Thomas Edison was an @$$hole.

Thomas Edison may go down in history as a great inventor and benefactor of mankind. But the truth was he engaged in rather shady business and marketing practices, was accused on many counts of stealing others patents and inventions, and was only interested in how the inventions would benefit him. He apparently can also lay claim to the End User License Agreement as well. And he said that his favorite film was “The Birth of a Nation.”

Edison’s work and company depended on Direct Current. They often competed with the idea of Alternating Current put forth by others. In his marketing for DC, Edison became involved in the development of an electric chair. Using AC, of course, to demonstrate its deadly effects. He also publically electrocuted Topsy the Elephant using Alternating Current in a now familiar use of scare tactics to discourage people from using the rival standard.

In 1884, Edison employed one Nikola Tesla with the promise that if he made improvements to his Direct Current generation plants, Edison would pay him $50,000. When Tesla succeeded and asked for payment (over $1,000,000 at today’s rates) Edison refused, telling the immigrant, “When you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke.” Tesla quit.

Tesla eventually went to work for George Westinghouse. There he continued his work on Alternating Currents and helped Westinghouse to eventually win the contract to light the 1893 World’s Fair. This was to mark the triumph of Alternating Current of Westinghouse over the Direct Current of Edison.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s Westinghouse sold off most of its electrical and manufacturing assets. All that remains of Westinghouse is CBS. Yes, that CBS. There is a small division – the Westinghouse Electric Company which basically just maintains the licenses of Westinghouse and sells them to other companies.

Edison’s Edison Electric Company eventually became Edison General Electric and later merged with another company to become just General Electric. And that brings us to today.

Around the start of this millennium GE began seeing the green within the green movement. They made over 6 Billion (!) dollars from their Ecomagination lines in 2004. They should have easily doubled that by today. And now they can qualify for government subsidies under the Cash for Appliances Program.

Today GE is using the power of the government to beat any other rivals. In only the last few months they have been very busy. Of course this should come as little surprise to anyone who was watching because the current CEO, Jeff Immelt is also on Obama’s Economic Recovery Board. The foxes are guarding the henhouse. Why was Bush ridiculed for having Energy Companies weigh in on Energy Policy?

GE is also part of the United States Climate Action Partnership, a group of “businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.” And yes, GE is also part of Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management fund. Oh yeah, did I mention that GE has started up its own Environmental Offset division?

Of course, the GE ties to the current administration and their quest to use the government to their advantage doesn’t stop there.

GE owns - lock, stock, and barrel (is that racist?) - MSNBC. The secret behind MSNBC’s liberal bias is well known and well documented. This link should come as little surprise to those of you who have read this far.

It should also come as no surprise that Immelt has spoken out supporting the many Obama pronouncements, no matter how farfetched.

GE has also gotten themselves qualified as a bank under their GE Finance arm. This means they managed to get some of those Bank Bailout funds. They qualified as a bank, without having to meet some of the other restrictions as a bank. How? Only this administration knows.

So what’s next? How about GE’s new Healthymagination line? GE stands to make B-B-Billions off of healthcare legislation. It’s seems wherever you turn lately, there’s GE. How could they know? Oh, yeah, Immelt is on the Economic Recovery Board.

Oh, and just out last month, GE is getting a personal introduction by Obama to Russia. It truly is WHO you know!

Now, let me just close up by saying that I am a fan of science fiction, especially the Cyberpunk genre. In this genre, the idea of corporations having actual Warfare against each other is fairly common, complete with spies, armies, kidnappings, and assassins. I would prefer that kind of world. But why go to all that trouble when you can just get yourself a government agent to act for you?

Most liberals would read this and say, “That’s the trouble with Big Corporations! They need to be regulated better!”

This Conservative says: That’s the trouble with having Big Government! If the politicians didn’t have this kind of power, there would be much less Corporate influence in our politics. The government needs to be regulated better!

You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,

but Thomas Edison was an @$$hole.

Second, people on the right side of the aisle are starting to become vocal. We now have rallies regularly in many cities. We have the formation of the Tea Party Nation. We have people speaking out and taking action like never before. People are waking up.

People are also beginning to take notice of the inconsistencies and downright false hoods of the liberals in Congress and the Obama administration. Even Helen Thomas woke up to question the Obama Team, calling their control of the media “Shocking.” They are being sued by the same people who sued the Bush administration for visitor logs. The AP let an article through that questioned Obama’s commitment to his campaign pledges.

The numbers from the “Stimulus” bill are not showing up, and people are starting to notice. The discussions about how flawed this legislation was are getting input from both sides of the divide. The paybacks within this bill are coming to light as the deficit grows. And people are awakening.

The growing deficit has also caused some to wake up. Those that railed against Bush for deficit spending are probably beginning to look back to the “good old days.” The ones that are not should be getting very uncomfortable having to defend this administration. The Chinese (!) have even begun questioning the deficit spending.

The Obama Care bills are starting to get flack, from within the President’s own party! Some of the more conservative less liberal Democrats say that they are trying to “save the party..” The President and his liberal wing know that the longer it takes, the more people will awaken, and the less likely it will survive, so they are pushing hard to get it passed as quickly as possible, as they have with every other bill. The heavy handedness of this administration toward legislators is growing troubling, even to some within the party.

The numbers are proving all of this as well. Obama’s negatives are increasing. His viewership is down. He has managed to stir up race relations in this Post-Racial World, much to the chagrin of Bill Cosby, by criticizing the police academy expert on racial profiling. Nancy Pelosi’s numbers are falling down as well, as people awaken and realize she is not trust worthy, and they wish she could be put to sleep. Democrat governors are also taking a hit. The liberal governor of California is starting to make sense. Some liberals still do not get it, but some are waking up. 

One other really encouraging thing is this poll which shows the number of self-described Conservatives is increasing!

Does anyone really think things would have been any better if McCain had won? If so you’re kidding yourself. The good news is that at this point, all the Republicans have to do is keep their mouths shut and their pants zipped, and they are a shoo-in for 2010. Or, they could wake up and actually start speaking up for the Conservative position on things, and stand by the Constitution and Freedom, and they could ensure victory in 2010 AND 2012, but if they put up another McWannabe, I’m voting for someone else. Again.

I’m holding my breath…

I’ve been inspired by Gray Ghost and his latest post.

It's time to bring out the Principia Discordia! Prepare yourselves! This should now be a must read for the Conservative Movement in America. These should also be on your Must Read list! The Illuminatus! Trilogy and Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy.

I hereby propose a system of individual actions from every one of you! It’s time to use some of their same tactics against them. Stop being part of the problem! Let your voice be heard! Armed with this information, you should be ready to follow through. Some of my favorite ideas include:

NO SALESPERSON MAY LEAVE THE FLOOR OR GO TO THE DOOR WITHOUT THE AUTHORIZATION OF A SUPERIOR.

THE MGT.

Bankrupt the System:

Other:

I first entered the union as an apprentice shortly after getting out of the Navy. I was an electrician’s mate in the Navy, and since I needed to work to support myself, I agreed to join the local union and go through their training.

The first thing that I noticed upon joining was that I was asked several times during the application process if I had any relatives in the union. No, I do not. Normally, this would have served to keep me out, but given my high test scores due to my Navy training, and the fact that membership was turning down at this time, they couldn’t come up with any reason to stop me from joining. (If they knew what they were getting, they probably would have tried to stop me anyway.) Ordinarily, this question is used as a sort of “affirmative action” requirement and has been used in the past to keep out blacks and other undesirables. This was confirmed by more than one union member later. The class that I started in also noticeably had the largest percentage of black members of any previous class. There was no small amount of grumbling over this fact within the workforce. This was in the late 1990’s.

Many of the lessons in the first two years of training (You must serve a five year apprenticeship in the IBEW and attend classes.) dealt with Union history and purpose. Propaganda. As luck would have it, my class also contained a couple of others who were not fond of the propaganda role being played here (again, due to the relaxed membership rules) and so we would openly call it as we saw it in class. This did not make us too many friends. We were clearly Conservatives.

On one of my first jobs, I was working with a lifelong union member when 9:00 came around. At that point I was working up on a ladder to mount a junction box in the ceiling for some conduit. I had one screw in place, when my journeyman tells me its break time. I tell him I’ll be done in just a second. He starts yelling, “Its break time now! Get down here and take your break!” This was new to me. In the Navy we took a break when the job was finished, not by the clock. Welcome to Civilian Life!

A few of the members of my class had union Daddy’s, Grand-daddy’s, Uncles, and the like. These guys got placed with the biggest shops, and typically stayed there throughout their apprenticeship. One of my classmates is still with the same shop he started with his first day. I got placed with a small shop which needed some temporary help on a job that was a little bigger than they were used to. After the job was through, I was kept for a short time, and was used on several small jobs, often side by side with the boss. This kind of experience is what they didn’t count on when they placed me there, I think. Alas, work got too slow for the boss to justify keeping even one little apprentice, and because I wasn’t always there when he called, I got laid off. (It got to the point where he told me to stay home and he would call me. Then one Thursday morning, I told him I couldn’t make it due to Whiskey Wednesday at the Bayou the night before. I was laid off shortly afterward…)

Shortly after this, I found myself with one of the larger contractors in town at a job in a paper mill. You get used to the smell. Many of these guys were long time union hands, and had relatives in the union. The real hard nosing began.

It didn’t take long before politics came up with this bunch. This was in 1996, and Clinton was running for re-election against Bob Dole. It took less time for many of the journeymen to figure out that I was a Republican. This is when things got fun.

I got threatened. I got pushed. I was given the dirtiest jobs. I was yelled at for the most minor grievances and called every name in the book, no matter how small or imaginary the foul. It was boot camp all over again. But I had been through boot camp, and survived. I would survive this. And I did, for over a year. I was told that I should “vote my pocketbook.” I said that I was. I was voting for lower taxes. I told them that one day I intended to have more than this life. I was looked at with disbelief. I was laughed at. I was told I was being stupid.

Then many of the same folks figured out that I intended to go back to school after completing my apprenticeship. I was already attending a few night classes. For some reason this did not go over much better. I was told that I was “stupid” for wanting to go back to school. Why would I want to be an engineer when I had union security? After all, we (union hands) had everything! We could come and go as we pleased. If we didn’t like the job or the boss, we could quit, go back to the hall, and get another call. We made good money. (The journeyman did, anyway. I was working a second job delivering pizzas.) We had good benefits. (That part at least was true. I have held onto my meager pension, and the medical insurance was pretty good.)

So amongst all of this, I was working with a particular strong union believer one day, when it came break time. So, naturally at 8:45 we started preparing for break. This is a process, you know. At 9:30 we were still sitting in the work shack after the other guys had left. I turn to my journeyman:

God gave us Free Will. It is through government interference that others seek to take that away. It is no accident that Karl Marx sought to remove God from the people. Karl Marx said that all religion must be subjugated, and referred to religion as the “opium of the masses.” In the end, liberalism must rely on people taking the word of their government benefactors over the word of our God.

God given rights include, in the words of our founders, the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. The fact the we derive, or receive, these rights from God is very important. If we do not receive these rights from God, where do they come from?

A Liberal Atheist might say that our rights come from the government. But if that is so, then what is to stop the government from taking them away? Does the ex-patriot without a country have no rights? Did the Jews in Germany stop having any rights to their lives because the National Socialist government decided to take them away?

