Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hamburg, about the children: The children

Via comment by Anonymous on July 28 1943: British bomb Hamburg with incendiary..

 

'Of the children these dreadful nights, what can be said? Their fright became horror and then panic when their tiny minds became capable of grasping the fact that their parents could no longer help them in their distress. They lost their reason and an overwhelming terror took over. Their world had become the shrieking centre of an erupting volcano from which there could be no physical escape. Nothing that hell offered could be feared more.

'By the hand of man they became creatures, human in form but not in mind. Strangled noises hissed from them as they staggered pitifully through the streets in which tar and asphalt ran as streams. Some of these tiny creatures ran several hundred feet. Others managed only twenty, maybe ten feet. Their shoes caught fire and then their feet. The lower parts of their legs became flickering sticks of flame. Here were Joans of Arcs... thousands of them.

All who had perished unjustly on the fires of the Middle Ages were as nothing when compared with what was happening that night. 'The sounds of many were unintelligible and undoubtedly many more called for their parents from whom they were parted by death or by accident. They grasped their tortured limbs, their tiny burning legs until they were no longer able to stand or run. And then they would crash to the ground where they would writhe in the bubbling tar until death released them from their physical misery.'

-- Martin Caidin

Metric?


 

The Moneychanger


On 28 July 1866 the metric system became the legal measurement system in the US, and we've been ignoring it ever since. Why? 'Tain't human. Tain't to the human measure.

Everybody knows an inch is as wide as your thumb, a foot as long as yours, a yard stretches from your nose to your fingertip, but what's a meter? Why, one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. Sounds like the sort of "scientific" nonsense that would come out of the French Revolution, and sure enough it did.

 It was always interesting to me when I lived in Germany that folks at the meat market didn't order "grams", but a Pfund or a halbes Pfund (pound or half pound), & I don't think I every heard anybody order a kilo of salami.

I tell y'all, metric ain't human.

Presidential Politics Moves To Comedy Central

Via comment by JWMJR on No Toning Down Trump

 Image result for Presidential Politics Moves To Comedy Central

With each new politically incorrect statement that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth the beltway pundits ad political elites loudly proclaim, with great self assurance, that he has finally gone to far or signed with own death warrant etc. etc. etc. And then the next batch of poll data comes out a Trump gains another two points.

No mea culpas from the talking heads over their previous or previous or previous failed predictions just new ones about the latest "Trumpism".

Trading Doomsday, by ol' Remus

Via Terry

 
9-11, Boston and other mass murders say government can't defend us. 
 
By declining to inconvenience the criminal mobs which assaulted Ferguson and Baltimore, government showed they won't defend us. The attacks on military installations show government won't defend itself. The authorities have revealed themselves for what they are, gutless and spineless, promising what they can't, or won't, deliver and bullying the blameless for their failure. This is full-on "banana republic". The people have taken notice. Lesson learned. We'll rely on ourselves.
 
It's no mere coincidence gun sales routinely set new records, nearly doubling between 2010 - 2013 alone.

July 28 1943: British bomb Hamburg with incendiary bombs killing 42,000 German civilians

http://www.tomatobubble.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hamburg_1.gif


On July 24, British bombers launched Operation Gomorrah, repeated bombing raids against Hamburg and its industrial and munitions plants. Sortie after sortie dropped fire from the sky, as thousands of tons of incendiary bombs destroyed tens of thousands of lives, buildings, and acreage. But the night of the 28th saw destruction unique in more than three years of bomb attacks: In just 43 minutes, 2,326 tons of bombs were dropped, creating a firestorm (a word that entered English parlance for the first time as a result of these events). Low humidity, a lack of fire-fighting resources (exhausted from battling blazes caused by the previous nights’ raids), and hurricane-level winds at the core of the storm literally fanned the flames, scorching eight square miles of Hamburg.

One British flight lieutenant recalled seeing “not many fires but one… I have never seen a fire like that before and was never to see its like again.” Despite the terrible loss of civilian life, there strange and awful irony: The horrific bombing runs affected Hitler’s war machine only marginally. It did more to wound the morale of the German people and its army officers than it did to the production of munitions, which was back running full speed within a matter of weeks.

GRNC Alert 7-28-15 Pro-Gun HB562 Sails Through Senate!

 Image result for Pro-Gun HB562

With surprisingly little opposition, HB562 "Amend Firearm Laws" sailed through the second Senate reading last night without modification. Demonstrating the Senate's desire to move the legislation, the third reading was suspended and the final vote was 40-9.

Support of Senators Apodaca, Berger, Tarte and Tillman were critical to passage of HB562, and they deserve thanks. 

Of course the real force behind this victory was GRNC supporters like YOU who kept the pressure on politicians to improve gun rights in our state. 

Although watered-down by the House, HB562 still retains important pro-2A provisions, notably including: strengthening state preemption over municipal firearms ordinances; improving the application process for concealed handgun permits; clarifying exemption of vehicle storage of handguns by permitees on educational property; improving shooting range protection; reducing penalties for carry on posted property and; allowing hunting with short barreled rifles.

This important bill now moves to the Governor's office for McCrory's signature.

More @ GRNC

Detective threatens to kill civilian

Via WRSA


A Medford police officer is on administrative leave after he was recorded threatening a driver during a traffic stop Sunday night.

“I’ll put a hole right through your head,” Detective Stephen Lebert is heard telling the driver, who recorded the heated encounter on his dashboard camera.

In the video uploaded to YouTube titled “Medford Detective threatens to kill civilian,” the driver explains that he made a wrong turn on an unfamiliar rotary at Winthrop and High streets.

The video shows Lebert, who was off-duty at the time, wearing shorts and an undershirt. He’s seen pulling in front of the driver in an unmarked vehicle, saying “now you’re done” and ordering him to roll down his window.

The driver, a software designer named Mike from Malden, then backs up before seeing Lebert pull out his police badge. He tells Lebert that he didn’t realize he was a cop.

“I’ll blow a hole right through your [expletive] head,” Lebert says as the driver pulls over.

“You’re lucky I’m a cop because I’d be beating the [expletive] out of you right now.”

No Toning Down Trump

Via Terry

https://exposingmodernmugwumps.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/trump2.jpg?w=481&h=362

The professional hand-wringers are freaking out over Donald Trump's straight talk while displaying abysmal indifference to the deserved targets of Trump's charges. The United States is incinerating, but all they can think about is Trump's heated rhetoric.

Trump is resonating because, as a presidential candidate, he is giving public voice to many of the concerns that have Americans beside themselves. Some commentators have called attention to these issues for years, but it's different when a candidate does it, especially a Republican candidate.

Democratic candidates have no fear of making controversial statements or even of taking extreme positions, because the liberal media agree with them and will avoid putting them in a bad light. But Republicans know that the media will exploit any opportunity to vilify them.

Republicans also feel pressure from the GOP establishment to pull their punches — not to say anything that would make them look too conservative, too extreme, too uncaring, too out of step with the popular culture. "Don't sound judgmental. Moderate your words. Be respectful toward President Obama. And above all, don't sound like one of those crazies."

More @ Newsmax

Russian Submarine Wreck Found in Sweden’s Territorial Waters-Swedish Authorities

Via Iver

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GYeFeEsyBzU/0.jpg
 
A wrecked mini-submarine was found last week in waters off of Sweden’s eastern coast, media in Sweden reported on July 27. Authorities believe it is a Russian model, primarily because of Cyrillic letters on the hull. They have not disclosed the exact location of the wreckage, but say it is around 1.5 nautical miles from the Swedish coast.

“We are 110 percent sure that it is within Swedish waters” said Dennis Ã…sberg, a member of Ocean X Team which made the discovery.

Reports say the sub is some 60 feet long and 10 feet wide, and holds a crew of three to six men.

Since the hatches are unopened, experts believe the crew perished inside the vessel sometime after it crashed.

