WHO says cell phones cause cancer, I say I smell something fishy.

This just in, that iPhone is going to rot your head off dudes.

Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

All based on purely correlative studies, and (probably) ignoring the mass of animal studies which found no such correlation.  Given that EVERYTHING we own with a chip or a motor in it generates microwaves, I must say this new pronouncement smells strongly of flounder.  Flounder left on the beach in the sun all day.

We've seen this show before.  Some study finds ice cream sales weakly correlated with increased crime rates. Then some "authority" comes up with a theory that sugar excites the "criminal area" of the brain. Pretty soon there's dairies getting sued, ice cream is banned within 1000 feet of a school, and the cops are rooting through your freezer looking for contraband.  Hey, if it saves just one life right?

In the case of the cell phone, this is interesting.  Think "Big Tobacco lawsuit".

The best performing tech companies in the world are Nokia, Apple, RIM etc. and the outfits that supply them with parts, all companies with lots and lots of cash to steal.. 
Cell phones are -extremely- inconvenient to The Authorities in all countries because of flash crowds, YouTube videos of embarrassing events involving officials (See Syria, Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin, California...), incriminating pictures on the web, social networking, tracing issues, texting/talking while driving, and on it goes.  And only due to become more empowering to the individual and more inconvenient to authorities as they become faster and more capable every single day.  Check out iPad II for sheer capacity and capability.

Gee, maybe somebody big in world government thinks it might be good to stuff this cell phone genie back in the bottle and weld the lid on. A few well publicized lawsuits in Europe and North America, POOF no more cell phones.  Well, except for China, Asia and Africa, maybe India, and who cares about those backwaters?  Nothing important going on there, eh?

The Phantom

Nobody ever listens to me, and its starting to hack me off.

Government tracking people is a regular feature on this blog.  I post stuff about ubiquitous surveillance all the time.  People seem to think I'm some kind of nut with this stuff.  To be fair, that thing with the lithium in the water does seem like a crazy nutcase conspiracy theory.  Except it didn't come out of the UFO News, it came out of the medical literature, New Scientist and the BBC.

Well kids, here's ANOTHER one.  The USA is going to propose mandatory full-up, airliner style Black Boxes in your car.

The U.S. Transportation Department said today it will propose making vehicle "black boxes" mandatory in all vehicles by the end of the year.

The department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has long considered whether to make black boxes, officially called event data recorders, or EDRs, mandatory. They collect data about the seconds leading up to a crash and can help investigators determine the cause.

Yes, your car testifies against you in court. This is not a new thing.  All cars with EFI engines have data logging.  They vary as to what data gets logged and for how long, but they all have it.  Further more:

In August 2006, NHTSA issued a rule setting standards for EDR data collection.

The rule, which takes effect in the 2013 model year, standardizes the information EDRs collect and makes retrieving the data easier. Devices must record 15 data elements, including vehicle deceleration, in specific formats.

Well, gee.  They already have the Black Box thing laid on for 2013.  Good thing I bought my new car already. 
So then, what's this new "proposal"?  The article is a little vague, but it does say:

In May 2010, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade association GM, Ford, Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota and eight other automakers, endorsed making EDRs mandatory in all vehicles, but expressed concerns that some in Congress wanted more elaborate and expensive ones than are available.

Thanks Big Three for having our back like that.  "Spying is ok but jeeze, don't make us spend too much money!" They should get the good citizenship award.

But what would "more elaborate and expensive" look like?  The one they have right now probably costs ten bucks.  But if you take a Wii remote and stick a 32 gig flash drive on it, the thing will remember every tiny motion your car makes.  It will remember it for -years-.  If you add a GPS, it can remember everywhere you've ever been.  If you add a cell phone,  it can phone home with the data. That could all be done on one chip for probably fifty or sixty bucks.

Android phones and IPhones already do this. 

The Feds have surveillance envy.  So they are going to wire your car. 
Additionally, if the car can phone them, they can phone it.  Just think OnStar.  Only mandatory.  Oh, and they can use it to TAX YOU. Pay by the mile, ring a bell?

Thought experiment, lets pretend Barry wins in 2012 and the Dems can continue with their agenda.  What does America look like by 2016?

-Government follows your every move from your cell phone and your car, plus cameras -everywhere-. Most likely there will be a Central Surveilance Directorate or some other alphabet soup acronym that spells "We can seeeee you!"
-Government reads -all- your mail and watches you surf, but openly.  There may be a "We can seeeee you!" icon flashing on your screen at all times.  They also log keystrokes and examine your hard drive..
-TSA will be groping you at the airport... and the train station, the bus station, the gas station, the mall, the baseball game and the senior prom. TSA agents will not resemble Hooters waitresses in any way.
-Carbon tax, collected at pay-by-the-mile variable rates based on traffic congestion, time of day, number of people in the car, season, and route, comes directly out of your bank account daily.  SUVs pay double, of course.
-Illegal parking will be automatically billed to your bank account because they know where your car is.
-All traffic infractions will be automatically billed to your bank account because again, they know where your car is, how fast its going, if you are following too close, if you signaled that lane change, blew that stoplight, came to a complete dead stop at that stop sign...
-but don't worry if you get arrested because prisoners in jail will be released "by accident" every week,
-but that might be bad because you will not have a gun.
-Your income tax rate will be 62% or more,
-but that's ok because you will not have a job (unless you are a postal worker)
-and you won't have a car or a phone because of double or even tripple dip recession ,
-and your house won't be worth anything.
-But you will feel good about it all because of the lithium in the water supply.

That is The Official Un-Official Semi-Secret Democrat Plan. For real.

Awesome eh?  And that's just the stuff that's made the news lately.
This concludes today's Happy Thoughts round up. Be sure to tell your friends.  Often. And loudly.  And buy some wheel weights.

The Drugged And Happy About It Phantom

Brave New World is a cautionary tale, not a MANUAL!

Once again, life mirrors art as "scientists" start agitating for LITHIUM to be added to drinking water.  I kid you not.
From New Scientist:

In Japan's Oita Prefecture, cities with higher levels of lithium in their drinking water experienced lower rates of suicide. The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, made me wonder if governments should add lithium to the water supply.

Yes, REALLY.  A couple of purely correlative studies, and these liberal assholes want to start in on a mass campaign to medicate the entire population.  Involuntarily.
If I recall correctly, Huxley didn't think that would work really well.
Perfect example of the modern liberal thought process.  Something is good (maybe!), so the best way to proceed is to SNEAK IT IN through the public water supply when the proles aren't looking.  If it saves just one life, its worth it! 
Hey! Its for your own good so shut up, morons!

Lithium: Its not just for batteries any more.

The "Anything Not Forbidden Is Compulsory" Phantom

Barry FINALLY drops the other shoe.

Personally I've been wondering what's been taking him so long. 

In a speech outlining U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa, Obama on Thursday sided with the Palestinians' opening position a day ahead of a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is vehemently opposed to referring to the 1967 borders.

We've known the DemocRats wanted to cut Israel loose since 9/11, I'm sure they think if they just throw some chum in the water the sharks will leave them alone.  Also I think maybe they just don't like those Jews.  The nutroot Dem base certainly doesn't.

Oh and gee, does anybody think the Muslim Brotherhood isn't in this thing up to the neck?  Egyptian guns on the Gaza border anyone?  Maybe some nice Syrian missile batteries in the Golan Heights?  1967 borders ringing a bell now?  Artillery that can reach Tel Aviv?  Oh yeah.

Oh and, can we now figure out -why- Barry sent the SEALs on a kill mission when they could have just as easily captured Bin Laden and squeezed him like a grape for five years?  Head shot with hurried burial at sea making more sense now ain't it?  No inconvenient prisoner to screw things up, plus Barry can say "Hey, I killed Bin Laden!  War's over!" Then tip Israel under the bus with one nicely polished loafer.

Next move is by Congress.  They can pretty much frag Barry by cutting off the money.  Maybe they better man up and get to it.

The Phantom

Liberal propaganda machine in full turbo-nitrous mode.

Over at Borque Newswatch the Liberal media are absolutely FREAKING OUT that PC leader Tim Hudak opened his mouth.  Oh baby, the outrage.  You could spread it on toast.  (Note, Mr. Borque sells coverage to the highest bidder.  In this case, the Liberals.)

The Toronto (Red) Star:

Tearing up a 20-year deal worth $7 billion of private sector investment, 16,000 jobs and 2,500 megawatts of green power is bad energy policy and shortsighted economic policy. So, too, is getting rid of the preferential rates paid to jumpstart other solar and wind energy projects, something else Hudak vows to do.

