Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 29, 2009

Tuesday night and time again for open mic. I know that there are a couple of topics already lined up for this as there is the promised discussion between Charlie and myself and a thread that has been requested by Common Man that I also promised to put up. On top of that there are a few different topics out there in the news that I want to touch on so I have a full night planned here on what is supposed to be my “easy” night, lol. I have blockaded the puppy here with me so that he has no choice but to hang out with dad. And I will settle in to begin the discussion with Charlie (or at least to open it as my schedule ends tonight at 4:00 am and doesn’t bring me back to the site until around noon on Wednesday). Then we can get down to business. And once I get this all done I have some comments from yesterday’s post to go back and respond to! Oh the life of a blogger never ends. And to answer Charlie’s first question about wondering how I keep up on the site? I honestly couldn’t tell you. I am not sure that I do. I never feel like I have enough time to do all I want to do for the readers here.

What Happened to Reason and Values in This Country? Part 2

As I started with on Thursday night, I tonight continue my discussion on the failure of Americans to use reason and values in their decisions regarding the federal government, or for that matter the state governments, local governments, and every other “looked up to” person in the public eye. I do want to note up front that Just A Citizen was correct in his nit-picking of my statement the other day. I tend to say “no values” when what I mean that their values are not in line with freedom or liberty. So let me say up front that when I say no values, I mean that their values are inconsistent with liberty, that their values are inconsistent with mine, and, in my opinion, their values are inconsistent with morality. Defining morality is difficult, so perhaps some of our discussion today will be around that, but I think that those who are trying to really understand what I am saying know what I mean when I say it.

A Promise Broken… but Only for a Night!

I know that I told everyone that tonight I would offer the second part of the reason and values article. And I really tried to make it happen. Mrs. Weapon needed a little extra of my time tonight. I then started to get to work and found that I was rushing through in order to finish it tonight. As a result I ended up with a rant that had no coherent thought. I erased it all and started over. But I cannot finish it tonight without ending up with something I would not be comfortable posting. So I will push it to tomorrow and offer something quick this evening.

Guest Commentary – Black Swans

Friday Night Guest Commentary comes to us again. I still have several guest commentary articles I need to go through. I have determined that I am going to make sure that I go through them tonight no matter what else I do. Tonight I offer up another interesting article from Warren Bonesteel, better known as “Bones”. Warren offered a very good article for us last week and I felt as though the reaction from everyone was positive and the result was some well thought out discussion and some interesting debates. This particular article was interesting given some of our discussions this week. As we discuss the problems in federal government and the fact that I feel the real problem lies in the everyday citizens who continue to tolerate bizarre behavior and re-elect admitted criminals, liars, and adulterers. As promised I will offer my continued thoughts on the first article of next week, but this one should keep us on the correct discussion line throughout the weekend. I hope everyone enjoys Warren’s latest offering here at Stand Up For America. I am just happey that he mentions my favorite hero… John Galt.

What Happened to Reason and Values in This Country? Part 1

I have been sitting around thinking about this subject all day. I knew last night that I was going to write this article. I kind of know what I want to say. And I will hope that it comes out the way that I want it to come out. Let me say up front what I want to accomplish with this piece. I want to set a few things straight for some of the folks that frequent the site. I have had this feeling over the last couple of weeks as I read the comments and discussions that I could not put my finger on. Something just didn’t feel right to me, no matter how detailed some of the responses were or how intelligent the people making them were. So for a couple of weeks I have tried to put my finger on what feels “wrong”. After some introspection, I think I have it figured out. And it isn’t just about the people on this site. It is about people everywhere in this country. It isn’t the left or the right (although lately it has been the left in charge and the left most guilty of forgetting what I am going to talk about). The fact is that the American public needs to wake up and get a grip on the absolute group of morally bankrupt idiots in Washington.

Why I Don’t Care What the World Thinks

Tonight I am going to talk briefly about the speech that the President gave today at the United Nations. Then I am going to explain why he is dead wrong and bad for America. I listened to the speech because I wanted to hear what he was going to say to the world. As I have said in the recent past, I am past the point of believing that the President is going to do anything that will make this country, better, stronger, faster than it was before (how many of you recognize that as part of the opening for “The Six Million Dollar Man”? I loved when Steve Austin battled Bigfoot). He has a vision for America. And his vision is horribly wrong. So was George Bush’s vision, for the record. And it is time that we started looking at things the way they are rather than the way the politicians tell us they are. It is time we started remembering why this country came to the greatness that it did, and stop these out of control Washington lunatics from turning it into the economic and industrial wasteland that the majority of the world has become.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 22, 2009

Tuesday Night Open Mic is upon us again. I wanted to write last night. I really did. However, Mrs. Weapon needed me more than you guys needed me. So she won. For the record she is starting to improve. She is still pretty sore and she can’t be on her feet for more than a few minutes, but each day gets a little better. As always, I appreciate the well wishes from all of you, as does Mrs. Weapon. As I was reading news last night there were all these different things that I saw that I thought, “oh, that would be a good one for the ‘quick hit’ open mic style.” My hope is that I will be able to go back and find them all tonight. The upcoming days will see me addressing the race issue a bit further and continuing on with some good articles I have been working on. I am hoping in the coming couple of weeks to offer a couple of further pieces on health care and a couple more articles that help us to debate and define our positions going forward. Should be interesting.

Health Care Part 3: The President’s “Plan”… Taking Things Too Far

As the next section of the health care series I wanted to take a moment and touch one of the the three promises that President Obama made during his joint session of Congress “Infomercial” the other week. I remember watching the speech, and thinking to myself that the man really is such a gifted speaker. If only he had something worth saying, these speeches wouldn’t be a complete waste of my time. But, alas, he often doesn’t have anything to say, but he sure does say nothing far more eloquently than the other politicians out there do (although it was fun watching him get punk’d by George Stephanopolous on the Sunday morning infomercial circuit today). What struck me the most about that speech to Congress was the reaction the next day from many of my liberal friends to a few key things that the President offered as cornerstones to the “plan”. Because I don’t see them as valid positions to take, at least not in a free society.

Guest Commentary – The Rise of Extremism

Tonight’s guest commentary is a little bit different than the guest commentaries of the past. Tonight I offer one written by someone who is not a regular reader at this site. I admittedly have some from you folks that have submitted them. I began working on them in earnest this week in an effort to have one ready. However, Mrs. Weapon has kept me busy. I first received an email from this author several months ago. He offered his writing as thinking material for me and I remember that it had an immediate impact. It was well written, informative, and caused the reader to perform some introspection. He has written many different articles or “open letters” in the past, and I intend to offer some of his other work in the near future. I offer tonight’s article because I felt that it was a very relevant piece considering some of the discussions that we have been having lately. I hope that you will enjoy what he has to say….

ACORN… Time to Roast the Nuts Over an Open Fire

The last several days saw a vast amount of coverage surrounding ACORN, the community action group that is credited with playing a large part in the campaign of President Barack Obama. I begin writing this article with similar information to what all of you have already heard. Perhaps a little more from the extra junk that I have read. But I want to understand whether my negative opinion of ACORN is warranted or not. So I figured I would write an article, do the research, and figure out for myself if this organization is as crooked as they appear to be. On the surface the organization appears to have a ton of issues, especially given the string of videos that have been coming out over the last week and a half. There are lots of accusations (and subsequent denials) claiming that President Obama has a tie to ACORN. I will investigate that as well. But most important, this article is meant to be sort of a fact finding mission when it comes to ACORN. And in the end, we will wrap it up by noticing who is somehow completely not seeing ACORN anywhere on their radar.

Now the Right is Mentally Defective

Whew…. Another very long day at the Weapon household. A 14 hour work day on top of making sure Mrs. Weapon stays as comfortable as possible during recovery. I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have wished us well and sent along messages each day with support and prayers. It is so encouraging to have so many people, even those who are diametrically opposed politically, who you feel really care about what happens in your real world. As an update, Mrs. Weapon is doing well, still in a lot of pain, but getting better. With any luck, we will have a full recovery and she will be back to writing me “honey-do” lists in no time. Recovery is expected to take about 4 weeks, so we are almost through the first one. However this long day left me with little time tonight. But as I was reading some news and stuff, this article stood out to me. So I figured I would share the article with a few thoughts from me scattered in between.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 15, 2009

Lots and lots of stuff floating around out there these days. The news cycles are constantly running and it puts out so much information to wade through that I could literally do nothing but work on the blog 24 hours a day and still not cover it all. But I will try to hit some of the bigger stuff that I am seeing in the news today, or at least some of the more interesting stuff. I appreciate those of you who are offering up your own topics as well. It helps me to understand the types of things that you all want to talk about. In the upcoming days we have another contribution to the health care series and a discussion about the relevance and importance and legitimacy of the ACORN group. But for today, I have some interesting topics as well. I am especially interested in hearing any ideas on how we can deal with topic #1. Because it really, really annoys me, no matter which side does dumb stuff like this.

An Official Denial From the White House

I apologize that I was unable to write last night and further that I am writing quite late and quickly tonight. To say things have been difficult around the Weapon household would be an understatement. I appreciate all the kind words everyone offered and the well wishes for Mrs. Weapon as she recovers from a major surgery. It is certainly taking more that we imagined to get through all the surgery stuff and deal with all the stuff we will have to deal with going forward as a result of the surgery. So please bear with me the next few weeks, as I will sometimes offer great articles, sometimes offer decent articles, and sometimes offer nothing at all, LOL. I am working on another article that I don’t have quite ready yet, so for tonight I wanted to start a discussion to attempt to get to the reality of what we witnessed this weekend. Another “Tea Party” was planned for 9/12, and thousands of people showed up….

Guest Commentary: “What A Free Society Might Look Like”

We reach another Friday Night Guest Commentary. I have had several submissions lately and I have unfortunately not been finding the time to review them and work on them and then all the sudden it is the last minute. I was afraid today would be another of those times. I had a hectic day, with Mrs. Weapon having a major surgery this morning (she is recovering fine). But then I remembered that I had a guest commentary that I had been working on earlier this week and I already had the “go ahead” to post it when I felt it was ready. That kind of made what has been a really miserable night just a little bit more tolerable. And to top it off I thought that this particular guest commentary was especially interesting given the conversations we have been having lately. It is a great thought exercise from DKII. And I get the privilege of sharing it with all of you tonight!

Health Care Part 2: The President Speaks (and so Does Joe Wilson)

Like a lot of Americans, I watched the President’s “I am going to get tough with Republicans” speech in front of Congress last night. I wanted to write about the speech but it seems that very few people seem to care much about what he actually said, even though there were some important things said in that speech. So I will take a moment and address the President’s speech and what I thought of it. But the topic that seems to have everyone in the media’s attention today is the moment where the President was speaking about coverage for Illegal Immigrants, denouncing the wicked untruths that have been spread about it, and he was the victim of a verbal assault. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, spoke a little louder than he intended and was caught in front of the national audience saying that the President was lying to the American people. Right or wrong, that stole the show….

No Time Tonight

Sorry all, I have no time to dive into the political world this evening. I did watch the President’s speech and a “review” of it will be coming shortly. But tonight Canine Weapon was stealing all my time. Acting up as puppies do, so I sat with him a bit trying to calm him down. And to be honest, even when he wasn’t acting up, he just wanted to spend some time hanging out with “Dad”. I was reading my book and he curled up with his head in my lap and I didn’t have the heart to move him for about two and a half hours. By then it was almost 3:00 am. So I won’t throw up some bull tonight just to fill space. I urge you all to continue the discussions that I saw on the Open Mic thread. I was watching them when I could and was quite interested. Feel free to copy and paste conversations to this thread to continue them if you like. I should have more time to comment and participate in the conversations on Thursday, so I am looking forward to that. I saw Todd returned, which I was glad to see, and I wanted to answer his question so I will do that as well tomorrow.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 8, 2009

We reach another Tuesday Night Open Mic on the heels of part one of the health care series. Some interesting stuff put out there yesterday. Interestingly I saw very little in the way of support for the current plan, even from our resident left leaning folks. I do not think, however, that my good fortune will continue as we continue down the path. Finding a solution or really figuring out what is going on is going to be a true test of everyone’s ability to put aside the rhetoric and have honest discussions about what is right and what is not right. I look forward to the challenges that await us. But tonight we tackle open mic! For those new folks with us, this is the day where you can post any topic at all for discussion and we will all weigh in and discuss it. I offer a few different topics to get things started, but don’t feel like we have to stick with them. Fire away with topics that YOU want to talk about.

Health Care Part 1: Making The Case for Reform

So I am finally ready to begin the health care series that I have been working on. I will say up front as I begin this series of articles that I am NOT the expert in this arena. I wish that I could say that I am. But there is so much information out there, and even more misinformation out there, that it might take a lifetime to read it (and the first lifetime of reading may only get you through the bill itself once they are done writing the massive thing). I wanted to take a moment here in the first part to this series to discuss the “need” for health care reform. Health care is such a gigantic subject, and there are so many parts to it. So the term “health care reform” in and of itself does nothing to tell us what part of the system they intend to “reform” (since government is doing it you can read “reform” as RUIN). We will get into the actual proposals and bills being offered in later parts. For now, let’s understand what is in play and whether the claims being made about the need for health care reform are accurate.

