- So … how much impact, if any, do you think Obama’s
bancarefully structured limitation on further cop militarization will have? (H/T MJR) - Only in the 21st century: Social Network Dysmorphia.
- Incoming Boston University professor Saida Grundy first made news with a series of racist, sexist, and historically ignorant tweets. But that was so last week. It’s even hard to find those tweets now, since news came out that she also trolled and taunted a white rape victim. And acted like a generally arrogant ass, besides. Teach your children well, folks. ‘Cause “higher education” is increasingly unlikely to do it.
- No surprise: the war on cash is going global.
- It seems a bizarre contention, a claim no one in his right mind could make. But could nicotine be as benign as caffeine?
- And while we’re on the subject: The science behind craving.
And in developments on the home front, if I’d had any doubt whether my ankle was actually broken or just badly sprained, I’d be doubting no more. The thing is itching fiendishly. I always thought the notorious itches had to do with the reaction between tight casts and dead flaky skin. Turns out it’s also from the healing. Thank heaven for being able to scratch! I think if I were wearing a cast, long about now I’d be trying to bite it off like a wolf with his foot caught in a trap. Still. Itching. Good sign.
I’ve long been under the impression that it was the other assorted toxins in tobacco, and more accurately the way its consumed, that made it harmful and that nicotine by itself was just another relatively harmless mild stimulant just like caffeine or sugar.
Then again I still smoke the cancer sticks and I personally find the whole anti-tobacco movement nowadays to be hysteria on par with all the other anti-everything movements. It’s an area that will really give you a bead on a person’s attitude towards personal freedoms in my opinion. I feel that a person that will get their jimmies rustled over a bar that chooses to allow smoking indoors because they know better than the thousands of us who like to burn one while we drink is every bit the same as someone who wants to make your choices for you regarding religion or self defense or anything else.
RE: Itching. Pro tip: apply hot water to the area. The itch is caused by the release of histamine in the skin cells; applying water – as hot as you can stand it, but not hot enough to burn you – will force histamine release. It will itch tremendously while applying the hot water, but if you can tolerate that for 5 minutes you’ll get 8-10 hours of relief from the itching. Useful trick for getting restful sleep with poison ivy, etc., and it works on hives.
Interesting to see what happens with Grundy. She should be fired before she starts teaching. Anyone currently employed would have been dismissed and run out on a rail for saying much less. At least she should shut up. I think she’s pushing BU’s buttons to see what she can get away with.
(Related, but not the same: I have a thing against “official” social media, anyway — which I realize doesn’t apply in Grundy’s case — namely, institutions of any type [educational, political, religious, city council, etc] should not have a social media account, and employees of those institutions should not verbalize personal viewpoints on them, nor should the institutions give out official information through them. Social media is not “media”, personal statements are not “official”, and official statements should be made known through a more professional venue.)
Obama’s ‘restrictions’ are nearly meaningless. E.g. armored vehicles running on tracks (like tanks) are not appreciated by local governments due to the destruction they cause to local roads. ‘.50 cal and larger’ rifles – like 20mm anti-tank rifles that don’t get deployed anyway? The police are already full up with ex-military Humvees, sniper rifles, RPGs, etc. The only reason to stop distributing them is to provide a facade of caring. The horse is already out of the barn.
Re: Cash – it’s not about the wait time for me to pay with cash. It’s about control of populations and what they can buy. Cash enables you to buy things the feds don’t want you to have – guns in today’s terms, but maybe fresh food in a few years. It also has value as an exchange medium that is independent of what the central fed-thug government says, while an all electronic credits system can destroy your financial worth with keystrokes, and yet take NOTHING away from you, only the value of it all. It will also enable electronic price controls on everything – again with a few keystrokes. Like gun control, the operative word in ‘cash control’ is ‘CONTROL’. There is no other valid reason for either.
One of the keys reasons for a “cashless” society is to make bank runs impossible. Can’t pull your cash out of the bank if cash does not exist. It would also leave another trail for persons that would use electronic funds to purchase physical gold or silver. Of course a work around will be to buy items to barter with, much the same way that the food stamp EBT is traded around.
This is part of what I should have written about cash above, Claire. Consolidate the two comments if you like, or edit them.
