Gub'ment Logic

Here is a perfect example of Government Logic:

"HERNDON, Va. (AP) - Fewer flights will go in and out of New York City airports at the busiest times to try to ease chronic nationwide air travel delays, the government said Wednesday."

Hey I got an idea or two. Why not get the Feds out of the business of air travel all together? It's not making us safer, just late for meetings. It's not efficient, effective, or economical.

Ron Paul For President

Glenn Beck did an interview with Ron Paul on Headline News last night. Here it is in it's entirety. I can't find much to disagree with him on. Watch it. If you disagree with him please comment. If you agree with him, please comment and then tell three people about him. Imagine the great nation we can have again. Ron Paul for President!

Baseball and Steroids

Why should the government get to decide what baseball players do? The argument for action by the Federal Government goes something like this:

"We have to do something to stop illegal drugs from influencing The Game."

Why? Why do some people feel the need to force healthy/pious lifestyles upon others? Under what authority does one man mandate the choices of another?

"We can't allow the Heroes of Children to use illegal drugs."

Why would anyone allow their child to emulate someone who engages in behavior that they, the parents, deem harmful? NASCAR is certainly a very popular sport, should the Feds require that they drive more slowly so as to set a better example? What about boxers, we wouldn't want children to go around punching people in the face would we? There are many examples one could find of children idolizing characters that they cannot and should not emulate.

"The records of our Sacred National Pastime are spoiled."

So what if Bonds was taking drugs to power his home run records? Some athletes drink coffee. Some drink booze. Some use vitamins and protein drinks. In the days of Babe Ruth, healthy lifestyles were not common. Look at The Babe, he was a bit portly, and couldn't really run very fast. Today, athletes are worlds away from those days. Today they have personal trainers, special diets, strict training regimes and countless uses of technology to advance their performance. We cannot allow records to be valid only if the diet and training program of all current athletes is the same as those of yesterday. Why not allow any and all enhancements to performance? The reason people watch sports is to watch people who can do things that seem impossible. I love to watch Formula 1 racing. They cruise around curves like this one at about 210MPH. Is it safe? Nope. It is for this reason that I and millions more watch sports. It is the right of every person to decide what does or doesn't go into their bodies what risks they take, and whom their children emulate. The greatest traditions of this country are that we are free to make personal choices.

Mmmmmm Coffee

One of my favorite drugs is Caffeine. It's not hard to figure out why I suppose, it's a stimulant with nearly immediate effects and it's cheap. It's cheap because it's drank in coffee and coffee is legal. Coffee is one the largest commodities in the world second only in volume to oil. But because there is no prohibition of coffee, it isn't subject to illegal smuggling. My favorite coffee comes from Mr Bill's Coffee. And lately I have been mixing 50-50 blends of his delicious wares. For me the best is a mix of his Kenyan AA and his magical Bill's Blend. I order about 2 pounds per month from Bill. When I order it, I choose how I would like him to roast it and a couple days later an aromatic package arrives in the mail. Thanks Bill!
Now, i have to cut this post short due to one of the side effects of coffee.

Don't Brutalize Me Bro

Another isolated incident where police get pissed for being video taped while acting like thugs.
----------------------------------

Four sue police, alleging "dirty tactics"

Posted by The Oregonian

Four men who say Portland police ran roughshod over their constitutional rights are taking their cases to court. Monday their attorneys called for independent investigators to review complaints against police and for the mayor and chief to curb what they called officers' "dirty tactics."

-----------------------------------

The rest of the story here with video hotness: Here

The problem with these kinds of lawsuits is that the suit is against the police force and not against the individual officers. So now, the people who pay the taxes will have to pony up for the wrong doings of these cops.

Youtube is as much a force for freedom as the printing press was during the Revolutionary War.

By Invitation Only: Why Illegal Immigrants Keep Coming

There are three big reasons why many people want to sneak in to our country. And all three reasons are invitations from We The People.

