Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
Chinese Proverb
Tweet of the Day
Supporting @realDonaldTrump at this point is like dating him; it's not serious: you would never bring him home to meet the folks.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 9, 2015
The correct mantra is: "Equal protection under the law matters". Each individual's unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property matter.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 9, 2015
Jonah Goldberg vs. Conservative-in-Name-Only @realDonaldTrump cultists. Conservatives are not right-wing populists.http://t.co/5Ve0Fy7LGU
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 9, 2015
@realDonaldTrump couldn't find an American-born model suitable enough to serve as his wife, so he pursued Slovenian beauty Melania. #sarcasm
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 9, 2015
Image of the Day |
| via Alex Nowrasteh |
Yet More on the Kim Davis/Gay Marriage Kerfuffle
Choose Marriage
See this - <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://i.imgur.com/q9WiMdz.gifv">http://i.imgur.com/q9WiMdz.gifv</a>
Facebook Corner(Reason). Today at the Tea Party Patriots' rally against the Iran nuclear deal, Nick Gillespie asked GOP frontrunner Donald J. Trump what he thinks of libertarianism. Here's what he had to say.
Give him a minute and he'll tell you he headlined at FreedomFest. (See Jeffrey Tucker's take on Trumpism.) Give me a break; he's an economic nationalist, he loves the idea of a government takeover in healthcare; he's for a wealth tax; he's anti-trade, anti-immigrant; he thinks Snowden should be assassinated and fully supports NSA spying on innocent Americans. There's not a libertarian bone in this guy's body....
(Reason). Conservatives from George Will to Glenn Beck to Karl Rove and many others sound off against Donald J. Trump. What do they get right, and where are they wrong about the GOP frontrunner?
Enough idiot commenters are bitching about the inclusion of Karl Rove. The point is the same snobs who categorize every politician as a RINO or "establishment Republican" ignore the fact Trump has changed views and parties more often than some people change their underwear. Like Specter and Bloomberg, also former Democrats, he's an unprincipled political opportunist who finds it easier to win nomination as a Republican than as a Democrat. Given the fact that the party overwhelmingly opposed both HillaryCare and ObamaCare, Rove is correctly identifying a principled conservative position vs. Trump's admiration for a government takeover of the health care sector.
Let's also point out that Lincoln openly despised the anti-immigrant Know-Nothings, and both parties had shameful anti-immigrant moments in the twentieth century: facing depressions, GOP Harding and Coolidge introduced quotas that favored ethnic heritage, and Hoover initiated the Mexican repatriation; Dem FDR implemented internment camps for citizens with Axis heritages, and the unions pressured the end of the Bracero guest worker program in 1964.
Trump is using immigration as a right-wing populist/authoritarian wedge issue, which is a cynical flip-flop less than 3 years after he blamed Romney's defeat on "maniacal, mean-spirited" self-deportation (i.e., shutting unauthorized aliens out of the job market). Obviously government-funded (up to $600B) deportation is not as maniacal. /sarcasm
(IPI). Did Chicago Public Schools really have no choice but to shortchange pensions?
A close review of the school district’s finances over the past 20 years finds that revenue was never the issue; CPS had enough revenue to fund pensions and classrooms – but officials squandered it.
I think this is a rare case where I find myself disagreeing with IPI, at least in terms of the discussion. There can be little doubt that political whores basically wasted tax revenues on bloated, ineffectual bureaucracies and corrupt union deals, including teacher contribution funding. However, the pension fund has never been actuarially sound from the get-go, in particular, generous payouts that in many cases triple or more the highest payout under social security. Given a case probably approaching that of the police, where the number of police drawing a retirement check outnumber active-duty officers, the accumulating number of educators drawing more in retirement than newly minted active teachers is simply unsustainable. You need to point out how pension costs have dramatically multiplied over the past 15 years, how public pensions differs from private ones, like the average annual salary vs. last. top 3 years, the more conservative estimates of investment returns, etc.
(Proud to be an American). Sen. Lindsey Graham says the Republican party is finished in America if it nominates Donald Trump for president. What do you think: Would a Trump presidency be good or bad for America?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Yes, the nomination of Trump would split the party. He is literally a Know-Nothing,which Lincoln hated.
(Reason). Conservatives who defend Kim Davis are making the same mistake as liberals who likened a baker refusing to participate in a gay wedding to a police officer who refuses to protect a church or synagogue.
Libertarians who support Obergefell are making the same mistake as conservatives who support Davis: instead of maintaining the orthodox view that marriage should be privatized, they are supporting intervention of socially experimental policies on other states by central government jurists, in a flat violation of tenth amendment rights.
Nothing outs conservatives pretending to be libertarians than issues regarding gays, minorities, and immigrants.
Wrong. I'm a libertarian-conservative who fully embraces free markets, free trade, and open immigration. I do not support Obergefell on the principle of federalism, i.e., against the central government jurists imposing socially experimental policy on the states. However, I agree with the rule of law and do not support Kim Davis' action. This has not been a religious accommodation issue because under Kentucky statute, deputy clerks can sign marriage paperwork, were willing to do so but prevented by Kim Davis.
Who is "forcing" "'gay marriage'" down anyone's throats? Are you being forced to get gay married?
Don't be a retard. Marriage has been the province of state regulation under Tenth Amendment responsibilities. The central government jurists imposed socially-experiment policy on the states. Keep in mind none of the states were prohibiting gay relationships and commitments, calling them whatever they wanted, even the heterosexual construct of marriage; nobody was objecting to the right of states to broaden the legal definition of marriage.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall |
Tina Turner (with Bryan Adams), "It's Only Love". This marks the end of my Tina Turner retrospective. On board: Lionel Richie.
