Dumbass Thinks He Can Shoot Down Drones With Shotgun

I had to fact-check this Daily Caller article. Two reasons: the Daily Caller is a fact-challenged website and the article is so stupid that it reads like The Onion. Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News and 7NEWS in Denver also reports that Deer Trail, Colorado is considering an ordinance to pay bounty hunters to shoot down drones.

Deer Trail resident Phillip Steel isn't not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His ordinance would allow bounty hunters to shoot down drones with shotguns. Mind you, it is virtually impossibe for shotguns to shoot down drones flying at those attitudes. It is also illegal to destroy government property.

Even though it's against the law to destroy federal property, Steel's proposed ordinance outlines weapons, ammunition, rules of engagement, techniques, and bounties for drone hunting.

The ordinates states, "The Town of Deer Trail shall issue a reward of $100 to any shooter who presents a valid hunting license and the following identifiable parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle whose markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government."

7NEWS Reporter Amanda Kost asked Steel, "Have you ever seen a drone flying over your town?"

"No," Steel responded. "This is a very symbolic ordinance. Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society, and I believe we are heading that way."

I am no fan of drones, but this is stupid beyond words. The 7NEWS video below.

Most Bizarre Headline of the Day

I don't know which headline is more disturbing.

First choice:

Ron Paul to Chair Monetary Policy Subcommittee

Second choice:

Denver Voters Reject Plan to Track Space Aliens

Does anyone else need proof that this has been a strange election?

Colorado Insurers Drop Children From HC Policies

Change you can believe in: six health insurance companies in Colorado are dropping children from policies.

At least six major companies — including Anthem, Aetna, Cigna and Humana — have said they will stop writing new policies for individual children not covered by their parents' or other plans, insurance officials said.

They blamed health reform mandates taking effect Thursday requiring companies that write such policies as of that date to also cover sick children up to age 19.

Some of the same insurers, meanwhile, have filed proposed rate increases with Colorado for individual policies, hiking premiums by up to 27 percent, regulators said.

Public and private partnerships usually work poorly. Jeb Bush's own inspector general Bill Monroe has been unable to prove that outsourcing has saved the taxpayers money. Obama's health care reform plan is a near carbon copy of Sen. John Chafee's 1993 proposal. Chafee's goal was to protect private insurers from the potential of President Clinton signing a comprehensive universal health care reform bill. Clinton's health care plans died in committee so it is hard to say exactly what ClintonCare would look like. Obama's intentions were to protect special interests.

Money quote from Jon Walker:

Frankly, the complaining from Obama is just sad. Either it is hollow grandstanding, or Obama actually thought that the private, for-profit health insurance companies were honest brokers he could trust to not try to find loopholes in the new regulations. If it is the latter, President Obama’s much-touted intellect needs a reevaluation.

Private insurance companies are in the business of making a profit. Not providing universal health care. The Colorado situation was predictable. Obama's deer-in-the-headlights act is getting old. This health care bill was horrible and progressives will be forced to defend it. I think I will take a pass.

Stupid Anti-Abortion Ballot Measure

Amanda Marcotte is making a somewhat slippery slope argument. I agree with her that he anti-abortion movement is batshit crazy. The statement that women can be convicted because fertilized egg was in their peroid is a faulty legal argument. Who would know a woman flushed the egg out of her system? A woman can't be convicted of killing a person she can't see or knows exist. That is why the Colorado ballot to declare fertilized eggs living people is silly.

The Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for an anti-abortion group to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person.

The court approved the language of the proposal, rejecting a challenge from abortion-rights supporters who argued it was misleading and dealt with more than one subject in violation of the state constitution.

If approved by voters, the measure would give fertilized eggs the state constitutional protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process.

Colorado for Equal Rights needs 76,000 signatures to get on the ballot. My advise is don't sign this piece of legal nonsense.

My fear (which is not a slippery slope argument) is that doctors will fear performing abortions during ectopic pregnancies.

Ectopic means "out of place." In an ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg has implanted outside the uterus. The egg settles in the fallopian tubes more than 95% of the time. This is why ectopic pregnancies are commonly called "tubal pregnancies." The egg can also implant in the ovary, abdomen, or the cervix, so you may see these referred to as cervical or abdominal pregnancies.

None of these areas has as much space or nurturing tissue as a uterus for a pregnancy to develop. As the fetus grows, it will eventually burst the organ that contains it. This can cause severe bleeding and endanger the mother's life. A classical ectopic pregnancy never develops into a live birth.

Nicaragua's anti-abortion policy has killed women with ectopic pregnancies. If anti-abortionists were too eliminate all abortions, the public would rally against their policies as with South Dakota and Terri Schiavo. Women would tragicly die in the short term.

The anti-abortion movement has been an uttter failure. They had a Republican executive branch, congress and Supreme Court. The leadership they supoported did not have the political courage to outlaw abortion. Republicans know the political consequences would hurt their party for a decade. It is much easier for the GOP to pay lip service to Christian fundamentalists that have no other party to turn to. Meet the old Christian Right con. Same as the old con.