It's interesting to note the initiatives in many US cities to ban smoking in public places. After all, it's what Cuba would do. Starting February 7, the island nation of Cuba, known of course for its fine (and, in the US, contraband) cigars, prohibits smoking in certain public places as part of a health initiative. Fidel Castro, once an icon as a cigar chomping leader, gave up smoking in 1986 and now considers cigars a gift best given to one's enemies. While I don't smoke, and never did ex...
A legislator in Washington is proposing to split the state into two separate states, given the difference in the nature of largely agricultural Eastern Washington vs. the industrial and commercial Western Washington. The differences were underscored greatly in the recent election during which the two candidates duked it out over three recounts before the winner, a democrat, was chosen (the republican contender won the first two recounts). While this would, on the surface, appear to be a solut...
Believe it or not, I'm a pretty reluctant "rebel". In high school, I had all the preppy clothes, right down to the Swatch wristwatches, with every color guard imaginable (I didn't like the rubber band ones that went across the face, though). I tried so many ways to be "normal", but it just didn't pan out for me. Why not? You ask. Well, to put it simply: STUPID laws. They stopped making sense and it stopped making sense to me to pay attention to them. Don't get me wrong; some laws are ...
The following is from Yahoo! News. As one who has had family have to deal with "eminent domain" laws, this only serves to underscore one reason among many why I favor small government. Conn. residents fight for homes Mon Feb 21, 8:38 AM ET Top Stories - USATODAY.com By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY Susette Kelo continues to touch up the paint on her clapboard house that overlooks the Thames River. She still tends to her garden. During a rec...
Now, I made this argument earlier as part of another subject entirely, but I'm going to go into it further here. One of the very interesting contradictions I find among some of the left is the tendency to browbeat and criticize myself and my wife for our "irresponsibility" in having a large family (five kids), while there are pockets of the planet that are overpopulated (and my having fewer kids is going to help India's overpopulation problem...HOW?!?). The contradiction comes from the fact t...
I'm sorry, folks. I'm about to get a brain hemmhorage from beating my head against the wall here. After reading the 5000th repetition of why I "wasted my vote" for voting for the candidate I believed in, I am astounded by the apparent stupidity of the Democrats who patronize this site. Now, I don't believe in the Republican Party platform, but as a rule, the Republicans and conservatives on this site have not made repeated ignorant attacks on me and my party. For those who don't know, I am...
In the aftermath of the Iraqi elections, the Kurds quite possibly came out the big winners. By obtaining 26% of the seats in Iraq's equivalent of Congress or Parliament, they virtually assured that the two other parties will need to go through them to gain the 2/3 majority necessary to pass Iraqi laws. There's a lesson in this, and one that I have been harping on for some time. For a third party to gain significant power in the US, they don't need to win a majority, but simply to obtain enoug...
The Democrats just don't get it. Despite being told, repeatedly, by their opposition, WHY we cannot and will not endorse the Democrat Party, they bury their heads in the sand. They essentially call us liars and resort to the divisive, infantile tactics that cost them a VERY winnable presidency in 2004. What surprises me about the whole procedure is this: Libertarians, Constitutional Party supporters, Greens, Republicans, and a whole host of other non-Democrats have suggested why their cher...
As an aspiring homesteader, I am increasingly disillusioned with the government as I learn more and more. I have long contended that, while it is morally wrong for a man to steal, it is a greater moral offense to remove from a man his means of self sufficiency and demand he indenture himself to you to get it back. And yet, this is precisely what the American government has done over the course of its history. Masses of immigrants arrived on our shore to find a new hope, and a new future for ...
I have had an interesting time reading the articles over the past four months. What has especially amused me has been the statements about "getting the government we deserve" and how "we're all to blame for supporting these cretins" (these aren't EXACT quotes from specific articles, but they do sum up a general feeling of bipartisan malfeasance). WELL, let me take you back a few months to when I was standing on my Libertarian soapbox, and presenting not only OUR party platform, but those...
I referenced this in another blog, but it was another subject entirely. When I was 18, I committed a crime, and was taken in by the police. Because they had nothing on me, I was held as a "material witness" as they investigated the crime. I quickly discovered the consequences of this status. As a "material witness", I did not even have the rights of the other prisoners. I was persona non grata, and, as far as I knew, jailed indefinitely until I confessed to the crime. After two weeks of ...
A recent blog referenced a SCOTUS decision where a drug dog sniffed out marijuana in a man's car, initiating a search. SCOTUS determined the search was legal. This article isn't about the rightness or wrongness of the search. I have my own feelings, you likely have yours. It is, however, about the fact that such searches are consistent with application of the law in the US for some time. About two years ago, I gave a friend of mine a ride to pick up his children from the boys and girls clu...
Here are some cuts I propose for Bush and company for the coming year. I'm not in all cases suggesting we do away with these departments completely, but that we seriously cut back (he said he wants to remove redundant federal agencies among other things). I'm sure most people will agree with some departments, disagree with others: The Department of Homeland Security: Homeland Security should be under an already existing cabinet post, that of the Defense Department. The United States w...
The liberals in this country have spent the last 4 plus years deriding president Bush and opposing virtually every policy Bush has brought to the table. This has led to a decmation in their ranks. Yet, in their thickheadedness, they refuse to acknowledge their own role in their downfall. President Bush is submitting a budget of $2.57 trillion dollars to Congress. As I stated in a previous article, that's too much. It is the equivalent of a worker making $20,000 and spending $25,000....while i...
See, this is what hacks me about the "big two" parties (dem & rep). I remember, when Clinton was president, the "balanced budget" was a HUGE priority. The Democrats were the big, bad guys because they couldn't muster a budget that reduced deficit spending. The Republicans ran in 1994 with fanfare and a "Contract with America" that proposed, among other things, just that. It was a PR coup for the GOP. The government shut down over the differences between the Democrat and the Congressional ...