Hiatus, and move to different location

Travelling travelling and more travelling has caused the long hiatus of posting. However, I am back in one place, and since i injured my leg and am on crutches for a few weeks, i shouldn't be going anywhere for a while. I have been invited to join a Thinktank of sorts, called Neoperspectives, and will be posting daily there, while the owner is on a hiatus of his own. Check it out:

www.neoperspectives.com

Taxes suck

I hate them. So I love hearing about ways to make them lower. If you haven't heard about Fair Tax, you should educate yourself. This website has a list of video clips with different people discussing the Fair Tax Book, and ideas around it. (Best way to view the videos is right-click and then choose "save target as", to download the clip to your computer, then open the file when it is done downloading.) Obviously, reading the book would be the best way to find out about it, which I plan to do, but check out the videos, it's a pretty exciting idea.

Atlanta students follow law, risk lives

This is hilarious. Civil OBEDIENCE, priceless!

A bunch of students decided to drive 55 on I285 in Atlanta Georgia, and film the experience. Watch it on Google Video (which I never heard of until today)here.

Traveling...will be back in a couple weeks

I am currently unable to post on a regular basis due to living circumstances (read - no internet at my temporary lodging quarters)

Will be back in March to keep you updated on governement checking our freedoms!

Until then,

- Dobber

Democrats, Republicans what's the difference?

When the masses go to the polls and pull the lever...what happens. Well, lately, (the last 40 years) what happens is more of our tax money gets wasted, they request more of our tax money, and more people are taught to depend on the government for help; not their friends or family or self. (Yeah, that sentence was a run-on)

Terrence Jeffrey at Townhall.com wrote an interesting article about how very similar the parties are. Recently George Bush and Nancy Pelosi gave speeches outlining problems we Americans have, and how to solve them. Guess how they BOTH say the exact same problems should be solved......Give up? PUT MORE OF YOUR TAX MONEY TOWARDS THE "PROBLEMS"!!!

Wal-Mart being told how to do business, again!

This is so ridiculous. Sometimes I read the news, and then I have to go get my military ID to make sure I am serving in the UNITED STATES, sworn to support the CONSTITUTION!

The state of Massachusetts, has told Wal-Mart that it MUST carry the infamous "morning after pill". What? A private company, selling products to willing customers, is being told what it may, or may not offer for sale on its own property! What if you started a slush puppy stand outside a little leage baseball park and the government told you that you must carry black licorice flavored slush puppies!

A Wal-Mart spokesman made this completely reasonable statement:
"Fogleman has said the company "chooses not to carry many products for business reasons," giving low demand as one. If customers seek a product that a Wal-Mart pharmacy does not carry, they are referred to another that does.."

Massachusetts lawmakers (or breakers, depending on your point of view) said the decision was "based on state pharmacy regulations requiring pharmacies to stock and dispense "commonly prescribed medications in accordance with the usual needs of the community.""

The law is based on state pharmacy regulations.....

Regulations, regulations, regulations, O my

New Hampshire sets the pace again

New Hampshire lawmakers passed house bill 76, which does the unthinkable! It passes state money straight to Charter Schools, rather than sending it to local school districts to pass on to local charter schools. This basically eliminates the middle man, which is good. The funny thing about this law, is WHY WAS IT THE WAY IT WAS????? Prior to house bill 76, area Charter Schools had to depend on their COMPETITION to fund them!

Imagine being 9 years old and opening up a lemonade stand using a government grant. But, you have to depend on the 12 year old who lives on the next block to apply for the money and then give it to you in order to buy the mix and sugar! I know, I know, 9 year olds running lemonade stands shouldn't get government money to open up their own business...but should pea-brained burecrats attempting to run schools get millions of dollars?

Pandora

I try to keep this blog all politics all the time, but you gotta check this site out. Just give it a few bands and songs you like and it creates a personalized streaming internet radio station for you:
http://www.pandora.com/

My colleague, Bangert, alerted me to this great site.

Studies show I'm not crazy

This is a refreshing article. It talks about a recent Gallup poll on goverment, which is unfortunately available to subscribers only...

The survey asked people questions about the functions government should play in our lives. Results show that 27% are "conservatve", 24% are "liberal", and 20% are "libertarian". The libertarian grouping believes that government should not "promote traditional values". Also, the libertarian group believes that government should not "do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses."

We're out there...and as government continues its trend towards getting bigger with every vote and every slam of the gavel, maybe more people will get fed up! Like I am.

STEELERS BACK ON TOP

http://www.steelers.com/

ahhhhh life is good in Yinzerland!!!!

In huge reversal, Maryland lawmakers make good decision!

I recently posted about Maryland legislators passing a ridiculous law prohibiting Wal-Mart to decide for itself how to spend its own money!

In a stunning turn of events, a good decision was made in that great state where I used to call home! The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland has repealed a law regulating the price that private companies could sell gas for. This, of course, is based on the faulty premise that two human beings could not come to an economic decision without the intrusion of government.

Free markets (aka capitalism, aka freedom, aka the opposite of communism) have scored a nice victory today in the beautiful state of Maryland! Great quote from the Sun:

"Proponents of the repeal said in a hearing yesterday that the government shouldn't regulate prices, and that free-market competition will benefit consumers."

Does a logical argument against School Choice exist?

Sometimes I wonder if I should just turn this blog into a school choice blog...hmm...maybe I'll start a new one for just that purpose; because as I scour the news-o-sphere I come across article after article about the School Choice debate. And I love it!

The more we argue, the more people will come to see how ridiculous this argument is! School choice is good....Big Brother controlling schools is bad.

I came across the Educational State of the Union, which is bleek, as long as big government (feds) control our schools... This article outlines all of the major, nearly un-arguable, points about how much better school choice is for our children.

Here are my favorites:

1. "Powers not accorded to Congress by the Constitution are reserved, by the 10th Amendment, to the states and the people. As it happens, the U.S. Constitution mentions neither the word education nor the word school. Doesn't even allude to them."

2. (the President should:)"repeal of his own No Child Left Behind law that unconstitutionally substitutes the judgment of federal officials for that of parents and state legislators."

3. "Nor has our increasingly centralized approach to schooling served the interests of the poor. Though many inner city public school districts from Detroit to DC spend $12,000 to $16,000 per pupil annually, their performance is often abysmal."

4. "low income families make better educational decisions for their own children than state-appointed bureaucrats make on their behalf."

If I see one thing happen in the next ten years, I want it to be a Steelers Super Bowl victory. If two, then repealment of the federal department of education.

Two more arguments against Universal Health Care

Universal Health Care...
Ahhhh....just think of how great that would be. Everyone receiving top-rate care for all types of ailments and illnesses. Everyone's right to be cared for being being properly righted, bleeding hearts all over the country are being properly inoculated by Big Brother...

So romantic.

But is the warm fuzzy picture in your head still warm and fuzzy if your heard-earned tax dollars were paying for a mentally ill patient's right to sex through legal prostitution?

I'm not joking, but it sure is funny!
from TimeLeader.com

"Denmark’s government ruled in 2001 that institutionalized citizens have the right to have sex and that caregivers must even take them to visit prostitutes. (Prostitution is legal in Denmark.) According to a January dispatch from Aarhus, Denmark, in London’s Observer, Mr. Torben Vegener Hansen, 59, who has cerebral palsy and lives at home on government assistance, is challenging the government also to pay for prostitutes to make house calls, claiming that he is unable to have sex manually because of his illness and must be accorded this “human right” by a service similar to the government’s meals-on-wheels program."

And all that is possible through the beauty of Universal Health Care

Another article came across my desk. This one discusses the complexities involved with booming biotechnology and how it puts some poor souls in the precarious position of having to make a decision between doing their job and standing up for their beliefs.

Two points:
1. Why is the government involved? To me this issue is very simple. Person A owns Material X, which Person B would like to have. Person B buys Material X from Person A on a mutually acceptable price. If both parties are happy, than why is government needed? In a real life example how about this:
CVS owns Morning After Pill. John wants to buy Morning After Pill. John buys Morning After Pill from CVS.
Pretty simple to me.....

Ok, let's make it complicated!

CVS owns Morning After Pill. Frank is a CVS pharmacist. John wants to buy Morning After Pill. Frank thinks Morning After Pill is evil. Frank can either a) sell Morning After Pill to John, b)look for a new job where he does not have to make such hard decisions or c) ask CVS if he could work there but not sell Morning After Pill. Then, it would simply be CVS owner/managemnt to decide the policy to set for employees like Frank.

Where is government needed in that example?
What if CVS (gulp) fires Frank who is just trying to live his life and make a living and put his beliefs into his career? O well, good luck with a new career Frank!

But shouldn't Big Brother step in and force these companies and people to do what's right?
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because they can make that decision on their own! And if you think that CVS is wrong for firing Frank, then DON'T SPEND MONEY THERE!

2) Why is the government involved?