For the record, the only reason this interests me is since it is bloody hot down here most of the year, and wearing a jacket or long shirt over my usual t-shirt is simply not going to happen.  And since I’m a girl, wearing the typical shorter-tailed girlie type shirts, this means belt carry under my shirt is not possible.  Any sort of movement, even walking, will cause my holster to be visible, which will undoubtedly cause old ladies to keel over in fright.  Therefore I usually wind up carrying in my purse, which A) is extremely heavy and annoying, and B) is like not carrying a gun at all.  Passage of this bill means I can belt carry and not worry about being arrested when some Neanderthal deputy – which seems to be the only kind they’re hiring these days – sees a flash of holster on a sunny day.

Alas, my county’s sheriff – who on a good day has delusions of being the next Joe Arpaio – thinks this is all Very Bad:

A visible weapon could provoke crimes of opportunity, and concealed-weapon permit holders — unlike deputies — don’t have to pass physical fitness tests, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

…

In phone interviews, each sheriff said he supports the Second Amendment. Judd said he’s an advocate of the NRA.

“But at the end of the day, this is bad legislation and should not be passed,” he said.

They’re worried that deputies who respond to a conflict won’t know who to disarm if they see several people with guns.

I am quite pleased the top cop in my county is apparently a sniveling moron, who will not take responsibility for hiring adequately evolved individuals with enough native intelligence to disarm “several people with guns” long enough to check their IDs/permits.  I am also pleased there’s no intention of better training said Neanderthals to carry out the above simple operation sans pants-filling.  This seems like a spectacular usage of the property taxes I pay to this county every year.

Here’s a thought, Sheriff Judd:  If your homunculi deputies come across “several people with guns,” shoot the ones who turn the guns on your deputies.  Because if folk who have bothered to sit through the concealed carry class (as well as get fingerprinted and background checked, and pay the cash money required for the license) are stupid enough to actually point their pieces at a man with a badge, then we surely don’t need them in our rank and file and you are more than welcome to their cooling corpses.

Alternatively, man up and actually TRAIN your people to be more than mere shit-kickers.  Oh, and kindly check the stats in the OTHER FORTY THREE STATES that allow open carry to their CC holders.  Rube.

Updated to add anecdote: Yesterday the kids and I were grocery shopping.  My son – who is 13 – said, “Hey, did that open carry bill pass?”  I said, “Not yet, why?”  He said, “There’s a guy over there with a gun on his belt.”  I looked, man with a high and tight wearing nice dress pants and a dress shirt, gun holstered neatly on his belt.  I said, “Probably a cop.”  Son shrugged and said, “Hey, can we get some Cheerios?”

No hysteria, no pants-filling.  And unsurprisingly (at least to those of us with sense) none whatsoever from the rest of the grocery-shopping public as well.

We live in an age of cowards.

At first, David Cameron endorsed a no-fly zone over Libya, taking charge of a situation that was volatile, dangerous, changing rapidly, and involved a tyrant murdering the people he was duty bound to protect. I liked this move. It spoke volumes about how after a series of tepid moves by Europe and especially the UK, we might finally see a PM with some gumption. Someone who saw a wrong in the world and vowed to right it.

Then we hear that he’s backtracked on this idea – after the current U.S. administration “distanced” itself from the idea.

As senior British military sources expressed concern that Downing Street appeared to be overlooking the dangers of being sucked into a long and potentially dangerous operation, the prime minister said Britain would go no further than contacting the rebel forces at this stage.

The change in tone came after the U.S. declared it would take a more cautious and calculated approach. A calculated approach? If days of silence is calculated, then spot on gang.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have the gale force winds of hope and change blowing across the states, don’t we?

Actually, that smell in the air reminds me an awful lot of the late 1970s, and there’s a good reason why…

I read this quote today, and it really stood out:

Insiders say that Obama hesitated to take a public stand against the doomed dictator for fear that US diplomats might be taken hostage. But a great power can’t conduct a robust foreign policy in fear; that way lies the path of Jimmy Carter, whom Obama is coming more and more to resemble.

The cluelessness that runs rampant through the Obama administration is apparent, and it’s bordering on criminal. It’s the same kind of thoughtless policy making that took place during the Carter administration, which also plunged us into a well of irrelevancy. People were speaking as if the American Century was going to be over a bit early. It’s a combination of bad ideas and worse decision-making that threaten our way of life.

Frankly, I no longer care why Obama’s trying to run the country into the ground. Is it by dumb accident, because he’s too ignorant to know better? Is it a deliberately calculated move to bring us down? I don’t give a shit anymore. Because it doesn’t matter. Regardless of the circumstance or the situation, he is going to make the cowardly move. He’s shown it time and again, apologizing to dictators, bowing and scraping before kings, and making his rounds on his Apology Tour.

I have fucking had it with this shameless cowardice.

And now it seems that we have a policy that operates from the fear end of the spectrum. Better to not make a move at all rather than upset all the widdle dictators of the world.

There was a time when, if our citizens might have been in harms way in a foreign land, that we’d park a Carrier Strike Group off the coast, send in a Marine Expeditionary Unit, and that was that, because no one fucks with us or our people.

Don’t send in the Marines to protect a citizen of the United States. Oh no. Instead, rent FERRY BOATS THAT ARE TOO SMALL to rescue our people from a land that’s coming apart at the seams.

Well done, cowards.

According to the Wall Street Journal, thanks to his efforts, the GAO has produced a report that compiles a master list of redundant & ineffective federal programs. (“Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway” – emphasis mine.)

You can find the summary report here: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-318SP (add’l link to full report there as well)

Looking to cut spending? This is THE roadmap for lawmakers in both parties as they move to reduce the deficit.  Sen. Coburn estimated it identifies between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending.

Just to start, the report found 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless, 80 programs for economic development, 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality, 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation, 47 for job training and employment and 56 to help people understand finances.

What. The. Fuck?

$100-200 billion in wasted money. Tell you what, send that money to me, I’ll set it on fire, then piss on it. Because, really that’s all you’re doing – throwing it away.

From the article – “There have been multiple efforts to cull the number of federal programs in recent years, but they often run into opposition from lawmakers in both parties who rush to defend individual spending provisions.”

I do NOT want to see any more of that crap. Pretend it’s your spouse’s money that you’re in charge of, and then think about shitkicking you will get if you misspend it, misappropriate it, or otherwise WASTE their hard gotten dollars.

This is a damning report of how an out of control government, even with good intentions, can go haywire when they start thinking that everything needs a program.

It’s time to take people off the dole, Congress. You were elected to get our finances in order.

FIXIT!

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?c=116585

Which amounts to only 0.47% of his total campaign contributions for that 2010 election. Hell, the Concerned Realtors Committee and the Wisconsin Realtors Association between them over doubled that.

I expect stories to emerge about how Walker is now the tool of the Housing-Industrial Complex in 3…2…1…

Yep. Gov. Scott Walker – bought and paid for.

Section 1.?(1)?A person who enters onto a farm or other
11 property where legitimate agriculture operations are being
12 conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an
13 authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the
14 first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083,
15 or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

It takes someone of amazing gullibility – or the recipient of generous agriculture industry donations – to believe this sort of thing won’t nicely dovetail into further restrictions on public photography.

The Florida Tribune has more information.  Senator Norman can be reached at norman.jim.web@flsenate.gov

Our own letter to him follows:

Subject: Common Sense requested

Regarding SB 1246:

A first degree felony for photographing a farm, are you kidding me?  This is pandering, sir, plain and simple.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “slippery slope.”  Restrictions on farm photography lead to restrictions elsewhere and soon recording the actions of police – and politicians – is also prohibited by law.  And that is most definitely not something we’re going to allow.

Please remember you have a responsibility to your entire district, not just the ones who contribute the most to your campaigns.

Congratulations on your victory!

It now means nothing.

Remember who put you there. We, the people.

Remember why we sent you there. Because we are done with the way Congress works today.

You were elected because we are giving you a last chance. We hear a lot of promises and platitudes. The fact is, we’ve heard them all before. What we want is for you, our employees, to do the job that we sent you to do.

This consists of basically two ideals, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. First is limited government. Make certain we have one to pass on to our children.

The second is Free Enterprise. Guarantee it without exception.

Not too bad, eh? You even have this handy guide to help you make decisions! We call it the Constitution of the United States. Keep it on you at all times. There are neat little pocket versions available everywhere. Refer to it early and often and you won’t go wrong.

Here’s the catch, though, in exchange for our vote.

There is to be NO compromise, no “spirit of bipartisanship”. Obama and the Democrats will feed you that line so that you may think it is your patriotic duty to work with them. Make no mistake: if you do, you will be working for them. To quote the Admiral, “It’s a trap.”

Get thee to Washington, but keep one ear turned back to your district. Because we want you to fix it up there. But we also want you to listen to us, back here.

Remember, we are watching and waiting, but our patience has run out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kenyan – born in Kenya

Keynsian – Keynesian economics (pronounced /?ke?nzi?n/, also called Keynesianism and Keynesian theory) is a macroeconomictheory based on the ideas of 20th century British economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and therefore advocates active policy responses by thepublic sector, including monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government to stabilize output over the business cycle.

(Via Tam)

…we make a grave mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican party…

Gold star.

The whole speech:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Should you believe, once this heady time of  ”we the people” is past, that you may continue your ruinous and rapacious ways, we here at Simon Jester – and indeed, all across the country – would advise you to think again.

No more “stimulus” that stimulates exactly nothing.

No more government “support” of private industry.

No more pushing through legislation that you freely admit you did not read.

No. More.

Either act like adults charged with the responsible management of this country, instead of drunken teenagers with mom’s credit card, or we will un-elect you at the first opportunity.

Have a nice day.

President Obama, speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, said “the American people deserve to know who is trying to sway their elections” and raised the possibility that foreigners could be funding his opponents.

“You don’t know,” Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. “It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don’t know because they don’t have to disclose.”

Not to mention the utter hypocrisy…  Remember this?

Plus, from the Washington Post: Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations. “Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor’s identity, campaign officials confirmed. Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged.”

More here. “Then there’s the question of whether foreign nationals are contributing to the Obama campaign. There is more than enough evidence to warrant a full-scale investigation by the Federal Election Commission, including the $32,332.19 that appears to have come from two brothers living in a Hamas-controlled Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah, GA (that’s Gaza, not Georgia). The brothers’ cash is part of a flood of illegal foreign contributions accepted by the Obama campaign.”

Of course you don’t.  Oh, and it’s obviously Bush’s fault.

“Tell the Bush crowd and the Chamber of Commerce: Stop stealing our democracy,” the ad says.

Told ya.