Recent Comments

1. about 5 years ago on C'est la Vie

   Condolences on your loss.

2. about 5 years ago on Scenes from a Multiverse

   The part about gun ownership that is never mentioned is that it is part of one’s fundamental right to be secure in one’s person. Responsible possession of a firearm provides each individual with the means to maintain control of their immediate environment when faced with a threat. Preventing the law-abiding from owning the means of protecting themselves and others places them at the mercy of an aggressor (or aggressors) who are stronger, bigger or more willing to commit violence for any number of reasons. Disarm the public and they become prey to gangs who will readily use force to get what they want. If in doubt, look to the ‘successful’ gun control measures employed in California, Illinois, and other bastions of statism and compare their violent crime statistics to states that have shall carry and open carry legislation on the books. While this might be a simplification, also compare the violent crime rates for states with high taxes and large, social safety nets (welfare, unemployment payouts, large state pensions, etc.) and sanctuary cities to those that do not possess these hallmarks of ‘enlightened’ progressivism.

3. over 5 years ago on Luann

   It has never taken a village, just a loving set of parents. An extended family doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t take a community to instill values and show love in raising a child to be a productive, fully-matured adult.

4. over 5 years ago on ViewsBusiness

   Wake up! China is very communist and becoming more so. Have a look at Orwell’s ‘1984’, the level of control they are exerting using social media and a loyalty app on cell phones, and the increasing use of re-education facilities, facial recognition program use against minority populations, and response to any internal dissent. If anything, their current style of communism is a mix of Stalinism/Maoism with the new personality cult growing up around President Xi Jinping and Lenin’s New Economic Policy. Comparing that to Jeff Bezos, I have to ask “Do you know of anyone that Jeff Bezos has had shot, imprisoned, or psychologically destroyed in the course of his career?”

5. over 5 years ago on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

   On average Presidents make $400,000 a year, work 91 hours a week and 49 weeks per year. Congressman, who receive an average salary of $174,000 (and can vote themselves raises), supposedly work 70 hours a week (but only spend about half that time actually on the people’s business in session, the rest is spent ‘communicating with their constituency and special interest groups’), and attend Congressional votes and activities for an average of 160 days a year. Congressmen also get allowances for travel, expenses and to provide for their staff, to the tune of an average of $3,306,570 for Senators and $900,000 for Representatives. Couple that with their typical tax deduction of $3,000, and a generous pension for working as little as 5 years, and I have to ask “who is really making the money and not working for it?” In 2015, Representative David Jolly (R-FL) introduced legislation to make the House of Representatives work a full 40-hour work week, like most Americans. It failed.

6. over 5 years ago on PreTeena

   That would certainly explain the black men I know of who favor gun ownership and gun rights for all, like Malcolm X (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG1tlJBGMes), Colin Noir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4yFDsVPczk), Rev. Kenn Blanchard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgS5MKolWRo), Maj Toure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lql8npumX8g). Should I go on?

7. almost 6 years ago on Scenes from a Multiverse

   I disagree, the fossil fuel producers are dependent on global trade and a slave to it, because so many OPEC countries could not otherwise afford to feed and pay their citizens, dependents and sustaining elements (army, secret police, etc.). The European Union might be able to make a go of eliminating global trade, but would become even more dependent on Russian oil to do so. North America (Mexico, USA, Canada) could also do without global trade, because the continent has significant oil reserves, refining capability, manufacturing and food production to sustain itself, but the cost of domestic goods would rise without cheap imports. Global trade has become necessary because Adam Smith was right: many nations have become specialized producers and depend on the free exchange of their goods for both currency and other goods. Without global trade many nations would experience significant die-back or resource wars leading to a reduction in populations. The only benefit to such widespread death might be the achievement of equilibrium, that being the point at which there is sufficient production to provide for the local population without requiring trade with others. In other words, many nations would return to their roots as nomads, tribes and primitive fishing and farming communities.

8. almost 6 years ago on Scenes from a Multiverse

   “Illegify air travel and prepackaged food…” and oppose electricity? These sound like the far-left socialist, green fantasies espoused by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not the current administration. I mean, our orange Commander in Chief may resemble a cartoon character, but he is not a supporter of the madness espoused in her green manifesto.

9. almost 6 years ago on ViewsAsia

   2.3 million incarcerated in federal and state prisons (long term), county and city jails (short term), juvenile correction facilities (short term typically), Indian (Native American) Country jails (typically short term), immigration detention facilities (short term), civil commitment centers (short term), state psychiatric hospitals (varies), and territorial prisons (varies). 450,000 of those held in local jails are awaiting trial and have not bonded out pre-trial (not convicted of any crime) and 34,000 are being held pending an immigration hearing, and 22,000 have been involuntary committed for psychiatric concerns. So the actual number of those criminally convicted is approximately 1.79 million or 0.55% of the US population. We would have fewer incarcerations if we adopted the policies of some Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries and executed offenders for drug possession, drug dealing, adultery, murder, manslaughter, and a host of other offenses to keep our prison population low. Or alternatively, we could value human life so little that capital crimes (e.g. rape, attempted murder, murder, maiming, crippling) result in shorter prison terms or no prison time and therefore keep our prison population low as in Europe.

10. almost 6 years ago on ViewsLatinAmerica

    We remain one of the greatest and most prosperous nations on Earth. I’ve been to most of Asia and the Middle East and we still have the least level of corruption, least number of arbitrary laws, and greatest level of freedom in comparison. We also don’t shoot people at the border, execute drug dealers and smugglers (e.g. Singapore, Thailand, Philippines), or execute apostates, atheists, or those who’ve converted from one religion to another (e.g. Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia), nor do we kill those we ‘suspect’ of practicing sorcery or witchcraft (e.g. most of the Gulf States). Furthermore, despite protests to the contrary, we are not opposed to immigration, asylum or resettlement provided that those who wish to come to the United States abide by our laws and seek such accommodation in accordance with them – Not by entering our country in violation of our immigration laws.