Snowflakes in Hell

Go straight for the form letter without even reading what your constituent was talking about.

Apparently politicians in Chicago are worried that people might be having entirely too much unregulated fun.  Clearly something must be done about this!

The left overuses this term, but this eight grade girl from Detroit really gets it.  She’s talking to Monica Conyers, wife of Congressman John Conyers:

How I wish I were disgustingly rich, because I would offer that girl a free ride to wherever she wanted to go.  Not only did she challenge Mrs. Conyers with poise, she didn’t hold back.  Pretty clearly an incident like this should be the end of Monica Conyer’s career, but this is Detroit.  If there were 1000 more little eighth grade girls like this, it would give me great optimism about the future.

Hat Tip to Hit & Run

New Jersey may want to tax fast food:

The thought of taxing a Big Mac or a Wendy’s burger came up at a New Jersey Hospital Association meeting where Gov. Jon S. Corzine was asked if it could be an option to help fund struggling hospitals. At the meeting, he reportedly called it a “constructive suggestion.”

A spokesperson for the governor, however, told CBS 2 on Wednesday:

“The governor is open to reasonable solutions to help solve our financing problems, but there are no plans for any fast food tax.”

So, New Jersey, How’s that one party rule treating you?  As a side note, the medical community are starting to get awfully meddlesome.  Do we really want these guys suckling at the government teat more than they already do, so they have even worse incentives to demand government force us to be healthy, or else?

Apparently it’s illegal in Illinois to have a secret compartment in your car.  Outrageous.  The law itself can be found here.  Looks like it makes the vehicle subject to forfeiture, and its owner subject to a class 4 felony.

Looks like the new Guv can’t keep his pistol properly secured either.

In a way that would be familiar to David Codrea, Elliot Spitzer had a reputation for abusing his office to silence critics.  While perusing Classical Values, I came across this blast from Spitzer’s past:

Last April, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by me titled “Mr. Spitzer Has Gone Too Far.” In it I expressed my belief that in America, everyone–including Hank Greenberg–is innocent until proven guilty. “Something has gone seriously awry,” I wrote, “when a state attorney general can go on television and charge one of America’s best CEOs and most generous philanthropists with fraud before any charges have been brought, before the possible defendant has even had a chance to know what he personally is alleged to have done, and while the investigation is still under way.”

Since there have been rumors in the media as to what happened next, I feel I must now set the record straight. After reading my op-ed piece, Mr. Spitzer tried to phone me. I was traveling in Texas but he reached me early in the afternoon. After asking me one or two questions about where I got my facts, he came right to the point. I was so shocked that I wrote it all down right away so I would be sure to remember it exactly as he said it. This is what he said:

“Mr. Whitehead, it’s now a war between us and you’ve fired the first shot. I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter.”

No doubt Mr. Whitehead will have the last laugh at this petty and vindictive tyrant.  The people of New York should be ashamed for ever electing this man governor.

Normally I condemn laws that require banks to spy on customers.  But applied to Elliot Spitzer, I consider them poetic justice.  No doubt as a prosecutor, he relied on many of these laws to send people up river.  Paybacks are hell.

Someone we all know is in attendance here, but I’m not saying who.  The giant pig is a nice touch, I think, and no one is more deserving of getting the big pig treatment than John Murtha.

Hat tip to Instapundit

I agree with this assessment of what the NFL’s response should be to Arlen Specter’s threats to hold congressional hearings over the Patriots tapes of the New York Jets:

“Dear Sen. Specter:  The rule that the Patriots violated is one that the NFL, not Congress, created.  We are a private organization quite capable of enforcing our own rules.  So butt out; this matter is none of your damn business.  Sincerely….”

Seriously, can we get rid of this guy?  If only the Democrats would nominate an acceptable replacement.

We’re all aware that some jurisdictions have passed bans against trans-fat, in an effort to force people to eat healthier food, whether you want to or not (for your own good, you see). Well, it would seem the Mississippi Representative W.T. Mayhall wants to take it one step farther and just ban restaurants from serving fat people.

I think it’s high time we start voting these food fascists out of office before we hear “Drop the donut sir! Drop the god***n donut now!”  I can only imagine that’s next.

… to defend our right to keep and bear Geiger Counters.  Fortunately it looks like there are other people in New York City’s government that aren’t as brain dead as Falkenrath, and aren’t as fascist as Bloomberg.

Apparently the State of California doesn’t have much respect for them. There a guy in my neighborhood that has a giant boat in his driveway. I don’t mean a small outboard motor boat, I mean a rather large vessel, that’s been up on blocks for several years. Various thoughts go through my mind about this huge eyesore in my neighborhood:

• Is he expecting one day the Neshaminy Creek will actually flood that high?
• Christmas is coming, is he going to decorate the boat?
• I wonder if the paint chipping off it is lead based?

But one thing I woudln’t presume to do is ask the government to force him to remove it. It’s his driveway. I wouldn’t even presume to ask him to remove it privately. I certainly wouldn’t dream of asking the government to trespass on a man’s property to ticket it.

Of course, I doubt anyone asked. They just decided. No doubt parking ticket revenue dried up when they banned overnight parking, forcing them to seek out new sources of banditry revenue.

Photo enforcement is the latest euphemism for using traffic cameras as a way to generate revenue.  Governor Corzine, who himself has little regard for traffic laws, has signed the piece of garbage into law.

Assembly Transportation Chairman John S. Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) first wrote the measure with a complex set of requirements that would force localities to adopt one camera manufacturer’s specific technology. The initial draft mandated that: “the violation images are captured by a single, digital camera unit which produces a set of two images for each violation.” This would have excluded several vendors who use multiple camera setups and wet film to achieve the same result, but a subsequent amendment dropped the single camera requirement.

Someone check Wisniewskis portfolio or associations, and I’m sure you’ll find a link to the company that made that camera somewhere!

Local governments had lobbied heavily for the legislation as means of shoring up tight municipal budgets. To take advantage of the new ticketing program, they must submit a list of high-volume intersections to the state transportation department which has final approval over which locations can use cameras. Like Arizona, New Jersey’s proposed law would require each ticket to be “served by a law enforcement official.” This means that motorists may avoid paying a citation by dodging process servers for forty business days after the date of the alleged violation.

Tickets should not be about raising revenues for local governments, they should be about public safety.  Any photo enforcement centered around raising revenues as an argument ought to be rejected, and the fact that the local government openly tout this reason is another example of government being arrogant and out of control.  Sadly, I wish this was limited to The Garden State, but it is not.  We have to remind these people who they work for.

Politicians in New Jersey are doubling their efforts to save its citizens from themselves.

Standard weekly is running an article on the light bulb ban passed out of Congress and signed into law by President Bush recently, that I talked bout here and here.

Bitter is too busy to blog about Dave Albo’s latest attempt to stick it to the citizens of Virginia, but I’m glad TD did.  It needs to be told.

Justin has more information on the incandescent light ban passed by Congress.  Looks like halogen bulbs will be affected as well.  I’ve decided that when I get home, I will remove all my CF light bulbs in protest of Congress forcing me to use them.  Say no to CFL!  Say no to  Congress!

… when they pry them from my cold dead hands. And you can thank president Bush for signing this piece of garbage.

“In this bill, we ban by 2012 the famously inefficient 100-watt incandescent bulb,” said Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who co-sponsored that provision.

You can go fuck yourself Jane Harman. Seriously.

The bill requires a fivefold increase - to 36 billion gallons - in the amount of alternative home-grown fuels, such as ethanol, that must be added to the nation’s gasoline supply by 2022.

Good to see the corn farmers got their hands in this. Corn farmers can go fuck themselves too! [No offense intended to any corn farmers who read this, and aren't actively participating in the conspiracy to force their product onto the American consumer]

Folks, our government is out of control, and pretty clearly George W. Bush and the Republicans aren’t going to do a thing about it. I have no problem with compact florescent bulbs, but if they didn’t have problems, they wouldn’t need government intervention to beat standard incandescents in the marketplace. The government has banned toilets that actually flush decently, and now light bulbs that are actually…. bright. Am I the only one who is tired of this bullshit?

UPDATE: Joe has more to say here.

UPDATE: Ride Fast & Shoot Straight too.

John Kerry wants the senators to release the hold on Sullivan.  He supports your second amendment rights, really he does!  He’s a life long hunter, after all.

Our attorney general is suing RJ Reynolds tobacco because he thinks they are pimping cigarettes to kids again. Corbett is filing suit because he believes it violates the shakedown racket settlement agreement the tobacco industry signed with the states to not use cartoons to market cigarettes.

I think anyone who looks at this ad, considers the magazine they were placed in, and concludes that clearly this ad was meant to appeal to children ought to stick their heads in their Cuisinart and hit “pulse”, because it seems pretty clear your brain are already pretty much puree.

To be sure, this is meant to target young adults. But last I checked, the legal age to buy cigarettes was eighteen, and I would imagine this ought to mean that it’s legal to market to this age group. It’s a damned shame that smoking is actually pretty bad for you, because I’d almost consider taking up the habit just because it upsets the right kind of people. We’re not supposed to smoke. Our betters have deemed it so.

UPDATE: Well, at least this year Rendell won’t get his smoking ban:

Raela Stabile works the day shift at Molly Brannigans in Harrisburg for one reason: she despises cigarette smoke.

“It’s not half as much smoke [as the night], so I can handle it,” the nonsmoker said in the pub’s smoking section. “I hate cigarette smoke.”

She looks forward to the day when a proposed indoor smoking ban becomes the law of the land, and hopes it will include bars and restaurants.

Hey Raela, no one is forcing you to work in a pub.  I don’t particularly like dealing with people, which is why a job in tech support isn’t something for me.  I choose my career according to my preferences, not try to get the state to pass a law saying everyone should be nice to tech support people.

… hit you in the ass on the way out, Senator.

Apparently he’s perusing “other opportunities”.  Like getting a head start on a lobbying career, as the new rules that require waiting two years after leaving office don’t kick in until 2008.  He claims that’s not the case, but I’m not buying it.

He’s the kind of establishment Republican I’ve had quite enough of.

John J. Kelly III, Middletown Township Supervisor, managed to send out a flyer this week that convinced me to vote for the guy. You see, John Kelly is apparently under the delusion that he lives in Utah:

I think a bar/restaurant there is a fine idea! I firmly believe that a person ought to have the freedom to start a small business without some local political worm telling them “Sorry, but I think there are too many bars in Middletown Township!” because he gets off on power.

And what’s with the Chuck E. Cheese reference? Last I checked, Chuck E. Cheese sold beer and had a liquor license. Don’t give me crap about protecting children. I’m not worried about the presence of a bar corrupting kids, but I’m very concerned about a citizen’s ability to start a small business.

Great job Middletown Township Republicans, you just convince me to vote for Democrats!

UPDATE: Breda thinks if these worms think a pub next to Chuck E. Cheese is a problem, Ireland would make their heads explode.

In 2006, Robert Casey unseated Rick Santorum from his senate seat.  To be honest, I decided to vote for Casey, despite the fact that Santorum had an excellent record on guns, and was endorsed by the NRA.  I voted for Casey because Santorum, quite honestly, scared the hell out of me with his views on a lot of social issues.  Casey got a good NRA rating, and kept saying he was a friend of gun owners, so I figured he’d be willing to fight for us.

I would appear to have been wrong.  I don’t think Casey is going to join the ranks of Chuck Schumer or Diane Feinstein any time soon, but he certainly doesn’t seem to be aware of the issues that are of concern to us, as his generic form letter response would indicate.

I’ve been singularly unimpressed by Senator Casey since taking office, mostly because I haven’t seen him doing anything.   Not that I want politicians to be busy doing things, other nursing a mild case of alcoholism in the local DC bars and eateries.  If more politicians did that instead of making laws, we might actually be better off.  But if Senator Casey dropped off the face of the earth, I don’t think I’d notice.  Would anyone notice?

Clearly, if The Senator wants to be a friend of gun owners, if he wants to earn his NRA rating, and maybe get an endorsement someday, he needs to get his staff to do a better job of communicating with gun owners.  We’re an important political constituency in this state, even for Democrats, and we’re not impressed by generic one-size-fits-all form letters.

Squeaky talks about some funny business in the Texas legislature, in regards to votes legislators cast, or rather, cast for other members who are absent.  I think the rules of the legislative body in Texas needs to be changed to stop this from happening, but this probably doesn’t mean the legislator is voting twice.  Remember, these votes are on record, and it one of their colleagues comes up on record as having voted for something he needed to be against for political reasons, you can imagine the trouble that would cause.

What is likely happening here, is legislators are casting votes on their colleague’s behalf.  I agree this should change, but not because it’s double voting, but because it’s lazy and unprofessional.   If you want to cast a vote, at the very least, you should show up.  Otherwise, how are the folks back home to know how uninvolved you are?