Saints win and DC shuts down for three days. The old saying holds true: the Saints won’t win the superbowl ’til hell freezes over.

Chris Connolly

Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.

What we have to understand here is that the authorities knew all along what was going to happen, but they lied in order to get the public to fall into this trap. Of course, since the British government requires all flyers to go through this humiliating strip search, there is little doubt that this will happen again and again. (Hat tip to Drudge Report)

I wonder what what means? As a friend said, “You want to have married, gay couples flying bombing missions to kill brown people?” Maybe that’s also the definition of “normal” Democrats, too.

Has the mayor of King, North Carolina, been learning at the feet of Rahm “Never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste” Emanuel?

Here we have a typical seasonal event: a winter storm hits Stokes County, North Carolina, downing trees and power lines. Residents are unconcerned, as power is restored 5 hours later. Besides, most homes have wood-fueled or natural-gas-fueled fireplaces for backup heat in the event of lengthy power outages. But what an opportunity for the pathologically power-hungry politicians! Mayor Jack Warren issued the following “emergency restrictions due to severe weather” at 1:00 p.m. the day the storm hit:

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
12:00am-5:00am curfew
No sale, consumption, transportation, or possession of alcoholic beverages during the state of emergency in the City of King
No firearms, ammunition, or explosives to be sold, purchased, or carried
Restricted access to areas as deemed appropriate by law enforcement officers and/or city officials

Thank goodness for citizen-reporters like Sara. View the mayor’s power-grab, watch the man-on-the-street interviews, and read the blog here.

Of course, we’re just sitting here waiting for the county to come by and plow our street. We’re on a short block with 8 houses — I can see freedom on the major road at the top of the hill — so we’re very low priority for the county. And, apparently, the large snow drifts mean only big earth-mover plows will work, and they don’t fit under the low wires at the bottom of the street.

So what would life be like if our street were private, or, at the very least, snow plowing services were not “provided” (if that term even applies when you’ve been snowed in for 3 days and counting) by the city or county? This is the 7th wealthiest county in the nation, so it’s not like people couldn’t afford this service. I’m in no rush — I’m getting ahead on work, the university is closed, and I’m getting to spend lots of time with my daughter — but my husband is getting behind on work and the companies’ clients are probably not happy that only four people made it to the office today. A neighbor closer to the corner dug himself out with a shovel well enough to get his 4WD to freedom. If enough of us really needed to get out, would we be able to afford the plowing service? Would there be enough plows to have cleared all of the streets by now? Who knows, but I’d love to see that day.

One thing that I am in a hurry for is for a tree branch that has fallen on the power lines coming to the house to be cleared. The utility monopoly is unlikely to get to this soon — even if the roads were cleared. We have power, and the news says there are “thousands” without power — so we’re low priority. Again, there’s no price mechanism to allocate the high-voltage tree-clearing resources.

HT: Gene Berkman

This of course is par-for-the-course nonsense coming from our “Lincoln scholars” and the like.  As Clyde points out, South Carolina wasn’t the only state to oppose the Tariff of Abominations.  Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama also issued proclamations against it and in favor of free trade, while the plundering protectionist state legislatures of Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Indiana, and New York issued resolutions in support of that abominable policy of plunder.  See the rather mainstream book, The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, by Chauncy Boucher.

Joshua Tabor, a soldier stationed at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, decided to punish his 4-year-old daughter for failing to correctly recite the alphabet.

As his daughter ‘squirmed’ to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.

Police went to Tabor’s home after he was arrested after being seen walking around his neighborhood wearing a Kevlar military helmet and threatening to break windows. When they arrived, Tabor’s girlfriend told them about the alleged torture and the terrified girl was found hiding in a closet, with bruising on her back and scratch marks on her neck and throat.

Asked how she got the bruises, the girl is said to have replied: ‘Daddy did it.’

Tabor admitted to police that he chose the CIA torture technique because his daughter was terrified of water.

UPDATE from Scott Evans:

I’m sure that most of us liberty-lovers found the Audi commercial to be the most offensive and sickening thing ever to hit the airwaves.  Not that I have ever had the desire to own one, but I can say with 1000 percent certainty now that I will NEVER EVEN CONSIDER buying an Audi!

The census commercial, on the other hand, was pathetic, as lame and nonsensical — indeed, downright illogical — as the agency that funded it. If this is the BEST the fedgov can do in terms of pro-census propaganda, then I think we have at lot less to worry about than we thought.

I have a better idea: let’s not.

Update: someone has now created ”Let’s find 1,000,000 supporters of America leaving Iraq and Afghanistan.”

And of course right before the game we will see everyone bow (cover your heart, citizen, and feel the power of the state!) at the flag and recite the hosannas to the empire and the “heroes” who keep us safe.

Oh well, just another day in the land of the weird.

(Yes, the scare quotes around “big game” are intentional and show the silliness around and ridiculous level of pattern socialism. No offense, the litigious and IP-supporting NFL)

What Johnson doesn’t mention is this: for most of history (but not recently), most of the world’s civilizations have recognized that man is not perfectible. Aristotle, after long and learned descriptions of moral actions, knew that the truly moral man, the spoudaios, was rare — in fact, he’d never met one!

That changed a couple of hundred years ago.  Modern man – Western man — believes (a real act of faith) that man is indeed perfectible. All the true believer needs is more power to force man to be perfect. In that, all tyrants are Rousseau’s godchildren — they all long to “force us to be free.”

Christians gave the  pre-modern (as opposed to postmodern)  West the simple explanation for the fact, duly observed by Johnson, that mankind has  not progressed morally since its beginning: every individual, is fallen from the perfection that God wants for him. This world, and the people in it, will never be perfect, no matter how many people are killed to achieve perfection by “advanced” imperialist governments run by smart guys, whether we hate them (Soviet Russia, National Socialist Germany) or love them (My Country ‘Tis Of Thee.) Johnson’s central problem is this: his critical analysis ends when he deals with historical figures he happens to agree with.

As I listen to any of these Tea Party people express their dreams for a Tea Party presidency, I am drawn to H.L. Mencken’s classic assessment of what seems to drive them: “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

He was later asked his opinions about recent events in the Middle East, and answered that he largely agreed with the actions taken by the United States and Great Britain in Iraq and Afghanistan. I did not hear him suggest how any moral improvement was to take place as long as humans can support the continuation of a war system whose logic has remained unchanged since the time of Julius Caesar. Perhaps it will be left to some other persons, in some other place, at some other time, by some other means, to address the moral dimensions of how we are to live!