Thirteen-year Army vet, currently employed as a CNC machinist.

I have:
a Savior to serve
a woman to love
a heritage to uphold
a flag to wave
a charge to keep
and a job to do.

I'm poking around for:<
a fuzzie kittie
the American Dream
and whatever else I may later remember.

*****

Stolen proerty:

“What do you think a new civil war in America would look like? Do you suppose it would look like the first one, with great land armies getting into formation at the edges of great fields of battle and marching towards each other? No. Bubba would be wearing a Ghillie suit, shooting a bolt action rifle, or a modern sporting rifle, and after the shot you will never hear from him again – until the next one. And you’ll never catch him. Police will have to decide what side to take, and if they take the wrong one, they will be dealt with in the middle of the night when they take their dogs out to pee in the backyard.

“Insurgent will be mixed with progressive statist, and there will be no SEAL teams or nuclear weapons to which you can turn because you won’t know one from another. There will be nowhere to target a nuclear weapon, and nowhere for a SEAL team to raid. All of their close quarters battle preparations will be for naught when their own families are in peril due to civil warfare. These aren’t Afghan tribesmen you’re dealing with. These are engineers, mechanics, fabricators and welders, chemists, and the world’s best machinists. If you think Afghanistan was rough, wait to see what civil war would look like in America.

“If you have ever said something like, ‘You can’t win because the government has a land army and nuclear weapons,’ here is the moral of the story for you. You are an idiot.”

*****

re: Puerto Rico Enacts Pro-gun Overhaul of Firearms Laws... Still a "permitting" scheme, a double-edged Sword of State wielded against the People.

The first edge divides the People from their Right, by virtue of their birth, to "keep and bear arms", and makes it a criminal act to exercise such right without having first obtained, as individuals, a Permission to do so.

The second edge milks the People's resources for the Fees -- no, rather, the Bribes -- extorted as payment for these Permissions.

THIS IS TYRANNY.

By the way, last time I expressed these sentiments on this forum, a moderator saw fit to delete them. This time I shall memorialize them across several platforms, rendering them instantly accessible should the occasion for them arise.

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I can't help being what is called "white"...

So calling me, say, a "white veteran" or a "white machinist" is basically an accurate description.

And for me, "nationalism" is just another word for "patriotism"...

And I've always been patriotic...

So, good luck trying to make me feel guilty by calling me a "white nationalist."

My response is somewhere between "ho-hum" and "yeah, so what?"

"My country, right or wrong." Sounds horrible, doesn't it?

Not really.

It admits that the country might be wrong.

Loving, preferring, and promoting a country that was always 100% right wouldn't be patriotism. Just common sense.

**********

Until the concept of constitutional law was originated in Britain, and a king was found guilty under it, and the eventually “restored” king and his successors bound to it, we have thousands of years of the king being the guy with the biggest sword, willing to use it.

Without it, even the armed sheep are relying on muscle to enforce their will, and no matter how full of sweetness and light are their intentions at the beginning, when you rely on unregulated raw power, eventually someone’s going to be sheared a bit too closely. Witness the Cromwell “republic”– having killed the king, they had to deal with a nation, and without a claim to legitimacy– just the rule of the Sword.

That the British constitution is different from ours, being no single portable piece of paper, is no matter…but every single nation which has made so much as a feint at popular liberation has a form of constitution before which the strongest in that nation must bow.

Still true in this country. No matter how horrible any president has been, even in the age of the capability to unleash nuclear hell upon one’s enemies, each one has stood up from the desk, walked out into the sunlight, watched his successor and erstwhile political enemy take his place, and Gone Away– to a greater or lesser degree.

Maybe we need a better constitution. I can think of improvements I’d like to make. Clarifying (I almost said de-flowering, but that would be taken for something else) the language, placing specific penalties for deprivation of rights, etc.– but regular readers and commenters already know that I believe it is the best one currently in official operation anywhere on the planet, and that enough of it– especially the requirement that officeholders give up the keys when their time is up– is still in actual operation that there is no present need for insurrection.

