Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy
The Free State

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Youth Justice NC: North Carolina's School to Prison Pipeline


Source:The FreeState

If you look at our current prison inmate population, you’ll see a lot of prison inmates who didn’t finish high school before they came to prison, or barely finished high school. If you look at a lot of our juvenile inmate population, kids that should be in school, but because of their bad behavior and committing felony’s while still being juveniles, or have been expelled from high school. You see a lot of juveniles that our education system hasn’t reached yet. 
You see people who are headed down the road of starting criminal careers and entering our criminal justice system as adults. After they’ve committed crimes against society. If you look at our criminal gangs, organized crime families, you see a lot of people who dropped out of high school to become a criminals. And of course end up in jail or prison at some point in their careers.
So I believe the answers to solving the problems of overcrowded prisons and bringing down our prison population in the future are fairly simple. But hard to apply and it gets to public education. Quality public education, graduating more students from high school with good educations, so they can move on to college, vocational school, the military, law Enforcement, foreign service, to use as examples. 
So they can go down the road of becoming productive citizens in society and not becoming criminals by simply preventing crimes in the future by preventing people from becoming criminals. And that gets to a better public education system, including educating our juvenile offenders before they become career criminals. Crime prevention really is about public education. 
I would argue especially for students in low-income high crime areas. Where there may be more opportunities to get involved in organized crime. So the better we educate our students and the more students we reach, the less career criminals we’ll have in the future.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Liza Liz Bethy: Brenda & Dylan: Beverly Hills 90210


Source:The Daily Post

When I was a freshmen in high school, FOX was still a very young TV network at this point. They came out with a high school soap Opera, with the cast all out of high school. Some of them graduating high school 5-7 years before this show came out. Beverly Hills 90210 which definitely had its cheesy aspects about it, like some of the writing and the fact that a pair of twins, one male and female looked nothing alike . But this was the first prime time soap opera for adolescents of any kind and it was a well rated prime time soap opera. 

Beverly Hills was the soap opera of my Generation X and this high school class of 1993 on the show was only a year ahead of me. So I got to watch it for three seasons while they were still in High School on the show. And while I was still in high school in real life. It was about a upper middle class family that moves from Minneapolis to Los Angles actually in Beverly Hills. 
Because the father played by James Eckhouse who plays Jim Walsh on the show, the husband of Cindy Walsh and the father of a set of twins, Brandon and Brenda Walsh, played by Jason Priestly and Shannen Doherty, gets a job in Beverly Hills and moves his family out there. And is about how this family relates to their new friends out in Beverly Hills and life in general in a new city. 
This show had its drawbacks some of it was cheesy. But when I was in High School, I watched this show every week. Because it actually dealt with what adolescents were going through in real life. In an entertaining and a lot of times even funny way. So it was good TV. 

Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Ronald Reagan: Talks About Balancing the Budget (1975)


Source: Johnny Carson- Ronald Reagan & Johnny Carson.
Source:The Daily Post

I like and respect Ronald Reagan a lot, I've always had even though I'm a Liberal Democrat. Which might be like hearing how much a Boston Red Sox fan loves a player for the New York Yankees. But in my case my affection for President Reagan is real. Both personally and politically, even though we don't agree on a whole lot. Except as it relates to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, individual liberty and limited government. 

But our policies look a lot different, not a difference between big government and small government. But more relating in the role of government, not so much the overall size, but what it should be doing. But to listen to Ron Reagan talk about the need for a balance budget, is like listening to an obese person talk about the need for a healthy diet and exercise. Whatever they know about what they are talking about, is only through bad experiences. 

Its like saying, "we now know what doesn't work, had we known now then, we wouldn't of done a, because now we know a doesn't work. We would've done b or c instead, because we now know that b or c works". Its speaking in hindsight rather than foresight and not very visionary as far as this is what we should do, because we know it works based on this evidence. 

Had President Reagan listened to then candidate Reagan back in 1975, when he was talking about deficit reduction, he probably wouldn't of proposed the Economic Recovery Act of 1981. At least in that form, the economy was awful and needed a lot of stimulus and perhaps he would've proposed the tax cuts he did, the taxes then were way too high on everyone. Ranging somewhere between 20-70%. But since he felt the need for a balanced budget, he would've at least proposed to pay for those tax cuts. He would've proposed the increases in the defense budget, but proposed to pay for them. 

The fact is that President Reagan inherited a national debt of around 1T$ or more. Left office with around a 5T$ national debt, inherited a budget deficit from President Carter who had one of the worst economies we've ever seen. But it was 40B$, which thirty years ago wasn't a large deficit. Defenders of President Reagan like to say, "well thats the fault of the Democratic Congress's". The fact is President Reagan only had one Democratic Congress, his last two years. 

He had a Republican Senate for his first six years. President Reagan never sent a balanced budget to Congress or proposed a balance budget plan. What they did was deficit reduction, including tax hikes during his presidency. To say the Reagan Administration spent money like drunken sailors, would be an insult to drunken sailors. To use Senator John McCain's joke, they spent money like drunken Congressmen at a Congressional pork party, who are worried about reelection. Ron Reagan should've trusted his first instincts. 
Source:The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson

Friday, October 10, 2014

Young Americans For Freedom: Governor Ronald Reagan (1975)


Source:YAF- Governor Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) addressing YAF in 1975.
"Ronald Reagan gives this address to Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at a 1975 meeting.  He talks about how to use bold banners, not pale pastels, when activists advance conservative ideas."


Back in this time period of 1974-75 just as then Governor Ronald Reagan was leaving the state house in California and looking into running for President in 1976, he described his politics as libertarian. His politics were very similar to Senator Barry Goldwater. These were both "get big government out of our wallets and bedrooms" Republicans and Barry Goldwater would probably be called a Libertarian today. 

