Bob Costas Elena Kagan confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. Well… can’t say that we didn’t see that not failing.

Preface:
I am in no way encouraging unsafe driving. The following is post should be taken as a bit of a satire. From a common sense perspective, not texting/making calls on a non-hands-free mobile phone, etc. simply makes sense. It simply is much harder - as a general rule - to keep your focus on the road and on the other semi-unpredictable drivers around you when tweeting at 75mph down the Thruway.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have something of a bias against texting in general, with its contribution to poor grammar and spelling allowed graciously under the guise of “abbreviated internet speech”, known to some of its users as “lolspeak”, and perhaps to (relatively older codgers like myself, in terms of the internet) as AOL-speak.

Lest I descend into a rant on the demerits of “u” and “urs” versus “you” and “yours”, much less the dreadful issue of wrongful placement of “there” and “their”, amid a one-man call for text-messaging altogether as a danger to losing our ability to communicate in aclear and meaningful way altogether… the issue is about road safety.

President Obama signed an executive order forbidding Federal Employees from text-messaging while driving government owned vehicles, or while using their private vehicles while conducting official government business.

Ray LaHood, our most dutiful “Highway czar” (Transportation Secretary) believes that this will “curb a deadly epidemic of distracted driving”.

(Source: NYT)

If banning text messaging (presumed by some to be a workaround to existing statutes to gabbing on a cell phone behind the wheel) is a start… why don’t our loving, statist protector-overlords complete the task and ban the following distracting activities while driving:

- adjusting/tuning the radio
- fiddling with the GPS navigation system
- turning on/off the air conditioning (or heat/defrost)
- mentally reviewing your shopping list
- applying your make-up at high velocity as you rush to the office in the morning
- scarfing down the McMuffin and the 170℉ McCoffee during Morning Rush Hour

…and so-forth.

I mean, all it takes is a split second of distraction to spell instant doom, right?

It may be just a matter of time until Obama bans other public nuisances such as young men who wear their pants down below their hips, and mothers who think that dressing their young pre-teen girls like streetwalkers is “cute”.

Now if we wanted to do this right… CONGRESS (not the POTUS) should pass legislation explicitly absolving the insurance from certain financial liability (that is, comp and collision damage, not the liability coverage mandated by most states) for accidents involving drivers and their use of cellphones or text messaging devices.

Let the market decide on these things-in short, people will almost always do the right thing if a mistake in the matter will directly hit them in the wallet or pocketbook.

… the abject, stomach-turning, vomit-inducing rage I have at the utter and complete cowardice of the feckless members of Congress who both supported that first attempted financial rape of the American Taxpayer on Monday, and even more so for those who betrayed our trust by changing their vote on the second bailout bill yesterday. And I am apparently not the only one who feels this way, as the markets tumbled below Monday’s close (the -777 point drop following the failure of the first pork-rescue bill) :

Reaction on Wall Street turned increasingly negative after the vote. The S&P 500 – which rose as much as 3.6 per cent ahead of the decision – fell 1.4 per cent, closing below its level on Monday after the House voted against the bill. It was the worst week for US stocks since markets re-opened after the September 11 2001 terrorists attacks.

Source: Daniel Dombey, James Politi, Krishna Guha, et al. for the Financial Times, 3 October 2008

 

The sun has truly set on the American Republic, and nightfall shall come to the American Empire as well.

We had a good run for 230+ years, may history remember the Republic and not repeat her mistakes at the fourth quarter of her existence.

May a pox be on the Representatives in the House that voted to pass this bill, and a rash of itchy, festering boils be on the bottoms of those Senators who pushed this unconscionable, $700,000,000,000+ tanker-ship load pork upon the taxpayers.

May they pass from this earth in due course marked with the infamy and ignominy of their treasonous votes.

Update: The list of filthy rats and those who stood up to them … (more…)

Yup, it is true:

If your little wee one has the audacity to turn his or her nose up at curry or couscous, he or she just might be in need of some re-education to set them straight on their racist, non-foreign food loving attitudes.

This from the Telegraph:

Whatever happened to “being a member of the Clean Plate Club”, or the old tried and true “there are starving children in Biafra (Africa) who’d love to have your dinner”?

The National Child’s Bureau, funded by various UK governmental organs has apparently laid down its diktat for correcting these wayward three-year-olds from inadvertently starting down the path to racialism and Nazism for the dislike of ethnic foods.

One thing about Britain these days that I just can’t stop thinking about: as many things that are wrong with America, the UK has always been a few years ahead of us down the road to socialism and authoritarianism - just far enough to show those of us who are looking for it, exactly what sort of an hellish Orwellian nightmare awaits us, if we do not reject thought crimes legislation and other bizarre socialist engineering.

Show of hands - who didn’t see this coming?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/wchavez117.xml

So now “El Jefe Maximo” will continue his glorious march to true communism after the mold of Castro.

From Fox News via Cox & Forkum:

President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that foreigners who publicly criticize him or his government while visiting Venezuela will be expelled from the country.

Chavez ordered officials to closely monitor statements made by international figures during their visits to Venezuela — and deport any outspoken critics.

“How long are we going to allow a person — from any country in the world — to come to our own house to say there’s a dictatorship here, that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?” Chavez asked during his weekly television and radio program.

The Venezuelan leader’s statements came after Manuel Espino, the president of Mexico’s conservative ruling party, criticized Chavez during a recent pro-democracy forum in Caracas.

Yeah, Mr. Chavez. And that right when you feel free to insult our nation and it leaders on a whim whilst visiting here?

I recall you referring to Mr. Bush as “the Devil”. Actually, I think he is inspired by a cabal of lesser demons, called the “State Department” as lead by Condi “Ms. Appeasement” Rice (Neville chamberlain must be doing backflips in his grave for joy!) and the James Baker™ Institute for Idiotarian Policies for Israel.

All the same, you, sir… are a world-class hypocrite for coming to our shores and insulting our leadership, and then from the other side of your overfed mouth, demanding that nobody speak critically of you or your “socialist workers’ Paradise” you have currently destroying your nation.