Kevin Colby: News, culture, political blog

Some really great articles by John Stossel:

Jail For Selling Medical Marijuana

If the voters in your state say it’s OK to do something, is it?

Apparently not.

Charlie Lynch learned that the hard way, when federal authorities raided his home and small business in southern California in March 2007.

“I hear the banging of my front door,” Lynch recalled. “I opened the door and about 10 to 15 agents with shields, bullet-proof vests, guns, masks, they came barreling in.”

Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 30 pounds of marijuana from Lynch’s business. The action wasn’t a surprise to San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges, who had been investigating Lynch for about a year.

What tipped the sheriff off to Lynch’s operation? It may have been the ribbon-cutting ceremony that Lynch held when he started selling marijuana.  Read the full story.

The Middle Class Is Doing Just Fine, Thank you

There’s no doubt that the current recession is taking a heavy toll. Last month, the number of unemployed reached 12.5 million, an increase of 851,000 since December.

Is the middle class truly having a hard time, or is it better off than before?

President Obama has said that “the middle class is struggling.” Turn on the TV, and you’ll hear people like cable news host Lou Dobbs say, “Our middle class may be on the verge of collapse.”

Social commentator and best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich agrees. “It used to be that you could expect to get a job after college, rise in that job, maybe switch jobs at some point and then retire with a generous pension,” she said. “Now, it’s a very bumpy road with many gaps in between.”

In her book “Nickel and Dimed,” Ehrenreich went undercover to work as a nursing home aide, a Wal-Mart associate and took on other low-wage jobs to see if she could make ends meet.  Read the full story.

Billions of Tax Dollars Being Spent on Roads, That’s Bull!

It’s part of the stimulus plan. The government has announced it’s going to spend billions of your dollars on building new roads, and fixing old ones. They say they’ll do it efficiently. I say, bull.

Some people call the traffic jam on the way to work … driving into hell.

Joseph Woo of Atlanta told us he has the most miserable commute in America.

The Texas Transportation Institute, a research division of Texas A&M, says Atlanta is America’s second-most-congested city.

“You plan your day around traffic,” Woo said. “Because you never know if there’s going to be traffic or not. You have to leave an hour and 15 minutes in advance. This is why I don’t drink coffee. If I drank coffee, my head would probably explode!”  Read the full story.

Taxpayer Money to Fund Border Wall

Some people from other countries want to come to the United States to kill us. Some want to freeload off us or sell us illegal things. Most just want to work here. So what should be done about all that?

It’s the Border Patrol’s responsibility to secure the U.S. border from illegal immigrants, but the border is long, and Border Patrol agents can’t be everywhere.

Reason TV recently visited the Mexican border and spoke to Robert Crooks, who leads the Mountain Minutemen, a vigilante group that tries to keep illegals from entering America.

“The Border Patrol agents are overworked, undermanned, unappreciated,” Crooks said. “I’m that added eyes and ears that the Border Patrol don’t have.”  Read the full story.

Pre-K for Every Kid ‘a Waste of Money

It used to be that the first day of kindergarten was the first day of school. But now there’s a new movement: Universal pre-K. Every child in America should have a chance to start school before kindergarten. Isn’t that a wonderful idea?

Universal pre-K was one of President Obama’s campaign promises, and most Americans agree with him. Sixty-seven percent of Americans think the government should pay for every child to go to preschool, according to a June 2008 poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates/American Viewpoint.

It all sounds so good. However, Mia Levi, a parent who owns six preschools in California, is not convinced.

“Of course it sounds good. All they hear about is a little sweet preschool program, and it’s for the little children, and how can you say no to little children?” she said. “But this whole thing is a scam. It’s like some kind of spin they want everybody to believe.”  Read the full story.

Stimulus Bull?  Why Bail Out Anyone At All?

Think we’re in an economic crisis?

Politicians are eager to remind us that we are.

It’s frightening just to turn on the television. You can’t change the channel without hearing a politician use the word “crisis” or “catastrophe.”

“A failure to act, and act now, will turn a crisis into a catastrophe,” President Obama said on Feb. 4th.

“We have an economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression,” Vice President Joe Biden said of the situation at the House Democratic Issues Conference on February 6th.

Indeed, the situation is bad. The stock market has continued to fall and unemployment has reached 8.1 percent. But what should a country do about that? The political class says we need “stimulus.”

And so stimulus we got, along with bailouts and rescues adding up to billions and trillions of your dollars. Everything that has been spent and promised to be spent will wind up costing each taxpayer around $16,000.