Saturday Ramblings

The French Leaders of Tomorrow

THE FRENCH WAY: EAT, SLEEP, PLAY...RIOT

"We have found our thrills: playing with riot police in the evening. As long as the police come and provoke us in the evening, we'll bring out the Molotov cocktails, stones, petanque balls, planks. In the day, we sleep, go see our girlfriends, play video games. And in the evening, we have a good time: At 9 p.m., we go and fight the police."- 22-year-old French rioter to Agence France-Presse, 11/2/05

Need I say more?

Postal Rates on the Rise Again

GRAB YOUR WALLETS"On Nov. 1, the Postal Rate Commission approved an across-the-board rate increase -- essentially at 5.4% with some small variations. Postal analysts are now predicting that USPS will request another, larger increase next year. This may signal the beginning of a pattern of increasingly frequent rate hikes."- Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute

Likely to go into effect January 16th.

CONGRESS OK'S REGULATION OF POLITICAL SPEECH...AGAIN

Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections. The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments. The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet."- Associated Press, 11/2/05

Uh-oh...Big Brother is out to stifle Free Speech? Isn't that guaranteed under the First Amendment? Sorry, I intend to say whatever I please when I please as long as it isn't slander, libelist, dishonest, or unethical and are true to my core beliefs. I have never deliberately written something I knew to be false and I won't start now, but I will use this venue to say what and when I want. Why should anyone be stopped from saying what they want to say? I say, let everyone say what they want in politics as long as it's not slanderous, libelous, dishonest, or untruthful.

Hmm...come to think on it, requiring politicians to speak truthfully, honestly and not slander or libel their opponent might make it difficult for them to speak at all. This might not be a bad idea, after all.