The World Is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

 

 

To be 'going to hell in a handbasket' is to be

rapidly deteriorating - on course for disaster.

Origin -- It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. If Hollywood films are to be believed, the decapitated heads were caught in baskets - the casualty presumably going straight to hell, without passing Go.

The first version of 'in a handbasket' in print does in fact relate to an imaginary decapitated head. In Samuel Sewall's Diary, 1714, we find:

"A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it."

 

As my friend Chaim would say, there's nothing new under the sun. But that doesn't make life any easier, does it?

Now I realize that a successful blog needs to encompass more than just apologies for not blogging, so let me simply say that I've been sick, I've been reading books and I've been pretty consistently sucked into the ease of "sharing" bit and pieces on facebook. Of these three, I would recommend only the book:

 

A used hardcover in "good" condition is available at Amazon... for a penny! So there is no excuse for not reading it:)  Highly recommended.

Oh, wait, my cellphone is yelling at me to "unplug power supply to save energy." Every time it tells me that, I want to throw it across the room. It would be a different story if it would just tell me what happens to the energy I "save." Does it go to the poor in Haiti? No, that would be taxpayer-funded groceries bought with food stamps.

Now I'm annoyed, so I pull out a cigarette. First I have to get past the little paper insert with instructions: "Share in our respect for the environment. Promise yourself that you won't litter a single butt from this pack. Learn how you can fight cigarette butt litter at blah blah blah dot-com."  I throw it on the floor just for spite.

So if you're still with me, I need to explain just how it is that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  Where do I begin?

 

 

The Divider-in-Chief has once again stirred up racial animus by empathizing with Trayvon Martin's family because they are Black, and at the same time omitting any mention of the bi-racial George Zimmerman and his family and the death threats against them. 

In the video, [New] Black Panthers spokesman Mikhail Muhammad offers $10,000 "for the capture of George Zimmerman. We're going to force our government to do their job properly, and if they don't we will."

Muhammad said, "We're saying to President Obama, you gotta do your job on this one buddy… So white America, we have given you 400 years to get it right and you still have failed black people. We're not even citizens in this country. We're still third class citizens. Today as black men, we must stand up. We must say to white America, 'Your time is up.'"

New Black Panther Party leader Malik Zulu Shabazz also angrily reacted to the Zimmerman not guilty verdict earlier this week, saying that the freed man would "always be hunted and hated like the villain that he is and the demon that he is to many."

"Those jurors were making a direct statement to black America, and they were telling us that, 'We are in fear of the black male, fear of the black man and fear of the Trayvon Martin's and we are going to maintain this first, the right of us to kill you [expletive],'" he said.

 

I imagine the expletive was something along the lines of "crazy-ass cracker(s)," which I find not unrelated to references such as "typical white person(s)," bitter clinger(s) and "Barack could get shot going to the gas station."

The race-baiting and -mongering is of course to cover up and distract from the scandals swirling around the Oval Office, including the recent discovery that the origin of an IRS witch hunt, meant to silence "tea party" and "patriot" groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections, has been traced thus far to Obama appointee William Wilkins, head of the IRS Chief Counsel's office.

What's that you say? Smoking is bad for my health? Yes, well, so is the High Anxiety caused by this ObamaNation. For me the "choice" is either smoke tobacco or take prescription drugs and I'd like to stay out of the 70%, thank you, especially given that our medical records are going to end up in the Federal Data Services Hub.

.... The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub ... is to provide “electronic, near real-time access to federal data” and “access to state and third party data sources needed to verify consumer-eligibility information.”

.... The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs. Not to fear, HHS says, the Data Hub will be completely secure.

Really?

And in news of Obama's Never-Ending War on American Prosperity, The Won is going on the warpath again this week, "embarking on a campaign-style tour of the Midwest."

.... September will be the fifth anniversary of the financial crisis that underscored that recession, and White House officials said Mr. Obama wanted to take stock of the economy’s recovery and chart a path forward.

 

Gd save us from any move any further "forward." 

 

You know about Detroit going bankrupt after being pounded with "six decades of 'progressive' policies," right?

... 40 percent of its streetlamps don’t work; 210 of its 317 public parks have been permanently closed; it takes an hour for police to respond to a 9-1-1 call; only a third of its ambulances are driveable; one-third of the city has been abandoned; the local realtor offers houses on sale for a buck and still finds no takers; etc., etc.

I can only say that I'm glad that progress comes slowly to my home state of West Virginia, where we've had 7 or 8 decades of such one-party rule. But we're coming along; I read only yesterday that my county will have a "special election" in November so we can vote to raise taxes on ourselves.

Most recent projections show that without another tax, the school system is on course to butt up against a $2.5 million deficit next year and a nearly $3 million deficit by the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Kanawha County School Board member Robin Rector:

"I think with this people will have a chance to offer up dollars in an organized fashion, or there will be things we can't do without reaching out to get in people's pockets for anyway."

 

Thank Gd I don't have a child in school here, and to Rector I'd say, "Thanks but no thanks. I'm taxed enough already." 

 

 

And that's not the half of it, boys and girls. John Kerry, the doofus who's been appointed Secretary of State and Head of Peace Processing, has managed to twist Bibi's arm somehow sufficiently to obtain a promise that Israel will release numerous terrorist murderers in order to attract the Arabs to the "negotiating table."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will bring the issues of peace talks resumption and Palestinian prisoners' release to a cabinet vote, a source familiar with the details told Ynet Sunday.

There's no word on whether Netanyahu demanded of Kerry the release of Jonathan Pollard in exchange for this preconditional concession.

Of course the Arabs themselves are insisting on the preconditional concession of an Israeli territorial retreat to 1949 armistice lines, and the EU is vigorously supporting them with a decision to sanction any items produced by Israelis beyond that line. Guidelines were for the boycott were published on Friday.

The preamble to the guidelines says that "the EU does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over... the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem... and does not consider them to be part of Israel's territory, irrespective of their legal status under domestic law," according to AFP.

The guidelines apply to "grants, prizes and financial instruments," it adds.

"Only Israeli entities having their place of establishment within Israel's pre-1967 borders will be considered eligible as final recipients" of this kind offunding.

Israeli experts said on Friday that the implications of the policy could have a major impact on how Israel does business with the EU.

For example, Holocaust survivors who have accounts in banks in areas like Ramat Eshkol – considered “occupied” under the EU guidelines – may find that their reparation payments are held up, as Germany, an EU member, would refuse to transfer money to such banks. Israeli owners of property in Europe who love in Judea and Samaria could find themselves unable to collect rent from their properties, as European courts would not enforce those contracts. The policy, said the experts, could cause a “legal morass” that would tie up courts in Israel and the EU for years.

 

I enjoyed the respite while Israel was not so much in the news, luckily overlooked due to the raging civil war in Syria and the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  We will all need strength in the coming days as it's beyond obvious that The World has chosen to focus once again on the tiny, peaceful Jewish state surrounded by hostility and chaos -- thanks in great part to the leadership of the Obama administration, soon to be joined by the lying sack of Jew-hating sh*t, Samantha Power, if her appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations is confirmed by the Harry Reid Senate.

Oh, and btw, Miz Power doesn't like America either. According to PowerLine: 

 Customarily, the President of the United States has not nominated purveyors of vicious slanders of America for any office, never mind the job of representing America before the leading world body. Doing so is another instance of the change we’ve been waiting for, and dreading.

 

Thank Gd the phone is ringing, so I can go chat with my friend Stef now while you guys cogitate on all the above. To Be Continued... if I can bear it.

 

 

Comments

[Elan]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-asked-us-to-free-pollard-as-incentive-for-entering-peace-talks/

[Mannie Sherberg]

For once, Hollywood got it right: Decapitations (or, for those who prefer, decollates -- a "Frenchier" word that seems only fitting since a Frenchman invented the guillotine) did, and for all I know, still do, use baskets as receptacles for the head. My source for this useless bit of trivia is "The Anarchists Club," a first-rate book about anarchism in 19th-century France, when beheading was often meted out to those who wanted to abolish the French state. The French, with such noteworthy exceptions as Louis Pasteur, have always struck me as among the least civilized people on earth -- which must be why they waste so much of their time boasting about French "civilization." Their behavior during the Vichy years and their attitudes today toward the State of Israel only reinforce my belief.

[Walt Gottesman]

Usually I agree with Manny wholeheartedly, but lest we forget, the French fleet helped our founding fathers secure the surrender of Cornwallis to win the American Revolution. The French Resistance, despite the Vichy capitulation to the Nazis, helped the Allies win battles in WW II and rescued downed U.S. airmen. Also, France built Israel's nuclear reactor at Dimona in the 1950s. France has had it's ups and downs, but there are quite a few countries that are less civilized than France, imo.

[Walt Gottesman]

Sorry Mannie, misspelled your name.