Only a few weeks are left in this semester, so it’s time to start saying the things which I think are most important to be said before students spend the next three months gloriously basking in the summer sun.
Before I jump right in, a note about last week’s column.
A letter in Monday’s issue made a good point that my descriptions about the difference between Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies were lacking.
This was mainly due to trying to explain them as briefly as possible while getting on the topic of the bankruptcy bill itself.
To clear any confusion up, this is the ber-short version of each type of bankruptcy.
Chapter 7 means that all of your assets, minus things like your car and house (typically) are liquidated. Any debt left over after this process is forgiven, and the person starts with a “clean slate.” This is good for those with few assets to begin with or those with very large debts.
Chapter 13 is a repayment plan over three to five years. Chapter 13 is good if your income is high enough to allow you to pay off your debts over that time and still survive. If you are unable to pay them off in time, all of your assets are fair game, including your house and car.
A good rule of thumb is that if your disposable income over the time span is enough to pay back debts, then Chapter 13 is a good choice.
Also, under Chapter 13, your creditors can allow you to pay less than your full debt, but are under no obligation to.
In any case, I felt obligated to make that point since the letter in Monday’s edition did make a good point about the vagueness of my descriptions last week.
Now, on to this week’s topic: – general ranting and ravings. Nothing really specific, just ranting this week.
My first rant deals with the seemingly continuous claims that liberals are somehow “anti-American.” Of course, for liberals to be anti-American, one has to actually define what the term means.
To those making the anti-American claim, the definition tends to be “if you don’t agree with Bush, you’re anti-American.”
Of course this definition is silly because the right to dissent is a critical freedom given to us in the First Amendment.
So, what does the term mean?
The United States is a nation, which is whatever its citizens make it to be. That is one of the wonders of a democracy.
However, with the ability to let the people decide what the United States is comes the fact that people we disagree with may be the ones making the decisions.
The mere fact that one has an opinion is not anti-American, no matter what that opinion may be.
The reason for this is that freedom of independent thought is one of the things that the very foundation of American democracy is built upon.
My second rant of the day is on the so-called liberal media.
Before the election, while I would have disputed the claim that the media was liberal, I would have been uncomfortable with the claim that the media is conservative.
However, upon my discovery of a prominent liberal blog, the Daily Kos, I have changed my opinion.
It is utterly shocking to me how many stories may get published somewhere which reveal things which many people would be utterly outraged about, yet the mainstream media completely and utterly refuses to report on it.
How many people out there know that many people interviewed by CBS in an attempt to validate the memos that started “Rathergate” actually confirmed that the content of the memos were true?
Not many because it wasn’t covered.
Also, who was ultimately responsible for the memo?
While there isn’t much evidence pointing to any particular person, the most evidence may be pointing to Bush’s point man himself, Karl Rove.
The press doesn’t even bother to consider the idea, much less investigate or report on it.
Also, I have yet to see the press note that, while Bush felt it important to attend the Pope’s funeral, mostly with glazed over eyes (just look at the pictures of it), that Bush has yet to attend even a single of the more than 1,500 funerals for our servicemen who have been killed in Iraq, a war which, by the way, the Pope vehemently opposed.
This concludes this episode of crazy liberal ranting.
Tune in next week for – well, I don’t know yet. Just tune in next week.
After all, it’s un-American for you not to.

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