As IF Times

link Taliban Mocks Shutdown: Lawmakers ‘Sucking The Blood Of Their Own People’ « CBS DC.

You know it’s not good when the widely acknowledged scourge and enemy of the western world makes fun of you…and it’s accurate.  Somewhere in the middle eastern moonscape, Taliban leaders must be huddling together after suddenly reaching an epiphany.  They conclude that if they do nothing, the U.S. will destroy themselves from within!  No need to send suicide bombers and mount expensive terror campaigns, unless of course it’s for amusement.

As the U.S. government ‘shuts down’ because of congressional impasse, stories of hysteria and woe, many absurd, are making the media rounds.  By now we know that the furloughing of government employees has ‘forced’ the shutdown of heretofore public facilities.  Even the war memorial in DC was closed to the public, which is amusing because it’s essentially a plaza.  It’s unclear why a large public standing area needs to be closed.  It’s unclear why national parks like the Grand Canyon need to be closed.  Is the government operating the views?  Does someone have to turn on Old Faithful at Yellowstone?  Trying to rope off the Atlantic ocean in Florida is the best one.

If you think about it, the fact that the government shutdown even matters at all is scary; after all, why should the government be involved in so many aspects of people’s daily lives anyways?  This is the issue that no one is playing up.  If you can’t operate through a day without having to navigate some kind of government bureaucracy, THAT is the problem.  Over successive generations, much of what should be private sector stuff has been ceded to government oversight. The notion that the government makes a citizen a law breaker just for trying to access something that the public owns is outrageous.  Instead, all media coverage is spent finger pointing at (mostly) one side or the other.

The flashpoint for all of this recent kefuffle is The Affordable Care Act, affectionately dubbed Obamacare.  If the government is prepared to deny people access to things they already own such as parks and monuments, what makes anyone think that government control of healthcare is a good thing?  What if you needed a mole removed and someone at the clinic turned you away under threat of tazering?  As usual, low information voters think they are getting something for nothing.  They need Obamacare like they need a third nipple, but since they’re giving them away, may as well get one.

The Taliban may as well sit back and smoke hookah pipes until the U.S. just collapses from their citizens’ own collective stupidity.

link Iowa Top Court: Firing of Attractive Aide Is Legal – ABC News.

“They know not what they do.”  This is probably the best way to sum up this Iowa court ruling’s consequences in the years to come. The fact that this ruling was made by an all male panel of judges is particularly quizzical, unless of course, they are all married.  In that case, we can assume there was some outside ‘influence.’

What this ruling does however is set a precedent for an entire generation of lawyers to live off the avails of more stupid lawsuits.  Corporations that are in the beauty business had better start taking note.  If people who are ‘attractive’ can be summarily fired just for their attractive appearance, there will be no incentive for people, women in particular, to doll up for their jobs.  Who is Bill Clinton going to get to work for him?

As  in most policies or laws that are enacted which run counter to common sense, the consequent results are often the opposite of what was desired.  Think about minimum wage legislation as an example.  Ostensibly implemented to protect lower rung  entry level workers, what this actually does is to discourage employers from hiring a worker with no experience, instead opting to hire the more qualified person for the higher wage.   This results in more unemployment for the lower rung workers, not more.  Think about the recent implementation of the so called Obamacare act.  All of sudden, employers are cutting back on full time workers and making part timers a larger part of their workforce.  So now, fewer people get medical coverage, not more.

In the case of being able to use appearance as a reason to dismiss someone, we can see HR departments all across the country getting ready to ax people for having greasy hair, tattoos, nose rings, shaved or Mohawk heads or being just plain ugly.  So what will happen is that attractive people will get jobs to the exclusion of uglies, fatsos and other visual undesireables.  Hmm, in that case, the daytime television show, The View may be on its last legs.