Halloween punk bash

Last night, Fueled By Failure, played a short 10 minute set at a local bar here in Las Vegas, along with 14 other punk bands. The cd release party held for the release of Sniffin' Glue: A Las Vegas Tribute to the Ramones was a similar event and it was so successful that it was decided more events like this should happen. So that is what last night was. Also, just like last time, we got a really good response from the punk crowd. Maybe it is because what we do is so different then what they are used to.

Last night's show will be our last until next year.

Something rotten in Washington

I don't really know why I bother to read stories from the New York Times. It's so utterly left it is practically unreadable. Maybe its because in the paper I see proof of socialist downfalls that Ayn Rand writes about in her novels.

Even more crazy, is that I occaisonally read the opinion pieces in the newspaper, which is usually further left than the rest of the paper. Today, however, there is a real gem that states the truth about the vaccine situation.

To the Editor:

In your Oct. 23 editorial "Vaccine for Congress and the Bears," you write that "when this crisis is over, Congress ought to explore whether the federal government needs additional powers to mandate that limited amounts of vaccine be reserved for those who truly need it."

I view the problem differently. Congress needs to explore ways to ensure that the flu vaccine is available to anyone who wants it.

There's something rotten in Washington when the richest country in the world has to resort to rationing preventative health care.

There's something rotten in Washington... Not in the vaccine business making the vaccine, not in health clinics administering the vaccine, but in Washington.

Destroy the Orcs

No, its not some crazy game. This was the title of a song that the band 3 Inches of Blood played tonight. This band is the bastard child of Judas Priest and Cradle of Filth. They played classic metal with not one, but two singers. One piping out high pitched vocals like Halford, and the other one screeching out his best Dani Filth impression. The guitarists were axeing out those galloping guitar riffs that just make you bang your fist in the air.

I bought a shirt and their newest cd, but I'm hesitant to listen to it, because although they were enjoyable live, I'm afraid the album will just be horrible.

Ready... set... vote!

I voted today! Have you?

Detroit News endorses no one

An editorial in The Detroit News announces that the conservative leaning newspaper is not endorsing any of the candidates this year.

Here is a description of a candidate they would endorse:

The Ideal President

So what are we looking for in a president?

Someone who will be a good steward of the people's money; someone who trusts citizens to use their own resources to solve their own problems, and those of their communities.

Someone who is willing to set priorities and stick to them; someone who places the needs of the nation above political agendas.

Someone who understands that business, commerce and profits are not dirty words - they're where the jobs come from. Someone who sees America still as a land of economic opportunity and encourages citizens to pursue their dreams, rather than constantly reminding them of the obstacles in their path.

Someone who respects the Constitution and recognizes that the document should not be twisted by each generation to answer passing threats.

We want a president whose character and temperament match the demands of the office. We want a president who appreciates that the responsibility of being the world's military superpower requires a deft touch to maintain harmonious relationships.

That person is not on the ballot this time. We are unwilling to settle for less.

Their conclusion is ridiculous. There is a person on the ballot that meets all those criteria. That person is, of course, Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian party. If The Detroit News is so disgusted with Bush and Kerry, this is the perfect opportunity to endorse Badnarik. They need to give their readers an alternative to voting for Bush or Kerry.

The media once again continues to ignore the Libertarians and Michael Badnarik.

Stop and think

Thomas Sowell spews forth more of that damn fine intelligence of his. Be an educated voter! He is obviously partisan in the column, but he still has a good message for everyone.

eBay auction: The United States of America

It is official. Everything is for sale on ebay. View this while you can, it will probably get removed. Thanks to my brother for this link.

UPDATE: The item is no longer valid. Funny while it lasted though.

'Reason'able voting

Reason magazine reveals an interesting view into the votes of various people.

As Campaign 2004 entered its home stretch, we asked a variety of policy wonks, journalists, thinkers, and other public figures in the reason universe to reveal for whom they are voting this fall, for whom they pulled the lever last time around, their most embarrassing presidential vote, and their favorite president of all time. Their answers, as of late August, follow.

And for anyone who doesn't want to go through and count who wins, I will do the work for you. The half votes are from people who were undecided between two candidates, or between one candidate and none.

Total Votes: 45 1/2
Michael Badnarik: 9 1/2
George W. Bush: 11
John Kerry: 13
Ralph Nader: 0
Not voting / not telling: 12

Good showing Badnarik! He probably cost Bush the election from this little vote. Of course, the American public has less reason, so Badnarik will not get as good of a showing in the general election.

Stanhope endorses Badnarik

Doug Stanhope, one of the new hosts of The Man Show writes up a glowing endorsement of Michael Badnarik.

Here's how America will vote.

Idiots will vote for George W Bush.

Idiots who think they are smart will vote for John Kerry.

I am voting for the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. And so would most people if they believe in all the rhetoric they spout about freedom and the "American Way".

Or if they simply knew about him.

Well who is this guy? Did he ever fingerbang his babysitter? Could have. Did he smoke pot? Dunno. Did he go to Vietnam? Who gives a shit. Are his daughters fuckable? Haven't seen a picture.

But his ideas make sense, which seems to be the last thing the voting public care about in an election.

...

They say America loves an underdog but the truth is that America would throw an underdog under a bus tire and laugh about it without flinching. An underdog has to beat the odds first before the masses jump on the bandwagon. This is why you barely hear any word of third parties anymore or see gang members wearing Bengals jerseys.

Rooting for a favorite is like hanging around a casino and cheering for the house. You may get to applaud more than the gamblers but you just look like a douchebag.

Wonderfully spoken.

Tommy Franks on Tora Bora

John Kerry has been talking recently how we nearly had Bin Laden and Bush outsourced the job to the Afghans and as a result Bin Laden got away. Tommy Franks, the former general, rebuts Kerry's arguments.

First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.

Second, we did not "outsource" military action. We did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew Tora Bora, a mountainous, geographically difficult region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is where Afghan mujahedeen holed up for years, keeping alive their resistance to the Soviet Union. Killing and capturing Taliban and Qaeda fighters was best done by the Afghan fighters who already knew the caves and tunnels.

Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes. Pakistani troops also provided significant help - as many as 100,000 sealed the border and rounded up hundreds of Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Incorrect global warming evidence

Monte Carlo calculations used in making a plot that supported the case for global warming that was in Nature magazine has been found to be inaccurate. Michael Mann and colleagues, the original authors have found some mathematical flaws in the simulations used to create the plot.

The really interesting thing is that Nature refused to publish their corrections to their original paper. So one can't criticize Mann and co. for trying to get the corrections out.

What do you win?

Vin Suprynowicz writes an awesome endorsement of Michael Badnarik.

Yes, the foreign-policy deference of Mr. Kerry (and his collaborationist wing of the Democratic Party) to France and the U.N. is pathetic. Yes, left to their own devices (but there’s a substantial caveat, given the relentless inertial guidance systems of the Washington bureaucracy) the Kerry crew would probably accelerate job-destroying business and "environmental" regulation and freedom-destroying gun bans, while "taxing the rich" in ways unseen since Leningrad, 1921.

Whereas Mr. Bush – freed to be as bold as he likes by Republican control of both houses of Congress – had worked over the past four years to restore our limited, constitutional government ... how?

By setting the precedent that the New American Empire can and will invade and occupy any foreign country that he believes has "weapons of mass destruction"? (When do we go after Red China?)

By bragging in his campaign literature that he rammed through the "Patriot Act," aiming to give John Ashcroft (surely the most freedom-loving attorney general since Mitchell Palmer) the never-to-sunset power to snoop us without warrants and hold us without trial? By wasting $10 billion on "upgrades" that render the dignity-destroying airport search scam not a whit more effective than it proved on Sept. 11? (One Texas airport manager has compared the whole exercise to "putting a steel door on a grass hut.")

