The Toxic Hypoxic

It’s odd how internet forums raise questions, or at least they lead to connections that weren’t previously apparent. So it was with a set of commentary regarding some of the tribe’s recent emphasis on purchasing land. What’s that have to do with An American Story? More than you might think, when this comment was offered.

It is time for them to be ordinary citizens — just like the rest of us.

The “switch” was made over 100 years ago in our family. Since then, it’s been mostly an American success story. The line seems to have produced poets, pilots, farmers, nurses and doctors (and a few nutballs of course). All of this over a century, with the next generation edging towards engineering. Was it because the family clung to an increasingly distant Indian heritage? On the contrary, it was because the decision was made early on that the future wasn’t back on the reservation, though I suppose they could have gone back if they ever wanted. None ever did. In retrospect, what would have been the benefit?

This year, when the teacher asked my children what they “are”, they answered “Nebraskan” or “Coloradan”. This is as it should be. My kids, on their own, rejected the ethnic constraints that others too willingly let themselves be shackled with. I can’t tell you how proud I was when their charter school teachers told us about the class conversation that ensued. At first the teachers didn’t understand, though the lights began to come on. The students caught on sooner. The 4th grade teacher informs us that there was more than one teacher in the classroom that day.

So I guess you can hold on to your ethnic heritage if you want. It’s a free country, of course. But as to the path to fulfillment, satisfaction and happiness (whatever that word means), our family already knows the answer.

Oh, owning land is fine. We seem to have a lot of it (not really sure why it continues to accumulate). I suppose it’s because we keep buying the damned stuff.  And yes, once we have it, no one wants to get rid of it (that would be wrong!). Funny how that works. The difference between us and the tribal crowd is that it’s OUR land, purchased with our sweat, and it has OUR name on the title. Indian/tribal affiliation was never a factor. It was all acquired under US rules, which is far better than the dysfunctional setup that seems to be popular of late. Truth be told, guilty white folks made up the American Indian myth as far back as Natty Bumppo. There have been generations of Indians that have bought into it, and probably as many that scammed  it.

A lot of Indian must have been bred out of us over the last century. Though we seem to have a familial predisposition for acquiring land, none of us seem to be getting warm fuzzy feelings about casinos. Perhaps the racial separation is finally complete. In that sense, it didn’t happen soon enough.

We clocked off five miles more, and I said, “But suppose there isn’t anything to find?”

And the Boss said, “There is always something.”

And I said, “Maybe not on the Judge.”

And he said, “Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something.”

- ”All The King’s Men”, Robert Penn Warren

Most of us recall earlier this year, when the White House boresighted Limbaugh. The “Big Guy” stared ‘em down, then came right back swingin’. In the end, the Administration lost a fair amount of political capital in the attack. Now it’s Glenn Beck’s turn.

The Daily Kos contains a message from Keith Olbermann, in which he invites the members of the Left to dish him the dirt on Beck. Newsbusters also has a commentary on the gathering storm.

On Beck’s part, this is a move that cannot be unexpected. If nothing else, Beck is a survivor and his excellently honed sense of paranoia has no doubt prepared him for what is to come. It’s Glenn’s turn in the barrel, and though it will be unpleasant, I’m sure he’s spent no small amount of time in preparing.

Beck has lost a great deal in his life. He’s banged off both ends of the scale. However, when you’ve literally hit the skids, you put things into perspective. It becomes more difficult to be intimidated. What is the Left going to do, call him an alcoholic (he is)? He also suffers from ADD (self-admitted). In my opinion, he’s  bi-polar as the dickens (but a highly functional BP).

The point is that Beck has done plenty to publicly address his demons. One of his comments, which I wish he’d expand on is, “alcoholics and drug addicts are going to save this country”. I’d like to hear his explanation on that one!

Beck knows what he is, and was. Getting the dirt on him may mean nothing at all as he’s owned up to to a lot in his life. And, though he’s slightly tortured in his own skin, he seems to know himself better than most. This makes him a formidable opponent, as I don’t think he cares as much about himself as he does for the welfare of the Nation. They’ll have to do more than merely “dig the dirt” on him to take him out.

This is going to be hugely entertaining as it’s played out in the media. The White House isn’t going to be in  the lead on this one (they’re not commenting on Beck’s critiques). The Administration is recruiting their minions to shoulder the attack. No doubt this is due to Obama’s flagging popularity. He cannot afford to lose much more, but he can certainly try to get the public’s eye off of the ball. This is really all the maneuver is about.

It continues to get more interesting, as the chocks are thrown under the Obamites. As a student of political history, it is a good era to be alive.

Personally, I think this business of parents keeping their kids home from school is a fine bit of grassroots activism. The town hall Marine that told the politician to “stay away from my kids” spoke for the multitudes. Aside from being a massive vote of no confidence, it is a demonstration that the public is on to the pinko tactics of the administration. They’ve been too highhanded for too long and they are being brought up short, finally.

The whole spectacle, every bit of it, is a wonderful education for our children in what not to do. In this world of whitewashed evil, our offspring seldom get to witness true malevolence. Well, this is their chance. I know my grade school children are acutely aware of the smarminess oozing from the administration. Don’t think that the rest of their generation isn’t aware of it.

One of this parent’s proudest moments, was learning that my daughter’s fifth grade class literally booed their teacher when they learned she was going to vote for Obama. It made all of those diaper changes worth it. <— Beaming Parent

Oh Phooey! I had so hoped that I wasn’t going to have to go around calling people names. Given the Administration’s aversion towards those supposedly sporting signs with swastikas, it seems passing strange that so many parallels with National Socialism are coming to the fore.

Today, the unholy alliance between The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Obama administration seems to be getting some press. It will get more before 2012 arrives. Apparently there are government funds that are ready to be expended in the art community. In this case it is a quid pro quo. The artists are expected to produce favorable propaganda for the Obama administration. This begs the question of why all varieties of Pinkos (National Socialists, Commies, etc.), and their fellow travelers, the Progressives, have such a romance with artists. Granted, not all in the arts crowd are leftists, but I don’t think they necessarily track with the statistical norm either.

So will we see some good stuff coming out of the arts community when the ObamaBucks start kicking in? They have some tough standards to meet. Leni Reifenstahl did it best in film and set the bar. Significant portions of the arts community in Germany (1934-1945) were basically enlisted in an effort to glorify the Nazi’s to the masses. The Obama Administration is doing exactly the same thing.

You only have to get to the 30 minute point in this video to realize there are frightening parallels between then and now. Believe me when I say that the White House has been studying their predecessor’s technique, but you watch it and be the judge. After 30 minutes, you’re hooked for the rest of the movie. Besides the fact that it tracks with what is occurring today, it is technically perfect.

As an aside, few of us are aware that Colorado has one of the greatest repositories of Nazi art and memorabilia in the world. Much of their detritus continues to survive, safely warehoused in Pueblo since WWII. Germany didn’t want the stuff back, so our government boxed it up and stored it for them. You thought Indiana Jones was fiction? Pueblo is where that warehouse is located! Some years ago you could actually take tours, so if you’re an afficianado of fine art propaganda, then it’s I-25 South for you!

How does all this relate to the perennial problem that we know as Socialism? It’s the same old movie all over again. Socialists, bereft of the virtues of entrepreneurialism, are left with the need to retread. They are students of history by necessity. Here’s an example:

In the beginning of the 20th century, the Progressives held sway in America. Roosevelt (the first one), was a Progressive (as is our Secretary of State). As a victim of American public education, I used to think TR was a great guy. I was wrong. Eugenics was a Progressive product. The Nazi’s picked it up and, well you know how that story went. It was open season on the mentally handicapped, and many others. Eventually, these deficient “burdens” were removed from the population much as in utero “undesirables” are today.

So what happened to the young man in the foreground? Nothing good, I’m afraid. The text of the poster reads something along the lines of, “This genetically ill person will cost our people’s community 60,000 marks over his lifetime. Citizens, that is your money”. Given the recent dialog on National Healthcare, does this sound somewhat familiar? I thought it might.

Keep your eyes on the art community, and the political support they’ll be providing for the Administration’s agendas at your expense. They will have to do a lot better than what was produced during the election. If you’re a student of propaganda history it will be apparent that you’re being ripped off. As evil as they were, there’s no doubt that the Nazi’s work product was far superior to what the domestic political artists have provided to date.

I’ve been absent from the blog for a bit. A rather unexpected stroke slowed me down for a couple of months. No kidding, a stroke! Who would have thought? As strokes go it was a rather light one. Just enough to remind me of my mortality. Had the emboli turned left instead of right on the way to the brain, I would probably be looking up at the grass rather than down at it. It was that close.

Though my blood chemistry was pretty good, I’m still relatively young, my weight “optimal”, no drugs, no alcohol (lifelong teatotaler, but I may have to start after this “incident”), it only made those worthy medical detectives dig in a little more to try to figure out the source of this rather unexpected event.

The incident happened subtly. I was on my hands and knees in the yard working on a recalcitrant irrigation valve, and had my head cranked way over to the side (and upside down) to try to read the manual shutoff marking on the side of the valve body. When I stood up I noticed that my left peripheral field had folded in by about five degrees.

“Hmph! What’d I do now?”. At first i thought I’d damaged the retina in my left eye. Closing my right eye, and waving my fingers around in the left field, I almost had myself convinced that it was my left eye that was the problem…..almost. I then closed my left eye and tested the left field of the right eye. Same problem.

“Oh, s$!^! …… BRAIN“. Time to head to the emergency room, and quickly. My “gentle bride” squired me down the 12 mile grade that lead to Memorial North, where I was involved in a rather unpleasant confrontation with the emergency room security guard. He couldn’t figure out why he was detecting metal as he waved his wand over the spinal cord stimulator implanted in my right flank. I pointed out that he was going to detect metal there all day long, and unless he let me into the emergency room, there was a statistical probability that I was going to expire right in front of him. He was bound and determined to find out why I was beeping his equipment though, and I imagine I might still be there (or dead), had an alert ER nurse not ended the foolishness by physically dragging me into the facility and slapping me on a gurney.

Three days later I was out the door of the hospital with a whole new set of pills, and some really neat syringes loaded up with fractionated heparin. You don’t want to know where those went (subcutaneous car wreck is rather apt).  Oh yes, and a diagnosis of Patent Foramen Ovale with some associated emboli in the aorta. Yes, the latter problem is pretty scary. Fortunately, the next two weeks were spent keeping my blood as absolutely thin as possible without bleeding out. Discussing the fate of the clots in my aorta with my GP, he told me not to worry.

“It’s been four days since you started on the anti-coagulants. No problem.”

“No problem?! Why is there no problem? Are those things still in my aortic arch?”, I squeeked.

“I doubt you’ll form any more clots with the anticoagulants you’re on. No doubt the emboli that were in there went into your brain days ago.”

I was comforted, ……. sort of. Tough truth from my doctor, which is all too rare from the medical establishment. I may keep him.

Well, how does this fit in with the healthcare debate? From my standpoint, here’s how it comes down. The way the bill(s) are currently configured, a lot of the money for the program is going to come out of Medicare. Though I’m blessed with two great insurance programs (Medicare and a crackerjack PPO), I never asked for the Medicare. It was effectively forced on me in a convoluted arrangement with my disability insurance company. Having said that, Medicare has been pretty good to me over the years. It certainly works as well, or better in some cases, than the PPO.

Contrast this with the effect of a 40% reduction in Medicare payments, if the proposed healthcare bill is enacted. The money has to come from somewhere, and the biggest “pile” is directed at geezers such as myself (though I’m comfortably ensconced over on the left slope of that bell curve, thank you very much).

Am I looking forward to nationalized healthcare? Not on your life, or mine. When I seem to attract every odd and unlikely disease in existence, trusting a new government program is not the first thing that comes to mind (or what remains of it). Let us hope that the rumored failure of the bill is accurate.

Well, it just keeps getting stranger all the time. Like they told me in grad school, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional”. And so our government introduces this latest bit of foolishness that seems to be par for the course of late.

Seems that pocket knives are having their turn in the PC barrel as to whether they should be banned. Yes, banned, ie. You can’t have ‘em. I’m quite at a loss over what to say about this, which makes it a challenge to do a blog, but here goes.

“Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.”

- Johann Schiller, 1759-1805

Customs is now considering banning pocket knives, and the date for comment is June 21st. Now the first thing that comes to mind is that there will certainly be a lot of us to enforce such a law against, and beyond the shear numbers of potential miscreants involved, there is the annoying little matter of the Second Amendment. I’ll admit that I never thought of the possibility of the Second Amendment applying to pocket knives (something about taking a knife to a gunfight comes to mind). It’s just one of those things that you’re not too concerned about because it doesn’t go bang, but where would you be without a pocket knife? I mean, I had one even when I was an airline pilot, which would probably get me put on some sort of domestic terrorist watch list now (if this blog hasn’t already qualified me). They’re such a handy little item that you can do all sorts of things with, trim you’re cuticles, slice crewmeal seals, clip newpaper articles, and open up the blog groupie fan mail. But that may all be in the past shortly. Soon, we may get a free trip to the Pokey for carrying one, on no less than a felony rap! Who woulda’ thought?

It’s truly amazing how far a lib government thinks they can push this slack-jawed lunacy. It was just recently that BATF tried to regulate amateur rocketry. My kids Cub Scout den was set to change their uniform to stripes. Rather a sad state of affairs when something as cretinous as pocket knife control is considered to be the proper roll of the federal government, but now it’s here.

One do wonder about the nation’s educational system, and who the government seems to be hiring. It’s all too obvious who the voters have been hiring.

“I am always looking over my shoulder, wondering if I measure up,”

- Judge Sonia Sotomayor

 Definition: The impostor syndrome is feeling that one hasn’t earned his or her achievements – that the achievements are the result of luck. It is very common among high achieving persons, particularly women, who worry that some day they will be “found out” – that others will discover that they really do not know what they are doing.

 

Well of course she thinks that. That’s what affimative action does to minorities. When she got into college, she had to ask herself if she got there because of her own abilities, or because of some sort of minority quota system. The same goes for her admission to law school. The same goes for her first job, and her first judgeship, and her next, and her nomination to the Supreme Court.

It’s a terrible thing, what’s been done to minorities that have abilities and may (or may not) be good at what they do. There’s always that irksome little crawly thing, back in the base of their brain that perpetually asks, “Did I get here because I’m really good at what I do, or because of some quota system?” It’s just a horrible, monstrous, castrating thing that’s been done to them.

Unfortunately, she will always be  looking back over  her shoulder. If she doesn’t ask that question of herself, she knows there are plenty of others that are. It’s a Faustian bargain that the Libs have made, that she as an individual may never have bought into, yet she is saddled with it for the rest of her life.

Bastards!

 

A recent web comment reflected an apparent Obama decision to forgo political show trials for member(s) of the previous administration. My response shows that I am less than convinced that it’ll “stick”.

Well, at least we have that. Surprising though.

Hmmm. Do we have that? I wonder.

I am not the only one that believes that Obama is more idealogue than pragmatist. With half the country despising him (conservative), and a wilting left side of the equation (liberal), it will be interesting to see whether he can tack to the center quickly enough to offset the loss on the left. Remember, it is early in his administration. He knows that public support is beginning to collapse as the economy implodes, and no degree of “pie in the sky” happy talk is going to stop that. He’s way overspent, and the stimulus package isn’t working (though only six percent of those stimulus packages have made it into the economy so far). The bulk of his/their profligacy isn’t due to be squandered till before the midterm elections. By that time the collapse will well and truly be a disaster.

He’s already setting the basis for vastly increasing taxes, though this is !exactly! the wrong thing to do in a faltering economy. Truly, he cannot raise taxes enough to make a dent in the debt that’s in the process of creation. Print more money? That’s a given, if the Chicoms allow it. When will the tsunami of inflation hit? I can’t tell you, but it’s coming as sure as the sun will rise. There’s not a solution now, even if he was a pragmatist. The only action available (as ineffectual as that is), is happy economic talk while all of the indicators accelerate downwards. What’s left? More happy talk and a desperate need to get the focus of the public off of the conflagration that is burning through the financial underpinnings that still give marginal support to what is left of an economy.

He is mentioning the previous administration more than he ever did, as the cause of the nation’s grief. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet re. a show trial of some sort.

Consider, as the left sours on his desperate attempt to tack right, there’ll come a time when his total support trends south as well. That’s when the political showboating will begin in earnest.

A socialist will take your money.

A Marxist will arrest you.

A communist will kill you.

What “flavors” of leftism do you suppose we’ll witness over the next two years? This is the start of a great political “life lesson” for my children. They can see it coming. They’re already preparing for the economic dissection. Disasters teach.

Knock Knock

Who’s there?

Gestapo!

Gestapo who?

We will ask the questions!

I had thought that the Missouri troubles were finished, but now they seem to have reared their heads again, this time at Lambert (St. Louis International). I am not entirely convinced that this should be placed in the militia category, or a run of the mill cash seizure associated with suspected drug activity (it’s probably a combination of both). What I am convinced of, is that the incident at STL was a blatant violation of constitutional rights, since the TSA was freaked out enough to arrest the unfortunate traveler.

It probably did not help matters at all that this fellow was carrying a stack of third party bumper stickers (!RON PAUL!). Given the militia memo discussed in the previous article, this seems to put the arrestee in a very suspicious light. Perhaps the TSA had read that memo. Who knows?

This is what comes of conferring authority, without adult supervision. The incident, which would do Barney Fife proud, is reminiscent of the debacle that occurred in PHX (again with the TCA), in which Major/Governor Richard Bong was detained by the TCA for trying to carry his (horrors!) Congressional Medal of Honor onto the concourse. Again, another “Fife moment”. Does anyone take these “authorities” seriously?

Airline professionals certainly don’t, and that’s a stone cold fact. Educational and performance standards are quite different between the two groups, which accounts for the low opinion. Truth be told, upper level law enforcement folks like the FBI and Secret Service have the same opinion of the TSA types. The hiring standards are just not the same, so this sort of foolishness is not unexpected.

What’s interesting, if you listen to the 25+ minutes of the audio recording, is that the TSA folks become far less belligerent and more mannerly as they interface with non-TSA law enforcement types. Interesting, but perhaps not surprising.

This all belies the illusion of security that our government is spending a lot of money on, but that’s another story.

The following two files are audio recordings of most of the incident. This is a very interesting demonstration of the caliber of personnel that the Feds are paying for in the TSA ranks.

Note: The full 25+ minutes is available via the icon below.

 

From a rather early age I’ve taken an interest in the militia. However, in recent years the term has taken on a rather odious meaning. But it was not always that way. In our nation’s founding documents, the militia is mentioned prominently. Consider the Second Amendment in our Bill of Rights. The militia is front and center. I won’t go into interpreting the Constitution lest someone mistake me for a lawyer and quite probably do me bodily harm.

All I’m trying to point out is that the militia is an honorable concept. Many state constitutions and statutes reference their particular form of the militia. And for those that contend the militia is the National Guard, that’s true, but it’s not the whole truth. In recent years it has “branched out”, and the original meaning of the word seems to have been lost. The increasing population of the historically challenged have felt compelled to apply the PC treatment to that venerable term – militia.

What follows is a letter I wrote to an official in the State of Missouri regarding a somewhat interesting memo that went out to their law enforcement folks. I’ve included a copy of the letter and the memo. It’s a little early to tell if I’ll get an answer, but when you send a courteous letter, you often get a response. We shall see what sort of fruit the following email bears (if any).

Note: It’s quite possible that the memo is a complete fabrication, and I’ve been duped! I actually hope that this is the case. Conversely, for a number of reasons, I’m also concerned that it is authentic. I’ll know soon enough.

Update 3-29-09

Well,  whaddaya’ know? Looks like Mr. Middleton’s article,  and the procedures at MIAC have been repudiated. New oversight has been implemented by the higher-ups. Still no reply from Mr. Middleton.  I may have to give up on this one.

1. State drops warnings over ‘militia’ members

Dear Mr. Middleton,

I had an opportunity to read a circular titled, “MIAC STRATEGIC REPORT, 02/20/09, The Modern Militia Movement”, which had your email address in case a comment was offered.

While the report did not contain a great deal of new information regarding militias, and (in my opinion) it had quite a lot of information that wasn’t terribly pertinent to militia groups in general (like bumper stickers ?!?! What was that all about?), I found it to be a somewhat cursory review of the issues driving these disaffected groups. It would make a good basis for a more comprehensive article on the subject in the future, as I think we both agree it is an interesting subject.

I grew up in southeast Nebraska back in the 50’s, and had already left for college when Richardson County had some incidents with folks that referred to themselves as “militia” (you might check whatever law enforcement archives you have access to on this). From what I was able to gather, these folks sounded more like a group of organized homicidal criminals than what my understanding of a militia was. In any event, I didn’t worry about it since I didn’t live there anymore.

Later, as an airline pilot, I was engaged in a discussion in the pilot’s lounge with another pilot who was/is a resident of Missouri (back in the early 80’s). He was bemoaning the presence of these boorish militia members in his home state. I dredged up a bit of ancient knowledge and commented that it seemed like just about every able bodied citizen of the state of Missouri was considered to be a member of the organized or unorganized militia (I include a copy of Missouri Revised Statutes at the bottom of this email for your edification). While he was rather incredulous about this, he did stop me the next time he saw me passing down the concourse,  and thanked me for the civics lesson I had provided. Sure enough, he had looked it up and found he was also a member of the militia in Missouri and didn’t even know it. Whataya think about that?

I guess what I’m wondering about is this. Given that your office has circulated this article to Missouri law enforcement, how do you expect the officers of your state to distinguish between the “Unorganized Militia” (of which you are probably a member, according to 41.050), and the “militia” that this article was written about? The report neither mentions the legitimate unorganized militias, nor does it contrast the legitimate unorganized militia to the (apparently) illegitimate militia. Is there a possibility that there might be some confusion, on the part of Missouri law enforcement, as to the difference between these two entities that call themselves militias? Obviously, not all militias are bad, according to your state’s statutes which seems to encourage them.

I mean, if I was a civically inclined member of the “unorganized militia” within the Great State of Missouri, I might take a bit of offense if some member of law enforcement started asking around about me. Seems to me that the Coast Guard Auxiliary or the Civil Air Patrol might merit similar attention in that they are also a paramilitary organization operating within some states. What’s a conscientious law enforcement officer to do if no distinction has been drawn in an official report like the one you’ve sent out?

As one who’s paid some attention over the years to the militia within Missouri, might I suggest that a clarification regarding the difference between militia and the “unorganized militia” as specified in state law, be circulated to your state law enforcement folks?

Not trying to make trouble. Just asking the question. If you have the time, I would appreciate any commentary you might provide, to satisfy my own curiosity on this matter.

Regards!

Mark Stappenbeck

Missouri Revised Statutes

41.050. The militia of the state shall include all able-bodied citizens and all other able-bodied residents, who, in the case of the unorganized militia and the Missouri reserve military force, shall be more than seventeen years of age and not more than sixty-four, and such other persons as may upon their own application be enrolled or commissioned therein, and who, in the case of the organized militia, shall be within the age limits and possess the physical and mental qualifications prescribed by law or regulations for the reserve components of the armed forces of the United States, except that this section shall not be construed to require militia service of any persons specifically exempted by the laws of the United States or the state of Missouri.