Feb 26, 2013

Julia Gatto Defense Attorney for Cannibal Cop

She must be skeeved out by her client, especially since he is probably fantasizing about cooking her up; I know intellectually the guy should receive a legal defense, but my gut would rather put him in jail for the rest of his life without parole. Gilberto Valle, the former cop alleged to abuse NYPD databases, certainly a sicko that deserves a significant time away from society. His defense attorney probably tells herself everyday "Everyone is due a legal defense, no matter what they are accused of"

Feb 19, 2013

'What works is right' vs 'It's right so make it work'

NYC teen pregnancies down over a decade

Does ‘Abstinence-Only Education’ Impact Rates of Sexual Abstinence?

Making contraception freely available to public school students has the "horrible" effect of 27% DECLINE of teen pregnancy. While abstinence-only education has the effect of increasing of teen pregnancies. So the side of the argument that is promoting abstinence-only education will refuse to change, not because it ineffective but because the opposite is 'sinful'.

So when facts are presented in contrary to desired results the religious-right just ignore reality. Is that really what G-d wants, create a reality that leads in opposite direction of common sense, that G-d is testing all of us to ignore the observable evidence, G-d is simply (as Descartes described) a "Grand Illusionist". When the facts present themselves in opposition to your previously held beliefs-- time to change your beliefs.

Feb 15, 2013

Municipal Broadband Banned in Georgia

Boy Genius reports that Georgia legislature is banning towns, villages, and counties from supplying broadband internet if one house within a census tract can receive 1.5 Mbps internet by any means. So if you can get satellite internet... your town can't step in where laying cable is not profitable enough for cable and telephone companies. This is similar to Monroe, NJ having a town owned electric company that vastly more responsive than PSE&G the private sector supplier to the rest of the state after Hurricane Sandy. Philadelphia actually has a municipal wireless ISP www.wirelessphiladelphia.net that competes directly with wired ISP Cabletown... I mean Commcast (I miss 30 Rock).

Another failure of the private sector, buttressed by conservative legislature who are willing to prostitute themselves out.

Feb 5, 2013

Elimination of NJ Jug Handles To Be Debated

Bill to Squelch Convoluted Left Turns Gains in New Jersey Senate
As someone who has had the misfortune to drive through byways and state routes of the garden state of New Jersey I truly hope that New Jersey's state legislature comes to their senses and seek to eliminate these M.C. Escher implementation of transportation. I have had the experience of living in half a dozen states and have driven through a dozen more states. Through my sampling of roads of a third of nation's states it is my humble opinion that New Jersey has intentionally made their roads more disorienting than the 49 other states in the union. The schizophrenia that the New Jersey roads have (are they highways with exits or are the country roads with strip malls having traffic pulling out from parking lots) is the next target of reform for the nation's most counter-intuitive roads.

Of course the people that have gotten used to the insanity of New Jersey roads won't be able to understand, but they also feel that have new found super power of super navigation whenever they leave the state; akin to a pothead abstaining from marijuana and believing he has found super human memory when in fact he is alleviated of the prior deficit of memory.