RNS Quote of the Day: 01/14/09

I think that it is their proximity to California that makes them like this.

Do not use this legislative session to surrender to fear.

Ted Kulongski (D) – Governor of Oregon

It was during his State of the Sate speech where west coast Teddy made that idiot remark.

I say idiot remark because, if you take a moment to hit the link and read the rest of his speech you’ll see the thing he is worried the legislators will get afraid of is raising taxes.

I was going to do a big write up on him and his plans, but DANEgerus beat me to it. You should follow that link and see what is going on there.

Posted in Dare To Be Stupid, Quote of the Day | Leave a comment

I think I should learn to snorkel

Even though this job would interfere with me attending Boomershoot even more than my current one.

An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls “the best job in the world” — earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner’s home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland’s state government announced on Tuesday.

In return, the “island caretaker” will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of “a few minor tasks” — and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

The successful applicant, who will stay rent-free in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy, must be a good swimmer, excellent communicator and be able to speak and write English.

“They’ll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they’re doing so they can’t be too shy and they’ll have to love the sea, the sun, the outdoors,” said acting state Premier Paul Lucas.

Yeah, I should really learn how to snorkel.

Posted in Kewel! | 3 Comments

Don’t you just love teacher’s unions?

Well, if you have school aged children you probably don’t. And here is yet another reason why:

A 33 year old high school music teacher diddles an 18 year old student on school grounds and the Washington Education Association writes an amicus brief to the state court of appeals in his favor during his appeal asking them to toss out his conviction on first degree sexual misconduct charges because the girl was only a student and not a minor.

Lovely.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 5 Comments

Possible (or probable) not so random violence

When the opponents to California’s Prop 8 couldn’t shame proponents into shutting up, they resorted to boycotts of donor businesses. When that didn’t work, they showed up to protest in front of those businesses.

And it should have stopped there, but to certain members of the two grooms crowd, this just wasn’t “affirmation” enough. Then got to see them join the realm of the violent.

To which I ask, just how do the creators of these maps believe they will be used?

Radical opponents of Proposition 8, the proposition that democratically amended the California constitution to define marriage as the union of one man with one woman, have used a variety of tools to alter, and then reject, the popular will of Californians. They tried running vile ads that unfairly targeted groups such as Mormons. When that failed, they resorted to violence and brutal assaults.

And now, they’ve crossed the line once again. They have posted maps online that very clearly show the addresses of those who donated money to the Prop 8 cause (supporting traditional marriage), including even small donors who gave $50 or less.

Imagine the outcry if the scene was reversed and the victorious pro-Prop 8 folks had made maps of the donors to the “No on 8” campaign? Do you have little doubt that the CHP would be working with the FBI to find who had made and distributed said maps and that those individuals would be seen in court on national television?

And yet, because of their “minority” status, nothing. And there will probably be more “nothing” after someone’s home is intruded up or threatened.

And I firmly believe that if you did ask the creators of the above mentioned maps just what they think these maps will be used for, they’ll tell you that they hope “No on 8” supporters use them to harass the people living at the homes listed.

Once again we see that if one standard is good, two must be great.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | Leave a comment

There is a saying that goes

“May you live in interesting times.”

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The origin of the phrase is unknown, but that is of no matter, because things are getting interesting indeed.

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The NRA is keeping their powder dry on the nomination to USAG of Eric “I hunt children for dictators” Holder. He is arguably the most hostile AG nominee to the civil rights of gun owners ever seen, being just this side of Sarah Brady herself.

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But there may be a reason why.

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Both Countertop and the entire staff at The Volokh Conspiracy are liking the nomination of Mr. Cass Sunstein to be the Administrator of the Office of information and Regulatory Affairs. Countertop is even going so far as to label the office as as “”The 4th branch of government” and The most powerful position you have never heard of”.

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We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’m loading mags.

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Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves, Have Gun, Will Travel | 1 Comment

Boomershoot Picture of the Day

Boomershoot 2007: Ready, aim…

Posted in Boomershoot | Leave a comment

We’ve Finally Arrived!

Seattle is a Big Cit-tay now. We’s gonna get us our own Big Dig!

The Alaskan Way Viaduct will be replaced with a tunnel, Gov. Chris Gregoire will announce on Tuesday, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Senior Political Report Essex Porter said the office of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels confirmed that the governor, city, county and port have reached an agreement for replacing the aging roadway that was damaged in a 2001 earthquake.

The governor is scheduled to appear with Nickels, King County Executive Ron Sims and Port of Seattle officials at the World Trade Center at 8:30 a.m.

Earlier, Porter said all signs were pointing to a decision to go with a bored tunnel.

“The fact that the city, the county, the port and the governor’s office (are all) coming together, the fact that the business community is rallying around to provide business leaders to stand behind those political leaders in support” suggests a bored tunnel is very likely the decision, Porter said.

It will be a single-bore tunnel, meaning both sets of lanes will go through the same tunnel, with one set on top of the other.

Word has it that this project will take nine years, which means that it’ll be done in 2025, after all the haranguing and legal pretzel-making is done.

And as Seattle’s Mayors change during that time span, we’ll see who has been lining the right pockets and gets all that new, prime waterfront real estate after they knock down the old viaduct.

Also, now we know what Gregiore spoke about with the Obama folks on the plane to Iraq last weekend.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 4 Comments

Faster, Please

Ohh! A “Plan”!

If Mexican drug violence spills across the U.S. border, Homeland Security officials say they have a contingency plan to assist border areas that includes bringing in the military.

“It’s a common sense extension of our continued work with our state, local, and tribal partners in securing the southwest border,” DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Friday.

That is nice to know. Too bad they’re about three decades too late.

How about if these DHS dweebies take a serious look into these freaks while they’re at it

An animal rights group has claimed that it has sent letter bombs to two University of California, Davis researchers, the school said.

The UC Davis Police Department, Davis Police Department and other agencies are investigating the claim, and no suspicious packages have yet been detected.

The claim was made late on Saturday in a posting on an activist Web site, but the group was not named by authorities. Police notified the two researchers named in the posting — both who are affiliated with the California National Primate Research Center — early on Sunday morning.

They might as well start now, seeing as how by the time they figure out a “Plan” we’ll be in the same boat as Canada.

The tony Canadian home of a former oil industry executive was fire-bombed during the weekend, authorities said.

Jim Carter, who was away with his wife when their house in Edmonton was destroyed, said he was “quite bewildered,” to learn Molotov cocktails had been tossed against his house Saturday, the Edmonton Journal reported Monday.

Carter was president and chief operating officer of Syncrude Canada, an oil sands operation, until 2007. The arson follows recent bomb attacks against oil and gas equipment in British Columbia, although authorities had no evidence tying the incidents together, the newspaper said.

No one was hurt in the weekend blaze but the damage was estimated at $850,000.

Because Canada hasn’t had time to think up a “Plan”.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger., Rampant Eco Socialism | 3 Comments

The Joys of Socialized Medicine: Part #430862

When you hand the government the power to give/permit, you also hand them the power to take/deny.

A married couple have spoken of their shock after being turned down to adopt on the grounds that one of them is too fat.

Damien and Charlotte Hall approached Leeds City Council about adoption after discovering that they were unable to have children of their own.

They were told that Mr Hall’s size, at six foot one and a weight of 24-and-a-half stone (156kg), made him morbidly obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 42.

In a letter, the council told them his BMI must be below 40 before the couple could be considered as potential parents because of a risk he could become ill or even die.

…..

Today the couple, who have been together for 14 years and married for 11, said they felt the ruling was harsh.

156kg is approximately 340lbs.

I’m six foot four and fluctuate between 290 and 310. Like Mr. Hall, I do too much sitting in the office and too little chopping of firewood. Take a look at the picture attached to the article and tell me this guy isn’t reasonably sized.

On a side note, I’d like to see the average BMI of the employees in the government office that makes these decisions.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 1 Comment

Warning

If you wish to buy software that can get around The Great Firewall of China, you may want to think twice about buying it from the Global Internet Freedom Consortium.

Word has it that they sell their client list.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | Leave a comment