When I moved to “Hotlanta” last fall I was prepared for the extreme heat and humidity caused by global warming. Global warming is, after all, a proven fact according to Al Gore. I am quite sure he has a detailed explanation of how “climate change” (notice they don’t call it global warming anymore?) is causing the 17° (F) temperature this morning with wind chill well below zero! But never mind, today I want to talk about another kind of chill.

One of the ACLU’s favorite rallying cries has been that government laws on obscenity, refusal to fund certain “art” and restrictions on flag burning have a “chilling effect” on freedom of speech. So where is the ACLU now that the President of the United States has used his office to tell people to stop listening to a particular talk show host and the official campaign arm of the Democrat party has started a petition to criticize and remove that host from the air. According to the Chicago Tribune, Obama’s “tech savvy” campaign, flooded a local radio station with calls to prevent Obama critics Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso from appearing on air. Obama’s campaign also asked the justice department to investigate a third party organization that was airing ads exposing Obama’s close relationship with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers.

Had these tactics been used by George W. Bush the media would be screaming in outrage and Congress would be calling for special prosecutors. Instead Congress is working to reinstate the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” which was repealed in 1987 by President Reagan. The “Fairness” doctrine was imposed by the FCC in the 1930s to ensure that “equal time” was given to opposing viewpoints. By 1987 it was recognized that television and the availability of multiple sources of information had made the rule obsolete. 

The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine led to an explosion of talk radio lead by Rush Limbaugh. Now talk dominates the AM radio frequencies and is popular on satellite radio as well. For whatever reason, the market has determined that conservative talk radio has been very successful; virtually all liberal shows plus “Air America” have failed. Having failed in the marketplace, the liberals are now, as usual, turning to other areas where they have more control. Just as they turn to the Courts when the people block their goals, here they are turning to the past to censor talk radio. Note that the Fairness Doctrine applies ONLY to radio, not TV, the Internet or print media. The sole purpose of reinstating the Fairness doctrine is to attempt to silence Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz, Howie Carr, and the rest of the conservative commentators.

I urge all my readers to contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to oppose the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine. Free speech is one of our most precious rights and we must stop this attempt to stifle it.

God Bless America

Most of us, at one time or another, have complained about nanny government trying to run our lives. Most of us are guilty of deciding it isn’t worth fighting about as we watch our rights get slowly chipped away. Maybe, just maybe, someone is fighting back. You’ll never guess who it is.

In upstate New York and in Michigan nanny governments are suing some individuals for building their own houses on their own property. They are complaining that the owners did not get proper building permits, did not use “approved” lumber and the houses do not have proper smoke detectors. All this may be true, but it would be very difficult for these houses to have smoke detectors because they don’t have any electricity. Nor do they have indoor plumbing. Yet these homes are not eyesores, we are not talking about shanty town shacks. These are beautifully built traditional homes.

The problem is that the owners are Amish. They do not use electricity and they will not apply for a building permit because to do so would require them to lie to obtain one. Another challenge is that the Amish believe in non-violence and no conflict which means that they will not even stand up for themselves in court. However people are stepping up to fight on their behalf.

As I have discussed in previous entries, the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution is very clear. It says, among many other things, that there shall be no law regarding “an establishment of Religion or the prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  Clearly it would be a violation of the Amish faith to require them to put smoke detectors (and therefore electricity even if only batteries) in their homes.

These are not commercially built homes for sale to an unsuspecting buyer. Several Amish homeowners have been fined thousands of dollars for failing to meet building codes. Enough is enough. How can we sit here and let local, county, state and federal governments dictate every aspect of our daily lives. In some towns, landscape inspectors will fine you if you do not mow your lawn or fertilize your trees often enough (Sunrise, FL for example). The federal government dictates to the states what the speed limit on state roads must be (and use extortion to enforce their mandates).

If I were to list all of the regulations that the various governments have imposed in order to “protect” us from ourselves, I would probably be typing for the rest of my life and then some.

When did we Americans stop believing in our own Freedom? Two hundred thirty-five years ago, Americans said NO to a tiny tax on a pound of tea. They stood up and said NO MORE. When are we going to do the same? When are we going to follow the direction given in these words in the Declaration of Independence?

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

It is time to make sure that we elect new Guards for our future security. It is time that we put a stop to this madness. If you want to read more details of the persecution of the Amish click here. Please, it is time to stop letting the government interfere in everything we do. Freedom is a vanishing commodity that is as precious as the air we breathe. Don’t let it continue to be destroyed.

God Bless America