Archive for October 11th, 2006
“It’s a shame that youth as young as 16 and 17 years old are engaging in firefights in broad daylight.”
That is the response of Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives of the Buffalo Police Department to gunfire outside the Central Library during rush hour yesterday.
I would think that the chief of detectives of the police department charged with reducing “quality of life” crimes would have a bit stronger response.
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The people have spoken and the politicians have spoken. The elimination of the South Ogden and Breckenridge toll booths on the I190 is demanded by all. The response by the Thruway Authority, “we have no plans to eliminate the toll booths at this time,” is unacceptable.
There are only a couple of possible reasons for their lack of action.
- 1. The Thruway Authority is not accountable for their actions.
- 2. The Thruway Authority is a subversive mouthpiece for the real agenda of our politicians.
The response to choice 1 is abolishing the Thruway Authority. The response to choice 2 is abolishing the Thruway Authority and voting out the politicians using them as a front for their hidden agenda.
Eliminating the Authority takes care of #2, it would remove the front that they are currently able to hide behind.
Is there any question that the Thruway Authority must go???
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Ever wonder why some days you feel like dressing all spiffy? It’s because of your ovaries, silly!
That’s according to a new study that has apparently determined that college women take special care with their appearance when they are ovulating. According to reports, women wear “more fashionable or flashier clothing and jewelry” — boys like shiny things! — at the most fertile point in their cycle, in an unconscious effort to trap a man and make him mate with them so they can have his babies.
Read more here.
A four-term incumbent, Reynolds was so confident of reelection in this normally safe Republican upstate district that he signed on to head the national House GOP campaign committee, as he had in 2004. But Reynolds — who had been warned months ago of Foley’s improper e-mails to House pages — is reeling from a new poll in the Buffalo News that shows him trailing his odd-duck Democratic challenger, Jack Davis, by a stunning 48 percent to 33 percent (with a 5 percent margin of error). Apparently that deficit isn’t just due to the Foley problem; as the News commented, “Widespread opposition to [George W.] Bush and the war … suggests Reynolds’ re-election was in trouble before the congressional page scandal.”
This article from Salon.com goes on to explore Jack Davis’s campaign style. It is a very good analysis of the Reynolds/Davis campaign.
Ray Yacuzzo, the Genesee County Democratic chairman, said diplomatically, “Jack doesn’t have what I would call good campaign sense. He needs to be out at public events nonstop from here until the election.” Even John Gerkin, a young lawyer who is Davis’ second campaign manager of the year, conceded, “His style is definitely unique. But I certainly respect it.”
(read more here)
Foley is in the news for preying on impressionable teens, yet President Bush signed a law authorizing the Military to do the same thing in 2002.
My daughter just started high school. This milestone was marked by the arrival in our home of a ream of paperwork. Along with the usual bureaucratic permissions, I found tucked into this package a seemingly innocuous form that carries extraordinary consequences: Failing to fill it out might result in my daughter being harassed, assaulted, or being fast-tracked to fight in Iraq.
This form asks us if we want to opt out of having our daughter’s contact information sent to the U.S. military. If we overlooked this form, or did not opt out for some reason, our high school is required to forward her information to military recruiters. This is thanks to a stealth provision of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. It turns out that President Bush’s supposed signature education law also happens to be the most aggressive military recruitment tool enacted since the draft ended in 1973.
Continue Reading “Bush Authorized Military to Prey on Impressionable Teens” »
Today will be a good day to get things done inside. A bit of extra cleaning, combined with some book reading and a healthy dose of my Photoshop training DVD should keep me constructively occupied. The view below is from my livingroom window at 9:15 this morning. A good thunderstorm would liven things up a bit.
John Stossel is one of my favorite columnists. He has a knack for pointing out everyday stupidity that many people take for granted. His latest article is about 2 teenage girls who have filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s for tricking them into eating food that made them fat.
I have a question for federal Judge Robert Sweet: If your own children blamed McDonald’s for making them fat, would you buy it?
I don’t think so.
Yet the judge has given the green light to a lawsuit against McDonald’s by two teenaged girls who claim the popular fast-food chain tricked them into eating food that made them fat and sick. At first it looked as if this lawsuit was going to be pushed down the garbage disposal, but now it’s back. What’s going on?
Continue Reading “John Stossel on McDonald’s Making People Fat” »
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the United States did not intend to invade or attack North Korea, but she warned the North’s leaders that they now risked sanctions “unlike anything that they have faced before.”
More failed foreign policy compliments of the Bush regime. A President that continually refuses to talk with North Korea can not possibly claim to advocate peace and freedom.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from a gay couple challenging California’s law against same-sex marriage.
The Court also refused to hear a case seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Perhaps this Court, in its first full session together, is signaling a return to the recognition of States’ Rights. These rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, under the United States Bill of Rights. If we could only get our President to respect the Constitution . . .
Many states, including New York, are struggling with new ethics rules on legal advertising. Many lawyers and law firms now have blogs. At issue is whether these blogs are protected speech or possible violations of legal advertising rules.
“Nobody’s perfected the rules as they relate to advertising because the arena keeps changing,” says Micah Buchdahl, an attorney and law firm marketing consultant in Moorestown, Pa. “Nobody’s even close.”
But some states are trying. New York is reviewing its lawyer advertising rules, and some of the proposed changes are making bloggers nervous. In trying to formulate rules to encompass everything from print ads to Internet pop-ups, a group of presiding justices last spring broadened its rules on lawyer advertising. The state has delayed implementation of any changes until after a comment period, which was extended last month. The changes would pertain not only to New York firms but, significantly, to out-of-state attorneys advertising in New York.
Part of the concern is that the proposals pertain to “written advertisements and solicitations and computer-accessed communications.” Such a definition, say some observers, could include blogs. If so, the rules, which propose, for example, a requirement that law firms file their advertisements with a disciplinary committee for public view and scrutiny, could stifle blog dialogue.
“They border on ridiculous,” Buchdahl says. (read more)
As far as I’m concerned, this is just another example of the unintended consequences of laws and regulations. People looking to engage the services of an attorney should take responsibility for making that choice without ridiculous regulations that aim to protect them from themselves. The whole concept of personal responsibility is being thrown out the window. Soon we will be a nation of idiots who can’t make a decision without guidance from the government.
A Case of a Cat with OCD.
Finally, a collection of vintage TV commercials that will bring back memories for some and provide a humorous view of the past for all.
