Every Day is Christmas with Obama Claus

“We’re not going to be able to explain this away in one day…Small things beat big things yesterday. Conservatism, in my humble opinion, did not lose last night. It’s just very difficult to beat Santa Claus. It is practically impossible to beat Santa Claus. People are not going to vote against Santa Claus, especially if the alternative is being your own Santa Claus. Now, everyone is jumping on Romney’s chain today, getting in his chili. Look, he might not have been the optimal candidate, but he’s a fine man. He would have been great for this country…I went to bed last night thinking we’d lost the country. I don’t know how else you look at this.” 
 ~ Rush Limbaugh

Voter Identification Laws Are Suppressive...Says The Liberals

Oh, now THIS is interesting. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz got into an altercation with a police officer and city mayor when she was respectfully asked not to block traffic at a FL polling location.  Townhall’s Katie Pavlich quotes: “Can we say she was suppressing voters by keeping them away from the parking lot?”   This quote is made as a sort of mockery of the chairwoman’s ideals.  Wasserman claims Republican governors and legislatures are tenaciously pressing for the enactment of voter-identification laws to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election.  Many Democrats believe that asking for a photo ID is just too much of a burden to put on voters, especially minorities (Ritz, 2012).

Hmmm, guess if a vast number of Obama voters weren't illegals, this wouldn't be an issue, now, would it?

“State legislatures are attempting to impose voting restrictions that are the modern-day equivalent of poll taxes and literacy tests,” the Florida congresswoman said on the House floor. “We cannot allow state legislatures to drag our nation backward in what is nothing more than a political quest to protect their governing majority’s interests (Kasperowicz, 2011).”

I find it amusing that Democrats take issue with a photo-ID requirement to vote. A photo ID (Driver’s License) is required to drive a vehicle, purchase cigarettes and alcohol, apply for unemployment, board a commercial aircraft, open a bank account, write or cash a check, use a credit and/or debit card, fill out an application for employment….. Yet, asking for a photo ID is "suppression" when it applies to voting?

Furthermore, obtaining an identification card is not costly or difficult – that is, if you are legal.  According to Hans A. von Spakovsky, American attorney and a former member of the Federal Election Commission, every state that has implemented a voter-ID law has also made free IDs available to voters who don’t have them.  In regards to voter-ID laws negatively affecting minorities, Spakovsky states that the actual turnout of Democratic and minority voters went up, not down, in Georgia and Indiana after their voter-ID laws went into effect, and those increases were larger than in many states without voter-ID laws.  Additionally, the Supreme Court has upheld and supported voter ID laws in several states including Indiana and Tennessee, stating that they ARE constitutional (von Spakovsky, 2012).

Requiring voters to prove who they are is an entirely reasonable proposition. One of my largest concerns is illegals who go to the polls to vote.  Also of concern is voter fraud – specifically those who vote more than once or who vote in the place of deceased people.  What I don’t understand is why showing an ID is such an issue. As mentioned above, having an ID is a nearly essential part of day-to-day life and activities. If a person is so adamant about their right to vote, they would take any measure possible to ensure they have an identification card. It’s that simple. There are four years between elections – that is plenty of time to acquire an ID if you do not have one.

I’m left scratching my head on this one……

Kasperowicz, P. (2011, November 11). Wasserman schultz accuses gop of rigging elections with ‘suppression laws’. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/194183-wasserman-schultz-accuses-gop-of-rigging-elections-with-voter-suppression-laws

Ritz, E. (2012, October 31). Debbie wasserman schultz reportedly gets into argument with fl policeman, mayor outside polling place. Retrieved from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/debbie-wasserman-schultz-reportedly-gets-into-argument-with-fl-policeman-mayor-outside-polling-place/

von Spakovsky, H. A. (2012, August 3). Getting it wrong on voter id . Retrieved from http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313053/getting-it-wrong-voter-id-hans-von-spakovsky

Maybe There IS Hope For Liberals.

Did you know that several modern champions of Conservatism were
formal Liberals? Thankfully, they were enlightened. They woke up. They got a
taste of the truth and it liberated them from their liberalist shackles. 
Liberals - this shows there IS hope for you. You CAN follow a
different course.

