Why The Supreme Court is No Better than the Rest of the Government

Last evening, I was walking downtown through Salt Lake City with my fiancee to my home in the avenues. As we walked, there was much making merry from the gay pride community because of the legalization of gay marriage in all 50 states. They seemed to be enjoying themselves; there was music, smiling, celebrating.

While I'm a straight man who subscribes to traditional, conservative values in my personal life, I have strong feelings regarding the government's role in this whole marriage debate, and they're not what you might think.

You see, I would love for the government to get out of marriage altogether. I believe that marriage, as a contract between two people, should not be administrated by anyone except the governing parties, with the exception of a lawsuit within divorce.

(I believe that the cultural acceptance of divorce has caused the government to become more and more involved in marriage. While this is a topic for another time, I'll just say here that the cultural tendency to not keep commitments sits at the root of this problem, of divorcing for minimal reasons and not working our marriages out.)

On Friday, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States of America greatly overstepped their bounds and struck down laws in several states defining marriage between one man and one woman. Similarly, the day before, they redefined the Affordable Care Act -again- offering changes to how that law is executed in all 50 states.

In both these cases, states right's were viciously disregarded. Even President Barack Obama, a very left-winged thinker and governor, has affirmed that while he would like to see these changes in all 50 states, the right to enact such decisions ultimately lies with the states.

I take issue not with the repugnant 

morality of these decisions (again, a different argument for a different day), but with the highest judicial body now legislating from the bench. 

In essence, they told all 50 states they must issue marriage licenses to any couple, gay or straight, who asks for them.

You might argue that because the judicial system issues these licenses, then that's their perogative. You might also argue that the Constitution delivers the right to liberty, that homosexuals are a protected class under many state laws, and that the Court has repeatedly upheld marriage as a human right. 

All this is fine. You're probably correct in these arguments. If the court had used this logic, it's decision might be a little more praiseworthy.

What was incorrect was the controversial, 5-4 decision, based on emotional logic and an extremely loose interpretation of the 14th ammendment, which doesn't even fall under the bill of rights and was written to free slaves. Also incorrect was the direct disregard to the fact that Congress has not enacted any legislation at all regarding marraige, and specifically made a point to leave the execution of a health insurance exchange up to the states. 

To the five justices on the Supreme Court who causes these changes: shame on you. All of you. 

This decision sets a nefarious precident for all future Court proceedings. This court, where such terrible decisions were almost never made, has become like all the rest of the courts: corrupt servants of special interests, driven by popular opinion instead of rule of law. 

I personally hope our next president can appoint better justices than those who now occupy that High Bench, who will put rule of law and the definition thereof above all else, even at the expense of their own popularity.

*This article was originally published on the author's personal blog on June 27, 2015* 

Leave the Internet Alone: Support Operation Blackout

Are we really surprised? I think we all knew it would just be a matter of time; the government is now going to attempt to regulate yet another area of the private sector: major internet companies are now directly in their line of destructive fire.

It's not enough that banks, oil, cars, and medicine are regulated to an obnoxious degree. Now Capitol Hill sees it "necessary" to have to touch Facebook, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and more, through a purported "Anti-piracy" bill. The companies are thinking of blacking out in protest, like Mozilla has already done.

I support "Operation Blackout." Call your senators; blow up their email in-boxes with your opinions.

To Congress, from me:

Leave the internet the heck alone, and don't make one more thing illegal; our prisons are already full enough; our taxes are already too high. If you're not going to regulate the pornography and the bomb-making websites, then you are hypocritical to regulate how these people make money in a legal, moral and honest manner. The internet is helping our economy stay alive, with literally millions upon millions of jobs in place with these companies, most of them nowhere near laying people off. If you change how they have to do business, you'll be placing unnecessary financial burdens on these companies, and as we've seen in the past, this usually leads to layoffs, higher taxes and disgruntled workers.

Consider the constituents you represent, who use the internet daily as a tool, and how it will effect them, and indeed you, in our everyday lives. Leave the people alone.

2011 in Review

Alright, so I'm back from the dead. It's time to pursue this blogging thing again. The political world has heated up quite a bit, so I need to stay more vigilant about voicing my opinion in well-structured arguments. (That, and I'm sure my Facebook friends are getting sick of my political posts.)

