Chronicling the depravities of the State.
Do you have kids? Are you trying to introduce them to the metal lifestyle? If so the Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book may be what you’re looking for.
I do think the coloring exercises will be a bit difficult when the only crayons in your child’s box are black though.
People seem to have forgotten about a concept often referred to as a “job.” This concept revolves around the voluntary exchange of labor for another good, usually money. As this concept seems to be lost on many people I’m going to explain it in detail.
As a person you have a right to self-ownership which necessarily includes the ownership of your labor. Life is easier when people utilize division of labor, having some people do certain tasks while others do different tasks. Division of labor works on the basis of exchange where one person gives their labor in exchange for the labor of another. Oftentimes instead of directly giving labor a person will exchange the product of their labor from a previous exchange. Generally people except money as the exchange for their labor and use that money to make further changes. Thus a “job” is nothing more than an exchange of labor between two individuals.
The concept of a “job” is pretty simple but there are some additional complexities. Of all these complexities the most obvious is the fact that certain “jobs” require more knowledge than others which puts a limit on the number of people capable of performing the required labor. Being a limit exists on the number of people capable of performing the labor those who possess the required knowledge usually demand a higher rate of exchange for their labor. This is why a computer programmer can get paid $100 per hour of labor while a person who unloads trucks at a convenience store only gets paid $7.25 per hour of labor.
There were hundreds of foreign students who apparently never learned about this concept and thus decided they were working too hard at a Hershey’s plant and walked out:
Hundreds of foreign students, waving their fists and shouting defiantly in many languages, walked off their jobs on Wednesday at a plant here that packs Hershey’s chocolates, saying a summer program that was supposed to be a cultural exchange had instead turned them into underpaid labor.
The students, from countries including China, Nigeria, Romania and Ukraine, came to the United States through a long-established State Department summer visa program that allows them to work for two months and then travel. They said they were expecting to practice their English, make some money and learn what life is like in the United States.
In a way, they did. About 400 foreign students were put to work lifting heavy boxes and packing Reese’s candies, Kit-Kats and Almond Joys on a fast-moving production line, many of them on a night shift. After paycheck deductions for fees associated with the program and for their rent, students said at a rally in front of the huge packing plant that many of them were not earning nearly enough to recover what they had spent in their home countries to obtain their visas.
Emphasis mine. Note that the labor being performed requires very little knowledge which means most people are quite capable of performing it. Since so many people are capable of packing and moving boxes the amount of exchange that can be demanded for the labor is small. Usually this type of labor is called “unskilled.”
Still the students felt the exchange they were receiving for their labor wasn’t enough and decided instead to walk out and receive nothing. Still my favorite complain has to be the following:
“There is no cultural exchange, none, none,” said Zhao Huijiao, a 20-year-old undergraduate in international relations from Dalian, China. “It is just work, work faster, work.”
Welcome to America, our culture at one time was built upon work. Work is how this nation was able to enter the industrial revolution and create the concept of the assembly line. Work is what lead people to create household devices that people now take for granted such as computers, refrigerators, and microwaves. None of these would have been possible if people didn’t work and the American culture used to revolve around working hard to achieve what was often referred to as the American dream. So you are receiving a cultural exchange by working as it was part of the culture (I keep saying was because fewer and fewer people seem to be willing to work).
Another part of the American culture is the concept of not only bitching about a bad situation but doing something about it. If you don’t feel you’re receiving fair exchange for you labor you’re more than free to go elsewhere or, better yet, start your own business where you’ll have to work even harder in order to make money. This comment is also worth gold:
“You stand for the entire eight hours,” she said. “It is the worst thing for your fingers and hands and your back; you are standing at an angle.”
That’s called a “shift.” A “shift” is a span of time the person making an exchange for your labor wants to reserve your labor for. Generally these “shifts” are about eight hours although sometimes they can be shorter or longer. Finally these students received another cultural exchange:
The students said they decided to protest when they learned that neighbors in the apartments and houses where they were staying were paying significantly less rent.
“The tipping point was when we found out about the rent,” Mr. Efobi said.
Ms. Ozer and other students said they were paid $8.35 an hour. After fees are deducted from her paychecks as well as $400 a month for rent, she said, she often takes home less than $200 a week. “We are supposed to be here for cultural exchange and education, but we are just cheap laborers,” Ms. Ozer said.
That’s called getting fucked by the government and isn’t strictly a United States thing. The State Department made you pay for visa, brought you over, and deducted whatever money they desired from your paychecks (when they do it to citizens it’s called taxes). Welcome to America, I hope you enjoy your stay.
Uncle pointed out a post by a Dr. Helen that asks gun owners what they’re compensating for (before going bat shit crazy about her being anti-gun her comment is actually derived from reading a certain self-defense book geared towards women).
I’m compensating for the incompetency of the state to provide adequate protection even though they claim a monopoly on the service.
I was complaining yesterday that even after two years of blogging I’m still not getting invited to the secret gun blogger cabal meetings. Well Joat pointed out in the comments that I at least made the gun blogger blacklist.
I’m moving up in the world! Linoge also pointed out an article on Weerd’s blog that sums up the whole drama llama episode involving Mr. Farago.
Some time ago news came forth that London’s ever pervasive closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras weren’t working out so well. The bottom line is CCTV cameras were only able to solve one crime for every 1,000 cameras which put the cost of solving those few crimes at roughly £20,000 each.
If you have an overly expensive technology that’s proven ineffective what would you do? Well if it were either you or me making the decision we’d likely stop further development on the technology, dump it, and find something more effective. Unfortunately for the citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) their government isn’t us and therefore are going to spend more money on trying harder with CCTV cameras:
CCTV that can automatically monitor criminal behaviour and track suspects is being developed by UK scientists.
Researchers at Kingston University have created a system that uses artificial intelligence to recognise specific types of behaviour, such as someone holding a gun.
The technology is capable of following a person across multiple cameras.
The motto of government is, “If something isn’t working for you try again only harder.” I’m still waiting for the day when the UK government decides to put cameras into the homes of every citizen under its rule.
This weekend I had the opportunity to watch one of the few films that delivers exactly what the title promises. The movie is titled Hobo With a Shotgun and does in fact have a Hobo with a shotgun.
There isn’t much to say, the film is an exploitation piece so the gore content is extremely high while the story and writing are almost non-existent. You know what? That’s OK when the goal of the film is to replication exploitation films of yore. Instead of explaining the film I think two quotes pulled from the movie can actually sum up everything perfectly:
Drake: When life gives you razor blades… you make a baseball bat covered in razor blades.
After stating that Drake picks up a baseball bat that is covered in razor blades (and then hits somebody with it). The move it extremely literal. But the most iconic dialog in the entire film has to be the following:
Abby: You can’t solve all of the world’s problems with a shotgun.
Hobo: It’s all I know.
Seriously with awesome lines like that how can you go wrong? I attributed the second line to Hobo because the Hobo’s name is never given at any point in the film.
So what’s my rating on it? I don’t really have one, you should be able to tell for yourself whether or not you want to see it based on the information found at the provided IMDB link.
I hate not knowing something. For instance I’m pretty sure I’m on several secret government watch lists but being those lists are secret the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) refuses to tell me. Thankfully Oath Keepers was able to obtain a list [PDF] published by the Colorado FBI that describes what behavior identifies a terrorist. Let’s see how many items I hit on this thing.
Provides identification that is inconsistent or suspect demands identify “privacy”
I’m emphasizing the parts of the selected bullet points that relates to me. One thing I do demand is privacy and part of that means I’m none to willing to provide my identification unless I absolutely have to.
Insists on paying with cash or uses credit card(s) in different name(s)
I love paying for things using Federal Reserve notes, it makes me feel all shady and terroristy.
Makes suspicious comments regarding anti-US, radical theology vague or cryptic warnings that suggest or appear to endorse the use of violence in support of a cause
Although the non-bolded section doesn’t apply to me at all I do make many comments that could be considered anti-US… government. As agents of the government wrote this list it’s likely they consider any speech critical of the federal government as falling under the first part of this bullet point.
Makes bulk purchases of items to include:
I’ll just say yes to this entire section without actually stating the things I make bulk purchases of. I would like to meet the person who makes bulk purchases of night vision devices, because the last time I checked night vision devices were expensive.
Four of the bullet points on this list relate to me which almost ensures that I’m on a government watch list. Woohoo I’m important enough that the government is going to keep a continuous eye on me instead of worrying about violent individuals! I feel so special.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve been asked why I’m against gun registration. Usually people who ask me this aren’t aware of my complete disdain and absolute lack of trust in the state. Either way the question is often asked, I give my answer, and the person asking the question accuses me of being paranoid and killing puppies. The fact of the matter is trusting the government with the knowledge that you own firearms can only lead to one thing, confiscation. Miguel over at Gun Free Zone posted a story that demonstrates this very fact:
Raids yesterday morning by detectives working in Taskforce Acer 17 netted firearms police feared could be passed to criminals.
The weapons were held legally by registered gun owners, but police intelligence revealed 20 had “connections to family or associates who were persons of interest to the Acer Taskforce team”.
Officers simultaneously hit 21 properties at 8am to ensure the licence holders were complying with all conditions.
A total of 21 guns – including 15 shotguns and ammunition for an AK47 rife – were seized.
21 properties were hit simultaneously and every legally (according to the state) owned firearm was confiscated because the firearm owners had family ties to or associations with people who were being watched by the Acer Task Force. None of these people performed any criminal acts, they simply had some kind of tie to people being watch (not charged, so likely people who also did nothing illegal) by the state.
The government doesn’t want firearm registration to keep you safe, they want it to ensure they can steal your firearms whenever it damn well pleases. There is no legitimate reason to implement firearm registration and plenty of illegitimate ones. Anytime the state wants to expand their powers and knowledge you need to ask yourself why. Never trust the justification given by the state because that’s just a cheap method of getting you to go along with their plan to further expand their power. Ultimately there is always a nefarious purpose being any expansion of state power or knowledge, you just have to find it.
Do you want to see some of Washington D.C.’s finest working hard to ensure you remain safe from illegal lemonade sales? If so here you go:
It’s nice to know your tax dollars go to ensure such rebellious and obviously dangerous people are kidnapped and thrown in a cage. The last thing you would want is people thinking they could partake in voluntary transactions without government permission in the form of a permit or license.
On a side note one thing I never understood is when cops walk up and put their hand over a camera. At the 1:35 mark one douche bag officer pulls off this maneuver which effectively… accomplishes nothing. Here’s a pro tip for our boys and girls in blue who are working diligently to ensure no lemonade dares be sold without government permission, putting your hand over the camera only prevents the camera from recording video for the span of time that your hand in obstructing the lens. This is going to come as a shock but after you remove your hand from the lens the camera can still record video of you being a complete fucking prick. To make matters worse the camera recorded your face when you walked up to obstruct the lens meaning you’ve already been captured on video.
I think everybody realizes by now that Obama is a complete prick (at least judging by his approval ratings). The guy is an arrogant ass but being a career politician that’s not at all surprising. During a town hall meeting in Atkinson, Illinois a local farmer asked the Obamessiah about upcoming rules and regulations that may be put into place to further fuck our farming communities over. Obama told the farmer to call the government and ask them. Guess what? A reporter did exactly that and found out that getting an answer from the government is kind of like finding teeth on a hen:
When this POLITICO reporter decided to take the president’s advice and call the USDA for an answer to the Atkinson town hall attendee’s question, I found myself in a bureaucratic equivalent of hot potato — getting bounced from the feds to Illinois state agriculture officials to the state farm bureau.
Here’s a rundown of what happened when I started by calling the USDA’s general hotline to inquire about information related to the effects of noise and dust pollution rules on Illinois farmers:
Wednesday, 2:40 p.m. ET: After calling the USDA’s main line, I am told to call the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Here, I am patched through to a man who is identified as being in charge of “support services.” I leave a message.
[…]
10:40 a.m.: A spokeswoman for the Illinois Natural Resources Conservation Service calls me, to whom I explain my multiple attempts on Wednesday and Thursday to retrieve the information I was looking for.
“What I can tell you is our particular agency does not deal with regulations,” she tells me. “We deal with volunteers who voluntarily want to do things. I think the reason you got that response from the Cambridge office is because in regard to noise and dust regulation, we don’t have anything to do with that.”
After playing a game of phone call hot potato that spanned across two days the reporter was unable to get an answer from the government. So is there anymore helpful advice that you can bestow upon the people Mr. President? Perhaps you have a little additional work to do before your promise of a transparent government comes to fruition.