Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength,
mastering yourself is true power.
Lao-Tzu
Image of the Day
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| Via Dollar Vigilante |
Censorship of Comics?
Crony Big Gaming
Facebook Corner
(IPI). A study conducted in Rialto, Calif., showed a 60% reduction in the use of force and an 88% reduction in complaints against the police in a single year after officers started wearing body cameras.
I will wear one as soon as the politicians do. More of them percentage wise go to jail for criminal behavior than Officers
I have no problem with greater transparency in government. However, the innocent person who is wrongly or unnecessarily abused by a public safety officer often finds the burden of evidence falls on him. What a police officer does in the public eye is not a matter of his privacy.
(IPI). From The Federalist: "Citizens and local leaders should use the looming pension crisis in many states and cities to release local governments from centralized control."
Yes, the states should devolve responsibilities to locals. But notice even attempts to reform social security are rebuffed by Democrats courting the senior votes: don't worry; be happy; we still have another 20 years before the trust fund runs out. In fact, social security has been running in the red since 2010; the disability program will lose its reserve over the next year or so. The problem is that we should be kicking in earlier to compensate outflows years from now; we should not expect the next generation, responsible for funding its own obligations, bailing us out, making up the difference in our liabilities by crowding out other current government operations.
Of course, the few Democrats who do acknowledge the system is unsustainable and dare implement reforms like Raimondo find themselves targeted at the next election; at minimum, as we have seen in Illinois and elsewhere, the unions will appeal almost any reform that manages to get passed, inadequate as in the case of Illinois they might be. You would think any parasite realizes its long-term survival depends on a healthy host. Excess taxes are a drag on the economy; in some polls, up to 50% living in Illinois are considering leaving the state. Illinois' debt ratings are already in the toilet. Unfortunately, I don't share the author's optimism that an enlightened rank and file will punish union leadership; I think they are being manipulated by crackpots trying to blame bankers and everything else except the hard math that government entities have seen pension-related outflows nearly quadrupling over the past decade and in many cities already crowding out other funding requirements. Sooner or later, as we've seen in deep blue California, tougher measures will win at the ballot box. It's just a matter of time before we see similar measures in Illinois.
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| Via We the Individuals |
That being said, meddling in a hostile Middle Ease/Gulf region is like opening Pandora's box. Bush 43 did not seem to anticipate why his Dad never finished off Hussein in the first Gulf War--i.e., a sectarian power struggle. But what is amusing is the same guy who won the Presidency who claimed to have the judgment in the 2002 speech he made as an Illinois state (not US) senator condemning Iraq intervention, the same guy who took credit for getting us out of Iraq leaving on Bush's timetable (while failing to negotiate an extension to stay there), the same Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads Bush in undeclared drone attacked nations, has gotten us back in while pretending that "real" war means boots on the ground. And then there's his stooge Secretary of State Kerry, who made the Al Qaeda-Iraq connection a political question during the 2004 campaign and now argues we were against Assad before we were for him... If you guys are trying to be consistent, what the hell happened to the principled Democrat leftists against Iraq involvement during the 2004-2008 campaigns after their guy is now in the White House and expanding the scope of American meddling?
A legitimate individualist honors his contractual commitments. This guy stole every secret document he could find--which went far beyond revelation of the Prism program. We have nothing but self-serving statements; do you think that he could take other documents to extort various parties? Not unlike a terrorist movement that masks its intentions with humanitarian operations? I see no evidence of legitimate whisleblowing activities, of working within the system to expose wrongdoing. As a point of exoneration and integrity, he should stand trial on principle instead of hiding behind Putin.
Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original artist via We the Individuals |
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| Courtesy of Glenn McCoy via IPI |
Barry Manilow, "I Made It Through the Rain".
