Free Republic

Telemarketers or Tax Collectors: Who Annoys You More? July 4, 2001 What annoys you? I would imagine that, for a lot of you, it would be things like mosquitoes, dripping faucets, and your next-door neighbor's five-year-old with their favorite riddle. Phone solicitors would also be at or near the top of many lists of most annoying things. Recently, I got an e-mail from a friend encouraging me to join a web-based "do not call" list. The purpose of this list was to discourage phone solicitors from - more on this one later - "invading my privacy." The list is being ...

Putting Independence Back in Independence Day June 30, 2001 Twin Lakes, Colorado, is situated 130 miles southwest of Denver and two miles above sea level. This year, for the third year in a row, I will celebrate the Fourth of July by joining a few dozen friends at Twin Lakes for a weekend of camping, hiking, fishing, cycling, and otherwise enjoying the great outdoors. Although, as I write this, I am counting the hours until I leave, I am saddened that July 4th has lost so much of its meaning. Just as Christmas has degenerated into a pagan ritual that ...

A Saturday Sermon: Was Jesus a libertarian? Presented to the Convention of the Colorado Libertarian Party, May 19, 2001. One autumn afternoon in the 1960s, the Green Bay Packers were having a pretty pathetic practice session. Finally, their coach, the legendary Vince Lombardi, had had all that he could take. He blew his whistle, stopping practice, and held up a football. He said, "Guys. We are going to go back to the basics. THIS...IS...A...FOOTBALL." Upon hearing this, one of the players raised his hand and said, "Coach, could you go a little slower?" Today, as we ask whether Jesus was ...

When I was in college at Arizona State, some of us tried to put out an alternative conservative newspaper similar to those on many other campuses. To make a long story short, the venture never got off the ground. However, one story will always remain with me. I was having coffee one morning with a partner in this venture, who read to me a headline about Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. He then asked me, "Doug, do you know how much Sakharov would ridicule us for not being able to make this thing happen?" He had a point. We were failing ...

Liberals, predictably, oppose President Bush's newly created White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, on separation of church and state grounds. Christians and conservatives should likewise stand foursquare against it on biblical, constitutional and historical grounds. The details of the Bush program, otherwise known as "Armies of Compassion" (AOC), will become increasingly clear in the weeks ahead. However, Bush's campaign web site spelled out the general philosophy. It stated that: "Resources should be devolved, not just to the states, but to the charities and neighborhood healers who need them most, and should be available on a competitive basis to ...

The Wasted Vote Syndrome October 29, 2000 Bill Clinton just may be the most reprehensible scuzzbucket ever to stink up the Oval Office. If elected, Al Gore will probably be worse. Enough said? Evidently not. As was the case in 1992 and 1996, I am drawing all kinds of heat from Republicans for not supporting their candidate. (I am supporting Harry Browne of the Libertarian Party.) They accuse me of (a) indirectly supporting Al Gore and/or (b) wasting my vote on someone who has no chance whatsoever of winning. Bush supporters constantly tell me that "he may not be perfect, ...

W. and the Courts Don't get too excited! Published at Missouri League and Enter Stage Right, September, 2000. They tell me I am supposed to be breathlessly excited about this year's presidential election. They tell me I am throwing away my vote by supporting a third-party presidential candidate. They tell me there are monumental differences between Bush the Younger and Al Gore. Yet when I pin down rank-and-file Republicans, I find that they are not that excited about George W. Bush. He is merely the lesser of too evils. The last ditch reason they give for supporting him is one ...

H W J V. This is not an eye exam. It is an acronym for "How Would Jesus Vote?" HWJV is a paraphrase of the WWJD, or "What Would Jesus Do?", movement. WWJD is based on the premise that if we ask ourselves this question whenever we make a decision, and then act as Jesus would act, the world would be a better place. I am sufficiently out of the Generation X cultural swim to know much about the WWJD movement. However, its premise should guide us as we near Election Day. I am not going to tell you how ...

PLANS FOR W Go to George W. Bush's web page, and one of the first links you will see is entitled "Real plans for real people." Right beside it, you will see a link entitled "Blueprint for the middle class." As Rush Limbaugh says, words mean things. He reminds his listeners of this whenever he dissects such things as the Clinton health plan or justifications for the Elian raid. Words from the Bush camp mean things, too. They mean things that ought to make conservatives uneasy. Blueprints are good for designing buildings and cars, but bad for running countries. They ...