Great article from Powerline blog on crime in Britain

The Logic of Knife Control

In Great Britain, following decades of increasingly stringent gun control, private ownership of handguns was banned in 1997. And, in fact, there appear to be few firearms in private hands.

But the result has not been what was intended. Crime rates in the U.K. have risen steadily, and violent crime has increased alarmingly in recent years. London is currently in the grip of a crime wave, as one brutal, sensational murder follows another. The perpetrators are nearly always young, and the crimes, often unspeakably vicious, are generally of the type conventionally labeled "senseless." The weapon of choice these days is the knife, and British papers are full of discussion of what to do about "knife crime."

Most recently, two French graduate students in biochemistry were tied up, gagged and stabbed a total of 250 times. Their bodies were then set on fire. Police say that the murderer apparently stole two Sony playstations from the victims.

The epidemic of violence has gotten so bad that London's Metropolitan Police say that "knife crime," rather than terrorism, is now the department's number one priority:

Sir Paul’s announcement came after a 16-year-old boy became the eighteenth teenager to die a violent death in the capital this year. There were 26 youth murders in 2007.

Shakilus Townsend called out for his mother as he lay dying in a street in Thornton Heath, South London, on Thursday. He was ambushed by masked teenage boys who attacked him with a baseball bat and a knife with a 30cm blade. A young girl with the gang watched his murder.

So far, efforts to crack down on knives haven't worked:

In May the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Blunt 2, a high-profile initiative to tackle knife crime that involved taking airport-style metal detectors and using special powers to search youths for knives within high-risk areas. ...

Sir Paul said: “Sadly, in recent days, more young people have lost their lives to knife crime. This is not tolerable and clearly the message is not getting through.”

Police have tried several approaches to reach out to youngsters involved in knife crime: persuasion, coercion and even shock tactics. In May, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, announced a £5 million package to tackle violent crime, with action to crack down on knives in hotspots across Britain. Every initiative has failed to stop the stabbings in the capital.

Of course, banning knives isn't an option in the way that banning guns is. Pretty much everyone needs to own knives for reasons having nothing to do with either crime or self-defense. Beyond that, the world is full of sharp objects and hard objects that can be used as weapons. It shouldn't be surprising that the British government's effort to "crack down on knives" hasn't worked. Maybe they should try cracking down on murderers.

The pledge of allegiance

If you remember Red Skelton, Here is an explanation of the
pledge of allegiance by Red.

Here is Dem. Maxine Waters Ca. questioning oil execs May 2008

Great video about what we can be again

Here is what Nancy Pelosi said when Dems took congress over 2 years ago

Here is what she said completely.
“With skyrocketing gas prices, it is clear that the American people can no longer afford the Republican rubber-stamp Congress and its failure to stand up to the Republican big oil and gas company cronies….

“Democrats have a common-sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.”

This was 2 years ago, gas was cheap in comparison then, $2.91 gal.

Rush on fixing illegal immigration

A story that Rush Linbaugh found

From Billings, Montana: "Two conservation groups have asked the federal government to impose new restrictions on oil and gas development in the West to protect the greater sage grouse, a popular game bird on the decline. Scientists contend sage grouse breeding areas are suffering in the face of accelerating oil and gas exploration in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah and other Western states." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the grouse! The grouse are suffering -- and, damn it, we're the ones that deserve to suffer because we're making the grouse suffer, and we're doing it for immoral reasons. We're searching for gas, natural gas. We're searching for oil, and that makes us sick, says Senator Reid. Senator Reid, it is you, sir, who make me sick, and presumably many other people.

"Unless drilling is slowed... the chicken-sized grouse could end up on the endangered species list. That could shut down public hunting for the bird and prompt restrictions on residential development and agriculture." So the first stab here is to protect the grouse, to shut down oil and gas exploration. And then they say, "If you don't do this, we're going to blackmail you even further. If you keep exploring, then we're going to put this damn grouse on the endangered species list, and that will stop you living anywhere here, it will stop you buying anything here, and it will stop you developing anything here. And as such, if you already own property here we're going to make it worthless." The American left, conservation movement: the grouse are suffering.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid

Shows that congress does not want to fix the high price of gas.

Here is a Liberal who really hates America

This guy really hates the USA.

Click on the link above and read this article.

Lower gas prices fast

How taxes are paid analogy

Dinner tax analogy.

A tax analogy using a group at dinner.

10 men go out for dinner and the bill comes to $100. If the bill was paid the way taxes are paid it would be. The first 4 people would pay nothing. The 5th would pay $1, 6th $3, 7th $5, 8th $9, 9th $18, 10th $59. They like it so they eat there every day. After a while the owners tells them that they are such good customers that he is going to cut the bill $20. After the change the bill would be paid like this. The first 4 still would pay nothing now the 5th also pays nothing, 6th would pay $2, 7th $5, 8th $9, 9th $14, 10th $50. The others complain that the rich get the biggest break and they are upset. The rich guy got ticked off and left mad. The next day they others went to eat, they couldn't even eat because they only had $30 between the 9 of them. This is something I heard from Walter Williams.

Patriotism

The definition of Patriotism, according to the American Heritage Dictionary is, Love and devotion to one's country.

Quote Dem. Rep. Pete Stark On the floor of congress said "They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where you gonna get that money? You gonna tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children, but you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we could get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement." Oct. 18 2007.

House Dem. John Murtha said "'We can't win militarily.'" US victory remains unattainable.
Murtha also accused the 8 marines who were charged, for the haditha incident, of murdering innocent people in cold blood. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." This was before any charges were filed. Of the 8, 7 have had all charges dropped and the 8 one is pending.
Murtha has accused the Pentagon of lying in reporting that the surge was effective.

Murtha, like so many other high-ranking Democrats in the House and Senate, and those seeking the White House, was "absolutely convinced" that surrender was the only answer in Iraq.

They were so sure of their position that when the party's 2000 vice-presidential nominee, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, placed patriotism before the party line, they actually let someone take the Democratic senatorial nomination away from him and tried, without success, to beat him in his 2006 bid for re-election.

Democrats have invested everything in losing the war in Iraq and blaming it on President Bush, and now they've been proved wrong. Murtha has admitted it; other Democrats, one by one, will follow.

How much faith can Americans place in a party so committed to a national failure — and now so discredited?

When you think back to leaders in the U.S. and you think of the things they said that made Americans feel good about America. JFK "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Martin Luther Kings, I have a dream speech. Ronald Reagan " I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph. These are all leaders that were almost always positive, and showed patriotism by believing that America is the greatest country in the history of the world, and they wanted to keep it that way.

Almost everything the dems of said over the past 5 years about the war in Iraq have been negative and degrading to the troops. This doesn't seem to be very patriotic to me.