A couple years back, education consultant Dr. Monica Applewhite was hired to review the school's paddle policy. Applewhite's findings were unfavorable to this procedure.
Now an alumni association for St. Augustine grads is suing Applewhite just because her report is unfavorable to the school.
I wonder what Louisiana's rules against SLAPP lawsuits are. If I was the judge, I'd fine the living dickens out of the alumni association and its lawyer for filing such an obviously frivolous suit.
And why does the alumni association even think it has standing to sue if the alleged "victim" is the school? Shouldn't the school be the plaintiff instead? Not like it's any less frivolous if the school sues. Then again, I've noticed that if a school does anything stupid, that seems to be a ratification of the act's legitimacy in the eyes of the media.
If St. Augustine's alumni association wins its suit, that's a sure sign our country's judicial system is at a new low.
(Source: http://www.wwltv.com/news/St-Augustine-alumni-suing-doctor-who-conducted-corporal-punishment-review-122900574.html)
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Consultant sued for criticizing paddling
GOP gives shipyard handout for eliminating jobs
Northrop Grumman is a company that owned a shipyard in Avondale, Louisiana. Recently, as it spun off its shipyard to its Huntington Ingalls division, the company announced it was closing the yard - putting all 5,000 workers out of a job.
Now congressional Republicans have voted to give $310,000,000 in taxpayer dough to this already highly profitable company as a reward for eliminating these jobs. This handout is going through as part of an important defense authorization bill.
What's the Republicans' excuse for this? Who the hell knows? That they'd give a company taxpayer money for eliminating jobs defies any sort of logic, so you'd think they'd come up with some idiotic excuse by now.
Shouldn't Northrop Grumman have to take a drug test before getting this free money?
(Source: http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/05/31/republicans-reward-avondale-owners-for-quitting-on-the-american-worker)
Florida wins contest to become nation's laughingstock
With the Republican National Committee leading a nationwide coordinated blitzkrieg to pass welfare drug testing bills, I knew this bill would become law in one of the dozens of states where it was introduced. It was a surefire bet. The GOP was THAT determined, and they seem to have made this bill their primary reason for being.
Well, now we've got a winner in the race to see which state can become the first to enact such a law after the idea was ruled unconstitutional.
Readers of this blog, meet Florida.
Corporate criminal and right-wing Gov. Rick Scott (pictured here) has now signed Florida's drug testing bill into law. I had a hunch Florida would be the first (if not only), considering Scott's threats to sign such a bill, and the fact that the Sunshine State is known for passing nutty legislation. After all, Florida was probably the first state (in the mid-'90s) to pass a law allowing adults to be involuntarily placed in drug rehab. Florida legislators also threatened to appoint a slate of Republican electors if the popular vote in the 2000 election didn't go their way.
This also comes after Scott ordered all state workers to take a drug test - which had also been ruled unconstitutional for most jobs. (No wonder he has under a 35% approval rating.)
Holy moly! It's like Florida never even ratified the Constitution!
Let me be clear. When the Constitution says something is unconstitutional, that means it's fucking unconstitutional. I don't get what's so hard to understand about that. I've said it for years. When the Constitution speaks, that's it. The argument's over.
The people are naturally endowed with the rights listed in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights did not create these rights. It merely lists them. Florida is fighting against not just the Constitution, but also nature, God, the Googly-Eyed Poo Snake, or whatever you believe in.
Will Florida's new law be challenged in court? Almost certainly. Similar laws were ruled unconstitutional before - and the new law cannot be allowed to stand either. If the law stands, you can bet your bizcream that other states will be encouraged to follow Florida's "lead."
Few other right-wing ideas so thoroughly embody both social and economic engineering as forced drug testing of welfare recipients. And it has the intent and effect of barring most of the poor from living in entire states unless they submit. It's a form of fascism. There's no more suitable word for it.
Because I know you're going to ask, I don't qualify for welfare, despite my long-lasting, cool-blasting economic struggles. But the message of the law is clear. If the poor come under attack like this in Kentucky, and if the courts do not intervene, I will not be afraid to die in my fight to prevent the poor from being driven out of the state. From a constitutional standpoint, there is nothing lower than the courts allowing a law like this to stand, and I will fight for the Constitution.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Completely unacceptable
There's a special U.S. House election in the Los Angeles area featuring Democrat Janice Hahn and some Republican nobody. Frankly, I'd have to sit this one out.
Far from being a progressive voice, Hahn was one of the thoughtcrime sentries behind L.A. City Council's right-wing resolution endorsing mandatory school uniforms. This of course should be viewed as completely unacceptable in the Democratic Party. But the DLC runs the party, and they lap it up like toilet water.
And that's why I long ago gave the party the big "fuck you" it so richly deserves.
Mandatory uniforms in public schools are so unacceptable, in fact, that Hahn deserves to face a tough primary challenge in 2012. Not only are public school uniforms with no opt-out against California statute, but they've also been ruled unconstitutional in Tinker v. Des Moines.
I don't give a shit what "reasoning" Hahn or her cohorts came up with in their resolution on uniforms. Frankly, that's too damn bad. When the Constitution speaks, public officials are supposed to don their listening ears and defer to constitutional law. When something is in the Constitution, there's no "yeah buts" about it. I don't see how I can possibly make that any clearer.
One might argue that Hahn will probably confine her right-wing extremism only to City Council, but I'd argue that we have a duty to discourage such far-rightism by not letting its advocates keep winning elections.
Unacceptable? You bet. With interest in school uniforms apparently declining, it's mind-boggling that the Democrats would even allow Hahn to be their nominee. But I guess you can't always fix foolish.
Adherence to the Constitution should be a litmus test in determining whether to support a candidate for any office - from President down to trustee of the smallest township in the land.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Drug warriors kill veteran over nothing
In Tucson, Arizona, a SWAT team conducted a drug raid at the home of a former Marine who was an Iraq War vet. The SWAT team brutally killed the man in a hail of 71 bullets - though he never fired a single shot.
Now it turns out that the ex-Marine's family thought the SWAT team was actually a gang of home invaders. And the raid turned up no drugs whatsoever.
In other words, the failed War on Drugs has claimed the life of yet another innocent person.
In essence, the SWAT team actually was committing a home invasion. They didn't make sufficient effort to identify themselves as police, and there appears to have been no probable cause to raid the home, for the man had no drugs. Yes, it was a home invasion - and a homicide. It should be prosecuted as nothing less than that.
The War on Drugs death toll grows.
Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Holiday Inns Are Funny"
Holiday Inns make me laugh. Don't you agree?
They've become mighty pricey of late, so it's been years since I've stayed at one. But you can't help but burst out in helpless fits of heehawing when you think of the old Holiday Inn directories.
Yes, I'm talking about the little books that listed every Holiday Inn in the world. You know, the ones with the little maps printed in Brossart green. (I have a vague memory of one such book using blue.) These books taught me the postal abbreviations for all the states. They also taught me how to love, how to live, and how to learn.
Please understand, there was nothing else to do in my hometown of Highland Heights, Kentucky, except sit at home and page through these volumes. It was usually raining, you see. So one of my fave pastimes as a youngster was to pretend I was "conquering" each Holiday Inn! Pow! Bang! Boom! Kablammo!
Our latest 'LCQ' explores Holiday Inn humor:
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Vermont to institute single payer!
If you think Madison, Wisconsin, has been a progressive stronghold lately, imagine Madison filling an entire state. That's Vermont in 2011!
Vermont recently became the first state to approve a much-needed amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting corporate personhood. Now it has another proud first: Vermont's governor has just signed a law establishing single payer health care. Not only does this make Vermont the first place in America with single payer, but also the first with ANY universal health care. (The year-old federal law is not universal.)
However, reports say Vermont can't implement single payer for another 3 years, because it needs federal permission first. No it doesn't need permission. It's called the Tenth Amendment. (Smiles.) Vermont MUST go ahead with single payer without waiting for the green light from Washington. Congress didn't ask Vermont's permission before introducing the Federal Marriage Amendment, so Vermont shouldn't bother getting federal permission for single payer.
I'd love to see Kentucky enact single payer in the next lawmakin' session. (The media threw a colossal shitfit the last time anybody in Kentucky attempted it.)
Vermont. America's leader.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
An upset in the upstate
In a special election today, the Republicans lost a U.S. House seat that I just can't believe they lost.
New York's 26th District has been held by a Republican for decades. But in the special election to replace the scandal-tarred Christopher Lee, it's now flipped to the Democrats by a somewhat decisive margin.
To give you an idea of what a shocker this is, I would have been less surprised if, say, Geoff Davis was defeated.
Hopefully, the new occupant of this seat will act like the Democrats used to act before 1996, instead of like a DLC rubber-stamp.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Why Westboro stayed out of Highland Heights
Last month, Fred Phelps's far-right Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, planned to picket a military funeral in my hometown of Highland Heights, Kentucky.
For those unawares, Westboro is a cult, and they were like the Tea Parties even before the Tea Parties fancied themselves cool. They are truly vile. They make their living by provoking lawsuits or legal charges, and winning huge windfalls when their opponents are ordered to pay their legal fees. (Even when they win their case, there's no legal basis for being allowed to loot their opponents for legal fees. They only get away with this swindle because of right-wing judges sympathetic to their cause.)
But now the world knows why the Topeka Taliban didn't dare show their faces in Highland Heights. It's because just a few days earlier, they were humiliated when they showed up in Brandon, Mississippi, to picket a Marine's funeral there.
During that trip, a Westboro member reportedly started a fight at a gas station. And he got his ass utterly handed to him. Following that altercation, most of the Westboro cultists weren't even able to leave their hotel to go to the funeral, because locals who decided they had seen enough parked their cars directly behind the Westboroists' cars in the parking lot so they couldn't get out.
Ha ha! They spent all that time and money traveling from Kansas to Mississippi and had to stay in their hotel rooms and be bored the whole time! They probably had nothing to do except sit there and deface the phone book!
It was also reported that Westboro followers who did manage to make it out of the hotel were cited for trespassing when they tried picketing at the cemetery and refused to leave.
The welcome that this vile cult received in Brandon is a good blueprint for how to deal with this nationwide irritant from now on. But after they were a no-show in Highland Heights, does that mean Brandon was the place where they finally met their match?
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Court halts prom pat-downs
In some federal courts, the Constitution still reigns as the supreme law of the land!
A federal district court has now ruled against intrusive pat-down searches that were foisted upon high schoolers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who attended events like prom and graduation.
After reading about the searches, I wonder what sort of sick fucks came up with the idea of instituting these searches in the first place.
The equally important point is that we didn't have searches like this in my day, and we all survived. We must bring America back to the way it was - by any means necessary. Those who oppose us in this fight are enemies of the Constitution and enemies of the American people.
(Source: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Court-rules-on-prom-pat-downs)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Ernie 94.1"
Number one rule to live by if you have a radio station: Don't name your station Journey 94.1. Because if you do, somebody in your coverage area will inevitably call it Ernie 94.1, for 'Sesame Street' is a hilarious new world just itching to be linked with your station somehow.
But the Cumulus syndicate has done just that.
And for what? The latest incarnation of this signal is going to be just as much of an underperformer as all the other lifeforms it's taken since about 1994.
Who's surprised? Probably nobody. Congress won't repeal the fascist 1996 Telecommunications Act, and no state has opted out of this law yet, so miserable radio continues to be foisted upon the listening public. Or at least upon all 4 people who still listen to radio.
Our latest 'LCQ' explores the current state of this wasted signal:
GOP aide investigated for voter fraud
Here's yet another of the many reasons why, if a Republican wins an election in Wisconsin, you can't trust the results.
Some nobody who serves as a Republican legislative aide in Wisconsin is now under investigation because she intentionally voted in the wrong city in 2 elections. Ironically, she is an aide to a lawmaker who cosponsored a right-wing bill designed to suppress voting.
The aide was caught bragging on right-wing website Facebook about voting in the wrong place. Oops.
That's the GOP's future, everybody.
(Source: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_ede5d49e-8272-11e0-a6e0-001cc4c03286.html)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
"Waaaaaaaaaah! You cheated!" (more Freeper Madness)
Are you ready for it?
According to a Freak Rethuglic regular, the big, mean libs are rigging elections by counting friendly urban areas last. This user declared:
"One of the biggest problems we've encountered with Dems' trying to steal elections is the old tried and true method of releasing vote counts in large, urban areas last so as to 'discover' just the right amount of votes it takes to turn an election."
Projecting again, conservos?
What that user describes is exactly what Republicans have been doing for years. The only difference is that GOP vote counters in right-wing suburban areas release their vote totals last.
The first time I noticed this was in 1988. I was only in high school, but I could see it in plain sight. When DuPage County was the last to report in Illinois, and it provided Bush's whole margin of victory in that state, I didn't even need to have somebody tell me it was rigged. That was an instant red flag. (In fact, Illinois had already been called for Dukakis.)
For pity's sake, what county do you think prompted the recount in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election? Here's a hint: It's not Douglas County.
