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Glenn Beck Tells NRA Members: Fight the 'Marxists' at the Polls {Politics Daily}
May 16th 2010 2:19PM And I thought the arrival of viagra would eventually tone down the gun lobby. But then I realized ammunition is cheaper and guns can be reloaded more quickly. The fear of losing use of your weapon is so deeply embedded in the American psyche, I can't think of anything more threatening, except "love thy neighbor as thyself."
Don't Play Ball With State of Arizona {Fanhouse - Kevin Blackistone}
May 1st 2010 5:22PM What History We Remember Determines All Our Institutions*
The Arizona legislature and current governor are acting as if their new immigration law is predicated on an almighty firm foundation. However, what they should fear the most is not the undocumented worker but the lawyer who decides to pursue the larger justice of restoring what is now the State of Arizona to its rightful heirs, the ancient tribes of Native Americans who historically roamed that mostly desert territory. Yes, the U.S. won Arizona as part of the settlement with Mexico after the Mexican-American War of 1848 and it justified fighting that war and taking that territory in the name of Manifest Destiny, a doctrine that said it was God’s will that we mostly white U.S. Protestants take that land from the perceived “lesser beings” who occupied it at the time.
The Arizonians who are behind this new illegal immigration law are starting from the premise that they are the rightful owners and legitimate citizens of what is currently called the state of Arizona. However, their legitimacy is based on the rather shallow roots of relatively recent history. That land was first “owned” by various tribes and then occupied by Spanish and eventually Mexican people. Since the U.S. has broken more treaties, especially with Native Americans, than it has ever kept, a long tradition probably carries more moral weight than a U.S. treaty in the larger scheme of things.
To complicate matters further, our Social Security system would probably be bankrupt right now were it not for the contributions to the SS system by undocumented workers who use phony or borrowed SS numbers with no hope of ever receiving a benefit. They, as it were, are keeping the system afloat as we the people sort out how we are going to finance that benefit in the future.
So rather than having law enforcement confront every suspicious Latino it sees in Arizona, it might be wise to count the blessing of the rather dubiously obtained privilege of Arizona citizenship on the part of Anglos and leave sleeping dogs lie. Or maybe count the number of lawyers you have and start worrying which one will find it lucrative enough to go after your historically questionable ownership.
*Modified from Emerson’s English Traits which said, “How man views nature determines all his institutions.”
Secret global trade talks spur civil libertarians' outrage at Obama {Daily Finance}
Nov 8th 2009 10:46PM Watch "60 Minutes" and send the libertarians packing with their tails between their legs.
Bill Cosby's Coming Out as a Conservative? {Politics Daily}
Sep 24th 2009 12:10PM As a flaming liberal, I have little issue with any of these values. In fact, I embrace them wholeheartedly.
I would love to have limited government if only the corporate giants would dismantle into human-scale entities so that we could afford limited government. As it is, the only voices congress seems to listen to are the voices of Big Business such as oil and coal, instead of the still small voices of natural gas, a much cleaner, earth-friendly, plentiful transition fuel that will bridge us into the age of renewable energy. If only the little guys and the Big Bullies had equality under the law.
If by property rights they mean surface owners as opposed to the Big Bullies who own subsurface rights that currently and historically have trumped the little surface owners, I am all for property rights.
If by free markets they actually mean the preservation of real competition and the protection against the monopoly and oligarchy of Big Business, I am all for real free markets.
If by strong families they mean the kind of families my two sons are raising and committed to that foster good manners, rigorous education, respect for nature, and high achievement, then I am certainly in support of strong families.
And if by strong national defense and foreign policy they don’t mean a go-it-alone strategy without first asking the rest of the world to join us in positive endeavors, as The Little Red Hen did, as opposed to the Bush administration, then I support a strong national defense and foreign policy based on cooperation rather than isolation.
So, if Bill Cosby is about getting parents to take responsibility for their children, I am all for it. No government program will do it for them. However, access to good schools can help, and good government can provide incentives that will help good schools flourish in underserved areas.
And sometimes it is a matter of saving the kids FROM the parents.
