Friday, December 10, 2004

Move Along, Citizen, Nothing to Read Here

John Lopez, in a post at No Treason titled ‘“You Don’t Have To Be A Weatherman...”,’ notes an officious sounding government arm named the Office of Foreign Assets Control which is protecting us poor souls of limited knowledge and understanding from, gasp, foreign written words.  Yes, folks, words are dangerous, especially when they whack you over your head with clarity.

From the article linked by John Lopez.

"In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval."

“Foreign dissidents facing U.S. hurdles to publishing"

Posted by John Venlet on 12/10 at 04:39 AM
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Thursday, December 09, 2004

Intelligence Reform Bill?

There has been alot of hoopla over intelligence reform lately, a misnomer in and of itself, as any time politicians get together, nothing intelligent results.  Anyway, supposedly the big debate over intelligence reform, to protect us poor dumb schmucks, is over, and a revamped bill will be sent over to Bush for signing.

I wonder if the holdup of the reforms being cried for was all due to this.

"As part of the intelligence bill passed Wednesday, Congress added the lighters to the long list of banned items, including scissors, penknives and box cutters. The ban does not apply to checked luggage."

Could be, according to this.

"Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota had pushed for the change for more than a year after learning that the Transportation Security Administration allowed them on planes."

Congress, making the world a safer place for dumb asses.

“Bill bars air travelers from carrying butane lighters"

Posted by John Venlet on 12/09 at 05:09 PM
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Hey, Look at That Human!

According to a researcher, Northern Arizona University professor of biology Con Slobodchikoff, prairie dogs can talk, or use “words.”

"Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm.

They have different “words” for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.

They can even coin new terms for things they’ve never seen before, independently coming up with the same calls or words, according to Con Slobodchikoff, a Northern Arizona University biology professor and prairie dog linguist."

I wonder what they’re “saying” about the professor.  Con man?

“Scientist: Prairie dogs appear to have their own language"

Thanks, Pfeif.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/09 at 05:00 PM
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Tough Luck, Boy, It's Your Own Damn Fault

When I was a child, growing up in a very religious household, with seven (7) brothers and sisters, my parents, who love all their children dearly, did not coddle us.  There was no excusing bad behavior, on my or my siblings’ part, by blaming social status or other external factors.  If I did a wrong, I had to step up to the plate and take ownership of it, my parents would not try and smooth it over.  My parents instilled responsibility in their children, not the stupid “Everyone plays” mentality so prevalent in society today, and which is just one of the factors leading individuals down the path of befuddledness.

Here’s an interesting piece, via Arts & Letters Daily, which looks into the dangers of coddling kids.  The piece was written by Hara Estroff Marano and was published in Psychology Today. It is titled “A Nation of Wimps." A couple of excerpts I particularly enjoyed.

"Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. “Kids need to feel badly sometimes,” says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope."

"The perpetual access to parents infantilizes the young, keeping them in a permanent state of dependency. Whenever the slightest difficulty arises, “they’re constantly referring to their parents for guidance,” reports Kramer. They’re not learning how to manage for themselves."

Posted by John Venlet on 12/09 at 05:50 AM
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Did Gallup Neglect to Ask Politicians to Be Rated?

Gallup recently completed a survey regarding honesty and ethics in various professions.  Per the survey, nurses ranked the highest, and car salesmen ranked the lowest.  I would’ve thought that politicians ranked even lower than the car salesmen.

“Most Honest? Least Honest? the Envelope, Please..."

Posted by John Venlet on 12/09 at 05:35 AM
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Laptop Computer Use Warning Stickers, Coming to Your Area, Soon

The headline reads, “Careful, lads, that laptop might burn your genes," though reading through the article, you could append “or your gonads” to the headline, since the bulk of the article seems to suggest that men who utilize laptops could be at risk of low sperm production or poor sperm motility.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a warning sticker stating, “Porn Surfing Via Laptop Can be Hazardous to Your Fertility and Your Laptop Screen/Keyboard.”

Posted by John Venlet on 12/09 at 05:25 AM
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Reaching the Incorrect Conclusion

This morning, The New York Times, not content to worry and befuddle their readers about perceived wrongs in the United States, is worrying about Muslim prisoners, in Europe, with a concentrated emphasis on France.  Comment gentil.  The article, which expresses this concern, is titled “In Europe’s Jails, Neglect of Islam Breeds Trouble," and purports to express a concern over those incarcerated, peace loving Muslims’ lack of spiritual guidance of a more organized nature.  Meaning they’re concerned because the Muslims in prison aren’t getting enough organized Muslim religion, versus disorganized Muslim religion via the Islamofascist screed.

