Three Things on a Saturday

One sign of a failing Presidency is when it begins to offer small time ideas in a world of big time controversies. President Barack Obama is doing exactly that with his idea about free community college. Against a backdrop of worldwide terrorism, the answer for him is access to low level college.

Please. Don't we have enough schools of higher education taking enough public money as it is? Why not free up the bonds which education imposes upon us and open up the job markets to the poor? How many jobs actually require college anyway? Formal education isn't necessarily the answer to individual economic woes, friends. Getting on the economic ladder to success, learning how to do for yourself in the real day to day world, is the key to prosperity, not guaranteeing jobs for sociology teachers. That's all that colleges are, really, with their core curriculums and all: jobs factories for those who major in areas of little general interest. More of that will not help the poor. It will simply stifle their need to better themselves.

Je suis Charlie? Not us. True, the crime against the twelve murder victims was heinous and despicable, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice (as almost all of them at this writing have been). But when you consider that the writers and editors at Charlie Hebdo were themselves a mean spirited, anti-religious, provocative and proudly secular humanist rabble, it is difficult to defend their publication itself on any rational grounds. We may have to tolerate such drivel, but only because the alternative of state censorship is a worse evil. We are human, and as such have a stake in preventing murderous actions against any other human beings. But we are decidedly not Charlie. We want responsible speech, not self serving cartoons meant to inflame passions and drive sales. That's hardly in the human interest, and not in truth a legitimate liberty.

Mitt Romney says that he's thinking about running for President again in 2016. Third time's a charm, Mitt? We're not so sure. Yes, he would certainly be better than Hillary, and if he were to get the GOP nomination we would vote for him out of necessity. But isn't it about time that the Republicans become, at least symbolically, a broader party by nominating a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio? Might it be a good idea and move a bit towards the libertarians and look deeply towards Rand Paul? This next election might be the critical one in US History, given the general direction of the world as well as our nation as a whole. Might it be time to show that conservative/libertarian ideals are the right ones, and give the people a real choice that November?

Just our two cents on three current events issues. Have a nice day.