Surely you’ve all heard the story now about the Florida father who came home to find the 18-year-old babysitter diddling his 11-year-old son. But the pictures are priceless and should serve as an object lesson for … the kind of people who badly need object lessons.
Ha! And I thought I knew a few people who were obsessed with getting reward points on their credit cards. Top this, guys.
So the ATF is so bad at solving “gun crimes” (or so good at creating them) that it decided it needed to extend its complete lack of competence and integrity into drug crimes, as well???
Dog just hanging out in its own backyard. Cops canvassing neighborhood for a lost toddler (who turns out to be snoozing in his own family basement). Guess what cop does? Yeah. Again. But once again, the dog’s dad is on a take-no-prisoners quest for justice. (H/T furrydoc)
Okay, let’s have some better dog stories. Including this happy cop and “vicious” pit bull story via naturegirl.
New study warns against trying to cheer some folks up. Yeah, I can see that, for sure. Sometimes you just need validation and sometimes those cheery platitudes are just plain grating. Still … where comes the point where you just tell Debbie Downer to quit whining and fix her own life?
So former shooting hotshot and alleged historian Dick Metcalf. still hasn’t bothered to learn the meaning of the term “well-regulated.” And now the left is loving on him. (H/T RC) Bob Owens gives the useful idiot a touch of what he deserves.
Forget that. Cartoon time. Here’s one for Joel (via Never Yet Melted):
And one for all us makin’-a-livin’ arty types lost out here in Cyberland:
Is anybody surprised by the latest creepiness from F*c*b**k? And why do so many people not get that when the service is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product?
The federal no-fly list is unconstitutional. So says a judge. Not (apparently) because the fedgov is arbitrarily and secretly denying people their right to travel, but because it’s not offering a good enough appeals process for arguing our way off. Don’t expect much to change.
Gadzooks, it appears that the pampered darling Chelsea Clinton is even more out-of-touch than Mommy C. (Via Never Yet Melted)
Church knowingly hires registered sex offender (pedophile) as pastor. The predictable happens. But I suppose you could say this dude was a step above their previous pastor. Or … um, maybe not.
The security state as a bumbling giant. Gads, I love you, Borepatch. Love that bit of coding you blogged about, too.
Happiness is being a loser. Well, maybe not exactly. But this 2012 article nails how I perceive matters. I know positive thinking works for natural-born positive thinkers. But those of us who were born to see the glass as half empty have reasons — and a certain wisdom. Trying to force optimism has never done anything but make me grumpy from disappointment.
If you’re wondering when part II of my “observations on being obsolete” piece might be coming along — fear not. I’m working on it. it’s just that I’m also deadlining on three articles, too. So a little more patience.
The middle class is even more screwed than the numbers show.
Could the mythical cancer wonder drug be on the horizon, or is this just another typical bit of overhype? Concept seems good: turn your own immune system against the cancerous invader.
… but sometimes being stubborn and a tad OCD makes up for that.
My “genuine” Amish electric fireplace (and I’m hardly the first to notice how ridiculous that claim is) heats just fine and looks pretty with its red glow and nice oak cabinet. But something is missing; “genuine” faux flame effects.
This weekend was the one moment of the year when a certain island full of millionaires “allows” garage sales. Once “allowed,” they do it up right.
If I were a millionaire I think I’d just give all my excess stuff to Goodwill rather than sit out in the hot sun (or rain; but this weekend it was sun) and peddle stuff for a few bux. Nevertheless, 147 households held “official” sales (there’s a map and everything, not to mention an entry fee just to get on the island) and dozens set up unofficial ones.
The banksters at the European Central Bank have set a negative interest rate on deposits. The rate was zero, as of June 11 is -0.1%. If a bank leaves money on deposit at the ECB, they will steal some of it every day. This is on top of what is stolen invisibly by creating ever more money; here they actually reduce the balance of the account.
The intention is to force banks to lend their reserves rather than keeping them on deposit with the ECB. Since fractional-reserve bank lending creates money from nothing (this is on top of the new money created from nothing by the central bank) an increase in lending means even more rapid increases in the money supply. More money is available to bid against a shrinking supply of goods and services, causing even higher prices down the road.
Which is exactly what these criminals are conspiring to do. They see a rapidly contracting economy (crippled in no small part by ruinous “green” energy legislation and pricing) with falling demand for goods and services.
In a free market, falling demand causes downward pressure on prices, which is good for consumers. But anything that is good for consumers is bad for criminal banksters, as it interferes with the process of stealing from the poor and transferring wealth to the ultra-rich. So falling prices cannot be tolerated.
Falling prices also means that debts are repaid in money that may be more valuable than when the loan was created. This is good for creditors and bad for debtors. Governments are the largest debtors in human history, and central banks are nothing more than instantiations of government violence, so the interests of debtors will always triumph at central banks.
Consumers be damned. The ECB wants price inflation. Perhaps the precedent of setting negative interest rates will give it to them, good and hard.
Gold jumped $8 an ounce within minutes of the news, and we’ll see where that goes.
Which makes me so very happy that I took the Mogambo Guru’s advice and bought lots of lovely gold and silver coins back when they were so cheap even I could afford to buy them. Wheee! This investing stuff is easy!
Given where gold and silver have been lately, they could use quite a boost. Heck of a way to get one, though.
I post this with the sneaking suspicion (nay, the hard-won knowledge) that the average reader of the Living Freedom blog wouldn’t care if all of Europe fell into a giant volcano crater or was sawed off the planet and transported away by aliens. But trust me, folks, when I say, “Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.”
If you held out some tiny hope that Obama might not be as complete an economic moron as you thought him to be, read this and Lasciate ogni speranza. Yes, a raft of new federal controls will make energy cheaper!
Speaking of economic moronism: Under the inspiration of a Socialist city council member and waves and waves of trendy blueness, Seattle gone went and done it — raised the city’s minimum wage to $15/hour. For a while they may be saved by all the ifs, ands, and butts they included.
And on the other side of governmental asininity: Court official in Virginia refuses to perform a marriage because the couple aren’t Christians and therefore have no right to get married.
But wait! Governments have no monopoly on idiocy. Seems that hurricanes with female names kill more people, and it may be because people don’t think “girly” hurricanes are as dangerous, and therefore don’t flee or take as many precautions against them. (Oh, human beings, you are so very strange!)
Oh man. I didn’t realize that the latest baby-burning cops were also the preacher-killing cops from a few years back. I just love how the sheriff dismisses all this with, “Bad things can happen. That’s just the world we live in.” A fine statement from the guy who’s making the bad things happen. Tear ‘em a new one, Mr. Grigg.
This one’s already gotten around a lot, but what the heck. It deserves all the attention. Bloomberg’s “Moms” demand action at a Tulsa Chipotle — and they get it. :-)
Apparently neither the Fourth nor the Second Amendment apply when it’s for your own good. (H/T PB from comments.)
The real problem, of course, would be solved by getting rid of government schools and all their rigid one-size-fits-allism. Still, this short video is an interesting analysis of what’s being done to boys. And to society’s future. (H/T MJR)
Related to the story Gunny alerted us to the other day, the intended target in that Texas case has been ordered to recant her statements to the press. As a condition of parole. Can you spell “First amendment abuse”?
What if female bodies in classical paintings were photoshopped as they are in modern ads? Ugh! (Amusing, but still ugh. Also: naked lady alert. But it’s okay because it’s Art.)
So you think nobody’s manipulating the metals markets? Here’s a known case where Barclays (remember them from the Libor manipulation scandal?) deliberately screwed with the gold market to cheat one of their own customers out of $3.9 million. Braaaazen.
Oh, so that’s what that new “trigger warning” BS is all about. Been hearing that phrase and wondered if it was some new antigunnery. Nope. Just more politically correct, infantilizing silliness from the crowd who believes their widdle feewings should never be hurt. No doubt, though, that anything more dangerous than a plastic spork will “trigger” some poor soul’s hysteria.
What Americans are really afraid of. Hint: It’s not terrorism. Anybody else notice that four of the top five and five of the top eight basically amount to the same thing? Or are at least as closely related as the Dionne Quints?
I’m next in line. I have three items in my little handbasket and a $20 in hand. It’s lunch hour and traffic’s picking up as workers come in for deli food. People are lining up behind me. But the lady at the counter has only 20 or so items. This should go quickly.
