School administrators have no sense of humor
A school in suburban Columbus, Ohio, suspended this teenager for pulling this prank that had the opposing team's fans holding up cards that spelled "We suck." They thought they were spelling out "Go Darby." Perhaps the three-day, in-school suspension was warranted, but the year-long ban on school activities was simply over the top. Why is it that our school administrator's seem to lack judgment? This is evidenced by the many zero-tolerance policies in place at our schools today.
Read the full story online at The Lima News.
[COLUMN] Let the games begin, in China
When the U.S. Congress returns from its summer recess next month, it will debate a matter of utmost urgency and importance: a resolution to boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
I realize that a snowball in the deepest bowels of hell has a better chance of fulfilling its destiny to smash some unsuspecting soul in the face than this bill has of ever becoming American policy. However, in American politics never say, "Never." Stranger things have happened.
Still, it is extremely unlikely the United States will boycott the 2008 Olympics.
Nor should they.
However, it is instructive to look at the arguments the supporters of an Olympic boycott are making.
Read more!
Bush gives Maliki kiss of death
On Wednesday, President Bush told a veterans' convention in Kansas City, Mo., that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri K. al-Maliki is "a good man with a difficult job and I support him."
Hmm.
On Sept. 2, 2005, in Mobile, Ala., Bush, talking about Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael D. Brown, said: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." The president was referring to FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina. Despite his "heck of a job" Brown was forced to resign seven days later.
Bush has demonstrated he is not a good judge of character.
I suspect Maliki's days as prime minister are now numbered (and in Iraq, that could mean his days are literally numbered).
Law school adventure begins
Well, I began my law school career this morning with a class on contracts. It is the first time in 15 years that I have sat in a college classroom and it was certainly a daunting experience. At 40, I am not the oldest person in the incoming class, but I am certainly near the top. Hopefully, my years of life experience, along with my years of opinion writing and advocacy for liberty, will serve me well, but I know there will be many hurdles as I maintain my full-time newspaper job as well as try to make time for my family, which includes a demanding 2-year-old and hopefully, soon, another addition on the way. Another hurdle is the 90-minute drive, one way, every day.
However, struggle and adversity is what makes us stronger (provided I can stay awake! 
). And if I don't succeed, well, at least I tried and nothing will have been lost.
Only time will tell.
NSA releases domestic spying records
The National Security Agency has opened some of its domestic spying records to the public.
Go to the Web site http://www.superspyomatic.us/ and type any someone's name and it will tell you what the NSA has learned about that person in its domestic spying program.
I was shocked by what I found in my file.
State school report cards
Just in time for the beginning of the school year, the state released the 2006-07 school report cards.
Lima city schools: click here.
State of Ohio overall report card: click here.
I have not had time to fully parse the numbers, however, Lima is, of course, way below the state averages. In fact, it is one of the worst school districts in the state being only one of 11 districts in the "Academic Watch" category. The only category below that is "academic emergency, in which no schools fall this year. The district only met five of the state's 30 indicators and did not meet the state's standard for "adequate yearly progress."
I am also a little dismayed by the state's graduation rate of 86.1 percent, which is lower than the previous year. That means 13.9 percent of all the children in government-run schools in Ohio do not graduate. Disturbing.
While I advocate abolishing government schools for reasons other than academic proficiency, these numbers only serve to bolster my call.
Cheney opposed to Iraq invasion ... in 1994
In this 1994 interview, Dick Cheney explained why invading Iraq was a bad thing. He even said it would be a "quagmire." I guess his memory is failing in his old age.
The solution to America's racial problems
So much for Christian values ...
A recent story from the Associated Press:
Church cancels memorial for gay Navy vet
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press WriterARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.
Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.
"It's a slap in the face. It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you,'" she said Friday.
Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.
The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing."
Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.
Read the full story here.
So much for Christian values, eh?
The paster, a slimeball, said he did not want it to appear the church was endorsing that lifestyle. Gary Simons should probably ask himself, "What would Jesus do." Isn't the whole idea of Christianity to embrace the sinners? Did Jesus not surround himself with prostitutes and other sinners?
A visit to the Web site of this megachurch is enough to tell me that Simons is just another evangelist trying to make a buck off Christians. Send an e-mail and let him know how much of a slimeball he is. The "church's" e-mail form can be found at http://www.churchunusual.com/general-email.html.
America biting its own tail
This cartoon demonstrates exactly what I was talking about in this week's column (the previous post). Our government's knee-jerk reactions do not bode well for the future of the Republic.
