If you are considering buying one--Don't.
If you already have one, buy a rope or chain, take it to the lake or ocean, and use it for a boat anchor.
I'll explain more later...
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Just Shut Up and Pay Up
Look at this Associated Press story about anti-Japanese demonstrations in China. When I first noticed the headline yesterday, I passed it up as just more Asian-Asian hatred that was being hyped by the politically correct community here in the US.
The guys over at Powerline pointed out that I was wrong...
"SHANGHAI, China - Chanting "Japanese pigs get out," protesters threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and Japanese restaurants in China as some 20,000 people defied government warnings to protest Tokyo's wartime history and its bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.
Peaceful protests were reported in two other cities. Beijing remained calm. Police stood guard on Tiananmen Square to block a planned demonstration in the heart of the capital, a day ahead of a visit by Japan's foreign minister. Paramilitary police surrounded the Japanese Embassy, where protesters smashed windows last weekend.
Japan's Embassy said two Japanese were injured in Shanghai after being surrounded by a group of Chinese, Kyodo News agency reported. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
The third weekend of anti-Japanese protests erupted despite government demands for calm. The nation's communist leaders apparently worry that the protests might do more damage to relations with Tokyo, which are at their lowest point in decades, or encourage others to take to the street to protest corruption or demand political reforms."
Although there are other issues, the main reason for the protests seems to be the Japanese requesting admission as a permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council.
As I wrote in late December in Nearly 1.5 billion down a rat hole,
"The title of this post tells you everything you need to know about the United Nations. Their 2004 operating budget is actually $1.483 billion, of which the US’s “assessment” was $363 million and Japan’s “assessment” was $280 million. Together, the US and Japan pay 43.4% of the total operating budget (24.5% and 18.9% respectively.) The other 189 member nations pay the remaining 56.4% of the budget, with Germany (8.4%), the UK (5.9%), and France (5.9%) making up the balance of the top five “assessment” payers.
Well isn’t that special? But what about Russia and China, two of our number one detractors in all issues Iraqi as permanent members of the UNSecurity Council (excuse the pun?) China, home of 1.3 billion people, pays just $29 million (2%) annually. I couldn’t find Russia’s numbers, but they are less than the number fifteen “assessment” payer Switzerland’s 17 million (1.1%.)"
So China pays ten percent of the amount that Japan pays to the UN in assessments, but China would deny Japan, a major, balanced player on the world stage since the US kicked a lot of sense into them in the 1940's, a seat at the table on the only UN committee that really means anything.
As my title says, China's attitude must be "Just Shut Up and Pay UP."
The guys over at Powerline pointed out that I was wrong...
"SHANGHAI, China - Chanting "Japanese pigs get out," protesters threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and Japanese restaurants in China as some 20,000 people defied government warnings to protest Tokyo's wartime history and its bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.
Peaceful protests were reported in two other cities. Beijing remained calm. Police stood guard on Tiananmen Square to block a planned demonstration in the heart of the capital, a day ahead of a visit by Japan's foreign minister. Paramilitary police surrounded the Japanese Embassy, where protesters smashed windows last weekend.
Japan's Embassy said two Japanese were injured in Shanghai after being surrounded by a group of Chinese, Kyodo News agency reported. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
The third weekend of anti-Japanese protests erupted despite government demands for calm. The nation's communist leaders apparently worry that the protests might do more damage to relations with Tokyo, which are at their lowest point in decades, or encourage others to take to the street to protest corruption or demand political reforms."
Although there are other issues, the main reason for the protests seems to be the Japanese requesting admission as a permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council.
As I wrote in late December in Nearly 1.5 billion down a rat hole,
"The title of this post tells you everything you need to know about the United Nations. Their 2004 operating budget is actually $1.483 billion, of which the US’s “assessment” was $363 million and Japan’s “assessment” was $280 million. Together, the US and Japan pay 43.4% of the total operating budget (24.5% and 18.9% respectively.) The other 189 member nations pay the remaining 56.4% of the budget, with Germany (8.4%), the UK (5.9%), and France (5.9%) making up the balance of the top five “assessment” payers.
Well isn’t that special? But what about Russia and China, two of our number one detractors in all issues Iraqi as permanent members of the UNSecurity Council (excuse the pun?) China, home of 1.3 billion people, pays just $29 million (2%) annually. I couldn’t find Russia’s numbers, but they are less than the number fifteen “assessment” payer Switzerland’s 17 million (1.1%.)"
So China pays ten percent of the amount that Japan pays to the UN in assessments, but China would deny Japan, a major, balanced player on the world stage since the US kicked a lot of sense into them in the 1940's, a seat at the table on the only UN committee that really means anything.
As my title says, China's attitude must be "Just Shut Up and Pay UP."
Scientists Find Bubbaosaurus
Most kids are dinosaur nuts. I was.
When I was in grade school I literally read every book in our school library about dinosaurs—all ten of them. Ok, maybe there were fifty or so books—about a shelf and a half.
Now they’ve gone and changed the name of a bunch of animals and re-arranged the looks of a lot of things since I was paying close attention, but they continue to find the remains of "new" ancient monsters out in Wyoming, the Dakotas, and over in Europe and the middle east.
I often wondered why we didn’t we have our own snuff dipping, tobacco chewing, pickup truck driving southern dinosaur yet? I used to dig around in my back yard and at the beach and on my grandfather's farm with delusions of finding some frightening fossilized head or teeth or something, but other than a few arrowheads and some petrified sharks teeth and coral fragments I got nada as a result of my efforts.
I’m about to bust with pride as a result of reading this story about scientists discovering our own dinosaur right here in South Georgia and Alabama.
“Paleontologists have identified a new dinosaur species, an early relative of the more-famous Tyrannosaurus rex, that likely roamed what is now the southeast some 77 million years ago.
David R- Schwimmer of Columbus State University and two colleagues made the identification from hundreds of fossilized fragments collected mostly in Montgomery County, Alabama, and southwestern Georgia.
They named the new dinosaur Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means "the Appalachian lizard from Montgomery County." It roamed the earth ten (m) million years before Tyrannosaurus rex and was smaller, more primitive and had a narrower snout.
