In Atlanta, They Don't Fuck Around

The antithesis of the "good samaritan law" ?

The Idiots Who Run Public Schools

A high school student was suspended in Kansas for speaking Spanish to another student in the hallway. 

 

The principal said: "This is not the first time we have [asked] Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school."

 

It's not like the kid answered one of his teachers in Spanish, he answered another Spanish-speaking student in Spanish.  I simply can't believe that in 2005 we have teachers telling students that they cannot converse with each other in their native language.  It's a very fascist way to run a school, kind of like the Nazis telling Jews not to speak Yiddish to each other. 

 

The public school systems in this country have many other problems, but this just underscores the poor way in which they are managed. 

New Orleans Tax Breaks

Republican lawmakers have decided to make sure that while New Orleans gets "[built] better than before," tax breaks will not cover the rebuilding of the kinds of places that give N.O. it's spirit (pun intended). 

 

First of all, I'm against government tax breaks.  OK, so I'm really against taxes too, but tax cuts aimed at a specific cause lead to many unintended consequences.  Giving you a tax break for every kid you have causes people to have more of them (it also gives you a bigger welfare check if you're part of that socioeconomic group).  Not to mention that prohibiting certain types of businesses from receiving money is discriminatory. 

 

Why should the government have to give tax cuts to rebuild New Orleans?  If it's such a great city, with a rich history and lovely people, you'd think that businesses would fighting each other to move there and open shop.  If this isn't the case, maybe New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt "better than before" as GW wants it to be.  Just because it was there doesn't mean that it needs to be there again.  Let private development choose what to build and where to build it. 

 

Besides, this law affects massage parlors and casinos.  They should just stop calling them massage parlos and call them brothels again, and that would be one very good way to rebuild New Orleans: legalize prostitution.  Something that you can't find anywhere except the desert of Nevada would be a big draw for the Big Easy.  People would come from all over, conventions would definitely pick up, and New Orleans would retain it's image. 

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Whether or not you like college football, you are paying to research it.  The government is investigating the BCS, the much maligned college football ranking system.  They are worried about fraudulent use of the system manipulating the billion dollar college football industry.  What I'm worried about is the fraudulent use of government power to manipute our daily lives...

 

 

Liberty and Security

Regarding some of the comments on the previous post, we must turn to one of our Founding Fathers, the man who graces the $100 bill, Benjamin Franklin, who so rightly stated:

"Those who would give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty
nor security."

I would rather see multiple terrorist attacks per year, killing thousands of people, forcing the United States to rethink it's stance on my global issues than lose the liberties we have fought for as Americans for the last 250 years. The restrictions on travel and freedom that the Bush and Clinton Administrations have added in the last 10-15 years are a copout. They show that America is so stubborn, so weak to go after the terrorists in the proper way that instead they go against their own citizens. I'm sure if we rounded up and tortured enough people, we would catch a few terrorists. But what would you think if an innocent person in your family was detained and given access to no lawyers, family, or due process?

I'm sure that many of you would agree with me, you would not like to encounter checkpoints at the border with a neighboring state, or at the border with a neighboring city, where police can hound you for papers and a reason for your travels. We as Americans have the right to travel anonymously where ever we want. We have staunchly ridiculed the Soviet Union for asking every traveller "your papers please, comrade" but how far are we from this situation? Airlines are already forced to ID everyone, despite the fact that the 19 Saudis had perfectly legitimate papers and flew with their valid, government issued ID.

As for the 2nd Amendment (it was pointed out in a comment), America was built on a system of checks and balances. The 2nd Amendment is the citizens check against the government, which our Founding Fathers gave us. They knew what it was like for a government to amass too much control and to shit on their citizens. If this ever happened in our country again, and storm troopers were knocking at our doors, at least we wouldn't go out without a fight. Not that we are anywhere near this situation... yet.