Scott Allan’s World

Press play for carnival atmosphere

Hurry, Hurry, Hurray! Step right up, don’t be shy. Come see the amazing Alabama Blogger Carnival! You won’t believe your eyes! We have featured attractions from all over the state.

What would a carnival be without a freak show? Come inside Philip’s tunnel to nowhere which is at blog.godblessthefreaks.org. You will see a large collection of freaks making up our two party system. Our libertarian friend Philip is finally able to get past his own quest for the perfect post (with a little pressure from c.a Marks to submit something, anything) and publish “Why the two-party system sucks (part 1 of many)”where he takes the two party system to task.

Our local superstar blogger Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy presents “John Edwards, the Paper Tiger”. While pathetically pandering for votes, moron John Edwards declared there is no War On Terror, and as we have come to expect, Beth sends The Silky Pony a “gentle” reminder of what we’re fighting for with a collage of 9/11 photos and a few choice words.

And over here in Key West or Bust watch closely as Leigh’s husband walks out the door and flies back in as a bird in “My Husband Turned into a Bird”! Remarkable! Watch out for that cat!

Keeping with the animal theme, we have a Bellowing Bull at The Bull Speaks and this week he has a lot to say with a record breaking three submissions (or is it four)! Of course I sent him two last week so it’s only fair that he shows me up On one submission he sent a Memorial Day posting but it included a trackback for a Paris Hilton posting so I decided to use both. In “Memorial Day Weekend 2007″ The Bull, a veteran himself, takes a moment to list a few service men and fellow veterans who have greatly impacted his life.

For some reason in his posting,“Paris finds God? Doubtful.”, The Bull questions the sincerity of Paris Hilton finding God in her poorly contrived photo op holding The Bible and The Power of Now. C’mon now, I’m sure Paris finds religion “hot”.

In “Scum Sentenced to Die”, Bull takes great satisfaction that Patrick Kennedy was sentenced to death for raping a relative who was sorting her Girl Scout cookies. He bragged to one man that the girl “became a lady today”. From time to time I have some ethical problems problems with the death penalty, but when I hear stories like this it snaps me back into reality. The way we treat sex offenders in this country greatly bothers me. We spend so much time trying to find a way to track and control these sickos once they get out of prison with sex-offender registries, ankle bracelets, pink license plates, Jessica’s Law etc, but for the life of me I still don’t understand why we let them out of jail at all. [Scott:Text Deleted] Our feeble attempts to control their behavior after they have “paid their debt” is doomed to failure. Perhaps Louisiana has the right idea. By the way, this Patrick Kennedy is not Congressman Patrick “Patches” Kennedy, son of Ted Kennedy, who tried to avoid a DUI after a car accident by claiming he was late for a vote at 3 am. And it’s not William Kennedy Smith, cousin of Ted Kennedy who was accused of raping a woman on the beach. And it’s not Michael Skakel, another Ted Kennedy cousin who was convicted of killing Martha Moxley. And it’s not Ted Kennedy himself who we all know killed Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick. There is something about the Kennedy name itself that is troubling.

Sorry I got off track for a second, back to the carnival fun. With his record setting third or fourth entry, “That Old Familiar Itch”, The Bull is dreaming of getting a new revolver and winning a stuffed animal over at the shooting gallery.

Nicki of The Birthplace of the Process of Illogical Logic likes the scary rides and we find her at the haunted fun house. She wants to know “Are you a FOGger?” Well are you?? It means having a Fear Of Google. Visit her blog to find out what her concerns are about their collection of personal data. Personally, I was pretty upset at Google for violating their own motto of “Do no evil” when they agreed to China’s censorship rules. Money can be a powerful temptation and like many others, they have found their principles have a price. I’m still using Google’s Blogger mostly because I’m afraid that it is too complicated and time consuming to switch. She also warns you to be “Careful What You Twitter”. A glitch left users privacy unprotected for some time.

There is absolutely no madness at Degree of Madness in this post, ” Get rid of the IRS, support the FairTax”. I love it when something makes sense, and this makes sense. Sadly, this is also probably why it will take a miracle to succeed. I support a consumption tax and the abolition of the IRS as a rule and I will have something similar when I start my own country (more about that later on). I like that people are able to control the amount of tax they pay and are rewarded for hard work. Just a few things I would like to see changed but even as the plan sits now, it is far superior to what we currently have. I would like such a tax to make an exception for necessities such as clothing, medicine, and food. The plan already exempts education which is right on. Also, having a mostly tax free internet has really worked out well for the economy so far and I’d like to leave it that way for the foreseeable future. I hope the prebate provision does not create another monsterous bureaucracy. I also hope there will be no additional luxury tax to discourage the rich from spending. If left to their own designs, Congress would not be able to leave the Fair Tax alone. They would have to find a way to penalize people for being rich and they would probably start micro-managing the tax on every item. Who knows we might even end up with both the income tax and a retail tax. Nothing surprises me any more.

Julie a.k.a mad_cow, who is one of my new favorite bloggers, continues making sense with her second submission “Bureaucratic nightmare”. She points out something I have not heard a lot about which is the cost of implementing the Immigration Reform Bill. The costs will be astronomical to be sure especially since it will be run by the already bloated and inefficient Homeland Security Department. I like her perspective in this article since it has a practical and valid concern worth debating. As some of you know, I am in favor of a plan that will give illegals some path to gaining legal status. This does not have to be a path to citizenship, it could just be work visas and just residency. I’m also for making them earn it somehow. Julie points out in another article that she did not submit for this carnival, “Linda Chavez plays the race card on illegal immigration” that those who break the law should not receive special rights or move to the front of the line. In this regard, mad_cow and I are in agreement. Illegal immigrants should pay a price for breaking the law such as a hefty fine and should go to the end of the line. Most of all, I want to see a wall built on BOTH borders before any of this happens. I don’t see deportation whether self-imposed or legally-imposed as a realistic solution. And yes, my views probably have something to do with my wife being Colombian.

Again I have strayed from my carnival theme by interjecting my own opinion into other bloggers postings. I just can’t help myself. Y’all write about great subjects that get me all fired up! (That was my first official use of “y’all” since I moved down here four years ago.) Ok so here’s our fearless leader, c.a. Marks of Alabama Improper. I promised her cotton candy at the carnival so here it is. Carol’s Memorial Day posting called “Vets For Freedom” issues a challenge to the big time media blogs such as Malkin, PJM, Puppy Blender, and LGF to step up and donate to and promote Vets For Freedom. Carol has stepped up and made her own donation which probably is not easy for a single mom. If she can do it, we all can do it. She offers alternative sites to consider donating to as well.

So what should I post from my own blog? I could post the video of Blake Lewis beat boxing with Doug E Fresh but that would torment Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy who slightly dislikes Blake from what I can tell. So I’ll spare her hoping that she will return again one day to visit me. One of c.a. Marks posts about a bill in California forcing schoolchildren as young as kindergarten to be taught about alternative lifestyles got me upset enough to reconsider starting my own country. But really when it comes down to it I’m extremely proud of my cousin Brian McNeil and my son Andres. Brian won the Cleveland Marathon last weekend and Andres, a.k.a Manny, and his baseball team made it to the semi-finals of the playoffs this week.

Now since this is an Alabama blog, I am going to point out two posts that everyone should see that were not submitted. Carol had a post about a freakishly large wild hog that was killed by an 11 year old boy right here in Alabama. I heard the boy’s father being interviewed on Rick and Bubba last week. This definitely belongs in our carnival.

And lastly, Jaded Mama of Day to Day in Bama gave birth to the ultimate football fan world this week, Bryant Crimson McMunn. Only in Alabama will you find a name like that.

Well I think that covers everyone. Thank you for the excellent participation this week and visiting my humble blog. I also want to take the time on this Memorial Day to thank our Alabama Bloggers who have served in the military, Carol, Beth, and Bull. I apologize if I missed anyone. I hope you’ll come back again soon and for those not already on it, I’ve added you to my “exclusive” blogroll for participating. I’ve really enjoyed reading all of your blogs and getting to know y’all (2nd time) better. I look forward to more of your thought provoking and entertaining posts in the future.