New Orleans is Ready to Brew a Little Tea (and foment just a little insurrection)

Just a reminder -- New Orleans is good to go for its Tax Day Tea Party! April 15th, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., at the Veterans' Memorial, Causeway and Vets, by the giant flag. Bring your signs and favorite brew. Let's roll!

Mysteries of Life

My head is spinning from all the breakneck-speed hope and change going on around here, so I'm taking an attitude adjustment mental detour. From this day forward, when I get a little overwhelmed in the brain, I'm just going to ponder a small Mystery of Life. Today's topic:

Why does the smallest item of laundry always wind up in one of two places: the back of the dryer so that one must insert one's complete torso into the tumbler to reach it; or, in the very front so that it falls out when one opens the door?

Iowahawk Strikes Again: The Country's In Good Hands

This guy is a hoot. This video is 9 minutes long, but it's both humorous and strains the notion that our elected officials have any gray matter.

(I don't know how to post videos yet, so this will have to do. Sorry.)

Iowahawk's post appears here.

Slinking into the Future: 1984 Here We Come

The next big government intrusion into our lives is gaining speed and young families had better be monitoring it closely: the GIVE/SHARE Bills (the Senate version -- SHARE -- now, at the initiative of allegedly conservative Orin Hatch, has been re-named the "Edward M. Kennedy National Service Law." They hugged as the name-change was announced by Sen. Hatch. Awww.).

The Law will hand over billions of dollars (yes, 6 + more billions -- in addition to the billions and trillions that Congress has already spent since January that it doesn't have) to the likes of ACORN and PUSH so they can facilitate volunteerism and civic service. As if those organizations haven't done enough to corrupt volunteerism and civic service already. New service organizations will spring to life, never to wither, such as a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, Veterans Service Corps, and an expanded National Civilian Community Corps for disaster relief and energy conservation.

I have never opposed volunteerism, as any who know me will attest; I've been kind of a hyper-volunteer since college. Still am. I've also long advocated a year or two of paid, government-sponsored, mandatory service for everyone following high school graduation, or attaining the age of 18, whichever comes last. But the stand-alone companion bill to GIVE/SHARE, The Congressional Commission of Civic Service Act, is a very frightening thing. It is the gateway to mandatory civic service for potentially every individual in the United States of America.

Among the tasks given the new Commission are to determine and analyze (emphasis mine):

(5) The effect on the Nation, on those who serve, and on the families of those
who serve, if all individuals in the United States were expected to
perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount
of national service.

(6)
Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all
able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be
implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation
and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic,
ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

(7)
The need for a public service academy, a 4-year institution that offers a
federally funded undergraduate education with a focus on training future public
sector leaders.

Yes sir. We're gonna train up "future public sector leaders" in the way of "Progressive-ism." And I suppose we all would have to have a federally-operated "communications monitor" installed in our homes to keep us informed about volunteer "opportunities" and "assignments." Huh, Mr. Orwell?

It may not be slavery, or even enthrallment. But it's suspiciously akin to involuntary servitude.

People -- stay on top of this.

Hornets v. Nuggets: The Day After

The Hornets team that finished out the game last night was not the same team that began the game. They have to find a path to consistency or the playoffs will not go well. Chris Paul and David West are just two guys -- they can't play all five positions.

Well, maybe they can, but at least not for the whole game! CP3 - MVP!

On a happier note -- I really like it when we get tickets in the suite (a MUCH better vantage point than our regular seats in the nosebleed section!), but I usually wind up with hives on my nose from something I eat there. Last night I avoided the Caesar salad and the gumbo and I didn't get a single hive! Maybe I finally found the culprit.

I hope it's not the gumbo.

Obama-Speak: Constitutionality

The Young President had his cozy, little swingset-side chat with Sixty Minutes last night. He performed as if back on the campaign trail -- smooth, self-assured, witty. And a championship dodger of direct questions.

Interviewer Steve Kroft asked him, in as many words, if the YP, as a former Con Law Prof, believes the 90% tax bill on bailout-funded bonuses is constitutional. The YP's response:

"Well, I think that as a general proposition, you don't wanna be passing
laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals. You wanna pass laws
that have some broad applicability. And as a general proposition, I think
you certainly don't wanna use the tax code to punish people[.]

"I think that you've got an pretty egregious situation here that
people are understandably upset about. And so let's see if there are ways of
doing this that are both legal, that are constitutional, that upholds [sic] our
basic principles of fairness, but don't hamper us from getting the banking
system back on track." Source.

Did you hear him give a direct, responsive answer? Did you hear him utter the word, "unconstitutional?" Nope. "Inadvisable," maybe. In the second paragraph, he even suggested that the tax-flogger bill is "illegal," "unconstitutional," and "unfair." But he very carefully crafted a response that avoided accusing Congress of falling all over themselves to enact a punitive Bill of Attainder, with Nancy Pelosi screeching all the way. He just couldn't bring himself to aver, "Nancy, you ignorant slut." The YP simply can't bring himself to embarrass his congressional toadies, even when they seriously deserve it.

As a general proposition.

Congress: Drunk on Power and Flogging the Execs

Congress is drunk on power. It's over-reacting to uninformed public outrage by throwing the Constitution out the window, under the bus, and down the river. At light speed.

I'm not exactly crazy about those bailout execs living it up on the taxpayer tab, but, for crying out loud! Tax legislation like yesterday's 90% confiscation from a targeted group is precisely why the Founders prohibited Bills of Attainder in the Constitution! Check out Article I, sec. 9. It's pretty darn specific: no laws may be passed that have a "negative effect on a single person or group."

What's even scarier is how quickly they got it done. The bill passed after only 40 minutes of debate. Did they learn nothing about "haste makes waste" (and damn bad law) after the Economic Stimulus steamroller?

I pray that at least one of the bonus recipients challenges the constitutionality of this sucker, or we'll find ourselves on a slope the slipperiness of which has never been envisioned.