The 1/18/2012 SOPA-PIPA BLACKOUT PROTEST is now over

This obscure little eclectic blog site has been locked down for the 24-hours between midnights.  Perhaps it was silly of me to think my participation would have an impact, but it takes many to generate the roar of a hundred thousand hands clapping.  While the monster-sized sites carried the weight of this protest, we fleas at least added to the itch.

So, was it all for naught?  CLICK HERE to read the New York Times view on the protest. 

Congressional Annual Merit Pay Increases

Would it not be ever so sweet for TAXPAYERS to have the power to VOTE pay raises for Congress?  No COLA for Congress, no voting themselves pay raises, the TAXPAYERS get to decide if they have earned their keep.  HEH!  It sounds like fun.

When ELECTION TIME rolls around, NOBODY is forced to vote and we seem to get the same old sad lot of career politicians in office.  TAX TIME is another story; participation for the majority of U.S. citizens is not optional and the folks who don’t file their returns face criminal charges.  Since we ALL are familiar with federal tax forms, it would not be much of a burden to have just one more page, or maybe even just another block on an existing page, for us to mark our vote for binding Congressional pay increases.  By golly, I bet that people of the U.S.A. would start looking forward to tax time and that the IRS would have noticeably fewer missing returns to chase down.

Goring the Sacred Cow of pork spending on General Aviation Airports

This USA TODAY article paints a picture that partisans may find arguable.  However, Federal Funding of General Aviation is one of many areas that our government needs to take an HONEST look in the mirror and consider making some major changes. 

When talking about the Federal Budget, most of the discussion swings to the select few super-mega-buck items while the other hundreds (if not thousands) of lessor cost special-interest expenditures are blown-off with remarks like “cutting them only saves $Millions or $Billions, we need to find ways to save $TRILLIONS!”  Well, I feel obligated to argue that if we obsessively start cutting a slice of bacon here and there, sooner or later we have gone whole-hog and cut away all of the pork.

“GRANT” and all of its synonyms should be removed from the lexicon of our legislative budget process and replaced with the term “fully securitized, non-forgivable, federal LOAN.”

Which sucks worse, SOPA or PIPA?

My eyes bleed from reading so much on SOPA and PIPA.  Given that one is a House bill and the other is a Senate bill, it may even be possible to rephrase, “Which party sucks more, Republicans or Democrats?”  To be more polite, let us simply ask which political party favors bigger government and special interests?  It is hard for me to come up with an answer other than “Both major political parties, equally.” I have heard arguments both ways, but remain unconvinced that one party is more righteous than the other.

Are there are enough laws on the books to do most of what the advocates want from SOPA and PIPA?  Possibly, but my humble impression is that the existing laws do not offer raw expediency; Napster was not resolved overnight.  It is (again) my ever humble opinion that issues NOT COVERED BY EXISTING LAWS should be the ONLY things being considered in either bill.   

The sitting POTUS is missing a cherry-pie election-year opportunity on this debacle by not forcefully waving his veto pen at both major political parties. 

TIMELY UPDATE:  VIA INSTAPUNDIT WE LEARN THAT SOPA HAS BEEN SHELVED

CDC bumps murder off list of top killers

Click HERE to read Reuters. 

Always skeptical of any fully automatic conclusion, I find the possibility of a “more guns less crime” connection quite interesting.