2nd Amendment *is* an individual right...

Finally answering a 200 year old question, the Supreme Court today affirmed (5-4) D.C. vs Heller, in that the Washington D.C. complete ban on handgun possession is unconstitutional. I'm fairly happy about it, since the 2nd Amendment should apply to individuals like the others...but of course the states are still free to infringe on that, I guess. (*cough*, Maryland, *cough*)

Maryland's constitution, unfortunately, does not include a "right to keep and bear arms", so I'm not sure what effect that will have here, though there might be a 14th Amendment argument.

The "right" to your health (care)....

Debating over whether "Hillary Care" or "Obama Care" is the better plan? Try less mandated coverage of care, which largely contributes to the rising cost of your premiums. Read this great response to a recent article in the New York Times on the rising cost of health insurance....by Paul Hseih, who as an MD is probably qualified to speak on the issue. He's summarized the questions his readers sent back into a nice list of 8. Heavy hitters you'll never hear in a presidential "debate", like:

• How would a free market guarantee that all Americans will have necessary health coverage?
• Isn't the purpose of a government to promote the common welfare of all citizens?
• Isn't it my social obligation to subsidize the health care of those who can't afford it?
  

It's a great summary of what the free market could be capable of, if we would only get out of the way and let it. Forced care is never moral.....sorry, liberals.

New layout....again.

Ok, so I'm a lazy programmer....or I just like to spend time OFF the internets. I'm moving the site back over to Blogger.com (yeah, I lose some of the nice customized programming/geek stuff I had going), but hell....I've moved my photos to Picasa, and my mail to Gmail, so I figure....might as well use Google's blogging service. I'm just a Google Whore™. Free is good.

It's taking some hacking to get these standard templates to look like the old site, eventually I'll do something new...but the idea is for me NOT to have to do any coding in the day-to-day website postings. I'm 32, with a kid on the way, and finding it harder to work on my own site, with work and all the rest life throws at you. So....you'll still see mobile photos and blogging when I'm on vacation or finding something nice to snap a pic of, don't worry.

To quote the best movie of all time: "Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Pointing the Finger O' Blame

Seriously, aren't there better things than to worry about what your government does? They are completely out of touch. This was the first line in an CNN article on the rising food costs

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lawmakers heaped blame on farmers - and the subsidies they receive - for pushing up food costs at a Congressional hearing Thursday scrutinizing the impact of soaring food and gas prices on American consumers."

...um, lawmakers blaming farmers for subsidies...that come from, um....LAWMAKERS. Yeah. We handed you this bag of money and you're BAD, BAD for taking it. BAD farmers! Seriously, there is no logic left in this nation. My household makes sense...the rest of the world is NUTS.

The fatal blow of libertarianism?

Very happy this morning. I can't believe this sentence showed up in a major CNN article:

Libertarian fatalism has infected and afflicted the leaders of both political parties, and none of us should take seriously the partisan posturing from either the Republicans or Democrats.

Yep. Die, major parties, die. How does "Culotta 2014" sound on a bumper sticker? Meh, not so good. :)

"Illegal" immigrants? We're all immigrants...unless you're Native American.

See here's just another example of how this border/immigration thing is messed up.

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- The world's busiest border crossing reopened early Friday following a nine-hour closure that occurred after federal authorities shot and killed the driver of a sport utility vehicle headed for Mexico, officials said.
...
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began following the black SUV after somebody reported seeing it pick up suspected illegal immigrants near the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing, Lt. Kevin Rooney of San Diego Police Department said.

I just don't get it. The government is supposedly morally justified in shooting and KILLING the driver of a vehicle after it was REPORTED that he picked up SUSPECTED illegal immigrants. Guilty until proven innocent. Couldn't they have shot out the tires, at least? And now you won't know the whole story, just the government's side, because he's dead. Sad.

I loathe this government so much. When you go to vote, and you pick a non-libertarian candidate, just know that you're voting to take MY money and rights by force. That's what people don't realize. "Voting" and "democracy" is a process where you force your views and morals on other people who don't agree with you, and you use the government as your weapon. It's just a nasty thing all around, I think.

Ok, I'll stop now.

What's the bigger problem?

For those of you who insist we're not heading downhill in this country in a number of facets, take your pick today: Diebold machines have another critical flaw (and we just lost an effort to ditch them in November here in MD), or Halliburton building large-scale "immigrant detention centers", yet another $385 million of YOUR tax dollars.

Keep paying, bitches, and vote for your pathetic candidate in the fall who will steal more of your money. Yes, steal. Taxes are force. Back to our cubicles, sheep. :)

I can't wait for the rest of Dubya's term. So exciting!

/click
//the sound of exercising my 2nd amendment rights
///the 15-round magazine part

Tax "fun"!

Given that tax time is now over (for this year at least), I leave you with a "fun" statistic.

Americans spend 6 billion hours on their taxes every year, or $265 billion. Basically, 22% of every tax dollar collected. Yeah, 22% overhead just to collect the tax. That number is just for tax prep time, and does not include any litigation disputes, or running the IRS itself.

Keep that in mind this November when you go to select which retard you elect to tax you more. I'll be taking off that day to, er....educate the masses. Not that it will do much good. :P I've also reworked my withholding forms so I don't think I'll be getting anything back next year....which means it will be making 4% in my ING account in the meantime, Uncle Sam. It was my money in the FIRST place. I can't help you screwed up and took too much.

Back to work! Your government needs 40% of your pay today to go bomb some people or spy on you, or something. Hop to it, citizen.

/wow, that was a rant
//haven't even see "V for Vendetta" yet, either
///Remember, remember. 16th of December. (Boston Tea Party)

Frontin' on tha interweb?

You know it's the 21st century, when the gansters are getting up their own websites to spam each other.

"Netbanging": Street gangs are now establishing an internet presence, both for recruiting as well as for scheduling fights with other street gangs.

Well, I guess it's better than shooting each other?

Indecision 2006?

Ah, I just can't wait for the elections in the fall. Watch as the masses keep voting for people who "lack a clear plan":

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a large number, most Americans lack faith in the ability of Democrats or Republicans to solve the nation's problems, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Wednesday indicates.
Sixty-eight percent of people surveyed February 9-12 said Democrats had no clear plan for the country, while 67 percent said Republicans lacked one.

Nevertheless, most of the respondents -- 52 percent -- said things are going very or fairly well in the country, a statistically similar response (49 percent) to the last time the question was asked in November.

Sic friatur crustum dulce.