2nd Amendment Remedies

For starters let me state quite simply that THERE ARE NO 2ND AMENDMENT REMEDIES!

Was that subtle enough? In America we have the rule of law. As the Constitution tells us, the first step in setting up a government is to establish justice. If you have been wronged in some way, there are non-violent remedies you can pursue. If the wrong was criminal, you press charges. If it was civil you sue. What you do NOT do is grab a gun.

You have a right to be heard. You have a right to justice. You do not have a right to win. If a judge rules against you you can appeal. Just because you feel you have been wronged does not mean that you have been. You can appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. If you lose, you lose. You do NOT pick up a gun.

Just like you have a right to a fair trial, you have a right to vote. You do not have a right to win. If you had a right to win, it would infringe on the right to win of someone who disagreed with you. Losing is NOT tyranny, it's losing. When your choice loses an election you take comfort in the fact that there will be another one in a couple of years, and you'll be able to correct it then.

By the way, an election is not what defines a democracy. What defines a democracy is knowing that there will be another one. The fact that there is always another election is what keeps our government accountable. If you do not like the outcome at the ballot box, you have one and only one course of action- work harder. anything else is Un-American.

Demand Side Economics

30 years ago, the Republican candidate for President, the sainted Ronald Reagan, was touting his supply-side economics plan. During the primaries earlier that year, the man who would become his Vice President called it Voodoo Economics. Today, virtually all Republicans and even some Democrats embrace Voodoo Economics. I don't know whether Voodoo is an appropriate metaphor or not, but it doesn't work.

We learn in Economics 101 that supply and demand are the invisible hands that guide the markets of capitalism. What is apparently not obvious is that it is demand that drives supply and not the other way around. There is an old expression that says, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." What if you lived in a world with no mice?

Does anybody think for a second that the automobile industry would have built all those gas-guzzling SUV's in the '90's if nobody was buying them? Imagine if President Bush had told the American People after September 11th that the most patriotic thing they could do was help reduce our addiction to oil. The demand for fuel efficient cars would have driven the market.

For 30 years, our economic policies have increasingly favored the supply side of markets. During that time, the deficit has gone from under $1 trillion to $13.6 trillion. Median income has fallen, and we've suffered the worst collapse in our economy since the Great Depression. It is time to switch to policies that encourage the demand side.