Guard Dog

Reason skews Libertarian not Conservative. And it's much more news commentary that news. Mother Jones should be in "Extreme Liberal" since they advocate prison terms for people who have doubts about human culpability in climate change. Definitely red rectangle worthy. The rest looks about right.

What Shady said

Wasn't he gray for a while? And Chill, the key to comedic expression is to say it without saying it!

I stopped reading comics in the '80's. So as far as I am concerned comics stopped in the '80's dammit. Captain America was all a hero should be, Spider man was still Peter Parker and still wearing the awful black suit (and no it wasn't an alien), Bat Man is still alive, the Hulk was green and Thor still had a hammer (if you know what I mean)!

No love for Superman? You know who else wasn't a Nazi? I'm guessing he didn't throw his shield like a Frisbee much in those days.

It doesn't look that way

In defense of Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, that blonde, what's her name, they are all kids. They are 17 years old. They have never been anywhere, they have never done anything, and they don't know anything. You hand a kid like that a microphone and there is a 99.9% chance they will say something an older and more experienced and educated person will find dumb no matter how impassioned they are. Because of that they probably are not experienced and savvy enough to see their cause is likely to be hijacked by the professional political class. These kids are not asking for the complete prohibition of firearms and the repeal of the 2nd amendment. The goals they are asking for are mostly (not entirely) attainable. But there are people using and even co-opting them who DO want that. And that has made the kids the target of some harsh-to-the-point-of-stupidity comments from other people who oppose those people. Just like that the kids are pawns on a chessboard. As much as I find some of the things they are saying foolish I am also sympathetic to them. They have something to say and they are getting together and saying it. Nothing wrong with that at all even if i disagree with it. Who isn't an idealist at 17? What they don't know is that they have walked into a rats nest where larger and uglier rats are fighting and trying to use them as weapons against each other.

The absence of evidence of a conspiracy IS evidence of a conspiracy!

I started this last night. I can't put it down: Next up:

I did get a kick out of that Hogg kid complaining about the clear back packs the school makes them use now. He said they were a violation of the kids First Amendment rights. I bet his American Government teach cringed when he read that. It's actually a violation of the 4th amendment rights except they tend to be mitigated the moment you walk into a place like a school. The other comment he made on the backpacks was something about punishing people who had done no wrong. I find the irony of that from a guy who wants to take away semi-auto weapons from people who have done no wrong amusing.

Now here is a round peg for a round hole! https://www.yahoo.com/news/clown-congress-aims-unseat-gop-rep-south-carolina-110807964--election.html

Quote of the day: "Stormy Daniels didn't vote for Trump and only had sex with him once. If you vote for him he screws you multiple times" -Ann Coulter

Man you have GOT to love the Oakland A's. That team and that city are well suited to each other.A different kind of team for a different kind of place! http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766384-athletics-offer-20-parking-discount-to-giants-fans-who-yell-go-as-at-gates?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

Oh my God! Someone on the internet doctored a photo! Someone on the internet LIED! Our democracy has failed! The internet must be banned! https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/26/us/emma-gonzalez-photo-doctored-trnd/index.html Here is some smelling salts for the hysterical types who think Russia stole the election of think Emma Gonzalez really wants to destroy the Republic: No one with half a brain believes what they read on the internet! Hell I looked for a recipe for zucchini corn bread and still felt I should cross check it with other sources.

OK, first of all this is the Daily Kos. Not exactly a bastion of unbiased journalism. Second of all they are attacking a strawman here a little bit. That question is less about puppy mills and more about probing a candidate's stance on enforcing an existing law rather than piling new law atop old law. The favored tactic of anti-freedom legislators and executives is to not enforce existing law through executive order or funding cuts. Then claim the moral high ground when lack of enforcement results in a crime and tout new and stricter laws (which will also go unenforced because the end game is prohibition). Third of all the puppy mill situation is one I know well having worked in dog rescue in the past. It's a nasty business that absolutely is and should be illegal in most states. But anti-puppy mill laws are often (as most laws are these days) not evenly enforced and construed to shut down legitimate private breeders who actually do a good job managing their animals. The wording of the law is key when defining what is or is not a criminal enterprise. It's often vague and left to the interpretation of law enforcement. If our history has taught us anything it's that when things are left to the cops to interpret they are going to do so in an abusive and heavy handed way 99.9% of the time. Short answer, the Daily Kos is oversimplifying a complicated issue to create a strawman to attack a political foe. Of course the questions and example itself is just weapons grade stupid on the NRA's part. But they do stupid better than most other groups I'm sorry to say. If there were another nationwide group for 2nd Amendment advocacy that was better managed I'd join it. Unfortunately that clown college is all there is.

That has been a long time coming.

The NRA isn't evil. I'm a member. A lifetime member. It serves a purpose that no other national group is doing. Even those that claim they are dedicated to defending rights. The problem with the NRA is a guy named Wayne LaPierre. He takes great joy in diving into the political pig pen and wallowing with the worst of them. And he has made the NRA a fundraising arm of the Republican Party. That is something it never was in the past. The cause would be better served by being more apolitical and more "colorblind" in support of candidates on both sides of the aisle.Rather than antagonizing opponents it's better to focus on electing allies. The cause would also be much better served by focus on one simple message, stay on that message, don't say ANYTHING that varies from that, and for God's sake don't publicly attack teenagers. Nothing good comes from that.

An excellent argument for limiting investments to commodities and real assets. Real estate, gold, silver, etc might not make you rich but they have a real value not tied to any one currency (real or imaginary) and will never be worthless.

Never mind. It was a nasty comment.

Even if every word of that were true that is not the way to go about it. If you discovered space aliens were living under your house and plotting to take over the world would you go tell the cops they are there? They would lock YOU up! No you tell them someone hid drugs under there. You don't just go right at something, you go diagonal. Flanking attacks are far preferable to frontal assaults. As far as this particular situation goes, sometimes it best just to STFU. These protest movements will go one of two ways. They will either burn themselves out or be hijacked by the radicals who really do dream of kicking down doors and taking everyone's guns by force. Either way this all blows over. My advice would be not to make yourselves look like jackasses before it does. But, of course that advice comes unheeded and too late.

He could have signed it, vetoed it, whichever he chose. It would be unusual for the President to veto a bill passed by a Congress controlled by his own party. But hardly unheard of. Obama did it once and George W Bush did it a number of times. And if it shuts the government down then shut it down. Better to do nothing than the wrong thing. Cutting taxes cuts revenue in the short term but raises it in the long term. That may sound paradoxical but it is absolutely true. The reason is capital in the hands of consumers and investors gets used. The citizens want widgets. If they have more money they buy more widgets. The means revenue growth for the people who sell widgets, make widgets, deliver widgets, make the parts to make widgets. Revenue growth means re-investment, expansion, hiring, which means more taxes. More people with jobs means more taxpayers. More revenue means business pay more. The effect is exponential becoming larger the further down the road you get from the cuts. Ultimately the government has more money even though it cut taxes. Buuuuuut, it DOES mean less revenue in the short term. So if you are earning a little less you need to spend a little less right? Not here. The spending is utterly and completely out of control. And no one is even suggesting cutting it any more. Now it's a race to see who can spend the most. So when you or I run out of money that's just tough tittie for us. Break out the Ramen noodles for dinner. Governments don't run out of money. They create deficits by spending money that does not actually exist. That can lead to currency devaluation due to inflation and other bad things.

Going into Thursday night they lost their last 3 by an average of 21 points. They are not having a bad night, they have just flat out quit.

Just like that the Giants lose their two best pitchers: https://www.mlb.com/news/giants-madison-bumgarner-injured-by-line-drive/c-269516312

I was being 100% non serious. But there is at least a fair chance some kind of break up may occur someday. I do not think it will be along state lines like last time. What people today fail to understand about 1860 is the United States was a very different country then. The states were the principle organizing force. The idea of being loyal to the "United States" was a strange one and not commonly held. When a state seceded most folks did not see that as a betrayal so much as sticking by your kin and kind as they said in those days. The Civil War played a part in changing that and creating a national identity. The rail road played an even bigger part to tell the truth. If something like that were to happen again it would be organic. It would cross state lines. And it would likely not be into two entities but three or four. It takes more to make a country than lines on a map. Like tends to call to like. Look in Europe following the collapse of the USSR several nations that were held together only by soviet guns split apart because they were made up of different cultures and languages that had no common history. The entire 20th Century history of the middle east was written in the Syles-Picot agreement in 1917 before any of it ever happened when the British & French reneged on their promise to allow the Arab states to organize themselves and carved up the Ottoman Empire between themselves. Since then all there has been is blood because people who hate each other won't willingly organize with each other. No matter our political differences here Americans still share a common language and a common culture. That counts for a lot. The day may come when political differences become so great it won't count for enough. If the day ever comes where actually freedom is expected to be sacrificed in the name of legislative progress we may reach a breaking point. Therein lies the danger of the gun debate. But we are nowhere near that today. I hope it never happens. I figure you could tell from the tone of my post I was being sarcastic. We are far more likely to wreck our economy with the incompetence of our political leadership than any other demise I could imagine. They took another step down that road yesterday.