Taking a Fist to a Gun Right? Another Sheriff the President Can’t Beat

January 30, 2013 in Ed Willing, Restoring Country, Uncategorized

By Ed Willing In light of the recent buzz surrounding Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke’s radio PSA on gun safety and crime-prevention, other local sheriffs have been brought into the mainstream with their own opinions. While a few law enforcement officers are vociferously opposed to the PSA and have thrown partisan attack jabs at the Milwaukee Sheriff, most have been supportive. One such local Sheriff is three-time elected Daniel Trawicki, from neigborhing County, Waukesha. On January 29th, he wrote an op-ed that was featured in the print edition of the Waukesha Freeman, a daily County newspaper. They feature the columns of many prominent, local leaders in the Conservative community. Below is one of the most reasonable and difficult-to-rebut cases for protecting the right to bear arms in a way that is normal, and wise. Not partisan, radical or dangerous. He joins Sheriff Clarke in trusting the people to be partners [...]

It’s Not About Hunting

December 19, 2012 in Ed Willing, Restoring Country

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory, and might I add, nor the bullet for its swift precision. I love only that which they defend.” – J.R.R. Tolkien The gun-control debate is once again on the front burner, as always, following a tragic media-gasm. Diane Feinstein is back to calling for bans of guns that aren’t even linked to the tragedies, Harry Reid is discussing debate on the Senate floor and NYC Mayor Michael “Big Gulp” Bloomberg is demanding the President take action without waiting for Congress. Meanwhile, at least one Congresswoman just flat out said “turn in your guns…” At least she had the spine to say such a witless thing. We want to protect the kids, no matter what. Left, Right, Democrat or Libertarian, everyone is appalled by the violence and wants to [...]

Federalism Isn’t Dead, and it’s Progressives Who Are Defending it

November 11, 2012 in Ed Willing, Restoring Country, Restoring Family, Restoring God

By Ed Willing Constitutionalists were far from confident that either result of the recent Presidential election would help restore the Founders’ intentions, but many were hoping that an Obama loss would at least slow the extinction. Especially in regard to Obamacare, Conservatives have put a lot of weight on winning federal elections to save what is left of our waning Republic. After a frustrating, suspect and humiliating loss, few noticed the victories for Federalism made across the country – by Progressives. While Obamacare looks to be intact, and in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June, the battles of Tuesday seemed to be the primary battlefield for Conservative reform. But consider something else, for a moment. The states of Colorado and Washington each approved the recreational use of marijuana, as a product to be regulated and taxed. This is in direct opposition to Federal statute (the Controlled Substances Act) [...]

Chains You Can Believe In

October 28, 2012 in Contributors, Ed Willing

By Ed Willing “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” – President Franklin Roosevelt, March 4, 1933 The world has designed itself to create many fears for today’s culture, whether by design, or by nature. Wars and rumors of wars, TV series about sleeper cells living next door, bird flu in your schools or on planes and murder in your neighborhoods wreak havoc on our collective psyche and have driven us to Prozac, counseling, or for some, video games. Anything to get our minds off the dangers that lie around us. Yet, we were promised a progressive society without fear, weren’t we? Most of us have been raised to not fear anything, and face obstacles. Yet, our culture is more afraid today than ever before. That is, afraid of anything but failure; fearing failure is not an option. Our society has made us wear seat belts, forbidden smoking, drinking [...]

Shareholders of the U.S., Unite!

September 13, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede Significant waste exists in the current US health care system. This should come as no surprise. An Associated Press article details a recent report conducted by the Institute of Medicine that found $750 billion in annual waste in the U.S. health care system, which means that for every dollar spent on health care, 30 cents is misused. The Institute found that waste existed in the following categories: unnecessary services ($210 billion annually), inefficient delivery of care ($130 billion), excess administrative costs ($190 billion), inflated prices ($105 billion), preventative failures ($55 billion) and fraud ($75 billion). Can you imagine if such a report was written about the ROI (return on investment) of Bain Capital? Or for that matter, if any publicly-traded company detailed similar annual financial results to its shareholders? In reality, we have President Obama promising to expand the government’s takeover of health care, making such bold [...]

