Saying What You Mean

By William L. Garvin

‘Intelligence is derived from two words, inter and leger, inter meaning ‘between’ and leger meaning ‘to choose between.’  An intelligent person, therefore, is one who has learned ‘to choose between.’  He knows that good is better than evil, that confidence should supersede fear, that love is superior to hate, that gentleness is better than cruelty, forbearance than intolerance, compassion than arrogance, and that truth has more virtue than ignorance.”  J. Martin Klotsche

In their search for independence, generations sometimes differentiate from their elders by their use of language.  Sometimes they invent new words such as “Daddio,” “gremmie,” “homies,” “brah,” “bling,” and “selfie.”  Sometimes they develop generational “cool” by changing spelling such as “phat,” “dat,” and “def.”  Another differentiation is to change the traditional meaning of a word as has happened with “boss,” “hot,” “lame,” “bad,” “gay,” “gnarly,” and “booty.”  Most of these are merely cultural phases, harmless and ephemeral.  There is a much more serious issue when the press, government, or societal transmogrification obscures reality and the truth.

The Obama administration promised that its cornerstones would be the “rule of law” and “transparency.”  Those were its words but hardly its actions.  Throughout its scandal-plagued six years, the public has been inundated with obfuscation, stonewalling, “misremembering,” and blatant hypocrisy.  Anyone opposing the progressive transformation has been subjected to the full force of government retribution much as Tea Party and conservative groups have had to endure.  There is a campaign of “eradication of opposition” that has been aided and abetted by establishment Republicans with their “go along to get along” policy of appeasement and a complacent, compliant media that willingly follows White House marching orders.  Therefore, just as in a Brian Williams or Dan Rather newscast, you will never get the full truth.

When American soldiers were slaughtered at Ft. Hood by a Muslim shouting praises to Allah, Islamic terrorism became “workplace violence.”  The Jews slaughtered in a Jewish deli in Paris became “folks” who were killed at “random” even though the murderer said he was after Jews.  Now we have 21 Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS in Libya who are identified as “Egyptian citizens” and “innocent victims.”  However, when Craig Hicks executes three Muslim students, they are immediately identified as victims of their faith and manner of worship.  In genuflecting support of this knee jerk reaction, liberal media has tried to paint Hicks as representative of the “white, right wing extremist.”  They deliberately ignore the fact that he is an ardent atheist, a fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center (an extremist group that calls out others as extremists!), the Huffington Post, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, many anti-Tea Party and anti-conservative Facebook pages, and of course, MSNBC’s resident White House apologist—Rachel Maddow.  Some blame the movie AMERICAN SNIPER for these murders.

Even though the police have reported the murders to be the result of an ongoing dispute over a parking space, the confluence of a “perpetual grievance mentality” with the “perpetual liberal guilt mentality” has resulted in a new hashtag campaign of “Muslim lives matter.”  Of course they do along with Black lives matter, White lives matter, Christian lives matter, Hindu lives matter, Buddhist lives matter, atheist lives matter, etc., (unless they are in a liberal womb!).  This was epitomized by MSNBC’s peripatetic Chris Hayes who anointed it a “Trayvon Martin moment,” “a Michael Brown moment,” typifying the “routine stereotyping and marginalization of Muslims.”  He went on to say “It takes place in a context where subtle, persistent, anti-Muslim bias is a part of American life and this feels like a wake-up call.”  What a crock of horse manure!  First of all, there is no similarity at all between a couple of street punks and these young students.  Secondly, there is no wave of Islamophobia in this country even though the President and Muslim leaders think there is.  Thirdly, who cares what it “feels like” to you?  Where are your facts?  Reality check--you don’t have any.

Meanwhile, swastikas are painted on a Jewish fraternity in California, Jewish and Christian cemeteries are desecrated in Europe, American marines are forced to destroy their weapons before abandoning our embassy in Yemen, a Christian genocide is occurring throughout the Middle East, 300 marines are about to be surrounded in Iraq, the embassy in Kabul is now within reach of the Taliban terrorists (rather the “armed insurgents who resort to terrorist activities,” and another estimated 20,000 “boots on the ground” have joined ISIS.  Still President Obama fantasizes that “ISIS is on the defensive” and “morale is low” because of his “smart diplomacy” and “strategic patience.”  This is all Obama-speak for “dithering” and “I don’t have a clue.”  That is truly “cray cray” and since SNAFU, YOYO, and GLTA!

