The Brain Drain Tax

Back in the 1960's, I recall #1 all time Hall O' Fame Science Fiction Writer Robert A Heinlein saying that as the United States drifts toward socialism, and as USSR is gradually forced to accept degrees of capitalism, USSR would surpass the US in the degree of freedom by, I think it was, approximately 1980. While part of sci-fi writers jobs is to suggest possible futures, this area is fraught with danger. While Heinlein came very close to being right, after President Reagan drove them broke trying to keep up with us in the arms race Russian President Vladimir Putin (Modern Russia's near-equivalent to Germany's Adolf Hitler), is now saying "we'll have no more of this freedom crap" or words of similar meaning.

Putin appears to be restarting the Cold War. That's a big danger now, because recent weak-kneed US Administrations have no will, nor do they really have enough extorted cash, to engage in such a battle. President-elect Obama gives indications that he'd rather switch than fight. Or, the masochist's version: he'd rather be switched than fight.

Meanwhile, the wheels of the bus go round and round, and the bus has long since turned left. We can thank every Administration since Reagan's for that. By the end of Obama's term, the argument may not be about who will win, but how the spoils will be divided, and whether it'll be Putin or Obama who'll be selected World Dictator for Life. These, of course, are merely pessimistic musings on my part. I hope I'm wrong.

The world's productive individuals, those of them who are not scrambling over each other's backs for government bailout cash, are wondering where they stand.

There's been a lot of banter on the net and probably in other venues about "going John Galt." Since entrepreneurs who earn $250k and over have been declared the enemy by Obama, it's no surprise that small business owners in that category, or are working toward that category, are concerned.

Some, according to this entry on the Instapundit blogsite, are planning to "relax." That is, simply lay off employees and work only hard enough to stay below that threshold.

Others speak of liquidating their assets and leaving the country. There are many parts of the world, while perhaps even more socialistic than the US, offer pleasant country areas in which an individual or family can live in peace, tinkering, painting or writing with out much interference from that government.

Well, it's going to be tougher to outsmart the Reich than it used to be. According to a New York Post story, Americans who want to leave America and to retire to Italy (for example) will have to pay a hefty tax.

Thanks can be given to a bill that passed Congress recently and was quietly signed by President Bush two weeks ago.

Called the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Act of 2008 (the HEART bill, for short), the main part of the new law deservedly gives benefits to soldiers. But the last part of the bill, under "revenue provisions," sticks it to anyone who no longer wants to live the American dream.

Now, one has to be very crafty about getting his assets liquidated and removed from the country. Even British rock stars and Canadian actors will have to pay the tax to return to their own countries.

This, of course, is patterned directly after the taxes that needed to be paid by citizens of the USSR who wanted to expatriate during the Cold War. Which brings me back to Heinlein's prediction. Pay attention to science fiction writers. Sometimes they're right.

Tip of the old gray fedora to Noodle Food and Instapundit for

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

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Two Wolves and a Lamb.....

I'm watching the tv news coverage of an estimated 1200 demonstrators protesting against the referendum to change the impossibly complex California state Constitution to require that marriage be only between one man and one woman. While I don't think government has any role to play in this area, other than possibly as an arbiter regarding the contractual issues involved in a marriage, I see the traditionalists' point. I also wonder what possible difference it could make to me who or how many get married. I just don't think it's a government issue. I voted against the measure.

But, taking it a step or two from there, don't most of us accept the notion that the majority rules?

Well, I certainly don't, but nearly everyone else seems to......at least until they lose.

One wonders why, as vehemently as most folks stand in favor of pure democracy against all reason, can't accept the verdict of the statewide vote.

For bond initiatives and other tax increases, and referenda that have predictable costs, I have a suggestion: Stalag California is the home of many thousands of software wizards, among whom there should be some that can do this. That is, develop software that tells our beloved franchise tax board who votes yes on these costly referenda. They should bill them and only them. Seems like it would be a relatively simple thing.

That way, the bullet train from Campo to Crescent City, to be paid for by a 1/2% addition to the sales tax, should be paid only by those who vote yes on the measure.

It's only fair.

It would make democracy an even more beautiful thing.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Guy Fawkes, Where Are You When We Need You?

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot. We see no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot!"

Today is the fifth of November, and today we have a new king. For decades now, our four year- and eight year kings have been progressively leading us in the direction of less and less liberty, and King Barry will be no exception.

Many's the time I've awakened after the election thinking that the only cure might be thirty-six well-placed barrels of a certain charcoal/sulfur/saltpeter blend under a building at a moment in which the king, his court and the whole of Parliament are all under one roof.

Then I think, as I sip my self-levitation potion, that even this probably impossible task were accomplished, there would emerge hundreds more parasites to take their places.

I think I'll just sit back and wait for my middle-class tax cut to kick in while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are declared over and all the troops are returned home, and the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act are repealed so that our horribly violated rights are once again restored. And so that we can fly on the airlines again without having our persons accosted by subhuman thugs at the airports.

Sigh.

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

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan

Stalag California

The Lie In Leftist Feminism

This is election day, and it's too early in the day to know who is the new boss (same as the old boss), so I thought I'd ignore the vote count for a while. A story was just brought to my attention that will be, but ought not be ignored. This sort of thing happens very often in the uncivilized parts of the world, and even occasionally in what we like to call civilization.

It happens because it's not roundly condemned by all civilization. It happens because the people who claim to be against this kind of savagery sit back 'pon their agendae and say and do nothing.

A story in today's British Daily Mail Online tells us of yet another young girl, this time in Savage Somalia, stoned to death for the crime of having been raped by three men. The thirteen-year-old girl was said to have been crying and begging for her life before being buried to her shoulders in the ground in the middle of a football field and stoned to death before a crowd of 1000.

Amnesty Int'l did some investigations to find that the (kangaroo) court found her guilty of adultery and sentencing her to death by stoning.

It's already well established that the islam religion seems to be every bit as savage today as was the christian religion several centuries ago.

The difference is, we supposedly know more now. We accept the notion that life is precious and we accept the notion of individual rights--in word if not always in deed.

Strange things are happening, though, on the left. The old reverence for tolerance of the views of others espoused by the left thirty-forty years ago seems to have gotten very selective in recent times. The left remains ever so tolerant of the approved and the evil, but no longer is tolerant at all of the responsible and unapproved dissent.

One can't say anything, for example, against any individual or group we'd consider anything like irresponsible, criminal, savage and evil without suffering anger, insult and ostracism (if not physical punishment) from the left. We see it in colleges and Universities in their hate speech rules. Also, in government codes--in spite of the First Amendment to the Constitution!

Thus, I have to call the NO(L)W, and other leftist feminist groups, to task for not vocally and continuously condemning islamic sharia law, if for no other reason, for its violations of the rights of women and girls living and dying under the sway of the utterly untenable rules of sharia law. Members of these groups scream at the top of their very capable lungs if a woman gets paid $10 per hour to a man's $12, and sit silently as young girls are circumcised in these savage parts of the world. The same women whimper at the unfairness of the man enjoying the look of a beautiful woman, yet uncharacteristically say nothing when presented with the likes of this poor girl murdered in a most horrible way by subhumans in Somalia.

