Thanks to a little vanity surfing, I found this comment to one of my posts from one of our most prominent trolls: You louse, can picking drinking idiot obviously the energy you used in collecting cans for cash- "peanuts"- could have been used to make a lot more money, so why did you choose can picking? I didn't want to COMPLETELY hijack LW's thread on this obviously completely misinformed post. The situations that led to our crisis were something I discussed in my blogs. My wife went in...
Pulled from the LP website ( www.lp.org ). This says it better than I could: The Idle Hands and Wandering Minds of Texas Legislators by Shane Cory Politicians of the Texas State House took the time this week to pass HB 1476 which will put an end to "sexually suggestive" performances by middle and high school students. The bill, all 219 words of it, didn't bother to define what a sexually suggestive performance may be. ...
The city of Amarillo, for now, at least, does not have a public smoking ban. There are probably those who wonder why I should care since a) I don't smoke; I don't live in Amarillo. It's simple really. You see, an indoor smoking ban is a pretty egregious infringement on the rights of business owners. Not only does it affect consumers,most of whom, in my experience, at least, are polite enough to head outside, but it affects the owners by dictating to them what they can and cannot allow wi...
The information below was pulled from the National Center for Child Protection Reform's homepage: When Sara Eyerman of northern California was nineteen-months-old, child protective services was concerned that she wasn't growing fast enough. So they "erred on the side of the child" and placed Sara in a "specialized" foster home. About six weeks later, Sara began running a 105 degree fever. But the "specialists" in the specialized foster home decided it was o.k. to wait two days before ta...
This is another blog in my series addressing the needed changes in the "child welfare" system. One of the most common misconceptions that people have about state removal of children from their homes is that it is only used in the most extreme cases. This myth is dispelled by reality. In one of the FAQ's from the National Center for Child Protection Reform's website ( Link ), this question is answered: Q: Isn't foster care used only in the most severe cases of abuse? A: No. Although some ...
Well, I'm not usually a bandwagon jumper, but I thought it was time to jump on the "starve a liberal" bandwagon. Let me explain why....no, it would take too long, let me sum up. A former JU user replied to my JU article on overpopulation on my other blog site. The problem is, he replied off topic to another article, despite the fact that the overpopulation article is also listed on the other site. The meat of his argument? "You're an idiot!" That's right; no dissection of facts, no ana...
Another blogger's thread was hijacked by a reader taking offense to the use of the word "hermaphrodite". Personally, I'm among the growing number of Americans who are becoming pissed by the "PC police" changing terms that were once acceptable just so they can brand the rest of us as being bigots because we didn't get the latest copy of "liberals weekly". To whit, I am reserving my right to continue to use the following terms: hermaphrodites retards freaks Indians generic references to "...
After reading yet another blog attacking the US "executions" of insurgents, I had to respond. As a country all too familiar with "cyber" war through first person shooter games, we have the tendency to apply our cyberwar standards to real life combat situations. Thus we feel informed enough to state our opinion on the situation, and to judge our soldiers prematurely for their decisions. Cyber war, however, is no more real than cyber sex or computer football games. Just as Grand Theft Auto d...
Well, today I hit the big 35. Not as big a milestone as the cornerstones of 30 or 40, but, as someone who, as a teen was filled with the fatalistic vision that I wouldn't make it to 30, I view these years as bonus years. I didn't think I'd have them when I was younger (and heart problems in my mid-20's only served to reinforce that thought), but I enjoy every year I've had since...and hope I'm only halfway done inflicting my opinion on others...lol.
The following is the first of my articles on foster children who have been abused or neglected within a system that was supposed to protect them. There will be more to follow. This story can be found linked on the following website: Link Melissa’s Story 1 Melissa, a blind two-year-old foster child regularly kicked her portable crib “until she tire(d) herself and (fell) asleep,” according to her foster mother.2 Family members said that Melissa spent most of her days in a...
In my previous article about the federal government using foster children as guinea pigs for AIDS drugs, I encountered the following question: Since these children do not have any loving parents, who is going to be their champion? It was a good question, and I'd like to answer it here. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you view it), I find myself uniquely qualified to be a champion to foster children who have been mistreated by a callous system. I lost one brother due to abuse becau...
A few years ago I was mulling a work commitment with the Christian Appalachian Project, a project that works to better the lives of families in the Appalachian region. Because I had the advantage of being online, I decided to ask a few I knew online who lived in that region what they thought of CAP. The response was nearly unanimous. While they appreciated the intent, they disliked the way CAP was working to destroy the Appalachian culture and replace it with a culture more in line with the r...
Here's an exercise for you, joeusers. Make a list of everything you would like to see banned. Don't worry about flames from others, seriously. Let's take a look at the things that you would like to see banned. Now lets look at the list again, and try to see how many of the items on your list might possibly infringe on someone else's rights that are intended to be guaranteed by the Constitution. Don't get me wrong; laws are essential to an orderly society. But laws should be confined to ...
Well, I had to post a personal followup comment to TexasWahine's comments about Star Wars: Ep. III's PG-13 rating. I am sure this will get an "insightful" from all the lightsaber waving fans of the world. Anyway, if it's going to be PG-13 anyway, why not some Padme full frontal? Come on, Lucas, throw us a bone! This is as close as some of your fans will get to a REAL human female breast. Or maybe he's saving that for the director's cut?
I just got the news today that my friends' world came to an end yesterday. The state of Texas made a final determination that they could not have their three children returned to them. This case began after the father decided to stop working full time. He was not receiving government aid (an important point in this discussion). They decided they didn't need "public" utilities, and allowed them to be disconnected. Every day, they would haul the water they needed from the local park. While t...