Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No, It’s a Violation of Your Civil Liberties!

Who needs “truth, justice, and the American way” when you have SuperObama and his drones keeping an eye on you.

(Short post tonight, I’m about to fly out to DC for CPAC. I’ll report back if I see any drones on the way.)

New York City just won a minor victory against the Nanny State when a judge overturned Mayor Bloomberg’s ridiculous attempt to ban sugary beverages over 16oz. in the city that never sleeps, but those civil liberties are still a precious commodity…there and everywhere else.

One, possibly two, drones have been spotted in airspace over New York City. The first was drone was spotted on March 5th and nearly caused a head-on collision between itself and a commercial jet that was coming in for a landing at JFK International.

A second drone was, reportedly, spotted over the city on March 11th. Though this one did not scare the ever-livin’ crap out of an airplane pilot, but it was spotted only about 5 miles from LaGuardia. Not exactly a safe place for an unannounced drone to be flying.

So these drones are flying around the skies of one of our countries biggest cities and I think we’d all like to know what they are doing there?

Are these the drones that the Department of Homeland Security has equipped with technology that CNET has reported will be:

“capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not,” meaning carrying a shotgun or rifle. They also specify “signals interception” technology that can capture communications in the frequency ranges used by mobile phones, and “direction finding” technology that can identify the locations of mobile devices or two-way radios.

- CNET

Or are they just the typical, hellfire missile equipped drones that they use overseas? Either way I’m not liking this much. Even if they aren’t going to fire a bomb and ruin my “cafe experience” as Rand Paul said recently, they are still violating my 4th amendment rights by allowing drones to intercept communications from radios and phones without a warrant and allowing the government to find my location through use of those drones.

Who has given them permission to do this? Well you get what you vote for and this is the Obama administration at work.

Don’t blame me, I voted for Romney.

We Told You This Would Happen

In my defense, I voted for the guy that told you this was going to happen.

During the election Romney took a lot of flack for his predictions on everything from outsourcing to China to Al Qaeda remaining extremely active and seriously dangerous to America and her interests, despite Obama personally killing Osama bin Laden…or so Obama would have had you believe, with the number of times that he referenced the fact that he killed/got bin Laden.

Well Romney lost. It was a dark day for the country. He lost because Republicans didn’t come out in full force, as they should have. Also because conservatives underestimated the stupidity of the liberal voting base.

And not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but a rather large amount of voter fraud. Yes, I’m aware that my liberal readers will laugh at this and call me crazy, but it’s true. If you really think that counties having 104% or 140% voter turnout or 90% turnout with 99% votes for Obama isn’t suspicious and evidence of fraud, then kindly turn around and leave this blog behind.

I don’t have time for idiots.

Sorry, I got off topic. Where was I?

Oh right.

Romney was right, you were wrong, and now we all have to suffer for it.

Of course watching this administration try to deal with this string of foreign and domestic policy clusterfucks is going to be amusing as hell.

Let’s start here at home shall we.

During the election Mitt Romney speculated that Jeep would be moving manufacturing to China. Politifact made Romney’s Chrysler China ad their “Lie of the year.”

What’s happening now?

Fiat and Chrysler Group have reached an agreement to expand passenger car manufacturing and sales in China, officials said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. will build one Jeep model in China for Chrysler for sale in China. A specific model was not announced.

- USA Today

Oooookay.

So they are putting manufacturing in China now. Yes, this does detract from job growth here in the states.

Politifact might want to apologize to Mitt, though I doubt he cares. We know they won’t though.

Foreign policy now.

Mali

Mali, which Romney, during the 3rd debate with Obama, mentioned with this statement “Our hearts and — and minds go out to them. Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali by Al Qaeda type individuals.“

Turns out he wasn’t so crazy after all. First of all, he made that statement based on intelligence briefings from the administration that re routinely given to Presidential nominees, according to Buzzfeed, who also reports that the situation has escalated.

Northern Mali has been under the increasing control of three hardline Islamist groups since the spring and summer of 2012, but the situation became front page news worldwide when French troops entered Mali over the weekend at the behest of the Malian president. 

- January 15, 2013

Whoops.

Al Qaeda

President Barack Obama has described al Qaeda as having been “decimated,” “on the path to defeat” or some other variation at least 32 times since the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to White House transcripts.

This comes despite Libyan President Mohamed Yousef El-Magarief, members of Congress, an administration spokesperson, and several press reports suggesting that al Qaeda played a role in the attack.

- CNS News (November 1st, 2012)

Benghazi isn’t the only place where Al Qaeda proved that they weren’t exactly “decimated” as Obama had suggested.

CNN Fact Check characterized Romney’s position in the 2nd debate as:

This is a group that is now involved in 10 or 12 countries, and it presents an enormous threat to our friends, to the world, to America, long term, and we must have a comprehensive strategy to help reject this kind of extremism.

- CNN

And what do we have happening this very week?

In a raid that the Washington Post says in retaliation to the French intervention in Mali (oh look,there’s that country again) Al Qaeda linked forces took over a BP oil field in Algeria.

