Progressive

January 13, 2013April 18, 2020

Aaron Swartz Case Highlights Our Unbalanced Scales Of Justice

I didn’t know who Aaron Swartz was before hearing about his death this weekend. I realized I had heard of him once his biography was reported when the story of his death spread across the Internet. It seems Swartz committed suicide and that action might have been the result of stress due to his upcoming trial for computer fraud and abuse. If convicted he was looking at least 35 to 50 years in federal prison. What crime did he commit with his computer? He “stole” information from behind a paywall that he believed should be free to the public since we paid for the creation of the information. While his death is tragic for his friends and family, his case shows how unbalanced our justice system can be.

January 10, 2013April 18, 2020

Gun Debate Solved: Ban Ammo

The other day I saw on Twitter someone mentioned a possible solution to the gun debate that heated up after the mass murder in Newtown Connecticut. It basically said – Guns don’t kill people, ammunition does and the 2nd amendment doesn’t say anything about ammunition. What a great idea. We should ban ammunition. That would allow people to keep their guns and would reduce the chances of more mass murders.

Again here is the text of the 2nd amendment of the US Constitution:

January 6, 2013April 18, 2020

Requiring Relief Aid Be Offset With Spending Cuts Is Typical Republican Heartless Stupidity

Hurricane Sandy damage along New Jersey coast

Another natural disaster and another opportunity for the Republicans in Congress to be dicks about approving federal disaster aid. It happened with the tornado in Joplin Missouri and the recent Hurricane Sandy on the east coast. Republicans say that any disaster aid has to be offset by spending cuts. Not only is the demand hurtful to those who depend on the target of the cuts, the social safety net, but the GOP demand is stupidly irrational. Federal disaster aid comes back as increased tax revenue from spending by restored businesses and residential restoration work.

We’ve had several major natural disasters in the past few years like the tornado that hit Joplin Missouri in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy that hit the east coast in October. Each time Federal disaster relief funds were requested in Congress and each time some Republicans said they would only approve the relief aid if the money was offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

December 26, 2012April 18, 2020

Rights Shouldn’t Be Subject To A Popular Vote

Imagine if we took votes on what people could believe in, speak about, or who people could love? That doesn’t sound fair at all, right? People who support gay marriage know what I mean. That’s why when I read almost 250,000 people had signed a petition on the White House website to legally label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, I actually had a problem with the petition. While I agree with the point, Fred Phelps and his church are way off the crazy scale, just imagine if you were on the wrong side of popular opinion. As much as I dislike the Westboro Baptist Church, this petition shows why we shouldn’t let rights be put up for a popular vote – PERIOD.

Here is the text of the petition:

December 22, 2012April 18, 2020

New Merchant of Death: The NRA

The NRA may not have pulled the trigger at the elementary school in Connecticut but they can’t avoid any blame since they fight for little or no gun laws and benefit from and promote an irrational public fear that drives gun sales. The press conference they held on Friday 12/21 proves the point that they don’t really care about mass killings accomplished after their hard work. They now join tobacco and alcohol producers who also refuse to accept any blame for killing people and work to get legal protection. They have joined the merchants of death.

Here is the main take away from the NRA press conference: