A Moment in History We Cannot Let Slip By

Except for a brief respite from 1980 until 1988 -- those glorious years when a real conservative ruled the land -- Democrats have been the captors of the country, and more specifically, of Republicans for the past 50 years. We have been beaten down and  shoved aside, and the signs are starting to show. Most of us had never heard of the Stockholm Syndrome until Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the 1970's, but many of us remember the symptoms to this day. And we are seeing it in the so-called Republican Party today. No matter how badly mistreated the Republican party has been by the majority Democrat Congress -- and equally so by the majority Democrat media -- they are all too eager to please their tormentors by any means possible. And the American people have finally had enough. It began in 2010 with a massive landslide victory for what was supposed to be a new breed of Republicans, a brood that promised fire and brimstone for the policies of the recent past and a vow to bring the party back to its glory days. And yet, once these alleged "new Republicans" got to Washington, most were quickly co-opted by the cozy lifers already ensconced in their comfy seats. And the people lost again. When was the last time you heard someone utter the words "TEA Party"? Hmm? Two men have lived up to that promise, however, and only one is now paying the price for his deflowered colleagues' foibles. Mike Lee remains a strong fighter for the principles on which he ran, and if the Establishment Republicans get their way, the other -- Ted Cruz -- will remain in the Senate as well. But how will they do it? Well, someone stepped up to aide them in that endeavor...Donald Trump. And Democrats, again. Donald Trump has been performing above all expectations in this election cycle, mostly because the American people are so fed up with the shenanigans of Washington that they have gone overboard in their desire for an "outsider" to win the White House. And while Trump makes grandiose statements and speeches about what he will do for America, the people pay no attention to the fact that Trump has virtually no concrete plans to anything. "He is a smart businessman", they will say, and that may be true. But Trump's litigious style will not go far with the likes of Putin, China or the mullahs of Iran. And as he promises to bring us back from the financial brink, Chapter 11 bankruptcy will not fly with our creditors. These are two tactics that Trump is known for, and they have made him billions, but they will not work with our own Congress, and the Trump supporters of today will be sorely disappointed with their choice. (Think of Obama buyers' remorse). Ted Cruz is taking the brunt of the ire of Americans because they simply will not vote for any Washington candidate, but they do so at their own peril. Think about what Cruz has already done. He campaigned on the TEA Party platform, stating that he would fight for the dismantling of Obamacare and against the influx of illegal aliens from Mexico. He promised to fight against Obama's unconstitutional Executive Orders. And he has stood fast on these issues. And often alone. Did he give in? Did his own ostracization make him slink away? The answers are no and no. So please don't blame Ted Cruz for the anger you feel towards everyone in Washington. Cruz, unlike Obama, is a genuine Constitutional Conservative, having clerked for J. Michael Luttig, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit in 1995 and Chief Justice William Renquist, SCOTUS, in 1996. An Unabashed Conservative As Solicitor General for the state of Texas, Cruz argued before the Supreme court nine times, winning five out of nine cases. He also wrote the amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller which was signed by the attorneys general of 31 states. District of Columbia v. Heller, you may recall, argued that D.C.'s handgun should be struck down for infringing on the second amendment's right to keep and bear arms. Cruz also presented oral argument for the amici states in the companion case to Heller before the  United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Trump speaks boldly and bluntly about issues dear to the American people, and I understand the enthusiasm, I really do. But he is incapable of delivering on much of what he claims. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, has demonstrated that if he says it, he will do it. Or at least fight like hell for it. And I fail to see how any bona fide Conservative can actually vote for Trump. His big wins in the primaries and caucuses thus far are the result of the open primary policies of the respective states in which they have been conducted. Open primary means that Democrats can also vote for (or against) Republican candidates. We get one shot at saving America, folks. Please...don't blow it this time because of a misguided rage. (Side note). For those that may argue that Cruz will get nothing done because everyone in Washington hates him, remember one thing. Historically, all new presidents enjoy a "honeymoon" period in which everyone in Washington scrambles to ...kiss ass, for lack of  better term. President Cruz will do just fine, trust me.

Posted on: 22 February 2016 | 5:08 pm

A Country I No Longer Recognize

I mourn for my country. It gives me no pleasure to write this essay. I just wanted to make that clear from the outset. However, in just the last decade, my country has transformed into an unrecognizable land so diverse from my childhood that I weep today. At times, I truly wonder if ISIS has taken hold here, eager to destroy every historical landmark of our heritage through the politically correct process. A terrible tragedy befell the residents Charleston, South Carolina  last week, in which a man who was seen previously waving the Confederate flag sat in a Bible meeting for an hour and then murdered nine innocent people, including the pastor. In the aftermath -- and I do not mean to brush aside the incredible grace of the families of those murdered by any means -- the debate  has shifted from the ridiculous to the outright absurd. Not only are politicians and activists around the country lobbying to have the Confederate flag removed from virtually everywhere, but now old monuments to our original Founders have come under attack. There are already cries from so-called Americans to have the statues of generals from the Civil War removed from universities and government sites, and even calls by some to abolish the American flag itself. Some ponder the demolition of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. And I shake my head. How did we get to a point in America where we so cavalierly consider destroying our own historical structure just to appease a few dissenters? More to the point, how did said dissenters gain such a powerful voice and opinion? The answer is shocking to anyone who has avoided politics most of their lives, while those who have remained engaged will understand perfectly. Our entire educational system has been co-opted by radical left-wing elements who teach in our universities and churn out far more radicalized pupils than those who emerge unfazed by the indoctrination techniques employed therein. These former pupils then immerse themselves into every aspect of the American system, most notably our media, and the results are not very difficult to observe. Borne of necessity, alternate news sites have emerged in the internet age, but are easily marginalized by the Progressive machine, and results have filtered down even to the consumers of these sources. We are losing America, folks, and I'm not sure if we can reverse course. As government continues to grow, and as all three branches continue to morph into a giant conglomerate of the same ideology, the sane among us continue to be cast aside as heretics, and we are losing ground. We are legion across this nation, but we are disconnected. We must find a way to organize -- a phrase I am loathe to use -- into a network of people determined to save our country before it is too late. We must put forth the message that our history, for all its warts, is an important reminder of how far we have come. Today, black and white Americans interact as though a chasm never existed between us, and yet, our first black president has succeed in driving a wedge between us large enough to nearly cause complete chaos. Our friends of the opposite color remain as before, but inner city kids have taken Obama's message a bit too far, and the main stream media has only stoked the flames. And supposedly well-meaning professors and celebrities have done far more harm in our collective relations. I estimate we have but one more chance -- a last chance, if  you will -- to set this once great nation back on the course originally laid before us by the very men who are so cavalierly vilified on a daily basis. November 2016 is slightly more than a year away. We must hold on tightly to what we can and elect a Conservative president at that time or I fear it will be our swan song.

Posted on: 27 June 2015 | 11:08 am

Proof of the Slippery Slope and the Hypocrisy of the Left

The First Amendment is number one for a reason; it is the most fundamental right of American citizens under the Constitution. Our Founding Fathers knew one thing most clearly, and that is that men are inherently drawn to power and are thence corrupted by it, resorting to the most base tactics to maintain it once it is in their grasp. These great men worked tirelessly to craft a document that would best protect their future children from the fates other nations had suffered under oppressive tyranny, and prevent future politicians from the same temptation. It seems their efforts were in vain. So deeply did George Washington hold those beliefs that after his second term was over, he left the Capitol and returned to his plantation over the objections of an adoring populace that begged him to stay on as President. Today, there are no men of such principle, for they cling to power and refer to their relative positions in Congress as "their seats". And America is suffering as a result. The Founders never intended this nation to have career politicians, those who would reign over the people for thirty or forty years. We now have "representatives" who have known no other way of life. Their entire careers have been spent writing laws telling the rest of us how to live our lives. The sad thing is...we keep re-electing them. Which brings me to the most disturbing news of the day. A city in Idaho has enacted an ordinance that basically forces Christian churches to perform gay weddings or risk fines or imprisonment. Yes, you read that correctly, this is not about a public bakery or florist, this is about churches. The town of Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, is threatening pastors within their community with jail time and fines if the pastors defy the ordinance instructing them to violate their beliefs. Remember when the whole issue of "gay rights" began heating up? Remember the assurances of Liberals that all they really wanted was "equality for homosexuals"? Well, like any other issue, the Left lied to you, and if you were sympathetic to their causes, you helped create this new nightmare. Congratulations. What will follow in the coming months and years, presumably, should be fairly entertaining to behold, for as the left has been quite adamant in their assertion that Thomas Jefferson built a "wall of separation" between church and state, they will no doubt rally around this new trend in governance whereby it is suddenly okay to breech that wall so long as it suits their agenda. The problem, however, is that the Left's position is in stark contrast to Jefferson's intent. Jefferson intended to ensure that free men (that would be all of us) would not be compelled to subscribe to a particular religion but would rather be free to worship their own private God, or not worship at all if that was their prerogative. It was never intended that government could not embrace religion at all, such as Nativity scenes being banned from public spaces. And despite the assurances given by the Left about the aims of the pro-gay crowd, in which they swore that "no one is going to force churches to abandon their beliefs", here we have a small municipal entity doing just that very thing. Oh sure, the next argument from the Left will be that it's just an isolated incident, and that the behemoth that is the Federal Government would never  enact such laws...um, got some spare cash and a hankering for a paved river crossing? So...here's the hypocrisy part. If you're a Conservative, you've already got it. If you're a Liberal -- and assuming you've made it this far in the article -- here is a recap. While the Left has long maintained that the "Separation Clause" is concrete evidence that Christmas decorations are banned from the lawn of Town Hall, they will argue vehemently that the government has every right to force Christian pastors to marry homosexuals because "it's discrimination" if they don't. That bridge is still for sale. Cheap.

Posted on: 28 April 2015 | 8:39 pm

The Time is Right

America, this is your rallying cry. Ted Cruz announces that he will be running for President of the United States.  My fellow Americans, now is the time to seize the opportunity to do what so many of you have wanted to do through these last six long, dreary years, but what so many of you have been too busy to do; change America back into the land you all so fondly remember. It might also serve you all well to remember how you have been treated over the last six years. We've been relegated to the bowels of society, cast out as extremists, lunatics and terrorists. Think about that for a few minutes, let it sink in. Most of you remember a time when the wackos were the leftist hippies and communists. Well, they have taken over your country and have squashed you almost out of existence. The TEA Party was a welcome breath of fresh air for us, and I applaud those of you who have joined the many rallies and sacrificed your time to stand up at events in D.C. For many of us, like me, we simply could not spare the time to attend any of these, merely cheering you all on from the sidelines. And for those among my ranks, we have one day where we can make a difference, and that will be on November 8th, 2016. The last time the Republican Party put an extremist up as our presidential nominee, he won in a massive landslide, and even won a second term. If you're like me, you remember the groundswell of pride Ronald Reagan bestowed on America, the sense of renewal after four dismal years of the Carter administration. We can feel that again in January of 2017, if we seize this chance and don't allow the media to pick our nominee again like they did in the last two elections. Because I can tell you without a doubt that they will foist Jeb Bush upon you. Ted Cruz is our kind of "extremist", a man who loves America and is extremely knowledgeable on her Constitution. I suggest that if we all come out on election day and embrace our alleged "extremism" rather than hide from it or deny it, we can thwart the real extremists on the left and take back our country. And all we have to is spend an hour or so on one day and vote en masse to defeat whomever the left puts up to run against us. Folks, this may be our last chance to defeat this wicked ideology that has infected this once great country. I pray that Ted Cruz sails all the way to the nomination, and if he does. Grab your ailing grandmother and get her to the polls. Make time to get there yourselves, and VOTE. God bless America, may we rise and stand tall once again.

Posted on: 23 March 2015 | 12:36 pm

Victorious Bibi and a Despondent Media

The look says it all. On Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu won re-election in Israel, something which pleases me greatly, and something that has soured President Obama's mood obviously. As of Wednesday night in Jerusalem, Bibi still hadn't received a congratulatory call from Obama, despite the fact that Obama called Morsi -- of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood -- the day after he became president of Egypt. That speaks volumes of Obama's disdain for Netanyahu. And despite Obama's attempts to derail the campaign of Netanyahu -- an act now under Senate investigation -- he won anyway, which must really stick in Obama's craw.  But the region and, indeed the world, is now going to remain secure because of this victory. Obama and the media and the Palestinians can go cry in their beer. What's stunning, however, is how unable our allegedly objective press seems to be in concealing their dismay, bemoaning the alleged "peace deals" supposedly in the works for years. Perhaps the media concentrate on only the moment and are incapable of remembering past events, even if they reported on them personally. Case in point, the Palestinian peace deals with  Yassir Arafat. In the 1990's, President Bill Clinton was working on his legacy and believed that obtaining a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord would get him there. He worked closely with Arafat and tried to broker a deal in which Arafat got virtually everything he wanted and more. Netanyahu, who was also Israeli Premier in 1996, would not negotiate with Arafat if his so called Revolving Door Policy continued. Yet, with everything Clinton promised to Arafat -- which included a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and nearly all of the West Bank, and a capitol in East Jerusalem --he ultimately walked away from any deal that could reached. Why? Because Arafat was the Arab version of Al Sharpton who wanted no solutions because it would end the "struggle". Let's face it, folks. If the Palestinians get a deal they want and end up happy and content, what would the Arabs have left for which to be angry? How would they justify their hatred for Israel? So all this media talk about "Netanyahu winning and Israel losing" is pure, unadulterated hogwash. If Palestine has a state to call it's own, Iran will still turn Israel to glass if they get nuclear weapons, along with any such new Palestinian state. So let's all thank God that Netanyahu won, and will at least be in charge beyond the disaster we currently suffer here in America. There is still a grown up in charge somewhere.

Posted on: 18 March 2015 | 6:02 pm

The Definition of Insanity

One Smart Cookie There's an old axiom that states that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Attributed to Albert Einstein, it is a saying that holds very true today, and one that will make my new foray into trying to educate liberals on economics betray the title of this blog. But if I reach even one liberal today, I will consider the effort worthy. So kick back with a cup of coffee and let's take another stab at this, shall we? For starters, let's look at President Reagan's "trickle down economics". Reagan's idea was a simple one, and one that John F. Kennedy agreed with; a rising tide lifts all boats. Sea tides do not care about a person's societal status. It lifts the yachts along with the dingys. Nor do Republicans care about a person's societal status. The idea is to build a robust economy through free trade and unfettered opportunities for success. Life is not fair, that is another old axiom, and one no less true than that of Einstein. Opportunity is fair, but not everyone gets the brass ring, whether through poor decisions or lack of motivation. But Democrats believe that those who do excel economically have somehow cheated, and therefore deserve some punitive action from government. What they fail to take into account, however, are the glaring and numerous failures throughout history of their alleged solutions. President Lyndon Johnson began the so called "War on Poverty" back in the 60's, yet look where that has gotten us. Subsidies for individuals who provide no return on the investment merely lead to an entire new crop of the very same people. And they keep growing annually. Taxation does nothing to reward "the little guy" and yet certainly harms the big guy and, therefore, the little guy as well. When the big guy has less expendable capitol, he naturally tightens his belt. As such, he hires less people -- or in the case of the current crop of tax thirsty Democrats, actually lets some go -- and so the little guy is now out of work. But if the big guy has more expendable capitol, he buys products, hires more people (the little guy) and everyone's lives are improved. Milton Friedman the Godfather of economics. Winston Churchill once said, "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle".   If that doesn't adequately explain the futility of over taxation, I defy anyone to do a better job. Of course, Milton Friedman was fearless in his quest to make the layman understand the same principles, and he is sorely missed today as the liberals have successfully created a chasm between rich and poor that has spawned an irrational hatred of the rich. Through a curriculum of envy and class warfare, the left in America has employed the tactics of Lucifer himself in sowing a generation of people who think that the rich have been stealing from them their whole lives, spanning generations to include the ridiculous notion that their parents and grandparents have also been held down by the rich. Keep in mind, there are indeed some evil rich people in the world, but for the most part, they are just hard working Americans who have had the will to reach beyond what most of us have achieved. I say bravo for them, but more importantly, I say thank you to them for providing a job for me throughout my entire life, in one form or another. The Democrats (i.e. liberals, progressives, etc.) have not provided anything to the American people but scraps and morsels to barely sustain their insatiable jealousy of the very people they should join me in thanking. When government taxes the rich, that does nothing at all to help the poor  beyond a government check and a furthering of their dependence of the next government check. They lose their drive to succeed and become more and more dependent on government for their sustenance. One more old axiom for your consideration: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime". The first guy will show up at your door day every day looking for another fish. The danger of the liberal philosophy is -- just as a drug pusher depends on his "customers" becoming addicted -- that the more people who become hooked on government cheese, the more taxes need to be raised on the "rich". And if there are tax cuts in the future, the rich will once again be vilified.  Many of you may be familiar with this story, but remember kids, we're insanely trying -- yet again -- to reach a few liberals. I won't share the story in its entirety here, but here is a link where you can read the whole thing. Caution to my readers...please do not hold your collective breath in waiting for any form of confirmation that this article succeeded, for we may never know. But we can all hold out hope that somewhere, someone gets it. Hopefully it will be a whole gaggle of millennials.

Posted on: 2 March 2015 | 12:15 pm

Idiocy Does Not Come Cheap

Here's a guy with a job.He looks delighted, doesn't he? Seemingly striving to shatter the boundaries of utter stupidity, Obama's State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf  spoke to Chris Matthews of MSNBC's  Hardball on February 16th regarding the problems of ISIS (yes, not "ISIL") and the motivations of that ruthless band of heathens. Aside from the insanity of the things she said, there is also a rich irony buried within them, as well. By now many of you have already heard that the basis of her premise is that we "can't kill our way out of this war. We need to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs...". Now I don't know if that is official Administration policy or not, but judging by Obama's stance on radical Islam, I tend to believe it is. So ostensibly, Ms. Harf thinks that as long as we get ISIS "good paying" jobs, we won't have to worry about them and, ergo, we won't have to kill them anymore. (Note: rich irony to follow below). So we have an administration in place that doesn't believe that ISIS or Hamas or al Qaeda are "Islamic", and that the only radicals in town are TEA Party members. We must be wary of radical extremists on the right side of the aisle, and coddle the actual terrorists who cause, um...terror and murder. Probably because the Muslim call to prayer is "the most beautiful sound" Obama has ever heard. But that's not even the reason that Ms. Harf's words are so disturbing -- and they'd be hysterically funny if not so sad and terrifying. No, this is a statement from a member of the Obama administration that is so inept that jobs under their reign have become so scarce that millions of Americans have given up looking for work altogether. (Hint: this is why the unemployment rate is so low). But those millions of Americans permanently out of work have not joined ISIS. In fact, most haven't killed a soul. What a curious thing. Poverty does not a terrorist make. Osama bin Laden was a millionaire, and yet our Twin Towers in New York are gone. In 1932 the unemployment rate in Germany was 30%, and by 1938 is was 5%. And Germany was at war with the world. Poor people are not angry, they're just miserable, and even that is not always true. Some are just fine with it as long as they have the Lord. They do not feel the need to remove the heads of innocent people who bear no responsibility for their condition. So here comes the irony part...we have an Obama administration that hemorrhages more jobs then it can ever create, reason being is that its policies inherently deter job growth. So how in God's name will they defeat ISIS by creating jobs?? No, what America needs now -- and especially before it's too late -- is to kill every last ISIS member willing to die for their cause, and get Americans back to work. I seem to remember from my history books that during World War II, we couldn't put enough people to work. So here's my solution. Kill terrorists, make the world safe again (this involves all the nations of the world), build prosperity and revive the space program when peace is at hand. WWII and the Apollo projects of the 1960's saw bold new strides in technology that made most of the success of the 1990s possible. We can do it again. But we can't start until the insanity stops, and that begins by ridding ourselves of the insanity in our government.

Posted on: 17 February 2015 | 5:27 pm

When We Were Too Busy to Be Kept Busy

Once Our Minds Were Challenged "Billy? Dinner time!" There was a one-time built-in "ignore" function on this particular command, but it was not worth much since the follow up command would come almost immediately on the heels of the first, and with more emphasis. "BILLY, NOW!" would soon follow, which was acceptably countered with one simple and plaintive objection; "Five more minutes, PLEASE?", which was then met with a more emphatic overruling. This was the era of my childhood, the time of innocence and equal mischief. The time when kids were left to explore the recesses of their own minds and to use their imaginations to entertain themselves, rather than being pre-programmed by the State and their parents so as not to become "bored". It was a time when we learned what worked and what didn't, what succeeded and what hurt. It was the 1960's, and we who rarely went to university still managed to get jobs and become somewhat critical thinkers without the alleged benefit of advanced professors. In short, we who didn't require rigid structure, but rather the freedom of becoming acquainted with our own possibilities, and who "miraculously" found success despite the absence of the societal prescription of strict guidance and channeling, made it relatively unscathed. Intellectuals today would sniff dismissively at the notion that we were busy, insisting that we were merely wasting our time, but the truth cannot be denied that the children of the time prior to 1970 were better equipped to deal with the world than their contemporary counterparts. The adults referred to our activities -- when not in school -- as playtime, and while it's true we were playing, we were very busy doing it. And we learned volumes of invaluable lessons. So what is the primal need today for parents to plan every move their kids make? Well, much of it is due to the pressures of the new society we've permitted our so-called public servants -- politicians -- to inflict upon us "for our own good". We're now told how we should raise our own children by people who have neglected theirs in the quest for their careers, and at the risk of losing them to the State. Didn't see that one coming, did you kids? My parents never imagined that by simply letting us walk home, alone, from anywhere would one day lead to them losing custody of us. The very notion of it was too ludicrous to ever consider. Never mind that we walked home -- or rode our bicycles -- to and from anywhere. In summer time we were away from home all day, only knowing it was time to come home by the sun or, if we were in close proximity to home, by the sound of our mothers calling or our fathers whistling for us. Our days were filled with endless and ever new adventures created by our own imaginations, and we reveled in them. For instance, the photo at the top looks like a simple shipping container, but it used to be so much more after the contents were unpacked. That box was a palace, it was a simple cabin, it was a locomotive, a plane or a submarine, to mention a few of the possibilities. And hold your hearts, people, because this next part is going to shock you...sometimes we cut ourselves on the edges we had cut. And we bled! Can you imagine the horror? Give most eight-year-old's a large cardboard box today and they're liable to look at you incredulously as if to say, "What am I supposed to do with this"? There is no Xbox in there, no Netflix, and no internet service. Completely useless to a child today. (And besides, you're late for a dance recital or soccer practice). We played baseball in any field we could get to and played football in the street. Yes! The street, made of hard asphalt and traversed by fast automobiles. We occasionally broke neighbors' windows, and got spanked by them first and then by our parents. But no one died and no one sued. We did have little league baseball, but -- wait for it -- not everyone made the tryouts! We were the ones playing sandlot, and we probably had more fun doing it. And when a parent swung by where ever a game was being played to take one of us to an actual appointment, there was wailing at having to leave on such a beautiful day. We actually performed work around the house on certain days too, so we could earn an allowance, which we learned how to spend wisely when we were out on an adventure and worked up an appetite. And when we ran out of money toward the end of the week, we'd make a pact with our friends to meet back at a designated spot after the dreaded trip home for lunch. And the only thing more excruciating than those moments was the inevitable one happened only hours later...the "call to dinner". That meant that if you were lucky, you had perhaps one more hour afterward to complete the days activities. No, in the 60's, we were not bored, not by a long shot. We were way too busy to have our parents find something for us to do, and much too busy for something organized by adults who could barely remember what it was like to be us. We learned problem solving, how to deal with pain and adversity, and compassion. Today, kids only learn to go where they are told next. Everything is laid out and scheduled for them, and they are shocked by the realities of life after school. Which is probably just the way the government, the Department of Education, and our new society designed it.

Posted on: 23 January 2015 | 6:21 pm

Losing Paradise: From Land of the Free to the Home of the Besieged

"You call someplace Paradise, kiss it goodbye". -- Eagles, The Last Resort. It must be obvious to everyone by now that not all of us have thought of America as Paradise. I would disagree, but I am but one man. Certainly I have many allies across this great land, but we have been defeated by an insidious enemy that has captured the minds of our youth. When the young fall prey to these cretins, we lose all leverage. And yes, we have let it happen. We have actually aided in our own demise, I might add. With all of our kvetching about how hard we work, how we are taken advantage of by our "evil" employers, and how we need more vacation time, we have fed the beast which would eventually devour us. And the real irony lies in the fact that we are never overworked. We, as Americans, thrive on work, and we always have. And yet we willingly gave our children over to the Jimmy Carter Federal Department of Education, and from there it was all downhill. We gave our kids to the government, and we now wonder how our society has been turned on its ear. And just wait until the current crop of school kids reaches adulthood...let's see how Common Core reacts to the real world. That's just the latest travesty to affect our youth, but the damage goes back several decades. It is natural for kids to rebel at a certain point in their lives. It is a rite of passage as we begin to mature and develop thoughts independent of our parents'; that we question the wisdom which for the first ten years of our lives we viewed as unassailable. But in the 1960's, the Progressive left found a way to keep the trajectory away from the love and wisdom of our parents going, and many of us ended up alienating those precious ties forever at the behest of evil individuals who cared nothing for us, but rather coveted our young minds. Then, with the passage of the Department of Education Organization Act, the move was on to indoctrinate our young at ever earlier ages. This is the attack the left has long envisioned and cultivated, and it is almost a complete coup of the American way of life. We Baby Boomers can well remember our way of life as children, and many of us cling to that very notion, where we eventually realize the wisdom of our elders and form our lives and bonds from there.  But we are being marginalized by a society we never intended, and being overcome by children we no longer recognize. This may sound a bit like a "Stepford Wives" conspiracy, but there is more to this than mere fantasy. In the 80's, my oldest daughter came to me seeking help with her math homework. I was delighted because math was my second strongest suit in school. What she presented to me was completely foreign, and devoid of any numbers whatsoever. The problems were something to the effect of, "If this is this, and that is that, and this is that, but that is not always this, what is the correct answer?" I was stunned and demanded to know what this "math" was called. She told me it was called logic. I didn't complain to the school because it seemed like a new subject I was not aware of, but nothing sinister. Unlike Common Core today. One must wonder what is behind the thought processes of Common Core? Why would our Federal schools want to make math so deliberately confusing? My theory is that while the schools teach our children all about climate dangers, tolerance for the intolerable, and the evils of their parents, they can pretend to be teaching math, too. Of course, this math will never help the kids balance a checkbook or make change at a cash register, but the schools don't plan on any of these kids working anyway. The schools claim to be preparing our kids for the world beyond formal education, claim to be trying to keep up with the rest of the world, but our kids will be hopelessly lost when they get out of school if "educators" have their way. And so they will almost all of them be forced to rely on the government to care for them. We're not producing the future of America, we're facilitating her demise. Now, couple all of this with current events, in which we see a President who refuses to protect our borders, our very sovereignty, and we do indeed risk losing the paradise our fore fathers bestowed upon us and for we have fought valiantly as one for centuries. There was a time in my youth when the very idea of losing America was anathema to everything I believed. Yet now, in the course of a few short decades, and in the immediate sense, the course of only 6 years, I have seen the end draw near at an accelerated pace. The Left in this country is patient, so patient as to closely resemble the current scourge of radical Islam which now threatens us beyond my every imagination. And it seems that but for a minuscule portion of today's youth, only the Baby Boomers are left to understand this threat. And only we can plan for our defense, if only the young and able are prepared to listen to us. But with a Commander in Chief and a phalanx of maoist advisors decimating our military, the best of our young soldiers will be fighting in the trenches alongside the aging citizens when the time finally arrives. Folks, it is time to start praying: praying for guidance, praying for strength, and praying for awakening among those who have facilitated this pending tragedy through a misguided attempt to make the world a better place. The world is not ours for which to care. Our domain is the United States of America, and it is time we started believing in her again before she is gone.

Posted on: 9 January 2015 | 8:23 pm

Obama's Hubris (Or, If Congress Grows a Spine)

Can Congress Accomplish This? So the word is out, courtesy of Obama Press Secretary, Josh Earnest: If the U.S. Congress, led by a new Republican majority in 2015, tries to use its Constitutional powers of the purse, Obama will shut down the government in favor of illegal aliens. You read that right, if Republicans try to use their authority to control spending by defunding Obama's unconstitutional amnesty for lawless i mmigrants, Obama will veto such a bill if sent to his desk and thereby shut down the government of the United States. And his minions are already trying to pin blame on...wait for it...Republicans! At a White House daily briefing on December 1st, ABC's Jonathan Karl asked Secretary Earnest the question. His answer was stunning. Watch the video  here. But what's really disturbing is the American President and his views about anyone who is...well, an American. The Affordable Care Act -- or ObamaCare -- already favors illegal aliens over citizens. If a business hires someone, they will be fined $3000 if they fail to offer that new employee medical coverage. Not so, however, if they hire an illegal alien. (And yes, I refuse to use the term "undocumented" anything. They are here illegally, and they are aliens to America). So businesses are already being given an incentive to bypass hiring Americans, who are already desperate for jobs in Obama's "post-America" America. And Obama himself has tested all the waters previously and has learned that the days of Woodward and Bernstein are long gone. The media will not question a single decision he makes regardless of how damaging it is to the country he allegedly leads. Furthermore, he has met minimal resistance from a supposed "Republican" caucus in Congress. That is in most part from a combination of spineless "representatives" who are fearful of the new generation of so-called journalists and the perception they give to the idiots who consume their wares, who will then turn their faux rage on Republicans. So here is my prediction, and it is not likely to please many of my readers. In January, in the wake of our collective anger at the polls which gave the entire Congress back to Republican control, the song will remain the same. Sorry, but that is how I see it all shaking out. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will lead the House and Senate, respectfully, and nothing will change save for a few committee chairs. The likes of Trey Gowdy and Ted Cruz will continue to be outcasts in their own party, and Obama will continue to roll over Congress unimpeded, and unfettered by the main stream media. Josh Earnest just said as much in the daily briefing, and I have no reason to doubt him. Oh, I certainly doubt his character, but not his assessment of the coming government shutdown, should the Republicans actually have the fortitude to force Obama's hand. But I sincerely doubt it will even come to that when the Republican leadership learns that they will once again bear the blame in the media and in the eyes of the multitudes of low information voters.

Posted on: 2 December 2014 | 10:02 am

Can't We All Just Get Along (My Way)?

Democrats Seek Compromise Now? November 4th was an historic day. America overwhelmingly rejected the sitting President and nearly every crony he enjoyed sitting in either House of Congress. All of Obama's allies are gone or marginalized. Slam dunk for Republicans and, to a lesser degree, Conservatives, right? Well, just hold the phone on that thought. It seems that all of the RNC's planning, brilliant though it proved to be, made one tactical error. Well, perhaps not an error at all, since the real enemy is not on the battlefield, per se: We failed to capture the media. And let it be said here and now; the media should never need to be captured, but that is a scenario only found in a perfect world. Our media in America have already been co-opted through educational control by the real enemy, the Progressives, and they will not be swayed by actual reason or logic. They are gone. And so it is that despite the "nuclear explosion" -- as Charles Krauthammer  so eloquently phrased it -- has been framed by many in the media as a sort of victory for the losing party. Many today still insist that the new majority must "compromise" with the President, and that a failure to do so will harm the party in the future. Which is media-speak for the 2016 elections. Do you see what they are doing here? They are telling low information voters out there that the new majority will still be racist if they don't kow tow to this regime. Brilliant, but no less diabolical. Which brings us to the pressure already being thrust at the new 114th Congress of the United States. It is clear that the electorate -- inarguably the most informed people in the country -- has figured out the process and has spoken the loudest in this cycle. But the Progressive Media will only hammer away at the casual observer of the "news", and that could cause civil unrest in the coming months. When ordinary folks sit down to dinner every night, they more often than not have a television on while they eat. And many of them will have the news or a political talk show on. And a great many of them will see the likes of Matt Lauer asking a newly elected Congressman if they will now "work with the President (Obama)". I want to see them say that the President must work with them (us), but will they? Will they have the fortitude to say such a thing? Or will the alleged "news" folks manage to shape the new majority through fear and misinformation? Unless the Republicans are truly emboldened by this election rout, my money is on the media and a collapse of this "majority". Since we are also watching the Republicans and what they do going forward, the pressure is on indeed. So, if I may offer up a bit of advice -- well-intentioned, trust me -- to our new champions of the American way, it would be this: We are thankful, but we are still angry. We relish seeing the Democrats struggle for air in such a beautiful tsunami, but we are wary still of how you react. We remember all too well how the Democrats treated us leading up to the Affordable Care Act, and we are not in a charitable mood. So when Matt Lauer, et al, say that we need to "work with Democrats and this President", we reject this. It is now our time, and we will settle for nothing less than utter domination, nothing short of the way we felt on Election night and the day after. In other words, Republicans...don't let us down. As of this writing, we can still vote, and we remember everything.

Posted on: 7 November 2014 | 9:47 am

God's Carrot

Is He Telling Us Something? God knows our minds. He knows our souls, and he knows our hearts. And while He can get angry with us from time to time, I believe he still loves us very much. And there are signs to prove it all around us.I subscribe to the notion that God has blessed America since its inception, with brief interludes of disappointment thrown in over the centuries, none so obvious as this country's wanton ways and our government's disloyal treatment of Israel over the past 8 years. I can't quite say if Barack Obama was a test from the Lord to try our resiliency and resolve to carry on, or if it was the "other guy" who foisted Obama on us, but we have held fast and actually gained strength as a result. And now God seems to be bestowing some rewards on us once again. Most obvious, of course, were the election results from last night. Some will ask, "Did God Himself pick the Republicans in this cycle?", to which I would reply, "Of course not". But I do believe He gave us the right candidates to win this battle. And it is incumbent upon us now to get this country back into the shape it was in when God originally blessed us. And we are poised to do just that. We've got two years left of a severely crippled Progressive President, after which we should be positioned to thrust back into power a person of impeccable Conservative credentials. And, thanks to God, the cards are lining up to help us. Anyone who's been to the gas station lately has noticed a precipitous drop in prices. That is not because the Saudis are sympathetic to Americans' pocket books, nor because Obama's Progressive vision of "Green Energy" has created a breakthrough in energy production. No, it is because some old fashioned American ingenuity has discovered -- I believe at God's behest -- a treasure trove of oil and natural gas below our own soil right here in America. This new energy available to us right here at home will propel the economy in ways the Democrats could never have foreseen, much less accomplished, and we will see a renaissance in America just in time to elect a President who will lead us back into God's favor. And I think God knew this all along. In fact, I'm sure of it. Why would He have tied that carrot on the stick in the first place?

Posted on: 5 November 2014 | 5:45 pm

Obama Invites the Locusts

A destructive swarm On June 27th, Jon Brown and Kit Daniels published an article in Infowars.com which began like this: Small towns and counties in states bordering Mexico are drowning in debt due to the swarm of illegals stealing and destroying property, requiring expensive medical care and needing proper burials, all of which the federal government has largely refused to pay for.  Keep in mind as you read the article that the point being made here is not about the federal government paying for anything but, rather, why they are not stopping this madness. Perhaps the United States economy has proved much more resilient than Obama anticipated, and he now feels the need to ramp up his assault on this nation. After all, his need for speed is legendary by this point. And all the hand-wringing by those on the left about racism being the driving force behind the desire to impeach Obama is being proved every day to be pure hogwash. His moniker by now should clearly be "Captain Chaos". Think about this, folks; we now have a President of the United States who is working hard to control the lives of our citizenry while allowing foreign nationals to run amok all over the place. To me, that is item numero uno. But there is so much more destructive behavior being exhibited by Obama that one hardly knows where to go from here. From Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the NSA wiretapping and the IRS, not to mention Obamacare, it seems like Obama is a furious artist wielding a terrible pallet on the canvas of America. Look around you and tell me that everything is normal. Yet, the mainstream media does just that on a daily basis. Why? Either they are terrified of being labelled racists, or they are so desirous to see a black man succeed that they will forgive and overlook every sin he has committed. Which, by the way, makes them racists anyway, perhaps more so. Fast and Furious gave thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels, which were then used to kill several border patrol agents. The other day, the Mexican military flew a helicopter across our border and fired on some border patrol agents, and I have not heard a peep of protest from our president. And Sgt. Tahmooressi still languishes in a Mexican prison with no effort from our government to bring him home. Yet Obama released 5 high value targets belonging to the Taliban to bring back one soldier who was "kidnapped" in Afghanistan, although that point still remains uncertain. Benghazi still remains an open sore on our nation, and the only mainstream news outlet that still even mentions it is Fox News, though they barely touch it anymore. An American ambassador was killed in Libya -- along with 3 other brave men -- while Obama slept and subsequently went on a fundraising trip to California. Never mind that this should never have happened at all if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had heeded the calls for more security in the region. Has there been any consequences for the perpetrators in that tragic event? The answer, simply, is no. Meanwhile, the NSA spies on its own citizens while the Department of Homeland Security builds a national police force armed to the teeth. Anyone paying attention in our media to the growing Police State here in America? Do the likes of Diane Sawyer or Brian Williams think they will have a place at the big table when we are all subjugated? Do they subscribe to the absurd notion of feeding the alligator in hopes of being eaten last? Good luck with that, kids. So Obama -- ostensibly in hopes of building an insurmountable voting base by inviting illegal aliens across our borders -- refuses to "faithfully execute the law" he swore an oath to uphold, and no one has the fortitude to stop him. What does that say about us? What does that say about our chances of surviving as a nation, much less the greatest nation on Earth? In Exodus 10:13, God commanded Moses to wave his staff over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields and everything left by the hail.. When he did, God made an East wind blow all day and all night. By morning, the locusts had arrived and settled on all the land. Look at what Obama has accomplished in the Middle East. Not long ago, much of the Middle East and Northern Africa were relatively peaceful places, albeit ruled by dictators who ensured that peace. Saddam Hussein, Mohammar Ghadafi, Hosni Mubarak and even Bashar Assad were peacekeepers of a sort, and while only Mubarak was friendly to the United States, it must be said that the Middle East was stable while they were in power. Bush is responsible for the downfall of Saddam Hussein, but at least he had a plan to build a more stable and free Iraq with his absence. Obama simply orchestrated the ouster of the rest under the guise of "freedom" with no plan for stability. So now the Middle East is in flames and under the control of radical Islamists and jihadis. The man who once told George Stephanopoulos that Senator McCain didn't question his Muslim faith -- which Stephanopoulos dutifully and hastily corrected to Christian -- has succeeded in setting the region ablaze. And now he turns his terrible gaze homeward. Obama has been ridiculously compared to God by the left, a messianic figure some have said, so perhaps it is not without irony that Obama has invited the swarms of illegal children from Mexico to devastate our economy, beginning in the border states and migrating northward and outward. His is an agenda that should be clear to all, and yet there are those who continue to defend him. Forgive my combative mood, but those people are either willfully stupid or sinisterly complicit in the damage that Obama has already done. The scary part is...he's not done yet.

