BluegrassBulletin.com

Russia's Trap For America

Russia has offered to broker a deal between Syria's Assad and the United States by which the Assad government will account for its stockpile of chemical weapons and let an international team oversee their destruction.  But this comes with a catch.  Moscow is insisting that America promise to never take military action against Assad.

Russia is in cahoots with Syria.  So in otherwords what this deal does is protect Assad's back, helps insure that he remains in power and draws a line in the sand which if America crosses it, justifies Russia to take military action against the USA.

"Knock, knock"

"Who's there?"

"Putin"

"Putin who"

"Putin you in the bullseye, that's who"

 

Northern Kentucky Republican Leader Lawson Walker Passes

Lawson Walker began practicing law in a small family firm in Erlanger Kentucky which later bore his name.  Riggs, Riggs and Walker was a throw back to a simpler time when small towns had doctors and lawyers that everybody knew, and respected.  Yesterday Lawson lost his long battle with illness and passed.

From his small office in Erlanger Lawson became actively involved in republican politics.  At the time most of Northern Kentucky was held in the tight grip of a even tighter knit group of prominent democrats who, along with those in Frankfort, saw no chance for republicans to ever wrestle away their political dominance.  But Lawson didn't see things that way.

He was full of energy, always smiling and would talk about politics almost every time anybody saw him.  He went against the mainstream and supported a Hollywood actor and staunch conservative against the party favorite in the battle between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.  Walker and the conservatives came out on top.

Lawson was an organizer.  He was a fund raiser.  He was everywhere trying to help build a party organization and much of the credit for the changes in the political landscape in Kenton County belong to him.

Lawson became a state representative and in 1991 ran a statewide race for Lieutenant Governor.

His law practice eventually placed him in the position of the predominant Northern Kentucky member of the prestigious law firm of Frost, Brown and Todd.  His representation of high profile clients in tough litigation earned him great respect among fellow lawyers throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Midwest.

Lawson had been battling illness for several years and though his death will no doubt inspire grief among many, his release from the shackles of his illness will be viewed by those who knew him best as his final reward.

Details of final arrangements will be added when this post is updated.

Krauthammer: Obama's Incompetent Syria Fiasco

Once again Charles Krauthammer hits the nail on the head. He says that Obama's actions make it very clear that he wants no part of Syria.  Krauthammer cites Obama's lack of effort to do anything about Assad until the red line comment forced him to.  Then, Sir Charles says, Obama isn't sure what to do next.

Sen. Bob Corker: “What is it you’re seeking?”

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:“I can’t answer that, what we’re seeking.”

– Senate hearing on the use of force in Syria, Sept. 3.

We have a problem. The president proposes attacking Syria, and his top military officer cannot tell you the objective. Does the commander in chief know his own objective? Why, yes. “A shot across the bow,” explained Barack Obama.

Now, a shot across the bow is a warning. Its purpose is to say: Cease and desist, or the next shot will sink you. But Obama has already told the world – and Bashar al-Assad in particular – that there will be no next shot. He has insisted time and again that the operation will be finite and highly limited. Take the shot, kill some fish, go home.

What then is the purpose?

Dempsey hasn’t a clue, but Secretary of State John Kerry says it will uphold and proclaim a norm and thus deter future use of chemical weapons. With a few Tomahawk missiles? Hitting sites that, thanks to the administration having leaked the target list, have already been scrubbed of important military assets? [Krauthammer Opinion Enquirer]

While I have personally been advocating for more than a year that we take some action to assist the innocent people in Syria being slaughtered by their own government, I now tend to agree that the greatest danger of taking action is that the commander who would be in charge is totally incompetent.  It would be like trusting a gun to a toddler.

Taking no action has the potential for bad consequences, not the least of which is the real possibility that we will be tested again.  But giving the keys to the war machine to Obama is far more reckless.

Ultra High Resolution TV's Coming, Hilarious Video Below

Ultra high resolution televisions are hitting the market.  Thanks to the good folks at Gateway Pundit blog I've seen the hilarious video below demonstrating how realistic the screens must be.  Watch these people confuse the screen with a window.  Enjoy.

 

Time For Presidential Pardons

EDITORIAL

Marijuana dispensaries in Washington DC will be required to set aside a percentage of their profits to help subsidize purchases of medical marijuana by poorer patients under a new regulation according to the Washington Times.  This change in policy makes it very clear that the President owes many Americans a pardon.

As a lawyer I can't tell you how many times a year I get approached by a middle aged, responsible citizen, seeking my assistance to get his/her constitutional rights back after having plead guilty in their youth to some minor infraction which made them a convicted felon for life.

Kids who should have known better might have broken into an abandoned warehouse, been caught playing in someone's barn or were prosecuted for marijuana possession under laws which at the time made the crime a felony.

