The Ninth Amendment

Do You Carry Chambered or Not...

2012-03-05T04:11:00.001-05:00

My Carry Pistol: Kimber Crimson Carry II Pro - Cocked & Locked

I am a strong believer that it is our duty as responsible citizens to carry a loaded firearm. Those of us with the ability have the obligation and responsibility to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

I read an interesting article yesterday about the difference between carrying with a chambered bullet and carrying without. Apparently there is a lot of debate between "safety" and "readiness."

Some people believe that it is safer to carry a pistol without a bullet in the chamber. I would argue the exact opposite. I carry my pistol to protect my self from those who would harm me or my family. I have never been concerned that I will shoot myself and have carried a loaded gun for almost four years now without doing so. I believe the extend of my safety depends on how quickly I can draw my gun and unload it on my target. The last thing I want to worry about is how quickly I can cock it.

Both my wife and I carry our guns loaded and in my opinion we are safer for it. Just my two cents on the subject.

How do you carry... Chambered or Not?

Obama would raise Capital Gains Taxes on the grounds of fairness

2012-01-27T12:39:00.000-05:00

In a flat out lie, Obama told the American people on Tuesday that Warren Buffet’s secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. This is not true. Mr. Buffet is taxed on capital gains and his secretary is taxed on earned income. Therefore when Obama calls to raise taxes on Mr. Buffet, he is calling to raise capital gains tax. Now the point that needs to be made here is that there is an inverse correlation between the capital gains tax and revenue to the federal government. The charts below from the CBO show that when the capital gains tax is raised the revenue goes down. Conversely when the capital gains tax is lowered then revenue to the federal government goes up.

Source: Congressional Budget Office; Department of Commerce,

Bureau of Economic Analysis; Department of the Treasury.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3856&type=0

So if this is the case, we should ask President Obama why he wants to raise the capital gains tax if it is proven to decrease revenue. Luckily we have an answer to that question. In 2008, Charlie Gibson ask Obama this same question during a Democratic Primary debate. Obama answered (seen in the below video), "Well Charlie, what I've said is that I will look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness."

Obama must have missed Economics 101. The goal of any business is to increase profit and in the governments case it comes in the form of tax revenue. It would be nice to have a president that focused on balancing the budget not making life fair for everyone.

The Modern Gods of Greek Mythology

2012-01-24T11:19:00.001-05:00

I was flipping through channels on the television last week and came across one of those specials on the end of the earth. I didn't watch long but I am pretty sure they were debating how global warming would cause some natural disaster to eliminate mankind. I don't know why but these clowns always remind me of history class when we learned about ancient Greek Mythology.

Today we look at the ancient Greeks and think their many gods of thunder, lighting, water, etc. were just ways of coping with the unknown mysteries of their day. It gave them someone or something to blame for what were really just natural disasters. However, I do not discredit how much the Greeks truly believed in their gods just as some today truly believe in global warming.

In many cases, Greek and other mythology called for sacrifice to their gods in the hopes of preventing their gods from destroying the earth. Do the believers of global warming not call for sacrifice today? They ask me to drive hybrid cars and eat certain foods to reduce my "carbon footprint". That is a sacrifice, and one I am just not willing to take. Hundreds of years from now people will looks back on our society in much the same way we look back on past mythology. They will know that our generation needed a reason to explain natural disasters in much the same way the Greeks did.

What I learned about Medicaid while working for CVS/Pharmacy

2012-01-23T06:30:00.001-05:00

Let me share with you what I learned about Medicaid while working at CVS/Pharmacy. First a little background, I spent over eight years at CVS/Pharmacy. During my time at CVS, I spent a couple of years in an underprivileged area, where Medicaid is the predominate form of insurance (if we can call it insurance). This was a life changing experience for me in several ways. First, I realized I definitely did not want to become a retail pharmacist. Second, I grew to despise all “poor” welfare recipients. Now at first, this may make me sound like an insensitive jerk, but let me explain. These so called “poor” people that frequented my store brought with them their unrivaled feeling of entitlement. They truly believed everything was to be hand fed to them on their schedule and according to their needs. Honestly, I cannot say this is entirely their fault. Nonetheless when I say they felt entitled, I do not just mean to free drugs. These people felt entitled to have their scripts filled in thirty seconds.

Medicaid customers would show up without their card having never been to a CVS before and expect me to have some magical way of handing them a free prescription in a matter of seconds. They were not responsible for keeping track of their own Medicaid information and if you ask them for it, they reply with “isn’t there a number you can call?” I think they truly believe that I had some kind of insurance white pages and I just wasn’t willing to search for their name.

What are worse are the things that Medicaid would cover. For instance, Georgia Medicaid covers a drug called Accutane. Accutane is the last measure of treatment for acne. Yes acne!! The cash price of this drug is over $500/month. Most real insurances charge a co-pay of at least $50. Yet Medicaid customers get it for "free". This is a crime in my opinion. Another example, Methergine is a drug which is almost always used after an abortion in which case it is taken alongside doxycycline and ibuprofen. I used to fill these medications at least once a week. For those of us who don't want to fund abortion this is a problem. I can't speak as to who paid for the actual abortion, but I know we are funding the pills after the abortion.

What can be done? Here is my three-fold solution:

First we need to cut down what drugs are covered for Medicaid patients, $500/month for an acne medication that is unnecessary and ridiculous. Acne is a part of life, and most middle class kids deal with it because their parents will not be paying a $50 co-pay just for acne. Methergine would also fall in this category of drugs that should never be covered at the taxpayers’ expense.
We must instigate real co-pays for Medicaid customers. Believe me when I tell you most of these customers had enough money to pay regular co-pays like the rest of us (see point 3). The argument made for Medicaid was that poor people cannot afford insurance. Fine give them Medicaid, call it insurance, and let them have all the co-pays that come along with real insurance. This will help keep them away from the doctor for every sniffle they get. While I struggled through college on Mac & Cheese, I didn’t visit the doctor unless it was important because I could barely afford the co-pay.
We must cut down the number of people on Medicaid. We must find a way to prevent Medicaid fraud. We had two customers which I distinctly remember because their situation was so exaggerated and they visited once a week. I assure you more like them exist and often stopped by. Of the two customers I speak, one drove a new blue Hummer H2 and one drove a new black BMW. Both were on Medicaid. Now I don't know if they drove these to the Medicaid office when they applied, but they certainly pulled through my drive-thru once a week. This is insane. Stricter rules need to be put on the application process for Medicaid. With as much as our government loves to create new regulations you would think this would an easy reform to pass, but instead they are too busy regulating the “rich” small business owners.

What are your thoughts on my solutions, and what else could be done to reign in this Medicaid money sink?

Who is the better Anti-Romney?

2012-01-22T04:11:00.002-05:00

: Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich (Credit: Reuters)

Who is the better Anti-Romney?

That seems to be the question that conservatives face right now. Do we vote for Gingrich or Santorum? Lets look at a couple of pros and cons of each candidate?

Rick Santorum

In my opinion Santorum is the safe bet conservative. He is a man of strong conviction. He doesn't bring a lot of baggage with him. He stands for what he believes in and has strong a conservative voting record. The only thing I worry about with Santorum is rather or not his social beliefs will cause him to compromise on the economy. At this point in America's history, the economy must come first before any social endeavors. Don't get me wrong, I agree with Santorum that abortion and gay marriage are morally wrong (I think all the candidates do), but is it the government's place to tell people what they can do? Would our Founding Fathers feel that they should regulate these issues or let the people and the states deal with them?

Newt Gingrich

Newt has done a lot of good and a lot of bad in the past. His record is not as strong as Santorum. He carries more baggage than Santorum. However, Newt is a big ideas guy. If you listen to everyone's debate answers, Newt is the only candidate that brings new ideas and a fresh perspective to the table. For instance, at the last debate a question was raised regarding Obamacare and kids remaining on their parent's insurance. Newt pointed out that if we simply brought unemployment down than this would be a non-issue. That was a fresh perspective on the subject. As far as new ideas, look his idea for children working at the school to earn a little cash. Now I am not going to pretend that would be an easy thing to institute, but it is a new idea. Big ideas and big dreams are what our country was built on.

Ron Paul

Although I agree with Ron Paul on a lot of issues, he will not be getting my vote until he changes his mind on allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Enough said.

The Ninth Amendment

2012-01-22T03:25:00.000-05:00

The Ninth Amendment:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

We never hear much talk about the ninth amendment to the Constitution. Granted it does seem somewhat vague at first. However it is an important part of the Bill of Rights and was intended to limit government to the powers laid out in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.

To set the stage for why the Ninth Amendment was necessary. First we must understand what went into crafting our Constitution. Almost everyone at the time believed our federal government was too weak and something had to be done to strengthen it. The problem was preventing it from growing out of hand, remember we had just broken away from the English Monarch.

There were two factions. The Federalist, who opposed the Bill of Rights, believed that the Constitution was enough. They understood that singling out a certain few rights might lead to a government take over of all things not specified in the Bill of Rights. However, they had to swallow the Bill of Rights in order to gain the support of the Anti-Federalist. But first the Federalist crafted the Ninth Amendment to prohibit the federal government from all powers not laid out in the Constitution.

What is so amazing about this whole debate between the Federalist and Anti-Federalists is that they both agreed that the power of the federal government had to be limited. Eventually they compromised on how to limit that power. I would love to have heard those debates. Today both parties debate on how to grow the government.

The Ninth Amendment has been trampled by today's big government officials who believe they have the power to do anything they want. They believe that America needs them to take care of us. That's simply not true.