High Horse, Hobby Horse, or Stalking Horse?

By William L. Garvin

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”  President Barack Obama

Seasoned citizens were often queried as whether it was “live or Memorex.”  Today it’s a question of whether it’s April Fools or whether someone’s getting punked or whether it’s just a “Saturday Night Live” spoof.  In any event, nearly everyone who is paying attention is channeling their inner John McEnroe and screaming “you can’t possibly be serious!”  Even die-hard democrats are bowing their heads, not in reverence but in shame and chagrin, because of the president’s perplexing performance at the National Prayer Breakfast.  It was devastatingly wrong on so many levels.  Furthermore, this event raises significant concern as to whether or not there have been “high crimes” against logic, “misdemeanors” against optics and common decency, and “treason” against historical accuracy, all committed by President Obama.  As a result, anyone other than low information voters must be disturbed as to why our Commander-in-Chief has morphed into the Islamapoligist-in-Chief.  Elections do indeed have consequences that are “coming home to roost!”

As Lou Dobbs noted: “… the president seems to constantly be mounting his high horse.  It’s a wonder that he doesn’t suffer chronic nose bleeds.”  It is usually this president who sits astride the “high horse” with nothing more than a hobby horse foundation.  He’s quick to condemn police for “acting stupidly” without gathering necessary facts but equally quick to caution others not to “rush to judgment” when Nidal Hasan is shouting “allahu Akbar” and slaughtering American soldiers.  He’s quick to perpetuate the Ferguson myth of “hands up, don’t shoot” before the United Nations general assembly but slow to retract or correct his error.  He’s quick to establish red lines and deadlines but they are all sound and fury, signifying nothing as they impotently fade into memory.  He’s slow to defend but quick to condemn the country he was chosen to lead.

 “Crusades’ was not a term that was used until the seventeenth century though the Christian military actions against Muslims started in the late eleventh century.  Muslim military actions, incursions and conquests into Christendom started four centuries before that.   Indeed, Muslims had subjugated nearly two-thirds of the Christian world at the time the Pope initiated the first crusade.  Another significant observation about Islam and Christianity is that Mohammed personally led military actions whereas Jesus the Christ did not.  The early sections of the Quran read more peacefully but the later verses became more aggressive corresponding to the faith’s growth in numbers and strength.  Quran (8:12)—“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve.  Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”  There is no similar verse in the New Testament of the Bible.  Nor are there any Christian equivalents for “fatwas” or “jihads.”

Christians do not burn people alive, behead babies, bury people alive, shoot children for watching soccer matches, stone women, keep women from school or driving cars, throw homosexuals off rooftops, or kidnap and rape young girls as a matter of contemporary faith or culture.  Anyone doing so would become an instant pariah and would be vehemently repudiated by the entire Christian community.  Christianity has embraced reform.  Such is not the case in countries under Islamic rule.  We are told that 99.9% of Muslims are moderate.  Where did that number come from?  If so, why are they powerless to eliminate the one-tenth of one percent of violent extremists that is “perverting” their faith?  It’s up to them to clean up their own act.

As for Jim Crow and slavery, the abolitionist movement was fueled from Christian ranks, not from the worlds of academia or government.  Christian leaders such as John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Charles Finney, and Theodore Weld through Martin Luther King labored tirelessly and spearheaded slavery’s demise often at great personal risk.  In his labored invocation of Jim Crow laws, note that those activities and those of the Ku Klux Klan stemmed from his own Democrat party!

This president seems to like to wade into waters even though his knowledge has no depth.  He thinks climate change is more dangerous than terrorism.  He thinks Islamaphobia is more dangerous than Muslim extremism.  He refuses to even say the words “Islamic terrorist!”  He would rather fabricate moral equivalencies from a thousand years ago than effectively challenge the evil of global Islamic extremism.  Sins of yore deserve more condemnation than the barbaric savagery of today.  Until his world view changes, it will represent an “existential threat” to this country.