The Islamists claimed to be holding 41 foreigners hostage, with reports suggesting that another 150 Algerian workers had been prevented from leaving the plant, which is about 60 miles from the Libyan border.

The fighters were believed to belong to the Katibah Moulathamine, or the Masked Brigade, run by Mokhtar Belmokthar, a one-eyed Algerian terrorist leader, linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

A spokesman for the group warned the hostages would meet a “tragic end” if any attempt was made to free them. One of the captives told a French newspaper by telephone that the terrorists had “mined the base” to deter a rescue mission.

- The Telegraph

Oh yeah, that sounds like the leadership has been decimated and Al Qaeda is no longer a threat to America.

As I write this it appears that Algeria has taken care of the problem on their own. Good news for the hostages, American and otherwise, since our current administration doesn’t have a great history with situations like this. According to Reuters, 30 hostages, none of them American, died in the attack. 11 of the Al Qaeda militants died.

Arab Spring

“We’re very concerned in seeing the new leader in Egypt as an Islamist leader. It is our hope to move these nations toward a more modern view of the world and to not present a threat to their neighbors and to the other nations of the world.”

- Mitt Romney (via Bloomberg)

Obama, on the other hand, congratulated Morsi on his election and said nothing as Mubarak, former President of Egypt and an ally of America, was ousted in a search for a more modern, secular government.

HAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, writing that last sentence was difficult. I wrote about this on Dirty Sex and Politics last November.

I have to say that, similar to my feelings about residents of Gaza, I don’t feel that much sympathy for these people. They had other choices in the Presidential election and they chose to put the Muslim Brotherhood in charge. What, exactly, were they expecting?

- DS&P Magazine

Anyway, back to my point. Not only can Obama not be counted on to stick by American allies, but he has no ability to judge that someone like Morsi, who is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, is NOT going make a good ally for America.

The Muslim Brotherhood has had serious problems with the United States from the very start. Obama can’t see the writing on the wall there either. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see that it was inevitable for this new regime to start churning out headlines like this:

15 years in jail: Egyptian family charged for attempting to restore Christian names

Egypt jails Christian student to three years in jail for insulting Islam

Report: Egypt jails Christian for six years for religious contempt

And just like Libya (not that their previous leader was better), we now have another Islamist country to deal with in the Middle East.

Great judge of character there Barack.

Romney called it again.

____________________

Romney isn’t the President, but he still has a better track record at predicting reality than the current administration.

God bless the USA, because if the last 4 years and situations like this are indicative of how foreign and domestic policy are going to go, we’re going to need it.

Now don’t you wish we had someone leading our country who wasn’t blind, deaf, and dumb to reality?

I hate to say I told you so, but…I did bloody tell you.

My Interview on The Donlyn Turnbull Show (11/15/12)

Donlyn Turnbull (creator) and Tim King (contributor and co-host) at DS&P Magazine, where I also contribute and article or two on occasion, invited me on to their radio show on FTR radio last week to talk politics, Ronald Reagan, roast beef sandwiches, and Rosie O’Donnell (ewww).

 
If you would like to listen to the show (my interview is the second segment, about 20 minutes long) here is a link to the DS&P website where it is posted. You can stream it or download it.

This is what defeated us?

 

Obama supporters vs. The Constitution

There was no triumph in his face, no elation, only the still intensity of contemplating the enormity of the smallness of the enemy who was destroying the world. He felt as if, after a journey of years through a landscape of devastation, past the ruins of great factories, the wrecks of powerful engines, the bodies of invincible men, he had come upon the despoiler, expecting to find a giant – and had found a rat eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of a human step. If this is what has beaten us, he thought, the guilt is ours.

- Rearden, Atlas Shrugged

I feel confident…and exhausted.

I am confident that Romney is going to win this and in January we will be watching the Inauguration of President Mitt Romney.

I will be at the polls tomorrow and I will cast my vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the men can bring our country back from the downward spiral that President Obama has put us in.

This is the most important, most exciting, most exhausting, election that has happened in my lifetime and, god willing, it will be the most important one of my lifetime.

I’m not really sure I can deal with such a stressful election season again.

Just remember to

ERMAGHERD! PAUL RYAN WANTS RAPISTS TO HAVE PARENTAL RIGHTS!

Well that’s apparently what liberals would like us to believe.

Anyone with a working brain is, I trust, automatically skeptical of such a claim…as you should be.

It’s not true.

I recently received a message on tumblr from a liberal who appeared to be very smug. They wrote “What if I told you” and linked to this article “Nightmare: 31 States Allow Paternal Rights for Rapists”.

Now the websites tagline is “Progressive: Politics to Pop Culture” so we can already tell this is A.) completely biased and B.) lacks any semblance of actual journalism already.
(Before you respond that I am also biased, remember that I don’t recommend you believe me with no further questioning…which is why I link to legitimate research and news so that you can start your own research.)