The Windsor (Red) Star:

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak's pledge to scrap the $7-billion Samsung green energy deal was like a hammer to the head for Windsor and Essex County. 

Local 2 in Sault St. Marie:

Tim Hudak to Scrap Green Energy Programs and Return to Dirty Coal Fired Power

Hudak's reckless and short-sighted plan will threaten thousands of jobs in Ontario's clean energy industry, including jobs in Sault Ste. Marie at Heliene Solar, Elementa, Brookfield Renewable Power Wind Farm and the Starwood Solar Power energy farm. And Hudak's plan is already causing significant concern among investors who are hoping to open alternative energy businesses that would create and support thousands of jobs in Northern Ontario.

Meanwhile, most people who live outside the favored  "green jobs" zones have "STOP the wind turbines!"  signs on their street like I do.  Or they know somebody who fell for the solar panel scam and now can't recoup their $50K-$100K investment in solar panels because Ontario Hydro decided not to hook them up to the grid.  Because the wire running past their house is too small, and it would MELT every time the sun came out.  Duh.

There was another guy in history who pulled something like this Green Energy Initiative in his own country.  His name was Mao Tse Tung, and he decided that China could become the steel-making capital of the world if everybody put a little smelter in their back yard and made steel in it. He called it the Great Leap Forward.  Seems that it didn't end well.

Dalton McGuinty seeks to do the same thing, end our "dependence" on "dirty coal fired power" by putting a solar panel or a windmill in every back yard between Niagara Falls and Hudson's Bay. Power will cost ten times as much of course, but it'll be "green" and we'll be "energy independent". Awesome.

Of the two men, I think McGuinty may end up viewed by history as the baser scoundrel.  Mao's Great Leap Forward may have killed 48 million Chinese people by starvation, but Mao reportedly did the whole thing because he was honestly convinced it was going to work.  The same cannot be said of McGuinty, who was most definitely told hooking windmills and solar panels to Ontario's rickety, busted old power grid was a dangerously stupid idea. 

The Phantom

Doctors + guns = fish + bicycle

Or possibly screen door + submarine.
From "signaller222" in the comments at Kate's Small Dead Animals, a doctor speaks his surprisingly tiny mind.
San Francisco peds doc Ricky Y. Choi, MD, MPH asks the musical question, "Should pediatricians be punished for asking about guns in the home?"
Quoth the doc:

Florida's Governor Scott is on the verge of signing into law a bill that would penalize doctors for asking about guns in the home. The original bill shockingly included a $5 million fine and a five year prison sentence if a doctor asked about a patient's gun ownership, entered gun ownership information into a medical record, or refused to care for patients who declined to answer related questions. An unsatisfying compromise amendment between the NRA and the Florida chapter of the AMA limited the penalty to the possible revocation of a medical license and would allow questions about gun ownership and entry of that information into the medical record only if "medically necessary". 

Those Nazi BASTARDS!!!

Particularly bewildering to me were claims made by state legislators that gun safety was outside the scope of a pediatrician's practice. According to Marion Hammer, a past president of the NRA, "Families take their kids to pediatricians for medical care, not to talk about guns."

I would beg to differ.

Really? Pray, tell me more good doctor.

The scope of practice I am talking about we all can own. I have a responsibility to ask about, diagnose, educate, and treat obstacles to health. For those who see children in their practice, discussing topics such as swimming pool safety and smoke detectors are routine at regular check ups.

But let me take it a step further. I would argue that nutritious food, safe medications, air quality, domestic violence, affordable housing, access to health care, sex trafficking, cultural factors, schools, safe neighborhoods, voting, human rights, international trade agreements, and the state budget, to the extent they impact health of my patients and communities, are also in my scope of practice.

Not only do I feel an obligation to explore these issues, my patients expect it of me.

Well, aren't you the special one then.  Have you considered the possibility your patients expect it because you live in the most Lefty-liberal anti-gun city in the entire USA?
Personally, if a pediatrician asked me about my views on guns, voting and the state budget, I'd be backing out of the room as expeditiously as possible, never to return.  That's the answer to the question, really.  If you want some officious, holier than thou liberal for a doctor, that's up to you.  And anything he puts in your PERMANENT, SEARCHABLE medical record becomes your problem.  Forever.

