Obama administration is restoring competitiveness to the marketplace.

Upon reading this story all I could say to myself is this: It's about time we restore some real competition to the marketplace.

Despite all the blathering about the "free market" and "capitalism", the Bush administration did more to undermine real competition than many previous administrations by gutting anti-trust law.

You can't call yourself a capitalist unless you support strong anti-trust enforcement.

Anti-trust law, when properly applied, eliminates monopolies and punishes those profiting from anti-competitive contracts. Basically, anti-trust law punishes croneyism--a hallmark of the Bush years.

For a market to work properly, concentrations of market power must be thwarted; that's what anti-trust law does--it prevents concentrations of power and greases the wheels of commerce.

Easy commerce makes for cheaper stuff.

Excellent!

Williamson County Tennessee--Home of Right-Wing Douchebags

People amaze me. Rarely am I astounded by depth, intellect, wisdom, or grace. Usually, people astound me by their utter stupidity and willingness to expend precious energy being assholes.

While roving the aisles of a bookstore in Brentwood, Tennessee (Brentwood is in Williamson County--home of Marsha Blackburn (R)), an employee mentioned that he and his fellow workers devote many man-hours to fixing the displays when right-wing bozos mess them up.

How? You may ask.

This guy, whose name is Evan and is nicknamed "McLovin" (a bit of humor to this story..) mentioned that some cretins enter his establishment and cover or hide any book with Obama on it.

I suppose this small gesture, or little rebellion on the part of Williamson County and it's mass of rich, Republican, idiots passes for "counting coup" on the Right. What else is a Limbaugh sycophant, Glenn Beck fan, or Bill O'Reilly nimrod supposed to do when their ideology, their whole raison d'etre is repudiated by a majority?

For those of you unaware: Williamson County Tennessee is one of the richest counties in the country. It's offers exceedingly large homes, expensive shopping, Land Rover driving housewives whose only work involves keeping up with the Joneses and who lack any capacity to yield while in traffic (why should they? It's all about them anyway...), and predominantly white, Republicans who believe Reaganism is still a viable political ideology (if it ever was one).

Sometimes, it's the little douchebaggeries that stick in my craw.

Rather than examine their own failings, these nitwits make life harder for the low-paid employees of a bookstore.

Suppose that's the price paid by a business that caters to the educated and well-informed. God knows no self-respecting right-winger would be caught in a bookstore that wasn't LifeWay unless they were up to mischief.

Miss California may lose her crown over nude pictures---but she's still against Gay Marriage.

You'd think that after repeated displays of hypocrisy throughout time, that those positioning themselves as "moral" paragons, taking a stand on some controversial issue would realize what idiots their actions bespeak.

What am I blathering about?

Miss California and her stupid public statement against Gay Marriage.

Why is it hypocritical?

Because she is positioning herself as an upstanding Christian, but has posed nude.

If you'll recall, Vanessa Williams lost her crown for posing nude back in the '80's.

Now we have this Prejean woman claiming to be an upstanding Christian, and asserting (much to Perez Hilton's chagrin...) that Gay Marriage is wrong.

I don't get it. If you plan to take a moral stand, shouldn't you have the brains to make sure you've not done something stupid in your past? When the Moral police complain that the "liberals" call them stupid, maybe it's because they do stupid things like Miss Prejean.

Irony---it's what makes life worth living sometimes.

Murtha's nephew may have gotten $4 million in no-bid contract---Drop in the bucket compared to Halliburton.

Graft on the federal level--hell, on any level--is serious business.

When John Murtha's nephew gets a no-bid, defense contract worth $4 million, then it must be investigated. If anything wrong occurred, then the offending parties should pay the price.

But before we start jumping on $4 million, we must first investigate and prosecute the billions of dollars spent on no-bid contracts that went to Halliburton. We all know that Halliburton was the former employer of Dick Cheney and that Rumsfeld's defense department awarded those no-bid contracts.

Making matters worse is that Halliburton allegedly over-charged after short-circuiting the contract process.

I suspect that Republicans are doing everything they can to neutralize Murtha since he has a distinguished military career.

Let's do investigations all around.

Supreme Court wants to review the Janet Jackson breast video...again. Guess Justice Thomas' porn subscription ran out....

Apparently, the Supreme court wants another look at the Janet Jackson Superbowl wardrobe malfunction.

My suspicion is that Justice Clarence Thomas was behind the need for the male-dominated Supreme Court "needing to review the case again."

In the real world, I suppose it's hard (no pun intended) for the Justices to get their porn fix, so they gotta do what they gotta do.

Too bad this issue is really stupid. It highlights the inane things the Court finds itself being asked to resolve.

RNC attempting to set Steele up for failure because they're devoid of ideas.

After the election of Michael Steele to the chairmanship of the RNC, I thought that maybe, the Republicans were beginning to turn a corner.

Apparently I was mistaken.

The RNC is attempting to hamstring Mr. Steele by limiting his ability to spend RNC cash without a permission slip.

Even Newt Gingrich calls the RNC a bunch "ego maniacs."

Here's my two cents: Many of the RNC want a fall guy. Mr. Steele is the guy out front, he's also African-American. Limiting his ability to spend money is the quickest route to setting him up for failure. The RNC will have someone to blame (Steele) and it will further their pretext racism by having the stool pigeon (Steele) be African-American too.

Let's watch and see if I'm right.

White Collar criminals should go to the same prisons as the hard cases.

I don't know how I feel about this.

I have a serious problem with dividing the prison system into two camps--one for the hard criminals and one for the soft criminals.

Personally, I think all criminals should go to the same jail.

It doesn't matter to me that someone has an education and committed embezzlement of $50 million dollars as opposed to knocking over a liquor store for $200.

Crime is still a crime. Criminals should all pay the same penalty at the same venue.

Bigots alive and well and blaming Mexicans for Swine Flu--Dumbasses!

Among the various reasons I have for not listening to talk radio or watching Fox News, one has to be the bigotry and racism prominently displayed.

When Michael Savage gets fired because he blames Mexicans for the Swine Flu and says things like "they wipe the butts with their hands" (what else would they use their feet?) or Michelle Malkin of Fox news uses the Swine Flu to justify closing the border, then I draw the line.

In an effort to show my contempt for this slag that passes as media, I plan on eating Mexican food today, prepared by real Mexicans.

Screw you bigots! Screw you too if you support such drivel.

Relgious more likely to support torture...so much for forgiveness.

All I want to know: What exactly do they teach these people in church that causes them to be more likely to support the use of torture?

I mean, the Bible says nothing about supporting torture. In fact, the Bible says to forgive and turn the other cheek.

It's been awhile since I've been to Church, but if the results of this study provide a glimpse into what passes as Christianity these days, then I don't want to go.

Crappy broadband a legacy of Bush policy against enforcing Anti-Trust law.

Surely most of you get tired of me bashing the last President. Yet, there remain so many screw-ups by Bush, some intentional and many a result of his ideological blinders, that I must point out what his penchant for laissez-faire boob-ism wrought.

The Justice Department under Bush instituted a policy of refusing to enforce anti-trust law. You know, the laws enacted to prevent monopolies and anti-competitive practices. Ashcroft dropped an Anti-Trust lawsuit against Microsoft during the early years and it set the stage for later malfeasance.

This whole atmosphere of ignoring anti-competitive business practices in the name of--wait for it--free markets has actually reduced our supply of market-friendly internet.

For example: In Tennessee, when municipalities began looking at providing free wi-fi, the cable companies cried foul and spent a lot of cash greasing the General Assembly's palms to pass a law prohibiting cities from competing with cable. The Justice Department did nothing.

Now, it seems the lack of competition and the virtual monopoly on broadband by a number of providers means we have to suffer with crap for speed, crap for customer service, and crap for expense.

If Bush had really been in favor of business, his policies would reflect the value of maintaining competition instead of encouraging monopolies.

We all would have the best broadband in the world instead of the 15th best.

When Republicans talk of capitalism they can't ignore the dangers monopolies create.

Green means NO MEAT.

I'm gonna make a bold statement.

You cannot be green unless you avoid the consumption of meat.

Those of you who know me, understand that I've been a vegetarian for over two decades. My reasons are ethical, but my decision to avoid meat for all these years accords with my personal belief that the environment deserves our protection and not our continued exploitation for our personal appetites.

For more evidence supporting my personal view, look at this article and the links found therein.

Using Rove arguments to support Obama--try it for fun.

I've decided to try a thought experiment as an homage to the last administration.

I want to trot out some of the same arguments used by the Bush administration and followed by McCain & Palin during the '08 election.

If you supported McCain/Palin or Bush you will remember these. As a point of consistency, they should apply equally well to Obama.

If you find yourself incapable of applying these same chestnuts to Obama, without caveat, then you need to ask yourself if you're not being a little intellectually dishonest.

1. Since Obama's been in office, the terrorists have not attacked us. Therefore, Obama's policies on national security are working. (You'll recall Bush used this same argument as validation for the efficacy of his presidency despite the fact that absence of evidence is not the same as evidence--it's sophistry, specifically argumentum ad ignorantiam --Glenn Beck's stock in trade).

2. Don't change horses in the middle of the stream. Even if Obama's not doing such a good job, things are so bad right now that we shoudn't go messing up things by replacing him because during a crisis, we need stability more than change. (Bush used this and McCain/Palin tried to link into the whole stability of vision thing to keep the Republicans in power--again, this is nothing but Bullshit and the results of the Bush years show it to be the case.)

3. Obama's a secret Muslim and is going to turn us into a communist state. (This doesn't pass the laugh test so I won't even diginify it with an answer except to say that if you believed this crap, you're an idiot.)

I'll stop here. Once I've gone through my Rove file, we can talk about it some more.

The same arguments used in the past must work equally well for the other side. if they don't then perhaps the arguments are suspect to begin with.

