He's A Good Blog

Ohio Taking Pennsylvania's Fracking Waste-water...

2011-06-26T11:01:00.001-07:00

First question that comes to mind, is if the gas lobby's claims that the waste-water is safe are true, why doesn't PA dispose of it, instead of paying Ohio to take it?

Do you think our Gubmint is preying on our ignorance? I'm thinking yes...

http://www.ideastream.org/news/feature/40884

The Weiner Files: Bankrupt morals and absence of ethical standards are indicators of incompetence..

2011-06-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

When a politician, who is a public figure and not protected by the law the way private persons are, is his/her own undoing, as in Mr. Weiner’s case, then they should pay the consequences of being judged by the morals of their constituency.

In the act of not protecting his own privacy, Mr. Weiner proved his inability to serve – competency is the only measure, and he failed the test, as well as sacrificed any good-will due him by anyone. As long as private remains private, I don't care about his private life — but once it becomes public, not only is he fair game to detractors, his incompetence in failing to keep the private life private proves he doesn’t deserve his position.

While I do think competency, not morals, should be the measure of a politician, I also think that most of the time they go hand-in-hand. And, I happen to agree with most of the general public – any guy who will screw around on his wife will have absolutely no compunction and hesitation in screwing over the taxpayer - and Mr. Weiner has probably been on the take on many levels for as long as he has been able to exercise any influence his office grants him.

If current polls continue to indicate that this is the standard to which Mr. Weiner’s constituents – hold elected public representatives, then there is no doubt that WE are to blame for the economic problems our country is in.

If our representatives cannot be honest with their “life” partners, and we don’t expect it of them – nor do we hold them to any standard, or exact consequences – then expect ourselves to be lied to, screwed over, and bilked constantly by ourselves.

As this continues to happen, we show ourselves to be immorally feckless victims of our own crimes of willfull ignorance and stupidity and moral and ethical bankruptcy.

Big Box Chains Buying Up State Liquor Licenses...

2011-05-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

One of my pet peeves is grocery chains buying State Liquor Licenses and moving the State Store inside their big-box store.

Seems every time a major grocery chain buys a State liquor license to increase floor traffic for groceries (got to be the only reason) – and sometimes the only license in a small county – consumer choice goes DOWN.

It has happened with Giant Beagle in Lancaster, with the Pit Stop selling out, and now in Athens, with Kroger buying out Lucky Dog.

Go into any beer and liquor only store and look at the number of craft beers and specialty liquors. From my observation the choices decrease by at least two-thirds every time a chain takes over. In the case of Giant Beagle, it carries about 2/3 the number of beers sold by the Pit Stop. Krogers in Athens carries only about 1/8 of the beers that Lucky Dog carried. Pitiful.

I have heard that beer distributors operate much like suppliers in other industries. Chains deal with large distributors who can afford to buy shelf space and also provide a "bribe". It’s called a “rebate”, but it is basically a BID for business that the distributor guarantees the chain a lump sum up-front at contract time. If this is anything like my business, then those "rebates" are highly guarded secrets.

Be interested to know how accurate this is to the beer industry.

One thing I do know: grocery chains suck at selling craft beer.

"USA, USA..."

2011-05-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Two things struck me this morning…

1- Chanting crowds are chanting crowds the world over. Maybe we’re not as different as we like to think we are. Substitute “God is Great" for “USA, USA…", and if you were totally uninformed that the reason for the celebration was the justice done on a mass-murderer, it would sound - and effectively mean - exactly the same.

2- On the ride in this morning, I did nothing but switch back+forth between radio news shows, and despite existence of either real or supposed bias, NPR’s coverage was much more in-depth, fact-filled and well-rounded than any of the other news services.

Thing that bothers me, is the stupid celebrations. I can maybe see NY City and DC, but C-bus, Ohio? Students jumping in Mirror Lake? Come on.

How long do you think before some clown takes the video on those chants of “USA, USA…” and pastes in “God is Great, God is Great…”, and vice-versa?

What do they say about touchdown celebrations? “Act like you have been there before.”

Up to me, we’d be doing this four or five times a day, as long as it takes. – BUT, it is never the time or place to glorify in death.

Do what you have to do and move on – the weakest thing we can do is to show that this is not the normal result.

Self-defeating class warfare - Kasich and the Unions...

2011-04-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/04/19/kasich-100-days-bob-evans.html

I'm beginning to believe Kasich is just not very smart. Good chance we've traded in one loser for another.

Either that or he knows that his constituents just don't have the ability to understand his comments, so he can fire off without consequence.

Talk about self-defeating... At least pretend you give a rat's ***...

Lessee, trying to follow his "reasoning" here… How do taking away collective bargaining benefits of one group of workers benefit another, less fortunate group?

May be news to some of you, but organizing unions is a right, not privilege. Anybody can organize a union. THAT DOES NOT MEAN owner/operator/bosses/companies OR STATES have to enter into contract and accept bargaining with any union.

I wish I had collective bargaining, but just because I don't, does not mean I want to take that right away from someone who does. That’s the old, class-warfare, eat-the-rich mentality.

Culture/Religions as international special interest groups...

2011-04-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are we seeing the advent of the culture/religion as an interntional special interest group? Or has it been this way all along?

Does it make sense for one group to "officially" support non-biased equal treatment for all cultures/religions, and yet practically advocate for special, one-off treatment, and offer violence as the response to free speech?

Or, "What's good for the Muslim, isn't good for the (insert your culture/religion affiliation here)."

Doesn't this all just come down to Islam expecting/demanding to be treated differently than any other culture/religion?

Apart from Islam in the ME and Europe, are there any modern (last 50 years or so...) examples of large scale rioting and multiple killings resulting from a non-violent action that was interpreted as an offense to cultural and/or religious sensibilities?

Be interesting to know what other cultures and religions this happens with today... And if there aren't any credible examples, wouldn't that narrow it down to a conflict between a specific culture and religion with all others?

(Please don't go the obvious route and include riots that resulted from the eating of religious icons.)

Libya, the ME revolts, and US national hubris...

2011-03-22T12:56:00.001-07:00

... and we keep on keeping on with our master plan to indelibly mark our legacy as both the embodiment of national hubris and a living/acting picture of the definition of stupidity; repeating ourselves - in this case in three separate invasions at the same time (Woo-hoo!) - and expecting different results.

Many, mostly our president's supporters along with the NeoCon bunch (What a team!), sadly do not seem to understand or want to acknowledge the issues that ignoring the Constitution brings -- our executive branch is effectively choosing to invade a supposedly sovereign country who has not attacked us.

These ME revolts are civil wars, not genocides (or unprovoked invasions), and we have no way of knowing which party's interests coincide with US interests, let alone who the good guys are, if any...

This will come to no good. Fast.

In modern warfare "No troops on the ground" is no excuse, alibi, or a measure of invasion. A foreign "civil war" is not our war.

124 Tomahawk missiles, totaling $71 million in cost IS an invasion. That's not counting the cost of delivery and mop-up.

We will pay for this in many, probably painful, ways.

We should not reckon ourselves the judge and jury over the legitimacy of other nation's governments, ESPECIALLY when it is NOT clear that we have national interests at stake, or even WHICH SIDE best represents any national interests...

If we don't choose to intervene in human rights tragedies and ethic cleansing, what gives us the right to ignore our Constitution and do the bidding of the EU?

This goes for Afghanistan and Iraq, obviously, also...

How would you like it if another country decided that this government is illegitimate, and lobbed missiles at us? Would you care if the UN or EU agreed with them? I would hope not.

This is a bunch of convoluted BS, partly manufactured by our historical meddling in the ME, by our weird position in being the guts behind any EU initiative, and used by a president who is supposedly against the expansion of the executive branch power, to see just how far he can take his own executive powers.

Our sympathy for almost any country's revolt against a ruling class results in a reactive "world cop" mentality, and in giving our leaders too much authority and the rope to hang ourselves... BUT, the reality is that if we can't intervene in places like Rwanda, then we have absolutely no business protecting EU oil interests -- and couching it in fake humanitarianism... All while our young men and women pay the price.

SB-5 "Merit Assessment" for teachers...

2011-03-16T17:58:00.001-07:00

"Merit assessment" of teachers opens up whole new horizons for abuse of power.

What about the incompetent principal or dean or school VP who holds a grudge for being continually proven wrong, and now has the power to do something about it?

You've heard of the term "teacher's pet", I am sure... Well, get ready for "principal's pet", "dean's pet", and "VP's pet", etc...

You think you just got rid of incompetent teachers, but all you did was open the door for favoritism.

Say goodbye to professionalism and collegiality.

More on Public Workers, job protection, etc...

2011-03-03T06:22:00.000-08:00

You are hearing a lot of Public vs. Private salary comparisons. Broad comparisons are not accurate, because the private sector has so many more minimum wage working poor... That's where the "conservatives" are lying to you. Where the "liberals" are lying to you is on benefit packages - things that are not included in their salary comparisons.

Anyway... from my POV, amounts of salaries are not the issue -- IF the job is being done effectively.

Leaving the teacher unions aside and not even addressing that (there is such a huge disparity between the salary-benefit packages of Elementary/High School, career colleges and university systems) - what about the protections that public employees have, compared to those of us in the private sector? How do you control and evaluate job performance? How long does it take to rid the system of "dead wood" and "slackers"? Are our government’s offices tightly run operations, or full of salaries that just take up budget room and don't contribute to public service?

If my employer doesn't like the way I do my job - if I'm not effective and productive - then I'm gone - immediately. This doesn't seem to be the case with public employees.

My employer does not need a reason to get rid of me. Unless there is age, sex or religious discrimination involved, I am SOL.

And if we don't please our customers, we are out of bizness...

We - all of us - seem to be paying more for gubmint (look at the increases in local income and property taxes) and getting less return all the time.

There should be a way to keep collective bargaining, but still streamline and effectively downsize gubmint to look more like the private sector.

Many of us in the private sector feel that we are paying for things we don't receive. Top that out with those protections that most of us do not have, and you have a LOT of resentment...

On the other hand, I don't see how you can take someone's right to strike (or to quit their job) away... What happens if mass amounts of safety providers strike? Does the gubmint send "Brown Shirts" to their houses and force them back to work? Fine them twice their salaries and then put them in debtor's prision? If I'm reading the bill, with all the attendant provisons correctly, those things could happen. Sound's like Europe in the 30's...

Looks to me like the sponsors of SB-5 are counting on no strong reactions - what happens if they are wrong?

Collective Bargaining and Public Worker Unions...

2011-02-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

After a little research and reading, I think I’ve done a complete about-face on public unions and collective bargaining.

Here is what I think is happening and gonna happen…

Happening:

1- Despite what they are telling you, Republicans in gubmint are going after public worker unions as hard as they can because those unions are big supporters of the Democratic party. All you have to do is look at the big fish political donations over the last ten years – I think 14 out of the top twenty are unions, public and private – and exclusively Democratic.
2- Those Republicans are under intense pressure from their big supporters, bizness interests, to gut all unions. It just makes sense (see next point).
3- Financial concerns are real only if you look at this from the employer/investor point of view.* Proof of this is that police and fire unions, traditionally either Republican supporters and/or big lightning rods for public sentiment, are not being touched….
4- News coverage is being manipulated, to some extent. Example: you really don’t hear a lot about concessions unions have offered or already made.

Gonna happen:

1- Unions are going to be separated and lose their focus. That is one reason fire and police unions are not being targeted. It’s planned that way, which leads us to…
2- There won’t be a general strike – see above.
3- An even more confusing “right to work” landscape between the states. As more states adopt limits on collective bargaining and weaker public unions, courts will be flooded with all kinds of rights violations and challenges.
4- *Gutting unions and collective bargaining won’t help the economy. In supposedly “saving our progeny” from financial disaster, we’ll just be moving that financial disaster from one shell to another in the big game.

Baby boomers are retiring – all over, not just from gubmint. But retiring gubmint and public workers are the ones who stand to lose the most of their safety net from this political solution to gubmint’s cash crisis. We're just moving that stress from an already planned (That's the sick part of all this - we are planning on breaking promises and f-ing up peoples lives, and giving them practically no notice.) from the public to the private sector's not-so-golden parachute.

Most people aren’t seeing the difference between civil servants and teachers and their retirement packages. Teachers at public institutions pay a pretty large chunk of their salaries towards retirement. Most of them have to have 30 years in before it actually pays for them to retire. Thirty years.

5- Channeling GHWB, here “Not gonna help the economy. Not gonna…”

Ignoring the fact that in busting the unions to get at their retirement packages is breaking both a promise and in most cases a contract, it doesn’t make sense economically. Can we adjust the contract from here forward? Sure. But changing the rules in the middle or end of the game is just plain wrong. Wrong.

Do you think that cutting the retirement benefits of teachers – many of whom could have made more money in private sector employment, but chose teaching as a calling, not a job – is really going to save the state money, when they have to go back to work, after working thirty years, just to pay for their health care? Whose job will they take? Maybe yours? Your just-out-of-college-and-trying-to-pay-off-their-loans child’s job? If there’s justice – yes.

In the end, public is now going to mirror private sector compensation, but it’s not going to result in a better life for middle-management on down...

Political appointees and their staff (the VPs of the public sector working-world) are going to end up with all the perks and huge salaries (This is already happening in public institutions such as colleges, where Deans and VPs and Presidents make three-four-five times more than even the longest tenured teachers.), while average worker pay and compensation decreases. Lower budget deficits equal higher profit margins… only they don’t – because the “middle-class” takes a huge hit as public workers join the working poor of the public sector, and the “American Dream” will exist only for an even fewer few.

Military advertising on NASCAR vehicles…

2011-02-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

The House has voted to let the Pentagon continue using taxpayer dollars to sponsor NASCAR race teams.

By a 281-148 vote, lawmakers rejected an effort by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum that would have ended the practice. McCollum aides said the Army is spending $7 million on a sponsorship this year, and the Air Force and National Guard are spending additional money.

They are after their targeted demographic: Young, mechanically inclined males, with little (or no) education. Cheap fodder. Where better to find that than at or watching NASCAR, the people who go in circles for 4-500 miles at a time and call it entertainment.

After an afternoon of that, riding in a HumVee while dodging IEDs probably sounds good...

I guess it makes sense from a marketing and economic angle -- BUT in my POV this is NOT something gubmint should be involved in.

I certainly don't want my tax dollars going to it...

For those young people who are targeted by these advertisements, the decision is mostly one made of economic necessity compounded by generationally learned habitual ignorance and multiple failures inside our educational system, including inequitable funding and failure in the family structure.

Look where the majority of our soldiers come from - the poor and disadvantaged - and over our history, not just right now. (But I will note that for many, if they survive, it will be a step up - at least for the lucky smart ones...)

Advertising is used for the same reasons as elsewhere - and it is carefully targeted. Measured against the results, this may not be wasted money. But is it right or for a righteous purpose? No.

Demographically, the military is profoundly different from civilian society. It's drawn disproportionately from households in rural areas. The South and Southwest are substantially overrepresented within the military, while the Northeast is dramatically underrepresented.

Social and economic elites are dramatically underrepresented in the military.

