Browsing: Politics

A Brief History In the past few days the United States has been rocked by two incidents of police shooting black men portrayed by the media as unnecessary shootings, and by the families and friends of those two men as cold blooded murders of innocent and hard working citizens that did nothing wrong.  This outrage was culminated (for now?) in a horrific attack on Dallas, Texas police who were maintaining order at a Black Lives Matter protest march last night, resulting in 11 police officers shot, 5 of which have already died, as well as a civilian wounded and at…

A Brief History On July 8, 1994, Kim Jong-Il assumed control of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-Sung.  For the people of North Korea, it was like going from the frying pan into the fire, from one goof to an even jerkier goof.  Despite what Americans may think of their presidents, other countries have given history a parade of crackpots that have led countries as dictators, whether through color of office, military coup, or royal lineage.  Here we list 10 of the biggest crackpot dictators in modern history.  (Hint: If your leader wears a military uniform and…

A Brief History On July 4, 1966, The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted, with an effective date one year later, July 4, 1967.  In keeping with the wondrous and mysterious ways of Washington, DC, the FOIA was repealed the next day!  Not to worry, a virtually identical FOIA was enacted on July 5, 1967, and was effective from July 4, 1967. Digging Deeper This goofy, confusing political posturing is exactly why the FOIA was needed.  On the other hand, far from making government transparent as the FOIA was intended, self serving interpretations and vague wordage caused the 1974 Privacy Act…

A Brief History On July 2, 1777, Vermont became the first territory in what had just (kind of) become the United States to abolish slavery.  Several other significant Civil Rights related events happened on July 2nd, and we list some of them here. Digging Deeper 1776: Continental Congress voted to declare Independence from Britain.  (The actual document we know as the Declaration of Independence was voted on July 4, 1776.)  Independence from Britain actually hurt the cause of Civil Rights as Britain abolished slavery in 1833, over 30 years before it was abolished in the United States. 1777: Vermont Abolishes…

A Brief History Once again a fierce debate tears across the land about so-called “common sense gun control.”  Our Founding Fathers wrote in the Federalist Papers that the Government should never have more firepower than the people, and they meant cannons and military muskets, not hunting and target guns.  Today, the rabid anti-gunners show their ignorance of the intent of the Founding Fathers by ignoring their writings on the subject and the context of the times.  Other (European) countries had long denied their public free access to weapons, and this meant swords and the like before guns were common.  (Hence,…