Under the draft legislation, to come into force as early as next year, the sale of groceries using the simple measurement of numbers will be replaced by an EU-wide system based on weight.
It would mean an end to packaging descriptions such as eggs by the dozen, four-packs of apples, six bread rolls or boxes of 12 fish fingers.
"It is clear that the Framers . . . counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote.
The court's decision means that the enigmatically worded Second Amendment -- "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" -- identifies an individual right to gun ownership, like the freedom of speech, that cannot be unduly restricted by Congress, state laws or city ordinances.
The A-Whale bills itself as the largest open-water oil skimmer in the world, and it's at least very impressive. Originally an oil and ore tanker, the ship's owners recently refitted the ship to do exactly the kind of work that the US so desperately needs in the Gulf of Mexico, and to do it on a vastly larger scale than current operations can handle. According to the ship's project manager, the entire American effort in 66 days has skimmed off 600,000 barrels of oil. The ship’s owners claim that A-Whale can skim 500,000 barrels a day.
So where is the A-Whale now? In the Gulf? Not yet. It's on its way there after being tied to a dock in Norfolk, Virginia, and won't be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
Democrats like Obama keep talking about eeeeeevil corporations that export jobs overseas to save costs rather than keep them in the US. Well, Obama and his Congress just sent 1,000 jobs overseas — jobs Americans lost, and jobs that either Russian or Chinese workers will get instead. And instead of bankrupting this new coal plant, they just made it dirtier. Good job!
President Barack Obama, fresh from a win on a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations, on Saturday urged Congress to take up his proposal for a $90 billion, 10-year tax on banks as the next step in reform.
The current federal government of the United States is the largest, best-funded organization in human history. Our public debt has grown to over $13 trillion. We pay hundreds of billions per year just to service this debt. The federal government has over two million civilian employees. The Postal Service, all by itself, employs more people than any American company except Wal-Mart. Our government has shed almost every vestige of Constitutional restraint over the last few decades, exercising powers that would have shocked the Founding Fathers.
And yet, this federal titan is currently face-down in the oil-soaked waters of the Gulf of Mexico, its flabby arms twitching feebly. It has become too bloated to stand up. It can only lie there and scream threats at private citizens and corporations, until vast sums of money are shoveled into its maw, to sustain it for a few more years.
Even now, as oil begins fouling the coasts of our Gulf states, the federal government is entirely focused on shielding itself from blame, and taking advantage of the crisis to absorb more money.
But the history as recorded in the book of Judges shows the sorry result of a people who had freedom without character, for time and time again their freedom led to license, which led to moral laxity, which led to social disorder. Eventually the nation found itself in bondage to its enemies, or calling for a strong man to restore order. Freedom has its costs, and they seemed unwilling or unable to pay the price.
To have a prosperous society its members must work, and they must work hard. It is through hard work that good things come.
And what every government invariably does is to make life difficult for those who are willing to do real work. Governments prey on and rip off the productive. This is the primary focus of all governments, which is why in countries that have big governments little real work can be done. People did hardly any productive work in the former Soviet Union. Cubans do little work in Cuba nowadays. Hence their poverty.
Bill Clinton constantly urges young people to go into public service. This is the euphemism for working for government. Bill Clinton thus advises America's young to become parasites and leeches and nuisances. This is bad advice. Here is better advice: Go and get a real job in the private sector. Do something useful and productive. If you want to see where Bill Clinton's advice leads, go to Greece.
Mountains of rotting food found at a government warehouse, soaring prices and soldiers raiding wholesalers accused of hoarding: Food supply is the latest battle in President Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution.
The camels are harmless but the tiger could be dangerous, they noted.
Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor's wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.
But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.
America has become a cash cow for the Obama faction and their fellow traveling elitists. Like the exploitative landlords, they are milking it for all its worth, with no regard for the future or the conditions in which its people will have to live. They give short shrift to the basic maintenance, of our borders, our waterways and our security from the terrorist and criminal thugs seeking to destroy us. They choose instead to amass power for themselves and distribute billions in pursuit of their agenda of totalitarian control. In these Obama years, we witness the slumming of America.
