United Liberty

An eight year old boy from Gwinnett County, Georgia has been denied a procedure by the Food and Drug Administration that could help him recover from burns over 80% of his body:

Family members of a Gwinnett County boy with third-degree burns covering 80 percent of his body are angry because they say he’s been denied a medical procedure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Alfred Real, 8, a rising third-grader at Arcado Elementary, is being treated at Shriners Hospital for Children in Cincinnati after suffering extensive burns in a June 7 fire in a wooded area not far from his Roe Hampton Lane home, near Stone Mountain.

After the accident, Alfred was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where his family was told his burns were so severe he required medical treatment elsewhere.

The Real family traveled to Cincinnati, where they were told a “cultured skin” procedure used to treat burns like Alfred’s was denied by the FDA. The procedure involves taking unburned skin from a person’s body and growing more of it in a lab. The procedure can replace burned skin more quickly and reduces the chance of infection, according to burnsurvivor.com, a Web site for burn victims.
[…]
The procedure is performed as part of a 20-year clinical trial conducted at Shriners Hospital by the University of Cincinnati.

The FDA recently has deemed cultured skin inappropriate for burn victims, according to Zac Real, Alfred’s father, who said he received a letter from the FDA on Saturday.
[…]
According to the letter, the family was denied due to concerns that the device used in the procedure may produce inaccurate data.

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” - Thomas Jefferson

Joe Biden is a classy guy:

Vice President Biden called the manager of a custard shop outside of Milwaukee, Wis., a “smartass” after the man asked him to lower taxes.

Biden made the comment after the Kopp’s Frozen Custard shop manager told him that his dessert would be on the house if he lowered taxes.

“What do we owe you?” Biden is heard saying in footage captured by WISN-TV.

“Don’t worry, it’s on us,” the manager replied. “Lower our taxes and we’ll call it [the custard] even.”

“Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?” Biden said a few minutes later.

Biden later told the manager that he was joking. Sure.

So, if you meet the vice president, don’t ask for your taxes to be cut, because if you do, you’re a “smartass.”

Here is the video:

This is a little old, but here is a video of Glenn Beck comparing the regulatory agencies created by FDR and Barack Obama. Guess who has more?

Rory Reid (D), son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is leaving his last name off of television ads and his website:

Nevada gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid (D) is on the air with his first campaign ad and it’s missing one thing: his last name.

Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), doesn’t say his name at any point during the ad, but it prominently features his campaign logo, “Rory 2010.”

Observers noticed that throughout the gubernatorial primary, Rory Reid seemed to distance himself from his father, who faced high disapproval ratings from voters.
[…]
Rory Reid’s website also neglects to mention his last name on its main banner, which reads “Rory 2010.”

The bio section also lacks Rory Reid’s last name. It’s titled “Meet Rory” and doesn’t mention his parents in the paragraph about his personal life. “Rory, 47, grew up in Nevada attending public schools, as do his three great kids. He attended Brigham Young University, graduating with a dual degree in international relations and Spanish, and continued his studies there through law school. He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 22 years,” the bio reads.

It’s hilarious. Take a look at his bio page:

As Chairman of the Clark County Commission Rory has managed a budget bigger than the state’s general fund for seven years, balanced it every year, and never raised taxes.

Rory, 47, grew up in Nevada attending public schools, as do his three great kids. He attended Brigham Young University, graduating with a dual degree in international relations and Spanish, and continued his studies there through law school. He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 22 years.

If you want an ex-insider’s view of the serious fiscal problems facing our country, check out Nick Gillespie’s interview with David Walker, former United States Comptroller General and current president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation:

Well, that didn’t take long. President Barack Obama is backtracking on his plans to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan:

A day after replacing the top American general in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama said Thursday that U.S. troops could remain in significant numbers in the country well after his withdrawal timeline begins next summer.

Though his plan calls for the start of a troop withdrawal in a year, “We did not say, starting in July 2011, suddenly there will be no troops from the United States or allied countries in Afghanistan,” Obama said at a joint White House press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us,” Obama said. “We said we’d begin a transition phase that would allow the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility.”
[…]
Obama’s answer seemed to run counter to the description of the Afghanistan troop-withdrawal timeline Vice President Joe Biden gave to author Jonathan Alter. In a recently-published book on Obama’s first year as president, Alter quotes Biden as saying, “in July of 2011, you’re going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it.”

Biden’s office, however, has since downplayed the statement, saying Biden had made a hurried, off-hand remark.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” - First Amendment, Bill of Rights

The National Rifle Association’s betrayal is one step closer to becoming law as the DISCLOSE Act, which is aimed at curbing the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, passed the House yesterday by a vote of 219 to 206:

Democrats, hoping to rein in special-interest spending before November’s midterm elections, pushed the measure, which would impose broad new disclosure rules on political spending.

The bill, approved by a 219-206 vote, was opposed by Republicans who cast it as violating free-speech protections and filled with exemptions for powerful groups, such as the National Rifle Association and labor unions. The measure was crafted by Democrats “to help their friends, while silencing their political opponents,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during floor debate today.

But the bill’s chief architect, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.,said the legislation would ensure “the voice of citizens is not drowned out by secret spending.”

Dave Weigel, who runs the Right Now blog at the Washington Post, is in some hot water over comments he made on a e-mail list that have been leaked to blogger at Media Bistro.

Weigel owns up to it:

“This would be a vastly better world to live in if Matt Drudge decided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly, and set himself on fire.”

I apologize to Matt Drudge for this — I was incredibly frustrated with the amount of hate mail I was getting and lashed out. If he wants to link to this post with some headline accusing me of wishing death on him, I suppose he can do so. But I don’t wish that. I was tired, angry, and hyperbolic, and I’m sorry.

I don’t always agree with him, or at least I seemed to agree with him more when he was at Reason, but Weigel had a legitimate reason to be angry with Drudge, who took his comments about the camera incident with Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) out of context.

“Paper is poverty…it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.” - Thomas Jefferson