Tag: government

In testimony before Congress today, the Eisenhower family expressed strong opposition to the design of the Dwight Eisenhower monument.

9:44 am

In testimony before Congress today, the Eisenhower family expressed strong opposition to the design of the Dwight Eisenhower monument.

Although the memorial design was unveiled a year ago, the opposition to it grew louder this winter after grandson David Eisenhower resigned from the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which selected Gehry for the design in March 2010.

The National Civic Art Society, which has set up an alternative website to the memorial group’s website, outlines its opposition in direct terms. It calls the “tapestry” a “rat’s nest of tangled steel, a true maintenance nightmare.”

[Granddaughter Susan] Eisenhower said the tapestry would collect trash and suggested the design concept is part of the “communist world” of art, adding her grandfather likely “wouldn’t understand it.”

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The Met Office in the UK has issued an updated temperature record for the past 150 years, suggesting that the climate has warmed 0.75 degrees Celsius since 1900.

6:02 pm

The Met Office in the UK has issued an updated temperature record for the past 150 years, suggesting that the climate has warmed 0.75 degrees Celsius since 1900.

I remain suspicious of this announcement, as the scientists issuing this report are the same scientists who participated in climategate, including Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University. With that in mind, before I will believe these numbers I will wait for some vetting of this new data by those who have shown themselves to be a bit more skeptical, a bit more open-minded, and a lot more honest.

One more point: to really understand the importance of an increase of 0.75 degrees Celsius over 112 years, we would need some context, something this news article does not give us. For example, how do these numbers compare with the numbers predicted by the various climate models? Also, this is the overall change. How have things changed from year to year? Is there any evidence in this data for a cooling during the past decade, as indicated by other climate measurements?

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A business in Missouri has become the first secular and private company to bring a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

8:42 am

Bring it on! A business in Missouri has become the first secular and private company to bring a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.

Most of the discussion about the Obama administration’s mandate has revolved around whether specific religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, should be exempted from it. To me, that misses the point. In a free society, anyone who objects to this mandate on the basis of personal belief should have the freedom to ignore it. Or to put it another way, the government has no right to order free citizens to buy contraceptives for others.

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The TSA at work

9:19 pm

The TSA at work.

A toddler in a wheelchair is stopped by the TSA at ORD (O’Hare Airport in Chicago) and forced to into a sequestered area. On his way to a family vacation in Disney, this 3 year old boy is in a body cast for a broken leg. Despite assurances from his father that “everything is ok”, he is physically trembling with fear while he watches his two siblings, mother, father, grandfather and grandmother pass through along with everyone else…only to be singled out.

Here’s the video. You decide whether this makes any sense in the real world.

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Environmentalist organizations have once again petitioned the EPA to ban ammunition using lead.

9:35 am

Environmentalist organizations have once again petitioned the EPA to ban ammunition using lead.

The ban sought by environmental groups would not apply to ammunition used by law enforcement and the military. In addition to bullets and pellets used in hunting and recreational activity like range shooting, the petition seeks to limit the use of the metal in fishing tackle and weights.

Government agencies get a pass, but not private gun ranges, eh? These petty dictators have really only one goal, and it has nothing to do with protecting wildlife. They want to prevent private citizens from having access to ammunition, which in turn will prevent them from having access to guns.

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The three big network nightly news shows all failed to mention the Congressional Budget Office report that says the cost of Obamacare will be twice what was predicted, and that millions will lose their healthplans because of it.

12:00 pm

News you can’t use: All three network nightly news shows last night failed to mention the Congressional Budget Office report that says the cost of Obamacare will be twice what was predicted, and that millions will lose their health plans because of it.

This is a good example of why I’ve said for years that if you depend on television for your news, you are not only uninformed, you are misinformed.

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It appears that the reason the head of Russia’s space agency was hospitalized last week was because he got into a fight at a party over a woman.

10:34 am

You can’t make this stuff up: It appears that the reason Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia’s space agency, was hospitalized last week was because he got into a fight at a party over a woman.

