Opinions Inc

Ambien CR Commercials:

Doesn’t everybody go to bed with lip gloss on? Particularly light sleepers and insomniacs? After all, who knows when they could get “lucky” and meet a strange Rooster?

Guantanamo POW Base

Guantanamo is our 100 year leased naval base in the Caribbean; we need that base. It is now used to house terrorists that we have captured in firefights, skirmishes, counter-insurgency actions, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are others there, captured by our allies that we have taken control of, and more of those overseas in friendly countries.

The main point is that these ARE prisoners of our Declared War on Terrorists, whose leaders are Al Qaida, whose proxies include the Taliban and 4 or five other similarly motivated groups.

We owe no apology to anyone for our treatment of these terrorists. The fact that they don’t wear uniforms makes them no less soldiers; makes the fights no less fatal to our soldiers; makes our absolute justification for responding to terrorist attacks no less important for the time and distance necessary to punish those people.

In fact, we should repatriate these prisoners to the countries from which they were taken; they should be imprisoned there under the Geneva Conventions. They should be released when the war is over, or when the host country  determines. We can help control unjustified releases with agreements with the hosts.

Oh, and I don’t care about those who bemoan that some other country’s sense of justice is less considerate than ours; these people are terrorist soldiers, they did try, and in many cases succeed in killing Americans, over three thousand just in Iraq, Three Thousand in September 11 attacks, Somalia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and on and on.

Chrysler and General Motors Bailouts

Forcing an illegal,Constitutionally prohibited Bankruptcy Settlement on Chrysler and General Motors ,favoring Unions over Secured Creditors is just wrong. I hope the Pension Funds succeed in blocking the Bankruptcy package that allows the Fiat takeover. I hope Chrysler undertakes a different bankruptcy according to the law. I suspect the reason that they didn’t is because Chrysler would be liquidated, not reorganized. No other company wants the labor and other legacy issues associated with a second class auto manufacturer. (Whither the politics of hedge fund lobbying?)

In General Motor’s case, it’s a bigger version of the same thing, perhaps though General Motors and it’s surviving brands have a chance. But, there are enough venture capital funds to finance the deal in a normal bankruptcy, just not one that tries to save union jobs, union benefits, and other restructuring participants that shouldn’t be saved at the expense of pension funds and other bondholder investors who trusted the system to preserve their status. The unions and GM’s management are justly compared to the Wall Streeters who engineered bad financial products, sold them to their shareholders and outside investors, and now are looking around saying “Who? Me?” to explain or excuse their behavior.

America’s free market system can absorb the effects of even major bankruptcies; there’s plenty of capital available for the opportunities in restructuring.

Let’s give capitalism a chance, but not at taxpayer expense.

We should be doing more, not less, in the Real ID program.
While I am apprehensive about the government having more information about me, I do feel that Real ID is a security program long past due. And, while government abuse in the past has occurred, it has been rare. Further, civil liberties groups always seem to find the right avenue to correct the abuses; that’s the beauty of our system.
Conversely, let’s consider the effects of not having a reliable Real ID system; the ability of illegals, and terrorists, to penetrate our society, with stated goals that are to the detriment of us all.
Does the writer think that journalists, or housewives, or executives, would be singled out?
Get real!
I don’t like my movements being tracked, like which nightclubs I visit, or my library book selections, or the web sites I visit, or…or….
But, I love the idea that people who may have bad purposes in mind can’t get on the plane I’m on, as in Israel; or on trains, as in Spain.
Here’s what really bothers me; we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars to secure ourselves against terrorism.
Terrorists are driving us broke and potentially out of existence with the leverage of threats that cost untold Billions to strategize against, plan for, develop remedial programs “in case,” and much more. Osama Bin Laden and his ilk must laugh several times a day at the chaos, real and imagined, that they have, and will cause.

Unfortunately, the modern world and all it’s threats, are a symptomatic reaction to the hopes of people tantalized by democracy and capitalism.
Read ID may be considered overkill in a Constitutionally-driven society which values privacy, but allowing our enemies to penetrate our society at will, and execute plans that harm thousands is not a solution.
It might help to consider that Real ID would have prevented most, if not all, of the 9/11 hijackers from taking flying lessons, boarding planes, or many other activities.
We should be able to build safeguards into the compilation of a Real ID system that will minimize the potential for misuse by the government or anyone else.
More importantly, it has to start right now. We have been lucky the last few years. How long can luck last?
Americans may be finally starting to take Citizenship seriously; attaching real value to citizenship by Americans should point the way towards making Real ID a necessity, and right away.
If everyone in this country had to provide proof of their legal status to be present, we would be even more amazed at our loss of control of our borders, and the threats we face.
We should consider Real ID the opportunity that it is; a way to establish a national ID system for US Citizens that is foolproof, biometrically attached and verifiable to the holder, with multiple ID points, including finger/hand print verifications, retinal verification, and in the future DNA verification.
We could start with DNA Real ID for children of US citizens that becomes part of their Real ID issued at birth.