I was kind of mindlessly filling it out, and then started asking Liz the questions, and she started yelling at me.

They want to know who we are, what we do, what we make, when we leave for work, how we get there, whether we carpool, a variety of medical questions, and more. Oh, and they threaten you several times about how you’re required by law to respond. (They charge you with a misdemeanor and fine you if you don’t answer it.. but they’ve never done it to anyone).

This is not okay.

Here’s what Ron Paul has to say.

For what good it does, I have emailed my congressman.

The other thing which bugs me is the inefficiency of it all. About half of it is public record and/or information the government has already (census, taxes, etc.), so they HAVE this information.

Then, they send me a letter saying they’re going to send me the survey, the survey, and a postcard saying that they send me the survey. Subsidizing the postal service with additional tax money, are we?

Oh, and apparently the Republican National Committee agrees

This does not currently apply to the states, as this was an appeal from a DC court, and thus is strictly federal.

I should mention that, were it still in effect, this would likely have resulted in the overturning of the assault weapons ban. After all, the ruling was that they can’t ban guns (defacto ban or actual).

Now, McDonald v. Chicago may very well incorporate this down to the states.

If that happens, expect the state assault weapons bans to go be overturned, and the very restrictive gun registration requirements (say, NY City)

I would expect the more reasonable ones (say NY State) to stick around.

So, for me, this is a net win – no more “NY Compliant” black rifles, but I still need to wait for 2 weeks to buy a handgun.

That said, the handgun registry served two purposes:

1. You got background checked by the Sheriff before getting your new gun
2. Your handguns are recorded in a registry

The gun registry and corresponding ballistic databank have been cited as abject failures by every independent study done on them.

The background check is redundant with the federal NICS check.

It would be nice of politicians were rational, saved some money, and abolished these useless enterprises. However, I don’t hold out much hope for that happening. It seems easier to enact laws than get rid of them.

• Been sick with the seasonal flu. Got better. Mostly. Have this nagging cough which is bothering me. But, feeling a little better each day.

• A guy emailed me asking about his website. WTF? Well, apparently there is another Matt Caron, who owns 8bitorange.net, and this guy was looking for web design. Of course, I go look at the site, and I’m like “gack! You need a website redesign, so instead of just doing it, you put up a witty placeholder?” So unprofessional. I didn’t even do that when I redesigned this site, and it’s just a hobby/personal site, not something for a business. But, this ia one of the problems with the state of the industry today. Surprising that anything works.

• A friend sent me this very amusing video clip

• Confirmation of a supreme court justice who does not believe in civil rights.
• Statements of opposition and correlating votes against civil rights.

Specifically, she first voted to confirm justice Sotomayor who has repeatedly voted to deny incorporation to the states of various civil rights which limit what the federal government can do.

Secondly, she has recently corresponded with me where she stated that she is in favor of restricting what people can do with private property, calling the unregulated selling of private property a “loophole”, and further endorses additional (illegal) restrictions on fundamental rights of free people.

This represents a tremendous reversal from her previous positions.

I suggest that, this next election, everyone vote against her. If everyone votes against Schumer as well, with any luck we can get rid of both of them in 2010.

• Severed Fifth – Jono Bacon’s solo metal project. I’ve not listened to the album, but the idea is interesting.

• Matt and Trey given signed photo of Saddam Hussein – Basically, the US Marines made him watch the South Park movie. I find this absolutely hilarious. But, then again, I’m a little odd like that.

• Bacon plasma cutter – Awesome

• Newsweek article about a poor girl who was killed in a car accident. This, though tragic, is unremarkable. What is remarkable, however, is the fact that the photos of the crime scene made it on to the internet, and the family has been working to get them squashed. While I feel bad for the family, I can’t really agree with the idea that the laws should be strengthened to “fix” this. See, this is being painted as a “the internet is bad” thing, but, theoretically, if someone were to take out a billboard and put it up, that wouldn’t be illegal either, I think. While it is the height of scumbaggery, I really have issues with changing laws to stifle free speech – as objectionable as that speech may be.

• And then there’s this review – Now, Liz and I bought this kettle. We followed the instructions (boil with vinegar, then a couple of times with plain water). Our water here is very good, and I would detect off flavors – I don’t. There is nothing wrong with the one we have – but we have the plain stainless steel one, and this reviewer had the enameled one, so maybe that’s the different. But, here’s the kicker: at the end, the reviewer goes off as follows:

If capitalism is such a wonderful economic system, why does it seem to churn out defective products like this almost routinely? Of course, when we find ourselves mired, as we are now, in a nasty global recession that might devolve into something even worse, we have much greater grounds for challenging the leading economic ideology of our time.

The markets are filled with crap because people buy crap. Just look at computers – most of the hardware is complete and total crap. Hell, Microsoft has a whole ad campaign about it – Don’t buy expensive, well built Macs, buy cheap crappy generic Windows laptops where the screen will break off, the CPU will overheat and cook itself to death, or the flex in the case will be so great that it will dislodge chips on the motherboard. (I notice that they’re not pimping T-Series thinkpads.. likely because they’re out of the $1k price range. (Oh, and before folks mistake me for a Apple fanboy, while I like their hardware, they still don’t make a 15″ laptop with a high enough resolution screen, and OSX doesn’t work for me).

• Let’s hear it for the last bastion of freedom.. oh wait – Okay, so there are two UK racists who are posting holocaust denials, racist writings, etc. on a server in California. They are arrested, because saying hurtful things is apparently now illegal in the UK, so these guys fled to the US seeking asylum.. where it was rejected on the grounds that “… the men hadn’t shown they had been persecuted in the past or likely to face future persecution.” So, apparently being arrested for social views is not persecution? If you believe that, I have some nice oceanfront property in Utah I can sell you.

• This dude is allergic to WiFi But it may not be real – No kidding. Look folks, there’s so much crap out there from random radiated emissions (radio towers, your microwave, your TV, your cell phone, your wireless phone, etc.) that you can’t be so in-tune with the 2.4GHz spectrum that it causes you pain. Of course, this could just be sensationalizing and/or getting facts wrong, but even aside from that, there is this outstanding issue of there being a TON of radiated crap out there. You’d be dealing with this from birth, and getting the wobblies every time sunspots flared up…

I think that’s about it for now. Time to head to bed.

Linky, click “votes”.

In Honor of the 44th President of the United States, Baskin-Robbins Ice
Cream has issued a new flavor, ” Barocky Road .”

Barocky Road is a blend of half Vanilla, half Chocolate, and surrounded
by Nuts and Flakes.

The Vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually
denied as an ingredient.

The Nuts and Flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow.

The Cost is $100.00 per scoop.

When purchased, it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone,
but then the Ice Cream is taken away and given to the person in line
behind you.

Thus you are left with an empty wallet, no change, holding an empty
cone, with no hope of getting any Ice Cream.

Aren’t you feeling stimulated?

I am amused.

I should note that this was a vote from the human rights council.

The US should leave the UN. Immediately. They are more concerned with stability than freedom, and UN representatives have stated in reports that they would rather allow genocide to happen than to allow trade in weapons so that people can defend themselves. The logic? If one side gets wiped out, the combat settles down and peace returns to the region.

The folks that were wiped off the face of the earth apparently don’t matter.