THIS IS NOT A GUN PROBLEM, IT'S A PEOPLE PROBLEM

Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. Chicago’s murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, the Midwestern 4.5 or the Illinois’ 5.6 rates, but it does look like the murder rates in failed countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

New Orleans' murder rate is ten times higher than the national average. If New Orleans were a country, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate in the world, beating out El Salvador. Louisiana went red for Romney 58 to 40, but Orleans Parish went blue for Obama 80 to 17.

St. Louis has a murder rate just a little lower than Belize. Baltimore has a worse murder rate than South Africa and Detroit has a worse murder rate than Colombia. Obama won both St. Louis and Baltimore by comfortable margins. He won Detroit’s Wayne County 73 to 26.

Homicide rates like these show that something is broken, but it isn’t broken among the Romney voters rushing to stock up on assault rifles every time Obama begins threatening their right to buy them; it’s broken among Obama’s base.

...and then we break down what really drives the national murder rate

A breakdown of the Chicago killing fields shows that 83% of those murdered in Chicago last year had criminal records. In Philly, it’s 75%. In Milwaukee it’s 77% percent. In New Orleans, it’s 64%. In Baltimore, it’s 91%. Many were felons who had served time. And as many as 80% of the homicides were gang related.

America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at sporting goods stores and at gun shows, and whom news shows profile after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in the urban areas controlled by the Democratic machine.

The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication and decides to shoot up a school. Lanza, like most serial killers, is a media aberration, not the norm.

America’s horrific murder rate is a result of the transformation of major American cities into Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and El Salvador. Our murder rate now largely consists of criminals killing criminals.

There's lots more in my article, "American Doesn't Have a Gun Problem, It Has a Gang Problem."

THE BOEHNER REBELLION

The Boehner rebellion went nowhere because hardly any Congressional Republicans had any other ideas. Few of them, for all the talk, wanted to do anything other than what Boehner did. They might have thought that Boehner handled it badly, but they were happy to let him have the bad headlines.

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. When times are bad, it takes men of courage to step forward and find a way to turn the situation to their advantage. The Republicans in the House chose instead to stick with what doesn't work while waiting for the situation to change before making their play. And they chose to let Boehner keep the job he has, aside from some formulaic protest votes, because no one else wants it.

After the fiscal cliff vote, some conservative blogs are voicing the previously heretical thought that Paul Ryan is a fraud. Of course he's a fraud. A cursory look at his voting record would show that. This is not a man who votes for fiscal conservatism. Fiscal conservatism just happens to be a brand.

The system is corrupt and most people don't really understand what that means. A corrupt system corrupts everyone in contact with it. Functioning within a corrupt system, succeeding within it certainly, requires that you also become corrupt.

Everyone knows that the finances are bad, but that just means more competition for rearranging them to favor specific interests and agendas. It doesn't mean real reform.

The Republicans in the House don't have leaders, they have expendable men who do the dirty work that everyone wants done, but no one really wants to do. There's no future in such work. It won't make them popular quite the contrary, but it's also a necessary sacrifice.

FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS

In the last 40 years, five US ambassadors were killed in the line of duty. 4 out of 5 were killed by Muslims.

NOTHING IS CERTAIN...

In movie theaters, Les Misérables, a tawdry movie based on the tawdry musical based on the tawdry novel, is playing side by side with Django, a black revenge fantasy, and The Hobbit, a bit of conservative escapism from a British author born not long after the death of Victor Hugo bidding farewell to the pleasant way of life of the British countryside.

Cinematically a refried exploitation of the aftermath of the French Revolution is brushing shoulders with a refried exploitation of ’70s black liberation clichés, both of which have been shouldered out of the way by the majority’s longing for the village green and the humble power of the common man who makes no noise at all, but proves surprisingly courageous when the first Nazi bombers begin passing overhead.

In real life, the silent majority of hobbits is often stomped underfoot by revolutionaries and gangbangers. And these days it’s the Django and Les Misérables agenda that is moving forward.

...but "Death and Taxes"... my other Front Page article for the week

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

But is your house also full of collectibles that only a mentally ill person would collect? Then drop $7,500 on the medallion set featuring gold, silver and bronze medallions of Obama and Biden looking off into the distance, perhaps the place over the horizon where all the money went.

With the official 57th Presidential Inauguration medallion collection of gold, silver and bronze complete with certificate of authenticity so you can be sure that you have the real medallions of two fake men, you will finally have actual things to trade for food and gas when the economy collapses. While your medallions will not retain their face value of $7,500, Fajir will give you a dozen loaves of bread and fill up your tank, biting the gold and silver with his teeth, and throwing the bronze away, before melting them down.

My Taxes Went Up And All I Got Was This $25 Obama Coffee Mug

Comment of the Week

"Oh, yeah, lots of us Scots-Irish gangbangers running around, hopped up on Bushmills whiskey, wearing our kilts pulled down to our buttcracks, blasting bagpipe and fiddle music from our woofers and doing drive bys with our AK's."

Carolina Ulsterman

EVERYONE BELONGS SOMEWHERE...

Whitemoor no longer operated with Vulnerable Prisoner (VP) Units, so sex offenders were dispersed around the main wings. Being admitted to the Muslim community as the most influential religious group in the prison granted them the certainty of being backed up in precarious situations by a large number of ‘brothers’

Well, why people think it’s a gang is because you have certain prisoners who are in for rape who have given information about other people on cases. Basically prisoners who would normally, traditionally, be on the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit and all these prisoners, they turn Muslim and then they’re joined to a brotherhood where people will protect them, so they’re walking around normal

If you’re in for say a violent rape or killing a woman, you may be approached and told “If you join you’ll be given protection, if you don’t you will be seen as an enemy”

Prison guards said they had a policy of “appeasement” towards the powerful and growing Islamic population, particularly convicted terrorists who were feared to be recruiting future extremists.

Non-believers avoided confrontation with any Muslim in case it led to retribution from the wider group, and said they even avoided cooking pork or bacon in communal kitchens or undressing in the showers in case it caused offence.

British Rapists and Pedophiles Converting to Islam in Prison

COURT JESTERS NEED NOT APPLY

It’s much easier to be Jon Stewart in America. Even if you do end up with a Republican in the White House, nothing will happen if you go on making wacky faces while reading news items in an exaggerated high voice before saying “Whaaaaat?” (Applause light goes on, audience monotonously cheers something they were thinking but that he actually said.)

But when you succeed in getting the Republican out of the White House and replacing him with not just any Democrat, but one so far left that he makes Jimmy Carter look like Richard Nixon, then life is still good and you still get to read news items while lifting one eyebrow (unless you’ve already given Colbert the eyebrow shtick so that he now has a grand total of one comic reaction) before saying, “Whaaaat. Waaaait a minute here.”

(Audience claps with one hand, checks Yelp on smartphones with other hand to find the best places to eat after the George Clooney interview is done.)

But life isn’t good for Egyptian Jon Stewart, because Jimmy Carter II has done for Egypt, what the original Jimmy did for Iran. And it’s illegal to mock the new Muslim Brotherhood Fuhrer who represents the Jan 25 Islamic Revolution.

Egyptian Jon Stewart Faces Investigation for Insulting Muslim Brotherhood President

TORCH IN THE NEW YEAR

The good news is that the French insurance industry is getting a lot of repeat business. The bad news is that 1,193 cars were torched, three police officers and four gendarmes were injured. And 339 arrests were made. But it’s just another way that Islamic traditions are becoming part of France in a great multicultural mix of petrol, fire and ruin.

In the days preceding Christmas François Hollande made a trip to Algeria to apologize for the war.

Hollande added: “We have this duty to the truth about the violence, the injustices, the massacres, the torture”. Hollande promised to better accommodate those Algerians requesting visas to France and to urge the French consulates to issue the documents more quickly.

French Muslims Celebrate New Year by Torching 1,193 Cars

NATIVE COAL

Back in 2008, Obama vowed to destroy the coal industry. Thus far he has been doing an excellent job of shutting down coal plants and putting coal miners out of work with over 17,000 jobs lost.

But there’s coal, which is dirty, filthy and polluting, and there’s Indian coal which is the heart and soul of an ancient people and is in a special category as indigenous coal.

The gloriously indigenous Indian coal tax credit has been extended for another year. Because that Italian guy who played an Indian standing by a highway doesn’t cry when the coal is held in trust by the United States government. Let the sound of 17,000 unemployed coal miners who don’t happen to be Indians be heard throughout the land.

