Paul M. Jones

Quoting President Obama:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

See also "Elizabeth Warren." Via Obama to Americans: You don't deserve what you've earned | The Daily Caller.

UPDATE: An unexpectedly apropos podcast I'm listening to, via http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/05/schmidtz_on_raw.html:

Schmidtz: Maybe in your imagination all kinds of people helped me. Tell me at what point other people helping me made me your property. Because if there was no point at which I became your property, then excuse me, but I'm going to go home, and I'm going to take all of my toys with me. If you want some of my toys, if you want me to share my toys, treat me like an adult, treat me like a self-owner, and make me an offer. And you might make me an offer that I'm perfectly willing to accept. I might say--and this was the thing you were excluding--yeah, I want to be part of a community, I want a community that has a real infrastructure; in fact, I want to be part of a community where the roads are free. Not that I think that anything is really free; I realize that I as a taxpayer will be paying for the free roads. But the point is, I want to minimize transactions costs because I want it to be as cheap as possible for my customers to get to my store. And so I would rather pay for that in part of my taxes than have to put up a toll road and have my customers have to pay to get to me. So, yeah, I want public goods, even things that aren't inherently public.

Russ: Many goods aren't public goods that are provided.

Schmidtz: Yeah. So, I'm willing to pay for it; I regard my paying my share for it as a way of respecting me as a separate person; I'm in.

A recent Troy High School graduate was acquitted Thursday of all charges in his arrest for carrying a rifle through downtown Birmingham.

A jury in 48th District Court found Sean M. Combs, 18, not guilty of brandishing a firearm and disturbing the peace. Wednesday, Judge Marc Barron issued a directed verdict dismissing a charge of resisting and obstructing a police officer after Combs' attorney, James Makowski, argued that city attorney Mary Kucharek had not proven that offense.

"I think they came up with the right verdict," Combs said after his acquittal. "It took them a while, but at the end of the day, I think it was the right decision."

via Troy teen calls acquittal in gun case 'the right verdict' | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com.

The unidentified officer and a detective had arrived at the home to notify family members that Ellerbe had been killed. His body was discovered shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, face down near an alley.

The pitbull ran from the backyard of the home toward at least one officer, who pulled his weapon and shot the dog in the home's front yard, according to Ellerbe's sister, Latoya.

"They had told me my brother was dead and I'd come out back to cry on the porch and Tiger must have heard them. He ran into the front yard and the officer shot him," LaToya Ellerbe said.

via Henrico police shoot pet as they notify family of son's homicide | Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Condoleeza Rice is as qualified as anyone to be Vice President and would be a damn sight less buffoonish in the office than Joe Biden. She is a graceful diplomat, a fine academic; she is knowledgeable, savvy, internationally experienced; with Putin ascending, her formidable understanding of Russia and the Russian mind and history could be invaluable. The troops love her and would accept her as Commander-in-Chief. In fact, Ms. Rice is a good deal more qualified to be president than perhaps either Mr. Romney -- for all his business experience -- or Mr. Obama, who nearly four years into the gig still seems not to have a handle on the office, its limits or its nuances, and who looks, increasingly, like a man who wishes it would all go away and let him play golf.

via Condi as Veep? Why the Dems, MSM Won’t Stand for It – UPDATED.

Texas Department of Public Safety data show that the fastest-growing group of concealed handgun owners in the state has been, for at least five years, black women.

...

For women, part of the tension around this topic is that women with guns are marginalized in a feminist culture that promotes unarmed resistance and “clean” fighting techniques. These send the message that as long as a woman does not have a lethal means of protecting herself, she is still feminine and worthy of “real” protection--either from a man, or from the police. To be a gun-owning feminist, to prepare to protect oneself against two of the most frightening enemies of female-identified people--rape and/or domestic violence--still strikes at the heart of what could be described as a feminist identity crisis, wherein women oppress each other with our inability to make room for alternative models of self-protection.

...

White Southern men, on the other hand, were the most likely to congratulate me on this life decision and follow up with advice on the best kind of firearm to buy.

...

In the black community, the social and economic tension between black men and women has made black women appear to have increasingly more in common with white men than black men. Black women, like white men, are often the heads of household, often the primary or sole breadwinners in their homes, and they are simultaneously admired and hated (often by black men) for their successes.

In the Utne Reader, no less! Via Target Market: Black Women With Guns - Mind & Body - Utne Reader.

The House voted again Wednesday to repeal the 2010 healthcare reform law, giving Republicans some revenge against the late June Supreme Court ruling that found the law to be constitutional.

Members approved the bill in a 244-185 vote, after five hours of debate that stretched over two days.

As expected, just a handful of Democrats supported the GOP repeal bill. Five Democrats, Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (Ark.), sided with Republicans in the final vote. Of this group, all but Matheson voted with the GOP in a procedural vote on the bill Tuesday.

Republicans insisted on passing the Repeal of Obamacare Act, H.R. 6079, in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling, even though Democrats pointed out that the bill would be ignored by the Democratic Senate. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) cast the bill as a way to give the Senate another chance to heed the will of Americans who oppose the legislation and see it as something that has led to increased healthcare costs and hindered job creation.

"For those who still support repealing this harmful healthcare law, we're giving our colleagues in the Senate another chance to heed the will of the American people," Boehner said, noting the House vote against the law at the start of the 112th Congress. "And for those who did not support repeal the last time, it's a chance for our colleagues to reconsider."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Republicans felt compelled to put members on the record about the healthcare law after the Supreme Court ruling, which surprised both parties.

Not that it does much good, but it does show that the House at least has the right idea. Via House votes 244-185 to repeal Obama healthcare reform law - The Hill's Healthwatch.

Jason was called by the Baltimore police and told that a warrant (see above) had been issued for his arrest with a charge of conspiracy to commit attempted first degree murder, which goes against Brandy Shipley’s own statement in which she said the two men filming the incident never got involved, but were “only filming.” Even so, Fyk agreed to turn himself in, and five days later he surrendered. The Baltimore police had charged him with as many as 20 various charges, including the aforementioned conspiracy charge, assault and robbery, a charge which Fyk says he has video of that completely exonerates him.

All of this stemming from what Fyk characterized as nothing more than a misdemeanor assault that he only filmed, a characterization which would seem to be accurate from the video. It’s interesting to point out as well, the second photographer was never charged in the incident.

via Police State: Publisher Charged with Murder for Just Videotaping a Fight (VIDEO) | Veracity Stew.

Obama says the country can’t afford the “cost” of tax cuts that were instituted about a decade ago. The word “cost” is used by nearly every news organization in this regard. We (as in the non-wealthy) supposedly “pay” for the “cost” of a new tax rate.  Now, unless the president is arguing that the baseline of government spending should encompass owning all your money and anything the IRS doesn’t take “costs” something, then only spending can really “cost” Americans.

Moreover, if the imaginary $80 billion yearly “cost” is so significant, why can’t the president match it with a mere $80 billion in real spending cuts? Who “pays” for the cost of failing to cut spending ? Rather, the president’s proposed budget would add $6.4 trillion in deficits between 2013 and 2022, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

via We don't 'pay' for tax cuts, Mr. President, we pay for spending.

The carriers have access to everything. Phone calls, text messages, search histories, usage histories, locations, elevations, movements over time. As modern people we have mostly chosen to pretend like we aren't aware of how vulnerable we are. But what information have these law enforcement agencies been after?

The companies basically did not say anything about who is requesting what. It could be anything from a 911 operator needing to know the location of an incapacitated caller (scariness quotient: very low) to the FBI wanting to know the call history of a suspected terrorist (scariness quotient: pretty high) to a blanket request from a local police force seeking unwarranted wiretaps (scariness quotient: extremely high). Many of those calls, including the three I just named, can be called "emergency" requests which require no warrant or waiting period.

How many were emergencies? No idea.

Then there were "tower dumps," in which a law enforcement agency makes one request to access all the information from one entire tower. This could allow them access to hundreds or thousands of users. A tower dump, by the way, counts as one of those 1.3 million, even though it affects many, many more.

How many were tower dumps? We wonder.

via In First U.S. Accounting of Wireless Phone Surveillance, Carriers Reveal 1.3 Million Requests For User Data | Popular Science.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfLUCBZ1is&feature=youtu.be