Leftist feminists say nothing about islamic men marrying western women, having children, then take the children to hideouts in islamic countries never to be seen by their mothers again. Leftist feminists remain silent about young women wooed by wealthy islamists, taken out of their countries and placed into enslavement in islamic countries.

I can condemn islam for this, because 'tis a rare "moderate muslim" who will condemn these disgusting activities, and I do. Islam is a religion of death. It will remain so until these alleged "moderates" condemn and destroy the savage sects and bring their practitioners to justice.

The silence of the leftist feminists, though tells us of a very high degree of moral corruption, in that their leftist agendae soundly trump any thoughts of justice and moral outrage. Feminists should know better. The conclusion that must be reached is that theirs is also a philosophy of death.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Voting According to Race

With the very tardy arrival of candidates of races other than caucasian, the the specter of racism has lifted its ugly, and wholly erroneous, head. Nonetheless, there will be those who vote based 'pon race. It's the theory of myself and many others that there'll be far more who vote for Obama because he's half black than will vote against him for that reason.

In my opinion, Obama should be defeated. If Obama is elected, he'll advance the destruction of what little remains of the free market in America. He'll tax business--those who create jobs--to a higher degree, which will cause layoffs and business closures--high unemployment. He'll spend on social programs and pet projects, more than even GW Bush. He'll cripple what remains of business and manufacturing by means of environmental regulation and other nonsense. He'll socialize medicine, causing the best medical people to drop out of the industry and a general deterioration and ultimate rationing of services.

There will be many other negatives based on Obama's projected meddling in the market, not to mention the increased corruption that always accompanies increases in government power.

Obama will increase the foreign entanglements the Founders warned against, to our detriment.

To be fair, life under the McCain dictatorship probably won't be much better. Where Obama would socialize medicine, McCain would make a compromise with the Democrat Congress to a socialized medicine with copays. McCain would similarly compromise in other areas to like effect.

But, this is about race.

Imagine that Obama is elected. After his term as President, he will leave a legacy of having advanced the destruction of America's free market system (Such as it is after the assaults of every President since Roosevelt--you decide which Roosevelt) more than any previous administration. American liberty will be a memory.

And many will be very angry. There could be attempts to secede, and there could be civil war.

How long do you think it'll be before there'll be another black individual elected President?

I'd vote for a black man (or woman) for any office, in a second--as long as that individual was pro liberty, pro free market and in favor of the right of every individual to self ownership, self determination and self defense.

Individuals of the stature of Walter E Williams and Thomas Sowell come to mind.

Tip of the battered gray fedora to Scott Schneider for the idea leading to this entry.

Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Putting Priorities In Order

Never accustomed to making suggestions as to how local governments prioritize the spending of the money they steal from productive individuals, I tiptoe in with a degree of discomfort. My normal train of thought goes toward the notion that government officials have no bloody idea what they're doing, and they simply attempt to appease the loudest whiners, and to increase their personal power.

After many decades of at-will tax increases and criminal mismanagement by elected and appointed officials, followed by some meager but partially effective resistance measures by a majority of the productive electorate, many local officials are finding it increasingly difficult to leach off a productive class that's increasingly voting with its feet, and leaving high-tax cities.

Now, according to many news stories like this one in the Wall Street Journal, cities are facing bankruptcy largely because of a sliding economy caused by government mismanagement, and are trying to cut budgets. Sadly, and stupidly, as one might expect of those who have no idea what they're doing, they are cutting the budgets of the least expendable agencies first.

Rather than trimming non essentials and areas in which city governments have no business or expertise (but represent numerous feel-good schemes and appease noisy special interests) these officials are looking to cut the budget for law enforcement.

They aren't dropping their arts programs or selling off excess real estate. They aren't considering privatizing their parks and libraries. They won't consider selling the schools to private operators or privatizing the fire departments.

Public safety, that is, police departments are taking the hit. Public safety is unarguably the most important reason for the existence of local government. And that's the first place to cut, according to the bloated city hall officialdom!

Done right, that ain't all bad. They could disband the costly and largely unnecessary SWAT teams. They could lose the vice, anti drug and anti gang teams and put their police back in blue uniforms and give them neighborhood beats. They could have their detectives actually investigate and solve real crimes. They could drop the quasi military posing and scrap the black body armor and ski masks, and act like local citizens doing a job, as is closer to reality.

And, most important, they could trust the people of the town to arm themselves for purposes of self defense.

That would save a lot of money. My overview estimate is that any city can live on around 10% of current levels just by streamlining law enforcement and the courts, dropping non-essential spending boondoggles and privatizing everything that can be privatized.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

An Argument For Gun Control: An Editorial Rebuttal

In all the blog entries in which I've championed the individual's Right to Keep and Bear Arms, I've never allowed the other side to be heard. I've finally relented to allow a reasoned rebuttal to my arguments.



Please weigh the arguments carefully, as I wouldn't want anyone to say I never gave the other side a chance.

Tip of the battered gray fedora to Paul Hsieh at Noodle Food.

....From my cold, dead hands!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan

A Lesson In Obamanomics

Doug Powers, writing in World Net Daily, explains redistribution of wealth from Joe the Plumber's point of view. As for me, I'll just sit back and let you enjoy the column.

Tip of the battered gray fedora to Kent C for tipping me off and yet again for the photo.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan

Self Defense -- As It Might Be And Ought To Be

The following is a video which was the introductory minute for an episode of the ABC tv series Boston Legal. It exemplifies, in a humorous way, how an honest, self reliant man would deal with a criminal in a free society.

Denny Crane- Guns @ Yahoo! Video

Seems a mite cold, until one realizes that when a man turns to crime, he is metaphysically committing suicide (by denying the right to life, he denies his right to his own life), and the hand that pulls the trigger is his own.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Want Universal Health Care? It'll Be Universally Bad!

Just about every wants-something-for-nothing airhead in the country, including most elected officeholders who know better, advocate some form of government paid health care. Costs are so high, they say, and very few can pay for the care they sooner or later will need.

What they are really saying is, "I want my medical bills sent to you."

In fact, if government was completely kept away from medicine, in compliance with the US Constitution, medical costs would be a small fraction of what they are today. Although, even if this were the case, the airheads would still want you to pay their medical bills.

MK, an Australian blogger, writes Down Under On The Right Side, a conservative blog from the Aussie perspective. He also posts on The Midnight Sun and A Western Heart. Below, he links a couple of stories from Aussie news sources on the subject of socialized medicine in Australia. They are well worth a read.

It might give an indication of our future, should the airheads prevail.

SMH - The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney is to close its women’s health ward in a move to cut costs. RPA executives on Thursday told doctors the 20-bed ward would close on November 1, while the children’s ward was also at risk of being shut, Fairfax reported on Friday. The move could see patients recovering from gynaecological surgery in mixed-sex rooms, while children who need emergency admissions could be forced to go to Randwick or Westmead if that ward is closed down. The move is designed to cut $8 million from the hospital’s budget, after then treasurer Michael Costa revealed a $300 million blow-out in health spending last month.

Daily Telegraph - A NURSE had to borrow bandages from a veterinary clinic and a doctor forked out $1000 from his own pocket for urgent medical supplies because companies have refused to supply Dubbo Base Hospital because of unpaid bills. Surgeons at the hospital have had to use gloves which are the wrong size, while patients needing X-rays were turned away because Kodak had refused to supply vital products. The hospital has run out of handwashing liquid and garbage bags in recent months.

…… “In the past, it’s been unpaid food bills, unpaid transport bills, now it’s effecting patient safety and that’s of extraordinary concern.” …… Dubbo MP Dawn Fardell said the Greater Western Area Health Service - which covers 50 per cent of the state - owed $66 million. …… Steve Miller, who runs Country Fruit Distributors, was owed $20,000 but most of it had been paid by early this week. “The Government expects us to pay our taxes on time and yet they don’t pay their bills on time,” he said.

Obama will tell you it’s be wonderful, healthcare for all, social justice and what not, but ultimately, these few examples of many are what you’ll end up with. Not only will your taxes have to be paid on time, they’ll have to keep going up and up to keep up with the rising demands of the public who insist that it’s all free. You already have socialized medicine in your emergency rooms and it’s a roaring success isn’t it. Imagine what it’ll be like when it’s full on socialized medicine, and you’ll get just that in Obama.

The text printed in red is MK's commentary.

This could happen to you!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Whatever Works

An eight-year-old Little League ball player hits a single. The next batter hits a sharp ground ball that's bobbled by the shortstop, who then picks the ball up and tosses it to the second baseman. The baseman, not yet at second base, swooped his glove, containing the ball, toward the base runner. The base runner reached second base. The umpire signs "Safe!"

The second base runner signals "time" and walks over to the umpire. "Sir, his body was between you and me, but I felt his glove brush my shoulder. I'm out."

An unbelievable story, right? It could never happen?

I've come to the conclusion that this is where our current "getting away with it" attitude starts. Sports coaches teaching youngsters to take an erroneous call in their favor. Teaching them to seize advantage by breaking rules, and trying to hide it from the referee.

In the children's prisons, it becomes ok to sneak a look at the test paper of another, if it can be done unobserved. It no longer is a problem that one's peers are aware of his ethical shortcomings, it's only a problem if he gets caught. Even then, his peers will likely respond with "Dawg! Good try!"

After a number of years and a number of confirmations of this behavior pass, our ethically challenged lad graduates law school and becomes an attorney. The firm at which he's employed--as do most law firms today--advocates and requires him to win the case regardless of truth and regardless of the harm caused to the innocent.

Then come years of success winning huge punitive sums for his clients, many of whom would have no complaint had they exercised diligence to protect themselves in advance, against deep pocket plaintiffs who were merely attempting to provide a service, and who had been problem-free for decades. He decides to go into politics.

After building a warchest and setting up a campaign staff, our anti-hero wins the election by digging up irrelevant dirt on his opponent. He has used, walked over and cast aside friends whose usefulness is at an end, or who become liabilities.

It doesn't matter, his plan for his people is unquestionably good. Should anyone actually try to question it, they are evil and enemies of the people. They are to be discredited, and jailed, if possible.

Meanwhile, the country sinks into a war of each man's hand in the pocket of another and productivity being punished at every turn.

This is the path destined for those who advocate the maxim, "The end justifies the means."

Unless a more livable philosophy can achieve pre-eminence, the world will slide, on the skids of altruism, back into a new Dark Age.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The New Thugees

Sunday afternoon, as Debbie and I were exiting the Ventura Fairgrounds after the Highland Games, we saw a table set up in the walkway toward the parking lot. A sign saying, "Register to Vote. Democrat." There were two young men standing by, cheap ball points in hand, waiting to help their victims register.

Democrat.

In the Stalag, it's required that anyone collecting voter registrations not discriminate as to the party choice of the registrant. I participated in a registration drive once, to get the Libertarian Party on the ballot, while working on John Hospers' campaign. At the time, we were pointedly admonished that we must register people in whatever party they wished, and not specifically advocate for our party. That proved not to be much of a problem for me, since I usually registered folks at libertarian functions.

Thus, to my knowledge, what the gentlemen at this table was doing is illegal.

I said to Debbie as we passed, "Must be some of those ACORN crooks." in a loud voice as I pointed in their direction. "If you register in any other party, they'll trash the form instead of turning it in."

The guys at the table said nothing, but stared in my direction as we passed, not smiling.

It's already pretty much a foregone conclusion that B Hussein will carry the Stalag, so those two guys won't matter much. You see far more Obama bumper stickers in the Stalag than McCain stickers, but that's probably caused by the fact that Democrats will key your car or break your windshield if it has a McCain sticker.

Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Taking The Weekend Off

Debbie and I will be driving off to the scenic seaside town of Ventura, Stalag California for the weekend to attend and participate in the Seaside Highland Games.

In spite of all the rollicking fun in the news this month, there won't be any more reportage here until next week. We have to have one more wild fling before have to settle down and start looking for food under rocks and behind the bark of trees.

Debbie and I will be part of the Scottish Country Dance demo group and we'll be watching all the Scottish heavy games and the clan duel reenactments. There'll also be pipe bands and a place for kids to get their faces painted.

Then, we'll be back to see if el Pueblo de Los Angeles still has electricity and law and order. Oh, wait! The law and order thing.....that time is past.

Keep your powder dry.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

We Have To Do Something.....Anything....Even If It's Wrong!

Listening to the pundits on radio and tv, these past few day's, both before and after the already infamous vote to (further) socialize America's financial system, a number of things became painfully clear.

First and foremost, the overwhelming image scampering out of Washington DC is of "the blind leading the blind." The vast majority of those elected into national office, including the President, have no bloody idea what they're doing.

The conspiracy theorists among us would say that they're mere puppets, their strings being pulled by shadowy characters in ancient European castles or in hyper-exclusive upstate New York and New England country clubs. I have no way of knowing whether this is true, but the level of economic incompetence leads me to prefer the notion that they're just stupid.

It started with talking points: "It's not a bailout of Wall Street, it's a rescue of Main Street." This sentence, word for word, has been repeated by virtually every scatterbrained congressman and Senator; every media reporter and talking head for several days now. After the House rejected the measure the other day, the chorus that something must be done, NOW! became so intense that it could be heard with the radio and tv off.

The utterly irrelevant George Bush appeared on the air in a state of panic that far surpassed his stridency when trying to justify his screeching, skidding left turn into Iraq in the middle of his supposed search for the evil Osama bin Llama.

The Senate passed the bill, led by the very individuals who were most instrumental in the causing of the problem, and those who have embarrassing videos locked in the safety deposit boxes of other Senators.

The Siren song of doing something before the election--just to say something was done--proved to be too strong for many of the Congressfools who voted "nay" the first time, their fear of being turned out of office exceeding their desire to do something effective.

Now that the bill is signed (hand of Satan himself holding the pen), everyone starts the new chorus, saying that this bailout will not solve the problem, but will give Washington the financial world some breathing room until reform can be put together.

Say, WHAT?!

Shades of Atlas Shrugged!

.....And we all know that once the election is past, the whole thing will be forgotten and Senators Frank, Dodd, Schumer and all their cronies will still be receiving big campaign arm twistings which will somehow cleverly trickle into their personal bank accounts, and we'll have another big, earth-threatening crisis in a few years.

Nothing that will actually reflect sound economic policy will be considered.

I declare, I wonder where all this cynicism comes from!!

Remember: VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Current Attempted Ripoff Is Nothing New

The current attempt at "The Big Ripoff" of all productive Americans isn't without precedent. We've seen three or four of them in recent years, starting with the Chrysler Motors bailout of 1979.

Here's a particularly timely poem that fits today's situation every bit as well as it did when it was written, in 1936.

The Profits and Loss
By Berton Braley

From New Deal Ditties: or, Running in the Red with Roosevelt, 1936

When "planned economy" first began
It looked like a swell "idea" –
Until we learned it had no plan
And wasn't economee.

For the taxes rise and the budget's shot
And the New Deal costs are met
By spending money we haven't got
For things that we never get.

The Billions roll in mighty stream,
A regular tidal flood,
With the net result that each spending scheme
Bogs down in a sea of mud.

When plans and programs go all to pot
Do the New Deal planners fret?
Why no, they think up a brand new lot
Of schemes to spend what we haven't got
For things we will never get!

FDR managed to turn a banking crisis into a ten-year depression. Today's elected officeholders seem to be determined to repeat the process.

Tip of the old battered fedora to Diane Hseih at NoodleFood.

Remember: VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Turning To The Dark Side

The Democrat Party likes to style itself as "the Party of Jefferson." They must mean the Jefferson from the tv show "All in the Family," 'cause they sure don't mean the very libertarian President Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was an advocate of the principles of freedom to which the Constitution's Bill of Rights refer.

One once was guardedly able to point to the First Amendment and say that Democrats were champions of free speech.

Not any more.

In a press release from Matt Blunt, Guber of Missouri, the evil B Hussein Obama is using Missouri law enforcement to threaten, intimidate and prosecute critics of him and his campaign. See another story here.

Seems some (perceptive) individuals are criticizing the Messiah. He doesn't like it.

Heads must roll.

He's recruiting a number of Missouri's leftist minor officials to determine truth as the Obama sees it and, on discovering anything that doesn't please His Eminence, intimidate and/or prosecute blasphemers.

There's a difference between the arrogance of an achiever and the false arrogance of a posturing peacock who's never been involved in either a leadership position or a productive enterprise of any kind and who has been a life-long parasite.

Even as US Senator, his greatest distinction has been campaigning for President throughout his first (and, one hopes, only) term , and voting "present" for most issues on the rare occasions when he deigns to actually appear in his alleged place of work.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of reasons to stop this moocher from achieving a stranglehold over the greatest nation in history, fading though it may be, and all of them are valid. If Obama becomes President of the United States, we'll all be longing for those wonderful, sun-filled days of the Great Depression.

What I truly wonder is, why Missouri? Why not Stalag California? What am I, chopped liver?

Tip of the old, battered fedora to Kent C for the photo.

Here comes the New Boss, same as the Old Boss.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

On Blue Bayou

During a lunchtime conversation on the jobsite one day last week, some of the chatter reminded me of the several trips I made to a little town in the Louisiana Bayoux.

It started in Navy Engineman school in the Great Lakes training facility in Waukegan, Ill. I met another Engineman, Julius was his name, and we became fast friends. Eventually, when we finished the school, we received our orders and went on leave before going on to our ships.

When my leave was about half over, I rode my thumb down to New Orleans. I used to brag that I could consistently beat the Greyhounds by means of hitchhiking because, well.....I could. I checked it several times. Once, a New Jersey Trooper told me that if I was caught hitchhiking again in the state, he'd arrest me, so I took a bus. Several miles outside the New Jersey line, I got off the bus and stuck out my thumb. I got to Grand Forks a full six hours earlier than I would have by taking the bus all the way.

But, I digress. Julius picked me up at the truck stop from which I phoned, and we drove southwest into the bayou country. The first thing he did was drive around town showing me the high points. There was an ordinary-looking small-town downtown, generally kind of run-down looking because of the constant humidity and high rainfall. Colorful fast-food stores were absent, as the early few hadn't yet reached down into the bayou country. Residences varied from southern mansions to shanties as depicted in the beginning of the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

There was a distinct and separate "colored" side of town, where the black people lived. Remember, this was 1962--prior to most of the equal rights marching, and etc. Blacks and whites mingled in the streets, blacks worked in stores and other jobs, but there was almost no interracial socializing and there were separate but not equal schools, parks and bathrooms and even separate public drinking fountains.

We went to Julius' folks house and met his parents. We had a delightful crayfish bisque for dinner--something very new for a North Dakota meat and potatoes kid. It started a lifelong love for Cajun-style cuisine I haven't ever gotten over.

The best was yet to come: Julius took me over to pick up his girlfriend, and then to another house at which he stopped and introduced me to the most delightful girl I'd yet met. Florette Pernicieri was her name. She was only fourteen (I was 18), but she was one of those girls you know would do well in a beauty pageant. In fact, she did, as she wrote me later on while I was at sea.

I still sort of melt from the sound of the voice of a Southern/Cajun accent coming from a beautiful woman.

One of the neighbors, as Flo showed me as we hung out together, lived near the edge of the swamp. He had an enclosure in his back yard, which contained a large number of alligators in a water-filled pit. He raised them commercially for their meat and skins.

We went to a diner where I was introduced to chicory coffee, and to a movie. Had a great time, even though Lutcher, Louisiana rolled up its sidewalks even earlier than did Grand Forks. Don't let anybody ever tell you that making out with a truly beautiful girl isn't great!

I had a few days before I had to be in Jacksonville, so Florette and I stuck together even closer than Julius and I, though the four of us spent evenings together.

When Julius and I left for our ships, I found that it was very easy to hitchhike from there to Jacksonville. I returned to Lutcher on many weekend liberties over the next several months. I finally let it go when I realized that her overwhelming motivation was to have me take her away from there. She didn't like the small town and wanted out.

I wasn't going to either marry her or otherwise set her up in Jacksonville, so I finally said goodbye. Not without some regrets, she was a delight in many ways and I missed her for a long time. I wonder if she ever made it.

Rambling off to memory lane.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Giving A Debate Away

I usually find that I can't stand to listen to politicians talk for more than a few seconds. I'm continuing, usually in vain, to hope they'll make their points quickly so I can change the channel. The current exceptions to this include Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin (so far), with whom I disagree profoundly on many premises. Newt Gingrich is very clever, has a good sense of humor and is consistent within the confines of his flawed principles. Palin is cute, has a very refreshing sincerity and has a delightful "Fargo" accent. We'll see what the Republican handlers do to destroy that!

