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

Not Enough Guns--Yet Again

It's very sad that I have to write about this again, so soon. It's even more sad that this scummy bastard was able to kill and injure as many individuals as he did.

I never concern myself much about why these subhumans do the things they do. Suffice it to say that the sooner they're dead, the better. As author L Neil often says, "The best death penalty is the one carried out by the presumed victim, in self defense, before the killer can fulfill his nefarious plan." Or words to that effect. Unfortunately, that was not what happened at Virgina Tech on April 16, 2007.

I happen, as many of you know, to be of the opinion that many, perhaps most, mass shootings would be nipped in the bud--maybe prior to the first murder--were there someone nearby with a handgun and the ability to use it effectively.

Educational facilities have the misfortune to have been declared "gun free zones," by the government. Basically, this means that anyone bent 'pon murder will find it a safe area in which to carry out his killings. In the case of the Virginia Tech massacre, the evil and plumb loco Cho Seung-Hui was able to murder thirty-two individuals before committing suicide. Most likely, were it general knowledge that students and faculty could legally carry concealed weapons on campus, many of these guys wouldn't even try. Suicidals, like Cho, don't care. With animals like them, well, they simply have to be stopped. Unarmed students and faculty, cowering under their desks, won't stop him.

If I seem cold, it's because I'm angry. I'm angry that thirty-two individuals, most of them young students, some of them heroic, were killed by a crazed misfit who didn't even have the common decency to go off into a corner by himself and blow his brains out in private.

According to a link provided by Samizdata, a Virginia state house bill, HB1572, that would've allowed concealed carry of firearms on school campi by individuals with permits, was introduced a little over a year ago. The bill died it committee, as reported by the Roanoke Times here. Had this bill passed, we might've seen a very different outcome of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

On the other hand, presenting the pro-let-the-killer-do-whatever-he-wants position, Virginia Tech Associate Vice President Larry Hincker, defending the university's victim-disarmament policy of banning guns on campus last summer, said, "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same." I wonder if he still holds that position.

The US federal government, so far unable to eliminate the Second Amendment and enforce an outright ban on privately-owned firearms, has worked with state and local governments to hamstring private individuals, making effective self defense very difficult (in some cities and states, impossible). Governments of many other countries seem to actually want to see their honest citizens victimized by criminals.

Ok, harsh words. These are harsh words directed against those who are seemingly ok with the occasional killing of several students in places where self defense is deliberately and explicitly not allowed.

I don't think my anger is unjustified.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Imus In The Dustbin

Don Imus used to be on radio in El Pueblo de Los Angeles, but was replaced three or four years ago, I guess because of ratings. I listened to him pretty often, because he had quite a few political and media personalities on his show that could be heard no where else--or maybe not very often. He has a (usually) good sense of humor and had a lot of really funny comedy bits on the show.

Over a week ago now, Imus told a joke that was not well-received by the left, by the so-called black leadership and by the Rutgers University women's baxabaw team. The Rutgers women, of course, have every reason to be angry and hurt--or, they might just consider the source: a fairly articulate but not overly intelligent talk show host of whom they've never previously heard. Then, they could chuckle derisively and move on.

One thing that disturbed me is the quote I heard from one of the athletes, whose name wasn't given (apparently athletes are considered interchangeable sub-beings in leftist msm circles): "His statement diminishes our achievement," or words to that effect. Either this young woman is mining for tv face time and a possible lawsuit and book deal, or she's taking Don Imus and his clumsy attempt at a joke way too seriously. Everybody gets insulted from time to time. These young ladies, like all athletes, have suffered far worse countless times in the arenae of their opponents.

There's no doubt that Imus' firing is justified. He's used racial and ethnic insults for a long time, against many ethnicities. The object of most of his insults were politicians and other individuals in the public eye, and were delivered along with some occasionally justified criticism of their behavior. This time, however, he insulted a group of young college athletes who are not in the public eye, except for their identity as a sports team. A winning sports team, who were runners-up in the national women's college basketball championship. Certainly this group doesn't deserve, individually, or as a group, to be called "nappy-headed hos." Imus' sponsors ran away from him, and his radio and tv networks saw the writing on the wall. All this as the result of the accusatory blatherings of (mostly) a couple of hypocritical charlatans, pseudo-preachers Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, whose own personal histories are more than a little checkered in the area of racial and ethnic bigotry.

I stop short of regarding this appellation racist, though, for a couple of reasons. First, not all of the Rutgers female baxabaw players are black. I distinctly spotted two white faces in their team photo. Second, I'm continually hearing these and other epithets, some worse, used by blacks--not only in face-to-face interaction, but in movie and tv dialog and most often, in music lyrics. Words and phrases used that routinely in public discourse an hardly be the stuff of racial insult. In an old pop tune, Stevie Wonder referred to his younger self as a "nappy-headed boy."

What I now worry about is that every actor, journalist, talk show host or other celebrity being discredited or otherwise condemned for a careless word or phrase. Or maybe, if this nascent crusade goes far enough (and it might) even result in condemnation of the average person who's heard to tell an off-color or ethnic joke in the wrong company. If you've ever attended a sexual harassment lecture, you realize what might happen and how easily it can happen.

As that sweet lush, Joan Rivers , often says, "Oh, grow up!"

