The Audacity of Hos

Courtesy of Jon Stewart. Really. Freaking. Hilarious.

Terrell Davis is A Man

For no particular reason, I was reminiscing with a friend about one of my all-time favorite athletes...period. Terrell Davis, RB for the Denver Broncos from 1995-2001 (his career was cut short by a wicked knee injury, thanks to an interception by Brian freaking Griese). I remembered seeing this hit as a highlight back in 1995, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Muse - The Uprising (Part Deux)

I know I've posted this song before, but Jer-Bear just sent me a link to this video of Muse performing The Uprising live in concert in Teignmouth, UK. So enjoy it. Again. I know I did.

The paranoia is in bloom, the PR
The transmissions will resume
They'll try to push drugs
Keep us all dumbed down and hope that
We will never see the truth around

Another promise, another scene, another
A package not to keep us trapped in greed
With all the green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless red tape to keep the truth confined

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you'd see that
We should never be afraid to die

Rise up and take the power back, it's time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

Health Care Not a "Right"

So I was hanging out with a good friend of mine (who looks fabulous in navy pants, btw) the night of Obama's obligatory health care plug. Our conversation inevitably turned to Obamacare, specifically whether health care was a right or not. I feel the need to articulate my thoughts a little more on this.

The Declaration of Independence declares that all human beings posses "certain unalienable rights" that have been "endowed by their Creator." These God-given rights include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Health care isn’t on that list. The question is, should it be?

This question is far more significant than it may first seem, and the justification for a government takeover of health care depends on the answer. The very next sentence in the Declaration affirms that the purpose of government is to "secure" those rights against infringement. If access to health care is deemed a fundamental right, as many on the left have claimed, then the government must be obliged to guarantee that access to every citizen. Medical treatment would have to be available on an equal basis to anyone seeking it, regardless of age, physical condition, or ability to pay. Essentially, it could be equated to our religious freedom. Our freedom to worship how, where, and what we choose does not depend on private markets. We do not have to purchase it, it is ours by right, regardless of our economic or social condition. But can this value really be assigned to health care?

Ted Kennedy certainly thought so, as do Barack Obama, the progressives, and some well-meaning citizens. And it is not hard to understand why. As human beings, and as Americans in particular, we are especially concerned about the well-being of others (this is one of the luxuries afforded to citizens of a developed and wealthy nation). Few of us are indifferent to the desperation felt by those who need medical care, but cannot afford it. But basic human rights are not founded upon passion, or even upon need. Wanting something, no matter how justifiably or altruistically, does not entitle you to possess it, especially if someone else will be forced to provide it for you.

This is where our comparison of the right to health care to the freedom of religion (and the rest of the unalienable rights) fails. The rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence are strictly negative rights (meaning they cannot be taken away). Our right to free speech, to own property, or to worship does not infringe on any other person's right to the same. We can all simultaneously express ourselves, own property (ownership of my home does not inhibit in any way your ownership of your home), and assemble for worship without inhibiting anyone else from doing the same. But if I claim health care as a right, then someone else must be compelled to provide or pay for that care. This compulsion can be in the form of higher taxes, insurance mandates, health care rationing, etc., but the bottom line is that a right to health care would leave society less free.

Imagine if we used this same line of reasoning with regards to food or clothing. Both are essential to human welfare, but few would suggest that Washington national the food and clothing industries. You cannot simultaneously guarantee either without again compelling someone to provide them. In fact, it is precisely because food and clothing are seen as commodities whose availability is dependent on the market that they can be had in such abundance and diversity. This is exactly why we need to allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines. As Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe recently said,

Some people will always need help. No decent person ignores the cries of the sick or hungry or poor. Happily, there is no better system for achieving the widest possible access to health care - or any other good or service - than the one that requires the least degree of political interference: the normal interplay of supply, demand, and competition. Health care is too important to be left to the market? No, it is too important not to be.

ACORN Continues to Hang Itself

That's right...let out a little more rope. First MD, NY, and DC. Now...California. James O'Keefe and Hanah Giles are at it again, this time in San Bernardino. Enjoy.

How anyone could still defend these slimeballs is beyond me...maybe you could ask Charlie Gibson.

Storm Trooper Truthers

In honor of Van Jones' dismissal as the green jobs czar after his Truther association came to light, I thought I'd share this video with y'all. I find it is helpful to compare current events with things I'm more familiar or comfortable with in order to really understand and appreciate them. Things like sports. Or Star Wars.

h/t: Jawa

ACORN Busted, De-funded

I'm sure you're all familiar with the recent undercover video exposé of ACORN carried out by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles in Baltimore, DC, and New York. If you're not, don't feel bad, because for some inexplicable reason the MSM has yet to catch on to this story (actually, it's very much explicable, sadly enough). I've posted video from the Baltimore setup below for your viewing pleasure, and you can view the videos from the DC and NY ops by following the above links to Andrew Breitbart's new website, Big Government. This is what O'Keefe had to say regarding his motivation for carrying these investigations (which, I would like to point out, were effectuated by a private citizen, and not by any news or government agency...I guess we are our own watchdogs, now).

A famous community organizer once said, “The only way to upset the power structure in your communities is to goad them, confuse them, irritate them and, most of all, make them live by their own rules. If you make them live by their own rules, you destroy them.” Impossible demands can irritate modern leftists in ways nothing else can, whether it’s by banning Lucky Charms cereal because it’s racist against Irish people, calling Planned Parenthood saying you want to donate money for black abortions in the name of Margaret Sanger, or making Sen. Snowe sign an oversized bailout check for a billion dollars to Amtrak, in her own office.

The scenario we posed the ACORN Housing employees in Baltimore is due to the application of similar power tactics. We gave ACORN a taste of its own medicine. ACORN was alleged to be thug-like, criminal, and nefarious. This criminal behavior was evidenced by a video of Baltimore ACORN community organizers breaking the locks on foreclosed homes. Instead of railing against their radicalism, it is best to bring out this type of radicalism. Hannah Giles and I took advantage of ACORN’s regard for thug criminality by posing the most ridiculous criminal scenario we could think of and seeing if they would comply–which they did without hesitation.

Additionally, instead of focusing on foreclosure itself, which has become seemingly as politicized as abortion, we focused on crimes more difficult for the left to defend: trafficking of young helpless girls and tax evasion. The first group represents the severely disadvantaged, the second a threat to the distribution of wealth.

While manipulation or entrapment occurs when people are encouraged to do things they otherwise wouldn’t, the pre-set trap is their own. These tactics allow the viewer to see ACORN’s soul; their playing field and their morality, out in the open. Their system is based on conflict and change for its own sake. This system is based on totalitarian principles and class war techniques. These people understand pressure, power and self-interest. When the Baltimore employees saw we were shady dealers, their instincts clicked in, as we were prime recruits.

ACORN has ascended. They elect our politicians and receive billions in tax money. Their world is a revolutionary, socialistic, atheistic world, where all means are justifiable. And they create chaos, again, for it’s own sake. It is time for us to be studying and applying their tactics, many of which are ideologically neutral. It is time, as Hannah said as we walked out of the ACORN facility, for conservative activists to “create chaos for glory.”

NOTE: In light of these latest controversies the House has voted overwhelmingly (83-7) to strip ACORN of all federal funding (they have already been banned from participating in the census). The amendment still has to pass the Senate, though, but even Pelosi may be forced to allow it to come to the floor.

Government IS the Problem

In honor of all those who are participating in rallies and marches across the country on this memorable occasion, I'd like you to watch this brief excerpt from Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address. You can view the entire address here.

We Surround Them

This is what a republic looks like. Astroturf? Hardly.

DC Metro estimated crowds at 1.2 million. ABC News estimated them at 2 million. You can see more streaming camera shots here.

