Common Sense News March Ed.

A publication of news, commentaries, and various topics of interest.

Volume III

Mar. 2014

A-2 | Common Sense News | March 2014

The Tea Party, Conservatism, and the Constitution Charles R. Kesler - Editor, Claremont Review of Books

T

he following is adapted from a speech delivered on October 21, 2013, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.

The Tea Party movement is named, of course, for the famous event in late 1773 when cases of tea were dumped unceremoniously into the Boston harbor.

The Boston Tea Party—a carefully orchestrated strike against a commodity that was being taxed and sold by a monopoly provider—was intended as a onetime thing, though it ended up being an important link in the chain of events that led to the American Revolution. Today’s Tea Party, on the other hand, has ambitions to become an ongoing force—maybe even the major force—in American conservatism. And it strives for a revolution of its own, a return to a more limited, more constitutional form of government. If I had to judge its performance so far, I would say that it has been courageous and right in its diagnosis of the problems facing American politics, but somewhat off in its prescriptions.

When I say the Tea Party is correct in its diagnosis, I mean it is correct in its very clear sense that Obamacare is not just another costly, bureaucratic, top-down, regulatory scheme, of which we have, alas, so many.

There is something genuinely tyrannical (despite the good intentions of many of its supporters) about Obamacare. It threatens not only to ruin our medical care system, but indirectly and directly—and sooner as well as later—to subvert our form of government and our way of life, fundamentally changing the relation between citizens and government.

Hubris and Nemesis In a way, you can see how dangerous Obamacare is by noticing how it has brought out the worst in liberals—which is evident in how they have responded to the Tea Party.

Liberal impatience with partisanship—that is, with people who oppose their plans—arises from the fact that in contemporary liberalism, there is no publicly acknowledged right of revolution. That may seem like a strange thing to say, but if one looks at some of the political theorists who were most important to modern or statist liberalism—Kant and Hegel in Germany, say, or Woodrow Wilson here in the United States—they are usually quite explicit in rejecting a right of revolution. In their view, a people always has in the long run the government it deserves. So there’s no right of the people to “abolish,” as the Declaration of Independence proclaims, the prevailing form of government and substitute a better one. In particular, there is no conceivable right to overturn contemporary liberalism itself; as liberals today are so fond of saying, there is no turning back the clock. To liberals the Tea Party appears, well, bonkers, precisely because it recalls the American Revolution, and in doing so implies that it might not be such a bad thing to have another revolution—or at least a second installment of the original—in order to roll back the bad government that is damaging both the safety and happiness of the American people.

This is the position, for instance, of Sam Tanenhaus, former editor of the New York Times Book Review and author of The Death of Conservatism. For Tanenhaus, conservatism is good insofar as it consolidates and preserves the liberal order. If conservatism turns revolutionary, i.e., attempts to roll back the liberal order, then it exceeds its commission—it goes off the reservation, so to speak—because liberalism stands for progress and progress is final. President Obama himself made this point a few years ago regarding national health care: “I am not the first president to take up this cause,” he said, “but I am determined to be the last.” But in fact, Obamacare’s strained and narrow victory in 2010 looked not so much inevitable as desperate. It passed by a party line vote, with rampant side deals to buy out the relevant interest groups, and against bitter resistance that has not gone away. Then came its disastrous rollout and its failure to meet any of its own targets for success. All of which suggests overextension and hubris on the part of liberalism, and in the wake of this hubris the Tea Party has confirmed itself as Obama’s, and Obamacare’s, devoted nemesis.

What the Tea Party needs now is a strategy—something it has so far conspicuously lacked—to allow it to achieve its worthy ends. Thinking through a strategy will help clarify those ends: What is it, exactly, that the Tea Party means by limited government? Limited to what? And limited by what? Clearly the Tea Party’s form of conservatism points back to the Constitution as the basis for restoring American government. But how practically to move in that direction?

The Tea Party rightly concluded from the battles over Obamacare that what we are seeing in our politics these days is not two clashing interpretations of the same Constitution, but increasingly two different Constitutions in conflict: the old Constitution of 1787 and a “living” Constitution that is not just a different

approach to the original, but an alternative to it. The extraordinary fight the Tea Party was willing to put up arose from this fact—that Obamacare amounted to a colossal battle between two different ways of government. And it was the Tea Party and President Obama who shared a clear understanding of the stakes; mainstream Republican leaders understood them with much less clarity and intensity.

Matching Means to Ends The failure of the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare and the individual mandate played into the Tea Party’s suspicions. The Court, after all, had come close to striking down the act. There were five votes to rule it unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause before Chief Justice Roberts changed the subject to the taxing power. When the Court punted on the main question and allowed Obamacare to become law, it suggested to Tea Party leaders in and out of government that the old constitutional mechanisms of judicial review and separation of powers did not seem capable of defending the Constitution against this fundamental challenge, and that the only recourse would be a direct appeal to the American people—to the ultimate source of authority for any constitution. To them, John Roberts’s about-face revealed the failure, maybe even the treachery, of the governing establishment—including the establishment Republicans who had nominated and backed Roberts as chief justice. That judgment might be unfair—at the very least it is not completely true—but in any case, the Tea Party concluded that it was now urgently necessary to raise the consciousness of the American people to this new threat.

At this point we should note the paradoxical character of the Tea Party: It is a populist movement to defend the Constitution, but the Constitution is meant, among other things, to limit populism in our politics— to channel, moderate, and refine popular passion through constitutional forms, such as elections, officeholding, and the rule of law.

The point was to ensure, as The Federalist put it, that the reason, not the passion, of the public would control and regulate the government. So it was incumbent on the Tea Party to try to keep its populist means in line with its constitutional ends. And it is in this respect that the Tea Party has sometimes fallen short.

Last fall, the Tea Party seized upon the latest Continuing Resolution to try to bring down Obamacare. Granted, Continuing Resolutions, the multi-thousand page omnibus spending bills that pass for appropriations bills these days, are abdications of Congress’s own budget process and derelictions of its constitutional duty to protect the public purse. Yet bad things can sometimes be used for good purposes. But mainstream Republican leaders warned that the Tea Party senators never had a realistic plan to obtain the votes to defund Obamacare in the Senate, or beyond that to overcome Obama’s veto pen. President Obama needed to fund the government, but he felt, rightly it turned out, that he could hold out longer than the GOP could. The architects of the government shutdown could never answer the question of how victory might be achieved.

Apparently their hope was that an outraged American public—fresh from voting in 2012 to re-elect Obama and to increase the Democratic majority in the Senate by two seats—would rise up and put such pressure on recalcitrant Democrats that they would defund the program that their party had been longing for since Franklin Roosevelt. In relying on such an unlikely outcome, the Tea Party showed its own populist brand of impatience with the separation of powers, bicameralism, and the legislative process that the Constitution prescribes. In imagining that the American public could be persuaded to reconsider the results of an election hardly a year old, the Tea Party surrendered to its own version of the “leadership theory” that liberals have long preferred to legislative-executive politics of the constitutional sort. The implicit argument was that by going over the heads of party leaders and constitutional officeholders to appeal directly to the people, the Tea Party could generate its own mandate to trump the mandate just awarded in the election.

Appealing to the people, of course, is a time-honored tactic: Ronald Reagan was famous for saying that if you can’t make politicians see the light, you can at least make them feel the heat! But Reagan appealed directly to the people from the bully pulpit of the presidency, not from the Senate floor, and he made sure to explain the issue in pellucid and persuasive terms. We learned from Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the 1990s that it really is impossible to run American government from Congress. So as the Tea Party’s unreasonable hopes faded, it had to settle for less and less: delaying the individual mandate rather than defunding it; verifying the subsidies of policyholders in the insurance exchanges; abolishing the medical devices tax; delaying the medical devices tax; and so on.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-3 The Tea Party leaders were pushed back and back and were forced to ask for less and less, until they ended up with virtually nothing.

The Need for Political Thinking To summarize, the Tea Party has been right about the threat posed to the fabric of constitutional government by Obamacare and by other brazen assaults on the Constitution, such as President Obama’s asserted prerogatives to choose which laws to enforce and to make recess appointments when there was no recess. But the establishment Republicans were right about the outcome of the effort to defund Obamacare by tying it to the Continuing Resolution. One might conclude then that these two groups need each other—not only in the sense that they need each other to get to a majority in the House of Representatives, but also, at least for the time being, in the sense that each supplies the other’s defects. In that light it is neither wise nor moderate for members of either group to lambaste members of the other as political enemies—something of which both sides have been guilty.

The Tea Party could do itself and the country a great service by working out what a return to constitutional government might really mean, and thus the strategy and tactics appropriate to that. What is needed is less populism and more political thinking on its part, or on the part of its trusted advisors. Political thinking and constitutional thinking are not opposed, of course, any more than putting together a political majority and defending the Constitution are opposed.

Indeed, these two great duties, properly understood, are implicit in each other.

It’s doubtful that the Republican party can succeed without doing both.

After a century of Progressive mining and sapping of the Constitution, the great document we count on to defend us now needs our defense, and the form of government issuing from the Constitution is itself in need of restoration and renewal. Let me end by giving a few examples of how to bring the spirit of the Constitution and the spirit of conservatism closer together.

Tea Party leaders are eloquent on the point that the Constitution does not make the Supreme Court its final arbiter. Let them apply that insight to Obamacare. The problem with Obamacare is not merely that it will ruin health care, but that it undermines the whole notion of rights—natural rights—that come not from government but from our own nature and from God. Yes, it is unfair, unworkable, and unaffordable. But to leave the argument at that leaves the Constitution out of the picture. So when denouncing Obamacare, let’s hear more about its unconstitutional aspects.

The fattest target is the Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB), which is unconstitutional on its face. IPAB consists of 15 members who are not elected by the people but appointed by the president. Their job is to make recommendations to limit Medicare’s budget by reducing reimbursements to doctors. Unless both houses of Congress overrule IPAB by passing their own equal or greater cuts to Medicare, IPAB’s proposals automatically become law.

What’s worse, Obamacare conspires to make IPAB permanent by mandating that no resolution to repeal it can be introduced before January 1, 2017, or after February 1, 2017. In other words, the Constitution would be operational for one month only—and even then the repeal must pass by August 15, 2017, in order to be valid, and it could not take effect until 2020!

Congress could presumably unravel these restrictions and undo IPAB anytime it wanted. Nonetheless, the spirit and the letter of this kind of regulation suggest just how averse (and adverse) to the Constitution Obamacare really is. To think that Congress couldn’t repeal it, except for one month, and that even then repeal wouldn’t take effect for three years afterwards, is astounding. Why don’t Tea Party leaders talk more about that in condemning Obamacare? I think the American people would be indignant over this attack on their liberty to govern themselves. But they won’t be angry if conservatives don’t inform them about this travesty.

Conservatives should be calling for other kinds of reforms as well, in order to apply the consent of the governed to regulations which form so much of the substance of modern government. Let’s call for a vote by Congress on all regulations costing $100,000,000 or more. That’s one idea already in circulation.

Or why not require the Appropriations Committee, or some combination of committees and committee chairmen in Congress, to approve all regulations, approved by any agency, so that there has to be some democratic say-so before any regulations become law? That does not require changing the Constitution, only a change in the law. We should also require Congress to follow its own budget rules. This doesn’t require an amendment either, only vigorous partisanship on the part of Republicans of every variety. We should insist on 13 appropriations bills for the 13 departments, which would give both parties a chance to fight it out, make what cuts we can make, and decide what is more essential and what is less essential. These kinds of reforms, well short of constitutional amendments, would help to reinvigorate congressional accountability and constitutional government.

If conservative officeholders don’t start to correct these structural deformations in our government, and if the Tea Party doesn’t turn its formidable patriotism and energy to enlightening the American people about how we are losing control of our own destiny, then no matter how many good policies we enact, or how low we set tax rates, the body politic will continue to sicken, and self-government will slip through our fingers.

CHARLES R. KESLER is the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and editor of theClaremont Review of Books. He received his A.B., his A.M., and his Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. He is editor of the Signet Classic edition of The Federalist Papers; editor of and a contributor to Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding; co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought; and author of I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Future of Liberalism.

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A-4 | Common Sense News | March 2014

IN THIS ISSUE:

Crony Capitalism and the Strangulation of Free Markets.......A-15 Lana's 2 Sense..................................................................................A-16

SECTION A

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The Tea Party, Conservatism, and the Constitution....................A-2 Anne's 2 Sense.................................................................................A-4 Letter to the editor.......................................................................A-5 Unintended Consequences..............................................................A-6 Legislators Should "Vote their Districts" Right or Wrong?........A-7 "Shall the Bill Pass?" More Evidence of the Party Line........A-8 ITS HERE, NOW...........................................................................A-10 The Roots of Obama's Lawlessness...........................................A-11 Grandiose Plans for Southeastern Colorado...............................A-12 Rainbows, Abortion, and Unicorns.............................................A-13 Can the Government Keep You Off of Public Lands?...........A-14

ANNE’S 2 SENSE -

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SECTION B

The Curse of Conformity...............................................................B-1 Human Trafficking...Restore the Broken....................................B-2 Religion in Schools.................................................................................B-4 Executive Order: Is the Pen Mightier Than the Swoard..........B-5 The GOP Jazz Versus the Marching Band Dems.................B-6 Can Americans Protect Ech Other From Abusive Laws?...........B-7 2014 Mid-term Primer: Who can you trust?...........................B-8 All You Need is Love.....................................................................B-9 U.S. Virtual Training Center: Real Without Being Real.......B-11 The Shades of Prejudice................................................................B-13 Dragn Man Arms: Shooting Ranges and War Museum.........B-14

EMAIL EDITOR@COMMONSENSENEWSUSA.COM

hat makes a c o n s e r v a t i v e?

What makes people, well… people?

Conservatives have gotten a “bad rap” in the media as being against all of the programs concocted to “assist people.” This is simply not true. Most conservatives want people to be encouraged to reach their full potential. This includes taking personal responsibility for one’s own actions and having government get out of their way. Do you own a business? Well increasing penalties and business taxes does not increase your bottom line; doesn’t allow you to hire more people, does it? 2 sense

How have leftists made those founding principles seem like a bad thing and that they are the all-seeing gods of America? Well it has been a systematic changing of thought for many years. They simply have done a better job of appealing to the masses and scaring people. They know how to utilize the educational system, the media, and big unions to further their agenda. The folks on the right need to get with the program and hold to the values we know to be right and take a stand. We are not wrong we are just behind the eight-ball with our messaging and frankly our unity.

Here in Southern Colorado I see businesses folding at an alarming rate; whole blocks of decay with empty spaces that once held vibrant shops. I hear small business owners lamenting the fact that they just cannot compete in the marketplace anymore. Current liberal practices have not helped them grow but have only stifled them.

We have some excellent young “millennial” writers joining us as well. It is very exciting to see them getting involved and thinking big life-changing thoughts.

Many groups targeted by liberals have been taught for generations they need the government to take care of their needs. They feel government entitlements are the only way they will survive. Why can’t government assist them by making job creation possible in the private sector?

Could one reason be people not understanding the principles of our Founding Fathers? Those old dried up visionaries wanted this nation to be full of profitable commerce. They wanted the citizens to be free to work, raise their families and protect themselves and their loved ones.

Aren’t these things at the core of EVERY man or woman’s being? I for one do not want to have the government take care of me much or want them in my business, but the more folks take from government the more government holds them hostage. Are conservatives against public assistance?

Not really, until it becomes a lifestyle choice.

Common Sense News has some great articles this month!

Do you know how Human Trafficking is right at your doorstep? Land grabs are happening in Colorado and other states and Obama is wielding his executive order power at every turn. Find out how.

Colorado GOP politics are crazy right now! This week there was a major upset in the field with Representative Cory Gardner throwing his has in the ring for U.S. Senate, Ken Buck deciding to run for Cory’s seat and Amy Stephens bowing out of her race for U.S. Senate.

Names are being added daily it seems, to the already crowded Governor race U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, former Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, state Sen. Greg Brophy, Adams County Republican Party Chairman Steve House, Roni Bell Sylvester and Jason Clark.

We are keeping an eye on all of the races and are posting updates on our web page www.commonsensenewsusa. com as they come in.

Anne Vinnola

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-5

Dear Editor, I have been reading the past two papers of Common Sense News, and I gotta say that I do enjoy having a source that is obviously biased and honestly, for the most part, correct. For me, the pleasure comes from knowing that I can go to a source and know that it is something I want to read and learn from.

With that being said, I feel that it is party driven, which I can understand.

However, without going into why I can agree with, what I feel to be the main focus, I do feel like the paper is not answering all of the questions or addressing all of the issues out there. For example, when it comes to events or actions like the lack of strong leadership against the current administration from Congress, I feel like instead of pointing out what the Republicans need to do or how can we find a strong conservative leader, we need to just point out the fact that whether a Politician calls themselves a Republican or Democrat, the fact is that the idea known as the two party system is not working. Now, that could be taken the wrong way. By no means is that an anti-American statement nor do I personally think that America or the means by which it was founded on are all wrong. But I do think that contemporary means of governing are so unethical and so far from the foundation of the American way that pointing out how a Politician should stand strong is no longer an answer that can suffice. I do feel like someone needs to address the current ideology that has grasped hold of every politician since Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt: Progressivism. And using cliche wording for the situation will not help. We need to point out the ideas of progressivism by using history, what they would do with each branch of government and the place of the people's voice. This can all be done very simply while contrasting these views and true American views. People like Thomas Payne and John Locke and even discussing views of more modern people like Jarret Wolstein. After that we should venture into economics and explain it in a way that people can understand it, and, again, contrast the modern movement with the original idea of capitalism.

I do bring most of this up because after reading Volume II of Common Sense News, I read an article of someone trying to describe the current movement and how Karl Marx has influenced the world so much. And as a recent graduate from UCCS in Political Philosophy, I was, at first, excited and then very disappointed.

I do love what you and everyone who is contributing do. Please keep going.

Also, if you are looking for another contributor, I would love to help.

All The Best, CJ –COS Dear Editor, I saw your paper for the first time today and immediately got hooked! I read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down! Nothing would make me happier than to be a part---any part---of an effort like yours in taking our country back.

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Tim Burke- COS Dear Editor, I found you comments about medical MJ a crock. I speak first hand . I have had 3 back operations and live in continual pain. I moved to Colorado because of the medical MJ because of the state I lived in before thought of it as the scourge of the earth . Their cure for pain was OXYCOTIN and oxycodone . at the time I left I was at 400 mg of that crap a day. Since moving here I have cut the oxy use down to 5 mg to 20 mg a day and guess what I feel like living instead of sitting on the couch and doing nothing. If you want to pick on a drug that has destroyed more lives than all of the other drugs combined just look a booze and cigarettes . But oh ya they have a great medical use right ? lol . As far as MJ leading to stronger drugs did you ask about booze and lung darts? You must face the facts MJ helps with many problems from seizures to depression and pain. As the comment the older woman saying she did not know weather the pain was gone or she just did not care anymore after smoking MJ . Just what do you think painkillers do?? They do not fix anything. Also your comment about MJ leading to youth and drugs just look in your drug cabinet . Pain killers have more of our youth wired than MJ . All of what I have said has physical proof so do your homework before preaching your false truths . I do not want all drugs legalized but if they were and taxed you would at least be able to set up medical help for the 1s who want it and the others would be able to get them for much less money keeping them from killing and robing people . Let alone the expense of locking them up . The only way to stop drug use is make it a killing offense to sell it. This would also include the 2 biggest killers cigarettes and booze . Ask any cop how many domestic disputes and fights occur with booze compared to MJ .

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A-6 | Common Sense News | March 2014

UNDER THE GOLDEN DOME - COLORADO’S OWN GOVERNMENT

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES By: Richard Hildebrand

P

ro-marijuana advocates have been very successful at convincing Americans that there is no harm from a little marijuana use and that the current counter drug approach has failed. The question in my mind is if the people of Colorado really understood that the “legalization of marijuana” included the manufacture, sale, and use of “hash”; the presence of grow facilities across the state; and the corresponding facilities, which will manufacture oils, tinctures and edible products. I suspect that most voters thought we were allowing people to raise a few plants of marijuana (if kept out of sight) and smoke a joint now and then. Few may have understood that the food products produced and sold (without necessarily meeting state food safety guidelines) would appear as soft drinks, brownies or cookies and could be attractive to children.

According to statements made at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington DC, the Governor of the State of Colorado appears to suddenly be aware that the legalization of marijuana has unintended consequences. The major unintended consequence is perhaps that the poor planning and regulation by the state has become quite apparent.

One unintended consequence has to do with habitability. I provide as an example the small rural community of Penrose, Colorado. Penrose is

approximately 4 miles by 4 miles and is a residential and agricultural community.

Most residents have enjoyed a rural lifestyle, some have and ride horses, and many raise various crops such as apples and hay. Colorado, with an amazing lack of foresight, has currently approved 10 licenses for medical marijuana grow operations within that small community – and there are 6 or 7 more licenses pending. Several of the grow operations are directly adjacent to residences, churches, coffee shops or restaurants. This raises several issues, including increased traffic, light pollution, and certainly the habitability due to the bad odor emanating from the grow areas and wafting over the local residences and businesses. The real question is how so called “regulators” have so little comprehension of the locations being approved that this would be allowed to happen – in a residential community. If you doubt the presence or potency of the odor, take a drive close to a grow area. After doing so, you may find that you can identify that same odor in other locations as you drive around the state.

I find the failure of current legislators to control the proximity of grow areas to churches, schools, restaurants, senior centers, food establishments, and predominantly residential areas to be absolutely unacceptable.

Another unintended consequence may be for employers. Drug users are well known as being problems for production, reliability, and attendance. In the 1970’s, the U.S. Military and the auto industry first documented the negative impact of high levels of drug use on morale and efficiency. Industry in this state will be under duress for many reasons. Again, I cite safety, productivity, security, medical care costs and reliability of production. In addition, there are restrictions on drug use by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Department of Defense, and any industry involved with Department of Defense contracting where drug free workplaces are required. These agencies and programs represent a huge percentage of the employment in this state. Drug abuse reduction costs for those industries currently working in the state will certainly increase. Speculation as to the reliability of the workforce may prevent future industry from starting in or relocating to Colorado due to the legalization of marijuana.

For those residents of the state who have enjoyed poinsettias at Christmas, lilies at Easter, and plants for potting for spring and vegetable gardens may have to rely on the big box stores or mail order nurseries, since the usual greenhouse operations in the state are rapidly being converted to growing only one product – marijuana. Many large commercial greenhouses have been bought out or are being approached for sale and renovation to grow marijuana.

Another unintended consequence is the emphasis on the inconsistent messages coming from the Federal government. Despite President Obama’s comment that “marijuana is safer than alcohol,” the President’s own Office of National Drug Control Policy posts the following statement on marijuana: “The Obama Administration continues to oppose legalization of marijuana and other illegal drugs because this approach runs counter to the public health approach to drug policy. Evidence shows our drug problem is a major public health and safety threat, and drug addiction is a disease that can be successfully prevented and treated. Legalizing drugs would increase their availability and normalize their use, leading to increased negative health consequences, particularly among young people. Drug legalization also undermines preventative health strategies, a keystone in improving overall public health in the United States.” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/marijuana) I believe it is within reason to suspend licensing of new marijuana cultivation and product manufacture locations until complete regulations can be put into place – with sufficient staff to allow enforcement (of at least the rules that have the possibility of enforcement.) Regulations must, at the very least protect communities in which cultivation and product manufacture have been and will be established. It is not enough to simply acknowledge that there are “unintended consequences.”

Richard Hilderbrand received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, School of Medicine. He is retired from the U.S. Navy, where his last assignment was at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, The Pentagon. He had primary responsibility for drug abuse testing programs for all Military Services. Since that time, he has worked to reduce drug abuse in the workplace and in sport.

Legislators Should "Vote their Districts" Right or Wrong?

By: Fmr. Senator Dave Schultheis

W

hat does it mean when legislators say, "I vote my district?" Throughout a decade as a state Representative and Senator, I witnessed confusion among fellow legislators over what it meant to represent one's district.

There was a genuine lack of understanding as to what that really meant.

Republican Legislators for the most part are elected by their constituency with the expectation that they will uphold the U.S., State Constitution and the Rule of Law; knowing that those two key principles, create constancy and certainty within our society. While agreement to these two principles is a frequent mantra by Republican candidates, the adherence to them, once elected, is too often overlooked or ignored when reviewing legislation when faced with selfserving demands of constituents.

Candidates will often promise that: Once elected, I will represent this district."

Disgruntled constituents often confront their legislators with, "You were elected to represent your district."

Legislators, once in office, then face the dilemma of having to choose between their understanding of "voting their district," or voting consistent with the conservative principles they espoused during the campaign.

These commonly heard cries by legislators and constituents turn into an excuse for some legislators to deviate from principles as they ponder their vote on controversial legislation.

So, what then are a Republican legislator's responsibilities to his/her constituents when faced with an apparent conflict?

1. To Vote as consistently as possible, in line with the Party's conservative principles. The goal of holding to consistent voting patterns based on principle provides confidence among constituents and reinforces the value of that principle in the eyes of other legislators.

2. To explain your votes to constituents, using reasoning based on the Party's conservative principles. Such explanations will reinforce the value of these principles to others.

3. To uphold the Rule of Law in all voting decisions. Decisions consistent with the Rule of Law are fundamental to an orderly society.

The Perceived Dilemma: Republican lawmakers are often faced with the perception that some legislation will not be received well by their constituents. More often than not, Republicans are faced with such dilemmas more often than their Democrat counterparts. Democrat lawmakers inherently craft solutions to issues that will seek immediate "relief" to constituents' needs. Republican solutions generally address issues with longer-term solutions. Consequences of "solutions" put forth by Democrats generally require greater government involvement and erosion of one's individual liberty, while Republican solutions generally require the individual to assume personal responsibility.

A couple examples come to mind: First example: Let's say legislation comes before the Agriculture Committee requiring all employers to ensure, through the Federal E-verify Program, that all newly-hired employees hired are legally present in the United States. Although hiring of illegal aliens is unlawful, it is rarely monitored, and as such many ranchers and farmers are willing to assume the risk of federal penalties as they hire such labor. Legislators representing such areas know their constituents rely on this illegal alien labor to make a profit. What to do? For those legislators more political than principled, this can present a dilemma.

While campaigning, Republicans can be quite vocal in convincing their constituents that they will work hard to uphold the Rule of Law. It is fundamental to our political system that all persons be treated justly and fairly within the law; that no man is above the law. As a Republican legislator, pledged to uphold the Constitution, the Rule of Law must be viewed as paramount when assessing this legislation.

Second example: A bill comes before the legislature that requires each person wishing to vote to provide proof of citizenship. A legislator representing a heavily Hispanic area becomes convinced that if he/she votes for the bill that he/she may not be reelected at the next election cycle. What to do?

Election Integrity is paramount to the foundation of our Republic. Therefore regardless of any resistance, intimidation or otherwise, the legislator should feel compelled to vote in favor of the Voter ID bill. Following the vote, it will be necessary to explain this vote to some constituents.

"Representing one's District" does not necessitate pandering to a particular segment of constituents to gain short-term favor at the expense of those conservative principles advocated during a campaign cycle. Instead, reinforce conservative principles at every opportunity; they are the best for constituents over the long term.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-7

SCOTT

GESSLER “Fearless Conservative” -TheColoradoStatesman

We’re voting for Scott Gessler – Congressman Bob Schaffer Senators Rivera & Tebedo Representatives Navarro & Landgraf Speaker of the House Lola Spradley El Paso Commissioner Dennis Hisey Teller Commissioner Dave Paul Teller Commissioner Norm Steen Teller Commisioner Marc Dettenrieder Colo Springs Councilmen Pico & Bennett Paid by the Coloradans for Gessler

A-8 | Common Sense News | March 2014

“Shall the Bill Pass?” More Evidence of the Party Line By: Timothy C. Dietz, Esq.

I

n the February edition of Common Sense News, under the heading Legislative Alert: Gun Bills during the 2014 General Assembly, three bills then pending in the 2014 legislative session were summarized, together with two other late introductions to the General Assembly. Those bills were HB 14-1041 (Concealed Carry without a permit); HB 14-1063 (Use of Deadly Force at Place of Business), SB 14-038 (Eliminating the Governor’s Authority to Restrict Firearms during a State of Disaster Emergency), HB 14-1151 (Repeal the “large capacity” Magazine Ban), and SB 14-094 (Repeal the Background Check Requirement for Private Transfers of Firearms).

The official language in the legislative record when a bill is stopped in a committee is that the bill is “postponed indefinitely.” This article is a little more direct. Bills are killed, not postponed.

All five bills were killed in committees on strict party-line votes without reaching the floor for votes by the whole House or whole Senate. Those bills will probably not be brought up again until after the November elections when the voters will have an opportunity to change the balance of power in the House, the Senate, and the executive branch.

The expected killing of those pro-gun owners’ rights bills prompted a study of bills that are killed in committees. As the study progressed, some interesting trends began to emerge which shifted the focus of this article.

First, a brief retrospective of the 2013 General Assembly.

During the 2013 legislative session, 325 bills were introduced in the House, and another 288 bills introduced in the Senate. 219 House bills were signed into law by Governor Hickenlooper while 222 Senate bills were signed into law, for a total of 441 new laws in 2013 out of the 613 bills introduced. That is a 72% success rate for bills that were introduced last year.

No evidence of any vetos by the Governor could be found during the study.

That would mean that the bills may have been the result of a party line agenda, or they may have been so well written that the Governor would have no reason to veto them, or a combination of both.

For purposes of this article, no distinction is made between strict party line voting (all members of the party vote the same) and the near party line votes where a small handful of members of one party cross the aisle to cast their votes.

In 2013, 150 bills passed the third reading on party line votes in the House before sending to the Governor. 151 passed the Senate on party line votes.

117 bills were sent to the Governor after having passed both the House and Senate on party line votes in the third reading of both chambers. Many of the remaining bills were bipartisan, housekeeping bills, or those in which no party would have a reason to oppose.

Included in that group of 117 bills that passed on party lines in both chambers were the controversial bills denominated as HB 13-1224 (“large capacity” magazine ban), HB 13-1228 and HB 13-1229 (background checks on private firearm transfers and background check fees), and HB 13-1303 (Voter Modernization Act dubbed by Conservatives as the Voter Fraud Act). Despite the controversial nature of these bills, the Governor signed all of them into law anyway.

Another interesting trend emerged.

Where the House Republican vote was split on the third reading, the Democratic vote was generally unanimous with rare exceptions. A similar trend was observed in the Senate voting record. Split Democratic votes were extremely rare. The key takeaways from this analysis are that the Democratic votes were much more aligned with the Democratic agenda in 2013 while the Republicans were more likely to reach across the aisle and vote independently than their Democratic counterparts.

So, what does this mean for the 2014 General Assembly?

288 bills have been introduced in the House while 149 have been introduced in the Senate. 25 have reached the Governor’s desk with 19 pending his decision to sign or veto. 5 others have been signed into law, most of which are bipartisan, housekeeping bills such as Enactment of the Colorado Revised Statutes 2013 (HB 14-1019), definition of a plug-in electric motor vehicle (HB 14-1027), and removing certain statutory printing requirements from the Division of Water Resources (SB 14-026).

The most controversial bill to reach the Governor’s desk, which was signed by the Governor on February 18, 2014, is the Non-Partisan Elections Not Coordinated by a County Clerk and Recorder bill, HB 14-1164, formally known as the Colorado Local Government Election Code.

HB 14-1164 is a lengthy, follow-on bill to HB 13-1303, and allows, among other things, voting in a local election with same day, self-certification of eligibility to vote. HB 14-1164 passed the third reading in the House on a near-strict party line vote with one Republican, Rep. Wilson (Dist. 60), voting in favor of passage.

After an amendment, followed by passage in the Senate on a strict, party line vote, the House voted to re-pass HB 14-1164 also on a strict party line vote with all Republicans (including Wilson) voting against passage.

While the 2014 regular legislative session is still early and only a few bills have been sent to the Governor, there does not appear to be much effort directed at reaching bipartisan consensus on the difficult bills.

The November elections may change all of that for the 2015 General Assembly.

Tim is an attorney licensed in California, Colorado, Maine and New Hampshire. He is also a 24year Marine Corps veteran who served during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He can be reached through his website at www.timothydietzlaw.com or at timmdietz@comcast. net.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-9

A Fresh Look at Taxes By: Joe G. Rodriguez

Before we look at taxes, we must first consider what is the proper role of the federal government?

“The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.” ~ Principles of Liberty *1 Our Founding Fathers created a government unlike anything that had existed based on 28 Principles of Liberty. The proper role of government was to do those things to benefit and protect all Americans.

Free Market Principles coupled with the Principles of Liberty allowed the United States to make more progress during the next 200 years than had been made in the previous 5000 years. *1 During the past 50-60 years the federal government has grown incrementally to unimaginable size. Instead of the government serving the people, the people are now serving the government more and more.

Whenever there is a crisis, the federal government uses the opportunity to grow, gain more control, add more regulations and erode more of our liberties. Another tactic is to inflame one group of people against another.

Sometimes the changes are not apparent because it initially affects only a few people. These tactics are designed to incrementally transfer control and wealth from one group to another.

Taxes were never intended to control the American people or pit one group against another. Federal taxes were to fund those things to benefit and protect all Americans.

Medicare Taxes Let us focus on Medicare taxes to see what happened when individuals lose control of their money. Medicare taxes are supposed to provide individuals age of 65 or more with health insurance. *2 The idea was to put money aside to help pay medical expenses later in life.

Think of this as a “forced medical savings account”. If you decide not to pay Medicare taxes, guess what happens to you? If employers don’t pay Medicare taxes, guess what happens to them?

In a private trust fund, the money would have been managed by a custodian for the future benefit of those who contributed. Unlike a private custodian, the federal government appears to have a different set of rules; they use surplus Medicare funds to minimize the current budget deficit. In other words, Medicare surplus is transferred to the general operating fund in return for an I.O.U. *3 Therefore the Medicare Trust funds are not allowed to grow as it would with a private investment or insurance company. In addition the future obligation has been passed back to the taxpayers.

Fiduciary Responsibility The President and members of Congress have a “fiduciary responsibility” to protect Medicare funds which have a specific purpose. Unlike a private pension fund, Obamacare will transfer over $700 billion from the Medicare Trust Funds to fund approximately one third of Obamacare. *4 What do you think would happen to a private custodian that transfers funds from a pension account for their own pet project?

When you combine transferring $700 billion from Medicare to Obamacare and Medicare Fraud of $60-90 billion per year, the cost to taxpayers is staggering. *5 What is the solution?

begin the process of looking for solutions while honoring the commitments made to those who contributed to Medicare.

The genius of our Founding Fathers was for “We the people” to elect representatives of the people to run our government. I believe our Founding Fathers already have the answer and it started with Common Sense.

Joe describes himself like a Computer Systems Analysts. Analysts study how people, organizations, products or services work and then develop new solutions to operate more efficiently and effectively. His definition of a problem is something to overcome. Problems are hard before they are easy.

Joe served in the United States Army from 1961-4 and had one tour in South Vietnam. In 1990, he retired from IBM after being a Service Research Manager and Programming Service Manager in Research Triangle Park, NC. Joe Rodriguez is a Ludaxx Distributor and co-founder of www.seniors4f21.com *1 – Book “The 5000 year Leap” by W. Cleon Skousen *2 – Medicare History www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/History/index.html?redirect=/history/ *3 – Federal Trust Funds www.pgpf.org/Issues/Spending/2010/08/05/Federal-Trust-Funds *4 – Obama Discusses w ABC Gutting Medicare to Fund Obamacare www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgsyEtAkrOo *5 – A Fresh Look at Medicare Fraud, Common Sense February issue or visit www.defendliberty.us

Awareness is the first step towards developing better solutions. We should

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A-10 | Common Sense News | March 2014

ITS HERE, NOW Modern Slavery Right Here in Colorado

By Tamra Farah

Do you often feel like I do, that a wide unbridgeable gulf stands between you and the worst human suffering in the world? Three years ago I first became aware that human trafficking was a global atrocity. I was aghast, yet what could I do about it? As if I could shield myself from the horror, I thought it might just be overseas. Soon I discovered the selling of human beings for sex and uncompensated labor, is not just a problem overseas. It’s happening right here in Colorado.

Last Thursday I had the honor of chairing the 2nd Annual HT-Colorado.org Human Trafficking Awareness and Advocacy Day at the Colorado State Capitol.

The day started with Dr. A.J. Alejano-Steele of the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT) outlining Human Trafficking in the state of Colorado.

Later, with standing room only, over 200 citizens, including students and nongovernment agencies that help restore victims and raise awareness, packed into the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the Capitol as John Walsh from Department of Justice, the Colorado Attorney General, Jon Suthers, Denver Chief of Police, Robert White, the FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge, Thomas Ravenelle, and Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge, Kumar Kibble gave reports of their agencies’ intentional and coordinated efforts to rescue victims and bring perpetrators of human trafficking to justice.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, second only to drug trafficking, with an estimated annual global income of $32 billion dollars. In the U.S. between approximately 200,000 children, on average 12 to 14 years old, are at risk of sexual exploitation. Approximately 76 percent of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet. In 2012 and 2013 the FBI Rocky Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force led 93 and assisted in an additional 37 sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children investigations where 31 people were arrested for pimping and trafficking-related

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offenses and 19 people for patronizing a prostituted child and sex assault on a child.

Our efforts to bring awareness to the Colorado State Legislature were carried out with the help our Legislative Host Committee, including Sen. John Kefalas (D), Sen. Steve King (R), Rep. Jenise May (D), Rep. Beth McCann (D), Rep. Dan Nordberg (R), Sen. Mark Scheffel (R), Rep. Amy Stephens (R), and Sen. Nancy Todd (D). The 2014 Human Trafficking Resolution soared through the State House and Senate without dissent. In addition, many other concerned legislators took came to the microphone to express local incidences of trafficking in their Districts, all of which bear keen attention.

The crowning moment of Human Trafficking Advocacy and Awareness Day was when Aubrey Terry Lloyd took the podium. As a teenager, Aubrey was a victim of sex trafficking in Colorado Springs and was paraded in wealthy homes before men who shamelessly came to buy sex with minors. Now Aubrey is the clinical consultant for Sarah’s home, one of several restoration homes that have opened in Colorado in the last few years, to help victims of trafficking become successful survivors. Aubrey is a mentor, a counselor and an advocate for trafficking survivors all across the country.

As Americans, we have grown up pledging our allegiance to a country that is a beacon in the world, unique in history to promise liberty and justice for all. Modern slavery expressed in sex and labor trafficking spits in the face of this equal right. Pimps and perpetrators degrade their fellow humans, treating them as property to be bought and sold; controlling them through coercion, psychological manipulation, fraud and deception that mocks the mutual respect we owe every human being we encounter and the protection that the most vulnerable among us need. Here in Colorado we are honored to have law enforcement officials and legislators, as well as everyday citizens who care, dedicated to keeping that liberty and justice for all alive and well.

Human Trafficking Awarenessand Advocacy Day is sponsored by Betty Edwards, chair, and the board of the Human Trafficking Task Force of Southern Colorado (H-TSC). The mission of the Task Force is to build a collaboration of organizations and individuals to reduce human suffering caused by human trafficking, through advocacy, awareness, rehabilitation, and services for survivors. For more information on the Task Force, please visit www.ht-colorado.org.

Tamra Farah is a political activist community organizer and the Event Chair for Human Trafficking Awareness and Advocacy Day at the Colorado State Capitol.

Sourced from: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Human-Trafficking-Task-Force-of-SouthernColorado. Of speakers and contributors on human trafficking concerns and advocacy

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March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-11

DON’T TREAD ON ME!

The Roots of Obama’s Lawlessness By: Pat Francomano

T

hings are not going well in America today.

Obamacare continues to wreak havoc on the insured and uninsured.

The economy continues to flounder, with the unemployment rate coming down only because more workers are dropping out of the labor force.

Beyond the economy, race relations are worse, class warfare is worse, and the president has not reached out a soothing hand in these sensitive areas. In fact, he has insinuated himself into a number of instances, agitating instead of soothing.

Lest we forget, let’s briefly review the “Cloward-Piven strategy.”

Socialists Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, while both were with Columbia University School of Social Work, introduced their strategy in an article, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty,” published in the May 2, 1966 edition of the magazine The Nation.

David Horowitz, on his Discover the Networks (http://www. discoverthenetworks.org/), describes it as: The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

They proposed using an army of radical organizations to overwhelm public services at all levels of government; hoping for a socialistic solution at the national level.

This would require, they wrote, community organizers “from the civil rights movement and the churches, from militant low-income organizations like those formed by the Industrial Areas Foundation, and from other groups on the Left.”

(Emphasis added.)

Now the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) was founded in 1940 by Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing. Today it is the nation's largest network of local faith and community-based organizations, building broad-based organizing projects—with a liberal Left, social-justice ideological bias.

Obama has a long history with community organizing, including with ACORN, and he has strong ties to Alinsky’s methods of community organizing.

Shortly after he announced his run for his first presidential term, an article

by Ryan Lizza, “Barack Obama’s Unlikely Political Education-The Agitator,” appeared in The New Republic (March 19, 2007) giving some insight into Obama’s community organizing views and skills.

The article noted that the heart of the Alinsky method is the concept of agitation: making someone “angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it.” One of Obama’s teachers said that he was the “best student he ever had. He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation.”

Obama had once said that the best education he ever had was not his college years, but the “four years he spent in the mid-'80s learning the science of community organizing in Chicago.”

The most fundamental lesson Obama learned was “to reassess his understanding of power.” In his Rules for Radicals, Alinsky wrote: “Change comes from power, and power comes from organization.”

After he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Michelle Obama told a reporter that Barack is a “community activist exploring the viability of politics to make change.”

Referring to that, Obama wrote, “I take that observation as a compliment.”

Here we are five years into Obama’s presidency, and he has changed workfare rules, changed immigration rules, changed Obamacare rules many times, changed minimum wage rules, and he’s changed climate change rules—all unilaterally. And he threatens more of the same. This is imperial rule.

Recently, on this matter, George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley, testifying before Congress, was asked how the president’s unilateral acts skirting Congress affect both the balance of power between the political branches and the liberty interests of the American people.

Professor Turley replied: The danger is quite severe. The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid … we have had the radical expansion of presidential powers … we have what many once called an imperial presidency model of largely unchecked authority. (Emphasis added.)

Professor Turley added that we have “the most serious constitutional crisis I

have viewed in my lifetime.” (Emphasis added.)

Our country is literally being fundamentally transformed right out in the open, and Congress is acquiescing, and the mainstream media are abetting.

The peaceful way to do stop this imperial rule is for Congress to exercise its co-equal authority with the presidency, and put the breaks on Obama’s lawlessness. We the people can help by crying out loudly to Congress to exercise its constitutional duties and acquiesce no more.

Pat Francomano is a freelance writer living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a retired software engineer and holds a master’s degree in mathematics. His writing interests are in political, economic and social areas as they affect individual liberties.

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A-12 | Common Sense News | March 2014

Grandiose Plans for Southeastern Colorado By: Norman L. Kincaide, Ph.D.

T

he holiday season is over and 2014 is underway. A new year provides an opportunity to assess personal goals and make plans for the coming year and beyond. There are grandiose plans for Southeastern Colorado through a collaborative effort to preserve the southeastern landscape and revitalize its communities through the formation of a National Heritage Area. This would be one of the largest NHAs in the United States, comprising eight counties: Baca, Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero, Prowers and Pueblo, equaling 10,765,000 acres.

The proponents of this grandiose plan for southeastern Colorado recently received $390,000.00 in grants from the Gates Family Foundation. The recipients of this grant were: Canyons and Plains of Southeastern Colorado, Palmer Land Trust, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.

The implementation partners for preserving southeastern Colorado are, according to November 25, 2013 article in the La Junta Tribune-Democrat: the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy, and the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition.

Goals of this cooperative effort are to energize rural communities by a rich overlay of tourism and business infrastructure; to promote conservation by private landowners to preserve local control of land and water resources, protect future prosperity, and create one of the largest protected landscapes of its kind in the country, that is to create a National Heritage Area.

Mighty grandiose, indeed. Aren’t conservation efforts, preservation of water resources and local control of land use policy already in place without the designation of a NHA? A National Park Service representative commented recently that a National Heritage Area designation is purely honorary. Honorary designations are not legally enforceable, as a duty or obligation. But National Heritage Areas come with legal and financial consequences. They are passed by Congress with attendant appropriations and National Park Service guidelines. This is the same National Park Service that barricaded the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. during the 2013 “government shutdown” and has been traditionally hostile to private property owners within National Park boundaries.

Southeastern Colorado landowners, having just won the expansion battle with the United States Army concerning the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, must now deal with another covetous federal government agency in the form of the National Park Service. A National Heritage Area in effect creates a mechanism for regulatory taking through National Park Service guidelines enforced by an

unelected board appointed to oversee the management of the NHA. National Heritage Areas are just another mechanism to expand the power and influence of the National Park Service without the Park Service having to buy any more park land. The service can achieve expansion through regulatory takings under the guise of National Heritage Area designations.

The creation of a National Heritage Area in southeastern Colorado to “preserve the landscape” is nothing other than a scheme to promote, establish and implement special interest group agendas on the unsuspecting population of southeastern Colorado. If the residents, land owners and businesses of southeastern Colorado do not want to have to deal with another overlay of federal government bureaucracy, then they had better establish a coordinated effort to stop special interest group meddling in the land use policies already extant in the eight counties targeted for NHA designation.

When it comes to the public comment period for this grandiose scheme, concerned landowners should hold these promises out to and extract from the proponents of a National Heritage Area the following: If you like your current land use plan, you can keep it. If you like your current private property use, you can keep it. If you have plans for the development of your private property, you can entertain those plans in the future without hindrance or interference from the National Park Service. Unless, of course, the National Heritage Area designation must be passed first in order to find out what is in it.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-13

Rainbows, Abortion, and Unicorns.

By: Shawn Mitchell

R

eproductive health sure sounds like an unqualified good thing. Being cast against reproductive health is bad. You’re against healthy reproduction.

You probably go out evenings and weekends and accost people to break up their wholesome efforts to reproduce.

Vocabulary in the abortion debate is a stacked deck. Abortion advocates and their media protectors can’t talk plainly about the facts. That would expose their chilling cause. Whether someone opposes or supports legal abortion, honesty— meaning clarity—is being lost in the debate.

Philadelphia butcher Kermit Gosnell’s murder accomplice, Steven Massof, coldly told investigators of a baby, who, about to have his spinal cord scissored in the back of the neck, exhibited a “respiratory excursion.” “The baby was breathing” might have sounded too much like murder even to the murderer. But euphemisms mask everything about abortion.

Abortion activists do better than put makeup on ugly facts. They seize the verbal high ground, shaping the debate with words that obscure, change, even reverse the meaning of important things. Reproductive health, choice, privacy.

Nothing could be more wholesome…or deceptive.

“Reproductive health” almost always means abortion or contraception, two subjects of different import and different merit. But the phrase conceals both subjects. A giveaway for deception is when advocates have to use appealing, reassuring words very different from the things they’re discussing. In this case, the euphemism turns a 180.

Contraception does not help cause reproduction--quite the opposite. Neither is abortion an aid to reproduction. Advocates aren’t talking about reproduction; they’re talking about anti –reproduction, preventing or terminating pregnancy.

Calling it reproduction is a neat switch that turns the head in a comforting but false direction. Activist demands for reproductive health don’t seek fertility treatment, respite care for troubled pregnancies, or nursing coaches. Truth in labeling would require them to call it anti-reproductive health.

And, hold on. What’s that word health? It means a state of well-being, of sound physical status. The opposite is sickness or infirmity. But, pregnancy is not an illness or infirmity. It’s the crowning accomplishment of biology, the key to the survival of species. In normal pregnancy, both mother and child are healthy-until the child is extinguished. But advocates for anti-reproduction somehow grab the mantle of “health.” To argue against their position is to oppose health itself: “Those nasty pro-lifers are against health! They’re for sickness and infirmity!”

The advocate’s rhetorical high ground belies an atrocious reality, exemplified

by a recent report from the New York Health Department. In 2012, more black babies were aborted than were born alive-- 31,328 to 24,758. Perhaps instead of reproductive health, we should call it the realization of Margret Sanger’s final solution.

Consider, too, the oddity of calling the termination of a fetus “health care.”

Certainly, it’s performed by doctors, trained in the art and science, and using the tools of medicine. But it’s unique in all of health care in its purpose to terminate a healthy human organism. There’s an asterisk and exception to the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no Harm.

Someone certainly gets harmed in abortion. Advancing science has opened our eyes to how recognizably human embryos are at very early stages of development. In a biological sense, performing an abortion constitutes practicing medicine about the way shooting a woman with a nail gun constitutes practicing carpentry.

The same deception of meaning pervades the whole debate over abortion.

Advocates hijack the word “privacy” to cloak a procedure that takes place outside the bedroom, outside the home, inside a commercial establishment, involving other people, with money changing hands to pay for services. A lot of adjectives might apply to the scenario, but private isn’t one of them.

Imagine people conducting any other kind of consensual capitalism or business transaction, trying to shield it from law and regulation by calling it “private.” The same advocates who wield that word would suddenly remember what it means, and it’s not that.

Similarly, catch phrases like “keep government out of my bedroom and off my body” appear to protect a natural zone of privacy and autonomy. But most the people incanting such slogans have, since 2012, been doggedly demanding that government subsidize--and force employers to subsidize--choices and procedures right inside their uterus. “Government, keep mostly off my body!”

In many cases, the same advocates have no problem with government aiming policies intended to affect body fat or use of salt, transfats, tobacco, seatbelts, or many other things that would seem to be personal “body choices.”

The latest pernicious word-snatching is the “war on women,” invented by activists and flogged by media. As the advocates tell it, any move to limit abortion—or to oppose Obamacare’s contraception mandate—wages war on women. The problem with that theory is polling consistently shows men and women relatively close and evenly divided on identification as pro-choice or pro-life, and only a modest gender divide on the mandate question. Still, activists absurdly declare pro-life or pro-religious freedom positions are acts of war against the roughly half of women who support those very policies. And media amplifies that message, not the quite different truth.

The Big Pens and Big Hairs who shape news make a pop hero of Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who filibustered against late term abortion limits supported by over 60% of Texans and Americans generally. She gets hailed and haloed as a defender of women and reproductive health. Meanwhile, leaders who would adopt policies to find and close a horror house like Gosnell’s Philadelphia butchery are deemed warring against women.

Duped by words and slogans that subvert the truth, we can’t hope to have honest debate on abortion, or anything else for that matter.

Shawn Mitchell recently completed 14 years of service in the Colorado Legislature, after three terms in the House and two in the Senate. Most recently, Shawn sat on the Senate Business and Health Committees. He maintains a private law practice in the Denver area. Previously, Shawn worked as Special Counsel to the Attorney General, where he was a legal policy advisor to former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton.

S​ hawn writes a weekly column for Town Hall Finance at TownHall.com. He is the former president of the Colorado Chapter of the Federalist Society, a national organization of scholars, judges, lawyers and law students that promotes legal reform and limited government. Shawn served 3 years on the Rocky Mountain News Board of Editorial Contributors. He writes and speaks often on issues of policy and politics.

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A-14 | Common Sense News | March 2014

Can the Government Keep You Off of Public Lands?

By: Linda Bestland

A

s an avid hiker, camper, fisherman and hunter I began to notice over the last few years that many roads to some of my favorite places in the public domain had been barricaded by gates, fences and boulders leaving me with little choice but to go somewhere else.

I then decided to start asking questions at the BLM and Forest Service where I was told that management plans required that the roads be blocked and that there were alternate routes or that I could walk to where I wanted to go.

I am a paralegal and a private investigator and have been since 1988. I have had many opportunities to work on cases regarding jurisdiction, from mining claims to civil rights violations. That being said that when looking into alternate routes I found that my options were limited so I delved again into the rabbit hole by researching State v. Federal Jurisdiction.

My research has concluded that the federal government has very little jurisdiction and that the State and Counties are derelict in their duties by not protecting the health, safety and welfare of the communities.

A little known statute of the United States enacted in 1866 R.S. § 2477, U.S.Comp.Stat.1918, § 4919, Title 43, U.S.C.A. § 932, reads as follows: `The right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

Once a road is established as a public road, it may be used for all uses allowed to the public under the laws of the State. Colorado has adopted a broader definition of what constitutes a "road" or "highway", depending on the context, a footpath may be considered a highway. Under R.S. 2477, this includes roads created by the passage of wagons, and “construction” could be by just walking the road.

When talking to others about the denial of access to our land I found that every other person is very upset about it and just had no idea what to do.

Born from a desire to protect, respect and defend public access for everyone we formed the Public Land Access Association located on the Western Slope of Colorado. We have been working in many counties throughout Colorado informing and educating our public officials and residents on what county jurisdiction looks like and have been having an amazing impact.

The very foundation of our country’s government has been turned upside down so that we believe that the federal government is the big scary, the allpowerful; when in reality the states are like sovereign little countries and the federal government has very little authority.

Crony Capitalism and the Strangulation of Free Markets

March 2014 | Common Sense News | A-15

By Richard Eleuterio

T

o many the phrase “Crony Capitalists” evokes an image of a mustachioed heavy-set, leering, middle-aged man leaning forward in a big wooden chair lighting a big fat stogy with a rolled up greenback. This is the image that muck-raking journalists of the turn of the 19th century frequently conveyed.

Actually the English word “crony” comes from Cambridge University slang meaning “long time friend” and has derivation from the Greek khronos meaning “time”. Cronyism, though it wasn’t called that then, has a long inglorious past back to the era when most humans were ruled by tribal leaders. Some people have always sought out the perks of power during and since that time. Those not equipped or disinclined to embrace power for themselves, have often sought political favors from those in power.

In the early American colonial days the colonists had some degree of autonomy due to the time and distance from England and to England’s own political problems. This general autonomy ended abruptly in 1651 when the first Navigation Acts were passed by the British Parliament. These Acts created a royally enforced requirement for the colonists to ship all exported goods (even between colonies) on British merchant ships. This forced shipping monopoly favored the British ship owners, most of whom were “cronies” of the King.

These extra monopoly costs in international trade made the smaller farmers uncompetitive. Many of them went broke. As a result, there were rebellions throughout the colonies. In Virginia Nathaniel Bacon led an unsuccessful revolt against the Royal governor with the intent to open up the western frontier so that many of these now starving farmers could settle on new lands to the west.

In the Carolinas John Culpepper led a temporarily successful revolt against the Navigation Acts actually taking over as the Colonial Governor for two years before that rebellion collapsed. Throughout the North American colonies, revolt and defiance flared up against British efforts of control and continued intermittently until the final break with England in 1776.

The idea of our founders was to keep the fierce monster of government chained down by a Constitution limiting its power. These chains (for more than these 200 years) have gradually lost most of their restraining capacity. The monster, pulling at its fetters, now threatens to break free. In our contemporary environment there are many who believe, despite all historical evidence to the contrary, that this monster can be domesticated and enticed to serve as a friendly agent for positive “change”.

Part of the fixed nature of some human beings is to abuse the power of the State granted to them by the majority of their fellow citizens. The Roman mobs wanted Julius Caesar to be Emperor, until of course he was assassinated. The majority of the citizens of ancient Rome then anointed his ultimate successor as Caesar Augustus. Imagine, the “free” citizens of Rome gave up their freedom for what? Security! Consider Benjamin Franklin’s admonition, “Those who will trade their liberty for security will get neither liberty nor security.”

Who are the “Crony Capitalist” allies of this elite ruling class today? One is Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, who obtained favorable legislation for his company allowing a year of no corporate tax liability on a billion dollars in profit. His company is a big supporter of the current administration. Other big companies’ CEOs, and industries lobby to gain special favors from the “crown”. In fact, a whole industry of lobbyists exists that curries favors from the ruling elites for their business or industry. Whole industries such as the “green industry,” likely only exist due to tax subsidizes from Federal and State Governments.

There are numerous examples of large companies, through lobbying efforts, getting favorable regulations, bailouts, loan guarantees, access to below market credit, targeted tax breaks, favorable price restrictions, noncompetitive or “rigged” bidding on government contracts.

Success for many big business leaders today in the United States is measured not upon improved manufacturing or service efficiencies or satisfying consumer demand, the primary function of free market industry, but from patronizing the state.

This distortion of the free market place can only be stopped when the political elites are stripped of their power to grant special favors. The Constitution was written, in part, to protect private property rights and promote free markets with a limited government. The phrase “promote the general welfare,” meant promote free markets not the corporate welfare state.

These corporate welfare recipients are largely responsible for the Constitutional chains restraining the power of the government monster being almost totally sheared away. As George Washington once said: Government is not reason, it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful monster.

Born in New York City, Richard Eleuterio lived most of his life in Southern California. He is now a retired commercial insurance broker living and writing for the last 5 years in beautiful Colorado Springs. In writing his goal is to impart his readers with new knowledge about the legacy of our great nation’s past and how it affects the present.

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A-16 | Common Sense News | March 2014

LANA’S 2 SENSE -

TO CONTACT LANA, EMAIL LANA@INTERMOUNTAINMEDIALLC.COM

WHAT MAKES A CONSERVATIVE? OK, let me think about this…….ok, I’m done thinking.

A wife, a college student, a mother, a brother, a son, a friend and a business owner? Do all of these “types” of people constitute as a conservative? The answer is, Lana with her beautiful “Yes”. We are all made up from every walk grand-daughter Gracie Mae of life. There are conservatives in the free market, on the college campuses, in the rural areas as well as the big cities, because the definition of A conservative is simple one….

A conservative wants limited government (meaning we want the government out of our lives and businesses), lower taxes (meaning we want to pay our fair share, but we cannot afford to pay taxes for those who choose to do nothing), personal responsibility (meaning that we will take ownership in what we sow, and do not blame someone else) and lastly, the Equal Protection/Rule of Law (meaning that all citizens receive equal protection under both federal and state laws and that no one receives special treatment from the government).

If you have been paying attention to the City for Champions debate here in Colorado Springs, you will see that the above referenced paragraph suits all Colorado Springs residents. We, those of us who oppose this monstrosity, are made up of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Unaffiliated, Independents, Green Party, Purple people, and so on. We know and understand that our city government is overreaching in their boundaries and we as ONE people will unite and fight against this good ol’ boy club.

I want to personally thank those council members who sincerely look out for and represent their constituents and businesses without making those “back room deals”. For more information on the City for Champions, please visit Councilman’s Joel Miller’s website at www.joelmillercoloradospringscitycouncil. com. Transparency and accountability is his #1 priority.

Government

Citizen

Lana Fore-Warkocz Lana Fore-Warkocz is The Republican State Party Secretary, President of The Colorado Springs Republican Women, Vice-Chair of Senate District 10, Secretary of House District 16 and Former Editor of Tusk Talk, the official publication for the Colorado Federation of Republican Women. This editorial is strictly a personal view and in no way endorses or supports any candidate or candidate committees.

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MARCH 2014 | COMMON SENSE NEWS | B-1

MILLENIAL PATIROTS - FROM AMERICA'S YOUTH The Curse of Conformity By: Kolten Montgomery

I

often find myself debating the inner-workings of humanity in general. Our inner obsessions and endless pursuits of power, wealth, pleasure, and opportunity. What is it that drives us to place ourselves on a pedestal of authority over our fellow men? What is it that causes us to bask in our own glory, fueled by our own arrogance and yet eaten away by our own ignorance and vigorous pursuits of personal pleasure? The nature of man is to pursue his own wants and needs, he seeks to satisfy the individual rather than the collective, he seeks to satisfy himself over his brother, his neighbor, or in some cases his child. When “collectivism” is brought up within political conversation, the first thought in people’s minds is most often of socialistic or communistic tendencies; but concern for your brethren is not a trait of political societies or governmental forms, but rather a law of God and of humanity itself. We have all fallen into the trap of a political and social system which “expects” us to perform, to behave, to speak, and to act in certain ways, when these borders of “normalcy” are violated, men and women alike are deemed outcasts, “antisocial,” and “different.”

Many would say that by making such arguments I am taking the liberal approach to the issues which plague mankind and society in general, but in reality adhering to any firm system of belief is traitorous to human nature, and to the power of the mind itself. In each society and in each respective political system, different values and beliefs are given to those of the Conservative and Liberal belief systems. What many fail to understand is that a liberal approach, and a liberal way of thinking are usually among the greatest ways to obtain a true Conservative stance on the issues. Through “thinking outside the box,” we may empower ourselves and our minds as a whole, and we may make our own decisions rather than adhering to a strict belief system or to the firm “norms” of our societies. I myself often fall victim to “conformity,” and there is nothing wrong with trying to “fit in” when it comes to the general affairs of our lives. We must draw the line when our silence implies our consent to the wrongdoings of others, when our conformity begins to act as a plague upon our hearts and our sacred values and laws. There are those who openly show their outrage for those who conform within the borders of society, but there is no shame in respecting the rules and norms that our society has developed. I suppose I should provide an example that clearly outlines the point I am trying to make: Before the reign of Adolf Hitler, one of the world’s most feared and hated dictators, the people of Germany, just as the people of any society do, conformed to their society’s rules, to the laws of their nation, and to the norms of their

various groups and institutions. There was nothing wrong with their conformity to the customs, norms, and rules of their society, and they committed no crime in adhering to these rules. When Adolf Hitler claimed power, the people were thrilled and invigorated by his passion and his populist standpoint. Once Adolf Hitler began his systematic elimination of all that he deemed “unworthy” or “unfit” to plague this “new society” that he was constructing, the masses of the people were silent and no outrage could be seen. The people conformed to such evils, knowing that something heinous and evil was taking place right under their noses, but they adhered to these new “norms” and rules set forth at the hand of Adolf Hitler in order to form his “new society.” In doing this, the people were no longer simply conforming to their society and way of life, they were now conforming and refusing to acknowledge evil itself, and in doing so they became sheep, blindly leading themselves to their own imminent slaughter and destruction as a people and a nation. There is a clear difference between conformity to the simple norms and rules of a society, and conformity to something that we know is wrong and against our values and laws as human beings and subjects of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

So at what point does our silence and conformity become a crime against humanity itself? The distinction bears resemblance to the “thin blue line” often referred to in the fields of law enforcement. There is a thin line between good and evil and between conformity to the laws of society, and conformity to the evils that society and individuals leading that society wish to inflict upon innocent populations. We must respect this line, and it is our responsibility both as citizens and as people in general to analyze the effect of our conformity. Will we stand silent in a simple debate over political issues? Or will we stand silent in a time where our brothers, sisters, and children are dragged away at the hands of a terrorist and inhumane regime that is bent on death, destruction, and power? What is the difference, and how is it that so many generations of people have fallen to the facades of populist politics and conformity in itself? I leave this question up to you.

Kolten Montgomery is a young conservative activist and writer who is currently in high school as a sophomore. In March of 2013, Kolten founded "American Conservatism" through the social media avenue of Facebook, and has since launched a website featuring his writings and material. In the coming weeks, Kolten plans to launch a project on behalf of "American Conservatism" labeled "Statesmen Of Tomorrow" - An operation to increase youth activity and leadership in the field of politics and government. www.aconservatism.com

B-2 | Common Sense News | March 2014

Human Trafficking… Restore the Broken By: J. Vinnola

I

am a missionary. I graduated from my 5 month, Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Discipleship Training School (DTS) last year in November, in San Jose, Costa Rica. I knew this experience would change my life, but I never really understood how much.

During DTS, we had the option of working with a ministry called Freedom Street. This ministry is to fight human trafficking and build relationships with prostitutes on the streets so that we can eventually help them get OFF of the streets. I had heard about this ministry before I went to Costa Rica and fell in love with their mission and God started a fire in my heart for the lost and broken. So of course, I accepted this life changing opportunity to become a part of Freedom Street Ministries God began to fuel this fire in my heart during every class we had to prepare for our first night on the streets. We discussed facts about prostitution and about how to speak with people who have been trafficked.

Facts such as: • The average age of people who are being trafficked is 12-14 (CHILDREN!) • The life expectancy of a prostitute after being put on the streets is 7 years • The average amount made in this industry each year is around $32 Billion • Parents in small communities in Central and South America will sell their children to the Coyotes (men trafficking the prostitutes).

• Parents sometimes will sell their own children as income for the family One of the most horrifying facts I heard was how pimps and “coyotes” take these newly trafficked boys, women, and girls through what they call a “breaking week.” Breaking week consists of these children or young adults being beaten, raped, starved, drugged, abused and thrown in rooms alone every day until their spirits are completely broken with no hope or life left in their eyes.

After breaking week these people are put on the streets to sell themselves to whatever man will purchase them for the night or weekend. They are confined to these prisons in fear for their lives and the lives of their families.

Fear that if they leave the streets the pimps will track them down and kill

them, or their families and friends Before we headed to the streets we met on our base to pray. We would pray for protection over us and the street people. We prayed against attacks from the enemy and we asked for Gods heart for the people on the streets.

We prayed for all of them, not just the prostitutes. We prayed for God’s heart for the coyotes and pimps, the johns (men buying the girls). We prayed that eyes would be opened and hearts would see the pain in this world because of this industry. We also prayed for divine encounters, so we could share the love of God with these broken people.

The first time I actually saw this brokenness first-hand was my first night out with the Freedom Street Team. Our first time going out we stood across from the biggest brothel in San Jose, Costa Rica, a hotel named Hotel Del Rey. Ironically, the name means Hotel Of The King; we all noticed the way the devil sickly twisted the name.

One night when we took coffee and cookies to the prostitutes, was the most life changing I have had. Talk about setting a fire that will NEVER go out.

We were nervous about what to think about the whole thing but we jumped head first into it anyway. The first stop that night was at the park where a few prostitutes stood.

We met a few prostitutes the majority of them transvestites. There was one who stood out to my friends Rhianon and Kyle and I in particular. The Holy Spirit acted like a magnet drawing us to this young man. I will call this young man Gary. Gary seems as if he is a happy-go-lucky bundle of joy, but the truth is he is broken. The night we met him was his first night working with anyone from Freedom Street and it was ours. It was totally awesome how it happened to work out.

We sat down and attempted to communicate through some serious Spanglish. We asked him simple questions like what his favorite colors, food, animals and so forth. He urged us ask more by saying, “Mas preguntas!” (more questions). There was an answer to one question in particular that struck me straight to the heart, I asked him how old he was when he started in this business? His answer was 12. We also asked how old he is now, he said, "24 next Thursday!" So literally half of his life he had been being sold as a prostitute. I was in shock. My mouth dropped and I looked at Rhianon with tears in my eyes wanting to burst into a sobbing mess but I held it together.

“What?” I asked, He repeated, 12 years old.”

I had heard these facts before in class but I never saw it like this, spoken directly to my face. No wonder this guy was so excited about people asking him questions! Duh! It was probably the first time he had ever had a group of people interested in his life and listen to what he had to say. It was the first time someone asked him about his thoughts and desires in life; the first time someone cared about his pain and was willing to hear how he felt. Maybe this was the first time someone told him that Jesus loves him and has a plan for his life. The way he looked when we asked about his life was priceless. I wish I could have taken a picture.

That night, I saw the pain that these people have but work so hard to hide. Have you ever felt like someone didn’t care about what you had to say or whether you live the next day or not? Imagine feeling that every single day by everyone you meet. Then apply sexual abuse and torment on top of that everyday sometimes up to 20-45 times a day. That is what he feels every single day. No wonder he was so excited when someone asked him something as simple as, “What’s your favorite color?” God placed in my heart that night an understanding of a tiny fraction of what God feels on a daily basis for his broken and lost children, and man did it hurt, a good kind of pain, a pain that fueled my fire.

We pulled up to the park again another night and gave coffee to the regulars and then we saw Gary again! Only this time, he wasn’t the same; he was dressed like a girl. It made us sad that he was part of this messed up cycle. We knew our job really must begin to pull him back before he ran too far. We had to really show him that he was loved because it is only by the kindness of God that draws people to change.

We slapped smiles on our sad faces and got to it. We carried coffee and cookies to him and we refreshed Gary on our names. When Rhianon told him her name, Gary thought she said her name was, “Rhianna” like the pop star.

So he stopped her right there and said, “Ohhh Rhianna!!! Tu eres famosa!!” laughing with all his might. Rhianon laughed, smacked her forehead and said, “No not her!” We all began to laugh together, sparking a new beginning to the jokes, with the beauty of Jesus’ love in all of it. Gary for the first time in a long time if not in his entire life got to laugh and enjoy his time while seeing the love of Jesus in people. From that night forward, we began to grow together. This was Friday and so his birthday was the day before, but we told him happy birthday and he was shocked that we remembered. He smiled so big and hugged us all individually. The night drew to a close after discussing music and laughing about how famous Rhianon was. We said our goodbyes again with hugs and a prayer, we told him he was loved, was valuable and went back to the base.

That week, God laid it on my heart to write Gary a letter in English, my Spanish stinks. My great friend Teresa was awesome and translated the

March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-3 letter for me! The plan was to give it to him the next Friday when we went to the streets, but he wasn’t there. We asked where Gary was and found out that Gary was in rehab for drugs and he would be there for 3 months. I was sad because I was hoping that we could continue to pour into his broken heart, but then reality hit me. Maybe that was the safest place for him. He was off the streets, getting his own life in order and getting off the drugs that had kept him on the streets for so long. So then I was glad he was there. Sad it had come to that, but inside I knew that God was doing something in his life.

We kept in continual prayer for him and we believed that God was in control!

In YWAM, DTS training, Outreach is part of the course and our team had chosen Spain and Romania to minister in. We were all out on outreach in Romania when our friend Teresa wrote me and gave me some good news.

They saw Gary on the street after his rehab working to make a living to stay alive until he can find an alternative job. Teresa recognized him and called him over to talk. She invited him to have coffee, and he accepted. He began coming to the coffee shop every week for Bible Study and English lessons.

They keep in contact and he continues to go.

A few weeks ago one of the leaders of Freedom Street contacted me for an update on Gary. She told me that he has been coming to Bible Study and English lessons at the coffee shop EVERY week and had been in contact with them every day during Christmas break and that he finally got my letter. He told them in a small group session that he keeps the letter I wrote him in his fanny pack and that when he read it made him cry. Gary is living in a homeless shelter now but sells himself to have food and a place to stay at night, strictly for survival. He has been going to church and really seeking God. He wants to know his Savior! Gary has no idea where his family is so he has been in continual contact with the Freedom Street team because they love him as family as do I. God has something huge for him and I can’t wait to see him keep growing in God and to hug him again and tell him I am so proud of him!

Note: The leader of Freedom Street contacted me today 2/26/2014 to tell me that he was in the hospital and needs a lot of prayers because he is very sick, but they are in high hopes that God is going to work another miracle pretty soon to help him heal. Please pray for him and fight this fight with us!

Please keep this ministry in your prayers and all of these people in your prayers.

Please take time to learn more about human trafficking. It is a horrible thing and not a way anyone should ever live.

B-4 | Common Sense News | March 2014

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By: Lyall Russell- New Zealand

n New Zealand, all schools have a PPTA (Post Primary Teachers Association) which is made up of both teachers and parents. These groups are the ones that decide how money is used around the school and what extra courses are taught, such as religion.

Most primary schools around New Zealand have a bible class every fortnight.

Someone from the community will come to the school and teach children different parts of the bible each session; if parents didn’t want their children included they went to the library for the lesson. There was no harm done. But now it is making headway here about whether the government should step in and get rid of it all completely.

It won’t happen under the National government, but it could be a sad reality if the Left takes control.

Over the past generation, religion has been squeezed out of our school as though it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have a place in society. But it does.

Our nations were founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy. Our national heritage links back to the Anglo-Saxon’s and their People’s Law. They not only gave us all our freedoms that we take for granted, they also outlined the importance of community/religion.

It is from these people that the US Founding Fathers founded their stable nation.

Religion was very important to the founding of the United States, the Founders saw religion as being important in everyday life. Which is why in 1787 Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. This document emphasized the essential need to teach religion in schools: Article 3: Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

Religion has always been seen as important, for without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained. For it is the freedoms that have been given to us within religion that give us our ability to live civilly side by side to form these great nations.

And we know that the religious aspect within America worked.

Alexis de Tocqueville recollected on his travels to the US in the 1840s, and he pointed out that “In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united.”

Tocqueville was taken by America and how an exceptional country it was with its incorporation of religion. He went onto say “while the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash and unjust.”

Religion was producing well-mannered citizens. They didn’t need laws to tell people what not to do; they knew themselves through their teachings from the bible.

Whilst America is still one of the most religious countries in the developed world, every time I travel there, I see the good created within people because of their faith. I met a stranger in NYC who said he could help me. A year later I went and visited, the year after that I stayed with them for ten weeks. I met an elderly couple in Washington, DC, they said if you are ever in New York come and visit us, stay as long as you like, food is always free.

Faith has played a strong role in the attitude blanketed across many Americans.

Religion taught in schools will never hurt anyone. You don’t need to believe in life after death, or a great creator; it is the life lessons held within the bible that will make everyone a better person.

Lyall Russell is a recent graduate of Politics and Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He has a passion for current events and wants to do his part to ensure the public is well informed and educated. To ensure that he understands the working of government, Lyall has given many hours volunteering in numerous government offices.

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March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-5

WE THE PEOPLE - COMMENTARIES FROM THE GRASSROOTS

Executive Orders: Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?

By: Timothy J. Priebe, Esq.

W

e have been hearing a lot about Executive Orders in the news lately.

President Obama has commented on how he is planning on using them in his final term. Commentators have expressed concern over President Obama's comments. Just what are Executive Orders? Where do they originate from? Are they constitutional? How have they been used in the past and perhaps in the future?

What is an Executive Order?

An Executive Order can be a legally binding order given by the President of the United States in his role as the head of the Executive Branch of the government.

These orders are used generally to direct Federal agencies in their execution of already established law.

Within the definition of an Executive Order are two subsets of orders; Proclamations and National Security Directives. Proclamations are typically symbolic in nature. For example, President George Washington gave birth to our first proclamation when he, with the request of both houses of Congress, proclaimed “a day of public thanksgiving”. National Security Directives, as their name implies, deal with national security and related issues.

Where do Executive Order originate from?

This is where the matter of Executive Orders can become confusing. Surely, you would think that where powerful unilateral powers can be and are exercised by one person there would be a definite answer. That is not the case. On the one side of the argument, there are those that say the authority for Executive Orders is found in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. That Section grants to the President, the “executive power” to execute the laws made

by Congress. Further, Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution directs that the President “Shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” On the other side, there are those that believe that Executive Orders are not specified within the U.S. Constitution and therefore are clearly unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution does not allow the President to make laws, as can happen with Executive Orders, only Congress is granted that ability.

Where have Executive Orders been issued and can they be overruled?

As stated before, all US Presidents have issued Executive Orders while in office.

Given the alternative to the often messy and time consuming constitutional method of creating a law, Executive Powers have a sweet allure to them.

Jim Powell, the author of “The Impact of Executive Orders on the Legislative Process: Executive Lawmaking?” writes that in 1974, the Senate Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers reported on executive orders stating, “These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law, delegating to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by the Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in a host of allencompassing manners.The President may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad,

institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all Americans.”

Can and how are Executive Powers be overruled?

History shows us that there are three ways in which Executive Orders are extinguished. One is by an Executive Order of a future US President that overrules the previous Executive Order. This has become commonplace when a new President is seated. For example, President Clinton signed an Executive Order that overruled an Executive Order that President Reagan had signed regarding the prohibition of federal funding to advocate abortions. Another way is for Congress to amend or clarify a law that relates to an Executive Order that a President has issued.

The final way is by filing a lawsuit requesting that the Court overrule the Executive Order. This is typically done by asserting that the President exceeding his authority when issuing the Executive Order.

Perhaps the lawsuit best known for this type of ruling is the US Supreme Court case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952). Previous to that case being filed, President Truman directed the Secretary of Commerce to seize privately owned steel mills as a method of stopping a steelworkers' strike during the Korean war. The court ruled that Truman had exceed his authority when issuing such an Executive Order.

Overreach by the Executive Branch.

President Obama, as did President Bush before him, continues to amass more and more powers to the Executive Branch. However, President Obama has recently done this without even utilizing Executive Orders. He has simply made statements in which he is directing Federal agencies to comply with his wishes. Clearly, this has been done without authority of the U.S. Constitution but when neither party stands up to this President or his tactics, there is nothing in his way from continuing this action.

Occasionally the Internet will be abuzz about a new “secret” Presidential Executive Order that will radically affect our lives. The next time that such an article comes across your screen and you are tempted to pass it on your friends, look up the Executive Order yourself. Executive Orders can be read in their entirety via the National Archives website, http://www.archives.gov/ federal-register/executive-orders. At that site, you can read them for yourself and determine if what people are saying is true or not.

Timothy J. Priebe is an attorney licensed in Colorado and California. He maintains his practice in Colorado Springs. He has been practicing law for 18 years and focuses on business law and estate planning. He is an NRA certified instructor and provides NRA certified classes. He is married and has two children. He and his family enjoy all outdoor activities.

B-6 | Common Sense News | March 2014

The GOP Jazz Versus the Marching Band Dems By: Mark Baisley

T

ake your “big tent” metaphor for the Grand Old Party and donate it to the Salvation Army.

The implication from that exhausted platitude is that if the party defines itself broadly enough, everyone who wants to can fit in. But that analogy fails on the corollary that a liberally applied self-characterization dilutes the party’s distinction.

The Whigs learned the hard way that if your first priority is to be non-offensive, you will lose membership. In their case, they lost every single member.

What to do? Buy a new metaphor.

Consider these words from a friend of mine who plays evenings in a jazz band: “I love Jazz. I love everything about it. I love the freedom, the absolute liberty to shape a well-known song into something the person who wrote it, and every person who ever played it, never thought of. I love the feel, the heart-pounding, blood racing ecstasy of it. I love the cerebral nature of it, the brutal demands it places on a musician's knowledge and experience and presence in the moment. I love its variability, the never-ending variety of shapes and forms and colors it can embody. It is my very first love.” – Nathan Shafer Juxtapose those sentiments with this actual quote from a member of a high school marching band: “I play the Alto Saxophone… I love band, but I'm scared because I think I won't be able

to do it. I don't own a saxophone (I rent the school's) so I can't practice over the summer to perfect my techniques and whatnot, and the band director is REALLY strict! I also have a lot of trouble playing and marching at the same time - which poses a big problem. Overall I'm just scared that I'll fail at it and be laughed at/yelled at because I'm NOT the best at the instrument. I'm just good enough to sound good to an untrained ear.”

As the Democratic Party represents the political left, the Republican Party represents the political right. Leftist ideology seeks uniformity in virtually everything – from the distribution of wealth to the contrast of the sexes. The right celebrates rugged individuality.

In this, the Democrats hold a natural advantage at election time. A centralized band director needs mostly to exude confidence in directing the myriad followers; “I conduct. You march.” The band members each play their assigned piece. It is immediately apparent to everyone when a trombonist is out of synch with the crowd. And there are no solos.

The Republican culture is much the opposite. They play jazz. And not big band jazz, but modal jazz, where everyone plays a solo and nobody is afraid of the band leader. When performed well, the music is phenomenal. And when it is bad, ears bleed.

Republicans are prone to laissez faire

Continued on page B-12

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March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-7

Can Americans Protect Each Other From Abusive Laws?

By: Alexander Daube

W

e Americans are buried under a vast mountain of laws, and it is growing every year. With so many laws anyone can inadvertently violate one, falling prey to what is called "overcriminalization." As CBN terms it in a video series titled: "Overcriminalization: Making Us a Nation of Felons?" they estimate there are around 300,000 to 400,000 rules that are federal offenses.

On top of that, we have myriad state and local laws to deal with, some of them quite ludicrous.

Children can be cited for having lemonade stands without a permit; farmers can be charged with growing more crops than the government approves; and as of April 1, 2013, Coloradans can be charged with failing to perform background checks when privately selling firearms, or buying gun magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. The list of potential violations is mind-boggling. In addition, the penalties can be quite harsh, as George Norris, who spent two years in federal prison for a mere paperwork violation regarding imported flowers in his backyard nursery, can tell you. Moreover, to compound the problem even further, our government routinely passes laws, which violate the meaning and intent of the U.S. Constitution, as Judge Andrew Napolitano makes clear in his excellent book, "The Constitution in Exile." That means Americans are being prosecuted for violating “illegal laws,” and if ever there was an oxymoron, that is it. So, what can ordinary people do to protect themselves?

Thankfully, our Founding Fathers built such protection into the Constitution by establishing trial by jury, and it is here where citizens can protect each other, even from government. One of the reasons this right was established was to protect us from government overreach, including bad or unconstitutional laws.

Jurors have done so many times, two examples being the protection of escaped black slaves and the people who helped them, from the Fugitive Slave Acts, and refusing to enforce the anti-alcohol laws under Prohibition. Such is our right as jurors, as our Founding Fathers attested: "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson "It is not only his [the juror's] right, but his duty, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court." -- John Adams, second U.S. President Few people know that when they sit as jurors in criminal trials, it is their job to

protect the rights of the defendant - even if he broke the law. To put it another way, if you think the law in question is wrong, immoral, unconstitutional, or being improperly applied, you have the power to "just say no!" to a conviction.

This power is termed "jury nullification" or "jury veto power," and it has been the traditional right of Americans since our nation was founded. Even if all the other jurors want to find the defendant guilty, you can hang the jury by refusing to convict.

Unfortunately, throughout history, governments have hated challenges to their power, and Colorado is no exception. Most judges here will tell jurors that they can’t judge the law in question; can’t use their consciences in determining the verdict; and must follow the law as the judge explains it to them. That is all nonsense, as our history shows. However, judges even go so far as to intimidate jurors into blind obedience by making them take an oath to obey the law as the judge gives it to them. They want jurors to be easily manipulated puppets - not free men protecting the rights and freedoms of the accused. In fact, most judges here will not even allow attorneys to mention nullification to jurys, and will dismiss any potential juror who supports it. So, how do we get our freedom back?

For now, covertly. It will take people with backbones to do it, because it is scary to stand up against government injustice. But if you have the fortitude, you can pretend you know nothing of jury veto power and that you will obey the judge's instructions. Take the oath and get on the jury. Then, if you believe the defendant broke the law but should not be convicted, look for some reason to find him not guilty when you are deliberating in the jury room. You can say you did not believe the witnesses, the testimony, or the confession. You choose.

Remember - you may be the only thing standing between an innocent man, and the unjust, crushing power of government.

BTW, nothing presented here is “legal advice.” Readers should simply know what to expect when they are called for jury duty, and do the right thing.

Alexander Daube is an Area Coordinator for the Fully Informed Jury Association, a group dedicated to bringing the truth about jury rights to the American public. His articles have been published in the Gazette and on various websites. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Julie, who is a writer for the Christian & Missionary Alliance.

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B-8 | Common Sense News | March 2014

2014 Mid-term Primer: Who can you trust? Not the Pundits or Politicians By: Al Maurer

W

e are barely into 2014 and the November election is heating up fast and furiously. Looking beyond that, pundits are already handicapping presidential aspirants for the 2016 election. There is no respite from political campaigns.

The radical left are acting like they always do: stirring up the pot, keeping things on a continuous boil. The news — and not just the political news — always features crises that demand our attention and, above all, government action.

We got here by paying too little attention to what the political class was up to. As Americans, we still want to be pretty much left alone. The radicals in government don’t want to leave us alone; they want to control every aspect of our lives through some part of the vast, federal bureaucracy. And they will do virtually anything to stay in power.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. — Thomas Jefferson What’s a concerned citizen to do? Sticking our collective heads in the sand and hoping the problem will go away is not an option. Becoming full-time activists is rarely an option. There is, however, a middle path most people can follow to take an active role in their government and make informed decisions.

Don’t listen to the pundits As a class, pundits have more in common with each other than they do with ordinary Americans.

The word “pundit” comes to English by way of India, where the Sanskrit word “pandit” referred to a learned person, typically of the Brahman class. Here, we use the word for anyone in the media who has an opinion and voices it, whether it be a TV host like Bill O’Reily or Chris Mathews or a frequent guest like Charles Krauthammer or Paul Krugman.

Generally, pundits are career reporters or academicians who have less experience in the real world than you do. On all our coinage is the phrase, “In God we Trust.” Pundits are not gods.

American pundits always push a point of view. They rarely give out unfiltered information — they give out select information to push an agenda or support a point of view. Some do this more than others, and some are more knowledgeable that others. Don’t just listen uncritically to what they say. Know who they are, what their experience is and what their point of view is.

Don’t listen to pundits when they discuss the merits of politicians. Most in the

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media are left-leaning; they don’t have your interests at heart. When the press tells you Chris Christie or Jeb Bush would make great Republican candidates for president, ask what their game is and then refuse to play. Remember, these are the people who told you John McCain was a maverick and a great candidate — until he was nominated.

The more they seek to marginalize, the more you should look carefully at the politician as a possible good risk. They try to destroy the biggest threats as early as possible. Think Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. If these were really such poor candidates, why the expenditure of effort to sift through their trash, stalk their family members and comb through their lives and business dealings?

The problem with politicians If you can’t trust the pundits, you can trust the politicians themselves even less. As a class, their goal is to get elected and re-elected. They will tell you whatever they think you want to hear. If you like your doctor, you can keep him.

Elect me and I’ll make your life better!

Politicians are generally followers, even though they like to portray themselves as leaders. The big question is, who are they following?

The kind of politician we want is the kind who will listen to We the People and act in our best interests. Their problem is that there are many competing interests to balance. We need politicians who will actively listen and attempt to move in the majority direction. In Colorado, for example, the Democrats in charge of the state legislature didn’t listen to the massive opposition to their gun control proposals. As a result, two senators were recalled and one forced to resign.

Did this encourage them to moderate their agenda? It did not. They are deaf to the concerns of ordinary Coloradans, even though they say they want to create jobs and get the economy moving again. Who Colorado Democrats are listening to is not entirely clear, but it is certainly not the people.

Voting for some Republicans is only a small step above voting for radical Democrats. Like pundits, career politicians have more in common with each other than they do with the people.

Al Maurer is a political scientist and founder of The Voice of Liberty. He writes on topics of limited government and individual rights.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-9

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

“All You Need is Love”

By Dr. Harley Ihm

​I

n 1967, the Beatles launched their Magical Mystery Tour. One of the songs that went on to virtually became an American and an international anthem was “All You Need is Love.”

It was reported that their manager, Brian Epstein, wanted the Beatles to come up with a song that embraced a message that people universally would understand. With the division in America and the world over democracy, race, ideals, etc., the times was right for such a message to be proclaimed.

And yes, being a musician from age 9 or 10, I grew up singing most of the Beatles songs. This was truly one of their masterpieces. Whether you love, hate or are indifferent to their music, the message reverberates truth even today. ​No one has declared this truth more loudly that our Creator. The Holy Spirit moved John to write, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves (The Greek word was agape, meaning sacrificial love), his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in darkenss; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him” (1 John 2:9-11). ​Jesus was cornered by some experts in the law who want to test him by throwing these questions at Jesus. They asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law” Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:3440). ​The Judeo-Christian faith is based, according to Jesus Christ, on the concept of this agape, sacrificial love. Jesus, long before the Beatles was telling the world and all of history that if we are what we were created to be, all we need is a sacrificial love for our Creator and His created. Love God first and most and that will lead you to love your fellow man the way we were created to love. Life was never created to be a competition filled with wars. That is man’s gift to society. ​What would our forefathers say about my reflections? Consider the following quotes from John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Ref: (http:// www.partyof1776.net/p1776/fathers/JayJohn/quotes.html) 1. "The Americans are the first people whom Heaven has favored with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing the forms of government under which they should live."

- John Jay, United States Founding Father, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Co-Author of the Federalist Papers, President of the Continental Congress, Drafter of the Original New York State Constitution,

President of the American Bible Society, "The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay", Henry P. Johnston, editor (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890), Vol. I, p. 161, from his “Charge to the Grand Jury of Ulster County” on September 9, 1777.

2. "[It is] the duty of all wise, free, and virtuous governments to countenance and encourage virtue and religion."

- John Jay, United States Founding Father, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Co-Author of the Federalist Papers, President of the Continental Congress, Drafter of the Original New York State Constitution, President of the American Bible Society, "The Speeches of the Different Governors to the Legislature of the State of New York, Commencing with Those of George Clinton and Continued Down to the Present Time", (Albany: J.B. Van Steenbergh, 1825), p. 66, Govenor John Jay, November 4, 1800 3. "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty - as well as the privilege and interest - of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

- John Jay, United States Founding Father, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Co-Author of the Federalist Papers, President of the Continental Congress, Drafter of the Original New York State Constitution, President of the American Bible Society, "The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 1794-1826", Henry P. Johnson, editor, (Reprinted NY: Burt Franklin, 1970), Vol.IV, p. 393, October 12, 1816 4. "Whether our religion permits Christians to vote for infidel rulers is a question which merits more consideration than it seems yet to have generally received either from the clergy or the laity. It appears to me that what the prophet said to Jehoshaphat about his attachment to Ahab (2 Chronicles 19:2) affords a salutary lesson."

- John Jay, United States Founding Father, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Co-Author of the Federalist Papers, President of the Continental Congress, Drafter of the Original New York State Constitution, President of the American Bible Society, "The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 1794-1826", Henry P. Johnson, editor, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893), Vol. IV, p. 365 Dr. Harley Ihm lives with his wife Dr. Dana Ihm, in Pueblo, Colorado, where he is a writer, teacher, preacher and communicator. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri, a master’s degree in New Testament Exegesis and Preaching from Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, a Doctor of Biblical Studies from Master’s International University in Evansville, Indiana and a Doctor of Theology from Master’s Theological Research Institute in Evansville, Indiana. Dr. Ihm teaches Bible and Worldview classes for Colorado Christian University and is the Senior Minister of Central Christian Church in Colorado Springs.

Growing up in rural Missouri, he is a firm believer in the conservative lifestyle that brought our forefathers to this country in search of true freedom.

B-10 | Common Sense News | March 2014

Get Training!

By Dan Kidder

MY BACKGROUND Colonel (ret.), US Air Force Reserves (JAG) Republican activist in El Paso County Party since 1999 Congressional Legislative Aide during Reagan era College instructor on energy development; space law and policy Successfully fought EPA regulations that hurt our military & taxpayers

MY TOP ISSUES LIMITED GOVERNMENT

Government should not tell us what to buy, how to live, or what to believe PROTECT CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

Oppose Obamacare mandates to buy “Federal Government Approved” health insurance Protect 2nd Amendment gun rights Stop unauthorized government surveillance REGULATORY REFORM & JOBS

Reduce the time and cost to start up a business or expand existing businesses WILDFIRES and FLOODING

Advocate effective policies for flooding and wildfire mitigation Increased local control of public forest lands EDUCATION REFORM

Opt-Out of Federal Common Core - maintain local and state control Expand industrial education for high school students interested in manufacturing or technical jobs PRO-LIFE

I believe in the sanctity of human life, which includes the unborn

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I

t is an easy mantra to repeat often. Training is the key element that separates an expert from an amateur, the survivor from the victim, the victor from the conquered.

I hear people tell me on almost a daily basis that they don’t need training because they grew up with someone who does X for a living. Let’s take a look at that argument for a minute. My mother is a hairstylist. She went to school in California, a state that requires more hours of cosmetology training than any other. I have watched her do hundreds of haircuts, countless perms and dye jobs, and a bunch of other procedures I can’t even identify. How does that qualify me to cut hair? My ex-father-in-law was a nuclear physicist. Does that qualify me to split an atom? Well, they argue, my dad, brother, uncle, grandfather taught me how to shoot, so I already know how to handle a gun. Where did that person teaching you learn to shoot? Did they have formal training? Did they ever carry a gun daily for the protection of themselves and others in a professional capacity?

Are they professionally trained instructors?

When I was 16 my aunt tried to teach me to drive. A big mistake she made was teaching me to drive a truck with a manual transmission on public roads. Each time a vehicle came along in opposing traffic, I would pull over until it passed.

The longer this went on, the more frustrated she became until finally she gave up and enrolled me in a driving school. After a few lessons with a professional driving instructor, I was proficient to drive in traffic and then was able to move on to mastering the art of the manual transmission.

The key point to take from this story is that a professional, who has received training in their craft as well as training in the art of instruction, will better equip you than an amateur who may have some general knowledge in a subject.

One lesson I impart to my students is to be wary of people who “know about guns.” The main reason for this warning is some of the horrible misinformation I have heard from supposed “gun experts” or people who proclaim “I know about guns.” Some of the worst handgun advice I hear comes from clerks at gun counters. These guys are such experts that they are making $8 an hour to sell guns. Not to knock every guy who works a gun counter. I did it for a while as a second job because it was fun and I got to play with all of the new stuff. But not every guy working behind the counter is there because of their love of the industry or their abundance of knowledge.

So if I can’t trust Mickie at the local gun shop, whom can I trust? Well, a quality instructor with years of experience in teaching others is your best place to get sound practical advice. A firearms attorney will be your best bet for legal advice.

When I was teaching in Virginia, an attorney from a large firm took my class.

After that, he made me his first choice recommendation to clients seeking information on obtaining a CCW. I started receiving dozens of phone calls each month from clients of this firm telling me their attorney recommended me to them. It was my understanding of legal issues involving the carrying of a firearm that sold this guy and his firm on my instructing capability.

Even to this day, after teaching for nearly 21 years, I regularly seek out new training opportunities. Every time I have the time and the money, I attend classes from a top quality firearms instructor. These classes not only provide me new practical skills, but also increase the instructional tools I have available in my toolbox so I can be a better instructor.

Another warning. Be careful with what you read on the Internet. There are forums and pages of misinformation and bad advice out there and if you don’t have the knowledge and training to see it, you may accept something as fact when it is really only ignorance disguised as information. One site I have been working with to help create quality content is the US Precision Defense membership site (http://www.concealedcarry-ccw.com).

Whatever you do, get as much training as you can afford before you decide to carry a gun for defense. Some people may be tougher, smarter, or stronger than others, but the real element that sets apart a true badass from the rest of the pack is quality training. Find an NRA certified instructor in the discipline you want to learn and get started today. A list of instructors in your area can be found at www.nrainstructors.org. Get Training! Get Training! Get Training!

About the author: Dan Kidder is a Marine Corps veteran and owner and chief instructor of On Target Defensive Training in Utah. He is also the Managing Editor of Sportsman’s News Magazine and a host of Sportsman’s News Television.

March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-11

U.S. Virtual Training Center: Real Without Being Real By: Anne Boswell Taylor

I

choked back a lump in my throat. My heart raced as though it was going to come out of my chest as I looked down the barrel of a semi-automatic pistol.

Everything else around me was blurry and it was as if my life was a movie in slow motion. Then he fired repeatedly at me. He missed but he kept on firing.

I squeezed the trigger and shot at him, missed, oh crap! I fired again, Thank you Jesus! He went down. The terror was over.

This didn’t really happen to me in real life but in a life-like training scenario at a new facility in Colorado Springs. The US Virtual Training Center provides an opportunity to make it feel as real as possible. Co-owners Dennis Stroh and Jeffrey Grissom opened the facility at 3185 Janitell Road, Suite 101 in late 2013 to bring this simulated training to people like you and me. The facility is open to members and non-members of all ages. Instructors and training staff engage you in a computer guided scenario. There are two large screens, floor to ceiling and you really feel like you are there. With more than 500 different scenarios,

the instructor can manipulate the action on the screen according to how you react. You choose your firearm, pistol or AR-15 and they are loaded with air.

It doesn’t mean there is no recoil, it feels real but there is less recoil. This is perfect for that person like my mom who is afraid of a big kick from a pistol. It’s a start, anyway.

I prepared to try this experience on for size and took my place next to a woman named Ashlee. She told me she had never shot a gun before, “…not ever, ever, ever.” The lights dimmed, the room hushed as our decision making was about to be tested. The instructor explained to us that we could yell at the screen and he could decide what happens next on the screen. Oh, be still my heart as this thrill seeking training moment was just upon me. Our first encounter was a man at a bank with a teller. Ok, so I’ve seen enough movies. I think to myself that this situation is about to get ugly somewhere. We waited. We watched. The man was making a deposit and then… a quick move in a suspicious manner he draws something quickly from a jacket pocket. Whew! It was a phone! These “shoot or don’t shoot” scenarios are cleverly designed to get you to react when appropriate and think through your course of action.

The next scene is an older man coming from a bar complaining that “those dang zombies” are taking over. So my partner in virtual training, Ashlee, and I entered the bar and shot some ruckus zombies, in the head, of course, we’ve all seen The Walking Dead, right? The last exercise we executed was a series of rapid fire pop up targets with the alleged bad guy pointing a gun at us. The targets popped up fast. Bad guy, boom, bad guy, boom, bad guy boom, grandma with groceries, yikes, whew, she lived and I didn’t shoot her. Actually, a guy with a burrito popped up too. The instructors reassured everyone this training exercise is designed to show us just how hard it is to make those split second threat determinations.

As we left the training room, Ashlee Springer’s husband David arrived and handed her their baby boy. She held him and explained that she wanted to try this experience first before buying a gun and spending time at the range.

She added that the 2013 Colorado legislation on gun control, particularly the magazine capacity limitations, inspired her interest. “Those scenarios we just did just proved that you never know how many rounds it will take to stop a bad guy, you’re nervous and you might not take him down with just a few shots.”

Husband David mentioned that he was surprised at how easily she handled it.

This was not the end of her training, for sure.

I climbed into my car and headed home happy to have not used my ammunition

Continued on page B-12

B-12 | Common Sense News | March 2014

U.S. Virtual Training Center: Real Without Being Real Continued from page B-11

at the range. I will not say there is a true replacement for training with your firearm on a range but I will say this is a worthy experience that I will try again.

Maybe, date night? That would be so cool! But then again, I’m the girl who received a bouquet of ammo for Valentine’s Day.

Anne Boswell Taylor is a former radio and TV reporter and most recently worked with Richard Randall at AM740 KVOR. She is an Oklahoma native who has called Colorado home for 12 years now. Anne received her degree from Oklahoma State University. She covered the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, witnessed and covered an execution from Oklahoma’s Death Row and was the only reporter embedded with Tulsa Police on a multijurisdiction drug warrant sweep. She and her husband Chad are raising an 11 year old daughter named Hannah. They enjoy target shooting as a family and named their new standard Poodle pup, Ruger. Anne, Chad and Hannah also love to visit Chad’s parents’ cattle ranch in Lincoln County, Colorado, helping work cattle as needed. Anne and her family are members of First Pres Church in Colorado Springs.

The GOP Jazz Versus the Marching Band Dems Continued from page B-6

in every aspect of their lives. They have opinions, love their own identity, and want to contribute with their personal improvisations. This is true in their personal lives as well as their participation in the political system.

So while the most effective leader of the Democratic Party may hold a baton, Republicans require an entirely different approach to achieve the desired cohesion. The modal jazz band leader will provide direction for all the players through the high-level communication of example. And the key to an inspired piece is the encouragement for every player to contribute their unique gifts.

GOP leaders who do not naturally take to this distribution of improvisation will become frustrated with the perceived chaos. And the panicked response of tightened control will often take on a bullying nature. Rarely do we hear complaints of bullying within the Democratic Party. But in the free-thinking variety of the Republican Party, attempts at uniformity frequently become demoralizing.

Republicans of every stripe (establishment, conservative, liberty-minded, tea-party) want to be heard. And they generally fall within a few percentage points of each other on the ideological scale. Macro-level debates that Republicans should be winning hands-down against the Democrats are many times overshadowed by micro-level debates amongst themselves.

Internal party tension can be leveraged to mature their political philosophy by inviting every voice to participate in the selection of nominees. But the most damaging disconnects that keep Republicans from winning elections are not ideologically based. The greatest party failures result from suppressing healthy, internal dissent.

A marching band performance will rarely bring a tear to your eye. But a collection of talented players who receive the deep respect of their leader will move the audience with their stirring production. Democrats have an easier time of winning elections through formulaic execution. But with a measure of selfless wisdom, the Republicans have the opportunity to truly advance the American dream.

Reprinted from Townhall.com

March 2014 | Common Sense News | B-13

The Shades of Prejudice

By Monique Derr

O

h, to view the world with rose colored glasses. Remember when those pink shades were viewed as the ultimate no-no’s in eyewear? While viewing the world through unrealistic lenses is not ideal, another pair of lenses is far worse-lenses of prejudice, judgment, and negative assumptions.

These popular shades slowly break the compassion in the hearts of the wearers, and sadly, they often do not even know that they are on.

While at a conference for my doctorate program, a fellow student asked me where I was from. Upon my answer, he said, “Oh, Colorado Springs, lots of Christians there. So I guess there are a lot of suppressed women too.” On another occasion, I was told that all Muslims are bad. All of them. Let’s see here….if you are a Republican, you are a racist. If you are a homosexual, you are treated like a different species all together, and on and on it goes.

Why do we do this? These ugly shades, trendy as they have become, are debilitating to individuals and societies at large. The irony of these shades is also something worthy of mention. A liberal may complain about the way that all conservatives are supposedly racist, but in doing so, he/she just painted an entire group of people with one, negative stroke. That is hypocrisy at its finest.

On the flip side, a conservative may complain about the way liberals call them all racists for not liking Obama, and then proceed to make a very racist statement against African Americans, Muslims, Mexicans, you name it. Judging a whole group of people based on the actions of some is irresponsible, and likewise, it must be remembered that individual actions can reflect on the entire group you represent. Poor behavior in the name of the group you affiliate yourself with is reckless. The frames sitting on our noses can make us fall into these traps.

Should these glasses seem somewhat harmless, allow me to illustrate how just the opposite is true. The German soldiers who marched Jews onto trains, into camps, and into gas chambers were not all inherently evil people. Every European who slaughtered Native women and children on the new land did not wake up one morning and decide to be killers. Every American who beat his slaves and sold their children to other plantations was not born with a desire to be cruel. No, my friends, the slippery slope is far more deceptive than that. What they did, was pick up those dark glasses made by human imperfection, cultural flaws, and government deception. They put them on their face, and they began to see things differently. They saw Jews as a threat and the lesser race. They saw Native Americans as savages, animals. They saw their slaves as anything but equal. They saw people who were different from them as less significant. The shades slowly chipped away at their humanity.

We hear these stories in history, and we cringe. Then, we turn on the television, watch the bombs drop in the Middle East, and change the channel to “The Kardashians.” We feel sad as we watch “Dances With Wolves,” then we proceed to mock Christians, roll our eyes at the Mexicans holding signs for work on the side of the road, and pull our things a little closer when a Muslim sits next to us on an airplane.

This is a call to all Americans to wake up! Take off those ugly shades; they do nothing for your features! When we are divided, we are weak. Together, we are strong. Let us hold hands as Christians, Muslims, Republicans, Democrats, Americans, Mexicans, men and women. Let us strive to see the world with our naked eye and see each other and brothers and sisters. Let us replace our judgment and hate with compassion and love.

Monique Derr has been writing for various publications for over a decade. She has a master’s degree in journalism and is currently earning her Ph.D. She is a humanitarian, teacher, performing artist, writer, and most importantly, a mother.

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B-14 | Common Sense News | March 2014

Dragon Man Arms: Shooting Ranges and War Museum By: Cindy Lyons

F

ew know that Dragon Man Arms has one of the most extensive privately owned war museums, in the nation. The museum displays military uniforms, various types of firearms, vehicles, many other war artifacts at every turn and for all of the wars since WWI. Dragon Man aka Mel Bernstein owns a uniform once owned by Hitler. A sword owned by Saddam Hussein at the time of his capture is displayed there. There is even a large display of Elvis and his era (1950’s) memorabilia. This is a must see museum of 59,000 square feet which Mel says is “Half the size of Walmart.”

Mel does not actively advertise the presence of his 25 year private collection effort and relies mainly on word of mouth and article’s to bring people in to come and view his pride and joy museum. The only complaint that was heard was that “the tour was too fast.”

To view this unique museum you must call and reserve your spot. He requires at least 12 to take the tour. “The museum is OPEN and tours run every Sunday at 10 a.m. sharp! It is $10.00 per person cash only. If you would like to schedule a weekday tour, and have 12 or more people, give us a call at 719-683-2200!” It is advised to go thru it at least twice. Once to absorb the historic nature of the museum and another time to take a few pictures and perhaps pay attention to what strikes you on the first run thru. If you are in a wheelchair or cannot easily go up and down steps you can ask for a special tour so long as you have at least 12 people to come along with you.

The museum closes on Veterans Day in November and will resume in April.

Aside from this great museum Mel has shooting ranges for: handguns at 25 ft, firearms that shoot up to 100 yards, and up to 220 yards for long range rifles.

You even get a sense of a zombie like apocalypse when you drive in and out of Dragon Man’s property. It truly is a one of a kind experience if you are a history buff or just like to shoot or get on your motorcycle, quad, or four wheeler and drive around the track. There are some age limits for various parts of Dragon Man so call ahead before coming. There is also a paintball range with equipment available to rent.

There is no escaping the memorials to his departed wife Terry. His voice still wavers when he gets to the part of the museum where her photos are displayed.

She was and still is a part of Dragon Man’s. She was fatally injured in a senseless tragedy during the last 30 seconds of a shoot by The Military Channel. The was the first and only major accident at Dragon Man’s in it’s 32 year history. The range is safe.

Address: 1200 Dragon Man Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80929 OPEN Tuesday-Sunday 9:30-4:30 Directions: From US 24/Platte Ave. to the east side of Colorado Springs. Turn right onto Hwy 94. Drive east for around six to 7 miles, then turn left onto Curtis Rd. Drive for about a mile, then turn left onto Dragon Man Drive.

Mel Bernstein: owner & Vietnam era veteran with a noticeable Brooklyn accent. He is also a federally licensed machine gun dealer. Firearms and ammo are available for purchase. He also rebuilds Harley Davidson engines and transmissions. https://www.facebook.com/Dragonmans http://www. dragonmans.com

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