A Rare, Very Expensive, Yet Legal Addiction

I was sixteen. I had a new 1960 Corvair coupe. My first new car! It was the first year of production for the new major American compacts, and I was the only teenager in town who had one. Cool!

An acquaintance of mine, a senior named Wes Rydell, always had a new Impala (his dad owned Rydell Chevrolet, the local dealer), but he was on the football team too, so we ran in different circles.

Back then, teenagers used cars mostly for two things: dating and racing. We did some street racing on the little used secondary roads outside of town. We did some hare-and-hound chasing in town at night: the rubes from the new SAC base were dating local girls and, see, we didn't like that. Three or four guys in the car, we'd shine headlights on a parked car (with an out-of-state plate) until he moved. We'd follow. He'd try to shake us. We'd chase him around for a while.

I wanted to legitimately race my new car and find out what I could do against a clock. Now, a 1960 Corvair wasn't exactly a race car. It was small and light; a pretty good handler, (Ralph Nader was a damned liar!) but underpowered. It could scoot down the twisties with the best (of the cars available to most teenagers), but was a very slow dog on the strip. I wanted to try it anyway.

The nearest drag strip was in Fargo. They had Run-What-You-Brung races once a month on Saturdays. As I recall, it cost about a buck to race. Drivers of stock cars didn't have to have helmets or roll bars; just seat belts. A couple of friends and I drove down to Fargo early one Saturday morning.

The car clocked 68 mph in 20 seconds in the standing quarter-mile. Not very impressive compared to the V-8 Chevies and Fords, but it was fun, and I got to drive a real race track!

I've been a casual NHRA drag race fan for all these years, though my interest increased after I moved to Sunny SoCal after my stint in the Navy. California hadn't yet sunk to Stalag status, and was truly a wonderful place to live and work, smog and traffic notwithstanding. I'd gladly trade California's War on Productivity for a little smog anytime!

After all, you can't trust any air you can't see.

Back to the point, I watched and followed drag racing for years, never having actually gone to a race. I'd read about it in magazines and see results in the newspaper, and occasionally see coverage on TV. In the late 1960's, top fuel dragsters finally were able to accelerate to over 200 mph in the quarter mile, and today, they routinely surpass 300mph. I can only imagine what it must be like to run a car from a standing start to over 300 in a quarter mile! In well under five seconds!

One year, fairly recently, I finally went to the Pomona Drags. The nitro fuel cars are outrageously loud, and with that comes the addiction: once you've inhaled the exhaust from a fuel dragster, you're hooked. I can't usually get up to Pomona every time there's a race, but I usually catch the coverage on TV.

The Pomona Spring Nationals were last weekend, and I missed 'em (drat!), but there's the Phoenix race next weekend! Now, if they could find a way to bottle that nitrous aroma......

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

What Sci-Fi Space Ship Would Suit You?

The other day, Ice Scribe at My Gorram Den put me onto a quiz that's a bit o'fun. You can check it out at Quiz Farm.

Turns out that I'd be most comfortable aboard Moya (from Farscape) or, close behind, The Millennium Falcon (Star Wars). Having seen just a few episodes of Farscape, well, I liked it but it was filled with some certifiable bizzaros. I might fit right in!

I do like the Millennium Falcon, not only in the movies while Han Solo was at the helm, but in the L Neil Smith adventures while Lando Calrissian owned the ship.

So, take the quiz, if this sort of thing appeals to you. It's starting to look like freedom lies only in escape!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Yet Another Tale of a Legal System Gone Mad

The list is long.

I, and many others are illustrating the insanity of the so-called "War on Drugs," more accurately dubbed by those of clearer vision, The War on the Bill of Rights. An easier job many of us will never have.

In this instance, it involved a young student, an inmate of a Chicago-area suburban school. The unfortunate lad was bringing a quantity of powdered sugar to school in a baggie for a science project. He showed it to a fellow inmate, unfortunately in the presence of a guard, er, that is, a custodian. When the other student asked if it was cocaine, our unidentified victim jokes that it was. The custodian, of course, reported this.

Bottom line: the lad has been charged with a felony! He was (you're gonna love this! Put some plastic over your keyboard, lest you spray it with a mouthful of coffee.) charged with possessing a look-alike drug!!!!! It's not such a big deal, he's already incarcerated in the government school system, but it'll go on his Permanent Record!

Is any more proof needed to show that America's legal system (not to even get into the supposed education system) is broken? Has been murdered by the attornies? Nope.

Thanks again to The Agitator for pointing out this story from CBS Channel 2 News in Chicago.

Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that I trust or believe any story reported by CBS or any other Manistream News organization. Please check this out with more reliable sources prior to full acceptance as truth.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Unshaved Beach Babes in Burkas

I'm in somewhat of a quandary about this ongoing islam funny-mentalist thing. As a not-always-willing member of the United States Republic cum police state, I realize that the American Way of Life has been and is continuing to be attacked by utterly irrational forces of the savage philosopy that seems to travel with this very christian-like religion. I'm not at all tempted to support our government's utterly incompetent attempts to protect us from these attacks. The President's "plan" to deal with these attacks completely dismisses the public at large, casting us as ineffectual victims who lie cowering in the corners of our bedrooms while the US military does the dirty work for us. Somewhere else.

What the Administration forgets is that the miltary is drawn from the very cowering masses that he so cavalierly dismisses. We can and should help. Our way of life depends on it.

Again, I'm not necessarily talking about a town militia, although some localities may opt for that, I'm suggesting that everyone is responsible for his own property. I'm suggesting that each owner of real property should be responsible for what happens on that property. For example, if those who were responsible for the aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (and the one that crashed in Pennsylvania) had been doing their jobs, the incident wouldn't have happened. I realize that the drones at the federal government have usurped many of the airlines' prerogatives with respect to security, but the airlines should have refused to allow it, on pain of refusing to operate.

Property owners must be able to control security on their property. As I see it, since the federal government took responsibility for airline security, the individuals who made the relevant decisions are personally responsible for the damages.

Every individual property owner should be prepared to defend his holdings from tresspassers, should be armed and prepared to take tresspassers into custody, turn them over to the police, press charges and follow it through to a conviction. Or, he should employ security people who will.

If each individual took full responsibility for himself and his works, either by himself or by means of hiring experts to work for him, there wouldn't be a need to enter into "wars of choice" to strong-arm unprepared groups of savages into quasi-democratic submission.

The federal government has a severely limited mandate. Though it's overstepped its legal prerogatives routinely and criminally almost since the inception of the country, it's one job, in this context, is to protect the nation from foreign invaders. It is failing miserably at this, obviously regarding foreign adventure more important than its mandate.

My opinion is that the US federal government has far outlived its usefulness and should be "fired" for incompetence. It does far more harm than good.

Meanwhile, to reiterate, each individual is responsible for his own well-being in the context of a capitalist system. Individuals of good will may, and will cooperate in this regard. It's sheer folly to entrust our well-being to individuals whose sole ambition is to do as little as possible and retire early with a fat pension.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Brushfire of the Vanities

There's another in a long and continuing series of brush fires currently burning in the OC. Because these fires have absolutely no respect for city limits and county boundaries, (a sentiment with which I can fully sympathize) the fire could tresspass into the cities of Orange and Anaheim, and into Riverside County before it's brought under control.

The fire is burning in a questionably named "National Forest" after the late, lamented President Cleveland. I don't know whether President Cleveland has ever actually visited this rather poor excuse for a forest, because if he had, he might have declared that he'd rather attach his name to a forest that actually had trees within its boundaries, rather than acres and acres of scrub brush and poison oak. Note: I've just been informed that some parts of the Cleveland National Forest actually do have real trees!

Nonetheless, whenever some careless and unschooled twenty-something happens to drive his fully equipped and fully financed BMW along a freeway passing through or near this "forest," and throws his cigarette butt out of the car, we get a brush fire. Such is today's lamentable situation.

One might sigh, shrug and say, "Well, no one lost his home....and now there's no more fuel to burn." Not so, my northern or eastern friend. In the length of time it takes for our BMW-driving lout to finish another cigarette, the scrub has regrown, redried and is ready to burn anew. Even in the absence of rain!

Such is the case in which government owns land: they own it. They won't allow adjoining private landowners to improve it or to grade off firebreaks (mustn't annoy the wacko environmentalists, dear friends!), and they certainly won't take care of it themselves. That'd be work! (Heard in a Maynard G Crebbs falsetto, Work?)

So, for those misguided individuals who wish to live at the edge of Southern California civilization (such as it is), fire is a constant worry--all the time except during our rare rainstorms. Then, flash floods and landslides come to the forefront.

There's no reason why these "forests" can't be bulldozed off in favor of new housing except:

• Wacko environmentalists
• Extant property owners (wishing to keep their inflated property values high)
• Local government (hoping not to have the inadequacy of their infrastructure revealed)
• Federal government (desiring to keep control of.....just about everything)
• NIMBYs (detesting the noise and traffic of construction)
• Bigots (You never know who'll move in there)

I could digress into a discussion of how all this makes it more difficult for the working dude to buy a house--or even rent an apartment, but we've all read our Ludwig von Mises and Henry Hazlitt, haven't we? Politicians, bureaucrats and drones (but, I repeat myself) say they want to help the poor, but they absolutely, positively will not do what it takes.

Meanwhile, Cleveland National Scrub Brush Farm is still burning. Like two or three other areas of Sunny SoCal have within the past year. What a waste of time, money and real estate!

And any family earning less tha $50k cannot afford to buy a house in a nice neighborhood without crippling itself financially.

The solution: Government must sell off its land holdings--especially those which aren't used, maintained and watched. Especially those that are in proximity of urban areas.

These areas can be developed with the inclusion of full infrastructure and thereby increase the supply of affordable housing for the less affluent.

Oh, it might mean that all these nice OC homes might slide a bit in value, and I don't expect current homeowners to like it, but but we have a serious government-caused problem. It has to be fixed.

Ok, this started out as a post about a fire. It ended up being about prime real estate lying wasted in the hands of parasites who have no idea what they're doing. Meanwhile, they're trying at every opportunity to steal more. Go figure.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addendum: This morning, I've been hearing that the Sierra fire (they name them!) has burned about 7500 acres. The Forestry doofuses also have admitted that they started the fire! It was a planned "controlled burn" to form a fire break to make future fire fighting easier, should a real fire break out. I know, I'm confused, too. It theoretically is a legitimate tool, though, except that they forgot to put it out.

I rest my case: looks like civil drones can't even be trusted with matches.

Might as Well Face It, You're Addicted to Oil

Yesterday the President gave his State of the Union speech. You just can't listen to that guy speak; he's every bit as bad as Algore in that respect. Sounds like he thinks he's addressing second graders.

One of the subjects he addressed is one just about all of us consider from time to time: the cost and supply of the petroleum products we like to be able to use.

He said pretty much the same thing as did his predecessor. And his predecessor. We're addicted to oil; we have to conserve. Conserve? For whom? For when?

I'm waiting for some idiot politician to suggest that the Army's humvees and tanks need to get better gas mileage. That the Navy's ships be made of lighter materials for economy. That the Air Force's fighters and bombers burn cleaner fuel.

We who read science fiction and science fact, who attempt to visualize the future often muse about efficient cars and aircraft powered by mini nuke-paks and antigrav devices but we know they're pretty well off in the future. They're not something we can expect to see next month of next year.

Mr GWB spoke of alternative fuels, of hydrogen power and methane, of more nuclear power plants. All well and good, but so did WJC, ad nauseum and for eight solid years. It ain't happening, and I know why.

From about 1880 to 1930, give or take a little, everyone was an inventor, or an inverstor. Everyone whose life wasn't confined to the back of a horse had a little shop somewhere, and was puttering around trying to make something new that would "make him rich."

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." was an utterance that was still being heard from time to time in my youth. You rarely hear it anymore.

People were building bicycles, motorbikes, automobiles and airplanes. Others devised new power plants to drive boats and ships over the rivers, lakes and seas. Chemists were blending up new cures for the ills of the people. Appliances to lighten the housework burden of the housewife. Equipment to make farmers more productive, and to ease the labor and cut the time needed to construct buildings, roads, dams and bridges.

You don't hear about the new moustrap anymore. I wonder why.

During that period, there were no taxes to speak of. Government stayed out of people's businesss. Nobody told the high iron foreman that he had to build handicapped access to the sixtieth floor of the jobsite. If a laborer thought he needed a hardhat, he'd buy himself one. He had the money: there were no taxes withheld form his pay.

A man (or woman) did what he wanted and was prepared to accept the consequences, for good or ill.

Government didn't offer grants to pinhead college presidents to research cures for illnesses; research scientists fronted their own money and that of investors to do the research, some went broke, the successful ones got rich. They could afford to do this; there were no taxes. Either way, the medicine was discovered and put on the market. The consumer bought the medicine and was cured. They could afford to buy the medicine; there were no taxes.

Until we of the productive sector are able to get these civil parasites out of the way, there won't be any new energy panaceae. You want a new nuclear power plant? A minimum of five years before it can be built. Methane? They haven't yet been able to figure out how to get the collection bottles on the cows' asses.

In the here and now, there's a shortage of oil. Much of what oil we have comes from potentially or actually unstable sources--much of that instability attributable to the bungling of government. Then, to add insult to injury, they decree that no oil be extracted from vast areas of US territory.....and if that isn't enough, they tax it!!!

All this before we've discovered and made available alternative fuels!

Is there any question these fools need to be removed from office (physically and even brutally) and left to languish in the prisons they built for dope smokers.

Here's what needs to happen. Ayn Rand once stated that there has to be a separation of economics and state. That's what needs to happen. Taxes have to be eliminated. What government can't do on a fee for service basis, or on voluntary donations, should be done by someone else....or not done at all.

It's time that the productive get full control of their lives and the product thereof, and the non-productive recognize that being productive is fun! Fulfilling! A bloody rush!

Individuals and firms should wildcat, acquire rights from the landowners , drill, pump and sell or refine their oil, according to the ability and inclination of each entrepreneur.

No one has the right to interfere as long as they don't pollute the property of others.

Meanwhile, all those folks with ideas will also have more money (not having had it extorted from them by Ted Kennedy et al.) New inventions will start coming from all the little backyard workshops once again. Some of them will come up with other types of motors and fuel.

One of them will invent a better mousetrap!

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Say......What?

I was just watching the news on KTTV, Channel 11, in LA.

Did Mary Beth McDade really say, "...Alleged allegations.....?"

Let's hear it for government schools!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag california

Cultural Competence

I learned a new phrase today. Here's how it happened: I was listening to a news broadcast on KFI-AM in Los Angeles. The newsbabe was lamenting over the "fact" that there are not enough medical doctors in the heavily hispanic areas of Los Angeles who are "culturally competent."

No definition was given during the very short news break, and so I decided to Google it and see if I could make anything intelligible out of it.

Lo! The first on a pages-long list of entries on "cultural competence" is the National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University. I looked under a link that purported to offer a Definition of Cultural Competence. The link leads to text headed "Definition and conceptual framework of cultural competence."

I don't see a definition there. What I see is a lot of what organizations are required to do to achieve "cultural competence." I confess that I didn't take a lot of time to try to analyze this list, because it appeared to be a lot of shrinkanese double-talk--mixed, of course, with a couple of parts of undecipherable professional jargon.

What it seems to boil down to is that, if you're a physician not of hispanic heritage, you will be unable to treat patients of hispanic heritage. I think.

It won't do to merely learn Spanish, oh, no, no, no! You'd still be an Anglo who speaks pretty good Spanish. Only a Hispanic can treat a Hispanic. Only a Hispanic can know the subtleties that will translate to successful treatment of individuals who have the Hispanic temperament.

Using that thinking, of course, a Black individual could only be treated by a Black physician and there'd by a like requirement with respect to people of Chinese or Norwegian heritage.

Obviously, this is all racist nonsense. If there's a language issue, the physician must either be able to converse smoothly in the patient's language, or have a good translator at hand. Aside from that, we're all pretty much the same except for the differences in individuals that pretty much transcend race.

There are some illnesses that seem to key on certain racial or societal groups, but all competent physicians who keep up to date are aware of them.

So, let's put this "cultural competence" nonsense in the dustbin along with Jim Crow laws and coolie laborers, shall we? After all, I was treated by a Black doctor once and two Asian doctors at various times in my life. They did just fine. They were obviously "culturally competent."

Here I am writting about what appears to be another instance of political correctness but, not being a physician myself, I can easily imagine that there can be issues in this area of which I'm unaware. Corrections can be made in my Comments area.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Late, Great Planet Earth and Other Nonsense

I'm reading a work of my favorite alive-and-working philosopher, George H Smith. The name of the book is Atheism, Ayn Rand and Other Heresies. I'm reading a chapter comprised of a number of commentaries, written by Smith in the 1970's, on atheism.

One of the commentaries addresses protestant fundamentalism. It starts with a critique of Hal Lindsay's 1970 book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, Lindsay's prediction of the end of the Earth (coming soon). Smith explains that Lindsay predicts another world war, pitting America and allies against Russia, the Middle East and China. I haven't read Lindsay's book, nor will I (way too many good books to read), but the struggle between the Middle east and Israel has fully sucked in all of the recent presidential administrations.

According to Lindsay, this conflict will involve most of the nations of the world and at the height, Jesus will return amid huge fanfare. The fundy faithful will disappear into heaven (won't that actually improve life on earth? No fundies? That would be heaven!), and we'll start a thousand years of tribulations.

The connection made by Smith when he wrote this commentary was that, when fundies read this book, and if they take it seriously, many will undoubtedly act to help the scenario along.

Which brings me around to my point. The president is a fundie, as are many of the members of his administration. Suddenly, a whole additional set of possibilities comes into view! While I enthusiastically accept the need to put the military to work defending the country, but the nonsense in Iraq is an utter waste of time, lives and money.

Our military had Bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora, and the decision was made to back off.

They had another wack job (I don't know his name--our news people change the spelling and pronunciation of all Middle East names about every month or two--but he was a big shot) cornered in Fallujah a while back, but the order was given to back off. They let him go. The rag-headed dude went right back to blowing up stuff! Sounds to me like somebody wants to seriously prolong this thing--or even lose it!

Who knows? Maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. But it does make you go hmmmmm!

Remember! VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Wonder of Rain

I've lived in the Stalag for very nearly forty years now, and my only dissatisfactions are: the State government's War on Productivity and to a much lesser degree, the weather.

Ice Scribe, at her marvelous My Gorram Den, reminds me of something of which we don't have enough in Stalag California. Rain.

Today class, we'll be discussing Southern California weather.

I enjoy the heat. Up to 90 degrees, I'm fine. Over that, and I start to take steps to make myself cooler. The humidity usually isn't too bad, and it usually cools off at night. I live fairly close to the ocean, so we usually get a cooling onshore breeze starting in mid-afternoons on the hot days.

Unlike most, I like the Santa Ana winds. I like wind moving the trees about and making it a little noisy. I like the dry heat that gives a dessicating effect to everything. I like the clear air and the open sky at night.

The bad part of Santa Ana wind is that my inland neighbors have a serious threat of fire when it's so dry, but my counter to that is that if everyone responsibly took care of his property, especially including the federal, state and local government agencies, who should either manage their lands properly or sell them off to someone who will, and if the environmental nazis would butt out, serious firebreaks could be cut that would minimise the danger of wildfires to property and structures.

What I really miss here in the Stalag is rain. It doesn't rain much. When it does rain, usually it's from a light drizzle to a light rain. You can walk around in it wearing a windbreaker and a hat, and not get very wet. For an hour, often more. It rains so seldom that when it actually does, people are totally upset by it.

The news goes on "Storm Watch" when there's a quarter-inch of light rain. News teams go out to potential trouble spots to watch for landslides and floods. Outdoor activities are cancelled. The streets and freeways are filled with cars whose drivers, in full panic mode, either drive so slowly that they're dangerous or try to drive as if it isn't raining--seventy-five mph with a cell phone in one hand to their ear.

Rarely, oh so rarely, it really does rain. I live for those days, maybe one or two a year. The windshield wipers can't keep up with it. Storm drains get clogged and water collects between the curbs. Water stands in poorly graded areas of the freeways, and runs across in curve transitions. Occasionally, a BMW is smashed into the center divider, the driver having allowed his car to hydroplane off the road. That's him, still talking on his phone.

I love those kinds of storms! I love the noise; the violence!

Ok, I feel a little sympathy for those in areas of flooding and landslides caused by the rain, but they chose to live where they live, and ought to have assessed, accepted and planned for the possible problems--just like beach people do.

A major handicap that many of us suffer, is that local, state and federal government hold a great deal of land all around us--parks, streets, buildings and land preserves of various types--which they are woefilly negligent at securing and controlling--that impact nearby private property owners. Government accepts no responsibility nor allows any private action on government property as it impacts their own.

But that's not my topic for today.

I miss the rain.

I like to drive in the rain. Real rain, not the normal Southern California sun showers. Not late night and early mornong mist. Rain! The kind that ricochets off the pavement. The kind that fills gutters and that you can hear drumming on the roof. Sometimes, I put on a trenchcoat and hat and walk in it. There's no one else there.

I like to lie in bed and see the flash of lightning in the window; listen to the thunder that follows. On a couple of occasions, I've ridden a motorcycle in such a rain, though it's hard to see and pretty dangerous.

We get maybe one good rain a year here, and it usually doesn't last very long. I think that if we get one this year, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and just enjoy it.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

An Excuse for a Civil Service Day Off

I admire Dr King in retrospect, but I didn't always. While I recognized that his thoughts on the need for equality of all before the law, regardless of race, I always wondered how and why such an intelligent man could be so conflicted. He was a preacher. A rational man shouldn't be a preacher. He seemed very far over on the left, politically. The left is no help to black people, nor of any of the so-called disadvantaged. I hope I don't have to make that case for anyone--it's been made so many times by better writers than I.

Yet his desire to put an end to American racism was sincere. I was and am fully in sympathy with that desire.

His intellectual heirs, though, seem not to be. Looking at the body of work and writing of Jesse Jackson, Kwazy McFume and others similarly inclined (to the left) , it appears that they'd rather prolong and promote racism, rather than to continue Dr King's work to end it. Sort of a "job security" attitude.

Edward Hudgins of The Objectivist Center has written an excellent tribute to Dr King. It describes my take on King's quest far better than I can.

Monday, January 16th, is the holiday designated by the feds to honor Dr King. Seemingly, it's the only thing the feds want to do toward racial equality.

The Civil Rights Act serves mainly to limit free association.

President LB Johnson's "War on Poverty" seems to have been designed to keep the poor poor.

For decades, politicians have worked to undo the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. The genesis of this movement has come from a fear of armed black people. Early gun control laws were specifically aimed at disarming blacks. Even in recent years, gun control advocates have targetted inexpensive firearms--firearms that a poor family might acquire for self defense in bad neighborhoods. These laws are clearly directed at poor minorities.

"Affirmative Action" laws not only work in utter opposition to Dr King's desires, but are clearly intended to assert the basic inferiority of black people, other racial minorites and women, and to keep them in a suspect position in society. Proof that these individuals don't deserve this superficial kind of catagorization is obvious by the observation that there are many, many self-made successful people in these groups.

Whenever one sees a $350-an-hour black attorney telling his tale of woe about the way black people have no chance, one sees this individual's case being utterly undone by his/her very existence.

Monday is the day we honor Dr Martin Luther King, but democrat politicians have done nothing but work to trash his movement toward racial equality. Republicans have enthusiastically helped make things more difficult for minorities.

I was in the post office yesterday, waiting in one of those DMV-type lines. I heard a customer mention needing to come in again Monday. The clerk told him the post office will be closed Monday. The customer asked why. The clerk replied, "Holiday. I think it's a president's birthday or something." That seems to emphisize the regard many government employees have toward minorities, whatever their stated positions.

There are good guys and bad guys in any group. Properly, we deal with each individual according to the way he presents himself. We associate with those whose acquaintance enhances our lives in some way. Nothing matters less than the race to which they belong or the hue of their skin.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

How a Civil Servant Fixes a Problem

"It's not my fault."
"95% of the public are satisfied with our service."
"The perception of the public is often inaccurate."
"....Forces beyond our control...."
"We're understaffed."
"We're underfunded."

You get the idea.

On January 3rd, 2006, the US Postal Service increased the cost of mailing a letter from 37 to 39 cents. The public has known this was coming for months. Apparently no one told the various postmasters.

I have a letter that I've been carrying in my bag for a couple of weeks now. I forgot to mail it right away, but that's ok. There's no urgency involved. The day after the New Year holiday, Tuesday the 3rd, I went to the Los Alamitos Post Office, near my office, to mail it. By this time, I was aware that I'd need to put two cents additional postage on it, which is why I didn't just drop it in the slot. I have several more 37-cent stamps that'll have to be augmented, as well.

I went in early, thinking I could buy the stamps from the machine. Dopey me. Inside the lobby, there's a big sign. "Out of Two-Cent Stamps." I looked at the stamp vending machine: Out of order.

Again, I wonder if anyone told the postmaster about the increase. You'd think that they'd have a big supply of two-cent stamps for the easily-anticipated demand. Well, then you have to recall that this is a government agency. I'm sorry, it's a government-owned private corporation. Operated by government drones according to government and civil employee rules.

Today, I went in again. Certainly they'd have two-cent stamps by now! No two-cent stamps and the stamp vending machine is still out of order.

In order to mail my letter, I'll have to go in when they're open and wait in a near-DMV-length line, in order to have the drone put a two-cent metered stamp on my letter.

The solution to this, as everyone outside the beltway knows, is to open first-class service to UPS and all others who wish to compete with USPS for the job of mailing my (and your) letters. Let the firms who can do the job best and cheapest, survive.

Like most of you, I do most of my correspondence by email now. Such a deal! I have to stand in the post office line far less often. I sure wish I could do this one by email!

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENTS!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

....But I Don't Get Colds!

Friday, I went for a forty minute walk instead of eating lunch. This is new, part of yet another attempt to lose some weight and get myself into better shape. I usually go to a nearby diner for a sandwich.

'Twas no big deal, I'm a pretty good walker (though I've let myself get horribly out of shape), and can walk for hours with an occasional five-minute sit-down. After the walk, I had a 16-oz drink of milk and whey powder. It was the first time I'd tried whey powder.

It was very good tasting, and filled me up satisfactorily.

At noon, as I finished drinking the whey, I felt fine. At one PM, I had irritated eyes, very sensitive to bright light, very irritated nasal passages and a runny nose. I was sneezing pretty often.

I finished the day at the lab, went home, taking care of some business along the way, and went to bed kind of early after an evening of web browsing and a little tv. During this period, the symptoms would diminish at times, then come back.

I slept fairly well, waking up a couple of times for short periods. I slept in until about ten AM and got up feeling pretty good.

As the day wore on, the symptoms came back. Because of the way I felt, I napped in the afternoon. I felt pretty dragged out most of the afternoon and evening, and again went to bed fairly early.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling fine.

At no time did I have any symptoms other than those mentioned. It was the wierdest thing.

I rarely get colds but when I do, they usually last two or three days with a sore throat, coughing, etc, and they gradually taper off with a stuffy head, lots of nose blowing and fatigue.

This was a wierd illness. I thought of an allergic reaction or hay fever, but I've never had these things. I spit on allergies. Ptui! I laugh at hay fever. Ar, ar!

Well, I needed some kind of excuse for not having written here for a few days. There it is.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

In Case You Wonder Why It's So Hard To Find Good Sinsemilla

Thanks to Radley Balko, The Agitator, for finding and reporting this gem:

HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOW TO MAKE U.S. DRUG-FREE

WASHINGTON-- House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002.

--Reuters, May 2, 1998

How wonderful that now we can disband all those neo-fascist federal police organizations, i.e. DEA, BATF, etc.

I wonder if this is why so many young folk in their twenties can't seem to move out of their parents' homes. 'Tis a scary world out there, what with the current War on Productivity: confiscatory taxation and no drugs.....

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Happy Safe 'n' Sane New Year!

Debbie and I are relaxing and watching New Year coverage on our "we report, you decide" news station. To resist utter boredom, I'm also reading my recently-purchased unabridged copy of Tom Paine Maru, by L Neil Smith, downloaded from Payloadz.com through a link found here. The original, pubished by Del Rey in 1984, was edited by a heavy, non-libertarian hand.

While covering the mass party in Times Square in New York, it was mentioned that the partying millions filling the streets are not allowed to smoke or drink!?!

NOT ALLOWED TO SMOKE OR DRINK??? On the public streets of New York City on New Year's Eve?

I guess I know where I'll never be spending New Year's Eve. Or for sure I'll be spending it indoors at a party.

Of course, I quit cigarettes many years ago, but I do like an occasional nip o' the Irish. Or the odd bottle of Blue.

It's downright disgusting how far we've gone toward some shrivelled-up old fogey's idea of political correctness.

Anyway, here's to you all. Have a happy and prosperous New Year!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Devolution of the Corporation

Have you noticed that the larger corporations seem to be wandering lost through the world economy? That corporate issues are far more important to the Boards of Directors than are the actual products and services produced? Corporations fill their home offices with unneeded executives--vice presidents and assistants to vice presidents--and their regional offices with regional managers and assistants to regional managers, not to mention area managers and their assistants, safety officers and human resources officers. Sexual harrassment officers, for cryin' out loud.

Scott Adams knows it, and I know it: his Dilbert cartoon series is a lot closer to the mark than many corporate officers would ever admit.

The dirty little secret is that the rank and file in many of these firms is given the short shrift, in the form of understaffing, underqualified staffing, a plethora of needless rules and a communications wall between lower and upper etchelons. Executive ranks regale themselves with high salaries, bodaceous benefits and luxurious working spaces. Even in non-union industries employees are treated as interchangeable ciphers when they're regarded at all.

Wow! This all sounds like an introduction to some Marxist tract, doesn't it? Well, that's not it at all, boys and girls. Attend!

There's an illness in the corporate structure. It'd be guesswork to try to say whence the illness began. Some say it was with greedy owners of the firms. That might be true in the isolated case, but I don't think it captures the root of the problem.

So, class, from what entity do nearly all of our problems eminate? Anyone?

Hermione gets it right once again. Government! Ten points for Gryffindor!

The beginnings of the current malaise coincide roughly with the beginnings of the rapid increases in the size and scope of government, not long after the War Between the States. During that period, encompassing roughly seventy-five years, we find that many of our favorite technological advances were begun. Automobiles. Transcontinental rail travel--and shipping. Aircraft. Telephones. Radio. The assembly line. It's a long list.

Why haven't automakers filled the skies with flying personal cars? Why hasn't the aeronautics industry made travel between the planets and asteroids a routine practice? Why aren't we living 150-year healthy, vigorous lives?

Virtually all of these industries and others had the following in common: The ownership of the firms comprising these industries were overwhelmingly hands-on builders. Henry Ford built automobiles, as did Ransom E Olds and most of the others. Alex Bell figured out the telephone. Thomas Edison....what can I say: he did everything. There are many more; I'll spare you the list.

Who are our corporate heads now? Lawyers. To a man. The only major exception that comes to mind is in computer software development. Not surprisingly, software development is just about the only industry in which there's still quite a bit of innovation. As the software industry turns more and more toward lawyers to head their firms, expect to see this innovation gradually go into decline (I'm thinking that Microsoft may have already begun the first dance).

We now have hundreds of large corporations, headed by lawyers, carrying relatively few engineers (or accountants or medical doctors or other scientists) in top management, doing what they've always done, by rote, with innovation largely stifled.

Now we come to the "why?" Why would movers and shakers; inventors and builders, turn their babies over to twentieth (now twenty-first) century mercenaries? Because, thanks to the huge and ever-heaping numbers of government taxation and regulation, it's become a major pain in the ass to innovate. You have to be a lawyer to be able to figure out whose palms to grease and how to skirt the worst of it.

Ask Preston Tucker. While he did take some shortcuts, they were shortcuts across government regulations. In a short time, I'm convinced he would've had a product that would cause the other automakers to make adjustments to compete. They didn't want to have to make adjustments, so the lawyers at GM used the lawyers in the government to eliminate the Tucker.

There's really only one cure for this mess. When one of these humungous corporations go belly-up, which occasionally happens, they should be let to die. Assets should be sold off to, one hopes, to smaller firms who can actually perform the work that might have been done by the failed corporation, had it remained capable.

Government needs to leave business alone. Government employees are drones. Unable to be productive on their own, they seek the shelter of government to provide them with their needs without need to produce. How can they be expected to improve the productivity of others? They cannot. They can only become impediments to productivity. Regulation by government must end.

Taxation must end. Anything government can't get We the People to finance by voluntary means shouldn't be done. During the aforementioned times of American productivity, there was little or no taxation. Members of productive firms were able to work unshackled, reinvesting as much of their profits to improve their productivity as they wished. Today, these same individuals proceed only after severe regulatory restrictions and approximately a fifty-percent "protection" rakeoff to government.

What a handicap! Fifty percent of everything everyone earns going to utter waste! Actually, it's worse than waste: those who get the fifty percent delight in using it to buy the shackles for those productive among us. Many governments have been taken down by their own citizens (read victims) for less!

The US Constitution would be a pretty good guide, if anyone in government would read and heed. Ok, I know the Constitution was written a long time ago by "libertarian pioneers," and we've learned a lot since those days, IF government followed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to the letter, we'd have a free society with which we'd have relatively few and minor complaints. We could do away with government regulation of money at our leisure, after that!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A wonderful New Year's Resolution for the President

"I take my responsibility to protect the American people seriously. Therefore, starting January first, 2006, all of America's thousands of unConstitutional laws against self defense shall be repealed by Executive Order. The best way to protect the American people is to allow them to protect themselves."

Thus signed by a fictional President of the United States who has actually read, and who understands, the Bill of Rights.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm Regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Andre Rieu Christmas Concert

Having been a part-time classical music fan since high school, I'm always casually on the lookout for composers and works new to me. I suppose I've devoted the majority of my music listening to rock 'n'roll, but I keep coming back to classical, to the great surprise of most of my friends. You see, I don't give the impression that I'm a classical music afficianado to many.

About threee or fourrrr years ago, I stumbled onto Andre Rieu on the Arts Channel on TV. The station, which has since been removed by Adelpia for some reason known only to them, played videos, many of which were of classical orchestras playing famous classical pieces.

Some of the many MTV-style (back, for those of you old enough to remember, when MTV used to play music videos) bits they showed on the Arts Channel were Strauss waltzes played by an orchestra of relatively young, attractive and photogenic musicians that turned out to be the Andre Rieu Orchestra. I eventually learned that Rieu is a Dutchmen, tours a lot throughout Europe and has a number of DVD's and CD's on the market. I've bought several of them.

I've always loved Strauss music, even before I knew who Strauss was--or were, since there were more than one of them. Johann, the original Viennese Waltz King, and his sons Johann, Jr (the one we know best) and Josef (his brother). There was even more talent in the family, but they're not important.

What is important, is that waltzes are beautiful and Strauss, Jr became the king of the waltz following in the footsteps of his father.

Andre Rieu and his orchestra play Strauss waltzes very nicely!

For the first time ever, Andre Rieu took his tour here to the Los Angeles area. Debbie and I went, yesterday, to his concert at the LA Sports Arena.

I was a mite worried. The LA Sports Arena is the home of the USC Trojans baxabaw team. Horror! I had thoughts of a jock odor throughout the building.

No, it was fine. We had center aisle seats on the floor. They started with The entry of the Gladiators, during which the entire orchestra passed through the center aisle from the rear, to stairs up to the stage. The entire orchestra passed within a couple of feet of my own self! I'll tell you, some of the female musicians were absolutely stunning!

Being close to Christmas, the program called for a series of Christmas songs, played by the orchestra and sang by a trio of tenors and a trio of sopranoes. They included Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride and Silent Night. It was a lot of fun.

After an intermission, they played some waltzes and some opera selections (sung by the aforementioned singers). The climax of the evening was his arrangement of Strauss' The Blue Danube during which Rieu asked those who wish to dance, to do so in the aisles. Many did.

The orchestra followed all that with a loooong encore.

It was a very cool evening. I recommend Andre Rieu to anyone who loves the waltz.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

How I Learned to Read

The first credit goes to Mom. When we were crumb-crunchin' ankle biters, she used to read to us (I have two bros and a sis) from The Brothers Grimm: the old one in which Gretel killed the Wicked Witch, and the Big Bad Wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood's sweet old Granny, then was executed by the Good Woodsman. I've had a thing for girls in red hoodies ever since.

In the Frozen North, when I was a wee lad, there was no TV. Oh, we all saw the ads for Sylvania and RCA TVs in The Saturday Evening Post, and we sure wanted one. There were no TV stations in the area. So, no Howdy Doody and no Uncle Miltie.

I floated through school, learning to read, write and all the other stuff while investing as little of my time as possible, because there were so many other, more important things to do!

My next mentor was my Senior year English teacher, Mrs Steen. I don't think she did anything dramatic, but she had a way of teaching that got me reading. I finally began to see the value in books. I got acqainted with the early novels of Robert Heinlein and others.

In the Navy, there's an amazing amount of down time. There were several hours with nothing to do every day we were at sea. That's when I got acquainted with James Bond, Matt Helm, Mike Hammer and Shell Scott.

