The Supreme Court and I disagree...

And in other news, water is wet...


So we have the decision on Obamacare.  The federal government has been given permission to require me to purchase health insurance.  So now we get to see how long it is before government officals start abusing this ruling.  I give it 3 to 5 years.


Remember the last wonderful decision regarding the SC and people's money?  When people said that Eminent Domain wouldn't be used to take private property for commecial interests?  Well, the SC didn't agree.  The results of that decision were both positive (42 states passed laws to prevent that type of shenanegan) and negative (New London is out 78 mil, Pfizer took all of the tax credits before closing shop and the land is still vacant and undeveloped). 


So we have today's decision.  This decision was not made by reading the Constitution as much as it was made by person beliefs.  Ginsburg is the worst when it comes to this, and the recent additions did not disappoint on putting more emphasis on the social agenda than actually doing their job. 


I spent part of the morning reading the decision, as well as my lunch hour.  Generally, the majority decided that since the law of averages will support the theory that you will likely need to purchase health care at some point in your life, opting out of purchasing health care insurance shouldn't be allowed and that the government should be able to penalize you if you do.  They made assumptions about the penalty and decided that, even though it is not stated as a tax in the document, it is a tax and that allows congress to do this.  The assumptions made by them to support this decision are unbelieveable to me, but unfortunately they are the final word.  The fact that Mr Obama has the opportunity, if re-elected, to put one or two more like minded individuals on the bench scares the living hell out of me. 


I give credit to the minority for succinctly pointing out the failure of this decision on page 140 of the decision: 
"It threatens that order because it gives such an expansive meaning to the Commerce Clause that
all private conduct (including failure to act) becomes subject to federal control, effectively destroying the Constitution’s division of governmental powers."

Now that we are stuck with this bloated ball of suck and fail, I look forward to the immense savings on health care costs that will magically appear.  I'm sure that they will, because the president promised that this will save the taxpayer money.  Another fine example of Hope and Change...  I hope when he's finally out of office I still have some change left in my bank account...

Having spent much time researching this piece of... legislation... I still fail to see where cost savings will come from.  You have taken the pot of money being paid for health care, which (unquestionably) fall short of actual costs and you have now forced everyone to pay into the pot, making it much, much larger.  Where, exactly, will the health care industry be inspired (or required) to lower health care costs?  They won't, they will now just get paid (in theory) for more of the people who come into their establishments.  But nowhere in the 900 page law is there a single line that actually requires anything to be reduced, except for the general public's bank accounts or paychecks. 

Mark Mardell of the BBC made a great observation.  This ruling will be good for democracy, because the law originally pissed off so may people that the Tea Party was born and many people who normally would have stayed at home got out and voted.  I am hoping that happens again.  Last time the Democrats took a beating.  I am not thrilled with the prospect of Romney, but once again we have the choice of the lesser of two evils, not the best candidate for the country. 

The best firearm safety in the world...

...Is not pointing the gun at your head.  Really, its part of the Four Rules.  Many gun bloggers have covered it, the NRA has programs covering it, I even have a Boy Scout merit badge book that covers this information.  On the other hand, the gentleman involved appears to also have been in the home pharmaceutical supply business, so maybe we can assume that he was an idiot in search of a village.  I wonder if this would qualify for JayG's DGC... 

Checking the rules, nope.  We'll just have to stick with the Darwin Awards for this one.

I guess he wanted three hots and a cot...

 So I am looking for final results on recent elections in California (I always wait until all the votes are in) and I see the headline below:

Burglar tries to break in Judge Lillian Sing's car
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/09/BADI1OVAHM.DTL#ixzz1xRFHF2xd

Short story: Guy goes into court after failing in his current probation conditions, the judge lets him go with a warning.  He exits the building, breaks into a car in front of two cops (the same crime has was already in court for) and the car turns out to belong to the judge who just cut him a break.  

If that was written into a an episode of Justified or Law & Order, everyone would go "yea, right, that'll happen."  And yet, here we have both a "lesson to the bench" and a "You can't make this shit up" moment all rolled into one.  I wonder if the next judge will let him off with a warning too?  I guess it may depend on where they parked...

Lemme get this straight...

I am supposed to believe that Eric Holder's organization is going to find anything pointing to his boss or co-workers leaking classified data that makes Obama look good?  While I wouldn't call it a conspriacy, since I doubt they would have planned something this stupid, I can't see them putting their full effort into this one.  Wait, these are the same people who brought us Operation Gunwalker, so maybe I should just refer to Hanlon's Razor: 

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

NIMBY gone wild...

I read this article and really had to laugh, because the only other option is to cry.  A recycling plant that has been there for 50 years has been closed down because people decided to later build their homes nearby.  130 people out of work, the taxpayers out $45 million and the loss of the associated revenue that the plant generated.  While I agree that the lead contamination needed to be contained, I am sure that this could have been done without closing the plant. 

I will be more entertained when, in about 5 years, the local population is complaing that the new businesses that were supposed to fill the void never appeared.  And that $45 million will just be gone at that point...

Another great one slips into legend...

Ray Bradbury has passed away. 

Many thanks for all of the hours spent in your imagination.  You will be missed.

And the vote goes to....

Today is our turn to vote in California.  I make sure I vote for no other reason than this:  I can now complain about the system, since I took part.  Since I voted "no" and against the incumbent (I'm looking at you, Feinstein)  on almost everything, I don't know how much I accomplished, but I did my part.  My only "yes" was for term limits being further limited. 

I also meant to write a post on Mayor Bloomberg's idiotic jihad on large drinks, but so many others have covered it so well.  All I can ask is, Mr Bloomberg, have you solved every other problem in NYC and now have too much free time?