Boston’s City Council defeated a proposal that would have set term limits for the office of the Mayor and the City Council itself. Doesn’t that seem somewhat ridiculous? The City Council…is voting on whether to impose term limits…on themselves. Yeah, no conflict of interest there at all! Surprisingly the vote was a close 7-6 against. I think the following quote from the Boston.com article states pretty clearly why we SHOULD have term limits in place:

Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who has served 25 years on the council, urged his colleagues to vote against term limits. He said they “artificially restrict choice of voters, and I don’t think that’s fair to voters. I believe the collective of voters has wisdom, and we should not second-guess them.”

It’s my interpretation that anytime a politician invokes fairness in relation to their constituents, one should pretty much assume that they’re serving their own interests. I guess 25 years as a professional politician hasn’t prepared Mr. Yancey for a career in the private sector where you are sometimes expected to actually do some work and NOT take bribes (unlike City Councilor Chuck Turner).

If you’re interested in Asatru and are looking for more information, detail and examples of blots (ceremonies/rituals), you should check out the Asatru Folk Assembly’s “Book of Blots” on Lulu.com. I’m a member of the AFA and have just ordered my own copy (for full disclosure’s sake), so this is shameless promotion. :)

I’m thrilled by this news, honestly. As if it wasn’t bad enough that yet another Massachusetts Speak of the House was indicted for corruption (at the Federal level, mind you), it turns out the state used $378,000 of our tax money to cover “the House’s legal costs” during the investigation. This isn’t that shocking (and to most Massachusetts residents it doesn’t matter, because they seem to believe that handing their paychecks over to corrupt, life-long politicians is the way the world should work), but what is amazing is that four House Democrats are calling for an audit of the State House of Representatives! They want a full accounting of the money spent, including invoices. I don’t know what their motives are (there’s not a lot of detail out there), but I’m hopeful that it’s outrage over spending taxpayer money to cover the costs of political fraud and corruption. If so, it’s a small sign of hope in a single-party state that has traditionally run roughshod over the taxpayer (and the pathetic majority of taxpayers seem to enjoy the abuse…maybe MA state tax forms should be accompanied by ball gags and whips), and we should applaud those Democrats for not toeing the party line and actually fighting for what’s right (assuming those are the intentions).

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “Climategate” scandal, perhaps not. Regardless, there’s a nice explanation and brief analysis of why it matters over at The Register. I highly recommend giving it a reading – it might remind us all (myself included) that we need to question instead of just blindly accepting what we’re told. It’s truly scary stuff once you start digging into the scandal, especially now that people are digging into the uncovered code.