Weep for Your Country

From Cato:

Since today (12/15)  is Bill of Rights Day, it seems like an appropriate time to pause and consider the condition of the safeguards set forth in our fundamental legal charter.Let’s consider each amendment in turn.

The First Amendment says that Congress “shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” Government officials, however, insist that they can make it a crime to mention the name of a political candidate in an ad in the weeks preceding an election. They also insist upon gag orders in thousands of federal investigations.

The Second Amendment says the people have the right “to keep and bear arms.” Government officials, however, insist that they can make it a crime to keep and bear arms.

The Third Amendment says soldiers may not be quartered in our homes without the consent of the owners. This safeguard is doing so well that we can pause here for a laugh.

The Fourth Amendment says the people have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. Government officials, however, insist that they can storm into homes in the middle of the night after giving residents a few seconds to answer their “knock” on the door.

Wale – Attention Deficit

To the uninitiated, 24 year-old Olubowale Akintimehin of Washington, D.C. is either a complete unknown or the guy who showed up this summer with Lady GaGa on a song and wrote an entire mixtape based on Seinfeld. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the “ambassador of hip-hop from the capital,” Wale (pronounced wah-lay).

After five mixtapes dating back to 2005, Attention Deficit, released last week, is Wale’s much anticipated, thrice-delayed major-label debut. The last couple years saw incredible buzz for Wale; he graced the cover of URB, was named to XXL’s Freshmen Class of ‘09 list along with B.o.B, Kid Cudi, Asher Roth, and others, played the MTV Video Music Awards, toured with Jay-Z, and made appearances on ESPN’s First Take and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, and Chicago are widely considered the only cities that matter in the hip-hop world but Wale is making the case for the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia), and the go-go sound in particular, to be included in the discussion.

Attention Deficit succeeds mightily in waking up anyone who needs a late pass and hasn’t been paying attention to the new generation of hip-hop.

Excuse Me, I’d Prefer to Have Thanksgiving First

Christmas music has been playing on at least one radio station since Halloween. The malls have nutcrackers and trees up. I’m not going to complain about Christmas coming “earlier every year” because it’s always been early.

My problem is that Halloween to an extent and Thanksgiving especially get thrown under the bus to promote big daddy Christmas. Why can’t we enjoy each holiday on its own merits and take them one at a time?

Before you call me Scrooge, and wonder why I hate Christmas, let me elaborate.

Christmas is a make-or-break time for many retailers, and the holiday season’s importance to the American economy is perceived to be so great that “Black Friday” sales at some retailers, particularly Wal-Mart, are reported as a macroeconomic indicator. This is hogwash of course, one month can’t erase the previous eleven, but I understand the incentives for early advertising.

I just don’t have to like it.

Pabst Blue Ribbon: A Manifesto

Pabst Brewing Co., owner of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, and other old-line beer brands, is on the sale block again.

Pabst’s owner, the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, based in Mill Valley, Calif., has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a buyer willing to pay around $300 million, according to the New York Post, which cited unnamed sources in an article last week.

The sale effort is apparently the result of a deadline imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. Federal tax laws don’t allow charitable foundations to own for-profit companies.

The IRS initially gave the foundation until 2005 to sell Pabst. That deadline was extended to 2010 when a buyer couldn’t be found, according to a 2008 report by the Chicago Tribune.

Because Pabst doesn’t own breweries, it mainly operates as a marketing company, crafting strategies for selling dozens of brands, which also include Old Milwaukee, Stroh’s and Heileman’s Old Style. The company owns the brands and contracts out its brewing to Molson, the Canadian beer giant.

The Pabst Blue Ribbon label has made quite a comeback lately. For the four weeks ended July 12, the company saw its case sales increase 21 percent compared to a year earlier, giving it a three percent share in the high-volume sub-premium market.

This should come as no surprise to those of us who enjoy drinking great tasting beer but don’t exactly have the funds to keep a constant supply of Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale or Hoegaarden in our refrigerator. I’d like to take this opportunity to enlighten the W&J community about the wonderful merits of this American classic.

The Great Swine Flu Ruse of 2009

Saturday President Obama declared the H1N1 flu, also known as the swine flu, a national emergency. I’m willing to bet nobody heard that news. The declaring of a federal emergency, according to White House officials, was not because there has been a major increase in the number of H1N1 cases, even though the numbers have been increasing gradually. The move was to help health care facilities when they become inundated with cases of H1N1.

This will allow them the ability to make quick moves to contain H1N1 flu cases, including moving patients diagnosed with the virus to a designated area of their facility or moving them to another treatment facility, such as a nearby armory. Declaring a national emergency can also allow some of the restrictions placed on Medicare and Medicaid patients to be removed.

In late July, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there’s an epidemic?

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but ask those close to me, I called out the swine flu as a swindle back in the spring when it first surfaced. Don’t get me wrong, some people have gotten sick from H1N1. But as mentioned above, hospitals aren’t even distinguishing between H1N1 and seasonal flu anymore. This isn’t the hell broken loose, run for your life virus that the government and news outlets would have you believe.

So just what is the purpose of declaring a national emergency?

Dilbert

News is Dead: Exhibit A

Is it really any wonder why these companies are dying?

Playoff Baseball is Here! I’m Gonna Need a Nap First

It’s October, meaning baseball is finally relevant! Only one problem: games end way too late. Case in point: a 4 hour and 6 minute Game 3 in the Phillies/Rockies series. That’s absurd!

The average length for the 20 nine-inning Major League Baseball playoff contests last year was three hours, 16 minutes. With an average start just before 8:30 p.m., that meant the last pitch (on average) came at 11:44 on the east coast. During the regular season the average is 2.75 hours. Why are playoff games so much longer than the rest of the season?

The popular answer is television and more commercials. But if we look at the games closely, this is not totally the case. Throughout the regular season, the majority of games are on TV whether nationally or locally. Unlike other major sports, baseball is not ruled by a clock so there are no predetermined commercial slots.

This leads to long stretches of commercial free baseball unless the game is a pitching duel with short at-bats. Television can explain why there are no day games during the playoffs, but that’s a whole other conversation. The more correct answer is the concept of opportunity costs and the scarcity principle.

Audit the Federal Reserve NOW!

This deserves to be brought back to the top:

Texas Congressman Ron Paul introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve back in the 80’s. It gained him some notoriety during his presidential campaign at the time but things are surely different nowadays.

HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, has 297 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 30 more in the Senate for its companion bill, S 604. It has very real potential to pass and with every fiber of my being, I hope that it does. It’s the first step on the road to completely eliminating the Federal Reserve.

Here’s why we should do just that.

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it's just SO accurate!