Musings from Brian J. Noggle

I present to you: Harptallica.

Videos on YouTube include Enter Sandman:

Master of Puppets:

Sanitarium:

And Unforgiven:

State Senator proposes death penalty for littering:

“I think that if we kill just a couple of people we catch, the rest will catch on,” he said.

He called the people perpetrating the littering “white trash” and “rednecks.”

Soon after, he clarified he was joking about the bill.

“I’m doing this tongue in cheek, obviously,” he said, and withdrew the bill [sic]

This bozo is a Republican, no less.

I am not a humourless guy, no matter what this blog might indicate otherwise, but the legislature is not the place for jokes. I mean, someone might take it seriously, and suddenly you’re passing $825 billion dollars in junk stimulus.

More relying on state health care programs: Growing enrollment poses funding challenges:

Enrollment in state health care programs such as BadgerCare Plus has increased by about 238,000 people – or 35% – in the past six years and is expected to rise as the economy continues to struggle.

Medicaid programs provide some level of health care to about 1 in 6 Wisconsin residents.

The state-federal program provides care to low-income families with children younger than 21, and to people who are elderly, or disabled and impoverished. It is one of the biggest programs in state government.

Enrollment reached 926,600 people last month, up from 688,500 in January 2003, when Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle took office.

How to fund the $5 billion-a-year program – which faces a deficit of about $1.4 billion through the next two-year budget – is one of the biggest long-term questions looming for the state.

Economics, she is a harsh mistress, is she not?

Allow me to propose the solution Wisconsin, and the United States, will pursue anyway: Legislative Magick. Don’t ask how it works; unless your a legislator/magician 14th/13th level, you wouldn’t understand.

It’s a MAD, MAD, MAD world. Or it would be, if only mutual destruction between two opponents in a nuclear war was assured. Also, if both opponents were rational. In our new world, neither is a given.

North Korea Scraps Military Accords With South Korea:

North Korea said it is scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pushing inter-Korean relations to “the brink of war.”

“All the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and south will be nullified,” the reunification committee in Pyongyang said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency today.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Kim Jong Il’s regime threatened “strong military steps” in response to South Korea’s confrontational policies and about two months after North Korea imposed border restrictions with South Korea.

The regime has repeatedly called South Korean President Lee Myung Bak a “traitor” and a “sycophant to the U.S.” It has demanded South Korea stop civic groups from launching balloons loaded with so-called propaganda leaflets criticizing Kim.

Sounds like a good on-the-job learning opportunity for President Obama, and perhaps a good chance for Hillary Clinton to dance and sip champagne with Kim Jong Il. No preconditions.

(Link seen on Ed Driscoll. Well, his site. Not literally on him.)