Wanna See My Pride and Joy?

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 13 May 2003 12:00:00 GMT  <== Politics ==> 
57

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell [grabbe]

From Chuck Muth's News & Views:

"Regarding the gunman in camouflage clothing who opened fire in a Cleveland business school: What in the world was he thinking?? The law school is two doors down the street." -- Paul R. Hollrah

Asay via marcbrands.com - Strict Islamic Law - cartoon commentary on the smoking nazis. Hehe. [smith2004]

Radical Software Group - RSG-X10-1 - spy back on the spies by building your own portable wireless video receiver. Hehe. [leor]

While driving to work today, I remembered for some reason a joke my Dad used to play. He'd ask if you'd like to see his pride and joy. "Sure", you'd say. Then he'd reach in his wallet, pull out a photograph, and show it to you. Sure enough, pictured were containers of Pride™ furniture polish and Joy™ dishwashing detergent. The web wasn't around in those days, but you can order it online today. magictricks.com has a Pride and Joy card for $1.00.

60 Minutes - Firing Back - I didn't get home from Mother's Day dinner in time on Sunday evening to watch this segment, so I read it on the web. Robert Ricker has turned on the industry he used to protect. He's now blaming gun manufacturers for the wrongs done by some of the people who buy their products. Shame on you, Mr. Ricker. I sent the following to CBS News via their feedback form:

In "Firing Back", I was saddened to see Robert Ricker, a former defender of our Constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms, turn on the gun industry.

Guns are tools. Homeland defense tools. Family protection tools. As with any tool, they can be abused. As with any tool, abuse is entirely the fault of the abuser. Once a tool has been delivered to a distributor, the manufacturer no longer bears any responsibility for its use or distribution, unless the tool fails to function as advertised.

Mr. Ricker appears to have fallen into the trap shared by many of his fellow attorneys, a failure to apply plain common sense.

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - The Phony Tax Cut Debate - The House passed a tiny tax cut, but for all the wrong reasons. We should be talking about a $500 billion per year tax cut, not $300 billion over ten years.

The watered-down tax cut passed in the House of Representatives last week, while predictably small, is better than nothing. It does reduce taxes on dividends slightly, lowers marginal income tax rates by very small percentages, and increases some deductions available to businesses.

Still, the speeches on the House floor showed the current tax cut debate is strictly about politics and not serious economics. Both sides use demagoguery but don't propose truly significant tax reductions. Both sides use the outrageous expression "cost to government" when talking about the impact of tax legislation on revenues. This implies that government owns everything, and that any tax rate less than 100% costs government some of its rightful bounty.

...

One way to silence the class war argument would be to cut payroll taxes, which are paid through FICA withholding by even minimum-wage workers. This is never suggested because to do so would expose the Social Security "trust fund" lie. Since there is no trust fund and all government revenues are spent immediately, a payroll tax cut could make it impossible for the government to pay current Social Security benefits.

Michael Gilson de Lemos at anti-state.com - The Joy of Drugs - a good screed on the absurdity of prohibition. [anti-state]

Spain lets the young try drugs, has no effective minimum for alcohol and tobacco, and the age of majority is 13. Result: people understand that some things are pleasant in moderate doses and not so good otherwise, trust their own experience, and parents keep aware of kids' behavior. Give the child freedom and have the parent keep an eye, say the Spaniards, and you'll have mature kids, attentive parents and good results. Take away the parents' responsibility, say Americans, and there are cynical kids, alienated parents, and reverse results. Who is wisest?

PBS Independent Lens - Guns & Mothers - Mothers for gun ownership and gun control face off. Showing tonight or tomorrow night on many PBS stations. The one I get, WHMT out of Schenectady, NY, isn't showing it at all. Click on the "Broadcast Schedule" link on this page and enter you zip code to find a showing in your area. [scopeny]

Karl Murphy at Petition Online - Let the Assault Weapons and high capacity magazine ban Sunset - a petition to President Bush, urging him to allow the "assault weapons" ban to sunset next year. Mine was signature number 3370. [scopeny]

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Comments (1):

Pride and Joy cards

Submitted by on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:54:06 GMT

magictricks.com still carries the Pride and Joy cards, but you can also buy them from slinkyantennas, 20 cards for $18.95 + $3 shipping.

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