It isn’t neglect of Islam that is breeding trouble, it’s Islam itself.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/08 at 04:48 AM
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San Francisco Continues Its Descent Into Madness

San Francisco.  What to make of this city, and the individuals who inhabit it, is beyond me.  The politicos who wield their pens, for the people of course, continually trash personal responsibility, look to pad their voting rolls with any warm body, and generally dumb down the individuals who reside in this city by the bay in the name of their socialist agenda.  Today I see that San Francisco, yielding to animal activists, has decreed that if a zoo is to keep an elephant for public viewing, said elephant must have at least 15 acres of space.

"Elephants must receive hundreds of times more space to live at San Francisco’s zoo or not be kept at the facility, city legislators said on Tuesday in legislation that could effectively bar pachyderms for good."

San Francisco’s politicos know what’s best for you, and elephants too.

“San Francisco Rules Could Bar Elephants from Zoo"

Posted by John Venlet on 12/08 at 04:23 AM
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Mark the Date

It’s not that often that I find myself in agreement with The New York Times, especially when it comes to their op-ed page.  This morning, though, I see that Helen Cooper has penned an op-ed titled “Getting the Government Out of the Madison Avenue Ad Business," which correctly chastises the government for forcing cattlemen, cotton growers, and other producers of goods to pay for industry feel good ads, over which they have no control.

Instead of mouthing platitudes to smaller government, Bush and Company need to step up to the plate, and walk away.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/07 at 04:32 AM
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Vocal, Minority Controlled, Television Complaint System

"Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)"

You know what they say, the squeakly wheel gets the grease.

“Activists Dominate Content Complaints"

Posted by John Venlet on 12/07 at 04:21 AM
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Monday, December 06, 2004

This Makes Me Sick

Private businesses, which rely on the government to protect them from competition, are not really businesses, but rather more like leeches which rely on strong arm protection in order to remain successful.

Private businesses which desire to enforce the government’s tax laws, by going after deliquent taxpayers, well those businesses are nothing more than thuggish traitors to the whole idea of free markets and capitalism, and quasi-governmental enforcers with big stick.

“Private Firms to Chase Delinquent Taxpayers"

Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/06 at 07:38 AM
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Sunday, December 05, 2004

It's Disturbing That It Even Needs Being Stated as Some Sort of Public Policy

Two separate posts at Samizdata, one by Jonathan Pearce titled “Sanity in the Police at last," and the other posted by Antoine Clark titled “A shift in the public mood," note that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, has publicly stated that homeowners should be able to utilize lethal force to protect themselves in their own homes, rather than fear being prosecuted for protecting their lives and property from nefarious burglars.

This should simply be a given.  It does not require a statute.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/05 at 09:27 AM
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Saturday, December 04, 2004

Very Cool

"Researchers have successfully tested injections of a liquid polymer to heal spinal injuries in dogs in an experiment that also offers hope for preventing human paralysis.

The liquid, called polyethylene glycol (PEG), if administered within 72 hours of serious spinal injury, was able to prevent three out of four dogs in a test group from suffering permanent spinal damage. Even when the spine was damaged to the point of paralysis, the PEG solution prevented nerve cells from rupturing irreversibly, allowing them to heal themselves."

It’s a shame this advancement was too late to assist Christopher Reeve.

“Study on dogs yields hope in human paralysis treatment"

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/04 at 04:33 PM
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Wasn't He In a Movie?

Colby Cosh relates a funny tale regarding a Toronto band first called Val Kilmer, and then, due to circumstances beyond its control, its name morphs into The Val Kilmer Tagging Caper.

The story includes the band, stickers bearing the likeness of Val Kilmer, and cops.

I would’ve laughed as long and as hard as the band.

You can read some additional background on the band here.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/04 at 01:51 PM
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What the Heck is Going on in Pennsylvania?

Judas Priest.  Gary Cruse informs me that Pennsylvania toll collectors, frickin unionized toll collectors, reject a contract which would pay them 21 bucks per hour, unreal, plus all kinds of other perks which amount to nothing more than highway robbery in broad daylight, with a crowd of witnesses, who do nothing, and who actually are probably wishing that they were getting a piece of the action. 

Then, after reading Gary’s post, Ally, at Who Moved My Truth, provides some additional commentary on PA state workers, in a post titled “Enemies of the State."

These people actually aren’t enemies of the state, they’re parasites sucking their livelihood from the pockets of those who actually work for a living.  There is no symbiosis involved.

Posted by John Venlet on 12/04 at 03:53 AM
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