We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I am opposed to prison time for much non-violent crime. In fact, I don't even want Bernie Madoff in prison, living on my nickel at around $70,000/year. I'd rather see him shamed, shunned, fined unto poverty, and working as a greeter at an Orlando WalMart after spending a few weeks in the stocks on Wall St. or downtown Miami.
He would have made an excellent WalMart greeter.
I am also opposed to prison time for drug possession and, in fact, I am opposed to drug prohibition generally. Drug prohibition causes violence and craziness, makes drugs expensive, and feeds gangs and gang warfare.
This is not an endorsement of meth or heroin or even pot use, just pointing out that prohibition doesn't work and costs society more in the long run. If people mess up their lives and make themselves stupid with abuse and addiction, it should not be my problem. The prohibition is what makes it my problem.
When people ask whether there is a constitutional right to gay marriage, I can't understand where they are coming from. The people do not have enumerated rights. It's the federal government which has enumerated powers. It's about freedom from the federal state.
I am not aware that the power to regulate marriage is among the federal powers. The case for polygamy:
As a man, I can only imagine how much more efficient it would be to have one wife in the workforce and another wife at home with the kids. This would be much better for the children than shipping them off to some nursery school. And having three parents is a lot better than having just one … or none.
How about two wives working on Wall St., one wife home with the kids, and the dude fishing and hunting all day? Well, I guess that would not be very manly in today's world and might not attract committed women.
Russia has seen self-aggrandizing, luxury loving heads of state before. What really has turned Russian heads, according to my sources, is Obama’s eagerness to give things away. The Russians, you see, are hard-nosed. They drive hard bargains in their dealings with themselves and perhaps harder still with outsiders. They may even take what they can’t get through hard bargaining when you’re not looking.
Will this be bad for Republicans in the South? The Voting Rights Act resulted in an alliance between the NAACP and the Republican Party in the 1980s and 1990s to pack minorities into voting districts. This had the effect of ensuring that minorities would be elected to Congress (to the delight of the NAACP), but diluted minority influence elsewhere by reducing their numbers in all other voting districts (the GOP's end of the bargain). The end of the Voting Rights Act might have the long-term effect of making staunchly Republican congressional seats in the South more competitive and reducing the number of safe seats for members of the Congressional Black Caucus. I would say that is another victory for the nation wrought by Shelby.
We're #77 . Is that good? I was pleased to see that they now rate Centrist/Conservative/Libertarian together. Still, I'd term us "eclectic" and "centrist." We seem to be ranked higher than some superior, better-done sites. I'll blame that on our gardening information and our recipes.
Please make sure all of your friends read us here at Maggie's. No need to agree with our politics. We just try to keep it interesting and informative.
It's disappointing. I can't tell what "race" anybody is anymore. Maybe they will need to reintroduce skin-tone meters and eye-slant meters. It's all too stupid for words. Remember when Sharpton accused Obama of being "too white" to represent black people? I mean, if Obama is "black," then he's "white."
Autopsy report: Douchebag terrorist dies from insufficient diet
provided by SNAP program, and from multiple gunshot wounds and his
douchebag terrorist brother's driving; but mostly from the gunshots and
his brother's driving.
This is an attempt by Democrats aided and abetted by anywhere from 10-15 Republicans, to damage the rule of law by rewarding law-breakers and making fools of law-abiders, and giving Janet Napolitano sweeping power to disregard the law in her discretion
Breaking:
NSA Internet Spying Foils NSA Plot To Attack NSA - See more at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/in-the-news-nsa-internet-spying-foils-nsa-plot-to-attack-nsa-t11202.html#sthash.1aabgL9N.dpuf
Breaking:
NSA Internet Spying Foils NSA Plot To Attack NSA - See more at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/in-the-news-nsa-internet-spying-foils-nsa-plot-to-attack-nsa-t11202.html#sthash.1aabgL9N.dpuf
Breaking:
NSA Internet Spying Foils NSA Plot To Attack NSA - See more at:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/in-the-news-nsa-internet-spying-foils-nsa-plot-to-attack-nsa-t11202.html#sthash.1aabgL9N.dpuf
The moralising stridency of so many arguments for cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, and global emissions treaties was founded on the idea that there is a consensus about how much warming there would be if carbon emissions continue on trend. The rather heated debates we have had about the likely economic and social damage of carbon emissions have been based on that idea that there is something like a scientific consensus about the range of warming we can expect. If that consensus is now falling apart, as it seems it may be, that is, for good or ill, a very big deal.
Finally, even The Economist has become skeptical about weather alarmism. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Obama to Announce Sweeping New Powers on Tuesday – Will Regulate Power Plants to Save Country from ‘Global Warming’
Why not cut off power to the federal government first? Heat, a/c, and electric. That would show real leadership. Pres. Lincoln managed fine without electricity, central heating, or a/c, and he rode around town on a low-emission horse powered by biofuel. First, the gummint should cut the power to the NSA and the IRS. Then, the White House. Then Congress. Our moral and intellectual superiors should show us the way.
It's always "for the children" when there is no good argument. Now, I think Save the Polar Bears is a better angle to tug at the heartstrings. So cuddly, unlike bratty kids. The problem is that the bears are reproducing like crazy and are going to eat all the cute seals and all the Eskimos they can catch. But wait - the Kennedys are shooting seal pups. Too many seals? WTH?
Do the seals get a vote on that? At least the Kennedys aren't shooting the Eskimos who kill the Polar Bears and Killer Whales which would otherwise eat the supposedly "extra" seal pups, etc., etc.
I am waiting for the next crisis: Polar Bear population explosion attributed to global warming.
I am only speaking for myself, not for all on the commune here. My opinion is that we have immigration laws for a reason. If you are here illegally, it should be illegal for you to have a job or to even be here. I don't care whether you are Mexican or Bulgarian or Canadian. The US should enforce its immigration laws. What is "broken" about US immigration is absence of enforcement.
There are legal paths to become an American citizen. First, you apply for a green card. Then we decide whether you would add value to the country in some way that Americans can't. It usually takes years.
Otherwise, fix your own country so it's more like ours. America does not need more people. We have too many losers already.
When people ask me why I moved from liberal to conservative, I have a one-word answer: Detroit. I grew up there, on a middle-class grid street in northwest Detroit and a curving street in affluent suburban Birmingham, and I got a job as an intern in the office of the mayor in the summer of 1967 when Detroit rioted. I was at the side of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and occasionally Governor George Romney during the six days and nights in which 43 people, mostly innocent bystanders, died. I listened to the radio in the police commissioner's office as commanders announced, shortly after sundown, that they were abandoning one square mile after another. The riot ended only after federal troops were called in and restored order.
The last few weeks since Edward Snowden released not only the data he had, but also made his name and face public, have been quite interesting. It has caused many heated discussions in my household, as well as between myself and friends. After all, the US is split regarding whether Snowden did something 'wrong' and put our nation at risk. But I don't think anyone properly understands the case. I'll include myself, because I don't think anyone can fully grasp the various threads of law which surround the story. Primarily, though, it's because this involves classified documents and laws regarding these are arcane and biased toward the support of governmental authority rather than Constitutionally derived freedoms. Regardless, there are some essential facts which even the most simple of us can understand and make good judgements based on.
The most common arguments against my stance, which supports Snowden's actions, are these:
We don't have any privacy, and in never having it, we shouldn't worry if the government sees anything if we have nothing to hide. One part of this argument is almost correct but meaningless, the second part is downright frightening if we're so naive as to believe having nothing to hide is a useful rationale.
Snowden broke an oath, and in breaking that oath made the US less safe. Again, a portion of this is correct, but if it's important to you, you must stretch your moral guidelines regarding what an oath is designed to do, and the second part is just plain wrong, even after the NSA has listed its "successes" in thwarting terrorist plots with PRISM.
Mac Donald: The Real Risks of Amnesty - American competitiveness and educational achievement are the worry, not an increased threat to national security.
Mayor Bloomberg wants New Yorkers to compost their garbage. Where? In the hallway of the Plaza Hotel?
Who is "we", by the way? Royal "we"?
As we (Royal "We") frequently say at Maggie's, "If you're so rich, how come you ain't smart?"
NYC remains the greatest city in the world, and the most fun to visit with endless interesting things to do and jammed with smart, ambitious people from all over the world, but it has plenty of issues to be tackled: public education, debt, too much welfare, union control of everything, governmental over-regulation of everything including the housing market, etc. However, Bloomberg focuses on the small, elitist, feel-good issues: smoking, composting, diet, salt, gays, illegal immigration, and other baloney. Why?
We suspect it's because he gave up on the hard issues a few years ago, and decided to deal with the little stuff. He's a Jewish mother at heart, and a pain in the ass. "It's raining. Don't go out without your rubbers." "They're in my wallet, Ma." Rainy Day Women.
I agree with Palin that Americans, much less tough New Yorkers, do not need to be treated like children and neither need to be, nor want to be, preached to by anybody other than a pastor, priest, or a rabbi. I lived there for a while and love to visit, and it's not a place for sissies. It always was a good place to meet tall, elegant and refined debutantes with pedigrees acceptable to my Mother. I did, a long time ago, and so far, so good.
NOCD was the kiss of death when I was young. Snobs.
Almost every aspect of illegal immigration is illiberal to the core. Respect for the law? The elite decides that for a particular political constituency, the law is now fluid. If you are a Bulgarian M.D. and overstay your visa, beware. A Korean engineer wouldn’t dare to fly to Mexico City and cross illegally into Arizona. Without ethnic bosses and millions of compatriots within our borders, all others are lawbreakers subject to deportation.
I am opposed to prison time for much non-violent crime. In fact, I don't even want Bernie Madoff in prison, living on my nickel at around $70,000/year. I'd rather see him shamed, shunned, fined unto poverty, and working as a greeter at an Orlando WalMart after spending a few weeks in the stocks on Wall St. or downtown Miami.
Why Warp Drives 
Image via 
Photo from 
Navy to inspect bathrooms for 
Mayor Bloomberg wants New Yorkers to 