Picking Presidential Administration Appointments

When President Reagan first became president he and his staff spent a lot of time discussing appointments to key jobs in the administration. Here are his words about picking them:

As I had done in California, I told the staff I wanted them to look for the best people we could find who were willing to leave their homes and their secure positions to come to Washington and give the country a hand. When I’d approach somebody about taking a job, I’d often say, “We don’t want people who want a job in government, we want people of accomplishment who have to be persuaded to come to work here.”

Source: The Uncommon Wisdom of Ronald Reagan. A Portrait in His Words. (1996) by Bill Adler [editor]

In other words, President Reagan wanted someone who did not dream of working in government. It’s too bad we can’t get people running for Congress or even for president like this. Most want to have power not to serve. If you have a candidate that was reluctant of running but had experience and accomplishment in oh, I don’t know say the private sector (excluding trial lawyers—we have enough of those in Congress thank you) then you  would less likely end up with a career politician addicted to the power and money who think they are part of an elite ruling class.

Or you wouldn’t end up with a POTUS who has daydreams of being a dictator. In previous blogs I joked about calling him an emperor. I guess my jokes weren’t too far off the mark.

Thanks legislators, higher energy bills are on the way

From ConservativeActionAlerts.com (July 15):

Legislators in more than half the states have voted for mandatory renewable energy standards—usually called an RPS for Renewable Portfolio Standards. While the numbers vary state-by-state, an RPS generally requires that an increasing percentage of a state’s electricity come from renewable sources—primarily wind and solar—by set dates. Most of the mandates coincide with the year: 15% by 2015, 20% by 2020, etc. Most states voted in the RPS back when the economy was thriving and “green” energy sounded like a good idea—after all the wind and the sun are “free.” Voting against “renewables” was akin to not liking puppies. Elected officials from both parties have voted for their state’s RPS. But, renewable energy systems have not proven to be free, and most cannot survive without special mandates and subsidies paid for by your tax dollars.

Many different computer models were run to determine the least-cost way to meet the mandates. The results should not be surprising. The least-cost model was based on coal [my italics]—but it does not meet the mandates. The least-cost model that does meet the mandates requires the addition of wind, solar and gas-fueled power plants and shuts down some of the older, existing, fully functional, coal-fueled power plants. The model favored by advocates of “green” energy cuts out coal all together and requires the building of new gas-fueled plants for base load power and to back up the renewables. This third model is the most expensive and therefore is unlikely to be selected by the PRC. But even the mid-range plan will cost state residents more than a billion dollars—and this is just for required CO₂ penalties, not the actual power-plant capital costs. That increase will be felt in everything and disproportionately hurts the poor. Not to mention the increased costs to the cities within the state which are trying to balance their budgets while keeping the lights on. [read more]

This is exactly what happens when environmentalism turns into a religion.

I believe it was Obama that said that energy bills are going to go up in the future. Was he forecasting or was he creating the future? You judge.

You can go to the Dept. of Energy’s States with Renewable Portfolio Standards webpage to see if your state is affected by these stupid standards.

The Government-as-God Concept

If you want to understand the Left’s superiority complex--their arrogance then you have to understand how they view gov’t even themselves. First, let’s make well-known assumptions about God:

1. God is all-knowing (omniscience).
2. God is all-powerful (omnipotent).
3. God is everywhere (omnipresent).
4. God is immortal.
5. God is totally good.
6. God is perfect.
7. You should have faith and trust in God.

If you replace ‘God’ with ‘gov’t’ then you have the Left’s view of the world. Let’s flush this idea out some more.

All totalitarian regimes want to have the first three attributes—hence the word ‘total’ in the totalitarian. Socialists would like to have these attributes when they are doing central planning—like in Obamacare. If you could know or calculate the need/want of every person in a country (omniscience) you could give them (omnipotent) want they need/want.  Of course you would have to be everywhere (omnipresent) to do this. But mankind is none of the omnis so this dream of total control is just a dream.

If God is immortal and gov’t is like God then gov’t (or at least gov’t programs) should be or can be immortal. That’s what the Left believes. So, cutting gov’t programs or agencies that is not mandated in the Constitution is like harming God.  Well, just like people, gov’t is not immortal. The Roman Empire fell along with other gov’ts of the past. America could fall as well if we are not careful with our spending. The gov’t is immortal concept is why the Left justifies why the Federal Reserve can keep printing money without consequences.

