Liberty's Teeth

GPA Redistribution

2011-05-18T01:12:00.000-06:00

...I'm lovin' it!

Rockin' Birthday Card

2011-04-06T18:43:00.000-06:00

Awesome birthday card from my brother!

TSA Shenanigans

2010-11-19T10:04:00.005-07:00

TSA was recently told to be on the look out for a couple of nuts but this is ridiculous...

Seattle Times: They support Rob McKenna!

2010-03-28T19:00:00.000-06:00

Editorials | AG Rob McKenna has a case to challenge the health-care law's individual mandate | Seattle Times Newspaper

Shockingly, the Seattle Times editorial board supports AG Rob McKenna's addition of the State of Washington to Florida's Constitutional challenge to the Obamacare healthcare bill. Rock on!

Boehner: 'Shame on Us'

2010-03-22T01:56:00.001-06:00

Pretty disheartened by the healthcare vote today. Liked this from Boehner.

A Liberal Haiku...or two

2009-10-31T23:52:00.006-06:00

Christopher "wrote" (in his head while driving home from Trunk or Treat) some political haiku tonight, two of them actually, and I just LOVED them! He's very smart and I say that in all seriousness. It is in response to some political banter on Facebook. Anyhow, they are dubbed "Liberal Haiku", by Christopher Toone:

The rich need not be
Take theirs and give it to me
Ends without the means

Bleeding hearts reach out
Silencing rational thought
Compelled compassion

Mallard Fillmore Goodness

2009-09-16T02:06:00.003-06:00

9.10.2009

9.9.2009

9.7.2009

9.5.2009

Really? I don't...

2009-09-04T01:34:00.002-06:00

The Earth has become a false God and this just displays it. This was in an ELEMENTARY school classroom.

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval

2009-08-25T17:23:00.001-06:00

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval

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Harry Alford is AWESOME!

2009-07-22T12:31:00.003-06:00

Harry Alford is the man! He is just dead on in his commentary after the clip!

Glenn Freaks Out

2009-07-22T12:25:00.000-06:00

Harry Alford gives it to Barbara Boxer

2009-07-18T12:21:00.002-06:00

Harry Alford of the Black Chamber of Commerce. ROCKIN!

Checking Her Out...

2009-07-10T02:02:00.003-06:00

Maybe this isn't what it appears but...it sure looks like Obama and Sarkozy are checking out Brazil's Mayora Tavares at the G-8 summit. Geesh! And why they don't come right out and say that...I don't know - what else is to this picture if it isn't of them lookin' at her rear?!!

Dallas Tea Party Invites Janeane Garofalo

2009-06-30T17:30:00.007-06:00

A Liberal BYU History Professor?!! No way!

2009-06-04T18:51:00.003-06:00

So, I've been working on an independent study class to officially finish up my degree. It is a history class and I recently had an assignment that riled me up. It had to do with the concept of the division of labor and the questions were based on a primary source provided in the text book that described the production of pins as an example of the effect of the division of labor. Here are the questions that the professor asked me to answer after reading the assignment:

"Smith here fails to point out that a single, highly skilled craftsman could produce nearly as many pins per man as the 20 who divided the labor.

If that's true, to what extent is industrialization just the dumbing-down of work? It does not save much labor by division; what it saves is years of training and skill acquisition.
Are the blessings of instant mass production worth the curse of turning humans into automatons, unable to make anything entirely by themselves or to enjoy the satisfaction of working for oneself instead of for oppressive entrepreneurs whose main innovation was to make workers stupid in the first place?
What are the human costs of the division of labor, based on Smith's own description of factory work?"

Like most history professors, I guess like most liberal arts professors or even professors in general, you can tell they are a bit left in their political ideology. I thought these questions were leading and showed a bias that should not be included when one is given the responsibility of educating. It is their job to provide the information and let the student make an informed decision based on the facts and not based on the professor's biases.

The following is my response that I was required to provide as part of the assignment.

It is obvious from your questions related to this lesson that you are of the opinion that industrialization has been a bad thing for the world. I believe that Smith failed to mention that “a single, highly skilled craftsman could produce nearly as many pins per man as the 20 who divided the labor” because it is misleading and irrelevant. It is much more efficient to produce anything using an assembly line type concept. The twenty men creating the pins individually would require twenty workshops with the same tools and materials. Twenty times the amount of space and equipment used individually would produce fewer pins than one workshop utilizing twenty laborers that have specialized in a particular operation.

It is true that the adoption of industrialization resulted in a loss of skilled craftsmen that were capable of producing physical goods on their own, but industrialization has had a net positive effect on our society and our economy. People gained time through industrialization. This time lead to more thinking and a faster rate of innovation. Intellectual goods and services have become more and more central to the world’s economy. We have progressed from the industrial age to the information age. The information age would not have been possible without the division of labor and the advances seen during the industrial age. The transition may have been painful and it is easy to look back and feel sympathy for the unskilled laborer and the conditions that they worked in, but look at what it has made possible in our day.

Initially, skilled craftsmen were replaced by groups of people working together to create the same product. I don’t believe this was just a dumbing down of work. It was an intelligent and natural progression to discover that specialization saves time and money and it increases production. I believe that it is extremely cynical to believe that the main purpose of industrialization was to hold the working class captive in their ignorance and lack of skills. If anything, the division of labor and industrialization spurred innovation and lead to a society that has the largest middle-class in the history of the world.

Slowly, these laborers have been replaced, in part, by machines that can produce many times the amount of goods that were produced before the industrial age. People have been forced to adapt. They must continue learning and gaining new skills throughout their entire lives. Many jobs in the world are impossible for machines to do. Many of these jobs didn’t exist before the division of labor and I doubt they would have been created as soon in our history, or if they ever would have appeared at all, if this advancement of technology had not taken place.

The factory worker should not be considered a non-thinking automaton. The free-time created by the division of labor has lead to a populace with a very broad knowledge base. The skilled craftsman would have to ply his trade long hours to be profitable. It is reasonable to assume that the tasks related to his or her trade were nearly all consuming. The laborer of today has time to pursue other interests and learn skills in addition to those related to his or her occupation. Not every person takes advantage of the extra time that technology has given them and I’m sure that there were craftsmen that had interests and skills outside of their profession, but as a general rule, the person of today’s world, brought to you in part by the division of labor, has a broader and deeper knowledge of more subjects.

Our society provides each person an equal opportunity to succeed. That is not a guarantee of equal results, but a guarantee that you can try and succeed or fail dependent upon the particular circumstances surrounding your endeavor. The only description of working conditions I saw in the primary source describes the laborers as being poor. I don’t think that the owners of the factories are to blame completely. Owners of businesses have not always provided the best conditions for people to work in. For some reason, our society wants to blame corporations and businessmen for their own struggles. These conditions are regulated today and it is not as much of a problem anymore. Workers are not forced to work at a job for a particular employer. If they are unhappy with their compensation, conditions, or any other aspect of their job, they are free to leave and find better work. If they have a great idea and are charismatic enough to gather the necessary capital to make their dream a reality, no one is stopping them. It is not right to demonize men and women that have worked hard to earn money and a prestigious position at a company based solely on our envy of their success. We should judge their actions.

We'll have to wait and see what sort of grade I get on this assignment from the professor. I don't know why everyone blames big business for everything and since when has advancement in technology been considered a bad thing? I think it is rather progressive...

Romney to Obama: Stop Apologizing to America's Critics - Political News - FOXNews.com

2009-06-01T22:43:00.002-06:00

Romney to Obama: Stop Apologizing to America's Critics - Political News - FOXNews.com

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Perez Hilton is a hypocrite and off base

2009-04-21T14:03:00.003-06:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

In this video Perez Hilton shows how hypocritical and idiotic his actions are. Just listing to him makes him look so off base.

