Separate But Equal Is Best Scenario

My sister and I were having a wide ranging discussion today and gay marriage came up.

I believe that love is transcendental and that as long as you love an adult, it doesn't matter who that adult is. I also believe that marriage is between a man and a woman but that same sex unions should absolutely have the same rights and privileges as a married couple.

However, my pro-gay-marriage friends and loved ones always shut down my stance with "I can't support "separate but equal" (all the ugly racist history behind that phrase is very hurtful by the way).

But here is the thing, separate but equal is the best case scenario for same-sex unions.

The US government at the state or federal level can recognize same sex unions as equal to a marriage and even call them "a marriage" but it is absolutely impossible under the First Amendment to force Temples, Mosques, Churches or any religion to perform a same-sex union. 

So legally, it is a union and rightly so.  But  religious institutions are not bound to accept those unions as marriage.

Just as you can not force someone who is Conscious-Objector to enlist in the military, you can not force a religious organization, ANY religious organization to accept something that is against its collective belief-system.

Unless you are willing to give up the First Amendment, Separate-But-Equal is the best compromise for the GLBT community.

I truly believe that anyone in a permanent loving relationship should have official legal status whether it is a common law marriage, same sex union, or traditional marriage.  But I also truly believe that religious organizations should never be forced to violate their beliefs.  The First Amendment is one of the most valuable legacies of this great American Experiment and any injury to it, injures us all.

Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi 11022012

Chuck Woods vs. Cindy Sheehan: Whom Does Media Give ‘Absolute Moral Authority’?

The grieving father's tribute to honor has received attention from exactly one network, while Sheehan was ubiquitous.

Documents found in Benghazi consulate claimed “troubling” surveillance by Libyan guards; Update: Obama not participating in investigation; Report: State never requested military back-up during attack

Benghazi a Blip on Media's Radar - Less Than 2 Minutes of Coverage on ABC, CBS; NBC Punts

Obama Didn't Convene Terrorism Response Task Force During Attack

Issa accuses Obama administration of hiding information on Benghazi. Issa is doing hero's work with this and Fast & Furious!

Benghazi news round-up

Does Matter: State Department never requested military backup the night of Benghazi attack

'Troubling' Surveillance Before Benghazi Attack Sensitive documents found amid the wreckage of the U.S. consulate shine new light on the Sept. 11 assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Fred Thompson Makes News With Benghazi Comments at AFP Event

CIA Takes Heat for Role in Libya

Sources: Key task force not convened during Benghazi consulate attack

Media Query Re: Benghazi

.

Here's a thought:

Dear Media,

Would have covered the Benghazi attack and the White House cover-up if any one of the men who died were not white? Further, others were injured during the Benghazi attack.

Would you have covered this if any of the Embassy personnel who were injured or murdered if they were an ethnicity other than white? I am certain many were.

What does it take for you to do your jobs and actually investigate this attack on our embassy, on Americans, and on this administration and its governments refusal to protect the citizens - it's sworn duty?

Just remember, Media, you are less and less necessary the more you don't do your jobs. You are no longer the gatekeepers. And we all know it

Don't let Obama and his cronies throw Americans under the bus, insist that the media report on this growing Benghazi Scandal!

It Wasn’t Just Four Americans Abandoned in Benghazi

5 Serious Questions On Smoking Gun Benghazi Cable That Deserve Answers

Obama Met With Panetta and Biden at WH As Benghazi Terror Attack Unfolded

What was Obama told at the September 10, 2012, NSC meeting on ‘9/11 threats’?

Exclusive: Classified cable warned consulate couldn't withstand 'coordinated attack'
Benghazi Coverup Much Worse Than "Third-rate Burglary"

Libya storyline still crumbling

Benghazi: No mere "October Surprise"

So What Were The Assets Available For Benghazi?

Obama’s Libya stonewalling isn’t working

The Benghazi Terror Attack: Hard Facts and Fair Questions

‘Benghazi Story’, A Tea Party Protest

What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? The Shadow Knows…

Why I Like People (Except While Driving)

A father and mother kissing their dying little girl goodbye. If you are wondering why all the medic people are bowing: in less than an hour, two small children in the next room are able to live thanks to the little girl's kidney and liver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Without Capitalism

No thank you.

Jump Day

Hero Felix is about to jump. Live here - http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

Review of Stealing You Blind

Below please find the link to an excellent review of my husband's book. In fact, please also find the review from The Freeman which is published by the Foundation for Economic Education. (Amazon link here.)

Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You

 

 

Frédéric Bastiat introduced one of the most important concepts in political economy: “legal plunder,” the government’s forcible extraction of wealth from the populace for the benefit of the ruling class. French monarchs in Bastiat’s time sent out tax collectors to plunder the people, most of whom understood perfectly that the king was robbing them to pay for his extravagances and follies.

As Bastiat well knew, democratic governments also engage in legal plunder, although it is obscured by the myth that elected representatives do whatever is in the “public interest.” Under democracy the people supposedly are the government and therefore all its actions are justified. You certainly can’t steal from yourself.

Not so, declares Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in his book Stealing You Blind. Democracy is rife with legal plunder, Murray writes, and it’s no more justified than if a gang of thugs were to rob you at gunpoint. Politicians long ago figured out how to use government power to line their pockets, and special interest groups long ago figured out that by backing the right politicians, they could get far more wealth out of the public treasury than they could get through production and trade. As a result, Americans are heavily taxed to support “a new leisure class” that produces little or no value. It’s like having a huge tapeworm in your gut, feeding parasitically off the food you work to buy.

Much of the book consists of recent and infuriating instances of legal plunder, and that is why it is so effective. The stories Murray tells are memorable because they make you angry. For example, consider Bell, California: The city manager of this small, poor town, along with his cronies, managed to stack the city council with their friends, who voted to give them astronomical salaries. The city manager, Robert Rizzo, was pulling in a salary of nearly $800,000 per year. Did he produce that much in value for the taxpayers? Of course not. He probably couldn’t have earned a tenth of that in voluntary exchange with people in Bell, but his ability to manipulate democracy enabled him to live like a king.

Murray quotes the defensive statements he and his highly paid subordinates made when they were caught. The arrogance will make you see red. After years of living it up at public expense, Rizzo and his comrades were arrested and charged with crimes including fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. No matter how that litigation turns out, the taxpayers won’t get much if any of their money back, although Rizzo’s city pension was reduced to a mere $100,000 annually.

Is Bell an anomaly? No. Murray shows that such plunder is widespread, although often less blatant. Some of the worst legal plunder is done by government employee unions. Union officials have mastered the art of electing compliant politicians who are indebted to them for their campaign support. So when it comes to bargaining over the terms of the contract, they are in effect in control of both sides of the table. As a result compensation for government workers is now significantly higher than for comparable workers in the private sector. That is contrary to the cultivated myth that when people go into “public service” they’re making a financial sacrifice.

Moreover the lofty compensation for government employees is only half the problem. As Murray shows, discipline is often lax in government work, so “workers” can get away with a lot of loafing.

Murray devotes considerable space to documenting how we are plundered by the government’s education establishment. Teachers are paid handsomely whether or not their students make any academic progress, and the gigantic mass of administrative personnel drives the cost far higher. Murray correctly says that “an astonishing amount of money in public education budgets doesn’t go to educators, it goes to turf-protecting bureaucrats. . . .” Decades of government profligacy have driven city and state budgets into the red, but administrators can be counted on to cut spending on things that have some actual educational benefit (music classes, libraries, and so on) while preserving every dollar for the bloated administration.

By the time you’ve gotten to Murray’s final chapter, you’ll be convinced that taxpayers are in fact being robbed blind. What is to be done? Murray offers a number of sensible, if well-known ideas, including abolishing many federal departments that are havens for legal plunder (Education, Labor, Energy), ending labor union privileges and corporate welfare, and privatizing government functions wherever possible. He also suggests some that aren’t so familiar, such as ending government research grants (many of which involve enormous waste) and instead offering prizes for results, though of course these would be tax-financed.

Nothing will happen, however, until the taxpayers realize how badly they’re being plundered and get angry. This book will do much in that regard. 

Dumbest Idea Ever

Every once in a while you come across something so spectacularly stupid, it is terrifying. 

Here's an example from this article "Can California end flight of wealth?" -

Given the widespread contempt for personal liberty and constitutional values, there might be a way for California politicians to solve their fiscal mess. They can simply stop wealthy people from leaving the state or, alternatively, like some Third World nations, set limits on the amount of assets a resident can take out of the state. This would surely be within their jurisdiction and would not raise any constitutional issues, because it would serve a compelling state purpose. In other words, if California were to set up border controls to stop people, as East Germans did at Checkpoint Charlie, before they cross the state line, such action would be protected by the 10th Amendment.

