RANDOM THOUGHTS #48
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself.
1. I will go to my grave believing the Casey Anthony killed her daughter. (I will also go to my grave wondering why that trial dominated every news channel for a month.) That said, I don't think I could have voted guilty because there were no forensics, and the CSI Effect (juries expect to see the evidence like on television shows but in reality a lot of cases do not have it). Twenty years ago, Casey would have been convicted on the mountain of circumstantial evidence, but now, juries want DNA and fingerprints and knife marks on ribs. You gotta admit, Doctor Bones Brennan would have found the clue that identified the killer from that pathetic skeleton.
2. The larger point, however, is that Casey Anthony was an irresponsible single mother. She got pregnant when not married, and the facts show that single motherhood costs the US something over $200 billion a year (with a B) because of higher costs for everything (welfare, health care, police). Children of single mothers account for 70% of abused kids and 70% of juvenile delinquents and 70% of criminals. If you account for single motherhood, the crime rate among blacks is identical that among whites. Telling women it was ok to get pregnant and keep the baby was the dumbest thing that Society ever told anybody. (Part of that was rewarding poor women for getting pregnant and not getting married, which started the whole thing rolling.)
3. I watch IN PLAIN SIGHT for Mary Shannon, the cranky female marshal. Leanna and Steven Petrick hate Mary, but watch the show for everyone else on it. Go figure.
4. Raising the debt limit. Sheesh what a mess. This is what happens when the population realizes that they can vote themselves not just the contents of the treasury, but every penny that the government can borrow. The blame falls equally on both of the political parties. The "game of chicken" is going to continue to the end. If we do not raise the debt limit, the government then has to decide what to do with the money they do have (i.e., what the cut because of the money they cannot borrow). If they pay the bonds first, we do not default, so any talk of default is just saying "we want to spend the money on people who will vote for us." There you have it: the people voted themselves the treasury. About 50% of Americans do not pay taxes, so it's easy to get a majority vote to keep spending, and that's not even a party line vote.
5. At Origins, I sent out for BBQ the first five on-site meals, then decided that I wanted turkey, fruit, a salad, and cottage cheese for later meals and did not have more BBQ until I got back to Sweetwater at lunchtime on Monday.
6. If two negatives make a positive, do two positives make a negative? Yeah, right.
7. I came home from Origins to a wife who put me on a diet. However, she did not account for an entire cooler full of leftover brownies, candy bars, and trail mix. Oh well, that stuff will be gone in a few more days.
8. While I was at Origins, Amarillo had its record temperature of all time (109F). A few years ago, Amarillo had the biggest (most destructive) storm of all time a few hours after I left for Origins. Maybe someone is trying to tell me to skip Origins in 2012?
9. Being a businessman, I like watching SHARK TANK, but something that is always confusing is what happens to the money. Is the money going to the owner or into the company to be spent on something other than the owner?
10. If pro and con are opposites, what is the opposite of progress?
1. I will go to my grave believing the Casey Anthony killed her daughter. (I will also go to my grave wondering why that trial dominated every news channel for a month.) That said, I don't think I could have voted guilty because there were no forensics, and the CSI Effect (juries expect to see the evidence like on television shows but in reality a lot of cases do not have it). Twenty years ago, Casey would have been convicted on the mountain of circumstantial evidence, but now, juries want DNA and fingerprints and knife marks on ribs. You gotta admit, Doctor Bones Brennan would have found the clue that identified the killer from that pathetic skeleton.
2. The larger point, however, is that Casey Anthony was an irresponsible single mother. She got pregnant when not married, and the facts show that single motherhood costs the US something over $200 billion a year (with a B) because of higher costs for everything (welfare, health care, police). Children of single mothers account for 70% of abused kids and 70% of juvenile delinquents and 70% of criminals. If you account for single motherhood, the crime rate among blacks is identical that among whites. Telling women it was ok to get pregnant and keep the baby was the dumbest thing that Society ever told anybody. (Part of that was rewarding poor women for getting pregnant and not getting married, which started the whole thing rolling.)
3. I watch IN PLAIN SIGHT for Mary Shannon, the cranky female marshal. Leanna and Steven Petrick hate Mary, but watch the show for everyone else on it. Go figure.
4. Raising the debt limit. Sheesh what a mess. This is what happens when the population realizes that they can vote themselves not just the contents of the treasury, but every penny that the government can borrow. The blame falls equally on both of the political parties. The "game of chicken" is going to continue to the end. If we do not raise the debt limit, the government then has to decide what to do with the money they do have (i.e., what the cut because of the money they cannot borrow). If they pay the bonds first, we do not default, so any talk of default is just saying "we want to spend the money on people who will vote for us." There you have it: the people voted themselves the treasury. About 50% of Americans do not pay taxes, so it's easy to get a majority vote to keep spending, and that's not even a party line vote.
5. At Origins, I sent out for BBQ the first five on-site meals, then decided that I wanted turkey, fruit, a salad, and cottage cheese for later meals and did not have more BBQ until I got back to Sweetwater at lunchtime on Monday.
6. If two negatives make a positive, do two positives make a negative? Yeah, right.
7. I came home from Origins to a wife who put me on a diet. However, she did not account for an entire cooler full of leftover brownies, candy bars, and trail mix. Oh well, that stuff will be gone in a few more days.
8. While I was at Origins, Amarillo had its record temperature of all time (109F). A few years ago, Amarillo had the biggest (most destructive) storm of all time a few hours after I left for Origins. Maybe someone is trying to tell me to skip Origins in 2012?
9. Being a businessman, I like watching SHARK TANK, but something that is always confusing is what happens to the money. Is the money going to the owner or into the company to be spent on something other than the owner?
10. If pro and con are opposites, what is the opposite of progress?
posted by Federation Commander at 8:54 AM
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