Take your toys and go home!

Omaha smokers have aroused the vengeance of the town whiners...

Omaha's tough new anti-smoking ordinance banning the practice in nearly all public places comes with an even tougher enforcement policy.

The Nebraska city's elected leaders and police department are urging residents who see violations to call the 9-1-1 emergency system for an immediate response.

Omaha banned smoking in public Oct. 2. Penalties are $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third and subsequent infractions.

The government is getting the impetus to take actions like this from whiners who can't handle others getting their way. They can't find the guts in themselves to deal with their assinine indignation so they go cryin' to the police. They'll forget all about this when the food nazis catch them at the wrong restaurant after a smoker calls 911 on them.

I wish the people in Omaha would flood 911 emergency with more calls than the city has police to handle. If city officials want to use the emergency 911 system as their toy, then the people should get to play too.

One chocolate chip short of a cookie

The storm has passed and the roar of rebuilding is heard. Actually it's more like a yell coming from the Louisiana governor's mansion...

"This is a prime time for us to go forward and sell Louisiana," Governor Blanco said as she announced the state, now more than ever, must take advantage of investment opportunities if the economy is to move forward.

"We are no longer victims, we are now conquerors."

Conquerors of the vast battered field that she and her minions of sycophants have left for the masses to cope with. She sure didn't look like much of a conqueror when she was crying and virtually speechless for the media when the cameras were rolling in the aftermath of Katrina.

For the love of God, somebody send this woman back home to teach Hillary how to bake some cookies.

America Freedom to Fascism Authorized version

Please visit http://www.freedomtofascism.com to purchase the DVD. This is the "Director's Final Cut" authorized version of Aaron Russo's documentary, America: Freedom To Fascism (AFTF). It is being uploaded to Google Video for the first time during the evening of October 19-20th, 2006. Aaron has listened to everyone's feedback - volunteers, students, lovers of freedom & liberty, young and old alike - and, true to his word, he is putting this up "for free" on Google Video knowing that the hour has come for Americans to either be awakened to restore the Republic or be swept aside by the dark global forces of fascism that seeks to enslave mankind. AFTF's main focus comes in a statement with six very simple words: SHUT DOWN THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM!! After viewing the movie, please be sure to visit http://www.freedomtofascism.com where you will soon be able to view a much higher quality "pay per view" Internet version of AFTF, buy the DVD and sign up as an affiliate to sell/distribute DVDs to others. We also urge everyone to be sure to sign up as volunteer, register for email alerts and tell your family, friends and neighbors about this groundbreaking movie.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
- George Washington

Comments eliminated and other thoughts riding on the tracks of life

Other blogs have comments. Mine won't any longer. There's so little traffic and so few comments it's just pointless anyway. If anyone really reads this drivel and was motivated enough to make a comment it might be better if they just commented about it on their own blog or, I'm personally astonished by the thought, acted on it on their own. Here, I just call it as I see it. I'm open to rebuke or debate but in the virtual world of blogging I just don't have much time for it and honestly I'm not very good at debate anyway. If someone comes along and retorts to my points with something better I'm willing to hear it out. I guess I just don't like lengthy arguments because in the end they're a waste of time. Right or wrong I try to make my point and get on with life. Anything more than that is wasting time for the someone who dissents. "How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?" - Job 6:25 If anyone has a comment about these lines then just shoot me an e-mail.

I've given less attention to this blog in the months since the beginning of the year. Call it life changes or just disinterest. I still read many other blogs with writers more capable and prolific than I, so I guess in my own mind I'm comparing myself and coming up short. Finding time to devote to getting better at this is difficult. I'll write more with the idea on the chance that something I put out is worth reading, or I'll write less to devote more time to technique, style and content improvement. In the final analysis this blog is about my thoughts, ideas, beliefs, principles, etc. It's about staying on track to truth. John 17:17

Heresy I tell you, heresy

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Louisiana has $827 million in surplus cash from the last budget year, state financial analysts told lawmakers Friday - a brighter financial picture than any previous estimates.

So Louisiana finds itself with a budget surplus, and no small one at that. The state citizenry, many still under stress and hardship from the effects of Katrina, have been robbed by the government. Nothing unusual there except that one Democrat breaks with the dogma of tax-and-spend.

Lawmakers listed some of their interests for spending new dollars, including teacher pay raises, insurance relief, pay increases for police and firefighters and highway construction. Rep. Jack Smith, D-Stephensville, suggested some of the dollars could simply be returned as a tax refund to state residents and businesses. "Maybe we're just taxing folks too much," he said.

If the guy keeps it up he'll get excommunicated.

Still trust e-voting?

An article from NetworkWorld on e-voting:

The basic problem is that e-voting machines that provide no paper audit trail are a disaster waiting to happen. Any error in such systems, including deliberate tampering, that alters the vote counts cannot, even in principle, be prevented from altering election results. For the time being, we need systems that produce a paper record that a voter can compare with her vote; if the paper accords with her choice, she can then deposit the audit record in a secure repository for use in a recount if necessary.

On Sept. 13, professors Ariel J. Feldman, Alex Halderman and Edward W. Felten of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University released a paper entitled, “Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine.”

Despite the efforts of Diebold to prevent independent study of its e-voting products, the researchers were able to buy an AccuVote-TS machine and subject it to a thorough security analysis.

Felten’s team found that malware inserted through a removable memory card with as little as one minute of access to the voting machine could cause all kinds of mischief, such as switching vote counts or otherwise damaging the election results.

Diebold’s response, attributed to Dave Byrd, president of Diebold Election Systems, attacked the study on specious grounds and was soundly refuted by Felten in a riposte on Sept. 20.

In an interview with Felten on the “Weekend Edition” program on Sept. 23, NPR’s Scott Simon raised many of Diebold's criticisms, and Felten responded convincingly to each of them.

Those who control the computers control the outcome. It's as simple as that. I could care less about who knows how I vote in the interest of keeping the results honest, even should my vote elicit a visit from the Secret Service.

I'll continue to vote for the time being, as I'm aware of this, but it's becoming more and more apparent to me how the "two party system" is being manipulated.