A review of the sounds of the week...Cruz, Durbin, Harkin, and the Broken Window Fallacy.And a bunch of Iowans agree with Harkin on the mood of Americans.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-27.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:24pm CDT

 Joel Feldman is the founder of End Distracted Driving.  Touring the country to raise awareness of the danger.  Bruce Friedrich is senior director of advocacy of Farm Sanctuary...says Congressman Steve King is violating state's rights with his amendment to the Farm Bill.  

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-26.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:44pm CDT

 Newt Gingrich, new co-host of CNN's Crossfire talks about Obamacare.  So does  Betsy McCaughey...so do Iowans.  Iowans wonder about the Senator Ted Cruz filibuster.  Vigorous

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-25.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:32pm CDT

After my dad passed, I found his old Iowa Liquor Permit in his effects.  After Prohibition was voted out of existence by a public sick of the war on booze, Iowa couldn’t bring itself to completely release its nanny grip on alcohol.  Iowa said, “While we can’t make alcohol illegal--we tried--we failed.  We can still make some rules.  Drinking isn’t a right; it’s a privilege we can regulate.”   So Iowa began its long experiment with State Liquor Stores selling booze only to those holding a valid “permit”—a booklet recording every purchase. On the back page of the booklet was a list of rules:

      “No liquor may be consumed where purchased, nor during transportation, nor upon any street or highway, nor in any public place.  This permit may be revoked if you are guilty of:

1.        Drunkenness.

2.        Pretending to be intoxicated.

3.        Failure to support family or dependents.

4.        Desertion of family or dependents.

5.        Commission of any crime in which liquor contributes.

6         Allowing any person other than yourself to use this permit, for it is personal to you and not transferable.

                   Be Temperate and Obey the Law.

 As an aside, there were no liquor purchases in my dad’s permit book.  Instead he used it as a diary while he was in Burma during the war. 1944-1945

 In 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, but it took until 1987 for Iowa to release its grip, closing the State Stores and opening liquor sales to the private sector.  (It still controls supply at the wholesale level.)

 A couple of these rules are intriguing though.  Iowans were so bent on preventing the destructive power of alcohol that even if you “pretended” to be drunk, you’d lose your permit, and if you failed to support your family or deserted your dependents, then no booze for you.

My inner nanny loves those notions.  But my inner free American citizen (not subject) is revolted by them.  That generation grudgingly learned its lesson:  If the power of government is strong enough to extract virtue, it is strong enough to compel anything, including the removal your freedom.  While Iowa nannies (Methodists) did give up on liquor prohibition, Iowa didn’t give up on the revenue derived from liquor sales.  And she tightened her grip on a long list of other controlled substances…lesson pending.  The nanny gene isn’t recessive.  It’s dominant.  It may skip a generation or two, but it often comes roaring back.

I love Alaska.  I’ll watch almost anything on TV about it.  Alaska State Troopers may be one of the best things out there.  It could be a college level course on human nature--Squalor and Beauty 101.   Watch the episode, “Armed and Bootlegging”.  From the National Geographic webpage, “As of 2011, 34 counties in Alaska have voted to ban the possession, sale, importation and manufacturing of alcohol.  In some rural Alaskan communities, the high rate of alcohol abuse has led voters to ban, not just homebrew and alcohol, but the possession of homebrew supplies.  It is a misdemeanor offense in some Alaskan villages to possess yeast and sugar in pound quantities with the intent to make alcohol.”

How is it working?  Just watch Alaska State Troopers.  The highway patrol has been drafted into the liquor enforcement business.  The native “subsistence fisherman” have been converted into bootleggers.  Formerly the jails filled up with alcohol abusers.   Now they are building more jail cells for bootleggers.   As the troopers haul dads and moms away to jail the officers tell the crying children at the door, “We are just trying to help your daddy and mommy...we are helping them.”     BTW, if the highest aspiration of a village or people is “subsistence” then alcoholism is the least of their problems.  

The nanny grip upon native Alaskans shows no signs of loosening as prohibition shows no sign of working any better in Alaska than it did in Iowa, Chicago or Russia.  Plus, Alaska confirms an even older principle:  “We get more of what we subsidize.”    Take it from someone who lives in Iowa.

 

Category:general -- posted at: 8:25am CDT

Rhonda Philips invites folks to the Iowa Right to Life Final Book Sale...Jordan Park Camp building--2251 Fuller Road, West Des Moines...afternoon at 4.  Shane Vander Hart says a big thistle to the Register's worries about homeschoolers.   Congressman Steve King responds to a Gross attack.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-24.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:19pm CDT

Senator Chuck Grassley says he will run for re-election.  70% of responders say its a good idea.  Republican insider Doug Gross says Congressman Steve King doesn't represent the Iowa Republican Party.  Samuel Gregg is a  Tea Party Catholic.   Whazzat?

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-23.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:29pm CDT

Hypnosis to help with hot flashes?  Dr. Alan Koslow is convinced it works.  Ray Thompson is a hypnotherapist.   They say science now says hypnosis is effective in dealing with hotflashes.    Then, a follow-up on a caller who was busted for speeding and his gun was confiscated.  The rest of the story.  Then,  the Whizbang chicken-plucker.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:58pm CDT

Joshua Academy begins its 5th year and is expanding...the good news.  Rev. Keith Ratcliff and Chris Hurley.  The New York Times says Wall Street is exploiting ethanol credits...Scott Mickelson explains the techie stuff.  Senator Rand Paul tries to figure out what Obama meant when he said raising the debt ceiling doesn't mean more debt.   Then, Iowa Fraud Fighters...Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart... and  a caller says his gun was registered and confiscated at a traffic stop...what the heck?

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:28pm CDT

Taylor Baldwin Kiland was in the Navy Yard during the attack...she brings "Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton"...why some people thrive, why others collapse.  Clayton Cramer says Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill is still killing innocent bystanders.  Rep Walt Rogers wants to be a Congressman.  And an Iowa pig farmer is making national news.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-18.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:50pm CDT

The crazy disinformation on the internet...mental illness taken seriously enough?   Ilan Berman says Russian is facing Implosion...The End of Russia and What it Means for America.  And Des Moines rate payers won the battle,  but are about to lose the war...but should we pay the lawyers anyhow?  

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-17.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:28pm CDT

 A theologian, philosopher, and educator, from the last century Rousas Rushdooney wrote, “The messianic character of education has not changed, its mission has expanded exponentially, but its effects have been perverse.”   The messiah’s daddy,  Horace Mann, said, “The Public (Common) School is the greatest discovery ever made by man…other social organizations are curative and remedial…public education is a preventative and antidote…”

 Speaking of the kids, Mann wrote, “…teach him the facts about his body, and youth will be less tempted by gin, swearing and tobacco.”    Add to that list, teenage sexual irresponsibility, illicit drugs and bullying.    Mann promised, “…let the public school be expanded to its capabilities…and nine-tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete…”

.......

 Read the rest of my  latest column on Lew Rockwell...

Category:general -- posted at: 8:02am CDT

Msgr. Frank Bognanno explains what the Pope meant when he wrote that atheists can go to heaven even if they dis-believe as long as they keep their own conscience.   Then,  Thomas Pyle says Obama should put the Keystone Pipeline back on tract.  

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-16.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:14pm CDT

 Sam Clovis is running for US Senate.   Issues...spirited conversation.   Then,  the bully seminar movement is expanding...so is bullying.   The science observes that bullying increases after schools run the programs.   Then,  "Is the Pope Catholic?"  Talking about some confusing papal statements.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm CDT

Trying to fix what's busted in the prison system... Suzanne McComas...uncommon sense.   Emad Shenouda is a Coptic Christian Iowan, explaining the risk Christians in Islamist countries face every day.  And Sheriff Warren Wethington says he's fine with the blind getting permits to carry. 

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-12.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:24pm CDT

 Emily Gets Her Gun...Emily Miller talks about the 2nd Amendment and her dust-up with Piers Morgan on Iowa gun laws allowing the blind to carry guns.  Congressman Steve King on his Egyptian fact finding trip.   Matt Whitaker, Senate candidate--issues.  

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-11.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:05pm CDT

Dr. David Perlmutter busts the "Grain Brain"...says dementia comes by the spoonful.  Ron Packard says K-12 says online schooling already exists and is capable of giving kids a great start right here in Iowa.  And Iowans are still thinking about the blind guy who is packin' heat.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-10.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:09pm CDT

 Frugal Isn't Cheap...Clare Levinson gives some practical money advice.  J.D. King  reports on "Crying Wolf"...how environmental zealots have almost destroyed the US elk and moose populations.   And giving a gun license to a blind guy?  

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-09.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:32pm CDT

Jamie Johnson... Rev Cary Gordon... waging the culture war...vigorous.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-03.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:30pm CDT

Scott Raecker from Character Counts...Labor Day conversation.

Direct download: mickelson-2013-09-02.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:00pm CDT

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