Okay, so this article is a hatchet job that provides no facts. Half of the links to ‘proof’ in their article lead to either articles on their own website (which also have no real facts to back them up) and the rest of the links (3 others) have to do DIRECTLY with a case that they cite where the mother won her court case, even though the rapist DID petition for parental rights.

The article (and none of the links) even tries to give us a percentage of woman who are A.) petitioned for parental rights by their rapists or B.) A percentage of rapists who are actually granted these rights.

My thoughts on that are of course that this is because the B part of that equation would be about 0% since the idea that any reasonably sane judge would grant custody or visitation rights to a felon and a registered sex offender (of which a rapist would be both) is absolutely ludicrous.

The article is actually so very bad that I’m going to have to take most of it apart piece by piece, which is something I think my readers enjoy.

In the midst of all the outrage over Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments, Missouri resident Shauna Prewitt waded into the war zone. The victim of a brutal rape, Prewitt later gave birth to a daughter borne of that encounter. When her rapist later filed for custody of her child, Prewitt’s nightmare became frighteningly worse. This courageous woman shared her experience with the rest of America; she is not alone:

“Prewitt says that if she knew then what she knows now about the laws in 31 states thatgrant men who father children via rape visitation rights that are equal to those that other fathers also enjoy, she might not have chosen to keep her child.

“My attacker sought custody of my daughter, but thankfully I got lucky and his visitation rights were terminated,” Prewitt says. “But I’m not sure I would have made the decision I did had I known I might be tethered to my rapist for the rest of my life.””

Okay, so you are saying that a convicted rapist petitioned for parental rights and were denied…that’s not ‘luck’ that’s just common sense on the judge’s part.

This section is curiously lacking in any sort of statistic on how many women this happens to and how often the rapist succeeds…that just might be pertinent.

What does this have to do with Todd Akin’s comments? The idea that there can be “legitimate rape” because the woman was not impregnated during that vile act, and conversely, the notion of “false rape” when it results in pregnancy, is mind-blowingly frightening.

I must be missing something, but when did Akin claim that a pregnancy resulting from rape made it a ‘false rape’?

Regardless, most Conservatives saw Akin’s comments for the stupidity they were (he’s far better than his opponent regardless) so attempting to pin his comments on conservatives in general is just ridiculous.

For a victim to be forced to bear the child of the man who sexually assaulted her, and in many cases also drugged, abducted, terrorized, battered, disfigured, pummeled, shot, or stabbed her is unimaginable. While the sponsors of HR-3 will insist that such a victim was never raped, since alas, there is a pregnancy; these legislators also tell the perpetrator that he, by default, cannot be considered a rapist. In such a world, Ms. Prewitt would have had no grounds upon which to terminate the visitation of the rapist bastard who fathered her child.

Okay…so Akin was in on creating HR-3. However if you actually read the bill, like I actually did, you will find that it has no restrictions on women being raped having an abortion.

Nor does it change the definition of rape or say that women who get pregnant ‘weren’t really raped’ because they got pregnant. Now you just reaching the territory of stupid. Nor have the legislators in question tried to say that ‘if you get pregnant, then your rapists isn’t actually a rapist’.

So, yeah…she would still have grounds, except in the fantasy world you are constructing which has nothing to do with reality.

It’s nice how you never link to the text of the actual bill you are badmouthing, you just make up what you think is in the bill and feed it to your readers. Fact checking might help you.

What are we to take away from Prewitt’s experience? Consider that 31 states have not yet adopted special laws that restrict the ability of rapists to assert their custodian and visitation rights to a child born through rape. These 31 states effectively grant men who father children via rape visitation rights that are equal to those that other fathers also enjoy.

Okay, so maybe we should have a law that says ‘no felon or sex offender may petition for custodial rights of children’, but the states you are criticizing to NOT ‘effectively grant men who father children via rape visitation rights.’

What the state laws allow is for them to petition the court for those rights.

Remember earlier when I said that the idea that judge would grant such a person custodial rights was ludicrous?

Remember when you never gave us any statistics on how often this is attempted or how often it succeeds?

HR-3’s “legitimate rape” and “forcible rape” language would nullify the laws of the other 19 states for all of the reasons given above.

HR-3 uses no such language. Did you even read the bill?

After all, HR-3 says no such father could be a rapist – and fathers have rights.

HR-3 says no such thing. Did you even read the bill?

Data shows that roughly 27% of all American women faced with Shauna Prewitt’s circumstances make the decision to have and raise the baby; roughly 47% give birth but put the baby up for adoption.

Ooh! This looks like a buildup to some actual statistics on how many rapists petition and succeed in petitioning for custodial rights!

In the world of HR-3, the 26% who opt to have an abortion would be criminalized.

Whoops….no, just more fantasy world.

In point of fact, HR-3 actually say:

‘Sec. 306. Non-preemption of other Federal laws

‘Nothing in this chapter shall repeal, amend, or have any effect on any other Federal law to the extent such law imposes any limitation on the use of funds for abortion or for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion, beyond the limitations set forth in this chapter.

which means, for those with less reading comprehension, that this bill does not change the law on abortion at all. All it does is say that federal money cannot be used for abortions, except in the case of:

‘Sec. 308. Treatment of abortions related to rape, incest, or preserving the life of the mother

‘The limitations established in sections 301, 302, and 303 shall not apply to an abortion–

‘(1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or

‘(2) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.

So actually…this law doesn’t change anything for women who have been raped or have lives that are being endangered by the pregnancy.

To escape an imminent jail term, women would be forced to have their rapist’s baby

No, just stop.

and face the likelihood of being tethered to him for life.

Really, stop. Your fantasy world is not amusing anymore. You really need to live in reality.

Likewise, any rapist-father, now legally classified as non-rapist under Akin/Ryan law, could withhold consent to adoption as the unwed biological father and insinuate himself into the lives of mother and child.

No, they are still considered rapists. HR-3 has nothing to do with the definition of rape or defining what constitutes a rapist, a felon, or a sex offender is.

As previously stated, the rapist could attempt any of these things, but a judge would throw out the requests nearly as fast as they were made, HR-3 has NOTHING to do with this.

Consider the psychological aspects of rape: it is about domination, humiliation, control, and brutal degradation. For such a man to have controlling interests in the life of a child spawned by his brutality is heinous and reprehensible.

Oh look, we agree on something. This may be the only truthful thing you’ve said in this entire piece of crap.

Still has nothing to do with HR-3.

Legislation that would open the doors of victimized women to their attackers and give them free reign to manipulate, control, and to exert psychological torture indefinitely is downright barbaric.

Yes, yes it is.

Good job, you managed two correct (if obvious) statements in this article.

Still had nothing to do with HR-3.

Consideration should also be given to children fathered through acts of incest, and pedophilia; these two are often interrelated. In such instances, the Akin/Ryan law could grant indisputable custody to men who already have a sexual predilection for children, and would place the children of the children they raped squarely under their control.

No, no it wouldn’t.

HR-3 says NOTHING about protecting rapists or pedophiles.

In fact, it protects federal funding for abortions in one two cases at all.

‘(A) an abortion–

‘(i) in the case of a pregnancy that is the result of an act of rape or incest, or

‘(ii) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy.

- HR-3

Great job at trying to poison the well though. I’m sure most of your liberal readers won’t bother to research this bill and will run around claiming that they have and that it protects rapists and bans abortions, but we both know that’s not true.

 

No, the president can’t ban gay marriage, abortion, or birth control. Can we move on now?

I received this question on tumblr yesterday.

And I realized, much to my dismay, that people really don’t understand this process. Here is my answer and I wanted to share it here as well, in the hopes that more people will understand this process.

And hopefully understand why this argument that “You shouldn’t vote for Romney or he will outright ban gay marriage, abortion, and birth control” is completely false, not just because he believes in state’s rights, but because that simply isn’t within his power.

___________________________________________

Banning any of those things would be unconstitutional.

Now you may bring up DOMA here, but DOMA, while there is an argument about whether it is constitutional or not, was not a ban. DOMA basically meant that divorces and marriages did not have to be recognized across state lines, if a same-sex married couple moved from a state where their marriage was recognized to a state that did not have same-sex marriage.

So to ban something like that would take a constitutional amendment so that it wouldn’t be a unconstitutional. You following so far?

An amendment on one of those things would never happen. Here is why.

The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.

The amendment on those topics would never be proposed by 2/3s of the House and Senate or by 2/3s of the states.

And even if one was proposed, it wouldn’t be passed because:

A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).

(Link to actual full process explained)

Do you really think 38 states would agree to such an amendment? Not likely.

 

Oh look, we found Julia and the Secret Service is investigating her.

While I was celebrating my 22nd birthday last night, The Blaze was interviewing Julia Rodriguez, a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

Looks like we found that Julia character that Obama is helping so very much.*

By the way, the secret service is investigating her for saying that she would kill Governor Romney if she ever saw him in person.

“Romney will destroy this country completely” she repeated angrily.  Then, Rodriguez grabbed the microphone and emotionally screamed “If I see him” referring to Romney “I would like to kill him!”

-The Blaze

Charming lady, I can see why Obama is so desperate to please her. He might just be scared for his life.

 

And as a last comment about women at the DNC, here’s my parting thought about Sandra Fluke and her dumb-ass speech.

Liberals want to say Conservatives think Sandra Fluck is a whore. No conservative thinks that. After all, whores earn their money.

 

*I’m aware that this is not the actual woman in the video. That Julia, like Obama’s girlfriend, was just an amalgamation of all the traits of the women who want to rely on the government to be their sugar daddy, but this coincidence was too delicious to pass up.

The Conservative New Ager and The Snark Who Hunts Back Review The Dark Knight Rises: A Tale of Heroes, Politics and Death

This last week we (The Snark Who Hunts Back and The Conservative New Ager) went to go see The Dark Knight Rises together for the second time (the first being a trilogy marathon on opening night). We delayed writing a blog then because it became obvious there was so much we would have to see it again to fully appreciate the depth…and even on a second viewing we realized there is more than a single blog here.

But let’s get the overture out of the way. The final piece of this spectacular trilogy, like almost all of director Christopher Nolan’s recent work is thematically based off a work of literature…A Tale of Two Cities, in the case of The Dark Knight Rises. And while it might be hard to find the undercurrents of Othello in The Dark Knight, Faust in The Prestige, or Zorro in Batman Begins (which for symmetry should be renamed The Dark Knight Begins).

But it’s not just literary, it’s political…or at least it appears to be. The Dark Knight seemed pretty obviously a defense of the War on Terror, and The Dark Knight Rises seems a pretty striking assault on the morals of leftist economics. Now Nolan claims that his works aren’t political (a common defense by those who want to survive in a hostile political environment) and Occupy Wall Street thugs think they’re really smart in pointing out that the movie was written before OWS so it can’t be about them (this poor argument ignores that their rhetoric of evil has been spouted by the left quite vehemently in the last few years and also they clearly are so ignorant of the history of their own ideas that they don’t know their filth was spouted by demagogues in ancient Athens, and shown to be stupid then…so just because Nolan didn’t know about OWS doesn’t mean he wasn’t responding to the evil)…and even if Nolan is telling the truth that he didn’t intend it to a political statement (which I doubt) it works too well as one not to make some comments about the philosophy of the work.

Now ignoring the message of the trilogy taken as a whole (that’s another blog for another time) we think there are three main philosophical statements to this film: The nature of heroism, the politics of progressivism, envy and “social justice”, and the fear of death.

The Nature of the Hero

“A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat over a little boy’s shoulder to let him know the world hadn’t ended.”

One of the more unbelievable complaints I’ve heard about The Dark Knight Rises was that it made it look like the common man can’t do anything for themselves, that they need the rich to save them. Never mind the fact that, by the end, Bruce Wayne barely had a cent to his name or that his money certainly didn’t help him climb out of the pit. We would just want to know if the person who made the complaint was even watching the same movie that we saw with our friends.

Not long after Bruce Wayne loses all his money, due to Bane’s attack on the stock exchange, he has a conversation with John Blake, a police officer who knows Wayne’s identity as Batman. Wayne tells Blake that the whole point of Batman was that he could be anyone, Batman was meant to be an inspiration to the people of Gotham, something that is repeated in both of the previous movies.

In Batman Begins Bruce Wayne tell Alfred:

“People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. And I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man I’m just flesh and blood, I can be ignored, destroyed. But a symbol….as a symbol I can be incorruptible, everlasting…..”

In The Dark Knight, the Joker asks the fake Batman, Brian what batman means to him. Brian answers “He’s a symbol … that we don’t have to be afraid of scum like you”. And the whole point of Batman, as we see come to fruition at the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises, was not to create a legion of caped crusaders, but an army of men like Harvey Dent (before his psychotic break) and Jim Gordon—a group of people willing to stand up for what is right.

But we digress. The point is what made the average person a hero in The Dark Knight Rises.

At no point did John Blake, Commissioner Gordon, or the other members of the resistance, sit down and go ‘well, I’m just a common person, I’m just going to wait for the government or Batman to come save us’ (except for the character of Foley, who was rightly called out for being a coward). They worked tirelessly to find a way out on their own, they realized they were on their own the moment Bane took over the city and began to look for ways to free the city’s police force from the sewers.

When Batman did come back, in an a miraculous 11th hour miracle, they didn’t wait for him to clean up the mess. The police banded together and marched on Bane’s army, many of them dying in the fighting to save their city.

Selina Kyle, despite telling Batman that she was leaving the city as soon as she destroyed the debris blocking the tunnel, turned around and risked her life to fight for the city and to save Batman’s life.

Lucius Fox risked death and drowning , trying to find a way to stop the nuclear bomb from detonating.

Even Ra’s al Ghul (don’t you hate it when you agree with the words, if not the actions, of a villain?) says, during Bruce’s training, “The training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act.”

The heroes who kept Gotham alive while Batman fought his way out of the pit

Every one of these people, training or no, had the will to act. They were all willing to give everything for their city, for their freedom. What could possibly be more heroic than that?

Fancy toys, nice cars, and a cool suit will only get you so far if you don’t have the will to do what is necessary, even when what is necessary may end your life.

Heroism isn’t about money, toys, or good looks; it’s a state of mind and living life, not with no fear of death, but with a willingness to die to defend others and defend your beliefs.

You may not be a superhero, but anyone can be a hero. That’s what The Dark Knight Rises shows us about heroism.

Politics, Socialism and evils of envy

“Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend, will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof shuts out the sky.’”—A Tale of Two Cities*

You would have to have been pretty dense not to get that this movie was thematically inspired by A Tale of Two Cities. Even Dickens, for all of his sickeningly naïve progressive rhetoric, had an inkling of the evil of the French Revolution. A quick review of history if it’s been too long since that high school history class. Louis XVI in response to economic woes and civil unrest had given the public everything they wanted: an assembly, power of due process of law, and abdicated much of the absolute power of the monarchy. And while many where happy with these changes, the ignorant rabble who were open to the rhetoric of the most extreme thought it wasn’t enough. They stormed the Bastille, arrested Louis and his wife (who if you actually study history was not the vapid slut a layman’s understand of history tries to depict her as), and placed power in the hands of radicals like Robespierre and Marat. The Terror, Madam Guillotine, rivers of blood, atrocities on a scale that wouldn’t be seen again in France until the Nazi’s allowed the French to revel in their anti-Semitism. (A similar pattern would be seen when the Russians replaced the Tsar with a democratic government…but soon got rid of that in favor of a psychotically evil government).

She learned to hate her “ideal” world quickly enough.

This history lesson is important because this is the same pattern Nolan shows in Gotham. For all of it’s corruption in the first two films, Gotham at the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises was a city that had everything it wanted: Clean streets, an efficient police force (a city of 12 million with only 3,000 uniformed officers means an obscenely low crime rate), a healthy economy (the city could afford multiple simultaneous construction projects by Dagget, that means an incredibly good tax base, ergo strong economy…and football stadiums aren’t packed to the brim with every last seat filled during hard times), a mayor who has survived for over 8 years in office (usually a sign of prosperity) Even Selina Kyle’s words of decrying inequality ring hollow, he “old town” (suggestive of the gutter) apartment is hardly a shabby SRO or the slum heap of “the narrows” from the first film—and while in Batman Begins criminals could carry on with their nefarious dealings out in the open, or hide them in the vast slums, this is a Gotham where there are so few places to hide your activities you literally have skulk in the sewers (everywhere else is too bright and too well off to hide such activities)…Like the French they had everything they had asked for. And, like France, it took only a little fear and few mad men to stir the lowest rungs of society and bring about anarchy.
There are of course differences between A Tale of Two Cities and the Revolution it describes and the events of The Dark Knight Rises. The Bastille was stormed not to free prisoners (there were hardly any left in the Bastille by the time of the Revolution) but to gain weapons to take over the city. And even if you buy the myth of the Storming of the Bastille, the prisoners released from the Bastille were primarily political prisoners…not hardened thugs of organized crime. The fact that the Dent Law in The Dark Knight Rises was passed because there was a martyr to push through the law, does not change the fact that it, like all three-strikes laws and mandatory sentencing laws, are a particular point of hatred for the progressive who think it’s unfair that people who do evil and horrific things should, heaven forbid, be locked up where they can’t do any harm. But be it the Bastille and the release of a mere seven political prisoners or the opening of Blackgate Prison and letting a host of violent criminals go free, the result was ironically the same: The Terror.

The terror: a system where justice and trials are a mockery and the innocent are held as guilty for crimes they never committed…and where there is only one punishment: death. The terror, a system that provides so much that it makes everyone so equal that they are all starving and tearing at each other for daily sustenance (or like the Soviet Union or Gotham you could have food imported from the capitalistic society because you can’t produce any on your own). The terror: the utopia every half brained progressive idealist praises, only to lead to their own downfall.

In the real French Revolution the villain was Robespierre who used high rhetoric to justify rank thugery as a progressive march to fraternity and equality. In A Tale of Two Cities the villain was Madame De Farge, a woman so hell bent on avenging her family’s murders that she will see the whole world burn to get her pound of flesh. Nolan gives us both villains in the form of Bane and Talia al Ghul. Which of course leads us into the villainy of their perverse understanding of economics.

Let me spout the politics of envy and class warfare knowing it will only lead to your eventual destruction!

Before we get into showing how Nolan destroys the ideals of progressivism by showing what it brings, let’s dismiss one semi-intelligent objection: Bane and Talia don’t believe in progressivism, they’re trying to show how it is a failed system and how people must reject it. That’s not entirely an incorrect point…but what you need to also realize is that just because the villains may be a tool they don’t really believe in doesn’t mean that it isn’t showing the flaws of progressivism…and that just because they don’t believe in progressivism doesn’t mean they’re capitalist. Point in fact, the entire League of Shadows from Ra’s Al Ghul’s first words to Talia’s last is a world view based on feudalism and cronyism. The League believes it should be the one who decides who shall be successful and who shall fail. Bane says as much when he tells Wayne, “I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to “stay in the sun.” You can watch me torture an entire city and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Ra’s al Ghul’s destiny… We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die.” As we stated above they rule through terror, not reason, not ethics, not law, justice—they dress their words up in the clothes of these higher ideals but their actions show them to be as hollow and lacking in substance on the inside as any scarecrow (especially if said Scarecrow sets himself up as the instrument of justice).

Politically speaking, there is much that is applicable to our current political situation in our country. Now, to be fair, I don’t believe that Christopher Nolan’s intent was to create a modern political allegory. This movie was written and being filmed long before the Occupy Wall Street movement, which shares many of the villains sentiments, began.

