Societal Devolution

Evidently, there was a triple homicide outside of, and connected to, a mostly black nightclub near Union Station in Downtown St. Louis this past weekend.  The owner of the building that rented to the now shut down nightclub?  A senior aide to Governor Nixon.

With No Help From the Post-Dispatch

Ibid.:

Family seeks justice for slain Jennings teen

ST. LOUIS — Whoever murdered 14-year-old Michael Goulbourne on Friday at his family’s portable barbecue stand is still roaming free, and his stepmother is pleading for the public’s help.

“I’m begging people, if they have any compassion in their heart, just report it to the detectives,” said Ava Johnson. “Because it’s my kid today who dies, and could be your kid tomorrow if you don’t talk, if you don’t parent these kids.”

She’s heard about the “no-snitching” code entrenched in some crime-ridden pockets of the city, where people hold their tongues to avoid becoming involved with the police. But Johnson and her family in Jennings are hoping it’s not in play here — and that witnesses start talking and providing the clues to break the case.

Police think they might have a lead on the killers’ getaway car, but no arrests had been made by Monday afternoon.

(snip)

Michael’s father, Rueben Goulbourne, was robbed but uninjured. A 50-year-old man who works the grill was shot in the thigh and hand; he was treated at a hospital and released.

Presumably, Mr. Goulbourne was able to provide police with a description of the suspects.  Far be it from the Post-Dispatch to print all the details of these suspects, other than “three men,” (that sure narrows it down a lot).  After all, if they do that, then someone who knows where they are might actually read it, call the cops and have them arrested, and this would have the dangerous side effect of the victim’s family getting the justice they seek sooner than it otherwise would have happened.  That would to be too undiverse.

Even if/when they are caught, going out on a really thin limb and assuming that they’re St. Louis city’s usual crime suspects, the rest of the justice equation might not be so easy to come by.  The problem is that their criminal trial will be held in St. Louis City.  ‘Nuff said.

Guard Chicken

Kansas City Star:

Urban chicken movement taking roost in KC area

Chickens could be coming to roost in a backyard near you.

Across the country and the metropolitan area, people are joining the national urban chicken movement, sometimes turning outlaw to raise the birds.

The movement started with the rationale that raising chickens fits in with efforts toward local and pure foods, supporters say, and the eggs are fresh and flavorful. The animals also are entertaining pets, many say.

Especially if you get a rooster.

On the one hand, this might be part and parcel of the organic food movement.  On the other hand, it might be a byproduct of Kansas City becoming more Hispanic.  Miami has an expansive urban chicken movement, too.  I have heard one credible estimate that 90% of Miami residential domiciles have chickens.  Good if you want eggs, bad if you want to sleep past dawn.

The Other Mono

I was watching the Chicken Noodle for a few minutes this afternoon, you know, the Ted Fonda news network based in Atlanta.  They showed some video of a group of so-called “nurses” and “doctors” busting into a Congressional committee taking up health care, and they whined and yelled about Congress not considering a single payer system for the sake of health care reform.

In spite of my scornful use of quotation marks above, I can actually believe that these were real nurses and doctors, and that they really do want single payer for a reason.  The economics of a monopsony (not monopoly, note the spelling) — look it up.

Cristianity

The U.S. Senate Republican caucus has endorsed Florida Governor Charlie Crist in his run for the Senate.  This is unprecedented, as sitting Senators have never gotten involved in endorsing candidates within their own party’s primaries.  And in this case, it’s really stupid, because Crist is of the Arlen Specter mindset that’s fleeing the Republican Party.  That’s all the Senate Republicans need, is finally to rid themselves of Specter and put in another Specter.  And there are a couple of real conservatives that have already announced their campaigns for that Senate seat.

Even if Crist wins the primary and then the general, the good news is that it means very little in the greater scheme of things, as he would be replacing Mel Martinez, another RINO/moderate open borders amnestyaire.  The only difference I can see is that Double-M was against the porkulus, while Crist was for it to the point of appearing in public with President Obama to promote it.

Related:  Gov. Crist Hates White Southerners, Gov. Crist Supports Black Voter Fraud

UPDATE 6/16: Jim DeMint has broken from the herd, or rather, the flock being led to the slaughter, and endorses Mark Rubio, former Speaker of the Florida House.

Who Stole the Creativity?

For the second night in a row, one of my TV appointments ends its season with one of the main characters having major hallucinations involving the plot line that didn’t become obvious until about the end of the show..  Last night, it was Lilly Rush in Cold Case, and tonight it was Dr. House.  Is there something in the water that comes from the Delaware River?  That’s call I can think of, with both shows being set near there.

Heal Thyself, Extremist

My great uncle passed on in 2007, and he was the last living member of my grandparents’ generation.  He spent his retirement years in a place other than St. Louis, and I’m not saying where he retired to for dramatic effect.

In 2002, his state held an election for Governor.  The state’s incumbent was term-limited out.  Therefore, the state was getting a new Governor.  My great-uncle voted for the candidate who had the most conservative political positions overall.  The candidate proudly proclaimed their pro-gun credentials, and came out against immigration amnesty.  This candidate, while mildly pro-abortion, was mostly a moderate on the issue, and certainly not thinking of that particular procedure as a sacrament.

This candidate’s name?

Janet Napolitano.

And How Was Your Weekend?

CNS:  All-Star Baron Davis Not Watching NBA Playoffs

I’m not, either.  What makes him so special?

CNS:  Florida Governor to Seek US Senate Seat

Oh Crist, not another RINO.

Blog of Helios:  The Thin Line Between Victim and Idiot

Who says there’s a line?

P-D:  Rules are tightening for crossing into Canada

Must end every interrogative sentence with “Eh?” before entering.

P-D:  Father and son charged with bank robberies

At least they’ll be together for the next 10-20 Fathers Days.  Family more than anything, right?

P-D:  FFA finds fertile ground at school in St. Louis

If it’s St. Louis City, then FFA must mean Future Felons of America.

P-D:  Aldermen seek greater control of crime prevention funds

Isn’t that like the wolves wanting more control on the design of chicken coops?

V-Dare:  Patriotic Immigration Reform May Save GOP, According To…Time!!(?)

It’ll be a valiant and patriotic act for Mexico.

KFI:  Schwarzenegger Recall Gets Certified

Total Re-Recall!!!

St. Louis Beacon:  St. Louis rally to kick off “Keep It Made in America” bus tour highlighting U.S. auto industry

Being as half of the parts in “U.S. auto industry” produced autos aren’t made in America, it seems a little moronic, oxy and otherwise.

Reuters:  GM says open to moving HQ from Detroit

To Bangalore.  Mark me.

AP:   Oprah Winfrey to say goodbye to Dr. Oz

He’s getting a show of his own, too?

AP:  ‘Rockefeller’ wants to use that name at trial

Way to connect with a jury in a recession, take the surname of a family worth billions.

AP:  NY mass transit agency approves fare increases

Note to those of you who sneak onto NYC subways, i.e. most NYC subway passengers — the fares have just gone up.

NPR:  Postage Stamp Prices Rise Again

That’s funny, a stamp now costs more than twice as much as it did when I first started having conscious memories of stamps, but it doesn’t seem that the service is twice as good.

Politico:  Sessions: ‘I can vote for a gay nominee’

Oh no, don’t tell me Obama’s going to appoint Lindsay Graham to SCOTUS.

PC Mag:   Hackers Obtain 160,000 Records from U.C. Berkeley

All for naught, because 60% of them are in various Oriential languages they can’t read.

In the Hunt For 2012?

There has been a lot of internet gossip about Utah Governor Jon Huntsman making a run for the Republican nomination in ’12, which bubbled up to the surface of semi-credibility when it was mentioned on yesterday’s McLaughlin Group.

I don’t know much about him, other than he’s Mormon and the Governor of Utah, and has adopted two kids from Asia.  But all I wonder is this:  What of the other Mormon, Mitt Romney?  I think his recent decision to sell a couple of his houses is all for PR purposes, as he saw all the flack John McCain took for owning seven houses.

Similar to how the Southern Baptists are an unofficial organizing structure for the Republican Party in the South, the Mormon Church serves that similar purpose for the GOP in the Mountain West, not just in Utah.  Therefore, any Republican nominee is going to have to make nice with official Mormondom.  However, it’s not enough to make a Republican nominee — Romney had it in the bag and monolithically in 2008, but McCain won the nomination.  But Mormon disappointment meant that McCain’s margins of victory in Utah and Arizona weren’t as large as the usual R-over-D spread for Presidential elections, and was a factor in other western states.

I think that either Romney or Huntsman will run, but not both.  Both running will mean they split the Mormon vote, thereby guaranteeing that neither wins the Republican nomination.  The calculus to figure out which one runs will be this — Will the economic situation in 2012 make Romney more credible, or will it be that by 2012, Romney will be 64 years old and out of public office for six years, while Huntsman will be 52 and only months removed from being Governor of Utah.  Will that factor play into people’s minds, the age and credibility thing?

UPDATE 5/16:  Lo and behold.  President Obama just named Gov. Huntsman, a fluent speaker of Mandarin, as Ambassador to China.  What this means for his Presidential ambitions in 2012, which the WaPo admits he has, is unclear.  I think President Obama thinks that a credible Huntsman knocks Romney out, and therefore knocks out the Republican that could most outperform Obama on economic issues, if the economy is still an issue in ’12.  I am of the opinion that this hurts Huntsman among rank-and-file GOP voters for ’12, because a Sinophile won’t be able to get too many votes from pro-life and therefore anti-China Christian fundagelicals in the South.  Either way, Mitt Romney is now yesterday’s news.

Very Annoying

Mayor Slay:

Five very annoying types of outlaws:

# Illegal dumpers
# Brick thieves
# Park/playground vandals
# Litterers
# Visitors who uproot downtown/neighborhood plantings

Five very annoying types of outlaws:

* Murderers
* Rapists
* Armed robbers
* Burglars
* Pandering Mayors

Mother’s Day Wrap Up (Not Like Mom Is In a Headline-Reading Mood Today)

(1)  Who says that nuclear weapons are all about war?  NASA needs Pu238 to fuel deep space probes, and the only good way to get it is as a byproduct of the manufacture of nuclear ordinance.  Guess what?  We’re not making them anymore, and neither are the Russians.

(2)  New York Governor David Patterson wants to give New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg more control of the city’s public school system.  Why not give the Governor more control?  Oops, I forgot, he won’t be Governor for too much longer, if the polls are right.  And just what does mayoral control mean for the NYPS?  Every TV tuned to the Bloomberg channel?

(3)  Kit Bond delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s Saturday morning radio address yesterday.  All I can say is that it must have been late in the morning, too early and he still would have been hung over.

(4)  Leftover failed ideas from the previous Presidential administration?  Good enough for Gretchen Wilson.  Too much Wal*Mart, if you ask me.

(5)  A comedian snuck into sensitive areas of the State Department with fake creds?  Hell with that, a comedian is about to sneak into the U.S. Senate with fake votes.

(6)  Why are big cities taking in more and more cops with dirty sheets?  Answer:  Diversity.

(7)  Metherson County has so many more and bigger problems on its table than people under 21 wanting to drink a beer.  The first is meth.  The second, bigger than but related to the first, is that the county voted Obama.

(8)  Tata, the India company that makes probably the world’s cheapest car, is now going to offer cheap apartments in the former Bombay.  In passing, Slashdot refs Business Weak in saying that a call center operator with 10 to 20 years of experience makes US $6,400.  Fuck that, who says that any Indian can get to 10 years tenure in a call center when they can just dump your ass and replace you with cheaper and younger Indians?

(9)  CNN says that “Minority youngsters dying weekly on Chicago’s streets.“  Yeah they are.  And why?  Because minority youngsters are murdering weekly on Chicago’s streets.  Not that the Chicken Noodle, nor any of the people it references in this article, would ever tell you the truth.  Why do that when you can blame an inanimate object?

The Unhappy Median

In the wake of Arlen Specter finally coming out of the closet and exposing himself as the Democrat that he was all along, the MSM and, as Rush Limbaugh might call them, the “lizards of smart” in the pseudo-conservative bowel movement are whining about the disappearance of Repugnican moderates and the political center in general.

The first part is easy.  “Moderate,” in the modern day definition, is someone who sucks their thumb, puts it up in the air, finds out which way the wind is blowing, then goes in that direction.  Specter “flipped” (i.e. he finally told the truth about himself) because of Democrat electoral successes in the last two election cycles.  If/when the Republicans start winning again, they’ll flip back.

The second part requires a few more brain cells to solve.  But it is hypocritical for “moderates” to whine about the dimunition of the political center because moderates themselves have brought it about, ironically.  And how have they done that?

One word, four letters:

R-A-C-E.

Third party political candidates for major office don’t have much success, but they tend to be more successful in heavily white states.  You can have a Jesse Ventura winning Governor of Minnesota, and someone whose name escapes me winning Governor of Maine as an independent, and then there’s Bernie Sanders in Vermont.  However, third parties are almost non-existent in black- and Hispanic-heavy states like Mississippi and Arizona.  The reason is that in MN, ME and VT, there’s hardly any diversity (at least until recently), and therefore no racial consequence in “throwing your vote away” on the third party guy as opposed to your preferred major party.  A white person is going to win no matter what.  In Mississippi, virtually all of the blacks vote Democrat, and therefore the whites react accordingly by voting Republican. They know a third party vote is the functional equivalent for voting black/Democrat.

For similar reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the whiter the state or locality, the more likely it is that there is a thriving political center.  The less white, the less likely.  This is perhaps material that George Mason University could look into proving or demonstrating; for now, it’s just my educated observation and nothing more.

Most “moderates” are racial egalitarians, not only in terms of policy relating to our own domestic minorities, but also relating to immigration.  As they continue to get their way, they will only be cutting their own throats.

Some Ideas Will Just Stay Ideas

Someone I know back in St. Louis e-mailed me this morning, and asked if I knew anything about plans to build a 1,000+ foot skyscraper in Downtown St. Louis.  I didn’t, and I tend to think that the story’s a joke or an urban legend.

First off, there’s not the will, financial or otherwise, to build the Ballpark Village.  So where’s the money for something 1,000 feet high going to come from?  It’s not like the skyscrapers St. Louis has are all full.

Second, I don’t think that there will ever be any St. Louis building higher than the Arch’s 630 feet.

Third, I think any serious proposals to build higher than 630 is all a response to One Kansas City Place, a 632-foot high ‘scraper finished in 1988, and that bested the Arch by 2 feet for the title of Missouri’s tallest structure.  If someone does want to build out to 1,000 feet, it is probably to get the title back from KC, and also so high that KC would never be able to top it.

You Can’t Go Car Again

Sometimes I don’t need to read the news to know what the news is.   For instance, not too long before Christmas before last, I logged onto this blog’s stats for the first time in the morning.  I noticed an extremely high number of visits to my posts about legendary Boston city councilman Dapper O’Neil, and also a very high number of people who came to my blog using the search terms of his name.  I knew he was in a nursing home in the months leading up to that day, so it didn’t take too many of my brain cells to figure out that he died.

So I crank up the ‘puter this morning, or to put it more accurately, the power finally came back early this morning after having gone out yesterday afternoon as Carbondale was hit by essentially a land hurricane.  I mean, there’s a whole lot of noise and damage around Carbondale, and it isn’t even Halloween :P

Nevertheless, I found a high number of hits on my Knight Rider posts, and in earnest a lot of people got to my blog by searching for KR.  Here, I couldn’t tell whether KR made another season or no, because I knew it was on the fence.  This time, I had to search the news to find the answer.

And the answer is that I suddenly have no appointment television at Wednesdays 8/7c this fall.

Why did KR fail?  I could sit here and make all the excuses, but the hard truth of the matter is that sometimes, you just can’t go home again.  Or you can’t go car again :) :(

Operation Pulled Pork

SEMO:  New Guard site at Wappapello to provide urban operations training

Urban street fighting in Southeast Missouri?  I can see the briefing now.  “You’re mission is to liberate 500 pounds of pit roasted pulled pork barbecue in Dexter, Hayti and Steele.”

V-Dare:  RNC’s Michael Steele – How’s that spelled, again?

S-T-U-P-I-D.

Jihad Watch:  Italy: 60% of mosques “run by fanatical imams”

CBS News can now project that Fanatical Imams will now run Italian Islam.

CNS:  Gov’t Lists Pika as Endangered Species, Blames Climate Change

Meaning that Pikachu from Pokemon is the last of its kind.

CNS:  Same-Sex Marriage Not a Priority for House Democrats, Pelosi Says

It doesn’t have to be.  They’ve got the judiciary doing it for them.

CNS:  ‘Gay Day’ Bill Passes California Senate Committee

In contrast, San Francisco’s heterosexuals are pushing “straight day,” the one day out of 365 they can publicly celebrate their orientation.

CNS:  Obama Is Welcome to Attend National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Don’t think he’s going.

CNS:  Obama’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation Mentions God Only Once

I’m glad to hear that he’s easing away from the narcissism.

CNS:  Congressmen to Introduce Bill Recognizing Nation’s Judeo-Christian Heritage

You’re not getting the President’s signature unless you throw Islam in.

CNS:  Conservatives in Congress Split on ‘American Idol’ vs. PBS

So, that’s what conservatism has come down to?

CNS:  Gingrich, Bloomberg, Sharpton Call Education Reform ‘Civil Rights Issue of 21st Century’

It’ll work out as well as the Civil Rights Issues of the 20th Century.

CNS:  Worst Fiscal Year for Toyota

Then again, they could be GM.

Jihad Watch:  Taliban to Pope Benedict XVI: Stop Christian evangelism, or else

Or else we’ll sick Obama on you.

NPI:  As Illegal Immigrants Rally in London to Demand Their Right to Break British Law, New Report Reveals £1 Trillion Cost of Amnesty

And that’s a trillion of a currency that’s actually worth something.

USNAWR:  Los Angeles Looks at Firing Teachers

No don’t.  If you start firing incompetent NEA members, imagine the precedent it’ll set.

AP:  FDA: Kids at risk from testosterone gel

On the other hand, when you’re 12-year old can bench press 300 and nobody stops him every time he gets the football, you might not see it as much of a risk.

AP:  Top flu expert warns of a swine flu-bird flu mix

Oh if only this news came two months ago.  Imagine the Made-For-TV movie ABC could have made for sweeps week.

AFP:  Doh! Simpsons get ‘stamp’ of approval

Cartoon characters get a stamp.  German Americans are still waiting on a stamp, even as half of America’s whites have at least one German-American grandparent.

Reuters:  Officials order man to pay 50-cent debt

If he doesn’t pay, he’ll have to work it off with a five-minute jail sentence.

She Said It

“Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants…“

(H/T Drudge)

I always thought Rahm Emmanuel had a whiney voice like the red one.

Terror Wins War on Terror

TERRORABAD, Terroristan  (FNN)  –  Leaders from twenty-five allied countries, lead by the United States, signed an agreement of surrender today, effectively signaling the victory of Terror in the War on Terror.

The agreement, signed on the aircraft carrier TSS Ramsi Yousef, means that all surrendering countries must agree to Terroristani-sponsored weapons inspections, and therefore must remove any WMDs they possess.  Signatories agreed to convert their countries’ respective legal codes to Shari’a with all due haste.  All women must be in hijabs or burquas by Ramadan, surrendering countries also agreeing to adopt the Islamic luni-solar caldendar.

Among other terms of surrender are that the military leaders of the twenty-five countries facing war crimes trials in Terrorabad, and those countries giving enough bronze and artisans to the government of Terroristan so that they construct a 50-foot statue of former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jamie Gorelick in the center of Terrorabad Town Square.

***

Second Life Debuts New Functionality

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.  (FNN)  –  Linden Labs, Inc., the owner of the popular internet game Second Life, has rolled out new functionality today.

The new service, called “First Life,” will allow Second Life avatars to create and guide the life of a living, breathing, corporeal human being in the real world.  Among other things, First Life humans will be able to grow, develop, become educated, fall in love, take many interesting jobs, travel to many interesting locations in the First Life real world.  They may also start wars, provoke genocide, stand trial for war crimes, and eat school lunch cafteria mystery meat.

The First Life service had been in beta since August of last year.  It was scheduled to go gold in January, but a showstopping bug delayed the final release, as too many beta testing avatars were creating First Life real human beings that were committing suicide after questioning the purpose of life itself.

Fourteen and Homeless

AFP:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The groom wore a black tuxedo, a damask-rose pink waistcoat and tie, and an ear-to-ear smile.

He picked out his wedding outfit at a mall in Virginia — his first time ever in one of the sprawling shopping centers that are monuments to consumerism in the suburban landscape across the United States.

During his 14 years living homeless on the streets of Washington, Dante White, 28, never realized that so much opulence existed. Nor had he had much luck in love in his life, having been thrown out of his mother’s home when he was just 14.

Why did his mother kick him out when he was 14?  Was he particularly naughty or criminal?

I don’t think so.  About three years ago, the answer to this question bubbled up to the surface in suburban St. Louis.  If you don’t want to follow that link, then I’ll give you a hint:  Mama had a new “boo,” and he didn’t want any potential challenges to his being the head of the household, and forced mama’s hand.  Mama picked boo over teenage son.

Rick Astley Gets Rickrolled

NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS, England  (FNN)  –  Noted singer-songwriter Rick Astley was a victim today of an internet prank bearing his own name.

Astley, the Newton-le-Willows native who is best known for his late 1980s hits “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever,” was surfing the internet at his Merseyside home this morning, and received an e-mail from a former classmate about investment ideas.  The e-mail contained an apparent hyperlink to an investment house named “Golden Sax,” (sic), and when Astley clicked it, the link led to a YouTube video that was his official music video of his 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”  An hour later, the same person sent Astley an e-mail proclaiming that he “has been Rickroll’d.”

Rickrolling is an internet gag that started in May 2007.  The gag is almost always similar in the method that Astley himself was “Rickrolled,” in that acquaintances engage in bait-and-switch schemes that implore you to visit an internet site on some pretense.  Variations of the meme have included parts or all of the “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video being inserted in the middle of another video or presentation.

It is estimated that 20 percent of all American adults, and 97 percent of those who Twitter, have either engaged in or have been a victim of a Rickroll.

***

It’s Like That Great Singer/Philosopher Brandy Norwood Once Said — Almost Doesn’t Count.

AP:  Cornyn: Ridge weighing bid for Sen. Specter’s seat

Is shilling for Albania not doing it for Tom Ridge anymore?

CNS:  Grammy Winning Country singer [Gretchen Wilson, a native of Highland, Illinois, near St. Louis,] Says American Idol Is ‘Probably Going to Be the Little Dude with the Weenie Voice’

She sings “country music,” these days, so she ought to be familiar with little dudes with weenie voices.

CNS:  Kennedy Ended Senate Bid to Please Her Kids, Book Claims

She wanted to spend more time with her family, i.e. she told the maids to spend more time with her family.

P-D:  Ivie Clay: “Devastated” to learn of divorce from media

On the other hand, it means not having to hear it from the insipid rat face that is soon to be her ex-husband.  Too bad MO-1 can’t divorce Lazy Clay so easily.

Steve Sailer:  George Will almost gets it

That’s about all you can hope for from George Will, almost to get it.

National Journal:  Powell Says Shrinking GOP Should Return To The Center

So they can choose a “moderate” nominee in 2012 that you’ll stiff again to go with Barack Obama?

LoS:  Is Joe Biden an amiable dunce?

No, he’s not amiable.

John Lott:  Why Democrat Politicians send their kids to private schools

Because Democrat politicians know best how Democrat politicians have fucked up public education.

KSDK:  Ten things to check out on Cherokee Street

The last time Cherokee Street was worth checking out, that TV station’s call letters were KSD.

Ain’t Misbehavin, I’m Savin’ My Bike For You.

CSM:

End of the road for America’s biker culture?

Murrells Inlet, S.C. – As the women at the SBB biker bar here greet the six o’clock hour by jiggling to a blaring version of Kid Rock’s take on “Sweet Home Alabama,” Bob Johnston leans back, flips his flip-flops off, and ponders the state of America’s biker culture.

The party inside the saloon notwithstanding, the news ain’t good, he says.

Just up the road, Myrtle Beach, S.C. – the site for 68 years of the world’s largest Harley-Davidson rally, drawing nearly half a million riders annually – has effectively tried to shut down the event this year. Inside the city limits, a local helmet law and a ban on noisy tailpipes is likely to keep most riders at bay.

As a scaled-down Bike Week begins this weekend outside the city limits, the question is whether Myrtle Beach has gone too far in cordoning itself off from the dinosaur growl of a straight pipe, an unshaven chin, and free-blowing hair.

(snip)

The city’s attempts to address issues of noise, lewdness, and massive congregations of bikers resulted in a lawsuit by the NAACP, which claimed that the rules unfairly targeted one part of the festivities: the younger, mostly black sport-bike rally known as “black bike week.”

The city’s answer was to “throw everybody into one big basket and say, ‘We want none of it,’ ” says Carol O’Day, a mom-and-pop hotel owner who has filed a civil suit against the city over the helmet law.

Now I get it.  The trouble is caused mostly by the black bikers, but in this Lincolnian day and age of racial equality and other assorted myths, you can’t legislate like that.  So you have to bounce out everyone just to keep the usual troublemakers of a certain hue away.

If you can’t discriminate on the basis of race, then why can you on the basis of tailpipe noise and head protection?

With Liberty and Justice For Redness

A new paper released under the aegis of George Mason University and written by two Political Science Professors, one from the University of Buffalo, and the other from Texas State University at San Marcos, shows a fairly strong correlation between a state’s “redness” or “blueness” and how much individual freedom the citizens of those states have.  The redder the state, the freer are its people, and the bluer the state, the less free are its people.

While I could knitpick about some of the factors used in this study, though I won’t, becuase I have a life beyond blogging and WordPress only has so much disk space, I agree with the general premise.  Several weeks ago, I read a story where the WTC replacement in Lower Manhattan won’t be named the Freedom Tower.  Good thing, in my opinion, because that city and that state aren’t too familiar with the concept.  Go try exercising your 2nd Amendment civil liberties in that city, and see how “free” you are.

New York State in this study is dark blue, i.e. in the bottom 20% of personal freedom.

But What if the Conclusions Are Politically Incorrect?

CNS:

Canadians Make Breakthrough in Trying to Identify Origin of Swine Flu Virus

Toronto (AP) – Canadian scientists say they are the first to genetically sequence the swine flu virus, a breakthrough they hope will help identify the origins of the virus and reveal how it spreads and mutates.

Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Wednesday that researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, genetically sequenced three samples of the swine flu virus from Mexico and Canada.

Butler-Jones said it’s a step forward in understanding how the virus works.

“This is a world first,” Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said.

(snip)

Plummer said the genetic sequence would help scientists determine the origin of the virus.

“This is a significant and important milestone for us but there’s still a lot more work ahead of us,” Plummer said.

Since genetic mutation has been ruled out, then what else could it be?  It’s either AQ terrorist bioengineering, or the hygeine-deficient ways of Mexico, or a combination of both.  I look for total silence from these scientists, because the truth will be too un-PC to bear.  They’ll cover it up.

You Want Community Input? Here’s My %$%&##n Community Input~!!!

KFVS:  SIUC bans paid travel to Mexico, citing swine flu

So you can still go to Mexico and catch the swine flu if you win a free trip?

CNS:  Education Secretary Seeking Community Input on ‘No Child Left Behind’

They won’t like my community input, about how you can’t make silk purses out of sow’s ears.

CNS:  Life Returning to Normal in Mexico After Flu Scare

The drug gangs are back in business.

Slashdot:  Shuttleworth Says Ubuntu Can’t Just Be Windows

Why would you just want to be ground beef if you’re fillet mignon?

CNN:  Al Qaeda exporting jihad with a hip-hop vibe

I wonder if they’re trying to recruit our own hip-hop crowd.

Bloomberg:  U.S. Home Prices May Be Lost for a Generation: John F. Wasik

On the other hand, a whole generation of people now can afford homes, even with mortgage lending standards.

KRGV-ABC-5 Brownsville, Tex.:  Drug Dealers Mocking President Obama

“Damn you, Barry.  Your damned flu is hurting our business!!!” </MS-13>

Reuters:  More Americans taking drugs for mental illness

It won’t be too long until us sane folk are the oddballs.

NFN:  Now Rumors Say Apple Could Buy Twitter

Other rumors suggest that Twitter is going to do something bold and unprecedented in the internet age, and that is remain independent after having started something unique and popular, and not sell out.

InfoWorld:  Windows ‘XP mode’: The new DOS box

There, ya C:\>?

Double-Edged Sword, er, Pistol

In a 4-1 vote, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that it is unconstitutional to deny bail to those arrested to possessing firearms in ways that violate state law.  Because the MSJC is the highest court in the state, there is a link to the source article in this blog post, and I will blockquote from it.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  I will make implications from this section:

Five of the court’s seven justices heard the case. In a stinging, lone dissent, Justice Judith M. Cowin ridiculed the court’s conclusions, saying it ignores the reality that illegal guns are at the heart of crime problems in the state.

“When a handgun or automatic weapon is involved, the purpose of the firearm is to injure or kill; there is no other reason for that weapon’s existence,” Cowin wrote. “We have recognized in various contexts that firearms are, by nature and design, dangerous instrumentalities.”

The majority opinion, Cowin wrote, “reduced to its minimum, that is simply a reiteration of the tired slogan that ‘guns don’t kill people, people do.’ We know this to be a dangerous oversimplification. The fact is that people kill people with guns, and in a substantial number of cases those guns are unlicensed.’’

In other words, it seems as if the majority opinion states that the act of illegally possessing a gun doesn’t rise to a level dangerous enough to mandate pretrial incarceration.  If Justice Cowin is right in that the majority used the “guns don’t kill people, people do,” combined with her own bromide-laced opinion that “illegal guns are at the heart of crime problems” in Massachusetts, this makes me lean to the opinion of the majority.

The trouble is that this puts the good progressives of Massachusetts, including probably most of the members of its Supreme Judicial Court, in a Catch-22.  On the one hand, there’s the gun issue, and their virulent (and mostly illogical) opposition.  On the other hand, there are blacks and Hispanics, who are, in spite of Justice Cowin’s opinion, “at the heart of crime problems” in Massachusetts and most other places.  I’m sure there are people in Massachusetts cities such as Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Andover, Hyannisport and Chappaquiddick Island who are possessing guns in violation of state law, and without having done all the paperwork that the anti-gun nuts and the libfascists that infest the state’s body politic requires.  Yet, I am not aware of massive crime waves in any of those cities.  What is it about Boston and other big cities that make guns behave so badly?  Hell, in the case of Chappquiddick Island, certain people should be kept in the hoosegow for the illegal possession of a car.

On the other hand, this ruling is potentially dangerous.  To quote my favorite source, myself, from September 14, 2004:

But if you want an example of good, effective “gun control,” which actually works to prevent real violent crime, then consider Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  There is a similar, parallel project, which had its start in Richmond, Virginia, called Project Exile.  Both do the same things, and both are linked to from the “External Links” section of this website.  Since the implementation in St. Louis is PSN, I will refer to both it and Exile with that simple three-letter acronym.

(snip)

PSN boils down to this:  Under Federal law, it is illegal for any convicted felon, no matter what kind of felony or no matter how long ago it was committed, to possess any kind of firearm, not even shotguns, at any time.  Most states have that kind of law, but Missouri’s law in that stead isn’t as cut-and-dry as the Federal.  Of course, we all know that Federal law supersedes state law, some fellow named Lincoln saw to that.

(snip)

Second, the Bush Administration supports PSN/Exile, and to the extent that it actually works as advertised, that is the extent to which black politicians, activists and talking heads oppose it.  John Conyers (D-MI) seems to be leading the charge, claiming that PSN has an unfair disparate impact, and is unfairly targeted, on young men of very dark color.

In this case, you have to give the devil his due.

Conyers is literally right that, in this case PSN is deliberately aimed at African-American and Hispanic communities.  This is done not out of enmity, but out of necessity.

We all know that there are convicted felons of all races in all places, and that even though felons cannot own guns, some do nevertheless, fact of life.

But it does not follow that PSN efforts everywhere will lead to the decrease in crime rates everywhere.  After all, rounding up some John Doe from, say, rural Minnesota, who happens to have a minor felony rap sheet from long ago, who also keeps a shotgun hidden in his house for personal protection, won’t make Brainerd a safer place to live.

PSN efforts are aimed at communities and populations (even some less desirable white communities) where the determination has been made that there is a high propensity for armed felons to use their guns to commit more crimes.  Even the U.S. Federal Government has limited resources, and even they have to economize, and the intellectual, legal and monetary capital that PSN requires needs to be applied to do the greatest amount of good in the places that need it the most.

But even if PSN were applied everywhere equitably, it would still have a disparate impact on young men of color, just like any serious effort to prosecute any sort of violent crime would, simply because young men of color are responsible for a disproportionate share of it.

While the language of written laws cannot be vague, the decision on whether to grant an arrested criminal suspect bail and if so how high or low the bail should be can be an arbitrary decision, based on many factors about the suspect’s personal life, his associations, friends, his previous criminal record, how much he has to lose if he jumps town, and so on.  For the MSJC to mandate bail in all circumstances of illegal gun possession, it removes an important arbitrary factor in the decision making ability of judges who are charged with deciding bail or no and how much if so.  Parallel with what I said in 2004, if the person arrested for possessing a gun illegally in Hyannisport is a 77-year old U.S. Senator, the circumstances of his violation is that he forgot to fill out a few lines of paperwork, that would be a circumstance where you obviously grant bail and grant low bail, because of his stature in the community, that he isn’t a threat with the gun, and that he has too much to lose if he skips town.  But if it’s a 21-year old in Boston named “N’Deshawntavious” who already has a multiple felony rap sheet, who hangs out with known ne’er-do-wells, and has nothing to lose in Boston should he flee town, it would be wise to deny him bail if he’s picked up on illegal gun possession.  Except the MSJC in all its wisdom says you can’t.

This does not affect Federal gun laws, and its workhorse, felon in possession.  The MSJC’s ruling only applies to local and county agents of the state enforcing state law.

Ain’t Diversity Wonderful? (Full Rant Ahead)

Immigrants to America from Indoamerican countries other than Mexico are none too happy with the American obsession with “Cinco de Mayo,” which they feel leaves them out.

AP:

On May 5, Mexican dominance irks other Latinos

SEATTLE – With mariachis, tequila and parades, Cinco De Mayo will be celebrated this week in parties across the nation, kicking off a commemoration of Mexican heritage in the United States as a pseudo-holiday that has been adopted by the general population.

But for Dagoberto Reyes, a Salvadorian immigrant living in Los Angeles, May 5 is more a reminder of the dominance Mexican culture has in a country that is home to immigrants from many Latin American countries. His prime example: Los Angeles-area public schools.

“Our kids go to this school system, and the school system is more preoccupied with Mexico’s history, and not the rest of Latin America’s, much less El Salvador’s,” said Reyes, director of Casa de la Cultura, a Salvadorian community center. “They came back celebrating Cinco De Mayo. That holiday means nothing to us.”

It’s a popular misconception that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. The date actually celebrates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, in which Mexican forces stopped an invading French army. It’s a date barely celebrated in Mexico and not in any other Latin American country.

In that, it is like St. Patrick’s Day used to be, and that is, celebrated among the Irish diaspora outside of Ireland as a reminder of their Irishness, but not so much in Ireland itself.  That has changed recently, as thanks to the recent “Celtic Tiger” economic renaissance in Ireland, the home country itself has adopted St. Patrick’s Day as a major holiday as a source of pride.

Also, like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo has become an excuse for Americans not of either Irish or Mexican ancestry respectively to go out and drink.

The difference is that the United States and Mexico border each other, the Irish and white, and the Irish never had an irredentist bug up it’s ass about “stolen territory.”  The Irish were stuck here, a whole ocean away from the old country, and experienced very real bigotry, such as “no Irish need apply,” and having to listen to hypocrite politicians like Adolph Lincoln and the industrialists that backed both him and his invasion that they had to go join the Onion Army to go free the slaves, all the while the industrialists fomenting that invasion were chaining Irish children to machines and using them as factory slaves in all but name, even as their parents were made to “free the slaves” by being thrown into a pound-the-South meat grinder, which is the best “military strategy” that Adolph Lincoln and U.S.eless Grant could come up with in lieu of the Good Guys having all the military brains in the persons of Lee, Forrest, Beauregard and the (by then) late Stonewall Jackson.  The “Draft Riots” of 1863 in New York City were really Irish-American protests of Yankee hypocrisy, though “hypocrisy” that sees you into a pine box at a young age is far more than hypocrisy, it’s plain evil.  They knew the time of day.  Who cared if Irish soldiers were being thrown into a meat grinder, and practically killed at a 100% death rate in the later years of the War Between the States, they could always go to Ireland and recruit more based on lies and false promises of soon-to-be expropriated Confederate land.  The Nazi Army needed the manpower to pound the South day in and day out, because the Nazis would have lost based on a level playing field when it came to the number of men, even counting the Nutzi’s industrial advantage, simply because the Good Guys had a monopoly on military strategy, and enough integrity not to deceive potato famined immigrants.

The majority of Mexican-Americans today live in political jurisdictions that either they run lock, stock and barrel, or they co-run with pandering white liberals, and therefore get almost everything they can or want.  And in the rare instance of that not happening, Mexico is right next door.  The Irish needed and still benefit from reminders of their Irishness, the Mexicans bring and recreate Mexico with them, so why do they need every May 5 to remind them when it’s all around them the other 364 days a year?  I’d sooner give the American Southwest to Ireland than Mexico.

We’ve Passed the Mother-in-Law Test

SIL:  Diversity plays big role in chancellor search

Leadership qualities fall at a far distant second.

CNS:  More Than 40 Percent of the Human Race Does Not Have Freedom of the Press

They sure don’t, what they have are fairness doctrines.

CNS:  Feds Will Spend $400,000 to Study Drinking and Sex Habits of Homosexuals in Argentina

Shouldn’t be much different than the drinking and sex habits of heterosexuals.  The only difference is which hole you stick it in once you’re souzed out drunk.

CNS:  Flu: China’s Enforced Confinement Measures Upset Mexico

The Mexican government responds by publishing “migration guides” on how to sneak into China.

CNS:  Congressman Compares College Football’s BCS to Communism

Let me guess, an alumnus of a WAC school.

Jihad Watch:  Jihad Watch has a “very explicit anti-Islamist agenda”

No shit, sherlock.  Hint:  9/11.

NPI:  May 1 is ‘Beat Up a White Kid Day’

Right in time for communist glorification day, and four days before “we beat fifth-string French mercenaries” day in Mexico and Aztlan.  I wonder if there could be a link.

P-D:  Mother-in-law finding White House to her liking

How white of her.  I’m glad we lived up to her high standards.

P-D:  High water closes President Casino

So what’s their excuse when nobody goes to the President Casino any other time?

Washington Times:  Specter hints Kemp died of GOP agenda

Whatever you’re doing, GOP, keep it up, because it cleansed you of Specter and Kemp within a week.

AP:  Dr Pepper artifact may reveal soft drink’s origin

If it also reveals the airhead who wrote the stupid “I’m a pepper, you’re a pepper” jingle then we can finally nail him for first degree musicicide.

AFP:  US homeland security chief skirts rumors

“Skirt” and Janet Napolitano don’t belong in the same headline, I doubt he’s ever worn one.

Bloomberg:  Obama May Hunt For Moderate to Replace Souter on Supreme Court

A moderate would be more conservative than Souter ever was, so knock yourself out, Barry.

AP:  Africans have world’s greatest genetic variation

Proving that genetic variation is overrated.

AFP:  Climate change ‘cultural genocide’ for Aborigines

So people who are used to hot and dry won’t be able to take a little more hot and dry?

AP:  Iowa town: Future birthplace of Captain Kirk

No parents in the town will name their newborn son James T. Kirk until we’ve perfected wormholes and warp speed.

Reuters:  Pop star’s arrest inspires “naked” T-shirts

For full and proper effect, the shirts should come with bottles of Everclear and schitzophrenia-inducing pills.

President Obama to Pretend to Fulfill a Fake Campaign Promise

CNS:

Obama to Crack Down on Business Taxes

Washington (AP) – President Barack Obama plans to propose changes to tax policy certain to be unpopular with corporations with international divisions and individuals who use tax havens. Obama also plans to ask Congress for 800 new federal tax agents to enforce his broad requests.

Obama’s two-piece plan, to be announced at the White House on Monday, would eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates, as well as consider U.S. citizens who use tax havens such as the Bahamas or Cayman Islands guilty of violating U.S. tax laws. If Obama wins congressional approval for the changes — and he faces a challenge on Capitol Hill — it could deliver $210 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was to join Obama for the 11 a.m. comments.  (RIMSHOT!!! -ed.)

This is how Obama shifted the votes of enough white men in states like Ohio to win the election.  (White women had only a very slight R-to-D shift in 2008 compared to 2004, look in the general election of Juneau, Alaska to understand why.)  Obama and the Democrats really don’t want to eliminate outsourcing (or its first cousin, H-1B), but they need the votes of outsourcing victims.  Therefore, David Axelrod came up with the triangulatory gimmick of “eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”

Except that even if they did, the labor overseas is that much cheaper, far cheaper than the extra taxes that Obama and Treasury Secretary Tax Cheat will levy upon them.

Today: Showing Off Robots in the Georgia Dome. Tomorrow: Selling Peanuts in the Georgia Dome.

Schlafly:

How Young Engineers and Our Economy Are Betrayed

The Georgia Dome, home of the Atlanta Falcons football team, was recently crowded with cheering fans and adrenaline-filled competitors. A thrilling competition crowned new champions.

But this was not a football game. It was a robotics competition for high school students interested in engineering, a program that now attracts about 200,000 student-competitors and nearly 100,000 volunteers.

Known as FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), this program demonstrates that there is no shortage of American engineering minds. Started nearly 20 years ago by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the clever Segway that officials scoot around on, this competition develops future American engineers.

The students are extraordinarily diverse, coming from public and private schools and homeschools, rich and poor, urban and rural, athletic and disabled. Colleges provide up to $10 million in scholarships.

Obviously, there is no shortage of teenage interest and aptitude in engineering. But their prospects for good American jobs are very limited.

Large corporations prefer to use H-1B visas to hire foreign engineers and computer technicians. H-1B workers increased threefold during the Clinton Administration, and CEOs are constantly demanding that the number be increased or even unlimited.

Large corporations prefer H-1B foreigners because they work for lower wages with fewer rights. A recent study by researchers at top business schools reported that H-1B visas depress wages for software engineers and programmers by as much as 6 percent.

The cumulative effect, as described by another study, depresses wages even more. Many U.S. engineers even lost their jobs just after they were required to train their foreign replacements.

Sorry, President Obama.  Ending “tax breaks” isn’t going to cut the mustard for those who now must squeeze mustard on stadium hot dogs because H-1B visa holders from India have the engineering jobs they would have had.