Now this is interesting. Dangerous too. If all ‘money’ is electronic, governments can not only control the value of it and steal it at will, but will be able to determine what you might be permitted to buy or not. Imagine a DHS that will deny a purchase when you try to make it because they control your ‘electronic credit’ money – and when the cashier tries to ring up a purchase, the SKU is flagged as a purchase that is forbidden to you. Imagine being denied the ability to buy food because the economy is in the crapper and the rioting ghetto rats need to be fed – but YOU can’t buy seeds to plant a garden because the UN (Agenda 21) says you shouldn’t have one where you live.
If we lose cash and guns, we’re all screwed dry. And if we lose guns, we will lose cash because we will have NO leverage. But if we lose cash first, we’ll soon be forbidden to buy guns or ammunition.
You may have changed my life with the link to ‘The Science Behind Craving’.
Thank you.
I agree with David’s comment that Obama’s so-called “restrictions” on selling military equipment to local police forces is close to meaningless. No more grenade launchers, huh? Thank heaven for small favors! The damage is already done: not only do most police forces already have all of such gear that they want (and can afford), but the overt militarization of the police is nearly complete. John Whitehead has a pretty good article on the subject at The Rutherford Institute: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/militarization_is_more_than_tanks_and_rifles_its_a_cultural_disease_ac
With respect to eliminating cash, those trial balloons started rising a couple of years ago. (And it’s not “going global”; it started there. The first mention I saw of this idea came from Germany.) Obviously the reason is control, not only of a nation’s money but, more importantly, of its citizens. Others have already touched on this. But a side effect which seems worth pondering is the effect such a policy would have on the “legal tender” laws.
At present (in the US, anyway) the law requires governments to accept cash as payment for all obligations. Our paper currency bears the legend “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”, but that’s not strictly true. The US Treasury states that there is “no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.” http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/legal-tender.aspx. This is a correct interpretation of the statute, which provides that US currency and coin is “legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” (Note the omission of the word “private”.) So the US could properly adopt a statute such as that proposed in Denmark, to make accepting cash optional on the part of the merchant, because that actually is the law here already. But it would take a much larger change to permit governments (federal, state or local) to refuse cash payments. And if that were done, and the government withdrew all currency in circulation, that would seem to obviate the counterfeiting laws (as there would be nothing to counterfeit). This, in turn, would permit the return of private currencies, such as Bernard von Nothaus’ “Liberty Dollars.” I can see there being some definite upside, from a freedom perspective, to the elimination of government cash. And it will take much more than a few federal statutes to effectively eliminate private cash, especially in a collapsing economy.
Alien — Thanks for the tip on the hot water. Never heard of that. Since the itching is worst at night, anything that might give 8+ hours of relief would be great.
Jans — I hope that change is for the better. 🙂
I’m still making my way toward the end of that article now. I posted without finishing my initial read; could tell it had good info.
1. This “disarmament” is on the state and local level, and has no effect on federal LEOs.
2, If police are restricted from having .50 cal, “assault weapons,” and bayonets, guess who else won’t be able to possess them.
[sigh] And money was such a useful invention.
Bayonets? Really?
I have a different perspective on heavy armament in the hands of the locals, which LarryA touched upon. Better that they are stored locally, where they might be available to the citizens, “in case of need”, than shipped to a foreign country or stored by the feds in a military base somewhere inaccessible to local militia. Not all local cops are bad guys and they have the right to self defense, just as we do. We should encourage the storage in our own counties. Keep them local and handy. Remember, it’s not the gun that makes a bad guy, it’s the use of them to initiate force that is the evil. ‘
It is also a great excuse to use for gun control. “Why we won’t even give these to the police. Why would we let a citizen have them?”
Tahn – all good points. But in the interim, if your son tears up a few parking tickets and the judge orders him picked up, it your local PD even thinks there is a gun in your home, you are at risk for a dead of nite SWAT raid – with those very weapons you want them to have. I do not find that trade off acceptable.
David,
The same holds true with the weapons they have now. M16’s, gas and such and in the dead of night against individuals they need little more. Again, it is WHY they use them for offense rather than the weapon itself that is the evil.
Let’s keep them local and “available” for real defense against forces that might require such defensive measures.
I would exempt nukes, biological weapons and poison gas from BOTH citizens and police.
I don’t know that that’s a supportable claim. Correlation vs. causation comes to mind. I’ve no doubt there are cases where the conclusion is clear, but half? Case in point. My dad died from lung cancer. He smoked for 40+ years. He also changed professions late in life, and worked for several years in a plant where various industrial solvents were in use, and where some of the work involved grinding and welding. So, what actually triggered the carcinoma? Sure, smoking is the most likely culprit. But it isn’t the only possible cause of DNA mutation.
