Stars & Bars 'Wither Irony' 2
The first one was the occurences of the Stars & Bars sticker on a bumper next to the 'United We Stand' sticker. The second, which I have begun to notice frequently, is the ol' Stars & Bars alongside 'One Nation Under God'.
Think about it.
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Dean vs. Goliath
Howard Dean vs. George W. Bush? No, I'm talking about a real David- Dean Barkley. Fortunately, the local media is really starting to talk about Mr. Barkley, Libertarian candidate for Carmel, IN Mayor, this way.
Last night's Fox 59-TV coverage of Dean Barkley's run for Mayor was nothing but positive, showing him as the reluctant but determined candidate, a simple small business owner who was one of many who were left out of the process by a Republican Mayor who really didn't care if his city's road project negatively impacted them. (Fox 59 has a teaser on their website on 'The Construction Candidate', but not a full story, sadly.)
This morning's Indianapolis Star has a feature on Dean in their Hamilton County section. It tells the story nicely.
The Mayor raised some $240,000 for the primary, and is now gearing up to raise more money. If raising money is the name of the game, Mayor Jim Brainard may be in for a bit of a shock. While Barkley's campaign manager says that they look to raise about $50,000, I am betting that they can raise every bit as much as Brainard (meaing six figures plus), so thorough is the dissatisfaction among Republicans and among small business owners, who would have been less surprised and disappointed if Brainard's big government and heavy-handed tendencies came from a Democrat. Alas, the Republicans are revealed as being just about the same.
This is going to be very exciting to watch, as Barkley loads the slingshot with stones.
Howard Dean vs. George W. Bush? No, I'm talking about a real David- Dean Barkley. Fortunately, the local media is really starting to talk about Mr. Barkley, Libertarian candidate for Carmel, IN Mayor, this way.
Last night's Fox 59-TV coverage of Dean Barkley's run for Mayor was nothing but positive, showing him as the reluctant but determined candidate, a simple small business owner who was one of many who were left out of the process by a Republican Mayor who really didn't care if his city's road project negatively impacted them. (Fox 59 has a teaser on their website on 'The Construction Candidate', but not a full story, sadly.)
This morning's Indianapolis Star has a feature on Dean in their Hamilton County section. It tells the story nicely.
The Mayor raised some $240,000 for the primary, and is now gearing up to raise more money. If raising money is the name of the game, Mayor Jim Brainard may be in for a bit of a shock. While Barkley's campaign manager says that they look to raise about $50,000, I am betting that they can raise every bit as much as Brainard (meaing six figures plus), so thorough is the dissatisfaction among Republicans and among small business owners, who would have been less surprised and disappointed if Brainard's big government and heavy-handed tendencies came from a Democrat. Alas, the Republicans are revealed as being just about the same.
This is going to be very exciting to watch, as Barkley loads the slingshot with stones.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
If Currency Must Be Changed
One thing I really like about American currency is that despite numerous minute changes on the bills over the years, the basic design has remained relatively unchanged for the last 80 or so years. The size, shape, colors, and even the men whose portraits adorn the bills have not been altered in that time.
I like that. It points to the great stability of the United States and its’ economy.
Take a $1 bill from 1935 and one from today and compare. The biggest difference is that the 1935 note is usually a Silver Certificate, and it represented ‘one dollar in silver payable to the bearer on demand’. Yes, that Federal Reserve Note is not redeemable for anything… except the goods or services it can fetch. Also, the back of the 1935 bill lacks the phrase ‘In God We Trust’. Ah, let’s revisit those conversations another day. This will make the point: I collect the Silver Certificates, and have received them in change in the last five years, even though they were last produced in 1957. They are that similar.
That said, I have found a compelling change proposal to the back of the U.S. $1 bill, suggested by middle school civics teacher Randy Wright, and found on his website www.libertydollarbill.org. Wright is suggesting that U.S. Constitution should replace the All-Seeing Eye and the Great Seal of the United States.
His suggestion is that the entire Preamble to the Constitution, and descriptions of the various Amendments be written on the bill. Politicians have been warming up to the idea, and a couple years ago, HR xxxx was introduced recommending adoption of the new design.
I like the idea of the Preamble. Everyone should feast their eyes upon it every now and again so as to see what gave rise to the founding of this country. Placing it on the back of the $1 bill would ensure that everyone could see it every day.
I don’t like the idea of using interpretive descriptions of the Amendments. Interpretation is the job of the Supreme Court, and even then, I wouldn’t care to have what about half of them would have to say about it. The Constitution and the Amendments are rather like art- in the eye of the beholder, and best seen in their unblemished, original form.
Printing all ten Amendments of the Bill of Rights would be wonderful. Maybe they wouldn’t all fit. USA Today’s Tony Mauro suggests that printing the First Amendment would be a great thing. I wouldn’t have any great objection to that.
Whether it’s the Amendments or dollar bills, I like to see them messed with and changed as little as possible.
One thing I really like about American currency is that despite numerous minute changes on the bills over the years, the basic design has remained relatively unchanged for the last 80 or so years. The size, shape, colors, and even the men whose portraits adorn the bills have not been altered in that time.
I like that. It points to the great stability of the United States and its’ economy.
Take a $1 bill from 1935 and one from today and compare. The biggest difference is that the 1935 note is usually a Silver Certificate, and it represented ‘one dollar in silver payable to the bearer on demand’. Yes, that Federal Reserve Note is not redeemable for anything… except the goods or services it can fetch. Also, the back of the 1935 bill lacks the phrase ‘In God We Trust’. Ah, let’s revisit those conversations another day. This will make the point: I collect the Silver Certificates, and have received them in change in the last five years, even though they were last produced in 1957. They are that similar.
That said, I have found a compelling change proposal to the back of the U.S. $1 bill, suggested by middle school civics teacher Randy Wright, and found on his website www.libertydollarbill.org. Wright is suggesting that U.S. Constitution should replace the All-Seeing Eye and the Great Seal of the United States.
His suggestion is that the entire Preamble to the Constitution, and descriptions of the various Amendments be written on the bill. Politicians have been warming up to the idea, and a couple years ago, HR xxxx was introduced recommending adoption of the new design.
I like the idea of the Preamble. Everyone should feast their eyes upon it every now and again so as to see what gave rise to the founding of this country. Placing it on the back of the $1 bill would ensure that everyone could see it every day.
I don’t like the idea of using interpretive descriptions of the Amendments. Interpretation is the job of the Supreme Court, and even then, I wouldn’t care to have what about half of them would have to say about it. The Constitution and the Amendments are rather like art- in the eye of the beholder, and best seen in their unblemished, original form.
Printing all ten Amendments of the Bill of Rights would be wonderful. Maybe they wouldn’t all fit. USA Today’s Tony Mauro suggests that printing the First Amendment would be a great thing. I wouldn’t have any great objection to that.
Whether it’s the Amendments or dollar bills, I like to see them messed with and changed as little as possible.
Web Nonsense
Forgive me, Wired, for I have no technical skills. I am the great unwashed, heavily reliant upon point-and-click simplicity, utterly ignorant of code.
For days, I have been unable to access my blog via Internet Explorer. This morning it dawned on me that IE could be the problem, so I tried using Netscape. Voila! So here are these quick posts. Problem is, not all of the buttons are visible to me, so I can't insert links, or use bold or italic type. Arrgh! I'll have to download more current versions of both browsers and see what becomes available to me.
Forgive me, Wired, for I have no technical skills. I am the great unwashed, heavily reliant upon point-and-click simplicity, utterly ignorant of code.
For days, I have been unable to access my blog via Internet Explorer. This morning it dawned on me that IE could be the problem, so I tried using Netscape. Voila! So here are these quick posts. Problem is, not all of the buttons are visible to me, so I can't insert links, or use bold or italic type. Arrgh! I'll have to download more current versions of both browsers and see what becomes available to me.
I Can't Wait to Watch the TV News!
I don't think I've uttered such a phrase in better than ten years, so insipid, so vacuous is the usual fare on the broadcast news. But tonight, while there may well be coverage of car crashes or house fires, there will also be a feature on Dean Barkley on Fox 59-TV at 10:00.
Dean is running for Mayor of Carmel, IN on the Libertarian ticket. All indications are that this is the kind of coverage Libertarian candidates tend not to get- positive coverage.
My VCR is fired up, and so am I!
I don't think I've uttered such a phrase in better than ten years, so insipid, so vacuous is the usual fare on the broadcast news. But tonight, while there may well be coverage of car crashes or house fires, there will also be a feature on Dean Barkley on Fox 59-TV at 10:00.
Dean is running for Mayor of Carmel, IN on the Libertarian ticket. All indications are that this is the kind of coverage Libertarian candidates tend not to get- positive coverage.
My VCR is fired up, and so am I!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)