Consider This!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

The New Yorker magazine said this recently about the Benghazi issue: ““For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.” No, there was always something to it. It’s just now been demonstrated to the media. Those hearings that were supposedly a waste of time have had certain educational benefits, not the least of which was the allegedly independent and adversarial press that’s supposed to look into these things themselves.

But now, liberal pundits are trying to minimize the damage by painting opposition as purely partisan. They’ve come up with what I call “drive-by graphics” that draw totally unrelated parallels and ask why Republicans weren’t outraged over them. Apple, meet orange.

The IRS got caught giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups, from Tea Partiers to Billy Graham to pro-lifers. But the internal investigation was a sham, and, while the IRS has apologized, just try doing that to get out of your next audit.

And finally, I give a few thoughts worth considering about the Kermit Gosnell trial’s guilty verdicts.

Mentioned links:

The Damning Dozen: Twelve Revelations from the Benghazi Hearings

7 Things We Learned from the Benghazi Whistleblower Hearing

The IRS admits to ‘targeting’ conservative groups, but were they also ‘leaking’?

Inspector General finds a confused, mismanaged IRS

Last Year, Media Ridiculed Claims IRS Targeted Conservatives

IRS DEMANDED TEA PARTY READING LISTS, FACEBOOK POSTS

Tea Party Patriots, others still waiting for IRS tax-exempt decision

IRS APOLOGIZES FOR TARGETING TEA PARTY GROUPS

CLAIM: OBAMA CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR ATTACKED ROMNEY WITH LEAKED IRS DOCS

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Filed under: Abortion • Benghazi Attack • Economics & Taxes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:53 — 9.6MB)

I got our first e-mail listener feedback from what I talked about last episode, regarding whether or not legalizing same-sex marriage necessarily leads to polygamy. I thought it had to, but one listener took on my challenge to come up with a scenario where it didn’t have to happen. We had an e-mail conversation, and I’m highlighting that this time.

And remember, you, too, can have your feedback on the show. Let’s make this more of a conversation.

The media weren’t the only ones ignoring the Kermit Gosnell abortion doctor story. For years before he got caught, many, many other people ignored him as well, even though they knew what he was doing.

Mentioned links:

FDA Approves Plan B One-Step for Girls 15 and Older Without Prescription

PLANNED PARENTHOOD KEPT SILENT ABOUT GOSNELL BUTCHERY

PENNSYLVANIA GOVT. DID NOT INSPECT GOSNELL CLINIC FOR 17 YEARS

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Filed under: Abortion • Marriage • Polygamy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:19 — 9.1MB)

The housing bubble, anyone remember it? That’s when people who would not have otherwise been able to get credit to buy a house were given it anyway because the government pressured banks to do it. Everybody gets a home, and if you’re against this policy, you clearly hate the poor. Then the bubble burst, defaults were rampant, the economy tanked, and more government programs had to be thought up to save us from the previous government programs. So what does Obama want to do now?

Conservatives who made the case that polygamy would follow same-sex marriage used to be ridiculed. Now, it’s liberals making the case. Question: Do you think that same-sex marriage won’t lead to legalized polygamy? If so, I’d like to hear from you, but you’ve got your work cut out for you.

Mentioned links:

Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit

Study: Government policy primarily the reason for sub-prime mortgage meltdown

Legalize Polygamy! No. I am not kidding.

Man Gets 7 Years for Stealing Obama’s Teleprompter

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Filed under: Economics & Taxes • Marriage • Polygamy • Same-sex Marriage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:46 — 9.5MB)

A one-topic show, as well as only having one link, but it’s a doozy. I talked about “marriage equality” in show 36, and showed that asking for equality in something is not helpful if you don’t understand the nature of what you’re asking equality for. “Driving equality for the blind”, and all that. So this episode is where I deal with the issue of what marriage is.

Ryan T. Anderson wrote a report for the Heritage Foundation entitled, “Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It”. It is, in my estimation, required reading before engaging in honest debate on the subject. It’s that good. But, it’s also that long, so there’s a time investment. The abstract at the beginning makes all the claims of the report, but the report itself explains why those claims are made.

Marriage was defined millennia ago, by cultures and religions across time. And during all that time, they came up with the same definition. The government recognizes marriage, but it has never defined it. It is so ironic that those who say that government should get out of marriage are the ones who are asking it to define it.

Marriage has existed to bring a man and woman together, acknowledging that they are complementary, and that any children produced will need both a father and a mother. Even cultures where homosexuality was fully accepted, same-sex marriage was not even a concept most of them considered. Sociologically, this combination has always been the best possible environment for children; with their biological parents, who are in a committed, lifelong relationship. Just because there are examples of how human failings have not lived up to this ideal, does not mean we should thus scrap the whole concept. Indeed, the ease with which divorce can be purchased these days has itself, with only heterosexual participation, turned marriage into merely an agreement based solely on how you Iabout your spouse. Today.

And if government is telling us what marriage is, if it is any emotional bond the state says it is, religious groups who have their views on marriage, and have had them for thousands of years, will not be allowed to keep the religious freedom they have enjoyed.

Anderson ends his report with this statement: “Some might appeal to historical inevitability as a reason to avoid answering the question of what marriage is—as if it were an already moot question. However, changes in public opinion are driven by human choice, not by blind historical forces. The question is not what will happen, but what we should do.”

Let me know your thoughts on the subject.

Mentioned links:

Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It

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Filed under: Homosexuality • Human Sexuality • Marriage • Same-sex Marriage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

The bombing of the Boston Marathon started a number of things; a terrorism investigation, increased security all over the country, and the media’s attempt to, again, blame the Right for domestic terrorism. Folks, please, let’s take care of the wounded and bury our dead before breaking out the knee-jerk reactions, OK? It seems like after every single act like this, the media just has to have a race to see who can blame conservatives first.

There’s a murder trial going on in Pennsylvania. A doctor was arrested in 2011 for killing 8 people, and the trial has been going on since March 18^th. Accusations of beheadings, special treatment for whites, severed feet in jars, 15-year-olds administering anesthesia, unsanitary clinic conditions that spread STDs to unsuspecting women, and multiple state agencies made aware of this but who chose to ignore what was going on. It wasn’t on the front page of your newspaper, or of the national TV news, because it paints abortion in a bad light, and Kermit Gosnell as the example of doing back-alley abortions in an approved clinic.

Mentioned links:

IT BEGINS: THE LEFTIST MEDIA STARTS TO BLAME THE RIGHT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBINGS

Fox News Contributor Responds to Boston Marathon Explosions: Kill All Muslims

Erik Rush bio

Philadelphia abortion clinic horror

Snopes entry: Dr. Kermit Gosnell Trial

From Roe to Gosnell: The case for regime change on abortion.

WPost reporter explains her personal Gosnell blackout

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Filed under: Abortion • Media • Partisanship

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:30 — 9.3MB)

The Supreme Court recently heard 2 cases related to same-sex “marriage”. Facebook lit up with picture of red “equal” signs with folks proclaiming their support of “marriage equality”. But is equality really what this is about? This episode asks you if you are for “driving equality”. I’m betting you aren’t, but not on account of any equality issue.

I plan on tackling more issues on the subject of same-sex “marriage” in the future, so I’d love to hear your thoughts here for use in a future episode.

President Obama, who has overseen the addition of $6 trillion to the debt, proclaims this month as Fiscal Capability Month to, among other things, help kids learn how to use a budget. How can I further parody something as humorous as that?

Last July, 3 California cities went bankrupt. Recently, the largest city in the US to go into bankruptcy was also in California. Could the spending habits of this blue state have anything to do with this? Judge after you hear what their biggest costs are.

Mentioned links:

The Red Herring of “Marriage Equality”

Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It

Obama Proclaims April the Month to Teach Young People ‘How to Budget Responsibly’

Presidential Proclamation — National Financial Capability Month, 2013

Judge: Stockton, Calif., Can File for Bankruptcy

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Filed under: Budget & Spending • Economics & Taxes • Government • Homosexuality • Human Sexuality • Judiciary • Marriage • Same-sex Marriage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:51 — 9.6MB)

It appears that newly elected Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is a listener to “Consider This!” How do I know? I suggest a $20 minimum wage as a thought experiment in episode 31, and now she’s one-up’ing me, suggesting $22. But her logic is flawed. (But, you knew that, right?)

People are applying for new gun permits at a fast clip (so to speak), but there’s one town in New England that just might surprise you where this is happening.

Democratic Senators, even those who’ve said they want a balanced budget, had a chance to vote for just the concept of one. True to form, they voted against it. Except one.

Mentioned links:

Elizabeth Warren heap big economic illiterate

Elizabeth Warren cherry-picked $22 per hour minimum wage number

Newtown reports surge in gun permit applications

Senate Democrats Vote Against the Concept of Balancing the Budget

DEMS SAY: BALANCED BUDGET? WE WERE JUST KIDDING!

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Filed under: Budget & Spending • Economics & Taxes • Government • Gun Control • Minimum Wage

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:39 — 9.4MB)

To bail out banks in Cyprus (who had loaned a lot to Greece, hence the need for a bailout), the Eurozone suggested confiscating money in those banks to partially pay the banks. Sweet deal if you’re a banker, panic-inducing if you’re not. Socialism is destroying Europe.

The Democrats in the Senate managed, after 4 long years, to produce something it seemed they’d forgotten about; a budget! It is, of course, more of the same taxing and spending (and spending more than they’re taxing). And it remains to be seen if they’ll even vote for their own budget, since they unanimously voted against Obama’s budget last year.

And Paul Thacker of the Slate website lets Slate readers in on the worst-kept secret evah; the media has a liberal bias! Who knew! (No, I didn’t mean for a show of hands. That was rhetorical.)

Mentioned links:

Cyprus deal shock sends shares tumbling, gold up

After Cyprus Bank Bailout, Depositors Race to Withdraw Their Cash. Is the Rest of Europe Next?

SENATE DEMOCRATS FINALLY UNVEIL BUDGET

Confirmed: Senate Democrats’ Budget Accelerates Spending, Never Balances

Flashback: Obama: Adding $4 Trillion To Debt Is Unpatriotic

Slate Slams Obama On Transparency, Credits Fox News, Wash. Times For Fast and Furious Reporting

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Filed under: Budget & Spending • Economics & Taxes • Europe • Government • Media • Partisanship • Socialism

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

Hugo Chavez died recently. He took a country rich with oil money and turned it onto a socialist paradise, complete with high inflation, shortages of food and electricity (to name just a few items), and soaring crime rates. Only in Venezuela.

Except perhaps, not only there. It just seems like President Obama, in trying to (as he said) “spread the wealth around”, he’s doing a lot of what Chavez was doing. As a result, we’ve had one of the most anemic recoveries in history. Soaking the rich to give to the poor only lasts as long as the rich stick around; it’s not a long-term solution. A job is the best social program, but that’s not been working out so well here. Instead, crippling debt from government borrowing and spending have led us to a place that is looking more and more like Chavez’s socialist “paradise”. Listen in for more details.

The Obama administration said the sequester cuts would hurt, and by golly, they’ll make sure they do. If a department tries to ease the pain, well, they’ll just have to set them straight. Just ask Charlie Brown. (Really.)

Mentioned links:

 Heart attack killed a suffering Hugo Chavez, head of Venezuela’s presidential guard says

Loved Or Loathed, Hugo Chavez Was The Ultimate Showman

Chavez death blamed on U.S.

Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised

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Filed under: Budget & Spending • Economics & Taxes • Government • Socialism • South America

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:00 — 9.7MB)

The sequester that went into affect March 1st has President Obama lying about who came up with it (he did), how bad the cuts are (not bad), and how evil the Republicans are for letting them happen (they aren’t).

Facebook made $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits in 2012. And by “pre-tax” I mean “no-tax”. Instead they are getting $429 million back from the government. This caused the Occupy Wall Street protesters to…yawn and go back to their iPads.

If you have pre-existing conditions, ObamaCare will help get insurance. That is until the funds run out real soon now.

Donna Brazile sung the praises of ObamaCare a year ago. This year, however, she’s puzzled as to why her health insurance premiums are going up. Cause, meet effect.

Mentioned links:

Obama pledges to veto effort to undo automatic spending cuts

Whose Sequester Is It Anyway?

Obama’s fanciful claim that Congress ‘proposed’ the sequester

Facebook Gets a Multibillion-Dollar Tax Break

Obamacare Funding Running Low For Patients With Pre-Existing Conditions

IRONY ALERT!

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Filed under: Budget & Spending • Economics & Taxes • Government • Health Care