Too Stupid for Words category archive

The “nuts” in “wingnuts” do boggle one’s mind.

Via Atrios.

Bachmann trumps Blackstone, until it doesn’t:

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office is conceding that Virginians must provide household-income information if requested by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Cuccinelli’s director of communication, Brian Gottstein, said he erred last week in stating that residents could legally refuse to provide “basic financial information, such as salary range, … if they do not feel comfortable giving out that information.”

The 2010 census, which is under way with Thursday marking national Census Day, does not include a question about household income.

However, such information is requested by the agency’s American Community Survey, which is conducted with a sample of about 250,000 U.S. households per month.

‘twould be nice to have an AG who cracked the occasional law book.

Via Not Larry Sabato.

And they got it:

Just after midnight Thursday, the Norfolk-based guided missile frigate Nicholas reported taking small-arms fire from a suspected pirate skiff west of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Follow the link for the rest of the story.

April 2, 2010 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Too Stupid for Words | Bookmark this post

Leavened with ignorance.

Following-up to this post, the court agrees.

A jury has awarded no money to a couple in their lawsuit against the Chesapeake Airport Authority, in what airport officials said vindicated their decision to defend against noise-pollution lawsuits rather than settle.

George and Margaret Osipovs sued the authority in 2004, saying the airport’s noise and traffic decreased the value of their home. Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge Randy Smith ruled in 2007 that the Osipovs’ property had been harmed, but a jury decided Friday not to award any money in damages.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers vow to appeal.

Though not a hunter himself, my father quite happily allowed hunters on Pine View Farm.

When hunting season rolled around, he advised us not to go walking in the woods. And the largest game at the time was wabbits.

This is both stupid and sad, even sadder because it’s so stupid.

“Concealed carry to go! Get your concealed carry here!”

So say Utah and Florida, who don’t care whether you actually live in Utah or Florida, so long as your find happiness in a warm gun (emphasis added).

Gun-rights activists say states that unnecessarily restrict concealed-carry gave rise to the practice of licensing non-residents.

“It’s not Utah that has made the permit so valuable,” said W. Clark Aposhian, chairman of the state’s Concealed Weapons Review Board. “It’s other states that have made it so valuable.”

But the permit’s surge in popularity with out-of-state gun owners has given pause to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who last September expressed fears that his state could become known as a “wholesale clearinghouse” for concealed-carry licenses.

(snip)

As to why Utah appears almost eager to help non-residents get concealed-weapons permits, Aposhian said, “I’d look at it from another way. We don’t just deny a permit based on a subjective line in the dirt where a border is. If you fit the requirements to possess a firearm legally and pass a background check on that, you’re entitled to the permit.”

These folks tend to claim to believe in states’ rights, that is, that states are sovereign within their own borders. Except when they don’t.

Full Disclosure: I have nothing against guns. Used properly by skilled shots, guns can be useful and shooting guns can be fun. Some of my leftie buddies go to the range frequently.

Packing heat in Starbucks does not proper use constitute.

Packing heat on The Hill in Wilmington is just asking for trouble.

I have nothing against guns. I’m against stupid.

H/T Karen for the link.

But the South shall uprise again:

Attorneys general in three states – Virginia, Florida and South Carolina – have indicated they will file legal challenges to the (health care–ed.) measure, on the grounds that it violates the Constitution by requiring individuals to purchase insurance.

Pardon me. I fear my breakfast will uprise.

Take the quiz. From DelawareLiberal:

1. How much does the federal government collect in taxes as a % of GDP?

2. How much does the typical family making $50,000 per year pay in federal taxes?

3. Are taxes higher, lower or the same since Barack Obama was inaugurated?

Follow the link to check your answers and to see how yours stack up against teabaggers’ responses.

Relax. You can’t do much worse than they did.

I lost interest in college basketball when the Carolina Four-Corner was effectively banned by the introduction of a shot-clock and, in the intervening period, have become skilled in tuning out much ado over not much of anything sports coverage in March.

It is with sadness that I note that the ex-local rag has decided to extend brackets to beers. I have no interest to lose in that.

Brackets are for holding up shelves.

Now, if they wish to bracket cheap relatively inexpensive Scots whiskey, maybe I’ll pay attention. I’m a common sewer of cheap relatively inexpensive Scots whiskey.

So you’re driving down the street and some clown cuts you off. Then he decides to really cut you off.

Two men were arrested Wednesday afternoon in Hockessin after one of them pointed a gun at another man in what police are describing as a road rage incident.

I wonder whether the gun came from a police department:

Did you know that there’s a good chance that the guns your police department confiscates from criminals are being sold by the police and finding there way back on the street? Cross my heart, it’s all perfectly true.

In fact, the mentally disturbed man, anti-government terrorist and conspiracy theorist who attacked the Pentagon on March 4th of this year wounding two guards before being killed by return fire, John Patrick Bedell used a weapon he purchased at a gun show in Las Vegas to commit his heinous crime, a gun the Memphis police had sold to a local gun dealer.

Looks like it will soon be legal to carry concealed weapons in bars in Virginia, despite the last-ditch appeal to the Regent from the Commonwealth’s police chiefs.

McDonnell will sign the bill, said Taylor Thornley, the governor’s spokeswoman. While McDonnell appreciates the work and comments of the police chiefs, he will “continue to protect and uphold the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Thornley said.

The bill deals only with concealed weapons; in Virginia it’s legal to carry a gun openly without a permit.

If the weapon is concealed, how is the barkeep to know that the customer is packin’?

Here (warning: obnoxious commercial plays automatically).

I’m thinking Baby Einstein redux.

Aside: If I muted the commercials, I’d miss gyps gems like this.

An 18-year-old student says a Mississippi school board that canceled a high school prom did so in retaliation for her request to bring a same-sex date.

The American Civil Liberties Union had demanded that the Itawamba County school district allow senior Constance McMillen to attend with her girlfriend. A school district policy requires that dates be of the opposite sex.

Back when I was a young ‘un, a little law called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

In my Jim Crow county, three things happened immediately.

One: Some parents organized an all-white private school. Such schools were called “seg academies.” Those students who went to the “seg academy” slowly drifted out of the lives of those of us who stayed in the public school.

Two: The public schools started to lurch unwillingly towards racial integration. Fortunately, where I grew up, the leadership recognized that racial segregation of public schools was done for and decided the only choice was to make integration work.

One black girl joined the senior class of the white high school the next year. About a dozen black girls and boys joined the junior class the year after that (my junior year). And so on.

Of course, no white kids were sent to the black high school, not for many years.

And

Three: The prom was canceled.

It remained canceled for years for fear that some little black boy might want to dance with little some white girl.

Parents are still punishing children with the parents’ hate and fear.

Read more »

I did it from the front seat of our 1955 Ford after my father installed seat belts. I didn’t have real planes.

With proper instruction.

No legal protections for clotheslines in Virginia:

This year Puller tried a different name for the onetime backyard fixtures: “natural drying devices.” Her bill, SB221, was prompted by a constituent whose community association wouldn’t let her put up a clothesline. It passed the Senate 37-3.

(snip)

Still no dice. The (House of Delegates) panel tabled the measure, effectively killing it. The 5-2 vote broke down along party lines, Democrats for and Republicans against.

Since this proprosal protects an individual freedom (to hang clothes out on the line) and makes environmental sense, but does not involve guns, it is quite logical that Republicans would oppose it.

I used to live in Lower Merion, which has now made international news. I lived in the poor part of the township, actually not far from where Senator Heinz’s plane went down (the school grounds were about four blocks away from my house).

Lower Merion is one of the richest jurisdictions in the US, with a very impressive “mansions per square mile” ratio.

I lived there in 1983. Now Lower Merion appears to be stuck in 1984.

From the BBC:

Parents in the US have accused a school of spying on children by remotely activating webcams on laptops.

A couple from Pennsylvania have filed a lawsuit against a school district which gave laptops to its high school pupils.

They say their son was told off by teachers for “engaging in improper behaviour in his home” and that the evidence was an image from his webcam.

The Inky has the latest and the even laterest.

Addendum, Several Days Later:

Some interesting links regarding this.

The latest from the Inky and the Philly DN.

And, according to Martin at the Network Security Blog, the software in question was much more than anti-theft software, such as LoJack; it was remote administration software which enabled the remote user to take complete control of the computer, not just to snap a picture if the box were reported stolen.

And it’s being a-wasted on really oddball whackjobbery.

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.