The US budget: How to make everyone mad.

Cut everything to 1946 levels. The levels where we had just finished a war. The levels before the cold war started. Well, with some inflation.

Everything. Parks. Social Security. Military.

Or: we could cut everything but the bare nececities of a nation. That being a military, and transportation networks. Everything else is secondary. FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.

The primary purpose of any government is to protect its citizens from physical harm. Such as an invasion. Nothing else is more important; if its citizens are dead, then there is no nation.

An attack on Freedom

California, already one of the least free states of the Union, is rapidly becoming less free. A bill that is currently passing through the California legislature would enable the government of California to take away the tax exempt status of private groups with "discriminatory" policies.

I'm a more than a little pissed off about this, for several reasons.

1. This bill is aimed directly at an organization that I am affiliated with, the Boy Scouts of America. While the BSA has decided to allow openly gay scouts, it still refuses to allow openly gay adult leaders. This is a blatant attempt to force the BSA, a private organization, to do what the government of California wants it to do.
2. It isn't people's livelihood on the line here. Making laws to prevent discriminatory hiring practices in a business? Understandable. Making laws to prevent discriminatory entrance requirements in a non-profit volunteer organization? Reprehensible.
3. If you don't like the entrance requirements for an organization, go start your own that does the exact same things, only with different entrance requirements. Don't like the BSA's stance on homosexual adult leaders? Go form your own organization and let homosexuals become adult leaders.

Honestly, I think that the BSA's response to this should be to stick to the current rules no matter what, even if tax exempt status is revoked.

Reducing the laws for average citizens

Note: This is a draft of a constitutional amendment. I am not a lawyer.

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Laws, regulations, and treaties shall be referred to as “legal material” in this document.

All legal material shall be readable and understandable to the average 10^th grader or person who is 16 years old, whichever is younger, who shall hereby be called the “student”, and that average student shall be able to read and understand all of this government's legal material after spending 7 hours total learning and/or reading the legal material.

Also, legal material shall fit on 100 (one hundred) pages or less of 8 ½ by 11 inch paper using 12 pt Times New Roman font with 1 inch margins on each side, using the measurements as established on or before the year 2010.

Laws shall come before treaties which shall come before regulations, and any legal material that occurs after the 100^th page shall not be enforced. Also, any part of any legal material that does occur after the 100^th page shall be removed from the legal material until that section is able to fit within the 100 page limit.

Legal material shall be printed in the order they were passed, with the caveat that all regulations shall be printed after treaties which shall be printed after laws regardless of when the regulation or treaty came into force. In the event that legal material is amended, that legal material shall have the effective pass date of the date of amending.

In the case whereby legal material is passed which are after the 100^th page, they shall exist for 12 (twelve) years before being purged from the record. In no case shall any legal material have effect until it is included in the 100 pages.

All external sources shall count towards the page limit, and may be republished as part of the US law regardless of who hold copyright.

The Constitution does not count toward the page limit.

There shall be no "footnotes" or "endnotes."

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The intent of this proposed amendment is to enable all American Citizens to understand all US laws and regulations without becoming a lawyer. In other words, is this a potential federal crime or a state crime (I can guarantee that with today's federal laws, everyone is a criminal).[1]


 I wanted this to be as simple as possible.
But I didn't want lawyers to poke holes in it. They still will. But hopefully not too many and not too much.

Sources:
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304319804576389601079728920.html

Immoral Boycotting

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is trying to get people to boycott Florida because of the decision of the jury to rule that Zimmerman was guilty.
It is highly immoral to punish someone for something that they, personally have absolutely no control over - and by definition, the state has no control over any jury and its rulings. Nor can they change them.
I'm going to keep on buying Florida orange juice.

I won't Back Down

And neither should the Boy Scouts of America.
The newest uproar has to do with the BSA's Body Mas Index (BMI) restrictions for those attending the next National Scout Jamboree.

Boy Scouts' Jamboree should include those barred due to BMI restrictions, experts say

 ...

The Boy Scouts of America’s new fitness standards for participating in the organization’s annual Jamboree are so rigorous they would not just exclude chubby tenderfoots — they would even bar many NFL players.
All Scouts were required to have a physical exam in advance of the Jamboree and those with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater were barred from participating at this year’s gathering, which features strenuous activities such as hiking, rock climbing, rappelling and biking. Scouts with BMIs between 32 and 39.9 had to provide additional health information to take on the 1,000-plus acre Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia. But critics told FoxNews.com excluding obese Boy Scouts goes against the spirit of the organization.

...
“Unfortunately it still does exclude children due to their weight, but I’m sure they’re looking at their health and potential negative health consequences,” she said. “But maybe they could walk [the course] or do what they can and not be excluded. Anything that the Boy Scouts could do to compensate for the stigma of being excluded would be great.”
The Council on Size & Weight Discrimination said it "deplores" the Boys Scouts decision, calling it  "an unfair and discriminatory policy."
"There are boy scouts who are heavier than average but extremely fit and capable of strenuous physical activity. At the same time, it is patently absurd to assume that just because a boy is thin, that means he is capable of a three-mile hike up a mountain," the group said in a statement.
The average NFL player would qualify for the 10-day competition, but by no means would the entire league. The average BMI for an NFL player for the 2012 season was 31.35, according to SportingCharts.com, well above the normal range of 18.5-24.9 as set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At 45.64, Michael Jasper of the New York Giants had the highest BMI last season, the website reported. The league’s average nose tackle – with a BMI of 40.50 – would also be ineligible for the Boy Scout’s Jamboree.
 ...

Obesity is not an epidemic - it is a personal choice. There is no one in the world who cannot change their diet, exercise more, and lose weight. There is a very low chance that any scout would be above a BMI of 40 and still be healthy - only a few of the top athletes in the NFL have a BMI above 40, and comparing teenaged boys to professional athletes makes very little sense.
Simply put, if a person is going to have a really high BMI and still be healthy, they are going to be a top athlete who practices a sport where weight and muscle can significantly affect a persons effectiveness.
No matter whether the BMI comes from fat, or muscle, losing the weight is quite simple, and relatively easy. There may be discrimination going on, but it is not the same as discrimination based upon something that another person has no say in - such as race. No one gets to choose their race. Everyone who can afford food chooses their weight, through a combination of diet and exercise. Weight is a choice, and thus, a valid form of discrimination. 

A collections of Scandals

Someone went through the trouble of collecting the majority of the current administration's scandals in one place - along with a little commentary.

Well worth reading.

The Uselessness of Gun Control

We already know that gun control cannot keep guns out of the hands of anyone who is willing to break a few laws, and now we have a study from the CDC showing that youth homicides are at their lowest in thirty years. Given the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban in 2004, and the failure of recent federal gun control measures to pass, only the most stubborn of gun control advocates can continue to claim that less gun control means more homicides.

Friendly...

There is a saying: There are friendly foreign governments, but there are no friendly foreign intelligence agencies.
Most nations in the world have at least one agency devoted to espionage and/or counter-espionage. How well those twin missions executed can have a major impact on how well a nation does, and if performed right can give a nation a major advantage over other nations. Thus, any nation without an intelligence agency of some sort is at a distinct disadvantage, and is either too poor or too incompetently led to be a serious threat to any nation with a more than token military.
Thus, when other countries steal our secrets I don't get mad at those countries. I just want the various intelligence agencies here in the US to work extra hard to prevent more secrets from being stolen and for the US to retaliate against whomever stole the secrets. And when we're the ones stealing secrets from other countries I want our government to do its best to avoid any serious repercussions. After all, when it comes to intelligence gathering, even among allies, it is not a case of "want". It is a case of "need". It is immoral for a nation to not gather intelligence, engage in counter-intelligence, attempt to reprise against those who steal it's secrets, and attempt to avoid reprisal when it is caught stealing secrets.
The problems come when intelligence agencies spy upon the citizens that they're supposed to protect.

The Devil You know...

Egypt's Army just got rid of Mohammed Morsi. After deposing Hosni Mubarak the Egyptians found that they didn't like his replacement either. They should be really careful about who they pick to become the next president, so that they don't end up with another de facto dictator - who might just be worse than his predecessors.

Gitmo Prisoners are pampered and spoiled, not abused

When in the past, prisoners had gotten so plump on an "Islamically correct menu" that they were given a gym, they refused - because the equipment wasn't made by Muslims.
The only thing that the prisoners at Gitmo need is treatment on par with that received by prisoners of Al-Qaeda.