First, Illegal drugs. Prohibition causes the price of drugs to be falsely inflated. As long as there is prohibition there will be smugglers. We invite this because the American People's appetite for drugs is very high. (pardon the pun)

Second is our the entitlement nature of our government. Nothing will bring people to a party quicker than free beer. And nothing encourages the wrong kind of immigration more than the prospect of a free lunch. We invite this because we allow our leaders to enact bad policy.

Third is the desire to work. We invite this because we want inexpensive labor.

I only have a problem with the first two. If we end prohibition and tax illegal drugs, reason one is gone. If we stop the failed policies of entitlement, reason reason two is gone.

That leaves people seeking work. The right to contract is fundamental to freedom and this goes to the very essence of capitalism.

Direct2Drive You Crazy

Hearing all the buzz about Bioshock, I decided to skip the demo and buy the full game. As a gamer in the early 21st century, I have the option to purchase games in two ways. I can buy a hard copy disk or I can purchase a download and get a licensed copy that way. I chose to do the green thing and buy a digital copy.

I did a quick search and found Direct2Drive. I logged in and quickly found myself fifty dollars poorer and ready to download. Click... Up pops a box that says I need to use IE or I can just click a link to download my file in zip format directly. I click the link and I immediately get hit with the craptacular speed of 784Kbps down. My Cable modem from Adelphia and now Time Warner, can easily grab 8Mbps down. I was getting about 10% of this and Firefox's nifty download manger was reporting that this download will take about 17 hours to download. So I chose to open up the link in Internet Explorer and see if my speed would increase. I allow the Active-X control to run their Download Manager. I got the same pathetic speed from their download manager and here's where it really gets ridiculous.

To find out why my speeds were so slow I visit the support page of Diret2Drive. The FAQ for download trouble is pretty straight forward. The first two suggestions tell us to disable any popup blockers, firewalls, ya ya, I get it. Here is the FAQ beginning at step three emphasis mine, spelling mistakes theirs.

3. Multitasking. Don't think because you have a phat pipe you can surf, play a game then chat all over AIM. Leave your computer alone.

**And tell everyone in your house to turn off their computer, don't share your connection.


Tips:

Reboot before you download. Including your modem. Turn it off for min. of 3 minutes. Then start your comp and turn off everything you don't need to run the comp.

What kind of advice is this? Whose nephew wrote this? This download took me over 16hrs to complete. Are they seriously suggesting that I shut down my home network, do not use my PC, and watch this slow agonizing drip of data? Sorry D2D but it was slow and not because of my machine or my network.

I let the Bioshock game complete downloading rather than try to get a refund. Suffice to say I'll not be using Direct2Drive ever again. I hope the game turns out to be worth the pain in the butt it was to get.

Wrestle With This

Why does anyone care that professional wrestlers use steroids and other illegal drugs. Does the public want to watch people built like Don Knotts and me to wrestle? Now, I'm no fan of the rass'lin I find it juvenile. But hey, this is America, to each their own. And if "Their Own" means steroids, cocaine, or rat poison, why is it any one else's business? They choose to participate in a dangerous sport and they get paid by a willing audience. Next up I suppose is a speed limit for NASCAR.

Plenty of Vacancy

Loads and loads of Vacancy. We watched Vacancy on Tuesday's Movie Night. What a horrible waste of fake blood. It stars Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a troubled married couple. The writers were at at a loss as to how to make these two seem worthy of your pity so they play the dead kid card. As it turns out, the couple has lost a child some years ago when wifey forgets to put up the gate in front of the basement steps. Heres the trailer: (WARNING: You cannot get this two minutes of your life back.)

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Lost, stranded, and stuck at the Snuff Film Motel. This movie, like the much better 8mm, attempts to shine a light on the world of snuff films. But in the end isn't this movie itself a snuff film? The audience is led down the same path we've been down a thousand times before. Scared innocent people are terrorized by psychopathic killers. Teased by the imminent death of characters we're supposed to care about but don't.
Plenty of Vacancy in the theaters showing this one.

When I'm 64

Will you still choke me, will you still poke me, when I'm 64? According to this it may not be out of the question. The article explains that people keep on having sex until they die. Good news really. However, I hope my reaction to old ladies is not the same as it is today. If it is, I'm gonna need the Viagra. This picture that accompanies the article makes me very uncomfortable.






