iPhone call blocker

At this time, there do not appear to be any affective call blockers for the iPhone. I have heard various explanations for this situation, most of which revolve around iPhone carriers pressuring Apple into not making them available so that the carriers can charge subscription fees for inadequate alternate services.

I can't say that I do not give these theories some merit.

Until such time as cheap or free iPhone call blockers are available (without jail-breaking your phone), here is an option that though not ideal, does offer some protection.

Step 1) Download one of the many "silent" ring tones that are available on the net (or you could purchase one from the iTunes store).

Step 2) Get your ring tone into iTunes (if you purchase it from iTunes, skip this step) by just dragging the ringtone into iTunes. If it does not appear under your Tones folder, check the file information to see if its "kind" is ringtone, it should be. I had to get out of iTunes and back in once or twice before it appeared for me.

Step 3) Sync your ringtone with your iPhone.

Step 4) Setup a new contact on your iPhone titled "Spam Caller" or any other name you wish.

Step 5) Edit the contact so that the ringtone is your silent tone, vibrate is none, text alert is none and text vibrate is none.

Step 6) Enjoy less spam calls. They will still appear in your call list but at least you will not be bothered by them in real time.

NBC at it again...

NBC just can't seem to play fair. Is it even remotely possible to call them a news organization at all? Recently they aired their deceptively edited Zimmerman 911 tape to make it look like Zimmerman was a raciest. Well their editors are back! This time they are editing tape from the Sandy Hook hearings to make it look like 2nd amendment supporters are heckling a witness. Follow the link and view NBC's version and then the actual tape.

Unbelievable!

OK, fine, you do not believe in the individual right to bear arms and you would like stronger, stricter gun laws. OK. I get that. I do not believe you are right but I get it. If you feel that your position is so strong and that you have logic on your side, why lie? Why fabricate "proof" that the other side is not legitimate? Why can't you just present the "facts" and let people make up their own minds? Is it because the majority of the country does not have the same options as you do and if you give them the actual facts, you will never get your way? Is it because your position is not legally or morally justifiable and so you have to resort to emotional dirty tricks to try and sway low information voters to your side? You certainly act that way...

Mayor Bloomberg uses bodyguards to bully journalist in DC

Follow the link, read the article and watch the video! Mayor Bloomberg, at the DC US Conference of Mayors on January 18. A reporter dares asks the mayor about his security detail (he has at least 5 armed guards, some of them NYPD) being armed and not only gets rebuffed but followed and questioned by one of the guards who also happens to be NYPD.

Is the "stop" even legal or would that be considered unlawful restraint by the guard? Is the guard working as a police officer or a guard? Is he out of his jurisdiction either way?

So it is OK for Mayor "Big Gulp" to have armed guards (which I have no problem with) but not OK (in his mind) for you or I, the lowly masses to be able to protect ourselves. Nice...

We the People, petition site

There is a petition site for people to petition the government to recognize and/or do things. The site is here. There are a lot if silly things there that will never see the light of day but there are some real gems in that mine if you dig deep enough. Here are one or two that you might consider signing...


Place all members of the government under the same healthcare legislation that ordinary citizens are, with no exceptions


require the U. S. Senate to pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year as required by law


Shorten excessive copyright terms


We Demand Obama Issue Executive Order Making White House, Federal Buildings and Events Gun Free Zones


Press charges against David Gregory for possession of a 30-round, high capacity assault rifle magazine in Washington D.C

Obama takes his first step in "doing something" about gun violence

And his first step is to sign a whole pile of executive orders that have been summarized here for you.

Of course he did forget to do one or two things that would actually help with gun violence but hey, his commission did not have very much time to pull all of this together.

What could he have done that would actually make a difference?

1) Come clean on Fast and Furious and issue an executive order ending any similar programs the government currently has in progress and forbid any more from getting started.

2) Make it clear that "gun free" zones don't work. If armed guards are good enough and safe enough for his kids, how about yours and mine?

3) Push the states for national reciprocity for concealed carry. Having normal law abiding citizens suddenly become criminals because they drove into the wrong state is just plain wrong.

4) Actually enforce our boarders.

5) Violent illegals should be deported as quickly as possible.

6) Push to end "no knock" warrants. Too many innocent people are shot and/or killed when the warrant is served on the wrong address.

I am sure that there are other things that are just as simple that should have been included on the list but these (though they would have a positive affect) don't push his agenda and so are beyond consideration. Too bad.

Paul Krugman and the trillion dollar coin

In this column Paul is asking what all the fuss is over the trillion dollar coin idea. For those not familiar with this, it is basically to get the treasury to mint a coin with a face value of 1 trillion dollars. Once minted, the coin would be deposited with the fed and presto, an extra trillion to spend!

I am no nobel prize winner like Paul so I do not have his keen credentials to lend my opinion the same weight as his but I will present mine anyway.

Paul, you should immediately give back your Nobel prize. The fact that you are even entertaining this idea as an option should disqualify you from your current prize and cause the loss of all of your degrees as well.

A 12 year old knows this is nothing but a gimmick yet you treat it as a serious option.

I understand that this plan (to have an instant trillion dollars created out of nothing but about an ounce of metal) is simply a much shorter and quicker version of what the fed is currently doing (running the printing presses 24/7 and cranking out the green backs) as well as the decades long government raid on the SS fund (where the majority of the money is simply IOUs) . So please explain to me how doing this would that not have inflationary affects, further debasing our currency? Either inflation will rise or this "coin" is really a loan and the money will need to be paid back. You have to pick one or the other. It is not like treasury will, as part of minting this coin crap out 1 trillion in gold to back it up. It is backed by air and nothing more, just like most of our existing currency.

If this is such a great idea, why not go all in? Mint 20 or 30 of them. Bingo, you have not only paid off the current national debt but also given the country a surplus so Obama and congress can carry on with their spending ways!

While you are at it, might as well set the income tax rate to 0. You have just as much of a chance of paying off all of this current and future government debt (which is zero in case you are having trouble keeping up) with income tax rates at current levels, zero or even 100%. So you might as well let the sheep feel grateful before the whole place comes crashing down.

It is amazing that those that hold themselves up as "our" intellectual betters would rather champion ideas such as this instead of being the adults in the room and push for the real spending and entitlement reforms that are needed in order to get our fiscal house in order. We are bankrupting our kids, grandkids and great grandkids and instead of trying to get things under control Paul and others want to just keep the party going for a little longer.

The truth about Ethanol

Ethanol as a fuel source is a bad answer. It takes food out of consumption and turns it into bad fuel. By bad fuel, I mean it takes more energy to produce ethanol from corn than you get from the resulting ethanol. Most recent information on the process states that it takes 1.5 gallons of fuel energy to produce one gallon of ethanol fuel energy.

So, producing ethanol results in:

- higher food prices due to the loss of food corn

- higher energy prices due to the process loss from producing ethanol

- higher vehicle maintenance costs due to the corrosive affects of ethanol on nonmetallic engine parts

All so the ethanol lobby can make lots of money for a product that makes no economic sense and so "greens" can feel better about "doing something" for the planet that actually makes things worse for the planet.

Things will only be getting worse as the ethanol additive rates are set to increase from up to 10% ethanol to the newer up to 15% ethanol standard.

Bob Munden, you will be missed

Bob Munden, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived” has died at the age of 70. You have to watch the videos of this man in action to appreciate exactly how fast he was. He could shoot two targets so fast that it sounded like a single shot.

Here is a YouTube video of the man in action. He demonstrates his speed about 2:40 in.

Fiscal Cliff Reality

As a commenter on another blog posted:

16 months ago, government promised that if we bought them one more bottle of booze they would take a good, hard look at themselves, get some counseling, go into rehab, quit drinking. As a show of their sincerity, they even put out a contract on themselves - if they weren't clean and sober by January 1, 2013, some goons would come around to rough them up and drag them off to dry out. Well, they didn't quit drinking, they didn't sober up, they didn't seriously take a long, hard look at themelves, the counselors threw up their hands and walked away saying it was hopeless - all we had left was the knowledge that come January 1, 2013, the goons were going to show up and force them to quit drinking. But the bastards managed to get the hit called off. And there was much rejoicing.

There is nothing to rejoice about. This was no "good deal". This was no "save". This was breaking a promise and kicking the can down the road again. As Glenn Reynolds is fond of saying "What can't go on forever, won't" and this spending won't and when it does finally stop, it will be all kinds of messy.