Author: Laurence M. Vance

Government at every level often seeks to justify its enacting of laws, rules, and regulations by claiming that doing so is for the health and safety of our children. This is the case even when our children are teenagers and young adults. Here are three examples. A crisis exists in the state of New Jersey. It turns out that nineteen and twenty-year-olds in the state “currently purchase about 8.2 million packs of cigarettes per year.” A bill pending in the New Jersey legislature would raise the legal purchasing age for cigarettes and electronic smoking devices to twenty-one. In addition, “almost … Continue reading →

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The only good thing we can say about taxes going into 2016 is that at least they are not going up this year. Such was not the case in 2013, 1991, 1993—and especially 1994. In fact, the “Bush tax cuts” notwithstanding, the forgotten tax increase of 1994 is still with us. Early in 2013, to avert the “fiscal cliff,” the lame duck Congress passed, with the help of 40 Republicans in the Senate and 85 Republicans in the House, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (PL 112-240, H.R.8). The six tax brackets (10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35%) … Continue reading →

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The all-seeing, all-knowing, all-wise U.S. government is concerned about many things it has no business being concerned about. But there are still many things about which the government remains unconcerned. Here are fifty things the government doesn’t care if you do even though they are dangerous, risky, addictive, immoral, or hazardous to your health. The government doesn’t care if you take aspirin even though hundreds die every year from adverse reactions to aspirin. The government doesn’t care if you are a construction laborer even though it is a hazardous occupation. The government doesn’t care if you take a prescription drug … Continue reading →

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“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” ~ Isaiah 9:6 During this Christmas season, as all Christmas seasons since the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been inundated with news stories about U.S. soldiers stationed overseas who are separated from their families. We are implored to send care packages to the troops because they miss their families and all the Christmas celebrations in the United States. … Continue reading →

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Some of the most vicious e-mail I have ever received has not been from bloodthirsty Republicans, military apologists, conservative warfare statists, or Christian warmongers; it has been from libertarians—mostly self-identified left-libertarians. Three of the most contentious issues among libertarians are abortion, same-sex marriage, and immigration. I know firsthand just how contentious these issue are because whenever I have written about them I have been called by left-libertarians a pseudo-libertarian, a conservative, a Nazi, a fascist, a right-winger, and a statist. I have also been called some other things, but cannot repeat them here on this family-friendly site. I have argued … Continue reading →

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Christian jihadist—now there is an oxymoron for you. This sounds even stranger than constitutional conservative or libertarian Republican. Nevertheless, there are certain Christian military apologists and warmongers whom the term describes perfectly. There are a number of characteristics of a Christian jihadist. Christian jihadists excuse the U.S. military’s killing of Muslim civilians as “collateral damage.” Christian jihadists see no problem with the Israeli flag being displayed in a church along with the American flag and the Christian flag. Christian jihadists believe everything that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says about Iran and the Palestinians. Christian jihadists attend churches where one … Continue reading →

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“Thank You Veterans” said the sign out in front of my local Harley-Davidson dealer on Veterans Day. The owners of the veterinarian practice across the street from the Harley dealer are obviously more patriotic: They kept their “Thank You Veterans” sign up all the way to Thanksgiving. Beginning on Veterans Day and running through Thanksgiving Day there have been stories on the news and during football games about the poor U.S. soldiers we should thank in Afghanistan and the Middle East who won’t be home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families. Some churches had on Thanksgiving Day, or had the … Continue reading →

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“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny. It’s the only one. It’s based on thousands of years of human experience. There is nothing narrow about the conservative philosophy. It’s a liberating philosophy. It is a magnificent philosophy. It is a philosophy for the ages, for all times.” ~ Mark Levin “I realized that conservatism was the philosophy that best suited me, with its emphasis on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and merit.” ~ Mark Levin “The Conservative does not despise government. He despises tyranny. This is precisely why the Conservative reveres the Constitution and insists on adherence to it.” ~ Mark Levin … Continue reading →

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Review of Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock, America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with Almost Every Country on Earth (Book Publishers Network, 2014), xix + 396 pgs., hardcover. The song “America the Beautiful” should be changed to “America the Invader.” According to Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock, the United States “has invaded or fought in eighty-four out of 194 countries” and “has had some form of military involvement with a spectacular 191 out of 194.” Their findings are published in the appropriately titled America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with Almost Every Country on … Continue reading →

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Not all comedians are in comedy clubs or on Saturday Night Live. Many of them are ordinary, run-of-the-mill conservatives. And many of them live in my state of Florida. What makes these comedians even funnier than most others is that it is not what they say that is so funny, it is what they don’t say—about marijuana. In the election in 2014, there was on the Florida ballot for the first time a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize the medical use of marijuana. It needed at least 60 percent of the vote to pass, but fell short with only about … Continue reading →

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“Law and order” conservatives: When they are right, they are so right; but when they are wrong, they are so wrong. They are right when they decry the militarization of local police. They are right to point out that the DOD 1033 program has transferred over $5 billion worth of military equipment from the Defense Department to local police forces. They are right to oppose more federal laws and mandates relating to local police. They are right to oppose a federal police “czar” like the Congressional Black Caucus has called for. They are right to oppose nationalizing the local police. … Continue reading →

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Not a review of Ben Carson, A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties (Sentinel, 2015), xi + 240 pgs., hardcover. It happens every four years. Candidates for president issue books to sucker people to vote for them using the written word just like they sucker people every day to vote for them using the spoken word. One of the latest “presidential” books is by retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. The book is his second salvo, since he authored with the same publisher last year One Nation: What We Can … Continue reading →

If there is one thing that the smelliest, most down-and-out, most destitute, most forsaken homeless guy who sleeps under a bridge has in common with Donald Trump it is that they both own their own bodies. That may be all the homeless guy owns, but he owns it free and clear and should be able to do what he wants with it. And so should we—as long as our activities are peaceful, our interactions are consensual, and our associations are voluntary. Your body belongs to you—not the state, not some government agency, not some puritanical busybody, not some government bureaucrat, … Continue reading →

The tenth annual Values Voter Summit was held last month in Washington, D.C. About 2,700 religious conservatives registered to attend the event. The Summit was created in 2006 “to provide a forum to help inform and mobilize citizens across America to preserve the bedrock values of traditional marriage, religious liberty, sanctity of life and limited government that make our nation strong.” CNN described it as “one of the conservative movement’s marquee annual events” and Sean Hannity called it “the premier conservative event now in the country.” This year’s event featured old guard conservatives like Bill Bennett, Gary Bauer, and Oliver … Continue reading →

The tenth annual Values Voter Summit was held last month in Washington, D.C. About 2,700 religious conservatives registered to attend the event. The Summit was created in 2006 “to provide a forum to help inform and mobilize citizens across America to preserve the bedrock values of traditional marriage, religious liberty, sanctity of life and limited government that make our nation strong.” CNN described it as “one of the conservative movement’s marquee annual events” and Sean Hannity called it “the premier conservative event now in the country.” This year’s event featured old guard conservatives like Bill Bennett, Gary Bauer, and Oliver … Continue reading →