Blue Collar Muse

It was both encouraging and yet, a bit surreal, to have had this discussion with The Much Younger Trophy Wife on the way home from church yesterday morning and then to see it played out on the InterWebz.

I’m encouraged because I felt sure that it was only me that understood that there really is no such thing as “price gouging” or at least it is far more rare than anyone truly understands.

Then, I dropped by Michael Silence’s place and got referred to a couple of others, including Tennessee blogger Rich Hailey at Shots Across the Bow (congrats on your Instalanche, Rich).

Michael also referred me to a couple of great articles by Rand Simberg. His article from just after Katrina, ‘Three Cheers for Price Gougers’ is excellent and cannot be recommended highly enough.

Between Rand and some good ol’ boy, Tennessee common sense from Rich, we should be able to put this lunacy to bed. But there will always be Left wing whiners who incorrectly believe they have a right to what others have simply based on their need. That error has been shown to be a fallacy at least as far back as the 50s and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But the point needs making over and over again in every generation.

Kudos to Rich and Rand for doing so and doing so well!

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 27% [?]

Hat tip to Randy Neal at KnoxViews via Michael Silence.

The biggest enemy of the People’s right to know what Government is doing is not an apathetic citizenry. It is Government itself! That truth is one of the key reasons I stand for smaller Government with much less power and authority. The self preservation and non-citizen-representing character of Government is nowhere better illustrated than here in Tennessee.

Randy Neal reports “…the recently enacted TN Open Records Act … also established an Advisory Committee on Open Government …” He’s quoting a member of that committee, Dorothy Bowles, “… [a] U.T. Professor and member of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists.”

Ms. Bowles reveals the Advisory Committee released “…a proposal that was only this week distributed by the legal counsel’s office.” Because Government takes the responsibility of fully serving and representing the citizens of Tennessee, the Advisory Committee has scheduled a hearing on this proposal, which makes it much more difficult for citizens and journalists to access Government records, for Friday - just two days from now. Further, the deadline for written comments on the proposal is Thursday - tomorrow - at Noon. Written comments can be submitted by email to open.records@state.tn.us

This is how Government serves the citizen? Not only does it make it harder for citizens to hold Government accountable by making it easier for Government to shirk being responsible to taxpayers and citizens, it does so under the cover of night, bureaucracy, no publicity and no time for anyone but other Government employees to examine and debate the matter.

Any Committee member who can be shown to have voted for this action to take place on this timetable and in this fashion should be stripped of his Committee assignment, be forced to defend his ignorant actions and be barred from ever again engaging in “public service”. He obviously has no clue what it means.

First, write to the email address I included above and express your opposition to the proposals before the committee. Tell them it should be less expensive to get information on what Government is doing, not more. Then, write to the Committee and express your extreme displeasure with the manner in which they have failed to carry out their responsibility to the citizens of Tennessee. Finally, write to Randy (rneal@rviews.com) and Michael (silence@knews.com) and tell them thanks for getting this out.

Government, 1st runner up in “The Root of all Evil” competition!

Blue Collar Muse

UPDATE :  Here is my letter to the committee

Dear Committee,

Please consider this my communication to you of my most strenuous opposition to any increase in fees to citizens seeking to exercise their responsibility to oversee the Government via Open Records requests. In fact, please consider this my request for you to eliminate all fees associated with such requests. It is my opinion that such fees are less the reasonable charges for providing vital information which Government would have us believe and more a Government controlled tool which it uses to prevent those same citizens from doing so.

Your reprehensible behavior in the matter of the hearing on Friday, September 5th is evidence in support of my contention. The proposal was made just this week, according to my information. A week, I might add, cut short by a day in observance of a holiday. With only token publicity, likely no more than the bare minimum demanded by law, you schedule the hearing for a couple of days in the future which necessitates the cutoff for written comments to be set even earlier than that!

Your actions would indicate not only do you not want people involved with Government in the future, you aren’t particularly keen on their involvement in the present either!

In addition, I respectfully request that you defer the hearing for a month, at a minimum, to permit all those interested in participating in this discussion plenty of time to do so.

Regards,

Ken Marrero
Hermitage, TN

Popularity: 42% [?]

Some things just reach out and grab your attention as soon as you see them. A post over at Michael Silence’s ‘No Silence Here’ blog did just that.

The entire post, headline and all, was

Headline of the day

Cartoonists are disappearing like brunet anchors at Fox News

Silence links to a piece by Romenesko at Poynter Online. PO’s headline was ‘Cartoonists are disappearing like brunet anchors at Fox News’ and the story bemoans the shortage of political cartoonists as noted by James Rainey at the LA Times in his piece titled ‘Editorial Cartoonists: A Dying Breed’. Romenesko also quotes “Seattle Times cartoonist Eric Devericks [who] says that “media executives who fail to recognize the unique value of a local cartoonist are idiots and bad businessmen.”" My first thought was to wonder which is worth more, a political cartoonist or a good proofreader or spellcheck program? “Brunet”?

So I looked it up. Turns out “brunet” is actually a real word! It’s the male version of “brunette”. Who knew?

By the way, it may not be that political cartoonists are a dying breed. We have a couple of home grown guys from Tennessee who are starting out. Who knows, they may be the next big thing in political cartoons. Check out ‘Delta Bravo Sierra’ and ‘Pushing the Envelope’ for some fun Tennessee ‘toons!

Blue Collar Muse

Popularity: 29% [?]