The Fountainhead Cafe

Traveling to New York City? Hungering for some Ayn Rand moments in the city in which she set her last two novels and lived for forty years? Check out the new Fountainhead Cafe on West 10th St. There are vegetarian dishes and non-alcoholic drinks.

"....If you watch people as they drink, you'll see that they get progressively less objective." says the proprietor, Chad Brandon, a Montana native who now lives in New York.

The Fountainhead Cafe is planned to be a place where objectivists can "get together and talk about ideas."

Next time I get to NYC, it'll be one of the places I'll visit.

Tip o' th' grey Fedora: The Wine Commonsewer

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

It's Just a story!

I haven't seen "The Da Vinci Code," the movie, yet. I do plan to see it, but I'm not sure when. I had a bit of difficulty with it from the start: I'm not sure Ron Howard was the right director. He often has a difficult time making believable bad guys. Ditto Tom Hanks as the protagonist. He's always seemed too timid and too much the good guy. We'll see.

I read the book months ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was a better than decent action adventure that has a clever premise and is internally coherent. I remember thinking the denoument was a mite fuzzy, but I really ought to read it again. I always get a better handle on a book, reading it a second time, after the "wow" factor is past.

I wrote this about "The Da Vinci Code," a few weeks ago. It concerns the Roman Catholic reaction to the book. Watching some of Catholic pundits on the cable news shows makes one think there'll be picketing and boycotts. Catholic spokespeople seem to be trying to project the notion that they're under some sort of attack, and that The Da Vinci Code is part of it. Well, if that's true, perhaps it's time somebody kicked their asses a little bit for the Dark Ages and the Inquisition.

For my part, I don't believe either The Da Vinci Code or Catholic Doctrine. If, however, I was asked to choose which story is the more believeable, I'd have to pick the former.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Waco II: The FBI Is Preparing to Strike Again

We hear in the MSM that the FBI recognized their errors in their Waco Massacre of April 17, 1993. I find that very difficult to believe. No one of the individuals who conducted the massacre has been criminally prosecuted, or even charged. None have even been disciplined, that has been made public. Janet Reno, the Bill Clinton's evil Attorney General, was the architect of the massacre, and is undoubtedly most guilty in the shameful episode. No one in government has ever suggested she be tried for her crimes.

Now, we have the potential for another outing for the Boys Who Can't Shoot Straight But Have A Lot Of Bullets. Warren Jeffs, a seemingly reprehensible character, has been placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list--for polygamy?? Well, many of the young girls are under age, and for that he needs to be brought to justice, but .....the FBI's Most Wanted? To be compared with Osama Bin Llama? Puh-leeze!

The FBI has called him....armed and dangerous, in spite of the fact that no one outside his cult has seen him in two years. He's rumored to be living in a compound in Eldorado, Texas. The leader of a bizarre religious cult. Armed and dangerous.

Ring a bell?

We don't know if he's really armed and dangerous, or not. Many of the feds' minions and pretenders regard anyone who owns a gun "armed and dangerous." The Second Amendment is one of the parts of the Bill of Rights that these individuals skip over on the rare occasions that they think of it at all.

The FBI has a record of lying to the public. Ditto BATFE, which was also involved with the Waco massacre. BATFE is a fascist-spawned, certifiably out-of-control gang of thugs. If they get called into this fiasco, beware!

David Koresh was living in a compound near Waco, Texas. He was the leader of a bizarre religious cult. He was rumored to be armed and dangerous. We all know what happened to him.

Do we have another religious cult massacre to look forward to? We'll see.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Just One Thing After Another

Flash! They're patting people down at airports. "It's ok. It's legal. We've always had discretion to inspect what's going aboard our airlines."

Flash! You have to remove your shoes before boarding airliners. "It's ok. It's legal. "Shoes are a good place to hide things."

Flash! They're groping genital areas and women's breasts at airport checkpoints. "It's ok. It's legal. What if someone hid something there?"

Flash! Random searches of bags at New York subways. "It's ok. It's legal. Anybody can leave the subway and not be searched.

Flash! They're searching every bag at the subways. "It's ok. It's legal. What if a terrorist carries a bomb to another subway station?"

Flash! They're setting up checkpoints at random locations on the streets to search bags and persons. "It's ok. It's legal. What if the terrorist wants to bomb a building?"

Flash! They're incarcerating war protesters at Gitmo. "It's ok. It's legal. We don't want our wonderful political system held up to ridicule by the world's media."

