Romney and The Lesser of Two Evils Argument…

Bill Whittle on the problem of principles and wanting to vote 3rd party and the upcoming election.  It is definitely worth a watch.

Sadly he’s right.  I would rather vote third-party, except as Bill Whittle says doing so enables the greater evil.

The closing comment from Bill Whittle is right:

The fundamental difference between these two men is Mitt Romney loves America and Barack Obama is determined to destroy America.

No matter what we’re not reversing the slope this election.  The best we can do is lessen it to try to pull back.  I am principled enough that I cannot fool myself into thinking that voting for a third-party exempts me from my responsibility regarding the health and well-being of this country.

SSCC #439 – Maricopa

This isn’t the first time that Maricopa County has ended up in the count.  This time though it’s just as disturbing as the first incident.

The ABC15 Investigators have obtained court records, documents and a judge’s ruling that show the jury was set to hear how key evidence in the case of Deborah Braillard was lost, deleted or “destroyed” by MCSO in an attempt to cover up the death of a Valley mother.

Jennifer Braillard filed the lawsuit after her mother Deborah was left to die in a Maricopa County jail.

Oh it is exactly as bad as it seems, rage barely begins to describe my feelings when I saw this:

During three agonizing days in custody at the Estrella Jail, she was deprived of insulin and denied medical care despite pleas from fellow detainees.

By the time she was rushed to the hospital, Deborah Braillard had slipped into a diabetic coma.

As expected the jailers claimed they were never informed and all evidence that would prove they were was lost or destroyed.  Amazing how that happens isn’t it?

State Sponsored Criminal #439: John Doe

Because instead of just killing someone you can let them slowly die and suffer from their medical condition.  Then if anyone asks you can just claim you didn’t know and destroy the evidence you did.

via Lone Wanderer

Interesting…

President Barack Obama isn’t talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.

I’ve heard about this for a while and it’s certainly not news that taxes will be increasing come January.  What is interesting though is that number, 163 million workers.  Otherwise known as 51% of the population.  It is also well-known that 47% of the population are exempted from paying taxes.  Often many of them actually make money from the government.

We often hear about the 53% percent who pay taxes and the 47% who live off the government dime.  What is even more entertaining is that often when there are tax cuts we hear wailing about how it only benefits the rich.  See this analogy if you’re unsure what I’m talking about.  While now we have a tax increase that only affects those now paying taxes.  Those who are getting handouts will continue to do so without an increase in what they owe.

You would think with a tax increase you would see more people overall having to pay taxes, this outcome is something I find quite interesting.

TSA Tab Clearing

There’s been a bunch of incidents in the news lately and many of them worthy of serious note.  My being busy with other more pressing items, my photo gallery needs to get moved post haste, I haven’t had the time to write up everything I would.

So I want to at least clear out a few browser tabs since these are becoming “old news”.

Capping a year-long investigation prompted by reports of theft in a baggage room at Newark Liberty International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said it it was moving to fire 25 employees and suspend 19 others for failing to ensure that checked bags were being screened adequately.

So they’re not adequately searching bags but I’m sure that agent made sure to feel up Tiffany’s boobs, in a random pat down I’m sure.

One airport TSA worker learned the hard way this week that if you see something, you should probably say something — instead of stealing it.

Andy Ramirez was the only officer caught in a national sting operation aimed at gauging how bad TSA theft actually is in light of recent data showing that 381 officers were fired for theft between 2003 and 2012.

I am surprised that the laptops didn’t go 10 for 10 on being stolen.  However this is worthy of note:

Pythias Brown, a former TSA employee at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, who spoke to ABC News recently in his first public comments after being released from prison, said he was part of a “culture” of apathy within the agency that permitted corrupt employees – and there are a lot of them, apparently – to prey on passengers’ luggage and personal items with abandon, thanks in large part to nonexistent oversight and tips from fellow TSA workers.

“It was very commonplace, very,” said Brown, who admitted lifting in excess of $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year span. “It was very convenient to steal.”

Imagine that, a culture of stealing.  What that test did show is many are wary of “easy prey”.  When something seems way to easy, odds are it’s a trap.  One agent failed that test.

Lastly we have an incident out of my backyard:

The TSA is denying any wrongdoing involving the recent pat down of leukemia patientMichelle Dunaj. Dunaj says the screeners at Sea-Tac Airport made her lift up her shirt to check under bandages after refusing to give her a private search.

She also claims a TSA agent forced open one of her saline bags, contaminating the important fluid she relies on to survive. Agents also made her lift up her shirt and pull back bandages holding in feeding tubes.

Given their treatment of someone with an insulin pump, do we want to guess who’s story is worth believing and who’s probably telling the fib?

The TSA is merely a job program for idiots and the lazy so the training is remedial at best so most don’t even know the actual policies.  Show up with a copy of the policies in hand and they don’t care.  How bad can it be?  A GBR one of the attendees relayed a story about a TSA agent insisting that he hand over the key to his firearm case and allow him to inspect it without the owner being present.  That’s right, the agent wanted the owner to hand over the key that is NOT supposed to leave his possession  because that case is NOT to be opened without him being present.  Ultimately for fear of not being allowed on the plane he handed over the key.  See how this works, policies don’t matter at the national level, each local can do as the please because they put the passenger between a rock and hard place.

This is what happens when you give someone with less intelligence than a monkey the power to tell others what to do.

SSCC #438 – EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been sued in federal court for allegedly conducting illegal experiments on human beings. The case tests whether a government agency can violate the law and the most sacrosanct ethics of scientific research — and get away scot-free.

Based on thousands of pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, since 2004 and continuing through theObama administration, the EPA intentionally has been exposing dozens, if not hundreds, of human subjects to extraordinarily high levels of air pollutants such as diesel exhaust and fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. The experiments occurred at an EPA facility located on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Know what sucks, I can think of a perfect moment in history to compare this to but I can’t without invoking Godwin’s law.  Ain’t that a !@#$.

If you’re not sure exactly why and don’t want to read the whole article, let me provide you with one more paragraph.

Many of the study subjects were health-impaired — suffering from asthma, metabolic syndrome, old age (up to 75 years) or, worse, combinations of those factors. They were all financially needy, since they enrolled in the experiments for compensation of $12 per hour.

Sounds an awful like a serious war on poverty and “undesirables”.

State Sponsored Criminal #438: The EPA

Because when you’re a giant government bureaucratic nightmare  when you break the law and kill people, who are they going to be able to hold accountable?

h/t Ry

On today’s mass shooting…

As usual twitter erupted into a bunch of people yelling and screaming for gun control, because well that’s what you do instead of nothing.

I sat and patiently waited until I could find the name of the shooter, with held for obvious reasons.  What is significant though is the following:

Authorities said they believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute. The man they identified as the suspect, *redacted*, 45, of Brown Deer, had a restraining order against him.

So lets see here, restraining order and a serious domestic dispute.  Hmm, there’s some amendment I remember that says those with Protective Restraining Orders against them cannot have firearms. What is it called again, oh yeah the Lautenberg Amendment.

The act bans shipment, transport, ownership and use of guns or ammunition by individuals convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, or who are under a restraining (protection) order for domestic abuse in all 50 states. The act also makes it unlawful to knowingly sell or give a firearm or ammunition to such persons.

So what’s the score on this one.  Gun control didn’t stop this murderer set on his mission.  It could have very well prevented people from defending themselves depending on the policies of the spa and mall.  It could have also prevented the victim from effectively seeking arms from the waiting period.  Ultimately though we won’t know the true effect of either of those items.

What is know, for a fact, that this man was a prohibited person, and as oh so often occurs, gun control failed.  Also of worthy note:

After the shooting, police said an improvised explosive device was found at the spa and a bomb squad is investigating, but they did not indicate whether the suspect ever tried to set the device off.

Personally I prefer these nut bags go use firearms.  There is a decent chance of survival and overall they are much less effective than explosives or fire.  The bottom line is all the clamoring for gun control is yet another example of the failure of people to comprehend how to properly cope with tragedy.

Gun control only does one thing really well.  It ensures that the law-abiding victims are disarmed so the criminals can have their way without fear of failure.

*I will not aid in giving this monster his 15 minutes of fame.

A Boomershoot Story…

To protect the identities of the guilty we are going to use the following names, A, B, and C.

A is often considered to be the sane one, while his attraction to explosives could be considered insane by some, he operates with a much more conservative view when deciding safe areas, good distances, and making generally good decisions.  That isn’t to say that he hasn’t had a Page Fault like B has been known to do and forget recent experiences.  A has even been known to give the dad look indicating, “No, and stop even thinking about it,” for things that overall might be a little questionable but certainly not all that bad.

B is considered to be a little more crazy and more willing to take risks.  It should be noted that B is more than willing though to point out dangerous items of concern when he sees them.  Often if he is mentioning concern, it’s usually worthy of note.  Most of the time A agrees with the assessment prior to moving forward.

C however is considered unbelievably smart but with a very buggy operating system.  He holds the current record for detonating Boomerite at close range, a record that B will not even consider attempting to break and actually isn’t quite sure how it would be accomplished.

I describe the above so the following story you will hopefully find the humor in it.

You see, it has been a fantastically dry past couple months in the Palouse.  How dry?  We finally got rain for the first time about a week ago since before the 4th of July.  Forest fires are still raging and while we have had rain, none of it has been “substantial.”  It also must be remembered that this is just after harvest so the fields are full of dry stubble and due to the lack of rain many haven’t been tilled yet.  The weekend prior A explained to B why they haven’t been tilled yet.  All conversations are synopsized from memory.

So when B showed up at the berm and noticed that A was preparing a fireball his eyebrows raised.  B left his buddy to take care of other preparations for the explosives and went over to A and said, “We’re doing a fireball?”

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Yes some of that grass was 5 feet tall… the person in the picture is not necessarily an individual involved in this story…

To which A replied to B, “Yeah it has rained, there shouldn’t be any real danger.” And he’s talking over the gusting winds that are common at the Boomershoot site.

B then replies back to A, “I remember the last time we did something like this and we were lucky enough to be in the spring and next to a creek and had 10 or so bloggers on hand.”

A replies, “Yeah but overall there’s not much fuel around and what is here isn’t super dry.”

B just resigns and says mentally to himself, “This should be interesting.”

A short while later the story of the second fireball that should have never been is told by B to A and his companions.  Detailing how it resulted in 30 minutes of fire fighting and the question is posted to B by A, “When should we shoot the fireball?”

B without hesitation says, “First, so we’re not exhausted while trying to put out the fire.”

A agrees but still thinks there shouldn’t be much of a fire and it should be relatively calm…

The explosion and fireball doesn’t even finish after the detonation and B can already hear the familiar crackle of a grass fire.

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Entertainingly the fireball shot more out than up. (Video will be coming later.)  It shot straight towards A as if to “enlighten him”.  Promptly we put down our recording equipment, though I’m sure B wished to keep documenting the entertainment that followed.  For you see the wind was blowing the fire down through the grass, towards the stubble behind the field.  A promptly ran to the back side of the berm to do damage control.

After

What the hill looked like after the fire.

I tell the above because later that night B was having dinner with C since he was in town… C asks B, “So how was the pumpkins?”

B replies to C, “The pumpkins were great, though the fireball was a bit interesting.”

C freezes and looks at B and says, “A did a fireball? That’s got to be some fluke, there’s no way A would do that.  How did you talk him into it?”

B replies to A, “I didn’t, but I did point out my concern.”

C replies to B, “That’s interesting though there is this theory of addicts reverting to the mental state of when they started their addiction, maybe A reverted and was showing off.”

B laughs, then while driving home B remembers something else A told him about one time.

Researchers have begun to explore the cognitive impairment that men experience before and after interacting with women. A 2009 study demonstrated that after a short interaction with an attractive woman, men experienced a decline in mental performance.

I think B may have found another data point for the study.

*I will neither confirm or deny that I am any of the three parties in that story.  I will have video up later.  I’m spending today migrating my last two websites from my old hosting provider that is about to expire.

Anyone want to guess what I’m doing tomorrow…

Here’s a clue…

image

I will say rolling through WinCo with two carts of pumpkins turns a lot of heads.  Doubly so when you say what you’re doing with them.

I feel a MasterCard spoof coming on… I wish I had filmed buying the pumpkins now.

And if you’re still unsure see the categories or this.