The Overton Window

I finished Glenn Beck's new book, The Overton Window, a few days ago.  I thought it was a great book. My Dad read through it in about two or three days.  It was a hard book to put down once you started into it.  It was however somewhat scary because of how closely to our present time it was written. It included a "tea party" type movement and there were other elements that reminded me of today and our current political and economical situation.  It was an interesting book no matter how you look at it.

If you haven't heard, Senator Robert Byrd died this morning.  That's too bad but it is one way to get him out of office, isn't it.

Immigration Proposal

The Obama Administration is supposedly talking about a "Plan B" on immigration if congress does not pass legislation which accomplished Obama's objectives.  "Plan B" would consist of granting amnesty to all illegal immigrants in our country.  Sounds great doesn't it?  I am amazed that our President and his advisors would want to basically make a crime legal.  It just goes to show that common sense and wise leadership is very rare in the American government of today.

Way to Go Governor Brewer!

The Obama administration has decided to sue Arizona over their new law which makes being an illegal immigrant, illegal.  In response the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, said, "I will ensure the immigration laws we passed are vigorously defended all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary, where this reasonable law will ultimatly be found constitutional... We'll meet them in court... and will win."  Wow!  Here is a Governor who knows how to stand up to controversy.  We need more Governors and States to make laws such as this.  Can you imagine the results if they did? 

First, what is the reason Arizona even had to create these immigration laws?  Humm.  Maybe because the United States Government is not enforcing the law and Arizona is sick of the disregard for the law.  Those states that border Mexico right now must be having a horrible time with crime in relation to drug trafficing and murder.  I would imagine that since Arizona has created this law many illegal immigrants have left.  It is rediculous to think that our Federal Government is sueing one of the States over a law which just reinforces one of the Federal Governments own laws.  It is illigal to be an illegal immigrant anywere in the United States.  The state of Arizona has just cracked the whip and reinforced the law.  The Obama Administration finds the new Arizona law to be racial profiling or discriminatory.  Well I've got news for them, there is nothing wrong with being discriminatory towards criminals.  That is what illegal immigrants are, no matter how hard of workers they are, no matter how poor or needy, they are still criminals.

"[W]hen the evils that arise have been foreseen (which it is given to a wise man to see), they can be quickly redressed, but when through not having been foreseen, they have been permitted to grow in a way that every one can see them, there is no longer a remedy."

-From The Prince by Niccolo' Machiavelli

What are Real Solutions to America's Energy Problems?

With all of the troubles facing our nation on energy and with the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico I thought I would give my oppinion on what the United States should do to solve its energy problems.

First of all, the United States will always rely on fossil fuels for products and transportation.  Hybrid cars and the like are a great experiment, but they are not practical for every citizen in America to use.  They aren't as powerful as other cars and they are usually more expensive.  Ethonol fuel is not very practical for vehicles either because it is a waste of corn and food products.

If America wants to be more stable in matters of energy the government needs to drop some restrictions on drilling for crude oil.  One reason the Gulf oil spill leak was so difficult to slow down was because it took place deep under the ocean rather than in more shallow waters.  Crude oil spills would be even easier to clean up and stop if the rigs were on land.  I would contend that some areas in Alaska and other places in our country hold the key to our energy independence and our energy stability.

Second, America needs to have energy to generate electricity.  This is something that doesn't have to require coal or oil.  Windmills, solar panels, geothermal, and hydropowered power plants are great things to use for electricity, but they do not generate even a fraction of the electricity that fossil fuel plants create.  There is however a very good option for creating electricity and that is through nuclear energy.

Nuclear reactors and power plants are rarely heard of in the United States and yet they are amazingly clean energy.  The only real waste is the rods used to split the atoms.  Nuclear energy does not take much material, other than the reactor and plant, and from that small amount of matter comes great amounts of energy.  I would say that building nuclear power plants would reduce our dependance on those "evil" fossil fuels for electricity.

In the end the earth has the resources that we need. We just need to find ways to harness and reach those resources.  The earth is meant for the use of man, but we are still meant to be careful.  Just not so extremely, careful that it becomes more important than human life and the well being of the human race.  Moderation is required between both extremes.

When Will the Spending Stop?

Under the Obama administration the United States Congress has been pushing legislation through which is very damaging to both our freedoms and our ecomomy.  The stimulus package consisting of trillions of dollars was passed shortly after Obama was inagurated and the health care bill was passed a year or so later adding more to the national dept.  Now, even in our horribly sinking economy, President Obama wants congress to pass a 50 billion dollar "emergency bill" to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters".

This is absolutely insane.  Does it make sense to anyone to spend money in order to earn money? NO. Not to any sane person.  Our national dept could theoretically go to the moon and back in stacks of 1 dollar bills.  Does it make sense? No. Why do politicians in Congress and the executive leader of our country want to increase our dept and worsen our ecomomic situation by spending money we don't have?

A wise and most notably one of the greatest presidents in our nations history (at least since Abraham Lincoln) once said,"Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem".  We as Americans want to get rid off our national dept?  Elect people who will cut spending, cut funding to government programs, cut unneccesary goverment programs, reduce the taxes of both rich and poor, and plain and simply listen to the pleas and advice from all the various ecomomic class levels.  Hopefully the people of the United States of America will realize the importance of electing individuals who will represent them, not just their own personal government paid views.

Sound Like Someone You Know?

"There are illigitement means by which the President may influence the action of congress.  He may bargain with members, not only with regard to appointments, but also with regard to legislative measures.  He may use his local patronage to assist members to get or retain seats. . . . He may also overbear Congress by arbitrary acts which ignore the laws or virtually override them.  He may even substitute his own orders for acts of Congress which he wants but cannot get.  Such things are not only deeply immoral, they are destructive of the fundimental understandings of constitutional government and, therefore, of constitutional government itself. . . . No honorable man includes such agencies in a sober exposition of the Constitution or allows himself to think of them when he speaks of the influences of life. . ."
     -Woodrow Wilson,  American Progressivism

Does this sound like stuff President Obama has done and would do?  I think it does.

"Experience has shown that even under the best forms [of government], those entrusted with power have in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and. . . the most effectual means of preventing this would be to illuminate, as far as practicible, the minds of the people at large. . . ."


-Thomas Jefferson, The Real Thomas Jefferson