Not quite so funny now, is it?  FLASHBACK 2009: Obama Jokes About IRS Auditing Political Enemies

But it makes things SOOO much easier if a Donk ever get's elected POTUS.  S/he now has the green light to destroy political opponents with the IRS!  AND this whole thing makes the ACA litigation attacking the IRS procedures a little more favorable.

McConnell Demands Full Investigation of IRS' 'Political Thuggery'

IRS Blames 'Low-Level' Employees for Targeting Conservative Groups

I've spoken to one "low lever" employee and will likely hear from another soon - there's no WAY this is factual.

Don't wanna ignore the Jews: IRS Inquisition Update

If they're for it I'm usually against it: New York Times Endorses IRS Harassment

Ed remains out of touch: Ed Show Sweeps IRS Conservative-Targeting Under Table: 'Much Ado About Nothing'

and finally an entertaining 1:40 you'll never get back: Reason TV Replay: 47 Ways to Say "IRS" ... What do those initials really stand for?

We heard it itn the POTUS' speech at OSU last week, we see it in the thugish misuse of the IRS and the Bengazi coverup ... and it effects thePOTUS's supporters too of course.

AFL-CIO Boss Attacks Obama for Supporting Walmart Vets

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka attacked President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for lauding Walmart’s decision to hire honorably discharged veterans.

"Walmart’s recent announcement of a plan to hire returning honorably discharged veterans is more about public relations than honoring our heroes," said Trumka. "That this effort was valorized by President Obama and Vice President Biden reflects an acceptance of economic failure out of line with America’s history or future."

OK, he didn't SAY that.  But that seems to be his message.  Katherine Connell sets it out nicely.

Stephen King has declared his support for gun control in an 8,000-word essay published by Amazon. In it, King condemns the NRA and advocates banning guns with more than ten rounds. He even goes beyond Obama’s pledge to protect hunting rifles and calls on hunters to give up “their sporting toys.”

But as Ms. Connell points out, his actual money-making writing paints quite a different picture:

In The Stand, after millions of American citizens are wiped out by a “superflu” created in an Army lab, the libertarian argument of how helpless an unarmed citizenry would be in a country where only criminals and the Army have guns is validated in the book’s black-helicopter America. Televised broadcasts show citizens in a lethal gauntlet between the army on one side and far-left terrorists on the other. Freedom of the press is eradicated as broadcasters are forced to read government propaganda with a gun literally pointed at their heads. The First Amendment is briefly resumed only when the news crew smuggles in guns, but they are soon executed by the more advanced weapons of an invading army.

When survivors are able to arm themselves, much good is done and lives are saved. Bearing weapons with more than ten rounds, this moral group is able to rescue female hostages from a gang-raping group of criminals.

In the more contemporary Desperation, a lone highway patrolman is able to capture whole groups of unarmed drivers. Without weapons, the captives are unable to prevent the police officer from killing a little girl. The captors escape and, rather than phoning the ACLU, obtain as many automatic weapons as possible.

King’s The Long Walk explores what would happen to citizens if the only entity armed were the government. They become the playthings of the state and are forced to humiliate themselves in such “sport” as walking contests on penalty of death. Soldiers flank the participants in this Americanized version of the Bataan Death March and kill them when they straggle or collapse. 

And consider the novel Cujo. Had the mother been carrying even a hunting rifle she could have shot the rabid dog within seconds of encountering the animal, and thus spared her son a slow death.

In (...) Rage, a psychotic armed student is able to kill several teachers and take a class hostage. Consider how many lives would have been saved and how quickly the hostage-taker would have been stopped had armed guards been present.

In King’s latest book, dealing with the Kennedy assassination, a man time-travels back to 1963 and is able to prevent the assassination of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald. He accomplishes this with a 38. True, this gun has less than ten rounds, but again King inadvertently makes the case that had armed guards been present on the Sixth Floor Oswald might have been intercepted.

Despite King’s liberal politics, his books show the dangers to civil liberties and safety that can occur when law-abiding citizens are rendered weaponless.

 

Senator Targets Gun Powders with Explosives 'Background Check' Law

closing thought:

In his 1792 report on the Navigation of the Mississippi (ME 3:180), Jefferson wrote, "It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end." 

Is there a Big Sis Day?  Homeland Security Stonewalls Information on Citizenship Status of Bombing Suspects' Mother

Boston jihad murderer's wife warned him that FBI had released his picture

Boston Jihad Bomb Mom also on on Terror List

The New York Times's David Herszenhorn on Friday wrote up a bizarre new conference held by the parents of the Boston Marathon bombers in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, where they have lived for the past year: "Parents Deny Son's Guilt And Accuse U.S. of Plot."

