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There’s a new threat in American schools: tag.  That’s right, the game of tag.  In Colorado Springs, an elementary school has banned kids from playing tag:

“It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school. 

Apparently kids were being chased “against their will.”   Against their will?  Ok, so I guess their parents taught them to run from people chasing them?  Or maybe it’s too hard to not play?

Let me paint you a picture.  You’re minding your own business, swinging on the swings, playing in the sand, etc. when some kid runs up touches you and says “Tag, you’re it!”  Hear are your options: 1. ignore them, 2. start crying and go tell the teacher, 3. say “I’m not playing tag”, 4. wait until you go home to start crying and then tell your parents and/or therapist.  Now, for the sake of the argument, let’s say you choose option 3, and tell the kid you’re not interested.  After half-heartedly trying to convince you to play, they quickly grow bored, and realize that all the people who do want to play have gained a lot of ground on them and leave you alone.

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Some quick site news. If you haven’t seen it yet, the first full debate column is posted in the Party Lines area, and the next debate is underway. We have a new Flip Side area for a look at the “other side” of the story. And we finally heard from the printer: the much anticipated ARO stickers have been perfected and shipped out - they should arrive this weekend.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of media coverage about Katrina. At first, I just figured the media had grown tired of Election 2008 and needed something to fill the void. Then I remembered: it’s been two years since Katrina. Two years. Has it been that long? Well, I guess I lost track since I’ve been waiting for all those continuous hurricanes that were supposed to decimate American soil over the past two years. Remember those? Weather experts have predicted that we would have multiple significant hurricanes reaching our shores. So far, nothing. Dean has been the most notable storm since Rita, much to the chagrin of the weather alarmists that desperately want to retrofit my SUV to run on chicken fat. How do you convince the populace that we need more federal legislation if the hurricanes don’t cooperate? Bush must have turned down the knob on his weather machine.

As a part of all the “anniversary” stories, presidential hopeful Obama was interviewed on GMA. He introduced a plan to “reduce government bureaucracy” by involving government more. The federal government should 1. hire police and doctors 2. hire more people to work in the government 3. rebuild the infrastructure and 4. tell the insurance companies how to run their businesses. In reference to the last point, he claims he believes in the insurance companies making a profit, and yet criticizes that very thing. Do we stop to think that since they paid so much for Katrina policies that they had to raise their rates in anticipation of what the aforementioned weather experts were saying, and when no disaster happened, they had extra money? Now the federal government needs to tell them what to do with that money? Well, if they are going to get lessons in finance and spending, maybe we should consider how good of stewards the government is with our money…
The Sun Herald recently ran a story about Katrina and all the government money that has been pouring into the area.

It’s hard for the average working stiff to contemplate a number as vast as the $23.5 billion the federal government has allocated to Mississippi for Katrina recovery.

Think of it this way:

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As ARO pointed out recently, taxes weren’t the main culprit in the Minn. bridge collapse.  As it turns out, pigeons are more to blame (besides the cracked steel and missing bolts).  Apparently “pigeon droppings contain ammonia and acids…”  Maybe we should have open season on some flying rats that promote acid rain (just like we should on the rats with fuzzy tails). 

So, it’s been a week since Karl Rove announced his retirement and the pundits still don’t seem to see the real reason behind it. They seem to be either too happy that he’s gone or too upset that he hasn’t been indicted yet to see the obvious: Karl Rove isn’t retiring as puppet master, he’s changing puppets.

Think about it. He’s been with “W” for 34 years from before the President was a Governor. Now at the pinnacle of political power he decides he really rather go fishing this year instead of waiting until next year? Right. Away from the White House spot light, he can resume his behind-the-scenes campaign magic for one if not more of the front runners. Rove isn’t cashing out after 7 of 8 years in the White House. He’s trading his 8th year for a chance at 4 more.

Wow, maybe he really is an evil genius.

During a recent meeting of the “Human Rights Campaign forum” (read gay rights activist fund raiser for democrats), Democrat presidential candidates were asked some tough questions. Not your typical soft balls here.

It was actually quite hilarious (or painful depending on your perspective) to watch as candidates did their best to pander to the activist fringe of the gay community without saying anything that would offend - well basically anyone else. For instance this little gem:

Melissa Etheridge (the moderator to Sen Clinton): “…Why not be the leader now?”

MRS. CLINTON: Well, I think… I think I am a… I — I think I am a leader now. If I were sitting where you’re sitting with all you have…gone through in the last 14 years, ummm, I’m sure I would feel exactly the same way, because, you know, not only did you bravely come out, but you’ve had health challenges and so much else, and so time can’t go by slowly. You want things to move as quickly as possible, which I… you know, understand and, um, wish could happen as well.

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This special report from the Business & Media Institute is a little old (May 06), but it’s quality and impact are unmatched. The report quite simply decimates the entire climate change hysteria. Warming or otherwise.

Thanks to the release of Al Gore’s latest effort on global warming – this time in book and movie form – climate change is the hot topic in press rooms around the globe. It isn’t the first time.

The media have warned about impending climate doom four different times in the last 100 years. Only they can’t decide if mankind will die from warming or cooling.

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After the recent tragedy of the bridge collapse, I’ve heard a lot of politicians calling for “more taxes”. The problem is that Minnesota has a budget SURPLUS of 1 Billion dollars for their 2006-2007 budget (they do two year budgets) that is projected to grow to 2 Billion dollars for the 2008-2009 budget. (minnesota.publicradio.org)

As pointed out in the debate column, the problem is not lack of money, it’s money management. Politicians love to call for more money at every crisis, because people fall for it. And then once the money is blown somewhere else (like MN spending $1M on a virtual reality spray paint simulator system and training program), they can always go back ask for more money to meet the government “needs”.

Thomas Sowell believes the cause to be a fundamental problem with the political incentives involved in different types of money management:

There may be enough money available to maintain bridges and other infrastructure but that same money can have a bigger political payoff if spent building something new instead of maintaining and repairing existing structures.

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With all the trouble airlines are causing their customers these days, there is a push for what is being called a “Passengers’ Bill of Rights.”  A list of rules that airlines would have to follow to provide what the federal government deems is good customer service.  First of all, let’s not sully the name of the actual Bill of Rights with these silly attempts to force companies to behave how we want them to.  We have the ultimate right: that of where our money goes.  If you don’t like the service a company provides, don’t continue to purchase their services, and tell everyone you know.

Second, the federal government is in the business of governing, not determining adequate customer service levels and impose them by fiat.  What next, an outlet mall shoppers bill of rights?  If a store advertises a sale, they have to have everybody’s size in plentiful quantity?
And why must it be at the federal level?  Here’s a short history lesson: the actual Bill of Rights are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.  Amendment 10 says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”  In other words. if the Constitution does not explicitly give a power to the Federal government, that power is reserve for the states or the people.  (We do live in a country called the United States of America.)  We’ll leave a discussion on universal health insurance and its presence in the Constitution for another day.  For now, I’ll ask the question, why does everything have to be all or nothing?  Why can’t we have different laws between states?  Think of it this way, we have 50 versions of essentially the same law.  On the surface, that seems crazy.  But consider that there will probably be better versions than others, and states will gravitate to the best ways.  In other words homogeneity will be essentially reached without a single federal law.  But, we will preserve the ability of states to try new ways of approaching government.

So, guess what?  New York has passed its own Passengers’ Bill of Rights.  Will other states follow suit?  Some will, but not all.  Airlines are lobbying hard to keep a federal law from passing.  Think how hard it would be for the airlines to have to lobby all 50 states as well.  If it came to that, they would probably realize that it would be cheaper and easier to just provide better customer service.  And that’s what we want isn’t it, not just another law on the books?