Education

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Conservatism Is Expensive

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023

Fox News just agreed to pay $787.5 million for lying about Dominion voting machines.  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton offered to use $3.3 million of tax dollars to settle a whistleblower case.  Donald Trump paid nearly $300,000 to cover up his extramarital affairs. It must be nice to have millions of dollars to pay for […]

How Much is $3 Million Worth?

Thursday, February 16th, 2023

What could you do with $3.3 million? In Texas the median house selling price is $350,000.  The state funding for each student in public schools is $5,100.  I think $3.3 million is a lot of money.  Ken Paxton apparently doesn’t since it isn’t his money – it’s ours. Ken Paxton is the Texas Attorney General.  […]

There Is No Freedom Without Public Education

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

The authors of the Texas Constitution supported public education.  They wrote: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system […]

Keep Your Nose

Thursday, January 19th, 2023

Old sayings are a good way to remind us not to do stupid things.  For example, I’ve often heard, “Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.”  This phrase warns us against acts of self-harm.  We often act out of anger and end up hurting ourselves. For the last sixty years conservative politicians and […]

Life and Death in Texas

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022

Texas Republicans want you to prepare for the next schools shooting.  Greg Abbott is sending school children home with fingerprint and DNA kits.  Abbott wants to make it easier for you to identify your child’s dead body. Republicans have controlled Texas Government for the past two decades.  They have cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires.  […]

Straw Man

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Boxers and soldiers often train fighting dummies.  It is easy to understand why.  Dummies don’t fight back.  Eventually, however, a good fighters needs to train against another human as an opponent if they want to win a real fight. Debates work similarly with words.  Some debaters only fight straw men; others, preferring a challenge, argue […]

I Wish I Were A Rich Man?

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

I am always struck when I come to the end of the Good Samaritan parable in the gospel of Luke. The parable ends with the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham ridicules the rich man. Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and […]

Solutions, Not Fear

Thursday, September 29th, 2022

Conservatives politicians make two promises. They promise that government can’t work when they are elected. They promise to run government like their personal business.  Why are we surprised when things turn out good for them and their friends but bad for us? Conservative politicians are on television complaining about everybody else except themselves. They have […]

Public Service vs. Private Profit

Thursday, September 15th, 2022

Conservatives have been pretty clear about one aspect of their governing philosophy.  They say that they will run government like a business.  Liberals, however, see government as public services.  The results are dramatically different. Liberal policies shaped American politics after the Great Depression.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt provided a role model for creating government services.  The […]

Freeing State Power

Wednesday, May 4th, 2022

After the Second World War, the United States Supreme Court has been following a single star.  Individual liberty is stronger than state power.  Millions of Americans from all walks of life had risked their lives, and the nation honored their service with individual liberty. The new conservative Supreme Court is on the verge of empowering […]

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