Shall be Infringed. A discussion on open carry.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  The second amendment as written and intended, died years and years ago.  The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could restrict firearms ownership.  Machine guns now require a federal license.  Fighter jets and tanks are tightly controlled and always unarmed.

Last year, Arkansas passed a law intended to clear up the language in the law allowing carrying a firearm in a vehicle.  It has & is legal to transport if unloaded & the ammo stored separate where it cannot be loaded quickly or easily, and you are on a journey.  (or any other lawful reason to have a firearm) (1)   Poor wording of the revision led many county attorney generals to interpret it as allowing open carry as a constitutional right.  The Arkansas State Police have issued their own opinion that open carry is not legal and they will arrest any and all that make that attempt.

Sadly, I find myself conflicted.  I lean libertarian & want as few laws and restrictions as possible.  I am a strong supporter in the second amendment and especially the right to defend yourself.  But I do not want to see open carry expanded.  Arkansas, along with Texas, South Carolina and  Oklahoma  restricted open carry during the post-Civil war Reconstruction era.  About a dozen states allow open carry of handguns without requiring a permit.  Another dozen allow with a permit similar to a concealed carry permit.  Some states also allow open carry of long guns such as shotguns or rifles.

Notice, I do not ask for any restrictions or new laws be passed in these open carry states.  I simply do not think it wise to push for more open carry.  My concern is it will be used to commit a crime.  Be it a terrorist, foreign or domestic that parades into a crowded event, heavily armed, and attempts a massacre.  Or peaceful protesters, such as in Ferguson, are infiltrated by armed thugs, intent on violence.  If open carry is legal in that state, any attempt by police to ascertain the legality of the armed individuals will be decried racist.  And after blood is shed, they will blame the police for failing to protect the public.

And my fear is some on the left want such an occurrence to promote more restrictive national gun laws.  Ronald Ritchie,(2) the “witness” who reported John Crawford to 911, insisting he was a threat, later recanted his story.  Anti-gun activists are advocating reporting of any open carry. (3) Was John Crawford “Swatted”?

And some will say, why insist on restricting our freedoms on what if’s?  I will agree they have a point.  I will also point out, in the 90’s, a man was wondering “what if” I can get some of my followers to hijack an airplane and fly it into a skyscraper….  So what if we all agree there are threats in today’s world.  What is the best way to combat them while allowing the most freedom?

And just now, a terrorist attack in Paris.  France has very tough gun control laws.  “They were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and are also believed to have had a rocket-propelled grenade.” 

1.  How did they get their weapons?

2.  What other laws would have prevented this?

3.  Would open carry help or hinder the police & government?

(1)  http://media.law.uark.edu/arklawnotes/2014/02/13/open-carry-in-arkansas-an-ambiguous-statute/

(2) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/07/ohio-black-man-killed-by-police-walmart-doubts-cast-witnesss-account

(3)  https://www.nraila.org/articles/20141003/gun-control-supporters-advocate-swating-of-gun-owners

What if??

History is full of second guessing.  Mistakes in the Super bowl, NASCAR, etc and all our major conflicts.  Currently most thinking people are critical over Obama’s handling of the ISIS crisis.  Our liberal journalists are outraged and demanding justice for the two reporters beheaded on UTube.  Lets first stop right there and ask, is this grounds for the US to declare war?  If so, does this mean the US government is now guaranteeing  the safety of all American journalists that enter war zones?  Is it tied to human rights and what the UN will rule on how people are treated?  If so then I think we will be limited to declaring war on Israel or ourselves.  Everyone else seems to get free passes for some reason.

Back to our history, did our media force the US to declare war on Spain?  I feel for the families of the reporters and agree it was/is horrible beyond words.  But so too were the thousands or tens of thousands raped, brutalized and killed by ISIS.  Is our reason for entering this conflict the reporters or to protect human rights?  How many other conflicts have we ignored?  Is it because ISIS has declared war on  America?  Didn’t the terrorists in Nigeria also declare war on us after kidnapping those school girls?

