Pedro Martínez: Exactly. And a one time purchase of an item where you save 80% means nothing. Here in the US, if a store actually was selling an item that was 80% less than what the big store was selling it for, they'd match that price. Some big stores will match plus 10%. People want to save money and that's why places like Walmart in the US are so huge.

(V): um, the writer said that he DOESN'T follow with the kooks that call Obama a Commie. That wasn't even a point in his article. Do you Brits even read for context???

(V): You're still buying products from major corporations. Can't be avoided. And it's faulty reasoning to overgeneralize when your trying to make a point. Not all businesses try to rip people off. Fact is, most don't.

As for chain stores, you almost ALWAYS save money shopping there. Overhead doesn't matter when you sell in bulk. That's why so many mom and pop's have gone out of business. It's tough to compete with a huge store.

America's Whining CEO
Keith Edwards




So how fast would it take a board of directors of any fortune 500 company, forced by angry stockholders, to dump a CEO that did nothing but whine, make excuses, and blame everyone else but himself for his poor job performance and lack of results?

Based on lofty platitudes and hope and change, America hired Barack Obama as their CEO almost three years ago, on the promise that he could turn around the staggering economy.


Well, that hasn't happened, and the economy has actually gotten worse.

And what does America's CEO have to say to the stockholders for his poor job performance?

It's not my fault. It's the weather, it's Europe, it's the Arab Spring, it's Wall Street, it's the greedy rich, it's low revenue, it's an unbalanced approach, it's the oil companies, it's the banks, it's mortgage companies, it's credit card companies, it's ATM machines, it's unemployment benefit limits, it's all those wars, it's right to work states, it's global warming, it's the debt ceiling debate, it's oil speculators, it's the internal combustion engine, it's Republicans, it's incandescent light bulbs, it's low emission standards, it's the Tea Party, it's Rush Limbaugh, it's FOX News, it's - it's - it's - it's time for another vacation and a couple of rounds of golf.

And there you have it, America's top CEO's list or reasons for his failed policies and dismal job performance. Makes you proud to be an American doesn't it?

Obama is such and incompetent loser. An ignoramus of monumental proportions.

August 16, 2011
Obama to carmakers: Stop making so many products that people want!
Rick Moran




I don't truck with those who call Obama a commie, but by saying completely off the wall, totally ignorant stuff like this, he reminds me of factory managers in the old Soviet Union who would deliberately slow production on products that were popular because it created too much paperwork for them.

The Hill:


The country's automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.

"You can't just make money on SUVs and trucks," Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. "There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money."

Obama has positioned the revival and reshaping of the auto industry as a major part of his administration's push to improve the economy and create jobs.

A man with zero business experience is telling carmakers that they've got to "understand the market?" The closest Obama ever got to a business was when he was picketing them back in his community organizing days.

"Understanding the market" means making products that people want to buy. People want to buy SUV's and nice, big, shiny, awesome American trucks - at least as long as they can afford to fill them up.

And guess what? If gas prices get to high, Americans will then start buying smaller cars that use fuel more economically. That the president doesn't "understand the market" is a given. Why he is lecturing auto makers about how to make money is the real mystery.

(V): Stop buying products from corporations and see how far that gets you.

Your analisis is faulty.

Regulating is one thing. Over regulating another.

English society have been there for years. As Theodore Dalrymple, the physician turned social commentator and editor of The New English Review writes.


"The ferocious criminality exhibited by an uncomfortably large section of the English population during the current riots has not surprised me in the least. I have been writing about it, in its slightly less acute manifestations, for the past 20 years. To have spotted it required no great perspicacity on my part; rather, it took a peculiar cowardly blindness, one regularly displayed by the British intelligentsia and political class, not to see it and not to realize its significance. There is nothing that an intellectual less likes to change than his mind, or a politician his policy."

Übergeek 바둑이: No. Socialism has failed. Nice try tho.

"Britain’s “working class youth”? Don’t you have to “work” to be “working class”? It doesn’t look like socialism panned out the way they promised you, eh? Shocker.

Word to the BBC: How about we call these “working class youths” something more like “non-working, government-sponging entitlement mooks”?How’s that? I think that’s probably a better name for these bellicose nabobs on the government dole."

Doug Giles

(V): They bite me all the time.

Bernice: gotta love it!!!

Bernice: Or violence is the language of people with a severe lack of vocabulary skills.

Then there's always this:

(V): I'd have more clips for their friends too. Plus my big mean dogs would take a bite out of their crime.

(V): Nope. I don't watch tv shows. Only Fox news.

(V): I'm not so sure that is true. Either way, who would want to play the guessing game with some thug? Not me. I don't own a gun and probably never will. But if someone comes into the home of someone trained to use a gun, it's not going to go down well for the bad guy.

IF I did own a gun, and someone broke into my house, and I saw that they had a gun, I'd empty my gun on them with no questions asked.

When police shoot an armed suspect, they shoot many many times. That's because unless they are dead, a wounded person can still shoot. So they shoot to kill. That's the way to do it.

(V): You don't need a gun until you need it. I don't need a gun normally. But when confronted with a home invasion, it could mean the difference.

The Col:  good article

(V): That rather makes my point. It isn't only guns that can do violence. Actually, guns don't "do" violence, people do. Guns likely make it easier.

(V): Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! In the right hands, those can be very effective weapons. Plus they are good for taking hikes.

(V): I don't own a gun either but I do have a samurai sword

Jimmy Carter's starting to look better
Joey Porter






In the late 1970s a peanut farmer from Georgia was our President.

On Sunday morning he walked to church with a Bible under his arm to teach his Sunday school class at a Baptist church.

His brother hawked Billy Beer and his mother was attacked by a rabbit in a row boat. His wife conveyed the grace of southern gentility.

When the hostages were taken he burrowed into the White House never leaving the DC area. He did not want to be accused of not caring about our national crisis.

When the price of gas raised to the unbelievable cost of one dollar a gallon he championed coal gasification and shale oil projects to make us energy independent .

When he spoke of the spirit malaise in America we knew he was right. ( We also knew he was the source of much of the malaise)

When a rescue mission by our troops failed he notified our nation and he took his medicine as we took ours.

Now we have a community organizer as our President.

He seldom attends church and when he does it espouses black liberation theology.

His family uses Air Force One as a shuttle to one exotic vacation locale to the next. His wife preaches the virtues of fresh vegetables to children while noshing on burgers in private.

When the stock market tumbled and our bond rating was down graded he continued to attend fund raisers and play golf.

When the price of gas approached gas approached $4.00 he did nothing but continue to tie the hands of domestic energy producers.

When he spoke of shared sacrifice and evils of tax breaks for corporate jets. We simply just turned off the TV set.

Ah Yes ...President Jimmy Carter.... Our memories of him are getting fonder every day

(V): A couple of guys break into my house thinking I'm an easy target cuz I'm an old fart. I pull out my semi-auto and hold the guys, with the threat of their death should they move, until the police arrive. They are both armed.

ALL that matters to me is my gun stopped these bass turds from hurting my family.

But guns are much much more to Americans than protection from bad guys. I would say it's a small slice of a very big pie.

My brother in law has a consealed permit and carries his gun where ever he goes. I pity the bad guy who tries to do violence around him. He's a crack shot.

(V): I agree that you have far less gun crime. But you also have some politicians and prosecutes that go after the innocent to protect the sacred gun law. If I'm a prosecutor and a victim shoots someone threatening his property and family but uses an unregistered gun, I'm going to say that I understand why he fought back but to please register his gun now. I'd give him a week and then confiscate the gun if he didn't comply. But I wouldn't arrest him. We have stupid prosecutors like that in the US as well. The law serves the people and not the other way around.

Übergeek 바둑이: I don't agree that violence is the driving force behind their profits. Most people who own guns don't ever use them except at the firing range. Violence may be a social factor but so what? People get stabbed all the time too. But certainly violence isn't the driving force behind the sale of knives.

Here's a fact often overlooked. Just remember: dead is dead

"According to Statistics, Facts and Quotes there were 30,694 gun-related deaths in the US in 2005 vs Fatal Car Accident, Crash Statistics: Stats Auto, Traffic, Car, Collision, Traffic showing 43,443 vehicular fatalties that same year. So guns overall are about 71% as deadly as vehicles in the US."

We value our freedoms in the US. I've lots of friends with guns and they've never shot anyone. It's a constitutional right to own a gun. It should stay that way.

The riots have already led to a series of domestic football matches being called off, including Carling Cup ties at West Ham, Charlton, Crystal Palace and Bristol City.

Pedro Martínez: Yeah. If that was the response in a few days, everybody would stay home. The only reason the thugs keep coming out is there are no real consequences. We need, Dirty Harry, Rambo, and Zorro (put the "Z" right smack on their backside!)

Bernice: Yeah. I think there will always be conflicts. And like you say, a gun isn't the only weapon that can kill people.

Tonight will tell the tale. Let's see how Britain handles the rioters tonight. I hope they kick some major butt.

Now wouldn't it been nice if a car load of Navy Seals, experts in the martial arts, were to drive through an area and be stopped by a few thugs. Then the seals emerge from the vehicle (the windows were tinted dark) and each thug is grabbed by the throat. Then two seals emerge from the trunk and they proced to beat the living tar out of the thugs. This scene is repeated over and over again.

How many times that night do you think the words, "Oh Sh*&!!!" were said that night?

Iamon lyme: In a perfect world, it would be nice if we didn't need guns. But we do. It's not going to change any time soon. And thugs that know you likely won't have a gun (as in the UK) can be more bold.

What's odd is that in the UK it's ok to own a gun (which we know kills) but not ok to own a handgun (which we know offers protection).

The liberal cry in the US is, "but what if the criminal gets to your gun before you do?"

um, they already have a gun. Or a knife. Or a bat. Maybe I should post a sign on my door that say, "Easy target - I've no weapons"

Übergeek 바둑이: Yeah you're right. forget the guns. Burning down entire stores and damaging other property and beating the crap out of innocent bystanders is so much better. Heck, one guy in the UK ran over three pepole in his car killing all three of them! That's just ONE car and ONE hit. No gun can do that.

I'll bet those three dead guy would have like to have had a gun to protect themselves.

British PM says that whatever the police need to do to stop they riots, they will be legally given. About time. The US goes to that game plan on day one.

(V): Only your criminals have guns.

Is it Christian to kill someone? It's not Christian to murder someone but it certainly isn't Christian to allow someone to be murdered when you can stop it. So you're saying you'd let an intruder kill your entire family rather than shoot them?

(some guy comes into my home, threatening my family, I'm NOT going to put on a pot of tea and day, "come on, let's discuss this." I'm going to shoot.

AND IF I SHOOT it will be like the police shoot. To kill. To hurt my family, the intruder goes through me. And one doesn't own weapons unless one intends to use them if necessary.

(V): Yes. Rather pointless because things are WORSE in the UK. Good point. And thank you for making my argument for me.

Bernice: The problem in properly assessing a problem is in having the vantage point where all the trouble is occuring. Clearly, it wasn't everywhere, but where it was - it was very very bad. Burning and looting, even ONE private business is bad. If it's MY car that's burning, it's bad. The fact is, there were dozens of fires and assults and hundreds looted. When the police showed up, the looters just went elsewhere and it was a cat and mouse game.

The English government has effectively abolished the right of Englishmen, confirmed in their 1689 Bill of Rights, to "have arms for their defence," insisting upon a monopoly of force it can succeed in imposing only on law-abiding citizens. It has come perilously close to depriving its people of the ability to protect themselves at all, and the result is a more, not less, dangerous society. Despite the English tendency to decry America's "vigilante values," English policy makers would do well to consider a return to these crucial common law values, which stood them so well in the past.

In 1999 Tony Martin, a 55-year-old Norfolk farmer living alone in a shabby farmhouse, awakened to the sound of breaking glass as two burglars, both with long criminal records, burst into his home. He had been robbed six times before, and his village, like 70 percent of rural English communities, had no police presence. He sneaked downstairs with a shotgun and shot at the intruders. Martin received life in prison for killing one burglar, 10 years for wounding the second, and a year for having an unregistered shotgun. The wounded burglar, having served 18 months of a three-year sentence, is now free and has been granted �5,000 of legal assistance to sue Martin.

