What Iran has taught us.

By Ronin, 15 June, 2009
It does not matter much if you like me think Iranian President Ahmadinejad rigged the election. World opinion does not matter, speeches by Hillary, Obama and other international leaders all – unimportant. None of them; not a one has an opinion that counts to the Iranian people. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei equally powerless and like the others his opinion does not impress the people.

History has proven all slaves eventually revolt. The Iranian people have watched the failure of an islamic sharia law based system turn them into mindless drones and slaves of an oppressive and unresponsive government. The people have had enough, they are no longed willing to listen to old men on power trips tell them they have a solution to their problems. The trust is gone and will never be regained.

The people want and demand free choice, basic human rights and a chance to determine their own future. They want what we all want a government that does the will of the people and limits its control only to those problems requiring it.

Despite days of government excuses, promises, threats and even the murder of a peaceful protester the people are on the march. Leaderless and unorganized they have little chance of success in the short term but that does not matter. They are pissed and demanding their voice be heard.

Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, Dumped His Stock After Closed Meeting with Treasury Secretary in September

Alright, here’s the scenario:  You have lots of money invested in stocks and mutual funds.  You are privy to a closed meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.  In that meeting, you learn that the bottom has dropped out on the Fannie and Freddie scam.  Not only that, but the Treasury is going to declare a financial emergency and steal about 700 billion in tax-payer dollars to try and salvage the financial train-wreck.  The news is sure to cause the Stock Market to fall hundreds, if not thousands of points.

What do you do?  Well, you could wait until news of this becomes public, or, you could use this key bit of insider information and sell off all of your stocks and mutual funds the moment the Stock Market opens up in the morning—hours ahead of when the grim financial news is officially released to the public by the government—and, then re-invest that money in a less risky company;  like Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., for instance.

Which is, of course, exactly what Senator Dick Durbin seems to have done:

Durbin cashed out during big stock collapse
WASHINGTON | Asset sales came after meeting with Fed, Treasury chiefs
Chicago Sun Times

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

[Note:  Class B stock is a privileged class of stock and usually is reserved for Board Members of the company – they carry 10 votes per share, versus the publicly available Class A stock which carries only 1 vote per share.

UPDATE:  Nix that note.  Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock is less valuable than its Class A stock.  See the discussion of Class A and B shares in the comments section by clicking HERE]

Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent.

“Durbin was doing what a lot of other people were doing, taking a look at their savings” and seeing it “start to tank and trying to preserve some level of wealth by getting out of the market,” said his spokesman, Joe Shoemaker.

Shoemaker said Durbin didn’t capitalize on anything Paulson and Bernanke told congressional leaders at the Sept. 18 meeting.

Whatever information Paulson gave lawmakers wasn’t secret or classified and was disclosed publicly the next day, Shoemaker said.

Bloomberg News

Uighur Terrorists Living it up on Your Dime

After reading about the first-class treatment Our Dark Overlord has provided for a bunch of terrorists who want nothing less than to kill us all, I have to wonder if this is the message America wants to send out to would-be terrorists who are debating whether or not to sign-up on the whole “Jihad Against the Western Satan” (JAWS) concept.  Heck, even I am tempted…

Life in paradise as Guantanamo Four take a dip, eat ice cream, and plan first Uighur restaurant in British territory of Bermuda

By Mail Foreign Service – Daily Mail
Last updated at 5:10 PM on 15th June 2009

* U.S. accused of ‘riding roughshod’ over UK as Guantanamo detainees are sent to Bermuda in secret deal
* But Washington insists deal was kept from London in an effort to protect UK’s relationship with China
* Bermudian opposition tables no confidence motion in Prime Minister as deal ignites political firestorm on the island

They look like ordinary tourists as they stroll along the seafront on the British territory of Bermuda, but these four men are far from regular sunseekers for they have spent the last seven years locked up in Guantanamo Bay.

The former terror suspects are Uighurs – members of China’s Muslim Turkic-speaking minority  – and hail from a rugged province in the far west of the country.

They were detained by the Americans, who eventually determined they were not a threat to the United States. But because no country volunteered to take them and it was feared they would be detained and tortured if they were returned to China, the men were left in limbo.

Now they have been given a chance by officials in the millionaire’s playground – an island paradise that doubles as one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

And already they have dreams of opening the first Uighur restaurant.

Embracing the delights of their new island home, the Uighurs have already taken a sunset swim and caught a fish at their first attempt at fishing. They have also reverted to their real names after using pseudonyms since leaving China.

They encountered a fisherman while walking along the beach and became curious about the art of fishing, their lawyer said.

The man offered to teach them, and one of the former prisoners, Khelil Mamut, tossed a line into the ocean. He caught a 10-inch fish to the cheers of the other men, she said.

Government liaison Glenn Brangman later took them swimming and watched as they climbed the rocks and jumped into the ocean like he did as a boy.

‘Normally Bermudians test the temperature of the water,’ he said. ‘But they just went to the edge and jumped straight in.’

‘When we didn’t have any country to accept us, when everybody was afraid of us … Bermuda had the courage and was brave enough to accept us,’ said Abdulla Abdulgadir, who at 30 is the youngest of the four men who relished their first weekend of freedom in seven years.

‘We are not moving anywhere,’ he said.

He and his companions have traded drab prison jumpsuits for comfortable cotton pants and knit shirts, and razor wire-encircled jail compounds for beach cottages, where they are staying at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

The Reports of Our Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Despite Colin Powell’s laughable suggestion that Republican Party needs to drop Conservatism and become “moderates” to win elections (BTW – only an idiot actually believes that the Republican Party is “Conservative,” unless, of course, you are comparing them with the Commie-crats), it seems to me that the winning strategy for the Republican Party should entail courting the single largest ideological group in America – the Conservatives:

“Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group
Percentage of “liberals” higher this decade than in early ’90s
by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ — Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s.

Complete article available at Gallup by Clicking HERE.

“Midnight Rider” Defends his Family from Intruder

Midnight Rider left the following self-defense story in our comments section on another post.  I am reproducing it here.

It should be pointed out that—according to a report in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 86, issue 1, 1995—2.5 million Americans per year use their guns to prevent crimes.  Rarely, if ever, does the incident involve shooting, as most crimes are prevented when the would-be-victim shows the criminal that he or she is armed.

Way off topic but a personal story on drawing your sidearm, Dr. B. Happened to me tonight just posted the following at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

TERRIFYING
I’ve never had to draw my gun in potential self defense.

Until tonight.

11:30 p.m. EST I’m in the family room watching 300. Daughter #3 (11 yr old) fell asleep on living room floor watching a DVD. Her mom dozing off on the couch. Daughter # 2 (21 yr old) in her bedroom getting ready for bed.

Front door is mostly closed but open enough to let cool night air in until my own bedtime.

Daughter #1’s Good Infidel Dog (feisty little fox/rat terrier) is visiting for a couple weeks while said daughter is taking late night classes in Philly.

Suddenly that dog goes absolutely apeshit.

Groggy wife thinks he needs to go out and do his thing. Leashes him up, opens the door. . .

and is face to face with someone getting ready to come in. As she describes him a light skinned male wearing a hoodie with hood up. Best look she can get in the dark.

She let’s out an “Oh Jesus Christ!” and slams the door. Daughter # 2, who came to the living room when she heard the dog, screams at the top of her lungs. Daughter # 3 keeps sleeping.

People, this is where training with your weapon, rehearsing in your mind over and over again what you would do if this then that comes into play.

I’m out of my lazy boy, drawing my gun from my hip (ok, for those of you who want the details, tonight it was a Smith & Wesson 642 Airweight [see above pic] loaded with Cor-Bon 38 SPec. +P hollowpoints coming from a Don Hume J.I.T. Slide Holster). Up the steps my arm clearing the stairs wall gun eye level pointed at the front door.

There’s my wife and daughter, screaming and staring at the closed door.

For anyone who has heard that in such a situation you get extreme tunnel vision let me assure you it is true. My focus is on that door, wife & daughter just to the side.

Training training training.

No apparent threat gun still drawn right to the bedroom flip on the light. Dammit missed the switch knocked the cover off the thermostat (more training needed) grab the shotgun (again — for those of you detail minded – Remington 870 Wingmaster 20 gauge pump action 22 inch barrel loaded with Remington #3 buckshot). Back to the living room.

All in under 10 seconds.

My wife calls 911, since we don’t know exactly where the foiled intruder has gone nor whether he had any friends lurking nearby. The police are here within 5 minutes, take the information, don’t question the gun on my belt, and tell us there had been a break-in across the highway a little earlier this evening. They will be patrolling the area.

So. Lessons learned/reinforced:

Know your weapons, Know where they are and how to get to them. Go over it again and again in your head. If this then that. Practice drawing them until it becomes reflexive.

Despite their quick response a gun in the hand is STILL worth more than a cop on the phone.

Be prepared to pull that trigger. Strangely I felt no fear during the incident and knew I was ready, had I seen someone within my home, to counter that threat. Of course the adrenaline rush I’m experiencing right now is like no high you can get from any drug. Might be awhile before I can get to sleep.

Little dogs making big noise are worth a million bucks.

Can’t stress the training enough. I remember when I first handled a sidearm, shaking as I tried to load it. Now it’s second nature. But had I just bought a gun and never practiced with it I would have been far less useful in this instance.

Gun control statistics are bullshit. This is one drawn gun incident that will never be reported as such because no shots were fired. How many more like this for every time a shot is fired in self defense?

In truth, my wife was the one who scared off the perp, though we didn’t know it at the time. She did exactly the right thing by slamming the door, screaming and getting my attention. But it could have played out far differently with a more determined intruder. Might not have had time to get to the shotgun.

In the house, that sidearm on your belt is your first defense but also primarily intended to buy you time to get to something far more substantial if possible.

NOW HERE’S THE TRUE IRONY.

I carry a gun even in the house. Tonight my mom was down for supper with us. Both she and my wife gave me grief. Why must you carry that gun in the house? Don’t you think it’s a little paranoid? Do you really need to do that?

Because it can happen anytime anywhere. Just ask that 11 year old shotgunner a few weeks ago.

But here? In this neighborhood?

I have been assured neither of them will ever question it again.

As for all you gun control idiots, back off. It’s my home, my family. YOU weren’t here to do anything about it and neither were the cops. Just me.

I don’t care where you live, inner city, nice suburbs, high class end of town. IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.