A brief rant about Compact Flourescent Lights (CFL's)

I started wearing reading glasses about two years ago, and now I can't read anything without them. 
Tonight I started a new book, and trying to be a good, environmentally-conscious citizen, I turned off every light in the house except one reading lamp.
 
I couldn't see the freakin' book. 

I knew that just a few months ago I could read with only that one lamp for illumination. 

Then I found the culprit.  My eyesight is getting worse, but there was another factor.  The lamp now had a CFL bulb. 

These things might be great at saving energy, but they aren't worth crap at producing light.  I've never seen one that was fit to read by. 
I had to turn on the overhead fan lights to compensate, which I think defeats the purpose. 

These CFL's are like the water-conserving toilets with the smaller tanks that Congress mandated a couple of decades ago.  You know, the ones that you have to flush two or three times to take care of bidness? 

Here's U.S. News on the CFL's:

The incandescent light bulb, one of the most venerable inventions of its era but deemed too inefficient for our own, will be phased off the U.S. market beginning in 2012 under the new energy law just approved by Congress. Although this will reduce electricity costs and minimize new bulb purchases in every household in America, you may be feeling in the dark about the loss of your old, relatively reliable source of light.

They got that right. 
Can you imagine the uproar there would have been if Congress had tried this 40 years ago?  The hardware stores would have instantly sold out of pitchforks.

And then there's the mercury issue.  These things, like the familiar long flourescent lights, contain some mercury. 
Here's the EPA on how to dispose of the soon to be mandatory CFL bulbs:

1. Open a window and leave the room (restrict access) for at least 15 minutes.



2. Remove all materials you can without using a vacuum cleaner. Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available (do not use your bare hands). Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard. Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe. Sticky tape (such as duct tape) can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.

3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it. If your state permits you to put used or broken CFLs in the garbage, seal the CFL in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash (if no other disposal or recycling options are available). Wash your hands after disposing of the bag.

4. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash or protected outdoor location for normal disposal.

Actually, that info is now out of date.  Most communities now want you to put the bulbs into a disposal pouch and take it to a recycling center, or use a special compact bulb recycling pail. 
When you've finished doing that, calculate how much energy you've consumed driving to the recycling center, as opposed to the energy consumed by chunking your old incandescent bulbs into the trash. 

Here's a video on one possible way to recycle your old CFL bulbs.  I know that everyone in America is going to do this instead of throwing them into the trash.  You are going to do this, aren't you?   



You might be asking yourself....Why are we having to go through all of this?

Well, General Electric lobbied for the ban of the old bulbs, and they donate to more campaigns than you do.  Here's The Washington Examiner:

“Government did us in,” says Dwayne Madigan, whose job will terminate when General Electric closes its factory next July.
Madigan makes a product that will soon be illegal to sell in the U.S. - a regular incandescent bulb. Two years ago, his employer, GE, lobbied in favor of the law that will outlaw the bulbs.
Madigan’s colleagues, waiting for their evening shift to begin, all know that GE is replacing the incandescents for now with compact fluorescents bulbs, which GE manufactures in China.

Lordy, that's cold. 
People should be able to manufacture whatever they want to, wherever they want to, as long as it doesn't harm someone else.  But lobbying for a ban on your old product line so you can have a succesful launch of the new stuff?  That's cold. 

This guy is suggesting that we all mail some busted CFL's to our Congressman on September 30th. 
The current bunch of Congressmen would probably hire 30 union members, 5 environmental impact experts, and half the D.C. police force to supervise the cleanup. 
So let's not mail our dead CFL's anywhere.
Let's re-name them.   

Those inadequate, squishy, little light bulbs reminded me of something.  Or someone.  I couldn't figure it out for the longest time.  And then it hit me....

Thomas Sowell on the people "who drove the car into the ditch"

Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....

Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us new insights into those "who drove the car into the ditch", as our president keeps claiming has happened. 

Another political fable is that the current economic downturn is due to not enough government regulation of the housing and financial markets. But it was precisely the government regulators, under pressure from politicians, who forced banks and other lending institutions to lower their standards for making mortgage loans.


These risky loans, and the defaults that followed, were what set off a chain reaction of massive financial losses that brought down the whole economy.

So it doesn't matter who was driving the car when it inevitably went into the ditch?  Perhaps we should question those who dug the damn ditch that was running across the middle of the interstate?  Give us more, O Saint Thomas, give us more....

Was this due to George W. Bush and the Republicans? Only partly. Most of those who pushed the lowering of mortgage lending standards were Democrats-- notably Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, though too many Republicans went along.

At the heart of these policies were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who bought huge amounts of risky mortgages, passing the risk on from the banks that lent the money (and made the profits) to the taxpayers who were not even aware that they would end up paying in the end.

However, anyone who reads the scriptures of Saint Thomas would've seen this coming from afar.  As the good Doctor Sowell has pointed out many times, the stated goals and objectives of any policy do not matter.  All that matters are the incentives that are created.  In this case, Fannie and Freddie were incentivized to take insane risks because they knew that someone would be there to bail them out if things went badly.  That someone would be....you. 
You have their undying gratitude. 
Let us continue with the next verses:

When President Bush said in 2004 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reined in, 76 members of the House of Representatives issued a statement to the contrary. These included Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel.

If we are going to talk about "the policies that created this mess in the first place," let's at least get the facts straight and the names right.

The current policies of the Obama administration are a continuation of the same reckless policies that brought on the current economic problems-- all in the name of "change." Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still sacred cows in Washington, even though they have already required the biggest bailouts of all.

Why? Because they allow politicians to direct vast sums of money where it will do politicians the most good, either personally or in terms of buying votes in the next election.

The man has spoken.

Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.

Quote Of The Day

From Jim Davidson's Facebook page:

‎"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." ~ Frederic Bastiat

I think we're there. 

If twice as much was a big failure, half as much should be perfect

Taking out a $100,000,000,000.00 loan (that's one hundred billion) on our Chinese credit card and then blowing it on Democrat wish-lists didn't get the U.S. economy going again. 

Giving your credit card to some of Fort Worth's East Lancaster crack whores so they could blow a lot of your money on their wish lists, well, that wouldn't get your economy going either.  It would earn you the gratitude of a few crack dealers, but it wouldn't get your economy going.  It would simply leave you with a lot of debt.  You would have the support of the crack dealers if you ran for public office, though, and that's what the Porkulus Package was all about.     

And now The Teleprompter Jesus has proposed borrowing another $50,000,000,000.00 (that's fifty billion, if you have problems with all the zeroes) to prime the Keynesian pump some more and get our economy going.  China's banks are probably delighted, but is there anyone out there who could pass a lie detector test claiming that it will get our economy going?  We're almost out of silly stuff to spend the borrowed money on. 

Hit this link to see what you owe on your Bank Of China credit card.  And remember, all of this spending is for a good cause.....

And here's what you owe to all other governments. All of this is based on you having the average U.S. household income of around $55,000.00
Your share is much higher if you are among the "more fortunate".

Please remember to keep making those minimum payments each month !  Those stimulus package signs cost $1200 each, and your government needs your support. 

Quote Of The Day

I'm all for Open Borders.  Why people prefer to think of themselves as some government's livestock instead of "free range" is beyond me. 
However....I had to smile when I read Denny's "quote of the day" at The Grouchy Old Cripple.
It's from Ben Stein:

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don't have to prove they are citizens".

A fresh coat of Whitening to Scotty Starnes for the pic. 

Wiener Dog barrel racing

Everybody needs a goal.
Some people want to save the world.
Some people want to train dachsunds to properly do a barrel race.
Mission Accomplished ! ! !

Stop Stealing My Stuff !

From my friend, fellow Libertarian, and all-around great guy John Jay Myers.  John Jay is running for Congress in the Texas 32nd district. 

Originally the message of the Tea Party seemed clear “Less taxes and spending”. Simple enough, Right? Somehow they have gotten distracted. Very, very distracted. I know that all the Tea Parties and their participants are different, so it is not fair for me to throw them all under the bus.

So for those who are distracted, let me attempt to recapture your attention.

You wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of breaking glass.  When you stumble out of your bed and into the living room you find a man standing there with your TV in his arms.
Of course your first reaction is to exclaim loudly and with all of your energy “Should gays be allowed to marry?”
Wait, I am sorry, but no you don’t.  You scream “Should they build a Mosque in New York City?”
No, wait, you say “What’s your stance on abortion?”

