What’s news today?

Just more proof that this was a stupid idea. Not that we needed any, but here ya’ go.

From TheRocklandTimes

“The intentions of the Journal News’ editorial board in publishing a highly controversial “interactive gun map” are further occluded by an inconvenient fact.

According to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato, in Rockland County a large number of the names and addresses on the map are not even correct.

Piperato said, “I’d figure about 25 percent of the addresses are not accurate.””

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We’ll stick with stupid for one more. But hey, elections have consequences, or something like that.

CONTENT WARNING FOR CUSSING from unhappy Dems!!

From TheWashingtonTimes

“Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.”

““What happened that my Social  Security withholding’s in my paycheck just went up?” a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. “My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don’t feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna’ hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What  happened?”

Shocker. Democrats who supported the president’s re-election just had NO idea that his  steadfast pledge to raise taxes  meant that he was really  going  to raise taxes. They thought he planned to just hit those filthy “1 percenters,” you know, the ones who earned fortunes through their inventiveness and hard work. They thought the free ride would continue forever.”

💡

Oh, now you get it, but too late.

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Here’s a couple worth reading from ZeroHedge

“Via Dusan Petrovski of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,

When one speaks of a concept it is important that it is properly qualified so as to be correctly understood. Failure to accomplish that makes impossible for either the problem to be identified or a desired solution to be found. Perhaps this is why politicians have a tendency to speak of ill-defined and oft muddled concepts, like “social justice,” “a living wage” or “fair share.” These concepts are impossible to define in a way consistent with how they are represented, since their proponents represent them as definite, rather than abstract matters. In our time the demand for “the rich” to pay their “fair share” through higher taxes has become a standard war cry broadcast from every public and crony source of media. Yet, there is no objective means of defining either what constitutes “the rich” or “fair share.” Politicians and demagogues alike may debate these issues for as long or as short as they may desire, but whatever level they agree on is sure to be arbitrary, save for the only objective conclusion that such concepts are impossible to quantify.

Given a communistic ownership of schools, roads, streets, parks, healthcare institutions, libraries, schools and universities, how is one to be able to calculate each person’s use – “fair share” – of each? What share of a road belongs to a particular taxpayer? What usage is “fair share”? How many books in any given library belong to a specific person and which specific books? Who owns the walls and who owns the library’s carpets? Does the person paying more in taxes own more of the roads, libraries or schools than the person who pays less? What of the person who pays no tax at all? What of the person who desires to use his claim on a gymnasium, and of nothing else? Does the state university graduate owe a particular service to the taxpayer that subsidized or paid for the operation of the university?”

“As communistic concepts go, the idea of the “fair share” is simply a reiteration of the “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” idea.”

But it’ll work this time. They promise.

🙄

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Oh Goody! Another bailout.

Also from ZeroHedge

“2012 is the year the student loan bubble finally popped. While on one hand the relentlessly rising total Federal student debt crossed $956 billion as of September 30, and was growing at a pace that will have put it over $1 trillion by the end of 2012, the one data point confirming the size, severity and ultimately bursting of this latest debt bubble was the disclosure in late November by the Fed that the percentage of 90+ day delinquent loans soared from under 9% to 11% in one quarter.

Which is why we were not surprised to learn that the Federal government has now delivered yet another bailout program: this time focusing not on banks, or homeowners who bought McMansions and decided to not pay their mortgage, but on those millions of Americans, aged 18 to 80, that are drowning in student debt – debt, incidentally, which has been used to pay for drugs, motorcycles, games, tattoos, not to mention countless iProducts. Which also means that since there is no free lunch, all that will happen is that even more Federal Debt will be tacked on to replace discharged student debt loans, up to the total $1 trillion which will promptly soar far higher as more Americans take advantage of this latest government handout. But when the US will already have $22 trillion in debt this time in four years, who really is counting? After all, “it is only fair” that the taxpayer funded “free for all” bonanza must go on.”

Yay.

What’s news today?

Here’s a few from me.

Finally some common sense. Wish I could say the same about the paper, but no, I can’t.

From NYNewsDay

“Criticism of The Journal News, which published a gun permit database last month, broadened Friday with Rockland law enforcement officials saying the map listing the names and addresses of those with gun permits is endangering lives.

Inmates at the Rockland County jail are taunting corrections officers by saying they know the guards’ home addresses — information they got from the list published by Westchester-based newspaper, Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said.

“Since about 9:30 this morning, I’ve been in a meeting with my corrections officers and their unions. They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That’s not acceptable to me,” Falco said at a news conference Friday morning in New City, where local leaders condemned the list.”

And these clowns want to double down on the stupid by publishing additional names. Unacceptable.

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What! 😯 But, but, but….. He’s so “Green”. How could this happen?

From Yahoo

“Back in 2009, the “Cash for Clunkers” federal program was supposed to be a boon for the environment and the economy. During a limited time, consumers could trade in an old gas-guzzling used car for up to $4,500 cash back towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient new car. It seemed like a win for everyone: the environment, the gasping auto industry and cash-strapped consumers.

Though almost a million people poured into car dealerships eager to exchange their old jalopies for something shiny and new, recent reports indicate the entire program may have actually hurt the environment far more than it helped.

According to E Magazine, the “Clunkers” program, which is officially known as the Car Allowance Rebates System (CARS), produced tons of unnecessary waste while doing little to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

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This one isn’t shocking at all.

From DailyMail

“Books aside, if you asked a college freshman  today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a  mirror.

Young people’s unprecedented level of  self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey,  which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since  1966.”

“Pyschologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues  compiled the data and found that over the last four decades there’s been a  dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being ‘above  average’ in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical  ability, and self-confidence.

But in appraising the traits that are  considered less invidualistic – co-operativeness, understanding others, and  spirituality – the numbers either stayed at slightly decreased over the same  period.

Researchers also found a disconnect between  the student’s opinions of themselves and actual ability.”

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That’s a lovely meeting house you have there. Be a shame if somethin’ where to happen to it.

From Reason.com’s HitAndRunBlog

“Police say union workers “almost certainly” torched an under-construction Quaker meetinghouse in northwest Philadelphia four days before Christmas. The Chestnut Hill Friends had hired non-union labor for the project, which discommoded several construction unions.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Vandals with an acetylene torch crept onto the project’s muddy construction site in the middle of the night. Working out of view in the meetinghouse’s freshly cemented basement, they sliced off dozens of bolts securing the bare steel columns and set fire to the building crane, causing $500,000 in damage.

Police detectives deemed the attack arson because of a series of confrontational visits from union officials days before the incident. They say the torch could only have been operated by a trained professional, and believe it was almost certainly the work of disgruntled union members. The city has assigned extra investigators to the case and is working with federal forensic experts to track down the vandals, said Michael Resnick, the city’s public safety commissioner.”

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What have you folks got?