Hope and Change Baby

It’s so good we rid ourselves of that evil and tyrannical Bush administration and replaced it with the good civil rights aware Obama administration:

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services — such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype — to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

Oh… wait.

Well That’s Retarded

With ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, our economy in the toilet, our money losing value faster than Obama is losing voter approval, and hundreds of out major issues our representatives are wasting their time on political correctness:

The measure, passed by the House by voice vote Wednesday night, changes the phrase “mentally retarded” to “an individual with an intellectual disability” in existing health, education and labor law.

I think I finally understand something. Political correctness is directly proportional to the number of words used to describe something. Being “retarded” is one word it’s very politically incorrect but “an individuals with an intellectual disability” is six words so it’s six times more politically correct.

The only thing the politically correct crowd has accomplished here is turning the word disabled into a future insult. Insults such as idiot, moron, retard, etc. all derived from their legitimate medical usage:

At the May 18, 1910 annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded, Goddard proposed definitions for a system for classifying individuals with mental retardation based on intelligence quotient (IQ). Goddard used the terms moron for those with an IQ of 51-70, imbecile for those with an IQ of 26-50, and idiot for those with an IQ of 0-25 for categories of increasing impairment. This nomenclature was the standard of the field for decades. A moron, by his definition, was any person with mental age between eight and twelve. Morons, according to Goddard, were unfit for society and should be removed from society either through institutionalization, sterilization, or both. What Goddard failed to see was that his bias against morons would greatly influence his data later.

So what is my point here? Simple people used the words moron, imbecile, and idiot as insults due to their medical meaning. A person who is being a dumb ass is often called an idiot because they’re acting with the mental age of an infant. Retard is used as an insult because it means somebody who is mentally slow. Changing the term from retard to individual with a disability is just going to make people start using the term mentally disabled as an insult in 10 years. At that point it will be politically incorrect to use the term mentally disabled and we’ll have to come up with a more flowery and politically correct term which will probably end up being at least 10 words in length.

Why the Hell am I paying my taxes for our representatives’ payroll? Oh that’s right because the government has a gun to my head.

Where Can I Buy One

Apparently Mayor Daley is trying to get his police for a new type of firearm. I’ve not heard of this but thanks to Every Day, No Days Off I know about the amazing new semi-fully-automatic weapon:

“Many times [the police are] outgunned, to be very frank,” Daley said at an event in the Englewood neighborhood. “When they come to a scene, someone has a semi-fully-automatic weapon, and you have a little pistol, uh, good luck.”

What these new semi-fully-automatic weapons are I haven’t a clue. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this advanced technology. I’ll post up more details on this amazing new weapon system when I have them.

The Republicans’ “Pledge” to America

So the Republicans released their “Pledge” to America [Warning: It’s a PDF]:

With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.

Sweet they’re making Ron Paul the head of the Republican Party and allowing him to make policy? HELL YEAH… wait what? That’s not what’s happening? What the heck are they doing then? What do you mean read the entire document? Shit.

Cut Government Spending to Pre- Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels

But we were still in a deficit before the stimulus packages were approved. That won’t fix the financial problem in this country at all.

Cut Congress’ Budget

Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.

We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. No more hiding legislative language from the minority party, opponents, and the public. Legislation should be understood by all interested parties before it is voted on.

So now you’re stealing Obama’s lies (remember he said all bills would be posted online 72 hours before he signed them, still waiting on that Obama)? What you should do is fight to ensure all bills will be read aloud in both houses. That will ensure everybody knows everything in the bill and most importantly cut the length of these bills down because nobody wants to read a 2,000 page document out loud. An added benefit would be any 2,000 pages bill would take so long to read a new house and Senate would probably be in and have to start the reading from the top again ensure it never gets voted on.

We will require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.

I actually like this. Of course it’ll be a cold day in Hell before this requirement is actually made of bills.

We will prevent the government from importing terrorists onto American soil. We will hold President Obama and his administration responsible for any Guantanamo Bay detainees they release who return to fight against our troops or who have become involved in any terrorist plots or activities.

You’ll prevent our government from “importing” terrorists? Really? Please explain in detail how you will accomplish that. Also I love how the Republicans say they are going to adhere to the Constitution but keeping people held in a secret prison in Cuba without trail is somehow OK.

There is real concern that while the threat from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles could materialize as early as 2015, the government’s missile defense policy is not projected to cover the U.S. homeland until 2020. We will work to ensure critical funding is restored to protect the U.S. homeland and our allies from missile threats from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.

Wait were’ going to fund a missile defense program because the Iranians may have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) someday? I guess the fact Russia has enough ICBMs to wipe out all life on Earth several times over wasn’t motivation enough huh? Maybe we should also realize we still have enough nukes to do the same and that threat prevented Russian and America from launching so I’m betting the same threat will work just fine on little old Iran. There I just saved you a boat load of money on chasing a program that has been in the works since the Cold War and never came to fruition. You’re welcome.

So let me sum up their “pledge.” The Republican Party will continue doing what they have been doing while stating they’re going to do something else instead. How are they different from the Democrats again? Oh that’s right they’re not.

This is why I’m a libertarian.

More On the Recent Evo 4G Update

Well I have some additional good news in regards to the update released two days ago for the Evo 4G. The sound quality in Pandora is acceptable again. Sadly the song skipping is still plaguing Last.fm and Pandora has now gone from one song to another automatically before finishing the prior one. Alas my phone has become a usable piece of equipment again, huzzah!

We’re Moving Up in the World

Uncle notes that us gun owners are moving up in the world. How do we know this? Well is seems second amendment rallies make lists of terrorist-related threats:

Metcalfe’s annual Second Amendment rally, which attracts gun owners from across the state, was mentioned in an April bulletin to state Homeland Security officials by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, a York-based nonprofit paid $103,000 by the state.

Remember kids standing up for your rights guaranteed by the laws of your country is a terrorist activity! Only a terrorist would demand that their rights, guaranteed by the country’s own laws, be respected.

Down the Memory Hole

So our Department of Defense (DoD) decided to do a book burning at the taxpayers’ expense because some content irked them off. The publisher apparently didn’t see the possibility for infinite revenue though. Instead of publishing more copies of the book for the DoD to purchase Bruce Schneier informs us that the publisher has reached an agreement with the DoD. The agreement involves removing all the “offending” material from the book. What a poor business decision.

Climate Something or Other

If at first you don’t succeed change the name of your target and try again. Just as corn syrup is changing it’s name to corn sugar and Blackwater changed their name to Xe global warming climate change is getting a name change to climate disruption. As with most thing involving climate something or other Borepatch has a good writeup about how a certain staffer in the Obamessiah’s administration came up with the glorious idea of doing the name swap.

I’m not a rocket scientist but I believe if your crusade lacks so much popular support and scientific backing that you have to change the name twice to drum up fear you should find something else to make money on. It seems people don’t really want to jump on the carbon credit scheme and climate something or other isn’t scaring many people anymore. Just give up and find another scam already.

Canadian Will Keep Wasting Millions of Dollars

Every Day, No Days Off informs us that our friends up north have decided to keep wasting millions of dollars on a point long-gun registry. This is both a blow to the civil rights of Canadian as well as a boon from criminals whom ignore the registry anyways and know any slight inconvenience for citizens self-defense is a convenience for crime.