One third of Americans are stupid

A recent survey shows the stupidity of Americans:
 

But 32 percent [of Americans polled] reject the idea of evolution, saying that "animals and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,"

 A statement that is easily demonstrably false makes Republicans look like idiots. We have antibiotic resistant bacteria, that have evolved in the past 100 years because of man's antibiotic use. It can be demonstrated that species have evolved new traits in just the past couple of centuries. People themselves have evolved. Humans today are taller and heavier than they were just a couple of centuries ago. 

This is where the meme about the right being stupid and uneducated come from.

For the record, I disagree with this group:

A quarter of those surveyed told Pew that "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things."

But at least they are trying to integrate their beliefs with observable fact. I can respect that, even if I disagree with it.

A public apology

I owe some people an apology, and an explanation. Generally, I owe an apology to Christians in general, and to two in particular: CCBPC, and SailorCurt. Earlier this week, I made a couple of posts that were very disrespectful of others, and that is not normally my style. Please accept my apologies, and an explanation.

For the past year, I have been seeing someone. We were closely involved, and I was truly in love with this woman. The only real bone of contention between us was that I was not allowed to meet her family. You see, I was a bit older than she was, and according to her, this would not meet the approval of her deeply religious father. This girl was also a very religious woman, or at least claimed to be.

Things were going well for us, and we were busy making plans for the future. I thought that I had found someone that I was willing to spend my life with. Then, this Christian woman, this religious woman, called me out of the blue, and dumped me, just days before Christmas. Over the phone. No explanation given. She blocked my calls, my emails, and blocked me on Facebook. I was devastated. That was when the truth began to come out. She had been sleeping around. Not just with one man, but with three.

I blamed everyone except the one who did it. I blamed Christians, her Father, everyone. After a time, I called her Father so that I could give him all of her possessions that she had left here. This is what I found out:
- Her father is religious, but he is a decent, nice man
- She lied to me, he did not even know that I existed. He had no beef with me.
- She lied to me when she told me that her older brother had died in Afghanistan in 2010, and her older sister had committed suicide three months later. She is the oldest of two children.
- She lied to her parents about many things to hide the relationships she was having. Her Christian father would not have approved of her screwing her boss and several other men, all at the same time.

For me, the conversation was therapeutic. For her Father, it was devastating. His vision of a good, honest, Christian daughter was shattered. He told me that he has no idea how he will break the news to his wife.

So to all of you, I am sorry that my anger was misdirected at all of you, instead of at the person who has turned my life upside down. I hope that you can understand, and most of all, forgive my indiscretion. Now I have to try and put my life back together. Posting will be sparse for awhile.

Merry Christmas

The holiday of Christmas has mixed origins. The holiday of the Sun god, held on the day that the sun begins returning and the days begin to lengthen (the winter solstice) in the northern hemisphere, and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The Christmas tree has its roots in the tradition of Saturnalia.

Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25.  During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration.  The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.”  Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week.  At the festival’s conclusion, December 25^th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

In the 4^th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it.  Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.  The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25^th, to be Jesus’ birthday. The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc

Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father (the Pope) stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.

The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth.  The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus.  This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in, or knowledge of, Jesus’ birthdate.


The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman monastery.  His calculation went as follows:

a.      In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (“the founding of the City” [Rome]).  Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5^th year of Rome’s reign, etc.
 b.     Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius.
c.      Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15^th year of Tiberius reign.
d.      If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus’ 28^th year of reign).
e.      Augustus took power in 727 AUC.  Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC. f.       However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.

So there you have it, the history of Christmas.

Teh gays are sinners

Because they do so many things against the Bible, unlike the Christians, who are so good that they get to sit in judgement of the rest of us, like these guys: (all stories from just the past month)

Pastor Isaac Hunter, who committed suicide.
Pastor Zachary Tims, who died of a drug overdose.
Pastor Michael Bryant, who molested a 16 year old girl in Memphis.
Pastor Otis Jetter, who was convicted of molesting a 12 year old boy in Indianapolis.
Pastor Wiley Leverett, who just turned himself in for molesting little girls, some as young as 8 years old.

Then there is also the Catholic Church, who officially covers up for Priests who sex up little boys.

Yet, you force us to live by the rules of your fucked up religion, even though you don't live up to them yourself.
No alcohol sales on Sunday mornings, in an attempt to keep people of your congregation from showing up to church drunk.
No weddings, unless they are by people that your church approves of.
The church trying to force schools to teach people the superstitious belief that some invisible guy created the world by pulling it out of his magic hat of tricks.

You complain that people are forcing their religion on you, but you have been doing that in this country for over 200 years, and people have grown tired of it.

Quote of the day

Governments, like people, have needs. Unlike people, they have almost unlimited credit card limits.

To CCBPC

This is in response to this comment by CCBPC:

Just after the Japanese tsunami in 2011, Gilbert Godfried tweeted the following jokes:

I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, "They'll be another one floating by any minute now."

My Japanese doctor advised me that to stay healthy I need 50 million gallons of water a day.
What do Japanese Jews like to eat? Hebrew National Tsunami.
What does every Japanese person have in their apartment? Flood lights.
I asked a girl in Japan to have sex with me. She said, "Ok, but you have to sleep in the wet spot."

His jokes were insensitive, crude, and in poor taste. He was fired as spokesman for AFLAC because his comments reflected poorly on his employer.

Jim Zumbo made statements that alienated the owners of the most popular rifle sold in America. He was fired by most of his employers for expressing that opinion.

What if Jack Hanna gave an interview in which he said that whales don't belong in captivity? Sea World would likely fire him the next day, and that would be their right.

Phil Robertson made a statement to the press that alienated many in the public. Just as any other person who makes a statement to the press, he must be prepared for the backlash when his employer decides that they no longer want to employ him. This is not a constitutional issue.

It wasn't just that he made anti-gay statements. He went after all of it: race, homosexuality, and others.He said this of Blacks: "I'm with the Blacks, because we're white trash." He also said that Blacks were happy during the days of segregation, and said that segregation was not mistreatment of Blacks.


When you are in the public eye, you have to watch what you say, or you may lose your job. Robertson can say what he wants, but A&E is within their rights to fire him if his words hurt their business. That is reality when you are in the public eye. If he were smart, he would have just said "no comment." Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean that you have to share it, and just because you have the right to free speech doesn't mean that you should speak, nor does it mean that your employer has to keep paying you.

No one is demanding that you Christians accept anything. They are demanding that you leave them alone to live their lives. Not everyone believes that there is an invisible man in the sky that runs our lives, but the rest of us tolerate your beliefs and expect you to do the same. To say that the Christian church has even pretended to play by the "live and let live" policy is laughable.

Asking you to refrain from screaming "faggot" at a gay couple for holding hands, and demanding that they have the same right to marriage that you are, is not forcing you to accept anything. Two men getting married or holding hands is none of your business, and doesn't hurt you a bit.

I will do the same to defend you from the homosexuals: I disagree that the Christian bakery should be forced to make a cake for a gay wedding.

To claim that homosexuality should be illegal because it does not result in procreation is absurd. I am sterile and cannot have children. Does that mean that I should be prohibited by law from having sex? How about post menopausal women? Should they be prohibited from getting married or having sex? After all, they cannot have children, either.

Boycott A&E all you want; it will have the same effect that your silly boycott against Disney over Gay Days has had: exactly none. In this country, you are free to be a hateful, religious fruitcake all you want: we are free to ignore you. Even if you are somehow able to resolve this situation, you are on the losing side on this one. In the end, homosexual marriage is going to happen, whether you like it or not. Just like interracial marriage did, over the same tired old objections from the same tired old church. Same song, different verse.