Posted on: 28 June 2014 | 11:50 am

Understanding the Red Line

A serious warning?  Barack Hussein Obama learned early the futility of a red line, it seems. He began breaking the laws of the United States -- which he twice swore an oath to defend and protect -- almost right out of his first inaugural gate with a minimum of resistance. Soon he began issuing his own lines to Arab leaders and was met with both derision and defiance. For this he suffered only a modicum of ridicule here at home, if not because most people were serious about his impotence in general, but because of a toothless press. The longer he got away with his crimes, the bolder he became. (God, how I wish that last line could become his final judgement biography). Obama's ineptness in foreign policy was overlooked, his contempt for the Constitution pooh-poohed, and his outrageous disregard for our rule of law not only ignored by the main stream media, but defended with malice toward any who would disagree. Yes, Obama quickly learned that all red lines were folly. Therefore he ran guns to Mexican drug cartels, ignored immigration laws, spied on American citizens, used the Internal Revenue Service to silence his enemies, and used the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management to enact laws he could not get through Congress. And no one stood up to stop him. Perhaps I am unfair here, because there have been men of principle to stand and protest, but with a silent and complicit media standing idle, what power can one or two men have? We, the people, have been as vocal as we could be, but the rest of the nation would never know except for the blogosphere, which is denigrated as the realm of liars and crazies when the media does speak out. How does a nation of patriots penetrate such a fortress as the media has built around Barack Hussein Obama? Such a feat seems hopeless on its face. However, even the most brazen of zealots -- or, if I may, tyrants -- eventually exceed the limits they have strained for years. In effect, their excited bodies begin to run faster than their feet can carry them, and they falter at last. This was somewhat evident today, when the lapdog, Matt Lauer, hosted soon-to-be former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. For a few fleeting moments, Lauer seemed genuinely outraged, a moment that most likely frightened Carney. Could it be that a media ally was about to turn? Never fear, Jay, Lauer quickly shifted to a softball conclusion. But there were a few tense moments, brought about by the latest, and potentially most perilous, moves by this lawless White House, and that is Obama's most recent end around of Congress in trading five of our most lethal enemies for, as it turns out, a soldier who had turned against his country before he was ever captured and potentially brainwashed. Obama not only broke the law he signed -- yet again -- but broke protocol that had been adhered to by every president before him. He has endangered the American people in a move sure to see future death to not only our brave kids in battle, but potentially to civilians here in the United States. Last Friday, Obama traded five high level Guantanamo Bay detainees for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a move that delighted the family of Sgt. Bergdahl, but not so much members of Congress, who were never notified as required by law. Nor did the trade please the soldiers who served with Bergdahl. Many of them say that Bergdahl is not a hero but rather a deserter. It seems they have a valid point. Days before Bergdahl's "capture", the Sgt. wrote to his parents apologizing for our actions in Afghanistan, and condemning America as "disgusting". This is the man that Barack Hussein Obama has risked the security of America to rescue? Is hating America a prerequisite -- in Obama's mind -- for rescue from "captivity"? What of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who has been sitting in a Mexican prison since March 31st? I have heard of no deals for his release. In fact, citizens have signed a petition -- gaining the 100,000 signature threshold for a response from the White House last week -- and still no response from Obama. (I have an idea...why don't we offer to trade, say, 11 million Mexican nationals for Sgt. Tahmooressi?) If Obama gets away with this betrayal of American protocol unfazed, I fear there is no red line he cannot cross unchallenged. We will have lost America. Congress must get serious about this latest transgression, and the media must be shaken from their trance.

Posted on: 3 June 2014 | 8:56 am

Rat Parade on the Ropes

He gave Baghdad Bob a run for his money.  Are Eric Shinseki and Jay Carney the beginning of the Conga line preparing to leave the Obama administration? Like rats running down the rope line from a sinking ship, it will be a good start. To be fair to Shinseki, he was a fine patriot and soldier, but he was a terrible choice by Obama to administer the Veterans Affairs department, a victim of Obama's incompetence and inexperience in being any sort of executive himself. Jay Carney, on the other hand, was simply a paid liar, a spinmeister extraordinaire. Had Carney been made to face real journalists -- people like Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein -- he would have been swallowed up whole in his first week on the job. Carney told some real whoppers during his tenure, and all with a straight face. And the lap dogs in the White House press corps (not pronounced corpse, I might add) basically let him slide time and again. Perhaps his resignation is the result of a few reporters who had finally had enough of Carney's ... malarkey toward the end and began to actually challenge him. It's hard to remain stoic when ones lies are questioned thoroughly and doggedly, like Fox News' Ed Henry and ABC's Jonathan Karl began to do. I must say I will almost miss Jay. Not because he began to grow on me, but because I will never get to see him crack under the questions on some You Tube video. As for Shinseki, I am concerned that his sacrifice will satisfy the Gods of News, who will then move onto some other story while our veterans continue to wallow in the pathetic system that is the epitome of government controlled health care. People in general are much too involved with their own lives to care beyond the last headline, and they must remain engaged through a diligent press lest they forget all too quickly.

Posted on: 30 May 2014 | 8:06 pm

A Day That Will Haunt Me Forever

Rose Catherine Wood1931-2014 It's May 21st, a day that should signal new life in our lives as the grass begins growing anew, beautiful flowers of all colors begin to bloom, and summer is but a mere month away, raising us out of our winter doldrums and preparing us for a fresh start to a warm, new year. Yet today, the woman who gave me life, who raised me from an infant, has departed this world for a new adventure of her own. My brother Bob and I are now orphans, though that is not the source of my lugubriousness, as we are still fairly healthy in our advancing years. I am saddened by the distance between us all, my once close family and me, for there are roughly 2300 miles that separate us from one another. I would wager that as families go, ours was the most idyllic I could imagine. We lived on Long Island, and my brother and I were raised in a small town on the eastern portion -- away from the big city, and therefore insulated from its influences -- in the early 1950's and early 1960's. We were far from rich, living a simple life not far removed from a typical Walton's episode. While my mother never worked after marriage -- and while my father fretted over the finances -- my brother and I thought we were rich anyway. My father always had a boat when we were kids, and my mother loved that thing. In the summer time, every Friday my mother would shop for groceries, both for the home and for the boat. Friday afternoons, my father would return from work, collect my mother and us, and we would head to the marina and sail to Fire Island for the weekend. Other than my own marriage -- and the births of my three children -- those were the best days of my life. As I mentioned earlier; idyllic. My father finished our basement when Bob and I were kids, which was big in our neighborhood. It was a time when kids were still safe outside, even at night, and parents liked to party in one home or another. My father played the piano and organ, and my brother and I played drums. My mother sang, and she had a beautiful voice. (And she loved Connie Francis). Her whole family sang, and they were prone to break into spontaneous --albeit inebriated -- song at the near conclusion of most family barbecues, and while we as kids rolled our eyes at them, it is today a source of great memories. Mom could be tough, though, make no mistake. When we boys were young, she would make sure we were on our best behavior, and those lessons remain with us today. But as we moved into our late teens and early adulthood, and beyond, she became more friend than mother, perhaps recognizing that her real work was done and it was time to relax a bit. She did teach us one very important lesson though, perhaps inadvertently, or perhaps clandestinely, and that was what a family means. It is ingrained in us now -- my brother and me --  and the lesson we received is not learned like a subject for a high school exam, but is rather absorbed, and it stays with you forever. When we were all alive, we would have died for each other. Today, we orphans -- for lack of a better term -- still hold that lesson. Thankfully, my brother was in a position to move our mother to Texas to be with him, and he gave a lot to make her transition to the ethereal world as comfortable as it could be. For that I will always be grateful. God gives us incredible strenghth seemingly just when we need it most. I will also be eternally grateful for His grace. Some people get angry and lash out at God when He takes a loved one. I have long ago learned that His will is a blessing, no matter how painful it seems to our personal wish to cling to those we love. I have learned that life is a gift, love is more powerful than anything, and God's gift still has an expiration date. Some live long and pass almost unnoticed, while others live briefly, which is the most painful experience, and one that elicits the most rage towards God. Forgive Him, for He will ultimately forgive us all. I spoke with my mother in her days leading up to the end thanks to the technology of Skype -- and to my brother's calling me to chat with Mom -- and while I am sad today to be without her, I am grateful for His mercy in sparing her from further humiliation due to her advancing dementia. And I am grateful that He has restored the balance of our family. My mother is back home with my father, and my brother and I still stalk the realm of Earth. It's kind of funny how we cling to life, which is increasingly painful to endure in today's world, yet embrace God's embrace at the end. Perhaps He intended it that way. God speed Mom. We will always love you and all you did for us, but we are glad that you are with Dad again, and in the arms of the Lord. I love you.

