Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald March 28, 2011
President Obama recently started another illegal war. We’ve already had several such wars in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly secretly elsewhere, that are drawing a great price in our dead children and the financial costs that have already pushed our poor financial condition to the brink.
The president has taken the further acts of war by just sending forces against Libya, stirring up another war so he can be a war president, too.
Congress has been trying to get our fiscal future in order. Is that over? It appears that in the flash of brilliance that recently hit Washington, our “rulers” might actually have moved our nation closer to a crisis that we might not recover from. More »

Published Brownsville Herald March 14, 2011

Last weekend exploded into some real community politics that I thought was being washed from our community by changes at the polls. However, it seems that the “the government has to do it for me” attitude still prevails in our community and there are those that want to become the “middle men” in the process to advance heir own interests in spite of what the electorate wants.
One instance erupted at a meeting held at Senator Eddie Lucio Jr.’s office, at the unreasonable time of 8:30 a.m. last Sunday! It was billed as a factfinding meeting, to consider the concerns of those Texas Southmost College trustees who had voted against a revamped partnership between the UT System and the community college.
Some observers perceived that Sen. Lucio, Rep. Eddie Lucio III and State Rep. Rene Oliveira had summoned TSC trustees Trey Mendez, Adela Garza and Chairman Kiko Rendon for some oldfashioned arm-twisting. More »

Published Brownsville Herald February 29, 2011

The best possible circumstances all result from free trade; the worst result from nanny government control. Those in favor of socialism often mis-describe, or just misunderstand, international trade.
A September letter to the editor from Jesse Dorsett asserted that if President Lincoln were alive today he would have added to his quote, “If you love labor, if you value the work of the American worker, then you have to hate free trade. …”
Shortly after I retired from a career with the U.S. Customs Service, where I was involved in enforcing our trade requirements, I taught a practical program in international trade at the University of Texas at Brownsville. During that program we examined and dispelled many policies such as the need to severely restrict and control trade to protect jobs.
Further, I cannot support any concept based on hate and have found that folks capable of attaching such an intense hostility find it difficult to accept reason and support acting out as a solution.
The most dangerous enemy to labor in this country is government control and standardization; not free trade! More »