Category: Conservative

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Nice to know that I’m not the only one…

Norcalreflection

Was at the Car Dealership yesterday and overheard a couple of conversations that had me nodding in agreement.

California isn’t just hated by me… 

I heard two separate conversations between four different men all of whom are in their mid 40s to mid 50s. In their conversation they were all talking about packing up their shit a leaving the state.

One guy was waiting for his 2 sons to get out of the house. One of them is going to be a sheriff, the other one is 23 and still at home, fighting for a job in an ever decreasing job market.

In this guys case he wasn’t too upset at having a 23 year old living with him. He rightly observed that with things as expensive as they are here, his sons really couldn’t afford to be out on their own. His strategy is to leave for Arizona when his boys have settled.

One of the other guys had just packed up his company and was having his car serviced as the last step before moving to Reno. The money his company was going to save in taxes and fees over the next year PAID for him to be able to pay for the relocation of his entire staff.

In yet another conversation, a guy was counting the days to retirement (90) then he & his wife were heading to New Mexico. They’d already sold their house and had packed up most everything which was sitting in a storage facility in NM. They were doing the minimalist thing until he retired.

His wife had been nice enough to her employer to let them know that she’d be leaving in 90 days… Of course the fuckers she worked for fired her because after all she wouldn’t be working as hard knowing that she’d be leaving… (To This I say WTF??? She could have trained her replacement and she wasn’t under any obligation to let her employer know shit! But courtesy is truly a thing from another age.)

The last guy was funny as hell because he too was heading to Arizona. He said it was as simple as the gas prices dropped 60 to 70 cents per gallon when he crossed the border out of California… He said that alone was enough to sell him on relocating. But then his wife got laid off and after searching for a job in her field for 9 months she’s decided to leave the kids & grandkids in CA and accepted a job in her field in Flagstaff. 

If the kids want to visit it’s not too crazy a drive for them, and It’s an easy drive for the guy and his wife too. When asked why drive? He replied; “Who wants to fly anymore? I know I don’t want the TSA feeling me or my wife up she might trade men in…”

The common thread is that all of these guys are middle aged, Middle to late career and they’ve had enough of the B.S. that is California.

Of course what this means is that if the trend continues… California will have a tourist industry ONLY and the dream that was once the Golden State will be just another tourist trap. 

Even the technology companies are leaving. Many of them are reducing their presence here to nothing more than small offices. They’re not even maintaining corporate headquarters here. It’s just too damn expensive…

All of this is to say, 

It’s nice to know I’m not insane or over-reacting as some people close to me have implied. 

I think I can move to another state following work in my field. After 15 years of patiently driving obscene distances I can finally and with a clear conscience put the Golden State in my Rear View Mirror

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Sandusky Guilty… DUH!

120623 Sandusky booking photo AP12062311028 244x183

Jerry Sandusky has been found guilty by a Jury of his peers.

Sadly, the Appeals process will go on for years and in all likelihood Sandusky will spend very little time in jail and even less time in prison. That’s not to say that Sandusky isn’t entitled to the appellate process. It’s simply a fact.

After all the man is 68 years old. Realistically, how much longer will he live? 

Personally, I think he should be whisked to prison and at least be forced to be someone else’s bitch for a while. In my twisted imagination I can see a big Aryan Nation dude named Darrell saying “Down on your knees bitch… I know you know how to suck!” then the clanging of the cell door closing.

I do doubt that anything like that is ever going to happen.

Sandusky will likely end up under house arrest during the appeals process. His health will deteriorate, then he’ll be too sick to take the rigors of prison. He’ll probably pass quietly in his own bed, there will be a brief news blip about it and thats all.

Most of this is speculation on my part. I’m cynical, if he’d been anyone but Sandusky he’d already be rotting in jail. But fame does have it’s privileges.

Even Rodney King experienced how fame could mitigate punishment. After all how many times was he stopped AFTER he was beaten? Lindsey Lohan? She should have been in jail after her first defiance of a court order. Fame and notoriety may actually be more powerful than money when it comes to keeping someone out of jail.

There is another aspect to the Sandusky story. 

The victims… They’ve been living for years in invisible prisons. Their prisons are composed of shame, guilt, pain, and fear. I personally hope that they get the kind of help they need.

We all can hope that the lessons they learned from Sandusky, are lessons that they will not repeat when / if they’re ever placed in a similar situation. That’s a possible danger isn’t it? These guys having been molested, may in turn become molesters if they don’t get the right kind of counseling.

I hope that all of Sanduskys victims can find peace now.

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Why do we never learn?

I caught an article this morning reporting that the CIA is funneling arms to the Syrian rebels.

Have we learned nothing?

We did the same thing In Afghanistan. Yes, the Russian military got beaten back… in the process we created an enemy that 12 years later we began fighting. 

Frightening isn’t it? Only 12 years after the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan we were there again, this time as combatants. We’ve been there for a decade. 

Weapons1

So here we are AGAIN! 

We, along with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, are assisting in arming and I’m assuming providing tactical training to the Syrian Rebels…

To what end? 

We claim humanitarian reasons, the fact is many of the Middle Eastern cultures have a vastly different ideas about what humanitarian means.

When are we going to learn that interfering in the internal political affairs of other countries is not in our best interest?

Part of our involvement stems, I’m sure from UN directives.

I’ve noticed that when it comes to UN peace keeping missions it’s the American Military and by extension the American Taxpayer who’s footing the bill.

Yet the very countries where the UN has placed our military in harms way often hate us with a bloodlust that borders on insanity.

I find myself asking again and again, whats in it for us?

Food, oil, gold, silver, aluminum, coal, any raw materials? Uhhh NO!

But there’s a mountain of debt that gets racked up with each little peacekeeping action.

Personally I resent having to pay for the clean up of some despots mess. I might feel differently if I paid $1 a gallon for gas and our military budget was completely covered.

I’ve long thought that our military should be a palms up mercenary force. If the UN wants us to bring peace to an area… Then they or the afflicted country should foot the bill, not the American people.

In the case of Syria… If the Syrian government could pay for our services then I say we send our military in to stop the rebellion. If the Rebels and their supporters can outbid the Syrian government then our military fights on the side of the rebels.

We’d make no judgement about the conflict. We’d take the money do our job and we leave. The smoking ruins and collateral damage would not be our concern. 

If the equation was as simple as the services of the US Military goes to the highest cash bidder, I wonder how many conflicts would end at the diplomatic table before they ever started?

The world wants us to be their Police… Fine. Even cops get paid.

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I’m more than a little uncomfortable with this

This article is disturbing to me on a number of levels.

UAVs

The US government is beginning to use UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to conduct surveillance over the United States. 

First and foremost, I’m mindful that ALL Governments abuse their power. I have no reason to believe that our government is any different.

In the aftermath of 911 our government enacted The Patriot Act. I, like most Americans at the time thought, “Sure, a temporary abridgment of our rights is worth it to provide for the security of our nation.

At the time I thought that the US government would simply contact everyone that was here on expired visas and give them a deadline to leave. I expected that we’d also severely restrict travel from any countries that were known to harbor extremists. Further I thought that all student visas would be cancelled and foreign students would be asked to return to their home countries while we assessed the threat, and came up with a plan to secure our borders.

All of these logical preventative measures while inconvenient to those affected would have allowed the country some breathing room. Yes it sounds xenophobic… However at the time it was pretty damn obvious that the enemy in an as yet undeclared war was already within our borders.

As we now know… none of these logical steps were taken.

In the period after 9/11 to this day our borders are not secured. There are people from every country in the world who have remained here after their visas ran out, and still others who are here after crossing the border like thieves in the night. Some of these people contribute to the economy and some do not…

The one common element is that all of these people are here and remain so illegally.

Obviously The Patriot Act wasn’t what we thought it was, and it’s purpose was not to help protect the country from external threats.

What I and millions of other Americans forgot is;  once rights are taken away by the State, they are never returned. This truism was brought home by none other than President Obama when he signed the extension of The Patriot Act.

Hope and Change? MY ASS!

Obviously, the government wants to maintain the “Special Powers” so that they can continue the inexorable march toward a police state.

Using Drones over American Soil is another step toward a state wherein the enemy of the United States (AKA Our Government) is in fact the people that are being governed.  

Aerial surveillance is a simple way to bypass the expense of having surveillance cameras mounted everywhere as is done in London. A side benefit is that the populace may not notice a UAV flying overhead sending live video data back to law enforcement. 

There are those that argue surveillance of the kind used in London deters crime.

I agree and disagree. Those people marginally tempted to commit an opportunistic crime will probably be deterred by cameras on every street corner.

A hardened criminal will be undeterred and will actively find methods to obfuscate their identities. The ever popular ski mask and hooded sweatshirt come to mind. 

So while you may not have as many purse snatchings, you’ll still have the really hard crimes.

I’m absolutely opposed to a UAV flying over my house taking pictures of my mundane life, and every other American should be too.This is a violation of privacy, and the potential for abuse is far too high.

Currently thanks to The Patriot Act and other more clandestine laws abridging our rights, our government has the right, desire, and ability to watch virtually every aspect of our lives.

Every communication via whatever media (Landline, Cellphone, Internet, radio) can be monitored without warrant or notification right now!

Don’t forget, your cell phone, and many new vehicles with OnStar type systems can also easily be tracked. My car for example, has the ability to report it’s exact location via GPS. Another thing few people consider is that most cars with all their modern electronics can be disabled remotely.

Sure, it’s called anti theft but the other side of that coin is that if, for some reason the government or law enforcement wanted to arrest you it’s a pretty simple matter to immobilize you in your fancy new car. Spike strips, high speed chases? Nahhh a single command transmitted via the cellular network and your engine simply turns off.

Our government using UAVs simply means that in addition to all the above… Any citizen can be followed, observed, their activities recorded, their acquaintances documented and whatever “evidence” is collected can be used against the citizen by an all powerful, all seeing government.

UAVs don’t have to be large. The same technology that allows you to upload a YouTube video from your cellphone, can be used to allow a small inexpensive UAV to spy on you.

George Orwell’s 1984 is happening right now.

So what are We The People going to do about it?

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Overreaction, Fear, & Technology could be a deadly mix.

And this is an interesting way to get rid of your enemies.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1663686679001/

According to this FoxNew piece; (I don’t watch Fox News but I wanted to know what “Swatting” is.) there are those people that are using the police to exact revenge on conservative bloggers. One wonders who these un-named people might be? 

It’s called SWATTING and that fits because of the over the top police response that has become so commonplace.

Your enemy calls 911 and claims that you’ve just killed someone. Usually this is done when you’re likely to be at home, possibly in bed.

The SWAT team kicks your door down and starts waving guns around. At the same time they’re using intensely bright flashlights to blind you.

So who’s going to be at fault when some conservative homeowner, someone who’s trained with a gun shoots a cop in the panic and confusion?

There are home invasion robberies all the time, just because someone is yelling that they’re the police doesn’t mean that they are. I guarantee that the first scream of pain or terror from your children in the next room and you’re going to assume that these people aren’t cops you’re going to assume they’re criminals out to do you and your family harm.

One the shooting starts it will be a blood bath. The cops will look like idiots and the homeowner will be carried out in a body bag.

Two choices here…

1) Find the people that are making these calls and toss them in Jail

2) Tone down the crazy hyperactive police responses.

Before the liberals point out that there’s a 3rd option

3) Make sure the homeowners can’t have guns

No… that’s not a viable option. It’s against the 2nd amendment so it’s not going to happen… shut the hell up!