Soon after gettin out of the Navy, I moved to LA. While getting started on my career in construction, I stumbled on a book called "The Fountainhead." It changed my life. Over half the books I've read from then to this day have had to do with objectivism, libertarianism, free market economics and self-reliance. The rest of them were sci-fi, western and historical novels. I literally carry my current book with me wherever I go, in case I should find five or ten minutes to read a few pages.

They've enriched my life in more ways than I know and helped make me the charming, well-informed bon vivant I am today. I also have over a thousand volumes that I have to lug around with me whenever I move. Well, sometimes I want to reread one of them!

I read "Atlas Shrugged" about every year or so. I'm reading "The Order of the Phoenix" right now.

I'm not sure I'd recommend that everyone become as much the reading fanatic as I, but one could do worse. I find it distressing that today's schools don't seem to be able to teach many students how to read, and they teach even fewer of them to like reading. I guess that's why they put pictures of the hamburgers on the cash register keyboard at McDonald's.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Another Lynching in Mississippi

I'm still awaiting further information, but it's not necessary, really. The facts I have are enough.

A young man of the black persuasion, by the name of Cory Maye was accosted while he slept by one of those gangs of black armor-wearing jack-booted thugs known as SWAT teams. They apparently had some sort of a search warrant for the front half of a duplex, but also broke into the rear apartment at the same time. Whether there was a warrant for the rear apartment is still in question--the prosecutor says there was, but it has yet to be produced.

Maye, who had been sleeping in a chair, retreated to his baby daughter's room, found his handgun, loaded it and shot the first assailant to enter the bedroom, hitting the man in a vulnerable spot below his armor. He soon died. Maye states that he never heard the police knock nor announce themselves. Based on the reputation that Mississippi police departments have in black neighborhoods (and all police departments have in the so-called "War on Drugs) , I'm inclined to believe Mr Maye. You see, the officer who first to enter the apartment and who was killed was the son of the Chief or Police. More than enough facts to cause a Southern lynching are in place.

Maye was arrested, "tried," convicted and sentenced to be executed. The Agitator has written a far more detailed accout of the events than I, and has been following the story carefully as it progresses.

Whether or not there was a warrant, and whether or not the police tried to serve it properly is all beside the point.

No one has the right to dictate to any other what he may ingest. Whether or not there were drugs in the building is irrelevant. According to the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights, the police were guilty of breaking and entering and Mr Maye was fully within his rights to defend his home.

The government which presumes to order that the ownership and use of certain substances are illegal is wrong.

The goverment which presumes to send police into a neighborhood with which they're unfamiliar is wrong.

The government which presumes to issue pre-signed warrants from tear-off pads is wrong.

The government which presumes to send armored police into an individual's property without announcing is wrong.

The government which presumes to make nearly everything illegal so that they have an excuse to arrest anyone at any time is wrong.

It really doesn't matter if Mr. Maye happened to have a smoked roach in an ashtray (which was likely planted by the jack-booted thugs) or if the individuals in the front apartment were selling certain agricultural commodities, satisfying their customers' desires and making a profit in the process. That's the American way, is it not? Capitalism in its purest form.

Something has to be done about rogue cops and the immoral system that sanctions their existence.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Bill of Rights Day - December 15, 1791

I think it's time I wrote a little about the Bill of Rights, since it's the Document that makes the United States the economically powerful and relatively free nation it is today. I say relatively free because that's merely a comparison to other countries around the world. When compared to a model of ideal freedom, or even when compared to the freedom Americans enjoyed a century ago, we're not free. Not even close.

The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. It came into being at the behest of the delegations of several of the original thirteen states, who refused to join the union without it.

Now, after many decades of government schooling of children and the attending redefinition of the role of government in our lives, most people are only peripherally aware of the Bill of Rights, and have very little knowledge of its content and purpose. We also have to suffer the news media, the politicians and high-profile legal "experts" redefining Americans' rights and the proper relationship between us and our servants in government.

Thus, we have Bill of Rights Day. Many freedom-loving individuals, beginning (for me) with Aaron Zelman of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), have suggested an annual recognition of this day. A part of his site details his views on the promotion of Bill of Rights Day.

Here are the Ten Amendments that are our Bill of Rights, with a very brief addendum for each by yours truly.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or preventing the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is seemingly the only Amendment of which ACLU is aware, and toward which they invest nearly all of their efforts. On the other hand they are, more often than not, on the wrong side of the Amendment. Colleges and universities, once bastions of free speech and free inquiry, have become the worst violators of the free speech clause. Conservatives take great glee at enumerating the limitations on free speech. They are always wrong. Disgusting speech, or speech with which we disagree, is still protected by the Amendment. Government itself violates the right to free assembly in many, many cases. After all this and more, the First Amendment is where most of our freedom resides, and is nominally still respected--at least when it's convenient to do so.

Amendment II

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Freedom-loving individuals face a constant battle against government to keep this Amendment intact. There are thousands of (unConstitutional) laws that limit the right to arm and defend oneself, and more limitations appear fairly often, but the Amendment stands. Many individuals keep illegal weapons surreptitiously, in defiance of these illegal laws, within their rights as individuals. More power to 'em!

Amendment III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law.

While the government takes more than enough money to supply our military with quarters, it could be suggested that, since they've militarized the nation's police agencies, separated them from the general population and started referring to them as other than civilians, the case can easily be made that they become an army, quartered among us. No law-abiding American feared the beat cop in blue; everyone fears those nazi-esque storm troopers in black armor that pop up at virtually any excuse (remember the Democrat and Republican Party Conventions a little over a year ago?) and terrorize neighborhoods. That's the steep part of a very slippery slope.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.

Well, what can I say? This one has been so roundly violated that it might as well be stricken from the document. The real violations came with the so-called War on Drugs. Violations have increased by orders of magnitude with the addition of the horribly misnamed War on Terror--the portions of which are directed against the population of the United States. Search warrants are mass-produced in tear-off pads, already signed and sealed. Objects of the warrants are forbidden to disclose that they've been served (if, of course, they were actually told about the search themselves!).


Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, of property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

The main difficulties here are with government's (both police and the courts) utter disregard for due process, particularly in drug and other contraband prosecutions and more recently, in the cases arising from the "War on Terror." Pundits and government spokesmen cite the urgency of the situation, but thrashing through the rights of both alleged violators of the (not usually rational) law, and uninvolved bystanders, is no substitute for good police work.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witrnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

The speedy trial has gone out the window many decades ago. As the number of (mostly irrational) possibilities of violations of the sensibilities of the government increases exponentially, and the numbers of accused criminals mounts alongside, pressure on the courts to handle these cases, along with the demands of attorneys, means an accused individual might wait years with a sword over his head before the arrival of his day in court. Government-inspired irregularities caused by inconsistencies between the law and the Constitution generally go in favor of law enforcement, at the expense of the individual.

Amendment VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Thanks to government's inflation of the money supply, particularly over the past eighty years or so, twenty dollars doesn't mean much anymore. Nonetheless, the right to a jury trial has become more difficult and tenuous--particularly in cases in which government is the plaintiff. Judges and prosecutors practice jury tampering routinely, lying to juries about their legal responsibilities, prerogatives under the law, and duties.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Setting of bail has deteriorated to an amount based upon the ability of the accused to pay, rather than the severity of the crime, as often do fines imposed. This had largely come about as a result of the so-called "War on Drugs."

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or desparage others retained by the prople.