Remember the First Amendment, and keep it wholly.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Yet Again, Another Case of Not Enough Guns

She got a little to close to this unstable individual, too soon. Only after they'd moved in together did she find out about his uncontrollable fits of anger. After his propensity to physical abuse showed itself, she moved out. The man, unable to let it go, began threatening to commit suicide. He threatened her and threatened to harm members of her family, and even her pets.

She got a restraining order and changed her phone number. Rebecca Griego was afraid for her life.

She worked at the University of Washington. Because U of Washington is an educational facility, it's illegal to carry firearms or other weapons on campus.

Yesterday, Jonathan Rowan murdered Rebecca Griego at her workplace, then committed suicide. Apparently Mr Rowan was unaware of the fact that weapons are banned on school campi.

According to an AP story here, her boss said, "She did everything that a person in her situation could have done, other than leaving town."

Well, she didn't do everything.

As early as grammar school, her parents could've enrolled her in martial arts classes. As soon as she could physically handle it, they might've begun teaching her how to handle a firearm safely and how to shoot. Failing that, she could've begun these things herself, as soon as she attained adulthood.

Had Rebecca been capable of defending herself either by means of martial arts or with a weapon, she might very well have been able to successfully defend herself against this subhuman thug.

Had lawmakers been more in touch with the facts of reality, they'd never have banned weapons of self defense on school grounds (or anywhere else). Anyone who wishes to commit suicide, and take a number of others with him, need have no concern. He knows he'll have the only gun. Mr Rowan was free to carry out his evil plan without fear of effective resistance.

Although Ms Griego informed Campus Security and her coworkers of the restraining order and circulated Mr Rowan's photo amongst these same individuals, there was nothing that a disarmed campus could do against a deranged individual bent 'pon murder and suicide. She received no warning.

Sad. Many individuals are scared to death of even the sight of a firearm, but not afraid to set up housekeeping with people they barely know.

An armed society is a polite society.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Death Squads of Homeland Security

It was pretty well guaranteed that when the President decided that the way to fight the "War on Terror" was to destroy the Bill of Rights that the Fourth Reich had begun. The fact that relatively few Americans protested has pretty much sealed it.

There are protests all the time. There was one last weekend in several cities. Unfortunately, the protests aren't against the crimes committed right here in the United States by those who are sworn to protect our rights, but against the federal government's bungling attempt to turn Iraq into a democracy.

Meanwhile, as we're distracted by the needless spending of both money and lives over there, innocent Americans are being murdered by homegrown death squads, also known as SWAT squads, right here in the land of the once free.

I've written about SWAT atrocities here, here and here, and Radley Balko, The Agitator, writes about them all the time, Now I've just read about another. Not that there aren't many more: the msm seems to be a mite deficient in their reportage of these things. We hear about them locally, but not nationally. The sheer numbers would cause a riot of outrage.

This one happened almost five months ago. A Wilmington, Delaware death squad murdered a US Marine veteran recently retired after two distinguished tours in Iraq and a medical discharge after a combat-related injury. Sergeant Derek J Hale was in Wilmington to participate in a Toys for Tots event with members of his motorcycle club.

Hale was unaware he was under surveillance by the local police because members of his club were suspected of dealing in drugs (for shame!). There is no evidence that Hale participated in any drug dealing. After accosting Hale, who had been sitting in front of an apartment building talking to a friend and her two children, they almost immediately tasered him not once, but three times. Then, while he was trying to comply with police orders (unable to physically control himself after the taser) he was shot three times in the chest and killed by the evil Lt William Brown of the Wilmington police.

The Wilmington police immediately went into cover-up mode and made up the standard excuse used by police death squads after they commit murder.

There were several witnesses to the murder, and a wrongful death civil lawsuit has been filed against WPD on behalf of Sgt Hale's widow.

While we all still seem to be living relatively free and comfortable lives, and these insane incidents don't really touch many of us, it's easy to remain complacent. Such is the way many of us behave. Such is the way many German citizens behaved too, until it was too late and they were being loaded unto trains.

It's hard to know when the political situation becomes unbearable, and what to do about it. We should all sharpen our wits and pay attention. We should all have passports.

Tip of the battered grey fedora: Pro Libertate Blog via Philosophical Detective.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Few Random Thoughts

You get a little time to think while listening to the radio during my 40 to 70 minute drive to the office and back each day.

The funny part of it is that most ads seem to be geared toward the most stupid people. The bad part is, when one realizes it becomes difficult to take the advertisment, the advertiser, and even the product seriously.

In Los Angeles, and probably everywhere else, certain advertisers use saturation advertising--a program in which they buy a spot in just about every commercial break, on just about every radio or tv station. How this can be successful is far beyond my ken. I hear their ads so often that I come to the state in which I change the station when I hear certain ads. There's no chance I'd actually venture into the store in question!

Also, consider the following:

• Advertisers of British cars often employ narrators with English accents. Why don't advertisers of German cars have German accents? Why don't advertisers of Japanese cars have Japanese accents?
• How many people do not know that a ten-digit phone number requires a "1" prefix?
• Don't advertisers know that "Save 20% Off" is redundant?
• Has it occurred to anyone besides me that advertisers who announce their phone number more than twice, do so because they think we're stupid?
• How is it that advertisers know what we deserve?
• What's the difference between a laundry list and a list?
• "Results may vary" is advertiser code for "sometimes it works."
• The purpose of the disclaimer at the end of an ad is to tell you that everything previously said is a lie.
• In an ad, why is it that the smart one is always a woman and the dumb one is always a man?
• What does "Save up to 25% or more" mean?
  

I love advertising. How else can one learn about the many products available? But really! People aren't that stupid.....I hope.

Perhaps I spend too much time listening to the radio.

Hunting for consistency...

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Bulldog No More

I'm English by ancestry, but American by birth. While I'm often very critical of the US federal government (rightfully so, say most), I remain a defender of the America that might be and ought to be. I'm a veteran of a short, not overly distinguished career in the US Navy, of which I'm proud. I've felt embarrassed for our Navy and the rest of our military on a very few occasions.

The first in memory was the USS Pueblo incident in 1968. It still seems like dereliction that a nearly unarmed naval vessel (two .50 caliber machine guns) was sent into potentially hostile waters with no backup. The Korea Navy captured Pueblo after some attempts to maneuver away, and some shooting by the Koreans, in which one American sailor was killed. It seems even worse that the government went to Korea hat-in-hand to "begotiate" for the return of the crew. The Pueblo remains in Korea to this day.

Next, (not including our politicians' blundering into and embarrassingly out of Viet Nam) was the Iran hostage event in 1979. President Carter stumbled around for over a year before newly-elected President Reagan finally brokered a deal to get the hostages released.

I know I've omitted an number of other politically-inspired blunders, many of which resulted in many innocent people being killed and maimed. All of them cost taxpayers a lot of money.

My British acquaintances could undoubtedly tell of many similar blunders committed by their government, though in recent decades, I doubt any of theirs reaches the size and scope of ours. I'm sure that many British folks have been killed, maimed, impoverished and embarrassed by the stupidity of their politicians.

I'm thinking that the capture of the fifteen Royal Navy sailors and marines by Iranian Navy "pirates" in the Persian Gulf falls into this category. The sailors and marines were attached to British frigate HMS Cornwall, and were patrolling in small boats when they were captured by the Iranians.

Tales from British history lead us to think that the Royal Navy isn't a force one should take lightly. Not the case any more, apparently.

I'd have thought that Cornwall would've blown the Iranian savages out of the water before they could capture the patrol boats, and then dropped a few bombs 'pon the nearest Iranian Navy base to teach them a lesson. Looks like Tony Blair is more of a yipping terrier than a bulldog.

Fitting everyone in Europe for burqas.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Patriot Act Abuse

I'm not sure how many times we've all been assured that the evil Patriot Act won't be abused by using its provisions against Americans, but I know we've been thusly assured somewhere approaching the number of times the Act has been abused. We'll never, for obvious reasons, be told how many times, against whom and in what ways our sovereign individuality has been assaulted by government thugs by means of the provisions of this destructive and unneeded attack on the US Constitution and those who live under its withering protection, but the assaults are many, deliberate and designed to diminish our control of our individual lives.

I'm not sure how this cat escaped its bag, but according to this and other recent news stories, the unConstitutional FBI has been abusing its alleged power and collected a so-far unspecified amount of data on an unspecified number of Americans and foreigners.

Ironically, the congressfools that are taking the FBI to task for their illegal activities are the same ones that violated their oaths of office to vote to destroy our Constitutional rights. Where were they when the President decided that the way to fight the islamic savages was to attack the US Constitution?

Now, we have to examine the sincerity of these same congressfools: How many of the guilty FBI thugs have been indicted so far? How many fired? How many even suspended!?

One has to wonder at the way our perverted government works when two Border Patrol officers are quickly jailed for trying to do their job and many FBI thugs are merely scolded for betraying the Bill of Rights.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Environazi Jihad, or alGorea Fatwa

In light of the oft-stated desire on the part of the alGorean fundamentalists to destroy the lives of Global Warming Deniers (an unofficial club in which I've proudly become a member), we find it advisable that Global Warming Cool Heads go into hiding. Rumor has it that alGorea death squads are forming up to search out heretics and shut their mouths permanently.

The dirty little secret? Funds raised by those Carbon Vouchers about which we often hear are being used to train and equip hit squads in hidden desert camps in strategic areas of the world.

University of Copenhagen Professor Bjarne Andresen has placed himself at risk by declaring that "the currently used method of determining the global temperature -- and any conclusion drawn from it -- is more political than scientific," according to a story here.

This entire new course by the alGorean fundamentalists got its start with derisive comments by Robert F Kennedy, as reported here. It became a bit more serious as a result of threats by various global warming mullahs, including Dr Helen Cullen, of the Weather Channel, who called for all meteorologists who don't toe the Global Warming religion to be decertified.

In the light of the truth, and the emergence of more and more viable commentaries finding fault with the mullahs of Global Warming, desperation is setting in, calling for more drastic measures, such as the silencing of heretics. Professor Andresen ought to exercise caution when travelling into hotbeds of alGoreans. As for myself, I find it illuminating to hide amongst them, right in the belly of the beast, in one of the many centers of the alGorean jihad. Helps me to keep my edge.

It gives us even more reason to patronize the products of Denmark, as Danes emerge as the world's leading heroes in the fight against crazed fanatics of all sorts.

Save a tree. Exhale.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Perpetual Politics

With the mid-term Congressional elections a mere three-and-a-half months past, the 2008 Presidential election season is already in full bloom--and has been for.....three-and-a-half months. Since several states, including the Stalag, have moved their primaries up to early February (Our governator reportedly will sign the Stalag California version of the move tomorrow). This means that those candidates who will face primaries early next year (including many incumbents) must start raising campaign money now. And they are.

Sadly, some of next year's Presidential candidates have already sullied portions of the Stalag with their presence and their audio pollution.

If there's any good to come of it, I find myself obliged to mention hopefully that the time that sitting incumbents spend campaigning is time they won't be picking our pockets. We can also enjoy the many unbelievable promises and funny verbal missteps we have to look forward to laughing at.

Otherwise, the news is quite bad: we're already inundated with radio and tv talk show speculation and the advocating of various candidates, and all too soon we'll find the airwaves and cable stations saturated with political ads.

Didn't we just get past all this crap?

Even worse: we're virtually guaranteed that each and every one of those to be successfully elected will waste no time figuring out new ways to get into our wallets and bank accounts.

Too bad we don't have a "None of the Above" box on our ballots.

Remember! VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENTS!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

1957

1957 was quite a year. Eisenhower was President, Nixon was VP. The Milwaukee Braves won the World Series, the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. The average American's income was $4494, a stamp was three cents and a loaf of bread was nineteen cents.

Fifty years ago, I was in the second semester of my seventh grade of school. I had a newspaper route and a car (a 1950 Chevy, which I couldn't yet drive on the street, but which I enjoyed wrenchin' on and driving it up and down the driveway). I was in love with a very lovely girl who was a lot smarter than I.

In Grand Forks at that time, anyone--boy or girl, man or woman--could walk down any street, any time of day or night, without fear of being accosted by either thug or police. I occasionally went for late-night walks to think and enjoy the peace.

It was a wonderful year, and a wonderful time.

Thinking about 1957 caused me to develop what I call "The Ten Times Rule." Everything costs about ten times today what it cost in 1957. I made up that rule about ten years ago, when I realized that a nickel candy bar then cost fifty cents and a loaded 1957 Chevy Bel Air hardtop that cost about $2500 whereas a 1997 Chevy Impala was priced at over $20,000 and a Camaro Z28 could cost over $30,000. A bottle of Coke cost a nickel; a can of Coke in 1997 cost around fifty cents.

Gasoline sold for 20 to 30 cents a gallon, depending 'pon in what state 'twas purchased, and in recent times tends to hover just below $3.00. A Colt 1911A1 pistol cost around $100 in 1957, in 1997 it could be had for around $500 or so; somewhat an exception to the "Rule."

One has to be pretty careful about applying the "Rule" as products have changed a lot over the intervening decades. In addition, this isn't 1997 any more. I'd have to call it "The Twelve Times Rule now. In fact, perhaps I will. It'll require slightly more difficult mental calculation, but I'll try to measure up to the task.

There are a lot of factors causing these increases. There've been major changes in manufacturing methods and materials and business practices. There has been great technological advancement. These differences, one might argue (convincingly) would tend to keep prices low.

Well, one might ask, then why are prices twelve times higher than they were in 1957? Well, dear friends, here comes the not-too-surprising answer: There are three primary reasons why prices have increased punishingly in the past fifty years. They are 1) government, 2) government and 3) government.

1) Draconian and confiscatory increases in taxes 'pon individuals and business--which, of course, end up being paid by individuals. My dad told me, years ago, that his total taxes, federal, state and local, totalled around ten percent of his income. My current tax load is over fifty percent of my income--not including a lot of hidden taxes that are not known to me.

2) Mindless and unneeded regulations 'pon individuals and business. Government regulation is so much a spaghetti bowl of tangled and undecipherable, not to mention often contradictory hodge-podge of safety, accounting and "moral" rules that the only way any of us can function is to ignore most of them and hope we're not noticed. Even after that, these regulations cost each of us an incalculable amount of time and money.

3) Government manipulation of the money supply. Prior to the formation of the evil and manipulative Federal Reserve, American money was gold and silver. While, even then, government wrongfully pegged the "value" of these commodities in dollars, our money was very stable and could be predicted from year to year. Since that time the Fed, acting 'pon government orders, adjusts the money supply to suit government purposes. In bad times, the value of our money decreases three percent or so annually. In worse times, money value has decreased at rates up to ten or twelve percent per year, and more. In the worst times, money is simply revalued by a factor. Devaluing is always a surprise and instantly robs the money holdings of individuals and corporations instantly and severely.

Intelligent estimates are that, in the absence of the above, each hour of the productive work of each individual would be worth six to eight times what it is, under the handicap of the hobbles forced 'pon us by government.

Why do we put up with them, the parasites that so severely and deliberately place limits 'pon our ability to function? 'Twas a frog-in-the-kettle sort of story. Had government tossed a frog into a kettle of hot water, it would've jumped out quickly to escape the pain. Government has tossed us into a kettle of cool water, and is very gradually turning up the heat, and we're complacently enjoying the warming water--not yet noticing that it's becoming uncomfortably hot on the way to boiling us to death.

How long are we going to put up with it?

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Mission Accomplished!

I don't know if most large cities are as utterly dysfunctional as is El Pueblo de Los Angeles, but it seems to be following a pattern set by the state, originally seen (in this country) in the US federal government. Since these governmental entities attract power-mad controller types, these individuals see the way to increased power (over others) is to control as much of the infrastructure as possible.

Trouble is, these little fascists are neither very smart nor very imaginitive. To them, it's a one-size-fits-all world. Ultimately, their grandiose control schemes fail. Today, el Pueblo de Los Angeles is failing, the state of California is failing and the federal government of the United States is failing. Various petty little dictators are biting off way more than they can chew and trying to control far more than can be controlled.

In this case, I'm spotlighting the LA Unified School District and the LA Police Dept.

Seems there's a children's prison down in South Central called the Santee Education Center. There is also a severe gang problem in the area. Many youngsters ride the LA Metro buses to school, which stop at an intersection two blocks from the children's prison. The kids have to walk the remaining two blocks.

Seems that local gangsters often prey 'pon the kids, harassing them about gang affiliation and/or robbing them of cash and valuables. Finally, officials of el pueblo decided to do something. They added another bus stop only one block from the children's prison.

Patience, my friends, it gets better from here.

According to stories in the LA Times, including this one, at the inauguration of this new bus stop, a bus carrying Antonio Vinaigrette, el alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles, schools Supt. David Brewer and Santee Principal Vince Carbino, a posse of LAPD officers and news reporters (an unconfirmed rumor states that the new bus stop cost $7 million) was tagged by a student!! Tagging, for those of you in south Indiana, is scribbling graffiti 'pon the outside of the vehicle with spray paint or a magic marker.

The lad, wearing a gray hoodie and looking very mean, wrote his handle, "Zoner," on a bus window. He bolted when he realized that a news reporter was taking pictures of him through the very bus window 'pon which he was scribbling. El Alcalde, who reportedly was quite angry, wanted the police to catch and arrest the kid, but cooler heads prevailed as they realized they might cause a traffic problem in the street. Mr Carbino was sure he could locate the youngster through school records.

I would have loved to have seen the Keystone Kops chase routine that might've erupted at that point. Too bad; a great opportunity was missed.

A tip of the old battered fedora to Doug McIntyre, talk show host at KABC-AM in LA, for asking why the city isn't, instead of creating a new bus stop, going after the gangs, arresting those who commit crimes.

Meanwhile, children's prison officials battered each other trying to get at the mike to be first to say that they don't want this tagger punished; his action is a "cry for help."

I wonder if Charles Manson's 1969 Tate-Bianca murder spree was a "cry for help."

I fear for the life of the Republic.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Let Them Eat Cake

Jolly Prince Charlie went on the record here as being opposed to MacDonald's burger joints in Great Britain, apparently not for the first time. He thinks his subjects, especially the children, ought to eat a balanced diet. He wants to ban the Big Mac, which is about as nutritious as a plate of fish & chips (if not as tasty).

The general decline of the British economy, caused by the increasing degree of government intervention creeping into the economy, makes it difficult for many of the working class, not to mention the out-of-work class, to be able to eat according to the standards of royalty.

Hence, I declare Charles, Prince of Wales the winner of the First Occasional Marie Antoinette Foot-In-Mouth Award. May he find a conspicuous place for it 'pon his chest with all his fake military medals.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Clever, These Parasites....

This past November, we (those of us who haven't yet decided that voting is futile) voted in the election that turned Congress back over to Socialist Party A, dealing a blow to Socialist Party B's plan to pursue The Forever War.

More relevant to many of us here in the Stalag, was the then-current installment of bond issues up for a vote so the state parasites can spend a bunch more money without having to raise taxes.

It's been said that much of California's budget goes to pay interest on past bond issues.

Proposition 1B of 2006 is a proposed bond issue to pay for needed work on the state's highways and freeways to alleviate traffic bottlenecks. A little more research that I want to do right now, will expose the fact that there was another bond issue just a few years ago, to accomplish precisely that same task. One might wonder where those billions went, since they apparently didn't go to the state's highways then.

Since Stalag Califonia is a sort of floating ponzi game, Prop 1B passed handily. CalTrans now has $20 billion to spend on who-knows-what, and to line any number of thieving pockets.

The California Highway Commission, a group appointed by the Governor, has just come out with its list of recommendations as to how the $20B should be spent. It turns out that a relatively small amount of the bonanza will be spent in El Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Antonio Vinaigrette, el alcalde, stands beside himself. What about I-405 through the Sepulveda Pass? What about the I-605/I-10 interchange?

I have personal knowledge about the deplorable condition of I-405. I don't even go there anymore, even though it used to be the easiest way to get to the OC from here. Not anymore.

I can't vouch for I-605/I-10 one way or the other. I only rarely venture out that way at all, because, well.....everyone knows there's no intelligent life east of I-5.

Here's the clever part, folks. This'll crack you up. One of the Los Angeles area State Assemblymen, one Fabian Nunez, Democrat, Los Angeles, says he'll propose yet another highway bond proposition to address these areas.

As one of the all-time great stand-up comedians, Mort Sahl, said on more than one occasion, "The true stuff is the funniest stuff, folks."

You just can't make this stuff up!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Two Great Graphic Novels

I've mentioned this to some folks, and CC also mentioned it recently: Big Head Press has begun serializing a number of graphic novels, each of which is continued each week. Two of the stories are by L Neil Smith, my favorite Sci-Fi author.

The first is Neil's first novel, The Probability Broach. It's been over ten years since I first read the print novel, but the graphic novel, drawn by Scott Bieser, is a lot of fun.

The second, not yet released in print, is Roswell, Texas. This one, like TPB, is an "alternate universe" story. It's set in a universe in which Texas remains an independent nation, which requires its citizens to carry a sidearm for personal protection, unless they declare themselves conscientious objectors.

Both novels are a lot of fun, and offer the reader a view of a possible libertarian society.

I await each week's installment of each story with a great deal of anticipation, much as many of you ladies wait for the next episode of As The World turns.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm Regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Parasites--Same the World Over

I always thought the state legislature here in the Stalag was the single most useless body of wasted humanity 'pon this planet, next to the (nearly) whole of Washington DC. It may still be the case, but I'd like to enter, for your consideration, the North Dakota State House. Much smaller and less opulently endowed than that of the Stalag, it still manages to waste money (extorted from others) to a degree that, I'm sure, holds its own on a per-capita basis.

In a story on the BusinessPortal24.com site (with additional commentary from Ole Bjugstadt of Finley, North Dakota), we find that, in a rare show of restraint, the North Dakota State House rejected a measure to honor Bono, of the rock band U2, for his efforts to relieve the debt of third world countries (presumably debt to us, here in the United States).

Bono, who has worked very hard throughout his youth to make a success of the band U2, and who now is enjoying the bountiful fruits of his labors, has been hob-nobbing with Hollywood "philanthropists," and has learned from them the means of becoming well thought of in the larger society (outside of the world of rock 'n' roll).

You simply announce that you wish to help the poor, then you talk other people into doing it with their money. Then, you take credit for the whole thing.

An Assemblyman from Fargo submitted the bill to the august body, even though Bono has no connection whatever with the State of North Dakota and, to my knowledge, has never even been in North Dakota. One Assemblyman was heard to say that he thought they meant the late Sony Bono.

Some say U2 gave a concert in Fargo once, but the truly savvy know that it was actually Babe's Bitch, a garage band from Brainerd, filling in for them on an occasion in which they accidentally booked two locations on the same night. After they costumed themselves in "depressing European suicide rock band" drag, each of the members of Babe's Bitch drank a pint of Canadian Club before the concert to be able to truly look convincing in the role.

Major music critics have yet to weigh in on the success of the concert, and many Fargo concert attendees said they enjoyed the music, though one fan who traveled down from Winnipeg said he thought the singer sounded Norwegian.

Fortunately, a majority of the state's Assembly didn't hit the Canadian Club on this occasion and cooler heads prevailed. Bono will have to, for the time being, remain "just another Irishman" in the records of the North Dakota State Assembly.

Yet another thing for Europeans to hold against America.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Another Case of Not Enough Guns

According to a story on BusinessPortal24.com--and many other places--the trench-coated Sulejmen Talovic would've killed several more people in the Trolley Square shopping Center in Salt Lake City, had Ken Hammond, an off-duty officer from nearby Ogden, not confronted the murderer. I applaud Mr Hammond for his valor.

Talovic killed five individuals and wounded four more, in a rampage that could've been far worse had Mr Hammond not been nearby and willing to get involved.

My opinion? Because the vast majority of Americans are complacent about the possibility of violence, and no longer find it fashionable to be capable of defending ourselves, and since some have extended this attitude into law, this majority staggers through life as sheep at the mercy of the first criminal who will do them harm. Even the police urge individuals to give the evil-doer what he wants and do what he orders.

Bow meekly before the asshole who, through force of arms, holds my life in his hands? I don't think so!

Had several others within the shopping center been armed as this fool began his rampage, the situation might've been controlled much like Scott Bieser's 'toon about the Sept 11, 2001 hijackings. At the very least, someone might've been able to stop this fool before he killed anyone.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Politician With Common Sense?

I never thought I'd see the day.

I don't think much of politicians and political leaders. Not much at all. I only bring this up because it is (to my knowledge) unique. In a Drudge story, it seems the President of Czech Republic is another one of those evil Global Warming Denier.

Mr Vaclav Klaus, in an interview for "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, says, "IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body....." of the green variety. Asked why none of the world's senior statesmen share his views, he says, "Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice."

I particularly enjoyed reading Mr Klaus' doubts as to the sanity of Algore.

Refreshing.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Prince of Phallic Symbolism

It might seem like I'm stuck of talk show hosts, and maybe I am, but I just have to write about this, since it at once stands out as irrefutable proof that the christian taliban right is obsessed with sexual symbolism, if not with the sex itself.

I watched the HyperBowl game yesterday, and enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that I'm not that much of a fan of foopbaw. I've always rather enjoyed the game played under inclement weather conditions. It's interesting to see how the players deal with rain, snow, cold and/or a muddy field. In yesterday's game, the main problem was a steady rain that lasted troughout the game. One of the reasons my interest in the game has flagged, is the proliferation of covered stadia. Traditionally, foopbaw is an outdoor sport.

Debbie and I watched the halftime show with a high degree of enthusiasm, both being Prince fans. While I might've picked a slightly different playlist, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. As did Debbie. I commented that this was one of the only halftime shows that actually worked, in several years.

This morning, on the infamous Laura Ingraham talk show, I found out how wrong I was. I didn't notice this, I was enjoying the show: seems that, at one point, Prince used a wind machine to blow a large, white cloth sheet to a vertical, flapping, moving screen 'pon which the lighting caused his shadow to be displayed as he sang and played his guitar. For a brief moment, Price turned so that the shadow of his body hid the guitar body, and the neck of the guitar appeared to be sticking out of the front of his pants. As he ran his hand up and down the frets, well, you can imagine how that looked.

Ms Ingraham, sexually repressed individual that she appears to be, jumped 'pon that image like Miss Balbricker in the shower scene in the film Porky's.

Ms Ingraham spent a large portion of her show discussing this, bringing up the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show a few years ago. It seems we can see which kind of individual is sex-obsessed.

One of the excuses Ms Ingraham (and others--Hannity, O'Reilly, et al) uses for her fixation 'pon these kinds of images is that of protecting the children.

We have to protect the children.

I don't think it's the job of the christian taliban right to make the world child-safe. I don't want the world to be child safe, nor is it its nature to be so.

Parents, care for your children. Love your children. What you teach them in their first four years will go far toward their psychological makeup throughout their lives. What you teach them in the next ten or so years will make young men and women out of them.

And, for the sake of their safety and future sanity, keep them out of the government's children's prisons!! They're getting more and more dangerous and more and more destructive of the uniqueness of the individual.

No one has ever been able to convince me that casually observed sexual images are destructive to children. Usually, they elicit an attack of curiosity--normal and healthy for a child. You tell the youngster the truth--just enough to satisfy his curiosity. You can tell him more later, as he gets older.

"Protecting" a child from his own adulthood is far more destructive than any casually observed sexual images he might encounter. If you can manage to protect your children from sexual abuse--a formidable enough task--that'll do. That'll do, along with his education and your love.

Government schools are child abuse.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

It's Not Only the Islamists

This afternoon, I was watching Fox News. A program called "Heartland, with John Kasich" was on. I don't often watch this show, because Kasich seems such a stupid man. A topic on his show caught my eye.

He was interviewing a couple of women on the subject of teaching "exotic dancing" to teenage girls. One of the women conducts classes on exotic dancing, and offers reasons why a teenage girl might want to learn the techniques. The other, obviously, thinks this is stupid. Or rather, in today's typical non-judgemental speak, not helpful.

Kasich is downright hostile. Clearly, he thinks any mention or suggestion of anything sexual to any girl under the age of, say sixty, is robbing a girl of her childhood.

Well, unlike John Kasich, I was a child once, and though I had a pretty good childhood, at the time, I was continually wishing it was over so I could go out and do real stuff. Childhood, though a carefree time of learning and playing (ideally) seems vastly overrated.

What could be wrong with teaching young girls to dance, in any manner, when they've decided that they would like it?

I know from previous experience that Kasich is a christian conservative. He was in Congress for a short time and, fortunately for all of us, is no longer there. As far as his opinions on the subjects of girls, women and sexuality, Kasich falls in the same category with other christian conservatives like media personalities Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham and others. Put girls in burqas and keep them from any knowledge of things sexual until marriage. Put the boys in uniform and send them to war.

Girls ought to be educated by their parents gradually, as they express curiosity about things sexual--especially the dangerous aspects--and then guided as they grow up. Then, they should be trusted to behave intelligently as they attain adulthood.

Most parents are way too protective of their kids, for far too long. It often leaves them unprepared to deal with the world as they become adults.

Kids are always smarter (in many respects) than adults think they are.

We should let them be adults.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Blame Canada!

I don't know. I don't find anything wrong with this.....well, there is one thing, which I'll mention later. According to this story from BBC, and this story from Telegraph.co.uk, the small town of Herouxville, about 100 miles northeast of Montreal, has adopted a resolution detailing certain kinds of behavior that immigrants to the town shall not be allowed to do. The resolution reads: "We consider it completely outside norms to... kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc."

The resolution adds: "....That women are allowed to drive, vote, dance and own their own homes."

It further states, "The rules ban Sikh children from carrying ceremonial daggers to school...."

Here's where the City of Herouxville and I part company. Canadians, like most other British Commonwealth states, are not very smart with regard to the notion of self defense. Presumably, because in the end, the British Crown regards all of its subjects to be its chattel. It can't allow the serfs the right of self defense, since the serfs might someday realize that their worst enemy is, indeed, the Crown.

So, in the event of a robbery or an attempt at murder or rape, the Crown wants its serfs to simply lie down and die.

I don't accept that and, at least in a ceremonial way, neither do the Sikhs. I'll allow them their daggers, whether ceremonial imitations or real, sharp, steel daggers. I'll allow them sidearms, swords, blackjacks, nunchuks or brass knuckles--so long as they use them only to defend themselves and not to initiate force.

As to the former, islamists are notorious in their hatred for women. I have no idea how they manage to multiply--how women in islamic societies put up with their savagery.

I think it would serve all of Western Civilization well to require civilized behavior of all their immigrants.

Thanks and a tip of the battered gray fedora to Thaddeus Tremayne at Samizdata.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Children's Prisons Under Siege

I was reading the story through the plastic window of the vending machine. It was the Los Angeles Daily News, a leftist-run newspaper that I don't purchase because of its bias.

Later, I found the story (containing a lot of leftist spin) on the net.

The story tells us that students at several San Fernando Valley High Schools are experiencing an increasing number of violent attacks in recent times. I might wonder how this could possibly be, in light of the fact that LA children's prisons are legally "safe school zones," in which there are high penalties for possession of a weapon or committing various other crimes within the area.

David Brewer, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, neatly sidesteps the issue by claiming it's "the community's fault." He pledges to work closely with Antonio Vinaigrette, el alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles to reduce gang activity.

El alcalde, a member of MEChA, a latino power organization, is failing miserably in the battle against criminal gangs, partly because he refuses to acknowledge the racial aspect of gang dynamics, and partly because he refuses to recognize the means of their funding: illegal vice. He further casts a blind eye 'pon anything that might actually lessen their power. His idea of fighting gangs is with negotiation, and attempts to learn more about their grievances so he can find a way to satisfy them. "I feel your pain," or the like.

I have news for you, Senor Alcalde: They want money and they want power over others. Just like you do. Just like the city council does. Just like the federal government's elected officials do.
They, and you, want the unearned. You want respect and adulation even if you have to get it by force of arms.

I know this is the farthest thing from your mind (such as it is), but if you really wanted to do away with gangs, here are three things that will go a long way toward a solution:

• Repeal all of the municipal gun laws. All of them. This is the most important, and would be the most effective of this entire list. One of the biggest reasons for the success of gangs in El Pueblo is the fact that most of their victims have no way of effectively defending themselves.
• Repeal all municipal drug laws. The enforcement of drug laws is far more harmful to the populace than are the drugs themselves. If the drugs to which we refer as "recreational" were readily available at drug stores (or even head shops) at market prices, gangs will have lost their primary source of revenue, not to mention power.
• Withhold tax payments to the state and federal governments. They are doing nothing to help the problem. Their actions seriously aggravate these and many other local difficulties, and they deserve no payment for their lack of effective effort.
• Permanently suspend any and all mandatory taxes, and solicit donations from the public to fund police and court activities. The poor can't afford to pay your confiscatory taxes; the better off could afford to invest in businesses that could offer honest work to ex-gangsters and the honest unemployed alike. Offer all municipal services on a fee-for-service basis at market prices.
  
• El Pueblo should divest itself of all services that can be offered on the free market. Fire fighting and prevention, education, health services, utilities, public transportation, routine police patrolling, construction inspection and even streets and highways can be privately owned and operated. It'd be done far more efficiently and at less expense outside of municipal control.

The only reason that these solutions won't be considered is that, in the deepest analysis, Senor Vinaigrette, the City Council, the Chief of Police and the heads of the various municipal departments are a gang in their own right, and will only mount a serious battle against street gangs if they actually challenge the power of city government itself.

....And that could happen, amigos mios. It could happen soon.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addendum:
As I write this, according to a story in the Long Beach Press Telegram, four of nine gang thugs who beat up three young women of another race in nearby Long Beach this past Halloween because they are of another race, were sentenced to probation and house arrest for their actions. These women are not yet recovered from their injuries. This is a perfect example of municipal governments' inability (of lack of desire) to deal with gang activity.

'E's A Clean Young Man

The 2008 Presidential election, still more than 21 months away, is already starting to draw verbal fauxs pas. Today, Senator Joe Biden, on the heels of his announcement as a candidate, spoke to the press at a diner near his Delaware office.

According to a Jason Horowitz story in the New York Observer, Biden's message included criticisms of the leading announced Democrat candidates, mainly Senators Clinton, Williams and Obama. Sen. Biden doesn't think any one of these candidates has a viable plan regarding the ending of the conflict in Iraq. He's conceded by many to be an expert in foreign policy.

While discussing the shortcomings of these candidates, he paused to pay Senator Obama a complement: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," he said. "I mean, that’s a storybook, man."

One is left to assume that all of the other Black Legislators in Washington are none of those things. A few of those I've observed speaking in the House and Senate chambers has led me to agree, at least on their ability to articulate clearly.

Sen. Biden has since apologized to Sen. Obama. I wonder how long it'll take him to get around to apologizing to the rest of them.

It's occurred to many, including myself, that this is a more severe insult than that of Sen. Lott 'pon the occasion of the infamous Strom Thurmond 100th birthday event. But not to any Democrat.

Hypocrisy is not a rare commodity in Washington DC.

I fear for the health of the Republic.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

LA Road Warrior

Fortunately, I was going in the right direction today: luck o' the draw.

There's an old joke. Why do Mexicans like to deal in cash? Because it's hard to sign a check with a can of spray paint.

Apparently, this morning, one of those dopey Mexi-gang types spray painted a pretty large--and I'd guess a pretty undesirable--message 'pon a bridge abutment wall on the southbound I-5 freeway just south of Boyle Heights. Boyle Heights is a pretty heavily latin (self-imposed) ghetto just southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Mexi-gang lingo graffiti is abundantly visible throughout the area.

As I mentioned, the graffito must've been kind of nasty, though I couldn't tell for sure because I was passing at 60mph, and there was a Caltrans drone painting it out with gray paint. They usually just leave it until someone else comes along and paints over it. About all I could tell from the uncovered portion was that it was Mexi-gang in nature.

The bad part of this whole scene wasn't so much the fact of the graffito. The bad part is as follows: While the painter was working with a paint roller to cover the "art," and his partner had a flat-bed truck alongside in the right traffic lane, a highway patrol idjit had all four lanes of traffic stopped dead, waiting for the painter to finish(!).

As I said at the beginning, I was going in the right direction. All those on the southbound side were stopped, waiting while a civil servant is painting a bridge! Thousands of gallons of gas and diesel fuel were being wasted, costing every driver money for the added wear on his vehicle, not to mention time lost in the life of each and every individual sitting there breathing the concentrated exhaust fumes of all those vehicles while watching paint dry.

Here we have even more proof that freeways ought to be taken out of the hands of the blundering state and given (sold to pay off Guber Ahnold's burgeoning deficit) to those who can operate them efficiently.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California