Category Archives: Misc

Misc

It’s the fourth amendment…again….

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Well….was going to talk about politics this morning but a couple of articles that I’ve read in the past few days set me on a different path….politics will wait until I do this one. First, there was the Cali supreme court ruling that if a person is stopped for any reason, their possessions can be searched as well as their body…in this particular case, a man was stopped for “suspicion” of some crime; not charged but stopped for questioning…the police were then allowed to search his cellphone for text or other communication that may have had reference to drugs in it…well, they found reference to ‘smoking up” or some such thing and used those words to justify searching him and his car where they found a small amount of marijuana and charged him with a felony. This has been decried by all constitutional scholars as a shredding of the fourth amendment since it now allows you, your car, or since you have your house keys on you normally, your house to be searched on the vaguest kind of innuendo or suspicion. Never mind that the 4th amendment states that they need a warrant for such things…these guys just don’t care….

Then next one comes out of a study in the Chicago Tribune today where they analyzed the use of “drug dogs” to find drugs in traffic stops…and the findings were startling in the damage that these tactics have done to our rights…the researchers found that while the police still see the idea that dogs are infallible and the courts agree with them, the data of their abject failure has been suppressed by law enforcement who depend on these dogs to get to their ends of being able to search anyone at any time without probable cause. The statistics are horrifying…in only 30% of the stops and searches that were triggered by dogs were there any drugs found…and in only 1 in 8 of the stops on Hispanics were drugs found. The study goes on to say that dogs can give a false positive for many reasons, with the most cited one being that the officer telegraphed that he wanted the dog to alert. I hope some of you can see the potential for abuse that these kids of things have….and I have only one question for the tea partiers…with your supposed reverence for the constitution, where is your cry for these things to be changed? Not gonna happen….again, I fear for our wonderful country…geez…

Look, before you get it in your head, I want to address the old saw that states “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you won’t mind being searched” that the law and order types use as a hammer to attack those of us that still revere the constitution and the protections that it gives us. Why do you think there is a fourth amendment? Because the founding fathers had seen unwarranted, capricious, detentions used for repression of the populace across Europe and in the colonies and wanted to make sure that could not happen in our country. It is one of the primary reasons we fought the revolutionary war…and that is not just my opinion…look it up…I find it so sad that the people who have been protected since the country’s founding by the bill of rights now are so fast to abandon it for some temporary safety….

Misc

Another reason….

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Well…this idea came from an an article I read by Nicholas Kristof that was in the NY Times this morning…he was commenting on the new book “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger” by a couple of British authors who have taken on the topic of inequality and how it relates to both the psychic and physical costs to a society. You guys know that this has been one of the threads that have run through my posts here, and what I saw as an existential danger has now been quantified by these two authors down to the physical ailments that come from an unequal society. I know, it sounds like kind of a stretch to make these connections, but these are not fly by night authors…they are well respected in their field and present mountains of data to support their hypothesis.

That said…I have many times railed here about the growing inequality in our society but it was more out of my sense of fairness; that there is something wrong when only the top 1% of our society is doing well and the rest of us scrape and gouge to keep our heads above water. Now, with this new book, we can see that there are real costs to this inequality…not just that people are beaten down emotionally, but physically as well; and this continued grabbing of the entire pie by the rich hurts everyone and can kill our great society if it continues. The next step should be how to address it…and I will admit I don’t have the answers but the old saying “from those to whom much is given, much is expected” or something like that is a good start.

Misc

The new religion of the right…

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Well..just had this thought come to me while I was reading some of the online papers this morning but I’m not going to finish it now…just a little teaser to get you to come back…yep, not fair I know, but the idea is not fully formed yet. Here’s the question or premise…Doesn’t the right’s and tea party’s new found reverence for an unchanging constitution look like a fundamentalist religion to anyone else?

This one is not forming up as I hoped but I going to take a swing at it anyway…as it is quite well know,n most of the tea partiers; and most of the people that identify themselves as religious conservatives have beliefs that interpret the bible as literally the word of god…with no interpretation necessary or wanted. Things like the age of the earth being being around 6,00 years, that evolution is not possible because it contradicts the story of Adam and Eve…and many other stories are taken as fact by this group. I see the same type of blind faith being constructed in their interpretation of the constitution as being absolute and only taken in the context of the time it was written; not in the context of the present and a guideline for the society..purposely written vaguely to allow for growth. The question I have is “do they like to not have to think?” The true believers think all of the answers are in the bible and they never change or need to change since they are the word of god. No thinking necessary to apply the bible…just do what it says and everything will be okay. Now, the tea partiers are doing the same about the constitution…genuflecting to the document in every action they take with an unhealthy propensity to ignore the nuance of life and the varying interpretations that come with it…and to force their interpretation of in on the rest of us…just like they do about religion. I think this is a troubling development for our society…zealots of any kind lead to repression of those who don’t think like them…geez….