Ex-girlfriend of Boston Bomber: “He became extremely religious," tried to force her to convert, "made her wear an Islamic hijab and pray to Allah and slapped her when she wore Western clothes"

I teach, boldly, in some of my classes that the US Depts of Energy and Education should be done away with - here just one illustration of why:

here's a quick referesher for the first few days afte the attack

• Standing next to the coffins of the Benghazi victims at Andrews Air Force Base three days after the attack, Hillary Clinton tells the father of one of the deceased that the U.S. government were going to get the maker of the video.
• At the same time, Jay Carney tells the White House press corps there’s no evidence the attack was motivated by anything other than the video.
• The Obama administration and the media repeatedly attack Mitt Romney for Romney’s criticism of the administration’s response to the “spontaneous demonstrations.”
• Five days after the attack, Susan Rice infamously goes on five Sunday talk shows and repeats the falsehood that the attack was a spontaneous demonstration prompted by a YouTube video.
• Within a few days, both Obama and Clinton appear on Pakistani television to denounce the video and disclaim U.S. responsibility for it. They spend $70,000 on this charade alone.
• Two weeks after the attack, the president addresses the U.N. General Assembly and prattles on about a “disgusting anti-Islam video.”
• Around this time, Obama appears on The View and claims not to know what caused the attack.

from earlier this week:

Obama Administration blocked rescue effort while Benghazi burned, Congress told

Benghazi Bombshells

Jon Stewart's Attempts to Protect Obama, Hillary Over Benghazi Looking Sillier by the Hour

from Peter Krasinow: 

Shortly after the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, a local Denver television personality asked President Obama what actions he took upon learning of the assault. The president asserted, “I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure we are securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to. Number two, we are going to investigate exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice.”

As to the first directive, we now know from Greg Hicks’s testimony that special forces were ordered to stand down rather than provide assistance. Furthermore, we learned months ago from Jennifer Griffin’s reporting that former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods requested and was denied backup three times, and was told to stand down. Who, then, gave the orders that flatly rejected the president’s “very clear directive?” Was that person disciplined for flagrantly disobeying the commander in chief?

Isn’t it far more likely that no directive was given than such directive was repeatedly disobeyed?

As to directive No. 2, if the administration was so keen on investigating what happened, why did it impede Representative Jason Chaffetz’s attempts to interview Greg Hicks? Why is the Accountability Review Board’s investigation notable primarily for having failed to interview one of the most important players in the matter – Secretary Clinton?

As to directive No. 3, although the media has been able to easily locate at least one of the suspected ringleaders of the attack relaxing at an outdoor cafe, no one has been brought to justice . . . except the administration’s scapegoat videographer.

this time on US soil ... about 20 minutes from me at tOSU graduation.  I'll be getting in trouble soon when I meet some "Progressive" frineds whose daughter graduted - and I ask about the voices in her head.

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

Got that?  Jefferson was wrong.  So was Adams.  And Franklin.  And MAdison.  ALL of em!  

The founders trusted us with this awesome authority. We should trust ourselves with it, too. Because when we don’t, when we turn away and get discouraged and cynical, and abdicate that authority, we grant our silent consent to someone who will gladly claim it. That’s how we end up with lobbyists who set the agenda; and policies detached from what middle-class families face every day; the well-connected who publicly demand that Washington stay out of their business — and then whisper in government’s ear for special treatment that you don’t get.

No - the Founders DIDN'T trust "us" (the gubmint) with awesome authority.  That's why the wrote the Constitution!  

This was a veritable battalion of straw men with several false choices thrown in for good measure - his two favoirte rhetorical tactics which by now are obvious in their overuse.  

Then there’s Obama’s incredibly narrow vision of what constitutes civil society and self-government. Once again, Obama’s vision of America is one with only two meaningful institutions: The individual and the government. It’s the same formulation he made in his horrendous second inaugural:

No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.

As Yuval Levin noted at the time:

The individual acting alone or the entire nation acting through its government, those are the only options we have. The space between the individual and the state is understood to be empty at best, and at worst to be filled with dreadful vestiges of intolerance and backwardness that must be cleared out to enable the pursuit of justice.

Nassim Taleb needs to eat a Snickers bar or something.

Do NOT let Krugman see this.  I may copy this to use myself.

I don't think ANY of those words mean what you think they mean: Schumer: Those Opposing Ban on 3D-Printed Guns ‘Do So at Their Peril’

neither do these: Obama on Syria Red Line: ‘We Typically Follow Through With Our Commitments’

- just ask the Indians.

I don't normally like these but this one is exceptionally good: Must Watch: This is Water [Best Life Advice Video Ever]

we WISH: Boxer Blows Up on Senate GOP for Boycotting EPA Hearing