Expect More of This

I think the public might be starting to wise up when it comes to murdering citizens. Two police in Long Beach, CA were trying to subdue a man who was acting erratically (not a crime the last time I checked). They could not subdue him with batons and supposedly these officers feared for their lives and one of the shot the man several times and killed him.

Apparently the crowd didn't care for this behavior by the cops and they had to call for backup because they thought they might get attacked by the people they are supposed to "serve and protect."

The story doesn't say why the man was acting sporadically, there is no mention of him being on drugs, etc. but it also doesn't say he was suspected of any type of crime. Not that i trust the court of public opinion that much but it takes quite a bit to get a group of otherwise peaceful citizens to get riled up against the police.

Maybe it won't be too long now before a couple of cops get a full public beat down for an unjustified shooting.

I've no doubt the police will find it was a fully justified shooting and the cops will escape any discipline. In the mean time, the shooter will get a paid vacation while there is an "investigation."

Interesting Tidbit

I discovered today that Lysol removes pine sap from your hands rather quickly. Have you ever tried to wash that stuff off? If you had enough of that stuff on your hands, you could be Spiderman; it's horrible.

Soap never gets rid of pine sap and there just happened to be a can of Lysol sitting on the bathroom sink (infer from that what you will) and figured I might as well give it a shot. Not only did it get rid of the pine sap, it left my hands smelling country fresh! Actually, I rinsed it off, so not really.

Sometime over the summer, half a dozen of you are going to get pine sap on your hands (or in your kids hair) during some outdoor adventure and you'll be wracking your brains for hours trying to remember what it was Dif recommended to remove that stuff.

The End of Ted Kennedy?

We can only hope! Far be it from me to wish for another man's death or illness however I cannot say I'm terribly sorry that he has had a couple of strokes. If that moron doesn't have the opportunity to cast one more vote or introduce one more piece of legislation, I'll be very happy.

I'm sure Mary Jo Kopechne's parents are thrilled at the prospect that he might be in the hospital suffering.

It might be the end of Ted Kennedy but I'm sure who ever replaces him won't be much better.

An Elite Force of...

BAKERS!

Following up on the post before last titled "Why Would They?" it looks like the OPEC nations won't even help one of their own. Egypt, a predominately Muslim nation that does not have the oil money that the Emirates have doesn't really care to help out their Islamic neighbor.

In response to the food crisis in Egypt, the Egyptian Army has been called to to bake and distribute bread according to a story on Fox.

With the Egyptian Army tied up in the kitchen, maybe now would be a good time for Israel to storm the Gaza Strip and retake it from Hamas since Egypt is too preoccupied to help defend it. An army travels on its stomach.

Election Thoughts

I was talking with a friend of mine over the weekend and we were discussing the possibilities for McCain's VP choice. We really couldn't think of anyone that could run with him that wouldn't hurt his campaign. Then a name popped in to my head and it seems to make sense. Joe Lieberman.

In the interest of full disclosure, the previous prediction for VP didn't exactly turn out the way it should have. In all fairness though, I never expected that McCain would end up with the GOP nomination. Giuliani was the presumptive nominee back at that time and even Romney seemed more viable.

Back to Lieberman. A cross party ticket with a very moderate Democrat could be a great step for McCain who is basically a liberal. It would make sense from a strategic standpoint. He'd siphon a lot of votes away from Hillary/Obama (But I still think Hillary will pull out a victory). As my friend pointed out though, you can't exactly rely on people like McCain to do what makes sense. He's just another Bob Dole and unlikely to end up actually being the President so it may not matter who is VP is. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he chooses a VP specifically to torpedo his campaign so Hillary wins.

In other news, former Republican Bob Barr is now running running for President on the Libertarian ticket. So, I will dare to make another prediction! I expect that after the Rethuglican nomination officially goes to the aforementioned liberal Republican, Ron Paul will publicly endorse Bob Barr.

I think the best thing to do is just to forget about all of this nonsense and make me dictator for 4 years. Give me the power to make a new Constitution and wipe out all existing laws and legal precedents and we'll be in good shape after that! Kelo? Gone! Roe v. Wade? A bad memory. Dept. of Education? Well, it never served its purpose anyway. You get the drift.

Maybe you should all just contact Bob Barr, I'll settle for being his VP.

Why Would They?

The Secretary General of the United Nations is criticizing the wealthy OPEC countries for not giving enough money to the U.N.'s World Food Program.

First of all, why would Muslim countries give a ton of money to an organization they consider under the control of the infidel? Do you really think the OPEC nations are part of the U.N. because they agree with the overall mission of that organization? No, it's purely political. In fact, I'd guess that those countries have a more realistic view of the U.N. than our own government. We've managed to trick ourselves in to believing that it's a useful and necessary organization.