Hollywood Tax Credits, Rum Subsidies, Indian Coal and Scooters: The Senate Fiscal Cliff Bill’s 4 Worst Ripoffs

THEIR WAY OF THINKING HAS NOT CHANGED

Q: What was the reaction of the old elite to 9/11?

“They were shocked that the attack occurred in New York which for them was the same as an attack against Europe — Amsterdam or London. They realized that they could be the victim and that the enemy does not pause to ask your name.”

Q: So has something changed in their way of thinking?

“Not really. They are afraid, and want more checkpoints, more control. But it is too late for them to undergo a real change in ideology. They don’t want to argue with Islam, they only want Intelligence operations against radical Islam. They don’t want a discussion about cultural differences or rationality – a very dangerous issue for them. Their way of thinking has not changed. They are only afraid for their own lives but not for the well-being of western culture.

Q: What is the agenda of the old elite as you saw it?

“They have no agenda, they are completely decadent. Nihilists. After the Second World War they lived the good life and thought of bringing over workers to Europe.

Q: Did this attitude have a goal? Did they see in their vision world peace for instance?

“No, they only wanted to pay for their guilt, the historical guilt of Europe, the murderous continent, and they acted out of some atheist kind of Christianity which I call nihilistic.

...from an interview with Dutch-Iranian Professor Afshin Ellian

VIVA LA REVOLUCIA HOMICIDOS

The good news is that the Socialist Paradise of Venezuela, so beloved by Sean Penn and Oliver Stone, is finally on track to defeat the capitalist warpigs of the United States of America once and for all… in the number of murders.

While the US murder total for 2012 isn’t in yet, the Venezuelan murder total has hit 21,692, up from 18,000 last year, despite a ban on private ownership of guns enacted by the Chavez regime this year.

Hugo Chavez Outlaws Gun Ownership, Murder Rate Hits 21,692

BEGGING ONLY WORKS WHEN YOUR ENEMIES HAVE MERCY

Hezbollah fatboy-in-chief Hassan Nasrallah looks uncomfortable, he mops his brow and admits the fighting is hard and long, which from a terrorist group that claims victory after every defeat, means Hezbollah has been getting its ass kicked in Syria.

“Between us and Al Qaeda there is no relationship,” Nasrallah says, “rather there is a form of disputation and sometimes animosity. If they make us our enemy, that is up to them.”

But who is Nasrallah really kidding?

Iran tried to make a deal with Al Qaeda before and after September 11. The policy of the Shiite Islamic Revolutionaries, going back to the old Ayatollah has been to find ways to work with Sunni terrorist groups in a region where Shiites are a minority. And Al Qaeda repaid Iran by massacring Shiites to begin a civil war in Iraq and went on killing Shiites in Afghanistan.

Nasrallah announcing that he wants to negotiate because he fears Takfiris will wipe out Shiites is a show of weakness. And unlike Israeli, America and Europe whom Nasrallah has grown too used to dealing with, Al Qaeda does not reward weakness.

It punishes it.

Hezbollah Leader Begs Al Qaeda for a Truce

WE CARE A LOT

Head of Hamas in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh told UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, that the Gaza Strip couldn’t take in Syria’s Palestinian refugees due to an ideological issue: If they take in the refugees from Syria, Israel could use it against them when it comes to the Palestinians’ demand for the “right to return” to villages inside present day Israel, by pointing out that the refugees no longer need to return to Israel because they have been relocated to new homes in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas Refuses to Accept Palestinian Refugees from Syria to Spite Israel

FAIR, LOGICAL AND COMPLETELY UNBALANCED

Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was scheduled to speak twice during the Muslim American-Society (MAS)/Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) national convention Dec. 22-25.

But a statement released during the convention expressed “the unpleasant and saddening news” that al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a visa from the U.S. embassy, and that he appears to be on the U.S. “no-fly list.”

Al-Qarni is described as “one of our great speakers” and as someone known “for his logical discourse and balanced views, he promotes understanding and collaboration between all people, regardless of their faith, background, or language.”

Here is an example of Al-Qarni's speaking skills.

I pray to Allah that He will make the enemies fall into their own trap and that He will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims’ spoils.

Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered,” al-Qarni said. “This is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice.”

But while Al-Qarni is a fan of killing Jews and Americans… he’s also a fan of Barack Obama.

“Now we have an educated and rational president with roots in Islam.

“We tell Barack Obama: ‘What a blessed hour, O Abu Hussein! You are a thousand times welcome.’”

CAIR Protests No-Fly Ban of Terror Sheik Who Called for Slitting Jewish Throats

AL-CORRUPT

Probably the funniest thing about the Clinton Administration is that Al Gore was supposed to be the figure of integrity in it, the straight man to Bill Clinton’s rowdy man, except Gore was at least as sleazy as Clinton. The entire Current TV debacle is an ugly reminder of just how creepy, manipulative, exploitative and corrupt Gore really is.

It’s an open question whether Al Gore really intended for Current TV to be a viable proposition or whether he used his influence to get cable providers to carry it long enough to be able to then sell it off and cash in.

Current TV was never viable, it lacked programming, viewers and anything to distinguish it from MSNBC, its chief competitor. Even its name made for poor branding.

But it did have one asset. Carriage.

Al Gore Threatened to Denounce Cable Companies as Islamophobes to Protect $100 Million Al Jazeera Payout

FINALLY REPUBLICANS HAVE THEIR OWN DICK DURBIN

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is somewhat light on the crazy factor. Even the Democratic members are not the worst you could think of, with the exception of John Kerry and Dick Durbin. Kerry is moving on, but for the last decade or so, he wasn't nearly as bad as Dick Durbin.

Fortunately the Republicans have decided to supplement the SFRC with their own Dick Durbin, Rand "Let's Send All the Gitmo Terrorists Back to Afghanistan" Paul.

Rand Paul isn't the first Republican senator to be pro-terrorist. We've got Hagel coming back as a wannabe SofD as a reminder of that, but his appointment certainly is a present to Democrats. And Rand Paul with all his talk of stopping the American Empire is a good deal worse than Hagel or Durbin and in Bradley Manning territory.

Bradley Manning at least had to smuggle out intelligence on Lady Gaga CDs. How will Rand Paul do it? And I can't wait till we get that hearing into whether steel can really melt.

IT'S OBAMA'S WORLD, WE JUST LIVE IN IT

Indian Women Rushing to Buy Guns After Gang Rape

California Supreme Court Claims Unions Have Special Right to “Invade Private Property”

Mandatory Exercise for the Obese Comes to the UK

Egyptian Magazine Claims 2 High Ranking Homeland Security Officials are Muslim Brotherhood Operatives

Socialism Killed Kim Jong Il

China Rushes to Define Itself as a Muslim Country

Back to the Stone Age: Greens Unveil New “Body Heat” Home Heating Plan

Finally Socialism is regressing all the way to the Stone Age, where it belongs.

And how about, in the spirit of perpetual generosity, we just make this work by forcing entire families to live together in the same room and crowding hundreds of employees together in a few thousand square of feet.

Just think of the energy savings and the cycle of generosity as the heat gets turned off and employees huddle together for warmth.

3/4 of Bad British Doctors are 3rd Worlders

Saddam Hussein Party Running for Office in Jordan

Saudi Cleric Promises “Paradise” to 14-Year-Old Girls Who Have Sex with Terrorists

The Jihadis get to molest an underage girl and the girl is told by her family that if she goes through this, she’ll earn paradise and unlike most women, who are hellbound according to Mohammed, will not have to worry about the afterlife

African Migrant Rapes 83-Year-Old Woman in South Tel Aviv

Tzioni pointed at the sidewalk and counted the passersby, most of them Africans, many of them families with baby strollers. At night “you won’t see any Israelis anymore,” he said.

On Salomon Street, haggard prostitutes, strung-out addicts and Israeli Arab drug dealers loiter in the late afternoon sun. Two Chinese workers begin brawling on the corner of Fein Street, throwing bottles at each other before their friends pull them apart and the group scatters. Further down the street, at 22 Salomon Street, sits an Eritrean-run bar, where a 19- year-old woman was drinking on May 14, before she was followed out by a group of African men she had argued with in the bar who then raped her in a nearby parking lot, according to police.

Palestinian Authority Tortured 96% of its Prisoners

Female Blogger Exposes Tunisian Islamist Minister’s Affair, Islamist Leader Says She Should Be Flogged

74% More Mosques in America Since September 11

Muslim Population of Britain Doubles

AND NOW THE ROUNDUP

...Doug Ross has a special gift just waiting for your favorite member of Congress

from American Digest

Socialism, so caring, so "fair," so humanity based, so green... and so wonderful for the environment! Especially when all the parasites run out of money:

A haze of smoke hangs over the city skyline in Athens, early Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013. The cloud is the result of a massive switch to wooden stoves and fireplaces for heating as many households, already hard hit by the economic crisis, can not afford to buy heating oil after the cash-strapped government decided to harmonize taxes on heating oil and diesel fuel, leading to a 40 percent rise in the price of heating oil.

What's next? Wood is about as basic as it gets. When the infrastructure loses momentum, and the going get tough, then the tough go back to hunting and fishing, to knights, nobles and peasants, and all the rest of it. Civilization is a fragile thing and it rarely survives the civilizers.

FREEDOM ON FOUR WHEELS

The automobile represents freedom.

You climb into a car and go, go, go, whenever and wherever you want. The car is modern man’s path to liberty.

Contrast cars with trains.

Railroads are an expression of the collective. Individual identity is erased. You are at the mercy of a state-controlled system that turns citizens into passive cogs, manipulated and at the mercy of government bureaucrats.

That’s why democrats/progressives/liberals/ (what are they calling themselves this week?) are obsessed with high-speed rail. The freedom of the road is repellent to big government fanatics.

...from Robert at Seraphic Secret

or alternatively, from Small Dead Animals

Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car

...minus the random part and the invite part

CHECKMATE

"...If you create artificial states with substantial minorities, as British and French cartographers did after the First World War, the only possible stable government is a minority government. That is why the Alawites ran Syria and the minority Sunnis ran Iraq. The minority regime may be brutal, even horribly brutal, but this arrangement sets up a crude system of checks and balances."

Spengler, via Blazing Cat Fur

ME AND THEE

Gregory will never be indicted, prosecuted or punished for a crime he clearly committed, and for which any of the rest of us would have already seen a swift and vicious application of Almighty State “justice.” The “investigation” is nothing more than a delaying tactic, and will be abandoned or whitewashed over as soon as it’s practicable. Sure, there have always been abuses of the system, and the rich will always be able to buy justice at the expense of the rest of us; those truths are eternal, and universal. But we are now undeniably living under two separate but unequal sets of laws in this foul country, and its machinations are right in front of our noses and exercised in broad daylight: one for the protected elites, and another for the rest of us.

...from Cold Fury, Life in the Third World

GOOD TIMES AND BAD

What I’ve deduced (yeah fancy shit words) is that gun bans, confiscations or whatever have not happened during times of tribulations but during times of prosperity and peace. That’s only when they will they work. Two examples, when Hitler came to power he promised that Germany would be prosperous, healthy and would avenge the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty and he did just that. Hitler was a monster beyond all compare but he was what others weren’t…a consummate, savvy politician and he knew what the people wanted and he delivered it to them. During the ’30s Germany prospered where other nations were drowning, including the United States. In return all he asked was for a little obedience, order and certain other things that were relatively minor (unless you were a Jew) and the people happily complied. One of those things was gun registration and eventually confiscation. The people thought “Hey, life is good, I’m making money, prices are low so is crime and Germany is once a power player on the world stage what do I need a gun for?” Germans weren’t afraid of the unknown.

The second? The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Same thing. Life was good, inflation was low, unemployment was low, GDP was up, the Berlin Wall was dust, the Soviet Union was history and the good times were rolling on Wall Street and Main Street. You want to take some guns? Ok, crime is down so we don’t need’em so go ahead, take’em. Americans weren’t afraid of the unknown so they took them, but we’re going to put a time limit on it…just in case.

...from the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

And it's an important point. Security is important to people. In insecure times, unthinking cooperation is harder to come by.

Finally, from Oleg of the People's Cube, an important American Thinker article

The laws of society and human nature are such that socialism can only be achieved through a certain sequence of steps and manipulations. For instance, the only way to attain material equality is to confiscate someone's property and give it to others. That necessitates a centralized mechanism of coercion, redistribution, and control. Such a system gives extraordinary corrupting powers to a small centralized elite, while turning the rest of the citizenry into a compliant, obsequious herd.

All those who claimed they can do it differently were doomed to retrace the same path. Once you unleash the ancient powers of collectivism, you have only two options: control the human herd or be trampled underfoot.

Friday Afternoon Roundup - The Boehner…