Author Archive
Terrorists – civilian courts or military courts?
How do we handle terrorists? Are they prisoners of war? Are they civilian criminals? The argument is about where they should be tried, civilian courts or military courts. And, though those on each side have good arguments, the law of war and an opinion by the Supreme Court suggest both sides may be correct, depending […]
What is a “fair share?”
“We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non work.” ~ Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize economist Was Friedman forecasting today’s reality? In one tax year reported in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, millionaires earned 100 times as much as people earning $30,000, but paid 300 times as much tax. The top 20% […]
Does the federal government work for us?
“Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest.” ~ Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, Stanford University More than 200 years ago, the states united and wrote a contract, the Constitution, creating an employee, the federal government; and that contract outlined specific tasks the federal government would perform for the states’ […]
The Welfare State
“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” ~ George Bernard Shaw Shouldn’t those advocating the United States continue its ever-expanding welfare state look more closely at what is happening in Europe under the staggering weight of its “cradle to grave” welfare mentality? Though it sounds charitable […]
Roe v. Wade – Did we get what we wanted?
Recently, parents successfully sued for “wrongful birth” because their child was born with Down syndrome, claiming if it had been accurately diagnosed early in the pregnancy, they would have chosen abortion. With Roe v. Wade, did well-meaning people start us down an unintended path to a child being worthy of birth only if the parents […]
Gun control – the wrong discussion
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, 1781 A Connecticut man murdered 20 children and 6 adults, gun control proponents again advocating that disarming law-abiding citizens will solve the problem. And though I believe their logic is folly, […]
Their choice, not ours
“I’m no longer willing to let them oppress people as they please for fear of war.” – Harry Truman, 1948 Are we dealing with threats to our national security appropriately? Have invasions and occupations of threatening nations yielded the needed results? Or, might there be another approach, a safer, less costly approach? And, if so, […]
Mediocre and entitled
“There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority.” Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924), American writer November 2007, KMGH television Denver Colorado – “To end complaints about the sometimes fierce competition among overachieving high school students, the Boulder (Colorado) Valley School District […]
Avoiding consequences
“Right is right, even if everyone
is against it; and wrong is wrong,
even if everyone is for it.”
– William Penn, 1644-1718
founder of Pennsylvania
Avoiding debt
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Sir Winston Churchill Before Christmas, Pamela Yip wrote a column in The Dallas Morning News offering advice on ways to avoid holiday debt, including […]
What happened to our “Hallmark” values?
Each Christmas season my wife and I look forward to days we spend watching one Hallmark movie after another; hopefully a snowy day with a fire in the fireplace. We just finished watching Hallmark’s “Have a Little Faith,” which I taped earlier this week. As the first commercial began, I realized I was not fast-forwarding […]
Judicial ‘good Behavior’
We hold Supreme Court Justices in high regard, but should we? The Constitution says they “shall hold their Office during good Behavior?” Well, let’s look at their behavior. The process of confirming a justice leaves little doubt; they are political appointees who serve for life. Although they occasionally surprise their advocates, they usually vote as […]
A state religion?
Understanding the founding fathers’ fears of government offers insight into the meaning of their words in the United States Constitution. Many of their demanded freedoms were born from the British trail of William Penn who challenged the sovereignty of the Church of England, the state religion. On its steps, he dared to gather and preach […]
I’m entitled
“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions – it only guarantees equality of opportunity.” Irving Kristol, 1920-2009 American columnist Undercover Boss is a television reality show in which a company CEO goes undercover in his or her own company, pretending to be applying for a job. On a recent episode, the CEO of Mack Trucks […]
“Other people’s money”
“Socialist governments do traditionally make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.” Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister, 1979 – 1990 She added, “. . . They’re now trying to control everything, . . . reducing the choice available to ordinary people.” Does this sound like our government since the 1940s when […]
A rest and work break
As you may have noticed, I have taken a break from the weekly column. I am catching up on life and working on a new book about my thirty some years in emergency medicine – a collection of stories about life. But, the column will return, hopefully by February.
Reclaiming the Constitution – Part V
In 1804, the United States Supreme Court claimed absolute control over the Constitution, declaring only it could decide the Constitution’s meaning and neither the president nor Congress could overrule it. More than 100 years later, through sheer intimidation, President Franklin Roosevelt got the Supreme Court to use this control to give Congress powers not in […]
Unlimited power – Part IV
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.” – W. C. Fields Though I hope this quote refers to the following Supreme Court rulings, some might suggest it better refers to my assessment of the rulings. After giving Congress the power to do whatever it determined was for the “general Welfare of […]
Unlimited power – Part III
Since ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the Supreme Court has found a constitutional answer to every case brought before it. Doesn’t it seem unlikely that a document prepared in the 1700s could address all issues for more than two hundred years? We currently have nine justices, none elected by the people, all […]
The beginning of the end – Part II
Three Supreme Court rulings changed our lives, making our Constitution near irrelevant. One gave the Supreme Court unlimited, unchecked power; the other two gave Congress unlimited power. The first ruling created the concept of judicial review, which is the claimed power by the Supreme Court to have the final voice in all issues concerning the […]