New Blogging Home

I have moved to a new blogging home over at the Ohio Freedom Alliance Network. The name's the same, One Oar in the Water, but the location is different.

Blogging has become pretty tough to keep up with lately so I started to look for a collaborative site that I could contribute to, but not feel compelled to blog every day over and the Ohio Freedom Alliance Network offers this.

There are a number of good web logs over there plus a great discussion forum to participate with; it is definitely one stop shopping for all of your informational needs concerning freedom and liberty and the threat against them.

Eustis Cop Zapped With Her Own TASER

Eustis cop zapped with her own TASER; Daily Commercial

A verbal confrontation turned violent outside a Eustis discount store Monday afternoon.

According to Eustis police, at about 12:50 p.m. officer Theresa Graham was attacked outside the Dollar Tree store located at 324 Ardice Ave. and was forced to defend herself by shooting the suspect.

"Apparently he took the officer's TASER and tased her and she went to the ground," said Eustis Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Harold Hughes. "She then pulled her service weapon and discharged it."

Hughes said Graham sustained minor injuries when she hit the ground and was treated at a hospital. The suspect, whose name is not being released, was reportedly flown to an Orlando hospital. One witness reported seeing gunshot wounds to his chest and leg. She described the suspect as a white male between the ages of 50 and 60 with graying hair.

"The store manager knew who he was and said he had been harassing her," said Cheryl McManus, who was in the Dollar Tree store at the time of the shooting. "He had been coming to the store and causing her a lot of grief."

"I have been told there had been reports police officers had visited the store before about trouble with him," Hughes said. "Apparently, they had trespass papers on him or something to keep him out of the store."

McManus reported seeing Graham talking to the suspect after she arrived on the scene and had him to move outside the store. That's when he allegedly took her TASER and fired it at her.

"She was trying to get him to leave," McManus said. "I don't think she expected him to attack her."

Comment: I think this story could be more about affirmative action than the Taser. Then again the Taser is being used as the equalizer in place of able-body and competent police. But that's all part of the movement toward the police state; quantity over quality whereas there isn't an increase in crime. But we're safer, right?

Use of Taser on Teen Under Review

Use of Taser on teen under review: Omaha.com

An incident Monday night in which a Sarpy County sheriff's deputy used a Taser on a 16-year-old boy will be reviewed, authorities said this morning.

“It will be reviewed and taken care of,” said Lt. Russ Zeeb. “It's premature for me to make any judgment at this time.”

Such a review is standard practice, Zeeb said.

Zeeb said deputies got a call about 7 p.m. Monday that a runaway from Papillion was hanging out at a home near 149th and Olive Streets.

Comment: I'm sure this is one of those circumstances where the police were so overpowered by a 16 year old they had to use the old Taser.

Robert Higgs Quote

I haven't had the time to blog lately, but every now and then something hits the mark and you just want to scream at the top of your lungs...YES! And so it was with this quote from Robert Higgs that appeared in the header of a recent newsletter from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

We live, as F. A. Hayek observed as long ago as 1935, not in a market system, but in a situation of interventionist chaos, where virtually every market is so hog-tied by regulations, laws, and taxes or so artificially pumped up by subsidies, regulatory advantages, and tax loopholes that virtually nothing remains pure and unsullied by the filthy hand of the interventionist state.

— Robert Higgs, “Progressive Claptrap” [September 29, 2009]

Comment: While it speaks to the problems we face in the US, it speaks even louder about our plight here in Ohio. Yes this is a plight Debbie Phillips, Jimmy Stewart, Bill Evans, Ted Strickland, Jon Husted, to name a few of the maroons that keep our collective heads pushed under water in the toilet bowl called Ohio. A plight that has lasted for over 15 years! Yes the filthy hands of these and many more of the political class sullied our once good State.

CDC Mixes H1N1, H5N1 Viruses in Tests

More Deadly Swine Flu? CDC Mixes H1N1, H5N1 Viruses in Tests; The Wall Street Journal

Public-health officials are breathing a small sigh of relief that the H1N1 swine flu virus hasn’t mutated to become more deadly since emerging last spring. But what are the chances it will?

To find out, scientists at the CDC recently launched experiments in the agency’s labs in which they infected ferrets with both the new H1N1 virus and the highly lethal H5N1 avian flu virus to see if they might “reassort” to create a new hybrid.

The scientists want to know whether a combination of the H1N1 virus -– highly transmissible, but not terribly deadly -– and the H5N1 flu virus could create an easily transmissible, deadly scourge. The H5N1 virus has only sickened 440 people world-wide since 2003 and generally isn’t transmitted from one person to another. But it has killed 262, or about 60%, of those people, according to the World Health Organization.

As the new H1N1 flu has spread, flu experts have kept a close eye on Egypt and parts of the world where human H5N1 infections are occurring too. The two viruses could mix if they infected the same person simultaneously. The new H1N1 virus was also detected recently in turkeys in Chile, proving that it has the capacity to jump to birds, another potential source for reassortment.

The CDC scientists don’t have results of their lab experiments in ferrets yet, said Michael Shaw, associate director for laboratory science for the agency’s influenza division. While the experiments could produce viable combinations of the two viruses, the real question is whether any could create a virus that would spread, he said. “Viability is one thing,” he cautioned. “Whether it’s easily transmissible is another.”

Other experiments conducted so far suggest the new H1N1 virus isn’t terribly prone to doomsday changes. Viruses can change through either mutation of genetic material, or by reassorting with another flu virus. The new virus is lacking certain characteristics that would allow it to mutate to become more virulent, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s influenza division. “It would be difficult for this virus to acquire some of those known virulence markers,” she said.

Read the rest here.

Comment: Hey, let's take what goes on inherently in nature and start engineering new strains just to see what happens. Isn't this the story behind the Omega Man? Maybe not quite exactly, it was the government developing biological weapons, but it's still the same thing in a sense, and the end result come be closer to reality also.

Come on...what the hell is going on with these egg heads, who don't really have much in the way of common sense. I can hear it now, "Oh you just don't understand. They're doing it to save lives..." Right.

Is there anything you can do, DOCTOR, I mean, seeing as how you've lost over 200 million patients?

Omega Man, 1971,
Starring Charlton Heston

Gibson Wets Pants

Mainstream Media Fears Where Stories They Ignore May Lead; BigHollywood.Com



Yesterday the anchor of a major network (ABC) consciously chose to try and look like an imbecile rather than have to answer why he wasn’t covering what so far ranks as the biggest story/scandal of the year. And I say “try and look like an imbecile” because the ruse didn’t work. You, me and anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows he wasn’t telling the truth about not knowing anything about the ACORN scandal. The Manhattan/Cocktail Party Bubble is immune to many things – humility, tolerance – but we’re supposed to believe a network news anchor went two or three days without hearing ACORN was fired by the U.S. Census Bureau?

Of course, we’re not supposed to believe that. “Incredulous” doesn’t begin to describe the nonsense that came out of Gibson’s mouth. But fear makes you do stupid things, and short of wetting his pants, Gibson proved that.

The Palace Guards are … terrified. ...

Read the rest here.

Comment: Maybe it's the sun spots that are causing global warming, which is causing Charlie Gibson to be really really confused...or maybe it's the acorn butter and jelly sandwiches...what do you think?

Phillips (D-Athens) Votes for Pedophilia

Sex/gender discrimination bill passes; The Daily Sentinel

In a statement released yesterday, Gov. Ted Strickland said: “I applaud the leadership of House Speaker Armond Budish, Rep. Dan Stewart and Rep. Ross McGregor, as well as the bipartisan group of House members who today affirmed that Ohio is a welcoming and inclusive state. This legislation will help attract and retain the talent Ohio businesses need to foster lasting economic growth and prosperity. I am hopeful that I will have the opportunity to sign this bill into law. This is an important step forward for Ohio, as nondiscrimination in employment and housing will ensure that all of our people are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

Locally, Rep. Debbie Phillips (D-Athens), who represents Meigs County, voted for the bill, while Rep. Clyde Evans (R-Rio Grande), who represents Gallia County, voted against it. ...

Yesterday, Phillips said she voted for the bill because she felt it was about “basic fair treatment,” calling it “very straight forward” and a bill that “upholds core American values of fair play and a level playing field.”

Phillips said she received phone calls from constituents on both sides of the issue and looked “very carefully” over the legislation’s language, adding this bill does not create any kind of special rights for people. Phillips said of the Fortune 500, 433 of those companies have similar polices against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and she felt this bill would help the state be more economically competitive.

“You should be evaluated in your job performance based on the work you do,” Phillips explained. “This (bill) is just about fair play and we’re in a very difficult economic time. I don’t think anyone deserves to be fired or kicked out of their house just because of who they are.”

Comment: I didn't beat around the bush, I called this straight as written in the bill; this was a back door infiltration for the pedophiles. We can talk about the constitution issues and private property rights, which are all valid concerns and accurate, but contained in the bill is a small clause opening the door for pedophiles, which means that no-minds like Debbie Phillips just let child predators gain protection and have access to our schools.

Health-Care Reform and the Constitution

Health-Care Reform and the Constitution; WSJ; By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO

Last week, I asked South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, where in the Constitution it authorizes the federal government to regulate the delivery of health care. He replied: "There's nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do." Then he shot back: "How about [you] show me where in the Constitution it prohibits the federal government from doing this?"

Rep. Clyburn, like many of his colleagues, seems to have conveniently forgotten that the federal government has only specific enumerated powers. He also seems to have overlooked the Ninth and 10th Amendments, which limit Congress's powers only to those granted in the Constitution.

One of those powers—the power "to regulate" interstate commerce—is the favorite hook on which Congress hangs its hat in order to justify the regulation of anything it wants to control.

Unfortunately, a notoriously tendentious New Deal-era Supreme Court decision has given Congress a green light to use the Commerce Clause to regulate noncommercial, and even purely local, private behavior. In Wickard v. Filburn (1942), the Supreme Court held that a farmer who grew wheat just for the consumption of his own family violated federal agricultural guidelines enacted pursuant to the Commerce Clause. Though the wheat did not move across state lines—indeed, it never left his farm—the Court held that if other similarly situated farmers were permitted to do the same it, might have an aggregate effect on interstate commerce.

James Madison, who argued that to regulate meant to keep regular, would have shuddered at such circular reasoning. Madison's understanding was the commonly held one in 1789, since the principle reason for the Constitutional Convention was to establish a central government that would prevent ruinous state-imposed tariffs that favored in-state businesses. It would do so by assuring that commerce between the states was kept "regular."

The Supreme Court finally came to its senses when it invalidated a congressional ban on illegal guns within 1,000 feet of public schools. In United States v. Lopez (1995), the Court ruled that the Commerce Clause may only be used by Congress to regulate human activity that is truly commercial at its core and that has not traditionally been regulated by the states. The movement of illegal guns from one state to another, the Court ruled, was criminal and not commercial at its core, and school safety has historically been a state function.

Applying these principles to President Barack Obama's health-care proposal, it's clear that his plan is unconstitutional at its core. The practice of medicine consists of the delivery of intimate services to the human body. In almost all instances, the delivery of medical services occurs in one place and does not move across interstate lines. One goes to a physician not to engage in commercial activity, as the Framers of the Constitution understood, but to improve one's health. And the practice of medicine, much like public school safety, has been regulated by states for the past century.

The same Congress that wants to tell family farmers what to grow in their backyards has declined "to keep regular" the commercial sale of insurance policies. It has permitted all 50 states to erect the type of barriers that the Commerce Clause was written precisely to tear down. Insurers are barred from selling policies to people in another state.

That's right: Congress refuses to keep commerce regular when the commercial activity is the sale of insurance, but claims it can regulate the removal of a person's appendix because that constitutes interstate commerce.

What we have here is raw abuse of power by the federal government for political purposes. The president and his colleagues want to reward their supporters with "free" health care that the rest of us will end up paying for. Their only restraint on their exercise of Commerce Clause power is whatever they can get away with. They aren't upholding the Constitution—they are evading it.

Read the rest here.

Comment: This is one guy we need as President!

5 Republicans Joined the Democrats in Passing HB 176

Right Ohio has the latest on HB 176:

5 Republicans joined the Democrats in passing legislation which prohibits employers and property owners, who have a moral objection to homosexuality, from hiring/renting to whom they wish. The vote was 53-39.

The 5 Republicans who pandered to the sodomite lobby are:

Terry Blair of the 38th District

Peggy Lehner of the 37th District

Matt Dolan of the 98th District (This idiot would be speaker if the House maintained its majority last year.)

Cliff Hite of the 76th District

Ross McGregor of the 72nd District

These 5 candidates will be opposed vigorously by Right Ohio, as their vote on this incredible erosion of private property rights is inexcusable.

Read the rest here.

Comment: Obviously there are a few things at work, one is just plain political correctness, but the other being a totally screwed up ORP and Ohio Republican base. This is clearly the result of Bob Bennett's leadership and legacy, but then again much of the fault lies with the citizenry who have not held their representatives accountable.

The reality is that this is most likely the new face of Ohio... 45 % Strickland and 45% Brown with a little Kucinach mixed in for flavor. So long republican ideals, it was good while it lasted.

But remember one thing also, this sort of legislation rarely passes in areas that are economically successful. Again, another plunder resulting from the ORP. And as Matt N points out our failure to recognize the private property issues involved. Private property is always respected and sustained in economically successful areas.

