"Editor's note: Tom Gargus says he spent $122 through the Sunshine Law obtaining district documents and used many others on the district Web site to draw his conclusions. We plan to allow the school district to respond to some of his contentions in a news story soon."
"A man once broke all of the Ten Commandments. He lied, stole (the value of the article is irrelevant), lusted -- which the Bible says is "to commit adultery in his heart," failed to love God above all else, failed to honor his parents as well as to keep the Sabbath holy. He hated (which God sees as murder), failed to honor God's name, and he also "coveted," which means to want other people's things. How could God, who is perfect and holy (and therefore by His very nature must punish transgression of His Law), forgive him freely, and yet justice still be done? How can the man avoid Hell and go to Heaven?"
"...He (the man) needs God's mercy. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment for our sins, satisfying eternal justice and at the same time demonstrating God's incredible love for sinful humanity. The moment the man repents and puts his faith in the Savior, God will forgive his sins and give him the gift of everlasting life. He then should read the Bible daily and obey what he reads, showing himself to be genuine in his faith...."
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. "
"9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE...."
"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ..., and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace...."
"Keep examining yourselves to see whether you are continuing in the faith. Test yourselves! You know, don’t you, that Jesus the Messiah lives in you? Could it be that you are failing the test?"
"When we go to a City Council meeting, there is a group that shows up -- it's a small group -- and speaks out critically against the city on anything. It doesn't matter what it is. But you don't see a civil discourse within the meeting. The meetings are civil, don't get me wrong. But you don't see other citizens getting engaged in the process. That's been a little disappointing. I'm hoping that changes over the next few years. Things have been so good for so long that I think many of us took it for granted that things would continue to go very well. But we're living in a different time right now. When the only people that bother to show up to City Council meetings and other meetings and speak out are the regulars -- and that's the only voice that the council gets to hear in a public setting -- that's a little disappointing."
"...for any person, firm or corporation to display or exhibit any merchandise upon the sidewalk in front of it, or their place of business except as follows:
That fruits and vegetables when displayed upon the sidewalk cannot encroach upon said sidewalk in excess of two feet from the building line and shall be displayed upon benches or in crates not less than fifteen inches above the sidewalk.
That merchandise other than fruits or vegetables when so displayed shall not be placed upon any sidewalk a distance to exceed two feet from the building line."
"Last year a two day sidewalk sale was held in July; apparently it was met with some enthusiam. It is proposed that one be held on the days of July 28 and 29 of this year (1972). In order that ordinance authority might exist for such a sale, the attached ordinance is submitted following the outlines of the conditions under which the sales were held last year."
"No person shall place or cause to be placed or display merchandise on any public way, street, sidewalk, or parkway, except that fruit and vegetables may be so placed or displayed in front of the premises where sold if not less than fifteen (15) inches above the ground or pavement and if not extending more than two (2) feet into the public way. However, the City Manager may establish not more than two (2) sales periods each year. Each sales period shall be not more than two (2) consectuive days, and the sales periods shall be at least two (2) weeks apart. The sales periods shall be held only during the spring, summer or fall months of each year. During each sales period it shall be lawful for licensed business enterprises to display and sell merchandise upon the public sidewalks in accordance with the following conditions...."
" I will soon circulate to my fellow Commissioners proposed rules prepared by Commission staff embodying the principles I’ve discussed, and I will ask for their support in issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking. This notice will provide the public with a detailed explanation of what we propose to do and why....
"...our path to implementing them is not pre-determined. I will ensure that the rulemaking process will be fair, transparent, fact-based, and data-driven. Anyone will be able to participate in this process, and I hope everyone will. We will hold a number of public workshops and, of course, use the Internet and other new media tools to facilitate participation. Today we’ve launched a new website, www.openinternet.gov, to kick off discussion of the issues I’ve been talking about. We encourage everyone to visit the site and contribute to the process....
"...This is not about government regulation of the Internet. It’s about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the Internet. We will do as much as we need to do, and no more, to ensure that the Internet remains an unfettered platform for competition, creativity, and entrepreneurial activity....
"... This is about preserving and maintaining something profoundly successful and ensuring that it’s not distorted or undermined. If we wait too long to preserve a free and open Internet, it will be too late."
The simple fact is that if passed, no one can say for certain how badly this will all play out in practice. However, what we can say with absolute certainty is that this legislation will lead to diminished health care for most Americans, less choice, higher taxes, and unprecedented government intrusion into every level and aspect of society, from business, to education, to marriage, to individual liberty.
Has Senator Warner read the text of the health care reform legislation?
...At the moment, the only version that is being discussed in public is the House version of the bill, which is just one of many health reform proposals in Congress. Once a final bill is introduced in the Senate, Senator Warner will read the bill and post it on our website so you can read it, too.
Many of the features he described do not exist in any of the bills Congress is working on. They aren’t in the liberal Democrats’ bills. They aren’t in any bill from the Blue Dog Democrats, who haven’t written one. They aren’t in the Republicans’ bills, and there are at least five that Republicans are trying to get people to notice.
