web site design and
© copyright 2007-
© copyright 2007-
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First, let me say that I love this country and I love my freedoms. ALL of them. I hold a deep appreciation for the sacrifices that have been made by others in order to preserve those freedoms. Apparently, our leadership does not. After reading some of the unilaterally endorsed bills that are on the hill right now, I have come to a new understanding of what it means to possess freedom. The sacrifices of freedom which our government has been considering in 'quick fix' solutions to wide ranging problems such as teenage violence and domestic terrorism, in order to attain some artificial level of safety, is staggering.
Tyndall once wrote "It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink facts because they are not to our taste." What he says here is that every one of us whom merely accepts the paradigms put forth by our institutions, and takes no action to analyze or comprehend their underlying basis for ourselves, behaves reprehensibly. When a society does this, it moves closer to self-extinction. Fortunately, the founding fathers realized this. They took action within our government to limit its power, and to pass the majority of the scope of decision making into the hands of the society, where it belongs. This most honorable and grave responsibility is now being taken away from us.
This brings me to my point. There has been a tremendous shift in the stance on government toward control in the politics of protection lately. I would really like to know why. Why are We, the people milling about as a herd of sheep waiting to be fed? What in the hell are we thinking? Are we so devoid of personal awareness that it has now become acceptable to sacrifice every bit of our humanity in order to avoid confrontation when we see somebody step out of line? I would swear that I've heard bleating a couple of times!
Recent proposals by our government have been put forth to create further restrictions on our constitutional freedoms in areas ranging from purchase of firearms to the ability to visit the local public library and check out classical reading material. Such sacrifices of personal and private freedoms could only come from a society programmed to accept whatever dogma is spewed forth by the media as gospel, and the truly frightening part is that these proposals are being met with significant public support!
Why not simply require thought? That's it. Require people to think before they act, and punish them appropriately when they don't. It isn't an enforceable law, and it shouldn't be. When we observe something that's obviously wrong, we should correct it and leave an impression. Place the responsibility for transgressions on the culprit and stop punishing society. It isn't society's fault if some idiot decides to start molesting children. Enough of the touchy-feely you can be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society garbage.
Make it hurt.
Because if we don't, it wont be long before it's time for our 'federally mandated' neural implants. It's for our own protection. Really.
Of course, that just my opinion, I could be wrong!
But I doubt it
--Matt Yotko
This occasional unsyndicated opinion column, A Rant of My Own, fails to appear in more than 250 papers nationwide.
A Rant of My Own is a poorly written attempt on my part to voice my thoughts regarding issues present in the media.
Or, I might just use it to whine about something that's bothering me.
The reader can feel free to argue, debate or simply dismiss my views as sheer idiocy.
If you would like to debate, you can email me and I will be happy to discuss any views that you would like to put forward.
Who knows, if your arguments are compelling enough, I might just post your rebuttal as well!
Enjoy.
This is a semi-regular stream-of-consciousness soap-box where you can spout off on the injustices of the world; ‚A Rant of My Own‛ was started by Matt Yotko and is being continued by John Yotko. Email with your thoughts.
Comments are always appreciated, as we’ll post and respond to anything you dish out.
This occasional unsyndicated opinion column, A Rant of My Own, fails to appear in more than 250 papers nationwide.
Photography and music have been two of my passions from an early age. Actually electronics was probably my first passion when my fascination with the glowing tubes inside my parents RCA record player grabbed my attention. At the tender age of four I would lie underneath the record player watching the tubes glow as records played through a large ventilation hole cut in the bottom. I remember reaching up inside the record player to remove one of the tubes. My mother did not find that in the least funny. A few years later I wanted to make my 8-track player and radio louder and hoped that distant radio stations would come in better. I attempted this by installing first bigger speakers - after that didn't work I tried a larger transformer. It was louder for about a jiffy. This was when I discovered that all things electronic run on smoke. All of the smoke leaked out as did a few flames accompanied by a 12 gauge shotgun like sound. I probably picked up a few PCBs from the capacitors during that adventure. It was then that I decided that maybe I should start reading about electronics. I got some small pamphlet like books from Cardamone Electric - our local Radio-Shack distributor (where I later got my first job) - and began building tuned length antennae for my new 8-track stereo and radio. I would switch the antenna depending upon which radio station I wanted to listen to.
I grew up in a town so far away from civilization that radio waves wouldn't even go there. We did have WKZA a small AM station that had news, old music and talk daily, and the American Top 40 once a week. I could also get WRRN in Warren but they only played the likes of Barry Manilow and Englebert Humperdink.
But I digress...
As I was saying photography and music have been two of my passions from an early age. Follow the links to the left to venture into my works of photography and music.
Just a bundle of links that I like, some web sites that I have done some of the background programming or design work on and other links.