2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #264 “BEST WISHES DR. JO!”

​​​            Well, my life became much less complicated this past weekend because I did not receive the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President.  Instead the nomination went to Dr. Jo Jorgensen, who is an instructor at Clemson University.  My great team was sensational, and I believe my running mate, Larry Sharpe of New York, and I successfully got our message out.  But that was not what the delegates wanted.  Of course we believe they made a mistake, but they had every right to make it.  (You can make up your own minds using this link for the video clip of my nominators’ and my presentations to the delegates in the virtual national convention: https://vimeo.com/421983993.)  But now Onward: please join me in congratulating and supporting Dr. Jo as she carries the banner of Liberty forward – for all of us!

           

            Among other things, for me “onward” means that we all should focus this Memorial Day weekend upon the fact that it is our government, and if it isn’t working we have no one to blame but ourselves.  So in that spirit, here are the lyrics of the song You Are The We.  This is the encore to my new musical Convention: the Birth of America.  The song is first sung by George Washington and our moderator Benjamin Franklin and then, increasingly, the entire cast.  What do you think?  I wish you a Happy and Thoughtful Memorial Day Weekend!

           

            They say you like to call us Founding Fathers,

            Our portraits are still in your history books.

            To that we’d like to say we’re deeply honored,

            And glad to see the artists captured our good looks.

            But if we’re your Fathers, you’re our sons and daughters,

            With some greats and grands appended that’s for sure.

            And though we never met you, we knew you’d be coming along some day,

            So we wrote this Constitution to keep you safe and strong the American Way:

           

            Keep it alive, see that it thrives, and pass it along again.

            But open your eyes, you have to be wise,

You have to be strong and then:

            Teach your children well, maybe even tell them

Of our Founding Fathers, how their sons and daughters

Carried it through a hundred or two perilous years to hand it to you:

For now you . . . you are the People

It’s you . . . you are the We.

It’s yours, your Constitution,

It belongs to you and me.

Yes you . . . you are the People,

It’s you . . . you are the We.

It’s yours, your Constitution,

For this Land of the Free.

Carry it forward, carry it on.

Protect and defend it, in keeping it strong.

And when there is weakness, amend if you must,

But harbor no meekness defending this Trust.

For you . . . you are the People,

It’s you . . . you are the We.

It’s yours, your Constitution

For this Land of the . . . Free!

                                  

Quote of the week: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”                                                               St. Augustine

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear all past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with your friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #263 "A PLAN TO WIN"

 As you know, I am currently seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States.  Yes, I know, no third-party candidate has any chance to win the presidency.  But, actually, we do.  First of all, there is no question that we will not have the tens of millions of dollars and the media attention to compete in large states like California and New York, which will go to Vice President Biden (or whomever the Democrats nominate), or in Texas, which will go to President Trump.  Instead, we will spend our resources, time and energy in five small and independent states, as yet to be determined.  Then we will engage the local media and speak directly with the voters, looking them in the eye and telling them that their votes will make history.  Imagine if we win two or three small states – which could be done by receiving 38 to 40 percent of the vote!  In addition, it would almost certainly become newsworthy for the entire country if the Libertarian candidates were beginning to poll stronger in these smaller states.  So the national media would begin to explain why that was happening, which gain attention and would also likely result in increased votes for the libertarian down-ballot candidates in other states as well.

So what would happen if we won two or three small states?  That could likely result in neither Trump nor Biden winning enough delegates to get a majority in the Electoral College and this, in turn, would place the outcome of the vote with the House of Representatives (as covered by the 12th Amendment).  So if the election were to go to the House, it is virtually guaranteed that no Republican would vote for Biden, and no Democrat would vote for Trump. But the list would be restricted to the top three finishers in the election, which would very likely mean the Libertarian would win.  (In case you are interested, the Vice President would be selected by the Senate choosing between the top two finishers.)  In my view, this is exciting.  But even if we only won one state, this would be a revolution for the Libertarian Party, and that alone would help our down-ballot Libertarian candidates for years to come.  So life is certainly interesting, and I am excited to report to you about the possibilities.  Our nominating convention will take place (remotely) over the next weekend, so I will update you again next week.  So please stay tuned!

Song title of the week: “If I’d have shot you when I wanted to, I would be out by now.”

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear all past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with your friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #246 "A PROPOSAL FOR SOLVING OUR HOMELESS PROBLEM"

On Sunday, November 24, 2019 I published an op-ed column in the Orange County Register about my proposal for an institutional approach to the homeless crisis.  Instead of our normal “2 Paragraphs” edition, this week I am substituting that column.  As always, feedback would be appreciated.  

Here is the Register column for your thoughts.

             Our great country seems to be vexed by the Homeless issue.  All of us should take affront that people living in the United States and within its laws are being reduced to “living on the streets.”  So how is this situation being perpetuated, and how should it be addressed?

             As we have seen, the various governments’ responses around the country to the homeless issue have been sporadic if not spasmodic.  Every once in a while a state or the federal government will set aside fairly large amounts of money in one-time payments, or temporarily open an armory, either to make themselves feel better or to reduce some political heat.  But then the cold hard facts are that the problems continue on virtually as before.

             So what we need instead is an institutional response that should greatly reduce this national and even moral problem.  My approach is modeled after Dr. Milton Friedman’s “negative income tax” proposal, and is as follows, with the amounts of money used only for illustrative purposes:

1.       No one in our country will pay any income taxes on their first $30,000 of earnings from whatever source – not you, me, Bill Gates or anyone else.  (This could evolve into a national graduated flat tax, but that is a different issue.)

2.       For those people who earn no money, regardless of the reason, anyone who is at least 18 years of age, a citizen of our country or here legally with a green card will receive a stipend from the federal government in the amount of $15,000 per year – probably broken down into monthly payments of $1,250.  However, for every dollar they earn they will lose 50 cents of the stipend.  (Accordingly, everyone will have an incentive to earn the extra dollar.)  And, importantly enough, ALL other welfare payments could be abolished, except those for people with truly special needs.

3.       So what about the homeless?  The answer is that if each of those people had the equivalent of an ATM account with $1,250 automatically deposited into it each month the private sector would quickly start providing low-cost room and board-style living for each of them, probably at a competitive rate of about $1,000 per month, which would leave the recipients an additional $250 to pay for personal items, clothing, etc.

That would be the program.  Of course, the opposing argument is that many of these people would simply throw their money away on alcohol and other drugs, gambling or otherwise be irresponsible.  So what about them?  The answer is that basically the homeless issue is and should be a local problem overseen by city and county governments.  The federal government could and should participate as stated above, and then leave the issue to local control.  And then at the local level there should be a triage system to address different groups of the homeless people, as follows:

1.       Some people are temporarily down on their luck, but they both can and want again to function successfully in our society.  For those people a temporary financial boost in their ATM accounts would probably be all they would need to get back on their feet. 

2.       Another much larger group would need to be screened for mental health, drug and alcohol and other debilitating conditions.  Then they would, if necessary, be given access to appropriate assistance, to the degree that if they needed a conservatorship or a program of drug rehabilitation, that would be mandated. 

3.       The final group would be comprised of those who simply want to continue living that type of life – or at least think they do.  Those people would be provided places to live such as at one of these room and board facilities, or at various government developmental centers, or even some of the presently lightly used reserve military facilities or the like.  As we all agree, no one in our society should be arrested for “camping” or trespassing on public property unless they have a place to live with a roof over their heads.  But this system would provide those places.  Then, once that system is in place, the police could resume their enforcement of local ordinances that prohibit things like littering and illegal camping, urinating or defecating in public, etc.  And a day or three in jail would help convince some of them to change habits.

Of course, there are always complications involved in any system like this, such as extra provisions being made for children and the differences in the costs of living in different parts of our country.  But those issues can be addressed locally without making the approach too complicated.

Accordingly, with the publication of this column, I am reaching out to all people of good will in our society, including the legal, medical, religious and social communities, as well as caring groups like the ACLU, NAACP, MALDEF, various rescue missions, places of worship and others.  In that regard, I openly say that I don’t purport to have all of the answers, but please join me in actively trying to find some by sending these ideas to your elected representatives.  Because, as it now exists, the homeless problem is untenable and is an insult to who we are a people.  And it calls for an institutional response to resolve it.

Question for the week: What is the difference between a raven and a crow?  Mostly unknown to people, a raven has five pinion feathers in its tail and a crow, which is smaller, has only four pinion feathers.  So the difference between a raven and a crow is a matter of a pinion. . . .

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Superior Court in Orange County, California, a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, criminal defense attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and the 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President.

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #223 "WHO BEST SETS PRICES?"

     Maybe I have been somewhat remiss in this series by not speaking enough about why the Free Market System tends to be so successful.  Of course, it is based upon free choice, private property rights and incentives.  But probably the most important aspect of this successful system is that it sets prices at a rate that both the buyers and sellers agree upon.  If not, the products and services won’t sell, so adjustments will be made.  In a socialistic system, the prices are set by central planners, who have little incentive to learn about, much less respond to, the needs and demands of the consumers.  So who is in a better position to decide how many red cars or electric cars or flat screen televisions to manufacture and at what price, a seller whose business relies upon successful sales, or a bureaucrat?  Everyone will – or at least should – agree that the manufacturer is better placed and motivated.

                China still has government control over many manufacturing businesses, but has been increasingly successful since the death of Mao Zedong in allowing individuals within the companies to make those business decisions.  Otherwise, virtually every other place that has ever tried to have manufacturing and pricing decisions made by central planners has ended up in misery, if not starvation.  So why do we not celebrate the Free Market System more fully and broadly?  Because people like us tend to be quiet when other people who get carried away by emotion sing the praises of socialism.  Literally, they don’t know what they are talking about.

Spirit of Optimism: “If you think you can do something you are more likely to try.”  Anon

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #222 "RESTORATIVE JUSTICE"

                Yes, lots of bad things are happening in the world, and we seem to be hit in the face constantly with that reality in our media and elsewhere.  But there are also lots of good things that are happening, and this edition will discuss one of those, which is the movement called Restorative Justice.  The fundamental basis for this approach is to bring the victim(s) of an offense and the perpetrator together, face to face, in a meeting monitored by a therapist.  The emphasis is basically to show the offender what effect the incident had upon the victim(s), on the one hand, and to explore the concept of forgiveness by the victims, on the other.  The intent is both to humanize the act in the eyes of the offender and to begin an important healing process for the victim(s).  And we are seeing success a great amount of the time in both of those areas.

                The idea of the criminal justice system is not to punish the offender, but is instead to reduce crime.  A big example of this is in the area of domestic violence.  If the batterer (mostly but not always a man) is forced to focus upon the position of the victim, as well as the physical and emotional trauma he has inflicted, statistics show that he is not nearly as likely to re-offend.  In addition, the healing and self-esteem process often get a jumpstart with the victims, which enables them more fully to get on with their lives.  But, all importantly, the victim is consulted by the court at time of the sentencing of the offender and, if leniency is being considered, this almost always requires the consent of the victim(s).  Happily, the approach has also been found to work well with burglaries and even assaults and batteries.  (But it doesn’t seem to work with tax offenses. . . .)  The lesson?  Like in many other aspects of life, humanizing the interactions among different parties can go a long way toward reducing friction and harm, and increasing empathy.  So progress is being made in the criminal justice system, and I thought you should know. 

Quote for the week:  “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  Viktor E. Frankl

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise!  The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss these and other timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  

You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  

You can also hear past shows as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #221 "ISideWith.Com: WHERE DO YOU STAND?"

               Here is a poll that I strongly suggest you take.  Go to www.isidewith.com, answer its questions and see where you stand on a wide ranging number of political issues.  It won’t take long, it’s fun and I think you will find the results to be interesting (although it should have included more free market questions).  Of course, most of life is more complicated than “yes or no” questions, but this test is fairly sophisticated, and allows for gradations of responses.  So I truly think that it has merit.  (The poll is private, but you can share the results with others if you wish.  It’s completely up to you.) 

                After the isidewith program digested my answers, it told me that am a slightly left of center Libertarian, and that I agree with Governor Gary Johnson about 85 percent of the time.  (That’s pretty good, because I don’t even agree with myself 85 percent of the time. . . .)  But none of this surprised me because, as I have frequently written in this column, I support Milton Friedman’s concept of a national stipend for people who make less than a certain amount of money (and then doing away with all other welfare, except for those with truly special needs).  But try it yourself, and I anticipate that you will surprise yourself about how Libertarian you are!  As such, you may very well join me in believing that the Libertarian Party is the only real mainstream political party in our country today.  Socially we support a “Live and Let Live” policy, and financially we support responsibility at all levels of society, including individual, group, corporate and governmental.  This makes us the only political party that would actually confront our nation’s deficits – which are the biggest threat both to our nation’s security and to our children’s financial future.  (So take the poll and see where you fit.  I’ll bet you a hamburger that you are much more Libertarian than you thought!)

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Quote for the week, told to me directly by a retired stewardess from Southwest Airlines: “On occasion our plane would hit hard on its landing.  So when I saw the chins of the passengers in the first few rows touch down to their chests, I would get on the microphone and say: ‘Yes that was a hard landing.  But I want you to know that it wasn’t the crew’s fault, and it wasn’t the plane’s fault; it was the asphalt.’”

               Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  

              You can also hear past shows as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #196 "IT'S ABOUT WHO WE ARE"

      Last August Reason magazine editor Matt Welch commented in an editorial in the New York Times about the teachings of the late Senator John McCain on the subject of torture.  He said that McCain taught us that torture “produces faulty intelligence, that ‘every man has a breaking point,’ (and) that military personnel derive a motivational pride from America having higher moral standards than its debased adversaries.  ‘Your last resistance, the one that sticks, the one that makes the victim superior to the torturer, is the belief that were the positions reversed you wouldn’t treat them as they have treated you.’”  But we must continue to learn from McCain, because interest in this important issue appears to have waned.  And it should not because, as Mc Cain says, “This is a moral debate.  It is about who we are.”

     The prison at Guantanamo is still open, much to our discredit!  And, although President Obama banned torture as soon as he took office, our present president has stated publicly that torture “absolutely works.”  Furthermore, our government even under Obama has continued secretly to send terrorist suspects off to third-party countries to be “questioned.”  So do we care?  Have we learned from Senator McCain that unaccountable power behaves unaccountably?  Yes, we know that after Osama bin Laden was located and killed, many officials in our government widely spouted that this never would have happened without using “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.”  But was this true?  Ask McCain, who subsequently wrote: “In truth, most of the C.I.A.’s claims that abusive interrogations of detainees had produced vital leads to help locate  Bin Laden were exaggerated, misleading, and in some case, complete bullshit.”  But even if it worked, the very soul of the United States of America is its Freedoms and its Liberties.  Do we not believe that our soul is under direct attack if we do not treat everyone in our custody humanly?  Of course, we should also define what we mean by the word torture because there is a significant difference between breaking bones and subjecting people to sleep deprivation and loud music.  But in the end, it is not about other people, other countries or even the Geneva Convention, it’s about who we are!  

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Thought for the week:  Technically Moses was the first person with a tablet to download data from the Cloud.

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #189 "LIBERTY IN IMMIGRATION"

      I, through no effort of my own, was truly blessed to be born in the United States of America.  Many people who were not so fortunate have sought to come to this country to pursue a better life for themselves and their children, i.e. to pursue the American Dream, just like me.  And they should be allowed to do so!  That means that, after a meaningful background check for such issues involving criminality, mental health and possible terrorist sympathies, anyone who can show that they can support themselves should be allowed to live in our country and do so.  And if they can support their families they should be allowed to bring them along.  BUT, no welfare is attached – except for truly emergency medicine, life-threatening situations and for the education of their children.  This would, in effect, be a legal guest worker program, almost identical to the “Bracero” Program we employed successfully many years ago.  We have profited from the immigration of such hard-working people throughout our history, and it is also a matter of Liberty. 

     We could give each of these people a non-counterfeitable Orange Card, maybe matched to the iris of their eyes, that would show them to be here legally.  That would allow them to cross back and forth across our borders, get drivers licenses and car insurance, rent housing and more likely result in them paying their taxes just like all of the rest of us do.  However, and most importantly, we must prosecute any employer who hires anyone who doesn’t have citizenship or a Green or Orange card!  Thus, since no welfare would be attached, if they couldn’t support themselves, they would likely be forced to move elsewhere. Accordingly, this program would be fairly straightforward to enforce, and there would be no need to build a wall to keep people out.  

     So why has this not happened?  Because, although many high-ranking Republicans have given lip service to changing away from our present failed system, they love the cheap labor, and don’t want to give it up.  And many high-ranking Democrats love the idea that many people will come into our country and eventually vote for Democrats.  So they also give lip service for change, but don’t want to change the system either. And the proof of that statement is clear, because if they had actually wanted to change away from this failed system, they would have done it – years ago!  In the meantime, literally millions of people are suffering under the present system.  This simply must change!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Discouraging Quotation for the Week taken from an old Somalian Proverb (and we wonder why there are somany problems in that area of the world):          

"Me and my clan against the world; me and my family against my clan; me and my brother against my family; me against my brother."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #187 “ONE OF THE BURDENS OF LIBERTY”

     Winston Churchill once was quoted as saying that the most damning part of a democracy was spending five minutes with the average voter.  That may be true, but in that regard we also should keep in mind that he went on to say that Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others.  So how do we preserve and protect our Democracy?  By each one of us voters educating ourselves both about the candidates and the issues.  Accordingly, in that regard, a large turnout at the polls is not necessarily a victory.  It is only a victory if those voters are actually aware of what they are voting about.  As such, that is one of the big burdens of Liberty.

      In becoming educated, it is critically important that we understand who and what organizations are paying for the political advertisements we are seeing.  Why?  Because virtually every body has an agenda they are advocating.  So look for that agenda in the ads you see, and be aware of why they are seeking your vote.  Another truly huge problem with democracy is that most elected officials do not care about the future: they only care about the next election.  So they continue to engage in things like irresponsible spending, and sitting back and letting future officials deal with the problems they created.  As a practical matter, this is called “kicking the can down the road,” and it is virtually universal.  Why should we care?  Because with this spending we are truly mortgaging our children’s futures.  So as the upcoming election draws near, take the time to educate yourself about the candidates and the issues, and encourage everyone else to do the same.  Vote for who and what you will, but at least be able rationally to explain why.

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Quotation for the Week: “Behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law.

By the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, 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!