Fireball lights up the midwest

By J. DeVoy

I was wondering what the huge, bright streak across the sky was last night.  The event lasted for several seconds and lit up the 10 pm sky as if it were dusk.  Things returned to normal shortly thereafter, largely because none of this stuff happened.

UPDATE: CNN has video of the event.

Tax day arrives!

  

 

I HERD U LIEK TEH TOP MARGINAL RATE!

 

By J. DeVoy

Dear the top 10% of income earners:  Thank you!  Because of your toil as business owners, doctors, lawyers and financial service experts, you are able to subsidize the lifestyles and safety of people like me – somewhat literate, moderately intelligent lifetime students – by paying more than 70% of all Federal income taxes.  My dirty secret is that for all my striving, I’m woefully below average at something — being a taxpayer.  Despite scrupulously filing my taxes every year, I haven’t been able to break median or even come close to it.  I fall into the group that contributes less than 3% of all Federal income taxes.

This disparity arises as a function of our progressive taxation regime, where the highest earners pay the most and lowest earners pay the least.  Indeed, the well-off don’t object to redistributionist policies that keep the poors from trammeling their quality of life, as urchins tend to be more interested in wealthy people’s consumer goods than their liberalism.  When the have-nots have nothing, they get violent.  This extortion arises in part from the underclass’s cognitive limitations, and unfortunately is only one form of tribute required to placate them.  Others range from ceding entire sections of American cities as no man’s land to carrying an emergency $20 in the event of a mugging.

Despite these realities, the one-person, one-vote model persists.  Forty-seven percent of households have no tax burden this year, yet every non-felon adult citizen in them has the right to vote.  This is incomprehensible.  While enduring none of the costs of maintaining the republic, they receive all of the benefits — and likely a disproportionate share.  While haves purchase health insurance, have-nots rely on government assistance.  Haves live in well-off neighborhoods, sometimes gated, and own home security systems; have-nots rely almost exclusively on the police for monitoring their property.  The same can be said of family relationships, where haves will send their children and themselves to the best therapists they can afford, while have-nots will call the police to resolve their domestic disputes once they inevitably explode into violence.

Two potential alternatives to the current system exist, which are held out as being more fair.  The first is a flat tax, which taxes all income at a fixed rate, rather than progressively.  While this would have a regressive effect, as the set rate of taxation would have to be fairly high, it would assure that every citizen contributed an equal component of his or her earnings.  Another alternative is a national sales tax, akin to the United Kingdom’s 17.5% Value-Added Tax (VAT), which is tacked on to every purchase.  Due to the lopsided cycle of spending in America, distorted by winter holidays, a national sales tax may create revenue issues for the national treasury.

We have ignored the wisdom of the ancients and our founding fathers.  Both Plato and Alexis de Tocqueville disliked democracy, with the latter famously saying “[a] democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”  Thomas Jefferson described democracy as a form of “mob rule.”  While we live in a republic and not a democracy, we pander to the rubes and outwardly consider their positions and opinions, as if the half-thoughts they express in YouTube and Perez Hilton comments can be characterized as such, so that our elected officials can ensconce themselves deeply in their elected positions.  It is a distinction without a difference.

The forefathers were wrong about some things.  Today it is unthinkable that voting would be limited to white men.  They were, however, deadly accurate in limiting voting to landowners.  Restricting the franchise to those with something to lose leads to more prudent government, even if it does have a redistributionist bent.  Rationally, those with property after a lifetime spent acquiring it are less likely to squander it for nothing than those who never had such niceties, and thus cannot appreciate them.  When the bitterness of envy and class resentment is grafted onto this latter group’s ignorance – a seemingly natural consequence of the Dunning-Kruger and Downing effects – reckless decisions become spiteful ones; the destruction of wealth is not born from ignorance, but spawned of malice.

Thus, the choices for creating a legitimate tax model are clear: All must suffer equally, or those who suffer more must be accorded a greater voice.  Allowing the most productive members of society to be stripped of their wealth by sheer force of numbers, even if the fleeced would agree to the payment and its aims, is unjustifiable.  There is no endpoint where the masses can no longer expropriate wealth.  Just as in business and especially Venture Capital, the party bearing the greatest financial burden should be accorded the most say in how its finite resources are used.  After all, this is their property we’re talking about.  Beyond making economic sense, it is loyal to the most important rule of all, the Golden Rule: The one with the gold makes the rules.

Awesome Prank

Alan Grayson wins a muzzle

By J. DeVoy

Alan Grayson, the Democrat Congressman from central Florida, has been on a hot streak for bad PR.  In December, Marc broke the story about Grayson’s poor reaction to constituent outcry over his childish antics.

I truly admired Alan Grayson. I think that his policies are good for America. I think that his style is exactly what the liberals need. But, anyone who behaves with such dishonor and such disdain for First Amendment principles needs to be tossed out on his ass – no matter who it is that he’s going after. I can’t say that I will support his Republican challenger in 2010, but you can be damn sure that I’ll be donating money to his democratic primary challenger.

After central Floridian Angie Langley created My Congressman is Nuts – a spoof of Grayson’s “Congressman With Guts” slogan – Grayson attempted to single her out for special punishment.  Instead of addressing Langley’s concerns, Grayson contacted the Florida Attorney General, urging the investigation and prosecution of Langley and her political group.  Grayson wanted those charges to be brought under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, so Langely could be fined and imprisoned up to five years for committing fraud.

The Jefferson Center has memorialized the ire of internet users and free speech advocates by awarding Grayson a Muzzle award for 2010.

For urging the U.S. Attorney General to seek a monetary fine and a 5 year prison sentence against a vocal critic for alleged violations of Federal Election law that, even if true, represent minor transgressions, a 2010 Jefferson Muzzle goes to… U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL).

Since 1992, the Jefferson Center has been giving out Muzzles to the worst opponents of free speech.  Past winners have included Janet Reno, CBS Television, the Library of Congress, Rudy Giuliani, the Clinton Administration, and George W. Bush’s Presidential Campaign.  This year, the Jefferson Center awarded 10 Muzzles, and Grayson was number one.  Not only does Grayson hang from the gallows of censorship with ignominious company like the Texas State Legislature, Las Vegas Police, Oklahoma Tax Commission and Virginia Department of Correction, he precedes them all in foulness. 

The unexplored angle of this story is how unexpected this conduct should be from Grayson, given his background.  If Grayson were some “are country” bumpkin who had never tasted pho or encountered literature more challenging than Harr’s bourgeois tale of unheeded caution known as A Civil Action, this would all make sense.  Indeed, ignorance is bliss.  But Alan Grayson went to Harvard College.  Then Harvard Law School.  Then he did Ph.D. coursework at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, though many allege that KSG = TTT.

Despite his triple-Harvard credentials, Grayson took actions that not only stifle the political discourse he ostensibly cared so much about, but should shock the conscience of any political activist.  The maxim that speech should be combatted with more speech, while trite, is true; prosecutions and witch hunts by the Florida Attorney General are inimical to that goal.  Lashing out like Grayson did reeks of desperation, and is the action of a man who cannot influence political discourse through legitimate means.

There Goes the Neighborhood

In Eastwood (near Syracuse, NY), a church congregation is up in arms because a video store is opening next door and they intend to have adult videos available. (source)

Roosevelt Baums, pastor of the church puts it more simply: It’s just not right.

“Well, according to the membership, we wouldn’t like that in our community, especially because 4 percent of that business is derived from pornographic material,” Baums said. “Yes, we need something in the neighborhood … but we don’t want to bring in an immoral situation into our communities. We have enough problems as it is.” (source)

No, that’s not a typo. FOUR percent. In other words, a whole video store will be there, and there will be a few sexually oriented titles — and Pastor Baums and his flock of superstition worshipping idiots can’t handle that.

The pastor is right, we do have enough problems as it is. However, the problems we have come from adults who read a crappy 2,000 year old book scrawled by a bunch of child molesters who wiped their asses with their hands and think that it is the work of an almighty space ghost.

It never fails to amaze me when I see these fools — who believe that their imaginary friend is all powerful, all seeing, created all and could destroy all, but he would have an absolute heart attack if he saw a store next to one of his franchises that made FOUR percent of its income from porn.

Lets do a little math… lets presume that the store would make 100 percent of its money from porn. Tell me how many reports you have read about kids being molested in porno stores. Hmmm? How many now? Oh, ZERO?

Now… would you rather have a church or a smut store in your town?

If you’re still Catholic….

You must be on crack.

Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut’s legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.

…

The proposed change to the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk,” says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops.

The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut’s Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill.

The “legislation would undermine the mission of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, threatening our parishes, our schools, and our Catholic Charities,” the letter says. (source)

Yes, because if they don’t get away with raping children, it undermines the mission of the Church.

H/T: Clint

Dumbass Typosquatter of the Day

Some dumbass registered thousands of typosquatting domains. A handful of them were typosquatting on Microsoft’s trademarks, so Microsoft sued him for $2.4 million. Now the dumbass wants to just hand over the domain names and call it a day, and if Microsoft doesn’t like it, he’s not going to bother to answer the complaint. (source)

Lemme know how that works out for you, dumbass.

I deal with idiots like this all the time. They register infringing domain names, make a few bucks off them, and then think that the remedy should be my client sending a nice “please cut it out” letter — and then all bygones are bygones.

Only an idiot like this could make Microsoft look like it was wearing the white hat.

2010 U.S. News rankings leaked?

By J. DeVoy

Via Above The Law, it appears that someone released the 2010 US News Law School rankings before their street date.  To be very clear, this may be a hoax, and we make no representations as to the accuracy of the rankings being proffered by anonymous internet posters.  This always happens, though, so it may be accurate.

Check out the first page at ATL.  More information can be found on this photostream.

“Only verifiable statements of fact can be libelous.”

“Only verifiable statements of fact can be libelous.” So sayeth New York Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger in rejecting a defamation claim brought by Sandals resort against an anonymous critic. (source)

Too bad that so many other judges are too stupid to understand this basic legal principle.

Towing company sues student for starting Facebook page

A Kalamazoo, Michigan towing company is suing a Western Michigan University student for starting a Facebook Page against the company. The complaint is here. The quality of the work is exactly what you would expect from a lawyer who would file a claim like this.

Go figure. The towing company, T&J Towing has an F grade with the Better Business Bureau. (source)

Reason 1313 that Flori-duh needs an anti-SLAPP law – the tale of emiller1313

Michael Steadman bought a time clock from eBay seller emiller1313 for $44. He says that the ad for the clock said that it was in good working condition, but that when it arrived, it was not as the seller represented it.

“it was not what it was supposed to be. It sounded like a good working time clock. It came in in three separate pieces that didn’t fit together. Time didn’t work, half of it was missing. It couldn’t sit on a wall or desk” said Steadman.

Steadman says he contacted the seller, emiller1313 twice, asking for a refund. “He didn’t want to work with me, said all sales are final. That’s it no refund,” said Steadman.

So Steadman took his complaint to Ebay’s payment service: Paypal. “They agreed with me. So they forced Miller to give me my money back on it. (source)

Next, Steadman did what any eBayer would do if he had to challenge a payment through PayPal — he left negative feedback. He wrote “Bad seller; he has the ethics of a used car salesman.”

It turns out that emiller1313 is an attorney, Elliot Miller. Miller says that he had a perfect 100% eBay feedback rating before Steadman left his negative feedback, so he sued Steadman. It seems that subsequently, on December 27, 2009, another eBayer left Miller negative feedback as well. dmjohnson30025 wrote “Seller suggested we unload obviously broke unit on another unspecting buyer.” I was not able to find evidence that Miller has sued dmjohnson30025.

Whether Miller had the “ethics of a used car salesman” when it came to the transaction is uncertain. I haven’t seen the clock, I haven’t seen the emails between the parties trying to work it out. However, what I do see is that an attorney who lives in a $3 million home is selling $44 time clocks on eBay. That is a bit puzzling. What I also see is that an attorney filed a lawsuit for defamation over a stupid comment like “Bad seller; he has the ethics of a used car salesman.”?

Steadman’s position is now that free speech isn’t worth it.

“I want everyone to know, everyone needs to know the dangers of their opinions,” said Michael Steadman. (source)

In other words, an American citizen (and by all accounts a hard-working and decent one at that) wants everyone to know that sharing opinions is “dangerous.” Steadman is out of money, so his attorney withdrew from the case. That is unfortunate, because it seems like even a middling litigator could destroy a claim based on these facts.

In order to sustain a cause of action for defamation in Florida, the plaintiff must allege that there were false statements of fact, published to a third person, which caused damage to the Plaintiff. Without these essential elements, there is no defamation. So where is the false statement of fact? Is there some measurable degree of ethics that Mr. Miller has and that can be compared to the greater universe of used car salesmen? No, of course not. This is nothing but hyperbole — which is protected speech. See Lampkin-Asam v. Miami Daily News, Inc., 408 So. 2d 666 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981) (even otherwise defamatory words are hyperbolic, and thus protected speech when taken “in their proper context.”).

If anyone out there can get a copy of the complaint and email it to me, I’ll do what I can to help find this guy a pro-bono attorney. In the meantime, Mr. Miller should be ashamed of himself. Perhaps his ethics as a seller were just fine. But, filing a defamation suit over something so petty seems to confirm Mr. Steadman’s initial evaluation.

Will the healthcare bill cover sewing someone’s jaw shut?

Quote of the day:

‘If you’re trying to be bitchy, you’re doing a good job.”

Said by Barney Frank’s boyfriend to a pair of bitchy opthalmologists on a flight from LA to Boston when Frank wouldn’t talk to their drunk stupid asses. (source)

I don’t even understand what the healthcare bill did. Sorry to plead such ignorance, but I really don’t give a fuck. I have lots of money, really good health insurance, and I can only give a fuck about so many items at a time. Healthcare isn’t one of them. I get it, they are gonna tax me more so that poors get better health care. Fine. I don’t mind. My tax dollars support a lot dumber shit than that.

The only thing about the healthcare debate that I really give a fuck about is that I wish the whiny idiots who keep wanking on about it would SHUT UP Its done. Lets see how it flies. The republic is not about to come crashing down because some Wal Mart greeter is now going to be able to get his genital warts removed.

Every one of you who is bitching about the Healthcare bill who didn’t bitch just as loudly when the PATRIOT Act passed is going to have to shut up. If you didn’t complain about what the PATRIOT Act did, you can’t bitch that Obama is a “Fascist” for wanting to take a few bucks from rich people to help poor people not live in diseased misery.

Slap happy at Ball State University

By J. DeVoy

An unknown assailant is tormenting the women at Ball State University by slapping two of them on the bottom.  As suddenly as the attack began, the assailant would pedal away into the darkness, “no doubt while twirling his mustache and cackling maniacally.”

The fallout has been predictable, closely following the arc of PCU‘s plot.

Of course, there are folks out there who say that this is no laughing matter, and that anyone who finds humor in this whole thing is evil and should be hunted down by a lynch mob. BSU’s student paper covered their asses adequately withthis milquetoast editorialdemanding that this crime be taken seriously, and a Facebook group that opposes “MEMEBRS” of the Ball State Ass Slapper page (IT IS NOT A JOKE!!!) is a mere 328 fans strong at the time this sentence was tapped out. But the real laughs are to be had from an indignant blog post from ScienceBlogs scribbler ”Isis the Scientist” of On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess… (haha, don’t you get it? Her name is Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility and her blog is called, eh heh…). You’d think a blog on a site called ScienceBlogs would be more about, y’know, SCIENCE, but Isis would rather chew up their bandwidth to show how shocked, appalled, offended she is that people would dare to find this incident funny.

Drunk Driving: A Victimless Crime

by Charles Platt

I wonder if anyone else agrees that drunk driving is a victimless crime. A conviction merely affirms that a person was more likely than average to hit someone or something. Well, all kinds of people are more likely to do that, such as the elderly, or people who simply don’t have an aptitude for driving.

State laws used to recognize this, more or less, by allowing police to make a judgment call about impairment, based on their observations. But that wasn’t good enough for Candy Lightner, whose daughter had been killed by a drunk driver. In the wearying tradition of family members who want to make the death of a loved one seem more meaningful by inconveniencing everybody else, Lightner started Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The name of this brilliant campaign guaranteed its success. Who could possibly disagree with Mothers (that most sacred category of human being) who wanted to protect their children from alcohol-crazed hit-and-run maniacs? Alas, it ended up criminalizing the people whom it was supposed to protect.

Young people themselves are the most likely to drink and drive. So, MADD’s answer was to stop them from drinking–even including the ones who didn’t own cars and didn’t have driver licenses. Of course the federal government lacked constitutional authority to enforce this, so it simply threatened to take away a percentage of highway finds if the states didn’t capitulate. Such coercion would be familiar to any mafia boss: “Nice little highway you have here. Be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe you should think about raising the legal drinking age to 21.” Thus young people who had been 18, 19, or 20 at the time suddenly had to stop drinking, or become criminals. Once they were 21 they could start drinking again.

Does anyone imagine that this actually worked? I have never yet met any teenagers who aren’t able to obtain alcohol if they want to. College presidents are aware of this, which may have been why more than 100 of them got together in 2008 and demanded that the legal drinking age be lowered. No doubt they were weary of trying to enforce a prohibition that is unenforceable. Of course, their plea was ignored.

Candy Lightner subsequently quit from MADD. Her demands for salary increases had been rejected, which may or may not have been a factor. In 1994 she became a spokesperson for the American Beverage Institute, a lobbying group which represents some liquor companies. She argued against a further tightening of the law regarding illegal levels of blood alcohol, stating that MADD had become “neo-prohibitionist.” Apparently even she realized that the juggernaut that she created had gotten out of hand.

Too late, Candy. Young people lost some more of their dwindling rights, and police departments gained a great new tool for raising revenue. Lives have been disrupted in the process, since people convicted of DUIs lose their licenses in many states, and this can be catastrophic for someone who lives alone in a rural area. Meanwhile, millions of teenagers have gained criminal convictions as a result of doing something that is legal for the majority of the population.

All this in the cause of preventing a crime that might happen.
__

References:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940115&slug=1889810

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Candy-Lightner

http://www.youthrights.org/positionpapers.php#drinkingage

Arrest the Pope

This sounds like a great idea: Arresting the Pope. Too bad it won’t happen. But, if it did, imagine the poetic justice of him getting raped in the joint… and then the guards could cover it up so that the prison doesn’t get a bad reputation.

H/T: Mike McCoy