05 Oct 2007
Bush vetoes child health insurance bill

Ya know, this is one of the very few times I actually agree with our not so esteemed "leader" - but I still wince when he elucidates his reasons for the veto, because they're so off the mark as to be absurd.

This was not a "socialist medicine in sheep's clothing" ploy, as he so staunchly maintains: it was a pure and simple political power play, financed by a general tax increase. Yeah, a general tax increase, and not the one the Dems are claiming, that 61¢ per pack tax on cigarettes. Even if initially funded by the "sin tax", eventually other jurisdictions would tax the same sin, causing revenues to drop, and necessitating the funding for the program out of general revenues. The Potomac two-step - same shit, different day.

But the most important reason to oppose this plan is the same reason I oppose tax breaks for office parks, food stamps, farm subsidies and the war for oil in Iraq: if you want to contribute your hard earned cash to any of those "worthy" causes (with the exception of the Iraq war, because killing people for their mineral wealth is wrong on any count), by all means don't let me stop you. But when you steal take other peoples money money and make donations, somebody has to remind you that it's not yours to give. And that would be me ...

President Bush was expected Wednesday to veto legislation expanding a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years.

(link) [CNN.com]

20:24 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Scans reveal lost gravestone text

If you've ever done any genealogy, you'll understand the significance of this: it could revolutionize the field.

Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a new scan technology.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

20:11 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Scandal brewing at Oral Roberts U.

I'm shocked, shocked! I tell you ...

AP - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

20:06 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link