If You Were Gay-With Bert And Ernie

H/T Titan Uranus

The FDA Is Out To Regulate Your Nuts

The FDA might soon classify walnuts as a drug and regulate them as such based on the claims of one website that sells them. I know it sounds like a joke, but evidently its not. They have even threatened to impose some kind of fine on Diamond Nuts, due to the claims made on their website, which the FDA claims is in violation of FDA Guidelines. Why? Because the use and benefits to which Diamond Nuts ascribes their products, especially walnuts, make them a drug.

Walnuts.org goes into detail as to the health benefits of walnuts.

This is what happens when you allow government to grow too big and give its agencies too much regulatory power. Nothing good comes out of it in the long run. The FDA is one of the first government agencies that should be totally stripped of funding, along with the EPA.

Waller R. Newell: You say you want a revolution?

Here is a pretty good article that describes the processes that surround most revolutions, and the unfortunate aftermath of far too many of them. Consider it must reading, preferably without the rose colored glasses far too many people try to read through. Thanks to Titan Uranus for the link.

Waller R. Newell: You say you want a revolution?

And So It Begins

"The Camp David Accords are finished."

These words, spoken in the aftermath of Mubarak's resignation as President of Egypt, did not come from the Muslim Brotherhood, but from a top opposition leader.

An influential Egyptian opposition figure and likely presidential candidate called Sunday for Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel to be reassessed, the first sign since former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster Friday that the 32-year-old agreement may be in jeopardy.

Ayman Nour, a former lawmaker and chairman of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, told an Egyptian radio station that the 1978 Camp David Accords were no longer relevant, and said the country’s leadership should at least rethink the terms of the framework agreements that led to a peace deal between the erstwhile enemies the following year...

“The Camp David Accords are finished,” Nour said. “Egypt has to at least conduct negotiations over conditions of the agreement.”

This does not bode well for Egypt or for Israel. One must assume this is a popular attitude among the Egyptians, for a top political leader to come out with it this quickly. If he makes good on his threat, and he has widespread support amongst the Egyptians, the Israelis will have no choice but to either renegotiate or hold firm and demand fealty to the old treaty. What choice do they have? If they renegotiate they will be obliged to consider new terms that are not favorable to them by comparison. Yet, if they refuse, they will be criticized as warmongers. The end result is dependent solely on who has, or gains, power in Israel over the next few months, to couple of years.

This might lead to the first real gains among the really ultra-Orthodox parties like the Kahanists, in the face of what might be seen as mounting and unreasonable pressure and aggressive rhetoric. And it will probably be only a matter of time now before there is another Intifada among the Palestinians, particularly if Hamas sees such a provocation as the only way to keep their people from giving them the same treatment the Egyptians gave to Mubarak. It's the old scapegoat the Jews strategy, an unfortunately time-tested and proven strategy that has proven effective from Spain, to Russia, to Germany, and beyond. What's worse, it might spread beyond the Hamas areas of influence to include the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem. The Baca Valley of Southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights might similarly erupt as well. All of Israel's surrounding nations, not only Syria and Lebanon, but even Jordan and Saudi Arabia, all nations which have experienced their own threats to peace and public order and security, might experience their own upheavals. What better way to get their people off their backs than to encourage yet another round of Israel bashing. The Israelis have a perfectly reasonable right to be concerned, because this time, it might go farther than the leaders of these countries might intend and possibly herald a conflagration which no reasonable person, especially a national leader, wants to be involved with.

And it does bear asking-WWOD? It's a good thing for him he has a teleprompter. If the last couple of weeks is any guide, he's going to be far too busy wringing his hands to be able to read any scribbled notes on his palms.

Atlas Shrugged-The Movie

I never read the novel, and I'm not a Libertarian, but there's no denying the impact of this book or it's author, Ayn Rand. As I understand it, the premise of the book is one in which all the productive members of society, or at least a substantial percentage of them, including captains of industry and skilled professionals, go on strike in protest against government regulations and high taxes. The original, working novel of the novel was, in fact, The Strike.

