Virginia Libertarian

Townhall.com::It’s hard to tell a conservative from a liberal::By John Stossel

Bringing society together sounds nice, but government is force. Voluntary contributions to a charity would people together for the public good.Klein added: “We have to provide this opportunity. If it’s the will of the people.”

The will of the people can mean tyranny of the majority.

Too bad neither liberals nor conservatives have scruples against forcing people to do things they don’t wish to do.

This country was not founded upon the mob rule of pure democracy.  We are a nation of laws, not a nation of mobs.  If we followed majority rule for everything we did, we would end up with exactly what Stossel is warning against, tyranny of the majority.  Majority rule is not always the best thing, look at what the Republicans have done with it over the past 8 years.

Potomac News Online | Ethnicity a factor in murder?

Murder in the commission of a robbery is a capital offense, punishable by death in Virginia. A hate crime charge may also be brought against the pair, adding to the severity of the penalty, said Prince William Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert. He called such crimes “relatively uncommon” in the county.

I don’t know why we feel that it is ok to punish someone for what they are thinking.  The reason someone committed murder has nothing to do with the fact that they did, and should not be taken into account.  This leads down the slippery slope of thought control, à la George Orwell’s 1984.

StarExponent.com - The Culpeper Star Exponent | House GOP taking aim at VDOT

The Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled Senate sharply disagree with the House on the need to raise taxes to fund road, rail and public transportation projects. Kaine and the Senate favor tax increases while the House opposes them, saying Virginia should use existing state revenues.

About what I expected from him when he was elected. Keeping with Warner’s fiscal policy like he promiesed is evidently too much for him.

TimesDispatch.com | Boys’ trip in trunk results in charges

Trice said Novak was cooperative during the investigation, which resulted in her being arrested and charged Friday night with two counts of felony child endangerment.”I don’t know that she understood the extent to which we were going to address it,” said Trice, who said the unconventional pizza run endangered the children.

Novak, 48, was formally arraigned yesterday. She could not be reached for comment last night.

During an earlier interview with NBC-12, she insisted that she was a good mother and said the trunk transport was the kids’ idea because they didn’t want to sit on each other’s lap in the car.

“I know it was a bad decision,” she said.

Ok, I don’t know about you, but I remember doing things at least this bad when I was a kid.  Riding in the back of pickup trucks, while standing, comes to mind.  This is more government meddling into areas where they don’t belong.  Ok, yes, this woman probably did put her kids at an increased risk of being injured if they got into an accident, but you know what, those are her kids.  If it had been someone else’s kids in the trunk that would be a different story.  Furthermore, the kids were probably having a blast riding in the trunk, what 13 year old boy wouldn’t?  Hopefully they won’t be stupid and convict this woman of anything or try to take her kids away.

Panel advises cutting salaries at Office of National Drug Control Policy

Salaries and expenses at the Office of National Drug Control Policy would fall from $26.6 million to $11.5 million under the recommendation of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The director of the office, John Walters, earns $183,500. There are 111 full-time employees at the agency.

If this were to actually go through, it would be a good thing, but I am under the impression that this is just posturing.  I think the Appropriations committee is P-O’ed about the level of response they are getting to their inquires, and are making threats in order to get better response, but I just can’t believe that this committee, under Republican control, is going to cut an offices that represents one of their big platform issues.