Saw this blurb on a story about Google, who in response to complaints, is running ads to explain that yes sometimes you get really nasty search results on the Internet.  Talk about a big "No-Duh" moment...

 

This story focuses on searches using the word Jew or image searches of Michelle Obama....try searching some rather innocent things occasionally and see what results you get, especially image searches.

 

There is a Dark Underbelly to the Internet...well Duh.

 

Evil Out

 

In contrast to the story yesterday about a man killing himself and framing it as a political killing, here is a story about six people charged in an incident at a August Town Hall meeting.  At least two of the six people being charged attacked and beat a man who opposed their opinions on health care reform.  They were pro he was against or according to him and his lawyer he was just there to sell flags and make some money.  Once again there has been a lot of screaming, hollering, and misstatements about his case, but in the end it looks like justice will be done.

 

Here is video of the attack, although it is a little difficult to see what happens at the beginning.

 

  

Evil Out

Ya'll remember that census worker who was found hanged with the word FED scrawled on his chest?  Remember how the media and liberal groups went crazy calling it evidence of the right wing hatred and anger?

 

Well it turns out that he killed himself.

 

A sad turn of events for sure, but it goes to show that things often are not what they seem.  As heated as politics can get in this country they don't often lead to violence and death.  This story led to some really bad assumptions and words on both sides of the aisle.  Sometimes people need to wait for the authorities to actually finish their investigations before jumping to wild conclusions.

 

Evil Out

I'll throw my disclaimer up front.  I don't deny that the Earth has climate cycles, both warming and cooling, and that conservation and eco-friendliness are important.  However, I have never bought into the arguments that man is the primary driver of "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" as it is now being called.  The evidence has been mounting for sometime that natural effects, such as El-Nino, Sunspots, and Volcanic Activity cause more change in the climate than mankind does.  In fact, it is now becoming widely accepted and known that the Earth has been cooling for a decade or so and climatologists cannot definitively say why even as carbon emissions increase.

 

It is now becoming even clearer that much of the global warming hysteria has more to do with politics and manipulation than actual hard data.  The recently leaked emails from leading climatologists detailing how they actively manipulated data in order to mislead policymakers and the public is just the latest in a series of missteps.  I thought Michael Crichton summed many of the problems with climate modelling perfectly in this speech, Aliens Cause Global Warming, where he takes apart the so-called scientific basis for much of the computer modelled climate change doctrine.  Science is based on hard, repeatable facts, not fuzzy formulas and numbers that can mean whatever you want them to mean. 

 

With even the Senate's cap-and-trade bill seeming to die the slow death and investigations being called into these leaked emails, this is a turning point in this debate I believe.  Hopefully one where science and scientific methods will win out over politically generated hoopla.  A debate where practical solutions to dealing with the Earth and it's changing climate can be discussed openly without the need for massive and costly programs.  The thinly veiled attempt to redistribute massive amounts of wealth and power from first world countries to third world countries will be stopped in it's tracks.

 

Evil Out

There is a very interesting article over on ABC.com, you can read it here.  It outlines just one example of language in the Senate health care bill that has no other purpose other than to funnel $100 million dollars to one state.  A state that just happens to have a Senator, Mary Landrieu, who happens to be one of the 5 or so Senators on whom passing a Senate health bill rests.  This section takes 2 pages to narrowly define where the money is going without actually spelling out the state of Louisiana.

 

Here is the total language of the section:

 

SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER.

Section 1905 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d), as amended by sections 2001(a)(3) and
2001(b)(2), is amended— (1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘subsection (y)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (y) and (aa)’’; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘(aa)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), beginning January 1, 2011, the Federal medical assistance percentage for a fiscal year for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State shall be equal to the following:
‘(A) In the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), increased by 50 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5.

‘‘(B) In the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection for the State, increased by 25 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection.

‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of
the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which— ‘‘(A) in the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5, by at least 3 percentage points; and ‘‘(B) in the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection by at least 3 percentage points.

‘‘(3) The Federal medical assistance percentage determined for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State under paragraph (1) shall apply for purposes of this title (other than with respect to disproportionate share hospital payments described in section 1923 and payments under this title that are based on the enhanced FMAP described in 2105(b)) and shall not apply with respect to payments under title IV (other than under part E of title IV) or payments under title XXI.’’.

For more "Gems" hidden in this health bill I always recommend reading Jamie Dupree's blog, no other reporter on Capital Hill pays as much attention ot the details in legislation as he does.

Evil Out