Penfist

Those crazy Russians. Filed under what were they thinking when they bounced lasers off a tent roof instead of using the sky like they usually did.

According to the reports, concertgoers said the festival’s dance floor was covered by a canopy because it was raining. The lasers were pointed horizontally under the tent instead of into the sky, which led to the injuries, the reports said.

“After five or ten minutes on the dance field, I couldn’t see anything,” a young man in sunglasses identified as a concertgoer said on NTV television. “I could see out of my left eye, but my right eye is all fog.”

Always wear your optical sunglasses to the rave. Always. And watch out for sharks with lasers.

Over the next week, I’ll be moving this blog – the slow load times and CPU bandwidth exceeded errors have been very irritating to my readers.

Since I’m not getting the help I want or need from my hosting service in solving the issue, I’m moving to the competition. I hope this process will be complete within 72 hours. In the mean time, I’d like to thank everyone who has stopped by in the last four years. I’ve really enjoyed your company.

See you in a bit. Expect the site to look and feel a little different.

In the made up fear mongering crisis department, 2008, we have the following tabloid crap journalism about how we’re on the cusp of impending world disaster due to “desk rage.”

Other research showed one-sixth of workers reported anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.

“It’s a total disaster,” said Anna Maravelas, author of “How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress.” “Rudeness, impatience, people being angry — we used to do that kind of stuff at home but at work, we were professional. Now it’s almost becoming trendy to do it at work.

“It was something we did behind closed doors,” she said. “Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it.”

I really think these behaviorists are making up crap to sell books. Has our culture changed in the last few decades. Hell yes. Are we more violent? Not in my experience. “It’s almost become trendy” to be violent at work? Bullshit. That’s a pretty broad and useless statement.

I think if we really examined workplace violence we’d find that when incidents do occur that they are often the product of untreated mental illness. I would also speculate that much of the mental illness can be directly correlated with the way society treated the individual who finally snapped. Treating adults like children over a few decades can have long-term undesirable consequences.

I’m sure people become enraged at their desks. Writing an article that describes this problem as some sort of uncontrollable phenomenon is alarmist and unhelpful. Let’s expect desk jockeys to act civil and find constructive outlets for their feelings. Let’s demand that we all treat one another civilly at all times. Let’s not pretend that we’re all a bunch of lemmings cowering in the corner hoping someone doesn’t “spoil the workplace” for them. Folks, if you have a crappy workplace you have two choices: 1) improve it or 2) find a new workplace. Personally, if someone around me was have an episode of uncontrollable desk rage I would help them calm down, one way or another. Frankly, I doubt many of us are suffering from the effects of “desk rage.” Bad things can happen anywhere, including the workplace. It’s up to you as an individual to control your own temper. If you can’t someone else will help you out.

As far as I’m concerned, a private employer can make any rules it wants to. I will follow the ones that make sense, and maybe even follow the ones that don’t make sense if I want the job. And I’ll violate the ones that represent a threat to my own well being. I’m not likely to follow any rules or laws that limit my ability to defend myself to my satisfaction. I guess it is a good thing I don’t work for Disney.

”Disney’s the safest place on Earth. It’s awesome,” said Fiore, of St. Cloud. “But late at night in the parking lot, and driving the 35 miles to and from home, I don’t always feel safe armed with just a cellphone.”

But theme-park guests might not feel safe knowing that some of the 62,000 Disney employees have weapons in their cars, said company spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez. She said that having armed people on the property violates the company’s zero-tolerance policy concerning workplace violence. Disney has its own security force as well as 50 Orange County Sheriff’s Office employees.

It’s great that Disney has its own security force, but they can take that zero tolerance policy and shove it as far as I am concerned. I’ll use violence to protect myself when and where I deem appropriate. I don’t have any interest in the idea that I should be punished for the indiscretions of others, and I will ignore laws that may endanger my own well being. So should you.

Many people who come across this blog entry may think to themselves that I am paranoid. I prefer to think of myself as prepared. I may one day need a first aid kit. I may one day need a survival blanket. I may one day need a fire extinguisher. And one day, I may need a gun. I keep all of them handy. So should you. That is not paranoia. It’s prudent. Ask anyone who has ever had to defend his or her own life in an emergency.

I value my job, but I value my life more. I may grudgingly pee in a cup for you, but I’m not giving up my survival toolkit. And you shouldn’t ask me to. It is insulting that you think so little of my rationality, my decision making ability and my aim. How can an employee be trusted to operate a ride with hundreds of people on it – their lives are in that employee’s hands. Yet give that same employee a gun and suddenly everyone is in a panic, running around screaming about zero tolerance. This is foolishness.

The most irresponsible and childish group of senior decision makers in America is once again pandering to voters. This time, they’re sending a strong message – yes, you can do whatever you want without any consequences.

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of homeowners could get safe, cheaper loans rather than losing their homes under a massive election-year mortgage rescue that’s drawing bipartisan support.

Make no mistake about what this “bailout” is. It is theft. When Congress decides to bailout the airline industry, or Bear Sterns or the savings and loan industry they have to steal money from taxpayers to do so. Now that Congress has decided to bail out people who took out loans they couldn’t afford what they are really saying is “hey, it’s OK to be irresponsible.” The responsible people will pay for it. Yes, I realize that a few Americans go into foreclosure because of circumstances beyond their control. They are the exception. The vast majority of foreclosures happening right now are people who bit off way more than they could chew. Congress can continue to send the message and steal the money for as long as it wants to.

A tipping point has already been reached – the one where the parasites outnumber the productive. That is why we are $52 trillion in debt. Don’t believe me though – go read what the Peter G. Peterson Foundation has to say about the state of our economic state. When every American owes $175,000 we’re in trouble. If the man who used to be in charge of the Federal Reserve Bank thinks we are in trouble we ARE IN TROUBLE.

A nine percent approval rating and these are the people we’re expecting will fix our health care problems? Give me a break.

This month’s release of Rasmussen Reports’ survey of congressional approval ratings serves a scathing reproach of politicians on Capitol Hill. For the first time since Rasmussen has been tracking congressional approval ratings, less than 10 percent of Americans say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

Against President Bush’s much-publicized poor approval ratings, today’s poll shows Congress’ numbers have plunged to less than a third of the president’s.

The most recent report calculates a mere 9 percent approve of congressional performance, while a majority of Americans, 52 percent, say Congress is doing a poor job, which also ties a record high.

I cannot understand how we think these criminals are going to make anything better. They’re the least trusted group of decision makers in the country. We could throw them all out and start over, but how? These people control our lives and they aren’t going to gracefully bow out just because a few hundred million serfs are feeling unhappy.

Servants don’t tell masters what to do.

I read a fascinating article this morning that directly correlates gun control in an area with the crime rate. The two are statistically inverse. In other words, the more gun control a place has the more crime it has.

For many years, the Brady Campaign released an annual “report card,” grading each state on its level of “sensible” gun laws. States with higher grades (e.g. “A”) were obviously more “sensible,” according to Brady; states rated “F” were apparently considered “non-sensible.”[3]

The first interesting detail in the 2001 version of this report card is that Washington, D.C. is missing. This is also true for Brady’s 2002-2004 reports.[4] This is a curious omission because the Brady Campaign is on record as supporting the D.C. ban on functioning firearms––Helmke said “we [Brady Campaign] disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling”[5]––and it seems reasonable that their report card would be an excellent opportunity to highlight D.C.’s success, since surely a total firearms ban rates an “A.”

Also in 2001, the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, as part of their Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), asked respondents from all over the country the following question: “Are any firearms now kept in or around your home? Include those kept in a garage, outdoor storage area, car, truck, or other motor vehicle.”[6]

Results from this survey were collated with Brady’s 2001 grades. After sorting by gun ownership levels, states were divided roughly into quartiles: under 30% gun ownership rates (12 states); 30-40% (14 states); 40-50% (15 states); and over 50% ownership rates (10 states). There is a clear correlation between low levels of gun ownership and higher Brady grades: Only the first quartile of states, incidentally with the lowest levels of gun ownership (average 16.5%), were rated well by Brady, averaging a grade of B+. Quartiles 2-4 had average grades of D+, D+, and D-, respectively. This indicates that Brady’s definition of “sensible” gun laws equates with laws which restrict or prohibit gun ownership.

Unfortunately for Brady, there is another correlation which demands attention. Each year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation releases their annual Uniform Crime Report, reporting on major violent and property crimes committed around the country. Included in their crime tabulations is a Table 4, which compares the current year’s crime rates to the previous year’s. This enables the FBI to report on updated data for the previous year’s, reflecting corrections and late entries from participating law enforcement agencies from across the country. As a result, Table 4 in the 2002 Uniform Crime Report has more accurate crime data for the year 2001.[7]

Brady’s favored group––with the B+ average grade––had a average violent crime rate of 610.0 in 2001.
Violent crime levels dropped sharply in quartiles 2-4: 424.5, 410.7, and 319.6, respectively.[8]

I don’t need all these statistics to know that having access to guns is my right as an American, but it does help justify my continued fight for more responsible gun ownership and less panic inspired restrictions on law abiding members of society.

Frankly, when guns become illegal I’ll become an outlaw. In the meantime, I’ll continue trying to raise awareness about facts instead of fiction. Fact: responsible gun owners are a threat to no one but criminals. Fiction: the more you control access to guns, the less crime there is. The exact opposite is true.

Go read Nemerov.

And the award goes to the French, who have apparently felt the need to compete with our fat, opinionated travelers from places like Hoboken and St. Louis for the most irritating travelers award.

According to a recent international survey, the French are now considered the most obnoxious tourists from European nations, and behind only Indians and the last-place Chinese as the worst among all countries worldwide.

As a world traveler, I’d say this is one honor I’m glad to give away a group of culture elitists like the French.

Instead of using guns to commit murder, some British crime victims are now tortured with knives and then set on fire. Crime does not go down because of rules. In some cases, it goes up instead. While we are not yet being told the reasons for this horrific crime, we do know that:

Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were bound and stabbed multiple times in the head, neck, torso, and back, said Mick Duthie, a detective with London’s Metropolitan Police.

Britain’s Press Association reported that the students had been tied up and tortured, suffering up to 250 injuries — facts the police could not confirm.

The number of injuries, if true, is excessive in the extreme. One has to wonder how many times they were stabbed after they were dead. A knife can be a more efficient way to kill than a gun, depending on the knife. To stab someone that many times is highly unusual and I would think it generally indicates extreme rage.

The two students were studying DNA protein cleansing. How unfortunate that their lives were snuffed. They could have helped millions of people with the research they were doing.

From Next Big Future:

A new class of DNA-like oligomers made exclusively of nonnatural, stable C-nucleosides. The nucleosides comprise four types of nonnatural bases attached to a deoxyribose through an acetylene bond with the ?-configuration. The artificial DNA forms right-handed duplexes and triplexes with the complementary artificial DNA. The hybridization occurs spontaneously and sequence-selectively, and the resulting duplexes have thermal stabilities very close to those of natural duplexes. The artificial DNA might be applied to a future extracellular genetic system with information storage and amplifiable abilities.

While I’m a neophyte when it comes to manipulating DNA, my understanding after reading the article is that this is the first time DNA has been created from nonnatural nucleosides. I wonder what the potential applications are, if any.

When America inevitably votes itself something called universal health care, it is my belief that we’ll see more stories like this one: Tape shows woman dying on waiting room floor

A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.

While casual readers will come away with the impression that this woman died because of a failure of private healthcare, I am not a casual reader.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees the hospital, released a statement Tuesday saying it was “shocked and distressed by this situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care.”

Sounds like another one of those callous private companies that only cares about profit, which we’ve all been taught is evil – only government can force people to be good and honest, right? The truth is that profitable companies are the ones that do a good job of providing health care. Government, which doesn’t have to turn a profit because it takes all its funding by force, is generally the agency that provides the most mediocre health care. I should know, I’ve received this type of mediocre care in the military. No choice, I just got whichever doctor was on duty, no matter how incompetent or bored they happened to be. Some of them were bored and incompetent. A few were pretty good. But I didn’t have a choice which ones I got. It was a crap shoot every time I needed treatment.

The key to this story is that New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has a .gov web site – it’s a government agency. A bureaucracy. This lady died under the “care” of a government agency, the same kind of care you can expect when you vote for universal health care.

What is HHC?

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) was created by New York State legislation in 1970 as a public benefit corporation, governed by a Board of Directors, to oversee the City’s public health care system in all five boroughs. The Corporation consists of 11 acute care hospitals, 6 Diagnostic and Treatment Centers, 4 long-term care facilities, a certified home health care agency, and more than 80 community health clinics, including Communicare Centers and Child Health Clinics. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, MetroPlus, HHC operates a Health Plan which enrolls members in Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus. HHC facilities treat nearly one-fifth of all general hospital discharges and more than one third of emergency room and hospital-based clinic visits in New York City.

Someone should ask Barack Obama or John McCain (who will play along with the idea of health funded by theft) why this lady who was being provided New York’s version of universal “health care” had to die on camera on the floor of a psychiatriac ward.

The inevitable clarion calls for more rules, more oversight and more bureaucrats will be heard because people are naturally horrified by such a lonely and undignified death. In ignorance, we will march one step closer to ultimate mediocrity in health care and our options will narrow just a little further. More people will go crazy as they realize that freedom of choice in America is just a pipe dream. Some of them will die while being prodded by the indifferent foot of a bureaucrat. The cold eye of a surveillance camera paid for with tax dollars stolen from that person while he or she was still sane will record the entire event, a silent witness to the involuntary downward spiral that happens in a society with too much government and not enough love to go around. We’ll find out what her name was, and we’ll vote for more cameras and more rule books and more petty authortarianism and then we’ll forget about the woman who died alone on a cold floor in a cold room in a city populated by more government employees per capita than almost any in the world. See your future if you can. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the 2nd Amendment, we should expect to see a flurry of gun rights activism all over the country. We should also expect to see desperate struggles for bureaucrats to retain their power of intimidation over the law abiding segment of the population. Bear in mind, once again, that it is this officious attitude that has resulted in a higher per capita incarceration rate than any other developed country.

Two things to keep in mind during these coming struggles – 1) The struggles will NOT affect criminals. What is being decided is whether law and order respecting citizens will be able to enjoy the right guaranteed by the Constitution. Criminals already ignore municipal, state and federal gun restrictions on a routine basis. 2) Despite the shrill harping you’ll hear from your bureaucrats nationwide, no one will be less safe if guns are permitted to LAW ABIDING citizens in places like Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. Those places will in fact, become safer. The more armed law abiding types you have roaming around, the safer you are. That is a safe rule of thumb to follow. This is a culture war of authoritarians against individualists.

Having said that, I would encourage you to take a moment to read how Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and her posse are clearly stating that they are above the law.

If someone could get 50 concealed carry permit holders together, organize a legal defense for them, and have them show up at the airport with their weapons I would participate. I’d love to see the city of Atlanta try and win that battle in the Georgia court system – it is clearly unlawful for the city to try and declare any “gun free zones” that contradict state law. I am more interested in re-asserting my second amendment rights and expanding the scope of where I can carry without being harrased by petty bureaucrats than anything. I wouldn’t cry if Shirley Franklin lost sleep over not being able to tell me what to do either. I already drive to the airport with my gun fairly frequently – I’m not a threat to anyone non-violent on the premises. Someone needs to stand up before we’re all constantly bowing. If gun owners who have already been vetted by the state to carry showed up en masse and peacefully dared the police to arrest them, it would force the city to abide by the law. Maybe georgiacarry.org can get an organized protest together.

Update: Georgia Carry has filed a lawsuit against the City of Atlanta.

An attorney for Georgia Carry showed up at a press conference by Franklin and DeCosta to hand them a copy of the suit. DeCosta took it, while Franklin walked away.

Franklin and DeCosta had called the press conference to say they will stick with their no-guns policy for parts of the airport outside federal jurisdiction, which include parking lots and main lobby and ticketing areas. Franklin said she will lobby Congress to authorize gun bans in any public facilities that get federal funds.

I’d love it if someone could clarify for me who put Ben DeCosta in charge of all the airports in Georgia? I thought he was just Shirley Franklin’s personal lapdog and socialist associate.

Microsoft doesn’t want you to use VMWare for virtualization of your information technology environment. At least, that is the message they are sending to the company I work for. For the last two years, when we’ve called for support, Microsoft’s Indian technicians seem confused and offer us conflicting information, wasting a great deal of time and causing us boundless frustration.

Today, we tried to call about a problem with DFS (distributed file system) – unfortunately the Microsoft technician noticed that the machine with a corrupt volume is virtualized and immediately went into a song and dance about it being VMWare and not being able to support the issue. Bear in mind that we had just dropped $500+ on the call. But Microsoft, in all its wisdom, has a policy that is more important that continuing to earn my company’s business.

Except as described in this article, Microsoft does not test or support Microsoft software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. For Microsoft customers who do not have a Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft will require that the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where the issue is confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

Two hours later, we’re still arguing with Microsoft about why they won’t support us. From my perspective, the company doesn’t want people using VMWare because they offer a competitive product (which I’m not interested in). Practically speaking, when Microsoft pretends that problems are caused by using VMWare when they are not, they are doing themselves a great disservice – offering me an incentive to spend time searching for alternative solutions to Microsoft’s entire line of products. Arrogance in customer service policy making never benefits the company making the policies.

Microsoft’s technicians did a very poor job of explaining the policy. We were put on hold multiple times without explanation. We were transferred multiple times and hung up on once. If this is the best Microsoft can do, they are doomed. Moving forward, I’ll be looking for ways to avoid doing business with the company. I’ve been a beta tester and long time supporter, but increasingly, Microsoft is out of touch with the people who keep it solvent. The company has become too bloated with bureaucracy to stay effective. Time for some spin offs.

VMWare’s virtualization product is better and more mature than Microsoft’s offering. And that is why we’ll continue to use it despite Microsoft’s attempts to strongarm us in a different direction.

Related information:

http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/ms_support_statement.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897615

And the first lawsuit against an American fiefdom that restricts its peons from defending themselves using the same instruments civil servants are allowed has been filed:

BELLEVUE, WA – Following Thursday’s (5-4) ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms, and that a municipal gun ban violates that right, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) filed a federal lawsuit (complaint) challenging the City of Chicago’s long-standing handgun ban.

While the Heller decision did not go far enough, it will open the floodgates to thousands of challenges to individual’s right to defend themselves. If the government is entitled to have a resource, then so am I – I will applaud each and every pro-gun lawsuit that is filed in the coming months.

If someone can show me a single American city that can definitively correlate reduced violence with a ban on gun ownership I will vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming election.

The most important decision the Supreme Court has made in my 37-years has been handed down.

I’d like to tell all the anti-gunners to suck it right about now, but that would be petty. Instead, I’ll just say that I hope Michael Bloomberg drops dead from shock.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The Heller decision is significant, but the battle against the unreasoning fear and ignorance about firearms being purposely spread through our society is just part of a much larger war against self-reliant individuals that is far from over. Eternal vigilance is necessary. The freedom lovers and the doers and those who care not for the mediocrity of the state must continue to ignore the bad laws when necessary and to campaign against the purveyors of collectivist ignorance.

This is one tiny victory in a war that we’ve been losing badly for decades. I’ll be standing by for a full analysis, but the small victory today warms my heart. It’s been pretty cold, politically speaking, for people like me who believe that idiots and not guns are the problem.

Perhaps the most important statement Mike has made on the topic of Iraq is:

One of the main reasons we made so many mistakes in Iraq was that high officials in the Bush Administration were often afraid of the truth and viewed a serious foreign policy question with ideological blinders.  Instead of honestly appraising the facts on the ground, they saw only what they wanted to see.  And instead of encouraging candor and even dissent, they ignored or attacked those who disagreed with them.

How many have died needlessly because of arrogance? It is criminal. Absolutely criminal. And the immense suffering of Iraqis was prolonged and enhanced needlessly because of a few bureaucrats and their immense ignorance and stubborn insistence that they were the only ones who knew what was right for the people who live in the birthplace of civilization.

Mike’s article contains some very important thoughts, and as usual, is honest and well worth the read. Please take the time.

There is no way to know how many American lives were lost in Iraq due to the tortures we inflicted upon Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other places.  This is no argument of moral equivalence.  I have seen the atrocities committed by al Qaeda and other terrorists, and I am not saying that Americans have ever come close to those acts.  New Yorkers saw the atrocities of al Qaeda, as did many others.

Yet, when we tortured detainees, we lost something very important, something that America and its allies need in order to prevail against terrorists, not just in Iraq, but all over the world.  We scarred our honor.

Whatever you think of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I will not judge you for your opinion. What I am interested in doing is making the best of a bad situation. I think that Michael Yon has the same goal. Torture, in any form, is a moral abomination that is not justifiable. Using torture to win is actually losing. Go read the article and see if you don’t agree. The Bush Administration has been wrong from day one on this issue.

I have stopped watching the “news” and listening to my XM Radio in the last month. I just can’t stomach the inane prattle that passes for coverage of the Presidential campaign. There are no voices on the television or radio that are speaking to me, the disenfranchised freedom lover.

Rather, all the voices saturating the airwaves belong to shrill sycophants pretending that there are significant differences between the two finalists. And maybe there are. Neither of the two candidates is interested in actual freedom though, and that turns me off. I don’t care what the two bobbleheads have to say anymore because I have a hard time believing anything either one of them says. They both sound about as sincere as a telemarketer to me.

I’m boycotting the mainstream media. I’ve started listening to a podcast called Free Talk Live. Free Talk Live is entertaining, with a lot of pseudo-psycho callers. The show is oriented on talking about free markets and freedom thinking, and I suppose that when you create an environment hawking freedom, you’re bound to attract a lot of people who are marginalized by our current societal acceptance of authoritarianism.

I hope the show continues to find and challenge new listeners to think about whether or not the status quo in the United States is taking this country to places where we want it to go. I think next year I’m going to cancel my XM subscription and put that money into supporting Free Talk Live. I don’t agree with 100% of the show’s positional statements but I am excited about the freedom activism and think it’s healthy to expose myself to the ideas being exchanged. And I love it when Paula calls in and talks about how she is getting “Washington” to take care of various doomsday problems that she’s discovered.

Mark and Ian broadcast from Keene, New Hampshire, which long term, is the state I plan to move to.

In a nation where the government wants citizens to follow rule of law concepts, it is ironic when that same government stays busy ensuring that it completely ignores rule of law by passing illegal legislation.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday that could shield phone companies from billions of dollars in lawsuits for their participation in the warrantless surveillance program begun by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Which part of the 4th Amendment is not clear?

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.

The arrogance in Washington D.C. is so overwhelming in 2008. When Congress fails to respect the law of the land they are sowing the seeds of rebellion. Why should any citizen respect Congress if Congress doesn’t respect the citizen? And thus is a society weakened from the inside.

Go ahead and spy on me without just cause. While you watch me, I’ll be watching you as well, and ignoring your rules as necessary.

‘It will help our intelligence professionals learn our enemies’ plans for new attacks,’ Bush said just hours before the House approved the bill, 293-129. ‘It ensures that those companies whose assistance is necessary to protect the country will themselves be protected from liability.’

What the new legislation will do is ensure that a whole new class of domestic enemies is created unnecessarily. When the government spies on its own citizens, those citizens will becoming increasingly discontented. I’m flabbergasted that the Bush administration hasn’t figured this out in eight years. Not only are we expected to shoulder a tax burden that would undoubtedly have caused another American Revolution had it been tried in colonial times, but we are expected to allow our D.C. overlords to record us whenever they feel like it – without any notice, without any burden of proof, without any oversight at all.

Utter bullshit. Both of our Presidential candidates supported this crap legislation, further proving that the “choice” being offered to Americans in the upcoming election isn’t really a choice at all. No matter which puppet you vote for, you can rest assured that the United States will be less free in four years than it was when you voted.

This video is an unfortunately accurate parody. Foul language ahead, but not as foul as what the TSA is doing to indoctrinate Americans into unthinking stupidity and blind subservience. Sure, they aren’t really dancing around and calling you “bitch” at the airport. Try questioning their authority though. Look at one of the petty bureaucrats in a defiant manner. Argue with them. See what happens.

The sad truth of the matter is that our love affair with authoritarianism and unthinking obedience is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Transportation Security Administration is having image problems. Instead of dealing with core issues they have decided they need new uniforms and badges.

Polls find that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is one of the least popular agencies in government, ranking down in the depths of hell with the IRS. Passengers complain about rude treatment, inflexible rules, long lines and seemingly illogical and inconsistent policies. One thing they don’t tend to take issue with, however, is the uniforms. They don’t say things like, “Please make the screeners look more like real police.”

The TSA is comprised of lazy slobs who serve no purpose other than to make every person passing through an airport feel as subservient to bureaucratic whims as is possible. In a place where artibitraty rules are more important than common sense of course there is an atmosphere of barely repressed discontent. I’ve thought more than once about punching a TSA agent right in the mouth and I know I’m not alone.

The new uniforms and badges will only make the situation worse. Until TSA learns that the vast majority of people passing through their queues should be treated like honored guests and friends instead of suspects, the hatred of the organization and its stupidity will continue.

To be fair, I’m sure that many of the employees of the TSA are nice people once you get them out of those dumb uniforms. But many of them are just fat jackasses who enjoy lording it over “regular” people trying to get from point A to point B. The TSA know as much about real security as I know about building a particle accelerator. If the United States had efficient trains like Europe, no one would fly. It just isn’t worth the hassle.

The new uniforms and badges will just waste money, like the TSA in general.

I’ve upgraded to Firefox 3. If you aren’t using it yet, I highly recommend downloading it as soon as possible. It’s much faster than Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2. The only downside has been that some of my extensions don’t work. I can live with that based on the page loading improvements.

The most important decision the Supreme Court has ever made is coming soon.

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide District of Columbia v. Heller, the most important Second Amendment case in the court’s history.

More than five years ago, six Washington, D.C., residents challenged the constitutionality of the city’s 32-year ban on all functional firearms in the home. If the challenge is successful, it will mean the court has revisited and perhaps reversed United States v. Miller, the second most important Second Amendment case in the court’s history. For nearly seven decades, gun controllers and gun rights advocates alike have struggled to apply the murky doctrines propounded by Justice James Clark McReynolds in his 1939 Miller opinion.

The Heller decision will be a practical choice. The “War on Drugs” is really a war on citizens – citizens who believe that they, not the state, are the ones who are in the best position to decide what should or should not pass into their own bodies. The “War on Drugs” created a new subset of Americans who are automatic criminals because they believe their bodies belong to them and not the state. If the Supreme Court decides that citizens have no individual right to bear arms, they will be creating another artificial class of criminals – people who believe that it is the individual and not the state that bears primary responsibility for his or her own security. If the Court creates an unnecessary, foolish and short-sighted “War on Guns” it will make the 40-year-old and completely unwinnable “We Own Your Body” war pale in comparison.

And Americans’ civil rights will continue to be spit on, ground into the dirt and thrown down the toilet. Let us all hope that the Court does not force my fellow gun owners and I to rise up and resist tyranny.

According to Marginal Revolution, bumper stickers are an indicator of aggressive drivers. My wife often tells me I am an aggressive driver. While I am the first to admit that I spend a lot of time feeling irritated by other folks and their rude behavior on the road, I don’t think I’m very aggressive. I think my driving style could be referred to as politely offensive.

I do have a list of things that get under my skin, including, in order of irritation factor:

• Left lane jackasses – the people who think the left lane is reserved for them no matter what speed they are going – these idiots cause drivers who want to go faster to have to pass on the right
• People who pay more attention to their conversation than what is happening around them – the worst offenders are usually middle aged women with bad hairdos (think Texas big hair).
• Cell phone addicts – more women than men. I keep my cell phone conversations as short as possible while driving. I’ve been next to people for 20 minutes who are on the same call. Apparently driving isn’t challenging enough for these people and they need an additional activity to keep their razor sharp minds engaged. For these mental giants, only a banal conversation about last night’s clubbing activity will keep them sufficiently occupied.

Whether or not it makes me a driver who should be watched more carefully, here is my bumper sticker:

I will be running my first triathlon in August. I am 37-years-old and I figure now is as good a time as any to get started. I am training by running three days a week, biking two, and working out with dumbbells five.

The most unexpected part of the exercise process, for me, is that the more I exercise, the more I want to exercise. I am addicted to the process because it makes me feel good. Not the pain and the effort during, but the feeling of satisfaction I get afterwards.

I am running further and faster now than I was in my teens. I feel as good as I can remember feeling in more than ten years. I want to continue this process! This first event is pretty easy – it consists of a two-mile run, an eight-miles bike event and a 400 meter swim.

I just got done with an eight-mile bike ride on very hilly terrain and I feel a sense of great accomplishment! I burned 600+ calories and didn’t collapse in a fat heap of heart attack.

Future Pundit makes the case that being smart means living longer.

The inequalities in all cause death rates between Americans with less than high school education and college graduates increased rapidly from 1993 to 2001 due to both significant decreases in mortality from all causes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other conditions in the most educated and lack of change or increases among the least educated. For white women, the all cause death rate increased significantly by 3.2 percent per year in the least educated and by 0.7 percent per year in high school graduates. The rate ratio (RR) comparing the least versus most educated increased from 2.9 (95% CI, 2.8–3.1) in 1993 to 4.4 (4.1–4.6) in 2001 among white men, from 2.1 (1.8–2.5) to 3.4 (2.9–3–9) in black men, and from 2.6 (2.4–2.7) to 3.8 (3.6–4.0) in white women.

While there are some differences between intelligence levels and levels of formal education, the two factors usually tend to hold hands and skip to the front of life. Those who cogitate more often and crack the books more often also tend to be more aware of factors that influence mortality and the current treatments and preventative steps available.

Audacious Epigone offers some factors that influence longevity and strongly notes that the dominating factor in long life is IQ. I wonder what 127 gets me?

The worlds that can become are fascinating to me. I am a neophyte transhumanist, futurist, and adherent to the idea of the singularity. When I read about nanotechnology, I am most excited not by trying to guess what form nanobots will take, but by the fact that educated people in some scientific and intellectual circles are taking for granted that they WILL appear on the scene in my lifetime.

If biology can produce a sophisticated nanotechnology based on soft materials like proteins and lipids, singularitarian thinking goes, then how much more powerful our synthetic nanotechnology would be if we could use strong, stiff materials, like diamond. And if biology can produce working motors and assemblers using just the random selections of Darwinian evolution, how much more powerful the devices could be if they were rationally designed using all the insights we’ve learned from macroscopic engineering.

But that reasoning fails to take into account the physical environment in which cell biology takes place, which has nothing in common with the macroscopic world of bridges, engines, and transmissions. In the domain of the cell, water behaves like thick molasses, not the free-flowing liquid that we are familiar with. This is a world dominated by the fluctuations of constant Brownian motion, in which components are ceaselessly bombarded by fast-moving water molecules and flex and stretch randomly. The van der Waals force, which attracts molecules to one another, dominates, causing things in close proximity to stick together. Clingiest of all are protein molecules, whose stickiness underlies a number of undesirable phenomena, such as the rejection of medical implants. What’s to protect a nanobot assailed by particles glomming onto its surface and clogging up its gears?

What is certain is that nanotech will change everything. Who is to say that we won’t have nanomachines and bionano armies competing for dominance? Some believe that humanity will cease to exist with the advent of nano.

Folks like Ray Kurzweil, Bill Joy and Eric Drexler have raised some alarms, but they are too dazzled by the complexity and power of human cybersystems, devices and networks to see it coming. They think the power of our tools lies in their ever-increasing complexity — but they are wrong. The biotech folks just don’t get it either. People like Craig Venter and Leroy Hood are too enthralled with the possibilities inherent in engineering biology to get it. And our “bioethicists,” like Arthur Kaplan, and those who cling to their human DNA like it was the Holy Grail or the original tablets of stone, blathering on like Captain Kirk about what special, sacred things we humans are — they can’t possibly get it. All these people who think (or fear) that technology will ultimately trump biology have missed the cosmic point. They are not even wrong. To begin to get it, one must dispense with artificial boundaries. If you are only thinking about cybersystems and DNA you cant possibly get it. And if you are thinking outside the box, you are still thinking too much like a human being.

Linus Pauling would have gotten it right away. Erwin Schrödinger too, and probably Robert Oppenheimer. Bertrand Russell got it. In fact he named it. What Ray, and Craig, and Eric, and Arthur can’t see is the power of pure chemistry — what Bertrand Russell called “chemical imperialism.” What they don’t get is this — a system does not have to be complex to be transcendently, transformatively powerful. After all, we and everything we have created are nothing but the product of “carbon imperialism” — carbon being the element that all known life is based on. Nothing but the power of pure chemistry. Living and nonliving materials, everything that exists in the physical world of our experience burns with that same electron fire. The fire of the chemical bond.

Me, I burn with the desire for change. Alan H. Goldstein describes how nanotech (which he says will be nanobiotech, and I tend to lean that way) will break down barriers. Bring it on. Break the carbon barrier. I’m ready.

Barack Obama is likely to become the next President. Unfortunately, he’s also likely be become the next great American disappointment. He can peddle hope and social justice till he turns white but the people who are excited by his promises will not be saved by them. This is because of the type of people they are.

People who are willing to vote money out of someone else’s pocket and into their own are not people who will pull themselves up by their bootstraps if offered a helping hand. Barack Obama offers platitudes and promises but no actual solutions to social issues. Unless I’m missing something he is essentially a smooth spoken empty shell. Mr. Obama’s web site reflects him almost perfectly. The introductory video promises change but never offers any concrete details.

That’s because there are none. The only change I can count on under an Obama presidency is less money in my pocket and more in the pockets of those who live in the swamps of D.C., feeding off the rest of the population.

Obama’s 64-page “Blueprint for Change” is stunningly indefinite, promising everything everyone in America wants without ever discussing how those changes will be implemented without sparking another civil war.

Obama claims to be challenging “both sides of the aisle” to be more ethical. Whatever. If Obama really wanted ethics in Congress, he would promise to implement a system where Americans could vote electronically to execute the poorest performing members at the end of every session. Congress is already a circus, let’s make it a little entertaining. American Idol would be boring in comparison.

Here are some specific promises and my responses (my notes in italics for any Obama supporters who wander by):

• “Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.”
  Hopefully the font will be better chosen than the one used for “Blueprint for Change” – it is nearly unreadable.
• “Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”
  Why not go a step further and promise to force Congress to read the bills before they vote for them. You know they don’t read most of the bills before they vote don’t you Mr. Obama?
• “Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by
  requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues beforetheir agencies.”
  I’m thinking music videos would be more effective. Maybe you can audition for American Idol once you are elected. That would get some positive attention. Americans understand the show and you could sing a song about universal health care.
• “Free Career Officials from the Influence of Politics: Obama will issue an executive order asking all
  new hires at the agencies to sign a form affirming that no political appointee offered them the job solely on the basis of political affiliation or contribution.”
  Will “career officials” face the same perjury penalty threat that the IRS makes against Americans who are forced to sign tax returns – jail or huge financial penalties for lying? If so, I’m all for it. Any official who is appointed for political contributions should be fined and jailed as well as being audited.
  
• Americans have the right to know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been hidden from public view for too long. That’s why Barack Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “It would enable the public to see where federal money goes and how it is spent. It’s a brilliant idea.”
  So where the fuck is the search engine? You forgot to give me a URL. I’ll give you one instead: http://www.downsizedc.org/ – oh no! Someone created your idea for free and got it online already.

You see, Mr. Obama, some of us Americans don’t need a savior. We just need to be left alone by the federal government.

We want to end laws and programs that don’t work, cause harm, and violate the Constitution. We want to restore the full force of the 9th and 10th amendments, which reserve most social functions to the people and the states.

Our goal is to reduce the federal government to a tiny fraction of its current size, decentralize power, end deficits, federal borrowing, and monetary inflation, and eliminate most federal taxation and the IRS.

We intend to achieve these ambitious goals by petitioning Congress and the President to vote against or veto bad laws and programs, and to repeal old bad laws and programs.

We intend to make this petitioning effective by recruiting every American who believes in small, Constitutional government, decentralized power, civil liberties, and low taxes.

Our goal is to have millions of Americans emailing, writing, and calling their elected representatives to oppose bad laws, and to support laws that shrink the size, scope, intrusiveness, and cost of the federal government.

Care to get on board with our grass roots program to downsize Washington D.C., Mr Obama? If so, you have my vote. I have downloaded “Blueprint for Change” and I’ll be regurgitating its promises and tracking your progress for the next four years, particularly if you are elected President.

History is rife with examples of the great stupidity humans are capable of engaging in. Have we come that far in the 2,000 years since the death of Christ? Unfortunately, in some places the answer is no.

Many people in Tanzania — and across Africa, for that matter — believe albinos have magical powers. They stand out, often the lone white face in a black crowd, a result of a genetic condition that impairs normal skin pigmentation and strikes about 1 in 3,000 people here. Tanzanian officials say witch doctors are now marketing albino skin, bones and hair as ingredients in potions that are promised to make people rich.

When I read of the plight of Tanzanian albinos, I feel much the same way I did when I first saw photos of American race lynchings – horrified that human beings can be so ignorant and enraged by the senseless nature of such crimes. This is why I fight – to end human stupidity. This is why I blog – to try and shine a little light on the dark places. This is why I want to live long – to witness the end of human ignorance. I want to be a part of the first truly enlightened society.

Education, education, education. How can it be that in 2008 we still have swaths of the world that actively practice mumbo jumbo religions where people are slaughtered and their parts sold because they have a different appearance – a genetic anomaly? Tolerance of such behavior is unconscionable.

Of course, it is easier to say that there is a problem than it is to fix the problem. A flawed meme, like a virus, is quick, cunning, mindless and almost impossible to kill. So far. Technology is the catalyst for change. Education is the vehicle for a world free of witch doctors. How do we harness technology to provide systemic methods of better educating cultures rife with these self-destructive memes?

Dude Where’s My Job? points out that government interference in free markets may be able to force employers to pay more but doesn’t create any new jobs and causes suffering among the very groups that the interference was supposed to help.

According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States’ minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount.

So it should be no surprise to see teen jobs disappearing or to hear bleak testimony from employers across the country that make these hiring decisions.

A few observations: 1) I find it interesting that high school dropouts and young blacks are lumped into the same group. We should be asking why. What is it about dropouts and blacks that go together? A culture of inner city ignorance perhaps? 2) Minimum wage laws do not create jobs in the exact same fashion that taxes do not create wealth. These laws, just like tax laws, are a redistribution scheme that moves money from some pockets into other pockets without anyone really earning those monies.

Does anyone have the nuts to suggest to me that workers who get a government handout in the form of a mandatory minimum wage increase are so grateful that they work that much harder? You better be a damn huge squirrel before you get in my face and tell me that a worker given a government mandated 33% raise will suddenly work 33% harder. In the mean time, those of you who whined and moaned about how people cannot make a “living wage” from whatever it is the market valued them as being worth per hour were not getting busy and voluntarily donating your own vast fortunes to ensure that these folks were taken care of. Instead, you were voting to take jobs away from high school dropouts, most of whom are apparently black. You are clearly racists! Suck on that.

I’ve always been a proponent of giving employees as many technology tools as the company can handle supporting and then letting them develop their own productive work habits. My rationale is that employees who cannot self-manage their time shouldn’t be working for any company I am involved with. I don’t want to have to babysit and if I do, then you won’t be working for me for very long. A new study indicates that IMs can indeed enhance employee productivity.

We all know instant messaging has great potential to lead down the path of non-productivity, but researchers at Ohio State University and University of California have found it can be a productivity booster—if used efficiently.

Who are the most efficient workers? That’s easy – workers who feel a sense of ownership. These people are also the people most likely to feel a sense of pride in their work. They are the people who have a stake in the success or failure of the company. Every single employee of a company should be made into some sort of stakeholder and consistently reminded that they are a meaningful piece of the corporate puzzle.

Invest in employees, give them all the freedom they need to get things accomplished, weed out the people who aren’t interested in accomplishing anything and you will grow indefinitely. My preferred instant messenger is Google Talk. I use to to communicate with my staff, my wife and my vendors while working. It increases my efficiency and productivity drastically.

We Americans have very unhealthy attitudes about the nude human body. Teenagers have been interested in seeing each other naked since the first cavegirl developed budding breasts. When I was in school, I remember one episode in particular, in the sixth grade, when the teacher left the class and half the girls decided to show us their breasts. I don’t remember why, but I do remember taking a good hard look. The only consequence was that I had a good day that day. Things have changed. Now teens are snapping nudie pics of themselves and sending them via cell phone.

“It used to be that kids would make mistakes, and it was local and singular and everyone knew it was part of growing up,” said Catherine Davis, a PTA co-president in Westport, Connecticut, who had a frank talk with her two sons after several students’ nude self-portraits recently spread through the wealthy New York City bedroom community.

“Now a stupid adolescent mistake can take on major implications and go on their record for the rest of their lives,” she added.

School administrators in Santa Fe, Texas, confiscated dozens of cell phones from students in May after nude photos of two junior high girls began circulating. The girls had sent the photos to their boyfriends, who forwarded them to others, officials said.

This is typical teenage behavior. The only difference is that the technology has changed. Unfortunately, as a society, we are overreacting in typical self-righteous fashion.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.

Are you kidding me? The kid might need counseling. Don’t we already have enough people in jail? A 17-year-old with a naked picture of a 16-year-old is NOT a child pornographer. I propose that the district attorney who filed these charges be put in jail as a public nuisance.

At best the kid should be counseled. Instead, we’re going to destroy his life. This country is in trouble. The number of prurient busybodies is at an all time high. The number of bureaucrats who need to continue arresting citizens to justify continued employment is at an all time high. The number of self-righteous punishment brigade crusaders is at an all time high. Common sense and appropriate consequences for typical teenage behavior is at an all time low as zero tolerance zeal sweeps the land. I weep for those trying to grow up in America in 2008.

David Hardy outlines Don Kates on some perfectly logical reasons why he thinks Hillary won’t be gracing us with her shrill dictates and demands – at least not as Vice President, not this cycle.

Above and beyond anything else, Bill Clinton is an erratic, supremely selfish, self-aggrandizing narcissist who could not resist, and could not be stopped from, getting headlins by running his mouth – even w/ his wife’s presidential nomination at risk.

Frankly speaking, I hope that Kates is correct. Obama hasn’t learned to steal as well as Hillary. A Barack presidency might be interesting, a Hillary presidency would demand action I hope I don’t ever have to take. The woman represents all that is cancerous about American politics. I don’t see the country going anywhere good in the next four years.

Maybe I will end up in New Hampshire sooner than I have been planning. May we all live in interesting times.

I am a cryonics adherent, since it is the best chance I know of to return from the dead. My personal experience with open discussion of my arrangements to be frozen when I die, instead of buried or burned, is that it makes most people slightly uncomfortable. Many of them feel the need to condemn, dismiss or at least display incredulity. Most people fear anything that doesn’t fit into what they have been taught.

Aschwin de Wolf has written an article called Why is cryonics so unpopular? wherein he speculates that perhaps it is the very fact of thinking about one’s own mortality makes most people so uncomfortable that keeps the rolls of those signed up to be cryogenically preserved so low. He speculates other reasons as well:

In his 1998 essay “The Failure of the Cryonics Movement” (part 1, part 2), Saul Kent stresses that cryonics has remained so unpopular because nobody thinks it will work. One observable implication of this view is that we would expect to see broader acceptance of cryonics as its technical feasibility increases. Unfortunately, there is not much evidence that this is the case. During its existence a number of research and technical breakthroughs have been achieved in areas such as normothermic and hypothermic resuscitation, cryopreservation, and long term care, that should strengthen the case that cryonics will work. In particular, the change from conventional cryopreservation to vitrification should have appealed to critics who questioned whether the neurological basis of identity can survive freezing. But the transition to vitrification did not have any noticeable effects on membership growth at Alcor, or later at the Cryonics Institute. In 2007, researchers at 21st Century Medicine announced that they were able to observe long-term potentiation (LTP) in vitrified brain slices, further supporting the claim that current cryonics procedures should be able to preserve the physical basis of memory.

De Wolf makes a great point in noting that terminally ill people are often willing to undergo experimental treatments, sometimes of very dubious nature, in order to extend their lifespans, or just in hopes of doing so. If people saw cryonics as an experimental treatment for extending life, maybe they would react differently to the idea.

Meanwhile, I figure being frozen is better than being burned up or rotting in the ground.

Personally, I’ve never found the wording of the second amendment to be unclear. However, people will argue about nuances when they disagree in any area. Stephen Halbrook tries to clear up original intent in his article entitled In Webster’s English.

The Second Amendment states simply, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Supreme Court questioned whether the D.C. statute “violate[d] the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes.”

For the answer, turn to Noah Webster.

Known as the Father of American Scholarship and Education, Webster believed that popular sovereignty in government must be accompanied by popular usage in language. In “A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1806, and “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” published in 1828 and adopted by Congress as the American standard, Webster defined all the words in the Second Amendment.

“People” were “the commonality, as distinct from men of rank,” and “Right” was “just claim; immunity; privilege.” “All men have a right to secure enjoyment of life, personal safety, liberty and property,” he wrote.

Thus in the language of Webster’s time, “the people” meant individuals and individuals have “rights.”

The bottom line, from my perspective, is that Americans are entitled to carry weapons for both individual and community defense purposes. The founders wanted a guarantee set in stone because they had been abused by a king. It was pretty black and white. Any weapons the king’s soldiers had were weapons the colonists could have too.

We can argue till we are blue in the face about machine guns and rocket launchers and suitcase nukes, but the bottom line is that law abiding people aren’t going to use those items to massacre others. That’s about 98% of the population we are needlessly worrying over and restricting for no good reason.

Social crusaders and their first counsins the do-gooders love to tell the rest of us what is wrong with us. They’re usually completely ignorant of root causes involved and attack the symptoms instead. Got a gun violence problem? It’s the guns we should take away, not the violence.

Great Britain prohibits firearms but still has major crime issues. It is hard for me to feel sorry for this lady.

The grandson of prominent anti-gun campaigner Pat Regan has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing her to death. Mrs Regan, 53, was discovered at the property on Marlborough Grange in the Hyde Park area of Leeds on Sunday.

I don’t understand why it is so hard for people to focus on changing the mental constructs and environmental factors that lead to violent mentalities. If you have a violent person, and you take away his gun, he will get a knife. If you take away the knife, he will get a bat. If you take away the bat, he will find a brick.

Why not ask why the damn kid is so violent to begin with and fix that? Non-violent people with guns and knives don’t represent a threat to anyone. It’s too late for Pat Regan and maybe too late for her grandson, but it isn’t too late for society to re-examine root causes and fix the problems. Is it?

Thirteen-year-old Alisha Dean is a dirty, rotten little troublemaker.

Look at the picture. She certainly looks older than 13 to me. It appears that Alisha Dean gets to lie without consequences while the two men she seduced will be spending jail time.

Alisha’s Myspace profile changes faster than Hillary Clinton’s stance on gun control during an election cycle. The tired old adage that ignorance of the law is no excuse really gets my goat. Are these men supposed to get sworn affidavits of age and have three witnesses corroborate a female’s age before they get busy?

This little lying girl is clearly a part, if not the major reason for the legal issues of the two adult males she misrepresented herself to. If she wants to lie about her age and who she is then perhaps she deserves to be barefoot and pregnant in a trailer park somewhere. Her father, who is clearly not doing a good job of parenting, should be ashamed of himself for pressing charges. Perhaps it is he who should be in prison for failing to be responsible for the child he produced.

My advice to Alisha – keep your legs closed for a few years and don’t open your mouth until you learn to tell the truth. My advice to young men who live around Alisha’s home town of “Redd Bone” Florida – watch out for a lying young slut. Card everyone! And for God’s sake, someone needs to get the dad snipped so he can’t produce anymore little liars he won’t be able to properly raise.

In any situation such as this, it is unfortunate that reason, logic and responsible lifestyles were probably not a part of the local environment of any of the participants from day one. That is the root of the problem. I doubt either Alisha or her bedmates were raised to value education. I doubt any of them cracked a book this year. Most likely they were all taught that booty calls and big shiny rims are the only things that matter in life. The public education system failed them. Their parents failed them. The legal system failed them. Ultimately they failed themselves.

The culture of self-destruction marches on and for the next 15 minutes it will have a new standard bearer named Alisha Dean. I wonder how long it will be before she seduces her next horny victim?

I receive approximately 30 phone calls a day. Assume 5 minutes per call if I answer every one. 150 minutes gone. Two and one half hours out of an eight hour (assumed) workday. I receive approximately 200 e-mails per day. Assume one minute per e-mail averaged out to process these communiques. Another 3.3 hours sapped from my schedule. Nearly six of my eight hours consumed simply by responding to messages of varying urgency. 75% of my time frittered away without taking into account any face to face meetings and the need to do my actual job which is planning for, designing, implementing and maintaining efficient information systems for a national construction company.

Such duties require constant learning to stay in front of the technology wave without being drowned by it. Let’s assume 10 hours a week to remain competitive. That equates to a minimum of two hours per day learning. I can easily spend 7.8 hours a day treading the sea of information trying to stay afloat, assuming a system never crashes, never needs maintenance, never bamboozles the CEO and sets off a cascading series of intensity filled conference calls, video conferences or a series of lectures on why the budget is out of control, why is my e-mail down and why can’t I connect to the company servers from my vacation home in Alaska?

I must understand the intricate inner workings of several different SANs, a multiplicity of routers and switches, a plethora of operating systems, the current market clock speeds of competing processor companies and the most fashionable and cost effective ways to connect remotely, anytime and anywhere.

Leaving out my three hour a day commute and my advanced degree time requirements I feel slightly pressured to maintain an unmaintainable schedule. Add my civic duties as a non-commissioned officer in the armed services (National Guard) and the end result is a man running as fast as he can with no allowances for a single mistake, a single misstep, a single error in judgment. The world run over those who fall down.

Is is any wonder I attended a year of war and maintained normal blood pressure while working 12-16 hour days but often find myself with borderline hypertension in the combat zone that is a modern IT shop? Is it any wonder that without my daily two mile run I would be a walking basket case?

Perhaps technology will advance to the point that it self-manages before I drop dead of a heart attack. In the interim I must do my best to keep my own internal cooling systems and information delivery mechanisms operating in top form so the sprockets don’t seize and the gears don’t grind. The GIGO principle is in full effect in my late 30’s as the mortality clock ticks relentlessly. Do more with less. Efficiencies of scale and delivery and purchasing power must be my mantras.

And now I return to my reading on Information Technology for Management, having eaten my flax seed chips and three bean salad. This book I am consuming with my mental teeth is already three years out of date but continue the fight in the midst of the information storm for paper is not yet dead and the electrons flow like water around my body but I refuse to be swept under.

Michael’s voice is one I give some authority to, since he has spent more time than most on the ground, among the troops actually doing the fighting and policing and rebuilding.

One of the biggest problems with the Iraq War is that politics has frequently triumphed over truth. For instance, we went into Iraq with shoddy intelligence (at best), no reconstruction plan, and perhaps half as many troops as were required. We refused to admit that an insurgency was growing, until the country collapsed into anarchy and civil war. Now the truth is that Iraq is showing real progress on many fronts: Al Qaeda is being defeated and violence is down and continuing to decrease. As a result, the militias have lost their reason for existence and are getting beaten back or co-opted. Shia, Sunni and Kurds are coming together — although with various stresses — under the national government. If progress continues at this rate, it is very possible that before 2008 is out, we can finally say “the war has ended.” Yes, likely there still will be some American casualties, but if the violence continues to drop and the Iraqi government consolidates its gains, we will be able, in good conscience, to begin bringing more of our people home. I will be paying very close attention to the words of Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who is replacing General Petraeus as the overall commander in Iraq.

I served in the war from 2005-2006, as you know if you’ve read this blog for any length of time. I am also a libertarian. Therefore I have mixed feelings about this war. While I believe troops must stay until Iraq is stable, there are still many questions that need to be answered. Primary among them – were there really WMDs when we invaded. If so, where did they end up? I have always thought Syria was the answer. Of course, seeds of doubt have been planted as to whether Saddam actually had any WMDs after the 90s. I know from personal verification that small quantities were found.

While we rebuild the country we broke and try to make it better in the process, we need to examine the mistakes made leading up to the war. We need to continue to ask ourselves if the motivations for invading were just or just concocted. War is an ugly and terrible thing that should never be entered cavalierly.

We’ve mortgaged so much for the war in Iraq. We need to demand some accountability both in the short and long term. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll get the levels of accountability I expect – anymore than Congress will suddenly start diligently working together to actually improve the “land of the free and home of the brave.” Iraq is stabilizing, and that is good.

What would have been better is if we had a plan when we went in. We could have avoided appointing arrogant officials like L. Paul Bremer. The Bush administration has done an abysmal job of representing itself in the public arena. Yet some voices still claim that Saddam had the weapons and the intent that would justify our invasion of Iraq. The voices are ignored or dismissed.

Iraq is still a question mark on the world map. History (and the politicians who write it) have not yet cast final judgment. I will be watching and waiting. Where do we go from here?

Today marks the beginning of my pursuit of a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems degree from Bellevue University. The cost per credit hour is $405 per hour at Bellevue University versus $555 per credit hour at the University of Phoenix (my alma mater.) Bellevue is a much smaller school and has a good reputation.

I’m looking forward to increasing my student debt. OK, that last sentence was a lie. I am looking forward to improving my knowledge of my chosen field. Maybe I’ll become marketable enough to move up in the career ladder and pay back the student loans eventually.

While I felt that my bachelor’s education at the University of Phoenix was of great personal benefit, I was not excited about the idea of pursuing a second degree there – too many of my classes were host to students who had below college level written communication skills.

Lies we tell kids is an absolutely fascinating essay by Paul Graham.

I doubt you could teach kids recent history without teaching them lies, because practically everyone who has anything to say about it has some kind of spin to put on it. Much recent history consists of spin. It would probably be better just to teach them metafacts like that.

Probably the biggest lie told in schools, though, is that the way to succeed is through following “the rules.” In fact most such rules are just hacks to manage large groups efficiently.

There are numerous statements in the essay worth pondering for an hour or more. Why do we tell kids these lies? Ultimately we’re teaching them something, but is it something good? My general feeling is no. I despise that I feel compelled to lie from time to time for my own survival and prosperity. I would much prefer to live in a society where truth held higher value and objectivity was more in vogue.

