Producer Susan Cloud here, filling in for Mark this Wednesday – Friday.
We’ve got a big Wednesday show planned, with plenty of topics to cover. We’ll grab your calls, and also hear from the following guests:
7:35amCT
Katrina Trinko is a gifted young writer for the National Review, and she’s covering this year’s annual CPAC event. Who has created the biggest pre-conference buzz? Who has claimed the most podium time? We’ll get Katrina’s perspective on this, and more.
Follow Katrina on Twitter.
8:35amCT
Matt Lewis, contributor at the Daily Caller and The Week — and one of this producer’s all-time favorite guests — joins us to discuss a variety of issues, from the Ryan Budget, to Rand Paul’s filibuster, to CPAC.
Follow Matt on Twitter.
9:35amCT
Few understand the political landscape in Texas better than Matt Mackowiak — GOP consultant and founder of Potomac strategies. He joins us to discuss Tuesday’s breaking news, that George P. Bush will seek the office of Texas Land Commissioner.
Follow Matt on Twitter.
Read More
9:05amCT
Former Reagan Administration official Frank Gaffney is the founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist at The Washington Times, Big Peace, and Townhall, and radio host on Secure Freedom Radio.
He joins us today for the entire 9am hour.
Read More
7:35amCT
A big announcement was made Monday in the world of racing, as the NASCAR Sprint Cup race — an April event that takes place at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth — revealed its new title sponsor: the National Rifle Association.
Get ready for the NRA 500! Eddie Gossage, President of Texas Motor Speedway joins us to discuss.
Read a related story from the Dallas Morning News HERE.
Read More
9:05amCT
David Dewhurst has served Texas as Lieutenant Governor since 2003, working hard on the issues most important to Texans — from protecting Second Amendment rights, to education reform, to maintaining fiscal responsibility. He joins us this morning to discuss … and we’ll also ask about his political plans for the future.
Visit Lt. Governor Dewhurst’s website HERE.
Read More
The course of events has become familiar.
A city debates whether to stomp on business owners’ rights by telling them what their smoking rules can be. The business owners usually lose, because most people think smoking is just nasty.
They are right about that, but wrong to tell owners of restaurants, bars, bowling alleys– any place– that they cannot permit smoking if they wish to.
But invariably, we get a news story measuring restaurant and bar receipts after the stripping of such liberties, and darned if they don’t sometimes stay the same or, as has happened in Lewisville, they go up.
So this must be good for business, right?
Well, not necessarily. And whether it is or not, it is certainly not good for freedom.
In the latest example, Lewisville’s tourism director James Kunke was glad to proclaim that “Sales didn’t go down because of the ordinance.” While that is true enough, this does not mean assaulting entrepreneur rights was good for business. If city-wide restaurant receipts were up about 4 percent, who’s to say they would not have gone up 5 percent if business owners were able to serve their clientele as they wished?
Mr. Kunke points to the people who said business would go down and gladly says “that didn’t happen.” He is right about that, and relief is understandable.
But it underscores the wrongness in making this a purely economic issue. Those arguing to protect restaurateur liberties should not have predicted a downturn. Lewisville is a thriving town with a lot of great places to eat, drink, bowl, whatever.
The argument should have been that owners of these businesses have a right to allow or disallow smoking as they wishm, based on the environment they wish to offer, based on what their customers like. This is none of government’s business. Anyone seeking to avoid smoke (as I virtually always do) is free to frequent the growing number of places that are smoke-free by choice of the owners.
This freedom is not made more or less vital because of numbers. With those liberties intact, if a city’s bar and restaurant business goes up, it goes up. if it goes down, it goes down.
So please, enough of the triumphant stories of towns that have stomped on business freedoms without an accompanying loss of business. This is not just an assault on liberty, it is an assault on logic. No city knows how customer traffic would have been if they had left people alone to run their businesses as they please.
The marketplace takes care of these things. Since the main instinct of business is to serve people as well as possible and enjoy the resulting profits, every business that allows smoking is doing so because the owner thinks that is best for his bottom line. A business banning smoking believes the same. The best business climate is the one that embraces liberty, where we are all free to eat and drink where we wish, walking through doors where the owners have made the decisions they wish about smoking, a legal act which some patrons actually wish to do.
Many have asked why I rail about this year in and year out when I have no interest in smoking in restaurants myself.
Simple. Because it is a vice for government to make decisions for us that we should be able to make ourselves, whether about smoking rules, light bulbs, health care or the countless other things which are the business of the individual citizen in a free country.
Read More
Did you miss our segment with Attorney General Greg Abbott? Click HERE for the podcast.
Don’t miss our one-hour immigration special with Joshua Trevino of TPPF. Click HERE for the podcast.
-
-
TX Attorney General Greg Abbott
-
-
Joshua Trevino, TPPF
8:35amCT – Attorney General Greg Abbott is winning the hearts of Second Amendment advocates as he works to protect the gun rights of Texans. He joins us this morning to share his thoughts on this, as well as the Texas economy … and we might just ask a question or two about his future political plans.
9:05amCT - ONE HOUR IMMIGRATION SPECIAL! — Joshua Trevino, Vice President for Communications at Texas Public Policy Foundation joins us to explore the history of — and potential solutions to — the growing problem of illegal immigration. Josh has done extensive research on this topic, and believes conservatives have an opportunity to lead on the issue. He’s ready to share his thoughts and take your calls, so tune in for this one hour special!
Read More
UPDATE: Did you miss this segment? Catch the podcast!
New York Times Bestseller, host of Breakpoint, and 2012 National Prayer Breakfast keynote speaker Eric Metaxas announced this morning that he’ll be joining Dr. Ben Carson on the CPAC stage, March 16.
Eric is currently on tour to promote his bestselling book Bonehoeffer, with North Texas appearances coming in early April. Learn more HERE.
Eric Metaxas
The eternal campaign efforts of the Obama administration is Organizing for Action, a deliciously vague socialist-sounding entity that will be the conduit for all the things he has in store for us, including gun-grabbing. But they did not secure the website “organizingforaction.net” … so look where it takes you:
OrganizingForAction.net
Read More
