There's a Need to Police the Internet: More Than Half of Americans Say That They Have Been Harassed Online
Don’t get me wrong; I am against online snooping done by governments. I firmly believe that the internet should remain free from government interference. The massive online surveillance program that the US government conducted during Obama’s rule was not just unconstitutional, but it irrevocably harmed the democracy that generations of Americans have toiled to preserve and strengthen. However, I am also very strongly in favor of online policing. While both of these might sound similar, they are in fact two very different things. Let’s look at an analogy to better understa...
The Decline of Political Democracy in America
In present-day New England, especially the state of Vermont, there is now a festering underbelly of disenchantment of the body politic, known as the Town Meeting. Once the Town Meeting reflected this historical summation of how Alexis De Tocqueville saw New England after the first American Revolution, when he wrote so enthusiastically, perhaps even naively, in his 1835-1840 classic work, Democracy in America: "The New Englander is attached to his town not so much because he was born there as because he sees the town as a free and powerful corporation of which he is a par...
Music of Censorship: “Burning Books Instead of Putting Out Fires?”
In previous articles, the topic of media censorship, both overt and self-imposed, has been discussed. The censorship issue does not stop there - aside from the larger and legitimate issue of intellectual property rights, there is also the issue of “petty music censorship” and how that is part of a larger scheme of things—heralding a wide range of things to come. One recent example comes to mind. Last year, for April Fool’s day, I posted an obviously photoshopped picture of an elephant carrying a lion cub in its trunk, the mother lion walking beside the elephant. A few day...
Democrats Want a United Stoned (States) of America
A piece run on Fox News was the first in some time to elicit the policy shift taking place across the United States. That shift is the move towards legalization of cannabis (a.k.a “pot”, “marijuana” and other more “street” names) in each state of the US, piecemeal, despite the still-present federal ban on the drug. That ban, dubbed the Controlled Substances Act, was passed into law in 1970, but it is a modern incarnation of the nation’s effort to federally outlaw addictive drugs that has been in place in one form or another since the early 20th Century. The states have b...
Confessions of a Reluctant Landlord
Every human being wants a dwelling to live in. A hearth defines our very existence. In America's current capitalistic epoch, where our country is being bought piece by piece by profiteering hedge funds, there are few recourses enabling us — regular people, workers, the lower and middle classes — to escape the need to rent. These days it is increasingly difficult to own one’s home. That harsh fact is becoming more and more urgent in the United States. I speak from 20 years' experience as a Landlord, albeit a reluctant Landlord. And, since I have just recently sold my prope...
Manufactured Outrage at Friendship Elementary
I randomly felt like seeing what was going on in my home today, so I did a simple Google search on “Glen Rock, PA news.” It’s a small town in York County, and not much usually goes on there. But what I found was a story that is so amazingly stupid, though, unfortunately, not surprising. It’s pure fake outrage, which is something this country seems to thrive on lately. You know it’s true—people (mostly liberals) will get upset and freak out about anything. Just ten, heck, even five years ago, people behaving this way would have been seen as completely unserious, not worth o...
The Bond between Dixie and Latin America
The Southern people have always had a certain kinship with the folks of Latin America. This has shown itself in different ways at different times in Southern history. Today, when there is so much animosity towards the United States because of Washington City’s ridiculous policies in that part of the world, we hope that by exploring that old kinship, warm ties between Latin America and Dixie can be renewed. In Dixie’s early life, when she was secure as a feudal society, with the plantations playing the role of Western Europe’s fiefdoms, Southerners tended to dwell on the...
Trump Supporters Can Say to Distracters: “Hit the Road Jack!”
What is now happening in the United States has happened before, but it is a relief to find that most rank and file; all walks of life care about one thing in the bigger political picture of things, jobs. The economy is the best it's been in a long time. There are a lot of jobs now. They can be especially found in transportation, and if you want to make money, just go and get yourself a CDL and drive a truck. There is a nationwide shortage. These are high salary jobs too. So they can point all the fingers that they want but at the end of the day it is the number of people...
Not Just Trump, Putin and Russia Also Owe an Apology From the Media
She lied to the world for 22 straight months. Night after night she sold the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy. But that, fortunately, has now come to an end. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s lie has been exposed. No Collusion, that is what Robert Muller’s investigation found. The four-page summary issued by Attorney General William P. Barr declared: “The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” Barr also confirmed that t...