The New York Daily News calls on the State Department to label the NRA as a terrorist organization
In the wake of the horrific Umpqua campus mass shooting The New York Daily News has decided that it is time for the State Department to label the NRA has a terrorist organization. Here is some of what the rag had to say on this issue:
One terrorist group is responsible for more civilian deaths since December 2012 (the Sandy Hook massacre) than Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas and the Taliban. Yet it is the only nearly-state sponsored terrorist group that is not listed by the U.S. State Department as such.
It is the National Rifle Association and for their unending lobbying that’s kept a lid on gun control we now have 428 times more American deaths by gun than deaths by foreign terrorists.
The article continues:
October 4th open thread: ‘Blood and Roses’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, October 4th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we covered a paltry 7 stories, but did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
In addition to subscribing you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. But you will get more than that for I often post links to articles I probably will not be writing about so it is a great way to keep up with what is happening.
The Twitter widget in the sidebar is fully interactive. This widget updates my tweets in real time and allows you to respond to or retweet my tweets right from the blog. It also allows you to tweet me right from America’s Watchtower. How cool is that! If you do not have a Twitter account what better reason do you need to sign up for one!
While we only covered 7 stories last week one of my posts was personal and I would encourage my regular readers to please check it out if you missed it. It was entitled “Seize the day and never let it go because life is precious.”
If you missed that post I ask you to check it out here because it is a prelude to an extremely personal post which I will share with you when the time is right–if not this week probably the week after.
Now on to the musical selection of the week, here is The Smithereens performing “Blood and Roses” from 1986, enjoy:
New poll shows Ben Carson ahead of Donald Trump
A new IBD/TIPP poll has been released and it is the first poll in ages in which Donald Trump is not in the lead, that distinction belongs to Ben Carson. Here is more:
The nationwide survey found that 24% of Republicans back Carson, compared with 17% who say they support Trump.
Marco Rubio came in third with 11% and Carly Fiorina fourth at 9%. Jeb Bush, once considered a prohibitive favorite, ranked fifth with just 8% support, which was a point lower than those who say they are still undecided.
Take this poll for what it is worth because it is a national poll and we do not have a national election (at least not yet) but I find it interesting because it might show us that Donald Trump’s support has plateaued. Of course many people, myself included, have been predicting Donald Trump’s support would eventually dwindle and to this point we have been proven wrong time and time again so I am not going to make the prediction again here. It does bear watching over the next dew weeks to see if the trend continues or if this is an anomaly.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
After Ben Carson stated he would not advocate for a Muslim becoming President the media intentionally misrepresented what he said by claiming he does not think a Muslim should be allowed to run for President. It is clear that this is not what he meant: he simply meant that he would not vote for a Muslim, not that a Muslim should be disqualified from the Presidency. The Constitution agrees that a person cannot be denied office for religious reasons in Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
One can judge Ben Carson for his personal belief and decide whether or not they can vote for him based on his opinion, that is fair in my opinion, but what is not fair is distorting what he was trying to say, even if he did not articulate it properly, simply for political reasons and in my opinion that is what the mainstream media attempted to do. He can decide not to vote for a Muslim if that is how he feels and the people can decide not to vote for Ben Carson for his belief if that is how they feel. It seems logical to me, but not to CAIR.
In the aftermath of his comment CAIR came out and called for him to drop out of the race, this is a violation of election law which states that no tax-exempt organization can inject itself into a political campaign and Ben Carson is now asking for an investigation into CAIR:
The Secret Service leaked Jason Chaffetz’s personal information to the Daily Beast in an effort to intimidate and embarrass him
The Secret Service has not exactly covered itself in glory over the last couple of years, having become embroiled in drug and prostitution scandals. (Not to mention letting a man jump the White House fence and waltz into the White House) House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz has been investigating these transgressions and needless to say the Secret Service is not happy with him.
In fact the Secret Service is so unhappy with him that they began a smear campaign against him in an attempt to intimidate, embarrass and discredit him by leaking some of his personal information to The Daily Beast.
Here is more, and this comes not from a vast right-wing conspiracy but rather from an Inspector General’s report:
John Boehner secretly met with Trey Gowdy in an attempt to get him to run for House Majority Leader
It is being reported in this article that John Boehner held a secret meeting with Trey Gowdy in an attempt to convince him to run for House Majority Leader. Here is more:
Speaker John Boehner secretly met with Rep. Trey Gowdy Tuesday to encourage him to jump into the race for House majority leader, a dramatic attempt by the chamber’s top Republican to try to influence the intraparty election.
The previously undisclosed meeting reveals new behind-the-scenes involvement by Boehner, who has not endorsed any candidates in the leadership race. That the Ohio Republican inserted himself in the contest underscores his concern about who succeeds him in GOP leadership. Boehner requested the meeting after word spread that Gowdy was considering a bid for the post.
Boehner (R-Ohio) “has always been a fan of Trey’s and thinks he’s done a tremendous job as chairman of the Benghazi select committee and he thinks he would do the same thing if he had gotten into the leader race,” said one Boehner confidant with knowledge of the meeting.
Seize the day and never let it go because life is precious
Carpe diem. Seize the day. We have all heard this term but have you really ever stopped to think about what it means? There is no wrong answer: carpe diem can mean one thing to one person and another thing altogether to someone else. It all depends on how you define the term and what your perspective is.
To one person carpe diem could mean scaling the highest mountain to its peak and to another it could mean getting through a day without succumbing to personal demons. To me it is somewhere in the middle and I have been thinking about this quite a bit over the last few months.
“The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.” Those words were spoken by Brooks Hatlin in “The Shawshank Redemption” and the more I think about it the more true those words seem to me. I have also been thinking about those words quite a bit lately.
Teamsters Union snubs Hillary Clinton, wants to meet with Donald Trump
Earlier today Hillary Clinton made what I believe was a blatant attempt to appease the Democrat’s largest special interest group, the unions, when she came out against the Cadillac healthcare plan tax, you can read about that here.
However late last week Hillary Clinton finally took a stance on another issue which is near and dear to many unions, the Keystone Pipeline. She has announced that she is against it even though many unions are supportive of the Keystone Pipeline. Could her new position on the Cadillac plans be an attempt to offset her decision on the pipeline? It seems highly likely to me.
If so it might have failed: it is now being reported that when one of the most powerful unions, the Teamsters Union, sat down to discuss endorsing a candidate they decided UNANIMOUSLY to withhold an endorsement (for Hillary Clinton of course) until Joe Biden announced his intentions and until they talked to Donald Trump, who apparently has a good relationship with the unions. According to the report this was a deliberate snub by the Teamsters toward Hillary Clinton.
Here is the report:
Hillary Clinton comes out against Obamacare’s ‘Cadillac tax’ provision
In what Politico is calling “a major break with the Obama administration” Hillary Clinton, in an effort to endear herself and her struggling campaign to the unions, called for the repeal of a major staple of Obamacare–the Cadillac healthcare plan tax.
Here is more:
“I encourage Congress to repeal the so-called ‘Cadillac tax,'” she said in a statement. “My proposed reforms to our health care system would more than cover the cost of repealing the Cadillac tax, while also reining in skyrocketing prescription drug costs and out-of-pocket expenses for hard-working families. As president, I will continue to fight to make our health care system more value-driven and cost-efficient, and to drive down costs for patients and families.”
Sunday, September 27th open thread: ‘Imagine’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, September 27th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we covered 11 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
In addition to subscribing you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. But you will get more than that for I often post links to articles I probably will not be writing about so it is a great way to keep up with what is happening.
The Twitter widget in the sidebar is fully interactive. This widget updates my tweets in real time and allows you to respond to or retweet my tweets right from the blog. It also allows you to tweet me right from America’s Watchtower. How cool is that! If you do not have a Twitter account what better reason do you need to sign up for one!
During an open thread a few weeks ago I posted a song by Muse and it led to an interesting discussion about the Hegelian Dialectic and the possibility that Muse was actually part of the controlled opposition by using music to indoctrinate the young people through subliminal messaging.
I thought I would use the open thread this week to build upon that conversation by using a song that everybody knows. I think we actually touched on this song during that discussion: the song “Imagine” by John Lennon is one of the most iconic songs of all time and while it holds a beautiful meaning of peace to so many people that is not what this song is about at all and I will explain it after you listen to it.
I admit the song is beautiful but it hides an ugly message. Some of you probably know what the true meaning of this song is so bear with me if you do know.
Here is the song as performed live in 1972, listen carefully to the words:
Now let us examine the words:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine no heaven and no hell, this is a topic he comes back to in the next verse, which also sheds some light on the true meaning of the song.
Let us continue:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
Here again John Lennon speaks of abolishing religion and we all know that in a communist state the people are not allowed to have religion because they must believe the state is the highest power, if they believe in a higher power the power of the state is muted.
He also speaks of “no countries” and that is something Karl Marx spoke of in the “Communist Manifesto” because he believed oppressed people know no borders because it is a worldwide affliction. It is this worldwide oppression which can be used to spread communism across the globe.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as oneImagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
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