The other night I listened to Senator Sherrod Brown’s “E-Town Hall on Health Insurance Reform”. I posted earlier about Sen. Brown’s excuse that he’s “clearly not a Constitutional expert” as his reason for thinking that the legislature has authority to force an expanded government controlled healthcare system upon us.
Something else caught my attention during his [...]
Sen. Brown (D-OH): Confused About his Job
September 12th, 2009Sen. Brown (D-OH): “I’m certainly not a Constitutional expert”
September 12th, 2009The other night I listened to Senator Sherrod Brown’s “E-Town Hall on Health Insurance Reform”.
Sen. Brown didn’t answer any of the 7 questions I submitted he took a question from “Mike” who asked “Where in the Constitution does it give the Federal government permission to be involved in healthcare, please cite article and section.”
I – [...]
Is Bill O’Reilly a Libertarian?
September 1st, 2009Someone on Twitter asked the other day:
"Someone described Bill O’Reilly as being a Libertarian. Just curious how that lines up?"
- @Astrostrat89
Occasionally popular TV commentators claim that they’re “a libertarian but…” and they’ll go on to explain some major way that they’re not at all a libertarian, so that’s one easy test – use of [...]
“Death Proof” Quote
July 27th, 2009Finally got around to seeing the film “Death Proof” by Quentin Tarantino this evening. Great piece of work with great atmosphere. I think it also has one of my favorite in-movie conversations. It goes something like this:
Lee: You carry a gun? Kim: Uh-Huh. [...]
ACT NOW! SAVE YOUR LIBRARY!
June 23rd, 2009According to the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) website, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D) is poised to eliminate $200 million from the Public Library Fund over the next two years.
The CML dives right in with the threat – if you allow them to be de-funded and refuse to act, they’ll be…
closing branches, halting new [...]
Progress Ohio’s Health Horror Hype
December 8th, 2008Over at ProgressOhio.org, Bret Thompson cited Robert Pear’s New York Times story about a former female Archway Cookie employee from Ashland, OH as an example of “when access to affordable health care is at the whim of your employer”.
The crisis is on display here. Starla D. Darling, 27, was pregnant when she learned that her [...]
2 Dead in California “Gun Free Zone”
November 28th, 2008Unfortunately the reality of the real world continues to evade a fairly large segment of society, so we continue to see stories like this one featuring a tragedy at a California Toys “R” Us location.
MSNBC provides some mindless handwringing with the following quote from Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson:
"I think the obvious question everyone has [...]
Stupid to throw around “Socialist!”?
November 21st, 2008Today Jill Miller Zimon ranted about “throwing around” the terms “Socialist!” and “Communist!”. Her reasoning seemed to be that Bush also advances socialist policies, therefore it’s “stupid” to call a spade a spade.
Since Jill included a definition of “stupid”, I was hoping she’d include a definition for socialism too so [...]
Does America Want a Climate Action Mandate?
November 21st, 2008Dennis Spisak and Progress Ohio want you to think that a clear majority of Americans want a “Climate Action Mandate”. People actually said they want a mandate?!? Well, not really.
According to a poll sponsored by Environmental Defense Fund (sponsor of the DDT genocide), Americans believe that we should address climate change now in a way [...]
Libertarians Stealing Votes in OH-15?
November 13th, 2008It ended up being a very close race in Ohio’s 15th congressional district – so close that as of this writing, nobody really knows who won. It didn’t take long for supporters of Stivers and Kilroy, the first and 2nd finishers, to sling accusations of “stealing votes”.
What are “stolen votes”? They apparently happen when a [...]
Give? Take? What’s the Difference?
November 10th, 2008The Houston Chronicle today has the headline U.S. gives $40 billion to save AIG, gets ownership stake – shouldn’t that read “U.S. takes $40 billion to save AIG, gets ownership stake”?
After all, the US can only “give” what it steals first.
