Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for August, 2009

Religion and Politics

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Back when my son was in Scouting, I taught multiple merit badges for the Troop, including all three Citizenship merit badge. Citizenship in the Nation required them to read and discuss the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

I found this great shirt pocket sized book from the Cato Institute that had both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. I bought them in bulk and gave each Scout in my class a copy. Then I told there would be a quiz in the next class, and there was.

Now the Cato Institute is a Libertarian think tank, and being in the Peoples’ Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I tried to find an opposing view. So I went to the ACLU‘s website and tried to find a similar publication. What I could not find at the ACLU website was the Constitution of the United States of America, the fundamental legal document of the nation.

That is when it dawned on me, the ACLU is like the old Roman Catholic Church. They wanted the Mass in Latin and the Bible printed in Latin, with only the Priests knowing how to speak and read Latin. They didn’t want the Laity knowing what the Word of God was, the Church only wanted them to know what the Church said the word of God was.

The Libertarians are like that rabble rousing Martin Luther, who had the radical idea of printing the Bible in languages that the Laity could read. Let them read it and see what it really says.

The Libertarians feel that the US Constitution is a remarkable document, that clearly lists what the functions of Government are and just as importantly, what are not the functions of the federal government. It’s all there, written in clear English. They want the Citizens to read it, understand it and know how it is supposed to effect their daily lives.

The far left, which includes most Congressional democrats (who are not “liberals” in the classic sense), don’t want American citizens to read the Constitution. They want to tell you what it means, and don’t want you raising questions about their interpreation have nothing to do with the words written in the actual document.

Personally, I think you should read it, and ask just why the leftists are so afraid of you doing so.

DaybyDay Creator interviews

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Ed Driscoll interviews Chris Muir, creator of the Day by Day Cartoon.

Obama’s Snitch line is down

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Hot Air is reporting that email to the Obama Snitch email address (flag@whitehouse.gov) is down and returning an error message.

A win for the First Amendment and the Rule of Law, two things the Obama Administration isn’t too keen on.

Monday Book Pick: The Sackett Brand

Monday, August 17th, 2009

The Sackett Brand by Louis L’Amour

Classic American Western literture by the master of the genre. First published in 1965, this tale of revenge still grabs the reader with L’Amour’s prose and love for the American West.

The Monday Book Pick Archive.

Penn & Teller explain how Taxes work in Obamamerica

Monday, August 17th, 2009

NewsBusted! August 14, 2009

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Another leftist double standard: Requiring ID

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

First off, a story NewsBusters files under “Can’t Make It Up” with good reason.

Eugene Green, a democrat congresscritter from Texas has voted against defending the basic civil rights of American citizens by voting NO on requiring ID for federal elections.  This hasn’t stopped him from demanding that American Citizens in his own district present a photo ID in order to be admitted into his “Town Hall” Meetings.

Liberal democrat hypocrisy so thick you need an ax to make a dent in it.

Extra Bonus Example: Racist Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor had her fitness club membership canceled because she repeated refused to show her ID when entering the club.  She apparently felt that the staff should have been honored to have a “wise Latina woman” gracing their establishment and didn’t need to identify herself.

Stray SciFi observations

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

I admit it, I have watched all three seasons of Heros.  Not a great show, but not horrible either.  Good acting and engaging characters.  Plot holes you could drive a semi through, but hey you can’t have everything.

Ok, fair warning, I’m going to discuss plot points, so there be spoilers here.

First off, the writers must have figured out that time/space powers shared by Hiro & Peter were just too unstablisling and was giving them headaches in the writers meetings, so those had to go.

There was that little trick with a transfusion of Claire’s blood. That is how the Company brought back Noah from the dead.  I’m not talking about pining for the fiords type “mostly dead” either.  This was a “bullet entrance wound in eye, tunnel through the brain and blow out the back of the head” type dead.   If you have Claire, you don’t need to screw with Sylar’s brain after he just cut Nathan’s throat.   Ok, maybe they are going to pull some crazed crap like Noah never knew, or asked, how he was brought back to life, and Nathan’s body is on ice somewhere, ready to be reanimated through the magic of Claire’s blood after Sylar figures out that he is Sylar.  I expect Parkman to be rather pissed off if he finds out, unless he’s moved on from Daphne and is back on track with his ex-wife, who was cheating on him with his best friend.

Ok, I’ve got that out of my system.

Let’s move on.  The SciFi channel’s new show Warehouse 13.  Ya, I know know the idiots there changed the spelling, but that is their little episode of idioticy.

I like Warehouse 13, and ya, Steve Jackson Games did a GURPS book about it first, so go collect your geek cred somewhere else.  They admit they got the idea from the first Indiania Jones movie anyway.

The characters are fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it is more serious than the Librarian movies. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch all the episodes aired so far at Scifi.com.

Friday B-Movie Pick: Hexed

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Hexed

Before she starred in Babylon 5, Claudia Christian did this fun comedy/horror film.

Friday B-Movie Archive

An alternative to coffeeshops for “freelancers”

Friday, August 14th, 2009

There has been a fair amount of whining over this Wall Street Journal story about coffee houses rousing deadbeats taking up space that paying customers could be in.

What started as a good practice to bring in customers, providing free WiFi access to the Internet, has been abused by freeloaders and deadbeats, causing coffeeshops to start denying power for laptops and declaring laptop free hours.

Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us you deadbeats.  If you are going to take up space in a place of business, like a coffee shop, how about patronizing the business?   One cup of drip coffee, which you leave untouched as you sit for hours on end, taking advantage of the free WiFi, does not count as patronizing the business.  Buy a couple of bagels at least!

Here is something these so called “freelancers” (i.e. deadbeats) can do instead of whining about their “careers” are coming to an end, visit your local public library.  Odds are that there is free Internet access there.   It may not be as “hip” as freeloading at the local coffeeshop, but are you interested in getting your work done, or merely projecting the image of being productive when you are actually just hanging out?