Gary Kirkland
Gary Kirkland is a retired teacher, an Atascadero resident, 35-year-old stockholder in the Atascadero Mutual Water Company and president of the San Luis Obispo County Libertarian Party.
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Government should focus on facts, not emotion
OPINION by GARY KIRKLAND The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission held a hearing on the Phillips 66 Railroad spur extension on Sept. 22. At that hearing many speakers opposed the extension as it might cause harm and is dangerous. I commented that those who oppose something because it is dangerous is my definition of […]... (Continue Reading)
Open letter to SLO County Board of Supervisors
OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND This letter is in regard to the Las Pilitas mine project. Private property rights are a corner stone of a free society in this country. When government tells private property owners what they can and cannot do with these owner’s property, freedom disappears. The land on which the Las Pilitas mine […]... (Continue Reading)
Letter to the editor: Cruelty to small creatures
OPINION BY GARY KIRKLAND When the voters in California voted to make chickens have free space to move around they didn’t realize what cruelty these birds would unleash on the world. The chickens will eat earthworms and insects. When I was in school I dissected earthworms, insects, onions, and other organisms. Oh, the horror! The […]... (Continue Reading)
Government schools and the state of the republic
OPINION BY GARY KIRKLAND I start this essay with a bit of false reasoning, argumentum ad verecundium, which means appeal from authority. I was a teacher in government schools for 37 years. I was able to observe what these schools do to the mindsets of students who attend. This essay will address these mindsets and […]... (Continue Reading)
Letter to the editor: Sensible knife laws
OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND The senseless tragedy a few weeks ago in the Santa Barbra area clearly demonstrates we need some sensible knife laws. Our legislators and the governor should require manufacturers to sell knives with handle locks. People should have to register their knives with the local police. No one under 18 years of […]... (Continue Reading)
Letter to the editor: The Senate must take action
By GARY KIRKLAND Americans like me need the Senate to take up the cause on three matters of great importance. First, the Senate must not allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce the ObamaCare Individual Mandate. The law is bad enough already, but IRS enforcement is unacceptable. News reporters and congressional committees caught IRS […]... (Continue Reading)
Diablo Canyon is safe
OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is one of the safest places on earth. Back in the 1980’s, I took a tour of the plant as a science teacher in this county. We went wherever we wished, except to the actual nuclear containment domes. The place is extremely over built for safety. The plant […]... (Continue Reading)
Water conservation does not work
OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND A water company is comparable to an oil company. Both companies provide vital liquids. An oil company can and does go half way around the world, dig the petroleum out of the ground, ship it to a refinery, convert into products people need and use, transport it to neighborhoods and sell […]... (Continue Reading)
Welfare in the Roman Empire
OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND During the last decades of the Roman Republic and continuing into the Roman dictatorship, the Roman government provided welfare in the form of wheat and other grains to people. The dictators, starting with Julius Caesar, provided frumentariae (grain) partly to be popular with the poor. Subsequent dictators tried to limit or […]... (Continue Reading)
