Neal Boortz
Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Well, not really. Yes, she’s a National Merit Scholar. Yes, she has an academic scholarship. But she won’t be wearing that gold tassel. She won’t even be wearing the graduation gown. Lindsay, you see, is our latest victim of the hysterical and intellectually vapid zero-tolerance crap that permeates our insipid government schools across the nation.

Last weekend Lindsay Brown moved some of her belongings to her new apartment. During the move a kitchen knife – not a steak knife, not a butcher knife – just a simple little kitchen knife fell out of a box and became wedged under the front passenger seat.

When Lindsay drove that car to school on Monday the knife was spotted by a security officer. Lindsay was arrested and taken to jail. Taken to jail because there was a kitchen knife in her car. The local sheriff’s office considered the presence of this kitchen knife to constitute probable cause to believe that Lindsay intended to use this knife as a weapon to hurt someone.

Lindsay Brown spent nine hours in jail. NINE HOURS! Nine hours in the custody of the state because of a kitchen knife in the car! Now she won’t get to graduate with her friends. She won’t go to the senior class breakfast. She won’t get to go to the yearbook party. Yeah, she’ll get her diploma – and a record - a record for bringing a "dangerous weapon” onto school property.

This is nothing less than mindless hysteria. The leftist mania over guns has brought us to the point where common sense is virtually lacking in the operation of our government schools.

A kitchen knife is a weapon? Consider this. If you had to retrieve a weapon from your car, which would you chose? A kitchen knife or the jack handle? How about the tire iron? Every single car in that parking lot at Estero High School has a tire iron. They have transmission dip sticks that could be used as swords. They have spark plug wires that could be used as garrotes. The car itself could be used to mow down a fellow student.

Mindless, abject stupidity!

Aren’t we supposed to be trying to teach our kids how to think rationally? Is there anything rational about this zero-tolerance nonsense?

Lindsay is just one in a long list of victims of these idiotic zero-tolerance policies.

There was that Eagle Scout in Florida. Remember him? He had a Scout meeting one night at which he taught young Boy Scouts the proper handling of a hatchet. The hatchet was in the trunk of his car, along with the rest of his Scouting gear, when he went to school the next day. Suspended. Kicked out.

How about that girl in Atlanta who was kicked out of a government school because she had a Tweetie Bird key chain? The school principal said the chain could be a weapon.

Then there was that boy who took a knife away from a young girl who said she was going to use it to kill herself. He locked the knife in his locker. He got kicked out of school for four months. Two days later that girl did try to kill herself, but failed. Maybe if she had tried with that knife the kid took from her she would have succeeded. Maybe he saved a life! Doesn’t matter, kick him out of school.

This left-wing generated mindless politically correct hysteria over weapons in our schools MUST STOP!

The first line of defense? Getting your kid out of government school and into a private school where administrators actually think before they act.

Senate Democrat Majority?

That’s what they’re buzzing about in D.C. It seems that Vermont pseudo-Republican James Jeffords is rumored to be ready to bolt. He got some face time with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday. If he walks across the aisle, class warlord Tom Daschle becomes the Senate majority leader.

How can a man claim one day to be a Republican, and the next day claim to be a Democrat? Only one way, folks. Only one - and that’s if the switch is close to being ideologically meaningless.

What more of an illustration do you need that there are, in fact, very few differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties? Both like big government. Neither party has a stated goal of reducing the size, power and influence of the Imperial Federal Government to constitutionally mandated levels.

Disgusted with the current state of affairs? Maybe its time for you to take a look at the Libertarian Party. If you truly want less government, lower taxes, and a greater emphasis on the responsibility of the individual – the Libertarian Party (www.lp.org) could be your political home.

Does Jeffords have anything to fear from the voters of Vermont? Nothing. Vermont is represented in the House by Bernie Sanders, a confirmed, avowed Socialist. Vermont voted for Bill Clinton twice. Vermont voted for Al Gore. Face it, Vermont is a leftist State.

The Consequences ...

Say goodbye to Bush’s judicial nominees. Democrats will chair and control the Senate Judiciary Committee. This will mean that Bush’s conservative nominees – the ones who actually believe that the Constitution restricts the power of the federal government – will be toast. Liberals gain most of their victories through court decisions, not through legislation. This will open the path to more liberal court victories.

Republican attempts to control federal spending will be seriously jeopardized. While spending bills originate in the House, the Senate can force the House into conference committees to get those bills passed. Democratic Senators will dominate the Senate side of the conferees – and new spending will be demanded.

If this switch is made before the tax cut is hashed out – look for a Democratic dominated Senate delegation to the conference committee to enhance the income redistribution aspects of the tax cut – and reduce any benefits for the high achievers. The end of the death tax? Forget it.

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