Apparently, toy maker Playmobil thinks there’s a burgeoning market in toys for a police state including this roadblock setup. According to the description, they have stop signs, maps and pistols. Of course, if they were really going to do this right, I think they need black cloth bags, zip cuffs and truncheons. Via Hit n’ Run.
Arlo Supports Ron Paul
In the strange bedfellows department, folk-singer Arlo Guthrie has thrown his political hat to Ron Paul with this ringing endorsement:
“I love this guy. Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of The United States had he been there. I’m with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago. I look forward to the day when we can work out the differences we have with the same revolutionary vision and enthusiasm that is our American legacy.”
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Well, This is Depressing
Al-Qaida threats against the Dakar Rally and an attack in Mauritania forced organizers to cancel the annual race on Friday, the eve of the 5,760-mile trek across North African desert scrubland and savannah.
Global Warming Sense in The New York Times?
An editor must have fallen asleep because this gem of an article appeared in yesterday’s New York Times:
You’re in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global warming. You will be told that such bizarre weather must be a sign of dangerous climate change — and that these images are a mere preview of what’s in store unless we act quickly to cool the planet.
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Atlas Shrugged Turns 50
Ayn Rand’s massive work Atlas Shrugged turns 50 this year and the editorials are starting the flow in. The best so far has been from, ironically, the former editor of National Review, Maggie Gallagher. Included in the editorial is one of the best descriptions of why Rand continues to appeal after all of these years:
The key to Ayn Rand is that she pictured America largely from early films from Hollywood. As a young girl growing up in the grim world of communist Russia, she saw America as we dreamed ourselves to be, and she longed her whole life with a child’s intensity to make this vision real, to live in it. We respond to her novels because they offer us one deep strand of American self-identity – as individualists, yes, but individualists who together dream big dreams, conquer wild frontiers, invent the future, remake our very selves.
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Too Close to True
It’s always horrible when The Onion’s humor is so close to the truth that it hurts:
For a majority of likely voters, meaningless bullshit will be the most important factor in deciding who they will vote for in 2008.
The Seven Words in Law
Nice to see that the seven words you can’t say on television were at least quantified in law: HR 3867.
An Important Lesson
Before you have a coronary about gasoline prices, check out this chart from the very informative inflationdata.com:
Even at today’s peak, in terms of real dollars, gas is really not more expensive than it has in the past. It will be ok, the world is not coming to an end . . .
The Scope of Contract
There is an interesting case in Ohio working it’s way through the courts. An employee was fired by UPS when he was discovered to have a dissembled firearm in his car which was parked in a public parking lot shared by both employees and non-employees. The court has ruled that the company’s action was a violation of Ohio’s policy allowing citizens to bear arms. (You can read more details about the case at The Volokh Conspiracy.)
Today's Marijuana is like Cocaine
Rep. Mark Souder R-Ind. makes the assertion on the Tucker Carlson program that not only is today’s marijuana like cocaine, but that thousands of people have died from marijuana and that 65% of emergency drug abuse admissions at hospitals are due to marijuana. Who knew?
See the video here.