Funny and depressing all at the same time...

Click the photo for a larger image if you can't read the fine print.

And for the record I drive a Volkswagen, not a Subaru.

An order I would never obey...

From David at The War on Guns:

Apparently the Battalion Commander (LTC) of an unnamed Bn has decreed that:

all soldiers [are] ordered to make sure that all weapons were registered with the Provost Marshall, whether they [live] on post or not.

The soldier who reported this bovine feces went on to state:

I asked for clarification on this and it seems the squadron commander (O5/LTC) wants all personally owned weapons registered regardless of where they are stored.

This is completely unacceptable and likely illegal. An employer has no right to intrude on the lives of an employee in this matter regardless of whether or not that employer is the US government. I hope the soldiers unfortunate enough to be under this scum bag's command raise his issue with the IG and that the commander gets his pee pee whacked in a very painful and public fashion.

It was only a matter of time

From breitbart.com:

MARION, Ala. (AP) - A small central Alabama county whose mainly black residents gave Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.

I wonder if we'll wait until after he's out of office before this goes national. Probably not.

The sponsoring commissioner, Albert Turner Jr., said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.

What goal is that? The goal of getting elected president as an avowed Marxist in a supposedly capitalistic country? I'll admit that is impressive.

Turner said copies of the resolution, adopted at a Nov. 25 meeting, have been mailed to Obama and his transition team.

Laying the groundwork for a Perry County bailout most likely.

Quote of the Day

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but the newspapers. – Thomas Jefferson

I thought this was an appropriate quote in light of this video.

Thomas Sowell sounds the alarm...

...but is anybody listening?

Just like with HD?

I read a column by Pat Buchanan the other day that said we should infuse the Big 3 with cash and enact protectionist legislation for the auto industry just like we did for the motorcycle industry in the '80s. In this way we could save the auto industry just like we saved Harley Davidson. Ignoring the obvious flaws in this argument, i.e. it's unconstitutional, it rewards bad decisions, it doesn't address the failed business model they are operating under, etc., I want to address the results of what Uncle Sam did back then for good old HD.

Back in the 70's and '80s HD was a joke of a motorcycle company. They made heavy, slow, unreliable motorcycles that couldn't compete with those being imported by Japan. They were owned by a company that made bowling equipment for Pete's sake. Anyhow, poor management, poor product quality, and superior competition led to a company on the brink of bankruptcy. Enter Uncle Sam. In 1983 the federal government enacted a tariff of 49.4% on all imports over 700cc. It was an extremely protectionist moved that angered our trading partner and saved a mismanaged company which was producing a crappy product from its rightful fate. It also forced many Americans to choose between buying a crappy motorcycle that they could afford or forgoing purchasing a motorcycle altogether because the quality products had been placed out of their price range due to the tariff.

What was the result of this move? Harley was purchased by a new owner and decided that since it couldn't keep up with the Japanese it wasn't even going to bother trying. Harley started using marketing terms like "Classic" and "Heritage" while slapping new hand grips or foot pegs on each years bike and calling it a new model. All this while charging a premium price. The end result is a motorcycle industry that is dominated by one company and that company is plagued with a lack of design initiative.

Is this what we want to happen to the auto industry? To have it relegated to a cottage industry while Japan and Germany rule the world market? I can't say for sure that I know that will happen, but I can definitely say that I don't want it to.

And what of the tariff? Could that happen again? With the donks (who are beholden to the unions) in control of congress and the white house it absolutely could. Though it wouldn't have a significant effect since so many Hondas, Toyotas, etc. are made here in the US and therefore would be exempt.



owever need to streamline, rework their business model, and get out from under the crushing union contracts they are tied to. How can the hope to compete with Japan when the average Toyota employee makes $45 per hour while the average GM employee makes $75? How can they hope to compete while paying 12,000 people to watch TV? Let them declare bankruptcy and attempt to fix themselves, renegotiate their union deals, and come back leaner and meaner. Don't perpetuate the problem by using tax-payer money to prolong the inevitable.

Government Efficiency at its Best

From The Sun Chronicle:

Eileen Wilbur, who has lived at 16 Glenn St. in South Attleboro since 1959, received a bill from the city Monday stating that if she does not pay an outstanding utility balance of one penny by Dec. 10 she will face penalties of up to $48, along with a lien on her property.

These are the people we want to regulate the market? The people who will spend 47 cents on a stamp plus however much they spent on stationary to collect a 1 cent bill. And the woman who claimed:

"It would be fiscally irresponsible for me to have staff weed through the bills and pull out any below a certain amount," Marcoccio said. " And what would that amount be?"

A) That amount would be the amount of money that it costs you to send the bill.

B) Nobody has to sort through anything. We have these magical devices called "computers", and by casting arcane spells with them we can tell them to only print out bills above a certain amount, like oh, the cost of a stamp and envelope for instance.

I know all of this is hocus pocus to you, because you're a government leech on the butt cheek of society, somebody who doesn't have the skills, or the intelligence judging by your statements, to succeed in the real world.