Tax Somebody Else!

Just too many targets of opportunity in the People’s Republic today.  And we present this liberal twit who whines about fixing roads:

Editor – Why is it that residents of Marin County and San Francisco are being asked to replace a piece of an official U.S. highway?

At the point just before U.S. 101 crosses north, over the Golden Gate Bridge, it is called Doyle Drive, but it is still U.S. 101. Why are local counties being asked to replace a federal highway?

For the amount of money that is spent on the war in Iraq in one and a half weeks, all the repairs and improvements to the U.S. highways, recommended by the Federal Highway Administration, could be made. But that is who is supposed to make the repairs and improvements, the federal government; it’s a federal highway.

Like everything else, President Bush doesn’t want to take responsibility for that either.

JOANNE MINSKY

San Francisco

Let see:

1.  You are the idiots who drive on the stupid road all the time so why shouldn’t you pay to fix it?

2.  Bush Derangement Syndrome – while I’m sure President Bush thinks about the roads in Marin County as one of his top priorities, why in the world have you and your elected representatives allowed your main transportation artery to deteriorate to some desperate point?  Clean up the turds in your own back yard sister.

3.   Isn’t it nice to believe in the Federal Government road-fixing fairy?  Who apparently will come and apply buckets of money to your roads without it costing you even one penny?  Do YOU pay any federal taxes, Miss Liberal Loony?

4.  I thought liberals loved taxes.  And you can’t get any deeper blue than the Democratic Communist People’s Republic.  Why aren’t you volunteering to re-mortgage your house in order to give the money to the government?  Isn’t that what you want everybody else to do?

Good Liberal Waste of Money

Its nice to know that the Democratic Communist People’s Republic of San Francisco has this kind of money to waste:

In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition to the director of climate protection initiatives in Newsom’s office, San Francisco has an Energy and Climate Program team of eight people in the Department of the Environment, who combined earn more than $800,000 a year in salary and benefits, including a “climate action coordinator.” At least 12 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff members work on climate issues related to water and energy, including a $146,000-a-year “projects manager for the climate action plan.”

Also in the name of climate control, the Municipal Transportation Agency has a “manager of emissions reductions and sustainability programs” who works on making Muni’s bus fleet greener, and the San Francisco International Airport has a “manager of environmental services” who oversees such projects as the installation of energy-efficient lighting and solar panels.

The list doesn’t include the scores of staff members who work on broader environmental policies, like the recently hired $130,700-a-year “greening director” in Newsom’s office, or Jared Blumenfeld, who earns $207,500 a year in salary and benefits as the head of the city’s Environment Department, which has a staff of 65 and annual budget of about $14 million.

And you know you have completely gone off the deep end when the flipping Green Party commissioner questions what is going on:

“Although it sounds very well intentioned, and perhaps even necessary, I’m concerned this is a case where eco-chic has gone out of control,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the only Green Party member on the Board of Supervisors.

And the evidence continues to build that the whole global warming hysteria is a) religious in nature and b) a scheme for smart hustlers to shake down taxpayers.

The Riddle

clipped from www.cosmicfingerprints.com The starting point of this discussion is my central thesis, which is: 1) DNA is not merely a molecule with a pattern; it is a code, a language, and an information storage mechanism. 2) All codes are created by a conscious mind; there is no natural process known to science that creates coded information. 3) Therefore DNA was designed by a mind. If you can provide an empirical example of a code or language that occurs naturally, you’ve toppled my proof. All you need is one. Perry Marshall The discussion continued for more than 4 months and 300 posts. At the end, nearly all participants dropped out, having failed to topple my proof or produce any new objections that had not already been addressed. In the course of a very detailed and vigorous discussion my argument did not suffer the slightest injury. There were six major counter-arguments to information as proof of intelligent design. You can follow these links for a thorough summary of the discussion threads:

1. The objection that DNA is not a code (it is, by universal definition)
2. The objection that information is not real (it is, because it produces real effects)
3. The objection that information has no objective meaning (it does, because a message produces results that are just as objective and specific as the message itself)
4. The objection that random processes can create information (they can’t)
5. The objection that codes do occur naturally (they don’t)
6. The objection that the nature of the Designer cannot be determined (in very broad terms, it can)

Quote of the Day

From Jay Leno:

Things aren’t looking good for Hillary. Like a lot of women in Washington, I think she’s just starting to realize she may have slept with Bill Clinton for nothing.

