Police in Maryland need some schooling on the law

Here's a story on a big old 1st Amendment violation by the police.

Regardless of their opinion on the death penalty, the police are in serious violation of the 1st Amendment when they infiltrate an activist group that either supports the death penalty, or in this case, opposes it.

It doesn't pass the smell test for the police to claim their actions were designed to thwart violence by the group...a group that has shown little propensity for violence in its protests.

The police were really targeting a group that advocates views adverse to law enforcement. All I have to say is: "WELCOME TO AMERICA FOLKS!"

Unfortunately for the poor police, the 1st Amendment entitles U.S. citizens to freely hate the police, just so long as they don't resort to violence to vindicate their feelings.

The police in Maryland need an education in the oath they took as police officers, that oath being: To Uphold The Constitution of the United States.

I'm available to teach them the finer points of American government and Constitutional law.

South shows its stupidity, yet again.

Well this is a dubious distinction.

Apparently my home state of Tennessee is one of a triumvirate of Southern states leading the nation in obesity.

Kind of fits the attitude common in the South, viz., full of followers and sheep. How else do you explain the greater efficacy of junk food advertising there.

The South is also notorious for jumping on the stupid bandwagon when it comes to politicians too. This explains why the South overwhelmingly supported Bush.

Bush Adminstration should be prosecuted for war crimes.

Here's a fun little tidbit.

It's an interactive guide that uses Venn diagrams to show who is subject to prosecution in the Bush administration for crimes.

If you're a Bush supporter, chances are you'll call this liberal bullshit. Unfortunately, you cannot call yourself a died in the wool conservative if you don't advocate strong and immediate enforcement of the law.

My hope is that the next administration will go to great lengths to examine and publicly flog those in Bushco who deserve it. Until something happens to bring these bozos to justice, we, as a nation, have little credibility with the world when we try to paint ourselves as a paragon of moral virtue.

My thoughts on strategy: Wait until Bush leaves office so he cannot pardon any of these guys.

There's a reason we have a system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, the Republicans in Congress were so drunk with power that they failed in their job when the President encouraged and allowed all these shenanigans.

We need socialized health insurance

Slate reports on the economic incentives that hospitals have to shaft the poor.

The current problem with our health care system is thus: The system is designed around profitability. There's no profit in treating people who have little to no money.

Our system is also designed to reward doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies.

This begs the question: At whose expense?

Well, at the expense of those least capable of paying.

Our system is in dire need of overhaul. The doctors will fight it along with insurance companies and hospitals.

We have a moral obligation to treat everyone fairly instead of just those with the means to afford insurance or health care.

Personally, I think we should have a system that provides basic coverage for all, funded by government run insurance. This would allow better preventative care and reduce reliance of E.R. care by those without coverage or means.

The cost-benefit analysis bears this out when you compare the actual cost of care in countries with some form of socialized health insurance (not the same as socialized medicine).

The final dilemma is this: Is it moral to reward doctors, hospitals and insurance companies at the expense of the poor? Or, is it moral to treat everyone fairly?

1st Amendment is doing its job of encouraging homophobes into the open.

And yet another story from the Washington Post that underscores why we need Free Speech.

When we protect free speech, we encourage the open discussion of whacky notions and outright stupidity, like the one displayed before Congress by a homophobe. Now that everyone knows who she is and what she believes, we can exercise our 1st Amendment right to not associate with her and her kind.

It's only by encouraging wing nuts to express their idiotic ideas that we get to do what America does best---ridicule them for the morons they truly are.

Thank God for the 1st Amendment! It gives us such entertainment.

Voters are blockheads

This recent story from the Washington Post reports on a study that shows Americans are dumbasses when it comes to politics and voting.

Unfortunately, the results are nothing more than a "No shit" moment for me.

I've suspected for a long time that people vote for whomever offers the pithy slogan or manages to give the best "rah rah" speech.

It's too bad. The founding fathers would be saddened at our state of willful ignorance. The founders noted that an educated public was the best bulwark against tyranny.

Our own inability to engage in civic responsibility could destroy us...it's given us the past 8 years of rights erosion and fear.

Bushco at it yet again with an incompetent attempt to protect their corporate constituents.

This story printed in the Washington Post underscores why the Bush administration is nothing but incompetent and in the back pocket of corporate interests.

Not only can't they do things properly by submitting the proposed rule-making for public comment AS REQUIRED BY LAW, but they are trying to pull a fast one that benefits corporate America AT THE EXPENSE of individual workers.

When Bushco acts like this I am completely dumbfounded as to why they garnered so much support from the very people that will suffer if this attempt to shaft the U.S. worker.

Explain to me why people voted to support an incompetent boob whose only interest is the well-heeled and powerful?

This attempt is just another sign of the damage wrought by incompetence married to opportunism with an added dose of deceit.

Obama is the foreign policy realist while McCain has his head in the air

Here's a good piece by Fareed Zakaria in Obama's foreign policy.

Zakaria makes the point that Obama is not really at all like his Republican and Conservative detractors assume.

Instead, Obama is actually a realist when it comes to foreign policy....more like George H. Bush. McCain is really the one out in left field.

I suppose this piece points to the real issue when dealing with presidential politics: You can either stick your head in the sand and believe what your chosen party tells you about the opponent OR you can look at the facts.

Unfortunately, many people make up their minds without any intrusion of facts.

I, for one, think it incumbent upon each of us as a citizen to explore and evaluate the candidates critically. That's probably too much to ask of the electorate, viz., that they use their brains instead of their ideologies.

Meat eaters are lying to themselves about why they eat meat

Here's a study supporting what I've suspected for awhile and the same study from a different source.

People that eat meat are eating not because it tastes that great, but because they have expectations of higher social status. They think that they're "supposed" to eat meat.

Now, a word of disclaimer: I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years. When I ate beef, I remember that it smelled much better than it actually tasted. In fact, I hated the way it always got stuck in my teeth (that's a big problem for me).

Now, it seems that my taste for beef was more in line with the reality.

The evidence is in: Meat eaters are really the shallow social climbers I always suspected.

Out groups not necessary for in group cohesion.

This study offers some insight into the "out-group homogeneity effect (OGHE)."

The OGHE is a cognitive bias found in all humans. Basically, a person tends to view people that are perceived to be different as more similar to each other.

For instance: If you perceive yourself as a member of a minority, then you are more apt to view those not in your minority as being all alike, e.g. "All white people look alike to me or all straight people are homophobes, etc."

The reality is that most people do not fit neatly into such bigoted boxes.

Sexual orientation highly complex and not just "genetic" or "environmental"

This study points to the highly complex interplay of genes and unique environmental factors that result in a specific sexual orientation.

A good point to take from the study: All sexual orientation, heterosexual and homosexual, is influenced by the same variables.

Important work. Hopefully, it will lead to less bigotry on both sides.

Nothing worse than a homophobe or a heterophobe.

Working without proper pay to the point of death: Karoshi

The Washington Post has a story that should serve as a reminder to U.S. workers, but more specifically, U.S. companies.

The Japanese have a word for working too much, to the point of death:

Karoshi

When you examine the amount of work U.S. workers devote to their employers--many without additional pay--you see the extent of the problem.

Now that employees have Blackberries and other PDAs tethering them to the office, even while on "vacation," our nation is one where employers are getting free labor.

It's time to put the smack down on all the free work employers get.

The intangible threats to career prospects for not being "available" or "willing to show commitment" must stop.

People are working too much for too little and the hamster wheel won't stop unless we agree that people should be paid for all their work, even work that occurs out of the office or while on vacation.

Morality innate--study of children shows

Interesting study shows that children are naturally moral and empathetic.

It only takes the loss of innocence to make someone a piece of crap from a moral standpoint.

This sort of study gives weight to the innate morality in the human species. Adulthood results in more flexible conscience.

Airlines are a bunch of babies.

Here's another bit of having to lie in the bed one has made.

The airlines deserve what they are getting. I hope we can get a good railway system. I'd use the hell out of it.

I've grown tired, like millions of others, of being treated like shit and having low quality service.

This will make them sit up and notice...only in my dreams.

Excellent prank pulled off. Abby would be proud

Here's the latest on the kid with the LSD treats.

He didn't do it! It was all a prank.

Kudos two time to him for pulling it off--Abby Hoffman style.

Rove refusing to testify over attorney firings...makes one wonder why.

I'm gonna try some "cop logic" on this particular situation.

If Rove has nothing to hide, then he should testify. Bush hasn't done anything so secret and earth-shattering to require him to assert executive privilege over the firing of government attorneys.

Were those fired attorneys part of some secret government cabal? No.

Were those who replaced them part of some secret government cabal? Maybe, if you include a highly partisan party machine.

This is the real reason behind the executive privilege claim: They got caught and don't want to own their malfeasance.

That sort of thing is grounds for impeachment and prosecution itself.

Rove will end up testifying. Mark my words.

Kids will be kids....

This story reminds me of Abby Hoffman and his threats to pour LSD into the water supply.

I find this hilarious, although I wouldn't give acid to someone without their knowledge...that's mean.

Kudos to the kid for his brass. He deserves his punishment. Hell, that's part of the prank.

Money man invests in energy independence.

Here's a guy you can respect. He's all about making money, but he's also about looking to the future.

Pickens is establishing a wind farm in Texas, with the hopes that it will serve as a template for energy independence.

Kudos.

We know the one secret to living longer...I'm doomed

Scientists are pretty much in agreement that living longer requires calorie restriction.

I don't think Americans as a whole, and me in particular, will be capable of following the suggestions.

I love to eat, good food too.

Well, I'll talk to you after my next round of Taco Bell...

Maliki gives Obama a huge gift.

Talk about a "gift."

Maliki has handed Obama the biggest gift for his campaign by suggesting that the U.S. consider a time line for withdrawing the troops.

McCain is in a tough spot because how will he reasonably go against what the Iraqis want. McCain would have to change his whole position to be in accord with Maliki and that would make him the dreaded "flip flopper."

Obama can maintain his position of being against the war and setting a time line with the support of the Maliki government.

Win-Win for Obama; Lose-Lose for McCain.