Rexburg Pork

One of the earmarks named in the latest spending bill includes $150,000 for renovations at Rexburg's Westwood Theater.

Congressman Simpson, I'm a fan, and I still will be, but eliminating pork has to start at home. Let's remove this from the bill, k?

The federal government has no business renovating a small-town theater.

NLS Thursday

Donna Oe from the Better Business Bureau will join me for the second segment on today's NLS. While there's plenty of legitimate negative business news going around, there are some bright spots and she'll tell us what they are!

Also, an unreal story about an Ashton man who intervened when a pack of wolves were attacking his dog.

And the Idaho State Journal printed a front page story today reporting that District 25 wants to save money by not having high school football games at Holt Arena. The three D25 high schools have had a luxury for years that most high schools do not, being able to play inside.

Renewed talk about a four-day school week in Bonneville District 93... some parents are hoping it doesn't happen and we'll open the phones for you on this as well...

Don't miss Thursday's packed program!

Hegelian Dialectic

I don't drink Mountain Dew, but if I were stranded in the desert and needed something to survive and I stumbled upon a case of it, I'd crack it open without hesitation.

I also don't normally steal loaves of bread from the local grocery store, but if I had to to make sure my family could eat, I would steal it in a heartbeat. (And probably find a way to pay them back later).

And finally, I'm not a jaywalker, but if a child is in the middle of the street, all the jaywalking laws in the world are out the window.

The truth is, in extreme situations we agree to do things we normally would not do otherwise. It's just human nature. If it involves Mountain Dew, a loaf of bread, or jaywalking, it's usually not a big deal.

But there's a tenet to advancing Marxism that is downright sinister, called the Hegelian Dialectic. There's a wordy political definition of this term, but I'll spare you that. In a nutshell, it's this: Political leaders will create crises that change perceptions, allowing them to implement policy solutions the masses would not condone otherwise. In most (if not all) cases the people surrender their power to the political leadership.

These political leaders understand basic human nature, that extreme situations will push us to cross into a realm that was once not acceptable.

Labor unions use a smaller version of the Hegelian Dialectic all the time. They work their membership into a frenzy, causing them to believe that they are overworked and underpaid in unacceptable conditions in order to galvanize workers into demanding more and more from the employer. After all, if workers are happy with their pay, their work, and their working conditions, why would a labor union be needed? There must be discontent in order for the union to survive. If the discontent does not naturally exist, then it must be created.

A few short years ago, the banking system was bullied into giving loans to people who could not afford them, under the guise of providing opportunity to the disadvantaged. Dollars were flowing so freely the banks didn't seem to care. We're now harvesting the fruits of this terrible policy. I used to think that the liberals were simply being shortsighted. Now I'm not so sure. Look what they have gained. A ruined economy has opened the door for them to implement this massive spending that not only purports to save the banking and financial sector, as well as homeowners facing foreclosure, but it also has provisions for universal health care and other big government programs.

While we could spend our time speculating whether this was calculated from the beginning, I'm not sure it really matters. The truth is that crises happen, and as Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." He may as well have said, "We're employing the Hegelian Dialectic to achieve our policy goals."

I hear a whole lot of people grumbling about how the stimulus isn't going to work. Those who understand the Hegelian Dialectic realize that it's not supposed to work. It's simply supposed to create another crisis that only our political leaders can fix, opening the door to more regulation and leftist policy solutions.

"Well let's just throw them out!" That sounds like a nice idea, but notice they don't take the blame for the problem, nor does the media hold them accountable. And sadly, people aren't analyzing the situation enough to realize the process that is underway.

Remember "Hegelian Dialectic". We're seeing it at work, globally, before our eyes.

Noon today

O'Reilly replacement to be announced

At the first of Tuesday's Neal Larson Show, we'll announce Bill O'Reilly's replacement. Who will it be? Tune in and find out Tuesday!

Monday NLS

On Monday's show we'll have the Good Samaritan gang on for the first half of the show for our expert network segment. I recently toured Good Sam's facility in Idaho Falls, was very impressed and I'll tell you about it on the program.

Since Friday's show was extremely busy, we didn't have time to air my taped interview with Senate Pro Tem Bob Geddes. We'll do that today during the last half of the program.

Just Landed: Ann Coulter

I've just scheduled Uber-opinion-maker Ann Coulter for Tuesday's Neal Larson Show... We'll talk the stimulus package, Obama's first month in office, her new book, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America, and whetever the heck Ann wants to talk about! Be sure to mark your calendars for a fabulous Tuesday Neal Larson Show!

Dean Miller fired

A few days ago the Post Register ran a front page story about a local woman who sells sex products. A link to her site revealed some pretty graphic pictures.

It's no coincidence that Dean Miller was subsequently fired Wednesday from the paper. I don't think that this one story was the entire reason, just the last straw. For years Miller has aired stories offensive to the local population -- and not just the LDS. In his mind, he probably thinks it's courageous. In some cases challenging people's belief systems is an act of courage, but in others it's a gratuitous attempt to offend.

While Dean Miller was away to Harvard a couple of years ago pursuing a self-styled degree about life in a "one-religion town", the Post Register seemed to be getting on track, covering the news in a sensitive way.

I believe that the Post Register has had a "come to Jesus" meeting with themselves, realizing that they may well be doomed by a combination of a bad economy and newspaper-unfriendly changes in society. They know that they can't afford to have an editor that compounds those problems by offending the very people who pay for their ink and paper.

I have no doubt that Miller is a talented individual, but belatedly the Post Register has realized he's not a fit for this community.

A very busy Friday!

Guess what? The Lincoln Day banquet is tonight and we'll be giving away tickets! We have several pairs so you're chances are good... Just listen in to ADD Friday for a chance to win!

We have a number of guests as well:

US Senator Jim Risch will spend a few minutes with us to talk about his vocal opposition to the economic stimulus package, plus his visit to East Idaho today.

We'll also hear from Senate Pro Tem Bob Geddes. Now that it looks like Idaho could get up to $1 Billion from the stimulus money, what will legislators do, torn between principle and practicality...

And of course we'll be hearing from Marsha Bjorn, chair of the Region VII GOP giving us a preview of tonight's banquet.

Justice for sex offenders...

When I've talked about sex offenders and what to do with them on the Neal Larson Show, responses from listeners vary. Some of them are with me, believing that we must not sacrifice our children's safety for leniency with this category of criminals -- not so much to extract misery and punishment from the offender, but to ensure the well-being of our children, who already have enough challenges simply growing up in this world.

Others apply a sense of compassion to them, believing all can change, or perhaps denying the reality of terribly high recidivism rates among child sex offenders.

Whatever the case may be, most of us have only the power of our opinions, voices, and votes when it comes to justice for those who offend our children. Few in our society have the direct power to imprison these deviants. We'll talk with one of them, Judge Joel Tingey, on Thursday's NLS, and we'll explore all the different factors that must be weighed before removing from -- or reintroducing to -- society a sex offender.

Greedy Slimy Lawyers

I know many attorneys who are fine people, so I hope the decent lawyers will forgive me while I vent for a moment.

I heard from Paul Steed yesterday. Idaho's law that deals with the "injury to a child" charge is vague. Adults who molest children will plead down at times to this crime. When they do this they are sentenced but will not be placed on the sex offender list, and virtually nobody knows that they have a tendency to sexually harm children.

Some defense lawyers have been building reputations and making lots of money because of this vague portion of Idaho's law.

Paul has been working to include a special classification in the child injury provision that would address sex crimes. And guess what? He's getting some opposition from defense attorneys and even prosecutors who think they should have "prosecutorial discretion."

Do you know what this means? Your neighbor may have molested a child, pleaded down to a lesser charge, and now he's not on the sex offender list. Could this put your child at risk? You bet it could, and attorneys are ok with it because they keep getting business from perverts who don't want to have the stigma of being on "The List".