The fact that many Californians have managed to get their assets out of the state complicates the issue. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." This is known as the commerce clause. There's no question that people who pull up stakes and leave California affect interstate commerce; California has less tax revenue, and recipient states have more. What California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris might do is sue Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Oregon in the federal courts for enticing, through lower taxes and less onerous regulations, wealthy California taxpayers.

Were California to take such measures and have a modicum of success, one wonders how many Americans would be offended by such an encroachment on personal liberty. After all, how would forcing an American to remain in a state differ in principle from forcing him to purchase health insurance?

I can only pray he is being snarky.  Otherwise, what the frack?

Random Round-Up 10-11-2012

A little good news first - Marine Pfc. Matthew Morgan carries Ben Baltz across the finish line at the Sea Turtle Tri on Pensacola Beach on Sunday after Ben’s prosthetic leg fell off during the run portion of the race.

Gunmen kill U.S. embassy security chief in Yemen

Libya Embassy Security Officer: Obama’s security strategy was ‘hope’

Mother of Slain State Dept. Official Tired of Being Lied To and Stonewalled by Obama Administration

Does it matter, either way heads should roll - Benghazi: White House Cover Up or Just Incompetence?
House Judiciary Chairman: Obama campaign staffers facilitating voter fraud should be fired; Team Obama silent

No crony-corruption here.  Move along - Biden, Dems enlisted by energy company to win billion-dollar loan deal, emails show

Elizabeth Warren’s implausible Dow Chemical claim

Well, his lips are moving - Obama and the L-Word 'Liar' is potent and ugly—with a sleazy political pedigree.

Data Massaging Continues: Initial Claims Tumble To 339K Lowest Since 2008, Far Below Lowest Expectation - not even the Labor Department is defending it: it said that "one large state didn't report some quarterly figures."

Well, for this administratio, exposing Union Finances would cut off their funds - Government Fails to Promote Transparent Union Finances

Holy Friggin' Crap. What this guy is suggesting is so wrong... - Can California end flight of wealth?

Yet another example of the "open-minded Liberal" - Bus Driver Tells 12 Year-Old He Should Have Been Aborted Because of Romney Yard Sign At this point, liberals love of abortion is tantamount to eugenics.

Will somebody PLEASE do something about this woman's god-awful hair! Wasserman Schultz: Wrong Statements About Libya Doesn't Mean They Were False

The truth can sting - Anti-Obama email wasn't a threat to employees. New taxes against CEO or company will force layoffs, Westgate head writes

Fedex to cut thousands from workforce

Spanish bonds are now just one level above Junk - S&P Downgrades Spain, Citing Region Backtracking on Bank

Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors: 2012

Random Round-Up 10-10

Good News Everybody! - Romney’s Target Map Expands The GOP candidate's electoral horizons have grown considerably since the debate

Doesn't make sense unless they returned all those illegal foreign donations - DNC faces cash shortfall on eve of 2012 election

Because the optics on this is fantastic - ABC News scrambles to downplay Obama’s attendance at VP debate moderator’s wedding

From that non-partisan, fair-to-all class act that is the ACLU - ACLU pressuring vice presidential debate moderator to emphasize GOP ‘war on women’

Tell us something we don't know, please - NYT's Nate Silver Exposed as Obama Propagandist

At least he's honest - CEO to Workers: You'll Likely Be Fired If Obama Is Re-elected

Is that why they are blue? 2013 Business Tax Climate: Chilliest in Blue States

Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report The economy would need to be growing at breakneck speed for unemployment to drop to 7.8% from 8.3% in the course of two months.

O’s economic woes Prez unable to spin this mess

 

Latest O’Keefe Video Shows Obama Campaign Voter Fraud



$40 MILLION Dollars! - Akin chides gov't money tied to McCaskill's spouse

Never the crime, always the cover-up - MEDC Removes Video of Obama, Top Dems Praising Failed Battery Company

My bet is Mitt Romney has Harry Reid on tape as a pedophile - Why Harry Reid Hates Mitt Romney

Lamest. Ad. Ever. - Confirmed: Big Bird ad a flop across the entire political spectrum

A politician faces no wrath like a media scorned - The liberal media loved Obama to death

Obama's Death by Jobs

Nearly a month later?! - Congress Holds First Hearing on U.S. Consulate Attack in Libya

Be careful what you wish for little boy for you shall surely get it - Obama Says He Wants to Debate Civil Liberties With Romney; Here's Some Atrocious Decisions He Should Explain

Eye of The Sparrow AWESOME

"Garbage" Ad Pure Rubbish

This article from PJ Tatler - Government Union’s Pro-Obama ‘Garbage’ Attack Ad Backfires - is so friggin' awesome, I am quoting a massive portion of it.

