A reply to recent misinformed letter writer

Dear Editor,

 

Mark Twain once noted that people who don't read newspapers are ill informed; people who read newspapers are misinformed.  It is hard to believe that Mr. Guzenda could put so much misinformation into such a short space in his LTE.  For openers, he quotes an International Monetary Fund figure as the basis for the Social Security cost of living adjustment.  SSA uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for COLA determinations.

 

He criticizes Reagan's "trickle-down" economics but ignores the fact that income inequality in 2012 under Obama is the worst since 1917.  A UC Berkeley study shows that the top 10% earned twelve times what those in the bottom 10% earned.

 

He blames the Tea Party for the government shutdown but it was Harry Reid who refused to consider the Republican/Tea Party proposal to delay Obamacare for a year.  Of course, the President is now (unconstitutionally) implementing delay after delay by executive order.  Maybe Reid should have listened given the train wreck that was predicted has now come true.

 

And how does he manage to blame the Republicans for the sequester when the idea originated in the White House and was signed into law by the President?  If President had carried out the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission (which he appointed), the entire fiasco would have been avoided.  Of course, the record shows he chose to ignore them.

 

Another curious contradiction in Mr. Guzenda's narrative is the job creation myth.  The labor participation rate is now down to 63.2%, which is the lowest it has been since 1978!

 

However, the biggest whopper, excuse me, "factually untrue" statement is that every Republican president has left behind a deficit and every Democrat president has left behind a surplus.  I'll minimize the boring numerical facts by listing the increase in national debt by recent presidential terms.  Reagan's first term was a $656 billion increase and his second term was a $1.036 trillion increase.  George H.W. Bush's only term showed a $1.587 trillion increase.  Bill Clinton's first term showed a $1.122 trillion increase and with a Republican House, only a $418 billion increase in his second term.  George W. Bush oversaw a $1.885 trillion increase in his first term and a $3.014 trillion in his second.  Barack Obama called this "unpatriotic" and a "failure of leadership."  However, in his first term alone, the debt increased $5.806 trillion.  He is the only president to ever have a trillion dollar annual deficit and he managed four in a row!  When he took office, the debt was $10.6 trillion.  Now it is $17.3 trillion with a bullet to twenty!

 

One should be very careful to stand on solid ground before accusing others of spreading misleading claims!

 

Sincerely,

Bill Garvin

For the Love of Christ

By William L. Garvin

 

Many find the opportunity during this Christmas season to do what they wish they had been doing all year.  In the hustle and bustle of our modern world, it’s far too easy to ignore friends and family both far and sometimes near.  Psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote that “Hurry is not of the devil; it is the devil.”  That is why we often sacrifice the important in the interest of the urgent.  Christmas gives us the chance to make amends for our poor priorities and refocus on what is truly important in our lives.

Many will take the time to send a Christmas card to old friends and maybe a gift of appreciation for someone they hold near and dear.  Others will notice that they have not been focusing on their spiritual needs during the year and will visit their church or other place of worship.  Some will take the time to give thanks for what they have instead of complaining about what they don’t have.  Others will make New Year’s resolutions to change their ways but will slip back into their old habits by mid-February.  And maybe, just maybe, some will find new purpose and direction.  Maybe, just maybe, they will know true joy, find renewed hope, and bask in the glow of faith.

Of course, there are those who physically battle for that great bargain at the department store on Black Friday.  There are those who will prey on innocent shoppers at the mall.  There are those who will steal turkeys donated for the homeless and will steal the toys gathered for children of the poor.  And there are those who will ridicule and mock the faith of others during their season of worship.  Jesus Christ said: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”  John 15:18.  I would surmise that is why we have the American Atheists.

In their latest display of intolerance, they purchased a billboard in Times Square that poses the electronic question “Who needs Christ during Christmas?”  A hand quickly crosses out “Christ” and the word “NOBODY” appears.  While they have every right to do so, this is clearly another example of their hypocritical lack of sensitivity.  It is a deliberate poke in the eye to Christians everywhere and particularly to those parents and children walking in Times Square.

What I found particularly interesting were the responses of the president and the director of communications for the organization.  The president said his goal was to “improve” Christmas and to free the millions who were “unhappy” and “not having fun” going to church on Christmas.  I’m assuming they think that this billboard will cause their ranks to swell by millions of disaffected Christians who will now flock to their new, “improved” light!  Of course, they need recruits since they number less than three percent of our population.

When challenged as to whether they knew this would be offensive to Christians, they both repeated that they didn’t care if others were offended!  That’s it in a nutshell.  Once again we have a narcissistic, self-centered focus where only their personal sensitivities are of importance.  If there is the slightest indication of a Christian religious reference elsewhere, they will bully through lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, and boycotts.  They recently managed to get a nativity scene removed from an air force base by claiming that 39 Christians in the military had complained to them.  Not one of those supposed victims had lodged a complaint through their chain of command.  Someone should read up on “bearing false witness.”

They should also read up on the truth in advertising laws.  When they say that “NOBODY” needs Christ during Christmas, they’re simply and disastrously wrong.  I, for one, need Jesus Christ not only on Christmas but every day of every year I remain on this earth.  He is my only hope.  He is mankind’s only hope.  You may mock, scoff, and ridicule, but He is your only hope.  You will have to make up your mind because we know how the story ends.  “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  John 3:16.  He will knock at the door but you will have to open it.  There is no better time than now, during this glorious celebration of the birth of “the Reason for the Season.”  We’ll be praying for you.

 

The “Inconvenient Truth” Trilogy

By William L. Garvin 



The popularity and support for the International Panel on Climate Change is falling faster than President Obama’s poll numbers!  A recent survey by the American Meteorological Society shows that only 52% now agree with the IPCC shibboleth that “global warming is happening and mankind is the cause.”  What are the reasons for this precipitous fall from the previous, carefully constructed “scientific consensus” of 97%?

Maybe it’s because the IPCC hand selected the scientists in their survey.  Maybe it’s because the IPCC was caught fudging their data.  Maybe it’s because “consensus” is not “science.”  Maybe it’s because of the record setting COLD SPELLS in the United States and Europe.  Maybe it’s because 35% of the U.S. was covered in snow at the earliest date ever this year.  Maybe it’s because there is now 17.2 million square miles of sea ice which is .9 million square miles above average, and that too is a new record set this November.

Maybe it’s because the models predicting “above average” hurricane and tornado activity were horribly (thankfully!) wrong!  The tornado count is 58% below normal this year.  Additionally, the U.S. had only two hurricanes reaching landfall this year and neither reached category 3.  In fact, the Obama administration has had only three hurricanes compared to the 26 during the Grover Cleveland presidency.  Which administration had the most CO2?  Then there are those pesky German scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology whose data show “no surface warming” since 1998 contradicting the predictions of 23 climate models.  Naturally, they are now derided by the IPCC as “skeptics” or “deniers” which is the scientific equivalent of “racist.”  An inconvenient truth.

Speaking of racism, what about the assaults mischaracterized as the “Knockout Game.”  Young blacks are not hunting “black bears” or “brown bears” but “polar bears.”  However, liberal media is working hard to minimize or ignore the racial aspects of these assaults.  Maybe some data from the FBI and the Department of Justice will help.  Blacks make up about 13% of the U.S. population.  There are about 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year between blacks and whites.  Blacks commit 85% of those crimes and whites commit the remaining 15%.  Blacks commit 45% of their crimes against whites; 43% against other blacks; and 10% against Hispanics.  In stark contrast, whites commit only 3% of their crimes against blacks.  The danger of course is that if this abhorrent trend by youth continues, the numbers will increase and the ratio may be altered.  It’s time for leadership in the African-American community to stand their moral ground before the violence escalates.  An inconvenient truth.

Much of this violence stems from hopelessness brought on by poor education, a jobless recovery, the lack of parental guidance and having no father in the family.  The same results can be seen in poor white families in England.  The education and economic policies of this administration do not bode well for the future.  Despite all the specious pronouncements of “jobs created or saved,” we have the lowest labor participation rate of the last fifty years.  The only reason the unemployment rate is at 7% is because over 11 million workers have given up and left the work force!

It’s also ironic that Democrats who say they are the party of choice are anti-choice in so many areas.  Education is just one area of hypocrisy.  In Washington, D.C., there are 1,600 low income kids in the District’s school voucher program.  They have a terrific graduation rate of 91%!  The District as a whole can only muster a 41% graduation rate.  School choice for the District was signed into law by George W. Bush but has become a political football.  President Obama’s 2013 budget did not include funding for the program.  Now the District is being accused of not providing sufficient oversight.  Louisiana is facing similar anti-voucher battles.

The Louisiana voucher program allows low income youth to escape many of the poor performing schools.  Twelve thousand children applied for the 8,500 vouchers this year and 6,800 accepted them.  The Department of Justice sued the State of Louisiana.  Their erroneous premise was vouchers interfere with desegregation.  In fact, moving low income youth into private schools has enhanced integration.  The Obama administration has now dropped the lawsuit but continues to drown Louisiana’s highly popular, bipartisan program in regulations and additional requirements.

The Department of Education was established by President Carter in the 1980’s.  The U.S. now spends $115,000 per student for K-12 education but U.S. students rank 26^th worldwide in math and science.  Give the kids a choice or they have no chance.  Just another inconvenient truth.  

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

By William L. Garvin

 

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”
H.L. Mencken

The liberty guaranteed by our constitutional republic is at risk.  On many fronts, we are seeing our federal government successfully consolidate power under the guise of “the common good.”  Whether the “fundamental transformation” of America is because the ruling class honestly feels it knows what is best for every citizen or whether the motivation is to reconstruct the United States into a European socialist state is unclear.  Whatever the motivation, keep in mind the words of Ronald Reagan:  “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”

The reality of Obamacare is that it will do nothing to improve the quality of health care for the “vast majority” of Americans; it will only serve to further central planning and control of government over the most intimate details of citizens’ lives.  Keep in mind that the overpriced, poorly functioning website is not the problem—it is only symptomatic of the problem, which is a badly flawed law that has no possibility of success short of rationing.  Many Americans, even congressional Democrats (who knew all along!), are finding that no, you can’t keep your health plan.  No, you can’t keep your doctor.  No, you won’t save $2,500 in premiums.  No, you can’t afford the premiums and deductibles under Obamacare.  No, you won’t have many choices and no, your doctor is no longer included in what few plans are available.

Democrats who brayed opposition to Republican efforts to legislatively change “the law of the land” now stand by in mute acquiescence as the President Supreme unilaterally changes “the law of the land” by executive order.  Displaying their bald (and bold) hypocrisy, some Democrats are now urging the same one-year delay on the individual mandate that Republicans previously proposed.  Of course, Harry Reid buried that offer and refused to have it debated.  His Napoleonic party action begs the question, who was really responsible for the government shutdown and the $24 billion economic hit?  No wonder the little leader needs to silence opposition and “nuke” the filibuster by rewriting Senate history and precedent.

On another front, the Department of Education lurches forward with another central planning theory called Common Core.  Salting the states with federal funding, they now wish to institute a “one size fits all” propaganda model under the guise of education.  When you follow the money, you see the driving forces and easily recognize that there was very little input from professional educators.  The touted critical thinking appears to be more an analysis of group emotive process rather that results orientation.  Expect America to fall farther and farther behind…except in the massive data base that will be compiled on students and their families.

Simultaneously, the Environmental Protection Agency continues its frontal assault on the poor and middle classes.  The Energy.gov website notes that half of the electricity in America comes from coal.  Yet, because of EPA regulations, 280 coal-fired generating plants are slated to be closed.  The president’s promise that electricity prices will “necessarily” skyrocket is about to come true.  The poor will be disproportionately impacted by this megalomaniacal pursuit of ideology.

On a final troubling note, EPA regulations have forced the closing of the Doe Run Lead Smelter in Missouri.  This smelter has been in business since 1892 and is the last in this country.  They estimate that they would have to expend $100 million dollars to comply with the new and draconian EPA regulations.  The upshot is that lead ore mined in this country will have to be shipped out of this country (China?), refined, and then imported.  It is not difficult to connect the dots and see why the military, the Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies have been stockpiling billions of rounds of ammunition.

If the direct assault on Second Amendment rights by government and other gun control zealots is successfully repelled, the war may still have been lost.  It will be unavoidable that American citizens will find ammunition to be increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive.  George Washington noted that: “A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”  If you value your freedom; if you value your liberty, beware the jaws of the ruling wolves.

Too Big to Fail?...NOT!

By William L. Garvin

 

 

“The bigger they are; the harder they fall.”  Many can remember this childhood exhortation to stand up to bullies.  Politicians and government agencies should take this as an admonition.

 

This seems particularly appropriate with the disastrous Obamacare implementation and now the president’s fading glory.  It is increasingly clear that this sprawling government monstrosity is redefining winners and losers.  The obvious winners are those with preexisting conditions and those who never had insurance, a good thing.  The losers are all those who have had their policies cancelled and are now facing budget busting increases in premiums and deductibles, a bad thing.  The former signups are in the thousands; the latter are in the millions with millions more to come.  Also in the loser category are state budgets because the vast majority of enrollees in Obamacare are in the Medicaid category.  The federal aid to the states will quickly be phased out.  The economic reality of any government trying to take control of one-sixth of the economy to aid one-tenth of the population is beginning to sink in.  Remember that this administration has the least amount of private sector experience of any modern presidency.  It’s becoming increasingly clear that the glitches are indeed train wrecks and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Concurrently, as THE ECONOMIST cover clearly demonstrates, the president who used to walk on water is now in it up to his neck and desperately flailing about to restore his fading luster.  If the heaviest burden is a great potential, President Obama had plenty to live up to.  In his book THE BRIDGE: THE LIFE AND RISE OF BARACK OBAMA, David Remnick quotes the president’s long time Svengali advisor and handler extraordinaire, Valerie Jarrett.  “I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary.  He knows exactly how smart he is…He knows how perceptive he is.  He knows what a good reader of people he is.  And he knows that he has the ability—the extraordinary, uncanny ability—to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them, and make sense out of them, and I think he has never been really challenged intellectually.  I mean, he’s the kind of guy you’d hate in law school, who would pick up the book the night before the final, read it, and ace the test.  So what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but someone with extraordinary talents that they had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy.”  As George Will pointedly observed, how can anyone so smitten possibly be an effective advisor?  As the coup de grace, Valerie adds: “He’s been bored to death his whole life.  He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.  He would never be satisfied with what ordinary people do.”  All those little people, all those ordinary people, the ones who go to work every day, who balance their budgets, who don’t live and spend beyond their means, they just don’t understand His Magnificence!  What elitist claptrap!

 

What ordinary people do understand is that for all that money, they could have built a hundred working websites.  What ordinary people do understand is that the “good jobs for the jobless” promise has been a miserable failure and one of a long line of broken promises.  What they do understand is that they will soon forget his lofty boast that “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” 

 

That’s why ordinary people in the latest left-leaning CNN poll shows that 56% disagree with President Obama on the major issues.  The same percentage says he “does not inspire confidence.”  It also shows that 53% of ordinary people do not regard him as “honest or trustworthy.”  Ordinary people now know the emperor has no clothes.

 

That’s why Democrats are finally moving out of lockstep with the President, voting against his decrees, and showing open rebellion.  Senators like Landrieu in contested states don’t even want to be seen with him.  That’s why liberal fanatics spin fantastic yarns about Republicans being responsible for Obamacare failures.  Three months ago, the Tea Party was irrelevant; now they are responsible for the latest “right wing conspiracy”; they are the cause of the website implosion; their mean words are the genesis of the public rejection.  Sorry spinmeister Democrats-- this is all on you.  Oh what tangled webs you weave since from the beginning, Obamacare was built to deceive.

 

 

Half Vast Ideas

By William L. Garvin

 

 

Military veterans probably remember the maxim that “Proper prior planning prevents p--- poor performance.”  Civilian applications were politically corrected down to “prior planning prevents poor performance.”  There are other colloquialisms for caution such as “don’t let your mouth write a check that your body can’t cash” and don’t let your alligator mouth overload your hummingbird butt.”  My favorite has to be “don’t take on vast projects with half-vast ideas.”  Apparently, the Obama administration never heard or has chosen to ignore these maxims.

 

Of course, when you start with a flawed premise, there is very little room for success.  How could any sane person possibly believe you can add thirty million people to the medical rolls, suffer a status quo or decrease in medical practitioners, mandate a plethora of additional benefits in every policy, and expect your insurance bill to decrease by $2,500 per family per year?  Yet, that’s what President Obama promised and Democrats and the media swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.  It was shoved down the throats of the remainder, the majority of citizens, who have never approved of Obamacare, who were satisfied with their own insurance, and were pleased with their medical care.

 

With a flawed premise, it’s important to embellish with lies.  If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.  If you like your doctor, you can keep him.  Period.  Don’t forget the emphatic assurance of what has proven false.  In order to keep your insurance, no changes could be made since passage of the Affordable Care Act.  Of course, Health and Human Services then told all the insurance companies that there were certain benefits that had to be included.  So far, a million and a half policies have been canceled since they don’t have all those benefits.  Now the liberal spin is all of those policies were “garbage,” the insurance companies that sold them were predators, and the consumers who bought them were ignorant rubes.  Only the government knows what is good for you; you can’t be trusted to make your own decisions!  Now it’s being reported that President Obama’s administration (you can’t say President Obama because he continually demonstrates that he knows nothing about anything!) knew from the beginning that 50 to 75% of the 14 million individual subscribers would be canceled out.  He both knew and lied or he is absolutely ignorant about his “signature” accomplishment.  It’s unclear as to which is the worse offense.

 

Now there’s the disastrous rollout of Obamacare.  After three and a half years and three-quarters of a BILLION dollars of taxpayer money, the website crashes.  On the grand launch, a miniscule total of six (6) people were able to sign up.  That will be the height of inefficiency in the textbooks for years to come.  Maybe if it hadn’t been a “no bid” contract, things would have been better.  Maybe if it had been an American company with a proven, positive track record, things would have been better.  Maybe if the companies hired hadn’t previously been fired for overbilling, ineffectiveness, and weren’t being investigated for possible criminal wrong doing, things might have been better.  They’re not.  Keep in mind that this is only one piece of the government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.  Wait until they start processing claims.  There are already problems with privacy and inaccurate information being transmitted.  Furthermore, over ninety percent of the enrollees are not enrolling in Obamacare but are enrolling in Medicaid!  That will have a disastrous effect on state budgets and will also be disastrous to the Ponzi scheme financing of Obamacare.  Someone once said that a camel was a horse designed by a government committee.  Unless young, healthy citizens enroll in Obamacare, the government camel will dehydrate from lack of financial water.

 

If this concoction was so good, you wouldn’t have to threaten consumers with fines if they didn’t purchase the government mandated offerings.  If this concoction was so good, Congress would have been first in line.  If this concoction was so good, Congress would not have given themselves an exemption from the law they are foisting upon others.  And large corporations wouldn’t have been given a year delay.  (Wait until they start dropping their insurance plans for employees!)  If this concoction was so good, Democrat donating unions wouldn’t have been carved out and thousands of waivers granted.  Contrary to your congressional testimony, Secretary Sebelius, it is not illegal for you to go to an exchange.  But no, you’d rather keep your government health insurance with 80% of your premiums being paid by the American taxpayer.  You passed the law; now we know what’s in it…and it stinks.

Bludgeoned, Bloodied, and Bowed

By William L. Garvin

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.  It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”  Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister

Now that the government shutdown and world threatening crisis has temporarily ended, it’s time to take stock of what we have learned.  First, if a president refuses to negotiate, refuses to make any concession, refuses to enact legislation that would protect the most vulnerable among us, it is principled.  However, if the opposition offers compromise after compromise and concession after concession, they are obstructionists and the moral equivalent of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

When Republicans offer to fully fund the government in exchange for delaying the individual mandate of Obamacare for one year, they are at best anarchists and at worst racists.  Ignore the fact that every poll shows the majority of Americans do not approve of Obamacare.  Ignore the fact that Kathleen Sebelius and Health and Human Services spent three years and over $500 million to build a website that doesn’t work.  Ignore the fact that seventy percent of Americans were happy with their health insurance.  Ignore the fact that the president said we would have an average decrease in premium costs of $2,500 per year but we are facing continued increases in both premiums and deductibles with fewer options.   Ignore the fact that the president said we could keep our doctors but that is not true for millions of Americans.  Ignore the fact that the president unilaterally changes the law by carving out special treatment for his cronies and supporters.  Ignore the fact that Congress does not have to live under the law they are imposing on others.

We’ve also learned that Harry Reid would rather sacrifice children enrolled in National Institute of Health clinical trials than consider funding by Republicans on a matter of political principle.  We’ve learned that the national parks and memorials do not belong to the people but to the president.  He can now close them at will and employ armed guards against the citizenry.  Members of his party have even suggested martial law.  He can take his ball and go home by blocking access to open air memorials and blocking veterans from the site that citizens built specifically to honor them.  Of course, as Nancy Pelosi noted, he can also open them to gatherings of illegal immigrants if it suits his whim and political purpose.  We have also learned that patriotic Americans, like the Fisher House, will step forward to care for families of our warriors who die in battle when the president and the Secretary of Defense default on their obligations in reprehensible and immoral fashion.

We’ve learned that Thomas Jefferson should be ignored when he said “I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”  We’ve learned that Senator Obama was just kidding when he said:  “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”  We’ve learned it’s okay for him to vote against raising the debt limit when it was “only” $9 trillion but demand another increase even after it’s soared to $17 trillion under his leadership!  We’ve learned that after exceeding the first ever trillion dollar deficit level (for four years in a row!), you can claim to be a fiscal conservative by finally not exceeding that trillion dollar level this year.

We’ve learned that when George Bush’s approval rating drops to 37%, it’s a crisis of confidence but when Barack Obama drops to the same level, it’s a non-news event.  It’s apparently not news when only 13% of Americans think we are on the right track and 78% think everyone in congress should be dismissed.  It’s also not news when Harry Reid has the lowest approval rating of the four congressional leaders.  It’s also not news when we have the highest percentage of citizens living in poverty since the War on Poverty began back in 1965!

We’ve also learned that when you believe the government should not spend more than it has, that government policies should support free market capitalism, that the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land, and that the United States is an exceptional country, you are either an anarchist, terrorist, bigot, racist, sexist, misogynist, or quite likely, all of the above.  We’ve learned they have no shame in repeating the big lie over and over and over…. 

Presidential Petulance and Pettiness

By William L. Garvin

 

There have been seventeen previous shutdowns during tenures of five presidents.  It wasn’t until the current eighteenth shutdown that we have a president so enamored with himself, his presumed intellectual superiority, and a complicit media bolstered popularity, that he refuses to negotiate in any way, shape or form.  He even belies his professed constitutional law proficiencies by unilaterally changing “settled law” with executive orders then relying on a “settled law” argument to dispense with opposition proposals.  Even more troubling is his unseemly display of presidential petulance and pettiness that is a national and international embarrassment.

 

It is helpful to review legislative history in order to more fully understand the continued opposition to the “train wreck” known as Obamacare.  First look at the Social Security Act of 1935.  It was passed in the House with the support of 89% of Democrats and 79% of the Republicans.  The Senate followed suit with 87% of Democrats and 64% Republicans.  How about the Medicare Act of 1965?  In the House, there was 81% Democrat and 50% Republican support; the Senate was 84% Democrat and 41% Republican.  While these bills enjoyed strong bipartisan support, such was not the case with Obamacare.  In the middle of the night, without having read the 2,000 plus page bill, House Speaker and presidential sock puppet Nancy Pelosi forced an 87% Democrat and ZERO percent Republican passage.  Likewise, with senatorial chicanery, i.e., reconciliation, Harry Reid strong armed a 100% Democrat and ZERO percent Republican passage.

 

The typical, knee jerk reaction of liberals is to trot out the canard of racism when they complain about the one-sided Obamacare vote.  Look at the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In the House, 80% of Republicans voted for the act as did 61% of Democrats.  In the Senate, 82% of Republicans were in support along with 69% of Democrats.  Yet, in an astounding display of revisionist history, the OCD Democrat Party calls the GOP racist!  Progressive selective amnesia kicks in by forgetting that the governors blocking the integration of schools were Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan was affiliated with the Democrat Party, not the GOP.

 

So much for the past, let’s look at the sordid present.  Republicans think that Obamacare is bad for the country on moral, religious, and constitutional grounds.  While elements of the act have merit, it is increasingly obvious that giving the government control and involvement in one-sixth of the economy is turning out to be the disaster that the Democrat Obamacare author predicted.  While Republicans prefer to repeal Obamacare, they have compromised with many alternative proposals.  They have offered to fully fund the government and scaled back Obamacare challenges from repealing to defunding to delaying to treating everyone equally by eliminating unconstitutional exemptions to eliminating the medical device tax (which everyone seems to concede is a very bad idea).  Harry “the Undertaker” Reid has not only buried every single House Republican bill but has also refused to attend or appoint anyone to attend a conference committee.  Reid preferred to shut down the entire government rather than modify any aspect of Obamacare…and he did.  Keep in mind that the law was already modified by executive order to grant exclusions to congress, their staff and big corporations.   The Secretary of HHS has issued so many waivers that they won’t even list them anymore!

 

Continuing the campaign of presidential pettiness, Reid the Undertaker also buried a House bill to fund national parks and memorials.  Acting with unusual speed (as if they had received direct orders from the President!), the park service erected barriers in front of the open air, 24/7 World War II Memorial and threatened to arrest the WW II vets who were arriving on Honor Flights!  Open air memorials have never been closed during previous shutdowns.  The Obama administration spent more time, money, and resources erecting the “Barry-cades” than it takes to maintain the memorial!  Furthermore, the Commander In Chief spent more time, money, and resources keeping American veterans out of their memorial than he did in rescuing Americans from terrorists in Benghazi. 

 

Mustering up faux outrage, Reid also complained about children with cancer not being able to get into the National Institute of Health clinical trials.  The Republican House immediately passed a bill fully funding NIH.  As usual, the Undertaker buried it.  When asked if he would pass it if it would save even one child, he coldly queried “why would I do that?”  If there is ever government accountability (oxymoron?), that should be the epitaph on the tombstone of a political career.  It can be buried next to the hopes of a presidential aspirant whose headstone reads “what difference does it make?”  These are shameful moments in American history and a frightening glimpse into the Obama/Reid/Pelosi soul and character.

Lionize or Demonize?

 

By William L. Garvin

 

Political pundits lionize or demonize along party lines.  The mainstream media lionizes or demonizes according to progressive ideological protocols.  It appears as if they no longer even want to pretend to be objective in their analysis of happenings in the world.

 

Take the comparative coverage of Wendy Davis and Ted Cruz as an object lesson.  To the leftist press, Wonderful Wendy and her legion of supporters were “courageous,” “brave,” “remarkable,” “heroic” and channeling the “anger of millions.”  Little coverage was given to the chants of “hail Satan” and “F---the church.”  Even the Church of Satan repudiated their “irreverent” chants!  Sparse coverage was devoted to Wendy followers who carried jars of urine, feces, paint and sported tampons as jewelry.  Did you even hear of the death threats being made to Texas officials or the voodoo dolls being made of the Texas governor?  As for her “tilting at windmill” cause, Ms. Davis wanted no restrictions on abortions after 20 weeks even though the pro-life bill was overwhelmingly supported by the Texas legislature, the governor, and Texans in general.  As an aside, did you notice that throughout the American fascination with William and Kate’s pregnancy there was only a “Royal Baby”; there was never a “Royal Fetus”?

 

Maybe if Ted Cruz would have worn pink tennis shoes, he would have been shown a little more liberal love in the media.  He spoke for 21 hours compared to Wendy’s eleven but his efforts were a “big waste of time” according to Harry Reid.  Of course, Harry was the one who released the Senate for a 5-week vacation on August 1 even though the federal budget was due October 1.  Talk about wasting time!  In any event, Cruz was characterized as “an arrogant jerk”, “whacky”, “narcissistic”, “all about him”, and “bizarre.”  Little was shown of his actual explanations of his objections to the government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.  His key point of the Affordable Care Act doing little to improve actual medical care but merely redistributing premiums throughout the age and economic spectrum garnered virtually no coverage.  If a modicum of truth in advertising laws applied, Obamacare would have to be renamed the Affordable Insurance Act because getting insurance may be easier than actually getting medical care.  In any event, Wendy’s the lion and Ted’s the demon.

 

Then there’s Nancy “pass the bill to find out what’s in it” Pelosi.  Now she’s doing her best Mother Hubbard impersonation and declaring the cupboard is bare.  If so, exactly how did government come up with the $320 million to bailout the fraud, corruption, and incompetence in Detroit?  What’s the matter, San Bernardino and Stockton, weren’t you corrupt enough to get federal aid?  What about the half million dollars that the Veterans Affairs Department just spent on artwork?  Or the Agriculture Department spending $140,000 on “toner cartridges” in one day!  Then there are the National Science Foundation grants to a new website (SiteJabber.com) to rate the “trustworthiness” of other websites.  Maybe they should start with the cute little animals on the Adorable Health Care website waste of taxpayer money.  Nancy, did you not know about the NSF grant that pays for “meditation and self-reflection” for math, science, and engineering majors?  There are lots more in Tom Coburn’s letters to the Senate.  Don’t forget to check out the YouTube video on how to properly handle a watermelon, another taxpayer funded undertaking.

 

Should someone who calls their opponents “legislative arsonists,” “anarchists,” “bombs strapped to their chests,” and guilty of “political terrorism” be lecturing others on civility?  Yet this is what senior Democrat leaders do repeatedly in demonizing dissent.  Somehow though, real terrorists such as Nidal Hassan are reduced to “disgruntled employees” acting out in “workplace violence.”  What should be demonized is the economic violence from the drop in median income of $2,627 since President Obama took office.  “Political terrorism” is when 27% of Blacks are in poverty and 25.6% of Hispanics have joined them.  “Legislative arson” is when the debt reaches $17 trillion this month, is projected to reach $23 trillion by 2017, and unfunded liabilities are estimated at $84 TRILLION!  THAT deserves demonization.  Equally unsettling is negotiating with terrorists (Iran) and leaving our men behind on the battlefield (Benghazi).  But that is what you get when you vote for the “fundamental transformation of America.”   Now you are finding out what that means.  Now who should be demonized? 

 

Running Out of Options

By William L. Garvin

 

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”  Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

 

Long before the Syrian quagmire, Alexander Pope wrote that “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” His advice still stands strikingly on point as there appear to be no good options in dealing with this looming crisis.  Obviously the situation has been exacerbated by President Obama unilaterally delineating a “red line” after “leading from behind” for five years.  This is in direct opposition to his statement in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 2009:  “In a world in which threats are more diffuse and missions more complex, America cannot act alone.  America alone cannot secure the peace.”

 

Long before the Bush-Bash Brothers (Barack Obama and John Kerry) “evolved” from Democrat Doves to war drum beating Chicken Hawks, he also said:  “Iran and Syria would start changing their behavior if they started seeing that they had some incentives to do so, but right now the only incentive that exists is our president suggesting that if you do what we tell you, we may not blow you up.  My belief about the regional powers in the Middle East is that they don’t respond well to that kind of bluster.  They haven’t in the past, there’s no reason to think they will in the future.”  What’s next…Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon performing on USO tours with Bill Maher?

 

Speaking of Hollywood and the anti-war movement that was so omnipresent and stridently vocal when George Bush was president, where are you?  Of course, President Bush only had thirty nations in his coalition, congressional approval, United Nations support and seventy percent of the nation behind him.  Ed Asner made it perfectly clear when he said:  “A lot of people don’t want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama.”  As usual in liberal lexicon, if you oppose President Obama’s policies, you’re a racist.  Yawn.

 

The problem with President Obama’s red line manifesto for Syria is manifold.  First of all, he doesn’t have a playbook.  Second of all, he doesn’t have a team.  Thirdly, his credibility is actually not on the line because after Benghazi, NSA, Fast and Furious, and the IRS, he has none!  A year after Benghazi, the only thing that this administration has accomplished is a “sealed indictment.”  I’ll bet al Qaeda is shaking in its boots.

 

As for Syria, if Assad actually used poison gas, he’s not only a war criminal, he’s an irrational war criminal.  Don’t expect rational strategies to alter irrational behavior.  On the other side, the Free Syrian Army rebel force has been greatly diminished and al Qaeda forces gaining in strength.  Who’s to say that al Qaeda affiliates didn’t gas the Free Syrian Army?  The administration says it has “high confidence” that Assad used these WMD but that is the same intelligence apparatus that repeatedly blamed Benghazi on a video!

 

As for the Syrian opposition, we see rebel leaders summarily executing Assad’s soldiers while the prisoners are face down on the ground with their hands bound.  Another commandant cuts open a fallen soldier’s chest and pulls out and eats his heart and liver.  The jihadists are also destroying Christian churches and terrorizing Christians similar to what’s happening in Egypt.  There is no telling what sort of rule these barbarians might enact if they are successful in seizing power.

 

Anti-war activist, now Secretary of State John Kerry, (who was undoubtedly against it before he was for it) now wants “limited” and “proportional” strikes that are not “war in the classical sense.”  If the military kicking Morsi out of power in Egypt is not a coup, then why not redefine these terms of language as well?  If Canada or Mexico lobbed a few missiles across the border or bombed a few of our airports, would the United States see that as “limited and proportional” or an “act of war” even if they promised “no boots on the ground”?

 

Who is to say that a “limited and proportional” strike or series of strikes will be the end game?  One can surmise that there will be many visuals of innocent women and children killed in the strikes.  What if someone uses WMD several times, a la Saddam Hussein?  Given that Iran and Russia are still supporting Assad, what if they decide to retaliate?  What if Hezbollah decides to attack Israel?  What if the world erupts, not with a whimper but a bang?  Forget the limited, proportional sound and fury; it signifies nothing.       

Evolution or Devolution?

By William L. Garvin

When Secretary of State John Kerry referred to the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a “moral obscenity,” it was nice to hear him criticizing someone other than our own military personnel.  It would also have been appropriate to hear him express similar outrage when Saddam Hussein was using similar weapons against the Iranians and against the Kurdish people in his own country but that didn’t happen.  Of course, Kerry is right—it is an atrocity but it just the latest example of cultural devolution.

What do you make of a world when mothers will strap explosives to their children and then send them off to public places to be detonated?  What do you make of a world where entire villages will be hacked to death with machetes?  What do you make of a cause that severs the head of a journalist and then posts their grisly murder on YouTube?  What do you make of the millions of lives aborted each year?  What do you make of a group of teenagers that murder an innocent jogger because they were bored?  What do you make of teenagers who beat an 88-year old veteran to death with flashlights?  What do you make of teenagers who shoot a 13-month old baby to death in front of his mother?  What do you make of young boys and girls who beat someone up and then post the video of their assault?

What do you make of the beating, rape, and murder of the 85-year old woman in Tulsa and the murder of her 90-year old husband?  What about the rape of the 90-year old woman in Chicago, the 80-year old in Richmond, or the 90-year old in Detroit?  Have we created a sub-species of the human race that has neither a moral compass nor the least reservation about preying on the weakest among us?  This evidence suggests a process of “becoming physically, morally, or mentally worse,” i.e., devolution.

In her book, THE NARCISSISM EPIDEMIC, Dr. Jean Twenge notes that narcissism “is a significant risk factor for aggressive and violent behavior.”    She goes on to note that “…narcissists are aggressive exactly because they love themselves so much and believe that their needs take precedence.  They lack empathy for other people’s pain and often slash out when they feel they aren’t getting the respect they deserve—and they feel they deserve a lot, because they are, of course, better than everyone else…Their narcissism allowed them to disregard the most basic rights of others.” 

A byproduct to the self-esteem on steroids culture is a concomitant loss of a sense of shame or embarrassment.  Shock value in entertainment takes precedence over talent.  Spectacle supersedes significance.  Narcissistic self worth is determined by the number of “retweets” or the “likes” on their “selfie.”  If a sex tape can make you famous, why not?  After all, everybody’s doing it!  Politicians cheat, actors and athletes hop musical beds, and unwed mothers and deadbeat dads abound.

Our judicial system seems to aid and abet the devolution by the frequent lack of consequences.  Hasan the mass-murdering terrorist gets the death penalty but the military hasn’t executed anyone since 1961.  Three large teenagers beat, kick, stomp and maul a diminutive 13-year old and get probation, anger management, and community service.  A schoolteacher rapes a teenager who subsequently commits suicide and is given a 30-day jail sentence.  Politicians lie directly to the American people and get a pass.  If they lie under oath, they claim to have “misspoke.”  They never steal but they do “misappropriate.”  They are not a crook, they didn’t have sexual relations with that woman, and it takes nearly twenty sexual harassment claims before a mayor will resign.  Congress passes law after law after law that they and their cronies will not have to follow.  If you’re not connected, you’ll be subjected!

Adding insult to injury, the defense for the accused will frequently resort to blaming the victim.  Rumors and innuendoes boil over.  The 88-year old veteran was a drug dealer; the thirteen-year old was a snitch; the mother of the murdered 13-month old actually did it for the insurance money; the fourteen-year old girl was “older than her years.”  The adversarial system is not a search for truth but a win at any cost legal brawl with no holds barred.  Individual responsibility and societal accountability are becoming such old fashioned concepts that the light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming devolutionary train!  

A Topsy Turvy World

By William L. Garvin

“No shirt, no shoes, no service”

“We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”  Congress doesn’t have to represent their constituencies even though 61% of America oppose Obamacare’s individual mandate.  Lawyers don’t have to represent a prospective client.  Theaters don’t have to show films they don’t like.  Companies don’t have to introduce a new product.  Businesses have the ability to succeed or fail based on what they offer and who they seek as a customer base.  When I was denied entrance to a restaurant because I wasn’t wearing a coat and tie, I went to another restaurant.  When I was denied entrance to a night club because my date was wearing jeans, we went to another club.  That’s no longer the way of the world.

 

We see the trickledown effect of the federal government forcing employers, including religious institutions, to provide insurance that pays for abortion and contraception, even though it violates the owners’ religious beliefs or conscience.  In Washington, the state sued a florist who did not wish to provide flowers for a homosexual marriage.  In Oregon, the State Bureau of Labor and Industries is investigating a baker who did not wish to provide a cake for a lesbian wedding.  In Colorado, another homosexual couple sued another bakery for not providing them service.  In New Mexico, a photographer was sued for not wanting to shoot a lesbian commitment ceremony.  The couple secured another photographer and that should have ended the story.  It didn’t.  The couple took the matter to the New Mexico Human Rights Council and now the New Mexico Supreme Court has found a violation of the New Mexico “Human Rights Act.”   The photographer had to cough up nearly $7,000 in attorney fees for the plaintiff.  Will churches and pastors be the next targets?  This same New Mexico Supreme Court has also ruled that people who cannot speak English should be seated on juries and provided translators.  It’s a good thing that nothing will be lost in translation.

 

In similar fashion in California, the legislature has already passed bills that are sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.   They will allow non-citizens to sit on juries and act as poll watchers.  Earlier this month, the Governor signed a bill that affected the 6.2 million students in the California K-12 educational system.  The transgender student bill is a clarification of the Education Code and was passed along Democrat party lines.  Henceforth, all California public schools will now permit biological boys in girls’ restrooms, showers, clubs, and on girls’ sports teams and biological girls in boys’ restrooms, showers, clubs, and sports teams.”  It will be the student’s choice as to which gender he or she identifies with.  Early analysis shows no requirements for parental notification or prior counseling.  Again, it’s good that nothing will be lost in gender translation.

 

In 2009, South Africa’s Caster Semenya won the world title in the women’s 800 meters.  The 18-year-old was kept out of competition for 11 months while track and field’s governing body investigated her gender.  Such concerns will now be passé in California.  Are all the girl’s records now ready to be broken or will they simply be asterisked?  There are already prohibitions against human growth hormone and other performance enhancing drugs but how will girls compete with transgender boys who already boast the additional amounts of testosterone naturally?  Inquiring minds want to know.

 

Finally, now that “Soldier of Allah” Nidal Hasan has been convicted of thirteen premeditated murders and thirty-two attempted murders in the Fort Hood massacre, isn’t it time to clear up something else that has been lost in the translation.  It was never “workplace violence”; it was always a terrorist attack!  It is a stain on the United States Army, the Department of Defense, the Commander in Chief, and the United States of America that the survivors would have to file a lawsuit to get the medical benefits to which they feel entitled.  All those in the chain of command, the NSA and the FBI were derelict in their duties for not identifying this obvious extremist with his terrorist connections and for not protecting our service men and women from this monstrous zealot.  In your convoluted thinking, you have even denied them an award of a Purple Heart for the suffering they endured.  Mr. President, it’s time to do the right thing and turn this situation right side up.