The latest outcry by FOX & the Repug’s is that Obama has had intelligence on ISIS for over a year.  Why has it taken him so long to act?  Might be a fair question, but if so, then when do the questioners think he should have acted and what is their justification?  A year ago they were rebels fighting the regime in Syria we would like to see overthrown.  It is possible we supplied them with weapons.  There are also reports the Saudi’s and other ME powers supported ISIS.  So a year ago, all the Obama critics would have supported his actions at that time.

Then they invaded Iraq.  Should we have immediately jumped back into that hornets nest?  I can agree with the critics that Obama did not try very hard if all to secure a balance of forces agreement which was part of the excuse for our pull-out of Iraq.  With the corrupt president they elected, is that a realistic expectation?  The military we rebuild has fallen apart due to blatant corruption of their democratically elected government.  At what point does it become our duty or right to step into this conflict.  And if we do, who’s side are we even on?  Obama took us into Libya.  A dictator was disposed and murdered.  No tears from me, but how are things in Libya today?  Ongoing civil war with militant Islamic’s   gaining enough power that Egypt had to step in with military strikes.

Slowly, oh so slowly, Obama finished his last vacation, got in the last golf games and has returned to deal with this crisis.  The world did not end while he was away.  Many innocents did die, but that doesn’t mean he could have saved them.  But now he’s acting.  And I find myself asking myself an unthinkable question, what if Obama was right?  Only on this, on responding to ISIS/ISIL.  He is meeting with NATO, bringing them in.  He is meeting with several Middle East powers that want us to act.  If the world wants us to enter this conflict, what are they committing to the conflict?  Before we put boots on that ground again, I want to see Jordan, the Saudi’s and other players put their people where their mouths are, in the front lines, in front of our troops.  And all these war mongering journalists, I’d like to see them right there with them…

3AM? Where were you?

I have some friends that are/where Hillary girls.  Big fans who thought she could do no wrong.  There was this viral pic of her on a plane, wearing dark sunglasses checking out her Blackberry..  Funny that doesn’t make the rounds anymore.  Reality is it was a publicity campaign meant to build/enhance her image.

http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/

And it worked well until reality caught up with the image.  Benghazi was her 3am moment & she showed herself to be what she accused Obama of, unprepared & unable to deal with a crisis in real time.   What difference does it make?  One difference is you have proven you are not able to take that phone call, no matter what the hour.  Has Obama kept control over foreign policy?  Who makes decisions like going after Osama Bin Laden?  Isn’t one of the rules of a conspiracy that you all stand together or will hang separately?

http://nypost.com/2014/08/13/hammering-obama-hillary-has-only-begun/

And now Hillz & Bama have “hugged it out”.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2014/08/13/big-three-provide-damage-control-following-clinton-obama-feud-insist-

Glad that went so well.  Seems like most of the nation is looking at a president & Sec of State that are complete incompetents.  He does his best work on the golf course ignoring other nations issues, lest he be tempted to “help”.

Makes me wonder about our phony media and the sheeple that embrace  illusion.  Two PR guys have a few drinks talking about how awesome is Hillary.  I don’t think I could ever get drunk enough to believe any of that bulldookey.

http://www.outsports.com/2012/4/11/4052930/texts-from-hillary-internet-meme-started-by-two-guys-in-a-gay-sports

 

North Carolina Shows Its Ass…. Again

Well, as a resident of the above mentioned tar heel state, I find myself this evening feeling a bit dirty, like someone spilled oil on me that I can’t get off. There have been times in my past that I wasn’t proud of “where I come from, ” and this is another. As some of you know, I grew up in a rather smallish mountain town (NOT South Park) in Pennsylvania. I wasn’t proud of it, but as I grew older, I became less embarrassed by it and now find that I am proud of where I grew up. Several years ago (11, in fact) I moved back to North Carolina. I had lived in NC for many years in the military and wasn’t thrilled about the idea of coming back here 11 years ago. But I have changed in that as well. I love living in North Carolina. It is a great state filled with good people.

Voter ID Does NOT Equal Disenfranchisement

I saw this discussion going on here at SUFA during the day yesterday and decided I would wade into these waters with my own thoughts. I won’t spend hours writing, but I will simply offer up what I think and allow the debate to grow from there. There were some who claimed that voter fraud wasn’t as rampant as reported. I am unable to prove that claim right or wrong, although I think that it is clear that there are cases of voter fraud out there. Do they have a significant impact? I think that they can. I also think that in certain races and certain voting precincts that there have been those who fully exploited the system to create a big enough impact. But I will focus only on the concept that has been put forth, primarily by the Democrat party, that to require ID at the voting booth disenfranchises the poor. I find this to be an utterly ridiculous claim. And here is why…

Some Explanations are In Order…

Greetings SUFA! I know, you are wondering who is this stranger and why is he acting as if he knows us. But it is me. I am still alive. I figured that it was about time that I forced myself to sit down and offer some explanations as to why you haven’t seen very much of me over the last few months. I do honestly feel bad about it. Here I went and created this site and after three years of ranting and arguing, I up and practically disappear on you. There are several realities that have contributed to this and I am hoping to fill you all in on them today. I will also discuss the future of SUFA towards the end so that we can begin figuring out how to handle these new realities. Because what I don’t want to happen is for SUFA to go away. I believe that somehow breaking through the lack of critical thinking barrier that so many Americans are stuck behind is still way too important to give up now.

Let’s Not Forget Reality

With the news last week that President Obama intends to have all troops out of Iraq “by the holidays,” many of the major “news” outlets have begun a campaign to give the President an inordinate amount of credit for what many Americans feel have been foreign policy wins. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even here at SUFA we had folks give him more credit than he deserved for foreign policy actions in the past. But before we start just handing out “Obama 2012: Tough on Terror”campaign buttons, we really should take a look at how we got to where we are before we start pretending that the President is somehow a foreign policy savant. Because the reality is that the media’s plan to paint Obama as having victories in the foreign policy realm are really nothing more than an attempt to pretend that the economic ineptitude of his administration isn’t a reason to not re-elect him….

Don’t Fear Default… Goose and Gander at a National Level

This weekend was a “road trip” weekend for me and my lovely wife. A trip back to my hometown, which also included a detour to Hershey Park so that Mrs. Weapon could experience the wonderful world of chocolate for the first time. What Mecca is to Muslims, Hershey is to 52% of the US population. On the ride north, I listened to a minimal amount of news, instead opting for some music that the USWeapon clan could sing along with on the drive. But I did listen to about an hour of talk radio coverage of the debt ceiling discussions happening in Washington DC. As a result, SUFA gets this article because I am tired of hearing all the bull dookey around the topic.

If Not Now…. When?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I watched the countdown to the potential government shutdown last week with a jaded eye. I can touch on what I wanted to happen in a bit, but what I was watching for was to see how much further we would watch the talking heads go in demonizing their opponents and using emotional rhetoric to sway public opinion. I must say, I was not disappointed. As was true with every major policy debate in the political spectrum over the last few years, each side spouted more nonsense than could be fathomed. It’s just proof to all of you: When you set the proper expectations for those in the political landscape, they are very capable of meeting or exceeding your expectations. And BF has the audacity to say that politicians can’t meet our expectations…

Why Libya is An Extension of Suicidal Policy

The other day I was perusing through the comments here at SUFA and stumbled across a short and simple post from Mathius. He asked whether there was anyone here at Stand Up For America that agreed with what was happening in Libya, specifically, the US participation in that country. I don’t remember what the answer was from everyone who answered. What I distinctly remember is what I thought when I read his question….. No, but why? I most certainly don’t like what is happening in Libya, or what happened in Afghanistan or Iraq either, for that matter. Although I understood the the first foray and tolerated the second. But the real question I wanted everyone to answer, because it seemed as though most were answering “No”, was WHY are you opposed to what is happening in Libya?

Political Reality

This morning you wake up to the first in a two-part series. Which is ironic, because as you wake up to this article you are doing the exact opposite of what the majority of US citizens are doing. This part One is a bit longer than I would have preferred. But that was necessary. There are a ton of political realities that just screamed out to be highlighted. And before we can get to part two, we have to recognize and understand these political realities. Many of you may wish to deny what you read here today. But don’t waste your time trying. Instead, give some serious thought to what you are reading. Because while it may not be happening with the active readers that come to SUFA to exercise their brain each day, the reality is…….

Why Gun Control “Common Sense” Scares Me

I perused the news on Sunday morning expecting more of the same coverage of Japan, debates over whether the government is trampling on worker’s “Rights” by limiting collective bargaining, or nonsense about how the Republican Party is frustrated that the Democrats are not taking spending cuts seriously (as if the GOP’s proposed 1% cut was “serious”). Instead I stumbled upon the President’s nifty little Op-Ed on increasing the background check process in order to keep the guns out of the hands of criminals. I have to admit that it angered me. But not simply because it is another attempt to paint the gun control issue as a minor thing. Instead my ire was raised because my wounds were still so fresh. Allow me to explain.

Public Unions Have to Go

You all knew that I wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines while this whole thing went down and be silent, right? Tonight I write to weigh in on the struggles going on in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana. The bottom line is that the governments in those states are making a stand against the public unions. Of course, the unions are panicking. Facing already dwindling membership in the private sector unions, the public sector unions are kind of where they figured they were safe. But they aren’t. And they shouldn’t be. Look, I don’t have a problem with the concept of a union. But I sure have a problem with what the big unions have become. They are no longer a tool for the protection of vulnerable employees (nor do they need to be). They have become a drain on the American economy and they do more harm than good in many cases. And in order to gain support, they are simply liars about what the situations are and what the consequences are without them. It is time to set the record straight and talk about why the public unions should simply go away…

Facebook Becomes Job Killer

Here we are back at a lovely Monday morning. Is it me or do the weekends move entirely too fast? Now that I have a new schedule that allows me to spend more time with Mrs. Weapon, it seems like we get to doing stuff and before I know it the weekend is gone. But I did get a lot accomplished. I attended the gun show here locally, which was a lot of fun. And both of our vehicles are sparkly clean, which was way overdue. In keeping with what I am transitioning to, I present another article that won’t be too overly long. I will still have the occasionally long article where needed, but stuff like this where I pull an article and give some quick thoughts or ideas to spark debate will become more common. And of course we will start seeing more of the articles from the new SUFA writing staff! This week I am planning on having BF, G-Man, and possibly LOI all presenting articles! Exciting!

Nevada Seeks to Trample Rights to Increase Appeal?

As all of you have seen over the last week or two, we are beginning to see the changes at SUFA take shape. This week we had our first article that was actually published by someone else, in the form of G-Man’s article, which obviously stirred up a little bit of controversy and a good deal of discussion. One of the other changes that I have been pondering was the elimination of the “Open Mic Night” as we have done it in the past. To be honest we still have the ability to share articles and start conversations around them every day of the week, and that is exactly what was happening. So instead of the traditional open mic format I will be publishing some open mic type topics in their own articles. This will help focus the conversation and make it easier to follow while I decide what to change in the format. It simply isn’t as easy to follow a discussion in the new comments format, so this will help. And it allows me to publish more articles per week which means fresh content more often.

Don’t Reduce… Eliminate

The hot button topic these days in Washington DC seems to be deficit reduction. I have followed this banter back and forth between the two parties for a long, long time in terms of spending and where to make cuts. It seems to flow in a cyclical pattern, as all political issues tend to do. Every 8-10 years we seem to have the “level of spending in Washington” as a primary issue and each time the leaders within the two parties pay lip service to the issue in an attempt to appease the voters just enough to get them to move on to some other issue that will require new organization and alignment. It has been a convenient plan for Congress. Let the issue build. Allow the “movement” to organize and rally to a level where something must be done. Then do as little as necessary and repeat the process with a new issue. There are probably a total of 50 or so “hot button issues” that just wax and wane in DC. And each Congress claims to have done something about each one each time they arise. What we rarely see from Congress is a true fundamental change meant to eliminate the issue from coming back up in the future.