Boo Hoo – Illegals Finding Work Scarce

The slant of this article is sickening:

Times are tough for the 27-year-old illegal immigrant and day laborer

For the most part, Rodriguez says, he’s doing what hundreds of other day laborers are doing these days: Standing around and waiting for jobs in Santa Cruz instead of actually getting them.

The bad times are trickling down to the lowest rung of the work force: the illegal labor pool, 

And somewhere in Mexico a wife and a family are having a rougher go at it than usual. 

A couple of questions:

1.  If its so tough in the US, why not go back home?  This article implies that the poor illegal hasn’t had regular work since last summer.  How in the wide wide world of sports is he able to live here?

2.  If there’s no work at home – why not?  Just when did it become America’s issue to deal with unemployed Mexicans?

And most of all this:

“Everybody is going to suffer in a recession — from the top on down,” says Patti Decker, a branch manager with Labor Ready in Soquel, whose number of Spanish-speaking customers, she added, has been on the rise in the last few months, in part due to the poor economy.

Labor Ready is an “employment contractor”.  Just why are they able to break the law with impunity and knowingly hire out illegals?

The Polar Caps are Not Melting

Does scientific consensus know about this?

Satellite data shows that concerns over the levels of sea ice may have been premature.

It was feared that the polar caps were vanishing because of the effects of global warming.

But figures from the respected US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that almost all the “lost” ice has come back.

Ice levels which had shrunk from 13million sq km in January 2007 to just four million in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Will the sainted Algore have anything to do if the ice comes back?  And what about the polar bears?

Figures show that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than is usual for the time of year.

The data flies in the face of many current thinkers and will be seized on by climate change sceptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.

A photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg has become one of the most enduring images in the campaign against climate change.

It was used by former US Vice President Al Gore during his Inconvenient Truth lectures about mankind’s impact on the world. But scientists say the northern hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades.

They add that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966.

 
Dear Al in Tennessee – what can be done to bring back manmade global warming?

Hippie Punching – FAQ

Frank J has an excellent follow up on the issue of Hippie Punching:

Q. Where is best to punch a hippie?
A. About the face. That’s where the hippie is most annoying.

Q. What is a hippie?
A. Generally, a hippie is an annoying, useless. Actually, less than useless, as they are not happy until they prevent other people from being useful as well. In fact, Scientists have determined that the only evolutionary purpose of a hippie is for punching as a stress release for productive members of society.

Q. Are there any other uses for hippies than punching them?
A. No, there are no other uses.

Q. Couldn’t they be ground up and used as chum?
A. They’re too gummy.

Q. Where do hippies come from?
A. There’s basically waste products of a productive society, as they only come from middle class to upper middle class families. Thus its important for parents to make sure they tell children the importance of not being a hippie while also making them cut the lawn and do other non-hippie, productive activities.

Q. Where can hippies be found?
A. Their main habitat is the college campus and can be found in the vicinity thereof. Occasionally they have mass migrations to city areas to work as a large group (a group of hippies is known as a “protest”) to make loud noises and annoy people. In this way, they are like geese, except with more excrement. Also, they have large puppets.

Hard Work

I think you can just about characterize anyone’s views and outlook depending on how they respond to this statement from Bookwormroom:

America is far from perfect, but it does a better job than any society ever created at ensuring that everyone who works hard has a chance to succeed.

If you get some horrified look at the very suggestion that America is good or if you start getting hemming and hawing about the wonders of Cuba and its free medical care – in either case you know that you are dealing with someone who has been successful in America but doesn’t want anybody else to have that opportunity.  Someone who hates the freedom that America represents to the world.  Somebody who believes that what some twit in Germany or France thinks about our country is more important than what we ourselves believe.

Why does hard work contribute to success in America?  For one thing we try to make sure everybody has the tools to succeed.  Take education as an example:

The goal of the conservative is to ensure that even those who do not start out with many advantages can succeed if they work hard.  For example, free public schools are a conservative invention.   They are a statement that every child, no matter how poor, will have access to the basic tools of success.  Granted, some schools are better than others, but the biggest difference between school isn’t funding, or materials, or the quality of teachers.  The biggest difference is the students.  Students in successful schools work harder than students in unsuccessful schools.  They arrive at school every day, ready to work hard and learn.  Compare absenteeism and drop-out rates in successful schools and unsuccessful schools and you’ll see what I mean.  Even in our worst public schools, the student who works hard and tries to learn will learn and will obtain the tools necessary to succeed in life.

Now we are not talking about equality of outcome – merely equality of opportunity.  It is up to the individual to take advantage of the freedom in America.

Conservatives teach to the test.  Liberals teach, uh, unearned self-esteem.  Conservatives reward accomplishment.  Liberals reward, uh, breathing.  Conservatives reward hard work.  Liberals denigrate hard work.  Conservatives believe you earn the right to move on to the next grade by passing the test.  Liberals beliieve in social promotion and would rather eliminate the test.  Conservatives don’t give a hoot about things like skin color, religion, and gender that have nothing to do with accomplishment.  Liberals are obcessed with skin color, religion, gender, etc.  Conservatives abhor discrimination.  Liberals eagerly discriminate against white males (God help the person who by unhappy circumstance is born a poor white male in American — he has all of the handicaps that accompany poverty but lives in a society that assumes he is rich and punishes him for being white and male).

And in the end, rewarding hard work is only practical:

Conservativism is more practical than liberalism, too.  Societies that reward hard work have always been more successful than societies that do not.  Why?  Because most people simply will not work all that hard if they see the rewards for their labor taken from them and given to someone who did not work at all.  They recognize the unfairness of this at a gut level, and ultimately, rebel by not working so hard.

As real-world examples like Russia and Cuba and Maoist China have shown.

So do you believe in Hard Work?

Discarded Birth Control Pills Harming Environment?

Why has this science not been reported too much?

For some years now, reports have been growing from around the world that the massive amounts of synthetic birth control hormones being pumped into the water systems through sewage outflow is changing the sex of fish stocks. Recently, scientists have also begun to warn of the possible carcinogenic effects of the build-up of estrogenic chemicals in drinking water. 

As early as 2002, the UK Environment Agency warned that fish stocks in British rivers were showing signs of gender ambiguity as a result of high levels of estrogen in the water. A survey of 1,500 fish at 50 river sites found more than a third of males also displayed female characteristics.

Dr. Conrad Daniel Volz from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Environmental Oncology, warned that the rise in steroid hormones in the drinking water in the Pittsburgh area is a threat to health. Numerous studies have shown a link between contraceptive estrogen and hormone problems and some cancers, including testicular cancer.

There are ecoNazis screaming about snowmobiles in Yellowstone, but possible cancer risks in the water and there’s no noise from the environmental activists at all.  Wonder why? 

But scientists and environmental groups are careful to avoid recommending restrictions on artificial contraceptives.

The National Catholic Register, reporting on the issue, quotes George Harden, a board member of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, saying “If you’re killing mosquitoes to save people from the West Nile virus, you can count on secular environmentalists to lay down in front of the vapour truck, claiming some potential side effect that might result from the spray,” Harden said. “But if birth control deforms fish – backed by the proof of an EPA study – and threatens the drinking supply, mum will be the word.”

Curt Cunningham, water quality issues chairman for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Sierra Club International, told the Register that people “would not take kindly” to the suggestion of banning or restricting hormonal contraceptives.

“For many people it’s an economic necessity. It’s also a personal freedom issue,” Cunningham said. 

So birth control pills are a personal freedom issue.  But having the government put restrictions on your land to keep some slimy snail in breeding territory isn’t a personal freedom issue?

Your hypocrisy is showing.