You want to know why the Republicans can't accomplish anything? This is why: The Republican obsession with treating people with scorn and hate because they are not like you is literally driving people to the Democrats and to the Libertarians. Every election that you lose is your own fault. I would rather have a gay neighbor than a Bible thumping, hate filled asshole for a neighbor any day, and I certainly don't want to elect a politician that thinks that it is just fine and dandy to legislate where I put my penis.

On top of that, Robertson is everything that I despise about stereotypical southerners: He is an uneducated, bigoted, redneck idiot. He makes all of us here in the South look bad, and validates every bad opinion that the northerners have of us. I, for one, do not mourn his firing.

Throw other people's money at it

Utah brags that they are solving the problem of homelessness by giving people free places to live. That is the liberal answer to every problem: solve it by stealing someone else's money and giving it to someone else.

If you are a person who is worried about homelessness, then I have the following questions for you:

1 How many homeless people are you allowing to live in your home?
2 How much of your own money are you giving to homeless people?

If you care so much for what you consider to be a problem that you are not willing to spend your own money, then why on earth do you think that means that you can spend someone else's money?

Robertson, Christians, and homosexuality

So there is a big kerfluffle going on about Robertson saying that he disagrees with homosexuality. There are many Christians running around, shouting about how God hates fags. They base this opinion on Leviticus 20:13, which says:

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination

and they then claim that, being Christians, they have to follow the Bible. "Ok," I say, "then you must also follow Leviticus 20:20, which says:"

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

Or how about Leviticus20:9:

All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them. 

So how many adulterers have you killed? How many smart mouthed children? The Bible is the basis for your religion, and I get that. But if you are going to demand that everyone else has to follow what your Bible says, then you need to accept ALL of it, and let the chips fall where they may.

If instead, you agree that maybe killing people for adultery is a bit harsh, then you must also admit that your entire religion is based on a document with which you do not agree, and you can choose to ignore parts of it. Which you have done, or there would be piles of dead adulterers and smart mouthed children lying about.

See, the Christians who are doing this are simply attempting to use their religion as an excuse to practice hatred and to control the lives of other people.
I don't like cherry flavored food. Ice cream, candy, nothing with cherry flavoring. That doesn't mean that I am going to go around criticizing people who do. That also doesn't mean that I am going to get in people's faces and demand that they refrain from eating cherries around me.
On the flip side, you homosexuals need to back off a bit, too. The reason why there is so much backlash against homosexuality is that you keep trying to force people to like you.
All of us need to live and let live. You do your thing, and I will do mine.

More guns != more crime

According to the FDLE statistics for NICS checks, there were 823 thousand firearms sold so far in 2013, 797 thousand sold in 2012, and there were 610 thousand sold in 2011. Now I know that some firearms may be sold more than once, but I also know that more than one firearm can be sold for each check. For example, just this week, I bought two stripped lowers at Spike's tactical, and the guy who was behind me there bought five. That is 7 firearms for two NICS checks.

That means that there are at least two and a quarter million more firearms in Florida now than there were in 2010. In fact, there have been a total of 6,877,866 NICS background checks done in Florida since November of 1998. That number represents one firearm for every two Florida adults. If we are to believe that firearms are the cause of crime, then we should see crime skyrocketing since 2010, but the opposite is true.

But that is not happening. In fact, the number of murders in Florida has remained more or less constant, with there being 966 murders statewide in 1998, and there being 1,009 last year, despite the fact that the population of the state has increased by 22% during that time. This means that the murder rate has DROPPED by about 20% over the last 15 years, despite their being nearly 7 million more firearms.

Homicide isn't the only crime that is not rising. There were 12,000 forcible sex offenses reported in 1998, and 10,000 in 2012. 1998 saw 36,000 robberies, while 2012 saw less than 24,000. and so on. In fact, the state's violent crime rate nearly HALVED from 931 in 1998 to 492 in 2012.

So there you have it: conclusive proof that more guns does NOT equal more crime.

Fiction

The following is a work of fiction. I wrote it because it was in my head, and I needed to let it out.

I fundamentally changed America. Well, not me by myself, but I set in motion a chain of events that exposed the nation's weakness, and destroyed what was left of the American economy. Let me tell you how.

The turn of a century is a time of foolishness. It was at the turn of the last century that we believed that industry, man's cleverness, could overcome all obstacles. Man's folly was in assuming that he had thought of everything. The sinking of the Titanic was the entire folly, wrapped in a single tragedy.

A single ship had been built, and it was declared unsinkable. When that ship went to the bottom, it was due to a basic ignorance of the limits of man's power and ability to overcome obstacles.

The cycle repeated itself at the turn of the following century. We had entered an age where we thought we could legislate away all of the problems that had plagued mankind. We could ensure that everyone was prosperous by simply passing a law.

So we passed the Patriot Act to keep us all safe.
Then, we passed the Affordable Care Act, to keep us all healthy.
After that, we increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour, to keep us all prosperous.

And with that law, my story begins...

I had a bit of money and wanted to open a restaurant. A burger joint. The problem was that the costs of hiring an employee were astronomical. Between providing health insurance and a $15 an hour wage, there was no way for a restaurant owner to make money. I calculated that it cost about $28 an hour to hire a single worker for minimum wage. Factoring in other costs like food, taxes, buildings, etc., my per unit cost for hamburgers would  have been about $7. No one wants to buy an $8 hamburger.

 So I decided that I would be the first novelty restaurant that would have almost no labor costs. I would built an automated hamburger joint. So I bought some automated hamburger machines from a company in California, and opened the country's first fully automated restaurant. Each location only had two employees: The day manager, and the night manager. They had to fill the machines, keep the eating area clean, and call an 800 number if anything broke.

The ordering and cashier stations? Automated. Cooking? Automated. Since the kitchen was automated, there was almost no cleaning needed.

That isn't to say that I employed no one. There was regional maintenance teams, food delivery teams, and the like. The point is that I ran each location with only 20% of the staff of a conventional fast food place. The customers loved it. I was selling fast food at less than half the cost of my competitors, and the initial novelty of watching robots make your food hit America by storm.

It wasn't long before other chains followed suit: McDonald's, Checkers, Burger King, all of them. It seemed like overnight, tens of thousands of fast food workers lost their jobs. Soon the trend expanded to other industries. It was stunning, in less than three years, unemployment within the pool of unskilled labor jumped from 14% to over 70%.

That was when things began to go south. Workers demanded relief, and Congress gave it to them. In 2019, they passed the Employee Fairness Act, and President Clinton happily signed it. That law made it illegal for any business to fire any employee, or cut any employee's compensation without the approval of the local employment office. The law also required that each "robot" performing a job that could affect the health or safety of the public be supervised by an employee. There could be no more than a 2:1 ratio of robots to humans in any business.

So the automated restaurants then had to pay a bunch of people $15 an hour to sit and watch the machines make hamburgers.

Prices skyrocketed. That caused the passage of the Fair Pricing in Commerce and Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2021. That law made it illegal for any business to raise prices without approval of the local State Commerce Board, and prices were rolled back to 2020 levels.

 I was ruined. Every one of my business locations were bankrupt within 3 months. There just wasn't the money to keep them open. I declared bankruptcy, and the government took over the running of my business. They gave me a good job, though. I have health insurance, and I get $15 an hour to watch this machine make hamburgers.

Tax exemption

There are numerous stories floating around the blogosphere about anti-gun groups having a Sandy Hook Memorial at a Catholic Church that was actually a rally for more gun laws. A pro-gun blogger showed up, and was promptly asked to leave by anti-gun representatives.
 
Churches enjoy tax exempt status because of the religious work that they do. From the IRS:

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.

 A rally where the major focus is the passage of more gun control goes far beyond the scope of a memorial for victims. As soon as you begin a blanket exclusion people of one political opinion and not the other, in my opinion, this is no longer a memorial and is now a political rally, and your church has ceased being a non partisan religious organization and has crossed the line into being a lobbying organization. You want the government to stay out of your church? Then keep your church out of the government.

Any church that uses its self as a shill for any political cause that is not directly related to the church should have its tax exempt status revoked.

Quote of the day

There is an Ayn Rand quote that, in my opinion, illustrates where we are today with regards to the state of our nation.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.

Ideas so good, they have to be mandatory

If CFL and LED light bulbs are so good, then why is buying them mandatory? The bulbs are nearly 20 times as expensive, and do not give the same light. The official line is that the cost savings are there when you take into account that the newer bulbs last longer. I recently did a 5 year test of my own, and discovered that the new bulbs do not last as long as advertised.

The fact that this was signed into law by a Republican simply illustrates what I have been saying for years: There is no functional difference between the two political parties. The only thing that they care about is maintaining political power,, and if that means that they have to take the nation down with them, so be it, as long as they are on top.

I'm sure

This will be used against me later if I ever have to shoot anyone, but what just happened at my house is pretty suspicious. Let me set the scene:
It is 8 o'clock at night, in a quiet suburban neighborhood of single family homes. The ungated neighborhood is posted as "No soliciting allowed." It is raining, and has been off and on for the past few hours. The doorbell rings. When I answer it, I am armed as I usually am when there are unexpected doorbells after dark.
I open the door, and remain halfway behind it. On my porch is a black male, about 5'7" tall, about 130 pounds, early 20's. He is wearing a hoodie, pajama pants, and furry slippers. He is carrying an unopened umbrella, and I catch a whiff of alcohol.

He says: "Sir, I am involved in a communications project, and I have something here that I want to show you."

He begins reaching in his pocket. Out of his line of sight behind the door, I draw my 9mm S&W Shield, and hold it next to my leg. I said in a low voice, "Keep your hands out of your pockets, please. You see that 'No Trespassing' sign? I'm not interested."

He leaves, and just a few minutes later, my neighbor from across the street knocks on my door. He says that the guy was at his house just before mine, and that the guy told him that he knew me, and so my neighbor gave him $5. My neighbor is new here, and believed him. I told my neighbor that I have lived here for nearly 6 years, and I don't know this guy. He also told my neighbor that there were two other people with him.

I called the police. Twenty minutes passed, and they now are questioning the guy two streets over. My opinion? It is a Saturday, and Christmas party season is in full swing. He was looking for homes where no one was home, for a possible burglary later.

FBI foils own terror plot, again

So you are a approached by a person who claims that he wants you to help him plant a bomb, and even provides the bomb. Then it turns out that the person is, in fact, an FBI agent. How is that not entrapment? Yet, we see that play out time and time again: The FBI sets up a terror attack, and then stops it in the nick of time.
It happened this week in Wichita.
It happened last November in Oregon.
It happened last September in Chicago.
This doesn't impress me. You cannot tell me that the FBI is so effective that they are catching every single person who wants to build a bomb. The sad truth is that these wanna be terrorists are losers who couldn't make a bomb, and without FBI assistance, this is as far as things would go.
This is pure grandstanding on the part of the FBI.
This makes me wonder:
- Is it possible that the Oklahoma City bombing was, as rumored, a failed FBI sting, where a foolish agent provided a real bomb to McVeigh? I remember seeing a report about that on a news program at the time, but I cannot find it any longer.
- It also makes me wonder how come there are mass shootings galore whenever there are pushes for more gun control, but not when the issue seems dead.
Are we seeing manufactured crises that are designed to increase the authority and budgets of various agencies of the government? I would dismiss this as paranoia, except we know that the FBI is at least ginning up fake bombers.

From the appeasing criminals file

A man who was released from prison after doing 5 years for robbery was at it again just a few days later. Christopher Porter knocked on a homeowner's door, and when the man opened it, Porter grabbed him by the throat and demanded money, and threatened to kill the homeowner if he did not comply.

Porter's friend, Irvine Nesmith, had this to say about Porter:

"He needs help. But he don't know how to ask. He won't ask. He like to kinda like borrow money from people he don't know, you know what I mean? Stuff like that"

So grabbing someone by the throat and threatening to kill them if they don't hand over their wallet is classified as "like" borrowing money from people you don't know.

Another source for the story shows a picture:

I answer the door armed. Every time. If this had happened to me, there would be a would be violent borrower with several refusals of credit lodged deeply in his chest.

New Madrid Fault

Peter over at Bayou Renaissance Man did a post about Prepping and Earthquakes. It just so happens that I did a report on this subject when I was in college. It was a short writing assignment that was given to us each week, and that week's report just happened to be on the New Madrid Fault. Much of that report applies to preppers as much as is it applies to emergnecy response areas. Here is a copy of that report, with the most boring and technical portions removed:

In 1811 and 1812, the New Madrid area in the boot heel of Missouri was struck by a series of six to nine earthquakes that ranged from an estimated 7.0 to 8.8 on the Richter scale, and there were also numerous smaller aftershocks, and no fewer than 18 of these quakes were felt along the Atlantic seaboard. The seismic waves were felt as far as 2000 km away (Quebec) and caused damage over an area greater than 500,000 square km. Damage caused by the quakes was limited, as the area was populated by less than 4,000 people at the time. This area is known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) and is the location of the rift where the North American Continent nearly split apart 3 million years ago.

 A similar scenario playing out today would be devastating for a number of reasons. Population densities are much higher than they were during the 1811-1812 events, and a large earthquake in the area today would affect as many as 3 million people.  Infrastructure in the area was not constructed with earthquake protection in mind, and many structures in the area are built upon fault lines, as evidenced by the numerous sand boils in the area.

There are areas in the NMSZ where crops cannot grow, and this makes that land relatively cheap to buy, and for this reason many governments buy this land for infrastructure like roads, radio repeater sites, power generation, and placing pipelines. The reason that this land is so cheap is that the soil is contaminated with salty sand that has boiled up from deeper regions of the earth where faults are located, as earthquakes disturb the land. There are five major gas pipelines and two crude oil pipelines that pass directly over the fault zones, and at one point, they pass over a fault line at nearly the same point, with less than 10 miles separating four of the pipelines. NASA has estimated that gas line ruptures and the ensuing explosions at that point would be so large that their reflections would be visible as they bounced off the moon.

 In the short term, responders would have to deal with all of the standard problems associated with large disasters: fire, loss of personnel, casualties to the population, etc.. Other problems would complicate this, including the loss of electrical and natural gas supplies, and the difficulty in getting aid into the area due to the loss of Mississippi river bridges. The loss of communications would also complicate response to the area, and make coordination of resources nearly impossible.

The long term effects of losses of this infrastructure would be devastating to the population and problematic for emergency responders, not only within the earthquake zone, but in areas served by this infrastructure. The loss of five of the nine gas pipelines from the Texas/Louisiana gas fields to the industrial areas of Chicago and the Ohio valley would likely cause widespread disruption of energy and heating service in those areas. Loss of the I-40 bridge in Memphis could potentially cause transportation delays, as the loss of this bridge would cause land traffic detours of more than 300 miles and make the Mississippi River impassible to water transport. Transformers lost as a result of failures to the electrical grid could take eight to twelve months for replacement.

To combat this, the following steps need to be taken:
* Bridges and other existing structures, including emergency operations centers, need to be hardened against earthquakes
* Radio repeater sites need to be located away from sand boils, and mobile repeaters mounted on trailers need to be accessible.
* Responders need to ensure that they have a disaster plan in place, and local authorities need to ensure that they are prepared to use the National Incident Management system to coordinate amongst themselves and the local utility providers.
* National guard planners from the potentially most affected states of Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi need to be ready to coordinate supply deliveries.

Some of these steps have already been taken. Bridges and vital facilities are being retrofitted, and should be able to withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake in the future. Of course, it remains to be seen how they will withstand multiple events of this magnitude, or how a magnitude 8 earthquake will affect them.

Mortgage

Even though SunTrust Mortgage has paid me money for damages 4 times over the past four years (once in 2010, once in 2012, and two times this year already) for trying to collect on a mortgage when they don't even have a mortgage on my home, they have continued to send people to my door, call me, send bills, and threaten foreclosure. To date, they have directly or indirectly paid me nearly $40,000, in addition to the fact that I have lived in this house for over 4 years without making a house payment.
Why? Because they got greedy, and were a part of the nationwide banking scam that committed fraud on an unprecedented scale and was responsible for the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

 SunTrust Mortgage has sent me a dozen letters and sent 7 collectors to my house since the last lawsuit concluded in July.

As a result, I filed my third lawsuit in the past year against them this morning. I can't help but wonder how many times we have go through this before they realize that they should leave me alone. I am sure that the judge is tired of them as well.

From the old post file

A post I began writing earlier this year and never published:

There is an image out there that the Brady Campaign claims is an obvious fake:


In today's spin-conscious world, no organization would dare be so blunt. Or would they? Here is a screen shot of a similar photo posted on their Facebook page:

Perhaps it was a part of their "We're better than this" campaign, and was pulled due to negative publicity. (analysis here) Who knows for sure? However, even IF the poster is fake, it is an accurate representation of the Brady Campaign's position.

The Brady Campaign insists on stripping law abiding women of their right to defend themselves against rapists. Brady Campaign-approved guidelines about preventing rape say women should vomit, urinate, defecate or announce you are on your period.

There are those that think that posters like this are beneath the progun side, but I say that, if it is a fake, it is an effective way of demonstrating the idiocy that is the antigun position.

Prepping

I saw this website, and it made me think about prepping. I am sure that some of the ideas from this could be useful for preppers. Imagine the security of growing your own food inside of your home.

Only ones

This week, the Sheriff of Orange County, Florida, Jerry Demings, says that he wants to stop gun violence. He is so serious, that he teamed up with Democrat Senator Bill Nelson to try and pass gun control legislation back in January, and is on record as saying that police are the 'only ones' that should be allowed to own guns.
Of course, he neglects to mention that his department, and actually, he and his wife, have supplied more guns to criminals than I and all of my gun owning friends have, combined.

On February 7, 2012,  Deputy Peggy Leonard's personal car was broken into and her handgun was stolen. It was recovered the next day.
In 2011, a Deputy had a pistol and a shotgun stolen from his unlocked patrol vehicle.
In 2009, the Sheriff's wife, who is the police chief of Orlando, had her pistol stolen from her unlocked police vehicle. The police tried to keep the press from finding out.
In 2006, a SWAT Deputy had a silenced MP5 submachine gun, a .308 caliber rifle, and a .45 caliber handgun stolen from his patrol SUV.
As deputy police chief in 2007, Mrs. Demings ordered off-duty officers to store city-issued AR-15 assault rifles at police headquarters after three of the weapons were stolen.

Seen at Disney

Apparently, Disney World in Orlando has dogs working in the security department.

Disney has its own security department, which is supplemented by Orange County Sheriff's Deputies. In this case, the handler is not in the OCSO uniform, but is instead wearing Navy Blue BDU pants, a navy blue dress shirt, and is unarmed, meaning that this is a security guard. I must, however, admit that this looks nothing like Disney Security's regular uniform.

Science is for sale

So many people believe in science. The problem is that science is being corrupted by those who stand to profit from certain advances. Rather than wait for the truth to be discovered, these profiteers pay scientists, who are willing to whore themselves out, to study problems and recommend solutions that- miraculously- always seem to financially favor the people who paid for the study.

This is how Al Gore made millions from the global warming and carbon credit fad. This is happening in medicine, where it turns out that the American Heart Association, which claims to be a non-profit, is overestimating the risk of cholesterol in heart disease by 75-150%.

The American Heart Association reported $521 million in donations from non-government and non-membership sources and many well-known large drug companies contribute amounts in the $1 million range. The AHA also rakes in millions from food companies which are also million dollar donors and which pay from $5,490 to $7,500 per product to gain the “heart-check mark” imprimatur from the AHA, renewable, at a price, every year. The foods so anointed are supposed to be low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, yet Boar’s Head All Natural Ham (340 mg of sodium per serving) somehow made the cut as did Boar’s Head EverRoast Oven Roasted Chicken Breast (440 mg of sodium per serving).

That is why many of us in the gun community do not trust the government to study gun violence. My rights are not up for debate, especially not a debate that will be based upon studies performed by "scientists" that are for sale to the highest bidder.

Barack Obama racist

Remember when Barack Obama snubbed the British by not going to Margaret Thatcher's funeral? When Poland's President and Fist Lady were killed in a plane crash, he didn't go to the funeral. He isn't missing Nelson Mandela's, though. He must be racist.

Future News

Internet News Service
Wednesday, January 20, 2021

President Walt Disney Company to be sworn in today

Washington- In only two hours, we as Americans will see history made. The new President, Walt Disney Company, will be sworn in today. This is truly a history making moment, as we herald in a new era of American history when we inaugurate the first non-human President in the history of the US and the world.

The groundwork for this was first laid in a series of Supreme Court decisions: First, there was the 1886 case, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, in which the Supreme Court held that a private corporation is a person and is entitled to the legal rights and protections the Constitution affords to any other person. Later, the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal election Commission, in which the Supreme Court held that, for Constitutional rights purposes, a corporation was a person and that a person could not be prohibited from exercising free speech as exercised through spending money for political purposes.

After that came the decision of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebillius in 2014. In that landmark case, the court reaffirmed that a corporation is a person, even though it rejected the company's assertion that compelling them to provide insurance that against their religious beliefs violated their First Amendment rights.

The big decision came in the case of SEIU v. Federal Election Commission, when the Service Employees Union asserted that a corporate person, being able to donate freely to political causes, should also be able to cast a ballot. The Supreme Court agreed. Overnight, tens of thousands of Corporations registered to vote in Delaware and North Dakota.

The idea of running the Disney company for president began as a joke, said Walt Disney Company CEO Mark Taylor: "We were joking around at a meeting of the Board of Directors about the company running for President. Then, our corporate attorney said, 'Why not?' The rest is history."

Taylor went on to explain that the more they looked into it, the more it looked like it could be done, "The company was started in the USA, it was over 35 years old, and thanks to the lawsuits challenging [President] Obama's eligibility to be elected failing for lack of standing, we knew we were on to something."

Indeed they were. Democrats, happy that a company that supported so many progressive ideas like benefits for domestic partners and gay rights, were excited to vote for such a progressive candidate. Many Republicans felt sure that a large company like the Disney company would stand up for business. Many voters feel like it is time for change, and that is what we are about to get.

This post is satire. It came to me, and I thought it was funny. The court cases mentioned are real, the election of a company to the office of President is not.

ObamaCare to eliminate 72% of firefighters in the US

In the US, there are over 750,000 volunteer firefighters. This number represents 72% of all firefighters in the US. The IRS is trying to define the provisions of Obamacare, and the way that the law is written now would require volunteer fire departments to provide health insurance to their volunteers. This would be prohibitively expensive, and bring volunteer firefighting to a halt.

One of Obamacare’s reforms is known as the “Shared Responsibility Provision,” which requires that large employers offer health insurance to their employees. The act defines large employers as those with 50 or more full-time employees (FTEs) or FTE equivalents. The act further defines an FTE to be an employee working 30 or more hours per week.

So any time a volunteer works more than 30 hours per week, the volunteer department with more than 50 volunteers would be required to provide that volunteer with insurance.Even though the volunteer system was disbanded years ago, Osceola county, Florida once had a dozen individual volunteer fire companies providing protection to the rural areas of the county, while career stations provided service to the more urbanized areas of the county. This meant that each individual volunteer department had fewer than 50 volunteers, collectively there were several hundred "employees" that would have needed insurance under Obamacare.

The uncertainty surrounding the Shared Responsibility Provision is compounded for fire departments due to conflicting federal guidance on whether a volunteer firefighter or emergency medical provider is an employee of their fire department. While the Department of Labor classified most volunteers as non-employees, the IRS is responsible for enforcing the Shared Responsibility Provision and considers all volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel to be employees of their fire department.

Simply changing this IRS rule for the purposes of Obamacare won't work, either. See, the rule was passed in response to a policy that many career fire departments once had, where they required their full time paid personnel to work a certain number of hours each year without pay as a volunteers.

All of this is causing volunteer departments to curtail or even shut down operations. Burlington, Washington has 9 full time and 30 volunteer firefighters. The city's fire department announced early in November that they will have to curtail volunteer's activities.

 “If we were to extend full medical benefits to those firefighters, it would be $750,000 that the city hadn’t anticipated. And given the entire fire budget is $1.6 million, that’s a substantial portion of the budget,” said City Administrator Harrison. “I’m not sure where we’d get that money.”

We need to pass it to find out what is in it, indeed. The unintended consequences of this law are just now beginning to come to light.

93 years of corrupting the Constitution

Eighty years ago today, the 21st Amendment to the US constitution was ratified, ending alcohol prohibition in the United States.

The 18th Amendment, ratified on January 17, 1920, outlawed alcohol in the United States. The Amendment was enforced through the Volstead Act. One thing that I find interesting is the fact that Heroin and Cocaine were still perfectly legal during prohibition.

The Amendment was passed because  legal theories at the time said that the states were responsible for the law within their borders, while the Federal government only had jurisdiction over international affairs and interstate commerce. Thus, making liquor that stayed purely within a state's borders illegal at a Federal level was unconstitutional

At first, it seemed as though prohibition was working: liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness dropped, and the price of alcohol soon rose to a level that was more than the average worker could afford. Many people that had supported the Amendment initially were angered by the Amendment and had felt misled. They felt that the phrase "intoxicating liquors" would not include beer and wine, but the Volstead act defined the term to mean anything with more than 0.5% alcohol.

Just like today's war on drugs, the enforcement of alcohol prohibition granted many new powers to the Federal Government. Over the prohibition years, the Supreme Court modified its interpretations of the 4th, 5th, and 10th amendments in order to uphold the Volstead Act and interpret the enforcement power in the 18th amendment expansively.  The court allowed wiretaps without a warrant, allowed a person to be charged twice for the same crime under state and federal statutes, and allowed warrantless searches of motor vehicles – establishing the “reasonable suspicion” standard.

The law of supply and demand soon caught up with prohibition, and people that were willing to break the law to get beer were soon willing to break the law to get other liquors. Demand for alcohol soared, criminal enterprises began supplying it, and prices came down as supply increased. Criminal enterprises began competing for territory. It was not long before the problems of public drunkenness were replaced with organized crime, the corruption of police and courts, and widespread violence.

Many states eventually grew tired of the hassle. In fact, by 1925 six states had developed laws that prohibited police from enforcing the Volstead Act. Cities in the Midwest and Northeast were particularly uninterested in enforcing Prohibition. By 1928, 28 states had stopped enforcing the law. Juries began nullifying the law by refusing to convict people.

When confronted with what the people and the states believed to be federal overreach, the people responded with outright disobedience and jury nullification.  The cities and states nullified through sporadic or complete absence of enforcement.  As with the Whiskey Rebellion and resistance to the Federal Fugitive Slave Act, the federal government was unable to overcome the resistance and was eventually forced to repeal the detested intrusion.

 So you can see that the Prohibition era and the Temperance movement changed our Constitution and damaged our freedoms. It set the stage for the drug war, Obamacare, the NSA scandal, sobriety checkpoints, the TSA, and tons of other overreaches of Government power.

it seemed as though prohibition was not only a great idea, but that it was working. "The amendment worked at first, liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell, and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford. Alcohol consumption dropped by 30 percent and the United States Brewers' Association admitted that the consumption of hard liquor was off 50 percent during Prohibition." However, as time progressed, the statistics would change.

it seemed it seemed as though prohibition was not only a great idea, but that it was working. "The amendment worked at first, liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell, and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford. Alcohol consumption dropped by 30 percent and the United States Brewers' Association admitted that the consumption of hard liquor was off 50 percent during Prohibition." However, as time progressed, the statistics would change.as though prohibition was not only a great idea, but that it was working. "The amendment worked at first, liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell, and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford. Alcohol consumption dropped by 30 percent and the United States Brewers' Association admitted that the consumption of hard liquor was off 50 percent during Prohibition." However, as time progressed, the statistics would change.

72 years

Today, my father would have been 72 years old. He died more than 8 years ago.

I still miss him.

Work is for suckers

Hosts on a KLBJ radio station in Austin, Tx, had been talking about how accustomed people have become when it comes to welfare.  Expressing the fact that some people would rather sit around and wait for their free check in the mail than go to work, got at least one listener upset. The listener called in to say that she would always be on welfare, and that everyone else is an idiot for doing otherwise.

One of the hosts then asks the woman if she viewed the working class as idiots because we go to work instead of staying home and reaping the benefits that have been paid by those working.  She sadly replied that she did think working was foolish declaring that even though she doesn’t work, she’s still going to get paid. According to her, her parents were on Welfare, her kids are on Welfare, and she will be on Welfare for the rest of her life.

and she votes. This nation is doomed.

Servers are a whiny bunch

Via Peter at Bayou Renaissance Man, we find a blog post about how we all should tip more.

I am so tired of hearing about how servers don't get enough in tips.

 Here is a description of your job: You write down what I want, and then someone else prepares it. You pick up what I asked for (that someone else prepared) and bring it to my table. If I ask you for something like more sugar or ketchup, you bring it to me. You keep refilling my glass. That’s it. It isn’t skilled labor. That is why they call it the ‘service industry’.

You complain about how hard your job is? Try working a summer in building construction, laying roofing tile. Think your pay as a server is low? Get a job running a cash register at Wal Mart.

Look, let’s say that you work at a restaurant that assigns you four tables, and each table spends about an hour eating. Let’s also say that the average check for each table is $60, and let’s also say that your employer only pays you $3 an hour, and the rest of your pay comes from the ‘cheapskates’ that you are serving. Even if half the tables stiff you and the other half only tip 10%, you are still making $15 an hour. Where I live, that is double the minimum wage, and there are many, many people who make less than that. In this scenario, if one in four tables stiff you, and the others tip the 20% you constantly whine for, you are now making $39 an hour.

Sorry, what you are doing isn’t worth $78,000 a year. So my new tipping policy: I tip 15% for GOOD service, and less for crappy service. My tips are capped at $10 for each hour I am there. That is more than enough, and if you work a second table during that hour, means you are making more than I am. For carrying stuff. Be happy you have a job.

My sister is a high school dropout. She went back and got her GED, but the highest paid job she can get is waiting tables at TGI Friday's. She comes home from an 8 hour shift with $80-100. That is in addition to the $4.77 an hour she gets from her employer. Of course she complains that her check is frequently $0, after taxes are taken out, and that she must rely on tips for her entire income. Welcome to the real world. We all pay taxes, and your pretax income is $15-17 an hour- pretty good money for unskilled labor.

Marker

A 76 year old woman is robbed by three young people in her own driveway, as she was arriving home from work. She has a concealed weapons permit and managed to shoot one of her attackers before they killed her.
The comments on the article are appalling. Just click on the "worst rated" to see the mentality of the people there who are blaming her as they assume that the robber would have not attacked her if she was unarmed. If we are to take this advice, we are relying on the good will and conscience of the criminals.

If I have a weapon, I have a choice: I can submit, or I can resist.

If I do not have a weapon, I must submit. That is what a weapon does for me: it gives me a choice. It is freedom. I know that a firearm is not a guarantee of safety. It is not a magic wand or talisman. I would hope that if I find myself in such a situation that I would come out alive, and if this is not possible, at least I will be found in a pile of my spent brass, not on my knees with my hands tied behind my back.

At least in this case, the victim marked her killer for future identification.

Robot Watchman

After the school massacre at Newtown, a company named Knighthawk was founded. They claim that they want to sell and market a robot watchman that will prevent shootings like this from happening.

The robot is unarmed. So tell me how a burglar alarm system on wheels is going to prevent a shooting when, according to the article, it can't even prevent unruly teenagers from tipping it over. When asked about teens tipping it over, they said that the video recording ability of the robots would deter this. Explain to me how a person engaged in a suicide mission of killing kids would be deterred by the fact that he was being video recorded.

Irony

Paul Walker, star of the Fast and Furious film series, died in a fiery crash, as the car that he was riding in slammed into a tree. The police think that speed was a factor in the crash. Oh, the irony.

The Fast and Furious movies glamorized riding around in heavily modified small cars and street racing them.

The first of the movies was released on June 22, 2001.

In 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that police listed street racing as a factor in 135 fatal crashes. The total was up from 72 street-racing-related fatalities reported in 2000.

The city of San Diego prosecuted 147 illegal street racing cases in 1999, 161 in 2000, and 290 in 2001.

The numbers of street racing related deaths increased in 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2011: each and every year that a new Fast and Furious movie was released.

That's Hollywood: Glamorizing things like street racing and killing people, and then claiming that your movies don't influence people's behavior, but charging big bucks for product placement because seeing your product in the movies makes people want to buy it.

Retention holsters, people

In a local ER, a patient was being seen as a Baker Act, because he had made statements that he wanted to commit suicide. When he got to the ER, the Sheriff's deputies that brought her in escorted her to the nurses' station. There was an armed security guard there, and she tried to steal his gun. The cops and the guard beat her profusely. The whole time they were wrestling with her, she was screaming that she wanted to kill the nurse.
She is now spending her time in the ED screaming about how she wants to kill the nurse.

Now, not only is she a Baker Act, but after she gets out of the three day hold for that, she is going to jail for armed robbery (stealing the guard's gun), aggravated battery, attempted murder, and terroristic threats. I hope at least a few of those charges stick and she gets some serious time.

If you are going to open carry, use a retention holster.

Five year test of CFL bulbs

Five years ago, I wanted to do an experiment. The government passed a law that phases out incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient bulbs. They claimed at the time that the more efficient bulbs would save a homeowner money through lower energy costs, despite the fact that the newer bulbs were much more expensive. They claimed that this was due to the longer life of the lower energy bulbs.

So I set out to look at this issue, because I am a big geek like that.

There are 46 light bulbs required in my home. I replaced 25 of them with compact fluorescent bulbs.

19 of them were of the spiral variety. They currently cost $1.50 each. At the time that I originally bought them, they were more than $8 each. 4 of them burned out and had to be replaced during the five year test period. At today's prices, this means that the 19 bulbs cost $34.50 over the five year test period.

6 of them were PAR lamps that were used as spotlights in the track lighting that illuminates the kitchen. These bulbs were quite expensive, costing $12 each at the time. They currently cost $4 apiece. Three of them burned out, for a total cost in today's prices of $36.

During that same period, four of the remaining 21 incandescent bulbs had to be replaced. These bulbs cost 50 cents each, with a total cost of $12.50.

The total cost for fluorescent bulbs is $2.82 for each  of the bulbs, factoring in the costs of replacement bulbs. They are not as long lived as the government claims, with about a third of them failing over the five year period.
The total cost for incandescent bulbs is 60 cents each.

The CFL bulbs use 18 watts of energy each. The incandescent bulbs use 60 watts. The price I pay for electricity is 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

This means that the difference in energy costs for outfitting my entire home with CFL bulbs would require me to run my every one of my 46 light fixtures for 3 hours per day each in order to break even. Of course, no one does that.

Conclusion

The only way that this becomes cost effective is if you only replace the lights in your home that are most frequently used. Closet and bathroom lights, which are used far less than lights in the living and bedrooms, are simply not used enough to justify the added costs of CFL bulbs.

Also, the costs and performance of the PAR type CFL bulbs make them a poor choice.

Bleg

Years ago, I read a science fiction story about a crew that was assigned a peacekeeping mission to a planet whose inhabitants were at war. Apparently, they were killing each other over the rights to a migratory bird. This bird would migrate from one hemisphere to another with the seasons, and the inhabitants of the hemisphere where the birds were not located would all go into psychosis until the birds returned.

However, a segment of the population was not affected by the birds' disappearance, and it was this portion that cared for the afflicted, and pursued the war against the others.

Anyone know the story? I would like to find it again.

I got it on sale

So stores jack up prices in early November, when no one is looking. Then, on Black Friday, they offer deep discounts on the inflated price, and people line up for days, thinking that they are getting a deal. "But I got it on sale!" they say.

All fun and games...

...until someone gets hurt.



Say this gets tried where people carry concealed weapons. You think its funny that you chase someone down the street with a knife? You like filming them while they run in terror? How will you feel if your actor gets shot?

These sorts of pranks, where you set up a situation to place your victims  in fear for their lives for your own amusement is sick. It's also called aggravated assault...

KSP time waster

I downloaded the newest version of Kerbal Space Program about three weeks ago. I have been exploring the virtual solar system ever since.

Here is a picture of my solar observatory investigating some sunspots:

It's in an orbit that is 280,000 km from the sun.
I have put Kerbonauts on the Mun (moon), and landed probes in the Mars equivalent (Duna). I currently have 2 satellites en route to the Jupiter equivalent (Jool) and its moons, as well as one to the Ceres equivalent (Dres). I sent one to the Mercury equivalent, but it, unfortunately, malfunctioned and was lost. At least it was unmanned. I am also planning a mission to Duna (Mars) and a permanent base on the Mun (Moon).

This is wasting A LOT of my time.

Not as lucrative as you think.

Doctors are concerned with the rates of pay that they are getting. In the article, Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, said she was not overly concerned about physicians’ compensation. “I don’t mean to suggest that physicians don’t deserve to do well,” she said. “But physicians are very well-compensated people, no matter what.”

Not as well  as you think. Sure, a doctor makes $200,000 or more a year, but let's compare that to other professions.
A doctor attends college and earns an undergraduate degree. This takes four years, during which the money earned is zero, and tuition, books, and supplies are about $20,000. Room and board are extra.
Then the doctor attends medical school. The school lasts three years, and the money earned is zero. Tuition, books, and supplies are about $225,000. Room and board are extra.
Then the doctor does his residency. This lasts at least a year, during which the resident works 80 hour weeks and makes about $45,000 a year.

So this doctor is now 26 years old and has made $45,000. He now has about $400,000 in student loans that must be repaid. With interest.
So over the 47 years of his working life, he spends the first 8 in school, and ends that first 8 years $355,000 in the hole. If that doctor makes $200,000 a year on average for the remaining 39 years of his working life, the first $50,000 of that will pay for his student loans and the years he was jobless.

The Day After, 30 years later

It was 30 years ago today: ABC aired a made for TV movie titled The Day After. I watched that movie as a teen, and frankly, it gave me nightmares. The movie was about surviving a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union. It was a real threat in those days.

For those of you that are too young to remember, growing up under the threat of nuclear holocaust was a real and ever present danger that we all learned to accept. I remember having "duck and cover" drills when I was in elementary school. On notification, we were trained to duck under our desks, cover our heads, and wait for the end.

The movie seemed very real and scary to me at the time, and I had nightmares about it for weeks.

Sad clown is sad

So an Obama voter, who supports the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is upset because it turns out that she actually has to pay for it. The people who voted for President Freestuff are finding out that the things he promised are not free for everyone.
This woman is currently paying $250 a month in health care expenses for herself and her son. She originally thought that she would be able to use a tax subsidy to get a "gold" plan for only $169 a month. There was an error in computing her subsidy, and she doesn't get one at all. It turns out that she will have to pay $324 for a "silver" plan, which has a high deductible. She claims that she cannot afford it, and blames the state exchange.
She is angry because she thought that all she needed to do to get cheap insurance is vote for it. She calls herself a "single mother who is self employed and has had no health insurance for over 50 years" according to the email that she sent to the president.
She is a freelance court reporter who makes a bit less than $50,000 a year. The reason that she cannot get cheap insurance is that her son is already on Medicaid, for which she pays only $30 a month, and is thus not counted as a tax deduction when calculating Obamacare subsidies.
The press gets one thing wrong, however. It says that the woman will elect to pay the $95 penalty. The penalty is actually the GREATER of $95 or 1% of your income. Since she makes about $50K a year, her Obamacare penalty will be closer to $500.
But hey, you voted for this, and you got it.

When the skies of November turn gloomy...

The Edmund Fitzgerald was an American freighter that plied the Great Lakes. It was in service for 38 years and 7 days.
It was 38 years and 7 days ago that she sank in a gale on Lake Superior.  The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is one of the best-known disasters in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

Bite the hand that fed you

Here is an Orlando story about a woman who confessed to helping carry out a home invasion robbery of her parents' home. During the course of the robbery, the woman's father was severely beaten.

Preemption

There are people in this state that are in a panic about Leon county's proposed Universal Background Check ordnance. This topic comes up from time to time, and I have blogged on this before.

This is a big deal over nothing. Florida has preemption, and the only exception is found in Article VIII, Section 2(b):
(b) Each county shall have the authority to require a criminal history records check and a 3 to 5-day waiting period, excluding weekends and legal holidays, in connection with the sale of any firearm occurring within such county. For purposes of this subsection, the term “sale” means the transfer of money or other valuable consideration for any firearm when any part of the transaction is conducted on property to which the public has the right of access. Holders of a concealed weapons permit as prescribed by general law shall not be subject to the provisions of this subsection when purchasing a firearm.

Note that the only time that the county may require a background check for a transaction conducted between private parties who are not dealers (transactions at a dealer must go through a check and have a waiting period, but again, CCW holders are exempt from the waiting period) is when the transaction occurs on property to which the public has the right of access. The only place that the public has such a right is on property owned by the government. The public has no right to access on private property. This means that the background checks may only be required if you are conducting the sale on the roadway, a park, a gun show held at a civic center, etc.

Note also that there is a specific exception for people that hold a concealed weapons permit.

Even better, take a look at 790.33, which is the state's preemption statute:
Except as expressly provided by the State Constitution or general law, the Legislature hereby declares that it is occupying the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition, including the purchase, sale, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation thereof, to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances or any administrative regulations or rules adopted by local or state government relating thereto. Any such existing ordinances, rules, or regulations are hereby declared null and void. 


The state went on to say this:


Any person, county, agency, municipality, district, or other entity that violates the Legislature’s occupation of the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition, as declared in subsection (1), by enacting or causing to be enforced any local ordinance or administrative rule or regulation impinging upon such exclusive occupation of the field shall be liable as set forth herein.

So the law is unenforceable. What happens if the law is passed anyway? What if the cops then arrest you? That is the best part:


If any county, city, town, or other local government violates this section, the court shall declare the improper ordinance, regulation, or rule invalid and issue a permanent injunction against the local government prohibiting it from enforcing such ordinance, regulation, or rule. It is no defense that in enacting the ordinance, regulation, or rule the local government was acting in good faith or upon advice of counsel. 
If the court determines that a violation was knowing and willful, the court shall assess a civil fine of up to $5,000 against the elected or appointed local government official or officials or administrative agency head under whose jurisdiction the violation occurred. 
Except as required by applicable law, public funds may not be used to defend or reimburse the unlawful conduct of any person found to have knowingly and willfully violated this section. A knowing and willful violation of any provision of this section by a person acting in an official capacity for any entity enacting or causing to be enforced a local ordinance or administrative rule or regulation prohibited under paragraph (a) or otherwise under color of law shall be cause for termination of employment or contract or removal from office by the Governor. 

They will be fired, fined $5,000 PERSONALLY, they cannot use taxpayer funds to hire a lawyer, and you can sue them. I am sure that, should this pass, Florida Carry will be all over it. Send some money their way, they are fighting the good fight.

Subsidize it, you get more

This story was relayed to me by a friend who works in a local emergency room:

A 28 year old woman comes into the ED. She is 19 weeks pregnant with twins: her 8th and 9th children. This particular pregnancy is from her 4th male. Her complaint is that she is possibly having a miscarriage. Upon exam, the head of one fetus is already visible in the cervix. There is nothing that can be done, the pregnancy is over.
The father begged the doctor to do all that he could. The doctor explained that there is nothing that can be done, and that he has sympathy for the couple. The doctor leaves the room, my friend is standing just outside and hears the conversation that ensues. The male complains to the female that he is upset because they were counting on the extra welfare and food stamps to buy a new car.

Think about that for a minute, and contemplate all of the implications of that.

Elections have consequences

My brother is a business owner and has a few employees. He is still a small enough company that his employees are like family. His son developed a significant health issue when he was only two years old, and needs to have surgery every 8 weeks as a result. My brother had to send this letter out to his employees today:

There has been a lot of talk about Obamacare and the changes to the law on the news lately. Here is my situation as a business owner, and as a parent of a child with a preexisting condition.

Because of the preexisting health concerns of my child, we could not get our own coverage in the past. We had to be part of a group plan, so we decided to purchase group insurance for the company, which meant that we would pay 50% of the premiums for our staff. That 50% was then a tax credit to us. So if we owed $10k in taxes each month, and paid $8k in staff insurance premiums, we now only owed $2k in taxes. My accountant has informed me that this tax credit has been eliminated under Obamacare. This means that next year, we will see an $8k per month increase in our taxes.

Now we can get our family insurance with a $0 deductible for a much lower rate than paying the monthly premiums for our employees through (I hate to say it) healthcare.gov by purchasing a "gold" plan. If we attempt to obtain coverage through the company, we will still have to maintain the 50% payment of our employees, the premiums for which will be increasing our half by an additional $2K a month. For this amount, we will have a $2K deductible, and we will lose that tax credit. This means that our insurance expenses and taxes will increase to $218,000 per year if we continue providing insurance for our staff. This level of expense is just not sustainable. For this reason, we will be dropping the insurance that we offer as a small business to our employees, will get our own  policy, and direct our staff to the healthcare.gov site.

This is just the insurance view. There is more to Obamacare that most do not realize. It has forced many in my industry to close due to the cost of compliance with the regulations put on food supply operators for calorie and nutrition infomation disclosure.

My opinion is mixed. The preexisting condition of my child is now moot. The cost to me appears to be cancelled out so far with lower deductibles. However, it is forcing my staff to now be transferred onto the health care exchanges for insurance, and they will now have to pay 100% of their premiums. Due to the added taxes and expenses associated with the compliance with this law, we are not in a position to give any of you a raise to offset the additional costs. Depending on how my taxes work out at the end of the year, there is a distinct possibility that we will have to scale back or even sell out our remaining contracts and lay off our entire staff. We will inform you as soon as we know more.

Errors

I went to Chik fil A to get breakfast a couple of days ago. It was five minutes before they were due to stop serving breakfast and begin serving lunch. I ordered a Sausage biscuit, and they told me that they were out of sausage, and that I could order a chicken biscuit. I didn't really want chicken, but it is what it is.

I arrived at the window, paid for my food, and when they handed me my order, it was chicken nuggets, not a biscuit. I pointed it out, and that was when they told me they were also out of chicken patties. I was irate. I demanded my money back, and went to Wendy's just down the street, and ordered lunch instead. When I began to eat, my burger and fries were ice cold.

A dispatcher in training sends ambulances to the wrong address. That happens more frequently than you know. I know that I got sent to the wrong location about once a month or so. Sometimes it is because of an error with the caller. Sometimes, the dispatcher. Sometimes, it is caused by the system.

A good example is Michigan Avenue. There is one in Orange County, and one in Osceola county. If you call from a cell phone, and the tower that is accessed is in one county while you are in the other, the wrong location and the wrong emergency crews will be dispatched.

Or perhaps you called for Orange Avenue instead of Orange Street.

In this case, the caller asked for paramedics to be dispatched to the Ormond Rec Center, when he was actually at the Nova Community Park. He gave the cross street for the correct location, but in making that mistake when giving his location, the dispatcher looked up the correct address for the Ormond Rec Center, was new, and her training officer was busy talking on her cell phone.

A comedy of small errors that added up to a dead victim, who had already collapsed from an apparent heart attack. He probably would have died anyway, but we will never know.

Some say that had the trainer been paying attention, the correct address may have been located. We will never know.

What do we know? We know that fast food workers have gone on strike, demanding that they receive $15 an hour for doing whatever it is that they do. A dispatcher makes less than that. So do the paramedics.

How can we justify paying someone $15 an hour to cook and serve a burger incorrectly, and then demand that dispatchers and paramedics perform their jobs with a zero percent error rate for less money than that?

Tracking your whereabouts

The more that I see things like this, the more that I want to simply give up my cell phone. We are all being tagged and tracked like animals.

Another useful idiot

Another person who voted for Obama because he promised them free stuff has awakened to the reality. She sent him a letter, but that will accomplish nothing. What with term limits, the President doesn't need your votes. That is exactly why the ACA was timed to begin AFTER the election. That way, people who were upset would not be able to do a thing about it.

To all of you that voted for him: Go fuck yourself. You voted for this, twice. You simpletons thought that you could have everything you wanted, and that someone else would be the one paying for it. Now that it turns out that the one paying for it is you, you don't like it.

This country IS going to collapse under the weight of these Socialist policies. The loose spending of the past 60 years is going to break us. When the collapse comes, the best we can hope for is that the country will break up into manageable pieces, that perhaps one of them will be free, and  that deaths caused by the upheaval will be minimal. We also need to hope that the Chinese haven't figured out sealift capability by then.

The worst case scenario is that the government we have now is replaced by a totalitarian dictatorship. This is the outcome that I fear we are headed for. Why just yesterday, I saw a lowboy driving through my town with an M113 on the back, complete with the M-2 mount and gunner shield, all labelled with the colors of my local sheriff's office.

Nanny State

We have progressed to the point in our nanny state society where a person who is in a vehicle that has been driven into a body of water and is sinking needs to be told to get out of the vehicle before they drown.

A 911 dispatcher was suspended  for not telling a man in a sinking SUV that it would be a good idea to get out before the vehicle sank and took him with it. Seriously?

The real tragedy here is that people like this don't die before they pass on their worthless genes to the next generation. Where is Darwin when you need him?

Gang rape

Five teens held a fellow high school classmate hostage and brutally beat her, until she performed a sexual act on one of the males. More on the story here, and here.
The young people at the house were not having a party. They were beating and raping a 16-year-old South Broward High student, who was being held against her will by two female classmates who kicked her in the head, threw her down the backyard stoop and dragged her by her hair into the yard as she pleaded with them to let her go. They continued to attack her, ripping off her clothes and threatening her until she agreed to have sex with a 19-year-old man who lived in the house.

 The girl was so brutally beaten that several bones were broken in her face and her eyes were swollen shut. She is currently a patient at Joe DiMaggio's Children's Hospital. The two girls, one 15, the other 16, taunted the victim, as one of the men in the house recorded the rape on a cell phone. As the girls held her down, Jayvon Woolfork, 19, forced the girl to have sex, police said. Woolfork, 5-foot-3 and 140 pounds, has a criminal history, including attempted armed robbery, robbery and burglary.

But hey, it was just a beating, right? She should have just given them what they wanted. That is what opponents of Stand Your Ground have to say. This is the same type of behavior exhibited by Trayvon Martin, the scrapes with the law while a young teen, the crimes increasing in significance until there are serious crimes being committed.

I would also note that more than 99% of Broward county voted for Obama, but I am sure that is a coincidence.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731277/5-arrested-in-gang-rape-of-hollywood.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731277/5-arrested-in-gang-rape-of-hollywood.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731277/5-arrested-in-gang-rape-of-hollywood.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731277/5-arrested-in-gang-rape-of-hollywood.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731277/5-arrested-in-gang-rape-of-hollywood.html#storylink=cpy