Even in gun-crazy Texas, carrying a handgun outside of one's home beyond one's own property was not the law of the land until 1995.
https://www.texasfirearmscoalition.com/index.php/editorials/37-straight-talk-about-open-carry

See, the thing is, the nation matured following the insanity of the civil war and decided that, hey, maybe having a bunch of folks wandering the highways and byways of America armed with pistols may not be the best thing for a civilized society. So the powers that be in most states banned the carrying of handguns, except in the case of sworn law enforcement personnel or the aforementioned rare, special use permit holders. Yep, even in Texas, toting around a pistol (except on you own land) was outlawed for more than 100 years:




LOTS MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/31/1266077/-RKBA-Exploding-the-myth-of-gun-toting-in-America

Idolization of the rich.

From the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the self-regarding thugs of ancient Rome to the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, in nearly every urbanized society throughout human history, there have been people who have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies are the conservatives.

............................

“It is crucial to conservatism that the people must literally love the order that dominates them. Of course this notion sounds bizarre to modern ears, but it is perfectly overt in the writings of leading conservative theorists such as Burke. Democracy, for them, is not about the mechanisms of voting and office-holding. In fact conservatives hold a wide variety of opinions about such secondary formal matters. For conservatives, rather, democracy is a psychological condition. People who believe that the aristocracy rightfully dominates society because of its intrinsic superiority are conservatives; democrats, by contrast, believe that they are of equal social worth. Conservatism is the antithesis of democracy. This has been true for thousands of years.”

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html

Matthew 19:23-24
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

But it has been such an ethical operation thus far?

You have to credit the Japanese kleptocracy for at least being consistent.


Killing two birds with one radioactive stone.

And yet, the shame lies only with the victims of homelessness, apparently.

Some of America's biggest jerks libertarians will read this story with their biggest 'free market boners'.

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2013/12/but-it-has-been-such-ethical-operation.html

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/the_new_years_baby_20131231

Look. Here’s the story. The story is that the national minimum wage is seven and a quarter an hour. I think most people understand that’s a starvation wage. Individuals can’t live on it. Families can’t live on it. If we raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which to my mind doesn’t go as far as it should, that would be a raise for 30 million Americans, vast majority of them are adults. And that’s just not people making seven and a quarter an hour. It’s people making eight bucks an hour, nine dollars an hour.

And at a time when almost all new income is going to the top 1%, it is time that working people, lower income workers get a raise, and we have got to do that. Now if the Republicans refuse to go along with that, and I very much hope that they will go along with it. I hope they understand that the overwhelming majority of the American people across the political spectrum understand that we have got to raise the minimum wage, so I hope that we can get this done.

- See more at: http://crooksandliars.com/2013/12/bernie-sanders-most-people-understand#sthash.a5nRSQkY.dpuf

Dolphins ‘deliberately get high’ on puffer fish nerve toxins by carefully chewing and passing them around

Dolphins are thought of as one of the most intelligent species in the animal kingdom – and experts believe they have put their ingenuity to use in the pursuit of getting “high”.

In extraordinary scenes filmed for a new documentary, young dolphins were seen carefully manipulating a certain kind of puffer fish which, if provoked, releases a nerve toxin.

Though large doses of the toxin can be deadly, in small amounts it is known to produce a narcotic effect, and the dolphins appeared to have worked out how to make the fish release just the right amount.

Carefully chewing on the puffer and passing it between one another, the marine mammals then enter what seems to be a trance-like state.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/dolphins-deliberately-get-high-on-puffer-fish-nerve-toxins-by-carefully-chewing-and-passing-them-around-9030126.html

Please Proceed, Governor
JOSH MARSHALL – DECEMBER 31, 2013, 1:27 AM EST9998



TPM Reader PB thinks I'm being too soft on the GOP's Benghazi lies ...



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/going-down-the-romney-benghazi-memory-lane

"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country." - FDR



peace, & happy 2014,
kp