Lock and Load: Guns News Coast to Coast

24 Sunday Apr 2016

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Chelsea Clinton recently spoke to a group of communists and hoplophobes in Maryland about how her dear old Mom will use the Supreme Court to bring us a definitive ruling on gun control and some good old “common sense” regulation. Common sense – like what passed for common sense security in Benghazi. It seems like the court Mom should be concentrating on is the criminal court that may try her for those emails (just kidding, she’s in the Club).

Chelsea is much more attractive than her mommy and her voice isn’t nearly as irritating. Still, she marches to a similar drum. Her remarks were based in enough callousness and condescension to make her mother proud. Said the young Clinton: “With that greasy old wop [Justice Scalia] out of the way … mommy and I can take all the guns from those dumb Bible-thumpers and tax slaves…” Her line was cut short by a wild, howling chorus of cackles and mindless, violent-sounding chants; someone screamed “Allah Akbar!” See and hear for yourself.

Elsewhere, other fascists praised the actions of the territorial government of the Northern Mariana Islands and its institution of a $1,000 per item tax on gun sales. The Islands are one of those American territories that are only so that the natives may collect entitlement payments and people like Governor Ralph Torres can have jobs and a non-straw house to live in. I support independence for the Islands! As a free state they could enact whatever laws they choose. Gun control, cannibalism, anything they like. Our problem is that they want their law to be a model for the 50 States and other jurisdictions.

Chelsea’s Mom once supported a similar tax scheme. Maybe that’s the common sense definition she wants. The idea is that even if Herr Hillary’s Court can’t ban guns, the guns can be taxed out of the reach of most “ordinary” people. By the way, I’ve heard these islanders were the inspiration for the various headhunters on Gilligan’s Island.

Another Second Amendment end-around is to make financial transactions impossible for gun dealers and manufacturers. The Department of Justice [SIC] has a lovely program called Operation Choke Point. It is designed to make it rather difficult for risky or criminal enterprises to do banking business through the Federal Reserve’s risky, criminal organized banking business. The DOJ increasingly wants to lump gun makers into the same category with drug dealers, cartels (NOT to include the Fed), the mafia, and certain terrorist groups. They also want to include cigar companies. I’m sure military armament companies will have no problems cashing our tax checks and the State Department and CIA will keep bringing in those Cubans to give as gifts to the MIC reps at the trade shows (seen it myself). The rest of us be damned; Mommy knows best.

As is today, one doesn’t even need a gun to run afoul of the anti-freedom nut cases. A college student in south Alabama got in trouble with the campus rent-a-cop for wearing an empty holster during a political protest. The raincoat clad storm trooper even admitted the student did not violate any laws or rules but still cited him for causing a disturbance and threatened administrative action from the school. In south Alabama! Free people in Chicago and Boston are doomed.

Next door in Georgia we’re still waiting to see if Nathan “Captain Cave-in” Deal will sign or veto the State’s campus carry law. No word yet. No speculation either about the status of empty, as opposed to full, holsters in the Peach State. Peachy, Nathan, just peachy.

Now the good news. Some parts of America still somewhat resemble America regarding gun rights. Mississippi’s Governor just signed into law state-wide permitless carry of firearms. That means you’re free to be free. Mississippi joins a growing number of such unrestricted jurisdictions. These places tend to have lower crime rates than locales infected with that “common sense” nonsense. If you want safety and sanity, it may be time to move to a place where people are free to be free. Leave the rest of the continent to the cacklers and the headhunters. Or, molon labe!

permitless carry, mississippi permitless carry, concealed carry

Personal Defense World/NRA photo.

 

A Den of Vipers and Thieves

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Today news comes of a revenge 184 years in the making, a revenge that could only happen in post-American America. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has tentatively announced that Harriet Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson on the Twenty Dollar Bill as early as 2020. Lew made the decision after shock followed his previous proposal to knock Alexander Hamilton off the Ten Dollar Bill in favor of a woman.

Hamilton is safe thanks to a new hip hop Broadway musical. (Yes, post-American America.) However, he will likely be joined on the new $Ten by one or more famous American ladies. Might I recommend Bonnie Parker. Rumor has it Jackson will be relegated to a supporting role on the back of the new $20. Maybe they will feature a picture of his tombstone.

So, how is this revenge? History, my friends, history. In 1816 there was created the Second National Bank of the United States in Philadelphia. It was a private corporation set up, in violation of Article One of the Constitution, in order to expand government debt and power while simultaneously enriching the already wealthy. It was modeled after the failed First National Bank and in keeping with the central banking cabal theories of Alexander Hamilton. Is all this starting to make sense?

Earlier Congresses, while happy to illegally trade away their authority for easy money, were still more prone to banking oversight and regulation than their modern contemporaries. The Second Bank was not a complete sell-out. It was, however, ruinous to the larger economy the way central banks tend to be. It died a veto’s death in 1832 on the watch of ardent central bankstering opponent Andrew Jackson. Jackson, a blunt man, accurately condemned the Second Bank: “You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.” And rout them out he did.

