The State of State Security Provisions

What happens when you don't have the right to bear arms in the wilderness and must rely on the state to protect you from, of all things, wild animals? This happens:

JOHAN looked up. Jenna was running toward him. She had yelled something, he wasn't sure what. Then he saw it. The open mouth, the tongue, the teeth, the flattened ears. Jenna ran right past him, and it struck him — a flash of fur, two jumps, 400 pounds of lightning.

It was a grizzly, and it had him by his left thigh. His mind started racing — to Jenna, to the trip, to fighting, to escaping. The bear jerked him back and forth like a rag doll, but he remembered no pain, just disbelief. It bit into him again and again, its jaw like a sharp vise stopping at nothing until teeth hit bone. Then came the claws, rising like
shiny knife blades, long and stark.

Johan had bear spray, which proved pointless. Scipio breaks this down even further, though I'd pass on reading the LAT article, which is a bit over-wrought and purply for my taste in writing. What's the lesson of the article? Well, I got the impression that when we deal with the wilderness, we are the mercy of Mother Nature and are lucky if we survive. That we, as humans, have spent tens of thousands of years finding ways to make Mother Nature accommodate us is totally lost in this article, and the corker is that the canister of bear spray proves useless to the task because in our nannyist culture put the bear spray in a "child proof" canister the adults couldn't open in a hurry and under extreme duress, just the exact conditions you'd need to open a canister of bear spray under.

And to think there are people out there that think these various and sundry restrictions on your right to protect yourself from harm or death are good things for society.

Crazy but Right

You know, while I don't believe in hand grenade ownership in-and-of-itself, you never hear of actual attacks on America by Americans using hand grenades. So, I find this kind of government investigation troubling, self-interested, and misleading:

"We classify these groups as violent and anti-government," said Jim Cavanaugh,
who supervises the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
operations in portions of the South. "They stockpile things and live off a fear,
a paranoia they're going to need weapons and explosives because some event is
going to happen when they will need them."

What did they do that was violent or anti-government other than fear something the government would do to them? Seems they were right, in the end. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean somebody isn't watching you.

Democrat Hypocrisy on Iraq

Behold:

Sounds Like A Blatant Lie to Me

John Edwards, queen of the left for the moment because of his adoption of hard-left anti-war positions, tells what can only be a blatant lie during the first Democratic Party presidential candidates debate:

While Iraq dominated the debate's early moments, Edwards was asked about
having paid for a $400 haircut from campaign donations rather than from his own
wallet.

"That was a mistake, which we remedied," he said. A wealthy former
trial lawyer, he recalled once having gone to dinner at a restaurant as a young
child and having to leave because his father could not afford the prices.

"I've not forgotten where I came from," he said.

Okay, I don't believe for a single second that this story is even remotely true and based on a mis-remembered half-tale from his barely-rememberable youth. These guys just can't tell the truth about who they are. Oddly, the MSM doesn't think we are paying attention to their attempts to purge the Democratic Party of heretics. So, for a while, you'll get a glimpse of reality into the hearts and minds of Democrat ideologues and what they really want. You'll just have to look hard.

Green Hypocrites

I'm sure they'll all claim to have bought "carbon offsets," or will simply ignore their hypocrisy all together:

A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday, each carrying a
Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the
political season.
...
No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or
emissions.

It's largely the left that is pushing the religion of Global Warming nee "Environmentalism." It's also obvious the high priests don't want to obey the strictures of the faith. They just want you to.

Democrats Own Defeat

The Democrats continue to attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Despicable in the extreme, one can only hope the average non-news consuming citizens become aware of Democratic Party treachery during a time of war. It's astounding, truly, to think elected Democrats in the House and Senate think losing a war will win them control of the White House. More astounding is that they think losing the war will allow them to retain control of the House and Senate.

As I've said before, everyone already acknowledges that the war in Iraq, such as it is, causes nobody on the home front any hardships (aside from the families of the troops), so it shouldn't matter to anyone that we are engaged in a war to rid the world of Islamist terrorists and Stalinist insurgents in Iraq. That there are people out there using the war to bash Bush for purely political purposes is shameful.

Journalists Is So Stupid

When it comes to cigarettes, journalists are the dumbest hammers in the sack o' hammers. It's almost as if the word "cigarette" makes them shake and lose IQ points. Here we have an entire article that almost-breathlessly "reveals" that smokers in states with high cigarette taxes travel to states with lower taxes to buy their cigarettes. Wow, amazing, almost as if the average person who smokes cigarettes understands some small aspect of micro-economics. How many years do you think it took for someone in the Phinqy to figure this out?

Next up for intrepid Phinqy reporter Rita Giordano, how high can the state raise the cigarette tax before everyone quits smoking or travels out of state for smokes, and what would the state government have to do once it no longer reaps the taxes from smokes? Whatcha bet Rita and her fellow anti-smoking bigots have never thought through this problem?

Bilking the Poor, Again, Part Eleventy

Oh, Democrats. They love the poor. They look out for the poor. They give the poor welfare, WIC, food stamps, MediCare and MediCaid and Social Security. Democrats love love love the poor. To pay for all that useless crap, they tax cigarettes and beer and fast food and gasoline, stuff the poor like despite being told by Democrats they should avoid.

The poor are stupid, too, in the mind of a Democrat, so the poor don't notice when taxes on their beer and cigarettes go up, or if they do, they simply change to a cheaper, generic brand. But what do you do as a Democrat to raise even more income for the state if you can't just raise taxes and won't eliminate useless programs (or stop stealing money from the state treasury and handing it out to supporters as "bonuses")?

You introduce gambling. First, you bring in those scratch-off games and say they benefit the old folks, somehow, maybe by giving old folks passes to ride pubic transit for reduced fares or free. Then, you need more cash, so you bring in casinos with slot machines, and, if you're a typical Democrat meathead like Gov. Ed Rendell, you look at the projected revenue the initial slots proposal will bring in and double it, figuring, "Heck, that's twice the revenue."

Then what? Of course you know most of the people using the slots casinos are poor or uneducated folks who are desperate for money to make their lives easier, you just don't care. But, dang it, you're a Democrat who wants to spend more money because, dang it, you just want to. No reason, just genetics, can't be helped. But you're afraid to make full-service casinos because you're not sure if the mainstream media in the state will go along at this point, seeing as how the casinos only started operations within the last couple of months and there was a bit of moralizing hassle and potential corruption associated with getting them at all. Plus, you know anybody that can afford it is going to go to Vegas for the experience, not drive to Bensalem Township and endure all the traffic hassles of gettting to and from PhiladelphiaPark.

Aha! Or, eureka! How about "virtual table games?" They're not table games, because they're virtual. They're computers that simulate the table games, so they're kinda like a slot machine, and nobody willl notice a couple of more electronic machines in the room, anyway. The poor and uneducated won't be able to notice or will actually like the variety, you reason, and so what if you're bilking them of their hard-earned cash? They might get rich, one of them, maybe.

You know, I told you the state was going to go down this path and eventually end up with full-service casinos. Now, how are we going to get rid of them?

Abstinence Only Education

We know what "abstinence only" sex ed gets us: kids who have sex. Odd that the folks who rail against "abstinence only" sex ed also vigorously fight gun education, perversely advocating for "gun abstinence only." J Bowen at No Watermelons Allowed smacks it out of the park:

I'm not a "gun nut" myself, but perhaps Mr. CoOle can help me - I sure can't
think of any gun organizations that have suggested that guns should be available
to all comers. They all emphasize gun safety, and training can be found by
anyone who seeks it. (And if sex education ought to be in schools then by all
means let's have gun education there too - you know they're going to experiment,
so let's make sure they do it safely, and teaching abstinence can't possibly
help).

Personally, I've long thought that firearms safety and training should be taught to all students in high school. That would do wonders to de-sensitize the average citizen to the dangers of guns by de-mythologizing them and returning them to the real world. Instead of "gun free zones," schools should be "gun education zones," where kids are taught how to handle, shoot, clean and properly store guns.

After all, you don't have any Constitutional rights to use your sex organs in whatever way you want, but there is a defined right to gun ownership, plus lots of supporting documents which indicate the framers put that right in there so you could fight the government if it ever starting trying to take away your rights and boss you around. So, if we're going to teach girls how to put condoms on cucumbers as preparation for Prom Night, we could at least also teach them how to put a clip in a Glock 9mm and chamber a round.

Over-Reporting and Lies

In its ever-constant attempt to scare the living daylights out of the average citizen, the MSM has been overhyping the Virginia Tech massacre, playing out themes of "school violence," "gun control," "stricter campus safety rules," and other useless bits of idiocy. Only, there's this to consider:

In the early '90s — the first years records were kept — there were more than 40
deaths just from K-12 school shootings per year. Since then, the death toll has
been trending down, not up.

But, you know, reporting that won't push the gun-control agenda forward, so every time there's an instance of school violence, it gets reported nationally, so it seems like there's "an epidemic of school violence". Or, as Jeff Goldstein puts it:

And of course an increase in reporting, in our postmodern age, equates to
an increase in the frequency of what actually happened, given that our
epistemology is now nearly completely driven by how we are made to feel.

Rehab for the Ethically Challenged

In a just world, former New Jersey governor James McGreevey would be ringing a register at the local supermarket and wearing a name badge identifying him as "Jimmy." That, as you'd expect, sympathizers have propped him up with a sorta-comfy job as a college professor, giving him a path back to respectability and perhaps public life, is just pathetic. But the exact professorship they gave him speaks volumes about the almost-definitely sinister motives at work behind the scenes:

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey is teaching ethics, law and leadership at
Kean University.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the nation's first openly gay governor
earns $17,500 and has been an executive in residence since Nov. 1.

When he was in office, McGreevey was often criticized for the appearance of
ethical lapses.

"Ethics and leadership?" McGreevey? "Openly gay?" McGreevey? He didn't come out of the closet until he quit being governor, proclaiming himself a "gay American," as I recall.

First Line of Defense: You

Mark Steyn writes on the idiocy of indoctrinating the citizenry on the notion of the state - any statee - coming to your protection at your moment of need:

I have always believed America is different. Certainly on September 11th we
understood. The only good news of the day came from the passengers who didn’t
meekly follow the obsolescent 1970s hijack procedures but who used their wits
and acted as free-born individuals. And a few months later as Richard Reid bent
down and tried to light his shoe in that critical split-second even the French
guys leapt up and pounded the bejasus out of him.

We do our children a disservice to raise them to entrust all to
officialdom’s security blanket. Geraldo-like “protection” is a delusion: when
something goes awry — whether on a September morning flight out of Logan or on a
peaceful college campus — the state won’t be there to protect you. You’ll be the
fellow on the scene who has to make the decision.

When it comes to your life, you're the one standing guard over it, up there on the wall, surveying the landscape for patterns that don't make sense. The police are drinking coffee and eating donuts down the street, waiting for a call on the radio. When they get that call of "shots fired," you've already been shot.

Why the Gun Control Debate Doesn't Return

The MSM wants the gun control debate to return as a front-and-center feature of American politics, but even Harry Reid (D-NV) isn't so foolish as to try to bring the topic up in a serious fashion. This ticks liberals/leftists/socialists off, because they want more gun control - well, they want gun confiscation and prohibition for unknown reasons - as is evidenced on the pages of newspapers and online mags:

Democrats have been turning away from gun control ever since Al Gore's run for the presidency. The then-vice president and his advisors had tried to out-gun-control liberal challenger Bill Bradley during the Democratic primaries. Campaigning against George W. Bush in the general election, Gore decided to quiet his criticism of the NRA and mute his support for gun control to build support in battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan where support for gun rights runs high. In the wake of Gore's loss, many Democrats blamed the defeat on previous pro-gun control positions Gore had taken, and pulled the party further back from where it had been on the issue.

I don't think they've given up gun control so much as they've given up talking about it. Hell, the average city newspaper still yearns and editorializes in favor of gun control or prohibition, so you know the Democratic Party base wants it. And, obviously, Salon wouldn't have run this "analysis" if Salon weren't in favor of stripping the Constitution of the 2nd Amendment. Why leftists want to disarm the public? Who knows, but they won't tell you, at least not until they've gotten veto-proof delegations in the House and Senate. They still need to win elections, and being anti-gun won't win them.

You Should Take Your Beating

In Philadelphia, an actual assistant district attorney thinks you should take your beating if you're being beaten up by somebody, because defending yourself with a gun is an inappropriate reaction. Seriously:

Prosecution witnesses said Derkotch had been trying to punch Wilson and then pulled out the gun and pointed it at Wilson's chest.

"My argument was that [Derkotch's] actions were not in self-defense," Hsia said. "He used disproportionate use of force. An individual cannot pull a gun in response to a fistfight."

Like nobody's ever been beaten to death or seriously injured or maimed by being in a fistfight. I guess Derkotch should've run for a stick or something to club Wilson with. It's incredible, the never-ending over-sensitizing of the public to the "dangers" of guns. Maybe somebody could come up with a chart listing the kind of attack you are under and how you should respond, and what you can do to increase your level of force if your initial use of defensive force is ineffective.

Signs of the Environpocalypse

Random links to Ecotality, indicating the state of the environment. Kinda. First, a link from a dude who thinks that humans are super-heating the world and anybody who thinks otherwise must be a right-wing fringer:

It’s pointless to argue the existence of global warming as it’s been
settled by virtually every credible scientist on the subject. The deniers look
for any perceived inconsistency , no matter how insignificant, and loudly
proclaim it as solid evidence of the greatest hoax in the history of
mankind.

Pointless to argue? Err, hello, "science" demands that we argue the facts, since there are more scientists who doubt human culpability in the recent temperature increase - tiny though it may be - than there are who believe humans are to blame. I mean, if Doug Snodgrass wants to stand on the corner with a sign that reads "The End is Near," fine by me, that's his right, but he should stop well short of going door to door like an LDS proselyte certain of his faith, because that's all Global Warming is at this point, a religion.

As for experimenting with alternative ways to save the environment from the humans, I find it amusing that communities and people will do nearly anything despite the financial and environmental realities that refute the utility of doing something to "feel good":

The situation that exists in the Town of Cheektowaga, outside of Buffalo, is the
type that an environmentalist hates to see. Not just because the town recently
voted to shift from solar to electric street lights, but also because the pilot
program and technology failed so miserably.

What appears to have been a rush to savings with the installation of the solar lights in 2003 has now backfired and cast a shadow on a greener future.

The town council certainly knew in advance that "going green" wasn't going to be a fiscally responsible choice but likely did so for "green props" because, you know, you have to do something. You know, sorta like Global Warming High Priest Al Gore's attempts to gain some political cover by installing solar panels on his energy-wasting mansion in Tennessee:

Economically, Gore’s solar panels are a bad investment.

Environmentally, Gore could do more for the environment by purchasing carbon offsets from reputable not-for-profit seller of offsets that spends most of their revenue on actual carbon-reducing projects.

Politically, though, Gore pretty much has to put gthe solar panels on his roof.

This is the problem with environmentalism: there is no logic to it, only belief. And that makes it a religion.

The Double Standard Upper-Class

Gov. John Corzine is super rich. He lives in Democratic Party presidential candidate John Edwards America #2, since there are two Americas: one for the rich and powerful "elites," one for the rest of us with less than seven figures in the bank or no fame.

So, is it any surprise that on top of not wearing his seatbelt and sitting in the front seat of his state police-driven SUV last week, that the car was also driving 91 mph?

TRENTON - Gov. Corzine's SUV was flying along the Garden State Parkway at 91
m.p.h. in a 65-m.p.h. zone before it collided with another vehicle and slammed
into a guardrail, state police acknowledged yesterday while promising a full
review of driving practices.

The media will note all this "neutrally" then forget it. If it were anybody else, nah. And the driver of the red pickup truck? Expect him to get the full measure of the law -- and, he should, giving that he "ran" after the crash -- but it won't be because he "ran" after the crash, it'll be that he hit-and-ran an "elite." Expect the media to howl, don't expect it to point out the fact that Corzine was doing everything wrong despite the laws he more-than-certainly endorses.

Gun Control Idiocy

A leftist anti-gun Philladelphia Democratic state representative has proposed a super Draconian gun control law for the state that has "supporters" in the state house jumping overboard the more they learn about it:

"I just think we need to engage in a conversation around breaking down the
different aspects that contribute to the rising violence in our streets,"
said Rep. Jake Wheatley (D., Allegheny), who became a cosponsor before reading
the entire bill. He said he later determined that it was "extreme" and wanted to
have his name taken off the bill.

Also withdrawing were House members Cherelle Parker of Philadelphia; Lawrence Curry, who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County; and Lisa Bennington of Allegheny
County.

And the tragedy at Virginia Tech yesterday? Hell, it's not to early for a leftist-Democrat to try to co-opt a mass murder to his gun control purpose, is it? Nope:

Cruz said yesterday that the massacre on the Virginia Tech campus pointed up the
need for new gun control measures."The tragedy that happened today - how much
more outspoken can it be? We have a problem with guns," he said.

Maybe we have a problem with criminals? Why do leftist-socialists hate guns so much? Who knows, maybe not even them, but one thing it does signify is the ultimate ability of the citizen to fight the power of the government, and leftist-socialists are all about the power of the government.

The Left Loves Taxes?

Matt Stoller at MyDD takes to tax day with a relish that is almost certainly entirely false:

I just paid my taxes, and I have to say, I always take pride when I do so.
I don't like having less money to spend, of course, and the complexity of
the process is really upsetting. But I am proud to pay for democracy, and
I feel when I do send money to the DC Treasurer and the US Treasury that that is
what I am doing. The right-wing likes to pretend as if taxes are a burden
instead of the price of democracy. And I suppose, if you hate democracy,
as the right-wing does, then taxes are the price for paying for something you
really don't want. Personally, I find banking fees, high cable and
internet charges, health care costs, and credit card hidden charges much more
abrasive than taxes, because with those I'm just being ripped off to pay for
someone's summer home.

Let's see, he likes giving money to the government to subsidize peanut and sugar beet and tropical fish businesses, and, presumably, paying of $400 toilet seats and
junkets taken by politicians, because that's paying for "democracy." Right, I want to pay to build a post office or library named after Robert Byrd (D-WV). But the fees he could avoid paying - banking fees, credit card charges, high cable and internet charges, health care costs - he hates paying for because that's part of capitalism, where every consumer can voluntarily manage his or her money. Want to avoid banking fees? Keep your money in a coffee can. Want to not pay for cable or internet? Easy, don't subscribe for the services (or, get lucky and rent an apartment with a live cable line and find some nitwit with an unprotected WiFi hotspot).

So, with liking to pay his taxes so much, he presumably likes funding asshats like CodePink:

Today being the tradition deadline for filing taxes in the US, it seems a
fitting time to remind ourselves of the almost countless America-hating groups
that enjoy taxpayer support by claiming to be 501c3 “charities.”
As you write
out your check to the IRS, bear in mind that you are helping to support these
organizations with your tax dollars.

You know, you can't believe almost anything the average leftist-socialist says about anything, because they live in a world they manufacture inside their brains based solely on the ideological result they want to achieve. Most people want to keep as much of their hard-earned money as they can so they can buy their own summer home.

I mean, it's not like you see the average lefty Democrat voluntarily giving as much money as they can to the government, not even super-rich ones like Clinton or Kerry who complained that the tax cuts needlessly made them richer than they needed to be.

National Tragedy Turned into Senseless Talking Point

The media coverage of the shooting-spree at Virginia Tech will undoubtedly be too much, but the fact that reporters were asking the White House press spokesperson about it and, specifically, gun control the very same day should show you the ideological bias at work constantly in the mind of the average journalist. This should be beyond the pale:

Q Dana, going back to Virginia Tech, what more does this White House think
needs to be done as it relates to gun issues? The President says current laws
need to be strengthened, anything beyond that -- you had a conference on school
violence with guns -- what more needs to be done?
...

Q Columbine, Amish school shooting, now this, and a whole host of other gun
issues brought into schools -- that's not including guns on the streets and in
many urban areas and rural areas. Does there need to be some more restrictions?
Does there need to be gun control in this country?

First off, having a gun on the campus was already illegal, so, theoretically, in a world where laws prevent crime, this crime shouldn't have happened because, of course, you weren't allowed to have a gun on campus. But, you know, we wouldn't want to change the subject, now would we?

Sex and Money

Everyone has sex, or wants to. I understand why a certain demographic of adult doesn't want their kids having sex before marriage, but seeing as almost everyone has sex before marriage, and most often not with the person they are going to marry, I don't understand why they just can't deal and encourage responsible sexual behavior. Or, I do understand, on a certain level, but, still.

Ron Bailey at Reason has an intersting post on a WaPo article that shows that everyone is doing it, and we're doing it "more safely" now than ever before. Sorta. On the one hand, it's hard to believe that there's anybody out there who thinks you can convince a person to not have sex "because." But, then, nobody wants their daughter to get pregnant out of wedlock.

We come from a nation founded by people who were weird about sex, so I guess this is our heritage. But US Rep. Henry Waxman is being very selective about science when he says this:

"I don't think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is
seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about
basic health facts."

I'm just gonna assume political ideology informs most of Waxman's opinions on science. As for Bailey, I'm surprised the cost of the program even means anything to him, given government spending in general: "The Feds spend $176 million per year on the failed program."

We'll never get the government to not spend money on stupid programs, but, maybe, someday, we'll get politicians who won't much around in human nature. It's just insane that there's anybody out there trying to keep people from having sex, parents excluded.

Fiscal Responsibility in Green

I dunno. You read the NYT most days and you get the impression it's behind the idea of human-culpability with global warming and the other various and sundry environmental issues. But every once-in-a-while you come across an article like this that makes you think there are still realists working in the newsroom:

With a $2,000 federal tax credit and generous rebates from states like New
Jersey and California, it has never cost less to install a solar power system.

And it still makes no economic sense. You might want photovoltaic solar
panels to generate your own electricity out of a belief that you will save the
planet. But, as is the case with hybrid vehicles, you certainly should not do it
to save money.

The NYT puts down hyrid cars and solar power in the same sentence. Is that apostasy?

State-mandated Gambling

Let's see, nobody asked anyone who lives in Pennsylvania if we wanted slots parlors scattered across the state, but the state government rammed them down our throats. Now, some people in Philadelphia want the people of Philadelphia to vote on whether Philly will host slots parlors, but the state has stepped in and is trying to prevent the citizens from potentially voting for no casinos. Amazing, that.

The state will, apparently, go to any length it can to find a way into your pocketbook, including preventing you from voting.

The Imus Affair

I have no idea what he said, almost a week after "the scandal." I could care less, too. Apparently, he said something "racist" and maybe "sexist," but whatever it was he said, nobody will reprint it or play a clip of it, so I have no idea. And, no, I won't Google it because there is nothing Imus could say that would make me care about anything one way or another. Imus is a non-entity.

And, apparently, most people think so, too. Sheesh, give me a break and let the old geezer off a little.

Once More, With Feeling

Okay, so how many times do you have to listen to a Democratic politician or the Phinqy pronounce about the dangers of guns until you realize there are double-standards in place and lies being told? Oh, no more times:

ON THE SEVENTH floor of City Hall, near where office workers conduct city business and in a room without fire sprinklers or smoke alarms, the Police Department has been amassing gun ammunition for decades in violation of the fire code.

Let's see, if a highly gun-phobic city government can't follow it's own rules about guns (and ammo), why should anyone who reads the Phinqy think the city's increasingly restrictive gun rules should work? Obviously, guns aren't the problem, people are the problem.

Although, I guess, all that ammunition could've memo-ed each other about some after-hours kegger in City Hall and gotten too drunk to drive home and just figured it should all just sleep it off before going home, and then was unpleasantly surprised by the fire inspector while it lolled there in the morning sun, wondering whether "hair of the dog" was the best option.

Good News is Bad News, Apparently

I don't know if you noticed it personally, but I did: nobody I knew seemed to catch the flu this winter. Nobody in my family, nobody I worked with, nobody I chit-chatted with. The local dead tree product noticed, too, and takes a negative spin on the good that has transpired:

Pennsylvania experienced its lightest flu season since the state started keeping records, a situation some public health officials worry could translate into a drop in vaccine production and public interest next season.

Since the state started tracking confirmed flu cases in 2003-04, significantly fewer cases have been reported each year. Local healthcare providers also report a glut of unused vaccine worth hundreds or thousands of dollars that will be destroyed.

First off, I'm not sure why the state is tracking flu cases at all, but, heck, it probably doesn't hurt anything and has the positive effect of fattening the state government in a tiny way. But you'd think the news here would be that flu cases are decreasing each year and that the reporter would ask questions about why that's the case. You know, maybe we folks are doing something right to prevent flu outbreaks or something.

At Odds with Reality

The Phinqy weighs in here on the threat to the New Jersey casino business by cigarette-enabled casinos in Pennsylvania. You see, here in Pennsylvania, they're slowing banning smoking in bars and restaurants across the state because certain anti-smoking types don't like to go to smoky bars or restaurants, but they "have no choice." Whatever. But, since the state gets a cut of the takings in the casino business the idiots have installed in the state, the state has exempted them from the smoking bans. Why?

Jonas, at PhiladelphiaPark, touched on the touchy smoking ban and
differentiated his casino from those in Atlantic City.

"We're promoting choices," he said. "We are continuing to improve our
ventilation system to allow for smoking in the main casino.

"It goes hand in hand. Gamers tend to be smokers, and we want to make
sure the ones that do have a choice."

The casino also has a nonsmoking area with 100 slot machines, Jonas
said.

Yep, when it comes to taking your money, anything's a go, apparently. But when it comes to sitting on a bar stool and having a smoke with your beer, well, you can't do that. What about choice?

And then here's the Phinqy weighing in with the results of a "global warming" gone wildly out of control and what the greater metro area would look like as a result. Talk about the news media going insane with predictions over this silly environmentalist religion, but:

What could climate change mean here? Summers as hot as Georgia's.

Maybe a salination system for your drinking water.

And imagine going for a swim at the new New Jersey coast and looking offshore to where your vacation home used to be.

Ohhhkay. These idiots in the media making this stuff up are, I think, speeding this religion to the ash heap of history, but does this article also shows the reporter doesn't know diddly about anything, as there aren't "salination systems for your drinking water," there are desalination systems for drinking water. Obviously, nobody in the chain of "heavily fact-checked" editors noticed, either. And, yet, they want you to take this religious nonsense seriously as science. Idiots.

Judging from the comments both stories generated from readers. Indeed, the same could be said for second-hand smoke, as quite a few of the commenters were in favor of leaving smoking in bars and restaurants up to the establishments, and the potential customers can vote with their feet.

Facts Confronted, Ignored

The Phinqy runs yet another article on handguns and crime and headlines it "What a handgun ban didn't to for D.C.," which is an attempt by the Phinqy to show the good the overturned law had performed for D.C. Oddly, writer Steve Goldstein refuses to acknowledge that what the ban didn't do is eliminate handgun crime, though he goes to all sorts of lengths to make it appear as if the ban had a positive effect, though he provides no actual statistics to support this notion. He can't, of course, because study after study has shown that handgun bans do nothing to stop criminals from using handguns to commit crimes, which is why he doesn't show in his article who is killing whom with guns.

He wants you to think Joe Sixpack is being rashly murdered by Harry Hothead over a lawn care dispute because Harry just rushed into his house and grabbed his handy-dandy .38 revolver and gunned Joe down. Instead, Goldstein is firmly on the side of the police arresting a homeowner who shoots a burglar invading his home. Pathetic.

Guns aren't the problem, criminals are the problem.

People Is So Stupid

Here we have a Phinqy reporter taking a back-handed slap at "the yokels" in the flyover (i.e., "red") states:

"I got a call from a young lady in Kansas, all upset, because she needed her passport for a trip she was taking for her 30th anniversary. She was going to Hawaii." He shakes his head. "I asked her if she needed a passport to go from Kansas to Oklahoma. There was a moment's silence, then she got it."

Maybe a true story, but I doubt it. I mean, what "young lady" is celebrating a "30th anniversary?"

Same Old, Same Old

The Phinqy starts an article thusly:

Philadelphia may still be corrupt, but is it still contented?

But the paper also contains this article on the same page:

Ahead of such giant cities as New York and Los Angeles, Philadelphia marked its 100th homicide of 2007 yesterday not with a terrifying gun battle, but with the discovery of a body in West Philadelphia.

I don't think there's been a "terrifying gun battle" in the city this year, last year, or any of the years I've lived in the greater Philly area. You tend to remember such things.

Sadly, as we approach the primary elections, the only election that will likely count for anything is the Democratic Party Primary, where city residents have a collection of the same old politicians they've been voting for for years. After eight years of the hyper-incompetent Mayor Street, Philadelphia deserves better.

Contented? Scared stiff, more likely.