized as terrorism, including opposing surveillance, using a video camera, talking to police officers, wearing hoodies, driving vans, writing on a piece of paper, and using a cell phone recording application.

Despite encouraging viewers not to pay attention to a person's race in determining whether or not they may be a terrorist, almost all of the scenarios in the clip proceed to portray white people as the most likely terrorists. Bizarrely, nearly every single one of the "patriotic" Americans who reports on their fellow citizen is either black, Asian or Arab.

Those freakin' WASPS are destroying the country!!!

The Phantom WASP

Minority Report 2011

Remember from that Tom Cruise snoozer Minority Report the iris scanners they had everywhere?  Guess what:

Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.

The so-called "biometric" technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like "MI-5" or "CSI," could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues.

The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.

An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person's eyes, can reduce to seconds the time it takes to identify a suspect in custody. This technique also is significantly more accurate than results from other fingerprinting technology long in use by police, BI2 says.

When attached to an iPhone, MORIS can photograph a person's face and run the image through software that hunts for a match in a BI2-managed database of U.S. criminal records. Each unit costs about $3,000.

The kicker is the price.  Three grand is -nothing- for cop equipment these days. Before long you are going to be getting face/iris scanned for every traffic stop and minor infraction, every time you fly, etc.   They already do this at the US border, have done for several years. 

Please note, Dept. of Homeland Security is rolling out airport-level security for train stations, bus stations, subways, sports events, and in Texas the local high school prom. Yeah, they already did that last one. Complete with the groping.

The joke is that this tech does nothing that isn't accomplished by plain old picture ID for identification purposes. But what it is great for is -finding- people.  If you get on somebody's sh-t list, the little red flag goes up and then you're busted.  Airport, side of the road, bus station, government office, random camera checkpoint, boom.

Which is fine if everybody on the government side is playing by the rules.  But (GunWalker/Fast and Furious, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Caledonia, name your scandal) we know by now that they don't.

On another note, this story is from Reuters.  I suspect (but can't prove) that the only reason Reuters published it is the scanner attaches to an Apple iPhone. Reuters and other American MSM outlets of late seem to have taken a stance of "viewing with alarm" anything to do with Apple and iPhone particularly.  All part of the same old Britney Spears-style "build them up then tear them down" media algorithm. Apple is entering the tear-them-down phase, so look for lots more negatory stories about them in the coming months.

 Anybody who thinks they're getting informed from TV/newspaper "information" is severely deluded. What they are really getting is kept in a box and fed BS like a mushroom.