Well, Well, Well

Turns out it wasn't about a desert tortoise after all.  But we knew that.  The tortoise and the cattle have been co-existing for 100 years.  And there are so many of those tortoises that the Feds are euthanizing them.  It wasn't about the boundaries of the tortoise reserve, either.  Because those boundaries are flexible enough that at one point BLM changed them for Harry Reid.  Who just happens to be tight with the head of BLM.  And who just happens to be involved with a Chinese solar firm that just happens to want to develop a facility on that land.

Yeah, it was the land BLM wanted.  Didn't have anything at all to do with the tortoise.  It had to do with Harry Reid and family getting richer.

What I find telling is that BLM representatives seemed willing, at one point, to open fire on the protesters.  That's how arrogant our government has become.  And that's what we have to figure out how to tear down.

WHAT?!

I'd say that this is unbelievable but it's not.  And it's not just this out of control administration.  It's that Americans have let this get to this point.

In 2010 the Farm Bill contained verbiage removing the statute of limitations on debts owed to the gummit.  All well and good - a debt is a debt and one should pay one's debts, even if you think we are overtaxed by a fiducially irresponsible bunch of horse's patooties.  I get this part.

The part that needs to be torn down, stomped on, and flushed down the crapper is that the gummit is now collecting the debts of deceased debtors from their families by snatching their tax returns.  Ol' Mom was overpaid by the IRS and has died?  YOU get to pay the debt.  From The Washington Post:

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them. Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

We have piles of evidence that government agencies are out of control.  When the heck are Americans going to get off their butts and fight this crap?

Full story here.

Look Closely

This isn't a parrot.

The photo is the work of artist and former body paining champion Johannes Stoetter who spent four weeks planning this shoot, five hours setting it up, four hours painting the model, and another hour trying to find the pose that most resembled that of a real parrot.

Justice

You may have heard that some wiseacres in San Francisco amused themselves by tipping Smart cars on their sides.  Gotta say, I find this entertaining...

...because a zoom on the bumper sticker I circled reveals:

Yeah.  Big smile here.

h/t Andy Parks

More

Long days, that is.  Back whenever.  At least I can't complain of boredom.

On A Dime

As Borepatch's recent posts have shown, things can turn on a dime.  Financial Peace class began last night with the news that the eldest son of friends from church had been found dead that morning.  I can't imagine.  If you are of a praying inclination, please say one for the Blancs.   They've been preparing for the joy of seeing another son ordained to the priesthood in a couple months.  There'll be a hole in their family on that day now.

Lie

It's been years since the New York Times actually reported rather than opinionated, and their recent Jack Chick-like cartoon is multicolored proof of their inability to print the truth.

I know that the problem comes from being liberal - liberals don't view facts as necessary to their statements.  It's all about how they feel and hey, if a lie makes them feel superior, well then the lie is justified. 

The lie is that the Hobby Lobby suit is about them denying contraceptives to their employees.   It's not.  Hobby Lobby already provides coverage for contraceptives.  What they are refusing to do is to be involved with abortifacients,  which kill a new human being rather than preventing conception. 

But liberals lie.  It's easier for them than telling the truth is.

h/t Creative Minority Report