Editorials

What color is your zebra? - Is it white with black stripes or black with white stripes?  You probably don't know or care, after all they're all zebras.  The same can be said about our politician brethren. They argue about whose stripes are white and whose are black when there is not a spiting distance difference between them...

Drive-Through Country - People who live in the Unincorporated "Drive-Through" areas of the county are now finding that some of the same "Fly-Over" urban attitudes exist in some local city residents and county government officials when it comes to the property rights of citizens living in unincorporated areas....

The CON in Constitutional Convention - Appropriately, on Friday the 13^th  of March 2009, delegates for the Mock Constitutional Convention gathered in a posh hotel in the hills above Montgomery to be presented the same old liberal offerings. And once again the “Con” is to convince the delegates that the document produced is new and that they have actually created it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Just and Ordinary Man - The Junk Ordinance contains a definition of junk that is so all-encompassing, that a further phrase is inserted... Anything that works hurt, inconvenience, or damage to another. The fact that the act done may otherwise be lawful does not keep it from being a nuisance. The inconvenience complained of must not be fanciful, or such as would affect only one of a fastidious taste, but it should be such as would affect an ordinary reasonable man....

Sneaky Tricks - One of the worst & sneakiest tricks played on Marshall County citizens is the so-called Home Rule measure. It was a shoddy skein of wool pulled over the eyes of most voters. Many of you will think I exaggerate if I say this is a Gestapo tactic, but I am old enough to know something about those heavy-handed intrusions....

Ignorance is not a dirty word - Politicians: are most of them stupid? Or are they just lazy? Quite often there are grounds for making generalizations. One of the next planned moves of county government against personal liberty will involve your pets.....

Immature Government - Governments are a lot like small children.  They need constant supervision, instruction and discipline by responsible adults to prevent them from doing harm to themselves and others through their ill-advised actions....

Home Rule? Rule of Whom? - First and foremost one should ask why the county commissions have placed, or are in the process of placing the "Limited Self-governance Act", also known as “Home Rule” on the ballots in the first place.  Their favorite explanation is of supposed safety, health and welfare concerns for the citizens....

Traveling with a Reformer - Before the day was done I found that deep down in him somewhere he had a passion, quiet as he was--a passion for reforming petty public abuses. He stood for citizenship--it was his hobby. His idea was that every citizen of the republic ought to consider himself an unofficial policeman, and keep unsalaried watch and ward over the laws and their execution.....

Property Rights History - Property rights stem from English common law and the Magna Carta, although there has been an evolution in legal interpretation of those rights since the 1920s. Most of the recent litigation has dealt with the concept of federalism, and more specifically, the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution....

Land Use Policy - The emergence of environmental concerns in agricultural policy and the increasing likelihood of agro-environmental regulations has engendered an agricultural private property rights movement with corresponding claims of “regulatory takings” and the need for “just compensation”.....

Rural Development Myth - Low-income people can become victims of a number of economic distortions caused by a rural land use planning systems which divides rural land into zones specified for certain kinds of development. As land developers move in, the prices for developed land rise astronomically while the price of land held in agricultural status rises much more slowly....

Jean Tresch Story - My father told me once “that poor folks have poor ways.” What I came to understand as his meaning was that poor people learned to “make do,” to somehow “get by” on what the world has left them, usually the leavings of what more “well to do” people either overlooked or discarded....

Moss Darymple Story - Moss was a believer. He had always believed that he truly lived in “the land of the free.” The day he found out differently, it broke his heart, and he lay down on the land he loved and he died. Rumor has it that Moss had a great deal of land and money. But Moss didn't seem to care about money. He only seemed to care about the old cars and tractors and the antique motorcycles he collected. Truly, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.... 

Entitlement Mentality - At a recent political meeting, a question was asked about how we can counteract the sense of entitlement that is pervasive in our society. The entitlement mentality says: "I have the right to have government meet my needs by taking the property of my neighbor." Here is my answer to the question. Entitlement mentality is based on two false ideas: that all property rights come from government; and that government is to be our provider, instead of the protector of our God given rights.