The Michael Brown riots are the lynch pin for me.

Dr. King

After almost 50 years of indoctrination, after listening to / reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s awesome “I have a dream speech” in school dissecting it’s meanings and discussing how America could be better if we all believed in that dream and believing that education was the answer that would finally heal 150 year old wounds…

Today, I give up.

I still think Dr. King was right. His general premise that no one should live in fear because of the color of their skin, is correct. He envisioned a world where our differences were differences in character not color, like most dreams, his was a good and happy one.

Unfortunately, it was just a dream.

Obama

I proudly voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, not because of his color, but because I believed that he was the best candidate for the job. I wanted the Hope and Change he was describing. I thought it was time for our President to pay a bit more attention to matters at home. I hoped that candidate Obama would feed our homeless, improve our economy, and ultimately lead us forward capitalizing on our limitless potential.

As I have stated in this blog before, I did not vote for President Obama in the 2012 election cycle.

My Reason was simply that, in four short years I saw a country that was less united, and more racially charged than the 1960s. I indeed saw  change, I saw squabbling and infighting like children in our highest offices, and a President who spent more time obfuscating truth, covering up scandals, blaming others, and playing golf, than he did actually doing his job.

Ferguson Thugs

I don’t consider the Presidents job to be writing executive orders, I think his job is to mediate between the parties, so that the House and Senate get their jobs done.

The President demonstrated to me in those first four years that he was, as I feared, too young and inexperienced to bring opposing sides to the negotiation table. He was far too likely to choose sides when he should have been carefully neutral. That is why by 2012, I’d decided we needed someone with a bit more experience facilitating “spirited” discussions and negotiations.

President Obama as we know was re-elected.

During the subsequent two years issues of race have come to the forefront of our society. The lionization of St. Travon and subsequent media trial of George Zimmerman followed by selective reporting of the actual trial created a narrative that seems to say all white people in America are racist.

The media in the Travon Martin case went so far as to say that George Zimmerman was white regardless of the fact that he Identified as hispanic.

Protesters

St. Travon was presented to us by a media, all too wiling to use him for ratings, as an innocent. The Angelic picture of St. Travon presented by the media, stands in stark contrast to the “selfies” St Travon posted of himself on social media.

The Rev Al Sharpton ginned up donations to his organization and causes by painting Zimmerman as a hateful racist who was hell bent on killing poor St. Travon. Donations, I might add, that he still hasn’t paid taxes on.

Even when the legal case fell apart, with the forensic evidence saying that Zimmerman was the victim and Dear St. Travon of the Hoodie was the aggressor; no one listened to the truth. It wasn’t the approved narrative, The media and black activists had given the people St. Travon of the Hoodie… Who was the jury, or the truth they saw, to take him away?

Ferguson Cop Line

In the intervening years, the word “Racist” has come to have the same impact as the word “N——-” used to have. When “Racist” is shouted at a White person it no longer describes a characteristic. The word is meant to be hurtful, and shut down any further discussion.

Calling a White person “Racist” calls into question that person’s worth to society, their upbringing, values, and discounts anything that person may have done in the past or currently to end racism. Essentially the person being called “Racist” is “unmade” and somehow considered “less than”.  They’re supposed to go to the back of the bus and shut the hell up.

No Whites Allowed

Does any of this sound familiar?

The further coloring of “Racist” with other descriptors “Hick, Redneck, Hillbilly,” serves to solidify “Racists” can only be white and are ignorant as well.

I’m not even going to talk about “White Privilege” I don’t think that term should be dignified with any discussion.

Now we’ve suffered through months of St. Michael Brown of the quickie mart. Two out of three autopsies don’t agree with witness accounts of what happened.

The grand jury came to the conclusion based on the forensic evidence, and eye witnesses recanting their testimony that officer Wilson acted well within the limits of his office, and decided not to indict.

This should have been the end of it…

But it wasn’t…

We have a more strident replay of St Travon. This time violence, and destruction has become the norm.

Al Sharpton

Al Sharpton recently made statements that frankly blew my mind. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, That black men couldn’t be responsible if congress didn’t give MORE money to black causes. I shit you not, here’s a link to the article.

So what does this say?

To me, it says that as a white minority in California, I’m probably screwed. Why? That’s simple, people don’t view white people as a minority even when they are.

As such, white people will not have access to the same services that persons of color will have. You’re not going to see the National Association for the Advancement of White People coming into existence, much less getting government funding.

In fact I suspect if someone was to try to create a White organization like that they’d be branded as NeoNazis and tracked by the FBI & Southern Poverty law center.

Additionally, if White people were to start rioting nationwide over the number of people that had been hurt by things like the Knock out game, old men and women being beaten, or state fairs being closed by black gangs, it wouldn’t be looked at as a social movement it would be looked at as a freaking RIOT!

Oh and lets not forget about the White Kid that was shot by the black cop even though the kid was naked, stoned out of his mind and thought he was on fire. Yeah! White lives matter! Damn cops killing our white boys all the time for no reason.

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It sounds stupid when you frame it that way, why does any of this take on any more weight just because a cop is white and the person resisting arrest happens to be black?

I’m a firm believer that racism and the harm it causes does in fact cut both ways.

If the media reports that the police are looking for a man in connection with a burglary where an old woman was beaten, that’s great. But have you noticed that the media will say “Police are looking for a” white man or a hispanic man. But they’ll never say a black man, or African American?  How the hell is the public supposed to help the police find the suspect without a description?

Again, It cuts both ways.

I’ve come to the point that I’m not listening anymore to the narrative about non-white people being treated differently. I’m over it and I honestly don’t give a shit anymore.

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Call me whatever name you want, so the hell what?

The race card has melted and is smoldering in a little pile on the ground. The next Michael Brown or the next Eric Garner is, in my opinion irrelevant. Yet another failure of our educational system and a victim not of mean racist police but of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Lou Farrakhan President Obama and others like them.

That blood will be on their hands.

As for me, I’m not interested in the false narratives or white guilt. I’m done. I tried, and I’m tired now.

50 years later and nothing has changed, so you’ll pardon me if I want to try finding a place where there are faces just like mine.

The nationwide Ferguson riots, have taught me one thing, the racists were right, we can’t live with each other, so why keep trying?

The race baiters should be reconsidering the method they choose to convey their message.

Oh, quit your bitching! – Updated

Update – 2014/10/01

CNN

A friend sent me a link to what must be one of the most ironic news items I’ve read recently. CNN is reporting that the creator of a “Spying” App has been arrested for creating and marketing the application.

Read the Article Here

While I agree that the Application is a bit creepy and speaks to the paranoia that spouses often feel when the relationship starts to go down the tubes. I completely fail to understand a couple of issues here.

This is exactly the sort of thing the FBI is whining about not being able to do anymore. Have they thought about corporate licensing??

This application and others like it, have been around for a while.  But ONLY now the FBI or justice department is interested? Can you say sour grapes? 

Then there’s this quote that made me blow coffee out my nose.

“As technology continues to evolve, the FBI will investigate and bring to justice those who use illegal means to monitor and track individuals without their knowledge,” said Andrew McCabe, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

(Thinking about it, Perhaps Assistant Director McCabe need only wander the halls of the FBI, NSA, CIA, and IRS with search warrants, handcuffs, and a very large police van parked on the curb. Assistant Director McCabe might be the last honest man in the FBI hierarchy. A large part of me hopes so.)

Which is it FBI? Is spying on people via their phones legal… or not? Or are you saying it’s only legal when the government does it?

Is it just me???

Or are we looking at hypocrisy of Titanic proportions?


FBI Director Comey

The Director of the FBI has been complaining bitterly about the fact that IOS 8 and soon Google Android OS are securing the private information of their users in such a way that law enforcement can’t simply show up at Google or Apple and command those companies to unlock the phones data.

To him I say, “Quit your bitchin!”

FBI Logo

This is the inevitable and completely logical response on the part of the American people to unwarranted government surveillance of average people who have committed NO CRIME.

I’ll tell you what, if the FBI or any other law enforcement officer shows up at my house with a lawfully obtained valid warrant to search my phone, I’ll unlock it for them.

Constitution

I live under the protection of The US Constitution. Contained therein is The Fourth Amendment, and I quote;

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized

I am seriously concerned that the Director of the FBI has been quoted as saying, 

He said he could not understand why companies would “market something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.”

When clearly the Fourth Amendment is the law

Perhaps Director Comey needs to re-read The Constitution and familiarize himself with that document more diligently.

The FBI can still obtain most, if not all of the information they need to pursue, and prosecute criminals, They just can’t do it unconstrained.  What happened to good police work, collecting physical evidence, and observing the suspect? In the days before cell phones, crimes were solved by law enforcement by these means. Cellphones made the job easier, but shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all in proving a case.

In the Washington Post article linked above, some law enforcement officials chose to try scare tactics, citing murder and pedophilia as valid reasons NOT to encrypt cellphone data. 

Here’s a reason that the data should be encrypted.

Do you really want to have your stolen phone lead a criminal to your friends homes, your parents, or your children via the contact list or one of the applications that allow parents to keep track of kids locations?  Plug an unencrypted phone into a computer with a little bit of free hacking software from the internet and all those horrors become suddenly viable.

IOS 8

So FBI and other Law Enforcement officials, You’re paying the price of the unbridled abuses of the NSA, CIA, DIA, IRS, and God knows how many other three letter agencies.  Stop the scare tactics, get a warrant, do your jobs, engage in old school police work, and…

QUIT YER BITCHIN!

Let me explain…

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Americans not wanting Illegal immigrants is not the same as Americans not welcoming Immigrants.

I know the subtlety is easily lost in the endless politically correct churning of the mainstream media.

Immigrants are by definition folks that have gone through the process of asking for permission, and filling out endless applications to move to the United States.

They are patient, and law abiding, they’re generally looking for a new life and willing to assimilate into the fabric of our great nation. Often they are escaping the oppression of a government or political system that punished them for being who they were, for having dreams, or for disagreeing with totalitarianism.

Generally, these people do not wish to bring the ills of their former nation to their new adopted country. They don’t seek what they had at home, they seek a future of freedom and opportunity. (Unless they’re Muslim… another story entirely.)

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Illegal Immigrants may want many of the same things, but there is one major difference and lots of little differences between the Illegal Immigrant and the legal immigrant.

The major difference…

The Illegal Immigrant has, as their first act in a new country broken the law. There is NO discussion here, no excuses, it’s a matter of fact. Crossing the border into another country without permission is illegal. Therefore an Illegal immigrant has broken the law.

Many, though not all illegal immigrants are simply criminals in their own country and seek to escape justice by hiding among the shadow population in this country. These folks bring their criminal ways with them.

Enforcing a closed border, Unreasonable?

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It’s not unreasonable to want to defend our border. It’s not unreasonable to send folks packing because they snuck into the country.

What is unreasonable is not enforcing the laws of this country.

It’s unreasonable to distribute Illegal immigrants across the nation, free them on a promise, and then expect them to show up in court. Particularly if those illegal immigrants are underage children. It makes no sense that our government is essentially asking minors to enter into a legal contract, in a country whose laws they don’t understand.

In the current climate where we have borders that are not secure, and our government secretly distributing illegal immigrants throughout the country, members of my own family are being placed at risk.

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Yes… a cracker, honky, lily white, (gasp) conservative male has relatives that are of Latin American decent. 

They’re children, they’re American citizens, and they’re AT RISK!

Follow this scenario.

My elderly parents shopping with their grand children who tan very well, encounter folks that are angry about the lawless illegal immigration that our government is allowing.

This angry mob points to the kids, demanding to see their immigration papers (which of course as American citizens they neither have, or need.) My Dad gets pissed off and tries to protect his grandchildren then sustains injury. Meanwhile my Mom attempts to escape the mob only to be called to account for harboring Illegals!

The kids are traumatized and have seen the ugliest face of humanity, all the while not understanding what they did wrong. (Because Unknownof course they did nothing wrong!)

The scenario above isn’t beyond possibility. Especially if our government continues to sanction and assist illegal immigration. Eventually Americans are going to get pissed off and when they do a lot of innocent people are going to be hurt.

I feel for the folks who want to come to this country, I really do. That being said, I absolutely am 100% against having our borders unsecured, any and ALL amnesty programs or doing anything with the illegals involved in our border crisis EXCEPT returning them to their country of origin immediately.

For me it’s personal.

I believe it is totally unconscionable and dangerous to Americans, for the Obama administration to harbor these people, and ignore the will of the Citizens. 

 

I re-read this today.

Yes, I know it’s weird. 

I re-read The Constitution about once or twice a year.

When I was testing printers for a living, I often Printed The Constitution as a test case. It was my way of making sure that people who might otherwise have never read the document had an opportunity to.

It’s surprising how many people haven’t read it, and equally surprising how many people came to my cubicle asking for me to print copies for them. 

We should remember that The Constitution is a document that defines our government AND its limits.  

You don’t have to be a constitutional scholar to read The Constitution. It is a remarkably straight forward document to build a nation on.  I’ve alway believed that the directness of the language was intentional, and the document was to be comprehensible to the general public.

I once had a grand time citing Amendment VII as my reason for refusing to enter into binding arbitration. I was probably citing and using the Amendment incorrectly.  Nonetheless, I did get out of the HR department of a company I worked for, without losing my right to have legal representation and trial by jury if it became necessary.

Allow me to introduce you to my friend,

The Constitution of the United States

Happy reading.


With gratitude to 

National Constitution Center

525 Arch Street

Independence Mall

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215) 409-6600

www.constitutioncenter.org

For producing a very nice PDF of this document.

I watched CSPAN yesterday.

Uhhh OHHHH!

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I continue to be disgusted by the machinations of Elijah Cummings.  I can’t help but think of him as doing nothing more than obfuscating and obstructing the truth.  

I’m not so naive as to believe that the Republicans are saints, THEY AREN’T but in the Lois Lerner affair I think it’s completely reasonable for her to be held in contempt of congress, if for nothing else, than the fact that she ignored a Congressional subpoena. 

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When I was growing up, you didn’t ignore a subpoena of any kind, much less one from Congress

I think it’s appropriate to ask for the justice department to evaluate Ms. Lerner’s use of her 5th amendment right, in her testimony before Congress.  

It’s reasonable to ask why Ms Lerner was, and is cooperating with the justice department. But refuses to provide information to a Congressional subcommittee.

I’d personally like to understand why, if there was no wrong doing, she invoked her 5th amendment right the moment she sat down in the Congressional hearing.

No I’m not going to hold my breath that we will ever hear the truth in this matter.

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I was particularly disgusted that Cummings talked about wasting money in pursuing the truth. The implication was that at some point the truth takes a back seat to economics.

By extension, this says if you hold out long enough no matter what you’ve done wrong you can get away with it.

I don’t subscribe to that theory.

I think that after Ms. Lerner’s second spectacularly disrespectful appearance before congress that she should have been carted off to jail.

Not for invoking her 5th amendment right, but because she so clearly held the members of the Congressional committee in Contempt.

I’ve always thought if I were called to testify about anything before congress, I’d be in trouble. I doubt that I could keep my personal contempt for some of the congressional members in check. I’ve always assumed that I’d find myself in a jail cell. I was surprised they let her out of the hearing room.