Technorati Tags: us,give,take,bailout,aig,steal,theft
NBC Propaganda: Bailout the Only Out
November 9th, 2008Last night’s NBC Nightly News featured some odd unsubstantiated claims regarding the likely effects on the economy if a government bailout failed to prop up automakers. Specifically I’m addressing comments made by CNBC’s Trish Reagan and Phil LeBeau, another CNBC reporter in this piece:
Here’s Trish’s quote:
"If one of them fails, the entire industry would be [...]
Media Oblivious to Real Story of Found Cash
November 9th, 2008To give you an idea how much the Federal Reserve and Congress have inflated our currency through poor financial policy, let’s take a look at the latest sweeps hype parroting the AP:
a contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in bathroom walls
SOURCE: Money Found House’s Walls No Treasure
Sounds like a lot of money [...]
"What works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne,"
November 8th, 2008…but Barack Obama seems poised to give it a whirl. Citing support for "common-sense" gun control, Change.gov, the official website of the office of the president-elect lists the following approach:
Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun [...]
Campus Area Shooting After Man Stabs Officer
October 22nd, 2008Problem is widespread as evidenced by 7 violent attacks in 7 Days at The Ohio State University campus
Often when the issue of safety on campus arises – typically due to news of a violent attack on or near campus like this one, the media and educators assert that they are shocked because “campus is supposed [...]
Ohio’s 15th Congressional District Candidates and The Law
October 18th, 2008It dawned on me today that I hadn’t checked the criminal records search for the candidates in the OH-15 Congressional race. I’m sure the Republicans and Democrats vetted their candidates to ensure that there are no felonies or anything really embarrassing, but it never hurts to check – and sometimes you can gain insight into [...]
Paul Krugman wins Nobel Economics Prize
October 13th, 2008Here’s a rundown of some commentary on the issue. I got a kick out of this article about Krugman’s commentary on energy markets back in 2001. Here his understanding of the effects on Zoning on housing bubbles is applauded.
Reason has a short piece on the story along with links to some of their favorite articles [...]
The Wonders of Cell Phone Tethering
October 12th, 2008In my spare time I do a lot of volunteer work and one of the organizations I volunteer with holds it’s meetings in an office building that is as close as I’ve found to a WiFi dead zone. There are three wireless networks available and all of them are secured (two of them are 2-Wire [...]
“Stop Opening Chats! It’s Annoying!”
October 9th, 2008A few weeks ago Microsoft (MS) released Windows Live Wave 3 to public Beta. It didn’t take long for a few of the people on my contact list to start complaining. Here’s how the conversation started this morning:
10/9/2008 8:55:04 AM Stop opening windows on my desktop!!
As it turns out, I [...]
Don’t Overlook Media Center Capabilities
October 5th, 2008Sometime before Vista went RTM, I took advantage of a sale at a local retailer and picked up an ATI DV Wonder HDTV Tuner Card. It was supposedly one of the last tuner cards that didn’t support the “broadcast flag”. It’s been a while and I don’t remember the details, plus, it was a bit [...]
Installing ATI Remote Wonder Plus (Vista)
October 5th, 2008This weekend I spent some time getting familiar with Windows Media Center. An ATI Remote Wonder Plus came with my tuner card, so I plugged it in.
Vista automatically installed the software and said the device was "”ready to use”, but the remote still wasn’t working, so the next day I looked into the issue and [...]
Christian Concerns with the Libertarian Party?
March 10th, 2008A friend of mine pointed out a post on a political forum, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to clarify a few points that the original author seemed to overlook:
However, the core problem with libertarianism is that the philosophy refuses to acknowledge that our rights come God (like the Declaration of Independence states).
The [...]
N.Y. governor reportedly in prostitution ring – Politics- msnbc.com
March 10th, 2008It should be interesting to hear how this plays out. Note the careful choice of words – he wasn’t caught in a “sting”, the media says he was part of a “ring”.
Federal prosecutors last week arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation, the Times reported.
A person with knowledge of the case [...]
Studies: CO2 output must cease altogether – Washington Post- msnbc.com
March 10th, 2008Everybody hold your breath. Warmists conclude that a radical approach is the only way to force nature to our whims.
