I urge all of you that care about your freedoms to sign this petition. Even if you are not a gun owner please realize that this ban would be both unconstitutional and unethical. The only effect it will have is disarming law abiding citizens.
NO Assault Weapons Ban Petition
Thank you.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Mr Waddoups Tear Down This Curtain.
Utah, 2009, although you could be mistaken for thinking we lived in a different year. Unemployment is on the rise, several of us are facing unprecedented pay cuts and the state is, like the rest of the country, facing a bit of a financial crisis. But let us not worry about that right now because there are more pressing concerns at hand. The zion curtain is not being enforced properly! Oh the horror.
For those that don't know what this is I shall explain.
The zion curtain is a non transparent barrier found in Utah restaurants to prevent children from being harmed by the sight of seeing alcoholic drinks being made. And no, sadly I am not being sarcastic about that. Think of it as being like a sneeze guard for sin. To get a better idea of how it works and some of the other rules to protect us from ourselves, click the link below.
The Zion Curtain and how it works.
Ok so are we now all up to speed on what it is and how it "works"? good.
Let us move on to the issue at hand. It turns out that several eateries are not adhering to the rules and are putting our children at risk by having transparent barriers. That's right, even as we speak there are children being exposed to the sight of someone mixing drinks along with all of those shiny bottles. This will surely cause irreparable to them and breed a generation of alcoholics right? Well this is what our house president seems to think.
Mr Waddoups is up in arms about this and the lack of enforcement. He is now calling for the responsibilty of this enforcement passed over from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to the Department of Public Safety. That's the guys that issue things such as concealed firearms permits by the way.
Did I mention that this is being done in the name of the children?
So here is a hypothetical situation (hypothetical because I don't have kids). Myself, my wife and our 2 perfect children go to Applebees for dinner. There is a large impassable barrier along the bar, the sin is being kept in. The waitress comes to our table, hands out menus and proceeds to ask us what we would like to drink. My wife orders an iced tea (her turn to drive), the kids order a soft drink of their choice and I order a beer. UH OH! There will be an adult beverage on the table. Even worse they will see me drinking said beverage.
This is of course the great big glaring hole in the concept of the zion curtain. The only thing it is achieving or has ever achieved is in making Utah look a laughing stock (the 2002 winter olympics for example). Utah is known for having some of the best skiing on the face of the planet and yet we lose a large portion of tourist money to Colorado. if you ask any of these skiers why they chose Colorado over Utah the answer will almost always be the same. Utahs archaic and draconian liquor laws.
So let's take a minute and consider that maybe Mr Waddoups and others in a similar mindset are correct. That the mere sight of someone preparing a drink is enough to turn the young impressionable minds into alcoholic monsters. Surely we should then take the next logical step and demand to have these same barriers in places like fast food restaurants. After all obesity and the related diseases (diabetes, heart disease etc) afflict more children per year than underage drinking. Don't believe me? Then take a look at the numbers over at US Census Bureau.
We could go even further an have these barriers around entire buildings such as churches that are not part of Mr Waddoups' beliefs and the beliefs of those that follow him. While we are at it maybe we should have all women and girls totally covered with just a slit so they can see where they are going (something in black maybe?). That way we and our children won't be harmed by lustful thoughts. Hey that's a great idea, I wonder why no one else has ever thought of doing that?!
The decision of how much a child is exposed to something such as alcohol is not an issue for legislature, it is an issue for parents. Let the parents do their job of raising their children and let the legislature get back to the important issues that we are facing. Let's get some of those tourist dollars back in Utah where they belong. If I may plagiarize former President Ronald Reagan:
Mr Waddoups, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
For those that don't know what this is I shall explain.
The zion curtain is a non transparent barrier found in Utah restaurants to prevent children from being harmed by the sight of seeing alcoholic drinks being made. And no, sadly I am not being sarcastic about that. Think of it as being like a sneeze guard for sin. To get a better idea of how it works and some of the other rules to protect us from ourselves, click the link below.
The Zion Curtain and how it works.
Ok so are we now all up to speed on what it is and how it "works"? good.
Let us move on to the issue at hand. It turns out that several eateries are not adhering to the rules and are putting our children at risk by having transparent barriers. That's right, even as we speak there are children being exposed to the sight of someone mixing drinks along with all of those shiny bottles. This will surely cause irreparable to them and breed a generation of alcoholics right? Well this is what our house president seems to think.
Mr Waddoups is up in arms about this and the lack of enforcement. He is now calling for the responsibilty of this enforcement passed over from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to the Department of Public Safety. That's the guys that issue things such as concealed firearms permits by the way.
Did I mention that this is being done in the name of the children?
