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How Can TTPers Help? — and Mormons and Monogamy

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...The schism [between monogamous and polygamous Mormons]will perhaps not be resolved until the LDS leaders remove Joseph Smith’s revelation of July 12, 1843 sanctifying polygamy from the canonized Doctrines and Covenants, one of the four standard books of the Mormon Church.

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OFFENDING MOSLEMS IS NOW THE PRICE OF FREEDOM


[This is the text of Robert Spencer's address at the Mohammed Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland Texas on Sunday, May 3rd, just hours before two Moslem terrorists were gunned down trying to murder the attendees.]

A very good friend of mine told me right before I left for this event that - you're just poking them in the eye, you're trying to provoke them.  You know, why are you doing that?  You're the one that's being offensive.  And this was a friend, you know, and I was kind of taken aback.  And I had to stop and think - well, what exactly is wrong with that?

And what's wrong with that is that this is only offensive because Moslems have made it offensive. 

Okay, so we have to not draw Mohammed, because that'll poke them in the eye and offend them.  And then we have to not be Jewish, because that will poke them in the eye and offend them.  And then what?  Okay, I guess pork and alcohol are out.  Okay, and then what?

The Islamic State - the Islamic State is beheading people and taking sex slaves, and subjugating the Christians under the hegemony of the Islamic law.  And they're doing it all on the basis of Koranic directives.  And so that's all Islamic.  So I guess we can't say a word about that.  Because that would poke them in the eye and offend Moslems.

You see, step by step by step, we're ending up going in the direction of accepting Islamic law.  Let's put it this way: Every Western media outlet that refuses to publish the Mohammed cartoons is accepting Islamic blasphemy law.

I say it's time for a little cultural self-assertiveness.

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RATING THE PUB CONGRESS


How would you measure congressional success?

Even though the new Congress is only two months old, there has been much criticism of both the leadership and the members. The Republicans promised to reduce government spending, reform the tax code, and reduce the regulatory burden.

There are objective ways to measure whether they will have reduced government spending.

Total government spending includes the amount state and local governments spend, some of it transfer payments from the federal government, money spent by the federal government on defense, interest, "entitlements," including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and all other federal government programs.

Despite most of the entitlements being labeled "mandatory spending," in fact, Congress can alter these programs and thus can determine how much is spent on them.

In order to measure whether Congress is indeed reducing spending, it is important to establish the appropriate baseline. In this table, I have taken total government spending minus the amount that state and local governments raise and spend on their own.

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THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS AN ANTI-SEMITE


Barack Obama is mainstreaming anti-Semitism in America.

Last week (2/09), apropos of seemingly nothing, in an interview with Mathew Yglesias from the Vox.com website, Obama was asked about terrorism. In his answer the president said the terrorism threat is overrated. And that was far from the most disturbing statement he made.

Moving from the general to the specific, Obama referred to the jihadists who committed last month's massacres in Paris as "a bunch of violent vicious zealots," who "randomly shot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris."

In other words, Ahmedy Coulibaly, the Moslem terrorist at Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket he targeted, was just some zealot. The Jews he murdered while they were shopping for Shabbat were just "a bunch of folks in a deli," presumably shot down while ordering their turkey and cheese sandwiches.

Obama's statement about the massacre of Jews in Paris is notable first and foremost for what it reveals about his comfort level with anti-Semitism.  The bottom line is that he is embracing anti-Semitism and Islamic fascism more nakedly by the day.  Let us count the ways.

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THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR


Ceuta, Spanish Morocco.  The Greeks called them "The Pillars of Hercules," pushed apart by their legendary hero to link the Atlantic with the Med on his way to perform one of his Twelve Labors.  A monument here commemorates the myth.

From here you can easily see the famous Rock looming across the straits even through the fog.

  g-c_rock_from_ceuta.png

That was where the Moslem invaders from Africa aimed for in the year 711, led by their general Tariq ibn Ziyad.  Their invasion successful, the invaders named the Rock Jebel Tariq­ - the Mountain of Tariq - in his honor.  When the Christian knights of Castile finally kicked the Moslems out in 1462, they gave the Rock its Spanish pronunciation, Gibraltar.

The great historical irony is that The Moslem Conquest of Spain - which could have been the Moslem Conquest of All Europe had not Charles Martel defeated the invaders at the Battle of Tours in 732 - was made possible by a Christian traitor, the ruler of Ceuta at the time.

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9/11 AND THE 10TH COMMANDMENT


Any adult in America knows where they were 13 years ago today. 

In the days following the Moslem Atrocity of 9/11, if someone had predicted 13 years hence that instead of having wiped Islamic Terrorism from the face of the earth, we'd still be cowering in fear of its threat, they would have been thought deranged.  Yet we are.

How is this possible? 

Let's ask another question.  In his TTP column this week, Richard Rahn contrasted "aspirational societies" where productive work and success are not punished, with societies consumed by envy.  He sums up America's crisis with one devastating observation:

"The United States used to be an aspirational society, but has increasingly become an envious society."  

How did this happen?

It turns out that these two questions - among the most critical questions we can ask of our country today - have the same answer.

The answer starts with our society's failure to follow the 10th Commandment of Exodus 20:17 -

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TIME WELL SPENT


Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.
- T.S. Eliot, "Burnt Norton"

Time is a continuous, objectively measurable forward movement. We measure it with the rotation of the earth, the orbit of the earth about the sun, and the tilt of her axis relative to that sun as we make our way about it, seen through the changing seasons.

While the mechanics of time in a basic way are well understood, our experience of time and our relationship to time is complex, and can hold the key to our experience of life itself.

Phil Zimbardo, professor emeritus of Stanford and author of The Time Cure, (famous also for the Stanford Prison Experiment, a classic study in our susceptibility to the abuse of power), describes six different time orientations.  Our happiness is dependent to a large degree on our relationship to them.

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UNDERSTANDING OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY


I don't think it's hard to understand Obama's foreign policy.  Although there's a lot we don't know about him, his basic impulses are clear enough.  He's told us what they are (although, to be sure, he often misleads and obfuscates), and his actions are in keeping with his announced impulses. 

Furthermore, there's nothing unique or surprising about them - you can hear them in our classrooms and our college dorms, and read them in the establishment press every day.  He's an establishment member in high standing.

Voilá: He believes that most of the serious problems in the world are the result of past American actions.  Call it imperialism.  Call it meddling.  Call it arrogance (as the Iranians do).  Whatever you call it, it means that pre-Obama policies were bad.

Ergo, it's mostly Bush's fault. (Shorthand for "before me, they didn't understand.  Anything.")  It follows that the single most important action to ensure good policies is...

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TIME FOR HAPPINESS


Time is a continuous, objectively measurable forward movement. We measure it with the rising and setting of the sun, the orbit of the earth about the sun, and the tilt of her axis relative to that sun as we make our way about it, giving us the changing seasons.

While the mechanics of time in a basic way are well understood, our experience of time and our relationship to time is complex, and can hold the key to our experience of life itself.

It turns out that we all have a  relationship with time and our life that is very personal, and over which we have a good deal of control, which can change our experience of life and our level of happiness dramatically.

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HOW AND WHY WE CAN DO WITHOUT FEDERAL INCOME TAXES


What type of tax reform do you want? Simplification of the existing progressive income tax system? A flat tax? A sales tax? A value-added tax?

Tax professionals, economists, elected officials and others heatedly debate the pros and cons of each. However, it is unlikely that real tax reform will occur until the financial crisis gets so bad that most people will agree to radical change.

Most tax reform discussions and debates lead with the premise that any new tax system has to raise roughly as much revenue as the present system. But...why should that be?

Evidence indicates that total government spending is at least twice as high as it should be to maximize job creation, economic growth and the general welfare. Given that, here's how we can fund government spending without individual and corporate income taxes.

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THE COUNTRIES THAT DON’T EXIST


Are you ready to start 2013 with a great adventure?

I'd like you to come with me to the countries that don't exist: one that does exist but the world says it doesn't - and the other that doesn't exist but the world says it does. 

Imagine a Moslem country that is a real democracy, pro-America, pro-free market, despises Islamist ideology and terrorism, and lies athwart one of the world's most critical chokepoints in global shipping and trade.

The US State Department would leap at the chance to support such a country, right?  You are probably cynically shaking your head no - but it's much worse than that.  Our government refuses to recognize the country's existence.  In fact, no government or international organization in the world does - yet it has been sovereign and independent since 1991.

With no help or recognition from anyone, this country has managed to survive - and survive as a capitalist Moslem terrorist-free democracy - for over 20 years.  This is a heroic achievement - and unknown to most everyone on the planet.

We are talking about Somaliland - the country that does exist but the world says it doesn't.  The other country that doesn't exist but the world insists that it does?  Somalia

Yes, we are going to both.  More precisely, Somaliland and the one part of Somalia that remains:  the capital of Mogadishu.

Yet it would be foolish in the extreme to travel to Mogadishu without professional security protection.  Thus our "movement security" guarding our every move in Mogadishu will be conducted by teams of ex-US and British Special Forces, the same experienced soldiers who protect UN, diplomatic, and international agency personnel. 

While Somaliland is peaceful and far safer than Mogadishu, we will nonetheless have Somaliland military protection while there.

We'll find Somaliland to be a peaceful, safe, and bustlingly busy place, with friendly people overjoyed to see us.  In Mogadishu, we'll see people heroically struggling to triumph over unimaginable adversity.  We'll have an unmatched memorable experience, and have an indelible understanding of a part of the world so much is heard about and so little is known.

Here's the itinerary.  Enjoy the pictures...

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RENDEZVOUS XI – “October 7-9” Washington DC


Here we go, guys n' gals, diving into the heart of the beast, Washington DC, for our eleventh TTP Rendezvous.

Miko has once again scored us a great deal at the Key Bridge Marriott, with its fabulous location overlooking the Potomac River right at Key Bridge (named after Francis Scott Key who penned the Star-Spangled Banner).  A short walk across it and you're into the shops and watering holes of Georgetown.

We'll be there at the most beautiful time of year, when the weather is at its best and the fall colors are in full array.

Our focus will be on solutions - how our country and us personally can get out of the mess Zero has dug us into.

Which is why financial guru Hank Brock, author of  Your Complete Guide to Money Happiness, will be speaking to us again on Protecting your assets and lifestyle from the coming crisis  -- and even profiting from it.

Hank blew us away in Vegas with his detailed practical advice on what really to do - and nobody knows more about it worldwide than Hank.  It'll be worth attending RXI just to talk to him.

For the gun-lovers - and who among TTPers isn't? - we have a special surprise:  my friend Larry Pratt, founder and president of Gun Owners of America, will be joining us.  (Edd Forke is jumping up and down now...)

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PARENTAL INTERNET SAFETY – AND QUESTIONS FOR THE 4TH


TTPer parents have asked me to comment on children's safety on the internet. There are some software applications to trace history of web surfing and to prevent violent or sexual explicit sites from being accessed. I will list a few here that can be explored by interested parties...

...And may I suggest that you take a few moments on our Independence Day to read the entire text of our nation's founding document?  It is not only thrilling and inspirational, but provides a certain perspective on the present.

How many of the millions of participants in tomorrow's Tea Parties will think this description of the British King applies to today?

"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

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SARAHCUDA VS. THE PIAPS: SMACKDOWN IN THE SENATE


Did you know that Slow Joe Biden is up for re-election?  Yes, he's running simultaneously for Vice-President and the Senate.  You'd think it would have to be one or the other.

He's not campaigning much for his seat, as his Republican opponent is some right-wing small town attractive housewife no one every heard of.  Does Christine O'Donnell remind you of anyone?

Christine may become known as the Sarah Palin of Delaware soon, once the two join forces at a campaign rally in the Blue Hen state.

As you read this, every Republican House and Senate candidate in the country is begging for Sarah to campaign for them.  There's no way she has time to help out all but a small handful of House hopefuls, so she'll be concentrating on the Senate's.

For very good reason.  As Vice-President, constitutionally she'll be President of the Senate.

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TRUE CRIME STORY


In the mood for a true crime story? Well, here's one ... and you are the victim! It's unbelievable but true. You and I, all of us, are being held hostage! It's even worse than that, because this extortion could end up costing us lots of money, time and frustration.

But it's a fact: Your expensive PC/laptop, all your files, work and e-mail, the hours of toil and trouble you put into your career, are all being held hostage by a couple of lines of simple code that can disappear at anytime, with the result being that you will have to shell out big bucks for a new computer, or at least spend time you can't spare on what often ends up to be a wild goose chase!

I'm talking about drivers, those little controller pieces of software that we don't think about until it's too late - which is when they disappear by being erased or damaged by a virus or any of the other daily PC hazards.

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