Solar Cells for a Dark Village

Just got to love how the government keeps throwing money around while they complain about the sequester.

Up to $250,000 is available to five different Alaskan Native villages each for "clean" energy improvements. Yeah. $1,250,000 more is planned to be dumped into "clean" energy because the government has such a good record on its energy policy as of late.

Here's one of the specifics laid out in the blog post.

Native Village of Minto will receive assistance to identify energy efficiency, biomass, and solar energy opportunities.

Did you catch that?

Alaska, which probably needs more energy in the winter to heat their homes than energy for air-conditioning in the summer. Do you need air-conditioning in the summer in Alaska? Just asking.

So money will be dumped into solar energy for a village when their most energy critical needs are in the winter when the sun doesn't even rise.

Yeah. I have no idea how our government keeps losing money on solar energy with their super smart choices.

The FCC is Promoting Liberty

We are seeing a glimmer of hope and common sense coming from the FCC in regards to a consumer's ability to use a product they own the way they want. This is in regards to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress interpreting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to mean a consumer is not allowed to alter their phone without permission from the company that produced it, ever. Even out of contract.

This is a partial quote from a statement by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski:

From a communications policy perspective, this raises serious competition and innovation concerns, and for wireless consumers, it doesn't pass the common sense test. The FCC is examining this issue, looking into whether the agency, wireless providers, or others should take action to preserve consumers' ability to unlock their mobile phones. I also encourage Congress to take a close look and consider a legislative solution.

The Government Doesn't Create Jobs, It Destroys Them

Remember the Buckyballs' controversy from the summer? Remember how the Consumer Product Safety Commission was suing because a few kids swallowed magnets? Even though the product was not sold in toy stores and marketed to adults and came with warnings not to swallow?

Maxfield & Oberton Holdings, LLC, the Buckyballs company, mocked the lawsuit with some startling facts about beds, stairs, tube steaks, hippos, and coconuts. The blogosphere and conservative sites all bemoaned the lawsuit. And then ... ?

The issue has been closed, and it has been closed for a while and I missed it.

The message you get when you go to the official BuckyBalls' site is as follows:

On December 27, 2012 Maxfield & Oberton Holdings, LLC (the "Company") stopped doing business and filed a Certificate of Cancellation with the Secretary of State of Delaware, thereby ceasing to exist pursuant to applicable Delaware law. The MOH Liquidating Trust has been established to deal with and, to the extent they are valid, pay, to the extent assets are available, certain claims which have been, and may later be, asserted against the Company. If you believe you have a claim against the Company, please click on link below to obtain the Proof of Claim form which you must complete and submit to the Trustee of the MOH Liquidating Trust. If the Trustee determines that a claim is valid, the Trustee will pay that claim, to the extent assets are available, in accordance with the terms of the MOH Liquidating Trust.

Yes. Buckyballs is officially out of business.

How did we miss this? They were gone in December! A Christmas gift going away! Well, they closed in December but the announcement was early November. That means in the final throws of an American election the press were silent on the closing of an American company due to the government frivolously pursuing them in the middle of an American recession, or is it a depression now?

So this means that we can no longer get Buckyballs, right?

Wrong!

There is a place to get them online: Buckyballs Club. Cool! The government didn't win, right? Well, go to the about page and look at the bottom and see the prominent shipment carrier: China Post.

This means I checked the site and got a "WhoIs" from network-tools.com. The result is the site is owned by a Chinese company.

3/F.,HiChina Mansion,No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District,Beijing 100120,China

Basically we can not buy Buckyballs in stores now, but can get them online. We will no longer buy them from an American company but a Chinese company.

And this administration has been complaining about the sequester and how it would cost jobs? Federal jobs, yes. But do they care about private sector jobs?

I don't know. Maybe it is just too dangerous for Americans to sell magnets. It is much safer to buy them online from China. Tax day is coming up. Pay your taxes so they can make jobs.

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Remembering Breitbart

There is no Social Contract

Yaron from the Ayn Rand Institute is awesome. He always cuts through the B.S. and states things the way they are.

