OTJ...

On The Job Training...some people are born into their profession:




@ 3:49 - this kid is a natural!

New Director...

The FBI has a new Director.  My thoughts...it is what it is.  Only time will tell.  I can say this with a healthy dose of "Whew!" - it could have been much worse.  In lieu of what I thought was going to happen, Comey is a home run.  It is as if somebody whispered in Obama's ear, "This isn't Homeland Security, or ATF, this one matters..."

It is good to have a Director who is quiet and behind the scenes, and Comey may fit that role.  However, so did Mueller.  I will share just one tidbit.  Due to budget cuts, the FBI is eliminating 1800 positions from FBIHQ in Washington DC.  1800 FBI jobs will be phased out over the next year and a half.  I know people at the FBI - and nobody thinks that will hurt too much.  Ouch.  That is what Mr. Mueller created.

...another thing.  Comey is like 6'8" tall.  While I like wookies in general, I just question the ability of really tall people.  I'm biased, what can I say...

Fire Them...

Where is Donald Trump when we need him?

FAST FOOD STRIKES INTENSIFY IN SEVEN CITIES

If you have to hold a sign saying it...you're not

The strike is organized by, you guessed it, the Service Employees International Union.  They are arguing for a $15 per hour minimum wage.  One of the employees mentioned in the article was fired by Domino's Pizza (read the article, Domino's Pizza says it was for other reasons...but I am good with WALKING OUT ON YOUR SHIFT as a reason).  The employee is looking for help from the National Labor Relations Board.  Yes, the one Obama tried to staff unconstitutionally (it is hard, you see, he was a 'constitutional law professor' in name only....).


UNDEREMPLOYMENT AT 17.2%

If you have a job, and you are on strike, you should quit (or get fired) and let somebody else have the job.  If you are looking for full-time employment, you should try to work more hours...not walk out on your shift.

*It should be noted that I took Mrs. Bannon out to lunch on Sunday (a rare occasion) and each restaurant we considered....had a "Help Wanted" sign in the window.

This is just more evidence that there is a growing and alarming disconnect between the American citizen and the real world.  Sales of smart phones and luxury items continue to skyrocket as 1 in 10 are out of work.  Government welfare in all sorts of forms is on the rise, as is the average weight of the recipients.

If the public has lost their minds - it is no secret the government is leading the way.  Medical care costs are skyrocketing...so the government passes laws adding more middlemen.  We have a problem with illegal immigration...so the government tries to pass laws to make them legal.  And of course, I must mention that as we are cutting back military spending and benching our military aircraft...we are sending billions of tax payer dollars to foreign countries for them to spend on their militaries.

Before We Get To That...

Race for Justice has an amazing, important blog post...coming up...but first:


Fast and Furious

IRS

Benghazi

...I was going to list chronologically all the mind-numbing "scandals."  Somebody already did alot of work on that HERE.  But it doesn't seem to matter.  Nothing happens.  Billions in aid to the Palestinians, but furloughed American workers.  Nobody does anything.  The latest - a government shut-down over Obamacare.  Wait, that's good, DO IT, please. Who is John Galt?

So for now, what matters?

PEANUT BUTTER POP-TARTS!

Pop-Tarts hold a special place in my heart.  I can remember when my father was building our cabin and we stayed in our airstream.  I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons on a black-and-white 4" screen in a pile of flannel sleeping bags with my sisters...and eating strawberry Pop-Tarts.  

Stay tuned, for that very important blog post, that you don't want to miss...

Stay Tuned...

...for what we at Race for Justice believe will be a very important blog post.

COMING UP NEXT:  A seriously good blog post

It Is By Design...

July 2013 Jobs Report: Only 47% of Adults Have a Full-Time Job

70.4 Million Enrolled in Medicaid in 2011 - More than 1 in 5 Americans

47.8 Million on Food Stamps

10.9 Million on Social Security Disability



It is no accident...

Cloward-Piven Strategy

The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty

"...It is our purpose to advance a strategy which affords the basis for a convergence of civil rights organizations, militant anti-poverty groups and the poor.  If this strategy were implemented, a political crisis would result that could lead to legislation for a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.

The strategy is based on the fact that a vast discrepancy exists between the benefits to which people are entitled under public welfare programs and the sums which they actually receive.  This gulf is not recognized in a society that is wholly and self-righteously oriented toward getting people off the welfare rolls." (emphasis added)

"......the strategy we propose, is a massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls."

"...A series of welfare drives in large cities would, we believe, impel action on a new federal program to distribute income, eliminating the present public welfare system... Widespread campaigns to register the eligible poor for welfare aid, and to help existing recipients obtain their full benefits, would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments.  These disruptions would generate severe politicial strains, and deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the white working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor.  To avoid a further weakening of that historic coalition, a national Democratic administration would be constrained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dilemmas...."

No, This is Really Important...

Have you noticed that its almost impossible to have a conversation, with some people, without them checking there smartphones during the conversation.  No? Maybe I just bore the hell out of people?

Read:

Something Strange is Happening to My Brain: It Can't Keep Still

I dare you to read the entire article.  I have posted a few times about this topic.  I have commented numerous times to my sister and to Mrs. Bannon that people don't want to read long blog posts or emails.  I say this because I see it.  I experience it.  I write summaries of things (projects, cases, etc) for people - and they skim the summary. It is because their brains are shrinking!


...but...while reading the article I, myself, did the following:

- emailed myself three ideas for blog posts (including this one)
- Googled (using Bing) the word Luddite and read two articles about them, I like them
- Tried to summarize the American Revolution in 140 characters (again, future blog post idea)
- Sent email to Mrs Bannon with link to article so she could enjoy what I was enoying (before I was done enjoying it)
- Checked my phone twice (it doesn't make a sound when I recieve emails, and I'm too lazy to figure out why, but apparently I thought I might receive an important email while reading this interesting article.  Further, I was reading the article on the computer which my email also comes to.  ?)

I don't have a smartphone, and I have fought my immediate family getting one.  I have an iPad, and I think it is great, but it is also very dangerous.  I have thought about doing the "electronic-free day" or weekend, but I just don't think it would be that hard.  I have been without electronics out in the forest - but that is easy.  Its being in town and around them that makes it hard.

I may read one of these books, if I can just sit down and focus:

Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers                                                iDisorder by Larry Rosen

(I may get iDisorder for my sisters - but it will have to be the electronic version...)


...actually, I read ALOT of books.  But, I do have to admit, that I have about 15 bookmarked books on my coffee table - and no room for coffee.

Book Review: Gun Guys

Gun Guys - A Road Trip

by Dan Baum

I found this book on accident.  I picked it off the New Books shelf in a small local library branch.  I just opened it to see what it was about.  I read the first couple pages, and decided to check it out.  Like all good books, I could not put it down and finished it in a day or two.

Dan Baum is nothing like me.  At all.  Baum is a Democrat, and clearly a person on the Left side of many issues, despite the fact that he enjoys shooting guns, collecting guns, and hunting.  (Okay, he's a little like me.)  Which is what makes it a good book.  Baum takes 'a road trip' to interview 'gun guys' to explore America's fascination with handguns, as well as his own.  He also attends gun shows, competitive shooting events, and every gun store he can find along the way.

What I disliked about the book, was his caricature-ism of the 'gun guys' he met.  While I don't deny these types exist, he made it seem like that was all there was out there.  (He noted, and I found this to be accurate, that many people who work in gun stores are less-than-helpful, condescending, and discourage people from coming back.  But that isn't everybody.  You just have to find the right store.  He also noted that MANY of the gun stores he found on the internet - were gone.  These two facts are related.  Having a little experience in this area, I can say that many gun guys open stores because they love guns and know alot about them...but that does not make them good salesmen.  If you check, you will find several gun stores in your area that are 'by appointment only.')

As I read Gun Guys, I couldn't help but think that as Baum dug deeper into the issue of guns in America, as he broke down the arguments into their most simple forms, he discovered some basic facts, including "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  Facts that could not be denied.  But, like most on the Left, he would counter with what he felt.  Luckily, we are a nation of laws, not of feelings.

At what was a turning point in the story, Baum attended yet another training class to obtain a concealed carry permit in one of the states he visited.  However, this time the instructors exposed, through some drills on the shooting range, that Baum was not really prepared to use his concealed weapon of choice in a real life or death situation.  Baum re-thought his idea of carrying concealed.  Then he bought another gun.  One that he felt more confident in, with regard to his ability to draw the weapon from concealment, possibly during a life or death moment of terror, and to accurately put, if needed, multiple bullets on target.

In the end, Baum acknowledged not just the right, but the need to bear arms.  At the same time, while remaining a gun owner, Baum acknowledged he is not a sheepdog, he is a sheep.  But he is thankful for sheepdogs, because he believes in wolves.




Sometimes I am asked if I carry all the time.  I would say I carry 90% of the time (I won't tell you when or where I don't - just to keep you on your toes!)  On days when I don't carry, I do feel as if something is missing.  Why do I carry all the time?  It is not the 20 years of carrying a handgun when it is not needed.  It is the possibility of the one moment when it is needed.

Deja Vu All Over Again...

From Amazon.com:

"Imagine a country in which strikes by public-sector unions occupied the public square; where foreign policy wandered aimlessly as America disentangled itself from wars abroad and a potential civil war on its southern border; where racial and ethnic groups jostled for political influence; where a war on illicit substances led to violence in its cities; where technology was dramatically changing how mankind communicated and moved about - and where the educated harbored increasing contempt for the philosophic underpinnings of our republic.

That country, the America of the 1920s, looked a lot like America today.  One would think, then, that the President who successfully navigated these challenges, Calvin Coolidge, might be esteemed today.  Instead, Coolidge's record is little known, the result of efforts by both the left and the right to distort his legacy."

                                   

I have learned that anything by Charles Johnson is worth reading.  I haven't read this book yet, I gave it as a gift.  If you ask the average American, okay forget the average American - they don't know who Coolidge was, ask American's with a college degree, okay nevermind.  My point is that to most people, Roosevelt fixed what Hoover broke, and Coolidge was the guy who let all the problems build.  The truth, America surged under Coolidge - and the 20's were roaring so loud, the people could not hear what caused it.  Coolidge (after a couple years of Harding) followed Wilson - similar in some ways to how Reagan followed Carter.  What will follow Obama?  (Truman was the Roosevelt's third Vice President - not a reaction of the voters to Roosevelt).  

Any student of history will tell you that we are doomed to repeat it. 

We are doomed to repeat it...

I was going to title this post Do Nothing, Now!  But we need some serious deregulation...

Sum Ting Wong...

If you haven't heard, or read, Oakland News Channel KTVU announced the names of the pilots of the Asiana flight that crash landed in San Francisco.

But...as it turns out, those aren't the names...

Even though this was on the evening news, there is a ***Rated R*** name in there.

Zimmerman, Martin, Justice....

Are you tired of it.  I am.  It is a daily barrage of half truths, unrelated concepts and ideas, and what millions of Americans know and how this will be remembered - is being determined by the media that we all despise.  

I haven't paid too much attention to the trial - but just focusing on one issue - I can not believe that those prosecutors...are prosecutors.  I can't believe they represent the Government.  One of them said in the closing arguments, apparently like he has been doing in public throughout the trial - that George Zimmerman is a liar.  With no evidence to support it.  

Stop and think for a minute.  The State of Florida - with billions of dollars at its disposal - is going after a citizen.  The State of Florida, represented in court by this guy, said that George Zimmerman is a liar.  With no evidence to support it.  

There is evidence to cast doubt in Zimmerman's actions, I guess.  You could say that Zimmerman should have identified himself as a "community watch" officer, and said that the "police are on the way," or "I am armed."  But Zimmerman said he couldn't because he was surprised by Martin and knocked to the ground before he knew it - which is supported by Martin's friend.  But you could say that Martin's duty as an armed watchman was to identify himself (yes, I know, that is not the law which proves the point that Zimmerman should never have been charged, and this should never have been tried, and the Judge should have issued a summary judgement).  But his account has remained consistent, and there is no evidence to point to that he is not telling the truth. 

Zimmerman could be wrong. Its possible, and likely, that he didn't identify himself, because Martin double backed on him (as Martin told his friend on the phone he did), startled Zimmerman - and scared the crap out of him.  

But where did Zimmerman lie.  I didn't watch ANY of the trial - so maybe I missed it.  But the Prosecutor, representing the full force of the Government, said Zimmerman lied - based on a theory.  

It is the Government's job to provide evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that a law was violated.  It is the defense's job to prove reasonable doubt.

It is not the Government's job to provide reasonable suspicion based on a theory.  In my opinion, that is unethical. The Prosecutor should be fired and disbarred - and I question the suitability of the judge.

America's first White Hispanic - see only way a Hispanic can be racist

Innocent Skittle eater - how could this guy scare anybody...but a racist

Book Review: How Children Succeed

I decided to write a book review - but just like I try in my posts, I will keep it short and to the point.

How Children Succeed - Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

by Paul Tough

I have read numerous books on parenting, on raising children, on the status of education in American schools, on education reform, etc.  But only those with a theme or theory that includes a sort of 'tough love,' or a 'keep it simple' approach, or real-world-measurable-results-that-actually-work type ideas.

People have asked (I'm being serious) how are my kids so well behaved.  I laugh at them, surely they meant some other kids.  The answer is long, but it includes - discipline and standards.  People laugh at me when I tell them things we do in our house...or in our yard.  They don't believe me.  Yes, its true, some of my children have been forced to crawl up hill in the snow in their shorts.  But the ones who didn't have to, asked if they could.  Mrs. Bannon and I are not perfect parents, but we do work very hard at it.

I do not remember how I came to find this book (though it was not from the author's last name).  I believe it was mentioned, or he was interviewed, on conservative talk radio.  However, Paul Tough, is  on the Left.  I don't recall him coming out and saying that in the book, and for the most part, while you might guess it might be so, you may have some doubt.  The book is anecdotal, but discusses numerous studies and theories. 

The book focuses on 'at risk' children and schools, and what has worked, or failed, to 'level the playing field.'  We all know, or think we know, why affluent children in 'good schools,' whose parents went to college, succeed.  And many of the studies and results, Tough points out, have results that you would have intuited.  But Tough points out that some people succeed no matter what - and there is something measurable amongst those people.  More so than pounding good "education" into them, they need to learn how to work through problems - not just math problems, and reading comprehension problems, but family problems, bully problems, health problems.  They need to learn to control themselves, not to be controlled by others.  Again, sounds like a "yeah, we know," but he does a good job tying together a lot of different studies, and punctuates it with some great stories.

He also shows that absent good character, and discipline, even extremely able and smart children, will find a way to fail.

In the final summary, Tough's Leftist political ethnocentrism comes through when he does what most of us do, and lets his bias form the baseline of what he THINKS everybody believes.  He describes how it is government's job to guarantee a roof over our heads, and a meal, and most Americans believe this.  Huh?  When I read things like that, I have to go back an reassess his analysis of the topics he discussed.

Overall, it is a good book.  I give it two thumbs up, because that is all the thumbs I have.  I would find some way to have more thumbs if Tough would have followed up with more ways, techniques, or even anecdotes, on how to teach "learning character, grit, etc," and how to turn things around for individuals on their way to failure.  (He may have summarized that in the last chapter, but I started breezing through that when it seemed like he wasn't providing solutions...I just have a hard time paying attention in that last chapter).

If you are a teacher, or homeskooler, its a must read.  If you are a parent or grandparent of young children, I would recommend it.  If not - if you have the time...

**Update**

The President Has Been Notified...

At Least 9 Dead, Dozens Wounded in Chicago During Holiday Weekend Shootings

"No, I know, I know, but what ha happened..."

I'm sure he knew already.  I read a report last week, citing that Obama 'worked for years to reduce poverty in inner-city Chicago.'  Its help like his, that changed the proposed Conceal Carry law in Illinois to limit the number of handguns one could carry to....one.  That will be helpful too.

The President Has Been Notified...

Two Dead, Dozens Injured in San Fran Plane Crash

At this point the cause of the crash has not been made public.  The investigation was "turned over to the FBI," and the media is reporting that terrorism has been ruled out (at which point the FBI no longer cares).

"President Obama, who was at Camp David in Maryland, was informed of the crash and was being kept up to date by local, state and federal authorities, the White House said."

Really.  Well of course, we know that he gets news about what his administration is doing from...the news.  But do we need to be told that he has been told about a single plane crash?  Does the President even know who the head of the FAA is?  Does he visit the White House hundreds of times?  Oh wait, that is the head of the IRS.  Does the President know who is on the NTSB (the people who investigate air plane crashes)?  Did he make recess appointments to the NTSB?  Oh wait, that was the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board).

Can the media please focus on what the President is doing, rather than on what he is not supposed to be doing.

My point is why do we care, that the President was notified?  This is the same President who commented on the Trayvon Martin case early on, saying that if he had a son, he might look like Trayvon (his son would not however, look anything like the hundreds of young black males that were killed in Chicago over the last year)...possibly sticking that thought into the minds of potential jurors.  This is the same President that commented on the Cambridge Police arrest of Henry Louis Gates, saying that the police acted stupid (for arresting Gates for disturbing the peace after he...disturbed the peace)...only to apologize to 'law enforcement' later.

Maybe he really did learn about Benghazi and the IRS scandal from Fox News...

Can we stop notifying him of every little thing that occurs across the country, and can we stop depending on him for every little thing.  Please.

July 4, 237 years later...