This sort of thing is the pinnacle of arrogance. First, it assumes that Earths climate at the moment is perfect. Second, it assumes that humans (who never make mistakes) should devote endless resources to the task [...]
A Look Ahead
March 4th, 2008Ohio has been seeing it’s share of presidential campaign ads on TV. Mostly from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in my market. I’ve found a few of the ads to contain troubling authoritarian messages.
Take for example Obama’s “Choices” ad with footage of him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention:
[applause] It is that fundamental belief: I [...]
Papers Please: Arrested At Circuit City
March 4th, 2008 My brother sent me a link to The Consumerist which had some interesting articles on individuals being assertive about their liberties.
I found one story to be especially interesting for a number of reasons such as the customer’s attitude toward an ignorant police force who needlessly harassed him, and the way the media portrayed [...]
Dick on Hillary
March 4th, 2008A neighbor sent an email supposedly from Dick Morris with the following assertion about Hillary Clinton:
3. She wants to grant constitutional rights to enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.
Hillary may “want to grant constitutional rights”. Unfortunately, she can’t – nor does the Constitution “grant” rights. If a person takes the time to read the [...]
Cons of Bureaucratic Infrastructure Maintenance
January 20th, 2008From an article circulated amongst my family members:
Oberstar said the discovery of the Ohio bridge problem and its similarity to what happened in Minneapolis should renew concerns about the nation’s bridges. He said it underscores the need for a bill he’s sponsored that would increase the number of bridge inspectors around the country, as well [...]
Collective Right?
January 17th, 2008I recently came across a Letter To the Editor (LTE) in the Toledo Blade, here it is:
2nd Amendment is about collective right
In The Blade’s Dec. 27 Readers’ Forum there was a letter headlined “Other amendments suffer in 1939 ruling.” The letter writer questioned if the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a collective right, [...]
Bush Administration "Pretending" to be Anti-Gun?
January 16th, 2008When the Federal Assault Weapons Ban was due to sunset, Bush explained that he was in favor of the ban and that if the Congress passed a renewal of the bill, he would sign it.
I asked my pro-Gun Republican friends what they thought about that, and the consensus was that – for political reasons – [...]
Back Doors?
January 16th, 2008Of course we can’t eliminate the possibility of an elaborate government disinformation plot, but stories like this seem to indicate that encrypted data security is alive and well. Here’s the meat:
For more than a year, the government has been unable to view drive Z.
A government computer forensics expert testified that it is “nearly impossible” to [...]
Little Seattle
October 23rd, 2007I knew it’d be raining when I woke up – and it was. Wife was up late working on a school project – no idea how late though, I don’t speak snore. I turned in at about 1:00a after reviewing some documents for friends and doing a little financial planning. Slept through "In Rainbows" on [...]
Presidential Race A Muddy Mess
October 18th, 2007This week MSNBC started an in-depth, long-term study of public perception of views of the candidates with R’s and D’s next to their names (hopefully as some drop out they’ll throw in a few independents and alternative parties). It’s called the “Candidates + Issues Matrix” In the mean time we see quite a pretty [...]
The Wisdom of Crazy People
October 9th, 2007It’s interesting working downtown. Yesterday, while waiting at a COTA stop, a grubby looking guy on a bike coasted by on the sidewalk and said to me "Hillary Clinton wants to kick in your nutsack!"
He was probably right.
ZD’s Berlind: Mailbox Providers Responsible for Spam Solution
September 20th, 2007In a recent article on the Spam problem and one mans ideas to fix it, ZD Net contributor David Berlind advocated an unimaginative approach to solving the problem.
We have to go back to square-one on e-mail and rebuild the entire system. Who is in a position to do this? Basically, all it would take would [...]
Free Speech Zone
August 16th, 2007Today I was out volunteering my time canvassing for a presidential candidate. I was delivering fliers to people on a list of reliable party voters in my neighborhood and it had been relatively uneventful aside from the occasional “Good afternoon” exchanged with passing neighbors out for walks.
As I was climbing the mile-long hill out of [...]
Are Antitrust Laws Designed to Protect the Consumer?
July 9th, 2007Last week in it’s ruling on LEEGIN CREATIVE LEATHER PRODUCTS, INC. v. PSKS, INC., the US Supreme Court took the position that anti-trust laws are not designed to protect the consumer, but instead, manufacturers. Here’s an excerpt:
A single manufacturer?s use of vertical price restraints tends to eliminate intrabrand price competition; this in turn encourages retailers to invest [...]
Experimenting with Skype and Ron Paul
July 9th, 2007A few days ago I was informed that imeem would be discontinuing it’s encrypted chat client so I started using Skype as my IM client for encrypted conversations, file transfers, etc. It has a few other interesting features that I figured I’d try out.Â
One of the features is the ability to host a "Public Chat" [...]
Thoughts on Fred
June 5th, 2007You asked what I thought of Fred Thompson. He seems to be the Obama of the Republican party – he has a lot of fans, but the supporters I’ve spoken with seem unable to articulate exactly why he’s so great. He *is* an actor, and a pretty good one as anyone who saw [...]
NH Dem Debate Brings Blatant Bull from Hillary
June 4th, 2007In the Dem Presidential Debate from New Hampshire last night, CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer asked candidate Hillary:
Senator Clinton, you voted in favor of every funding for the U.S. troops since the start of the war until now. And some are accusing you and some others of playing politics with the lives of the troops. [...]
Media/Government Breathlessly Misstate Terrorism Facts
June 3rd, 2007As an Engineer and scientist, I’m irritated by the intentionally misleading statements of the government regarding the JFK Terror Plot.
MSNBC Said:
Federal authorities announced Saturday they had broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning a “chilling” attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing [...]
Ohio State Community: We Want Concealed Carry
May 22nd, 2007Readers of The Lantern spoke out Monday in a poll that asked “Do you think concealed carry should be allowed on campus?”
Final results were:
Â
Yes.Â
62%Â
Â
No.Â
38%Â
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This follows a referendum about a year ago where 25% of voters asked Student Government to lobby the statehouse to lift the statewide ban on campus CCW. Students are aware of [...]
Ron Paul has More YouTube Subscribers than Jesus
May 20th, 2007It’s official, Ron Paul has more YouTube subscribers than Jesus.
Here’s the list as of 9:59a today:Paul – 5,679Obama – 5,678Clinton – 2,998Edwards – 2,750Romney – 1,977Kucinich – 1,685Giuliani – 1,370McCain – 1,233Gravel – 824Richardson – 756Biden – 582Hunter – 381Dodd – 221Huckabee – 187Tancredo – 166Brownback – 86Gilmore – 40
Only Brownback and Gilmore have fewer [...]
What is Unity08?
April 28th, 2007I’ve noticed some increased coverage of “Unity08″ in the Main-Stream Media (MSM) lately, so I thought I’d take a moment to shed some light on the organization. I’ll start with their own description from the Unity08 website:
What We Believe
Unity08 believes that neither of today’s major parties reflects the aspirations, fears or will of the majority [...]
Obama Fundraising Letter
April 28th, 2007A few days ago I received a letter from Senator Barack Obama’s campaign asking for funding. I’m including a reply below that you may wish to use in the event that you also receive a postage paid envelope and a request for donations to this man.
Â
Senator Barack Obama
Obama for America
PO BOX 802798
Chicago, IL 60680-4263
Dear [...]
Ron Paul Poised to “Sanjaya†Republican Primaries
April 8th, 2007It’s hard to watch the news anymore without seeing bemused analysis of how Sanjaya Malakar manages to stay on American Idol. The contestant is known for his unique hairstyles and singing off-key. Perhaps his greatest appeal to his base is his ability to undermine the establishment.
As you may have noticed, the Republican party’s version of [...]
You Fight for the Lost Causes Harder Than for Any Others
April 7th, 2007“You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their [...]