Stupidity : The Logic Behind Hate Crimes

What Everett did was wrong. He does deserve to go to jail. What did he do? He assaulted someone and fractured their eye socket.

Everett could face 10 years in jail because what he did is considered a hate crime. He assaulted his victim because he thought the victim might be gay.

Again, this was wrong for him to do. But the Department of Justice got involved and leveraged hate crime laws on this case. So why is hate crime so bad? According to U.S. Attorney McQuade:

A hate crime is different than a simple assault because it is an attack on not just one individual victim, but an attack on everyone who shares a particular characteristic.

That is one of the dumbest leaps of logic I have ever heard. Hitting the victim is like hitting every homosexual in America. Really? These are the sort of people we are putting in charge to prosecute crime and putting the power of the federal government behind them?

This hate crime doesn't really penalize Everett any more than he normally would have. According to Michigan law intent to maim can get you 10 years in prison. He attacked someone because he didn't like them. He wanted to hurt them. This is pretty easy to see.

Instead it becomes a federal issue. The federal government is involved in something that could obviously be taken care of locally. Is it really worth our tax dollars to get this labeled as a hate crime? Since the DoJ got involved we all literally funded the prosecution of a local crime.

Then again, if you think that Everett assault every homosexual in America then you probably think this was money well spent.

MyMichiganDefenseLawyer.com

$600K Poop Throwing Research

A Polite Fail

The Obama campaign does not seem to recognize politeness or failure. The following story from an Obama advocate may read like an Obama success, but I read it differently.

Read Kristine's story before I babble on.

Did Kristine turn around Ron?

Ron's initial response was a vague noncommittal response. The fact he didn't mention who he was supporting could be interpreted as a polite "please mind your own business."

After Kristine's pitch he does say he will vote for Obama but finishes with a recognition of hard work on Kristine's part. I see multiple things happening here:

• Acquiescing to vote for Obama will successfully end the pitch.
• Praising Kristine's candidate makes her feel good.
• Kristine is Ron's customer and making her feel good will probably guarantee future work.
• Praising her work is a talking skill that many employers develop to make workers feel good. See previous point.

Ron is a businessman and most businessmen do not like Obama. Maybe Kristine did get another vote for Obama. Maybe Ron secured a customer for life.

One thing is for certain. Subtext escapes the Obamanites.

Commodities Are Not Rights

Bill Whittle is an awesome commentarian/pundit. The latest Firewall is one of the clearest explanations of why health care can not and should not be a right. To distill his commentary down to a sentence : a right does not cost money to exercise, it is an expression of the human experience, but can be oppressed diminishing the human experience. Once you understand this, you realize Obama care infringes on the rights of health care providers.

Is it okay to infringe on the rights of the few so that they service the many?

If you enjoy Whittle's commentaries as much as I do, check out his new show the Stratosphere Lounge!

Another Successful Student Punished

Anthony Cornist is a popular student on the football team. At his school's graduation ceremony his family, students, and staff cheered for him. He was denied his diploma because there was too much cheering.

He can still get his diploma if he performs 20 hours of community service. He doesn't have to do all 20 hours if his family helps and makes up the difference in the service.

Just last week a girl was jailed for missing school because she had to work 2 jobs to support her brother and sister because her parents are absent from the home. Now a student is punished for something other people did. Is cheering no longer protected free speech?

---

UPDATE : Mother arrested in a separate case of cheering at graduation

This time in South Carolina a mom was arrested, spent several hours locked up, and had to post a $225 bond to go home. Parents were told they would be asked to leave if they clapped. Shannon was arrested for cheering.

First amendment? What first amendment? Shut up and do as your told!

A Little Common Sense

Lee Doren as usual gives an awesome commentary on the "life of Julia," capitalism, socialism, and the OccupyWallStreet mentality.

The Joy of Irresponsibility

Oh the latest touchy-feely goodness of Obama. Government enabling stupidity.

Here is the letter of the week from Obama's campaign site:

Letter of the week—April 30th

By Lauren Peterson on April 30, 2012

I am in the final weeks of earning my MBA from the University of Montana. When I went back to school two years ago, I had $30,000 in student loans. At the time, my employer was reimbursing me for my tuition in graduate school—however, another job opportunity came up and I could not pass it up. My new position is with a nonprofit organization and therefore the option of tuition reimbursement is not available (understandably). In order to fund my graduate school tuition, I had to take out an additional $20,000 in student loans.

I am a single mom to a 6-year-old son, and as you probably gathered from the paragraph above, I love my new job. Over the past few months, I was beginning to dread finishing school because I had absolutely no idea how I was going to repay my loans at over $500 a month. These payments would have made things so absolutely tight for us that I didn't know how we were going to live from month to month. I checked into a few things and found out that President Obama had signed an executive order addressing the repayment of student loans. Because of this action, it looks as if my payments are only going to be $175 a month. The substantial savings will make it possible for me to buy a house and for us to live like a normal, middle-class American family!

I cannot stress how much this means to me—and, I know, to the many other young Americans who have been impacted as well. This is such a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, and I owe it all to President Obama. The fact that he understands and cares enough to take action is so absolutely commendable that I cannot express it in words.

I just wanted this story to be told, and I hope the difference the President has made in my life and the lives of so many others has a positive impact on his re-election campaign. I can tell you right now that there has never been any doubt as to who I will be voting for in November: Obama-Biden 2012 all the way!

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Tiffany, Montana

Did you see what happened there?

A single mom was worried about how she would pay her student loans. But it states right there in her letter she made this decision to go in debt. Her employer was paying for school. It was going to be paid for!

But no. She wanted to work for a nonprofit organization and was willing to take a $20,000 bath plus interest on it because the non-profit organization could not afford to pay for her education. She was worried about the $500 a month payment. But praise Obama! His executive order makes her payments $175 a month.

If you calculate how long it will take to pay back $20,000 at $500 a month, without interest, it is 3 years 4 months. The same debt at $175 a month, no interest, is 9 years 7 months. I don't know what the interest is on these loans, but it will extend how long it will be to pay back the loans.

She is so happy because it means she can now buy a house.

What a DEBT WHORE!

While she is paying off a loan for the next 10 years she wants another one for a house. By the time her student loans are paid off her son will be 16 or 17.

My gut says that if she stayed with the first employer not only would she have no student loan debt but more upward financial mobility. If a company invests in you, they have the money and desire to keep you.

How good are the financial opportunities at a nonprofit organization?

Once her son is ready for school, do you really think she'll be able to help pay for it under the economic path she chose? But I suppose that's okay. Her son can take out a student loan too.

After all. Working for a nonprofit organization during a recession couldn't possibly be risky, could it?

DEBT WHORES FOR OBAMA!

Terrorism Question?

If the "war on terror" is over,
why hasn't the TSA been disbanded?

Chuck Woolery asked me to post this.

You should too.

But if you want something with a bit more humor...

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Don't Speak Before You Have All Of The Facts

Sounds like I'm about to make a commentary on the Trayvon-Zimmerman conspiracy, right? Wrong! I am going to talk about Cher.

Why am I talking about Cher instead of politics? Because it is a good example of "rush to judgment" by the press and political figures without having to be controversial. It shows how the press and political figures have political diarrhea of the mouth. It shows lack of vetting of a story.

The issue is that "the Key to the City" of Adelaide, Australia went up for auction on Ebay on April 18th at 14:00:51 PDT. Cher received the key in 1990 and has had it for 22 years.

On April 21st we get the story[1][2] about this auction and that Australians are angered by this.

The press gave us a quote from Stephen Yarwood, the mayor of Adelaide :

It must be very embarrassing for her if she is selling it because she needs the money.

We also got a quote from the former mayor that gave her the key, Steve Condous :

I'm disappointed. I would have thought that getting the key to a city like Adelaide would have had some value to her, but obviously it doesn't because she wouldn't have got rid of it.

Story does not have any comments from Cher, Cher's consignor that runs the auction, or mentions that neither could be reached for comment. That's funny because the Ebay auction page has a questions section. There are no question before April 22nd in that section.

After this story breaks the auction page is updated. This is added to the auction's description:

On Apr-21-12 at 16:19:58 PDT, seller added the following information:

Cher has a Charitable Foundation.

Proceeds of items sold go towards charitable endeavors.

The next day we get another update on the description:

On Apr-22-12 at 11:43:00 PDT, seller added the following information:

I have many questions as to why Cher is auctioning this item... in answer to this question:

Cher receives many awards and gifts from all over the world. And she is always humbled and touched by these gracious gestures. At certain times she goes through her huge collection and decides to share many of these special treasures with her fans, with all the proceeds going to Cher’s Charitable Foundation. Please know that the proceeds for this auction and everything on Authentic_Cher are helping people all over the world through Cher’s charitable and humanitarian endeavors. I think the city of Adelaide should be proud of what this plaque & key are doing for those in need or suffering. Cher is incredible, kind and generous and in no way meant to slight the people of Adelaide. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerest regards, Linda, Authentic_Cher

In the questions section for the auction, in response to one of the questions we find out this is not the first key to go up for auction, but the first to stir up controversy.

Next, on April 23rd, Cher tweets about the auction:

Im upset 2& trying 2get2 bottom! I Think my office fkd up?RT @bettyann329 key 2 Adelaide on Ebay upsetting the peeps in Aussie esp the Mayor

The Huffington Post has an update on April 24th in which they mention that the money goes to charity. In turn we have an updated quote from Condous on this fact :

It's our key, so I believe the money should come back here.

Can you see what has happened? Everyone is on the defensive or offensive front. Can you see the orchestration by the press?

I can not say a bad thing about Cher or the mayors. I see no evidence that the press tried to talk to Cher or her consignor. They only mention her tweet. I also can't help but feel that the quotes from the mayors are cherry picked. I wonder if there is a more full interview, or if they were commenting on a "fact" thrown to them by the press.

This is not a controversy. The key was given to her. It is hers and no one else's. She held on to it for over 20 years. She could toss it in the trash and no one would be any the wiser. Instead she is using it to raise money for charity. The item went for $95,900. Good for her.

The press just loves to tear people down for the hell of it. They are lazy sick bastards that can't seem to do their job correctly anymore.

Cher has done no wrong.

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Screw the Earth

Yeah. I said it. Screw the Earth.

Today at 8:30pm is "Earth Hour." Turn off all of your electricity. Light a candle. Why? Climate change, or global warming awareness, or some horse hockey like that. Show how freaking sensitive you are by turning off your lights. Gimme a break.

What has the Earth done for us? Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires, tornadoes, droughts, and volcanoes. Check out this list of death tolls by natural disaster. And you feel like man is a threat to the Earth?

Screw the Earth.

Do you want to make the Earth a better place? Use electricity! It improves YOUR quality of life and produces CO₂. Do you know what likes CO₂? Plants! Without it, they die! Without plants, we die! Plants are food. I like food. Bring on the CO₂.

Screw "save" the Earth mantras. My selfishness is helping it.

Save the Earth. Really? You cannot save the Earth. Some day the Sun is going to burn out, explode, or cease to exist at any beneficial level. Then where will the Earth be? Dead. That's where. Before then, the Earth might get hit by a global killing asteroid. In fact, tomorrow an asteroid will be passing by relatively close.

We need to get off of this rock. To do this we need to invent. We need to produce and use energy. But what is happening?  Bass-ackward morons are trying to limit use. People tout wind and solar. What good is wind technology going to do for you in space? What good is solar when you leave the solar system? These people are dooming us to stay earth bound and die with the Earth.

You cannot save the Earth. You can only save yourself.

Do you want to know what I am going to do at 8:30? I'm going to go outside, dig a modestly sized hole, and then guess what I am going to do.

That's right.

Screw the Earth.