Of course not.  You scream “Stop stealing my stuff!”

When your City Council says they are going use your money to build a hotel, or favor one small business over another, you need to scream “Stop stealing my stuff!”

When your State government declares eminent domain over your land so they can build roads, and then sell the land to a foreign company so it can put tolls on the roads you paid for, howl like a lunatic “Stop stealing my stuff!”

When your Federal government sends billions of dollars in foreign aid to other countries when our country is broke, or spends trillions on wars that benefit oil companies, or wants to put government in control of the entire health care industry, or when they take all the money out of the economy before a recession and give it to banks, or engage in preferential treatment of the car companies they just took over, then you should scream from roof tops “Stop stealing my stuff!”

Most people did not seem to notice that while they thought they were standing up for America, they were actually being corralled into voting for the exact same groups that got us into this mess. Has no one noticed that their Republican Congressman who was in power when the bail outs were passed is still in power?  Did no one notice that these same people who are now clamoring for the Tea Parties affection doubled the debt?

My point to this is simple - if 80% of the people in America believe that our government is corrupt, what is the point of dividing ourselves? As long as you are preoccupied with these other topics, you won't have time to focus on the real issues. You can argue about gay marriage, abortion and other religions after we get these people out of office so they will “Stop stealing our stuff!”

John Jay Myers is running for Congress in Texas 32nd district


He serves on the Texas Executive Committee and is the Vice-Chair for the Dallas County Libertarian Party.

Here's the video, should you need it. 

Go here to donate to John Jay's campaign.  If nothing else, go to the site and look at his position statements on personal freedom and economic freedom. 

No wonder they don't want to be filmed on duty

From the Injustice Everywhere Blog:

September 4th, 2010

Since I was unable to scan for reports for extended periods of time today the number of reports for this Friday are lower than normal. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick the ones I missed up over the weekend.

With that in mind, here are the 15 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Friday, September 3, 2010:

• Seven Burkburnett Texas police officers are the subject of a federal civil rights pattern and practice lawsuit that was filed by four different people who joined their various excessive force and false arrest complaints into a single suit.

• A now-former Ravenna Nebraska police officer has been sentenced to 30-60 years in prison after convicted on five counts of 1st degree sexual assault and one count of sexual assault on a child involving a girl who was 15 when he began a sexual relationship with her that lasted about two years. This was the officer’s third trial in this case after the first two trials ended with hung juries. [0]

• A now-former Norwalk Connecticut police lieutenant has been sentenced to 30 days in jail in a plea deal for misdemeanor interfering with an investigation, coercion, and reckless endangerment charges related to allegations that he had sex with two 15-year-old boys and attempted to lure a third boy to his apartment in order to have sex. The deal came after the sexual assault case fell apart when questions about whether one of the boys was 16 at the time of the incident arose while another boy backed out of testifying, saying that he was worried about the effect it would have on his family. [1]

• Officials in Middletown Connecticut are allegedly reviewing their policies after two police officers tasered a 17-year-old student while attempting to arrest him on allegations that he stole a “Jamaican pattie” from the school cafeteria during lunch. [2]

• In an update to a story we covered yesterday, another Arvada Colorado police officer has resigned in association with an investigation into an alleged excessive force incident. This brings the total resignations associated with this case up to four officers with a fifth officer still on paid leave while under investigation. While officials are apparently refusing to release any specific details involving the case it appears as though only one of the officers engaged in excessive force but the others attempted to cover it up by failing to report it or even lying on their reports about the incident. Incidentally, two other officers have also resigned from the department recently as well but officials say those two were unrelated to this case, but refuse to say what those were about. [3]

• A Will County Illinois deputy has resigned while under investigation on allegations that sexually harassed a woman, forcibly kissing her on the mouth at one point, after she called police for help in handling problems she was having with her ex-husband. The same deputy faced similar allegations in 2007 when a woman who had shown him some apartments 15 days after he was hired complained that he attempted to kiss and grope her inside the woman’s office. No charges were filed and the sheriff refused to discipline the deputy since the conduct occurred while he was off-duty. [0]

• A Riverside County California deputy is on paid leave after being arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and spousal battery after an alleged brawl he had with a fellow deputy that left that man seriously injured with a broken jaw and several broken teeth. The spousal battery charge allegedly stems from the deputy shoving his own wife when she tried to intervene and stop the argument when it started becoming physical. [1]

• A Michigan State trooper is facing a felony assault and battery charge on allegations that he attacked a fellow trooper while both were on-duty attending a training session. No specifics about the incident have been released though. [1]

• The police chief of Quincy Illinois is accused of targeting a reporter after he wrote an article that was critical of how the police there handled a murder investigation. Public records requests appear to have yielded information that backs his claims in that the chief of police was recorded looking up DMV information on the reporter days before he was stopped for an alleged traffic violation and police radio traffic on that day appears to indicate that the officer who stopped and arrested him was actually waiting for him to get into his car and drive. [4]

• Police in Romeoville Illinois are accused of sexually harassing a former stripper who claims that officers asked her if her breasts were real when they arrested her on allegations that she made threats via text messages to someone. She further alleges that officers looked at nude pictures she had of herself on her cell phone and that she wants it back out of fear that those images might make their way onto the Internet. While the chief insists nobody looked at any images on her phone, she claims she heard the officers laugh and comment about the photos while she was being booked. [2]

• A Washington County Virginia deputy is on paid leave after a juvenile female relative filed assault and battery along with destruction of property charges against him saying that he ripped a bag that she had packed and threw her to the ground during a domestic dispute. The alleged incident is under investigation by the Department of Social Services while an internal investigation is also underway. [0]

• A Monroe County New York deputy who had previously lost a brother to a drunk driver has been charged with a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated himself after he allegedly sent his car airborne and crashed into a clump of trees while drunk, injuring a female passenger. [0]

• A Catoosa County Georgia deputy has been placed on paid leave after being arrested on drunk driving charges when he crashed into a utility pole while off-duty. [0]

• A New Brunswick New Jersey police officer has been charged with election law violations for voting in four general elections when he lived in a different town and on theft by deception charges on allegations that he defrauded an insurance company out of $500 by failing to report his divorce while continuing to list his former wife as his spouse for about two years. [0]

• And finally, a New Haven Connecticut police officer has turned himself in on a warrant for a 2nd degree harassment charge over allegations that he placed over 70 hang-up calls to a fellow officer’s cell phone over a period of several weeks. Officials are refusing to identify the alleged victim or give out any other details in the case. [1]

That's all for today, stay safe out there !

But how are we going to pay for the tax cuts?

From Townhall.com:

In recent American history three presidents, Republicans Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush—and Democrat icon John Fitzgerald Kennedy—all lowered taxes in response to economic recessions. In all three cases, more money flowed into federal coffers than expected, and all three recessions ended.

But, in the words of David Gregory of Meet The Press, how are we going to pay for a tax cut? 

In 2003, President Bush lowered income, capital gains and dividend tax rates. As a result of the Bush tax cuts, the amount of revenue flowing into the federal Treasury over the next four years surged by over 40%, or $743 billion. To illustrate how the tax cuts boosted the economy, Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual rate of just 1.7% in the six quarters before the 2003 tax cuts. In the six quarters following the tax cuts, the growth rate was a robust 4.1%. While some of that growth was naturally occurring, the sudden and dramatic turnaround in the economy began at the exact moment those pro-growth policies were enacted.

But David Gregory of Meet The Press has a good point, and he makes it every freakin' Sunday morning....How are these tax cut going to be paid for? 

Yet, despite compelling evidence, the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats intend to raise taxes beginning in 2011 by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. The top marginal tax rate will increase from 35% to 39.6%, capital gains rates will increase from 15% to 20%, and dividend rates will increase from 15% to as high as 39.6%.

Good for them !  We can't have tax cuts that favor the rich unless the tax cuts are paid for. 
Be sure to watch David Gregory on Meet The Press this Sunday.  I hope the talking points that The White House gives him haven't changed. 

The picture of the David Gregory puppet came from here. 

Happy Labor Day ! ! !

I made this Labor Day demotivational poster two years ago.
For some reason, this year is the first time that it's been passed around a lot. 
Please send it to everyone you know.  Or get an employee to do it for you. 

Hurricane Earl is about to SAVE AND CREATE SOME JOBS ! ! ! (Thank you for your continued support)

Hurricane Earl is headed toward The Carolina coast. 
Let's all hope that everyone is ok, and that property damage is minimal. 

A brief digression....  My family used to own a little shotgun house/shack/cabin on Beulah lake near the Mississippi river.  For the benefit of the Brits, Aussies, and occasional Canadians who frequent these pages, this is a shotgun house:

They're called shotgun shacks because you can fire a shotgun into the front door, and the pellets will go through all three rooms and all doorways of the house without hitting anything.  You can look in the front door and see out the back door. 

We couldn't get insurance on our shotgun shack.  Guess why.  Go ahead, take a few seconds and guess. 
No one in his right mind would have insured our lakeside cabin because it was built inside the Mississippi river levee. 
It flooded every three or four years. 
Every time water got into the cabin, my father and I would go in with a high pressure hose, wash out the mud and snakes, put down some new linoleum, nail up some new wall paneling, and declare the house "repaired".

That was then, this is now.

Hurricanes have a tendency to hit the east coast, doing a spectacular amount of damage every few years.  But that doesn't stop people from building mega-beach houses in the middle of hurricane alley.

Here's Donald Trump's beach house, courtesy of a site called NoBeachHouseBailouts.org  (Yeah, another bailout effort is underway.)

 I bet you could fire a shotgun in the front door, and hit at least 3 reality show contestants. 

Here's a photo one of Beyonce's family homes in Galveston.  Right there in the path of Hurricane Ike. 

Here's the Business Insider, reporting on what you did for Beyonce shortly after Hurricane Ike. 

Unlike say, Nic Cage or Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce Knowles is living the life. She and her husband Jay-Z are worth a reported $265 million and she's still the hottest singer on radio.
But did you know Beyonce's father Matthew Knowles owns a block of property in Galveston, Texas that was devastated by Hurricane Ike?

And did you know that FEMA is going to pay Beyonce and her father a cool $425,000 to reimburse them for close to the original value of the house? Yep, it's true, according to an excellent report from Mother Jones.

The house is one of 68 that will receive a FEMA-sponsored buyout according to KHOU.

Hell, I'd be willing to go in with a high-pressure hose and clear out the mud and snakes for much less than $425,000.00  

Here's the Frum Forum, on an effort to require you to subsidize the insurance of people who want to build McShacks in Hurricane Alley....

For the past several years, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) has been on a mission to add wind damage coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is already swimming in red ink.

His legislation, called the “Multiple Peril Insurance Act,” was slated to be voted on by the House of Representatives twice in the weeks before Congress left town for its August recess. The Democrats’ Daily Whipline announcing the floor schedule urged a yes vote on Taylor’s bill, but luckily for taxpayers, both times the leadership decided to pull the bill for lack of support.

Taylor and the Democrat leadership are concerned that it is hard for folks living in storm-prone coastal areas to get reasonably-priced wind insurance from private insurance companies.

Well, there is a very well understood reason for this. It is called RISK. Homes built in hurricane country are at high risk of exposure to wind damage.

.....A recent Houston Chronicle story revealed that between 1977 and 1995, NFIP paid out $806,591 for repeated storm damage to a suburban Houston home that was valued at $114,480.

Hurricane Earl is probably going to do a lot of damage to the Beach Houses along the Carolina coast. 
It will do much less damage to the less spectacular homes built further inland.
The beach is a foolish place for a McShotgun Mansion.
The people who built homes further inland are probably responsible for 100% of their own insurance. 

Guess who is about to get a huge FEMA payday?

Check out the aftermath, paying particular attention to who is going to pay for rebuilding. 

The Trumps and Beyonces of the Carolinas appreciate your continued support.

In which an anti-population growth nutcase gets his wish....

Go here.

Suggestion for an October political ad

Here's an idea for a great Libertarian political ad for October. 
The text is from The Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby, on the Cash For Clunkers travesty. 

IN THE market for a used car? Good luck finding a bargain: The price of “pre-owned’’ vehicles has climbed considerably over the past year. According to Edmunds.com, a website for car buyers, a three-year-old automobile today will set you back, on average, close to $20,000 — a spike of more than 10 percent since last summer. For some popular models, the increase has been much steeper. In July, a used Cadillac Escalade was going for around $35,000, or nearly 36 percent over last July’s price.



Hit the video.  Seriously.  Hit the video of these guys pumping Sodium Silicate into the engine of a Volvo, under orders from our President.  You don't have to watch, just listen while you read the rest. 
Now, back to our commentary from Mr. Jacoby. 

....Part of the answer is that the supply of used cars is artificially low, because your Uncle Sam decided last year to destroy hundreds of thousands of perfectly good automobiles as part of its hare-brained Car Allowance Rebate System — or, as most of us called it, Cash for Clunkers. That was the program under which the government paid consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in an old car and bought a new one with better gas mileage. The traded-in cars — which had to be in drivable condition to qualify for the rebate — were then demolished: Dealers were required to chemically wreck each car’s engine, and send the car to be crushed or shredded.


Crank up the volume on the video.  Hear the whine?  Does it sound like vandals destroying a car?  Destroying the economy?  Destroying employment?  DO YOU HEAR THE NOISE OF BARACKAGANDAN LUNACY?????
Congress and the Obama administration trumpeted Cash for Clunkers as a triumph — the president pronounced it “successful beyond anybody’s imagination.’’ Which it was, if you define success as getting people to take “free’’ money to make a purchase most of them are going to make anyway, while simultaneously wiping out productive assets that could provide value to many other consumers for years to come. By any rational standard, however, this program was sheer folly.

Briefly cut away to a clip of some obviously low-income people wandering through a used car lot.  Then go back to the shrieking Volvo. 

Of the 700,000 cars purchased during the clunkers frenzy, the estimated net increase in sales was only 125,000. Each incremental sale thus ended up costing the taxpayers a profligate $24,000.

Show a Cash For Clunkers-era clip of some Yuppies driving a new Prius out of a parking lot.  Be sure they've transferred their Obama bumpersticker from the Clunker to the Prius.  Then go back to the whining Volvo. 

Even on environmental grounds, Cash for Clunkers was an exorbitant dud. Researchers at the University of California-Davis calculated that the reduction of carbon dioxide attributable to the program cost no less than $237 per ton. In contrast, carbon emissions credits cost about $20 per ton in international markets.


The whole carbon credits scam is environmentalist bullshit, but some people believe in it.  Kinda like Catholics used to believe in purchasing Indulgences.  Let it stay in the ad. 

Using Department of Transportation figures, the Associated Press calculated that replacing inefficient clunkers with new cars getting higher mileage would reduce CO2 emissions by around 700,000 tons a year — less than Americans emit in a single hour. Likewise, the projected reduction in gasoline use amounted to about as much as Americans go through in 4 hours. (And that’s only if you assume — contrary to historical experience — that fuel consumption decreases when fuel efficiency rises.)

When all is said and done, Cash for Clunkers was a deplorable exercise in budgetary wastefulness, asset destruction, environmental irrelevance, and economic idiocy. Other than that, it was a screaming success.

Cut to the 3:55 mark on the video.  Watch the guy with the fire extinguisher.  Listen to the vandals giggle.  Cut to a graph of declining employment.  Cut to a quick graph of declining home sales.  Cut to a quick graph of increased automobile prices.  Then go to one more voiceover.

Do you really want to send the people who did this back to Washington? 
My name is The Whited Sepulchre, and I approved this message. 

Dutch government to close 8 prisons - Not enough criminals

From Race Hochdorf's Facebook page, comes a link to the MPP Blog:

Netherlands To Close Prisons; Not Enough Criminals

For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed — falsely — that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this:

The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. Officials attribute the shortage of prisoners to a declining crime rate.

Just for fun, let’s compare the Netherlands to California. With a population of 16.6 million, the Dutch prison population is about 12,000. With its population of 36.7 million, California should have a bit more than double the Dutch prison population. California’s actual prison population is 171,000.

So, whose drug policies are keeping the streets safer?

If marijuana did not exist, the Prison Guards Union, the Prison Construction Lobby, the Parole Officers, and the SEIU would have to invent it.  God, what a waste of lives, money, and taxes, all in the name of "saving and creating jobs".