Have the Republicans even gotten around to keeping Ronald Reagan’s 1980 promise to close down the federal Departments of Energy and Education – let alone Agriculture, Health and Human Services?

Are they waiting till they control the White House and every seat in Congress? Do you really think they’d do it, even then?

Go read the whole thing now.

Yepp, I bought a toy

I just purchased a fancy schmancy itty bitty mp3 player. Its a Samsung Yepp YP-T5V USB removable storage thingy with 256 megs. I can fill it up with metal goodness and drown out all the annoying noises at the gym or wherever. This is the first mp3 player I've purchased so my opinion of it can't really be based against any other models but I love the little thing. It didn't require installing any of the prepackaged software. My computer recognized it as soon as I plugged the thing in and turned it on. I can fit plenty of music on it for any occasion. It can even outlast a plane flight from Las Vegas to Ohio.

The only drawback I've had with it so far is the bass is kinda weak on the guy. There's a TruBass eq mode on it that compensates, but the earbuds that came with it can't handle it. So maybe with a new set of earphone things it would be better. But the thing does sound decent and I can now listen to music every second of the day if I so pleased.

So if anyone wants a recommendation on an mp3 player, I highly recommend this little guy. Great value for a good price.

National crisis: Immunization from the FDA

Before I begin, everyone should read this paper. I found it as I was looking into this topic.

So as everyone knows, we have a flu vaccine shortage upon us. All the news claim that the fault is because of suppliers, such as Chiron, shutting down, which has strained the supply. Because of the shortage, some companies are 'price gouging' their consumers for up to 10 times the cost of the vaccine. Because of this, people are demanding the government become involved to stop the price gouging and distribute the vaccine to those at highest risk.

Here is a news article released at the end of last year.

Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the CDC, told the group that manufacturers had been unable to grow the Fujian strain in chicken eggs -- the only FDA-approved method of reproducing the virus for use in vaccines.

Doesn't anyone see the source of the problem of this shortage? Its our own FDA and government intervention in the vaccination industry. The FDA has forced all kinds of regulations on the manufacturing of vaccinations, where the only choice for a business is comply or leave the industry. They must wait until the FDA tells them what viral strains must be included in the vaccinations, which forces companies to wait until the FDA decides upon the recipe before beginning the six to eight month production of the vaccine. The FDA decides what methods are 'safe' enough that companies can use to produce the vaccinations. The FDA mandates what equipment a manufacturer must use to produce the vaccine.

So with all these regulations companies must comply with in order to produce a vaccine, their costs obviously increase. If their costs increase, they must charge more to make any sort of profit. But when vaccination prices increase, the consumers and government cry 'price gouging...'

“Shame on the people who are price-gouging,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There’s no room for this kind of behavior in an environment where we need to pull together as a country to protect our vulnerable populations.”

Federal prosecutors could use a variety of fraud, conspiracy and other charges to pursue individuals or companies thought to be engaging in price-gouging. Some states are taking their own action.

...and force the companies to sell the vaccine at a fixed cost.

Is it any surprise that we can count influenza vaccination suppliers on one hand? First our government forces higher production costs upon the supplier and then forces them to sell the vaccine at an unprofitable cost. And then the government acts surprised that no one wants to produce flu vaccines.

The remaining firm, Aventis Pasteur, can’t make more vaccine in time for the flu season and it has only about 55.4 million doses available for this season, simply not enough to go around. The government is negotiating with other vaccine makers in hopes of shaking loose a bit more.

The government is asking companies to invest in a market by the same government that makes the market unprofitable! The irony is laughable.

How can people want national health care? It absolutely boggles my mind. This flu vaccine situation is a direct consequence of what happens when the government butts its evil head into an industry. The FDA, other government regulations, and price fixing is destroying our health industry! Kerry's plan for national health care actually scares me. I worry about the future of our medical industry if he were elected. Our own government that is supposed to be looking out for us has their tight grips upon the throat of this industry. Do we want those hands strangling the rest of the medical industry? The paper linked above states the situation simply

If FDA regulations continue to drive more and more companies out of the vaccine business, scarcities will remain a threat.

Let the free market control the industry. Drug companies will do best when they are allowed to make money. Vaccination supplies will be plentiful and at low costs if ridiculous regulations aren't forced upon them. And best of all, the consumer will decide which company produces the best flu vaccine.

UPDATE: Chicken soup!

Kerrynomics

Here's a bombshell that Bush will hopefully unleash against Kerry tonight. 368 Economists, including 6 nobel laureates, have written a letter denouncing Kerry's economic plans.

All in all, John Kerry favors economic policies that, if implemented, would lead to bigger and more intrusive government and a lower standard of living for the American people.

Axe the FEC

Regulating political speech on the internet? We all know how well the McCain-Feingold act worked for the mainstream media. Just stop already with violating our free speech rights.

"I don't think anybody here wants to impede the free flow of information over the Internet," Weintraub said. "The question then is, where do you draw the line?"

How about not drawing a line?

Letter to the editor

My younger brother, Mark, who is infinitely more eloquent than I am, wrote a letter to the editor which hopefully will be published in his school's newspaper, The BGNews. He mentions how our tax dollars are funding the debates of Bush and Kerry at the exclusion of third party candidates.

Bill Cosby speaks again

Bill Cosby once again states what every child in the United States needs to hear.

"Study. That's all. It's not tough. You're not picking cotton. You're not picking up the trash. You're not washing windows. You sit down. You read. You develop your brain."

Why can't kids today just work? Why must they have everything handed to them on a silver plate? I'm tired of trying to teach college students physics when they can't even do 7th grade algebra or graph a straight line and then expect me to give them an 'A.'

"But sir, I'll never need to know how to do this again in my life!"

Well, do you intend to be stupid for the rest of your life?

Tax cuts = good

And this year's Nobel laureate for economics, Edward Prescott, supports this claim as well.

"Tax rates were not cut enough."

John Kerry thinks you're rich

I happened to stumble upon Club For Growth, a conservative / republican website. The banner I saw made me think it might be a libertarian site, but I was wrong. This group has put out a couple of TV ads, one of which I've seen here in Nevada. I watched the others that are posted on the site, and the end of this one actually made me laugh. It addresses John Kerry's stance on only taxing the rich and its cleverly done. Go watch it.

A social security wager

Cato is an endless supply of free market arguments, and of course, social security is often discussed. Anyone willing to think a few seconds about social security will realize how ridiculous the program is. Who in their right mind would choose to invest in an organization 7 trillion dollars in debt as opposed to organizations that actually make money? So a Cato scholar gives some advice to Bush to make a wager to Kerry on privatizing social security.

For instance, President Bush could make the following proposal to Sen. Kerry:

"Take two workers, each earning an identical income. One will be allowed to invest 2 percent of his income in a private Social Security account. The other will have to place the same amount of money into the current government-run system. After a specified amount of time, analysts will calculate the amount of return each worker would have received on his investment. If the worker who kept his money in the traditional Social Security program would come out ahead, Bush will pay Kerry the difference. Likewise, if the reverse happens, Kerry would pay Bush the difference.

Then, after Bush wins the wager, he could simply tell all social security privatization opponents to shut the fuck up.

Our economy

More evidence to throw into the democrat's faces when they try to tell us our economy is in the toilet. There's a lot of interesting facts in there that I did not know before reading the article. Here's the conclusion of the article.

The economy has added more than 1.5 million payroll jobs over the past year and nearly 2 million jobs on the household survey. Most indicators point towards continued growth. Output is booming, the manufacturing outlook is positive, business confidence is high, and productivity continues to set records. Even such favorites among economic pessimists like data on long-term unemployment, manufacturing employment, and worker discouragement are showing marked improvement. Unfortunately for the pessimists, these are the facts that frame the debate on the economy today.

