Sunday, January 23, 2011

Drunken Cycles

Jose Borbon got convicted of DWI. He actually got a year in prison so it probably was not his first offense. Six weeks later he is behind the wheel again, still drunk and even on his cell phone. This time he kills someone. He gets 1 1/3 – 4 years and he’ll be out in a year. Unless the punishment is made to fit the crime, this will never end. When he was driving drunk he was guilty of the attempted murder of everyone on the road and his punishment should have fit the crime. When he did kill someone it, he was guilty of willful murder. He'll be back behind the wheel in no time. Great

Haiti Summarized

They had an earthquake - people gave money. They had a hurricane - people gave more money. Two Presidents even went around collecting. It is unfortunate that this happened but in the year in between these events, exactly what did the people there do for themselves? Did they work to move any rubble? Doesn't look it. Make any effort to clean anything up? Apparently not. Looks like they did two things: had more kids, and waited for someone else to do something for them.

Energy

China is currently constructing 25 nuclear power plants. The US has not built a nuclear plant in 30 years. France gets 75% of their energy needs from nuclear power. The US is building windmills in places that do not interfere with the view from Hyannisport. The US has a Department of Energy. China and France do not. What is the Department of Energy doing?

Meanwhile, the current Administration's plan is to print more money to reduce the value of the dollar and to not drill for oil anywhere in the United States. The price of oil goes up. There is nothing else that could happen.. The biggest surprise is why increasing energy prices are a surprise to anyone.

Social Work

A Hauppauge social worker is guilty of posting a suggestive ad on Craigslist about a 9-year-old girl. Posting suggestive ads about 9 years old is pedophilia. As her punishment, she got community service and counseling. That means she will be talking to another social worker about being a pedophile. That will obviously work. And there is not one word about this woman obviously unqualified woman losing her job. That would be her job as a SOCIAL WORKER.
Now we know that social worker pedophiles are entitled to their union jobs and pensions no matter what they do. Our tax dollar in action.

Whacky Media Scales

There is a total media preference for outrage at every statement a conservative makes and silence about anything else. This inhibits any reasonable discussion. Palin's website was not the first to use the target analogy. The Democratic National Committee site used it as early as 2006; the liberal Daily Kos pulled theirs when Palin did. But there was no noise about the guilt or either, even after the shooting by a guy who was clearly not a conservative by any definition. And of course, the guy who said: ...they bring a knife we'll bring a gun... was never called to answer for that. But that is another issue.

Palin's blood libel comment was slammed anti-Semitic by her more unhinged opponents while even Alan Dershowitz said it wasn't. Meanwhile this Congressman compares everyone who disagrees with him to Joseph Goebbels and there is barely a wimper. Fair and balanced reporting that.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

All Death Penalties

Debate continues. There are people who are really worried about the scum that sits on death row. They contend that there is no valid reason for society to take another person’s life regardless of this crime. In support there have the oft quoted “better that the guilty go free than one innocent man blah, blah, blah”. Their statistics counter that the death penalty does not deter anything (?); and that proportionally more minorities get death sentences. The answer is that neither stat is relevant. It might not deter every nut but it will deter some and that can only help; the answer to the latter is proportional to what – the number of murders minorities commit? - The percentage of minority population? - The percentage accused or caught? The Constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment is another favorite dodge. People are put out for operations all the time using various drugs. It can be the same here; they just don’t wake up.
Another excuse offered is the sickness of the murderer. By some definitions, anyone who kills anyone is at least a little sick. And so? People have sniffles, cancer and fallen arches, they don’t get off. Why should another type of illness which is subjective as to whether you actually have it, excuse murdering someone?

Their premise is whether anyone deserves the death penalty for anything? Well, suppose Hitler had been captured? Would a life sentence be an adequate punishment? If Hitler deserved the death penalty, does it depend upon how many people you kill? What is the magic number of murders that warrants death? 6 million? 100? 6? Is one priceless life worth more than 6?

This Death Penalty

The guy randomly killed 6 people and injured 14 more. He was caught with the smoking gun in his hand. There is no doubt that he committed this atrocity. Yet, newspapers refer to him as the “suspect”, perhaps in preparation for the anti-death penalty noise. There is no reason why this guy should not be executed and in a timely manner. Show of hands – who wants to pay for this guy’s food, housing, endless legal challenges/appeals and medical coverage for the next 50 years?
The people who were involved in Lincoln’s assassination were swinging from a noose inside of 4 months. There is no reason why this should take any longer.

Who is the Nut?

The blame game continues. It seems that the loonies are all after Palin. But,
The guy is a nut.
He has been stalking the Congresswoman since before anyone ever heard of Palin.
He is a fan on The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Mein Kampf. People who are fans of government control are seldom found at Tea Party rallies.
His friends identify him as a liberal who never watch TV or listened to talk radio.
He drug use is another thing that it not found at Tea Party rallies.
The oft noted target icons were used by websites on both sides of the political spectrum.
There is zero evidence that this guy was associated with any political movement.

Regardless it must be Palin’s fault. This marks progress for the lefties. They have moved on from blaming Bush.

Name Calling

Name calling is inching toward asking for Olympic status. This guy is labeled as a “right wing nut” while some use “Nazi” as a synonym. Others favor “socialist” as the ultimate in smears. Here’s a test:
Question 1:
The scale runs from complete freedom to do anything you want to total mind/body/property control by whatever you call the people in charge. (Said another way, who wants more laws and who wants less.)
Now - put these people/ideologies on the scale:
Libertarians, Socialism, Hitler, Stalin, Republicans, Ronald Reagan, Nazism, Communism, Barack Obama, Anarchists, Democrats, Liberals, Right Wing nuts, Conservatives.

The answer is the same when you use a scale based upon economic freedom. The discussion now is to determine the relative differences between these points on the scale and who anyone wants to be close to.

It seems that in any accurate definition, the right wing nut and the Nazi are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. And Obama is closer to Nazi than Republican. How about that?

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Defense Cuts

The knee jerk Conservative reaction is that the defense budget can not be cut at all. It is absurd to say that there is not one tuba player in one band on one base that cannot be done without. And in a budget this big there has to be room for improvement without reducing defensive capability or making any of our brave soldiers do without supplies, support pay or medical care.
Here's a start: When Clinton was "nation building" Conservatives and Republicans were properly strong in opposition to it. The same thing is going on in Iraq and Afganistan and now it's OK? It's time to go. Give each of them an assault rifle (if they don't already have one) and leave. If the mission can't be sensibly defined - and it can't - it's a lousy mission.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Home values and Help

Lots of people are demanding help for people in foreclosure and those owing more than the house value. Before throwing more money at the problem, some effort needs to be expended on looking at who should be helped. Some reporting on the extent of the situation would be of value. For example:
Identify how many of these properties were purchased as second home/income property. Those who did so made investments. Investments go up and investments go down. These went down – just like most 401Ks and IRAs. There is no reason at all why these properties should not be foreclosed on and even less reason why the government (tax money) should bail out the investors.

Identify how many of these properties were the subject of cash out refinances. Those who did this converted their equity in the property for cash in return for higher debt (and probably lower interest rates). Anyone who took out money in this way simply made a bad investment decision.

Identify how many people would be underwater if the money they took in cash refinances were considered as part of the value of the home. These owners have already received that value and not to consider as part of their value is a misrepresentation. Note that a very large percentage of the mortgages prior to the bubble bursting were cash out refinances.

And then there are the people who are claiming that they didn’t know that adjustable mortgages actually, you know, adjust; that balloons came due; or who were sure that they could carry a mortgage payment that was 50% of their gross salary. Stupidity is not a valid defense for anything.

If there is anyone left, we could look at the proper actions to take.