Somehow it’s appropriate that my first link to Daily Kos in quite some time would happen on Halloween.  But Kos did find a cool story about a guy who’s doubling gas mileage of cars while increasing their horsepower.

Now, not being that mechanically inclined, my main concern about citing this guy as a superhero is that I don’t know how many bio-diesel cars our country could support.  Obviously we have the capacity to support a lot more than are on the roads now, but at some point we’re going to reach the point where supply of biofuel is maxed out, and that’s going to happen a lot sooner than we run out of potential drivers. 

Still, the idea of biofuel has always intrigued me in a low-level sort of way.  And if nothing else, Kos is right that ingenuity is still alive and well in America. 

Somehow it’s appropriate that my first link to Daily Kos in quite some time would happen on Halloween.  But Kos did find a cool story about a guy who’s doubling gas mileage of cars while increasing their horsepower.

Now, not being that mechanically inclined, my main concern about citing this guy as a superhero is that I don’t know how many bio-diesel cars our country could support.  Obviously we have the capacity to support a lot more than are on the roads now, but at some point we’re going to reach the point where supply of biofuel is maxed out, and that’s going to happen a lot sooner than we run out of potential drivers. 

Still, the idea of biofuel has always intrigued me in a low-level sort of way.  And if nothing else, Kos is right that ingenuity is still alive and well in America. 

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For parents who must know where little Johnny is at every moment, comes the GPS jacket. 

Using Google Earth maps, users can watch the jacket wearer move. The movements are updated every 10 seconds.

But they don’t need to be online to find out where the person is. Users can also receive alerts to their e-mail or cell phone when the jacket leaves the boundary, meaning parents could potentially receive alerts whenever their children skipped school, left the neighborhood or went to their boyfriend’s house — so long as the child was wearing the jacket.

As you can imagine, the jacket was originally designed for mountain climbers and other folks who might actually need something like this.  Though I will confess to debating about whether or not to threaten my 16-year old with this purchase. 

There are now 755,000 people on the terrorism watch list. 

This is a perfect example of bureaucracy in action. 

To doff our caps towards Tim Wakefield.  Arguably my favorite playor on undoubtably my favorite team, Wake’s been left off the roster for World Series.  And how does he react?

I just don’t think it’s fair to the other 24 guys on this team that I go out there and maybe I pitch well and maybe I don’t, and then I’m not available for the rest of the series. It’s not fair for the rest of the 24 guys in that clubhouse for me to put them through that.”

With class. 

KDFW in Dallas has suspended reporter Rebecca Aguilar for an ambush-style interview of an elderly armed citizen. 

In the comments, several folks correctly noted that there’s no way this interview aired without the knowledge of several other employees.  Based on my experiences in local television news, the following people had to have known about this interview before it aired.

- the photographer who filmed the interview

- the producer of the newscast in which the interview aired

I don’t know how big a shop KDFW has, but I’m guessing there was a seperate editor who put the story together.  I would also be shocked if the Executive Producer or News Director did not see the interview before it ran. 

I’m glad to see her suspended for this, but this was a failure of the newsroom as well. 

The mother of missing toddler Maddie McCann (the young girl who disappeared from her hotel room in Portugal) reportedly thinks the reason people aren’t expressing more sympathy for her is because she’s too hot.

I have no idea what this person even looks like, though I vaguely remember her being on the cover of People magazine a few weeks ago.  And I do have some sympathy for her, though I have a lot more sympathy for her kids.  Why?

Because despite the fact that the press doesn’t really mention it anymore, she and her husband left their kids alone. 

That op/ed above says it was “a mistake”.  I’d argue negligance, but even if you want to say it’s a simple mistake… the fact is the media, and the McCann’s, have been loathe to discuss the fact that this was purely preventable.  Avoiding the “bad” facts in order to make a story more palatable is disgusting. 

Actually, I think there are many things with this story that disgust me, but trust me, none of them have to do with the “hotness” of Mrs. McCann.

Lest we forget that those on the right can also exhibit nanny-state tendencies, I give you the story of Ben Daly on Leakey, Texas.

The Leakey School Board on Monday night voted unanimously against allowing a high school senior to keep his long hair.

 

Ben Jamin Daly, 18, says he is growing his long locks because his religion, Rastafarianism, prohibits him from cutting it.

 

But apparently board members don’t agree with Daly, who called the decision an injustice.

 

“I thought right is right, but obviously, I’m wrong,” he said.

 

Daly was represented at the meeting by Fleming Terrell, an attorney for the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

“We really didn’t know what to expect,” Terrell said. “We didn’t know where the board stood. I tried to give them a good idea where the law was, where the policy was.”

 

Terrell said she will review Daly’s options and see what steps, if any, to take next.

 

But Daly and his father vowed to keep fighting.

 

“He was born here, raised here,” said John Daly, the student’s father. “He wants to graduate and enjoy his senior year. I mean, that’s a big deal. It’s not over.”

 

In the meantime, Daly will continue to be taught in isolation and will not be allowed to participate in school activities.

 

It was not known when Daly would have to cut his hair.

What year is this?  2007?  And we have school districts that are isolating kids because of long hair?  Good Lord, it’s like Footloose come to life!

And by the way, I don’t think religion should even come into play here, Rastafarianism or not.  I just don’t see how a school board can dictate the length of your hair. 

Sorry for the lack of nannyness lately.  It’s not that the stories aren’t out there, I’ve just been working on other things. 

Anyway, looks like Philly may be amending their trans-fat ban soon.  While I’m all in favor of freedom of choice, it seems awfully stupid to me that you’ll allow small bakeries to be exempt while forcing larger companies to comply.  Just get rid of the stupid ban and let me choose to eat what I want.

Fresh off the heels of Michael Graham’s column about the American Academy of Pediatrics asking kids about the gun-owing habits of their parents…

The AAP has filed a friend of the court brief arguing in favor of keeping the D.C. Gun Ban in place. 

Those wacky doctors and their anti-gun ways. 

I confess, I was looking forward to this weekend in the same way that Rosie O’Donnell looks forward to attending fat camp.  It’s not something you enjoy, but it’s something that’s gotta be done. 

But with my wife out of town and me taking care of the kids, it turns out the weekend wasn’t so bad after all.  In fact it was pretty darn awesome. 

Even though I work evenings, I don’t get to see nearly as much of the kids as I’d like, and I had a chance to spend some quality time with each of the kids.  James and Catherine decided they wanted to watch “Dumbo” yesterday morning, and I think we’ve seen it 5 times now.  It’s pretty cool that they enjoy a classic like that just as much or more than the computer generated Pixar flicks. 

I’m trying to figure out when I can get back to Houston to see Mom again… I’ve got a speaking engagement in New Jersey in two weekends, and after that it’s the annual Halloween Party at our house.  I haven’t seen Elaine during the weekend in 3 weeks now, so I’m also suffering a bit from Wife Withdrawl Syndrome.  At least she gets home tomorrow.

According to this story, the Brady Campaign urged the District of Columbia to change its gun laws rather than seek an appeal to the Supreme Court in the Parker/Heller case.

Helmke, of the Brady Campaign, said the group suggested to Washington that it
rework its gun laws rather than press on with an appeal. A broad Supreme Court
ruling on the Second Amendment could jeopardize a variety of laws, including
waiting periods for handgun sales and California’s machine gun ban, he said.

That’s the first time I’ve heard Helmke admit that.
 

Although I think this story actually applies nationwide.

Thanks to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics and supported by the commonwealth, doctors across Massachusetts are interrogating our kids about mom and dad’s “bad” behavior.

We used to be proud parents. Now, thanks to the AAP, we’re “persons of interest.”

The paranoia over parents is so strong that the AAP encourages doctors to ignore “legal barriers and deference to parental involvement” and shake the children down for all the inside information they can get.

And that information doesn’t stay with the doctor, either.

Debbie is a mom from Uxbridge who was in the examination room when the pediatrician asked her 5-year-old, “Does Daddy own a gun?”

When the little girl said yes, the doctor began grilling her and her mom about the number and type of guns, how they are stored, etc.

If the incident had ended there, it would have merely been annoying.

But when a friend in law enforcement let Debbie know that her doctor had filed a report with the police about her family’s (entirely legal) gun ownership, she got mad.

She also got a new doctor.

In fact, the problem of anti-gun advocacy in the examining room has become so widespread that some states are considering legislation to stop it.

That state, by the way, would be Virginia if I’m not mistaken. 

After some prodding from my buddies Jim and Marshall, I’ve decided to start a new blog to catalogue the “deals of the day” we cover on Cam and Company. 

You can check out the blog here:  http://thedealoftheday.blogspot.com/

I thought about incorporating the deals in this blog, but I really do want to keep this mostly about the nanny state stuff.  Also, I’ve been neglecting On Tap, but I’m going to start blogging over there again.  The things I post there will generally be non-political… kind of a repository for the general stuff on my mind. 

And of course, every now and then you’ll still be subjected to kid pictures here.

One more note:  I’ve changed the contact email, from cam-at-camedwards-dot-com, which was getting inundated with spam, to camedwards-at-gmail-dot-com.  If you’ve tried to email me through the web page over the last couple of months, I apologize for not getting back to you.  This should hopefully take care of most of the spam. 

You might be interested to know that as of October 1st, Nevada now has right-to-carry reciprocity with Utah, as well as several other states. 

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Flew into beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico today for the National Police Shooting Championships.  Live coverage can be seen on NRAnews.com at Noon Eastern Monday and Tuesday.  The replay will also be available at the normal broadcast time of 9 p.m. Eastern on the website and on Sirius Patriot 144.

On the plane I met the lone representative of the NYPD department today… 37-year old Wanda Guzman.  She’s one cool cop. 

Really looking forward to getting out to the range tomorrow… should be a lot of fun and a busy show. 

In the meantime, over at Bitter’s place, I found this idiotic story.

Addiction and drunken-driving foes yesterday poured cold water over the champagne-soaked Red Sox celebration played out in front of fans and kids celebrating the American League Eastern Division title Friday night at Fenway Park.

In between the champagne showers that delighted members of Red Sox Nation in the stands, players engaged in public drinking that some activists felt should have been confined to the clubhouse.

“I think it was a little rowdy. It was not appropriate for kids. There were little kids there. This is not the way to celebrate. There has to be a modulation of the message by parents,” said Dr. P. S. Kishore, founder of the National Library of Addictions in Brookline.

Dr. Charles Steinberg, the Red Sox executive vice president for public affairs, said the use of alcohol on the field was appropriate.

“That champagne is not for drinking, it’s for spraying,” Steinberg said. “It’s good for the fans to see these men, many of whom are dads, who are married with kids, enjoying themselves. They are not using the alcohol as any kind of method to get drunk.”

Bernie Carty, an addiction counselor at Somerville Hospital, disagreed. “It gives a bad signal to a crowd that’s adoring, especially young kids. What can I say? We still have this thing - ‘If famous people do it why can’t I?”’ she said

More evidence that Massachusetts really does need to change its official nickname to the Nanny State.  Surely there’s a state legislator out there with the stones to introduce such a bill… right?