I'm going to focus on blunders, here, of 2011. I did a similar post in 2010, and I think it's extended from Obama-blunders to general governmental screw-ups. A few good things did happen, too, but there were some brilliant missteps in the PR of several of those situations. Let's take a look at a list of a few of my favorites.

1. SURFACING/EXPOSURE OF THE "FAST AND FURIOUS" GUN-RUNNING OPERATION

....or as it's been dubiously called, "Project Gunrunner"

I'm not going to lie, this was impressive. The attorney general Eric Holder should ultimately be held responsible, for the concealing of this, and for the events of the death that lead to a federal agent. It's his responsibility to enforce the law; instead, he endorsed a program that put weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, which, last I checked, was not exactly legal.

Can this man please be impeached for this epic failure? I wouldn't hate that.

2. REPRESENTATIVE ANTHONY WIENER'S RESIGNATION

All I'm going to say is, dude, don't post obscene pictures of yourself on the internet, especially if you're famous and/or hold public office, because somebody will inevitably get a hold of them and publish them for everyone to see. (Paris Hilton was a fine example of that, some years ago).

3. NEWT GINGRICH

Alright, so I'm a Republican. But more importantly, I'm a conservative. Newt Gingrich is not a conservative, even if he's painting himself to be that way. He's too liberal for my taste, a DC insider, and someone who has shown a lack of personal morality. I don't think he'd be a good president; he would fail to take a stand for what was right, as he did as Speaker of the House.

4. OCCUPY WALL STREET

Tents, food lines, and homemade picket signs became a household image, in the latter part of this year, not to mention in my town of Salt Lake City that there are people handing out flyers on the street, telling us to "get out of corrupt banks." It struck a little closer to home with me, however, because my favorite cousin is with the Occupy Tampa movement, sleeping in a tent and growing out his hair. As one liberal writer put it, "If 2010 was the year of the Tea Party, then OWS has surely dominated news in 2011." Pardon me, sir, but let me point out a few differences (and this is not a complete list).

1. We Tea Partiers are about accomplishing something: having our government adhere to the constitution. We are about having those who are in office rotate our on a regular basis. We are about enforcing current rights. We are not about stealing money from those who have rightfully earned it. We understand economics, and particularly, that taxing people heavily kills incentive.

2. We don't live in tents. Now, this may seem mundane, but when we protest, we descend for a weekend or so on a location, and then move on. Then we write books, get on TV, and work to move toward our goals by encouraging others to vote for and then sending people to represent us well.

3. We're clean. We don't commit crimes when we are in a location altogether. Our camps don't get shut down because people don't die there. (That happened in Salt Lake.)

4. We accept that corporate America is what makes our country run well- not the government. But I do find it terrifically ironic that these people slept in tents bought at Wal-Mart, organized their efforts on their Dell computers and on their iPhones, and wore North Face jackets. To me, if these people are as "poor" as they say they are, then they shouldn't be spending that kind of money, and they show a large amount of personal fiscal irresponsibility, which, in my opinion, is what got our nation where it is today, as far as debt (consumer and otherwise) is concerned.

My good friend Lyle put it like this (and you may have seen his quote elsewhere):

“I’m tired of hearing about this Occupy Wall Street nonsense. We don’t need to Occupy Wall Street, we need to occupy Congress with good, moral representatives; we need to occupy our homes with loving mothers and fathers; we need to occupy our children with productive activities, not crime. Wall Street (as a whole) did not create our problems – we created our problems. We are dismantling our Constitution, we are electing dishonest people, and we are not teaching our children correct principles.”

I couldn't have said it better myself.

5. "Anyone but Mitt."

Pardon me, for a moment, while I bash on my own party:

You guys are stupid, with this "anything but Mitt" movement. Now, given, there are other viable candidates, but allow you tell me why I think he's the best man for the job.

1. He's got experience. In the real world, experience is all that matters. That's why it's so hard to get your first job. That's why it's so good for us to elect someone who has actually run something before, and that's why our current president is doing such a poor job, because he has very little executive experience. Mitt has plenty, from his time as governor of Massachusetts, to his running the Olympic committee, to his prolific business background, to running a Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (not a small task, usually requires about 20-30 hours weekly, on top of a normal job).

2. He was a Republican elected in Massachusetts. This is key to understand, because while he was there, he did what the people asked of him, even though he disagreed on occasion, such as with RomneyCare or raising taxes. This is something we have not seen in any recent administration, whether we're talking about Clinton, either Bush, and certainly not President Obama.

3. He understand economics and business. He knows how to create jobs. He sees the senselessness of the President's stimulus packages, and would do all he could to reverse those. He knows that building roads is just temporary work, not something that will "put us back to work," and more importantly, he knows the people know it.

4. He's honest. When he makes a mistake, he admits it. And if that means changing his view one something, then he'll do it.

I like Mitt. I think he'll do great, because of the aforementioned qualities. Here's more, written by Richard and Lynda Eyre, fellow Mormons and good friends of Mitt.

Well, that's enough for today. I look forward to 2012, when we can hopefully get President Obama out of the White House, and get a new, less-corrupt, administration in place that could help this country get back on a solid economic track.

In Response

" [This is] fantasy accounting at its finest."

-Doug Holtz Eakin, republican analyst and former head of the Congressional Budget Office, in response to the 111th Congressional Budget Office's claim that defunding ObamaCare will increase the budget deficit.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/01/05/gop-house-leaders-and-new-spending-promises#ixzz1ADNl7vXA

Summation of the 111th Congress

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent out a press release last week headlined "111th Congress Accomplishments." It quoted a couple of Democratic Party cheerleaders calling this the greatest Congress since 1965-66 (Norm Ornstein) or even the New Deal (David Leonhardt), and listed in capital letters no fewer than 30 legislative triumphs: Health Care Reform, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a Jobs Package (HIRE Act), the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Food Safety, the Travel Promotion Act, Student Loan Reform, Hate Crimes Prevention, and so much more.

"What the release did not mention is the loss of 63 House and six Senate seats, and a mid-December Gallup poll approval rating of 13%. Never has a Congress done so much and been so despised for it....

"The difference between the work of the 111th Congress and that of either the Great Society or New Deal is that the latter were bipartisan and in the main popular. This Congress's handiwork is profoundly unpopular and should become more so as its effects become manifest. In 2010, Americans saw liberalism in the raw and rejected it. The challenge for Republicans is to repair the damage before it becomes permanent."

-Wall Street Journal Opinion, The Liberal Reckoning of 2010, Jan 3, 2011, emphasis added

(read the full article here)

Fundamental Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives:

Liberals want to force everyone to do things their way. Conservatives live by the principle of free agency, allowing people to act for themselves, and learn from it- as long it does not infringe on the personal free agency of others.

2010... the Year the Ideals of the Founding Fathers Were Thrown out the window

So I thought I would take a few minutes and sum up all the major decisions, controversies, legislation by President Obama, Congress, and and a few federal judges. Also worth mention will be the elections.

• THe Cleanup of Haiti mostly dominated the news in early January. It was good to see the world unite to help these people out.

• In mid-February, President Obama unveiled his revamped healthcare bill... 1000 more pages added on to it, with legislation written in that has nothing to do with healthcare, including new regulation of all new student loans being processed through the Fed. It passed within a month, on March 21. It was the largest reform to pass through congress since FDR's New Deal... and it was done against the will of the people.

• Immigration reform once again resurfaced. Blah. Gratefully, the Senate killed the DREAM act, which would have caused even more federal spending.

• One of my favorite events from this past year was Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally. It was good to see that so many people are looking for morality in America, and trust in our politicians and other leaders.

• The Elections showed that there is still hope for America, where the super-majority of Democrats in both houses were diminished.

While they kept a majority in the Senate, and Harry Reid kept his seat at majority leader, the Democrats took quite the beating in the house, ending the ever-polarizing Nancy Pelosi's day of power, an event celebrated by conservatives and moderates all over America.

Enter at Stage Right-wing: John Boehner. I think he'll do a marvelous job. See ya, Nancy.

• Resurfacing also this year was the Prop 8 debate in California, where said proposition passed in 2008, banning homosexual "marriages". It was brought to court in 2010, and was ruled "unconstitutional" . . . by a homosexual judge. I personally see this as non-sequitur, and an appellate court sees this false reasoning as something worth hearing. Undoubtedly, this will have to be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. My opinion: the people spoke, Judge Walker. You were wrong.

• WikiLeaks became headline news in late November. It is defined by Wikipedia (not affiliated) as "an international non-profit organization that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks." This is something I have honestly been expecting to happen, as much as I hate it. I do hope we can try these guys, because they are undoubtedly responsible for deaths of soldiers, federal agents, and journalists as we continue to fight the war in Afghanistan. I hope Julian Assange is tried and hanged.

• President Obama actually did something good in December, and extended Bush-era tax cuts to all Americans, not just the poor. I applaud this decision, and hope he makes more along these lines.

• Federal Spending continued to increase, however, bringing the national debt to almost $14 Trillion, with a massive deficit of well over $1 Trillion . . . and federal spending continued to climb. If anything destroys our country, it will be this, because those in power subscribe to Keynesian economics, and believe that spending creates money.

from the hand of Glenn Beck...

"As the Romans found out the hard way,

just because it looks like Freedom,

doesn't mean it is."

Hillary Clinton

I've really never been a big Hillary fan. She's too liberal for my taste, particularly regarding gun control. However, I do think she is doing a good work, striving for peace and alliance in the middle east.

But i have a conspiracy theory to share with you. I know President Obama and her do not get along regarding how things should be done. I wonder if he has her over there so often to keep her from interfering in domestic affairs and damaging his political image...

image found here

Hope

I got this in an email :)

You can't see the rest, but Uncle Sam has a thought bubble that says, "It's fading."

No kidding.

Agreement and Progressivism

"Even on things we usually agree, they say no. They just think it's better to score political points before an election than to solve problems."

The President said this today in a speech, where he told us that he is going to raise taxes on oil, spend another $50 Billion to "stimulate" the economy and create jobs "immediately." The republicans have perhaps been working with him on past initiatives that were similar, but we can hope that maybe the Republicans in the legislative branch are seeing that this progressive, "moving forward" and "creating a better tomorrow" business is really a load of crap to socialize America, and that socialism doesn't work as well as it's proponents claim.

We can only hope.

The republicans need all the political points they can get. I hope they keep up this strategy of disagreeing with the progressives.And they need to steer this country back toward the free market, back to deregulation, back to letting us keep the money we earn, and thereby create more jobs, because we'll have the money to pay more workers, which will produce more product and services, have more money for research, marketing, and advertising, and create a higher demand. More demand, more money, more sales, more jobs, more income for the Fed.

Wow. What a concept.

From the President's tone today, I can see that the he's in a panic. He is angry that we want to take things back to how they used to be, the way that worked, the way that created the roaring 90s: Reganomics.

Read the full article here on FoxNews. You can see how worked up he really is, that he's losing political capital.

Don't like Fox News? Check out CNN's version.

False Reasoning

Thinking that we can solve the problem of growing government by growing the government, as well as more spending to stimulate a debt-ridden economy, is circle reasoning, bordering on being non-sequitur. I'm just saying.

Quote of the Week

"Sometimes I can't remember really important things.... yet, somehow, I can remember all the times I've gone pee in the past six months."

-my 18-year-old brother

So I read today on CNN and FoxNews that the Iraq War has cost the United States less, in its 7 or 8 years, than the recent stimulus bill that was passed. The Iraq war has show results. The government has kept us safe through fighting it, which, last I checked, is its job.

The stimulus bill has done nothing of the sort, save raise taxes and drive us further into debt. Sounds productive, huh? A strong federal government was not what the founding fathers had in mind, and said bill has certainly not been in line with their way of thinking. We've seen a 25%increase of government with this and other recently-passed bills.

And it's all done against the voice of the majority of the people. A democrat/progressive/liberal I engaged in a debate (if you can call it that; he just attacked people the whole time) put their view rather succinctly:

"D*** the Republicans! Full Speed ahead!"

I figured that's how it was...now my worst fears have been confirmed.

Quote of the Week

"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine but demonic."

-Pope Benedict

sources: picture- http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3424

quote: Glenn Beck, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,600150,00.html

Opinions

I have been relatively quiet about the mosque at Ground Zero. I will continue to remain that way, after I state my opinion here. I think that it's well within the rights of the Muslim people to build it wherever they want. This is, after all, America, and all who are citizens and corporations established in this country have the right to life, liberty, and property. However, I do not think it is wise, given the sensitive feelings of the people who lost loved ones there. I could go on for a while about this, but that's not the intent of this blog.

A close friend of mine was talking to some people who's opinion differed from hers, on this very subject. She agrees with me, and when she put her views forward, she was immediately called a bigot, a racist, etc. She was accosted; she was upset.

I have found this to be a pervading attitude amongst liberals, that if you don't agree with them, then you are a bigot, a hater, you are close-minded, etc. Well- perhaps they are right, when it comes to being close-minded. Morality has become a relative term, but those of us who choose true conservatism believe that you don't back down on your morals. If someone believes in their being a pacifist, great, you can. If someone belives abortion is wrong, fantastic. If someone doesn't like guns, then don't buy any.

What we don't like is when your views are forced down our throats, and we are forced to either pay into it even if we don't participate, when you advocate our property and/or rights being taken away, or when you tell us to "come together" on an issue that we believe to be morally wrong or economically unwise, or when we are forced to live around something that we feel is morally degrading, wrong, or simply uncomfortable.

I feel that the Muslim mosque is uncomfortable for many, because many of our people were killed under the false pretenses of that religion. So it is thus unwise to upset so many Americans who feel so strongly about it. I'm just saying.

PS- I don't want to be so open-minded that my brains fall out.

Quote of the Week

"Right now... [Glenn Beck is] a ticking time bomb for the progressive movement in this country."

-Robert Ringer, "Glenn Beck's Departure from Fox News, Part 2"

Today's Educational System

I work as a tutor at the LDS Business College during the school year, where I am currently studying business management. I chose to attend said school because I heard that it was excellent school. When I got there, and began tutoring my second semester, I was blown away by the great abundance miseducation that is beginning to plague our society.

Something I have observed is that people are becoming more and more concerned with doing only the bare minimum, and "passing that test", rather than becoming truly educated. So as we move through the next couple of paragraphs, please take note of each experience and the trouble that our society is headed for if this pattern continues.

• I tutor english. I have usually 4 to 6 appointments any given day. Foreign students aside, most of these individuals don't know how to write. I don't blame them- they want to do their best, or they wouldn't be coming to me for help. I blame it on the teachers, who don't take time to teach the kids in middle and high school great literature. I blame it on focusing on pushing an agenda, rather than teaching what a great paper is composed of. When these kids come to college, and all of the sudden they're expected be able to argue, to theorize and speculate, and to show patterns, they can't. Many can't even define what a paragraph is, let alone keep the basic grammatical structure taught to me in grade school.

• I also tutor Information Technology 102, which is a basic introductory course. This course is a prime example of teaching to the test. Most of these kids' lives, they're taught to conform to the basics. In all other aspects of college education, they're taught to learn, and to grow, and expand knowledge in their own areas of preference. In this course, they're taught to all conform, and basically bow to the mighty test, not to learn computer skills.

It's really annoying. I just wish there was something I could do about it.

Silencers

So I was reading today about silencers for guns and the cases for and against them. I haven't really formulated an opinion yet, but I at least found a rather hilarious quote on a blog:

"You can’t fix stupid, and you can’t legislate away its ill effects."

Summer Sales

I am a man of strong, biased opinions. That much should be clear from my past posts. Now- I am going to say some offensive things in this post. Get ready to have your eyebrows raised, or stop reading right now. The choice is yours.

Summer sales is a scam.

Yes, I said it, loud and clear. Why? Because it's not fair to any one who partakes in it on an ordinary level, especially honest people. I have had a large number of friends do it. Those who were honest, and I mean completely and totally honest, make almost no money. Customers are fooled into believing that the salesman isn't really a sales man. The companies lies to their employees telling them they can make 20k in a summer. I had a friend who went out for a month. He was honest. He made about $2000 (maybe less).

I have had my experiences, with these companies. I would say that the worst is probably APX. I almost got talked into working for them this past summer. I worked a couple of pre-season sales with my manager and his assistant. I watched them and had them attempt to teach me deceitful practices that made me uncomfortable, and I knew that if I gave into presenting myself in such a manner, I would not be qualified to hold a temple recommend for temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They would justify it and call it "good business." I can hardly agree, since several states, including New York, Minnesota, and others have banned these companies from going door-to-door to sell their products.

I have had several close friends tell me that their companies, Pinnacle, Terminix, Orkin, etc. have encouraged similar practices. I would encourage anyone who is with these companies to take a good look at them. If you feel like you can work for them honestly, and make a lot of money, then go for it. But I know it would not have been wise for me.