Flash! They're putting American citizens of Arabic descent in camps in the Arizona desert. "It's ok. It's legal. President Roosevelt did it with the Japanese in WWII. Worked like a charm!"

When I heard about the data mining being done by this and prior administrations, some time ago, the first thing I thought about was "mission creep." Government programs tend to gradually get larger and slip into other areas than those originally intended (allegedly).

When GWB began sucking up our long-recognized civil liberties beginning immediately after the destruction of the World Trade Center, I automatically knew that these usurpations would mirror those of the so-called "War on Drugs" and that they would flow together and gradually become more and more all-encompassing.

I'm looking for the "National ID Card" which is being sold to us as a federal-spec state driver's license, to become necessary "papers" for travel on airlines (done deal), trains (done deal), busses and taxis. I'm also expecting, at some not-too-distant point in time, "papers" checkpoints for travellers in private autos on the open highway.

GWB makes this happen by simply declaring that this particular travesty "is legal," because I say it's legal, and "it's not a violation of individual privacy" because I say it's not.

This is the kind of Government by Men (not Government by Law) the US Constitution was adopted to prevent--obviously unsuccessfully!

"People Should Not Be Afraid Of Their Governments. Governments Should Be Afraid Of Their People." --V

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Rights of Passage

It looks like I was right all along. According to the California Department of Education, the only requirement on California youngsters to achieve a high school diploma is the fact of attaining the age of eighteen years, and have their butts in the seats a certain number of times a year for twelve long, endless, boring years.

After some parties actually interested in seeing California kids get something resembling an education, pushed for the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Examination), and it was finally adopted, there was an expectation (among some) that California kids might actually finally begin to benefit from government schools.

The first crack in the dike appeared when high school teachers left off (to some extent) teaching the curriculum and started coaching for the Exit Exam.

Now, what I've heard termed a fifth grade-level exam, is just too tough for many poor and disadvantaged students. A lawsuit has been filed, and one of California's many utterly unqualified judges has indicated he plans to place an injunction against the test based on "equal protection" concerns.

I've written many times that I regard government-operated schools little more than children's prisons (observe the architecture of newer school campi), designed to warehouse children to keep them off the streets, and to indoctrinate them in political correctness and compliance with social(ist) norms far more than to actually teach them to reason, to be creative, to learn the 3 r's, to have an historical perspective and a real appreciation of the arts.

In short, government schools are child abuse.

The CAHSEE is irrelevant. If a youngster wants to learn, he'll learn. Try and stop him! Actually, it seems that the California Department of Education is trying to stop him! With all the time and opportunity available in school, most kids should exit in twelve years with an education well beyond that we normally expect of a Bachelor's degree. Today's schools actually do more to inhibit learning than they do to facilitate it.

Fast food outlets have for years now replaced the digits on cash registers with pictures of the food items! Who has time to figure out those incredibly difficult Arabic hyroglyphics, anyway? Many high school grads are unable to make change or to balance a checkbook.

Aside from accelerated and college prep curricula (which are a little better), most kids are kept down to the level of the slowest in any given class.

Many teachers are unqualified to teach the assigned subject. One youngster about whom I have personal knowledge was "taught" algebra by a football coach. When he found the subject difficult, and started asking questions, the "teacher" got angry, told him to study the book, do his homework and the problem would clarify itself. The boy dropped, went into a basic math class, and slid out of the college prep curriculum. The lad did graduate high school as scheduled, has yet (after several years) to take on the challenges of "higher education."

As it turns out, were he in high school today, he would have to do nothing to get a diploma but show up each day.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Pulling Our Punches

I've long thought that the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq were fought poorly. When I say poorly, though, I mean POORLY! Criminally poorly! Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff should go to prison for criminal negligence poorly!

Before I go any farther, I hasten to assert that, while I agree with the need to go after Osama Bin Llama and his al queda gang, and to lay waste to Afghanistan if said dictatorship gives him safe harbor, I think the attack 'pon Saddam Hussein, evil emperor that he was, is frivolous at best, a pure waste of lives, time and money at worst.

As was stated by many a pundit of the more rational (read, less listened to) class, the administration of Iran was, and is, the philosophical leader of the revolt against reason and civilization that was and is the cause of islamic funny-mentalist ire. I suspect that, if and when the truth ultimately becomes known, Osama Bin Llama recieved much of his logistic aid from the administration of Iran.

The US military pulled every punch. They fed the enemy while they were fighting them. They avoided certain locations for political reasons. They gave the mullahs a pass. We don't know exactly what happened, but we know that most of the mullahs are still at large, acting as coarse sand tossed into America's military gears. When they had Bin Llama cornered at tora Bora, they decided to take a day off and let him go.

Troops are still in Afghanistan, doing who knows what, one of them occasionally getting killed or injured--for what?

As bad as Afghanistan seems, Iraq is, by comparison, what we veterans used to call a colossal clusterfuck. I don't care if the troops over there all claim that they're doing fine and really, really love helping the Iraqis put their utopia together in the image of the USA. Our own troops have been turned into half social workers and half sacrificial lambs.

Note the early months, after Baghdad was "secured," when the troops began taking casualties from "terrorists" in hiding, when the troops were ordered to exercise restraint. When they were fired upon by Iraqis from the shelter of mosques, troops were not allowed to destroy the mosques to get to their attackers. Had the troops leveled a single mosque, which was being used as a refuge for snipers, no mosque would ever be used that way again.

When the troops sealed off and "neutralized" Najaf, amid criticism from the world's MSM, they backed off asap and let Moqtada al-Sadr and his gang of killers leave (to come back and fight another day). I'm not sure exactly how all of that went down; there's a lot of conflicting verbiage in the reports that've been released, but suffice it to say, the troops didn't even try to win a decisive victory over Sadr and his band of merry men.

And now, they're ba-ack!

Again, I think our having invaded Iraq was utterly unnecessary, and a bad idea. But, having written that, we have to observe that every one of America's (unnecessary) wars and other military actions since WWII, has been fought with one arm tied behind "our" back. Not good.

Perry de Havilland, writing at Samizdata, observes some of the problems with restraint in warfare: more Americans (and allies) get killed.

Shelby Steele's article on "White Guilt and the Western Past," offers part of the reason why America pulls its military punches. The white West, guilty over the fact of white supremacy around the globe since the Renaissance, has no will to be accused of white supremacy now, in the wake of the many third world revolts against the white west, and of America's Civil Rights revolution. The US government lacks any sense of moral authority that can counter worldwide condemnation of its actions--not only in war, but in immigration control and other international debates.

Steele has some of the answer, but not all of it. American politics is a rudderless ship They have no morality and guiding principes beyond getting re-elected. The philosophy that built America is completely unknown to them--even, nay especially on conservatives. That's obvious by the fact that when al queda destroyed the World Trade Center, the first acts of the Bush administration were to limit the civil liberties of Americans. That trend continues to this day, and shows no signs of letting up.

Back to the subject, while the US government has to fight al queda, after its many attacks on this country, there is no such need to involve ourselves in the political/religious quagmire that is Iraq.

Better we should, claiming the moral high ground of self defense, attack al queda with all our strength, with an eye toward finding a way to neutralize Iran as necessary.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Greater Good

Politicians, many of them members of the conservative persuasion, who command fat salaries for, in essence, extract by force pieces of our lives (often the whole of someone's life) to use for their own ends, love to cite "the greater good" as the goal of their thefts. "For the greater good" is also cited as the reason why certain individuals make sacrifices to the benefit of such nebulous concepts as "humanity," "my country," "future generations," etc.

"The greater good" is very often an euphemism for "god" or "god's will," as decreed by a priest or witch doctor, or such. One should always take "the greater good" to mean the good of the individual who makes the pronouncement. Because that's what he means when he invokes the phrase (whether he'll admit it or not).

One might observe that, for example, nearly all of those who praise American military men and women for contributing to "the greater good" are beyond eligibility to enter the military, and most of them have never done so.

I reject any notion of "the greater good."

The greatest possible good is what's good for me. Depending 'pon the context, that might also mean what's good for those about whom I care.

While most of the world is writhing in an orgy of self-sacrifice, the truth comes out: the world works best when each individual takes care of himself. For those relative few who have periods of need, there are friends, relatives and private charity can provide relief. In the absence of the all-consuming vortex of "the greater good," each of us can easily deal with those relative few who hit rough periods.

The sooner each of us can dispose of these silly concepts and learn to truly enjoy his own life, the better for the world and every one of us.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Roswell, Texas?

My all-time favorite science fiction author is L Neil Smith. I actually grew up on Robert A Heinlein, and continue to re-read his stories occasionally, and I enjoy many other S-F authors as well, but I find myself watching and waiting for El Neil's next.

