Gouging doesn't exist

People are going haywire over the supposed gas-shortage, which most likely is not a shortage at all. Many service stations are scared that their supplies wouldn't come in today and most likely raised prices over the weekend so they could handle a few days with the pumps dry. The problem is when the government steps in to "help", something they always do very poorly. Where I live, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Governor Mark Warner decided to enforce the states anti price gouging law against a Shell station in my town, Centreville, that was charging $5.80 a gallon on Friday. Charging $5.80 a gallon may seem very high, but the stations down the street were charging $3.49 or so. The shell station was probably trying to hold off demand until after the weekend so they wouldn't run dry. Well, after the government's involvement they were down to $2.85 and dry within a day. They probably lost money in the process.

If people are willing to pay for gas at $5.80, which would be the case for some people that commute (though public transportation is always a substitute), there are probably many people who would not pay that much for gas and choose to use their vehicles more wisely. The bottom line would be that gas would be expensive, but it would be available. As can be seen at that Shell station, when the government forces a price (just like the central planners in Moscow), some companies will choose not to sell at all.

The choice comes down to this. Would you rather have $5 gas available at every station, or a defacto ban on driving more than a day a week if there were indeed shortages? I'll take the $5 gas, because at least then I'd have the choice not to drive instead of the government making the decision for me.

Besides, if the government really cared about gas prices, they would repeal the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. States take in even more, ranging from around 18 cents to over 30 in communist enclaves like NY. Let's take Michigan, State of my birth, as an example. If gas costs $3.00 per gallon, that includes 18.4 cents federal tax plus 19 cents state tax and about .75 cents for "environmental fees." Let's not forget the 6% sales tax either. Taking away all these taxes would have consumers paying $2.46 per gallon. And that's just at the state and federal level. Don't forget the counties and cities that add a few more cents per gallon. Most other regions would have similar results, check out the link in this paragraph to see exactly how much your state bills you.

The Hurricane

Watch out for your pocketbooks, the government is now mobilizing to spend billions of our tax dollars cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina. While I support the numerous charities, such as the Red Cross, I do not support the government spending money to clean this up. The residents of New Orleans chose to live there, on the coast, in an area that is no stranger to bad weather. We should support the people whose lives were affected, but rebuilding the area seems to be an awful waste of money. The poor of New Orleans should think very hard about moving back there. Many of them had little to begin with, relocating to a more prosperous area is probably more feasible than returning home.

We have truly become a welfare society. If something bad happens, we expect the government to bail us out, which goes against our country's core principle: independence. Where charity falls short, insurance doesn't apply, that should simply be lost, not taken from the rest of the country without their consent. I'm sure many Americans, living in a lower tax environment, would gladly donate some of the extra 30% of their income to relief efforts, which generally do a much better job at managing the funds.

Referring to government relief destined for grain farmers facing a drought, one of our greatest presidents, Grover Cleveland remarked that, "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character...."

I couldn't agree more.

""Marijuana makes darkies think they're as good as white men"."

-Harry Anslinger

The first "drug czar" and the person that introduced the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, effectively banning the substance. It'd be like banning Courvoisier today...stupid, stupid & stupid.

Drinking on the campaign trail

It is now starting to make the rounds on the internet that Katherine Harris, who supposedly granted her only live interview to Hannity & Colmes on Fox News might have been drunk during the interview. I myself watched the interview last night and found her behavior to be quite bizarre, but did not think much of it until I noticed that Reason had picked up on it. Here's the link to the video.

DEA problems

Regardless of his intentions, I'm glad that Venezuelen President Chavez has thrown the Drug Enforcement Administration out of his country. This division of the Department Of Justice is one of the most brutal and unnecessary components of the US Government. The so called "drug war" can never be won, and is attack on free will. If someone wants to do drugs, that is their business and not the governments. Drug laws are racist in nature, they were mostly used to screw over Mexicans, blacks, and other groups that the US government did not like. Eventually they went after the whites too with prohibition, but as we all know, that was later appealed. I hope that other world governments stop helping the USA with this expensive hobby. Let people make their own choices. Some may choose drugs, most will not. Either way, it will save taxpayers BILLIONS per year.

What a game!

What a game for the Nats tonight. John Patterson had a career high 13 streakouts, 0 walks, and his first complete game and first shutout. And Brad Wilkerson (who has the 2nd most strikeouts in the league) had 0 strike outs tonight and the NATS FIRST GRANDSLAM. The final score was 7-0. If only every game went like this...

Passed: Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (S 397) passed today in the Senate by a vote of 65-31. This bill (and its sister in the House) are designed to protect firearms manufacturers from lawsuits by victims of criminals.

Currently, if someone shoots your or a loved one with a legally purchased firearm, you can sue the gun manufacturer for the crime they had nothing to do with. Activists use this to try to bankrupt the firearms industry because they do not believe in the Second Amendment. Thankfully the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, the NRA, stands up for our rights to keep and bear arms, and stand up for the manufacturers who contribute millions to the economy. We should all be thankful for this legislation and all legislation that limits reckless lawsuits against ANY industry.

Unions

The once mighty ALF-CIO is no more. Today the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union withdrew from the organization. This represents a major chunk of the organization and it also highlights the antiquity of unions. At one point unions helped workers by fighting against corporations that exploited them and subjected them to dangerous conditions. In a global market, unions only add to our country's cost of doing business and make us less competitive. American cars cost about the same as a Japanese car but are never designed or built to comparable standards. We can't get close to the Korean's on price. What most people don't know is that most Japanese and Korean cars are built in the USA with non-union workers. They don't have the enormous amount of benefits that someone in the UAW has, but should those workers be entitled to life-long healthcare and pensions? I don't think so. I am also an American worker and I have to pay my way. I pay for part of my healthcare, contribute to my 401(k) and don't think a company should have to make decisions for you.

Unions also take advantage of their members, the fees mostly going to the top of the organization, making people like James Hoffa a millionaire and powerful figure, not to mention that unions support political campaigns under the guise of helping the workers. Where were the unions when Ford and GM sent half their work to Mexico? Maybe the cost of doing business with the union was just too much for those companies and that's why a company like Toyota has been able to ADD jobs to this country.

It's time for unions to go, this is just the beginning.

More to do

Work has started to get busier. I'm now doing work for my team instead of helping others out. I was having some problems today figuring things out, but I think I have a handle on things now. I'm writing some test scripts for a customization of our software. Doesn't sound too hard, but I don't know the software as well as I'd like to. I also don't have too much help: my "buddy" is out for a month to donate his kidney. He's been really helpful during the first month here, showing me how to do just about everything. Hopefully everything works out for him.

We got a new dresser this weekend, hopefully that will solve our clothes storage problem. Our apartment isn't too small, its just that we had too much stuff from Pittsburgh and we're getting rid of a lot of the junk that we have no use for.

Today I received my VA issued NRA license plate. Buy your own (real or souvenir) plate here: https://www.dmv.state.va.us/dmvnet/souvenir_plate/intro.asp

Speaking of the NRA, we moved our convention out of Columbus, OH because the assholes there just enacted another (useless) assault weapons ban. Most of the idiots in this country assume that means that automatic weapons are now illegal. WRONG. Full autos have been illegal for about 70 years, these are just rifles that look scary to democrats, the same ones who would piss their pants at the sight of a swiss army knife.

In other news, the Bush administration better get rid of Rove quick, else it will look REALLY bad (worse than it already is) to the president.

In more news, our friend from Saudi Arabia seems to have a beef with our friends across the pond. The sad thing is that this will probably lead to more security and less freedom, meaning that the terrorists win again. Maybe instead of trying to go after them like shooting a fly with an elephant gun, we could do something to make them a little more chill with us, like cut off Israel's (and everyone else's) foreign aid. I mean, does it make any sense that we give foreign aid both to Israel and to countries that hate Israel? Let private US citizens donate to countries all they want, remove the government from the equation so we stop getting fucked over because of it.

Blame the taxes

For those of you with cars you have probably noticed the spike in the cost of a gallon of gasoline (those of you smart enough to be a regular reader of my blog will remember me writing that whatever "records" are broken this year, the real price of gasoline is still MUCH cheaper than in the 70s). While the price of oil continues to rise, you can blame a large percentage of the price of gasoline on our best friend, the government. Here is a breakdown of the price of gasoline in 2004. As you can see in this Californian example, taxes make up 51 cents out of $2.37. That's 21.5%. So, if you want your gas prices decreased by 1/4, write your congressmen and do your best to fuck with the tax system.

The Fourth

I went to Pittsburgh for the 4th of July weekend. We spent 3 nights at Kenzie's mom's house. It was pretty fun. We got to see the old apartment, which strangly enough still had electricity. There was also a lot of mold in the fridge so hopefully I don't lose my security deposit over that, though the rental company, Halsband Properties, is not known for being nice. (I would never recommend them to anyone, though I would not actively speak out against them either).

It's nice being back in NoVA. You can really tell the difference between Pittsburgh's economy and the way things are here. The infrastructure in Pittsburgh is literally crumbling, there are almost no jobs, and the people there don't seem very happy. Quite the opposite here.

Being shifted around at work this week, though should have some stability in about 2 weeks, once everything gets started for my team... I'd rather start working during a dry spell and have time to learn things anyway.

A few unrelated thoughts

Is it possible to be a middle-right libertarian when the government (indirectly) pays you? I'd like to think so. Despite my new job working for a government contractor, at least I can say that when the govt (fed and local) buys our products, they are eliminating waste and probably becoming better governments...

Speaking of work, this current week was my first week with real work. There wasn't too much of it, since I'm still learning the system and my team isn't horribly swamped by work at the moment, but I've been busy enough. All the people I work with are pretty cool, its a very easy-going atmosphere. That came through during the interviews, so I'm glad I wasn't disappointed once I started. I was supposed to get a laptop, but someone ordered developer desktops for us instead...at least they are fast, 2GB of RAM tends to do that.

One of my friends who disappeared for a while got in touch with me yesterday. I think a lot of people have been fucking with his head for the last month and a half. Hopefully he normalizes again... but that's only one possibility with the other being that my friend as I knew him will disappear. That's sad because he's a really good guy too.

I'm going to Pittsburgh this weekend to Kenzie's mom's house for the 4th of July weekend.

Supreme Court to Homeowners: Fuck You

The Supreme Court made another horrible decision today. They voted 5-4 to allow the government to confiscate private homes for almost ANY reason, including private development. This decision is a slap in the face to the intentions our Founding Fathers had when they included the eminent domain clause in the constitution. I'm starting to think that the only justice with a brain is Clarence Thomas, at any rate, he seems to be the only champion of liberty. Scalia also dissented, I'm starting to agree with him more lately. Stevens has become a senile old man, his prior record of upholding the constitution seems to have gone down the toilet, along with all property rights.

My First Week in the Real World

Haven't written anything here in a while, the last week has been pretty hectic. The whole time you are in college is supposed to be preparation for some mystical "real world" that everyone but students is a part of. I'm not sure I really all of that, but if I did this last week would have been my first as a member of the world.

I reported to orientation at 9:30 Monday morning for a day's worth of speeches on topics ranging from the company's past, present and future to a more detailed explanation of the benefits. I already knew most of this stuff, but did my best to be as attentive as possible. Thankfully we had a few breaks along with some food at several points throughout the day. There wasn't anything memorable except at the beginning we had to interview someone sitting near us and introduce that person. The person who interviewed me went first and trying too hard to remember how to say my last name (which he did, a rare accomplishment) he introduced me as "Luke." I corrected him and just about everyone laughed. It was definitely an icebreaker.

I also got to meet my "buddy" who has been with the company for a year or so to help me learn what I'm supposed to do and show me around. I'm on a different floor than most of my team, so I haven't met many people yet besides my boss, a few new hires and various other people.

I've been in training which is never exciting, but its a lot better than going to school (and pays a whole lot more!). The people in my office are all pretty nice, I went out with several of them last night to some bars in DC and met up with my friend Jason from high school who I haven't seen in a few years. I'm relieved that I was able to find people with similar interests within a week instead of having nothing to do for a while...

So far so good.

Supreme Court Fucks Over America(ns)

Today the Supreme Court (6-3) overturned the wishes of voters in almost a dozen states and the doctors of seriously ill people by allowing the federal government to prosecute those using medical marijuana with a doctor's prescription. This is a serious blow to states' rights since it effectively nullifies the wishes of people in states such as California, who voted to allow medicinal marijuana.

Apparently John Paul Stevens is really getting senile. His majority opinion concluded that something grown and smoked in California is "interstate commerce." This line of reasoning is complete bullshit, and even a non-jurist like me can see the faults in their reasoning. At least Justice Thomas, the closest thing to a libertarian on there, dissented. Other than that, unless we the people put pressure on Congress to act on issues like this, everyone will continue being fucked over by the feds.