Guns, Goons, And Goofballs

Tell me again how reasonable and smart Sen. Rand Paul is when he's fundraising for fringe nutjob groups like the National Association for Gun Rights, guys so deep into Black Helicopter land that they make the NRA look sane.  Ezra Klein:

The New York Times calls Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) one of the Republican Party’s “rising stars.” The Daily Beast says he’s “a smoother, more pragmatic political operator” than his father, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex.). All that seems true. So riddle me this: What’s the upside for Paul to put his name on e-mails like this one, which landed in my inbox this morning?

It’s one thing for no-name pols to work on the fringes. But Paul, at this point, has a lot to lose. Yet here he is, suggesting the current president of the United States is working with “anti-American globalists plot[ting] against our Constitution.” And for what?

He's just as nuts as his dad, if not more so.  Check these guys out:

Ever since its founding 65 years ago, the United Nations has been hell-bent on bringing the United States to its knees.

To the petty dictators and one-world socialists who control the UN, the United States of America isn’t a “shining city on a hill” — it’s an affront to their grand designs for the globe.

These anti-gun globalists know that as long as Americans remain free to make our own decisions without being bossed around by big government bureaucrats, they’ll NEVER be able to seize the worldwide power they crave.

And the UN’s apologists also know the most effective way to finally strip you and me of ALL our freedoms would be to DESTROY our gun rights.

Ezra has the entire letter, in all its frothing madness, at the top link.  This is a sitting US Senator signing his name to this absolute lunacy, and as his constituent I am once again embarrassed and angry at his staggering ignorance and depressing chicanery.

Rand Paul is different from his father.  He's far, far worse.

The Cost Of Doing Business In Texas

Business-friendly Texas has so brainwashed folks in the Lone Star state that even people who lost friends in the most recent chemical plant explosion in the state say there's no need for more regulation.

This antipathy toward regulations is shared by many residents here. Politicians and economists credit the stance with helping attract jobs and investment to Texas, which has one of the fastest-growing economies in the country, and with winning the state a year-after-year ranking as the nation’s most business friendly.

Even in West, last month’s devastating blast did little to shake local skepticism of government regulations. Tommy Muska, the mayor, echoed Governor Perry in the view that tougher zoning or fire safety rules would not have saved his town. “Monday morning quarterbacking,” he said.

Raymond J. Snokhous, a retired lawyer in West who lost two cousins — brothers who were volunteer firefighters — in the explosion, said, “There has been nobody saying anything about more regulations.”

Yeah, at this point the Mayor of the now half-flattened town is pretty much accepting that this is the way America is supposed to work.  You're supposed to occasionally lose  a dozen-plus people and hundreds of houses to a massive plant explosion every once in a while, because what's government going to do about it?  And hey, this is an elected government official saying this.

Paul Burka, senior executive editor at Texas Monthly, said he did not imagine that the West disaster would lead to much in the way of change. Tragedies rarely do, he said. “We’re not going to spend our money telling businesses what we should do with their premises,” said Mr. Burka, who grew up near Texas City, the site of the 1947 explosion.

Indeed, days after the accident near West, state lawmakers killed a proposal to provide $60 million in training and resources for volunteer firefighters. And a lobbyist for state firefighters, who backed Mr. Price’s effort, said the bill had little chance of passing because of resistance from the real estate industry.

“Businesses can come down here and do pretty much what they want to,” Mr. Burka said. “That is the Texas way.”

People be damned.  After all, the state's number one...in workplace-related fatalities over the last decade, that is.  Come on down to Texas.  Sure, your employees will die, but hey, the state doesn't care.

If you want to see where GOP America is headed, it's Texas.  If you think that's where the country needs to be, move on down there, preferably near a large fertilizer plant.

Good luck!

StupidiNews, Mother's Day Weekend Edition!

• A task force of parents, teachers, and elected officials in Newtown, Connecticut have unanimously voted to recommend demolishing Sandy Hook Elementary and rebuilding.
• The White House's west wing was temporarily evacuated early this morning as an electrical problem set off a smoke alarm, but nobody was harmed.
• A report written five days before the Boston Marathon bombing indicated the finish line was vulnerable and that local law enforcement should be aware.
• NOAA scientists say that CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere has crossed the 400 ppm threshhold, a level not seen for hundreds of thousands of years.
• An ammonia leak on the International Space Station prompted an emergency space walk for astronauts to repair the problem.