Sun Ideas

Yesterday's newspaper caused some thinking.

Mitch Albom wrote a good column on the dumbness caused or elicited by smartphones. He was specifically aiming at that Pokemon Go.  Several guys out in Calif were staring at their phone screens and fell off cliffs, more than 50 feet down!  What, he asks, leads people to put phones down their pants, take pictures, and send them??????

The North Carolina voter ID law was flawed and it seems like the US Court of Appeals was correct in striking it down.  But an editorial, I think, got it all wrong.  The author rips on voter ID laws, equating them with a "new Jim Crow."  There are parts of the NC law that were odious and might well have been aimed at limiting black voters.  The court didn't go quite as far as claiming the law was racist, but the hint was there.  But I still see no reason why voters should not have to show ID to vote.  We need it for practically everything else.  Why, I guess I might ask, do some people not have any IDs?  Most folks have drivers' licenses and the state (at least Michigan) provides something called "a state ID" free of charge, I think.  I don't know how prevalent actual voter fraud is, but suspect it is far more common that Democrats would lead us to believe.

Nolan Finley tackles a theme I've used before, that the Republican Party has run away from its core principles.  The editorial reminded me of Ronald Reagan, when he once said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party.  The Democrats left me."  I will watch closely one of Finley's predictions, that Hillary Clinton's "paranoia, dishonesty, and willingness to destroy lives to protect her power will make [her] the Democrats' Richard Nixon."  Hmmm......  I do disagree and think his view is contradictory regarding the Tea Party.  He called it "a cancer" that was introduced in 2010.  But then he claims the "GOP...changed, not me."  The changes he cites are those of the Republican Establishment, the targets of the Tea Party.  He defines "conservative [as] advocating for small and efficient gov't and an economy unburdened by excessive regulation and taxation...for mutually beneficial trade pacts, a strong defense...aid programs that encourage independence, not dependency, for the rule of law...and respect for the Constitution as written."  Yep, that's the Tea Party!  It's not "a cancer," but the GOP as it used to be, before the leadership/Establishment sold out.  The Establishment became far more interesting in holding its own power and if that meant selling out principles, compromising again and again with no reciprocation, well so be it.