Representative Ron Paul comes the closest to Goldwater-Reagan today. Foreign policy would be where they are different and both Goldwater and Reagan believed in at least some forms of taxation as well. And would be probably be (excuse the term, but this is how it is) shitting bricks if they were alive today and saw what had happened to the Republican Party. 

If Barry Goldwater and Ron Reagan were alive today, instead of seeing a party that they built a lot of it on themselves, a party that was around to fight big government. Instead Reagan and Goldwater they would see a party that was promoting big government. Thanks to the Christian-Right and Neoconservatives and all their new big government ideas, with their borrow and spend fiscal policy of the last decade. 

Ronald Reagan was talking about a new Conservative Republican Party that would be dominated by Classical Conservatives, Constitutional Conservatives, Federalists. That wouldn't make race, ethnicity, cultural, or gender, as issues in their party, but instead constitutional conservatism, that could appeal to Constitutional Conservatives of all racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, or economic backgrounds. That would take on the left-wing of the Democratic Party. And he accomplished a lot of what he was talking about in 1980, when the he won the presidency and the Republican Party finally won back the U.S. Senate and picked up 30 seats in the U.S. House.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Max Power: The Kitchen Debate: Richard Nixon vs. Nikita Khrushchev

Source:The FreeState

The friendly TV debate that then United States Vice President Richard Nixon had with then Soviet Union President Nikita Khrushchev, was entertaining and important to the extent, that at least America and Europe could see some of the differences between the superpowers. That America wasn’t just a Superpower when it came to our military and diplomatic power. But we were an economic power as well. And that Russia was basically a third world nation, behind the rest of the Developed World in a lot of areas. 

That Russia's living standards were much lower than Europe, Canada and America. And this had to do with the fact that Russia was a communist state and America is a liberal democracy. The main reason why America, Canada, Europe and Japan were so far ahead of Russia during the Cold War and now, has to do with the fact, that we are free. We are all democracies economically and socially. We all have plenty of freedom to live our own lives. 
And in America especially where Europe tends to be more generous with their safety nets, Americans tend to be held responsible with the decisions that we make in life. Wheres the Soviet Union, most of the power in the country was centralized with the State. They were held with most of the authority to govern the country and responsible for looking after their people. Providing them with jobs, education, healthcare etc.

Vice President Nixon did an effective job in this debate of laying out some of the differences between America and Russia and where we were ahead of them and with space. Where Russia was ahead of us, which we turned around in the 1960s and debates like this are important. Especially if they are done in a respectful way.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Brendan Cashell: Woman Frisked in a B-Movie


Source:Brendan Cashell- if you were up real late, perhaps you couldn't sleep, at least back in the 1990s, chances are you might see a film like this. Especially on Cinemax, but perhaps Showtime, and maybe even FX.

Source:The New Democrat

"Frisked in tight jeans."


I wish I had some idea of what movie this is. But I don't even know who the actors are. This could very well be some amateur or perhaps some b-porn actors who decided to put together a short film together. Not even the guy who uploaded this video on YouTube seems to know what film this is from. 

Source:Brendan Cashell- name this film.

Just from the coloring of the picture and perhaps the clothing that they're wearing, I'm thinking early 1990s and perhaps in Los Angeles. Those Levi's were fairly common in Hollywood during that period. But I that's my best guess as far when this film was even filmed. 

Source:Brendan Cashell- frisked in a b-movie.

Here's an example of a cop who should be working as a pimp or running a strip bar or something. And leaving the law enforcement business to people who get enough at home and do not stop sexy women so they can get off. Another bad movie that will keep guys attention in long enough to be able to check out the sexy women in it.  

One of those low-budget films you tend to see late night like at 3AM on Showtime or Cinemax. Can't even tell you title of this movie, because I have no idea what it is. Not sure the person who uploaded the video knows what the movie is and perhaps just decided to record it when they were up late after drinking too much RedBull and being on the computer too long and not being able to go to sleep.

But this is a sexy scene because of the woman in it, but also an example of bad cops going wild who need to find another line of work. Like flipping laundry or washing floors in jail or prison. 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

BBC: Strong Girls- Sexy Women Working Hard in Brown Leather Jeans


Source:BBC- From one of the episodes of BBC's Strong Girls. One of the women working hard in skin-tight leather jeans.
Source:The Daily Post

"Ladies in brown leather pants. From big strong girls, BBC Television." Originally from BBC.

From BBC

I gotta admit, I love seeing sexy women working hard in leather jeans. Which we don’t get to see a lot in America, because leather jeans aren’t very popular, outside of the biking and rock and roll culture. And they have even lost some popularity with those cultures as well. But leather jeans are still fairly popular in Europe, especially in Britain and Germany. You see them a lot on soap operas and with fashion models at shows.

I saw a show which was a British home improvement show. And there were a couple of sexy British ladies working hard doing renovations on a house somewhere in Britain, wearing tight brown leather jeans. One of them wearing a brown leather suit with brown leather boots and they looked great. Tight leather jeans on sexy women can be as sexy as tight denim jeans on sexy women. You have attractive well-built women wearing leather jeans, and you're going to get a great look at her curves. That's the whole point of leather jeans, to show off women’s or men’s curves. Their legs and butts and how they look in them.

But seeing these women working hard in leather jeans, doing hard physical work, Gives me a question. Are these pants comfortable especially when doing physical work. Britain obviously doesn’t get a lot of hot humid weather. But would you see women in Italy, France or Spain working hard especially in the summer. Countries that get weather that’s very similar to the American Southeast. Imagine how hard they would be sweating in those pants. I mean I’m not complaining, they looked great on that show. And I would watch over and over, I just have a hard time seeing American women doing the same work in those pants during the summer.