Tag Archives: idiots

July 16, 2010

A Festival of Stupid

By Paul Stagg

This week, we were treated to the revelation that the NAACP thinks the Tea Party is racist.

I’m not a member of the Tea Party.  As a libertarian, I’m a big fan of the smaller government, less taxes, more freedom parts of the movement, but not so much interested in the anti immigration, pro drug war, elect Sarah Palin (seriously guys?) parts of the movement.  I’m also not associated with the NAACP, which has moved to the edge of relevancy by finding institutional racism where there is none in order to rally a base and maintain some sort of collective voice.

In this little battle, the Tea Party clearly had the upper hand.  All they had to do was react to the NAACP proclamation for what it was, which is a small marginally relevant group of people making noise trying to get someone to pay attention to them; a group incapable of debating issues and instead interested in namecalling.  Which is to say they should have simply ignored it.  Take the high road, don’t give the stupid idea that the Tea Party is fundamentally racist (and that is a stupid idea) any credibility.

Instead, the head of the Tea Party not only responds, but makes himself look like a bumbling racist while he’s doing it.

Now, it’s clear to me what message he’s trying to convey, but he conveys it in such a way to make him sound like an idiot at best.  This is not what the Tea Party movement needed, and regardless of his intent, he’s now made the Tea Party look like the group that isn’t relevant, the group on the margin, lead by an idealogue of questionable intelligence.

The problem for those of us who love Liberty is that it sets us back, too.  Because regardless of what we say, we’re all lumped in that mean old racist corporate shill tea party group.  It gets tiring and old listening to people too stupid to even have an opinion argue about who’s a racist, or who’s mean, or what economic policy is right (when they don’t understand basic price theory).   It’s worse when no one will listen to you because you are associated with a simpleton.

Link via The Agitator

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July 9, 2010

Why are fish exempt?

By Paul Stagg

As California slips into bankruptcy, the right honorable San Francisco Commission of Animal Control and Welfare (really) is considering a law that would ban the sale of pets.

San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country’s first ban on the sale of all pets except fish.

That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.

“People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized,” said commission Chairwoman Sally Stephens. “That’s what we’d like to stop.”

San Francisco residents who want a pet would have to go to another city, adopt one from a shelter or rescue group, or find one through the classifieds.

I need to know, why are fish  exempt?  Is it because when you tire of a fish, you just flush it?

The commission plans to listen to testimony from pet store owners, among others, before voting. Among the items it will consider is the impact on small businesses, whether to allow the sale of feeder rodents for snakes and other reptiles, the sale of fish, owner education, penalties and rescue groups that host adoptions at pet stores.

So, they will exempt fish, and maybe rodents purchased to feed to your snake.  Apparently a death as food is different from a death at a shelter when no one wants to adopt you.
I’d ask the mice about that one.

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April 27, 2010

Surprising new study

By Paul Stagg

A new study finds some surprises when it comes to what causes premature deaths.

A combination of four unhealthy behaviors — smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet and substantial alcohol consumption — greatly increases the risk of premature death, a new study has found.

The study, published in the April 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, included 4,886 people, aged 18 or older, who were interviewed in 1984-1985.

Wow.  I would never have guessed it.

Lucky for us, the researchers have a solution,

“Modest but achievable adjustments to lifestyle behaviors are likely to have a considerable impact at both the individual and population level,” the researchers concluded. “Developing more efficacious methods by which to promote healthy diets and lifestyles across the population should be an important priority of public health policy.”

Great.  The government will fix it.

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April 9, 2010

MD Legislature does, well, nothing

By Paul Stagg

Other than giving State Troopers the ability to raise a little more cash via fines.

In typical nanny state fashion, lawmakers crow about making us safer and protecting us from our own stupidity (using questionable data); and in reality, pass a law that does pretty much nothing other than raise the fine on people already getting tickets.

The bill makes a driver’s use of a hand-held cell phone while a vehicle is in motion a secondary offense, which means a police officer could not pull over a motorist unless the officer observes another violation.

There is an exception for using a hand-held device while stopped at a red light. Hands-free devices are not covered by the law. The fine for a first offense would be $40, with a $100 penalty for further violations.

So it is absolutely illegal to use your hand held phone while speeding, not using your blinker, or not wearing a seatbelt.   It’s perfectly legal, however, to sit at a red light on your phone instead of looking at the light to see when it turns green.

This is seriously just stupid.  Just a couple steps more, and we’ll not be allowed to use a cell phone at all, nor listen to music, nor eat.  For the children, of course.

[In case you are wondering, I'm against any law like this, ever.  I'm a grownup, and I can decide for myself.]

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April 4, 2010

I love the internet

By Paul Stagg

Without it, we might think the people in Congress are smart or something.

I present:  Guam might tip over

and….

“I don’t care what the Constitution says.”

These two better get Changed ™ in 2010.

And let’s not forget the Executive branch and our 3000% decrease in premiums.  I guess the teleprompter told him to say it.

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March 29, 2010

They PUT the loopholes there!

By Paul Stagg

The headline reads:

Insurance Companies Find Loopholes in New Health Bill

No.  The insurance companies were in on writing the bill.

The White House and lawmakers are bracing themselves for what is sure to be an onslaught of problems and ambiguities in the aftermath of the health care bill being signed into law.

Which sums up nicely why so many were against it, and why so many people in Congress will be looking for new jobs in the fall.

I talked about the baby with a preexisting condition here.

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March 28, 2010

The unintended consequenses already started

By Paul Stagg

And Waxman is going to get to the bottom of it.

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation’s top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses.  Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances — a move one committee Republicans describes as “an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats’ flawed health care reform legislation.”

On Thursday and Friday, the companies — so far, they include AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M — said a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees.  Now, both retirees and current employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.

The health care reform bill increases costs to companies, and those that are publicly traded are required by law to immediately make adjustments for new laws.  So a bunch of them are.  That’s apparently not what the Democrats wanted, so we’ll have hearings.   Go figure.

Any predictions on what they do when health insurance premiums skyrocket?

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March 25, 2010

“Idiot” might not be strong enough

By Paul Stagg

After a recent police involved shooting, the Baltimore Police Commissioner refers to the dead criminal as an ‘idiot’.  Apparently, that upset grandma.

Family members were outraged by the comments from Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. On television after officers Jordan Moore and Keith Romans were shot Sunday on McElderry Street, he called Miller an “idiot” and said shooting at police “defies logic.”

“If I could meet the commissioner I’d punch him in the mouth,” said Miller’s 80-year-old grandmother, Daisy Dawson. “And I don’t care where they’d lock me up. I’d leave my fist inside his mouth.”

Police stood by the statement.

“People can form their own conclusions about someone who pulls out an illegal gun in an attempt to kill two police officers,” said the department’s chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. “I think there are many people who feel that ‘idiot’ and ‘moron’ doesn’t go far enough.”

I’m normally not one to immediately believe a police version of events, but in this case, the guy actually shot two cops.  I’m not sure what other questions need to be addressed.  Yes, he’d still be alive if we didn’t have draconian drug laws, but he shot at cops to get out of a pot charge.  I think I’d shoot for jury nullification or something.

1 comment   |  tags: | posted in Baltimore

March 4, 2010

Is Louisiana the safest state?

By Paul Stagg

Well, it is if you consider keeping the public safe from poorly arranged flowers.

The new lawsuit, which was filed this week, is also backed up by a recent I.J. study in which “Louisiana-licensed florists as well as unlicensed florists from across the border in Texas were asked to judge a random line-up of floral arrangements—25 purchased from shops in regulated Louisiana and 25 purchased from unregulated Texas.” Guess what? “Not even the licensed Louisiana florists could find any difference in the quality of the arrangements.” Yet Thomas Spedale, a licensed florist in Lafayette who likes the idea of having the state artificially restrict his competition, says Louisiana’s legislators were farsighted to perceive a threat to the public from improperly arranged flowers and nip it in the bud:

“We are the only state in the union who has this law, and I think we lead the nation. I think Louisiana has this right. This is protection for the consumer.”

Some things shouldn’t even need the Constitution to be overturned, being stupid should be enough.

3 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Libertarian/Political Stuff

March 3, 2010

The folly of ‘banning’

By Paul Stagg

A great post yesterday from When Falls the Coliseum on banning drinking games for children to keep them from drinking.

Because most of the kids playing beer pong and quarters and asshole are certainly buying drinking game sets and not just playing drinking games. And once they can’t buy the sets, there’s no way they’ll play beer pong, which requires obscure items like cups and a ping-pong table. And there’s no way they’ll play quarters, unless they can somehow get their hands on a quarter. And playing asshole is out of the question, because only the rich kids have a deck of cards.

My only additional comment:  While pretty much anyone can see how remarkably stupid this legislation is, we continue to support the use of force to ban any number of other things, also quite stupidly.

Link via Reason

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