Memorial Day 2016

Today we honor those who have made the supreme sacrifice for their country. The military, of course, but also those quiet heroes whose names are never spoken and their stories never told. Also, those that wear the uniforms of law enforcement and fire services. These brave souls deserve more than one day, they deserve our eternal thanks.

God bless those who we have lost. God bless those that put themselves in harms way. And God bless America.

White House Outreach

What ever happened to the First Amendment? Apparently President Obama, with his almighty pen and phone, has eliminated the ban on state sponsored religion. The administration now has a White House office of outreach to the Muslim community. So now we know what religion is sponsored by the Obama government.

There is no such outreach to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shinto, or any other religion. The loudest and most powerful voices in Islam call America "the great Satan". We are the kaffir, the unclean, the infidel, never to be befriended and always the enemy.

Why then would an American President reach out to those who despise us as a religious tenet? Why would he invite those who would destroy us and our culture into our country with no vetting whatsoever. 

The questions that I ask needs no answer. The answer is obvious. We, the people who made this country great, are less in his estimation than those whom follow the teachings of Mohammad.

Those of you that think our President a wise and forward thinking leader, I invite you to take some time and read, slowly and with great thought, the Quran. You can get it in English or any other language on line. As President Erdogan of Turkey said, "there are no liberal Muslims. There are only Muslims." 

So what you read in the Quran is what those of the faith believe. Now many claim that they are peaceful and tolerant. That may be. But their tenet of taqiyya allows them to dissimulate, lie, to promote the power of Islam in the world.

So, my question is this, is the President just a naive politician or is he a practitioner  of taqiyya?

Government By Cockamamie

The pen and the telephone have turned our country into a government of cockamamie ideas. Our President has convinced himself, with the enthusiastic assistance of the liberal press, that he is the smartest living human being. So, in that role, he feels obliged to make up rules and regulations for the rest of us lesser folk to follow to improve the world.

In Obama world minority groups are revered. The smaller and more outre the better. The important thing is that they have rights. And their rights must exceed the rights of the majority because that is only fair. So now, to make the LGBTs happy, none of us are sure what public rest room we are to use or who we are likely to meet in there. The problem comes if you are a small woman or a young girl and you find a forty year old two hundred pound pervert who is feeling girly today in the ladies room. Cockamamie idea.

In Obama world the decisions made by previous administrations, back to George Washington, are suspect. He feels that America has been intrusive and overreaching. Especially where nuclear weapons are concerned. In Hiroshima he stated a desire for a nuclear free world. This is very odd as he just paved the way for Iran to become a nuclear power. Can he actually believe that Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia would ever give up their ultimate weapon? Cockamamie idea.

In Obama world many of our prison population are there because life has been hard. They didn't live in nice neighborhoods and missed out on the advantages enjoyed by those with "white privilege". So he has handed out thousands of presidential "get out of jail free cards" to poor deprived and mislead souls. So every day the population of thieves, thugs, and rapists increases on our streets. Cockamamie idea.

In Obama world Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace. He has sworn to close it since day one of his term. Gitmo is the perfect place to hold prisoners of war. They keep the worst of the worst there. While they are there they are well treated and have better medical care than most Americans. But Mr. Obama feels that its existence encourages Muslim youth to jihad. There is no proof. To him, no proof is needed. So he sends them to other countries who's leaders swear to hold them. Somehow many of them find their way back into combat against us. Just another cockamamie idea. 

Credit Where Due

I have to give a ton of credit to Bernie Sanders. Don't get me wrong, I don't "feel the Bern". In fact, even the remote possibility that he could become President scares the bleep out of me.

But the fact is, he holds a core belief that he will not compromise and he will never stop until there is nothing left to be done. His beliefs are wrong. They have been tried too many times and failed to have any hope for success in the future. They just go against fundamental human nature.

Russia, Cuba, most lately, Venezuela have all collapsed under socialism and the citizens suffer while the elite masters thrive. Bernie has never worked in the private sector. He has never drawn a paycheck that wasn't from a government entity. In spite of that, he claims to have the knowledge to run the most complicated country in history. I don't think so.

That having been said, he has, almost single handedly, taken on the self proclaimed queen of the Democrat party. He has knocked her crown askew and drawn blood. His young foolish, I want it for free, followers have joined him and turned his campaign into a formidable force.

He has thrown the Clinton campaign so far off course that her behavior has become antic. She cackles, She barks like a dog. She gets increasingly shrill. First she'll debate anytime, then she won't debate. She tries out new catch phrases with the determination of a diva in a shoe store. And she isn't even in the main event yet.

The system is rigged. With the super-delegates in the way, Bernie can't win. His only possible hope is if the FBI primary takes her out of the race. But that is probably rigged, too. He plans to take the fight to the convention floor. At his age he has waged a war that many younger men couldn't survive. 

Bernie has an end game. To do what he has done, he must have. He is a force of nature and he will make that force felt at the Democrat convention. He deserves credit where credit is due.

Image vs. Substance

The people of America deserve the best and the brightest who are willing to go into public life and serve their country. Gender, race, and personal feelings should be of no consideration in the vetting process. 

This is especially true of those who may be appointed to the Supreme Court. Scholarship, a calm objectivity, and to understand completely the ramifications of those issues that come before them is essential. Also, they must have a respect for the Constitution and the limits placed on the court in our tripartite government.

Donald Trump has presented a list of those people that he would consider for the Supreme Court under a Trump Presidency. New appointments to the court are of the most serious issues to be considered to protect the future of our country. A great many conservatives were concerned where Mr. Trump would fall on this issue. He presented this list to show his bona fides.

This list has been criticized by some because all on it are white. Those that make this criticism are more concerned with image than substance. Can we not at least try to go back to Martin Luther King Jr.'s hope of a color blind society. Some how we have swerved off of that road and seem to be riding in the gutter.

Mr. Trump never said that this list couldn't be expanded at some future time. What he did say was that any that may be added would be of the same mindset and level of qualification as the list that he did produce.

It was a good and wise move. Mr. Trump is actually starting to use some presidential style interspersed with his more usual over-the-top rants. What he has done has given many, some reassurance of the quality of his character.

An overall calmer and more thoughtful mode of operation might bring even more over to his side. He is aiming at the right targets but he is using a blunderbuss when a dart would be the superior weapon.

More reasonable and more experienced heads must be giving him this advice. It is up to him if he chooses to listen. It would benefit him and his campaign to do so.  

All Things, Great And Small

The United States is a nation under duress. Not as dire as Venezuela nor as perverse as most of Europe, perhaps. But as a people who value common sense, domestic peace, and mutual respect, duress is definitely what we are under.

To make matters worse, we are in the midst of a Presidential campaign that can only be described as "whackadoodle". If you haven't run across that word before, it is pretty much self-defining.

We have great issues that need to be resolved to bring our country back to the stability that we value. Foremost is the jobs situation. Decent jobs have been disappearing to be replaced with part time or short time jobs. More and more, I see people in their prime years who are trying to support families and get their kids educated, working as clerks in stores or servers in restaurants. They are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

We have an inrush of illegal aliens who are completely unvetted. We have no idea of their country of origin, their political ideology, or even what possible communicable diseases they are carrying. To make matters even worse we have foolish politicians declaring sanctuary cities to protect them.

Our military is decimated and is being used as a living laboratory for social   experimentation. This while veterans in need of medical care are languishing while waiting for the VA to get fixed. That never seems to happen.

With all of this, our Presidents big focus is on LGBT rights. We have a republic that was meant to prevent the tyranny of the majority. But those who would lead us have turned it into the tyranny of the minority.

Both the sitting President and his chosen successor are determined to destroy the coal mining industry and eliminate the jobs it provides. Both are fighting the non-existant war on women just to garner votes. Any opposition is labeled either racism or sexism. Meanwhile we are fed a constant stream of lies.

Once again, many of us, myself included, will hold their nose and vote for the lesser of two evils for President. Although I am less than happy with the Republican candidate, anyone that is in line to be the Democrat candidate would be so harmful to the future of this country, that I must support the Republican candidate, whoever.

You Can Do It

You don't need the government to do it for you. Do what, you may ask? Anything. Back in the day, folks got up in the morning and set out on their day. Whether school or work, they strove to do the best that they could. People lived modestly. More people rented homes than owned them. Most tried to put a little money away for the future. 

In those days, most did not go to college. They worked in mills and factories. The best and the brightest worked their way up the ranks to foreman or even higher. There was no shame in working with your hands. There were apprentice programs that taught the equal of a college education as a machinist, or carpenter, or plumber. There was, and still is, good money to be made in the trades.

Every family had one main goal. That was that their children did better than they did. There were taxes, but they weren't terribly burdensome. Other than that the government pretty much stayed out of your life. Ask folks in those days about the future and most would have said the future looks good.

Somewhere along the line something happened. The government, in an exercise in groupthink, decided that we needed more people with college educations because manual labor was beneath us. So they found ways to get more people into the colleges and universities to get, mostly, BA degrees. Which, pretty much, prepared them for no job at all.

Office buildings filled up with educated pencil pushers. It became impossible for a family to live on one salary, so wives hit the work force. Then LBJ initiated the "War on Poverty". Last I checked, poverty is still winning. And suddenly, or maybe not so suddenly, the government owned the populous. 

