Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
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Campaign Finance reform in reverse
Posted at: Sep/10/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: The Law,
Over the last 40 years there has been a slow but steady growth in laws regulating contributions to political campaigns. At the federal level these laws are enforced by the Federal Election Commission. The debate on these laws has risen to the Supreme Count. The arguments are centered around a movie attacking Hillary Clinton. Citizens United wanted to air ads for the anti-Clinton movie and .....read more…
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Remembering Walter Cronkite
Posted at: Jul/19/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Perspectives,
There have been a number of notable people who have passed on in the last few weeks. I am not big on glorifying or memorializing entertainment personalities, but Walter Cronkite was much more than that to me. The evening news we have now is a great deal different than what was broadcast 30 years ago. The so-called production value of modern news broadcasts is substantially better th.....read more…
Judges without personal bias?
Posted at: Jul/18/2009 : Posted by: mel
First of all, let me set the stage. It is the summer of 2009 and the U.S Congress is holding hearings on President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court Judge Sotomayor. During 4 days of questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee Judge Sotomayor responded to most questions with one of two possible answers. She either said it was settled law, or she said that she couldn’t answer because issue o.....read more…
The Challenge of our Constitution
Posted at: Jul/12/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Watching America,
The Constitution of the United States is many things to many people. Fundamentally, it is the framework for the Government, defining the three branches and specifying the powers allocated to each branch along with their limitations. Besides defining the government of the United States, it also guarantees the basic rights of the people. If you have not read the Constitution, you should. The Co.....read more…
Why rebuild New Orleans?
Posted at: Jul/08/2009 : Posted by: mel
After the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina in late August of 2005 there has been a lot of debate on rebuilding New Orleans. As of this writing we are nearing the fourth anniversary of the hurricane, and there is still a lot of reconstruction left. There have been many articles on what makes New Orleans special and why or why not to rebuild. It seem time for me to congeal a few thoughts o.....read more…
Is Hyperinflation Looming?
Posted at: Jun/29/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Economics,
First of all, I am not an economist, I do not work for the treasury. The scope of my economic knowledge is my wallet. In my college days I learned that Inflation is when the price for goods and services goes up, and generally goes up at a rate that exceeds most peoples wage or salary increases. Obviously, “Hyperinflation” would therefore be the extreme case of this. By extreme I mean that when.....read more…
The value of Torture
Posted at: Jun/23/2009 : Posted by: mel
First of all I need to be clear, I am not an expert on torture and while I like to expand my knowledge base… I am quite comfortable in my bliss with respect to this skill set. The debate on the use of torture by American’s for the sake of our security has been a very heated debate for most of the past 8 years (since September 11th, 2001). On September 11, 2001 I was getting ready for.....read more…
Are we seeing an Iranian revolution?
Posted at: Jun/18/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Politics & Gov,
Iran’s recent election of a new president has led to almost continual protest and descent within the country. Whether the election was taken by fraud or not is the point of controversy. I find the parallels to Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China both worthy of noting, and cause for optimism. A brief history refresher: In Beijing in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a serie.....read more…
Is the American Dream alive?
Posted at: Jun/16/2009 : Posted by: mel
I guess we should start with a definition. Since I am doing the writing, I get to do my own definition. I believe that the American Dream is a belief that the freedoms granted to all citizens and residents of the United States provide us with an opportunity to potentially achieve any goal through our own personal hard work that we set our sights on. The most common manifestation of the American.....read more…
What is happening to healthcare?
Related Category: Healthcare,
In my youth, and that was a long time ago, my father taught me that there were three sins of polite conversation. Polite conversation is that conversation you might have with someone at a social gathering that you don’t know really well. In this unique setting the three subjects that my father taught me to avoid were religion, politics, and sex. The concern is that venturing into any of these s.....read more…
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