Deniers No Longer Frozen Out of Global Warming "Debate"

In several arenae it's become fashionable to speak of global warming as an established, noncontroversial fact. California's idiotic, Davis-the Grey inspired "Flex Your Power" energy conservation program is just one example. Instead of letting Edison build new generators, they're trying to talk individuals into using less electricity. It's analogous to Skippy telling peanut butter users how to spread peanut butter more thinly over your bread, instead of growing more peanuts.

Now, they've taken to including "helping global warming" as another reason to conserve electricity. The current catch phrase is that one should use those weird fluorescent light bulbs, and that "if everyone replaces four regular bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs, it's the same as taking 400,000 cars off the road." I'm still waiting for my drive to work to get easier. Edison (and the "Flex Your Power" gang are fully in bed with the notion that there's actually human-caused global warming about which we can do something by turning ourselves into a hand-to-mouth hunter-gatherer society.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Yet another news story, written by James M Taylor of the Heartland Institute, as printed in the Chicago Sun-Times points out the fact that there are many scientists whose research shows disagreement with this algorian hoax.

"For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, 'Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame.'

"Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, 'Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine.'

"Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.

"Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

"Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, 'Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa.'

"Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, 'the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain.' In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.

"Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century."

So, we see that the real scientific evidence is building up very convincingly (for individuals who accept the evidence of their senses and analyze it by means of reason) that there is no human-caused climate change. The algorians are merely trying to use the Big Lie to political advantage in the cause of increasing the power of the state over the individual.

Note also that the elite algorians do not and will not follow their own admonitions and trim their own energy use, or alter their own lifestyles, at all. It's only the productive among us who are to be shackled. This is always the way of socialism.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Rocky & Hoodwinkle

As if El Pueblo de Los Angeles didn't have enough problems, what with el alcade Antonio Vinaigrette being divorced by his loving wife and being dumped by thirteen of his mistresses, and his difficulties controlling his police officers, now we learn that the Pueblo's City Attorney is up to his neck in "petty theft."

According to this story in the Los Angeles Daily News, along with several others in the LA Times and on radio and tv, Senor Delgadillo, the petty thief's facilitator, henchman and co-conspirator, his wife, Michelle, has been on a petty theft rampage for at least five years.

Michelle's first antic (about which we were informed) was her 2004 accident while driving Senor Delgadillo's city-owned vehicle. City government does not allow employees to allow others to drive its vehicles. Senor Delgadillo attempted to cover up the incident until it became impossible to do so. According to Steve Lopez, an LA Times writer, Michelle had no auto insurance at the time, and was driving with a suspended driver's license.

"How inconvenient that this news broke just as Delgadillo was ripping Sheriff Lee Baca for springing (Paris) Hilton so soon after she was locked up for driving on a suspended license, of all things," writes Lopez.

Soon after, it was finally noted that Mrs Delgadillo has an outstanding warrant for her having failed to appear in court to answer for having been cited, in 1998, for driving on an expired Montana license, in her maiden name, and driving a car with expired plates, and with no proof of insurance.

Then, because all the above caused an abnormal degree of focus 'pon Senor Delgadillo, stories began to leak out about his use of his staff to run some of his personal errands and to babysit his two children during business hours.

Then, just the other day, it was disclosed that Michelle ran a home-based corporation for three years, from 2002 through 2005, without going through the trouble and expense of obtaining a city business license nor filing state income tax returns. This part of the story is detailed here.

Now I'm, as many of you know, opposed to the entire series of notions involving mandatory forced financing of government at any level. I don't consider it a state prerogative to issue licenses or otherwise decide who is to be allowed to pursue any particular professional endeavor. These ought to be done by voluntary means between consenting individuals. Qualification to drive or otherwise travel 'pon streets and highways should be the prerogative of the owners of the streets and highways, who should not be the state. Damages for mishaps should be the responsibility of the individuals who cause the mishap, or their insurance carriers.

Senor Delgadillo, by actively trying to cover up his wife's disdain for the law and lying about his own misuse of his office staff, places himself in the category of Corrupt Civil Servant. He should resign. He should be fired.

Actually, I advocate that any elected office holder or any civil servant convicted of lying--any lying during the performance of his job--be publicly hanged by the neck until dead. Of course, that'd thin their ranks dramatically, which could be nothing but good for the productive segment of society. I nominate Rocky Delgadillo for an early court date.

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. --Lord Acton

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Two, Three, Four, What're We Votin' For?

It's almost a year and a half before the next Presidential election, and the campaign is already in full "cover up past flip-flops, lies and scandals" swing. I keep wondering whether this election will be our last. Each President that's elected acts more and more like he wants to "take over" than his predecessor, and each President gathers more power around himself than his predecessor.

When this President used the destruction of the World Trade Center as an excuse to tighten security, eliminate personal privacy and create a vast travel control bureaucracy, I started wondering if this is going to be it. George W. Bush, President for Life.

I kind of don't think it'll happen yet though. The country is too polarized, and I think GWB will want to get shut of Washington DC as soon as he can. He's mucked up entirely too much, and everyone knows it.

Yet, between the evil Internal Revenue "Service," and the plethora of recently-created, unConstitutional federal quasi-military police agencies, the misnamed "War on Drugs," actually the War on the Bill of Rights, and the militarization of local police agencies, we see that everything is in place to turn the country into a complete dictatorship.

Almost no elected officials have read or understand the US Constitution, as it was written. Whether they understand it or not, few of them agree with it. Witness the foul conservatives constantly saying that there's no right to privacy in the Bill of Rights (the Ninth Amendment.) To follow the rules set thereon would cramp their style.

In view of the above, Election Day seems almost meaningless. In all likelihood, the two nominees for the Office of the President will be philosophically identical and it won't matter at the end of the term which one will have won.

It's for this reason that I'm going to reiterate and reinforce, with slight modification, my voting recommendations for this election day.

I used to recommend that, one should simply "Vote For No Incumbent," thinking that if he couldn't stomach the challenger, he might simply vote for a candidate from an alternative party--Libertarian, Natural Law, or even Green--unless your candidate happens to be very, very good. Fat chance.

While I still think it's crucial that one should not vote for the incumbent, I'm thinking it might also be important to vote for his direct opponent--the one that's most likely to win. This means, that if the sitting Senator in your state is a Democrat, vote for the Republican.

Of course, in the opposite case, many will hold their noses at the prospect of voting for a Democrat, in spite of their own Senator being one of those cowardly Republicans. If you are, for example, a Mississippian who has to listen to the blatherings of Trent Lott, you might say, "Why not vote for a better Republican?" To which I might answer that, if the challenger looks better than the incumbent in the Primary, fine. I plan to vote for Ron Paul in the Primary for President, but should he not win the nomination, I know of no other Republican worth my vote. I wonder whether I'll have the intestinal fortitude to vote for Clinton or Williams. Scary, but if the alternative is Giuliani or Romnney, what difference would it make, really?

Best, in my opinion, will be if every sitting elected official is voted out of office. Every one. It'll let the fools know that their constituency is paying attention, and we want not just change, but change for the better. The less government intrusion into our lives, the better.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards.

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Could It Be Any Worse?

"It's far from perfect, but it's a good start."

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that whenever Congress (or the State House, or the City Council) approves a new program--usually one that limits individual rights even more than before--whoever is speaking invariably recites a variation of the above quote. What this always means is that the problem the legislation is allegedly supposed to solve will not be solved, but the increasing impositions 'pon the rights and lives of We The People will happen anyway.

This happens time after time after time.

In the future, what I want my servants in Congress and other legislative bodies to do is: hold off on enacting the program until it is perfect. That is to say, that it will solve the problem it's supposed to solve, and that it will not impose 'pon the rights and property of any individual.

You Congressmen, State legislators and City Concilmen get extreme pay and benefits, and get treated with a lot more respect than most of you deserve. The least you ought to do is take the time and effort to get it right.

"Far from perfect" isn't good enough.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

How They Die

According to the Department of Corrections of the People's State of Stalag California, the number three cause of death among death row inmates in the Stalag's stalags is by execution.

The number two cause of death is suicide.

The number one cause of death among death row inmates in Stalag California's stalags is......are you ready for this.......?

Old age.

There are currently 656 condemned prisoners in California's prison system, and the vast majority of them will remain there until they die of cancer, heart failure or boredom. Since the late 1970's, when five of nine decided that execution is a legal way to dispose of murderers after all, only fourteen of California's condemned have actually been executed. And this in the midst of hundreds of whiny protesters.

While I'm not actually in favor of the state imposed death penalty, for reasons to be stated below, I wonder at the unique California combination of angst, guilt and indecisiveness that allows hundreds of individuals, who have been lawfully condemned by the state's laws, to be left to rot in a cell for decades with no certain fate.

Among those convicts not on death row, life is much more exciting. California's stalags contain groups of individuals that are constantly at each other's throats. California's stalags allow homosexual rape--part of their punishment, many think. California's stalags have a thriving drug culture, in spite of (some say with the help of) the guards. Guards aid the strife by allowing ethnic groups to form gangs that are allowed to posture, threaten and occasionally fight each other.

This has to be intentional, in view of the fact that the guards have total control over the inmates and can withhold exercise yard privileges from any individual or group that is disruptive. They have total control of everything that enters or leaves the walls of the prison.

My solution? Start by holding guards and supervisors individually and personally financially responsible for injuries caused by inmates under their control. Next, courts should be directed toward sentences that cause victims to be made whole as a result of the sentence, wherever possible.

The reason why I'm opposed to the death penalty as administered by government agencies is that government agents are both incompetent and corrupt. An execution carried out in error can never be undone. In short: I don't trust government to get this or anything else right, and neither should you. The only proper death penalty is the one administered by the intended victim against his assailant, before the thug can complete his crime.

Individual rights to self defense should be fully enforced by the legal system. Individuals' rights to carry and use weapons of self defense should be affirmed and enforced. Initiation of force by either government agents or anyone else should never be tolerated, either by law enforcement or by individuals.

People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Lord Stanley's Cup Finally Finds Stalag California

I discovered ice hockey only after I moved from the Great White North to the Stalag. Sure, others were swinging hockey sticks all around me as I grew up in frigid North Dakota, but I was way too interested in cars and driving to pay much attention.

I was in my late twenties, bringing up a strapping young son by myself, when I began casting about for something that would interest us both, that we could do together. In the "winter" of 1969, I took him to a Los Angeles Kings hockey game and we were both hooked.

There was a public ice rink, Klondike, not far from our apartment in Santa Ana, and I decided that we should learn to skate. I had skated a little as a kid, but not much. Still, it didn't take either of us very long, and we were scooting around the ice like the best of the rinkrats. We went skating two or three times a week for several years, as he grew up. We also attended the occasional LA Kings game, when time and money permitted.

When I relocated us to San Diego, after the couple of years it took me to rebuild my career there, Jim drifted more into friends and his own interests, and I had time on my hands. Hanging around an ice rink in El Cajon, I fell in with a group of guys in their thirties and forties, some of whom were very good hockey players. I bought a set of hockey gear and flopped about on the ice while learning to play the game. I played with that same group of guys for about fifteen years. I was able, during this time, to begin to learn the game as a player.

During this time, I followed professional hockey as best I could. I met and made friends with Willie O'Ree, the first black player to play in the NHL. One day, Goldie Goldthorpe, a minor league player who was the inspiration for Ogie Oglethorpe, an outrageous hockey goon in the movie Slap Shot, guested with our team. Also, on several occasions, brothers Chris and Steve Chelios guested with us.

Since I've moved back up to Orange County, and now, El Pueblo de Los Angeles, I haven't returned to playing. Not only am I a mite old, but I have become horribly out of shape. I still skate occasionally at a rink in Van Nuys, but I'd have to work a lot harder than I do to be able to play again--even with guys my own age......

Meanwhile, I had season tix for the Kings during three seasons while Wayne Gretzky played here, and Anaheim Ducks tix for one season (their second). I've followed these teams records for all these many years, in the hopes one of them would win the Stanley Cup. Of course, I've been a Kings fan a lot longer that the Ducks have been in existence, so I had hoped it'd be the Kings who won the Cup first. They, unfortunately, failed to cooperate.

So, the Stanley Cup resides in the Honda Ponda in Anaheim.

Go! Ducks! Go!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

It's Easy to Be Stupid

When the Nanny State proclaims that its job is to protect everyone safe from everything; to make the country child-safe; to create a nerf-nation, it's very easy to be stupid. And many brain-challenged Americans becoming just that.

According to a story in the Costa Mesa, California Daily Pilot, a 19-year-old child (you can't call a fool who does something like this a man) shot himself through the thigh and foot while examining a pistol he was considering buying.

Now, there are a host of problems with this story, indicating stupidity, or perhaps dishonesty on the part of many individuals.

First, police said that "Sanchez was looking at the pistol when it discharged...." Well, folks, pistols never just "discharge" when someone just looks at one. Never. Everyone with a brain knows that the first thing you do when you pick up a gun is: keeping it pointed in a safe direction, open it up and check to see if there are any cartridges inside. If so, unload the weapon immediately before doing any further examination. And never, ever point it at anyone or anything you don't plan to shoot.

Second, according to California law, handguns cannot legally be sold from person to person. I, of course, strongly disagree with this law as both an infringement 'pon individual rights and as a violation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.....but, it is the law. Handguns must be sold through a licensed gun dealer, who must verify that the buyer is a legal buyer, and who must do the song and dance of pretending to do a background check, making certain of the identity of both the buyer and the seller and doing a safety examination of the buyer (to make sure he knows how to use the weapon).

Third, the story states that the owner of the pistol is unknown. If the above hazing had been accomplished on the owner of the weapon, any police officer should be able to determine the owner of the weapon after about thirty seconds of tapping on his car's computer.

And finally, there's the fact that no charges were filed by the police. Well, no charges should've been filed. California laws that seem to apply on this matter are clearly unConstitutional, as are the federal laws. Sanchez ought to have to pay for his medical costs and the costs of the police response in full, as well as for any damage he caused to the home in which he committed his careless acts.

I haven't yet mentioned that, according to the news story, all this occurred at a party. Most adult parties include the drinking of adult beverages, and there's no mention of whether Sanchez had been partaking, or to what extent. That likelihood would add a whole new level to the foolishness that occurred.

Children should be taught firearm handling and safety by their parents and in their schools from the time they begin to be capable of taking serious instruction. Had this Sanchez fellow been given such instruction, this event would never have happened.

State and federal law seems to be designed not to preserve and protect individual rights, but rather to protect idiots like this Sanchez kid from his own stupidity--to protect us all from ourselves.

It will not work. But it will destroy our liberty.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

FCC: Protecting Our Ears From Evil Words

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, in a divided decision, said that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was "arbitrary and capricious" in setting a new standard for defining indecency." Says a Reuters story, sending the recent "arbitrary and capricious" standards for defining decency back to the unConstitutional Federal Communications Commission for clarification.

Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin angrily retorted that he found it "hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'shit' and 'fuck' are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience."

"If we can't restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want," Martin said in a statement.

Oh, my!! Wouldn't that be awful. People could say anything they want! We certainly can't have that!

I think I'm gonna be sick!

Hollywood says a lot of obscene things already, many of which have nary an "obscene" word within. The obscenity of most of their theses and philosophical/political comments are only exceeded by their internal stupidity.

That's ok;. Each and every one of us has a brain containing the potential for rational thought and critical analysis. Every tv set has an off switch and a channel selector.

Where the evil lies, and where the FCC becomes an immorally coercive organization, is in the fact that the US Constitution makes no allowance for government regulation of speech and expression, and the First Amendment to the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, specifically forbids it.

The FCC is a rogue department of a vastly overinflated federal government. All government officials who advocate its continuance and/or don't act to eliminate this assault on free speech are in violation of their oaths of office and should be removed from office and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Colonel Hogan
Stalag California

Hillary Explicitly Endorses Marxism

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

According to an AP story, widely reported on much of the alternative media, "We are all in it together" says the evil Mrs William Jefferson Clinton. I didn't see the accompanying photos, but I'm sure she had shackles and chains at the ready to enforce her edict.

Instead of an "On your own society," the Gorgon who would be President quipped, we should promote a "We're all in it together society."

There is only one way this can be translated, and such a society has ultimately had the same result every time it's been tried: First, eat the rich. Then, the starvation sets in. Then, kill the (scapegoats) dissenters as enemies of the revolution.

It's the beginning of the next phase of the federal government's War on Productivity.

Well, you might say, it won't be that bad. It probably won't, but only because America has enough riches that they won't be exhausted in the elitist twit's two-four year terms. After all, President after President since the time of the disgusting Abe Lincoln have been trying to bleed America's riches, and we're still pretty well off.

How long will we last? Until Atlas shrugs.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Remembering Sara

Another Memorial Day, and along with the thoughts toward those military men and women who have died in the various wars in which the United States have been involved, I always remember my own military experience. Mine was a generally easy enlistment, but there were several very tense days.

I was an engineman aboard the USS Saratoga. Part of my job was to run and maintain the compressors that supplied compressed air throughout the ship for various purposes, perhaps the most important of which was to return the catapults to their set positions after the launch of a plane, in preparation for the launch of the next one.

At general quarters, my job was to feed a foam machine for fire retardation. Usually that meant a plane crash on the flight deck. It happened once during the time I was there. Six men lost, five planes.

That was another story, one about which the Navy never really saw fit to fully inform those of use who worked below decks. I only saw the scorched and twisted metal that used to be airplanes, after the fire was out and the men were in sick bay or.....

Back to the current story, we left our berth at Mayport on what was (to most of us) just a routine cruise through the Caribbean. Some flight ops and a chance to buy tax-free smokes. The Cuba situation was in the news, but it wasn't mentioned as we returned from liberty and found out we were steaming in the morning.

It turns out, we learned later, that we were to be involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We noticed the difference almost immediately. No sooner were we out of sight of land that the drills started. Fire drills and general quarters. one after another, sometimes three or four a day--or night, more likely. This in addition to your regular job and your watch duty.

There was no news, of course. We couldn't have distracted sailors, could we? But there were rumors. There could be a nuclear attack on the US from Cuba at any moment. USSR was setting up missile launch sites, and they were shipping in more missiles.

We were there to see that no more USSR ships reached Cuba, the President was to negotiate the removal of those already there.

Fortunately, USSR blinked first, and after a couple of weeks of tension and continual general quarters drills, we returned to routine sailing and made our way to Guantanamo for a couple of days of refueling, and a spot of liberty within the confines of the Gitmo base. Drinking happened.

We spent some more time steaming around the Carib, and finally returned to Mayport.

I never heard if there was a medal for that little skirmish, and certainly nobody gave me one. I wasn't really into medals as my enlistment neared its end, I just bought an old car for the drive home, and left when they handed me my DD214.

I think about it mainly on days like Memorial Day and Veterans' Day. A lot of guys had it worse than I did, and that continues to this day. I take this time to remember them, as best I can, never having looked into the eyes of an enemy soldier.

Like it or not, agree or not, there is a little difference in the way one looks at it, if he was there.

If the United States were free, like in times past, it'd seem more worth it, maybe.

Winning on the battlefield, losing in the Capitol.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

April Showers Bring May Blizzards

As Congress' Bimbo of the House and first-tier algorean San Fran Nan Pelosi flies to Iceland, Germany and Belgium with her rock-star entourage of socialist Democrat cronies and one token spineless Republican, in her brand spanking new Air Force Three (leaving a trail of prime lignite carbon across the skies over the Atlantic, we're all waiting on pins and needles, in our parkas and Hudson's Bay coats, for global warming to begin. Reportedly, she is no longer wearing the head scarf she wore on her trip to Syria recently.

As shown in this news story, the group plans to meet with "scientists" of the socialist variety to find ways to further enslave their countries' people with anti-technology propaganda that's somehow related to the presumption that the temperature of the Earth has gone up a degree or so in the past century--most of it prior to the our ability to measure such things accurately.

After all, if we'd never developed this degree of technological advancement, we wouldn't have the means to know we're doomed.

One might note that the Congressfools did not put Bismarck, North Dakota on their travel agenda. According to another news story from KFYR-TV in Bismarck, some two hundred miles from my home town, there's been a significant snowfall. Residents woke up on May 26th to a winter wonderland of heavy, wet snow causing tree branches to break and fall on houses and cars. Bismarck authorities haven't yet declared a state of emergency, nor has FEMA been called.
Looks like the kids put their sleds and skis away a little too soon.

Fiddling while Washington burns.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Visit to the Bookstore

This afternoon the Hollywood Freeway, US 101 through Hollywood, had a Sigalert. A sigalert is an unplanned lane closure on a California freeway that lasts more than thirty minutes. They're usually caused by a serious collision of a nature that take some time to clean up. As I was driving home from a little Saturday overtime work, I heard the announcement that two southbound and one northbound lanes were closed because of "police activity." I've heard no further explanation so far. I suspect there was a Dunkin' Donut truck spill. They've been known to keep the California Highway Patrol tied up for hours.

Since I knew that would probably mean at least an extra half-hour of excruciatingly slow driving, I opted to take the I-5 freeway up to the valley instead. It's an extra three or four miles, but that distance at 60mph is better than the shorter distance at five mph.

As I kroozed past the huge and lovely Griffith Park, I recalled that I'd been putting off a trip to Barnes & Noble to shop for a copy of Newt Gingrich & William Forstchen's new historical novel, Pearl Harbor, and S.M. Stirling's alternate history novel, A Meeting at Corvallis.

I drove to the Burbank Shopping Center.

The first thing I saw at the "New Arrivals" case just inside the door of the Burbank B&N curdled the contents of my stomach and the first thirty-two feet of my small intestine. Six rows of books showing a plain white dust cover 'pon which were printed, in plain New Times Roman, the words "The Assault on Reason." Not terribly threatening, one might observe, written perhaps by Robert Bidinotto or Leonard Peikoff. But, No! Below the title of the book, was the name of the alleged author: Al Gore.

Now, boys and girls, if there is anyone on planet Earth that should be disallowed from using the word reason, that person would be Algore. Not only does Algore never use his ability to reason, limited as it appears to be, but he doesn't understand the meaning of the concept at all! I ran screaming from the store.

In my head.

What the people around me in the B&N store saw was a mere rustle in the front of my shirt, partly concealing the turning of my stomach, as I immediately began searching for the bathroom for a safe place to deposit the contents thereof.

The left have already coopted the words liberal and progressive to mean their direct opposites. Now, what are they going to do with the word reason?

I quickly bought the books I came for and hurried home, to try to forget.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Modest Proposal

Mexico is a very wonderful, beautiful and resources-rich country of about 110 million population. It has one of the more corrupt governments in this hemisphere, which manages to keep almost all of its people poor, and without much hope for self-improvement within the country's legal system (such as it is).

The only hope for a reasonably comfortable life for many Mexicans is to go north, to one of the United States, in hopes of finding menial, though somewhat steady, work at several times the salary they can earn in their home country. Estimates are that around 12 million illegal aliens, mostly Mexicans, have entered California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in the past twenty-five years. Many have moved north and east to other states, and and can be found anywhere.

Working. Doing menial and lower-paid jobs that most Americans, used to the quasi-benefits of the US welfare state, will not deign to accept.

Accurate estimates are difficult, because of the illegal nature of their entry. Many of them work "off book" and few records exist on their histories and whereabouts. Also, many "compassionate" civil agencies, in accordance with their employees' quest to actually do less and less work, take care not to learn whether a particular Hispanic-looking individual is here legally.

Because most of these individuals are leading a sort of "black market" existence, it follows that they pay relatively little in taxes, compared to their legally employed neighbors. They pay sales tax, of course, when they make retail purchases, and vice taxes for cigarettes and liquor, and they pay assorted other taxes that exist as part of retail purchases. They often don't pay income taxes, payroll taxes nor property taxes.

This becomes problematic for money-hungry bureaucrats as they realize that some of these people have families here, with children, all availing themselves of public education, emergency medical care and the many subsidized services that are covered by public funds.

Estimates are that each illegal alien in any of the United States receives as much as $20 thousand more each year in public services than he pays in taxes.

America's federal politicians, not to mention a large minority of state and local office holders, seem to want to ignore these losses out of "compassion" which in Political Speak equals votes.

My proposal is as follows:

Since the approximate number of Mexican who reside and work in the various United States is approximately 12 million, or roughly a tenth of the entire population of Mexico, I propose that the federal government annex approximately a tenth of the physical area of Mexico, as territory of the United States, to perhaps become one or more States of the United States.

For reasons both practical and humanitarian, I propose that the federal government allow current residents to stay or leave, at their own convenience and pleasure. I further propose that private property owners retain title to their property, to keep or sell. Public property within the territory should be sold by the US federal government to the highest bidder, the money used to pay down the government's debts. Development of these lands will stimulate America's economy very nicely.

I propose that the lands selected be Mexican states bordering along the edge of US States, for example, the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, which are south of California, along with Tamaulipas, which is south of Texas, are equal to just over a tenth of the just over a tenth of the area of Mexico.

If Mexican citizens continue to enter the various United States illegally, the federal government could then select other bordering Mexican states to help offset the costs of transitioning those individuals and families into our way of life.

It seems like it'd be good for both the United States and Mexico, since American entrepreneurs are constantly looking for investments, and since Mexico seems to have difficulty controlling various parts of its territory. It will ease the financial and societal burdens incurred by the transition of these individuals and families into our society. Conversely, it'll ease the burdens on the government of Mexico.

It seems like a win-win transaction!

Warm regards,

Jonny Quick, Guest Blogger.

Planes, Trains, Guns and Automobiles

I've long known that the real, deep down reason why collectivists hate technology is that they hate life. They hate our increasing success at life. They hate our love of life. They will expend any effort to sabotage that which we, each of whom is successful at enjoying his life, his efforts to enjoy it and the products thereof.

It's difficult to examine the motivations behind the destructive efforts of collectivists in a short article, and their reasons. There is a short answer: Envy. Collectivists envy the happiness of the independent individual and, unable or unwilling to ask and answer the questions necessary to achieve any degree of happiness, their only consolation lies in attempts to destroy the happiness of others.

This is the source of government regulation of business and industry. It's the source of blue laws, vice laws and other "victimless crimes." It's the reason for movies, novels and stories that cast achievers as villains and industrialists as predators. Today, it's the source of this "global warming" foolishness. And, it's the source of the federal government's unjustifiable notion that we are to be the world's policeman.

Ayn Rand writes to expose collectivists as the saboteurs of human happiness, as do L Neil Smith, Robert A Heinlein and a host of others.

Today, I'm trying to catch up on my subscription to The New Individualist. I'm reading the Soliloquy column, by Robert Bidinotto, which is entitled, "Cheerleaders for American Defeat." Now, I'm not a fan of the war, if one can properly call it a war, in Iraq. 'Twas the evil al queda who were behind the attack 'pon America's most recognizable trade and military buildings, and it should be al queda against whom our military efforts ought to be directed.

In spite of denials, I think attacking Iraq was an unnecessary sidetrack; a personal, and not-very-well-thought-out vendetta on the part of the President. He has often said that the "War on Terror" will not be won quickly nor easily. It's my opinion that his actions are designed to make sure of that.

But, I digress.

My opinion of the war doesn't excuse Bidinotto's "cheerleaders." His point is that the only kind of war in which the US ought be involved is of the altruistic variety--in which there is no national interest to the United States, and in which some third world dictatorship hopes to extract more money from the productive members of the United States by creating a crisis only we (the world's policeman) can solve.

Another aspect that Mr Bidinotto points out is that "manifestations of self-assertion and self-interest--guns, the automobile, space exploration, big businessmen, material luxuries, economic profits, cities, the capitalist system itself--are so widely damned" by the left. As the tools for, and products of our productivity, they're detested by the world's parasites because we've worked for them and we've earned them--which they're unwilling or unable to do.

That's why I smile when I see a Rolls or a Bentley cruising along the road. It's nice to know such things are possible, and that they could be possible for me!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Dumb Blue Line

A little more about the May Day rally at MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles. Now that Chief Bratton has had a chance to put his foot in his mouth a number of times and events have begun to sort themselves out, we learn that things are even worse than we thought.

LAPD has a fifty-year (and more) reputation for wearing out nightsticks 'pon citizens' heads. Back in the early 1970's, I knew a CHP officer who transferred from LA to San Diego, because he didn't like having to work with LAPD. This all goes back a long time so, you'll pardon me if yet another pledge to put officers through further training leaves me unimpressed.

According to a story in today's LA Times, the police made just about every mistake in the MacArthur Park incident, that could be made.

• Instead of isolating the agitators and dealing with them away from the demonstrators, LAPD pushed them into the larger crowd, thus bringing innocents into the fray.
• LAPD failed to set up an area in which the media could operate. Instead, they herded the reporters and cameramen along with the protesters, injuring a few.
• There was an LAPD speaker truck nearby. It wasn't used. Instead, the orders to disburse were given from helicopters. The bad news: the helicopters were too far away and too high in elevation. Few people heard them.
• Metro Division reinforcements were untrained in crowd control.
• Commands to the public were given only in English, despite the predominately Hispanic crowd.
• Supervisors were too far away from the skirmish line, leaving untrained officers on their own.

Every time one of these things happen, the current Chief vows to set up a new training program or a touchy-feely campaign of some sort--and it works until some cop beats the crap out of a drunk or a car thief (who probably deserves it) with his two-foot-long cast-iron flashlight.

To truly solve this we, as individuals or voluntarily-formed neighborhood groups should hire our own patrol organizations, and be given relief from local taxes to pay for these patrols. Thus, entities can choose patrol organizations from among those available on the free market. The city should do away from all impediments to individuals right to self defense.

Meanwhile, it'd help if police can be weaned from their us-versus-them attitude and return to a form of community patrolling in which police actually know the neighborhoods they patrol and some of the people who live in them. It'd help (and it's the law) if police observed due process and the US Bill of Rights to the letter. It'd help if municipalities would ban lying and secret-keeping by their elected officials and civil servants on pain of firing-in-disgrace and complete loss of pay and benefits.

Turning the police into paramilitary organizations is not helpful.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Long Live the King!

Today, Nicolas Sarcozy was elected President of France, defeating Socialist Segolene Royal by a wide margin. Story here. "You can count of France as a friend," Sarcozy said to America during his victory speech.

I find that comforting.














One thing I noticed: the defeated Mme Royal bears a uncanny resemblance to a certain American socialist: Ms Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, what one might consider a very leftist-oriented political magazine, and the woman for whom the famous New Orleans Hurricane was named.

I wonder if they're actually both the same person....

France's loss is the world's gain.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag Califorina

El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles Returns For a Brief Visit....

....During his self-directed, taxpayer-paid world tour. Seems, while he was gone, his paramilitary police agency roughed up some demonstrators and a few news reporters and camera operators. Story here.

Seems that Senor Antonio Vinaigrette was interrupted during his visit with El Presidente de Mexico, to come back to LA and be alcalde for a couple of days. What a pain. El Alcalde is not happy.

Seems what had all day been a peaceful demonstration at LA's MacArthur Park (according to news reports), turned into a melee when a few dozen leftist professional agitators began attacking the police with rocks and frozen water bottles. The police called for assistance, then decided to end the event.

I, of course, wasn't there. My tastes don't run toward purposeless protests. I'm having to go by msm news reports and talk radio/tv; tenuous at best. My first though was that, since these agitators were wearing ski masks and the police were aware of their purpose, why didn't they flank them and direct them away from the main demonstration? Isolated, the agitators would be powerless.

Instead, the agitators were allowed to melt into the main demonstration. The police reinforcements, many of whom were cementheads from the LA SWAT detail, joined in to move the demonstrators out of MacArthur Park.

Somewhere in the melee, the police forgot that most of the demonstrators were peacefully advocating immigration reform. Most of them were Latin American immigrants, some illegal, and some were sympathetic Americans. The police started forcefully pushing everyone along, in front of their skirmish line.

According to video recordings of the events, the police used beanbag guns and rubber bullets liberally, and attacked stragglers with nightsticks. Many peaceful demonstrators were injured simply because they didn't move fast enough. Some news reporters and cameramen were attacked, not having moved out thinking they were within their job description to record the proceedings. Several witnesses indicated that they had not heard the police orders to disburse, and were simply caught up in the violence by surprise.

In the end, the professional agitators got what they wanted: a lot of footage of swinging truncheons and police in riot gear firing (beanbag) shotguns into the crowd. The LA police made enemies of the local news people, and generally made themselves look really bad. There will be lawsuits and settlements.

LAPD Chief Bratton, the hired gun from NYC and Philly who was brought in to reform the department, then limited by el Alcalde in a host of politically correct ways, said the police tactics appeared troubling. Among other things, Chief Bratton has been ordered not to ask an arrestee's citizenship--even if he's suspected of a felony. One wonders how a handcuffed police chief might be able to effect any meaningful reform. It's to be expected, though, under an alcalde who is a member of M.E.Ch.A. , an organization dedicated to returning the entire American Southwest to Mexico. Los Angeles law enforcement will be skewed to favor criminals and criminal gangs for as long as this is the case.

In the end, only a few were injured in the altercation, none severely. There was only one arrest.

But, el Alcalde's world tour was interrupted. Heads will roll.

There'll be investigations and inquiries.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addendum: May 7, 2007

According to the LA Times, Alcalde Antonio Vinaigrette visited MacArthur Park yesterday and addressed those present, saying that MacArthur Park is a safe place to play or march in safety. He visited with those present while cameras were clicking.

One might have even thought El Alcalde wer sincere, had he not remained surrounded by his posse, which included armed police officers, through the entire photo op.

A Lesson Not Learned

On April 12th, Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey was in a motorcade, kroozin' with his lavishly-paid posse, along the Garden State Parkway, on his way to a photo op involving the Don Imus Apology Tour and the Rutgers University Women's Baxabaw team. Apparently, he was running late, as his motorcade was travelling at 91 mph when a man in a pickup unknowingly caused a collision in which the Governor, having eschewed the use of a seat belt, was critically injured. He feels our pain.

Today, after having spent hundreds of thousands of New Jersey taxpayer dollars putting his mangy butt back together, he has been released from the hospital, according to this NY Times story. His minions have spent many thousands more revising the Governor's mansion and his vehicles to suit his wheelchair-bound carcass while he finishes healing and rehabbing.

During a ridiculously self-serving, carefully orchestrated ceremony at the entrance to the hospital, Corzine apologized for all the traffic laws broken by himself and his staff, and for the poor example exhibited. There's been no word regarding citations issued.

Afterwards, he and his posse formed another motorcade and drove back to the Governor's mansion at 70mph (on the 55-65mph Parkway). Looks like the Governor hasn't yet internalized lessons learned.

And, it looks like traffic laws are just for us schlubs.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,
Col. Hogan

Of Roads and Highways

Construction is my life. I work in the quality assurance/quality control area. My current job is to test and evaluate soils and materials used in soil grading operations, foundation engineering and road and parking lot construction. At various times in the past, I've done field inspection and testing of these soils, as well as asphalt pavements and concrete structures in highway construction and flood control projects.

I've worked for CalTrans, the Orange County (Calif) Road Department, The US Army Corps of Engineers, and five different private construction quality control firms. I also worked for a couple of private land surveyors in my youth--when we used manual levels, transits and chains.

My background includes parts of Interstate 5 in the mountains north of Los Angeles, Interstate 405 in the Irvine Ranch area, a major subdivision survey in Riverside County that resulted in the bedroom community of Moreno Valley, a survey of the Orange County Line from the ocean at Seal Beach, through the mountains and finishing at the ocean just south of San Clemente. My work aided in the construction of numerous housing subdivisions, business parks and condo/apartment projects in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles Counties. I did quality assurance and field inspection on two large flood control projects, one in Riverside County and the other in San Bernardino. I did the same thing on the Santa Ana River rebuild in Orange County and the Seven Oaks Dam, in the San Bernardino Mountains.

This might seem like a sort of resume, except that I'm a lot closer to retirement than I am to seeking another job. Unless someone makes me an offer I can't refuse, I'll probably retire from my current position.

I've contemplated retirement a lot lately, and have very mixed thoughts. On the one hand, I can do some other things for which I haven't really had enough time while working full time. On the other, how can I quit work that I very much enjoy doing?

I suppose there's a connection: I also love to drive. I can spend hours cruising the streets of the Valley, Los Angeles, and Orange County. I also like driving the freeways, though I do get impatient if traffic is too slow, too long. It takes me forty minutes to get to or from work normally, but it has taken me as much as three hours on a couple of occasions. I hate it when that happens.

Last fall, Debbie and I went to Las Vegas for the Liberty Magazine Editor's Conference. Eschewing the airlines (I won't allow low-level federal parasites inspecting my nether areas), and AmTrak (most of whose trip is actually on a bloody bus, even though there's a perfectly good rail track right to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Aside: one can only marvel at the short-sightedness of AmTrak, not to have rail service between LA and Las Vegas.

I drove. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We left LA at midnight. There is absolutely nothing like driving through the Southern California desert in the wee hours on a cool autumn night. Almost no one on the highway but eighteen-wheelers. The drive was almost as much fun for me, as the time we spent in Las Vegas!

I also enjoy driving 'pon roads that I helped build. I did quality control testing on many of the arterial boulevards criss-crossing the hills of southern Orange County. There was very little there, back in the early 1970's when we built these roads. Orange groves. Thirty-odd years later, they are still in very good shape.

Why am I blathering on about my own checkered past? Well, because I want to, and it's my blog. I hope it'll prove interesting to some few of you. I'll soon return to being my nasty, hypercritical, cynical self.

Patience.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Enough Guns -- Four Tales With "Happier" Endings

I remember these stories from when they were originally reported, having been prompted by the following.

It took place at a university in Virginia. A student with a grudge, an immigrant, pulled a gun and went on a shooting spree. It wasn’t Virginia Tech at all. It was the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, not far away. You can easily drive from the one school to the other, just take a trip down Route 460 through Tazewell.

It was January 16, 2002 when Peter Odighizuwa came to campus. He had been suspended due to failing grades. Odighizuwa was angry and waving a gun calling on students to “come get me”. The students, seeing the gun, ran. A shooting spree started almost immediately. In seconds Odighizuwa had killed the school dean, a professor and one student. Three other students were shot as well, one in the chest, one in the stomach and one in the throat.

Many students heard the shots. Two who did were Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges. Mikael was outside the school having just returned to campus from lunch when he heard the shots. Tracy was inside attending class. Both immediately ran to their cars. Each had a handgun locked in the vehicle.

Bridges pulled a .357 Magnum pistol and he later said he was prepared to shoot to kill if necessary. He and Gross both approached Odighizuwa at the same time from different directions. Both were pointing their weapons at him. Bridges yelled for Odighizuwa to drop his weapon. When the shooter realized they had the drop on him he threw his weapon down. A third student, unarmed, Ted Besen, approached the killer and was physically attacked.

But Odighizuwa was now disarmed. The three students were able to restrain him and held him for the police. Odighizuwa is now in prison for the murders he committed. His killing spree ended when he faced two students with weapons. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

You wouldn’t know much about that though. Do you wonder why? The media, though it widely reported the attack left out the fact that Bridges and Gross were armed. Most simply reported that the gunman was jumped and subdued by other students. That two of those students were now armed didn’t get a mention.

James Eaves-Johnson wrote about this fact one week later in The Daily Iowan. He wrote: “A Lexus-Nexis search revealed 88 stories on the topic, of which only two mentioned that either Bridges or Gross was armed.” This 2002 article noted “This was a very public shooting with a lot of media coverage.” But the media left out information showing how two students with firearms ended the killing spree.

He also mentioned a second incident. And while I had read many articles on this shooting for an article I wrote about school bullying not a single one mentioned the role that a firearm played in stopping it. Until today I didn’t know the full story.

Luke Woodham was a troubled teen. He felt no one really liked him. In 1997 he murdered his mother and put on a trench coat. He filled the pockets with ammunition and took a handgun to the Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi. In rapid succession killed two students and wounded seven others.

He had the incident planned out. He would start shooting students and continue until he heard police sirens in the distance. That would allow him time to get in his car and leave campus. From there he intended to go to the nearby Pearl Junior High School and start shooting again. How it would end was not clear. Perhaps he would kill himself or perhaps the police would finally catch up with him and kill him. Either way a lot more people were going to get shot and die.

What Woodham hadn’t planned for was the actions of Assistant Principal Joel Myrick. Myrick heard the gun shots. He couldn’t have a handgun in the school. But he did keep one locked in his vehicle in the parking lot. He ran outside and retrieved the gun.

As Myrick headed back toward the school Woodham was in his vehicle headed for his next intended target. Myrick aimed his gun at the shooter. The teen crashed his car when he saw the gun. Myrick approached the car and held a gun to the killer who surrendered immediately. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

So you didn’t know about that. Neither did I until today. Eaves-Johnson wrote that there were “687 articles on the school shooting in Pearl, Miss. Of those, only 19 mentioned that” Myrick had used a gun to stop Woodham “four-and-a-half minutes before police arrived.”

Many people probably forgot about the shooting in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. It was a school graduation dance that Andrew Wurst entered to take out his anger on the school. First he shot teacher John Gillette outside. He started shooting randomly inside the restaurant where the 240 students had gathered.

It was restaurant owner James Strand, armed with a shot gun, who captured the shooter and held him for police. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

It was February 12th of this year that a young man entered the Trolley Square Shopping Mall, in Salt Lake City. The mall was a self-declared “gun free zone” forbidding patrons from carrying weapons. He wasn’t worried. In fact he appreciated knowing that his victims couldn’t defend themselves.

He opened fire even before he got inside killing his first victims immediately outside the front door. As he walked down the mall hallway he fired in all directions. Several more people were shot inside a card store immediately inside the mall. The shooter moved on to the Pottery Barns Kids store.

What he didn’t know is that one patron of the mall, Kenneth Hammond, had ignored the signs informing patrons they must be unarmed to enter. He was a police officer but he was not on duty and he was not a police officer for Salt Lake City. By all standards he was a civilian that day and probably should have left his firearm in his vehicle.

It’s a good thing he didn’t. He was sitting in the mall with his wife having dinner when he heard the shots. He told her to hide and to call 911 emergency services. He went to confront the gunman. The killer found himself under gun fire much sooner than he anticipated. From this point on all his effort was to protect himself from Hammond, he had no time to kill anyone else. Hammond was able to pin down the shooter until police finally arrived and one of them shot the man to death. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

In each of these cases a killer is stopped the moment he faces armed resistance. It is clear that in three of these cases the shooter intended to continue his killing spree. In the fourth case, Andrew Wurst, it is not immediately apparent whether he intended to keep shooting or not since he was apprehended by the restaurant owner leaving the scene.

Three of these cases involved armed resistance by students, faculty or civilians. In one case the armed resistance was from an off-duty police officer in a city where he had no legal authority and where he was carrying his weapon in violation of the mall’s gun free policy.

What would have happened if these people waited for the police? In three cases the shooters were apprehended before the police arrived because of armed civilians. At Trolley Square the shooter was kept busy by Hammond until the police arrived. In all four cases the local police were the Johnny-come-latelys.

Consider the horrific events at Virginia Tech. Again an armed man enters a “gun free zone”. He kills two victims and walks away long before the police arrive. He spends two hours on campus, doing what is unknown. He then enters another building on campus and begins shooting. He never encounters a police officer during this. And all the students and faculty present had apparently complied with the “no gun” policy of the university. So no one stopped him. NO ONE STOPPED HIM! And when he finished his shooting spree 32 people were dead. It was the killer who ended the spree. He took his own life and when the police arrived all they dealt with were the dead.

I recall these stories in the news when they happened. I recall that when the national msm reported them, they omitted mention of the fact that guns were involved in the ending of the crisis. The reason I learned that , for example, Messrs Gross, Bridges, Myrick, and the others used privately-owned firearms to stop the thugs, was that I learned it later from either cable news or the internet. These sources make the local news stories available and don't depend on the editing skills of the New York Times and the AP, et al.

I'm not sure about the origins of the above report,and I don't personally recall the Pearl, Mississippi story but, in my recollection, the rest of the article is essentially correct. Also, there are several comments about it on RKBA sites.

A tip of the battered grey fedora to The Wine Commonsewer for the heads-up.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California