Month: November 2011

The New Iraqi Government is Sounding Like the Old Iraqi Government

It’s a good thing we sent our military machine to Iraq to overthrow the tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein. We freed the country from tyranny and delivered the citizenry into a new golden age of freedom where their rights are respected and… never mind:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government has presented a bill to parliament banning the possession of weapons by anyone except military and state security personnel, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports.

[…]

He said the bill lays down strict requirements for licensing the possession of arms to ensure that the state and its respective security organs have a monopoly on the use of weapons.

The new government sounds like it’s going to follow in the tradition of the old government. After the brutal government suffered by the Iraqi people it is my sincerest hope the people refuse to surrender their only means of defense. Those who crafted the United States Bill of Rights rightly remembered the wickedness of the previous government and opted to ensure the people remained armed so that they had one final check and balance to the government’s never ending thirst for power.

I never trusted the new Iraq government to respect the rights of the people but I had hoped that they would put on a façade of freedom for a short while. It appears that isn’t the case and the government agents are wasting no time disarming the populace, likely to ensure no resistance when new government policies of oppression begin flowing from the walls of their capitol.

The new regime is smelling an awful lot like the old regime.

This Week at Occupy Minneapolis Questions of Ownership Arise

Still finding this entire occupy movement very interesting I’ve continued visiting the Minneapolis occupation periodically. While little of interest has been happening this weekend the occupiers came up with a plan of action and decide to have a large number of their crew head down to a foreclosed home in southern Minneapolis and occupy it at the invitation of the owner. OK who owns the home is a rather murky question which I’ll explain in a bit.

As can be expected the police eventually arrived to evict the occupiers. I will commend the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on their general willingness to provide occupiers a means of leaving without arrest and avoiding the use of violence to get their point across. The entire home occupation was being broadcast on Occupy Minneapolis’s LiveStream (I check it sometimes to see if they’re doing anything interesting that could be worth blogging about). As I brought up the LiveStream I noticed the police were in the house so I watched as the cops booted everybody out of the home. MPD allowed anybody who wanted to leave without being arrest to do so and only one person, going by the name Panda, remained in the home. Expectedly the police did arrest him although I’m not sure on what charges (it may be trespassing, it may be breaking and entering, it may be attempted burglary, I honestly am not sure).

Another occupier, named Devin, decided to stand in front of the police car that Panda was being held in. When I saw this I thought that the action was a nice gesture but as nobody was standing behind the police car they’re just going to throw it in reverse, back out of there, and laugh at the Devin. I was wrong:

Judging by comments and attitudes towards the occupy movements I can guess that most of you reading this are likely against the whole idea. I’ve stated before that I’m glad people realize that they’re being fucked over and have finally stood up and screamed about it but also feel as though many of the occupiers don’t understand how they’re being fucked over. There are many members of Occupy who are protesting the existence of the Federal Reserve, a message I completely support and there are occupiers who are protesting the existence of capitalism, a message I completely oppose (although I realize most of them don’t actually understand what capitalism is and instead believe what we have in the United States qualifies therefore I see them as misguided).

Still I feel whether you support the occupiers or not you can agree the police driving their car into Devin was an unnecessary flexing of their muscles. Devin was actually arrested because, apparently, it’s a crime to get pushed around by a police cruiser. As the police had an unobstructed means of leaving (backing out) I feel the act of driving into Devin was excessive. It would have been one thing had the police arrested Devin before driving into him for obstruction of justice, while I wouldn’t have agreed with that either at least it would have been involved some decency. Instead MPD officers decided it would be a jolly good time to push him around on a snow-slick road to show off the fact a police cruiser can move a man without difficulty.

After these events concluded I ventured down to the home. By the time I arrived many of the occupiers had moved back into the dwelling, an act I found bold considering what just went down (I believed it would be unlikely that those in the home would avoid being arrested a second time). I had no such desire to face possible arrest so I stayed on the public sidewalk for the duration of my vist. This is when things got truly interesting in my opinion.

While the area was surrounded more or less by police cruisers none of the officers ever made a move for the house. One police cruiser finally drove down the street, stopped, and a couple of officers conversed with one of the occupiers. Parts of the conversation were overheard by me and I caught enough to learn that the owner of the building was in question. U.S. Bank performed the foreclosure but it seems they were unable to provide a title or promissory note demonstrating their ownership. This is a far more common occurrence in recent foreclosures than most people realize and it should be brought to light. Due to the number of people involved in the mortgage business and the constant shifting around of said mortgages the owner of many properties is in dispute. This lead to a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that effectively nullified some foreclosures.

Many foreclosures are being performed without any actual proof of ownership on behalf of the loaning agencies. People are being kicked out of dwellings by people who claim ownership but have no means of backing such claims. This practice is quite disgusting in my never humble opinion. From a libertarian perspective proof of ownership is crucial before actions can be taken to enforce property rights. If you find a discarded watch and somebody later claims that they are the rightful owners of the watch their statement should be taken with a gain of salt unless they can produce proof of ownership. The same goes for property foreclosures: if a loaning agency claims ownership of a home and wishes to kick the person(s) living there out because payments have not been made then the police should first demand proof of ownership from the agency before going through with the eviction. Proof of ownership has often not been required before evictions have been served and that needs to stop.

Once again I find the Occupy movement pointing out a fact of crucial importance without actually pointing it out. In the shouts of housing being a human right (in the argument of positive vs. negative rights I’m a firm believer in negative rights) many occupiers claim foreclosures should be illegal. What they usually don’t say is that these foreclosures are often illegal because the foreclosing agency can’t provide proof that they own the property. It would be far more beneficial if the occupiers presented this fact first and foremost instead of presenting arguments claiming home ownership is a human right. The former is a legal procedure which should be abided by in courts while the latter is a belief that directly conflicts with the founding principles of this country and thus is a difficult argument to make.

Scheduled Maintenance this Weekend

You guys have done it, you’ve hit my server hard enough that I’m quickly running low on available RAM. While I will consider this a metric of my success it does mean I have to upgrade the little server. I’ve ordered more RAM which will be here Friday so sometime between Friday evening and Monday morning this site will be down for a short while (probably all of five minutes, you’ll likely not even notice).

After the upgrade this site will be… the same as before most likely. Thanks everybody for reading and giving me a headache that’s cheap and easy to correct. It’s far better than those headaches that are expensive and time consuming to alleviate.

It Must be Hard to Fit this Much Corruption into a Single Issue

I’m not sure how the politicians that make up our government manage to fit so much corruption into apparently cut and dry issues. When one arm of the government is declaring the need for more vegetables and less potatoes in school lunches another arm of the government is declaring pizza a vegetable and axing the recommendation that children eat less potatoes. It must be difficult working inside an entity so massive and so full of corruption that one arm is actively working against another arm because different lobbyist target different politicians. Just look at the recent mess involving federally subsidized school lunches and weep at the mess we call government:

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration’s much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

The only way so many special interests can be involved in a single issue is if the government is meddling. I’m sure vegetable growers were the ones who petitioned the Agriculture Department to first enact it’s recommendations and then companies that produce frozen pizza, seeing their business may be in jeopardy, petitioned government to overrule those recommendations through legislation. While everybody scoffs at Congress’s attempt to redefine what a vegetable is the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is busy making themselves out to be hypocrites:

“While it’s unfortunate that some members of Congress continue to put special interests ahead of the health of America’s children, USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals,” she said in a statement.

Emphasis mine. Let’s look back at a the previous quote, specifically the part that states, “USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.” How does the amount of tomato paste scientifically define whether or not it is a vegetable? Last I hear tomatoes were scientifically classified as fruit. What a bunch of hypocritical assholes.

Not only is Congress and USDA involved in this but even the military has a pony in this race:

A group of retired generals advocating for healthier school lunches also criticized the spending bill. The group, called Mission: Readiness, has called poor nutrition in school lunches a national security issue because obesity is the leading medical disqualifier for military service.

Obviously the biggest problem with increased obesity in the United States is that it reduce the number of people available to send overseas to kill foreigners! We need to stop this before we don’t have enough troops to occupy the ~140 countries we currently have bases in!

Let’s recap on everybody involved in this issue. We have USDA, Congress, lobbyists for numerous agriculture organizations, scientific organizations, healthcare organization, retired military personell, and school children. The last group is the one who has no say but are getting fucked over regardless of the outcome.

All of these groups are involved in what is essentially a simple problem: determining what food will be served at public schools. People across the nation solved this problem on a daily fucking basis when they decide what they’re going to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That’s right, those idiots in government can’t solve a problem that is essentially figuring out what one is going to eat for a meal and we trust them with market regulations, foreign relations, and nuclear weaponry. Think about that last sentence for a while and then ask yourself why the hell we trust these morons to decide anything of importance.

How Government Environmental Protection Works

When many of my friends find out Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) they flip out. These friends believe the EPA actually protects the environment when in fact they do no such thing. If the EPA was actually interested in protecting the environment they would allow lawsuits against polluters by individuals whose land and body the polluters have contaminated. Instead the EPA states entities that only emit arbitrarily selected amounts of pollution are basically immune from civil suits and issues waivers to favored corporations so they aren’t hindered by legislation while their competitors have to deal with the additional expenses of complying with those regulations.

Such corruption isn’t exclusive to the federal government though, state governments like getting in on the action as well:

A BP (BP) refinery in Indiana will be allowed to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan under a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The permit exempts the BP plant at Whiting, Ind., 3 miles southeast of Chicago, from a 1995 federal regulation limiting mercury discharges into the Great Lakes to 1.3 ounces per year.

If you have the money government environmental protection agencies will grants you special privileges so you don’t have to deal with those nasty and expensive regulations. While your company reaps the benefits of these immunities your competitors will be forced to pass on the expense of complying with those regulations to their customers, making their product more expensive than yours.

Indiana officials said the amount of mercury released by BP was minor.

“The permitted levels will not affect drinking water, recreation or aquatic life,” Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Thomas Easterly told the Chicago Tribune.

Than why did British Petroleum (BP) have to get a special permit? If the amount of mercury they’re dumping is insignificant shouldn’t all companies be allowed to dump the same amount without special permission? Shouldn’t everybody be treated equally under the law? Why can companies will huge bank accounts buy special privileges?

The same answer applies to all of these questions, it’s not about environmental protection it’s about extortion. By declaring rule over environmental issues the government has created a new revenue stream for themselves in the form of permits and waivers. Large polluters support these regulations under the veil of environmental concern when in fact their support stems from the fact that they can afford to deal with these measures while their competitors can’t. Expensive environmental regulations further distort the market by favoring wealthy established companies and making the barrier of entry into many markets so high that no upstart can’t afford it.

People who want to protect the environment should be demanding the abolition of state controlled environmental protection agencies and the establishment of strict property rights. If a company is dumping pollutants that are contaminating land or water owned by individuals those individuals should be able to sue based on the fact their property rights have been violated. You can rest assured that everybody living on the shore of Lake Michigan suing BP would cost them a pretty penny and urge them to find some other way of dealing with their mercury.

My Recommendations for the GOP Presidential Nominees

After watching numerous Republican Part (GOP) debates I’ve arrived at recommendations for each of the presidential nominees:

Jon Huntsman: Go home. Seriously.

Rick Santorum: Stop being Rich Santorum. Seriously, everything Rich Santorum currently does, stop doing. Also wipe that stupid looking grin off of your face, it makes you look like a sleazy used car salesman (although I trust a sleazy used car salesman more than you).

Newt Gingrich: Trying being consistant for once. Your positions bounce back and forth faster than a tennis ball at Wimbledon.

Michele Bachmann: Stop name dropping Obama. We get it, the President is a failure, but you can’t blame him for anything and everything. Try finding some new scapegoats so you can name drop some other political opponents. With that said you seem to realize that you’re losing and that has caused you to lash out at the other candidates, which is terribly amusing. Keep that up.

Rick Perry: Remember your lines. Showing up to the debates sober would probably help you out as well.

Mitt Romney: Try being something besides Republican Obama. Judging by the President’s approval ratings I don’t think this country is asking for four more years of the same guy.

Herman Cain: Try saying something besides, “America needs a bold new plan and my 999 plan delivers that.” My friends and I have a GOP debate drinking game and one of the rules is to drink every time you say “bold” or “999.” By far you are the candidate forcing us to drink the most. Try making up a couple new catch phrases so you’re not repeating the same damned thing every time you appear on screen, it’ll make you slightly less boring and idiotic.

Ron Paul: At the beginning of every debate look to your left then look to your right. See the people around you? Those idiots are your competition. As the only candidate who regularly gets invited to the debates with a brain you need to start speaking up even if the moderators aren’t giving you permission. The moderators aren’t going to give you screen time so you’ll just have to take it. Besides that keep being awesome.

Gary Johnson: Just walk in during the next debate, you’re a valid candidate and shouldn’t let idiot planners stop you from delivering your message. Besides Ron Paul you’re the only candidate who isn’t a moron.

TSA Decides No Independent Study of X-Ray Scanner Safety is Needed

Remember some time back when the Transportation Sexual Assaulters Security Administration (TSA) promised to have an independent safety study performed on the x-ray body scanners? Neither does the TSA:

Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today, on millions of airline passengers.

[…]

But at a Senate hearing of a different committee last week, Pistole said he had since received a draft report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, or IG, that might render the independent study unnecessary.

In other words the government has put their foot down and x-ray scanners are staying regardless of the fact that they may cause cancer. Is there a conflict of interest in having the government perform the review of its own machines? Most certainly. Does the government give two shits about your health? Not at all. Therefore the first question is irrelevant in their eyes.

I contacted a representative of the TSA about this issue and he replied by saying, “HA HA HA HA HA HA! Shut up slave and get in the scanner.” Now that I think about it the man may not have been with the TSA, but he was a registered sex offender which is basically the same thing.

The bottom line is this: the government wants you used to the idea of constant warrantless surveillance. These scanners give them that by ensuring everybody who flies is searched without reason. Even now the TSA is performing warrantless searches in other venues such as truck weigh stations without so much as probably cause. If you think that is the final extent of the TSA’s power you are sorely mistaken, they will continue to expand their influence and I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually see interstate checkpoints staffed by TSA agents. A populace under constant surveillance is much easier to control than one able to go about their business that remains unknown the the government.

No question exists in my mind about whether or not these scanners are going or staying. Were research presented by a well-known and respected institute that proved, with no uncertainty, that these scanners cause cancer we will still not be rid of them. Shortly after such research was released the government would likely release their own counter-research that said the chances of getting cancer from one of these machines is lower than the chances of somebody getting onto a plan with a weapon without the scanners and therefore, for the greater good, these scanners must remain.

As I said before we’re not traveling down the road to fascism, we’ve already reached our destination.

Cronyism in Action

You scratch my back:

Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.

And I’ll scratch yours:

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Corruption is unavoidable when the government bribes individuals and businesses with money stolen from the public.