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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I’ll just take that for you…

Since when do you have to justify owning something legal to the police in a routine traffic stop?!?!

Apparently in Fort Wayne, if you get pulled over and have a substantial amount of cash on you, the police can just take it from you without even charging you with a crime!

Most Mexican guns from US?

Not likely. The current kerfuffle over all those assault weapons from the US flowing into Mexico to help out the drug cartels sounds reasonable – until you realize that most of the weapons they have are not available in the US.

Ralph Weller has a nice piece about his time living in Mexico and seeing first hand that the gun problem isn't about American “assault weapons” but the real problem is fully automatic military weapons which are not (and can’t be) sourced from the US.

Think about it. If you wanted to get a rifle to shoot your cartel enemies, would you want a single shot AR15 smuggled across the US/Mexico border or would you just go to the blackmarket in some other country and get automatic military rifles smuggled into Mexico across its giant ocean border?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

John Stossel is my hero!

I usually avoid 20/20 but I love John Stossel’s anti-media establishment positions. I still find it hard to believe they still let him air this during prime time. Unfortunately he is pretty much the only voice on that side of the fence.

Fundamentals of the Economy are sound? Yes. No. Uh, I’ll get back to you.

I love Meet the Press. While I sorely miss Tim Russert, I believe David Gregory is so far doing a good job of pressing the politicians (from all parties) and not letting them get away with wishy-washy non-answers.

When John McCain says

the fundamentals our--of our economy are strong

he loses an election because he is branded an idiot.

Now that the economy has, by all reasonable measures, gotten significantly worse than it was when he said that,  Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, says

Well, of course the fundamentals are sound

and tries to tell us they mean different things. She dances around as David asks and asks and asks and finally gives up and he responds with “Hmm”

Of course she then goes on to say

The other thing I think is so important, the president has actually said in terms of fundamentals, we need to make changes.  That's why he's focusing on energy, education, getting the budget deficit under control, precisely because he said...

So things are fundamentally sound but they are the wrong things?

I actually cringed on her behalf as I watched this and wonder if this administration mouthpiece will be venture back to Meet the Press again.

To Hell in a handbasket

When one third of Americans agree with

the idea that no one can earn a living or live "an American life" without protection and empowerment by the government

I begin to have serious doubts about the future of the American way. Have we really come to the point that 1 in 3 Americans do not believe in their own ability to go out and earn enough money without the government standing behind them and looking over their shoulder?