Differing States of Affairs

By William L. Garvin 

The vast majority of Americans tuned out and turned away from the State of the Union speech by President Obama.  What they missed was a carefully scripted paean to the brilliance of his administration in governing our country.  If there were to be a soundtrack for accompaniment, it would have been “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “Accentuate the Positive (Eliminate the Negative),” and “What a Wonderful World” as the finale.  Thankfully, there would be no James Taylor!  Why did so few watch?  Why were his ratings a 15-year low?  Maybe they didn’t want to see a poorly rated rerun of perpetual tax and spend democrat policies, hate the rich class warfare, and pie in the sky Monte Hall giveaways.  Maybe his oratorical luster has faded.  Maybe his failure to carry through on his previous promises has “come home to roost.”  Maybe his glitch ridden policies, lack of transparency, proliferation of scandals, incomprehensible foreign policy and deceitful domestic policy (i.e., Obamacare, Keystone pipeline, open borders) has jaded many of his customary supporters. 

That’s why Seth Meyers of NBC noted, “Obama gave the SOTU address and I just have to say that I don’t know what union he was describing.  But I want to live there.  I want to move.  It sounds outstanding.  There’s a middle class.  They have small businesses.  It sounds great.”  NBC has carried enough water for the Obama administration to fill the Great Lakes.  When even they start mocking “the One,” storm clouds are forming on the horizon of “fundamental transformation.”

He should have seen the warning signs of his impending fall from grace when his party’s candidates declared him persona non grata on their campaign trails last year.  He should have known that when “every single one of my policies” was on the ballot yet his party still suffered nationwide annihilations in the 2014 elections.  He should have known that in 2008 he inherited 257 House Democrats and 57 Democrat Senators.  His ranks have now eroded to only 188 in the House and only 44 in the Senate.  Furthermore, state Democrat governorships have dwindled from 28 to 18 while Republican governor ranks have increased to 31during his “leadership.”  He should have known that non-Gruberized, non-low information voters know that the national debt increase averaged $251 billion during the Bush years.  Senator Obama called that “unpatriotic” and a “failure of leadership.”  However, his average annual national debt increase has been an astounding $1,078 billion!  Now he’s offering up another $4 trillion budget which will add another $475 billion to the national debt.  .  Remember the company that horribly botched the Obamacare website rollout?  Some say that incompetence bordered on criminal negligence.  Well, that same company has been hired by the IRS to handle the Obamacare tax issues!!!  It’s the same old, same old wasteful and irresponsible spending

There’s another reason no one watched his SOTU—they were at the movies watching AMERICAN SNIPER, the story of Chris Kyle.  That movie not only continues to set box office records week after week after week, but it also exposes the hypocrisy of the radical left.  Since their disgusting treatment of veterans coming home from Viet Nam, like the president, they said they had “evolved” and learned to “separate the warrior from the war.”  Poppycock!  Leftists like Moore, Rogen, and Dean called Kyle a coward, linked him to the Nazi’s, and said anyone seeing the movie had anger issues, respectively.  An NBC “journalist” called him a “racist” who went on “killing sprees.”  Others labeled him a “homicidal psychopath.”  The shallow veneer is ripped away and their core ugliness is once again revealed.

The irony permeating this repugnant ingratitude is that Chris Kyle did four tours of duty in harm’s way defending their right to make such idiotic and irresponsible statements.  Remember, there’s a blogger in Saudi Arabia who is getting 1,000 lashes for making a statement insulting to Islam.  Remember Charlie Hebdo.  Try exercising freedom of speech in Iran, or Cuba (our new best friend forever), or in Russia, or in the burgeoning caliphate of ISIS.  Try it in Yemen, or in Nigeria, or in North Korea.  Speak out in Pakistan, or in China…or in Hollywood (as Clint Eastwood does) and see what it gets you.

No matter how smoothly you talk, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.  The American people are sending a message with their feet, their remote controls, and their pocketbooks.  They are telling you what they like and what they don’t like with their time and with their votes.  It’s a curious world when you go to the movies to see something that is real and when you watch President Obama’s SOTU address, you see something that is imaginary.  It’s time to get real.