Really America? Really?

Just pondering a few questions, answers to which are possibly more important than we may realize:

• Are a professional basketball player's bedroom choices really worth a couple days' headlines and a personal, congratulatory phone call from the President of these United States to commend him for his courage? Really? Frankly, I don't give a damn.
• Why did the United States leave four citizens hanging in the wind in far away Libya, resulting in their deaths? Really, why?
• Must I accept the redefining of Marriage? If so...what's next on the agenda?
• What good are even more gun laws going to do in the prevention of murder? After all, check the trends from 1993 to 2011 as published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics here. 
• How rampant is human trafficking in the United States? Is one particular group responsible for most of it? 
• Is my Baby Boomer generation the last to experience "retirement" as it used to be known?
• Did the Cleveland PD totally drop the ball on fully investigating strange reports from that house-turned-prison in their city? 
• Where have all the Woodward- and Bernstein-like real investigative reporters gone? 
• Why do we give more of our time and effort considering the latest Lindsay Lohan drunken episode or Kim Kardashian's marital mess than we do to matters that are actually important? 
• (By the way, who was thrown off Dancing With The Stars last night???)
• Have welfare programs doomed America's future? 
• Is personal responsibility a thing of the past?
• Has consideration of these questions ruined your mood for the day?

I'm normally quite a positive guy, but these questions and more have me a bit in the doldrums lately. 

Lord, help us. 

Recent Executive Orders Explained

The Buckeye Firearms Association just sent out this succinct explanation of each of the 23 Executive Orders recently signed by President Obama. Much ado, pomp and circumstance, and "show"...accomplishing nothing more than a nice feeling for the one who signed the orders, in this blogger's humble opinion.

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Obama's 23 Executive Orders 

translated from the formal bureaucratese

Submitted by cbaus on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 12:00.
Editor's Note: This succinct, pithy analysis of Barack Obama's 23 Executive Orders was posted yesterday on the Internet and has quickly gone viral. The original author appears to be this blogger.


So Obama released his Executive Orders to Prevent Maniacs From Being Maniacs today. I've taken the time to translate the summaries into plain English below:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

     Tell the government to follow the law.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

     Tell the regulators to stop the stupid and useless regulations.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

     Pay the states back for the unfunded mandates that the Feds keeps making.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

     Tell the Attorney General to do his job.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

     Start another unfunded mandate. (See #3.)

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

     Tell FFLs how to do something no one is ever going to bother to do.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

     Do the same thing the NRA already does, only half as well at twice the cost.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

     Do what Underwriters Laboratories already does, only half as well at twice the cost.

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

     Tell the Feds to do their jobs.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

     Tell the DOJ to do its job.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

     Tell myself to do my job.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

     Spend more money.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

     Tell everyone to do their [$%^&*#] jobs.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

     Tell the doctors to figure out why it isn’t the feds’ fault that they aren’t doing their jobs.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

     Figure out a way to push “smart guns” that don’t exist and wouldn’t be useful as guns if they did.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

     Tell everyone that Obamacare doesn’t actually mean what it says.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

     Tell everyone that, seriously, Obamacare doesn’t actually mean that. We had to pass it to find out what was in it, after all.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

     Tell everyone that I’ve been a partisan hack for the last month every time I said the NRA was crazy to want to post more cops in schools.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

     Do the same thing that every police agency in the country has already done, only half as well and at ten times the cost.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

     Tell doctors what they already know.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

     Tell people what the parts of Obamacare that don’t say anything say.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

     Tell HHS to do their job.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

     Hand the rest of the job of telling everyone to do their jobs off to someone else so it is no longer my job.

A Simple But Troubling Question

Although the world's economy is teetering on the brink of financial malaise, let me just take a moment to jump into our very important and most attention-getting current event with a question:

Wouldn't you think the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency might have access to a more secure means of encrypting and hiding electronic communications rather than utilizing a Google Gmail account drop box?

Just askin'.......................................

Vote Today!

I voted this morning on my way into work. I arrived at 7:50 a.m. and lined up behind about 30 neighbors. Still, the process was smooth and I was back on my way in less than 40 minutes. The size of the ballot—with choices from President, to County Sheriff, to School Board member, including six ballot proposals—caused the voting to take more time than usual, but that doesn't matter...it's our Constitution-given right as American citizens and each of us needs to exercise that right. If you don't vote, don't even think of bitching about the results.

Hey, think of it (and cringe): the Presidential candidates have spent in excess of Two Billion Dollars to get to this point, you've endured God only knows how many political television and radio commercials and sorted through pounds of mailings. So, get out there and take a half-hour or so to express your choices on the myriad of important items up for a decision, a decision in the hands of the people.

