Category Archives: Opinion

RULES, RULES, RULES. WHERE THERE’S NOT A RULE THERE’S A REGULATION

Posted on July 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

When the inimitable William F. Buckley said “A Liberal is someone who is determined to reach into your shower and adjust the water temperature for you” little did we know those were the good old days.  Buckley’s comment was clever and amusing because it combined the absurd with a grain of truth.  Petty regulations are so common now that a similar comment wouldn’t evoke the slightest chuckle, instead one would simply ask – so?  What’s your point?

In New York the government regulates the amount of salt a chef can use when preparing a menu item.  It’s enough to drive the good cooks back to France.  Now new USDA regulations are reaching into your children’s food trays and taking away the white potatoes.  No more freedom fries for the kids.  Neither Maine nor Idaho have many electoral votes.

When your mouse dies you do know you can’t throw the little battery away, don’t you.  You have to drive to a battery disposal center and place it in a little bin.  The mileage isn’t tax deductible, but at least they don’t fine you for your carbon emissions inroute, not yet.

A friend of mine bought one of those curly bulbs and it burned out.  Harry’s trash collector doesn’t have a certified CFL or mercury disposal center so he called the town.  Environmental clearance for a collection center is pending review.  Due to budget constraints they are not going forward with it at this time.  So he sealed the bulb in an airtight plastic bag just to be safe (there are children in the house).

Harry went online and found a site that suggested he should call Wal-Mart executive headquarters and urge them to open a nationwide collection center.  I kid you not, here’s the link.  But the same site lists a service that will take your bulbs right now so you don’t have to wait for Wal-Mart.  A company called Lightbulbrecycling.com will send you a container for shipping dead curly bulb(s) back to them for proper processing.  The fee is $120 per shipment.  Yes, that’s $120, not $1.20. It’s no surprise the link doesn’t work.  By the way, Harry is not his real name.  I know what he did with the bulb so I had to change the name to protect his identity.

Perhaps we should mount a campaign to let liberals control our shower water temperature and leave everything else the @&#$%?*# alone.

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ROBERTS VOTED AGAINST IT BEFORE HE VOTED FOR IT

Posted on July 1, 2012 | 1 comment

Why?  That’s the question now, Why?

(CBS News) Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court’s four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama’s health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations.

It gets even more bizarre.  It was Justice Kennedy who fought the hardest to bring Roberts back to his original stance but it was to no avail.  Roberts couldn’t be persuaded to change his second opinion.

The conservatives refused to join any aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such as his analysis imposing limits on Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause, the sources said.

Instead, the four joined forces and crafted a highly unusual, unsigned joint dissent.  They deliberately ignored Roberts’ decision, the sources said, as if they were no longer even willing to engage with him in debate.

We must keep in mind that the scenario CBS describes is hearsay and will likely remain as such.  Nevertheless, it’s plausible.  If Roberts did come down on one side then switch to the other it was because his first thought was, as a Supreme Court Judge, to protect the integrity of the Constitution.  Then later, as the Chief Justice he decided to protect the integrity of the Court by not miring it in the controversy.  As I speculated in an earlier post he passed the buck to the voters.  In so doing, he harmed the Court because now the controversy is the Court.

Read more…

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WINNERS AND/OR LOSERS OF THE SOTUS DECISION, MAYBE

Posted on June 30, 2012 | 2 comments

Justice Roberts’ decision is not controversial only because it let Obamacare stand, there is also controversy about the consequences of the decision going forward.  Some good arguments have been given claiming at least partial victory or defeat for both the left and the right in the near and in the long term.  There is also a logical opinion that the court has passed the buck by returning the decision to the voters.

One common line of thought is that the decision put a cap on the lefts widespread abuse of the Interstate Commerce Clause to justify all manner of expansion of federal powers.  Mark, an attorney commenting on our earlier post takes a contrary view.  In his opinion an even wider door was opened to Constitutional erosion by finding the Affordable Care Act can stand on the basis of the federal governments unquestioned right to tax.

Justice Ginsburg adds to the ‘we won but we lost’ confusion by taking the unusual, albeit not unprecedented step of writing a dissent against a decision she voted in favor of.

Charles Krauthammer declares Justice Roberts’ action was brilliant.  Rush Limbaugh swears it was stupid.  Mitt Romney vows to make the repeal of Obama care the immediate focus of his presidency and he may have the House and the Senate with him to do it.  Nancy Pelosi says now it’s cinched; the Affordable Care Act is here to stay.

If it turns out that Obamacare is repealed in the next Congress, it will mean the right was the ultimate winner of the Supreme Court’s decision.  If Obama is re-elected it will mean the left was the winner.  If Obamacare is repealed and replaced by health care reform that preserves choice and quality and broadens demographic coverage at an honestly affordable price, the people and the right will have won.  The left will have lost because health care users will have maintained control of their own destiny and not surrendered to the specter of socialized medicine.

We just have to wait.

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OBAMACARE IS IN! WHAT’S NEXT?

Posted on June 28, 2012 | 2 comments

The libs get excited, rightly so.  Obama’s ratings get a blip up, but will they hold?  The House will vote on a bill to repeal Obamacare, but it won’t pass the Senate.  Karl Rove takes his wife out for a beer —  no champagne and caviar tonight.

Now the ball is in Romney’s court.  On the Tuesday before Thursday’s announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision Romney said “If it is deemed to stand, then I’ll tell you one thing: We’re going to have to have a president, and I’m that one, that’s going to get rid of Obamacare.  We’re going to stop it on Day 1.”  To accomplish that Republicans will need to win control of the Senate as well as the presidency.  If they do, then expect some form of repeal and replacement.

The Supreme Court’s decision that the law is constitutional is not an endorsement of its advisability, only a decision that it is legal.  Chief Justice Robert’s opinion was explicit about that.  Obamacare will rival jobs and the economy as the number one issue between now and November.  That is not a plus for Republicans.

On a brighter note a greater threat was averted.  During the debate prior to the Bill becoming law, the President emphatically denied the mandate was a tax.  Coming before the court, however, the administration’s attorneys argued the opposite; that the mandate is a tax.  The court agreed, more or less, more more than less.  The opinion read that the mandate ‘could be’ seen as a tax, in which case it ‘would be’ constitutional.  If the court had ruled that Obamacare could stand under Commerce Clause, such a decision would have gutted the Constitution setting a precedent that almost anything would be allowed under the clause.

Rumors are abounding that a deal was made or that Roberts bent to intimidation.  I don’t think we have sunk that low.

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McCASKILL’S BOLD FACED LIE

Posted on June 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

A bold faced lie is a lie told with a straight and confident face (hence “bold-faced”), usually with the corresponding tone of voice and emphatic body language of one confidently speaking the truth. That’s the definition of a bold faced lie according to Wikipedia.

The Democratically controlled Senate has not voted on a budget in 3 ½ years. That’s a fact and it is contrary to law. It has been a major point of contention so there is no possibility whatever that Sen. Claire McCaskill does not know that the Senate has failed to pass a budget in all that time. Now watch the video and see what a bold faced lie looks like.

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KRUGMAN DOES GREECE

Posted on June 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

What follows are verbatim quotes from Paul Krugman’s article today in the New York Times.

“Yes, there are big failings in Greece’s economy, its politics and no doubt its society.”
“Greece does indeed have a lot of corruption and a lot of tax evasion, and the Greek government has had a habit of living beyond its means.”
“Beyond that, Greek labor productivity is low by European standards — about 25 percent below the European Union average.”

From that Krugman concludes:

“But those failings aren’t what caused the crisis that is tearing Greece apart…”
“The Germans and the European Central Bank [must] realize that they’re the ones who need to change their behavior, spending more and, yes, accepting higher inflation…Greece will basically go down in history as the victim of other people’s hubris.”

In Krugman’s world, wherever that is, if a nation is ridden with corruption, allows extensive tax evasion and has a habit of living beyond its means for years, then when the money runs out it’s someone elses fault. With thinking like that the man could become president of the United States.

And then the economist turned journalist asks why the U.S. doesn’t have “the kind of severe regional crises now afflicting Europe?” His answer is “that we have a strong central government, and the activities of this government in effect provide automatic bailouts to states that get in trouble.”

So the reason America remains on a relatively sound footing is because we support failures automatically.

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THIS PRESIDENT DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ CONGRESS TO CHANGE THE LAW

Posted on June 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

A White House official comments on Obama’s de facto amnesty for young illegal immigrants as reported by Politico.

“We work to achieve our policy goals in the most effective and appropriate way possible,” the official said. “Often times Congress has blocked efforts …… and we look to pursue other appropriate means of achieving our policy goals. Sometimes this makes for less than ideal policy situations – such as the action we took on immigration – but the president isn’t going to be stonewalled by [the law], he will pursue whatever means available to do business on behalf of American people.”

In the interest of clarity I have changed one word in the White House official’s statement.  The statement actually made was the President will not be “stonewalled by politics”.  But the context is an announcement by the administration that certain specified laws will no longer be enforced, Congress be damned.  What other law might the President next declare null and void, voter fraud?

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THE BARACK OBAMA DEFENSIVE OFFENSIVE

Posted on June 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

Helene Cooper, White House correspondent for the New York Times refers to Obama’s campaign strategy as the Obama Defensive Offensive.  Do I sense a bit of fed-up attitude coming from yet another liberal quarter?  Ms. Cooper, who is black, doesn’t disagree with the president’s assertion that the Republicans are at fault but she is worried that “runs the danger of making Mr. Obama come across as a crybaby, not to mention opening him up to ridicule from the right.”  The Times’ correspondent is right about one thing.  You can’t win a war by playing defense.

The new tack for the president’s water carriers is “it’s the money”.  Democrats overall have been outdoing Republicans in raising campaign funds for years.  To them, that’s the norm.  Obama raised $745M in 2008, more than twice as much as John McCain.  For some reason Obama’s supporters didn’t say ‘it was the money’ then.

The power of the race card is getting thin.  The blindest grass roots Democrats may not admit it but they can now see the President’s faults.  His opulent life style on the taxpayer’s dollar is one thing that rubs Americans the wrong way.  Another is that he was a no-show in Wisconsin which was the biggest event since passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

One thing he does having going for him is the animosity the Democrats have built up by vilification of Republicans.  The feeling is that it’s better to vote for a disappointing candidate than for the devil.  He was a good community organizer

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NORTH DAKOTA MULLS ELIMINATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY TAX

Posted on June 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

A man’s home is his castle, right?  Not exactly.  Once the mortgage is paid a man has the comfort of knowing it’s his for life, right?  Not exactly.  The government cannot take a man’s homestead away except as necessary to build a highway, a bridge or some other project for the benefit of all, certainly not to turn it over to another private party, right?  Not exactly.

A real King could do what he liked in his castle.  A man today can do only what the government permits.  The permission process can be long, costly and still end up in being denied.  Your mother may have to go to the nursing home if the town won’t allow the changes needed to accommodate her living with you.

You can pay off the mortgage for life.  The bank will never come back and say “We decided we want some more money from you.  We are running a little short.”  But the government will.  It’s called property tax.  You can never pay it off and you can never stop the collector from deciding to take a little more if they are running short.

You have heard of the law of eminent domain.  Let’s go to the dictionary.  Eminent – prominent, of higher standing.  Domain – a territory over which rule or control is exercised.  The government has final rights to your castle, not you.  The US Supreme court in the Kelo decision allowed the taking of a home from a taxpayer in Connecticut enabling a developer to bulldoze the house and build something that would yield higher property tax revenue.

You worked all your life, you scraped and you saved, you did everything right.  You achieved the dream, the home is yours.  Now it is the autumn of your life.  You have earned the comfort of knowing that whatever happens, your home is yours for life.  Not exactly.  If misfortune strikes and you can’t pay the rent they call property tax, it’s bye, bye castle.

Oh, I know, many municipalities have laws and practices that allow you to stay in your own home until you die.  But there is something disquieting about the fact that you are living at the mercy of a government in what has become their home by default.

The people of North Dakota have decided to do something about it.

“I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can’t pay a tax,” said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to end the property tax. They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership.

The proposition comes to a vote on Tuesday.  It isn’t practical enough to pass, but it’s a nice idea.

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THE SAD STATE OF MSNBC

Posted on June 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

This composite video of Walker night on MSNBC reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s Minister of Public Affairs declaring victory while you could see enemy tanks rolling into the city over his shoulder.  The final tally was 53 to 46 in favor of Gov. Scott Walker.  The margins were even wider than that at the time Ed Schulz was calling it close.

The Democrat’s suffered a resounding defeat in this nationally significant election in one of their own solidly blue states.  Does Larry O’Donnell truly believe “the really big winner is President Obama”?  Gov. Walker “may be indicted”, indicted for what, winning an election?

It is unimaginable what the reaction will be at MSNBC on November 6 if Obama is losing badly from start to finish as the Democrats were here.

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