“To assume that [climate change] is a problem is to assume that the state of earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change.”
— NASA Administrator Dr. Michael Griffin, May 30, 2007 interview
Senator Chris Dodd has inserted into a new housing bill a requirement that all electronic payments be reported to the government.
Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government’s purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access?
The Phoenix Lander touched down on Mars on Sunday after 9 months in space. Its mission is to study the arctic soil for signs of water.
Via Wired:
From: HumanEvents.com
Saudi Arabia Did More Last Week to Lower Gas Prices Than Congress DidThe Left just doesn’t seem to get it. They spent much of last week ridiculing the President for visiting Saudi Arabia in an effort to lower oil prices. Here’s what Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Friday:
“The president seems to value his friendship with the Saudis more than his obligation to help the American people with gas prices.”
But what Senator Schumer doesn’t seem to understand is that the Saudis did more last week to lower oil prices than liberals in Congress did.
While liberals were voting to prevent domestic production from oil shale, the Saudis, following President Bush’s visit, agreed to boost their oil output by 300,000 barrels a day. It won’t fix the problem, but at least it won’t make it worse, which is exactly what liberals in Congress did last week.
As Americans, we all need to ask ourselves the following: Which is it — the Congress or Saudi Arabia — that has a greater obligation to ease our energy prices? And which is the greater obstacle to energy independence and security?
Plato wrote: “Where there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.”
I have recently become aware of the FairTax, a proposal to eliminate our current system and replace it. As I learn more about the details I can not help but be in favor of it. Most people in this country don’t realize the amount of money that the government takes from them. The FairTax would create a system of a consumption tax, which means the only taxes paid would be on goods and services rendered at the retail level. This is an incomplete description however and I implore anyone reading this to check it out for themselves and to not dismiss an idea that has the potential to increase the prosperity of this country.
Two new oil fields have been discovered off the coast of Brazil. Experts estimate that both oil fields could hold a total of 40 billion barrels of oil. Hopefully the environmentalists will not try and prevent the drilling like in Alaska.
On Sunday night a libertarian minded young woman was arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial while listening to her IPod. She was part of a group who decided to celebrate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. Watch the video of one of her compatriots and I hope you will be as pissed off as I am. We consistently give the state ever increasing power that now the security guards at memorials think the can arrest people on a whim.
Thats right. Miami Police are going to deploy hovering UAVs a la Dark Angel and Minority Report. Finally, something I can shoot down with my shot gun that PETA wont give me grief over.
“[A] wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.†—Thomas Jefferson
CBS has put out a job listing for a new reporter to cover the environment, without any knowledge of the subject as a requirement.
Check here for the posting.
From the Republican Presidential Debate earlier this week.
“Hillary tried to get a million dollars for the Woodstock museum. I understand it was a major cultural and pharmaceutical event. I couldn’t attend. I was tied up at the time.†—John McCain
MAPLight.org is a cool new website which tracks contributions given to politician alongside their voting records. The site also gives information on which companies or industries are in support of each bill. MAPLight does a great job of collecting all of the data into easy to read graphs that anyone can understand. There is also a function that allows a visitor to create a custom graph using any of the available data on the website.
I recently found a cool blog called GamePolitics.com. They have several good posts on the recent ICE raids of console modders. I will also add this site to our resources section.
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was recently involved in a bunch of raids on the makers of mod-chips instead of cracking down on illegal immigrants and preventing possible terrorists from staying inside the country. Mod-chips are used to enhance the functionality of consoles such as the XBOX and Playstation. The government has the citizens’ best interests in hand, honestly.
Update:
A victim of the raids has come forward to give his personal account.
Here is a video of Senator Ted Stevens attempting to be “hip” while discussing new wireless technologies. I plead with all Alaskans to get this man out of office. He knows nothing about the subject his committee is responsible for. Senator Stevens may be a smart man, but when it comes to technology he is completely inept.
Over at The Consumerist blog, they have the exact same feelings as I do about the most recent Visa commercials. *waving hand slowly* You don’t want to use cash, debit cards are better.
From the Financial Times:
The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists.
This is one of the most eloquent statements I have heard regarding the “threat” of global warming.
This is excellent testimony given at a congressional hearing, regarding the federal governments attempts to limit the rights of individuals.
From:NRO
In a stunning move, House Democrats today revealed they will attempt to rewrite House rules that have gone unchanged since 1822 in order to make it possible to increase taxes and government spending without having to vote and be held accountable. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today vowed Republicans will use every available means to fight this unprecedented change.
From:Best of the Web
Oh No, Not Agana!
Who says the Democratic Congress isn’t getting anything done? By a vote of 288-133, the House last week approved the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, described by Congress.org as follows:Recognizes the suffering and the loyalty of the people of Guam during the Japanese occupation of Guam in World War II.
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to make specified payments to: (1) living Guam residents who were killed, injured, interned, or subjected to forced labor or marches resulting from, or incident to, such occupation and subsequent liberation; and (2) survivors of compensable residents who died in war or survivors of compensable injured residents (such payments to be made after payments have been made to surviving Guam residents). Defines “compensable Guam decedent” and “compensable Guam victim.”
In fairness, the bill, whose text you can read by clicking here and going to the fourth version listed, doesn’t actually refer to “living Guam residents who were killed.” Still, isn’t there something screwy about the idea that the U.S. taxpayer should be paying reparations for atrocities committed by the enemy more than six decades ago? No wonder we can’t afford the war in Iraq.