Please come to my house. I have a loaded 45 and a semi-auto fully loaded and ready to fire. As soon as you are on my property, I can shoot you dead (and I will). Don't want to die? Don't come to my house and threaten my property or my family. Wanna rob people? Go to Britain, it's safer for the crooks over there. You don't even need a gun!

Sincerely,

US Gun Owners.

In 1994 an English homeowner, armed with a toy gun, managed to detain two burglars who had broken into his house while he called the police. When the officers arrived, they arrested the homeowner for using an imitation gun to threaten or intimidate. In a similar incident the following year, when an elderly woman fired a toy cap pistol to drive off a group of youths who were threatening her, she was arrested for putting someone in fear. Now the police are pressing Parliament to make imitation guns illegal.

In 1987 two men assaulted Eric Butler, a 56-year-old British Petroleum executive, in a London subway car, trying to strangle him and smashing his head against the door. No one came to his aid. He later testified, "My air supply was being cut off, my eyes became blurred, and I feared for my life." In desperation he unsheathed an ornamental sword blade in his walking stick and slashed at one of his attackers, stabbing the man in the stomach. The assailants were charged with wounding. Butler was tried and convicted of carrying an offensive weapon.

In 1973 a young man running on a road at night was stopped by the police and found to be carrying a length of steel, a cycle chain, and a metal clock weight. He explained that a gang of youths had been after him. At his hearing it was found he had been threatened and had previously notified the police. The justices agreed he had a valid reason to carry the weapons. Indeed, 16 days later he was attacked and beaten so badly he was hospitalized. But the prosecutor appealed the ruling, and the appellate judges insisted that carrying a weapon must be related to an imminent and immediate threat. They sent the case back to the lower court with directions to convict.

(V): Fact: Except for murder and rape, it admitted, "Britain has overtaken the US for all major crimes."

As for guns in the UK: "in the summer of 2001, gun-toting men burst into an English court and freed two defendants; a shooting outside a London nightclub left five women and three men wounded; and two men were machine-gunned to death in a residential neighborhood of north London. And on New Year's Day this year a 19-year-old girl walking on a main street in east London was shot in the head by a thief who wanted her mobile phone. London police are now looking to New York City police for advice."

The crooks already have guns.

Unintended consequences of an unarmed populace: Only the crooks now own guns.

"From 1991 to 1995, crimes against the person in England's inner cities increased 91 percent. And in the four years from 1997 to 2001, the rate of violent crime more than doubled. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York. England's rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are far higher than America's, and 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S., where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police. In a United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations published in July, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people."

and

"the 1953 Prevention of Crime Act, which made it illegal to carry in a public place any article "made, adapted, or intended" for an offensive purpose "without lawful authority or excuse." Carrying something to protect yourself was branded antisocial. Any item carried for possible defense automatically became an offensive weapon. Police were given extensive power to stop and search everyone. Individuals found with offensive items were guilty until proven innocent."

welshrugbyfan: Water cannons would be enough and lots of arrests.

Were this same scenario to happen in the US, there would be blood. Some of these punk kids would be dead. Shot by shop owners in the protection of their property. As it is in Britain, the shop owners have no way to protect themselves.

And the government is ONLY considering using water cannons.

Meanwhile, the thugs are looting and burning private property.

Still the Prime Minister says they will only use minimal force.

What a wuss.

Defending themselves with bats
Ethel C. Fenig




So, how are the Brits defending themselves from the rioting hooligans who are having a wonderful time mindlessly burning buildings, smashing windows, beating people, destroying anything in sight? Well, when the police aren't allowed to use guns and citizens aren't allowed to own guns this seems to be a reasonable response.


5000% Increase in the sale of baseball bats on Amazon.co.uk

Yeah, that will work.

Well bats just might work better than what the Prime Minister and London's chief cop have authorized.

David Cameron and the head of the Metropolitan Police have taken the unprecedented step of authorising armed officers to use plastic bullets if needed to stop looters and rioters laying waste to Britain's major cities. The Prime Minister and senior officers approved the emergency powers for "as long as they are needed" to get a grip on the lawlessness which has now spread from London to communities across the country.

The Government also discussed introducing CS gas and water cannon to break up disturbances in future - a move which would end a 180-year tradition of "minimum force" public order policing in Britain.

Are the rioters using "minimum force"? Are bats "minimum force"?