Joe Wilson and the Cult of Personality

From Wikipedia:

Generally, personality cults are most common in regimes with totalitarian systems of government, that seek to radically alter or transform society according to (supposedly) revolutionary new ideas. Often, a single leader becomes associated with this revolutionary transformation, and comes to be treated as a benevolent "guide" for the nation, without whom the transformation to a better future cannot occur. This has been generally the justification for personality cults that arose in totalitarian societies of the 20th century, such as those of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

Not all dictatorships foster personality cults, and some leaders may actively seek to minimize their own public adulation. For example, in the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, the image of Pol Pot himself was rarely seen. On the other hand, in North Korea there exists a very successful cult of personality, which includes actual semi-worship of both the father (Kim Il-sung) and son (Kim Jong-il).

Comment: What Joe Wilson shouted is mild in comparison to what the Founding Fathers endured. But what is going on with this latest "non-story" is the furthering of the Presidential Cult of Personality. And while this all started with Roosevelt, Republicans have been right there doing the same thing building up their guy like he's some sort of god.

We need to wake up, the president is only a man. In actually and in all reality he isn't really the kind of person we simple folks would want to be friends with...and that goes for Reagan too in my humble opinion. We need to remember the Executive Branch is and should always be subservient to the Legislative Branch. That's what the Founders intended by God! This might be tough for the neo-cons and leftist to understand, but it's all true.

Unless we turn back the train that keeps building up steam and bringing power to DC, we are going to see a whole new wave of flack directed at those who criticize the power elites. And I would be willing to bet some jail time is on the way for those in the near future if we aren't watchful.

I'm not going to say one way or the other what I think about Mr. Wilson's remark. Right now I am glad he did, because that lets me know there is still some freedom remaining. Rather than attacking Wilson, let's relish this for one moment.

And let's remember that the person he ridiculed broke throw a barrier, a huge barrier. I may not agree with the President's politics and I won't vote him, but I proud to know he could become President of these United States. We have come along way, this I am proud of my fellow citizens.

You might say I have one oar in the water, but for me this whole "non-story" lets me know I still live in a free country...at least this week.

The Dubliners - Whiskey in the jar

As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains
I met with captain Farrell and his money he was counting.
I first produced my pistol, and then produced my rapier.
Said stand and deliver, for I am a bold deceiver,

musha ring dumma do damma da
whack for the daddy 'ol
whack for the daddy 'ol
there's whiskey in the jar

I counted out his money, and it made a pretty penny.
I put it in my pocket and I took it home to Jenny.
She said and she swore, that she never would deceive me,
but the devil take the women, for they never can be easy

I went into my chamber, all for to take a slumber,
I dreamt of gold and jewels and for sure it was no wonder.
But Jenny took my charges and she filled them up with water,
Then sent for captain Farrel to be ready for the slaughter.

It was early in the morning, as I rose up for travel,
The guards were all around me and likewise captain Farrel.
I first produced my pistol, for she stole away my rapier,
But I couldn't shoot the water so a prisoner I was taken.

If anyone can aid me, it's my brother in the army,
If I can find his station down in Cork or in Killarney.
And if he'll come and save me, we'll go roving near Kilkenny,
And I swear he'll treat me better than me darling sportling Jenny

Now some men take delight in the drinking and the roving,
But others take delight in the gambling and the smoking.
But I take delight in the juice of the barley,
And courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early

Bob Bennett is a Blowhard

Former GOP Chairman Bennett scolds party; DDN

I have been a little behind reading my RSS feeds, so this article from the Dayton Daily Dribble may be a little dated, but I'm obliged to highlight stupid ORP "tricks." This time it's Bob Bennett, inventor of the "Ohio Soup Sandwich" (that's code name for Ohio's economy). Here's what the blowhard had to say in the DDD:

Former Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett scolded his fellow Republicans on Friday, Sept. 11, and warned them that their credibility is at stake.

Bennett, at a meeting of the party’s State Central Committee, said he was upset at GOP criticism of Democratic Barack Obama’s decision to make a televised address to school children. Bennett said that former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had done so without criticism.

Bennett said the criticism was driven by “talking heads. You know who I’m referring to.” Unless things change, “we’re not going to have any credibility as a party,” Bennett said.

Bennett also blasted U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina for “calling the president a liar” during President Barack Obama’s televised speech on reforming health care.

That single remark took the issue away from Republicans, he said. He called for more civility.

“We’re losing the battle with middle America if we don’t understand that,” said Bennett.

Comment: Well that last comment explains it all. I didn't realize I was engaged in a battle with the ORP, I just thought I was getting raped.