ROTD: Responding to Warren Buffet; Shut Up You Grumpy Old Man!

Linked off of Drudge today, Warren Buffet told the taxpayers of this country to "Get over your anger...because it's not productive." 

Excuse me old Chief of the Midwest free market economy, who anointed you the mediator between the people and the government?  Anyone?  I didn't think so.  Please Mr. Buffett, you grumpy old SOB, drink a nice big cup of STFU!  While anyone in this country can admire your personal success story, you've become complacent in how your mind sees the economy.  You have a mountain of wealth and capital that for all intents and purposes will never be destroyed.  Your personal life and the ability to live it without fear of homelessness, hunger or untreated medical conditions, is completely insulated from how the market meddlers and their dangerous actions affect us average Joes.  Sure, I understand you don't mind the death tax, nor do you have a major problem with the redistribution schemes that congress has cooked up in recent years, but how much have you paid to play inside the system and help keep us serfs down at serf level? 

“The truth is we’re running a federal deficit that’s 9 percent of gross domestic product,” Buffett said. “That’s stimulative as all get out. It’s more stimulative than any policy we’ve followed since World War II.”

YES SIR, Mr. Buffet sir!  We all asked for that economic stimulus!  Every one of us in these great United States ask that our federal government mortgage our future and that of our children to create an ordered growth that has no doubt benefited your company's bottom line.  How pathetic are you to tell us to shut up and take the elitists' position and not partake in OUR government.  No Mr. Buffet, money doesn't by you the people's votes, it only buys you influence in the representative republic.  What you failed to realize is that once the serfs have enough putting up with your garbage peddling, we will do everything in our power, to take back the means of opportunity so we can potentially reach the riches you have acquired. 

Further Mr. Buffet, you yourself should know that the true Keynesian model is for the government to run surpluses in times of economic prosperity, so that it can then pull from the safety net in times of need.  Once the safety net is used, borrowing from the savers of the country, or using foreign financing is acceptable, as long as that leverage is paid back as quickly as possible to put the country back in the black.

But, I digress, Mr. Buffet knows all of this and has used it to make billions upon billions.  The sad matter remains that the old kook has officially gone off his free market rocker, simply because he knows that to maintain his power and riches he must toe the party line of the ruling class.  All aboard the country class train, as it runs clean through Mr. Buffet's pompous ass. 

Restoring Sanity to Clown Car Hearings, Commedy Central Hosts Washington's Power Couple

Last week, we learned that Comedy Central's, Daily Show host Jon Stewart, is planning his own "rally" in Washington to "Restore Sanity."  All I have to say about this is that I hope Stewart can find enough macro lens cameras to film all the crickets that show up for his ratings stunt.  He fails to realize a few key things in his effort to neutralize the tea partiers. 

First, Jon Stewart believes that there are enough moderates to draw a million people to his "Restoring Sanity" rally when in reality the tea party movement is the "moderate" movement of this era.  It will be hard for the Daily Show host to drawn that many people when he has to contend with 500,000 or more numbers that have attended three or four major rallies in the District in the last 2 years.  Second, when you become the target of TV popularity in the easiest to manipulate 18-30 viewership crowd, I guess that's when you know that the tea party movement is really the mainstream movement and not "extreme."  Last, if Stewart can draw a million people to his ratings coup, they will not be moderates; they will be leftists.  The moderates will still be at home sitting on their hands just like the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 split of the colonists during the Revolution.  Moderates are de facto "leave me the hell alone, but I'm to carefree to get involved" libertarians, since they primarily sit on the fence waiting for others to make the hard decisions. 

Then we come to today where Stephen Colbert takes on the House Judiciary Committee for their hearing on  immigration.  Posing as an investigative reporter who has covered "migrant workers," Colbert certainly does his best to insult congress' intelligence but he falls very short considering congress has no intelligence to insult.  Even though John Conyers saw the trap, he was not smart enough to outwit the satire artist at his own field craft and Colbert was able to do what he does best by making the Capital Hill idiots look like, well, idiots.  The unfortunate thing here is that our elected representatives let themselves be completely DUPED by a professional comedian.  I think it is safe to say that we officially have the dumbest congress in the history of the country!  That, in and of itself, is NOT something for which to be proud. 

So how does all of this tie together?  Simple.  One network; Two comedians; Two completely insane publicity stunts; And an American public that is left with a completely exposed, pompous government that the ratings whores knew how to exploit for their personal gain.  Kudos Stewart and Colbert, you've figured out the American dream of gaming the system.  Isn't being "extreme" grand for your wallets boys? 

Hopkins Attacker's Background Included VA CHP

Investigative Voice has a good article today detailing the background on a man that attacked a Johns Hopkins doctor before committing a murder suicide of his mother and himself last week.  According to the article, police found that the man possessed a handgun and a Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit.  Also summarized by I.V. is that the security staff at JHU Hospital says they won't, and more importantly can't, screen every visitor for deadly weapons.

Paul Warren Pardus was obviously highly motivated to do harm to people and he had the means with which to act.  Thankfully, in his derangement, he only harmed three people in the doctor, himself and his mother.  The doc looks like he will make a full recovery.  His mother, though sad, was probably not living a quality life and Pardus disgustingly didn't seek help and chose to take his own life.  Unfortunately, the reaction by many in Baltimore will be a choice to focus on the means with which this man carried out his acts and the outcry will be "people have guns and I'm scared."

Hopkins, a noted gun free zone, and it's head of security has just told the general public that they not only won't screen every visitor for weapons, but they can't.  This means that motivated people know their victims are basically a "shooting" gallery and they are free to execute without consequence, their perverted acts against fellow human beings.  I do not fault the hospital or the campus for instituting policies that create gun free zones, even if they are theoretically flawed, because it is their property.  However, as we have seen time and time again, disarmament zones become victim zones.

It is extremely unfortunate that Mr. Pardus snapped like this, but I don't know how you can pre-screen anyone for premeditation towards physical violence.  As someone who has gone through the process to obtain a VA permit to carry a concealed weapon, I can assure you that a through background check is conducted and it sounds like Mr. Pardus did not have any prior predisposition that would have denied him a permit.  What bothers me is the abject failure of the security staff to enforce it's policy against people who exhibit a willful disregard for A) Human Life and B) are willing to violate the rules and laws that create a "self defense free" zone.  From VA Tech, to Fort Hood, to Discovery Channel, to now John's Hopkins, no rule of law, nor policy of property, has disarmed any criminal.  Period.

As discussed here on these bandwidths before, the concealed handgun permit holder's express line for the Texas Capital Building in Austin, TX, takes the opposite approach.  Instead of placing restrictions upon the law abiding citizen from entering the building in response to a criminal shooting a year prior, they added a CHP "express lane" that completely bypasses metal detector security.  Bags are still x-ray examined however and their permits are checked for validity.  This also gives security staff a chance to observe the behaviors of the patrons for potentially violent persons who already have a valid permit.  Additionally, on the off hand chance that such patron has obtained a permit to carry a deadly weapon for purposes that are not lawful, including assault or murder, they run a higher risk of being stopped by a peaceful person read to deal with such a threat, instead of continuing their rampage for hours while unarmed persons cower in broom closets.  

Again, the hospital and campus have every right to institute policies no matter how ineffective they are at deterring or stopping crime since it is their property.  However, it is time that we as a society realize the tools that cause destruction, can also provide protection, and in fact do in 40 other states.  Responsible citizens being armed, levels the playing field against average street thugs, or even act as a deterrent to highly motivated individuals.  True, Mr. Pardus may still have carried out his plan for attempted murder, murder and suicide, but perhaps he may have chosen to not carry out his actions inside a place filled with innocent people who could have shot back and stopped him.

By no means do I defend the actions of the assailant.  They are horrific, perverted, and disgusting in the course of today's, and yesterday's, civil society.  It is hard to find fault with Hopkins as they have instituted their policies for their perceived work place and learning environment benefits.  It is unfortunate though that a noted gun free, and thus self-defense free, zone has been at an epicenter of violent crime for several years in Baltimore.  From a man defending himself in the area with a sword, to a young researcher brutally murdered, to now a direct frontal assault upon the hospital and it's staff, perhaps it is time for a change of policy, culture, and state laws to prevent such atrocious acts in the future.

Righthaven Setback; Judge Rules in Favor of Implied License

Our glorious friends at Righthaven, LLC have received their first legal smack down, and boy it feels good!  The Las Vegas Sun is reporting as of yesterday that new federal Judge Gloria Navarro, has given the go ahead to an implied consent license defense for Jan Klerks the owner of http://www.skyscrapercity.com and receipient of a Righthaven suit.


From the Sun's story, detailing the Judges ruling:

Navarro in her ruling wrote: "The defendant has reasonably asserted that the plaintiff's conduct may have constituted an implied license and that the defendant may have properly inferred that the (copyright) owner consented to the use, especially in light of the established and accepted custom of users freely and openly sharing certain information posted on the Internet."

Nice, stick the screws to these turds of the intarwebs!  Further, Judge Navarro opines:

"The Las Vegas Review-Journal offered the allegedly infringed work (story) to the world for free when it was originally published. It encouraged people to save links to the work or to send links to the work to others anywhere in the world at no cost and without restriction. The Las Vegas Review-Journal website also enables third parties to 'right click' and copy the text of articles on the site. Accordingly, based on this implied license, the allegedly infringing copy was, in fact, authorized by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and therefore, is not an infringement."

See, when people share original work for informational purposes only, and not to make a buck, it falls under fair use.  Perhaps this grubby lawyer should revisit the morality clause of his bar license! 

Blog News

Considering I tend to pre-write my weekend posts, I did not have any time yesterday to do that with the bad news.  I will return to blogging on Monday with some meaningful insight.  It's election season and I have saved up some good articles that we need to discuss dear readers, but take this moment to reflect upon how your lives are impacted by the interaction with your loved ones. 

Enjoy your weekend.