The percentage of enlisted military personnel from households with more than $60,000 in annual income is close to zero.

As recently as 1994, 44% of members of Congress were veterans. Today, it's only 26%.

Only about 1% of U.S. representatives and senators have a son or daughter in uniform.

Want to make sure that the U.S. never again gets stuck in a pointless war? Draft Congress!

No need to raise taxes to balance the State of Ohio budget...

2011-02-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

There is a movement among Athens County "Friends" to pledge part of their incomes to increased taxes.

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/articles.sec--4-1-letters.html

These (well meaning) but uninformed citizens think the guvmint will actually spend our money the way we want it spent. Gubmint is busy stealing from your retirement right now!

We don't need higher income taxes to balance the budget. We need choices. Heck, right now I can take the state budget, end up with a surplus and not take one cent from education or social services.

My score from the C-bus Dispatch online State Budget APP:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/insight/budget/index.html

Taxes
* State sales tax: Increase sales tax rate to 7% (raises $3.9 billion)
* State income tax: Cut income taxes by 5% to help Ohioans (costs $800 million)
* 'Pop' tax: One cent per ounce (raises $800 million)
* Exemptions: End sales-tax break for packaging and packaging equipment (raises $460 million)
* Exemptions: End sales-tax exemption for mining and farming equipment (raises $300 million)
* Exemptions: End sales-tax exemption for equipment sold to electricity providers (raises $650 million)

Spending
* No spending cuts were made.

Sell or lease state assets
* Sell state lottery to private operator (raises $5 billion, but ends lottery revenue)
* Sell some state buildings, then lease them back (raises $800 million, but requires future rent payments)

Your budget results
* You have a budget surplus of $3.11 billion.

Egypt...

2011-01-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

The "revolution" most often goes like this:

-groundswell for "democracy" erupts, driven by several different sources with different political ends (please note that very few of these people understand or have experienced democracy, so what results from initial proposals has no real resemblance)

-after much bloodshed, dictator government is ousted

-struggle to aim and control government ensues between these different sources

-after two or three botched elections, an extremist religious group takes over

-back to square one, with a much weaker country and opposition

Too bad religion plays such a large part in the politics of the region.

Terrorists and their supporting organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and their outside backers like Hamas and Iran would love for this to turn totally chaotic. Make it easier to subvert any attempts at organized democracy and turn it into another Iranian type situation. Look for Mullahs and Clerics to start speaking for the "revolutionaries".

We'll see if the educated westernized Egyptians can pull this together, or the religious extremists will take over.

Guvmint, jobs, reading the fine print and expectations...

2011-01-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133249970/loss-of-solar-jobs-has-mass-rethinking-state-aid

Uhhhh... guvmint stupid. Not read fine print. But politicos be last to lose jobs...

Face it. We can't compete in a world economy without tariffs and laws that make it hard for companies selling goods in America to manufacture them outside the good ol' USA.

But we done lost that fight.

One of the reasons - outside our own greed and short-sightedness (look at our work expectations, unions, pension funds, tax structure, everything adds up to failure) - is that both corporationalists and globalists want to even the world-wide economic playing field -- and if that means a lower SOL in the USA, then so be it... So we have persons of power in our own guvmint whose ends do not meet their own constituency's best interests.

Whole thing will backfire. End up with lower SOL for everyone, everywhere.

Mebbe NO SOL for anybody.

Paradox...

2011-01-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

People have less money to spend, so they are spending less; and with less spending, the economy is having a difficult time getting back on track.

If employers hired more people and paid better wages then people could purchase more of their products and those businesses would be better off.

However, businesses don't have the money to hire new people and pay better wages because consumers are not buying their goods and services like they once did.

If you can figure this one out, I'll buy you a beer -- and, you get my vote for president...

But... Quoting a poster "Hermit" on a local forum:

"I think our economy's big problem is that it is built on the premise that people have to buy crap they don't need to keep the wheels of commerce in motion.

When people stop buying crap they don't need, the economy tanks. I'm not so sure it's a good idea for the government to pick up the crap-buying slack to get the wheels spinning again.

I never thought I'd see the day when the act of saving was considered bad for the economy."

Succinct!

The Tucson Shooter and "Political Discourse"...

2011-01-10T04:24:00.000-08:00

"If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun" - Barack Obama

Both sides seem to be trying to "establish a narrative" and "manufacture a meta-meme" that absolutely ignores what known facts there are regarding the Tucson shootings, and to use whatever means, including outright lies, to promote those manufactured narratives as truths...

Funny how so many of us are just pulling statements and questionable "proofs" off of these sites and pasting them into our litte spats.

Disgustingly familiar. We are thinking it's a "media" problem, while we need to look in the miirror.

Maybe if we want to throw labels and call names, we need to do so in the privacy of our own homes and in that mirror...

Amazing the number of acquaintances of the shooter who come out of the wood-work and in effect say "I knew he was going to do something like this...”

Even given the probability that half of these people are just getting on camera, I don't think that it is a violation of personal rights for anyone who notes unusual and what they might consider dangerous behavior to at least take the action of contacting local law enforcement. Not that there would necessarily be action taken, but at least this would up the odds on such people being caught and even helped before something bad happens...

I also want to say that people who are pointing fingers at heightened political discourse as a trigger for what went wrong with this young man are probably mistaken. I think they will find that he has paranoid schizophrenia and suffers from delusions -- and there may be no telling why people with schizophrenia choose to latch onto and obsess over any particular subject or object.

That said, I do believe that this will have consequences on the ease of individual purchase of weapons, especially handguns; maybe only in Arizona, but there is going to be some serious anti-gun rhetoric coming down over the next little while. Of course, that will only worsen the "heightened political discourse" that is being mistakenly blamed for a crazy man's actions...

WikiLeaks, Korea, and Goldman-Sachs...

2010-12-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

With the release of the info that China may support a combined N+S Korea, under South rule, WikiLeaks may have brought the North closer to instigating war. That is bad. Possibly criminal.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to their promised fisking of Goldman-Sachs.

Of course, that will probably show even greater involvment and control over the FED and monetary policy and politicians by G-S, and might be worth the death penalty…

Watch – our government is going to get much more upset about any release of G-S info, than they have over compromising our diplomatic communications…

TSA Scans are not really about Terrorism...

2010-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

I don't believe the TSA body scans and increased security is necessarily a reaction to terrorism, although it is being marketed as such -- as are a multitude of government invasions of and limitations on freedom.

We're seeing a continuous purposeful pushing at an extension of what is "allowable" government control -- it's the "how you cook a frog" system of getting a populace to submit.

From Red-light to public surveillance cameras, to citizens not being allowed to video or audio-record police (a one-way street there), to violations of 4th Amendment protection of search and seizure in traffic checkpoints and inventive "probable cause", to government covert tracking devices, secret warrants, indictments with withheld evidence, the information gleaned from gun sales and CCW permits -- on and on...

Thirty years ago, people would have laughed at the possibility of these steps even being mentioned... but, I'm just being paranoid.

Governments don't offer good return on tax dollars...

2010-11-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Now I realize that I function best as critic and pitchfork wielder -- and it's more fun than actually solving the problems.

But I keep thinking that maybe things would go better if we kept more of our tax money at home, instead of sending the bulk of it off to DC, and then waiting and wishing for the promised hand-outs...? But that would require a real revolution - not the co-opted and branded kind.

We piggies at the trough seem to forget that the little bit of local reflux we glean out of the belly of the beast consists of our own earnings - with the bulk siphoned off to who-knows-where. It's certainly not going to reduce the deficit, because GOV spending just keeps going up...

And now the FED is trying to push up inflation, which in turn, through weakening the dollar, results in rising gas prices, more expensive food (more expensive everything) and of course more dollars spent in taxes - putting even more pressure on the middle class, because ALL this is happening while most individual workers have seen no increase in earnings. In years!

A good example is this: If we can't keep things on an even keel in the little liberal hothouse that is Athens Co., then how can we expect the same policies to work at the national level?

How do we fix this seemingly endless cycle of more money for less service (look at our local township roads - and we just approved another extension and an addition for maintenance tax)? Not paying will make things worse, no one wants that, but what happens when we reach the bottom of the wallet?

And now, people like Krugman are demonizing citizens who save money instead of spending during a recession - grasshoppers who cause the probem insanely putting the onus on the ants that take care of their own.

It comes down to different views of Government. Krugman, et.al do not see Government's function as unbiased service to the citizenry, but as a tool of "moral" redistribution as they see fit. And, THIS is what we get. And it doesn't work.

Palin candidacy will be death to any revolution...

2010-11-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

I cannot understand, and dare not imagine, the desperate straits that about half of our country finds itself in: that through collective ignorance (defined as willful stupidity) the possibility that they will nominate not only the least qualified presidential candidate ever, but one that will doom what started as a pretty good idea - before it was co-opted.

Liberals all over the country are literally praying – she’s turning stone-atheists into groveling religious supplicants – that Sarah Palin runs and is nominated as the GOP candidate for POTUS.

I also cannot believe that this movement can't find another candidate -- until I remember just how MUCH they have been sidetracked and co-opted.

Funeral Songs... Everybody needs a list.

2010-10-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

Subject to revision, I hope.

Funeral Songs

Elegy -Bruce Cockburn
Flying Red Horse -John Gorka
You’re On Your Way -John Gorka
Love Is Our Cross To Bear -John Gorka
If I Could Forget to Breathe -John Gorka
Kind Woman -Chris Smither (Richie Furay cover)
‘Til I Gain Control Again -Blue Rodeo (Rodney Crowell cover)
Dark Angel -Blue Rodeo
Know Where You Go/Tell Me Your Dreams -Blue Rodeo
Simple Song -Lyle Lovett
Family Reserve -Lyle Lovett
Glory of True Love -John Prine
Clay Pigeons -John Prine (Blaze Foley cover)
Bear Creek -John Prine (Carter Family cover)
Long Monday -John Prine
Festival of Friends -Bruce Cockburn
Last Night of the World -Bruce Cockburn
He Came From the Mountain -Bruce Cockburn
Southland of the Heart -Bruce Cockburn
All The Diamonds -Bruce Cockburn
The Color Green -Rich Mullins
Silver Garden -The Everybodyfields
Elegy -Bruce Cockburn

Questioning Islam equals Racism... ????

2010-10-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Anonymous poster to HuffPost:

"Islam is a RELIGION...as such, it is fair game for criticism, lampoon, ridicule, analysis, as is any other religion--whether we're talking Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Scientology or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And when a statistically significant number of people claiming to be faithful adherents of ANY religion engage in acts of violence in the name of that religion (or support or refuse to condemn those acts), engages in varying degrees of repression and abuse of women and girls, engages in repression of and violence against gays and lesbians--then I'd say it's fair for rational people to take a closer look and to speak out.

Whether it's pedophiles in the Catholic clergy or fundamentalist Protestants subverting the Bill of Rights or extremist Jewish settlers harassing West Bank Arabs or school-bus bombing Arabs -- if a significant number of adherents are engaged in such acts and claim to be acting out their beliefs, then their religion is open for scrutiny. Criticising Islam or poking fun at it is not "racism"; that won't wash."

Best comment on NPR...

2010-10-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is what I believe is an accurate description of NPR.

Marianne McDonald made this comment on the NPR Ombudsman forum:

"...If Fox News is a hang out for playground bullies, then NPR operates like a calm, smiling Mean Girl with a hidden control agenda. As a daily listener, I believe that NPR provides a valuable public service in reporting, but no one exposed to more than one point of view on a regular basis thinks you are unbiased. By firing liberal Juan Williams for expressing a feeling shared by many non-bigoted people around the world, you just inspired a new generation to label American public radio as the voice of the politically correct intolerant Left. Even worse, independent thinking journalists might avoid NPR for the same reason. That's a loss for all of us."

NPR funding reality...

2010-10-22T04:45:00.000-07:00

I would like to say this: despite my critique of NPR, the federal funding kerfuffle is kind of a political football -- NPR gets approximately 2% of their funding from FED money -- 1% from the FED directly and another 1% from the NEA.

Also, if you can wade through the very subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) spin that NPR puts on most stories through who it chooses to interview and the questions asked, you still get waaaaaaay more hard info from them than you get from Fox or MSNBC, CNN or any of the other major media outlets...

NPR asks more hard questions and provides more info in five minutes than the rest do in an hour.

This doesn't excuse what they did with Juan Williams -- BUT, the FED funding thing is mostly politicians, most of them working for Fox (How does that happen, anyway?), trying to score points and raise the rage level with their voting block, most of whom are not informed about the issue -- which is what the pols are counting on...

NPR FIres Juan Williams...

2010-10-21T05:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.mediaite.com/online/npr-fire ... ly-factor/

Speaking Truth to Political Correctness

I condemn this knee-jerk reaction. WOUB will be getting a note, along with my empty renewal envelope.

Bad time to do this, with it being fundraising season and all...

I am a longtime listener to Juan since the Talk of the Nation days. I love the way he can cut through the BS to the heart of the matter. He is one of my favorite broadcasting personalities.

NPR is lately taking an even more partisan line than usual, with most of their guests/experts from far left-leaning organizations.

I am reminded of a recent Morning Edition episode, when the guest was a polling expert who is an employee of The Huffington Post. He was presented as an unbiased analyst, but through the slant to his comments and the data he mentioned it was exceedingly obvious that we were getting only the information supporting the viewpoint he wanted to promote.

Where's the damn middle, anymore? I can't watch Faux or MessyNBC, and until now I just had to put up with continually self-editing through the admittedly more subtle NPR spin.

This is just another domino down the road to partisanship totally ruling all available broadcast media, and soon I won't be able to tell the difference between NPR and MSNBC. They'll probably bring "The Olbermeister" on as an anchor. Uhhhh.

Juan was a news ANALYST at NPR - NOT a reporter.

Isn't it a reach to fire an analyst for expressing views, especially in relation to an ongoing news story or popular subject that demands analysis? Especially when half of your programming is spun one way or another, depending on who's providing the commentating?

"His status was earlier shifted from staff correspondent to analyst after he took clear-cut positions about public policy on television and in newspaper opinion pieces."

Will NPR use the emotional reaction this is generating as justification for this action?

My bet is yes. They will hide behind the fray and firestorm of dissent and keep as far as they can from honest discussion as to why they acted as they did...

Good fortune to you Juan. This is what you get for "speaking truth to political correctness".

Pipe dreams...

2010-10-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

How about a flat income tax that EVERYBODY PAYS, along with state sales tax with each state then funding the FED based on population/sales tax collected. Nobody rides for free, but nobody gets hurt too bad. Make the FED depend on the states, not the other way around.

Lets all join hands, what a wonderful world that could be... (Come on everybody, all together on the chorus now: What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful world...)

Never happen. Too many peeps on the gravy train with free tickets.

And we'll all be on that gravy train (wonder who pays for it?) when the US defaults, they devalue the dollar, and go to a virtual credit currency (ostensibly to do away with the underground economy).

We are...

2010-10-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

...lazy and afraid, and willingly deaf, dumb and blind; like all declining empires.

And we like cheap products more than we like being an individual country with an individual economy and culture.

And with a false monetary system invented to keep our centralized government powerful, we function (temporarily) within a false economy built not on real need, but wants and wishes.

And our government is owned by multinational interests that could not care less about people and culture and care only about the bottom line.

And the bottom line is that if you won't do the job for peanuts (or rice, or potatoes), then they can find somebody who can and will.

Huh...? SInce when is 250K/yr rich?

2010-09-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Amazing how the definition of "rich" changes depending where you are and your circumstances relative to those around you...

250K/yr is a very arbitrary sum. Does "rich" now equate to "evil" in common belief? Is 250K is the new jump from "hard working" to "silver spoon"?

There are many areas in our country where that salary puts you solidly in the middle-class -- not rich at all...

I think the problem is not "taxing the rich" enough (although I think most really RICH people have way too many advantages through access to knowledge and help with loopholes) -- I think the problem is a vanishing middle class.

In my area, at least, even though on average they take home much more money, most "middle-class" families are living a comparative lifestyle to the lower-middle-class of 20-30 years ago.

One thing I have noticed, though - and this is not an indictment, just an observation: people who do make good money, and have done so long enough to have gotten used to it, do not really relate to lower-middle and working class people who are just scraping by. They may say they can "relate", but in my experience they cannot; any more than I can relate to a person raised in a blighted and famine torn country.

This may be why we get so little from government for our money: people we elect don't REALLY relate to us...

I think that the Vanishing Middle-Class is the reason we are seeing "class warfare", this little bit of which is over income taxes.

If the US had a solidly growing middle-class paying a growing chunk of taxes, the economy would be healthier (Duh!) and there wouldn't be the pressure to find revenue expressed in this increase in extreme anti-rich verbiage we are seeing ("Eat The Rich", "Bring back the guillotine", etc...) lately...

Just sayin'.

Global economic equality is coming... Woo-hoo.

2010-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

Most people don't realize that the "equality" they dreamed of, have fought for and voted for, didn't end up being equality with your neighbors down the street and under the protections of a beneficent government and guarded by The Constitution, but equality with the Chinese worker, the Brazilian worker, and the Indian worker.

Guess what? Surprise! The Stones were wrong -- you don't get what you need, either...

Unfortunately, like illegal immigration, the people in whose best interest lies in keeping NAFTA afloat are the people who own our government and our representatives - both party's worth. And guess what? Both GWB and Barack are globalists, neither of them has your best interests at heart, the end result that our (the common US worker) boats don't rise, but continue to sink to meet the mean.

Our economy has gone global. Most available jobs will have no protection and become more menial with longer hours and lower pay. The horse has done left the barn.

This doesn't sound very libertarian of me, but the rich will continue to get richer and the poor, poorer, but on a global scale, which means that most of us may end up poorer than we ever imagined possible.

The math says it is too late for the US. If there is much of a pre-tribulation future left, and I do not believe there is, its history will say we were just a very short-sighted people who benefited over a short period of time from our short-lived empire.

Top 10 Influential Fiction Books...

2010-08-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

This isn't a "most important" list, although some of them are. These are books that established my likes and (fiction) reading habits for a lifetime.

The Chronicles of Narnia – Lewis
Tom Sawyer - Clemens
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Pyle
Ivanhoe - Scott
Glory Road – Heinlein
Dandelion Wine – Bradbury
The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings – Tolkien
Jack of Shadows – Zelazny
The Dying Earth – Vance
The Foundation Trilogy – Asimov

"The Amercian Dream" - George Carlin...

2010-08-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ok. Discuss...

George Carlin – “The American Dream”:

“...But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never … ever … EVER be fixed. It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got. … … … BECAUSE … THE OWNERS, OF THIS COUNTRY, DON’T WANT THAT! … … I’m talking about the real owners now … … … … … the BIG owners! … … … The Wealthy … … … … … the REAL owners! … The big wealthy business interests that control things … and make all the important decisions. … … … … Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. … … The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . … you don’t. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. … They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. … They got you by the balls. … … They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying … . . . lobbying, … to get what they want . . . … Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but Ill tell you what they don’t want . . . they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. … … They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. … … They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting F’D by a system that threw them overboard 30 FN years ago. … … They don’t want that! You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. … And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly Sh*tty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your … Social Security money. … … … They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? … … … They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this FN place! It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! … … … … You, and I, are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich C--K S--KERS who don’t give a F about you. They don’t give a F about you . . . … they don’t give a F about you. …. …. They don’t care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their a--holes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, … cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . .”

Why no balanced budget ?

2010-07-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Why no balanced budget?

Simple everyday people, like you and me, often wonder why Guvmint can’t “live within its means”. Well, for one thing, it doesn’t have to…

Those in favour of deficit spending always say "Guvmint spending is different than household spending." - and that's true - Guvmint never has to balance the budget. Actual intake never has to equal output's perceived value because Guvmint (through the corrupt FED system) prints its own money and tries (somewhat) to control the supply.

As for your budget comparison, there isn't one - as Guvmint really has no budget - it's all a shell game... and Guvmint has gone from being a necessary evil to a necessity.

Guvmint has always been, and is still in the bizness of growing Guvmint. And the way Guvmint (lately) keeps itself in power is not really through taxes, but by regulating money supply. Guvmint operates under a mandate to do this through its several different supporting bases who believe that they each in particular will benefit from Guvmint’s action (through taxation/redistribution/provision of perceived rightful needs). Whether recipient or supplier, these bases view Guvmint as a gigantic charity, responsible, through said mandate, for all of society.

Our representative republic slows it down a touch, until everybody starts to jostle and grab for a space at the trough and our representatives become jaded and corrupt. Then the trough gets smaller and smaller and the group of piggies gets bigger and bigger.

The piggies are about to overwhelm the trough.

We give up so much to the Guvmint...

2010-07-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin

The 4th Amendment no longer exists...

2010-06-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd mention that. Too many references to list...

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized..."

Guvmint will make sure BP pays... But to who? Guvmint, of course.

2010-06-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Prediction:

I’ll bet yer (ahem) that bad public sentiment will spawn a favorable outlook on new taxes industry-wide — intitially to make up for BP’s inability to cover all the liabilities involved.

They'll call it a "risk tax', or some sort. As if we can afford more risk like this.

But don't you wonder, given the Guvmint's record on robbing Peter to pay Paul, and then mugging Peter's children too, how much of that revenue will actually be used for the vocalized purpose? Or will the majority of the tax/ongoing fine be arbitrarily apportioned to prop up public works and pump up the balance sheet of the general budget?

Watch: If Guvmint gets its paws on more funds/fines because of this, it won’t go where needed…

Do I believe that BP et al should pay out the nose (Heck, just cut the nose off.)? Sure. But putting BP out of business won't solve anything; and I am sure that will be another argument used for an industry-wide tax/ongoing fine.

When the Faux Stimulus dries up...

2010-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

One of the better anonymous comments from the A-News "Letters" section:

Oh yes, it sure would be nice to have some economic activity around here besides the university and the businesses that support it and for the most part, grovel before it like it was the Golden Calf that might be angered lest ye not grovel!

The smart development folks have been quite quiet recently. It was easy to point to bad development; when the economy was booming, but now, not many people are coming up with any realistic ideas to get some money moving our way.

The stimulus money from the federal government is going to dry up in the next year and that money has been propping up our cities and villages, our schools, the universities, and building things like the Nelsonville bypass.

Once the bypass is finished, the construction jobs will go away. I don't see things getting much better around here for a while. The stock market went back to 1999 levels last week. And the stimulus money was borrowed money. At some point the US taxpayers will have to pay it back, with interest.

Our politicians sold us out. They bought the propaganda of the wealthy elite and dismantled our country's manufacturing infrastructure, believing we would evolve into a service economy; and not have to be bothered by dirty jobs like manufacturing.

Now the service economy is collapsing. Outsourcing is just beginning to swing its wrecking ball around America. Anything that can be sent via email (e.g. writing, accounting, legal research, software development) or transacted over the telephone (customer service, including order taking) will continue to go to India and other countries where the pay is a fraction of US wages.

US professors will slowly but surely be reduced in numbers by online education and the stream of international students coming to America to study will slow down as China, India, and other countries build up their universities. These are the countries that will actually have jobs for engineers, for example, because they still have a manufacturing base in their economy. Not a rosy scenario for Athens biggest industry.

Ross Perot was right when he predicted the huge number of jobs that would be lost here due to fair trade. It took longer than he predicted, but now we can see he was correct. Of course, it isn't fair trade if the other country doesn't have a minimum wage like ours or the same degree of environmental standards.

The only industry thriving in the USA right now is the so-called defense industry. A never ending series of wars will be needed to keep our largest industry in business. A never ending supply of young men and women will be needed to be sacrificed for the never ending wars.

Who are they fighting for? Is it really for the government of the people and by the people or is it for the super rich bankers who pull the strings of their puppets in Washington?

Something to think about on Memorial Day. God bless America!

Rand Paul, the GOP co-opted Tea Party, and Anti-Discrimination Laws...

2010-05-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Rand Paul a racist?

No. He was presented with what comes off every time as a classic false dichotomy argument based on what he sees in this instance as an example of the always false premise that the end justifies the means. He is objecting to anti-discrimination laws being applied to individuals and individual businesses because of his stance/belief/view of the Constitutional effects of such laws on individual liberty.

Remember that big-L Libertarianism is ALL based on property rights. From his POV (not necessarily my view - I think the whole question is more complicated than that) civil rights laws are bad because they keep people from using their own private property as they see fit.

I think there are people trying to brand him a racist. I don't think he is, but I do think he is not the brightest bulb in the political building. Of course, he's not going to show as a real libertarian, as the Tea Party has been co-opted by the far right wing of the GOP. I don't think there is justification for the attacks on Paul as a racist. Paul says he is against racism even in private businesses, the issue being one of political and Constitutional philosophy as to anti-discrimination enforcement on and over private property.

It seems to me that Dr. Paul understands that discrimination based on race is unjust but still thinks that the legislative effort to address it does not pass Constitutional muster.

I wonder if we are establishing that it is unacceptable to commit to a Constitutional principle to the point of rejecting legal remedies for injustice; i.e.: anti-discrimination laws that control the activities of individuals and individual businesses.

Immigration realities...

2010-05-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

I was doing pre-inspects on a couple houses yesterday afternoon.

This is often what happens when I walk into an under-construction house:

There look to be about 5-6 Mexicans working out of an old van finishing up insulation and starting drywall - I can tell that somebody has been cooking food in the garage.

When I walk into the house, one of them sees me and vanishes into the family room, 3 or 4 of them leave the family room through the garage entry and get in the van. One comes inside the foyer to watch me and the other keeps working. I just nod to the one watching, he nods back, and I do my inspect and leave. (As soon as I leave the others will go back to work.)

In my experience it goes like this: there is only one English speaker, and probably only one or two "legals" in the crew. They are one of several crews, often family members, who are hired by one guy contracting with one of the builder's subcontractors (this insulates the builder from any immigration questions or legal responsibilities), who takes a big chunk of the workers' earnings in turn for letting them work for him.

The same organization (foreman or farm boss thing) happens with the Koreans, except that most of them are legal. The Koreans tend to do more intricate, time intensive labor across several trades, and the Mexicans do most of the grunt-type construction work.

This happens all over, in all good-size cities. Those of you who live and work in smaller cities may understand the problem, but probably don't grasp the size of it...

As far as I can tell, there is never any enforcement of immigration law, never even any questions asked by anyone.

The only time you hear of "raids" or any inspections, are with factory employees. Factory situations where illegals are employed are a very small percentage of the illegals working. I venture that most illegals are employed in construction and restaurant/hospitality and itinerate farm-work - although in the south, I have read that a lot of them are employed in the trucking industry.

The most dangerous words...

2010-05-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

"If you're not doing anything wrong, then you've got nothing to fear."

It's a pretty far-reaching attitude problem with both Conservatives and Liberals. People who've never been persecuted give up their rights sooooo easily, when someone tells them it's for "the greater good."

Those words are about the most dangerous to ever come out of a supposedly free person's mouth...

Lotta rights been lost on that road... Funny how they're much easier given up than gotten back, ain't it?

Sunday's Coming... The Movie Trailer.

2010-05-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Via Old Hop:

Sunday's Coming... The Movie Trailer.

Legalizing Pot: Pointless...

2010-04-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Note this: People who grow pot in quantity for money now, don't want it legalized.

These are some predictions from “Hermit” -- if pot is legalized:

1. It will still be illegal to grow your own supply.

2. A lot of money and time will go into enforcing #1.

3. Government sanctioned dope will probably be pretty weak stuff, and everything stronger will still be illegal.

4. A lot of money and time will go into enforcing #3.

5. There is a slight chance that MJ will become a pharmaceutical, which may mean the only legal form will be some sort of marijuana pill, available by prescription only and closely monitored.

6. Whatever happens, the cost of dope will go up, and most of it will still be illegal, with all the associated crime that we have today.

So in other words, getting what you wish for may not be such a good thing.

Regulation and taxes would take quite a bite off the front end.

Those who do use, might want to realize that the Meig's Co Green portion of your budget will probably go up - not down.

Border violence may decrease on the Mexican side, but violence related to a very active black market here (regulations and taxes, remember...) would increase.

Cost of regulation and taxing will replace dollar for dollar the amounts spent on the pot part of "da War on Drugs". Those DEA agents just get another card and name tag.

Given all the above, there are still those who believe Guv'mint should regulate and tax this (another) product. In fact, many still believe Guv'mint has the right and responsibility to do so. No matter that it would increase the size of Guv'mint (Again, remember that the DEA would still be out there doing what they do. Meth and Oxy and H will still be running our trailer parks and hollers...), and cost the taxpayer even more money in bureaucracy and regulation than is gained through taxation.

The same way people relate the need for Guv'mint to nanny us through MJ legalization (no matter how pointless it is now), is the way they view almost everything else....

If you're going to do it, then legalize it ---- and then do the prudent thing... NOTHING.

And just an observation from a former (tobacco) user: anytime you inhale smoke of any kind from any source into your lungs, the long-term result is guaranteed to not be good.

In a nutshell...

2010-03-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Quoting a poster "Hermit" on a local forum:

"I think our economy's big problem is that it is built on the premise that people have to buy crap they don't need to keep the wheels of commerce in motion.

When people stop buying crap they don't need, the economy tanks. I'm not so sure it's a good idea for the government to pick up the crap-buying slack to get the wheels spinning again.

I never thought I'd see the day when the act of saving was considered bad for the economy."

Succinct!

I don't see a single business out there that is not living off of its balance sheet and loans. Nobody has a reserve of any kind -- why keep a reserve when money is cheap and you can funnel profit back into growth?

Well we just found out.

Used to be, if you borrowed money and couldn't pay it back, you went bankrupt and somebody who could do the job better (if it needed to be done) replaced you. Things rolled on.

But because our businesses and banking system have been centralized and have become under the FED so intertwined, and because our currency is continually manipulated by said FED, and isn't worth tissue paper, we are caught in this shell game of buying crap with borrowed s**t.

So, instead of letting things find a balance, and retreating to a point where our s**t might actually be worth something, we flood the system in a big ol' Keynesian fountain of ever more worthless s**t. The more of it there is, the more worthless....

But regular Joe Working Guy, he learns his lesson a little too late to save his bacon... and a little too soon for fake bailouts to work. Because the economy is mostly made up of Joe Working Guy, and if he decides not to play, then the FED can move those fake shells around in a frenzy all they want to -- Joe ain't playing now, and he ain't comin' back to the table soon enough to pull the FED out of its own fire.

Just wait until it gets out that most of the state pension funds are gonna go broke over the next few years. Wait until the infrastructure starts to go -- simply because we put fake money where good, hard, honest work should have gone.

We're all grasshoppers.

When the only thing your business has to weigh against your loans is a warehouse full of crap that Joe Working Guy isn't buying anymore....

There, I feel some better now....

Why I changed my mind on Health Care...

2010-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

... or at least, one of the reasons.

What brought this on was one common blood draw and test, and one extremity x-ray.

My insurance normally pays $19 for the draw and $19 for the read (which isn't a read at all, since they just forward a print-out to my Doc).

The pay for the x-ray is normally $24 + $67 for "hospital services".

So, once I reach my deductible the total for this bill would normally be $129 to my insurance company and nothing to me. (Not bad, huh?)

Because I have not reached my deductible, Fairfield Medical Center bills my insurance company $465, of which the allowable is $363.

Here is the breakdown:

x-Ray = $268
Basic Metabolic panel = $68
Ast/Sgot = $19
Ast/Sgpt = $19
Lipid Profile = $63
Cbc with Diff = $20
Venipuncture fee = $8
--------------------------------------
Total = $465
Allowable = $363

The 15% discount for paying early (the outrageous overbilling is not why I am bitching - yet) is $54.

Someone without insurance is going to be billed at least $465 -- if they pay it early, they pay $398. I have heard that the bills to persons with no insurance can reach the quadrupled total of the amount billed insurance companies. I am told that this is to "fluff" certain statistics, and to make a higher profit off of the discounted percentage from the sale of bad debt to outside collectors (Incredibly evil, if true). I have heard of hospitals even operating their own debt collection agencies as separate entities, in effect selling debt to themselves. (Now that would make even Dr. Evil squirm.)

Someone who cannot afford to pay in full is going to be paying at least $468 for a service that will cost my insurance company $129 and me nothing once I reach my deductible.

For those of you who say that the deduct of 15% is just to cover costs, I have this:

The "interest" or AR cost is covered in this notice: "If you choose to send a partial payment your account will be subject to a onetime 12% late payment fee or $100, which ever is less, with the obligation that all accounts will be paid in one year."

Lessee, that's 27% on any bill under $835, if you have to make payments, if my math is correct?

Amazing they didn't go out of business when we did in payday lenders.

An automatic 15% discount for paying a bill is not a good thing. It means the initial charge is too high... It also puts an undue burden on those who are less fortunate but still determined to pay their bill.

The full price should be a fair price, with no special deals that only apply for the more fortunate of us, especially if they are a "not-for-profit", as FMC is structured to be (they are technically a 501c 3, but they outsource most work to money-making corporations, doctors, labs, and the like).

This is patently unfair. And I'm the guy taking advantage of the "discount", which in reality isn't -- a discount.

Them that's got, get... Which is usually fine, but not when there is no alternative except drawn out sickness and/or eventual death.

There it is.

And here's another tidbit:

It takes some wading through, but this sheds some light on the scam that is most "not-for-profit" hospitals.

It's basically a way for them to expand; making the debt they accrue less risky by selling bonds, even while exempt from tax, profiting from their tax exempt status, while in reality remaining for-profit corporations.

Check it out:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/76xx/doc7696/12-06-HospitalTax.pdf

Palin as a Presidential candidate? Come on...

2010-02-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, the scam has gone on long enough. Collect all the money you can, but don't make like you are any kind of viable candidate for anything outside of PTA president.

Go back on a book tour or something. You are sucking up air that the eventual opposition candidate needs.

It's sad that we have reached the point in our Republic where partisan sound bite mentality and the resulting dumbing down of the electorate has made a "viable" candidate for the most powerful elected office in the world out of a woman who can't make a speech without bullitt points markered onto her palm. Oh, and and current holder of that most-high office has a teleprompter for a wing-man.

Sarah Palin is no more a Presidential candidate than I am, and the only hope that she gets elected is that our already stupendously stupid populace loses another averaged 20+ IQ points.

Sarah Palin will not be able to hold her own in any debate with any serious candidate from her own party (Neo-con 'pubs), unless the whole shindig is fixed.

The "Tea Party" movement and message has been totally co-opted and re-aimed by Neo-Con Republicans, and as such is unsalvagable. I truly do not know how real libertarians can affect this corrupt two-party system.

"Recession" = Sanity...

2010-02-09T06:53:00.001-08:00

Good article from Old Hop.

The way I understand it: "Recession" is when the economy corrects itself back toward sanity, and everybody who was buying crap they don't need stops buying crap they don't need and starts spending their "discretionary" income -- if any, considering the fact that if you make stuff people don't need you will shortly be out of a job or out of a business -- on sensible stuff they, if not now, will need in the future. Their focus is on saving, and their consumerism is limited to purchasing "stuff" with long-term use and true resalable or tradable value.

It is frightening how much of our economy depends/depended on creating buzz or false need for useless items.

If you are in business to make crap that people don't need, you need to get into a business that makes "stuff" people need.

Otherwise, see the first paragraph, because you are SOL.

And another thing: If you are someone who gets their economic information and outlook from TV "stock advice" shows, a la Cramer, or reads the WSJ Stock pages, then you may be in for a shock when the promised "recovery' doesn't happen and when the economy gets worse.

The reason we seem to be in what we are being told is "recovery", is because companies are showing profits with more production per person, but less production overall. They are cutting salaries and employees, and showing more profit per person, but there is a smaller market, fewer people employed and purchasing product. This will eventually catch up as more jobs vanish, and the government "safety nets" fail.

The effective unemployment stands at 15-17% right now. Don't expect that to improve.

We chose to "rescue" useless banks instead of instituting some sort of National work program improving our crumbling infrastructure.

Payin' the piper. I can hear him winding down the glen right now.

I love trains, but...

2010-01-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

I love trains, BUT...

For those of you comparing the proposed (I guess it's a done deal?) government supplied train travel here in Ohio to the government subsidy of roadways:

We pay for a large portion of highway funds through the gasoline tax. An overwhelmingly large portion of the population uses and needs the roads -- some small percentage of them to drive to and park for a train ride that takes twice as long as the same trip in a car.

Are there any passenger trains between large cities that currently run through Ohio? I'd be interested to know how many Ohioans currently use trains, compared to the population to which train travel is available, AND how many of them trip between cities.

This is the game we see time after time: Unveil some extraordinary government program, tell you it's good for you and expect you to live with it, knuckle under and pay for programs that YOU don't use. Then the stories come out that the program doesn't quite work, and that it would never survive without increased taxes (In this instance, ridership will be half of what is predicted, it's more expensive than what they said and the state is stuck with this mess and has to raise taxes to pay for it.). If it is operated and run by the government, no matter whether it is a failure, the workforce never gets laid off, its workers receive benefits largely unavailable to the taxpayers footing the bill, and get to retire after 30 years with 90% of their incomes - and inflationary increases.

And another thing while I'm on a roll: $400m is almost twice as much money as we are budgeting for Haiti next year... Haiti, a problem that will take BILLIONS of $ to make a dent.

"Senators working on the next annual foreign assistance budget have proposed at least $282 million for Haiti; the House proposal would provide at least $165 million."

We need real solutions for jobs, not make-work government programs that benefit a very small percentage of the population, and that have no measurable value return to the people who pay for them.

"I love trains", but they really need to put some more thought in this. Shouldn't they start with light rail IN the cities before they try to connect them?

Well, now. It's time for me to run for office...

2010-01-21T17:24:00.000-08:00

...Time for me to run for office! Get me sum o' dat Big Coal monies!

Maybe it should be a law that for every donation over 100K, the pol has to get the company logo tattooed on his/her face. That way every time they speak, you know who you're really listening to....

For the “smaller” corporate donors, they can paste Nascar-like stickers on their suits and accoutrements.

I understand the principle behind the majority decision, but I really believe it is an overreaction.

I very much doubt the Founders forsaw a time when even local candidates would run on platforms provided by multi-national corporations. Well, that time is now.

The problem began with the PACs. How do you define or even recognize the difference between say, the your "Concerned Citizens of Lantucky" and a FRONT GROUP.

So what they are doing is opening it up for everybody. Simply because it has become impossible to distinguish the differences (and WHO decides which group is kosher????).

I don’t think this will effect large elections at all...

But what about the example of a state representative who gets on the bad side of “Big Whatever”, and “Big Whatever” then buys their own candidate the election?

You can scream 1st Amendment all you want, but in these days of conglomerates, “Big Whatever” is likely owned by people who live outside the state. Not that this hasn’t been happening already and all-over, but this makes it even easier for non-constituents to affect an election.

Some great forum comments from The Volokh Conspiracy:

"What about arguments based on agent-principal issues? The point being that the speech of a company or a union is controlled by a few insiders and will often be weakly — or even inversely — correlated to the views of the stockholders or union members. Doesn’t it seem a little strange to ground the free speech right for a corporation in the collective free speech rights of natural persons who may — and frequently will — disagree with that speech? (While I think this argument is quite strong for companies and unions, it doesn’t apply or at a minimum is very weak for corporations whose principal purpose is advocacy e.g. the Sierra Club or the NRA.)"

-------

"Who is accountable for corporate speech? Not the strawman corporate “person” that is built up as a means of giving (real) people limited liability. The strawman corporate “person” isn’t even accountable to its own conscience, since it doesn’t have one.

The bigger issue for remains the special protections we give shareholders and officers of corporations. To have both those special protections and the privileges usually reserved for individuals tilts the playing field way too far. I would prefer preserving free speech whenever possible, so my preference would be to reduce those protections for shareholders of corporations who choose to engage in political speech. Make them an LLS(peech)C."

-------

"1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition ...

The wording of the First Amendment does not establish a human right of free speech. It places a limit on the subject of legislation. Without arguing whether Freedom of Religion is a human right (people have freedom of religion, churches don’t) it bars legislation that interferes with organized religion. Freedom of the press is clearly an organizational/corporate right. Note that the end does not talk about the right of a person to assemble (one hand clapping) but the right of the people to assemble (an act that by definition can only be exercised as a group). However, in all these cases the text is not about the rights themselves but rather a prohibition on Congress to legislate on certain matters.

Therefore, the actual text that Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech does not limit its application to citizens or even people. The text does not talk about “freedom of people to speak”. Congress cannot pass a law abridging speech. Any kind of speech."

-------

Shareholders of US corporations need not be American citizens or even American residents. So even if you buy the “tool” model that free speech of a corporation is just a pass-through for the free speech of the shareholders, the right to spend money on speech is flowing through in part to foreigners and even foreign governments.

By this standard, the Government of Singapore for example (via Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) has greater opportunity for paid political speech in the US than all but a handful of Americans.

A Republican Senator from Massachusetts!

2010-01-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Who would believe it?

I wonder if this is a vision of the future, or if it was reactionary to the HC debate, the 0-Man's shrinking numbers, and the fact that the Dems made a bad choice and ran a stupid campaign? I would‘a lost a bet on this one. I thought "the Machine" would get their voters out no matter what it took...

NPR is the only place I have heard mention that Scott Brown voted for the Mass HC bill that created the state system most similar to the current Fed HC bill.

Bad decision by the Dems to not pound him on that.

And he never said why he changed his tune....

I'm a bit discouraged with everyone involved. Populism can be a dangerous thing -- that's why we are a Republic, thanks to The Founders -- people don't often take to nuances and complications, so they ignore them and just bleat for change (It happened with the 0-Man phenomena, and now with the HC debate).

Politicians are natural liars, so what you end up with are leaders that in bad times, instead of solving problems, exacerbate them by bending to whatever portion of the population is bleating the loudest.

In good times the same Pols are for sale to the highest bidder. This goes for both Dems and 'pubs.

BUT -- Had the Massachusetts legislature not tried to screw with things when Kerry was losing his Presidential run, a Dem would have been appointed after Kennedy's death and a Dem would be elected during a regular cycle.

The really funny thing is that when the 'pubs screamed about changing the rules, the Dems ALL - every single one of them - said "Well, that's just politics. Suck it up and play with the big boys."

Karma is indeed a bitch.

Avatar Spirituality...

2010-01-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

Avatar Spirituality

Many people are receptive to nature-oriented spirituality, as celebrated in “Avatar,” but they don’t think of it as a central or necessary part of their lives. They don't view such spirituality as a "religion" in any historically conventional sense. This means that when times get hard, there is any inconvenience or even persecution, they feel no responsibility to follow through on this spirituality.

Do Away With the OSHP...

2010-01-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

Ohio State Highway Patrol Fraud. Again.

This will never fly, BUT… Do away with the OSHP.

We have no need for a state level law enforcement agency relegated to traffic enforcement; it is nothing more the revenue generating.

We have OBCI for investigations of a felonious nature. We have a solid force of County Sheriffs throughout the state to handle other types of criminal, and as officers of the courts; civil matters as well.

OSHP is a huge waste of state funds, relegated to cherry-picking remote stretches of road, baby-sitting accident scenes and practicing court-sponsored violations of Constitutional Rights.

Deactivate the entire OSHP, and give the tax money back to the counties. It can be spent on upgrading Sheriff Departments and maintaining roads.

In reality, the OSHP only exists as a revenue collection agency for the state with their obvious ticket quotas and close tie-ins with outside groups both actively encouraging and dependent upon the income generated through this culture of revenue.

Part of our court system and many of these interconnected agencies exist as part of this revenue stream. It's all part of the government bloat and waste that is Californiaizing Ohio.

Any Sheriff Deputy can take an accident report and often does.

Put the money and the responsibility back in the hands of real Peace Officers and do away with fake cops.

Harry Reid -- Back-room Dealmaker -- Castigated for telling...

2010-01-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

... The Truth.

I think the really funny thing is that Harry Reid, the comsumate back-room, cigar-smoke dealmaker, is being castigated for telling the truth - for just once - and saying what everybody was/is thinking.

Come on, you don't think that every single Democrat power-broker wasn't salivating over a Black/Irish pol who exhibited every trait of the Ivy-school scion that he really is, but can turn on the "dialect" at will, and speak idiom where it is understood, makes points and is considered a sign of bonding and identification?

AND, you don't think that every single Republican power-broker wasn't combing the bushes of every Red-state for a 'pub that matched the above? And you don't think they weren't green with envy?

Come on...! Geesh.

It is so hilarious that a politician of Reid's "skill" at deceit, is getting in trouble for telling the truth. And, it's a sign of the depth of depravity of both the American system and the way we have been trained to think, that this is actually being considered a serious flaw -- when there are so many other deparately important and way-of-life threatening subversions of congressional power taking place.

Ok. Time for a change...

2009-12-17T10:32:00.001-08:00

... (From the post above you can tell that this is a work in progress.)

I am going to try taking this blog in a "kinder, gentler" direction. Please pray that I can overcome my tendencies to see the dark and sarcastic, as I try to be more true and effectively loving.

I'd like to start with a few quotes from one of the few truly honest men I have met, Rich Mullins.

"There are all kinds of things that are pushed on us and we have no say over. And they shape the way we see everything. Because I grew up in Indiana, in the Protestant tradition, in fact in the Quaker tradition-that had a lot to do with biasing me. That's going to have an effect on the way that I interpret the Scriptures; that's going to give me my perspective. And I need to be aware of what my perspective is, so I can both appreciate it and be a little distrustful of it."

"For me the greatest joy that I have is knowing that I do have a Father who loves me, and that He doesn't love me in a passive way. That He loves me so much that He sent Christ to take away the guilt of my sin, and that it is a real thing, that it really did happen. If I will experience joy in this life, it will be when I let other people know that there is a God who loves them, and He has taken away the sin that separates them. There is no greater joy than just that proclamation."

"The Christian faith is not about mere intellectual assent to a set of doctrines, but about a daily walk with this person Jesus. It's about living in awareness of Christ risen, resurrected, and living in my life. Even though doctrine is important, wisdom in the Bible has more to do with character, and the art of living Christianity is about living out the will of God, and living abundantly."

"If my life is motivated by an ambition to leave a legacy, what I would probably leave is a legacy of ambition. But, if my life is motivated by the power of God's spirit in me and the awareness of the indwelling Christ, if I allow His presence to guide my motives, that's the only time I think we really leave a great legacy."

More quotes from Rich.

Rowdy Roddy Parsley commemorates Oral Roberts in his own, special way...

2009-12-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

... and guess what? Rod needs money. What a shocker!

Rowdy Roddy is just giving a little tip of the ceremonial collection plate to Oral Robby, his hero.

Some of this is due not to his extravagant lifestyle, but to an unlawful corporal punishment lawsuit the "church" lost.

And the answer to his plea?

Well, several hundred thousand C-bus residents chant in unison: "Spank me", "Spank me", "Please Spank me!"

The 0-Man's Nobel speech...

2009-12-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

I was fairly impressed with the speech. Thought it better written than delivered. It was clear that he was speaking to US voters and not the crowd of elites in the auditorium.

BUT, I think we should have either sent the original 80K troops that McChrystal wanted or get out.

Half ass jobs are what create MORE war, kill unprepared young men and bankrupt nations that THINK they are empires.

How many troops did the Russians orginally bring to Afghanistan? I think it was well over 100K and a lot more artillary. And they were willing to go further on every front.

The odds were with him. The 0-Man had a choice between Two Rights and One Wrong, and he chose the Wrong. Waffling as usual, and hoping on some random occurance to save his/our bacon? If so, Hope&Change ain't got much hope left in the skillet.

Bad, bad, very bad mistake.

Tiger...

2009-12-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

... Turns out that Mr. Woods is just another guy who thought he was way too smart.

And, like most guys who think that -- he thunk wrong.

But beyond this, is a more disturbing trend:

In my office, women that never paid attention to golf can now quote chapter and verse of the sordid saga, along with a list of the s---s reportedly involved. And they do so with such salacious attention to detail that I wonder if their values don't more closely correspond with Tiger's paramours than these supposedly normal women would have you think.

Dubai a look into our future...

2009-11-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

From The Agonist:

Is Dubai a look into our future?

"...there is no one – absolutely no one – who can come to the United States’ rescue. And if you want to believe that the US would never, ever ask for a little extra time to pay back its debt, or ask for it to be restructured in some way, or debase its currency with inflation in order to throw its debt burden on to those who have financed it, that is your affair. Just remember there are millions of individuals, funds, corporations, and governments around the world who have bought US Treasuries. It only takes a few to wonder long and hard enough about just how safe and secure these Treasuries are to cause a stampede out of them, at which point the US is exposed like Dubai as a naked supplicant in the global market, begging for alms and a little forgiveness for past sins."

Stefanie Spielman...

2009-11-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Spielman 1967-2009

Here is a wonderful slide-show.

Afghanistan

2009-11-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

Here we go, "nation-building" again. Not gonna work.

We have a very moral purpose in hunting down terrorists, killing them and publicizing the fact that we will continue to do so. Problem is, we don't have a handle on "righteous anger" anymore. We assign blame to ourselves based on what terrorists say their reasons for attacking us were. We psychoanalyze to the point of national Stockholm Syndrome. And the result is that not only does it give rise to the perception that we are weak, it self-fulfills, and we are weak. And we become an even easier target.

“Fearsome acts. A man steals from me, I cut off his hand. If he offends me, I cut out his tongue. If he stands up against me, I cut off his head, stick it on a pike and lift it up for all to see. A spectacle of fearsome acts. That's what maintains the order of things. Fear.” - Bill The Butcher

Disappointed & Pissed...

2009-11-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Issues 2 & 3 are examples of the majority of voters not doing ANY research at all, passing two amendments written by the very owners of the interests those amendments purport to control.

Frighteningly, it may be a sign that most voters can't do the research, and even when things are spelled out to them, they either can't understand, or more likely, are ignorant through wilful stupidity.

It looks like they just gave their rights away (Issue 2 - a board now makes their decisions for them), followed by their wallet (Issue 3 - they sold something for less than a 10th of its market value).

The state just lost 450,000 million in license fees, and the farmers just took the right of the rest of us to vote on our food away.

Ignorance begets dangerous decisions.

Now the only way you can change it is through another public vote, either to amend the amendment or repeal it, which will cost the Taxpayer even more money -- on top of what they lost in the deal.

Now, we'll still have to deal with the Humane Society, as Issue 2 does nothing to stop that. And I think the average voter lost what control they have over the quality of our general food supply.

The only thing Issue 2 did was place the farmer under even more control from Big-Ag.

In the end, the farmers will find out they hurt their own pocket-book; and the real result will be that this board will be against everything from organic, free-range farming to Truth in Labelling. Big-Ag and the "Harm" Bureau don't want us to know where food comes from, how livestock are fed, and how many steroids and antibiotics are in the livestock they market.

More importantly, they don't want the voters to have a say about what types of farming and farm pollution will be allowed to expand in Ohio. This lack of voter power will really hurt all of us down the road.

It's disgusting how much trust the public puts in TV ads.

Corruption loves an uninformed populace.

NO on Issue 2 -- Again...

2009-10-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

Issue 2

Issue 2 is a run-around to take power out of the voter’s hands.

We don't need a constitutional amendment that takes power out of the voters and their elected representative's hands and puts it in the hands of an appointed board -- no matter who is doing the appointing.

Does anyone think that a board appointed by a governor advised by a farm bureau that is indebted to and in the pockets of Big-Ag is going to approve things like "truth in labeling” that help people know where their food comes from and how it is processed?

If you don't care to know where your food comes from, and you don't care what added ingredients are in it, or what processing standards are applied, then this amendment, and the resulting loss of personal control and responsibility is for you.

Big-Ag and the money (follow the money -- look at who's spending like the dickens on TV and Radio) are trying to make this a Liberal vs. Conservative thing. The PETA, Humane Society thing is a totally fake scare tactic being broadcast by the Farm Bureau, and paid for by Big-Ag.

Now here's the real scare: If you want several gigantic messes like The Croton Egg Farm polluting the air, water and soil, run-off from giant hog and chicken farms ruining water supplies and beautiful Ohio streams and creeks, and large, single crop farms damaging soil with nitrate accumulation and leaching it into your water supply and NOT be able to stop the damage because you foolishly gave away your right to vote on it, then this amendment is for you.

Here is a message from Snowville Creamery's Warren Taylor:

http://snowvillecreamery.wordpress.com/

Vote NO on Issue 3...

2009-10-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is an amendment to the state Constitution. Once done, we can't change it.

If we don't get it right this time, we are screwed worse than we are now.

This is a BAD proposal. It also creates a monopoly that is anti-free trade/anti-Capitalism. It buys our future and doesn't pay us enough for the deal. We are screwing ourselves if this is approved.

One of the really bad things is that the police unions, groups supposedly interested in the welfare of Ohioans, are supporting their own little slice of the pie, while knowing that this is a bad deal.

From BallotPedia:

The Columbus Dispatch is opposed, saying, "The Ohio Constitution is no place for such detailed, self-interested amendments. If Ohioans wish to bring casino gambling to the state, the proper way would be to approve a succinct amendment granting the governor and General Assembly the authority to draft statutes, rules and regulations for such enterprises. In this way, the state would retain leverage to properly license, govern and tax casinos. As times and circumstances changed, the state would be able to respond. If State Issue 3 is approved by voters, the amendment would be unalterable by any action of this or future governors and legislatures. Only another statewide vote could change the amendment."[15]

The Toledo Blade is opposed, saying that a gambling casino monopoly should not be enshrined in Ohio's Constitution. "Voters should also remember that the reason it is difficult to amend the state constitution is to avoid having short-term concerns or passions result in wholesale changes that harm the state in the long run. What is given away in haste, such as control over gambling, may be regretted at leisure."[16]

The Youngstown Vindicator is opposed to Issue 3, saying, "We have said before when commenting on other casino gambling issues in Ohio: Gambling is the most successful scheme for the redistribution of wealth ever devised. It takes from the poor and gives to the rich. That’s because, as any gambler can tell you, the house never loses. Don’t be taken in by the promises of easy money being made by Issue 3 proponents. Vote no on Issue 3"[17]

The Akron Beacon Journal is opposed to Issue 3. In an editorial, the board said, "The state estimates the casinos would generate $643 million in annual tax revenue, slightly less than the $651 million claimed by Issue 3 proponents. But studies of gambling's economic impact on communities show that most of the money wagered comes from local residents who quit spending on nearby bars, restaurants and the like. Studies also show an overall negative impact, once the social costs of gambling are included, among them, increased crime, broken homes, bankruptcies and addiction treatment. In other words, casinos are not an engine of economic growth."[18]

In an opinion column published by the Toledo Free Press, Tim Higgins writes that his opposition to the measure is not related to immorality, amount of revenue brought in, or the jobs that may or may not be created for Ohioans. However, Higgins writes: “My objection to Issue 3 is much like it was to Issue 6 before it from the 2008 ballot. It is that both proposed Amendments limit gambling in Ohio by creating a casino monopoly, something that should never be considered in Constitutional politics. As we would never place such a monopoly in the hands of a utility company or a corporate media outlet, neither should we do so for a group operating casinos. Penn National may be a great corporation, but so was the group who failed to get Issue 6 last year; and it does not make them more deserving of such a monopoly.”[19]

Buckeyes vs. Purdue...

2009-10-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

"Giving Tressel Pryor is like giving me a helicopter. I don't know what to do with it, and it's going to end in a fiery crash."

This is indefensible. Sick. Unpardonable.

Blow the whole thing up and start over.

Bad O-Line, bad QB and very, very bad coaching.

This makes USC's loss to WA look like a minor upset.

Tressel needs a new O-Line coach and an offensive coordinator NOW. Those should be the requirements to keep his job.

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner...

2009-10-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

[Pause for Applause] “I am so humbled.” [Look lovingly at wife - DO NOT make Eye Contact with SecState Clinton]...

Vote NO on Issue 2, the Livestock Care Standards Board...

2009-10-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

I am opposed to Issue 2.

First of all, it's a Constitutional Amendment to create a Board -- and no one seems to be sure what this Board's powers will be, or what limits will be set.

Secondly and more importantly to me, this Amendment is supported by the Farm Bureau -- which means that it is in the best interests of Agra-giants like ADM, Tyson, Cargill and other food manufacturers and buyers -- not necessarily the small, LOCO-producer/seller that I prefer to buy stuff I EAT from.

The Farm Bureau is heart-and-soul in the pocket of these big, corporate interests. Seems to me that they don't need help.

They are trying to cast it as an anti-"Peta"/Humane Society legislation, which their lobby hopes is supposed to strike a chord with conservatives, but from what I have heard, it's the big, corporate owned farms that already treat their product badly who are supporting it -- not the small, free-range, organic farmers.

Right now, I think that it is a vaguely worded attempt to put all farms under the same State bureaucratic control -- a bureaucracy that is already owned, lock/stock/barrel by somebody other than the voters/taxpayers.

Because it’s designed to favour large factory farms, not family farmers, Issue 2 is opposed by the Ohio Farmers Union, the Ohio Environmental Stewardship Alliance, and the Ohio Sierra Club. The editorial boards of Ohio’s major newspapers—including the Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal, and Dayton Daily News—all oppose this effort to enshrine the agribusiness lobby’s favoured oversight system in the state’s constitution.

Folks, Issue 2 are more important than people realize.

The proposed oversight board would strip the Ohio Legislature of its ability to act as the defacto oversight agency that represents the people of Ohio and gives that responsibility to a group of 13 individuals that have no accountability to the citizens of Ohio. Based on this observation, I have decided that I do not want another government agency in this state that cannot be held accountable to the wishes of its residents through their vote.

I will be voting NO on Issue 2. Not because I support the Human Society or Peta, as the Pro-2 Lobby would have you believe, BUT because the people behind the Pro-2 Lobby (The Ohio Farm Bureau and large farms backed by industry giants like Cargill, Tyson and ADM) are trying to modify the Constitution to suit their needs, not ours. If this passes expect all kinds of political pressure to stack this board by people who want to put independent co-ops and family farms out of business.

Please vote NO on Issue 2.

Health Care -- Selfishness Is Good...

2009-10-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Bottom Line:

It would be wonderful if we had a Single-Payer Health Care System that worked for everyone, with no waiting, no rationing and no decisions made that are not in the best interest of THE PATIENT.

But the reality is that we all see "Health Care" through our particular lens.

Our opinions and preferences are grown from our reactions to our experiences, driving the resulting decisions affecting both our lives and the lives of others. In the end we all want what is best for our loved ones and ourselves and everyone else is secondary. This is why "Capitalism" is true and at least partially works, and why the tyranny of the few manifested in any form of "Collectivism" is false and never works well enough to sustain for any appreciable time.

In relation to all of the so-called "facts" flowing from those supporting a single National Health Care System: I think the statistics are skewed. The EU/UK/UN way of keeping stats doesn't match up with the way health stats are kept in the US (see the easy example in natal care), so the comparisons are difficult.

I don't want my loved one to wait 2-3-4 months for a test my Doctor says my loved one needs to have. And I don't want my loved one to wait for a test because my loved one is not in the particular cohort segment deemed eligible for that test.

Heck, I want to be able to go to the doctor I choose -- If the one in my locale or town is not up to my standards, I want to have the choice to go elsewhere -- and, I want to do so immediately, without waiting for some government entity to give me clearance.

Driving this reasoning is that I believe hospitals in the US are better at emergency, high-risk, and extreme trauma care than anywhere else in the world. And that belief causes me to doubt the stories I hear, especially those put forth by supporters of "National Health Care" that tell me how much better other health care systems are, especially when their claims don't in the least jive with my personal experience.

