Tag Archives: Conservative

Where Do We Go From Here

Posted on February 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

This weekend is the first Tea Party Convention.  So far, two things are clear:

1.  A LOT of people are upset with how this government is being run.

2.  The Tea Party has ZERO organization.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Senate Races

Posted on February 6, 2010 | 1 comment

It is going to be an interesting election cycle culminating with the mid term elections in November.  Following up on my new found interest in politics that began with the dual primary race for the 08 Presidential election, I am going to watch these Senate races with interest.

An introduction:

Right now there are 36 seats in play.  This includes incumbents and Senators who are retiring.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Politics: National, Senate

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday Seems so Far Away……

Posted on January 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

WOW!

Look at this!  This is intrade’s odds of Brown winning the Senate seat in Mass.


Price for Winner of Massachusetts Special Election (to replace Ted Kennedy) at intrade.com

Just 8 days ago betting had him at 10% chance to win!

Go AMERICA!

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National

Tagged , , ,

I have Two Words For You

Posted on January 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

Scott ‘effin Brown.

Think Obama is going to be watching the TV tomorrow?

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National

Tagged , , ,

Freedom Fries

Posted on January 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

As always, I have Brad and Britt on the radio for the morning commute.  I listen because they are local and because I need to convince myself that I listen to both sides.  As such, I normally am shaking my head at the discussion and the mind-set I get from Greensboro.

This morning was different.  The subject was France and whether or not it’s better to live in France or the USA.  Normally, the left says that the French model is better but given the choice, they don’t wanna live there.  As if they subconsciously understand that you don’t get both the “good life” France offers and the freedom and benefits of such that America offers.

Brad and Britt both agreed that it is much MUCH better to live in America than France.  Again, this isn’t surprising, this follows the leftist road map.  But as the conversation continued, I was pleasantly surprised at WHY they would not like to live in France.  For example, they idea of “strikes and riots when the price of milk goes up a by a nickel” was pure genius in its simplicity in capturing the French culture.  But it got even better.  When describing the summer break, Britt correctly wondered “who is gonna do the work?”.  And not to leave Brad out, he weighed in with this “given the chance to make a life in America vs being taken care of but tracked, I would take America ANYDAY!”

This was just a wonderful way to start the morning.  It gave me hope that we ARE a center-right nation.  That we know the chance, the opportunity, to strike out and make our way is a fundamental and uniquely American principle.  That we get freedom.  That being provided for has its price.

Yet it’s this wonderful news that frustrates me from the marketing side of me.  I am convinced that a conservative approach to finance and economics is the way to prosperity and advancement.  But the right is SO poor at spreading the message that we get painted as greedy industrialists.  And we never EVER learn from that.  No one wants to hear that minimum wage laws should be abolished.  “How greedy can you get?  Slave wages for the poor!”  It resonates.  It sticks.  Never mind that unemployment goes up, cost of goods go up and innovation and choice are restricted.

And who doesn’t wanna provide less expensive yet better medical care to everyone?  We ALL do.  The problem is, there is a wrong way and a right way.  Restricting that market is the wrong way.  Opening it up is the right way.

But we never get the message out.  We just sit back and “can’t be bothered by that”.  It’s the same reason you never see serious economists enter into debate about the most commonly accepted financial principles; because it is so basic and understood, that to debate it is beneath all serious members.  It would be akin to debating that 2 is greater than 1.

Anyway, Brad, Britt….well said.  And welcome to the center-right society!

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Tarheel Red Favorite

Posted on January 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

I really enjoy reading and listening to Mike Munger.  Mr. Munger is a professor of economics and chair of the Political Science department at Duke University.  He was also the Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina in 2008.  Further, I LOVE reading reason.com.

Mixing the two is always good pleasure:

…will they burn the castle of the Al Franken monster in Congress, or will they join Sarah Palin and her populist following and simply go RINO (Republican In Name Only) hunting? The point is that we could be heading toward 1994 all over again. Or toward 1964. The tea leaves are there for the reading. Either way, it should be interesting.

