Under God – The Tyranny of the Minority

This was first published (by me) on the John Stark Review blog a little while ago….being reminded of it, I decided that you folks may find it interesting.  In the time that this was first posted, Mr. Newdow has tried again to have "Under God" removed, and was rebuffed by the courts…..

A self-avowed atheist, Michael Newdow achieved notoriety a while ago by bringing suit to ave the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. The Ninth Circuit District Court agreed with him, but was overturned by the US Supreme Court. The Supremes ruled that Mr. Newdow was unable to bring suit due to “lack of standing” – a legal term that says “you have to have a dog in this fight”. Since he did not have custody of his daughter, he could not sue in her name. Sounds like a valid reason to me: one cannot come through the door unless you have the key to the lock.
 

Read more

A man’s home is his castle? Not quite…

This story from the June 29th Union Leader about a man arrested for using tapes from security cameras installed at his home offers a chilling revealation about private property rights if you think about it for a moment: A Nashua man is facing two felony charges for allegedly using secret video cameras to tape police … Read more

Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine

Recalling the cartoon shorts from “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” let’s join talking-dog Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman on a trip to the not too-distant past using the WABAC (pronounced “way back”) machine: Holding up a Daily Sun from 2005, just after the November Laconia elections, the pet-boy Sherman exclaims, “Look, Mr. Peabody- this Thursday paper has a column titled ‘The Broken Arrows’ by some guy named Doug Lambert discussing the passage of that city’s tax cap while electing a full slate of big spenders!”  The wise Peabody nodded and told his boy Sherman that Doug was one of the more outspoken and prescient writers of his time. “I wonder what he had to say about this tax-cap issue- read on boy.”

Read more

Three Questions Posed and Answered

A Liberal once wrote a piece that was obviously against the war.  In it, the writer asked three questions:

Where in our constitution does it say that the purpose of our military is to invade sovereign nations for the purpose of deposing their leaders and changing their political system?

Truthfully, would you have supported this invasion if you had been told back in 2002 that the mission was to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, even though we had not been invited to do so?

Finally, if you believe in this mission, whatever it really is, are you willing to die or send your children to die for it?

Good questions; very thoughtful questions as they get to the heart of how one feels about their political system and especially about the mission and purpose of this country and how it applies to someone at the personal level.  I was compelled to think when I read it (although, to be sure, some of it was a bit in anger given how the questions were phrased) and in formulating my answers.

 

The way I responded was….

Read more

Benefits, Taxes, and Demographics – Pick two and call me back

What goes around, comes around.  When President Bush first started to talk about reforming Social Security, his ideas included the personal savings component (like many Federal employees already have) and the indexing of COLAs from the wage price inflation rate to the consumer price index.  As expected, there was a lot of blowback.  The opposition came from two different groups.  From the Left was the hysterical outpouring of angst over people not being able to figure out how to invest their  personal savings accounts, the role of the private market, and (I feel) the loss of power of not being in charge of all that money.

The other came from those who were either already on Social Security or about to partake of its benefits.  In the local paper, I saw numerous articles and Letters to the Editor complaining about "cutting benefits", that people paid their money and demanded to get it back in benefits, and that Social Security was needed to "live a normal retirement".

Well, I’ve seen a few peices again over the last few months yet again on Social Security.  Although it has been in reference to the new Senate bill extending Social Security benefits to illegal aliens (at terms better than I can get!!), I figured it was time to say something once again about a couple of the basic issues.
 

Read more

An Income tax is just Giving? You mean it is voluntary?

We are lucky in that in the Lakes Region, we have two daily papers for the Lakes Region and one weekly specifically for our town. It has given me ample opportunity to write, as there are quite few Liberals that write in with ideas that they wish to champion. Like the old days in bowling when there were real humans resetting the pins, they set ’em up and I knock them down. Even though some of the Letters may be old, the topics are still relevant almost all the time.

