Michelle Hottentot, 26, of Sherman Heights, has been sentenced to six months in jail for violating the state’s Health Care Freedom and Insurance Act. Ms. Hottentot was convicted of having unprotected sex with an unidentified man with whom she was not in a committed monogamous relationship.

Prosecutors had argued that Ms. Hottentot’s promiscuous behavior was in violation of the state’s health care laws, which require that all citizens not “knowingly engage in any behavior that might be considered ‘risky’ to any reasonable person or entity.” Cities around the state have been prosecuting people for any number of activities, including riding skateboards and inhaling helium to make their voices squeaky.

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Tags: health & medical, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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“The utopian schemes of leveling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. They are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.”

Samuel Adams, Founding Father, on Redistribution of Wealth and Communism

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Three cheers for the death of Big-Government!

Make no mistake about it: This is the beginning of the end for Big-Government.

There is NO way The Federal Government can pay for Obamacare. It’s going to bankrupt the country, just like socialized medicine has bankrupted every other country where it has been tried. The end result of Obamacare is to accelerate the coming debt tsunami that is going to swamp this country, NOT to decelerate it. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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I am currently digging Chocolate Cheerios. In the 1980’s, when crack cocaine was tearing apart our nation’s inner cities, Coco Puffs were having a similar effect on the O’Connor household. They became a banned substance after my mom caught my siblings and I doing lines of the stuff you found on the bottom of the cereal bag that we called “Coco Dust.” After rehab — we were confined to boring, healthy cereals like Kix, Rice Krispies, and Chex. But now I’m an adult (kind of) — I have a mortgage, I pay bills, and I do the shopping.  And I can buy Chocalate Cheerios — which are allegedly sort of good for you (at least that’s what I keep telling my girlfriend). They are delicious and I just hope my mom doesn’t catch me relapsing on my Coco Dust addiction. [Read more →]

Tags: education, music, politics & government, recipes & food, television by Marty O'Connor
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I’m interested in the recent flap between Chief Justice John Roberts and the White House over comments that President Obama made at the State of the Union address. In the speech, you’ll recall, Obama criticized the Court’s decision in Citizens United to roll back campaign finance restrictions. Then, last week, a tape was released in which Roberts characterized Obama’s open criticism as indecorous. The New York Times has a roundup of the argument, along with the jabs of several writers who have weighed in — the word “crybaby” comes up frequently.

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Tags: language & grammar, politics & government by Neil Verma
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Whenever someone proposes spending money on a new government program, critics will say that we should balance out the effect on the budget with a matching tax increase. That would be great if it worked, but it’s a mistake to think that we can make up for increased government spending by increasing taxes.

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Tags: money, politics & government by Mark Draughn
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BBC News reported this week that the Treasury Department has eased sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Sudan with the hope of “[helping] further the use of web services and [supporting] opposition groups.” While I generally disagree with sanctions on principle, and so certainly welcome any removal of them by our gov’t, I can’t help but make a few quick points regarding the general narrative that this move fits into. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, technology by Calvin Pollak
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I am so sick and tired of hearing Republican hack after Republican hack telling those of us who are conservative, and yet not also Republican, that we are the ones screwing everything up.  From Limbaugh and Rove on the squawking boxes to actual Republican leaders like Romney, it’s a virtual litany these days…

It pisses me off.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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The new Iron Man 2 trailer has appeared to much fanfare, as the sheeple begin to salivate over the return of their military-industrial complex savior. Well, you’ll excuse me if I’m not excited about the so-called “super” hero known as “Iron Man.” I know he is not all the media would have you believe. I know that Iron Man, AKA Tony Stark, is a heartless businessman who cares for nothing more than the padding of his own massive bank account.

Tony Stark is more than just an opportunist and war profiteer. He’s also got a shameful secret he’d like to keep hidden. A shameful union-busting past, as stated in the explosive headline of this post.

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Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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Bon Jovi is using the occasion of his latest tour to promote volunteerism, and is apparently playing this video at each of his concerts:

I think it’s obvious that anyone who would willingly attend a Bon Jovi concert is in desperate need of direction as to how to spend his free time, but that video is liable to confuse Mr. Jovi’s fans. [Read more →]

Tags: music, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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I spent much of my childhood in the Silver State and love it still, which is why I’m proud it can offer a pair of leaders to rival New York’s dynamically dysfunctional duo of Spitzer and Paterson. The more famous is Senator John Ensign, whose prospects of becoming the Republican party’s next Palin dimmed significantly when it was revealed he’d been boinking an aide’s wife. This was bad, not because it showed Ensign’s spouse couldn’t trust him — that’s to be expected in politics — but his own staff couldn’t either…and if they can’t, good luck to folk not on his payroll. It soon got worse, with the FBI investigating how Ensign used his power to help the career of the angry spouse of his former bed mate…and then got kind of goofy, with Ensign admitting he had his parents pay the woman nearly $100,000, because even an elected official in his 50s sometimes needs a hand from Mom and Dad. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Sean Cunningham
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Guess who’s back? That’s right! The western hemisphere’s favorite oppressor and comandante — el Comandante, Fidel Castro. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water (off the shores of Havana that is). [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Robert O'Hara
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The president’s health care initiative has been stalled by politics as usual and partisan rancor. This is a great tragedy, not only because people are literally dying in the streets from lack of access to government-run health care, but because it also gives the impression that Americans are “ungovernable.” Despite what you might have read in Newsweek, it’s only some Americans that are “ungovernable.” I, for one, want to be governed in the worst way; which is why I have so much faith in our current leaders. To that end, I’ve come up with a plan to help the president jump-start what is becoming a stalled presidency: appointing a bunch of new czars. Czars are great, since they don’t require congressional approval and can therefore get started doing the people’s work right away. They can also do pretty much whatever they want, because they don’t have to worry about being accountable to those “ungovernable” American citizens, like my neighbor who shall remain nameless. The president hasn’t yet taken full advantage of his power to appoint czars, so below is just a small sample of the czars I’d like to see him appoint, to bypass all the partisan gamesmanship and really get to work helping us:

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Tags: diatribes, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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Plenty of people have been whining publicly that they can’t afford health care insurance, some of whom I know. I’m talking about fairly young, reasonably healthy men and women with decent jobs who think the government should step in. Consequently, I sought out a solution at the grassroots level to see if I could help, and in the process, avoid a costly federal mandate.

Turns out it was easier to get health insurance than one might think. That’s right, an American who wants health insurance has a sure fire way to get it. Here’s how. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government by Daniel Putkowski
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President John F. Kennedy, a naval officer in World War II, once told a friend how a Navy chief would describe a broken down jeep: “This fucking fucker is all fucked up!”

The phrase “curse like a sailor” has a basis in fact. Sailors do curse.

But it appears that Navy Captain Holly Graf took the tradition a bit too far. As TIME reports, Captain Graf cursed and abused her officers and crew, which led to her being relieved of the command of her ship.       

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Tags: politics & government by Paul Davis
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One of the most important political developments of the last century happened when the US Government decided to take your income taxes directly out of your paycheck, before you get it.  This has had the effect of hiding from the citizens just how much they’re really paying, and has helped keep the sheeple quiet about the massive levels of government spending.  Instead of April 15th being a dreadful day when you have to cut Uncle Sam a huge check, now many Americans look at the tax deadline as a payday!

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Tags: money, politics & government by Mike McGowan
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At what point does respect become subservience? This is a serious question because much has been made about respect for our leaders, especially at the federal level. Certainly, it is productive to treat elected officeholders with a measure of decorum. Politeness goes a long way toward getting heard. Nonetheless, it may be time for some tough talk and bold action. Of late, certain officials have told some whoppers: absolute, far-out, nowhere near the truth tales. The press somehow manages to let these pass with nary a challenge. The opposition party members seem to get a case of Timid Timmy, too. They let the bald faced balderdash fly into the ether with a look of consternation if they manage that much. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government by Daniel Putkowski
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The USA PATRIOT Act was, in my mind, one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed, and its abuses are one of the two methods in which I think George W. Bush’s Administration blatantly violated the US Constitution.

But the Wall Street Journal is telling us that the government is now serving up something even worse.  Project Einstein:

The current version of the program is widely seen as providing meager protection against attack, but a new version being built will be more robust-largely because it’s rooted in NSA technology. The program is designed to look for indicators of cyber attacks by digging into all Internet communications, including the contents of emails, according to the declassified summary.

Homeland Security will then strip out identifying information and pass along data on new threats to NSA. It will also use threat information from NSA to better identify emerging cyber attacks.

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Maybe you’ve heard about that scandalous Republican PowerPoint presentation delivered by Finance Director Rob Bickhart. According to Politico, the presentation breaks donors into two categories:

The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”

Major donors, by contrast, are treated in a column headed “Calculated Giving.” Their motivations include: “Peer to Peer Pressure”; “access”; and “Ego-Driven.”

The PowerPoint includes caricatures of Democratic leaders as the Joker and Scoobie-Doo. Of course, cable news has gone bananas, and Republican Chairman Michael Steele has repudiated the material.

But should he? I rise in Bickhart’s defense.

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Tags: diatribes, politics & government by Neil Verma
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Three months ago, I wrote about some of the problems with the global warming debate, not the least of which is that we were only being exposed to one side of the debate, namely, the doom-and-gloom types of arguments. I questioned a couple of assertions being made by the anthropogenic global warming crowd, and concluded the piece with the observation that we never hear about any of the possible benefits of the Earth heating up.

Thanks to the implosion of the Green-as-the-new-Red movement, due to the Climategate scandal, my point is finally being considered by the mainstream!

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Tags: environment & nature, politics & government by Mike McGowan
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