Who Cares!

Just for the record, I don't cuss. I hate cussing; there's just no need for it.

That being said, the fact that NASCAR racer Martin Treaux's crew chif said, "piece of s---," in reference to the poorly performing race car is just not a big deal.

Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has lodged an official complaint with the FCC over the incident.

Get over it Joe! It was a slip of the tongue. Would I feel different if Little Dif was in the room? No, I wouldn't. It was still a slip and that's how some people talk. If I want to make sure that I am exposed to that type of language, I will just keep my television off.

Some people just have way too much time on their hands.

Freedom Of Association

Yahoo News reports:

A California man in the process of getting a divorce said on Monday he was suing a popular online dating service that barred him from joining until his marriage is officially over.

eHarmony is a private dating service and they should be allowed to admit whomever they want to their service. Apparently the man (who is a lawyer) is suing eHarmony based on a California law that says that businesses must disregard a person's marital status when providing services.

If this guy doesn't like the way eHarmony is being run, he should start his own competing service. I'm sick of people using the government to strong-arm private parties in to conforming to their wishes.

There are always unintended consequences to such things and people don't see that when they sue over something that hurts their feelings. If this lawsuit is successful, some enterprising homosexual could make the claim that for the purpose of services rendered that California's civil union laws are equal to marriage and they could force eHarmony (and other services like it) to open up to homosexual relationships as well against their will. Before long, the government will rule that churches can't exclude homosexuals from clergy positions since a church provides a service to the congregants.

Why should the government be able to force one group of private citizens to provide services for another group of private citizens? It's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Round 'Em Up

Special thanks to Dystopia for requesting that I revisit this post from last month.

Amigo, who works in downtown Los Angeles and recounts his experience with the illegal aliens protesting immigration reform.

As far as I'm concerned, every last protester should have had their immigration status checked and immediately deported if they were not in this country legally.

If they're such dang hard workers, scraping together every dime they can to survive in this land of opportunity, how is it that 500,000 of them can find the time to take to the streets to protest. You'd never get 500,000 white, middle class, working AMERICANS in the streets on a work day in one city to protest a government policy. I'd be surprised if you could get that many nationwide. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out why.

A Spanish-Language DJ in Los Angeles is partially responsible for stirring the pot and getting the illegals in the street. He was once an illegal alien himself who came to AMERICA in the trunk of a car in 1986 and was here illegally for 10 years before gaining legal status. His legal status should be revoked immediately, he should be tried for sedition and the deported after serving jail time.

Our Dear Leader, Jorge Bush (as Vox has come to refer to him as) has done virtually nothing and will likely use these protests to simply wash his hands of the whole thing and say that he tried.

I say let them continue to protest, they will wear themselves out. Illegal aliens should have no say in our government polices. In fact, whatever it is they might be protesting, I could probably announce my support for without actually reviewing the legislation.

Straight A's

Last month I wrote in Academic Circles about the classes I was helping my friends with.

I helped each of them with one class. I did the entire database course for him and most of the Ph.D. ethics class for her.

This whole thing is just hilarious; I(we) got an A in both classes.

As I mentioned before, I do not have a college education. I barely got through high school. I hated school and I rarely studied. I didn't do much in the way of homework, the classes I did pass were because I would ace the tests.

The only class I can remember that I fully applied myself in was my Emergency Medical Technician class. That was an awesome class. The expectations that the instructors had for us were very high and I'm always one to meet a challenge like that head on. Even 20 years later, there is a lot I remember from that class. It's too bad that school can't always be that educational.

We have access to more information than anyone else at any time in history. You don't have to go to a library and pour through books and encyclopedias to learn. You can even get entire books on line for free from the Gutenberg Project.

While there is something to be said for being instructed in certain instances, academia as we know it is quickly becoming obsolete. It's easy to give yourself an education. Rather than having instructors, all that is really needed for a directed education is an education counselor and a program monitor.

How's this for an educational program:

Log on to a website
Take an aptitude survey
Enter education experience
Enter work experience
Answer some questions about your goal in life

The computer spits out some options for particular educational programs that you might be interested in. Using one of those options as a guideline, you could adapt the program as you desired. After you're done, you submit the program you want and it is forwarded to an education counselor for review who suggests some more fine tuning. You come to an agreement with the counselor, you pay your fees and you are assigned coursework and a program monitor to keep you accountable and encourage discipline with your studies. Your monitor can also put you in touch with subject matter experts who are willing to help you through some difficult classes. You can pay a little extra for the occasional tutor also. Standardized testing along the way would make you eligible for a degree.

