Supreme Court Leak.

    Leaving aside the intelligence supplied by the leak (court may dump Roe); the discouraging part is the existence of the leak and the leaker.  The leaker abandoned loyalty to the court, one of America’s oldest and most revered institutions, to merely serve the interests of the Democrat Party.  If an institution like the court cannot secure the loyalty of its personnel, what organization can?  Employees who place the interests of the Democrat party ahead of the interests of their employer, be it the court, the  armed services, the police, the lower courts, and more the nation is in deep trouble. 

   Many of the great things America has done over the years, winning wars, abolition, civil rights, huge engineering works, the moon landings, and more, were done by institutions, often against great opposition.  The institutions could not have succeeded if their personnel failed to support their institution, but instead had betrayed their institution to the opposition. 

   As to the issue at stake, overturning Roe vs. Wade, I am in favor.  Even though Roe has been the law of the land for 50 years, which ought to make it settled law, but hasn’t, I think it was a poor decision by a handful of lawyers on a matter that properly should have been decided by an elected legislature, either federal or state. 

Misinfornation, Disinformation, Malinformation or truth versus falsehood?

 Liberals having hissy fits over Musk’s buyout of Twitter keep talking about the terrible effects of misinformation, disinformation and now malinformation.   I don’t hear any talk about truth versus falsehood.  I think the liberals are whining about truth that does not support “the narrative”.  And they want those truths suppressed less they waken or even destroy the precious “narrative”. 

   Which is a lot different from what we expect of the media.  We want the facts of the case, not rooting for the Democrats.  We think any newsie who slants the news to favor the Democrats ought to be ridden out of town on a rail.

 

Detroit Iron

 Detroit is hurting.  Last couple of car postings, 20 hottest cars of 2022 and the like, were all foreign cars, mostly Japanese or Korean.  Except for single mentions of Corvette, nothing made in Detroit.   It didn’t used to be that way.  Ads and TV shows needing wheels now a days always show a nice Detroit car, usually a convertible, from the 60’s or 70s.  Never a Toyota or a Honda. 

   You would think one of the big three could pull the old tooling out of storage and knock off a few thousand classics from the old days and sell them.  AND, cars from the old days did not need semiconductors, except for a handful of simple ones in the car radio.

   Far as I can see, Detroit doesn’t make real sedans any more, just little econoboxes.  Closest you can come to a real sedan is a “crossover” SUV.  Crossovers are built on car chassis, the body extends the roof clear back to the rear bumper.  You don’t get a trunk, but you do get some storage space behind the rear seat.  Some models allow the rear seat[s] to fold down or come out to allow big stuff like sheets of plywood to fit inside. 

   The “crossover” name is historical.  The early SUV’s, Chevy carryalls and Jeep Wagoneers were built on pickup truck chassis, which yielded a big SUV that rode like a truck.  The “crossover” SUV’s built on car chassis are smaller, gas mileage is better and the ride is better.

War on Menthol cigarettes.

The Biden administration wants to ban menthol cigarettes.  They have not presented any evidence that menthol cigarettes (Kools) are any worse for your health than ordinary cigarettes.  The Biden people said that menthol cigarettes were favorites among the black community and outlawing them would encourage/force blacks to give up smoking. Speaking as someone who started smoking in college and smoked two packs a day for 20 years before giving it up, trying to force people to give up smoking is a lost cause.  The urge for a smoke can be extremely strong, far too strong to resist.  And, smoking tobacco has been legal in the US since Jamestown.  Trying to force people to give it up strikes me as tyranny, a specialty of Democrats. 

   I know, and they know, that smoking (with or without menthol) is bad for you.  Over the years a lot of people have given it up, and lot of people had not.  I think this country has bigger fish to fry than getting smokers to give up smoking. 

What is gonna happen in November?

 The Wall St Journal had two op ed pieces about this.  One piece by Daniel Henniger of the Journal and the other piece by Karl Rove, political advisor to George Bush.  Both of these guys have been in the business for a long time.  They usually get it right.  I trust them both. 

   They both think the democrats are gonna get creamed in November.  So do a lot of other political pundits, both the newspaper kind and the TV kind. 

   I am all in favor.  Far as I am concerned Biden is responsible for $4.25 a gallon for gasoline, 8.5% inflation, the disastrous bug out from Afghanistan last August, and shortages and outrageous prices at the grocery store. I hope the voters are sensible enough to vote a straight Republican ticket in November.  We need 10% margins in Congress to get anything done.  That is 40 house seats and 10 Senate seats. 

Let’s get that FBI warning off the DVDs

    Every DVD I play still has an image of the FBI’s badge above a copyright warning that threatens to sick the FBI on anyone who duplicates the disk or plays it over the air or some other obscure crimes.  Let’s be real, the FBI exists to investigate crimes and enemy spies, and over just the last few years they have been taken up investigating Republicans.  Copyright infringement of a DVD is a minor civil offense, which should be investigated at the copyright holder’s expense.  The FBI doesn’t have to time or the inclination to go after teenagers who duplicate DVDs. 

    And, the younger generation feels it is perfectly OK copy anything they like, music, movies, games, Mickey Mouse or whatever.  When they get old enough, they will vote against parties and politicians who support copyright law.  The Republicans could gain a foothold with the younger generation by supporting sensible copyright reform, such as copy right lasts for only 17 years, for music, movies, and Mickey Mouse.  The labels would scream and cry and threaten to hold their breath, but the labels don’t have the vote.  The younger generation does have the vote.

   At a minimum we could tell the labels that the FBI badge is copyright to the government and it will cost the labels $5 a DVD to use it. 

 May I offer my sincerest sympathies to the family of that brave Texas soldier who lost his life attempting to rescue some illegals crossing the Rio Grande.  That soldier should be awarded a medal.