December 22, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Violence is everywhere. We see it in the news daily, it’s in our TV shows, our movies, our video games and sometimes a part of our lives. Recently we’ve read multiple news stories about police violence against unarmed individuals. In some of these stories the innocence of the alleged victim is dubious. In others, video seems to prove beyond doubt that the police used unnecessary lethal force. As Issac Newton’s Third Law observed in physics, so we are seeing in society; an equal and opposite reaction to ever increasing levels of police violence and brutality. Most recently, two members of the NYPD were shot to death while they sat in a patrol car. Anti-police sentiments and protests are on the rise everywhere. Some of the outcry is the result of perceived racism. Some stems from a recognition that the police – once known as “peace officers”, have become something quite different. This isn’t Mayberry. Today your average hometown police squad has a cache of automatic weapons, body armor, tear gas, grenade launchers, armored military vehicles and perhaps even a weaponized drone. I have yet to meet someone who expressed a feeling of comfort, safety or peace upon seeing one of […]
October 18, 2014 at 3:37 pm
There, I said it. Despite the hysterical masses who are just eating up this media hype that the human race is on the brink of Ebola-induced extinction, I hold – quite comfortably – that Ebola is not a serious threat to the US. Talk of closing borders is sensationalist over-reaction. Even IF we were in the midst of a true epidemic, my answer to the above posed question would remain a resolute ‘NO’. Here is why… I recognize that everyone has a right to travel anywhere they wish so long as they are not trespassing on another persons property. The government has no authority to curtail this basic natural right – even in the event of a catastrophe. As it is, in the three cases of Ebola in the US, the government has messed up multiple times. The government – as always – is an utterly worthless, blitheringly idiotic monstrosity that fails even the most basic of tasks with the possible exception of hurting and killing people. In the event of a serious Ebola outbreak, should travel restrictions exist? Would they help to slow the spread of the disease? Yes, I believe they should, and would slow the spread. No […]
June 11, 2014 at 10:45 am
Tuesday night, June 10th, 2014 residents of Virginia’s 7th district made history by voting out Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary election. Cantor, a career politician and neo-conservative was ousted in favor of newcomer David Brat, a local university economics professor. Brat is being hailed as a “tea party” candidate, and while his views seem to align well with those generally held by tea party affiliates he actually received no backing from the major tea party organizations, due to the evidently misled belief that Cantor was untouchable. Brat’s win truly is a history making event, and one that sends a shock wave through the GOP establishment. Late night’s victory marks the first time in US history that a House Majority Leader has been unseated in a primary election. The implications of this win are far reaching. Cantor has been a vocal supporter of amnesty measures for so-called illegal immigrants – an issue that has been coming to a head recently with immigrant children currently flooding over the US-Mexico border as an unforeseen ramification of President Obama’s recent declaration that children would not be deported. Mr. Brat was able to use this to his full advantage to […]
April 22, 2014 at 5:00 pm
It’s funny how life works. The daily interactions and experiences we have seem trivial at the time but can have profound ramification on our futures. Here I sit, trying to strategize how best to proceed with the writing of this post, the future of this site, my reading list, my son’s education, financial planning, dinner tonight… It’s an unceasing string of seemingly random thoughts that are all interconnected, at least for me. Everything fits into a web and has varying degrees of influence on the other nodes of the web. It was this web that brought me to the political opinions I hold now, which in turn changed my views, or at the least enlightened my views on many other topics. My political journey so far is what I’d like to talk about in this post. I was brought up in a conservative, Republican household. I don’t recall the issue-specific positions my parents took on most things. It was the typical Republican platform, patriotic, lower taxes, anti-gay marriage, pro-life… While I took on many of those view as a child and teenager something about them – something I can’t pinpoint – didn’t agree with me. I missed the age cutoff […]