The woman in question was apparently General Popovkin’s press secretary, Anna Vedischeva, 28. Vedischeva was appointed despite criticism when it was revealed that she was an ex-glamour model who, by her own admission, knew nothing about space or public relations. The party where the incident allegedly took place was to celebrate International Woman’s Day on 8 March.

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The judge in the JPL intelligent design lawsuit has ruled against JPL and that the press will be allowed to observe and report on the testimony.

10:23 am

The judge in the JPL intelligent design lawsuit has ruled against JPL. The press will be allowed to observe and report on the testimony.

David Coppedge, the man JPL fired, testified yesterday, outlining his belief in intelligent design. From the quotes included in the article, he certainly didn’t put forth a convincing case. He also didn’t say anything that justified firing him.

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ObamaCare: If Possible, The News Is Getting Worse

10:28 pm

“Obamacare: If possible, the news Is getting worse.”

Here’s a new little tidbit:

When the House of Representatives votes next week on repealing Obamacare’s unaccountable, unelected IPAB board, at least some Democrats are likely to support repeal. The IPAB repeal bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), received bi-partisan support as it made its way through House committees, showing that Democrats are equally worried about the power of the board to usurp the job of the people’s elected representatives.

Maybe these idiotic Democrats should have read the bill before they passed it. That they obviously didn’t is further proof that they should be fired.

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A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit from various environmental groups that was trying to overturn Congressional legislation that removed the wolf from the endangered species list.

9:27 pm

A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit from various environmental groups that was trying to overturn Congressional legislation that removed the wolf from the endangered species list.

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Congress had the right to intervene when it stripped protections from wolves last spring.

Lawmakers stepped in after court rulings kept wolves on the endangered list for years after they reached recovery goals. [emphasis mine]

I emphasis the last sentence because it once again illustrates how completely irrelevant reality is to these environmental laws and to those who defend them.

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A major airport in Florida has decided to evict the TSA and go with a private company to screen passengers

9:46 am

Good news? A major airport in Florida has decided to evict the TSA and go with a private company to screen passengers.

The problem is that this really won’t change anything, as the company will be under TSA supervision and regulations, and will therefore be required by the TSA to do exactly the same thing the TSA has been doing.

The only real solution is to junk this whole charade. Airport security accomplishes nothing except to destroy our sense of freedom.

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New numbers released today from the Congressional Budget Office estimate that the cost of Obamacare over the next decade will be $1.76 trillion, not $940 billion as predicted by the Democrats who passed it.

3:20 pm

Finding out what’s in it: New numbers released today from the Congressional Budget Office estimate that the cost of Obamacare over the next decade will be $1.76 trillion, not $940 billion as predicted by the Democrats who passed it.

The only word I can think of that aptly describes the people who pushed this law on us is incompetence. That any rational person would consider voting for these people again boggles the mind.

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More video showing how easy it is to vote illegally, this time in Vermont.

12:24 pm

More video showing how easy it is to vote illegally, this time in Vermont.

Unlike in the previous video in New Hampshire, this time the fake voters were able to get permission to vote using the names of both dead and living voters. And of course, no ID was requested. The video illustrates the absurdity of the situation by contrasting this situation with other examples where IDs are required.

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Two Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would repeal the indefinite detention of Americans authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that was passed in November.

3:50 pm

Good for them: Two Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would repeal the indefinite detention of Americans authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that was passed in November.

My only complaint is this: Why did these same two senators, along with 81 other senators and 283 House members vote for this unconstitutional obscenity in the first place?

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The Senate’s tea party caucus has introduced a budget plan aimed at balancing the federal budget by 2017.

1:42 pm

The Senate’s tea party caucus yesterday proposed a budget plan aimed at balancing the federal budget by 2017.

The news article gives a broad outline of the plan, including some basic changes to several entitlement programs, a freezing of government spending at 2008 levels, and the elimination of four government agencies and the privatization of the TSA. A detailed look will probably find that some of these proposals are poorly thought out or impractical. However, at least these senators are proposing something, unlike the Democrats, who in the Senate have not even introduced a budget for more than three years.

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