Perhaps I’ll live long enough to see a society that values truth more than this one. I hope so. In the mean time, I must be selective about the truth in order to avoid discrimination, censure and possibly even imprisonment. It saddens me that making people feel comfortable and secure is more important than actively searching for the truth. Sure, death is scary. Not thinking about it or preparing for it scares me worse. Go read the essay.

In case you don’t know it, the police have no legal obligation to respond when you call them. Most people have expectations otherwise though. Including this lady who found a .25 caliber pistol near where some children were playing.

Every day after work, Freddy Gibbons walks her dogs, Bonsai and Lola, along Monument Creek. It’s been her ritual for years. Last week, Gibbons and her dogs made a couple of discoveries during their daily walk that left her shocked and angry. The first surprise came when Gibbons noticed something near the water not far from where some children were playing. “There, in the sand, was a little black gun,” Gibbons said. “At first I thought it was just a toy. Then I noticed some rust on it. I pulled it out and realized it was a real gun.” Gibbons grew up around weapons and immediately knew what she was holding. “It was a .25-caliber handgun,” she said. “It was a nice little gun.” Her fascination was interrupted by the laughter of children nearby and the scary realization of what might have been.

Note the oh so typical tugging at the reader’s heartstrings by referencing the nearby innocent children but don’t let yourself be distracted by the main point of the story which is: the cops were too lazy to come get the found gun – they actually asked the finder to bring it on down to the station.

The same thing happened to my parents many years ago when they found a bag of pot in my dresser drawer (yes, I experimented and yes, I inhaled). Anyhow, my parents called the police and the police told them to bring it on down to the station. They also warned my mother that if she was caught with the pot on the way to the station she would be arrested and charged. I think she flushed it down the toilet instead of turning it in. That’s rather hard to do with a pistol.

The War on Guns duly notes the irony of a police Lieutenant named Skip Arms discussing how police budget cuts have forced cutbacks and meant that police are too busy issuing speeding tickets to deal with loose firearms near where children are playing.

The main point of this story is that when you need them, there is no certainty that police will be available. You may see protect and serve emblazoned on the side of the car, but chances are you will not see the car while you are being mugged. Chances are that you will not be saved by a police officer while you are being held up at gunpoint. And if you happen to find a gun don’t count on the police coming and picking it up in 30 minutes or less. Your best bet is to be prepared to deal with such situations on your own. This applies to any situation in which a typical person has been trained from birth to call 911. I would never suggest that you not call 911 – by all means, please do. Just be prepared to do so after the emergency has already ended. Government does not work on the same time frame as the life or death situation.

As in Hurricane Katrina, people will come in and clean up. They will measure, record, pontificate and pass new rules. The statisticians and the epidemiologists will even suggest measures that could improve safety for the general populace down the road. However, when the shit hits the fan, it will be you and the friends and loved ones you have gathered around who will always be the first responders. As responsible citizens don’t you want to be prepared to defend and protect your own life and and the lives of those around you if possible? I do.

Barack Obama has demonstrated a clear penchant for ignorance when it comes to American government and he seems to be ill informed on world history as well. There are not 57 American states at this juncture in history, and Americans did not liberate Auschwitz. Perhaps he meant his Kenyan uncle?

Barack Obama is either ignorant, lying, or doing what military people call “talking out of your ass.”

If you really pay attention to the many sound bites coming out of this man’s mouth, you begin to realize that he, like every Democratic player in the last 50 years, is just trying to say what he thinks you want to hear. He wants American to believe he is incredibly intelligent but he lacks a basic knowledge of world history. He wants you to elect him President of these States but he doesn’t even know how many of them there are.

Yes, I can understand a few gaffes – campaigning for President of the Socialist States of America is an exhausting process. Keeping track of who you are promising to help and who you are promising to steal from to provide that help is a very taxing process, particularly now that we have 100 million cyclone victims in Myanmar that we are responsible to care for. The federal government is just the agent that keeps us all honest. I’m not saying his main competitor Hillary is honest. Far from it. Hillary is just a more accomplished liar. She has more practice talking about nothing while making it sound vaguely messianic.

Unfortunately for Hillary, she sounds about as sincere as the Wicked Witch of the West. Barack can talk about visiting 57 states of America and sound honest, and that makes all the difference in the world when you are pandering to greedy, fat and dumb Americans who want a sugar daddy to take care of them.

Unfortunately for Obama, not all of us are looking for a messiah to save us from our own pathetic natural state of being. With that in mind, here are some more gaffes gathered from around the web:

• Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together “because of what happened in Selma.” Obama was born in 1961.
• The Tribune dug this up: Obama, in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him — about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.
• “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.” Um, dude, fallen heroes are six feet under, not in the audience.
• “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.
• Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by honing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
• More recently, Obama as he traveled through Florida seemed to give some contradictory statements about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Colombian terrorist group FARC. On Thursday Obama told the Orlando Sentinel that he would meet with Chavez and “one of the obvious high priorities in my talks with President Hugo Chavez would be the fermentation of anti-American sentiment in Latin America, his support of FARC in Colombia and other issues he would want to talk about.” OK, so a strong declaration that Chavez is supporting FARC, which Obama intends to push him on. But then on Friday he said any government supporting FARC should be isolated. “We will shine a light on any support for the FARC that comes from neighboring governments,” he said in a speech in Miami. “This behavior must be exposed to international condemnation, regional isolation, and – if need be – strong sanctions. It must not stand.” So he will meet with the leader of a country he simultaneously says should be isolated? Huh?

What is the bottom line? Political leaders shouldn’t pretend to be experts in areas they know little to nothing about. Voters should expect Presidential candidates to have a good handle on international and domestic history and politics. Obama fails the litmus test. He is a classic demagogue. John McCain isn’t a guy I’d vote for, but in the areas of domestic and international politics as well as history, John McCain is much better informed, more knowledgeable and more savvy. I’m still going to cast my vote for Ron Paul.

In conclusion, have you ever tried sitting in an attic all day? They get pretty damn hot. I call bullshit.

Today’s Wall Street Journal offers us an editorial by Tom Coburn on the direction of the Republican Party:

Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we are being told our message must be deficient because, after all, we should be winning in certain areas just by being Republicans. Yet being a Republican isn’t good enough anymore. Voters are tired of buying a GOP package and finding a big-government liberal agenda inside. What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising.

Unfortunately for Mr. Coburn, while his thoughts are sometimes on the right track, they don’t go anywhere near far enough.

Republicans can tear up the “emergency spending” credit card and refuse to accept any new spending whatsoever, including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending. The federal budget contains a vast unexplored area of offsets. My office alone has identified $300 billion in annual waste. Borrowing from the next generation when we haven’t done our job of oversight is unconscionable.

How about legislation making earmarks illegal? How about disbanding the DEA and the ATF and then looking at every other alphabet soup agency and making deep cuts? How about returning some of the unconstitutionally owned federal lands to the public? So John McCain is a humble man eh? Then why is he in politics? I would love to hear an honest answer to that question. We need less government, not more. The Republican party is utterly clueless when it understanding that government in this country is so large that it now creates more problems than it solves.

Until the idea of federal shrinkage is part of the basic agenda and platform of a major party, this country will continue a downhill slide in the areas of morality, personal responsibility, economics, education and quality of life. Many readers will try to argue that all these things or at least some of them are improving but I would beg to differ. I’m guessing kids growing up in the 50’s and 60’s had a lot more quality of life than the fat little shits I see waddling around now. Those blubbertubs are the creation of the federal behemoth that has been steering us since World War II began. They’ve been taught that they can have whatever they want, whenever they want and that someone else will pay for it. Thank you Republicans, for being a part of the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trlPcDg-B4E

Once you are done laughing at the video, head over to The Smoking Gun (irony) and read about Mr. Paige’s lawsuit against the government for leaking the video. Encouraging a mentality like Mr. Paige’s – one where you can be a complete dumbass and get paid money for it – is a major factor in the degradation of the quality of life in America.

Are you really that weak Mr. Paige? You pulled a dumbass move by shooting yourself on video camera and now you want it buried? Own up, man up, toughen up. You’re supposed to be acting like a grown up. Have you learned anything from your dumb mistake? Why do you still have a job protecting Americans from themselves in the biggest nanny organization in a nation of whining babies? You’ve proved you can’t handle the responsibility.

Sign up for a monastery somewhere and take a few years to discover what true character is. Come on back, watch the video with the rest of us and then prove you’ve changed for the better. Grow up Lee Paige. A real professional would never make a statement like “I am the only one in this room professional enough to . . . (insert whatever here)” – that’s a sign of arrogance not professionalism.

I normally don’t get infected with malware, spyware or viruses. I shouldn’t – I make my living keeping people’s computers and networks operating properly. However, there are exceptions to every rule.

Like DEA Agent Lee Paige, who shot himself in the foot while telling a class full of students how he was the only one in the room professional enough to handle a gun, I became the victim of my own overconfidence yesterday. We use Trend Micro’s OfficeScan corporate anti virus protection in our environment.

Anyhow, the long story short is that part of my job entails checking up on what our employees are doing on the Internet. I receive reports containing links every time someone attempts to surf somewhere our monitoring software thinks they shouldn’t be. Yesterday I clicked one of the links provided in the report and almost immediately realized I was in trouble. My computer began spewing popups left and right. I use Mozilla Firefox, which is generally not affected by spyware and malware, but in this case, both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox were infected and hijacked. The popups were kind enough to inform me that my PC was infected and came with an entreaty to click various links where I would be able to install software to remove the infection – for a price. What sort of twisted human being writes code that blackmails a computer user? I’d love an opportunity to code that coder’s ass.

My first attempt to remedy the situation involved running a full virus scan using Trend Micro. Unfortunately, although Trend was able to detect several infected files, it was wholly inadequate at fixing the issue. Several reboots later, and after having also run the “grayware” detection provided by Trend, I decided I needed to bring in additional firepower.

Since my two main browsers were both incapacitated I used Apple’s Safari browser to begin Googling for a solution. I downloaded PC Tools Spyware Doctor and installed it. The full scan found several hundred nasties that all propagated from the single short sighted link click. After another several reboots, my browsers were no longer spewing popups at the rate of several hundred per hour. The spyware was still partially active on my system though. The Google toolbar in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox was disabled and IE was crashing repeatedly on launch.

Time to call in the big guns. Enter SmitFraudFix and Combofix. Both of these free products will remove spyware but they come with risks and are not as simple to use as commercially available tools. Combofix can potentially make a PC operating system unbootable and should be run as a last resort. In my case, it was the tool that made the difference – restoring my ability to use search features in both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.

Moving forward, I will be clicking those links in a virtual operating just in case.  We’ll also be reassessing our use of Trend Micro’s products and looking for possible alternatives.

If you don’t like your dog, just shoot it in the head. I guess that is what ignorant people are taught by their parents because my wife found this dog on the side of the road today. It had been shot in the head with a small caliber weapon and left to die. Instead of having the common sense to do so, she decided to keep living.

Now she is in a safe place. Luckily, the bullet didn’t get into the brain cavity as far as we can tell. This poor little girl was covered in ticks and her skin was falling off from the acid in the pus draining from the wound. She was literally starving to death.

Someone who thought of himself as a human being brought this dog out in the middle of nowhere, shot her in the back of the head and then drove off. She found us. Now we’ll try and help her heal. If providence smiles on that process we’ll work on finding her a good home.

I will post updates on this loving Black Lab’s condition as she tries to heal and get back to a healthy weight. Her wounds could heal or she could die. She is chronically malnourished. My wife will do her best to nurse this poor little canine back to health. She is a very smart dog, and has already adjusted from a fearful, skittish animal back into a doting, loving typical Black Labrador. The breed tends to be very smart, and Beauty (my wife’s new name for her) is no exception. She wants human attention which is typical of her breed.

It’s an old saying, and a relevant one. Human beings, for some reason, have a tendency to take for granted the things with which they are most familiar. Take for instance, your spouse. Perhaps that is why so many marriages end in failure. When two people take each other for granted the marriage is doomed. Another example of this phenomenon is easy to spot on the road. Look at that lady putting on her makeup. She is taking for granted her driving skills and those of every single vehicle around her. She is taking for granted that the road will not suddenly end in a wall or under a semi truck. And she is asking for an accident by doing so.

The contempt that people sometimes develop for the routine things in their life is not limited to lowly private citizens. And that is how we come to stories like this one, where a public servant almost shoots himself with a loaded weapon.

A firearms instructor in southern Massachusetts has been assigned to other duties after his gun accidentally went off while he was teaching a class on weapons safety. Officials say the Glock handgun discharged while Maj. Donald Lamar was demonstrating to Bristol County deputy sheriffs how to safely holster the weapon.

Much like the DEA agent who shot himself in the foot in front of a class full of gubmint students just after proclaiming he was the only one in the room qualified to have a gun, it is ironic that those most qualified to handle weapons often make the dumbest mistakes while doing so.

We are so paranoid and blindly afraid of firearms in this nation in 2008. That national condition is largely the result of classroom conditioning by government officials, who, also ironically, often hold armed private citizens in contempt. Anyone can shoot him or herself in the foot. Anyone can crash a car. Anyone can wear a uniform. Anyone can preach from a pulpit.

If you plan on doing either of the latter two, I suggest you follow your own rules and teachings religiously if you expect the rest of us not to laugh at you. Talk to your spouse as if they might walk out the door never to return and they’ll probably stay. Drive your car like you are about to have an accident and you probably won’t. Handle your firearm like it could accidentally discharge at any moment and it probably never will.

When we take anything for granted in life we are just asking for trouble.

The recent amount of sycophantic soundbites praising Ted Kennedy as a hero, champion of the people, defender of the realm and the king of bravery is kind of sickening. I understand the man has brain cancer – a condition that strikes a chord of fear in many people. I understand that the condition is most likely inoperable and fatal. I understand that this is traumatic and heart wrenching for the man’s family. Life is tough.

Everyone is suddenly whipping out speeches extolling the man’s great virtuosity and pretending he is the greatest patriot since George Washington. This is a man who has been working for longer than I have been alive to take away choices and freedoms that I hold very dear. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of idiotic and costly legislation that the man has sponsored.

His biography shows him to be one of the helmsman of the decline of intellectualism and free thinking in the United States. He is a staunch supporter of the idea that Uncle Sugar should care for us all from cradle to grave, dumbing us down and making us catatonic and ignorant along the way. He is an advocate of theft and mediocrity, preaching the mantra that high achievers should have a portion of their wealth taken by force and redistributed according to his visions. Ted Kennedy believes that government managed socialism will actually make the quality of life in this country better in the long term. And on that issue, we are fundamentally at odds. Government programs almost always make things worse.

I am not celebrating Ted Kennedy’s misfortune. Neither will I sit quietly while others laud him as our great national champion. Ted Kennedy is not a hero. He is not a saint. He is a man who may have done some good things for some people some of the time but it was always at the expense of the American taxpayer. The media and his fellow politicians are doing us all a disservice by pretending otherwise just because he is afflicted with a fatal condition.

A malignant brain tumor is a terrible thing. But Ted Kennedy is not my god and I will not pretend that the man has been championing the American people and steering this country on a course that I agree with. That’s simply not the case. For his political enemies to pretend otherwise is disingenuous and a disservice to all those of us who disagree strongly with Mr. Kennedy’s political views and the agenda he strongarms in Congress. I wish him and his family well as far as health goes, but I don’t want to hear all this utter nonsense every time I turn on the TV or the radio. Ted Kennedy is not my friend or a man I respect. If Ted Kennedy is the lion of Congress just because he developed a brain tumor then I am the Pope. Quit singing hosannas to the man. What the hell is wrong with your gray matter?

At best, I can say that I strongly disagreed with Ted Kennedy on almost every issue. Now that he is effectively retired, I wish him well in his battle against the tumor.

[amazonify]1426202741[/amazonify]

Lots of people are looking for long life and health, including Dan Buettner. The answers are really simply if you are willing to make some lifestyle adjustments.

If you are looking for a Fountain of Youth, forget pills and diet supplements. Adventurer Dan Buettner has visited four spots on the globe where people live into their 90s and 100s and outlines how they add years of good life in his new book, “The Blue Zones.”

The answer, Buettner says, includes smaller food portions, an active lifestyle and moderate drinking.

“If someone tells you they have a pill or hormone (that extends life), you’re about to lose money,” Buettner says.

Buettner identifies four hot spots of longevity: the mountainous Barbagia region of Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy; the Japanese island of Okinawa; a community of Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, Calif., about 60 miles east of Los Angeles; and the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, in Central America.

[amazonify]0345490118:right[/amazonify]The Blue Zones book has received positive reviews, enough for me to add to my Amazon.com wish list. I will be shocked however, if I find more useful information in it than I have taken from Healthy at 100 by John Robbins. I’ve already made several dietary adjustments based on advice from that book, and I will review it here in the near future.

The long lived Okinawans are mentioned in both of these guides to healthier life – it is unfortunate that the virus we call modern culture is infecting younger Okinawans and ensuring that their elders are going to outlive many of them. In our modern memewars, Western civilization is winning. Unfortunately, Western eating habits contribute to a bunch of drooling ignorant slobs roaming aisles of abundance in motorized carts and making the worst possible choices. I’m not sure why it has taken me 37 years to wake up to the fact that we eat terribly in the United States, but I finally have. Now I am busy investigating what adjustments I should make.

I had not heard the name Peter Thiel until today. But the Google millionaire has just shelled out a down payment on a very interesting idea: seasteading.

Tired of the United States and the other 190-odd nations on Earth?

If a small team of Silicon Valley millionaires get their way, in a few years, you could have a new option for global citizenship: A permanent, quasi-sovereign nation floating in international waters.

With a $500,000 donation from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a Google engineer and a former Sun Microsystems programmer have launched The Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to creating experimental ocean communities “with diverse social, political, and legal systems.”

“Decades from now, those looking back at the start of the century will understand that Seasteading was an obvious step towards encouraging the development of more efficient, practical public-sector models around the world,” Thiel said in a statement.

What a great idea! If governments won’t leave you alone, leave them behind. Of course, there are many questions to answer. How do you stay out of international politics? How do you defend your new ocean based colony?

The idea has been tried before and failed. It will be interesting to see what happens when Google employees are involved.

I am NOT a McCain fan despite the ads that Google keeps dropping on this blog. However, Sandy Froman, the current leader of the National Rifle Association, does have a point when she states:

That’s why the 2008 presidential election has unprecedented importance for gun owners. Despite their campaign rhetoric purporting to support the right to keep and bear arms, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are categorically opposed to our Second Amendment rights. Hillary Clinton opposed the 2005 tort reform law that saved the American gun industry from bankruptcy. Barack Obama has declared his opposition to all concealed carry laws. He has refused to repudiate his answer to a 1996 questionnaire, where he answered “yes” to a question asking if he supported laws banning “the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.” And Senator Obama’s true contempt for gun owners came out when he described us as “clinging” to our guns out of bitterness.

You can read the full article titled Guns and Judges: Electing the Supreme Court in 2008.

Long story short is that McCain would be more friendly to gun owners than either of the total socialists. McCain is only a half-hearted socialist. For the record, I am not an anti-socialist. I think strong social networks are vital to the health of any community. However, when social networks and societal support systems are run by governments, they generally suck, for lack of a better term.

I am not interested in mediocrity, particularly when it is being forced on me in lieu of other choices I may once have had available.

McCain might well keep some pro-2nd amendment people in the government in the short term. In the long term though, the anti-individualists will keep chipping away at all the things that make people flee other places to come here – choice, opportunity, freedom and most especially a mindset of rugged individualism.

Anyone who is truly interested in self-defense and individual rights already has an escape plan. McCain isn’t going to save this country from anything. Only private citizens acting together can do that.

This is a departure from my normal blog entry – I don’t usually do video blogging. Ever since I came across a news story about a soldier’s Bible stopping a bullet, I’ve been curious to see for myself if such an event could occur, and how likely it would be.

This weekend, I fired a variety of pistols and a rifle at a dummy that had a Holy Bible and then a Holy Quran as his sole means of protection from the projectiles. The results were, at least in my mind, illustrative. The end result of my experiment is that I am much less confident in using the 32 ACP pistols in my collection as primary defensive weapons – although they are the easiest to conceal I’m afraid they would be useless in many situations.

The resulting video should be taken for what it is worth – some will be entertained, some will be bored and some will be offended. If you fall in that latter category may I suggest you go and quietly pray in a corner? Also, I believe I call my SA XD 40 a revolver at one point in the video. I know that technically that is completely incorrect. It’s just a mental hiccup on my part. I have minor issues with reversing 6 and 9 sometimes and I occasionally say revolver when I mean automatic. Crossed circuits I guess.

If anything else going on is technically incorrect or stated poorly, please feel free to comment. I always want to learn and improve.

I don’t mean that in the sense that he is a good guy, or a politician I support, or someone I admire because Barack Obama isn’t any of those things. He is the man in the sense that Barack Hussein Obama has locked the Democratic nomination. The writing is on the wall and the wrangling that is still going on is a pointless waste of time. Barack is the dude who will be running against John “2013” McCain for leadership of this rudderless ship we all share called the United States of America. I am sure Hillary Clinton will play some sort of prominent role in the new administration should Obama find himself elected.

I once thought that the worst thing that could happen to the United States would be Hillary Clinton as President. I’m not really in that mindset any longer. A Barack Obama presidency won’t be significantly different from what we could have expected under the reign of Hillary Clinton. Although I have a strong personal dislike for Ms. Clinton and I cringe and feel like ranting every time I hear her grating, ego laden voice on my car radio, the broad goals of either individual are the same – a socialist nation where the common them is mediocrity. John McCain would lead us down the same path if given the opportunity.

I envision a time when the United States finds itself in the situation Mexico is in today. Instead of guarding our borders against those who want to come here for the myriad opportunities we will be guarding them against those who want to escape in order to be able to make their own choices.

And that is the only key point you need to know about all three of these powermongers: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain have one common theme – they want to make choices on your behalf. A life bereft of choices is a life without joy. Remember that on election day.

All you can count on if you vote Democrat or Republican is fewer choices in the coming four years.

This morning I came across an article by Michael Hirsh whining about “America’s decline.” An Unnatural Disaster compresses the history of our great nation and draws simplistic conclusions.

In many articles and in book after book American “declinists” nowadays tend to portray America’s reduced stature as a largely natural phenomenon. Never mind that on the eve of the Bush presidency we were still seen as the most powerful nation in the history of the world. Decadent powers always wane in influence, and it seems we’ve just been doing a lot of waning very quickly. As other countries around the world partook of the ideas we pressed on them in the post-cold war era—free markets, democracy—they started to prosper and catch up to us. Meanwhile we grew fatter (literally) and more spoiled. It was all very organic.

While I tend to agree that this country is on the decline in many areas including morality, education and the stability of basic social systems, Hirsh provides no metrics for this purported decline. Hirsh is also tragically short-sighted and foolish in his conclusions.

In a nutshell, he blames President Bush for the “waning influence” of the United States.

That is the decline in America’s position in the world from where we were when George W. Bush inherited power on Jan. 20, 2001, to what he will bequeath to the next president eight months from now.

Mr. Hirsh conveniently overlooks our long history of interventionism that began in earnest after World War II. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton, intervened in Kosovo. We’ve been bribing and bullying to get our way for decades. George W. Bush is just continuing a well established tradition of forcing ourselves on the rest of the world. Hirsh continues, blaming the devaluation of the dollar on poor decisions by the Bush administration (which somehow includes Wall Street in Hirsh’s mind).

Now America’s economy is in the process of “de-leveraging”—shrinking in borrowing power and thereby reducing its impact around the world as foreign funds pull their investments from dollars or redirect them into euros or “baskets” of several currencies. As European and Asian financiers and economic officials have come to learn the truth about the subprime debacle, they’ve become leery about ever trusting Wall Street’s or Washington’s advice again. Yet had anyone in Washington been paying serious attention, the worst of the credit crunch—and loss of prestige—could have been avoided.

The economic downturn has little to do with George W. Bush and much more to do with a national attitude the values instant gratification over responsible spending. Ultimately, it is the apathy, slothfulness and poor value choices of individual Americans themselves that are to blame for any “American decline.”

What should you expect for violations of the mighty bureaucratic pen in the America of 2008? Something like this story of a dedicated and productive citizen who was eaten by the behemoth monster every gun owner should be wary of.

Guardsman guilt of illegally transferring ‘machine gun’ after firearm malfunctions

A drill instructor in the National Guard has been convicted in a Wisconsin federal court of illegally transferring a machine gun after a rifle he loaned to a student malfunctioned, setting off three shots before jamming.

The verdict of guilty on one count in the case against David Olofson was confirmed yesterday by the clerk’s office in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

That means now that anyone whose weapon malfunctions is subject to charges of having or handling a banned gun, according to an expert witness who reports that the particular problem is a well-known malfunction and was even the subject of a recall from the manufacturer.

“If your semiautomatic rifle breaks or malfunctions you are now subject to prosecution. That is now a sad FACT. I guess we know now what Sen. Kennedy meant when he said he looked forward to working with [Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director] Mike Sullivan on Gun control issues, after his committee approved him for full Senate vote,” Len Savage, a weaponry expert who runs Historic Arms LLC, said in a blog.

The case of United States vs. David R. Olofson is a case about what happens when pieces of paper and a bureaucrat’s pen become more important than what is in a man’s heart. David R. Olofson is a National Guardsman and by all accounts a decent and law abiding type who contributes much more to society than he takes back from it. Unfortunately, none of that matters to the sweaty, small minded men in cheap suits who run this country.

Olofson, you see, had loaned one of his rifles, and it malfunctioned at a range, firing off short bursts before jamming. This was called to the attention of local authorities who seized the rifle, an Olympic Arms AR-15. They in turn called BATFE, who decided to make a federal case out of it, charging Olofson with illegally transferring a machinegun.

Enter Len Savage (See “Failing the Test,” July 2005), President of Historic Arms, LLC, brought in by Olofson’s defense to testify the automatic fire was not by design or intent, but rather by mechanical failure, and that the firearm in question was simply a semiautomatic rifle that needed to be repaired.

Now this good man is a convicted felon. Not because he was planning a crime. Not because he hurt someone. Not because he showed bad judgement. No, David R. Olofson is a felon because a group of idiotic bureaucrats decided the rules are more important than common sense.

This is a clarion call to every citizen about the political climate created by a bloated federal government. Doesn’t matter which rule you violate. Doesn’t matter if you even knew the rule existed. You will be smashed. Your life will be ruined. Don’t believe me?

Read on. If the government notices you, no matter how well intentioned you may be, and it doesn’t like what it sees, it may well decide to smash you too. You may not be allowed to defend yourself in a manner most people would deem to be reasonable. You may not even be allowed to attend testimony against you! That’s pretty damn close to fascism if you ask me.

If anyone knows a way for me to contribute to Mr. Olofoson’s legal defense fund (assuming he has one) please contact me. I will not sit idly by while an individual of good character is destroyed by our bloated system of sycophants and rule weasels.

In case you don’t pay attention to these things, Bob Barr is running for President on the Libertarian ticket. Bob Barr’s campaign site looks a hell of a lot like Ron Paul’s campaign site. I wonder if he got a discount for using the same template. After all, the design company didn’t have to start from scratch.

Generally speaking, I tend to agree with most of Barr’s positions. He is against continuing growth of the federal government and that is the single most important issue because that one issue causes all my various problems with government. If we could limit the role of the federal government to a few key things like providing for a common defense and maybe regulating interstate commerce this nation would be a better place to live, and certainly a more interesting place to live.

Neither Ron Paul or Bob Barr has a chance of winning the election. Either of the two could upset the balance though, and skew the results in favor of the Democratic contender. When the time comes to decide, it is likely I will write in Ron Paul’s name and consequences be damned. But now, at least, I have a good backup. I may still cast my symbolic vote for Bob Barr depending what happens in the next few months.

Many in the ranks of American punditry are speculating that the spoilers in this election will ensure a Democratic President gets elected. If that happens, then I say more power to the successful candidate. Both parties are destroying the value of our currency. Both parties are trying to homogenize this nation, effectively removing the ingredient that once made us the greatest place on earth to live. Both parties continue to encroach on personal freedoms by pretending that doing so will somehow benefit us all collectively. Both parties throw money at a failing education system and continue pretending that the money will fix the problems instead of looking at the root causes (social value systems) that are responsible for the mediocrity of our public education system. Neither party is serious about fixing the energy crisis. Neither party is serious about making America a better nation.

If electing a Democrat speeds up the inevitable recycling that nations go through in history, then I’m all for it. Rome is going to burn sooner or later – the writing is already on the wall. Let’s get it over with so we can start rebuilding from the ashes. Maybe we’ll have a longer cycle of enlightenment and freedom the next time around. If Bob Barr can destroy the status quo then he’s doing a good thing.

Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue signed into law a bill that expands the locations where concealed carry permit holders (I am one of these) may carry their personal defense weapons.

With Perdue’s signature, restaurant patrons will be permitted to carry a firearm, but would be barred from drinking while doing so. Violations would be a misdemeanor. Concealed weapons will now be allowed in state — and by extension — local parks. Firearms in purses or under jackets will also be permitted on public transportation.

Opponents of the bill included the Georgia Restaurant Association, which argues that waiters and waitresses shouldn’t be asked to demand a patron’s gun permit before serving a drink. Union drivers had said they would demand bulletproof shields on MARTA buses if the governor signed the bill.

The arguments against allowing people who have already given all ten of their digits over to be recorded by state and federal authorities as well as submitting to a complete GBI and FBI background check to carry weapons are asinine. The idea that MARTA buses are now going to become ground zero for gun battles between the criminals who were ALREADY carrying wherever they felt like carrying and the law-abiding types is ridiculous. If a gun battle between a CCW holder and a criminal erupts on a MARTA bus in my lifetime I’ll be shocked.

The foolish notion that bartenders and waitresses now need to ask patrons to display their CCW prior to being served a drink leaves me flabbergasted. No one has suggested that restaurant employees ask their patrons whether they have prior felonies and are illegally carrying weapons! Why would they suddenly start assuming that a bunch of the “good guys” are going to be packing heat and drinking to excess. This is childish thinking. It’s alarmist, immature and highly irresponsible. People who bother going through the bureaucratic hoops required to be issued a concealed carry permit are not troublemakers. They are the bedrock of civil society. They are the folks who stop to help stranded motorists. They are the type of people who jump into a lake to save someone who is drowning. These are the people who will get your cat out of a tree and expect nothing in return. What the hell is wrong with you people?

The more you try to restrict the good men and women among us the more you encourage the bad men and women among us. No massacres are going to happen because of this sound minded legislation. Georgia society is not going to spiral downward into chaos with Wild West shootouts happening daily on the streets of Atlanta. Anyone who tells you that this law will result in more crime and not less is ill informed, an idiot or perhaps a criminal.

A Marietta, Georgia man is stirring up controversy because he has printed up some t-shirts that say Obama in ’08 with a monkey picture above the text.

I find it funny that none of the media furies are comparing this instance to the many images I’ve seen in past years of George W. Bush depicted as a monkey. I guess it is OK to show a white man in America as a monkey. When you do the same to a black man different standards are applied. Makes perfect sense if you are a mentally retarded person I suppose.

Typical Democratic whining. To be in their party you have to play the victim role throughout your entire life. Here are some photos of the double standard in action.

Why is it OK for one man to be shown as a monkey but not the other? Why is it racist to portray Barack Obama as a monkey but a matter of free speech when you do the same thing to George W. Bush? I Googled and could find only one incident of protests related to images of George W. Bush portrayed as a monkey. The protests, not surprisingly, were in favor of the artist who depicted the President in an image made entirely of smaller images of monkeys.

As the man in the middle caught between the two political gorillas that comprise American politics in 2008, I know why I tend to side with the less whiny of the two simians most of the time. Both of these large hairy beasts have bad breath. Both of them steal my bananas. Both of them are rude and smelly. But only one never quits whining about how unfair life is while it steals my bananas from me.

UPDATE: I am not alone. Scott thinks along similar lines when it comes to Barack Obama’s monkey factor. As he points out in his comments section many of the Obama supporters whining about having their candidate compared to a monkey are the same people who perpetrated comparisons of George W. Bush and various chimpanzees. You can’t have it both ways. If the white guy can be compared to a monkey, so can the black guy and any other candidate.

Of the three current contenders for the job of Thief in Chief, Hillary Clinton appears to be the most talented money grubber.

WASHINGTON — Propelled by her husband’s post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s average net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, reported a $27.6 million surge in his and his wife’s average worth from 1995 to 2006. Their worth rose over that 11-year period from an inflation-adjusted average of $8.9 million to $36.4 million, the ninth-biggest rise in Congress, the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation reported.

The Sunlight Foundation posted on its Web site the first-ever comparison of the 535 House and Senate members’ latest available net worth with their earlier disclosure statements. The forms don’t require any explanation for shifts of fortune.

Many members of Congress have added significantly to their wealth while in office, such as Sen. Edward Kennedy’s jump from an average net worth of $7.1 million in 1995 to $102.8 million in 2006. But because lawmakers are allowed to list their assets in wide ranges and exclude homes that can be worth millions of dollars, the foundation acknowledged that the data may create misimpressions.

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama’s average net worth rose from $328,442 in 2004, when he was elected to the Senate, to $799,006 in 2006. But counting Obama’s and his wife Michelle’s pricey Chicago home, he almost assuredly has joined the Senate’s “Millionaire’s Club.”

Next time you hear the shrill, harsh voice of your fearless pantsuit wearing potential leader, remember that she lines her pockets from the same pot of gold that her health care plan will be paid for from – yours.

The bottom line has a lot to do with why someone like Hillary Clinton wants to be in politics in the first place. Any person with a poorly developed moral compass who thinks it’s perfectly OK to redistribute wealth by force would be attracted to the shining lights of Washington, D.C. where strangers argue over how much money to steal from the rest of us and skim cents from each dollar that rolls in for their own silk-lined pockets.

HIllary’s base salary is $169,300 per year. She must be a very savvy investor to have turned that into $30 million plus.

Seriously, I would have kicked this crazy idiot out too.

It’s not a pimps and hos ball! It’s prom! What happens after you leave the dance floor is your business but I wouldn’t want to have to look at a room full of girls dressed like this idiot.

If you wear a skimpy prom dress that shows off your entire upper body you SHOULD be kicked out of your prom. What the hell. Next thing you know some teen will get caught making a porn at prom.

One of the most popular posts I’ve written was called freecreditreport.com – complete scam, complete rip-off.

Experian, the dishonest credit reporting agency behind freecreditreport.com, is a company I have taken pains to avoid giving any of my hard earned money to for several years now. You can be sure nothing about the site is free, and Experian’s lying phone operators will use any means possible to ensure that the company can continue ripping you off for $12.95 per month as long as possible.

If you are looking for alternatives to freecreditreport.com that do not advertise themselves as free, the best site I have found is called myfico.com. myfico.com is owned by Fair Isaac.

Their products page clearly outlines what they offer as far as credit monitoring. I chose the ScoreWatch product and so far, I am very pleased. I was easily able to find and dispute numerous errors on my Equifax credit report and I am now awaiting the outcome of those investigations.

The ScoreWatch system is much easier to deal with the complicated 30+ page credit report that I was sent in the mail. It let me find the errors and auto generated a letter of dispute on my behalf which I was able to drop in the mail. ScoreWatch also had a feature I liked a lot that suggested actions I could take to improve my credit rating over time. ScoreWatch doesn’t help much with problems related to Experian or TransUnion but the MyFico site has products that cover all three of the major credit reporting bureaus.

Perhaps the best part of the MyFico.com web site is the forums area where real people discuss their real credit problems and how they have fixed or are fixing those issues. The MyFico forums areais a wealth of knowledge if you have the time and patience to sort through all the terminology and anecdotal material.

As a national retailer, Wal-Mart already has major image problems.

Just Google Wal-Mart sucks to see for yourself the long list of sites dedicated to destroying America’s biggest retailer. Maybe Wal-Mart believes that cooperating with anti-gun rights Mayor Michael Bloomberg will improve its public image. That’s certainly not the case when it comes to gun owners. I don’t see any need to be videotaped while purchasing weapons, despite the fact that I’m probably already being videotaped everywhere else in the store.

It’s the spirit of the thing. Wal-Mart is sending a message to all the people who buy a rifle or shotgun in its stores and that message is “we think you are a criminal or have the potential to be one.”

I sent their headquarters a note of displeasure. You can too.

Michael Bloomberg is perhaps the greatest threat to freedom ever to lead a major city in this nation. He wants to control the citizens of the Big Apple and other locales through the power of legislation and law enforcement. In New York City, you are not allowed to eat what you want, smoke where you wish or own a gun for self-defense, at least not without jumping through legal hurdles erected with help from this self-righteous man. He is helping to make New York City a socialist paradise where the word freedom is never used except in hypocrisy or ignorance.

Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity.

A gag order on a section of the Constitution would be more than an oddity. It would be an end to the pretending that those in power actually care what the Constitution contains. For some people, such a gag order would be an invitation to armed revolution. When the government finally dares to spit on the Constitution openly there will be repercussions. At least I hope there will be. The document is worth defending.

In the meantime, I need to head down to Adventure Outdoors and support them by buying another gun from my favorite retailer of self-defense products. I happen to have anecdotal experience – I’ve purchased five guns from the store in the last ten years and have witnessed people being turned away for failing background checks. In my experience, the company has always complied with all applicable state and federal laws. Go to hell Bloomberg.

Muqtada al-Sadr’s personal army has agreed to ceasefire terms that are, in effect, a capitulation.

• The Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army would observe a four-day cease-fire.
• At the end of the cease-fire, Iraqi forces would be allowed to enter Sadr City and conduct arrests if warrants have been issued, or if the Mahdi Army is in possession of medium or heavy weapons (rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, mortars).
• The Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc must recognize the Iraqi government has control over the security situation and has the authority to move security forces to impose the law.
• The Mahdi Army would end all attacks, including mortar and rockets strikes against the International Zone.
• The Mahdi Army must clear Sadr City of roadside bombs.
• The Mahdi Army must close all “illegal courthouses.”
• The Iraqi government would reopen the entrances to Sadr City.
• The Iraqi government would provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Sadr City.

What remains to be seen is how seriously the rest of us can take this new agreement. When I lived in the Green Zone I heard from various sources that the majority of rockets and mortars which rained down on us frequently had been fired from within the bowels of Sadr City.

The cleric himself should long ago have been disinvited from the the political table with a bullet to the cranium. While I am hesitant to condone outright assassination I always thought Saddam Hussein deserved it, and I think Muqtada al-Sadr is cut from the same cloth. He murders his opponents and anyone who opposes his political power. Anytime a political leader uses murder to maintain his or her hold on power, they should receive a dose of their own medicine.

This cleric has done everything in his power to ensure that Sunnis cannot sit at the political table of Iraq. He foments rebellion even when it is not in the national interest or the interest of the residents of Baghdad. He deserves to go to hell.

The list of plugins currently available for WordPress is nearly endless. Anything you want to do with your WordPress blog has probably already been thought of by someone else and turned into a plugin and/or widget.

Here are my current ten favorite plugins for WordPress (bear in mind I have more than 40 of them installed.)

1. Admin menu – this plugin adds a menu along the top of the blog for the authors when they are logged in and is a convenient shortcut that lets you avoid having to look for or memorize the commonly used links that get you into the backend.
2. Democracy – a plugin that gives you AJAX polls on your blog. Make sure you install the widget as well so they can be displayed anywhere in your sidebar(s).
3. Popularity Contest – full of tweakable measures that allow you to figure out which of your posts and pages are receiving the most attention.
4. Lighter Menus – provides drop down menus on the backend so you spend less time clicking around during the creative process.
5. TinyMCE Comments – a plugin that adds useful features to the comment editing menu for your visitors who want to participate.
6. WP Super Cache – if you’ve ever been Dugg or Slashdotted this plugin will save your bacon. WP Super Cache ensures that your pages aren’t reloading any more than they need to and speeds up your blog by decreasing server load. Particularly useful if you are on a chintzy hosting plan with low bandwidth.
7. WordPress Database Backup – If your blog has been active for a few years, and you care about the historical record of whatever it is you write about, this is a critical plugin. It allows you to easily backup your database to a local computer.
8. Google Analytics – useful if you’ve signed up for Google Analytics and want an easy way to add your WordPress blog to your tracked sites.
9. cforms II – ever wanted an easy way to add forms to your WordPress blog? If so, cforms II is the easiest way I have found.
10. Adsense Manager – assuming you have monetized your blog with any popular advertising scheme, Adsense Manager is a great plugin that allows you to easily plugin ad boxes where you want them. AdSense Manager supports a number of popular revenue generators including, of course, Google AdSense.

If 10 new plugins are not enough to make your WordPress blog work better for you then try this list of 100 WordPress plugins as recommended by Bootstrapper. If you are still not satisfied then you can find the other 2,000+ plugins for WordPress located right here. The most popular plugins (as rated by WordPress users) are located here. These should represent a good measure of the plugins that will be most useful across the board to new bloggers or bloggers who are just learning about the vast depth of WordPress plugins available.

Don’t forget to support these plugin developers if you can. Plugins that are financially supported are much more likely to have a long development life and will therefore benefit you more in the long term.

I found Tracy Ingle’s story referenced at Traction Control. Where are we going with this country of ours? Tracy Ingle isn’t a perfect citizen. As far as I am aware, however, our Constitution and way of life are supposed to guarantee the same basic rights and due process no matter who we are. While I am not naive enough to think the law is perfectly applied, we should expect better than this:

When he awoke, Ingle says he thought his home was being invaded by armed robbers. He reached for a broken gun, a pretty clear indication that he had no intention of killing anyone, but rather was trying to scare away the intruders. When he grabbed the gun, an officer inside the house fired his weapon. The bullet hit Ingle just above the knee, shattered his thigh bone, and nearly severed his lower leg. When the outside officers heard the shot, they opened up on Ingle, hitting him four more times. According to Ingle’s sister, one bullet still rests just above Ingle’s heart, and can’t be removed.

OK, so you have no sympathy for people who have had past brushes with the law. How about people who get this sort of treatment after having already been shot four times for their “sins?”

Police found no illegal drugs in Ingle’s home. They did find a scale, which Ingle’s sister tells me was an extra she was given when she worked at a medical testing facility. She used it in her jewelry-making hobby. They also found a bunch of small plastic bags. Again, Ingle’s sister says these were part of her business. “I was leaving the country for a while, and I stored a lot of my stuff at his house,” she told me. “The scale and bags were mine, and are both common things to have for anyone who makes jewelry.” Police also found the broken gun and a broken police scanner.

From those items, the police charged Ingle with running a drug enterprise. They also charged him with assault, for pointing his broken gun at the police officers who had just barged into his home. The judge set Ingle’s bail at $250,000, explaining that it had to be set high because Ingle had engaged in a shootout with police—never mind that Ingle didn’t fire a shot. Ingle was able to sell his car to pay a bail bondsman. But with no car, his injuries render him basically immobile. He had to walk two miles on crutches and an infected leg to his hearing last week.

That’s your drug war – ruining lives and stealing hope from people like Tracy Ingle. I know if my home was broken into in the middle of the night I would do my best to defend myself. I can only hope I wouldn’t face the same sort of disgusting treatment that Mr. Ingle is currently undergoing, but sadly, I think the only difference would be in the amount of resources I have available to muster a decent legal defense. Money talks and poor people get fucked by the unwinnable War on Drugs.

A web site has been set up to help in Tracy’s defense. Go check it out.

I have heard good things about microloans throughout my lifetime. Today I made my first personal microloans through a web site called Kiva.

My personal belief is that people will act more responsibly with money they have been loaned than they will with money that is just given to them. My initial experiment with microloans is a modest one. I’ve loaned money to five different borrowers. If the money is repaid I plan to expand the amount and scope of my loans. I don’t normally get excited about most of the events that take place during my day, but today, I am excited.

It makes me feel good to think about the positive impact I may be able to have in the lives of some far away human beings who have access to much more meager resources than those I can muster. Even if I lose the money I have invested in these peoples’ lives, I will be glad that I undertook the experiment. It will have been a positive calculated risk.

Today’s five microloans included a group of restaurant owners in Cambodia, a photographer in Nigeria, a group who wants to sell cereal in Kenya, a grocery store owner in Ecuador and a carpenter in Vietnam. The money that funded these loans came from ad revenue from this blog. If you have clicked a Google ad here in the past, now you have some idea where part of the money is going.

Is the U.S. Army so focused on the here and now that it is failing to stay at the ready for possible future conflicts with conventional armies?

That is the question being asked by NPR’s Guy Raz in his article Army Focus on Counterinsurgency Debated Within.

Col. Sean MacFarland was among the first to successfully apply counterinsurgency doctrine in Iraq in 2006. And yet he was a co-author of the recent internal Army report suggesting that the Army is far too focused on counterinsurgency training. This singular focus, he writes, is weakening the Army.

The report cites field artillery as an example of an area that has suffered from inattention. Since 1775, artillery units have served as the backbone of the U.S. Army. But today, a stunning 90 percent of these units are unqualified to fire artillery accurately — the lowest level in history.

I anticipate very real possibilities of conflict with conventional armies in my lifetime. On the other hand, a career in the Army is only 20 years, so I’m not sure it is that important that many artillerymen are serving as truck drivers in Iraq and Afghanistan. If they need to convert back to artillerymen it won’t take very long.

Nevertheless, the topic is always worth consideration – are we thinking ahead and training our military for the kinds of missions it will be fighting in the short and long term.

I cannot understand why some Americans are so afraid to be happy and healthy in their old age. As an avid reader, I am constantly reading self-help books. As an avid transhumanist, I am constantly reading books about living healthy and living long. As an avid seeker, I am constantly trying new ways of doing things, including reassessing and changing the things I put into my mouth each day and the exercise regimens I follow.

I realize that many people are brought up in belief systems that espouse that existence here on Earth is just a game God plays with us all. If you practice a belief system that runs along these lines, I respect you. However, I do not understand why it is so hard for some of you to respect me.

I am in Dallas this week (my job takes me around the country to various corporate offices). I was standing in the hallway waiting on an elevator to take me down to lunch today when I was accosted by a co-worker who asked me what I was reading. The mere title of the book Healthy at 100 was enough to cause her eyes to glaze over.

She looked at me as if I had told her the book was an instruction manual for gang raping her entire family while forcing her to watch. I could see an immediate flash of hostility and she quickly blurted out something to the effect of “Never mind, I don’t want to know anymore.”

Is it so wrong to want to be healthy at 100 years of age? Just because most people don’t achieve that I should give up on the idea and resign myself to a short life with a few miserable decades at the end? I can understand that people get set in their reality and resign themselves to whatever mystical set of rules they believe the universe will follow. It still makes me sad.

So few of us want to explore the boundaries of what it means to be human.

If you want to be Dead at 80, then by all means, don’t read books like Healthy at 100. But don’t judge me for wanting a more appealing outcome.

Private citizens carrying weapons in parks – an appealing idea from my perspective. I’ve been exposed to numerous stories in the last decade that are burned into my memory of young women and older couples being horribly victimized by deranged psychopaths while they were out exploring our national treasures. Not to mention the non-human predators you might encounter. I have seen a few shows on people mauled by bears, mountain lions and other critters.

The Bush administration, after more than seven years, has finally issued regulations permitting the carrying of firearms in national parks. Gun owners will soon be able to carry firearms according to the laws of the state in which the park is located.

While not perfect, the proposed regulations, which are likely to take effect at the end of June 2008, represent a sharp contrast with the steadfast refusal to allow for self-defense in national parks.

The bureaucrats responded after a crescendo of congressional activity. Senator Tom Coburn has made efforts to put the matter before the Senate, and would have done so had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid not broken his word to Coburn to allow him to have a vote on the measure. Also, 47 Senators signed a letter to the Department of the Interior urging that the ban be removed.

In the House, there are now three bills that would open national parks to carrying firearms as regulated by the state in which the park is located.

The most recent bill, and the most comprehensive, is that of GOA Life Member Paul Broun (R-GA), who was elected to Congress in July of last year. Rep. Broun has introduced HR 5646, the “Protecting the Second Amendment and Hunting Rights on Federal Lands Act of 2008.”

If you can take action on this issue, and you’re a pro private carry rights enthusiast I recommend you write a letter, make a phone call and let your voice be heard wherever possible. Parks are a great place to have a gun when something goes wrong – the ranger may be an hour or more away. And he’s probably busy looking for people who are fishing illegally.

To anyone reading this who is against the idea that private citizens should be allowed to have guns in our national parks – you go ahead and fight that bear with the biggest stick you can find. I’ll do things my way and continue to fight against anyone who thinks we need to limit weapons to special classes of citizens who wear uniforms and may or may not be there when a weapon is needed.

Gun control advocates have to lie if they hope to make a convincing argument that guns cause violence. That is because the facts don’t match their desire to remove weapons from the hands of private citizens. Private citizens who own guns, by and large, are also responsible citizens. It is hard to sell a message that individuals cannot be trusted with guns when the data proves otherwise.

Why do the states with the most liberal and least restrictive gun laws also have the least violent crime, statistically speaking? Why do the big cities with the most restrictive gun laws also have the most gun violence per capita? Maybe it is because government is exacerbating the social problems that lead to high rates of violence. Rather than fixing crime rates, gun restrictions just increase the crime rates.

In the mean time, the fear mongers that comprise the anti-gun crowd continue to make up stuff to convince the rest of us that they should control your right to defend yourself from the criminal class they helped create.

The VPC (Violence Policy Center) also has to purposely limit its selectively picked data to states rather than cities. This is because the one jurisdiction with the strictest gun control in the entire nation is the District of Columbia. In D.C., all handguns are banned, long arms must be stored disassembled, locked and unloaded, and law-abiding citizens have no right to carry guns. According to the same 2005 CDC data relied upon by the VPC, D.C. has the highest rate of shooting deaths of any place in the United States! The district has well over double the national average.

Gun crimes happen because of groups like the Violence Policy Center. These groups try to teach us that we as individuals are not responsible enough to decide for ourselves the course of our lives. When you pursue policies that discourage self-reliance you foster an atmosphere of apathy, under achievement, hopelessness and despair. If the Violence Policy Center and other groups like it truly want to change the levels of violence in our cities, they should focus on improving education and changing the cultural values we teach the children who live in those violent zip codes. You cannot solve a problem if you are not willing to look at the root causes of the problem. Violence is not caused by guns, it is caused by flawed memes.

The memes children learn in New Hampshire are very different from the memes children learn in Washington, D.C.

Gun control certainly works.

London also emerges as the “crime capital of Europe” with the likelihood of becoming a victim – mostly of a range of petty crimes – said to be higher than all other EU capitals and even higher than cities such as Istanbul and New York.

It works in favor of criminals. Ask the British.

Ron Paul, the guy I’m going to write in for President later this year, has a new book out.

Here’s an excerpt from his mailing list announcement which I received today.

These principles – individual liberty, sound money, the Constitution, and the foreign policy of the Founding Fathers – have had no home in American politics for a very long time. With The Revolution: A Manifesto, I’m letting the establishment know we’re not going away.

Finally, Americans can hear and judge these great American principles for themselves, instead of through an unfriendly media filter. And they can learn once and for all that they need not be satisfied with the phony choices the system offers them every four years. Another way really is possible.

The media vilified Ron’s candidacy. At times, he was polling around 10-15% in places, but never higher. Maybe that’s because from the very beginning people like Sean Hannity were labeling him a nut job with no chance in hell of being elected. Then someone or some group planted the whole “Ron Paul is a racist” red herring. People called those who believe in Ron’s message of liberty and individual responsibility as well as small government at the federal level “Paultards” and other nasty little monikers.

I don’t think people who like Ron Paul and think he’d make a good President claim the guy is perfect. We just think he is way better than Hillary “Communist Powermonger” Clinton or Barack “Empty Promises and Pipe Dreams” Obama or John “American Values by Force are our Primary Export” McCain. Ron Paul doesn’t promise to fix all our problems by stealing money from some of us and giving it to others.

The anti-Ron Paul people are short-sighted and are doing a great disservice to America by trying to silence one of the few prudent politicians serving at the federal level. In that great, shrill, gasping mass of irresponsible children we call Congress but should call criminals, Ron Paul is one of the few who actually practice the principles he preaches. Unlike John McCain, Ron Paul doesn’t say things he doesn’t really believe in hopes of getting elected. McCain pretends to be principled. Ron Paul IS principled. I cannot understand how this is not self-evident to people. Maybe they just don’t care. Maybe they just want the politician who promises them the most free stuff.

If you are interested in liberty, fiscal responsibility and a government that actually adheres to the limits placed on it by the Constitution, then you should probably pick up a copy of Revolution, A Manifesto.

I’ve written about this issue before. If your primary self-defense plan is to call 911 when things go bad you may well be an idiot. Police spend most of their time cleaning up and investigating crimes that HAVE ALREADY OCCURRED. They spend very little time actually intercepting and stopping crimes in progress.

I know, I know, you don’t believe me. You like your false sense of security. It’s easier to just rely on others for your welfare. Read this.

Testimony in the seven-day trial showed that Kirk was beaten, kicked and slapped over a 30-minute period by her former boyfriend, Marvin T. Moss, who could be heard on the 911 tape threatening to rape her before he ripped two telephones from the walls of Kirk’s Westport Road apartment.

During the last call to 911, Kirk told former county dispatcher Marino Susi that she had been “whooped” by Moss and needed a cruiser. A tape of the call has Kirk yelling at Moss not to rip out her phone. The line went dead, and Susi didn’t try to call back.

Susi didn’t try to call back but it wouldn’t have mattered because by then this lady was dead. She’s still dead as I write these words. Whether or not the jury found the local government security services liable is irrelevant to this dead lady. If she had been a little smarter and a little more prepared to defend herself instead of relying on others for her basic security maybe things could have turned out different.

I use 911. The other day there were two cows and a calf in the middle of the road and I called the police. Might as well get something back since I’m forced to pay for the system.

The verdict finding government responsible for the death of this poor lady will be overturned on appeal. When the fit hits than shan only you are going to save your own life consistently. Sure, strangers may jump in and help from time to time, but don’t count on it.

Want to know what Congress is planning to do with the money they want to steal from you in 2009?

Defense: $515 billion ($294)
Homeland Security: $38 billion ($0; was in Domestic Necessary)
Domestic Necessary: $713 billion
Domestic Worthy Causes*: $305 billion ($217)
Social Security: $644 billion ($409)
Medicare: $408 billion ($197)
Medicaid and SCHIP: $224 billion ($136)
Interest: $260 billion ($223)
Total: $3107 ($1789)

Numbers in parentheses are how much was spent in fiscal year 2000. Source article here.