So long, old man. Slate/google.

Money returned to being real money for a time. Congress set the value in gold and silver and notes were issued and held by various state and federally chartered banks. This period corresponded with the most robust economic growth in American history. Only once, during Abraham Lincoln’s war, was the gold standard suspended – among many other illegalities. Most Americans, those not killed in the government’s wars, prospered. Times were good. Slaves were freed. And so on. Still unscrupulous politicians were constrained by fiscal reality and a certain small sect of leeches lost decades worth of influence and domination. Both of these maniacal parties returned to splendor when central banking made a comeback in 1913 with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act.

The Federal Reserve brought happy days back again – for them, not us. The people have only reaped two depressions (with another looming), the financial crisis, the S&L crisis, junk bonds, bailouts, the constant cycle of smaller recessions, blossoming federal debt, spending and power, crushing private debts, the collapse of purchasing power, inflation, wars, wars, and more wars, one idiotic government program after another, the end of the gold standard, the confiscation of gold, the theft of gold, and the near total evisceration of monetary value. Hooray!

All of these calamities were foreseen by Jackson. By vetoing the Second Bank he set the Hamiltonians (almost as cult-like as the Lincoln lovers) and the Rothschilds back by almost a century. In truth they had their revenge in 1913 at Jekyll Island, Georgia. Keeping Hamilton while ditching Jackson from the fiat currency is merely icing on the cake. Given the degeneration of America in post-American times, that icing must be particularly sweet.

Kari Winter is the director of the University [SIC] of Buffalo’s Institute for Gender. (Again, no need for colleges anymore). “Dedicated to advancing women’s and LGBTQ leadership, vision, and influence, the Gender Institute fosters workspaces in which each participant is stimulated to reach her/his highest potential and to increase knowledge and justice within the university, within their disciplines, and in society at large.” University [SIC] of Buffalo website.

Ms. (Mr.?) (It???) Winter praised leech Lew’s announcement as follows: “[Hamilton] is fully appropriate to be on American currency, whereas Jackson was a scoundrel, a slave holder and a white supremacist who was involved in the removal of Indians and was completely opposed to paper money and was horrible to women…” Her Institute is dedicated to knowledge, remember.

Yes, Jackson may have been a scoundrel – a temperamental man prone to violence and dueling. Then again, Hamilton dueled as well; he just wasn’t as good at it as Jackson. Jackson was a slave owner, true. George Washington was but they don’t seek his removal from the $1 Bill just yet. Jackson did remove forcibly many Indians. So did Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is secure on the $5 Bill; I’m sure Ms. (????) Winter agrees. Lincoln never adopted two Indians as his own children as the racist Jackson did – such a white supremacist. Horrible to women? Lincoln made widows and vagabonds out of hundreds of thousands of women. Jackson fought to save women (and men) from economic destruction. Jackson also defended his wife from the lowbrow political attacks of his rivals – that violent temper at work.

It really all comes down to the paper money, to Jackson’s atavistic hatred of the evils of central banking. In a way it is fitting that Jackson should be removed from our worthless, private corporation-issued currency. By the way, whatever Lew decides on the matter, the Federal Reserve has the final say. In a world where mobsters run the economy and the government, where popularity and history are in the keeping of rappers and teenagers, and where a University [SIC] seeks to advance LGBLT (or is it LGBBQ?) influence, a man like Jackson is a misfit.

‘Merica. Google.

Let the vipers and thieves gloat; theirs is the long victory.

The Satanic Verses: American Political Style

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

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Government and religion go together like whiskey and water: they don’t really go together but one finds them paired frequently nonetheless. In 1988-89 Salman Rushdie found out in extreme fashion how the two strange bedfellows behave. His novel The Satanic Verses earned him critical acclaim along with a death sentence from the Ayatollah of Iran. Rushdie resumed normal life after years and years of living as a shadow under heavy police protection.

Iran is and was a theocracy where Shia Islamic law is the basis for the organized state. There are other nations of a similar composition. Rushdie’s England is a mix-up writ large – the Queen is the head of state and head of the state church though Parliament passes most laws in an otherwise secular society. America had, via the First Amendment, and by its history and constituency, a separation of church and state (so said Thomas Jefferson). Of course, 200 years before Rushdie’s troubles began, almost all Americans were Christians. Because the government was so very small it did not really matter who believed what. It was a Christian society with a small and separate governing group. As far as it goes or went, the arrangement worked rather well. Things change.

Gradually the people abandoned God while the government grew in power and influence. Today one finds the polar opposite of that scene of 1789. It is a government society with a small and dwindling Christian group. My hypothesis (still only that because I have not declared it law) is that the people have replaced, or have allowed the replacement of, God with government. This was not a wise decision. The consequences manifest far and wide. God, for the most part, has left the building. With Him He took morality, decency, common sense, curiosity, courage, the family unit, good television, and most of the Blessings of the Holy Spirit. Those who remain faithful are like oases in a bleak, barren and dismal landscape. Many remain also who are positive in their thinking that things can be repaired, that the government (so different today) can still be restored and that decent civilization will then resume. Their struggle is born both of true optimistic faith and of delusional confusion, sometimes blended together.

In no other realm of American life is this struggle more prominently displayed than in politics. Political activity today, be it Republican, Democratic, or of third-party nature, is a study in obsessive self defeat. One may choose to shovel water into the canoe with the big red bucket on the starboard or the big blue bucket on the port side. One may choose the small paper cup of Libertarianism back aft. Whatever the choice, the result is still the same – the boat is sinking. What amazes this author is the zeal with which people these days participate in the flooding even as they know where the vessel is headed.

Recently I wrote several pieces on the sham democracy and fake electoral practices attendant to the Republican presidential nomination process. GOP voters in Colorado, Wyoming, Georgia, New York and elsewhere are discovering the rude truth, that they do not matter – not to their party and not in the grand scheme of politics. I tire of these stories both because they serve little epistemological purpose and because there are just too many of them to track. The Democrats have a similar level of disdain for their voters and of crooked processes.

A few years ago Jimmy Carter (my remembrance grows fonder every time I think of him) proposed that the U.N. or some other neutral outside party step in to monitor American elections as those of third world countries are policed. His suggestion came in response to the staggering fact that, like, just like those “lesser” nations, America and its elections have fallen into a pit of fraud, deception and criminality. I applaud his honesty though I see the point as futile. The government and its gangster parties know they are debased, criminal; they will not accept possible interference with their game (and no one has either the power or the interest to force compliance). And, even if the pleas for help were heard, I do not relish what might come of it. I see it as running to Br’er Bear to complain about Br’er Wolf. Come what may, Br’er Rabbit and friends had still better watch their backs. A safer alternative would be to get rid of the underlying corruption of the state, that is to say, get rid of the state itself. That also will not happen, not yet. It’s not quite time.

And it seems time is relative to the problem. Government has, since its inception, been corrupt. It is eternally dangerous. The American experience does not defy the universal trend. Those in and around the government are generally corrupt themselves. Consider this example: there is and has been for some time a literal cult of Abraham Lincoln worshipers in this county. Lincoln is revered as nearly the second coming of Jesus Christ though, in truth, Lincoln was one of the vilest, most destructive, and tyrannical men to ever occupy the Presidency. It was he who set into motion that transformation which gave us today’s superstate under which we labor daily. Lincoln was a destroyer of freedom and civility like few others in history.

In 1862 he murdered 38 or 39 Sioux Indians in Minnesota. The next year he kicked the entire tribe out of the state, off of their ancestral lands under threat of death. The real story, of total war, fanatical racism, cronyism and kickbacks, and a complete absence of due process, may be read here. The sanitized, Lincoln-as-hero, version may be read here. Evil grows like a cancer, even after 150 years. And, remember, in 1862 America was much more of a “Christian” nation than what passes today.

As we begin the final act of our Platonic (not in the friendly sense) play, enter a new and ultimate character – long hinted at but not seen outright until now – actual in the open Satanism. On their respective islands in the great sea of decadence and pollution the Faithful now face their enemy. The enemy is demanding and getting equal time, more than equal to be honest. There sad and dangerous story is found here: Can a burgeoning satanic movement actually effect political change?, The Conversation, April 19, 2016. The story centers on the efforts of The Satanic Temple to compass the ruin of our people under the guise of “equality”. I do not directly link to the Temple nor to their Sabbat Cycle and I suggest you, dear reader, refrain from clicking those links from my citation story. This group is pure and utter filth, worse than filth.

The Temple and its Cycle are touring America promoting Lucifer alongside some lame horror movie. Garbage and flies, you know. It is little wonder these pathetic beings seek to join the political fray. They are already come too late unless their true purpose is to clearly advertise what has been forging for decades.

America has fallen or is falling now. Our government, state and federal, our financial system, nearly the whole economy, our political parties, our military, and our buraeucracy is under the sway of Satanic control. It is, all of it, firmly under the power of a small oligarchy of very evil people who serve only themselves and the Devil. Larger society is besieged as well. The pop trash one listens to, the violent, thoughtless movies one sees, the mindless television drug one ingests are all in the service of darkness. Our wars are fought and contrived based on lies alone. What passes for education is largely mere systemic propaganda. Families are falling apart. The people are crude, rude, and at each other’s throats for no reason. Civilization teeters on the brink of annihilation, The individual body, a temple of the Lord, is disrespected, desecrated with blubber, tattoos, intoxication and all manner of uncleanliness. The mind is debased with willful idiocy.

