This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Society

  • Picking battles

    I nearly choked on my lunch reading the comments on a Yahoo story from Huffington Post about Visa cutting debit card swipe fees in Europe while raising them in the US. First the story;

    Despite a recent study that found swipe fees are stalling the creation of nearly a quarter million U.S. jobs, Visa raised its debit card interchange rate for American retailers to .95 percent plus $.20 per transaction in April, according to the Retail Industry Leaders Association. In contrast, Visa Europe announced Monday that it would be capping transaction fees at 0.2 percent for the next four years.

    A spokesperson for Visa, Inc. said the average Visa Debit transaction fee rose by less than 4 percent.

    “Most of Visa’s U.S. debit rates have not changed,” she said. “Visa, Inc., did recently make a variety of program and interchange modifications to make digital currency even more convenient for consumers and merchants and to facilitate continued growth for Visa and its clients.”

    A 4% increase. Terrible right? OK, so why aren’t Americans getting upset that low income earners are going to pay 50%-100% more in income taxes next year just by the President and Democrats doing nothing to extend the Bush tax cuts? If a 4% increase in the fee they pay at ATMs that don’t belong to their bank gets their panties wadded up, why aren’t more of them marching in the streets to extend the Bush tax cuts?

    Well, here are some of the first comments on the article;
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  • Nanny state attacks Happy Meal toys

    I look back at the world I lived in 40 years ago and then at the world around me and it’s hard to imagine that one sprung from the other. Take Happy Meals, for example. A simple child’s meal with a toy. Now, when I was a teen, the closest McDonald’s was 14 miles away in Geneva, NY. A coke, a burger and small fries for $.99. We were big shots when we had the money for gas and a couple of meals. By the time I was a parent, they’d invented Happy Meals which was the same mela I’d had as a teen with a toy and maybe a special container.

    My kids rarely got the opportunity to get a Happy Meal, not because of the cost, but because my wife and I didn’t figure that they needed one everyday. Usually, only if we were on one of our cross-country trips to see family, or some other special trip.

    Now, Santa Clara County, California has decided that they want to take choices from parents by outlawing the Happy Meal toys – because, apparently, parents can’t tell their kids ‘no’ in Santa Clara County.

    The proposed ban is the latest in a growing string of efforts to change the types of foods aimed at youngsters and the way they are cooked and sold. Across the nation, cities, states and school boards have taken aim at excessive sugar, salt and certain types of fats.

    Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the proposal would forbid the inclusion of a toy in any restaurant meal that has more than 485 calories, more than 600 mg of salt or high amounts of sugar or fat. In the case of McDonald’s, the limits would include all of the chain’s Happy Meals — even those that include apple sticks instead of French fries.

    Apparently, we’re not smart enough to choose for our kids – even though my kids are all healthy and well-proportioned to this day, your’s aren’t without government interference.

    Forty years ago, parents would have been insulted by these wild-eyed lunatics who try to legislate our health (remember the Montgomery County, MD proposal to forbid smoking in your own house?). Someone would have been punched for insulting parents that way.

  • Shaky cameras mischaracterize protesters

    I knew Fox would turn out a side-by-side comparison of the Tea Party activists and the riots in Arizona last weekend – they were hinting all morning that it was coming. So here it is from Hot Air, by way of Ace of Spades (bonus Megyn Kelly appearance);

    The “n” word hurling and spitting has become a foregone conclusion with no evidence, the media has been able to attach the myth to the Tea Party activists. Now they’re doing their best to attach the “mostly peaceful” lie to rock and bottle hurling crowds in Arizona.

    I’ve noticed that, for some reason, the folks who aren’t from the US behave the worst of all groups at these protests. I’ve seen Palestinians tackle counter protesters at the Israeli Embassy, I’ve seen Arabs assault counter protesters in front of the White House, and now this. I guess they’re bringing their third world incivility to the US. Good thing for them our police are civilized, too.

    The problem is that Mexican police let their criminals get away with shit for a long, too. Now look at the problems they’ve got down there. And they have the gall to warn their citizens about travel in Arizona.