Now, somebody has finally made a movie out of it (I think for the first time), and in this day and age of the Tea Party, its going to be interesting to see what kind of impact it has. The trailer certainly looks compelling, and I'm sure it's going to be widely discussed over the weeks ahead until its release, and after. Will it have any impact on American political society and culture? We'll have to wait and see, but this seems to be the perfect time for it.

If it is true to the original novel, don't be surprised if it doesn't equal Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ in terms of impact and influence. If I'm right this will be a much bigger deal than the typical big, hyped movies of late, such as Inception. Look for invitations from civic groups to view the movie for free, much like churches across the country screened Gibson's movie.

If it encourages critical thought and discussion throughout the country among those who ordinarily don't think past the days headlines and editorials, it will provide a valuable service.

The Swamp Thing

I guess I should point out, this video is a joke, and I mean that in a good way. It's actually kind of a mean joke to pull on people, but oh well, what the hell.

Hilarious Racist Commercial

Cracked Madness

From Cracked, its how typos could have changed things.

Just some silly fun, what the hell? Here's a few more, but go check out all twenty-eight at the link.

Herman Cain Speech At CPAC

Herman Cain is probably among the least known of the Republicans seemingly making plans for a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Some might know him simply as a conservative talk radio personality, or as the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza. He has an impressive conservative pedigree, however, being arguably the most significant player in the move to derail the Clinton Health Care proposal in the mid-nineties known colloquially as HillaryCare.

Watch the video, well worth the time at twenty eight minutes and forty six seconds, and you will see why so many Republican activists among the GOP base are so taken by him.

Sarah Palin versus Lady Gaga

Natural Gas Is Hazardous To Your Health

The following video reports a natural gas explosion that happened in Allentown Pennsylvania, last night being the latest in a string of such events that have happened, such as in Philadelphia just last month, as well as San Bruno, California where an entire neighborhood was destroyed. Yet this is what some proponents of alternative energy sources are urging us to use for to account for much of our energy needs. In fact, this kind of thing has been happening with increased frequency.

Natural gas is dangerously unstable, and it is worth noting that, in the case of the explosion in Allentown, a routine check of the lines in the neighborhood in just the previous week had revealed no leaks, or any other problems.

Bear in mind, we are not only going to be using more and more of this stuff in our business and residential neighborhoods, we might also be driving with it in our cars in place of gasoline.

I understand that there will probably come a time when we might not have much choice, but frankly, I'd prefer to drive a car powered by neutrons. I say that in all seriousness.

By the way, there was also a recent explosion of a gas line in Israel, the result of a terrorist act in the face of the recent unrest in Egypt, from where the line originated. Although its not quite as dramatic as the video below, the video of the terrorist act offers grim evidence of the dangers involved.

Yeah, this is the part where I say "Drill, Baby, Drill".

The Obama Administrations Secret War Against Toyota

I don't think anybody can blame Obama or the federal government for seeming to come down a tad hard on Toyota when it looked like an electronics problem might have been causing sudden "acceleration syndrome", especially when it looked like it had cost lives, and continued to endanger others. It certainly didn't help that the company seemed to be in denial of its problems and obvious culpability.

Only it turns out they were not so culpable after all, and the problems with the giant auto-maker were not quite what they seemed to be at the time. In fact, a government report exonerated Toyota. The problem, when there really was one at all as opposed to mere driver error, was a problem with the floor mats.

This is according to a government report, mind you, but one which was not released until a few days ago, even though it has been available for months. Since, in fact, well before the election. It's almost as if the administration wanted to use this as a political issue, huh? Or it could be they were simply trying to engage in the tried and true tactic of destroy the competition, the point being the government is now part-owner of Toyota competitors GM and Chrysler. While this is a valid argument, I think it pales in significance to the fact that an even bigger owner, especially of GM, is the UAW, a staunch supporter and contributor to the Democratic Party.

But hey, its almost a relief that the Democrats might spend some of their time trying to wreck something besides the Constitution. But its also scary to contemplate whether or not this report would have ever seen the light of day if the Democrats had won the election.

Countdown To Irrelevance

Have you been wondering what Keith Olbermann would do after losing his gig at MSNBC. Well, since Countdown With Keith Olbermann is no more, it seems like the Bathtub Boy may have found another gig, at WRVK 1460 AM, home of Renfro Valley. Yes, Keith has landed a position as radio announcer and commentator for WRVK's Friday Night broadcast of the Rockcastle Rockets, the high school football team of Rockcastle County High School. During off season he'll be sweeping the studios, fetching coffee for Pete Stamper, and parking cars and selling tickets for the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.

Okay, okay, jeez, I'm just kidding. It's not even that good. The Olberdouche will instead be working for Al Gore's Current TV.

Yep, now you have to pay to see the little prick melt down.

Strong, Yet Fragile

I originally intended to post this video of a mother kangaroo and its new born baby for Imbolc, but didn't have time. Imbolc, which by the way occurs on Groundhog Day, February 2nd (among other more religiously oriented traditional holidays, such as Candlemass), is a day for the observance of the fragile beginnings of spring. As such, we try to look for and recognize those elements of our lives that need greater nurturing and protection, in the hopes they too might grow and blossom within our lives.

This video then should serve as both a reminder and an inspiration to those who recognize and wish to seek out those qualities. Well, that and its just cool. How could you not love a baby kangaroo being nurtured by its momma?

Doctor Gosnell And His Chamber of Whorers

The headline from Ace of Spades HQ says it best-"abortion should be safe, legal, and rarely used in a negative headline". You have yet to hear a report in the media about the latest undercover investigation by Breitbart in which a Planned Parenthood employee counseled an undercover journalist, disguised as a pimp, on the best way to handle potential problems with what he described as underage foreign sex slaves. But even that almost pales into significance compared to the story of the Philadelphia abortion doctor, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, that went above and beyond the call of duty in performing late term abortions. He induced labor, allowed the children to be fully born, whereupon he murdered them by cutting their spinal cords with a pair of scissors.

The case was so grotesque that he and nine of his employees have been indicted by the Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams-a Democrat-who is the first black DA in Philadelphia history. The vast majority of the doctor's clients and patients were in fact black, and he has been charged with the murder of seven newborn infants, and one woman who also died accidentally as the result of an abortion procedure.

No one in the media seems interested in this story, but that's no surprise. After all, they don't want to be seen as being on the side of the Pro-Life movement, so they have taken the stance they have criticized so many politicians for related to other scandals. They would prefer to cover it up, sweep it under the rug, just ignore the story and pretend it goes away. Otherwise, they might offend the Pro-choice lobby that makes up such a large percentage of their viewers. Also, it might outrage the far right to such an extent there could be riots, or threats to abortion clinics and other abortion providers.

Thus, it has been deemed, obviously, as non-newsworthy, even though DA Williams has stated that he might seek the death penalty.

So what does the left have to say about it? Oh, have no fear, they are truly outraged. Not at the story itself, but because somebody made the statement that Obama, as a black man, should be angry that so many innocent black babies were murdered in this manner.

That outraged the left so much they turned to their tried and true accusation against their opponents. Whoever suggested Obama should be angry at the story is RAAAAAAA-CCIIIIIISSSSSTT!!! This is a perfect example of how the left uses cries of racism as a diversionary tactic. Obama is a known supporter, from his days as Illinois State Senator, of the practice of allowing babies who were born in the aftermath of failed abortion attempts to die. He even co-authored the bill that would have made this a state law.

The dirty secret there, that the Right doesn't care to know, is that these infants are probably so grossly damaged by the procedure that they would have no chance for any quality of life if they were saved. So I tend to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on that one. But this case is vastly different. In the Gosnell matter, babies are born through induced labor, and then unceremoniously murdered.

