And on the 24th day of July in the year 2009...

...Izzy gave forth with a denouncement of The One. Good stuff.

We're not going to lie down this time

(Some links via the Drudge Report)

There is a groundswell of opposition to Obama and his policies, with the core centering around "health care reform". In fact, the opposition is strong enough that some of those pushing this agenda item are trying to recast it as "health insurance reform". (Yeah, right.)

However, others, perhaps less savvy, have decided that the best way to push this through is to attack those who oppose it. We've been told that we're nicely dressed (is that supposed to be an insult), that we're paid shills for insurance companies (If so, where's my check?), called Nazis (or Brownshirts), we're to be punched out if we speak out and union goons are acting as enforcers to stifle dissent. Just by writing this I'm probably going to get on an enemies list.

They want us out of the way.

I don't think so. You want to push us around? We're going to push back.

Backfire

(Via Random Nuclear Strikes)

On today’s call with reporters, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele took credit for the RNC’s responseto a new Democratic National Committee ad asking voters to call Republicans and tell them to stop ginning up town hall heckling. The RNC redirected these calls from its main switchboard over to the DNC’s switchboard — a response, said Steele, to the White House arrogantly blaming regular Americans “like my mother, like my sister” for the health care impasse.

“I thought it was a good idea,” Steele said. “Don’t sit there and think you’re going to direct a bunch of angry liberals to call the RNC when I know full well what that’s all about. I get the joke. My response was, talk to your own party, because they’re the ones ginning this up.”

Heh.

I've not been much of a Steele fan, but he scores a point or two with this move.

Gunner, load sabot!

(Via GunTalk)

J and D Components are selling plastic sabots to reloaders (along with providing load data). For those of you who don't know, this allows you to do some very interesting ballistic-type things, such as shooting .223 projectiles from 30-06 barrels at Holy Crap! fps velocities. Or turning that .30 Carbine into The Gun Varmits Fear.

The possibilities for entertainment are just...astounding. I want to see one for the .50 BMG, which could be used to put a 55 gr. payload into low earth orbit.

The solution to Obamacare

Pay with cash? What a novel thought!

The expansion of health insurance and government entitlements created “free money” and thus the explosion of healthcare costs. The solution is simple and “impossible”: we all pay cash.

I think it's worth considering. It has the benefit of putting a lot of government functionaries on the same unemployment lines as their victims. The possibilities for hilarity to ensue are endless.

Shocking news!

Home-schooling has hit a record popularity in North Carolina.

I can't imagine why.

If you go to DefCon, go prepared

(This one is for the Mountain Man, who has been preaching the dangers of RFID technology to me for years.)

It would seem that the fun folks who run DefCon have made their point about the insecurity of RFID tech:

But despite the fact that attendees know they should take precautions to protect their data, federal agents at the conference got a scare on Friday when they were told they might have been caught in the sights of an RFID reader.

Me? I find it funny as hell, and I think they should have continued the project to it's planned conclusion. Maybe that would get the message across to the Fiddlin' Government that RFID used as an identity technology is fundamentally flawed. People, if one of those lovely "RFID enabled" cards is forced on you, all I can say is that you need to invest in aluminum foil.

I have to wonder if anyone from the Department of Homemade Homeland Security got snared? That would be rich.

But I thought dissent was patriotic?

(Via the Drudge Report)

I suppose that's only when the Democrats are out of power:

A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger's "Joker" character from "The Dark Knight" is creating a stir on the streets of Los Angeles where the image began appearing over the weekend.

...

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous.

Well, all I can say in reply is that is...Truth hurts, doesn't it?

But...but..that isn't what the reformers are saying!

(Via Attack Machine)

Ten reasons why America’s health care system is in better condition than you might suppose.

And one reason why the reformers won't acknowledge it: it isn't about health care, but about control. We can quote all the facts in the world that show our health care delivery system is one of the best in the world, AND IT WON'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE!

Because it isn't about health care. It's about control. If the government gets full control over health care (they already have too much as it is, in my not so humble opinion), then they can leverage that into total control of your life. "No, Mr. Freeholder, you can't eat that, because it's bad for you and will increase your health care costs." "No, Mr. Freeholder, you can't have that hobby, because it's dangerous and you might get injured, increasing your health care costs." "No, Mr. Freeholder, you can't have that operation, because there isn't enough money in our budget and we've had to restrict it's availability to persons under x years of age."

If we want to stop these people, we're going to have to hit them in the gut--multiple times, and hard. Call and write your CongressCritters and tell them that if they vote for this, you'll not only never vote for them, but do everything you can to see to it they lose the next election. Are they having one of those lovely town hall meetings? Go and ask some very uncomfortable questions (for them, at any rate.)

Make it clear to them that you are not going to give them control over your life. And make it stick. Shrug if you have to, Atlas.

Doing the numbers

(Via Roberta X)

We die in more murders because there are pockets of America where the rule of law and respect for otherwise-accepted norms of behavior are not what they should be. We have more traffic accidents because we have more cars, and drive them further and more often that others. What happens when those deaths are factored out of the data? An interesting thing…

Interesting indeed. It seems that our health care system doesn't suck nearly as much as the "reformers" want us to believe. Who'da thunk it?