When the government gets to the point that it is subsidizing the purchase of marijuana for poorer people, regulating the sale and permitting use of the plant by anyone with a "medical marijuana card" then it is high time that those who cannot vote, own a gun for the protection of themselves and their families, find it difficult to obtain financing, to obtain jobs and sometimes even move between cities due to a marijuana conviction from years in their past, deserve to be relieved of those burdens.

And there is only one way for that to happen.  They must receive a full pardon.

It is time for the President to pardon those citizens and to restore to them their civil rights.  After all, if the government is helping people get marijuana now, why should otherwise responsible citizens continue to be stigmatized?

New Hope For 'Vegetative State' Patients

It's a nightmare right out of Edgar Allen Poe: you are mentally awake but trapped inside a body that doesn't respond to the outside world and so you are considered to be virtually dead.  Well that might change for some patients suffering through what is often called a "persistent vegetative state".

“We hope to be able to reach patients who are trapped in their bodies,” says Lorina Naci, a researcher specializing in brain imaging techniques for patients with severe brain injury. “We want to give patients some autonomy in their lives.”

Naci’s team came up with a method for determining whether patients are not just hearing sounds, but able to think clearly about what those sounds mean and answer questions. Other studies have shown that up to 20 percent of patients in various vegetative states can hear and respond on at least some level.

But at least some of the responses seen could be dismissed as simple reflexes, or at best akin to someone in a dream state responding to stimuli. Naci says her team’s findings show that at least some can respond with clear conscious intent.

“The technique may be useful in establishing basic communication with patients who appear unresponsive to bedside examinations and cannot respond with existing neuroimaging methods,” the team wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association journal JAMA Neurology.

“Although a clinical vegetative state diagnosis implies lack of consciousness and cognition, this is not necessarily always the case.” [NBC]

Future Text? "On The Hyperloop Now, Be There In A Minute"

Some of us old codgers lament that all the good stuff has already been invented.  Then there comes a story like this one.

The “cross between Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table” will deliver passengers between US cities faster than the speed of sound.

The fevered speculation about what it would actually look like has ranged from wild theories on Star Trek-style teleportation to more achievable ones involving cars being pushed through vacuum sealed tunnels using magnets.

In recent weeks a large part of the mystery appeared to have been solved. A technology enthusiast in Canada called John Gardi published a diagram of how the Hyperloop might work.

Mr Gardi, who describes himself modestly as a “tinkerer”, came up with a tunnel 9ft in diameter, raised above the ground on pylons. His tube could be made from materials already used for sewer pipes. It would form a continuous loop between two destination points. Giant turbines would blast a stream of air into the tube. The two-metre wide pods, carrying people, would be moved by a rail gun - a tube that uses magnets to accelerate material passing along it.

As they approach their journey’s end they would be routed out of the air stream and slowed down using a magnetic braking system.

In an extensive analysis published on the website Motherboard, Mr Gardi concluded: “I believe that Hyperloop is merely a modern day version of the pneumatic tubes used in banks, stores, and industry to move money and small items over long distances or to other floors of a building. [Telegraph UK]

 

Want to know what the really cool thing about this idea is?  Inventor Elon Musk has made it an "open source" concept, without patent protection, so that other inventors can tweak it and add components to the idea.

Talk about a collaborative effort!

"It's Going To Become A Civil War"

A Georgia grandmother was grabbed through the window of her vehicle by Trayvon Martin Protestors that had blocked traffic on the road.  She was trying to take her granddaughter to the hospital.

Another Way To Get To Work In The Morning

Rand Paul Gay Marriage Flap? Get A Grip

The headline is very provocative: "Rand Paul suggests gay-marriage ruling a step closer to human-animal unions"  Well, if you want to provoke people into reading your article that's one thing, but this headline surely has to be tongue in cheek.

The comment came after radio talk show host Glenn Beck raised questions about whether the law could prohibit polygamous marriages following the ruling that requires the federal government to treat legally married gay couples the same as heterosexual couples.

Paul responded: “I think it’s a conundrum. If we have no laws on this, people take it to one extension further, does it have to be humans, you know?

[Paul’s spokeswoman Moira] Bagley said in a statement that Paul’s words were misunderstood.

“Sarcasm sometimes doesn’t translate adequately from radio conversation. Senator Paul did not suggest that striking down DOMA could lead to unusual marriage arrangements,” she said. [Courier Journal]

Look, like it or not the Supreme Court has ruled and in a land ruled by law, the highest law in the land is the Constitution and we by our social contract agree that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what the Constitution means.

So give some people a break and get a grip.  It's going to take people quite a while to get used to this new normal and along the way there are going to be any number of jokes, tittering references and sometimes expressions of very firm beliefs that will become part of the landscape.

I mean after all, it wasn't that long ago that marriage between races was grounds for violence.  Now it's the heritage of our President.