gabriel amadeus (CC)

Newsman leaves crucial detail out of burglary account

Somehow, Dan Rather is still able to find an audience despite his very public ouster from CBS in 2004 after reporting falsified and unsubstantiated information about President George W. Bush.

Of course, his audience has been decreased exponentially, but the holdover from a bygone generation of news anchors continues to exercise his First Amendment rights via his own virtually unwatched program and as a guest on other leftist news networks.

Appearing on the Rachel Maddow Show recently, Rather was able to reach an audience likely in double digits. Unsurprisingly, he used the opportunity to decry Republican administrations of yore.

As three major scandals converge on the White House, MSNBC remained true to form and the conversation between Maddow and Rather naturally navigated toward the topic of Richard Nixon.

Rather shared the personal account of a residential burglary he said was the work of  ”the notorious plumbers’ operation,” referring to the group Nixon used to halt White House information leaks.

“It was a long time figuring out who did it,” he said, adding, “this became common during the Nixon administration.”

His nostalgia was uneventful by MSNBC standards, though one detail included in his autobiographical account of the story was suspiciously missing from his on air narrative. In his memoirs, Rather claimed he “did what any Texan would do,” describing that he “made sure the family was safe, then grabbed the shotgun.”

I must admit I’m surprised the detail about a gun even made it into his book, but he described the incident in detail through the written word. On camera, though, looking into the wild eyes of Rachel Maddow, Rather neglected to mention that he pointed a loaded and chambered shotgun at a group of what he later learned were GOP operatives.

Honestly, that might be the one target for which Maddow and her deranged audience feel gunfire is warranted.

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May Day, celebrated on May 1, has a storied history that goes back to pre-Christian times celebrating Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and later on as the first day of summer. It was in essence, an innocuous pantheistic celebration of the old aphorism of “April showers bring May flowers,” celebrated in different ways around the world.

That tradition changed dramatically however, after the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago. In synoptic terms, what started as a peaceful gathering in support of striking workers on Tuesday May 4, 1886, ended as a violent precursor to leftist destructive demonstrations. As police attempted to disperse the crowd, someone threw a bomb at police. The blast, and subsequent gunfire, resulted in the deaths of seven police officers, four civilians, and numerous injuries. Investigations led to eight anarchists convicted of conspiracy, with seven of those sentenced to death for their involvement.

The Second International, also known as Socialist International, memorialized the events of the Haymarket Affair by declaring May Day, or May First, an international labor and socialist holiday. Thus, International Worker’s Day became May Day, a celebration of labor and socialism. The significance of this historical connection between ideologically aligned entities cannot be overstated.

Consequently, May Day has become an excuse for labor, socialist, communist, and anarchist groups to demonstrate, destroy property, occupy parks, and denounce capitalism, free enterprise, and America’s founding principles. This may seem inconsequential history, but it establishes the core ideological alliance of political elements whose objectives remain inextricably intertwined in contemporary American politics.

May Day, 2013, followed the destructive historical pattern. All across Europe, demonstrations led by groups carrying “International Workers’ Day,” banners erupted into violent clashes with police. And, as if to not be outdone, the leftist radicals of Seattle created their own mayhem. In what must’ve been accidental truthful reporting by one mainstream media source, the Associated Press stated, “Protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers and news crews. Windows of local businesses were broken and vehicles with people in them were banged around.” This is nothing new for Seattle, as there is even a movie based on the “Battle In Seattle” riots that erupted during the World Trade Organization conference in 1999 featuring the same ideological comrades of the Haymarket Affair.

Greg Gutfeld, co-host of “The Five” delivered the perfect monologue regarding this year’s Seattle riot. “They protested their grievances, capitalism at the top, while championing the same old suspects. And like most anarchic mobs…they just want the free market system to buckle under, making way for a new world disorder.”

“And as if on cue, as it got dark, the mobs smashed windows of local businesses, cars and the courthouse. Yep, the cowardly romance of violence is a marker of such events; the inevitable spasm of idiocy that pleases both the media and protester alike. If these were Tea Partiers, of course, Michael Moore would shout bloody murder from rooftops.”

“But these protesters should celebrate. May Day marks the achievements of communism. That’s why people wear red. It symbolizes blood. When factoring the body count from all the heaviest hitters of communism and socialism, China, the USSR, Germany, Korea, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Mozambique, Romania, the list goes on, we have seen over 100 million people plus murdered in the name of ‘equality.’ You can’t get more equal when all of you are dead. So, congratulations May Day protesters, you truly are number one at something.”

He’s right, of course, in illustrating the duplicity with which the media and the left egregiously, predictably, and consistently mischaracterize the “Tea Party” types; you know, those radicals that believe outrageous things like the Constitution still matters, and that this country was founded on freedom, and for some inexplicable reason, they think it should still be the “land of the free.”

The media never reports on the dearth of misdeeds of Tea Party protests, while allegations, however untrue, are promulgated as if truthful. Meanwhile, the verifiable destruction and misdeeds of the media’s ideological comrades, like the May Day malcontents, are ignored.

If the mainstream media doesn’t deem a story newsworthy, it most likely is, as was illustrated superbly by this week’s revelations of the Benghazi cover-up, and the IRS targeting Patriot and Tea Party groups for harassment. It would appear that the most reliable news sources are not mainstream, as they have maintained a systematic reticence on these issues that alternatives sources have been covering for months. But it’s understandable, since they instinctively protect their comrades.

AP award winning columnist Richard Larsen is President of Larsen Financial, a brokerage and financial planning firm in Pocatello, Idaho, and is a graduate of Idaho State University with degrees in Political Science and History and former member of the Idaho State Journal Editorial Board.  He can be reached at rlarsenen@cableone.net.

The Department of State has sent notice (which you can view below) to DefCad.org that their distribution of 3D printable weapons, and weapons parts, is in violation of the law.

The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance sent a letter to Cody Wilson, who runs Defense Distributed out of Austin, Texas, that he can not host and distribute his files until further review by the State Department.

Defense Distributed gave notice to followers via Twitter about the controversy:

#DEFCAD has gone dark at the request of the Department of Defense Trade Controls. Take it up with the Secretary of State.

— Defense Distributed (@DefDist) May 9, 2013

…This post will be updated as more details become available.

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Special thanks to TJ Thompson for putting my thoughts into video format.

Colorado’s Secretary of state has approved language for petitions to recall Senate President John Morse and state Rep. Mike McLachian. Both democrats are from hotly contested districts and their anti-gun votes will likely cost them their seats.

Voters are also pursuing recalls for Sen Evie Hudak and state Rep. Rhonda Fields and considering filing a petition to recall governor John Hickenlooper.

Rep. Fields sponsored the very unpopular 15 round magazine limit legislation. She is notorious for her outright gun-grabbing stance on the second amendment. During the push for the anti-gun bills, Fields remarked, ”The objective is to get the guns out of the home.”

Sen. Hudak had an equally troubling public event during the democrat-pushed anti-gun effort. During a hearing on concealed carry on college campuses, Hudak told a rape victim that her attack would likely have been worse if she had tried to defend herself by carrying a concealed firearm. Then stating a now proven false statistic, Hudak argued with the rape victim “I just want to say that actually statistics are not on your side…the Colorado Coalition Against Gun Violence says that for every one woman who used a handgun to kill someone in self-defense, 83 were murdered by them.”

Of course, the way Hudak expressed the statistic, she makes it sound as though the victims own guns were turned on them. As several news agencies have reported, Hudak contorted 1998 FBI statistics to say something they actually didn’t say at all.

Colorado voters have come together to form the Basic Freedom Defense Fund to coordinate the recall effort. Headquartered in Grand Junction, CO, the group’s website says, “The Basic Freedom Defense Fund is a non-profit dedicated to holding our elected representatives here in the state of Colorado RESPONSIBLE and ACCOUNTABLE for the things they do in office, and to ensure the defense of our freedoms and civil rights.”

Colorado voters aren’t the only ones organizing. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been spending millions during the 2013 anti-gun effort and is likely to fund groups like “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse” which is hoping to defend Sen. Morse during the recall.

The bill, which will limit the manufacture or sale of 11+ round magazines,  was voted out of the committee by a narrow 3-2 vote, but is widely expected to pass the full House in a vote this Wednesday. Governor Jack Markell is also in full support of the measure.

Delaware citizens will still be allowed to own the banned magazines and use them in private settings such as ranges or at home.

Bans such as the one Delaware is considering do not only limit the magazines. The ban also prevents citizens from purchasing many guns that normally come with magazines holding 12 or more rounds. The bill will severely limit the availability of firearms for those wanting one for home defense, personal protection or competition.

Active and retired police officers will still have the ability to purchase the magazines and guns with higher capacities although many firearms manufacturers and retailers no longer sell items to government agencies that the state prevents their citizens from owning. The firearms companies share the common sentiment that if the citizens of a state have had their second amendment rights infringed, then the state agencies should live with the same restrictions.

Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft were Republicans. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were Democrats.

The American “progressive” movement leaned heavily upon and was greatly influenced by the Fabian Socialist Society in England. The Fabian Socialists contribution to the “progressive” movement was the idea that their goals could be achieved most successfully if their society worked to re-mold the world nearer to their heart’s desire gradually, using tactics of harassment and attrition, and striking full force only when their moment was at hand. This strategy was employed by their namesake, the Roman general Fabius Maximus, who used it in combat against the superior military forces of Hannibal and the Carthaginians.

This strategy, also known as gradual inevitability, has been one of the cornerstones of the “progressive” movement in America. Instead of attempting to over-reach for their long term goal to subjugate the American public in one fell swoop, thereby ensuring that the electorate of a country founded upon the pillars of freedom and liberty would roundly and soundly reject their ideas, they decided to take on a seemingly insurmountable task in small steps that were both more easily hidden and more easily digested by the Republic.

The federal income tax began in 1913, courtesy of “progressives” William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Thanks to the unyielding activism of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who browbeat the United States Supreme Court into accepting his legislation against their better judgment, Social Security was launched in 1935. Medicare and Medicaid came into being in the year 1965 courtesy of Lyndon Baines Johnson and his Great Society agenda. Thanks to the concerted efforts of numerous “progressives” in both houses of Congress, who reached secretive backroom deal in the dead of night, twisted arms and employed the parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation in the Senate, they, along with the Barack Hussein Obama White House were able to pass “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” commonly known as Obamacare, which was signed into law in 2010.

This is an accurate description of a gradual “progression” toward the inevitable goal of an expanded government taking increasing control over the lives of individuals.

The next powerful influence on the “progressive” movement in America was the Frankfurt School.

The Frankfurt School was an openly Communist group formed in 1923 during the pre-Nazi Germany Weimar Republic. After Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933 the Frankfurt School knew that if they stayed in Germany Hitler would kill them for being Communists. They then fled Germany to escape that fate and were welcomed into the United States by “progressive” President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

From the Frankfurt school, “progressives” in America assimilated the concepts of cultural Marxism, critical theory and political correctness. Cultural Marxism, critical theory and political correctness were the driving force behind the 1960s cultural-revolution in the United States.

Cultural Marxism is an offshoot of Marxism that maintains that human behavior results from culture, instead of heredity or race. Cultural Marxists promoted the idea of racially organizing non-whites in concert while asserting that for white people, race does not exist. Cultural Marxists promoted the impairment of white people, race-based affirmative action, globalization, coded speech, censorship, diversity, anti-Western education, dysfunctional sexual norms, the mass immigration of Third World populations into Western countries, multiculturalism over a nation rooted in common ancestry, and elevating non-Western religions above Western religions. Cultural Marxism advocates the idea that whites, instead of giving birth to white babies, should marry interracially or adopt non-white children.

Critical Theory is destructive criticism of the main elements of Western culture: Christianity, morality, capitalism, conservatism, authority, family, patriarchy, hierarchy, tradition, sexual restraint, loyalty, patriotism, nationalism, heredity, ethnocentrism and convention.

Political correctness was and remains another key element. The basis of political correctness is: when addressing the general public, present your beliefs attractively. It’s a matter of being “sensitive” to other people. Use words such as “tolerance” and “diversity,” asking: “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Political correctness in the USA was championed by Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse became one of the main gurus of the 1960s adolescent sexual revolution. He was the one who coined the expression “make love, not war.”

By using the Fabian Socialist strategy of gradual inevitability in combination with the tactics of cultural Marxism, critical theory and political correctness, “progressives” in America discovered a prescription with which to lethally poison America’s political system, academic atmosphere, mass media information delivery infra-structure and popular culture while attacking America’s exceptional values and long standing traditions.

Robert O’Connor, the district’s superintendent, explained rules dictate no participant can engage in celebratory acts, including raised hands.

Hayes’ father said his son was just acknowledging God’s role in the successful run.

He is among a number of other individuals who are actively disputing the ruling, though there is no indication state officials will overturn the decision.

“You cross a finish line and you’ve accomplished a goal and within seconds it’s gone,” said the elder Hayes, wondering “what does that tell them about the rest of their lives? You’re going to do what’s right, work extra hard, and have it ripped away from you?”

Though O’Connor doesn’t see Hayes’ display as “technically a terrible scenario,” he said “the action did violate the context of the rule.”

Many oppose the disqualification on religious freedom grounds, though I contend this incident also highlights another unfortunate trend in today’s society.

Removing any sign of celebration from a victory sends precisely the wrong message to the next generation – though from a leftist standpoint, it makes perfect sense.

While good sportsmanship should always be expected, there should be a reward for hard work and these students deserve a bit of self-congratulation. Instead, the progressive agenda calls for all participants to be treated equally, despite effort or achievement.

As we’ve seen in countless other aspects of life, this practice only serves to disincentivize success, lowering the overall quality of life across the board.

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Evan Westrup, a spokesman Governor Brown said that the bill “makes our communities safer by giving law enforcement the resources they need to get guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals.”

The state has always had laws allowing them to take weapons from those who obtained them legally but have since committed a crime or been diagnosed with a psychological condition. This new legislation puts $24 million behind the law so that confiscations can happen faster.

The first of many gun restriction bills to head to the governor, this measure hires dozens of new agents specifically for the task of firearms confiscation.

The money does not come from the state’s general fund. Instead, the $24 million will be taken from a fund intended to strengthen California’s background check system.

The fees are known as DROS fees or “Dealer’s Record of Sale”. While other states collect no additional fees from dealer’s, California set up the DROS fee telling constituents that the fees would go to enhance the background check system. Instead, it appears that the fees will be used to confiscate firearms.

No good fee goes unpilfered.

The firearms background check system has been the focus of gun debate for the past few months. Supposedly, 90% of Americans wanted to see improved background checks. Now California believes that funds intended for such actions should be used to collect firearms that were legally bought instead.

Many ask where the money will come from to improve the background check system? How else will the large community of retail firearms-purchasing criminals be caught when they buy “assault rifles” at a gun store?

The good news is that California already has a registry of its gun owners which makes finding the current gun owners easier. The state has a database containing all those owning guns that the NRA and gun rights activists have long said would lead to confiscation.

Now, Governor Brown has proven that those registries are used to find gun owners for the purpose of taking their firearms. While the reasons may or may not make sense to different groups, the purpose of the database is now obvious.

What happens when the gun ownership bar is lowered next time? Will traffic tickets be enough? Spitting on the sidewalk? Shooting a double-barreled shotgun out the back door for home defense? Hey, don’t blame me, that was the Vice-President’s idea. Or what if the local law decides that your attitude on government is troubling? The Palm Beach Post reports that Palm Beach, Florida Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has been given the power to investigate people that disagree with their government.

The Florida state legislature gave the Sheriff $1 million dollars which he intends to use to fund an intervention unit.

The Sheriff says the new unit is important and that he wants ”

people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government.”

Sheriff Bradshaw replied to concerns saying “We know how to sift through frivolous complaints.”, but many are not convinced.

“We don’t want to take away people’s civil liberties just because people aren’t behaving the way we think they should be,” said Liz Downey of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

It appears that the California legislature is ignoring their constituents, the will of the people, public sentiment or all those other words Obama uses to tell us that Congress is doing it wrong.

When asked if this program should be a model for the nation, a Los Angeles Times poll had these results as of 9:00pm on Thursday (you can vote in it HERE):

Being generous and not including negative GDP growth that occurred during the first three quarters of Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama’s first reign (er, term), the GDP growth rate has been 2.12 percent, not something to crow about. The GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2012, after Obama was re-elected, was a whopping 0.4 percent.

However, in July 2013, there will be a world-wide redefinition of the GDP, of what is produced. Government statistics will take into account components such as film royalties and spending on research and development. Billions of dollars of intangible assets will enter the GDP of the US economy. The redefinition is expected to add about three percent to the GDP growth rate. Brent Moulton, manager of national accounts at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said:

“We’re capitalising research and development and also this category referred to as entertainment, literary and artistic originals, which would be things like motion picture originals, long-lasting television programmes, books and sound recordings. At present, R&D counts as a cost of doing business, so the final output of Apple iPads is included in GDP but the research done to create them is not. R&D will now count as an investment, adding a bit more than 2 per cent to the measured size of the economy.”

Redefinition is fine. Just remember that apples should not be compared to oranges. But that minor technicality won’t phase Obama. I’m betting that Obama and his economic team will take credit for the GDP growth increase. He and they will conveniently forget to mention the definition change, will instead trumpet their policies as the reason for the growth. And we can expect the MSM to go right along with him. There is, after all, precedent. Look at what the MSM did with unemployment numbers – particularly just before the 2012 election.

But (and there is always a “but” when Obama is involved), the GDP growth rate will be in excess of five percent, well above what economists say is the “ideal” growth rate of about 2 to 3 percent per year. Too much GDP growth causes inflation. Expect economists to change the definition of “ideal” in order to support Obama.

So, come July, when the GDP growth rate jumps due to some accounting miracle, just remember that the economy is not really heating up. Rather remember what is actually going on, that Obama’s economic policies have not changed.

H/T to Tom, who called the GDP situation to my attention.

But that’s just my opinion
Please visit RWNO, my personal, very conservative web site!

Jones said he was protesting not only for environmental reasons, but also because the miners are being cheated of their earned pensions. Ironically, Jones has spent considerable time, money, and effort to put coal miners out of work by way of demonizing fossil fuel energy production.

CNN hasn’t commented on the actions of Jones, nor is it clear whether the news organization paid for his travel expenses.

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Jones is not alone.

Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) (and Van Jones BFF) got himself arrested on purpose a couple of years ago. The two are quite close, apparently. Read: The Company You Keep
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Immediately after President Obama stated that he had no knowledge of efforts to block whistleblowers from telling their stories in regard to the Benghazi attack, Congressman and Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee , Darrell Issa ( R-CA) issued the following statement:

“A lawyer for Benghazi whistleblowers has publicly stated that the State Department is blocking her client’s ability to talk freely with counsel. Over the past two weeks, I have sent four letters requesting that this Administration make information available about how lawyers – who already have security clearances and are representing Benghazi whistleblowers – can be cleared to fully hear their clients’ stories. I have yet to receive any response from the Obama Administration.”

“Even if the President really doesn’t know anything about someone wanting to come forward, his position should be that whistleblowers deserve protection and that anyone who has different information about Benghazi is free to come forward to Congress. The President’s unwillingness to commit himself to protecting whistleblowers only aids those in his Administration who are intimidating them,” Issa Said.

Congressman Issa has presented four letters to the Administration requesting that information be made available to whistleblower’s attorneys in the Benghazi case.

Please visit the Committee’s site at http://oversight.house.gov/ for more information and to show support for Congressman Issa’s demand for answers in the ongoing Benghazi investigation.

“Will ye be hav’n another pint, old fella?” ask younger man dressed in the casuals of modern barman.  Then he stood and waited for a reply.  He stood a while longer…waiting for a reply.

The ancient shoulders squared.  His head snapped to attention like a soldier called for special assignment.  “Maybe one for the boys, and then I’ll be head’n me back to joint them.”  He looked and sounded sad.

“Ma name is Andrew” the boy nearly whispered, “I notice your boys are left on quite a while back.  Can ya share with me just how you aim to catch on up to them?”

“Good ones, all of them.  They stood proud, you know!”

“I never had the chance to meet them, sir.  Ma shift is nearly done, will ya tell me who they were?”

“Well, lad, their names are gone from me, just as they left this life long ago.  But prouder men of Erin ya might like never to have found.  Loyal to their native land and lore were they.  Alright indeed lad, alright indeed.”

“Were they your sons?”

“Yea, they were sons and more.  They were friends.  Men of valor amongst them all.  Died fere Ireland they did.  Not to hoist the Union jack, but to bleed beneath honor of the Orange and Green.”

A quiet settled for a few moments, as those nearby set their mugs at rest.

“Tell me, lad.  What colors would ya lay your life down fere?”  It was asked with resolution, firmness, and dignity without judgmental challenge.  The room fell fully quiet.  Among those whose attention rested on the boy were men surely twice his age, yet still only half a lifetime spent during the old man’s years.

The young man blushed.  He was a college student studying accounting.  He had never considered himself one to be counted upon, but rather one who would simply count.  In a moment of brief self-introspection Andrew again spoke softly “It’s never given me no thought or care.  I mean ya no disrespect, sir, but that be how she really in ma head. It never gave me no thought.”

“Ah, me young lad, don’t let it be unnerving to ya.  Most of yer admirers in here have never gave her thought as well.”  There was a discernible shiver in the crowd.  “Give a good thought to me question, lad.  Give it a good thought.  Ya deserve to know what ya value, whatever she may be.”  With that the old man downed his last swallow of ale and left the pub.

The next morning at the pub Andrew skimmed the local news.  There on page four was a short article, accompanied by a picture.  The headline read “Final Captain of The Irish Civil War Found Deceased”.  Pictured below was a young man in a clean sharp battle dress jacket.  Beside that picture was another of the same man lying beside a stone that bore his name and date of birth.  He wore the same jacket, but it was worn and dirty.  On his chest, held firmly in a death grip, were the delicately folded Orange and Green.  No ribbons, no medals, no insignia of rank, just a tattered jacket and an aged yet pristine flag.

Three evenings later the boy began to write.  By midnight more sheets were in the trash than remained on pad.  But Andrew’s eye gleamed brighter than when he started.  He knew he was getting close.  As the morning rays of sunlight cast early shadows across the ground he walked toward a clothing store, with his written conscience resolutely in his trouser pocket.

By the time his shopping was done the shadows were at their shortest and the sun at her highest.  Andrew stood at the foot of a mound of dirt, headed by carved stone.  On the stone a death date had been chiseled more brightly than all the rest.

“I have an answer, sir” said Andrew, as softly as he ever spoke, but yet with a depth of conviction meant to come from an older, wiser, more hardened man.  He shifted in his new jacket.  In his hands he held the Orange and the Green, folded according to national custom.  Resting on the flag was his hand-written statement.

“I lay my life before my maker, for the blessing of life and liberty.

Together they are indivisible.  Life and liberty are one complete sentence.

Life begins with birth; it ends with liberty.

Ireland, Land of Abundance, grants abundance of life and a greater abundance of liberty.

The Orange (liberty) and Green (life) in a field of pure white represent a dedicated nation.

I lay my life beneath the Orange and Green, because without them abundance turns to shallow.

Erin Go Bragh.”

This article is a poor attempt at writing “in Irish”.  I conform to the notion that there are two nationalities: Irishmen, and those that want to be.  Many readers may believe this article is about Ireland, about nationality, or simply a short tale.  Do not be derailed!

This article is about life and liberty…and what they really mean.  Reread…between the lines.

Braden Bandermann was suspended for bringing a Swiss Army knife on a camping trip. Other students on the trip apparently reported Braden to teachers once they saw that Braden had the tool.

The Swiss Amry knife, and all pocket knives, are more tools than weapons. Anyone that has ever been a boy scout, cub scout, a hiker or camper understands the value of a simple knife. A Swiss Army knife has a myriad of tools valuable to a camper, hiker or anyone stuck in a situation for which they were otherwise unprepared.

The panic comes from school administrators who believe that it is possible to create a antiseptic, danger-free Utopian environment. It is not.

Teaching our children to be self-sufficient and able to defend themselves is apparently not the job of the public school system.

Here, on a camping trip, a boy is nearly turned out from the California public school system for carrying a tool. Perhaps it’s the best thing that could have happened to him.

The state of California seems beside itself in efforts to strip the population of the ability to take of themselves. Now, they are actually attacking children who make an attempt at self-sufficiency.

Braden’s dad said, “I felt as though I want to pull him out of the public education system and homeschool him,” he said. “I felt as though the public education system is becoming the bottom of the barrel. I felt sorry for today’s kids.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry responded harshly to a cartoon in the Sacramento Bee that showed the governor saying that “business is booming in Texas” with “low tax” and “low regs” banners behind him. In the next frame is a giant explosion, seemingly intended to refer to the West explosion that killed and injured so many Texans.

The governor said, ”While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans. Additionally, publishing this on the very day our state and nation paused to honor and mourn those who died only compounds the pain and suffering of the many Texans who lost family and friends in this disaster.”

The Bee’s editor, Stuart Leavensworth defended the artist Jack Ohman’s  tasteless work saying that Mr. Ohman “made a strong statement about Gov. Rick Perry’s disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas a place where industries can thrive with few regulations.”

What the cartoonist and editor both fail to mention, probably due to their decidedly progressive ideological alignment, is that the regulations that would have prevented the West explosion, were already in-place, were of a federal nature and the federal government, not Texas’ had failed to keep the plant in check.

California has lived under decades of over-regulation and still gas lines explode killing residents, power plants brown out causing the elderly to heat stroke and die. The idea that the government is the answer is very Californian.

When Texas’ governor starts taking their most profitable businesses, California’s only response looks a lot like the President’s: attack, attack, lie and attack.