Author Archives: Scott Alfter

Democrats: returning to their decades-old playbook

Thomas Sowell on the warmists’ attempts to silence dissent, and how it relates to their racist past:

Don’t Let Science Be Settled with Political Intimidation

How long will this country remain free? Probably only as long as the American people value their freedom enough to defend it. But how many people today can stop looking at their electronic devices long enough to even think about such things?

Meanwhile, attempts to shut down people whose free speech interferes with other people’s political agendas go on, with remarkably little notice, much less outrage. The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting the tax-exempt status of conservative groups is just one of these attempts to fight political battles by shutting up the opposition, rather than answering them.

Another insidious attempt to silence voices that dissent from current politically correct crusades is targeting scientists who do not agree with the “global warming” scenario. Congressman Raul Grijalva has been writing universities, demanding financial records showing who is financing the research of dissenting scientists, and demanding their internal communications as well. Mr. Grijalva says that financial disclosure needs to be part of the public’s “right to know” who is financing those who express different views.

[…]

Some of us are old enough to remember when this kind of game was played by Southern segregationist politicians trying to hamstring civil-rights organizations like the NAACP by pressuring them to reveal who was contributing money to them. Such revelations would of course then subject NAACP supporters to all sorts of retaliations, and dry up contributions.

Pix from LVHHH (vlv!) Onniversary 2015

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A new low for revenue farming

Besides, wasn’t the cop in question way out of his jurisdiction?  What’s a Boulder City cop doing writing tickets at Blue Diamond and the 15?  Seems that’d be Metro’s or NHP’s turf.  Beyond that, though, aren’t there real criminals out there they could be catching, or is real police work getting too difficult for the po-po?

Driver claims she got $200 ticket for putting on lip balm behind the wheel

The Nevada Highway Patrol has a campaign to crackdown on distracted drivers, but how far is too far when it comes to cracking the whip? 8 News NOW decided to examine that question after a Las Vegas woman said she received a ticket from a Boulder City police officer for putting on lip balm at a red light.

Stephanie Fragoso said she was cited Wednesday during the statewide crackdown. She said she was at a red light at I-15 and Blue Diamond when it happened.

Fragoso said when she asked the officer why he pulled her over, he told her it was for putting on makeup.

“I told him it was Chapstick,” Fragoso said.

Initially, Fragoso thought the entire thing was a joke, especially since it was April Fools Day, but when she received the citation, she quickly realized that wasn’t the case.

“He said ‘it could have been anything; you could have been drinking water, shaving your legs’,” said Fragoso.

 

Shut off the idiot box

The-Idiot-Box-How-TV-Is-Turning-Us-All-Into-Zombies
Most of us watch way too much of it. It’s turning us into the world of Idiocracy:

Kill Your TV and Save Your Life

We all know what the expanded version of the problem is: The problem is that we live in, as Andrew Breitbart called it, a “Matrix” of leftist assumptions and propaganda, all being delivered to us 24/7 by a wireless intravenous drip system called television.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’ve been thinking it’s time to actually do something.

Just an idea, but I would like to start thinking seriously about delivering a truly grievous wound to the Political-Entertainment Complex.

I’m thinking about, firstly, stopping watching almost TV entirely and shedding cable stations. (Some cut the cable entirely.)

I say “almost entirely” because people are so addicted to TV at this point that I think it seems as hard to quit TV as it is to quit smoking. (By the way: It’s easy to quit smoking.)

So let’s throw in the “almost” caveat there and think about it like this: If I write down all the shows I watch, I think I’ll be embarrassed and sad to see how many hours I sit as a voluntary, unmoving, passive spectator, watching other people perform Shows and other people perform in Sports and other people doing things.

I ditched cable about a year and a half ago.  I don’t miss it.  What little bit of TV I still watch is all downloadable or streamable, and there’s not much of it.  In the past month, I’ve watched Top Gear (probably in its final season), Archer, and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. What do I do with the rest of my time?  Any number of things: reading (books or blogs…take your pick), hashing, tinkering with electronics, shooting, reloading ammo, going to beerfests…probably more stuff I can’t remember offhand.  There is life beyond TV.  You don’t necessarily need to do the things I do; do the things you find interesting.  Whatever it is, it’ll more than likely be better for your mind than spending hour on hour glued to the idiot box.