Category: Common Sense Filter

In a recent development in the land of beer and sausage comes a striking blow to those who would like to store your personal communications information for a period of six months. You know. Just in case law enforcement might need it for something.

via Slashdot…

Germany’s highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic to help fight terrorism and crime. The Federal Constitution Court ruled that major changes needed to be made to a 2008 law ordering data on calls made from mobile or fixed-line telephones and e-mail traffic to be kept for six months for possible access by law enforcement agencies.

The judges said the data storage was not secure enough and that it was not sufficiently clear what it would be used for. A record number of almost 35,000 people, including current Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, had originally brought the case to the court. The law stems from a European Union directive.

The court said all data stored to date must be deleted immediately. It said the law went far beyond the requirements of the EU directive. The storage of data could “cause a diffusely threatening feeling of being under observation that can diminish an unprejudiced perception of one’s basic rights in many areas,” said the president of the court, Hans-Jürgen Papier.

Absolutely shocked? I was.

This is the European Union after all. Peace, love, socialism, and all of that.

If you take the time to read the article you’ll see that the fight isn’t over yet. The Germans would be ok with a law that had better defined parameters when it comes to the storage, use, and access of the data.

I suppose if you whack people with a stick long enough they might just get pissed off.

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Regulation implies something which man controls.

Nature is something man does not control.

Somehow, we are supposed to believe that those two words go together.

They obviously do not.

CO2 or carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas. It is the by-product of the mammalian respiratory cycle. We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

That is a fact.

Plants use carbon dioxide for growth and expend oxygen in the process. We call this a “circle of life” if you will. A mutually beneficial relationship and one that has lasted for thousands of years.

Somehow. Somewhere in our recent history our elected officials think that they know better than nature and think that they somehow have the power to control one of these two elements.

The damaging component is the reason they believe the regulation is needed. Excessive carbon dioxide is leading to global warming. Have you looked outside lately? Warming? Seriously? This theory that carbon dioxide is a major player in the global warming hoax has been refuted and shown to be completely false.

With that being said, where are the calls in the senate for the brakes to be applied.

Trying to regulate nature based on a theory that has been proven wrong has to be the very definition of insanity.

If you are wondering why you should be looking forward to voting congress out of office, I believe this is just one small reason.

I have many many more.

To the folks who are Sarah Palin robots, this post is not for you.

I like Sarah Palin but I seriously do not agree with everything the woman says.

Case in point. Exhibit A.

Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.

Telling the Tea Party movement that they need to pick a party solely because we only have a two party system is ludicrous. It completely discounts the many reasons that the tea party movement exists. The tea party movement (the real one) is party neutral. So, I suppose that it’s ok to pick the lesser of two evils? Isn’t that what the McCain campaign was all about for the true grass roots conservative types who, on several occasions, denied McCain a presidential bid?

Yes.

Thinking that you absolutely must pick sides is part of the problem here.

The Democrat candidate sucks. The Republican candidate sucks.

If a tea party candidate who believes in everything I do runs, why shouldn’t I vote for them? What’s more important? Is it more important that the candidate have an R after their name or is it more important to vote for someone who actually represents me and my views?

Telling someone that they absolutely positively MUST pick sides is the problem.

I’m also afraid that the person who said that has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.

Global Warming is the one issue that I can honestly say that I saw right through from day one. It NEVER made any sense. I don’t need to be a scientist to see the bullshit. I feel vindicated.

In my on going “common sense is dead” series…

This level of dumb is amazing.

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – Commonwealth leaders will lobby for an international climate deal that includes $10 billion for next year to help poor and vulnerable states fight the effects of global warming, the Maldives president said on Saturday.

Mohamed Nasheed, whose small Indian Ocean state risks being swamped by rising sea levels caused by climate change, said the proposal for such funding was part of a draft climate statement to be issued on Saturday by Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.

The entire article is here.

In case you’ve missed it, man made global warming has been publicly shown to be a fraud. You can get started on all of the reading here.

I am forever reminded of this line from Star Wars.

“So this is how liberty dies? With thunderous applause…”

The feel good deed: By extending benefits, the government will help you get back on your feet and keep you and your family from starvation.

The unintended consequences: Keeping you out of a job will make you more dependent on the government and absolutely do irreparable damage to the economy by preventing people from getting up off of their asses and actually working and doing stuff. No start up companies. Only consumers doing what they do best. Consuming. Seems to me that if you are starving, you’d be more inclined to get out there and hunt for food. Why hunt when the government is paying you to sit on your ass?

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to offer up to 20 more weeks of unemployment benefits to those who have been out of work a long time, after weeks of delay in which hundreds of thousands of Americans exhausted their government aid.

The measure will increase to 99 weeks, or nearly two years, the maximum length of time that a jobless worker can get benefits in some states.

99 weeks? Who would have thought that being laid off could be considered a “career choice?”

Thanks uncle Sam. Read the whole story here.

While perusing around this morning, I happened on this headline from Reuters. “White House says stimulus saving education jobs”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Monday its economic stimulus had saved or created 250,000 education jobs, as it sought to push back against Republicans who contend the package was wasteful and had not worked.

The Republicans are saying that it isn’t working because it isn’t working. I guess cause the Republicans are focusing on the private sector where it really matters and not the government where it doesn’t. The quarter of a million jobs we are now losing on a monthly basis are private sector jobs not public ones.

It’s like getting shot in the arm and bandaging your leg. Like that.

I had to read the headline once again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming or perhaps read this incorrectly.

School teachers outside of the public system were excluded in this story. The stimulus didn’t save the private sector jobs just the public ones that you already pay for anyway. I mean “saved or created.”

School teachers are on the public payroll. You pay them. You the taxpayer. In theory, school districts are funded for the most part by local school taxes which then pay for school teachers. Federal money is given in the form of a supplement to existing programs and so on.

Let’s assume that the federal money is paying for the teacher’s salaries (it’s really not but play along). What this headline says is that the federal government isn’t cutting jobs that it wasn’t going to cut anyway and that the stimulus has everything to do with that.

Complete and utter nonsense.

This is absolutely fabulous and amazingly enough, true.

I will get to the point. Hang in there…

People are fat and overweight today more than ever before in United States history. Why? Air Conditioning. Video Games. Television.

Air Conditioning. It’s responsible for keeping the fat people on their fat ass. Why go outside? It’s HOT out there. I’d rather just sit in the air conditioning and do as little as possible. Like, watch television or playing video games. Remember the good old days when you actually went outside on purpose? You know. To play something or ride your bike or take a hike or run around with your friends…

Video Games. They are fun. They are time killers. They are NOT real. Just sayin’….

Television. Television wants you to watch what they put in front of you and when they put it in front of you. Be a good little consumer and just watch what we tell you to. Kind of like ABC’s Official Presentation of ObamaCare. For the record, lowest rated show of the night. Seems there Mr. President, people just aren’t that into you.

It’s hard to save the world from your bar-ca lounger. Raising awareness by changing the color of an icon does not translate into any type of kinetic energy and thusly will effect no change. Science. Bitches. It works.

Change begins with ideas but it doesn’t end there. Iran will never change until real action takes place. Protesting will only go so far as only one side has weapons. Very uneven and unfair fight on any level. The people may have the numbers but they don’t have the resources that the government has.

Ribbons and icons that tell me that you care more about Iran than I do will not impress me. As well it should not. Your caring can only mean something to one person and that person is you. Which could be continued by saying that the only thing you care about is you.

The person or persons that collect money, buy weapons, and give them to the Iranian people are the people that this old sailor will salute.

I believe it was Francois Guisot who said “Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head.”

The quote is wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill.

What does it mean? Idealism is a strong characteristic of the young. The young need to change the world and all of that. The ideology has become intertwined with a culture of sit on your ass in the air conditioning and play video games mentality. They would rather post something on Facebook, Twitter, or blog about it. While it makes them feel good it accomplishes nothing.

The real people of change are long gone. They are gone because those values are gone. Can you imagine a world void of religious values?

Sure you can. America is becoming that place. While Islam becomes stronger and countries continue to yield to the cult, Christianity and similar religions are dropping their numbers.

We are becoming France and Canada. We outsource everything. We import everything. We produce nothing.

The government stepped in and destroyed the banking system and the auto industry. Health care is next.

Will we stop it? No.

Why?

Because we’re too busy sitting in our air conditioned homes, eating fried chicken, watching Oprah, and playing the next big thing on our PlayStation.

This is an official Mike analogy.

Let’s say that you, me, and Hitler are in the same enclosed room.

In the center of the room is a Colt 45.

You want to pick up the gun and shoot Hitler.

Everybody watching wants you to shoot him.

He deserves it. He should be shot.

You pick up the gun. You pull the slide back. Safeties are off.

I applaud what you are about to do.

There’s only one problem.

I happen to know that the gun isn’t loaded.

Iran. If you have ever read history and understand it. It’s like that.

I simply have to address the issue of the green Twitter icons before my head simply explodes.

For those of you stuck in a cave, Twitter users started to tint their icons/avatars green to show their solidarity with the Iranian people and their situation. Noble. Maybe. Senseless. Definitely.

It would be like those “I support the troops” ribbons you might own. When asked what folks actually did to support the troops the classic response was that they simply bought the ribbon. You didn’t support the troops by buying the ribbon you supported the person who “sold” it to you and you get to feel good about yourself in the process.

That’s a liberal trait. Doing something just because it feels good. What does that accomplish in the grand scheme of things? Well, YOU feel good. That’s about it. Liberals need to feel good because they are just so damn miserable anyway.

We’d all like to think that the social networks we belong to are shared and used by everyone. Truth is. They aren’t. If you turn your icon green on Twitter, who is going to notice? Other users on Twitter? It might get reported on the news. So what?

Because the Twitter users got Twitter to change their maintenance time all of the sudden we’ve tried to spread this “amazing new ability” to other things. Now we think we can change reality outside of Twitter and obviously we can’t. Changing things “inside” of a network is just that. It’s inside the network.

If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it?

Has the fact that you’ve changed your icon amounted to anything? Has it knocked out a terrorist training camp or freed anyone or prevented a student protester from being shot or sent in radios? How many “real” Iranians have Twitter? How many have the internet for that matter?

Back in the 1960s when people wanted to raise awareness they took to the streets, burned flags, burned bras, held sit-ins, etc.

At least they did something more tangible than simply turning their picture into a nice shade of puke green. The scary part of this sad story is not so much the green icons as much as it shows how willing people are to blindly follow what someone else does.

That should scare everybody.

Stem cell research has never been banned by anyone.

The government won’t FULLY fund embryonic stem cell research which so far has produced nothing.

The government under Bush decided not to fully fund the research but not fully funding research isn’t banning the research. The government just isn’t paying for all of it.

I’ll say it again. Just because the government (our tax dollars) aren’t funding all stem cell research doesn’t equate to anyone banning it.

To say that it’s been banned by anyone is a complete and total lie.

There has been no court ruling and congress hasn’t passed a law against stem cell research.

Stop freaking lying about it.

For anyone who may be confused about the differences between Adult Stem Cell Research and Embryonic Stem Cell Research, I offer this video. Spend the 12 minutes and you’ll learn a great deal.

Jill, you can have your soap box back now.

Don’t do this because you “feel” like catching up on Twitter.

Remember folks, it’s a “micro” blog.

Shame on this guy.

Writing a book is fun. It took me a long time to get to a point in my life where I just knew what I wanted to write about.

I’ve had ideas over time. I usually always ended up finding that “somebody else” stole my idea. Of course, they didn’t steal my idea. They just acted on it before I did.

There is also the “if that idiot can write a book so can I” factor as well.

Before the following events occurred, I expected them to occur.

1. September 11th, 2001 – This is not a case of hindsight. Terrorists tried to bring down the twin towers before and failed. The buildings were clearly meaningful and iconic to Al-Queda and it was only a matter of time before they would succeed. They clearly succeeded on September 11th.

2. The U.S. Invasion of Iraq was primarily news network driven. Before President Bush even thought about it or had been advised about it, MSNBC was playing out scenarios on it’s news broadcasts almost on a daily basis. To anyone with ears, you KNEW that after Afghanistan, Iraq was going to be next and you KNEW because television news led the charge.

3. Hillary Clinton’s Presidential run was also news network driven and perpetuated before our very eyes by news anchors who truly thought of it first. It wasn’t casually mentioned. It was mentioned almost every single day for month after month on the major news networks well clear of Hillary even thinking about running.

4. Barack Hussein Obama. If you watched television news at all and have even an inkling of “foreshadowing” hidden within you, the staging of Obama’s run for the Whitehouse happened well clear of his campaign. By the way the news anchors of the day were talking, Barack Hussein Obama was going to run for President whether he liked it or not. At the time, the Democratic party needed a “front man” and they were desperate.

5. If Apple, Inc. is in bed with Barack Obama, how come the built in spell checker keeps telling me that I’m spelling his name wrong?

6. Why can meteorologists fail so miserably to predict the day to day whether patterns but are convinced that they “know” that man made Global Warming exists?

If any of these things make you go “huh” then perhaps it’s a great time to write a book about it.

