Politics 2012
Three Major Sponsors have pulled advertising from the Presidential Debates in protest…
(dailypaul.com)
It was only a week ago that the Commission on Presidential Debates had ten sponsors for the 2012 debates.
Although now “old news” it is worth noting this: business pressure is often more powerful than political or legal pressure. The Denver Debate was a fiasco on many fronts, and apparently was NOT viewed much and was NOT profitable for the Mainstream Media – in part because these sponsors pulled out to protest limiting the debate to the two old-party candidates. I find it incredible that these two men, and their political organizations, were able to cost the taxpayers (whether drivers, businesses, or ordinary people) of Denver (and those traveling through Denver) millions of dollars in additional travel time, additional miles traveled, and cost of traffic control by closing SIX MILES of the major freeway (I-25, AKA Valley Highway) in the heart of Denver for FIVE hours on a workday evening, including rush hour. What incredible arrogance – suitable for royal despots, perhaps, but NOT for people who claim to be elected leaders of a free people!
Hoploclasts
DIY gun project misfires as leasing company takes back 3D printer
(New Scientist) “Who would have thought it? Printing guns is frowned upon. Even in the US. Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, found this out last week when Stratasys, the company that made the uPrint SE 3D printer he was leasing, got wind of his plans to design a 3D-printable handgun and took back their equipment. … lawyers for Stratasys cited his lack of a federal firearms manufacturer’s licence as their reason for the repossession, adding that it does not knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal [sic]purposes.” (10/02/12
I guess that law students really ARE that stupid? If he was just leasing it, he should have been more careful about blabbing about it – or should have checked to see if Stratasysm was going to be upset. Of course, the Statrasys action was pretty stupid, either: I think that they are panicking for no reason for what is still basically a hand-crafted gun that was not being offered for sale. But again, we are talking about lawyers: memory like an elephant, reasoning ability barely human, common sense slightly lower than that of a gerbil. (And don’t forget, greedy as King Midas himself!)
Government-ruined, theft-funded schools – Nanny state
Gov’t Urges Parents to Use School Lunches As a Model for Family Dinner
(CNSNews.com) The is so frightening that it is funny. With all the information out there on nutrition, and all the people who can teach about it – much less what is on line, the idea that school lunches – especially those advocated by Michelle the Consort – should be a model for family meals is nasty, even nauseating. Let us also model family together time on recess, complete with playground bullies and all; it has to be better than hummus and bean curd and Brussels sprouts with margarine.
Culture wars: homosexuality
California’s Ban on ‘Sexual Orientation Therapy’ to Face Legal Challenges
(CNSNews.com) A few days ago, the Tranzi Republic made this therapy illegal to perform on teenagers even with the teens approval and their parent’s approval. My first thought was that ANY attempt by ANYone to persuade someone that they are not homosexual (or bisexual, or furry-little-bunny-sexual) would be deemed to be illegal (this IS California, after all), and so another freedom lost (or MORE lost: free speech is almost dead in California anyway: if you don’t think so, try circulating a petition that has anything proposed which is not strictly in accordance with established Tranzi doctrine (or that of their favored groups) and see if you can keep from getting your life threatened and your house burned and your pets crucified on the lawn.
Local Tyranny – War on Some Drugs
Tennessee: Man Dies in Police Raid on Wrong House
(ABC, Lebanon, TN) A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door. The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay. “They need to get rid of those men, boys with toys,” said Adams’ 70-year-old widow, Loraine.
What a shame, and what will happen? A whitewash and nothing more: a hollow letter of apology and two murderous young thugs out on the street, probably to kill again.
Politics 2012
Mitt Romney must prove that debate performance was the real him
(Washington Post) Mitt Romney’s challenge, with less than five weeks until Election Day, is to convince voters that the steady, decisive, in-command competitor who showed up for the first presidential debate is the real Mitt Romney.
Well, I wondered just how the Mainstream Media would turn lemons into lemonade after even the CNN polls found that people thought that Romney won that foolish and silly debate in Denver by a 2.5 to 1 margin: it is, apparently, a fluke. The “messiah” had a bad day, Romney’s handlers are in control, and it is some little guy in a corner booth behind a curtain controlling everything.
