Intemperate Thoughts

Felon Laws Bar 3.9 Million Americans from Voting
Hey, you've obeyed the law and worked hard. Don't you want to see felons voting for every weak-on-crime, "rob Peter to pay Paul" politician that comes down the pike? Ain't it unfair that criminals who made bad choices in life (the choice to go down the path of crime and villiany) want to choose who represents you in government?

Muhlenkamp Memorandum: "High taxes have two big negative effects on productivity: encouraging those who are working in 4th gear [entrepreneurs] to switch to neutral because the incremental after-tax income is not worth the effort; and encouraging people to work in an unregulated, illegal, underground economy.
If the goal of government is to grow the economy and increase the wealth of its citizens, motivating people to work at their highest gear possible is key. "

USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN 76), "Peace Through Strength"
The finest ship in the fleet!

Teen driver sentenced in crash that killed 4: "The 17-year-old driver of a car that crashed last summer, killing four teenagers, was sentenced yesterday to 250 hours of community service and had her driver's license revoked for two years."

U.N. seeking global gun control?: "The potential implications of that are enormous, he said, noting it is a small step toward the ultimate nightmare of American gun owners 'the U.N. knocking on our door to get our firearms.'
'If we were to allow in any way, shape or form the U.N. to begin the process of registering and regulating fire arms ultimately their goal of doing away with personal firearms we would have dealt a blow to our sovereignty.' "

Bob Graham – Embarrassment to Florida: "Democratic voters are, generally speaking, less intelligent than those who vote Republican or Libertarian. Democratic voters will buy this idiocy that Clinton was impeached because of a sexual relationship.
Once again … and maybe it will sink in this time … Clinton was impeached because he committed perjury. He lied under oath. That’s a crime. People can go to jail for that. He lied to deny a woman her day in court under a law that he, Clinton, signed into law.
Bob Graham understands this … but he also understands that he can ignore the truth and change the facts in order to enrage the passions of the know-nothings who might actually vote for him."

Does your car have a 'black box' recorder?: "An estimated 25 million automobiles in the United States--almost every newer GM car--now have so-called event data recorders, a scaled-down version of the devices that monitor cockpit activity in airplanes"

Buffett Kills Berkshire Charities: "Since 1981 the Berkshire charity program has sent nearly $200 million to various groups, with more than $16 million deployed in 2002. At Berkshire, every Class A shareholder -- even if she holds only a single share -- gets to determine where a proportionate amount of the money goes. The company itself had no control over where folks would allocate their money, and so each year some would go to charities with missions diametrically opposed to one another. The NRA and Handgun Control. Democrat and Republican initiatives. Texas and Texas A&M. Didn't matter to Berkshire."

This is another example of how a small minority can maliciously ruin the benefit for the many. A variety of 503(c)(3) charities, including educational institutions, churches, and synagogues, have benefited from the generosity of the shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway. Unfortunately, a small group of extremists have decided to target a holding of Berkshire because Berkshire gives money to the extremists' opponents. As a result, Berkshire has terminated its contribution program, harming a wide variety of worthy charities.

This same rant is aimed at Martha Burke and her gang of extremists at the privately-owned Augusta National Golf Club. Their Liberal media backed rants have resulted in Augusta National to not accept revenue from commercials during the Masters golf tournament. In the past, income from commercials aired during the Masters was distributed to a variety of charities in Georgia. The lack of income put those charitable contributions at risk. The good members of Augusta National decided to pay the contributions out of their own pocket, so the innocent do not have to suffer due to a small gang malicious critics.

The Hokey Pokey - Shakespeare style!
Allegedly published in a Washington Post Style Invitational column, although I can't find it on their website. Still, very clever and worth reading.

Thomas Sowell: Summer reading: "The summer vacation is probably as good a time as any to get [children] something to read to let them know that there is another side of the story, other than the one that classroom propagandists keep forcing down their throats."

The Smoking Gun: Archive: "Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who killed her two boys by driving her auto into a lake while the children slept in their car seats, has placed an online personal ad seeking pen pals who are 'not judgmental' and want to write to a convicted murderer who considers herself 'sensitive, caring, and kind-hearted.' The 31-year-old inmate placed the ad, which you'll find below, last month and included a picture showing her dressed in a standard-issue South Carolina Department of Corrections prison uniform. Smith, serving a life sentence for the October 1994 murder of sons Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, notes in the ad that she loves 'rainbows, Mickey Mouse, the beach, the mountains, and waterfalls.' She adds, 'I have grown and matured alot since my incarceration, but I will always hurt for the pain I've caused so many, especially my children.' "

Suzanne Fields: Dishonor on the campus: "This is academic freedom run amok, having become farce. It demonstrates how quickly diversity encourages division. Instead of fostering debate, diversity teaches students to find offense."

Study: Low teacher pay a myth: "A new survey by the American Federation of Teachers says that despite recent gains, teachers are still underpaid. But a separate study by the Hoover Institution finds teachers earn more per hour than architects, engineers, scientists and nurses. "

Bugnosis Web Bug Detector
Bugnosis is back! A new version of Bugnosis is now available, after it was taken offline in November 2002. Bugnosis is a handy utility to block web bugs, tiny images that are used to track who is visiting a website. A recommended utility from the Privacy Foundatation. After all, whose business is it of Doubleclick, et al., where or when you surf to web pages?

Clark Howard Show Notes Monday, June 30: "Another annoyance when you’re surfing the Web is pop-ups ads. But Clark has been able to eliminate all of them by going to a special Web site within google.com."
I'm giving a try myself. I have been using Pop-Up Stopper Pro from Panicware because it was free back when Telocity was still in business. We'll see how well Google's pop-up blocker works.

Clark Howard.com: "The FTC has put the 'Do Not Call' list on fast forward and plans to roll it out this week. Sign up at the FTC site now. Please be patient, though."

Testing.. 1.. 2.. 3..

Greetings from the dark side! Just testing Blogger and the new Google Toolbar.
Don't mind me. I'm just testing here.