Well, no. You don’t gotta be contrary. You could declare your undying intent to be absolutely normal and conformist, adhering to whatever the dictates of popular opinion, government schools, or Parade Sunday supplement … er, dictate. But around here, even that would be a form of being contrary. So maybe ya gotta be contrary, after all. And in a second, I’ll get to some wherefores. But here’s what sparked my thinking about this. This comment by Roxy came up in Oliver Del Signore’s blog about Obama’s new birth certificate: I am sorry to see Backwoods Home getting into political commentary.…
29 CommentsMonth: April 2011
Meet the next generation of police-state scanners. Guess we can’t call ’em porno-scanners any more, because they don’t show our private parts as much as the present ones do. Nope. They just probe our bones and internal organs and our prosthetics if we have ’em. With x-rays. But totally “safe” x-rays, of course. How could you imagine otherwise, you unpatriotic little weasel? That you could even think such a thing obviously proves you have something to hide. Guess all those expensive machines the TSA just bought will soon have to be replaced with new expensive machines. From the friendly company…
11 CommentsSo. Obama, under pressure, finally releases The Birth Certificate. Such a relief. Now we can be sure the president isn’t violating the Constitution. Yesterday Radley Balko linked to this article about Patrick the miracle dog. You really have to see the photos here to get just how huge a miracle Patrick’s survival is. Warning: If you have a tender heart or an easily upset stomach, you might not want to view them. Here’s a perfect example of the entitlement mentality. Fortunately, this idiot, who actually tried to get a refund from the post office, did not get either her postage…
18 CommentsOhdamn. Did everybody in the world know about this except me? Chris D. casually mentions that The Rapture is scheduled for May 21. Yes, this May 21. And here I am, not ready once again. I missed the ones in 1844, 1914,1918, 1925, and 1942. But for those, I had the excuse of not being born. I also completely blew past the Raptures of 1975, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1992 (both of them), 1993, 1994 (both of them), and 1995. I had far less excuse for missing all those, especially since they were coming at a pretty regular clip, there toward…
38 CommentsA few choice items mined from comments and emails from blog readers: Have you thanked the above Wholesome Homeland Security Hero for keeping us safe by groping your children? Turns out TSA agent Thomas Gordon is so dedicated to our welfare that he even studied young girls in his spare time. (From winston; who noted oh-so-correctly that this news was inevitalble. Bet it won’t be the last.) From Pat: Turns out you can get paid for trying to inflict a conscience on Obama. Unfortunately, the few bucks these folks might receive doesn’t even begin to offset the thousands they had…
5 CommentsOne of the first things Jimmy Hoffa said to Frank Sheeran was, “I heard you paint houses.” Sheeran replied, “I do my own carpentry, too.” The exchange had nothing to do with paintbrushes or wood. According to a book-length confession from Sheeran at the end of his life, “painting houses” is mob-speak for murder (“painting” walls with victims’ blood) and “carpentry” is disposing of bodies (building coffins — although I presume that hit squads usually dispense with that nicety). Hoffa apparently needed an occasional painting job, which, over the following years, Sheeran may have provided. Sheeran became a Hoffa loyalist…
19 CommentsAre you one of the 100 million iPhone users? One of the 15 million iPad owners? Might want to reconsider. And if you read through to the second half of this FoxNews article — to the part about the handy-dandy police tool, Cellebrite UFED, which is designed to let cops suck up all your cellphone data in minutes, with or without warrant — you might just want to toss your iThing into a swamp and hope a gator swallows it. Is there a technology company left on the planet that has one iota, one smidgen, one molecule of regard for…
25 CommentsWorld ended yesterday. Hm. Didja notice? I didn’t. Well then. Since we still appear to be here: ten everyday acts of resistance that changed the world. Ten incredibly cool homemade toys you could really hurt yourself with. The feds are moving Bradley Manning to Leavenworth. Where he might get slightly better conditions. We can hope. But notice the use of that word “detained.” Is it just me, or are the uses of “detained” getting creepier by the day? Didn’t there used to be a connotation of “slightly inconvenienced, momentarily delayed”? Now it’s getting closer to meaning “disappeared without a trace…
11 CommentsEighteen years after Waco, some Branch Davidians reminisce. (Mainstream but interesting.) Sixteen years after Oklahoma City a fireman explains why he no longer trusts government. (Revisionist and eyewitness.) And in other news … Go ahead. Cuss. It’s good for you. Sitting, OTOH, isn’t. Next time somebody asks for your business card, Officer … (Side note: Do police ever tell the truth about their encounters with wronged “civilians”? Or is it possible that they really believe that any forceful comment or request from one of us is an offense, an affront, and an interference?) That poker bust. A sad waste of…
5 CommentsIt was a time uncannily like this time. A time of rising poverty and unemployment, of a disappearing middle class, and a growing government class. Things were breaking down. The government always had a new “solution” — never mind that solution followed solution and matters got steadily worse. It was a time when the best finally quit pushing against the barriers erected against them and withdrew their talents, a time when the worst prospered through their connections to government. The man on the street, not understanding why life was falling apart around him, shrugged and uttered that ultimate expression of…
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