Now that’s just a BS claim, if you ask me. Isn’t Scientific American supposed to be a reputable publication? Or have they declined over the years? I suppose they’re pandering to an agenda these days.
Nicotine, by itself, seems pretty low on the scale of toxins. It’s been demonized by conflation with the affects of tobacco. It’s difficult to get a lethal dose by inhalation. Nicotine users also develop a tolerance. Some people will have worse problems, e.g. people who already have heart trouble. I’m reading now, at Wikipedia, that it can be an aggravating factor with respect to cancer, but it isn’t by itself, a carcinogen.
Overall, I’m not terribly worried about nicotine. I doubt I’ll ever kick it. But I no longer smoke.
Regarding the Military Equipment to LEA’s under the Section 1033 Program and Obama’s restrictions.
First of all this equipment can be recalled by DLA anytime by the Memorandum of Agreement signed by the Agency.
Excerpt:
“E. The DLA Disposition Services LESO reserves the right to recall any and all property issued through the LESO Program.”
The LEA (Agency) is effectively Leasing said equipment based on size of the Agency, sure it is a token payment, but it still is an annual fee.
The tracked armored vehicles are operated by many (although mostly rural) LEA’s, my area has a M113 (M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier) as well as MRAP’s and HMMWV’s.
Now if I had a “Tin Foil Hat” I might think that maybe they got the Local and State LEA’s to get used to these vehicles and equipment, use them, and help alienate LEO’s from community by their use.
This alienation is compounded by the number of recent Combat Veterans becoming LEO’s, many tend to revert to their base training and are quite heavy handed (I am retired military, so I am not bashing Vet’s, but being a good soldier and being a good LEO is not the same thing) not to mention the power hungry types.
Now we also have this created racial tension which has led to rioting and is promoted by media and the race baiter’s.
The LEA’s have become dependent on their new DOD toy’s and now lack proper training and alternate equipment to operate without them.
So now comes Obama saying that Local and State LEA’s can’t be trusted with this gear (since we all know only the highly trained professionals in the Federal Government can be trusted with such equipment (sarcasm)).
So we take this gear back right before the LEA’s might use them to deal with new rioting. Maybe they can’t handle these Riots under this new situation without their military toys.
Maybe they we wait for some more abuses of this equipment against this possible future Rioting?
Then take them back.
Ultimately they get their justification for Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force (Police)” because only highly trained professionals in the Federal Government can deal with such situations!
Planned? Coincidence? Combination of both?
Now I don’t have a “Tin Foil Hat” and I am probably just getting cynical in my old age, but it is something to think about and watch closely.
Than raises an interesting point which had not previously occurred to me. It’s certainly worth considering.
I’m glad Jed made those comments about the
bogushighly questionable cancer death statistics (especially the one on second-hand smoke). He saved me the trouble.Some of the tension between Than’s position and David’s depends on the “local police” involved. The two extremes would be a big-city police force with an appointed chief working for a progressive city hall, and a rural department consisting of a few deputies, run by an elected sheriff.
IMHO many of the current anti-police demonstrations would better be focused on city government, and the voters who keep them in power.
I agree that my perspective come from being in a rural county with an elected Sheriff.
I believe that the greatest tension between police and citizens is not race related but the enforcement of mala prohibita laws or victimless crimes as Claire has explained many times in her writings. Eliminate them and most tensions will disappear.
The stuff sack isn’t the sturdiest thing ever made, but finding one in that size was a bit of a challenge. Normally I just jam mine in with my sleep system. I doubt the poncho will fit in the stuff sack at the same time. Speaking of mil ponchos, recon and snipers use them like ghillie suits when laying in the prone on the side or military crest of a hill. Had I been thinking a bit more, I would have wrapped it with 25′ of paracord. They can be draped over a line tied between trees to act as a blind, as well. I hear you can even wear it if it rains! 😉
We’ve been inundated with moths as of late, so I shoved that thermal top in the nearest plastic bag. Hence the BDU or whatever label. It is from the Dutch army (KL) and the number signifies year of manufacture. Not only are western militaries shrinking, they are offloading wool garments mothballed (ha!) durning the Cold (ha HA!) War. For better or worse, everyone’s been making the transition to polypro since the 90’s. That shirt is 50% wool, the rest being Polly Esther or something.
When I was gathering things in the box, The Dove commented “That’s a lot of green”. I replied “It’s okay. Claire’s of Irish stock.”
“Oh! Like Joyce!”
“Never heard of her.”
(Laugh track)
😉