The Left also believes that gov’t is totally good. Or can be made good and perfect through societal evolution or just the right kind of people (read: elites) running the country are chosen. Well, mankind will never be totally good and will never will be perfect. Ben Franklin as smart as he was tried to perfect himself. He failed. For every bad habit he got rid of two new ones appeared. So, if mankind is not totally good and perfect then neither can gov’t be either. Since man is not perfect he can be corrupted. And a man with power can increase his chances of being corrupted. The Left thinks that certain men (elites) can handle power without being corrupted. Maybe, a little power but once the power increases so does the corruption. And if the person is arrogant—triple the chances of him being corrupted. Because if he or she thinks they cannot be corrupted.

The Left wants people to have total faith and trust in gov’t. After all the gov’t knows better than you wants good for you. It is perfect, all-knowing, and good.  Just like God. Right? The Left would like people to believe that because they believe it. Most people on the far-Left thought Communism was a good idea but was implemented wrong—or wasn’t given enough time to get the quirks out. This is the same excuse given to all the gov’t programs that have failed. Just give them more money and more time. Well, money doesn’t just pop into existence and more time isn’t going to fix a system that doesn’t make any logical sense.

Taken to the final extreme if gov’t is God then all other religions can be outlawed. Because you cannot have two Gods. This happened in the Soviet Union and is still happening in China.

The Inspiration of the Declaration

Happy birthday America! Below are parts of a speech that President Calvin Coolidge gave July 5, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

We are obliged to conclude that the Declaration of Independence represented the movement of a people. It was not, of course, a movement from the top. Revolutions do not come from that direction. It was not without the support of many of the most respectable people in the Colonies, who were entitled to all the consideration that is given to breeding, education, and possessions. It had the support of another element of great significance and importance to which I shall later refer. But the preponderance of all those who occupied a position which took on the aspect of aristocracy did not approve of the Revolution and held toward it an attitude either of neutrality or open hostility. It was in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities, but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.

as not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

It was the fact that our Declaration of Independence containing these immortal truths was the political action of a duly authorized and constituted representative public body in its sovereign capacity, supported by the force of general opinion and by the armies of Washington already in the field, which makes it the most important civil document in the world. It was not only the principles declared, but the fact that therewith a new nation was born which was to be founded upon those principles and which from that time forth in its development has actually maintained those principles, that makes this pronouncement an incomparable event in the history of government. It was an assertion that a people had arisen determined to make every necessary sacrifice for the support of these truths and by their practical application bring the War of Independence to a successful conclusion and adopt the Constitution of the United States with all that it has meant to civilization.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government. This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

The Left’s Version of The Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of course goes like this:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Left would like it to read:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under government, divided up among race, gender, and sexual preference with equality,  fraternity, and social/economic/environmental justice for all.

The New World Order Left like George Soros would like it to read:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Nations, all countries under one world order divided up among race, gender, and sexual preference with equality,  fraternity, and social/economic/environmental justice for all.

Actually, according to a Wikipedia article the The Pledge did not contain the words “under God.” So, NBC advertisement was just following the original Pledge (which was deliberate in my opinion) written by socialist Francis Bellamy. Go figure. He also originally wanted the “equality” and “fraternity” parts put in. Which is by the way from the French revolution—“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” The only good part of that slogan is “liberty.” The rest led to a socialistic France.

Facts about Slavery in America

Here are some facts about slavery in America from The Patriot’s History of The United States. (2004) by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen:

1. Although slavery was profitable, profits and property rights alone did not explain its perpetuation.
2. The same of free market that allowed Africans to be bought and sold at the same time exerted powerful pressures to liberate them.
3. Southerners needed the force of government to maintain and expand slavery, and without it, a combination of the market and slave revolts would have ultimately ended the institution. [my emphasis]

History of the Federal Reserve

A powerful cartel of financiers held a meeting at Jekyll Island in Brunswick, Georgia in 1910 to protect themselves from banking losses by using tax revenue instead of their own money.

Here were their challenges:

1. How to stop the growing influence of small, rival banks and to insure that control over the nation’s financial resources would remain in the hands of those present;
2. How to make the money supply more elastic in order to reverse the trend of private capital formation and to recapture the industrial loan market;
3. How to pool the meager reserves of the nation’s banks into one large reserve so that all banks will be motivated to follow the same loan-to-deposit ratios. This would protect at least some of them from currency drains and bank runs;
4. Should this lead eventually to the collapse of the whole banking system, then how to shift the losses from the owners of the banks to the taxpayers. [my emphasis]
5. How to convince Congress that the scheme was a measure to protect the public.

The cartel would operate as a central bank.

Source: The Creature from Jekyll Island. A Second Look at the Federal Reserve. 4th Edition. (2002) by G. Edward Griffin.

Panetta Says North Korea a "Growing" Danger to U.S.

From NTI.org (June 9):

CIA head Leon Panetta said North Korea's military, including its ballistic missile and nuclear enrichment activities, represent a "growing and direct threat" to the United States, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

The statement was included in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Panetta was addressing on Thursday as President Obama's pick to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Earlier this year, Gates said he foresaw North Korea in the next five years developing a ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental United States. The Stalinist state in 2010 also revealed a uranium enrichment program, which could give it another path to producing military-usable atomic material, though Pyongyang is not known to have yet built a nuclear weapon small enough to be attached to a missile. [read more]

And Obama is worried about Khadafi? Okay, I understand he is an oppressive brutal thug to his people but as far as I know he does not have missiles pointed at us. America does not even know who the rebels are and what they stand for. Not all revolutions are good (although if you are a radical like Obama that’s what they like). Remember the French revolution? That’s worked out well. The revolutionaries wanted equality and they got socialism!  And it looks like Egypt is getting sharia law if the Muslim brotherhood takes over.

More than 80% of mosques advocate or promote violence

From WND.com (June 8):

Dozens of mosques around the United States have been identified in a new study as incubators for jihad against America, with more than 80 percent of those surveyed advocating violence.

"Of the 100 mosques surveyed, 51 percent had texts on-site rated as severely advocating violence; 30 percent had texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19 percent had no violent texts at all," said the  survey compiled by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi and published by the Middle East Quarterly. [read more]

Wow! That’s a lot of mosques! Over 80%? So, much for Islam being the ‘religion of peace’.

Although, this does sort of ring true from what I’ve read of Brigitte Gabriel’s book Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. She says her friends attended mosques that preached hate and anti-American messages. She got reports from friends from different mosques around the country. She was surprised and unnerved by this knowledge.

History of Hatred Against the Jewish People

Hat tip to the Glenn Beck show for this chronology:

175-163 B.C.	Attempt to outlaw Judaism
164- 163 B.C.	Jerusalem captured
72 A.D.	Expelled from Palestine
1096	12,000 Jews killed in First Crusade
1099	Jerusalem captured, Jews killed
1215	Forced to wear yellow circle on clothes
1290	Expelled from England
1306	Expelled from France
1349 – 1360	Expelled from Hungary
1421	Expelled from Austria
1492	Expelled from Spain
1495	Expelled from Lithuania
1497	Expelled from Portugal
15th century – 1772	Banned in Russia
1543	“Concerning the Jews and Their Lies” released
1555	Forced into Italian ghettos
1648-49	10,000 killed in massacres in Ukraine
1925	“Mein Kampf” published
1933	Nazi Party comes to power in Germany
1935	Nuremburg Laws introduced
1938	7,500 businesses destroyed in Kristallnacht
1941	33,000 killed in Ukraine
1941-1945	67% European Jews are murdered

 

Man, I am not sure why the Jews are not bitter for what the world has done to them. Anyone else would have a chip on their shoulder. Add to that fact they have countries around them (like Iran and Egypt if the Muslim Brotherhood gain power) who wants to exterminate them.

If America doesn’t stand with Israel and Israel is destroyed then America is next. After all according to the militant Islamists Israel is the little Satan, we are the big Satan.

Obama solicitor general: If you don't like mandate, earn less money

From the Washington Examiner.com (June 2):

President Obama's solicitor general, defending the national health care law on Wednesday, told a federal appeals court that Americans who didn't like the individual mandate could always avoid it by choosing to earn less money.

Neal Kumar Katyal, the acting solicitor general, made the argument under questioning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, which was considering an appeal by the Thomas More Law Center.  The three-judge panel, which was comprised of two Republican-appointed judges and a Democratic-appointed judge, expressed more skepticism about the government's defense of the health care law than the Fourth Circuit panel that heard the Virginia-based Obamacare challenge last month in Richmond. The Fourth Circuit panel was made up entirely of Democrats, and two of the judges were appointed by Obama himself. [read more]

Wow, what arrogance! Then again that’s what the elite Left is known for.

Maybe the regime administration wants everyone to earn less income. Obama is already talking about raising taxes on the successful. 

Ford turning cars into medical monitors

From SF Gate.com (May 31):

For Ford Motor Co., medical monitoring is the next key to a burst of car sales. About 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day and 26 million Americans have diabetes. Besides checking blood sugar, Ford has developed a car seat to check the driver's heart rate that could warn of an impending heart attack, and new features may track breathing patterns for asthmatics or pollen counts for allergy sufferers and recommend remedies.

A Bluetooth connection through the driver's mobile phone could transmit blood-sugar levels from a Medtronic body monitor to the dashboard, Ford said. [read more]

Interesting. Next, a car could check if you are drunk, buzzed, or even high and not let you start it.

Homeland Security’s Version of “Minority Report”

From The Blaze.com (May 30):

Straight out of Minority Report a new Homeland Security program would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to detect people who are intending to commit a terrorist act at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after the FAST program passed its first round of testing at an undisclosed location in northeast US.

The system uses a computer program that studies physiological indicators of a person, such as heart rate and the steadiness of a person’s gaze, and then uses the data to make a judgment on whether that individual has “mal-intent”. [source]

Unnerving. FAST is an acronym for Future Attribute Screening Technology.  The question is when this technology detects Obama or one of this radical associates will it judge them as “mal-intent”?

The DHS website gives a little more info about the technology to clear things up:

The system will measure both physiological and behavioral signals to make probabilistic assessments of mal-intent based on sensor outputs and advanced fusion algorithms and measure indicators using culturally neutral and non-invasive sensors.

Did you understand all that? There will be a test on it later. Advanced fusion algorithms? Huh? Culturally neutral? (Read: it will not judge you if you are a Muslim.) Gotta love those gov’t technocrats.

On that same webpage the DHS also has an Insider Threat Detection Project. I wonder if it will detect Obama as an insider threat? Just wondering.

USDA fines Missouri family $90k for selling a few rabbits without a license

From News.Yahoo.com (May 24):

It started out as a hobby, a way for the Dollarhite family in Dixa, Mo., to teach a teenage son responsibility. Like a lemonade stand.

But now, selling a few hundred rabbits over two years has provoked the heavy hand of the federal government to the tune of a $90,643 fine. The fine was levied more than a year after authorities contacted family members, prompting them to immediately halt their part-time business and liquidate their equipment.

John and Judy Dollarhite began selling rabbit meat by the pound in 2006, and as pets to neighbors and friends in 2008.

Raised on the three-acre lot on which their home sits, the rabbits were heralded by local experts for their quality and kept in pristine condition.

When a local pet store asked them to supply their pet rabbits, the Dollarhites had no idea they would be running afoul of an obscure federal regulation that prohibits selling more than $500 worth of rabbits to a pet store without a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under the law, pet stores are exempt from regulation. [read more]

First the FDA goes after Amish farmers now the USDA is going after other private citizens trying to earn a living. The gov’t is just out of control. $90,000 for a few rabbits? It’s just plain ridiculous.

I’m starting to think every gov’t agency should be examined to see if it has a legitimate function or not. If it does not, then shut it down.

Feds cracks down on Amish farmers for selling raw milk

From the EU Times.net (April 30):

A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.

The product in question: unpasteurized milk.

It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria. [read more]

Doesn’t the FDA have anything better to do than going after farmers? I don’t care if the agency thinks adults shouldn’t be drinking unpasteurized milk. That’s none of their concern. Haven’t people been drinking unpasteurized milk  before it  pasteurizing became common? Has there been massive amounts of people getting violently sick from unpasteurized milk?

It almost seems like the FDA is treating these farmers like Al Capone selling moonshine or something. I seriously doubt the Amish would sell unpasteurized milk on the black market but other dairy farmers might. The FDA is turning the farmers into common criminals. What’s next speakeasies for people who want to drink unpasteurized milk?

What I Would Cut

I took the “What Would You Cut?” survey from The Heritage Foundation.
Below is a summary of the money I want Washington to save taxpayers in the upcoming 2012 fiscal budget:
Department of Education:                                         Cut $15 billion
Obamacare:                                                                             Cut $5 billion
2009 Federal Stimulus Program:                          Cut $60 billion
Welfare/Entitlement Waste and Fraud:            Cut $10 billion
Excessive Pay for Civilian Federal Workers: Cut $40 billion
TOTAL SAVINGS from these five areas alone:            $130 billion!
The Foundation says they will use my recommendations to guide their efforts to educate lawmakers about spending cuts. These cuts, by the way, are the maximum cuts you could choose on the survey.
America has to get serious about cutting the budget and the size of gov’t.  And if Congress raises the debt ceiling again they are crazy. Then it’s not a ceiling. It’s a hot air balloon.
Congress should read the book or pdf file Downsizing the Federal Government on what suggestions to cut. It’s a very detailed plan. The author goes over a lot of government agencies and programs.

Social Chaos and Human Needs

People have to save the basic needs met first. This includes hunger, thirst, sleep, and getting rid of bodily waste. 

Once the basic needs are met then secondary needs like safety and societal order come next.

After the secondary needs are met then the higher order needs or wants come into play. Love, belonging, etc.

During social chaos like a revolution the secondary needs and higher order needs tended to be not met because you are too worried for your safety. Revolutionaries know this. That is the inside-out part that Van Jones was talking about. People want the government (the top-down part) to restore safety and order. Then the radicals can remake society into their own vision.

Obama adviser: American freedom, equality are just 'myths'

From WND.com (May 4):

President Obama's faith adviser, Eboo Patel, blasted what he called the "myths" of America – describing them as beliefs that the country is "a land of freedom and equality and justice."

Patel explained how he used the "faith-based movement" to channel his rage at America "in a direction far more compassionate and far more merciful."

Patel, a Muslim activist from Chicago, further implied that had he grown up in the 1960s, he may have joined the Weather Underground terrorist group led by William Ayers.  [read more]

This guy is a faith advisor? Geez. Then again he is a radical like Obama so go figure. Having people like this around him like this it’s not helping to counter the belief that Obama is a true-believing radical. After all you are judged by the company you keep.

When a radical talks about “a direction far more compassionate” that’s code words for spreading-the-wealth-around. And “far more merciful” means social justice.

CIA chief: Waterboarding aided bin Laden raid

From MSNBC.com (May 3):

WASHINGTON — Intelligence garnered from waterboarded detainees was used to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and kill him, CIA Chief Leon Panetta told NBC News on Tuesday.

"Enhanced interrogation techniques" were used to extract information that led to the mission's success, Panetta said during an interview with anchor Brian Williams. Those techniques included waterboarding, he acknowledged. [read more]

And just think Obama put an end to waterboarding, a technique used during the Bush administration that helped track down bin Laden. Waterboarding to me isn’t torture. Yea, it will probably scare the devil out of you (just like any good horror movie) but it doesn’t cause a lot of physical pain or damage. That’s my definition of torture—lots of intentional physical pain or damage inflicted on a person. Play X genre of music to a person that doesn’t like X is not physical torture. Or keeping him standing all night isn’t either.

Did Panetta say in that interview that Obama wanted bin Laden killed and not captured at all? Or am I just reading into something that isn’t there. I really don’t care if that was originally the plan. No trial. That’ll save the taxpayers money and emotional pain.

If the Obama administration doesn’t want bin Laden death picture shown then how about showing a computer-generated picture? Heck, I’ll take a pencil drawing of his death. Show me something! I don’t think recreations would tick off the already crazed Jihadists. I would think killing bin Laden would have already done that.

The Dynamics of Islamic Violence

Pretty much sums it up. Notice what factors are not in this diagram: Education level, economic status, and US occupation. That’s because those factors aren’t important if they are important at all. The Islamists attacked the US Navy back in the 1800’s—way before the Iraq and Afghanistan occupation. Why do you think the marines got the nickname of “leathernecks”? Look it up (you can even look it up on my blog).

Source of diagram: The Roots of Jihad. A very revealing book.

As I write this (May 1) Osama Bin Laden (the goat fornicator) was killed by US special forces. Good for them! Good riddens to that murderer.

The navy dumped the dirtbag’s body in the ocean. Good idea. I hope the waters were shark infested. But why clean the murder’s body and wrap it in silk? That’s not going to make any Muslim happy if you are dumping the body in the water. Some kind of weird Muslim outreach program I guess. And the shark’s aren’t going to care if he is clean and wrapped in silk or not.