Here are links to some of our favorite stories and columns from the weekend and today.
Who’s gonna stand up to the super-rich? That’s what Frank Rich of the New York Times asks in a column that wonders whether the U.S. can even “afford the damage being done by the ever-growing income inequality between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else.”
“Don’t Touch My Junk” A man named John Tyner cell phone-video’d his refusal to go through the new “naked X-ray” machine at the San Diego airport. He then had to go through a pat-down, during which he told the TSA screener, “If you touch my junk I’ll have you arrested.” He now faces up to $10K fine in a civil suit. Here’s a CNN report on the incident.
The GOP plan in Raleigh As Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch points out, the GOP agenda essentially boils down to this: “Slash services to the poor and then make them pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes.”
Money now, freedom later Two gay troops groups announced today that they would support breaking off DADT repeal if doing so would help get the defense authorization bill through Congress. They will, however, keep pressing for repeal in the lame-duck Congress,
Who needs education policies? If you think things are getting really heated in Charlotte over school board decisions, you should take a look at what’s going on in Wake County (Raleigh), where conservatives took over the school board. NC Policy Watch reports that one of the conservatives’ leaders, John Tedesco, now says that abolishing the U.S. Dept. of Education “would be great.” Sorry, but that’s just plain imbecilic. Not that the idea being stupid keeps Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Sue Myrick from supporting it.
Gold to Go Worried about your money or your bank? Think you’d rather buy stuff with gold instead? Help may be on the way, with plans to introduce gold-selling “ATM’s” in the U.S., following the example of Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
Open letter from Iraq vet Jason Hurd, an Iraq vet from Kingsport, Tenn., wrote an open letter to the American people, urging them to support a policy of no more combat deployments for already-traumatized troops. Sounds reasonable, huh? Not according to the military.
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2010.
Why is abolishing the Department of Education ‘imbecilic’? The DOE is unconstitutional for one thing and as always, anything run by the government is inefficient, expensive, and just doesn’t work. Federal funding for education continues to increase but test scores haven’t improved, schools are crowded and teachers are, for the most part, over paid babysitters.and less violent? Unfortunately, the DOE along with every other bloated, useless government agency will not be cut because once created, they are hard to get rid of.
Throw in Homeland Security and Energy while we’re at it. Bring home troops from the 170 countries they’re currently in and we’ll be talking about some real money.
The DOE is needed to keep Tennessee and several other states from teaching poor innocent children that the earth was created in 6 days, 6,000 years ago and that Al Gore made up Global Climate Change in order to get rich.
As inefficient as DOE is, it is preferable to having Glenn Beck establish our education curriculum.
Mr. Grooms,
I will send you a certified check for $100,000.00 if you can tell me the section of the Constitution containing the word “education.”
Extra credit if you can identify this law correctly:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
I know you read these comments, so I expect a prompt answer (preferably one that doesn’t contain any of the following: “Bush”, “Palin”, “Beck”, “Iraq”, “Gitmo”, since (a) they are irrelevant to the matter at hand, and (b) I’m not a fan of any of them, so thinking that you’ll rile me up by attacking them won’t get you anywhere).
A hundred grand. C’mon big boy, step up.
Frankenmort, your whole argument is based on an interpretation of the Constitution that neither I, nor the vast, vast majority of constitutional scholars agree with. Kind of like no reputable theologian believes in literal interpretations of the Bible. In other words, your question is not really answerable unless one agrees with your underlying premise, so, to be brief, to hell with it, I’m busy. I would refer you to any number of judicial decisions that have accepted the idea that the Constitution has to be a “living document,” not a museum piece.
Please, someone name ONE thing the DOE does well. Just one. Global climate change is VERY debatable and based on facts that have been disputed by other non-left scientists. If I don’t want my child being taught in public school that climate change exists, I should have the ability to send my kid to school elsewhere AND take my tax dollars with me. Whether the constitution states that the government should be responsible for education or not is irrelevant, the fact is, the government does NOTHING in the interest of the people, it serves only to grab more power and money and the DOE is a prime example of that money and power grab while doing nothing to better our schools or our children.