El Neil builds the worlds in which I would most like to live. From his first novel, The Probability Broach, which is currently in print both as a print novel and as a graphic novel (Art by Scott Bieser), is the first in an alternative history series that begins during a quirk of history during America's Revolutionary War. I could go on about the several subsequent novels Smith has written, including a couple of S-F/pirate swashbucklers, but nobody wants that!

What's new now is a graphic short story which is being serialized at Bighead Press. Roswell, Texas is another alternative history story, a "sci-fi western romantic comedy," based on a quirk of history during the Siege of the Alamo. Reading the first several pages reveals it to be a very interesting story, at least for me! I'm waiting impatiently for the next installment.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm Regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

While El Alcalde is Away, the Peones Will Play

There was a very large pro-immigration rally in many cities today. I, in one of my drives about areas of Southern California, found myself Cruisin' Bristol this afternoon. There were literally hundreds of Hispanics, mostly young folks, cruisin' in their cars up and down Bristol Avenue, Santa Ana, flying Mexican flags and generally making noise. It was a trip.

Santa Ana is home to more Hispanics than any other group, including, I think, we of the northern European persuasion. It's the county seat of Orange County is located pretty much in the center of the county.

Some time I'm going to have to ask why an expatriate Mexican, driven out of his country by the spectre of poverty, poor medical assistance an early death following an unfulfilling life, why he still reveres the country that, in effect, threw him out. If the United States ever finds a way to make me want to leave, I triple gawdamm guarantee I won't be flying the stars & stripes ever again.

Meanwhile, Senor Antonio Vinaigrette, El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles is out of town. Very convenient, being out of town when the events of the day are such that he doesn't want to dis the peones, nor does he want any photographic evidence of his support of them. Of course, the trip to Houston to meet with officials of the National Football League to see about a new football team for LA, was planned decades ago, and the timing has nothing to do with this day of protest, but his heart is with the Hispanic folk just trying to make a living in the good ol' USA.

There are future campaigns, after all!

I say, if they can find work, fine. We pay many people not to work by means of various forms of social welfare, and somebody has to do that stuff!

Conservatives claim that these folks ought to get citizenship the legal way, like "our ancestors did." What they forget is that the rules were very different fifty, a hundred, a hundred fifty years ago. The immigration system, however flawed, worked.

Today, INS is so lazy and smothered in its own bureaucracy that prospective immigrants grow old and die waiting for the process to work. Much easier to overstay one's visa and just get the best job you can.......

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Starting Their Own Jihad

Fearing the fact of being outdone in the world's headlines by islamic funny-mentalists over the publication of 'toon images of Mohammed in the newspapers and web pages of the more civilized portion of the world, the vatican announces a boycott on the movie "The Da Vinci Code."

One has to wonder whether the continuing demonstrations over immigration will, like a tidal wave, overwhelm the vatican's pronouncement and leave theater-goers at peace to enjoy the film in suburban mega-plexes. I've noticed that our local cardinal, Msnr Mahoney, after singing the praises of the immigration reform demonstrations for lo! these many weeks, has suddenly begun to admonish government school inmates to stay in their classes and resist the temptation to escape and join the festivities. Might this have something to do with the upcoming actions regarding the premier of "The Da Vinci Code?"

Will there be bands of marauding catholic youths keying cars in Hollywood with their rosary crosses? Will scientologists be burned at the stake in Malibu? We non-catholics must be on our guard, for one never knows what evil lurks in the hearts of funny-mentalists!

Meanwhile, one has to also wonder how long it'll take for historical scholars to prove that the new testament was made up from whole cloth by monks in the 4th century, and how the vatican will react to that news!

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Driving around at $3.239 a Gallon

Last weekend, Debbie and I attended the 19th Annual Seal Beach Classic Car Show, putting the new (to me) '57 Bel Air on display for the first time. There were, according to the officials, about 450 cars entered. They were parked diagonally along Seal Beach's Main Street and three or four of the intersecting side streets, which were closed to allow pedestrians to walk freely among the cars and have access to the several shops and restaurants.

We had a great time, met a few fellow classic car folks and enjoyed a couple of bands, one of which was an old-timey instrumental surf band. We walked up and down the street several times, admiring the hotrods, stock classics, race cars and muscle cars.

We drove home by way of the scenic Pacific Coast Highway to round out a pleasant, sunny day.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENTS!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Ignorance of the Law Is an Excuse

How could it not be? I defy any attorney, legislator or judge, right up to Chief Justice John G Roberts, Jr, to accurately name the number of laws in existence. In other words, each and every one of these august ladies and gentlemen is ignorant of some, probably most laws.

If they, who propose, advocate, debate, affirm, argue and adjudicate these laws can't even maintain an awareness of them, how can those of us whose most complicated life endeavor is cooking a great steak on a Weber, keep track of more than three of four of them. Half the time, I don't even know the speed limit of the street 'pon which I'm driving (nor do I care).

Which brings me (finally) to my topic du jour.

Tens of thousands of these laws are merely attempted repairs to previous laws that didn't achieve the desired result. Tens of thousands of more laws are attempts to protect the government from its citizens. Tens of thousands of more laws are attempts to protect special interests from the citizenry at large. This includes laws that protect corporate entities from liability. Tens of thousands of more laws are attempts to protect the citizenry at large from the real or imagined excesses of protected corporate entities, as they go about the business of selling us stuff.

I don't suppose I've really scratched the surface yet, not being an attorney myself (thank the Ravens of Odin for steering me away from that kind of waste of a life) but the part of the law that actually benefits real individuals is fairly simple.

Real individuals need THREE (3) LAWS.

First, and most important, there has to be a law against murder and physical assault. Since one's ultimate property is one's very life, agencies of protection must defend the lives of individuals most effectively, and bring those responsible for murders and assaults to justice without fail.

Second, and related very closely, must be a law against violations of the property of individuals. Since the property of an individual is the product of the thought and action of that individual, it actually rises in importance to equivalency to the individual's very life. The main difference that comes into play is the fact that the wronged individual can be made whole by his attacker. Agencies of protection should bring the culprit to justice by requiring him to fully repay the damages.

And third, each individual depends upon the honesty of others in order to be able to facilitate the achievement of his values. In a complex society based on interpersonal relations and the trading of values, the terms of a contract must be upheld. Agencies of protection must analyze contracts, both verbal and recorded, and award judgements to wronged parties.

Obviously, further expansion of definition is necessary to make these three laws clear, but there need be no more laws than these. Until this has been established, individuals are living under tyranny.

None of us should be willing to accept that.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

....But I Don't Own New Orleans....

For months now, we've been hearing all manner of suggestions as to how to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel. There are many websites to which one might contribute money to help--still! The incapable (as has become painfully obvious) federal government has a website that has a long list of links for victims to seek aid, and for donors to offer goods, services and funds. The inept Mayor Nagin unjustifiably makes himself look much the hero on the City of New Orleans site. And Louisiana's equally incompetent Governor Blanco maintains yet another site that belatedly tries to close the barn door so we can't see that the horses have long since escaped.

Hurricane Katrina was named after Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation, because of their very similar dispositions. But, I digress.

I heard an announcement on the radio today calling for architectural ideas for the rebuilding of the city. I missed the details, and they're not important, because it only served to make me wonder: Why are we discussing rebuilding New Orleans?

Why are we discussing rebuilding New Orleans??

Like most of the area to which we fondly refer as the Unites States of America, New Orleans is largely privately owned. Individuals and firms own homes, condos, apartment buildings, businesses, strip malls and shopping centers. We don't actually have anything to do with it. Unless by some happenstance one or two of you happen to own a bit of property there, neither you nor I has any interest in New Orleans--of course, I mean any real financial interest there.

Many of us might have made some sort of donation to one of the many charities committed to providing one or another kind of aid to the unfortunates effected by the storm. Fine.

But the task of rebuilding the city is really the task of each property owner to rebuild his property, however he sees fit. It's his property. It's not ours. New Orleans does not belong to us.

Each and every one of the property owners that comprise the city of New Orleans has the responsibility to either procure insurance, make other arrangements (in advance) to be prepared to rebuild, choose to live elsewhere, or just risk it.

Wherever each of us lives, there are risks. It's the responsibility of each of us as individuals to prepare for the possibility of disaster as best we can.

Debbie and I have fire and earthquake insurance. The house is on fairly high ground, not very near a body of water that's likely to flood severely. What with these and various other precautions, we think we're pretty secure against just about anything but the theft often authorized by eminent domain.

America needs to re-privatize. All of us ought to look at the United States as a huge patchwork of bits of private property, owned and controlled by individual owners.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm Regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles Trashes the Police

Eschewing the very notion that the city might be able to redirect some of the confiscatory taxation of its peones from wasteful and harmful projects to areas in which most Angelenos rely on city services, Alcalde Tony Vinaigrette has decreed that los peones shall pay for the addition of more LAPD storm troopers by means of a more-than-doubling of the monthly fee for trash collection. El Alcalde proposes to raise the monthly fee from $11 to $28 for single family dwellings, according to this story on LA's CBS News affiliate.

Where's Zorro when we need him?

It's true that LA has fewer cops per capita than any other large city, but the reasons for that are several, and tripling a tax won't do much to solve many of them. Cops don't like to work in LA. If they start in LA, they move to a different city as soon as they can get another job. Why? They get second-guessed about everything they do. Management won't back them. Too much racial politics. The law isn't always the law, or, some people are more equal than others.

El Alcalde faces a fight to get this fee (tax) increase through, and if he does, an awful campaign fight in the future.

The real question is, why can't the outrageous taxes Angelenos already pay cover the number one most important mandate cities have? The answer is an easy one. Los Angeles has fifteen City Council members, each of whom are paid nearly $150k a year and numerous perqs. Each and every one of them has a long list of really important projects that have to be funded, not to mention absolutely necessary junkets and fact finding trips to places like Hawaii and Paris each year. That, and all the Angelenos (legal or not) who really need help.

And, of course, there are the children. We must help the children. There's no shortage of plots and plans by any and all of the Los Angeles City Council members to spend millions and millions on the children. We'll tax the parents to death for the children.

One of the chief reasons the City of LA took over trash collection from private firms in the first place was because they said a uniform, city-wide trash collection system would be more efficient and cost less. Angelenos ought to have seen the fallacy when paying for the service was made mandatory. You can't take your own trash to the landfill, nor stay with the private firm. Well, sometimes you can, but you still have to pay the fee to the city.

Now, we see.... Let government take over any needed good or service from the private sector, and they'll invariably hold it over your head like a club. Instances of this are clear in government schools and in city water departments.

If Alcalde Vinaigrette has his way, trash collection by the city will certainly no longer be cheaper than if it were privately done.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

An Invasion of Illegal Aliens

This past Thursday there was a story on all of the MSM outlets about a Canadian goose which, from a perch atop a Toys R Us store, flew down repeatedly and attacked passers by. The female goose was later found to have built a nest atop the store.

While no one was severely injured by the goose in the repeated attacks, several shoppers were startled and had to run for the door to escape the animal.

But there have been a number of these kinds of events in recent years, though none as attention-grabbing as this one.

After doing a reasonable amount of research on the subject, a number of important facts come into view:

1.) The animals in question are feral Canadian geese. Foreign geese.

2.) These geese fly repeatedly across the Canada-United States border without subjecting themselves for inspection or identification.

3.) The United States Border Patrol has done nothing to deal with this blatant disregard for our national borders, thus destroying our sovereignty. When pressed, the Border Patrol insists they've thus far received no direction from their supervision to address this invasion.

4.) Border Patrol officials state that there is no mandate from Congress to deal with these illegal aliens.

5.) The Department of Fish and Game reprtedly requires that the American people go through an expensive and rigorous screening process to be allowed to defend themselves against these creatures, should they invade private property.

So, we see that our federal government does not have the will to protect us against this scourge, and at the same time refuses to allow us to protect ourselves.

My sense tell me that this inaction, this Congressional impotence, will cause adjustments in the Congressional makeup in the next election, and in subequent elections, until something is done about illegal alien geese!

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

No Child Left Alone

I'm a man nearing retirement age, though still healthy and enjoying my career, I could quit if I wanted. Some could call me a dirty old man, but they'd be wrong. I wash occasionally.

As a more than mature guy, I often take a walk around the neighborhood; a walk somewhere between a stroll and a power walk, to augment my sporadic exercise program. It was during one of these walks that the following event occurred.

She was a cute little girl, about six or seven. She was playing in the front yard (planter) with a toy shovel and bucket. Pretending to garden like her mother, I suppose. As I walked along the sidewalk, she looked up at me. I said, "hi!" and smiled.

The little girl dropped her toys and ran screaming around to the rear of the house. "Mmmmommmmy!!!" I shrugged and continued walking without further event.

Later, I thought about the incident. How sad that a friendly greeting from a stranger, just passing by, should frighten this child so.

I guess I can't make light of the fact that parents are worried about child abductions, sexual abuse and/or murders. It happens, and parents need to care for their kids. It saddens me though, that this has to mean that children are made to be closed and fearful of all people they don't know.

Years ago, when I was ice skating, I'd often be approached by children--sometimes small children who wanted me to teach them how to do certain skating moves. I know, I'm not that great a skater, but I look pretty good to those who can't skate well, e.g. kids. So, I often worked with them a little.

I don't do that any more. I don't think I'd like having the jack-booted thugs show up and start questioning me about why I, a grown man, am playing with little kids. I have, on a couple of occasions, taught little kids to skate backwards or do hockey stops, etc, but only if one of their parents are there and I've spoken to him/her.

It's sad. I like kids.

There's something rotten in the world, and I think I'm just beginning to figure out what it is. There's way too much government and religious forgiveness of individual failings that injure others. People are very often not held accountable for their transgressions. They may be fined, even jailed, but the punishment doesn't directly connect to the crime. Criminals need to pay the victim back entirely to help them understand the magnitude of what they did. In short, there's a problem connecting actions to consequences.

In addition, parents have to teach their children to deal with danger. Themselves. The sooner the better.

Many views of the future include hardship and strife. Some include life-and-death situations on a daily basis. The governments of the world, including ours, are pursuing a path that must include some kind of forced direction change, possibly soon. Social Security faces a serious crisis, quite possibly in my lifetime. Foreign military adventures, which seem like they'll intensify rather than diminish, will drain our productivity and impoverish all of us. The welfare state penalizes productivity and rewards sloth. Government controls over individuals and business approach and sometimes surpass Soviet levels prior to the fall of the USSR.

It's scary.

Parents have to teach their kids to be able to defend themselves, in every way possible. Kids need street smarts and they have to be able to recognize evil and react to it. They need to learn to recognize danger and evaluate it and react with an appropriately measured response. They have to be able to tell friends from foes, sometimes in an instant.

They can't just go running to mommy.

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

....But, it Ain't All Bad

I know that much of my writing here tends toward the negative. Just about everything government does tends to make life harder than it might otherwise be, and there is a lot of that continually being imposed on all of us. On the other hand, after many of my readings, I marvel at just how bad life seemed to have been for those alive in the past.

There has been positive progress in the lives of those of us who are fortunate enough to live in the "free" portions of the world. If we wish to continue this trend and perhaps increase it, we should advocate and work toward an increase in freedom and a diminishing of government interference in our loves.

The article that prompts my feeling of optimism is here, written by libertarian philosopher Tibor Machan and published in the Yuma Sun.

Progress continues in the high-tech areas. Computers keep getting better, smaller, less expensive. Government, always short on brain power (though long on brute force) hasn't learned to deal with hi-tech yet, although not for want of trying.

Medical progress is still being made, slowly, constantly battling against the FDA and other government agencies who are bent on returning medicine to blood letting and leachings. One can only imagine the paradise in which we'd be living but for all the malevolent meddling by the power mad.

Increases in our communications ablilties (the internet, radio and telephone tech) is undeniably our best reason for optimism. Note how government shenanigans hit the internet almost instantly, and the MSM then has no choice but to go with the story. Note how individuals of manner of philosophical opinion have access to the new hi-tech form of pamphleteering. 'Twas pamphleteering that aided the American Revolutionaries begin the great experiment that is America.

The experiment is floundering a bit under the shackles of a more and more oppressive government, but communication and activism can help remove obstacles from each of our paths.

So, FAA, won't you get out of the way so I can have my flying car?

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Orange County Great Waste(of)Land

Several years ago, there was a Marine Corps air base in the middle of Orange County, MCAS El Toro. When the Navy decided to close the base and give the land away, well, you had to be here.

Let's talk about competing governments: every city in the area, the county, the state, several federal agencies and a number of private concerns were all jockeying for position to GET THAT LAND!! Several people were killed in the fracas, not to mention the severely maimed county supervisor and over a dozen assorted bureaucrats rendered wheelchair-bound. Just kidding.

The Navy decided to give the base to the county.

That was only the beginning. Before the actual closure of the base in 1999, came the battles over what was to be done with the 4700 acres of once-prime agricultural land. The orange groves and strawberry fields surrounding the base in the 1970's had mostly given way to residential development. Housing prices were on the increase, as they still are.

One fairly large special interest group centering in Newport Beach, a group with a fair amount of pull with much of county officialdom, argued for turning the base into a commercial airport. Of course, those who lived in the new developments near the base were not terrible enthusiastic about having airliners taking off and landing all day every day. They (at least those who could get their hands on a microphone) wanted a huge multipurpose park.

