Rights Lost

Ten areas where those of us of the religious persuasion have lost rights due to the actions of the militant homosexuals.

Write Our Senators

Time for some action:

We have a chance to win support for abstinence education and possibly de-funding Planned Parenthood. Write Senators Hutchison and Cornyn to encourage them to support Title V funding and to remove all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Police Blotter, June 15, 2008

1. North Jupiter Road, 4600 block

1 p.m. June 2: Criminal mischief

Even More Canadian Craziness

Irenaus posted some good thoughts on what is happening to MacLean's magazine in Vancouver, BC.

Appreciation for President Bush

The Diplomad is a conservative "secret agent" working for truth, justice, and the American Way inside the State Department. He appreciates the things that President Bush has done. Here is the key paragraph:

Mark my words, he will be judged as a very good, perhaps even as a great President within a few years. He has brought freedom to millions of persons around the globe, removed two of the most vicious regimes on the planet (i.e., Saddam and the Taliban), boxed in the North Korean loons, promoted free trade and democracy throughout the Americas with remarkable success, and with his anti-malaria programs saved the lives of perhaps millions of Africans. Israel has had no better friend than George Bush; tens-of-thousands of Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Thai are alive thanks to his quick response to the tsunami. He stood up to the terrorists and has whacked them in ways they could never have imagined when they sat in their fetid caves plotting the September 11 atrocity. He has changed the world for the better. He is a great man and a great leader.

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Gas Prices

They're hitting me too.

Looking at the different plans the Democrats and Republicans are offering is instructive. This was put together by Roy Blunt, the Minority Whip in the US House:

Now, which would you rather see at the pumps?

H/T: PowerLine

The Moral Cost of the Lottery

This is unconscionable:

State governments have played a role. They aggressively hawk their lottery products, which some people call a tax on stupidity. Twenty percent of Americans are frequent players, spending about $60 billion a year. The spending is starkly regressive. A household with income under $13,000 spends, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all income. Aside from the financial toll, the moral toll is comprehensive. Here is the government, the guardian of order, telling people that they don’t have to work to build for the future. They can strike it rich for nothing.

David Brooks doesn't stop the blame there. He names payday lenders, credit card companies, Congress, the White House, and Wall Street. Our culture has exalted keeping up with the Joneses so much that we are all now Joneses. Unsecured debt is seen as normal. Wanting it NOW is one of the characteristics of our way of life. We need to get back to a frame of mind where debt is a trap to be avoided. The Bible says that the borrower is a slave to the lender, and living in debt is psychologically crushing.

He proposes some solutions as well: Make debt as acceptable as smoking, have churches issue no-interest payday loans, strengthen usury laws, and others. One of the main problems I see with strengthening the usury laws is that it has to be done nationwide. Ever wonder why so many credit card banks are chartered in Delaware?

So. How do we change the culture? What are we showing our kids? Do we reject debt in favor of savings? Do we have an emergency fund that we don't touch unless it really is an emergency? How are you teaching your children to handle money?

H/T: LoneStarTimes

More politics of abortion

H/T Hugh Hewitt

A blood test that can reveal Downs Syndrome in the first trimester is apparently successful. I know my wife was told that one of our sons was probably Downs. I can't imagine turning down a blessing of a child for the reason it's not "perfect."

State Convention!

I wish I was in Houston this week, but I couldn't make it.

Here are some things going on:

Ron Paul is hosting an event tomorrow night.

Lawsuits are flying back and forth.

Romney is speaking for McCain.

Sounds like a Grand Old Time for the Grand Old Party!

More Canadian Craziness

From NRO's The Corner: A Canadian pastor has been told not to "disparage" homosexuals. So is saying that their behavior is sinful according to the Bible "disparaging?"

OTM: Other Than Mexican

OTM refers to crossers of our southern border that are not Mexican in origin. Recently, 15 Chinese immigrants were caught in La Joya. How hard would it be to imagine a coyote sneaking a terrorist across the border?

Demonizing the right

Something we have to look out for: Is criticism of Barack Obama automatically illegitimate because of racism? It is most emphatically not, but look at these examples that John Henke found.

Taking on policies and positions only to be told you are arguing because you are backward is both asinine and evil.

H/T: InstaPundit

Crime is up, but by how much?

Nobody knows.

So do we not have enough manpower to at least go over the 2007 records with current methods and at least get the truth out to us, even if it can't be put back into the UCRs?

More Same-Sex Marriage

With the decision not to stay the granting of same-sex marriage licenses in California, a whole new can of worms can appear. Couples in California can get a license to wed without a residency requirement (unlike Massachusetts). So what happens when they get "married" in California and come back to where they live?

Gardasil and reactions

Gardasil has been linked by some recipients to some severe side effects, up to epilepsy. Whether or not that is truly the case hasn't been definitively established.

The story of Gardasil in Texas is interesting. Governor Perry mandated it, then the Legislature overrode it. I side with the Legislature in this fight. The purpose of mandated immunizations for schoolchildren is to stop the spread of disease in the classroom. If it can't be spread through normal classroom contact, then I don't think the vaccine should be required. Are they good ideas? Probably. But I'm reminded of a line from the original Robocop movie: Sure! We've had our shots!

Volunteers needed for the Star Spangled 4th

Details in the Morning News.

Electoral dyspepsia

Thomas Sowell has trouble stomaching either major party candidate for President.

And I thought the Presidential campaign was long

So will there be a Governor Hutchison?

Glad I'm not on the State Credentials Committee

I don't know what happened in Corpus Christi. But there's pressure on the State Party leadership (through a lawsuit) to hurry up some of the State Convention processes so that the Credentials Committee will be seated.

Price said WHAT?

Pardon me while I pick my jaw up from the floor:

"No new taxes," said Commissioner John Wiley Price. "We need to put that stake in the ground."

Thank you, Commissioner!

DDT and schools

I don't have any teenage children in GISD schools, but if they get curriculum like this, I could understand some consternation, if not pitchforks and torches (to keep away the mosquitoes). DDT is a cheap insecticide that can be used in moderation so that it doesn't get in the food chain like it did earlier.

Thank God for the First Amendment

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal is entertaining what seems to me more of a playground dispute. "He said I stink!" "So?"

Mark Steyn wrote a book called "America Alone" in which he points out that, while most Muslims don't wish America ill, there is a subset of them who do. Excerpts were reprinted in MacLean's magazine. Some Muslims filed a complaint stating it promotes hate. The "court" is hearing that case, and Andrew Coyne blogged about the "trial." You'll see why I put scare quotes when you read the posts.

Day 1 Part 1 Day 1 Part 2 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Congrats to the Seniors of 2008!

Congratulations to the graduating seniors of 2008 from our area!

GISD is selling DVDs of the ceremonies for $20, available here.

Donations?

How would you feel if the local DA knocked on your door and asked for a donation?

What was that about abstinence?

Remember that study that purported to show that 25% of American teenagers had a sexually transmitted disease because of abstinence-based sex education?

Yeah. I smelled a rat too.

So did Mollie at GetReligion, who did an excellent job in fisking that study.

Update 20130731: GetReligion has moved to http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/ and the article is now at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2008/06/advocacy-in-search-of-evidence/. Links updated.

Pressure to build the border fence

My solution? Build it north of their property.

Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to burn up money

in the form of jet fuel.

MAD Magazine foreign policy

THOMAS SOWELL: Sen. Obama’s foreign policy seems to be somewhere between Rodney King’s “Can’t we just get along?” and Alfred E. Neuman’s “What, me worry?”

Nader having Texas ballot troubles

Ralph Nader is complaining that it's too hard to get on the ballot in Texas.

It would take 44,000 signatures to get on the ballot as a Green party candidate. It would take 74,000 to do it as an independent candidate. In 2000, he got 137,994 votes here. He could get on as a write in for (I think) $3,125 or 5,000 signatures.

$8 gas and higher electric bills? Thanks, Congress!

Let's see. Restrict supply, do nothing for demand, and you expect prices to stay the same?

Now where'd I put my Econ 101 textbook?