This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Society

  • Monsters

    Monsters

    Adrian Peterson

    I don’t follow sports. But I’d have to be Amish not to know Ray Rice pummeled his fiancé and dropped her unconscious body trying to drag her out of an elevator on camera or that Adrian Peterson has been accused of whipping his 4 year old with a switch till he drew blood on the fronts and backs of his thighs and sent a text message to the boy’s mother saying he got the boy’s scrotum by mistake. I figure this is all for the courts and the NFL to sort out.
    But tonight, at my parents’ house, watching Fox Business, there it is– The difference between what Rice (allegedly) did and what Peterson (allegedly) did. I saw a man (who may or may not have some football background) tell the other hosts or guests that the difference between Rice beating his wife and Anderson beating his son is that Rice punched his WIFE and Anderson was disciplining his son. Are you kidding me? Evidently there is some kind of consensus like this out there. Rice is a monster and Anderson is just some dad like the rest of us trying to get his kid to mind.
    First of all, I don’t understand the comparison AT ALL. That’s like comparing salt in the wound to tabasco sauce in your wound. Like asking if you’d rather be cut with a razor blade or a k-bar. Dude. I’m pretty sure both suck. I supposed the talking heads are trying to justify the NFL’s response to either situation but why?
    But, since we are keeping score, whipping your kid till he bleeds in a fit of rage is worse than knocking out your wife.
    Rice’s wife, like most wives in the U.S., is an adult. Yes, being abused causes all kinds of emotional problems that mess up your thinking but in the end, a woman is still an adult. She is an adult who chooses to stay or go. I chose to stay. For over 10 years. Right, wrong, indifferent. I chose. She chooses. Women can choose. Sometimes they fight back. Sometimes they even start it. I know I did.
    If they do leave, women have the benefit of having overcome. Having gotten away. Of being free. A child does not have that benefit.
    That little boy, stripped naked and whipped by a damned NFL football player. He cannot choose. He cannot fight back. He cannot run. He can’t even hide. A child cannot defend himself. There is much debate about the propriety of spanking and pretty much any punishment these days. But can we all agree, that if someone whips a kid till he bleeds, not in just one place, but in a dozen, that that kid has been abused? Mistreated? And an abused kid has no hope for relief until he is finally a man. Would there be more outrage if it was a little girl, stripped naked and whipped?

    The man who beat his wife- and showed no remorse when he knocked her out, he’s a monster. The man who whipped his boy till he bled is a monster. Let’s add to this list the apologists who claim it’s a man’s right to wound his child in the name of discipline. You sir, are also a monster.

  • Just When You Think You’ve “Seen It All” . . .

    . . . something happens to make you realize you haven’t.  Lit this bit of manifest idiocy from LA:

    Los Angeles weighs cash incentive
    in bid to boost voter turnout

    Yeah, you read that correctly.  LA is actually thinking of offering some form of cash incentive to get people to vote.  The proposal envisions some form of lottery system to dispense cash to at least some who voted.

    Maybe it’s just me.  But if someone has to be paid to get up off their dead a** and vote, I’m not really sure I want to see them voting at all. I also wonder how this is going to square with the various laws against offering cash/other things of value for votes.

    You haven’t heard the best part yet, though. The proposal comes from the LA Ethics Commission.

    I sh!t you not.

  • Another Creative Example of Conservative Recycling

    I must confess that I once knocked newspaper advice columnist, Heloise, flat on her butt. There was no intent to do so but we happened to intersect with our shopping carts in a Sam’s Club in San Antonio at precisely the wrong moment for that lovely lady. In any event, I did in fact knock her from her feet onto a low display of something in large, relatively soft burlap bags so that, thankfully, she suffered no injury. I helped her to her feet, apologizing profusely for my inattentiveness, and then went on my way. I knew who she was but I didn’t want get into any kind of celebrity slobbering thing with her. She was shopping for her family as was I and I had no intention of intruding on her private life.

    That said, Heloise had previously put one of my ideas in her column which in effect proved her advice in a prior column to be wrong. Earlier, she had stated unequivocally in one of her columns that all, absolutely all and every old toothbrush, must be destroyed because it might harbor contagious disease forms and represent a household threat. I had written to Heloise, identifying myself as an old paratrooper and combat infantry NCO and explained to her that in six years of infantry service that the only time I ever threw away an old toothbrush was when the bristles were down to the nub. I told her that when I was ordered to Vietnam back in 1965, I packed all the toothbrushes I’d been saving for just such a mission and yes, those brushes served me well.

    In all its years of existence up to that time, the United States Army had never come up with a better all-purpose weapons and equipment cleaning tool than a simple toothbrush. Through what soldiers call field expediency, which means using whatever is available to accomplish your mission, those warriors in the light infantry, and no soldier goes into combat in more of a light infantry status than a paratrooper, learned that a couple or more of old toothbrushes were exceptionally desirable tools to have in a combat environment.

    However, that was not the toothbrush role I proposed to Heloise after she had written her column advising their mass destruction. I submitted to her the reality that a toothbrush could be cleansed of bacteria with a simple dip into some household bleach and after that, the potential uses of that small brush were endless.

    I listed several as I recall but then I revealed the absolute very best use I ever have found for an old toothbrush. One day, decades after my military service, I was sitting at my computer when one of our several felines came in and began threading her way through my legs. I saw an old toothbrush on my desk kept nearby for keyboard cleaning, picked it up and began stroking her head from under her chin to the tops of her ears. Within a couple of minutes, she was all mine, purring ecstatically and tilting her little face up for more. Based on that success, I tried it with every one of our kitties and all responded the same way. Eureka! Ol’ Russ had discovered the Kitty Facial.

    Shortly thereafter I sent Heloise a suggestion that she advise her readers that instead of destroying all those old toothbrushes, she should alert them to their potential value in giving kitty facials. Instead of being just another piece of plastic to go into the landfill, an old toothbrush could be the source of much pleasure for a kitty and its owner. In a future column, she did precisely that. You who own cats should try it. You’ll see very quickly that a simple toothbrush can become a source of endless pleasure to your little feline family and to you as well as a dispenser of so much pleasure. It is one of those opportunities in life to be a giver of pleasure to a creature you love with minimal effort. We have no dogs but I will wager that Ol’ Shep will respond the same way little kitty does.

    OK you libs out there who delight in accusing conservatives of being heartless and unconcerned about our environment, how’s this for a creative and humanitarian example of recycling?

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Choices

    Remember those rich kids in high school who always got in trouble with school officials and with law enforcement but their parents always got them out of trouble? Remember how their behavior got worse with every incident until it got so bad that their parents couldn’t or wouldn’t get them out of the mess? I wasn’t one of those kids. I made bad choices and always suffered the consequences, and eventually, I started making better choices.

    Well, these days we have a whole generation of those spoiled rich kids. No matter what bad choices they make in their lives, the government is there to bail them out. If they drop out of school, get crappy jobs that don’t support the lifestyle they think they deserve, the government will raise the minimum wage for them. If they have scads of children with men who aren’t willing our able to support those kids, the government has programs to give you money for those kids.

    If you see a house that fits your desired lifestyle, but it’s outside your price range, the government will help you buy it and then step in to help you keep it when you can’t make the mortgage payments. And the government will blame the lender because the government forced them to give you the loan.

    If you want a degree from a fancy university instead of getting the same education at a local college, the government will help you pay for it with loans. When your degree in underwater hemp weaving doesn’t land you a job and you can’t pay back your loan, the government will forgive you and probably help you get a few years of unemployment benefits.

    When you want your employer to cover your promiscuous lifestyle and that employer doesn’t want to pay for your birth control, the government will take them to court to force them to pay for your inability to say “no” to men who have no intention of paying for the children that might spring from that union.

    When too many people are making bad choices that government has to pay to correct, guess who ends up pay for it eventually – those of us who learned about consequences and adjusted our behavior accordingly. Because the money that government spends isn’t their money, it comes from law abiding citizens who work hard and pay their taxes like they’re supposed to do. It comes from people who didn’t live outside their means or live to be popular. Folks who saw that the popular culture is a trap and sought to be independent as opposed to the alternative.

    Yeah, I know I’m preaching to the choir, but watching the Supreme Court decisions today and the media reaction, I just felt that I had to vent a bit. Carry on.

  • To Support Our Patriots–Privatize the Military

    It occurred to me in the last blog I put together, “Why So Few Choose to Serve,” that the government has a distinct advantage over American patriots, and because we have a Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps talking about why marines should be paid less. The reason for this is that the US government, and ultimately most world governments, have what is called a monopsony. A monopsony is where there is only one buyer in the market. American patriots want to serve their country–or in this situation, sell their labor. However, there is only one buyer of that labor, putting the Patriot at a distinct disadvantage. What is one simple way to reduce the problems caused by this? Bring more buyers into the market by privatizing the military.

    Do I completely believe in privatization of the military? No, but for the sake of healthy debate, I’m going to argue that it is to the benefit of the American patriot to privatize the military because it will allow them to be properly compensated for their service.

    I am going to start out with some very simple assumptions:

    1. The government is the only purchaser of a patriot’s labor.
    2. The only motivation for patriots to supply their labor is to serve their country. No other form of compensation, initially, affects their decision to serve.
    3. The wage provided by the government is unrelated to services provided or productivity of the patriot.

    I have also chosen for the simplicity of this conversation to ignore the following:

    1. The efficiency benefits of a privatized military.
    2. The potential evils of allowing greed driven decisions to be attached to military power.

    With these assumptions in place, we can look at the ways that the government takes advantage of the patriot. The first being wage. Wage is the collection of all financial benefits paid: paycheck, insurance, and retirement benefits.  The Government, employing laborers who are only motivated by patriotism, can set the wage wherever they desire, which is why pay is considered to be so low. In a situation like this, the only factor driving the decision for what to pay a patriot would be a minimum livable wage. There are also pay raises to account for changes in family structure, but not because of a caring for the patriots’ families. It’s merely because, without these pay increases the patriots would no longer be able to supply their labor.  If the military wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you one, hopefully in better condition than the gear I have already been issued.

    The additional wage requirements for patriots with families,, and the cost of more mature patriots, is one of the many reasons that recruitment targets the younger patriots with the glitz and glamour of the job, not the wage, as in other civilian fields of employment. Young people join for the experience and the opportunities, not the financial return, or as it applied to me at seventeen years old, I wanted to blow shit up.

    Now, with these wages intentionally kept low, this is a method of controlling enlistment numbers for more senior individuals–those with the additional responsibilities that a person gains while they get older and are no longer able to remain within the military because the cost to maintain their household requirements no longer matches with the pay and benefits they receive from the military. This leaves only those who are willing to sacrifice pay to continue to provide service to their country.

    I was told by my Battalion Commander, “The Marine Corps gives you everything money can’t buy.” Fellow service members have also looked down upon me when I pointed out that one of the driving factors to remain within the military is my educational benefits.  The culture of the military pushes out those mercenary thoughts, while promoting patriotic service for its own sake.

    Why would a privatized military support the patriot? By providing the patriot, who is willing to supply their labor, regardless of wage, additional options as for whom to provide their labor. For example, Company A and Company B have both been contracted out to perform military operations to support America. The missions being equal, and the pay being the only difference, the patriot will have the option to choose the higher paying company.

    Is this mentality mercenary, yes, but it is a means of compensating our patriots with more than a slap on the ass and a thank you for your service.

    Now, the final question remains: Why do patriots deserve a higher pay? In the civilian market, a person is paid based upon the services they provide. A factory line worker is paid an hourly wage based upon their value to the company. If only ten widgets are created an hour by that worker, then their impact is ten widgets per hour. If a musician puts on a concert for twenty thousand people, their impact is the entertainment of twenty thousand people.

    The patriot provides security, either through defensive or offensive operations, to three hundred and seventeen million people, producing a collective GDP of $16.8 trillion against violent threats. That responsibility is spread among the 2.3 million patriots who have decided to serve. That is the impact of the patriot’s service.

    The American patriot is going to provide their service regardless of their pay, but with such a high level of impact, why not compensate them in a similar manner as we do so many others? By allowing the patriot the option to provide their patriotic service to the highest paying organization, we recognize their impact upon our nation.

  • Are we witnessing the death of parenting?

    This story will be pretty far off the beaten path for what I usually discuss, but I have to admit I am fascinated (in a horrible way) by it, and apparently many others are as well.  I asked my wife to DVR the View today, which was possibly more embarrassing for me than someone being a Giants fan today.

    To catch you up to speed on what is happening, watch this video from ABC News 10 video from ABCnews:

    So Holloway started a website entitled “Help me Save 300” and printed screen grabs of pictures and Tweets from the party.  It’s resulted in a few good things, and one thing that will likely anger a lot of folks.

    For one thing, the Eagle statue has been returned.  That’s to be expected, since they had a picture of the girl who stole it.  Additionally, Mr. Holloway had a ton of people come over and help him fix up some of the damage, including some of the kids responsible.  As he posted on his website:

    4 Students of The 300 showed up and took a stand for their greatness;  I want to thank the parents for joining them.  This was significant.

    Four kids out of 300 seems rather meager to me, but I guess it is a start.  I wouldn’t have been able to go back if it was me only because my parents would have paddled my butt so hard I probably would have needed a chair to move around.  Look, I did some dumb stuff as a kid, but I rather draw the line at causing $40,000 in a house that I broke into.

    Apparently most parents are not like my own (via my former hometown newspaper the Berkshire Eagle):

    Now, some of the teens’ parents have threatened to sue for damages over his website, helpmesave300.com, which they claim defames their children, according to Holloway.

    The former New England Patriots player told The Eagle he thought these parents’ anger is misdirected.

    “I wasn’t there. All I did was reveal it to you,” he said. “If your child pooped in their diaper, change the diaper, don’t yell at me. It’s simplistic but it’s true.

    “You wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve been getting,” Holloway added.

    Some parents, he said, claim their teenagers are suffering from “anxiety and depression” as a result of the considerable media attention given to the case. He said they’ve told Holloway “if my child commits suicide,” the blame will fall on his shoulders.

    But Holloway’s lawyers and other “top attorneys” from around the country have assessed the circumstance and told him the parents’ chances aren’t good, he said.

    So some kids break into a house, do drugs and destroy the place, and the parents want to punish the guy who publicized it?  Are you kidding me?

    For his part, Hollway seems like a pretty good dude. 

    (1)  Today we honored and support our real HEROES,  our military and veterans that served in Vietnam War,  Gulf War,  Desert Storm,  Desert Shied and The Afghanistan.  It was an amazing day; that all enjoyed and treasured.
    (2) Community Volunteers helped to restore the damage;  it was a powerful time healing. You should have been here.

    I wish I could have been there to help him, but I am more stunned at the litigiousness of parents.  If Johnny and Jane misbehave, how is it the responsibility of the victim?  Does this make any sense to anyone?

    And now I’m actually excited to get home and watch my DVR of The View, which I will immediately delete after watching in case someone looks at my TV someday and catches me taping the View.  As I said,  I’d sooner be a Giants Offensive Lineman that get caught recording the View.

  • Blood, Sweat and Tears are now a fashion accessory. (Update)

    Valor as a fasion statement
    Well it seems that the people over at Urban Outfitters have decided that it would be trendy to added military patches and ranks to their clothing lines. Units such as the Third Ranger Battalion and the Army EOD patch are such the rage these days. I mean why actually serve in the military and have to deal with military life when you can look like you did for a low price of $85 dollars?

    Our friends at Guardians of Valor are one of the first people to report this and are actively encouraging Veterans to write to the company to have these clothing items pulled.

    Guess what Urban Outfitter’s this is NOT a fashion accessory, to include all the other patches you have adorned your clothing with. These insignia are not worn as fashion, Soldiers have died while wearing these patches and scrolls!!!

    I am sure some will say “no big deal”, but I beg to differ! It is opening the door for posers to claim this crap. Oh you have a Ranger Scroll on your vest, must be a Ranger!! So don’t tell us it won’t hurt anyone, or someone wont get scammed, because it will happen eventually! Not to mention it is degrading the Scroll and the other patches!

    We do ask if you contact them, or post on their FB page, keep it polite and professional! We have emailed them and explained our point of view, and why it should not be sold as some accessory.

    I will post new updates to this story when we get a reply.

    UPDATE:It looks like the item(s) in question will be removed from their clothing line.

    “Thank you for your comments and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. It is never Urban Outfitters’ intention to offend our customers. We respect the military and value our nation’s veterans and those in active duty. Although the use of military insignias is common practice within fashion industry trends, we understand your concerns and will remove the Standard Cloth Patches Blue Vest from our website.”

  • Stupid Left on Chris Lane murder

    Chris Lane was killed in Oklahoma this week by three youths, ostensibly because they were bored, according to one of the perpetrators. So while most Americans are wondering why this isn’t being made a national issue like the Trayvon Martin death, the left is scurrying to make it about their agenda instead. Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon, tries to tell us that the two deaths were different because the police didn’t arrest George Zimmerman immediately after Martin’s death. Well, they did bring him in for questioning immediately following the incident, but they obviously didn’t have a case – proven by the outcome of his trial – so why would they have arrested him just because public opinion had determined he was guilty?

    So, the other day, at the daily White House press conference, one of the reporters asked if there was a statement from the President regarding Chris Lane. The spokesdingus, Josh Earnest, said that he wasn’t familiar with the case. When made familiar with the case he said that the president didn’t want to get in the way of the legal process, you know like the president didn’t want to get in the way of the legal process against George Zimmerman.

    What prompted me to write this, was a few minutes of a discussion on Fox news this morning when some ditz blamed the Republican-led Congress for the Lane murder. She said that schools are cutting back their extra-curricular programs because of federal budget cuts and that’s why unsupervised youths are out thrill-killing foreign students. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. It’s been only a few months since any cutbacks have happened, and I’m sure this problem with these kids started only recently. And, oh, by the way, school is out for the summer, so how could more school activities have prevented this senseless murder?

    Of course, the ditz also mentioned gun control, but it was already illegal for those three teens to own a gun and that didn’t seem to stop them. yeah, she wanted to ban all guns, and commandeer this issue as an excuse. Gun laws don’t work. Period.

    But, see the Left doesn’t want to admit that they’ve created the mess that inspired this particular murder. One of the perpetrators in the Lane murder has Tweeted that he has beaten 5 white people since Zimmerman was determined to be innocent by a jury. Because the jury didn’t reach the same conclusion as the animals who are prowling our streets in search of a thrill. If the Left actually admitted to what the problem is here, they’d have to admit that everything they’ve pushed in recent years in order to remain relevant has led to this murder.