John Kerry has a plan

Legal XXX and BoiFromTroy display all 29 of Kerry's 'plans.'

Want some wood?

This small meaningless quote gave the debate to Bush. Bush did significantly better in this debate than the previous one, but John Kerry is too good at debating to really lose a debate. The two went back and forth on their positions in the entirely serious manner of the night, but Bush's ability to bring in some humor with his little joke, at the expense of Kerry nonetheless, will mean a lot to people. 'Want some wood' will be the memorable thing taken away from tonight's debate.

The only other interesting news from the debate was that Michael Badnarik and David Cobb were arrested by crossing police lines.

A Libertarian vs a Green

Here's a great debate between a Libertarian and a Green. It covers many of the current popular issues. Of course, the Libertarian wins the debate, but that's no surprise considering the Greens are complete socialists and everyone knows how well socialist governments do.

Here are some standout quotes on issues from Mike Kole, the libertarian.

On democracy

Democracy is often little more than two wolves and a sheep conspiring over what to have for dinner...

On good willed capitalists

That's redundant. No capitalist hates his customer. The capitalist who hates the customer suffiently loses the customer.

On parents who have to work multiple jobs to support kids.

The parents who chose to have children without the means to support them have chosen a hard life. By what right do people who make such choices suppose that they should not have to face a predictable outcome at the expense of someone else?

On outsourcing

I don't have a problem with outsourcing at all. What outsourcing does is allows people to find the lowest price possible for services. The issue of chasing the lowest price for labor is not a new one. Once again, go to school on British history. The British mercantilist policy was a protectionist one. It attempted to keep jobs and trade within Britain. It didn't work, and the beneficiary of this failed policy was the United States, with its pool of cheap, eager labor.

The United States is moving increasingly towards making the protectionist mistakes Britain made. The outcome of doing so will be predictable.

And here's Mike stating the best reason I have heard on why to vote for Kerry.

Kerry, only because it would cause gridlock. The GOP has told the American people for years that they were the party of smaller government, and if only they had the Congress and the White House... Alas. The GOP has the Congress and the White House, and government has grown faster and larger than ever before, at a rate that made FDR and LBJ look like deciples of Milton Friedman. Gimme that gridlock. Let Kerry and the Congress fight like dogs.

SpaceShipOne, GovernmentZero

Hat tip to my brother, Mark, for finding this spiffy libertarian activism link involved with the X Prize winner.

Saddam bribery and the liberal media

So, the Iraq Survey Report was released last night. Look here and here. It states the evidence of how Saddam bribed the French, Russians, and Chinese into opposing American action against Iraq. The report also describes how Saddam planned on restarting weapons programs after sanctions were lifted, and was influencing countries to oppose the sanctions. Here's some interesting tidbits from the articles.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.
...
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.
...
A memo sent to Saddam dated in May last year from his intelligence corps said they met with a "French parliamentarian" who "assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the UN Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq."

and from the other article.

"The lion's share of Iraq's undeveloped oil fields went to Russia," said the report. In 2002, Russian firms negotiated 10-year contracts to begin exploring Iraqi oil fields.

Of course, there is another point raised in the report.

But the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which returned its full report last night, said Saddam was telling the truth when he denied on the eve of war that he had any weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He had not built any since 1992.

This a huge report, 918 pages, with a lot of information about Saddam's weapons programs, the UN Oil for Food scandal, and his attempts at influencing other countries. Let's look at the headlines across our own American media.

New York Times: U.S. Report Finds Iraqis Eliminated Illicit Arms in 90's
Los Angeles Times: Iraq's Illicit Weapons Gone Since Early '90s, CIA Says
CBS: Iraq WMD Hunt Comes Up Empty
AP: Report: Report: U.N. Program Full of Corruption
In all fairness, AP's headline is not as ridiculous as the others.

Go read all these articles and compare them to the articles from the Scotsman and the Telegraph. With the exception of the AP article, these articles barely touch on all the bribery and corruption of Saddam and the U.N. oil for food program.

