Fix the Economy and You Fix Education

A Healthy Economy is Essential to Future Generations


Jefferson's 'Academic Village originally opened to the surrounding farms of Albemarle County. Photos and rendering overlay by Bob Kirchman.

Guest Editorial by Michael Cogar

Today, Vice President Biden is in Virginia speaking about making college affordable. This is quite ironic considering the fact that since President Obama has taken office, the cost of tuition at a four year in-state college has increased 25%. Furthermore, in Virginia the average college student graduates with $23,327 in student loan debt.

For someone who was so concerned with the youth in 2008, he has an interesting way of showing it. Obama’s most recent plan for increasing college affordability has done next to nothing to address the problem; rather, it is simply pandering to get the youth vote. In fact, it is estimated that his proposals would save the average student less than $10 a month.

“If the President wants to help recent college graduates, why are 40% of us forced to move back in with our parents? Why is our unemployment rate still much higher than the national average? Mr. President thanks, but no thanks. We don’t need your handouts. I’d rather elect a President who can fix the economy and reduce the size of government in order to get my generation back in the workforce.” – Michael Cogar, College Republican Federation of Virginia Chairman

Theatre of the Absurd...

Two Obama Voters on an Escalator


ht/Phil

Yankee Phil [click to read] offers this instructive little video. Also you should check out "Gun Safety for Dummies" [click to read] to see why you should exercise caution when "professional" journalists set up photo ops in your shop. The message that goes out may be contrary to that which you actually want to publish.

'Fairness' or Censorship?

The First Amendment and its Dismantlers

Rush Limbaugh Writes in the Wall Street Journal [click to read] about new efforts to silence differing opinions on the government licensed media. I Have Written Before About Why the 'Fairness' Doctrine Isnt! [click to read].

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." -- Amendment I, US Constitution

It's clear that the founders of our Nation felt it necessary to explicitly protect public dialogue. It is also clear that certain public officials feel it necessary to squelch such dialogue. That is a dangerous precident. Here's a Petition Being Circulated by World Net Daily [click to sign] that addresses the 'Fairness' Doctrine. It's time to exercise this right or lose it for a long time...

ht/Lynn


Arts Building at Miller School of Albemarle.

An Open Letter to Our Leaders

American Public Opinion Matters


Rally at the State Capitol 02/10/09

"When the day comes that anyone can bend our country’s laws and lawmakers to serve selfish, competitive ends, that day democratic government dies. And we’re just optimistic enough to believe that once the facts are on the table, American public opinion will walk in with a big stick." --Preston Tucker, From a Letter Published June 15, 1948 [click to read]

(Preston Tucker was an innovative pioneer in the automobile industry. US Attorney Otto Kerner was instrumental in destroying the Tucker Company before it could go into full-scale production. Kerner was later jailed for stock fraud and Tucker was eventually acquitted, but the company was no more.)

We are right to be suspicious of government overreach. There is plenty of evidence to tell us that public business must be conducted in the open. It was wrong to rush a big spending bill to passage without due diligence. Money for ACORN and new healthcare bureaucracy deserves the light of public scrutiny.

Mister President, Congressmen, Senators, County Supervisors:

Please listen to the people you serve. When you tell us that we must not listen to Rush Limbaugh in order to get along with you and he's laid the facts we need to know on the table, it is clear that you desire a chilling effect when it comes to public discourse. Likewise it is childish to shun the one County supervisor who dares to speak for the people of his district -- thank you Mr. Pyles!

History tells us that clumsy govenment intervention has actually prolonged economic distress and has Dulled Creative Renewal of the industries it purports to save.

President Obama, the majority of the people who elected you are not of the same mind as your leftist underwriters. Many of them see government as an agent that may provide relief for their situation but I don't think they want bureacrats deciding who gets medical treatment either. Most of them do not support unlimited abortion and would welcome 'choice' if it meant where they were able to send their children to school.

We want to see American ingenuity applied to our energy problems and do not want to see government policies such as ethanol credits force us into the weaker solution. We are an odd people, desiring the government to save us while legitimately suspicious of the agencies of government we already deal with. If government solutions had the track record to suggest we could blindly trust them we'd all be looking forward to a fine retirement drawing from the Social Security Trust Fund (where is it again)? and regulators would have let us have Preston Tucker's marvelous automobile in its day.

Regular elections are a necessary check on the abuse of power. That includes primary elections where fresh ideas may be tested. Sometimes it is necessary to challenge entrenched officials as was done in Gloucester recently. Citizens should not be punished for such challenges. Delegate Harvey Morgan is to be commended for introducing legislation to protect citizens in such cases from outrageous judgements such as the $80,000 fine ordered in the Gloucester case.

Please remember the principle "consent of the governed." Those who forget or ignore this basic principle need to remember that the alternative for them is rightly that of "early retirement."


Rally at the State Capitol 02/10/09

'Volition'

Short Film Captures the Personal Implications of Imagio Dei



Here is a Film that you must see! It is just fifteen minutes in length but I saw it at Randy Alcorn's Blog and it was pretty powerful. Recently an editor at one of our local weeklies editorialized that Abortion is Not Murder because kids from 'religious' homes are having them and abortion foes are not resisting as they would if someone were gunning down a busload of elementary school children. His argument fails to see that throughout history other great evils have been accepted by even good people in a society.

Just because a course of action is popularly accepted and most follow it does not make it less of an evil. Many Christians owned slaves and I'm sure there were fine principled people serving in the German government. Can we legitimately argue that the holocaust was not murder because church members were working in the camps? Volition does a great job of showing how the right choice has often been the road less travelled in historical perspective.