The Heritage Foundation recently released the 2013 Index of Dependence on Government, and things continue to look terrible for the land of the (once) free and the home of the (formerly) brave. We’ve gone from a people who would brave an ocean on leaky ships in order to sail to a primitive land of hardship just to be free…to a nation where half or more of us are enslaved to an out-of control government that refuses to obey its highest law (the U.S. Constitution) and confiscates the property of some Americans to give that property to others it deems more worthy of having it.

The Christmas season is once again upon us and with it overwhelming encouragement from Madison Avenue to spend what we have not earned to buy what we cannot afford. The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday (indicating the point at which retailers are in the black—or at least hope to be), signaled the start of the “holiday shopping season.” That very phrase reveals the commercialized emphasis that has come to define Christmas for many Americans.

South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant announces a solution to address a national problem that servicemen and women overseas experience in casting a ballot. South Dakota’s new system revolutionizes absentee voting by combining advanced technology and the Common Access Card (CAC) issued by the Department of Defense. The new system called Innovative Overseas Absentee-Balloting System (iOASIS) increases the percentage of ballots successfully returned by dramatically reducing the paperwork while increasing security.

Retailers know that the Friday after Thanksgiving has been the traditional bellwether for whether the year is going to be profitable. So do labor unions and their organizers, which explains why groups like the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union among others are planning “strikes” and protests at non-union Walmart stores in an attempt to disrupt their operations.

Current school lunch standards put all our kids into a nationwide one-size-fits-all mold and it isn’t working. The new rules took effect at the beginning of the 2012 school year. In addition to stricter calorie regulations, schools are limited as to what can be included in the meals they serve. For example, schools can only serve about 2 oz. of meat per day. That’s equivalent to a chicken breast that is a little smaller than a deck of cards.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was formed on November 19, 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks. However, for the cost of the TSA’s budget, we could replace four World Trade Center buildings each year. Even with an annual budget of almost $8 billion, the agency is notorious for receiving additional onetime earmarked allocations.

The laws have already turned against religious freedom in America, although mostly against Christianity and, interestingly, least against Islam. Accepting a pre-sanctioned reality means I don’t have to waste my time thinking about or through any subject. I just accept the status quo.

During the Cold War, it was President Reagan who called the U.S.S.R the evil empire, and so it was. But the Russian finger on the nuclear button was nevertheless a rational finger. Remember the U.S. and Soviets had an agreed policy of Mutually-Assured-Destruction (MAD). The Iranian finger is anything but rational and must never be trusted in any similar agreement.