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TERRY’S TIDBITS

By Terry Gray

April 11, 2004

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt

he proposes to pay off with your money.

                                                              ............G. Gordon Liddy

GAS BITE

          Most of our gas tax money is earmarked for road construction and repairs.  Do we need road construction and repairs when it is becoming too expensive to drive?  I say we need to leave the roads alone and make sure people can get to work and goods can get to stores.  Our service people are burning more money with service runs and will eventually have to charge more.

          Jeff Klusmeier is petitioning government to reduce or temporarily stop the tax on gas.  Good for you Jeff, but why do we have to petition the government to do this?  Are our moronic leaders not paying attention?

CIGARETTE TAXES

Taxes on cigarettes are scheduled to increase this summer by 37 cents a pack, up from 3 cents a pack.  Retailers didn’t wait to raise their prices. However, it looks like they are going to make a bundle for the time being.  They’d better get it while they can because tobacco will go underground in the not so distant future. 

When you catch your kid with a cigarette, you will be able to blame the government, retailers and yourself for making cigarettes easier for kids to get, harder for adults to get, and more dangerous because of the criminal element.

POWERBALL

          Would you rather have a decent shot at a few million dollars or a miniscule shot at a bunch of millions?  Would our economy be better off with several new millionaires or one huge multi-millionaire?

          Powerball is getting ready to increase the minimum jackpot to $15 million, up from $10 million but they are adding 5 numbers, up from 50 to 55.  It seems that our government makes more money when Powerball mania takes hold during big jackpots.  They sell more tickets because stupid people, many of whom can ill afford to drop a bundle on such a long shot, scramble to purchase tickets.

ITEMIZE SPENDING

          The government wants to know how much money I make, when I make it, how I make it, and where I spend it.  Then they want a bunch of it.  If I’m to give them all of that info and money too, I want to know where they are spending it.  In fact, I think it would be great if they gave us a list of things that we could earmark our tax money to be spent on.  With every tax return we fill out a form specifying what we want our tax money to go to and specify a percentage of our withholdings for each expense selected.  Why should there be a problem with this?

JERRY BOOTLEGGING?

          As far as I know, I can’t send booze across state lines.  Nor can I legally gamble unless it is for charity or government sanctioned.  Mayor Jerry lost a bet to Illinois on the NCAA and had to pay up with bourbon.  For some odd reason this is considered okay.  Even our liberal press makes light of it.  Jerry is a gambling bootlegger and should pay the price for breaking the law.

POT MONEY ACCEPTED HERE

          An Indy man was arrested after he tried to bail his brother out of jail with money that smelled like pot.  The man was obviously very stupid or very stoned.  However, the money was not confiscated but instead applied to the bail of dummy’s brother who came back later with more money, obviously clean or perfumed, to bail out his sibling.

          The cops will do business with anyone, won’t they?

POPE PETRINO

          I think that those in Louisville who don’t want to lose coach Petrino are fortunate that the Cards didn’t win the NCAA.  If that had been the case, Petrino would be in Rome right now, undergoing serious consideration for the Popehood.  Of course the scrutiny of Petrino by the Cardinals (holy) would be merely a formality.  Petrino would be a shoe-in.

DON’T WANT TO EARN OUR PAY

          Kentucky is looking at paying teachers on merit as opposed to education and experience.  Some teachers are complaining.  To those teachers I say, “Get a job in the private sector and then complain.”  You’ll see that real life is about scrapping for position and isn’t at all like the marshmallow clouds of academia.  Try doing some work.

KILLER CONVERSION AND TRAMPLING OUR RIGHTS

          Ann Coulter tells the tale of Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols, the Christian mother (and smoker) and the serial rapist.  She sums it up nicely when she tongue-in-cheek says, “In short order, Smith was reading aloud to Nichols from the Christian book "The Purpose-Driven Life" – in direct violation of his constitutional right to never hear any reference to God, in public or private, for any purpose, ever, ever, ever!  Here’s Ann’s tale.   http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20050407.shtml

READING THE SIGNS

          You wear a pacemaker, an electronic device riding your heart and prodding it to keep your ticker ticking.  You go to the door of a business and a sign in the door says microwaves are being used and that you should use caution or not enter if you are wearing a pacemaker.  Apparently the little devices have severe disagreements with radiation.  What do you do?

          Lawmakers, even after the logic of placing signs on business doors warning of the presence tobacco smoke for those businesses that allow smoking, disregard this logical, simple solution of signage to what has been made a problem by Nazi groups such as Smoke Free Louisville. 

          Wouldn’t signage be fair?  Businesses that would like to allow smoking in their establishments could still do so.  Customers that would like to patronize the businesses and smoke could do so.  People that don’t like cigarette smoke would be warned and could go somewhere else.  It is all cut and dried and over.  The only force used by government would be mandating signage.

          As with pace makers, signs allow freedom for all to decide if the risk is worth the reward.  A guy with a pace maker knows he can get a good steak at Frank’s but also knows that microwaves are in use and could kill him.  He makes a choice.  An antismoker knows that he can get a good steak at Frank’s but people will be smoking there.  He makes a choice.

          As it stands now, antismokers complain that the smoke bothers them and try to make Frank stop allowing what his other customers want.  How silly is this?

          Signage would have no economic impact.  It would have no freedom impact.  It would create no controversy – except in the minds of the illogical.  It would allow council members to lose their jobs over other, much stupider things than smoking bans.

KAPT

          I told you last year that KAPT is a government rip off and to stay away from it.  Putting your money in government coffers with the idea of using that money later is pretty naïve.  Just look at Social Security.  But with Social Security you have no choice.  Why would someone willingly give Uncle Big Brother money to hold for later?  It isn’t like government has shown any responsibility with our money.  On the contrary, look at Social Security.

          Now KAPT is in trouble.  I wonder what they used your money to finance.  The promise during this time of KAPT difficulties is, “KAPT will pay out the money as promised.”  Yes, look at Social Security.

(Editor’s note one major difference:  With KAPT there is a contractual obligation for the government to perform, while with Social Security there is not.)

DRUGS AND WEAPONS

          A recent drug bust in Indiana netted a bunch of drugs, money, and paraphernalia.  I never understood the concept of paraphernalia being illegal.  This must be the “appear to intend” garbage that found its way into the USA Patriot Act.

          Our liberal media also pointed out that two guns were found in the bust.  So what?  Are guns illegal?  Did anyone get shot?  Did the drug sellers put up a fight with the weapons?

          I want to know how many unmatched socks were also found.  How about peanut butter, steak knives, pocket constitutions, and cans of hair spray.  Why weren’t these mentioned?  Their relevance to the drug bust is no less than that of weapons.

          The problem is that the media look for stuff and if they can’t find stuff, they make it up.  If no guns were found they likely would have told us so, thereby creating the impression that guns are normally found during drug busts.

          Just as important in stories like this is when cops report that they nabbed 47 out of 90 suspected drug sellers.  They seemed pleased with the success of their bust, especially since they have spent tens of thousands of our taxpayer dollars setting up these stings.  Forty seven out of 90 is 52%, a far cry from success.  Our failing school system has a better record than that. 

AD HOC

          There is an Ad Hoc meeting on Wednesday, April 13 at City Hall at 5:00.  The issue is about a soon to be proposed smoking ban in Louisville.  Ellen Call, the councilman leading the meetings, has already stated that she will introduce a ban proposal soon.  So why is she conducting these fact-finding meetings?

          Isn’t this kind of like a judge saying that a defendant is guilty but he’ll hear the case anyway?  If someone is tying me to a train track I’m certainly not going to believe that they don’t intend to allow the train to run over me.

          You are all invited to the meeting.  Bring signs and armor.  These City Hall trains get pretty heavy, especially when the lynch mob of Smoke Free Louisville is there chanting about freedom.

AND FINALLY…

          There is the high school kid over Lexington way who was recently arrested for terrorism because he wrote a short story about vampires taking over the school and killing people.

          I could write one about vampires taking over government and killing our leaders but vampires would starve to death on the blue bloods running things in this country.  My story would be so unbelievable that it would be totally ignored.  But vampires killing people in school, well, that slaughter happens everyday and this kid must be locked up where he can’t scare people with such factual details.

          Since when does a fictional short story rate a criminal charge of terrorism?  How can a cop, upholding the Constitution for the United States of America, arrest someone for such a deed?  Cop dude, it isn’t your duty to follow orders.  It is your duty to protect freedom and uphold our constitution.  The same goes for those issuing the warrant.  What judge signed it? 

          When will they come for our dreams?  If they only knew what thoughts stirred in my head while I slept.  Governor Ernie’s plane crashing into the white house, producing a burning Bush; public school teachers being made to write, “I will not be liberal” on the blackboard 500 times while kids circle them with pictures of Bush; Dan Johnson being chased down Main street by thousands of roosters and finally being caught and pecked to death…oh the list goes on.

WAVE 3 AND 4^TH ST.

          Wave 3 likes to tell us that they investigate the problems and get results.  They don’t tell us that they fix the problem or that we’ll like the results or that if it were not for them the problem wouldn’t exist in the first place.

          They did do a good thing with reporting that Abramson was trying to run local bars out of business for the good of 4^th St. Live.  Hasn’t that been obvious all along? 

          Louisville is Jerry’s little toy project and he wants so much to be like other “world-class cities” that he can’t stand it.  To him, corporate businesses have much more to offer than hometown businesses and the Mom’s and Pop’s can die.  They are just a relic to be bulldozed to make room for more “upper class”, impersonal, and identifiable businesses.  Talk about terrorism.  Gambling, Bootlegging, and terrorism.  Arrest that man!

          Wave 3 did bother me somewhat with this report when they “asked the tough question”, “Is 4^th Street Live successful at business owners’ expense?”  Of course it is.  Few businesses are successful without infringing on the income of other businesses.  That is part of the territory and one of the hazards of doing business.  The problem with the 4^th St. scenario however is that 4^th Street Live is a government venture that is knocking the teeth out of privately owned local businesses and that ain’t right.  Government should not compete with private businesses by being in business.  That isn’t the function of government.

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