[COLUMN] Congress sanctions Bush’s law-breaking
The American people were once again - how can I put this delicately? - screwed by the very men and women sworn to protect us. I am referring, of course, to the gimcracks in Washington and all their gimcrackery.
The gimcrackery in this case is the "deal" struck between the president and the Congress that will permit the federal government to continue to ignore the Constitution by spying on Americans without judicial review or a warrant.
Fortunately, the deal is only good for six months.
If one were to make a case to impeach President Bush, his domestic spying program is where I would place my bet.
The Congress passed the legislation, known as The Protect America Act of 2007, in a shady fashion last weekend.
The bill passed the Senate on Aug. 3 by a vote of 60 to 28, with 12 senators not voting. Sen. Sherrod Brown voted against this constitutional abuse, while Sen. George Voinovich showed his disdain for the Constitution and voted for allowing the feds to spy on Americans.
The next day, the bill passed the House 227 to 182 with 23 representatives not voting. All three local representatives, Jim Jordan, Paul Gillmor and John Boehner, voted for this unconstitutional intrusion into our private lives. So much for Jordan's pro-family platform.
Then on Aug. 5, the president signed the bill into law as the members of the Congress adjourned and quickly evacuated Washington.
This new law is clearly unconstitutional. The Constitution is very clear in this matter: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."
Read more!
Air conditioning ruined America
Photo by José Gregoria Sánchez Duarte, of San Cristobal, Venezuela
That's right. Air conditioning ruined America.
From TheHill.com:
It's official: Not a single conversation took place Monday that did not involve the weather. It's hot. It's gross. We know.
But let it be a comfort that Washington has always steam-cooked its inhabitants in August -- and some say that had some decent policy implications for the country.
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) recalled chatting with former Sen. Jim Eastland, a Southern Democrat from Mississippi, asking the long-serving politician what was the most significant thing that happened since he took office in 1941.
"He looked at me and he said, ‘Air conditioning,'" Biden recounted on MSNBC Aug. 3.
"‘Before we had air conditioning,' he said, ‘that sun would beat down on that dome, heat up that place,' he said. ‘It would get too hot and we'd leave Washington, and we'd leave for the year,'" Biden quoted Eastland as saying.
"‘Then we got air conditioning, stayed year-round and ruined America.'"
I long for the days when the Congress would only meet for a few months every year. That way, we would avoid much of the dastardly deeds the Congress commits against the American people.
The case to impeach the president
Thanks to the History News Network, I found this excerpt from the July 13 edition of Bill Moyers Journal in which Bruce Fein, a constitutional scholar, who was Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan and is a weekly columnist for The Washington Times, and John Nichols, a Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine and author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism
An interesting watch. View the whole segment here.
First cigarettes, now ... laser printers?
The next great health risk?
A strange but frightening news story from the BBC:
The humble office laser printer can damage lungs in much the same way as smoke particles from cigarettes, a team of Australian scientists has found.
An investigation of a range of printer models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air.
The Queensland University of Technology scientists have called on ministers to regulate these kinds of emissions.
They say some printers should come with a health warning. ...
... The researchers have called on governments to regulate air quality in offices.
They also want companies to ensure that printers are based in well-ventilated areas so that particles disperse.Read the full story here.
So, basically, they first tell us cigarettes are bad for us and now laser printers are bad for us? When will it end? I imagine the next headline will read "Living found to be hazardous to our health."
Sometimes we are all better off to simply not worry about so much. After all, we are strong and we can adapt to just about any environment. However, if some people get their way, everything will be so sanitized that are bodies will not be able to handle even the most innocuous bug.
When reading stories like this, keep in mind what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger. "
[COLUMN] Bad laws should be violated
Public domain art found on multiple Web sites
A recent debate on The Lima News Internet forum has me a bit disturbed and, I am sure, has a few of our Founding Fathers spinning in their graves.
The debate centered on a dubious search warrant that permitted police to raid a party and arrest some adults who were drinking alcohol. The adults all happened to be under 21, but they were still adults, old enough to die in the illegal war in Iraq. They also can vote and enter into contracts; yet, because of an unconstitutional infringement by the federal government on the rights of states to make their own laws, they cannot drink a beer in the privacy of their own homes.
It is unjust and antithetical to freedom to have laws that prevent some adults from enjoying an activity in which other, older adults are free to engage. In fact, it is unjust and antithetical to freedom to have laws that dictate what any adult can eat, drink, swallow or inject into his or her own body.
When I suggested that free people have a moral obligation to ignore unjust laws, I was greeted with amazement. They told me it was irresponsible to suggest that people should be permitted to break laws and that the only legitimate way to change a law was to work within the system.
How frightening!
No matter how bad the law is, these people argue, you must follow it.
When did Americans become such sheep?
Read more!
Lima school officials in fantasy land
Photo by Stasys Eidiejus, of Lithuania
Alicia Anderson, president of the Lima City School District Board of Education, said at Thursday evening's meeting that whatever the board decides about how it should increase our taxes, the community will support it because "it is about the kids. I have faith that we can get this passed."
I don't know Ms. Anderson and I am sure she is a well-meaning person. However, she is clueless about the community supporting yet another tax just because she tells us "it is about the kids."
The people of Lima are overtaxed as it is. She is sorely mistaken if she thinks the community will just hand over more of its hard-earned money to the schools at a time when enrollment is declining.
Of course, school officials decided to blame the government for its woes for allowing the people a little bit of freedom of choice when it comes to educating their children.
Treasurer Ryan Stechschulte blames the successful state voucher program for the district's financial woes because as pupils leave the government system for private schools, the tax money collected to educate that pupil rightfully follows him or her.
Does that not make sense? Is it not simply fair that the money the state takes from us to educate a child actually goes to the school that is doing the educating? Don't forget, these vouchers are only available to pupils attending schools that are failing to reach state-mandated education levels.
Besides, what Mr. Stechshulte does not mention is that along with the loss of that tax money, there is also fewer pupils to educate, thereby reducing some, not all I will admit, of the costs of educating the city's children.
If the school district can't meet its bills, then it should do what everyone else has to do in that situation, cut costs.
Stretching Executive Power in Wartime
Man of Leisure, King George by Washington artist Kayti Didriksen. Photo by The Associated Press
Here is an excellent article from historian Jean Edward Smith found on a New York Times blog, though I disagree with his assesment of Lincoln and the threat posed to the United States during the Civil War. This was written in May and I meant to post it after it came out but kept putting it off. Definitely worth reading.
Stretching Executive Power in Wartime
"The Constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime president," wrote Francis Biddle, F.D.R.'s attorney general during World War II. Biddle was writing about Roosevelt's shameful 1942 decision to evacuate Japanese-Americans from the Pacific Coast and place them in internment camps. But Biddle's comment applies to all presidents in times of crisis. National survival or, perhaps more accurately, the president's perception of national survival always takes precedence. George W. Bush has been no exception.
In 1798, during the undeclared war against France, President John Adams supported passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which criminalized political dissent and gave the president a free hand to deport any noncitizen he deemed "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States."
Ten years later, President Thomas Jefferson sought to enforce the Embargo Act, which prohibited trade with Great Britain, by charging those who violated it with treason - an egregious example of executive overreach that the federal courts quickly rejected.
Andrew Jackson's contempt for the treaty rights of the Cherokee Nation is a familiar story. Less well-known is Jackson's attempt to halt the distribution of abolitionist literature in the South by censoring the mail.
Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, and in several states he ordered the trial of civilians by military tribunals. Although Congress explicitly authorized Lincoln to suspend the writ, it was a draconian measure that the president believed essential to preserve the Union. "Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?" he asked.
Read more!
Bush is a weapon of mass destruction
The following is a poem written as a letter to the editor that appeared June 2 in the Mansfield News Journal. It was sent to me by a reader. I don't agree with all the sentiments expressed, but many are spot on. I could not find the letter online so I am reprinting it here:
Poem depicts Bush as weapon of mass destruction
By Louis Oliver
Mansfield, OhioYou started a war on terrorism, when it's you I fear most.
You send soldiers to die, while you stay safe at your post.
You spy on my computer, secretly tap my phone,
Pull me out of plane lines, because you found a comb.
I get nervous when a cop's behind me, my skin color says I'm guilty,
They're so good at racial profiling, it's like they all do know me.
I work 40-plus hours a week, so you can take half of what I earn,
How can a government of democracy turn a deaf ear to all my concerns?
I'm taxed on every dollar I make, and again on what I spend,
Then you spend my tax dollars across seas, on a war that you can't win.
Companies threaten to move to Mexico, to keep their workers in check,
Daddies are stressed out, because of low wages and the boss breathing down his neck.
Gas prices go up and oil companies are making big profits,
Then you get on TV and tell lies, how you're trying to stop it.
We look to our government for help, but you're too busy in Iraq,
Your own people are suffering. The USA should be where your heart is at.
In your fight to free Iraq, you have imprisoned me.
You're the only weapon of mass destruction that I can see.
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