Don’t claim Mitt Romney doesn’t know or care about garbage men when he devotes a specific mention about them in his book, right down to the line about being invisible:

“During my campaign for governor, I decided to spend a day every few weeks doing the jobs of other people in Massachusetts. Among other jobs, I cooked sausages at Fenway Park, worked on asphalt paving crew, stacked bales of hay on a farm, volunteered in an emergency room, served food at a nursing home, and worked as a child-care assistant. I’m often asked which was the hardest job – it’s child care, by a mile.”

“One day I gathered trash as a garbage collector. I stood on that little platform at the back of the truck, holding on as the driver navigated his way through the narrow streets of Boston. As we pulled up to traffic lights, I noticed that the shoppers and businesspeople who were standing only a few feet from me didn’t even see me. It was as if I was invisible. Perhaps it was because a lot of us don’t think garbage men are worthy of notice; I disagree – anyone who works that hard deserves our respect. – I wasn’t a particularly good garbage collector: at one point, after filling the trough at the back of the truck, I pulled the wrong hydraulic lever. Instead of pushing the load into the truck, I dumped it onto the street. Maybe the suits didn’t notice me, but the guys at the construction site sure did…” (251)

The AFSCME claim isn’t just poor agi-prop, it was directly refuted before it was ever written.
Now, if Richard Hayes and the AFSCME union—which has pledged to spend 100 million dollars to reelect Obama instead of providing Richard with the healthcare he needs—wanted to really impress Americans, perhaps they could find an example of where career liberal elitist Barack Obama even pretended to have a service industry job, or spent time volunteering to help people.

Mitt Romney isn’t a perfect candidate, but he is a far better man than the President, which much more depth of character and more genuine empathy for his fellow human beings when the cameras are off than Barack Obama could ever pretend to have.

If this union or other unions want to blow $100 million playing into Romney’s hands like this, I hope the new President is considerate enough to invite them to his inauguration.

Exodus Now - Wow!

Found this on BigGovernment.com via my Facebook page and this man and his website are VERY impressive.

Exodus Now': Black Bishop Launches Brutal Attack Against Democratic Party

Just watch the first 30 seconds of this video and you will be impressed and astonished by this man's honesty and brutal intelligence.


John Nolte writes:

"Note that Bishop Jackson is not endorsing Mitt Romney or the Republican Party and never once mentions Barack Obama. His testimony is merely an indictment of the Democrat Party, not from a racial or partisan perspective, but from a Christian one.
Honestly, I would love to hear anyone attempt to argue against the points the Bishop makes about Planned Parenthood, same sex marriage, and most especially the Democratic Party's attacks against God, up to and including the booing of God last month at the Democratic convention in Charlotte (something the Bishop mentions in the video). "

Irena Sendler's List

Remember this lady? Irena Sendler  Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98) Warsaw, Poland   During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids. Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. Later another politician, Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN. In MEMORIAM - 65 YEARS LATER.  Perhaps we should start a petition for her to get a Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.

Economic Round-Up 09-10-2012

Is Mitt Romney's 12 Million Jobs Plan Really Doable?

Obama's Accelerating Downward Spiral For America

Forget four years ago: We're worse off than in 2011

Obama's Lofty Rhetoric Is Mugged By a Grim Jobs Reality

New Jobs Figures Are Bad News for Obama

Scandals Show California Is Broken, Not Broke (This is scary because if California was a separate country, it would be one of the top 15 economies in the world. If it is broken, the US is in serious trouble.)

Soft on Wall Street - Dems weak on corporate crime

 

Schulz's Wager: Great Stagnation or Leap Forward? Place Your Bets

Gov. Nikki Haley

Love and Change in Tampa

Yesterday was something of a love fest at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Ann Romney ascended the stage wanting to “talk about love” and her life with Mitt Romney — not the founder of Bain Capital but the “tall, kind of charming young man” who brought her home from a dance 47 years ago and who still has the power to make her laugh.

