Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Search / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

TERRY’S TIDBITS

GOV PATTON

After hearing our beloved Governor on the news a few nights ago, I feel so enlightened.  I didn’t realize that if we cut the size of state government we would lose teachers from the classroom.  Boy, I’m glad I listened to a couple of sound bytes from him.

I wonder if anyone in government considers getting rid of some of the useless workers, and I use that term tongue-in-cheek, when considering cuts to government size.  It would seem that, since education is such a popular subject for campaign promises and debates, it would be left alone.  But I guess it serves a fit purpose as well when it is used for blackmail.

Being the kind of guy that I am, I would create a position of government spy; a government employee to spy on government employees.  Now there is a novel idea.    Pay this guy or gal to be a hatchet man, kind of like a secret shopper.  When he sees workers drinking coffee most of the day, he notes it.  The next day he does the same.  The third day, should this coffee addiction persist, the worker is gone.  The problem is that there might be no more state employees.

I laughed at Patton’s attorney when he said that an indictment would tarnish the reputation of the governor.  I laughed even more when the state’s attorney agreed with me -- the gov’s reputation is already tarnished.  The judge agreed, too.

JELLY BRACELETS

They are all the rage at school!  However, it seems that jelly bracelets mean more than just cheap jewelry.  They deliver secret sex codes to other kids in school.  “Oh my!”

Is that all?  Is that what all the uproar is over?  Well get a load of this: kids have been delivering secret sexual messages since sex was invented.  You aren’t going to stop them by banning bracelets.  “Hey Joe, take away their code and they’ll stop that nasty business.”  I see.  We could just neuter all of them and be done with it.

Jelly bracelets are not the cause of young teen promiscuity.  Jelly bracelets are just a form of speech conveying the sexual messages.  Jelly bracelets are a symptom of coming of sexual age. 

Kids are fascinated with new discoveries.  Sex is one of them.  Authorities outside the home want no part of this embarrassing little display.  “Let’s nip this in the bud right now!  No more jelly bracelets!  I mean it!”  Parents are for the most part no better.  They want their kids to be taught about sex in schools but “not too much.  Don’t give them any ideas.”  The parents don’t want the responsibility of this sex education either.  So, where do the kids turn?  To other kids and jelly bracelets.

I think you authority figures may be missing something.  I got it from a very good source that jelly bracelets aren’t the secret code devices.  They are a diversion intended to get your attention.  The real culprit is books.  Oh yes, those very school books that you give them.  They have turned them into hi-tech devices for conveying sexual interests and manifesting those interests into actions.  You better keep a close eye on those after-school study groups and any male/female students that seem very intent on hitting the books together.  They may be doing more than hitting the books. 

MEAT

I’m a meat eater.  I love it and live on it.  I heard on the news that meat is getting more expensive here because of mad cow disease in Canada.  I guess that makes sense.  U.S. farmers sell their meat to Canada because they are short on meat, which means they can charge more because of supply and demand.  Then, they can charge our citizens more for the same reason.  A well thought out and logically activated plan.

The day after I saw the broadcast, I went to Kroger.  I usually buy the five pound packages of ground beef for about $6.50.  I didn’t even think as I grabbed one and put it my cart.  At the self-serve check out, which by the way doesn’t accept the new, improved $20 bills, I scanned the meat, $9.50.  This is an overnight increase of $3.45 on a $6.50 item.  I bet meat is cheaper in Canada.

Well, while I’m here talking about meat, I may as well elaborate just a little on the $20 bill.  The government spent $30 million to tell you to ask for it by name.  I don’t care one way or the other except that it doesn’t work in ATM’s.  A box of rocks is fine with me as long as I can use it. 

Did you know that just days after the bill surfaced so did counterfeit versions?  Most people hadn’t seen the new twenties, so they didn’t know the difference between real and fake.  I think that $30 million in promotion would have been better spent in telling us what the things looked like before they were actually issued.

JAIL

I heard that it will soon cost you $25 to go to jail.  Some folks only stay a few hours.  I don’t think this is competitive at all.  For a few bucks more you can get a room for the whole night at the Holiday Inn and leave whenever you want.  Somebody needs to do some market research on this.  Personally, I’d opt for the Holiday Inn.

SMOKING

The smoking ban in Louisville is pretty much dead.  Mike Kuntz and Smoke Free Louisville are stumbling around trying to save face.  The anti’s didn’t have much a face in the first place.  They only had a bunch of tobacco settlement money behind them that was originally intended for tobacco education programs.  Smokers essentially paid for Smoke Free Louisville to try to stop them from smoking.  That’s kind of like the U.S. buying Saddam some guns.  Hey, didn’t we do that?

Austin Texas just repealed a 5 month old smoking ban that never went into effect.  I have to laugh out loud about this.  The mentality of enacting this kind of legislation in the first place is just plain funny.  The problem is that Austin’s government now requires bar owners to buy a $300 smoking permit.  Maybe that was the plan all along.

Austin is only one of many that have passed bans and then backed off.  Some cities backed off with big apologies and big budget deficits that weren’t there before.  It seems that there aren’t enough non-smokers to step in and patronize the places that used to be crowded with smokers.  Anti tobacco people just want the option, that’s all.  “We have the right to go there if we want but we don’t have to go.  We just want to have clean air should we decide to go.  We never said we would go there and spend money.”

People, you have the right to clean air.  I’ll give you that one and never complain about it.  What you don’t have is the right to take away the rights of property owners.  Your right to clean air can be fulfilled as easily as going to a restaurant that doesn’t allow smoking.  That you feel that your right extends to all property should be criminal.  In essence, you covet someone else’s possession and wish to control it.

I sent Mike Kuntz the Austin article.  I never heard back.   City of Austin Repeals Smoking Ban.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest / Search / White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN