A Pole Tax is an Unfair Tax

A few days ago the Los Angeles Times ran a story by Miguel Bustillo about taxes in Texas. It seems back in 2007, Texas passed a $5-per-patron fee (tax) on strip clubs to raise more than $40 million annually for anti-sexual-assault programs and health care for uninsured Texans.

Now most people would pile on the subject of health care. Here we go again with this health care nonsense. But you would be missing the big picture.

They imposed this stupid tax to raise some $40 million dollars per year in order to pay for anti-sexual-assault programs. It has been dubbed the “pole tax”.

There is no correlation between strip clubs and sexual assault at all. So why would Texas do such a thing? Because like many other states and the Federal Government, they think they can trample on your rights and liberty simply by tossing a tax on something they don't like.

You can call it whatever you want but the reality is, a license, a fee, a toll, all are nothing more than a tax. Taxes are used to control the behavior of you and me and it is unconstitutional. Yes, I said it. I am not a huge fan of strip clubs and I do believe they can be regulated as far as their location. (No a strip club should not be located in the same block as a high school)

But to regulate in such a way as to prohibit or discourage its usage is unconstitutional. It is not the governments job to do such a thing. And they damn sure have no business raising money from it.

The story says that the fee took effect on January 1 and that the owners of 162 strip joints in Texas took the state to court. The owners said politicians were cynically taxing a population they knew would not fight back. After all, men who make a habit of drinking and stuffing dollar bills in the attire of scantily clad women are usually not eager to tell the world about it at legislative hearings.

This could be said for a number of things. Which is why smokers pay such a heavy tax. I don't smoke cigarettes. I hate them. I think they stink. I think they are deadly. But I do NOT believe that smokers should be taxed so heavily on something that is legal. I do NOT believe they should be ousted from private businesses just because someone in a legislative chamber doesn't like them.

The story goes on to say that on March 28 of this year, Travis County District Judge Scott H. Jenkins said in his ruling that laws limiting such expression had to pass strict constitutional tests and that the pole tax didn't because, among other things, indigent health care had no connection to strip joints.

So this judge struck down this tax and well he should have. Just because government needs money it does not mean it can just go out and start taxing things it does not like. Besides it is not the governments job to provide funding for any kind of program or group.

Although it was done on a state level instead of the federal level (where such a thing should be done if it is done at all) it does not mean it should be done in the first place. And to levy a special tax leaves the door wide open for just about any activity to be taxed.

We have heard about the government wanting to tax snack foods and beer. They have wanted to tax SUV's and dirt bikes. They have wanted to tax certain professions like massage therapist. It does not end. Once you open the door to special or targeted taxes then we all become targets.

If the government cannot get by with the income it already has coming in, then it needs to figure out why that is and start getting rid of programs it has no business funding or administering. Think about it. We get reasoning for just about every new tax, fee or fine that comes down the pike now. The government may have a valid reason for doing something, but does it fit the Constitution is the question that needs to be answered. Kind of like seat belt laws which really are not about safety, they are about raising money for the government. Simple.

This pole tax was not about helping sexual assault victims, it was about raising money. Think about it, if this tax succeeded and ended up closing down the strip club industry, would sexual assault go away? No. Would the programs funded by those taxes go away? No. So how would they pay for those programs then?

Same for the smokers tax. If everyone stopped smoking, where would they get the billions in taxes collected every year to fund all the programs out there? From you and me in some other manor.

A tax is a tax and it is about control not about the programs that they say it will fund. It is about limiting your liberty your freedom. Don't fall for it next time someone in your state wants to tax something your or they don't like. Because someone will propose a tax on something you do like to do that they object to, like breathing.

Enviromental Wackos team up to wack OH Energy company

Just when you think there is not much to cover on the front of Liberty and Freedom (as if there is never anything to talk about in this country as long as there are Liberals around) all I have to do is open up a local newspaper and just read inside.

Just one issue of the Nashua Telegraph of Nashua, NH has given me enough fodder to talk about for the next two weeks. Seriously. And that is is only on the first 6 pages of the small city newspaper. You see, I don't usually read newspapers. I don't have high blood pressure now and I know if I were to read the bull that most Liberal rags purport to be news, I would end up with sever high blood pressure.

OK I am being a little bit funny there. But I do not read many newspapers because I know of their bias from years of reading them in the past.

One of the stories that caught my attention is in the News Digest section on page 2. Here is what the little blurb said in part:

N.H. To get $1.2m in pollution settlement.

OK you might think that is a good thing. The state is getting money from a polluter to offset the cost of cleaning up a mess. Well you would be thinking wrong. Read on.

CONCORD (AP) – New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte says the state will receive $1.2 million fro a multi-state settlement reached last year with an Ohio power company.

The money comes from an October agreement with American Electric Power Company over smokestack pollution that drifted across Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The case began in 1999 when eight states and 13 environmental groups joined the Environmental Protection Agency's crackdown on energy companies accused of rebuilding coal-fired power plants without installing pollution controls as required..

Yes you read that right. A company was sued by our government because they did not put some over regulated pollution control devises back in place when they up graded the plants that produce the very power that you, me, and the government uses.

Now who do you think is going to pay that settlement? You think an insurance company is going to pay? No. The reason is this is more like a fine but in order for the different state and federal governments to get a piece of the action it has to come down as a law suit. We the consumer will end up paying this bill.

Not to mention it will also cost this company finances to invest in new technology that would make using coal and other domestic sources of fuel a more viable and cleaner source of energy for all of us. After all we depend too much on foreign oil, at least that is what the left side of the political isle is always telling us.

The entire settlement will end up being $60 million to be distributed throughout the Northeast and parts of the Midwest for environmental projects such as improvements to building to make them energy efficient and investments in solar power.

Come on. Do you think any of that money is going to go to research and investment in solar power? I know for a fact it wont. If that is what they wanted the company to do then they would have just settled for the Ohio company to invest in alternative energy research and development. Or they could have forced them to invest in solar power by having them install solar energy producing panels and the like in buildings around the Northeast.

Instead, this was just a money grab no doubt led by the 13 environmental groups. You gotta ask yourself how many trees sacrificed their lives in order to make all the paper that this litigation needed? After all everything has to be written, stamped, mailed, etc on paper.

The environmental groups had to drive their cars which use gas made from oil in order to get to the lawyers offices and to get to court in order to try this case not to mention all the gas needed by those people serving the various legal papers to those involved.

You have to ask, how much did they destroy the environment by bringing on this law suit that could have been settled with a simple fine and proper administering of the fine money?

Don't think for an instant this was about protecting the environment. It was all about grabbing money from the big bad energy producers. The very companies that produce something we all want and enjoy. Electricity.

WMD's wer not a lie nor a joke, But the Liberals would like you to think so

There has been a lot of talk about the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq or the lack there of. We didn't seem to find many up to date weapons after our invasion five years ago. The calls began to go out that Bush lied and that there never were WMD in Iraq.

Well we know that Saddam did have such weapons because he used them on his own people. He had scud missiles that he sent to Israel during the first Gulf Conflict. He could have easily modified the warheads to carry chemical weapons and he did do so.

We know, though he was not able to get his hands on any, that Saddam was looking to acquire nuclear material or weapons.

There has been a lot of talk about how no WMD's were found in Iraq. However the dirty little secret is that if you notice they always say none were found in IRAQ. They do not say that Saddam never had them and was not trying to get more or build more.

In fact just about every report indicates that Saddam was trying to rebuild his WMD machine. And report after report indicates what intelligent and logical people know. Saddam and his high ranking trusted Generals began shipping his WMD's to his ally in Syria.

We also know that Saddam was willing to send some of his military equipment to his enemy, Iran to keep it from being captured or destroyed by the American Army.

The problem is the American people have been falsely led to believe that Saddam did not have any WMD. But we can see report and story after report and story that he did and was looking for more. Even newspapers that are not typically conservative have delved into this and dug up some interesting facts.

The New York Sun had a report back in January of 2006 about this. This was about the time that the Liberal Democrats were starting to ratchet up their lies and rhetoric for the run for the White House.

A Lebanese report back in 2004 indicated that a WMD program was being hidden in Syria and that Saddam and even North Korea were in on it.

The news is so prevalent that even the bloggesphere has a buzz about it. One blog, Stix, that says this;

There is a report to come out that says Saddam transfered weapons to Syria. Who would have thought of that???

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday.

Furthermore, according to a report leaked to the TV channel, Syria has arrested 10 intelligence officials following the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.

So it would seem that just about everyone knows that Saddam had WMD and was willing to use them and was willing to get more of them. So then why do the Democrats and the Liberal American press want to keep up with the lie that they did not exist?

Simple. They want power. They want to paint Bush as a liar and a thief. They want to portray our President as a spoiled little brat that is doing his fathers bidding by getting the man that he could not get when he was President.

They want to say that Republican Conservatives are nothing but war machine and oil baron promoters. They want to get into office so bad so they can take your freedom away. Why else would they be so willing to lie and put you and your family and our country at risk? They have their own agenda and they have their own WMD.

The American and Wold Liberal media is out to get the Democrats in office. They know how good it was when Bill Clinton was President. They want those years back. They want more open borders. They want more free transfer of classified and sensitive information and technology. They want the US people to be more vulnerable because in a way it makes their own nations more safe.

They want a weaker USA. In short, they know who will give them what they want. Liberal Democrats. So the next time you hear one of them say that Bush lied or there were NEVER WMD in Iraq:

Stop. Think. Vote.

James Carville Hypes Global Warming

I think every sane thinking and logical person knows that Global Warming as the non-Climatologist put it, is nothing but a hoax at best. It is devastating and communistic at worst that will cause millions of people to lose jobs and possibly their lives.

We know that Global Warming (once called Global Cooling back in the 1970's) is far from scientific. Check out the video below.



Oh, and lets not forget the biggest culprit in the Global Warming debate that seems to be forgotten by the Global Warming alarmist. The biggest culprit is no human activity. The biggest culprit is not animal activity. The biggest culprit is not volcanic or Forest fire activity. It is the one thing we have no chance of doing anything about. The giver of warmth and light and life is the biggest culprit.

I give you the SUN! The biggest offender of our planet's climate.



Even more proof that the Sun is to blame.



Recently, James Carville and his liberal friends have said that if fail to take action against Global Warming it could mean the near or total extinction of the human race. Carville himself has said we would be reduced to being cannibals and that some 5 to 6 billion people would die and those left behind would be forced to eat other humans because the earth would be too hot to grow food.

Someone didn't learn his earth science. James is forgetting that if there is no vegetation, then there would be a sever lack of oxygen. Why is this? Well plants produce nearly all of the oxygen we breath on this planet. So that would mean if there were no plants then there would be no land life at all.

Our planet would be like that of Mars except there would still be water. So there would be no humans at all. This is what I and every other logical thinking person are saying about these people. They are not out there trying to protect you or the planet. They are out there to try and run your life. Take away your freedom to live the way in which you see fit.

They want to tax you, law you, and run your life to death. Just listen to them next time if you don't believe me. Listen to their words. Listen to what they say the solutions are. Listen to what they say is the science behind what they say. Listen to everything and you will hear for yourself that all their solutions come down to taxes and laws and running your life for you.

Stop. Think. Vote.

Who Would Jesus Vote For, and why would He vote for them

What is Liberty and Freedom? Seriously, what is it? To some it means being able to do anything that they damned well please without any restriction. To some liberty is to do things that they think does not affect or effect anyone around them.

Liberty is not being able to do anything you want. Liberty is not something that is GIVEN by government. Freedom is not free nor is it cheap nor does it come without responsibility. It is precious. It is valuable and we are losing it.

Liberty and Freedom are given as a gift to us by God Himself. Uh Oh! Rod is going biblical on us now is what you are probably thinking. Rod is one of THOSE people. Weak minded Christian. Well yes I am a Christian. I do not shirk from my beliefs.

I believe that Jesus was the greatest Conservative that ever walked the earth. God gave us laws to live by in the bible that keep us from bondage. If we follow these things, these laws that God has set fourth we don't need extra laws set out by man.

Look around you. You are being “lawed” to death. Every time you turn around, someone wants to pass another law that regulates your behavior. They propose a law that will regulate your thoughts. You think this is not the case.

We have laws on the books called “hate crimes.” What is a hate crime? And if a deadly crime is committed against you or a loved one but you are not one of the protected classes, does that make your life less valuable? In the eyes of the Liberal, yes you are not worth as much.

You have to be black, or at least look black. You have to be gay, Jewish, fat, etc. You just can't be a regular human being. Why do you think some groups try so hard to get their group included in the classes of special protection people? It gives them power over you.

If you stand up and fight against them, they claim hate speech. If you fight against their agenda, they claim you are a hater. If you try and live your life without them, they claim you are a hateful segregationist.

They pass laws to force you to send you children to schools you don't want your kids to go to. They pass laws forcing schools, colleges and businesses to institute quotas. They pass laws that keep qualified people down in order to raise someone less qualified.

They are most likely less qualified because they pass laws that kept their parents from sending them to better public or private schools.

Every time you turn around there is someone who wants to take control of your life. They want to make it harder or impossible for you to home school your own child. They pass laws that keep your pastor, your preacher, your Holy Father from speaking up or out against them. If they do, they lose their tax exempt and non-profit status.

The worst part about all of this is that you and I vote for these people who wish to limit our liberty. We put those people in public office then scream foul when they do what they told us they were going to do. They were going to help us do this or keep others from doing that. Our taxes go up to pay for this and we have to pay a higher fee in order to do that. Yet we go to the polling places election year after election year and vote for the very people we scream about on a daily basis.

God told us about this. He said if we ask for wicked men we will get wicked men. If we ask for evil rulers then we will get evil rulers. We ask for the wicked, we ask for the evil every time we vote for them.

Why do we vote for them? Because they make us FEEL good about ourselves. They tell us that in order to considered a good person you have to FEEL. Forget logic. Forget about God and His laws. Forget that there is order in the universe. Do what you FEEL is the right thing. Even thought what you feel may change next year, it is what you feel right now that counts.

Even if your feelings don't make a lick of sense, go with it. Feel your pain. Feel my pain. Feel the plight of the wronged. Feel the evil of the good. Feel the hate of the logical. Feel, feel, feel. Forget logic.

Forget reason. Forget the Constitution. Forget Gods laws that protect us. Forget your sense of right and wrong. Forget, forget, forget!

Oh no, we have forgotten too much. We have given up too much. We have given over our very lives and now we wonder how do we get our lives back. And when we say we want our lives back, the one we voted for does not want to give it back. They don't want to give up power over our lives.

So what do they do? They give us more laws. They restrict how we can speak out against them. They offer to take care of us by taking over parts of our lives completely (health care). They want us to turn over our children to them so they can educate them. Forget that their education system has been a proven failure for at least the last 50 years.

They believe us to be children, stupid ignorant children. They should know because they educated us in the public schools. They tell us that Hollywood is more important to watch that Washington, DC. They blame Hollywood for giving us programing that glorified violence instead of telling us how bad violence is.

They want to protect us from ourselves by making laws that force us to do things we may not want to do. (Wearing seat belts, no smoking in a bar) They take over our own property by telling us what we can do with that property.

Oh no, we are to blame for our lack of liberty today. We are to blame for our lack of freedom today. Oh no, we cannot blame George W Bush for the Patriot Act. We demanded to be secure. We demanded that we be safe. We demanded that President Bush act to keep us and our children safe.

He gave us what we wanted. And we voted for those who allowed this law to go into affect. Yet we now complain about this law. But do we vote for those who would get rid of this law? No! We vote for the same people who approved his law.

Oh no, we cannot blame Washington, DC for our troubles. Oh no, we cannot blame the politician for our troubles. Oh no, we cannot point a finger at other nations for our troubles. We are our own troubles. Oh yes, we have done this to ourselves.

Oh yes, we have a chance to start changing this evil trend. We have to stop feeling and start thinking again. We have to look at the candidates for all levels of government and ask which ones want to bring back liberty. Which ones want less government in our lives. Which one believes that God has already given us the laws we need to live by. Which one believes that we can take care of ourselves. Which one wants to let me do what I think is best for my life. Which one. Which one?

If you vote for Hillary Clinton, then you are a fool. She does not believe you can do or live without her help.

If you vote for Barack Obama, then you are a fool. No he cannot. No he cannot do a damned thing unless you vote him into office. He will take over your life and you will scream foul at 3 AM.

If you vote for John McCain, then you are a fool. War hero or not. He put into place some laws that limit your liberty your freedom. He trampled on the Constitution by helping to craft and pass a law that takes power away from you and gives it to special interest groups and companies. He did not take the money out of politics, he just made it bigger.

So who do you vote for? I cannot tell you that. You have to THINK logically for yourself this time. You have a brain. God gave us all a brain. Now is the time to use that brain to bring some true law and order and liberty back to our streets. Back to our homes, families and neighborhoods.

Think. Ask. Vote. Be logical. In fact, a saying from the past few years fits for our times right now, although with a bit of a tweak.

Who Would Jesus Vote For?! That person deserves your vote and guess what? You will protect your liberty when you do.

Think. Ask. Vote.

Single Issue Candidates are Dangerous To Your Liberty

A lot of people ask me questions about my beliefs. They ask why I don't vote for or against issues directly. These people seem to think that the only thing that matters when voting for a person is their stance on a particular issue or two. Usually no more than four issues will determine if a person gets the vote of these people.

I feel sorry for them and for me. Issue politics has devastated our political landscape. It lends itself to heavy influence by the very groups and lobbyist that many people deplore. We have new laws that are supposed to limit the access and influence of special interest groups.

The problem is, that these laws end up limiting the liberty and freedom of the everyday American giving the special interest groups even more power and influence. The basic point is this. When you seek to limit the freedom and influence of a particular group you usually end up giving that group more power and influence.

I will never vote for single or limited issue candidates. Our nation is far more complicated than just a single issue or two. What happens with your candidate of choice once your issue is settled? What do they do then? How do the feel or vote for other issues that are just as important or even more important that your single issue?

See how short sighted and dangerous your limited issue vote can be? Besides, when it comes down to single or limited issues, what exactly do you expect to happen?

There are a lot of passionate people who are for and against abortion. The pro-abortion people say it is for the freedom of the woman to choose what happens with her body. The pro-life people say it is the freedom of the baby to be born that is the issue.

So both sides lobby hard for their cause and beliefs. This issue has sprouted dozens and dozens of Political Action Comities, lots of grass roots organizations, thousands of citizen soldiers that troll the halls of state capitols and the halls of power in Washington, DC. They vote in large blocks for candidates based solely on their position on abortion.

Is abortion an important issue? Well, yes it is a VERY important issue. Is it the ONLY or the MOST important issue facing our nation? No to both. But people will overlook other issues a candidate stands for or against because they will vote the way they want them to on this single issue.

You can pick just about any major issue right now and you will find the same thing going on. Lobby groups, PAK groups, grass roots groups, etc. All trying to influence how the tide of events will unfold. These groups often lobby for laws for or against their single issue. These leaves you and me in the dark.

We end up with laws that severely limit our freedom, choice and liberty.

Think about it. What ever happened to common sense, common courtesy, common decency? When we think of life in those terms, then we realize and understand that we don't need to have tons of laws on the books that end up limiting our rights, our liberty.

How often have you been stopped by a police officer and the officer has to look up certain laws to see if you actually broke that particular law? That is ridiculous. But, you would be surprised at how many laws are on the books that you and I don't know about that end up costing us money.

I speak from experience. I was driving a car owned by a fireman. He had a yellow and red emergency light in his back window. The State Trooper pulled me over for speeding, he said. (The charge was dismissed in court and I didn't have to say a word because it was obvious to the judge that it was stupid as explained by the Trooper representative.) He asked me if I had a firefighters badge. I said no because I was not a firefighter and it was not my car.

The trooper had to go back to his cruiser and look up the law. He then gave me a warning for displaying an emergency light improperly. I had no idea that ANY car I drive could not have an emergency only light displayed in the open if I was not a badged officer recognized by the state.

It was not my car. How the hell would I know about that? The firefighter friend of mine did not know about that law. Even the trooper had to look it up. Do you see what I mean about too many laws and that these laws end up costing you in freedom, time, money?

This is what single issue politics does to all of us. It ends up limiting our choices, our liberty. If we all just had some common courtesy, decency and sense then we would find we would not need so many laws.

How did our nation survive for about 150 years before the 1950's when laws began swelling the books in town halls all across the nation? It was do to personal responsibility and self respect. Laws tend to take that away from people and that leads to more laws.

Special interest and single issue candidates tend to vote for laws that restrict your liberty and freedom because their only issue is to get everyone to think and feel the exact same way they do. The only way to do that is to have laws that force you and I to comply.

I will not vote for a single issue candidate because my freedom and liberty if worth far more than that. I will not sell out just so one issue that may be important to me, gets the light of day. No there is far more at stake than that single issue.

Vote single issue and you vote to limit your own freedom and liberty. Its been proven by history. Its just common sense to pay attention to ALL the issues. Because if you vote for just one issue, then the rest of your life will be dictated by all the other single issues you didn't feel were worthy of your time. After all, they may not see your issue as being important to them but they will work just as hard to have their issue heard as you do to have your issue heard. A nation of single issues. Which one do you really want to live by?