Chris Christie told a rapt audience that conservatives had become “paralyzed by our desire to be loved,” pointing out that today’s leaders have often “decided it is more important to be popular, to do what is easy and say ‘yes,’ rather than to say no when ‘no’ is what’s required.”  

And then there was the rising star Mia Love, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, who is running for Congress and who recounted her parents’ journey from poverty and squalor in Haiti to America, a land of opportunity. It’s not clear that Ms. Love’s endorsement of Mitt Romney and the traditional American values he espouses will do much to move the statistical needle of African-American support for Romney from near zero, but if any speech could, she delivered it.

Ann Romney's Speech = AWESOME

Transcript of Ann Romney’s remarks at the Republican National Convention

Ann Romney at the RNC

‘Second American Century’ Hoves Into View As Ann Romney Steals the Show at Tampa

The big speeches: Why Ann Romney succeeded and Chris Christie didn’t

Continuing the Liberal Racism Theme

Did Businessweek’s Joshua Green Just call Artur Davis a “minstrel”? Yes in this tweet here. Holy crap, have they no shame?!?

In Case You Missed Mia Love

Because the mainstream media and NBC are such bastards.

Video: Mia Love Rocks GOP Convention, MSNBC Ignores

See for yourself - NBC didn't post either Mia Love's speech (video above) OR Artur Davis's speech (video below). How very racist of NBC and the Mainstream Media to suppress the voices of people of color simply because they do not agree with their views. A terrible thing to do to these conservative African-Americans. Update - it wasn't just NBC who skipped the African-American speeches, so did MSNBC. Way to keep an open mind, uberliberal scumbags. MSNBC abandons GOP convention during every speech by a minority

Why Jan Brewer Is Awesome

I got the following from an email this morning and thought it was a near perfect response on Gov. Jan Brewer. I couldn't verify it on www.snopes.com but as a response to the pro-immigration idiots, it is still excellent. Enjoy.

The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team,Robert Sarver, came out strongly opposing AZ's new immigration laws.

Arizona 's Governor, Jan Brewer,released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law:  

"What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected.  

Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?"  

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

Random Round-Up 08-23

Child Porn, Coke Smuggling: Hundreds of DHS Employees Arrested Last Year

2,527 Dept. of Homeland Security Employees Convicted of Crimes

Fast & Furious Official Also Employed in Private Sector

Barack Obama the abortion extremist

Why Obama Really Voted For Infanticide More important to protect abortion doctors than "that fetus, or child -- however way you want to describe it."

Outsourcing the Oval Office

Cutter: I'm Just Going to Make S%&t Up about Jobs

Biden: We 'Created 200,000 Brand New Good-Paying Jobs'

GOP lawmakers rip ATF double dip

Wind Energy Generating A Lot of Mud

FIRE Burns Vanderbilt for Violating Student Rights

Back to Things That Matter: Actual Violations of Religious Liberty

Barack Obama actually said this

Romney: Let's Talk Medicare - Obama: Let's Talk About How Romney Hates Women

Another media belly-flop over skinny-dipping ‘scandal’

The Lone Heckler 08-17-2012

This guy was the only heckler. Below I have a picture I happened to take of him and then two pictures of him tearing up a placard. What was hilarious was as he was being escorted out, someone in the crowd shouted "Go back to your mother's basement!" which meant the dude had to leave while thousands of people were pointing and laughing. Very lame.

Paul Ryan Rally Today

Went to my first political rally today. I've been to loval TEA Party protests but not being a big fan of crowds, never a rally. Today was fun. Saw a bunch of local politicians and Paul Ryan (whom I have seen/met before as he gave the keynote speech at my husband's think tank's annual dinner about two months ago). Anyways, below are some pictures I took

Love the Cheesehead gear.

Sat on the floor of the West Springfield High School gym for two hours. Definately felt like this kid.

Fairly diverse crowd.

Introducing Mr. Ryan

As I said, a nice mix of people. The fellow with the red hair in front of me was wearing work coveralls and was very nice. And pretty cool when the Secret Service started monitoring him.

Can I get a fist pump?

Yes, this is my "Hey Girl" shot.

Making a point.

Closing statements.

The Global Importance of Pallets

I love articles like this which elevate the humble to a place of rightful recognition like a book about the history of salt or the TV show "Dirty Jobs". Here is an article about Pallets which is fascinating! Enjoy.