Less is good.

A Congress that does nothing is better than one that bases bad laws. This article shows that we had a very good year.

WND redesigned web site

WND's new web site design is now as glitzy as CNN and fox-news. That is not a good thing. WND used to have a very simple list of news articles. Think Drudge-report simple but with more articles. Yuck.

Dennis Ritchie dies. Creator of C. Co developer of Unix.

Another great computer giant dies. Although less known than Steve Jobs. His work is everywhere. Linux was derived from Unix is desktops, servers and andriod smart phones.

Linux and Unix was written in C. Many programs are written in C or one of its dirivites like C++ Java C# Perl. Many programming languages are written in C.

Reply all stupidity

Today at work There was a message that was mistakenly send to a mailing list with over 6000 people. Some people started to reply all to the message wondering why it was sent to them. After a while a whole bunch of people starting sending messages saying.
1) Take me off this thread.
2) Stop replying all
3) We got the message, stop replying all.
4) There are over 6000 people on this list, stop using reply all.

All these messages were send using reply all.

Essentially it got to the point where all these people were sending messages to each other to stop sending messages to each other.

No one was sending any real messages to the thread.

I can't believe the stupidity of all these people.

Liberty dollar shut down by feds.

Feds convict Von NotHaus of counterfeiting for currency that does not look like US currency. The Liberty Dollar is a competing currency based on the silver standard.

This company has been around for decades. Not much use for the currency in New Jersey.

There has been no law that prevents someone from printing and coining currency that DOES NOT LOOK LIKE GOVERNMENT CURRENCY.

This needs to be overturned.

Drivers may lose free help on roads

Why were we providing this service for free in the first place?

Quotes from the article...
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The state should not be in the business of providing roadside assistance, particularly when state dollars are limited and many drivers are already enrolled in a roadside assistance program through their insurer or automobile club.

"You own a private car. You must insure yourself. You must put gas in it yourself. You have to maintain your car,"

"If somebody runs out of gas, well too bad, This is not the nanny state."
---
Of course New Jersey is the nanny state. glad to get rid one one minor program.

Competing currency being accepted across Mid-Michigan

I saw this article on private currency. One of the currencies pictured is the Liberty Dollar.
http://www.libertydollar.org .

People rather get unemployment benefits than work.

Its the classic unintended consequences argument. Pay people to not work and they will prefer it to working. Extending unemployment benefits increases unemployment. I know that manual landscaping work is at the bottom of the pay scale.

Even if you agree with unemployment insurance, how do we continue to help people who are really out of work and are activily looking without paying for those who abuse the system?

60 minutes piece on smokeless tobacco.

There is a new product called snus. It is a small packet of tobacco. It is much safer than smoking. It doesn't affect the air around smokers. As a non-smoker, I think it is a great product. It allows those addicted to nicotine to get their fix without poisoning the air I breathe.

Anti smoking bans were put in place not to keep smokers from killing themselves, but to prevent their addiction from affecting the health of non-smokers.

In their show, it said that tobacco companies were prohibited of advertising snus as a way of quitting smoking. In Europe, it clearly was an effective way of quitting smoking.

So the tobacco companies advertise that it is great way of getting nicotine where smoking is prohibited. So public health advocates complain that people will use both products.

Of course they will, Tobacco companies are prohibited from saying their product can help smokers quit.

Yet another unintended consequences of the stupid laws we have in this country.

Health care bill.

Democrats have to pay politically for passing the health care bill. In order for them to pay, Republicans need the middle of the road independents and blue dog Democrats who did not like this health care bill to vote against them. It is not enough for people like me who wouldn't vote for a Democrat anyway to vote Republican.

In the last election, Democrats made Republicans pay for being pro war and pro Bush.
If Republicans want to capitalize on this mistake, they have to use arguments that will work with these people.

I think at first glance Republicans will want to paint Democrats as Pro Obama and Pro socialized heath care. Will it be enough? Only the next election will tell.

Tea Party activists will have a field day with this. But will they be organized enough to make those who voted for this bill to pay with their office?