This is too perfect
I read this in the newspaper today and couldn't resist.? I guess even the Big Bad Wolf understood the implications of the Kelo decision:
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A protest in V's spirit
I just read about this recent protest in D.C. and wondered, "who the fuck didn't invite me along?"?You guys will all love what they did.?
Singer Tim McGraw on his
Not all Southern Country Musicians are Republicans.? According to a recent interview, singer Tim McGraw puts himself in the democrat category with a quote like this:
"The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that's something we need to close down a little bit."
His hypocrisy notwithstanding (as I clearly don't see him reducing or re-distributing his personal earnings to help close down that chasm), I don't know what about that quote makes him a 'democrat' rather than a Republican.? And I'd wager my meager earnings against his that he himself couldn't even tell me.? However, what might help clarify the issue is another quote he makes, when the interviewer asks him if he'd ever run for public office:
"One of these days, if the opportunity's there, that's something I'd love to do," he says. "It's a high calling to serve the community, and if you can do it, I think you should."
?The real democrat clincher would probably sound far more clearly if we change what he said a bit, to read:
"It's a high calling to enslave the community, and if you can do it, I think you should."?
But then again, how would that him only a democrat anymore?? And I'd really like to know if he'd even blanch if the interviewer had read back his quote to him like that.? The fucking douchebag probably thinks he's a "Christian" as well, blindly failing to realize that while Christ admonished the rich to help the poor, he never once told the poor to "take the matter into their own hands and fleece the wealthy and productive."? Scratch one more musician off the list of singers I can listen to in good conscience.While I'm certainly not a Neo-Con
I definitely found this video by David Zucker funny, and I'm only posting it in case any of our site visitors haven't seen it yet.?There's a backstory to this, however, as apparently YouTube tried to ban it from appearing on their site.? So much for Google's policy of "Do No Evil" extending to censoring of political views (Google recently bought youtube for 1.65 billion dollars--of stock, no less).? Oh, but wait, they already showed that political censorship didn't constitute (in their view) an evil act when they launched Google in China.?
(The best segment, in my opinion, is Osama bin Laden telling Albright she "missed a spot," while she's painting the walls of his cave!)
More Cameroonians, less city cops.
Angry citizens in Cameroon are fed up with their corrupt justice system, and they're doing something about it.? In incidents reported all over the country, Cameroon's residents are taking justice into their own hands (the place from where the concept stems anyway), and lynching bandits who plague their villages and cities.?
According to an article on CNN.com, citing Transparency International, Cameroon's police and judiciary are among the most corrupt institutions in the world.
However, the interesting quote comes from one of the residents who participated in a lynching--which consisted of necklacing one of the bandits after beating him severely.?? The vigilante said, "Our intention was to set fire to that bastard so as to serve as a lesson to others," said one middle-aged resident. "These are people who don't want to work, and only wait for others to work and they come and deprive them of the fruits of their hard labor. We have had enough of them."
It's funny, I see these types of bandits walking in and out of government buildings every day.? Where are the lynch mobs for them?
No Surprise to Us
The only surprise in this case is that the story got reported at all.?
In Tennessee yesterday, an employee at a grocery store attacked eight co-workers, injuring five (one severely), before being subdued by a citizen with a privately owned firearm.? The full story is here.
The short version of the story is that the knife-weilding employee had chased one his potential victims into the parking lot.? A local financial services manager witnessed the attempted attack, walked to his truck, removed the firearm, and pointed it at the assailant, causing him the drop the knife and surrender.
We can only ask WWAMD?? Or rather, What Would an Air Marshall Have Done??
Your grandfather's sexual revolution
Or for some of us, our parents, now retired, and definitely enjoying life in their retirement communities, thanks to the magic of a little blue pill.?
While this has little to do with the usual fare of libertyguys material, I thought some of you might get a kick out of reading the following article from the Guardian (UK).? The article, entitled "Viagra blamed for STD's in pensioners," relates the alarming rise in the incidence of STD's like herpes and HPV in retirement homes.?
Of course, like any good socialist newspaper, they blame viagra, rather than the human behavior of forgetting to use protection.? But if you can blame an external cause for something, it's so much easier to regulate...? (Sorry, I did have to figure out a way to bring this back around to libertarian politics, even if it's not a stretch at all.)?
From one politician to another
I will never get over the high degree of economic illiteracy in this country, especially among politicians from top to bottom.? Here's a quote from Arlen Specter:
''They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives up prices.''
-- Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., calling for a windfall profits tax on oil companies
And here's another quote from Bee County Judge Jimmy Martinez, the county's highest elected official:
"I understand free enterprise. I understand we live in America. But, by golly, just because they have a license doesn't mean that they can rob," Martinez said.
This last quote was in support of a Beeville, Texas town-wide plan to boycott any gas sold at Exxon locations, until, get this, the price of gas goes down to $1.30 a gallon.? While part of me wants to salute the notion that this is all that the Beeville residents are "attempting" to do to Exxon, another part of me laughs with a good measure of contempt at their sheer ignorance of the economic and political factors currently driving up the price of oil.? I mean, wtf, when even NPR is explaining the high cost of gas in purely free-market terms and you've got ignorant senators and judges pushing for measures, what can you do but hold people in contempt and know that they are not fit to take part in a democracy that requires informed (and non-grafting) citizens.??
I suppose we shouldn't be suprised that Arlen Specter seems to have a 'magic bullet' theory for high gasoline prices as well.? This guy should seriously have his head kicked in.?
If you don't give us our cut, we won't let you gamble
Today over 100 members of Congress signed off on a bill that would make internet gambling illegal.?
The bill is chiefly sponsored by Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte (no relation to products at Starbucks), who wants to outlaw the 12 billion dollar a year industry because the websites "operate offshore and often serve as a prime vehicle for money laundering and other criminal enterprises."?? The first time Congress tried to pass this bill, it was "unexpectedly defeated" thanks in large part to the efforts of Jack Abramoff.? Now Congress is again seeking to prohibit gambling websites from accepting credit card payments, etc.? I guess if they can't get money from the industry through Abramoff, they have to shut it down.? In other news, two publicly traded companies in Europe that operate gambling websites traded down, another interesting example of how the government is the prime destroyer of wealth whenever it sets foot in the free market.?
For information on how they intend to enforce such a ban, please see their success in the war on drugs.?
The worst commercial during the Super Bowl
?? ? Kudos to Dove for broadcasting the worst Super Bowl commercial I had the displeasure of watching during the game.? During Dove?’s forty-five second spot, text is superimposed over various images of young girls, ranging in age from about 5 to 15, while a clip from Cyndi Lauper?’s ?“True Colors?” plays in the background.?? The text over read as a projection of the cause of the pictured young girl?’s low self-esteem, featuring most of the usual culprits, such as ?“thinks she?’s ugly,?” ?“afraid she?’s fat,?” and of course, ?“wishes she were blond.?”?? The ad finishes with a ?“message of change?” from Dove, stating how they created the ?“Dove Self-esteem Fund?” to change girl?’s minds, because ?“every girl deserves to feel good about herself.?”? ????
???? So how could anyone think that this commercial was the worst of those aired during Super Bowl XL?
Read the full text of the article here.