Attack on Philadelphia Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts of America has helped more boys become men than most any other organization. They learn leadership, values and teamwork. The history of the organization dates back to England with Lord Baden Powell starting something, based on a military model, to quell youth violence at the time. Things have not really changed that much with the organization.

In many communities, especially in the inner city, the Boy Scouts is one of the only rays of hope for weary parents trying to keep their kids off the street. Earlier this week the Philadelphia City Council voted 16-1 to evict the Boy Scouts from their headquartered location in downtown Philadelphia if they did not start paying market rate for the land – around $200,000 per year. The land was leased to them 80 years ago by the city to build an office, which they did. Recently they spent 2.5 million restoring the building from private donations.

So what’s the problem? Evidently the youth of Philadelphia is not as important as allowing gay scoutmasters and scouts to be a part of the Council. The Boy Scouts is a private organization and thus has it’s own rules – no openly gay scoutmasters, no athiests, etc. The Boy Scouts of America has spent countless resources fighting these battles in courts accross the country. Those resources could be much better spent on the boys – but that is not of interest to the gay activists.

How about this – start your own group. Call it the Rainbow Scouts, or the Fairy Scouts or the Gay Scouts. If there is such a need for this type of “diversity”, then pull out that great American spirit and create something from nothing. Daniel Beard brought the idea of the Boy Scouts to America in 1910 – feel free to do the same. In the meantime, leave the Boy Scouts alone and take your agenda elsewhere.

Of course, that is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

Link to WSJ Article

Eliminate the IRS?

Does it sound crazy to eliminate the IRS? I’ll ask you again on April 15. Like most Americans, you probably pay too much income tax. Most of us who are employed don’t notice it as it is automatically taken out of our income by our employers. It amazes me every year when tax time roles around of how much we pay each year to the Federal Government. That’s not including the State Tax and Social Security tax – but that’s fodder for another blog.

There has been talk for some time to eliminate the IRS for a more equal tax. Steve Forbes had his idea for the Flat Tax, but the new version is the Fair Tax. Essentially what this entails is charging a national sales tax on everything purchased. As the tax code now stands, most of the “tax payers” really pay no federal income tax at all. Included in this group are not only honest hard working Americans, but also drug dealers, criminals and and my favorite – illegals. If we stopped taxing income and started taxing comsumption – everyone would actually pay their “fair share” instead of the US relying on the “rich” to pay the freight.

There are many arguements on the other side, but I believe this is selfish thinking. Questions that will come up include: “You’ll put all those IRS agents out of work” – They will find other work at the businesses that will be created by all the extra funds. “What will I do without a refund?” – A refund is a tax free loan on YOUR money. If you had an investment making 0% you’d get rid of it. “I don’t want to pay 23% tax – that’s too much” – if that’s all you pay, you’ll have tons of extra money left over at the end of the month.

I could go on, but you get the point. The only this type of system will work is to eliminate the IRS. There is no other way to really “fix” the country. There is a great book out there right now by Congressman John Linder and Neal Boortz called Fair Tax: The Truth that explains the concept – pick it up to read the details.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

Buy the Book Now: Fair Tax

A New Venue for the Republicans?

I attended my first Monster Truck event last night. It was an interesting event to say the least. I never, ever, thought I would actually be at one of these type of events – not really my idea of a good time. Nothing bad about it, but there are just some things that don’t interest me.

My brother-in-law bought tickets for my young son as a Christmas present and he decided to involve myself, my wife and my father-in-law in the joy. We actually had a pretty good time, but not sure my hearing will return anytime soon. Most of the trucks wrecked in some respect before the end of the event – which is what everyone was looking for, including our group.

The night started out with the obigitory “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood (recorded) followed by the National Anthem. Flags were waiving and people were shouting “I Love the USA”. A thought occured to me at that moment while looking at the 50,000 other people in the Dome that this would be a great audience for some conservative candidate to attract a whole portion of the public.

Four years ago in the 2004 election the buzz group was “Nascar Dads” and I’m sure this group is still relavent today. Maybe call them “Monster Truck Families”. Everyone, except for myself, had the shirts, hats, stuffed toys, etc., and they all had their favorites. It had a real feel of Professional Wrestling, with more legitimacy.

I’m not saying that all of these people would actually vote, but this has to be a good venue to attract votes.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

Steroids, Baseball and Congress

What have we come to in the United States? I’ll never understand why there is such interest from members of Congress about possible steriod use by major league baseball players. Isn’t there anything else they could be doing?

Let’s see – there’s that war thing in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re not drilling enough oil in our country, taxes are out of sight…. yeah, that’s seems about right.

Whether there was steroid and hgh use by ball players is really no business of Congress. This is more of a law enforcement issue, and even then the evidence is shaky. We’re relying on the word of a couple former trainers? Where is the real evidence of wrongdoing? I’m no detective, but I do watch law and order on occasion and this all seems to be very circumstancial. If the players don’t admit to drug use, where does that leave us?

Bottom line, this is not something that Congress should actually be involved with.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

Global Warming – A colossal waste of Resources?

I’m a realist, or at least I try. We have been told by people from Al Gore to the celebrity hoards that the Earth is melting into the sea. I’m not arrogant enough to think that we as humans can actually affect the world climate.

Most people accept everything that the media dishes out without questioning the facts. So-called scientists and researchers say that the Earth is warming and many believe the lie. The fact is that the Earth has been warming, but this is part of a normal trend that the planet goes through.

We’re also told that the US needs to sign the Kyoto Treaty to reduce greenhouse gasses and protect the environment. Really? How about all those third-world countries that signed the treaty that are polluting as much as ever. Who is the real offender here?

About every 20 – 30 years the earth trends from warmer to cold. Back in the 70’s the earth was heading to a new ice age. Now the world is careening to the warm side and everyone is in a tizzy. Some scientists indicate that we may be heading into another cooling trend in the next 5 years. John Stossel has a great article on Real Clear Politics about this very issue: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/a_convenient_lie.html

Bottom line, I don’t want to change my lifestyle or pay extra taxes for something that is not really a problem. Especially since GE owns NBC, which promotes this lie and then encourages everyone to buy their new energy efficient light bulbs. When in doubt, follow the money.

Also, I’m writing this as I freeze my butt off during our cold winter. Prospective is everything.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/a_convenient_lie.html

Aren’t all Conservatives Republican?

I have been asked many times what I am politically – Republican or Democrat. As we all know, there are many party affiliations, but there are really only two main parties. Most people get these terms confused with Conservative or Liberal.

I really don’t consider myself a Republican per se, I’m a Conservative. You may ask, how is this possible? Conservatism is a philosophy, Republican is a party affiliation. I generally vote for the Republican candidate because they usually match my views much more than the Democratic candidates. Really, my actual views are a mix between Republican and Libertarian. Maybe I should start my own party, call it Repulitarian or Conservatarian.

So my real point in bringing this up is that I’m very discouraged by the candidates running for President who are still in the race. I was a big supporter of Fred Thompson before he dropped out. He lacked the executive experience that Romney and Huckabee had as Governors, but I felt that he was really the clear Conservative choice that wouldn’t take any crap from anyone.
The current front runner is not a conservative voice, but a moderate RINO (Republican in Name Only).

I would really like the so-called conservative candidates to start reflecting the views held by their chosen party instead of the citizens in a few politically insignificant states that just happen to have early primaries (Iowa and New Hampshire). I have nothing against people in those states, I just believe we’re catering to the lowest common demonator.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant