Random Thoughts and News for a Monday Morning

Following are some random thoughts concerning issues in the news:

Whatever became of “our girls“ in Nigeria? Their cause fell off the front pages fast, didn’t it? The girls are still in captivity, and now have been joined by others. Where’s Michelle Obama now? Off to California, on the taxpayers’ dime, to visit Malia, an aspiring filmmaker.

When “mass shooters” who happen to be white strike, the media always report how many guns were involved, the types of guns, how much ammo, what type ammo, and the source of the weapons, as well as whether or not the person had a permit or had legally purchased the weapon(s). Why don’t they do the same for inner-city shootings perpetrated (mostly) by “persons of color”? See here, here, and here for a reports about how at least 16 were killed and 82 were shot in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend. How’s that strict gun control working out for the people of Chicago?

Barack Obama is a “black” man but Harry Reid thinks that the Honorable Justice Clarence Thomas is “white”. Is he color blind? If only. Poor Harry, he just can’t get the talking points right.

Somehow Obama “tweets” without even knowing what he tweets. Turns out, Obama’s Twitter account is run by Organizing for America, and he doesn’t even read what’s being sent out in his name. A do-nothing (but golf), know-nothing (but how to divide) president.

If the unaccompanied illegal alien children are escaping from “drug violence” in the villages and cities of Central America, then why can’t they find refuge closer to home than the USA? One would think they’d prefer a country where the inhabitants speak the same language they do. Why won’t their fellow Latin Americans take them in? Why isn’t there a similar migration of people from inner-city Chicago to Canada or Mexico or even Guatemala? One would think that the children (and parents) in Chicago would similarly want to escape the drug violence extant in that city, as we saw with the multiple murders and shootings that took place over the Fourth of July weekend. Chicago victims of drug violence should look for refuge in the Hyde Park neighborhood. There’s an empty mansion there; it even has a wine cellar where they can drown their sorrows.

Illinois has a new law designed to give adoptees access to information about their biological families. If only …

A prostitute (and exotic dancer) has been charged in the heroin overdose death of Google executive Forrest Timothy Hayes (age 51). Alix Tichelman (age 26) allegedly injected Hayes with the drug. Police say Tichelman is a fetish model and a high-end prostitute, who may have been involved in a similar incident that led to the death of “Dean Riopelle, 53, lead singer of the raunchy shock-rock band the Impotent Sea Snakes and owner of Atlanta’s hip and trendy Masquerade Club.” Alix was into satanism, too. Hayes “was part of Google’s highly secretive division responsible for robot cars and Google Glass” and formerly was senior director of worldwide operations for Apple. Hayes, married for 17 years, had five children. How can anyone explain this situation to them? Brave New World.

Ray Nagin, former mayor of the “Chocolate City” of New Orleans, is headed for ten hard years in the “Chocolate Big House” of Louisiana.

The EPA is trying to explain its 88-page new water rules (in the Federal Register, the Clean Water Act) which include regulating “most seasonal and rain-dependent streams.”  The rules are open to public comment. The Oregon man who’s going to jail simply for storing rain water may have a word or two to add, even though he’s being sentenced under state laws.

The Feds are going to stop buying bonds in October. Hmm. Do they want to screw up the economy for the 2014 election and just in time for the 2016 election, figuring that if the Republicans take the Senate in November, the Democrats can then blame the crummy economy on the Republican-controlled House and Senate? Nah!

Claire McCaskill is astounded that 41% of the colleges that responded to her survey about campus rape haven’t investigated a rape in 5 years. She can’t believe this, because a government study (during the OBAMA administration, of course) said that one in five female undergrads reported being a victim of “attempted or completed sexual violence during college.” So the colleges must be liars. Does it occur to her that there are loopholes in that survey big enough to drive one of Obama’s motorcades through?

What is “attempted” sexual “violence?” If it happened “during college,” is it possible that it didn’t happen ON campus, so maybe there’s nothing for the university to investigate? Did the undergrads report the “attempted or completed sexual violence” TO the campus authorities for investigation (not to mention the police) when these attempted or completed incidents happened?

In some progressive views, if a woman has sex while intoxicated, then it’s always rape. One might as well say that any sex that occurs on weekends is rape. Todd Akin lost a political career because he dared to use the phrase “legitimate rape.” No wonder some young men now videotape every sexual encounter! Claire’s just trying to re-up the so-called “War on Women” to gin up the Democrat base.

Last but certainly not least, one of our faithful commenters, Papoose, alerted us to a bill that recently passed the House on a voice vote: the bill reauthorizes and amends the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007.  [emphasis added to quotes] This Act

currently mandates the collection of blood samples from every newborn baby by heel prick. The blood samples are then screened for diseases.  

Though many states provide for disposing of the samples after testing, the bill that was just approved by the House would collect each newborn’s DNA in federal databases for subsequent medical research and, in Rhode Island, for the purpose of tracking the child’s school progress. 

A critical aspect of both the existing law and the reauthorized version, which extends the measure until 2018, is that neither requires the informed consent of parents for the DNA data collection. 

If this doesn’t send chills up your spine, then what will? This link goes to a website that explains more about these chilling government intrusions.

Recently, Facebook experimented on its users by manipulating their emotions and then allowing researchers to “study” their reactions, all without the subjects’ informed consent.

[T]he federal Common Rule … regulates federally-funded research on human subjects. The Common Rule requires as a general matter (subject to some exceptions) that the subjects of research provide informed consent. The researchers must get the approval of an institutional review boards (IRB). Because the researchers involved not just a person at Facebook, but also academics at Cornell and U.C. San Francisco, the academics did seek IRB approval, but that was granted based on the use of the data, not on the way it was collected.

Informed consent, required for research and in the healthcare context, is one of the strongest forms of consent the law requires. It is not enough simply to fail to check a box or fail to opt out. People must be informed of the risks and benefits and affirmatively agree.

If it’s considered outrageous that researchers didn’t obtain informed consent from subjects when they manipulated their emotions and then examined their subsequent postings on social media, then consider how much more egregious it is when the raw data becomes the DNA of your children combined with their school records and medical histories–information that you aren’t allowed to access, but which government bureaucrats and private “researchers” can and will.

That’s in Obamacare, too: Digitized medical records. Required. Makes it easier for the government “researchers” and their cronies in the private sector to access.

One has to wonder why the government is interested in “emotional contagion” and how social media can be utilized to spread it by manipulating the “news feed”. The possible answers that come to mind are not comforting.

After, we’re living in a country where the IRS is under investigation for using its power to target ordinary citizens for their political views. We’re living in a country where the government is, via the NSA, amassing enormous amounts of data about your personal communications and storing them in a huge complex in Utah.

With all that information about every one of us, an all-powerful, all-knowing government (Big Brother) will be able to control anyone and everyone.

There used to be such things as privacy, morality, ethics, and respect for personal sovereignty. No more. Welcome to the Obamanation.

Welcome to Big Brother’s Brave New World.

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