Photo by foxnews.com Campaign season is over, those who emerged victorious have been sworn into office and now it is time for the elected to govern. The first item on the legislative docket for the new Senate was the Keystone XL Pipeline bill moving with the speed and certainty of a glacier. The first thing done to…
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“…provide for the common Defence and general Welfare…”
The language of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution is very clear: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;… To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to…
Continue ReadingThe 114th Congress: Senate and House of Non-Representatives
“I don’t want to see any religious people in public office because they’re working for another boss.”—–Frank Zappa The 114th Congress began session on Tuesday with the swearing in of the new 58 members of the House and the 13 new members of the Senate along with all those returning, 534 in all, less the…
Continue ReadingA $500 wardrobe malfunction?!?
Will Rogers once said…….”And the thing is about my jokes is, they don’t hurt anybody. You can take ’em or leave ’em – you can say they’re funny or they’re terrible or they’re good, or whatever, but you can just pass ’em by. But with Congress, every time they make a joke, it’s a law! …
Continue ReadingA look back at 2014
As I make my final journal entry and blog post of 2014 I find myself waxing nostalgically for the year gone by. Like all other calendar years of our life before it, 2014 had its personal, political and economic highs and lows along with its special moments and of course its fair share of forgettable ones. For me personally…
Continue ReadingPushing back against Big Oil
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a controversial technique utilizing the injection of various chemicals and water to free natural gas and petroleum from deep rock formations for extraction. It has been around and used for several years and it does work for extracting those natural resources which are sought. It however is not a benign method. Its economic benefits have recently…
Continue ReadingRemembering the end of America’s first Vietnam
Two hundred years ago this Christmas Eve representatives of the United States and Great Britain negotiated an end to the War of 1812 in the Flemish city of Ghent. The Treaty of Ghent restored relations between the two nations to Status Quo Antebellum. Hostilities still existed until the treaty was ratified by the governments of both nations which for…
Continue ReadingThe misery of living in Obama’s America
I am not going to spend a lot of time or bandwidth on this but I would like to express that given where we as a nation were in terms of key economic indicators at 12:01 PM January 20th, 2009 I would prefer to remain where we are now rather than march backward. What’s…
Continue ReadingWhen North Korea says “Jump!” who asks “How high?”
This week’s cyber-hacking of Sony Pictures by agents of the government of North Korea has brought multiple issues to the attention of our nation. Among them the focus of investing resources preparing for the next conflict instead of the last one. We’ve known about nature of future hostile actions against our nation for some time and now here it…
Continue ReadingThe benefits and non-disaster of legal marijuana
On the way home from work this afternoon I heard the story on NPR of the Attorneys General of the States of Oklahoma and Nebraska filing a lawsuit against Colorado challenging that state’s legalization of marijuana. It seems that the plaintiff state’s AGs have high hopes of US Supreme Court intervention citing the supremacy clause. …
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