Remember, if you don't vote I don't care to hear your whining about the results. Just Do It!

Self Control or Gun Control?

First of all, I'm licensed by the state of Michigan to carry a concealed weapon. I've trained extensively, I've taken the required class, I've studied and I certainly feel I'm qualified to carry a firearm, which is a right guaranteed by the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution—training, classes or studies be damned—to be ready to defend myself, my loved ones, and others in need of protection from the garbage among us that would do us harm.

Now, zoom back to Friday, July 20th, just after midnight in a Cinemark theater in Aurora, Colorado. That establishment forbade citizens like myself from carrying their weapons inside the theater, just as most theaters do here in Michigan. At least one patron of the theater that night has come forward to report he is licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Colorado, but was not carrying due to the establishment's rules. Friends, please help me to understand what good that company policy did? What good is it presumed to do in any self defense situation?

The city of Chicago has some of the most stringent gun-forbidding laws in the nation, yet every single night gun violence occurs throughout that city (just read the Chicago Tribune as I do). Does it really, really make sense to forbid law-abiding citizens their Constitution-given right to arm and protect themselves? I think not.

The old saying seems trite, but think about it:  An armed society is a polite society.

Here's my own belief:  So-called Gun-Free Zones are a farce; they exist to make politicians and those who fear firearms feel better about having to tolerate gun freedoms granted us by the Constitution.

Here's what one of my favorite gun proponents had to say about the situation:
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Massad Ayoob

---

ON GUN-FREE ZONES Posted: 22 Jul 2012 11:36 PM PDT Our last entry here touched on “gun-free zones,” and whether the theater where the latest mass-murder atrocity took place guaranteed its premises to be a safe hunting preserve for the mad dog killer who wrought horror there. In blog commentary, I was asked if I could provide a link to confirm that the establishment where it happened, and its parent chain Cinemark, forbade law-abiding armed citizens to legally carry firearms there. Try these: http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-guns-policy-at-cinemark-theaters.html http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/07/robert-farago/cinemark-theaters-no-legal-firearms-allowed/ http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/open-carry-issues-discussions/89005-asked-leave-cinemark-theater.html http://forum.opencarry.org/forums/showthread.php?46023-Cinemark-Theaters Debate over whether a court would determine that the “guns forbidden” policy carried power of law seems moot: we’re talking practical reality here. Most of us go by the common sense precept, “Do not go where you are not wanted.” Armed citizens who could have stopped the killer were clearly notified by the company policy that “they were not welcome there.” When you make potential rescuers unwelcome, do not blame those potential rescuers for not being there when the disaster happens, and the death toll mounts because what could have stopped the killing has been banned from your establishment.

Are We...Well, Are We?

I received a link to this promo of a new HBO program, The Newsroom, from a friend. Take a look and see if it really grabs you by the throat, as it did me. I believe there is much truth to be found here. It almost makes me want to add an HBO subscription to our cable plan...almost.

(Oh, this is HBO, so it does have the obligatory f-bomb sprinkled lightly within)

So, I ask myself, did MY generation—baby boomers—cause the changes? Are we the ones responsible for changing America from that Bright, Shining City on a Hill to a country torn apart by this or that label? Maybe those Gen-X folks caused it, eh? One thing for sure: this clip demonstrates why I decided to turn off conservative radio, for one thing, and try to concentrate on things more positive-leaning.

So, what do you say? Is America the greatest country in the world? Was it? Should it be? Need it be? Do you give a rat's behind if we are, or not?

Freeze Your Twinkies!

The government of these United States has been so successful with its war on poverty and the war on drugs (not to mention the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afgan wars), they seem ready to institute a war on...ready?...FAT.

Forgive my negativity (and my slightly overweight body), but please, please, please Uncle Sam, leave us the hell alone to pay the price for our own stupidity! I know that request goes against the grain of so many laws and programs enacted by the all-knowing, all-protecting, I-know-what's-best-for-you folks in Washington as they attempt to lead us down life's difficult road, but enough already!

In a report just issued by the Institute of Medicine, they believe 42% of Americans could be obese by 2030, because (in their words), "people only have a certain, limited ability to control their weight in an environment where there is a lot of food available. One of the main reasons (for obesity) has to do with people being presented with large quantities of food -- tasty food -- in a culture where more is better, portion sizes are getting larger and heavily advertised."

So, it seems to follow then that it would be best for us to have a limited supply of food available, food that did not taste good, and served in small portions that are never advertised. Obviously, that will only be accomplished with the help of some sort of new federal program. Might I suggest we begin to pay for food by the calorie? Perhaps add a surcharge to items that are particularly pleasing to the palate? I'm beginning to see an opportunity for lots of taxing here.

I don't suppose those legislators would take heed of the wise words of a very wise man from long ago:

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.
                                                                        ~Thomas Jefferson

No, probably not.

A word to the wise, friends:  stock up on those Twinkies now; they're sure to be much more expensive when they're taxed or outlawed later.

Quid, Me Anxius Sum?*

SOCIALISM

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2   a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
     b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

As The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain once said, "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

As we well know, the European Union is in a financial shambles and is close to collapse. This past weekend France elected Francois Hollande, a Socialist, with—evidently—the hope he will find a way to lighten the austerity measures being pushed by Germany as the last-ditch effort to hold the EU together.

In Greece, anti-austerity parties won recent elections handily, showing the voters' anger over those same cutbacks to fiscal policies that are bankrupting nation after nation. They seem to be shouting, "damn the (economic) torpedoes...Full Speed Ahead!"

I'm reminded of Alfred E. Neuman's famous question/statement in Mad magazine:
                           What, Me Worry?* (the post title is the Latin translation)

I'm not intelligent enough to say what these developments may mean to our own November elections, but I have a nagging feeling the winner could well be the one promising the most for nothing, a chicken in every pot, and cradle-to-grave protection from any and all ills. Just think about the millions of our citizens benefiting from those federal programs; they do vote, after all. Here at home, well over 40% of our income earners in 2009 paid NO income taxes, according to the Tax Foundation (see: http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html). Turn that around and one might say that just over half of us paying income taxes are footing the entire expense of all those federal programs. Just sayin'...

Something's got to give, here and abroad. This craziness just cannot continue.

Bringing Trillions Down to My Level

The good folks at the Heritage Foundation published this chart and accompanying comparison, with the help of the Congressional Budget Office and the Census Bureau. Billions, trillions...bring it down to a level I can relate to and it really helps to make it understandable, and unbelievable.

So, tell me:  how in the world can we keep this up without joining Greece, Spain, Ireland and unfortunate others in total economic meltdown? Things can get ugly, very ugly, without difficult changes taking place and soon.

Is The American Dream a Nightmare?

Are those Wall Streeters, bankers, movers and shakers really in charge of all that matters in these United States? Does our vote or that letter to your Representative really amount to a hill of beans? Is corporate profit some nasty plan to beat down the middle class?

Being a child of the sixties, I find the Occupy Wall Street movement somewhat interesting. Personally, I can dismiss the whining about college tuition debt and the inability to get a job...no one promised a job to the holder of a BS in (you name the course of study). On the other hand, does 1% of the population control all legislation coming at us from Washington? Did you see the 60 Minutes piece on lobbying and corruption at the federal level of government a couple weeks ago? It was both amazing and disgusting. 

How many elected officials are there because of some inner desire to serve their country? How many are there to line their pockets and insure their own financial security? 

On those angles, I side with the OWS crowd. Things need to change and they must change soon. Change how? There's the question folks. Honestly, it seems rather fruitless to think about or try to do anything about this lack of real patriot leaders. How will we turn this ship 180° after so many years of sailing in the wrong direction? I know, lots of questions and no real answers. 

Below, I'd like to share two videos presenting views that are somewhat different, yet similar. Take ten minutes, watch each of them and comment your agreement or disagreement below. It could be quite interesting and I promise I won't use one of my many pepper spray containers on you if I don't agree. 

> the following video is not suitable for minor children or those with tender ears! <

Here's the Real Problem

I've ranted and raved about the way we're passing along untold economic problems to our children and grandchildren. Well today a good friend sent me a link to the following little video that will no doubt "grab" you in much the same way as it did me.

We have to turn this bus around and soon, before my four grandchildren are locked into a life offering much less goodness and opportunity than our generation has been fortunate enough to experience. This is what matters. This is why "business as usual" just won't cut it any longer.

Presidential Shame and Grandmotherly Terror

This morning I lowered the U.S. Flag at our office to half-staff for the day; the third such lowering in three weeks. The Governor of Michigan orders all flags within the state to be flown at half-staff to honor Michigan service people who are killed on active duty and/or while in a combat zone. Many of these deaths take place in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Last week, President Obama succumbed to public pressure and announced a speed-up of the plan to bring troops home from Afghanistan. Believe me, I very much want our troops home and out of harms way from what I believe to be an unattainable objective in Afghanistan. However, that withdrawal must be done with our military objective and the safety of our personnel at the forefront of planning. Mr Obama has chosen to ignore the advice of the military commanders right up to the Secretary of Defense, who say his plan is too much, too soon, and risks losing much of what has been accomplished so far.

As a Vietnam-era vet, I'm reminded of that war and how politics played a huge role in the actions that resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths. Shame on you, Mr President, for using Afghanistan to garner public favor with your next election less than 18 months away. It stinks of political gain at the expense of American lives and mission failure.

Elsewhere in the War on Terror front, the TSA is now subjecting 95-year-old, leukemia-stricken, frail grandmothers to strip search. Have they lost their freaking minds? This is yet another outrage that should wake-up those responsible for TSA procedures that the agency is totally out of control. Were Mrs Weber my grandmother I imagine I'd be in jail this morning. This is utter nonsense and if allowed to continue we may as well admit it...the terrorists have won.

Give us back our freedom; I'll take my chances that a cancer-ridden 95-yr-old won't bomb or hijack the flight.

Smoke, Mirrors, and Fraud

Remember just a week ago when Obama, Boehner and Reed were working so hard at coming to an interim budget agreement to avoid a government shutdown? Well folks it was mostly, if not all, pure horse hockey, crap, BS, call it what you will. We've been tricked into thinking those wonderful guys really did something praise-worthy. It appears those late-night "summits" at the White House were simply the three good old boys getting together to have a nightcap or two while they laughed at how they were fooling the ignorant U.S. citizenry.

Now that those "in the know" are studying the actual agreement reached, we're told most of these wonderful, monumental, hard-fought "cuts" are not reductions at all. We've been lied to, kept in the dark, made to think they agreed on something to really help our economy...and its mostly BUNK.

Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, the Right, the Left, Centrists, they're all crooks and should be thrown out of office at the earliest opportunity. The United States of America is broke, bankrupt, zilched out, ain't got nothin' (but printing presses) and in the not too distant future we're all going to feel the serious effects of a broken, worthless dollar and another country with its economy in ruin.

This just stinks.
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Kevin Drum blogs as follows:

Smoke and Mirrors Watch

— By Kevin Drum| Tue Apr. 12, 2011 12:26 PM PDT

Here's AP reporter Andrew Taylor digging into the $38 billion in spending cuts that Republicans agreed to and finding that an awful lot of it is smoke and mirrors:


Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including [...] $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.


....The spending measure reaps $350 million by cutting a one-year program enacted in 2009 for dairy farmers then suffering from low milk prices. Another $650 million comes by not repeating a one-time infusion into highway programs passed that same year. And just last Friday, Congress approved Obama's $1 billion request for high-speed rail grants — crediting themselves with $1.5 billion in savings relative to last year.


About $10 billion of the cuts comes from targeting appropriations accounts previously used by lawmakers for so-called earmarks....Republicans had already engineered a ban on earmarks when taking back the House this year.


Republicans also claimed $5 billion in savings by capping payments from a fund awarding compensation to crime victims. Under an arcane bookkeeping rule — used for years by appropriators — placing a cap on spending from the Justice Department crime victims fund allows lawmakers to claim the entire contents of the fund as budget savings. The savings are awarded year after year.


And this report from CBS News notes two other phantom cuts: $1.7 billion left over from the 2010 census and $2.2 billion in subsidies for health insurance co-ops that are going to be funded anyway via the healthcare reform bill. This stuff alone adds up to $27.4 billion, all of it money that wouldn't have been spent anyway. I suppose you can argue that some of it might have gotten reallocated if it hadn't been removed legislatively, but I doubt that the tea party true believers are in a mood to buy that. If these reports are correct, the bill contains only about $11 billion in hard cuts. Basically, it looks as if the tea partiers may have gotten snookered by their own side.

Just Leave Us Alone

In her State of the State message on 1/19/11, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley echoed Ronald Reagan's sentiment that "as government expands, liberty contracts." The role of government, she said, is "to secure the rights and freedoms of our people." It was "never intended to be all things to all people." 

Right on, Governor! 

Unfortunately, there are many from the President on down the line that would heartily disagree with the Governor. They feel the federal government should be involved in every aspect of our lives, from cradle to grave. Just look at "ObamaCare" as a shining example of government essentially taking over approximately one-sixth of our national economy.

Balderdash! Horse hockey! Nonsense! Leave me alone! 

Over the past two years, the federal government has gone way too far into controlling the private lives of citizens and private companies, too. Of course, that takes money...lots of money. As a result, we have a budget deficit that will essentially cripple our children, grandchildren and those that come after them. Can you really fathom fourteen trillion dollars? I can't imagine what that really represents. It's even more impressive to see it in numerals:

$14,000,000,000,000

And don't forget, as Ronald Reagan told us,

We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.

We spend too much trying to be all, to all...and all that spending is about to economically ruin a once great nation.