Ronald Regan - "I spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently saw
fit to follow another course....Somehwere, a perversion has taken
place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a
dispensation of governent and freedom has never been so fragile, so
close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.....In this
present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.
Government IS the problem."

Thomas Sowell - An American economist, social theorist, political
philosopher, and author. National Humanities Medal recipient. Sowell
has stated that he was a Marxist “during the decade of my 20s." After
opening his eyes, Sowell has become a conservative and even compared
President Barack Obama's actions to Adolf Hitler's in a June 2010
editorial for Investor's Business Daily titled "Is U.S. Now On
Slippery Slope To Tyranny?"  Sowell: “Liberalism is totalitarianism
with a human face.”

Milton Friedman - an American economist, statistician, and author.He
was a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Sought a revival of interest in classical liberalism in the early
20th century. “If you put the federal government in charge of the
Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

David Horowitz - Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken
adherent of the New Left before rejecting Leftism completely. He was
raised by parents who were members of the Communist Party USA.  Upon
becoming a staunch Conservative, he states: "For myself, my family
tradition of socialist dreams is over. Socialism is no longer a dream
of a revolutionary future. It is only a nightmare of the past. But
for you, the nightmare is not a dream. It is a reality that is still
happening." "What the left says sounds very good but, in practice, it
works out very badly."    "It is time for Americans who love this
country to stand up in her defense."

David Mamet - Former Liberal, now a Pulitzer Prize winner. What
prompted Mamet's switch to conservatism? "And the more I looked, the
more I saw that the culture was being dismantled in the service of
good ideas and that we had seen such behavior before and great
success among the Nazis and among the communists.”  From the cover of
his book, "The struggle of the Left to rationalize its positions is
an intolerable Sisyphean burden. I speak as a reformed Liberal."

Andrew Breitbart - On being a formal liberal turned conservative: "At
the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep
very well at night."  While in Louisiana, still a Democratic Liberal,
Breitbart had less a change of heart than a rather visceral change of
mind. Exposed to high crime and poverty levels in New Orleans,
Breitbart soon began to express disgust with the Great Society trash
can.

Obama: The 'Hope' Myth

Everything is a laughing matter to you, isn’t it Mr. Moonbat?  Part of Obama’s “Hope” campaign was the promise of jobs and stimulating a losing economy. Recently, I have, to my revulsion, observed Liberals preach that their beloved Obama has created jobs and improved the economy. But that’s the thing with Liberals – they believe everything they are told. Renowned dictators exploit people such as Liberals: The effective dictator fully recognizes the power of the masses and knows how to influence these poor souls by constructing a convincing ideology that allows them to maintain power.

A real jobs program is inconsistent to Obama’s core values and would only isolate his cult followers. The unsatisfactory truth is that solutions cannot be offered by Obama – The only thing we will receive from him is more failed policy. Obama desperately tried once more in September of 2011, to tinker with job creation with his American Job Act by promising to put Americans back to work without adding to the deficit. Enraged critics deemed this another Stimulus Plan and put it to rest.

Mitt Romeney: "The president's policies have clearly not been successful in reigniting this economy and putting people back to work and opening up manufacturing plants across the country," Romney said. "It doesn't have to be this way. The president doesn't have a plan, hasn't proposed any new ideas to get the economy going, just the same old ideas of the past that have failed."

Those who have read my previous posts know my tendencies towards referring to Obama as an underground Socialist.  Many of Obama's policies and intents have paralells with Hitler.  Consider this quote by the former dictator:

"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." --Adolf Hitler

Obama's "distribution of wealth" philosophies prevent him from being able to implement a real jobs program. Past dictators such as Hitler took advantage of a country that had been inundated by enourmous debt and low morale.  Hitler's passionate "for the people" speeches caught on like wildfire in the masses, much like Obama's "Hope" tactics.

Extracted from The Blaze:

Finally, Obama was asked to address his administration’s decision to give stimulus funds to Abound Solar, a Colorado company with ties to one of the president’s billionaire fundraisers. The company has since gone out of business and is now under criminal investigation, Clark (Kyle Clark is a reporter with 9News) reports.

After laughing, Obama said: “Well, Kyle, I think that if you look at our record that these loans that are given out by the Department of Energy for clean energy have created jobs all across the country and only about four percent of these loans were going to some very cutting-edge industries that are going to allow us to figure out how to produce energy in a clean, renewable way in the future and create jobs in Colorado and all around the country.”

According to a study conducted by the Brookings institute, green energy jobs only account for 2.2 percent of the jobs across the nation.  Why, then, sink $35.2 BILLION of stimulus money into green energy companies under the pretense of creating more jobs?  Furthermore, of all the stimulus money dumped into these companies, WHY was only 4% given to promising industries? Why not 100%?  

A silicone valley company, SolFocus, was another awardee of the stimulus, also with hopes of creating jobs. However, SolFocus’ solar panels are assembled in China – not the US - and its San Jose headquarters employs a meager 90 people. In 2008, candidate Obama promised "I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America." He may have attempted to end the tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas, but he didn’t stop giving them money as evidenced by SolFocus.

Extracted from US News:

Second, Obama promised the stimulus would not only have a large impact but also an immediate impact. Said the president-elect, "I'm confident ... our 21st century investments will create jobs immediately," adding, "We've got shovel-ready projects all across the country."

Those jobs never materialized, and it was not for lack of workers—or shovels. As President Obama remarked in June 2011, "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." He chuckled through the mea culpa, but it's no laughing matter. Obama failed to deliver—and at great cost to taxpayers.

Extracted from THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT – February 17, 2009 

And it's a plan that rewards responsibility, lifting two million Americans from poverty by ensuring that anyone who works hard does not have to raise a child below the poverty line.  So as a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans pull themselves into the middle class in a way we haven't seen in nearly 50 years.

However, since Obama took his throne, US Census data shows us that a staggering 6.3 million Americans have fallen into poverty.

The great folks over at Political Math created this rather enlightening chart.  Granted, Obama came into an economy that was already downtrodden, but his "HOPE" campaign has been a massive failure.  He is still preaching the same nonsense, and his cult believes it despite the facts that state otherwise.

Fort Hood Massacre: Obama a Coward Who Panders To Islamic Extremists

Obama proves again that he is a coward.  Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that it would not reclassify the Fort Hood shootings from “workplace violence” to a terrorist attack. To those who suffered that atrocious day in 2009, this was not mere workplace violence.  Thirteen were killed, 29 were injured.  A Defense Secretary spokesman stated that labeling the act as a terrorist act would bias the case against Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.  It is no secret that Hasan was the shooter, so how can this case be biased?  I believe the real issue here is that Obama and his cronies are too spineless to make a judgment that would offend the terrorist community.

There is direct evidence of email chains between Hasan and al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.  If they cannot label Hasan a terrorist, then how is the Pentagon  able to label and prosecute any other acts of terrorism?  Jeffrey F. Addicott, the director for Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, believes this is a feel-good attempt by Obama for pre-election purposes. Addicot states that acknowledging Maj. Hasan’s alleged shooting spree as a major terrorism attack on the homeland “destroys the administration’s narrative that al Qaeda is winding down” and there is a diminishing threat of a terrorist attack occurring on U.S. soil.

Even more infuriating is that by not classifying this case as an act of terrorism, service-member victims are not eligible for Purple Heart medals or access to services reserved for soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.

See these faces?  According to Obama administration, they are mere victims of workplace violence.

Below is Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning who was shot six times that day, said his injuries prevented him from continuing to serve. But he won't receive the same benefits as those severely wounded on the battlefield because an Army medical evaluation board didn't deem his injuries to be combat-related, he said.

So... Once again, our great president panders to Islamic Extremists.

‘The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam’ ~Barack Obama

Obama's administration can't even follow it's own U.S. Code:
18 USC § 2332b - Acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries

(1) Offenses.— Whoever, involving conduct transcending national boundaries and in a circumstance described in subsection
(A) kills, kidnaps, maims, commits an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, or assaults with a dangerous weapon any person within the United States

18 USC § 2331 - Definitions

(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and



Bow To Nobody

I know the president's bow to Saudi King Abdulla is an old subject but I recently came across this video.  This video sends a VERY powerful message. A handful of former U.S. military members (namely Special Ops forces) have formed a PAC called “Special Operations of America,” which has developed a controversial video criticizing the president called “Bow to Nobody.” This video speaks VOLUMES.

Obama’s bow-at-the-waist was particularly awkward since among the dozens of world leaders, handshakes were the common protocol, but there appeared to be no other bowing in the room other than from the US president. According to Islam when one bows down to a Muslim leader it is a sign of subservience.  Thus, whether President Obama intended it or not, he demonstrated that the US and the Western world are acquiescent to Islam:  Until Obama, no US President in history has bowed down to a Muslim leader.  President Obama has not bowed to any other royal except for Saudi King Abdullah – This does nothing to help his reputation as a Muslim sympathizer. In his grotesque pursuit of likeability, Obama has overlooked that the leader of the free world also must be respected.

8 Reasons Why The Great Depression Is The Best Case Scenario

This is probably one of the best articles I have seen concerning prepping and what is to come.  It is pragmatic, thought provoking and even pulls at the heart strings a bit.

8 Reasons Why The Great Depression Is The Best Case Scenario
by Silver Shield

We are on the verge a collapse far greater than the Great Depression and we are far less capable of taking car of ourselves. Our way of life is dangerously dependent upon the ability for us to create unlimited amount of debt and the willingness of others to buy that debt.  This way of life has a mathematically inevitable end and things that cannot go on forever, won’t.
Let us look a 8 reasons why the Great Depression is the best case scenario and also look at how difficult the Depression was for people who were far more prepared to deal with a harsh world.

1. Back during the Depression most of America could feed themselves with farming, now we only know corporate frankenfood.
2. Back then people only knew of real wealth, now we think the digits in our brokerage account in wealth.
3. Back then people had a strong family on community support systems, now we live little lives of narcissism.
4. Back then people had a strong spiritual strength, now we have chemically induced denial.
5. Back then people were of fit body and strong mind, now we are obese and willfully ignorant.
6. Back then people had a classical education to help them figure things out, now we wait for answers.
7. Back then people had a real economy, now we have a consumer/debt economy.
8. Back then people did physical activity for fun, now we have entertainment that turns us in to mental and physical mush.

I would like you to take a few seconds to look at the faces of shame in these photos from the Great Depression. Look at the face of these people and ask yourself, do you think that if given the chance to do something different than the path they chose before the depression?
Do you think that these people were aware and prepared for a collapse?
Did they have the mental or physical assets in place to deal with a new paradigm?
What makes you think that you are better than these Americans?

If you think it is hard to hear your child cry when they don’t get their way, wait until they cannot get food.



If you think it is hard to get a job in this economy, wait until there is no economy.

This car is this entire family’s wealth.  The average American right now is worth less than an average Bangladeshi peasant.  The peasant does not have trillions of dollar of debt tied around their necks.

Physical poverty is one thing… Mental poverty is another.  Everything you know probably is dependent upon this paradigm.  What real value do you have in a post dollar collapse environment?

We can survive anything together, but even the average American family has been divided and conquered.

How many mothers are going to sit in regret that they did not prepare themselves or their children for a collapse?  How many wished that they not wasted their time energy and money chasing after things that mean nothing?  How important is fashion, soap operas, or reality TV?

How many fathers will regret that they did not spend more time with their children?  How many men sacrificed time with those that mattered chasing after and illusion that failed them the moment they reached for it?  McMansions and Ponzi retirement are the real dream, while we now dream about the real relationships and opportunities gone.

Emotionally tough people can make it through.  They can adapt and move on.  Emotionally weak people break, because they have never been challenged.

The very real world coming takes a lot of real effort and patience to succeed and that is something we are in very short supply of as a society.

Tent cities are here and the crippling poverty is just starting as the Elite start the final theft.

The most famous picture of the Depression was of Florence Owens Thompson taken by Dorothea Lange.  The photographers notes from the 10 minute photo shoot were a follows…

“Seven hungry children. Father is native Californian. Destitute in pea pickers’ camp … because of failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires to buy food. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.“

All of those things that we worked so hard for become worthless when the paradigm collapses.  The worst part is most of the stuff Americans buy are cheap stuff from China that will either break or have no real value in the next paradigm.

Those that have been breed to thrive in a collectivist paradigm, to do as they are told and not ask questions, will be left destitute when the paradigm collapses.  Only those that use the power of the Trivium will be able to adapt to a new reality.

Men will be split from their families as they seek opportunities far and wide.

Women will have to endure not only their world falling apart but trying desperately to shield their children from the harsh new reality.

“Those that did not see this coming, won’t know what to do when it get’s here.” -Jim Puplava























In Socialism We Trust?

Obama Awards Highest Civilian Honor to Democratic Socialists of America Chair

It sickens me to even think an organization such as this even exists on US soil, but it does.  How you can live in the USA and call yourself a Democratic Socialist is beyond me. If you want socialism, move to Cuba or North Korea…. We all know how great the quality of life is there. Pffft.

What makes me even angrier than the existence of the DSA is the fact that President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom, highest civilian honor, to the Democratic Socialists of America honorary Chair, Dolores Huerta: A woman who speaks fondly of Hugo Chavez’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela. Additionally, Huerta persuades illegal immigrants to join with unions in protesting against their employers. In regards to Huerta’s praising Hugo Chavez, she remarks: “Why can’t we do that here in the United States?”  My solution? Put her on a plane and send her to Cuba. 

Even more mind boggling is the fact that this month, Wade Hicks, Jr., an America-loving man who is an outspoken critic of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), was put on a no-fly list and labeled a possible terrorist threat. Why? Because he believes in American liberties and is an outspoken proponent of them! A protector of American sovereignty is put on a no-fly list but a socialist/communist loving woman who would dream of bringing socialism to the US receives the highest civilian honor awarded by the president.

Is Obama a Socialist?

Perhaps not in the purist sense, as laid out by Karl Marx, however there are many remarkable similarities between Obama’s ramblings and those of European Socialists.  Forbes contributing writer, Paul Gregory, shows us in his article, French Socialists Test Drive Obama Platform, that both Obama and French Socialist, Francois Hollande (French presidential candidate), have nearly facsimile leftist proposals. In viewing their platforms side-by-side, one can hardly detect the differences.
1) Sacrificing debt reduction in favor of stimulus to promote economic recovery.

2) Dealing with deficits through tax increases rather than spending cuts. Both believe the “rich” are under-taxed. Hollande’s tax increases on the rich are higher than Obama’s. Hollande wants a 75 percent rate on those earning over 1 million Euros (about $1.3 million) and 45 percent on those earning over 150,000 Euros ($200,000). Notably, both define the “rich” at similar levels of income ($200,000 -$250,000). Obama might like to “soak the rich” more but knows that Hollande-like rates cannot fly politically in the United States.

3) Eliminating lower tax rates on investment income like capital gains and dividends. Both view lower tax rates for investment and risk taking, not as pro-growth measures, but as allowing the rich to escape paying their “fair share.”

4) Hiring more public workers. Hollande calls for hiring 60,000 more educators, one thousand more police every year, and creating 150,000 state-aided jobs. Obama’s campaign warns against cuts in public service jobs, forced by Republican cutting-to-the-bone  budgets.

5) Protecting the welfare state. Hollande proposes to keep the French retirement age at sixty and otherwise make no changes in France’s generous entitlement programs. Obama opposes Republican proposals to rationalize Medicare by turning it into insurance grants. Both fail to explain how they plan to pay for current entitlements other than to suggest taxing the rich.

6) Creating a public infrastructure bank to finance new infrastructure projects from state funds. They both would like to use infrastructure spending as a politically-saleable stimulus program, irrespective of the budget deficits it causes.

7) Fighting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, or race. In France’s case, the race to be protected is Muslim minorities, who are French citizens or legal residents. In the US,  it is Hispanics, who have entered the country illegally.

8)  Cutting taxes on small businesses and provide preferences for businesses that return jobs to the home country. For both, small businesses are good, big businesses are bad.

9) Reducing the use of out-of-favor sources of energy. In France it is nuclear energy; in the US it is coal or, more broadly, carbon-based energy.

10) Campaigning against big finance. In the U.S., it is Wall Street. In France, it is big banks.
11) Cutting executive pay of the greedy captains of industry and finance. Hollande proposes to limit executive pay to twenty times the average wage, which would equal about $400,000 per year. Hollande’s figure is close to the $500,000 executive pay cap that Obama proposed for companies receiving federal assistance.

 

Obama A New Party Member?

Now, as far as I can tell, this has only been evidenced by a few who were able to gain access to records, and I can not attest to the validity of the below images although they seem legit, but Obama was purportedly a member of the New Party. Stanley Kurtz, National Review writer, writes:

Recently obtained evidence from the updated records of Illinois ACORN at the Wisconsin Historical Society now definitively establishes that Obama was a member of the New Party. He also signed a “contract” promising to publicly support and associate himself with the New Party while in office.

Minutes of the meeting on January 11, 1996, of the New Party’s Chicago chapter read as follows:

Barack Obama, candidate for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a statement to the membership and answered questions. He signed the New Party “Candidate Contract” and requested an endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New Party.

Consistent with this, a roster of the Chicago chapter of the New Party from early 1997 lists Obama as a member, with January 11, 1996, indicated as the date he joined.

Shoot me now! “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Warriors: Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs

I came across this today and thought I would share, as it speaks volumes.  I invite you, after reading this, to ask yourself:  Who am I? The sheep, wolf, or sheepdog?  I personally feel I was born a sheepdog. As a veteran, I would still do anything to protect America and her citizens against enemies foreign OR DOMESTIC. Also ask yourself if you hinder the sheepdog. 

"Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.” 

Nothing irritates me more than the sheep who babble of loving America and their human rights as her citizens, yet don't want to allow the sheepdog those liberties that so protect their so-called rights. Loving their country only goes so far as is convenient for the sheep. I often sense many sheep are just wolves cloaked in sheep's wool – Liberals, many of them.  

 Liberals

 

From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, obtained from Killology Research Group, Mascoutah, IL:

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.” This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another.

Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.

Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.

I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin’s egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.
“Then there are the wolves,” the old war veteran said, “and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy.” Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

“Then there are sheepdogs,” he went on, “and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.” Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, “We intimidate those who intimidate others.”

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.

The gift of aggression

"What goes on around you... compares little with what goes on inside you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everyone has been given a gift in life. Some people have a gift for science and some have a flair for art. And warriors have been given the gift of aggression. They would no more misuse this gift than a doctor would misuse his healing arts, but they yearn for the opportunity to use their gift to help others. These people, the ones who have been blessed with the gift of aggression and a love for others, are our sheepdogs. These are our warriors.

One career police officer wrote to me about this after attending one of my Bulletproof Mind training sessions:

"I want to say thank you for finally shedding some light on why it is that I can do what I do. I always knew why I did it. I love my [citizens], even the bad ones, and had a talent that I could return to my community. I just couldn’t put my finger on why I could wade through the chaos, the gore, the sadness, if given a chance try to make it all better, and walk right out the other side."Let me expand on this old soldier’s excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial; that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids’ schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid’s school. Our children are dozens of times more likely to be killed, and thousands of times more likely to be seriously injured, by school violence than by school fires, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their children is just too hard, so they choose the path of denial.

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.”

Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. As Kipling said in his poem about “Tommy” the British soldier:

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.

The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door. Look at what happened after September 11, 2001, when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero?

Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, “Thank God I wasn’t on one of those planes.” The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, “Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference.” When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.

While there is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, he does have one real advantage. Only one. He is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.

There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory acts of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.

However, when there were cues given by potential victims that indicated they would not go easily, the cons said that they would walk away. If the cons sensed that the target was a "counter-predator," that is, a sheepdog, they would leave him alone unless there was no other choice but to engage.

One police officer told me that he rode a commuter train to work each day. One day, as was his usual, he was standing in the crowded car, dressed in blue jeans, T-shirt and jacket, holding onto a pole and reading a paperback. At one of the stops, two street toughs boarded, shouting and cursing and doing every obnoxious thing possible to intimidate the other riders. The officer continued to read his book, though he kept a watchful eye on the two punks as they strolled along the aisle making comments to female passengers, and banging shoulders with men as they passed.

