Big Ass Hornet Update

The 2 or 3 of you who actually look at this blog may have wondered about that picture of a hornet over there to the right. Back when I first started this blog, I was having a problem with those monsters around my house. They scare the shit out of me, since I have a mild allergy to stinging insects and do not care to find out if getting hit by one of these fuckers might shift that allergy from mild to life-threatening, so I have waged an ongoing battle with them. They scored one on me late last summer when my dog stepped on one and couldn't put her foot down for two days.

The original post is here and there was an update here.

Anyway, I thought I was rid of them since I didn't see any for a long time, until about a month ago. So, the battle is on again and I have found an unlikely weapon. The compact fluorescent light bulb that is the threat to all freedom. It is a turbo hornet killing machine. See, they are attracted to light, like a moth with a big electric prod in its ass. But with the CFL, they can actually get up inside the coils of the CFL. Which is where I find one or two every morning, toasted. I guess the CFL gives off just enough heat to bake a hornet.

In the meantime, the conventional hornet/wasp trap has caught about 200 yellow jackets and three hornets. CFL 20, hornet trap 3.

Really, New York Times?

So, suddenly, losing our AAA rating is no big deal? Fuck you. Fuck you hard. You spent the last month trying to scare the country into avoiding the loss of AAA and now, suddenly, it's no big deal?

Assholes.

In Which I Drive a Lib Nuts

Bumper sticker belief systems do not hold up under fire.

Justice

Burn in hell, you rat bastard motherfucker.

To our men and women in uniform, well done. Well done.

Something You Don't See Every Day

How Many 5 Year Olds Could You Take?

Be ruthless and you will get a score like this:

29

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites

Click the image to take the test for yourself.

One Last Followup on Local Temperature

Today is probably the coldest day of the year so far here at 6:30 in the morning in beautiful central North Carolina.  And yet, things are relatively toasty over on the Okeeweemee Creek in Montgomery County:

That's an average temperature in this little area of 23.5 degrees.  Take out the 36 reading, and the average drops to 19.3, a difference of 4.2 degrees, or about how much the temperature is supposed to change as we wend our way inexorably towards global boiling.  And this temperature is showing up in the early morning hours when it was still dark out, so no solar heating for it yet today.

Unless and until the warmists begin to clean up their data and correct what must be thousands of errors like this, we should continue to ignore them as much as possible.

Of Bludgeons and Innovation

Yesterday, I got an email from the White House's propaganda wing, signed by O.  In it, he trumpets the fact that insurance companies "... will be required to spend at least 80 percent of the health insurance premiums you pay on your health care, instead of overhead costs like advertising and executive compensation."

The dolt, and the other dolts up there, seem to believe that these two things are unnecessary to the proper conduct of business.  He stopped short of saying that reform is meant to eliminate profits at insurance companies, but truly, that is the intent.  Since forever, insurance companies spent about 65% of revenues on payouts, using the other 35% for operating the business, so O has more or less appropriated 15% of the insurance companies' revenue.  (Hmmmm....is that an illegal taking?  Probably not, but it is, in effect.)

O's version of health care reform, if it goes fully into effect, will ultimately destroy our health care industry.  We will be left with a system of primary care with little capacity to meet higher level needs and will be bereft of innovation.  It will eventually be used to bludgeon us into compliance, just as TSA is being used right now.  The level of innovation will be governed by that engine of innovation that is our federal government.  You know, the organization that gave us the Post Office, the IRS, the government procurement process, the TSA and the EPA, among others.

Will You Listen Now, Cap'n Oblivious?

Back in September, I posted about Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel and his comments about investing in the US.  He ain't.

Well, OK, he is.  But most of their investment in new plants is happening overseas.  Note that the Vietnamese plant is expected to:  "...expected to create thousands of skilled jobs as the nation moves from low to hi-tech."


Vietnam is becoming hi-tech.  Viet-f'n-nam is becoming hi-tech.  


If O (and the rest of our governmental leaders) doesn't get it through his shellacked head that we compete globally for jobs, we are doomed.  Because our business leaders have figured it out.

Weather Station Update

Ok, if you saw last night’s post, I have gone to the weather station in question.  Here is what I found:

 

I took this about 11:25 this morning and as you can see, the weather station is south-facing, in full sun.  Now, I don’t know the rules governing how these things are sited, but you can see from last night’s post that the way this one is sited is clearly affecting its results.  I’m sure that the sun heats that cinder block tower up during the day and radiates heat well into the evening.  Also, the way this station is oriented, it will continue to get direct sun well into the afternoon and when the leaves drop here in the next month or so, it will get sunlight for even more time each day.

This location is on one end of a bridge over a decent-sized creek with a pretty good flow.  I would imagine that the creek and the surrounding forest would actually provide a cooling effect in the area.  Except, of course, on the side of a cinder block building in direct sunlight.  Oddly enough, the current conditions look like this:

Right now, about 2:30 pm, it’s the coolest spot in the area.  Out of data points like this, we are supposed to wail and gnash our teeth and spend batrillions of dollars to stop global warming.  Dumb.

How do you think this affects the global warming calculations?

 

This is the part of North Carolina that I live in:

 

Seriously, what the hell is going on over there in Montgomery County?  I see that anomaly all the time.  For whatever reason, the light bulb went off in my head.

I think I will drive over there tomorrow and see what I can find out.

One of the Giants Speaks

Bernie Marcus is one of the founders of Home Depot, one of the most remarkable businesses to spring to life in the last 30 years.  He and his co-founders, Arthur Blank and Ken Langone started from nothing back in the late ‘70’s and built a huge, successful business that redefined an entire industry.  In short, Marcus is the sort of man you would want to listen to about creating jobs, since he had a big hand in creating over 300,000 of them.

Being the evil rich man that he is (he’s worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion), a few years ago he single-handedly kicked in $200 million to the city of Atlanta to build what is now the world’s largest aquarium and has also signed on with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at The Giving Pledge, (read his nasty letter at the link) where he has pledged to give most of his fortune to their foundation upon his death.

Mr. Marcus was on CNBC today and, well, he ain’t happy.  This is a little over 15 minutes long and worth every minute.  (I tried mightily with my puny HTML skilz to embed the video here, but it is apparently the video that will not be embedded.)

Are you listening up there in your Ivory Tower, Mr. President?

Another One on the Way Out

Yesterday, I wrote about Paul Otellini and his comments on investing in the US from the high point of being a Fortune 500 CEO.  Big picture, you might say.  Well, here is what it looks like up close, from the Washington Post, via Minyanville.

Read down a bit in the Minyanville piece and see what a guy went to engineering school to do in Elkhart, Indiana.

Here’s my theory on doing business with any government entity.  They pass rules and regulations not to get anything done but to keep something from getting done.  Specifically, government employees and manager come up with the regs that they come up with to keep them from getting in trouble.  That’s all.  That engineer is filling out mounds of paper for a stimulus project for no other reason than so a government clerk somewhere can make sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed because if that is done, then they really don’t care about the outcome.

It is this that led to the Bernie Madoff scheme.  Harry Markopolos, the man who tried to stop Madoff but couldn’t get anyone to listen to him, eventually came to the conclusion that the people running the SEC were all lawyers who neither had the math skills to understand what Madoff was doing, nor the inclination to understand.  They were merely concerned with making sure all the disclosure documents were properly filed.  Which they were.  How’d that work out?

How to drive businesses out of the US in three easy steps:

• Raise taxes
• Raise uncertainty
• Bury them with paperwork:
• “The United States, by contrast, has offered financing under the stimulus program, but the process has proved too cumbersome for the small company.”

Man, it works like a charm!

Why Isn’t Paul Otellini Being Listened to in the White House?

From CNN, via HotAir.

Paul Otellini is the current  Evil CEO of Intel, the largest computer chip maker in the world.  Intel is, by any definition, a raging American success story and is something that we have all too little of in America today.  Intel is an exporter.  As you will hear in the video at the link, 75% of their revenues are overseas.

Mr. Otellini has some strong, common-sense ideas on how to make the US a more hospitable place for companies to do business in in the long term and on how to get the damn thing back out of the ditch in the short term.  He says in the interview that he has had more meetings with Obama administration officials in the last two years than he had with anyone in the Bush administration in eight years.  The interviewer asks what more he would like to see from the administration and he answers that he would like to see them take action. 

And therein lies the problem.  The White House is full of ideologues and theorists who can talk beautifully about bullshit but don’t have the slightest idea of how to put those theories to work or even if they should be put to work.

I like the juxtaposition at HotAir of Alan Greenspan, one of the Smartest People in the World, talking out of his ass again just above Otellini making practical sense.

Jeez, the Press Sucks Balls

They are like a pack of cur dogs, sucking the balls of whatever politician is in front of them.  Read this article on Politico, “Seven Questions for the President”. 

Now read my questions that I left in their comments forum:

This is why people just don't trust the press.  6 of these 7 questions deal with image or politics or strategy. Only the Israel question, #6, deals with an actual issue.  Hey Politico?!?!  How about asking the Prez about an issue and about the actions he intends to take with respect to that issue?  Here are some suggestions:

1.  You promised that unemployment wouldn't go over 8%.  It has been in the 10% range for nearly your entire presidency.  Specifically, what changes will you make to solve this pressing issue?

2.  The US has, for decades, allowed illegal aliens to stream across the border.  Will you stop that flow of illegals as is your constitutional duty?

3.  Your financial reform bill has left many zombie banks still operating and failed to address the "too big to fail" aspect of those big banks.  In other words, the reform did little to eliminate the systemic risk that multiplied this economic collapse. It seems that the reform was the equivalent of throwing the banks into the briar patch.  What steps will you take to prevent such a collapse from happening again?

4.  The administration appears poised to push GM into a public offering even though early reviews of GM's SEC filings have garnered a collective yawn.  Wouldn't it make more sense to wait until business conditions improve?  Or are you pushing this for purely political reasons, to give yourself something to tout during the election cycle?  And do you plan to purchase a Chevy Volt?

5.  Why are you now asking for an additional stimulus bill given that roughly half of the first stimulus has not been spent?

6.  A recent headline stated that you have accumulated more debt for the country than all the Presidents from Washington through Reagan, collectively.  Secretary of Defense Gates has stated that this level of debt represents a national security threat.  Secretary of State Clinton has said that it impairs her ability to conduct our affairs abroad and limits American influence abroad.  How will you pay that down and strengthen this country?

7.  Governing is a lot harder than running your mouth on the campaign trail, isn't it?

Enjoy your round of golf today, Mr. President.

Why Government Shouldn’t Try to Pick Winners

Whenever the government meddles about in any given market, trying to designate its preferred winner or outcome, it invariably fails.  Right now, the Exalted One is involved in doing just this on a number of fronts; the auto industry, the energy industry, the medical industry, the financial industry and so on.  In the auto industry, The One gives us the Chevy Volt:

Not a bad looking car.  But you can get a non-hybrid counterpart from Chevy for about $25,000 less.  Chevy had more or less mothballed the Volt until the government bought 61% of them and ordered the Volt to be brought to market.  Obama, you see, knows what we want better than we know what we want.  Prediction:  neither the Volt nor its lower-cost counterpart (the Cruze?).  See, that’s how I know it won’t sell.  I can’t even remember the name of the car.  But, because O wants to see “green” stuff (let alone the fact that there isn’t anything significantly more green about the Volt), the Volt gets built.  It’s suits his political purposes.  Sometime in November, O is going to force GM to go public and it has little to do with whether or not it makes good business sense.  It will happen because it suits O’s political purposes.

For decades, government has mucked about in the housing industry.  Mortgage interest deductions, Fannie and Freddie doing their thing with the sub-prime stuff, flood insurance and so on.  Here is proof that all this centralized planning (and that is what it is) has failed.  18 months and billions of dollars and the Moron in Chief still thinks that throwing another $50 billion or so at the economy will somehow magically cure it.  Here is an open letter to the President by Dr. Jeffrey Harding, an economics blogger that tells him exactly what the problems are and how to address them.  The blogger is right on every point.  (BTW, any time you read an econ blog you must read the accompanying comments.  They are frequently better and more informative than the original post.)  From ZeroHedge:

“Here are some guiding principles for "what works":

1. Economies can repair themselves without a lot of government help. History has proven this time and again.
2. Government interference in the repair process can hinder recovery or even make things worse.
3. Government spending is very inefficient.
4. Individuals can make better choices about what to do with their money than the government.
5. Economic growth only comes from private enterprise. The corollary of this is that government can only spend money, not make money.
6. Since government produces nothing, then real growth and real jobs can only come from private enterprise.
7. If government spending is inefficient and if economic growth comes only from the private sector, then taking vast amounts of money out of private hands and putting it into government hands will hinder growth.
8. Government spending to revive an economy has failed wherever and whenever it has been tried.
9. More legislation increases uncertainty for businesses, making them reluctant to expand (called "regime uncertainty" in economic terms).”

As noted in the comments, this viewpoint and the accompanying advice will be ignored.  It doesn’t fit with O’s worldview.

This just in and related to this post.  Austan Goolsbee is on the Prez’s Council of Economic Advisers and may be up next to replace the horribly inept Christina Romer.  This admittedly wonky piece basically sums up what I have been trying to say here.  So-called “targeted” spending or incentives don’t work, and Goolsbee based his doctoral thesis on this finding.  Now, he has to dance around his own work.  Should be fun.

Finally, here is what happens when a politician goes off the deep end when it comes to spending money based on his own preferences.  Learn about Russia’s Chess City, built in 1998 on the whim of a politician.  Why, he likes chess so everybody must like chess just as much! 

Chess City is crumbling, by the way, and largely uninhabited.  So, what color Volt are you gonna buy?

Not My Mom

Sending this to FailBlog next:

 

An Insider's Update on the Gulf Oil Spill

This just came in over the transom from a trusted source:

