Google Should Be Commended for It’s Stand on China: Censoring the Chinese People Was a Stain on Its Reputation

China and Google have been waging a war of words for quite some time over China’s insistence that Google censor Chinese search results.  China’s government can’t take the chance that its citizens will begin to freely exchange ideas, like in a free society, as the Chinese people might criticize their own government (GASP!).

Google’s big enough that they don’t need the Chinese market.

Google’s stock might be dropping over this debate, but their stock has gone up with a lot of people.  And I’m sure that Google will return to the Chinese market when their government either changes their policy, or the Chinese government itself changes.

The Chinese people ought to be able to tell their own government what to go do with itself, without fear of the police arresting them and sending them off to forced labor “re-education” camps.

Democrats Will Pay Dearly for Tonight’s Health Care Vote: Next Congress WILL Repeal This Unconstitutional Bill or We’ll Fire Them Too

The Democrats will pay a heavy price in November for their defying the majority of the American people in their vote to bankrupt our country within the next four years with their health care plan.

And the next Congress WILL repeal this bill, or we’ll fire THEM too!

Thirty-seven states have vowed to sue the government to force the federal government to follow the Constitution, with regards to powers not expressly delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states.

Bart Stupak is a darn fool.  Does he really thing that pro-choice Obama will restrict abortion language in the bill, now that he has what he wants?   How many unborn will be murdered by this bill?

We’re Going to Choke Out the Economy With Programs We Can’t Pay For: The Time for Draconian Cuts is Fast Approaching

The best outcome for the upcoming vote on the health care bill is that the bill is rejected.  It’ll pare down the forecasted debt that Obama and his Congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle are forcing on us.

They can do the health bill a lot better and cheaper than the 2,300+ page health care proposal that added four hundred pages in recent weeks, since its unveiling.  And the measures contained therein are as UNCONSTITUTIONAL as the day they were first revealed.

They should be making cuts now, starting with the health care bill.  That’ll save a huge chunk of change and will enable the government to cut at least $1 trillion out.  That’s a healthy start.

At the very least, Congress and the White House should return us to surpluses before they even BEGIN to think about such a costly endeavor that may well bankrupt our country.  This talk of today’s debt of $12 trillion, with an additional $9 trillion by the end of Obama’s second term is UNACCEPTABLE.

Why not make cuts now while there is still a choice as to which programs to cut, instead of the crash cuts that will have to be made within four years at current spending levels?

KILL THE HEALTH CARE BILL!

Toyota “Mystified” By Runaway Prius in California: I Have a Solution Then

Toyota officials are said to be “mystified” by a runaway Toyota Prius out in California that made headlines after the driver called 911 for help as his car accelerated past 90mph.

Mystified, eh?

Here’s what they need to do next, then.

Recall ALL Priuses, discontinue the entire line, and give owners cash to go buy a safer car of their choice from any manufacturer. Toyota has NO business manufacturing a dangerous vehicle that they are incapable of fixing. And they should pull all fly-by-wire electronics in the engine and transmission and replace them with industry-standard mechanical devices in all other Toyota lines, too.

Their "fix" with their floor mats and gas pedals are clearly NOT the problem.

Toyota’s incompetence in fixing this problem with their product has gotten so ridiculous that it’s unbelievable. I’m glad I’m not driving a Toyota.

“Lost Boy” Corey Haim Dies at Age 38: Actor Struggled With Drugs and Alcohol for Years

“Lost Boys” fans awoke to the news that actor Corey Haim passed away early this morning at age 38.  Police suspect an accidental overdose and are waiting for autopsy results to confirm what killed Corey.

He had flu-like symptoms for the last few days, and was living with his mom, who is struggling with cancer.   He got out of bed, felt very weak and collapsed to his knees.  His mom called 911 and paramedics rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead a  while later.

His fans had been hoping that he had put his demons behind him; in fact, he was looking great the last few weeks, according to news reports.   Sympathies to his mom and his family, his longtime friend Corey Feldman and his family, and all who knew him.

May he rest in peace.

Toyota Problem Runs Deeper Than the Floor Mat and Gas Pedal: It’s the Fly-by-Wire Electronics in the Engine and Transmission

I’ve been reading about the runaway Toyota Prius in California, and reading some of the comments from readers who say that all a driver has to do is stick the vehicle into neutral and allow the engine to race until you slow down. With respect, they have no idea what they’re talking about.

In Toyota vehicles, you are not able to shift when you’re going like a bat out of hell. The shifter won’t move until you’re below a certain amount of RPMs and speed. If the engine is racing and the vehicle is accelerating, there’s way too much torque, and the safeties won’t allow a shift. On my stick-shift Toyota pickup that I no longer own, you could shift into neutral, but you couldn’t shift back INTO gear if you were going too fast.

In essence, Toyota drivers who are in this Prius situation are locked into one of several outcomes: a high speed crash, the accelerator disengages and they’re able to brake safely, or they bail out at 90mph and die.

In the case of the Toyota Prius in California that’s in the news, the driver made another option: call 911, and get help. The cop pulled alongside and told him to engage the parking brake as well. They were able to slow the car down, until the driver could override the safeties and shut the engine off, which isn’t possible when the car is accelerating. The police officer pulled out in front and provided his cruiser’s braking power to bring the Toyota to a halt.

This is no floor mat issue, or brake pedal issue. It’s in the electronics, which are being shorted out. I think that defective chips are the cause of this acceleration issue with Toyota.

A few weeks ago I jump-started a 2008 Toyota Tundra. The driver said that it was easy to jump-start the Tundra as it had no spark plugs. What the Sam Hill….I asked him to show me and it was an electronic chip that’s wired into an on-board computer that regulates all the functions that the spark plug is responsible for. It was the most high-tech vehicle engine that I’ve ever seen.

The transmission is also controlled by computer. The electronics is the issue, and that’s where the problem lies, in my non-expert opinion. If they can't find a physical problem, it's an electronic problem. What else could it be?

I’m waiting for someone to blast a runaway Toyota with an EMP gun. Here’s an interesting article from 2004 on the topic of using electromagnetic pulses to stop cars.

German Arrogance Against Greece is Astounding: They Tell Greece to Sell Some Islands to Pay Off Their Debt, to Wake Up Earlier and That Germany Will Not “Contribute One Cent” to Help Greece

The Germans have been lording over Greece in a way that is incredibly short-sighted and arrogant, in response to the economic troubles that Greece and the Euro have been encountering lately.

Germany needs to put up or shut up.

The rhetoric coming from German media outlets has been very negative toward Greece, which sparked retaliatory comments from Greece about the Nazi German occupation of Greece during World War II, and the subsequent looting of the Greek treasury by the Nazis, which has never been returned to Greece.

It’s been a real nasty verbal battle, which will only be made worse if the Greek economy collapses under its debt load.

And I thought the French were arrogant.  The Germans are acting downright ugly!

Recent Slew of Natural Disasters Show Us Why We Need to Keep Our Nation’s Finances in Order: Are We Prepared to Rebuild From a Massive Natural Disaster With a Massive Foreign Debt in the Trillions Already?

The recent spat of earthquake disasters in Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Virgin Islands, Haiti, Japan, China, Iran and elsewhere show that earthquakes can occur at any place, at any time, with little or no warning.

When New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina, it was the greatest disaster to hit an American city, up to that point.  But it was only one city.

What happens if California gets hit by a 9.5 earthquake from the San Andreas fault line?

Or what happens if the New Madrid fault line suddenly goes off, and there’s a swath of primary destruction stretching across four states (Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas) and then major aftershocks from the Gulf of Mexico up to southern Michigan and southern Wisconsin, and over to eastern Iowa and Nebraska, and as far east as North Carolina and Georgia? 

We don’t know when a disaster will strike, so we should be prepared at all times.  And that means being prepared with disaster relief preparation, and having a balanced budget with low debt, in the event that we do need to borrow trillions to rebuild.  We won’t be in any condition to do so if we already owe other nations $22 trillion, as is projected.   Or if we keep paying for other nations to recover from their own natural disasters.

We need the federal government to reign in spending, and get us in better shape to weather natural disasters, which are inevitable.

The above link to the New Madrid fault line goes to a 27 minute video, which is excellent and was produced by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Andrew Koenig Found Dead: Father Says Son Took His Own Life

The search for missing actor Andrew Koenig came to an end yesterday when his body was discovered in a park near Vancouver.

His famous father, Walter Koenig, held an emotional press conference and urged those families who have family members suffering from depression to act before it’s too late.

Rest in Peace, Andrew.

Health Care Summit Was a JOKE: Neither Side Advanced Their Cause, and the Politics are Worse Than They Were Before This STUPID Debate

The televised health care debate was a joke.

Nothing got accomplished, the abortion language remained intact, and the illegal measures that are unconstitutional remained in place.    And there were enough distortions of what will and what will not happen that it’s as clear as mud. 

Time for the voters to have their say on this matter.  They ought to throw this entire mess onto the ballot and let the American people vote it straight up or down.

THEN we’ll see where the American people stand on this issue.

Conservatives Shouldn’t Be Surprised By Senator Brown’s Support of Democratic Jobs Bill: He Stated His Intentions Before, During and After the Massachusetts Senatorial Election

Why are the conservatives crying about Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) voting for a Democratic jobs bill?  He stated his intentions loud and clear up until now; what were they expecting?  This guy’s another McCain.   Who didn’t know that?

He promised to be the 41st vote against Obama’s health care mess.  But he also said that he wasn’t going to be bound by party labels.

Republicans from New England have to appear independent enough from the GOP in order to keep the support of Democratic-leaning independents, so why all the fuss now?

They got their 41st vote, but Scott Brown will not follow the party blindly.  He’s a Massachusetts version of John McCain, who is notorious for wheeling and dealing and being a closet Democrat.  So will Brown.   They can shut down health care, but they had better not count on Brown’s support on other issues, unless they can convince him to support their stand for all the right reasons.

Get over it and get on with the business at hand: shutting down this HORRID health care bill.

Actor Andrew Koening Goes Missing: Search Grows Increasingly Desperate By the Hour

Andrew Koening, son of actor Walter Koening of “Star Trek” fame, has been missing for eleven days, and the search has been growing more desperate by the hour.

He went up to Vancouver from his home in California, after dispatching a dark letter to his parents, who called the police after contact was lost.  Andrew has been suffering from depression, according to the Koening family.

Andrew was a child-star on the 1980s TV show “Growing Pains” and has been an activist, writer, director and actor since “Growing Pains” ended.

Thoughts and prayers for the Koenings.  I hope this situation is resolved with Andrew being found safe and sound.  But it doesn’t look good.

European Union Slaps Greece Around: They’re Going to Strip Greece of Their Voting Rights Until Greece Straightens Out Their Debt Problem

I hope Congress is paying close attention to the still-developing crisis between debt-overloaded Greece and their partners in the European Union, because there’s a warning for the United States in between the lines.

Several European newspapers are calling the EU moves against Greece a “shocking” and “crushing  loss of  Greek sovereignty.”  It’s apparently in a part of the EU treaty that member states can lose control of their own monetary policies if their national debts exceed the 3% limit of deficit to the country’s GDP.  Greece is currently at 12% and threatening to default on its debt load, which is 113% of its GDP.

The way that Europe is lording it over Greece, a lesson is there for all to see.  With the types of numbers coming out of Washington, and the depth of borrowing that the current Administration and Congress is proposing to engage in, how long can it be before China and other nations try to lord it over us?  What if China starts trying to dictate our monetary policy by threatening to reject American borrowing requests from Chinese banks?  What happens when they start to dictate our foreign policy?

The American government must live within it’s own means, without borrowing another red cent. 

No nation on earth should hold sway over our national interests; we can make our own decisions on whether we want to welcome the Dalai Lama to our country, or whether we want to sell weapons to Taiwan to deter Red Chinese aggression. 

And if we want to give our taxpayers rebates, we don’t borrow the money from China to do it.  That was the height of irresponsibility from the last Administration, and a national disgrace.

If the government can’t survive on a $2 trillion budget, they can learn to do without.   But enough of this financial irresponsibility.  There should be NO talk of a health care plan until our financial mess is straightened out.

Hunting Season on Cats? Where Do I Get a License??!

Feral cats may be the new targets for hunters in some municipalities around the country.  And I’m enjoying the picture a great deal.   Even though I know that the proposition will probably fail.

In any case, feral cats kill tens of millions of birds a year.

Where might one get a license??!

Christmas Day Bomber Belongs in Civilian Court: Military Has No Jurisdiction on Civilian Commercial Flights and the FBI Made the Arrest

The rape of the criminal justice system continues unabated.

Now that they’ve introduced legislation to bar funding for trials of Guantanamo Bay inmates in civilian courts, Constitutional shredders in Congress have targeted the Christmas Day bomber as well, saying he should be tried in a military court.

Bull honkey!

The military does not have any jurisdiction as the attempted bombing took place on a civilian airliner, in civilian airspace over an American city, not on a military flight, in military-controlled airspace or over an American military base.  Moreover, the arresting officers were FBI, who are also non-military law enforcement personnel.

The line between civilian law enforcement and military law enforcement clearly needs to be strengthened as the line separating the two, aka the Posse Comitatus Act, has been weakened via attempted acts of Congress and the previous Administration.  It was in response to Hurricane Katrina, and authorizations of Congress for President Bush to use troops in law enforcement in and around New Orleans as civil authority had broken down there.   These acts of Congress expired in 2008 and the line was tenuously re-established.

I have faith in our military, but not in our elected Constitution-shredding leaders, who don’t seem to have any issues trampling all over the Constitution that they are sworn to uphold.

The same Congress people who are yelling about the Christmas Day bomber being in civilian court should think twice before putting the military tribunals (which are considered illegal under international law) above those of the civilian criminal justice courts.

The military courts should handle military matters.  The Christmas Day bombing is a civilian matter, to be decided in civilian courts.  This man was not arrested on some distant battlefield under military control; he was arrested in Romulus, Michigan, home of Detroit Metro Airport, attempting to blow up a passenger jet.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and anything that threatens the integrity of the Constitution should be banned out of existence and forgotten.

We dare not blur the lines of distinction in order to use enhanced torture methods.   That’s a slippery slope that has been barely kept in check to this point.

Government Says It Had to Pressure Toyota into Recall: Investigation is Ongoing

Some things became a little clearer today when the U.S. government said that it had to pressure Toyota into recalling eight models for defective foot pedals.

And Toyota experienced a 16% drop in sales in sales in January.

As a former Toyota owner, I can tell you that this problem has been around for a while.  I had to get the gas pedal on my 1994 Toyota pickup fixed because it was experiencing the EXACT problem that this current recall is about.  I can remember the mechanic at the Toyota dealer telling me that it was a common problem.  That was twelve years ago.

I haven’t had any problems with gas pedals in my Dodge.

So, it now appears that Toyota had no intention of doing this recall, and government pressure forced them into it, which was the reason they didn’t have a fix ready to go.   In my mind, it turns this from a case of simple stupidity on the part of Toyota into one of denial and evasion, particularly since nineteen deaths have been linked to the defective gas pedals.  Shame on Toyota!

The Photo That Says It ALL

Where's my cookie, you flaming idiot??!

Obama Scrapped Constellation: He Should Scrap His Health Care Bill Too, Along with a Few Other Things

I couldn’t help but notice that President Obama scrapped the Constellation program over at NASA, as it was an outdated concept when they retired it forty years ago, and was even more outdated when they proposed doing an upgrade to the forty-plus year old concept to replace the retiring shuttles.

Now that he’s gotten around to cutting the budget, I have another suggestion for him on where else he can make cuts:

Scrap his health care plan.  His reasons for scrapping Constellation also apply to his health plan: it can be done cheaper and far more responsibly (AND without throwing people in jail, too, I might add).

He needs to go much deeper and make a dent in the debt.  Closing up shop in Iraq this year would save more money in one year than he’s currently proposing for his ENTIRE current ten-year plan.

The President’s $3.8 trillion budget is a BUST.  He needs to pare it down to about $2.2 trillion, and put the savings into paying down the debt owed to foreign creditors. It’s better to replenish the well and keep it in reserve, rather than draining it completely dry, which we are currently on track to do.

Congress and the President need to pass a balanced budget.

Why Didn’t Toyota Develop a Fix BEFORE Announcing Their Recall of Millions of Affected Vehicles? They’re Going About This BACKWARDS!

I’ve been watching the Toyota recall and can’t help but wonder: what is Toyota doing?

They issued the recall on eight models of Toyota vehicles and stopped selling those across the country. Then it emerged that they don’t have a solution, or permission from the federal government to proceed with a fix, which are required. If they saw a problem, why on earth didn’t they develop a fix first before announcing a recall?

I remember when Dodge issued a recall six years ago how efficient it was. They announced the problem (a recall of the upper ball joint), sent out mail to all Dodge owners with the affected vehicles (2001-2003 Dodge Durangos and Dakotas) and asked them to schedule appointments so that the right part could be shipped to the dealer ahead of the appointment.

A couple of hours after dropping my truck off at the dealer, I had it back with a clean bill of health.

After going through that, and then seeing that Toyota issued a recall in the last few days without a fix, it makes me wonder…what are they DOING? They announced a recall without a fix. They didn’t even have a fix on the drawing board so that they could discuss it with the feds.

Dodge developed a fix, and permission from the appropriate federal agency to carry out the ball joint repair prior to their huge announcement. This is how most American companies take care of their problems. Toyota didn’t do things his way, they’re doing it backwards.

The problem with the Dodge ball joints was thought to have been more widespread than the reported problem with the gas pedals in these Toyota vehicles, but more information is being released, almost on an hourly basis.

The Big 3 are gleefully watching Toyota’s market share shrink, but hopefully they’re taking notes on what NOT to do.

Watchdog Warns of Catastrophic Meltdown in U.S. Financial System: Problems Haven’t Been Dealt With, Some Are Now Worse than Before

The TARP program which was designed to prevent the collapse of the U.S. financial sector has created new and far more serious problems, according to the special inspector general of TARP.

I hope they didn’t just delay the inevitable.

Treasury needs to get its head out of its arse and put safeguards in place that will address the myriad of problems that still need to be taken care of.

These banking bigwigs need to understand that TARP was NOT universally supported, in Congress or by the public.  I preferred to let the system crash so that a rebuild could have been done, and a stronger economy would have emerged.   We would probably have 20% unemployment right now, but it would have been a temporary situation that would have improved over time.

Instead, the government and the banks reset the clock. That’s a decision that may come around and bite us even more than it already has.

TARP was for nothing if this attitude continues to prevail on Wall Street and at Treasury.  Some people warned that this was going to happen, and THEY WERE RIGHT.  Again.   And now we’re facing the real possibility of the banks doing the same thing again and counting on Uncle Sam to bail them out a second time.

The cost of a catastrophic meltdown will be much worse than if TARP hadn’t happened.   We MUST escape this vicious cycle, before it’s too late.