Here is the projected income:

Personal income taxes: $1259 billion ($1004.5)
Corporate income taxes: $339 billion ($207.3)
Social Insurance receipts: $949 billion ($652.9)
Other taxes: $153 billion ($161)
Deficit: $400 billion (surplus $236 billion)

I disagree with the authors’ conclusions – let’s completely eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as a start – it cannot be done in one year, but it can be done. That would balance out the budget by eliminating almost a trillion dollars in theft. Social Security is an illegal Ponzi scheme, whether anyone will admit it or not. People too stupid to live healthy lifestyles and put money aside for the time when their health inevitably starts to fail deserve to suffer the consequences (I include myself in this group; I am a former smoker).

Once we get the trillion dollars of “I’m too stupid to take care of myself” money out of the budget, we can tackle the $305 billion in “domestic worthy causes” – honest people call that money pork. The proposed budget is criminal!

Not that I eat their unhealthy food anyway but I will no longer dine at Pizza Hut even occasionally. If you fire someone for defending himself you deserve to lose your business. The right to defend one’s own existence trumps every other thing.

A pizza delivery driver, who police said defended himself by shooting a robber who attacked him, was fired from his job on Friday.

Gun bans do not work. Telling law abiding citizens they cannot defend themselves is idiotic, and I reserve the right to ignore such rules. I have in the past at my own discretion and will again in the future. My life is more important than some idiot’s rules. I will not allow faceless strangers in some headquarters to determine my fate.

It is completely moral to take the life of another in defense of your own when the other initiates violent aggression. Telling someone they are not allowed to act when someone is threatening them is unconscionable.

When you read articles that discuss government, taxation and the economy, it is important to take note of the tone of those articles. For instance, read a New York Times article called Weighing a McCain Economist by someone I don’t know named David Leonhardt.

Last week, Senator McCain laid out his economic vision in a speech in Pittsburgh. He talked about wasteful spending, but the newest, most detailed part of the speech dealt with a package of tax cuts that would cost about $300 billion a year. They would come on top of $350 billion a year in Bush tax cuts that Mr. McCain wants to make permanent. To put these numbers in perspective, the Iraq war has been costing roughly $200 billion a year.

When Leonhardt says “package of tax cuts that would cost about $300 billion a year” he is really saying that all that money belongs not to the individuals it will be taken from in the form of taxes but rather to the collective of bureaucrats and agents will will redistribute it according to their own particular agendas. Government does not bear the cost of policy changes. The taxpayer does. This fact is purposefully ignored.

What the budget office found, as study after study has shown, was that any new revenue that tax cuts brought in paled in comparison with their cost. This is why the deficit jumped under the last two tax-cutting presidents (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush) and fell under the last two tax-raising presidents (George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton).

In the above sentences Leonhardt makes a contentious assertion without providing a single shred of evidence. He expects his readers to simply assume that what he states is fact – everyone should inherently understand that new revenues brought by tax cuts pale in comparison with the cost of those tax cuts! Silly peasants.

At least on one point, the concluding sentence, Leonhardt and I tenatively agree:

Instead, when you add up the numbers that have been released so far, you’re left wondering if he (McCain) is the least fiscally conservative candidate still in the race.

While I wonder who the least fiscally conservative candidate might be, I know for certain that not one of the three is a true fiscal conservative. All of them want too much of my money. All of them want to take economic blood from my veins and use it for the promotion of policies with which I strongly disagree. The growth of the federal government must stop if the United States is to remain a healthy nation.

John McCain can’t or won’t reduce the size of the federal government no matter how much lip service he gives the idea of doing so – he’ll be similar to George W. when it comes to spending reductions – there won’t be any. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a communist and will remain one as long as she has the hope of being the head communist and setting standards for all of us that she isn’t subject too. Barack Obama is a socialist full of grand visions that, under analysis, are nothing more than empty promises and pipe dreams.

In the end all three of these individuals firmly believe that it is just fine to take my money and to use it however they see fit. That is a basic issue for every net producer in this nation, and should be a call to political action. Write in a candidate! I know I plan on doing so.

I highly encourage you to carefully read this editorial entitled Clueless in America. Here is a sample:

The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.

An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.

Author Bob Herbert mentions that the United States has “one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world.” Gee, I wonder if that somehow correlates with the fact that we have the highest per capita number of prisoners in the industrialized world. Whether you’re planning on electing John McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton is irrelevant to solving the education crisis. None of those individuals are serious about changing our educational landscape. No major politician in the two parties is – educated Americans do not grow government so politicians do not have a real interest in educating Americans.

In all likelihood, what we’ll get from our next President is more empty promises that federal oversight can solve our national overabundance of American dumbasses. I envision proposals to rename No Child Left Behind to something a little more catchy while increasing funding for the program. In 30 years, those few Americans who can still read will look back fondly on the time when this nation had an 80% basic literacy rate. By then, we’ll be a third world nation looking for handouts from India or China.

This election cycle, I discovered that we have something in America called a superdelegate.

Republicans don’t have them – yet. Only Democrats have these “special” delegates who are not chosen by the people but by the party.

Unlike most convention delegates, the superdelegates are not selected based on the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state, in which voters choose among candidates for the party’s presidential nomination. Instead, most of the superdelegates are seated automatically, based solely on their status as current or former party leaders and elected officials (“PLEOs”). Others are chosen during the primary season. All the superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the nomination.

Superdelegates are party hacks. The position is given as a reward for servicing the agenda of the DNC. Superdelegates do not represent any particular group of Americans. They are not voting for those Americans. They are voting on behalf of themselves and whatever they think will grow their own political power and prestige.

Politics is by its very nature a business of corruption. Power over people and their pocketbooks tends to stain the soul of the wielder. It may well be that the next President of the United States will be chosen by politically savvy individuals who are thinking only of their own wants and desires when they cast their votes.

That makes me very worried.

We live in a society where rule of law is dearly held by many citizens. Question: how long will the status quo hold? In a time and place when overgovernance is the norm, rule of law is corrupted and weakened by a simple fact – there are too many laws for the law to be applied equally to everyone. When you make hundreds of thousands of laws you cannot hope to apply them equally to everyone. You cannot even pay honest lip service to the concept.

Our legal system has three basic tiers: federal, state and local. It is generally held that federal law trumps state law which trumps local law. For this reason, there should be very few federal laws, a few state laws and as many local laws as communities deem necessary. When you have too many laws at every level, you begin to read stories like this one, in which local authorities decide that their laws are more important than the laws made by those representing larger bodies of citizens. Pennsylvanians can do whatever they damn well please, as far as I am concerned. Practically speaking though, local Pennsylvania authorities are cheapening rule of law by deciding to ignore state laws. In the long term, they hurt everyone by doing so.

A society without rule of law is a society that is always moments away from a descent into chaos and mayhem. It worries me greatly that several conditions exist in this nation today which, alone or together, could act as catalysts for a descent into darkness.

1. Too many laws – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or follow the federal, state and local laws because there are hundreds of thousands of them, particularly when you include “guidelines” which can be punished by force if not followed. This weakens the rule of law by encouraging citizens to throw up their hands and stop even trying to interpret, understand or comply with basic common sense rules.
2. Too many bureaucrats – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or respect thousands of faceless strangers who make decisions from thousands of miles away about how that average citizen should conduct his or her daily affairs. This weakens the rule of law by encouraging citizens to ignore missives from these strangers and to be dishonest with these strangers when confronted by them from time to time.
3. Too many taxes – an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to know, understand or comply with current federal, state and local tax code. Were it not for the organized system of theft known as withholding, the average citizen would realize that the levels of “voluntary” robbery have reached well beyond ridiculous. This weakens rule of law because most productive citizens do not appreciate having the fruits of their labor stolen and redistributed.
4. Too many ignorant citizens – the bureaucrat class has purposely fostered an environment of mediocrity in education and a culture that values instant gratification above fiscal responsibility. It has encouraged systems that produces illiterate godlike football heroes and dooms to obscurity the men and women who are truly contributing something valuable to the society – scientists, economists and inventors are basically ignored while Congress debates the merits of steroid use by empty headed ball throwers.
5. Too many empty promises – every election comes with new broken promises an average citizen cannot possibly be expected to believe yet somehow, they foolishly do, at least the ones who can be bothered to vote. An average citizen cannot possibly be expected to keep track of all the broken promises, but every one of them degrades the rule of law, respect for government and the general moral condition of the nation. The War on Terror is just five years old but most of us are more terrified than we were when that war began. The War on Drugs is more than four decades old but more of us use drugs than ever before. The War on Poverty is more than 40 years old as well. Lying politicians have had to redefine the term poverty to include people who consume so many calories every day that they are obese. Those living in poverty now have color televisions and washing machines and cars. But the war is still on because without it, the empty promises wouldn’t be needed.

When there are enough laws and enough bureaucrats and enough taxes and enough ignorant citizens and all the empty promises that can be have been made then the system will eat itself. Rule of law, having been bludgeoned into a coma in her sleep, will slowly bleed out while the world burns. No one will be left to notice.

Of every 100 people who read this post, 99 of you will not reach this sentence. That is because you have been trained to believe government will always take care of you. You have been conditioned to feel certain that rule of law will always protect you from the barbarians at the gate. You have been indoctrinated into a false sense of security and you will stand in your lines and submit to security searches and let people take your money and tell you what you may or may not do with your own body. You will be born and you will die without truly understanding the value of rule of law. You will exist in this life without ever really understanding that in a society that truly values freedom, the number and complexity of laws is limited so that rule of law can endure.

Every so often, I have to face the death of a loved one. I’m referring to our dogs. My wife and I have been rescuing dogs for years now. As of this morning we had 18, many of whom are available to good homes. As of right now, we have 17.

This morning our blind Golden Retriever, Sweetie, scratched at the door asking to go out. I got up and let her out but she never made it outside the house. Sweetie took a few steps and then flopped down on our hallway floor and died.

That is how I became an accidental gravedigger. Digging a grave for a 100-pound dog is no easy task. This morning, I was glad I’ve quit smoking. My digging activities were accompanied by the distant howling of a hound dog, cool breezes and the silence of the vessel that once contained a simple but beautiful life. I will miss Sweetie but when the day of my death dawns, if it does, I hope that my passing is as uncomplicated and quick as the one Sweetie had.

Sweetie had a good last day on Earth. She ate some treats, got talken for a walk and enjoyed a head scratch from my wife. What more could a blind dog ask for? Making a dog content is not hard at all. I’m very glad that I played a role in giving Sweetie a decent life and many moments of unbridled tail wagging.

Good bye and good journey.

If you have a good heart and a good home and want a loving dog, please contact me to talk about sharing the joy of unconditional love with one of our available, adorable mutts.

It’s an old urban legend that the Mythbusters should investigate – they’ve done gun stuff before though. You’ve probably seen it happen in a Western or two. You may have heard of it happening on the battlefield. A Bible in someone’s pocket stops a bullet.

I’ve decided to find out if such an event could really happen and I’m going to do so on video and post my results here. To keep things fair, I will perform my tests on both a Bible and a Koran using various calibers of pistols and rifles. Since I would probably have a hard time getting a live volunteer to hold the holy books, I’ve ordered a mannequin for the purpose.

I’m thinking I’ll start with a .32 ACP, then go to a .40 S&W followed by a .45 ACP. Finally, I’ll cap off the tests with some high velocity .223 rounds. These will be fired from my Bushmaster Varminter.

I realize some people will inevitably be offended by the thought of shooting bullets at books which are considered holy. I am privileged enough to live in a nation where I am free to engage in such activity, at least for the time being. And in the interest of science and out of sheer curiousity, I plan to exercise my freedoms, not out of disrespect, but out of a long held self-imposed desire to explore questions and answers.

I plan to use an educational textbook as a control. All three of my test books will be hardcover. Whether or not divine intervention will play a role in saving my mannequin remains to be seen.

Here are some reports of such events taking place:

Bible stops bullet in Rustamiyah, Iraq

Trash carrying man saved by Bibles

I couldn’t find any incidents of a Quran stopping a bullet using either common English spelling, although I would guess that legends of such an event or events circulate in the Arab and Muslim dominated parts of the world.

The most popular blog entries I have written, the ones that stand the test of time, are gun related entries, including entries about specific guns.

Are you a manufacturer of weapons or weapons related products? I’ll review any items you send me. Reviews will include photos, possibly videos and my biased opinions. I don’t promise you a positive review but I will be fair and allow you to answer my questions prior to publication. I am a National Guardsman and CCW holder in the state of Georgia, as well as a member of a local gun club with a 500-yard rifle range.

This blog currently receives between 300 and 500 visitors on an average day. 80% of these visitors are searching for information about self-defense and weapons. If you are interested in access to daily visitor stats, I will provide such access on request.

[amazonify]0071486100:right[/amazonify]My wife and I are considering flipping a house. Yes, I know the real estate market is in the doldrums. The logic is that if we can turn a profit on something now, we can do it long term and potentially make this into a nice business.

I’ve googled some of the top returns on the topic of flipping homes. There’s a lot of shady crap on the Internet. Thank God I have some savvy when it comes to sniffing scams.

If my wife and I decide to do this, I have decide to document, both photographically and with videography, as well as my usual blustery writing and panache filled witty repertoire. All of this fine material, will of course, be free to you my three faithful readers. Yes, Kitanis, I’m talking to you. And you too Gringo Malo.

I’m leaning towards actually doing this – in an economy based on fiat currency I see no down side to some calculated risk taking. Actually that would be true in any economy. And there are practical benefits – when I do build my dream home I’ll know exactly what not to do based on real world experience with other homes.

I bought a book on the topic (that’s generally how I start a new learning process. I’ll report on this as things move along – I figure there is public interest in this topic based on the number of TV shows about flipping houses I’ve noticed in the last few years.

The first two houses Barb and I looked at were priced at $12,000 and $17,000. The $12,000 home had a tin roof and was, for lack of a better term, a craphole. The $17,000 unit had really low ceilings and at some point was a participant in a fire, but was on a nice lot and had much more potential. We’re looking at other possible buys. The real estate market is glutted with properties that could be easily fixed up, at least in our area.

Here is a list of people to avoid if you’re thinking about flipping houses and want to get off to a good start:

Carleton Sheets

Whether or not my wife and I do a flip or rental property deal, this list will grow over time as I do more research.

A perfectly valid question almost no one is asking. This guy is.

Just to be clear: I’m not advocating that steriods be legalized. In fact, I think that’s probably a terrible idea.  I’m simply puzzled. The professional sports establishment is in the midst of a major witchhunt against alleged users of performance enhancing drugs. But no one–so far as I can tell– has articulated a coherent explanation for what should be banned and why.

“James,” one of the commenters on the “Free Fernando Vina” post brought up the issue of Lasik eye surgery. That’s a very good example.  It is perfectly legal for an athlete to undergo “performance enhancing” eye surgery, that moves him from, say, the 50th to the 95th percentile in sight. It is not legal for that same athlete to take “performance enhancing” hormones that move his testosterone from the 50th to the 95th percentile–even thought the additional advantage of the eye surgery may be greater than the additional advantage  conferred by the exogenous testosterone. Now, there may be a perfectly valid distinction between those two interventions. But what is it? Shouldn’t it be spelled out before we drum Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds out of the Hall of Fame?

It is nice to know I’m not the only one confused by the hypocrisy. In my opinion, all performance enhancers should be on the table when it comes to consenting adults. Sports or otherwise. Life might be shorter for some but it would probably be more interesting. Shouldn’t that be their choice as long as they are not hurting anyone else?

The war on drugs has changed the list of readily available substances and enhancements available. It has not done a damn thing to change humans basic desires to be something they are not, to rise higher than they otherwise could have and the propensity of a given subset of our species to flameout in spectacular blazes of glory. Our James Dean and Marilyn Monroe types will always be among us.

It is heartening to know I’m not alone in worrying about the impending disaster we face because the value of our money is MADE UP by bureaucrats. Sri Lankans are listening to Ron Paul.

“Few Americans give much thought to the Federal Reserve System or monetary policy in general,” Ron Paul wrote in his column this week.

“But even as they strive to earn a living, and hopefully save or invest for the future, Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank are working insidiously against them. Day by day, every dollar you have is being devalued.

“The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration.

“The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation.”

Ron Paul is one of the few politicians of the world who understands the intricacies of fiat money. He is on the House Committee on Financial Services.

Why this stuff is appearing in a Sri Lankan business rag and not here eludes me.

“So while Fed policies encourage younger people to over borrow because interest rates are so low, they also punish thrifty older people who saved for retirement.

“The financial press sometimes criticizes Federal Reserve policy, but the validity of the fiat system itself is never challenged.”

It isn’t rocket science – you can only make up so much value before even the dumbest of the dumb realize the entire system is just a pipe dream. And then the currency gets switched to something like bullets. If I have time in this life, I’m going to pursue an economics degree so I can hope to explain these basics more eloquently.

Our current money system is only as effective as the amount of faith the people who use the money have in it. When the faith tides ebb, the society leans towards collapse. That’s not to say our national financial house is going to collapse, but it certainly could. A house built on faith alone is not a house I would live in.

Someone explain to me how I’m wrong. Make sure you’re an economist and are ready to send me a copy of your advanced degree and the titles of some of your books. I want to believe we’re not headed for disaster.

Whether you are for or against the occupation of Iraq, this editorial is well worth reading and carefully digesting.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda’s brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.

One year of my life gone forever in that nation. My feelings about our “imperialism” are very mixed. I am proud of my service in Iraq although I do not pretend to know what the future holds for that nation. We are nearing a pivotal moment – the change of command here will affect the course of 26 million lives there. I’ve long held the opinion that it will take decades to ensure real changes in the Middle East. The changes will have to be generational. A complete withdrawal now would certainly be a mistake.

Should we “surge” some more? I leave it to you to decide. Michael Yon is certainly a subject matter expert. He knows the troops, he knows the political climate, he understands the Iraqis and he has spent more time on the ground and in the thick of things than almost any American I know. That doesn’t mean his conclusions are correct, but they should be carefully considered.

I wonder if I value the right things in life. [amazonify]0979863600:right[/amazonify]

I talked to an old friend from the Marine Corps yesterday via e-mail. He’s doing well. We were roommates in Atlanta after I left the Corps. We went different ways. I work in corporate America and he decided to be a wedding photographer.