I fear there is no reforming this too-far-gone system. The Faithful must free themselves from its Hellish shackles. They must resist until they are either delivered or they outlast the corruption and destruction. As they are faithful, so they should be free. Freedom starts with knowledge. Know that there is no hope within the camp of one’s enemies, only without. Leave the false god and its Dark Master behind. Be free. Be Faithful.

Google.

Nestor Miranda Habano

17 Sunday Apr 2016

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This review follows on the heels of last week’s take on the Nestor Miranda Collection Marduro. Today I picked out a lovely Gordo Habano. I visited the tobacconist shortly after one of my most intense workouts in a very long time. No need to wait til tomorrow to be sore – I felt it in the gym… Even my taste buds were tired so I retreated to the house for several hours of rest, protein, water and pain pills. Post recovery I engaged the Habano.

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Like what I did with the shrub there?

As one can see from my picture the Habano is flawlessly constructed (a few small veins near the cap). It is less oily and lighter in hue than its cousin. The burn and smoke is perfect. The ash is tight and light gray and holds beyond an inch with ease. The binder and wrapper are both Nicaraguan while the insides are Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Brazilian. The draw and burn are perfect.

This beauty is, to me, a tad milder than the Maduro – medium bodied and smoother. It has a hint of the earthiness but with a more woody (good like cedar) overtone. There is still a good deal of pepper though not to the point of being “spicy”.

Despite lacking any native elements the Habano exudes a more … island-like experience. Think of it as a slightly more relaxed or refined smoke – an educated tough guy, if you will.

While I remain partial to the Maduro I would definitely recommend this stick to anyone, especially those who occasionally depart their mild haunts for a little excitement. Nestor does it again. Two lighters up.

No Child Left To Succeed

17 Sunday Apr 2016

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For a very long time I pondered how America would fall, pondering what cataclysmic event would bring her down. It was a series of disappointments (or reliefs). The Atlanta Olympics? No. Bill Clinton? No. Y2K? Ha, no. 9/11? Nope. The Great Recession? Uh-uh. While I was looking for a zombie apocalypse the end quietly snuck up on us. As Jack Perry points out, the end is not near, it is here. Turns out it was all the little things, ever creeping along, that got us. It was like in the War of the Worlds – itty-bitty microbes slowly did what bombs and guns could not in brief but intense battle.

Every facet changed degree by degree – justice, economics, culture, education – creep, creep, creep. As the decades passed the education system (public at least) declined day by day. It was dismal when I was in school (in another century). Now, it is gone, living on in name only. Year by year the names of the great end-all, be-all education programs changed too. Head Start. It never started. Horizons Something. Never got anywhere near the horizon. Common Core. The only commonality was that the core was rotten. No Child Left Behind. This one actually lived up to the name. No one child was left behind – they all stayed behind together. Now, as of December, 2015, we have Every Student Succeeds. Pub. L. 114-95 (2015). Another lie, they don’t all succeed. In fact, under the government’s system most do not and those that do, do so in spite of the programs not because of them.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ZINwnEPhiFM?flag=1&enablejsapi=1&origin=www.ed.gov

Another Lie Becomes Law. http://www.ed.gov.

Like the collapse, Every Student came along quietly. I just heard of it this morning. I read a blurb in a story about the new non-white majority in the school age population. That story isn’t reassuring at all. Sixty years ago, racial discrimination aside, non white children (and all children) in America got more or less a decent, real education. It happened with smaller budgets, fewer standardized tests, no Department of Education, and no stupidly named, do nothing but waste money programs.

Every Student, like its predecessors, is based on lies and misconstrued findings. The government boasts: “For example, today, high school graduation rates are at all-time highs. Dropout rates are at historic lows. And more students are going to college than ever before.” Dropouts are down and graduations are up because standards have been dumbed down and everyone passes regardless of ability. They all get to college now but only half of them can read. This is not a success. This is delusional failure. Measured internally and ignoring illiteracy, things are fine. Measured against the rest of the world or our own history – against stark reality – things have fallen completely apart.

“We are a place that believes every child, no matter where they come from, can grow up to be anything they want… And I’m confident that if we fix No Child Left Behind, if we continue to reform American education, continue to invest in our children’s future, that’s the America we will always be.” – Hussein Obama lying to someone somewhere. Rest assured in a few years some other dipshit will be promising to “fix” Every Student. The children still won’t be reading.

More official lies: “…the bipartisan bill upholds critical protections for America’s disadvantaged students. It ensures that states and school districts will hold schools to account for the progress of all students and prescribes meaningful reforms to remedy underperformance in those schools failing to serve all students.” That was the purpose of the other failed programs. Programs and learning seem to be antonyms. Maybe we need a program banning programs.

Animal House, Universal Pictures.

Never let education get in the way of learning. Get your students, if you care for them, out of this failed and useless system. American education has become child abuse writ large. Leave the government behind and the child will go ahead and succeed.

Happy No Trust Day!

15 Friday Apr 2016

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April 15th, Tax Day. Well, I hear they moved the date to the 18th this year but the 15th, today, is the traditional deadline to file returns with the IRS. Yesterday in eerily timed oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge David Sentelle said, “It’s hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust.” The Case is True the Vote v. IRS, ___ F.3d ___, No. 14-5316 (D.C. Cir., April 14, 2016).

True and several other Tea Party groups sued the IRS for violating their civil rights. Throughout the proceedings the IRS has maintained the same disdain and arrogance they show to any ordinary taxpayer (maybe you have had the lovely experience). Except, this time, they unnerved two federal judges presiding over the arguments. At least the IRS is consistent.

The “masters of the universe” attitude, arrogance, and obstruction the IRS is famous for earned them the title of “untrustworthy”. The only word to describe them better is “evil”. Remember that next time your fill out their forms or meet with your CPA.

Now, go pay your taxes!

Google.

Fake Sex, Lies, and Red Tape

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Perrin’s definition of government: (Noun) (originating around 10,000 B.C. in Hell) A collection of psychopathic control freaks hell-bent on minding everyone else’s business at gun point. This lowly institution is good for killing people, enriching bankers, and not much else.

Show me a government, any government, and I’ll show you a murder of monstrous, freedom-crushing maniacs. Meddlesome at best, Satanic at worst, an unfit concept long passed over by civilization.

Texas once had a law banning the sale of dildos – not making that up. One woman was actually prosecuted after holding a sales party at her home. Several adult entertainment businesses sued the State claiming a Fourteenth Amendment Due Process violation. See: Reliable Consultants, Inc., et al. v. Earle and The State of Texas, 517 F.3d 738, Slip Op. 06-51067 (5th Cir., 2008). The Fifth Circuit struck down the law and struck a blow for individual freedom (as corny a freedom as may be…).

The Texas Solicitor who argued (in vain) against the sale of rubber weapons of mass destruction was none other than Presidential candidate Ted “Glen Beck’s Man Crush” Cruz  – he the victor of the recent Colorado GOP non primary. I’m not sure how much tax money he wasted on the case (Federal Court ain’t cheap rent). He did obviously waste the time of the Judges, earning himself a 2-1 overthrow. Teddy declined to take the case higher. Lonely housewives breathed easier. Or, rapidly. Something.

The Fifth Circuit took down Texas’s law in as much because of Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. at 578 (2003) (a la Bowers v. Hardwick) as because the government presented no evidence of any legitimate state interest necessitating such an idiotic, overbearing, busybody ban in the first place. More on legitimacy in a moment. The Court held: “The State’s primary justifications for the statute are “morality based.” The asserted interests include “discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation and prohibiting the commercial sale of sex.” Reliable, Id. at Slip 10.

Perhaps recognizing that public morality is an insufficient justification for the statute after Lawrence, the State asserts that an interest the statute serves is the “protection of minors and unwilling adults from exposure to sexual devices and their advertisement.” It is undeniable that the government has a compelling interest in protecting children from improper sexual expression. However, the State’s generalized concern for children does not justify such a heavy-handed restriction on the exercise of a constitutionally protected individual right. Ultimately, because we can divine no rational connection between the statute and the protection of children, and because the State offers none, we cannot sustain the law under this justification.

Id, at 11 (double emphasis added).

The State and Teddy came to battle with no factual evidence and a shaky “moral” legal argument. Morals are good. Their best in their place. Many are upset by the notion that one cannot legislate morality. A ruling like this is salt in their wounds. Their reaction is evidence of their own lack of morality, of a substitution of the Divine with the positive. God will handle matters related to morality. He does not need help from Texas or any other band of liars and thieves. Speaking of morality and Ted Cruz, Ted now advocates carpet bombing. Incinerating civilians is much more moral than selling a vibrator; God will surely agree.

The moment has come! Let’s look at the Texan idea that the state as an interest in banning sex toys in order to protect children and promote procreation (making up our evidence, if needed, as the State provided none). Law professors and black-robed priests prattle on about various standards of state interests – to be weighed against human freedoms or rights. Compelling, rationally related, important, legitimate – all artful when written out in a brief but still bullshit. I care, here, about the factor of legitimacy, real legitimacy. When talking about people (women one would hope) who use these…devices it becomes obvious they are the sorts who are not interested, at the time, in procreation. They’re looking for a little fun. They’re minding their own business behind closed doors.

Government is not content to leave anyone alone, that much is clear. What, really, honestly, is a state’s interest in procreation, children and humans in general. There is no guaranteed supply of people; no state is just entitled to subjects. In their absence the state would have no one to govern, to boss around. Therein lies the interest. Children are future taxpayers to the state. They are future speed trap victims. They are future cannon-fodder to march off to war. It’s immoral from the state’s perspective to withhold future victims, victims who might be needed to carry out such morality as a carpet bombing run.

The other week another opinion came out a different Court of Appeals on a different topic. Whereas the Fifth Circuit got Reliable right, the Ninth missed the Constitution on searches and seizures in United States v. Magallon-Lopez, ___F.3d___, Slip Op. 14-30249 (9th Cir., March 31, 2016). Different results for freedom but both cases highlight the hateful, demented existence of government.

In Magallon-Lopez the famously liberal Ninth Circuit sided with the police state. “The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that police officers can lie to suspects in regards to a traffic stop — even when no violation has occurred. The ruling essentially gives police officers carte blanche to stop anyone they want for absolutely no reason — merely acting on a hunch.” Matt Agorist, Court Rules Police Can Legally Make Up Lies to Pull People Over to Fish for Criminal Behavior, The Free Thought Project, April 11, 2016.

The criminal subject matter of Magallon is as unpopular as that of Reliable was silly. Defendant Magallon was a meth peddler, unwelcome in most communities. Still, we play the cases we are dealt. Both actions revolve around universal rights and are only brought to light by their subject participants. Both demonstrate government will do anything to abrogate liberty.

The defendant, who did not and could not seriously contest the existence of reasonable suspicion for stopping the car, contended that the stop violated the Fourth Amendment because the officer who pulled him over deliberately lied when stating the reason for the stop, and the reason the officer gave was not itself supported by reasonable suspicion. Rejecting this contention, the panel wrote that so long as the facts known to the officer establish reasonable suspicion to justify an investigatory stop, the stop is lawful even if the officer falsely cites as the basis for the stop a ground that is not supported by reasonable suspicion. The panel concluded that in light of the information obtained during the stop, the officers had probable cause to seize the car.

Magallon-Lopez, Id. at Slip 2 (Summary)(emphasis added).

Magallon and a friend were suspected by the DEA of running drugs. This was known to local Montana police who initiated a traffic stop. The asserted reason for the stop was an improper lane change – a flat lie. The vehicle was seized and searched, meth was found, and the occupants arrested. Again, the police only knew that other police suspected the defendant of carrying drugs (these are illegal for the same specious reasons sex toys were in Texas). The arresting officers had no actual knowledge of real criminal activity. Therefore they lied. And, lying is okay as long as it is done by the government. Given this new standard I may have to refresh How to Interact with the Police – best to just live your life completely in a basement somewhere.

So much for the Fourth Amendment. The Court withheld a ruling on Due Process grounds (really, they did enough). No dissent in this case, just a concurrence which noted that Montana officers are statutorily bound to disclose their (real) reasons for arresting someone. Lying and breaking the law are okay so long as committed by servants of the state.

A “God-fearing” conservative desiring war over privacy. Former “liberals” selling out liberty for lies and lawlessness. No, one doesn’t need a government for this – an insane asylum would be enough.

Intimitated.org.

By the way: this is post number 450. Rolling!

The Nestor Miranda Collection Maduro: Perfection on Fire

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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This evening I raise a toast to my friend Nestor Miranda in celebration of his excellent tobacco work. Specifically, I praise his “new” red labeled Maduro. Mine is a 6×60 Gordo. In a word: magnificent!

This baby came along late in 2014 or early 2015. The new collection replaced the already stellar Special Selection line – a favorite of mine. My Maduro, filled with Peruvian, Nicaraguan, and Dominican goodness, is bound by Esteli’s finest and wrapped in a beautiful dark Connecticut leaf. A work of art indeed. In fact, this was one smoke that required a lengthy visual examination prior to lighting in order to appreciate the high quality craftsmanship. The Maduro is also joined by a Connecticut and a Habano.

Nestor Miranda Collection

A tempting trio. Halfwheel.

The construction is flawless. Whenever I pick up a stick I do a little squeeze test so as to predict the draw. This big boy was a little tight. I am happy I disregarded my index finger’s assessment and trusted to Nestor’s brilliance. The draw is perfect, effortless. And, I have seen and smoked very few cigars that burn as evenly and as cleanly as this one. I’ve been working slowly at it for about thirty minutes and, to show, I have about an inch of whitish gray ash as uniform as could be imagined.

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My Gordo prior to the fire.

The taste is superb. It definitely recalls the notes and character of the old line. This Gordo is medium bodied (maybe leaning towards the heavy side of medium) and the smoke is simply delightful. Oddly, this cigar would make just about any veteran happy and, at the same time, not make a newbie ill or regretful. There is Nicaraguan earthiness and leather aplenty to satisfy my base cravings. For me that alone would suffice. However, to be a little technical, I’m picking up terrific light peppery hints and maybe a velvet like coffee essence.

We all know I don’t have a rating system but, if I did, this is the part where I would call up five stars, a 90-something, two thumbs up, or something similarly exemplary. Let me just say it is damn good!

Nestor with a 250 pound Perrin (yeah, don’t miss that), circa 2010. Think that was a Special Selection Gordo in my hand.

Hats off to one of the baddest men in the tobacco business! A classic is reborn in astounding splendor. Put down the computer and get ye to the nearest tobacconist.

The Death of Men’s Suitcases and Other First World Problems

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Other Columns

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Upon my return from my last jaunt to sunny Florida I noticed signs of wear on my suitcase, which has served me for twenty or more years. Mine is a small soft sided tote from Land’s End. It’s of the size most people would call an overnight bag though it has served me for weeks or even months at a time without issue. It is showing signs of wear and fraying and it will not last through many more trips. I do have a backup – a huge, modern rolling shipping container of a case by American Tourister. That one will almost hold everything I own but it is so large and unwieldy that I rarely if ever use it (see below). I travel light therefore I like smaller bags.

Whilst I perused the Nordstrom website for bargain suits I decided to glance at their luggage selection. I was aghast at what I found. Every single one of their dozens of suitcases has wheels. All of them. (I also noticed many, many “men’s” handbags and purses…….ahem…). I despise wheeled luggage, especially for use by men. One sees them everywhere nowadays. Hoards of poorly dressed, overweight saps lumber through our airports pulling these ugly contraptions. Hotel lobbies are clogged with them. Not only are all of these models ugly, they are huge. Even school children roll their backpacks around on wheels (defeats the point of a backpack). They’ve invaded malls, interstate rest areas, and the workplace. People even roll duffel bags into the gym in acts of self-defeating laziness.

I sought refuge at the Samsonite webpage. There my worst fears were realized. The industry apparently no longer make traditional non-wheeled suitcases! Even the “carry on” bags have wheels and they have “carry” in their name!

I have this crazy theory that if it is so heavy that it needs to be rolled, then one probably could do without it. It’s a suitcase not a box off a cargo ship. No forklift should be required to move it. No man should ever have to roll his suitcase. A woman, perhaps, but not a man. A man should pick his case up by the handle and carry it – like a man. If they happen to travel together the man will invariably carry his bag in one hand while rolling the woman’s with the other.

You know the drill. A man carries his one suitcase on a trip – regardless of destination or duration. A woman carries (has the man carry) her suitcase, another suitcase, a third suitcase, a garment bag, a makeup bag, a cooler, a tote, a backpack (always open), her purse, a backup purse, several loose plastic grocery bags full of unidentifiable material, some trendy novel, and umbrella, a pack of cookies, a teddy bear, two pillows, and a quilt. Frequently, upon packing the car with all that feminine stuff, a man discovers there is no room left inside the car for him.

The luggage industry, like so many others, seems now to cater to a 100% clientele of women, children, and metrosexuals/gays. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, except that we men are left outside the bag check stand entirely. I don’t want and will not use an Ironman elementary school backpack nor a 400 pound pink box mounted on tractor tires. My dad, rest his soul, carried (picked up off the ground by the damn handle) a manly man’s suitcase. It was hard sided, bland, simple, and functional. That’s what I want.

My parents had a Samsonite set like this in the 1970s. Dad’s was the big one. No wheels anywhere.

This thing needs a “wide load” escort truck with flashing lights and flags.

Now my problem is compounded. I need a new suitcase in a world where there are none left from which to choose. Must I search Craigslist, second-hand shops, or yard sales for ancient relics of the lost luggage age? Looks like it. That, or use duct tape on my old Land’s End bag.

As the years roll by and as society crumbles I notice problems like this are growing. In stores like Nordstrom it is getting difficult to find clothes that are not the uniforms of rappers, hipsters, walruses, or little boys. I’d like a plain blue t-shirt – nothing about NASCAR, thug life, or Batman (cool as his is). It’s becoming harder to smoke a cigar outdoors – or even in a cigar shop. Many “cigar” stores are merely discount cigarette outlets or hookah lounges for tattooed, low-rent felons. Have you seen a modern automobile?

My SUV, a gift from my divorce, is getting on in age. It runs fine and serves me well but I have slowly began to plan for its replacement. This experience has been worse than the luggage debacle. Every single car, truck or SUV made by all manufactures all look exactly alike and have the exact same features. They are (with the unaffordable exceptions of the exotic supercars) small, ugly, under-powered, “safety” riddled, and filled with beeping, flashing, talking electronic garbage from a bad sci-fi nightmare. I do not require a backup camera, lane watch mechanisms, auto steering, radar cruise control, crash avoidance, heated seats, a bitchy voice telling me to buckle up, self-parking modes, tracking systems, a black box, Facebook, Bluetooth, chirping birds, or even airbags. Just give me a cup holder and a helluva lot of horsepower, please.

It looks like I will be settling for a 1975 F250 Ranger Hi-boy 4×4 with a carbureted 460. That, or a reconditioned AM General M939. Either of these will have the torque to pull any modern,wheeled suitcase monstrosity. One solution solves another.

More Crazy 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Nutiness

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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Everyone knows the only valid conspiracy theories are those put forth by the government for consideration by wise judges and noble, attentive jurors. You know – conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to rob a bank, conspiracy to catch a short lobster – serious crimes (the base crimes of murder and robbery simply are not enough; the conspiring, rather than the act, is what counts). Theories about the origin and operation of the Federal Reserve, MK Ultra, Operation Northwoods, Bretton Woods, and the imperfect ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment are the stuff of insane fantasy. Sure, they all turned out to be true but, come on, crazy, crazy, crazy.

No set of such lunatic fancies have a deeper and more fanatical following than those surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The truth is plain and simple: 19 young, poor, semi-educated men from Saudi Arabia (one or two of whom may have known someone who once said they met Osama Bin Laden), who hated Americans for their freedoms and who did not receive any state support, moved through and received some training in Germany and England, arriving in their base of operations in the United States where they carried out the most sophisticated terror attacks in history without any warning whatsoever, thus justifying wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Clear as a bell, really.

The crazies come up with all sorts of wholly unbelievable drivel regarding this simple event. They ask why Larry Silverstein insured the World Trade Center for twice its value and specifically against terrorist attacks a few months before 9/11. They ask why Israelis were stationed around New York like spectators at a football game on 9/11. They ask why President Bush didn’t immediately react once told of the attacks. They ask why Saudis were allowed to freely travel out of the U.S. on 9/11 when all other travel was banned. They ask why a CIA Clandestine Services agent would seem to have so much information about the attacks as to basically narrate them as and before they  unfolded. So many damned questions! Are they trying to learn something!?

These jokers actually insinuate that explosives were used to bring down the Towers that day; they claim airliners were insufficient for the job. The “proof” they foist on the sane consists of things like the following: That the modern buildings were specifically designed to withstand crashes by jumbo jets. That jet fuel fueled fires are not hot enough to melt steel. That the maximum temperatures in those fire were around 1800 degrees while months later hot pockets revealed temperatures in excess of 4000 degrees. That there were traces of titanium diboride found in the rubble. These nuts even claim the BBC reported the collapse of WTC building No. 7 twenty minutes before it happened. This screen capture from 9/11 disproves that one:

Loons. BBC.

Now we welcome a new nut to the bag – former U.S. Senator Bob Graham. Graham was once chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence so he obviously knows nothing about anything regarding either government or intelligence. I met the man once; he tried to tell me his suit was blue when it was inarguably gray. Now Graham is set to tell another whopper and feed the 9/11 conspiracy furnaces under the internet loony ward.

Sunday he will go on CBS’s 60 Minutes and drop a bombshell of a lie. He seems to think the 19 hijackers had outside, professional and state level help. He thinks the public needs to know what’s on the 28 pages of classified information redacted out of the 9/11 Commission Report. “I think it’s implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many didn’t have a high school education, could have carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States,” said Senator Nutjob.

There has been great speculation, this year and going back to 2001, about official Saudi involvement in the attacks. Just because the attackers were from Saudi Arabia means nothing. Maybe they met with other Saudis in the U.S. prior to the attacks. Who cares!? Yes, those other Saudis had to leave the country in a hurry – they had flights to catch. Geesh.

Some like Graham are demanding the 28 pages be declassified. They say the time has come, that the classification was only done by the Bush Administration to protect security interests while the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq raged. So what if those wars are history now (and such impressive successes too)? The release would only confuse the literate public about the nature of the original 9/11 Report.

That Report is the gospel truth. Sure the Commission said the government obstructed the investigation. Sure, Cheney and Bush refused to testify under oath. Yes, the Commission co-chair said the Commission was “set up to fail”. Senator Bob Kerrey said the Commission was denied access to evidence. Commissioner Tim Roemer said the government made false statements to the Commission. Yes, Senator Max Clelland walked off the job and called the Commission “compromised” and a “national scandal”. What’s the big deal?

For many more examples of this deranged questioning of the honesty of government read 7 Reasons 9/11 Could NOT Have Been An Inside Job by the Washington Blog, April 5, 2016. An example of the insidious whining:

Much of the 9/11 Commission Report was based upon the testimony of people who were tortured. At least four of the people whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators information as a way to stop being “tortured”.  One of the Commission’s main sources of information was tortured until he agreed to sign a confession that he was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ.

  • Blog, citing NBC News source.

If you can’t trust a torture coerced confession, what can you trust? You can certainly trust the U.S. government. It has never lied about anything. Well, except for lying about the Federal Reserve, MK Ultra, Operation Northwoods, Bretton Woods, the imperfect ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, Waco, income tax withholding, income tax brackets, social security, elections, the drug war, Pearl Harbor, the Grace Commission, JFK’s assassination, MLK’s assassination, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S.S. Maine, the U.S.S. Liberty, the Gulf of Tonkin, weapons of mass destruction, global warming, education, VA medical treatment, the national debt, the deficit, trade agreements, the gold standard, Three Mile Island, gun control, immigration and about a thousand other things.

Those with conspiracy theories questioning our benevolent Washington (that’s you, Mr. Graham!) are just plain crazy.