My second point doesn't have so much to do with the OPEC nations but why should the U.N. or any other governmental authority be in charge of solving the world food crisis. ESPECIALLY given the fact that any prolonged food crises we have is purely political in nature. The abuses and mismanagement by the U.N. are well documented and utterly appaling. Then we want to put them in charge of solving a fake food crises they helped create?

The idea that governments need to take money from its own citizens and send it to citizens of other countries is ludicrous on its face. I'm all for individuals giving of their own volition. In fact, American's are the most charitable people on the face of the Earth! We don't need the government to tell us to help other nations in trouble. Besides that, when governments help other governments, there are always strings attached. The junta regime in Burma is rightly (in a political sense only) rejecting most of the help from the U.N. and especially the United States.

Let's get out of the UN altogether.

***UPDATE***

I just had an additional thought on the subject. When money is taken from taxpayers and used to buy food that would not otherwise have been purchased by the market, it drives prices up. This is because the surplus that would exist without the government purchases would have been sold at a cheaper price because demand would have been down. Therefore, this stupid U.N. organization to solve the world hunger crisis once again, only makes things worse.

A Strange Alliance

I wouldn't normally find myself agreeing with a Muslim wanting to practice her religion in a public school however...

In Germany, a Muslim family sued to keep their daughter out of swim lessons because of Islamic indecency rules. If this happened in the U.S. I wouldn't have much sympathy for the family at all because they'd have the option of just pulling the girl out of school and educating her the way they want to. From the article: "The court sided with the school, saying that the state’s responsibility to educate the girl outweighed an infringement on her religious freedom."

Another way to say that is: "Too bad mom and dad, we really own your children and we will do as we please with them no matter what you want."

Why do I care? I have no interest in this particular family. However, we need to keep watch because we're headed that direction here. A California court ruling that is now under review would have basically made criminals of all parents homeschooling their children. It will probably get overturned.

As a nation, we're increasingly coming under the impression that we, and our children are the property of the government. We let the government assert authority over us it has not historically had nor should it ever have. How long will it be before bringing your kids up as Believer's and rejecting government indoctrination will be seen as a crime? Based on what's going on in Texas, I say it won't be long.

Unintended Consequences

I have no hard data to back this up but I suspect that people are driving slower, using cruise control more and generally not stomping on the gas pedal due to the significant increase in gas prices lately. All well and good for safety but there will be some unintended consequences to higher gas prices and slower drivers.

Municipalities will start losing revenue they have counted on from speedy drivers. I predicts cities will start raising taxes in order to compensate for this (God forbid they should cut their budgets!) They will also start raising the fines to start compensating for the loss.

Insurance companies will make bigger profits because accidents will be reduced due to people driving at safer speeds. The insurance companies will of course be criticized for making more profit during an economically difficult time.

Slower cars mean more actual hours driven which means more smog which will drive the EcoFreaks up a wall. The will continue to spout their global warming nonsense of course but they'll call for extra taxes to compenste for the additional pollution.

These are just a few of the things I can think of at the moment. Any other ideas?

BREAKING NEWS

I have it from a reliable source that a bomb has exploded was found in downtown Culicán, Sinaloa, Mexico. More details as I get them.

**Update**
Oddly enough, there is a story here that says that 70% of calls to the bomb squad in Culicán are false alarms.

**Update II**
A bomb was found, not exploded. Dang, I thought I had my first actual news break!

As Rosanne Rosannadanna would say..... "NEVERMIIIIIND"

Denied!

FoxSnooze is reporting that a town in New Jersey has denied the request of a female police officer to be on light duty while she is pregnant.

They're not being as difficult as it sounds. The city says that the woman can take an unpaid leave of absence if she wants to. I have little doubt there will be a lawsuit over this issue but let's look at it a little closer.

The woman voluntarily became a police officer which she knew was a physically demanding at the very least not to mention dangerous. The woman also chose to have sex and risk pregnancy. It would be easy to say that if someone was injured, on or off the job, they should be allowed to be on light duty during the recovery period. The analogy fails though because pregnancy is a common and predictable outcome of sexual activity. Likewise, if a cop injured himself by racing down hills while riding in a shopping cart, his employer should not be forced to pay him for duties he's not peforming while recovering from his very predictable injuries resulting from reckless behavior.

Sure, the town could CHOOSE to put her on light duty and they should have a clear and consistent policy in regards to temporary disability and recovery periods. If they choose to allow anyone injured for any reason to be put on light duty then fine. But to make an exception for pregnancy is really not equal treatment if men cannot go on light duty for temporary disabilities also.

I'm sure the feminists will be howling mad over this one, but the fact is, she's expecting special treatment, not equal treatment.

Just to be clear, I believe employers and employees should have an absolute right to freedom of association. That means an employee can leave a job for any reason and an employer can hire or fire anyone for any reason. Employment is a contract for exchange of labor between two parties. If the two parties agree to the terms, then the contract is made. If the contract specifies reasons for terminating the contract or places prohibitions on those reasons, that's fine too. But an employee or company should not be forced to retain an employee they no longer desire to employ for reasons not agreed to by both parties.

Maybe

I've been chuckling about this for days. The Spanish word for "maybe" is "quizás."

In Spanish, "qui" is pronounced like "key." The letter 'z' in Spanish is pronounced more like an 's'.

The end result is that 'quizás' is pronounced "keys as" but when I hear it, it actually comes across as "kiss ass."

Worker: "Hey boss! Can I get a raise?"

Spanish speaking boss: "Quizás."

HAHAHAAH - Like I said, I've been laughing about that for days.

SPAM Can Be Amusing

I usually at least review the subject line of my SPAM before I delete it from the bulk mail folder just in case anything legit manages to get through.

This morning the subject of one was: Swanky items for your impeccable lifestyle!

I just thought that was amusing. What impeccable individual things, "Gee, I want something swanky today!"

I'm not sure why I thought that was funny; you probably don't. I don't care.

¿De Pericos?

I've noticed that I have a visitor on my blog from Pericos, Mexico. Please send me an email. Yo tengo la pregunta para usted. My email address is randomguy@gmail.com. Gracias!

***UPDATE***

Nevermind, the mystery has been solved.

Section 8

... of the Constitution of The United States of America says:

Section 8 - Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Let's take this step by step:

1. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises... - To most people this looks like blanket permission for Congress to tax us however they wish. Understand that FedGov is only supposed to be able to do those things which are specifically authorized. That paragraph goes on to state the purpose of those taxes.
2. ...pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States... - Everyone knows about the General Welfare clause, it's been used to expand government to no end. But here's something I never really noticed before; it says "the general Welfare of the United States," NOT "the People of the United States." I'm not a Consitutional scholar but to me that is simply talking about the governing infrastructure of the states in order to keep the political machinary functioning properly to maintain the Republic so the states can fulfill their appointed duties according the rest of the Constitution.
3. ..but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; - Uniform? Note though it doesn't say taxes have to be uniform, just the duties, imposts and excises. Anyone know what an 'impost' is? Note, this part does not actually authorize an income tax. That came later and if you do a little digging, it's appears it wasn't ratified properly.
4. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; - Keep it in context; only for authorized activities. I'm sure that "inflating the money supply" is not an authorized activity.
5. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; - Notice this doesn't say "regulate the commerce OF the States. This is another one of those clauses that has stretched the bounds of credulity. There are lots of regulations that fall under the auspices of the Commerce Clause that have no business being there. A while back there was a man in Texas who was put on trial for a firearms violation for bringing a gun near a school. He was tried under the Commerce Clause. The state dismissed the charges so he could be tried at Federal level. Fortunately, the judge had some sense and the charges were dismissed. Note, he likely would have been convicted had the state not bumped it up to the Fed.
6. To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; - Unfortunately, it says nothing about uniform ENFORCEMENT.
7. To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; - The Consitution also defines money. What we have now is not money, it's debt. Look at a dollar bill; it says "Federal Reserve Note." A note is a debt, nothing more. If the entire Federal debt was paid off tomorrow, your "money" would be worth nothing. Wrap your head around that one kids.
8. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; - Other than trying to prosecute the guy that was printing gospel tracts that looked like $1,000,000,000 bills (which the U.S. does not issue), I haven't seen too many violations of that law. Then again, the 'money' in your pocket is the property of the Federal Reserve, so it's neither a United States security nor coinage. Wouldn't that be an interesting challenge to the law.
9. To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; - I never could quite fathom why the authors thought that post offices were a valid function of the Federal Government. I'd have to do some digging, but I'd be almost willing to bet, it referred to post offices and related roads specifically to deliver mail to the government and not the system we have today. If you happen to know anything about this, please enlighten me.
10. To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; - Please notice this says nothing about subsidizing said activities. And it only says to promote the Progress thereof, not the science and useful arts themselves.
11. To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; - I'm not sure what to make of this. Have there been any abuses related to this clause? To constitute tribunals for what purpose?
12. To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; - Notice this doesn't say anything about regulating commerce on the high seas the way the LOST treaty specifies.
13. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; - It says nothing about giving the Congress the power to deleagate war making powers to the President the way the War Powers Act has done.
14. To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; - Read that very carefully; we're NOT supposed to have a standing Army. That was always seen as a danger to liberty. Armies have historically been abused to subjugate the governed rather than just fight wars and defend the borders.
15. To provide and maintain a Navy; - Navy.. water... protect us against attack. Fine.
16. To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; - As much as it galls me to have Congress armchair quarterbacking the military, it provides for proper checks and balances. Congress represents us which means the military doesn't become a law unto itself and take over.
17. To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; - Armies are supposed to travel to a war, militias are supposed to defend us within our own borders. Where is our militia? It's supposed to be us. No, the National Guard is not a militia, it's a standing Army.
18. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; - That's all a bit more vague than I'd like it to be. Almost sounds like Congress is supposed to help the states organize their own militias and give us guns. WOOHOO! Yeah, like that's going to happen.
19. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And... - This authorized the building of Washington, D.C. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not so sure anyone was supposed to actually LIVE in the District. We were never supposed to have citizens of the Fed, just the states. Imagine if we kicked everyone out of D.C. in terms of actual residence. Talk about urban renewal!
20. To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. - ..."AND PROPER..."

It's sad how far we've fallen.

A Danger To The Children

For those of you still under the false notion that the Texas government acted rightly by taking over 400 children from the FDLS people, I want you to read what Ilana Mercer has to say on the subject.

These kids have been brought up on a pretty healthy diet. They'll get stuffed full of all kinds of processed crap, they'll react badly and it will be blamed on abuse they suffered on the compound. They'll be drugged and we'll be told they're just not adjusting to normal society. Well DUH! That was the whole point of their being where the were. They didn't want to be part of our "normal society" but that's not a mental illness.

You can't possibly tell me that the kids are worse off all living together on a farm, eating healthy and not exposed to the media, the sexual imagery, the violence etc. than they will be in a foster home with people that (mostly) don't care about them and are just getting paid to warehouse them.

All of the judges involved in this debacle should promptly be sent to jail.

Good Customer Service

Good customer service seems to be so rare these days that when I encounter it, I like to blog about it.

A few days ago, I stopped in at the Subway on Katella & Glassell in Orange, CA to get a sandwhich. I asked for some cash back (which they normally don't do) and they tried but for some reason it didn't work. So she (the manager) just charged my card for a regular sandwich with no cash back.

I checked my balance later and discovered there was $20.36 still outstanding on my card from that store. I figured I'd give it a couple of days for their accounting to get straight and it would get credited back. It showed as a pending transaction, not a posted one. It didn't get credited back.

So I went back to the store today and fortunately the manager was there at the time. She remembered me and the transaction and explained to her I had been charged $20.36 that I should not have been charged. She did ask me if I had some sort of printout to show her but I did not. Rather than argue and fuss about it, she gave me my money back with no further questions. She said she would rather I remain a customer than be upset over losing $20.

THAT is customer service. The woman actually understood the dollar value of a customer. She took a calculated risk that I was either lying or mistaken and decided that $20 wasn't a big deal. The point isn't that she made a mistake, the point is, it was corrected in a timely and polite manner.

Contrast that to an experience I had a Del Taco once where they got my order for a chicken quesadilla wrong. I got just a plain one. Sure, they only charged me for a plain one but the person that took my order got it wrong. The manager took back my quesadilla, yelled back to the kitchen to make a chicken quesadilla and proceeded to try and charge me for the difference!

It was their mistake! He wanted 59 CENTS from me. I didn't pay it. I got a refund on my original quesadilla instead and told him I would never eat at his location again. This was after a little verbal banter wherein I attempted to explain that his employee wasted my time by making me come back and that certainly mitigates the 59 cents he wanted to charge me. He just couldn't see it.

Happy Blogger Birthday

I'm a little late but I realized that my blog is 3 years old as of March 20, 2008.

They grow up so fast!

Judas Carter

I hereby formally and with no reservations state that former President of the United States of America, James Earl Carter, Jr. should be charged with and tried for the crime of treason. If found guilty he should be summarily executed.

Carter is clearly supporting terrorist interests. He has paid homage to the known (and now dead) terrorist Yassar Arafat and he even called him a "peace fighter." I suppose that's true in the sense that Arafat fought against peace with Israel. He has embraced the leader of the terrorist organization Hamas.

Carter's visit and support of the terrorist regime's clearly gives aid and comfort to the sworn enemies of the United States. As a former President, he is the worse kind of traitor.

There's Oil In Them Thar Hills!

South Dakota has the Black Hills and it looks like North Dakota has the Black Gold. It appears that North Dakota and eastern Montana have huge deposits of oil (about 4.3 BILLION barrels) two miles under the surface.

In order to take advantage of this situation and reduce our dependence on foreign oil I suggest a simple two step process:

1. Gather up all of the environmental wackos who might sue to stop this and send them to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Alternatively, shoot them in the head.
2. Poke holes in the ground IMMEDIATELY and suck out the oil.

Don't worry folks, the earth will make more!

My New Girlfriend

I met her in Mazatlan. I'm not sure it's going to work out though. She won't relocate, she doesn't talk much. In general there is just something a little fishy about her. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.