That (about Palin) might sound a mite demeaning, but I'm just referring to listening to her speak, not the content of what she says. I'm sure I'll have more of substance to say about the content of her speeches very soon.

I watched/listened to the debate yesterday in spite of all that. My comments are very predicatable, in that the debate (using the term very loosely) taught me nothing I didn't already know: With every new Presidential Campaign, our choices get closer and closer together. More and more bland, yet more and more able to affect our lives negatively.

More and more like Mr Thompson of the novel, Atlas Shrugged.

Mr McCain gave the debate away with his very first utterances, as he decried and condemned the greed of bankers, financiers and Wall Street traders and called for prosecutions (persecution?) and punishment, showing that he equates seeking profit with criminality. He partially redeemed himself on a couple of occasions, but never fully washed away the stink of anti-capitalism from his presentation.

Mr Obama, for his part, spoke with more consistency within the confines of his basic premises. Again, they were all wrong, but he came off with a bit more believability than did McCain. Obama was very careful not to let us in on the extent of his planned socialistic programs, but made it very clear that he is for bigger, more restrictive government and that he's a major policy maker in the War on Productivity.

He wants to rob the productive and, after a small rakeoff--say, 50%--give to the non-productive.

McCain is, too, but has a different gang that he wants to bring into the Castle Court, while the rest of us are slaving away on our subsistence farms. Allow me to suggest reading the L Neil Smith novel Pallas, which describes the Greely Utopian Memorial Project in admirable detail, and the Frank Herbert novel Hellstrom's Hive, which admirably (and frighteningly) describes the socialist ideal, to which both of these candidates subscribe, though they won't admit it, and might not even fully realize it.

McCain wants to continue building the ultimate security state, in which everyone is under surveillance all the time, everything that's not mandatory is prohibited and the military is king.

One of the aspects of this debate that stood out even more than its content, was the fact that every time McCain offered a specific criticism of an Obama policy or an item of his meager record, Obama would, right then and there, interrupt in his own, usually disingenuously, defense. He cut into McCain's time repeatedly and unapologetically, and worse, Jim Lehrer, the alleged moderator, let him do it. At one point, Lehrer relented slightly and said he'd have to balance the time--I don't know if he ever did.

I silently felt as if I should give a bit of a cheer, the first of a couple of times as McCain actually interrupted Obama.

In summary, I don't think I actually learned anything new from this debate. They still seem to be what I've thought they were from the beginning: Obama a cloaked Marxist, McCain a largely unpredictable middle-of-the-roader. Both with the intent of increasing government's role interfering with the lives of the "productive class."

Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Condemnation of a Small Town

The "California" section of the Sept 23, 2008 issue of the LA Times happened to be lying 'pon the butt gaskets in the reading room of our construction office. I succumbed. I regret it. Above the fold I found Steve Lopez' column--Nowhere exposure: visiting Wasilla, Alaska. I wrote an entry about one of his columns last year--about an airhead Beverly hills woman distraught that she didn't dream that coyotes would actually enter her Benedict Canyon property and kill the little dog she left outside in the yard.

That column was funny. It cleverly pointed out the complete empty-headedness of many cloistered residents of el Pueblo de Los Angeles. This column is very different.

I'm not sure exactly what facet of Ms Sarah Palin inflames the sensibilities of socialist newswriters, but the lady sure has something!

This time, it wasn't Ms Palin who was attacked (directly), it was the town of which she was mayor, prior to her election as Guber of the state of Alaska.

The first thing Lopez attacks, after complaining about having to stop for a moose crossing the road, is that Wasilla isn't the "quaint mountain village" he expected. It has a Wal-mart, a Target, a Lowes and the normal variety of fast food emporia. "They paved paradise...." he fairly sobs.

He thought he found "downtown" when he saw a "row of frontier-style buildings." "But," he laments, "it was just a Knott's Berry Farm-style facade...." housing mundane, ordinary small businesses, including a (shudder) gun shop.

Well, Mr Lopez, as you might have noticed, driving from Anchorage to Wasilla--a very short distance--it'd be more accurate to have observed that Wasilla is actually more of a suburb (like San Fernando or El Monte) than a "quaint mountain village." It seems that it was too much for him to take, that Alaska is no longer a 19th-century wilderness, despite all the stunningly beautiful vistas and its huge size.

Most of its productive class have regular jobs or own businesses. They drive cars and many have personal aircraft, if they must travel the state a lot. They have a far more sophisticated view of their life on the land, their relationships with the wilderness and the wildlife and their own independence than do most residents of el Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Lopez turns to the people of the town of Wasilla. According to his column, he spoke to four of them--One who told him that "This is Main Street." One who's running for Palin's old job as Mayor--who likes Palin. One who is an enthusiastic Palin partisan in whose store they sell a bumper sticker "I Thinc Im Gunna Vote Four Oboma Cuz Thems Hollywood Peoples Like Him." And finally, a "progressive" socialist who gives a left-distorted critique of Palin's religious views. Guess who gets the most sympathetic treatment.......

I'm a mite concerned about Palin's religious views, too. I'm also concerned about Obama's religious views--which seem to change every time he dumps one of his lifelong mentors. I'd prefer that the Presidential candidates have no religious views, or at the very least, never let the public know what they are.

Well, Steve Lopez is a columnist, not (here at least) a hard news writer. He can have whatever views he wants, and write about them. What I'd like to see though, is for him to research Sarah Palin--that he actually and honestly knows something about her--and then comment on her politics, her actual religious views (if he must), her record and the reasons why he agrees or disagrees with her, than trash her home town and its residents because they aren't what he wanted them to be.

I hesitate to place most of the LA Times on the bottom of Rosie's (my parrot) cage, for fear she'll develop neuroses.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Freddie And Fanny Were Lovers.....

Now that the largest, most complex house of cards has collapsed, all of Washington, as well as the mainstream news media, is a) pointing fingers into space trying to avoid blaming those who caused the mess and b) proclaiming that the solution is MS, PhD (more of the same, piled higher and deeper). To protect the guilty, and to avoid having to deal with the real cause of the fiasco, the only proposal all seem to agree 'pon is to force productive Americans to foot the bill.

Thus continues the War on Productivity on the national level.

Nobody is suggesting making a list of all the Congressthieves, politically connected appointees and idle heirs, and, yes, especially the Presidents and Vice Presidents who have been in office and otherwise involved with the creation and corruption of these organizations (and I use the term very loosely), and emptying their bank accounts, pension funds, stock portfolios and selling their homes and other real estate holdings to pay for this mess.

They should be. That's much more nearly just than sticking it to innocent working individuals.

Much of the money in the accounts of the Washington thieving class are the ill-gotten gains from this very scam. Not to mention that the entire con scheme was financed by the taxes of the productive class.

I'm no economist, but I've read a little on the subject. A real economist (not one of the obfuscation economists of Washington DC, Sacramento and other outlaw hideouts), but someone who understands von Mises, Hazlitt, and their contemporaries and heirs can give far better answers than I.

I think, though, that most of them will agree with the following: We need the Federal Reserve abolished. The dollar must be attached with full convertibility to gold, silver, or some other suitable commodity. Senseless regulations must be lifted and individuals must take responsibility for their actions. There must be no involvement of government in banking, entrepreneurship and commerce.

Government must be barred (no pun) from entering areas in which it has no knowledge or expertise, and in which dishonest and unearned money can be skimmed. Government's only proper job is to protect the rights of all individuals and, by insinuating itself into areas in which it can do only harm, it's actually working to damage those rights and indeed, to destroy them.

If Americans don't act to rein the government in very soon, America will soon be over. In the 1930's, America had reserves to help pay for the economic problems government created. Today, we have none. We're borrowing our way out of problems, and the debt is huge. The paper is held by unfriendly governments, and it's just a matter of time before they call in the debt.

Remember: VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENTS!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

....As Long As Only We Get To Use Them....

Yellowstone National Park is a huge place. Its footprint comprises a very large bite out or the northwest corner of Wyoming, along with appreciable bits of Montana and Idaho. It's a beautiful place, and one which very few people would not like to visit and spend some time.

It's even more beautiful in winter, in my opinion, but kind of hard to travel around in during that time of the year. Oh, I suppose they keep the paved roads open most of the time. Some people like to wander away from the paved roads.

Today, the Los Angeles Times, socialist-oriented little brother to the New York Times, has an editorial about this. Seems US Judge Emmet G Sullivan has unilaterally banned all snowmobile use within the borders of the park.

Both the Bush Administration and, more importantly, the state of Wyoming want access for up to 700 snowmobiles at a time within the park. I have no idea why the limit, but Judge Sullivan, who probably lives in Washington DC, has in his infinite wisdom, decided the number should be zero. For, you guessed it, environmental reasons.

A snowmobile leaves no footprint that won't disappear with the next snow, or with the spring thaw. Snowmobiles emit exhaust gasses, but then so do you. And so does your car as you zip along the highway. So do the bears, wolves, elk, squirrels and any other critters you can name that live there. For that matter, so do the trees and grasses, etc.

We could discuss the noise they make, but that too, is one more annoyance of many.

The overwhelming factor is that every one of us pays for the maintenance of that park. The park exists for the enjoyment of everyone. The park doesn't exist merely for the enjoyment of one Judge Sullivan--nor to satisfy the twisted sensibilities of a few pointy-headed algorians.

The solution, of course, is for the land to be sold in reasonable parcels to interested members of the public. It's well known that private owners take far better care of their own property than do government bureaucrats and the drones they employ to keep unapproved Americans off what is now their jointly-held land. It's also well known that the managers of the parks are not doing a job taking care of them. Too often, there are fires that are made far worse because heavy underbrush is allowed to remain to become fuel for wildfires. Private owners would not let that happen.

We need to get these lands out of the untrustworthy hands of an uncaring, incapable government, and out of the sway of corrupt officials like Judge Sullivan.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Sacrificing Our Young People

Yesterday, I had a particularly long drive home, and during part of it, I listened to the Hugh Hewitt radio show. I didn't get to hear much of it because, I had to change the radio station to keep from denting the dash with my fist.

Hewitt was interviewing someone connected with John McCain's campaign (whose name I didn't catch) about the differences between McCain and Obama. The above link is to Hewitt's transcripts page, 'pon which I'm hoping that a transcript will appear in the next day or two. I guardedly agreed with much of what this gentleman was saying until the point I'll now describe.

The interview turned to the war, the differences between the way McCain and Obama would handle it, the difficulties between the President and Congress, etc. It was in this part of the discussion when this gentleman uttered words much like the following: We must be careful how we sacrifice our young people. I was livid.

How we sacrifice our young people? Not wishing to alienate my readers of tender sensibilities, I won't write the string of George Carlin-approved epithets that are now going through my head, just remembering this utterance.

This points out one of the fatal flaws of today's conservatives: they aren't individualists. They, like their leftist brethren (who happen to have a more internally consistent--though thoroughly wrong--philosophy) are pragmatists. They'll do whatever it takes to put out the immediate fire, even if it means extinguishing it with the last of our drinking water.

"We" shouldn't be sacrificing anyone. If you, sir, want to sacrifice yourself for any reason or for no reason, you have my blessing. I don't think any of our marines, soldiers, airmen or sailors join their favorite branch with the thought of self sacrifice. They join for several different reasons, not the least of which is to defend the various and several United States of America.

They depend 'pon their officers to devise strategies and make intelligent decisions in sending them into battles that they can win and that will be instrumental in helping the effort. It's treasonous when the political and military hierarchy sends soldiers into battles to serve the unConstitutional ends of politicians. That's the kind of crap over which our ancestors fought the War for Independence from the British Crown.

I plan to attempt to learn the name of this philosophically challenged individual over the next day or two, but that's not crucial. There are many like him, in and out of elective office, and they tend to cluster in places of political power. They deserve to be removed from civilized society, by way of a sudden exit from a flying aircraft without benefit of a parachute.

War is the Health of the State.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Second War Century

Right now I'm watching (listening to) a Rachel Maddow special on MSNBC. I really don't think that much of Maddow, who is pretty far on the socialist side. Her guest was Chris Matthews, of Hardball fame. I like Matthews a little better, but not much. His love for B Hussein Obama borders on the neurotic.

He was giving a monologue on the reaction of the Bush Administration (and the people of the US) to the destruction of the World Trade Center by mad-dog fascist muslims.

He described Bush's speech a couple of days after the attack, and the fact of Americans' near-unanimous agreement and resolve to bring the planners and financiers of this atrocity to justice, quickly and decisively. The military was quickly mobilized and prepared for action. They were sent to Afghanistan to find Osama bin Llama and all those who follow and protect him.

Matthews continued that, he didn't know exactly how and when, but a neocon cabal led by Cheney, Rove and Ashcroft, perhaps others, swerved the effort into Iraq for ideological reasons still not completely known.

According to Matthews, this act destroyed the trust of many in the Bush Presidency and split the nation.

Matthews' comments ended there, and I have to say that I generally agree with this view. While I certainly will never call Saddam Hussein anything better than a completely evil and despicable dictator, there are many completely evil and despicable dictators on the planet. Why him?

Meanwhile, bin Llama remains relaxing in his villa in the South of France, issuing orders by encrypted email to his lieutenants around the world and enjoying blonde women kidnapped from Stockholm, cuba libres and blt sandwiches.

Every now and then, another bomb goes off somewhere in the world, more often than not in Baghdad, and kills a few people. Bin Llama chuckles.

The one Bushian phrase that rings out, before the body cavity searches in airports, before the wiretapping without a need for a warrant, before the installation of video cameras just about everywhere, before the proliferation of quasi-military police departments in just about every city--even in Mayberry, I'll wager--and before handbag searches everywhere crowds gather, is the one he uttered in one of his early post 9/11 speeches to the effect that the "War on Terror" is likely to last a very long time.

I think he and his cronies are doing their best to make sure it does.

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

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

What The Second Amendment Really Means

This video is really worth a look. Or two.



Tip of the battered gray fedora to Chuck Muth. Also, to TWC and MK for their assistance.

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

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

On Being Neighborly

On the Bill O'Reilly show, in his interview with B Hussein Obama, O'Reilly asked (not a direct quote), how is your "tax the rich" proposal not a means of redistributing wealth? The Democrat candidate replied: “If I am sitting pretty, and you’ve got a waitress who is making minimum wage plus tips, and I can afford it and she can’t — what’s the big deal for me to say, ‘I’m going to pay a little bit more.’ That is neighborliness.”

Before I go any farther, allow me to note another observation about the mannerisms of "He whose middle name shall not be mentioned." We hear a lot about Obama's wondrous speaking ability, which he demonstrates every time he has a script. Whenever Obama doesn't have a script, his speech is halting, full of ums and uhs, misspoken phrases and hasty corrections, etc. Why does he do that, one might ask. Bill Clinton did the same thing. Here's why they do that: They know they can't say what they really think, so they're desperately trying to figure out what they think their audience wants to hear.

That's also why their statements vary greatly from one audience to another, and why they have to continually revise what they say, and try to explain what they really meant when they insult a certain segment of the voting public.

Now, to my main thesis. In the first place, the above quote is not an answer to O'Reilly's question. If Obama has one consistency, it's his failure to answer a question as asked. I've never heard him give a direct answer.

One thing he does, however -s say words to the effect of, "As I've been saying for the past two years...." then proceeds to revise something he's said in the past, to fit the current situation.

Let's take a quick look at the "answer" he actually gave.

If one is well off, one might very well go to restaurants often. 'Tis the nature of the economy that most waitresses don't earn a lot of money.

Some actually do, if they're good waitresses, in tips, but that's not noticed by our not-very-experienced candidate--I suspect he's a cheap tipper.

Since he has no experience with giving waitresses tips according to their ability to help give him a happy dining experience, he doesn't put two and two together. He seems to think that, rather than giving the waitress a well-deserved tip, he wants to force all of us to give her the tip by taxing us and giving her a government check. I guess. The answer, as I've implied, isn't very clear.

Suffice it to say, that the quote strongly suggests that Obama wants somebody else to give the tip.

Cheap is as cheap does.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Graying of the Freeways

You might think this entry is about the lack of maintenance given to the country's freeways since their construction between the 1950's and today. Well, 'tis true enough that, in their haste to hand out vast sums of money to those who don't feel like working, and to hand out even more money to artists who construct hideous, useless structures they call objets d'art in front of government buildings and in atria and foyers of these same buildings, and to hand out money for greater and grander offices within those buildings, the highways are getting the short shrift. Politicians need these grand offices to create the edicts that cause us to have to take three to five times as long as it should to get to our lousy metal desk-furnished soft cubicles. And to wreck our cars in the potholes that happen when it rains, that there's no money left over to fix. But that's not what this rant is about, at all.

Have you ever notices, while creeping slowly along these selfsame freeways, that most of the cars thereon are gray? Almost all of them.

In the mornings I usually commute in the dark, in relatively light traffic, at normal freeway speeds. In the afternoon, on the other hand, I drive in the afternoon light, at speeds that range from a slow creep to maybe 50mph, for part of the way, if I'm lucky. Plenty of time to observe the cars around me, to observe some of their incredibly bad driving habits and to occasionally check out the odd blonde talking illegally on her cell phone.

To observe the drivers of convertibles with the tops down but the side windows up (!?) and with those silly girlie screens behind their heads so they don't have to contend with the stray current of moving air that might cause a stir in their $400 coifs.

But, most of the cars are gray. Gray cars driven by gray people. Gray, for my current purpose, includes everything from the purest silver to, but not including, black. It also includes grayish brown, grayish beige and grayish blue--and remember, they don't call it olive drab because the color is electric.

I don't think, even though it hadn't occurred to me until relatively recently, that I've ever owned a gray car. The closest was my 1975 Olds convertible, which was a kind of off-white. It also almost always had its top and all of it's side windows down unless it was raining. It doesn't rain often in the southern third of the Stalag.

Oh, yeah, my 1937 Olds hotrod was sprayed with gray primer, but only in anticipation of a deep candy burgundy paint job it would've gotten had I not sold it.

Why would anyone buy a gray car? There sure are a lot of them. Perhaps it's a herd thing. Conformity. Fitting in. A sign of a conforming society.

Perhaps it's camouflage. Pavement is gray. Blending in with your surroundings.

I think that I shall never see/
A baby blue SUV/
A car the color of the sky/
Or the blue of a baby's eye.

When I decide to buy another car, I'm going to look for paisley.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Remembering Elmer Keith

In the late 1960-s and early 1970's, in California's pre-Stalag years, my interest in firearms soared along with both my abilities as a geotechnical technician and my earning ability. Suddenly, I had enough money to indulge in hobbies and intellectual pursuits. I've always been a reader, and gobble up books one after another. I stumbled 'pon Ayn Rand in 1966, and still read Atlas Shrugged about every eighteen months and I read books and articles by Rand's intellectual heirs in between times--along with numerous novels, etc.

Meanwhile, my interest in firearms increased in direct proportion to my ability to buy them. I owned well over two dozen different firearms between 1970 and 1975, including a Springfield 1903-A3 for which I hand carved a sport riflestock with a Buck knife, wood files and sandpaper. I owned three different .44 magnum handguns--one of which was Pasadena's own Automag .44, which I dearly wish I'd hung onto--and a few weapons I still have.

I used to hand load my own cartridges (I still have the gear, but haven't set it up) and I visited the old Silverado Canyon Range at least once a week. Once, I shot side by side with Gunny, the range's master, he with an accurized Colt 1911-A1 .45, and me with a Ruger .44 magnum Super Blackhawk. We shot at two-foot diameter steel plates hanged from chains, at 300 yards. He averaged five hits out of seven, I averaged three for six. It felt good to lose that way, to that great a shooter.

One of the men whom I consider a mentor, even though we've never met, is Mr Elmer Keith. Born in Missouri in 1899, he grew up in Montana, Idaho and eastern Oregon in a time when that area was still part of the Wild West. He became an avid and successful big game hunter, developing numerous new cartridges and bullets for both rifles and handguns, and thus was instrumental in the development of many of the sporting and defense weapons popular today.

Mr Keith was an avid writer, penning books on handgun use and writing a monthly column for Guns & Ammo Magazine from the 1960's into the 1970's. I read his Gun Notes columns regularly for many years, and began to develop my shooting philosophy thereby. Other mentors were Col Jeff Cooper, and Massad Ayoob. Ayoob still writes for a number of periodicals and has several books on handgun self defense. He also conducts handgun training through his Lethal Force Institute.

Keith was the one who started it all. His experiences and opinions on hunting and handgun handling, including his advocacy of handgun hunting, helped my to develop my abilities and some of my choices in weapons purchasing. Even though he passed away twenty-four years ago, I still I still remember, and miss his Gun Notes columns.

Gun control means hitting your target.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Herding People

Maybe I'm slow. This has been going on for decades, but not long enough that I can't recall days when things were different.

It suddenly hit me as I watched a tv news show, observing Barry Hussein Obama walking across the pavement toward an aircraft, where he walks up a staircase to the doorway of the plane. We've all seen this repeated dozens, if not hundreds of times for as long as there've been passenger planes.

If you've been around for a while, you might remember walking across the pavement from the terminal (interesting choice of appellations) building to the movable boarding staircase leading up to the aircraft. Otherwise, well, the ritual can be seen in any of several older movies. Or whenever an upper-level politician arrives or leaves by plane.

They used to say that when any three Californians get together, they instinctively form a line. It's still true. At today's airports, anywhere within any of the various United States, one spends virtually his entire time in one line or another. Cars line up to enter parking lots. One has to line up to check one's luggage. To confirm one's ticket. To show your federally-approved id (papers, please?).

It's been a few years since I've visited an airport, and even more years since I've flown, so I might not have the drill quite right. Some of it's from hearsay from folks who've flown more recently than I.

One must line up to have his belongings searched and scanned, as well as his person. Randomly chosen items are confiscated, from knitting needles to bottles of shampoo, for no discernible reason. The federal thugs don't allow weapons, assuring that anyone sly enough to sneak a weapon on board can do anything he wants. If the passenger's not lucky, he might be pulled out of line to have a more complete search and/or questioning. Unless he's middle eastern in appearance, of course. We wouldn't want to accidentally offend any member of an islamic murder cult.

Penn Jillette tells of a TSA thug having played with his jewels during a search in the Las Vegas airport back in 2002. He carried his complaints through to a point in which he really had some of the federal TSA thugs worried. Now, we know for sure that Penn Jillette has a pair. Seems like we all should do that. Not only would we show that we haven't lost ours, but it'd probably put an end to this naziness once and for all.

Next, there's the line at the boarding gate. As one passes the gate, one finds himself inside of a dimly-lit cavern, seemingly being herded along toward the gates of hell. I always imagined an arched gateway with the sign "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here."

1st class lines up first and boards. Strange, since 1st class is forward. When the rest of the poor schlubs line up, they enter and must pass through the forward cabin. Time and grace is lost by the 2nd class passengers having to make their way through the 1st class cabin, whose members are stowing their carry-ons and finding their seats, and generally acting like rules of politeness don't apply to them, as regards to the "little people." Meanwhile, those selfsame little people are scanning the faces of the 1st class elites for celebrities. Deliberately planned confusion.

This, to me, is herding. Placing cattle prods into the hands of the TSA thugs to keep the line of cattle moving, is the small next step.

Meanwhile, the American aristocracy still walks out 'pon the taxiway, in the crisp morning air to the stairway that leads up to an aircraft the luxury of which most of us can only imagine.

Now, I wouldn't gripe if these elite were industrialists, builders and creators--men of self-created wealth. They deserve all the luxury they can afford.

These counterfeit aristocrats are parasites, men and women who've accumulated their wealth and status by having fleeced the productive people of America. Often never having held an honest job in their lives. And, 'tis they who've set up the rules thusly, so that the victims of their system know their place.

American life should be rethought, placing status in degrees according to an individual's creative and productive ability, not his ability to victimize others.

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

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

.....And The Winner Is.....

So, does anyone actually care who this year's mediocre candidates for President select as Vice-Presidential running mates? Apparently some do, since there's currently another one of those media firestorms on precisely this subject. Every news program, every commentator, every pundit includes the question of who Barry Hussein or John McCain (odd that no democrat has come up with a clever putdown name for McCain yet!) will select for his running mate. Barry has even fanned the flames to the degree that he's made public that he has made his decision--but not telling yet.

I find this year's selection to be one of the most mundane ever--only rivaled by those including both Bush's, Bob Dole, John Kerry, Algore and Adlai Stevenson. And, as I've mentioned, the length of what they're calling "the campaign season," two full years, is worse than disturbing. They seem to be trying to place the political campaign season fully on a par with the hockey season. It'll never work. Hockey is life. Politics is anti-life.

Face it: there is no value, at this time, in knowing who will be the two vying Vice Presidential candidates. The parties' respective conventions, mercifully coming up very soon, will be soon enough. The only good that could ever come of it would be if the placed California Guber Ahnold Schwarzengroper's name in nomination. That'd start me seriously rooting for a McCain victory. It'd get Schwarzengroper out of the Stalag for a full four years! We could get the very-frugal-by-comparison Davis-the-Grey back into the Gubermansion.

Forgive my tendency to dream.

I could dream even more by way of remembering that in the original founding documents, not only were Senators selected by the State Legislatures of the various states, but the Vice President was the loser of the Presidential election. The winning Republican would have the losing Democrat as his VP, or vice (shudder) versa.

Oh, did I tell you I'm on the Florida Ballot Design committee again? It just gives me butterflies!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Georgia Wasted Its Dime

I'm not fully informed as I'd like to be about the situation in Georgia, but what I've heard/read from various sources seems to indicate that USSR Russia is conducting a program of genocide maybe not quite as bad as that going on in Darfur. How dare the Georgians aspire to freedom? How dare they attempt to set their own path?

I'm not going to argue over the situation between Georgia and the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, because I don't know enough about it, and don't care. If those regions want to throw away (relative) freedom to become a part of communist Russia, let 'em.

The President of Georgia is looking for help, but the US President was in Communist China, watching the Olympics. The 3am call went unanswered. Where is Hillary when we need her?

Now, I'm fully opposed to the idea of sending troops to protect Georgia, just as I'm opposed to sending troops to Darfur. The US military's job is, by Constitutional mandate, only to protect the United States and its interests. It's difficult to construct a logical path that brings either Georgia or Darfur under the umbrella of US interests. Just as it remains difficult to construct a similar path with regard to Iraq.

It's long been known by freedom-loving people that a country possessing a large standing military will find excuse after excuse to use it. Russia's actions of the past couple of weeks is an excellent case in point, as are many others in the past century and in the first few years of this one.

The Bush Administration blathers on about diplomatic penalties that may be imposed 'pon Russia if it doesn't pull back--but Russia isn't pulling back and the sanctions remain mere threats. The Administration has also been unable to impose sanctions against the islamo-nazi countries, so far.

The art of diplomacy is utterly wasted when placed in the hands of government. Those who fill the suits of leaders are unprincipled fools of the worst sort, incapable of applying logic to any situation and unable to render even the most simple decision.

Traders should be the diplomats. Those who make deals with individuals in other countries for the commodities to be imported into the US and exported out would be far more capable of straight talk and benevolent interaction than indecisive, cowardly politicians thinking more about their retirements and legacies than about the problem at hand.

Until Americans force government out of areas in which it does not belong, and cannot function for the purpose of securing and protecting our rights. we'll have these emergencies and near emergencies that place us all in danger. That, followed by a lack of ability or desire to describe either the problem or a likely solution. Followed by further problems which are the unintended consequences of the prior flawed "solutions." Followed by conflicts in which many young people are killed and maimed, yet nothing is settled.

Those who can, do; those who can't do, teach; those who can't teach, become bumbling bureaucrats.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California