  • Pols want NG troops patrolling Chicago

    The Associated Press and Stars & Stripes report that Chicago politicians are pleading for National Guard troops to bring down the crime rate. Their reasoning is that an equal number of Americans have been killed in Afghanastan and Chicago so far this year. Yeah, that makes sense. Not.

    I can imagine the hoopla once an un-armed Guardsman gets popped by a street thug who has no rules of engagement. Or the reverse- a Guardsman shoots a thug in self defense.

    National Guardsmen, generally speaking, are not trained in police operations, nor should they be. Guard duty in the military is basically walking around looking mean with an empty magazine in your weapon. That might work in the daytime on Chicago streets, but I figure nights are little different.

    There are more 13,000 sworn officers in the employ of the Chicago PD, that’s the size of an infantry brigade. According to Wikipedia, there are 9700 Illinois National Guardsmen. If even half of them are MPs or combat arms troops (the usual ratio of combat arms troops to their support troops is 1:7), they’re not much of a reinforcement especially if you consider the time and effort it would take to train them.

    Funny how you can apply Kipling to civilians and their view of the troops today; For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
    But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot….

  • My apathy shows itself again.

    For anyone that has heard of Darfur and the Sudan region has most likely heard of the many problems going on there. This is not something new and like any other conflict zones there is a almost a repeated monotone message condemning the fighting. But with out any real follow through to be then forgotten by what is the next breaking crisis around the world. In short unless it happens in one’s immediate area, most people could care less. So keep that in mine as we go into the this video.

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  • Obama DOJ subpoenaed

    black-panthers

    The Washington Times reports that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is sick of pussy-footing around with DoJ lawyers and has decided to subpoena them to answer questions about the New Black Panther Party case;

    David P. Blackwood, the commission’s general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded “without any success” and the “dearth of cooperation” had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas.

    “We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and aware that, in response to similar requests, the department has raised various concerns and matters of privilege,” Mr. Blackwood said. “While such considerations carry weight, cooperation with commission investigations is a mandatory statutory obligation.

    “Moreover, due to the unique investigative role of the commission – akin to that of a congressional committee – disclosure to the commission of the information sought is both proper and required,” he added.

    It’s amazing to me that such a blatant case of voter intimidation is so completely ignored by the media and by the Justice Department, especially.

    loretta-kingjpg

    The department’s Voting Rights Section was in the final stages of seeking the judgments when Loretta King, who was serving as acting assistant attorney general, ordered a delay.

    She issued the delay after meeting with Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, the department’s No. 3 political appointee, who approved the dismissal, according to interviews with department officials who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

    Yeah, the DOJ seems so interested in the rights of terrorists, but screw our voting rights.

  • Canada stealing our lesbians

    Well, at least one of them anyway. i wrote about Bethany Smith/Skyler James back in September who claims that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy isn’t working for her/him. Apparently, right before she was scheduled to deploy, Smith/James told her superiors that she was a lesbian and they wouldn’t kick her out.

    1stCavRVN11B sent us a link to a Free Republic discussion of a Canada.com article which announces Smith/James’ latest stay of execution allowing her/him to stay in Canada;

    Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny’s order for the board to consider a gay U.S. soldier as a credible refugee candidate is believed to be a first, said a spokesman for the U.S. military.

    “I have never heard of anybody attempting to do that before,” said army spokesman Lt.-Col. Christopher Garver.

    Pte. Bethany Smith, 21, will have another chance to argue her case for staying in Canada, rather than face deportation and a possible court martial in the U.S. for fleeing the military base at Fort Campbell, Ky., two years ago.

    “I did a happy dance when I heard,” said the deserter, now an Ottawa call centre worker who has adopted the name Skyler James.

    I consulted with one of our resident lesbians who had experience with the military a few months back and she agreed with me that Smith/James’ story sounds like BS. She/he didn’t have trouble with her alleged treatment until it became apparent that she would deploy. Her/his contention that she/he will be mistreated when she returns to the US misuses the refugee laws of Canada.

    I guess DADT is bad policy except when gays can use it in their favor. I wonder why more gays haven’t embraced this story.

  • Veteran’s remains stolen

    Norbert Otto Schmidt, a Korean War veteran who died this last summer, was being transported by his family to Arlington National Cemetery a few days ago, when someone stole the carry-on bag which contained the urn with his remains;
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