Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

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

TERRY’S TIDBITS

By Terry Gray
October 11, 2004

BUSH KERRY

          When I say that I don’t want Kerry or don’t want Bush for President, the reaction is mundane and expected.  The person to whom I’m speaking either agrees or takes up for one or the other.  When they take up for one or the other, I tell them that I don’t like that candidate either.  The answer to that is invariably that I have to choose one of them.

          They seldom acknowledge that there is another choice.  When they understand that I don’t want either candidate for president, they assume that I won’t be voting, and suddenly I’m un-American.  I resent this.

          The brainwashing to which our American society has been subjected has done a good job.  The democrats and republicans in office do not acknowledge third party candidates, or if they do, it is to either down-play them or hold them up as small threats; not as winners but as vote stealers.   They are correct that they are a threat, but the threat isn’t to America; they are a threat to a corrupt two-party system.

          I don’t want Bush as president.  I really don’t want Kerry as president.  In today’s political mindset, this attitude is mostly interpreted that I’m going to vote for Bush.  “You have to be out of your mind to vote for a third party.  They can’t win.”

          Sometimes winning or losing is not the only issue.  How I sleep at night is important.  My freedom of expression is important.  I’ll get neither should I cave in and vote for who I feel is the lesser of two evils, and I feel that voting for Bush or Kerry is nothing more than caving in. 

          I find a contradiction in the importance of my vote.  When I say that I’ll be voting for Libertarian Michael Badnarik, I’m told that it is a wasted vote and he can’t win.  I’m told that my vote for a third party puts Bush or Kerry at risk.  I contend that if my vote is important enough to make a difference to Bush or Kerry, it is important enough to express on my candidate.

          That we are fed up is a message we need to send to Washington.  So many people kneel down at the polls and pay homage to one of two parties who are stifling this country.  “This election is too important.  Maybe in the next election I’ll vote for a third party candidate.”  My mind reels at this.  There will never be a presidential election that isn’t too important.  But more importantly, because this election is so important, Libertarian Michael Badnarik has my vote.  A critical time is the time for sending a critical message.

KILLER COPS?

          There are two sides to the Mattingly-Newby case.  I find the fact that Mattingly put three bullets in Newby’s back on the top of my pile of things to consider.  I also ask the question, “If I, as a lowly citizen, had shot Newby three times in the back, what would a jury have done?”

          Black groups are holding up the lack of cop shootings of Koreans and Mexicans as evidence that blacks are being targeted.  I really don’t see many Koreans and Mexicans setting themselves up as targets, not to mention that blacks still outnumber Koreans and Mexicans.  How would blacks react if more Koreans than blacks were being shot by cops?  Would this appease the black community?  What if cops were murdering all races equally?  Would this be enough?

          I believe it was the prosecution side of government who made a statement that we have prosecuted more cops in the last 8 years than in the previous 20.  For some reason, he believed that this was appeasement; that the government is not letting crooked cops off the hook these days.  All this meant to me was that we have more crooked cops today.

          I believe that Newby was guilty of something.  But I also believe that Mattingly got trigger happy and needlessly wasted the kid.  It takes years on death row to do to a convicted killer what Mattingly did to a mere suspect in seconds.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?        

Remember a few decades ago when a party in Germany sprang up and began arresting political dissidents?  It was called the Nazi party.  Remember all the talk about the USSR and how they put their people in jail for speaking up?  Remember how we were told about all the people in Iraq that had disappeared because they disagreed with Saddam Hussein?  Why do we have American citizens going to jail for speaking their political minds?  America is a free speech zone.  The Bush administration is addressing its critics, from sea to shining sea, in the same way the leaders of tyranny address their critics.

RIDING THE BARE BACK FOX

          "We noticed it mainly because there's three nude women on it," says Rita Snider.  (So why were you looking Rita?)

David Snider says "we were coming off (the exit ramp) and I didn't realize if I saw what I saw, you know?"  (When did you realize what you thought you saw you saw David, you know?)

           The kids saw it too and now they know that women have backs.  Goodness, whatever are we to do?  Can you imagine their astonishment when they realize that everything that has a back must have a front too?
          "For me, it was a matter of thinking about my kids," David says. "I've got to get off at this exit every day, and it's unavoidable."  (Of course if he uses another exit he can avoid thinking about his kids.)
          The Sniders say they aren't buying that argument, and Rita says neither are her co-workers. "They were very upset about it.  (She and her co-workers have tried other exits but still think about their kids.)
        All the brouhaha is about “Bare Naked Ladies”, a new billboard advertising FOX Radio.  The caption reads, “Louder.  Faster.  Harder.”  Hey folks, it’s rock and roll.        

        Rita, those words are meant for rock and roll.  You could even add the word “Deeper” but only in the rock and roll sense as using it sexually would likely leave David deeply disturbed.

        What I have a terrible time understanding is how such wholesome folks could connect the billboard with sex.  One can assume that David and Rita are very open to suggestion and it bothers them when they are titillated in this way. 

I can understand the Sniders’ aversion to backs, however; they are where spines are located, you know?          
 

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