Posted 12:41 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Just one more upside to smoking

Smoke inhalation affects non-smokers most

Posted 7:57 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Oddly enough isn't odd at all

The Pioneer Press printed an Associated Press article about former Miss America (1944), 82-year-old Venus Ramey who, despite needing a walker, stopped a theft in progress on her farm. She shot out the guy's tires with her .38 caliber handgun to keep him from leaving, then flagged down a motorist for help.

Although it's nice to see occasional coverage of an armed citizen stopping crime, the Pioneer Press is entirely wrong in placing such an article in the "Oddly Enough" section. It isn't odd... it happens frequently, and in most cases of successful defense, a shot isn't even fired. Because of biased media coverage, the public doesn't realize how many lives are saved and how much property is protected by potential victims merely showing that they're not helpless.

Posted 11:13 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Mother Nature sends another message to global warming alarmists:
Complain about my temperature?
Let me remind you again that you insignificant humans have nothing to do with it.

Posted 9:10 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

A day of politics

Saturday found the boB back in libertarian duds, attending a big No-tax rally at the State Capitol. Much of the crowd was there due to Jason Lewis, who had been pumping it on his radio show. Lewis, a libertarian who can't seem to give up trying to make the GOP what it once was, has a big following in the Twin Cities area. The crowd was estimated at 7,000 but I think that's high. State Republicans controlled the mike, and couldn't let it just be an anti-tax rally as advertised, but ranted on about almost every issue in the book. I think that disappointed a lot of people in the crowd.

Of sideline interest was another rally going on at the same time on the lower Capitol grounds, organized by the Sierra Club to "Save the Planet". Democrats were ranting there, and playing very loud music with the clear intent of disturbing the anti-tax group.

Charles and I wandered down to visit the "End Global Warming" alarmists, mostly in hopes that we would find a food vendor, and a funny thing happened. The sun went behind a cloud, as if to grant the alarmists wish for cooling. Being one of those days when the temp isn't very high and direct sunlight makes it seem much warmer, I viewed it as just punishment for those folks. It was also odd that those worried about too much warmth had a large array of fancy tents, while the other rally stood outside, enjoying the sunshine.

The original anti-tax rallies, quite a few years ago, were organized by Libertarian Party members, who invited a few friendly Republicans. After being shown that there was an anti-tax audience, the GOPers gradually flexed their muscles and took over the rallies. Libertarians still have a presence at them, and I saw a lot of friends there.

We were handing out materials promoting two Libertarian events... our state convention on April 21st, and a post-rally fundraiser later that afternoon, held at Stub & Herb's, starring Doug Stanhope, rowdy comic perhaps best known for The Man Show, and several other local comics. I don't find most current comics very funny, but Stanhope is great at noticing and pointing out absurdities. Stanhope was standing at the front of the room, drinking a beer next to the window. Outside was a woman smoking. Noting the absurdity of laws, he pointed out that legally, each of them had to stay on their side of the window. He couldn't take his beer out of the bar, and she couldn't smoke in the bar. The room was full, so it was a successful fundraiser, with Stanhope making the appearance at no cost.

Altogether, a pleasant and successful day.

Posted 9:13 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Imus, shmimus

As a testament to my own personal standards, the recent controversy about Imus caught me asking "Who?" and then again "Who?". I hadn't heard him, and wouldn't have recognized him if he appeared at my door. After having read some of his chatter, I still have no interest, but... anybody who can get Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to dislike him has to be doing something right. Talk about the pots calling the kettle black. On the other hand, does it seem reasonable that this man should be making fun of the way others look?

Posted 12:07 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

A sad and frightening experiment

Posted 11:27 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Report on medical marijuana legislation in Minnesota

From the Marijuana Policy Project: "Yesterday evening, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-4 in favor of legislation to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest. This victory moves S.F. 345 one step closer to a Senate floor vote. The next stop for S.F. 345 is the Senate Finance Committee, which will hear testimony on the bill shortly."

Recently, another libertarian and I were invited to discuss medical marijuana with a Student Senate group of a private high school. While we got the sense that the students had largely bought into the conservative anti-drug dogma, they listened, asked tough questions, and challenged us. I was delighted to later receive a thank-you email from the student leader, with this hopeful sentence:

I found the discussion time very enlightening, and I'm sure the rest of the class did as well. Your time may have drastically changed the course of the bill we are preparing to write.

I'm very pleased with that result.

Posted 10:26 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Minnesota Democrats afraid of new competiton?

As if the ballot access laws in Minnesota weren't already rigged enough in favor of the two old parties, the new Secretary of State (Democrat) has submitted bills to the legislature to make it harder. As reported by Richard Winger in Ballot Access News, Mark Ritchie's bills would take one means of establishing a party from extremely difficult to virtually impossible. A party can gather a huge number of petition signatures (110,150 currently) to become a legitimate party. If that were accomplished by a new party, their candidates would not have to petition individually to get on the ballot. The proposed change would shorten the length of time during which those signatures can be gathered. It's a curious move indeed, since no party has ever used that method.

Polls have shown that the public wants more choices in elections, not less, and the U.S. stands virtually alone in the world in having two-party control. Thanks to D and R rigging of our elections, our supposed "free" elections are a sham. I've written about it numerous times myself, here and here, for example.

Something is cooking in the paranoid brains of Ritchie and the Democratic party. It may have something to do with the Independence party, which the Democrats blame for not losing the gubernatorial race. Time will tell.

Posted 11:10 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

A career built on a baldfaced lie

I suspect that if one were to post a poll listing many people who have run for President, and asking which one you trust the most, Ralph Nader would score highest. That would be a testament to many things, not the least of which is the gullibility of the American people. It would also be a testament to the effectiveness of good PR and a disarming, seemingly honest presence by Nader himself. He has pretended, all of his career, to be protecting all of us from big bad corporations and other "dangers".

A personal peeve I've held for many decades is that not only did Nader "make" his career on the back of a book "Unsafe at any speed" that was a complete falsehood, but that, in doing so, he destroyed one of the most delightful automobiles Detroit ever produced... the Chevrolet Corvair. Nader had a driver deliberately throw a Corvair out of control on film to make his case, and Chevrolet bailed out on it, even though Corvair far outsold their Corvette.

I suppose that ignorant people assumed that Nader might have been telling the truth because the compact Corvair was "different", with it's air-cooled rear engine in an era of heavy gas-guzzling water-cooled front-engine cars. I had never been a Chevy guy, but I was excited to see a Detroit manufacturer "break the mold". I owned 3 Corvairs, including a '60, the first year, a '62, and later ordered a new '65.

That '65 Monza 4-door sedan was a family workhorse with class, and fun to drive. It was anything but unsafe. In Minnesota winters, I waltzed around other cars because of the weight over the drive wheels... the same reason most cars now have front-wheel drive.

Chevy didn't handle Nader's charges well at all, but it wouldn't have been difficult. In 1966 (after Nader's book), Don Yenko ordered 100 white Corvairs from the factory and modified them for SCCA racing. It was approved for Production Class D. Not only were Yenko's "Stingers" solidly successful, but they continued racing for many years, at least into the 80's, and perhaps still, although they've become more valuable over time and many now run in vintage races.

Google "corvair clubs" and you'll get 171,000 links, to clubs everywhere dedicated to the preservation and admiration of Corvairs.

Much has been written about Big Lies being easier to make people believe. Nader's attack on the Corvair should have discredited him for the rest of his lifetime of phoney scares, but it didn't. In 1971 (after the Corvair was discontinued) the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tested the handling of the 1963 Corvair against four contemporary cars, with these results:

• The 1960-63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests
• The handling and stability performance of the 1960-63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic

How many other lies has Nader used to benefit his career?
How much other destruction has he brought about to serve himself?