A recent blog article expressed the thought that we aren't in an evil totalitarian dictatorship, and did so using the premise that we're still here to protest the government. While I agree that we aren't IN an Evil totalitarian dictatorship (to be referred hereafter in this blog as "ETD"), I believe we're on that track, and it is only through vigilance and action that we will avoid it. Consider that, prior to the 1960's, children entered school in the first grade at 6 years of age. There was ...
As most of you already know, I am STRONGLY opposed to any "reform" that brings with it new taxes for ANYONE. All of us are paying too much. On the table here in Texas is a proposal to increase the state sales tax. We are being hit with runaway inflation in real cost of consumer goods (my family and I no longer eat red meat, because we can't afford the $5.99/lb. cost of a roast, or the $2.99/lb. cost of ground beef; while our sales tax hasn't hit grocery items YET, it's only a matter of time b...
e school's dress code. Several of the high school boys came in; all had hair that was easily as short or shorter than "Beatles" haircuts of the 60's, asking the school to change its policy, which currently only allows hair "above the collar, abovuse their hair exceeded the collar length. It still surprises me that, in this day and age, so many still judge a man, as Johnny Cash once said "by the cut of his clothes or the length of his hair".
I've often been asked why I favor tax cuts for the wealthy. It's a fair question, and deserves a fair answer, especially considering: I've never been rich I'll probably never BE rich Nobody in my immediate family, or circle of friends is rich. Well, the main arguments I have already presented in other blogs and won't mention them here. But one of the key arguments I rarely see considered is the fact that an increased tax burden on the wealthy STILL falls disproportionately on the poor. ...
This from Senator Harry Reid of Nevada: "I'm not a big Greenspan fan -- Alan Greenspan fan," Reid said when asked about the Fed chairman's testimony this week urging Congress to deal quickly with the financial problems facing Social Security and Medicare. "I voted against him the last two times. I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington." I caught this one on yesterday's "Meet the Press", and thought it utterly ridiculous. Greenspan has fallen into disfavor wi...
In Baker's featured article, he addressed the impact that campaign finance reform laws could potentially have on blogging (that the suggested interpretations constitute a gross violation of the first amendment is another story entirely). This brought to mind another concern of mine; that of equal time laws and how they have continually been violated as regards third parties. I pulled the following from the linked website: Link The equal time, or more accurately, the equal opportunity p...
The title of this blog is (without the stream of exclamation points and question marks) the title of a propaganda piece of the liberal machine that aired on some cable TV channel yesterday. While I absolutely refused to watch it, the title of the piece was a clear and obvious reference to Rev. Martin Neimoeller's well known quote regarding Nazi Germany. And it was deliberately inflammatory, and obviously deliberately worded to imply that the recent responses to Ward Churchill are a persecutio...
"Pro-life" is one of the most bandied about, politicized words in the American lexicon today. Its narrow definition is applied by the media only to those who not only oppose abortion, but actively lobby for its illegalization. But I have a different take on the issue. "Pro-life" is a combination of words whose meaning shouldn't be changed for political convenience. I consider myself prolife and apply the following definitions: Antiabortion: with a qualifier here, I am firmly against abor...
For years, I have heard conservative Christians advance the argument that, because the word "kill" in the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is rightly translated "murder", it does not apply to war or the death penalty.I am setting the former aside in favor of the latter for this particular argument. Yes,the word IS properly translated "murder". Then,we must ask if the death penalty is morally considered to be murder. My answer to this is: yes AND no. In the case of someone who is PROVEN to be...
Texas is the latest in the list of states to consider banning cell phone use while driving, among a list of other considerations. While I personally feel that most people who use cell phones while driving are idiots and potential future Darwin Award candidates, I nevertheless do not welcome yet another potential intrustion on individual liberties. The selling point in this legislation is a father who lost his high school aged daughter because she creashed while talking on the cell phone and d...
Senator Robert Byrd makes a wonderful spokesman for the Democrats, doncha think? Seems the ex-Klansman and early civil rights obstructionist made a speech warning people about learning from the past, using Hitler's rise to power as an example. While his statements pretty clearly referenced the GOP, he denied that they were the target of his diatribe. Byrd = pot Bush = kettle
Disclaimer: While I could easily write a piece on the Republican betrayal of their constituency as well, I have never been an adherent of the GOP platform. Therefore, I don't have firsthand knowledge. So those who will claim this as a partisan attack would do well to keep that in mind. I was born in 1970, and raised by the liberal of liberals. I have seen and studied much of the 1960's, and what readily comes to mind is the image of young college students campaigning for the Democrats under...
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can't remember who said that (although I could probably google it readily), but it's a generally accepted maxim as regards politics, and one that has been proven more often than disproven. It is also a maxim that is largely disregarded by the American left in their quest to create a utopia. Somehow they feel that an individual, once bestowed with the mantle of being part of a "government" is immediately immunized from the effects of...
So I went to our city hall today, the only place where I can access city ordinances. I asked the city secretary to see them, knowing what was coming. "Well, what do you want to look up?" Frankly, it was none of her BUSINESS what I wanted to look up. You cannot expect someone to follow a law if they don't have access to look up that law without a de facto Fifth Amendment violation in TELLING the city secretary what they are looking up. AT any rate, I was looking up a number of laws, both ...
I was amused at a look back at an old article I "bumped" recently. It was my first featured article, and in one reply, the comment was made "man, you bang the same drum over and over". Well, after months of blogging on JU, I have a reply to that, one that is much better than the one I initially gave (incidentally, no ill will to the individual who made that statement: I respect his views greatly). Yes, I bang the same drum over and over, and for many reasons. I bang the drum of freedom, the s...