News Briefs and Thoughts (from various sources: not all have links)

An Oklahoma City federal judge has determined that Hobby Lobby CAN be forced to violate their practice of religion by doing anything that the federal bureaucrats want them to do regarding health care, abortion, contraceptives and all the rest of ObummerCare. They will appeal, of course, DC forbid that people organized as businesses or owning businesses can have their liberty.

Churches in New York State, claiming to represent “the working poor” demanded that NY legislators raise the minimum wage AND replenish food banks stripped bare by victims of Sandy.  The legislators plan to raise their own salaries. The “advocates” don’t care what gets stolen from people, as long as their clientèle get a piece of the pie.  And they refuse to understand basic economics:  minimum wages HARM poor people.

Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate Economist and professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (such a set of credentials tells us what side HE is on) says we need to return to the “good old days” of high tax rates, and that the wealthy should pay more taxes.  He likes the idea of paying twice what they do today. So, according to him (and too many who claim to be “conservative”) it is okay for the government to steal about anything it wants to.  Actually, at the levels HE is talking about: 70 to 90%, the better word than “theft” is “SLAVERY.”

The current Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson (an open homosexual), has spoken out firmly against school vouchers, charter schools, and religious schools, saying “‘I am a believer in public education and I believe every dollar diverted from public education either by religious schools or by charter schools is a tragedy,’ said Robinson. [A voucher] takes away from this great mission that is so embedded in the life of this country. . . . I just favor full and un-diverted support for those public schools.’”  Mr. Robinson certainly mixes politics, religion, and sexuality in a distinctive way:  he supports education of, by, and for the government because that way morality is left out.  Yet none of the usual Tranzi watchdogs protecting us from an unholy alliance of church and state seem to be screaming.

Cows with guns?
Cows Flee California Seeking a Better Economic Climate
It’s not just millionaires and billionaires who are fleeing the economic madness in California. Even cows are starting to depart for greener pastures. That’s right, 400 bovine refugees shuffled off to Kansas just this month, with more expected to follow as over 100 dairy farms in California close their doors. Why are cows voting with their hooves?

Mama’s Note: But the farmers are not in any way seeking a free market, of course.
Nathan: Too funny!  Have you ever seen the video “cows with guns” on line?   I really like this line: truth: “The main task of these programs is to make sure that market forces will never be allowed to balance supply and demand.” (The story continued from the above with: “It’s hard to find a government program as insane as the complex web of price supports, market orders, direct payments, diversion programs, herd reductions, import barriers, export subsidies, and stacked-to-the-rafters cheese warehouses that characterize Uncle Sam’s efforts to “rationally manage” the dairy market.”)  This is a case study in stupid government and loss not just of liberty but of money, all in wholesale lots (literally).  And they didn’t even talk about school milk programs!

War on Some Drugs
UN Tells US to Crack Down on State Drug Law Liberalization
(American Vision) Residents  of Washington and Colorado, expressing a winsome and entirely unjustified faith in voting as a means of reining in the state, approved measures decriminalizing recreational use of marijuana. In response, Raymond Yans, head of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, has called for Attorney General Eric Holder to ignore the law and continue cracking down on marijuana use and possession. Decriminalizing marijuana use, Yans insists, sends the “wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad.”

Nathan:  A good sign in recent weeks – even since the election – is that a few conservatives and especially the quasi-libertarians that make up much of the most faithful religious community in the United States are starting to understand that the War on Drugs is really a war on people and freedom.  This story from American Vision, just such a religious organization, is an example.  This article also talks about more history of the War on Drugs and related matters, which if true, sheds a new light on HOW we got into this mess, but no way out.  Looking at this issue in detail is likely the subject of a separate commentary.

Tyranny – Stupid Cop Tricks
Arizona: Federal Checkpoints Enforce Litter Laws
(Info Wars via Political Outcasts) What was touted as an effort to make sure gun enthusiasts at an Arizona public shooting site pick up their shells after they finished shooting actually turned into a federal checkpoint where people’s cars were searched to substantiate arrests. Drivers were stopped and told before they entered that they could shoot as long as they picked up their empty bullet casings. Upon their departure, about 250 cars were stopped, and the drivers had to provide evidence that they picked up their empty shells.

But these Forest and National Park Rangers also used these stops as opportunities to search people’s cars and potentially issue citations and make arrests on unrelated charges.

Infowars.com reports: ”The officials also searched vehicles for other illegal items, including marijuana, alcohol and in one case an illegally killed deer. Four people were arrested on outstanding warrants and officers issued 11 citations, including one for underage drinking.”

Nathan: Assuming this is correct (Infowars.com isn’t always accurate), this is nothing but a sting operation and a clear violation of constitutional protections.  Yes, I know that too many people are too stupid to refuse a uniformed ape “permission” to search without a warrant, but the point is, these thugs are nothing more than a gang of shakedown artists.

Freedom of Speech – Congress in action
New Senate Bill Would Let Federal Agencies Read Your E-mail Without Warrant
(American Vision) This week we learned how far the FBI was reaching into emails even without warrants. Today we learn that the Senate is trying to give the same vast power to 22 federal agencies. CNET reports, A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law, CNET has learned.  Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns, according to three individuals who have been negotiating with Leahy’s staff over the changes. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.  Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. . .

Nathan: No more freedom of speech: now they can read it, and if you say something someone doesn’t like, or which “offends” some one, or which causes some paranoid cop hacker to think you MIGHT cause some trouble: bingo.  They have you.  IF this bill passes.

Mama’s Note: So, if you are not comfortable with these spoiled rotten crybabies reading what you write… learn to use encryption. It’s easy, and it’s about as secure as anything on line can be.