Author: Simon

It looks like the impotent, racist, violent, Tea Party folks have ousted Senator Bob Bennett in Utah. Republican Senator Bob Bennett was thrown out of office yesterday by delegates at the Utah GOP convention in what represents a stunning defeat for a once-popular three-term incumbent who fell victim to a growing conservative movement nationwide. Ah,…

The Taxprof quotes from CNN: An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork. Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue…

I was reading a report on the market meltdown and came across this comment: it’ always about greed. The funny thing is that there don’t seem to be significant numbers of people asking their employers for lower pay. Nor does there seem to be a voluntary movement of any size of people willing to pay…

From Reason Online which excerpted this quote from Radley Balko. SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family’s pit bull and corgi (?!) as a seven-year-old looks on. They found a “small amount” of marijuana, enough for a misdemeanor charge. The parents were then charged with child endangerment. So smoking pot = “child…

With shouts of “Give Us The Money” and “We Need The Cash”, public employees demonstrate in Springfield, Illinois. Nothing could make it more obvious after a demonstration like this that there is a war going on in America between government and the people over who is going to be the Master and who is going…

The Beau Brummels Cross Posted at Power and Control

Politics 101: The politics of a coalition is dominated by the least committed member of the coalition. In response to the comments at Eric’s And if you’re against socialism but not a conservative, then what? Edited for clarity.

Eric at Classical Values repeats the old saw: “the Right is looking for converts and the Left is looking for heretics.” I always thought the left was looking for lunatics. Preferably well educated lunatics: George Orwell: “Some things are so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them” Looking for converts implies that Republicanism is faith…

Al Fin has an article on natural oil spills. He links to a Science Daily piece on oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2000) — Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January…

While reading a review of the book Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History I came across this interesting tit bit (British spelling). Then there’s the year 1620, when the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. Instead of seeing this as the first great turning point in the nation’s colonial history,…

The Democrats appear to be adopting another losing position when it comes to the Banking Bill. With crucial midterm elections nearing, Democrats have lost the advantage they’ve held for years as the party the public trusts to steer the economy. I wonder if that loss of trust has anything to do with the banking bill…

I note that Barnes and Nobel is offering the Nook e-Reader. I wonder if it is safe for children? I wonder what they were thinking? I can just hear the conversations: “Not tonight dear, but the Nook e is fully charged.” Amazon sells them if you have to have a look: Barnes and Noble NOOK…

Arizona has become a Birther State. Not full fledged so far. Only the Arizona House has passed the bill. Even by the measure of Arizona’s long history of conservatism, the past week has been extraordinary. In the past six days, the legislature has passed the nation’s strictest anti-illegal immigration bill, a law permitting concealed weapons,…

Purchasing Magazine is ceasing publication. Reed Elsevier, parent company of Purchasing, announced today that it is closing Purchasing and the magazine’s website, purchasing.com, as well as most of its other U.S. publications, effective immediately. The closing is part of a broad divestiture that itself is part of a restructuring of the London-based Reed Elsevier. The…

It looks like drug prohibition has given us a gift. The battle for Ciudad Juarez began about two years ago when the Sinaloa drug cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and based along Mexico’s Pacific coast, began trying to wrest control of the crucial drug smuggling corridor into the United States from the Juarez…

Mass produced graphene Transistors just got a little closer with this laboratory advance in graphene film fabrication. “Before we can fully utilize the superior electronic properties of graphene in devices, we must first develop a method of forming uniform single-layer graphene films on nonconducting substrates on a large scale,” says Yuegang Zhang, a materials scientist…

Eric mentioned Obama zombies in this post which brings up a post I did on a book about Obama zombies: == So I’m noodling across the net and came across a reference to this book: Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation So naturally I’m interested in the reviews. Here is one reviewer,…

The conservative position: Some one could be doing something bad and the evil goes unpunished – we must pass a law. The liberal position: Some one could be unfairly taking advantage of another in an economic transaction. The evil goes unpunished – we must raise a tax. Which is why I am neither a liberal…

The Examiner reports that The Emperor of Hemp, Jack Herer, has died. Jack Herer, much beloved Emperor of Hemp and marijuana hero. is dead at age 70. Herer was a tireless advocate in the battle to end marijuana prohibition. He was perhaps the world’s most famous activist for the decriminalization of marijuana and the utilization…

I got an e-mail from Tea Party Patriots. Many have asked about the news that there may be “infiltrators” at tea parties around the nation. A website (crashtheteaparty.org) was recently set up. The creator, though he tried to hide his identity, has been outed; his name is Jason Levin, and he’s a middle school teacher…