Posted on: 21 May 2014 | 8:29 pm

That Lump Under the Rug

Houston. Problem. The story that refuses to die has gained new legs, and the Obama administration will soon feel the heat as a result of such tenacity. And while the White House apologists scramble to perfect their damage control message, the fact remains that the fabric of the support mechanism in place for the past nineteen months seems to be eroding faster than the shoreline of an Asian country after an earthquake in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Benghazi has recently reared its ugly head once again, and while the White House staff is in full defense mode, there can be no doubt that something is seriously wrong here despite the reticence of the main stream media to cover any of it. It seems that a coordinated effort between this White House and the major news outlets has isolated Fox News as the lone news organization covering Benghazi and therefore easily accused it of conducting a witch hunt. Herein lies the problem: between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton screaming, "What difference, at this point, does it make?", and Tommy Veitor's recent "Dude, that was like two years ago" comments, the efforts to sweep Benghazi under the proverbial rug has resulted in an undeniable lump that cannot be ignored. And so Congress is revitalized in the investigative process, and seems poised to name Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) as a chairman to a select committee to further probe deeper into this scandal. Much to Hillary Clinton's chagrin, this is not going away. It is superbly ironic that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently called Benghazi a "political circus" in which Republicans seek to gain ground leading up to the Congressional elections later this year. Poppycock. This whole issue exploded anew after Judicial Watch finally obtained emails in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that show how the White House politicized  the attack -- and subsequent reaction to it -- to protect Obama's re-election. Defenders of the White House and State Department continually claim that they have provided every bit of information to House investigators, yet why has it taken a lawsuit by Judicial Watch to drag these emails out of them? Why were they withheld to begin with? Someone is trying to hide something and it is incumbent on the House to discover what it is and who is responsible. Sorry Harry, that a circus does not make.

Posted on: 4 May 2014 | 9:22 am

The Power of Race (and the Diabolical Democrats)

Is this a race card? After weeks of silence by the major network news outlets, CBS has finally decided to cover the Cliven Bundy ranch standoff with agents from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Oh, they have not covered the successful stand by the Bundy family and hundreds of militia members from across the country. That, CBS had no interest in. But when Bundy spoke up in an interview about race and the role government has played there, suddenly they saw something newsworthy. A rancher standing up to the Federal Government had no value, and the notion that he was a Conservative was pretty much a given at that point, but the interview bolstered the claim -- at least in the eyes of CBS news -- that Conservatives hate Blacks and always have. They took Bundy's words and held them high for all to see...except they cleverly concealed the context in which he spoke them. Cliven Bundy may have been clumsy in his delivery, but he was speaking of the damage the Democrat party has done to the "Black community" in their insatiable quest to convince the world of their benevolence. Bundy was basically saying that Blacks have been enslaved all over again by the policies of of Democrats and their insistence on bestowing upon Blacks everything they might need except one: a job. I must say that I am disappointed in the likes of Rand Paul who -- immediately following Bundy's interview -- abandoned Bundy like he was a leper rather than examining his comments for deeper meaning. So toxic is the subject of race that people flee in terror at its mere mention. I am not one of them. All one needs to do is look at urban area like Detroit to see the devastation wrought by Democrats, and you will understand Bundy's meaning. It should not be ignored nor shied away from, but rather should be examined and fixed. More conversation is needed about this subject, not less, and Republicans need to embrace the discussion as we have much more to offer towards a healing. It is infuriating that after the history of the Democrat party and their mistreatment of Blacks, they still enjoy ninety percent of the Black vote year after year. There is no doubt that Democrats have honed a very clever approach to the Black community and concealed their true feelings for them, but there is no excuse for people to believe Democrats when so much history is there for all to see. From Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil rights Act of 1964, Republicans had to defeat Democrats to accomplish these things. The alleged hero of the Civil Rights Act -- Linden B. Johnson, who signed it into law -- voted repeatedly against anti-lynching laws while in Congress. Democrats formed the infamous Ku Klux Klan in the south, and now they are seen as the tolerant and benevolent party, while Republicans and Conservatives are constantly accused of Black hatred and racism. MSNBC's Chris Matthews once quipped that Texas governor Rick Perry was "Bull Connor with a smile". Ha, that is so funny, except...Bull Connor was a member of the Democrat National Committee. While it should be embarrassing to Democrats that Bull Connor was famous for turning dogs and water cannons loose on civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, they have the audacity to compare Republicans and Conservatives to him; and they get away with it! What's worse than anything, however, is that Republicans take the unfair accusations lying down, much like they are running from Cliven Bundy as fast as they can today. Republicans wring their hands over an alleged need for more "minority outreach" and then get attacked by Democrats (and the media) for daring to try. That must stop. What Republicans need to do is simply show Blacks the history, but it is important that do not rely on the mainstream media to do it, because they simply won't. As for Cliven Bundy, I stand by him still today, because his basic premise was correct. Perhaps not about Blacks being better off as slaves, but certainly that they are just as enslaved today as they were in the 19th century. And the cunning Democrats intend to keep them that way by claiming to care about them.

Posted on: 25 April 2014 | 11:52 am

When We Became the Enemy

Perhaps it began as far back as the 1960's, when the Left began their charge up the proverbial hill. I remember those tumultuous days like they were yesterday, but I never thought that they would have such a profound impact on my country, and I certainly never envisioned being called a terrorist here at home, in America, by my own "leaders". The Cliven Bundy "cattle battle" seems to be the pinnacle of the animosity foisted upon us from government, but it is not the only indicator. There have been many in the few years of the Obama presidency, and plenty of warning signs that went unheeded, and we were deceived and disappointed by the media, who have mostly been infiltrated by the same ideologues now running the show. Patriots, oath keepers and virtually anyone who believes in the Founding Fathers of America and their wisdom is now seen as an enemy of the State. Think about this for a second. The Senate Majority Leader of the U.S. Congress calls the militias who stand with Cliven Bundy -- and the Bundy's themselves -- "domestic violent terrorist wannabes". And yet, when the Occupy Wall Street movement was the latest rage, Harry Reid had this to say in 2011: "In recent days, Republicans showed new interest in the gulf between rich and poor that has motivated thousands to occupy parks across the country and make their voices heard. Apparently they believe the staggering income inequality makes a good talking point".   Reid makes no mention of the fact that the Occupy Wall Street protesters left behind huge messes that the taxpayer paid to clean up. Compare that to the TEA Party protesters who left their brief rally grounds in pristine condition. And what of Major Nidal Hasan, whom the government refused to call a terrorist, and called the Fort Hood massacre "workplace violence", unable to utter the word "terrorist" in their description of those awful events? Why can they send 200 heavily armed government agents to round up some peacefully grazing cattle, but they can't stop violent drug cartel members from crossing our border with Mexico? No, they post signs near the dangerous border towns warning taxpaying Americans to stay out because of the danger. What the Cliven Bundy incident has shown us, however, is that Obama's threat of an armed civilian army in the 2008 campaign for president was not an idle one...he meant it. And he has backed up his words with all the massive ammunition purchases by even seemingly innocuous agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Social Security Administration. And now here we are, folks. The people who profess our love for America and her gracious liberties are now considered the enemies of America, domestic, violent terrorist wannabes, and we have a gargantuan government ready to beat us down. I'm older, and I feel secure in my own future, but I worry for the futures of my children and grandchildren. What will their futures be like long after I'm gone? Will they be forced to succumb to a perpetual Obama regime or flee to avoid it? Or will they stop this madness and return our glorious land to that which it once was? I pray. I pray that America is not on her deathbed.

Posted on: 23 April 2014 | 12:19 pm

This Ain't No Ruby Ridge

Credit Las Vegas Review Journal To the left, Cliven Bundy walks past a federal "first amendment area" sign, posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office...on a public highway, and my first thought was, "When did the United States federal government obtain the authority to tell its citizens where to speak, or not to speak"? And it dawned on me that our own apathetic history has led us to this. We have invested our faith in the Founding Fathers perhaps longer than they had intended, and we are only now reaping the harvest of what we have wrought through our inattentiveness. Shame on us all. Perhaps it was our earlier, misguided patriotism that allowed the killing of Randy Weaver's wife  Vicki Weaver -- and their son Sammy -- to pass unchallenged. Personally, I remember thinking back then that the Weaver's probably deserved what they got due to their defiance of government. Perhaps it was my own disengagement as a young man, or the reporting of the media cheering on the government, but in retrospect -- and in light of recent events in Nevada and a more thorough examination of the facts in Ruby Ridge --  I have realized that America is not the country I loved as a lad. The plight of Cliven Bundy and his clan bears no resemblance to Ruby Ridge save for the struggle of private citizens battling the behemoth of America's new royal class. What is different today is the fact that the Bundy's are not alone in a bubble, relying solely on the alleged integrity of the mainstream media to report whatever truth they deem appropriate. We all get to see what is happening in Clark County, Nevada, in darn near real time, and it is not pretty at all, and it is no longer filtered into our nightly news or morning newspapers. We can no longer be lied to, and we have a wide network to spread the word. So who is Cliven Bundy, and what is the problem wreaking all this havoc along Highway 170 in Clark County? The Bundy family has raised cattle on a ranch in this area since a decade after the Civil War. Lincoln's assassination was still fresh in the memories of the American people back then, for a bit of perspective. I'm reminded of a Little House on the Prairie episode in which the plots characters engaged in a bit of political dalliance; one character in the show, after a meeting of the townsfolk, mused that one day the government might actually tax their earnings! Poppycock, said another. Yeah...and here we are. But I digress...to a degree, that is. When the Bundy family began raising cattle on their ranch, the taxing authority of  the federal government was still in its infancy, and states still had sovereignty. Imagine that! But somewhere along the line, the bloated and ever increasingly ravenous creatures of Washington, D.C. have determined that Cliven Bundy's family -- and more precisely, his cattle -- have been trespassing on federal land, and he is behind on his "grazing fees". The irony in all of this is that the fees are designed to protect the endangered "desert tortoise", who purportedly struggle to survive after they rouse from their winters sleep. No one has yet offered an explanation as to how grazing fees will protect these turtles, but the point is moot anyway. Tortoise's will find food wherever it is, or they will die. Sorry if that sounds cold-hearted, but it is nonetheless the basic law of nature. Who protected these turtles from the buffalo in the old days? Did the Shoshone have a tribal council that banned buffalo from eating too much grass? For the past two decades, Cliven Bundy and his family have fought the BLM, as well as other federal groups, in court, only to be thwarted by the federal court system, and now face what is shaping up to be another fiasco and potentially deadly conclusion. What makes this different from Ruby Ridge -- and the Waco Branch Davidian episode, for that matter -- is the internet. We have eyes and ears all over Clark County today, and we have citizen journalists giving us real time information. As a result, militias from all over America are gravitating to the Bundy ranch in support of the family, possibly creating a more volatile situation than would ordinarily be expected. I do not lament this point, but rather am heartened by it. It's entirely possible that the casual observer may see some brief news coverage on this developing incident and think as I once did: that the Bundy family must be crazed criminals deserving of a lesson by the government. If we band together, much like the people moving toward the Bundy ranch today, perhaps we can educate the masses before tragedy strikes in Nevada. And more importantly, make these newly aware people see that they have been duped along with the rest of the country. For more information on this saga, see the following links: http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/militias-mobilizing-support-embattled-clark-county-rancher-clash-federal-rangers http://freebeacon.com/issues/last-man-standing/