Now it seems that every move a person makes has to be approved by some government entity. It is harder every day to live below the government radar. Big Brother gets bigger every day. And that is just wrong. That is not how our republic was designed. 

We have to start to reverse the trend. Americans have got to get their independence back. The government must be constrained to the limits of the Constitution. We have really got to vote putting America and the American people first. The overbearing politicians need a beat down. You can do it.

It's OK

 It's OK to love your country. It's OK to be a proud American. It's OK to believe in American exceptionalism. The United States of America is a great country. It is a country that has provided more freedom and opportunity for people around the world than any other. It has welcomed people from foreign shores and made them Americans with all the rights and privileges.

It is OK to love the American flag. Many good people have died protecting it. Any American should be allowed to fly it, without question, just because they want to. No person nor any organization should have the power to prevent the display of "Old Glory".

It's OK to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance. When we do this, with our hand over our heart, we honor ourselves as much as we honor our country. We say to any that listen and reaffirm to ourselves that we love our country.

It is OK to be white, or brown, or black, or yellow, or red. Our country has a broad palate of colors. We need to stop looking at differences. Most people already have. The fault is with those that revel in those differences. It is more than OK to despise those in public office who try to separate us  by color or ethnicity for their own political agenda.

It is OK to be Christian in America. Despite what you may be told by some, America was founded on Christian values. Honesty, hard work, and tolerance are as important today as they ever were. The country was founded on Christian values but others were made welcome and most soon became part of our great heritage.

It's OK to be conservative in America. Conservatives are not knuckle dragging troglodytes. They are people who value tradition, the Constitution, and the rule of law. They are people who realize that what may seem to be a simple solution is not always the correct solution and may do more harm than good.

It is also OK to fear what are politicians have in mind when you hear our Secretary of State extolling a world without borders. When does that foolish man think that Russia, or China, or North Korea, or Iran are going to erase their borders for an international group hug. Never. Value our Republic. There has never been another like it. If we lose it there will never be it's equal. 

Standards. What?

I am struggling to find things to write about that don't involve annoying political figures. As most are annoying, that is a challenge. But today's general insanity usually has something surface that is so stupid that I must go there.

I came across an article that tells about a coalition of lawmakers and activists that want the federal government to change the uniforms of park rangers in national parks. The reason. So illegal aliens will feel more comfortable. Really?

It seems that the standard uniform is somewhat similar to immigration enforcement uniforms. Poor babies. They sneak into our country illegally and expect us to be concerned about their mental comfort.

The fact is that uniforms set those with responsibility apart from the general public. It gives the wearers a sense of unity, identity, and pride. They convey to the public the level of authority and responsibility of those wearing the uniform. It is all about standards.  

In our Justice Department, criminals are no longer criminals. They have morphed into "justice involved individuals". More standards just slipping away. Moral relativism run amok. If you don't call it criminal it becomes just another lifestyle. Prosecution is persecution. We should be more understanding.

Meanwhile these same people are pushing white privilege as a sort of crime, and if that sort-of criminal happens to be Christian too, guilt is assured. It used to be an accepted standard of behavior that we respected people and their religion. Now we are taught that people of religion are weak and fanciful. But in truth it is the standards brought by religion that allowed the United States to grow great and strong.

Look at our country now. Look at the anger and bickering. Look at the rudeness and impolite behavior. That is the result of losing our standards. If all thing are equal, act like an animal, act like a fool, act like a bully, it is all the same.

If you think that I exaggerate, and many do, then you have not been paying close enough attention. We are losing our standards, and in doing so, we are losing our humanity.

Can History Survive?

Western civilization has been history's best refuge in the past. Certainly, there have been attempts to rewrite the past, but there have been enough serious people, who respected the truth, so that reality was always at hand.

Not so much today. As usual, the politically correct crowd are the culprits. They have this insane need to judge the past by today's standards. Not just today's standards, but today's politically correct standards.

Slavery was wrong. Our new nation recognized this early on and banned the importation of slaves in the early eighteen hundreds, shortly after the Constitution was ratified. We still had slavery, however, until Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery was institutionalized and it took some time and a bloody war to end it.

That is history. We can't go back and change it. No one in America today owns slaves. No one in America today lives as a slave. (Yes, I am aware that there are some criminal activities that belie my statement.) But there is slavery rampant in the world today. Politicians, the press, even the UN all seem to turn a blind eye toward that reality.

The PC group seem to be more interested in pulling down statues, burning historical flags, and renaming various edifices to bury the past that they despise. 

In olden days it was considered the right and proper thing to do for western civilization to expand and colonize. It was thought that they were bringing civilization and religion to heathen lands.

Terrible things were done by any standards. Civilization  was far less civilized in those days. That is history. Learn it and learn by it. Understanding it is not accepting it. There is enough in today's world that needs correction without trying to alter an unalterable past.