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By Stephen, on February 25th, 2011%
So it’s pretty apparent there’s going to be a government shutdown. But how bad will it be? Not really so bad. I’ve been through a few of these in my life, most of which were as the son of a career Federal worker, but the last one happened while I was a government contractor.
During those previous shutdowns my Dad got a few days off of work and then got a paycheck for it after the fact. and no, he was NOT charged for vacation time — basically in the past a government shutdown has meant extra days of paid leave for affected workers. I wouldn’t mind the government not retroactively paying them this time, but that’s unlikely to happen and I’m not sure what the political fallout would be if it did.
When I was a government contractor and the shutdown happened, we just went to a building off-site for a few days because our site at the Federal Center was closed up. No loss in pay, though there was quite a loss in productivity, as in the new building we never even had time to get completely setup before we had to move back.
Don’t get me wrong, a shutdown is a . . . → Read More: What the government shutdown will look like
By Stephen, on February 19th, 2011%
Let’s see … so far the House has passed (and I like all of these) defunding for:
Planned Parenthood
Obamacare
EPA carbon dioxide management (no cap and tax or anything similar)
PBS/NPR
Oh yeah … it’s going to take a while to work this out. The Democrats don’t want to cut back on anything, and definitely not entities that protect their beloved progressive causes.
Once again the biggest question I have is who comes out the winner. The Republicans for holding the line on reduced spending or the Democrats for holding the line on maintaining deficit spending and their social programs? I still believe the Republicans will win, as the people of this country are smart enough to see what is happening in Greece and not want that. But then I remember how Obama got a lift in ratings for his “compromise” on continuing the Bush tax cuts, though that “compromise” was basically several hundred billion more in total loss of revenue, and I start to wonder. It was a clear Democrat victory. And like all Democrat victories, very expensive.
As the son of a career government worker I’ve seen a number of government shutdowns, and was working as a government contractor during the 1995 shutdown. Shutdowns are . . . → Read More: I wonder how long the government shutdown will be this time?
By Stephen, on February 18th, 2011%
So last night I watched the MSNBC pundits (Maddow, Schultz, and O’Donnell) desperately trying to defend the public employee’s union in Wisconsin. As always, they had the same talking points, one being that the “Wisconsin 14″ (the Democrat Wisconsin state senators who fled the state to keep a vote from happening by denying a quorum) are heroes. Not being in Wisconsin I don’t pretend to know all the issues or history of this bill, so I won’t comment on that … but I do know hypocrisy when I see it. And it was painfully apparent.
Back when the Republicans in the U.S. Senate were fighting Obamacare with a filibuster, the shared talking point of these pundits was that “the Senate is broken” because the minority Republicans are allowed to stop such a wonderful bill from going through. But now, when the minority Democrats flee a state (contrary to the oaths they took under the Wisconsin constitution to serve in their elected office) to keep elected representatives from voting on a bill, those Democrats are heroes, and it’s not a sign of a broken political process. Interesting, huh? And a little hypocritical, no?
Maybe Schultz and the rest don’t get it, but Obamacare is . . . → Read More: Watching the far left defend the Public Union in Wisconsin is a spectacle in hypocrisy
By Stephen, on February 9th, 2011%
Back in the 70′s when I was cruising my ’69 Mustang with Ted Nugent blasting through the 6×9 triaxal speakers I’d installed in the rear deck … I had no idea what an icon of the 2nd amendment and the civilian empowerment the singer of Cat Scratch Fever would become. At the time I was in High School, and while I enjoyed shooting (I’d only done it a few times) I didn’t think at all about the politics of guns. And I just assumed there would be a nationwide ban on handgun ownership before I turned 21 — something all my High School teachers promised would happen, as it was just “common sense.” Oh, and they also told me we’d be past peak production of oil by the mid 1980′s, which thankfully made me change my mind and NOT pursue a career as a mechanic.
I always knew Nugent was an avid outdoorsman and off-roader, as I’d seen him in the magazines (not bullet holding magazines, but the glossy published booklets full of stories that predated the internet) from the time posing with his built up Ford Broncos. And that was another thing I admired about him — as a kid from . . . → Read More: Uncle Ted (Nugent) talks about the 2nd amendment
By Stephen, on February 7th, 2011%
John Lott captures the essence of what we all have to deal with on the pro-gun side every day. The bias of the main stream media is obvious and appalling, though perhaps it’s the former that keeps them from getting much real traction.
An excerpt:
Take two recent news stories by Michael Luo (here and here). He quotes seven academics who agreed with the New York Times position, but no one on the other side was even interviewed. Talk about misrepresenting academic opinion. The overwhelming majority of studies actually supports the claim that more guns mean less crime. Among peer-reviewed studies in academic journals, criminologists and economists studying right-to-carry laws have produced 18 national studies showing that these laws reduce violent crime, 10 indicate no discernible effect and none finds a bad effect from the law. One would never guess that 294 academics from institutions as diverse as Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania, and UCLA released an open letter to Congress during 1999 warning that new gun laws were “ill advised.”
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Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic . . . → Read More: An awesome dose of real common sense, or common gun sense, on firearms ownership and media bias!
By Stephen, on January 28th, 2011%
How many gun owners and politicians do you know who say they support the second amendment, then caveat that statement with …
… but I don’t think that means you should be able to own an assault rifle, I’ve never wanted one.
