Author Archives: sergeantknuckles

Black Hopefuls Pick This Year in G.O.P. Races – NYTimes.com.

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According to the article above Obama’s election has invigorated the hopes of persons of color to get elected to office.  Unfortunately, it for Dems it’s not all the left side of the spectrum.  Reluctantly, I have to agree with the article because generally this is a good thing.

As far as being a person of color, as I am one myself, I’m not sure that I understand the fierce loyalty to Democrats.  One could make the argument that Dems work on the behalf blacks, browns, and generally anybody who is not white, that they deserve unwavering support… but if one considers the continued sheer numbers of our people who are still crushingly uneducated, crushingly under-skilled, and thus crushingly poor then one has to wonder who they are really working and if the ceiling of what Democrats can do for us has been reached.  If you are voting because of what HAS been done in the past then you are going to be taken advantage of in the future.

Look, I’m a business major, I believe in competition, if you want your supplier to give you a better price, or have a chance of more equal negotiations, or if you want to break the entrenched status quo then there is no better way than to say, “You know I bet I can get a better deal elsewhere”.

Think about this, Unions are designed to protect their workers.  They band together for better wages (primarily) but also for better working conditions (their truest calling) and benefits; however, in doing so they raise the cost of doing business and make it more difficult for businesses to hire NEW workers.  Effectivly, while some general wins for union workers translate over to the whole of the workforce, unions generally only care about THEIR dues paying workers.  The result is this; a plethora of educated, trainable, hard working NEW employees is actually a threat to Unions.  Basic supply and demand says that any surplus of supply creates lower demand and lower demand creates lower prices.  Therefore a surplus of good workers drives down wages.  That sounds like a downside for workers but think about this; lower prices can create demand for goods.  Therefore, lower wages makes entrepreneurs more able and therefore more likely to create new businesses which create more jobs and creates more wealth for more workers.  With a single minded drive to create wealth for their own dues paying members Unions are actually unbalancing this delicate cycle on the macrolevel creating disincentives to for job creation.  The net result is an artificial scarcity of jobs and thus an increase in general employment opportunity.  As the old saying goes, “It must be nice work… if you can get it”

How does this apply to people of color getting elected as Republicans as this blog started out?  Well, as we are more likely to be without education, training and therefore employment then the opportunity sapping side effect of union activity works against us by hampering job creation, and since we as a bloc are so emotionally wedded to the Democratic party and since the Democratic party is so dependent on Union voting and money then just who is the proverbial red-headed step-child in this dynamic?  The answer is you my non-union new worker.

All that to make this point, if you want opportunity and better deal then make your party WANT you.  Be willing to threaten to defect and be willing to carry that out and for crying out loud, understand that just because your party is WORKING for you doesn’t mean that it’s HELPING you.  You DO have a choice and if you open your mind a bit you might find that people of color who step over the line and vote Republican are not traitors to our respective cultures but that we have thought and reasoned this out to some degree and to some level. My final question to you is this, is your tie to your party of choice emotional or reasoned?  If it’s emotional then maybe you need to firm up your beliefs, ask yourself what you’re core values are, what your deal breakers are and then vote that way consistently.  You might find that you’re voting against yourself more often than not.

I generally vote Republican even though I am more of a Conservative/Libertarian cross.  I’ll work for Republican candidates, but I don’t agree with everything they believe but at least those beliefs are more liberty and personal freedom oriented then Democrats.  You see, I vote Republican because of my beliefs in the purity of the Constitution and the simplicity of that one line, “…Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. No one owes me happiness; it is born out my own hands… or not at all.

The legislation on which they’ve staked so much will not withstand its first contact with reality.

via Five Reasons Not to Despair – Rich Lowry – National Review Online.

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill.

via House may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it.

What!? Nothing, from no party should EVER be passed without being voted on.  I don’t care if it’s momentous or inconsequential.  Voting is the ONLY job those morons have, I wanna know what they stand for, it’s fundamental to judge whose worthy of my vote.

“…two automatic teller machines were broken open, a bank was robbed and a supermarket emptied, its floor littered with mashed plums, scattered dog food and smashed liquor bottles.”

via Chile earthquake: Military takes control as death toll passes 700 | Mail Online.

I’m looking at the looting going on after the Chile 8.8 quake: and I’m wondering, could you live off the contents of your cupboard for 72 hours? W/o running water too?  W/o access to ATMs and/or with credit card machines down?

I admit, for most of the United States help is only the next county or state away, but I live in Los Angeles.  This is a desert and living here is only made possible because of the fantastic transportation network and access to running water brought in from outside the valley.  There are mountains that cut us off from the East and freeways that connect us to communites to the South and North.  If something close to a 7.o quake close to the surface ever happened nearer to L.A. proper then we’re f@cked.  The freeways are the only way to get anywhere quickly here and the population density is DENSE.  Grocery stores in any cut off regions would go dry in a matter of hours.  The crooks would be out knocking off banks and ATMs almost immediately.

The big killer here (after collapesed buildings) would be fires.  Most of the flora here is not native and would die off quickly once water is unavailble, it then becomes dry tender within a short time… but with blocked roads and rubble in the streets… and with many fires spread over the city then I can forsee the Fire Departments breaking down pretty quickly… especially if the water pressure is affected.

We could expect a major relief effort to commence almost immediatly via the national guard and other military units from nearby counties and states but again, if the transportation system is fatally compormised (weakend bridges, underpasses, tunnels, plus rubble and abandanded vehicles and refugees) then getting the troops and relief supplies has to done by airlift.  And that is just darned inefficient and sporadic.  We have plenty of regional airfields but they are spread out and I imagine roads leading away from them will be rubble strewn as well.

The big thing is going to be road blockage.  Supplies can brought in via ocean transport and via air, but if you can’t get it to the communites then the trouble starts.

It is thuse that I read the stories of looting and crime comming out of Chile with great interest.

Constitutional contempt.

“The greatest movement within the tea party is ‘None of the above,’” said Jim Bancroft, a founder of the tea-party group in Hartford, Conn. Officials in both political parties “need to be totally removed — every single one of them,” he said.

via Rage at Government for Doing Too Much and Not Enough – WSJ.com.

William McGurn: God vs. Science Isn’t the Issue – WSJ.com.

~SK

Preach it brother.

~SK

A Statistical Analysis of Maritime Unemployment Rates, 1946-1948. Just Kidding, More Liberal Lies About National Healthcare! – HUMAN EVENTS.

I love a numbers argument that makes sense.

~SK

The Body Politics: On health-care reform, Democrats have become their own worst enemy. – Reason Magazine.

I love these guys.

~SK

Washington Post Admits to Bogus Quote – HUMAN EVENTS.

“Veteran Washington Post reporter Daryl Fears, part of a two-person writer team, unmistakably wrote that filmmaker John O’Keefe had “said” he “targeted” ACORN, the advocacy group, for his candid-camera expose, because it registered voters to defeat Republicans.

O’Keefe said no such thing. It was a non-quote made out of whole cloth by reporter Fears, and published as fact on Sept. 17. Making the falsehood exponentially worse, the Post story then was retailed worldwide by the Associated Press.”

…all the news that’s not fit to print.

~SK

RealClearPolitics – Lots of People Love Obama, But Does Anyone in the World Really Fear Him?.

Love the “Happy Days’ referance.

~SK

A libertarian at Fox.

Welcome Mr. Stossel.

APNewsBreak: ACORN Sues Filmmakers – wjz.com.

Um.  Can you say, ‘discovery’?  This cannot go well for Acorn.

~SK

RealClearPolitics – Capitalism Is Not The Problem.

Love it.  Just love it.

~SK

Times Higher Education – It’s the stupidity, stupid.

The article is interesting but the real gems are the comments, LOL.

Carter: Racism plays major role in opposition to Obama – CNN.com.

Why yes Mr. Carter that is EXACTLY it!  It couldn’t be the 1000+ page boondoggle of bill or even the mere idea of government trying to care for 300 Million people.  I mean, that’s only 600 million first and last names to track… what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Tonto.

~SK

ACORN Fires More Officials for Helping ‘Pimp,’ ‘Prostitute’ in Washington Office – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com.

I don’t care what political persuasion their of, when you have two offices in two different states caught doing exactly the same thing then it is either a failure of leadership or instituted by leadership, either way, the organization is tainted… in its entirety because now the company culture is permeated by these types of shenanigans. It’s not like it’s H&R Block, these are highly interrelated offices motivated by a shared vision who eschew the corporate profit centered image… firing the employees is stopping well too short.

~SK