Misc

The TSA…again…

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Well….there have been developments in the TSA scanner mess that I felt I had to comment on….the more you hear about this great boondoggle of these multi-million dollar machines, the more you just want to say “what good is the TSA?” First, let’s start with the fact that the owners of the companies that make the machines have been spending million of dollars lobbying for their installation across the US…why do they have to lobby if these things are so wonderful and do what they are sold to do? I have a problem with any company making profit on fear that leads Americans to gradually lose their freedom….and with the latest revelation that the machines will only detect explosive material if it is in a block shape; not if it is shaped into anything resembling body parts…or into flat shapes that can then be taped to the body. Yep, that’s right folks..you have given up your freedom and dignity for a technology that does not work…oh, you’ll hear the TSA say it does because they’ve found small amounts of marijuana and a few “sharp objects”….but don’t say what those sharp objects were…a child’s hair comb? When was the last time anyone brought down a plane with marijuana? And, as shown on the show “Mythbusters”, you can just saturate clothing with odorless explosives and then make them explode…what’s next, do we all have to wear a TSA mandated jumpsuit that we are given before we can board an aircraft?

Now…in the last week or so…we’ve seen the unchecked power of the TSA being turned on the pilot that expressed his first amendment rights to criticize the agency by an “investigation” being started into his background and everything else in his life. If that is not terrorism, what is? These kind of tactics are not even done in supposedly backward countries anymore…

Let’s get down to the bottom line, even if you don’t think the 4th amendment violations are enough to justify removal of these imagers, the plain, true fact is that we are being taken again by that wonderful repub combo of big money and fear…just like they did in the last election…aren’t we tired of that yet?

Misc

A War on Christmas?

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Well…going through the newspapers this morning, I found this little nugget from Frank Beckmann in the Detroit News where he is still rolling out the old chestnut that there is a “war” on christmas still going on today…haven’t we tired of the majority religion in this country still casting itself as the aggrieved victim of some sort of conspiracy? He cites all of the same old stuff…no nativity scenes on public property, no religious carols at high school choir concerts…etc, etc, etc,….as the evidence that if christians don’t battle against change everyday,there will only be a secular holiday left and the ACLU and government will take away the christmas tree in his house. How does he think the jews, muslims, and non-believers feel when we are constantly told by the majority that we just have to be quiet and take it when we are bombarded with non-stop christmas for months and are forced to observe the holiday by the fact that everything is closed? Even as a non-believer, I wouldn’t want christmas displays to go away…it just brings too much joy to the believers and even makes me smile…I just want the christians to understand that we live here, too, and to live their principles of love and peace.

He then goes on to use a friends experience in China as a harbinger of what christmas will be here in the US if the forces of evil are allowed to continue their dastardly plan. But the kicker to me, was when he finishes his rant against the forces of darkness and reason; filled with hate, he goes on to say his article is in the “true spirit of the season”…well, I can see why people are turning away from religion if this is what it expresses….but, I know this is not the spirit that most christians share this season….even we non-believers can appreciate that most people are smiling this time of the year…and whatever the reason, the world can always use more of those….

Misc

Here comes the Christian Taliban….

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Well…okay, the title is a little hyperbole and I know that most Christians are not the murderers that the Taliban are, but they are so similar on the way that they want to control the women and ideas in their societies that I have to make that comparison if only to raise the big red flag and wave it like a crazy person. This is what we have to look forward to with the idiots who’ve been voted into office…

First, we have Boehner and Cantor, with the prodding of one of the right wing religious blogs threatening to withhold funding for the Smithsonian because of what one person found “objectionable”, never mind that in the months the display was there no one, not one person, complained that the exhibit was inappropriate. The display in question has a short film (all of 14seconds) of a decayed crucifix with ants crawling over it and this one person, with the help of Fox news, got the head of the museum to withdraw the display. Doesn’t anyone see the parallel here between the conservative Muslims threatening to kill anyone who makes an image of Muhammed and conservative Christians threatening to kill an organization for art that steps on the toes of Christianity? There will be more of this to come….I will predict that right now with 100% certainty.

The second harbinger of doom I can’t attribute right now since I can’t remember what rep it was who said it…I’ll look for it and amend later but I wanted to get his idea down first…but one of the new repub chairs of a house committee said this week that his primary focus was going to be on getting stronger restrictions on a women’s rights; going after Roe V. Wade to make abortion and other women’s health issues (like contraception) much more difficult for women to cover in the new healthcare law. I’m not making this up folks….they just want to take us back to the culture wars that have made such a huge divide in our country just so they can get what they want from their base and force the non-religious and those of other faiths to heed their religion; sounds like an organization that starts with a “T” a little doesn’t it? ….geez….

