Free Republic

FARM SUBSIDIES AND THE END OF THE FAMILY FARM 12/30/01 Many people use the cry of the vanishing family farm to justify ever increasing farm subsidies. However, it may just be that such subsidies are actually creating this problem, if indeed it is a problem. First let's define some terms, it seems silly to call Archer Daniel Midland's vast farm holdings a "family farm". Let's call anything over 500 acres a corporate farm. There are many extended family farms with the parents and a number of grown children, let's call this a co-op farm and define it as between 150 ...

SYDNEY, Australia; Dozens of Greenpeace activists dressed up as nuclear waste barrels stormed a nuclear reactor Monday, scaling the walls and unfurling protest banners. Detective Inspector Laurie Pettiford of the New South Wales state police said 46 people were arrested Monday and would be charged with trespassing. A four-wheel-drive vehicle was used to block the gates of the Lucas Heights reactor in southern Sydney as two truckloads of activists ran onto the grounds, scaling a radio tower, the main building and a waste storage facility. Some unfurled banners reading: "Nuclear never safe." One protester chained himself to the top of ...

OSAMA'S LITTLE HELPER ON CAPITAL HILL 12/14/01 Months ago, the House of Representatives, passed an Economic Stimulus Package. However, it has been blocked in the Senate by Sen Daschle. In the Senate there are two bills, one favored by the Republicans, another is sponsored by the Democrats. If brought to a vote, the Democrat bill faces certain defeat, and the Republican bill faces likely passage. The difference? The Democratic bill features expanded unemployment benefits, while the Republican bill features tax cuts. What Sen Daschle is doing borders on treason. Our economy was struggling, then on 9-11came an unprovoked attack on ...

THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE 12/11/01 They told us it couldn't be done. They told us that the mighty Soviet Army couldn't defeat these people, and neither could we. They told us the Afghans were fierce fighters, totally committed to repelling any outside invader. They told us we would need 10,000 ground troops, and almost as many body bags. They told us the enemy would never surrender, would never be conquered. They told us the terrain and climate would decimate us. They told us the American people would not stand for a prolonged campaign. They told us it would ...

LARRY FLINT; OUT OF CONTROL 11/21/01 The Drudge Report recently reported that Larry Flint, of Hustler fame (a porno mag for those who might not know) is suing the Dept of Defense for not allowing him to put "reporters" on the front lines. He's always been somewhat goofy, even more so after the assassination attempt on him. But this outdoes even his most insane rant in the past. I find it hard to believe that Mr flint, after 30 years of publishing a skin mag and being a leading porno activist, has forgotten that his customers want to see women ...

AIRPORT SECURITY OUT OF CONTROL 11/14/01 It is well past time for a reality check about airport security. We have designated box cutters and plastic knives to be weapons. Ok, well somehow a number of terrorists managed to use these items to hijack 4 planes and kill a lot of people. Now there is a call to expand the size of our government by putting baggage screeners on the federal payroll, as if government employment equals efficiency. In Chicago there was a scare about a guy who tried to bring a number of knives and a stun gun onto a ...

HOLLYWOOD'S NEW RANT 10/28/01 Recently Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame did a speech about "patriotism's dark side". It is not unusual for Hollywood types to be totally devoid of any sort of logic, but this was so far out it needs to be commented on. Perhaps what really aggravates him is that an unnamed conservative talk show host in Houston "...got the ball rolling." (This might mean that this local talk show host has a bigger audience than Bill Mahar.) He complained that advertisers are pulling their adds from Politically Incorrect after Bill Maher's idiotic comments. But, don't these ...

The folly of the pacifist mentality stems from two root causes; cowardice and ignorance of human nature. When a pacifist is confronted by a thug he is afraid that if he fights back he'll make the thug mad and he'll get beat up worse. He is to ignorant of human nature to understand that to not fight back only serves to encourage the thug. This gives the thug a green light to beat up the pacifist not only today, but tomorrow also. In addition, the desire not to make the thug mad is just plain silly; he is already mad ...

GUN CONTROL; ADVANTAGE TERRORISTS As a nation, we have a fatal flaw. This flaw is a result of intellectual laziness and a desire to be always safe. We have instituted zero-tolerance weapons policies in both schools and airlines in the interest of "safety" because we are too lazy to deal with the real problems in a logical manner. It is so much easier to blame an object for an action rather than a person or group. The object can't object. Just as it is no surprise that concealed carry laws have reduced crime, it is no surprise that "gun free" ...

I find it quite interesting (but not surprising) to note that in the Sept issue of Field and Stream that the 4 letters regarding drilling for oil in AK that had a location, the two that were pro-drilling were from Alaskans, while the two that were adamantly opposed to drilling were from NY and WA States. I have also noticed that most people who are opposed to logging in the Tongrass National Forest are also not people who live in AK. It seems that everyone that has no personal connection with AK wants the people who live there to have ...

LAWYERS, LIBERALS AND LEMMINGS 8/27/01 The other night at work I was walking past a co-worker when he had a rhetorical question for another co-worker. He asked, ‘What is wrong with America?' As usual on topics like this, I had an answer; Lawyers, Liberals and Lemmings, more specifically, that we have an overpopulation of all three. First let me explain my terms. By Lawyers I am referring primarily, but not exclusively, to trial lawyers. Lawyers, especially the trial lawyers are heavily dependent on government actions to expand their respective fields. Bigger, more intrusive government with more laws (the more complex ...