PFBA – Judicial Trickery

There are several ways that the judicial system has circumvented the double jeopardy provision of our constitution. One way they do it is by having multiple jurisdictions drag you through court for essentially the same law, but under different jurisdictions. For instance, the state may charge the defendant and lose, to only be followed by the charging the defendant for similar crimes under federal charges. The government does it in such a way that it comes across as being separate charges when in fact they are essentially the same. Someone arrested for disturbing the peace on state charges may be charged with federal terrorism charges. This is an extreme case, but is indicative of current procedure for our judicial system.

Another way the judicial system likes to play games is by drawing out charges and bringing them separately at trial. The government may choose to pursue a handful of charges against the defendant, only to withhold some should the defendant prevail in court. This way, the government can bring the defendant into court again on more charges connected to the same event.

The way to solve this is to force all jurisdictions into one court system. To be honest, a citizen should rarely, if ever, face a federal court. The federal system should operate through the state court systems for cases against individuals.

There should also be a “snapshot in time” rule that forces prosecutors to bring all charges against the defendant at once, or forever forfeit the right to do so down the road. This prevents the government from dragging things out in court and getting multiple shots at a conviction.

PFBA - Privatized Incarceration

No civilized society ought to allow for it’s penal system to be privatized. All jails and prisons should be owned and operated by government itself. Allowing privatization of jails and prisons means that a business is created and that business then becomes in the business of profiteering on the backs of prisoners. It creates a system that needs prisoners in order to be profitable and therefore, this privatized system should not be allowed.

No inmate should be forced to pay for their room and board. This again creates a system which requires inmates in order to generate a profit. If the citizenry cannot afford to house it’s prisoners, it needs to adjust it’s system in order to house only dangerous criminals.

America incarcerates more of it’s population by percentage than nearly any other country in the civilized world. The system of profiteering on the backs of inmates should be banned.

 

 

Man’s Worst Trait

Man’s worst trait is the inner need to have others agree with him. Think about that for a moment. How many times in America have you seen people get in heated arguments over Ford vs. Chevy, or Coke vs. Pepsi? How many times have friends or family tried convincing you to do something that they did because they like it? What is this inner need to have others be convinced that the world looks like it does to you?

This is man’s worst trait. It leads to arguments and in many cases, war. How many have died in the course of human history because someone in power insists that everyone else be like them and think like them?

The Passing of Time with Things….

In the Christmas Carol, there is a scene where Scrooge witnesses those pilfering and selling his possessions after his death. One of those who do so was his housekeeper. She steals his sheets and sells them, all the while, she has nothing good to say about him.

Estate sales remind me of this scene. Despite the fact that the items aren’t stolen, there is something personal about a man’s possessions, and when that man dies, his items are sold to the living, for the highest bid. What that man once gathered into his possession is once again scattered to the four winds, generally while his old friends and family look on, possibly bidding on a few items themselves.

KinDee was up at Gary Voshell’s estate sale today. It’s not the first estate sale that we’ve ever attended, but this one feels different. Maybe it’s because this man was from my town of Wadena? It might be because my uncle Mike Durnan told me that he went to school with Gary? Maybe it’s because Gary’s death was a sad one? Maybe it’s because some of these things that we bought were his tools, items that he used personally and that he knew personally? These are tools that in his head, he knew where he got them, where they were on his property, and he used them for work or pleasure. They were his possessions. They are now mine. I bought them and now I have a piece of Gary with me. I never knew the man.

It could also be because KinDee bought a few items that Gary built himself. A man seems most proud of those items that he took the time to think out, design, and create. They say more about a man that a screwdriver that he chooses from the hardware store, although that too says something about the man. All of this man’s earthly possessions were gone through and coldly sold. KinDee even said there was a junk pile where a lot of items, still in their wrappers with tags on them, had been thrown. Someone gave her permission to take what she wanted from the pile and she pulled out quite a bit. I wonder what Gary would have thought about these things that he purchased, being tossed into the trash. He had them for a reason.

Maybe it shouldn’t bother me; this has been the way things work for as long as I can remember. As a wee boy, I would accompany my father to estate sales. I’d usually go sit on the lawnmowers and pretend to drive them until the auctioneer got there to sell them. Even then, I got to experience someone else’s possessions for a little while. The people who died seemed really old to me. Maybe what bothers me about these sales is that the people that are dying are getting younger and younger, or maybe, if I’m not afraid to admit it, I’m getting older.

It’s a reminder that we cannot take it with us. In the end, possessions are possessions. Someday, someone may just toss them in the trash. It’s a reminder for us to build treasure in heaven where God assures us that neither thief nor moth can destroy it. Go ahead and enjoy your possessions while you’re here on earth, but realize, when you die, it’ll all be scattered to the four winds once again.

 

My 100th Post

I really don’t have much to write for my 100^th post. Looking back over the past several years, I’ve seen my posts on here take on several different flavors. Some are family history pieces, others political in nature, while some yet are just quick snippets from my mind. I also have a few “fix-it” posts and a couple of reviews. It’s been quite the hodge-podge.

Moving forward, I hope to write much the same way, but I also plan to take a turn and write more about things that I have come to form positions on in my 40 years on this earth. I will write them here, share them with the world, and maybe Google will save them for posterity for me? Who knows when this is being read? Maybe you’re reading this in the 22^nd century? Hi, how are you doing? I’m dead. Thanks for stopping by!

I hope to add the next 100 posts in a timelier manner and I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings.

-Eric

A prescription for a better America

Over the course of this upcoming year, I plan on writing a series of editorials laying out what I believe is a solid plan to improve life for those of us living in this country.

In our nearly quarter millennium of existence, we have seen tremendous changes in not only how people live day to day, but how we relate to one another. We have also seen how those who crave power, have corrupted this nation in order to become exactly that which our founders fought against. We aren’t much different from the country we fought for our independence. In England, wealth was amassed in the hands of the few. You had very rich landowners who held great influence over the king and in all aspects of the government. You also had a very poor population that was treated no better than slaves. Today, we see much the same thing happening in our country.

There has been a terrible rise in power and corruption. Money has been put in the hands of a few while the middle class has all but evaporated. The chasm that exists between rich and poor in this country is staggering. This sets us up for a socialist, if not communist uprising. This too would be bad for us as we have seen over the course of recent history, the appalling atrocities committed by these communist and socialist systems.

This is why I will be writing about the changes that will need to take place in order to ensure that we return to a country where the individual is truly free and able to live out a life where they can pursue their God given talents without government interference, as long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of their fellow citizens.

Our society should also ensure that there is a safety net for those citizens who are unable to pursue their God given talents, but doesn’t encourage those who could actually work, from doing so. We cannot be like so many others in history who have valued human life so little as to kill those who are deemed inferior.

People should be allowed to become as rich as they possibly can, or be free from oppression should they decide to find riches in life in other places than money. However, people should not be able to play games with money, create giant corporations, and otherwise become large enough to influence politics and use their power to oppress their fellow citizen.

Corporations are paper fictions. They are a conglomeration of money creating unbelievable power, and these corporations have twice in our history, shown that they can be powerful enough to change how the government of the people, treats those people. Teddy Roosevelt understood this and busted up the large trusts. However, within a century, modern day robber barons have returned and we all see how badly these large entities have corrupted our government. For a society to survive, the voices of its citizens need to be equal, even if their life circumstances are not. Socialism has tried to accomplish this by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. What I hope to outline here is another way of doing this, without making everyone’s lot in life the same.

Another thing that I have learned in my 40 years on this earth is that many people are corrupted by power. We need to ensure that nobody ever tastes power long enough to be corrupted by it, or if they be corrupt, that they cannot leave a lasting mark on society. Ronald Reagan lamented that he was prevented from running for a third term because of term limits. Term limits are a good thing. While you may have a good leader who would benefit from the lack of term limits, a tyrant could also use that same lack of term limits to wreak havoc on a country.

We have seen in this 2016 election how political parties have made the system such that the votes of the lay people mean little. The real power is in the delegates and political powers behind the scenes. George Washington warned of political parties. The constitution currently allows people to form political parties. I like the system that towns here in Iowa use, where you cannot run as a democrat or republican. I need to think on this some more before postulating a position.

Our judicial branch is out of control. You see it all too common for judges to legislate from the bench. The power of the judiciary needs to be curbed. Instead of interpreting law, they need to decide if law applies or not, and if it doesn’t, then they should defer to the legislative branch to produce legislation that addresses the issue. This would fundamentally change how our three branches work, but that is the point of my editorials, our government needs an overhaul.

I hope in the coming months, you’ll read and consider my suggestions for a revamped, improved America. I will label the posts as “PFBA – Topic”. PFBA means Prescription for a Better America.

 

 

Here’s how we fix illegal immigration.

Sending all of these illegals home, especially after they have come here and had children who automatically get birthright citizenship, is not going to happen.

How do we hold ourselves up as a nation of laws if the first thing our “immigrants” do is break the law and we reward them for it?

Two things need to happen. First, we need to end birthright citizenship. We are one of the only countries in the world who do it, and it encourages people to enter our country illegally knowing that having their children here helps them bypass our laws and ensures their ability to stay here despite breaking our laws. No longer will you find hoards of pregnant women coming to this country to have their children in order to gain birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship had its place in early America when we were a new nation, but now as an established nation, it no longer does.

