DailyMail: Phil Robertson Interview

This is a fantastic collection of comments from Phil Robertson. Regardless of your stance on the subject (homosexuality and promiscuity in general), you should take note of how he is conducting himself. Phil isn't backing down, isn't getting angry, and isn't returning insults to those who are reacting with vehemence towards him.

Here is a quote:

Then reading from the Bible he said, ‘The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, is number one on the list. How many ways can we sin sexually? My goodness. You open up that can of worms and people will be mad at you over it. 

‘I am just reading what was written over 2000 years ago. Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom. All I did was quote from the scriptures, but they just didn’t know it. Whether I said it, or they read it, what’s the difference? The sins are the same, humans haven’t changed. 

‘If you give them the bad news, they’ll start kicking and screaming. But you love them more than you fear them, so you tell them.

The full story can be found here. Unfortunately, it is the DailyMail, so the website itself is fairly horrible to contend with.

The original interview with Phil by GQ is here.

BTW, my favorite part of the GQ interview:

The ecology here has been so perfectly manipulated that it feels as if two giant hands reached down from the sky and molded the land itself, an effect that I’m sure would please Phil. Whatever you think of Phil’s beliefs, it’s hard not to gaze upon his cultivations and wonder if you’ve gotten life all wrong. This is life as summer camp. It’s gorgeous, in a way that alters you on an elemental level. I feel it when I breathe the air. I feel it when I survey the enormity of the space around me. I shouldn’t be sitting around the house and bitching because the new iOS 7 touchscreen icons don’t have any fucking drop shadow. I should be out here, dammit! Killing things and growing things and bringing dead things home to cook! There is a life out in this wilderness that I am too chickenshit to lead. 

Bread and Circuses

If you are familiar with Roman history, then the phrase might immediately make sense.

Bread and Circuses.

Food and entertainment.

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

- Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81

What does this mean and how does it apply to modern times? Directly quoting Wikipedia, "Juvenal here makes reference to the Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power." This was written within 100 years of Rome becoming an autocratic state. 

The parallels to modern life in the US is rather disturbing. What has happened to society in the last 40, 50, 60 years? People have become completely self absorbed and incapable of focusing on anything of significance. Entertainment dominates all public media. We care solely about who won the last major sporting event, we know all the intimate details of Hollywood's residents, and the number of people who are unemployed, on welfare, and receiving food stamps has never been higher (2008: 28 million people @ $35M; 2012: 46 million people @ $75M). Try to talk politics, religion, or other serious topics of discussion and people literally shut down. While in the background, we have a machine that is moving into high gear that is in the process of redefining this country. 

The citizens of the US are happily letting the government control their lives. Parents afraid to have the "sex talk" and wanting their kids to "just be happy" are becoming more and more willing to let public schools define the moral compass for their children. Obamacare, aka Affordable Care Act, is redefining the government's knowledge of the intimate details of your personal life (HIPAA limits medical institutions to only sharing information as necessary to provide treatment... and the government will be one of those parties now...) but at least they have a safety net if they lose their job! Let's not forget that the NSA is acting in complete violation of the 4th Amendment by gaining information about every single phone call, email, credit card transaction, and who knows what else for every single American they can all in the name of "security" (and a surprising number of Americans have no idea that is a bad idea).

Americans, in general, know more about what is happening on their favorite reality tv program than they do about the government's activities. Worse, I think they prefer to stay ignorant. People have been turned into mindless zombies. Everyone gets a trophy at school! Don't have an opinion because you might offend someone! Go to college to get a useless degree! ... My vote doesn't count... both parties are the same... I can't do anything about it... what difference will it make... 

Apathy is going to be the downfall of this country. Unless the populace takes notice that the government is becoming a monster soon, it will be too late. The Judiciary and the Legislative branches will become pawns of the Executive... Look at FISC... Look at the rumors that Justice Roberts was bullied into changing his vote about the constitutionality of the ACA... Look at congress's inability to pass a budget and yet the government keeps on functioning...

Bread and Circuses. Keeping the people distracted by reality television shows, nude celebrities, and great sporting events. Giving us "free" health care, food stamps, welfare, 99+ weeks of unemployment benefits. Providing amnesty to all those illegal immigrants. Taking our freedoms. Taking our privacy. Becoming our masters.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin

Rep Gowdy to IRS: Start Over

I encourage you to watch this segment of the hearing Congress is having over IRS spending habits. Too bad nothing will come of it! We need more congressmen like Trey Gowdy to have any real accountability.

Where are Obama's Columbia Classmates?

There is an interesting story on The Blaze written by Wayne Allyn Root. He graduated from Columbia in the same class as Obama ('83) and had the same major, Political Science and Pre-Law. And he says that he never, nor did any one else in his graduating class, met or saw Barack Obama during his time at Columbia. Here's an excerpt:

So I asked every classmate I met at our 30th reunion, many of them Political Science majors, if they ever met, or saw, or heard of Obama. The answer was a resounding NO from every one of them. I asked if they found this strange, or worried how this was possible? They all answered YES. I asked if they thought it was possible to be a Political Science major and never meet a fellow major in our small classes? They all gave me a very strange look and answered NO. So I asked, “How could this be possible? Can you explain this?” No one had an answer.

Small graduating classes always know each other. Some how, some way. Take for instance this story about my mother-in-law and my parents. I moved 1500 miles and met my future wife. When talking to her mother I learned that she went to the same small college as my parents and knew them, not well or in any personal way, but knew them none the less. The chances of this coincidental meeting is amazingly small, yet there it is. In college, you are not anonymous. Even in the early 80's. Someone in your class would be able to stand up and say, "Yea, we were study partners once."

But not with Barack Obama.

I like Mr. Root's closing statement:

Now I know somewhere in America is an Obama defender that will accuse me of lying. But are all those classmates at our 30th reunion lying too? And if I wanted to lie, wouldn’t I better off saying I knew the future President well? If I wanted to malign the President, shouldn’t I be saying he was my close buddy and I witnessed all kinds of terrible things? But I can’t say that. Because I never witnessed anything. Neither did any of my classmates. We didn’t know him. Never met him. Never saw him. My story is simply the truth- and it’s the same consistent story I’ve told since 2007. 

There is something wrong with Obama’s story- that much I know. He is either the ghost of Columbia, or the perfect Manchurian candidate. But something smells rotten at Columbia.

iPhone Rumors

I was searching around and saw more images of the poly-carbonate (plastic) iPhone. Everyone is claiming that this will be for the new, entry level (i.e. cheap), iPhone.

It would be hilarious if the next top tier iPhone is actually this plastic one. Just saying.

You can seem them here.

Older plastic shell pictures here.

Rumors about colored bodies here and here.

Ban Stupidity, not Guns

I have to say, some of the news I hear about what some public schools are doing really bothers me. Teachers yelling at a 6 year old because he brought a small plastic toy gun to school (smaller than a quarter, I'm serious); schools with "zero tolerance" on anything gun related are harassing children who wear an NRA shirt, a 15 year old was expelled for having a cap gun on a school bus, or accidentally eat their food in such a way that it might look like a gun. In another instance, a 5-year-old girl was suspended for ten days and reportedly labeled a “terrorist threat” for threatening to shoot her friend with a toy bubble gun.

These Leftist Liberals are people crazy! They are causing more harm to the general public than any of these kids, but they are the ones charging these children with "disrupting the peace", "inciting violence", "being a terrorist threat", etc.

I know, many people in the Democratic party do not support what is happening, but at some point you have realize that your union values, the government is a safety net concept, etc are no longer the true goal of the DNC. There is a gradual erosion of American values happening. Young, teenage girls are allowed to have abortions without parental consent or notification. Religion is being attacked by trying to classify conservative Christians as extreme terrorists. Children are harassed for having a toy that looks like gun. This isn't the America where I want my kids to grow up.

We must re-establish the freedoms that were earned by the blood of so many past generations. End the nanny state and the big brother knows what's best mentality. Socialism is truly about bringing power to the elite class, not equality for all people. And they will enact socialism by gradually castrating the public and taking away your rights as a parent (planned parenthood, public schools), as an individual (right to bear arms; freedom of religion and speech), and as a human (socialized health care).

Original links came from The Blaze.

NewEgg: Patent Troll Slayer

I've read a lot about Lee Cheng, NewEgg's Chief Legal Officer, and each time I see something new, I say, "Bravo!" Patent trolls are going crazy. Attacking everyone over very obscure, often unsubstantiated, claims in the hope that they roll over and settle. NewEgg does not.

This quote is fantastic:

"There's bad news and there's good news," said Cheng in an interview with Ars. "The good news is, we won this case on every point. The bad news is, we're running out of lawsuits. There are fewer trolls for us to fight. I've spent a lot of time over the last seven years figuring out what to do with these guys. There are strategies I think would be really neat and effective that I literally can't execute. I can't make good law because I don't have any appellate cases left. They [the trolls] are dismissing cases against us before any dispositive motions."

See everything at Arstechnica.

IRS Admits to Targeting Conservatives

You are only a conspiracy theorist until the theory is proven accurate. Then it truly is a conspiracy.

In this case, several conservative not-for-profit groups have been complaining about being unfairly targeted for IRS audits over the past 18 months. Dana Loesch, Fox, Breitbart, and numerous others have been fighting to get this uncovered.

Well, the IRS has proven them right. Here is the statement from another perspective via ACLJ.

My question is, will this widen to other news groups and possibly lead to a congressional hearing? Ala Benghazi? (I am aware that the grave differences between these). The fact remains that the IRS should not ever be targeting groups based on their political affiliations?  I can hear the outcry now by Rachel Maddow now if G.W. had the IRS investigating groups because they were pro choice...

ABC Finally Vetting Benghazi

It's finally moved beyond breitbart.com! The main stream is calling out the Obama White House on their intentional attempt to obfuscate the real situation surrounding the Benghazi debacle.

As Mitt Romney weakly tried to explain during the debates, the White House did go on the offensive to cover up the attack and blame some "offensive conservative video" that caused a "spontaneous demonstration". As ABC reports, the White House knew from the CIA that this was a planned attack, they just didn't want to look like idiots.

Too bad Romney didn't do a full court press when he had the chance.

Sadly, I don't think we'll be as lucky as we were with Nixon and Watergate.

Here's the article.

Lawyer Trolls at Prenda: Getting what they Deserve

Judge Otis Wright is my hero. He has no mercy for people who abuse the legal system and he quotes Star Trek. He kicks ass. Check out this quote:

They've discovered the nexus of antiquated copyright laws, paralyzing social stigma, and unaffordable defense costs. And they exploit this anomaly by accusing individuals of illegally downloading a single pornographic video. Then they offer to settle—for a sum calculated to be just below the cost of a bare-bones defense. For these individuals, resistance is futile; most reluctantly pay rather than have their names associated with illegally downloading porn. So now, copyright laws originally designed to compensate starving artists allow, starving attorneys in this electronic-media era to plunder the citizenry.

Read the full story at Ars.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/prenda-hammered-judge-sends-porn-trolling-lawyers-to-criminal-investigators/

Obama Budget Caps Retirement Tax Benefit

Hand it to the Federal Gov't to change the rules as they want more money.

Remember how your IRA is supposed to let you pay taxes now and not have any tax consequences so long as you use the money in retirement.

Well, in the few short years that they have been in existence, the original plan is already under fire. Obama has proposed in his budget that if your retirement account exceeds $3M, you'll get another tax.

The cap proposal is a clear play to unlock some of the $10 trillion sitting in IRA and 401(k) accounts, which have become the primary retirement savings vehicles in America. Congress pried this door open a few months ago by toying with a law forcing heirs to liquidate an IRA within five years—almost certainly triggering otherwise avoidable income-tax payments. We may see that yet.

 The $3 million cutoff is itself something of a mystery. The White House reasons that $3 million is enough to provide an annual annuity of $205,000, which it further reasons is plenty income for any retiree. Yet there’s a lot wrong with this line of thinking.

How great is that! I love helping the gov't give more of my money away.

I wonder if the amount will be locked to inflation? Does the White House believe that the most we simple Americans should be allowed to live off is $205k/yr? How... Communist.

The worst part: Very few in media are talking about this. It doesn't show up in any of the major outlets front page. Not on Google News, not on CNBC, not on ABC, or CNN Money. I only knew about it from the radio yesterday and had to specifically search for the terms to find any news. Thank you, mainstream media, for covering up the agenda again.

GM Invests €4bn in Opel

Talk about a subtle way for the Obama administration to continue redistributing US tax dollars. First, illegally kick out GM's shareholders with tax payer dollars. Then, give GM a bad loan. Finally, use those investment dollars to help out your foreign arm which has been uncompetitive for several years.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6d921548-a1e0-11e2-ad0c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Q5I0GX8z

Maybe I'm just being a conspiracy theorist. But, US tax payers are really getting hurt in the way the Feds are giving out our money. We are making very risky "investments" on money that isn't ours (see China!), but we are on the hook for it. Further, the gov't shouldn't be making ANY choices in deciding which businesses get loans! That is what PRIVATE investment is for. They have the power and the will to make good monetary decisions. The US gov't has proven time and time again that it is perfectly willing to throw good money after bad.

Does "Pro-Choice" extend beyond birth?

This is painful for me to talk about. I have three children and I have been able to witness the birth of my children... my wife has also been in a NICU... babies are precious, vulnerable, desperately trying to live. So, to me, the fact that this actually has to be discussed is heart breaking.

Yes, we must define whether a baby still has a chance for life, but to hear the opponents of this bill fight that the baby might be the patient in need of treatment shows how *redacted* some activists can be.

Don't continue reading if you are easily distressed by this topic.

A committee in Florida was discussing (flash player required) what happens to a baby that is still living AFTER an abortion attempt. So, the "born alive" baby, - i.e. after expulsion from the "mother" & demonstrating one of three actions that is used to determine life (voluntary movement, trying to take a breath, or a beating heart) - is now external to the woman's body. The committee is actually having to debate whether the child deserves emergency medical attention, or if the baby, now removed from the woman's womb, can still be... aborted.

Here are some of the excerpts, as best as I could type them out, of the review of this bill:

19:00 - Questioning of the bill's sponsor

Q: "I want to talk the issue you called surrender… it is a complete vacating of any rights the birth parent has…

A: I am concerned about who provides consent for treatment… in the circumstance of an infant born alive after an abortion, there is concern that the parent would not have the best interest of the infant in this circumstance.

Response: A person who is having an abortion we are assuming that the person doesn't have the best interest of the child … and I believe that the parent has the best interest of the child …

Q: How prevalent is an infant born alive?

A: We have anecdotal evidence… and reported data 1270 infants qualified as dying in a category that includes related to abortion.

37:00 - a 4th year medical student urges legislatures to vote "NO" as they do not know a certain shoes and interferes with a woman's ability to decide what to do with her family, her religion, etcm

38:00 - a Planned Parenthood representative - a woman's desire to raise a child is her right alone and politics should not be allowed to interfere

39:00 - Q to PP: if a baby is born alive as a result of a failed abortion, what does Planned Parenthood want to see happen?

A: we believe that any decision that is made should be left to the woman, family and physician

40:00 - Q: what happens in the situation when a baby is alive and moving

A: I don't have that information

41:00 - Q: You represent physicians that perform this activity - what happens when this happens with a baby that is struggling to survive

A: I don't know how often this happens

42:00 - You have stated that a baby born alive should be left the woman and the doctor

A: That decision should be left the mother

Q: Shouldn't at that point the patient be considered the baby?

A: Thats a good question, maybe we should talk about it

Q: Why do you have an issue with us codifying that a physician needs to provide advanced life support in an abortion clinic. Does planned parenthood have an objection to this?

A: Our opposition remains about the surrender words, the transport to the hospital. …

Q: What objection could you have to requiring a baby be transported to a hospital?

A: Sometimes it's impractical in a rural setting. We have issues with the logistical problems involved in getting a baby to a hospital that may be 45 minutes away.


At 47:00 minutes debate opens up and there are some fantastic rebuttals by the congressmen who come forward and talk about how sickening that it is that people would even oppose this a bill that seeks only to guarantee that a baby that is born alive will receive the necessary advanced life support that an infant would need.

However a few people kept on talking about surrender. My thought is... If a mother wants to have an abortion, hasn't she already surrendered her "rights" to the infant? I think the surrender language is meant to guarantee that the baby will not be abandoned. And the bill's sponsor states earlier that at the time of abortion he would be skeptical that a mother would have the baby's best interest at heart. I fully agree. You have to be of sound mind to make those kind of decisions, and having been in a delivery room, the stress is high... that's why we sign our papers in advance that the baby can receive all the care they are due immediately after birth. To have an abortion, it requires labor and delivery, the birth parent cannot be assumed to be in sound mind immediately following an abortion.

Human life must be protected. It seems to me that Planned Parenthood, and several other "Pro-Choice" members of the media (and by no means am I saying all people who call themselves pro-choice), are not trying to protect the baby. They have a disgusting business in perpetuating the lie that a baby's life in the womb should not be protected. Only God knows how they can live with themselves.

The crazy thing is, the same liberals that fight for the right to kill babies, fight for the federal protection of baby sea-turtle eggs and other stupid animals. How can people be so hypocritical? I believe it is part of the great deception of our age.

I found this video from the following links:
ChicksontheRight
www.jillstanek.com
The Weekly Standard << linked the original Florida legislative video

Pope Francis

So far, I'm liking what he is saying. He is the highest "ranking?" figure within Christianity speaking in a way that I haven't seen many others do - Catholic, Protestant, Calvinist, etc.

His goal seems to focus on the things Christ wanted us to - caring for and defending those that cannot do so for themselves. And living it. For instance, there has been a war on unborn children since the 1960's... possibly sooner depending on your view of eugenics.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, encouraged Catholics this week to untiringly defend the unborn against abortion even if “they persecute or kill you.” Amidst a debate in the country over the legalization of abortion being sought by non-governmental organizations and by some members of the government, Cardinal Bergoglio recalled that the faithful have the duty to defend life “from the beginning until the end.”

Catholics should persevere in this mission, he said, even if “they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you.”

The cardinal compared the “egoism of the culture of death” with “weeds that begin to grow and invade and kill the trees, their fruit and their flowers. They kill life.”

 “No child should be deprived of the right to be born, the right to be fed, the right to go to school.  No elderly person should be left alone, abandoned,” the cardinal said in remarks to a group of pregnant women.

Pope Francis is declaring war on abuse and death. And he's living it out, not just talking about it. And for that, I am glad.

More on Pope Francis:
Path to becoming Pope
Setting the Example
Condemning Abortion
Five thing about Pope Francis

Ban Salt

It's absolutely ridiculous.

But, you know, they will try to do it.

Think about it, New York has already passed a bill banning soft drinks over a certain size (temporarily blocked). The logical conclusion is that anything that can possibly be "proven" as contributing to death will also be attacked.

I saw a news article yesterday citing a study (thanks Harvard!) that shows 2.3 million Americans die every year because of salt. Well, too much sodium. My first thought:

"The bastards are going to try and ban salt next."

I was wrong. They have already tried.

Mr. Ortiz, a Democrat who represents several neighborhoods where salt is known to be heavily used, including Red Hook and Sunset Park, told The Times Union of Albany that he was inspired to introduce the bill by the case of his father, who used salt excessively for years and developed high blood pressure and had a heart attack.  

Thank you, Leftists, for continuing to try to micro-manage my life. I think I'll do just fine without your... "help".

People keep on saying we conservatives over-react. That they really aren't trying to control every aspect of every American's life. I say, "Open your eyes."

Things to be banned or getting more restricted:

• guns
• cigarrettes
• prayer
• oil
• soda
• Christianity
• Judaism
• moral codes
• hetero-only marriage
• salt
• truth-speakers / facts
• capitalism
• pregnancy
• US Military soldiers
• carbon dioxide

Things to be accepted as basic human rights or "free speech":

• homosexuality
• universal health care
• drugs
• abortion
• Muslim radicalism
• promiscuity
• pornography
• blatant lies about conservatives
• taking the "rich's" money

And every time you vote for Obama, or brush off that Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid absurd statement, or say Planned Parenthood does good work, look at that list again. The Democratic party isn't what it used to be. Neither is the Republican for that matter. But, one has become anti-American.

While on the subject of salt... does anyone remember that salt is what allowed humanity to make it out of the dark ages? To sail from Europe to the "New" world? To explore the west (of America)? Hmmm... doubt it.

Canon EOS Utility

Canon doesn't post a link to their EOS Utility application. This can be rather burdensome if you happened to have lost your dvd that came with the camera. The utility is a pain because it is the only way to add new lens profiles onto my camera or to install firmware updates. Go figure.

I was travelling and ran into the need to use the application, but couldn't find it anywhere. All of the work arounds for turning the EOS updater application into a viable installer didn't work for my setup.

Because of the troubles I've encountered, I decided to make a DMG of my disk (because I happen to use OSX) and thought it might come in handy for other people. Here it is. If it stops working, please leave a message in the comments or email me.

Yes, I encourage anyone who finds this to run a virus scan on the file. I can promise all day long that it's safe, but you have no reason to believe me really.

After running the installer, it would be worth heading over to Canon to download the latest update for the package.

France Fines Apple for Making People Work

Any surprise why France's economy sucks?

French law states that night work, defined as the hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., is reserved for exceptional cases only and must thus be justified.

Nanny State. (via AppleInsider)

Now go drink some wine, have a cigarette, and eat some cheese. Don't forget to surrender to the Germans.