GUNS: “We know we are violating numerous constitutional rights here”

Thursday, July 20, 2017

https://bearingarms.com/beth-b/2017/07/19/judge-marine-2a/

Judge Tells Marine to Choose Between 2A Rights And Fostering Grandson
Posted at 9:51 am on July 19, 2017 by Beth Baumann

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The Johnsons were going to take custody of their grandson to keep him from going into foster care. When they went to pick up their grandson, William, a retired, disabled Marine with a Concealed Pistol License (CPL), was searched for a firearm. He was not carrying a firearm at the time. At that point, agency officials told the Johnsons that they would be required to provide all firearms’ serial numbers to the agency as part of a registry. When Johnson questioned agency workers, he was given a surprising response.

“If you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights,” a MDHHS worker retorted.

When the Johnsons appeared before a Gogebic County Court judge, the judge reiterated the agency worker’s statement.

“We know we are violating numerous constitutional rights here, but if you do not comply, we will remove the boy from your home,” the judge said.

*** end quote ***

I would hope that every Michigan patriot will demand that this judge be immediately impeached.

This is unconscionable.

Argh!

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FUN: Stick pens — love them or leave them?

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

https://www.wired.com/story/the-bic-stops-here-in-praise-of-the-humble-stick-pen/

AUTHOR: ELIZABETH STINSON
07.16.1707:00 AM

THE BIC STOPS HERE: IN PRAISE OF THE HUMBLE STICK PEN

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Since then, very little about the pen has changed—not even the faded blue plastic casing. “When people see this pen, they know exactly what it is,” says Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict. “That Paper Mate keeps making it is a testament to it being a good enough pen.” Good enough, it turns out, to sell 90 million of these pens last year. Most of them are bought in bulk by schools and businesses who think they’re getting something cheap and semi-reliable. What they don’t realize is that they’re actually getting a classic pen, for the price of a few pennies.

*** end quote ***

I like the line: “I love my stick pens, but I don’t exactly value them.”

TDBANK gives pens away so freely that I see them at competing banks. Something humorous about that!

If a competing bank uses TD pens, I wonder how good a bank they are. In the case of Wells Fargo, there is no doubt.

Guess where I bank?

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POLITICAL: Was the DJT JR meeting illegal?

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

https://jasonstapleton.com/625-trump-in-trouble-a-smoking-gun-has-appeared/

625: Trump in Trouble. A smoking gun has appeared.

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Naturally, he’s going to come out clean. That’s what presidents do. But it proves the claims that some Trump campaign officials DID seek to sway the election with the help of the Russians.

*** end quote ***

More interestingly, Jason asks the question, that no one in the media is answering, “Was this illegal?”. If so, what law was broken?

Just as you don’t want to see sausage being made, “politics” is a dirty business. If the media was doing its “job” (i.e., muckraking), then the American People would be a lot better informed.

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Self-driving car displaces the regional airplane?

Monday, July 17, 2017

https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/16/dear-united-autonomous-cars-will-pull-you-out-of-your-seat/?ncid=rss

CRUNCH NETWORK
Dear United: Autonomous cars will pull you out of your seat
Posted 4 hours ago by Cyrus Radfar (@cyrusradfar)

*** begin quote ***

The Golden Triangle: Faster, Cheaper, and Better

In general, terrestrial short haul may be as fast or slightly slower than airlines, today. Nevertheless, it’s likely to be much more consistent on both price and time to the destination.

It’s hard to believe that the experience wouldn’t be more comfortable door to door and it will, likely, be much more affordable, especially for business group travel.

*** and ***

According to some estimates, the price of cabs sans driver could come down as much as three-quarters. If the journey between LA and SF with one passenger may be twice the cost of the best price and with more passengers, autonomous travel would become the cheaper option.

*** end quote ***

Interesting is the cost savings. ¾ price advantage, no security, and a comfortable ride — sounds like the poor man’s “private jet”.

Where do I sign up?

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GOLD: Why should gold be money? No bureaucrats required!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

2017-Jul-16

From (the brilliant) Alasdair Macleod: “Understanding Money and Prices”

“Gold matters, because, excepting silver, it is the only form of money that has survived since individuals discovered the convenience of money over barter. It is beyond the control of governments, as they cannot issue it without acquiring it first. It is subject to the constraints of its quality, so that as a medium of credit it cannot be debauched, only defaulted upon. Its relative inflexibility and its soundness are the primary reason governments do not like monetary gold, and force their preferred alternative on their citizenry. The vested interest of government is therefore to discourage, or even ban the use of gold as competing money.”

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Imagine the world without any “central banks”?

Imagine the world without bureaucrats “setting” interest rates?

Imagine the world without politicians borrowing “money” to spend to buy votes?

Sounds like a pretty good world to me.

You could save for your retirement and know that Gooferment “inflation” couldn’t steal your wealth from you.

If a politician wants to start a war, then they have to pay for it.

If a bureaucrat wants to increase his staff, then they have to pay for it.

If the “community organizer” wants to get “free” stuff, then they have to pay for it.

Go ahead “raise taxes” and see how that worshippers out for you.

Argh!

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LOCAL: SBTWP bills for school

Saturday, July 15, 2017

https://patch.com/new-jersey/southbrunswick/franklin-dad-must-pay-35k-sending-kids-south-brunswick-schools

Franklin Dad Must Pay $35K For Sending Kids To South Brunswick SchoolsThe South Brunswick school system actually did surveillance, observing his Monmouth Junction rental property 27 times and finding it vacant.
By Carly Baldwin (Patch Staff) – Updated July 11, 2017 8:45 pm ET

*** begin quote ***

It was actually South Brunswick school system that launched the investigation. The district conducted surveillance at his Monmouth Junction rental. For 27 visits, there was no activity at the apartment, the district said. But on 28 occasions, the investigator saw the man’s cars parked outside his Franklin home. Those same cars would then drop his kids off at school the next day.

*** end quote ***

So why is the Gooferment in the “school business”?

We don’t care where the man buys his food or his gas. Why should it matter where his children get their education?

In 1984, I proposed to Hands Across New Jersey a forty year plan to privatize the school system. The first twenty were about giving parents free choice with vouchers; the second twenty were about reducing the amount of the vouchers by 5% every year. 

If anyone was really interest in SOLVING the problem then, it’d been SOLVED three years ago. Argh!

If anyone was really interest in SOLVING the problem NOW, they could have it done by 2057.

It took the USA about 100 years to get into this mess and “ride” it to its breaking point. 

“When in a hole, stop digging!” — old Wall Street maxim

Let’s stop digging!

Argh!

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PEACE: Good men and women in harm’s way

Friday, July 14, 2017

The Hornet’s Nest (2014)

The Hornet’s Nest is a groundbreaking and immersive feature film, using unprecedented real footage to tell the story of an elite group of U. S. troops sent on a dangerous mission deep inside one of Afghanistan’s most hostile valleys. What was planned as a single day strike turned into nine intense days of combat against an invisible, hostile enemy in terrain where troops had never dared go before.

Starring: Mike Boettcher, Carlos Boettcher

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Let’s bring all the girls, boys, women, and men home now! We have so many politicians and bureaucrats to send in their place if it’s really needed!

So sad.

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INTERESTING: The = sign

Thursday, July 13, 2017

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/how-the-equals-sign-changed-the-world/

SCIENCE HISTORY —
How the equals sign changed the world
500 years ago, tragic Welsh genius Robert Recorde wanted to teach math to ordinary people.
ESTHER INGLIS-ARKELL – 7/9/2017, 9:00 AM

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Recorde found it irritating to have to state over and over that one side of an equation was equal to the other side. He wrote, with obvious annoyance and whimsical spelling, “And to avoide the tedious repetition of these woordes, is equalle to, I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles.” Instead of using a phrase to convey meaning, he would convey the same meaning with a symbol. What symbol could be more appropriate than a pair of equal-length lines? Nothing, Recorde explained, “noe 2 thyngs, can be moare equalle.”

Recorde’s symbol didn’t catch on at first. The language of Latin still held sway during the 16th century. Latin had a word for the concept, “aequalis,” and if more concision was necessary, people could shorten it to “ae” or “oe.” But aiding the popularity of the equals sign was Recorde’s introduction, to English-speakers, of the German symbols “+” and “-“. In combination, these signs allowed people to express, quickly and with a minimum of wasted ink, a mathematical equation in symbols. Instead of writing, “A factore added to a quantitie of thryeye is equalle to a dyffyrynte factore frome whyche is takene awaye a quantitie of foure,” a mathematician could write: “x + 3 = y – 4”.

*** and ***

Sadly, Recorde wasn’t lauded as a hero of rationality and math education in his lifetime. Brilliant as he was, he forgot one of the basic rules of his day: the aristocracy always wins. 

*** end quote ***

I particularly like the observation that he brought “quantification” to the general population.

Sad that he wound up being “unequal”.

Argh!

Imagine if the human race cherished genius instead of celebrity, status, or “royalty”. 

Argh!

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LIBERTARIAN: Elections suck

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/07/commentary_on_u.html

Commentary on US Election Security
Bruce Schneier 

*** begin quote ***

Good commentaries from Ed Felten and Matt Blaze.

Both make a point that I have also been saying: hacks can undermine the legitimacy of an election, even if there is no actual voter or vote manipulation.

*** end quote ***

I’ve always been of the opinion that “we” have too many elections and elected offices.

It would seem the logic of Dead Old White Guys was to keep elections as local as possible (i.e., the House of Representatives; the Senate selected but the State Legislatures). 

My suggestion is that each residence (i.e., house or apartment) would get one “vote” per person. Then, each street or apartment house would vote for their representative. That rep would vote for a neighborhood rep casting the number of proxies they hold. And so forth and so on, until we eventually got mayors. Mayors would vote for county execs. County execs for governor. All based on those underlying proxies. The Fifty governors would then elect a President. 

Fraud would be virtually impossible. Yes it’d take some effort , but look at the results.

Mad at any politician? Take it up with the “elected rep” closest to you. Real easy!

Totally responsive to the electorate. 

Go ahead and try and  hack that!

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INTERESTING: I got pulled over?

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

2017-Jul-11 1055

Interesting morning. 

I was driving the Caddie and pulled out of 7-11 when there was big gap in the traffic. Someone jumped into my gap and I was forced to stay on the shoulder for three or four cars. Finally a cop let me in. I waved thanks and toodled along. 

Two lights later, he lit me up and pulled me over. Argh!

So I sat quietly until he walked up to the car. On his way to the driver’s side window, he touched the driver’s side rear light. That struck me as strange.

“Registration and insurance card”. I responded: “It’s in the glove box.” “Ok, you can get it now and thanks for telling me.” I got them out and the contents of the box rolled out. I took them out of the evelope and passed them to him. 

“License.” “In my wallet”. “OK”. So extracted the wallet and pulled it out and handed it to him.

He said: “I pulled you over because your license came back as suspended. Did you turn your NJ license when you got a NH one?” “yes. The car is based in NJ so it’s registered and insursed here.” “OK.”

He went back to the police car. And spent a few minutes. On the way back, he touched the taillight again. Struck me as strange.

“Do you still have the address in Kendall Park?” “Yes.” “OK. No problem.”

And I went on my way.

I’m still wondering why he touched the car?

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UPDATE

http://www.rd.com/advice/travel/cops-touch-cars-tail-light-traffic-stops/1/?trkid=NL-RANDOM-072817&_cmp=ReadUpRDUSLiveIntent&_ebid=ReadUpRDUSLiveIntent7282017&_mid=159852&ehid=d0710e71c64f1dc22bdeeadff8aca9e5205e14d8

Confirmation.

# – # – # – # – #  2017-Jul-28 @ 20:34  

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