Thinking Between The Lines

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54653898228678207292011-04-21T17:22:10.332-05:00Thinking Between The LinesA critical look at the world from an individual point of view.Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-57105809154217499582008-01-05T09:12:00.000-06:002008-01-05T09:35:42.858-06:00Is this a Democrat or Republican?

Here's some tidbits on a particular candidate. Compare them to the alleged ideology of the two main political parties and try to decide who the candidate is... or at least which side of the proverbial aisle he/she claims to be on.Spending increased by more than 8% per year — three times the rate of inflation.Increased the number of government workers increased by 20 percent.Increased average

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-63749625906838725252007-12-25T15:03:00.000-06:002007-12-31T14:35:49.293-06:00Selecting a Political Proxy by Proxy

It has become a staple of the election season. Every election cycle, we get treated to a parade of names splashed across the media. Pairings of politicos with papers, pundits, personalities and power-brokers stream across the news-tickers like up-to-the-minute stock quotes. But to what end? The resultant undulation of poll numbers like waves raised by a boulder in a pond tell us that these

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-27724316792424422032007-12-10T11:48:00.000-06:002007-12-10T12:04:34.867-06:00New baby = environmental tax?

Well, they are seriously considering this in Australia. If you have more than two children, you would be forced to pay a $5000 (Australian Dollars) baby tax at birth and an additional $800 per year in order to offset the carbon usage that the kid will supposedly use.Professor Walters said the average annual carbon dioxide emission by an Australian individual was about 17 metric tons, including

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-45846563170512547852007-12-10T11:16:00.000-06:002007-12-10T11:43:47.406-06:00Update on guns in Omaha mall

This is a follow-up to my post about concealed weapons being banned in the Omaha mall.Well, a blogger has posted pictures of the signs at Omaha's Westroads mall that state that concealed weapons (or even openly carried ones, I suppose) are were not allowed in the mall.Here's an amusing tidbit, however... a further along, he shows pictures of the same spot - where the signs were removed. Good

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-55048865906074646742007-12-06T12:19:00.000-06:002007-12-06T12:31:13.448-06:00Concealed weapons banned in Omaha mall

This article from the Omaha World Herald dated March 28, 2007 reports on how Omaha businesses have elected to post signs saying that they don’t allow concealed weapons on their premises. Included in the article is Westroads mall – the most famous shooting gallery in the country this week.Here’s a couple of excerpts, but I recommend you read the whole article.Almost three months after the start

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-35555890892724107922007-12-03T21:48:00.000-06:002007-12-04T02:07:15.506-06:00Save me from myself, Mrs. Clinton

In the first days of December, Mrs. Clinton came out with an entirely new tack for her. She called for a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures as well as a five-year freeze on the rates of adjustable mortgages. (choose your source) This is such a blatant invasion by government into the free commerce of the private sector that it is almost a spectacular display of chutzpah that it is being suggested

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-70698231526007850422007-11-18T14:50:00.000-06:002007-11-30T21:32:47.185-06:00AMT reluctance exposes Congress' real motives

The fact that Congress has been reluctant for years to repeal - or even adjust - the Alternative Minimum Tax exposes something very telling. It is obvious that the fact that the AMT is encroaching on the middle class is a result of a phenomenon that is particularly endemic to governing bodies - the "law of unintended consequences". By not indexing the AMT to inflation when it was instituted back

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-34563329620210564882007-11-18T12:19:00.000-06:002007-11-18T13:32:09.455-06:00UN: "Climate Change Irreversible"

According to a "Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel", the earth is hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace. (Since we have seen that the Nobel committee is not really interested in fact anymore - just hype, and the U.N. isn't really interested in objectivity anymore - just control, I'm curious as to the credence that one should lend to the aforementioned "Nobel-winning U.N.

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-45971992962823708422007-11-16T16:11:00.000-06:002007-11-16T16:37:35.853-06:00State-sponsored vs. State-allowed Religion

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not a terribly religious person. Really that's irrelevant. Often times, I am annoyed by all faiths and their imposition into government and even just life in general. At times like that, I find myself often siding with athiests in fights against the encroachment of other people's religious beliefs. However, sometimes the athiests choose to shoot themselves in the

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-42422233438724218972007-11-14T22:19:00.000-06:002007-11-14T22:00:47.541-06:00The fallacy of health insurance as a "right"

At some point in the past 30 years, there was a transition - or series of transitions - that brought the collective mindset of the American public to the conclusion that health insurance (or health care) is a "right." We hear it all the time from the halls of government, from political pulpits and political pundits, from news "anchors" who amaze us with their ability to read words from a

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-44091747626655607602007-11-14T13:18:00.001-06:002007-11-14T13:42:24.883-06:00I wish I was poor - they get richer!

Here's a brief tidbit... we've all heard the claims that "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer." Actually, there are a variety of those claims whittled into a handy quiver of cliches. But how true is it? Or is it true at all?According to the Treasury Dept.'s latest statistics... well... see for yourself...In the 10 years between 1996 and 2005, the lowest quintile (20%)

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-18108715981754954172007-11-14T10:27:00.000-06:002007-11-14T11:24:12.154-06:00Cows - not cars - should eat corn.

We are all familiar with the outrage over the price of gas. We have all felt it to some extent or another. We have even been told about how the increase in the price of gas trickles throughout the economy in the form of price increases for any good that is transported using some gas-burning vehicle. None of this is untrue. Gasoline is something that touches pretty much anything. Even the service

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-84303518378615847352007-11-14T00:30:00.000-06:002007-11-14T00:49:02.192-06:00Hillary continues to reap what she sows in Iowa.

(And it isn't corn!)The latest story about Hillary and Associates planting questions comes from a well-spoken college student by the name of Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff. Really, the details are similar to the rest that I have already covered so I won't rehash the CNN story here.However, one thing struck me as amusing. This is Hillary's announcement that she was running from about a year ago.Notice

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-23845843783773112502007-11-12T14:50:00.000-06:002007-11-12T15:15:08.207-06:00Hillary doesn't have control?

Hillary Clinton, in response to the issue of whether her staffers planted questions in the audience of her appearances, said "Well it was news to me. And neither I nor my campaign approve of that. And it will certainly not be tolerated." (FoxNews.com, NewsMax)OK... so when various levels of the Bush administration and the military were confronted with issues such as the Abu Ghraib prison abuse

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-61444896877267641982007-11-11T21:05:00.000-06:002007-11-14T14:25:14.393-06:00Obama wants more for SS.

Barack Obama stated on Nov. 11th that he would raise the amount of income that would be subjected to the Social Security tax, if he were elected president. On the surface, this doesn't seem to be a bad idea. After all, you eventually get it back, right?The problem with this idea is twofold. One, the whole point of this is to make sure that there isn't a cut in benefits to existing seniors. Well,

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-22487387065071084812007-11-11T15:47:00.000-06:002007-11-11T18:48:44.808-06:00Hillary seeds the audience? No surprise.

According to various articles on the net (FoxNews.com, ABCNews.com, among others... but strangely not on CNN.com), Hillary Clinton has been accused a 2nd time of having her staffers seed the audience of campaign stops with questions. This is hardly a surprise.Obviously, the point of this would be for her to have issues addressed that she wants to bring up. This is something that all candidates

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5465389822867820729.post-77171645734939991572007-11-11T14:27:00.003-06:002007-11-11T14:39:24.189-06:00A Genesis of Thoughtful Commentary

Welcome.I'm not sure where this will go - my posts will be driven by my thoughts, which will be driven in part by the media, which (ostensibly) are driven by events of the real world. If it catches my eye or tickles my brain, it will show up here.Please be aware that I espouse no traditional dogma, support no platform, and by no means endorse a particular party or candidate. I am neither

Critical Thinkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01117397214017544579noreply@blogger.com0