Here, piggie-piggie!

The NC House's budget proposal raises taxes $780 million (in the middle of a recession), yet crap like this lives on.

If you don't think it's time to man the barricades, you might at least remember this the next time you vote.

Another example of liberal tolerance?

Too early to tell, but the initial story surely give those of a conservative viewpoint something to think about.

Kansas Teacher Claims Conservative Views Led to Loss of Job

Tim Latham, a Lawrence, KS high school teacher, "says he first realized during a meeting last September with Assistant Principal Jan Gentry that his personal political views weren't making the grade with the rest of the faculty at the 2,000-student Lawrence High School."

Gee, color me surprised. Not.

Robert Heinlein at 100

It's amazing how you stumble across things on the Intertubz....

How the science fiction master created the template for our looser, hipper, more pluralist world.

I love it when things like this happen.

Would you believe $780 million?

OK, so the NC House gets some push-back when they propose nearly $1 billion in new taxes rather than taking the heat for balancing the state budget via cuts. So now, they rejigger it by changing the items to be taxed and lower the amount to $780 million--and it's "for the children!"

NC voters need to keep on the pressure and tell them not "no", but "Hell NO!"

You knew this was coming

The IRS is weighing a proposal to deem one-quarter of employees' use of work cell phones as personal use and therefore subject to tax as a fringe benefit.

Once we start down this slippery slope, we'll see more and more of this:

Did you use your desk phone for a personal call? Report it as taxable income.

Did you take a note? The value of the sheet of paper and the ink from the pen is taxable.

Surf the Intertubz for a few minutes at lunch? Yeah, we need you to report that as well.

Are you provided with a parking place at work? Yes, We Can tax the value of that.

Don't even ask about what happens if you go to the bathroom....

If we're lucky, they'll think he's a spy

Speculation is swirling that the Obama administration may send the former vice president to North Korea to negotiate the release of two American journalists sentenced Monday to 12 years in labor prison -- which many view as a death sentence because of the intense labor practices of the camps.

Told ya so

As predicted, the NC House has reconsidered it's budget proposal, and wants to raise taxes $1 billion. Now, we may suppose that this means that they will cut $3.2 billion to balance the budget, but I'm not betting on that. I predicting even new or increased taxes (plus some smoke and mirrors) before we have a budget, because our elected officials can't bring themselves to make hard decisions.

And bear in mind who really pays taxes in the end. It isn't big corporations or "the rich". Corporations pass taxes along to the consumer via the price of goods, and the truly rich have ways to avoid taxes. The "poor" don't pay taxes either, especially in the Obamanation. Once again, the ever-shrinking middle class, us dull bourgeoisie types, will take it in the shorts.

At the barrel of a gun

(Via the Drudge Report)

A decision by Falls Police to use a Taser to obtain a DNA sample from a suspect in an armed robbery, shooting and kidnapping is not unconstitutional.

OK, they guy is likely not a choir boy--I get that. But we're being told that imprisonment at Guantanamo is torture and this isn't? The Taser isn't a non-leathal weapon--it's a "less lethal" weapon. (Think what you may of the tone of that organization, every death is documented.)

Orwell said in 1984, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever." He was just a bit early on his timing.