Guest Commentary – Tangible Asset Tax

Thursday night and the ever popular guest commentary! I am pretty happy about having tonight’s guest commentary. As I often tell everyone here, this blog is certainly my thoughts, but I never wanted it to be a place where other ideas and thoughts are not welcome. I am always hoping that people will submit stuff from the opposite side of the political spectrum from mine. And tonight we have a guest commentary from a commenter that you all know, Chris Devine! I won’t attempt to define his political stance for him, but I have always viewed Chris as someone from the left, and we all know that is the polar opposite of where I stand. But true to form, Chris has offered a guest commentary topic that is interesting and well thought out. I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks of his idea and hearing what pitfalls people might identify.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for April 27, 2010

Tuesday night open mic is upon me again and I have plenty to say! I think you will be able to tell by what I have written on some of the subjects that I am a little testy today. Not in a bad way, but in my own way, which means that when I get testy I tend to get a bit blunt with what I am saying. For our topics we have a childish play on capital hill with Goldman executives, Banning toys in happy meals, Porn that I haven’t yet found on my iPhone, the GOP’s shady fundraising scheme, and an answer to TexasChem that I promised to provide this evening. I thank all of you who wished me well with my back. I spent quite a few years in the military doing really dumb things to my body, and every now and then it reminds me how dumb some of them were, lol. I just hope that I can remain in as good a shape as the good Colonel has managed….

Is FreedomWorks simply the Conservative ACORN?

Another night with not as much time to write as I would like. I have found myself in the position of having an extremely sore back, which makes it difficult to sit in one place or position for too long, and impossible to sit in certain positions. Oh, the lament of doing a job that put my body through the ringer at one time. I am not complaining, as it will be better in a day or so. I was watching a video this evening over at HuffPo that was about the incident involving the Geico voiceover guy who lost his job over a message that he left on the machine over at FreedomWorks. I will recap that shortly below, but it led me to start looking a little bit closer at the group in question. Having not researched FreedomWorks in the past, I was dismayed to find that they are not exactly on the up and up, at least not from first appearances. In fact, I am wondering whether they are really nothing more than the conservative version of ACORN….

Not USWeapon’s Thoughts Tonight… An Internet Outage!

As I begin writing this quick explanation, the clock stares down at me with the little hand pointing at the number 3. I am unsure what caused it, but there was an outage for internet this evening at the Weapon household for about 3 hours. I use a cable modem and I had no cable, no internet, and no phone service at home. I first had to check to make sure that the lines had not been cut as the start of an assault on the Weapon household. My first thought was that the cat had finally organized an uprising against Canine Weapon, and aimed to catch him while he was running in his sleep. However, the line was not cut, and I suspect that the Cat has postponed the mutiny due the to threat of being forced to eat dry food. I will keep my eyes peeled though, as there is always the threat of a feline uprising. Those uppity cats always think we humans are meant to serve them. I have applied for a Raptor security contingent. D13 has yet to process the request. But enough about the internet outage. Instead of taking two or three hours writing a piece starting so late, I offer two articles from elsewhere that I found interesting today.

Guest Commentary – Open Border with Mexico: A Study in Contrast

Tonight for our guest commentary, we have the long anticipated second part of the immigration installments from the good Colonel. The last article sparked some good discussions, and I believe that this one will as well. The discussions this week have been excellent, and there have been some well thought out responses right along with some that identified a bit of a contradiction in folk’s values and principles. We will be addressing that concept soon, I promise, as it is an important discussion to have. But for tonight we focus back on the border between the United States and Mexico. Tonight, we place the spotlight on the violence that is occuring on a regular basis along that border.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for April 20, 2010

We come off of some great discussions about whether or not people in this country are really seeking liberty over the last few days. I have appreciated the thoughts from everyone, and I thank everyone again for keeping it civil. I do so which that there was less dancing and more discussion on some of the threads though. Would it kill some of you to just answer the questions that are asked of you rather than dancing and avoiding them?  :)  Tonight there are more topics that are discussed than usual simply because I had been working on some of them earlier in the week and more interesting ones came up to add! Just a note to Todd, I am not avoiding answering your questions. I simply ran out of time tonight. I will work to respond to you as promised throughout the day on Wednesday.

How Many Really Want Freedom… Follow Up

When I wrote the first part of this article the other night, I thought it an important discussion to have because of the implications in today’s complicated world. I extend the conversation tonight because I still believe this to be true. There were some good discussions yesterday, and I thank everyone for adding their thoughts. With tonight’s continuation I am not really adding much in the way of new ideas. I am instead offering some clarifications and additional thoughts on the comments from yesterday. There were some good thoughts brought up and some interesting questions asked. So I will answer one of the big, important ones in the article and then I will answer some more in the comments that follow. I will begin with a more clear definition of what I am talking about when I say true freedom, as Ray correctly called me on the fact that I didn’t do so, which breaks a rule of mine. If you want to discuss an issue, you have to make your definitions clear so that your point isn’t lost.

How Many REALLY Want Freedom?

I have been thinking a lot lately about the concept of freedom and liberty as it pertains to the discussions that we have here at Stand Up For America. I read the responses that come in to the things that I write. Often I can find plenty of people who are more than willing to agree with me or tell me how wrong I am. But what I have have been attempting to ascertain is the level of commitment that people have to the principles that they espouse on this site. Remember, quite a while ago, I spoke to the idea that some things I would write would be discussions about how things should be while others would be more concerned with dealing with where we really are. Well, what I offer tonight is a bit of a combination of the two. Because in the discussions that we have been having around the way things are, I have begun to feel like the way things should be is not something most are comfortable with.

Tax Day Special… The False Hope of Code Changing

Like many Americans, I approach Tax day each year a little more annoyed than the year before. I have done my own taxes for many years. And once I was married, I took over preparing taxes for two. It is not a new concept for me. I feel like I have a simplistic grasp on the process, although I would never come close to qualifying as an expert. What I find is that each year it becomes more complicated than the year before. New tax codes, special breaks, and searching for documentation for every nickel you might have earned over the last year all come together to create a headache for anyone sitting at their computer attempting to figure it all out. I find this fact troubling for one specific reason…. I am a pretty smart guy. I don’t want to toot my horn too loudly. But I have managed to keep a 4.0 GPA through all my degrees, I have an IQ that qualifies me for special groups, I have a tremendous memory, and I generally can figure out just about anything I want to figure out. So why is it that what should be the simple act of filing my taxes is enough to make me feel like I am back in “Quantitative Application of Statistical Theory” again?

Tuesday Night Open Mic for April 13, 2010

As I begin working on the open mic topics tonight I find that I am really struggling to write responses to articles that are as coherent and tangible as I would like them to be. I don’t know where I misplaced my writing skills this evening but I have the following four open mic topics written and I am not happy with any of them! It has thus far been a hectic week of housework. Farmer’s market and planting bushes on Saturday. New porch lights and planters on Sunday. Monday was running a new outlet and transformer for new landscaping lighting, including burying wire until 11:00pm. And today was work (the regular kind). But with weather in the 70′s, there is no better time to work on the yard, and I love working in the yard. I am working on a few new articles that are going to be good. I know it has been slow on here this week. That will change I am sure. All it takes is the right topic and folks get fired up and ready to debate! As always please feel free to add the topics you want to talk about below. They will probably be better than my selections this week anyway, lol….

Why START II is a Waste of Debate Time

As we enter a new week, I don’t want to take away too much from attempting to finish the Corporate taxes conversations because I haven’t gotten much of a response from the left yet, and I figure that will happen more today. But I do want to have a new topic, and thus wanted to address something that wasn’t too massive a topic to handle at the same time. This weekend has flown by for me, with a lot of yard work with Mrs. Weapon, which was nice. Added to that was some good time spent out on Saturday, hitting the farmers market here, and while there having a fried catfish sandwich at the North Carolina Seafood market. I must tell you it doesn’t get much better than that. Overall I have had a very busy, but awesome weekend with Mrs. Weapon, something that doesn’t get to happen too often (I usually work the weekends). Add in some time with legendary couch slayer, Canine Weapon, and the weekend was complete. But when I had time, I read up on the START II treaty negotiations and found myself thinking, “who cares?”

Corporations Don’t Pay Taxes… Part Deux

Some good discussions happening yesterday around this subject. I wasn’t as able to be a part of the conversation as I would have liked, so I am going to address some of the comments from others here. I will copy the comments from yesterday into the comments today in order to answer those I wanted to answer. I figured starting with a fresh thread would be a good thing as well. By the end of the weekend, it might have been a bit overwhelming to have to scroll through 500 comments to find if someone answered you. So the article from yesterday still stands, with a few additions today! I did, however, answer many posts in yesterday’s article late last night so don’t ignore that thread now that it has re-started here. The major point that I was making in the article seems to have slipped past a few folks, as the discussion took a decisive turn towards moral justification of taxes on the wealthy being raised. The point of the article, boys and girls, is that ECONOMICALLY the idea of increasing the taxes on the wealthy and corporations is a bad idea.

