We'll do this real quick if we can. To begin with, I want equality within the USA. This means everyone judged on effort and merit and abilities. We have to view ourselves as individuals, and not groups. We'll concern ourselves with individual rights that should apply no matter who the person. We need to move away from saying "this race or gender performed better or worse" and ask "is the quality of education accesible by all people the same?". I've ranted on this before with Title IX extended to education, where people should be able to do what they want, and not worry about quotas. People will do the jobs they want to do and extend as much effort as they want to.

As you may have already thought to yourself, "But Michael, earlier in your VAWA rant, you did exactly that, labelling a law bad because you were concerned with it not adequately covering men. You were absolutely concerned with groups!"  And you would be correct. To my credit, I want it to adequately and fairly cover men so that the language in the law becomes one of covering an individual.

So, the Wage Gap!!

 (More)

I am now officially registered to the Democratic party. Maybe this isn't surprising to some of you, but others that were surprised, I am even more surprised than you to see myself typing this. Never in all my life did I think the day would come when what I used to consider the "faggot, flag-burning, baby killing, pussy liberals" would be the only hope of saving America. The area I grew up in, the people in it, and the lifestyle I had were all in a sense the republican way of life. But after the past 8 years I've done some growing, both mentally and spiritually, and I realized how terrible it is that small town communities and low-to-middle income families are literally tricked into thinking that the republicans are the right choice for anything.( I'm going to stop myself right there and state that I am solely referring to those currently holding office right now at the federal level.) I understand now what happened to me and why I used to believe that the republicans could do no wrong. It started off so simply. The democrats were for abortion, and being a catholic I was against it, so I didn't like them. I believed that America could not lose a war, so I was always for it. And I was opposed to gay marriage. This sounds like me and the Republican party are a perfect match, right? Well like I said I have learned a few lessons, and I hope other people have also going into the voting season.

 

The DNC in retrospect was what I expected, aside from a few surprises. And I don't mean surprises as in Obama coming in for a speech on the third night. I mean really, who didn't see that coming? What I meant was Ted Kennedy coming in, Hilary Clinton being a team player, and Michelle being as good of a speaker as she was. I don't know about the rest of you but I definitely feel that Joe Biden was the right choice for the VP as well.

I have to say I was a supporter of Hilary from the start. As first lady, she didn't do what most of them did. As far as I know, MOST first ladies have just done busy work while the husband was in office. By busy work I mean charities, fundraisers, putting warnings on things that are cool, so on. She got started by pissing off every single senator and rep she could by trying her absolute hardest to push for universal healthcare. She failed, but all it took was her push for it to become one of the major topics of the '08 election. I know that some of you might be thinking that it was rising costs and such that pushed the idea into the forefront, but without her early dedication, would it have become a hot topic for debate? I don't think so. It's not just that though, the simple fact is she will say whats on her mind and she has a very sharp wit to go with it.

Now on to the second topic of the title, my experience with mace. Last night me and David went to bootleggers. It was pretty busy and everyone there was shitcanned. At about 1 A.M. I noticed the owner walking up to the dance floor and talking to a black guy. Didn't look like anything suspicious. Then I saw him walking outside to where the Frontenac cops were. Again, didn't thing anything of it. Then the cops come in and head directly towards the dance floor. This is were I start to pay attention. They get on the dance floor, have the DJ cut the music, and proceed to "talk" to the black guy and his buddies that were on the stage. I don't know if you guys know what a taser sounds like, but I do. It has a very distinct popping sound. Well I heard it but I didn't see anybody drop so I thought it was being used for intimidation. They clear off the dance floor and drag the guy off to the side, throw him on the ground and handcuff him. At this point I notice a few people running away coughing and crying very hard. I had no idea what was going on so me being the dumbass that I am move in for a closer look. At that point I started to smell something, but I had no idea what it was. It reminded me of a cinnamon scented candle, but mixed with jalapenos. Then all at once I started to cry, cough, and my nose began to run. I have seen videos of people getting sprayed with mace, but I guess I just didn't realize it has an area effect. I was a good 15 feet away and it still hit me pretty hard.

It is at this point were I actually start to freak the fuck out. There were two drunk very fucking dumb bitches in the bar. One of them began to chant, "Dirty Cops! Dirty Cops!" I realize that I am standing right next to her so I get to the other side of the bar ASAP. Then as I turn around to resume to watch the show, another girl that was standing next to me shouted something to the effect of, "You fucking pigs!" Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ I am surrounded by people that are going to get my ass arrested and tazed. It was at this point that I grab David and we get the fuck out. As we are walking away there is a huge confrontation out in the street, the Frontenac cops have called in the county and pittsburg cops and half the bar is outside looking like they were going to kill them. We tore ass and got the hell outta there before anything happened. There isn't anything on the morning sun website either so I am guessing that it resolved itself.

Hello! First of all, I am good. I leave Boston next week (kinda makes me sad), the area is nice. Well, I don't enjoy the taxes, and sometimes it feels like if the people here don't have a law to regulate something they get confused. Other than that, though, it's pretty spiffy.

After that it's back to the ATL for a few days, then to wichita for some wedding action! whoo!

I feel bad that all I do is post like.. politicy or debate-able type stuff. I'll correct this. BUT! Since Mike hasn't gotten off of his ass to do this himself (I prefer his rants about politics to mine. Perhaps he can add better comments or more links in the comments (HINT). Or just use some admin-fu and edit this thing himself.

To start, I think the biggest problem with the whole global warming debate is not that people have bad data from actual physical tests. I can't deny the actual, physical changes. However, it's the cause and effect relationship of the climate that I put into serious question.

A good example of this is in an excellent summary of the research being done, alongside a pretty good discussion of how conclusions about cause/effects are determined. (all links pop to new window)

Also, this link contains a story (and another link to a paper you should check out), the also questions the IPCC's modelling methods.

It's becoming clear that the cause/effect of greenhouse gasses and global warming are not correlated. Remember kids, correlation does not always imply causality, but non-correlation does imply non-causality.

So, what is the cause?

It appears the sun, a pretty big energy source, is probably to blame. Coincidentally, the sun is slowing down, and we are seeing the effects of that:

Now, what I'm not going to do is completely espouse the sun theory (although it seems pretty reliable). I feel more in line with that theory because the cause/effect matches up better. Because, even at face value, greenhouse gas theories are slightly flawed. The theory is based on how much energy the gasses trap... but they don't generally consider the source of the energy they are trapping!

I just want to avoid the bandwagon mistake that is probably going to cost us $$$ and do funny things to the economy. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for research into more efficient vehicles, better materials, cleaner burning engines, alternative fuels (removes dependence from foreign sources), etc. HOWEVER! I think that those efforts are valuable on their own merits. Efficient vehicles are generally driven by material science, both high temperature and high strength to weight alloys/composites. I think that money should go into that research, but not for flawed reasons.

So yeah, add links/data to whatever viewpoint you hold.

Ok, so I'm going to preface this post with the statement that I hate politics for the most part, and I find myself generally annoyed with the election in general, however, as an American I need to vote and participate.  That being said I also know that on this site I am EXTREMELY out numbered in terms of how I will end up voting in November, although I won't really be voting "for" anyone.  I will be voting AGAINST Obama, because I feel that he is against everything that America stands for and is built upon, and that he is a racist.  However, that unfortunately leaves me with John McCain or Ralph Nader...I think I'll just write in Charlie Daniels...but I digress.  I did decide however to look up some stuff so I can make an informed decision, and here are some of the things I came across. 

  About a year or so ago:
    1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
    2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
    3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
    1) Consumer confidence plummet
    2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon
    3) Unemployment is up 5%
    4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity valueevaporate (stock and mutual fund losses)
    5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars

America decided we were sick of the Republican Congress is 2006 and voted the other way, and we got some change I'd say.  Everyone blames Bush for all the problems in this country, but he can only work with what he's got.  However, I do think it's interesting how high gas prices are and that it's very convenient that Bush has all his money invested in oil, but anyway, the Congress has A LOT of say in things and has A LOT to do with our economy and how this country is run, so I personally don't put ALL the blame on Bush. Moving on now to taxes

 www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.HTML

Both Obama and Hitlery have stated that they will repeal all of Bush's tax cuts if they're elected.  I don't really like that, and people say that Bush's tax cuts are one of the main reasons we're in such enormous debt, I don't entirely agree with that, I think that the fact we're in a war that no one supports has more to do with it than that.  I also believe that Democrats know the economy a lot better and know how to manage money a lot better than Republicans, Roosevelt did a great job of pulling us out of the great depression after all.  So I don't really know a whole lot about that, but I did look up those differences, and I personally like the lower numbers and I think that tax increases aren't going to help pull us out of anything, if anything, they're going to make matters worse.  As for our spending defecit and how far in debt we are as a nation, I think these next stats are gonna piss yall off, cause I sure as hell know they piss me off, and I'm including the URL's to prove I'm not making it up.

1.  $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.  Verify at:   http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2.  $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and freeschool lunches for  Illegal aliens.
Verify at:  http://WWW.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML

3.  $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.  Verify at:  http://WWW.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML

4.  $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally.  Verify at:  http://transcriptsCNN.Com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.HTML

5.  $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.  Verify at:  http://transcripts.CNN.Com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML

6.  $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.  Verify at:  http://transcripts.CNN.Com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML

7.  30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.  Verify at:  http://transcripts.CNN.Com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML

8.  $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and social services by the American taxpayers.  Verify at:  http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9.  $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10.  The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens.  In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11.  During the year 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border including as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries.  Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U.S. from the Southern border.  Verify at:  Homeland Security Report:  http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf 

12.  The National Policy Institute, estimated that "the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of  between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period."  Verify at:   http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13.  In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.  Verify at:  http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14.  "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States."  Verify at:  http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

 

The total cost is $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!!!!

This is total BULLSHIT.  We spend that much money on people who don't deserve ANY of the rights that this great country gives.  This is one stance I am completely conservative on and am not willing to budge an inch on.  George "Open Borders" Bush failed MISERABLY in his presidency at securing our borders, and now we spend that much money on illegals.  I'm sorry, if you're in this country illegally than you should be treated as what you are a CRIMINAL.  You should be given no rights as an American would get, you should not be entitled to anything in this country, and if you are found you should be deported.  But as it is, we are spending 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS every year on these people.  The war in Iraq is why we're in debt, Bush's tax cuts are why we're in debt...BULLSHIT the money that those are costing us pales in comparison to what we spend on illegals.  Congress fails here too, they don't do anything to protect the border, hell they along with Bush incarcerate (sp?) 2 border gaurds for shooting a drug dealer who was trying to sneak across the border for the something like 8th time, they get jailed for doing their job!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!  REDICULOUS.  It's absolutely disgusting.  I don't care who wins the next election as long as it is not Obama, but whoever wins sure as hell better do something to change those costs, because that is absolutely rediculous.

"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world, 
I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it." -- Barack Obama

Ok, so this might look really bad. I apologize for any typos, but IE hates LifeType(TM) it would seem. All I see when I type is little pipes like this guy: '|'. Here's to hoping my touch typing skills are as good as I hope they are.

This story was on digg/reddit/fark/somepostingsiteorwhateveriforgetatthisratetheyalllinkthesamedamnthing.com:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1030798/Muslim-outrage-police-advert-featuring-cute-puppy-sitting-policemans-hat.html

My gripe is such. If you live in a country that has freedom of speech then you can gripe all you want about whatever. Such is your right. However, barring a reallly good reason (and even then, it'd have to be a REALLLY good reason), I don't think that anyone should ever be asked to undo/recant/remove from sight anything deemed 'offensive'. I mean, there are plenty of things that are offensive to tons of people. However, given that we live with freedom of speech, people have been given the right to say what they want. I mean.. if there is an article or something that insults my faith, or gender, or something that I associate with, I may be very unhappy. However, I do believe that someone has a right to say those things. Because, if I start removing certain people's rights to free speech, then I inevitably lead everyone down to only one allowed thought path, which will be the one that makes no one unhappy or uncomfortable.

The tricky part of about free speech is the definition of 'speech'. Is censoring a billboard a violation of someone's free speech? Also, who do you allow to redefine the rules of free speech? Can a community do it? A private entity (like a business)?

Let's go to the 'extreme' of allowing everything. What if there was a billboard or a commercial on TV or a show on TV that was pornographic in nature? Does a community have the right to have an 'offensive' billboard removed? Let's say one person wanted the billboard up, and 100 wanted it down. A simple "needs of the many" argument could decide that more people should be happy with it down than one person with it up. Is this in the spirit of free speech? I dunno.

I'm interested in hearing some thoughts from all of you. I can think of good arguments either way. One the one hand, if everyone can say whatever they want and in whatever medium they choose, then everyone is just gonna get angry. I like the idea of some legal (or civil) course of action to take into account how a community feels about something. Take that to the extreme and you won't be able to allow anything. Should the line for what is allowed or not be constantly re-drawn according to the desires of the voting populace (which makes sense since this is a democracy) or according to an unwavering standard that is based on some basic prinicple of rights/etc. (which would seem to be the most 'fair')?

What about how a free country can foster different services (such as TV stations) for people who don't want to watch something offensive? That capability changes up alot of free speech on TV arguments, but what about when a person does not have a choice to look or not (like a billboard)?

I guess my current stance (subject to change in the next 5 minutes, though, so this isn't a "Oh yeah that james guy said this what a loser" type of statement) would be:

I believe that when people have a choice in what they view (newspapers, TV, internet, etc.) that regulations should be limited. However, an important basis for many laws is that a person doesn't have the right to violate someone else's right. Defining what a 'right' is tends to be a bitch, though. So, even though you have a 'right' to free speech, I may have a 'right' to not see porn on a billboard while I drive. Do we have to decide which right is more important? It's easier to make laws based on violating rights when the action is not itself a 'right'. For example, the pursuit of life is defined as a right, so killing me isn't a 'right'.

At this moment, I lean more toward the preservation of the rights of the whole. I would rather have people be unhappy than have a loud minority define the rules of the system. Which brings me back to the article (finally). I think that a muslim has every right to be unhappy about being given an ad that depicts something offensive to them. HOWEVER, I believe that the right of the police (or any entity) to advertise in a certain way outweighs the offense. If a company adverstises in an offensive manner, let boycotting take care of the 'problem'. Do something (nonviolent, of course) that displays your unhappiness. You are free, you can do that. Don't let the government write exception after exception to the rule. Eventually, the system will stabilize if you leave it to its own devices. Restrictions only cause more friction.

James