During the first few weeks of the Occupy movement we both remember having many conversations about the similarities between that movement and the early days of the French Revolution. Which is why the connection between The Dark Knight Rises and OWS comes so easily.

The views of Occupy Wall Street were shown almost perfectly in Bane’s and Catwoman’s words, as well as the actions of the people who jump at the chance to drag the rich out and punish them for their success.

Bane’s entire speech outside of Black Gate Prison is so reminiscent of something from a ‘mic check’ at Occupy Wall Street

“We take power from the corrupt, who, for generations, have kept you down with myths of…opportunity and we give it back to you, the people. Gotham is yours, none shall interfere, do as you please. We’ll start by storming Black Gate and freeing the oppressed…an army will be raised, the powerful will be ripped from their decadence and cast out into the cold where we all have endured, courts will be convened, spoils will be enjoyed…”

-Bane (apologies for mistakes, I was working from a VERY scratchy audio clip)

and for those of you who remember the scenes that accompanied the final lines of that speech, the violence is so similar to the rioting at Occupy Oakland that is was almost frightening, especially when you realize that this movie was written months before any of that every happened.

Selina Kyle (Catwoman) starts out with the same exact rhetoric as many an Occupy Wall Street supporter. In a conversation with Bruce Wayne she says “You think this is gonna last? There’s a storm coming Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches. ‘Cause when it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large, and leave so little for the rest of us.”

Though after her betrayal of Batman she appears to change her tone in a way that OWS never did. Upon entering a home that had been ransacked after Bane’s Black Gate speech she comments on the fact that ‘this used to be someone’s home’ when she looks at a smashed family photo. Her friend says ‘now it’s everyone’s home.’ Kyle, unlike just about everyone in OWS who only has to look to the failure of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Greece or the repression of China and North Korea to know what a failed system socialism, when she saw what her ideals brought about very quickly had no problem seeing their evil and abandoning them.

The Dark Knight Rises shows what happens when give us capitalisms for anarchy or socialism. You have perversion of justice. You have to survive on the handouts and scraps provided to you. There is no growth. No prosperity. No civilization. Only blood and the terror.

Now on to a slightly more hilarious turn of events.

Shortly before the movie came out the Obama campaign (and liberals in general) noticed something they thought they could use as a brilliant attack against Romney.

Did you know that Romney had a business named Bain Capital?

Bain/Bane…get it?**

One of these guys is someone rich who could easily leave others to fend for themselves but doesn’t…the other is named Bane. Which one reminds you the most of the presidential challenger?

“It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood,” said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. “Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society,” he added.

As the Friday release date has neared, liberal blogs were the first to connect Batman’s toughest foe with Romney’s firm.

- Christopher Lehane (via Washington Examiner)

Yeah, they actually did that.

Hilariously, when Rush Limbaugh dared to point out the name similarities, liberal bloggers thought he was being insane and completely ignored that their side was the one who made the comparison first.

Luckily conservatives had a fellow conservative Chuck Dixon, comic book creator, and coincidentally, the co-creator of the villain Bane, to smack some sense into liberals.

In an interview with ComicBook.com Dixon had this to say.

“The idea that there’s some kind of liberal agenda behind the use of Bane in the new movie is silly…I refuted this within hours of the article in the Washington Examiner suggesting that Bane would be tied to Bain Capital and Mitt Romney appearing. Bane was created by me and Graham Nolan and we are lifelong conservatives and as far from left-wing mouthpieces as you are likely to find in comics…As for his appearance in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane is a force for evil and the destruction of the status quo. He’s far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you’re looking to cast him politically. And if there ever was a Bruce Wayne running for the White House it would have to be Romney.”

-Chuck Dixon (Via ComicBook.com)

Romney is Bruce Wayne? That’s the best pseudo-endorsement I’ve heard all year. If I wasn’t voting for Romney before, I sure am now.

The Fear of Death

Blind Prisoner: You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.
Bruce Wayne: Why?
Blind Prisoner: How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death.
Bruce Wayne: I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there’s no one there to save it.
Blind Prisoner: Then make the climb.
Bruce Wayne: How?
Blind Prisoner: As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.

Now on the Conservative New Ager we have a fairly low opinion of the fear of death. In numerous blogs it has been ridiculed as the foolish, childish, ignorant paralytic it is. However, it must be admitted, that in the rush of these blogs to point out that “Wise men at their end know [death] is right” and that it is nothing to be feared but merely a natural part of life, that the wise also “do not go gentle into that good night.”

Bruce Wayne doesn’t fear death for the first half of the movie, that is true. He is not hindered by the fears that he once was. The problem is that in this attempt to rid himself of fear he went too far and rid himself of the desire for life as well. While the movie only uses the phrase “fear death” it might seem that it is encouraging people to embrace fear. But from context the movie is not telling people to embrace the paralyzing fear of death because it is this fear that encourages the federal government and the people of Gotham to stand ideally by, and the fear that causes Modine’s Foley to hide, while a terrorist takes over the city. Rather, the movie is encouraging a balance—that the proper way is to rid one’s self of the paralyzing fear of death of Wayne did in the first film, but to maintain the love of live, and the appreciation of death and knowledge that each moment could be your last and must be fought for, that comes with this love of life. It is only this appreciation of death, that pushes Wayne to make a jump that he could not otherwise make, because he knows that if he is to live he must push himself—and he cannot push himself without both the knowledge that there is no turning back or without the desire to do something other than seek his own end.

And then of course, as a final thought we can’t forget how wonderfully patriotic this film is. Okay maybe not so much in it showing the President to be a sniveling coward who gives into terrorist demands (patriotic or not that might be an accurate assessment)…or in how cowardly the bureaucracy is when they blow the bridge condemning many to die (again might be an accurate conservative message). But you will notice that the people of Gotham (not the scum the who follow Bain mind you, but the people who are terrorized by them) stand for “The Star Spangled Banner” and the only person shown to not have his hand over his heart is the scummy mayor (who apparently is close to an even scummier Congressmen…again perhaps an accurate assessment of current events). And along with the police it is these people who fight against Bain. And you’ll notice that on the day of the battle even a British director like Nolan knows to show the tattered remains of the flag still flying, still offering hope, and as a symbol that on that day evil will fall. Finally the last words about Gotham, which they say is America’s greatest city, is that it will rise from the ashes of this act of terrorism…you would have to be pretty dense not to see this as a reference to New York, and a testament to how quickly America did pick itself up.

You don’t owe these people anymore. You’ve given them everything.

Not everything. Not Yet.

And the sad fact is that we’ve only scratched the surface of this film…

*On a side note, it should be said that, for all of Dickens’ flaws, A Tale of Two Cities is Dickens’ best work…too bad he stole half the plot from Victor Hugo’s Ninety-Three.

** Oh and if you want to to play the silly let’s compare political figures to fictional ones…I see your Bane/Bain…and raise you…

 

(Romney Ryan photos thanks to Heather Parsons)

Local Affairs and Obamacare

I mean, there are plenty of reasons to hate it. Members of our legislature can propose some nutty things (of course they rarely pass), our state university is a joke (then again, so are most state universities to my knowledge), and the heat is deplorable…unless you live in Flagstaff (liberal central), Prescott (surprisingly not as much of a liberal central, despite being an art community) or any of the other tiny little northern towns (I’m a big fan of Jerome, which is a tiny tourist trap with awesome ‘haunted’ hotels and beautiful old architecture…but also very liberal). And I live in a town that was founded by people crazy enough to put our town in a valley surrounded by mountains so that we never get rain (I love rain.)

But Arizona does have it’s good point. I know that other people (not me*) love the mild winters. This state loves their second amendment rights (Tombstone anyone? I’ve been there, if you go don’t eat at the Crystal Palace Saloon, I was sick for a week…just sayin’.) The fact that you can drive 2 hours and change climates completely is awesome and the fact that I live in a city whose founders named their town after a bird that burns to death regularly (which I usually feel like I will do in the summer) and were crazy enough to put our town in a valley surrounded by mountains so that we never get any rain. Also we don’t have Daylight Savings Time.

Also, sometimes the people are freakin’ amazing.

See, I may live in Arizona, but I’ve always been far more worried about the national political scene and I spent very little time paying attention to the local political scene** and as a result I sometimes miss stuff.

So then I see something like this on tumblr and I wonder where I was when this happened.

Joseph M. Scherzer, M.D. told the Daily Caller that he ‘plans to stop practicing before 2014 when the bill’s full impact will be felt because he refuses to deal with the headache of increased government involvement in health care.’ Perhaps he neglected to mention as well longer waiting lines, fewer doctors (as he exemplifies), cut backs in Medicare reimbursement and a myriad of other issues that will destroy doctor morale. There is a caveat to Dr. Joseph M. Scherzer’s plan to throw in the towel and he said as much on a sign taped to the front door of his office. Unless Congress or the Courts Repeal the Bill:

- Left Coast Rebel***

People like this make me love my state. We have so many bold people here that refuse to be taken in by all the BS that politicians in DC (and even our own state) try to feed us. Scherzer has a blog, by the way.

83% of Doctors have considered quitting because of Obamacare, Scherzer isn’t alone in this.

Now we just need to win the Senate, keep the House, and eject Obama from the White House.

November, here we come.

_________________

*I love to bitch about the cold, but I actually love frigid weather…especially if I can stay indoors with a fire and only venture into the snow for an hour or so at a time, but I hate having to drive 2 hours to see snow in the winter. I also hate having to wait until December to wear sweaters and jackets…and forget about coats.

**Though I firmly hold that any fuck-ups in the city of Phoenix are not my fault. I didn’t vote for Stanton. I voted for Wes Gullet.

***I’d like to note that Left Coast Rebel did an interview with Obama’s second cousin, Dr. Milton R. Wolf, M.D., who is a huge nay-sayer of Obamacare.