An Honest Citizen

Posted on 15 May 2013 by eehines

…and a Government Citizen.

The Federal government is required to certify whether an act of terrorism has occurred so businesses can determine related loss recovery. One outcome of this is that if a business did not specifically buy terrorism coverage, a formal designation of terrorism could make it harder to recoup a loss.

Now consider the Boston Marathon attack. Lots of small businesses that were impacted by that disaster did not buy terrorism coverage.

Enter, stage left, the Government Citizen:

Boston Mayor Tom Menino told reporters at a press conference Saturday that he has confidence Obama will not sign anything that would hurt businesses impacted by the bombings[.]

This is a preview of An Honest Citizen. Read the full post (158 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Clinton’s Signature

Posted on 9 May 2013 by eehines

Much has been made of the fact that memos that, among other matters, denied requests for additional security for the Benghazi consulate went out over then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s signature. In particular, the Left insists that it’s entirely routine for others to affix the boss’ signature to correspondence which the boss never actually sees, much less reads, before that correspondence goes out.

The Left is correct in this. In large organizations, it is a commonplace practice for subordinates to generate and transmit correspondence that the boss never sees but on which, because of the subject matter involved, the boss’ signature is required in order to give the necessary weight to the correspondence. State is no different in this regard.

This is a preview of Clinton’s Signature. Read the full post (334 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Obama’s Regulation Costs

Posted on 8 May 2013 by eehines

Heritage Foundation estimates that annual regulatory costs increased during Obama’s first four years by nearly $70 billion—with more regulations in store for term two.

And that’s just the 130, or so, so-called major regs. President Barack Obama’s EPA accounted for $45 billion all by themselves.

So much for Obama’s “commitment” to cut the red tape in Washington.

Permanent link to this post (59 words, estimated 14 secs reading time)

He Built This

Posted on 28 April 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama and his DoT folks, abetted by the press, have done their best to create a commercial travel problem out of the Obama Sequester. The press, including “fair and balanced” Fox News, are focusing on the ATC Controller furlough-caused 1,600 delays per day since the furlough scheme went in.

What the press cynically omit to mention is that ATC Controllers handle 28,500+ commercial, 27,000+ general aviation, 24,500+ air taxi and charter, 5,000+ military, and 2,000+ air cargo flights, or more than 87,000 flights each day.

This is a preview of He Built This. Read the full post (262 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

The Boston Lockdown

Posted on 23 April 2013 by eehines

While the second terrorist in the Boston Marathon bombing still was being hunted, Boston and a number of surrounding suburbs were put on lockdown, as police recommended (strongly) that everyone should stay indoors while they searched for the terrorist, a terrorist who, as it turns out, had escaped the perimeter the police had set up to enclose a small part of the city.

During that lockdown, Boston took a number of hits, and so I have some thoughts about the pros and cons of the matter.

Pros:
- easier to spot the terrorist on the move (which the police never did)

This is a preview of The Boston Lockdown. Read the full post (368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

2nd Amendment Rights and Steamrolling

Posted on 22 April 2013 by eehines

President Barack Obama, in his dismay that he couldn’t dictate his position on gun control via demagoguery, expressed his dismay thusly:

The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill.

The Senators who voted against it are cowardly and had “no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn’t do this. It came down to politics.”

“A minority was able to block it from moving forward” through “this continuing distortion of Senate rules.”

This is a preview of 2nd Amendment Rights and Steamrolling. Read the full post (395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Meddling with Science Education

Posted on 19 April 2013 by eehines

Now the educators are politicizing the “science” to be taught our children. Newly released national science standard “proposals” will include the pseudo-science of manmade climate change as a “core concept.”

The new standards claim

Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming)

without any regard for the lack of actual science, or even data, to support that thesis.

On the other hand, some of the objections to this politicization miss the point and, if these objections are the ones that successfully defeat the nonsense, they’ll create their own problems. There is, for instance, the worry that

This is a preview of Meddling with Science Education. Read the full post (173 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

Of What are the Senate Progressives So Afraid?

Posted on 13 April 2013 by eehines

Or is it that, since they already know all the answers, they have no need for actual facts or discussion of them?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D, VT) has decided that the massive immigration overhaul bill on which the Gang of Eight are working behind locked doors, only deserves a single hearing before the Democrats vote it up and send it to the House.

Shades of Obamacare. How’s that working out for us?

Plainly, since Democrats are so embarrassed by this pending legislation that they don’t want it discussed in public in any serious form, it’s a bad bill and needs to be voted down.

This is a preview of Of What are the Senate Progressives So Afraid?. Read the full post (109 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

Another Victory over Big Government

Posted on 19 March 2013 by eehines

Here’s the long and the short of it, as summarized in The Wall Street Journal:

A federal judge this week struck down a controversial set of laws allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to seek people’s records without a court’s approval, saying the strict secrecy orders demanded by the laws are not constitutional.

US District Judge Susan Illston (Northern District of California) ordered the government to stop sending national security letters or to stop trying to enforce gag orders related to them, but she stayed her order pending the government’s appeal.

This is a preview of Another Victory over Big Government. Read the full post (353 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

The US Flag Is Litter?

Posted on 4 March 2013 by eehines

An Alabama home owners association thinks so. This is an image of the letter sent to residents of a condo unit (the unit is owned by one of the resident’s parents).

In case it’s hard to read in this post, the typed part of the letter reads

Resident,
It has come to our attention that you have items in plain sight that are not to be visible from the parking lot by rules and guidelines stated in the home owners association bylaws. Please remove the following listed item(s) as soon as possible to keep the community as tidy as possible.

This is a preview of The US Flag Is Litter?. Read the full post (639 words, 1 image, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

A Plebe's Site

Quam bene vivas referre, non quam diu.

Category Archives: ethics