And yes, the government is big enough to....

If a government is big enough to control health care, it's big enough to prohibit gun ownership.

If a government is big enough to prohibit gun ownership, it's big enough to control marriage.

If a government is powerful enough to outlaw gay and lesbian marriage, it's probably big enough to print worthless money to pay off its debts.

If a government is arrogant enough to flood the market with devalued currency, it probably won't hesitate to involve us in expensive foreign wars.

If a government is big enough to get into overseas adventures, it's probably big enough to staff military bases in 46 other countries.

If a government has 750 military bases overseas, it's probably irresponsible enough to burden its citizens with Eleven Trillion Dollars in debt.

If a government overreaches enough to burden each taxpayer with $40,000 in debt, it's big enough to protect its Federal Reserve system from an audit.

If a government is powerful enough to shelter its reserve banks, it's powerful enough to bail out favored industries and Troubled Assets.

If a government is arrogant enough to bail out campaign supporters with your money, that government won't hesitate to proscribe what substances you can and can't consume, ingest, or inhale.

If a government overreaches enough to outlaw recreational drug use, it won't hesitate to define how your children can be educated.

If a government is large enough to ban home schooling, it's big enough to set quotas and taxes on all commodities that enter its borders.

If a government is big enough to protect favored industries by putting ridiculous tariffs on imports, that same government is big enough to control your healthcare decisions.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

They're counting on continued division.

The Evolution Of God, by Robert Wright

For the next few days, Andrew Sullivan has turned his site, the Daily Dish. over to Robert Wright, author of "The Evolution Of God".

I'm about halfway through the book, and it's pure, undiluted greatness.

Brilliant.

Since I'm not through with the book, I'm not going to attempt a summary. Here's a good one, though, from a Disciples Of Christ minister in Troy, Michigan.

The idea that God has evolved may be off-putting to some and welcomed by others. How one responds to this idea may depend both on what is meant by the phrase and where one stands in regards to the idea of God. A believer may take this idea differently than will an unbeliever. Philip Clayton, in his book Adventures in the Spirit (Fortress, 2008) encourages believers in God to welcome dialog with science and philosophy, and not to fear any challenging implications to faith. It is with that sense of openness that I came to Robert Wright’s fascinating study of the evolution of the idea of God, from its origins in hunter/gather societies to the development of the great religions – especially the three Abrahamic religions. Wright admits that he approached this study with an agnostic sensibility. Indeed, the focus here is not on whether God exists, but how humans have envisioned and approached the idea of God. His is a materialist description, assuming that ideas of faith have evolved because they fulfill a role in society. Indeed, when he speaks of specific religious expressions he takes a rather minimalist view – that is Jesus said and did little of what has been ascribed to him, and the stories of early Judaism, from Abraham to Moses, likely did not happen.

Wright will be posting on the Daily Dish for the rest of this week. Go there.

Caption Contest - Strange Bedfellows Edition

I need a caption for this picture, which I found on Andrew Ian Dodge's site, Dodgeblogium.

I argued with the caption committee about this, but Leonidas won last week's caption contest. I felt that Leonidas's entry didn't properly explain the baby in the bathwater. The decrees of the competition committee must be obeyed. So congrats, Leonidas.

Save The Earth - Buy A New Hummer

This is the official list of the top 10 new vehicles purchased under the Cash For Clunkers program.

1. Ford Focus
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota Prius
5. Ford Escape
6. Toyota Camry
7. Dodge Caliber
8. Hyundai Elantra
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevy Cobalt

Now that is a wholesome looking list, wouldn't you say? Except for the Ford Escape (and maybe the Civic) it reeks of earth-saving virtue.
The downside is that it's the government's list you're looking at, and therefore it's total horse crap.

On a list like this, do you think it's honest to distinguish between the Ford F-150 with seats of rich Corinthian leather, and the F-150 with seats carved from the tanned, preserved buttocks of gullible Democrats? And dilute the sales of the F-150 by acting like those are two different vehicles?
Should Hummers with radio stations preset to National Socialist Radio, Air America, and 1360 AM Rational Radio count as different makes and models from the Hummers with stations preset to right wing AM rants?
Please stay with me. This is good stuff.

Here's the real list, according to Edmunds, a respected auto industry sales guide:
1. Ford Escape
2. Ford Focus
3. Jeep Patriot
4. Dodge Caliber
5. Ford F-150
6. Honda Civic
7. Chevrolet Silverado
8. Chevrolet Cobalt
9. Toyota Corolla
10.Cobalt Ford Fusion

Wonder why the lists look so different? Here's CNN:

For example, the Ford Escape is available in six different versions including two- and four-wheel drive and hybrid versions. The government counts each version as a different vehicle using guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency. Only the front wheel drive, non-hybrid version made the government's top ten list.

The Ford Escape crossover SUV, instead of being the seventh-most popular vehicle under the program, as the government ranked it, was actually the best seller, according to Edmunds.com. The government pegged the Ford Focus as the top seller.

But wait, there's more ! ! ! Want to get $3,500 off the price of a Hummer, virtually synonymous with gas-guzzling American excess ????

But will buying a new Hummer H-3, Chevy Suburban or Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup really reduce America's craving for crude? Somebody thinks so, because they're all eligible new cars under the Cash for Clunkers program, which gives a $3,500 to $4,500 credit to car buyers trading in older gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars.

But a close look at what qualifies as "more fuel efficient" in the program reveals loopholes big enough to drive a GMC Yukon through (yes, that's eligible, too.) The guidelines in the House-passed bill state that large SUVs and trucks, typically considered gas guzzlers in everyday conversation, qualify for the $3,500 credit, and in some cases the $4,500 credit, depending on the trade-ins that come through the door for them. New Category 2 trucks -- like the Hummer H-3, Ford Explorer, Chevy Silverado, and Toyota Tundra -- qualify if they get at least 15 MPG combined, and get at least one mile per gallon more than the car or truck being traded in.

This farce has nothing to do with saving the earth. This farce is about saving Detroit for one more election cycle.

The next time you see someone in a brand new Hummer, the neo-fascist military limo, stop and make conversation with him. Ask him how he likes it.



Tell him you hope he's happy with it. After all, you probably helped him buy it.
Fresh coats of Whitening all around to The Agitator and The Take for the links.

Give Kenneth Gladney A Beer Summit

There are rumors, nothing more than baseless unsubstantiated rumors, that a labor union has resorted to violence.



Is this really possible?

Yeah, it's possible. Kenneth Gladney, an African-American Obamacare skeptic, was beaten up by union thugs.

If you're interested you can now join a Facebook group called "Give Kenneth Gladney A Beer Summit". The Obamedic, Biden, Gladney, and Andy Stern of SEIU could all sit down in the back yard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and have a cold one. Gladney could listen to apologies from the other three, who would explain that his injuries might be temporarily painful but would stimulate the economy by creating jobs for hospital personnel.

Mau-Mauing The Flak Catchers - 2009 edition

I have no idea what point I'm trying to make with this post. Here goes....

One of the best non-fiction essays ever is Tom Wolfe's "Mau-Mauing The Flak Catchers".

Someone worthy of sainthood has typed the entire thing onto the 'Net.
Every time I read or see videos of the Town Hall confrontations about the Insurance Destruction Program, I think of Mr. Wolfe's essay.

A brief excerpt:

This man comes out , and he has that sloppy Irish look like Ed McMahon on TV, only with a longer nose. In case you'd like the local viewpoint, whites really have the noses ... enormous, you might say ... a whole bag full ... long and pointed like carrots, goobered up like green peppers, hooked like a squash, hanging off the face like cucumbers ... This man has a nose that is just on the verge of hooing over, but it doesn't quite make it.
"Have a seat, gentlemen," he says, and he motions toward the wooden chairs.
But he doesn't have to open his mouth. All you have to do is look at him and you get the picture. The man's a lifer. He's stone civil service. He has it all down from the wheatcolor Hush Puppies to the wash'n'dry semi-tab-collar shortsleeves white shirt. Those wheatcolor Hush Puppies must be like some kind of fraternal garb among the civil-service employees, because they all wear them. They cost about $4.99, and the second time you move your toes, the seams split and the tops come away from the soles. But they all wear them. The man's shirt looks like he bought it at the August end-of-summer sale at the White Front. It is one of those shirts with pickets on both sides. Sticking out of the pockets and running across his chest he has a lineup of ball-point pens, felt nibs, lead pencils, wax markers, such as you wouldn't believe, Paper-mates, Pentels, Scriptos, Eberhard Faber Mongol 482's, Dri-Marks, Bic PM-29's, everything. They are lined up across his chest like campaign ribbons. He pulls up one of the wooden chairs and sits down on it. Onle he sits down on it backwards, straddling the seat and hooking his arms and his chin over the back of the chari, like the head foreman in the bunkhouse. It's like saying, "We don't stand on ceremony around here. This is a shirtsleeve operation."
"I'm sorry that Mr. Johnson isn't here today," he says, "but he's not in the city. He's back in Washington meeting some important project deadlines. He's very concerned, and he would want to meet with you people if he were here if he were here, but right now I know you'll understand that the most important thing he can do for you is to push these projects through in Washington."

The man keeps his arms and his head hung over the back of his chair, but he swings his hands up in the air from time to time to emphasize a point, first one hand and then the other. It looks like he's giving wig-wag signals to the typing pool. The way he hangs himself over the back of the chair--that keeps up the funky shirtsleeve-operation number. And throwing his hands around--that's dynamic ... It says, "We're hacking our way through the red tape just as fast as we can."

"Now I'm here to try to answer any questions I can," he says, "but you have to understand that I'm only speaking as an individual, and so naturally none of my comments are binding, but I'll answer any questions I can, and if I can't answer them, I'll do what I can to get the answers for you." And then it dawns on you, and you wonder why it took so long for you to realize it. This man is the flak catcher. His job is to catch the flak for the No. 1 man. He's like the professional mourners you can hire in Chinatown. They have certified wailers, professional mourners, in Chinatown, and when your loved one dies, you can hire the professional mourners to wail at the funeral and show what a great loss to the community the departed is. In the same way this lifer is ready to catch whatever flak you're sending up.
It doesn't matter what bureau they put him in.
It's all the same.
Poverty, Japanese imports, valley fever, tomato-crop parity, partial disability, home loans, second-probate accounting, the Interstate 90 detour change order, lockouts, secondary boycotts, G.I. alimony, the Pakistani quota, cinch mites, the Tularemic Loa loa, veterans' dental benefits, workmen's compensation, suspended excise rebates--whatver you're angry about, it doesn't matter he's there to catch the flak.
He's a lifer.

So if you're going out to a Town Hall meeting this weekend, be gentle.

There are polite, Christian ways to let the Flak Catchers know that everything they're advocating is batshit crazy.

Here's a video of the AARP's Flak Catchers getting hit with flak, shrapnel, and anti-aircraft fire at a meeting in Dallas a few days ago.
Warning: This gets ugly. Especially the spelling.



Don't bother telling me that most of these folks are already on Medicare and Medicaid, and wouldn't dream of parting with it. That way I won't bother telling you that both programs are out of money.

A note to Tyna with SAIA, mostly about the YRC Worldwide discount

One of our sales reps sent me a link to this WSJ article today:

As YRC Struggles, Rivals Stalk Clients

BY ALEX ROTH
YRC Worldwide Inc., one of the nation's biggest trucking companies, has been struggling in recent months as the recession has sapped demand for freight services. Now, in an industry known for its hardball tactics, YRC's competitors are piling on, trying to pick off its clients by telling them the company's weakness could put their shipments at risk.

The competitors are indeed piling on. I have to kick sales reps off the steps just to get in the office each morning.

YRC is the largest player in so-called less-than-truckload shipping, in which goods from several customers are consolidated on trucks and delivered through a nationwide series of distribution centers. The company, which operates the Yellow and Roadway trucking lines, has a 20% share of ...

And that's where the WSJ "preview" of the article ends, except for paid WSJ subscribers. Unless, of course, you have sense enough to use an internet search engine. You plug all of that last sentence into Google, and you can find where an outfit called Cargonews Asia has already scraped it (without attribution). Here's some more:

....has a 20% share of the $51 billion-a-year business. Though it says it can weather the economic storm, YRC's financial situation has become increasingly dire, amid losses stemming in part from what analysts say are underperforming acquisitions and problems integrating its national route networks. Last week it reported a 35 percent drop in second-quarter freight tonnage, a steeper decline than those of many rivals.

YRC's competitors can smell blood in the water. This is a huge opportunity for them. They take me to lunch, and at some point they give me the look that Baptist preachers used to have when they asked "If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?" But instead, they ask "What are you going to do if YRC goes under?" "Are you going to have a lot of freight stuck on their docks?" "How have YRC's service levels been?"

Roadway had little or no debt when Yellow Freight bought them out a few years ago. Both were (and still are) union companies. The problems with integrating their national networks aren't an exaggeration, and neither are the issues with underperforming acquisitions. (Do a bit o'Googling on USF Bestway.) I haven't even mentioned the Teamsters Union, have I ?

If YRC goes under, that will leave ABF as the only union LTL carrier. I never thought I would see this day. (Do another bit o'Googling, and you'll also see that their competitors aren't shy about advertising that they have non-union drivers. I wonder why.) Despite my anti-union bias, I hope YRC can find a way to survive.

Here's some other stuff from further down the article:

SAIA, of Johns Creek, Georgia, sent some YRC customers a letter offering prices "equal to a 12 percent discount off the current pricing the [customer] currently has in place with any carrier" in the YRC group. A Saia official said the company wasn't necessarily singling out YRC customers and also offers rate cuts to customers of other competitors.

Note to Tyna with SAIA.....I haven't gotten that letter yet, and I'm looking forward to getting one. We need to talk. If ANYBODY gets another 12%, WE get another 12%.

Big Brother needs your help.

From the White House website:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Big Brother can't keep up with the discussion. He doesn't say what he's going to do with the information. Big Brother just wants to know.

I think Obama's Insurance Destruction program will be a disaster. I believe that old people will be euthanized. I think that people with pre-existing conditions will be forced to sell their pets to buy medicine. I believe that Doctors who treat people outside of Obamacare will be propped against a wall and shot. I believe that people merely wanting a physical will have to bring sleeping bags and multiple meals with them to the Doctor's office.

There. I've said it. Once again, here's the email address to report Enemies Of The State spreading counter-revolutionary doctrines amongst the proletariat: flag@whitehouse.gov

You know what to do. A couple of hundred emails per concerned citizen would be appropriate.

What a bunch of earnest, over-reaching dipwads.

A fresh coat of Whitening to Neal Boortz for the info.

John Jay Myers, Snickers, and Healthcare

My friend John Jay Myers, recent candidate for Dallas City Council, and an outspoken opponent of the Dallas Convention Center Whorehouse, sent me an email this afternoon.


John Jay calls this his Snickers Speech on healthcare.
I've added one more category of "solutions" at the end, simply because I can't leave good things alone.

Okay, there is a Snickers bar in front of you....You go to grab it, and I say "hold on there big fella... that will be $20". You say "$20 for Snicker bar? That is way way TOO expensive!"

Now... here come the solution(s)

The Socialist/Democrat solution:
We realize it's too expensive for you (notice the addition of "for you") so we will charge each of your friends $1 and then you can get that $20 Snickers bar for only $1.
Now your friends are a little upset....but that settles that... we have now made it "affordable".

The Libertarian Solution:
We realize it's TOO expensive. So we keep regulations out of it, keep the government out of it, open the free market, and next thing you know people are offering you Snicker bars for $10 then $5 then a Three Musketeer for $2 then a Snickers for $1 and then some guy shows up offering you a Snugget bar for .50 cents. (I have no idea what a snugget is...but it sounds delicious.)

The only reason the government wants to be involved in health care is because they want to maintain high prices for their lobbyist friends. High drug prices, high insurance prices, high care prices.

I would be way more accepting of asking the 50 states to each come up with their own plans, some would be "no plan at all", some would probably be pure socialism. But then we would have 50 states testing out different models... and we would find out soon which ones work best, just as we can now use California as a nice model for what not to do. But why go to the Federal Government right away?

Now why do we seem so upset, since on CNN they are saying "there isn't even a plan yet to be upset about"? Because we know when they come up with one, it will be introduced at 12:00 midnight, distributed at 3:00 am, and voted on at 10:00 am.

So, we need to make our voices heard now!

John Jay Myers
http://www.johnjaymyers.com/

John Jay is one of the smartest people I know, he's a good speaker, and he runs a very succesful business. But I can't believe he forgot to include the folks who claim to be the opposition party:

The Republican Solution

We know the Snickers bar is expensive, but it costs a lot to keep it safe since it's so close to our border with Pakistan. If you don't give me money, Gays and Lesbians are going to get married. Did you know that they won't let you say a prayer before a public high school football game? I'm the only candidate willing to reach across the aisle in a true spirit of bi-partisan cooperation. The Snickers bar was less expensive when they didn't teach Evolution.

Snickers pics from here and here and here.

Worst place for a jingoistic bumpersticker

Lost Your Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign !

Whether you agree with the sentiment or not, there are better places to make this statement than on a car from Huggins Honda. I'm just sayin'....

Like so many other good things in life, this was at Home Depot.

The Dumbest Fools That God Put Guts In

This is freakin' criminal.
The thing that makes the world better now, compared to 100 years ago, is our "stuff".
Once "stuff" is created, it doesn't have to be re-created for each new user.
Outside of Washington, this is called Progress.
These really are the dumbest fools that God put guts in.

This is a video of how the "clunkers" are destroyed.
Has anyone on that Ship Of Fools considered what this practice does to the used car market, the market that poor people rely on? (As supply drops, prices rise, etc. ?)
Has anyone in that Parliament Of Whores considered the value to the environment of saving 5 mpg, vs the environmental costs of destroying and creating a perfectly good vehicle?

Make your kids leave the room, turn down the volume, and watch this (a fresh coat of Whitening to the GOC for the link.)



I've written 3 consecutive posts about this abortion, and every time I think I'm at a loss for words, something else about it comes to mind. Or I find that Denny at the GOC has posted some Vandal Porn like this.
Unbelieveable.

Cash For Clunkers - Another Rant

I just watched The McLaughlin Group segment that ran yesterday. Eleanor Clift said that the Cash For Clunkers program was highly "succesful".

Larry Summers, who was a Free Market kind of guy until he went to work for The Teleprompter, was on Meet The Press an hour later. He pointed to the Cash For Clunkers programs as something they'd done that was "succesful".

The follow-up on Meet The Press was Harold Ford, Jr. (Mommy Party - Tennessee) and J.C. Watts (formerly Daddy Party - Oklahoma). Ford said that Cash For Clunkers was "succesful".

I think we can safely say that the Talking Points Memo for Sunday morning, August 2nd, included instructions to call the Cash For Clunkers program succesful.

Those three acted like the administration had performed miracles along the line of the loaves and fishes.

Let's break it down into comparable situations, shall we?

If Tim Geithner and I stand outside Wal-Mart with guns (it's legal when Timmy does it) and we force everyone who passes by to give us some of their money, and then we give $7.00 of that money to everyone who is going to purchase a pair of jeans (if they'll trade in one of their old pair), we'll probably be succesful. But only if you're looking at nothing but the number of jeans sold.

If Tim Geithner and I stand outside Home Depot with guns and we require everyone who passes by to give us money, and then we give $40.00 of that money to everyone who is going to purchase a lawnmower (if they'll trade in their old one), we'll probably be succesful. But only if you're looking at nothing but the number of lawnmowers sold.

If Tim Geithner and I stand outside Neiman Marcus....$2,000....purchase a chocolate covered skink....we'll probably be succesful. ....the number of chocolate covered skinks sold.

Can you imagine the furor that would erupt if the nation learned that Neiman Markups, Home Depot, or, God help 'em, Wal-Mart, had actually lobbied for Timmy and me to execute this robbery? Wouldn't there be protesters in Bentonville, Arkansas by now????

So why in the heck aren't people totally outraged over this wealth transfer to Detroit? Beats the heck out of me.

Barack Obama really is our shepherd, and we are The Sheeple of his pastures.

Cash For Clunkers - Name That Economic Fallacy !

This is from John Stossel's ABC News blog. (The essay, not the picture.)

I've never seen this guy on TV since I don't watch much that isn't Tivo'd, but I'm a fan of his editorials, books, and website. It's sort of like being a fan of Winston Churchill's paintings, or Billy Bob Thornton's music. Here's Stossel on the Cash for Clunkers program:

Because sometimes, one billion isn’t enough.
The Obama Administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program offers to buy used cars for $3,500 -$4,500 with taxpayer money. The government then destroys the “inefficient” used car. Not surprisingly, a lot of people want to sell their junk cars to the government. So many, in fact, that the $1 billion program has already run out of money.
Now it appears that Congress will ask not just for another billion, but another TWO billion. Look how generous Congress is with your money!

The idea is that by destroying used cars, people will buy new cars, which creates jobs. But this commits the “broken window fallacy”. That $3 billion taken from taxpayers to, essentially, destroy used cars now cannot be put towards college, or a new home, or new clothes, or anything else. Some used cars are no longer available for poor consumers to buy. If the “new car” market is helped by “Cash for Clunkers”, every other market is hurt because that $3 billion cannot be spent on anything else.

Here's Stossel's concise explanation of the Broken Windows fallacy, from an earlier post:

Economists call this the "broken window fallacy." In the 19th century, French economist Frederic Bastiat illustrated it with the story of a boy who breaks a shop window. At first the townspeople lament the loss, but then someone points out that the shopkeeper will have to spend money to replace the window. What the window maker earns, he will soon spend elsewhere. As that money circulates through town, new prosperity will bloom.
The fallacy, of course, lies in the fact that if the window had not been broken, the shopkeeper would have "replaced his worn-out shoes … or added another book to his library." The town gains nothing from the broken window.
This logic is lost on the stimulus promoters. I'm surprised they don't suggest that we prevent recessions by breaking lots of windows.

This is similar to the forklift program we took advantage of at my employer, Jukt Micronics. The government gave us a huge rebate in exchange for trading in our old planet-warming forklifts for new ones that also warm the planet, but not as quickly. That was their logic, anyway.

Which finally gets me to my point. We're dealing with a group of Chicago machine politicians who are looting The Treasury and giving the money to their contributors - in this case, the UAW and the Big 3 auto makers. They use the wholesome, environmentally-friendly bullshit to convince The Sheeple that this isn't a scam.

But isn't it an article of faith in the Mommy Party that we need fewer cars on the road and more use of public transportation?

Instead of the Broken Windows fallacy, that would make it a case of Anarchic Hand Syndrome.

Or perhaps Craniofacial Duplication.

And what if the money to repair the Broken Windows doesn't exist, and has to be printed on the spot? Instead of the Broken Windows fallacy, isn't this the Monopoly Money fallacy?

Anyway, I know something is wrong here, but what is it?

The Broken Windows Fallacy?

Anarchic Hand Syndrome?

Craniofacial Duplication?

or The Monopoly Money Fallacy?

Sometimes things are so wrong, one explanation can't cover it.

A Free Market proposal for healthcare

I think my doctor does a good job.
I think his nurse practitioners do a good job. The other nurses who work there seem competent.

I like my insurance company. I think most insurance companies do a good job, the notable exception being Anthem Health.


(Please allow me a brief digression while I do something to attract Googlers..... Anthem Health Worst Insurance Company. Anthem Health Ripoff. Warnings Against Anthem Health. Anthem Health Sucks. Anthem Health Poor Quality Insurance. Anthem Health delays paying claims.) There. I feel better now.

Why does Washington want to interfere in the relationship between my doctor and me? Because they don't have enough control over it. Most people want wealth; people in Washington generally want power - a subject for another post.

I would prefer a single-payer system. I pay a doctor.

The most disheartening thing about the current healthcare debate is the lack of Free Market proposals like this one:

Flood the market with healthcare. (I work in the shipping, logistics and freight industry, and that qualifies me to comment on these issues. I also know what happened to prices when shipping, telephones and airlines were deregulated.)


Why are things expensive? Because they are scarce.


Why are doctors scarce? Ask the American Medical Association. If you control the supply of something, you control its price. As long as medical schools don't turn out too many doctors, healthcare will be expensive.

Next question.... Have you ever met a nurse who didn't believe she/he could do 90% of what doctors do? I haven't.


So why can't someone voluntarily go to a nurse for treatment? Or for that matter, why can't someone go to a neighbor who has done a little reading on the subject? Once again, ask the American Medical Association. They limit the supply of people approved to do the job. They put all those regulations in place for your own good, you know. A comparison of savings accounts might also reveal that they're making more money than you.


What about drugs? Ha! Talk to a pharmaceutical rep. By the time a medication is certified, licensed, pedigreed, registered, lawyer-proofed and put through trials, the pharmaceutical companies have spent somewhere around a billion dollars in development. Is there anyone out there economically illiterate enough to state that this expense doesn't stifle the development of new drugs?


What would happen to the cost of healthcare if we simply opened the doors for more practitioners? If I have the flu, I know going into the doctor's office that I'm going to leave with a prescription for Ampicillin and a warning that I need to lose some weight. Is there a nurse out there who could do the same job in less time for about twenty bucks?


Yes. If you choose not to visit this nurse, that's your choice. I am the owner of me. You are the owner of you.


Doctors whine and moan about the high cost of malpractice insurance. What would happen to the cost of medical care if patients were given a lower-cost option in exchange for signing an "I won't sue the doctor" waiver?


The internet (and I assume TV and newspapers) has been abuzz with editorializing about healthcare being a "right". Maybe it is, but there are different ways of stating this right. I believe that I have the right to make my own decisions about medical care. If those decisions involve University of Texas M.D.'s, Homeopathic remedies, Santeria goat sacrifices, or even something as risky as a V.A. hospital, the choice should be mine.


But, you ask, what if something goes wrong? What if there are bad nurses, bad drugs, or ineffective Santeria priests? What will we do if we're not all in the nurturing bosom of Uncle Sam?


We will do this:


Avoid Anthem Health. Anthem Health's computer system BLOWS. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ANTHEM HEALTH.


I think the savings would be enormous.


Pics from here and from this guy who also had issues with Anthem Health.

Joe Biden Said That ????

It was bound to happen.

There is now a website called Joe Biden Said That?

George Bush, Bush Light, and helping feeble race-mongering Democrats down the steps

An odd thing happened before the recent Beer Summit at The White House.


To end the recent unpleasantness between Sergeant James Crowley and Harvard's African-American Studies professor Henry Louis Gates, our President, (now known on these pages as Bush Light - the beer that never lifts you up, and always lets you down...)

....decided to have Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowder over to the White House for a Bud Light.
Charges of racism, racial profiling, and stupidity had been thrown around. We'll never know exactly what happened during the arrest at Gates' home, but the black officer who was on the scene with Crowley has his opinions. Crowley and Gates left the meeting "agreeing to disagree", and I bet Gates is going to milk the incident on the academic lecture/vaudeville/victimology circuit for the rest of his life.

But I digress. Here's a picture of Obama, Professor Gates, and the supposedly racist cop leaving the White House for the "can't we all just get along" Beer Summit.

Note the compassion and empathy that Bush Light is showing to The Perfesser, who has to walk with a cane. Take note of the racist cop.

Amazing. Truly amazing. Bush Light can't get even the smallest details right, and half the nation still wants to trust him with most of their money and all of their health.

Here's a picture the older, non-light, budget-busting Bush with Senator Robert Byrd (Mommy Party, West Virginia), a former community organizer for the Ku Klux Klan.

Bush was a financial disaster, but at least he knew how to help a feeble race-mongering Democrat down the steps.

Fresh coats of Whitening to The American Thinker, Hot Air, and LGF2 for the info and pics.

British retailers against sharp revolving wheels attached to a handle designed to slice through baked crust, cheese, and the toppings of your choice

First they came for our rifles.
Then they came for our pistols.
Then they came for our kids' playground equipment.
And then the diving boards at public swimming pools.

Then they came for our sharp pieces of metal that don't have "a blunt round nose".

(I don't make up any of this stuff; I just condense what I read elsewhere....)

And now if you're in the U.K., they're coming for your sharp revolving wheels attached to a handle designed to slice through baked crust, cheese, and the toppings of your choice.
Yes, British retailers are now asking for I.D. before you purchase a freakin' pizza cutter.

Here's a corporate shill for the Marks and Spencer retail chain:

Staff are required to ask for identification from any customer who tries to buy alcohol or a bladed item and appears younger than 25.

A spokesman said: "Our policy is not to sell knives or bladed articles to persons under 18, and a pizza-wheel fits into to that category. We are a responsible retailer, and our customers expect us to be vigilant in providing blades if people appear to be underage."

By the time I left elementary school, I had used axes, knives, tomahawks, hatchets, trenching tools, shovels, pruning shears, and razors - many of them for their intended purpose. Most of us carried pocket knives to school. And now the British don't trust anyone under 25 with a Pizza Cutter ????

This is the nation that produced Admiral Nelson, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, James Bond (I know, fiction), and Benny Hill.

Unbelieveable. The glory has departed.

What Are You Prepared To Do ?

I run a small trucking company as part of my Jukt Micronics shipping manager job.
The biggest challenge is finding good drivers.

It's hard to find people you can trust with a company credit card. It doesn't matter how well they drive, or how well they can find their way around if you can't trust them to go out on the road without blowing the bank. Say you've got a new driver, and the only load you have for him is a long way off, someplace truly horrible like Seattle or Key West or Bangor, and you have no choice but to put him on that load. You're nervous the first couple of days, but then you start to relax.

Then you start getting emails from the credit card company....


Mr. Sepulchre,
Employee number _____ has charged $_____ at Cracker Barrel, The Interstate 20 Beer Barn, Majestic Liquor, Uncle John's House Of Babes, and Larry Flynt's Hustler Club.
Thank you for using American Express, where we charge higher interest rates than the New Jersey Mafia.

So you've got this driver out there 3 days from home. He's spending your money like there's no tomorrow. Unless you bring in The Law (at a huge expense) there's almost no way to get him out of the truck unless he cooperates. You call him and tell him that somebody's gotta pay for all this spending, and it ain't gonna be you. The driver claims that there's no problem. He says that there aren't any unnecessary expenses going on the company credit card.
When the driver gets home in 4 more days, he's going to be fired. You know it, and the driver knows it.

So once he gets unloaded in Seattle, do you find him a backhaul in hopes of breaking even on the trip? What if the backhaul keeps the idiot out on the road for a few days longer than absolutely necessary, and gives him even more chances to blow your money? Or do you bring him back into the barn as soon as possible?

What if, just what if, he arrogantly told several other people how much he planned to spend while he was out of the road? What if it was a staggering amount, an amount equal to years' worth of revenue?

The man has your credit card. He's running wild with something you've let him borrow.

What are you prepared to do?

Pics came from here and here and here. Picture of projected Obama deficits from The Washington Post.

Claude Marshall LaMastus - R.I.P.

One of my best friends ever was the late, great Stan Norwood of Drew, Mississippi. We met in kindergarten. Stan lived next door to a guy named Claude Marshall LaMastus, who was about 12 years older than we were.

This is the story of how, back in the early 1980's, Stan got Claude to the hospital after a uhmmm....hunting trip. But first, some background.

When we were about 14 or 15, Claude Marshall had a terrible car accident. He was coming home from Clarksdale, ran off the road, flipped his car, and was thrown through the sun roof. Claude was paralyzed from the waist down.

Claude hadn’t had much to do with Stan and me until the accident. But once Claude was confined to his wheelchair or crutches, we became his chauffeurs, running buddies, duck and dove retrievers and all-around gophers. I helped him with his physical therapy in the swimming pool a few times. In exchange, Claude let us hang out with him, let us make mix tapes from his record collection, etc etc etc. This was at the beginning of the “Outlaw Country” era, and Claude Marshall and Mike Ellis taught me to love that music. Stan and I were marching band and choir geeks; Claude was a semi-rich guy with some money. Remember, he was 12 years older. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

That’s all you need to know to appreciate this story. I’m going to tell it the way that Stan told it to me. I’m sure that I’m going to get some of the details wrong. If anyone in Drew Mississippi wants to correct or improve on this, please use the comment field.

One day in the middle of winter, Stan and Claude were going down the Sunflower River in a fishing boat, ambushing ducks. It was freezing cold. Claude was in the front of the boat with a shotgun and Stan was running the outboard motor. I don’t know the reason why, but Claude decided it was his turn to drive.

Imagine a paraplegic in full wintertime camouflage trying to get from the front of a metal fishing boat to the back. It was a doomed idea to begin with, and it was complicated by all the guns. Ever since the accident, Claude had become a little bit paranoid. Maybe he felt helpless without the full use of his legs. Most of the time he was armed with an amazing array of guns, ammo, and knives, and that was just for riding around town. I remember thinking that he looked like a cross between Franklin Roosevelt and Pancho Villa.

When Claude had scooted about halfway down the length of the fishing boat, one of his guns went off. The bullet entered one of his legs, and left a heck of an exit wound. The exit wound was nowhere near as bad as the entry wound the bullet made in the hull of the boat. Yes, Claude Marshall had shot himself AND the boat. Because of his paralysis and various pain medications, the gunshot wound didn’t bother Claude very much. Stan started freaking out because the boat was taking on water.

Once Claude got shot, they abandoned the plan to change drivers, turned the boat around, and headed toward the pickup and boat trailer which were about two miles away.

They were bailing as fast as they could but the boat was taking on more and more water. They started throwing out ballast. They threw out the ice chest. They got rid of the seat cushions. They got rid of some fishing poles and paddles and tackle boxes, and they threw out the extra gas tank. They were still taking on water.

When they were about halfway to the truck, Stan looked down at his remaining fuel tank, the one hooked to the motor. The needle was banging on empty, which was enough for Stan to imagine that the engine was starting to sputter. Various obscenities were shouted at the heavens. The motherhood of all gas tanks was questioned. Stan turned the boat around and went back to try to find the gas tank they’d just thrown overboard.

Fortunately, the tank had a half inch of air in the top and was bobbing in the current when they got back to it. Stan fished it out, swapped the tanks, and then made another effort to get back to the truck. In the meantime, they were both wet up to their thighs and were freezing.

Stan finally got them back to the truck. He backed the trailer into the water and started winching the boat (with Claude in it) onto the trailer. Once that was done, Stan had to figure out a way to get Claude into the pickup.

“Hell, don’t worry about me,” Claude said. “I can ride back here. Just get me to the hospital.”
Stan didn’t feel right about it, but he got in the truck, turned up the heat, and pulled the boat and Claude Marshall LaMastus up the riverbank. Once they got onto paved roads, Stan pulled over and suggested they stop at someone’s house, someone who might help get Claude into the cab.

Claude refused. So Stan got back in the truck and pulled Claude and the boat (in sub-freezing weather) all the way to the Ruleville hospital. Stan claimed there was ice in Claude’s beard by the time they got there. I can imagine the looks they got going down Highway 49, looking like a “Field & Stream” Christmas Parade Float.

When they got to the Emergency Room entrance, which had a loading dock, Stan removed the outboard motor from the boat, and backed the boat straight to the dock so they could unload Claude.

Stan said he hung around the Emergency Room for a little while, figuring they’d want to ask him some questions. Nobody ever did.

It was the Mississippi Delta. They’d seen it all before.

A few years after this happened, Stan Norwood was killed in an automobile accident between Drew and Memphis.
This afternoon I got word that Claude Marshall LaMastus was killed in a one car accident on the Drew/Merigold road.
Our world is now a much less interesting, much less colorful place. But if there’s a heaven, Stan and Claude are now shooting at low-flying angels from The Pearly Gates. They know they can't hurt anybody; they just want to keep things interesting.
My thoughts are with the LaMastus family tonight.
This is a song I first heard in Claude’s record archives. Here’s Waylon:

Caption Contest - I really can't describe this one

I need a caption for this picture.




vampE won last week's contest, simply because vampE's caption was the least insulting.

The Burning Hell, Part Eight, Tim Gets Saved

For the last couple of months I've devoted my Sunday blog space to the cinematic wonders of New Albany, Mississippi's Reverend Estus Pirkle.

Back in the mid-1970's, this guy's movies made their way through most of the Baptist churches of the southeast. Back then they were horrifying. Why? Because they were the only movies we'd ever seen about the Hell we heard preached from pulpits every Sunday.

I no longer believe in the hell for infants.
I no longer believe in the hell for Chinese 10-year-olds who die without hearing about Jesus.
I don't believe in the hell for Brazilian teenagers who die in some remote part of the Upper Amazon without access to the broadcasts of Jimmy Swaggart.
I don't believe in the hell for old men who can't believe that God created us with "original sin", then impregnated a Palestinian virgin with himself as her child so he can have himself killed as a sacrifice of himself to himself to save us from the sin that he originally condemned us to. (If you can't follow that, you're not alone.)
I've gotten to know a lot of preachers in the last few years who don't believe it either.
I don't even believe in the hell for serial killers, Chairman Mao, or Stalin. I don't believe in the justice of eternal punishment for a temporal offense.

I do believe in giving Estes Pirkle hell, though. So let's continue.

You can hit the Pirkle tab at the bottom of this post to see what's happened in previous episodes of THE BURNING HELL. In short, two hippies named Tim and Ken have rejected Brother Pirkle's theology of Hell. When they're riding away from the church, Ken has a motorcycle accident and his head is cut off, so Tim staggers back into the church for some preachin'.
Pirkle's sermon is illustrated by actors from his congregation, the B-movie troupe that followed Ron and Tim Ormond into the Christsploitation film industry, or whichever Mississippians were wandering past the set that day.
Pirkle also supports his argument with cameo appearances by Jack Hyles and Bob Gray, two famous preachers who were later accused of molesting their flocks. Especially the little ewes.

God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I ask that you, and the victims of these two witch doctors please forgive me for making that joke. Couldn't help myself.

Let's get started. If you find my commentary helpful, it continues below the final excerpt from THE BURNING HELL.



:00 An early example of waterboarding gone wrong. There are reports that Nancy Pelosi knew about this, although she denies it.

:55 Tim has hallucinations of biblical murderers.

1:10 Satan appears, looking like Cesar Romero as The Joker in the old Batman TV series.

2:30 "He's steeyull uhlaave! He's steeyull uhlaaave ! But this tahm, ah'll kill 'im !"

3:20 Tim snaps out of his Pirkle-induced trance, overcome with the vivid pulpit imagery.

4:00 The altar call begins. "Why don't you get up from where you are right now...." If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that phrase, I could outsource this website to some other bitter ex-southern baptist.

4:35 Tim kneels at the altar. In a few minutes they're going to vote him into the church, they're going to come down front and "extend the right hand of Christian fellowship", and then they're going to take up a collection to get that boy a haircut.

And that's all there is to see of THE BURNING HELL. I think next week I'm going to start dissecting another Pirkle production called "If footmen tire you, what will horses do?"

I think she's onto something.

Listen very, very closely. I think she's onto something.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

A lengthy digression on Thomas Friedman's Carbon Footprint

The "settled science" of Anthropogenic Global Warming takes yet another hit....here's the abstract of three Australian scientists who claim that any Global Warming Climate Change Climate Turbulence we've experienced throughout the last 50 years is due to Mother Nature, not people with large houses and SUV's. I doubt that this paper (peer-reviewed, BTW) will make much difference. The fix is in.

Speaking of large houses, here's Thomas Friedman on the subject of whatever it is we're trying to prevent by driving a Prius. Friedman has written some great books about globalization and the benefits of Free Trade. That got him booed on college campuses, and there was a pie-throwing incident by a group called The Greenwash Guerillas.



(Note to self: do some research on whether college campuses are the most likely places for attacks on free speech.)

To recover some fashion cred, Friedman then wrote "Hot, Flat, and Crowded", which basically said that the gods aren't happy with everything you're doing so they're going to heat up the earth. The Thought Police began to smile again on Friedman.

Anyway, back to evil people with large houses. Here's Thomas Friedman in the New York Times:

....this bill’s goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 is nowhere near what science tells us we need to mitigate climate change. But it also contains significant provisions to prevent new buildings from becoming energy hogs, to make our appliances the most energy efficient in the world and to help preserve forests in places like the Amazon.

Here's Thomas Friedman's house.

Where are the Greenwash Guerillas now that we really need them?

Two layers of Whitening (with a primer coat) to the good people at Small Dead Animals for the links.

Government Takes Over; Venezuela Runs Out Of Coffee

I found a site called "The Return Of Scipio" on Leonidas's blogroll.
According to Scipio, the Hugo Chavez'x Venezuela has run out of coffee.
I repeat, Venezuela has run out of coffee. They're having to import it.

Here's Scipio:

It seems Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez has been meddling with the economy again. One marvels at the mentality that can cause a nation’s most common product to become as scarce as chastity in a whorehouse. Really, one cannot swing a dead cat in Venezuela without hitting some coffee planter. It would be as if Cuba were running out of sugar—oh wait, it is. Castro and Chavez have the same understanding of economics....

The entire discipline of economics since Adam Smith has escaped Chavez. Why could this idiot not open any Econ 101 text and turn to ‘price controls?’ Here are the results of Chavez meddling in areas far above his pay grade.

On-and-off food shortages for years have dogged the government of President Hugo Chavez, a former paratrooper who has nationalized several industries and expropriated land as part of his socialist revolution.

Hit the link to read the whole thing. It's worth it.

The Return Of Scipio: "Writing not for fortune or fame, but because God is watching."

Ever have one of these days?

Have you ever been in charge of implementing a totally ridiculous program in your workplace? Have you ever known ahead of time which employees would give you a hard time over it?
Have you ever had to put on your game face, and charge ahead with the rollout, even though you knew that every word you were saying was totally insane?

I've had to do that before.
So has Rep. Russ Carnahan, (Mommy Party - Missouri)



Our thoughts and prayers go out to Rep. Carnahan, and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

The Beer That Never Lifts You Up, And Always Lets You Down

To our friends who voted for The Teleprompter Jesus....
Let's start with this expression of disappointment from Talking Points Memo:

"....allowing detention without trial creates a dangerous loophole in our justice system that mimics the Bush administration's abusive approach to fighting terrorism."

Then there's Charles Krauthammer, who has been pissed off since Election Day:

If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program.The latest flip-flop is the restoration of military tribunals. During the 2008 campaign, Obama denounced them repeatedly, calling them an "enormous failure." Obama suspended them upon his swearing in. Now they're back.

....Observers of all political stripes are stunned by how much of the Bush national security agenda is being adopted by this new Democratic government. Victor Davis Hanson (National Review) offers a partial list: "The Patriot Act, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, military tribunals, Predator drone attacks, Iraq (i.e. slowing the withdrawal), Afghanistan (i.e. the surge) — and now Guantanamo."

Here's the L.A. Times Top Of The Ticket blog:

The still sort-of-new Barack Obama Democratic administration has again adopted another policy straight out of the administration of his much-criticized Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama administration officials have rejected a watchdog group's request for a list of healthcare industry executives who've been meeting secretly in the White House with Obama staffers to discuss healthcare changes being drafted there and in Congress.

The Top Of The Ticket people go on to quote the Obama campaign's website back when it was tut-tutting about Dick Cheney doing the same thing.

Let's throw in one more, this time from The Heritage Foundation:

*President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
*President Bush began a string of expensive finan­cial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
*President Bush created a Medicare drug entitle­ment that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new govern­ment health care fund.


They list several others, but this is already becoming tiresome. You can go here and here and here to read even more comparisons of the two.
The typical anti-Obama rant usually ends with "How's that Hopey-Changey thing working out for you?"


Instead, let me offer a Bush Light, "The Beer That Never Lifts You Up, And Always Lets You Down".

(You could've had a Bob Barr !)

Bush Light can provided by Hammer.

The Weekly Radley - This will be discussed for decades

From Radley Balko's Agitator blog:

So if you’re going to be a pedestrian who mistakenly calls the cops because you see a black man trying to pry open the jammed door to his own home, and if you’re going to be the responding cop who then questions said black man for possibly burglarizing his own home, then arrests said black man for subsequently taking offense and getting uppity with you, both of you should probably make sure said black man is not Henry Louis Gates, the famed Harvard professor of African-American Studies.

Uh-oh. I bet Gates is a mite irritated. Here's The Washington Post:

....in a country where one in nine young black men are in prison, where racial profiling is still practiced, the arrest of a renowned scholar on a charge of disorderly conduct in front of his house last Thursday has fueled an ongoing debate about race in America in the age of its first black president.

....The white officer who arrived found Gates in the house (the driver was gone) and asked him to step outside. Gates refused, and the officer followed him in. Gates showed him his ID, which included his address, then demanded that the officer identify himself. The officer did not comply, Gates said. He then followed the officer outside, saying repeatedly, "Is this how you treat a black man in America?"

The charge against him (Gates) was dropped Tuesday, but Gates said he plans to use the attention and turn his intellectual heft and stature to the issue of racial profiling. He now wants to create a documentary on the criminal justice system, informed by the experience of being arrested not as a famous academic but as an unrecognized black man.

The harsher side of the experience was "deeply painful and traumatic," Gates said. "I'm outraged that this could happen to me in my own home, but I'm outraged that it could happen to any individual."

He said his documentary will ask: "How are people treated when they are arrested? How does the criminal justice system work? How many black and brown men and poor white men are the victims of police officers who are carrying racist thoughts?"

According to Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition., Reverend Al Sharpton has already chimed in. Here's The Washington Post:
Rev. Al Sharpton: "I've heard of driving while black, and I've heard of shopping while black. But I've never heard of living in a home while black."



Meyers continues:

Give me a break. Why isn't it enough that the charges of disorderly conduct have been dropped against Gates? The question answers itself: The race activists need to posture that the nation has to pause and contemplate and endure yet another round of guilt around their "truth" and constant observation of racism by cops. "See," they exclaim, "in postracial America, the black man with a Ph.D. can't get into his own home without causing suspicion and getting arrested."

The real truth is that Gates did not get arrested for being black or even for being suspicious or for breaking into his own home. He was arrested for disorderly conduct - for failing to do what civil rights activists and race experts always advise innocent black men, and all others who come into contact with the police, to do: cooperate.



It makes sense to repeat this message now, especially for the benefit of young black men. If the police confront you, don't go demanding badge numbers and reading the cops the riot act. Be courteous and calm. Explain yourself and, if asked, present ID.
If there has been a constitutional violation of some kind by the cops, that can be taken care of once the police have left you alone, moving on - let's hope - to investigate other suspicious behavior.

So which way should Professor Gates have responded?

The Weekly Radley - This will be discussed for decades

So if you’re going to be a pedestrian who mistakenly calls the cops because you see a black man trying to pry open the jammed door to his own home, and if you’re going to be the responding cop who then questions said black man for possibly burglarizing his own home, then arrests said black man for subsequently taking offense and getting uppity with you, both of you should probably make sure said black man is not Henry Louis Gates, the famed Harvard professor of African-American Studies.

Fighting In The Shade, Leonidas, and Libertarians

Note to all varieties of libertarians:

I met an interesting guy, also named Allen, at the Blodgmeet last weekend. All I knew about Allen was that he was retired and his wife was from Scandinavia. They have a boat. He spells his name properly, with two "L's" and an "E". He doesn't talk much, but when he does, it's worth listening to.

For some reason, I never got around to reading or linking his website until he left a comment on mine.

Check out the "About Me" section of Allen's blog, "Fighting In The Shade".

I feel better knowing that Allen is on our side.

Forget Walter Cronkite. Gene Elliott has declared that The War needs to end.

The war on drugs has lost the support of Gene Elliott.
Gene Elliott is a retired food wholesaler. He's one of the best-read people I know, and one of the most interesting. Every now and then Mr. Elliot sits down and types up some hot sports opinions and blasts them out to everyone in his email address book. I ALWAYS read them.

Here's an excerpt from the latest one:

If you want to be concerned about our country, try this. Recently, in a two day golf tournament in Wichita Falls, I spent two rounds on a golf cart with a man, recently retired, who was warden of a maximum security prison operated by the State of Texas....

I asked him what percent of prisoners are there because of drugs. He said about 65% if those are counted who are there because of crimes committed to support drug use. When I asked his opinion of a solution, he did not hesitate one bit. He said take the profit out of drugs for illegal drug dealers. Make them available through the drug store at normal commercial prices. That would let the air out of the balloon for drug dealers who are supplying drugs that, not only support enormous profits for criminal drug processing, transportation and sales, the price to users includes cost of corruption of law enforcement and other public officials.

I've never heard it said better. (In case you're wondering, I can't imagine Gene and Flo Elliott sitting down in the den with some weed and Zigzag papers and rolling up a fat one. They're not that kind of people. Well, Flo isn't.)

Slight change of subject....According to The Aggie, there was never a time when she couldn't buy marijuana at her high school. Why? Because, despite the penalties, there was a huge profit in doing illegal bidness there. What would happend to those profits if marijuana could be bought and sold to non-minors like any other form of farm produce? Do you think the Mexican border might suddenly be more livable?

When everyday users are caught and convicted, they go into prison as non-violent offenders. Many of them come out as extremely violent offenders, and spend the rest of their lives as fodder for the parole officer/counselor/probation industry. (I hire a lot of those guys, and I'm convinced that the probation industry has perverse incentives for keeping people in the system for as long as possible.)

Here's Senator Jim Webb, speaking on the senate floor:

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world's population; we have 25% of the world's known prison population....
There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .
The elephant in the bedroom in many discussions on the criminal justice system is the sharp increase in drug incarceration over the past three decades. In 1980, we had 41,000 drug offenders in prison; today we have more than 500,000, an increase of 1,200%.

A 1,200% increase since 1980??? How is this possible?
It's possible because it's a great excuse for government spending. It really is that simple.

When alcohol was prohibited during the 1920's, we saw an incredible upswing in alcohol related violence. Fortunately, people could still remember that things weren't that bad prior to 1920, and Prohibition was eventually repealed. Bootlegging violence dropped off.

Unfortunately, very few people can remember when marijuana was legal in the U.S.
Will the ridiculous prohibition of, say, marijuana go away now that scads of police officers, prison guards, parole officers, and testing facilities have their jobs on the line?
Who knows.

Speaking of wars, much has been written and broadcast in the last couple of days about the passing of Walter Cronkite. Cronkite was famous for....well, he only did one thing that really mattered.
Cronkite was the newsreader who declared that the Vietnam War was over. And he did it long before the fat lady sang. For some harsh and pointed criticism of that action, you can go here or here.

I can't say that Vietnam was 100% right or wrong, much like I can't say that our current Middle Eastern adventure is totally right or wrong. But I can unequivocally say that our War On Drugs is being fought for a lot of very bad reasons.

When LBJ heard about Cronkite's statement, he supposedly said "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

Well, the War On Drugs has now lost the support of Gene Elliott.

Sanity beckons.

We'll only be singing the 1st verse of each hymn....

I saw this banner on a church someplace south of Waco, and had to do something with it.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASED ! (men, minorities, hardest hit)

The minimum wage will increase one more time on July 24th.

men, minorities, continue to be hardest hit.

From a blog post of about a year ago:

This (unemployment rate) is exactly what is happening at the lower end of the wage pool with today's minimum wage increase. There will be another mandated increase a year from now. A few months from now, start looking for bewildered print and online editorials about increased unemployment among teenagers and low-skilled minorities. The funniest ones will have no sense of irony, and will end with calls for our government to do something about the problem.