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Politicians don’t own you or me

Politicians tax what we earn, regulate what we build and often decide what we can do with our bodies and our money. I like to think I own myself. But politicians increasingly act as if they do. "People should not have power over other people's lives," says Timothy Sandefur, author of the book "You Don't Own Me." In my latest video, Sandefur challenges the attitude that "freedom belongs to the government and it can parcel it out to us." He starts with building permits. "A building permit really says, you're not allowed to build on your own property until the government ...

Holidays’ messages include value of resilience

We are in the midst of what is, for many Americans, one of the holiest times of the year. Our Jewish neighbors are observing Passover, which commemorates the resilience of their community in the face of Egyptian oppression thousands of years ago. Meanwhile, Christians in our communities will celebrate Easter Sunday — the occasion of Christ’s resurrection, three days after Good Friday, when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the authorities. While the details of these commemorations are, of course, different, both speak to a shared virtue — a virtue we believe people of all faiths ...

Humanity won on that Easter long ago

Believers in the Scriptures wake up on Easter morning knowing that if they will be attending a church service, they will hear a by-now-familiar message about the frantic pre-dawn moments of the first Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago. A familiar message, yes, but one that does not get boring or otherwise “old.” “On the first day of the week,” according to the gospel of John, “Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and ...

Truth about a balanced, strong budget

The math is supposed to be simple. Know how much money is coming in. Don’t spend more than that. But let’s be honest. That can be a challenge for a family of four. It doesn’t get easier when you are talking about a government responsible for thousands — or millions — of people. In reality, it is never that clean. We see it everywhere, every year. The federal government is constantly coming to blows over budgets and fiscal cliffs. Just ask Transportation Security Administration employees who just missed another paycheck Friday. Pennsylvania’s inability to pass a budget on ...

Waivers no factor in smoking rates

Chautauqua County officials want to push the remaining organizations that have indoor smoking waivers to go smokefree. Smoking indoors in public places became largely illegal in New York state with the passage of the Clean Indoor Air Act on July 24, 2003, banning smoking in most workplaces, restaurants, and bars. There are five remaining private organizations with waivers to allow indoor smoking – and those five clubs will begin paying more for the privilege: $300 annually to $650 in 2026, and to $1,000 in 2027. We can’t argue with the health benefits of going smokefree. There are ...

Neighboring state’s gun control push too rushed for comfort

Advocates for gun control have pushed more than a dozen separate bills through Virginia’s state legislature in less than two months. We must question if these proposals are truly being carefully deliberated upon. Some of these changes, such as bans on long-legal types of firearms, deserve more transparent debate in any legislature than what this rush by Virginia’s lawmakers has allowed. As we have editorialized in the past, much of what skeptics about our Second Amendment and our right to keep and bear arms envision simply isn’t possible in a free society — we fear the ...