So why is the Greek Army buying 400 Abrams tanks?
Will the Pentagon also sell tanks to the NYPD?
“I Don’t Think About You At All”
3 hours ago
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
This Is Indeed What the GOP Wants To See
A 96 year old woman being turned away from the polling place because she doesn't have a driver's license.
This is exactly what the GOP wants to see happen. They want to see voters being turned away from the polls. Stories like this just cheer the withered hearts and blasted souls of GOP political operatives.
The Republican party is about as despicable as they come.
(H/T from somewhere)
This is exactly what the GOP wants to see happen. They want to see voters being turned away from the polls. Stories like this just cheer the withered hearts and blasted souls of GOP political operatives.
The Republican party is about as despicable as they come.
(H/T from somewhere)
No Fucking Shit, Sherlock; Economics Edition
The medicine being used to cure the financial contagion spreading throughout Europe is killing the patient.Government austerity when the economy is spiraling down is like trying to stave off starvation by going on a strict diet. It's sort of like the old joke that "our congregation is so poor that our rabbi would starve to death if he didn't fast every third day."
For nearly two years, the richer countries of the region have pressed harder for spending cuts and tax hikes from poorer countries like Greece, already struggling under a crushing debt accumulated when the global economy was booming.
Those measures have sent the entire euro zone sliding into recession, pushing Greece’s neighbors closer to default and European banks that are holding that shaky debt closer to insolvency.
Elsewhere in the world, Russia and China stood up for the right of a brutal dictator to use his army to massacre his own people. Because they may feel the need to do the same thing.
The Over-Reach of the Moral Absolutists
I have been watching Ken Burns's new documentary on Prohibition. One lesson that struck me was that Prohibition was a classic case of over-reaching by moralists.
Alcohol consumption was a serious problem in this country. But the moralists took the position that they could just ban alcohol and everyone would fall into line. They were so wrong.
But what if they had not been so absolute. The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages. The Volstead Act wrote that into law as anything over 0.5% alcohol. But what if they had written the Volstead Act, from the start, to only outlaw hard liquor? What if they had continued to make the sale of beer and wine legal?
I imagine if they had, that Prohibition would still be with us, in some form or another. The 18th Amendment might have hung on, at least for many more years.
But there is still the point of Prohibition, which was that the 18th Amendment was the only amendment to the Constitution that limited freedom. It was a flat-out failure. But that doesn't stop the moralists from proposing other amendments to force people to live the way that the moralists demand. A wise man said it far better (paraphrasing slightly):
They need to be fought, at every turn. Who the hell do they think they are to tell me what to do? Who the hell do they think they are to tell me who I can marry and who I cannot? Why the hell do they say that it is OK to ruin my body with alcohol, but not with marijuana?
The moralists raised the age of eligibility to buy and consume alcohol in the 1990s, after the "old enough to get drafted, old enough to drink" sentiment wore off. They made having a trace of alcohol in one's blood a crime. But did that slow down drinking by 18-21 year olds? Not in the least and, because drinking is illegal, it encouraged binge drinking. Hell, if you're going to drink and break the law, why not just go get hammered? And kids do.
Let's look at marijuana: Where, in this country, can you not find a place to buy reefer? You can probably find a seller in the Capitol building. For certain, you can buy it on every damn college and high school campus in this country. The only thing that the War on Drugs has done is to make selling weed profitable for organized crime. I submit, Gentle Reader, that if marijuana was made legal that there likely would be fewer users than there are today. Because then, the allure, mystique and romance of doing something that is illegal would be lifted.
The moralists, by using the law to try to force people to conform to their beliefs of how people should conduct their lives, undercut respect for the rule of law. The kids who were drinking and smoking weed, in contravention of the law, grow up to become hedge-fund traders and banksters who are not going to obey the law about ethics or insider trading or such. They learned, early on, that the law is can be stupid and they see nothing wrong with breaking the law.
We've reaping the result.
Alcohol consumption was a serious problem in this country. But the moralists took the position that they could just ban alcohol and everyone would fall into line. They were so wrong.
But what if they had not been so absolute. The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages. The Volstead Act wrote that into law as anything over 0.5% alcohol. But what if they had written the Volstead Act, from the start, to only outlaw hard liquor? What if they had continued to make the sale of beer and wine legal?
I imagine if they had, that Prohibition would still be with us, in some form or another. The 18th Amendment might have hung on, at least for many more years.
But there is still the point of Prohibition, which was that the 18th Amendment was the only amendment to the Constitution that limited freedom. It was a flat-out failure. But that doesn't stop the moralists from proposing other amendments to force people to live the way that the moralists demand. A wise man said it far better (paraphrasing slightly):
They keep swinging back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that.But they keep trying. Whether it is the tighty-righty's moves to make sure that nobody in the military has access to porn or the PTC's campaign to make sure nobody says anything remotely foul on television, or trying to force people to attend church, they keep trying to make people "better", as if that'll ever work.
They need to be fought, at every turn. Who the hell do they think they are to tell me what to do? Who the hell do they think they are to tell me who I can marry and who I cannot? Why the hell do they say that it is OK to ruin my body with alcohol, but not with marijuana?
The moralists raised the age of eligibility to buy and consume alcohol in the 1990s, after the "old enough to get drafted, old enough to drink" sentiment wore off. They made having a trace of alcohol in one's blood a crime. But did that slow down drinking by 18-21 year olds? Not in the least and, because drinking is illegal, it encouraged binge drinking. Hell, if you're going to drink and break the law, why not just go get hammered? And kids do.
Let's look at marijuana: Where, in this country, can you not find a place to buy reefer? You can probably find a seller in the Capitol building. For certain, you can buy it on every damn college and high school campus in this country. The only thing that the War on Drugs has done is to make selling weed profitable for organized crime. I submit, Gentle Reader, that if marijuana was made legal that there likely would be fewer users than there are today. Because then, the allure, mystique and romance of doing something that is illegal would be lifted.
The moralists, by using the law to try to force people to conform to their beliefs of how people should conduct their lives, undercut respect for the rule of law. The kids who were drinking and smoking weed, in contravention of the law, grow up to become hedge-fund traders and banksters who are not going to obey the law about ethics or insider trading or such. They learned, early on, that the law is can be stupid and they see nothing wrong with breaking the law.
We've reaping the result.
Flip-Flop Mitt
One thing is certain: Romney will change his views depending on what office he is running for.
If Romney, who is worth over $200 million, is "middle class", as he apparently believes, then it is a pretty safe bet that 98%+ of the readers of this blog would be classified as being "poor" on the Romney scale.
If Romney is middle class, then Heidi Klum is butt-ugly.
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| Indecision 2012 - The Great Right Hope - The Manchurian Candi-Dad | ||||
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If Romney, who is worth over $200 million, is "middle class", as he apparently believes, then it is a pretty safe bet that 98%+ of the readers of this blog would be classified as being "poor" on the Romney scale.
If Romney is middle class, then Heidi Klum is butt-ugly.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Tales of the Molesters: TSA Edition
The TSA at Kennedy Airport pulled aside a woman who was bald from chemotherapy and who had breast implants following a double mastectomy. Instead of allowing her to produce documentation of the implants (which she had), the TSA rudely and, in full view of other travelers, felt her up.
Some TSA weasel said that they "strive to treat every passenger with dignity and respect." From my limited experience with TSA, they treat people more like cattle being run through a chute than the treat passengers like human beings.
Some TSA weasel said that they "strive to treat every passenger with dignity and respect." From my limited experience with TSA, they treat people more like cattle being run through a chute than the treat passengers like human beings.
Temper, Temper!
A CIA contractor freed by Pakistani authorities after the families of two men he killed in a shootout agreed to accept a $2.34 million "blood money" payment was charged Saturday in Colorado, with authorities saying he got into a fight over a shopping center parking spot.Want to guess who this guy was working for when he shot those guys in Pakistan? You won't be surprised.
Deputies responding to an altercation between two men outside an Einstein Bagel in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver, took Raymond Davis into custody Saturday morning, said Douglas County Sheriff's Lt. Glenn Peitzmeier. He was charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
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