A Conservative Atheist might say that our rights are self derived, or that they are self evident. But if that is so, then do the mentally deranged have any rights? Does the person who wishes to kill himself give up his Right to Life? Does someone with Multiple Personality Disorder with one depressed personality give up the right to Pursue happiness for the other personalities? What if they change their minds?

The first Right guaranteed by God is the Right to Life. This should include the unborn, as well as the elderly. This also is not a blanket refusal of the death penalty. I said that governments take our rights away. If you deprive another of their rights, then you should lose yours. This also does not obligate anyone else to do anything to extend your right to life. To advocate this would lead to an abrogation of the Right to Liberty.

The Right to Liberty includes the right to live your life as you see fit. Thus, if you choose to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week in pursuit of money, then you have that right. If you choose instead to live the life of the urban outdoorsman, then you may also do that. This does not obligate anyone else to aid you, however. Seeking someone else’s aid through government intervention and force is a refusal to recognize their rights to liberty.

Notice, in the listing of our rights, I did not capitalize the word happiness, but instead chose to Capitalize Pursuit. This is an important distinction. We are given the right to TRY to be happy, through whatever means we wish to employ, so long as that pursuit does not infringe on the rights of others. Whether or not we succeed is entirely left up to us. If we were afforded the right to BE happy, the drug war would probably look a lot different, and these guys would be kings!

The government encroaches on these rights through the only means available to it. Force. Any other means are simply an attempt to disguise the use of force. Why do you pay taxes? To do your patriotic duty? No! So that men in black suits with black rifles won’t come pounding down your door, throw you to the ground, and put you in jail for a long time! Why do you put on a helmet whenever you drive a motorcycle? To have really cool hair when you take it off? No!  So that men in blue suits with black guns won’t stop you and threaten to come pounding down your door, throw you to the ground, and put you in jail for a long time if you don’t give them money!

By contrast, think of it this way. Why do you pay your telephone bill? To stop guys in black suits from pointing guns at you? No! So that you can continue to use your telephone to call those nice ladies with the 900 numbers. Why do you buy stuff at Wal-Mart? To stop guys in black suits from pointing guns at you? No! So that you can continue to get your daily allowance of lead from those nice people in China really cheap.

God gave us Free Will. It is through government interference that others seek to take that away. It no accident that Karl Marx sought to remove God from the people. Karl Marx said that all religion must be subjugated, and referred to religion as the “opium of the masses.” In the end, liberalism must rely on people taking the word of their government benefactors over the word of our God.

2.    I believe in America, the Home of the Free, and the Land of the Brave.

We live in the Greatest Nation on Earth. This Country has repeatedly sent our people out to fight against oppression, against tyranny, in order to promote freedom. We have led the world in one endeavor after another. In just 200 short years we have become the greatest, most powerful, richest nation on the planet. Unless I missed the CNN story, people are not swimming to Communist Cuba in order to get away from the “injustices” of the United States.

3.    I believe in the good in people.

Some have said that the difference between Conservatives and Liberals is that Conservatives are pessimists, and believe that all people are evil at heart, while Liberals believe that everyone is good at heart. I disagree. I believe that people are inherently good. There are some who turn away from this goodness, and therefore away from God, in order to do evil in the world.

The armed forces of the United States of America are the best in the world. Our all volunteer services are manned by those who are dedicated to their jobs and believe in what they do. They serve all of us by supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Most of them take this oath very seriously. Without those who would voluntarily go into this service, the United States would cease to be the free country that it is. For that matter, so would much of the rest of the world.

6.    I believe in lower taxes because high taxes mean Slavery to the State.

The government does not produce. It only redistributes. In order to do this, it must take from some in order to give to others. When the government does so through the use of excessive or progressive tax rates it is seeking to force one person to work for the benefit of another. In any other situation this would be illegal, but we allow our government to do it “for the good of society.” WE are society. The people who this benefits are the political class. In order to truly allow people to be free the collection of funds for the operation of the government would be voluntary, or nearly so. This is why I am a fan of the FairTax ©.