I do think that Israel under the judges was probably the best form of government…in the past. Keep a very few memorizable laws, and worship God in the way He specified, and all else is up to you. I believe that this will again be the case in a future time. For now..well, I’ve said my piece. Again.

**********

I am an advocate for Rights. The Bill of Rights, which includes the 9th Amendment (paraphrase: Just because a right isn't listed above doesn't mean it doesn't exist), is very important to me.

It should be noted, however, that

We only have the right to do what we can do ourselves.

We do not have the right to someone else's resources.

IF YOU HAVE TO GET IT/TAKE IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE, IT ISN'T A RIGHT.

Examples:

You have the right to write and publish anything you want, without fear of prosecution. You do NOT have the right to force the local newspaper to print and publish it for you, and you do NOT have the right to force even one person to read it.

You have the right to keep and bear arms. All semi-joking statements I have made about treating the Second the way we treat the Fifth aside, you do NOT have the right to have your weapon of choice given to you.

.....

You have the right to buy flowers for the event of your choice. You do NOT have the right to force a particular florist to sell them to you over his religious objections.

And THAT is what the Indiana law, and the one in Connecticut, and the ones in 20 or more other states, is all about.

**********

I’m rather proud of this bit of writing, and thought it good enough to share.

I had just read a short article about Europeans and their collective opinion of us (US). I was struck by this line:

“...[Europeans regard Americans as] upstarts who have little history, experience or wisdom...”

Which led me to write the following:

All my time in Europe (mostly Germany) I came up against this assumption. What they entirely failed to realize, and often failed to recognize as true even after I told them, was that we are them.

+ We are that part of them that had the ambition to pack what we could carry, leave our homes in Bavaria and Sachsen-Anhalt and Alsace-Lorraine and Calabria and Norway and a myriad others, to make a new life in the New World, before and after its incorporation as a nation.

+ We are the second sons of the ruling houses who, disinherited by primogeniture and/or bankruptcy, left the palaces, manors and stately homes to seek our fortunes in honest labor.

+ We are the political and religious dissidents, and not a few rascals and cads, who were transported against our will to the American Colonies before the British discovered Australia.

Their history is ours, tempered by the perspective of distance....

Their experience is ours, modified, enlarged, and improved by our own....

Their wisdom is ours, corrected by practical application to fresh circumstance....

They would do well to follow our example; this would become obvious if they would drop their pride long enough to witness how, in three hundred years (give or take), we have surpassed what they accomplished in three thousand.

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A thought, which may still be too unpopular to be translated into action:

We hire the police to keep the peace in accordance with the law.

When they fail, whether through incompetence, negligence, or reluctance to do that which is necessary, it is our right-- our duty-- to relieve them and act in our own stead.

It would be bloody-- for a while. The longer it takes for this to take place, the bloodier and longer it will be.

Somebody wants to say "that's taking the law into your own hands". My answer: this is the USA. The law has been in our hands the whole time. We subcontracted it to supposed professional specialists so that we could do other things. The contract is voidable at our will.

Somebody else wants to say "that lowers us to their level." My answer: the aggressor sets the rules of the game. If you don't play by the rules, you lose. I prefer to win.

**********

I regret that I have lost patience with the many kind-hearted, sincere souls who have tried to explain to me how it is even remotely possible that a Citizen of the United States of America does not automatically have all the “standing” in the world while questioning the Constitutional qualifications of the alleged President.

**********

My Political Views
I am a far-right moderate social libertarian
Right: 8.49, Libertarian: 3.05

Political Spectrum Quiz

I ’m a bigger Zionist than half the Knesset; regard voting and the participatory democratic republic as the sine qua non of responsive and responsible government; find that Jeffersonian “rightful liberty” occasionally requires individuals to forgo some otherwise lawful actions at certain times and in certain places; revere the Constitution (as written, not as currently practiced) almost as much as I revere the Bible; believe that voluntary armed defense of one’s neighbors is a noble act; find that a level of taxation sufficient to fund the legitimate functions of government to be an acceptable quid pro quo arrangement; believe that when Christ said “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s”, he was ordering us to submit to the lawful government however we find it; that under the Constitution “We the People” ARE Caesar, which carries with it great freedom AND great responsibility; etc., etc., etc.

