The Trouble with Mandatory Minimums

A couple of weeks a go Bill O'Reilly did his usual desk pounding this time for Mandatory Minimum sentences. See here. As usual O'Reilly only goes skin deep on the subject without really looking at why judges are giving such low sentences to criminals. Now other then the fact it's Bill O'Reilly who's head is so hard you could hit it with an asteroid a mile wide and it would survive, the real problem is the people who elect progressive judges or progressive politicians how then appointee those judges.

You see the real problem is when people just vote for candidate AAA or for some random guy on the ballot, which often benefits the liberal progressive politicians and judges. That problem is compounded when people like O'Reilly compound the problem with Mandatory Minimums and while it can be a good thing when used against pedophiles and rapists when you start getting in to other areas where there would be a need for common sense to rule you remove it. And even then it is no guarantee that O'Reilly's precious Mandatory Minimums would survive if the Supreme Court's Chief Dread Pirate Coward Justice Roberts joined with the progressive judges on an extreme case and declare them unconstitutional under the cruel and unusual clause.
Then all those criminals you thought were off the streets are suddenly all out at one time.

The only real long term solution is to vote in conservative and constitutionalists in to those seats who will judge cases appropriately. That does not mean it will be fixed everywhere but we will not be handing our power to people who have messed things up for the last century.      

Solomon

Yes, Bill O'Reilly There is a Slippery Slope, and I Can Prove It.

Yes, Bill O'Reilly There is a Slippery Slope, and I Can Prove It.

With Bill O'Reilly saying that he is “fine with” president Obama acting like a thug in chief to BP instead of someone who has been sworn to follow, obey, and enforce the law I thought I would do my own version of a familiar Christmas article, this one pointed to Bill O'Reilly and all those who are fine with the President of the United States acting like a dictator or thug towards a company who, yes, has made a mess, but it is not a reason to throw away something that isn’t broken.

Bill O'Reilly is NO History Teacher.

For several years now I have had a problem with Bill O'Reilly and his lack of comprehending history and the essence of “If you forget history you are doomed to repeat it.” The first thing I wrote was because of O'Reilly limited scope on history, as a person who has always been captivated with history and historical facts and as an aspiring writer history has proven itself to be full of surprises. And O'Reilly has proven my belief that those with a little knowledge can be
dangerous when they use it in the wrong way. My first article is proof.

My first article was a response to Bill O'Reilly’s Vlad the Assailer from August 14, 2008, O'Reilly comparing the historical Vlad Tepes the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Vladimir Putin of today’s Russia, O'Reilly making his usual jump of conclusion used limited knowledge of Vlad Tepes to say and I quote

Bill O'Reilly and his Problem with the Free Market.

Bill O'Reilly has his problems with the Free Market this is brought by his talking points from 6/7/2010, watch it below,
Bill O'Reilly talking points 6/7/2010,


Well I have another response to O'Reilly.

Some Observations of the Last Week

For the last week I had been under the weather starting Memorial Day weekend up to this Sunday. While I didn’t feel like working on anything I did watch the news and what comes on the forefront that was ridiculous was the reaction to Israel defending itself. I got to listen to progressives complain about how the “evil” Jews were repressing the “poor Palestinians,” and then we got the comments from Helen Thomas on where “those” Jews should go,

Anthony Weiner vs Glenn Beck, and the Progressive Agenda.

Starting last week Anthony Weiner launched an attack on Glenn Beck as part of the larger attack on Glenn. Weiner's attack focused on what Glenn discuses on his radio show and the company Goldline, Inc which is a sponsor of his radio show.

The American Flag is still Incendiary.

Just when it looked like the controversy over the American Flag couldn't get more ridiculous, it has,

Tensions Rising over the American Flag in California.

Tensions rising over the five students who wore the American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

Bill O'Reilly Says the American Flag Wearing Students were Insensitive.

Bill O'Reilly thinks the students wearing the American Flag on Cinco de Mayo were insensitive, because there could have been a fight?!

America and Our Rights.

A few months ago I watched an interview Bill O'Reilly did with Steward Rhodes, founder of the Oathkeepers, see the 1st video below, and became annoyed with O'Reilly as seems to be a pattern in the last year. O'Reilly doesn't seem to realize just how dangerous his attitude, the people they were disarming were the LAW-ABIDING citizens NOT the thugs running around acting like warlords in a third world country. I just don't get O'Reilly when Katrina first happened he claimed to have a revelation how gun liberal control and regulations don't work, but now its alright, those thugs were/are predators we all know or have repeated the joke to a gun control person "Put up a big Gun Free zone sign for all to see at your home, and see what happens." See the video below from the 1/2 Hour News Hour on how liberals think it works.

So why am I doing this now after Glenn Beck showed the video clip of the old woman in New Orleans was roughed up to take her gun, I decided to find that clip, but I found something even better or worse depending on one's point of view, on more of the people the authorities took legal guns from not caring about their rights. See the NRA: The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina video below. It brings to mind a common defense during the Nuremberg Trials "I was only fallowing orders" that 'defense' has been declared illegitimate as a defense to crimes committed by civilian and military personnel when ordered to by their leaders.

So if Obama was to use the current incident to order the confiscation of guns from the public, which would clearly be unconstitutional, when the Supreme Court declared it so all individuals who participated in that action would be vulnerable to civil and criminal penalties.

Also Bill O'Reilly a few weeks ago on Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin and another soldier with a facebook page supporting the Tea Party basically said that soldiers should just follow your orders and don't question them.

So again I am left asking Bill O'Reilly a question he will never answer, All the Oathkeepers are saying is they will not follow unconstitutional orders, so why do you want them to follow unconstitutional orders if they are given them. Unfortunately Bill O'Reilly won't answer my question.

Bill O'Reilly interview with Steward Rhodes, founder of the Oathkeepers.


NRA: The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina


Gun Free Zones - 1/2 Hour News Hour


Also
On Gun Control - 1/2 Hour News Hour

With this one I am starting to think it might be coming true.

This clips from the 1/2 Hour News Hour is one of my favorites, its sad that that series was ended due to the overly critical response from the left in the media.
Just goes to prove they can't take what they are always dishing out.

Solomon

The Case against the Feds regulating the the Problems they created.

This is a continuation of my post, Bill O'Reilly Believes the Feds can Fix the Problems it Created.

In a conversation I had the other day on on small claims court and when someone sues a contractor when they mess up a job or don't do it right, it hit me that its the perfect argument against the Feds regulating the the Problems they created.

First let me lay out a simple hypothetical, you hire Federal Roofers to fix your roof because it has leaks, they come out give you price to do the job, you like it so you hire them. They show up and replace you old roof, then a week later during a rainstorm you start having leaks again. Now at this point you can go back to them to have them do the job again with no charge, or you can go to some one else who you have more faith in to get the job done right, and sue Federal Roofers for what you paid to get the job done right by another party. Now depending on your area and state, some places may require you to give them a second chance to fix the problem, but from personal experience when a particular group you hire to do a job doesn't get it right the first time, and I mean not getting it right in a fairly big way, tend not to get it right with the second chance.

Now the federal government created this whole mess in the first place by requiring the banks to make loans to people who couldn't possibly pay them, also what people like Bill O'Rilly don't pay attention to is the government threatened to take from the banks who complained that this was bad their federal credentials in other words these banks wouldn't be able to operate in the US and its territories, and so the banks wouldn't make any noise they backed these loans with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, with our tax dollars. Also it was the former head of Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae who came up with the idea of selling these bundled mortgages as investments.

So I ask again to Bill O'Rilly tell me that this whole mess isn't the fault of the Federal Government? And why should we give more power to the same people who made this mess in the first place, and then blame the private businesses when their pyramid scheme collapsed.

Solomon.

Bill O'Reilly Believes the Feds can Fix the Problems it Created.

Here we go again, O'Reilly Believes the Feds who made the housing mess in the first place can now fix it! Does the phrase "one's born every minute" sound familiar, O'Reilly wants more government regulation of the markets to fix what the government created by way of its earlier regulations, does that even sound logical!? For example when people were complaining of long lines at the post office, what was the post office's answer? Why to remove all of the clocks! What next, if people keep complaining of long lines will the confiscate anything capable of keeping time until you leave the post office facilities!? John Stossel tried to get O'Reilly to see the error of that view but like with Oil O'Reilly lets his anger cloud his critical thinking on this, see my past articles for more on O'Reilly's clouded critical thinking The Oil Company Profits and the Truth Bill O’Reilly Ignores. & Ethanol - The Gas Substitute that Can’t. And Other Options.

One of the key things O'Reilly is ignoring on this is government used it's police powers on the banks to force them to make loans to people who couldn't pay them back, basically putting a gun to the head of the banks. Any bank that made a noise about making these loans was told they would lose their Federal backing, in other words they would not be able to operate in the territories of the United States, and to keep those banks quiet the Federal Government backed the loans with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, with our tax dollars. So O'Reilly tell me that this whole mess isn't the fault of the Federal Government.



Solomon.

More National ID Fun.

Tonight, (3/25/2010), Glenn made a comment on Bill O'Rilly's love of the National ID, German speaker: Papers? It was the perfect point on the National ID when It comes to that abomination.
How long before some evil individual starts using it for more nefarious usages if it is passed. The fact that Pro-Amnesty Gramnisty is one of the pushers of this just makes me more suspicious of it and him.

Solomon.

The National ID Personified,
leaving Nancy Pelosi's office just
before it ate a conservative.

I couldn't resist using this card ;)

Herman Cain on American Live W/Megyn Kelly

Herman Cain was on Fox this afternoon, and I have to say I agree with everything he said. Unfortunately he left out the part on how government regulations have been the biggest deterrent to business and opportunity in America. The best example I can give comes from a book I bought to use for a essay some years ago. I never finished that essay my English teacher then was one of those you can't write the title this way or that way. Anyway, the book is "The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads" by John F. Stover and series editor: Mark C. Carnes, the example is from the chapter "Midcentury Problems" the last paragraph of pg116 and first paragraph of pg117,

"In the 1950s there was little letup in the federal regulation of railroads. Railways were still subject to the same regulations of service, rates, and fares as in the days when the indeed possessed a full traffic and travel monopoly. The ICC required that railroads keep 258 types of records while the airlines had to keep only a fifth as many. A railroad could not close a depot, discontinue a train, or hike a fare without requesting ICC approval. As a Boston & Main Railroad official put it, "Every rate case has become a carnival of oratory.""
(ICC was the Interstate Commerce Commission, it was abolished in 1995.)

As you can read/see even as far back as the 1950s, and we conservatives know all about FDR's actions, government regulations have tied the hands of business. When you need to close a poor preforming depot, or a train that needs to be discontinued, that isn't making the company any profit you can not force that company to have to wait for government approval to do those things while it loses money on those things without serious consequences to that company. And the requirement that the railroads had to keep 258 types of records versus the 52 types the airlines had to keep only increased the costs to the railroads making it even harder to compete with the new form of travel, or maintain their properties.

When they originally created the ICC it was meant to protect the public, but it ended up harming the public. Because of the ICC the railroads deteriorated from what they had been over a hundred years ago and probably made the airlines what they are today. And now we come full circle with people, like Bill O'Rilly, demanding the regulation of the airlines. Look I have heard the horror stories in all medias, but their is an old saying that Judge Joe Brown is always telling people, Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware, if the airlines are abusing people then the people should vote with their feet. It isn't cheap to fly a passenger plane and if they fly a plane with only a few passengers without some kind of extremely profitable cargo they will lose money and be forced to reexamine how they treat passengers.

And in case some one should say something about fraud, we have laws that protect us from fraud, such as when someone is selling us things like snake oil, lets say they claim that their "oil" will cure cancer, and if it doesn't that's fraud.

Solomon.

P.S. And for some fun for my fellow conservatives, if you know some one who is always claiming Jimmy Carter was a "good" president, I have a curve ball you can through them to see their reaction, In the last months of his presidency he favored legislation that would, to a degree, deregulate the nations railroads, the Staggers Rail Act, which he signed on October 14, 1980. Tell them that Jimmy Carter was in favor of deregulation of the nations railroads and watch them some will claim you're making it up, some will like it, and some will become angry at Carter for wanting to deregulate a big business.

National ID or Mark of the Beast?

So whats up with the two images above, its about a conversation that Bill O'Rilly and Lou Dobbs about a National ID, one that every citizen would have to have and would also have our DNA, now while I am a Christian, unlike some on the far right side I don't believe the end times are at hand or even close, I could list my points but to put it simply people have been looking for Christ's return since he left, but their have been wars, plagues, famines, and death since then and often with the four happening together.
These two passages from the New Testament prove my point,
Matthew 24:35-37 (New King James Version)
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
No One Knows the Day or Hour
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
&
Mark 13:31-33 (New King James Version)
31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
No One Knows the Day or Hour
32 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.

Now past that and back to the issue of the National ID with our DNA that Bill O'Rilly and Lou Dobbs like, No way in God's Green Earth! Other then the fact that it screams mark of the beast it would give an already power hungry government more power over us. Think about it government would be able to have our DNA from birth, what would stop them from then checking randomly that DNA with various sex crimes cases, now I am not against putting rapists and pedophiles away and out of society but what happened to our Constitutional Rights. Then what happens when that same power hungry government decides that you have to have this National ID in order to get on a car, bus, or airplane. Or to get any kind of job, to rent a book, a movie, or to buy anything from food, beer, wine, cards, games, drugs (Legal), and anything else you can think of. Or acquire any kind of services, or go to any kind of school, You Must Have this National ID Card from the federal government. And from there when we crack some of the supposed secrets of DNA that would tell us what couple might go together best, maybe even tell what couples should be together and who shouldn't, would you want that.

We have all read the books or seen the movies of 1984, Brave New World (or the movie Demolition Man), Fahrenheit 451, Atlas Shrugged, Logan's Run or any other book or movie about when government has almost total control over a populace. And don't forget the real life examples of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, Castro and Che's Cuba, and Pol Pot in Cambodia. When the leaders of those countries rose to power during their time the actions they took we now look back upon in disgust and swear not to repeat it, and yet we now have people like Bill O'Rilly and Lou Dobbs who think things like a National ID it is a great idea.
Heck, Bill O'Rilly himself keeps wanting government oversight over ever kind of business, except his and some others seriously Bill do you even do any kind of critical thinking on these kind of subjects.

The government should never be allowed to track legal citizens like this, heck I even have a problem with it for legal immigrants too. It would just be to tempting a thing to abuse by a power hungry government. Let's put this and another issue, Health Care, together for people like Bill O'Rilly, lets say Bill likes Papa Johns Pizza and due to the government's mandate with a National ID that it must be scanned for all purchases every time he buys something it gets logged in to the government's computers, then one day Bill has to go to the Hospital and they look up his food purchases on the computers and bam! They see he has eaten a lot of Papa Johns Pizzas and deny him care based on that. Still want to give government that power?

Solomon.

P.S. By the way the Images above are from the new Doctor Who series from the episodes The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit, I thought they would fit for the theme of this article.

Something Related to Octomom, Nadya Suleman.

As most of you may have heard Octomom, Nadya Suleman was on the View the past week and made a comment that has some in an uproar, personally I try to ignore her, but her comments did stirrup an old debate over the issue of reproduction from when she first birthed the eight kids. When this this first came up Bill O'Rilly was one of the first to want the government doing something about her doctor, her, and taking her kids away, now while I think she has issues any one who wants so many kids at once so close in age, naturally, most likely has problems, but I don't want to get in to that issue its like beating a dead horse, point less, I want to talk about controlling reproductive issues such as the issue of implanting of numerous embryos. What O'Rilly and others don't get is women with reproductive issues often need multiple embryos planted for it to be successful, also time is often of the essence, and to allow the government that kind of power would start down the road similar to the Chinese or the Nazi's ideas on the number of children should have or who should have them. It gives me the chills.

As an old saying that I like goes, "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions."

Solomon.

P.S. I will be having a post on space development that will probably have some relevance to this in away, I will connect them then.

The Oil Company Profits and the Truth Bill O’Reilly Ignores.

First I know someone, or more then one, is asking what is your issue with O’Reilly? I don’t have a problem with O’Reilly exactly, I have a problem when he spouts liberal, progressive, and populist ideas. I will go in-depth on that in a separate article.
Now to the point of this, first some quick numbers we use 200 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel annually, if we were to multiply that number with the average profit per gallon of gasoline, $0.10, we would only get 20 billion dollars, so where does the oil company’s big profits come from? First is the misunderstanding of what a barrel of crude oil produces many seem to think you take a barrel of crude oil and turn it into a barrel of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and kerosene and then you mark up the price and claim a barrel of excuses of why it costs so much. The truth is far more extensive.
Here is a percentage brake down of a barrel of crude oil, approximately 45 percent of all crude oil is refined into gasoline, 7 percent is refined into diesel fuel, and another 7 percent into jet fuel. Fuels for heating and energy production account for approximately 26 percent of all refined petroleum. 13 percent of petroleum proportions serve as raw materials in manufacturing, these "petrochemicals" are used in manufacturing cosmetics, detergents, drugs, fertilizers, insecticides, plastics, synthetic fibers, and hundreds of other products in the marketplace. And such products as lubricants and specialized industrial oils account for the last 2 percent of petroleum production. Also by-products of petroleum refining are also used as raw materials in certain industries, these by-products include asphalt, the chief road building material, and
wax, an essential ingredient in such products as candles, milk cartons, and furniture polish. As you can see removing oil from our modern civilization and society right now, as those on the environmentalist’s side want, would have disastrous results.
The problem is that the oil companies don’t defend themselves, for whatever reasons they have, my suspicions are, based from when I talked to O’Reilly on his now defunct Radio Factor show and how he has treated Neil Cavuto and other conservative economists, the probably look at it from a lose-lose point of view. If they were to go on with him he would brow beat them, dismiss any points they try to make, and claim things like profit margins are smoke and mirrors.
Here are the profit margins for some big well known companies, Microsoft’s is almost 30%, eBay follows at 21%, Google’s is approximately 19.5%, which is followed by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer all around 18%, Apple comes in at 15% (this might go down if the iPad falls on its face), Disney comes in at 12%, AT&T 11%, GE 10%, Nike 9%, and the Health Care industry sits around 3.3% so where do the oil companies sit in this list? With Nike at 9%, Exxon Mobil and Chevron both have a profit margin of 9%, which means for every dollar they pull in only $0.09 of every dollar is profit, now how’s that for gouging?
So how do you get the profit margin of a company? First you take a company’s profit, lets say Joe’s Book Store has a profit of $255,932, you divide that by the total dollars the store takes in, lets say that Joe’s Book Store pulls in a total of one million dollars this year, that would be $255,932 divided by one million which would equal 0.255932, move the decimal over to the right by two spaces and you get the profit margin percentage, Joe’s Book Store would have a profit margin of 25.56%. As you can see its fairly simple especially with a calculator.
So why don’t you hear these things from the mainstream media? Simple, they are made up of liberals, progressives, and populists, in addition to believing that the oil companies are evil, greedy, and polluters that want to destroy the earth, they have an agenda the same one the original progressives and Marxists had over one hundred years ago, one where the socialists make the decisions what is good for you and if it "harms" you, society, or the planet you can’t have it, they might even ban it. The problem is they are elitists who use emotion as a weapon, if they say it’s bad, you are to march lockstep with them and if you don’t you get yelled down and called names to shut you up.
People like Bill O’Reilly are caught up in that emotion, they don’t stop to calm down and look at the facts. They let the liberals, progressives, and populists use them without knowing it, thinking like O’Reilly does they are protecting the people from the greedy. The solution to this problem is simple, we need to get these people to calm down and look at the real numbers & facts so they will realize that they are being used.

Solomon.

The Orca Attack.

Well, O'Rilly has done it again, I wasn't going to make any comment about the attack by the Orca, but last night O'Rilly just had to go there.

First about orcas, they are commonly known as Killer Whales, (scientific name Orcinus Orca), they are a member of the order Cetacean and family Delphinidae, while called "Killer Whales" Orcas are actually related closest to dolphins and porpoises then Whales. I prefer to call them Orcas simply because I like that name better.

Now as to the attack, see the story here, Whale Kills Trainer as Horrified Crowd Watches, O'Rilly's usage of Moby-Dick as some kind of legitimate material on whale attacks, even if he was being farcical (by the way look at what I wrote in the previous section), it was over the top, and as to the orca's previous history of attacks, this isn't the same kind of animal as a dog, wolf, shark, lion, or bear, this orca, Tilikum, it wasn't trying to eat her or some other thing these orcas have been in captivity for some time, the first incident with Tilikum and some other orcas sound like they were playing, the second incident was someone who had visited SeaWorld the previous day, stayed after the park closed, and evaded security to enter the orca tank and was found dead the next day, he apparently died of a combination of hypothermia and drowning, so you can't blame the orcas on that one, and until we get the full story I am personally with holding judgment on Tilikum. And as to the issue of ending the showing of Orcas, this is just O'Rilly's standard knee jerking to something again, and while I am thinking about it why didn't you immediately call for every one with a pilot's licence be immediately checked to make sure they don't go flying planes in to building, and lets restrict who can get a pilot's licence as well! I am sure that will work just as well as your idea of ending the showing of orcas.

And since I am this subject let me stress my opinion as to Humanity using animals, I actually don't have a problem with it in general, I don't really care how the cow, pig, turkey, or chicken died to get to my plate, all I care about is if the animal was healthy when slaughtered and is cleanly slaughtered. As to pets obviously we don't want people abusing pets, Michael Vick is a good example, several dangerous individuals supposedly started out killing animals, but California's plan for listing animal abusers like they do sex offenders is just outrageous. The first time someone is seriously injured or killed by E.L.F. or A.L.F. because of this list, I and several other conservatives will be there, pointing how we warned that this would end up becoming their hit list. I really don't see a value to a public list like this. There are some pretty sick individuals out there and a large number of them won't be found on some list.

I will probably expand on my views latter, but for now this is it.

Solomon.

Ethanol - The Gas Substitute that Can’t. And Other Options.

So why am I doing this now, you are probably asking, well the other day I found my old notes on Ethanol when I was calling into the Radio Factor when O’Reilly believed, I think he still believes it, that Ethanol could solve the problem of high gas prices, which it can’t. His "winning" argument for Ethanol was "well Brazil is doing it."

Bill O’Reilly and the recent Supreme Court Decision on free speech.

Last week Bill O’Reilly had a problem with the recent Supreme Court Decision, U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, where they basically said that corporations have a right to independently place or fund ads for or against a candidate or issue on the ballot. O’Reilly doesn’t want the corporations to be able to speak out or fund ads during an election, but doesn’t he realize just where that would lead, let’s look at the dissenting opinion of this ruling where they wanted to say that corporations don’t have free speech rights, this means that if the Obama wanted to and the ruling had gone the other way he or liberals and progressives might have tried to shut down the conservatives and Foxnews, after all they don’t even consider Foxnews a news network like MSNBC.

So next time you see or hear someone with a similar opinion put them in place.

Solomon.