Video Podcasts

394 – Placing Politics Above Children?

Studies show that the best outcomes for children is to live in a home with their married parents. If the world were perfect, then all children would have that chance. But the world isn’t perfect, and either by accident or as the consequences of the actions of adults, children will be in need of people to step in for their parents. In our modern society, the role of finding homes for these children has been filled by the state government. What happens when those government entities place politics above the needs of their charges? A recent case in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts deals with that very topic. Plaintiffs Michael and Catherine Burke claim that the State of Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) discriminated against them in their application to become foster parents for religious reasons. When I looked at the case what I saw wasn’t so much religious discrimination, but DCF placing political viewpoints above not only the Constitution of Massachusetts, but what is best for the children in their care.

393 – Public Recording

Do you have a right to record people in public? A recent case out of Oregon asked that very question, can states restrict who and when people can record the conversations in public. Oregon law prohibiting recording public conversation except in certain limited circumstances was challenged by Project Veritas. As is so often the case, both the legal challenges and judicial opinion make some questionable constitutional claims. This is why we’re going to look at the opinion of the Ninth Circuit Court Panel and decide for ourselves, does recording the public conversations of others violate the law or does the law violate the Constitution?

392 – Your Right to Remain Silent

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…

Miranda Warning

If you’ve ever been taken into custody, or simply watched a crime procedural on TV, you’re familiar with the Miranda warning, named after the 1966 Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona. However, if you’re getting your legal advice from television, you may find yourself in serious legal trouble. Where does this right to remain silent come from, how is it protected, and just how constitutional is the Miranda decision?

391 – Primary Control

As i write this, the United States is deep into the primary season for the 2024 Presidential Election. There is more than enough news, polls, allegations, recriminations, and influence peddling bombarding the American people, and will continue to do so, probably until the middle of next year. While most Americans have an idea of how the primary system works, it is usually superficial, incomplete, and ignores the fundamental purpose of election primaries, control of the election process.

390 – Civil Asset Forfeiture, Policing for Profit

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Several years ago I wrote an article about the Battle of Athens, TN. In the article I showed the corruption in McMinn County Sheriff’s Department, where the Sheriff and his deputies did not receive a salary, but were paid for everyone they booked, incarcerated, and released. This perverse incentive let to deputies routinely boarding buses to “fine” and jail the passengers for any alleged violations they could come up with. When subject to this corruption, many GIs returning from World War II were led to challenge the corrupt county Sheriff and other office holders. This challenge led not only to an embattled election, but an armed uprising in an attempt to restore the rule of law.

389 – Is Your State Committing Fraud in Presidential Elections?

I was having a discussion with someone online about how we elect the President and Vice President of the United States. I was doing some research to reinforce my point when I discovered something interesting, a state which had a fraudulent ballot in 2020. Thinking this was probably an individual mistake, I started looking at the sample ballots from each state in the 2020 election. I found mistakes in not just one state, or a handful of states, but in two-thirds of the state’s ballots. Which leads me to believe these may not be mistakes at all, but fraud committed by the states in regards to electing the President and Vice President of the United States.

388 – Executive Orders or Edicts?

President Obama famously said:

“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation,… I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone…and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions.”

President Obama on CBS News

This is a perfect example of executive overreach should go down in history as the abuse of a President’s executive power to usurp the powers of other branches

387 – Honoring Constitution Day

Yesterday, September 17, 2023 was the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States. Did you, your family, or your neighbors honor that day? Have you considered what parts of your life you enjoy because of that documents and the 27 amendments that have been made to it? Have you considered what your life, and that of your family, would be like should that document continue its fall into obscurity? To paraphrase William Shakespeare, “It was a constitution, take it for all in all, I shall not look upon its like again.”
Today, I want to take sometime to consider not only what life would be like with a neutered and disabled Constitution, but what we are willing to do in order to keep it, and the protection of our rights it affords, alive and well in America. In our national anthem, we proclaim that the United Staters of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. If we let the Constitution fall, then we will no longer be the land of the free, because We the People have not been brave.