We'll be talking with Paul Steed on Tuesday's show for a few minutes about this opposition.

ADD Friday.. the four day school week

There are a couple of significant pros of having a four-day school week, and a slew of cons... We'll talk about them and chat with District 93's Superintendent Chuck Shackett on to discuss the idea.

But, get a load of these other topics:
District 25's levy failed... now what?
Voting on the stimulus without being able to read it.
Wolf PACK spotted near Ashton.

Email for Extreme Makeover nominations

You can send your nominations for Extreme Makeover Home Edition to idahocasting@gmail.com. Be sure to include the family members' names, ages, and pictures of the home, inside and out. Good Luck!

Extreme Makeover, Legislative update

First of all, Happy Birthday President Lincoln! You founded a great political party and freed the slaves. A true President indeed.

Today we'll have Evan Majors from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to talk about finding a family in Idaho to help out. We'll give details about how you can nominate someone.

Plus we've rescheduled our legislative update for today... it's penciled in.

Aside from that, there's plenty to discuss, from District 93's serious consideration of shortening its school week from five to four days, as well as the legislature's response to the Governor's transportation package.

Change...

Several have sent me this video... worth your minute and 45 seconds:

Legislative Update, Fairness Doctrine

On Wednesday's NLS, we have another full hour.

Senator Dean Mortimer will join me from Boise. We'll talk about the latest with Idaho's mounting budget problems, the expansion of the grocery tax credit going by the wayside, the governor's transportation reccomendations, and more...

Plus, Senator Debbie Stabenow recently made it clear that she wants to hold hearings on reviving the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which makes putting political talk on the air so burdensome that station owners simply defer to bland programming, effectively killing conservative talk radio. We may be fighting for our survival as an industry.

Bullying, Stimulus on NLS

Coming up on Tuesday's NLS, we'll hear from Hilda Graham, a national school safety guru who will present a workshop in District 91 Wednesday night. She'll talk to us about bullying at school. It's a big problem, and it's disruptive and for some kids, it makes life a living hell. What do we do about it? We'll ask Hilda.

Plus, it's "Two-Mike" Tuesday! We'll hear from both Congressman Mike Simpson and Senator Mike Crapo about the massive stimulus package, which looks like will pass the Senate, then head back to conference so leaders from both houses can come to some agreement.

Coming up on NLS

On Monday's program we'll have our expert network guests in. First. Blake Bennion from Simmons Benefits Group will join us to talk about health insurance provided by employers. We'll also visit with Bill from the Wealth of Health Nutrition Center.

On Tuesday, Evan Majors will join us. He does casting for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and they're looking to redo a home for an Idaho Family. Plus we'll talk with Hilda Graham, a nationally recognized expert on school bullying. She's coming to Idaho Falls Wednesday for a workshop in District 91 and we'll talk about the bully problem in our local schools.

Paul Steed on NLS Friday

Paul Steed, a tireless advocate for tougher sex offender laws in Idaho, has been spending a lot of time in Boise lately, hoping to get a mandatory minimum sentence bill through this session. Paul will be in studio with me for the hour to talk about his efforts.

Fairness Doctrine Flare-up

Even though I like to believe that things don't change all that quickly, nowadays they do. As a conservative talk show host, I'm deeply concerned that robust political talk radio's survival may be at stake very soon. Yesterday Senator Debbie Stabenow was on liberal talk radio's Bill Press show, calling for senate hearings into re-establishing the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Let me tell you that the establishment of requirements for a bureaucracy's definition of fairness, over allowing the market to determine what happens on the radio, would mean the end of conservative talk radio. In essence, they want us silenced.

We're one of the few remaining obstacles standing in the way of their Socialist Utopian vision.

After the spectacular failure of a very well-funded effort to seed liberal talk radio with Air America, I believe they know that putting liberals on the radio is, in general, a bad business model. It just doesn't work. They don't build an audience.