Obamacare End-of-Life Counseling

Here's a preview of what you can expect with Obamacare's mandatory government end-of-life counseling.

h/t: MM

UN names Castro 'World Hero of Solidarity'

Yes, that Castro. Fidel was presented the award for 'World Hero of Solidarity' by UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann (Brockmann is also a socialist, and is a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize, an award given primarily to prominent Communists and supporters of the former Soviet Union). Solidarity is really just progressive code for socialism. I guess the award makes sense, though. The term solidarity can be defined as "a union of interests or purposes or sympathies among members of a group." I'm pretty sure that most Cubans are unified in their misery and terror under Castro's regime.

In addition to the award presented to Fidel, Bolivian president Evo Morales was presented the award for 'World Hero of Mother Earth', whatever the crap that means. I wonder if it's because of his affinity for the coca plant. Although he publicly condemns the production and use of cocaine (he only grows the plant, after all, he doesn't refine it), Bolivia is the fasting growing cocaine producer in Latin America. In fact, a UN report (go ahead, laugh at the irony) showed that while cocaine production declined by 28% last year in Columbia, Bolivia's cocaine production grew 10%. The abuse of the drug is so prolific that there are semi-legalized cocaine bars in La Paz. They have to move locations from time to time, but only because of complaints of neighboring businesses, not because of any legal crackdown. And oh, by the way, Morales is the leader of the radical left-wing political party, Movement for Socialism, and an ideological ally of Hugo Chavez.

The late African socialist and former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere was also posthumously named the 'World Hero of Social Justice'. I guess it's only proper for a an award for social justice to go to a socialist. Nyerere established a single-party system that effectively eliminated all political competition, and he supported revolutionaries in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and Congo. He also welcomed Black revolutionaries from around the world to gather and discuss various forms of Marxism, and he was praised by the US based Black Radical Congress. Nyerere instituted ujamaa, a policy under which all land belonged to the state (this was a tribal practice and was the basis for his African socialism), and he used the 1962 Preventive Detention Act to suppress trade unions and brutally incarcerate thousands of civilians and political opponents (if you don't look at any of the other links, look at that one...it's the actual act as enacted by the Tanzanian (then called Tanganyika) National Assembly, and is pretty interesting). The government forcibly relocated thousands to collective farms, which greatly disrupted agricultural efficiency and output (crop yields on collective farms were, on average, 60% less than on individually owned fields). The Tanzanian economy effectively collapsed, and its starving people had to rely almost wholly on foreign aid for survival.

So, did we notice a pattern developing? Castro: socialist. Morales: socialist. Nyerere: socialist. Brockmann: socialist. Conclusion? The UN is an engine for the global spread of socialist ideologies. Don't believe me? Listen to their praise of these three award recipients. “What we want to do is present these three people to the world and say that they embody virtues and values worth emulation by all of us." Their words, not mine.

As an aside, what I find truly remarkable is the traction that socialism/communism seems to be gaining among the more liberal and progressive circles. Not so much that they are espousing socialist ideas, but that they are more actively and openly promoting the socialist agenda. The argument used to be, "You're a socialist," followed by "No I'm not." Now it is "You're a socialist," followed by "So what?" There was a time when socialism was recognized as the corrupt, oligarchic political system that trampled individual progress and self-worth that it actually is. Now, every brainless, self-absorbed, incompetent, self-aggrandizing progressive liberal wants to show how "enlightened" they are by espousing a political system that has proven time and again how corrupt and detrimental to individual liberty it is. Please, someone explain to me how I'm the irrational one.

So why is socialism/communism dangerous to freedom? Listen to the following excerpts from two addresses given by Ezra Taft Benson, US Secretary of Agriculture under Eisenhower, and President and Prophet of the LDS Church. They were given in 1966 and 1965 respectively. The second clip is well worth the time to view it in its entirety, despite its length. You can view it here. Remember, these messages were given over 40 years ago, and are perhaps more ominous and vital now than ever before.

The Government Can...

I saw this video on the 912 Project the other day. I've been meaning to post it here but I've been...well...lazy. Oh, well. Here you go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.