The biggest threat to the United States of America is not the Muslim terror cells that are believed to be operating in this and other countries with intentions of attacking us in large scale operations. It isn't right wing militia groups who hoard weapons in rural compounds and train their members to ward off a government attack. It isn't even the swarms of illegal aliens coming across our boarder, aided and abetted by their own governments, to make money to send home to their families in their ...
I participate in several Libertarian discussion groups. On one, I asked for references to businesses that make campaign materials, preferably those owned by Libertarians. I was directed to a business card company and a bumper sticker company. Yesterday I called the bumper sticker company, and discussed what I wanted for the campaign. We discussed sizes of the bumper stickers, colors, and wording. I left a lot of the decisions up to them, as I am not a designer (the extra cost for them to prod...
Link Oh, brother, this is nuts. Now, members of the media are questioning why Vice President Dick Cheney never took hunter's safety courses, implying that that was part of the reason the accident occured. There's one teeny weeny problem there: Texas state law, at least (he was hunting in the state of Texas, remember?) does not reuire hunter's safety for anyone born before 1972. So either the Veep is too young to hold the office (and has a case of progeria) or this law doesn't apply.
OK, pop quiz. True or false: as a United States citizen, the government gives you certain rights, as enumerated in the Bill of Rights? If you've been paying attention here, you would know the answer to that question is: false. While this is a commonly held assumption, it is, in fact, a misunderstanding that has led to our enacting numerous laws that are, in fact, in violation of the United States Constitution. The truth is, the Bill of Rights details rights that we HAVE as US citizens, tha...
I have often made the quite legitimate accusation against certain foreign bloggers that there are dynamics of our American society that they don't understand, and that they write in ignorance of some of those dynamics. Now I have to plead guilty to doing that myself. You see, in the recent uproar over the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper, I applied AMERICAN constitutional standards to my opinion, not those of Europe, or specifically the Danes. While my assessment of the situation w...
Well, today I had to stop in at the county courthouse and use a notary. They're becoming familiar with me down there. I had to get my Personal Financial Statement notarized so I could have it mailed before the Feb 13 deadline. The Personal Financial Statement, for those who are unaware with this bureaucratic nightmare, is the draconian byproduct of campaign finance laws. In the state of Texas, it is an 18 page detailing of everything you've owned and everywhere you've worked in the previous y...
When we were discussing Islam and its tacit tolerance of the riots that have come to pass over the recent Danish cartoon fiasco, one blogger suggested that Indonesia was a model of Muslim tolerance and a refutation of the idea that Islam is by and large a destructive force. I would be interested to have that same individual explain to me why it is that the government of Indonesia is urging Danes to leave the country ( Link ). Why they do not stick up for the rights of these citizens, who had...
I want to be fair here. Not all liberals defend Islam. In fact, most that I know do NOT (except in the sense that they defend the rights of all humanity). But for those who do, their defense of Islam is inexplicable, considering their traditional political positions. Let's go over a few "liberal" positions for analysis, shall we? The environment : Liberals are quick to condemn our dependence on fossil fuels in the west. They are quick to decry our environmental atrocities, while failing to h...
I couldn't come up with a creative title for this one, so I decided to put it under the title of "campaign update". Not a bad idea, though, it's good for my filing system when I go to put the book on the campaign together. I am currently poring over the 24 (YES, 24!!!!) pages of paperwork I have to fill out for my personal financial statement. I can't finish it until tomorrow, though, because I have some questions that I can only ask in "real time". It is the first of many deadlines I will fa...
In reaction to the publication of an offensive image of Mohammed, Protestors have taken to the streets, lighting the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on fire. Apparently ignorant of the concept of free speech, this violence is in retribution for the governments allowing the publication of the offensive cartoon. When discussing the outrage, pundits have rightly turned to the now notorious "Piss Christ" in order to establish relevance in our majority Christian society. It is an apt co...
As the news reports roll in about Exxon Mobil's 2005 earnings, more and more individuals and advocacy groups are calling for a "windfall profits" tax that would curtail excess profits such as those made by Exxon. It is a very bad idea, and it would hurt most those the argument claims to want to help: the American working class. The price at the pump is only the first place that would be affected. As you know, taxes on a corporation are passed onto the consumer in the form of higher cost, a co...
The governor of West Virginia ordered all coal mines within the state shut down until their safety could be evaluated in light of four tragic accidents that left 16 dead since the beginning of the year. While it sounds good to many who have suddenly become causeheads against underground mining despite being almost completely ignorant of the practice, it is yet another example of political correctness run amuck and of the error of acting mainly on emotions. You see, apparently in the issuance ...
Cindy Sheehan's indignance got validity today; validity it DID NOT deserve, when the Capitol police apologized for her removal from Tuesday evening's State of the Union Speech. Ms. Sheehan has spent the intervening time insisting that her first amendment rights were violated and that she would sue the US government (meaning, you and I). She ignores the rather obvious fact that, had the government had a compelling interest in usurping her free speech rights, she would long ago have been shipped o...
Link As readers read a heartwrenching story about a young boy who had been separated from his mother by Hurricane Katrina and wanted a happy Christmas, readers were moved to tears. They contributed money to help the child and others profiled by the paper, who would otherwise have no Christmas. While it was a moving story, it was entirely a work of fiction, thought up by caseworkers for Child Protective Services in Brazoria County, outside of Houston to increase collections for their ann...
As Child Protective Services workers are given more and more authority, an objective look at the evidence reveals an unquestionable pattern of abuse of their power, and of the United States Constitution and various state constitutions. While I could compile a list of the way their policies and procedures abuse the power, I will concentrate on two areas of policy where the abuse of power is encouraged and fertilized: Mandatory reporting and the quota system. Mandatory reporting is the not so o...