The Free Market, unfettered by government interference has the ability to raise the lifestyles of everyone in the community. It is one of the greatest inventions of the human mind, and yet it is as natural as carbon dioxide. Whenever people get together, someone will have something that someone else wants. Through the Free Market, they are able to negotiate the exchange in a manner and for a means that benefits both. The Free Market is largely self correcting. If one business is doing something that harms others, then they will rather quickly lose business. (Think of the Taco Bell meat scare of a few years ago.)

 

[He] says he wants to restore U.S. standing abroad with an approach to foreign policy that breaks with George W. Bush's "cowboy diplomacy"…

On the Environment:

Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets And Timetables

2012: Return Emissions To 2005 Levels (18 Percent Above 1990 Levels)

2020: Return Emissions To 1990 Levels (15 Percent Below 2005 Levels)

2030: 22 Percent Below 1990 Levels (34 Percent Below 2005 Levels)

2050: 60 Percent Below 1990 Levels (66 Percent Below 2005 Levels)

[He] said Tuesday the United States will provide global leadership in the fight against climate change if he wins the November election.

On Health Care:

Government should promote greater access [to Health Care] through walk-in clinics in retail outlets.

On National Service:

Engage more college students in community service through the Federal Work-Study program; current law requires only seven percent of recipients to perform community service.

On Technology:

Redneck Business:

4:       Evolution vs. Animal Protection:

5:       Gun Control vs. Government Protection:

So many liberals want to get weapons out of the hands of the people and leave us to rely on government (police) protection, yet they complain about police cruelty and the inadequacies of FEMA.

Redneck Gun Control:

6:       Feminism vs. the Sexual Revolution:

7:       Diversity vs. …Everything:

Too many that espouse “diversity” often also espouse policies that actually reduce diversity.  I’m talking about diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, diversity of actions.  The liberal position seems to be that people are too stupid to do anything for themselves, or make their own decisions, so we are going to mandate these things that we think are good for you.  Seatbelts – no dissension allowed.  Smoking – no dissension allowed.  Guns – no dissension allowed. And these are their good points.

Seeing as there is a lot of money to be made in promoting diversity, the Crimson Apex Solidarity Horde is going into full swing.

8:       Money vs. Money:

We have learned from many on the left over the years that, “It’s not about the money.  You can be rich in so many other ways!”  Yet, at the same time, they make constant calls for more money for this, that, and the other, usually to be paid by “The Rich.”

“Money doesn’t buy happiness.”  This is what we’re told by feel good liberals when talking about the accomplishments of some business leader.  If that is the case, then why do they feel the need to expand the welfare rolls?  These people may already be rich in love.  Why do they always demean those who have made it big time for themselves, and for their kids?  Why is it that they want to take their hard earned money, if it’s not important?

Those of the Crimson Cranium cabal love money.  As such, the Crimson Apex Solidarity Horde is proud to announce their latest program: the Scarlet Collection of Assets Mechanism.

9:       Religion vs. The State:

We have heard for many years now about the “Separation of Church and State.”  We have also heard that “You cannot legislate morality!”  Yet many government programs, from Welfare to Social Security, from Nationalized Health Care to Carbon Credits rely on an appeal to our morality and our often are justified on religious grounds. It seems that liberals are fine using religion to get what they want, but reluctant to turn to it to receive what they need.

In some parts of the country you can be blasted as bitter for clinging to religion, but in redneck country it can mark you as someone who doesn’t hunt and isn’t too lazy to get up on Sunday.

10:     The Individual vs. The Collective:

Liberals love to place people in neat little groups, such as Christian Conservatives, Gays, Blacks, Women, and so forth.  This alignment of people provides them with neat little categories to lump people into while they can ignore the individuals that make up the groups.  The Individual is an anathema to those who worship the Collective.

Those of the Crimson Cranium cabal love money. As such, the Crimson Apex Solidarity Horde is proud to announce their latest program: the Scarlet Collection of Assets Mechanism.

The S.C.A.M. program will henceforth be set up to collect funds from our dark- and light-haired oppressors. As of the current embodiment of this program, C.A.S.H. members will not be required to contribute. This is subject to change, however, depending on administrative costs and other factors.

Proceeds from S.C.A.M will initially go towards education efforts to highlight the plight of the Red Headed Human. Such education programs will highlight such tribulations as public harassment due to spotted pigmentation, the effects of the sun on those of the extreme fair skinned, red haired persuasion, and the potential emotional harm that can happen from handling our hair without our go-ahead, or conspicuous constant colloquial requests to confirm the colossal keenness for coupling.

After education efforts get underway, it is hoped that the S.C.A.M. program will also serve to enrich the lives of those Ginger groups who have been especially harmed through discrimination, harassment, and bigotry. Most prominent among these groups are the members of the Crimson Apex Town Hall’ers (CATHeters (Because we’ll take the fight straight to your pee-hole!)) as noted on the sidebar to the right.

It should be noted that the S.C.A.M. program is currently a voluntary program. This is subject to change as well, and will be evaluated periodically based on the number of donations received, the convenience of corporate cash and the quantity of Crimson Cranium corporate cronies at each location, as well as an assessment to ensure a large percentage of the CATHeter members blogs appear on other Town Hall blogrolls.

C.A.S.H. also reserves the right to evaluate the need for Red Head Reparations based on the success of the S.C.A.M. program.

On a side note:

It appears after preliminary analysis that the newly named Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican Party has Red Hair, and therefore gets the endorsement of C.A.S.H. It’s just a shame that we cannot just get a VP without having to take a P!

Ok, so B.O. named Joe Biden for his Vice Presidential running mate this last week. Much has already been written on the various gaffs and misstatements made by Biden, and on what he has said in praise of McCain and to disparage B.O. But I have a different take on the Biden pick. You knew that I would!

He had a chance to pick someone who really stood up for everyone, someone who could point to his background and say that he could “feel your pain,” the great B.O. picks Joe Biden.

Joe Biden is proud of his former slave state of Delaware, saying that they would have joined the Confederacy, if only they could have figured “out how to get to the South.” Joe Biden has referred to B.O. as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” As opposed to the other kind, eh Joe? Perhaps Joe Biden has been hanging around the other Democrat leader proud of his white history, Robert “KKK” Byrd. It’s the Bobby Joe twins! Uncle Joe Biden’s attitude apparently goes for others who are non-white, as well. He was the one who proposed dividing up Iraq into racial groups as a solution to their problems. “Separate but Equal,” Joe?

Perhaps the reason that B.O. is open to this kind of thing is because he feels the same way. It won’t be the first time that some “uppity” black man has been accused of “speaking down to black people.”

He went to Harvard in the late 1980’s, in that bastion of white-itude, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Not a place known at the time for their high black attendance rates. If he had time to see any “real” blacks there, I’m sure he didn’t spend much time associating with them in between studies and editing the paper. In fact, he says that it wasn’t until Chicago that, “I discovered I was black, and I have remained so ever since.”

He apparently went to a church that preached “Liberation Theology” in Chicago, but never seems to have gone to church to hear a sermon. Did he know, at all, what his pastor was saying in the pulpit? Maybe if he did, he would have left much sooner. After all, Reverend Wright’s views do not reflect his.

Meanwhile, even Michelle Obama’s hospital turns away minorities from the surrounding neighborhoods.

Many of Obama’s policies also reflect his hatred toward blacks. He supports “Immigrant Rights,” which affect the working poor and the black communities the most. He opposes school vouchers, which have been shown to benefit blacks stuck in failing inner city schools. He supports abortion and the Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood, which has been shown to disproportionally kill off black babies.

So my question for Mr. Barack Hussein Obama is this: