While We Were Sleeping
Or more accurately, cheering on Boston.
Teh Prez gets busy with his pen.
You want more money? We are MADE of money! You want to kill us? We DESERVE it!!
So what if Martha Stewart went to jail for this? YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!! Oh, wait….
Privacy? I do not think it means what you think it means.
Never, ever ignore what the other hand is doing. Why couldn’t this guy be on his way to Congress??
A Mattress is Starting to Look Safer
At least when it comes to keeping your money.
Cypriot ministers rushed on Monday to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits as part of an EU bailout, in an effort to ensure lawmakers supported it in a vote later in the day.
The weekend announcement that Cyprus would impose a tax on bank accounts as part of a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout broke with previous practice that depositors’ savings were sacrosanct and sent a shiver across the bloc, causing the euro to tumble and stock markets to dive.
In case you are wondering why, it turns out that Cyprus is the Russian’s Switzerland as far as bank accounts go. Not only is the island a haven for gun running and drug dealing for the *ahem* Cyrillic Mafia, the wealthy use the Cypriot banks to facilitate their business. But in order to “tax” the wealthy Russians, the government has to tax every bank account to “make it seem fair”.
Needless to say, Vladimir Putin is very, very angry. Moscow was set to extend a 2.5€ billion loan to help the island in view of how Russians do use their banking system. Now, that extension may be jeopardized, and that can actually push the Cypriot parliament to “tax” the bank accounts.
It’s a viscous circle. Yes, viscous.
But hey, that can never happen here, right?
Learning the Hard Way
Some of the H&B readers and lurkers may be familiar with RFID, AKA Radio Frequency Identification. Basically, it’s the use of a microchip to detect your presence. Ranchers use this for cattle.
And now schools use them for students.
[T]he Northside Independent School District will be issuing RFID-equipped identification cards that the kids have to wear on lanyards any time they’re on campus. And then, in some corner of the principal’s office, the students show up as moving dots on a map of the screen like some real life game of Pac Man.
When NISD first proposed this, they defended it by masking it with concern for truant children. But the reality is, it is a way to keep taking money from the state. You see, school budgets are intertwined with attendance, and if kids are not in his or her seat when roll is called, that means the school doesn’t get money for having a kid in that seat.
Now, y’all may think that parents are ok with this because the schools are using it, right? Noooooooope. Parents were told, not even asked that this programs was to be implemented. Now, that was their first mistake. Their second mistake was implementing it at a magnet school. One very intelligent young woman stood up for her rights and refused to wear the lanyard with the tracking chip, and for that, she was expelled. She in turn took the case to court, and a judge will be ruling on her temporary injunction next week. And as it happens, someone decided to wreak a little havoc to bring attention to this rather obvious infringement on privacy.
Personally, I am not a fan of the entity known as Anonymous. In their quest for equilateral anarchy, they tend to leave a mess in their wake. But they are an equal opportunity pest, and sometimes they do hit a nail in a coffin pretty well. This Anon person makes a valid point: ASK THE PARENTS FIRST!!! They are the ones paying the taxes for the school system. Further, I have an issue with their whole “first period attendance” thing. According to my source, attendance is taken in the second period, because students do run late, have mishaps on the road, or buses can be late getting in. By second period, everyone who is at school is there anyway. Any student that has a doctor’s appointment, for example, is counted present when he or she check into the attendance office, so that excuse is weak at best.
The whole program reeks of control. Anyone who claims that this is for the safety of the children is either deluded, or in collusion. Just think what would happen if a pedophile hacked into the database. What’s next? Spying on students’ webcams?
Oh, wait…. that already happened.
Pesky Consequences
I remember back in September of last year, when Hubby came home for R&R, we went to have lunch at Olive Garden. I had noticed a few changes to their kids menu and enquired about it. The waitress seemed oblivious to it, but I found out later that the restaurant chain and its owner, Darden Restaurants, made the changes in response to pressure from the “Let’s Move!” campaign First Lady Michelle Obama sponsors.
Obama launched the Let’s Move! campaign to fight childhood obesity, and has challenged restaurants to offer more healthful menu items. So far, establishments such as McDonald’s, IHOP and Burger King have jumped on board, pledging to include better options such as fruit.
In July, McDonald’s said it would alter its Happy Meals, cutting back on French fries and adding apples. The company also plans to reduce calories, saturated fats, added sugar and sodium on its menu. Other restaurant chains, such as Romano’s Macaroni Grill and the Cheesecake Factory, have also added more healthful items to their menus. Who said peer pressure was a bad thing?
Frankly, I was rather appalled. It isn’t the job of government to dictate what you can and cannot eat, though they damn well do it. But it is a private corporation and they have the right to do as they please with their menus, as well as the right to cave in to pressure. And before y’all go criticizing me for wanting fat foods, that’s not my point. I prefer to eat the fruit options rather than the french fries. My point is that the company is willing to tune out the will of their customers in favor of the will of the administration, thinking special favors like this may save them from other follies coming their way.
Well, guess what? It didn’t do shinola.
Orlando-based Darden Restaurants is testing cuts to workers’ hours in an effort to keep down costs of the health-care reform act, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Darden (NYSE: DRI) told the Sentinel the tests would take place at “a select number” of its restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida.
The goal is to keep employees at 28 hours a week at the designated test restaurants.
They thought raising the minimum wage was the answer? How’s that working out when you DON’T GET THE HOURS TO COMPENSATE?? And if you aren’t a full-time employee, YOU become responsible for paying for the new and improved HEALTHCARE!!
But hey, you always have the Race Card™ to max out.
For ALL!!!
That’s the new celebrity endorsement that’s going around the web on behalf of the Obama campaign. It’s pictures of famous actors showing their right hands over their hearts, and pledging to support Obama, while delivering a message written on the hand stating why they support him.
Y’all know I just could NOT let that slide without a response. And taking my cue from my governor, Rick Perry, here it is:
I pledge allegiance to no man.
Fuck that on a stick with sauce, Prez!!
A Prayer for the Fighter
It’s Sunday, but this is appropriate for every single day.
Amen!!!
Have a great day, and remember: “gun control” means hitting your target 
Because I Can, For Now
It’s Sunday, and Son’s friend stayed over so they could do something spectacular on Minecraft™, which means we get to go out for breakfast.
AWESOME!!
And y’all know plenty of bacon will be had by all, especially me. After this week, my rebellious side has been screaming, raging against the machine, and overall flipping the bird at our Nanny State©. I will enjoy it will I can, because one day in the not-too-distant future, this will be the ONLY way we will be allowed to enjoy the fatty goodness:
So remember, as y’all are having your wonderful Sunday breakfast, to give the finger in the general direction of Washington, D.C.
You know damn well I will be 
It Was a Wonderful 236 Years
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
At which point do we feel like dumping more tea?
Damage Control
Have y’all ever had to endure foot-in-mouth disease? It seems to me that most of us, intentionally or not, have made a bad faux pas once or twice in out lives. Take me, for example. I have had family visiting here this week, and even though I tried to be diplomatic and kind, one thing led to another and suddenly my niece was all “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN??” and I was all, “TELL ME I’M WRONG!!!” and my sister was injecting her special brand of “STFU!!!”
Suffice it to say, I was in the right, but I handled it wrong. And before y’all think my spine is made of marshmallow Peeps™, I stood my ground on my opinion, but did attempt to apologize for the way I said it. I don’t know if my apology was accepted, and seeing as she is (supposedly) an adult, I don’t care if it is. I’m too old and too tired to bend over backwards for every perceived slight, but I will apologize when I feel I have gone too far.
Now with my parents?? That’s a whole other story! I will crawl through a mile of broken glass apologizing profusely if ever I am disrespectful. But they have earned my grovelling
And how do y’all manage damage control??
I May Never Eat Pudding Again
Ok, that’s not true. Y’all know I will. But this makes my stomach revolt against the chocolaty goodness.
“We’ve got to get the gun out of the hands of people who are supposed to be on neighborhood watch,” said Mr. [Bill] Cosby, whose remarks were the first he has made publicly about the case.
“Without a gun, I don’t see Mr. Zimmerman approaching Trayvon by himself,” Mr. Cosby explained. “The power-of-the-gun mentality had him unafraid to confront someone. Even police call for backup in similar situations.
“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,” he said.
Sorry, Mr. Cosby, but you are wrong. You have to remove the guns from the criminals first. I hope he has not forgotten who it was that killed his only son. I sure haven’t. And I find it rather odd that Mr. Cosby is blaming the gun and the neighboorhood watch, when he himself has said that the thug culture is to be reviled and that the black culture must begin to own up to their failings.
I understand not everyone likes guns. But to blame the guy who legally carries for the rise in crime is just plain stupid.
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