This won’t stop all illegal immigration, but it will slow it. But what to do about those already here? The answer is to deny citizenship to those who came here illegally. We’re not talking the kids. We’re talking the parents here. If those who are here have no children, then they can be deported. Those who have started families here should be allowed to stay, but they should be given a new status: unauthorized resident. These unauthorized residents will never be allowed to vote. They will never be allowed to enjoy any of the benefits that citizens of this country enjoy. While that may sound mean and unfair, it should be the punishment for entering our country illegally. They no longer would fear deportation, but they will never enjoy full citizenship.

There will be some who call these residents “second-class citizens”. That will be incorrect as they will have never been granted citizenship. They will be residents. There needs to be a difference between the two definitions again.

For those unauthorized residents who wish to gain citizenship, they should be forced to leave the country for a period of 5 years, which if I recall correctly, is the amount of time that a person is barred from entering the United States if they try to enter it illegally, and at that point, they can apply for citizenship like anyone else. If they want to become citizens, they need to earn it and gain it like everyone else.

There will be those who call this unfair, but let’s face it – these illegal immigrants who will be allowed to stay will be living in a safe country with high standards of living. They will continue to raise their children here. They will be able to earn a living here. They will be treated no differently than felons, but without the felonious record. How is that unfair? They broke the law!

I don’t blame anyone for wanting to come to this country. I am a descendant of immigrants. However, through my genealogical research, which is found online at Ancestry.com, I have found no one in my family tree that came here illegally. Like Moses, these illegal immigrants will see others enjoy the benefits of the “promised land”, but they themselves will never experience its fullness unless they leave and come back legally.

To Bill Nye and the global warming fanatics,

I’m sick and tired of hearing you trash those of us who are not convinced that global warming is an entirely man-made phenomenon. I live in Iowa. I was taught in school that the Paleo-Indians who first inhabited this land had to deal with glaciers. I also learned that the limestone that we find so abundantly full of fossils are proof that Iowa was once covered by an ocean. It seems to me that Iowa has been a very cold place, and a very warm place, much colder and much warmer than it is today.

In the Caribbean, divers have found cave paintings in caves now only accessible by water. They say this means that at one time, the water levels were much lower than they are today. How did those humans survive the warming that must have taken place since that time? They adapted.

That’s right, like every other living thing on this planet, they adapted to survive. Straight from the evolutionists own handbook – survival of the fittest. Those who adapt survive and those who don’t, become extinct.

What really annoys me about these global warming alarmists is that they scream bloody murder that the world is coming to an end while themselves being some of the largest contributors to “global warming”. These are the jet setters who fly in jet planes. These are the ones who live in fancy mansions, eat expensive food, and drive gas guzzling limousines, while preaching to the poor that it’s us that are harming the planet.

Not only that, science has a history of double talk. First, eggs were good for you. Then they were bad for you. Then they were good for you again. In the 1970’s, scientists actually thought we were going to go into a period of global cooling! This is the problem with modern science. Scientists claim to be professors on subjects that they have very little information on.

There is no way that we understand global climate enough to be able to determine that we are the sole cause of any global warming that may be taking place. When compared to the entire history of the planet, from the evolutionists own book, we have been on this earth but a brief moment. Scientists think they can tell the history of the earth based upon rocks and other things, but nobody has lived long enough to verify that what they are seeing is actually true. They are only telling themselves that because 2+2 comes out to be four, that it must be this way or that way, when in reality, there may be another, unforeseen reason why things are the way they are.

Listen, we are but flies in the universe. Out behind my home, there is a pasture where cows eat grass and pass the by-product out the other end. These cow patties are a favorite for flies. Now consider the fly out there munching on that cow patty.

Does that fly see my home? Yes, it does. Does it understand how my home got here? Does it understand I live inside of it? Does it understand the materials that make it up, and how they were manufactured, and the rules and regulations put in place regarding the building of my home? Let’s go further, does that fly understand that it’s looking at a town? Does it understand that beyond that town are other towns, all hooked together by roads? Does that fly understand New York City? Could it ever in it’s lifetime, fly from Iowa to New York City? Only if it gets transported in a vehicle, and even that’s something the fly doesn’t understand.

Does the fly understand that there is night and day, and why there is night and day? Does it understand gravity? Does it understand the seasons of the year? Will it ever live long enough to experience all four seasons? What is the life of a fly compared to our lives? It’s nothing more than a blip – which is exactly what we are compared to the existence of the universe.

We are but flies in the universe.

Now, you want to tell me that you understand everything that goes into planetary climate? Dream on!

What we can agree on is that the earth is changing. We need to find ways to adapt. If we don’t adapt, we die. Earth and the universe don’t care that somebody built a fancy home along the coast. If there were glaciers and floods before, there will be again.

Another thing we can all agree on is taking care of our planet. Who doesn’t want clean air? Who doesn’t want wholesome, healthy food? Who doesn’t want clean water? Who wouldn’t want to end fossil fuels and find a way to live more economically, using solar and other sources that are much cleaner and less expensive, while providing the same quality of life? Why try and convince us with controversial, little understood science instead of playing to the common good of mankind by keeping our planet clean? What’s wrong with the Indian with a tear in his eye? We live a lot cleaner today than we did in the 1970’s! It’s working! Let’s keep on that path! Why all of a sudden does the argument have to be about global warming? You do realize that a lot of people pushing this “global warming” argument stand to gain billions of dollars financially? Did they not teach you about scientific ethics and looking to see where the money is coming from?

It’s really sad because I really liked Bill Nye the Science Guy as a teenager. Now I see you as someone who is sadly misinformed, bitter, and not the nice guy he pretended to be on television.

In conclusion, I don’t buy the man-made global warming argument. I don’t deny that the planet may be warming, but I don’t think there’s much that we can do about it. I see people lined up to line their pockets over the panic created by this scare tactic. I see scientists who want to look really important professing to know so much about so little, and I just wonder why the argument has to be about global warming and not about keeping our planet clean and healthy. There would be far less pushback if they went the latter route.

Cruz’s Tax Form is Nuts!

I’ve seen it before, but Cruz decided to tweet it out again today; Cruz wants you to believe that he will simplify the tax code to a point where it’ll all fit on a post card.

I could go into a really long diatribe about how nuts he is, but I’ll stick to two points that are irrefutable to prove that Cruz is a nutcase, preying upon people’s feelings, and not their brain.

1.      Nowhere on his postcard is there anything to write down any information regarding your children or the itemized tax deductions. These will require more paper than just a post card. How else will the IRS be able to verify that you correctly took the correct deductions or used your child credits correctly? You don’t on this form. I could say that I have 64 children and if this is the only form that I have to send in, then there is no way for the government to ensure that I don’t have that many kids, or that my former spouse didn’t claim those kids, etc. You just cannot use this postcard if you take itemized deductions or have children. This form is a fallacy! This leads me to point #2….

2.      Ted Cruz says he will abolish the IRS. He wants you to believe that he’s serious about this one. Just who the hell will you mail these postcards to? Who will collect the various other taxes that the government collects? The IRS deals in more than just income taxes. They are the collection arm for the US Treasury. The exception to this are Alcohol and Firearm taxes collected by the ATF and customs taxes collected by the Customs and Border Protection.

Ladies and gentleman, Ted Cruz is a nutcase. The more I watch him, the more he sounds like Bill Clinton with an R behind his name. Listen, I’m all for simplifying the tax code. I’m all for making the IRS kinder and gentler. I’m all for a smaller government – but don’t blow smoke up my ass about how you’re going to do it!

Why I like Hy-Vee

While my family cannot afford to shop exclusively at Hy-Vee, we like the store. They carry an assortment of items that many of the other chain stores in our area do not carry. They also have high quality products. I don’t worry about getting bad meat or produce at Hy-Vee. You pay more, but you get better quality.

The other reason that I like Hy-Vee is because they treat everyone better than most grocery chains. I am a former truck driver and I’ve delivered to Walmart Distribution Centers, Fareway’s warehouse in Boone, and Hy-Vee’s warehouse in Chariton. I’ve delivered to many other food warehouses too, but those three are the ones in our area.

Hy-Vee is the best grocery warehouse that I’ve ever delivered to, hands down. I brought a load of Campbell’s soup to the warehouse in Chariton several years ago. The load came out of Ohio, just southwest of Toledo. I drove all night to get it to Chariton and I was very tired when I pulled into the warehouse. The guy in charge told me that I should take a nap in my truck while they unloaded my trailer. I was floored. Generally, grocery warehouses make the driver help unload, or hire a lumper to help unload. Not at the Hy-Vee warehouse! They did all the work and allowed the truck driver to sleep. When I was unloaded, the guy in charge came out to my truck with a cup of coffee and encouraged me to pull into an empty spot in the yard there to get more rest if needed. I thanked him and told him how shocked I was that they handled all the unloading. The man responded that Hy-Vee wanted safer roads and this is why they said they unload the trailers. I have never forgotten that.

Yes, you pay a little more at Hy-Vee, but it’s worth it if you can afford it.