In Pursuit of Virtue – 2013 Edition

Back to work! My recent big vacation from most of life but working on the new condo means I have avoided blogging and emails like the plague. Here are some things I have collected as of late…

The ~~NYT~~ Ministry of Propaganda is now openly advocating abandoning the Constitution. The writer is a constitutional law professor, who apparently does not see that we have thoroughly abandoned the Constitution already (See here, . Don’t even bother reading it – comments are closed anyway. I will summarize it for you: “Let’s give up on the Constitution in the ways that I personally think are best for everybody, and because I’m smarter than other people, I get to tell them how to live their lives.”
Speaking of smarter, better, faster, stronger people than the rest of us, David Gregory should be in jail, if justice means applying laws to people who want them enforced. Best comment on the episode? “He didn’t intend to harm anyone with it!” by his boss. Hey boss, most people who own such high-capacity mags don’t intend to hurt anyone either… Protip: never listen to people who don’t put their money where their mouth is.
Obama is a Republican on many issues, most notably deportation.
The silliness of the welfare state reaches a peak in Scandinavia, where a man now gets disability for his addiction to metal music. If only I were unethical and lived over there…
On guns, there are bills being explored that would cause a second revolution, some are saying. Fingers crossed. Historically, we kept guns to protect ourselves from the state. More info on the history of gun ownership in the States can be found in this Atlantic column. Also, some stats on mass shootings. And a closer look at anti-gun studies:
ALERT: I am posting a DailyKos link! Yes, yes, this very very broken clock groupthink cesspool is right about the apathy in America, where you can be furious about privacy changes to Facebook, but find the renewal of FISA to be no big deal.
The government is immune to criticism, morality, and even its own laws and judicial orders. Prosecutors destroy lives without losing sleep. The state can change its definitions when it pleases. We have other governments cover our misdeeds, especially when we kill their people.
Intellectually honest & consistent leftists are difficult to come by in the modern age, shown by the fact that those who decry Bush often support Obama. It appears, however, that there is one in Hollywood the left should be proud of:
Here is another guy who thinks outside the box and gets it:
$1 in cuts for every $41 dollars in tax increases. Perhaps we should mind the Laffer Curve before passing any increases in taxes. Portugal didn’t and tax increases have resulted in LOWER tax revenues. Ladies and gents, I present the fiscal cliff!:
Chinese physicists allegedly teleport photons over 100km, a new record. In the same country, physicists determined that the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light! At MIT, they have found a new state of matter. Big things are happening in physics, and I think 2013 will be a big year for the human race!
Higgs (of Higgs-Boson fame) remarks that anti-religious fundamentalism can be as base and foolish as religious fundamentalism. His target is Dawkins, on this occasion.
Tokyo is in deep trouble, possibly almost as irradiated as Fukushima.
FYI: The NFL is tax-exempt.
African economist pleads with us to stop the foreign aid, as it props up dictators and impoverishes the poor even further. People must rise on their own, an unfortunate fact for white Westerners who want to patronize everyone into riches.
We use depleted uranium rounds abroad, because they are more dense than lead. Problem is, they cause cancer: