Old Line Elephant Maryland Conservative Blog

Old Line Elephant News Roundup: 1/7/13

Since I haven't done this in a while and there are a few various articles I wanted to comment on simultaneously, I decided to prepare a news roundup around the internet. Let's go through all the news I feel you should know about. At least for today.

• In Maryland news, legislators in Annapolis passed with minimal fanfare legislation to further dilute property rights last year. Dan Bongino has an excellent opinion piece at Watchdog Wire. Read it, it's informative.
• Also in Maryland, let's talk about waste. I began my 2013 legislative session foray into discussing waste with a critical eye to EJ Pipkin's $500k toward a private school in Queen Anne's County. Check it out.
• I recently wrote a piece about why I think Don Dwyer should resign. Monoblogue responded to my piece, saying, "Certainly Dwyer has serious charges against him, but I would rather wait until his day in court has come and his fate is determined. Perhaps this was a ‘one-time occurrence’ which will not affect his performance in Annapolis.'...if Dwyer is convicted I may change my mind. But the facts in the case seem to suggest the other boater was perhaps more at fault for the accident which left five children and Dwyer injured, so I think caution is in order." I disagree. Dwyer admitted to being drunk behind the wheel. Additionally, it matters very little that Dwyer may not be at fault, in my opinion, what matters is Dwyer violated the law willingly.
• Over the weekend, a group of conservatives on Twitter put together some "O'Malley Proverbs" - you can read them at Red Maryland. Thanks to Mark Newgent for compiling them.
• Speaking of Red Maryland - they have a detailed 2014 poll out about a variety of issues facing conservatives, including people's thoughts on the 2014 GOP Gubernatorial primary, Attorney General primary, etc. Check it out and vote!
• In New York State - it appears Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) or someone in his administration was trying to squash / hide a study completed by his administration which showed that hydrofracking would be safe to conduct in New York State. Kind of hurts the anti-fracking narrative when a liberal Governor's own administration proves it's safe by their own, independent studies.
• The Census Bureau has some fascinating statistics if you really want to delve into the cross-tabs / details. Here's some information on marriage. Most interest item I saw was that in 2008, the percentage of divorces to marriages was 39%. That's down from a high of nearly 50% in the late nineties and also a major step in the right direction. The preservation of marriage is what the pro-traditional marriage crowd (myself included) need to focus on. We should be calling out those who treat marriage as a flippant institution and not a lifelong commitment to another person. We should be opposing no-fault divorce proceedings.
• Love the original Star Wars trilogy? Check out these pretty sweet maps walking through each character in the films. Well, at least every major character. Very cool maps.
• Dave Miller of SBC Voices wrote an interesting piece on Christian actions in, what he calls a more non-Christian America. It's an interesting piece worth a read and definitely worth considering.
• TIME wrote a cover story piece stating that the pro-choice movement is...losing the argument. Bottom line, according to TIME, was they had a big milestone with Roe v Wade, but public opinion has been supportive of restrictions on abortion ever since. I say, good. Trevin Wax of the Gospel Coalition has a bit more commentary on the topic here.
• Speaking about life issues, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has proposed legislation to prevent Planned Parenthood from getting federal funding. Again, I say, good. When talking on the topic, Blackburn recently said, "As a woman, I believe America deserves better than abortion. America shouldn’t celebrate abortion and our taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, who profit from the destruction of human life with taxpayer money." As a pro-life gentleman, I agree.

Any news I missed? Let me know in the comments or comment on the issues / articles I posted.