Interesting indeed.  And a worthy read.

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , , , , ,

Right But Wrong

Posted on December 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

Governor Bev Purdue is right to object to the new trend in Carolina’s largest school districts; Neighborhood schools and the end of busing.

Raleigh, N.C. — As Wake County and other school districts across North Carolina shift away from busing students to achieve socio-economic diversity, Gov. Beverly Perdue and other officials fear the districts will become racially segregated.

“It’s the most troublesome thing I think that’s happened,” Perdue said of the push toward neighborhood schools from Goldsboro to Charlotte.

I think that she’s right, but for the wrong reasons.  See, I don’t think that white kids learn better than non-white kids.  Or that black kids learn less well than non-black kids.  I think that kids that come from poor families learn less well than kids that come from wealthy families.  In fact, excepting the Hallmark worthy story of the little school that could, the over whelming evidence suggests that academic success trends with income.

What it does not trend with is race.

No doubt the Governor is correct when she senses something wrong with the folks who are clamoring for neighborhood schools.  These are the folks who have been able to manipulate the system, in a very subtle way, such that the schools they attend are the best of the best.  But she has to be careful on how she debates those folks; race won’t get it done.

Leave a comment

Posted in Education

Tagged , , , ,

Why Global Warming Isn't About Rising Temperatures

Posted on December 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

For the last several days I have been considering global warming.  Trying to see it from both sides.  I really am trying to understand what is driving the debate and how it is constructed.  My conclusion kinda surprised me.  I don’t think that the whole Global Warming “movement” is about “climate change”.

I do think that there are people that feel:

  1. The world is warming
  2. That man is contributing to this warming
  3. That we can do something to reduce this man-made impact
  4. And that we should do that thing

However, I don’t think that those people make up the majority of this movement.  And to the extent that they are in this movement, they are being hijacked into something much much larger than they realize.

On the other “side”, I see very few people whom I would describe as “Deniers”.  That is, a group of people who either:

  1. Deny the world is warming
  2. Deny that man contributes to warming, if it exists

Instead, what I find are “skeptics”.  And I think the term “skeptic” applies more to the “extent and mitigation” rather than to the whole, “are we warming at all” side of the debate.  I happen to fall into this “skeptic” camp.  That is, I am willing to accept that the planet is warming, that man contributes [in a couple of ways-more on that] and that I remain unconvinced the mitigating solutions are required.

Be that as it may, during my contemplation I found it unimaginable that something like global warming should fall along party lines.  Taxes?  Sure.  War?  Sure.  Education?  Sure.  But this?  No way.  There are simply too many gun loving, huntin-hikin-campin conservatives out there that LOVE the world we live in to make it so.  Clearly, then, there is SOMETHING else in this debate that is driving the divide.  And maybe it took Copenhagen to make it clear to me.

This isn’t about warming and cooling.  Finding solutions to either or proving the data.  This is about:

Socialism, the other spectre Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too, rather it is like a counter-spectre. Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet, I don’t have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell, to the destruction of the world. We say this from Venezuela, which because of socialism faces threats from the U.S. Empire.

From the countries that comprise ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance, we call, and I want to, with respect, but from my soul, call in the name of many on this planet, we say to governments and peoples of the Earth, to paraphrase Simón Bolívar, the Liberator: If the destructive nature of capitalism opposes us, let’s fight against it and make it obey us, let’s not wait idly by for the death of humanity.

History calls on us to unite and to fight.

If capitalism resists, we are obliged to take up a battle against capitalism and open the way for the salvation of the human species. It’s up to us, raising the banners of Christ, Mohammed, equality, love, justice, humanity, the true and most profound humanism. If we don’t do it, the most wonderful creation of the universe, the human being, will disappear, it will disappear.

This isn’t about the climate.  This is about something much much more insidious than that.

Leave a comment

Posted in Global Warming

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Where the Left Falls Down

Posted on December 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

I came across this horrible story last week, a woman was raped and murdered.

A former mental patient has been charged with raping and murdering a Los Angeles woman…

The man was abducted and arrested.  The part that has me confused is this:

Three counts of murder were filed Thursday against 22-year-old Boneetio Washington.

Huh?  Three?  But I don’t understand.  How is he being charged with 3 counts?  Ahh, I see it now:

A former mental patient has been charged with raping and murdering a Los Angeles woman and her unborn twins

The woman was pregnant.  With twins.  And they, of course, also died in the attack.  So, what is it?  Are those babies people?  With rights?  Can you be charged for murder if that which you murdered didn’t have rights?  Well, maybe the twins were of such an age that they were considered people.  Even by the leftist crowd?
Nope:

Police believe he randomly targeted Kang, who was four months pregnant.

16 weeks.
Of course the law is getting this one right.  Mr. Washington did take the lives of three people.  That night, 3 people perished.  Why the Left can’t be consistent is frustrating.

Leave a comment

Posted in Liberty, National

Tagged , , , , ,

Getting it Done the Right Way

Posted on December 10, 2009 | 4 comments

I am a firm believer that education dramatically shapes the adult life of a child.  Take two children from similar backgrounds and have one graduate high school and the other drop out–the graduate will see dramatic social and economic benefits.  Further, the society around him will be better off as well.  High school drop-outs cost us, all of us, millions of dollars a year in physical damage and management.

And so, of course, it makes sense to have a system of public education.  What I find interesting is how each side of the political spectrum would explain such an entitlement program.  For example:

  1. The Left.  This one is easy.  The Left clearly feels that wealth and accumulation is something that springs up from the ground and is obtained by the “lucky” or “greedy” by muscling and elbowing out the less fortune or the week.  The Left would gladly take from the rich and distribute to the poor so that everyone had an equal chance.  Predictably, this typically make me lose my belly whenever I think about it.
  2. The Right.  This one is harder.  The Right, you see, is against entitlement programs almost all of the time.  No government provided health insurance.  No government provided mass transit.  No government provided welfare.  All of it.  “Man is free; let him obtain that which he needs” is their mantra.  While acknowledging that the Right could use a marketing approach that vastly improves the tone of their message, I emphatically agree with this take.  It is one of Individual Liberty that necessarily acknowledges Individual Responsibility.  The subtle and yet critical distinction is that in almost ALL cases, children in our society are incapable of expressing their Individual Liberty.  They either are lacking the intellectual capacity to express that Liberty [they are children after all, incapable of crossing the street in many cases] or they lack the legal status to exert that Liberty.  As such, it becomes incumbent upon us to restore to that child a reasonable course of action, which, through no fault of their own, they have been prevented from following.  In other words, just because Johnny’s mommy and daddy are fools who don’t take care of their child by sending him to school, does not make it Johnny’s fault.

And so it is that I agree with both the Left and the Right.  But I feel that the path each takes to their respective positions is wrong and illogical.  Further, because I believe as I do as expressed in #2 above, I do NOT agree with the right that we Ought take public monies meant for Public Education and dispense it in the form of vouchers for private education.  The monies collected and spent is for the general public, not for the individual child or family.

The way to make sure that kids get the education they need?  By doing it the right way:

Durham, N.C. — Family income should not determine a child’s destiny. That’s the premise behind Union Independent School, a new private school that opened this year in Durham.

…

Thanks to private donations and contributions, including $2 million from Union Baptist Church, the school has 74 students in kindergarten through second grade. The students are chosen by lottery and attend for free.

…

Thanks to private donations and contributions, including $2 million from Union Baptist Church, the school has 74 students in kindergarten through second grade. The students are chosen by lottery and attend for free.

This, ladies and gentlegerms, is how things get done in the real world!

4 Comments

Posted in Education, Politics: National, Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , , , , , , , ,