Author: TSO

That is to say the Ron Paul Truthers.  The ones who suspect that the Twitter page of one “Ron Paul” is not done by “Ron Paul.”

Ron Paul Twitter Account

Is it Ron actually running this? Because this last tweet is pretty offensive…

That is really odd.

The ‘lives by the sword dies by the sword’ seems very un-Ron-ish, under the circumstances, but the frustration at taking a guy with PTSD to a firing range could be a doctor thing.

I’m thinking not.

He seems to have some people who insert leftist cultural stuff into his things (read the immigration chapter in Liberty Defined, and I am not talking about the policy position, but they ‘they have a better work standard’ gratuitous slap in the face stuff’) I don’t like leftist red meat any more than rightist red meat, and Ron doesn’t typically use ANY. So, I don’t know.

I think it’s someone Ron trusts (and therefore doesn’t keep an eye on) trying to discredit Ron and make Rand the face of the “liberty movement”.

Go and enjoy the meltdown at the Ron Paul Forums.

If you decide you want to get thoroughly pissed off instead, after the jump I give you stuff to be pissed about from other Paulians regarding Chris Kyle.

I warn you in the absolute strongest terms that what you will read after the jump will incense you beyond belief. I mean that people. If you are in a fragile place, do not read the rest.
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One of my favorite people is Cassy Chesser, despite the fact I don’t believe I’ve ever actually met her.  As she describes herself on Facebook:

Twenty-something conservative blogger, USMC wife and mommy.

I’m a political blogger and proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. I am married to my wonderful husband Matt, a Marine. He is my best friend and we had our first son, Benjamin, on March 29th, 2011, the day after he got home from Afghanistan, and we had our second child, a boy named Wyatt on June 5th, 2012. He was diagnosed with Down syndrome via amniocentesis. Matt came home from his second Afghanistan deployment exactly three weeks later.

Her son Wyatt is about the cutest kid I have ever seen.   Seriously.  And I tell her that everytime she posts a new picture of him. 

[Just as an aside, I had a troop in Bosnia who had a brother with Down Syndrome, and one time I was talking to him in a guard tower about it.  I told him how I used to volunteer every weekend at Special Olympics, but I had to stop because I was too empathetic, and I would feel sad whenever a kid lost.  I asked him if it was tough having a brother with problems, and he admitted it was, but not for the reasons I thought.  He said that even though his brother was 30ish and living at home, he was the happiest person he had ever met, and he always felt some envy.  He told me how his brother would get a new Star Wars action figure and would be happy for months playing with it.  Even as other kids and adults would accumulate toys by the dump truck load, and would immediately lose interest.   His parents would always have a son that would love them, and he would always have a baby brother who loved him without question.  It’s a conversation that has stuck with me for 15 years now.]

Anyway, Cassy was selected as the Marine Spouse of the Year for Camp Lajeune, and she is now competing for the national title, run by Armed Forces Insurance. 

GO VOTE FOR HER.

 

She’s a wonderful lady, a wonderful ambassador for military spouses, and she deserves this.

 

 

 

Crossposted from the paying gig, but I wanted you guys to weigh in as well.

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The last time I brought up this subject the post garnered more than 350 comments, let’s see if this one gets a tenth of what that one received.

From an Exclusive by Michael Isikoff at NBC News:

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” — even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes.

As I mentioned on that previous post, I had some trepidation about the due process rights involved here:

If anyone is reading an inherent bias on my part in the preceding, I’d love to know what that bias is, because I honestly have no clue how I feel about this whole thing. I feel uncomfortable with secret bodies not authorized by legislation authorizing things like killings. On the other hand, Awlaki needed to be ventilated and good riddance to bad rubbish. But, we should always think worst case scenario with these sorts of things. Can you envision a scenario where a US Citizen is killed abroad with a drone attack, and he didn’t have what was coming to him? Probably we all can. So, what safeguard is there? That’s where I get somewhat lost.

The 16 page memo outlines some of the arguments with regards to the concerns I listed, but not as many as I had hoped. Since people tend to take what I say out of context, I wanted to address some specific parts of the memo. For instance, on page 3:

Accordingly, the Department does not believe that U.S. citizenship would immunize a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida or its associated forces from a use of force abroad authorized by the [Authorization of Use for Military Force] or in national self-defense.

Clearly I don’t know anyone who doesn’t agree with that portion. Simply being “our” bad guy doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t be eliminated.

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But congrats to VT Woody for the win, and for getting his picture up on Deadspin.

Dude on right holding the chick up is our favorite troll/my battle buddy.

Wonderfully helpful article today at the NY Post:

WASHINGTON — Is your workplace getting shot up by a crazed gunman?

No problem — just grab a pair of scissors and fight back!

That’s some of the helpful advice in a new instructional video from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted on the agency’s Web site just a month after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

“If you are caught out in the open and cannot conceal yourself or take cover, you might consider trying to overpower the shooter with whatever means are available,” says the narrator in the video, which shows an office worker pulling scissors out of a desk drawer.

Great advice that, but the problem is you can’t run with scissors.

I have helpfully take pictures of some items in my office I intend to use to twart a prospective murderer.

1: Buddha Lamp.

I will brain him with the Buddha lamp. Alternately I could ask him to consider the implications of what the great Buddha taught. Or, lastly, I could throw my coffee at the perp, and then make him hold the lamp. He might get electrocuted if lightening strikes.

2: Creamy Peanut Butter:

I’ve never seen anyone so overwraught with hostility he wouldn’t stop for peanut butter. Also, it will keep his insane ramblings to a minimum if it sticks to the roof of his mouth.

3: Ranger Up crossed rifles:

“You see that crazy person? You know what that means? I went through a week of hand to hand training at Basic, and I am not afraid to use it.”

Unfortunately the thing is semi-permanently affixed to my office wall.

I hope you found this useful.

If so, can you tell a moderator over there to okay my application? I want to join in, but I still get the same message every time I am over there.

Please note that your membership is not yet active for the following reason(s):
— Awaiting Approval: we have not yet approved your membership.

Until the conditions above are satisfied, you will only have access to our community as a guest.

Bad news people, UFOs are killing fish. LOTS OF FISH!

A man wades through the sea of dead fish caused by the chemicals oozing from the crashed UFO

OKINAWA, JAPAN- The very first troublesome sign of the UFO crash off the coast of Okinawa has finally arrived. Millions of dead fish, estimated at over fifty tons, have washed up along the shore of the Japanese island. Inothernewz.com snapped the above picture of an elderly man wading through the dead fish as they came onshore. Some of the dead fish showed signs of severe burns and bleeding through their eyes.

HOLY SHIT! UFOs are killing our fish!

Thank God Veterans Today is on the case! This is their number one story, with 12.5k readers!

Oh wait, yeah, this picture was posted back in 2007. Either the UFO is causing fish to die back in time, some rip in the Time/Space/Veterans Today fabric of the universe, or you just took a picture from some other shit and just applied it willy nilly to an already bullshit story.

And these are the guys who are allegedly ferreting out plots against the world? Yeah. They fell for an Onion piece, and laud it as if they were leading the charge.

BTW- for those curios, the translation on the original picture, from Slovakian oddly, reads:

A man collecting dead fish from the surface of Lake Tung-chu in Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province, have died as a result of contaminated water in combination with the hot weather the last few days. According to official figures, died around 30 tonnes of fish.

OK, so here it is….I’ve decided to pick up a new hobby. Something to (hopefully) give me a little patience, something to while away the time while also watching TV. I want to get away from the computer a little more. And I want to do something with my hands, etc.

So, I am taking up making wooden ship models. I think I want to do something like the USS Constitution, and preferably about 3-5 feet in length. I don’t want anything too small, where every screw up will be obvious.

The problem is I know exactly jack and shit about modeling. So, if anyone has any experience with building wooden models, I could use any advice you have. I do not want to make it entirely from scratch, or anything like that. Intermediate difficulty, but without the necessity of 87 thousand wood tools I don’t already own.

Any advice?

Note, I was thinking of this one.