Lions and Eagles

A good friend from church sent me a forwarded email, one of those "Trump is bad but still have to vote against him to stop Hillary" things. This was the reply I sent back to him:

I'm not going to write about the Presidential race. I'm done with it. Let's go down the ballot. For United States Senate JOHNNY ISAKSON (Incumbent) Republican Talks conservative, but votes liberal.  https://www.conservativereview.com/members/johnny-isakson/liberty-card/ . JIM BARKSDALE Democrat Typical Democrat party line of being “for the little guy”... With more taxes, regulation, Federal control. ALLEN BUCKLEY Libertarian Seems to be a Libertarian of the “not wacko” sort, really for bringing Washington back to its proper place. For Public Service Commissioner TIM ECHOLS (Incumbent) Republican ERIC HOSKINS Libertarian During the primary I voted for Echols’ Republican challenger. Echols’ website bragged on some great causes that in my mind are very worthy for private undertaking but not related at all to the role of Public Service Commissioner. Now, I'd like to give the Libertarians a chance, but Hoskins doesn't even seem to b...

Maybe it's a dream, or a parable, or maybe just the invention of my wild imagination...  Picture a D&D-type setting, if you will. Two great dragons are preparing to battle for dominion over the land. But rather than fight directly, each is recruiting armies of supporters from the land's population. One dragon is Neutral Evil. She claims to be Lawful, but her misdeeds are well known, in spite of the fact that bards dare not speak of them and no one has the courage to hold her accountable. The other dragon challenging her is Chaotic Evil. He has claimed a recent conversion to Good, but this dragon has a reputation for deceit, and everyone knows that a dragon doesn't change their scales easily. Besides, before this contest began, this dragon was best of friends with the other. I am but a low level Paladin. Lawful and Good. I have friends who have tried to convince me to side with one dragon or the other. Some say that the Chaotic dragon will be less of a d...

I've had this idea rolling around in my head on the economic effects of health insurance coverage mandates. It started in my mind over contraceptives, but could be applied to just about anything, from prescriptions to doctor visits. My wife had an economics teacher who told her, "If you don't know about supply and demand, you will fail!" You have to understand supply and demand. Quick Micro Econ 101 review. Look at the graph over here. If you've taken an econ class, you should have seen variations on this again and again. The blue line shows that as price goes up, the number of people willing to jump in and buy goes down, and vice versa. Red line shows that when price goes up, sellers are more excited about selling. Somewhere in the middle, the quantity of product that buyers want to buy meets up with the quantity that sellers want to sell, and there we have what we call market equilibrium. That market equilibrium price is what you will pay without insur...

I've been lurking lately in a NeverTrump discussion group on Reddit. A Trump Train guy dropped in recently to ask, very respectfully, how NeverTrumpers were going to react personally should Trump win the election. I thought that it was a question worth thinking about, and after I finished writing my reply below, I decided to hold on to it. I might need it in the near future, and some of my friends are bound to be in the same place as I am. Here's what I said: Thanks for asking, and more than that, thanks for asking in a spirit of kindness. No matter what our differences of opinion, we need to be kind to each other, that's the only way forward . Speaking only for myself, when Obama was elected to a second term, I was initially very frustrated. Had to tune out of politics for a short bit. Nothing new or unusual about that, when you stand on principle you have to get used to siding with lost causes. After the frustration faded, and my wife and I spent some time in ...

We're deep in the Presidential primary season for next year. Some candidates have dropped out already, most are still standing. I believe there are currently sixty possible final face-offs between Democrat and Republican that we might see next year. I'd like to focus on just a few. I call them the "Not Again" race, two "This Should Be Good" races, and the "What The...?" race. Not Again I've been around nearly four decades now. I cannot remember a full four-year term when a person named Bush or Clinton was either President, or working directly for the President. From the first time I remember knowing anything about the country, George H. W. Bush was Vice President. Then, he was President. He was followed by Clinton. Who was followed by Bush. Who was followed by... some guy who hired another Clinton as Secretary of State. I am tired of Bush and Clinton. I don't particularly trust either one of them. I don't believe that either one ...

Part three of this November's voting guide, now we tackle the ballot questions! Two Constitutional Amendments, one Tax! Unless I decide to wade into the Presidential race at some point later on, this will be the last of it. Please read on....

Hey, we're almost down to a month before Election Day! The voting guide I did for the primary was such a huge help, especially for the local races, I'm going to do it again! I'm going to skip over the Presidential election for now. We can come back to that later, if we have time. I want to focus for a bit on those easily-missed races, the state and local offices and the ballot questions. Those offices are much closer to home than the Presidency, and all too often we just don't give them the attention they deserve. Let's start with the Georgia Public Service Commission. We have two seats up on the ballot for this race. For the primary, I voted for one incumbent, and against another. I'm going to do so again this time around. Here's why:

I voted today! Have you voted yet? Here's just a quick one-page cheat-sheet version of my voting guide, I printed this out and brought it to the ballot box this morning: Public Service Commissioner 1: Chuck Eaton Public Service Commissioner 2: Pam Davidson House of Representatives: Kent Kingsley Sheriff: Barry Babb Tax Commissioner: George Wingo County Commissioner 1: Charles W. Oddo County Commissioner 2: David Barlow County Commissioner 3: Randy C. Ognio Board of Education 1: Barry Marchman Board of Education 2: Mary Kay Bacallo State Court: Carla McMillian Magistrate Court: Jason B. Thompson Gambling: No Ending unlimited gifts: Yes Gun licenses for young military: Yes Closing primaries: No Personhood: No T-SPLOST: No Package sales: Yes

Quick update to my voting guide, I'm changing my vote for U.S. Representative. Details below.

But aren't all sales taxes regressive?   Funny, I never hear anyone bring this one up when the state or local governments are trying to get us to approve the SPLOST, or penny sales taxes, or any of those other "temporary but somehow never dying" sales taxes to pay for all of those local projects they love. When politicians want to put a new sales tax on us, the word "regressive" is never heard. It's only when someone proposes getting rid of a complicated income tax system that no one likes anyway that this word even comes up. Anyway, I want to be careful with this topic. "Regressive" is a politically-charged word. Let's make sure we establish what it means, first. According to Investopedia , a regressive tax is "a tax that takes a larger percentage from low-income people than high-income people". It may be just me, but that doesn't sound like a very precise definition. A larger percentage of what? Does this mean that, in a...

The purpose of the US Government, as envisioned by its founders, was to defend the people of the nation from foreign invasion and rebellion from within, and to govern the interactions between states. The purpose of The Episcopal Church, as envisioned by its founders, was to defend the people of the nation from spiritual harm and false doctrine, and to govern the interactions between states. In the US Government, laws are made and budgets are created by a bicameral legislative body known as the US Congress. In The Episcopal Church, canon laws are made and budgets are created by a bicameral legislative body known as the General Convention. The US Congress is over-weighted at the moment with ideological liberals. Conservatives are present, but do not have enough numbers to be effective. The General Convention is over-weighted at the moment with ideological liberals. Conservatives are present, but do not have enough numbers to be effective. The leaders of US Congress have decided that thei...