Many of the 879 laws passed in the recent 45-day General Assembly session come into effect today. I am very thankful for the no-writing/reading of texts/e-mails-while-driving law, but I don’t think it goes far enough. Based on my own experiences, I think an amendment should be added that prohibits the following activities while driving:
Putting on makeup
Writing
Eating
Playing electronic games or use of cell phone apps
Drinking (no more cupholders, car costs would go down)
Going to the bathroom (Guys, you can’t deny you’ve done this at least once!)
Reading the newspaper or anything else
Reading a map (of course if this is a law, they have to provide everyone a free GPS)
Operating a DVD player (for the kids, right)
Distracting communications that would ultimately divert drivers attention away from driving–this includes arguments with your significant other or any other member of your family, breaking up fighting kids in the backseat, and any stressful cellphone conversations wtih clients, co-workers, bosses, HR, payroll, security, banker, parole officer, etc.
Of course additional ammendments may be added as new hazards are discovered or made up.
Which Republicans sold you out:
Reichert-Washington
Bono-California
Castle-Delaware
Kirk-Illinois
Lance-New Jersey
LoBiondo-New Jersey
McHugh-New York
Smith-New Jersey
And let’s not forget the sane Democrats who voted against the bill:
Altmire-Pennsylvania
Arcuri-New York
Barrow-Georgia
Berry-Arkansas
Boren-Oklahoma
Bright-Alabama
Carney-Pennsylvania
Childers-Mississippi
Costa-California
Costello-Illinois
Dahlkemper-Pennsylvania
Davis-Alabama
Davis-Tennessee
DeFazio-Oregon
Donnelly-Indiana
Edwards-Texas
Ellsworth-Indiana
Foster-Illinois
Griffith-Alabama
Herseth Sandlin-South Dakota
Holden-Pennsylvania
Kirkpatrick-Arizona
Kissell-North Carolina
Kucinich-Ohio
Marshall-Georgia
Massa-New York
Matheson-Utah
McIntyre-North Carolina
Melancon-Louisiana
Minnick-Idaho (I da ho, you da ho…sorry, couldn’t help myself)
Mitchell-Arizona
Mollohan-West Virginia
Ortiz-Texas
Pomeroy-North Dakota
Rahall-West Virginia
Rodriguez-Texas
Ross-Arkansas
Salazar-Colorado
Stark-California
Tanner-Tennessee
Taylor-Mississippi
Visclosky-Indiana
Wilson-Ohio
Now that it goes to the Senate, if you haven’t already contact them, get to it.
New York Times reports on a Veteran Affiars hospital that had over 79% error rate for one type of prostate cancer treatment. That is, the hospiatl botched the treatment 92 in 116 tries. In addition to the botched treatments…
“The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (who I understand is THE authority for radiation treatment) was one agency who was supposed to oversee the radiation treatments. Maybe the government can set up a new agency to protect us from itself.
Obama gave a speech today touting a “new beginning” (I don’t even want to know what that means) to the Muslim World. It was, as usual, a great speech. Understanding. Mutual respect. Freedom of religion. Women’s rights. Good stuff. I was fine until this part: “Summit on Entrepreneurship.” That’s where my eyeballs started to bleed. I began to wonder why Obama is such a fan of Entrepreneurship in the Muslim world. Maybe he believes it’s a uniquely Muslim phenomenon.
Make no mistake. The Government has staged a hostile takeover of three major facets of our nation’s economy:
First, our financial sector is already firmly in Government’s hands.
Second, our manufacturing and energy sector is on its way. How? Let me connect the dots:
Government Bails out GM and Chrysler.–CHECK
Government asks GM CEO (employee of GM for 30 years) to step down.–CHECK
Government converts its GM and Chrysler assets into Preferred Stock (which means it has voting rights…it didn’t have to do that, it could have just issued bonds)–CHECK
Government owns over half the voting rights of GM and Chrysler–CHECK
THEN the Government send them into Bankruptcy (couldn’t have done that BEFORE owning them, that would be CRAZY).
Government creates a brand new division of GM to build little munchkin cars that noone (currently) wants to buy.–CHECK
Government Motors then decides to spin off Hummer, the most gas-guzzling of the gas guzzling cars to another company–in China–for a profit–CHECK.
Government then begins pushing HARD an “energy” plan which would (by Obama’s own admission) drive gas prices WAY up–COMING SOON
The people of the United States like good citizens are then encouraged even more (through EXTRA tax incentives on top of the ones that are already in place) to buy the little piece of junk munchkin cars–call it “The People’s Car”–because they can’t afford a gallon of fricking gasoline–GOD HELP US ALL.
Result? Federal Government has taken over the energy industry and a huge chunk of the manufacturing sector–which narrows down further the ability for anyone to compete with the Government, therefore ENTREPRENEURSHIP in the energy and manufacturing sector goes away. Noone can find a decent job that doesn’t involve dealing with the Federal Government. And guess what…at the Government’s OWN admission, carbon emissions planet-wide doesn’t go down ONE BIT for decades…DECADES.
Next is Health Care:
Government spends $19 billion on creating a system where doctors (many who are entrepreneurs) are bribed into putting their patients’ medical information on a DHHS managed database.–CHECK
Government creates a “Nationwide Exchange” where people can compare plans…all of which will be forced to accept pre-existing conditions without exclusions.
The private plans on the “Exchange” become too expensive, because (as happened in NY and other states) guaranteed issue results in noone buying insurance until they desperately need it…for a “pre-existing” condition.
Government steps in to fix this “crisis” by creating a “Public Option” where tax-subsidized plan options are made available to compete with private plans…Those who can’t afford it are given a “hardship exemption” so they get it for free. (OH, and by they way, now it’s against the law NOT to get ANY coverage)
Doctors (small business owners) who have stopped accepting coverage from Medicare and Medicaid will now be forced by law to do so, along with accepting “Public Option” patients.
Finally, it becomes against the law to pay cash for medical treatment, because the DHHS can’t control it, so for “safety reasons” all transactions will be made through Government insurance coverage or maybe one or two (”bailed out”) insurance companies who will provide benefits to a few Government-owned companies in the Financial, Manufacturing, or Energy/Utilities sectors.
The result? The Federal Government has destroyed any aspect of Entrepreneurship in the Health Care sector and instead has full operational and informational control over your health care through the handy dandy DHHS database. So whether you’re covered by a DHHS “public option” or benefits through a company (which will likely be owned by the Federal Government), your health care will be finely controlled by Bureaucrats in the Department of Labor and the DHHS.
Why am I telling you all of this? What can we do? They ignored us on the Financial sector, they’ve been ignoring and are continuing to ignore us on Manufacturing and Energy. They will ignore us on Health Care as well.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that the only option left is for 37 states to call for another Constitutional Convention to create an amendment to clarify the tenth one.
But if that seems to extreme, at least understand this. If we don’t act locally, starting RIGHT NOW…
Next is housing and education. Then it’s all over…
That is the premise of traffic cameras, right? The Daily Advertiser reports new SafeLight at several Lafayette intersections. The cameras basically “take photos of vehicles that appear to be speeding or running the red light.”
Ok…key word here is “appear”, effectively admitting to the fact that such photos are no proof at all. The Lafayette Consolodated Government further states that the cameras attempt to take two pictures 1)when the light is red and the car is headed for intersection and 2) when the light is red and the car is in the intersection “and did not try to stop.” Pause for a moment. So, running a red is not enough to prove guilt, otherwise only one photo is necessary. Apparently, guilt occurs when running a red light without trying to stop? So, the cameras can deduce the acceleration of cars? Hmmm…interesting. Don’t buy it, but then again…what choice is there? Come on you cajuns, change the law.
On a similar note…hat tip to Political Gumbo who reports that Obama wants to further the premise so popular with the use of traffic cams: guilty until proven innocent:
Obama also planned to ask Congress to crack down on tax havens and implement a major shift in the way courts view guilt. Under Obama’s proposal, Americans would have to prove they were not breaking U.S. tax laws by sending money to banks that don’t cooperate with tax officials. It essentially would reverse the long-held assumption of innocence in U.S. courts.
Too many things happening now which don’t seem to be real. Let’s not become numb with disbelief and paralyzed by inaction.
While this doesn’t surprise me, here is an older story of Cuba burning books, periodicals and any other items that are contrary. But hey, at least they have free health care.
I’m all for equal opportunity, but what is the price of equal outcome? Freedom of choice?
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