CPSIA Lead Ban - Kids Motorcycles & ATV's

2009-04-09T01:01:00.001-06:00

Owned by China

2009-03-23T13:04:00.003-06:00

Need I say more? Below is an awesome video from Glenn Beck a few weeks back. It demonstrates how we're getting money right now - very interesting.

Obama's 1st 50 Days

2009-03-11T02:20:00.002-06:00

I saw this at the beginning of Hannity on March 10th and thought it was very good!

Democracy?

2009-03-04T11:35:00.007-07:00

What is democracy?

Our government has been described as being "of the people, by the people, and for the people", but is that really true anymore? Those serving in Washington, and in many state governments, are completely oblivious to the desires of the populous of this nation.

Our representative form of democracy was created with the idea that although the voice of every American could not be heard individually on every issue, those voices could be amplified through a representative mouthpiece. It has always been the responsibility of those serving in the Federal government to represent us. Our responsibility is to stay abreast of the issues, express our views to our elected officials, and remind those officials who they work for.

It is so easy to communicate in our day and age that it is inexcusable to remain silent on important issues. It is even more untenable for our representatives to ignore the voices of those that placed them in office.

The ease with which we are currently able to communicate should make it reasonable for our government to act as a true democracy, and yet, they continue to act on their own, in direct contradiction to the feelings of the People. Bills that haven't even been read by our representatives are being forced through Congress. If the people in Washington that are engaged full-time in lawmaking were unable to review the bill before it was passed, how were any of the rest of us supposed to be able to understand the bill and voice our opinions to our representatives. It is impossible for Congress to truly represent us if they act in secret, behind closed doors, pursuing their own personal agendas.

I believe that a better forum can and should be provided for us to tell our elected officials how we feel on issues that they are preparing to vote on. Emails, phone calls, and letters are great but I want to see how the rest of the people in the areas represented by certain officials feel. I think that a record should be kept and made available through the respective representative's website that shows the results of the "local voting" which is conducted informally through our correspondence with these representatives. Only after our voices are heard should our representatives act. They should be acting for us and not replacing our thoughts, values, and opinions with their own.

I think it is dangerous that we do not currently have term limits for our House and Senate representatives. There have been movements at the state level to institute such measures for their national representative but they have been quashed by the Supreme Court. There have been promises made in the past that Congress would self-impose term limits but these words were only that. A national movement, possibly a Constitutional Amendment, would be needed to make this a reality.1 Congressmen and Senators get quite comfortable in their positions and start to act on their own because they know that as a general rule, once they become a household name, it is very difficult to unseat them. These positions should not be a career. They should be a civic duty that is performed for a limited number of years before they return to the private sector. New blood needs to circulate through the halls of Congress to ensure that our representatives remember why they are there.

I'd love to hear any comments that anyone has about either of these issues so feel free to leave a comment and/or direct me to any related information that you have found interesting.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz R-Utah

2009-03-03T18:18:00.003-07:00

Earmarks, pork-barrel spending, pet projects. They all needed to go, there were over 9,000 of them in the "spendulus" bill. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, unseated the incumbent republican and won his seat in November. He's a former BYU football player, has been on Glenn Beck a few times, and sleeps on a cot in his Washington, D.C. office to save on renting an apartment. This video is great, he's right that Provo doesn't need a $475,000 parking structure; that's not the responsibility of the federal government to pay for, nor do I believe it will "stimulate" the economy.

Does this Sound Reasonable?

2009-02-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here's Glenn's newest animation to show how hyper inflated the housing market was and the consequences. It's very good!

Agreeing with something on CNBC? Have Mercy

2009-02-20T02:08:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it, but I agree with something that came from the NBC=General Electric puppet! This video has various forms but here's one and it's good. CNBC didn't know how to handle this, it stuck out like a sore thumb but the popularity of it forced NBC to distribute it across their different outlets. Glad this wasn't suppressed!