Glad They Passed That Amendment

During the last election, the voters in Iowa passed an amendment to their constitution that struck certain language from the Constitution. The clause banning an “idiot or insane person” from voting was removed. Which is a good thing. Since it allowed the Iowa legislature to pass a change to a department name in their government.

Lawmakers in Iowa on Wednesday raised some eyebrows when they voted to rename a department that deals with seniors, allowing it to carry the acronym DOA.

DOA is a term that stands for dead-on-arrival.

“You can’t have an acronym like this when you’re referring to elderly people,” Rep. Dave Heaton, 68, said after both houses of the legislature voted to change the name of the Department of Elder Affairs to the Department on Ageing (DOA).

I once attended a department reorganizational meeting where changes to the engineering department I worked in were announced. In order to respond to plant operational concerns faster, the powers that be signed off on creating a group who would have the sole responsibility for meeting emergent problems.

They - and I am completely serious - stood at the front of the room and announced the Fast Action Response Team. They figured out that they had made a mistake about one second after revealing the overhead for that one.

(I blame the slow response on an early meeting and not enough coffee.)

And yes, they changed the name to the Rapid Response Team. But they were still routinely called by the original acronym when I left that company.

Childishness

Jay Cost over at Real Clear Politics has this one exactly right. He’s writing about the latest, all-out Democratic smear campaign against Rush Limbaugh and, by extension, against Republicans. I never listen to the man, but have called out ridiculous attacks on him in the past. This time, the smearing is being directed right from the White House itself. Cost takes exception:

What’s the political payoff here? It’s simple. By assigning Limbaugh - who “wants the President to fail” - as the leader of the Republican Party, the White House can make it look like congressional Republicans hope the President fails, and that their opposition to his budget is rooted in this sinister desire. It’s an easy way to misrepresent Republican opposition to the President. Just as his Republican opponents wanted to do nothing in the face of economic collapse, they oppose the budget because they want the President to fail.

I understand why Democrats in Congress, the media, and the DNC are doing this. Frankly, that doesn’t bother me at all. That’s the way political games are played, and GOP politicos have certainly done their fair share of this over the years to deserve all that they get. But I am deeply disappointed that the President himself is playing this game - not just because he is the President and this kind of nonsense should be beneath him. It’s also because he is the President in part because he promised he wouldn’t do this stuff! And yet, we’ve seen this kind of immature nonsense quite a bit from an administration that has only been in place for a month.

Cost refers to this piece from The Politico that tells the inside story of the coordinated smear campaign. He also points to this particularly bad performance by Obama toward Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Britain.

The murmurs began when President Obama returned to the British Embassy the Winston Churchill bust that had been displayed in the Oval Office since Tony Blair lent it to George W. Bush.

The fears intensified when press secretary Robert Gibbs, announcing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to the White House, demoted the Churchillian phrase “special relationship” to a mere “special partnership” across the Atlantic.

And the alarm bells really went off when Brown’s entourage landed at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday night. Obama, breaking with precedent, wouldn’t grant the prime minister the customary honor of standing beside him in front of the two nations’ flags for the TV cameras. The Camp David sleepover that Blair got on his first meeting with Bush? Sorry, chaps.

Still, Brown kept a stiff upper lip as he sat in the Oval Office yesterday as Obama, skipping the usual words of welcome for his guest, went straight to questions from the news services. Brown didn’t get to speak for six minutes, after Obama had already answered two questions.

A President who has lots and lots of energy to direct attacks at a talk show host but projects coldness toward one of our longest, strongest allies. Amateurish doesn’t begin to describe this. The title of the post comes closer.

That Sinking Feeling

There appear to be at least some members of the media falling off the Obama bandwagon. In an unsigned editorial, the Detroit News blasts the carbon tax proposed by Barack Obama as a dagger aimed at Michigan’s heart.

The carbon tax will be paid by energy companies, manufacturers and public utilities, who will pass the cost on to their consumers. Michigan will be especially targeted. It gets 60 percent of its electric power from coal plants, and the state’s economy is still reliant on heavy manufacturing such as car and truck assembly and auto parts production.

Michigan will lose as carbon tax money is shifted to states with a greater presence of high-tech and service businesses.

The proposed tax would take effect in 2012 and has the very real potential to throw the nation back into recession, if indeed the expected recovery has arrived by then. It’s impossible to raise costs for such basics as manufacturing and energy production by more than half a trillion dollars over a decade and not have the effects felt across the economy.

No, the effects cannot be avoided. They will be drastic. This is nothing more than a huge tax increase that will be devastating on the economy and on the people of this country. Worse yet, the effects of this massive tax hike will be particularly harsh on those who can afford it the least. It is regressive at its very core.

Even the Detroit News sees the one important truth - or lie, depending on how you look at it - of this massive carbon tax: The companies will not pay the cost of it. We will. Each and every one of us who buys, consumes or uses pretty much anything.

No Hurry

For all the dire warnings about the urgency of passing the “stimulus” plan, Barack Obama isn’t inclined to take any time to actually sign the bill that Congress spewed until he takes some time off.

After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.

Obama arrived at his home in Chicago on Friday, and treated wife Michelle to a Valentine’s Day dinner downtown last night. The couple was spotted leaving upscale Table Fifty-Two, which specializes in Southern cuisine, with the first lady toting what appeared to be a doggie bag.

The president plans to spend the Presidents’ Day weekend in the Windy City, and is not expected to sign the bill until Tuesday, when he travels to Denver to discuss his economic plan.

Far be it from me to nay say a person’s wish to treat their spouse to a getaway. I just returned from doing just that. I, however, have not been proclaiming - several times daily - that there is an emergency that requires immediate action. There’s a bit of a difference there.

It’s a bit hard to believe that there is a crisis when the one proclaiming it takes a three day vacation. There is a huge disconnect between Obama’s urgent proclamations and his behavior. Those mixed signals are a problem that he appears to be oblivious to.

The Detroit executives who went, hat in hand, to Congress begging for taxpayer dollars found out the hard way that flying in to beg on private jets was not smart. One hopes that the American voters also notice the stupendously bad judgment of a doomsayer who takes a vacation before delivering “salvation”.

More Harm Than Good

Whoops. It seems that the American public - bless them - have figured out that Congressional Democrats do not have their best interests at heart. More people oppose the “stimulus” plan than back it (43% to 37%) - and fully one half say that the plan would do more harm than good. Best of all, support is declining very, very rapidly as more and more details leak out about what foolishness the Congress is trying to pass off as stimulating.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it. (Ed Note and now at 37%!)

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats still support the plan. That figure is down from 74% a week ago. Just 13% of Republicans and 27% of those not affiliated with either major party agree.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans oppose the plan along with 50% of unaffiliated voters and 16% of Democrats.

Related survey data shows that half the nation’s voters say the plan that finally emerges from Congress may end up doing more harm than good.

At this rate, by the time Congress votes on this mess, nobody but Congress will be supporting it. Frankly, I suspect voters are getting a bit tired of hearing that passing out condoms and paying even more for bad art are going to make America boom again. The downright stupid plan rammed through the House by Nancy Pelosi - with no Republican support, or input - is doing serious damage to the Democrats as a party and to Barack Obama personally. In fact, between the spendaholic frenzy of Pelosi and company and the debacle of the double standard that applies to Obama’s political picks, as opposed to regular folks, Obama is really taking some serious political lumps.

I had a lot of faith that the Democrats would overreach badly as they so often do. But I had no idea they would be this spectacularly successful at failure this soon!

Europeans And Canadians Express “Thoughtless Nonsense”

Maybe they don’t get the USA Today in Ottawa or Brussels? EU attacks ‘Buy American’ clause

The EU has increased its pressure on the US to reconsider the “Buy American” clause in the $800bn (£567bn) economic recovery package now before Congress.

The clause seeks to ensure that only US iron, steel and manufactured goods are used in projects funded by the bill.

A European Commission spokesman said it was the “worst possible signal” the Obama administration could send out.

The EU will launch a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if the clause remains, the spokesman said.

The EU and Canadian ambassadors to Washington have already warned that the clause could promote protectionism and trigger retaliatory moves.

You’ve been rebutted Sen. Dorgan. Any thoughts?

Or should I say, any sane and rational thoughts?

ADDING:

Well, let’s ask Dorgan’s fellow Democrats, like House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer:

Canadian and European Union officials’ concerns about restrictive “Buy American” provisions in the U.S. economic stimulus proposals are justified, House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

“I think (the) concerns are justified,” Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters at a regular news briefing….

Major U.S. trading partners such as Canada and the European Union say they are worried not just about lost exports to the United States but the greater damage that could be done if other countries pursue trade policies that restrict imports.

Canada’s Ambassador Michael Wilson sent a letter to Senate leaders this week complaining about the “Buy American” provisions.

Hoyer said he had spoken about the matter with the Canadian ambassador, who was “very concerned about the flow of economic activity between our two nations.”

“So I think the concerns are relevant,” Hoyer said.

Why must Dorgan put up with so many spouting “thougtless nonsense”?

Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): “I Have No Idea What I’m Talking About”

Well, it might as well have said it. If the goal is to create jobs, it only makes sense to buy American.

Here’s a thought. If we want to stimulate the American economy and create new jobs here, we ought to be investing in American-made products with the stimulus money.

A radical proposition? Hardly. But when I added “Buy American” language to the economic recovery bill making its way through the Senate, a lot of big interests that have a habit of moving American jobs overseas began to scream foul.

So, this stupid proposal is a response to outsourcing? Wow. I didn’t think anything could be dumber than the proposal itself, but the “reasoning” behind it is worse.

Think about it. If you are building a bridge in Toledo there will be plenty of jobs created in Toledo as that is where the bridge is being built! (People living in India would probably have problems with the daily commute.) Mandating that all the design and building materials be domestically produced as well is simply overkill and a protectionist restraint pure and simple.

But Dorgan disagrees:

Some decry the Buy American effort as the start of a trade war. They say it’s just disguised protectionism. That is thoughtless nonsense. It’s nothing of the sort. It is entirely within international trade rules to require that these kinds of public projects use American-made inputs.

Those “some” have very clearly identified these provisions as the beginning of a trade war, and they have already indicated they will retaliate against U.S. firms as a result. That don’t care what Dorgan “says” the provisions are meant to do, they care about what the obvious results of the provisions will be. This isn’t the sort of thing Dorgan can win by issuing an Op-Ed to US News.

The utter lack of historical knowledge, logic or common sense in Dorgan’s piece is, frankly, shocking. Of such things are depressions made.

Stimulating Our Way Right Into Serfdom

Mark Steyn on what’s wrong with the “stimulus” plan passed by House Democrats - and only by House Democrats. Which is only fair since Republicans were completely shut out of anything to do with crafting the pork-fest of leftist spending. Take for instance the vital importance of STDs to stimulating the economy:

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is on TV explaining the (at this point the congregation shall fall to its knees and prostrate itself) “stimulus.” “How,” asks the lady from CBS, “does $335 million in STD prevention stimulate the economy?”

“I’ll tell you how,” says Speaker Pelosi. “I’m a big believer in prevention. And we have, er… there is a part of the bill on the House side that is about prevention. It’s about it being less expensive to the states to do these measures.”

Makes a lot of sense. If we have more STD prevention, it will be safer for loose women to go into bars and pick up feckless men, thus stimulating the critical beer and nuts and jukebox industries. To do this, we need trillion-dollar deficits, which our children and grandchildren will have to pay off, but, with sufficient investment in prevention measures, there won’t be any children or grandchildren, so there’s that problem solved.

Steyn only opens with that bit of madness. There is ever so much more. The US is firmly on the trail that Europe has blazed to out-of-control statism. The spendthrift Democrats are seeing to that.

Worst of all, the “stimulus” will do nothing to help the economy and stands to do massive harm. If Europe and the rest of the world retaliate for the blatant protectionism the Democrats have inserted into their wholly-owned plan, the economy will take a massive hit. The economies of many countries will tank, and the recession will go on for a long time.

Riding The Rails

Rich asked earlier today if everyone had their hobo outfit picked out yet. That post was in response to the insane provisions in the “stimulus” bill that would throw protectionist “buy American” legislation on all government projects. Europe is vowing retaliation for that. Well, there’s even more - and bigger - nuggets in the bill. This one will stun you. The Democrats are reversing welfare reform.

Buried deep inside the massive spending orgy that Democrats jammed through the House this week lie five words that could drastically undo two decades of welfare reforms.

The very heart of the widely applauded Welfare Reform Act of 1996 is a cap on the amount of federal cash that can be sent to states each year for welfare payments.

But, thanks to the simple phrase slipped into the legislation, the new “stimulus” bill abolishes the limits on the amount of federal money for the so-called Emergency Fund, which ships welfare cash to states.

“Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated such sums as are necessary for payment to the Emergency Fund,” Democrats wrote in Section 2101 on Page 354 of the $819 billion bill. In other words, the only limit on welfare payments would be the Treasury itself.

“This re-establishes the welfare state and creates dependency all over the place,” said one startled budget analyst after reading the line.

In addition to reopening the floodgates of dependency on federal welfare programs, the change once again deepens the dependency of state governments on the federal government.

There’s some change we can all believe in. We’re going forward into the past led by a spendaholic Congress controlled by Democrats. Between the new Smoot-Hawley tariff provisions and the return to the welfare state, the Democrats seem intent on destroying American prosperity.

This ill-considered stimulus plan will devaste this country. Far from helping, there is a lot of genuine harm here. At this rate, we’ll all be begging for change soon.

With a tin cup.

Via Memeorandum

Do You Have Your Hobo Outfit Picked Out Yet?

Over at my home blog the other day I made a comment about the “economic stimulus” package to the effect that it will be remembered as the 21st Century version of the Smoot-Hawley tariff. I meant it figuratively.

Unfortunately, there is good reason to believe my statement can be taken literally. From the Telegraph UK:

The EU trade commissioner vowed to fight back after the bill passed in the House of Representatives late on Wednesday included a ban on most purchases of foreign steel and iron used in infrastructure projects.

The Senate’s version of the legislation, which will be debated early next week, goes even further, requiring that any projects related to the stimulus use only American-made equipment and goods.

The inclusion of protectionist measures has quickly raised hackles in Europe.

Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, said: “We are looking at the situation. The one thing we can be absolutely certain about, is if a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory, that is something we will not stand idly by and ignore.”

Despite the parlous state of the US economy, some major American firms, including General Electric, are also opposed to the Buy American stipulations, fearing reprisals from overseas and further damage to the global economy.

Bill Lane, government affairs director for Caterpillar, which has just laid off nearly a fifth of its 112,000 work force and is the tenth largest US investor in Britain, warned it was a dangerous step.

He said: “We are the first to recognise that if the US embraces Buy American then the whole notion of buying national will mestastasize and limit our ability to take part in overseas projects.

“We are students of history. A major reason a very deep recession turned into the Great Depression was the fact that countries turned inward.”

Its true. The Democrats seem to either be that stupid, if they are harming the country accidently, or that evil, if they are doing it on purpose.

It is hard not to lean towards evil here. After all, who could be so stupid that they do not see the parallels with the Smoot-Hawley tariff and the Great Depression?

From Wikipedia:

A petition was signed by 1028 economists in the United States asking President Hoover to veto the legislation, organized by Paul Douglas, Irving Fisher, James TFG Wood, Frank Graham, Ernest Patterson, Henry Seager, Frank Taussig, and Clair Wilcox. Automobile executive Henry Ford spent an evening at the White House trying to convince Hoover to veto the bill, calling it “an economic stupidity”. J. P. Morgan’s chief executive Thomas W. Lamont said he “almost went down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot tariff.”

President Hoover didn’t get it. Obama obviously doesn’t get it.

We, the people, are going it get it…and hard.

(H/T to PowerLine)

Bailout? Or Rip Off?

This one should make taxpayers very, very, very angry. The New York Times is reporting that despite 2008 being a disaster for the US financial sector, despite huge infusions of cash to banks and other Wall Street firms, those financial institutions paid out some $18.4 BILLION in bonuses to Wall Street workers. This is shameless - and shameful. Even institutions that got absolutely creamed last year paid out bonuses even while their balance sheets pulled a Titanic.

By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.

While regulators say it is unclear if taxpayer money went to these folks, it is quite clear that taxpayer money certainly helped make sure these payments got made.

This is sickening.

Tell me what great performance warranted this kind of bonus money? The fabulous condition of Wall Street? The outstanding profitability? The huge boost to the American economy?

Or did they get bonuses for successfully milking the American taxpayer?

Now you know why financial types were the largest, single group of contributors to the Obama inauguration festivities.

Now you know why you should be suspicious of the passage of the “stimulus” bill last night by the Democrats in the House. (And only by the Democrats). I suspect you also know why the Republicans - and 11 Democrats - managed to have enough gumption to refuse to vote for that pork-laden bill.

Get mad, folks. We’re being screwed.

Shovel Ready - To Dig The Hole Ever Deeper

I’m really late to this party, but this needs to be spread far and wide - free of the usual media filters. The Wall Street Journal lifts the rock covering the “stimulus plan” being pushed through Congress by the Democrats. What they find under that rock is not pretty. A god-awful amount of our tax money - and our children’s and grandchildren’s - is being spent on things that have no chance of stimulating anything but bigger government, even more spendaholic behavior by Congressional Democrats and, inevitably, higher taxes for everyone. This bill is a disaster.

We’ve looked it over, and even we can’t quite believe it. There’s $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make “dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.” Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There’s another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.

Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren’t likely to help the economy immediately. As Peter Orszag, the President’s new budget director, told Congress a year ago, “even those [public works] that are ‘on the shelf’ generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy.”

Go read where the bulk - by far - of the money is going and try to figure out what that money is stimulating - other than left wing wet dreams. More than one quarter of this bloated monstrosity is going to wealth transfer. Pure, simple glad-handing of cash payments. Little more than vote buying.

Not only is this bill not going to help the economy, it is going to end up skewing upwards the Federal budgets for years - or decades - to come. The Republicans who are standing against this are right to do so. The Blue Dogs who vote for it reveal themselves as hacks.

People need to know how much waste is in this bill - and how little it is going to help do anything but line the pockets of interest groups. Spread the word.

Via Memeorandum

Would Someone Please Explain Hitler To Ashton Kutcher

I’m sorry, but there is only so much on this nonsense a rational human being can take:

Thus the Presidential Pledge was born. Making a pledge forces you to be accountable not only to others but also to yourself. Establishing a pledge also offers an opportunity to create community and unity around the cause, thus accelerating one’s pursuit. Once you are on record, your community and your peers can and will hold you accountable for results. Therefore, we as individuals will be forced to deliver. This may be one of the only positive attributes of our egos. So let us put our egos to work.

