Pay no attention to the Wolves...

First off let me say that the tragedies of West, Texas and Boston, Mass were horrendous and my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the brave first responders who were affected by this. As a runner myself I know the feeling of victory and accomplishment from crossing the finish line and can only imagine what it would be like to have that moment ripped from you by an explosion with seemly no cause.

Now… Shame on our government for using these events as a fog of war during which press coverage was diverted and them pushing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) through the House and into the Senate, and shame on the news agencies for focusing on the NAMES OF THE “TERRORISTS” as I stated in an earlier blog.

First, Our Government. I’m not sure if you all are catching this but every time we are “attacked” our government likes to pass acts/bills/laws/referendums/cereal box labels that are designed to keep us “safe from threats.” These government follies rarely actually define what the threats are. Sure CISPA has some real uses about sharing of legitimate data regarding cyber threats between companies and governments, but it also allows personal use data to be sent to agencies like the FBI, CIA, and NSA. The beauty of this one is that it didn’t have anything to do with the Boston attacks, but it even has mainstream media outposts like the Huffington Post saying things like “Top intelligence officials now say hackers pose a greater national security threat than terrorists.”  Hackers are worse that terrorist? Yeah I saw that movie and Angelia Jolie didn’t look good back then either.

Second, the goddamn Media. We as Sheeple provide these people the power of a herding dog. They tell us where to look, they tell us when we should be afraid, and the move us in the direction that our farmer (government) wants to push us. The Majority of the Sheeple even eat up what the dogs tell us what is good to eat without even thinking about what we should be doing for ourselves. With West and Boston we let them divert our attention, to terrible tragedies no doubt, but for the wrong reason. This allows the government to focus on stealing away a few more of our civil liberties, while we focused on the NAME AND HISTORY of bad people, instead of coming together as a country and fixing the problems and becoming stronger.

Its too early for me to don my tinfoil Sheeple fleece and rant and rave about Boston and West to a larger degree, but I will close by saving that I’m disgusted and appalled at the government and medias handling of it, and I’m ashamed, but not surprised, at The American Sheeples focus on the train wreck of events, rather than the important pieces of everyday life that are being eroded away.

If I agree does that make me a sheep too?

I recent read a blog on The Political Ribbit that I felt was an interesting read.

I'm inclined to agree with her end result: that it would help some.

The bigger concern I have is based on the fact that the majority of the proposed gun law reforms do are only focused on law abiding citizens. I’m an avid gun owner who has purchased guns at stores and gun shows (background checks every time) and from private sellers (with a bill of sale every time to protect them and myself).

I’m not saying that background checks are a bad thing, but even people who fail background checks via the NICS system aren’t picked up or penalized when they fail the existing steps we have in place.

The problem is that the majority of Americans aren’t educated and are awed by numbers. The politicians and media throw out the sensational numbers and a lot of people are too lazy to fact check them or learn the truth themselves. People hear “gun show loophole” and then demonize it. They don’t realize that 90% of people selling guns at a gun show are FFL dealers themselves (thus required to submit paperwork to the BATFE or lose their license), 9% are people selling guns TO the dealers and of the 1% who do transactions between citizens you usually ask for a bill of sale, and a valid ID as we all know that it takes to get one from a dealer, and don’t want to be held liable if you use it in a crime (since it was registered when bought from an FFL originally).

The follow up question that they don’t ask in their polls is “Are you willing to pay increase in taxes for more political entities to enforce this rule.” I bet the 92% would change their answer =p

Flock Mentality: Sheeples Fearless Leader

Our President is doing a terrible job at doing well….l pretty much everything. Obama was re-elected last year and the platform he ran on was “Change”, yet what we are seeing is more of the same; rhetoric and misdirection. 

The first time around Obama promised large sweeping reforms including but not limited to: reducing global warming, stopping Iran and Korea from gaining the ability to make nuclear weapons, reduce our need for foreign oil, reduce college costs, take on healthcare, and take a bite out of the national debt.

What has he accomplished? Well let’s take a look:

·         Global Warming –While Obama can’t be blamed for the global changes itself (although he claimed to be able to fix them) they have gotten worse with super storms like Sandy hitting more frequently, southern states experiencing the worst droughts in years, while others experience massive flooding. In addition to this scientists state that the global warming temperatures are the highest they have been in the last 4000 years and are going to only get worse over the coming decades according to a New York Times article.  

o   Verdict – FAIL:  I’ll let him slide since he can’t control the weather. Just stop making dumb ass promises you can’t keep!

·         Stopping Iran and Korea from making nuclear weapons –

o   Iran –Obama is quoted as saying that “Right now we think it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously we don’t want to cut it too close.” Sounds like his peace keeping missions around the Middle East, kissing babies, giving speeching and putting rocks on graves are doing a great job at deterring them. On top of that the use of his drones should probably be focused on hostile enemies instead of ok’ing their use over American soil if you can’t even confirm some intel about a NUCLEAR WEAPONS

o   Korea- While he has been focusing on working the relationship with Israel and “preventing” Iran from gaining nuclear capability our friends in North Korea not only have the technology, but they also have tested and are making threats against us. In 2007 he criticized the Bush Administration for not being more aggressive in their diplomacy, yet NOTHING has been done in the 5 years that Obama has been in office.  The Obama policy centers on ‘strategic patience’ which equates to sitting around with their thumbs up their asses and hoping that the regime will fall apart.

o   Verdict – DOUBLE FAIL: Grow some balls and take some action. Stop talking and start doing something. At this point I’d settle for anything other than sending Dennis Rodman.

·         Reduce the need for foreign oil

o   While we have reduced the amount of dependence we have on foreign oil by almost 40%, the cost of oil is up almost 106%l. On top of that multiple transportations agencies and airlines, in which transportation accounted for almost 60% of our importation needs, have hit the skids and needed to declare bankruptcy and/or increase their costs for flights and trips.

o   Verdict – NEUTRAL: Cutting our dependency on foreign oil is good, but doing at the expense of business, jobs, bailouts and consumer costs, thus driving down tourism is not the best way to handle this.

·         Reduce college costs

o   According to a report done by the College Board and Advocacy Center “the average net price paid by full-time students  enrolled in public four-year colleges increased measurably in 2012-13 for the third consecutive year. The rise alone in 2012-13 was 4.8 for tuition and 3.7% for campus housing costs. On top of this the congressional lack of action could result in a $5000 increase in the total cost of their student loans over their lifetime.

o   Verdict -  FAIL: College is hard enough, but when you combine that with higher costs, and a lower chance of a good job when you get out the choice for many young people is clear. Forget that. Way to go Mr. President.

·         Healthcare

o   The newly introduced and approved healthcare plan was the white horse Obama road as he led the poor and impoverished masses to the voting booths in 2012. Congratulations you succeeded in implementing a socialistic system in a democratic society. The result? Almost 48% increase for those of us already paying for insurance on our premiums and a fine for those of you that don’t have insurance by the time your 2012 taxes are due (almost 6 million Americans). On top of that he’s cutting benefits spending for Military veterans and their families. So they just spent 10 years fighting a war for us and now they get no benefits? Classy Mr. President.

o   Verdict – FAIL: You institute a system that claims to help us, but it ends up screwing us, costing us more money, and it isn’t even fully in effect yet. WAY TO GET US EXCITED FOR IT!

·         Take a bite out of National debt

o   The debt when Obama took office was 10.6 Trillion. The debt now 15.8 Trillion. That’s almost a 50% INCREASE.  And he inherited the 10.6 trillion as a total combined from the first 42 presidents…..

o   Verdict – FAIL: Math… You are doing it wrong Mr President.

Over all I don’t think Obama is a terrible guy and I think that he does have good intentions. But we elected a guy to fix our country who has little real world work experience, and elected him again when he promised Change. We were hoping that change would for the better, but this graphic shows that a lot of the change is not the type we want nor is it going in the right direction.

His newest campaign promises are reduced gun violence and crimes, more jobs, fiscal resolutions, reasonable foreign policy improving education and more healthcare on top of new social reform. Hells bells we fell for it the first time.

I don’t care who you date, or what you do with your personal life, nor do I think the government has a place in it. I’ll keep my guns, my freedom, my money and my family. You can all keep all the Change.

Can you name the slain sheep?

Adam Lanza, James Holmes, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Seung-Hui Cho, Ted Bundy, and Charlie Manson.

These are names that almost everyone in the US knows, but for the wrong reason. These are the names of mass murderers that we in the US have turned into celebrities and fueled their lust for blood by giving them just what they want: Fame.

In the commentary I reviewed from the National Review titled “What Motivates Mass Murders” the author John Lott Jr. states that the blame isn’t on the weapons, or their bad childhoods, but rather the blame is tied closely to us: We The Sheeple.

We provide that which these depraved people yearn for, recognition and attention. Even though the majority of them die before getting into custody (approximately 75%) they live on for years to come in news casts, articles, editorials or as weapons themselves meant to strike guilt into the hearts of America whenever the media or our elected officials feels the need to make an emotional decision.

By their own admission many of them say that their motivation is based on being more famous than those that came before them.

When we try and stifle the media and prevent them from giving them air time the First Amendment is put up as a defensive shield, but there are no such problems, as Lott points out, to stifle discussions about Second Amendment rights or to increase the amount of regulations and rules around that aspect of these crimes, even though they aren’t the cause but rather the instrument used.

I enjoyed reading this article as it plainly states something that the mainstream media chooses not to cover:

We should be trying to deprive these killers of what they crave: attention and easy targets. Instead, we ignore measures that might keep them from getting attention and pass laws that give them defenseless victims.

Although We the Sheeple can identify the wolf-in-sheep’s clothing's motive/arsenal/family life/teenage years/breakfast, we can’t identify even the names of the victims. That my complacent colleague is a problem bigger than then slop our media farmer serves us.

The Assault Sheep

While looking over NBC News website, I saw an article that grabbed my eye on one of the most controversial topics at hand in todays media, Gun Control.  

The article (2013) titled “Gun control: Simple supply and demand could impact restrictions” really grabbed my eye because it seemed to lay out such a simple resolution to an undoubtedly complicated hot topic. When I clicked to read more I was cross linked to an ABC news article, not surprising since most of this countries  media shares its slop to ensure that their unilateral message is seen by all, I found a news piece that had almost nothing to do with actual news, but rather a feel good piece showing talking about “what an assault weapon is or isn’t based on your point of view.”

The article from ABC  (2013) goes on to quote the owner of the shop as saying “Assault-style would be anything that is cosmetically similar to a military-style rifle, which is your telescopic stock, your pistol grip, your flash suppressor.”  The reporter openly states “I find this very intimidating [when looking at the rifle built on the AR platform].”  I think here-in lies the problem. People see something that looks different and automatically label it as bad or scary.

Another website called “The Truth About Assault Weapons” which is built for both Smartphones and browsers alike, offers factual information about these misunderstood weapons, including the difference between the M4 military service weapon and the AR platform that followed. It even gives factual information regarding the origin of the name, laws associated with Gun Control, and even factual evidence from the 2004 Department of Justice report following the first weapons ban which stated:

“Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. [Assault weapons] were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban.”

Additional facts include that “, so-called assault weapons have been used in 385 murders since the AWB expired in 2004, or about 48 murders per year. But there were 8,583 total murders with guns in the United States in 2011, meaning so-called assault weapons were used 0.6% of the time.”

No one is calling out that both the Viginia Tech Massacre, Aurora Theatre, and Newton shooters also used the best-selling handgun and shotguns of all time, including  .40 Caliber pistols. A caliber built specifically for killing purposes by the FBI for use for female officers due to its low recoil but substantial killing power.

Our president comes out saying he is in favor of shotguns with pictures of him shooting skeet in an effort to seem like a common man, and Joe  Biden saying “Buy a shotgun to protect yourself not an AR,” when the shotgun is arguable the most destructive gun, according to a New York Times (2012)article in any arsenal.

When it comes to magazines, which the original ABC Article states will ultimately be the focus of the Washington Gun debate, most facts regarding high capacity are moot. James Holmes “high capacity 100 round drum magazine” jammed, and he swapped to his .40 caliber pistol. The Virginia Tech shooter used 19 10 round magazines (the proposed limit) during his rampage, and the Columbine shooting (which occurred during the first Assault Weapons Ban) used 13 magazines firing 96 shots (less than 10 a piece) during their school shooting. In regards to high capacity magazines the DoJ study cited earlier  stated:

[I]t is not clear how often the outcomes of gun attacks depend on the ability of offenders to fire more than ten shots (the current magazine capacity limit) without reloading.

So what’s the point of my “gun crazed conservative ramblings” you ask? The fact of the matter is the majority of the public eats up the incorrect slander proposed by the media and sensationalized by our elected leaders rather than learning the facts and making an educated decision.    I encourage you to read is a blog (2013) about of applying the proposed gun regulations to cars, as it shows how interesting and absurd the proposed laws are if applied to other things in our world.

While I acknowledge being the black sheep, ‘victim’ of my own views and education, you view me as a “black, assault style tactical sheep” instead of simply something that looks or has different views.

Are we just drones?

 

Today I read an article  on CNN that was about a polling of Americans and the use of drones, or unmanned spy planes, to carry out attacks and reconnaissance missions. 

This poll performed by an outside source showed that 3/4 of American approve the use of unmanned aerial vehicles abroad to address issues and people that could be deemed as a threat, while only 24% said that they are ok with using the same drones to spy over American soil to look for the same types of people.  The article goes on to talk about other comparisons of Republican/Democrat/Independents views on this, as well as white vs non-white comparisons and the results are something you might not expect.

Apparently "All men are created equal.." only applies to American's, and/or our rules and morals don't apply on foreign soil. #rolleyes

The article provides some interesting quotes from John Brennen, recommended  to head up the CIA by our very own precious savior Obama. Much of the content contained in this article, and others on the subject of drone usage show that this is continually done on the basis of "protecting human life, including innocent civilians," much the same vein that was used to pass the Patriot Act.

Let me take a clear stance on this... spying on the American public is no different than spying on people in other countries. I'm not saying its wrong, I'm asking "Why do we condone it when it only affects other people."

If we think that the government is only collecting data on the bad guys, then you need a tin foil hat that is thicker than mine. Look at Google Earth with its street views and self driving car.. and that's a private company. How do you think the government racked up the debt it has.... by buying $1500 toilet seats?

Government has certain roles and responsibilities, however since 9/11 we have consistently given them more and more power to encroach on our lives, whether that be our finances, our bedrooms, or our civil liberties. We need to stop acting like sheep and stand up and take a stand for ourselves. This means protecting our freedoms from enemies both foreign and domestic.