Having far less business sense than they do political ambition, liberal lawmakers want to have access to the large audiences built by compelling conservative voices. If they don't realize that this will drive the audience away, they're foolish. If they do realize it, they're evil. Liberals have always been ok denying what the public wants if it's deemed unhealthy by the bureucracy, or perhaps more precisely, unhealthy TO the bureaucracy.

I hope you'll go to battle with us on this one. You, the listener, should be deciding what's on the airwaves with your ears and wallets, not some isolated leftist bureaucrat who decides conservatism has too strong a voice.

Debbie Stabenow's US Senate Office can be reached a number of ways:

Washington, DC Office
Senator Debbie Stabenow
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4822
TTY: (202) 224-2066
e-mail: senator@stabenow.senate.gov

Mid-Michigan Office
Senator Debbie Stabenow
221 W. Lake Lansing Road, Suite 100
East Lansing, MI 48823
Phone: (517) 203-1760

Southeast Michigan Office
243 W.Congress Suite 550
Detroit, MI 48226
Phone: (313) 961-4330

Western Michigan Office
3280 Beltline Court, Suite 400
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Phone: (616) 975-0052

Flint/Saginaw Bay Area Office
432 N. Saginaw Street, Suite 301
Flint, MI 48502
Phone: (810) 720-4172

Upper Peninsula Office
1901 W. Ridge
Marquette, MI 49855
Phone: (906) 228-8756

Northern Michigan Office
3335 South Airport Road West Suite 6B
Traverse City, MI 49684
Phone: (231) 929-1031

What's wrong with the world...

If you ever wanted to know what is wrong with the world... here's your answer.

NLS: SCHIP on the docket

Today we'll be visiting with Allison Kasic of the Independent Women's Forum. She's speaking out against the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. We'll talk about a program in Hawaii, where people who had previously been paying for their own children's insurance, decided to drop it in favor of a "new and improved!" taxpayer funded plan. The government hadn't planned on it and it cost far more than anticipated. Unintended consequences... We'll talk in-depth on Thursday's NLS!

Deer in winter

I got this in my inbox this morning... Quite a picture.

Stimulus Package info

If you want to see that stimulus package, here's the link.

Executive Pay Limits

President BHO plans on limiting executive pay to $500,000 per year for companies benefiting from the bailout.... While there's a stickin'-it-to-the-bad-guy feel about it, I think there may be some unintended consequences. In order for these companies to succeed they need to be able to compete for top business talent, which may not be willing to work for a mere half-million, especially when they've been used to making many times more for that. Perhaps something more sophisticated should be put into place, like a base salary with an opportunity for a performance bonus, or something along those lines -- but we have to remember that leadership is a commodity like anything else, and putting caps on it may limit the options the companies need to help these companies emerge from the crisis.

On a related note, Wells Fargo caved to pressure and cancelled their vegas trip for their top performers. I don't really care either way, but this illustrates the problem of getting on the stage with the Federal Government... they end up running the show.

Crapo, Simpson scheduled for NLS Tuesday

We have scheduled Senator Mike Crapo and Congressman Mike Simpson. I'll ask the two Mikes about the ever-growing "stimulus" package, and criticisms that it does more to promote the Democrats' agenda than it will to stimulate the economy. I'll ask them about President BHO's selection of two non-taxpayers for his cabinet -- Timothy Geithner and Tom Daschle.

Monday NLS

We have a good show planned for you today! Bill of Wealth of Health won't be able to make it after all for the expert network, but we will be talking about the ribbon-cutting for the Melaleuca's new product store on West Broadway in Idaho Falls, and tentatively will be speaking with our and Melaleuca's owner Frank VanderSloot.

Plus, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. What a great game! I'll tell you what I thought of the game, plus the ads and the halftime show.

And the stimulus bill is going over to the Senate... It will very possibly face a filibuster there. Our Senators have told leaders in Idaho to not count on any extra money from the feds.

And what do you think of this.. an environmentalist says that couples should be limited to two children. I think Idaho and Utah might have something to say about that...