I’m not too worried about violence in the streets. This may seem surprising to those that have seen me write about violence and killing and various other ordinary things like that before.

I also don’t think we would see a barter society ala post-apocalypse scenarios.

History has taught me, if anything, that when Empires fall it is due to two combinations of effects. Weak internal dynamics and strong foreign enemies outside ready to move in. Rome is one good example. Constantinople another good example. The European Empires mostly let their colonies go since it wasn’t worth the upkeep and blood. They were a sea trade empire so they could do that. Up until the savages starting coming to the island, like say in Britain.

The goal of the movement: To refuse to pay taxes. Forty million of us have signed up. To every extent possible, we begin implementing the plan. In every way possible we resist sending every penny we can resist sending. (W-2 and automatic tax prepay make a full-tax resistance very difficult, but many of us get inspired and inventive.)

If people are looking for successful insurgency methods, learn from Iraq. The same things used to defeat AQ can be used to defeat any occupying power. AQ, after all, occupied Al ANbar more than we did and we couldn’t push them out permanently until we could teach the exploited and downtrodden natives how to fight back after they finally decided to ally with us against AQ, their former allies.

I agree completely, SueK. But there are steps along the road, and I think you’ve described some of the steps. I’m not saying all this is likely, but it’s useful to at least consider them, isn’t it?

Other possible steps along this road: Imagine a nationwide movement, organized via blogs (because conservative talk radio has been mostly shut down). The goal of the movement: To refuse to pay taxes. Forty million of us have signed up. To every extent possible, we begin implementing the plan. In every way possible we resist sending every penny we can resist sending. (W-2 and automatic tax prepay make a full-tax resistance very difficult, but many of us get inspired and inventive.)

Just *what* exactly would the government going to do with all 40 million of us? They’d try to scare us by making an example of some number of thousands of us, but we’ve “girded our loins” for that already! (Thanks, Joe Biden!) We’ve accepted that lottery.

And that’s a thought experiment on just one such step along the road.

I’ve thought about this. Where are the military and the police at this point? At what point would the military _not_ support the government? At what point would the police _not_ support orders to take on the locals? I don’t think either would take action against resistant but non-violent citizens, but then Obama wants his “private” security group. Black Panthers? That’s who was “protecting” the polls in Philly today. Do they really want a race war?

My concern is more that we are so completely vulnerable to bureaucracy these days…they can slap you with a tax lien or hit you with fines for not doing X, and poof! there go your assets. If your cash assets are in bank accounts, you have no protection. You could always stuff your money under your pillow, but money is only paper…that can change pretty easily as well. Land? Maybe…as long as the local sheriff won’t put it up for auction for taxes.

I can see us going back to a barter society, or all cash transactions. Nobody getting really wealthy unless they have the “right” government connections – which could change – or out of country accounts. I might consider putting money in a Canadian bank…

No, Y. The handgun and shotgun are personal defense weapons. The AR-15 would be to assist in a general rebellion against the government. It would be a luxury purchase – especially since if the government really meant business, it wouldn’t matter.

But if such a corrupt government were faced with significant armed resistance and wasn’t quite certain how far it wanted to strike against us, such a sufficiently armed populace would make the government think twice.

Straight up I’ll say that I’m with you: If Obama is elected president, I pray that he will govern wisely and well.

I also agree with you that it’s useless to argue with our black friends about voting for the man simply because of his color. If I were an African American, I’d be powerfully tempted to vote for him simply because it would take care of something that this nation will have to do sooner or later to finally get past the vestiges of its old racism.

It’s just that this thin-skinned, unqualified, hater-surrounded, incredibly ignorant and cosseted young man is not the one.

You are the first person anywhere who I have heard utter something that has been on my mind recently: that an Obama presidency will be an utter disaster for black Americans.

One of my dearest, long-term friends is a black man who has already voted for Obama. He is one of the very few liberals I know with whom I am able to sit down and have a rational discussion with in terms of politics. There are some Obama policies he favors but he admits that he is voting for Obama because of race.

Based on the lengthy discussions I have had with this man, I understand that many black Americans are voting for Obama purely because of race. I don’t say this as a criticism, just a statement of fact and a repeat of what he has told me. I don’t agree with that motivation because I know in my heart that values and policy decisions should trump something like race but I understand the motivation.

