Archive for Law & Order - page 4

It’s nice to find a lawyer with a sense of humor

It’s nice to find a lawyer with a sense of humor

It’s nice to find a lawyer with a sense of humor.  Though to be fair, both the lawyers I know have great senses of humor, and most of the ones I read online do as well.  But today we’re going to focus on Kevin Underhill’s sense of humor.  Kevin is a lawyer, blogger and author.  Currently guest-blogging at The Volohk Conspiracy, he also has his own law-humor blog called Lowering the Bar.  Bookmark it – you won’t be sorry.  Kevin has also written a book titled The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance.  It is available at Amazon, through the Men Out Of Work Blog  Amazon portal.  To order it there, click on the title or go to The Men Out Of Work Blog Homepage   and use the Amazon search box there.

emergency sasquatch

The book is not about Sasquatch, it’s a compilation of strang-but-true laws that are actually on the books.  The reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly good.  You can check out Mr. Underhill’s “preview” at The Volohk Conspiracy : part 1part 2part 3 and part 4.  The final Part 5 had not been posted as of this writing.  Check it out.  You know you could use a good laugh!

Just Great: The EPA Now Claims the Authority to Garnish Our Wages

Just Great: The EPA Now Claims the Authority to Garnish Our Wages

This is just great: the EPA now claims the authority to garnish our wages.  That’s the Environmental Protection Agency.  Claiming authority to unilaterally – bypassing the courts – garnish our wages if we are deemed in violation of their rules.  And I guarantee you that they can find a rule you are in violation of if they wish.

According to this article in the Washington Times the Agency has adopted a rule stating it’s intention to use the authority, a neccessary step before legally asserting the authority.  The garnishment threat would be a powerful tool to get people to agree to expensive settlements with the EPA rather than fighting them.

stop_breathing_epa_thumb1

This dovetails with a post I was going to write about Administrative Law and/or The Administrative State and how it is at odds with our Representative Republic system of government.  In a nutshell, the Administrative State is a power grab by the executive branch.  “Administrations” or “Agencies” such as the EPA, the IRS, FEMA etc etc fall under the executive branch of the Fedral Government.  These agencies are allowed to make “rules” which carry the force of law, but often carry none of the due process protections associated with actual legislation.  Hence, the IRS can seize your property without a court order and now the EPA wants this power, too.  The argument against Adminstrative Law is that if these “rules” carry the force of legislation, then they are in fact legislation.  And legislating is not one of the enumerated powers granted to the executive branch under the Constitution – Congress is the only branch that has that power.  I can’t do the argument justice, so I direct you to some excellent posts at PowerLine.

Why do you care or why should you care?  Admittedly the chances of any suburbanite running afoul of EPA regs are slim.  I said slim…not non-existent.  But if you are a farmer, rancher, or own any property on a lake or river or in a watershed of any kind, you’re chances are better.  And you probably won’t know until it’s too late.  Here is just one horror story.

Any expansion of powers granted to Executive Branch Agencies are, in my opinion, a direct threat to your freedom and mine, and also to our republic.  They should be opposed.

Cross Posted at Men Out of Work Blog

 

Old and Busted: Obamacare Death Panels “Kooky Paranoia”; New Hotness: Obamacare Death Panels “a Good Idea”

Old and Busted: Obamacare Death Panels “Kooky Paranoia”; New Hotness: Obamacare Death Panels “a Good Idea”

Remember the good old days when the Affordable Care Act was being debated and President Obama was talking about how Grandma might not get that pacemaker or that expensive surgery because she’s too old?  Maybe we’ll just give her a pill instead?  And when opponents of the bill claimed that it would lead to “death panels” that would decide if  it was financially expedient to give a patient expensive treatments if they were near the end of their life?  And how those people were mocked as kooky paranoids?  Me too…good times, good times.  Anyhoo…in order to muster the votes to pass the bill (it passed by the barest margin with no republican votes – remember that the next time someone tells you there’s no difference between R’s and D’s) the “end of life counseling” provisions were removed.  But the dream lives on!  In the Politico article “Let’s Talk about ‘Death Panels’ – It’s Time To Revisit a Good Idea That Was Distorted By Demagoguery” Harold Pollack argues with what I’m sure are the noblest of intentions (eyeroll) that Sarah Palin and some other stupid heads ruined this “good” idea with all their kooky paranoid talk about how it would evolve into healthcare rationing and some people, i.e. the disabled or elderly wouldn’t be allowed treatments just to save money.  Like they do in Great Britain at the NHS.

Pollack blames Palin and other right wing ideologues for making this an issue, but it was none other than President Obama himself during what seemed like countless townhall meetings to sell the plan to the public, while making all kinds of promises would not promise that elderly Americans could receive all the treatments they want because “it might be cheaper to give them a pill”.  He also promised that if you liked your doctor or your health plan you could keep your doctor or your health plan.  We know how that worked out…the 2013 Lie Of The Year.  So you’ll excuse me if I’m skeptical that you won’t pull the plug on me or my loved one to save some money.

obamacare cartoon

 

Of course, the bigger scandal is that we’re having this discussion at all because the federal government is now involved in healthcare decsions that should be between you and your doctor.  But I digress…

Part of the issue is federal compensation to doctors for “end of life counseling”, which isn’t allowed under The Act.  However, I’m pretty sure everyone gets end of life couseling as a routine part of their treatment without a specific “end of life counseling appointment”. I have been involved in the end of life care for  family members and this has been the case every time.  The Act doesn’t prohibit communication with your doctor or limit what can be discussed.

After reading through all the romanticized anecdotes in Pollack’s article about dying with dignity and hospice, and how Americans with the most reason to worry about death panels are among the most vocal supporters of “Health Care Reform”, the conclusion is this – saving money isn’t the goal, it’s just a happy coincidence.  And as far as the end of life counseling goes, in my opinion the goal is to open the door to assisted suicide.  We’ll make you your own death panel – the Government didn’t pull your plug!  You did!  That’s even cheaper!  Your Welcome!

Hat Tip:  Mickey Kaus at the Daily Caller

Our “American Way of Life” Rests on the Edge of a Knife

Our “American Way of Life” Rests on the Edge of a Knife

Today the United States Supreme Court ruled on two cases.  I won’t go into details here – I may at a later date, but I don’t think readers of this blog want to wade that deep into the law.  If you do feel like wading, here are a couple good places to do so:   SCOTUSblog     and     The Volokh Conspiracy. My intention here is to make a broader observation, especially in light of the fact that Independence Day is just a few days away. Begin Observation:  The U.S. Supreme Court consists of nine Justices and is the people’s last line of defense against an overreaching Congress or President or in this case, both.  Often, as today, cases are decided with a one justice majority, i.e. 5-4.  In my informed opinion, four of the Justices are reliably pro-government and believe in essentially unlimited government power, regardless of Constitutional text.  Since I cannot see into their hearts to divine their true intentions, I give them benefit of the doubt and assume their motives are benevolent, and their goal is to build a utopian society where all forms of entitelments are “rights”, certain favored classes have more rights than others and the government is the source and sole provider of those rights.  Should a fifth Justice join them to form a pro-government majority, we can kiss our free country goodbye since individual liberty would be impossible in such a society.  I find the prospect of their benevolence frightening, especially in light of the fact that any means they choose to achieve their ends would be done with the blessing of their conscience.

click on the picture to enlarge

click on the picture to enlarge

No matter your ideaology, remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want can also take from you everything you have.  And take it will…because Government has nothing to give anyone that it hasn’t first taken from someone else.

How Can An Airliner Just Disappear? Part IX

How Can An Airliner Just Disappear? Part IX

I have not written a post about the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 since May 18th  because there have been no new developments.  Yesterday, however it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Australian Authorities have announced a new search area and are seeking bids from private contractors to search that area.

Since the plane disappeared on March 8th, thousands of square miles of the Indian Ocean west of Australia have been searched, but have yielded no trace of the missing plane.  The new search area was deduced using a combination of known facts and educated guesswork.  The current assumption is that the plane’s autopilot was switched on (it could not have been accidentally engaged) after the plane deviated from it’s assigned course, and that the plane flew on it’s own for several hours after the crew was disabled, possibly from hypoxia or oxygen depletion.

MA 370 new search area 6x27

 

This is a mystery that may never be solved.  The search area is immense and in arguably the most remote and unfriendly ocean in the world.  Even if the wreck is found it may not hold all the answers to what happened and why.  The investigation continues…

WSJ: Australian Report Postulates Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Lost Oxygen

Old and Busted: Candidate might have been a jerk in High School – Special Edition! New Hotness: Candidate helped child rapist beat the rap – Crickets!

Old and Busted: Candidate might have been a jerk in High School – Special Edition!  New Hotness:  Candidate helped child rapist beat the rap – Crickets!

It wasn’t that long ago we were treated to a media firestorm over possible gaffes Mitt Romney may have comitted 30 or 40 years ago.  There was in depth reporting over his behavior in Prep-School (that’s High School in case you’re wondering):  He might have been a bully!  Or that infamous family vacation where the dog’s crate was strapped to the roof of the car. Q’uelle Horreur!  Our diligent media was just doing their jobs, dont you know.  The public has a right to know what kind of person they might elect to the presidency.  Thank God we dodged that bullet and didn’t elect Romney with his binders full of women.  This Obama fellow is doing a smashing job.

Now we are finding out that Hillary Clinton once defended an accused child rapist, and through some borderline ethical conduct helped secure a plea bargain to a lesser offense resulting in the accused rapist receiving less than 1 year in jail.  Part of the borderline conduct involved proposed testimony attacking the girl’s credibility and claiming that the twelve year old victim bore some of the reponsibility for her own rape, and telling the prosecutor that they had an “expert” that would testify in court to discredit their forensic evidence.  This helped secure the plea bargain.  Then, a few years later when recounting the episode for a reporter, she laughed about her client’s obvious guilt and what a great job she did helping him beat the rap.  However, I am told, she did not put the victim “in a binder”.  The media’s interest in this story?  Zip, zero, zilch.  Why?  It’s old news.  Well so is the fact that you can save 15% on your car insurance, but that doesn’t stop Geico from running their commercials.

The rape trial was in 1975, and the incident recounted to a reporter in the mid-1980’s for an Esquire magazine article on rising politcal stars.  The reason you can’t remember it, other than the fact you might not have been born yet, is that the article was never printed.  The incident has received scant mention considering Clinton’s life and career have been so meticulously documented.  Hillary herself mentions it briefly in her first memoir Living History as an aside to to crediting herself with starting Arkansas’ first rape crisis hotline.  In 2008, Newsday journalist Glenn Thrush wrote a lengthy article about it – which his editors killed because “it might have an impact” on the election.  The tapes of the interviews and reporters notes from the original Esquire story ended up in the University of Arkansas Library archives where they were discovered by the Washington Free Beacon., and tht is how we are hearing about it now.

So if a Republican candidate may have been guilty of boorish behavior in the past, the media will leave no stone unturned in their quest to Bring Out The Truth®.  Because War On Women!  But if a Democrat candidate may have actually engaged in a war on women, well…*crickets*

Democrats – that (D) behind their names is like a damn kevlar shield with a teflon coating.  And it’s the mainstream media’s Kryptonite.

CA screws everyone with carbon tax – wastes the money on bullet train

CA screws everyone with carbon tax – wastes the money on bullet train

-CA screws everyone with carbon tax – wastes the money on bullet train

There is no crisis so grave that it cannot be solved with higher taxes.  Or, in this case carbon offset fees.  You see, global warming is so serious that we have come up with a scheme whereby industries that generate carbon emissions (industries that coincidentally drive our economy) will need to buy “offsets” to allow them to continue their carbon emissions.  It’s a win-win!  They get to pay to stay in business and the State gets a $1 billion payday!  And you get to pay higher prices for electricity, gasoline and probabaly damn near everything you buy.

I think the mafia used to have a program like that: “youse gets to pay us and then youse don’t get your legs broke.  Everybody wins.”  Then the government arrested, prosecuted and jailed the gangsters.  This is known as “eliminating the competition”.

The halls of the Capitol must be positively awash in the saliva of drooling legislators and lobbyists anticipating the new funding that awaits their pet projects.  There’s money a-waitin’ to be spent!  This week it was reported that as part of the budget agreement, California’s High Speed Rail would receive 25% of anticipated cap-and-trade revenue.  Anticipated cap and trade revenue.  We’re going to spend anticipated money on an imaginary train.  We could just replace the state goverment with a Sim City game.  Jerry Brown’s not gonna stand for this foolishness, right?  He’s fiscal hawk!  He wants a rainy day fund!  Oh wait…the crazy train is Jerry Brown’s pet.  He wanted 33% of the cap-and-trade “windfall” to go to the Fresno to Lodi express.  Oh, snap – no adult in the room on this one.

$250 Million probably won’t pay for the paper clips when this boondoggle gets underway.  This is like saying we need to spend $20 Billion to dig a giant hole to throw money in.  But the good news is we get to keep throwing money into it…forever!  And create hundreds of jobs!  Because – transportation!  Trains are the future!

 

 

 

 

Old and Busted: Nixon Tapes Missing 18 Minutes! Impeachment! New Hotness: IRS Loses 2 Years of Lerner-White House Emails! Whoopsie! Accidents Happen!

Old and Busted: Nixon Tapes Missing 18 Minutes!  Impeachment!  New Hotness: IRS Loses 2 Years of Lerner-White House Emails!  Whoopsie!  Accidents Happen!

Back in the 70’s when Richard Nixon (R) nearly caused the universe to end by awkwardly covering up some political dirty tricks in the Watergate scandal, there was an episode where it was found that some taped recordings of Oval Office conversations between Nixon and some of the Watergate players contained an 18 minute blank spot.  Anyone familiar with 1970s technology of tape recording could conceive of a legitimate error possibly causing the blank, but foul play was immediately assumed.   This conclusion was most likely correct, and Congress and the public cut Nixon no slack at all.  When threatened with impeachment, Nixon resigned.

Today we learn that as the Congressional inquiry into possible collusion between the White House and the IRS to intimidate, harrass and persecute (and prosecute, for that matter) Republican and Conservative opposition groups, the IRS claims to have lost 2 years worth of e-mails between Lois Lerner and any groups outside of the IRS, such as the White House and Democrat Members of Congress.  But, hey, no big deal.  Accidents happen!  I mean, what big companies and organizations ever take precautions against things like this?  Certainly not the IRS!  Besides – we can trust Barack Obama (D).  See the (D)?  OK then.

Nothing to see here…Move along

You don't argue with an Aardvark

You don’t argue with an Aardvark

More Tightly Reasoned Logic From CA Legislature – SB967

More Tightly Reasoned Logic From CA Legislature – SB967

Today we are learning that a bill in the California State Senate will require written or verbal consent between two students before engaging in sexual activity on campus.  I’ll pause so you can let that sink in for a minute….the state will require two individuals to obtain written or verbal consent before having sex on campus.  Nothing in there about body language.

SB 967 was introduced by Kevin DeLeon (D. Los Angeles) – wait – I thought it was the evil Republicans who wanted to legislate bedroom activity – in response to an alleged epidemic of sexual assaults on campuses nationwide.  This is another example of the ability of California Democrats to hone in on a problem like a laser with logic so tightly reasoned there is no reasonable argument that can be made against their postion.  It goes like this:  there is an undisputed rape epidemic on our college campuses.  Undisputed.  Wait – you dispute it?  You are pro-rape.  The existing laws on the books regarding sexual misconduct are not working – we need another law.  Problem solved.  Your Welcome.

The proposed law is a virtually impenetrable (no pun intended) force field against reckless or unlawful college student sexual activity.  The law only covers sex acts committed on campus.  DIABOLICAL!  No one will figure a way around that.  It requires written or verbal consent.  Aren’t most of these guys attorneys?  The first thing you learn in pre-pre law (which is watching Law & Order) is that a verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.  I’m surpised they don’t require a time stamp on that verbal agreement.  Well, at least it’s for the children.  It is for the children isn’t it?  It’s gotta be.  Yeah, it’s for the Children.  What’s the matter?  You don’t like children?  Pro-rape child hater.

 

 

Old and Busted: White House outs CIA spook – TREASON! New Hotness: White House outs CIA spook – Oopsie! Accidents Happen!

Old and Busted:  White House outs CIA spook – TREASON!  New Hotness:  White House outs CIA spook – Oopsie!  Accidents Happen!

Remember back when Bush was President and during the whole Congessional Inquiry into the Iraq WMD kerfuffle, the name of Washington socialite CIA employee Valerie Plame was published in a news article, and the the Special Prosecutor spent two years going after Scooter Libby for it finally convicting him of something like inadvertently making a false statement?  Good times… anyhoo, turns out now that some of Obama’s folks just outed the CIA Chief in Afghanistan.  Oh well…sh*t happens.  Sorry about that.  Investigation? Special Prosecutor?  Nah… it was just a clerical error.  Besides – see that “D”?  That’s for Double Standard.  Also it’s a get out of jail card so just move along.  Why?  Because shut up that’s why.

They're just stupid that's all

They’re just stupid that’s all

 

Bonus:  Here’s one of the things you’ll find if you google “Sh*t Happens:  click this link to see it happening (not literally!)

 

 

 

 

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