Thursday, September 1, 2011

So, How Do You Know When Your Blog Misses One Mark and Hits Too Many Others?

When you have to explain it to a Danish friend?
Nope.
When you have to explain it to your HUSBAND!
(AND, when the explanation is longer than the original blog...)

I previously set out to write a "book report" on Rick Perry's book, FED UP!

I even drew a picture of Perry as John C.Calhoun, which further confused everyone.

So, here's my explanation to Leif, my Danish friend, of the offending blog. I hope it will enlighten some of my other flummoxed readers as well.

Great Dane--

I drew Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is running for President, as John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina senator who led SC to be the first state to secede from the Union in 1861, igniting the Civil War. (And we all know how well THAT turned out for South Carolina!)

The reason Calhoun gave for his actions was "state's rights"--by which he meant the right of any state to declare any Federal Law null and void.
The U S Senate voted against that notion, because the U S Constitution gives the states power only over property and interstate commerce, among other seemingly piddly things.

Calhoun then opined that states could therefore ignore Federal orders regarding slavery because slaves were "property" and that the institution of slavery could not be legally weakened by any Federal law. And--by the way--states also had the right to "secede" from the Union if they felt that their "rights" (in this case, the right to hold slaves), were violated.

So--Rick Perry, the Texas Governor, has written that he thinks the Federal Government sticks its nose into the business of the states way too much. Many states, including South Carolina, agree, and are happy to reject Federal funds for education and Health Care because, as they say, there are "too many strings attached.".

They don't wish to comply with such Federal regulations as: teaching Evolution in the schools; refraining from prayer in public settings (separation of church & state--1st Ammendment to the Constitution, first article of the Bill of Rights); mandating that states regulate the pollution they produce; insisting that all industries comply with workplace safety regulations; and the administration of health care and other federal programs the way that the US Government believes they should be administered.

So, even though the taxpayers of all the states contribute to the funds offered by the government, the ultraconservative leaders of South Carolina and other states proudly reject the money anyway.

Rick Perry's book (about which the blog was written), places a great deal of importance on the notion of states' rights. He bases his argument on the Tenth Ammendment to the Constitution, which stipulates that any powers not specifically granted to the United States, nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution, belong to the states.

I am comparing Rick Perry--and have drawn him--as S C's John C. Calhoun for that reason. His disdain for the very Federal Government he is running to lead makes him imminently unfit to hold the office he seeks.
I probably bit off more than I could chew with all that. I need to keep these blogs simpler.
Even Jim said it was too long...
Again, here's Rick Perry as J.C. Calhoun..the last drawing I 'll do with my right hand for a long, long time...



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