The Freepers' bogus claim that the Democrats count liberal urban areas last so they know how many votes to "discover" is a clear case of projection. They know the Republicans are counting suburbs last, but they want to preempt anybody who points it out - even though I'm not the only person who's blogged about it.
In many cases - such as that Wisconsin election - it's demonstrably true that right-wing suburban counties either report last or they find last-minute "errors" that change what's already counted. In other words, the Freeper person lied.
Who are they gonna blame for being caught projecting when even somebody getting interested in elections for the first time can figure out the truth without anybody even pointing it out? The Greens?
Friday, May 13, 2011
Lawn Chair Quarterback: "When Congresscritters Attack"
Right-wing Louisiana congressman John Fleming. A weird one indeed.
Fleming is one of the most hated federal lawmakers in this bruised and battered land. His website encouraged parents to place their kids in abusive teen "rehabs", and he required employees at the Subway sandwich shops he owns to give campaign literature to customers.
Now he's on the attack!
In recent months, Fleming has lashed out at folks who give his self-published book bad reviews on Amazon. In the process, he's made an utter spectacle of himself.
I wouldn't be surprised if John Fleming comes here and starts attacking me in the comment section. But if he comes here, I'm not going to stand here and argue with the idiot.
Our latest 'LCQ' shows what it's like when morons in Congress go on the attack...
Oregon meth fatalities soar 22%
After Oregon became the first state to require a prescription, the state has now experienced a staggering 22% increase in the number of meth-related deaths. New statistics from the Oregon State Medical Examiner's office show that the number of meth fatalities last year was the most in at least a decade.
What do the right-wingers who supported the prescription law have to say about this? They say it's the fault of other states, most of which don't have this law. Well, Oregon does have this law, and that's the state where the number of meth-related deaths soared 22%. So the drug warriors lose their argument. Big surprise.
Why do "small government" right-wingers like Hal Rogers support this law?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Texas may give bailout for yachts
You know the fascist war on the poor is back in full swing when we see stories like this. Only this time, people see it for what it is.
A Texas House committee has now approved a special tax break - also known as a bailout - for owners of yachts. It was approved on a party line vote, with all Democrats opposing this handout, and all Republicans favoring it.
I'd love to see anybody try to defend this wastage - especially after Republicans who supported the tax break also backed major cuts in services like schools and nursing homes. Wait, they already have tried coming up with an excuse. Their reasoning is that if they don't approve this bailout, yacht owners will just flee to Florida - which already gives handouts to yacht owners.
Well, Florida does a lot of crazy shit. I didn't know that gave the other 49 states the license to mimic it.
If this passes, I wonder which congressional Republican will propose the same thing on a national level. Remember the Bush handout for Hummers?
Taxpayers pay for everything the yacht crowd does. For some of these individuals, in order for them to feel loved, they need to be coddled by the government. They feel entitled to lifelong benefits, and the rest of us are sick to death of paying for them. Most people I know make at most $200 a week and don't complain, yet some drug-addled right-wing billionaires in Texas want something for nothing.
I blame the rise of the extreme right for the fact that they even want it. What ideology ran the government for 28 years and gave them what they wanted then? I'm not alone when I say I've had my fill of paying for their luxurious lifestyles.
They wanted a class war, didn't they?
(Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/02/texas-house-panel-approves-tax-break-for-yachts)
Monday, May 9, 2011
DEA balloon explodes over city
The Aerostat was a blimp-like balloon placed by the DEA to float over Arizona because they thought it would fight drugs. This helium-filled craft was costly.
But now the Aerostat has broken loose from its tether and exploded over the city of Sierra Vista. Pieces of the balloon landed in the streets and in people's yards. The incident narrowly missed killing local residents. (Thankfully it used helium instead of flammable hydrogen like similar balloons use.)
The DEA wasted the taxpayers' money on this shit, only to end up almost killing innocent people?
America lets corporations buy elections and pay off the media for favorable coverage of their candidates, but it's so paranoid about a plant that it endangered thousands of lives with this boondoggle?
(Source: http://www.kvoa.com/news/anti-drug-balloon-goes-down-in-sierra-vista)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Man gets life for pot
A 35-year-old Louisiana man must spend the rest of his life in prison all because he just received his fourth marijuana conviction. This is a man who had most of his life still ahead of him, and now his future is dashed by a bloodthirsty War on Drugs. Not only that, but a child is now growing up without his dad.
This outrageous sentence was recently imposed by Judge Raymond Childress in St. Tammany Parish. (Where else? Also, as a side note, that's the parish where I accidentally spilled Mountain Dew down inside a motel TV.)
While a man serves life for marijuana, murderers and serial rapists get out of prison after only 5 years at most.
Where's the "small government" types to protest this sentence? The taxpayers are paying to keep the man in prison, you know.
(Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/05/fourth_marijuana_conviction_ge.html)
From the man who gave us Michael Mukasey...
We all know the no-fly list is a Bushist Bible, but now Congress wants a no-ride list too?
Despite the no-fly list's failures, which include listing people who have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) is demanding a similar list to bar people from riding Amtrak. This list would be cross-checked with the error-filled no-fly list.
Schumer is the guy responsible for foisting Michael Mukasey upon us, so who's surprised? I think it's time for a primary challenge.
Hey, here's an idea that makes just as much sense. How about a no-walk list, since being a pedestrian is a form of travel too? Or better yet, how about if we just pass a law requiring everybody to just lock themselves at home 24/7?
(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/08/us-security-trains-idUSTRE7472CF20110508)
Friday, May 6, 2011
Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Viaducts Are Cool"
As an aspiring civil engineer, I know viaducts are among the niftiest developments in human history.
But did you know that the Waldvogel Viaduct in Cincinnati - a structure I may have photographed more than any other - is about to be torn down and replaced? It's true, it's true, it's all true! Most highway features - including this viaduct - were never intended to handle endless volumes of heavy SUV's, and the Waldovgel has endured irreversible wear that could have been avoided. Make no mistake: The Waldvogel Viaduct was done in by misuse.
A new viaduct is scheduled to rise in its place in 2014.
Our latest 'LCQ' sings the praises of viaducts - particularly the Waldvogel. I mean that literally. It really does sing! We've got a #1 smash hit on our hands, methinks!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Windfall for school in cheerleader case
Background on this story: A cheerleader at a high school in Silsbee, Texas, accused a basketball player from her school of rape. The player went on to be convicted of assault for this incident. Despite this conviction, the school let him play on the basketball team anyway. (I guess forced drug tests don't catch convictions for violent crimes.)
Sometime later, at a school basketball game, the cheerleader refused to cheer for the player who had attacked her. Because of this, she was kicked off the cheerleading squad.
She sued the school for removing her from the squad. Outrageously, courts sided with the school. On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.
All of that was bad enough. But now a federal appeals court has ordered the cheerleader to pay the school's $45,000 legal tab.
You read that right. A teenage girl who was brutally attacked, and then further humiliated by the school because she wouldn't cheer her attacker, is being forced to pay the school $45,000. Annual per capita income in Silsbee is less than $20,000. They're making a 16-year-old girl work for over 2 years just to pay a school that violated her rights?
Another judge for the impeachment block, I guess.
As with the Supreme Court's recent verdict overturning an award for a Louisiana man imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit, this is one of the meanest court rulings in modern times. Also as with that ruling, there's not even any legal basis for it.
In the end, the cheerleader was punished far more severely than the player who was convicted of assaulting her. The assailant only got a small fine and community service. But the victim (in addition to suffering the original crime) was subjected to additional humiliation by the school AND had to pay the school $45,000.
And so, a brand new low has been reached in right-wing viciousness.
(Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cheerleader-must-compensate-school-that-told-her-to-clap-rapist-2278522.html)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
How the Old West dealt with highway robbery
Yesterday, as you know, a major crime was committed against me, and I'm not the only victim. Countless other people have also fallen prey to this computer virus that disguises itself as a Microsoft security package - which has forced each victim to spend tens of dollars just to keep using their computer.
I removed this virus within the day - but a crime was committed, and it's no different from highway robbery.
Some choose to live in denial. Because of the decline in society's standards during the hard frost of 28 years of rightist rule, some are skeptical of calling a crime a crime. But I will call it a crime, but that's what it is. It's trespassing, fraud, and possibly identity theft and more.
How did the Wild West deal with highway robbery? Do you honestly think they would have put up with this shit? Think the old Hubba Bubba commercials with the Gum Fighter. If the Gum Fighter's stagecoach was robbed, do you think he'd stand there, laugh it off, and ask, "What's the crime?"
No sirree!
The Gum Fighter is a model of Western gentlemanliness. He's a fair man, and he wouldn't resort to waterboarding. Rather, he'd grab the perps by the shirt and fucking hang them. He probably wouldn't even say a word until after he was done - because his action would speak for itself. And none of the other townsfolk would disagree that the robbers were criminals.
If you think I'm big on making evildoers toe the line, I'm a softy compared to the Gum Fighter's contemporaries. If computers had existed in the Old West, anybody who sent out a virus that makes people pay to keep using their computer would learn right quick that their first offense is their last.
The real wusses are those on the right who won't even investigate viruses.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Now can we have our country back?
Osama bin Laden's death closes a chapter in history. President Obama took only 2 years to catch him, when Bush couldn't do it in 8 years. (Hell, Bush didn't even fucking try.)
I hope that with this chapter closing, we can also slam the book shut on the police state that America became. Although the fastest growth in the police state occurred before 9/11 under the Contract With America (and its expansion of the War on Drugs), 9/11 provided new pretexts for it.
Whenever 9/11 was cited as an excuse to violate basic rights, it was a surrender to the terrorists. Those who surrendered are guilty of treason.
With bin Laden dead, can we end this bullshit now?
Shouldn't ALEC be among the first to end its crap? Right-wingers are crying about us having too many entries lately exposing ALEC, but I've yet to find any bills on ALEC's "model legislation" list that would seem to have states opt out of the Patriot Act or Real ID.
Virus fraudster outsmarted
Well, well, well, and well, what have we here?
Turns out that expensive security package I got earlier was itself a virus disguised as the Microsoft security feature. Here's some details about it:
http://www.malwarehelp.org/fake-windows-security-center-analysis-and-removal-2009.html
Long story short: I was able to detect and kill the virus early in the day. Whoever uploaded it had thunk they had fried my machine for good, but they've been left in the dust. The only thing I seem to be out is a 2-digit sum of dough, and I WILL get that back once I dispute the charge on my credit card.
Of course, this is still partly Microsoft's fault, because Microsoft's built-in security feature didn't detect this virus like it's s'posed.
And I will see to it that whoever sent out this virus pays dearly. They fucked with the wrong guy. I know that I could personally rip their head clean off their shoulders and be grinning the whole time.
Do not fuck with me. Ever.
Microsoft just scammed me out of tens of dollars
Earlier, I was at my computer, when several Windows Security boxes came up saying my computer was infected. Windows Security automatically ran a scan and found 32 viruses.
This program offered to fix the viruses - but only if I paid tens of dollars for a license for the full version of Windows Security.
When I say tens of dollars, I mean more than $10 but less than $100. Still, it's more than I have budgeted for the next couple weeks. And I had no choice whatsoever. I wasn't allowed to open any browser until I got rid of the viruses. (Then again, why would I want to?)
If Windows Security finds viruses, the correct thing for Windows Security to do is fucking get rid of them. Not make me pay a 2-figure sum just to keep my computer from getting hosed. That's extortion. I paid hundreds for the computer, and I don't expect to have to keep paying huge sums just to make it last more than 4 years.
When garbage like viruses get on my computer, I want them gone. End of story.
And I don't know where the viruses came from or why I was targeted. Maybe this is like the Swen virus that targeted progressive lists and destroyed my old Windows 98 machine. The Bush regime never lifted a finger to catch who was behind that.
I have my own suspicions about why I was targeted this time, but the real point of this entry is Microsoft's insistence at squeezing money out of folks just to get rid of viruses.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
ALEC takes away affordable housing
Are there still any doubts that ALEC - the Far Right's self-anointed shadow legislature - is for big government? Certainly not if you believe that small government means maintaining local autonomy.
I notice that one of ALEC's "shadow bills" is called the Rent Control Preemption Ordinance. I knew right away what this is, and another website has what appears to be the bill's brief text:
http://www.newcoalition.org/Article.cfm?artId=6253
ALEC is out there yelling about "states' rights!", but their support of states' rights only seems to apply when the states run roughshod over the powers of the cities. You never hear ALEC talking about cities' rights. ALEC's bill would specifically bar cities from enacting ordinances to rein in high rents. Not only would ALEC's bill outlaw direct rent control, but it would also prohibit cities from having any policy that has the effect of keeping rents reasonably low.
At least 2 states have enacted a law that copies ALEC's bill almost verbatim.
Lovely. So ALEC is out there intentionally driving up housing costs just for the purpose of keeping the poor out of entire states. ALEC isn't just a shadow legislature for the rich. It's for rich folks who harbor such bias against the poor that they don't want them coming anywhere near.
And ALEC got its way on this issue in at least 2 states. They're an influential little bunch, and I'm exposing them.
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