Anti-Cell Phone Law

A driver is weaving in and out of their lane.

Or driving under the speed limit.

Or simply driving in a way that indicated their attention is elsewhere.

Virtually every single time I see that happening, the driver has been on their cell phone.

It's pathetic really.

And against the law.

So why don't people turn off their cell phones while driving or pull over on the side of the road to take an urgent call?

Because the "inconvenience" of following the law is more than the penalty for breaking the law. Except when your bad driving hurts me and my kids.

I have been sick and tired of this selfish behavior for years and years. My children are growing up hearing mommy shout "Shut Up And Drive" their entire lives. But a solution never occurred to me until now.

A Cell Phone Usage Penalty.

On the closest main road to my home, if you get caught speeding on the residential section of it, you get a speeding ticket PLUS a $200 penalty charge.

Why not apply this principle to cell phone usage. Caught speeding and records show you were on the cell phone, $200. Caught running a stop sign or red light and records show you were on the cell phone, $500. Hit a car and records show you were on the cell phone, $1,000. etc. etc.

For every driving offence on the books, simply add a cell phone usage penalty.

I do not own a cell phone but I presume it would be simple enough for the police to ask to see a driver's cell phone and check when the last incoming or outgoing phone calls were made.

Better yet, then they can confiscate the phone until the ticket is paid or after a court date.

I am not necessarily anti-cell phone, just anti-jackasses driving like jackasses because they were too busy talking on their cell phones to other jackasses to pay attention to their own jackass driving.

That's all.

Ask a Democrat

Next time you see a democrat, ask them why we should take them seriously when they aren't taking the ethics scandel around Rangel seriously?

Let alone all the other bozos coming out of the woodwork.

Seriously, has anyone done a conservative vs. liberal scandel count?

Crackberry President

Well, he did mention his pot and cocaine use in his autobiographies. And, of course, he is a smoker.

So it makes sense that he'd indulge his addiction-prone impulses by refusing to give up his blackberry until "Obama's Blackberry tumbled from his belt as he got out of his limousine and onto his plane in Washington. A Secret Service agent hurried to pick up the pieces, gathering the Blackberry and battery off the frigid tarmac."

Blackberry problem solved, right?

Wrong.

He's switching to a smartphone so he can "stay out of the White House fishbowl".

Whatever.

And when assassins use the phone to target Obama's whereabouts because he was too addicted to text messaging to give up the damn thing, then what? Who will be blamed?

Probably conservatives. But as a husband and father, you'd think Obama would care just a little bit more about his personal safety.

Queenie is Losing Her Head

Queen Pelosi has become quite autocratic and her minions are getting a bit upset.

She may face rebellion if she isn't careful about snubbing her "experts" as she's locked herself in her office to write some pretty important bills.

Since when was this Congressional practice? The democrats are calling for a return to order, Mrs. Pelosi. You may want to heed their cries.

I could watch Onion TV All Day Long

Congress Debates Adding Elaborate Dance To Obama's Inauguration Ceremony

A Sickening Taste

Over at Townhall.com, Amanda Carpenter reviews the spending bill complete with links. The SMALL portion of items in this bill will turn your stomach.

She's right, this is frightening.

And remember, this is your money they are spending on this crap.

Manufactured Outrage

GayPatriot has a great post on the manufactured outrage of liberals over all things Bush. I like this site.

Coal is our Friend

Nuclear power is our BFF but it looks like coal might get the break it deserves as it does supply something like 60% of all US electric energy.

Plus, the USA is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We've got something like 600 years of it at current rates of consumption.

So if we can't drill, baby, drill. Then let's dig, baby, dig.

Go Coal!

Joe-The-Plumber Strikes Back

And in a far more dignified, intelligent and, dare I say it, classier way that Mr. Sanchez who comes across as an arrogant, pompous ASS.



I think the reference at instapundit to status anxiety definately applies to the talking heads blowholes like misters Sanchez and Olberman. Let's face it, when bloggers and plumbers are doing better at bringing us the news via the internet than they are, they should be anxious about their status because, right now, it is circling the drain. Probably where it belongs.

Hat Tip Glenn Reynolds

Mr. Montalban Mash-Up with Love

A perfect blend of his most famous TV Commercial and his most famous Movie role.

Rest In Peace.

Artificially Raising Milk Prices

My kids drink three glasses of milk every day. I drink milk every day. I would appreciate it if the government and subsidy-whores - I mean trade associations - didn't artificially increase the price of a product that helps keep my children growing healthy and strong.

What's wrong with you people?!?

Calling Out Rich Liberals

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that a group of protesters is explaining to hypocrits like Robert Redford that his anti-drilling stance is prejudice against poor people.

Finally real truth is being spoken to power.

The protesters, led by the Congress of Racial Equality's national spokesman Niger Innis, suggested Redford should "relinquish his wealth" and live like a poor person. They complained that the filmmaker's anti-drilling stance could lead to higher energy prices for inner-city residents, forcing them to accept a lower standard of living.

The clergymen prayed for Redford "to see the light" and linked his environmental activism with racism.

"The high energy prices we're going to see this winter are essentially discriminatory," said Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of the Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., chairman of the High-Impact Leadership Coalition, a petroleum industry advocate.

Machine vs. Eco

TCS Daily has a great piece up on the economy - is it a machine or an ecosystem.

It is an ecosystem. You can't "fix" an ecosystem as large as our economy. Central command and control has failed over and over and over and over again. Yet, these lefties think they are smarter than the collected lot of us.

Wow

Plane crashed in Hudson River.

Early News says everyone is okay.

Presidents Morphing

This is a cool video of all the presidents morphing into one another from George Washington to about-to-be Obama. Watching the changes in hair styles and beards (check out those Victorian face rugs!) is hilarious.



One thing I did notice was until FDR, all the portraits show somewhat stern, serious men. FDR starts off a chain of small, slight smiles.

Then we get Carter. With that big ole grin of his, and every president afterwards (except Bush Jr. - I have no idea what's going on with his mouth there) has an open-mouth smile.

I think I like the older guys better - at least they look like they are taking the job seriously.

I Won The Canon/Redskins Sweepstakes

Back in September,I won a Canon/Redskins sweepstakes where I got a new Canon camera and tickets to Game 4 of the Washington Redskin’s season where I got to be on the field taking pictures during the game with the team photographer.

Well, the second phase of that sweepstakes was to submit one of the pictures I took while on the field and at the end of the regular season the picture I took would be judged against the other home game winners. And I won the second phase that sweepstakes!

My husband and I will get two VIP tickets to the Washington Redskins Summer Training Camp! I am presuming that means we can meet the players and get autographs – at least that’s what I’m hoping for. I am too pleased for words.

Here is the picture I took.

And here is the website where you can see what I competed against.

Look out Sports Illustrated.

Do Ya Like Bacon?

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/2009/01/bacon_bacon.shtml, Bacon, Bacon. Who doesn't like bacon?

I copy Alton Brown of FoodNetwork/Good Eats fame. I line a quartersheet baking pan with tin foil and put cooke cooling racks on top. I preheat the oven to 350 - 400 degrees and lay an entire pound of bacon on the racks and throw it in the oven.

This method produces crispy bacon, beautiful clear bacon fat, and other than the cooling racks, no mess. (Well you really have to be good about how you line the tinfoil.) By putting the bacon on racks, the strips aren't stewing in their own fat either.

Plus, you have your stovetop free to all the other breakfast side dishes that go with bacon - eggs, pancakes, grits, whatever.

Keep Elaine at Labor

Based on W. James Antle III's post over at NRO and that Obama has not to the best of my knowledge appointed a Secretary of Labor, I vote for keeping Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor.

Can you imagine a cabinet level appointee who actually and consistently reduced their own budget. For that alone, she deserves a standing ovation!

But wait there's more, read the post.

Try Not To Smile While Watching This

Hat Tip Jonah Goldberg

Thank You Mr. Roarke

Ricardo Montalban has left us.

The world feels a little smaller without Khan/Mr. Rourke in it.

I LOVED Fantasy Island as a young girl. Mr. Roarke was so mysterious and glamourous. And as a trekie, Khan was the kick-ass best villian ever.

I am going to miss him. And I had no idea how much work he was still doing.

An amazing man.

Gerrymandering Heights

Slate has a interesting piece up on the upcoming gerrymandering free-for-all we can expect after the 2010 census and what the mathematicians are up to the make sense of it all.

When you look at the accompanying slide show of The Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts, you can easily see why finding a better way makes sense.

Under the Hirsch plan, any public proposal would have to comply with the law and current standards for equal population, continuity, and so forth. For all the plans that passed this threshold, there would be three further metrics:

- County integrity (matching district lines with county lines when possible);

- Partisan fairness (roughly half the districts should be more Democratic than the state as a whole, while the other have should be more Republican—the system doesn't include third parties);

- Competitiveness (a little more complicated, but recalculating previous election data according to the new districts).

The advantage of a plan like Hirsch's, which draws heavily on a lot of the mathematicians' research, is that it's quantifiable. Once plans start rolling in, any future proposal would have to score higher on those three metrics to be considered. And it would be fairly easy to substitute metrics if a particular state wanted, say, to value compactness (or nonbizarreness) over country integrity.

Another Eulogy

I've mentioned Father Richard John Neuhaus previously on this blog due to his recent death and amazing grace. Here is another eulogy from the Washington Post.

Three-Way Tie

I don't care who ends up with who, I'm loving these three - Jindal, Palin, and Blackwell.

Jindal today over at townhall.com was especially good.

And I've gone on for quite some time on the merits of Palin and Blackwell.

These three could be the triumvirate that re-invigorate the conservative party. Let's support them as much as possible!

Floating My Boat

Jennifer Rubin has a really nice Flotsam and Jetsam column over at Commentary. Today's offerings are particularly savory.

The Prescience of Caspar

The El Paso Times is reporting on a US military report warning of Mexico's possible sudden collapse due to "its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels."

Interestingly in the early 1990s, I read a book by Caspar Weinberger that I never forgot. It was called The Next War and in it Weinberger outlined six possible scenarios where the US could be drawn into war. Surprisingly, one was Mexico.

...an American expeditionary force invades Mexico to topple a corrupt and recalcitrant drug-running regime in an attempt to stanch the flow of millions of refugees over the southern U. S. border.

The book is well worth a read and startling for its relative accuracy given the risky nature of predicting the future.