Rise of the Real (Not New) Right

The Southern Avenger makes a great point about the hostile takeover of the GOP by libertarians and centrists, or more popularly known as tea-partiers. While some in the media might call it the "new right," the Southern Avenger says it correctly...it's the return of the real right. This is how the Republicans are/were supposed to be.

Questions For The Census Worker or Public Servant

This simply reinforces my belief that such sweeping federal laws almost always have secondary, unintended consequences. It is much better to create laws locally rather than nationally because of different conditions in each locality. The founding fathers knew this, yet we keep refusing to accept this. Although I dislike the invasive questions performed by the census, and even though in Federalist 58, Madison makes a point that the census is supposed to be about numbers for delegate apportionment and not about occupations or ethnicity or any other irrelevant questions, there still exists that part in Article 1, Section 2 that states, "...in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." They, meaning congress, can, if they so chose, ask you for your shoes size, amount of daily toilet paper usage and favorite sexual position under penalty of law. IT'S NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS! Limitations, people, limitations -- it's good for governments! I think it's time for an amendment ladies and gentlemen.

Over at LewRockwell.com they have a kind of tête á tête article for Americans and census workers. Personally I find it a bit overkill, but I have to compliment the author for creativity and thoroughness. The person that put together this Public Servant Questionnaire really put some time and effort to make this painful, yet lawful document. If you look at the bottom, you'll notice references to various Public Laws and US Codes. At the beginning he point out the specific public law herein:

Public Law 93-579 states in part: "The purpose of this Act is to provide certain safeguards for an individual against invasion of personal privacy by requiring Federal agencies...to permit and individual to determine what records pertaining to him are collected, maintained, used, or disseminated by such agencies." The following questions are based upon that act and are necessary in order that this individual may make a reasonable determination concerning divulgence of information to this agency.

Pretty bad-ass! You turn the law against the Man. "Why yes, public servant, I will answer your question if you but first answer mine."

The Right Not to Speak - In Court

I should give this topic some thought. I know about the right to speak without worrying about any repercussions from the government, and I'm keenly aware of the right not to speak. This article talks about the a different point of view. If I have the right speak out (or not), then that right should extend to courts of law when a person does not wish to testify against (or for) another.When we are subpoenaed, we are compelled to talk, and if we refuse, we are held in contempt, and we are not given due process. When held in contempt of court we are not given an impartial judge or jury, as an alleged criminal would have. Rather, "the judge [that levies this accusation] is the plaintiff, prosecutor, judge, and jury all wrapped into one."

It's easy to dismiss this thought as some ranting of some extremist. I'm sure most would agree that we have to give up that right in order to justify the harm committed against another person. Wouldn't I want someone to speak on my behalf if I were in a similar situation? Some might say that in order to further freedom and rule of law that it is your duty to speak when called upon. The author of the article criticizes Libertarians in particular because we are "strangely silent on the many instances of compulsory speech." He has a point.

Coming For You!

This video has been going around a while and I thought it should be posted here too. The targets in this video are FDR-style Democrats (progressives). I prefer to call them communo-facist-elitist-dum-dums (TM). This video should also apply to GOP politicians (neo-cons) that continue to follow Bush's policies and have endorsed Bush's cowboy agenda. As far as I'm concerned, if they tried to pass legislation that was unconstitutional or a budget with unconstitutional purposes, they have lied and must be kicked out.



I and other like minded Americans WILL come and get you. I just wish that your retirement privileges were canceled.

Infographic and Depth of Deepwater Horizon's Oil Spill

I'm a sucker for graphics, especially when they display cool information. I work with a lot of dashboards at work, and they're fine and dandy, but boooring. Check this graphic out from 35,000ft (11km) up to 35,000ft (11km) down!

OurAmazingPlanet via Gizmodo

More Badassery!! The Iron(ing) Man

You just have to watch in awe at people who are good at their jobs.



Via Gizmodo.

Fixing the Tax System In Order to Fix Illegal Immigration

Did I say the double-I word? Yup. Are you offended? I don't care.

Joe Wurzelbacher over at stimulatedyet.com wrote this article. He's opposed to the current tax system and believes that fixing it to a Fair Tax system would solve our illegal immigration problem.  It's a good read and logically connects the dots.

I've mentioned  fixing our broken tax system before. The current system favors special interests and double taxes law abiding people. It's immoral and must go.

The Philosophy of Liberty

This video via Beyond the Broken Spectrum makes a lot of my points in a nice visual format.



Now that you've seen it, ask yourself what your government (Korean, US, doesn't matter) does that regularly infringes upon your or a class of citizens' rights (think the wealthy).  I know Korea is different than the US, but it's good food for thought and perhaps real change.

Ask yourself this...If Democrats support liberty why do they take the fruits of your labor to support others that don't work (Obamacare and welfare). If Republicans support liberty, why do they support taking of life and liberty when it comes to your personal choices. If you like life, liberty and property, then I humbly suggest a third alternative...the Libertarian Party.

Speed Camera Activitist PWNS Cop's Website

Over at Beyond the Broken Spectrum comes a tale of humorous payback...

Brian McCrary is a computer network designer from Gray, TN who is a anti-speed camera activist. After receiving a $90 ticket from the Bluff City Police Department he went to their website and noticed it was about to expire. What he did next had us laughing our asses off. He waited for the site to expire and then bought the domain name from GoDaddy.com and made it into a Anti-speed cam info site!

Read the rest on your own.  It's refreshing and nice to see someone sticking it to the man!

TSA - What A Farce!

The purpose of the TSA, according to their website is, "...to strengthen the security of the nation’s transportation systems while ensuring the freedom of movement for people and commerce.



Great! Just F'n great!  Just what we need, another agency to spend more tax money and inconvenience us. I know what you're going to say, you'll use the "9/11 card," and hope that will end the argument. Yes, 9/11 happened, and it was tragic, but if TSA had existed at that time, they still would have let those terrorists on-board because box cutters were not considered a weapon.

Oh, but they make it harder for the terrorists to hijack a plane. No they don't. While all the focus is on passengers, airport staff and cargo areas are poorly monitored and lightly controlled. Think about this - if liquids are such a threat, then, what does TSA do when they ask you to throw away your liquids. Yup, they ask you to throw them in the trash can, at the screening areas. So there you have a can full of potential explosives with a bunch of people standing around. LIES!



But there hasn't been a terrorist bombing or attack since they've began working. Really? We implement tighter procedures, then the shoe-bomber gets through. We start screening shoes, then the liquid-threat is identified. We "get rid" of liquids, but someone get through with a bomb in their underwear. We have body scanners now, imagine if someone tries to smuggle a bomb in their butt. All the things that TSA does NOW, works against previous threats. It's a theatrical show.

But I don't mind the inconvenience if I'm secure, I've got nothing to hide. I do. To those that have nothing to hide, let's put security cameras in your house to make sure you're secure, that you're not doing anything unsavory or perhaps giving too much trans-fats to your children. It's called dignity and privacy and when they're given up in the name of security, it had better be effective. Taking off my shoes -- doesn't increase security.



Well, what should we do? We can't just do nothing, we have to do something. I agree. The two most effective things that have increased security of air travel are (1) hardened cockpit doors on planes and (2) passengers willing to kick the shit out of anyone that acts up. Remember what we were told prior to 9/11? Don't get involved with someone trying to hijack the plane, stay in your seats, let the experts handle it...yeah, no.

But we're at war. These are the times we live in and we have to make sacrifices. No. We haven't declared war since WWII and we shouldn't have to make sacrifices like these. The most dangerous form of transportation is automobiles, why haven't we declared war on something that kills more Americans weekly than all of airline history? We spend billions of dollars on farcical airport security, while statistically consider the following, odds of dying in a terrorist related airline attack: 1 in 25,000,000; odds of dying from a lighting strike: 1 in 500,000. America is a country of 310 million people, in which thousands of horrible things happen every single day; and the chances that one of those horrible things will be that you're subjected to a terrorist attack can, for all practical purposes, be calculated as zero. Why haven't we declared war on lightning? Are we missing the cost/benefit analysis here?!



The best things we can do to make ourselves safer while flying is to pull our troops out of nations that don't want us there, especially the middle east. 9/11 was the effect, the blowback from the cause, infidels on/near their holy land. Our continued unconstitutional  presence only engenders greater hostility and future blowback. We are our own worst enemy. We could use the troops that we bring home and the money saved to patrol our leaky borders and seaports where there are so many more points of entry.



We could also turn security over to private companies and/or airlines. When TSA employees screw up, they may be fired, but the organization doesn't really suffer, so there really isn't any incentive to be effective. In fact, when they DO screw up, they argue that they need even MORE devices and training and employees. If this show were run privately, any screw up would cost jobs and money. When they succeed, the private organization can use that as bragging right to win more contracts, an incentive.

Finally, TSA not only is a burden, but they are incompetent, ineffective, and punish the good people. It is uncontitutional because this is not a federal duty, it's a private one. It erodes our liberties and makes us less safe and creates a social acceptance of submission to government authority. More freedom and REAL security measures makes us more safe, everything else is just show.

Black Founders - A Research Topic

This is something I suppose I didn't really give much thought to, black founders. When I say founders, I mean founding fathers of America. Most of my generation went to school learning about certain historical figures, such as Paul Revere or Thomas Jefferson. I remember reading that there was a black patriot that was killed at Lexington, where the opening shots started the Revolutionary War. Besides that one mention, there was never any other mention of African-Americans during that war and never again until about the time of the Civil War and Fredrick Douglas.  Apparently there is much more to the story...

***DISCLAIMER*** This is shown on Glenn Beck's show, but without his usual hype. Give it a try.

 Give it watch here

This is something I'm going to have to do more research on. This means that a lot of blacks/minorities were empowered in the past and it reduces the credibility of those that play the "victim card."  Time to hit the books.

A Moment of Awwwwww.

Ok, Iron Man...cool guy, cool suit. What could be better? Well, as it turns out, anything that you make with men a superheroes works twice as well with a baby thrown in.

For your viewing pleasure... Iron Baby vis Gizmodo.



I bet you smiled! Don't deny it!

Gov. Christie Takes On The Unions

I really like this guy. He's a no nonsense do-er. I mean, why haven't we, as people, picked up on the double-talk and hypocrisies of our political representatives? Why do they try to have their staff write laws in legalese so that you and I can't understand it without paying a retainer fee?  Sheesh!

It's no great surprise where I stand on unions. It's also no surprise that I'm especially against teachers' unions. Governor Christie is trying to fix a problem, but the problem refuses to get fixed because unions don't want that. When unions get too big, they are as dangerous and corporations, and either ones, when lobbying to governments creates an atmosphere which is always opposed to general good. Why? Because the corporations and unions exist to serve themselves.

Judge for yourself.



It's time to end their power and bring about performance based pay.

F'n Bureaucrats Are Consuming Our Taxes

Ahhhh, government bureaucrats! In Korea it is considered a desirable and prestigious job. It has job security and there is a career path and they get to flex what little power they have. Muaahahahahahaha!  Sounds similar to US government jobs. I should know; I used to be one. In fact, it was unusual when I quit government service for a corporate job, a lot of my friends couldn't understand. There's a saying in America about governement jobs and IT professionals like me: Government service jobs are where good IT folks go to die.  Hehe.

I suppose there are a lot of similarities in every bureaucracies. There are cogs and managers and leaders. There's corruption and red tape and kick-backs and quid-pro-quo. One day I went to the local Korean government office because I had to do something. While I was waiting I noticed that in addition to paperwork, there was a lot of internet surfing and delivery guys dropping off internet purchases. It was like I was back home in GS world! Needless to say there will always be minor ethical violations no matter where you go.

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity made this video concerning Those That Consume Our Taxes. Notice that it is very difficult to fire a GS worker if they perform poorly. Notice that when they retire we (taxpayers) must continue to pay for their retirements. Notice that during this recession, as private sector jobs and pay have decreased, their's have increased.  I think its time to make some cuts and put that saved tax money back into our small businesses.

What Happens When You're Improperly Jailed?

This question comes to me once in a while. I wonder how society would take care of me if I was wrongly accused and jailed. What if, in spite of knowing that the judgement was wrong, the court goes ahead and either refuses to let me go (because it would set a precedent that would force the court to re-try thousands of cases), still holds me liable when found not guilty (money owed to the state), or interprets the law so dishonestly as to fly in the face of common sense (several Supreme Court decisions). What would society do?

Nothing.

Of course because the plight of one man is infinitesimal. But that doesn't make it right or just. Suppose I was accused and convicted of a crime and then ten years later I were to be exonerated because DNA evidence proves that I wasn't the criminal. Then what? How will society compensate all that I've lost?

I read this article over at Beyond the Broken Spectrum. Money shot:

A Georgia man spent more than a year behind bars for failing to pay child support for a child that wasn’t his, but he was released after DNA tests showed he wasn’t the father. Frank Hatley, 50, had been jailed since June 2008 for not making payments...

Although Hatley was freed from making future payments after a 2001 hearing, Superior Court Judge Dan Perkins had ordered him to continue making $16,000 in back payments.

 HOLY CRAP!

Let's think about this for a second. An innocent man was deprived of liberty, property, and a period of life based on society's judgement of him. If we as society have the power to deprive our peers of these things, then when we're wrong, we should compensate that person justly. It should also act as a cautionary tale because it could happen to any one of us.

How do we compensate the time lost? Money based on average income? Or the accused potential income based his prior job and adjusted for inflation? Or a lifetime compensation package (house, car, everything) based on the median income of the state?

How do we compensate broken relationships?  Or how do we say, "I'm sorry for the prison lifestyle that was forced upon you and I hope you aren't too mentally or emotionally scarred."

Look, I'm not saying that we shouldn't punish criminals in case we accidentally convict an innocent man. BUT, the cornerstone of our justice system can be condensed into the famous line, "Better ten guilty men go free than to convict one innocent man." And if we find that innocent man, then we need to lavish upon him as much, or more, as we have punished him. We must equal the scales.

If it were found that the prosecution was withholding or tampering evidence, then the prosecution needs to face some harsh penalties.  But aside from that, I think that we, as a society and as the state, need to be generous with the compensations. A conservative might say that that's too bad...tough luck...our imperfect justice system sometimes incarcerates innocent men. I don't know what a liberal would say. I say we need to take care of these broken human beings because we created them accidentally. Currently most states have minimal or non-existant compensation for such cases, but there needs to be more.

The Right to Discriminate

Yes, I know. Just like the word "welfare," the word "discriminate." has negative connotations. So what. I'm talking about broader definitions and meanings before these negative connotations were assigned.

Do you discriminate?  I do...all the time. You do too.

Whenever we make decisions we discriminate. I discriminate against American or German cars because I prefer Japanese ones. I discriminate against hiring people that I perceive to be lazy or unable to perform a job. It happens all the time and the freedom or right to do so makes our lives richer.

The reason I'm bringing this topic up is because of Rand Paul's comments and the media spinning his comments waaaaaaay out of context. This is what the liberal media likes to do. It's their forte. Have you hear much about Obama's inept handling of the oil spill? Nope, at least, not in comparison to a right wing / libertarian saying that "..yeah, I'm not in favor of any discrimination in any form."

Walter Williams, a professor at George Mason University, spoke up in defense of Rand and of discrimination. Why? Because the federal government, really, doesn't have the power to tell someone what they can or can't do in a privately owned residence or business.

It's a short read and well worth it.

Oh, and if you're thinking to yourself that Mr. Williams is probably a white supremacist, you'll be pleasantly surprised to know that he's black. I personally wouldn't have cared either way, but I wanted to preempt a pre-judgment, just in case.