Post Scripts

by Jack

Well, looks like there’s some justice in the ol Muslim world after all. A bunch of radicals were reportedly killed when they started to riot in Pakistan. And to think, it was all over the nation’s “Love the Prophet Day.” How ironic. It looks like these folks can’t even gather to show “their love” without going berserk. Of course they are blaming the violence on the video made by some nobody, a guy born in Egypt and on parole in the US…what a crock. These fanatics have a hair trigger when it comes to a-n-y-thing US, they just can’t wait to go after us.

Apparently tens of thousands were whipping themselves up into a religious fervor and things started getting out of control. That’s when the Paki riot police moved in and the rioters had the bad judgment to turn on them. Unlike a US embassy security detail, these cops had plenty of troops with automatic weapons and they had no problem firing indiscriminately into the crowd.

Reports say at least 20 people died immediately and many, many more were wounded.

No doubt some Paki bureaucrat is saying, “Well, It sounded like a good idea at the time!” Oh well, better his people than ours. What, you think that’s mean of me to say that? Not after those embassy attacks, this American thinks we’ve got a score to settle.

Want to watch the video? Click here.

by Jack

Today I was reminded what it was like when I was a cop, and by a very unlikely source, a Hollywood movie!

“End of Watch” starring Michael Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal as two beat cops is an action thriller, but it’s done very realistically. They actors come across very believable. The calls they take, the salty talk while riding around, the sudden pursuits, the violent arrests…all looked credible.

This movie showed what it’s really like in terms of the cop fraternity, their dark humor, the practical jokes and the uncommon bravery that was never all that uncommon.
Civilians have no idea how many times a good street cop risks his life..literally. Almost any cop could be awarded a medal for heroism if he’s been around a few years, that’s just the nature of the job.

A cop sees more of life in 5 years than 10 people will see in an entire lifetime. There are so many situations that street cops come across, some are bone chilling, some are ridiculously funny, some really sad, some are gut wrenching or some just make you want to puke. This movie showed it all, they really nailed it to the point I found myself having flashbacks when I wore that blue uniform.

The movie portrays two young, street-wise cops, too young to be jaded by the system. On patrol they joke around, but their eyes are searching the streets, always looking, looking, looking. It’s what cops do, they’re always alert to their surroundings and those that don’t, they don’t last.

In the movie they find action in a burning house, a missing person’s report, in the projects and especially in a cartel safe house and then there is the slow time in between.

The shoot em up stuff was over the top, but that’s to be expected…it was a movie made to be entertaining. But, what wasn’t made up or exaggerated was the thin dividing line between what could be a deadly confrontation and just another call.

I don’t envy today’s officers, they’ve got a real tough job.

This movie gets 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Tina

Pie I’m with you…this man expresses all of the pent up emotion I feel about our rights of speech and expression and the incredible affront to humanity that these would be world-wide oppressors represent in their quest to inflict their radical, sick religion on all of us.

God bless those who are loving, kind and peaceful…the stresses on them are horrendous.

(Map shows spread of violence) As the search continues for those directly involved in the attack on the embassy in Benghazi, it was revealed Thursday that a former inmate of the Gunatanamo Bay detention facility may have been the leader of the attack.

Former inmate Sufyan Ben Qumu, one of the leaders of Ansar al-Sharia, a militant Islamist group based in Derna, Libya, has been identified by local officials as being involved in the attack in Benghazi that killed the ambassador.

“I have been looking at the photos and the brief video of Ambassador Stevens and I have spoken to two different Arabists, who assure me that the mob dragging Steven’s body are chanting a song of victory over one’s enemies and are praising God for it.” Prof. Phylis Chesler, political commentator and author of 15 books

Cont- “It is already 9/20, a full ten days after the Muslim mob tortured and murdered the American Ambassador and three other American personnel in Libya; and still, the loyal and avid NYT’s reader is being told that it was an “anti-Islam video that set off attacks against American embassies and violent protests in the Muslim world.”

That is not true. Here’s what’s happening.

America is now experiencing what Israel has had to live with, unaided, disbelieved, for decades.

Remember the ghoulish lynching of the two Israeli reservists in Ramallah in 2000? And how the Palestinians danced for joy in the streets on 9/11? In 2012, the Arab Street, the Islamist Muslim Street, is again dancing in blood, dancing with corpses.

People have cautioned me not to write about mob mass rape without proper sources. They are right. But today, what constitutes a credible source? Would one turn to the New York Times (or Huffington Post or NPR) or to The Wall Street Journal, National Review, or the Weekly Standard?

What constitutes irrefutable proof–the kind accepted by all?

Remember the Mumbai massacre? Islamist terrorists forced hotel guests to strip naked to humiliate them before they killed them. Remember the Chabad Rabbi and his very pregnant wife in Mumbai? They were both tortured in full sight of each other and their genitals were mutilated.

I know of many instances of Islamist Muslim mobs on a rampage. They have attacked civilians, including women and children, with axes, swords, knives, whips, chains, and rocks and they hacked, stabbed, lashed, and stoned their victims to death. The mob also be-headed their victims and sexually mutilated them, both while they were still alive and after death. They have also been known to gang-rape and gang-grope their victims.

As yet, we have no autopsy reports about our American dead in Libya, nor do we have any eyewitness accounts of the possible sodomizing of Ambassador Stevens.”

Read her entire story here.

WARNING GRAPHIC VIOLENCE: The men shown in this video can be heard shouting “film, film,” meaning get this on video! Nobody is concerned if Ambassador Stevens is alive, but rather they seem to be rejoicing that he is dead. There can be heard shouts of joy as the body is laid out before the crowd….watch.

As a former homicide investigator, the coloring on the body tells me a lot. It appears the Ambassador died face down and that death occurred 1-2 hours earlier. The discoloration is a result of blood pooling in the lower parts of the body. Once the heart stops pumping, gravity will force the blood to seep into these lower areas. Lividity will not form in areas of the body pressing against the floor because the pressure against the capillaries won’t allow the blood to settle. Instead, these areas will result in a white coloration called blanching. I notice several areas on the Ambassadors face that look like white spots, and this is probably where he was in contact the floor.

Lividity is generally seen within the first 1-2 hours following death. His lips are very dark blue, a strong indication of lack of oxygen, which is common with smoke inhalation, note the black sooty smearing around his upper lip. His lungs are probably choked with smoke, this takes a long time and its a terrible way to die.

Rigor mortis or stiffening of the muscles sets in about 2 or longer after death. So it appears at least 2 hours has passed since the Ambassador died to when he was dragged outside by the mob.

Note the Ambassador’s arm is not dangling while his body is being carried over the shoulder of one of the men. This is clearly a sign of rigor mortis. In no way can anyone say this was a rescue attempt 2 hours after death occurred! They’re parading the body around and they were rejoicing at his death.

Right now there is mounting evidence that the American’s in Libya died at the hands of armed rioters with the direct assistance of Libyan security forces who were there to protect them.

This can’t stand and we need to do something about it pretty soon. Those murdered Americans need justice, America needs justice, this is a disgrace. Right now, after watching that video, I would love to see the next anti-America mob take a hit from a cruise missile, preferably right in the middle of chanting, “Death to America! Actually this is where the CIA should be called in, Al Qaeda isn’t the only group that can plant bombs and do terrible destruction behind plausible deniability, then again who cares what they think?

If we don’t respond forcefully we’re asking for more trouble than if we do nothing.

What do you want to bet nothing will be done by Obama, except to send them more of our money?

US Inflation Surges 1.7% as Consumer Prices Rise 0.6% in August 2012

September 14, 2012 US inflation rose in August by the most in more than three years as consumers paid sharply higher fuel bills, the US government reported Friday in Washington.

Led by surging prices at the pump, consumer prices jumped 0.6 percent in August after being flat in the previous two months. The increase was the sharpest since mid-2009.

QE3 was certain to drive inflation up…this could be very serious. You want to have inflation protected investments ASAP. Cash is the last thing you want.

by Jack

The two former Navy SEALs killed in last week’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were not part of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ official security detail. They took up arms in an effort to protect the facility when it was being overrun by insurgents, U.S. officials now report.

The two former SEALS, Tyrone Woods, 41, and Glen Doherty, 42, were not employed by the State Department diplomatic security office and instead were what is known as personal service contractors who had other duties related to security, the officials said.

They stepped into action, however, when Stevens became separated from the small security detail normally assigned to protect him when he traveled from the more fortified embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi, the officials said.

The two ex-Seals and others engaged in a lengthy firefight with the extremists who attacked the compound, a fight that stretched from the inner area of the consulate to an outside annex and a nearby safe house — a location that the insurgents appeared to know about, the officials said.

The Obama administration’s initial account of the Libyan consulate attack didn’t give the full story about two ex-Navy SEALs who helped repel the security breach until they were killed and I wonder why?

If anyone knows a link to more information on this, please send it to us in comments. People should know what really happened in Libya.

Reports of Muslim atrocities:

There is a long history of Islamist extremists mutilating their victims. When Pakistani Muslim terrorists attacked the Chabad Jewish center during the devastating terror
Continue reading “Ex-Navy Seals Died After a Long Fire Fight with Attackers” »

Posted by Tina

Clyde Wayne Crews runs what he calls a “working paper and ebook” on the web. The site, “Tip of the Costberg” asserts that the estimates we are regularly given from official government scoring is often wrong and inadequate and deceptive in terms of planning. I tend to agree. I applaud his efforts to establish and report the truer cost of government regulation:

Some think federal regulations cost boatloads. Others think what’s notable instead about regulatory costs is their “unbearable lightness.”

Whether regarded as high or not, regardless of subjective views on the impact and incidence of regulatory burdens, regulatory compliance costs shouldered by citizens and the enterprises they create deserve better measurement and explicit expression in official documentation.

But cost accounting is the exception rather than the rule.

Mr. Crew runs a wonkish site; thankfully the Washington Examiner features an article that gives an accounting of the cost of regulations by the “Tip of the Costberg” method:

Current federal regulations plus those coming under Obamacare will cost American taxpayers and businesses $1.8 trillion annually, more than twenty times the $88 billion the administration estimates, according to a new roundup provided to Secrets from the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute.

And it could grow, warned the author of the report, Clyde Wayne Crews, a CEI vice president.

Complying with Health and Human Services Department requirements alone, he revealed, costs $184 billion a year, yet regulators are still drafting the rules for the 2,400-page Obamacare law that kicks into gear in 2014. …

…”While OMB officially reports amounts of only up to $88.6 billion in 2010 dollars,” said Crews, “the non-tax cost of government intervention in the economy, without performing a sweeping survey, appears to total up to $1.806 trillion annually.”

I hope this example serves to inform as to how our economy is impacted by the cost of over regulation. I hope it informs as to how the programs that are sold to us as financially manageable can end up costing a great deal more in terms of national debt, economic strength, and jobs.

Joel Bowman,
for The Daily Reckoning

06/08/12 Buenos Aires, Argentina – According to the Sermon on the Mount, “lusting after another woman” is a sin, even if you never act on that lust. But now comes Argentina’s Minister of the Interior to assert that lusting after another currency is a crime, even if you never actually trade your pesos for that other, temptress currency.

“Hablar del precio del dlar paralelo es un acto de ilegalidad,” el Ministro del Interior, Florencio Randazzo, squawked into the cameras earlier this week. [Rough translation: “To speak of the price of the parallel dollar is an illegal act.”]

The parallel dollar, or “dolar blue,” to which Randazzo refers is the unofficial exchange rate offered by the city’s casas de cambios. And thanks to the government’s draconian capital control measures, this rate is about the only rate you’re likely to get.