Corporations Don’t Pay Taxes

People do! There have been extensive conversations over the last year around the different perspectives that each party operates on in terms of taxes. One of the major reasons that, when I did choose to be a part of a political party, I couldn’t support the Democratic party, was their outlook on economics. The ideas of wealth “trickling up”, consistent increases in regulation of the private markets, and redistributing wealth are all against the very core of what I believe, and in the case of trickling up wealth, against logical reason. In many of my arguments with those on the left, I have brought the subject of this article up, offering it as a reasonable assessment of where there is a fatal flaw in their plan. I never get a response after that. The subject gets quickly changed, or in forums I am simply never answered by that person at all. So I am going to present the argument again, and explore the concepts. I welcome any challenge to my thoughts, as I want to know if there are things I am missing…

Just a Quick Prayer for the Miners

I am not looking to get into a political debate or a pissing contest over the fault of the owner or anything else. I just want to ask that everyone take a moment and say a small prayer for the families that have been torn apart by the mine explosion in West Virginia. There is a time for political discourse, and a time to remember that these are regular people who were working to support their families in a dangerous job. I have known several coal miners from West Virginia over the years. Every single one of them was as hard working as anyone I knew and as good-hearted as well. I cannot imagine the pain their families feel and I certainly cannot imagine the anxiety that exists for the families of the four that they are hoping to find in the safe room. It doesn’t matter who you pray to, just a quick moment for those families and a small prayer that those four missing are found alive. It is just a terrible disaster.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for April 6, 2010

Another Tuesday night comes and with it the ever popular open mic! A lot of topics out there in the media this week, but there is little coming out of Congress since they are not in session at the moment. Of course, they will back in DC soon and giving us plenty of things to talk about. But for now, we will have to suffice with news from Dubai, some internet control issues, a controversial appointment to the crazy 9th Circuit in California, and a Pirate’s tirade against the US military. I also appreciate all the conversations the last couple of days around the unions and medical ethics. There were a lot of good comments and thoughts around them and I will continue to go back to those articles and read what anyone adds.

Quick Hit: Union Secret Ballots

After watching the National Championship game tonight (and along with it watching Duke once again show the country why the ACC is still the best basketball conference in America, I went to PSU before the military, and to the University of Maryland after I got out), I find myself with little time to write this evening. But I wanted to get the pulse on this subject. I mentioned it the other night when I was talking about the recess appointments that were made by Obama. The President appointed radical union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, and has it set up that there is a 3-1 Progressive majority on the board. Becker is a big supporter of the idea of eliminating the secret ballot for union voting (Card Check), along with the Employee Free Choice Act (yet another bill where the name is the opposite of what it does). It seems to me that the progressive camp is firmly in the elimination of the secret ballot camp. I warned folks that this would be a move that the progressives would make. I now see the move beginning to take shape, so I want to get some opinions.

Medical Ethics Questioned in Florida

I figured I would keep it somewhat light here on a Sunday night when I imagine that many folks don’t have to go into work on Monday morning. Oh how I wish I was one of you. But I will be schlepping into work, wishing I was home doing some blog writing. I saw this article from Fox News, and read a couple of others on the subject at the NY Times and Huffington Post. It appears that Alan Grayson, Democrat bigmouth dujour, has decided that he is going to file a complaint against this doctor because the doctor put a sign up on the front door to his practice that said if you voted for Obama, then you can go and find another doctor. What doesn’t seem to matter to Grayson is the fact that the doctor apparently didn’t do anything that qualifies as complaint worthy according to the folks who make that decision in the state of Florida. But the question isn’t whether Grayson has the right to file a complaint, although we are going to touch on that. The question instead is whether this doctor is within his rights to post such a note. And further, even if he is within his rights, is this an unethical stance for a doctor to take?

Guest Commentary – Open Border with Mexico

Thursday Night comes (well actually Friday morning, but who is keeping track?) and with it comes the ever popular guest commentary article for the week. As was alluded to earlier, this week’s submission comes to us from D13, and deals with the problems we are facing on our southern border. I have not talked a lot about the problems with illegal immigration in the United States thus far. I imagine that this will start some of that. I will weigh in with an article discussing the issue form my perspective soon. What the good Colonel offers us for tonight is a wealth of information that he has collected on the border problems. This is part one. Part Two will instead have more of a focus on what he has actually witnessed and found in his work on the border. You can expect the second part to this article within a week or two as another guest commentary. I have to say that I have been looking forward to this article ever since D13 told me that he was working on it.