So here is a hypothetical situation (hypothetical because I don't have kids). Myself, my wife and our 2 perfect children go to Applebees for dinner. There is a large impassable barrier along the bar, the sin is being kept in. The waitress comes to our table, hands out menus and proceeds to ask us what we would like to drink. My wife orders an iced tea (her turn to drive), the kids order a soft drink of their choice and I order a beer. UH OH! There will be an adult beverage on the table. Even worse they will see me drinking said beverage.
This is of course the great big glaring hole in the concept of the zion curtain. The only thing it is achieving or has ever achieved is in making Utah look a laughing stock (the 2002 winter olympics for example). Utah is known for having some of the best skiing on the face of the planet and yet we lose a large portion of tourist money to Colorado. if you ask any of these skiers why they chose Colorado over Utah the answer will almost always be the same. Utahs archaic and draconian liquor laws.
So let's take a minute and consider that maybe Mr Waddoups and others in a similar mindset are correct. That the mere sight of someone preparing a drink is enough to turn the young impressionable minds into alcoholic monsters. Surely we should then take the next logical step and demand to have these same barriers in places like fast food restaurants. After all obesity and the related diseases (diabetes, heart disease etc) afflict more children per year than underage drinking. Don't believe me? Then take a look at the numbers over at US Census Bureau.
We could go even further an have these barriers around entire buildings such as churches that are not part of Mr Waddoups' beliefs and the beliefs of those that follow him. While we are at it maybe we should have all women and girls totally covered with just a slit so they can see where they are going (something in black maybe?). That way we and our children won't be harmed by lustful thoughts. Hey that's a great idea, I wonder why no one else has ever thought of doing that?!
The decision of how much a child is exposed to something such as alcohol is not an issue for legislature, it is an issue for parents. Let the parents do their job of raising their children and let the legislature get back to the important issues that we are facing. Let's get some of those tourist dollars back in Utah where they belong. If I may plagiarize former President Ronald Reagan:
Mr Waddoups, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Political Correctness Part 2
I just came across this story from the Guernsey evening Press in my former homeland that highlights the problem with modern day political correctness.
Ban on nicknames at school branded pathetic
How much further does this have to go?
Ban on nicknames at school branded pathetic
How much further does this have to go?
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Political Correctness: One Step Forward Two Steps Back
Human history is filled with the atrocities committed against one section of society by another simply for being different. Segregation, the holocaust, slavery; All caused by a proliferation of prejudice and hatred. Until relatively recently you could not vote based simply on your gender or on the color of your skin. Of course that was then and we live in a more enlightened time right?
Well a bit more enlightened maybe but we are still a long way from the free Utopian society we dreamed of in the 1960's. That era gave us the civil rights movement, the free love movement and the beginnings of a new term we now know as political correctness. This was a new philosophy that aimed to end hatred and bigotry by encouraging us to view each other as equal. At it's heart is the ideal that everyone deserves the same chances, should have the same basic rights. A noble philosophy indeed and one we can all get behind. But has this ideal now gone too far? Are we now living in fear because of it?
The problem with modern day political correctness is it subjectivity. It has strayed from the original concepts of equality and moved towards making sure no one is offended by anything at anytime....ever. This is, of course, totally impossible. We now live in fear of everything we and everything we do. This has lead to an unfortunate side effect; The current trend that people don't have to take responsibility for their actions or situation. In fact what we have is more of the same, only this time instead of one group blaming another for all of societies ills we have people blaming others for their own personal failings.
Are things like affirmative action still needed in this day and age? The term was first coined by JFK during his presidency during a time of racial inequality. Does that inequality still exist now? There are many on both sides of that argument that will give you different answers. For those that might not know (and this is a very basic rendering of the concept), affirmative action deals with treating every applicant for a job the same, regardless of race, sex or religion. Unfortunately this is not exactly what this legislation gave us. Instead we got what I personally refer too as ethnicity quotas. Companies being told that they must have a minimum amount of African American, female etc employees. What this ends up meaning is that you may not be able to employ the best person for a certain job. This alone can and indeed has caused a lot of tension and contempt among people. Even now when I see the words "We are an equal opportunity employer I wonder if I will be passed up even if I am the best applicant simply because they have not fulfilled their quota. This is seen as progress by some, I think we need to look harder at what is really happening.
Now I have nothing against affirmative action or really the original ideals behind political correctness. The problem is what they have sadly evolved into. We are now at a point that we have to watch every single word we say just in case someone around us takes it as sexist or racist. What I, personally, find interesting is that often the people who will call you out on something that you never considered any kind of "ist" are often the ones who are more racist, more sexist than any one else. The same people who claim to be completely tolerant are normally the ones who see "ism's" wherever they go, even when none are actually present. An anecdotal example that I experienced happened during the recent presidential elections. I was asked if I was going to vote for Barack Obama. When I said, to their horror, that I was most definitely not I was accused of being a racist. At no point did this person consider that there could be other reasons I wouldn't vote for him. They instantly assumed that it was to do with race. This by the way is not true, I would not have vote for him because of his stance on certain issues; But that's something for a different article.
The response I had was what I like to call passive racism. The passive racist is not a racist themselves, they just see it in everyone else everywhere they go. This is a fantastic example of the almost paranoid state we can be left in if we take modern political correctness to far.
Sadly the very idea that was to have brought us new enlightenment has simply given us a new range of prejudices. We should all have the same freedoms and rights. The right to the best education, the right to be have our voices heard and our opinions considered. That's what a democracy truly is. Is everyone equal? no. It would be a pretty dull world if we were. However we are each responsible for the opportunities that come our way. If we decide to ignore those then we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you dropped out of high school and now find yourself, 10 years later, stocking shelves for minimum wage, then there is only one person to blame.
Some might say that it's easy for me to say that, that I am lucky to have a good, fairly well paying job. I simply reply with a quote form Thomas Jefferson:
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Political Correctness is not the be all and end all to societies problems. We each need to be able to take responsibility for ourselves as well.
Well a bit more enlightened maybe but we are still a long way from the free Utopian society we dreamed of in the 1960's. That era gave us the civil rights movement, the free love movement and the beginnings of a new term we now know as political correctness. This was a new philosophy that aimed to end hatred and bigotry by encouraging us to view each other as equal. At it's heart is the ideal that everyone deserves the same chances, should have the same basic rights. A noble philosophy indeed and one we can all get behind. But has this ideal now gone too far? Are we now living in fear because of it?
The problem with modern day political correctness is it subjectivity. It has strayed from the original concepts of equality and moved towards making sure no one is offended by anything at anytime....ever. This is, of course, totally impossible. We now live in fear of everything we and everything we do. This has lead to an unfortunate side effect; The current trend that people don't have to take responsibility for their actions or situation. In fact what we have is more of the same, only this time instead of one group blaming another for all of societies ills we have people blaming others for their own personal failings.
Are things like affirmative action still needed in this day and age? The term was first coined by JFK during his presidency during a time of racial inequality. Does that inequality still exist now? There are many on both sides of that argument that will give you different answers. For those that might not know (and this is a very basic rendering of the concept), affirmative action deals with treating every applicant for a job the same, regardless of race, sex or religion. Unfortunately this is not exactly what this legislation gave us. Instead we got what I personally refer too as ethnicity quotas. Companies being told that they must have a minimum amount of African American, female etc employees. What this ends up meaning is that you may not be able to employ the best person for a certain job. This alone can and indeed has caused a lot of tension and contempt among people. Even now when I see the words "We are an equal opportunity employer I wonder if I will be passed up even if I am the best applicant simply because they have not fulfilled their quota. This is seen as progress by some, I think we need to look harder at what is really happening.
Now I have nothing against affirmative action or really the original ideals behind political correctness. The problem is what they have sadly evolved into. We are now at a point that we have to watch every single word we say just in case someone around us takes it as sexist or racist. What I, personally, find interesting is that often the people who will call you out on something that you never considered any kind of "ist" are often the ones who are more racist, more sexist than any one else. The same people who claim to be completely tolerant are normally the ones who see "ism's" wherever they go, even when none are actually present. An anecdotal example that I experienced happened during the recent presidential elections. I was asked if I was going to vote for Barack Obama. When I said, to their horror, that I was most definitely not I was accused of being a racist. At no point did this person consider that there could be other reasons I wouldn't vote for him. They instantly assumed that it was to do with race. This by the way is not true, I would not have vote for him because of his stance on certain issues; But that's something for a different article.
The response I had was what I like to call passive racism. The passive racist is not a racist themselves, they just see it in everyone else everywhere they go. This is a fantastic example of the almost paranoid state we can be left in if we take modern political correctness to far.
Sadly the very idea that was to have brought us new enlightenment has simply given us a new range of prejudices. We should all have the same freedoms and rights. The right to the best education, the right to be have our voices heard and our opinions considered. That's what a democracy truly is. Is everyone equal? no. It would be a pretty dull world if we were. However we are each responsible for the opportunities that come our way. If we decide to ignore those then we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you dropped out of high school and now find yourself, 10 years later, stocking shelves for minimum wage, then there is only one person to blame.
Some might say that it's easy for me to say that, that I am lucky to have a good, fairly well paying job. I simply reply with a quote form Thomas Jefferson:
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Political Correctness is not the be all and end all to societies problems. We each need to be able to take responsibility for ourselves as well.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Time for Change
No not another story on our new president, this change is to The Common Free Man. That's right we have a new web address:
www.commonfreeman.com
This marks a new start for the weblog and a promise to ask what should be asked.
- Jim
www.commonfreeman.com
This marks a new start for the weblog and a promise to ask what should be asked.
- Jim
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
NanoWrimo
November is here and that can mean only one thing:
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
Sign up now and get writing.
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