It Takes One To Know One

When I was growing up, a popular expression was "it takes one to know one." With that in mind, I would say that Al Gore is eminently qualified to make

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070430/D8OQM6MO0.html

this determination. Of course another popular expression, "the pot calling the kettle black", also fits quite nicely.

The Human Carbon Footprint Is Inconsequential

Read about it here.

Cancer Prevention

When I read this article I realized that the best method of cancer prevention would be to move to the tropics and become a nudist.

Something You Don't Often See On Network TV

If Someone Calls You A Liberal

If someone calls you a liberal, ask them which kind of liberal? Now a days, when most people say liberal, they are talking about left wing liberals or what I call socialist. But there is another kind of liberal, in fact it is the kind of liberal that existed before the socialist co-oped the name. They are classical liberals. Many people that call themselves conservatives will be surprised to find that their beliefs about government share more common ground with the classical liberals than they do with the so called neo-conservatives.

Everything That Was Frozen is .........?

Read this article to find out the current status of our planet's ice.

The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Eating

The expression, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating", which is often shortend to "the proof is in the pudding" means that you don't know how something works until you try it. Back in 1982, two American towns enacted new but dissimiliar gun ordinances. You can "eat their pudding, so to speak" here.

Conflict Of Interest

I just read this article that says, "1 in 2 Americans now receives income from government programs." It got me to thinking. If you go down to the Piggly Wiggly and they are having a contest giving away a new Corvette, somewhere in the rules it will say that employees of Piggly Wiggly and their family members are not eligible to win. Why, because of Conflict of Interest that is why. With so many Americans drawing money from the government, it seems to me that the opportunity for conflict of interest is tremendous. Now I realize that some of these people are drawing a check that is small in comparison to their overall income but for some, it is their entire income. So what can we do? I say we not allow anyone to vote who receives over 50% of his or her income from the government. Being nearly 60 years old myself, this would probably disenfranchise me in a few years. So be it. Anyone who draws a government check that provides them with over 50% of their income should be disenfranchised. Otherwise, they are going to be voting to get themselves more money instead of voting to make the country better. They can't help it, its human nature. Of course this would mean that most people who work for the government, like congressmen, state legislators, governors, FBI agents and public school teachers would be unable to vote as well. If they decided that voting was real important to them, they could always quit and get a job in the private sector. Or, they could forego their government salary and continue to work for the government for free and get a second part time job to support themselves. Judging from recent voter turnout, I don't think it would be much of an inconvenience to many people to become disenfranchised.

My New Favorite Web Site

I have a new favorite web site. Its digg.com . For those of you not familiar with digg, its a site that allows users to post links to articles or sites that they "digg." Then other users can rate the link by digging it or burying it. Scanning down through the listings, I've found all kinds of interesting stuff.

Dear Dubya, I Found You a War Czar!

Tom Chartier has a solution for the search for a War Czar.



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Something Stinks

I'm not talking about my old sneakers, although they do qualify. I'll give you some clues. The US has more citizens in prison per capita than any other country in the world. Over two dozen men in Texas alone have had their convictions

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070409/ap_on_re_us/dna_exoneration

overturned on DNA evidence. Three young North Carolina men who were guilty of no crime had to spend in the neighborhood of three million dollars in legal fees to keep from being railroaded by a rogue prosecutor.

That’s right, what stinks is the American justice system, or more appropriately the American injustice system. If we are that "shining city on the hill", "the greatest nation in the world", "the land of the free and the home of the brave", why do we have so many citizens locked up in prison? Why do we have so many convictions being overturned and why do people who can come up with three million dollars have to spend it on legal fees and people who can't come up with it have to spend their lives in jail? I personally don't have the answer to those questions, but I've got some ideas.

First, we have too many laws. The congress and the state legislatures pay themselves way too much money and then think they have to come up with all these micro-managment laws to justify that pay.

Second, we have too many lawyers. You may have trouble finding a mechanic to fix your car, or a plumber to fix your pipes, but there is a lawyer on nearly every street corner. Many lawyers are good people, like the guy that helped the Duke lacrosse players, but many of them are just looking for someone to sue. Too many of the marginal lawyers wind up as prosecutors whose only goal is production. They want convictions. The most efficient way to get convictions is plea bargaining, so they threaten innocent people who can't afford a protracted court fight and get them to plea to a lesser offence. Never mind that the people are innocent. Anyone with half a brain knows that innocence is no guarantee of going free in the USA.

Third, we have too many stupid people. That's right, people who go around whining and crying about the need for "law and order" and saying "lock the rascals up." We don't need "law and order"; we need "liberty and justice for all."

What is the solution? I don't know, you tell me. How do you renovate a corrupt legal system especially when the bulk of the citizens are quite happy with the status quo?

Jason Clay walks around the Pyramids of Giza

Lila Rajiva on Shock Jocks

What she says in this article makes a lot of sense.

TV News , Current Events and Censorship

I don't watch the TV news. All they talk about are sad stories. I like a little good news thrown into the mix; therefore I get most of my current event information from the web. Lately, I have been seeing a lot about Don Imus. He, as my daddy would have said, appears to have let his catfish mouth overload his tadpole ass. Before that it was Michael Richards. Before that we had the Janet Jackson debacle. Now we find out that the Duke Rape case was all due to a black female stripper telling a lie. I've studied these things and have noticed that they all happened during or immediately after a live performance. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that we have to immediately ban white men and black women from giving live performances. They can still perform; it just has to be recorded so it can be censored before submission to the public. Think about it. If Imus had been on tape, his comment of nappy headed ho's could have been bleep headed bleep. No problem there. Anyone who has ever watched Seinfeld knows that Michael Richards is a peach on tape, just not ready for a live audience. If Janet’s half time performance had been on tape, they could have just pixelated over the nipple and all would have been well, and if the Duke boys had been watching a porn video instead of a live stripper, no one would have ever listened to the stripper’s story. As for white women and black men, they seem to be immune from this insanity so I say let them continue to perform in real time, at least for the time being.

The Biggest Oil Supply in the World is in...

The oil shale deposits in Colorado according to this article. The article tells of a new process patented by Royal Dutch Shell that can extract the oil from shale for about $30 a barrel. While that process is unproven, the article does go on to say that existing processes can obtain oil from shale for about $75 a barrel. Bottom line is we may be quickly approaching a point where the cheapest oil we can obtain is right here in the good ole USA.

War Czar

President Bush is looking for a scapegoat, uh, I mean War Czar to take the blame for, uh, I mean run the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Do you suppose that there is anyone, anywhere that is dumb enough and desperate enough to take that job?

Decide For Yourself

I read this week that the Bush administration is touting the fact that employment figures are better now than they were during the Clinton administration. That may well be true. I don't pay much attention to government figures. Having worked for many years for a public utility as a 'figurer' I take figures with a grain of salt. Besides, even if employment is better overall, that might not be the case for me personally. Rather than watching the FOXCBSNBCABCCNN nightly news to figure out how things are going, people would be better served to just ask themselves, how am I doing? Am I better off now than I was last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago? That is what is really important, not what some newscaster reports about some figures compiled by a bureaucrat.

Playing in the dirt may make you happier

According to this article certain bacteria found in soil may cause some of your brain neurons to produce more serotonin, a brain chemical associated with mood.

Why?

Why are our men and women fighting and dying to help people

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070409/ts_nm/iraq_dc_33

who obviously don't want our help?

Is there any truth to 'the enemy would follow us here?'

It’s become President Bush’s mantra, his main explanation for why he won’t withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq anytime soon. In speech after speech, in statement after statement, Bush insists that “this is a war in which, if we were to leave before the job is done, the enemy would follow us here.” But is it true?



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