The guy looks like he's ready to bust someone's lip. The wife, well.... she looks "happy".

Further more, why is that teddy bear on the sofa knocked over? I'm betting just before the AP photographer showed up, they pulled an "Afternoon Delight" right there on the sofa. It's really the only thing that explains that picture. He needs a nap, and she's ready to bake a pie.

Running Low On Ammo

Apparantly, according to this AP article, cops all across the country are running low on ammo. Or maybe they're not.
At first the big headline grabs you.

Ammunition Shortage Squeezes Police

It begins with the usual incitement to fear:

An Associated Press review of dozens of police and sheriff's departments found that many are struggling with delays of as long as a year for both handgun and rifle ammunition. And the shortages are resulting in prices as much as double what departments were paying just a year ago.

"There were warehouses full of it. Now, that isn't the case," said Al Aden, police chief in Pierre, S.D.

Let's take a look at Pierre S.D. shall we? How much ammo does a police force of Pierre S.D. need? Judging by the design of the city's official homepage, they must have used all that ammo to shoot every web designer in town. That website alone is proof that government employees should just stay away from computers. Meanwhile, I'm sure the citizens of Pierre are cowering in their homes until the warehouses can be restocked with ammo and all the "All Clear" is sounded.

ATHF:MFFT

Last night's movie was Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Movie Film For Theaters. ATHF works pretty well in 15 minute cartoon shorts. In a full length movie? Not so much. Ya, it had a few funny lines, but overall it was somewhat boring. There are much better animated movies.

Who Ya Gonna Sue?

A Continental Airlines flight from a foreign country has to land because of bad weather. Since it's an international flight no one is allowed to get off without going through customs. Since Customs isn't really expecting any extra business and it's just about break time, those sorry passengers can just wait. They wait for a few hours, get pissed and decide it's about time to demand to be let off. So, they get to parade in front of a few TSA employees and get on the plane to wait an additional hour. So they're going to sue.

But who should they name in their lawsuit? It is the very policy of bureaucracy that created that mess. How many lawsuits would Continental face if a terrorist had a bomb and they were allowed to get off? How very in-efficient air travel is becoming at the hand of govenrment. Now, some would like you to hand over your very lives to them.

Troublesome Tragedy

Somethign bothers me about this story and it's more than just the horrible tragedy. It seems that a police officer was shooting at a snake, missed at least twice sending his bullets far and wide. One splashed into a lake where 5 year old Austin Haley was fishing with his grandpa. When the first round hit the water near them, the grandfather held the boy close to him. The second round hit the boy in the head killing him. Here is the story from CNN.

The City Manager, Bob Wade, would not identify the name of the officer who is suspected of firing the shots. Wade states that the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Why is that? Why would a servant of the citizens be protected when he accidentally kills one of them? Why do police get preferential treatment when they screw up? The grandfather seems to have spotted this hypocrisy.

"I'm not saying the cop shot him on purpose," Tracy said. "It was an accident. But let me tell you -- if I had a kid and put him in this car and didn't put him in a car seat and he got killed on the way to town, they'd charge me with murder ... and what this cop did is a lot worse than that."

He's right.

Smoke Screen

I'm a smoker. I love the feeling of nicotine coursing through my blood stream. However, the actual effect on my lungs is something I do not enjoy. There really needs to be an alternative to smoking. Something that would deliver the nicotine I want without the smoking of dead plants. There is only one thing standing in the way of the market delivering this very product to me. The Government. It seems they would rather I die a slow painful death than let product innovation provide an alternative to smoking.

Bathtub Gin

Recently I received in the mail(real paper snail-mail) a pamphlet outlining the dangers of meth-amphetamine. It was a stark warning to all concerned citizens. It highlights the danger of meth. It details some of the signs that a meth lab is in operation and advises on what to do if one suspects a meth lab is in your neighborhood. Certainly this “new” drug is far more dangerous than the drugs of the last few decades. Users often develop irregular heart beats, and a myriad of health problems. It is highly addictive, potentially deadly, and just plain nasty.

So what, if anything, can society do to stop the scourge? Can we pass a law? Can we impose stiffer penalties? Can we put more cops on the street to stop people from making and selling meth? Well, the answer is not so clear.

Where did this new drug come from? Are Columbian Drug Lords invading Van Wert? Is the county airport now home to clandestine air-drops of this substance? Nope. It's being made right here in town by our neighbors. It's being cooked in garages, in campers, and the trunks of cars. The fact that it can be made right here removes the old stereotype drug lord from the picture. No longer is the producer of poison far away in a tropical jungle with a lab and an airplane. Using off-the-shelf ingredients people can brew this stuff nearly anywhere. Using cold medicine, a recipe from nearly any chemistry book, and a few other elements, the guy down the street can turn himself into Tony Soprano over night.

A few lawmakers have decided the problem is in the cold medicine. In Oklahoma, the first state to regulate the sale of ephedrine, some surprising trends have emerged. According to government crime stats, since the regulation of over the counter cold medicine went into effect, the number of meth makers has fallen by 90% in Oklahoma. Good news right? Wrong. While powdered meth has decreased; the availability of Mexican Crystal Meth has grown by 500%. No longer produced in Oklahoma, the streets are now flooded with imported meth. This stuff makes the locally produced stuff look like powdered sugar. It's far more concentrated and far more deadly. We will soon see the same things in our town.

This is not a new paradigm, it's not even a new drug. Meth was first produced in World War 2 to provide soldiers with a quick pick up that would enable them to perform for days with no sleep. The Nazis, the British, and yes, the good old US of A used meth to keep going.

We have been down the prohibition road before. During the Volstead Act that was passed by Congress in 1919, people started brewing Moonshine and Bathtub Gin. These were highly concentrated and highly dangerous substances that nearly anyone could make. It soon became apparent that the cure for alcoholism was far worse than the disease. People were still drinking but instead of beer and wine it was Mezcal and Whiskey. Instead of Miller and Budweiser it's Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly.

So now here we are again. The Government in an effort to protect people from themselves are going to do the same thing. All over again. We are going to take a bad problem and make it worse. I do not want my child to grow up in a world like Chicago in 1930. But this is exactly what will happen.

Everyone Got Drunk

This week's movie was Everything's Gone Greeen. A subtle comedy about the plight of modern day slackers..... I think. As it was everyone was already drinking when I showed up with this weeks movie. Show time was supposed to be at 9PM. I dutifully arrived at 8:30 for the festivities. Upon arriving I realized that the festivities began about 4 hours earlier. As such, everyone was drunk, chatty and in no mood to sit quietly for a movie. For a better review of this pic go here.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Having failed to scare the world by blowing up airlines over the Atlantic Ocean, terrorist the world over would like to thank Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The target of terrorism is not the victims of the act itself. The target is all the rest of us. The goal is to get all of us to react to fear. So when a plot to use liquids to blow up commercial jets failed, those wishing to scare us failed as well.
That's where Chertoff comes in to complete the task. ABC news has a new article up where the DHS Secretary offers chilling details of what might have happened. Chertoff knows only too well that the collective worry of US Citizens will keep him in power.
To keep us all in the grip of panic Chertoff offers this bit of wisdom:

"I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11. If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

They failed. They failed to blow anything up. They failed to scare us. They failed to change our society. But the the good Secretary comes to their rescue and does their work for them. Way to go Chertoff.

First Post!

Hello and welcome to my screwy chewy blog. Here is where you'll find our weekly movie review, political pontification, random musings, and inspired rants.
First a bit about me and why I chose to begin blogging. I used to be a staunch Republican. I used to believe that the GOP stood for limited government and were pro-freedom. I now realize that power has totally corrupted the Republicans and can no longer call myself one. Now, I'm proud to be a libertarian/conservative. Some of my beliefs could be considered Right, some Left but mostly pro-freedom and pro-capitalism.

So, let's begin, shall we?