California and the Death Penalty
By Jordan Harms

A piece in the New Yorker I read recently entitled Tinkering with Death by Alex Kozinsky, a death penalty judge, alternately enraged me and buoyed me with hope for common sense. This roller coaster ride with Kozinski’s words epitomizes how he presented his argument for the death penalty, which is why where he ended up was somewhat surprising. One could characterize Kozinski’s work as self-persuasion—was he trying to show all sides of the argument, or merely trying to convince himself that he was on the right side of that argument? He juxtaposed the appeal to the heartstrings by those speaking for the man on death row next to the gruesome horror of the acts that got him there. There are perhaps better ways to make his point. (more…)

My mother used to read from this old book of fables like Aesop’s called The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle. There were twenty-four stories for every hour of the day, all with a moral, and most of them had to do with being unselfish, or greedy, or arrogant, ending in a good deed being inadvertently rewarded and selfishness resulting in self-destruction. The stories took a circuitous route, never obvious, and I was always wrong in my guess about what the lesson was until the very end. My favorite was How Three Went Out Into the Wide World about a Grey Goose, a Sausage, a Cock and a Fox because it had the twist of trust and gullibility and wanting to do good, where reason and common sense should have prevailed instead. The goose, the sausage and the cock were individualists who lived free and the fox wants to come into their forest. They unselfishly allow him in and everyone lives together for awhile until the fox starts to get hungry and over time demands that each one give up more and more of themselves, until he eats them. As much as the fox convinced them that he could share their world, the fox had his needs and had no desire to live as they did. The end of the fable said this: “Some folks say that it is not so, but I tell you that the ways of the world are the ways of the world, even in the deep forest.” Meaning well, the goose, the sausage and the cock wanted to share their world with some one they did not realize could not or would not conform to their way of life or respect their rules. One could also take away from this that no good deed goes unpunished. Unselfishness and good intentions are one thing, but handing over all your power so that you eventually are undermined, threatens your very existence.

The charity of feeling sympathy to illegals entering this country also has the gift of making you feel good, but its consequences are dire. (more…)

Rebirth or starting over is intrinsically American. We are die-hard optimists – it is what makes this country great. Unfortunately today we are living in a culture of distrust which is buoyed by that same optimism, irrational though it may be at times. Pride is in a battle against practicality, although 56% said they did not think all of New Orleans should be rebuilt to its old levels. Mayor Ray Nagin’s hubris proposes to reoccupy the same footprint the city had before the storm. As of right now, the Corps of Engineers plans to spend $6 billion (!) to make sure that by 2010, the city will probably be flooded only once every 100 years. (more…)

“Black Light” Play
Are all whites really racists?

I sat through a “talk-back” after the play Black Light put on Thursday night by my high school without “talking back” like I usually do because I wanted to see what the audience comments would be. I knew if I said anything, I’d be talked down. Unfortunately, the response by the liberal audience was pretty predictable and I wasn’t surprised, only disheartened. The message seemed to be that Black America is besieged by a dominant white establishment whose goal is to keep black people down. And that all white people are racist (albeit some without knowing it, according to the play). But all of us are and there is “nothing we can do”, according to the “voice over” black man, who condescendingly said that we poor whites just don’t have a clue. When asked why there were no black people in the play, the audience was told “this play is a message to white people”. To show us how racist we are, I presume. I don’t agree and it’s just too easy to buy into this line of thinking. (more…)

Let the Marketplace Decide About Health Care

The “marketplace” is really people like you and me participating freely in a system of exchange of goods and services. Just like capitalism has no single hand guiding it, so too we can let the marketplace dictate what healthcare system it prefers. Don’t let those central planners from on high try to manipulate a “managed competition” to supposedly benefit all of us who can’t afford health care today. The top-down reforms just don’t work, as we’ve seen already. (more…)

We’ve entered into a new era in this country where immigration is concerned. Last week’s mass demonstrations of illegal aliens looked like they were conventional protestors with their raised fists, chants and banners. But unlike political protestors of the past, these marchers have no legal basis for their claims! Their argument boils down to this: We’re here, therefore we have a right to the immigration status we desire. This is just the jargon of deconstruction, a legal claim based on nothing!

What will be the result if we let this kind of thinking stand? The rule of law and the end of nation-states. No borders, no illegal immigration, right? The only basis for the illegals’ demands is: I am here, so deal with it! If you take that argumentr to its end, it will end American immigration law and our own sovereignty, because they’re saying that our laws don’t matter. Democratically chosen reasons and priorities for who may enter this country and who not? Out the window! The border no longer exists, and the United States does not have the right to decide who may come across them. (more…)

Dear President Bush: I’m about to plan a little trip with my
family and
extended family, and I would like to ask you to assist me. I’m going to
walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a
few arrangements. I know you can help with this.

I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas
and laws.
I’m sure they handle those things the same way you do here.

So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I’m on my
way ?
Please let him know that I will be expecting the following: (more…)

Why 75% of all High School Students Cheat!
By Jordan Harms

It’s because our society doesn’t have a conscience anymore! That may sound like a pretty radical statement to make, but unfortunately, it isn’t. Nobody teaches moral values in the schools anymore, at least not what was once thought of as personal morality. Instead of teaching private morality, there is an overemphasis on social policy questions. Students are debating abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, DNA research, and the ethics of cloning, but they’re learning almost nothing about private decency, honesty, personal responsibility or honor. Topics like hypocrisy, self-deception, cruelty or selfishness rarely come up. But I contend that social morality is only half of a moral life; the other half is private morality, and we need both. Focusing on issues of social injustice without promoting virtues and morality is only half a loaf. (more…)

Subtitle: Why I am a Student of our History

By Jordan Harms

Remember when we took pride in our nation and its freedom and still respected the Father of Our Country? Today’s high school students going into college lack even a basic knowledge about America’s Founding Fathers. How sad for these kids that they don’t know about George Washington’s inspirational leadership or appreciate the heroic sacrifices made for their freedom by his soldiers shivering in the winter cold at Valley Forge. Even his enemy, King George III, called him “the greatest man in the world” when he learned that George Washington voluntarily gave up power after the Revolutionary War. Yet 66% of American college seniors at 50 top colleges couldn’t even identify George Washington as the commanding general of the victorious forces at Yorktown on a national multiple choice test a couple of years ago. (more…)

DATELINE: Sacramento, CA By Jordan Harms
This past Tuesday I attended an all-day conference in Sacramento sponsored by the California Federation of Republican Women (CFRW) for California high school students, teachers and politically involved persons. How did Advocacy Day first begin? Following the suggestion of Ronald Reagan that CFRW become a viable force in the legislative process, the Advocacy Program was established in 1974, so it’s been going on a long time. The program has enabled many conservatives to receive political appointments, influence legislation and make our presence felt. The CFRW Legislative Advocacy Office is the eyes and ears on our California legislature, and Youth Advocacy Day is presented in that spirit. It teaches young conservatives they can have a say in the direction taken by our legislative representatives if they participate in the process. (more…)