Gosnell was reported for almost the entirety of his forty years of these practices, yet no one in authority ever did more than cursory investigations at best, even when it was told how he cut off the feet of the infants and kept them in jars, for "research" purposes, after discarding the infants bodies like so much garbage. All of this has been well-known but rarely spoken of save in hushed whispers, until a Grand Jury recently, finally, decided to take action.

The Left, for the most part, has nothing to say, and neither does the media. Unless that is they think these women had given birth to crickets.

I bring this up now, even though the story is actually a couple of weeks old by now, for the simple fact that I am always hearing from the left as to how the media is not partial to the left. Most of them even accuse the media of being conservative, if you can believe it. The only thing conservative about the mainstream media is their inclination to protect their own bottom line by not insulting their mostly liberal audience. After all, they are the only audience they have. Well, they and that undecided, mushy middle that make up the majority of so-called independents-you know, the ones they still manage to bullshit on a fairly regular basis.

I,Me,Mine

This is my brain on drugs, about four years ago, give or take.

Jim is right. And what about the Tailhook scandal? Oh, and by the way, when are they going to get around to disciplining the assholes that tried to push evangelical Christianity on recruits, trying to coerce them with their positions of authority. Strangely enough, that seems to have been swept under the rug.

Oh,and by the way, to the person who asked about how a new recruit would take her, if I was that recruit I would take her dead seriously. I would treat her with the same degree of respect that I would treat any superior officer, male or female. Not one ounce more, not one ounce less.

That’s one of the first things you learn in the military, discipline and respect. If you don’t show the respect, you will learn discipline REAL DAMN FAST!!!!!!!!!

And that is the way it should be, regardless of who the person is. This whole controversy, and the reason it is a controversy, is nothing but a shining example of how people let their sexual hang-ups override their common sense.

Sure you can disrespect some “shameless floozy” that shows her body, but don’t you dare disrespect somebody that tries to shove a damn Bible down peoples throats, or interfere with the pervasive culture that allows it.

That was comment number twelve to a post on Urban Grounds about Michelle Manhart, an Air Force officer who got in a little bit of trouble over posing for Playboy.

I point this out as a means of reminding people that, yes, you can change. It depends on how the change comes about. In my case-and this is important-it come about due to my thoughtfully seeking greater access to a wider variety of information and points of view than what I was traditionally exposed to.

As a result of such greater depth of information, I found myself becoming more and more conservative. I guess my exposure to Fred Thompson during the 2008 campaign was the final pull that brought me over to "the dark side" of Federalism. Where once I was all over the map ideologically, but basically a left of center moderate, I have transitioned to the point I am a fanatical federalist.

More importantly, it pisses me off when I think of how I was sold a bill of goods for such a long time by Democrats, liberal activists, and worse of all, a complacent and seemingly at times bought and paid for mainstream media, who come to find out seem to all but promote RINO Republicans to lead the GOP, then turn on them during general elections. They also tend to ignore things that make their side look bad. But they always find a way to fool you into thinking they're objective.

Lately I got some comments from a person who is a liberal, and I think a liberal pagan, though I'm not sure. He commented on a number of posts, but one in particular he made mention of how two groups of opponents on the gun control issue allegedly decided they had more in common than not, and decided it was something they could compromise on.

As somebody who has always been a supporter of the Second Amendment, even in my most liberal days, I can respond to that flat out by asserting that there is no compromise when it comes to the Second Amendment. But Democrats don't really want compromise. They want to ask for ten times more than what they really want, and then when they get what they actually do want, they call it compromise. But you can't compromise on the Second Amendment, because it means what it says. And what it says has nothing to do with government regulation. Well-regulated means, quite simply, well armed. You can no more compromise on the Second Amendment than you can on the First Amendment, or any of the others. No, you can't cry fire in a crowded theater, and if you do you'll be prosecuted. That's not exactly what I would call a compromise, but okay, if you insist, I'll play along. If you walk up to somebody and shoot them because you don't like them, or hold a gun on them and rob them, you can be prosecuted for that as well. There, how's that for a "compromise"? Well, that's as good as one as you'll get from me.

