Jan Karksi was posthumously given the Medal of Freedom for his efforts in exposing the Nazis’ atrocities in Poland.  Lech Wałęsa, who co-founded the anti-communist trade-union “Solidarity,” and who subsequently became the President of Poland after the People’s Republic of Poland fell, was deemed “too political” to accept Karski’s award on his behalf.  What makes this even stranger is that Wałęsa himself received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

However, Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers and “honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America,” was also given a Medal of Freedom.

So, how is it that Wałęsa (someone who contributed to the liberation of an entire nation from communism, and who also has a Nobel Peace Prize) is too political, but not Huerta?

But perhaps the person who has inspired me the most is—you guessed it—Bill Whittle.  I don’t think he would have made such an impact on me if I hadn’t already agreed with what he says, but he basically explained it to me.  There is a reason I post so many of his videos here; he is adept at explaining things in ways that appeal to common sense and reason.  And he has historical perspective and other evidence to back what he says up.

I’m not really sure “evolving” is the best word to use here, but I’m not sure what would be better.  As for what is next, I plan on reading both “The Fountainhead” and “Altas Shrugged” as soon as I can get copies. It is probable that I’ll have something to say about those books when I read them.  And there are many great philosophers who I would really like to learn more about (I’m thinking John Locke, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Cicero, and, of course, the Founding Fathers of the USA, among others).  And I’ve developed an interest in Calvin Coolidge as well.  So, if you are interested in any of those people (include Ayn Rand among them), then you are the kind of person who I would love to have discussions with in the future.

Oh yeah, and I should also mention my tendency to have some strange views as well, that may or may not fit in with what is above.  I can’t say I’ve made sense of them, but they’re there.

Michelle Malkin goes on to list several reasons why Orrin Hatch should not be re-elected, including this:

Hatch attacked 15,000 grassroots activists who are members of the fiscal conservative organization Freedomworks. A petulant Hatch said “radical libertarians” challenging his entrenched incumbency deserved to be “punched in the mouth” for daring to oppose his bid for a seventh term.

I’ve mentioned before how “doggone offended” Hatch was that he must go through the trouble of a primary instead of just being given his birthright of being re-elected.  He is part of a cancerous class of politicians that is contributing to the corrupt atmosphere of Washington, D.C.

I am disappointed that this is supposedly newsworthy.  How many gay Republicans and conservatives are there going to have to be until it is no longer newsworthy?  This comes shortly after the Richard Grenell thing, and not too long after Sheriff Paul Babeu was outed.  It seems like every time a gay Republican or conservative is in the news for whatever reason, I see things said along the lines of “many people would be surprised that there are gay people who are conservative.” It is getting tiring.

Mulcair argues that the development of the oil sands in Alberta is causing a decline in the manufacturing sector in eastern Canada. Therefore, he argues, something should be done.  My guess is that he would like to see regulations or other things to inhibit the development of the oil sands, so as to benefit manufacturing in eastern Canada.  I’ll say that punishing a successful part of the country in order to benefit a less successful part of the country is wrong any way you describe it, and that is what Mulcair is saying we ought to do.

The NDP is talking about levying a fee on polluters, and establish things like cap and trade, to benefit the environment.  I am in favour of using reasonable measures to protect the environment, but I have to wonder what the primary motives of the NDP are.  Are they to protect the environment, or are they to punish industry in the west?

Alberta is lucky to have the natural resources it does.  It is unfortunate for Ontario and Quebec that they don’t have similar resources, but the fact is that they don’t.  That isn’t Alberta’s fault.  And it isn’t the government of Canada’s responsibility to make sure industry in Ontario and Quebec is healthy.  If the provincial governments of Ontario or Quebec want to intervene in their economies, fine then.  They can solve their problems themselves.

UPDATE: There is an additional aspect to this issue.  Tom Mulcair is saying that it doesn’t make any sense to ship bitumen to other countries for refining, and that the refining should occur in Canada.  I agree that that would be the preferable scenario, but the only role the government has in making that happen is getting out of the way of refiners.

1) Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

2) Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black.

3) Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

5) Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

8) Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.

9) Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be thought of as “extremists.”

11) Only in America could you need to present a driver’s license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

12) Only in America can we have terrorists fly planes into our buildings and have some people’s first thought be “what did we do to make them hate us?”

14) Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether the oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when for every penny of profit the oil companies make, the government tacks on roughly 24 cents’ worth of taxes.

18) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation ever has before in all of recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more that it has per year, and complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.

19) Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their “fair share” by people who don’t pay any income taxes at all.

20) Only in America could the people who approve of slaughtering 25 million females babies via abortion accuse OTHER PEOPLE of waging a “war on women.”

However, as Scott Walker’s reforms in Wisconsin have shown (and as his opponent, Tom Barrett, implicitly acknowledged), no school districts have been hurt by limiting the power of teachers’ unions.  In fact, they have saved one school district and likely benefitted others.

And people accuse Christians of being superstitious?  I honestly can’t say I’m surprised that a city councilman from San Francisco would view a ouija board as some sort of authority, but that makes it seem no less strange when it actually happens.  The “pervert” in question is Harvey Milk, who Wikipedia describes as having “experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s” that led to his participation in gay activism, and is someone who certainly does not deserve as prestigious an honour as having a navy ship in the United States navy named after him.  That would be a disgrace (and I’m sure the only reason some people are advocating for it is to say “f*ck you” to the military).