Thirty years of anti-gun propaganda in the medical literature have created a whole cohort of little crusaders like this guy, who think everything in the world is their business. Legislating what a doctor can and cannot ask or put in his notes seems a bit much, but I do I think it would be excellent if the liberal nosy-Parker sons of bitches all found themselves out of business due to lack of trade.

The Phantom

Finally, confirmation from a credible source!

All you conspiracy nuts can relax now, Reuters finally has confirmation Ossama Bin Laden is dead, and its from a source you can believe.

Al Qaeda confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden on Friday in an Internet message that vowed revenge on the United States and its allies, including Pakistan, according to a statement issued by the Islamist militant group.

And hey, it looks like Pakistan is in the clear, because the AQ boys still hate 'em.  Way to go Mubarak.
Best of all, Reuters has downgraded Al Qaeda from "murdering terrorists" to "Islamist militants".  Good news all 'round.

AlReuters: they report, we deride.

The Phantom

Why are we pretending to be afraid of these Iranian retards again?

Somebody remind me, I forget.

Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).

Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".

Can't somebody send these freaks a doll with pins stuck in it or something?  I mean, come ON.

Big Brother wants you... to pay by the mile.

Obama trial balloon, pay-by-the-mile car tax.

News of the draft follows a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven.

Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations.

The CBO report was requested by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who has proposed taxing cars by the mile as a way to increase federal highway revenues.

Obama's proposal seems to follow up on that idea in section 2218 of the draft bill. That section would create, within the Federal Highway Administration, a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office. It would be tasked with creating a "study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems."

No doubt this per-mile tax will be in-addition-to gas tax, vehicle tax, tolls and etc, rather than instead-of.  Lets not be silly, right?
And let's face it, there's going to be a humongous database of tracking info which will -never- be deleted.  These machines will be cell phones, they will transmit this data in real-time 24/7 to a server as the Apple and Google phones do. Most likely they will attach to the  car's engine management computer, giving Big Brother  your location to within 50ft AND the ability to turn on/off your car, lock/unlock your doors, blow the horn, whatever OnStar can do they will be doing too.
It will also be incredibly, astronomically, insanely expensive, because government run databases always are.  What Apple or GM/OnStar can cook up on a whim for a couple million bucks will cost the US/Canadian governments a trillion.  Remember the two billion for the gun registry?  It could run on a laptop.  Imagine this monstrosity.

Government regulators have a major woody for this tracking technology, as apparently do Apple and Google.  The tech exists right now, and it seems there's a whole lot of money in knowing where we all are every minute of the day.  We as a culture are going to have to decide if we will allow this kind of ubiquitous surveillance or not, and by the looks of things we will be deciding pretty freakin' soon.

Call your MP/Congress critter, tell him/her this is a very, very bad thing.

The Phantom

Study: Half of Detroit illiterate.

Well, this explains everything.

According to a new report, 47 percent of Detroiters are  "functionally illiterate." The alarming new statistics were released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund on Wednesday.

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with the Fund's Director, Karen Tyler-Ruiz, who explained exactly what this means.

"Not able to fill out basic forms, for getting a job — those types of basic everyday (things). Reading a prescription; what's on the bottle, how many you should take… just your basic everyday tasks," she said.

Those of us who have always wondered HOW the idiots who use the lawnmower as a hedge clipper got that stupid, here's your answer.  They can't READ all those big red warning labels plastered all over everything.
Dear liberals, when you go and deliberately destroy a public institution like the schools, that has consequences.

The Phantom

What's most important about Bin Laden's life and death?

Bunnies. No really, bunnies.

Zarar Ahmed, 12, is a resident of the small town of Abbottabad, not far from the compound where Bin Laden had been hiding with relatives and associates for the past five years until his death at the weekend.

Zarar told how the family had even given him a gift of two rabbits during one of his visits to the $1 million home. He said: "I used to go to their house. He had two wives, one spoke Arabic, and the other one spoke Urdu. They had three children, a girl and two boys. They gave me two rabbits.

Aren't they cuuuuute?! Eee!

The Phantom

Been a lovely few days, hasn't it?

Wow, eh? Taliban Jack caught with his pants down, Taliban Ossama caught slippin' by the US Navy, and now we've got a Hidden Agenda majority, with no more BlockHead party, no more Count Iggula to kick around, and EXTRA BONUS...

...every Question Period will have Rin Tin Lizzie the performing sea mammal doing her act. Throw that girl a herring!

The awesome just keeps on coming, as Jack would say. Bwaha!

The Phantom