… but that doesn’t mean you can carry a gun around with you.
… but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have to register it.
… but nobody needs more than one gun a month.
… but it’s OK for big cities to restrict the right.
… but National Parks should be strictly offlimits.
… but {ad nauseum}
On this blog I’ve given arguments against gun registration, “Assault Weapon” bans, the anti-gun stance of some mainstream Christian churches, and other self-righteous but logically challenged anti-gun rhetoric. Honestly, the anti-gun groups have little but knee-jerk fear and paranoia to draw upon and their bogus studies and proposed laws are easily debated.
But the anti-gun groups have been successful anyway, because they’ve created so much background noise, eagerly picked up on by the Main Stream Media, that gun owners who don’t pay attention to gun politics — the average Joe/Joanne who owns a firearm for hunting or self defense but for whom gun ownership isn’t high on his/her radar . . . → Read More: How to approach gun owners who don’t understand the politics of gun control (the 2nd amendment “but heads”)
By Stephen, on January 26th, 2011%
The State of the Union speech was preceded by desperate cries for President Obama to bring up Gun Control. New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s group Mayors Against Illegal Guns (where “illegal” = “all”) ran a full page ad in the Washington Post. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said he would be “disappointed” if Obama did not mention gun control. And the Brady Campaign called for it as well. And over the course of his very long speech Mr. Obama responded with … nothing. So if Mr. Obama, who has signed the most pro gun legislation to pass congress ever continues in this manner, signing new pro-gun bills from congress and making no effort to push gun control, will he have made up for past sins and get a high NRA rating? Will get get NRA support as an incumbent? Will I feel as though I have to vote for him, as my NRA contributions go to his campaign?
Well … that’s admittedly pretty doubtful. And MSNBC’s Chris Mathews made an insider’s guarantee that Mr. Obama will be making a special speech on gun control, though I’ve got a $10 bet that unless the country truly appears ready to accept such a move that . . . → Read More: Will Barack Obama get NRA support as an A rated candidate in 2012?
By Stephen, on December 11th, 2010%
As he frequently does, I think Charles Krauthammer analyzes the Obama tax compromise best. The bottom line is … the tax break for the “rich” measures somewhere around $180 billion dollars, while the other spending and tax breaks included run around $600 billion. Basically, we’re dumping another $800 billion (borrowed from China) stimulus package into the economy, and this has the most liberal of politicians (i.e. Sen. Bernie Sanders) and pundits (anyone on MSNBC) up in arms. But why? They certainly wanted stimulus before. Could it be because they know this supply-side stimulus will probably succeed, while the spending stimulus they promoted of the same amount fell flat? Are they so desperate to keep the “progressive” movement alive that they will damage our economic future to keep the concept of unhindered capitalism and the free market from succeeding?
With two nearly identically sized stimulus packages so close together and the first one an absolute loser and the supply side one a winner, will the liberal concept of a highly controlled/socialist economy based on Kenesian principles as the best alternative finally be shattered for all time? I certainly hope so … for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, we need to get . . . → Read More: Why are liberals so worried about the Obama tax compromise? Maybe they’re afraid it will work …
By Stephen, on December 3rd, 2010%
I’ve been thinking for a long time about the comparisons of the Obama administration to the administration of Jimmy Carter. But this opinion piece on Fox really nails it. It’s worth reading the entire thing for sure!
Americans are understandably angry. Not only are the leaks seriously compromising our military and diplomatic missions, they are embarrassing. They show the U.S. to be powerless; we feel humiliated.
The American people are proud – proud of our country and our accomplishments. We don’t do humiliated well.
The last president to learn that lesson was Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was that rare bird — a one-term president – mainly because he made the United States look weak on the world stage. He cozied up to North Korea, sending hundred of millions of dollars in aid to the outlier nation, which nonetheless continued to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
He was mocked by Russia, despite memorably exchanging a kiss with Communist leader Leonid Breshnev to celebrate the signing of the Salt II treaty. The Russians celebrated on their own by invading Afghanistan a mere six months later.
…
Americans veritably raced to the polls to elect Ronald Reagan president.
Is any of . . . → Read More: President Obama channeling Jimmy Carter
By Stephen, on November 2nd, 2010%
 Sometimes “here’s your sign” is a good thing. Doing your civic duty is hard when it means rolling out of bed at 6:00 a.m. (about 2 hours earlier than normal) but I made the sacrifice this morning and headed for the Tom Tancredo “Honk and Wave” at the corner of Wadsworth and Bowles in Littleton. It was still dark out and there was frost on my car … but I decided that anything I could do to stop a John Hickenlooper governorship was worth it. And it actually turned out to be fun.
Mr. Tancredo himself.
I’ve been so enjoying our warm weather lately that I wasn’t in winter mode, and though I did bring a jacket I didn’t think to bring any gloves — a lack of foresight that made the experience a bit less enjoyable. But I’m a Coloradan and cold happens so I endured. When I arrived about 7 a.m. there were a few people standing in the dark holding signs, but they had no extras — which was a problem because I didn’t have one myself. I know it seems silly to show up a sign waving rally without a sign … but Mr. Tancredo’s campaign never had . . . → Read More: A Honk and Wave for Tom Tancredo … and conservatives in general
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