Schwimmer, Thomas Carr of Carthage College of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science were credited with the discovery recently when the dinosaur's name was officially recognized by the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Schwimmer said -- quote-- "We've been finding teeth and odd bones from this animal for 20 years and it's nice to finally have a name for it." …
The researchers say Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis was buried in mud at the bottom of a shallow sea about 77.8 million years ago after it was carried out by currents.”
It figures that Bubbaosaurous would be smaller than T-Rex, he probably stunted his growth drinking Georgia moonshine and sitting on the sofa watching NASCAR races.
When I was in grade school I literally read every book in our school library about dinosaurs—all ten of them. Ok, maybe there were fifty or so books—about a shelf and a half.
Now they’ve gone and changed the name of a bunch of animals and re-arranged the looks of a lot of things since I was paying close attention, but they continue to find the remains of "new" ancient monsters out in Wyoming, the Dakotas, and over in Europe and the middle east.
I often wondered why we didn’t we have our own snuff dipping, tobacco chewing, pickup truck driving southern dinosaur yet? I used to dig around in my back yard and at the beach and on my grandfather's farm with delusions of finding some frightening fossilized head or teeth or something, but other than a few arrowheads and some petrified sharks teeth and coral fragments I got nada as a result of my efforts.
I’m about to bust with pride as a result of reading this story about scientists discovering our own dinosaur right here in South Georgia and Alabama.
“Paleontologists have identified a new dinosaur species, an early relative of the more-famous Tyrannosaurus rex, that likely roamed what is now the southeast some 77 million years ago.
David R- Schwimmer of Columbus State University and two colleagues made the identification from hundreds of fossilized fragments collected mostly in Montgomery County, Alabama, and southwestern Georgia.
They named the new dinosaur Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means "the Appalachian lizard from Montgomery County." It roamed the earth ten (m) million years before Tyrannosaurus rex and was smaller, more primitive and had a narrower snout.
Schwimmer, Thomas Carr of Carthage College of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science were credited with the discovery recently when the dinosaur's name was officially recognized by the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Schwimmer said -- quote-- "We've been finding teeth and odd bones from this animal for 20 years and it's nice to finally have a name for it." …
The researchers say Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis was buried in mud at the bottom of a shallow sea about 77.8 million years ago after it was carried out by currents.”
It figures that Bubbaosaurous would be smaller than T-Rex, he probably stunted his growth drinking Georgia moonshine and sitting on the sofa watching NASCAR races.
Do-It-Yourself Terrorism
On the very day that Americans are coming to grips with their individual financial costs of living in the good old USA, we find out that the US College of Pathologists has mistakenly shipped out “test kits” containing a deadly Flu virus to 3,700 labs located in seventeen countries, including LEBANON.
“Outside America, labs in 17 countries received the test kits and though twelve disposed of their samples, the remainder - Bermuda, Brazil, Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia - have either not destroyed them or may have never received them.
Two labs in Mexico and Lebanon had been listed as not receiving the samples, Mr Stohr said.
The H2N2 virus is similar to the 1957 flu virus that killed between one and four million people across the globe.”
So let me see if I have this situation straight in my ever balding, ever swelling, painfully throbbing head.
The rocket scientists over at the US College of Pathologists dropped a few thousand UPS packages on their loading dock destined for places like Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. These packages, destined to ride in “the big brown truck” or whatever means of conveyance in which one ships vials of flue virus, contained some pretty angry little microbes. The wrong microbes.
How the heck do the wrong microbes get tossed into that many packages? One or two packages, maybe, but 3,700 packages? Where is my big stick…it’s around here somewhere and someone needs a butt whipping over at the College of Pathologists.
So any way, after they realized their mistake, they asked that the samples be returned or destroyed, but some have mysteriously come up missing. Did they say “pretty please?” When they are told that the packages have been destroyed, did they ask for any proof that the foreign lab didn’t throw our little tiny friends in the dumpster in the back yard?
And regarding the lost shipments, besides going on the internet to search with the tracking number or calling up the shipping dispatcher, I want to know what the hell they are actively doing about finding and retrieving these flue virus packages. Probably nothing.
Ain’t this just like the imperial federal government funded morons--we’re spending billions in the middle east to find weapons of mass destruction and a bunch of liberal egg-heads right here at home go and mail out do-it-yourself terrorism kits to God knows who.
You heard me, they sent H2N2 Flu Virus to LEBANON. I gotta go throw up now…
“Outside America, labs in 17 countries received the test kits and though twelve disposed of their samples, the remainder - Bermuda, Brazil, Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia - have either not destroyed them or may have never received them.
Two labs in Mexico and Lebanon had been listed as not receiving the samples, Mr Stohr said.
The H2N2 virus is similar to the 1957 flu virus that killed between one and four million people across the globe.”
So let me see if I have this situation straight in my ever balding, ever swelling, painfully throbbing head.
The rocket scientists over at the US College of Pathologists dropped a few thousand UPS packages on their loading dock destined for places like Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. These packages, destined to ride in “the big brown truck” or whatever means of conveyance in which one ships vials of flue virus, contained some pretty angry little microbes. The wrong microbes.
How the heck do the wrong microbes get tossed into that many packages? One or two packages, maybe, but 3,700 packages? Where is my big stick…it’s around here somewhere and someone needs a butt whipping over at the College of Pathologists.
So any way, after they realized their mistake, they asked that the samples be returned or destroyed, but some have mysteriously come up missing. Did they say “pretty please?” When they are told that the packages have been destroyed, did they ask for any proof that the foreign lab didn’t throw our little tiny friends in the dumpster in the back yard?
And regarding the lost shipments, besides going on the internet to search with the tracking number or calling up the shipping dispatcher, I want to know what the hell they are actively doing about finding and retrieving these flue virus packages. Probably nothing.
Ain’t this just like the imperial federal government funded morons--we’re spending billions in the middle east to find weapons of mass destruction and a bunch of liberal egg-heads right here at home go and mail out do-it-yourself terrorism kits to God knows who.
You heard me, they sent H2N2 Flu Virus to LEBANON. I gotta go throw up now…
While We're All Busy Signing Tax Forms...
There is one more form that we all need to sign.
My likeminded Blog friend RomeoCat over at Cathouse Chat is asking that we all join the campaign to send pens and pencils to Senator John sKerry in an effort to help him sign standard military form SF-180 allowing his military records to be released for the scrutiny of the media and the public.
Here is a link to an online petition asking that Senator sKerry do the same thing that president Bush did.
I bet he will never do it. What a high paid, pompous, ultra-maroon.
My likeminded Blog friend RomeoCat over at Cathouse Chat is asking that we all join the campaign to send pens and pencils to Senator John sKerry in an effort to help him sign standard military form SF-180 allowing his military records to be released for the scrutiny of the media and the public.
Here is a link to an online petition asking that Senator sKerry do the same thing that president Bush did.
I bet he will never do it. What a high paid, pompous, ultra-maroon.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Test Drive
About a third of the drivers here on St. Simons Island are over the age of one hundred.
No, really, it just seems that way. Maybe they are younger than one hundred years old, but we do have a lot of senior citizens living here that really should not be driving.
Our neighbor, Dr. Jim, is a little guy in his mid eighties that is a menace on the highway. He drives a big old Lincoln Towncar and all you see when he drives by is the top of his head and his white knuckles on the steering wheel. A few months ago he pulled out into traffic on the island causeway and was t-boned by another car and we all thought that Dr. Jim’s driving days were over with. He wasn’t injured in the accident, but it took weeks to fix the Lincoln and he borrowed a car and kept right on terrorizing his fellow coastal Georgia drivers.
I know that mobility is important to everyone and access to things like the drug store and the grocery store is a necessity, but I believe that drivers of all ages should have to take a competency test—every five years let’s say—to ensure that their auto operating skills and abilities are up to snuff.
Take a look at this story about a woman who hits her husband, a car salesman, a tree, a wall, and another car—all in one wreck--DURING A TEST DRIVE.
I wonder why she needed a new car in the first place? An accident perhaps?
I rest my case your honor…
Update: 3:19 PM
Sorry about the HTML coding problems...they're repaired.
Help For "Working Moms"
Check out this story about a woman running a daycare center and an escort service out of the same building.
"Authorities said Coretta Battle, who is a mother of two young girls, ran the Family Battle Day Care as well as Prestige Escorts, where day-care clients allegedly sold sex, Local 6 News reported.
Battle was videotaped being arrested at her home Thursday.
"We had information that led us to believe that she was watching or taking care of the children of her employees while they were out doing these acts of prostitution," Brevard County police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said. "Battle was driving her minivan, her family vehicle, to and from hotels where she would be soliciting sex. Our officers went undercover and basically solicited from the escort services.""
Talk about giving working moms a break.
"Authorities said Coretta Battle, who is a mother of two young girls, ran the Family Battle Day Care as well as Prestige Escorts, where day-care clients allegedly sold sex, Local 6 News reported.
Battle was videotaped being arrested at her home Thursday.
"We had information that led us to believe that she was watching or taking care of the children of her employees while they were out doing these acts of prostitution," Brevard County police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said. "Battle was driving her minivan, her family vehicle, to and from hotels where she would be soliciting sex. Our officers went undercover and basically solicited from the escort services.""
Talk about giving working moms a break.
The Tax Man Comeith
This from the former commissioner of the IRS:
"Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical suspicion.
"Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical suspicion.
The income tax is bad because it has robbed you and me of the guarantee of privacy and the respect for our property that were given to us in Article IV of the Bill of Rights. This invasion is absolute and complete as far as the amount of tax that can be assessed is concerned. Please remember that under the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress can take 100% of our income anytime it wants to. As a matter of fact, right now it is imposing a tax as high as 91%. This is downright confiscation and cannot be defended on any other grounds.
The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from each according to his accumulation of the fruits of his labor and giving to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal dignity or other attributes of men.
The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they die.
As matters now stand, if our children make the most of their capabilities and training, they will have to give most of it to the tax collector and so become slaves of the government. People cannot pull themselves up by the bootstraps anymore because the tax collector gets the boots and the straps as well.
The income tax is bad because it is oppressive to all and discriminates particularly against those people who prove themselves most adept at keeping the wheels of business turning and creating maximum employment and a high standard of living for their fellow men.
I believe that a better way to raise revenue not only can be found but must be found because I am convinced that the present system is leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those, who established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to forever free themselves..."
T. Coleman Andrews. Andrews Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service for three years, from 1953 until 1955.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
The Little Italian Communist Is A Proven Liar
OK, I was up early this morning, having a pretty good day, then Atlanta radio talk show Neil Boortz’s web site pointed out this story to me.
Now my head is spinning around…again.
It seems that the report from joint investigation into the shooting of the little Italian communist reporter Giuliana Sgrena was released on Wednesday:
“U.S. military officials told NBC News that a joint American-Italian investigation found the soldiers acted properly in firing on a car bearing a just-freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, and an intelligence officer, Nicola Calipari.
The car was about 130 yards from a checkpoint when the soldiers flashed their lights to get it to stop. They fired warning shots when the car was within 90 yards of the checkpoint, but at 65 yards, they used deadly force. Calipari was killed and Sgrena wounded.”
As I wrote last month in Are They Just Plain Stupid, I Was Right, They Were Just Stupid, and What Is There To Not Understand, it was fairly obvious that the Italians screwed up and it cost their security agent his life. Better his than that of some 19 year old kid from Kansas.
Then last night, CBS’s 60 Minutes Wednesday, home of the Dan Rather forged document “Memogate” scandal, gave Sgrena a chunk of national airtime to continue telling her lies…
"Sgrena says she was less than a half-mile from the airport, when the shooting began: "Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting...
The Pentagon declined to talk with 60 Minutes Wednesday, but the Army issued this statement on the night of the shooting: “Vehicle traveling at high speed refused to stop at a check point.” [The soldiers] “attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots…when the driver didn’t stop the soldiers shot into the engine block which stopped the vehicle.”
"I think that is a lie," says Sgrena.
"Let's take this piece by piece," says Pelley. "Vehicle was speeding."
"No," says Sgrena.
"Attempted to warn the driver by hand signals," says Pelley.
"No," says Sgrena.
"Arm signals. Flashing white lights," says Pelley. "Firing warning shots."
"Nothing at all," says Sgrena.
"What you’re saying in this interview is that none of those things happened?" asks Pelley.
"Nothing. No," says Sgrena. "I'm sure." "
Let me just tilt back my head and offer a great big old international shout of Bullshit to Ms. Sgrena.
I've got to tell you people, if you continue to watch CBS News, other than for the entertainment value of watching a car accident or a train wreck, if you actually believe anything that they say, YOU’RE NUTS.
Now my head is spinning around…again.
It seems that the report from joint investigation into the shooting of the little Italian communist reporter Giuliana Sgrena was released on Wednesday:
“U.S. military officials told NBC News that a joint American-Italian investigation found the soldiers acted properly in firing on a car bearing a just-freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, and an intelligence officer, Nicola Calipari.
The car was about 130 yards from a checkpoint when the soldiers flashed their lights to get it to stop. They fired warning shots when the car was within 90 yards of the checkpoint, but at 65 yards, they used deadly force. Calipari was killed and Sgrena wounded.”
As I wrote last month in Are They Just Plain Stupid, I Was Right, They Were Just Stupid, and What Is There To Not Understand, it was fairly obvious that the Italians screwed up and it cost their security agent his life. Better his than that of some 19 year old kid from Kansas.
Then last night, CBS’s 60 Minutes Wednesday, home of the Dan Rather forged document “Memogate” scandal, gave Sgrena a chunk of national airtime to continue telling her lies…
"Sgrena says she was less than a half-mile from the airport, when the shooting began: "Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting...
The Pentagon declined to talk with 60 Minutes Wednesday, but the Army issued this statement on the night of the shooting: “Vehicle traveling at high speed refused to stop at a check point.” [The soldiers] “attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots…when the driver didn’t stop the soldiers shot into the engine block which stopped the vehicle.”
"I think that is a lie," says Sgrena.
"Let's take this piece by piece," says Pelley. "Vehicle was speeding."
"No," says Sgrena.
"Attempted to warn the driver by hand signals," says Pelley.
"No," says Sgrena.
"Arm signals. Flashing white lights," says Pelley. "Firing warning shots."
"Nothing at all," says Sgrena.
"What you’re saying in this interview is that none of those things happened?" asks Pelley.
"Nothing. No," says Sgrena. "I'm sure." "
Let me just tilt back my head and offer a great big old international shout of Bullshit to Ms. Sgrena.
I've got to tell you people, if you continue to watch CBS News, other than for the entertainment value of watching a car accident or a train wreck, if you actually believe anything that they say, YOU’RE NUTS.
They Cat Be Serious
I’ve followed this story about the potential legalization of hunting feral cats in the state of Wisconsin and resisted commenting thus far--until my girlfriend Pat asked me to write something about it.
As I’ve previously stated, I’m a gun owner--three rifles and two shotguns. I believe in our Constitutional right to bear arms and in responsible gun ownership. I enjoyed roaming over my grandfather’s three hundred fifty acre farm in south Alabama when I was a youth. Today we lament poachers illegally hunting deer on our property, but legal hunting in the US is a right I will defend until my death.
Government intervention in the form of hunting laws has helped species like the wild turkey and the alligator recover from predicted untimely demises.
That’s a good thing.
When I was a kid it used to be an exciting event to actually see a wild turkey, but in the past ten years I’ve watched wild turkeys stop traffic on Johnson Ferry Road during rush hour in east Cobb County Georgia. Yesterday I read this news story about a dog saving its owner from an alligator in Tampa, Florida. The dog died, unfortunately. By the way, I believe that Alligators are going to become an even larger menace as a result of human encroachment into their territory in the next few years. We have some twelve-footers here in the marshes at St. Simons.
Which brings me back to my topic—WHO THE HELL THINKS IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO START SHOOTING STRAY CATS? Not me.
Why do these morons want to legalize cat hunting? Because Morris and Tiger and Kitty Mewmew kill…
“Some experts estimate that 2 million wild cats roam Wisconsin, and the state says studies show feral cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds a year.
South Dakota and Minnesota both allow wild cats to be shot.”
My answer?
Well at least wild cats do what cats are supposed to do—they hunt and kill their own food. They aren’t like stray dogs that spend all of their time “poaching’ food out of your trash cans and dumpsters. North Georgia is filled with “nuisance” black bears that pillage campsites and home sites and yet bear hunting is severely limited if not outlawed.
What if we declare open season on stupid-assed little kids (like I once was) with new BB guns? How many songbirds are killed each year by little idiots with shiny new Daisy and Crossman products which they got as Christmas presents? Is killing and eating a bird a crime punishable by the death penalty if killing and leaving a dead bird in your neighbors’ back yard is just a “phase” in growing up?
I guess I am intellectually astride the fence here, but I have a hard time supporting a “LEGAL” hunting season on any species that humans have already interjected their influence into the spread of the population. If every pet owner maintained their pet by controlling their breeding habits or having them spayed/neutered, there wouldn’t be a need for “dog (im)pounds” and “shelters” in the first place.
With the demise of the Florida Panther and the Bobcat here in the south, there are a number of species like Raccoons, Opossums, and Armadillos that are trashing everyone’s yards and rummaging through everything in sight looking for a free meal. The deer in the state parks in north Georgia are stripping everything within eight feet of the ground bare and they are literally starving to death.
I’m not a big animals’ rights activist and I think that the PETA people are basically crazy, but my old cat friends Buddy, Patches, Hoover, Mr.-T and my Mom’s cat Tom deserve a better fate than a load of #6 shot or a 22 bullet from some camouflaged hunter stalking them from a distance of 25 feet when their only crime is that they slipped out the back door unnoticed.
Know what I mean?
As I’ve previously stated, I’m a gun owner--three rifles and two shotguns. I believe in our Constitutional right to bear arms and in responsible gun ownership. I enjoyed roaming over my grandfather’s three hundred fifty acre farm in south Alabama when I was a youth. Today we lament poachers illegally hunting deer on our property, but legal hunting in the US is a right I will defend until my death.
Government intervention in the form of hunting laws has helped species like the wild turkey and the alligator recover from predicted untimely demises.
That’s a good thing.
When I was a kid it used to be an exciting event to actually see a wild turkey, but in the past ten years I’ve watched wild turkeys stop traffic on Johnson Ferry Road during rush hour in east Cobb County Georgia. Yesterday I read this news story about a dog saving its owner from an alligator in Tampa, Florida. The dog died, unfortunately. By the way, I believe that Alligators are going to become an even larger menace as a result of human encroachment into their territory in the next few years. We have some twelve-footers here in the marshes at St. Simons.
Which brings me back to my topic—WHO THE HELL THINKS IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO START SHOOTING STRAY CATS? Not me.
Why do these morons want to legalize cat hunting? Because Morris and Tiger and Kitty Mewmew kill…
“Some experts estimate that 2 million wild cats roam Wisconsin, and the state says studies show feral cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds a year.
South Dakota and Minnesota both allow wild cats to be shot.”
My answer?
Well at least wild cats do what cats are supposed to do—they hunt and kill their own food. They aren’t like stray dogs that spend all of their time “poaching’ food out of your trash cans and dumpsters. North Georgia is filled with “nuisance” black bears that pillage campsites and home sites and yet bear hunting is severely limited if not outlawed.
What if we declare open season on stupid-assed little kids (like I once was) with new BB guns? How many songbirds are killed each year by little idiots with shiny new Daisy and Crossman products which they got as Christmas presents? Is killing and eating a bird a crime punishable by the death penalty if killing and leaving a dead bird in your neighbors’ back yard is just a “phase” in growing up?
I guess I am intellectually astride the fence here, but I have a hard time supporting a “LEGAL” hunting season on any species that humans have already interjected their influence into the spread of the population. If every pet owner maintained their pet by controlling their breeding habits or having them spayed/neutered, there wouldn’t be a need for “dog (im)pounds” and “shelters” in the first place.
With the demise of the Florida Panther and the Bobcat here in the south, there are a number of species like Raccoons, Opossums, and Armadillos that are trashing everyone’s yards and rummaging through everything in sight looking for a free meal. The deer in the state parks in north Georgia are stripping everything within eight feet of the ground bare and they are literally starving to death.
I’m not a big animals’ rights activist and I think that the PETA people are basically crazy, but my old cat friends Buddy, Patches, Hoover, Mr.-T and my Mom’s cat Tom deserve a better fate than a load of #6 shot or a 22 bullet from some camouflaged hunter stalking them from a distance of 25 feet when their only crime is that they slipped out the back door unnoticed.
Know what I mean?
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Senators Still Stepping in Stinky Stuff
In an effort to force you to follow Barbara Boxer's crappola over in the Senate Affairs Committee hearings, I found this little item,
"During questioning on John R. Bolton's nomination to be President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee referred to "Mr. Smith" as one official among several who were involved in a dispute over what Democrats asserted was Bolton's inappropriate treatment of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him.
"During questioning on John R. Bolton's nomination to be President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee referred to "Mr. Smith" as one official among several who were involved in a dispute over what Democrats asserted was Bolton's inappropriate treatment of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him.
"We referred to this other analyst at the CIA, whom I'll try and call Mr. Smith here, I hope I can keep that straight," Bolton said at one point.
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both mentioned a name, Fulton Armstrong, that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.
It is not clear whether Armstrong is the undercover officer, but an exchange between Kerry and Bolton suggests that he may be."
And we're paying these people over $170,000 a year each to act like this on CSPAN?
This Just In
Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies
"Yale University researchers say their study that used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies could lead to a better understanding of overeating and violence in humans.
Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly.
Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Cell.
Scientists say the study could ultimately help identify the cells associated with psychiatric disorders, overeating and aggressiveness."
And in other news, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean announced that the DNC had perfected a process to use the headlights of a 1972 Ford Pinto to control his brain, along those of party leaders Ted Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barbara Boxer.
They are optimistic that the process can be extended to all disenfranchised Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio in time for the 2008 elections.
SorryFolks, just kidding…
"Yale University researchers say their study that used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies could lead to a better understanding of overeating and violence in humans.
Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly.
Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Cell.
Scientists say the study could ultimately help identify the cells associated with psychiatric disorders, overeating and aggressiveness."
And in other news, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean announced that the DNC had perfected a process to use the headlights of a 1972 Ford Pinto to control his brain, along those of party leaders Ted Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barbara Boxer.
They are optimistic that the process can be extended to all disenfranchised Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio in time for the 2008 elections.
SorryFolks, just kidding…
Monday, April 11, 2005
Shut Up And Drive
I just got done writing yet ANOTHER essay about gas prices—this one to our little local newspaper, The Brunswick News. They have published five of my writings over the past year.
I won’t bore you with the entire text of my “Letter to the Editor”… let’s just say that it was written in response to the newspaper’s call for president Bush to emulate his father, George H.W. Bush, in releasing some of the oil stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help reduce gas prices.
Are you one of the people that actually believe that such government intervention would help gas prices?
OK, sit down and let me go through this again.
TODAYS GAS PRICES ARE NOT RECORD HIGHS!!!!!
You got that? No?
Well let’s look at a little history contained on the Department of Energy Web Site.
As this graph shows, the price of unleaded regular gas hit $2.85, adjusted for inflation, in 1980 during the Carter administration. Last time I checked, we’re forty or fifty cents below that right now.
Another thing the graph shows is this trend:
Year...Price then...Price 2004 dollars...Year...Price Then...Price 2004 dollars
1920....$0.298.........$2.812.................1970.....$0.357..........$1.737
1930....$0.200.........$2.256.................1980.....$1.245..........$2.853
1940....$0.184.........$2.479.................1985.....$1.165............$2.044
1950....$0.268.........$2.099.................1990.....$1.127..........$1.629
1960....$0.311...........$1.986.................1995.....$1.109..........$1.373
...........................................................2000.....$1.486..........$1.629
I know that the government’s inflation figures make most peoples eyeballs roll back in their head, but look at that chart with me for just a minute.
In 1920, when Henry Ford’s Model T was bringing autos to the average Joe's driveway, gas cost 29 cents a gallon. What was that number, adjusted for inflation? $2.81?
In 1960, right after my dad traded his 56 Chevy two door in for a Chevy Nomad station wagon, gas cost 31 cents a gallon. What was that number, adjusted for inflation? $1.98 ?
Except for a period in the 1990’s, it looks to me like the price of gas has always tended to hover within 25 cents higher or lower of the equivalent of $2.00.
So yes, things are a little high now, but it hardly could be defined as a national emergency. In my opinion, gas prices are not president Bush’s fault and there is little he can do on a short term basis that will have much effect on them.
Dumping all the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would buy us about 31 days of driving, based on our current consumption of 9 million barrels of oil per day in automobiles. We better start drilling in ANWAR, looking at other domestic sources of oil, and build a few new refineries, or things are just going to get worse.
So like I said earlier...SHUT UP AND DRIVE.
I won’t bore you with the entire text of my “Letter to the Editor”… let’s just say that it was written in response to the newspaper’s call for president Bush to emulate his father, George H.W. Bush, in releasing some of the oil stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help reduce gas prices.
Are you one of the people that actually believe that such government intervention would help gas prices?
OK, sit down and let me go through this again.
TODAYS GAS PRICES ARE NOT RECORD HIGHS!!!!!
You got that? No?
Well let’s look at a little history contained on the Department of Energy Web Site.
As this graph shows, the price of unleaded regular gas hit $2.85, adjusted for inflation, in 1980 during the Carter administration. Last time I checked, we’re forty or fifty cents below that right now.
Another thing the graph shows is this trend:
Year...Price then...Price 2004 dollars...Year...Price Then...Price 2004 dollars
1920....$0.298.........$2.812.................1970.....$0.357..........$1.737
1930....$0.200.........$2.256.................1980.....$1.245..........$2.853
1940....$0.184.........$2.479.................1985.....$1.165............$2.044
1950....$0.268.........$2.099.................1990.....$1.127..........$1.629
1960....$0.311...........$1.986.................1995.....$1.109..........$1.373
...........................................................2000.....$1.486..........$1.629
I know that the government’s inflation figures make most peoples eyeballs roll back in their head, but look at that chart with me for just a minute.
In 1920, when Henry Ford’s Model T was bringing autos to the average Joe's driveway, gas cost 29 cents a gallon. What was that number, adjusted for inflation? $2.81?
In 1960, right after my dad traded his 56 Chevy two door in for a Chevy Nomad station wagon, gas cost 31 cents a gallon. What was that number, adjusted for inflation? $1.98 ?
Except for a period in the 1990’s, it looks to me like the price of gas has always tended to hover within 25 cents higher or lower of the equivalent of $2.00.
So yes, things are a little high now, but it hardly could be defined as a national emergency. In my opinion, gas prices are not president Bush’s fault and there is little he can do on a short term basis that will have much effect on them.
Dumping all the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would buy us about 31 days of driving, based on our current consumption of 9 million barrels of oil per day in automobiles. We better start drilling in ANWAR, looking at other domestic sources of oil, and build a few new refineries, or things are just going to get worse.
So like I said earlier...SHUT UP AND DRIVE.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
US Border "Morones"
Enrique Morones, the founder of the group Border Angels was on FOX News Heartland program tonight, hosted by Blogger diva Michelle Malkin.
I missed the name of the other guest who was invited on the program, but he was invited to represent citizen groups like The Minuteman Project that are attempting to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the US border with Mexico.
In spite of media and “activist” predictions of disaster and destruction as a result of average Americans defending our territory, things have run very smoothly over the first week of the Minuteman mobilization that began last weekend.
I feel sorry for Senior Morones because in my estimation his last name—unfortunately close to the English word “Morons”—represents an apt description of his group’s public agenda.
Here’s my own somewhat wordy illustration of why their efforts are counterproductive:
Suppose I want to move to England. Rather than applying for a visa, packing my luggage, and buying an airline ticket, instead I choose to steal a 20’ fishing boat with a 40 gallon gas tank. As a result of insanity or stupidity or just plain desperation, I choose to bring along no food, no water, no cell phone, and no marine radio. I just start driving my little boat from St. Simons Island, due east across the Atlantic toward Europe.
Upon departing on my “grand immigration adventure,” I know that there are no gas stations in the middle of the ocean, that it will take days if not weeks to make the trip, and I’m liable to get hungry and thirsty after the first 12 hours has elapsed. Details be damned, I want to see the Queen and new Lady Boyles.
After about six hours I have covered a little over one hundred miles of ocean, the seas are getting rough, and I’m out of gas. Unless I was incredibly lucky and happened to be seen by another passing vessel, I would die a horrible death of dehydration, starvation, and drowning, or some combination thereof.
Since I’m a mean old middle aged white libertarian, there would be little note of my passing, except with my family and possibly in the local media.
If I were a potential “guest worker,” immigration activists like Senior Morones would be rushing to set up a new web site and start a campaign to raise funds to place gas cans in the middle of the ocean and supply buoys with containers of water and food to prevent my demise. They would be sponsoring rescue patrols to look for other boaters like me, trying to cross the Atlantic to that Utopia that the liberals call Europe.
Here is what his Web site says about what exactly Senior Morones’ group is doing:
"Founded by Enrique Morones in 2001, Border Angels is a non-profit organization supporting humanity. The organization consists of extraordinary volunteers who want to stop unnecessary deaths of individuals traveling through the Imperial Valley desert areas and the mountain areas surrounding San Diego County, as well as the areas located around the United States and Mexican border. The high percentage of unnecessary deaths have been results of extreme heat and cold weather conditions, in addition some have sadly been the results of racial-discrimination crimes.
Steps Needed To Be TakenSpring and Summer Months: With horrifically hot temperature conditions, three hundred and forty water stations are installed in the Imperial Valley Desert and surrounding areas. Temperatures reaching as high as 127 degrees, water is critical for survival. Volunteers maintain stations each weekend throughout the spring and summer months.
Fall and Winter Months: Critical life-saving stations are established throughout the San Diego Mountain areas. Winter clothing, food and water are placed in winter storage bins to help decrease negative health results from being exposed to the incredibly freezing temperature changes that exists in the San Diego County mountain areas during the Fall and Winter."
It’s not bad enough that we have millions of illegal potential “guest workers” streaming across the borders at the easy to cross areas where our immigration officials are concentrating their enforcement efforts, but Senior Morones is out there trying to make the inhospitable Imperial Valley an oasis for those IDIOTS THAT ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE BORDER IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT.
Ever heard of the concept of survival of the fittest?
I’ve got to go now and get in my boat to go look for some offshore gas and water buoys.
Wish me luck...
I missed the name of the other guest who was invited on the program, but he was invited to represent citizen groups like The Minuteman Project that are attempting to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the US border with Mexico.
In spite of media and “activist” predictions of disaster and destruction as a result of average Americans defending our territory, things have run very smoothly over the first week of the Minuteman mobilization that began last weekend.
I feel sorry for Senior Morones because in my estimation his last name—unfortunately close to the English word “Morons”—represents an apt description of his group’s public agenda.
Here’s my own somewhat wordy illustration of why their efforts are counterproductive:
Suppose I want to move to England. Rather than applying for a visa, packing my luggage, and buying an airline ticket, instead I choose to steal a 20’ fishing boat with a 40 gallon gas tank. As a result of insanity or stupidity or just plain desperation, I choose to bring along no food, no water, no cell phone, and no marine radio. I just start driving my little boat from St. Simons Island, due east across the Atlantic toward Europe.
Upon departing on my “grand immigration adventure,” I know that there are no gas stations in the middle of the ocean, that it will take days if not weeks to make the trip, and I’m liable to get hungry and thirsty after the first 12 hours has elapsed. Details be damned, I want to see the Queen and new Lady Boyles.
After about six hours I have covered a little over one hundred miles of ocean, the seas are getting rough, and I’m out of gas. Unless I was incredibly lucky and happened to be seen by another passing vessel, I would die a horrible death of dehydration, starvation, and drowning, or some combination thereof.
Since I’m a mean old middle aged white libertarian, there would be little note of my passing, except with my family and possibly in the local media.
If I were a potential “guest worker,” immigration activists like Senior Morones would be rushing to set up a new web site and start a campaign to raise funds to place gas cans in the middle of the ocean and supply buoys with containers of water and food to prevent my demise. They would be sponsoring rescue patrols to look for other boaters like me, trying to cross the Atlantic to that Utopia that the liberals call Europe.
Here is what his Web site says about what exactly Senior Morones’ group is doing:
"Founded by Enrique Morones in 2001, Border Angels is a non-profit organization supporting humanity. The organization consists of extraordinary volunteers who want to stop unnecessary deaths of individuals traveling through the Imperial Valley desert areas and the mountain areas surrounding San Diego County, as well as the areas located around the United States and Mexican border. The high percentage of unnecessary deaths have been results of extreme heat and cold weather conditions, in addition some have sadly been the results of racial-discrimination crimes.
Steps Needed To Be TakenSpring and Summer Months: With horrifically hot temperature conditions, three hundred and forty water stations are installed in the Imperial Valley Desert and surrounding areas. Temperatures reaching as high as 127 degrees, water is critical for survival. Volunteers maintain stations each weekend throughout the spring and summer months.
Fall and Winter Months: Critical life-saving stations are established throughout the San Diego Mountain areas. Winter clothing, food and water are placed in winter storage bins to help decrease negative health results from being exposed to the incredibly freezing temperature changes that exists in the San Diego County mountain areas during the Fall and Winter."
It’s not bad enough that we have millions of illegal potential “guest workers” streaming across the borders at the easy to cross areas where our immigration officials are concentrating their enforcement efforts, but Senior Morones is out there trying to make the inhospitable Imperial Valley an oasis for those IDIOTS THAT ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE BORDER IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT.
Ever heard of the concept of survival of the fittest?
I’ve got to go now and get in my boat to go look for some offshore gas and water buoys.
Wish me luck...
They Put The "Mental" In Environmental
I’ve spent a couple of days wondering about and spent the past day fuming about the news headlines about Senator Barbara Boxer having a public temper tantrum about the Environmental Protection Agency’s CHEERS program.
Here is one highlight:
"On Thursday, Sens. Bill Nelson (search) of Florida and Barbara Boxer (search) of California expressed their "shock and disappointment" Thursday in Johnson's failure to stop the program.
They said that until he agrees to cancel the program, they're placing a hold on Johnson's nomination, preventing him from getting a vote on the Senate floor.
"If EPA can get away with testing babies, infants, then they can get away with anything when it comes to human testing of toxics," said Boxer, who added that when she questioned Johnson about the program and whether he would agree to cancel it, Johnson flatly refused.
"This is sick, it's a sick, sick thing," she said."
Even FOX news can't resist screwing up the reporting:
"Boxer and Nelson said the EPA's Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (search) offers to pay parents of a baby nearly $1,000 if they agree to expose their child to household pesticides over a two-year period. The study was being done in Duval County, Fla., in the Jacksonville area, a geographic location that appealed to the EPA because of its year-round use of indoor pesticides."
How many times do I have to say it? The idiot parents out there in "Anytown USA" are already spraying roach killer and Lysol and Ajax and you name it all over the place in their houses and the little rugrats are crawling through the poison residue on their way to getting a snack out of the dog's food dish. What is the matter with the EPA looking over their shoulders to see what is actually happening on a day to day basis and trying to figgure out what it might be doing to the kids?
But nooooo, that can't happen when there are political points to be scored.
You know the template--A Democratic Politician wants to keep their name in the media. Said Democratic politician from the same Democratic Party that promotes themselves as the official “Champions of all things Minority” goes out and kills a perfectly legitimate program designed to look at the effects of every day household chemicals on young children.
I had finally about cooled off on the subject, then I read what the “(dis)honorable” Ms. Boxer had to say today on her web site.
Here is what I wrote as an E-mail to “Ms.” Boxer this morning:
“Mrs. Boxer, I find your public misstatements about EPA director nominee Mr. Stephen Johnson and the EPA’s CHEERS program to be reprehensible. On your official Web site you are quoted as saying:
“I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgement (sic) the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children.
The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harm’s way.
I will continue to oppose policies that lead to the testing of toxins on humans.”
In my opinion, the only “gross error in judgment” regarding this issue is the manner you and Florida Senator Nelson have misrepresented this program to a gullible media and the general public
The only “reprehensible idea” I find here is the disservice you and fellow Democrats are doing to your uninformed minority and immigrant constituents.
Mr. Johnson was not in fact conducting an “immoral program to test pesticides on children” as you have indicated.
As you should know, under the CHEERS program the EPA was simply requesting permission to enter a number of Florida homes to look for correlations between any potential illnesses and the chemicals the children were normally exposed to in their daily lives.
No one at the EPA, as you have suggested, was proposing that helpless toddlers be sprinkled and sprayed with toxins like DDT, cloradane, and dioxin while researchers stood by with a clipboard--watching the test subject spasm and die as a result of the study.
If anyone is placing children in harms way, it is the uninformed parents of the Duval County Florida children that either intentionally or un-intentionally use perfectly legal chemicals and pesticides like roach spray and household cleaners in their homes every day.
Perhaps the larger contributors to childhood illnesses of these types are partisan hacks like you and Senator Nelson that continue to demagogue and pander to immigrant and minority voters while intentionally harming their best interest in your deplorable efforts to score political points in the national media.
I, personally, cannot believe that you do not know the fallacy of your very public position in this matter.
If, in fact, you don’t know the truth, you are seriously misinformed and you need to hire some new staff to help you determine the facts before you again open your mouth on the public stage (not to mention hiring a Web staff that can spell the word “judgment.”)
It is truly a shame to see a US Senator conduct herself in the manner you choose.”
Can you believe that she actually came out and said what she said on her Web site? Here is a link to the EPA site telling what the CHEERS program actually was going to do.
All I know is that California Senator Barbara Boxer is a lying bitch, and I, for one, am calling her on it.
Senator Nelson got a similar letter.
Am I over reacting here? What do you think?
Here is one highlight:
"On Thursday, Sens. Bill Nelson (search) of Florida and Barbara Boxer (search) of California expressed their "shock and disappointment" Thursday in Johnson's failure to stop the program.
They said that until he agrees to cancel the program, they're placing a hold on Johnson's nomination, preventing him from getting a vote on the Senate floor.
"If EPA can get away with testing babies, infants, then they can get away with anything when it comes to human testing of toxics," said Boxer, who added that when she questioned Johnson about the program and whether he would agree to cancel it, Johnson flatly refused.
"This is sick, it's a sick, sick thing," she said."
Even FOX news can't resist screwing up the reporting:
"Boxer and Nelson said the EPA's Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (search) offers to pay parents of a baby nearly $1,000 if they agree to expose their child to household pesticides over a two-year period. The study was being done in Duval County, Fla., in the Jacksonville area, a geographic location that appealed to the EPA because of its year-round use of indoor pesticides."
How many times do I have to say it? The idiot parents out there in "Anytown USA" are already spraying roach killer and Lysol and Ajax and you name it all over the place in their houses and the little rugrats are crawling through the poison residue on their way to getting a snack out of the dog's food dish. What is the matter with the EPA looking over their shoulders to see what is actually happening on a day to day basis and trying to figgure out what it might be doing to the kids?
But nooooo, that can't happen when there are political points to be scored.
You know the template--A Democratic Politician wants to keep their name in the media. Said Democratic politician from the same Democratic Party that promotes themselves as the official “Champions of all things Minority” goes out and kills a perfectly legitimate program designed to look at the effects of every day household chemicals on young children.
I had finally about cooled off on the subject, then I read what the “(dis)honorable” Ms. Boxer had to say today on her web site.
Here is what I wrote as an E-mail to “Ms.” Boxer this morning:
“Mrs. Boxer, I find your public misstatements about EPA director nominee Mr. Stephen Johnson and the EPA’s CHEERS program to be reprehensible. On your official Web site you are quoted as saying:
“I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgement (sic) the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children.
The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harm’s way.
I will continue to oppose policies that lead to the testing of toxins on humans.”
In my opinion, the only “gross error in judgment” regarding this issue is the manner you and Florida Senator Nelson have misrepresented this program to a gullible media and the general public
The only “reprehensible idea” I find here is the disservice you and fellow Democrats are doing to your uninformed minority and immigrant constituents.
Mr. Johnson was not in fact conducting an “immoral program to test pesticides on children” as you have indicated.
As you should know, under the CHEERS program the EPA was simply requesting permission to enter a number of Florida homes to look for correlations between any potential illnesses and the chemicals the children were normally exposed to in their daily lives.
No one at the EPA, as you have suggested, was proposing that helpless toddlers be sprinkled and sprayed with toxins like DDT, cloradane, and dioxin while researchers stood by with a clipboard--watching the test subject spasm and die as a result of the study.
If anyone is placing children in harms way, it is the uninformed parents of the Duval County Florida children that either intentionally or un-intentionally use perfectly legal chemicals and pesticides like roach spray and household cleaners in their homes every day.
Perhaps the larger contributors to childhood illnesses of these types are partisan hacks like you and Senator Nelson that continue to demagogue and pander to immigrant and minority voters while intentionally harming their best interest in your deplorable efforts to score political points in the national media.
I, personally, cannot believe that you do not know the fallacy of your very public position in this matter.
If, in fact, you don’t know the truth, you are seriously misinformed and you need to hire some new staff to help you determine the facts before you again open your mouth on the public stage (not to mention hiring a Web staff that can spell the word “judgment.”)
It is truly a shame to see a US Senator conduct herself in the manner you choose.”
Can you believe that she actually came out and said what she said on her Web site? Here is a link to the EPA site telling what the CHEERS program actually was going to do.
All I know is that California Senator Barbara Boxer is a lying bitch, and I, for one, am calling her on it.
Senator Nelson got a similar letter.
Am I over reacting here? What do you think?
