Bitter – Page 103 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Mystery of the Missing Garlic

Two stores we’ve been to lately have been mysteriously out of garlic. When it was Giant, I just wrote it off as typically crappy service that they wouldn’t have any out on the shelves or even in the back in inventory. But Wegmans was out, too. That’s just not cool when they are out of something we use so often.

I came home to the wonders of Google to find out if there was some kind of garlic shortage. Considering that it auto-filled “garlic shortage 2011,” I didn’t expect to find news about moderating prices and rebounding production. So what gives? If garlic production is actually going up, and prices are going down, why are the stores out of garlic?

Help a Blogger Out

Captain America is up for the Most Valuable Philly Blogger hosted by a local news outlet. Go vote for him in the “Local Affairs” category.

Because it’s certainly not city leaders who want to talk about issues residents who shoot up ambulances or how fire-related deaths and injuries are on the rise since the city has been slashing public safety budgets to keep up the rest of their spending.

Pretending We Didn’t Say That…

I know plenty of gun folks get all giddy when they see a newspaper-written editorial headline like this. “Gun control: Misfire” And then to see that the piece goes on to talk about how gun control advocates are completely unwilling to admit they are wrong on the blood in the streets predictions no matter how much evidence is thrown in their face – that’s just happy dance territory.

I guess the pessimist in me just had to come out and play. Because it seems rather odd that the newspaper staff would condemn anti-gun groups & politicians for not being willing to concede when they are wrong when traditionally the media has been wrong on this, too. Google, being my friend, helped me out in quickly finding an editorial in the very same paper pulling out the lethal mix rhetoric.

In Virginia, those who possess concealed-carry permits cannot possess their weapons in establishments that serve liquor or beer. Some in the state legislature believe it’s time to scrap that restriction. Yet guns, booze, anxiety, and stress can combine for a deadly mix.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the side they are taking today. I don’t expect them to publicly lash themselves for engaging in the same kind of rhetoric they now condemn. But, just remember that if you’re doing the happy dance now, they could bring back the blood-in-the-streets rhetoric depending on who mans the editorial desk.

Snazzy Videos

I don’t know what possessed me, but I decided to go check out one of the blogs I monitored before our trip to Hawaii last year. Turns out, there’s been some pretty nifty video captured from the volcano lately. Since Sebastian is too busy preparing for an interview today, you’re stuck with this crazy stuff before I go looking up gun, legal, or political news for the day.

Unfortunately, the video linked isn’t embeddable (yet*) so I’ll just embed this one from March that shows something else kinda cool.

In this video, the lava lake’s disappearance drops the entire crater floor more than 250 feet & brings down a section of the crater wall. Amazing little things, these webcams.

*Consider that of the embeddable videos, they were posted in July even though they were captured in March. Yes, the local government agency office can get video posted within a day of an event, and the division of the agency with keys to the YouTube account takes 4 months to upload 30 second videos. Yay, government!

Why Bother Being a Republican?

It seems to me that Senate President Joe Scarnati really shouldn’t bother putting an R after his name. I’m no self-proclaimed party purist, but generally members of the GOP fall into at least one of a couple of groups – those who support free markets or those who are socially conservative. Sometimes it’s a mix of both, but usually you find the overwhelming majority of Republicans fall into at least one of those categories.

So I’m really confused by Scarnati’s opposition to privatizing the PLCB, our wine monopoly overlords who like to overcharge and give us shitty selection. His concerns, as far as I’ve seen, really seem to be rooted in the fact that his district is rural and would have even less of a selection than they do now – so the rest of Pennsylvania’s 12.7 million citizens must suffer to make his district happy.

But what really gets me is that his district houses at least one of 45 stores that actually loses money selling booze. During each of the last two years, they’ve lost more than $10,000.

So really, he wants to keep the system so that taxpayers can subsidize his the alcohol consumption of his family & neighbors. That seems to go against both the free market & social conservative ideas that are common in the GOP.

So, Joe, why are you a Republican again?

Exemptions from the Nanny State

Based on the tone of this article, I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to feel sorry for those engaged in “Chicagoâ€™s rich and beloved artisanal ice cream scene.” Instead, I’m rolling my eyes and telling them to cry my a freakin’ river. Sympathy is the last thing these folks get from me in this case.

Apparently, the darling of this “artisanal ice cream scene” is in trouble with authorities for operating without the correct licenses and distributing her products to supermarkets without following basic food safety guidelines set by the state. Instead of thanking her lucky stars they don’t appear to be going after her with massive fines for said operations, she’s crying to the media that she shouldn’t have to follow these food safety regulations that also apply to “massive creameries,” aka her competition.

She laments that she is being asked to test for bacteria, use a pasteurizer, meet state mandates for labeling of what’s in her food products, and get the licenses that all businesses in her field are required to have. The article leans toward demanding an exemption for small makers who are selling the same way those evil “massive creameries” sell. Except what happens when people end up sick from this artisanal ice cream? Will the people who demand more regulations when it happens be willing to turn a blind eye because it’s a small producer who willing ignored the law?

The story does raise some reasonable issues that most people can sympathize with, like the fact that you can’t possibly wash a strawberry enough to bring it in line with bacteria tests without seriously degrading it. But the maker only wants the exemption for herself so she can use “fresh organic cream blended with local and often organic produce like basil and strawberries she picks herself.” She doesn’t raise the fact that maybe it’s a problem when no ice cream maker can use strawberries that any sane person would consider “clean” enough to eat.

In an ideal world that embraces the compromise of real world politics, she would be free to continue to sell her products however she sees fit to make them as long as there is some kind of label that clearly states she isn’t honoring state food safety guidelines. Until that ideal world happens, I say good for the regulators for making a damn fine point: “Indeed, IDPH confirmed that these small operations are governed by the very same rules that apply to billion dollar ice cream companies.”

If changes to the regulations apply to one, they should apply to all. (via Ian Argent)

What Works

Of all the times that we’ve talked to politicians, the stories we’ve heard most often about why they end up voting in our favor almost always revolve around a constituent who came up to them in person and made it clear that they vote based on a candidate’s Second Amendment record. It’s simple and shockingly effective for such an easy conversation.

So it comes as no surprise that NRA is now encouraging Iowa voters to get out to the Ames straw poll and ask the candidates about their views on the Second Amendment. The effort includes a radio spot and print ad, so hopefully more than a few voters will follow their advice. Trust me, it works.

The Brady Online Grassroots

I’m so confused by the new strategy of the Brady Campaign when it comes to promoting any grassroots support they can find online. They periodically retweet people who talk about hating gun violence. I get that retweets don’t always equal an endorsement of everything that person has ever tweeted, but I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for an organization to go and look at the last page or two of tweets from anyone they are about to promote on their own channel.

In the post-Peter Hamm era, Brady has been retweeting some interesting folks. They like retweeting folks who use the N word. One of the first people I ever saw them retweet was a blogger who had never before talked about guns or violence issues. Her entire blog was about Jesus and how much she loved Victoria’s Secret panties.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Jesus or Victoria’s pretty underthings. VS makes some damn fine bras if you ask me. But making that a focus of a blog doesn’t exactly make you a great grassroots outreach target on public policy – unless we’re maybe talking TSA policies that discriminate against women who wear underwires.

Another early retweet came from a woman whose previous musings included her proclamation for enjoying…umm…shall we call it sexual activity of the back door variety? It just seems odd to me that the people they want to promote mix messages of gun control. But that’s not such a weird combination of messages when you consider one of the men they retweeted expressed his disapproval for gun violence in one tweet, yet bragged about how much of a thug he and his buddies were just a few tweets prior. Is Brady embracing the thug lifestyle? It seems of all the odd folks to push on Twitter, that is one with a combination of messages that directly undermines their agenda.

Today’s retweets include a young mother who, just 20 hours prior to their retweet was concerned about her toddler son and how he might be ill. As evidenced by the message Brady shared, she’s concerned about gun violence as well. However, she’s apparently not concerned enough about her own choices since she tweeted just two hours after her son was sick that she was smoking weed. Umm… But that’s okay, the other person they retweeted also talked about using drugs just an hour or so before Brady promoted them. Oh, and she declared that “asian women are fucking evil.”

Again, I realize that retweets of one message don’t mean that you endorse everything the person has ever said. I get that it’s a challenge to find a balance to these issues in a day where no topic is off limits in social media. But you would think that the Brady Campaign would at least filter out anyone who has said anything racist or advocating the use of illegal substances in the last 24 hours or most recent page of tweets. It’s called common sense. And considering they call for common sense in gun control, you’d think they’d demonstrate a little bit of it when developing their media strategy.

Philadelphia’s Best Faces Put Forward

Only a city like Philadelphia would decide that it’s a good thing to put their Parking Authority on television. Of course, it has only backfired on the tourism staff, so I guess the Parking Authority doesn’t give a damn.

Today, I was witness to another example of the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s great-for-television personalities. A driver in one of their trucks started honking and swearing at a cab driver who wasn’t making a right on red. The PPA driver could clearly see the line of pedestrians crossing legally in front of the cab, but that didn’t stop his outrage.

The cab driver, to his credit, put his hand out the window and made a “hold on” type gesture. The guy had riders in the back, so no doubt he wanted to go. But that didn’t stop the PPA staffer from honking & swearing to “just fucking go already!” even as pedestrians still blocked the street. Even worse, the PPA truck wasn’t actually beside me. It was slightly behind me in the next lane, and I had my windows up and music on. Yet, I could still hear every foul word out of the PPA’s truck.

And somewhere, some bureaucrat was probably given a raise for putting the wonderful personalities like this on tv. It just reminds you that even if you’re not actually parking a car in Philly, the PPA still wants to make your life miserable – and possibly run over you if you’re a pedestrian.

Distorted View of a Politician

I read this quote from Rep. David Wu who resigned last night amid allegations of sexual assault, and I just can’t wrap my head around this kind of thinking.

â€œServing as a U.S. Congressman has been the greatest honor of my life. There is no other job where you get up each day and ask, â€˜How can I try to make the world a better place today?â€™” Wu said in the statement.

Really? There’s not a single other job on the planet where you can feel like you’re contributing toward making the world a better place? That seems a tad extreme, even from someone on the left.

Even if you take out anyone working in the for-profit sector, which I wouldn’t in my world view, but I can understand if a progressive would cross them off the list, I can think of plenty of roles and organizations where people get up every day and try to make the world a better place – even doing so without the power of government. I don’t know what drives that kind of statement – an overly inflated ego for a resigning Congressman or someone who can see no improvements to the human condition other than that which comes through government. Either way, it’s rather disturbing.