A Twitter post from Piers Morgan,

The 2nd amendment was devised with muskets in mind, not high-powered handguns & assault rifles. Fact.

A WordPress response from me,

And the 1st Amendment was devised with movable type ink printing presses in mind, not internet websites, much less Twitter postings. Fact.

Some post election thoughts, albeit a bit late.

They ran out of undies on Staten Island (despite the promises from a “Presidential” looking Obama)
From Fox,

Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro says the people of his community are in desperate need of fresh underwear.

“It’s like a third-world nation,” Molinaro said in a phone interview on Tuesday’s Good Day New York.

If you reference my March 2011 post on being prepared for a disaster level emergency, you’ll note that I recommend you set aside extra underwear and socks in the “Shelter” section.

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Is it the end of conservatism in America?
From a commenter at The Belmont Club,

I still have hope, but it is in the states and local communities. The governors and state legislatures must step up and stop acting like subsidiaries of Washington. Those that do will thrive; those that don’t will slouch toward their demise.

So let me be perfectly clear: we must restore self-governance. That was true before this election, and it remains true.

I want to encourage everyone to keep trying to preserve the republic. We have been blessed to be a part of this great American experiment, and we owe it to those who have paid in blood and treasure to not give up. It is a duty we should not fear, but relish. And if you don’t think you can do that where you live, come on down to Texas. We may be the last, best hope of the last, best hope on earth.

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No! Your argument ignores reality.
For clarification, try a simple term substitution – as shown by the strikeout and italics below. From the “Dear Republicans” post, (FYI, the post degrades into juvenile level vulgarity),

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, mention abortion the intentional killing of innocent unborn children again. It will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, be illegal in this country.

Whether or not the truth claim of the second assertion is valid does not mandate the abdication from morality as indicated by the first assertion.

Further reference, The SLED Test.

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Even Obama, Presidential-looking though he may be, cannot cut through red tape.
SUCKERS.

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The Gods of the Copybook Headings, by Kipling

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

…

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

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Be wary of those who rag on that the Republican Party is primarily made up of old, rich, racist white men. Be wary because when faced with the prospect of a young Hispanic Republican, as in Marco Rubio, the media seems to think that a question of priority for said Republican is to ask him how old he thinks the Earth is. Let’s disregard how other issues were skipped over in lieu of that high priority age of the Earth question. Issues such as: immigration, the economy, healthcare, gun running into Mexico, a U.S. Ambassador being killed in a coordinated attack at a U.S. Embassy and, maybe, the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, you know – low priority issues like that. Oh, and let’s also disregard the fact that Rubio probably-most-likely-maybe thinks that the laws of aerodynamics work consistently enough so that he believes that when he boards a jetliner it will actually fly through the air (as designed); or that he thinks that the laws of chemistry work consistently enough so that when he takes medication it will interact with his body the way it is supposed to; or that he thinks most of that – you know – “science stuff” really works.

Yes, since they can’t accuse him of being an old, rich, racist white man, they simply disregard all of the real issues and paint him out to be some sort of buffoon by asking him how old the Earth is because, when all is said and done, they’re not interested in tolerating a Hispanic Republican.

Be wary.

There seems to be a meme floating around Facebook noting that, under George Bush, multiple embassy attacks were made (anywhere from 7 – 11) with up to 53 people being killed. The insinuation is that things were worse under Dubya than under Obama AND that people are somehow hypocritical if they criticize Obama for the attack on the embassy in Benghazi.

Let’s take a look at this.

From Media Matters there’s a post titled, Krauthammer Whitewashes Bush’s History To Bash Obama Over Embassy Attack, which lists out seven U.S. Embassy attacks under the Bush Administration. Yet in reading over each of these attacks one finds that not one American was killed. Not one! In some cases, the embassy or building attacked was empty.

But the most egregious problem with this meme is that it attempts to divert the attention from where it belongs. The issues with the attack on the Benghazi embassy have to do with,

1. Americans being killed (indeed, a U.S. Ambassador being one of them),
2. Americans requesting U.S. military intervention – and being denied,
3. A coordinated and well planned attack being carried out (ostensibly by paramilitary forces),
4. Said paramilitary forces belonging to a group (al Qaeda) which the current administration has declared to be decimated,
5. Said administration lying about what happened, why it happened, and how they addressed it.

This muddled thinking and blindness to issues of reality, by the Left, will continue to leave America open to attacks from terrorists abroad.

This particular line, from a Grateful Dead song, has always struck me as poignant,

Sign the Mona Lisa with a spray can,
Call it Art

– Foolish Heart

As the singer insinuates, the quick and dirty tagger’s label can hardly sanctify a classic work of art.

What is it about the Western Evangelical Church that drives us to acquiesce with the culture we live in and, at the same time, justify said acquiescence as a noble cause?

Take, for example, the manner with which many churches are approaching the upcoming celebration of Halloween. This year Halloween falls on a Wednesday and, as most of you may be aware, many churches hold their “mid-week” services on Wednesday nights.

It seems to me that in times past the church would hardly have blinked an eye at this current conundrum.

“What? Halloween is on Wednesday? Oh well, try to get some ‘trick-or-treating’ in before you show up for Bible Study.”

Yet nowadays the church bends over backwards to accommodate a culture which worships Halloween (in terms of merchandising expenditures) less only than that of Christmas. Do a search on the various churches in your vicinity and my bet is that you’ll find them having, in lieu of their regular Wednesday night ministries, some event geared to provide the community with candy and fun and games and entertainment. Whether or not said event is described as a Harvest or Hallelujah Party one thing is clear, there’s very little chance of having a mid-week Bible Study at the event.

What I find most disconcerting with this whole fiasco is that, with cans of spray paint in hand, apologists for these events boldly stencil on the words COMMUNITY OUTREACH, and then walk away thinking that an event which has replaced the study of God’s Word is somehow promoting the Gospel. In our misguided attempt at reaching a community of non-believers we’ve succumbed to the market mentality notion of keeping the customer satisfied. While we’ve been given a divine opportunity to be truly counter-cultural and shine like a light on a hill in a world of darkness, we’ve taken to dimming said light as we go out of our way to join in the celebration with our culture.

POSTSCRIPT: $370,000,000. That’s how much money we Americans, who happen to be in the midst of the Great Recession, spend on Halloween costumes for our… pets.

Watch this one…

11 years after 9/11 we see that the problem still exists (witness the recent events in Cairo and Libya).

What we need to realize here is that on December 7, 1952 (11 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor), not only was World War II over, but Japan was our ally, and we were in the midst of the Korean War (which would not be over for another 7 months). The dynamics of the acts of aggression in those conflicts are categorically separate than what we now face. This is different – very different. As for the events of the past few days, to blame an insignificant movie as the cause demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the core issue. Furthermore, to blame an insignificant movie for the murder of 4 Americans in Libya would be like blaming Wall Street for the toppling of the Twin Towers. Oh, I forgot, some people already do.

Did you hear about that business in San Antonio that lost just about all it’s market share after it’s CEO left? Seems that under his lead he developed quite the brand following and, after he left, his successor couldn’t keep the company on par with the local competition.

Oh, did I mention that the “business” was a former megachurch? From MySA,

It once was a megachurch. Now the sale of its far North Side property has wiped away longstanding debt and sparked new optimism for reversing its sizable membership decline.

…

The congregation counted an estimated 3,000 members a decade ago but today reports that about 200 attend on Sundays. The church has a lease agreement with the new owner to worship there through 2013.

“We love the building, and it’s a great location,” said David Keith, lead elder. “We just didn’t have the overall congregation to support much of that building and its mortgage.”

…

Former senior pastor Peter Spencer, who founded the congregation in 1988, could not be reached for comment. Keith said membership losses coincided with his resignation in 2003.

Spencer “had quite a following,” Keith said. “Basically, once he left, it just wasn’t quite the same.”

John Cannon, former executive pastor, succeeded Spencer in 2003 and resigned last December, eventually taking a job as a commercial real estate agent.

The church is located along a stretch of Loop 1604 informally called “church row” for the many congregations fronting it, drawing members from fast-growing suburbs. Nearly 200,000 people live within a five-mile radius of Harvest Fellowship, according to its property listing, but the competition played a role in membership losses, church leaders said.

One of these days, and I think it will be in the near future, churches in America won’t have to worry about competition from other churches.

Also see: Christians Need to Stop Making Converts

Remember how Junk-DNA was supposed to be a blatant indication of the process of methodological naturalism? Remember how all that noncoding fluff in the genome was considered the result of the trial and error nature of the evolutionary process?

Yet, it seems that the junk is not so junky after-all.

In the following video by Dr. Fuz Rana, from Reasons to Believe, he tells us of the importance of the Encode DNA Project, and its findings. In the video he states that the Encode DNA team have determined that about 80% of the human genome consist of functional DNA seqences.

I recall a discussion I had years ago with a friend, who accepts the naturalistic evolutionary mindset, and his response to the apparent fact that so much of the genome was noncoding (i.e., “junk”) was, “And that makes sense from an evolutionary point of view.”

What really makes sense, when one sees the vast integrated complexity of the genome, is that one is looking at the work of a designer. A mindless process? Or the process of a mind?

Have you seen this little ditty floating around the internet (e.g., on Facebook)?

Cute.

Here are my thoughts:

• Schools:  Along with Public School Employee Unions, low performing teachers, overpriced and bloated administrations, emphasis on testing rather than students? Average expenditure / student in US = $11,665. And you want MORE?
• Roads:  Along with Public Employee Unions, excessive benefits, civil service mentality, bureaucratic red tape? Try contracting roads to private firms to see efficiency in execution.
• Firefighters:  Along with early retirement pensions for some at upwards of 90% of final salary?
• Police Officers:  Along with early retirement pensions for some at upwards of 90% of final salary?
• Hospitals:  You mean like the ones run by the Catholic church?
• Paramedics:  A wonderful perk of living in the 21st century West.
• HAZMAT Teams:  Oh yeah, that must be a big line item in the budget.
• Soldiers:  Definitely.
• Sailors:  Definitely.
• Airmen:  Definitely.
• Marines:  Definitely.
• Coast Guard:  Definitely.
• Clean Air:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Clean Water:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Safe Food:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Pure Drugs: Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Child Protection:  As long as child protection agencies do not abuse their authority and power.
• Safe Products:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Air Traffic Control:  Yes, definitely. And fire them all (a la Reagan) if they try to go on strike.
• Space Exploration:  Robotic exploration is the future.
• Bridges:  Managed by government, contracted to private firms. Kind of like the transcontinental railroad.
• Tunnels:  Managed by government, contracted to private firms.
• Flood Defenses: Hopefully not as was managed in New Orleans (by the gov’t)…
• Universities:  Like Stanford, Claremont, or Yale? Oops, those are private firms. Same comment regarding overpriced and bloated administrations.
• Museums:  Culturally enriching… yet a low priority for taxing the citizenry – ask the 1%’ers to help out.
• Science:  Science? Science couldn’t exist without more taxes?
• Diplomatic relations with other countries:  Definitely.
• Public Parks:  The ones that are used frequently or the ones that sit empty for most of the week?
• Criminal Justice: Definitely.
• Medical Research: This can’t happen without taxes? Oh yeah, when you socialize medicine, you take away incentives for private research – got it.
• National Forests:  Definitely.
• Care for the Elderly & Disabled: This is the government’s responsibility?

Chilaquiles, from El Farolito, in Placentia, CA.

Chilaquiles is a Mexican dish (American Mexican) which combines fried corn tortillas, eggs, red chili sauce, beans and rice. El Farolito, in old town Placentia*, serves up a spicy version with great flavors. Serving size is large, and the price is very reasonable.

Enjoy!

– image © 2012 A R Lopez

* Placentia, yes that is the name of the city, is derived from Latin, meaning “pleasant place to live”.

The breakfast burrito, at the Miraloma Cafe, in Anaheim, CA.

The Miraloma Cafe is a surprise sitting at the edge of an industrial area in Anaheim. Their breakfast burrito was another surprise – nicely priced and tasty, complete with eggs, potatoes, cheese, bacon (or ham, sausage), and salsa. One big plus – it’s not greasy. Definitely a winner.

Enjoy!

Orange County former Assistant Sheriff, convicted tax-evader, paid $948,000
From the Orange County Register,

Jaramillo was convicted of tax evasion and other charges in state and federal courts. A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in February 2011 set aside Jaramillo’s guilty plea on corruption charges, which forced U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford to modify his 2009 sentence of Jaramillo for his guilty pleas to income tax evasion and corruption charges.

But his boss, the former Sheriff Mike Carona, wasn’t exactly the cream of the crop either.

Carona is serving 5 1/2 years in a federal facility, while Jaramillo was released to a halfway house Oct. 13 after spending 22 months in a federal prison and several months in the halfway house.

Carona fired Jaramillo on March 17, 2004, when the two had a falling-out over several issues dating back to Carona’s request to have Jaramillo try to persuade Orange County prosecutors to take it easy on the son of former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl. Greg Haidl and two other young men were later convicted for sexually assaulting an unconscious girl. The boys were 17 at the time of the attack and the victim was 16.

What is that saying about power and corruption?

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Santa Ana City Councilman exposing himself
From the Orange County Register,

A former executive with the county government and current Santa Ana councilman lured female employees who reported to him into his office, where he groped them and exposed himself, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Tuesday.

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Orange County’s CEO resigns amidst Councilman’s arrest – gets $270,000 severance
Again, from the Orange County Register (do we see a trend here?),

Tom Mauk agreed Thursday to resign as the county’s highest non-elected official, the latest executive departure since former O.C. Public Works manager Carlos Bustamante was charged with 12 felonies for alleged sexual abuse of female employees.

Mauk will receive about $270,000 in severance payments, said John Moorlach, chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors. That includes 10 months of pay and 410 hours of accrued vacation time and is a bit less than Mauk would have been entitled to under his contract if he’d been fired, Moorlach said.

And you wonder why we distrust government?

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Well, I suppose a shotgun could be considered a type of ‘super-soaker’

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Election Fraud!!! At a high school?
No, it wasn’t in Chicago.

Scenario:

1. High school students running for office in ASB election.
2. Student # 1 wins the election.
3. Later, student # 2 hacks into the school’s database and discovers that the ASB Faculty Adviser rigged the election, and that student # 3 actually won.
4. Faculty Adviser resigns as adviser yet continues to teach.
5. Student # 2 is immediately given a 5 day suspension for hacking into the school’s database.
6. Student body is, rightfully so, very ticked off.

From the article,

But Troy students remain outraged by the school’s handling of the matter, noting that while Bigham received a five-day suspension immediately after coming forward with allegations of ASB election fraud on April 23, Redmond continued teaching the ASB leadership class for the remainder of the school year.

“The implications of what I did vs. what she did are not on par with each other,” said Bigham, 17, of Buena Park, who was stripped of his post as ASB secretary after exposing the scandal. “I feel changing the results of an election has far more gravity than finding out by whatever means that someone did that.”

Change. You can believe in.

Black man # 1 incorrectly thinks the 2nd Amendment is all about providing the opportunity to go hunting and shooting and, more importantly, that weapons such as AK-47s should only be in the hands of soldiers and not criminals (one has to wonder if citizens are then equated with criminals?).

Black man # 2 correctly notes that the 2nd Amendment is all about being the citizen’s last defense against tyranny (and, that would tend to equate citizens as soldiers).

The sorry thing is, black man # 1 is supposed to be a constitutional professor.

Bonus Footnote:  Watch Suzanna Hupp school Texas Legislators on the 2nd Amendment