I am in favor of the right to die with dignity. I think living wills are a great idea. I think people should have the absolute right to refuse extraordinary medical intervention. I support all of these ideas, –for terminally ill people. When it is abundantly clear that you are approaching death, and you are in great discomfort, and there is no hope for recovery, you should have the right to die. No problem. But it must, unambiguously, in writing, no questions asked, be your true will. Not someone else’s hearsay opinion. If there is any doubt, you must be allowed to live.
Terri Schiavo was not terminally ill. She was handicapped, and on a feeding tube. She couldn’t walk. She couldn't Talk. She could only waive her arms about and make unintelligible noises, –just like the Pope. And since her true will regarding her medical care was not known, a civil court granted her ex-husband the right to kill her by starvation and dehydration. Her ex-husband, who had essentially abandoned her some time before, and had been in a relationship which produced two children with another woman, and clearly would benefit from Terri’s death, was granted a license to kill her via Florida Law. The law not only allowed him to kill her, it provided deputies to prevent others from committing the great crime of giving her a sip of water. The law, as Mr. Bumble famously said: "is a ass, a idiot." Terri’s ex-husband is a murderer.
Judge Greer followed the law scrupulously –as he saw it. And he saw it very narrowly. His jurisprudence also killed Terri Schiavo. Judge Greer, like the law he punctiliously upheld, is likewise an "ass, a idiot." He is judicial tyranny embodied. He cannot escape the blood of this poor handicapped woman any more that her ex-husband can. What happened may have been "lawful", but it was not right. And it can never be justified.
The cult of death, Hemlock Society, crowd is exemplified in the lawyer Felos, who gave political contributions to Judge Greer, and served on the board of directors at the hospice where Terri was sent to be killed. He is the lawyer who "won" the right for Terri's ex-husband to kill her. He is the very definition of evil. He will do or say anything to promote his view that all "inconvenient" people should be allowed to be killed, –oh for their own good, you understand. Starvation and dying of thirst, after all, is a peaceful and gentle way to go. Here’s hoping he "goes" that way very soon.
Of course, none of this will ultimately mean anything. America is already letting this horrific event slip into the ethers of the past. We’ll soon stop talking about it altogether, and go back to the really important things, – like the Michael Jackson circus trial. Baseball season is about to start. The NBA playoffs will soon be here. How about the "Final Four"! ... Terri who?
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Untold Tax Outrages
Many of us are busily crunching numbers at this time of year, feverishly trying to get our taxes done. Most of us only become aware of the large amount of federal income taxes we pay if we're required to dig deep into our pockets and write out a check for an amount on top of all the thousands of dollars already withheld by our employer and send it in with our tax returns. Ouch! That really hurts a lot! Withholding doesn't seem to hurt as much. It's a great scheme they've got. The politicians have lulled us to sleep by requiring our employers to withhold taxes from each paycheck. That way, we tend to focus only on our net pay, an we don't even notice how much we are actually paying. In fact, many of us are euphoric when we find out that we are getting a small "refund." We are blissfully unaware that this "refund" is only a result of an over-payment of taxes in the first place! It's not free money from heaven. If each of us had to sit down each payday and write out four checks, –one for federal income tax, one for federal social security tax, one for federal medicare tax and one for state income tax we would probably be outraged enough to take action to get this confiscatory system reformed! But since we don't have to write such checks, we're all too happy to pay through the nose. We hardly even notice it.
The "payroll withholding" system which FDR slipped into the IRS code in the 1940s has served as the biggest single "opiate" which deadens the pain of taxes and blinds us to the real tax burden we all pay. That, along with the fiction of corporate taxes, which each of us as consumers really pay in the form of higher prices, hides the onerous cost of our bloated federal bureaucracy. It keeps us from noticing how much government really costs us. We go blissfully along, ignorant of the true cost. In reality our tax burden, in all of its forms, takes every penny we earn clear up to late April or May! It's an outrage!
Another outrage most of us do not even know about: The Earned Income Credit (EIC). This is a welfare program set up by the leftists which really has nothing to do with taxes. It has one purpose: –to take money from those who produce it and give it to those who don't. Under EIC, people who have qualifying children can get up to $4,300 in gratis, free, bonus cash from their fellow Americans. Yippee! This really is like free money from heaven! Only it isn't from heaven. It's paid by you and me. If you had a federal tax obligation last year of more than $4,300, likely a neighbor down the block got your money in the form of an EIC check. How would you react if that same neighbor had showed up at your house and pilfered the $4,300 out of your piggy bank? You'd call the police! You'd scream bloody murder! You wouldn’t stand for it! Oh really?. Well, you are standing for it, –every year, year after year, after year, after year. Many, many of these welfare takers are hardly poor. You needn't pity them. Let me explain: If Bill Gates' mother lived with him in his billion dollar mansion, and earned $14,000 per year, she could get a $4,300 check from the poor sucker taxpayers by claiming 2 of his children for the EIC benefit. And he could still claim the same two kids on his own tax returns as dependents! It sounds hard to believe, but it's true. The law allows a direct relative to claim children for EIC benefits regardless of the total family income!! It’s true! Millionaire families all over America are getting EIC credits year, after year, after year! It's an outrage!!
Yet another outrage. The EIC is a potent disincentive to marriage. You do much better tax-wise in many cases as two single people than you would as a married couple. Let me Illustrate:
Ronald and Mary Jones are a married couple with a couple of kids. Ron makes $75,000 per year. Mary makes $14,000 per year. At normal withholding rates, and by filing a joint return with two dependents deductions, they get a tax refund of $1,794, –a pretty typical American taxpayer story. Now, let’s look at the same family in a different way. Ron and Mary are not married. Everything else is the same. They live in the same house, and have the same kids, jobs, withholding, but they’re not married. Ron would file as head of household, taking both children as dependent deductions, but now his tax situation has changed considerably. Instead of getting a refund of $1,794 he only gets $256. “No fair” he cries, “married people get all the breaks.” But wait. Now Mary can file her taxes as a single person and claim both children for an EIC. As a result, she gets, –are you ready, a whopping $5,192 refund check from Uncle Sam which is to say from you and me. That’s right!! By not being married, this couple benefitted to the tune of $3,654!!! The marriage penalty is $3,654!! And this goes on, perfectly legally, all over America, year after year, after year, after year. It’s an outrage!!!
It is time for America to wake up to these and other outrages in our tax system. It’s time to enact a fair tax system for all. It’s time to enact The Fair Tax. It would eliminate these outrages, and many others. Check it out. The time has come to write your senators and congressmen. Let’s pass the Fair Tax!
The "payroll withholding" system which FDR slipped into the IRS code in the 1940s has served as the biggest single "opiate" which deadens the pain of taxes and blinds us to the real tax burden we all pay. That, along with the fiction of corporate taxes, which each of us as consumers really pay in the form of higher prices, hides the onerous cost of our bloated federal bureaucracy. It keeps us from noticing how much government really costs us. We go blissfully along, ignorant of the true cost. In reality our tax burden, in all of its forms, takes every penny we earn clear up to late April or May! It's an outrage!
Another outrage most of us do not even know about: The Earned Income Credit (EIC). This is a welfare program set up by the leftists which really has nothing to do with taxes. It has one purpose: –to take money from those who produce it and give it to those who don't. Under EIC, people who have qualifying children can get up to $4,300 in gratis, free, bonus cash from their fellow Americans. Yippee! This really is like free money from heaven! Only it isn't from heaven. It's paid by you and me. If you had a federal tax obligation last year of more than $4,300, likely a neighbor down the block got your money in the form of an EIC check. How would you react if that same neighbor had showed up at your house and pilfered the $4,300 out of your piggy bank? You'd call the police! You'd scream bloody murder! You wouldn’t stand for it! Oh really?. Well, you are standing for it, –every year, year after year, after year, after year. Many, many of these welfare takers are hardly poor. You needn't pity them. Let me explain: If Bill Gates' mother lived with him in his billion dollar mansion, and earned $14,000 per year, she could get a $4,300 check from the poor sucker taxpayers by claiming 2 of his children for the EIC benefit. And he could still claim the same two kids on his own tax returns as dependents! It sounds hard to believe, but it's true. The law allows a direct relative to claim children for EIC benefits regardless of the total family income!! It’s true! Millionaire families all over America are getting EIC credits year, after year, after year! It's an outrage!!
Yet another outrage. The EIC is a potent disincentive to marriage. You do much better tax-wise in many cases as two single people than you would as a married couple. Let me Illustrate:
Ronald and Mary Jones are a married couple with a couple of kids. Ron makes $75,000 per year. Mary makes $14,000 per year. At normal withholding rates, and by filing a joint return with two dependents deductions, they get a tax refund of $1,794, –a pretty typical American taxpayer story. Now, let’s look at the same family in a different way. Ron and Mary are not married. Everything else is the same. They live in the same house, and have the same kids, jobs, withholding, but they’re not married. Ron would file as head of household, taking both children as dependent deductions, but now his tax situation has changed considerably. Instead of getting a refund of $1,794 he only gets $256. “No fair” he cries, “married people get all the breaks.” But wait. Now Mary can file her taxes as a single person and claim both children for an EIC. As a result, she gets, –are you ready, a whopping $5,192 refund check from Uncle Sam which is to say from you and me. That’s right!! By not being married, this couple benefitted to the tune of $3,654!!! The marriage penalty is $3,654!! And this goes on, perfectly legally, all over America, year after year, after year, after year. It’s an outrage!!!
It is time for America to wake up to these and other outrages in our tax system. It’s time to enact a fair tax system for all. It’s time to enact The Fair Tax. It would eliminate these outrages, and many others. Check it out. The time has come to write your senators and congressmen. Let’s pass the Fair Tax!
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Politically Correct Equals Four Dead People
The mainstream media is blithely skirting the real issues regarding the murders in Atlanta committed by the violent criminal who was escorted to court yesterday by a single, elderly, female deputy. This large, athletic criminal was not handcuffed or shackled. He was allowed to be right next to the lady, enabling him to overpower her, take her gun, kill three people including the judge, and escape into the streets of Atlanta, where today he killed another person. How could have this happened!? It sounds too bizarre to be real.
The liberal press, of course, is getting it all wrong. (Now there’s a shocker!) They are blaming the deaths on the fact that the courtroom was not fitted with bullet proof shields due to lack of funds. They are trying, indirectly, to lay it on the Bush administration! They are claiming it is a result of budget cuts. Bunk! That’s not the reason at all! They are also claiming that it was because police officers had guns in the courthouse!! Now that’s really absurd.
None of this needed to happen. This violent criminal should have been accompanied to his court appearance by two beefy male deputies. He should have been in his orange jump suit, shackled with leg irons and handcuffed to a chain around his waist. If he had been, none of the four people would have been dead today. Think of that! The families wracked today by horrible wrenching grief because of the death of their loved ones could have, and should have, been spending an ordinary Saturday enjoying life. If this creep had been properly restrained, he would have been prevented from overpowering the little old lady, and getting her gun in the first place. He would have been hustled into and out of court in a totally routine fashion.
Why was he not properly restrained? Why was grandma sent to guard him? Political correctness!! Oh yes, to be sure, it was all about political correctness. Here are two false assertions by leftist liberal, politically correct idiots which costs these four people their lives:
1. Men and women are equal and should be given the same jobs.
Police departments, fire departments, and the military have been forced by liberal politicians to give physically demanding jobs to girls who just aren’t able to do them. It sounds rash to say it, but it is nonetheless true. In the sacred name of equal opportunity, these agencies have sacrificed the safety of the public and that's a fact. Ask yourself; if you were trapped on the 2nd floor of a burning building, you were unconscious, and you weighed 240 lbs, would you want a 110 lb firelady sent up to get you out? The question answers itself! Men and women, –newsflash– are different! That’s not a bad thing. Each can do certain things better that the other. Among the many skills women possess in rich abundance, great upper body strength is NOT one of them. Duh! Yet we are forced by politically correct idiots to allows girls to pretend to be equal in ability for jobs where this upper body strength is absolutely vital. How absurd!!!!
2. Having accused prisoners, especially minorities, appear in court handcuffed and shackled prevents them from getting a fair trial.
How? If every person who has been accused of a violent felony is required to appear in court, handcuffed and manacled how it that unfair to any of them? It’s very hard to believe any jury would say: “well the state didn’t present any evidence, and the witnesses weren’t believable but boy that orange jump suit and those handcuffs sure made him look guilty. So we voted guilty!” Again, how absurd! How ridiculous! And how sad for the four people killed and for their families!
Some politician or government bureaucrat is responsible for the fact that this killer was permitted to commit multiple murders. They approved the policy that criminals need not be restrained when going to court. They condoned and mandated the idea that an elderly female deputy is capable of controlling an athletic, young male criminal. Some political hack or hacks unknown has the blood of these four people on his or her hands. Shame on them! Here’s hoping they lie awake at night and ponder endlessly the horrible wrongs their politically correct decisions have caused. Here’s hoping these needless deaths haunt them a lot.
But it won't happen. Unfortunately this kind of scum won’t take the responsibility that is rightfully theirs. Instead they will hide behind the liberal leftist press –who is blaming the Bush administration of all things! Again, how absurd!
The liberal press, of course, is getting it all wrong. (Now there’s a shocker!) They are blaming the deaths on the fact that the courtroom was not fitted with bullet proof shields due to lack of funds. They are trying, indirectly, to lay it on the Bush administration! They are claiming it is a result of budget cuts. Bunk! That’s not the reason at all! They are also claiming that it was because police officers had guns in the courthouse!! Now that’s really absurd.
None of this needed to happen. This violent criminal should have been accompanied to his court appearance by two beefy male deputies. He should have been in his orange jump suit, shackled with leg irons and handcuffed to a chain around his waist. If he had been, none of the four people would have been dead today. Think of that! The families wracked today by horrible wrenching grief because of the death of their loved ones could have, and should have, been spending an ordinary Saturday enjoying life. If this creep had been properly restrained, he would have been prevented from overpowering the little old lady, and getting her gun in the first place. He would have been hustled into and out of court in a totally routine fashion.
Why was he not properly restrained? Why was grandma sent to guard him? Political correctness!! Oh yes, to be sure, it was all about political correctness. Here are two false assertions by leftist liberal, politically correct idiots which costs these four people their lives:
1. Men and women are equal and should be given the same jobs.
Police departments, fire departments, and the military have been forced by liberal politicians to give physically demanding jobs to girls who just aren’t able to do them. It sounds rash to say it, but it is nonetheless true. In the sacred name of equal opportunity, these agencies have sacrificed the safety of the public and that's a fact. Ask yourself; if you were trapped on the 2nd floor of a burning building, you were unconscious, and you weighed 240 lbs, would you want a 110 lb firelady sent up to get you out? The question answers itself! Men and women, –newsflash– are different! That’s not a bad thing. Each can do certain things better that the other. Among the many skills women possess in rich abundance, great upper body strength is NOT one of them. Duh! Yet we are forced by politically correct idiots to allows girls to pretend to be equal in ability for jobs where this upper body strength is absolutely vital. How absurd!!!!
2. Having accused prisoners, especially minorities, appear in court handcuffed and shackled prevents them from getting a fair trial.
How? If every person who has been accused of a violent felony is required to appear in court, handcuffed and manacled how it that unfair to any of them? It’s very hard to believe any jury would say: “well the state didn’t present any evidence, and the witnesses weren’t believable but boy that orange jump suit and those handcuffs sure made him look guilty. So we voted guilty!” Again, how absurd! How ridiculous! And how sad for the four people killed and for their families!
Some politician or government bureaucrat is responsible for the fact that this killer was permitted to commit multiple murders. They approved the policy that criminals need not be restrained when going to court. They condoned and mandated the idea that an elderly female deputy is capable of controlling an athletic, young male criminal. Some political hack or hacks unknown has the blood of these four people on his or her hands. Shame on them! Here’s hoping they lie awake at night and ponder endlessly the horrible wrongs their politically correct decisions have caused. Here’s hoping these needless deaths haunt them a lot.
But it won't happen. Unfortunately this kind of scum won’t take the responsibility that is rightfully theirs. Instead they will hide behind the liberal leftist press –who is blaming the Bush administration of all things! Again, how absurd!
Friday, March 11, 2005
Don’t Be Fooled by the Hillary Chameleon
Hillary Clinton wants to be president of the United States. Hillary Clinton is a committed, life-long, left-wing, socialist ideologue and always will be. Hillary Clinton knows she must deceive a sizeable portion of the US population regarding her true nature or she will never be elected president of the United States. Hillary Clinton, of late, has become a chameleon.
Just like the little animal which possesses the ability to change colors in order to blend into whatever background it finds itself, Hillary, only very recently, has begun to mouth conservative sounding platitudes. Of course she really doesn’t believe any of the things she as been saying. She has NO intentions of doing anything that would result in the actual implementation of any of these conservative ideas. She is just pretending to be finding sudden interest in preventing abortion, cleaning up music and literature, and supporting President Bush’s Iraq policy. She didn’t even mean it when she voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice. It’s all just a cynical ploy on her part. It’s part of her long-term strategy to gain power.
Make no mistake! This is all a fraud. Hillary Clinton, if elected, will make government bigger and more intrusive. She will raise taxes. She will gut the military and do everything in her power to turn over our national security to the United Nations and The World Court. She will sign fraudulent international environmental treaties that will sap further the strength of our nation’s economy. She will do all in her power to increase welfare, and every other wasteful government program. She will resume her crusade to nationalize the health care industry. She will appoint extremely liberal judges who will further their goals of dismantling the constitution of the United States, by taking away basic guaranteed rights such as the right to bear arms and practice religion.
Hillary Clinton must be opposed vigorously by every clear-thinking U.S. Citizen. She is, by far, the biggest threat to this nation and to the American way of life we have seen in many years. The fact that she has the ability and inclination to change her spots, --to hide her true nature, only makes her all the more dangerous. Hillary Clinton wants, with every fiber of her being, to be president of the United States. By fooling some of the gullible, she might just achieve her goal! Heaven help us if she succeeds.
Just like the little animal which possesses the ability to change colors in order to blend into whatever background it finds itself, Hillary, only very recently, has begun to mouth conservative sounding platitudes. Of course she really doesn’t believe any of the things she as been saying. She has NO intentions of doing anything that would result in the actual implementation of any of these conservative ideas. She is just pretending to be finding sudden interest in preventing abortion, cleaning up music and literature, and supporting President Bush’s Iraq policy. She didn’t even mean it when she voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice. It’s all just a cynical ploy on her part. It’s part of her long-term strategy to gain power.
Make no mistake! This is all a fraud. Hillary Clinton, if elected, will make government bigger and more intrusive. She will raise taxes. She will gut the military and do everything in her power to turn over our national security to the United Nations and The World Court. She will sign fraudulent international environmental treaties that will sap further the strength of our nation’s economy. She will do all in her power to increase welfare, and every other wasteful government program. She will resume her crusade to nationalize the health care industry. She will appoint extremely liberal judges who will further their goals of dismantling the constitution of the United States, by taking away basic guaranteed rights such as the right to bear arms and practice religion.
Hillary Clinton must be opposed vigorously by every clear-thinking U.S. Citizen. She is, by far, the biggest threat to this nation and to the American way of life we have seen in many years. The fact that she has the ability and inclination to change her spots, --to hide her true nature, only makes her all the more dangerous. Hillary Clinton wants, with every fiber of her being, to be president of the United States. By fooling some of the gullible, she might just achieve her goal! Heaven help us if she succeeds.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Silver Lining for the Bush Bashers?
The recent incident involving the Italian journalist who was allegedly injured by allied gunfire while escaping her terrorist captors reveals more about the leftist western press than it does about American foreign policy. The anti Bush press has been having a very bad time of late. What with the successful Iraqi election and the outbreak of democracy fever that has broken out all over the Middle East, and all this following hard on the heels of the Kerry/press coalition election defeat in November was almost too much for them to endure. They were looking for something, anything, to bash Bush about. Just about when they were about to get totally desperate, here comes Ms. Guiliana Sgrena to the rescue. Yes, the same America hating communist reporter who was in Iraq trying to get material to bash American with. What luck! The wicked American soldiers attack a peaceful Italian motorist. Of course, we all know the American love nothing better than killing innocent Italians tourists in Iraq! But that's what the world believes. They're quite prepared to believe virtually anything. Of course facts don't matter to them. The whole story doesn't pass the smell test.
It’s really hard to conceive of any so-called intelligence officer, Italian or not, who wouldn’t know that it is a very bad idea to go speeding up to a check point on the road to the airport in Iraq. Since one of the most favored tactics of the terrorists is to race a car full of explosives and homicide bombers near enough to our soldiers to do damage, it boggles the mind that this reporter and intelligence officer wouldn’t know that. So our guys fired on the speeding car and the rest is history. Presto! The press got what they wanted. A new political club to use against Bush.
How did it really happen? Nobody really knows yet. One thing you can bet the house on though. It didn’t happen the way CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and NBC are saying it happened. In fact, as with most things on those networks, if you believe just the opposite of what they’re saying, you’d be closer to the truth. Another thing to bet the house on is when all the facts come out, and it turns out the checkpoint troops did fire warning shots, –and were ignored, the lefties will drop the story like a hot potato.
Ever was it thus in today’s topsy-turvy world of so-called journalism.
It’s really hard to conceive of any so-called intelligence officer, Italian or not, who wouldn’t know that it is a very bad idea to go speeding up to a check point on the road to the airport in Iraq. Since one of the most favored tactics of the terrorists is to race a car full of explosives and homicide bombers near enough to our soldiers to do damage, it boggles the mind that this reporter and intelligence officer wouldn’t know that. So our guys fired on the speeding car and the rest is history. Presto! The press got what they wanted. A new political club to use against Bush.
How did it really happen? Nobody really knows yet. One thing you can bet the house on though. It didn’t happen the way CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and NBC are saying it happened. In fact, as with most things on those networks, if you believe just the opposite of what they’re saying, you’d be closer to the truth. Another thing to bet the house on is when all the facts come out, and it turns out the checkpoint troops did fire warning shots, –and were ignored, the lefties will drop the story like a hot potato.
Ever was it thus in today’s topsy-turvy world of so-called journalism.
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