Federal Funding and Speech Rights

I wonder how Planned Parenthood can officially support a political candidate while receiving tax dollars but somehow churches can't...

If the premise is that by receiving a tax exempt status you are somehow forfeiting your right to free speech then how can an organization who not only gets a tax exempt status but also federal funding get to endorse whomever they wish?

And how about teachers? Can someone tell me where they give up their freedom of speech? Granted, if you're a liberal teacher you can talk all day about whatever philosophy you want, but if a conservative teacher talks about a religious philosophy then it is somehow restricted?

And a student can't mention the name of Jesus in a public speech?

This is a great setup if you're liberal. You get to censor - at a local and federal level - speech with which you disagree. But like most liberal conveniences, there is always a dark side. Once it has been established that it is okay to censor speech that is inconvenient, how do you stop the Federal Government from expanding that power?

If free speech doesn't protect political speech, then it's useless and no citizen - liberal or conservative - has any political power.

Election Aftermatch

This election didn't work out the way I wanted to, but there are still benefits of an Obama win. For instance, some people who have been disenfranchised from being a "full" American now say they feel like they belong for the first time. Whoopi Goldberg (who I am not a fan of except for her appearances on Star Trek) said that now she feels like she can unpack her bags and that's a good thing.

Never mind that the Democrat Party feeds black people a message of victimhood; if now they can now put themselves in step with every other American, then something good is happening.

Welcome to America.

One word of questioning hope; can you now consider yourselves full Americans, not just "African Americans"?

After the loss, I reflected on what I thought, the good and the bad. I asked myself if I really believed in "Country First" and if I meant what I said when I asked Democrats to call George Bush their President. If what you say is right, then it is right, which is why I will refer to Barack Obama as my President and I ask all Americans, including my conservative friends to do the same.

That doesn't mean I will silence myself in opposition; it just means that when I disagree with Mr. Obama I will be as respectful to him as I was when I opposed President Bush on an issue.

Hindsight is 20/20 but foresight is better.

Liberal vs. Conservative; It's Not What You Think

The two sides of the political spectrum are not "liberal" and "conservative" but "liberal" and "libertarian". It's pretty simple once you think about it.

You have the Constitution as it was written. There are only two ways to go from the Constitution:

1) If you support giving government MORE power than it Constitutionally is delegated, you are a LIBERAL.

2) If you support giving government LESS power than it Constitutionally is delegated, you are a LIBERTARIAN.

Conservatism is, BY DEFINITION, a belief in the status quo of the Constitution. Whether a specific candidate who CLAIMS to be conservative actually IS, is the subject for another time.

The EXTREMES on those two directions are that LIBERALS turn into TOTALITARIANS and LIBERTARIANS turn into ANARCHISTS. Here's a small chart that explains it: [LINK]

BTW, these stances are possibly regardless of support of a specific claim. For instance, if abortion was literally a Constitutional Right, then the Conservative position would be a Pro-Choice one.

Politics and Religion

Thanksgiving is almost here and that means that most of us will unite with friends and family over a large dinner, taking the day off to feast and have fun, being sure to stray from the dynamite topics of politics and religion.

But why?

Why do we silence the two most important subjects in our existence? Someone could possibly get angry, true but this is my point; if we only talk about these subjects with people who agree with us, then we become more excluded from discussion and more "extreme".

One of my favorite things to do is debate - not argue; arguments get you nowhere - and my favorite thing about debating is not "beating" someone; (there really is no such thing on the internet) it's the fact that I learn more about myself...what I truly believe...and why I believe it. Because people will be questioning and challenging my beliefs from viewpoints I could never conceive.

This is a good thing.

Look at my links to the right. Camille Paglia and I probably have nothing but human DNA in common, but she is my favorite blogger. She presents her case in such a professional manner that I can't help but love her columns. Again, I disagree with most of what she says, but Camille's my idol when it comes to blogs. She is my example of what blogging should be. She is my example of what political discourse should be.

So this Thursday, eat some Turkey and dressing, watch the football game (talk about serious arguments!) and see what you can politely discuss concerning your and everyone else's rights. You might be surprised at what you find out about yourself.