Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats
Earlier One-Off Post: I Have a Gay Nephew
Tweet of the Day
I don't do my tweets for readers/impressions, but for some odd reason some of my tweets, e.g., directed at Obama or Clinton, are gathering almost no readership (like you can count them on one hand vs. others typically averaging over 25 or so),
Clinton believes that national security issues play to her advantage, like how she protected diplomats in Libya. https://t.co/eVXKYhraMY
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 4, 2015
[“What would you say to President Obama?” Trump immediately responded,. “You’re fired.” ] "Heck of a job, Barry!" https://t.co/am5yJXyNg2
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 5, 2015
Rand Paul's response to the defeat of his anti-refugee amendment as a win for "open borders" is disingenuous. https://t.co/F1ohHrgq2L
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 5, 2015
@realDonaldTrump's red meat populism may win the battle, lose the war in the general election. A Trump nomination is a GOP death wish.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 5, 2015
Rand Paul's rejection of liberalized immigration and trade & meddling in the ISIS war betray the pro-liberty cause. https://t.co/froVfASYti
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 5, 2015
Barack Obama & the unintended consequences of punitive high income tax rates: the top 1%'s income tax share is DOWN. https://t.co/hES4JzWP5Z
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 5, 2015
Image of the Day
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| via IPI: one student thinks he's still in class... |
Political Potpourri
The latest CNN poll I think is an anomaly; it has Trump up to 36% and a 20-point lead, effectively lapping the field, both highs over RCP's coverage of standard polls over the year. Cruz, Carson, and Rubio fall within a 4-point range and the rest led by Christie, not Bush, at 4 points or under. This is an implied jump of nearly 10 points for Trump over the 2 days since the Quinnipiac poll, migrating support from the top 3 challengers, which I find implausible. Obviously I don't prefer this trend, but I'm not in a state of denial. I've just seen a cluster of polls at 27 lately, and I don't see a viable explanation for a burst of new Trump support. I'm still looking for new polls from the Southeast states before concluding Carson is in a slump and in third place and slipping. It does seem that Cruz has been seriously challenging Rubio for second place; for all practical reasons, they seem to be tied. I will point out that national polls are not state polls, and I think the candidates are biding their time before hitting Trump with damaging ads.
As my tweets show, I'm nearly done with Rand Paul. The problem is that all of the other candidates also violate my principles. Cruz is a red meat politician like Trump, and I know a red meat candidate won't win the Presidency. I'll probably shift to supporting another candidate who I think has a better shot at being elected/defeating Trump: right now that looks like Rubio or a sleeper candidate like Christie who seems to be slowly gaining momentum.
Facebook Corner
(Lew Rockwell). "The notion that the government can prevent terrorism suggests studied inattention to the obvious. To begin, the intelligence agencies have proved useless. NSA did not prevent the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993, nor the successful one. French intelligence did not prevent the recent attacks in Paris, nor Russian intelligence the downing of the airliner over Syria. On and on," says Fred Reed.
I remember thinking about soft targets after 9/11, I had recurring worries about public safety during morning and evening rush at Union Station in Chicago with literally hundreds of people going back and forth over short time intervals. I'm sure they have some sort of surveillance in place, but it's almost impossible to track someone blending in a moving wall of people.
(Pro-Life Libertarians). Would legalizing OTC birth control greatly reduce abortions?
Austin Petersen
18 hrs ·
I'm pro-life. I believe that a lot of the problems with abortion might be solved if we just legalized over the counter birth control.
I think like any medication as an informed consumer, the woman would want to ensure she can tolerate the drug and there are no interactions with other medications. But yes, the medical cartel should not control access to these drugs at the expense of consumers. Of course, I believe that women should enforce a strict dress code for their partner's genitals.
The safest contraceptive is for the female partner to say 'no'. I also think it's up to parents and religious leaders to discourage pre- or extramarital sex. I do think, though, Petersen is overestimating the effect of improved access to birth control; after all, you can buy condoms over the counter at any drugstore, but some guys don't want to wear them because wearing one offsets some of the pleasure.
(The Hill). "The first job of the President should be to secure our borders and fix broken refugee and visa systems to stop terrorists," Sen. Rand Paul tweeted. "Yesterday I introduced my SECURE bill as an amendment in the Senate, to protect our borders and resources. Marco Rubio voted no."
Anti-immigrant policies violate the principles of liberty and betray our open immigration heritage through WWI. Rand Paul's bill was pushing-on-a-string fear-mongering political posturing bullshit; refugees have not been a source of terrorism. Maro Rubio and the majority of GOP senators rightly rejected this expansion of Big INS.
Choose Life: A Family Grows
Daddy plays with Baby Daughter
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Robert Ariail via Townhall |
Angel, "The Christmas Song (Winter Song)"
