Author Archive: parkercountyblog

If Medicare Is for All, Why Not Chevrolets for All?

By parkercountyblog on | 1 Comment

THE DAILY SIGNAL, by Elad Vaida / /

“Why do we think it would be ridiculous for the government to mandate which cars we must drive, but not which health insurance plans we must choose?” writes Elad Vaida. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

America suffers from a grave societal ill that somehow has been totally ignored.

As debate rages about health care (among other hot-button issues), no one is discussing a very alarming statistic: As of 2015, nearly 10% of U.S. households didn’t have a car.

That’s a severe problem, because affordable transportation is a basic human right, and not an issue for car companies to profit from greedily.

Millions of Americans are living without cars, and the only way to remedy that is by implementing a national, government-funded “Chevrolets for All” plan that would put a Chevy in the garage, driveway, or parking lot of every single adult American.

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Posted in: National Issues

How Faulty Assumptions in Climate Predictions Could Mean Big Costs for Americans

By parkercountyblog on

THE DAILY SIGNAL, Kevin Mooney / /

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks about her proposed Green New Deal during a May 13 rally at Howard University in Washington. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Family incomes will take a severe hit and household electricity prices will jump rapidly if policymakers use the “social cost of carbon” to justify new environmental regulations, a Heritage Foundation statistician warned during a climate change conference in Washington.

Since computer climate models are grounded in assumptions about the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, the results “can be all over the map,” Kevin Dayaratna said at the Heartland Institute’s conference.

These results then can be “rigged by policymakers” to achieve their desired results, Dayaratna said during his presentation.

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Posted in: National Issues

How Actress Roxann Dawson Achieved Her Own ‘Breakthrough’ on Faith, Hollywood, and Adoption

By parkercountyblog on | 1 Comment

THE DAILY SIGNAL, Josh Shepherd / /

GettyImages-1136389329-1250x650.jpgRoxann Dawson arrives for the Los Angeles premiere of her movie “Breakthrough” on April 11 at Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California. (Photo: Lisa O’Connor/ AFP/Getty Images)

She has become an in-demand director of popular TV shows, including “This Is Us,” “The Americans,” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Science fiction fans know her as Lt. B’Elanna Torres, the Klingon chief engineer during seven seasons of “Star Trek: Voyager.”

But Roxann Dawson would rather be known as a mother raising two girls, including one adopted from China—and for how her Christian faith informs every aspect of her life.

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Posted in: National Issues

The Green New Deal is a Government Takeover, Not an Environmental Policy

By parkercountyblog on

TPPF,  By The Honorable Jason Isaac|March 26, 2019

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When the Green New Deal comes to the floor of the Senate, its supporters won’t want to talk about it.

After the publication (and near-immediate deletion) of an FAQ page detailing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s lurid plans for “massive transformation of our society” through the Green New Deal, some supporters publicly distanced from the specifics; now the bill is being touted as a statement of principles, rather than what it really is — a roadmap for a near-total government takeover.

“The #GreenNewDeal is a positive vision,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “a roadmap—for our future.”

But as the environmentalist left is realizing, the devil is, in fact, in the details.

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Posted in: National Issues

The Totally, Utterly Irrefutable Case Against Socialism

By parkercountyblog on

The Daily Signal, by Lee Edwards /

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Opposition supporters hold a banner reading “No More Socialism” during a gathering with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in Caracas on Feb. 2, 2019. (Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)

When a dozen of conservatism’s best minds take on Socialism and expose it for the utopian fraud it is, attention must be paid.

In a brief foreword to a special issue of National Review, Editor-in-Chief Richard Lowry admitted that many conservatives thought socialism in America had been “vanquished” after the collapse of Soviet Communism 30 years ago. But as T. S. Eliot insisted, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.”

The experts examine socialism in its many guises, beginning with Charles Cooke’s blunt assessment that socialism is not and never can be “democratic.”

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Posted in: National Issues

Why These Defensive Uses of Firearms Should Disarm Second Amendment Skeptics

By parkercountyblog on

The Daily Signal, Amy Swearer / / Lucas Drill /

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Firearms are used in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times every year in the United States. (Photo: Getty Images)

At a time when many high-profile politicians are comfortable proposing laws that impose serious burdens on the right to keep and bear arms, including the mass confiscation of commonly owned firearms, it’s important to remember that those same firearms are regularly used by average Americans to defend their life, liberty, and property.

While some gun control advocates claim the Second Amendment is a dangerous historical relic, even going so far as to call for its repeal, they often overlook the fact that firearms are significantly more likely to be used for self-defense than in criminal activity.

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Posted in: National Issues

More Renewable Energy Coming to Texas: Government-Induced Malinvestment

By parkercountyblog on

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New wind and solar farms are continuing to be constructed all over Texas. Longroad Energy, a company headquartered in Massachusetts, has recently announced plans to build two new renewable energy plants in Texas, which are both set to be completed in the year 2020.

Earlier this month, Longroad Energy signed a 15-year Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) with Pennsylvania company, Crown Holdings, Inc., agreeing to supply them with over 400,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity from a new wind farm set to be located in Knox County, Texas.

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Posted in: National Issues, Texas Issues

This New York Man Got Arrested After Defending His Own Home

By parkercountyblog on

The Daily Signal, Amy Swearer / / Lucas Drill /

The county district attorney charged Ronald Stolarczyk with a felony for failing to obtain his own handgun permit and register the gun in his name. (Photo: Pratchaya/Getty Images)

All too often, advocates of strict gun control promise that more complex and convoluted laws will save lives without imposing a serious burden on the right of law-abiding citizens to exercise their constitutional rights.

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Posted in: National Issues

ICE Releases List of Murderers and Rapists Protected Under Sanctuary City Policies

By parkercountyblog on

The Daily Caller, Jason Hopkins / /  

Many criminal illegal aliens released by sanctuary jurisdictions went on to commit other crimes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says. Pictured: An ICE special agent prepares to arrest immigration violators June 19, 2018, at a Fresh Mark meat-processing plant in Salem, Ohio. (Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a list of criminal illegal aliens who were released from jail due to sanctuary city policies, many of whom went on to commit other crimes.

Washington and Oregon, two states under Democratic Party control, have enacted some of the strongest sanctuary laws in the country that protect illegal immigrants from federal apprehension.

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Posted in: National Issues

Gun Rights Made All the Difference for These Intended Victims

By parkercountyblog on

The Daily Signal, Amy Swearer / / Lucas Drill /

Roughly 1 million defensive gun uses occur every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Photo: RonBailey/Getty Images)

Contrary to the rhetoric of many gun control advocates, the Second Amendment’s protection of the individual right to keep and bear arms is not a malevolent, outdated barricade to peace that must be demolished or diminished in the name of public safety.

Rather, the Second Amendment is a fundamental part of the nation’s scheme of ordered liberty.

Firearms are used far more often in self-defense than in crime.

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Posted in: National Issues