Wednesday, June 28, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #123 “Look What Liberty Has Done!”

Judge1       There is much talk today about the disparity of earnings between the “top brass” and the regular workers and, somewhat obviously, a lot of it is true.  But if we think of it in a different fashion, we should have many fewer complaints.  Put it this way: how many of us would trade places with Henry VIII?  Henry was the King of England for about 37 years.  But he had undiagnosed gout, lived in a drafty castle, and if he wanted to travel he had to take a jolting coach ride by which he could travel only about 20 miles per day.  And he died at the age of 55!  (And who really would want to have 6 wives?)

So the point is that most people living in our country today have a much better life than Henry VIII.  Almost all of us have better health, life expectancy, comforts and enjoyment of life by far than even the epitome of life in the 16th Century.  And the difference between today’s rich and “poor?”  Your barber’s Timex watch keeps as good time as any CEO’s Rolex, his used Ford gets him here and there as well as the CEO’s Tesla, and his clothing is almost the same quality as the CEO’s designer brands.  Plus today almost everyone has cellphones, big screen televisions, computers and access to healthy foods and medicines.  Even airplane trips are available to almost everyone.  So even though there is a marked disparity in incomes, when it comes down to it, the difference between the lives of the wealthy and poor is so much closer today than it has ever been before.  So look what Liberty and the Free Enterprise System have done for us all!  That is not to say that we should not work to narrow today’s disparity of wealth.  But maybe along the way we should also focus on the life of Henry VIII, and be more thankful of what we have!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

 

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!




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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #122 “They Have Been Punished Enough!”

280x157-z71           Truly one of the most important factors affecting our country’s domestic tranquility is people’s ability to get a job.  In so many different ways, not being able to find lawful employment contributes greatly to a loss of self-respect which, in turn, leads to despair, crime and drug abuse.  And probably the ones most susceptible to those ills are people who have served time in prison.  Why?  Because if ex-felons cannot get a job, the odds are shown to be appreciably higher that they will commit another offense that will land them back in prison.

But what most people do not realize is that many state governments intensely and unfairly aggravate this situation!  How?  Because those states’ occupational licensing boards are empowered to – and often do – reject applications for as many as 118 different types of jobs simply because the applicants were previously convicted of a felony.  This includes applications for licenses to work as barbers, hair stylists, massage therapists and roofers, even though the conviction had nothing to do with those jobs.  Yes, maybe some applicants should be rejected based upon the specific circumstances involved, but the decisions should never be automatic!  In other words, after they have completed their sentence, the ex-felons have been punished enough and should be given a fair chance to be productive members of society!  And, of course, since this situation creates greater court and prison costs, the taxpayers are being punished as well.  So everyone loses (except the prison guards unions).  Thus, for all of our sakes, this deprivation of Liberty to pursue lawful employment should not be tolerated!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

 

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!

 




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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #121 “Liberty And Political Donations”

rsz_judgegray         Everyone knows that money is much too influential in today’s politics, so how can that influence be lessened?  To me the answer is to allow all natural people who are citizens or holders of Green Cards to contribute as much money as they wish to the candidates or ballot measures of their choice, with the firm provision that all contributions above a certain fairly small but fixed amount must be published in a timely fashion.  This would both be fair and consistent with freedom of speech.  Under today’s system, if Bill Gates were running for a public office he could contribute as much of his money to his own campaign as he wanted.  So why should he not be able to contribute to other campaigns as well?  And then if the voters feel that a candidate is beholden to Bill Gates or anyone else, they still would be free to vote for that candidate’s opponent.

But, critically, no organizations, including corporations and labor unions, should be allowed to contribute to any public elections whatsoever.   First of all, as a matter of basic fairness, since it’s the money of their shareholders and members, those shareholders or union members should not be forced to contribute to a cause with which they do not agree.  (And if they do agree, that’s fine, they can still contribute individually and also encourage other individuals to do the same.)  Of course, I understand that this idea conflicts with the ruling by the Supreme Court in Citizens United, but that is still my opinion.  Secondly, under today’s system with all of its purported contribution restrictions, the wealthy are still able to contribute virtually as much as they want to whatever cause they choose.  How is that?  Because wealthy individuals and special interests are able to “launder” their donations through Political Action Committees (PACs) or political parties, accompanied by their “private request” as to where the money should be spent.  And, of course, that is where the money goes, because the recipients are mostly in business to help those causes.  So why not make those contributions above-board, public and available to all?  And along the way, Liberty would be enhanced, as would more accurate information being available to the voters.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

 

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!

 




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Sunday, June 18, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #120 “The Most Important Function Of Government”

C15120D0000-00-00                At the moment I am finalizing a new musical entitled “Convention,” which is about our great country’s Constitutional Convention in 1787.  As a result, for the past few years I have been heavily involved with research about the thoughts, beliefs and principles of our Founders.  (In that group I include women like Abigail Adams.)  And, although the delegates obviously had different backgrounds, biases and beliefs, do you know what the most important function of government was for virtually each one of them?  The protection of individual liberties from the encroachment of government!  (The second most important was security.)  This thought might be somewhat controversial today, but it shouldn’t be.  And it has been the purpose of these “2 Paragraphs” editions for the past 119 weeks to help more people to think and focus about government in these terms, i.e. the terms of Liberty.

The Founders believed that the provisions of the Constitution were so clear that most of them felt that a Bill of Rights was not necessary.   For example, Alexander Hamilton (who never sang any rap songs in his life!) felt that if some rights were enumerated in such a Bill, it might mean that others which were not expressly mentioned were forfeited, and he didn’t want to take that chance.  So what are some of the liberties that we have lost to the government over time?  That list is long, but it includes no provision in the Constitution at all to justify the federal government’s intrusion into the fields of education, healthcare, or the prohibition of presently illicit drugs, not to mention Congress’ forfeiting of the issuance of declarations of war to the President.  And, of course, all of these intrusions have increased the cost of government by many levels of magnitude.  This lasted even up to the year 1913, when the architects of the 16th Amendment, which allowed the federal government to levy income taxes, considered limiting the amount at five percent.  But that was determined it to be unnecessary, since they were sure the tax would never exceed three percent.  So in your deliberations about how our government should be acting, and how you should vote in our elections, please consider the Founders, and the Constitution they created for us all.  And then be sure to vote for Liberty.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

 

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion.   And, by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!




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Sunday, June 4, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #119 “Don’t Let The Bad Guys Win”

maxresdefault         I am writing this just as the details of the Manchester explosion are coming forward.  Maybe this analysis will not be well received by some, but it is something that must be said and understood by civilized society.  Nevertheless, first I must say that without any doubt this is a tragedy, and sympathy must be given to the victims.  But having said that, we must focus upon what is happening, the type of beasts that are behind it, and what humanity’s best response should be to these inhuman acts.  And that response must be: Don’t let the bad guys win!  For instance, just after the explosion all major news networks I saw devoted uninterrupted hours to the story.  No!  Don’t give the bad guys the satisfaction!  Furthermore, some people were saying that we must respond by more surveillance of those who might cause such tragedies.  Does that mean that all Muslim immigrants are suspect and must be surveilled?  No, once again, that turns this into a fight between Christianity and Islam, which is exactly what the bad guys are trying to effect.

Instead, the best response is to focus upon the following five realities.  First, we must recognize that the best protection against these evil acts is prior intelligence.  Use whatever legal means and resources are necessary to infiltrate organizations that sponsor or advocate such beastly acts, and head off those people.  Second, we all must understand, as adults, that there is only so much that governments can do to protect us from random acts of terror.  Reality dictates that if someone wants randomly to do harm to others, there is little that can be done to stop them (other than prior intelligence).  How can we ever stop demented people who decide to blow themselves up at a local supermarket, bus station or crowded street corner?  We can’t.  Third, we can reduce these acts by stopping the glorification of those who are responsible.  How?  By never broadcasting their names, pictures or even the name of their terrorist groups.  We can call them the terrorists, cowards or losers that they are, but don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing that they will be sensationalized.  This only encourages others to copycat them.  Fourth, don’t have all activity come to a stop when these beastly acts occur.  This just shows fear and, in turn, shows the bad guys they are having their way.  Instead, adopt the attitude of the people during the Battle of Britain, where hell was literally falling from the skies on a regular basis.  When the air raid sirens went off, those on the ground did what was necessary to protect themselves by going into a shelter, etc.  But when the “all clear” sounded, they went back to their normal lives without fear or whining.  And fifth, let these cowards know that they are never going to be successful in taking away our Liberty.  Fundamentally the terrorists want to show the world that our civilization is no better than any other, and we must not allow that to happen.  The great Viktor Frankl once said that there are only two races in the world, the decent and the indecent.  We must continue to show that we are in the former category.  And by adopting these five approaches we will ensure that, no matter what happens, the indecent race/bad guys are never going to win!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!




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Saturday, June 3, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #118 “Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense”

Judge-Jim-Gray_600x300-590x300            “Zero Tolerance” laws and rules allow judges, bureaucrats, school principals and other officials to avoid having to make responsible decisions.  And they also frequently result in stark injustices.  For example, once a junior high school student went to a swap meet where he bought a sterile marijuana seed that was immersed in formaldehyde and encased inside a Plexiglas pen.  Then he took his purchase to school to show his friends.  But due to Zero Tolerance rules about bringing drugs onto campus, the student was suspended for a month.  Do you think that helped the students learn to respect authority?  Soon, however, the decision was revoked when his father showed up with an attorney.  What do you think the students learned from that result?

The better approach is to give people in responsible positions the discretion to make decisions based upon the laws or rules, the facts of the situation and the parties involved.  And then require them to explain their decisions.  Otherwise, we might as well put a judicial robe on a computer.  To state the obvious, life can be complicated, and we must not expect that “one size fits all circumstances.”  So we need the Liberty to use discretion at all levels of society and in almost all situations.  In summary, this means that arbitrary is incompatible with Liberty.  So keep this issue in mind when thinking, talking or voting about things like mandatory minimum sentences in criminal cases, and zero tolerance rules at home, your cities or schools or anywhere else.  In other words, think about and vote for Liberty.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration and to further the discussion. And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty!




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