It ended up an arm-wrestling match between these two factions. There were campaigns. There were referenda. There were arguments on local news and talk shows. There were radio and tv ads.

The only thing that was never brought up was the very thing they ought to have done with the land: they should've sold the land to developers to build more houses, apartments, condos, light industrial areas and commercial.

We don't need another park. We don't need another airport. More usable, private land would have eased the upward pressure on house prices and rents.

Parks and airports ought to be private concerns, decided by entrepreneurs and placed according to the perceived markets. Real estate--same thing. The need for new houses, condos and rentals in southern Orange County is here and now, and a no brainer.

That's probably why the county has finally decided that it's going to be a park. A huge, 4700 acre multi-purpose park in the shape of a great white elephant.

It'll be beautiful for a few years, until maintenance gets sloppy (as it has in most other public parks) and taggers start marking it up and stealing and breaking things. Thugs and deviants will take it over and it won't be safe at night.

I don't think I'm the only one who can see this.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Perpetual Campaign

For months now, the MSM have been talking, polling, speculating and complaining about the Presidential election coming up in....November of 2008!? It's like the Christmas season. It starts earlier every time.

Anyone who has the desire to run for President has to already have campaign donations lined up, and has to have a portion of his campaign team put together. Already.

While most of us who are interested are just beginning to think about the election of our HR members and state assembly members this November, along with a third of the senators, there are a half-dozen or so power-mad individuals are setting up for a run at the Presidency.

It's two-and-a-half years until the Presidential election.

Well, who cares what these self-important dopes do with their time, right? Not if they already have a job.

Many of these individuals are state governors and federal senators.

Who's going to be doing the senating and governing while these slackers are flying from state to state (I'm sure they'll find a way to make much of it "official," >>nudge, nudge, wink, wink<< style="font-weight: bold;">VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

You Can Stop Rock and Roll!

I don't know how many people with whom I've chatted on the subject of music, but it's in the manys. Almost every one of them has the following characteristic: He/she is absolutely certain that the music that was being played while he/she was in high school and college--roughly about age thirteen to, oh, maybe twenty-five--was the best music ever.

I don't think I know (or have known) more than four or five individuals that like popular music that don't fit the above description.

I grew up during the very beginnings of rock & roll. My early favorites were (and still are, sort of....) Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Beach Boys, and many others in that period.

As time passed and rock & roll grew and fleshed out, rather than remaining stuck in the "American Graffiti" era, I started listening to the music of the "Hippie" era. Many of them were hard to listen to, but I liked (and still like) Buffalo Springfield, the Beatles, Cream, and a few others.

I listened to Heavy metal, New Wave and Punk (a little). I was prompted by a friend to revisit classical music, then I spent some time looking for the roots of rock, which caused me to listen to blues, jazz, big bands and even back to Cole Porter and Scott Joplin.

I'm not stuck in the fifties.

I don't like most of the music they're playing today. Maybe I ought to say I like the music of the twentieth century.

There are a lot of "classic rock" stations on the radio. They play the same tunes they played ten years ago. Almost without exception.

There are a couple of stations that play current pop and what passes for rock (for some), but if I hear one more pop millionaire singing, no, whining plaintively about how lonely he/she is, I'm gonna swear off radios (I probably won't).

Rap? Not on a bet. I kind of liked Tone Loc and a couple of others, but it seems as though more recent rappers seem to have reverted to a form of prehistoric savagery.

I've been listening to more classical music lately. I find I like Strauss waltzes. I like Mozart and Beethoven. If I knew more about classical, I could name more. I'm learning.

After many years of staying away from country music (music for dumb people), I've actually started to listen to country some. It doesn't any longer seem to be all of that "I Got A Duck Sittin' On My Hand And I'm Feelin' Down" stuff. It actually seems like a sort of light rock that you can understand the lyrics, sung by nice-looking people whose parents taught them how to dress. Oh, crap! I've just proved that I'm getting old (dammit)!

Well, this has been a fairly long, rambling entry, signifying I'm not sure what, but I've put too much into it to delete it. The point is, (yes, I did start with a point in mind) if you like music, there's way too much of it to allow yourself to become stuck in a single decade. Some bit of every genre is really good, and the rest is mediocre to lousy; it becomes the task of each of us to make the choices.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,
Col. Hogan