Continue reading “Interesting Story on Argentina’s Currency Problem” »

by Jack

The story opens like this, “Butte County and U.S. Forest Service agents raided an illegal marijuana grow Tuesday morning, confiscating 1,271 plants from the Plumas National Forest, northeast of Oroville near Berry Creek.

The plants had an estimated value of $1.9 million, said John Heil, a spokesman for the Forest Service. ”

Imagine $1.9 million! Wow, no wonder they’re growing this stuff everywhere with profits like that, right? Well, guess what bunky, this story is not exactly true.

For about the last 40 years or so, since the very beginning of illicit crank labs and small marijuana grow sites that led to police raids and seizures, there has been a desire by law enforcement to use drug valuations to get headlines. This is great for public relations. Law enforcement looks good and they’re hoping this publicity will have a certain deterrence effect.

Reality is, much of their law enforcement’s budget depends on good will from that public that is created by the public’s perception of law enforcement effectiveness. Naturally, it’s good PR to say you’ve seized millions of dollars worth of an illegal narcotic and put dangerous criminals out of business. But, how law enforcement arrives at this high dollar number is often times outrageously wrong and it should stop. They need to set a better example for honesty and use the right numbers.

What law enforcement is doing, and has always done, is to take the estimated weight of the entire seizure and what the weight of the end product would sell for on the street and this determines the value. In this case marijuana, and they have included the roots, seed, dirt and leaf with all its heavy water content, which is considerable, since its coming fresh from the field. Then this estimated total weight is factored against what one dry rolled marijuana joint/cigarette might sell for on the street. Sometimes the value is based on tiny pot plants and what they might have weighed if they had grown to full maturity, but now they’re really stretching it. Haven’t you wondered why law enforcements waits until harvest season is in full swing before they raid pot gardens? Well, now you know.

It’s a safe guess that the leaf of any plant typically makes up about 25% of it’s total weight. And that would be generous no matter what kind of plant it is, be it daises or marijuana plants. When pot is sold right after a grow it must be dried and it’s generally been cleaned of all the stems, twigs and roots. The dry leaf or bud is the only part that is preferred to be smoked. The rest of the plant is more or less junk, unless the grower is into making hemp products and I doubt our local growers are, haven’t seen anyone busted for weaving hemp baskets after a harvest.

It’s more likely that the marijuana noted in the above article with a stated value of $1.9 million really had a much lower value. Perhaps about $80-90,000 to the grower and that’s still a lot of money! This is what the grower might expect to gross after expenses, including any helpers. His net is probably in the range of $60,000. And that’s still a lot of money and great motivation to break the law, because this is tax free money. But, it’s no where near the huge, get rich quick, bonanza, law enforcement would have the public believe and I think this is counterproductive.

Why say it then? Like I said, there’s the PR factor, but it also costs a lot money for a raid team and air support. In order to justify the millions spent there must be a great payoff, a visible, assessable offset by the value of the illegal product being seized.

How long would the C.A.M.P. project have lasted if it was known that law enforcement spent $7 million dollars to seize $8 million dollars worth of pot? It just wouldn’t make a lot of sense to most legislators to continue that funding. But, when you can say you seized $800M in illegal drugs during on grow season at a low cost of merely $7M, it goes down a whole lot easier. Everybody in government looks good and law enforcement can take a bow.

It makes it look like we might be winning the drug war too, for what enemy could sustain such losses? But, in truth we’ve not won a battle since this stupid war began. Pot growing and consumption has been getting worse with every passing year, despite the hundreds of millions spent by law enforcement. Lives have been lost too, on both sides, and we can’t even begin to put a price on that.

So what’s the answer, where are we going with this disclosure? I wish I knew, I only know that it’s time to tell the truth. Hopefully, using real facts and figures will lead to a real solution. But, right now so much of this war is built on trying to justify program expenditures that its led law enforcement down a path of deception. That gets us nowhere, its time to be honest. Lets deal in real facts and develop policies based on that, not on illusions.