…to watch people fall for something whether it be a political candidate for either party or man-made global warming or the global suppression of Africa or the actor that has played a President on a television show or the loss of American identity…

…and feeling like you want to laugh and then cry?

1. McCain lost 2 primaries before this last one. It was clear that conservatives didn’t want him to run. Obama shouldn’t have even been running for President, yet.

2. Man made global warming isn’t true and isn’t real and has been disproved so many times by so many reputable scientists that the fact that anyone can still say those words is utterly confounding to me.

3. The world leaders don’t want Africa to use it’s own natural resources like gas, coal, and oil to pull itself up and become more than just a “third” world country. Their solution is to allow Africa to use wind power and solar power. Unfortunately, both of those options are too expensive for the average African to afford which, they COULD afford if they were allowed to use their own natural resources, which they are NOT. Does your head hurt over that one too?

4. Actors are well… actors. They are playing make believe like when you were 5 and you played cowboys and indians with the neighbor kid up the street. They only difference is that they are older and have cameras pointed at them while they are playing make believe. Just because you played a cowboy doesn’t mean that you know how to herd cattle and shoe a horse. The same goes with actors who play important people. Just because they acted like someone who is important doesn’t mean that they are and it certainly doesn’t make them an expert.

5. I read an article which I will NOT pass along yesterday written by a complete moron who has written horrible stories in the past, but I digress. The subject of his story was that he thought that defending your country (in this case the United States) was a noble yet stupid idea. He didn’t think we needed to defend our country and he certainly didn’t love it. His take was that conservatives are obsessive about the US and are fanatical about duty, honor, and country. I suppose that if it wasn’t for the obsessive fanatical Americans that came before him, he would have been writing his column in German or Japanese.

I never did really believe that conservatives are any better than liberals or the other way around. I prefer the common sense approach. You can say whatever you want to me as long as it makes sense. Liberals just don’t make sense to me. To embrace ideas that simply don’t work, don’t make sense, and have the virtue of having been tried and failed doesn’t seem rational to me.

It’s ok to have passion and be moved and motivated by it. The danger lies in taking our heads out of the equation and leaving the heart in charge. It only feels good until the head comes back.

For die hard liberals, the heart is in charge and the head isn’t coming back.

I’ve written about web bias before. The reason that I singled out Digg was because of the many occasions that I’ve heard the CEO Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose talk about how much Digg is user driven. While that may actually be true, I’ve always found it odd that when it comes to Obama and McCain, I never see a positive article about John McCain. Statistically speaking, Digg should have accidentally posted a postive McCain article by now.

This morning, I thought I’d look at my newsreader and see where we stand on our postive McCain articles on the Digg website. This is what I found.

I looked at the stories that landed on the Digg front page from 12:01am Saturday morning until this morning at 5:40am. The mission: to see how many Pro-McCain articles I could find and count how many Anti-McCain articles I found. Here are the results.

I left Sarah Palin stories out of it.

Pro-McCain stories = 0
Anti-McCain stories = 11

Of the 11 Anti-McCain stories, 6 of them were from huffingtonpost.com. Apparently, Digg is a Huffington Post mirror site. The other stories came from CBS News, UPI, Newsweek, New York Times, and Eyes On Obama.

Here are the Huffington Post headlines…

1. Bush Official: Bailout Likely, McCain Lost PR Battle
2. First Debate: Reviews Go To Obama
3. Max Bergmann: Major Gaffe: McCain Said Pakistan Was a Failed
4. Debate Fact Check-McCain Lied About Financial Crisis Warning
5. Obama To McCain: On Iraq, “You Were Wrong”
6. Obama Slams McCain For Not Mentioning Middle Class

The remaining 5 headlines are…

7. CBS Poll: Obama Won The Debate
8. McCain dead wrong about Kissinger’s stance on talk with Iran
9. Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain
10. McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry
11. McCain Has Worst Attendance Record in Washington

At least, 4 years ago MTV was nice to him. Here’s a piece from that interview…

MTV News, 2004: Four years from now, whether or not the president is re-elected, is there a chance we might see the “Straight Talk Express” hitting the road again?

John McCain: I think it’s very unlikely. … We had a kind of magical moment [in 2000]. A lot of things came together that I think would be very difficult to do again. And one thing I would hate to be is somebody who goes back in and would lose. … It’s a long time away, but I doubt it. [Smiling.] I’m not gettin’ any younger!

Ahhh, on second thought, perhaps he will run again. Who knew?