The scenario above doesn't present a comprehensive picture of the program I envision but you get the idea. It would also be difficult to carry out if you wanted to study hard sciences since it would require access to labs and physical interaction with other students. Even if you account for those instances, education would be far cheaper simply because many of the other requirements could be done as I described without having to attend an institution (physical or on line).


The academics of course will do everything they can to prevent such a thing from happening because it threatens them directly. They are elitist snobs and they must be important. The world is changing and education is changing with it. Who knows what it will be like in 20 years.

More Fox And Henhouse

Hutchison Whampoa, Ltd. is being contracted to scan cargo for nuclear weapons.

The article says that the company has 'ties' to the Communist Chinese government. That is an understatement if I ever heard one. Do you think any company in China that is that wealthy is not under the direct control of the Chinese government?

There is no way this stuff is just slipping through the cracks. The ports should all be privately owned anyway. One of the legitimate functions of government is to protect our borders. As far as I'm concerned, the military should control port security and everything should be checked before arriving at a privately owned port. This would be a perfect job for the U.S. Navy.

Just Ignore The Mistakes...

...it's all really for our own good and we're just better off if we keep our mouths shut and let this sort of thing continue. The police were supposed to morph in to a quasi-military institution weren't they?

An elderly couple were hospitalized after police mistakenly broke in to their home thinking they were raiding a meth lab. Idiots.

Police Captain Shannon Beshears said:

"We had good information from a reliable source that had been backed up by a purchase of narcotics linked to the address. However, when we arrived at the designated address, there were two houses on the lot. We hit the larger of the two houses."

They freaking guessed! Can you believe that? "Well, we have to do something! What the heck, let's pick THIS one. Oh, we're so sorry folks, the city will be more than happy to repair your door for you."

Meanwhile, Police Chief Darryl Whaley said:

"Obviously, a mistake was made and it was regrettable," he said. "But, I stand by my officers. I think they acted properly."

No moron, they didn't act properly, you rushed in without doing an adequate investigation. Of course he's going to stand by his officers, he doesn't want to take all the blame himself.

I don't condone drug use, but we need to end the drug war today.

Secure Anarchy

French anarchists are rioting for job security? Am I the only one that sees the contradiction here?

Lawyers Make Housecalls?

I didn't think lawyers made house calls.

Sorry, I couldn't resist posting this, don't be mad; you know who you are! HA!

Big Chicken Dinner

Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith was convicted by a military jury on 5 charges related to the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Smith was sentenced to 6 months in prison, he will forfeit $2,250 in pay, demoted to private and will receive a Big Chicken Dinner. For all of you non-military types, 'Big Chicken Dinner' is also known as a Bad Conduct Discharge or simply BCD (which is not as bad as a Dishonorable Discharge).

The guy is a real monster I tell you! Prosecutors said he would take the muzzle off of his dog (a black Belgian shepherd) and let the dog lunge at cowering Iraqis for his own amusement. His mother must not have raised him right; he let his dog bark at people that were trying to kill his friends before he was caught. Humanity is coming to an end! All is lost!

It gets even worse, Smith addressed the jury and said, "Soldiers are not supposed to be soft and cuddly." I guess he never served while Clinton was in office (and thank God neither did I).

I don't care which side of the debate you're on here, letting dogs bark at prisoners is not torture. It's psychological intimidation but that's what you do to your enemy in war. I wouldn't be complaining if it was the Iraqi's doing it to Americans either. This conduct took place in the same building that Hussein had rape rooms and put his enemies through wood chippers.

This guy should be getting a medal, not a Big Chicken Dinner.

One Year Of Blogging!

I just realized that as of March 20th, this blog is one year old! YEAH!

Ok, not a big deal, I just thought I'd let you know. I have been a little slow on the blogging lately and I should return to normal blogging speed soon. I know you all just sit on my blog and hit refresh every 5 minutes waiting for something new to pop up because you have nothing better to do.

One of my big problems in life has been maintaining focus. It's easy to focus on something like a blog (which is fun) and neglect work (which is not usually fun) but I've been suprisngly focused on work which means I have to neglect my blog.

If I could just find a way to make blogging pay! hmmm.......

I Was Thinking...

...and that always gets me in trouble but I was amused by the M&M's bag I saw at the store today.


First of all, the M&M chick doesn't even have breasts. You'd think they could have given her a little candy coated cleavage.

My other thought is that instead of printing the traditional M in the middle of the candy, they could have printed what looks like a little nipple. That would certainly be in keeping with the breast theme and it would make for a great marketing campaign.

See, I told you I get in trouble when I start thinking.

Strategic Retreat

It appears that the Dubai company that was supposed to take over the operations of several key ports in the United States has bowed to the opposition and pulled out of the deal.

I'm not buying it. All this pull out is going to do is kill the bill in Congress that would legally prevent them from getting this contract. If that bill got passed, there would be a snowball affect and populist movement of sorts could endanger any future contract opportunities.

They didn't give up, they pulled a strategic retreat. Congress should still push a bill through stating (at the very least) that Federal contracts were not available to firms owned or controlled by terrorist sponsoring nations. There would have to be additional restrictions dealing with shell companies etc., but you get the gist of it.

If the US cancelled the contract rather than Dubai pulling back, it could have hurt them globally with nations sympathetic to the US also. I suspect that played only a minor role in their decision.

I'm actually disappointed that Dubai pulled out of the deal, I would have liked to see how well the GOP fought Bush on this issue.

**update**

Shrub gives us a typical day at the port if the terrorists Arabs take over the ports.

Speaking Of Blame...

Reuters reports:

Sun-spawned cosmic storms that can play havoc with earthly power grids and orbiting satellites could be 50 percent stronger in the next 11-year solar cycle than in the last one, scientists said on Monday.

Some how, some way, the rabid environmentalists will find away to blame this on America and the evil, capitalist polluters.

I can already hear the calls for us to reduce our dependence on solar radiation. They will say that because America demands so much of our gravitational anchor that the sun is over compensating and increasing its output.

Al Gore will be leading the charge to save the solar system from industrialized nations.

Ok, maybe that's a little over the top, but given the sheer idiocy of that crowd it wouldn't surprise me in the least if someone attempted to make a case for blaming us for solar activity.

Assigning Blame

In the comments for Stupid Lawyers - Stupid People below, there was some lively discussion about who is responsible for out of control lawsuits. I want to discuss the larger concept of assigning blame properly.

Most of my blog readers as well as those who's blogs I read generally have good critical thinking skills and I want to encourage you to apply those skills when assigning blame. Even the best critical thinkers can abandon reason and be swayed by emotions (EVEN ME!).

MikeT said:

And people call me a socialist for believing there should be legal limits on how much money lawyers can make...

I don't want a true free market for lawyers because they don't work in the market. They do their work in a court room where the person who loses sacrifices life, liberty and property. For the life of me, I don't see any libertarian virtue in calling that a fair market exchange. We have to put limits on their takes (5% or $200,000 whichever is higher is my preference) so that we can make it less interesting to the Get Rich Now! mobs who couldn't cut it in even business school in college.

Extrapolate that across the entire work sector. If we allowed government to cap lawyer fees, there would be no end to the capping of fees and salaries given to other professions.

Here's where we apply the critical thinking skills in order to assign blame. First of all, the lawyers have seen a tremendous market opportunity created by the government and they have taken advantage of it. While it may not be ethical according to our standards, the opportunity is still there and they take it.

Apply that to illegal aliens. I don't blame the illegal aliens for attempting to come here and take advantage of the system that the government has set up. I still think they should be rounded up and deported but I am more concerned about removing the incentive to for them to come here.

Now we know how to assign blame. First and foremost, blame is assigned to the one that creates motive either actively or passively. If I leave my car unlocked and my door wide open and someone steals my CD collection, I am partly to blame. If I've made a good faith effort to secure my car (and I don't mean taking extraordinary measures) and someone breaks in to it, I do not share the blame.

The person that takes my CD's is still 100% culpable for his crime even though I am partly at fault. Total culpability can be more than 100%. In fact, total culpability is 100% for each party involved. In other words, the guy that steals my CD's should still be punished for the full weight of his crime even though I created the circumstances that tempted him.

The government, deliberately and unintentionally, has allowed our legal system to devolve to the point where anyone can sue for anything. I'm not even going to pretend that I have the answers to proper tort reform, I just know that the government is to blame for the problem being out of control. The lawyers are still wrong for exploiting the problem but the only way to push the barrier back is by restraining the government, not the lawyers. Remove the incentive and the problem gets better. Lock your car and it deters a thief, stop the giveaways to illegals and they won't have a reason to come, reform the legal system and the lawyers won't have as much to sue for. There will always be some abuse, some theft, some illegals. We have to be vigilant though and assign the blame for the problems properly in order to direct the resources to the right place to have the problem solved.

MikeT, it wasn't my intention to pick on you in this post, it's just that your comment served as a perfect example to demonstrate my thought process.

Billy D. Is Back

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Billy D. is back in action on his blog.

Drop by and say howdy.