Torture doesn’t work?

From the New York Times:

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

But, he says he wouldn’t have done it.

Yeah, we’re safer.

 

Ah, Mr. President, you shouldn’t have

You have to love a president who, when spending, thinks a trillion dollars is no big deal.  But when saving, thinks $100 million is worth trumpting.

 

Pictures from the Middle Tennessee Tea Party at Legislative Plaza

I got a mention and one of my photos posted on Instapundit. But, alas, no link.

Middle Tn Tea Party

Taken as I was walking away after the rally.

 

Middle Tennessee Tea Party

Contact: Judson Phillips
Event Info
Middle Tennessee Tea Party
Date: Friday, February 27, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Location: Legislative Plaza
City/Town: Nashville, TN

More information is available via Facebook. I’ll be attending and, hopefully, posting pictures immediately afterward, along with a short report.

If you don’t know what this is all about, here is what got the ball rolling:

 

Sometimes, life is shit

The Wall Street Journal opinion piece on the president’s mortgage rescue plan casts doubt on Obama’s pledge that his plan “will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans . . . And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.”  Okay.  Let’s assume it only helps people who made decisions that appeared wise and within their means at the time.

We still shouldn’t help them.  Sometimes life is shit.  Sometimes in life we live with bad things that aren’t our fault.  When those things happen, it is not the role of government to force all our neighbors to rescue us.  Let the market correct.  If shit happens to me, I don’t expect the government to require everyone else to bail me out.  I’m fully aware that my house has lost value and that it would lose more if homeowners around go into foreclosure.

We’ve come a long way from JFK reminding us that “life is not fair” to BHO trying to use government to heal every hurt.  We are now trained to ask only what our country can do for us, not what we can do for ourselves.  Sad.

Rescue me if you want to, but not at the point of a gun.

 

Life has been kicking my butt

And when that happens, blogging is the first to go.  Work has gotten extremely busy (never a shortage of providers ripping off TennCare); adjusting to going to class and studying has been an adventure (I’m taking this far more seriously than I did when I was at Kansas or Vanderbilt); and trying to maintain a regular exercise schedule and proper diet along with trying to maintain routines so my mild OCD isn’t too much of a problem takes a lot of effort.  I’ve missed giving the world the benefit of my insight on the pressing issues of the day.

Here’s the brief version:

1. The much discussed Obama administration job application has 9 questions about taxes.  Were Geithner, Daschle, Killefer and Solis not required to respond to the questions, did they they provide inaccurate answers or were their answers accurate but ignored?  We should demand release of their responses.
2. Ashley Judd’s attack on Sarah Palin for aerial wolf shooting is silly.  The practice is a legal and appropriate means of controlling predators in order to preserve the caribou and moose population so that the locals can put food on the table.  Judd & friends need to grow up.
3. Michael Phelps puts the lie to the ONDCP’s Burrito Taster ad, which ends with the tag line, “Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren’t many jobs out there for potheads.”  Radly Balko started a list, to which many names were added, of gainfully employed pot smokers.
4. The latest Miley Cyrus photo controversy is silly.
5. I agree with this guy and his post, “The Survivors Of US Airways Flight 1549 Make Me Hate People.”
6. Health care is not a right, it’s a luxury.  To believe that health care is a right is to believe in slavery – someone must be forced to work to pay for it or provide it.
7. Capping executive pay a $500,000 has appeal, every dime of taxpayer money should be spent carefully and as openly as possible, but it has problems.  Talented help needed in times of crisis will leave.  The cap is only for executive pay.  People below executive positions make vast sums of money that could just as easily be said to come from bailout funds.  In some situations, their actions have as much or more to do with company performance as the executives.

That does it for now.  Hopefully, I can return to the keyboard on a regular basis soon.

 

Shot fired

Chris Sanders of TEP alerts us to the re-opening of a front in the culture war.  Sen. Stanley (R – Memphis) has reintroduced his bill outlawing adoption by cohabitating couples living outside of marriage.  Clearly, this is an anti-gay measure he’s trying to dress up in pro-family clothes – that don’t fit.

He starts his bill with the following declaration:

The public policy of this state is to favor marriage, as defined by the constitution and laws of this state, over unmarried sexual cohabitation. It is also the public policy of this state to place children into adoptive families that provide the most stable familial relationships for that child and will foster an appreciation for the policies of this state that favor marriage over unmarried cohabitation. The general assembly specifically finds that it is not in a child’s best interest to be adopted by a person who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship that is not a legally valid and binding marriage under the constitution and laws of this state.

So, let’s review.  The State wants children to be adopted into stable families.  Here are some possible arrangements:

1. straight, married couple
2. straight, unmarried couple
3. straight, unmarried single person
4. gay, unmarried couple
5. gay, unmarried single person

Under Sen. Stanley’s bill, 1, 3 and 5 could still adopt.  I’m not sure if he has noticed, but 3 and 5 aren’t families that involve married couples.  Apparently, Sen. Stanley believes it is better to be adopted by someone who is single than someone who is in a relationship.  And, it’s better for a child to be left in indefinite foster care, often punctuated by frequent moves, than to be placed in a home without a marriage license.

Also, as Aunt B ably points out, this sentence is more than a little creepy:

It is also the public policy of this state to place children into adoptive families that . . . will foster an appreciation for the policies of this state . . ..

Sen. Stanley wants families that are goverrnment approved and families that approve of government.

Note:  The opinions expressed herein are strictly my own and do not in anyway reflect the opinions of my employer.

 

Obama’s core values

Obama seems to have shifted in recent days toward the middle on many issues.  But, what we’ve really seen is him loosening on positions he took as a matter of political expediency during the campaign.  Getting out of Iraq was a politically expedient position, as were declaring the capture of Osama bin Laden and the closing of Guantanimo Bay priorities.  Government run health care, wealth redistribution (in the short term look for tax cuts to those who don’t pay taxes) and universal “volunteer” service are core values.  He will trade away his political promises to obtain what he really wants.  Pure lefties will howl when he gives something up without taking the long view and seeing what he’s getting.

This morning on the news, I saw a clip of Obama saying it was his job to make government work for you.   No, its his job to get government out of the way so we can work.  His is the opposite position from Reagan’s “government is not the answer, it’s the problem.

We will never be able to repair the damage Obama will do to this country.  Due to the massive increase in government size, spending and regulation during the Bush years, the transition to the Obama era won’t seem that severe.  Bush was the prelude.  Obama will be the cacaphonious symphony of government in our lives.

Sigh.

 

Sometimes, I’m ashamed . . .

of my profession.  Most, but not all, judges are lawyers.  Too many times when a man or a woman dons the judicial robe, they begin a long march toward proving the axiom that “power corrupts.”  We sometimes call it “black robe fever.”

Man held in jail for14 years on civil contempt – no criminal charges.  The article does a pretty good job of explaining the problems with unrestrained civil contempt power.  (via Radley Balko)

Back when I was in private practice, I had to deal with a judge in Murfreesburo suffering from this ailment.  I remember one settlement conference where the plaintiff’s attorney was a few minutes late.  The judge picked up the phone and called the man’s office, demanding to know where he was.  He told the lawyer’s secretary that if the lawyer didn’t show up in 10 minutes, he would be jailed.  The court had moved.  The man had gone to the wrong building.  Fortunately, he showed in time.

 

Another drug war success

Since 2005, when state law made it difficult for law abiding citizens and criminals alike to purchase the legal product peusoephedrine, the number of meth labs in Tennessee has increased.  2008 saw a 21% increase in the number of meth labs busted in Tennessee over the previous year.   The individual labs are smaller, but more numerous.  Drug manufacturers are getting around purchase quantity limits by sending “smurfers” out to several stores to get what is needed.

Note the last line of that story: “Purchase of just 9 grams of the product in an allotted time is enough to charge someone with intent to manufacture meth.”  Don’t let granny stock up.  She’ll get a SWAT team busting down her door at 4:00 a.m. and her dog will be the first one shot!

Thank you Tennessee legislators for once again setting aside common sense in order to appear tough on crime.