Obviously, the president has a health care reform plan. So where is it? When do we get to see it? I was encouraged by some of what I heard Wednesday night, but it doesn’t square with anything I’ve seen in Congress so far. Senator Tom Coburn made the same observation. He remarked, “It was a good speech, the problem is that what he wants and what they’ve written are two totally different things.” I agree. So I am looking for a bill that we can read to come from the White House. And here’s hoping that it doesn’t arrive DOA, just like all the current Democrat proposals.
> sup·port·er : one that supports or acts as a support
> sup·port (1) : to promote the interests or cause of (2) : to uphold or defend as valid or right : advocate (3) : to argue or vote for...
> ser·vant : one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer
> ser·vi·tude : a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to determine one's course of action or way of life
"This particular case has brought to the fore an issue which is bound to come up again and again as growing food changes the cityscape: how do we value urban land, and what are the existing laws on the books that keep urban agriculture from flourishing and feeding locals?"
"The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State with its corporative conception puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill. (p. 280)"
The United States has become great and rich under the power of an economic system that has set no limits on the free pursuit of the individual, and has thereby made room for the development of the country’s productive power. America’s unprecedented economic prosperity is not the result of the richness of the American land, but rather of the economic policy that understood how best to take advantage of the opportunities that the land offers. American economic policy has always rejected—and still rejects today—any protection for inferiority and uncompetitiveness over efficiency and competitiveness. The success of this policy has been so great that one would believe the Americans would never change it.
Nearly all writers on economic policy and nearly all statesmen and party leaders are seeking an ideal system which, in their belief, is neither [purely] capitalistic nor socialistic, is based neither on [unrestricted] private property in the means of production nor on public property. They are searching for a system of private property that is hampered, regulated, and directed through government intervention and other social forces, such as labor unions. We call such an economic policy interventionism, the system itself the hampered market order.
All means of production are privately owned. The use of the means of production is under the control of private owners who may be individuals or corporate entities. Consumer demands determine how the means of production will be used. Competitive forces of supply and demand determine prices for consumer goods and various factors of production like labor. The success or failure of individual and corporate enterprises is determined by the profits or losses these enterprises earn, based on their greater or lesser ability to satisfy consumer demand in competition with their rivals in the marketplace. The market is not confined to domestic transactions and includes freedom of international trade. The monetary system is based on a market determined commodity (e.g., gold or silver), and the banking system is private and competitive, neither controlled nor regulated by government. Government is limited in its activities to the enforcement and protection of life, liberty, and property.
The private ownership of the means of production is restricted or abridged. The use of the means of production by private owners is prohibited, limited, or regulated. The users of the means of production are prevented from being guided by consumer demand. Government influences or controls the formation of prices for consumer goods and/or the factors of production. Government reduces the impact of market supply and demand on the success or failure of various enterprises while it increases the impact of its own influence and control through such artificial means as price and production regulation, limits on freedom of entry into segments of the market, and direct or indirect subsidies. Free entry into the domestic market by potential foreign rivals is discouraged or outlawed through import prohibitions, quotas, or tariffs. The monetary system is regulated by government for the purpose of influencing what is used as money, the value of money, and the rate at which the quantity of money is increased or decreased. And all these are used as tools for affecting employment, output, and growth in the economy. Government’s role is not limited to the protection of life, liberty, and property.
Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is to their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whosoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their own advantages.
By constantly violating criminal laws and moral decrees [people] lose the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad. The merchant who began by violating foreign exchange controls, import and export restrictions, price ceilings, etc., easily proceeds to defraud his partners. The decay of business morals…is the inevitable concomitant of the regulations imposed on trade.
One of the cherished dogmas implied in contemporary fashionable doctrines is the belief that tendencies of social evolution as manifested in the recent past will prevail in the future, too. Any attempt to reverse or even to stop a trend is doomed to failure…The prestige of this myth is so enormous that it quells any opposition. It spreads defeatism among those who do not share the opinion that everything which comes later is better than what preceded, and are fully aware of the disastrous effects of allround planning, i.e., totalitarian socialism. They, too, meekly submit to what the pseudo-scholars tell them is inevitable. It is this mentality of passively accepting defeat that has made socialism triumph in many European countries and may very soon make it conquer in this country [the United States] too…Now trends of evolution can change, and hitherto they almost always have changed. But they changed only because they met firm opposition. The prevailing trend toward what Hilaire Belloc called the servile state will certainly not be reversed if nobody has the courage to attack its underlying dogmas.
"Echoing the call for a review is Gov. Jay Nixon's top budget official, Commissioner of Administration Kelvin Simmons. He said eight states commissioned studies of their pension plans last year.
"When you have an economy like we're experiencing, everything should be on the table to discuss," Simmons said. "You want to know the affordability of the system.""
