Time to Boycott the Roman Polanski Supporters

There are a large number of people that have signed a petition for the immediate release of Roman Polanski and for all charges against him to be immediately dropped.

In case you missed it, Polanski was arrested when he arrived in Switzerland for a film festival on an outstanding arrest warrant stemming from his fleeing the U.S. after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year old girl after getting her drunk and slipping her drugs.

And the authorities had the gall to arrest him on the way to their all-important film festival.


The signatories are almost exclusively members of the French Film industry, but there are a couple of Americans on the list: Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz.


Add Whoopi Goldberg to the list of American apologists for Polanski.


These people are defending the indefensible and need to face the consequences.

Bureaucracy Run Amok

The latest illustration of the problems caused by overly-intrusive Government comes from Michigan.

A woman in Irving Township, Michigan has been told to stop watching neighborhood children in her home while they wait the bus. She was told she was in violation of laws targeting unlicensed day-care providers.

Lisa Snyder's home is a designated school bus stop. She agreed to watch three school children in her home so their mothers could drop them off early on their way to work.


Some nosy neighbor complained, and the Michigan Department of Human Services wrote her a letter telling her she was violating the law.


The law in question prohibits looking after unrelated children for more than four weeks in any calendar year, unless they are licensed day-care providers.


I think they way that is worded says enough about the "intelligence" of the legislators that wrote it. And the letter it provoked from the Michigan Department of Human Services says enough about the people in that agency.

Public Policy by Lawsuit, bad Idea

Two recent Court Rulings set a bad precedent when it comes to formulating public policy.

1) A Court Ordered Grizzly Bears remain on the endangered species list.

This is despite the fact that the Grizzly Bear population had increased dramatically since they were put on the list. The Court also made the ruling, despite the fact that the regulatory body given the responsibility for listing endangered species found that the bears were no longer endangered.

What happened? "Environmental Groups" found a friendly judge to rule the way they wanted, despite any information to the contrary. He found they were threatened by Global Warming.

Federal Courts are not the place to set this kind of public policy. Judges do not have to face the negative implications of their rulings. Nor is there a guarantee that the judge making the ruling has all the pertinent facts. Far too often they are only going to get the argument from the side pushing for Government action.


2) A Federal Court ruled that states could sue Utilities over emissions.

What is happening here is that the Liberal States (i.e. California) is now suing Electric Companies that burn coal in other states.

In other words, these states are trying to regulate energy production in another state by using the federal judicial system. And if you need a reminder, California's energy policies have resulted in that state facing rolling black-outs in the past. Now they are trying to do the same for other states.

The people in these states do not get a say in who runs the state of California, and the state of California should have no say in how those states are run. Ever heard of taxation without representation?


The Federal Courts have now given us regulation without representation.

Kanye West, time to stage an intervention

Time to stage an intervention and get Kanye West some much needed help. There is definitely something seriously wrong with the man mentally.

In case you missed it, Kanye West stormed the stage during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech, and said that Beyonce should have won the award. Talk about no class.

He's lucky it wasn't me. I would have brained him with the award. And if asked, I would have been just as proud of the dent as I was of the award, itself.


Ironically, Beyonce later won an award. She invited Taylor Swift back on stage to redo her acceptance speech. Beyonce is a class act, all the way.


(and in response to how the linked story starts) Kanye West, the Village Idiot.

Lockerbie Bomber Oil Deal

You remember all the outrage from the left over George Bush's "War for Oil"? Well, where's the outrage over this?

A man convicted for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people in a terrorist attack is put on a list that makes him eligible for release from prison, because of an oil deal. He's released two years later for "humanitarian" reasons.

Frankly, somebody that murders hundreds of people doesn't deserve to be released from prison, no matter the situation. This kind of treatment for terrorists is why they think the West is an easy target. Western Governments refuse to treat the people murdering their citizens the way they deserve.

This monster deserved the death penalty, not a hero's welcome in Libya.

Government Wants to Search Your Electronic Devices without Search Warrant

The Federal Government has decided it has the right to search or seize your laptop, pda, phone, etc. at the boarder without a search warrant.

The Government states that it needs to suspicion to instigate such a search and that boarder agents can copy all information on these devices, without telling the owner and without giving grounds for doing so.

The rationale: These devices are no different than backpacks and briefcases. Searches of these have been upheld as necessary to enforce Federal Law. This, of course, raises the question. What law is being enforced in this case? It's not like you can smuggle drugs electronically. The only think you can carry on an electronic device is information/ software.

The likelihood of an electronic device carrying information that would violate the law if exported from the country in extremely slight. (Most having to do with information on things like missile technology or other defense related information.) Meaning the Government has very little reason to search every laptop, pda, phone, etc.

Then there is the fact that this information need not be stored on the electronic device at all. Ever heard of storage cards. You could conceivably carry the information on a storage card and carry it on you. That means it is unlikely at this point in time for ANY illegal information to be on an electronic device if someone is looking to smuggle information out of the country.

A micro SD card would be almost impossible to discover and would not need to be in a device when carried out of the country.


This search of laptops etc. just makes no sense, and there is just too much potential for sensitive (but legal) information to wind-up in the wrong hands as a result of Government workers copying it without the owner's knowledge or permission.


I find myself in the unusual position of actually agreeing with the ACLU on this one. These searches/seizures are unwarranted violations of privacy and violate the Constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

A Government action that you can only describe as "not making sense" is, by definition, unreasonable.