As in this case way back in 2002, the idea of an income tax here in New Hampshire was again being flogged. The background is that we have no sales or income tax here and the race for the next Governor has already already begun. Thus, it is also time for the years old argument for and against implementing an income tax.

This Liberal, however, put a REAL different spin on it, using the word GIVE…..

Read more

What he said….

Doug’s posting about the mosque in Manchester, in and of itself, may not be too worrisome…BUT (and there is always a BUT) combined with this bit of news by Licia Corbella of the  Calgary Sun Dr. Mahfooz Kanwar recently attended Calgary’s largest mosque for a funeral. At one point in the proceedings, a man Kanwar … Read more

Giving away Free Speech?

What is the connection between Ann Coulter (a conservative not well liked by prickly Liberals everywhere) and with what are known as the Mohammad Cartoons (REALLY not liked by prickly Muslims everywhere)?

The Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" created a controversy last year. The Editor felt that a curtain of silence was descending upon Danish society in discussing Islamic / immigration topics, especially when an author could not find illustrators for his book about Mohammad. In this democratic society where free speech is a given, he commissioned artists to comment on this trend of self censorship and begin an open debate. Knowing that it is important for society to be able to openly and honestly discuss any topic even if offensive to some, he wanted to get past the retort of “You are insulting Islam” that was silencing discussions. After all, who wishes to offend (buried by pejoratives), or die (like Theo Van Gogh, killed over his film that is critical over how Islamic women are treated)? Their work resulted in the “Mohammad Cartoons”.

Read more

A Possible Turning Point?

For the President, it was

“perhaps the single busiest day of his whole presidential life, and it came moreover at dead center of what was perhaps his period of deepest gloom and perplexity of spirit. Not only was there political division within his party, and even within his own official family,” the military was unable to fulfill “hopes for a multifaceted early-winter triumph… in putting a quick end to the rebellion.” The failures had not “gone unnoticed by the country at large, the voters and investors on whose will and trust the prosecution of the war depended. The Democrats, still on the outside looking in, had seen to that.”

A typical example included a political opponent who

“was savagely pointing out, from the vantage point of his seat in Congress, the administration’s errors.” Speaking to Republican House members, he stated, “Money you have expended without limit, and blood poured out like water. Defeat, debt, taxation… these are your only trophies.”

New Year’s Day wasn’t a good day for the President. As the months dragged on, the President desperately needed to regain momentum, or risk an early end to the war- and defeat. Without the support of a majority of the citizenry, this would be inevitable. A friend sent him a letter advising that he

“set the public aright on the true issue of the war. ‘My suggestion is that you should seize an early opportunity, and any subsequent chance, to teach your great audience of plain people…’”

The President, recognizing the wisdom of such a plan, kept this in the back of his mind.

Read more

NH: Lowest Taxed in Nation. So?

The June 5th "Citizen" (Laconia,NH) newspaper published an editorial regarding NH’s continued status as having the lowest overall tax burden in the Nation. In it, the paper writes,
"Imagine the relief we will feel in knowing the additional taxes we are paying are mitigated by the knowledge that our pockets are being picked at a slower rate than in 49 other states."
Right on! We may be the lowest, but the annual increases continue apace with everyone else. The costs never remain stable. The "Citizen" concludes:
"New Hampshire residents are forced to drop 12.3 percent of their income into the well of state and local taxes. Then there is what they’re paying in federal taxes — income taxes and a variety of other levies. The people of New Hampshire are paying too much in taxes. It is time to demand government get its hands out of our pockets and live within its means — like those of us it is supposed to represent."
Click here to read the whole editorial. Then come back here and finish reading this post to read the letter I submitted to the paper in response.

Read more

Good News & Bad News

Monday’s Laconia Daily Sun carried a story headlined, “New Hampshire residents pay least local taxes nationally.” The article, reporting on a recent study of 2004 US Census economic data, is at the same time both good news and bad news. The good news is just what the article reports: “New Hampshire residents pay less of … Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXingYummly