POLITICAL: The DOWGs separation of powers was “a nice try”; NEVADA demonstration

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jul-11-Fri-2003/news/21707576.html

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TAX TIME: So much for the suspense. The state Supreme Court announced Thursday that the Legislature, already in triple overtime, was free to ignore the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority to pass new taxes. The court ruled that, at this late date, a simple majority is good enough for government work.

Not that it should surprise anyone who has followed the tumultuous proceedings the past seven months, but the high court’s ruling is bound to generate all manner of litigation and citizen initiative petitions. Nevada Republican Liberty Caucus official Dan Burdish, acting in his capacity as the leader of Nevadans for Tax Restraint, wasted little time in bashing the court.

“The Nevada Supreme Court in an unprecedented usurpation of the Separation of Powers today threw out the Gibbons Tax Restraint Initiative,” he wrote in a mass e-mail. “Nevadans for Tax Restraint is considering a recall of these six Justices in addition to the Referendum we will conduct to overthrow the soon to be passed $1 billion tax increase.”

You didn’t actually expect the tax-increase critics to go away, did you?

*** end quote ***

Well, “nice try” DOWGs. The Framers of the Constitution never expected that all three branches of gooferment to be in bed with one another.

But, we know better.

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INTERESTING: Beyonce gets labeled “obscene”?

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSKLR22737320071002?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Beyonce dumps Malaysia show to avoid Muslim outcry
Tue Oct 2, 2007 1:43am EDT

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – U.S. R&B star Beyonce Knowles has axed her debut concert in Malaysia in protest against the nation’s ultra-strict dress code and over fears of a Muslim outcry over her show, an industry source said on Tuesday.

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While they are oppressing their people and our visitors, then they can’t be busy making other mischief. It should be a wake up to the women in our country of just how oppressive “religion” can be.

Hey, it’s freedom of religion for everyone to be free from the religion of others!

When I see women in this country dressed in Muslim attire, I just shake my head. Of course, they can do whatever they want. But, I wonder how much is their own free choice.

We need every person in this country “working” on what they see as their best interest. We don’t need to shackle a portion of “our” productive brains. That’s why irrational discrimination is wrong. It hurts the bigot, the victim, and us in general as a civil society.

So, I think this is a perfect issue for the feminists and libertarians.

And, you know these nuts jobs have a Playboy or two hidden away.

So they are sexists and hypocrites. Probably a lot of other ists and ites as well.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: the computer industry’s soft underbelly

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2007/092607backspin.html?page=2

The industry’s soft underbelly
Backspin By Mark Gibbs, Network World, 09/26/07

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What are the big issues that people outside of the computer business should really pay attention to? More important, if we believe that outsiders should be paying attention, then what will it take to clue them in? So, you tell me: What is the computer industry’s soft underbelly? What should consumers know?

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I think there are several “hot issues”:

1) Computers don’t necessarily make one more productive. The certainly don’t make organizations more efficient. And, the noise level of electronic communication is such that it really prevents concentration, attention, and focus. Computing can effectively conceal process problems.

2) The novice, and most experienced, users have no clue how fragile everything is. Hard disk failure is the easiest understood. Data corruption by — malicious, corrupt, buggy, or poorly designed — software is the hardest to understand and protect against.

3) Similarly, software sucks. It’s rare that it works with 100% reliability. If you could keep it locked in a box, then maybe it would stay uncorrupted, unupdated, unfixed, uncustomized, un-what-evered. Put it in use and stuff happens. And, some of that stuff ain’t good. For example, look at Microsoft SUS updating “silently” regardless of what your settings are.

4) Now let’s talk about costs. You don’t “buy” software. “barbara streisand” You give the vendor your money and that the last you’ll get any attention from them. So you don’t “buy” it, but you pay thru the nose. If you’re an old pro, you use Open Source Software where your upfront cost is zero and you can buy some support as you need it. (A better model imho).

5) Companies want your credit card so they can keep billing that card month after month. Good luck getting them to stop. Plan on changing your number to get rid of them. AND, Intelligent Designer help you if you want a refund!

These vex pros and novices alike. And, no one talks about it. But, these are the 800# gorillas in the room imho.

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LIBERTY: Forced service is slavery!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

http://www.nhinsider.com/matt-simon/2007/9/21/values-voters-get-earful-of-truth-from-ron-paul.html

Values Voters’ Get Earful of Truth from Ron Paul

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But anyway, I want to get back to the draft…

This is an issue where the pro-liberty position, the truly moral position, is painfully simple. If we are forced into a service for which we would not volunteer, then we do not own ourselves. If we do not own ourselves, we are not free people. This would have been a no-brainer for the founding fathers, who constructed our government based on the notion that individuals were born free and sovereign.

To the signers of the Declaration of Independence, it was “self-evident” that people were born with “inalienable rights” and that a legitimate government “derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.” Over time, we have been successful in extending the Declaration’s promise to individuals who happen to be female and/or non-white. But we’ve gone in a radically wrong directon on other fronts, and the draft provides a perfect example. Forced service is a form of slavery, period.

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It’s clearly an idea who’s time has past!

So why are the politicians afraid to end it?

It means jobs for their friends and relatives. Contracts for their contributors. And, more than anything, something they can pander about!

End the draft and draft registration now!!

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: Some times people come down the up ramp

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Lesson Learned: Always watch the traffic.

Interesting, during my recent trip to LV, there must have been a bad accident on the interstate. Let me start at the beginning, departing one casino, we were waiting at the traffic light. (If you miss a light in Vegas, you have a lot of time to admire the scenery!) I noticed a helicopter hovering in the distance. It had to be a “traffic” copter. You just don’t see helicopters hovering in one spot. What would they be doing — drying a lawn? Upon closer study, it was over my road. So I immediately began thinking of alternatives. (Who wants to waste gambling time stuck in traffic?) So as I closed the distance, I could see the interstate was bumper2bumper. (Hey great, I ain’t going that way, and I wasn’t planning to go that way. Thanks Intelligent Designer for not putting it on my path!) As me, and two of my closest competitors to get across town first raced down Flamingo Boulevard, we approached the on ramp to the interstate. Did the guy in the right lane (I was in middle) get a surprise when some bozo from the on ramp made a tight left turn in front of him. Right-lane guy was doing 65; down-the-on-ramp guy was doing 5 as a result of that tight reverse 135 degree turn! People were streaming down the on-ramp. It was like a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) movie where people were escaping from Godzilla on the interstate. Luckily, the right lane guy wasn’t turning to get on the interstate, or it would have made an even bigger big mess. More importantly, (after all this is all about me), I recognized the situation, and in true Christian fellowship, ever mindful of the Pontiff’s directive on Christian Driving, I had slowed down to permit the right hand guy to use my lane to escape the accident that was going to happen should he not have an escape route. (The fact, that if right-lane guy had hit down-the-on-ramp guy, there was a very good chance one or both of those bozos would have hit me, thus delaying me from my appointed rounds delivering my cash to casinos though out the Las Vegas valley! Of course, that fact never entered my mind.)

Lesson Learned: Don’t assume that on ramps won’t have exiting traffic! There may not be a traffic helicopter hovering over the road to alert you.

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Posted by reinkefj