Some other thoughts, from other people:

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do."

—Edward Everett Hale

“God gives us the freedom to do great evil, if we choose. Then he uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what he chooses.”

--Unknown (to me)

"Government is like gut flora. A little of the right types of bacteria allow things to move smoothly. Too much and you die in a pile of bloody, toxic [poo]."

--Likewise Unknown (to me)

**********

"Microaggression is the new face of Racism."

Micro minds take notice of "microaggression".

Microaggression deserves micro attention and a micro response.

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I will know the Republic is safe when:

1. I can open an ethnic restaurant under the name of that ethnicity's "worst" cognomen (such as, but not limited to "Hiram the Honky's Hamburger Heaven"); costume the staff in ridiculous stereotypes; and deny service to any person, group, or category of people just because I want to; all without fear of legal liability.

2. The method of capital punishment involves a single bullet to the brain stem, and the only squawk about it is the excessive length of time between the sentencing and the execution.

3. The idea of releasing a person onto the street while denying him, under color of law, an otherwise lawful means of self-defense, is looked upon as not merely a violation of his rights as a human being, but also an act of barbarous cruelty on a par with throwing a paralytic into a swimming pool without a floatation vest.

4. A parent may pack a school lunch of Twinkies and M&Ms, along with a steel-bladed knife with which to prepare the Twinkies for M&M insertion, and no official will have [Richard] to say about it that anyone else need heed.

5. A report of “a person with a gun” gets the same police response as “a person with an umbrella”"

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My Idea of Comprehensive Immigration Reform:

1. Illegal aliens are to be detained upon detection and deported within twenty-four hours.

2. Any citizen knowingly employing, sheltering, concealing, or otherwise assisting (other than emergency medical care) an illegal alien shall suffer forfeiture of all property, real and personal, all assets, businesses, business licenses, and any other thing except his/her physical freedom and two changes of clothing; after which he/she may seek employment and start over.

3. Any non-citizen legally resident, acting as described in para 2 above, shall suffer the same penalty and be deported to his/her country of origin within 48 hours.

4. Any public official, in any branch of government, at any level, who under color of clemency, legal discretion, or other official privilege, shall obstruct, alter, or modify the swift application and extent of paras 1-3 above to any degree soever, shall suffer the same penalty and be summarily removed from office.

(That’s to keep judges from saying “ooooo, that’s too harsh” and governors etc. from handing out pardons to business-owner buddies.)

**********

Some things I enjoy:

Birth of the Stuned Beeber

Dancing Cartoons!

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HH Pinglist:

300Winmag; 2Jedismom; Bear in Rosebear; Corin Stormhands; ecurbh; ExGeeEye; g’nad; HairOfTheDog; JenB; Lil’freeper; Lucius Cornelius Sulla; OsageBowman; Overtaxed; Professional Engineer; Ramius; RMDupree; Rose in RoseBear; Rosie Cotton; SuziQ; Talondj

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1577885/posts Tall'Afar

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My inner child is about 9 most of the time. He runs around shouting innocently scandalous non-profanities like "fart" and "underwear". He likes to shower with the door open and run to his room naked and dripping, especially if he thinks his grandmother or one of his mother's friends is over for tea. He's quite happy and negligent of etiquette, the fragility of knickknacks, "inside voices" and dirt. He will, however, weep at the sight of a wounded animal, so you'd better not take him hunting for another five years or so.

A couple of years ago, I had a very realistic dream. The details are almost completely lost to me now, but the setting was school when I was eight years old.

What struck me most in reflecting on it in the morning was that it was completely realistic. It might not have been the direct re-living of a memory, but every element could have happened (unlike flying dreams, or where another person keeps changing identities among people you know, etc.).

The other thing that hit me rather hard is that, at 51, I am exactly the same person I was at eight, and possibly earlier; I just have more knowledge and experience now. Even what passes for "maturity" with me consists of knowing what is expected of me in a given situation, and doing it instead of doing what I'd like. For instance, when I have a sprinkler set up to water my patch of earth, I am expected to stay dressed and avoid the water rather than take off most, if not all, of my clothes and run through it. So I do the "mature" thing, which amounts to doing what's expected rather than what I'd like.

**********

Every Gun Law other than the Second Amendment = Infringement!

**********

BARRY HUSSEIN SOETERO,
BORN IN MOMBASSA, KENYA,
CITIZEN OF INDONESIA,
ILLEGAL ALIEN,
OCCUPIES THE OVAL OFFICE
IN VIOLATION OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN...
YES, YOU CAN.

**********

IMHO, if someone comes at you with a weapon, whether he discharges it or slashes at you with it (depending on weapon type) or not, you have every right to be certain in your own mind that the individual has completely stopped being a threat to you.

If that certainty requires that you burn through 58 rounds in assorted calibers, so be it.

IMHO if you go into someone’s home or place of business threatening deadly force for any purpose whatever, you forfeit any right you might have had to leave that place alive.

If it takes the homeowner or other defender two or three tries to finish the job, than— sucks to be you. Should have gone someplace else.

Conversely, if the homeowner or whoever takes pains to keep you alive and hand you over to authorities, then you owe your life to that individual along with restitution for any loss or damage to him. The appropriate response is gratitude and an overwhelming sense of obligation.

**********

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2261750/posts?page=206#206 Homeschooling

**********

If the news hadn’t told me we’re in a recession, in 2001 or today, I’d have never known it. For me personally, the “economy” has been on a gradual improvement line since 1999, and while the run-up in gas prices slowed progress, the drop since July has accelerated it.

I guess the trick is to keep on working and spend within one’s means, while paying down any debt as quickly as possible (and yes, I still have more of that than I’d like). [5/10: And even less today.]

Also, my faith tells me that my God will see to my needs, and while I rely on Him, they will be met.

Some will say “you’ve been lucky to keep your job that long”. Actually, I’ve had a succession of jobs in the last sixteen years (this after my Army discharge), and by God’s grace, have always been able to line up the next job before leaving the current one...again, doing so in order to improve pay/benefits/working conditions.

Enjoy your recession, and have some of mine; I’m not using it.

**********

The race card would have been played on spades....

Indeed, Foxx would not be niggardly in his attempt to spook Billy Ray, who might back into a corner like a startled 'coon under the onslaught of so much...

o-wot-the-hail...

Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black!

(pant pant pant)

Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black!

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From a brief correspondence on FR:

I disagree that localities and states, or FedGov, have the "right" to do anything. Their very existence is dependent upon the consent of the governed, therefore they have no inherent right to exist. An entity with no right to exist has no other rights, but exercises its existence and any other function on sufferance.

I disagree that keeping land wild for its own sake is an intrinsic good and an imperative. A forest is "useful" as a forest, rather than as a source of lumber, only when there are more accessible, manageable sources of lumber in private hands (such as the vast "forests" owned by Weyerhauser et. al. which are to trees as a farmer's field is to wheat plants) or when the local population finds it more beneficial to attract visitors than harvesters.

I cannot see any intrinsic value in a desert left, um, "deserted". At any rate, no land is useful when a government entity is empowered to deny its use.

Furthermore,the government has only done a pretty good job running Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon so on because of the subsidization. Each visitor would have to pay so much to support current services so that Yellowstone could pay for itself that only the very rich could afford to go there.

Consider that it costs the citizen of my fair city $1.50 to ride the city bus system, for which I work. The bus system is 90% subsidized by taxation at city, state, and federal levels (part of your tax money, wherever you are, pays my salary, fuel for our buses etc.). If that subsidy went away, simple math tells you our city-zens would have to cough up $15.00 a trip. Might as well take a cab, for that. My own 12-mile commute costs me (today) two dollars a day in fuel costs; if there was a convenient bus stop and if I didn't get free passage as an employee, it would still be worth it to drive the car.

But I digress and ramble. The point was that the subsidies make it possible for ordinary citizens to go to these places, I maintain because of the federal controls and facilities on them.

I don't know what to do about it other than to absolutely forbid FedGov from owning land not used for legitimate governmental purposes. Devolve it to lower govts, perhaps.

I agree (with the person who said it to me) that the agencies you mention are, at present, unconstitutional. I'm not sure I'd like to keep any of them (through Constitutional Amendment). I think that, free from government interference, our medical/pharmaceutical industry could work more quickly and more proactively than the NIH.

I would not be surprised to learn that some of these companies have concluded research on a number of fronts, and are waiting until they can be reasonably certain that their work won't be confiscated "for the children" or whatever before they bring it out. The ultimate "Atlas Shrugging", to me, lies not in ceasing to work, to produce innovation or wealth, but to conceal it until you can be sure it won't be "looted".

Some might say it would be an immoral act to withhold, say, a perfect cure for AIDS or diabetes or the ever-lovin' common cold; my question to them would be, "is it, or is it not, their intellectual property? Would [name your favorite artist] be immoral in withholding a beautiful piece of [art, music, literature] that might have lifted people's spirits, even to the point of preventing suicides?" Rambling again. Sorry.

(My correspondent brought up legitimate functions of the government.)

I'm with you. Where we may differ is what those are or ought to be.

(My correspondent said A wild forest does have value...base[d] this on Judeo-Christian views of being good stewards of the earth.)

My Bible says

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Genesis 1:27-29

And lest you think that was only before the Fall, it says

As for you [Noah and family], be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."
Genesis 9:6-8

I find as many passages calling for us to maintain "wild zones" in the Bible as I find authority for the government to do it on our behalf in the COTUS. (None, that is.)

(My correspondent said I have no problem with a government making the choice to buy certain land to set aside.)

Only if the government earns the money rather than confiscating it through taxation from citizens who just might not want to have land taken from their use as well.

(My correspondent asked Do you think a private company could make money on such a park if the part had to be preserved? If not, what's the solution?)

Perhaps. While most of its attractions are artificial constructions, the Disney company has done a fairly good job of maintaining some of its Florida property in a semi-wild state...because they have found a segment of their target audience would like to see it that way.

A lot of so-called "pristine" lands are really no such thing. A good portion of the Everglades, now "protected" (Eintritt Streng Verboten!) was inhabited, and to an extent farmed, as late as the 1880s. See The Yearling. My Gt Gt Grandfather was offered homestead rights there as reward for his CW service (one of the NY Regt's) in the 1870s, but went to Michigan instead. Nature has a way of reclaiming formerly used lands-- and landfills (check with archaeologists who love to dig up old "trash middens" when they can find them under 150 years-plus of "pristine wilderness")!

(My correspondent said I think the answer is not to subsidize cars either...)

My car wasn't subsidized. In fact, government regulation made it cost 30 to 50% more than a similar car 60 years ago (adjusted for inflation). And no, I don't appreciate having a bag in the steering wheel just waiting to go "pop". I've been in two front-enders in older cars without bags, and I'm just fi....ooooo, shiny!...ine :)

If you got yours subsidized, help a fellow working stiff and let me in on the secret, K?

(My correspondent tried to introduce a hypothetical: But what about...?)

I don't play that. Once you start letting that in, the list just grows longer and we just end up back where we are now. Disease and death are part of life, and we should thank God on our knees that so much progress has been made, without getting misty about how good it could be if only the Government got involved. Feh!

"Government is not the solution to people's problems; Government is the problem. Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981.

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As a youth, I was reticent about my schoolday activities, which came to a merciful, reasonably successful end 31 years ago. Why the reticence? As I finally got around to telling my parents maybe 20 years ago,

"I'd just spent seven hours locked in a cinderblock building with a lot of people I didn't care for, and a few who were openly hostile; I was not very interested in the stuff I'd been forced to listen to all day; and after I finished supper I was going to be going upstairs to write an essay or complete a sheet of mathematical and/or chemical equations or read a book about a guy going insane while riding a motorcycle across country and pretend it's full of deep philosophy instead of what I really believed it was full of...the very last thing I wanted to do was relive it for the amusement of people who had, enviably, finished their schooling in 1958."

I married late, and we probably won't have children; if we do, I hope to God I will think to ask not "what did you do in school today", but rather "did anything interesting happen in school today," and be willing to take "no" as a complete, correct answer.

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My 9/11:

I was home, recovering from a work injury. I had got in the habit of doing internet while watching Fox and Friends, though I hadn’t found FR yet.

I was watching when E.D. Hill said that there was news of a small plane hitting the WTC, and the reportage of this “accident” continued until the second plane went in. I knew, then, and I think so did everyone else. I called my mother, who lives elsewhere in the state, after the second plane to get her to turn on the TV, and we called back and forth a couple of times during the morning.

My sister, who lived in Finland at the time, was visiting our mother; they had just been to visit me, and my sister had brought one of her Finnish friends to try to match up with me (it didn’t take, and she and I are happily wed to others today), and they were back at Mom’s, getting ready to fly back to Finland on the 12th (which obviously didn’t happen...they got out 3 or 4 days later).

This friend was a structural engineer by trade. During either the first or second call, before it happened, she said “those buildings will fall; they cannot stand.” We asked “how will they fall?” Fearing for those caught under them falling like trees. “Probably straight down,” she said. So when it happened we were not terribly surprised, and I was immunized against all of the “deliberate demolition” conspiracy theories before they appeared.

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The “lesser of two evils” meme (and its brother “...is still evil”) has always struck me as being over the top.

In my experience (watching elections since 1976 and participating since 1984), no Republican candidate (and, tell the truth and shame the devil, not many Democrats) has been “evil”.

I believe it was Reagan who said something like “just because I only agree with someone 3/4 of the time does not make him 1/4 my enemy.”

Someone else said “the perfect is the enemy of the acceptable.”

I voted for my first choice, FDT, in my state’s primary (before he quit...all to soon, to my mind). He was imperfect; he was acceptable. Others then running, and a couple still out there, are likewise imperfect but acceptable.

I cannot vote in another primary; so, as in about half the presidential elections I have voted in, I will now have to vote not for the lesser of evils, but for the least imperfect.

No matter who it is, that one will be identified by the letter “R”.

I’ve dealt with this same problem in 1996 and 2008. (Been participating since 1984; ‘84, ‘88, ‘92, 2000, and 2004 were all no-brainers to me.)

In each case, my thought was to vote for my principles in the primaries, but against my enemies in the generals.

(I do not use the word enemies lightly. I would rather support someone I agree with a third of the time than one I believe intends my country— as I know it— actual harm...one who doesn’t even mean well.)

Results? I did not contribute, by vote or silence, to BJC’s second term; I will not contribute, by vote or silence, to BHO’s first.

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I want a tank. I believe the Constitution guarantees me the right to own a tank. Governments may regulate how and where I drive or park my tank*, and penalize me severely if I aim and/or fire it in an unsafe or threatening manner; beyond that, I believe the only limitation on my ability to own a tank should be the fact that I just can't afford it on my current budget.

*As with a bulldozer which I could legally own, but would be impractical in an urban setting because governments regulate how and where I could drive or park it.

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November 11, 1918: when the allied leaders cut and run from the European quagmire. The honored soldiers, living and dead, were permitted to buy that part of the world twenty years, ten months, and twenty days of "peace".

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The enemy must be destroyed as utterly and ruthlessly as they were in Dresden, Berlin, Hiroshima and Tokyo, and occupied-- their daily lives dictated by American Generals and Sergeants and Privates-- until they learn better manners.

That is the lesson of two World Wars.

The lesson of Vietnam? Don't let traitors in the media determine the conditions of victory.

I lost track of how many Vietnam Veterans have told me "When I left, we were winning."

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams

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This will probably get deleted in the forum: on a thread about a judge ordering a family to change their 7-months-old son's name from "Messiah", I wrote:

"Change it on paper to “Barack”, and call him whatever you want to everywhere else.

"And teach him that no judge anywhere has any right to dictate another person’s name no matter how distasteful.

"Even if it’s “Adolf Hitler F*cking Anne Frank With A Pork Dildo On Yom Kippur Smith”.

"(He can go by “Kip”, or change it to “Horace Walpole Smith” if he likes.)"

See if there's a good answer in November: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3414919/posts

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Things to Worry About: Asteroid Impact, Massive gamma ray burst from an outside the solar system event, BSE nvCJD, SARS, Smallpox, Ebola ,Flu- (human, bird, swine, duck, chicken), Salmonella, Carbs, Fat, Protein, Terrorists, Anthrax, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Too little ozone, Too much ozone, Global warming, Global cooling, Global Warming Chaos, Pesticides, Deer ticks, Nerve gas, Dirty bombs, Haliburton, SUVs, Guns, Acid rain, Too much Rain, Too little Rain, Nuclear power, Non-nuclearpower, Nuclear war, Conventional war, Wind Turbines shredding endangered birds, Obesity, Starvation, BCS, The Yankees with A’Rod, NCAA Basketball Tournament Selections, Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes ,Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards, Akitas, green ketchup, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Pet spiders, Yard Sale Congestion, Red King Crabs, Shadow people, Cattle mutilations, Junk Science, Supersize fries, ”Our worst fears were confirmed”, steroids in baseball, microwave popcorn, HIV, Peak Oil, Cholesterol both LDL and HDL, second hand smoke, Google Telephone Searches, backyard nuclear reactor, Nitrogen pollution, Carbon Dioxide Reported at Record Levels, Dangerous’ Curry Colourings, Cataracts from computers, brain tumors from cell phones, fire ants, killer bees, killer tomatoes, killer clowns, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Terrell Owens and Ron Artest, Exploding cell phones, cryptococcus gattii, methylisothiazolinone (MIT), “holiday heart,” , U.S. Teens Are Among the Worst at Math, picking your teeth in public, “The Hamdog.”, Plastic Wrap in a Microwave, mercury, perfluorooctanoic acid, Teflon, KFC frying oil, Starbucks high calorie coffee drinks, Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode:, Study Says Earth’s Temp at 400-Year High, Earth hottest it’s been in 2,000 years,strong electromagnetic currents, everything spinning out of control, more women are clinically depressed than ever before, Warming May Make ‘Perfect Storm’ of Disease, Tofu ‘may raise risk of dementia, Researchers Say Popular Fish Contains Potentially Dangerous Fatty Acid Combination (Tilapia) , More Kidney Stone Disease Projected Due To Global Warming , Earth likely to disappear in two centuries, warn experts,. Reusable bag risk, Global warming of 7C ‘could kill billions this century’’, Jumbo Slice” pizza joints, New York, Boston “Directly in Path” of Sea Level Rise, The next crisis has already begun, Apocalypse now (World to end, Bush’s fault), Sun’s Plasma Balls Could Wipe Out Human Civilization; Star Predicted to Blast Through the Solar System; The south is SINKING: Giant chunks of the Earth’s mantle are falling off and causing quakes across the southeastern US - and more are coming, warn researchers,Is the Sun DISINTEGRATING? NASA spots monster hole open up on our star, Global warming drowning San Francisco, A big volcano erupting somewhere, The poles flipping, Global warming starving fish, Giant canaries swooping down and grabbing people!!!!!!11!!!!one!!!!!eleven!

The insult post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3460213/posts?page=24#24

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3716736/posts

Time travel story: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1610142/replies?c=8

What would the ideal future setup of elections look like?

In-person voting, with ID, for those who can. Exceptions: civilian expatriates, military service members, and those who plan to be traveling. A section for each of those categories follows.

Ballots are printed not less than 90 days prior to an election, serial numbered, and the location of serial number series tracked from the printer to the counting facility (more on that later). Any break in the signature chain of custody at any time renders the effected group of ballots void and they are to be condemned, their destruction documented and witnessed. No ballot lacking a signature chain of custody will be valid.

At the voting precinct, one ballot is issued to each voter, in person, with ID, no exceptions, by at least one worker and one observer from each of the major parties. Smaller parties capable of providing observers will be permitted to do so and, when they cannot, will provide an affidavit, along with their application to have a candidate on the ballot, stating that they will abide in the integrity of the major party observers.

Once completed by the voter, a ballot is placed in a sealed (except for a slot for insertion, of course) under the eyes of at least one other poll worker and one observer from each of the major parties as above.

At 8:PM local time the doors to the polling location will be closed to entry and only those remaining in line inside the location will be permitted to continue voting. As soon as the last voter leaves the location, the sealed containers. will be further sealed as to their slots. Signature chain of custody, by observers from each of the major parties, will be maintained.

At no time will ballot boxes be placed in hidden portions of a vehicle (such as the trunk), or in any private vehicle.

The boxes will be transported in the passenger cabins of police vehicles to the counting facility. There, the observers from the precinct will, in person, with ID, and signature chain of custody, hand over the sealed boxes which will be hand carried to the counting table(s) assigned for that precinct.

Only when all boxes from the precinct are physically present and documented will counting proceed.

A counting table will be staffed with one supervisor, one counter, one relief counter, and one observer from each of the major parties and any smaller parties capable of providing them (see above). Supervisors will unseal, open, close, seal, and mark as complete each ballot box, and gather the counts. Counters and observers will sit opposite each other; relief counters will be on-call elsewhere in the facility out of view of the counting tables.

Silence is expected. Expressions of courtesy (”excuse me” etc.) are expected, and calls for relief either hourly or at biological need will be necessary. Discussion of the ballots, trends in the voting, etc are strictly forbidden, enforced by the supervisors.

One box at a time will be unsealed and opened in view of all persons at the table, who will sign off on having witnessed it. A supervisor, in view of everyone at the table, will move one ballot at a time from the box to the table. Each counter will tabulate, on a form provided, the votes of each ballot. Observers will observe, but not touch, the ballots. At the other end of the table a second box for counted ballots will be in the custody of the other supervisor.

When all of the ballots have been tabulated, the tabulations from each counter will be compared. If they differ in any way, the full box and empty box will be physically transposed and the process begun again. The discrepant tabulations will be destroyed on the spot in view of all at the counting table.

When a box has been successfully counted, it will be sealed and placed in a storage area in the facility under guard, the single entry under direct observation. No box is to be removed from this storage area until all the boxes have been counted, the results agreed upon and reported.

Table tabulations will be kept at each table under the eyes of the bi- or multi-partisan supervisors. When a table (corresponding to a voting precinct) is complete, the counters, and relief counters will be relieved and the table rendered visibly not in use (folding tables folded, for example). The supervisors and observers will tabulate the tabulations, producing a single tabulation, which will be attached to the counting forms and reported to the next level.

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Civilian expatriates apply to their home precincts to have ballots sent to embassies and consulates. Ballots completed at the embassies/consulates, in person, with ID. Ballots returned by fastest means with the sort of postal tracking and return receipts I use when shipping valuable ebay merch.

Military: organizational voting officers appointed to request voting materials from home districts of service members within the command, sent to the unit headquarters, completed under the supervision (NOT direct observation) of those officers, in person, with ID. As an Army veteran, I believe Battalion-level is correct, run out of the S-1 shop, but with the duty assigned from among the Lieutenants according to the Duty Officer Roster. Other services have different organizational sizes, but a single voting officer temporarily relieved of other duties can deal with this for 500 to 600 servicemembers in a 30 day period. Ballots returned to precincts under the same standards as the expatriate vote, above.

Persons in the US who are traveling must* include in their travel preparations a visit to their county courthouse within 60 days prior to the election to apply for ballot, which will be completed in person with ID.

Completed absentee ballots gathered from diplomatic, military, and local government locations will be carried to the counting facility and sealed in containers according to the voting precinct. Signature chain of custody for these materials will be maintained.

*Failing that, they are deemed to have voluntarily chosen not to vote.