So, here's the scenario. I come into the library this morning, log on, and quickly find the latest "farewell blog" from a blogger who has basically made a whole blog of farewell blog's. The gist is this: you guys aren't treating me the way I want to be treated, so I'm gonna take my ball and go home. My response: fine. Don't let the door hit you. You may be fed up with us because our answers don't extol your virtues and extol you as the purveyor of all wisdom, but, frankly, I'm equally fed up ...
Well, it's over now. No more appeals, no more hype. Stanley "Tookie" Williams entered immortality a few short hours ago. And while I see his death as necessary, I will not celebrate it. Governor Schwarzennegger surprised me, frankly. I thought he'd cave to the pressure to grant clemency to Williams, but he exercised the proper restraint. He made the right decision, in my estimation. You see, while the press clamours on about judges subverting the roles of the legislatures by being activists, ...
Saturday, we had a meeting at the paper office (I currently work as a "media distribution specialist", or, "paper carrier" for the non-PC among you). We were discussing updates in our pay rates. One of the main changes is that the paper plans to eliminate the gas adjustment that many of us rural carriers get for delivering the paper out along the county roads to the farmhouses that dot the countryside. Now, to be frank, I NEED that gas adjustment to make any profit on two of my eight routes, ...
Well, the reparations movement is gaining momentum. Of course, it's being retitled "restitution" because, of course, the African American community wants an easier sell. I have a whole crudload of problems with restitution. The fact is, virtually all of us have ancestors who were oppressed, and would have just as valid a case for such "restitution". The descendants of indentured servants, of Irish immigrants in the 19th century, of Chinese railroad workers...the list goes on. One of the mo...
Link I must preface this article with the fact that this link (a clearly left wing website) is the only place where I found this information. But I feel that the "facts" should at least be investigated. According to the linked article above (read the disclaimer, please), when Bush was confronted with renewing the US Patriot Act, said the Constitution was "just a G__D___ piece of paper". The article goes on to allege similarly egregious statements from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a...
Now, don't get me wrong. I have seen a bit of a conflict over expressions of Christmas that I have, at time, considered GROSSLY unfair and unConstitutional. But not so much as to really perceive a wholesale "war on Christmas". You see, a lot of this debate has centered on the use of the word "Holiday" in place of "Christmas". And, honestly, I think it's silly, and, frankly, making a lot of good and decent conservative Christians into caricatures of themselves. See, when I was little, we se...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112802025.html I referenced this in a response on another blog. Al Sharpton has taken on a new gig: pitching car title loans to a Georgia company called Loan Max ("sticking up for the little guy" as he calls it). Now, as a person who has grown up poor, I can speak with experience on this sort of company. The way it works is you go in and they give you a set amount of money based on what you have to offer for collateral...
Our WalMart Supercenter opened just about a year ago. No businesses have closed yet, but three businesses are dying out, to say the least. And when they breathe their final breath and close their doors, they will almost certainly blame the retail giant. While they may not be representative of all the businesses closing in communities where WalMart does businesses, I would like to discuss these businesses and offer personal insight as to more likely reasons why they may be closing. The first b...
It's getting frustrating. As a Libertarian, I am always on the lookout for good talking points from the left and right. Both sides have plenty of room for criticism, and there are a lot of good talking points to be had. But see, as so many have lamented, GOOD liberal talking points are in short supply around the internet. Most of the more intelligent liberals are more moderate than liberal, or focus their blogs on other topics. The few truly intelligent, truly dedicated liberals that remai...
Well, we had to all know it was coming. As much as many of us dreaded it, the MSM has now turned on the federal air marshalls who shot a man who allegedly claimed to have a bomb. Am I the only one who finds it interesting that the attack came not MINUTES after the attack, but more than 24 hours after, after certain journalists had the chance to vette every passenger on the plane to find one whose viewpoint agreed with theirs. Now the entire air marshall program would be scrutinized. I can't h...
As I look towards my own vision of a smaller government, one of the areas of greatest conflict for me is the area of public transportation. I see where public transportation (both intercity AND intracity) helps the vitality and stability of a community, but the plain fact is that in no community has public transportation EVER turned a profit. The public transportation agencies have simply eaten up more and more of the taxpayer's dime. A key component of my platform as I prepare to run for pub...
Our community recently voted in an Economic Development Corporation, four short years after voting out a previous failed EDC. The corporation will pull an extra half cent sales tax from the pockets of shoppers in our community to give to corporations and industries to locate here, under the premise that they will bring jobs to our community. I believe that job creation should not be the responsibility of the government, but of individuals. While such programs superficially work, they bring in...
Because of the time I spend driving on my job (as a "media distribution specialist") and the extremely limited playlists on the music radio stations in our area, I find myself listening to talk radio fairly often. One of my preferred shows is the Michael Medved show, because Medved gives more time to opposing views and generally treats them with respect. Until the issue comes to third parties. Medved is clear that he detests third parties and that any intelligent person would join the Democra...
I heard a very interesting discussion on the kind of legacy that singer John Lennon left, as yesterday was the 25th anniversary of his death. It was correctly pointed out that, although John Lennon claimed to support peace and criticized the US involvement in Vietnam, he remained remarkably silent through the invasions of Prague and Afghanistan, as well as other Cold War Communist actions during his lifetime. It was further noted that his failures as a father to eldest son Julian underscored a h...
There are endless speculations among our political elite as to how to end crime in the US. stricter enforcement hasn't worked, "zero tolerance" and "three strikes" have only worked against those whose cases aren't sensational enough to attract good lawyers. And, in fact, as long as there are two or more people alive on the earth, there will be crime of some sort or the other. But the United States could go a long way towards reducing crime in this country as we know it by the simple act of e...