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Extreme Home Makeover, Lost Jobs in Kentucky, Anti-Harassment Policy, Coin Toss, and Happy Thanksgiving!

By Theresa Camoriano

1.  Extreme Home Makeover Project in Louisville – This project, which built a house for Patrick Henry Hughes and his family, is an example of the miracle of freedom.  In one week, local people, donating time, equipment, and materials, knocked down the family’s old house and built them a beautiful, new house, complete with a handicapped-accessible in-ground pool and a wing for Patrick that allows him to use voice commands to lock the doors and even provide music!  The whole community has been excited about this project, from the neighbors, who didn’t complain about the 24-hour construction schedule, to those who just watched and cheered from the sidelines.  The joy and sense of achievement have been wonderful.

It is so appropriate that Patrick is named after the famous American, Patrick Henry, who was known for the speech in which he said, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”, because this project was a product of freedom – free people acting on a voluntary basis to achieve their goals.  It is often said that people who want freedom are “rugged individualists” who want to “go it alone” and not care about the people around them, but this project illustrates the real issue, which is whether people should be free to cooperate on a voluntary basis or whether they should be controlled by the government through taxation and regulation.  Do people get this kind of joy or sense of achievement from paying their taxes?  Do they achieve this kind of heart-warming outcome? 

2.  Regulations Killed 1300 Jobs in Kentucky – According to The Courier-Journal, Kentucky pharmaceutical regulations have made it impractical for Medco to locate a huge pharmaceutical dispensing facility in the state, so it chose Indiana instead.  That means 1300 good-paying jobs never materialized here.  You have to wonder how many other jobs were not created in the state due to its regulations and taxation.  How many manufacturers did not locate or expand here because the state does not have a “right to work” law giving freedom to workers?  How many businesses did not build or expand in Louisville due to its taxes? 

3.       Louisville Schools’ Anti-Harassment Policy – The Louisville school system is considering expanding its anti-harassment policy to include homosexuals.  The trouble with these kinds of policies is that they give protection only to people who fit into political blocs and are used to push a political agenda, not really to protect people from harassment.  The policy should be that every person involved in the school system, including students, teachers, and staff, should be treated with respect and should be expected to treat others with respect.  It should not matter whether a bully is harassing you because of your race or religion, because you are fat, or you are homosexual, because the bully is jealous of you, or because you just seem weak and vulnerable.  Harassing behavior simply should not be tolerated by anyone.  Period.

4.       Coin Toss – A business in Evansville, Indiana has been making coins from various metals, mainly silver, to promote the use of coins of real value rather than fiat money.  They were just raided by the federal government and all their property confiscated, including the gold and silver in their vault that was used to back up their paper certificates. The C-J story said they were raided because they were counterfeiting money and consumers might be confused, but I have seen some of their coins, and nobody should be confused by them into believing that they are government-issued coins.  The real counterfeiters are the feds, who tell us we have to accept their paper money as if it had real value.  Many of the coins that were confiscated were new Ron Paul coins.  While Ron Paul was not involved in the coin operation, he has been a strong supporter of real money, either coined from precious metal or backed by precious metal.  It will be interesting to see how this event affects his presidential race.  Will people sleep better at night thinking the government is protecting them from counterfeiters, or will they be worried that the government is using their resources to attack an honest business – in particular an honest business that points out the government policy of currency inflation that devalues the dollar? 

5.       Happy Thanksgiving! – In other years, I have retold the real Thanksgiving story to remind people of the real lesson we need to remember from the Plymouth colony.  I hope you will click on this link to read that story again.  We have a lot to be thankful for in this country.  While there are many people trying to take away our freedom and our property, we still have more than most people in the world.  It is up to us to appreciate what that means, to make the most of what we still have, and to work to restore the respect for individual liberty and private property that have made this country great.

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