Congress Doesn’t Need to Pass Everything at Once on Fiscal Cliff Deal: They Need to Write Up a Bill Containing the Things That Have Already Been Agreed to and Send It to President Obama

Congress is acting like a group of political hostage takers.  “AGREE TO WHAT OUR SIDE WANTS, OR ELSE WE’LL STOP EVERYTHING ELSE!”  Instead of killing people, they’re killing legislation in order to get a political victory.  Is that political victory going to be worth the billions of dollars in damage that is done to the economy?

For crying out loud, both sides agree that they’re not going to get everything that they want in the time left before they drive us off the fiscal cliff. 

They should take the parts of this deal that they agree to, put it into a bill and send it to the President.  They can reset the clock on the stuff they don’t agree to.

Personally, I think sequestration is the way to go, but it didn’t go far enough.  They need to cut $2.2 trillion out in order to make a small dent.

If we don’t get a deal out of Washington, every politician currently in office needs to be turned out the next time they’re up for election.

New York Newspaper Publishes Interactive Map Showing Where Registered Gun Owners Are: Why Are They Going After People Who Are Obeying the Law? This is an Idiotic Move on the Part of the Newspaper

The knee-jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook massacre continues at full speed, with a local New York newspaper publishing an interactive map showing where gun owners live, and what the permit holder’s name is.

Why are they targeting people who are obeying the law and registering their firearms?

I agree with many of the comments against the Journal News/LoHud.com that it’s an invasion of privacy, but also a roadmap for criminals to attack houses that don’t have registered firearms in them.   Garnett Publishing needs to do a better job of policing their knee-jerk reporters and newspapers from publishing stuff like that.

It’s also highly insulting to have registered gun owners, people who are obeying the law, put on display like sex offenders or other convicted criminals.   The newspaper is engaging in scare tactics, reminiscent of yellow journalism.  If one house is robbed at gunpoint by criminals who looked at their interactive map, the Journal News will have deliberately shared in the execution of the crime and should be held accountable.

Journalism has taken another step backwards.

United States Government Did the Right Thing in Refusing to Sign the International Internet Treaty: 20 Other Nations Refused to Sign It as Well

The Dubai Conference is over and done with, with twenty nations refusing to sign the protocol that was proposed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and under the banner of the United Nations.  Nations that signed are in black, those who didn't are in red.

Nations that censor the Internet within their borders were pleased with the protocol, especially China, Iran, and 88 other nations.  Twenty-plus nations joined the refusal to sign it.  And I hope the U.S. government never signs it.

We can’t trust our free speech to totalitarian regimes.

I am not supportive of helping China to keep information from their people, nor Syria, or any of the other nations who suppress their own people.

Is The Ongoing “End of the World” Nonsense Connected to the Connecticut School Shooting?

I have a bad feeling that the current obsession over the doomsday nonsense on 12/21/12 is connected to the slaughter in Connecticut.

There’s no doubt that the lunatics are out in force.   Was the gunman one of them?

Hey CONGRESS and President Obama!! Don’t Leave Washington Until You Have a Fiscal Cliff Deal!

Congress needs to stay in Washington and so does President Obama until they fix THEIR fiscal mess.

And if they want to keep their jobs, they had better not kick this down the road again.  They’ve done that far too often, and we get deeper and deeper into the hole.  Unacceptable!

Quit screwing around and GET BUSY!

Suicide of London Nurse Who Was Pranked By Radio Shock Jocks is Tragic on So Many Levels: Who is to Blame?

A couple of radio shock jocks have expressed remorse at the death of a nurse who put their prank call through to Duchess of Cambridge after she was admitted with morning sickness, due to her pregnancy.

The radio station in Australia aired it, and the nurse who put the call through, believing she was talking to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, killed herself three days later after the story broke.

This is so tragic that it almost defies belief. 

I think there’s lots of blame to be spread around. 

First, the DJs for pranking the hospital.  Then, the radio station for airing the taped audio.  And the hospital, for not having some kind of protocol for filtering out calls like this, and the media for throwing such a HUGE spotlight on the Royal Family.

I’ve had family members in intensive care before, and before I could talk to my family member on the phone, I had to provide a verbal password to the nurse before my call was put through to the room.  This was done in accordance with the wishes of our family member, and set up by our family and the hospital.  That’s a common practice at hospitals, nursing homes and medical care facilities where I live.

Why in heaven’s name didn’t this hospital have a similar protocol in place to block unwanted calls getting through to the Prince and Princess?   The media coverage of the Duke and Duchess has been just as intense as the media coverage of Princess Diana was before the paparazzi hounded Diana to her death.

The radio station itself should also have its feet held to the fire.  They shouldn’t have aired this crap.   They had the audio recorded, and it wasn’t a live show.  Why did they air it?

Finally, the media.  They need to give the Royal Family a wide berth.  They Royals are human beings who make human mistakes, just like everybody else.  Most people don’t have a microscope trained on their every move and every word that they either make or utter.  WHO CARES!!

Sad.