Psycho-Bitches.com

Have you ever dated a psycho bitch? If so, you have to visit this site:

Psycho-Bitches.com

If you don't ever want to date a psycho bitch, then visit this site:

Psycho-Bitches.com

Change of Location

OK, so I doubt if any of you still check out this blog, but just in case, I thought I should let you know that this blog is official defunct.

I have, however, been invited to join the team over at GM's Corner. Though they are conservatives, not libertarians, I think I will enjoy my stay there. Please be sure to stop by and check us out.

I will also resume my writing at Balance of Power. So stop by there as well.

Lastly, for fans of Girl Friday, I will be starting a new blog dedicated to just that at Friday Girls. In addition to my normal selection of beauties that I glean from around the web, I am going to try to find actual amateurs to post as well. If you know anyone interested, let me know.

Political State of the Country

OK...so I have been absent for a couple of months, but I have no real complaints as my absence has been due to the success of my ongoing business endeavors and the greatly increased work load that success is bringing. Also other than being quite hot and humid, Hong Kong is a fascinating place and a good many of the people I deal with in mainland China are as adamantly anti-Communist as I am.

I am still just as busy, but I thought I should put my two cents worth in on this week's Balance of Power post concerning the current political state of our country. There is no doubt that our country is in a rather ugly place, politically speaking, these days.

Back in June, I presented my readers with a question: Do you think it is possible that one or both major political parties could fracture in the next 10 years with the result being a new political party or major movement into an existing third party? At that time, it seemed inevitable to me that the Democratic party would fracture. Since then, I have seen nothing to change my mind. The far left, even after much evidence to the contrary, seems determined that they need to move further to left in order to be successful. Over at Kos and other far left sites, full fledged war has been declared on the moderate DLC.

They are determined to keep the country in an extended state of strife, no matter what that takes. Apparently through their rose colored glasses, this is what the country needs and even wants.

Two months ago it looked as if the Republicans were in a better position, but even then, I warned that a fight was coming. After their long exile from legislative power, the GOP regained power by putting forth the Contract with America. Well I am here to tell you that they are in complete default with the terms of that contract and a large portion of the Republican party is now figuring that out.

With both parties undergoing major turmoil, it is not surprising that they would seek to obfuscate this inner fighting with increased partisan attacks on the other party. What is the citizenry of this country to do when the Democrats have become become so farcical and devoid of rational ideas that they appear almost as a parody of themselves and the Republicans have completely dropped any facade that their goal is to reduce the scope of government rather than to remain in power?

Most other democracies in the world don't just have two major parties, but several smaller parties each of which is unable to get a majority on its own. They form coalitions with other parties that share some basic principles in order to form a controlling government. In many ways, that is what we have as well, but the differing factions first align under the umbrellas of the two major parties. Internal bickering is then settled in house. However, as of late, it is becoming apparent that these factions often has as much in different as they have in common and internal dirty laundry is spilling out for the whole country to smell (and believe me, it is not a pleasant smell).

I don't see the internal problems of the parties going away any time soon, so I doubt that the country will find any type of political peace soon. The more the parties fracture internally, the more they will strike out externally and the more divided the country as a whole will become.

Touch of Liberty

OK...the highly anticipated remake of the "Touch of Liberty" skin is complete. Just click the skin of your choice over on the left.

Just a reminder..."Touch of Liberty" is NOT work safe.

Also, scroll all the way to the bottom for a new addition. Hope you enjoy!

Federal Involvement in Public Education

I have never been a fan of the federal government's involvement in public education. I believe that such things are best handled at the most local level possible. Actually, I believe that education should be handled privately, but since we live in a nanny state, that is not likely to happen. So given that, we should at least be nannied as locally as possible. The local community is certainly better in tune with its children's educational needs than a bunch of career bureaucrats in D.C.

Unfortunately, Uncle Sam didn't see it that way back in 1953. At that time, the country was still awash in putrid movement of the previous two decades to expand federal power beyond anything that even closely resembled constitutional restraint. Government was the answer to all that ailed you. So with such widespread sentiment, Eisenhower brought into existence the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Over the course of the next few decades, the guys and gals in D.C. became ever more involved in the social engineering of public schools. By 1979, that meddling became so pervasive that it was determined that it was time for the Department of Education to strike out on its own as an independent bureaucracy.

Both Democrats and Republicans alike, have continued to bloat the DoE's budget and meddling. I remember back in the 90s when many Republicans actually called for the elimination of the DoE. In fact, as this article points out, it was once even a part of the GOP platform:

The GOP platform was clear: "The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education."

Alas, that was when they had no power. Now they are "compassionate" conservatives and free spenders.

Whenever he can, President Bush touts the huge spending increases necessary to promote his No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). But it's not just NCLB funding that has increased: the entire education budget has ballooned during the president's time in office. The Department of Education's budget has grown by 82.5 percent in real terms from $34.9 billion in FY2001 to $63.7 billion in FY2005. This is the largest increase of any president since Lyndon Johnson.

And President Bush's 2006 budget asks for more of the same. Every state sees an increase in grant money, nearly 5 percent on average. The average state receives a level of grant funding that is more than 50 percent higher than when President Bush took office; no state has an increase less than 35 percent.

But don't get confused into thinking that almost doubling federal spending on education is enough. Even with such huge increases in spending, there are constant calls for more:

In spite of the GOP's extravagance, Democrats constantly criticize the Administration for not spending enough. During the presidential campaign, Kerry told voters that the President was not serious about education and promised that, if elected, he would spend an additional $27 billion.

It is as if the politicians are all the title character in Brewster's Millions. They are in a race to see who can waste the most money and the prize is re-election. It doesn't help that they are being egged on by the NEA and AFT which scarily enough have even more influence on public education than Uncle Sam.

Meanwhile, such idiotic notions as social promotion and "whole language" persist. Public education has become nothing more than a wide scale social engineering experiment conducted by so-called education experts. It is no wonder that 25% of public school teachers either homeschool or send their kids to private school. If it is not good enough for those perpetrating it, it sure isn't good enough for my child.

Just Like When I was a Kid

OK...not exactly. When I was a kid, I specifically remember my Dad pulling my some of my loose teeth using the ol' string trick. He wouldn't tie it to the doorknob, but would instead just jerk it hard and quick. It always went off without a hitch.

My daughter is at the point where she is about to lose her third and fourth teeth. I told her the story about my Dad and she wanted to give it a try. The tooth in question in at the point that she can literally push it to a perpendicular position in relation to the rest of her teeth, so I thought sure, we can do that.

I got a piece of dental floss and fashioned it into a tightening slip knot and looped it around her tooth. I then gave it a really hard jerk. Instead of a tooth dangling from a string and a happy child, I got a screaming little girl that wouldn't even talk to me for twenty minutes. Apparently that one little section still holding on is determined not to give up.

Needless to say, the rest of her teeth will be falling out of their own accord, just as her first two did.

Global Warming

For those of you new to my site, I would like to let you know that in addition to this blog, I am also a member of a group blog called The Balance of Power. BoP is a bit different than most group blogs. Rather than a collection of like-minded bloggers forming their own echo chamber, we have a diverse group including liberals, conservatives and libertarians.

On Mondays and Thursdays, one member will pick a topic to post about and the rest of us then reply, in the same post, to what they have written. We also open up comments so that you can all give your thoughts on the topic at hand. Today's post at The Balance of Power is now up. This week's topic is that great canard, Global Warming. As always, you will find my response below as well as on BoP:

Great topic Zaph. There is much too much blind hysteria surrounding what I believe to be one of the great canards of our time. Indeed, those scientists in Europe are not alone in their skepticism:

At a news conference held in Ottawa, some of North America's foremost climate experts provided evidence demonstrating that the science underlying the Kyoto Protocol is seriously flawed; a problem that continues to be ignored by the Canadian government.

Some of us have been pointing this out for years. There are so many problems with the theories produced that it is almost incomprehensible that so many governments, pseudo-governments (UN) and environmental groups ran with this.

Carleton University Professor Tim Patterson (Paleoclimatologist) explains the crucial importance of properly evaluating the merit of Canada's climate change plans: "It is no exaggeration to say that in the eight years since the Kyoto Protocol was introduced there has been a revolution in climate science. If, back in the mid-nineties, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would not exist because we would have concluded it was not necessary."

Hopefully more scientists will see this as a call to come out of the closet, so to speak. The "global warming" hysteria has had far too many truly objective scientists afraid to speak out for fear of losing government grants and unwarranted hazing from scientists riding the GW gravy train.

Contrary to claims that the science of climate change has been settled, the causes of the past century's modest warming is highly contested in the climate science community. The climate experts presenting in the video demonstrate that science is quickly diverging away from the hypothesis that the human release of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, is having a significant impact on global climate. "There is absolutely no convincing scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases are driving global climate change", stated climatologist, Dr. Tim Ball.

In the halls of Turtle Bay and the streets of Paris and Berlin, people would have you believe that human caused global warming is as much a fact as gravity. Perhaps more bravery like that shown by these scientists will bring those people back to reality. Hell, who am I kidding, people treat environmentalism like religion.

Indeed, the effects of signing on to Kyoto are already taking their toll on countries such as New Zealand which is estimated to account for about .2% of global greenhouse emissions:

The cost of a Government Kyoto Protocol botch-up could soar as high as $1.2 billion – more than double that estimated by the Treasury last month – a new report claims.

The Government last month admitted that it had miscalculated New Zealand's greenhouse gas growth, for which it is liable under the Kyoto Protocol, resulting in an embarrassing $500 million bill rather than a $500m credit.

But the situation could be even worse, accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) says.

The PWC analysis shows the company believes the $500m bill estimate is also wrong. It believes the liability will be more like $1.2b to $1.7b above the original estimate.

That is just one country, and a small one at that. My guess is that we will soon start hearing about more and more of the negative impact ratifying Kyoto is having on world economies.

New Design

UPDATE: OK...several of my readers were having problems caused by one of the special features that I had incorporated into the design. There for I have implemented a change that should resolve that issue for them. In addition, it should fix the 800x600 issue as well. Thanks for bearing with me as I relearn the lesson that just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do it.

OK...as you are probably blatantly aware (if you are a regular reader) I have COMPLETELY overhauled the design of my site. It is based on a Japanese art style called Ukiyoe. I have tested it in Opera 7, Firefox 1+, and IE 6 at both 800x600 and 1024x768. I think it looks best in Opera, but very good in FF as well. IE (due to its refusal to become standards compliant) is set up slightly different.

If you view it in 800x600, I recommend toggling (F11 key) to fullscreen as it looks better then. Since I refuse be one of those assclowns that force those viewing at that resolution to fullscreen, I may institute a popup alert recommending it.

The content area on my old site was wider, so there may be some pictures that are wider than the new area in the archives. If you ever come across any, let me know and I will resize them. I may go looking for them myself, but I really doubt it.

The new site is a bit fat due to the PNG-24 pics I used. I have a Photoshop plugin to compress them, but I haven't tried it out yet. The IE site is a bit lighter because I used PNG-8 pics (again because of IE non-compliance) and they are smaller.

I hope you like the new design. Be sure to let me know what you think or if you find any bugs. I am also going to redo the white "Touch of Liberty" skin when I get a chance.

Libertarian Reform Caucus

While I was on hiatus from blogging, a lot of exciting things have been happening. One of them is that the website for The Libertarian Reform Caucus has almost been completed.

In case you are not familiar with the LRC, it is a group of reform minded libertarians who understand that the Libertarian Party, as it is now organized, serves as more of an echo-chamber for those that score at the very tip of The World's Smallest Political Quiz (which I do), than as a political party striving to elect candidate in order to have a real impact on government and its abuses. Having a debate club is fine. I enjoy discussing libertarian philosophy more than most, but I want to actually see it put into effect one day. I will probably never know true freedom, but my daughter might.

Politics is an ugly business; that cannot be denied. However, no matter how unpleasant we as libertarians may find such things, it is a reality of the situation in which we currently find ourselves. Here in the US we were fortunate to have had founding fathers that knew first hand the crushing grip of tyranny. Thanks to their efforts, we have managed to stave off the specter of creeping Statism that has most of the rest of world completely engulfed. Make no mistake though, it IS engulfing us and unless we are willing to engage in the political battle, we leave the fate of freedoms to the likes of those currently deflowering our constitution at all levels of government.

If you are truly a freedom lover, then please take a look at the LRC. You do not have to be a member of the LP to join. You just have to be committed to political engagement of those who would strip you of the precious few rights you still have.

Girl Friday Extravaganza

I am still working on getting the bugs out of the new design, but here is the highly anticipated Girl Friday Extravaganza. This should more than make up for any and all GF postings I have missed in the past. Enjoy:

Slight Delay

Well, I intended to have the new site up by now, but I am having problems with the IE version (of course). The header does not want to load for some reason and the site loads REALLY slow in IE. The IE site is already limited due to it not properly handling .png file transparency. I have replaced the .pngs on that version with .jpgs and .gifs, but you will really miss out if you use IE because I plan to implement some cool features that just won't work in IE.

On the upside, at least you have the colored scrollbars in IE.

If anyone wants to take a look at the site and help me figure out what is wrong, you can find it here.

Oh, and the sooner it is done, the sooner I post my Girl Friday Extravaganza to make up for all those I missed.

UPDATE: OK, I just found a MAJOR flaw in the design that will require a fairly extensive rework (I think). It looks as if the debut of the new design will be pushed to Monday.