The journey from there to here
Gideon MacLeish's Articles In Politics » Page 9
February 5, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
As the debate (?) rages on about Bush and Cheney's need for impeachment, I can think of one compelling reason why it should never be allowed to happen: President Pelosi.
January 31, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
A news story in our local paper comments about complaints by the Mexican consulate that illegal immigrants are being profiled. To that, I have only one word: Duh. See, here's the thing. They're illegal. That's "not here legally" to you lay people. Which means that by their very existence they are breaking the law. And, umm, unless I'm sorely mistaken, profiling criminals is not wrong. In the time I've lived in Nevada and Texas, I've been frustrated by the mountains of extra paperw...
January 30, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
Link I like compact flourescent light bulbs. I really do. In fact, you will not find traditional incandescent bulbs in our house for that reason. And our nominal electric bill (average bill between 30-50 bucks a month) reflects that and other energy saving options that we implement around our house. But I'm going to readily acknowledge that good flourescent light bulbs do not come cheap. The cheapest ones aren't worth buying, frankly, and you have to go somewhere in the $2-3 a bulb r...
January 29, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
In the past election, I was often asked about my position on term limits. The Libertarian Party, like many groups, is split on the issue, and it's not uncommon to find a wide variety of positions. I, for one, am solidly against them, for a number of reasons. First, we already have term limits. It's called, the vote. If the people want a candidate out of office, there's a means to remove them, with varying term lengths (except for certain judicial positions...we can revisit that as a sepa...
January 29, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
As I was perusing Wikipedia, I noticed something rather interesting. For some time in the past election cycle, we had a bio posted for me on Wikipedia. The bio was removed, with no mention of why, although I recently found their reasoning (while I saw it, I can't say I agree with it...but it's their site, their rules). But while my bio is absent, that of my opponent is easily available. Why? Because he's considered noteworthy by virtue of holding public office. This is something to conside...
January 18, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
This morning, in a not unusually pensive mood, I was mulling over Barak Obama's impending presidential candidacy and what it would mean for the aspirations not only of his for presidency, but of Hillary Clinton's. As I considered the possibilities, it struck me as ironic that basically two different camps of political correctness would effectively be doing battle here: eg, the feminist movement vs. the Civil Rights movement. My mind started reaching for analogies that I could fit inside an artic...
January 13, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243200,00.html In the 2008 GOP primaries, voters may have a name on the ballot that they recognize from 20 years ago. Ron Paul, a 9 term lawmaker from Texas, ran as the LP candidate for president in 1988 and received over 400,000 votes. Paul, who has stayed true to his Libertarian roots in his role as a US Congressman, never lost the attention or loyalty of the party he has served so faithfully as a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus in the year...
January 6, 2007 by Gideon MacLeish
Talk about flashbacks. In a flashback worthy of the most intense acid trip ever, I am reliving 1994. Remember then? The year of the Contract with America? The year when the GOP promised sweeping reforms that would lead to a balanced budget and reduced deficit? The year that would prompt Bill Clinton two years later in his reelection campaign to declare the era of big government to be over? Well, guess what? This year's the year the DNC is promising to reform government in new and innovativ...
December 30, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Saddam Hussein is dead. Or, at least that's the official story. And, frankly, it's the story I buy because I see no compelling interest for our government to keep the man alive. As he heads to whatever Valhalla awaits mass murdering evil dictators, bloggers like me who possess more free time and bandwidth than we do wisdom will write on the subject. And in the processing of their thoughts, many of these writers will parade words like "justice" across their blogs, in a sense demanding that the...
December 12, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I was reading Brad's article about Barak Obama, and one of his comments got me to thinking: should imprisonment be about rehabilitation? My answer is simple: Yes...and no, See, it's not really as simple as a black and white issue. This is an area where there are quite definitely shades of grey. And it would be in our best interests to acknowledge them. Brad is absolutely, 100% right that the PRIMARY purpose of prisons is to get bad guys off the streets. And that primary purpose should t...
November 29, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
I did something yesterday that I didn't want on my to-do list. It wasn't my favorite choice, and I'd rather buck the system, but as the old saying goes, you have to pick your battles, and it would be absolutely insane to fight this one too far when we have a VERY winnable front at this point. I broke down and applied for medical assistance. The first thing I noticed, for those who care to note it, is that I am actually eligible for NOTHING, medical assistance wise. The state of Texas, quit...
November 25, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
On a recent blog, the following comment was made: Feeding your own children is good, but not as good as feeding the same number of children who aren't related to you. While this may, on the surface, sound like a truism, I'd like to address this from the point of view of one whose father lived out that philosophy. At 16 years old, my childhood journey of being shuttled about between divorced parents and foster homes was through. I would spend the remainder of my childhood years in a fo...
November 16, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Democracy, like communism, like capitalism, and like many other theories that seem so sound, seem so solid, is a paper standard, and cannot exist in its purest form. The theory of democracy is, of course, one man, one vote. The idea that you have the control over your political destiny. And it sounds good in theory, and in fact, may work in small groups where the goals are common and the group fairly cohesive. But it does not work well on a larger plane because of the reality of politics. ...
November 12, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
Link I ain't makin' this up, folks. A Florida voter sent in an absentee ballot with what one of the most well known collectible stamps as postage. In a snafu worthy of a "Simpsons" episode, the voter, who unfortunately sent in his ballot sans identifying information (thus invalidating the ballot, which is in itself not an unusual occurence in this particular state) with some older stamps worth a face value of about 87 cents as postage. One of those stamps was the famous 1918 "Inverted Jenn...
November 9, 2006 by Gideon MacLeish
The following is the news release from the Libertarian Party of Texas. Good news about the direction of our party, at least in TX. While we have a ways to go, it's fair to say we're making quite a bit of headway for political "outsiders":     Texas Libertarians make major gains, break records AUSTIN - November 8, 2006 - The Libertarian Party of Texas (LPT) showed major improvement in the 2006 general election, relative to its performance in previous years. The party h...