Mail 738 Monday, August 20, 2012

Regarding the D’Souza piece

Jerry:

Here’s where he lost me:

"A couple of years ago, George teamed up with a British journalist Damien Lewis and the two of them published George’s story in a book called "Homeland." Yet according to Lewis, shortly before the book’s publication in America, the publisher Simon & Schuster decided to shred the **entire** print run, more than 20,000 copies." (emphasis added)

OK, that implies there should be no US-published copies available, which should be fairly easy to check. I went to barnesandnoble.com. I went to amazon.com.

Hardcover copies by Simon & Schuster are available in both venues, and there are both Nook and Kindle editions — which would presumably have come out after the hardcover.

Perhaps the rest of the article has some grains of truth in it. But if D’Souza can’t be bothered with the easy-to-check stuff, it prompts me to be even more skeptical on the hard-to-check, no secondary source, "I alone escaped to tell thee" stuff.

Hoping this finds you well,

— Hal

I have no idea. Perhaps someone more familiar with this can comment? I have not met Mr. D’Souza but I know many people who have, and I have worked with some of them. But you ask a question that deserves an answer.

Maybe Apple doesn’t have special screws to keep you out of their hardware, but I know from repair experience on a MacBook Pro (the ones where the battery is completely internal) that their battery is held in by screws that need a special tool. At the time I was doing this repair, this tool was only sold online to authorized dealers. Fortunately, some non-optimal tools can be adapted to remove the battery.

The place to go when you want to get inside Apple hardware is iFixit.com.

Tom Brosz

Thank you.

Not just bunny inspectors ….

Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/17404

Monty

In the army we called them farriers and there was a theoretical slot for them in cavalry regiments in Headquarters Troop. I expect they have revised that in the past decades.

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-lunch-lady-20120817,0,5201567.story>

Roland Dobbins

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Dependence

Jerry,

I run a little website and one of my guest writers has come up with a really interesting take on society’s current entitlement mindset. He’s taken Maslows Heirarchy of Needs and is examining entitlements and government actions under a hierarchy of dependence (using Maslow’s needs hierarchy)…I think it’s a cool concept and haven’t seen it covered anyplace else. Be interested in your thoughts if you had time to take a look at it… http://prepography.com/category/guestblogger/roger-reality/

Wish I’d come up with it,

Andrew J. Jackson

Allies

Dr Pournelle, here is a thought about protection of the people. I’ve had a few liberals tell me that they see the need for a powerful Federal Government in order to protect the people from Big Business.

It is my contention that this is insane.

First, as a matter of history, the government, weak when Teddy was in charge as compared to today, had little trouble beating up on business when it was relatively very powerful. Even today little tinhorn states around the world routinely nationalize or blackmail multinational corporations without fear.

Second, and more importantly, big government and big business are natural allies. Government has power, but wants money. Business has money, but wants power. Government sees business as a source of revenue to buy votes and ensure friends and allies are taken care of, and even themeselves once they leave government service. Business sees government as a source of protection from competition. Neither has any great need for specific people, just sufficient to pay taxes, vote and purchase goods and services.

So, why would anyone think big government will provide any protection from big business? Aside from political rhetoric and the drek we get for entertainment, I see no such reason. Far more often we see powerful businessmen like Corzine getting preferential treatment by the government, or government officials like Stephanopoulos getting hired on by one business or another after leaving the government.

G

Conservatives do not believe in weak government; it should be strong, but its size and jurisdiction should be limited. And certainly there is more than enough power over Wall Street except that the system is so large now that it can’t act quickly or effectively.

Armed Pizza Delivery

I guess, now, we have to admit that things have gone pear shaped:

<.>

Has it come to this? Yes it has, according to Joan McKenna, whose son Tim McKenna, 19, was shot while delivering pizza in Detroit.

In the wake of the shooting, a Jets Pizza franchise in Dearborn ruled it will no longer deliver to Detroit after dark. Before the shooting, they sent two drivers to every nighttime Detroit delivery, one of whom was armed, Joan McKenna said.

“They usually send somebody with a guy … who carries a gun,” she said. “Usually they have two go into Detroit after dark, if they have a delivery … One guy has a legal, he can carry a gun.  That night, Timmy was the only one left, they had this one run to do, he said ‘yeah, I’ll do it.’ He’s a kid, he doesn’t think anything’s going to happen to him.”

</>

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/08/17/pizza-franchise-creates-not-after-dark-delivery-rule-in-detroit-after-driver-shot/

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

We have sown the wind. Now we reap.

Lucifer’s Hammer review…

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/08/16/3-survival-novels-you-should-read-a-video-review/

Charles Brumbelow

I will say now that we left out a good bit on purpose. In particular we used mustard rather than another war gas for reasons of social responsibility. An interesting review.

Dutch to Mars?

Jerry,

I didn’t know if you’d heard about this. The article is from June, 2012, and this is the first I’ve heard anything about it. A Dutch "researcher" has announced plans to have a permanent settlement on Mars by 2023.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405162,00.asp

Have you heard of this fellow, and is he believable? The article is written in a way that kind of hints that they think he is a crackpot.

Chris Poor

This is the first I have heard of it, but I am not as well connected as I used to be.

Mail 726 Sunday, May 27, 2012

First glory, then gold; then?

Now that Dragon capsule has docked at the ISS, people are saying that the era of commercial space-flight has arrived. The New World was explored for three reasons; God, gold and glory. Government spaceflight

– Apollo especially – was about glory; commercial spaceflight will be about gold; but looking to the future, who’ll go to space for God? What mission would there be?

I propose two. The first is the clearing-away of the Earth-crossing asteroids. A long-term project, for the good of all mankind, indeed of all life on Earth. Some of the commercial spacefarers have expressed an interest in mining the Earth-crossers for precious metals and water; which is fine, but there will be a residue of worthless but deadly flying mountains. Who disposes of those? This is where private charity can step in. I foresee the Mormons and Greenpeace launching ion-driven gravity tugs on search-and-tow missions; remote-operated for decades by unpaid volunteers.

The second mission is the terraformation of Mars. This is a very long-term project; many generations of hard and dangerous experimental labor on an alien world; of no benefit to anyone on Earth except the pleasure of having neighbors. The time-scale and reward structure favors a religious organization doing this job. Terraformers have to believe in terraforming; so whatever the source religion, Terraforming itself would become newborn Mars’s de facto founding religion.

Paradoc

I would think the first goal is to become a sparefaring civilization. There’s plenty out there. We need to make it possible to go get it. Then we can pick paths and missions.

A great day dawns

Dr. Pournelle

re: Dragon Docks and the commercial space era begins. <http://>

An associate asked me what I thought of the Space X launch. I said it opened a new era in space transportation and for the better. He asked me why, and I launched into a lecture on operational efficiency versus performance which led to a lecture on propellants and ended with my prerecorded rant against NASA ("Kill ’em all. God will know his own").

He then brought up that ‘some guys’ were planning to mine a ‘meteor’. I said that there was a new corporation formed to mine near-Earth asteroids and that they would use commercial launch services.

Yeah, it’s a great day.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

It is indeed.

Backdoor found in Chinese-made US military chip

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sps32/sec_news.html#Assurance

—

Eric Smith

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.

Bjarne Stroustrop, Developer of C++ programming language

I have always been concerned about security in manufacturing routers and other important electronic equipment. It’s an obvious thing for an intelligence agent to want: a secure and hidden way to see what’s going on in telephones, internet mail, you name it. Of course one can try to get one’s electronics Trojan horses into equipment manufactured in the US, but it had got to be easier if you’re the one providing the security…

If we put the Bunny Inspectors out of business, they can retrain as Henhouse Inspectors.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/229533-senators-propose-federal-standards-for-egg-laying-hens

I saw nothing in the Constitution about eggs and hens, and I cannot think that the Framers had any such thing in mind for the federal government. States can decide to be kinder to chickens than tro chicken farmers; but I do not think there is any such power for the Federal government. Nor should be.

TV Truth Revealed

I maintained for quite some time that "content" refers to the commercials and "fill" refers to the crappy shows between the commercials e.g. Dancing with the Stars, America’s got Talent, CSI, Creeping Around with the Kardashians.  Well, Fox filed suit and in that suit they prove as much in their arugment:

<.>

"We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," Fox said in a statement. "Their wrongheaded decision requires us to take swift action in order to aggressively defend the future of free, over-the-air television."

</>

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fox-sues-dish-network-over-adblocking-feature-20120524,0,3654685.story

No, you did that when you put more commercials in an hour than content I would want to see if it wasn’t so watered down that I would have to have an IQ below 85 to want to watch it.  As far as it being an "ecosystem", I hope the judge laughs you out of the courtroom.  But, we all know government is a tax-payer funded enfrocement agency for big companies like Fox.  And, if Fox fails, they’ll steal MORE of our money to "bail out" the too big to fail company.  What a joke. 

The Journal also reported on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP65148c316b8a4afc90693391f1913f8a.html

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I confess that I have taken to recording my TV shows and watching them half an hour later so that I can skip past the commercials. I generally watch any commercial I haven’t seen except for a few that I know are designed to be irritating, and I often go from fast forward to play when there’s an ad that might or might not be interesting; and I generally feel a little guilty because I know that without the ads no one would pay for the shows I like (which turn out to be more now than a couple of years ago even though the ones we have now aren’t as good – it’s just that I seem to watch a bit more mindless TV than I used to). But it’s like newspapers: they have made the print so small, and so filled the papers with ads to the detriment of news, that I generally get news on line now. I prefer what we used to have in news, with properly written stories, but that takes money for real editorial staff, and the papers don’t have that or say they don’t. A death spiral, perhaps. My local papers clearly hate their readers, and work to make the paper harder and harder to read. I’d pay a lot more for subscriptions if there were some good stories once in a while that were printed in types I could read…

‘A 2010 study by Chinese economist Wang Xiaolu found that the top 2 percent of households earned a staggering 35 percent of national urban income.’

<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/22/bear_in_a_china_shop?page=full>

Based upon my experiences in China and the fact that thisstudy was produced by a Chinese economist, my guess is that the actual amount of concentrated wealth is considerably higher, somewhere on the order of 50% – 60%.

—

Roland Dobbins

We all know that most of the wealth and nearly all the progress comes from about 10% of the population; ‘equality’ is very expensive, and if enforced in allocation of education resources leads to ruin. We all know this, and apparently choose ruin.

Stupidest Event Ever

Now, I’m constantly irritated at stupidity, stupid people, and stupid events.  But, this takes the cake and — as always — it invovles public servants who are also stupid as well as stupid parents and the aquiesence of a stupid society:

<.>

A 17-year-old high school honor student who works two jobs and financially supports her two siblings is heading into summer on a sour note after spending a night in jail for being too tired to attend school.

Diane Tran was arrested in open court and sentenced to 24 hours in jail Wednesday after being repeatedly truant due to exhaustion. KHOU reports that Tran, a junior at Willis High School, was warned by Judge Lanny Moriarty last month to stop missing school. When she missed classes again this month, Moriarty wanted to make an example of Tran.

“If you let one (truant student) run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em? Let them go too?” Moriarty asked, according to KHOU.

Tran told KHOU that in addition to taking advanced and honors classes, she works full-time and part-time jobs in an effort to try to support her older brother at Texas A&M and a younger sister in the Houston area. After Tran’s parents divorced, they both moved away from the honor student and her two siblings.

Tran was also fined $100.

</>

Why is a 17-year old being ordered to attend school when most kids are allowed to drop out at 16 anyway? 

Why didn’t the judge note the girl is an honor student?

Why didn’t the judge note the girl’s parents both moved away from their children after their divorce?

Other than that, I have questions that any person with two brain cells working in unison could ask and I will not insult anyone by asking those questions here.  Stupid people cost this country a lot more than money; I believe we need to have an IQ test before people work in society or in government.  Imagine cops that had high IQs, imagine elected servants with high IQs, imagine teachers with high IQs.  WOW!  What a great society that would be.  Let the epsilon semi-morons wear their khakis, go to work, and shut up.  We don’t need more idiocy.  I’d rather have that than the bs I read on a daily basis in the newspaper. 

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Come now, I suspect we can all think of even greater stupidities. One should be careful with superlatives when rating follies. And it’s a brave new world that has such people in it…

Excellent article on long term voter preferences

Partisan voters really color issues by party. Independents don’t.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/05/24/are-voters-just-rooting-for-clothes/

Well, perhaps.

. ‘The ubiquitous distribution of abiotic organic carbon in Martian igneous rocks is important for understanding the Martian carbon cycle and has implications for future missions to detect possible past Martian life.’

<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/05/23/science.1220715>

Roland Dobbins

Transfer of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth to Other Planets.

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.1719>

<http://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.1719v1>

Roland Dobbins

I was critical of the original Viking experimental design, and have been of all the ones since, but I am not really much of an expert on biochemistry. Still, you’d think they could come up with something definitive given how much they have to spend.

: NYT 3 part series on Philip K Dick

Dear Jerry,

In case you haven’t seen this.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-1/?src=recg

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-2/?src=

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-3/?src=recg

May 20, 2012, 5:00 PM

Philip K. Dick, Sci-Fi Philosopher, Part 1

By SIMON CRITCHLEY <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/simon-critchley/>

The Stone<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/opinionator/pogs/thestone45.gif>

The Stone <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-stone/> is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.

TAGS:

PHILIP K. DICK <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philip-k-dick/> , PHILOSOPHY <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philosophy/> ,SCIENCE FICTION <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/science-fiction/>

This is the first in a three-part series <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philip-k-dick/> .

~~~

Part 1: Meditations on a Radiant Fish

When I believe, I am crazy. When I don’t believe, I suffer psychotic depression.

— Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick is arguably the most influential writer of science fiction in the past half century. In his short and meteoric career, he wrote 121 short stories and 45 novels. His work was successful during his lifetime but has grown exponentially in influence since his death in 1982. Dick’s work will probably be best known through the dizzyingly successful Hollywood adaptations of his work, in movies like “Blade Runner” (based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”), “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly” and, most recently, “The Adjustment Bureau.” Yet few people might consider Dick a thinker. This would be a mistake. <snip>

There is a good TV special on Phil Dick in the Masters of SF series. I was interviewed for the one on Mr. Heinlein. The one on Dick used Tim Powers, perhaps not as much as it should have: Tim was close to Phil and has thought about him a good bit. Phil Dick was arguably mad, but he was a very intelligent madman…

scribd and DMCA

The "scale" thing is important. I recall an article where someone pointed out that back when the DMCA was first written, the most common method by which Americans connected to the Internet was by a land-line modem running at 56 kilobaud. Yahoo! was the big name in Internet search and there was no Google. AoL and Prodigy were still going concerns. Amazon was some niche thing that college students used to score cheap CDs.

It’s actually kind of funny, because all along the anti-copyright crowd has been saying that technology has outpaced litigation, and you know what? They’re *right*. But that doesn’t mean that copyright needs to go away.

—

Mike T. Powers

Good observation

scribd, specific urls, and the amount of work required for takedown

Hello Jerry,

I read this:

"Our agent is painstakingly accumulating a list of URL’s to works by her clients that are up on scribd. It takes a good bit of work on her part, but it will be done,"

And I immediately wondered why she was doing this by hand. This seems to be the perfect application for a computer! Every morning, your script runs, searching for new posts related to each author, for each one found, the URL is compared to your database of already cited URLs, the correct paperwork is printed (or formatted for electronic submission), database is updated. Agent scans each submission quickly for accuracy and content, signs it, and submits. Minimum work, maximum effect…

Distribute the script /app /whatever to several agents, and then scribd starts getting hammered daily with takedown orders. When it gets too expensive for them to deal with, they change their policy. (Best possible outcome, maybe least likely though.)

FWIW, I have used scribd for manuals, and other tech support documentation, but never for works of fiction. Never even looked for that. On at least 2 occasions I was able to find the documents in their original online location, after finding them on scribd. For whatever reason, search engines found them on scribd, but not in their original locations.

Please keep producing new fiction, and re-releasing your old. Keep up with the site as best you can. I think it is one of the best on the web. I’ve stopped consuming mainstream media completely, knowing that if something is important, it will end up on your site. Saves me a lot of time, and yelling at the TV.

Thanks again for all you do,

zuk

Bill Zukley

Mail 725 Monday, May 21, 2012

Russell Seitz attempts to inject something new into the climate debates:

As we discussed , I have some new ammunition on offer for both sides to try out on each other– here is the WaterWired link.

http://aquadoc.typepad.com/WaterWired/2011/07/hydrosols-and-microbubbles.html

For those interested in heavier artillery, the April 2011 _Climatic Change_ paper is attached

It is available as a free preprint pdf at <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.5823"></a>

I’m chuffed to report it has also been mentioned in dispatches in an Annals of Science piece, entitled ‘The Climate Fixers'<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/14/120514fa_fact_specter">

in the May 14 issue of <i>The New Yorker</i></a>

Russell Seitz

Fellow of the Department of Physics

Harvard University

What seems to me to be certain is that we will not ‘conserve’ our way to lower CO2, We may replace fossil fuels as a primary source, but we will not do it by starvation. Changing albedo by painting roofs, or with microbubbles to make brightwater, or through biological means all seem good alternatives to investigate – but we need data, both scientific and engineering, and while we’re at it operations data on finances. The one thing that seems certain to me is that if the United States beggars itself there will be no power with the financial and engineering resources to Do Something when we finally understand what it is we must do.

Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea, and it ain’t global warming:

http://news.yahoo.com/climate-scientists-solved-riddle-rising-sea-172928909.html

How interesting that we had our global religion theory first, and the measurements are only now happening.

Ed

Interesting. I am not sure I agree, but I do think it would be well to get some data. Of course it’s always a good idea to have some data…

Comment on Mixed bag, May 17, Florida school testing

Jerry,

The problem is that the Florida Dept of Education, in their nigh-infinite wisdom, toughened the writing section of the test this year (given to grades 4, 8 and 10), and succeeded in driving the passing rate from around 80% depending on grade, to around 30%. Reference from FL news bureau http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/fcat-writing-scores-plummet-force-question-what-do .

While I’m all in favor of testing students’ achievement, the idea that passing rates declined by roughly two-thirds in one year does not suggest a sudden plunge in teacher performance; the reality seems to be that the test-MAKERS in this case changed the rules with little-to-no guidance to the school districts as to what to expect, and have reaped the whirlwind for their efforts.

Bob Halloran

Jacksonville FL

That certainly seems a reasonable argument. It also seems to be a dilemma best attacked at local levels. Try many approaches in many places, and observe what happens.

‘A tiny 0.03 percent of California teachers are dismissed after three or more years on the job. In the past decade, the LAUSD — home to 33,000 teachers — has dismissed only four.’

<http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_california-teachers-association.html>

—

Roland Dobbins

And yet it is clear that firing the worst 10% of the teachers brings startling improvements in schools. Alas, it is nearly impossible to fire an obviously incompetent teacher. The system exists to pay bad teachers perpetually: that’s far more important than any service to students or any educational accomplishment. The education outcomes go lower and lower, the schools get worse and worse, and the teacher unions wring their hands – and  threaten strikes to protect incompetent teachers. So it goes.

Maturing beyond Byte Magazine

Mr. P,

I have followed your columns since they began in The Byte Magazine. You inspired me to get into engineering and then IT. I find that the expanded scope of topics that you include in your own web site to be of even more interest. Keep up the good work.

—

Paul Devey

Thank you for the kind words.

Bunny Inspectors

Hello Jerry,

I’d gladly keep the Department of Bunny Inspecting if we could eliminate every OTHER department that contributes a dime to maintaining this guy and his herd in the lifestyle to which they have obviously become accustomed:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-tennessee-man-

has-30-kids-20120518,0,4036567.story#tugs_story_display

Bob Ludwick

What is clear is that a system that can’t fire bunny inspectors but instead borrows the money to pay them (and give them raises) is no longer under rational control. By anyone.

‘So the lunatic theory that Barack Obama doesn’t meet the minimum eligibility requirements to be president of the United States was first advanced by Barack Obama’s official representative.’

<http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/300468>

—–

Roland Dobbins

I find this startling.

.

SNAP Cards

Hello Jerry,

You asked: "Want to bet that they will be advertising them just before the election? "

Yes. If they are not advertising them already, making the bet moot.

Do you think it possible to find someone who will bet that they won’t?

Nothing attracts a US voter more effectively than the prospect of obtaining another citizen’s money without the use of (personal) force. So they will definitely be advertised.

Bob Ludwick

SNAP

Dr. Pournelle,

In the 1970s, I worked at a grocery store. I was running a cash register on the day after Valentine’s Day. All holiday candies, from marshmallow eggs to chocolate bunnies, were marked 50% off. A customer came up with a shopping cart full of (mostly chocolate, if I recall correctly) candy, nothing else. The total came to $49 and change. She gave me food stamps to pay for this purchase. Candy wasn’t then (and may not be now) on the list of ineligible items. That much money went a lot further in those days, but $49 is still a lot of candy. Back then, it was a cart heaped full.

I’m a bit surprised that the USDA doesn’t have chocolate candy bunny inspectors. Wait until the next Federal Register is published, I suppose.

jomath

Vote for Obama and Get Stuff from the Obama Stash.

Sounds like what you’ve been saying for years

“The physical sciences produce detailed and precise predictions, but social sciences do not.”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/how-reliable-are-the-social-sciences/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120518

CAPT Chris Christopher, USN (Ret.)

Indeed. I wrote The Voodoo Sciences for the CP Snow Memorial Lecture I gave decades ago…

Well, it gets more interesting:

<.>

A witness told Florida cops that he saw Trayvon Martin straddling George Zimmerman and pummeling the neighborhood watch captain “MMA style” shortly before the unarmed teen was felled by a gunshot to the chest.

</>

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/trayvon-martin/martin-zimmerman-witness-758903

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

It does seem that the evidence increases that the local authorities made the correct decision in the first place. One may draw one’s own conclusions from that.

Federal Concert Inspectors

Now we have concert inspectors!  The last concert I went to was in Orange County; they had several deputies dressed in olive drab uniforms.  I decided that I would not be attending a concert in the state of California again — ever.  Why bother going in public if you’re going to have some bureaucrat staring at you the whole time?  Well, now the federalis are ruining concerts nationwide:

<.>

Lawmakers are scrambling to save the summer concert season from federal agents poised to seize the instruments of rock and country stars because the wood used to make them may have been illegally harvested–and without their knowledge.

</>

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/washington-secrets/2012/05/feds-threaten-disrupt-summer-concerts/626621

Scrambling, eh?  I can just see them scrambling around to make my life easier.  *snorts*  The sarcasm is thicker than clam chowder…  Maybe next they’ll have inspectors to make sure everyone wipes their bottom properly after they poop?  Though, I am unsure as to how many bureaucrats can do this properly anyway…

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I have been following this bizarre case from the beginning, and I can’t say I understand it, or why the Congress doesn’t just put an end to it. Or the President for that matter. It’s not as if it were a matter of partisan politics. This is the Iron Law of Bureaucracy run riot.