Wednesday, July 11, 2007

One Good Automobile

"Sally the Saturn has...FIVE seats!"
"Sally the Saturn has...FIVE seats!"
"Sally the Saturn has...FIVE seats!"
"And One Hundred Thousand Miiiiles!"

Yes, our 2001 Saturn SL2 has turned over 100,000 miles - 100,083 to be exact.

We've had her since she was new, in 2001.

Two batteries (one under warranty), one big accessory belt (also under warranty), one set of tires, one coolant temperature sensor, and one thermostat. Total cost to us over six years - less than $500. Toss in the cost of normal maintenance, such as oil changes, alignments and the like, and we're still well under $1500.

This is one good car.

Sally has been driven in California, Oregon, Washington, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida - and has never stranded us.

I expect that when our 12-year-old turns 16, Sally will haul her around in the same reliable style.

As a side note, summers in Jawja tend towards a LOT of hot - and Sally's A/C just keeps pouring out the cool, with no attention at all.

Like I said, one good car....

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Run Cindy Run!

She's baaaaack, and hoo-boy am I just tickled pink.

Cindy Sheehan is gunning for Nancy Pelosi's Congressional seat, which is in the Moonbat District in San Francisco, CA.

Story HERE, in the Washington Post, no less, so you know that this is Serious Shit.

My instant read on the situation?

Sheehan, who's announced as an Independant, will out-draw whoever the Stupid Party (R) puts up, but will get hammered by Pelosi. My estimate is 70% Pelosi, 20% Sheehan, 10% Other, including Stupid Party (R).

At the very worst, Sheehan will run off at the mouth, to excess, thereby providing much needed entertainment to the rest of us.

Sheehan will, of course, be completely ignored by Pelosi.

Honestly, you can't make this stuff up!

Sunday, July 8, 2007

American Terrorists

Did you know that America has it's very own home-grown terrorists?

This bunch is not Islamo-fascists. It's called the "Animal Liberation Front", or ALF.

Here's a sampling of their terrorist activities:

Vandalized a business in Pennsylvania (see story HERE). As a so-called "terrorist action" this one was almost a laugher, as Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon hasn't actually sold fur in twenty years.



Nobody has been charged in the attack on Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon in Geistown, a tiny suburb of Johnstown, a former steel town about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh best known for catastrophic floods in 1889, 1936 and 1977.
The Animal Liberation Front took credit for the attack on June 14, saying the business was visited about 4:30 a.m. "under cover of night by masked activists," according to the North American Animal Liberation Press Office Web site, which is linked to the ALF's site. The group claimed a cinderblock was thrown through a front door and the letters "ALF" were spray-painted on the building.

Geistown police Cpl. Terry McGrath confirmed those details and said he's heard the activists were taking credit for the attack.

"I think these people assume they sold furs, which they didn't, as far as I know, for the last 20 years," McGrath said. The business now sells only dresses and other fashion accessories, McGrath said.

Store owner Linda Mowry did not return a call to her home. Mark Mowry, who identified himself as a relative, said that she hasn't sold furs in years and simply didn't bother changing the name of the store when she stopped.

Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who serves as spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office in Woodland Hills, Calif., blamed the business for advertising itself as a fur salon, but said he had no firsthand knowledge about what was sold there.

"I think they just put themselves in the line of fire" by calling the business a fur salon, Vlasak said. "It would be unlikely that they would call themselves a fur salon if they didn't have anything to do with fur."

Vlasak said the activists who targeted the building might have made an "error", but said it was "unlikely someone would risk jail time without doing a little research" about what the business sold.

Vlasak explained that the North American Animal Liberation group acts as the media liaison for underground groups like the ALF. Vlasak said the press office has relied solely on an anonymous communique from the ALF about the attack on the store.

"I don't know anything firsthand about what goes on at Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon," Vlasak said.



Note that Dr. Vlasak blamed the terroristic activity on the victim. Also note that ALF didn't even bother with the most cursory of recon.

HERE you can find a little more about Dr. Vlasak, and also a bit more about the activities of ALF.



Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that a bomb was discovered outside the Westside home of Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum, the chief of pediatric ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. The car bomb failed to explode, despite apparent attempts to detonate it.

In 2003, two bombs exploded at biotech firm Chiron's Emeryville office. Agents believed the second bomb was timed to go off when first responders arrived.

- - - - - -

So far, animal-rights activists have not killed anyone in the United States, but that does not mean Americans should not fear these extremists. In October 2005, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California trauma surgeon who is a leader of the North American Animal Liberation Front, testified before the U.S. Senate and defended killing researchers in order to stop research using animals.

"I don't think you'd have to kill -- assassinate -- too many," Vlasak opined. "I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million or 10 million nonhuman lives."

The threats of violence and intimidation work. Last year, UCLA researcher Dario Ringach sent an e-mail to Vlasak in which he proclaimed, "You win" -- he would stop research with animals. Vlasak sent out a triumphant press release.



You can draw your own conclusions about Dr. Vlasak. I call him "terrorist". Fortunately, his friends in the ALF don't appear to be terribly competent terrorists, at least not yet.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Independence Day

Once again, it's time to remember the Declaration that is the foundation of the United States of America. Upon this foundation our Founders built our Constitution. But the Declaration is the foundation of our house.

You should note that the men that signed the Declaration were part of the "Establishment" of the time - these were sober, thinking, educated "professional" men - part of the ruling class. They had a lot to lose, yet they signed a document that says, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."



WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of the Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us;

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rules into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr., Thomas Lynch, junr., Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, C. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.