NC Rep. Larry Pittman: On the Confederate Flag & More

 Confederate I

Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act

I was proud to vote for SB 22, Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act to uphold proper treatment of the North Carolina flag and the American flag, to protect historical documents, and to protect historical monuments from unwarranted removal.  There was a senseless controversy that arose over this bill, with false accusations of racism and outrageous slander against Confederate soldiers.

When we heard the bill in my committee, Homeland Security, Military and Veterans Affairs, I made a statement which, predictably, was misquoted and butchered in most of the press.  In response to the insistence of some that certain monuments should be removed because they offended some people, I stated that such a suggestion reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984.  In that book, the government removed all monuments and suppressed any knowledge of history to keep the people from knowing the truth, and the people just accepted whatever the government said because they didn’t know any better.  I said that I didn’t come to Raleigh to be a part of that kind of government.  I said that if you don’t know your history, you don’t know who you are.  History is what it is, regardless of whether we like it, and we need to know it, whatever it is.

In the debate on the House floor, Rep. Blust pointed out that if we start destroying monuments just because somebody doesn’t like them, we will be no better than ISIS.  I heartily agree.  There is no guarantee in this State or in America to some supposed right not to be offended.

I was pleasantly surprised when Gov. McCrory signed SB 22 into law.  He was under significant pressure not to do so.  Some days before we voted on this bill in the House, I put the following statement out on Facebook.

What some people apparently do not understand is that Lincoln pushed us into that war for economic and political reasons, not to set the slaves free. Robert E. Lee despised slavery. When he inherited slaves, he immediately set them free, long before (let's call it what it was) Lincoln's War Against the States. When Lee's wife inherited slaves, he could not set them free before a certain date without dishonoring the will by which she inherited them. By the time that date arrived, Lee was a bit busy defending Virginia and the other States from Lincoln's war of tyranny; but he sent letters of manumission through Yankee lines to set his wife's slaves free. Gen. Grant, on the other hand, did not set his slaves free until he was forced to do so by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in December, 1865, approximately eight months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Lincoln made it very clear along the way that he did not wish to make the slaves equal citizens. He wanted to send them all to Liberia, Africa, where many freed slaves were sent. The Confederate Battle Flag is not properly a symbol of racism or slavery. It is a symbol of the States' rights to govern themselves free of federal tyranny. My great-great-grandfather, Amos Wetherington, who never owned a slave and did not support slavery, fought under that flag to uphold the constitutional rights of North Carolina and all the States. That struggle continues today, as long as I am alive. The men who fought for that cause deserve to be remembered and honored. When that flag is used by racists, they dishonor the flag.

That is what should be outlawed, the misuse of the flag to represent racial hatred, not the flag itself or monuments to the memory of brave men who defended their States against brutal invaders and federal tyranny. No one loved the Union more than Robert E. Lee. But he considered Virginia to be his nation, as I do North Carolina. He defended these United States long and vigorously; but he could not stand by and watch the usurper, Lincoln, attack his beloved homeland, or participate in that attack. He did the only honorable thing he could do under the circumstances. Those monuments stand for thousands more who did the same. I would never agree to dishonor the memory of those Union troops who died as pawns in Lincoln's unjust war. But neither will I ever agree to dishonor our Confederate dead.

Libs For Jeb! Democratic Donors Line Up to Toss Money at Jeb Bush Campaign

Via Billy

libs for jeb
 A sure loser.

 And this surprises no one.
 
Democratic donors are lining up to toss money at the Jeb Bush Campaign.

Bloomberg reported:
Behind a garden modeled on Monet’s, Jeb Bush addressed a lawn-full of chief executives and hedge-fund managers at an East Hampton, New York, estate Saturday morning. While the candidate is no stranger to courting wealthy donors, this time was different: about half the attendees were Democrats.

Bright - Echosmith and Lindsey Stirling

Via u_96

The Number Of Guns Made Has Doubled During Obama's Years In Office -- Here's Why

Via avordvet

 

The Hill reported that “[g]un production has more than doubled over the course of the Obama administration, according to a new report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).” They note that this manufacturing boom has come “in the face of the president’s push to expand background checks and place new restrictions on guns in the wake of high-profile shootings like the recent mass-killing in Charleston, S.C., and the 2012 massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.”

All that’s true, but it’s only part of the story.

More @ Forbes

NC mandates chicken registration

Via Skynet


Dated

A controversial decision by state agriculture officials is drawing the ire of backyard chicken owners and supporters.

The N.C. Department of Agricutlure and Consumer Services issued a statement Wednesday saying it is now requiring all poultry owners, regardless of the number of birds, to register for an NCFarmID number.

The identification program is usually voluntary, but has been made mandatory for all backyard poultry farmers.

“In planning our response for highly pathogenic avian influenza, one problem we’ve come across is that we can’t protect birds that we don’t know exist,” said State Veterinarian Doug Meckes. “We need to know where poultry are located so we can properly protect commercial and backyard flocks.”

Cleveland RTA releases statement about officer who pepper-sprayed crowd during Movement for Black Lives conference

Via Nancy

http://imgick.cleveland.com/home/cleve-media/width620/img/plain_dealer_metro/photo/rta-pepper-spray-screenshotpng-297489e707b48e14.png

A Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority police officer let loose pepper-spray into a crowd after the crowd surrounded a police cruiser holding a boy in custody, according to an RTA statement.

The incident happened about 4:40 p.m. Sunday near a bus shelter on Euclid Ave at East 24th Street during the Movement for Black Lives national conference.

Video of the incident quickly went viral on social media.

According to the RTA, "officers on routine patrol peacefully removed an intoxicated 14-year-old male from a bus. Police said the juvenile was intoxicated to the point where he was unable to care for himself."

More with video @ Cleveland

THIRD Planned Parenthood Undercover Video Released – Photos of Procured Baby Tissue

Via Michael

Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 5.28.10 AM

For 6 months, Holly O’Donnell’s job was to identify pregnant women at Planned Parenthood who met criteria for fetal tissue orders and to harvest the fetal body parts after their abortions.

As if the first two videos involving fetal organ harvesting and haggling over price weren’t vile enough, yet another video has gone public from the Center For Medical Progress.

This one looks to be the first of a new angle on the series, entitled “Human Capital. Episode 1: Planned Parenthood’s Black Market In Baby Parts“, and it takes on more of a documentary type of feel.

More with video @ Progressives Today

Police investigating Mississippi state flag burning

Via comment by Anonymous on Sevierville woman reports Confederate flag, stolen...on


U.S. Army veteran Robert L. Comans woke up Monday morning to find the Mississippi state flag he displays outside his home burned in his driveway, with "blacks rule" spray painted just below it. More


Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/07/27/6338893_police-investigating-mississippi.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

New California: Mass Immigration Turning Virginia Blue

Vi comment by Unreformed 2015 on I Miss America

 AP Photo

A remarkable transformation is underway in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The birthplace and final resting place of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson—and once one of the most reliably-red of red states—is being rapidly turned into a progressive stronghold.

These changes are not the result of an inside agency, or a natural evolution in political thinking, but rather the result of one of the most impactful yet least-discussed policies of the federal government.

Each year the federal government prints millions of visas and distributes these admission tickets to the poorest and least-developed nations in the world.

A middle-aged person living in parts of Virginia today will have witnessed more demographic change in the span of her life than many societies have experienced in millennia.

More with video @ Breitbart

North Carolina governor signs bill protecting state Confederate monuments

Via comment by Anonymous on Bessemer man says Confederate flag made him a targ...

 Gov. Pat McCrory generic

Under pressure to take action from groups on both sides of the Confederate symbols debate, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory responded Thursday by signing a much-debated monuments bill that critics said would protect Confederate memorials.

In a release sent by the governor's office, McCrory said he had issues with the bill for removing local control over monuments deemed to commemorate "an event, person or military service that is part of North Carolina's history." It would take an act of the General Assembly to remove such a monument.

But ultimately McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, said the bill's "goals" were worthy of his signature.

More @ ABC