We call it a Presidential Pledge. We have gathered a group of individuals who share the courage to pledge to our president, and the world at large, what it is that they are willing to do, give, or sacrifice, in an effort to help their fellow man. Our hope is that this effort will inspire others to do the same, with individuals posting their initiatives within their communities. This is not a selfless utopian action.

No, it isn’t. It is dystopian to its very core. In fact, it is statist and very clearly fascist. Ashton, please shut up. If you don’t think it is you are only proving you don’t know what the words mean.

We as a people do not pledge to any individual person, no matter what action the pledge is supposed to entail. We live in a liberal democracy which allows people to choose their own ends without getting the “ok” from the government or their neighbors. For example, in Kutcher’s world I would choose to pledge myself to undoing the utterly stupid actions undertaken by the Ashton Kutchers of the world in the mistaken belief that they are “helping their fellow man.” See, the thing is, people can differ about what counts as “helpful” conduct. The only way one could ensure that actions were not operating at cross purposes would be to “discourage” dissenting views either legally or socially. The truth is Nazi Germany operated as much through a perverted social order as through a perverted legal order.

This is why the notion of “pledging” to Obama is so odious. Hitler required that the Wehrmacht and all civil servants pledge themselves to the person of Hitler instead of to the constitutional order. We already pledge to the Republic and that is all we need.

The Great Emancipator Ego

At some point, someone close to Barack Obama has to have the guts to step up and tell him that he is not the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. His obsession with “a team of rivals” has now grown into a need to recreate Lincoln’s arrival in Washington by train. Even though he has already moved to Washington, he and Joe Biden intend to (presumably) fly to Philadelphia, then travel back to Washington on a 137 mile long train trip for the inauguration. Damn the public danger this presents, he is going to ride his train.

President-elect Barack Obama’s January 17 train trip from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington is intended to make the inauguration the most open and accessible in history.

But it is also presenting the U.S. Secret Service with security problems. Miles and miles and miles of them.

In addition to the well-publicized “whistle stops” in Philadelphia; Wilmington, Delaware; and Baltimore, Maryland, the Presidential Inauguration Committee says the public will have the opportunity to view the train at other locations along its 137-mile route.

But the committee has not indicated where those sites will be, and the Secret Service has yet to release what security restrictions will be in place.

Security experts say the train ride presents traditional threats to the VIPs on board, as well as countless buildings, homes and warehouses along the route. And there are non-traditional vulnerabilities: scores of bridges and tunnels that could be sabotaged.

And, two environmental groups have warned, terrorists could take a page from al Qaeda’s playbook, using existing infrastructure, in this case chemical plants along the route, as an attack method.

An empty, grandiose act by Obama. Personally, I think it is a really, really stupid move and I am quite sure the Secret Service is at their wits end on this one. The risks are enormous. Obviously, I wish he had not won the election, but he did. So I would prefer that the next President not act like an idiot when it comes to his personal safety - and not take risks with the safety of the general public, either.

But maybe is invocation of Lincoln’s train ride to Washington will be historically accurate and he’ll wear a “Scotch Bonnet” when crossing through Baltimore.

Away In a Test Tube

Not to ruin anyone’s Christmas, but this story bothers me on several levels. It seems that some ardent amateur scientists have decided that breeding new creations in their homes is a really great idea.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories……

…..Jim Thomas of ETC Group, a biotechnology watchdog organization, warned that synthetic organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage.

“Once you move to people working in their garage or other informal location, there’s no safety process in place,” he said.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem. These folks working in their dining rooms or garages have no containment, no safety procedures, no way to stop a release of something unfortunate - or really, really bad - as a result of their experiments. They have little or no actual scientific training and most will have no actual ability at what they are attempting. Most of these folks are, frankly, merely dilettantes who will accomplish nothing other than to stink up their garages or dining rooms and will soon lose interest and move on to their next hobby.

But there is a real possibility that someone, having just enough knowledge gleaned from the interwebby to be dangerous, will make a mistake. The ethical implications of all this are a whole other discussion.