To Vick or Not to Vick. Should the NFL have reinstated Mr. Dog Killer?

So, last night I was having a pretty heated discussion about the newest Eagles nuisance, Mr. Vick. As a life long Pennsylvanian and Eagles fanatic, I couldn’t believe it when the news came out about the signing of Mr. Dog Killer. I vowed then and there to not spend another dime on Eagles anything and stop watching any game when he walks on the field. Ridiculous? Probably. I mean, it certainly won’t change anything, but that’s my small way of fighting back against the hypocrisy of today’s society.

Back to the argument last night, it brought up good points for and against the NFL reinstatement of Vick. I, of course, and am on the side of keeping him out of the league.

Reasons Vick should be allowed to play:

1. He paid his debt to society based on our agreed upon justice system

2. By joining the league, he can make a reasonable attempt at paying back his many creditors

Reasons against Vick rejoining the league:

1. If the NFL touts itself as a good league for role models, then it’s hypocritical to allow a violent felon to play (not to say there aren’t plenty of others who should also be banned).

2. Baseball banned Pete Rose for life and still refuses his Hall of Fame induction because he bet on his own team to win (a far more minor crime with no jail time).

3. Many other jobs do not allow convicted felons to rejoin their prior profession. This is especially true when children may be influenced.

4. That had he done what he did to even ONE human being, he would be in jail for life.

I have loved sports all of my life and I realize that people make mistakes, I am by no means perfect, but the acts Vick committed against numerous dogs are reprehensible. Had he been a school teacher, he would have lost his job with a single DUI. A teacher only has influence over 30 maybe 40 kids a year in elementary school. Michael Vick is known by almost EVERY school child across the country. Does the NFL reinstatement of Vick take another tear at our already crumbling moral social fabric, YES!

Actions speak louder than words. If the NFL continues to show 100 commercials a game about how many kids they’ve helped, fine. But, how many kids have they hurt even if subliminally with the Vick reinstatement. What message are we sending our children? Whether we want to admit it or not, they look up to these guys. I did as a child.

I guess we won’t know until the next school shooting post mortem note.

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School Vouchers and Why it’s a Bad Deal for Everyone

I’ve had a bit of heated discussion today with @1776again on Twitter. So, instead of sending 75 more 140 character tweets, I figured I would write a quick blog post.

I am a registered republican, have worked for various campaigns and am an entrenched fiscal conservative. That I don’t have views contrary to the party line, however, would be a grave misnomer. There are a number of areas I believe republicans have it wrong. One of them is in the fact that after being elected Rick Santorum and others abandoned core conservative principles and drank from the big government fountain. That is for another post though, this one is about school vouchers.

I do not profess to have all of the facts on a school voucher system, so, please don’t beat me up on minor details. I’m writing from a far higher level, say 50,000 feet. Despite my admiration of politicians who’ve touted such a philosophy (Governor Ridge as one), school vouchers would be a terrible program. It could quite possibly be one of the worst offenders of good intentions resulting in negative consequences (ex. Cash for Clunkers is great for new car lots, but probably killed used car lot sales).

Here are my common sense reasons:

1. We already have school choice. It’s called selling a home and moving to another school district
   1. Sure some people may not be in a position to do so, I understand. Is that society’s fault? If it were a priority, people would sell their home or break a lease to rent or buy somewhere else. It’s called free choice.
   2. Parents also have choice to work in a given field to earn enough to live in an area that will provide their children better schooling or private schooling. Isn’t that capitalism? Trying to do better for your children and making a better life rather than depending on the government?
2. Unitended consequences of a school voucher program
   1. Additional transportation costs – someone has to pay and it would most likely be everyone including seniors (I’m 30 years old by the way).
   2. Super schools and super duds. There will still be the same number of schools out there. Who determines the attendees of “better schools”? Is it a lottery? Do the kids who live in the neighborhood get cut from the list for underrepresented classes etc.? Is there some new board? All sounds like lawsuit city. Ultimately, school vouchers would result in one of these scenarios:
   • Super schools and terrible schools in the same vicinity with no good way of determining the lucky and unlucky ones who attend each.
   • All schools become mediocre because of attempts to make attendance at “good schools” “fair”.
   • All schools become less than mediocre because of attempts to make attendance at “good schools” fair.
   • Some schools would be good then turn bad after a few years locking students in to a now “bad school”.

I’m sure there are more, but I’ll add later when I have a bit more time to think

My whole point is that we already have school choice in a way. This is America; people can live anywhere they want. Might it cause other issues? Sure. Life has tradeoffs, sorry.

There are issues with education. I believe most of them are a result of No Child Left Behind, unions, the non-special needs special needs children (those whose parents complain and get free child advocates to get free private education) and special needs children. This could be a whole different post. My point here is that vouchers don’t really solve any problems, they only create new ones.

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“Yes We Can” Double the National Debt

A news story out today (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090825/pl_nm/us_obama_budget) details how and why the national debt will double over the next ten years. Apparently, Obama and his cronies are able to get away with having the LARGEST BUDGET DEFICIT EVER, because of our recession. Isn’t it interesting that in nearly every recession over the past 100 years democrats have saddled the nation with more entitlement programs that can’t even sustain themselves? FDR gave us Social Security, LBJ Medicare and Medicaid, and, now, Obama wants to add the beginnings of socialized medicine to the mix.

Do I not remember just 8-9 short months ago hearing Obama say that balancing the budget was one of his top priorities? So, how do we now have the largest budget deficit ever and pure lies that the healthcare reform proposed will reduce the budget deficit.

One thing folks, I’ve seen big pharma and insurance companies pushing for this healthcare “reform”. Let’s be honest, they wouldn’t be doing that unless it meant BIG $$$ for them in the end.

Buyer beware, the democrats are about to spend the United States into the ground.

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