The Death of Personal Responsibility Revisited

The other day on the open mic thread I posted an article that was a pure emotional appeal from the Huffington Post. The story focused on an unemployed woman who sadly had to tell her child that Santa was cutting back a little bit this year. The article was a blatant play on emotion in order to make a case for the extension of yet more unemployment benefits in our increasingly government dependent society. I was roundly criticized by some folks for the “guesses” that I threw out there for the subject of the article. I can understand that criticism. However, I made it clear these were my guesses, not facts. While I may be wrong on this particular woman’s story (and I may be 100% right, for the record), I think I put forth a fairly common set of circumstances as a reasonable possibility. I will discuss those circumstances more here. Sadly, some of you completely missed the point of what I was saying about the emotional ploys used. Believe what you want about that particular woman, the point was that the left leaning media was doing exactly what they always do, relying on emotion and pity to make a case for political action.

What I Think the Voters Said on Tuesday

Now that we have had a week or so to digest the results of the 2010 mid-term elections, it is time to begin the process of evaluating what exactly happened and what it means for the next two years. The most obvious result to look at is the massive swing of power in the House of Representatives. The Republicans gained over 60 seats during this election, giving them power in the House and reducing the Democrat control in Washington to only two of the three important bodies. But the real question remains what this election power shift is really going to mean over the next two years, and possibly beyond. Another important question is what happened that enabled the Republicans to sweep so many seats from the other side of the aisle to their own. Finally, what message did we get out of the lopsided victories by two incumbents, Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel, who are clearly shown as corrupt and crooked and who face ethics panel trials as soon as Congress returns from the election break? I will offer my thoughts on all of the above…

Every Dragon Was Slain by Progressive Democrats

I know. A pretty bizarre headline up there. But no less bizarre than what was offered by our Vice President last week. As we begin yet another week in the political mess that has become Washington DC, I find myself wondering what exactly is going to happen come Tuesday. This is no normal week, readers. With the election we will once again watch to see which way the political winds blow in America. Remember when John Kerry ran against Bush and so many were saying that Kerry was such a sad candidate and how that showed that the reign of Democrats in American politics was as good as dead? I remember it well, the calls that the Democratic party is dead. “Rejoice,” they said. I did not. A mere two years later the Democrats swept through and captured power of Congress. Two more years passed and a Democratic sweep in the White House and Congress bred calls that the GOP was dead. “Rejoice,” they said. I did not. And now a mere two years later and we are on the eve of what appears to be another flip flop in the landscape of DC. That got me thinking, when I suddenly ran across this bizarre statement from Joe Biden that runs completely counter to my conclusion on the reasoning behind the DC roller coaster.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for October 19, 2010

We come to open mic and I am still trying to recover from the last few weeks of work. I am working on some more substantial articles that I think are going to be pretty good when they are finished. And we will see Part 3 of Jon Smith’s series coming later this week as well. For tonight we have several interesting topics. We have a SCOTUS judge who decided that he is skipping the State of the Union, a Senatorial candidate that doesn’t know what the Constitution says, the idiot women on The View making complete asses of themselves, and a lame attempt by Democrats to buy the Senior Citizen vote with a $250 credit to each senior. As many of you may have noticed, I have tended to stay away from stories about specific races for the upcoming elections. Realistically, all the madness out there is getting more than enough coverage. But the other side of that is the races that are most interesting are so bizarre or idiotic that these candidates simply don’t deserve the time it would take to write about them.

The Taxation Contradiction

I was reading through some different articles over the weekend, hoping to find something interesting to comment on, when I happened to stumble upon a series of several articles in a row dealing with taxation. The articles had nothing to do with one another. They just all happened to have taxation in some form or another as the main topic. Each taken on its own painted a picture in support of this plan or that. And all were, in general, the intentions or sales pitches from the Democrat point of view. But my random order of articles revealed to me a disturbing double standard in from the White House in their message. No, double standard isn’t correct. Contradiction fits better. Two articles that I read back to back in particular drew my attention to the contradiction, which I am ashamed to say that I never put together before. It seems that the White House, specifically the President, believes that we should reward the wealthy who conduct business in the US, while at the same time stating that those who are wealthy in America should be taxed higher than they are…

Guest Commentary – Fantasy Candidate Part 2

Thursday night brings me to part two of Jon Smith’s fantasy candidate series. I was pleased with the discussion around part one and after reading the parts that are yet to come, I am excited to be sharing this series with all of you. You already know what I think of what Jon brings to the table and this series is no exception. I am not going to write out a big introduction tonight as I am having a little trouble typing. I hurt my wrist the other day and I am still trying to figure out if it is broken or not. I guess if it is still hurting tomorrow I may have to get it looked at. Wouldn’t be the first time I have broken something and did my best to ignore it 🙂  Needless to say typing is a little tough for me to do this evening as every time I reach for certain keys the pain shoots up my forearm. Let’s all hope for the best as if it is broken that would put a serious damper on my blog writing ability. So instead of my rambling, I will simply turn it over to Jon as he continues the quest to identify the traits in a candidate that would serve the constituents of SUFA. I will add a few more pictures of my personal fantasy candidates, however!

Sayonara Rahm

This week begins one of the biggest transitions for the Obama led White House since they assumed power 20 months ago. We see the worst kept secret in the White House confirmed as Rahm Emanuel officially resigned his position as the Chief of Staff in order to pursue his candidacy for the Chicago Mayoral race. As most of you are aware, I am no fan of Emanuel. He certainly rubbed me the wrong way with his nastiness and absolute hatred for the other party, or for that matter, anyone within his party that didn’t go along with his plans and aspirations. Add to that his now famous “Never let a crisis go to waste” statement (which I personally think was one of the most damning statements ever made by a top level official in terms of revealing to the general public the way that national politicians view their role of governing the people), and you can see why he isn’t on my list of personal favorites. Of course everyone has their own opinion of Rahm Emanuel. What I am going to cover here is why I think that Emanuel leaving the White House is good news for the Obama administration, good news for Americans in general, and then pose a question to the people of Chicago who may now be forced to deal with Emanuel in a position of ultimate power within the city.

Robert Reich Lashes Out Falsely Again

Tonight I reach once again into the bowels of the Huffington Post for an article that I will systematically address, as I am sometimes prone to do. What caught my attention in the headline was the social darwinism part. As most of you know, I am not opposed to social darwinism. I think in many cases it is the proper thing. There are exceptions, but by and large, the survival of the species, according to evolutionary dictates (which I thought Democrats worshiped), demands that we allow the weak to be weeded out of the gene pool. Tonight’s target is Robert Reich. As many of you are aware, Reich served as the US Secretary of Labor and is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. I find him to be generally wrong on many things, and his partisan bias is evident in his economic advice. Because he is a strong believer in Keynes principles, I feel he is lost. But when he writes such drivel as below, I feel compelled to call him out on it. For the record, I think that it is authors such as Reich (along with Cesca and Johann Hari) that have rendered the Huffington Post somewhat damaged goods. For every good author and article there will be a clearly partisan and off base one like this.

GOP Leadership or Just Louder Mouths?

I have to tell you that it is nice to be back home yet again. This weekend it was a trip to see my baby sister get married. The ceremony was great and she was beautiful. A great wedding overall. But being primarily out of touch with the web is tough for me. So Sunday I was listening to the Sunday morning shows and trying to catch up on whatever may have happened over the weekend. I am still not completely caught up, but I did catch something interesting over on NBC’s Meet the Press. David Plouffe was a guest on the show. For those who don’t know him, he was formerly Barack Obama’s campaign manager. As such, he is well connected to the Democratic strategy makers, and that was obvious in his being strategically placed on the Sunday morning circuit this week. In his appearance he was asked about a quote in his book, and took the opportunity to place the notion out there that the real leaders of the GOP are not politicians.

Are Tough Questions Out of the Question?

I once found myself at the crossroads of rational decision-making. Oh, it wasn’t some insane moment where life and death were being decided (well, perhaps my life and death). It wasn’t some moment where a major earth shattering event was unfolding. Nope…. I was in a bar. It just so happened that it was a biker bar. I used to frequent those when I was younger and thought myself a whole lot tougher than I am in my forties. There were buckets of testosterone on each table. Boxes of manhood and muscle were stacked behind the bar. The lighting was dim, the place was filthy, and the steady pounding of hard rock music was only broken every now and then by a selection from one of the superbands of the 70s. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of value placed on intelligence in that bar. They dealt in respect and feats of strength. It was the kind of place you didn’t walk into unless you were part of the regular scene or you really did believe that you were a pretty tough hombre. I sat at a table with a group from a well known national biker gang, and the discussion turned to racism, and it weren’t good (bad grammar intentional!).

Guest Commentary – The Fake Dichotomy

Thursday night really snuck up on me this week! My first week back at work after being out of the store for a while is always a challenge. In this case, getting caught back up on all the paperwork, training of new employees, and issues that came up while I was gone for two weeks is a quite daunting task. It is made even more daunting by an upcoming product launch that will be revolutionary in the industry and will also require a ton of my time for the next 8 weeks (work time not blog time!). I am pretty excited about some of my upcoming topics as well. I have some good discussion topics coming up, starting with Sunday night’s article in a few days. Tonight’s guest commentary comes to us from a tried and true contributor. I have a couple to choose from but I really wanted to run another one from Jon Smith. I always enjoy his topics because they are pretty thought out and well written. Jon has a knack for using that grey matter inside his skull to flesh out good discussions. Tonight’s contribution will be no different.

Why The Mosque Doesn’t Bother Me

I have arrive back home and can now commence a fairly regular writing schedule again. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I can only say that I am happy to be spending time with Canine Weapon again (I had only gotten to see him for one day during the last two weeks) and I am even happier to be back in my own bed (Tempurpedic, which I also only saw for one night in the last two weeks). Traveling is fine and vacation was absolutely wonderful. I always cherish the time I get to spend with family, and last week with Mrs. Weapon’s family was awesome. But I am happy to be home and returning to some sort of normalcy. Finally having a good internet connection has led me to see a lot of coverage around the mosque that is planned for a site two blocks from where the WTC buildings were located. It seems that the Republicans are attempting to hammer this subject home as a campaign issue while the Democrats tend to, for the most part, simply blow it off. Personally, I am a little annoyed at the coverage and a little baffled by the outrage.

Cities Searching for New Ways to Take Your Money

I thought I would take a night and talk about the local level decisions and their impact on the members of their society. We often focus on the bigger picture here at SUFA, with discussions on National and State level politics. This certainly makes sense as discussing local politics really only matters to those who are, well, local. The readers here obviously come from all over the country, and in some cases even outside the country! But I felt like a discussion around local politics was warranted as the disease of deficit spending has spread to many local municipalities and towns. In the end, SUFA faithful, all politics are local. And the only place that most of us are able to make a difference are in our local spectrums. Unfortunately, while many of us follow the political scene, there are very few who are involved at a local level. That must change if we are going to start to find ways to survive the inevitable crash that we are racing towards. When things get bad, it is the local level of politics that are going to matter to you. The federal and state governments are going to be limited in the ways that they can help. Simply put, the higher you go, the more partisan bullshit gets in the way of helping. Likewise the bigger the city, the more difficult it is to have a serious impact. But we must try.

New Era of Financial Responsibility: Day Two

I am going to be trying this particular tactic out for a couple of weeks and see how it works out. As it typically has worked out these days, I write my article, fully hoping to engage in discussion, only to go to work the next day and not be able to discuss the topic that I wrote about! For example the only comment I got in today was a response to Charlie during my lunch break. So what I am going to do is take two days for the discussion from Monday morning. As it stands I have been posting an article Monday morning around 2:00am and then allowing discussion for two days and doing open mic Wednesday morning. Rather than post no article on Monday night / Tuesday morning, I am going to write a follow up that answers some of the comments from the discussion of that day. Since the Monday morning article is usually the “heavy” one for the week, it will help to ensure that I continue to follow up on my thoughts and engage those of you that take the time to comment on my articles. Plus I can take a bit more time and answer a thought or two more thoroughly. I will start tonight with the idea of de-regulation.