On one of our drives to Pine Valley, Stephanie and I decided to download the new Book by John Stossel, "No They Can't". It is an obvious reference to Barak Obama's "Yes we can" slogan.
I highly recommend this reading. In fact, I feel it was this book that closed the books on me being a conservative and becoming more a libertarian. On that note, I still don't see me voting for Ron Paul, even though I believe a lot of what he talks about, but the problem in todays world (sad to say) he is not a candidate that can really capture a "spirit" of my emotion when he talks. He sounds like a complainer. I also don't agree with his stand on the war and on the boarder.
I have always loved to hear John talk on his segments on 20/20 called "Give Me A Break". He always seemed very logical and I feel he is one of the last great objective, calling-it-like-it-is reporters we have.
My favorite part of his book (and most life changing part) was when he complained that conservatives always want to legislate morality, ie drugs, abortion, underage sex, porn, etc, which is fine. But if you do that, you are using the same powers that liberals use when they want to legislate things like what you eat, going green and how much money you make. So if you do one, expect the other.
The best thing for both is to leave government alone. Let government fight the wars and take care of the roads and that's it (I'm being general in that statement, but you get the point) Even if you legislate a law where government reduces it's involvement in some activity, you are still involving government. I would prefer a do-nothing congress.
When you are at a point where government officials shut down a little girls' lemonade stand because she doesn't have the proper permit, you know it's time to reduce government, even if it hurts.
One of the surprising, yet convincing, arguments Stossel makes is legalizing drugs. Honestly, would drug use all of a sudden skyrocket? It might spike, but the truth is, if you want drugs, you will find it. If you don't, you are doing the country a favor. Plus, with all of the problems we are having on the border, just think of how that would subside.
Most of the topics Stossel tackles are financially related, on how much better and richer the country would be, and more free, if we stopped going to the government as the answer to our problems. This was definitely a good read.
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