As they approached the officer, he lowered his novel and made eye contact with them. “You got a problem, man?” one of the IQ-challenged punks asked. “You think you’re tough, or somethin’?” the other asked, obviously offended that this one was not shirking away from them.

“As a matter of fact, I am tough,” the officer said, calmly and with a steady gaze.

The two looked at him for a long moment, and then without saying a word, turned and moved back down the aisle to continue their taunting of the other passengers, the sheep.

Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I’m proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.

Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, “Let’s roll,” which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers--athletes, business people and parents--from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.

“Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?”

"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." - Edmund Burke   Reflections on the Revolution in France

Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn’t have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision.
If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior’s path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

For example, many officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to slaughter you and your loved ones.

I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, “I will never be caught without my gun in church.” I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a police officer he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down 14 people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy’s body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, “Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?”

Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for “heads to roll” if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids’ school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, “Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?”

The warrior must cleanse denial from his thinking. Coach Bob Lindsey, a renowned law enforcement trainer, says that warriors must practice “when/then” thinking, not “if/when.” Instead of saying,“If it happens then I will take action,” the warrior says, “When it happens then I will be ready.”

It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up.

Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: You didn’t bring your gun; you didn’t train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by fear, helplessness, horror and shame at your moment of truth.

Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot and first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, says that he knew he could die. There was no denial for him. He did not allow himself the luxury of denial. This acceptance of reality can cause fear, but it is a healthy, controlled fear that will keep you alive:

"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." - Brigadier General Chuck Yeager   Yeager, An Autobiography

Gavin de Becker puts it like this in Fear Less, his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation:

"..denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn’t so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling. Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level."

And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes.

If you are a warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be “on” 24/7 for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself... “Baa.”

This business of being a sheep or a sheepdog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-grass sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

The Right To Bear Arms

If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would probably be living in a mental institution due to the inconceivable loss of liberties that he so fought for.  It's a darn shame. 

I really like what the Libertarian party has to say about Gun Laws.  I couldn't say it better myself. 

Libertarians agree with the majority of Americans who believe they have the right to decide how best to protect themselves, their families and their property. Millions of Americans have guns in their homes and sleep more comfortably because of it. Studies show that where gun ownership is illegal, residential burglaries are higher. A man with a gun in his home is no threat to you if you aren't breaking into it.

How have we even come to this? Why do Americans have to fight for what was so clearly set forth by our founding fathers? What has made Americans so scared of private gun ownership?

The Prohibition Lesson

Gun control advocates are much like the prohibitionists of the early 20th Century. By making liquor illegal, they spawned organized crime, caused bloody, violent turf wars and corrupted the criminal justice system. Today's war on drugs has exactly the same results.

Prohibition didn't stop liquor use; the drug laws can't stop drug use. Making gun ownership illegal will not stop gun ownership.

The primary victim of these misguided efforts is the honest citizen whose civil rights are trampled as frustrated legislators and police tighten the screws.
Banning guns will make guns more expensive and give organized crime a great opportunity to make profits in a new black market for weapons. Street violence will increase in new turf wars. Criminals will not give up their guns. But, many law abiding citizens will, leaving them defenseless against armed bandits.

I, personally, can only draw one conclusion about the fear of private gun ownership: This would end tyranny. The government would once again fear it's citizens.

"Illegal" is dehumanizing? HOGWASH

Yet another prime example of how Americans are allowing their liberties to be tread upon. Liberals hide behind a curtain of “rights for all humanity” no matter how much it hurts them. Now newscasters are being forced to reconcile with the term “illegal” in regards to illegal immigrants.  Free Speech? Pfft!  Slowly, our right to free speech is melting away and Americans stand by and allow it to happen for the purpose of not hurting feelings.  ILLEGAL immigrants do NOT belong here. Why do we continue to tolerate this?

Now, make no mistake – I am all for citizenship when one takes the proper steps. This country was founded on immigration. However, when you come into this country, use our resources, fail to pay taxes like the rest of us, and make use of free public services to the chagrin of the rest of us LEGAL citizens, it is WRONG.

So what should the media use instead of “illegal?”  How will America allow this one to be sugar coated?

READ THE ARTICLE HERE