Beyond the Surface: Spending and Deficits, Congressional Year Breakdown

September 4, 2012 in Economic Policy, Restoring Country, Restoring Family

By Kim Lewandowski In 2007, the Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995. For those who are listening to the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this: On January 3, 2007, the day the Democrats took control of Congress, the DOW Jones Industrial Average value was, at closing January 5, 2007: 12,398.01. Since then, from June 20, 2008 to January 28, 2011 it went well below 12,000 (as far down as 6,626.94 on March 6, 2009).  It is finally showing some signs of recovery, but even the current Dow is inflated by virtually free money and the cash-printing of the Fed. The GDP: For the last quarter of 2006 was 3.5%. And for the first quarter of 2012 is 2.2%. The Unemployment rate:  Was 4.6% in January of 2007, and at 8.1% currently.  Please note [...]

Class (Civil) Warfare

August 20, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede The only class the Elite Left despises is the wealthy elite they don’t control. The rich. The target of the left. The fat cats, Wall Street, greedy, old white men who laugh in the face of hungry children and scheme behind closed doors with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to split commissions on the next big tax break. The trust-fund babies who didn’t build that; the heartless no-gooders who refuse to give to charitable organizations that won’t benefit their own coffers. The CEOs who only care about making a profit rather than hire hard-working single mothers. Thank goodness for Democrats. For without their audacity and shining example of words, not deeds, we would be led off the cliff like a pack of possessed pigs. Because of the hard-working liberal media, professors and politicians, we know the truth. Money is not earned, it is taken; the 1% are [...]

Repeal and Repeat: A Brief History Lesson

July 16, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede I will never forget what my dad told me the night my high school basketball team won the Wisconsin Division I State Championship: “you’ll appreciate this more as time goes on.” At the time, I didn’t think that was possible, but thirteen years later, he was right (as usual). Today I marvel at what my team accomplished because I understand what a rare opportunity it was to play with such talented female athletes, but also because we overcame so many obstacles in order to cut down those nets. Such victories grow sweeter with time. And over time we will marvel about what took place in Wisconsin on June 5, 2012. Sure, we reelected Scott Walker in a heated recall election, and I don’t intend to re-hash the significance of this victory here, but it’s worth noting what the fiscally-responsible voters overcame, because we will need the same [...]

Direct Corruption: The Seventeeth Amendment

July 5, 2012 in Ed Willing, Uncategorized

By Ed Willing No doubt, the last several years in America have been challenging to everyone, on all sides. It has both challenged those on the left as they see so many millions question their policies and principles, and has infuriated said millions on the right because they cannot believe how quickly America has turned away from its founding principles. Both sides agree there’s problems in education, costs of health care and national security – they differ widely in how to address them. Interestingly, their differences are not usually as wide as they think. In policy, yes; in principle, no. Experiments in government benevolence are nothing new, and neither are the poor and needy. Jesus of Nazareth said, “you will always have the poor among you,” and Apostle Paul said “your plenty will supply what they need.” So we as Americans, an overwhelmingly religious people have invented many ways to [...]

Wisconsin’s Revolt on Democracy

June 5, 2012 in Ed Willing, Uncategorized

By Ed Willing   DEMOCRACY: FREEDOM, OR COLLECTIVE SUICIDE? Almost 198 years ago to the month, April 1814, in a letter to John Taylor, the second President of the United States, John Adams made an astute observation amidst calls for more democratic reform: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Our nation was merely 25 yrs old at this point, and yet he was terrified of lessons history taught him about the so-called virtues of mass democracy. He worked his entire political life arguing for the true virtue of a Democratic Republic; a system in which the people created their government, but the minority and majority were both protected from the feverish winds of hysterical whim and epidemic-like, collective voices.” GROUND-ZERO Today, I sit in Wisconsin, a marvel of a state that has had [...]