Proposition 1D

I have no interest in California's Proposition 1D, a falling-out among thieves over shares of the loot. But Andrea Urton's letter (Proposition 1D bad for young children, San Jose Mercury News, April 12, 2009) struck a responsive chord with me.

California's budget is in deep, deep trouble. Proposition 1D would divert tobacco tax money from its "for the children" pretext commitment to the state's General Fund. California's off-highway vehicle (OHV) community will be familiar with this phenomenon, as their OHV registration (Green Sticker) fees have for years been used for every purpose but that for which they are legally and exclusively earmarked -- the construction and maintenance of OHV recreation areas.

Ms. Urton is Associate Director of EMQ FamiliesFirst in Campbell. No, I don't know why "FamiliesFirst" is run together like that; probably someone thought it was trendy. Her organization is 91% tax-funded, so she has a vested interest in the Prop. 1D squabble. I don't know if she has ever protested the persistent raiding of the Green Sticker fund.

Ms. Urton wants to know "What is wrong with our society that we would even consider disrupting... the values of investing in our children, keeping them safe and facilitating family strength come before anything else?"

Ms. Urton apparently hasn't noticed, but we've been doing just that for decades. Welfare, no-fault divorce, mandatory public "education", Section 8 housing subsidies, glorification of unwed maternity, a tax code that all but forces mothers into the workforce (for their own "liberation," of course), and a host of other intrusions into personal and family life, all work to undermine the very values Ms. Urton extols.

The futility of the government's wars

Fugitive U.S. marshal found dead in Mexico

Deputy U.S. Marshal Vincent Bustamante was found dead in Juarez. He was shot multiple times in the head, in what is being called an execution-style slaying. Bustamante was on administrative leave from the Marshal's Service following his arrest for stealing Marshal's Service firearms and other government property. A bench warrant was issued for Bustamante's arrest after he failed to appear for a court hearing last week. A 17-year veteran of the Marshal's Service, and a former El Paso Police officer, Bustamante leaves behind a wife and two children.

Prohibition corrupts. In 1924, corrupt Prohibition Agent Wiley Lynn murdered the Marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma, the legendary Western lawman Bill Tilghman. In 1932, Lynn attempted to assassinate Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Crockett Long. In the exchange of gunfire that followed, both men and an innocent boy were mortally wounded.

Prohibition breeds violence. The violence today in Juarez is the violence of Chicago in the 1920s.

While the gun-grabbers gleefully blame gun-rights advocates for the recent massacre in Oakland, they ignore the fact that Lovelle Mixon legally could not own or possess a firearm. They blame a non-existent "gun show loophole," while they ignore the fact that corrupt government employees with access to guns -- law enforcement officers and military personnel -- have always been prime sources of weapons for criminals, even in the unregulated time prior to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The War on Poverty has brought us generations of dependent, entitlement-minded layabouts who supposedly don't have money for their own food, shelter, education, medical care, out-of-wedlock children, etc., but who (like the unemployed Lovelle Mixon) nonetheless have money for tattoos, bling, flashy chrome rims, and gazillion-watt car stereos to blare the latest profanity-laced, bass-driven rap opus into every home, school, church, and hospital they pass. The Vietnam War was, in a way, nearly as destructive to this country as it was to Vietnam, a country that never attacked or threatened the United States. Our wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan (yes, even Afghanistan is done on pretext) already have spent us into penury, yet no end is in sight.

No more war.

This is what happens...

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