05.22.2008: from All-Africa.com:

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation. The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC members for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

Welcome to the Morons on Parade, Steve... What you understand about supply and demand and Economics 101 would fill a thimble deep enough to park a tractor-trailer next to it.

From the New York Times, 07.04.03, by Daniel Altman: Jobless Rate Hits 6.4% Highest Level in 9 Years:

.... "This is another indication that these ideologically focused, supply-side tax cuts are not the way to get at the fundamental problem," said Senator Jon Corzine, a Democrat from New Jersey. "It's increasingly becoming clear the policies aren't having the result that was, at least, their stated intention. These have been very inefficient uses of resources to try to stimulate growth or jobs."

Claire Buchan, a spokeswoman for the White House, responded by saying much of the boost that will come from the most recent fiscal package has yet to be felt. "The withholding tables went into effect the day before yesterday," she said. "The child-credit checks will go out at the end of the month. Businesses have access to the expensing and the depreciation, so there is a lot of stimulus." ....

Dear "ideologically focused" moron, Corzine: "The withholding tables went into effect the day before yesterday, and the child-credit checks will go out at the end of the month." !!!

Only a true moron could say, "It's increasingly becoming clear the policies aren't having the result that was, at least, their stated intention."

At least give the policies a few minutes to work................. Duh!

"Nearly 90% of BW Online readers think the U.S. has to use less foreign oil, and they're ready to be part of the conservation solution."

"Readers were divided on who's most responsible for the country's continued dependence on foreign oil, with 38% citing the government for not pushing hard enough for conservation, about 24% blaming the free-market system for providing energy that's too cheap, and 19% putting the onus on consumers for being energy wastrels."

24% blame the free market for providing energy that's too cheap. ?!?!?!?!?

Everyone in that group: please report to your proctologist. They can help find your head.

From the New York Times, April 27, 2003, a testimony to the failure of Castro's government of Cuba:

"HAVANA, April 26 (Reuters) — President Fidel Castro has defended the executions of three ferryboat hijackers as a deterrent to a mass exodus that he said the United States was trying to provoke in Cuba.
The three men had commandeered a Havana commuter boat to try to reach the United States. Their attempt followed two successful hijackings of passenger planes to Florida within two weeks. They were executed by firing squad on April 11."

Dear Fidel: Just another indicator that you have failed as a leader. "You have not converted a person because you have silenced them."

If you can't keep them on your island by creating an environment they want to live in, killing them won't improve the situation, and it will only look worse on your tombstone.

From the New York Times, February 7, 2003::

Attorney General John Ashcroft has directed federal prosecutors in New York and Connecticut to seek the death penalty in a dozen cases in which they had recommended lesser sentences. Mr. Ashcroft's orders are a triumph of ideology over good prosecutorial practice. The Bush administration should reconsider them.

Ok, AGJA, you get the Moron of the Day Award.

See Also.... Capital Punishment on Lessons. Ideology stomps brains every time.

And you think the USA has cornered the market on government stupidity? Read on...

London is a refreshing change from Paris. The beer is better. But the traffic is worse. In fact, my cabby told me that London's mayor, Ken Livingston (Red Ken, he's called), has deliberately lengthened the timers at the red lights and ordered a slowdown in road work to clog the City Centers' roads. [CAUSE]

It's working. It took me 30 minutes to get from Waterloo Station to my hotel, about 10 minutes away. Livingston is introducing a toll for commuting through the City Center of five pounds a day (about $8). My cabby tells me he's trying to slow things down now so when the new system is introduced (and the road work is simultaneously finished and the lights are re-timed), it will look like a brilliant success. [EFFECT]

Pretty clever. And annoying. The cabbies protested with stickers that said "Red Ken = Red Light" in the rear window of their cabs. Shortly thereafter, they were warned if they had the stickers in their windows, they'd be fined. [COERCION and acknowledgment of government stupidity]]

Copyright 2003 Agora Publishing

From the 1/27 issue of AutoWeek:

In the latest in a string of vandalism carried out in the name of ecology, the Earth Liberation Front members (a radical environmental group) claim responsibility for torching SUVs at a Pennsylvania auto dealership. A posting on the group's website said the "attack" targeted SUVs in a fight "to remove the profit motive from the killing of the natural environment." Gas canisters were ignited under three vehicles, engulfing them and a nearby car in flames.

It was later reported that two of the ELF members only now realize that their act of vandalism emitted more pollutants than would be produced by 70,000 full-sized SUVs in 10 years of operation.

From the New York Times, 02.04.2003: Continuing Moron-at-Large, Paul Krugman of the New York Times Op-Ed Page

1. "Some commentators have suggested that the Columbia disaster is more than a setback — that it marks the end of the whole space shuttle program. Let's hope they're right." And I so totally hope you're completely wrong...
2. Yet almost all the payoff from space travel, scientific and practical, has come from unmanned vehicles and satellites. [in your dreams, Paul... not true at all.] Yes, astronauts fitted the Hubble telescope with new eyeglasses; but that aside [and all of the other examples aside, too, Paul?], we have basically sent people into space to show that we can.[Krugman's Law: If I say it's true, it must be true, demonstrable facts notwithstanding....] In the 1960's, manned space travel was an extension of the cold war. After the Soviet Union dropped out of the space race, we stopped visiting the moon. But why do we still send people into orbit? [Becaue they run experimants better than machines do, stupid....]
3. In space, you see, people are a nuisance. [and some on Earth, too, Paul.... sorry... couldn't resist.] They're heavy; they need to breathe; trickiest of all, as we have so tragically learned, they need to get back to Earth. One result is that manned space travel is extremely expensive. [TANSTAAFL, Paul... There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.]
4. Scientific observation? Machines can do that. Mining the asteroids? A dubious idea — but even if it makes sense, machines can do that too. [which shows you don't really know much about research, science, or the limitations off machinery operating scores of light-minutes away from the operators, etc., Paul]
5. The sad truth is that for many years NASA has struggled to invent reasons to put people into space — sort of the way the Bush administration struggles to invent reasons to . . . but let's not get into that today. It's an open secret that the only real purpose of the International Space Station is to give us a reason to keep flying space shuttles. [Back to Krugman's First Law, again....]
6. Does that mean people should never again go into space? Of course not. Technology marches on: someday we will have a cost-effective way to get people into orbit and back again. At that point it will be worth rethinking the uses of space. I'm not giving up on the dream of space colonization. But our current approach — using hugely expensive rockets to launch a handful of people into space, where they have nothing much to do — is a dead end. [Go back fifty years, Paul, and replace "space" in your diatribe with "commercial aviation" and see how parallel --- and stupid --- it sounds. In order to solve the problems and make space travel safer and more economical, we have to keep plugging away at it, just as we're doing right now. Patience, and sacrifice by people who understand and are willing to take the risks.]

• Unmanned spacecraft are extremely limited in what they can do, because machines are extremely inflexible and can not adapt to new and surprising situations
• People can.
• As one wag once put it, people are actually cheaper in the long run, because they're mass-produced by unskilled labor."
• Paul, people like you have made comments like that since .... well, pretty much forever. Some were called Luddites; I just call them "people who have no vision." Leave us visionaries alone to do the stuff you don't want to, and please don't get in our way. We actually outnumber you.
• Paul, if we waited for the "cost-effective" way to do everything, you wouldn't have a car or refrigerator today, amongst many medicines and medical treatments. Paul, you can wait, but we're willing to pay some prices to move the species forward, even if you're not.

From the New York Times..., 01.31.2003:

• "This looks like a mechanism to allow people with lots of wealth to move large amounts of money into tax-sheltered vehicles," said Robert Greenstein, the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group. "As a result, the budget deficits get worse and worse."

• "This seems entirely oriented to the very richest end of society and extending them yet another break," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal group in Washington."

• "It is designed in such a way that virtually none of the cost appears in the first five years," Mr. Greenstein, the budget researcher, said. "We might even save a little money in the next five years. But we will begin to feel the effects in subsequent decades when we can least afford it."

1. Where are the non-liberals' quotes in the article?
2. So, Mr. Greenstein, since when have your liberal policies not generated negative effects in subsequent decades... that you've admitted to?
3. Nobody mentions the fact that Bush's Tax Plan's "giveaways" don't even have any effect for another 3-10 years, and have expiration dates already built in. These folks are complaining about detriments from tax reforms that haven't even gone into effect yet!

From the San Jose Mercury News, 02.01.03, p19A, "Medicinal marijuana advocate convicted":

• "There is no such thing as medicinal marijuana," said Richard Meyer, a DEA official. "We're Americans first, Californians second."

1. In your case, "Moron first, American second...."

• Judge Joseph Bataillon of the Federal District Court rebuffed an Agriculture Department effort to shut down the operations of Nebraska Beef, an Omaha slaughterhouse with numerous citations for violating standard sanitary operating procedures.
• The plant was chosen for special scrutiny after the discovery last year of deadly E. coli bacteria in ground beef produced by a Nebraska Beef customer.
• In granting a temporary restraining ordering blocking the closure, the judge elevated the economic interests of a local employer over public health while questioning the government's power to act under current law.

1. This is getting to be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Joe Bataillon: Winner for today!

First rev: 07.24.2003 © Copyright 2003-2008 by plusaf.

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