Stupid government tricks – Environists
California Emergency Regulations allow landfilling of toxic waste
Leaded glass from cathode ray tubes (CRTs) may be disposed of in landfill sites under an emergency regulation issued by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). The department said that the emergency measures are aimed at increasing the recycling and disposal options for waste CRTs and their glass. … In the past, much of the old CRT glass was recycled to make new CRTs. However, as consumers increasingly switch to flat screen TVs and computer monitors, CRT use has been phased out and the demand for CRT glass has fallen. … The department explained that one consequence of the diminished demand is that large quantities of CRT glass are now being stored and accumulated throughout California. … “The requirements currently in place that pertain to CRT disposal were established at a time when there was a robust demand for CRT glass by legitimate recycling facilities,” said Karl Palmer, Chief of DTSC’s Toxics in Products Program. “This regulation will encourage the development of new recycling technologies and where recycling is not feasible, it will put in place a process and requirements that will allow safe disposal of CRT glass,” he added.
The lying hypocrites! But they don’t care, as long as the bribe checks cash and the cash is worth something they will do this sort of garbage. Clearly they aren’t worried about the voters seeing through their little scams. This story perfectly illustrates the insanity of government regulations, and the virtual inability of the government to respond to changes in markets and real-life conditions.
America’s Royal Family – NOT
For decades, the Kennedys have been “America’s royal family.” This always disgusted me, for multiple reasons, not the least of which was that the Kennedys, starting with patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy himself, were Anglophobes and Angloclasts, well-known for their bitter hatred of the Windsor family and the glee that the partriarch got being the American ambassador to the Court of St. James during WW2, when the Brits would have been willing to accept a one-legged, filthy-mouthed, pedophile with the body odor of B.O. Plenty and a dust cloud to rival Pigpen’s, so had to endure the present of the foul-mouthed Irish bootlegger.
But the sacrifice in WW2, the myth of Camelot, the druidic mysticism associated with the deaths of JFK and RFK, the deification of JFK and to a large degree RFK and even Teddy, and the political myths associated with them and the Vietnam War era, all did indeed result in the Kennedy family, clear down to the fifth generation or so, being treated with slightly more reverence than Brits or Canadians give the Windsors.
But no more: NOW we have a NEW monarch-messiah and a new royal family, so divorced from their ancestors (unlike even JFK, who was at least known as his father’s son), that the family consists of exactly four members: the “messiah,” his consort, and two still-small daughters.
Taxpayers support Obama family with 1.4 billion
(Vision to America.com) Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks. In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.
Wow – and yes, I know the Windsors pay their own way, a lot, and that the British Tourist Board figures the return on the $57.8 million is about 10:1 – mostly due to Americans, apparently. So we already HAVE a royal family that we share with about half the world. Why do we need the Kennedys or the current occupants at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Yep, $1.4 B isn’t much in today’s world of trillion-dollar deficits, but every little bit counts!
Besides, what do we get for it? No “changing of the guard” ceremony with red jackets and fur hats, no grand carriages, no dolled-up lady on horseback, no deadly tunnel car-rides in Paris, no Queen’s touch. We get a somewhat overweight woman who thinks she is a fashion idol, two reasonably nice kids who are spoiled rotten with trips to Spain and Mexico and a ritzy private school, and a man who (admittedly) seems to be as “densely and dully” stupidly “intelligent” as Prince Charles without the excuses of too much inbreeding in the generations beyond his grandparents. And who has as chronic a condition of lying anytime his mouth is open as any other lawyer or a typical French monarch. (And who, by the way, HATES the Windsors, as near as I can tell, along with ALL Brits and anyone else in the “old and white” Commonwealth. Which is odd, since by most reckoning, he is at least 3/4-white himself, since Arabs are usually considered white.
No, we’d be a lot better off paying an appropriate share of maintaining the Windsors as our royal family, as well. Think about it: we could offer to pay twice as much as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: that would be about 120 million a year; and STILL save about 1.3 billion a year!
Then maybe we could start figuring out how to elect presidents that are more than lie-all-the-time clothes horses, and understand that “serving the people” does not mean “on a platter.”