Henshaw
Henshaw is cynical, but at the same time remains optimistic (a true dichotomy). He was homeschooled until college and surprisingly enough he didn’t turn into a social outcast. A self-proclaimed “information sponge” Henshaw is full of little facts and figures most people find boring and absurd. He’s from the tiny little town of Statesville, North Carolina. Henshaw currently resides in the perpetual sun of beautiful Sarasota, Florida.
Homepage: http://www.dailyplunge.com
Posts by Henshaw
U.S. Census Notification
Mar 9th
I have some more news about the Census. This time it’s a little more personal. The United States Census Bureau sent a notification to my address today. My household will be getting our Census form in about a week. Plus, the form has a handy explanation of why filling out the form is important.
Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.
I guess the Constitutional explanation was too difficult. The Census was designed to determine representation and taxation only, not some kind of income redistribution giveaway. The exact quote from the constitution reads: “representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers.” The words “fair” and “share” are conspicuously absent from Article I of the Constitution.
The notification is also in Spanish, just in case illegal immigrants wish to participate in the American experiment. If you happen to speak French, German, Chinese, or Italian, I’m sorry; you’ll just have to learn English first. Then there’s the plight of the the Taiwanese American.
Health Care = Statism
Mar 9th
Why are the Democrats willing to go to any measure to pass health care? It’s all about Statism. Nothing else can explain Obama’s obsession with this bill. The President sold this bill as a way to reduce our debt entitlement, lower health care costs and reduce premiums. The bill does none of these things. It doesn’t even come close and the President is still willing to do anything, even jamming it through the Senate via the partisan reconciliation process. Passing the bill is a certain calamity in the short term for Democrats. This is suicide voting at its finest. Democrats are willing to lose in the short term because once health care becomes an entitlement in the minds of the American people the Statists win. Mark Steyn wrote an article over the weekend that is essential in understanding what the liberal end game is on this issue.
It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect. (Let’s not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a “conservative.”) The result is a kind of two-party one-party state:
Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless. Republicans seem to have difficulty grasping this basic dynamic.
This already exists. Think about entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Both of these programs are unsustainable. Reforming these programs is extremely difficult, and scrapping them all-together and starting over is an impossibility. The right has capitulated and the left has an entitlement that moves the nation further from limited government.
The Democrats’ answer for every problem is more government. If Obama said today: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country” it would be hilarious. The President certainly doesn’t believe it and neither does his party. Government dependency can be the only reason that the Democrats are so determined to pass a bill that a majority of Americans do not want. Either way the House votes on this bill is bad for the Democrats in the short term; however, if ObamaCare does pass the repeal movement may ultimately be more devastating to Democrats than Obama’s fragile ego if he fails to deliver.
Time: Please Quit Worrying Now
Mar 8th
Remember how news outlets on the left lamented every single day about deficits under the Bush administration? Now that Obama is in the Oval Office the days of worry are over. It’s simply amazing how Time whores itself out trying to defend the government when there’s a Democrat in the White House. Today Time has an article by Zachary Karabell defending debt.
Worrying about debt is like gaining too much weight and worrying about the size of your clothing. America’s indebtedness would be sustainable and even healthy if the underlying economy were vibrant, innovative and strong and if federal and state governments could channel those moneys productively and quickly. The problem isn’t how much debt we’re carrying today; it’s whether the economy of tomorrow will be able to justify it.
Karabell goes even further suggestion that we should be “investing” more or in other words spending more money. While I agree with some of what Karabell has to say it would have been more applicable four years ago. Simply hoping the dollar remains strong and that interest rates stay low is not a recipe for maintaining a lot of debt.
Bayview Burger Bar
Mar 8th
There are plenty of reasons to love the United States. We live in a mostly free and open society. Our key principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have led to unequaled economic prosperity. However, when you boil it all down the United States is really exceptional for just one thing: hamburgers. It’s with this in mind that I went to the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota to check out the Bayview Burger Bar. Yes, I went to the Ritz Carlton to eat a hamburger. Thanks to an article in Creative Loafing I learned about this hidden-in-plain-view spot in Sarasota.
The All American Burger
The Burger Bar is only open Friday-Sunday, but it sits on the backside of the building facing the beautiful Sarasota Bay. The burgers start at a very reasonable six dollars. I got the All American Single (doubled) with Bacon. That cost me $10 and it was worth every penny. The shiny plastic silverwear looks like real silver at first. The Ritz Carlton spares no plastic expense. The burger itself isn’t enormous, but is cooked to perfection. For some reason the bartender didn’t ask anyone in our group how they wanted it cooked. That was a bit puzzling and visions of e coli danced in my head.
There are also hand-dipped milkshakes for dessert, but it was to too windy and cold for us to try them out (“cold” being defined in Sarasota as anything under 70 degrees F). Be warned, the prices are reasonable but any domestic beer is more than $5 and cocktails are around $12. One other helpful hint is to remember to get your valet parking ticket verified at the bar.
Fake but Accurate: Pentagon Shooting Coverage
Mar 5th
The mainstream press’ coverage of the gunman in the Pentagon shooting has been predictable. Every time some anarchist attacks someone or something they’re labeled as right-wing extremists. These so-called journalists don’t even bother to dig a little to get to the truth. For example, the IRS incident involved a deranged man who bashed Bush and quoted from the Communist Manifesto. Check out the Christian Science Monitor’s coverage of the Pentagon shooting.
John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings.
If so, that would make the Pentagon shooting the second violent extremist attack on a federal building within the past month. On Feb. 18, Joseph Stack flew a small aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. Mr. Stack left behind a disjointed screed in which, among other things, he expressed his hatred of the government.
“Appeared” is the key word because right-wing extremists aren’t registered Democrats. Right-wing extremists don’t post anti-Bush tirades all over the internet and they’re certainly not Truthers. Allahpundit over at Hot Air sums it up all very nicely.
Is it possible to be a “left-wing extremist” anymore or do nuts who embrace some lefty ideas before launching an attack automatically fall under the broader heading of “anti-government,” a term that’s conveniently also used to describe conservatives’ opposition to statism? That’s why CSM ended up labeling him a right-winger, I suspect. Righties want a smaller federal government and Bedell hated the military and the military’s part of the federal government. Voila!
It seems the mainstream press lives by the Dan Rather creed. It doesn’t matter what the truth is anymore. The news is fake but accurate.
Wishful Thinking: Tom Harkin Edition
Mar 4th
I can hardly believe it’s been more than three months since we’ve posted about America’s favorite member of the Senate, Tom Harkin. As I’ve stated before the Senator from Iowa endorses loser presidential candidates, creates ironic campaign photo ops, introduces piss-poor legislation, panders to his constituency, eats pork, adds pork to aforementioned piss-poor legislation, and wants to take back the White House. Yeaahgahagaagharwaaa!
Harkin is never silent. There’s just not enough time in the day to keep up with all his ridiculous comments. Over at Hot Air they’ve been watching MSNBC so people like me won’t throw up. I wish someone did the same for Tom Harkin. I’d do it, but I’d probably throw up.
Harkin has a new theory on ObamaCare. The GOP doesn’t want it to pass because they know America will love it.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This isn’t actually far from the truth. The 30 million or so citizens who get free health care on the backs of all the poor schmucks who have to actually pay for it will love it! The real truth is that the Democrat party wants these people sucking from the teet of the government forever so they’ll vote for the Telly Monster party for life.
Tom Harkin says that as Americans learn more about the bill between now and November they’ll love it. How will Americans learn to love a bill that doesn’t even kick in until 2013? Harkin has been sniffing too much pork.
The Ego Has Landed
Mar 3rd
They're coming to take Obama away...
Win or lose the President has lost face during the health care debate. In a year of economic woe the President has been on a crusade to strengthen the grip of government on the citizens through a health care takeover. With an approving nod he has sat and watched his party make backroom deals and shut out the minority. This is the President and party that promised transparency. This is the president that opposed a “50-plus-one approach to governance.” Wow, how whatever happened to Hope and Change? Now with health care in its eleventh hour President Obama has supposedly made his last ditch pitch to pass a bill, a bill that everyone agrees is terrible.
President Barack Obama urged Congress Wednesday to vote “up or down” on sweeping health care legislation in the next few weeks, endorsing a plan that denies Senate Republicans the right to kill the bill by stalling with a filibuster. “I don’t see how another year of negotiations would help. Moreover, the insurance companies aren’t starting over,” Obama said, rejecting Republican calls to begin anew on an effort to remake the health care system.
There’s a real chance a bipartisan reform could pass, but the President is too “progressive” and too partisan for it to ever happen. Obama loves to remind everyone the “he won” the election and “his time doesn’t count.” People used to called this type of behavior by Bush as arrogant. What is it when Obama does it? Obama’s idea of bipartisanship is to shut up and agree with the White House. If Obama doesn’t change his attitude the American people won’t forget come 2012. Americans are growing tired of the arrogant faux intellectual who promised to be president of the United States, not only the progressive left.
The Nanny State: Cell Pones
Mar 3rd
It’s fascinating to me that people are so concerned about cell phones being linked to brain cancer. Cell phones have been around now for 20 years and have been even more common in the past decade. I’m not trying to downplay the risk, but there are certainly things Americans do every day that cause cancer. The state of Maine wants to put warning labels on phones, kind of like cigarettes.
Ignoring the health risks of heavy cell phone use invites a cancer epidemic, supporters of a bill requiring manufacturers to put labels on mobile phones and packaging said Tuesday.”We can do nothing and wait for the body count. That’s what happened with smoking” before warnings on cigarette packs were mandated, David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University of Albany, told Maine lawmakers.
There has been no study that definitively links cell phone use to brain tumors. These lawmakers are basically cherry picking studies. Cancer is a major problem and there are many common cancers that are caused by diet and lifestyle choices. Obviously, lawmakers in Maine do not have anything better to do with their time than chase imaginary problems (seems like the perfect case for the Butter Police). David Carpenter should be ashamed of himself and his statement above. To compare cell phones to cigarettes is not only intellectually dishonest it’s a repugnant form of scaremongering. Carpenter is another fine example of academia gone wild.
The Balanced Budget Amendment
Mar 2nd
I have been against the balanced budget amendment since I learned about it in economics. The reason to oppose it is simple. It hamstrings what the government can do during a recession. In 2001, when the economy was slowing Bush cut taxes (the wrong way) to help jumpstart the economy. Under the balanced budget amendment Congress would have to remove some kind of program to be able do that. But now I’m beginning to change my mind about the balanced budget amendment. Not because the arguments I just listed are incorrect, but because it appears Washington is unable to restrain spending even in the face of a fiscal catastrophe.
My only fear about passing the amendment now is that it might be too late already. Even if the government was in balance this year there would still be long-term problems with debt the U.S. has accrued over the past three decades. However, a balance budget amendment would force Congress to either raise taxes or reduce the size of government. Supporting a balanced budget amendment isn’t the best choice, but the only one that will force Congress to confront the problem. It is also an attainable goal. Congress was only a few votes short of passing the bill during the Clinton administration.
The GOP would be wise to make this part of their platform for the upcoming elections. The balanced budget amendment enjoys a lot of populist support and Americans are clamoring for fiscal restraint in Washington. The amendment would change the tone in D.C. for the next 20 years. It’s time politicians start figuring out how we pay for all these entitlements we’ve dreamed up over the past 60 years and stop worrying about adding more
Real Problems: Stealing WiFi
Mar 1st
I caught this video over at Hot Air. It’s good old Leo LaPorte from the Tech Guy Show trying to help a woman who doesn’t want to pay for internet.
My favorite quote is from the caller who says “Yeah, they should bring that cost down” in regards to paying for her own internet. Or maybe she should quit stealing internet. I guess free internet will be a basic human right before we know it.