As the debate rages on about the UAE ports deal, I have found a very interesting fact as I have listened to where various pundits fall on the issue. Oddly enough, opinions on the ports deal are NOT falling along party lines. This is probably the first area of politics I have found where Michael Medved, George Bush, and Jimmy Carter can all be found on the same side. I will be the first to admit, when I first heard about the ports deal, I had a bad feeling about it. VERY bad. And, in fact, had...
I just finished reading "Protecting Children from Child Protective Services" by Alan L. Schwartz. This is not the ravings of some anti-government conspiracy theorist against CPS, but of a worker who has seen the system from the inside and has several strong solutions. While Mr. Schwartz and I disagree on many issues, mainly the fundamental one of whether CPS should even exist in a perfect world, we have a common goal of the best interests of the children and families. One of the things that...
This is one of my strongest self edits ever. I began writing an article, wrote about 30 words, then decided better. I killed it. Yes, it is in response to my feelings about the current events on JU, yes, it would have established pretty clearly which side I tend to favor in several of the current conflicts. But it would have hurt a LOT of feelings. A LOT. And while I don't mind getting into it on political views, I don't want to get into it on the personal views. The fact is, I care to...
As many of you know, I am a member of the Volunteer Fire Department in our community. I am training as a First Responder (ECA in the state of Texas, but I'll be registered in both the national and state registries). Recently, we had an issue where one of our firefighters got into a verbal argument with another firefighter. The chief kicked off one of the participants in the altercation. I didn't take sides, because I don't have enough objective information to make an informed decision. I didn...
The following is unsolicited. In the wake of the longer than expected delay in blogging, I thought I'd toss out a few suggestions for a JU premium program based on the program components that I, personally would pay for. I don't know enough about computer programming to know how much is practical, but felt that offering some input from a consumer's perspective might help guide the programmers of this site in implementing something that is being considered anyway. I believe JU is a marketable ...
A blogger on this site linked to a petition to get rid of O'Reilly. I thought I'd take a look at this petititon blow by blow: Dear Your Honor Roger Ailes, We, the undersigned, are becoming increasingly concerned about the mental health of the host of your 8:00 PM EST show on Fox News Channel. Mental health is a prequisite to having a show online? How do you, then, justify the continued airings of reruns of shows featuring the likes of Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Scott Baio and Tony Dan...
I've watched with interest the debate over the deal that would sell several ports in the United States to the United Arab Emirates from a British company. Although I must admit the deal had several alarm bells ringing in my head when it was first announced, I am starting to believe that this deal should, in fact, go through. While it is true that several terrorists have hailed from the UAE, it is irresponsible to consider that as reflective of the mood of the nation. Just as Lynndie England i...
Well, last Friday I headed down to the county courthouse to file paperwork for our precinct and county conventions (it is due March 4, ten days before the precinct conventions, but I wanted to make sure it was in in plenty of time). I went to the county clerk's office as instructed in the county chairman's manual (I am NOT the county chair, but the county secretary, as I can't be chair and run for partisan political office). The county clerk had never handled forms for third parties, so I was in...
He was the "Great American Hype"; the skiier who would claim four US Olympic gold medals and come back to claim his picture on the box of an ever popular General Mills cereal associated with Olympic champions since the days of Bruce Jenner. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Olympics. Somewhere along the line, the skier Bode Miller traded places with the spoiled Ivy League fratboy, and Olympic dreams were derailed. He bragged before the Olympics about hitting the slopes wasted, and ...
When the cartoons satirizing the prophet Mohammed were published in a Danish newspaper and the Muslim community acted with outrage, we took notice. But was the outrage of the Muslim community genuine, or was it a staged attempt to feed the media examples of Islamic "persecution" to justify to the Western world the motivation of an Islamic suicide bomber, which is, for the most part, wholly incomprehensible to us? The fact is, I would be willing to wager a fair sum that not one individual read...
As the debate rages on about the Constitutionality of parental notification laws for minors seeking an abortion, it is interesting to note that the chief weapon of the pro-abortion lobby ("the life of the mother") in arguing against such notification laws is pretty much a red herring argument to disguise the fact that they are trying to lobby for abortion on demand by any woman of childbearing age. And it is exactly that dishonesty, which pervades nearly all of their talking points, that sh...
When discussing the issues of recording conversations with authorities from Child Protective Services, there's much debate on whether to inform the other party that you are recording. While I understand both sides of the debates, I heavily favor notifying the other party, even if you are not legally required to do so, unless they have already committed a violation and secret recordings may help you prove it. If we're dealing with an initial CPS contact, though, I would say record, mak...
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...
Well, I finally got to go out and pick out a new guitar today, so I can resume my hackneyed attempts at playing the durn thing. I had scoped out a Yamaha at one store that I considered my "fallback" option. It had the guitar, a gig bag, picks, a strap, an instructional DVD, and a tuner (a must for me; I can't tune it very well without one). So I headed down to the local music store today to check out their selections. I had already decided that i'd prefer to have a starter pack which inc...