The Real Cost of Daylight Savings Time

I've always felt Daylight Saving Time was a waste
of time and productivity. Moving DST around is an
even greater waste of money. To be honest, I'm not
a big fan of time zones in general. What's so magic
about 6AM that it has to be the correct waking time?
I've heard that people want noon to be mid-day (why?),
but noon isn't mid-day anyway. Personally, I tend
to wake up about 5:30AM and go to bed at 11:0PM,
making my "mid-day" around 2:15PM. Today the sun
will be halfway to sunset in Washington DC at
12:40PM. Whatever.

The entire idea is centered around the concept that
people are too stupid to deal with problems themselves.
In a survey, the government found that people liked
DST because it gave them more time to do things in
the evenings before sunset. Duh. Go to work earlier,
get off work earlier. Do you really need the
government to tell you that? If you aren't able to
set your own hours, talk to your boss. Apparently
the majority of the country wants to wake up sooner
and get off work earlier, so what's the issue?

Oh, and it saves money, too. Or at least that's
what the DOE tells us. In a frequently-touted report,
California found DST saves money by shifting power
usage from expensive "peak" periods into cheaper
morning hours.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/publications/displayOneReport.php?pubNum=P400-01-013

Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but if
the power usage shifts from the "peak" period into
the cheaper morning hours, don't the morning hours
become peak? If everyone gets up an hours earlier,
then they'll turn on all their lights an hour
earlier, and the peak period will start at hour
earlier. What the hell?

The fact is there were no energy savings from moving
DST. Frankly put, DST has no real effect on energy
at all.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070403-the-daylight-savings-change-no-savings-no-point.html

But that's not to say it doesn't have any effect.
Besides lots of computers getting hosed up, and
people showing up to meetings an hour off, DST
actually kept an innocent 12 year old boy in jail
for twelve days. Yep. Next time someone tells you
that we can all just live with the temporary
confusion that moving the clocks causes, tell them
about Cody Webb, a Pennsylvania student who was
arrested for making a prank bomb threat. He had
called the school exactly one hour before the threat
was called in, and well, you can guess the rest.
The best part of the story was the Catch-22 attitude
of his principal, who refused to let him argue in his
defense, stating 'Well, why should we believe you?
You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'
http://www.passablynews.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1175830780

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe these folks really do need
the government to tell them when to wake up and
when to go to bed. They don't appear intelligent
enough to decide on their own.

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The Swamp Fox Rants.

I am ticked off, and I know I said I will keep a civil tongue in my head, but I got a question. What in the hell has happened to this freakin' country? Can somebody tell me? Anybody? Please? Now, you may ask what has my panties in a bunch. Well, it is this carp called political correctness.

There is in Littleton CO a group of parents mostly if not all women who are having a fit over a statue. The statue hasn’t even been erected yet, but these people have deemed it in appropriate, because it is, they think too close to three Elementary schools, and two parks. Why, is it inappropriate, you may ask? Good question. Well, it seems the statue depicts a man in uniform holding a gun.

So, how did this all start? Let’s go back to the very beginning. Years ago there was a young boy named Danny Deitz Jr., who like most boys was fascinated by all things military. However young Danny, who grew up in Littleton CO, lived out his soldierly dreams, he became a Navy SEAL. From what I have been able to glean from different sources Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL(BUD/S) Training is one of, if not the toughest, most challenging, and grueling training regimes in the Armed Forces. This is not meant to minimize the training to become a Green Beret, Army Ranger, Marine Force Recon, Air Force Special Air Police(if I am wrong about this units name or anything else, I apologize the all those in the Air Force), or Delta Force. Although, I do believe it is the longest training process, after six months of BUD/S there is another eighteen months of specialized training.

Jump forward to 27, 28 June, 2005 the vicinity of Asadabad, Konar province Afghanistan. His Special Reconnaissance element was to locate high level anti- Coalition militia leader, in support of a follow on direct action mission to disrupt enemy activity. They are spotted by militia sympathizers who reveal their position to the militia. They were as a result confronted directly by the enemy, with a much larger force, and a tactically superior position. In this attack Petty Officer Danny P. Deitz Jr. is wounded. Also wounded is a Team Mate Petty Officer Matthew Axelson. These men though mortally wounded continued to fight on, for forty five minutes by the accounts I have seen, while urging, and allowing their wounded Team Mate to escape. They stood their ground, and continued to fight even after a rescue helicopter crashed due to enemy fire, killing eight other SEALS, and they fought until they succumbed to their wounds. They were, a year later, Posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor( also known as the Congressional Medal of Honor), for their bravery, and valor.

Now, as a statue is being readied to be dedicated to this brave man, who gave his last full measure for his nation and his Team Mates, some people are offended by the statue. This is where the political correctness comes in. This statue shows P.O. Deitz crouched in full combat gear, including his M-16 with grenade launcher attached resting on his knee. It seems it is the weapon that is offensive to the good people of Littleton. Some of them say he should be holding a child, or a bouquet of flowers, can you believe that one, or nothing. There is even the idea of one moonbat who thinks that a better statue to honor P.O. Dietz by having a statue of a peace dove. A FREAKIN’ PEACE DOVE!! When was the last time a peace dove kept you safe Lady? Geez, where do they find these people. It has been said that one of the reasons they don’t like the statue of P.O. Dietz is because of those two pieces of human detritus that massacred their school mates at Columbine. But as P.O. Dietz’s widow, who is sympathetic to the message that guns and school don’t mix, puts it "It's a parent's job, including these parents who are protesting, to teach their children the difference between two thugs who murder their classmates and a soldier who died fighting for their freedom," she said. "Danny represents every soldier and sailor who has fallen, and for them to take this stand, well, that's offensive to me." She also said comparing the guns used at Columbine to her husband’s M-16, “one is used to take lives,” she said. “And the other is used to save them.” They want to change a monument a man who gave his life for the very right they are exercising to stop his monument, I wonder if they even realize the irony of it. Here is the link to Danny’s Navy Cross Citation. Navy Cross Citation for Danny P. Dietz

I have two quotes for this post.

The first, and I forget who said it, but I vowed to remember it when I heard I, is.
We sleep safe in our beds at night, because rough men stand ready to do violence in our name.
The second is
"It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world." --Theodore Roosevelt

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Bestiality, Urination, Defecation, as well as Sadistic and Masochistic Behavior

I must open by apologizing for not having my regular images and nice
formatting, but I'm away on the previously-mentioned business and unable to
log into Blogger. This is my test of a backwards method of bringing a post to
the Internet.<P>

<a
href="http://nervous-rodent.blogspot.com/2005/09/big-brother-or-nanny.html">I
posted</a> about the government's unhealthy obsession with pornography back in
September 2005. That story, like most sick and unhealthy obsessions, hasn't
died. In that article, entitled "Big Brother or Nanny?", I argued that by
making pornography between consenting adults a "focus area" for prosecution,
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was not only wasting valuable tax
dollars, but encouraging prosecutions that the government would ultimately
lose. It turns out that the eight fired prosecutors had one thing in common:
<a
href="http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/03/porn_and_the_doj.php">refusing
to prosecute these cases.</a><P>

I'm not going to suggest, as others have, that the failure to prosecute these
pornography cases was the underlying reason behind the firing of the
attorneys. That would be ludicrous, even if it does appeal somewhat to my
sense of conspiracy. In the case of Paul Charlton, the reason for the firing
was obvious: Charlton had <a
href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/blumenthal">just initiated an
investigation</a> into the corruption of a Republican candidate and Bush
loyal: Rick Renzi. It doesn't take a genius to know why Charlton was fired --
but it takes a spinster to come up with an excuse that doesn't taste bad for
TV.<P>

So the White House released e-mails that showed evidence the eight attorneys
were ineffective and needed to be fired. In Charlton's case, he had been
reluctant to prosecute pornographers for distributing content between
consenting adults. It's time to sigh, and reaffirm our understanding that the
government, regardless of party, is infesting with self-serving politicians
who do not hold your best interests at heart. The need for transparency is
obvious.

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I'll Wager On This

Is online gambling illegal in the United States? The Justice Department says so, citing the Wire Act from 1961. Notably, the Wire Act only prohibits those "in the business of betting or wagering" from doing so, which has been interpreted to mean casual bettors were beyond the reach of the law, while gambling professionals and companies were not. So what happens when offshore gambling establishments allow Americans to log in and play casually over the Net?

Only 21 states have explicit prohibitions against social gambling, and only eight states specifically prohibit Internet gambling. What's an overzealous Congress to do? Pass a new law, of course! The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 makes it illegal to transfer funds to or from an online gambling site, while not actually banning gambling itself. Predictably, this law has killed the Internet gambling industry -- Antigua's gambling industry went from $1 billion per year in revenue to only $30 million, resulting in a loss of 4,000 jobs in a country with only 68,000 people.

Even before that bill was passed, however, the Justice Department had been publicly stating that they felt Internet gambling was illegal, and would prosecute those who engaged in it. How many more people would have wagered online if they didn't have the spectre of
law enforcement hanging overhead? We may never know.

Here's the part that's interesting. Including indian lands, there are 1,657 casinos 46 states. Yes, that means a lot of states that make gambling illegal have an exception either for indian lands or specific establishments. So the question Antigua raised is, "Does Congress have the right to stop Americans from playing in offshore casinos when the majority of Americans can legally wager near home?" Funny thing is that's not just an ethical question; it's really a matter of protectionism and restraint of trade. Congress has stated that an American wishing to gamble must do it at an American brick & mortar casino, not with a foreign company.

So Antigua took the United States to the World Trade Organization, which whom we have signed treaties promising not to engage in protectionism or restraint of trade. America frequently petitions the WTO when foreign countries make it hard for American companies to compete overseas -- this is the first time any nation under 100,000 people has ever filed a complaint in the WTO. In 2004, Antigua won: the United States was unfairly engaged in illegal restraint of trade.

The United States blatantly ignored the ruling, and passing the aforementioned law against online gambling two years later.

This week the WTO compliance board found the United States, not surprisingly, to continue to violate international law: "The Panel concludes that the United States has failed to comply with the recommendations and rulings of the [Dispute Settlement Body] in this dispute."

So what does this mean? Absolutely nothing. Don't think for a second our politicians are afraid online gambling will create social ills and injure children, as they claim. Many of the states with explicit online gambling bans are those states with the largest gambling industries, including Nevada (373 casinos), Washington (143 casinos), and Montana (136 casinos). This is a clear-cut case of big business, namely the American gambling industry, pushing politicians to restrict American's freedoms for the sole purpose of reducing competition and ensuring higher profits. The largest sponsors of the 2006 gambling ban? Casinos, with $28.5 million dollars spent in 2006 alone, or $53,271 for every Congressman in the House and Senate.

What should you do? Tell your congressmen to give Americans the freedom of choice. Support the Poker Players Alliance, the strongest group lobbying for the legalization of online gambling, with 319,307 dues-paying members, and headed by former Congressman Alfonse D'Amato. And always remember it's not the job of our government to hand money to special interest groups on a silver platter.

Labels: personal freedoms

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John Doe

John Doe is being sued by the Imams, who after acting in an extremely suspicious manner were removed from the US Airways flight form Minneapolis to Phoenix. Now, I see on Michelle Malkins blog that a few bloggers, Uncle Jimbo of youtube.com/unclejimbomadcity, Robert Spencer of jihadwatch.com, Erick Stakleback of cbn.com/blogs/erick_stakleback/index.aspx, and Brian Preston of hotair.com, have stepped up with the John Doe Manifesto, the manifesto lets it be known to all who would enslave us, or work to bring down America that John Doe will not be intimidated. He will not be silenced, and he will not give a rat’s pa-toot what they think. He is vigilant, he is aware or his surroundings, he is watching. But, who is John Doe, really? He is the guy looking over from the next car at the stop light. He is the woman who watched you pump gas into the gallon can for your lawn mower. John Doe is bagging your groceries. He is the cashier at the store where you stop on the way home from work. He is the person who collects your garbage. He is the woman pushing the stroller, who smiled pleasantly as you passed. He is the jogger in the park. John Doe is us. He is every American who watched television on 11 September, 2001 with purple faced, white fisted rage as the Twin Towers fell. He howled in frustration at his feelings of impotence, because there was nothing he could do, when learning about the Pentagon. He wept, unashamed, at the bravery of the passengers on flight 93. He wants to do some thing, anything, to protect his country, and to defend her. John Doe does not care when told he is a bigot because he is on alert for the enemies of his country. He will become more vigilant. He is more suspicious, he is taking a harder look at those who are trying to make his vigilance falter. He will not back down. John Doe will tell the flight attendants when he sees something, or someone that isn’t quite right. He will call the Police when he sees something disturbing, he doesn't care if he is wrong. He will err on the side of caution. We are John Doe. I am John Doe. Are you John Doe?
Below is the John Doe Manifesto as taken from Michelle Malkin’s blog.

Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist,
You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.
I am John Doe.
I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car. I am on your lift.
I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.
I am John Doe.
I will never forget the example of the passengers of American Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.
I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified a stewardess that several Arab men sitting in his first-class cabin on an August 2001 flight were behaving strangely. The men turned out to be 9/11 hijackers on a test run.
I will act when homeland security officials ask me to “report suspicious activity.”
I will embrace my local police department’s admonition: “If you see something, say something.”
I am John Doe.
I will protest your Jew-hating, America-bashing “scholars.”
I will petition against your hate-mongering mosque leaders.
I will raise my voice against your subjugation of women and religious minorities.
I will challenge your attempts to indoctrinate my children in our schools.
I will combat your violent propaganda on the Internet.
I am John Doe.
I will support law enforcement initiatives to spy on your operatives, cut off your funding, and disrupt your murderous conspiracies.
I will oppose all attempts to undermine our borders and immigration laws.
I will resist the imposition of sharia principles and sharia law in my taxi cab, my restaurant, my community pool, the halls of Congress, our national monuments, the radio and television airwaves, and all public spaces.
I will not be censored in the name of tolerance.
I will not be cowed by your Beltway lobbying groups in moderate clothing. I will not cringe when you shriek about “profiling” or “Islamophobia.”
I will put my family’s safety above sensitivity. I will put my country above multiculturalism.
I will not submit to your will. I will not be intimidated.
I am John Doe.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. — Billy Graham
The Swamp Fox

Labels: Swamp Fox, terrorism

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