Can't Fool All The People, All The Time.

My eighth grade math teacher, Mr. Head, used to like to quote someone, Lincoln I think, who said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." This article from CNN tells me that right now, the majority of Americans are not fooled about what is wrong with our government.

Word Verification

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Word Verification is a royal pain in the ass. I would gladly endure 5 times as much spam email daily, run three anti-virus software programs simultaneouly and buy a hardware firewall if it would eliminate Word Verification. And a note to Blogger, your word verification does not work right.

Now I understand

It has been troubling to me that the main opposition to the RTBA is that congressmen and senators don't have time to read all the bills that they vote on. Recent news headlines have enabled me to understand why that is the case. They are all to busy trying to pork a page to spend anytime reading.

Am I Missing Something?

During the recent outbreak of E. coli that was traced to some contaminated spinach, I kept waiting to hear someone say ” be sure and wash any spinach thoroughly before you eat it.” I never heard that in any broadcast nor did I read it in any article. Instead I heard of a FDA ban on all spinach. Now I don't know much about biology and I don't keep up with medicine, but I thought that E. coli was a bacteria and that bacteria could be removed with sufficient washing. I was also under the impression that if you are cooking something, bringing the temperature to over 140 degrees kills bacteria. Has that changed? Is there some new strain of E. coli that can no longer be washed off or killed?

Eventually it was determined that the spinach in question had been contaminated by cow manure from a pasture near the field where the spinach was grown. What that tells me is that the spinach in question had cow manure on its surface. If it had been thoroughly washed would that not have removed the cow manure and the E. coli?

I remember when I was growing up my grandfather Kelley had one of the best gardens in Pentonville. My father always said it was because my grandfather put lots of cow manure in his garden. I realize that the manure he was using had been composted and that composting kills a lot of the bacteria. Also he plowed it into the garden so it was covered by soil and was not as likely to come in contact with the plant leaves. But, I also remember that anything he brought in from the garden was triple washed at the faucet in the yard and then washed again in the kitchen. I'm guessing that all that washing was the reason none of us got ill from eating vegetables from his garden.

Why has no one from the media or the FDA brought up the importance of washing, or am I missing something?

Truth must count. Innocence must matter.

There is a famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out

Just before they adjorned, Congress passed S.3930 that effectively repeals the Bill of Rights. The time to speak out is now, before you find yourself in the same fix as Pastor Niemöller. A good place to start speaking out can be found here.

Military Commissions Act of 2006

The text of the subject act can be found by going to the Library of Congress site http://thomas.loc.gov and searching on bill number S.3930.ES

Of particular interest is Sec. 950j that I have included below. Pay particular attention to the text in red. I believe that it amounts to a suspension of habeas corpus.

Sec. 950j. Finality or proceedings, findings, and sentences

`(a) Finality- The appellate review of records of trial provided by this chapter, and the proceedings, findings, and sentences of military commissions as approved, reviewed, or affirmed as required by this chapter, are final and conclusive. Orders publishing the proceedings of military commissions under this chapter are binding upon all departments, courts, agencies, and officers of the United States, except as otherwise provided by the President.

`(b) Provisions of Chapter Sole Basis for Review of Military Commission Procedures and Actions- Except as otherwise provided in this chapter and notwithstanding any other provision of law

(including section 2241 of title 28 or any other habeas corpus provision), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever,

including any action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions under this chapter.

Worked at Waco, why not try it in Iraq

When the feds stormed the compound at Waco one of the stated main reasons was to free the children inside from being abused by David Koresh. Twenty one of those children under the age of 16 died in the fire. Now it appears that we are using similiar methods to
[LINK IS NO LONGER VALID] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqi_death_toll_8
free the citizens of Iraq .

What Is Wrong With Government?

My usual short answer to that question is 'lots' followed by a tirade against a particular governmental offense. Sometimes I am challenged by a friend or a family member to come up with something better. When this happens, I always begin to try and figure out what is the root cause of the problem. After all, you can't rectify a problem until you have discovered its cause. Coming up with the root cause is not easy. Recently I read a quote by H.L. Mencken that seemed to shed some much-needed light on the subject. He said, "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." I think he was right. It is not our system of government that is to blame for our problems, it is all these so called public servants that are really 'closet monarchs'. Deep down, they all want to be the king or queen of their own kingdom. School board members want to rule the school district kingdom, probate judges want to rule their county kingdoms, governors want to rule their state kingdoms and of course presidents want to rule the American Empire.

Well, if those willing public servants are the problem, what can we do to correct it? Since anyone who wants to hold public office voluntarily is probably a closet monarch, we have to come up with a different way of choosing public officials. I've mulled it over some and I think the only fair thing to do is to hold a public lottery. Put the name of every registered voter in a pot and draw out the names for the people to hold public office. To make it fair, each person serving would be paid their normal salary at the job they did before holding public office plus an amount equal to any additional expenses they incur. That would keep anyone from having to take a serious pay cut. No one would have to serve more than one term. Once a person had served one term in one public office their name would be removed from future drawings. We could grant hardship exemptions and grant contentious objector status to anyone whose religion prohibited them from being involved in government. I realize that a system like this would not be perfect, but look at the mess we have now. At least we would eliminate career politicians and stand a chance of having someone in office that was not a closet monarch. It would also eliminate political parties and costly election campaigns.

Another Highway Yard Sale

I do love highway yard sales. Back in the mid 1990's I started going on the World's Longest Yard Sale and have been hooked ever since. This week, I went on the Highway 411 Yard Sale for the first time. This sale is 4 or 5 years old and runs from Leeds Alabama to Newport Tennessee along US Highway 411. Friday, Linda and I took in the portion of the sale from Leeds Alabama to Rome Georgia. We had a great time. Lots of good yard sales, nice weather and some interesting people. We had an especially good time in Cave Springs Georgia. It is a nice little town and seemed to really roll out the red carpet for the yard sale.

Does A Wild Bear Shit In The Woods?

When I was growing up in Coosa County, if someone questioned the correctness of your statement by asking "Is that right?" you would respond with "Does a wild bear shit in the woods?" It seems that the 'environmentalist' have recently discovered what Coosa kids took for granted back in the 1950's.

Of course dirty water is not much of a problem to me for I follow the teachings of W.C.Fields who said, "water! can't stand the stuff -- fish fornicate in it!"