Archive for August, 2009

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

• Holy cow! A deficit that’s more than the combined sum of all previous deficits since the founding of America, a deficit equal to three-fourths of the American economy? That’s what we have to look forward to over the next decade. After this administration’s tax collectors come for the rich, and find that insufficient, they’re coming for you. Bet on it. With that, everybody stands before the tax man as “the rich.”
• The absence of 73,800 people “missing” from Georgia’s year-ago labor force is described as an enigma. Here’s an often-overlooked fact: People are very good at determining what’s in their financial interest — and acting. They move. That’s how we filled Gwinnett, Forsyth and Cherokee in the ’80s and ’90s. Those reported “missing” from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey turned up here.
• Twenty-five million dollars in scholarships to 25,000 kids. Even without his other good deeds, that’s not a bad life accomplishment for …

Continue reading Please don’t come tax my co-cola »

Finally, an apology that matters.  Former Lt. William Calley, now 66, used an appearance before the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus to apologize for his role in the My Lai massacre more than 40 years ago.  Said Calley:   “There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai.  I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families.  I am very sorry.”

Calley, who has always contended that he was following orders, directed his platoon to kill civilians in the South Vietnamese hamlets of My Lai and My Khe.  He was convicted and given life sentences in 22 deaths. The sentence was later reduced by President Richard Nixon.  Calley, who avoids the media, now lives in the Atlanta area.

What makes this apology different from the wave of apologies for past transgressions that have become commonplace — the recent Japanese apology to the American  soldiers who suffered the …

Continue reading With apologies to all »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

Think this Congress couldn’t be worse — or farther out? Sunday’s interview with Cynthia McKinney is a reminder that, had she remained in Congress, she’d be important now.

Despite Atlanta’s financial woes, politicians should not be tempted to try the solution that Birmingham embraces: An occupational tax of just under one-half of 1 percent. The mountains and the sea are the first obstacles to job flight.

No question, home schooling should be treated with the same respect accorded other educational choices parents make. Allowing them to participate in the prestigious Governor’s Honors Program, as directed by the General Assembly, is an overdue acknowledgment of parity with public and private schooling.

Appropriate, too, are the $1.4 million in federal grants to help support new charter schools. The feds should have no more than a tiny, tiny role in k-12 education, the responsibility of state and local governments. Funding …

Continue reading No justice for MacPhail family »

It’s hard to argue against civility in public debate and it’s harder to argue that those who protest against proposed health-care legislation that lays the groundwork for a single-payer system should carry arms.

The plain fact is that nobody has any reason to carry arms to town hall meetings or to any other gathering organized to discuss public policy issues. Conservatives who do, as some did in Arizona to affirm their right to bear arms, merely give ammunition to those on the left who would like to portray all vocal opponents of the cram-down health care legislation as assorted kooks and other extremists who threaten public officials, and the President in particular.

Those who invite attention to themselves while exercising their right to carry weapons are probably among those who are least likely to pose a threat to any creature without antlers or feathers. I’ll grant the left this, though: Nobody has any business toting firearms in public settings where emotions are …

Continue reading Don’t give ObamaCare supporters ammunition »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

The federal “stimulus” program has been good for sign painters. Every project connected with it has a sign informing us that it was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Surely the six Marietta police officers to be hired with the money will wear shirts identifying them as gifts of the Obama Administration. No? Wait until election year.

Progress is noted in Fulton County. Juries now give death sentences to some of those who deserve it. For 25 years murders who deserved capital punishment could count on a free pass. What’s changed? Juries identify with the victims.

Opponents of single-payer government-run health care have the month of August to convince Congress and the Obama Administration that there’ll be a high political price to pay for their radicalism. That’s why Saturday’s Centennial Olympic Park protest, which runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and those that confront politicians …

Continue reading Stimulus good for sign painters »

Thank goodness those who turned out to question the health care legislation that’s being quickly and aggressively pushed through Congress by Democrats and the Obama Administration weren’t un-American.

Instead, they were described in the morning’s AJC as “civil, polite” and “asking smart questions,” thus offering “a lesson to the rest of the nation on how civil discourse doesn’t have to spiral into civil disobedience.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer would be pleased. On Monday, the two had asserted that the behavior of those who disrupted the health care meetings was “simply un-American.”

At the DeKalb meeting with Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson, three people were tossed after “a brief outburst.” Organizers “made it clear that groww misbehavior was not acceptable” and attendees were forced to pass through metal detectors, permissable language was spelled out and good behavior was enforced by “a large police presence.”

Harken back to the days …

Continue reading Are politicians afraid of us? »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

House Democrats propose to limit increases in the cost of some medical insurance policies to 1.5 times the annual rate of medical inflation, unless government says otherwise. Fair enough. Said government should agree, too, to limit its spending to 1.5 times the annual population increase or the annual rate of inflation of what it buys.

Best headline of the week: “Unclear how much time is left.” Second best: “Get answers now, as time may be short.” Both were over the same story. Guess its subject: a) a Southern Baptist, Holiness or Church of God revival; b) a late-night infomercial; c) cash for clunkers; d) global warming; e) the motorcyclist who sped to 170 mph in an attempt to elude police.

The legacy of former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones lives on. Taxpayers there may be about to take a big hit to settle reverse-discrimination claims brought by four current and former employees of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. A …

Continue reading Voters buy trouble on Election Day »

Let’s see how this works:  The federal government  switches on the printing press to crank out $1 billion which is then given to individuals to buy cars preferred by the government from companies owned by the government, obligating those too young to drive, as well as the unborn, to pay off the printing press dollars. 

it’s a very popular program and, of course, politicians in power wish to continue it, doubling it to $2 billion by shifting printing-press dollars from a “renewable energy” loan program. While a number of Republicans oppose the Cash for Clunkers giveaway, Democrats can pass it at will.  If they come up a little shy on the vote count, Maine’s two Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, are always ready to cross the aisle.

The encouraging news in the clunkers deal, as far as I’m concerned, is that the leading replacement vehicle, according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is the Ford Focus, a vehicle produced by a private-sector automobile company.  …

Continue reading Good news in the ‘clunker’ giveaway »