Nom de plume: Rivrdog

T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I. - Game point, first of many

On September 12th, less than two weeks distant, the German Constitutional Court (equivalent to our SCOTUS) will issue an opinion as to whether German participation in the Euro Bailout is constitutional under THEIR constitution.

If that Court rules against it, the Euro will likely collapse, since only the Germans have the funds to prop it up, and then only for a limited time.

Without German participation in the bailout, the Euro, which is already pegged right at it's introductory level of 1/1/99 (US$1.25), will likely fall to parity (or worse) with the US Dollar, itself not a strong currency.

I'm not into the politicization of the German High Court, but if they ARE politicized, they will probably okay the German Central Bank bailing out the Euro, and all will be okay, for a while....

Should they say that their Constitution does not extend to funding Socialism past their own borders however, the panic starts in Europe and will quickly spread to the USA markets, and we will have a Black September. The "original" Black September referred to the paleoswinian massacre in the '72 Olympics, but this Black September will be much, much worse.

A renewal (continuation?) of the "recession" is guaranteed here, and likely worse.

Are YOU ready for worse?

You have twelve days to prepare.

1. If a crash involves a "bank holiday", you need to be prepared to function on cash for as much as several weeks. Can you do this?
2. If Obama can't get a handle on it in several weeks, we will see the T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I. (the end of the world as we know it) scenario. In that case, the election means nothing, because the Nation will cease to exist before November. Specie for personal & family continuance will be beans and bullets.
3. Do you have enough beans and bullets?

If this crisis is avoided, there will be others, because the cost of socialism in Europe has exceeded the ability to both pay and borrow for it, and the loans are due.

We're next.

Portland Police trump up a new charge, violate 2A rights

Yesterday, a group of men dressed out in camo, one had a semi-auto sporting rifle ALL reporters called an "assault rifle", and two of the 13 men involved were arrested for....wait for it...keep waiting...

"disorderly conduct for handling an assault rifle in public and causing alarm."

I REALLY wish I were a lawyer now, I would LOVE to take the idiot commander of the Portland Police Bureau on in a courtroom, and it would be a FEDERAL courtroom, that's where denial of civil rights cases are heard. I would, of course, work Pro Bono.

• The element of the crime of Disorderly Conduct (Chapter 166 of the Oregon Revised Statutes, misdemeanor), which says that the behavior in question caused, or would be likely to cause, "public alarm", is clearly unconstitutional, for it pre-supposes that said state of alarm of the reporting person(s) is reasonable ("reasonable man test"), and such reasonableness cannot be taken for granted as the statute requires. I never made a DisCon arrest that didn't involve the perp actually exchanging blows or challenging someone (usually me, as the responding officer) to a fight. These men, all members of a breast-cancer awareness group, were challenging no one.
• The police have improperly inflamed public opinion in this case by referring to a semi-automatic sporting arm as an "assault rifle" (and the press went along with that because there is zero editorial oversight in the MSM anymore). Of course, we know that the term "assault rifle" properly refers to a military arm which is designed for and capable of full-auto fire, and this rifle was not capable of it (or else, the po-po would have crowed that they got an EEEVIL Machine Gun off the street, and they would have preferred charges relating to possession of a full-auto gun.
• Portland is heavily involved in the film industry now, with major shows (Grimm and Portlandia are just two) being shot here all the time, and guns are brandished in public all the time. A few years back, I was an extra on the shooting of "The Hunted", and the arms room of that film would have made The Armorer of Argghhh! proud. Plenty of brandishing there, and no arrests.

Ho-hum, another day, another GFW* day in the Citeh. 

BTW, Open Carry is NOT allowed in Portland, that part of the State's gun law code is not protected by State pre-emption, and most GFW cities west of the Cascades have prohibited OC.

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*GFW, stands for "Gun Fearing Wuss", a term coined, or at least attributed to, the former major gunblogger Kim DuToit.

Yahoo! News and the HuffPo go all Josef Goebbels, all the time

Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's propaganda minister. He was a specialist in whipping up public opinion against those people his boss wanted out of the way, such as the entire Jewish population of Germany.

Goebbels is credited with whipping up the fervor of 1938 Germany against the Jews when a Jew shot a minor Nazi Party official. The events which followed became known as "Kristallnacht", which we translate as "the night of broken glass", two days of rage in which the usually-strict Nazi government turned it's back on mobs destryoing Jewish synagogues and businesses. The groundwork for Kristallnacht was laid, for several years, by systematically trashing concepts of Judaism, and by blaming Jews for lots of evils which were really the fault of the bad economic conditions of the time (which were also laid at the feet of "Jewish Bankers", by the way).

Propaganda is an art, as Goebbels demonstrated, and boasted about frequently. Goebbels urged those aspiring to be propagandists to always use their writing and speaking as weapons to achieve the main goal, in his case the support of his boss, Adolph Hitler.

Recently, the Huffington Post borrowed a page from Goebbels' book, and just as Mitt Romney was formally nominated by the GOP convention, they published a hit piece on the Mormon religion. The article is all about the polygamy practiced by Brigham Young, and is an excerpt from a book which won't be published for three weeks (HuffPo was obviously granted permission to use the excerpt from the manuscript for this purpose). Romney is a Mormon, so, with this piece in their collection of anti-Right screeds, the HuffPo now smears Romney with the tar-brush of polygamy, generally banned throughout the Western world. Of course, all of this ignores the fact that Mitt Romney has come out strongly against polygamy.

This is propaganda at it's worst, but the liberal press which now shills for Obama has more to offer. A "hot mic" incident with the Chief of the Washington Bureau for Yahoo! News shows us more of the mindset of the mainstream media. Don't you like my choice of using the HuffPo to detail that story?

These two examples show what the Obama-media can do, but this blogger fears they will do worse. The GOP would be well advised to stay above the fray, because there is no way to step into a bucket of slime and not come out slimy, leaving slimy footprints. I have faith that the American people reject this level of slime in politics, and will react against it.

Obama, you just lost some votes, and you will lose more if you keep up this slime.

 

What might Ann Romney have to say?

Unlike Tubby the One-Note Tuba, Ann Romney, also on the entertainment bill at the RNC tonight, might have a huge impact, if she hits these points:

• She must dispel the notion that her Mormon marriage makes her HAVE to play second fiddle to Mitt all the time.
• She must show that conservative wives can act on parts of the "women's agenda" as well as liberals can.
• She must show that she is ready to participate actively within her capabilities as a First Lady.

If Ann Romney can manage those points well in her talk, she will upstage Tubby, but upstaging Tubby is a low-hurdle goal. Pretty much anyone can do it.

Tubby gets to play his Tuba

Yep, Tubby the One-Note Tuba (claims he is also Governor of New Jersey) gets to blat out, "but I killed the UUUUUNIONS" tonight at the RNC. I won't watch it. Probably watch tennis or something else if I watch anything.

First, let's parse this One Note from Tubby. He didn't "kill the unions", he removed collective bargaining from public-employee union negotiations. Tubby didn't invent that removal, it was done in another liberal state, Oregon, way back in 1995 (see: Oregon Senate Bill 750, aka the Derfler-Bryant Act). All Tubby has done in NJ is make public employees, that would be the teachers, police and firefighters, into slaves of the State, working for whatever the State decides to give them. The great American freedom of forming a union of like craft to band together to better sell your service to the employer does not apply in New Jersey anymore.

Public Employee unions can't bargain collectively in NJ, but other trade unions still can, and do. Powerful unions such as the Teamsters and Longshoremen, powerful because the transportation industry is New Jersey's most important industry, still command all the wages and perks they want, and Christie never raised a hand to have any of his anti-public employee rules touch THEM.

Nope, Tubby can only play one note, and he makes up for lack of substance by bellowing his message out. Fox News said this ayem that Christie would "energize the base". Ummmm, no he won't, because the "base" is energized by an actual conservative, not a faux-con like Tubby.

"Faux-con", huh? Isn't that a bit over the top, Rivrdog, you say?

No, it isn't. On abortion: "I'm pro-life with exceptions, take it or leave it. (June 2011)" That won't make many evangelicals, who make up somewhere between 25% and 35% of GOP voters, happy, and therefore Christie's abortion stance doesn't energize that part of the "base". On the Second Amendment: Christie has done NOTHING to show that he is even in favor (let alone might have had some success) of removing some of the New Jersey impediments to it's citizens being able to utilize that Civil Right. Christie is anti-gun, period. New Jersey is in the habit of arresting fly-through travelers with legally-checked guns in their baggage, when their flights manage to end unexpectedly at their airports and they have to get a hotel off of airport property. Christie had the option of pardoning one such person, and all he did was commute the guiy's sentence, leaving him still a felon for something even the Obama Administration says is okay to do (fly through to your destination, with stops, with guns in your checked baggage). Nope, Tubby won't "energize" gun owners, either, and last time I checked, they were a majority of GOP voters. On energy: Christie goes along with the Obama Administration's stance on "green energy", says NJ can become a leader in it, and he would ban offshore drilling in NJ waters. The base wants "drill, baby, drill" and Tubby is against that.

The point is, Christie ought to be giving a speech in Charlotte next week, but the other GOP turncoat/wuss Charlie Christ beat him to it.

The Vatican is in the election

...and it is NOT good news for Obama. Rome has written him off.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

"marriage should be re-inforced, not re-defined"... Is THAT powerful, or what?

I'm not Catholic, and not all who view that video will be, either, but it's message cannot be ignored.

H/T to the Coyote Kid.

The Hitchin' on the Hill

...went off as planned. Here's the Bride, not blushing, but in her more-normal, snarky-mode:

First time I met her, she was a precocious 4-year old, now, a successful architect.

Time flies, my friends. 

Why...

Does our Government (that means YOU, Obama and Hilldebeeste), even think about negotiating with the Taliban? Why do we ven think about negotiating with those who accomodate the Taliban (Karzai)?

We need to either declare our opposition oto that bloodthirsty "religion of peace" and quit trying to build up even the "moderate" versions of that belief system, or we need to load all 80 B-52H bombers with cluster bombs and start carpet-bombing until there isn't an un-shredded Taliban left. Forget this "surgical military strikes" crap, kill them all. Eye for an eye. No, a thousand eyes for one eye.

The Taliban and their ilk are vermin that infect the human species. They need to be exterminated.

Phone Phreak bleg

OK, here's the problem. I have a business account with a national company which I will not identifiy here, but suffice it to say, they don't have world-class coverage outside of the Big Citehs. They have a few "partners", but the partnerships are few and far between.

My instrument is a Samsung Galaxy IIS, and I have NOT changed it's Android system (yet). Up at the Hitchin' on the Hill this weekend, I was able to get a little coverage through a fly-by-night outfit called "Unicel", but there was AT&T coverage of maximum strength voice and 4-bars data (3G) all over the area. I tried to manually roam, and the phone told me that AT&T was out there, but when I tried to force roaming, the phone told me that my "sim card does not allow un-registered roaming".

Question One: Is there a bootleg SIM card which WILL allow it? One that would be undetectable to my carrrier? Secondly, can I "jailbreak" the phone and make it so I can force it to manually roam?

Question Two: Is this a Don Quixote quest? Am I tilting at windmills here? It will cost me a bunch of moolah to dump my present contract, so would I be money ahead to just get a Clear phone or TracPhone and keep it for those times when my business carrier lets me down? That will entail giving everyone a second phone number.

Truck parts bleg - RESOLVED

Just concluded the drag of Petey the Pop-Up camper to the Hitchin on the Hill. After returning, I wanted to clean up Petey's permanent pad with a pressure-washer, so I put Petey on the apron to my bigger pad where the M35A2 sits. As I was backing Petey into the slot, I got him too square with the curb (the farging City of Gresham won't let me have a second driveway apron on my property, so I have to use this mounting system to jump the curb), and even though the 6" curbing is softened by a 4X4 timber laying along it, making only a 3.5" jump for the little 10" wheels of the camper, the shock of the mounting of the curb was too much for the stock Mazda B2500 bumper, and it bent somewhat. Didn't wrinkle any metal, or even bend the frame, but the middle section of the bumper, the part holding the trailer ball, bent about 20 degrees from horizontal and bent that part of the bumper upward about an inch. Still trying to figure out the physics of the upward bend, but I guess the mounting attempt (I had to do it twice) put a buckle-moment on the rig. The trailer's "A" frame wasn't affected, nor the hitch on the trailer, just the cheesy-but-dressy bumper.

Now I need to either repair the bumper or replace it. Since the light trailer will be used some more, and I might have to repeat this maneuver again, I want the truck's hitch to stand up to it next time (I have put this trailer in this same spot twice before with no ill effects, but something made a difference this time).

My previous light pickup, a 1974 Toyota Hilux, had an after-market bumper on it (there was no stock bumper sold with the truck in those days). IIRC, it was a Barden Bumper. I towed an 1800# Aljo 15-foot heavyweight travel trailer with it for 4 years and never had a problem with the truck or bumper.

Barden is out of business, but there appears to be another company selling another bumper for the LBT, bodykits.com. Do any readers have any info on the Fey Bumper (no jokes on your blogger getting a fey bumper, please!)? Looks like the total parts cost for the Fey arrangement (bumper plus mounting kit) will be about $440, which is reasonable. Toss in another Large or so for installation, and I should be ready to tow with no worries.

The other concern is cost. If I was made of money, I would repair/replace the cheesy one and add a receiver hitch below it, but that would cost as much as the truck is worth, and it would put the receiver too low to the ground as well. My ideal would be a receiver hitch IN a strong bumnper, but I am not in the mood to pay a custom welder to fab one up for me.

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RESOLUTION: I bought a new Fey #66000 bumper, locally, and had a local body guy install it. He charged me one hour of his apprentice's time. total outlay, $240 including a new ball and the $40 install kit. minor fitting was required and the LBT sure looks purty now!