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I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair.
--Clint Eastwood
As I was starting my daily walk this last Saturday I noticed an elderly man rummaging through one of the apartment complex's dumpsters, salvaging recyclable cans and plastic bottles. Being the curious person I am, I started up a conversation, which the man (his name is Salvatore, but his friends call him Sal) mistakenly understood to mean that I wanted to hear his entire life story. I stood there for somewhere around fifteen or twenty minutes listening to his garbled diatribe against the United States, even though it was difficult to understand his thick Spanish accent.
It seems that Sal emigrated to the U.S. from San Salvadore in El Salvadore when he was younger and settled in California where he lived until an industrial accident disabled him, for which he was granted a settlement of $75,000. Of course, with rent, buying food and clothing, and the many expenses of living, this lasted only a short time.
Then his daughter talked him into coming to Tucson a few years ago to live with her. His biggest complaint was that when he lived in California he received $800 a month in subsistence aid from the government plus $80 in food stamps. But when he came to Tucson this aid was cut to only $600 a month and food stamps cut to $60. He said that if it wasn't for his daughter's job that pays the rent and buys the groceries, he couldn't make it because everything costs so much, even with his cans and bottle business, which earns him only a couple hundred dollars each month. And gasoline for his business mini-van is so very expensive.
Salvatore considers himself a white man, and he says Obama wants to give everything to the black man. And now, for the first time in his life, Sal is going to be forced to pay for health insurance.
Salvatore was (and still is) extremely upset with the government.
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Did You Know . . .?
A lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of preventable death world wide.
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HISTORICAL EVENT
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WORD FOR TODAY
libertarian
noun
a person who believes that people should be allowed to do and say what they want without any interference from the government
According to Wikipedia, Libertarianism (Latin: liber, free) is a classification of political philosophies that uphold liberty as their principal objective. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgment.
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
(born June 30, 1966)
Mike Tyson is an American retired professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old.
(June 30, 1917 - May 9, 2010)
Lena Horne was an American singer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.
(born June 30, 1956)
DAG is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color.
(born June 30, 1982)
Lizzy Caplan is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as Mean Girls (2004), Cloverfield (2008), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), and Bachelorette (2012).
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Libertarians are essentially what the Republicans were 30 years ago. Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan. They'd all fit more under the Libertarian label than the modern day Republican label.
--Drew Carey
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