It's all about where you draw the line

I’ve written about this in the past, but Andrew Klavan puts it so much more entertainingly (and with pictures!). Check this out….

Hat Tip: Cold Fury

Very nice:

There is only one natural right: to do as you will. There is only one natural duty: to accept the consequences. The rest of society is a negotiation

“Labrat” at Atomic Nerds

…and so are you.

TANSTAAFL!

Idaho Rocks:

LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO
Sixtieth Legislature First Regular Session 2009
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 4
BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF IDAHO IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.

We, your Memorialists, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Idaho assembled in the First Regular Session of the Sixtieth Idaho Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that:

WHEREAS, Section 2, Article I, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho, sets forth the Declaration of Rights and reads as follows: “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform or abolish the same whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the legislature.”; and

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”; and

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

WHEREAS, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS, today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

WHEREAS, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS, Congress has inappropriately delegated its monetary authority to the private federal reserve bank, thus failing to protect and provide a sound monetary system as defined and mandated by the Constitution of the United States, forcing an unstable currency on us resulting in the past, and the current, economic perils; and

WHEREAS, a number of proposals from past and present Administrations and Congress may violate the Constitution of the United States.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session of the Sixtieth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate concurring therein, that the state of Idaho hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions, or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives be, and she is hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to the President of the United States, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, and the congressional delegation representing the State of Idaho in the Congress of the United States.

Too bad I live in Illinois.

Hati tip: Tattered Bits of Brain

An open letter to Apple, Inc.:

Dear Apple:

Your self-service page at https://selfsolve.apple.com/TroubleShoot.do is a complete waste of time. I am a skilled computer user, and have (among other things) replaced hard drives in laptops. I know my way around a torx wrench.

So when the optical drive in my iMac failed, I was happy to see you had a page where I could order parts to repair my computer myself. Several screens and a User Agreement later, and the ONLY parts you offer are RAM and keyboards?

What a joke.

I know you like to keep things simple for your customers, but assuming that we’re all tech-ignorant nincompoops is an insult. I would have liked to replace my drive with the same kind of drive it came with. Apparently you will not allow this without charging me for the labor that I am perfectly capable of doing myself.

It’s not like I’m going to void the warranty. The computer was five days out of warranty when the drive failed.

Life imitates The Onion:

We are so screwed.

I just hope the revolution come soon enough that the people who caused this are still alive to be put against the wall.

Major General John F. Kelly
February 3, 2009
Al Anbar Province, Iraq

I don’t suppose this will get much coverage in the States as the news is so good. No, the news is unbelievable.

Something didn’t happen in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, today. Once the most violent and most dangerous places on earth, no suicide vest bomber detonated killing dozens of voters. No suicide truck bomber drove into a polling place collapsing the building and killing and injuring over 100. No Marine was in a firefight engaging an Al Qaida terrorist trying to disrupt democracy.

What did happen was Anbar Sunnis came out in their tens of thousands to vote in the first free election of their lives.

With the expectation of all of the above (suicide bombers) they walked miles (we shut down all vehicle traffic with the exception of some shuttle busses for the elderly and infirm) to the polling places. I slept under the stars with some Grunts at Combat Outpost Iba on the far side of Karma, and started driving the 200 miles up the Euphrates River Valley through Karma, Fallujah, Habbiniyah, Ramadi, Hit, Baghdad and back here to Al Asad. I stopped here and there to speak with cops, soldiers, Marines, and most importantly, regular Iraqi men and women along the way. It was the same everywhere. A tension with every finger on a trigger that broke at perhaps 3PM when we all began to think what was almost unthinkable a year ago. We might just pull this off without a bombing. No way. By 4PM it seemed like we’d make it to 5PM when the polls closed. At 4:30 the unbelievable happened: the election was extended an hour to 6PM because of the large crowds! What are they kidding? Tempting fate like that is not nice. Six PM and the polls close without a single act of violence or a single accusation of fraud, and nearly by early reports pretty close to 100% voted. Priceless.

Every Anbari walking towards the polling place had these determined and, frankly, concerned looks on their faces. No children with them (here mothers and grandmothers are NEVER without their children or grandchildren) because of the expectation of death. Husbands voted separately from wives, and mothers separately from fathers for the same reason. In and out quickly to be less of a target for the expected suicide murderer. When they came out after voting they also wore the same expression on their faces, but now one of smiling amazement as they held up and stared at ink stained index fingers.

Norman Rockwell could not have captured this wonderment. Even the ladies voted in large numbers and their husbands didn’t insist on going into the booths to tell them who to vote for.

One of the things I’ve always said was that we came here to “give” them democracy. Even in the dark days my only consolation was that it was about freedom and democracy. After what I saw today, and having forgotten our own history and revolution, this was arrogance. People are not given freedom and democracy – they take it for themselves. The Anbaris deserve this credit.

Today I step down as the dictator, albeit benevolent, of Anbar Province. Today the Anbaris took it from me. I am ecstatic. It was a privilege to be part of it, to have somehow in a small way to have helped make it happen.

Semper Fi.

Kelly

Hat tip: Blackfive, via Brian.

This guy gets my vote for Best Use of Webcams:

Hit & Run > Gotcha! – Reason Magazine.

Nicely played.

This is hysterical — a real-life tribute to perhaps the greatest comic strip of all time….

Calvin and Hobbes Snowman Tribute

I love the one with the shovel, and the sharks are nice, too…