Okay, just to show I'm reasonable, no one should be allowed to own their own private nuclear bomb.

See, you can't win with liberals, because they hate this country. They'll deny that, but then they'll turn around and in all sincerity do everything they can to increase the role and size of the federal government, and will do so in the name of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Class warfare, you see, is more than a means to an end. In some ways, it is the end. Its a way of transforming American society from top to bottom, by becoming more like the "advanced" European societies they so admire and wish to emulate. That on its own puts the lie to how much they love this country.

I was lucky. I always hated political correctness, something any so-called liberal should also hate if they really believed in the First Amendment, but there again, their hypocrisy shows loud and clear.

I don't know for sure what the final straw was. It might have been the dawning realization that Democrats were craven based on their actions in the days following the 9/11 attacks, their support for such things as the Iraqi invasion and the Patriot Act when it was convenient, but then fought against both tooth and nail at the first opportunity. Yet, they almost all voted for the Patriot Act without even reading the bill. In the 2002 mid-term elections, many Democrats couldn't get too close to George W. Bush. God damn, some of them were almost groping the fucking guy in public, on their own campaign advertisements. They were and still are sickening pukes.

Mainly though, and I say this in all sincerity, I always recognized that conservatives, as a general rule, are just better people than liberals. As an example, I'm always giving conservatives and liberals both hell about abortion. I'm always telling them since liberals are the ones by and large who get the lion's share of abortions, we shouldn't stand in their way. The world needs less, not more liberals.

Guess who gives me the most grief about that. It's hard to figure out, but it shows that conservatives are genuinely sincere in their stated opposition to abortion. They don't even want their worse, most hated enemies, to engage in such a despicable practice, one that will and has lessened the numbers of future liberals since 1973. Conservatives deserve at least some respect for that much.

That's why I don't really feel comfortable with the term conservative. Federalist, not that fits me to a t now. I think it always did, it just took me some time wandering in the darkness to find my natural home.

As for where I've been, that person is a stranger to me.

Criminal Conspiracy

Now that the Obama Justice Department has busted the Mafia-arresting more than one hundred members of five New York crime families-how long do you think it will be before we'll see them go after some of the other criminal goon gangs? Groups like the Crips, Bloodz, Latino gangs like MS-13, maybe some of the Mexican bloodsuckers that have wreaked havoc and turned the Mexican-American border into a war zone.

I think we'll see that in no time at all. See, La Cosa Nortra makes the perfect foil for politicians looking to make an impression. Bobby Kennedy, as AG in his brother Jack's administration, figured that out and played it for all it was worth, even while using some of these same people in plots against Castro. In the meantime, he seemed to all but ignore the Irish Mafia, who naturally stood to gain if the Italians and Sicilians were eliminated.

It's all a fucking dog and pony show that means very little beyond the players directly involved.

Somewhat Authentic Buffalo Wings

I had them for Imbolc, so I probably won't have them again for the Super Bowl, but here's as good a recipe for authentic buffalo wings as you'll find anywhere. Remember, don't use margarine, use real butter for the sauce. And Frank's Hot Sauce is the authentic hot sauce used in original buffalo wings. Those two ingredients, and vinegar, is all you need. Finally, some people like to coat their wings with flour. If you do that, you'll probably have a big mess and the sauce won't work right.

Ignore the bit at the beginning with the salt mixture. Just wash your wings, salt them, then cover them with the sauce after you bake them or grill them. I like to put them back in the oven on low heat for just a few minutes after coating them.

Fag

Don't ask. Don't tell.

A Walk In The Snow

This is a great short film by a beginning filmmaker. There's no story as such, just a guy walking in the snow, at night. But the scenery, the lighting, etc. are exceptional.