… at least if you share my opinion that the gummint is usually far more involved than it should be in running individual lives! If letting ‘em surf is what it takes to get effectively smaller (if not actually so) government, one might reasonably hope this isn’t limited to Interior!
Sex, gambling and computer game sites being abused by Department of Interior
If I have this right, the House and Senate have both passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (aka S2590; I don’t know the House number) and it’s going to the President for a promised signature. This is very good news; I’d post a link, if I could find a good non-blog one. (No, nothing against blogs; it just seems a bit off, when I’d rather have a non-opinion source like a … umm. Never mind.)
I also gather that the House has passed an earmark-reform rules change, and that the Senate is working on one. More good news for taxpayers!
The confusion comes because I’m not exactly sure of the status of the Senate rules change — I’d heard of it before the House bill, but I’m not sure whether or not it’s already passed or not.
To my considerable surprise, S2590 not only did pass, according to Sen. Frist, it passed unanimously, and now has to be reconciled with the House version and signed by the president. Let’s all hope those steps go more smoothly than getting the Senate to pass it did.
07:23 PM - September 7th, 2006
Tonight I’m proud to report that the Senate unanimously passed S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
The passage of this legislation is a triumph for transparency in government, for fiscal discipline, and for the bipartisan citizen journalism of the blogosphere.
Without the efforts of ordinary Americans empowered by the Internet, including many hardworking members of the iFrist Volunteers, this legislation might easily have been successfully obstructed. Instead, the unprecedented synergy between online grassroots activists and Senate leadership provides a new model for participatory democracy in action.
I look forward to reconciling S. 2590 with its counterpart in the House and delivering this deserving legislation to the desk of President Bush for his signature.
I don’t particularly enjoy listening to Tom Marr; he has too many of the annoying habits of the more overbearing talk show hosts. I get stuck, though, when we’re in the car between 9 and noon, since he’s the least objectionable of what’s on.
Today, he made a comment about not having the slightest idea why the leftists in this country (liberals is a misnomer I won’t use about them) are at least sympathetic to the Islamists, and sometimes seem to be their allies.
Marr must not be familiar with Dr. Thomas Sowell’s analysis of what he calls the "anointed", or he’d find the parallel as obvious as it seems to me: both those groups see themselves as "the Chosen", by whatever agency. Both consider themselves as more knowledgeable than the "ignorant/sinful masses", and because of that, anointed to run everyone else’s lives in the smallest detail.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the two "elites" were put together in some place where they couldn’t bother the rest of us … preferably with no obvious weapons on either side, to make the confrontation last longer.
No, I’m not a nice person — never claimed to be! 
Yes, I know I could be wrong, by the way — but that was my first reaction to his comment, and I still think it’s at least close.
I spent a good part of yesterday spinning and debating with myself whether or not to comment on current events here at the Beer Garden. Gods know, there are more than enough political and/or news blogs around, of all philosophical and political shades, and yet another one would be redundant.
On the other hand, I am very interested in current events, and it’s sometimes difficult not to comment — especially right now, with a war going on in the Middle East that could and probably will impact almost every aspect of life here in the US. A good part of my reluctance has been (and still is) that I simply don’t have the time and patience (or, these days, the simple energy) to take part in the seemingly inevitable arguments that any position on any foreign or domestic policy seems to start.
That said, I decided I’ll comment on that sort of thing from time to time, with the provisos that I probably won’t take part in many discussions, and definitely not anything that devolves into an argument. As far as comments go, unless they’re abused (cursing, obscenity, name-calling, similar boorish behavior) they’ll be left open on such threads as on all the other ones.
This is a high-class Beer Garden, thankyouverymuch, and I intend to keep it brawl- and thug-free!
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