Not just another Will Smith, July 4th weekend blockbuster
By: Matt Fay
“Remember the reason for the season!”
It is a common admonition around the holiday season – not this coming holiday, of course, but the Christmas season. It is a saying often seen on church bulletin boards and in Christian literature. It is a saying meant to remind those who are so busy shopping and preparing for large family gatherings that Christmas is not about rampant consumerism but about the birth of Christ. While there is nothing wrong with buying gifts for family and friends, or getting together with the same to enjoy each other’s company, the reality is that the reason for that holiday was to provide a day for Christians to celebrate the birth of their savior. All the rest is simply peripheral fun.
The Case for Electoral Eugenics: Why Stupid People Should Not Have the Right to Vote
Electoral Eugenics
By Marty Beckerman
"By the people, for the people.”
Cute theory, right? Your opinion matters! You get a voice! It would be so perfect, if only it weren’t for… well… people. Specifically: stupid people, who comprise a significant chunk of the human race. But don’t tell this to extremists on one side who demand suffrage for toddlers with precocious criminal records, or extremists on the other side who want to nuke the Middle East into representational government. Don’t tell it to anyone, for that matter, because too many members of our society are under the sick delusion that they know something about anything.
Nobody is willing to say what every condescending, know-it-all snob… uh… knows. Nobody is willing to proclaim that Neanderthal d-bags should not have the power to affect global events to any degree whatsoever. Nobody is willing to suggest that the U.S. government institute a basic I.Q. test for anyone who desires the right to vote.
Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t about regressing to the disgusting policies of Jim Crow, which granted voting rights to illiterate whites but not illiterate blacks; it’s about progressing to Jim Know. The twentieth century saw electoral emancipation for millions of Americans—women, racial minorities, and eighteen-year-olds—which was only fair. Our history of discrimination is horrendous and sickening; if stupid white men can vote, why shouldn’t stupid people of every other classification?
Air America’s Thom Hartmann critiques the “Ron Paul Revolution”
By: Matt Fay
There are no truly libertarian shows out there in talk radio land – yeah, the conservatives talk about free markets and used to talk about the Constitution, but we all know how much they truly believe in them.So, I spend most of the time I’m in my car switching back and forth between conservative and progressive radio – or ESPN Radio.I have tended, as of late, to lean toward the progressive radio programs despite the fact that I consider myself much more of a moderate to conservative libertarian.I guess there are only so many times I can be told how I want to destroy America because I believe in Constitutional principles, how I do not support the troops and provide “aid and comfort” to terrorists by not supporting the Iraq War, and what a moral degenerate I am because I listen to rap music and have a subscription to Playboy (I only get it for the articles!).
The one thing I really can’t stand about listening to the progressives, though, is not that they can’t identify what the problems are in America, but that their solutions consist of government, government, and more government – as well as their fear of allowing private individuals and organizations to make their own decisions about ANYTHING!
One case in point occurred on Friday, June 6.I was listening to the Thom Hartmann radio show when a caller made the ludicrous suggestion that Barack Obama may be well served in choosing Ron Paul as his running mate.This is a ridiculous contention on its face, but what was more ridiculous was the uber-progressive – borderline socialist – host’s contentions about libertarians and the spoiled children that we all apparently are.
Everybody has their panties in a bunch about gas price.Sure, it kills me that it costs 45
bucks to fill up my Miata.But
does that mean I want my Democratic friends to get in the way of private
markets and impose excessive profit taxes on the five largest American oil
companies?
51 Senators (out of 94 voting)…a majority…voted to impose
these excess profit taxes on the five largest oil companies.Now practically, the Republics were
able to filibuster, thereby blocking the bill from passing.But the point remains the same…the
majority of the nation’s most powerful legislature believes that it is the
government’s place to butt into the private oil market, take excess profit
taxes from only the five largest companies, and redistribute these into the big
pot that is our tax pool.Besides
what the hell does “unreasonable” mean…who is defining this ambiguous term?The people trying to extract money from
these private corporations?
The Democrats are quick to attack the oil companies, like
they are all too quick to attack private markets in general; they fail to
realize that it is not really the companies’ fault.Chevron, Mobile, Conoco…they’re not the ones bleeding the
American people.No, it is the
collusive cartel known as OPEC that is really putting the screws to all of
us.They are tweaking oil supplies
and artificially limiting the amount of oil we have access to, thereby pushing
the price of oil through the roof.Oil companies are coming along for the ride, but they aren’t the ones
driving this uncontrollable train.
The real solution to this crisis is through the market.If Democrats finally recognized that
higher oil prices have led the majority of citizens to support drilling in America…in
coastlands and in Alaska, then maybe they would help increase the supply of
oil.If it costs $70 a barrel to
extract oil in America…the corrupt oil countries of the Middle East and Latin
America, will soon recognize that they can’t put it to us any more.At $130-$140 a barrel, any increase in
supply will drive fear in the hearts of OPEC countries.Trust me, China and India…they aren’t
worried about drilling in the secluded, barren parts of their country.
Left wing politicians and pundits often tag right wing republicans with the label “warmonger” – sometimes rightfully so. But what these left wingers often forget is that they, themselves, can be just as desirous of military action as their ideological opposites.Typically, when right-wingers call for military action it is usually claimed to be in the name of national security. In the past, when left-wingers desire military action it has been called “humanitarian interventionism.”
One case in point would be the recent situation in Myanmar (Burma). The cyclone that devastated that country, with a death toll closing in on a hundred thousand, has inspired an outpouring of humanitarian support from nations, international organizations, private charities, and individuals. Unfortunately, the brutal and secretive military junta that runs that country has decided to turn away the overwhelming majority of outside aid – exasperating an already disastrous situation.