However, what I have not been able to verbalize to him is my growing fear that Obama will damage black Americans in ways that we can’t begin to appreciate right now. An Obama presidency will make the Clinton presidency look positively pristine. We will lurch from one scandal or disaster or revelation to the next – sort of like his campaign. My fear is that while Obama’s failures should have no bearing on how black Americans are perceived (including by themselves), I know that is what will happen.

I know some will view this as a racist statement but as I stated elsewhere, this campaign has cured me of being afraid of that anymore. Black Americans seem to desperately need a national success story – they need someone who is “it,” the one who everyone sees every day to be viewed as a success, powerful, and part of the solution.

I just don’t think Obama is the one who will do that.

On a happier note, I would like to draw attention to someone who I hope will emerge on the national scene in the next decade – Lt. Col. Allen West of the 22nd district in Florida. I recently watched Pamela Gellar interview him and was utterly blown away.

http://www.allenwestforcongress.com

The guy is amazing. He inspires confidence and his values and beliefs are something that I think would rally many Americans.

We need to support people like him now to help them get to where we need them.

Deana

For this and other reasons, I pray that if Obama does become President, that he is successful and a good leader. Many people are depending on that.

Deana

This is why we tend to like our guns and bibles. Or violence and the psychology of killing.

And now they are talking about killing him?

When you become persona non grata in the old Soviet Union (and the new Russian Republic) you tend to disappear, Deana, one way or another. Reporters suiciding by falling off their apartment buildings, for example.

The right wing hate mongers are talking about killing regular citizens, too.

Oz feels a need to defend the actions of Democrats by raising a tu quoque argument. This makes a lot of sense to Oz the Nihilist, of course.

I know you like to portray yourself as a paragon of objectivity but you are not. You’ve demonstrated that sufficiently here.

Picked that up, did we ; )

Ozzie it must be hard living such a depressed life, where there is nothing in your future from the left or the right but corruption and hate and death.- Brian

I’m not depressed. I’m fascinated

Like I said, Brian, Oz, like any proper nihilist, enjoys and is fascinated by watching people suffer, car accidents occur, and various other kinds of mayhem and misery.

whether or not Chocolate (The Republicans) or Fried Foods (The Democrats) are causing the breakouts, without looking at the root causes (Special interests, bipartisan corruption, the military-industrial complex, etc).

So you try to improve things by blaming the Republicans whenever you see the Democrats needing a propaganda defense? And you actually think this is “bipartisan”, hehe. Well, it is at least corrupt on your side even if it isn’t bipartisan corrupt.

Every now and then, I get sucked in by her more atrocious statements or inconsistencies, or goal post moving.

It’s nice to get a fundamental template and to get Oz to state her beliefs clear out so that we can have a record that we may use for our benefit or the benefit of others (newcomers for example).

I recently bought my first gun (new Glock 19)

Good luck with it. If you get to the point where you actually like shooting firearms at the range, then you will be well on your way to becoming part of the American tradition of loving things that go boom.

Next up in the next few months: Home defense weapon – double barrel shotgun. Later, if time and finances permit, I might consider a third purchase: A used AR-15, if I get lucky to find a used one at a cheap price. I hear anecdotally they’re flying off the shelves, so it’s probably not going to happen.

You trying to set yourself up like a Marine sergeant I know, M? He had whole shelves of firearms from Russian SVK to various imports and olden US makes.

Btw, here’s a disarm trick you might want to practice with friends and family. This is stripped down of all the principles which will make you truly proficient in open hand vs firearms but it’s something you should think about when using firearms. (stripped down means this is not guaranteed to save your life whereas knowing the principles and practicing TFT would guarantee it given the fact that their clients have never died using this training) Most disarm tricks speak about quickly grabbing the gun and then twisting it away or twisting yourself sideways so that the vector of the bullet no longer goes through your head/body. TFT uses three principles in all violence: penetration, rotation, and follow through. Penetration is when you step from where you are to the target using yor entire body-mass to go through the target. Rotation can be seen in joint breaks, twisting sideways, rotating your torso to place more power in a hit, and so forth. Follow through means to hit and put all your mass behind it and let gravity do the rest. It is the opposite of hitting quickly and then pulling back.

Combine them together and you get a few simple steps. TFT provides some video samples of how these techniques are done at their website, http://www.targetfocustraining.com they don’t show disarms, however, but the throws and strikes should give you a specific impression of what it will look like.

Scenario 1 Gun in your face, hands held up.

1. Place your left foot at or beyond the assailant’s feet, aim a striking surface at your selected target (throat, eyes, groan, side neck, collar bone, etc. etc.) and then strike through the target, ignoring the firearm: making sure the foot you land on, the left on in this instance, is at the assailant’s foot or beyond it. Repeat until the target is helpless (injured) and you can do whatever you want with him, including disarming him of a firearm or other tool.

A slight adjustment of your head or body (where the gun is pointed at) combined with a step forward allows you to go past the range at which a projectile weapon is effective. That is the weakness of projectile weapons. Even if you have a high rate of fire, it is not going to help you against targets that have gotten just a little bit too close.

you parade it here as gospel.

If you get on Oz’s bad side, like McCain, then her views on her source (McCain in this instance) will change. Meaning that Oz doesn’t really care what McCain believed or what her other sources believed. Oz already has a vision of what she believes to be the truth and is simply repeating what others say because it makes her position look more numerous and less in need of validation concerning Oz’s original premises.

In other words, stock up on ammo. No ammo, no need for a gun.

You’ll need ammo if you want to practice shooting and that’s the only way to get better. Some courses/instructors provide free ammo, of course, but that really depends.

We agree that conservatism recently lost its way, but we disagree on why and on Palin and on the future.

That means that your idea of conservatism is not the same as Oz’s.

P.S.

As an original thought, consider the fact that Oz is the kind of person that does not offer reasons for behaviors or reasons behind problems or for solutions so much as she offers you a negative contrast for behavior. For mike, it was Oz’s personal relative. For Republicans, it is other Republicans. For Democrats, it is, well, I haven’t seen her talk to a Democrat or a Lefty, yet.

This definition of truth through abstraction, dictates, and negative contrast is invalid on the level of principle as well as on the level of specific details.

Oz, a person who has not supported the liberation of Iraq and its stabilization from chaos to secure democracy, wants to speak about American soldiers patrolling the streets of America. How would Oz know the problems, big and small, concerning US soldiers in a city, American or foreign? Oz doesn’t even pay attention to such things and she can’t or won’t even use her large inventory of quotes to compare and contrast the Iraq war with X number of individuals and incidents. Oz completely ignores the current events of her day in favor of fabricated and fantasy scenarios from Oz’s own desires and fears. She fears US soldiers on the streets so she talks about others having that fear, but never says that she herself fears this or is concerned about this, only that it is proper for Oz to present a portrayal of McCain and Sarah as bringing this specific scenario about.

Have you all seen the video of Obama doing the middle-finger stroke of his cheek on the mention of McCain – a repeat of his twice-repeated insult towards Hillary?

There is something so phenomenally strange about this man! Remember the CNN video captured of him posing in the plane aisle for the female reporters to swoon over (some of them laughed embarrassedly – they caught the strangeness then too). It’s all representative of the arrogance of a sophomore in high school running for Class President: An arrogance founded mostly on immaturity. Very, very strange. He hates being criticized; we’ve seen enough instances of that. This is a man with a very thin skin who has somehow learned to control his worst impulses – most of the time. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in those private situations where he unleashes his anger. (I also see Michelle Obama as a constantly angry woman, and I do mean constantly.)

What that would mean for an Executive Office, especially on the foreign crisis decisions, is hard to predict. Let’s hope we don’t have to find out! I am feeling more confident tonight that McCain will win this one, for us all!

As I just heard Tammy Bruce say on the Laura Ingraham show, if I’m wrong and Obama wins it, we’ll all have worse problems than me being embarrassed about being wrong in my confidence.

I was referring to the spiteful people Obama has surrounded himself with — Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, the Rev. Wright, George Soros and the world’s anti-Semites (Hamas, Iran, the Rev. Jackson, U.S. academia, etc.)

So Obama has a double advantage: He’s not only half African American, he’s the standard bearer for the political party that has successfully colonized blacks since the Civil War — either under Jim Crow or via welfare.

I agree with Mike that the temptation for blacks to vote on skin color is well nigh irresistible and I’m not going to bitch at the outcome because of it.

My fear is that Obama and his haters will be so incompetent that it will set back the cause of black equality for years. On top of having to contend with a toxic ghetto culture, a 70% rate of bastardy and out-of-control abortions (35% of all black babies conceived are dismantled before birth), African Americans will have the onus of a failed (half) black president to suffer under.

This isn’t going to be a good four years for anybody.