Yesterday he told me that he is happier than he has ever been. He now lives in Galveston, Texas. He is writing books. He rides a bike and basically spends his time however he feels like spending it. Right now, that mostly consists of reading books and writing. He told me that he can live the next seven years without working if he decides that is what he wants to do. That is freedom.

I commute three hours a day. I have financial obligations, a stressful job that demands constant multi-tasking, regular travel (our airport system is a cattle herding adventure) and a boss who uses 1960’s management mentality to drive me nuts. Would I trade places with him? No. But I am considering making some adjustments to my values. What I value affects the choices I make related to the hours I find myself working and the blood pressure readings I’m likely to see down the road.

Since I have not yet published my own first novel, let me shill for my buddy Ara – pick up a copy of his book Drawers and Booths.

One of the hot new terms in information technology is cloud computing. According to some of the writers and pundits who cover developments in infotech, many IT departments could soon be replaced by cloud computing providers. That would be OK with me but I’m dubious as to how quickly the change could take place.

There are any number of factors that have to be taken into account. Any organization that is considering cloud computing models has to feel a sense of assurance that the scalability and speed come with stability and appropriate security. Most important, some companies, the ones with a culture of control, will never adopt cloud computing. At least, they will never adopt it unless they control the entire cloud.

Just as SaaS (sofware as a service) required ceding critical data control to a third party vendor, cloud computing requires giving up that central authority. The CEO cannot call his CIO in the middle of the night, rousting an IT staff whose jobs depend on fixing any problem (real or perceived) when the data is in someone else’s cloud. The leverage just isn’t the same when you are not the ONLY customer and the source of bread and butter for everyone in your IT chain of command.

If I am ever replaced by a cloud I look forward to the opportunity to take some much needed vacation time. Since I work for a conservative firm that values control more than it values scalability, I am watching the progress of this new idea with interest devoid of any alarm.

If you are the CIO of a modern, risk taking, early adopting kind of company then you might benefit from the scalability, improved deployment times and simpler management of systems offered by clouds. On the other hand, you could just migrate your existing infrastructure to VMWare and keep control. That’s what we’ve done.

I’m glad the media is at least acknowledging that Hillary has honesty problems (and that is a nice way of putting it.)

In the waning days of the Democratic presidential nominating contest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) finds herself battling two opponents: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), and her own words.

The truth about Hillary is that she can’t remember the truth. This happens to anyone who makes a habit of lying by exaggerating the facts, twisting the truth and bending reality to suit his or her dreams of how things ought to be.

A person who cannot keep track of the truth or be bothered with facts should not be considered as a potential leader for 300 million people. That doesn’t mean such people have not been in charge in the past, or that such people will not lead us in the future.

All I mean to say is that I will never ever follow such a person. I might tolerate him or her but I will not honor, respect or pay homage to an individual for whom lying is a way of life. We all lie. We all have secrets. No of us is completely honest 100% of the time (at least not the successful people among us.) I have no problem discussing that rationally.

On the other hand, when a person lies so much that it becomes publicly obvious the person is habitually bending or misrepresenting the truth and cannot keep straight the lines between reality and made up stories, well that person loses credibility. Hillary Rodham Clinton lost her last shred of credibility years ago, while her husband Blowjob Bill was still the liar in chief. Now she wants to become the next liar in chief? I think not.

Barack Obama may also be a habitual liar. Most politicians have to be to survive in our current political landscape. He has not yet proved himself to be the disappointment I think he can be though. Perhaps America will give him that chance. In fact, I’d almost be disppointed if she didn’t. On a ship of fools, the captain might as well be another fool. When the wind in your sails consists primarily of empty promises Obama is as good a choice for Democratic nominee as any other and maybe a slightly better choice than Hillary because more people can still share the Democratic dream of making the world a better place by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor without fully understanding the long term consequences of such a policy.

Meanwhile:

In a March poll by Gallup, only 44 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that she “is honest and trustworthy,” compared with 63 percent who said that about Obama and 67 percent said it about the Republican nominee-to-be, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

If only 44 percent of respondents think Hillary is trustworthy why is she still a U.S. Senator? Take that question a step further. Only 3% of Americans fully trust Congress. Why the hell are we still putting up with them then? Our system is clearly broken. The next question should be, what can we do to fix it?

Electing Obama or McCain can’t be the answer, since both of them come from the same august body of career liars as Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I know exactly what it feels like to be a negro. At least I do when it comes to gun control.

In 1840, the North Carolina supreme court passed a statute decreeing: “That if any free negro, mulatto, or free person of colour, shall wear or carry about his or her person, or keep in his or her house, any shot gun, musket, rifle, pistol, sword, dagger or bowie-knife … he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be indicted therefore.” This law did not apply to whites – only black or mixed-race people.

In the 1890s, Florida also passed race-specific gun control laws. In 1941, Justice Burford, a judge in the supreme court in Florida, overturned a conviction for carrying a handgun without a permit on the basis that the state’s original gun control statutes had a racial basis. “I know something of the history of this legislation”, he said. “The act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro labourers … and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied.”

All gun laws passed in the United States since my birth in 1971 have been designed not for the purposes of solving a problem. Rather, they have been designed for the purposes of making people feel better about a problem. The problem is that sometimes, bad people get access to guns.

Guns are not moral. They are neither good or bad. They are tools in the hands of people who are either good or bad. Because our society has increasingly evolved into a reactionary, status oriented, instant gratification driven one, we frame the war against individualism poorly. We tell ourselves that only government should have guns because only government is responsible enough to use them wisely.

By arguing thusly, and by passing increasingly ridiculous numbers of laws aimed at keeping law abding individuals from owning the kinds of guns they want, in the quantities they want, with as much ammunition as they want to stockpile, we have created a new class of negro.

I am a member of that class. I want to follow the law, but I also want the right to defend myself and my existence and my property by any means I deem reasonable. As a new negro, I must contend not only with do-gooders who believe they know better than I what types, quantity and quality of weapons I should be allowed (must of these do-gooders, if given ultimate power, would not even permit me a rock for head bashing), but with the criminal class who, no matter how many stupid gun laws are passed, will always find access to the weapons they desire.

In the mean time, this nation of the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave, has locked up more citizens than any other nation in the world, per capita. These citizens are held on a variety of charges, most of which are non-violent. And from the violent among them, they learn to become animals. They learn the way of the gun. They learn to take whatever they want. And they force me to conclude that I too need guns to defend myself from them because when they emerge from their cells they will have morphed into committing violent crimes, compounding the problems we all must face.

As a modern negro, the stigmatized gun owner, I must speak out. I am not a threat to anyone who does not threaten me. I just want to be left alone to pursue my life as best I see fit. I do not want any part of your irrational fearmongering ways. I do not want to interact with your children who will cringe from me because I believe in the right of self-defense. But I must. No negro is an island.

Having said that, please take the time to read Defending Freedom. If you are reading this, and you are an American, you are part of a society that takes its freedom largely for granted. You are part of a society that will lose more and more freedom with each new socialist or authoritarian politican elected. One day, you will wake up and find that you too have joined the ranks of the modern negros. And what will you do then?

I spend a lot of time bitching on this blog. I don’t really regret it, because I’m generally bitching for a reason – I hope to find others out there in the big bad world who feel similar to the way I feel, or who might change their minds and come around to my way of thinking on issues that matter.

As a former participant in the occupation of Iraq, I have very mixed feelings on that particular political morass. I think we have noble intentions and are generally doing things the hardest and most expensive way possible over there. Perhaps that is the only way to go about waging a war that really intends to change a culture. I’m not an expert, just a guy who went and came back.

The war in Iraq is so muddled and mischarecterized. Sometimes, even the people waging it have no idea what they are doing, where they are going and why they have to be there. It’s easy to lose your humanity in an environment where every moment might be your last moment.

That is why I am also touched to read stories like this one:

Ammar Haddad Muhammad, a 5-year-old Iraqi boy, and his father landed on time Saturday night in Charleston, S.C., to begin the process of getting life-saving surgery thanks to help from a Gainesville Marine.

There are certain things that I hold dear and honor when I see them. War can make us so tired. It certainly did in my case. Marine Major Kevin Jarrard, no matter his other human qualities, should be held up as an example of the kind of men we need when we wage war. In the midst of strife and conflict, he has twice reached out to remind Iraqis that they are just as human as we are and that we value their lives because we value all human life on general principle.

A few years ago, before I was deployed to Iraq, I bought a Bowflex Ultimate. I had every intention of tracking my fitness progress using this machine as a metric. However, I’ve given up that idea. After spending a year working out with free weights in Iraq I realized that a Bowflex simply does not provide the same quality of muscle building and muscle toning as dumbbells can.

I’ve disassembled the machine and am going to trade it in for more dumbbells. So that project, despite the fact that it is one of the most popular search results on my blog, is over. Sorry, readers. The facts are simple. A Bowflex will not give you the same quality of workout as properly used free weights.

If you’ve got a huge home gym and just want something to add variety to your routines then one of the new Bowflex models might be a nice changeup every so often. The truth is that these machines are grossly overpriced and provide only a moderate quality workout.

I am sure a few will disagree with me, but I am very pleased with the muscles I’ve been building using dumbbells routines mixed with cardio.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/bqOLjEli6yY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

No self-respecting firearms instructor stores a weapon with any type of system remotely resembling the idiotic one the TSA has devised. Only from the minds of bureaucrats who don’t know shit about weapons.

When you allow strangers to be completely entrusted with your safety you set yourself up for disaster. That’s why I’ve always felt somewhat uncomfortable with public transportation. Sure, the pilots have a vested interest in a smooth, uneventful flight. The TSA idiots on the ground, however, don’t really suffer if the plane crashes or is hijacked, etc. They just make up some new rules for all the rest of the flying lemmings to follow. Sometimes, the stupidity of these rules gets people killed.

If the TSA was a practical, efficient organization several things would happen based on this video. First, senior administrators at TSA would find out the individual or board responsible for the disgustingly stupid locking mechanism policy currently in place. They would dismiss those persons. Then they would change the policy. Pilots should be allowed to carry the weapons from point to point. In the air, on the ground and everywhere. The weapon should be a part of their daily routine. That is the best way to ensure responsible handling.

Washington, D.C. isn’t the only city in the U.S. that ignores the Constitution’s second amendment and bans private gun ownership, or at least severely restricts it. As far as I know, though, at this time, the District of Columbia is the only metropolis booking “voluntary” appointments to search homes for illegal weapons.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says she’s changing a plan for searches of private homes for illegal guns.

The chief now says searches would be done by appointment unless there is an urgent need. Police and city lawyers are still trying to work out what can and can’t be done during these searches.

Since the program was announced weeks ago, it has been delayed in part because of fears citizens’ rights will be violated.

Lanier now says police will distribute literature to homes in high-crime neighborhoods asking owners to sign forms and set up appointments.

I’m left nearly speechless. If I lived in one of these neighborhoods, I would be planning on moving. Of course, you probably couldn’t pay me enough to live in the world’s center of graft and the highest crime city in the country. Now that government has screwed up the country’s moral and educational foundations, it wants to fix the problem by treating us all like irresponsible idiots. Admittedly, many of Washington D.C.’s residents probably shouldn’t have handguns. We should be asking ourselves why this is. Why does the city have to worry about whether or not its population can be trusted with weapons in the first place? Address the root causes that make gun ownership undesirable – a lack of individual responsibility, an amoral approach to life and a culture that breeds indifference and apathy.

Fix those things and the problem with guns will correct itself. Until we can honestly discuss the real problems in D.C., gun crime will continue to be an issue. Search those houses every week. Gun crime won’t change a bit.

In my state of residence, Georgia, the government collects a fingerprint in exchange for allowing motorists to drive legally. What happens to that fingerprint after it is collected?

A hacker club has published what it says is the fingerprint of Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s interior minister and a staunch supporter of the collection of citizens’ unique physical characteristics as a means of preventing terrorism.

In the most recent issue of Die Datenschleuder, the Chaos Computer Club printed the image on a plastic foil that leaves fingerprints when it is pressed against biometric readers.

No-one from the Germany-based group has been able to test the foil to see if it can fool a computer into believing it came from Schauble. But the technique has been shown to work with a variety of other people’s prints on almost two-dozen readers, according to a colleague of the hacker who pulled off the demonstration.

We can collect all the biometric data on the assumption that everyone will eventually commit a crime. And eventually, someone will commit a crime without even being physically present. Take me, for example. I am a concealed carry permit holder. For that “privilege” Georgia requires all ten of my digits to be recorded. Imagine a criminal gets a copy of my fingers and thumbs and plants them on a crime scene, framing me for murder. It will happen. Maybe not to me, but to someone. Bureaucracies are sloppy. Biometrics do not deter or prevent crimes. In some cases biometric records may make it easier to prosecute crimes but their collection is an invasion of privacy, assumption of guilt, assault on freedom and will inevitably just escalate the complicated system of crime and punishment we all suffer under.

Those dirty bastards behind freecreditreport.com, whoever they are, are slick. I’ll give them that. When I hear that guy singing about his posse’s legs sticking to the vinyl in his cheap car I can’t get the stupid song out of my head.

The truth though, is that freecreditreport.com is a scam. The irony is that freecreditreport.com claims it will protect you from being scammed. I suppose that if you are the sort of person who would hire a criminal to protect you from other criminals then freecreditreport.com is a good choice. Just remember it isn’t free.

The company uses false advertising to get you to do a “free” check on your credit and then robs you of $12.95 a month and hopes you won’t pay careful attention to your bank or credit card statement. The company will try and pressure you when you call to cancel the monthly charge. They don’t want to let go of that money for nothing.

The charge on your bill will look like this:

I’ve had this company rip me off twice now. The first time was my own fault and the second time I’m not even sure how they decided it was OK to start billing me again. I’m sure they are working on new and more insidious ways to steal a few more dollars out of my account. Experian owns this little ripoff business. If you ever have the chance to avoid doing business with the company, I would encourage it.

It took me quite a while to realize that many people are very offended by the idea of living forever. Many are offended by the idea of living beyond a natural lifespan. I often find myself asking these people how many years they think it is OK to exist? 100? 500? 1,000? The answers vary but the most amazing thing, to me, is the amount of unrecognized hubris these people harbor because of the flawed memes they have been taught. So many of us are products of our environment.

Why should we only live 75 years? Because God intended it? Because it is programmed into our genes? Because that is how all previous generations lived? Such narrow thinking is silly and condemns us all to death. I do not wish to be a part of staid fatalism.

Ray Kurzweil is an inventor. He is also a transhumanist, and wants to live as long as possible. Wired ran an article on Kurzweil today Futurist Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity. Besides being an extremely long titled article, author Gary Wolf’s screed is a great example of the ire many death cult believers hold for those of us who wan to exist as long as possible. The comments run the gamut, but many of them are disparaging and outright dismissive of the idea of a longer than natural lifespan and the man who wants it.

I’m sure many of these same people believe they are headed for an eternal reward in some sort of ethereal afterlife on an imagined plane of existence none of us can prove. As far as I am concerned Kurzweil is just betting on a different horse, so to speak.

If there is a soul (and I think there is), then the sheer audacity of believing we might one day be able to transfer it to another, longer lasting vessel is not a sin, not in my opinion. God helps those who help themselves. Every visionary throughout history has been mocked. Some of them have needed bodyguards. If Ray Kurzweil ever does, I’m his man. In the mean time, I’ll tip my glass to his immortality. I’d rather party with dreamers and die trying to live than resign myself to a mere century of life on this plane of reality.

The consequences of socialism include the rapid breeding of parasitic morons.

Take, for example, this family, led by the Matriarch of Ultimate Moochiness.

“The only problem is,” she says without a hint of irony, “that we’re living in a three-bedroom council house, which is ridiculous.

“I’m asking the council for a ten-bedroom home for all of us. We need more space. It’s awful sometimes when all the children are squabbling. Still, we do have a big TV with Sky, but we need some relaxation.”

Maybe the British taxpayers can fund an all inclusive paid family vacation to Hawaii while they are paying for your existence! Ha. This is why all charity must be completely voluntary. When it is run by a large bureaucracy you end up with parasitic classes that do absolutely nothing and have absolutely no motivation to work towards their own survival and comfort. If these people were in my community I would burn them out rather than pay their way through life, especially after reading this quote:

“I don’t worry about the example I set to my kids or the fact that two of them don’t work. It’s up to them what they do, it’s their life, not mine, so it’s not my problem. I don’t think my desire never to work and to live off the state and my husband rubbed off on Steven. He makes his own decisions”

Lady, when people are paying you to spawn offal out of your loins and then paying that offal to sit around and breed more ignorance it is well past time that those funding your adventures start demanding changes to system. And by demanding I mean doing whatever it takes to motivate your sorry ass to get back to work.

WASHINGTON, Mar 18, 2008 – A new study from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in Washington, shows that most American states tax job providers at a higher rate than any other country in the developed world.

We outrank Japan, Germany and Canada in 25 states when it comes to effective tax rates. I was born in Canada. Maybe it is time to think about relocating to my homeland. My effective tax rate would go down 2%.

The more I think about this issue the more angry I become. We have taxation without representation in this country. My county just passed a new 1% sales tax by 27 votes. I had no idea the issue was even up for a vote and that was by design. Many legislative and other governing bodies make decisions “under the radar” by design so that motivated citizens who work for a living will have a very hard time participating in the decision making process. Taxes, once enacted, are almost impossible to get rid of because they create a new underclass of parasites who cannot survive without the nanny state and its organized theft by vote and deceit.

Here we are, five years into a war and occupation that might take 20 or more years before the dust settles. I am talking, of course, about Iraq. Having invested a year of my life in the country, I have a real interest in how things turn out.

One of the most important questions that needs to be asked long term is – how have we improved freedom in the lives Iraqis? Five years in the violence levels may be going down and that is a good thing. What I would love to see now is a documentary that asks regular Iraqis if they feel freer now than they did under Saddam. It will be very important to track the freedom index in Iraq and the United States over the next two decades. If the freedom index improves in both places then I will consider our ill named “war on terror” a success. If not, then it is a failure. So many factors will play a role both here in the U.S. and “over there.”

Let’s start with you, my blog readers – do you feel freer now than you did five years ago? If I could make a living answering this question, I would do so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I’m not John Stossel.