Because the media wants John Kerry to win, they are going to try like hell to avoid coverage of this UN scandal and the Saddam's bribery of France, Russia, China, and other countries. One of Kerry's main platforms is that he would appease the UN and bring in more countries to help us with Iraq. Well, if people knew that the UN was worthless and corrupt as hell, it would make Bush look better by ignoring the objections of the French, Russians, and others. And God forbid the news report anything thatmight benefit Bush.

Just look at that whole Rathergate CBS situation. They do not want to release the report into the scandal because it might affect the election. Well damn, they had no concerns about affecting the election when they went on the air with the Bush documents on 60 Minutes.

UPDATE: The Weekly Standard responds to the NYTimes article.

I hate Boston

Well... not the city, but a sinkhole of a bar near the UNLV campus called The Boston. Last night had the potential to be a very nice concert. A small metal show was scheduled. Vehemence, a fantastic new death metal band from Arizona was opening. A brutal death metal band called Mortician was scheduled to go on second, and a British death / black metal band called Akercocke was headlining.

But no, the night was a disaster. I was one of maybe 12 other people that actually made it to the show. You see, The Boston doesn't know the advantages of advertising. I guess they expect the bands to advertise for the show at their bar. So in effort to wait for more people to show up, Vehemence didn't go on until about 10pm. And then they only played 4 songs. They were very good, despite the mediocre sound at The Boston, but 4 songs just isn't fulfilling, especially when they were really the only band I was anticipating.

So after Vehemence we waited... and waited... and waited some more for Mortician to go on. At 11 however we noticed that they still had not set up their equipment so we just decided to leave. Outside, a few of the members from Mortician and Akercocke were discussing how The Boston had not written up a contract or anything so they were probably not going to be payed what they were promised. So sure enough, they start hauling their stuff back outside and into their van.

Fueled By Failure has played The Boston on occasion, and our impression of the place is that they are actively trying to make bands hate them and never want to play there again, so this whole fiasco does not really surprise me. Although The Boston had recently changed management and had remodeled the inside, so there was the possibility that the show would go smoothly. But no, they still are trying very hard to piss of bands.

And this is what I missed the vice presidential debate for... Guess I'll go find a transcript.

Global test

Kerry's little catch phrase that he probably wishes he hadn't said has started causing some controversy. The premise of just how the phrase sounds is ridiculous. What the hell is a global test? Is he arguing that we have to seek approval from the world before defending our country? But defenders of Kerry claim that he did explain it and everyone is taking it out of context, so lets look at what exactly what he said.

But if and when you do [pre-emptive war], Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

Ok, so this global test is two-fold. First, the people must understand why the President plans on going to war. Well, I don't think anyone can argue that the President never gave an argument as to why we were going to war. Bush claimed that Saddam had WMDs, that he was an evil brutal dictator, that we needed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and numerous other reasons for why he was leading us into Iraq. So Bush passed part one of the global test. One can disagree with whether or not Bush's plan was the right one, but he definitely stated his reasons as to why we were going to war.

The second part of the test, which is of course the ridiculous part, is that you have to prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons. So did Bush prove that Saddam had WMDs? No, not really, but everyone else thought he did too. France thought Iraq had WMDs. England thought they had WMDs. From General Tommy Franks book, the Egyptians thought Iraq had WMDs. Many others thought Saddam had WMDs. Everyone thought that Saddam was a brutal dictator and that the world would be better without a man like that in power. The U.N. even passed resolutions and sanctions in attempt to remove him from power. So how can anyone possibly argue that Bush did not have the approval that Saddam should be removed?

So in my eyes, Bush passes Kerry's silly global test.

Iraq shenanigans

CNSnews seems to have uncovered something on the whole Iraq WMD's and terroist ties. Hopefully all the information they have discovered is legit.

X prize winner

SpaceShipOne succeeded on its second 62 mile altitude flight today. There's also a little pictoral link near the middle of the article that details the SpaceShipOne thats interesting to look at.