When conservative pundits proclaim that there is no right to privacy, they're dead wrong. This Amendment is where that right (among others) resides. The source of the denial of the right to privacy began with the unConstitutional beginning of the federal income taxes (Amendment XVI doesn't even begin to address the Constitutional problems of this imposition) and carrries through to include any personal information the individual doesn't want known by government. Government's seeking out of private information released by the individual to private concerns for private purposes is as unConstitutional as their raiding and searching that person's home and effects without a duly executed warrant.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

What this catchall Amendment tells us is that government can do nothing, except what is specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Nothing. When the infamous and illegal Federal Bureau of Investigation was founded, the proper thing to ask was, "does the Constitution authorize the founding of a national police force?" No, it doesn't. Nor does the Constitution authorize any of the many other national police agencies that have been illegally created in the past few decades. Nor FEMA. Nor the Dept of Education. Nor any of the other big-spending bureaucracies created by various would-be dictators in Washington DC. The authorizations might be achieved by Constitutional Amendment, but wasn't. Laws might be implemented to allow easier communication and cooperation between the police departments of the cities and states, and private crime laboratories could be used for the sophisticated investigations. Private charities and accreditation firms might take on most of these other tasks, as well. Unfortunately for the constantly overburdened taxpayer, that was not the way government, in its compulsive desire to grow and involve itself in private affairs, decided to go.

Thus, I plan to mumble many obscenities on the 15th day of December, as I reflect upon freedom lost. I'll wear my Scott Beiser "Bill of Rights Enforcement" t-shirt, and generally be a pain in the ass to all, on the subject. May Thomas Paine have mercy on my soul.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Holiday Which Shall Not Be Named

As the PC gang attempts to generically rename everything that has a "white American" or "white European" name or tradition, in its self-destructive rush to destroy anything that reminds the world of Euro-American and particularly American mastery of nature and the happiness and well-being of the individual, we see, among many other things, an attempted denial of our many heroes, climactic events and traditions. Government schools (aka children's prisons) downplay or eliminate the teaching of history, particularly the parts of it of which Euro-Americans can be and ought to be most proud. Many US government children's prisons start the teaching of US history with the War Between the States--its PC name: the "Civil" War, and the reconstruction. That is, they start US History with the beginnings of the expansion of the federal government.

The segment of PC of which I speak today, however, is the renaming and general denouncement of the favorite holiday of many, particularly christians: Christmas. Christmas is, on the one hand, a celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The giving involved is said to commemorate the gifts brought by the three Magi kings and others to Jesus on the day of his birth. I have no idea how much of this story is historically accurate, but I conditionally accept it that far (and not much farther). On the other hand, an older celebration is the pagan observance of winter solstice. Jews observe Hannukah in the same time period and Black Americans have popped out with a largely irrelevant celebration they call Quanzaa, not to be outdone.

Thanks to the PC gang, everyone has to give extra thought to whether and how they publicly celebrate the season. Childrens' prisons have to be careful about the nature of their Christmas pageants, and many convert the shows in which the students participate to generic celebrations of....nothing in particular. Others eschew such celebrations entirely. Merchants wonder how to advertise. Nativity Scenes can no longer be placed in public areas (ok, so maybe that's all right--there is, after all, the Establishment Clause, with which I agree), and we have to ask whether the tree is a Christmas tree or a Holiday tree. And whether we'll be sued by the ACLU if we make the wrong choice.

My celebration of the season notes the significance of winter solstice: the shortest day of the year and the beginning of lengthening days--and an anticipation of the arrival of spring, but really centers on the uniquely American celebration of Immaculate Consumption. We give because we can. We like to give neat things to our loved ones and we like them to see the degree of our success. I like to get together with friends and family during the period surrounding Christmas and New Year's Day. I don't usually get gifts for many, mainly the kids, but I enjoy the get-togethers, the food, the drink (in moderate quantities, of course) and all of the extravagance that goes with it.

What the PC gang seems to dislike is our affluence. They dislike success. In the end, they dislike life. Perhaps the roots of the so-called "War on Christmas" originate with that.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Jack Boot Thugs Pandemic

In its rush to establish a techno-police state, the current administration is pursuing various seemingly minimally intrusive, and sometimes more intrusive methods of getting We The People more used to the omnipresence of police among the population, who are to be seen as having power to accost, identify and question any individual at any time for any or no reason.

Note a new initiative to thwart "terrorists" in Miami (which has to be distinguished from Miami-Dade, which is in a part of Florida that has many and various problems of its own) a known locus of illegal activity of all sorts. Seems the local Jack-Booted Thugs pick banks, hotels and other public places to seal off the location and check identification of those incarcerated therein, to be allowed to exit, presumably. Woe to the individual who forgets his wallet! Details here. This, presumably, in lieu of actually doing anything effective (and Constitutional) about the evil fundie islamists.

At least one person, Deborah Davis of Arvada, Colorado, is resisting this new pandemic (I use the term "pandemic" not in its real sense, but in the attempt to increase the State of Fear, much like the way it's used by the news media). When she rode a public bus to work, and the bus route happened to pass through a government installation (for the convenience of the government sloths who occupy space in that installation for eight and no more than eight hours a day whenever they can't get out of it) . At a bus stop inside the government drone farm, she was asked to produce identification. She refused. She said no. She was arrested. Some of her supporters refer to her as "the Rosa Parks of the Patriot Act generation." Details here.

As the shackles of the George W Bush police state tighten around the wrists and ankles of all of us (unless you are an Arabic-looking young man), we need to learn to say NO to tyranny in whatever ways we can.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Bitter-Sweet Thanksgiving

The bad part was my fault, really. We're not really given to spending most of the day cooking and baking, so some years we find a nice restaurant to have Thanksgiving dinner. That's what we tried to do this time.

My mother, and recent years my sister, are unbeatable as far as great Thanksgiving dinners go. I'll stack 'em up against anybody. They all went to my brother's new digs in the Zone this year, and I wasn't able to get away.

Debbie got together with my old hot rodding pal from El Cajon, and he and his wife decided to drive up and join us for dinner at a restaurant. As far as the restaurant went, we made an unfortunate choice.

We had a wonderful visit; talked about many things. We really don't do it often enough, and that's really my fault. I'm the busy one who often works six days a week and has more other interests than I have time for. Nonetheless, it was a good afternoon and a great visit.

Now, for the bad news. The restaurant we chose (most restaurants being closed for the holiday) was a touristy sort of European village place that was having a special Thanksgiving buffet. Since it was a special deal, they set it up in a dance hall which, in the daylight, devoid of the dance hall decorations and lighting, had all the ambiance of a small airplane hangar.

The food was.....ok. Unfortunately, our reservation time was fairly near the end of their day, so some of the items on the buffet were in short supply. The serving people were anticipating closing time, so they had their minds elsewhere.

In short, the dinner was a less than satisfactory experience. I'll know better next time. I don't think Old World Village will see me tippy-toeing over their threshold for a long, long time.

The visit from our friends saved the day. As time goes by, I appreciate the time spent with good friends more and more.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Tin Man is On the No-Fly List

Here it is, the dreaded Holiday season once again. Time to go over the river and through the woods, to visit loved ones for Thanksgiving, then on its heels will come Christmas and a plethora of other holidays that just happen to fall on Winter Solstice (which is the real reason for the season). I'll have to avoid driving too close to the malls for a while.

The one-horse open sleigh is obsolete, at least partly because most grandmas live more than five or ten miles away. They're as likely to want to meet at a ski resort as at their homes.

So we fly. We fly to meet them at their cabin in South Lake Tahoe or their Manhattan apartment.

The temptation now, is to remind everyone of the barbarity of the very intrusive and unConstitutional searches that happen every day at airports, and that one now has to have government approval to fly. This while the baggage that is checked into the cargo space in the plane gets virtually no scrutiny at all. So much for resisting temptation.

Well, I won't be flying. If the airlines want my money, their corporate officers will have to grow spines, and tell the Evil Emporer to remove his thugs and "we'll take care of our own security, thank you very much."

So, I'll drive my 275-horse open sleigh. It works just fine.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Why Hate Republicans?

As most of you know, I pay attention to politics. I don't have time to watch it as much as the real bloggers; maybe not that much interest, but it gives me something about which to complain.

As most of you also know, I'm a libertarian. A pretty radical one. When I say radical, I mean that it all starts from the fact that no individual may initiate force against any other--never, never, not ever. Even the National Libertarian Party, which once required one's signature on a pledge of non-initiation of force as a term of membership, has continually been trying to get its members to put an end to the requirement to sign that Pledge. I'm not sure if they still require it or not. I do.

My handy-dandy quick-snap gauge to separate capitalists from socialists is the following: Any individual who advocates government's right to forcibly tax its citizens, that is, initiate force to raise revenue, that individual is a socialist. Any individual who denies government (or any entity) that right, is a capitalist.

Which brings me to my point--why hate republicans? Well, I don't only hate republicans, I also hate democrats, greens and other assorted socialists. The thing is....democrats, greens, peace & freedom types, etc. are so nearly incoherent, are so opposed to everything that sustains life and makes it worth living, that only the very worst victims of the government's alleged school system can be taken in by them (the bad news: thanks to these same schools, the incoherence is growing). Republicans at least sound as if they have coherent arguments. That, of course, deserves more scrutiny.

If you listen to most conservative (republican) intellectuals, politicians and pundits, they talk a fairly good game proclaiming their interest in and perference for capitalism. They praise the virtues and benefits of the free market, individual rights and the wonder of individual initiative. They proclaim that capitalism makes us free. That the free market raises the tide of man's ability to live in comfort and happiness. That the tide of a free society "raises all boats." Indeed it does.

When we see the inconsistencies inherent in the conservative philosophy (such as it is), we have to wonder, though, what do they mean when they call up the revered word "capitalism?" Of what, to a conservative, does a free market consist? What is the philosophical justification for individual freedom?

Here, my friends, is where conservatives stand foursquare, unmoving and unmoveable, rockribbed and square-jawed, on a foundation of quicksand. They base their entire (some dare call it) philosophy on the christian god. They're ever so fond of pointing to their "god-given rights" as an answer to just about any political question or challenge. Oh, my!

When one answers any question with, "because god says so" or "it's in the bible," there is no where you can go with that. It's of course, not true, but there's a not-so-implicit moral sanction that says, "say no more, god said it, I believe it and that settles it."

God didn't say it. It may be in the bible, but who wrote the bible? How many times has it been translated and retranslated? What about the inconsistencies from book to book? Why do so many people read the bible and come away with widely differing conclusions? It makes no sense.

Man's rights derive from his nature as man. Every individual has the same rights and there is no multiplication of rights by virtue of number. These are rights to life, liberty and property. Therefore, to deny an individual's right to his property by force is to steal. George Bush has no more right to steal my property (my money) than does Alfredo Simpson of Merced. 290 million Americans don't have the right to vote to take the farm of one--no matter what the intended use.

Republicans often (not always) agree with much of this, although they grant government the right to steal some portion of my property for various purposes "as long as it's reasonable." This is where they fail, but it gets worse. Republicans espouse the virtues of a gruel of capitalism mixed with a reasonable amount of government theft, regulation and redistribution (the degree varies with the individual republican), as long as it's for "good purposes," but hold that, to a certain degree (the degree varies), that men should be free and have the right to life, liberty and property. To a degree.

Ok, you can kind of live with that. Now, wait until the republican runs for public office and gets elected. His conservative philosophy is so tenuously held and so ill-defined that when the left opposes him on any issue, he always folds. Always. Republicans, when elected, check their spines at the door of Congress (or whatever office to which they are elected).

That's why I hate republicans. I grew up in a republican atmosphere. It was from conservatism that I moved toward libertarianism. I get their philosophy, even though I no longer agree with much of it. Would that they could actually firm up their principles (such as they are), take them to Congress and fight for them, they'd win. If they would actually firm up those principles, though, they'd either move farther toward socialism--or maybe toward libertarianism. Republicanism is kind of an icky place filled with soft, wet things like Dennis Hastert and Trent Lott. No thinker would want to stay there.

No Republican will vote to deny the government to prerogative to initiate force against American citizens. They won't.

They're socialists.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Taking a Short Vacation

I'll be away for a few days, starting tomorrow after work. Once again, I'll be attending The Freedom Summit in Phoenix Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.

The Freedom Summit is one of several weekend fora around the country each year in which it's possible to be around like-minded people (and no one but like-minded people) for an entire weekend. It's kind of cool when you can wear a sidearm on your belt and have no one freak out at the sight of it.

Speakers this year include George H Smith, Sunni Maravillosa and David Friedman. There are several others about whom I know little or nothing but, hey! that's how you learn new stuff.

So, I'll be back Tuesday or Wednesday with a new outlook and even more dislike for all things governmental.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Lamenting the Disappearance of Monica

I think it was love at first sight. Monica White wrote a short article for the Atlasphere on the tv series "Firefly," back in August of last year, then followed it up with another on the art of Jack Vettriano about a month later.

Well, I'd been watching "Firefly" when it was on first run. I loved it! Space anarchists freelancing on the edges of the Empire! A libertarian dream! What Monica did was put a lot of my thoughts on the series into words, in a way I hadn't tried. I went right out and bought the series boxed set and have watched each episode a couple of times (so far!).

I hadn't heard of Jack Vettriano, but her review of his art, infused with images of several of his works, added another artist to the list of those I like.

Reading her Networking Profile told me that she was from Perth, Australia, now living in London. It told me she was an objectivist (in London!) and that she had a blog she called Th'inkwell--just a minor example of her witty use of the English language.

I read her blog and quickly realized that Monica has a degree of perceptiveness matched only by her artful and rational way of writing about that which she experiences. I devoured each entry to her blog as it appeared. She wrote fairly regularly about a wide variety of subjects until late this past February when she announced she was quitting, her interest in writing the blog was on the wane.

Well, it was a wonderful blog. Currently, since the site is still up, I'm reading the archives from time to time when I need a Monica fix. I'm nearly caught up to the place where I started. Oh well.

Several of the blogs I read are sites whose links I first found on Th'inkwell.

Thanks, Monica.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

(Over)sensitivity?

There was a segment on one of the tv talk shows about a "girl-cott" over a line of t-shirts for young women sold at Abercrombie & Fitch. The t-shirts have slogans like "I had a nightmare I was a brunette," "Do I make you look fat?" and "Blondes are adored, brunettes are ignored."

The leaders of this "girl-cott" are using such politically correct buzz words as "inappropriate" and "not empowering" and even "racist" to denounce this clothing line. We can start by wondering how one gets racism out of the battle between blondes and brunettes.

Now, there are a lot of t-shirts worn by both men and women that I don't like. T-shirts promising physical assault for various actions and thoughts (such as burning the flag), t-shirts prostletyzing religion and Che Guevara t-shirts come quickly to mind. Am I going to make a big deal out of it? Nope. I just won't be buying any of those t-shirts, and I probably won't be befriending individuals who make those kinds of wardrobe choices.

One begins to wonder about the adaptability of these individuals to the highly competitive, dog-eat-dog, laugh-in-the-face-of-death world of full-contact career-seeking professionals, if they're so easily offended (to the point of being driven to action) by such trivialities. How will they cope, how will they cope?

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California