Night owls have advantages over early birds.

The results of this study add fuel to a fire that's been burning for awhile with me.

I've always taken issue with those who point to my tendency to rise late and stay up late. Our society, due to its Calvinist legacy, puts great stock in the dictum: early to bed early to rise.

My point is that late risers and early risers each have something to offer and to force one into the mold of the other is prejudice.

This recent study offers proof that being a night owl gives certain benefits.

Good.

Greed of executives may kill Chrysler.

I blogged about this earlier when I noted that the auto manufacturers were shunning bankruptcy because of the executive compensation issue.

Now, it seems my prediction was true.

Chrysler, a company in danger of dying, has turned down federal loans to keep itself afloat because of...(drum roll please) EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION.

Sometimes the greed of a few can kill the livelihood of thousands.

Too bad.

Pill could kill Alcoholics Anonymous and Doctor Drew's Business

This story is encouraging. A pill that can help addicts kick their problems.

Love the idea.

More troubling though is the recalcitrance of the Rehab industry and the AA crowd to using a pill to stop addiction.

Why would anyone holding themselves out as a professional or support group for addicts take issue with a medication showing such promise?

Money. For the rehab industry, a pill eliminates the thousands of dollars billed for treatment.

Even if it works.

For AA: The whole edifice of AA is built around the disease model of addiction. AA operates like a cult whose success at treating addiction is no better than chance (50/50). That's the level of remission among alcoholics WITHOUT AA.

When a pill stops addiction, what use would anyone have for a twelve step system?

None.

I think this work is great.

Bullets to the head will stop the piracy--Violent, but effective

I'm not one for violence as a policy. In fact, I think too many people are quick to use the gun when other tactics might work better.

Too many advocate government sanctioned violence, especially if they're not the one doing the actual killing. Somehow the sanitary nature of government violence makes it more palatable for the rest of us to tolerate.

But then, there's the piracy issue.

Three issues fuel the piracy mess off Somalia:

1) No strong government in Somalia to put the smack-down on those exploiting the territorial waters.

2) Willingness of commercial shipping companies to pay ransom because it's less expensive than to pay the families and customers should the results become dire.

3) Willful ignorance by countries with the capacity to stop it militarily.

We're seeing a sea-change (literally) off Somalia. The U.S. under Obama has manned up at sent the pirates to Davey Jones' Locker for messing with us.

A few bullets to the head will stop the lawlessness caused by shipping companies cowardly, albeit capitalistic, ways.

Morality may just be post hoc rationalizations for what we feel.

Apparently, we are all moral hypocrites. Recent research indicates that most of us use our emotions to guide our morals and devote considerable time to justifying our morality to fit our emotional state.

No surprising about this work: Conservatives spend a lot of time thinking about sex while liberals think mostly about food.

One look at the Moral Majority could have told you that.

As for me: I still think it possible for people to behave with cool rationality, but only if they exercise extreme effort and realize that emotions are to be compartmentalized instead of followed as the ultimate guide to truth.

Stress from poverty undermines children's mental development. Time to change that.

The results of this study are stunning.

When science finds significant evidence that poverty diminishes a child's mental capacity then we have no choice but to eliminate poverty for the sake of the children.

The study showed that the central factor--the only cause--was stress caused by poverty.

Can we afford any philosophy or attitude that undermines the mental capacity of our nation's children?

I say "No".

Poverty is probably one of the last conquerable social evils. Alleviating poverty is within our grasp, but we must willingly give up outdated dogmas that serve only a few at the expense of our future.

New Technology takes away our privacy to our own genitals for the sake of "Stopping the Terrorists" No way.

Okay, this technology, although really cool from a technical point, is extremely scary from a Constitutional standpoint.

When you can see genitalia from a technology then it's too much.

I don't care about thwarting terrorists if it means I have to show my business.

The company making this scary piece of equipment says that there's zero storage of images and it's viewed at a remote location.

SO WHAT!? Look at the detail.

My mantra about the shifting nature of our rights (primarily away from our best interest) is this: Just because we can do something doesn't make it alright.

I can buy a gun and shoot someone in the face, but that doesn't make it okay. Similarly, this x-ray technology is not okay.

It won't be long before someone would offer to sell nude pictures of celebrities and politicians from this technology, despite all the safeguards.

Hell no!.

Crazy often defined by proximity in time. The farther away in time, the less crazy it seems to be.

Will someone please explain this to me?

A Maryland woman made a plea deal that includes a "resurrection" clause.

Her request was that when and if her son is resurrected from the dead that all charges against her will be dropped for allowing him to die.

Of course the D.A. agreed because the resurrection of the victim from the dead means no crime happened. Kind of a moot point.

Most of us agree that this woman is a little crazy.

My next question will probably tick off a lot of people: Why is her belief crazy but the belief in the resurrection of a man thousands of years ago not a little insane?

I'm just saying. If resurrection is possible thousands of years ago, why not now?