If a health care system is not at its best when I need it most, then everything else, including cost, is secondary and possibly irrelevant.

The "My Favorite Band Sucks And I'm A Lemming" T-Shirt...

2009-09-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

"My Favorite Band Sucks" or Crap Seeks It's Own Level.

It should be a T-Shirt. And I am convinced that the majority of you lemmings should be wearing it. Send me my money now.

If you listen to pop/country radio and worship at the feet of mega-record company made and marketed "stars" created in studios then you should be wearing that shirt.

Here's a test: go to the credits of your favorite "musician's" latest cd and check to see how many songs they "co-wrote".

Some of these "stars" never see the songs they supposedly wrote until time to rehearse for the recording.

It's a common practice for the publishing company for these created "stars" to buy songs outright - then list the "star" as the writer. An even more common practice is for the publisher for these "stars" to mine available pitched songs and then offer the real songwriter a conditional deal to get the song published: add the "star" as co-writer. Adding the "star" as co-writer often cuts the take of the publishing rights in half, effectively giving the real writer half what he or she deserves.

Most people listen to what the mainstream media and record companies provide -- although that is slowly getting better. In short, they listen to what they know, which is crap (most popular culture), and without "enlightenment" their taste stays at the level of crap. And, for some strange reason, people who will put up with JW's and Mormans calling at the door don't like it when you are honest about something as personal as their taste in music. It's like you called their baby butt-ugly.

You call 'em like you see 'em.

Your music is crap and your baby's butt-ugly.

One of those you can fix through the enlightenment of education.

Call me an elitist, I guess. Been called worse.

LEAP

2009-09-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

Leap, by Brian Doyle

A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them falling, hand in hand.

Many people jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a pink mist in the air.

The mayor reported the mist.

A kindergarten boy who saw people falling in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. She ran with him on her shoulders out of the ashes.

Tiffany Keeling saw fireballs falling that she later realized were people. Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story. Niko Winstral saw people free-falling backwards with their hands out, like they were parachuting. Joe Duncan on his roof on Duane Street looked up and saw people jumping. Henry Weintraub saw people "leaping as they flew out." John Carson saw six people fall, "falling over themselves, falling, they were somersaulting." Steve Miller saw people jumping from a thousand feet in the air. Kirk Kjeldsen saw people flailing on the way down, people lining up and jumping, "too many people falling." Jane Tedder saw people leaping and the sight haunts her at night. Steve Tamas counted fourteen people jumping and then he stopped counting. Stuart DeHann saw one woman's dress billowing as she fell, and he saw a shirtless man falling end over end, and he too saw the couple leaping hand in hand.

Several pedestrians were killed by people falling from the sky. A fireman was killed by a body falling from the sky.

But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands.

I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers but I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death. It is what makes me believe that we are not craven fools and charlatans to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them like seeds that open only under great fires, to believe that some unimaginable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here.

No one knows who they were: husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell. Maybe they didn't even reach for each other consciously, maybe it was instinctive, a reflex, as they both decided at the same time to take two running steps and jump out the shattered window, but they did reach for each other, and they held on tight, and leaped, and fell endlessly into the smoking canyon, at two hundred miles an hour, falling so far and so fast that they would have blacked out before they hit the pavement near Liberty Street so hard that there was a pink mist in the air.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that.

Copyright 2002 by Brian Doyle.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland in Oregon. He is the author of three collections of essays: Credo, Saints Passionate & Peculiar, and (with his father Jim Doyle) Two Voices. Doyle's essays have been reprinted in the Best American Essays anthologies for 1998 and 1999.

"Inglourious Basterds" reviewed. Sort of...

2009-08-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

Quentin Tarantino seems to be a not-so-unusual combination of 12yr.old boy, 23yr.old Master's student, and 40-something Director.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems obvious that outside the film-buff references and spaghetti western theme he used this baseball bat of a movie to show - in this case, not necessarily to the audience - that the leap from movie patron to Nazi really IS just a dose of Pepsi, popcorn, pigotry and politics away...

The movie patrons at the Athena Grand in the supposedly the enlightened educational rose of Diversity that is Athens, Ohio made Tarantino's job very easy. Some of them were flat-out cheering with every scalping and bat-blow, and most were noticeably amused.

I get what he's trying to do, I think. I hope. He's pointing out the "They did it, so if we do it back, it's ok." mob-mentality that creates Nazis out of ordinary movie-goers, while still playing to those popcorn peons by glorifying the violence he uses to make his point. I do believe that there is a time and place for violence, but what he is doing is the movie equivalent of people taking turns blowing up each others school buses.

Is it okay to out-Nazi the Nazis, as long as it's on the silver screen, to show how easily it will happen again?

Christoph Waltz was fantastic, probably an Emmy nomination performance, although his part makes you wonder just how good a German accent James Woods could have pulled off. The French farmer at the beginning of the film was great. The rest of the individual performances were weak - probably because the writing was weak, even for someone trying to imitate spaghetti western dialog.

I’m not a fan of either, but I would have replaced Brad Pitt with George Clooney. Pitt's role seemed written for Clooney.

The older I get...

2009-08-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

"The older I get, the more I see politics as nothing more than theater intended to cover up a good old-fashioned smash-and-grab."

Conservative Anarchism...

2009-08-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Great article via Old Hop.

http://oldhop.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-towards-synthesis.html

The Guy on the Corner with the Offensive T-Shirt....

2009-08-07T07:08:00.000-07:00

The guy on the corner with the offensive t-shirt….

This is a very interesting debate. When does “free speech” become a public nuisance? When does personal and public safety come into play?

A person was observed, on a street corner in Athens, wearing a t-shirt that said something that I cannot bring myself to say here, or anywhere.

Someone complained, with these results:

"...Discussion with the local police revealed that in Athens people and animals like that one can say, parade on a sign, or wear any words they choose without limits...."

I'm pretty sure that is not true that there are no limits to “free speech” in Athens. I can think of several religious or non-religious slogans that would have the wearer arrested as a nuisance or threat to public safety.

It really depends on WHO you are offending....

When is "hate speech" mislabeled as "free speech", and who gets to do the labeling?

Are there any lines left to cross? Is all speech "free speech", or can some speech be considered assault?

For instance: that guy on the corner of Court Street can get away with wearing the t-shirt that says "Jesus is a ----", and probably gets quite a few - unfortunate - snickers of approval from some of our populace.

But put the same guy in a "Mohammed is a ----" t-shirt, and he probably gets physically assaulted. Say his shirt is saying "All ---- go to ----", or "Kill all the (whoever)". He would definately be confronted.

Is one part of the populace so cowed that they won't stand up for their beliefs, while another group feels empowered by the fact that minority status can be a pass to say literally anything? Is this to be considered a double-standard, or just desserts - the 21st century version of "Stickin' it to The Man"?

You can boldly wear a shirt that proclaims "Police LIE". I've seen it, and I don't disagree with the statement... BUT, if you put on a shirt that accuses a popular politician/public figure of the same offense, and do it in Athens, you are gonna get your --- kicked.

I could go on with even more obnoxious examples, but it's pretty clear that in Athens, as in many other and diverse communities, you can get away with certain publically expressed opinions - in fact, they kinda blend in... - BUT, reverse those opinions and they not only draw a crowd, it would become both a personal and public safety issue.

Proof abounds that we, as a nation and a culture(s) have lost any sense of common decency - and we have lost it to the point that we really can't find it, or even know when we have crossed any line.

When did we begin to believe that in order to make a "point" we have to shock and offend? It seems we don't enough command over our language to express ourselves without resorting to intellectual shortcuts.

These shortcuts continue to work their effect on any public discourse.

Right now we're reduced to TV spouting one-line sound bites that totally disregard truth. Indeed, our elite, educational tribe views truth as pretty much subjective in all contexts. So much so that a large portion of our "intelligencia" regard the oaf on the corner with the offensive t-shirt as enlightened, and his vile statement a wonderfully insightful observation. Not, the sick, twisted offront to civilization that it actually is....

Budget troubles will mean more Cops on the road...

2009-08-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

The worse the budget situation gets, the more patrols there will be. For a while this will be both traffic enforcement and DUI/OMVI patrols.

As the economy moves more toward total break-down, the police will move more toward their original purpose: to protect the State's interests, which government refers to as "keeping the peace".

No matter how bad the situation gets, be it for revenue purposes or just to control the populace, there will be more patrols of all kinds in the future.

And anybody who has done the math knows that there is a whole culture of jobs and dependent economy built on both Traffic and OMVI tickets. Just look at the cost of your speeding fine on your ticket and compare that to the add-on of court costs that you pay even when admitting guilt and mailing in your payment. Look at the fines, court costs, schooling/rehab and long-term insurance costs associated with just a first-time OMVI offense.

Ohio is ranked the forth worst state for speed traps in the US. To reiterate, it will get worse as the times do...

I drove to WVa the other day, spent 35 miles on 33 in Ohio and saw 10 troopers and 2 sheriffs. That's one every 2.9 miles. In 145 miles through WVa on Rt.77, I saw one trooper and one sheriff.

Mikey (I'm a man!) Coleman, Users vs. Suppliers, and the C-bus Tax Increase....

2009-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Mayor Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman threatened his city with chaos if his 25% income tax increase was not approved in the sneak election yesterday-- a sneak election where the minority gets to decide for the majority, again.

Yep, we the minority in numbers, are actually the majority of tax dollars for the wunnerfull city of C-bus.

Whose police and fire “protection” are we paying for? Yessiree, it’s the guy or gal who tries to panhandle us downtown or in the Short North, or the thousands of non-citizens and welfare junkies living in the too-numerous tax supported projects.

And why are we the ones paying? A city estimate of 55% of C-bus income tax is paid by non-residents. And since that is the number supplied by the city Auditor’s office, I am betting that the reality is much higher; probably 65% or more.

Those people who work in the restaurants and shops we frequent and where we frequently get hasseled by said panhandlers? Why, they don't live in C-bus either! More and more of the people who work in C-bus are commuters; the result being that those on the teat and with the resident vote decide things, not the reluctant suppliers.

With fewer people working and paying the problem is fast reaching the critical mass of users overbalancing producers.

More people on the teat. Suckling piggies. On The Dole.

While the welfare junkie that is C-bus is trying to hold the dealer up, that works only once, and then the supply is gone. The junkie doesn’t have the wherewithal to do his own supplying. If more and more jobs and taxpayers move out of the city limits, bye-bye city. And maybe that’s a good thing...? Then mebbe Mayor Mikey I’m-a-man! will get a look at real chaos – not the pretend stuff he threatens us with.

Mikey told you that the gangs and panhandling problems will spin out of control if he didn't get his money. Rrriiiiiiight. Like they've been in control, while he adds more "Freeway Police" and tries to convince us that writing speeding tickets and helping set up DUI checkpoints is really fighting crime.

As for we Worker-Bees, we are paying city income tax and a separate school tax where we live, and now another tax increase on top of the C-bus tax we now pay, and the chunk of state and federal taxes with which we supply more public services and one form or another of government assistance for said non-citizens and welfare junkies.

Mayor Mikey I'm-a-man! scheduled the vote for August. Not November. August. Even though it costs more than twice as much to hold a special election than to put the rape…errrrr issue on the general ballot. That’s so he can get his bunch of “users” out while any city-dwelling “producers” are at work. It wouldn't surprise me if the “get out da vote” effort was just Free Cigs and 40s fer everbuddy.

As it stands right now, I might be bending over, but it is so Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman and his scum-sucking scam artist pan handling welfare grubbing constituency can kiss my ***.

It is a day for whining....

2009-08-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

I hate my 178 mile commute. And, I very much dislike Columbus. It has no soul - at least to this country boy. I doubt I could live here. And I hate being away from my beautiful home and my much-much better half.

I dislike my job, not necessarily the mechanics of it, but I hate having to interact with shallow and insincere people to whom office politics, gossip and rumor is the only spice of the day. I wonder if their souls look and act like rats in a sinking ship?

It is my own fault, as a chronic underachiever, that I am only qualified for the job I do. I am very good at it, but the company where I work is the only place within 150 miles of where I want to be that has a job for me...

Yep, it is a day for whining.

The Beer Summit: Oh, the Beers that should have been....

2009-08-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

The final word on the beers that should have been served at the historic but meaningless "Beer Summit".

Sergeant Crowley could have been drinking a number of beers, from Carling “Black Label” to Saranac “Black Forest”, to Boston’s own Sam Adams “Black Lager”.

Only one Cerveza fits Professor Gates: Mexico’s own "Carta Blanca". That way he can be drinking the “White Card” in lieu of playing the Race Card.

There are many beers suggested for our President, from “Arrogant Bastard”, which is only half true, to “Blithering Idiot”, which really should have been Joe (Plugs) Biden's beer of choice in lieu of Buckler.

Only one American made beer REALLY FITS, though:

LOST NATION PALE ALE

The Beer for people who have Lost Their Nation, NOT Their Taste.

LOST NATION PALE ALE from Willoughby Brewing Company, 4057 Erie Street Willoughby Ohio.

http://www.willoughbybrewing.com/beer.htm

Amateurism and Incompetence....

2009-07-31T10:49:00.001-07:00

Amateurism and incompetence spell disaster.

And when it's from the person holding the most important job in the world...?

Then the disaster moves on up the Richter scale.

The Peasant Plan....

2009-07-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

(From "Shot In The Dark" Blog)

The Peasant Plan
July 31st, 2009 by Mitch Berg

John Edwards, in a line that may well top off his political epitaph one day, famously said that there are “Two Americas”. He was referring to the literal and metaphorical gulf between America’s “Haves” and “Have Nots”. He didn’t note that there are also two Indias, two Phillipines, two Frances and two Argentinas, but Edwards has never been one to let eternal truths of the human condition get in the way of a sound bite.

Conservatives accept these gulfs, recognizing that talent, innate applied intelligence, hard work and just-plain-luck and the lack of them will put people in one America or the other. At the same time, most see a moral obligation to cut down the hurdles and obstacles between the two - especially the (creating more) exits from “Have Not” America.

The left, on the other hand, has always sought to make life in “Have Not” America at least superficially less onerous, all the while making “Have” America a refreshing oasis for those who spend their days dwelling on the plight of the “Have Nots”. Their rationale isn’t much different from the one that royalty accepted in years past; the responsibilities of taking care of ones’ inferiors justified life’s little luxuries, and the big ones as well. In big ways (the USSR’s kommissars shopped at special stores and lived in special housing while the proles waited in line for bread and crammed entire families into studio apartments) and little (count the number of anti-Second-Amendment celebs who’ve used their connections to get themselves and/or their bodyguards concealed carry permits), the left constantly squirrels away perks for their fellow “haves”.

Since the bloom is finally coming off Obama’s electoral rose, it’s time to catalog the Administration’s, and the Democrats’, attempts to make “Have” America a nicer place for those who take care of all of us peasants....

(Read the rest at "Shot In The Dark")

State Run Media Lies On Severity of Recession (Depression)....

2009-07-31T09:36:00.001-07:00

All the news outlets were Obamatized today with stories that said the "recession" was "lessening in severity" or "the economy is recovering" or "economic indicators" are improving.

Notice how most of them are all on the same page when it comes to the The 0-Man's press releases, errrrr... "news"?

The economic data (You know, the actual math involved?) says different.

My Beer and My Civil Rights....

2009-07-31T06:36:00.000-07:00

So, we're all agreed then:

All cops drink.

And... all black men break and enter.

Cool. The national referendum on that is over.

Long as we got it straight.

Btw, the Cerveza should have been Carta Blanca.

That way the Beer Summiters could drink the "white card" in lieu of playing the race card.

Think I'll go stand on my front porch and yell at cops for a while. It's fun, but not very profitable.

But I'm well within my rights....

A Parable of Beer at The White House....

2009-07-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

The Ethnic Stereotyping Parable of Beer

So...

Maybe if we were to consider the whole "beer at the White House" (Breaking and entering) thing from Sgt. Crowley's (Prof. Gates) point of view?

You never know, he might feel a little put upon, having someone of another ethnic background automatically assuming he liked to drink (break and enter) because he was Irish (Black)? Maybe even if he is standing in a bar (In the foyer of a house with a broken front door) when he gets the invite?

I mean, especially if he knows in the depths of his very soul and through the personal experience of generations of his ethnic group that there is a history of societal-wide biased belief that the majority of Irishmen (Blacks) abuse alcohol (Break and enter)?

What if the invite was really only an innocent one - the kind of invite that someone might extend to a working acquaintance (Perp) or customer (Taxpayer) while in the course of their job?

But what if then, as Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates) has been conditioned to look at such pleasantries as an insult to his heritage and his intelligence, he takes offense at the invitation to “have a beer” (Show some I.D.)?

Are we to then blame Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates)?

Of course not – blame the inviter, not the invitee.

And The Tax Circle Will Be Unbroken....

2009-07-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

... by and by, Lord. By and by.

From the continuing saga entitled "Bend Over To See How Taxes Work".

The Revenue Circle

I'll bet that it will get to the point that it has with Federal monies for roads: States will have certain laws they must enact and enforce, as well as certain benchmarks or metrics they have to meet, or the Federal dollars (actually the state's dollars to begin with) will be taken away.

Lessee, we are taxed to pay for citizen penalizing "safety" programs (ClickItOrTicket, Traffic Cameras, etc...) that are mandated by Federal law, states collect the revenue from these "programs". Then the Feds raise the number of such mandates, and states have to figure how to make more revenue to fund the mandates, just so they can qualify for more Federal monies, taxes go up to provide more Federal monies... on and on and on....

President guilty of ethnic profiling....

2009-07-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

One of them thar thangs that jus' make ya wanna go "hummm" just occurred to me -- According to the 0-Man, this is supposed to be a "teaching moment" about racism.

So why is it that he invited Crowley over for, of all things, a beer? To talk about racism? Why not a White House dinner? Why not tea? 'cause everbuddy knows the working class can't be trusted to behave at a proper White House din-din. Prolly never seen a salad fork before.

Is it because, you know, Crowley is an Irish name, and hey, you know about those Irish and their alcohol?! Give 'em a little likker and everythang'll be ok. Heck, just 'cause he's Irish don't mean he ain't got sum Injun in him.

What The 0-Man did here is the equivalent of a white President inviting a person of color to the White House to share some watermelon, fried chicken, and listen to some drivin' while black stories. Jolly time.

Unbelievably (or not) oblivious.

Proving the 0-Man's point though, is that Gates does have better taste in beer, preferring Red Stripe or Becks over Crowley's Blue Moon.

Uh, weak wheat beer made by Coors. Almost as bad as ethnic profiling by the 0-Man.

Now, all of us know (or we should) that The 0-Man is 1/2 Irish. But he's in denial of his Irish "roots". That's why he's called the first (2nd?) Black President instead of the 11th partially Irish President.

Plus, it just sounds better.

Now here's a way for him to keep sounding good: Get the facts first... when you're President, that's important.

What IS happening...

2009-07-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

"Let us face reality. The framers [of the Constitution] have simply been too shrewd for us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to "turn the founders upside down" we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected....

...Others might press for major constitutional restructuring but I doubt that Americans under normal conditions could agree on the package of radical and "alien" constitutional changes that would be required. They would do so, I think, only during and following a stupendous national crisis and political failure."

From: The Power to Lead by James Macgregor Burns, Presidential Biographer and Member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

Wow. We are really in trouble.

Here's what's happening, folks. (From a web-poster aliased "JustPassinThru")

Everybody needs to brush up on Saul Alinsky.

Destroying what IS is a necessary prerequisite for building their New Utopia. They ARE destroying our structure - BY DESIGN. So that when the people get panicked; and with church and community rendered impotent, they will, Liberals hope, turn to GOVERNMENT.

It's reminiscent of the Three Stooges short, where they were exterminators trying to hype business by planting vermin in an expensive house. - JustPassinThru

Here are some Alinskyisms:

"Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing."

"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism."

"An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.... To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations...."

"By 1985, the influence of traditional Christian philosophy in the West was weak and negligible.... Humanly speaking, it was no longer too tall an order to strip large majorities of men and women in the West of those last vestiges that remained to them of Christianity's transcendent God."

"The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody."

"The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but real — allies of the Haves…. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means... The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be...."

"The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means...."

"The seventh rule... is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics...."

"The tenth rule... is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.... It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the circumstances at any given time... Who, and how many will support the action?... If weapons are needed, then are appropriate weapons available? Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether you will move quickly or slowly..."

"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

Health Care Reform Rhetoric vs. Reality....

2009-07-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

From the NY Post:

Rhetoric: The president insisted in his news conference last night that "the bill I sign must also slow the growth of health-care costs in the long run."

Reality: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad asked the man who is the top authority on the subject -- Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf -- if the bills before Congress would "bend the long-term cost curve" in health care.

"No, Mr. Chairman," Elmendorf said, adding, "the legislation significantly expands" health costs.

Strike one.

Rhetoric: Obama said last night his plan "will keep government out of health-care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it."

Reality: The Lewin Group, a respected economics-consulting firm, estimates in a new study for The Heritage Foundation that more than 80 million people would lose the coverage they have today if the Obama plan is implemented.

Strike two.

Rhetoric: President Obama has traveled the country extolling the virtues of the Mayo Clinic and other integrated health systems, saying they offer "the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm" and should be a model for the nation.

Reality: The Mayo Clinic and 12 other top health-care-delivery outlets just sent Congress a letter, warning that the bill that already has passed two committees in the House would put them out of business.

If the government creates its own health-insurance plan paying at Medicare rates, as the administration and Congress propose, the organizations say the result will be "unsustainable for even the nation's most efficient, high-quality providers, eventually driving them out of the market."

Strike three.

Obama and his False "Fact" of 46 Million...

2009-07-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

President Obama and his minions are continually throwing this very deceptive figure out: that according to the Census Bureau, there were 46 million uninsured Americans in 2007—about 15.3 percent of the population. It’s actually about 16 million, or about 5 percent of the population.

Those carefully chosen few privileged to interview him (see the recent Jim Lehrer interview on News Hour which prompted this letter), never call him on it.

The difference between 16 million and 46 million: the millions of people who qualify for but do not take government insurance benefits already offered, the population making more than $50,000 a year who are uninsured, and uninsured non-citizens.

The majority of people (59.3 percent) purchase plans through their employer and forgo direct purchases. Plans provided by private insurers directly to consumers only account for about 8.9 percent of total purchases; a very small percentage of the overall private market.

Over 27 percent of Americans are covered by taxpayer financed public insurance. These Americans are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, State-Child’s Health Insurance Programs, military health care, and sometimes a combination of these options.

Through war, an influx of immigration, and a number of recessions the uninsured rate has stayed relatively constant, moving between 12 and 16 percent since 1987.

Of the 46 million people without insurance 12.4 million were foreign born, of which 9.7 million were non-citizens. According to the Census Bureau, the number of illegal immigrants without insurance is difficult to calculate accurately, but it is believed to be the largest factor contributing to climbing uninsured rates in recent years.

Of the 46 million uninsured, 17.5 million had a household income greater than $50,000 per year in 2007 and 9.1 million had incomes over $75,000. These Americans did not qualify for public insurance, given their incomes, and have elected to stay out of the private insurance market. This correlates with the fact that about 40 percent of all uninsured Americans are between the ages of 25-44.

Ref. Sources of insurance analysis: http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/the-sources-of-insurance-issue-analysis-126

Ohio's Gambling Revenue Is A Pipe Dream...

2009-07-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

The projected gambling "revenue" that is supposed to prop up the back end of all of the Social Services in Governor Strickland's lazy-man's budget will end up just so much smoke.

As is the norm for most State-run projects (see lottery as funding for education????), it will be full of cost overruns, bad purchasing choices, kick-backs and loopholed contracts.

West Virginia revenue from slot machines is off 7 percent for the current year. And projections for this coming fiscal year are worse.

If a state that is experienced is missing their projections, what will happen to Ohio's rookie projections?

Wanna guess?

Gov. Strickland's projections for Keno profits for the Ohio Lottery Commission were at $73 million of the budget for the current fiscal year. Now those "revenues" are running off $40 million at a pace that projects to only $33 million.

That's a lotta red ink and a pretty big difference, doncha think?

When the slot machines were first proposed back in March by racetrack owners to “save their businesses”, they estimated the revenue to the state to be $600 million. Now, when Governor Ted wants slots to balance the budget, they're supposed to make $933 million.

Jimi was right: If 6 were 9, well, wishes still ain't horses, after all.

The solution to a healthy budget is a better business environment with better tax structures, NOT A SHELL GAME where the only winners are a couple of outdated gambling ventures and an out-of-state slot machine manufacturer.

That is, unless your whole economic plan is a shell game. Then it makes sense because you are trying to scam the citizenry. Just. One. More. Time.

Instead of helping prop up his lazy man's budget, Gov. Strickland will be looking at an ultra-costly fiasco. The state will count on the $933 million of projected revenue, which will fail to materialize, and at that point they will have another deficit built on those faulty expectations, ending up with even more job cuts, and as they usually do, an end result worse than an honest days work at effective budget cuts and a revamped tax system would have been.

To simplify, here are the steps involved:

1-The assumption (see "projected revenues") that a government program, especially one designed to raise money, is going to be badly run, is a pretty safe one.

2-Being off on projected revenue hurts budget plans. Ohio sees what is happening with other gambling states, and blithely ignores those results when making its own plans. Pretty smart, huh?

3-The problem is that they plan their spending and make the budget based on the false assumption that they are getting $73 million in revenue, when it is actually $33 million. At this point we don't even know if that is gross or net - we don't know the formula they used - although you can wade through the 1000+ pages and presumably find out. It probably changes based on political expediency.

Can we assume, given the record on Keno, that things will be the same with slots? I think so.

The result is a LOSS as the budget is in deficit because, using Keno as the example -- Slots will be worse, they have already spent the $73 million, additional jobs and programs have to be cut, and the cycle of deficit spending goes on and on...

America's Deathbed....

2009-07-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

(Exerpted from World Net Daily)

"...That government is best that governs least is an Americanism. When "Silent Cal" Coolidge went home in 1929, the U.S. government was spending 3 percent of gross domestic product.

And today? Obama’s first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.

The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.

Obama plans to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take the income tax rate to near 40 percent. Combined state and local income tax rates can run to 10 percent. For the self-employed, payroll taxes add up to 15.2 percent on the first $106,800 for all wages of all workers.

Medicare takes 2.9 percent of all wages above that. Then there are the state sales taxes that can run to 8 percent, property taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and "sin taxes" on booze, cigarettes and, soon, hot dogs and soft drinks.

Comes now national health insurance from Nancy Pelosi's House. A surtax that runs to 5.4 percent of all earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, who already pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, has been sent to the Senate. Included also is an 8 percent tax on the entire payroll of small businesses that fail to provide health insurance for employees.

Other ideas on the table include taxing the health benefits that businesses provide their employees.

The D.C.-based Tax Foundation says New Yorkers could face a combined income tax rate of near 60 percent.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a tyrant for having "erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

What did George III do with his Stamp Act, Townshend Acts or tea tax to compare with what is being done to this generation of Americans by their own government?

While the most productive are bled, a third of all wage-earners pay no U.S. income tax, and Obama plans to free almost half of all wage-earners of all income taxes. Yet, tens of millions get Medicaid, rent supplements, free education, food stamps, welfare and an annual check from Uncle Sam called an Earned Income Tax Credit, though they never paid a nickel in income taxes.

Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than in even the recent past, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.

Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as non-immigrant women.

Almost all immigrants qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions.

All of this would have astounded the Founding Fathers, who, as they declared in the Constitution – created this country "for ourselves and our posterity."

China saves, invests and grows at 8 percent. America, awash in debt, has a shrinking economy, a huge trade deficit, a gutted industrial base, an unemployment rate surging toward 10 percent and a money supply that's swollen to double its size in a year. The 20th century may have been the American Century. The 21st shows another pattern.

"The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event," writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR's Foreign Affairs magazine. "Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious."

GAME OVER.

The BIGGEST Rip-Off. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the Taxpayer....

2009-07-15T17:13:00.001-07:00

The Bubble Machine - How to profit from disaster. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the American Taxpayer....

This is a great audio interview from the program "Here and Now", on WBUR, Boston public radio

Goldman-Sachs has people throughout our government, and that enabled it, through Henry Paulson and others, to game the system.

They control both the Federal Reserve Bank System and our government oversight programs.

http://www.hereandnow.org/stand-alone-player/?fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fwbur%2Fstorage%2F2009%2F07%2Fhereandnow_0715_1.mp3&fileTitle=Goldman%20Sachs%20the%20"Bubble%20Machine

Guess who owns the Chicago Climate Exchange, the firm that will be handling the majority of Trade Cap sales?

Thaaaaaat's right, folks. It's our good old buddy Goldman-Sachs. The people who rigged the rape, errrrr "Bailout".

Yessiree, G-S, the company that right now controls most of our nation's monetary policy, through their former employees that head up the FED and parts of government, and now they are in charge of selling our 21st Century INDULGENCES.

Our Manifest Debtstiny....

2009-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Reduce the size of Government? Reduce the size of Government?

Why oh why would anyone want to reduce the size and influence of the Ultimate Source of Goodness, gifts from which in multiplicities the Holy and Blessed Federal Reserve spews out of its cavernous mouth, drowning us in the wonderful destiny of inherited debt manifested as the Heavenly Manna of Inalienable Rights to Unlimited Social Services and Inflated Dollars?

What, you say you believe in personal responsibility and "savings"????

Oh, I pity you your ancient and naive little provincial view. You are close to heresy.

Repent before The One (Pbuh) issues a fatwa on your ass.

The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality....

2009-07-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

(Courtesy of Mitch Berg's "Shot In The Dark". This is an edited version. Visit the blog for the rest.)

The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality, regurgitating well-worn propaganda that flies in the face of reality as revealed in real numbers.

The 0-Man said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.
“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession”.

…which is a good thing, and probably all the “Stimuless” spending package should been enacted to do; provide a safety net. The rest of the plan is a combination of deferred liberal agendas and political payback.

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to rise, oil prices are falling (which believe it or not is bad), and the stock market has fallen four weeks in a row in anticipation of an extended worldwide recession as global government borrowing digs an ever-deepening crevasse.

Oil prices and the stock market are accepted leading indicators. The 0-Man’s rhetoric has no or predictive value whatsoever. Where are even some of our 2-3 Million New Jobs? - a number The 0-Man pulled from his backside some time ago - why is unemployment above 8% and still rising? If this is not a free fall….

…the bill “was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis,” The 0-Man’s said.

Both missions: Unaccomplished.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media displayed a little scepticism towards The 0-Man’s stimulus plans? If nothing else I would like to see some mainstream journalist note that The 0-Man’s training is in the law, not economics, and that he has no history of managing an economy bigger than an office budget, and that we don’t even know how he did on that.

The 0-Man has already saved (or created?) 600,000 jobs. He says so! I dare you to disprove him, because God knows, Obama can’t prove it.

Obligatory Palin Post....

2009-07-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

Added note:

Lately I've heard a couple people comparing Sarah Palin's current situation to Richard Nixon in '62, when he famously said "... you won't have Nixon to kick around any more...."

This is all said with the point seeming to be that a comeback is in the offing.

Difference being: Tricky Dick was educated, prepared and a diabolical genius. Then the genius part took a vacation and he was left with just the evil.

Palin is nothing but a few memorized catch phrases that she can’t define; but this is combined with the misplaced hopes of someone else’s disappointed constituency, a lot of seriously reaching wishful thinking, and what very well may be an Adderall overdose. All of this is completed (and complicated) by a bunch of hubris sprinkled on top to form a quite probably insane and definitely unstable mix.

We already have one couple in the White House right now who don't know how to act in public (Do they have any competent advisors?). Why would we want to do this again on top of all the rest of our troubles?

Conservatives need to find a serious/real candidate or two and quit messing around with this weird glorification of someone who doesn't deserve consideration.

-------
Org. Post:

Any sane person who listened to Sarah Palin's news conference has to say she at least sounded shaken and almost unhinged.

I wonder what McCrazy thinks about this?

Do you think he feels like giving Cheney a free shot at his face?

If not for his incredibly egotistically niave view of the VP selection process, this probably slightly unbalanced person would not have had a sniff at a ticket and would have eventually just faded and floated away on some ice flow....

I still can't get over the fact that McCrazy had KBH available and (even better) CTW possibly available, and he picked Palin.

That will go down as one of the worst political moves... ever.

Ad.note:

All you hear from the Neo-cons (a la "Conservatives Lite") is their normal Palin-talk ("Elitists bla bla, Elitists bla bla, Elitists…") as they continue to get in their own way.

I require my leaders - on a national level anyway - to be obviously intelligent, well-versed in every possible facet of policy and ready to stand on the world stage and command respect if not fear.

Who qualifies? The 0-Man doesn’t, Joe Plugs surely doesn’t, McCrazy doesn’t… and yet Neo-cons all over (Yep folks, they haven't gone away.) are glorifying Palin when she is obviously proven to be unqualified and unready for any kind of national exposure or pressure.

Palin was a huge mistake and Neo-cons continue to try to defend it instead of calling it what it is: McCrazy’s foolish conceit.

Ohio -- Raising taxes in bad times....

2009-06-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

The question is not "... why would you ever want to raise taxes during a time of prosperity?", but why would you spend the increased revenues from those more prosperous times so frivolously?

The fastest way to eliminate helpful state programs is to continue the course of making Ohio one of the least business-friendly states. Inacting a sales tax increase, especially one that increases taxes on business-to-business purchases, will result in another flood of jobs leaving Ohio (for states like Indiana, with much better tax climates), as well as businesses (as my employer has done) choosing to expand in other states rather than open in new markets in Ohio.

This welfare first/business last environment will result in more unemployment, more reliance on support-starved state programs, speeding our state toward that point where the critical mass of users overbalances producers, crashing what is left of our economy and bancrupting both State and taxpayers.

Our government, on all levels, and much like the people it "serves", will never learn to live with a budget that saves money during good times, so that the bad times will not be so bad.

Recycling comes in handy....

2009-06-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Recycling comes in handy...

... when the PO-liceman pulls you over and "in the course of human events" happens to ask why there is a case of open beer bottles in the jeep....

The Worst Public TV Guest Ever....

2009-05-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

The evening of May 27th, I watched "State of the State" show on WOUB, the local public channel in Athens, Ohio.

One of the guests on the forum type show dealing with multiple aspects of the unemployment problem in Southeastern Ohio was Mark Tatge, some sort of visiting professor at Scripps College of Journalism, Ohio University.

Tom Hodson is the moderator, and the other members of the forum were:

Angie Hawk Maiden: President and CEO of Appalachian Center for Economic Networks;
Perry Varnadoe: Director of the Meigs County Economic Development Office; and
Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) State Representative for the 92nd Ohio House District is also home to Ohio University.

"Mr." Tatge was the most unprepared, impolite and offensive guest I have ever seen on any real public forum/information show. My wife wondered if he thought he was auditioning for a bit on Colbert. I thought that he thought he was on the Bill "Blowhard" O'Reilly set and in some sort of gruesome competition with Ann Coulter.

I am a Libertarian, and I really tried, but I could find absolutely nothing redeeming about his appearance on a show that usually has a thoughtful and well-meaning discourse that seeks practical solutions to problems in our State and in our local area.

With his reckless, unfocused, arrogant "Faux News" style of blathering bloviation, he alienated the other guests on the show, and probably everyone watching as well. The other guests and the moderator were noticably shocked and embarrassed as they tried to politely interact with this pretentious fool.

Mr. Tatge had done no research, spoke in offensive and outlandish generalities throughout, frustrated and discomfited the moderator and belittled the efforts of the other guests by his lack of knowledge and interest in the causes, applicable questions and possible working solutions to the problem of local unemployment. It was a shameful example of ego combined with ignorance by a person who touts himself as an expert and is rumored to teach a class in professionally reporting on financial matters at Ohio University.

Mr. Tatge's one answer to everything (when he wasn't offending literally every single resident of Southeastern Ohio) seemed to be "You people need more help from State Government", which seems a strange proposition for a "Conservative" to espouse. He had the air of someone whose dog ate the homework and who has chosen feigned superiority and attacking in ignorance as his method of defense.

But that is not the worst. The worst is that for anyone watching the show that was still on the political fence, he singlehandedly did his best to make any low tax, small Government, Libertarian leaning political world-view as unsavory and unsympathetic as possible. Mr. Tatge was the onscreen epitome of that generalized view of the Big Business, money-grubbing, unsympathetic, me-first Conservative that the Far Left loves to put out there.

In short, Mr. Tatge is either a stone idiot or he cannot be a real Conservative, but some actor hired by the Far Left to spoof the good intentions of people who want lower taxes and less government, more individual freedom and responsibility.

This may be not giving some enterprising Liberal jokester enough credit, but I'm betting that Mr. Tatge is a stone idiot.

SCOTUS Pick: Obama goes for Demographic over Scholarship....

2009-05-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Noted lefty constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley thinks Sotomayor tends toward the lightweight edge of the scale of the available talent:

“She is not the intellectual powerhouse that many academics had hoped for.”

and,

“Advocates have struggled to cite a single opinion that could be viewed as a brilliant or extraordinary treatment of the law.”

And,

“Looking objectively at the body of opinions by Judge Sotomayor, one is not overwhelmed by their depth. There is nothing in this body of work that would scream out for the elevation of the author to the Court.”

Read the whole article here:

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/05/26/white-house-to-announce-court-pick-at-10-am/#more-11301

I probably wouldn't agree with Turley on anything. Especially individual rights, making law from the bench and US subjugation to International Law. But he seems to be quoted an awful lot by MSNBC, which is the Faux "News" opposite number in the war for the lemming mind -- and by NPR. So....

On the other hand, what the 0-Man has got going for him is the Harriet Miers nomination. That and Clarence Thomas.

But apart from Thomas, the rest of the SCOTUS, when nominated, seems to have been much more qualified than Sotomayor.

Consensus of those who worked with Sotomayor is that she’s intelligent, but an intellectual lightweight and not patient enough to take the time to understand complex issues.

One wonders whether there will be a shock to the court's system, giving up a quiet, very polite Justice who is known for listening, for one who often comes across as rude, pushy and domineering of discussion from the bench, and who's opinions often are viewed as overly simplified, short and dismissive.

In an added note, three out of the five Sotomayor ruled cases that have been accepted on appeal to the SCOTUS have been reversed, and they are working on what may be another right now.

That does not speak well of her ability to get it right -- or at least right enough for the SCOTUS. It also brings up the question of how many of her rulings were probably wrong, but SCOTUS chose not to hear them... and it amounts to a lotta "bad justice" out there.

GM = Government Motors....

2009-05-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Does this mean that I have to pick sides when the UAW goes on strike and the 0-Man calls in his Brownshirt strike-breakers?

Whew… tough call.

Nothing more deserving or entertaining than Union Thugs beating and getting beaten by Government Thugs!

It also means that Chevy will have to change its ad tune from “Like A Rock” to Neil Young’s “Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers)".

Much, much better song anyway....

The Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine....

2009-05-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

You know, looking back on it, the incredible, interwoven web of deceit and corruption that was the Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine, may go down as the costliest bit of political and economic deception (that term does not do credit) ever foisted on America's conscience and wallet.

Remember, the "cost" of the War was not included in the Bush Jr. era budgets, so we really have no way to grasp the size of the scam and how much was siphoned away like so much stolen gas -- but if we really could see it, I bet it could make AIG and Madoff look like one fall purse-snatchers.

Oh, and one more thing: I wonder, did Halliburton/KBR execs get little happy chills all over every time an IED blew up a HumVee, knowing full well that the deaths of our soldiers were providing the smokescreens for their robbery?

Things must be made Right.

How do you not believe in a Righteous and Vengeful God?

Cops Lie...! Surprised?

2009-05-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

The very idea of "probable cause" has been eroded so far that it is a joke. LEOs lie all the time. If they are looking to pull someone over, there will definitely be some judgment for probable cause, real or not.

A lot of "solid" arrests for other crimes start with a suspicion -- NOT real probable cause. If any charges go to court, many LEOs don't have a problem lying under oath. It's "part of the job", and also well referenced under the term "testilying".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319367364627211.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testilying

Biden and Pelosi....

2009-05-20T05:17:00.000-07:00

Joe Plugs don't lie!

He's always reaching out with both versions of the truth, what didn't happen and what he said!

The truth is shorter than Joe and he just has to stoop a little!"

Hey, wadda-ya expect from a proven exaggerator and a thief (plagiarist)?

I have always said that Biden was a dumber version of John Kerry. Remember Kerry's war stories, especially about his hat?

Only in just deserts for his poor judgment does the 0-man deserve every bit of diarrhea that gushes out Joe Plugs' mouth.

As for Pelosi, we get what California deserves.

As usual.

What's new.

"Click It Or Ticket" -- Wave bye-bye to your 4th Amendment....

2009-05-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how many people who proclaim their support for the 2nd Amendment tend to not read any further.

Evidently the right of the many to own guns is higher on their list than the right of the many to be safe from unlawful search and seizure. They don't realize that the continual encroachment on their 4th Amendment rights will eventually result in their right of the 2nd vanishing, along with their privacy and any pretense of freedom.

That is evidenced in the well-documented abuses of "probable cause" by our LEO community.

All for our protection, of course.

So here we come to "Click It Or Ticket", the latest waste of taxpayer dollars and supposed revenue generator forced on the states by the Fed: Millions of taxpayer dollars spent to collect (hopefully) even more millions in revenues.

Yessiree folks, it's highway robbery by our "finest" -- and at its finest.

I am going to start with an issue that concerns me: personal liberty. And here is one that may surprise all you ACLU-card-carrying supporters of personal freedom: The Dems are for letting law enforcement pull over citizens JUST because the officer THINKS THEY MAY not be using their seat belt.

Look at states where they have a majority Dem representation, and most of them have given police the right to use just the suspicion of no seat belts as probable cause to pull a driver over.

Right now, 26 out of 50 states list seat belt violations as a "primary enforcement", which means that an LEO just has to suspect that you don't have your seat belt on to light you up. Out of those 26 states, 20 have the State Senate controlled by Dems.

This is just another step in the progression from Freedom (with a framework of not harming others), to Nanny State, and on to the goal of a Totalitarian State.

But now, with the "Click It Or Ticket" revenue program, the Feds are helping your local police violate even more of your civil rights than normal.

Do you know how hard it is to determine if someone has their seat belt on when they are passing you at 65mph?

Btw, if you are pulled over for anything else, DON'T take your seat belt off before you are staring him in the eye -- the LEO is trained to accuse you of not wearing your belt, and he has no proof that you were not. And here's a little secret that they don't want you to know: they are counting on you not taking it to court. I have had one say to me "I know you weren't wearing your belt", when I was -- he backed down after I looked him in the eye and said "Yes, I was. I do every time I drive... and, I'll swear to it in court."

Now why, when all supposed "liberal" causes (see ACLU, etc...) state that they protect individual rights, would the Dems be overwhelming in their support of this? It just gives LEOs another tool in their endless list of fake "probable causes".

I drive over 500 miles a week, and never leave my driveway without my belt on. My opposition to this is purely based on Civil Rights. It is another non-Constitutional intervention by the State, and should not be tolerated by citizens.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009%20...%20seat+belts

Ohio Revised Code 4513.263(D) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no law enforcement officer shall cause an operator of an automobile being operated on any street or highway to stop the automobile for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of division (B) of this section has been or is being committed or for the sole purpose of issuing a ticket, citation, or summons for a violation of that nature or causing the arrest of or commencing a prosecution of a person for a violation of that nature, and no law enforcement officer shall view the interior or visually inspect any automobile being operated on any street or highway for the sole purpose of determining whether a violation of that nature has been or is being committed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Click_It_or_Ticket&oldid=214238694

Well, we're heading toward the totalitarian extreme really fast. And it'll end up being an extreme that puts any free-thinking person in a camp. For the "good of society", of course.

And the idea of "funding" public services from fines just lends itself to abuse of civil rights. Funny, but you'd think that the ACLU would be in there somewhere, biting and scratching. Uhhhh, nope.

All these little blurrings of Constitutional rights add up. Pretty soon they'll be stopping you on the road at checkpoints. Oh wait, that already happens. Doesn't that word "Checkpoint" have such a wonderful East German flair? Next they'll be taking your homes to build high revenue districts. Oh wait... that's already happening.

And we laugh our little self-conscious laughs and roll our eyes and adopt the PC, coweringly abject, subservient roll-over, show our bellies and hope that they don't think so badly of us that we are labeled anti-public safety child abusers as we say in a tiny, tiny voice "Wait, isn't that un-Constitutional? Oh, I'm sorry, I know... if we aren't "guilty", we have nothing to fear."

Woohoo. All for the "greater good".