Quotes, Quips and Questions Posted by: McQ
on Saturday, August 05, 2006
What a weird group of links I have this week. First we visit the Senate where there is an emerging problem which appears to be disturbing our elected officials:
“I hesitate to say that it’s a big problem,” said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, shaking his head gravely. “There is terrific crowding.”
Yes folks, the Senator only elevators are becoming crowded by tourists, interlopers, guests and others. What's a senator to do?
At times, senators even find themselves on public elevators, an ordeal fraught with the possibility of having to push their own buttons (the senators-only elevators usually have attendants).
Push their own button? Perish the thought.
Meanwhile in Malaysia, Adolph Hitler is out as a baby name:
Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Zaniah (female adulterer), Batumalai (stone hill) or Ah Kow (dog) figure amongst a list of names that are termed "undesirable" for use by Malaysians to christen their children.
The National Registration Department has forbidden the country's multi-ethnic community comprising Malays, Indians and Chinese from using names from a list that it has compiled, the 'New Strait Times' said today.
"The department has put up a list of 'undesirable' names in a bid to spare a child the blushes when he/she grows up," the paper reported.
I mean who would want to live in a place where the government decides what you can and can't name your kid. But more importantly, who'd want to live in a culture that thinks Adolph Hitler and Stalin are people you want to name them after in the first place?
In Merry Old England, police are busy dealing harshly with criminals:
To the 12-year-old friends planning to build themselves a den, the cherry tree seemed an inviting source of material.
But the afternoon adventure turned into a frightening ordeal for Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith after they climbed into the 20ft tree - then found themselves hauled into a police station and locked in cells for up to two hours.
Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken.
Officers told the children they had been seen damaging the tree which is in a wooded area of public land near their homes.
What in the world ever happened to common sense — for the police? Jail and DNA? For this? Yeesh.
A man making a fake 9-1-1 call in an effort to divert a police officer from writing his friend a speeding ticket got caught in the act and ended up in the slammer himself, Salem police said.
Not only did the suspect make a phony 9-1-1 call, he did it right in front of a police officer, and the dispatch center got it all on tape, according to authorities.
Read it. And he might have pulled it off had he not been doing it right in front of the cop. Heh ...
A Greenland microbrewery is producing beer using water melted from the Arctic icecap of the island. The water is said to be over 2000 years old and thus free from modern pollutants.
[...]
The beer - available in dark and pale ale varieties - apparently tastes softer and cleaner than other beers thanks to the purity of the water.
Ah the entreprenurial spirit. Gotta love it. And ... I want some of that. The beer that is. Got all the "spirit" I can handle right now.
Ever wonder how many Americans renounce their citizenship each year? Apparently not many:
In any event, the number of renunciants is small. In 2002, for example, the Register recorded only 403 departures, of which many (if not most) were merely longtime resident aliens returning home.
A whole lot of bitching goes on, but few who walk out the door never to come back ... at least willingly.
We believe that universal health care is a basic right for each and every American," Mr. Lamont said. "It won't take me 18 years to go down to Washington, D.C., and get that done."
Heaven save us from those who feel it is their right to grant privileges to others with your money. That's not the government I want or for which I signed up.
And we end with a story about a very crafty criminal who had NYPD stumped for, oh, about 4 seconds:
A Brooklyn teen, apparently angry about a drug bust, didn't know write from wrong when he mailed cops an envelope stuffed with white powder - and bearing his name and address.
Cops from the 73rd Precinct easily tracked down Adbullah Date shortly after the letter arrived at the East New York Avenue station house Wednesday.
"Ha Ha, [you] thought it was anthrax. F - - - you," Date, 18, allegedly scribbled. He also taunted: "Catch me if you can."
Then he wrote his name, birthday and Hull Street address on the envelope, says a complaint unsealed by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office.
They just don't make "gangsters" like they used too.
We believe that universal health care is a basic right for each and every American," Mr. Lamont said. "It won’t take me 18 years to go down to Washington, D.C., and get that done."
Heaven save us from those who feel it is their right to grant privileges to others with your money. That’s not the government I want or for which I signed up.
Just a minor downside for aligning oneself with Democrats. But remember all the good that can come from a Dem-Libertarian alliance.
Sadly, I think it’s more a matter of incompetence than pomposity.
"What in the world ever happened to common sense — for the police? Jail and DNA? For this? Yeesh."
There are similar examples in the US. We are becoming a "nation of laws"(and, of course, the ensuing regulations), which seems to be many people’s goal, wherein the use of personal discretion and judgement, no matter how expert or experienced, are strictly forbidden and punished.
" I’m sorry, but other than silly, I never saw the point. "
This is Congress you are speaking of; a rational point is not necessary.