Misc

Someone pinch me…I agree with Nolan Finley…

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Well…if you have been reading this stuff for a while, you have seen that I have taken the conservative writer Nolan Finley from the Detroit News to task for his parroting of the repubs talking points in his daily columns. But today, I was amused when he related his efforts to purchase enough incandescent light bulbs to last the rest of his life before they stop making them next year; when government regulations take effect that will essentially ban the sale of the bulbs that all of us grew up with, replacing them with the more energy efficient compact fluorescents. His contention was that this is just another incidence of government intrusion into the free market and an example of the “nanny state” that is trying to regulate all of our daily lives in the guise of trying to make the country more energy efficient. When I wear my Libertarian hat, I have to agree with him….nope, no lightning strike yet, I, too, believe that we have survived a long time in this country making decisions like this for ourselves and are perfectly capable of continuing to do so, I get the frustration that the right has with government when they do things like this; like any bill or regulation that impinges on the decision making that should be an individuals choice….helmet laws and seat belt laws are two great examples of what I see as government overreach….and I would still wear my seat belt even if it wasn’t against the law….because I know they are effective in protecting me from others mistakes. I agree with Nolan that this type of thing is just a waste of rescouces that we can’t afford…and all of the new bulbs are made in China…not in the midwest of America….let’s not help them kill more jobs…

Misc

It’s been weird…

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Well…with all of the strange things happening over the past few days, I’ve really struggled with working up outrage over politics or really anything; so that’s why you’ve only seen a few of these lately. There is a small bit of one that I might be able to use to get started, though,…with Sister Sarah putting her foot in her mouth once again, this time on the Koreas, I was taken that her reaction to criticism of her gaffe was to tweet about the few times that Obama has misspoken; trying to equate her ignorance and stupidity with Obama’s distracted statements. Really, Sarah? There is not much else to say when the media covers the village idiot with the same gravitas as the president. Does anyone think she’s not running?

Okay….I’ve exhausted what little energy I had…so I’ll come back later and continue…

It’s later….went out for a while to meet up with the twins and V for a couple and to watch Michigan lose…again…to a new place called Farah’s that I’ve never been to…but that is about it for the day…I’ll probable feel lousy tomorrow so there may be a lag in the normal post times…who knows?

Misc

The MAD thing…

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Well…lest you think I’m one of those squishy folks that think it is a sin to use American power to further our security ends, this one will put that to rest…I hope. For all of us that have lived through he cold war and the threat of having 20,000 nuclear warheads from the Soviet Union rain down on our heads, this fearful overreaction to a bunch of cave dwellers with a few pounds of plastic explosives is just laughable. I mean, please, we disrupt our whole way of life, give up essential freedom, and spend billions of dollars on scanners and other security measures that are always chasing the last attack while we stand for the humiliation that chips away at the very idea of America. I propose that we stop playing defense…that we get rid of these scanners, the TSA, and stand up like the country that won World War Two…

My proposal is simple…we let the world know that in the event of any attack on any American anywhere, we will spend 6 months finding out who is behind it…and then, whatever country is responsible will have one of their cities turned into a puddle of glass. I know the argument that these terrorists are an amorphous, stateless entity, but they get support from many well-known countries like Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia with money and logistics. A very simple, easy to understand set of consequences…why do you think the Soviet Union with one of the largest armies in the history of the world never attacked us…it was the policy of MAD…Mutually Assured Destruction that made the price too high. I just propose that we again make the price too high…that we stop cowering in our stocking feet being searched like criminals and become Americans again.

The answer to the terrorist’s statement that they will defeat us with a “death of a thousand cuts” is to reply with a death of a million degrees…geez…

Misc

Top Gear America…

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Well…I was going to put a placeholder here until the comments solidified in my head but I think I’ll just start and then come back…this one is going to be about the British show “Top Gear” and its pale, bastardized American version that aired on History this past Sunday night….kind of telegraphed my feelings, huh? Come back after pool in Ada and I’ll complete it…

Okay…I’m back and feeling kind of weird…the chicken I had for lunch may have been borderline…but, we’ll see…if you’ve never seen the show “Top Gear” on BBC America, it a car show with three middle aged men as the hosts; that sometimes like each other and sometimes show the uniquely British contempt that is reserved for the “wankers” that is not only directed at each other but the world as a whole. I think where they are successful is that it is basically allowing these cranky hosts to be the normal, funny people that they are…not the perky, young, always “on” hosts that infest most of American TV. That brings us to the History channel’s americanization of the show, using the young, perky, hosts that I just hate. It starts with Tanner Foust, whose 15 minutes of fame should have been over long ago. The same can be said for one of the other hosts, the never funny Rutledge Wood that I’ve seen and avoided in many Nascar broadcasts, and the other one that I’ve never heard of…the three of them trying to match the smart banter of the BBC show with their own lame version. It only took about 10 minutes of the first episode for me to gag and quit watching it…what’s wrong with having some funny middle-aged Americans hosting the show…or heaven forbid, a woman? Just my thoughts…and I may come back later to say a little more…but if I feel like this, I won’t…one last thing before I head out…the one most important thing that I think the American producers missed is that Clarkson, Mays, and Hammond in the British version are extremely intelligent, well-read individuals, and come across that way…and the hosts of America’s version come across as “Jackass” lite who don’t bring anything to the show but reading the script….does everything have to be dumbed down for us Americans?