Posted on: 11 April 2014 | 7:20 am

It's Really a Question of Faith

A time to believe. To begin, I won't even argue that Christianity is under attack in America and also around the world, as any casual observer would have to be comatose not to see it. From schools to courthouses, liberals are on a constant mission to remove God and any mention of Him from the public discourse.  And bear in mind, this author is by no means a Holy roller nor a Bible-thumper, but I do believe in God, and pity those who mock Him. (Notice that I do not condemn the heathens nor call for their deaths, but pity and pray for them. May God have mercy on your souls, as I believe He will, while you scoff at the notion). Still, I wonder not only of the collective motivation of the liberals in America, but of their absolute disdain for the believers as well. While the left demands an answer to the question regarding homosexuals, that being, "how does their lifestyle affect you?", I would ask the same of them; "Why does Christianity offend you so"? I can already hear the cacophony of protest from the left, claiming that Christians oppress gays, but what of the oppression given in return? Christians are pummeled daily and publicly over their opposition to gay rights, when all that opposition really is is a matter of opinion. Aren't the opinions of everyone given equal merit in a place like America? Have we abandoned free speech altogether? It seems that the free exchange of ideas has lost its validity in the Land of the Free, and the perpetrators of such a heinous trend have absolutely no regrets over the apparent loss of the most basic freedom we have defended for a few centuries. With all of that said, I want to get to the real crux of the matter, and that is the question of faith. Ask any liberal why they reject God or why they refuse to accept Him, and a majority of the time they will turn to attack mode and demand proof of His existence. When we can offer none, they laugh, throw their hands in the air and assume that they have achieved victory, yet when questioned on the proven failure of their own faith, liberals get defensive and claim intellectual superiority when none is evident. Still, they are convinced of it despite physical proof. Sure, I could launch into a tirade on the perfection of the universe and the miracle of life on Earth, but I won't To me and millions like me, it is self evident. Could this all be an enormous accident? Well, it's a matter of faith, and the arguments of theologians make much more sense than those of atheistic "scientists", but let's get to the faith of liberals. Liberals have faith in the philosophies of men like FDR, Obama and yes, even Lenin and Marx, but here's where that faith gets interesting: those collective philosophies are demonstrably detrimental to humanity, judging by recent history. Yet, when confronted with the historical proof of these failures, the left believes with all their hearts. And Christians are deemed irrational? We have the terrible eyesore of Detroit, a once vibrant city considered the jewel of modern America, a city alive with capitalism and productivity and now dying a slow, horrible death. (And not far from it). And then Wisconsin democrats tried to recall Governor Scott Walker, a measure that thankfully failed. As a result of that failed campaign, Wisconsin now boasts a surplus of $977 million after a deficit of 3.6 billion (yeah, with a "B"). Politifact.com fact-checked this claim and gave it a half truth. Fine, but nonetheless, what ever the true numbers are, there is no dispute that Walker is moving in the right direction. We also have the "gun safety" numbers, with anti second amendment advocates urging the removal of guns from our society. Again, the faith of the left comes into question when towns like Kennesaw, Georgia -- with a requirement of household males to own a firearm -- boast the lowest crime rate in the nation. How does that figure in the liberal world? They have faith that no guns means a safe society, and don't dare argue the point, and never mind that the hard evidence contradicts the liberal position...just have faith in them. But don't believe in God. Which brings me to my final point; global warming, climate change, or whatever the liberals want to call it tomorrow. We must all have faith in the prognostications of supposed scientists who parrot the mantra of environmentalists lest we are labeled heretics. The word "heretics" reminds me of the earlier Biblical days, ironically enough. Today, the left prefers the term "liars", as in all of us who doubt them, but the faith of liberals is clearly beyond reproach, at least in their minds. But we are the crazies who believe in God. Yeah, makes perfect sense in someones world. I just don't want those "someones" running the country.

Posted on: 31 March 2014 | 6:31 am

A History I Was Never Taught

The Work of General MacArthur What you see in the picture to your left is the burning remnants of the property of some 15,000 World War I veterans and their families, the last of their earthly possessions gone up in smoke. Sadly, this is not the carnage inflicted by the Germans on an encampment in a remote village in France, but the scene that played out in our own U.S. Capital in 1932. Many of you -- like myself -- never knew or learned of this event, but I have now become aware of it and will impart this to you. We all grew up with the stories of World War II, and many of our grandfathers served in that war. But World War I is something too distant for our memories, as is the Great Depression. Still, we all think back to veterans of these two wars as heroes beyond reproach, men to be revered for the ages. What happened to them in the summer of 1932 is tragic beyond belief. In 1924, the United States Congress, grateful to the recently returned heroes of World War I, voted to give the veterans a bonus of $1.25 for everyday served overseas, and a $1.00 bonus for every day served stateside. So far, so good for those who defeated the Germans the first time around. The catch was that the bonus would not come due until 1945. A long time to wait in the best of times, but then the Great Depression hit the country, and those brave soldiers were now destitute. In May of 1932, with the nation in the grips of the Depression, roughly 15,000 soldiers and their families descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonuses, many of them flat broke and needing some assistance. Known as the Bonus Expeditionary Force, the veterans set up the largest camp across the river from the Capitol at Anacostia Flats. Being the disciplined military men that they were, taught to survive in harsh conditions, the veterans built structures from scraps from a nearby junk pile. They laid out streets, dug latrines, and held daily formations. The leader of the group, Walter Waters, was quoted as saying, "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veteran's organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition." On June 17th, the Senate was scheduled to vote on a bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives that immediately gave the veterans their bonus money. In anticipation of the vote, roughly 10,000 marchers mobilized on the Capitol grounds awaiting the outcome. By nightfall, Walter Waters appeared to deliver the bad news: the Senate defeating the House bill by a 62-18 vote. The veterans were stunned, but they were not violent. Waters directed them to "Sing America and go back to your billets", which is what they did. Some stayed on the Capitol grounds over the next month and a half in tents. MacArthur's tanks and Patton's cavalry attack WWI vets. On July 28th, the Attorney General ordered the Washing police to evacuate the veterans from the Capitol grounds. There was resistance from the veterans, and the police shot two veterans dead. Upon hearing this news, President Herbert Hoover ordered the Army to clear out the veterans. Infantry and cavalry, supported by 6 tanks were dispatched under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, with Patton commanding the cavalry. At 4:45 P.M. the troops were poised to attack. Seeing this display, the Bonus Vets mistakenly thought the show of the military was in their honor and began cheering. Then, the army turned to attack. They advanced with fixed bayonets, lobbing tear gas into the crowd. By nightfall, the veterans were driven back across the Anacostia River, and Hoover gave the order to halt the attack. MacArthur, however, was convinced that the Bonus Expeditionary Force was comprised of Communists, and ignored Hoover order to cease. MacArthur advanced across the bridge to continue his assault on the very men who only years before had defeated the Germans in World War I. He destroyed their makeshift town of shanties, leaving everything these poor men had left in smoldering ruins. We remember the Kent State massacre, but in fairness -- and not to make light of young people being killed by their own government -- these were protesting college students trying to end the Vietnam War. What our government did to the men who fought for us all in WWI is a dastardly shame. And it set a dangerous precedent. On May 16th of this year, there is a massive protest being planned to occupy the Capitol, and civilians and former military are expected to participate. The goal is to march on to Washington, D.C. and not leave the Capitol grounds until the members of Congress either leave or agree to major changes in government spending. Informally known as the American Spring movement, judging by our past, things could get ugly in D.C. To see what our own government is capable of, watch this brief video,

Posted on: 18 March 2014 | 1:13 pm

The Secret Key the Progressives Never Intended for Us to Find

The picture of dogged tenacity. Americans have long suffered an affliction in the 20th and 21st centuries, one which has claimed me as a victim as well. Politics has outrun us, folks, and to be honest, we are not to blame, at least not in the classic sense. Yes, we have allowed ourselves to become complacent to the point of laziness, but who among us could resist a warm bed on a Saturday morning in winter?  America, for all of our growing pains, has been like a warm blanket covering our shivering shoulders, and we have welcomed such an embrace. Between brutal wars -- notably after which we returned home to live in peace following our decisive victories  -- we built this country and our lives to be as comfortable as we could, and we did a smashing job while leaving the defeated to do the same. We had earned that much, after all. But along the way, our politicians have been busier than we, albeit not in the same pursuits, and we lost sight of what was happening in America. Ultimately, that's on us.  Now we find ourselves the alleged minority of political philosophies, the outcasts of the Obama Regime, and we are stunned. When patriots like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, et al, are attacked by the new political establishment, we find our only true allies being cast as heretics, and our own beliefs disparaged as anomalies of mainstream thought. I know a few WWII vets who would crawl out of their graves and die all over again at such a revelation, such a strain it would put on their hearts.  The affliction I mention is one of the belief that someone with no prior experience could ever get elected to the Presidency. The history and the statistical data point to such a thing as being quite a rarity. But even with that knowledge, one must still ask incredulously; how in the world did Barack Hussein Obama serve briefly as an Illinois state senator, even more briefly as a U.S. Senator, and still win the White House?   Well, to be fair, John McCain ran a miserable campaign in 2008, basically taking a dive while smiling and proclaiming to care about winning. And he was thrust upon us by a media who has long since given up the ghost of objectivity. Then Mitt Romney ran a much better campaign in 2012, and the jury is still out on how Barrack Hussein Obama won nearly 100 percent of certain precincts in areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio, besting even Saddam Hussein (there's that name again) in Iraq, a country not well known for electoral integrity.  And let's not forget Obama's carefully orchestrated "soaring rhetoric", when he said all the things people wanted to hear. We heard such things in 1980, when Ronald Reagan set the groundwork for that sort of speech, generating an excitement in the people we had briefly forgotten. The difference is, Reagan followed up on his own rhetoric with actions, and the country quickly turned aside from the Carter years. I remember that sense of new found pride like it was yesterday.  And I now remember the words Obama spoke, as do many of those who voted for him. I have recently lamented how Obama might have conceivably ruined the chances of future black candidates for the same job, and I now ponder that he may have ruined promising rhetoric for generations of Americans. But we have seen signs that there are still men and women who talk the talk and walk the walk.  People like Ted Cruz and Ben Carson come quickly to mind, and I have no doubts that either man means what he says. Ans Ben Carson has also laid to rest -- at least in my mind -- that a black man still does indeed have a chance despite the damage Obama has done. I was once of the mind that no matter how much I loved a candidate, their lack of related credentials would be a killer, and running them in a race would be political suicide. I no longer feel that way.  Not only have the progressives shown us that a puerile rookie can run the country, but they have also shown us that virtually anything is possible in politics. If more people in this country could learn to brush aside protocols in presidential elections, think of the candidates from which we could choose. I felt that Herman Cain had a great chance in 2012 but had the same reservations I now lament regarding his chances of actually getting elected. I have abandoned such feelings now after seeing the carnage left in the wake of the current occupant of the Oval Office. Combined with the treatment we and our people have received at the hands of the Old Guard Republicans, I am ready to take a new direction.  Do not be afraid to do the same in 2014 and especially 2016.   

Posted on: 25 February 2014 | 8:34 am

At What Point Are the Signs Clear?

Will this be our fate in the end? Please don't share this because the last thing this ol' boy needs is a viral article and a stint in the local gulag FEMA Camp. Please do spread it by whatever means you may figure out, but I doubt it will matter much anyway because more and more Americans have stopped listening. It's a doubled-edged sword, this new world Americans find themselves in, one where our eventual dictator becomes ever emboldened and our citizens clutch their hands over their ears more tightly with each passing day. So accustomed to the American way of life have we become that we no longer recognize the clear and present danger to our Republic. Or perhaps we do but can't process the approaching horror. Why is it that we can read the news from, say, Venezuela and see the signs of tyranny developing, but we are blind to the machinations of our own government? Do we really believe, after a mere 237 years, that it can't happen here? Have we become so complacent that our Founders' words have lost all meaning? We have been slowly conditioned to accept the barely perceptible erosion's of our freedoms, so much so that many of us have actually defended them, sort of like an epidemic of the Stockholm Syndrome. We have put so much blind trust in our "elected leaders" that we can't quite accept that they would betray us, despite the steady march to tyranny we see -- albeit in such incremental steps -- everyday, and either can't or don't take the time out of our busy days to recognize that it is happening, and quite blatantly. Barack Hussein Obama told us point blank in 2008 that he was going to radically transform the United States of America. Did you all doubt him? Because he has done exactly that, though perhaps not as the 71% of regretful voters had envisioned. But...he did tell us, and we didn't listen closely enough. The Black Panther voter intimidation case in Philadelphia being thrown out by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009 should have been a clue, but it meant nothing to the electorate, save for a few who were paying attention. Then there was Fast and Furious, the gun running scam to Mexican drug cartels, which also got swept under the rug. These were test runs to see how far the Obama Regime could get, and the results were better than expected...for Obama and his cronies. So, now they ratchet up the ludicrous, buying up billions of rounds of ammunition, hollow point bullets, mind you, which are a waste of money if used as they contend; for "target practice". Our media has no interest, and neither should you, dear peon, move along. Armored vehicles for local municipalities are also nothing for you to be concerned with. You want to feel safe in your little burg, no? Well, now Podunk, USA has them. Military exercises in rural areas of the U.S. have also become commonplace, and the American people quickly adapt to their presence, feeling secure that their military is prepared for them danged terrorists! But the other angle that is obvious only to the informed is that them danged terrorists are we, the people, and our military is preparing to fight us...here...in America. Our so-called president is bankrupting our country at a break-neck pace, and he is ruling more and more by fiat, unperturbed by the "free" press or the opposition party, who have all -- save for a few brave souls -- collectively ceded their Constitutional authority over to the Executive Branch. And now we learn that the FCC will be invading and monitoring newsrooms across the nation in an attempt to either cow an already compliant media or to seal the deal on its collective collusion with the Regime. In light of my final point, who will report on this encroachment? Certainly not a media already in bed with the Regime and who will experience a weird form of date rape as a reward. So my question to you, America, is when will you have seen enough to convince you that we are sliding down to the bottom of the proverbial slippery slope? When will the thud of realization clap your multitudinous noggins, bringing the revelation that you have been duped? I pray it is long before you are greeted by the rest of us as you enter FEMA Camp #309.

Posted on: 20 February 2014 | 6:58 pm

Memo to Liberals: Jed Clampett Wasn't Alone

Photo: Blake Ellis/CNNMoney Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed. Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shootin' at some food. And up from the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil, that is...black gold...Texas tea In the midst of the clamoring for attention by Liberal Progressives across America, hammering home the message that "income inequality" in this nation will be our ruin, there is something remarkable happening in small towns in "flyover country". That something is remarkable because it is a concrete testament to the wonders of Capitalism, and it must be making the Progressives elites insane with envy. The setting is Watford, North Dakota, a place that has seen its population more than double in recent years, and rents skyrocket above the ritziest cities in America. Some would say that that is no reason to cheer, and on its face, they would be correct. But this isn't a case of landlords raping their tenants -- something all too familiar to inner city folks -- but rather the free market doing what it does best; make ordinary people some money. One such ordinary person was Nathan Pittman, who was about to retire from the trucking company he owned in Indiana. Pittman put his plans on hold when he heard about the oil boom in North Dakota. According to CNN, "Pittman quickly landed at a trucking company in Watford making $20 an hour with 'a lot' of overtime. In all, his salary more than doubled to about $2,225 a week in Watford". But the wealth gets spread -- a poor choice of words, I know -- even further down the line, as places like Taco Johns, trying to keep their employees from bolting into the oil fields, raised their salaries to hold onto people. Taco Johns raised their pay from $8.50 per hour to $15.00 per hour, also trying to compete with the Subway and Hardee's in town. Waitresses and waiters in town also make about $25.00 an hour when tips are factored in. Housing is also booming as a result of the oil boom, with rents rising to $3000.00 for family accommodations, while the building industry is struggling to keep up, failing as it falls behind. Some have seized on the fact that people are sleeping in their cars as a result, trying to find a downside to all this economic activity, but the people living in North Dakota are not complaining. The only people complaining are the Liberal Progressives who see the "income inequality" in this and shriek ever more loudly. For example, Harold Hamm is the Chairman of Continental Resources, one of the biggest oil producers of Bakken Shale. He made $10,204,283 in 2012. My God, you might say, that is a lot of money, and you'd be right, but so what? If Mr. Hamm wasn't there earning his big bucks, the other people in town would not have the opportunity to make their not-quite-as-big bucks. I doubt they would like that very much. Like John F. Kennedy said: A rising tide lifts all boats. The Liberal Progressives would prefer that all boats be secured tightly to the bulkhead so none may rise and may possibly have their hulls damaged if they dare try. I say let the big dogs make all the money they can, while the little guy gets some in the process. Instead, our federal government puts increasingly onerous regulations in place, giving bureaucrats plenty of work while suffocating the Middle Class who can't find  jobs because the potential employer has his hands tied. I don't know how long North Dakota will evade the wrath of the government, but for now they are doing a brisk business. All because of oil, the oil industry is raking in money, and because of that, the hotel industry in Watford and nearby Williston, North Dakota is benefiting, as is the construction industry. The small business owners are reaping huge profits and their working class is making more money than they ever dreamed possible in their respective fields. Don't try to tell me that "trickle down" doesn't work, because we're seeing it in action in the Bakken Shale fields. Because one man made over 10 million dollars, his company has become a microcosm of what Ronald Reagan believed, and that is if one man succeeds and depends on others for a portion of that success, then everyone benefits to one degree or another. Does everyone make 10 million dollars? No, but they make enough to make them happy and secure. That is all the American people want in life.

Posted on: 15 February 2014 | 3:21 pm