Labor Day Resting…. Sort Of

Labor Day. For most of the world an extra day spent with family, enjoying the last of summer. But for USWeapon, another day spent at work. Just like every other holiday. I don’t get them or the weekends off. So while most of you have today to rest, I do not. So I am taking a bit of a holiday from the blog for the night by offering some quick thoughts on other topics out there. Kind of like an open mic without the open mic part, lol. I can tell you that part one of the health care reform series is 95% done and should be posted tomorrow night. I look forward to getting into that debate. So here are a couple of quick thoughts from me…

Nothing New Tonight

Well, Friday Night Guest Commentary. To be honest there are a couple sitting in my inbox as we speak. Both were sent to me as kind of “rough drafts” meaning nothing other than those that sent them did not make it clear to me that they felt it was ready to publish in their name. Since I procrastinated until tonight to notice that, I end up with neither of them approved by the original author, which means I will not post them. I have spent the better part of this evening (after returning at midnight from seeing a “Heart” Concert) further researching the claims made against the “radical czars” in last night’s article. To be honest it is very time consuming. Attempting to get a copy of Mark Lloyd’s book is proving tough, and many of the things attributed to him come from that book. The Harold Koh stuff I am searching for, even though what I thought was a minor thing for Koh, I was taken to task for and taken out of context on and thus have to research further. Overall I will attempt to get more “links”, videos, or whatever is needed. That is unless I am too busy trying to figure out new ways to intentionally mislead you all. I will post as soon as I can.

Obama and His Radical Czars

I was going through conversations the other night when someone, I forget who, posted a video that they wanted all of us to watch. I watched, and was enraged immediately. The video was basically talking about how one of these new czars was espousing the idea of fining bloggers for writing things that were negative about the government. I had to do a little research, but I knew I would be writing an article about any jerk-off who thinks that THAT is an OK thing to do. I was going to stick to that topic, but then in Tuesday’s comments, I was challenged by Ray, who didn’t believe that the czars being appointed by Obama were all that radical. He demanded proof. I then decided that tonight would be dedicated to all the czars, and the radical pasts they have. Because make no bones about it, Barack Obama has surrounded himself with perhaps the most radical group of advisors in the history of the Presidency. I thought I could write about these jokers in one night. I realized I was wrong. There was simply too much to write. So it had to get pushed to tonight instead of last night. And for the record, the logo to the left is the logo for the Radical Social Democratic Party.

More Public Education Indoctrination?

I began tonight writing about the radical appointments that the President has made in the form of his cadre of “Czars”. I wanted to answer Ray in  his request for some proof that they are radical. As I researched and read for hours I realized quickly that this was going to take more than a single night to write. So that will be coming tomorrow and then the First part of the health care series will be coming on Sunday night (Monday morning to all of you), with a guest commentary in between. Being that it is 3:30 as I start writing tonight, I decided that I would find something to offer that didn’t require me to do a whole lot of research but that would still be relevant and generate discussion. Of course everyone is free to again work a second day on any discussions that were happening on the Open Mic thread. I will again post a new thread where folks can copy a conversation over and continue the discussions, similar to last week.

Open Mic Continuing Conversations… September 2, 2009

Another Open Mic Night with a ton of conversation. About 500 comments in the open mic thread as I write this. I read through many of them and found that many discussions were still going on. So I have decided to start a new thread spot over here. Instead of scrolling through 500 comments over and over as you debate, you can copy the comment you want to reply to, paste it as a comment over here, and then reply and begin the conversation over here. It should make it easier to continue the discussions today and give you all kind of a clean pallet to begin with as the new days comes upon us. As I offered this last week as well, I assume that everyone is aware of how to use this thread. So continue the conversations, but don’t forget about the article that was actually posted for today! I think the discussion on that article should be good as well, because we all care about the education system, even if we don’t have children in it.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 1, 2009

Tuesday night open mic. I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I am to be here. A night that doesn’t require as much of me. The last couple nights have been tough with lots of reading and research. The health care series, which I plan on posting the first part of either tomorrow night or the next (I planned for tomorrow but it may have gotten bumped a day to discuss the “czars”, especially the whack jobs that want to fine bloggers) has been a lot of work. And I am only nearly finished with the first article! And last night’s socialism article was also much more time consuming than I thought it would be when I started it. But boy did it result in some classic discussions. I appreciate that what I have read thus far was respectful, but man was there some nonsense flowing from all directions. But we have reached the night where I only offer a few suggestions and allow you to choose the topics. So let me not dilly dally here any longer and get on to gettin on. Let the Open Mic begin…

Defining Socialism… and Our Discussions

I have been intrigued a bit to watch the debates unfold between several folks from the left and several folks from the “no government” perspective. What intrigues me is the opportunity to see things from the perspective of someone who believes that socialism is the way to go. It isn’t just an argument that health care, or a single issue, should be one way, but an actual claim that what we have doesn’t work so they are willing to give socialism a shot because they think it would be better for the American people. For those that believe differently, which is a large portion of the readership, I don’t think it is fair to simply say “socialism is bad”, so I think some discussion should follow as to what flaws have led people to that conclusion. Allow me to be clear that I believe that nothing could be further from the truth than the idea that socialism is a good way forward. Socialism is NOT a good idea, and I am going to discuss why….