---

Subject: An update on the Gulf Am still going back and forth to Dallas keeping my toe in the oil business.  However, fortunately, I am working on a deepwater project in offshore Ghana and will not be sticking my toe into the Gulf of Mexico.  Thus, I will still miss the Thursday luncheons for the foreseeable future. I know many of you are curious as to what is going on in the Gulf, as I am sure you are aware the politicians and press are not well informed and have no interest to be well informed.  I have attached a MS Word file with a sketch of the two relief wells which are being drilled as fast as they can to "kill" the blowout well - Macondo #1.  It is a good status of the two wells, one of which is closing in on the blowout.  When I finish my Dallas gig, I will do a lunch presentation on the incident.  Also, let me share some statistics and personal thoughts which can put this well into perspective. a.  The U.S. has more than 525,000 producing oil wells in the country.  With about 5 million barrels per day produced in the U.S., this means that the average well in the U.S. produces less than 10 barrels per day and included in that average are prolific wells in Alaska and the Gulf which are capable of producing much more.  I would bet the median oil rate of a U.S. well is less than 3 barrels per day.  More than 31% of the oil wells in the U.S. according to the DOE produce less than one barrel per day! b.  With the Macondo well belching an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day means the Macondo well is capable of flowing more than 4,000 to 5,000 average wells in the U.S!  Is there no surprise that fields like this one are the prize being sought after by the industry which cannot drill in shallow waters or much of anywhere in the U.S. anymore?  This one well produces about 1% of the entire U.S. production rate and is most likely the most productive well in the country!  And probably one of the most productive wells in the world.  It is too bad that this field will most likely never be produced following shutting and abandoning the Macondo #1 blowout. c.  The only way the Macondo well can be stopped is by intersecting the well with the relief wells being drilled now.  If the "junk shot" or "top kill" method would have stopped the flow or the blowout preventer finally closed, the pressured oil would have just ruptured the shallow geological formations and oil would have been coming up in geysers all over the place for miles and then the only way to stop the flow would have been to allow the reservoir to deplete.  And this could have been years!  Thus, it is a "good" thing that the "top kill" failed. d.  This next statistic is not to bash our president; but to put things into perspective:  When Air Force One is in the air, it consumes jet fuel (which incidentally comes from the Gulf of Mexico) at the rate of 5 gallons per mile as indicated in data released by the govt.  And anywhere the pres goes, there are at least two jets of equal size carrying his cars, golf carts, secret service, guests, press, etc.  If you make the calculations, this means that when the president takes a junket in Air Force One, he and his entourage are consuming the entire oil production of approximate 450 average oil wells in the U.S.! e.  Tony Hayward, the beaten down CEO of BP, is a friend of mine who I worked with on our project in Colombia in 1994-1997.  He was the Exploration Manager for BP's Bogota office.  He has a PhD in geoscience with highest honors and has more 28 years experience in technical and management positions with BP, which is a heck of a lot more applicable to his job than community organizing.  It would be impossible for him to know the level of detail of what happened on that rig; and Rep. Waxman's questioning just revealed the U.S. government's requirement to place personal blame and focus on something other than the administrations failings on a number of fronts.  I contend that the pollution in the Gulf is horrific; but the Gulf will recover.  However, the government's overreach into the oil industry as a result of the incident will do more harm to the country in the long run.  Waxman et. al. will deal more harm to the country which will never be cleaned up.  My advice to Tony Hayward when he met with the congressional panel, and his other public appearances, would have been to have a good speech writer and use a teleprompter.  That way he could have kept his foot out of his mouth and look more like a competent chief executive. f.  The blowout was clearly caused by human error and an unintentional accident and combination of unforeseen failures of protective devises which all have levels of redundancy.  It is very analogous to the loss of the space shuttle Challenger which was destroyed because of seal failure of the solid fuel rocket booster.  When that happened, in spite of engineer in Morton Thiokol (manufacturer of the solid fuel booster) pleading to stop the launch following freezing weather at the launch pad; I did not see the head of NASA butchered in front of Congress and asked to jump on a sword.  BP has assured everybody that all legitimate claims will be honored; but I heard today that a homeowner was asking reimbursement for loss of home value as surely his failure to sell his home is the fault of BP.  Am sure the hookers in New Orleans will charge BP for the loss of income from the rig workers who will be unemployed for six months.  How much of the $20 billion will go to ACORN?  Will be interesting to follow this money trail........ Cheers, [redacted for privacy purposes]

Don't plug it; tap it and put it back into production.  The hell with the appearance of doing that; we can't afford to give up such a productive source of oil.

Jeez….

Sears used to be a great store.  Tools, appliances, crappy clothes, cheap suits.  It was always a sort of slightly upscale K-Mart.  Now, they are both owned by the same company and Sears is selling this:

 

 

Hey Sears!  I make one of these nearly every day.  I don’t need to buy a fake one.

I Fear for Our Country’s Future…

 

…or, “How This Happened”:

 

OK, I am taking an online class through the local community college on computers and the Interwebs.  One of the components of the class is a Discussion Board.  The prof poses an issue and we are to respond, and, she hopes, have a meaningful discussion.  The first prompt from her was this:

PROMPT:  Gossip Sites...
A recent trend on college campuses today is the use of campus gossip sites, where students can post campus related news, rumors, and basic gossip. These sites were originally set up to promote free speech and to allow participants to publish comments anonymously without repercussions from school administrators, professors, and other officials. However, they are now being used to post vicious comments about others.

• What do you think of campus gossip sites?
• Is it ethical to post a rumor about another individual on these sites? How would you feel if you read a posting about yourself on a gossip site?
• School administrators cannot regulate the content since the sites are not sponsored or run by the college, and federal law prohibits Web hosts from being liable for the content posted by its users. Is this ethical?
• What if a posting leads to a criminal act, such as a rape, murder, or suicide? Who, if anyone, should be held responsible

I read the first few posts and my jaw dropped.  I discussed with her the willingness of nearly all of the respondents to simply ignore or repeal the First Amendment and throw offenders in jail.  Her response was that “they’re young”.  And then she told me to “stir things up.”  So I did.  Here is part of the result.  You will be shocked at the complete lack of thought and working knowledge of how this country works.

Discussion begins:

Thread: Free speech
Post: Free speech
Author: DaveyNC

Posted Date: June 3, 2010 1:26 PM
Status: Published

What about free speech? I find it very hard to believe that so many who have posted so far are willing to turn over their right to free speech to the federal government. While malicious gossip is certainly not protected by the 1st Amendment, why would you want to allow the government to decide what is and is not gossip?

Should a government censor punish someone who, for instance, posts that "So-and-so is pregnant!" How would the censor (a horrific notion) decide whether that is gossip or true? Demand a pregnancy test?

There are libel and slander laws to take care of this sort of thing. So long as "gossip sites" remain within those bounds, the government needs to stay out of it. If you fear gossip, then do not engage in it yourself or frequent websites that do not moderate comments.

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: Future Voter

Posted Date: June 6, 2010 1:24 AM
Status: Published

There was a big deal a while back where chinese actor Jackie Chan was asked his oppinion on Chinese democracy. He replied that some people can not handle freedom. While his words were taken out of context, he was referring to previous situations where his people were in a state of turmoil and needed much of their god given rights revoked. That's where such strict laws originated in their country. When people hide behind the constitution to defend their less than noble actions, I always feel like the constitution needs a revision. Convicted sex offenders are required to identify themselves as such by law, but neo Nazi webmasters can anonymously preach hate to the masses while protected by the constitution. These days the constitution only protects the corrupt. I for one agree with Jackie, the misuse of anything can lead to turmoil, freedom of speech is no different.

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: DaveyNC

Posted Date: June 6, 2010 8:38 AM
Status: Published

But Future Voter, you understand that an over-riding purpose of the Constitution in general and the First Amendment in particular is to protect unpopular speech, right? Isn't the essence of a democracy the ability to speak out against the majority? Turmoil is what a democracy is all about.

And you just violated Godwin's law. http://goo.gl/oDl6

I simply reject the notion that the constitution "only protects the corrupt" nor do I accept that some people can not handle freedom. Who should make the decision about who gets to be free and who doesn't? I don't think you realize it, but you just advocated reinstituting slavery. I'd hate to live in a country where someone else decides how much freedom I get to enjoy.

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: DaveyNC

Posted Date: June 6, 2010 2:43 PM
Status: Published

What you are telling me is that slaves had their rights revoked due to their own misuse of them? That's a very interesting take on things. I would be very grateful to find out what exactly they did to deserve such action. Surely you have proof. I understand what the first amendment was meant for, but no one can refute the fact that since it's conception it has been counter productive. You can really only benifit if you're trying to beat a prison sentence or cause harm to others. If you can censor my music and films, why protect slanderers and the like?

The amount of freedom you have is already in question. Try screaming fire in a packed movie theatre. See how well that works out for you. The general consensus is that if your words cause a stampede of frightened people and someone gets hurt, it's your fault. By the way, I laughed out loud at Godwin's Law. If I had a dime for every time I was called a racist in a debate(not saying you did of course, just comparing it to the use of Nazi's in debates), even about something as trivial as the Tiger Woods scandal, I would have enough money to build a time machine and go back in time to have the word Nazi removed from the English language. Wow, I used Nazi three times in two replies...I must be a bad debator according to Godwins Law. I simply gave an example of the double standard, next time I'll use one of the other hate groups that hide behind the constitution.

The constitution only protects the corrupt. I will stand by that until I see otherwise.

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: DaveyNC

Posted Date: June 6, 2010 9:08 PM
Status: Published

I am stunned at your assessment of the first amendment as counter-productive.  Speechless.  Without the first amendment, we would have something like Al Jazeera, the Arab TV network that only broadcasts what its leaders tell it to.  The only thing, other than the Constitution itself, that holds the government at bay is our freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  There is no freedom of speech in places like North Korea, Cuba and China and those people live in squalor.

I didn't say that slaves had their rights revoked due to their own misuse.  You did, when you quoted Jackie Chan.  This statement, " He replied that some people can not handle freedom. While his words were taken out of context, he was referring to previous situations where his people were in a state of turmoil and needed much of their god given rights revoked." seems to advocate eliminating rights for those who cannot handle them.  Who decides who should have their rights revoked?  You?  Me?

The rights that the Constitution protect are "inalienable"; that is, we are born with them, they are not given to us by the government.  And since the govt. didn't give them to us, they can't revoke them.  The government, by definition, is the only entity that could be guilty of censorship and it cannot censor your music, your movies, your speech and any protests you may lodge against the government.   That is a right that is nearly unique in all the world and must be preserved at all costs.

I've run too long here, but I remain stunned by your characterization of the First Amendment.  Let me suggest a book for you, and anyone else in here who may be thinking the same: http://goo.gl/seas

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: Future Voter

Posted Date: June 7, 2010 7:25 PM
Status: Published

It would in fact be a government matter to decide to revise the constitution. I mean, the complaints of citizens like myself aren't enough to fix anything, and I do mean fix, as many of the amendments are themselves broken.

When you say that it sounds like I'm advocating slavery, that my ideas resemble other countries with very little rights to begin with then it is clear my message was ill recieved. Our "system" allows convicted fellons to have their rights revoked. Not because we are run by bad people, but because these men/women deserved it. There is no freedom of assembly in prison, no right to bear arms, and certainly no freedom. It wouldn't be a stretch to force shock jocs and anyone else making a blatant attempt to cause an uproar to watch their speech closely or prepare to have access to online forums and other means of communication monitored or revoked without reconsideration.

As for who would decide who is punished, yes, you and I would. The people. Let's say you ran a sports fan web page where members of your page constantly bash other teams or make accusations that a certain team cheats. With my law in place citizens could file a complaint and this would be the last online site you ever ran, all because patrons of your site were expressing their "inalienable rights." You can say you don't like a team, but to say that team sucks would be a violation punishable by law.

One more thing, nothing is inalienable, not in this world.

Reply Quote Mark as Unread

Thread: Free speech
Post: RE: Free speech
Author: DaveyNC

Posted Date: June 8, 2010 10:52 PM
Status: Published

I am simply gobsmacked by your response, Future Voter.

I refer to the second paragraph, last sentence in your comment above. You just advocated that the US use the exact same approach to online communications that China, North Korea and Cuba use, as well as nearly every dictatorship on the planet. All of these countries are among the very worst violators of human rights in the world. Why on earth would you want to place the US in such company? One of the things, maybe the main thing, that keeps citizens in the US safe is the ability to speak out against tyranny without fear of being silenced or punished by the government.

And then you go on to advocate, in the third paragraph, the revocation of an individual's right to free speech and ability to earn a living in his chosen field merely because someone filed a complaint. You have completely nullified due process of law over trash talking on a sports site.

It is not a government (if by "government”, you mean the Federal government) matter to revise the Constitution. That can only be done via the passing of amendments by the various States. The amendments can only be passed, or ratified, by the States via a vote or a convention that they hold. This requires the electorate to approve. See here: http://goo.gl/sw0I

I'd like to think that you are simply having a hard time expressing your views. But I don't think so.

 

So that’s it.  That is truly the Future Voter.  We gotta hope that this happens soon: