Santorum is out

Rick Santorum, the Mitt Romney opposition has dropped out of the GOP Primary race.  In my opinion, it would have devastated his campaign if he had continued and lost his home state of Pennsylvania.  In his concession, he will continue his fight:

All news outlets have given the benefit of the doubt to Mitt Romney as the GOP candidate for the upcoming General Election.  Although it is sad to say, my choice (and underdog candidate) Ron Paul will unlikely gain the insurmountable amount of delegates needed to win.  Its also safe to say Gingrich is done, like, permanently. The key now would be to pick up Santorum's supporters.  With a little luck, either runner up might sill have a chance.

Now it will be interesting to see how Romney's campaign speech will transform.  Will he focus on the big picture, or stamp out any remaining resistance and pick up Santorum's supporters for himself?  We'll have to wait and see. 

Libertarianism Explained

I came across Penn Jillette's reasoning behind why he chose Libertarianism as an ideology for the past 25 or so years.  Here is his video. It was an insightful look into the basic foundations of what libertarianism stands upon.  What caught my attention the most was his take on politics and coercion.  It is in no one's right to coerce their view upon anyone else.

However, the state of affairs in politics in our nation currently subscribes to this method.  Much like being a shopper at a grocery store, we are only faced with limited choices when it comes to political affiliation.  We are given the "Coke or Pepsi" choice, Democrat or Republican, night or day, black or white choices that are drawn up by someone else in power.  Third parties gain very little foothold in this nation, which is telling of our mentality as a society.  These forced choices give us little room, as a society, to make our own political choices.

 America has become so accustomed to this political dichotomy, that when new ideas are introduced, the party system instantly goes on the offensive.  Naturally, new ideas that counter party doctrine comprises their authority over the body politic.  Libertarianism is attacked constantly for being the "lazy man's conservatism" or being too socially liberal, whatever that means. The bottom line is, it is a state of mind and it transcends petty party politics.

Brass Tacks Redux

It has been a long time since I have posted on this blog.  I pretty much gave up on it, like many bloggers do.  I suppose I lost touch with many things I was passionate about, one of them being politics.  However, my life has gone through many transformations since then, and I feel I am a different person.  I have shed many of my old beliefs for new ones, as well as hold on to ideologies and ideas that I have always felt passionate about.

I digress.  This blog was made during a time when I was passionately right wing.  Furthermore, it was during an election season when political fervor seems to run high.  Although I still consider myself conservative, I no longer feel obligated to follow party lines.  Basically, I had had enough of "group think."

Since then, I have become a teacher (social sciences) and have rekindled my curiosity of all things political.  Maybe it took me another election cycle to figure this out, who knows.  The bottom line is, I am happy that I became aware of my transformation and I really can't wait to start writing and blogging again.  Hopefully, you all will enjoy my new and reformed views.

That being said, and with education on my mind, I would like to share a little statistic I found while reading upon the state of affairs in California:  California spends $50,000 for every inmate as opposed to $8,000 per student. Something is amiss here. I venture to guess that a good majority as these inmates are incarcerated for drug related charges. Even Pat Robinson, a major religious right figure has stated "The drug war just hasn't succeeded." More detailed stats can be found here. 


Further information on California's prison dilemmas can be found in this short clip that aired on Zakaria 360 a week ago: Zakaria: Incarceration nation.

The link speaks for itself, but the statistics compared to other Western nations is staggering and sobering.  In addition to strong corrections unions that have the ear of our state's politicians,  I firmly believe that with our declining state of education, we will see an increase in our prison population.  It might be cliche, but I hold it true that a lack of education leads to a life of crime because, without education, there are very few alternatives for individuals to make a living.  Lack of skills learned in school leads to these dire roads.  On the other hand, you have our tax dollars being funneled into our correctional system.  A system that is ever increasing.  Shouldn't we see a decrease in a prison population if so much is appropriated to it?  Its a vicious cycle that must be reformed.