The Ignorance That Killed Liberty

     Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, once stated, "A nation can have liberty or ignorance, but not both." As a nation, the United States of America, has tipped the balance in favor of ignorance and away from liberty in recent years. The last two presidential elections are proof of that fact. I say it is ignorance that has brought us to the brink of tyranny because most voters in this country are not aligned with the Leftist values of Barack Obama, but they are so woefully uninformed and misinformed that they just do not know it.
     A good case in point is a caller I heard on a radio talk show Wednesday morning while driving to work. The caller, whose name was Jim, said he voted for Nixon, Reagan and Bush the elder, but left the Republicant party and became a Democrat when Bush the younger was elected President. Jim identified himself as a Conservative, yet he voted for Barack Obama twice and said he would not vote for Sarah Palin or Rand Paul over Hillary Clinton for President.
     Jim illustrates the ignorance in this country among voters as to the ideology of individuals as well as political parties. Jim apparently is clueless that Conservatism is based on the founding principles of this country, and instead chooses to align himself with a political party that blatantly disparages those values every chance they get. Evidence of this behavior is in no short supply in recent years, from Nancy Pelosi dismissively asking some one if they were kidding when they questioned whether or not ObamaCare was constitutional, to President Obama calling the Constitution of the United States a "charter of negative rights." Throw in Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg saying that she would not recommend the U.S. Constitution as a model for developing countries to emulate, and you have Jim's political party that is proud of its anti-Americanism.
     I think Jim's ignorance, along with all those lemmings which form their political opinions watching Good Morning America as well as the other sludge dispensed daily by the propaganda arm of the Democrat party known as the main stream media, is the result of a lack of critical thinking skills. How many people for instance, even on the right, believe that Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house. This myth is illustrative of the mindless reliance that people like Jim have on media. For the record, it was Tina Faye, mocking Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, who made that statement. The Founding Fathers always knew that continued liberty depended upon an educated and informed public. That was the reason they made free speech such a prominent part of the Constitution. But everyday in this country, people like Jim, choose not to execute their right of free speech by choosing ignorance over liberty. And this kind of ignorance is the executioner of liberty and the harbinger of tyranny. 

The Irony Of King Anniversary

     It was somewhat ironic that in the almost dozen media reports that I heard yesterday on the fiftieth anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, very few actually replayed any portion of the actual speech that inspired the remembrance. They did, however, pay sycophant homage to Barack Obama with excerpts from his rather lackluster speech from the steps of the Lincoln memorial, where the media made very clear, was the exact spot Reverend King made his inspiring speech fifty years ago.
   It was also ironic that Barack Obama made his speech in the same spot that Reverend King made his, ironic because there could not be more of a chasm of values and beliefs between two men, than there is between Barack Obama and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The Reverend King, who the media and the Left call Doctor King because they value a man of academe more than a man of God, had very conservative values which one can see illustrated, not only in his "Dream" speech, but in others as well. In the Reverend's "Dream" speech he talks about a man being judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin. But it is Barack Obama and others on the Left that have worked hard the last fifty years to institutionalize the favorable judgment of blacks and other minorities based solely on skin color and not on the content of their character.
     The other thing that struck me as ironic about President Obama's speech was his retelling of people seeing their loved ones beaten and fire hosed because of their desire for equality. The President failed to mention that the people who ordered the fire hoses to be used and the beatings to be implemented to stop marchers, were Democrats. Bull Connor, who used his dogs against civil rights marchers, was a Democrat. The people blocking access to all white schools to bar black children from receiving an education there, were Democrats. The racist Jim Crow laws instituted in the South were legislated by Democrat politicians. And it was Democrats in the United States Congress that tried to block the 1964 landmark civil rights legislation from passing, and it was only because a majority of Republicans voted for it that it did pass. In fact, Al Gore's father, Al Gore Sr., lead a filibuster in the Senate to try and stop the civil rights legislation from becoming the law of the land.
     And finally, it is ironic that it has been the ideology of people like Barack Obama that has caused more unemployment in the black community since Reverend King made his speech, almost double what it was then. It is also the Leftist policies of Barack Obama and others that have directly lead to an out-of-wedlock birthrate in the black community that is three times what it was when Reverend King made his speech as well as the very despicable and heartbreaking statistic that 43% of black children are being murdered through abortion. Leftist policies have also been responsible for inner-city crime and violence that has young black men killing each other at an alarming rate because these same policies have destroyed the black family. Reverend King could not have imagined the moral decay in the black community inspired by people who would invoke his name to advance the policies that have caused it. The race profiteers like Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who enrich themselves while they impoverish the black community, are the very kind of people that the Reverend King would be marching against today if he were alive.

Barack Obama's Syrian Corner

     Well, the hapless United Nations inspection team, just slightly less so hapless than Hans Blix and his gang (remember they were the U.N. team that "inspected" Iraq before the invasion) have come away from their bullet-ridden Syrian trip with their conclusions. In the report soon to follow, one may find the assertion that chemical weapons were used in an attack located in the suburbs of Damascus. The report may also conclude that it was the Assad regime who was responsible for the attack, and not as some have speculated, the rebel forces that have been hi-jacked by Al Qaeda-style groups, trying to frame the regime.
     What the United Nations report will not state, and of this I am certain, is that George W. Bush is owed an apology by all those on the Left who mercilessly called him a liar for the better part of a decade. This confirmation that chemical weapons were used in Syria is proof that President Bush, along with many of the top intelligence agencies in the world, were correct about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. If you remember, just before the United States-lead invasion of Iraq, early in 2003, satellite imaging showed convoys en route between Iraq and Syria. With the current U.N. inspectors' confirmation of chemical weapons having been used in Syria, we now know what many of us suspected at the time, i.e., that those convoy trucks were not delivering falafels but chemical weapons. The fact, confirmed by intelligence, that Syria had no chemical weapons prior to 2003 and that they have them now, confirms that those weapons were from Saddam Hussein's private stockpile.
     The corner that the Obama administration has painted themselves into with regards to Syria is that they refused to take a stand early on in the conflict when they could have made the most difference (remember then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling Bashar Al Assad a reformer as he was murdering thousands of his own people in the streets at the start of the uprising against him). Now that the uprising has been hi-jacked by Al Qaeda-style groups, President Obama finds himself in the position of helping the terrorist Assad if he does nothing or helping the terrorists who have commandeered the rebel uprising if he intervenes against the Assad regime. Secretary of State John Kerry's statement that the chemical attack that killed hundreds was a "moral obscenity", completely ignores the moral obscenity of the hundred thousand that have died in the turmoil since it began more than two years ago as a result of conventional weapons.
     To add even more macabre comedy to a bad situation, Vice President, Joe "the laughing hyena" Biden alluded to the Bashar Assad regime being "punished" for his alleged use of chemical weapons against his own people. This is further proof that the Obama regime specifically, and the Left in general, have no clue what the function of the military is. The military is not used to "punish" people but to achieve a strategic goal that has some significance to U.S. interests. The fact that those on the Left were so vociferous in their opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, when U.S. strategic interests were clearly present, and are now silent on the possible intervention in Syria by the Obama administration, where there is an obvious lack of U.S. interests, is illustrative of the hypocrisy of the Left. I guess the corner in which Barack Obama has painted himself is large enough for the entire Leftist community to stew in their own hypocrisy while the rest of us must suffer the risks of their extreme ignorance.

The Racism Of Voter ID Opposition

     Recently, a link to a video was sent to me that depicted a black woman retelling a story of alleged racism she experienced at a Safeway grocery store while shopping with, what she called, "her white-looking sister in-law." This video had the racist title of, "One easy thing all white people can do to make the world a better place." I say it was racist because it assumes that the environment that makes life difficult for people, especially for those that are black or belong to another minority group, is caused exclusively by white people and it is their behavior that must be changed to resolve the perceived racism. It has been the race profiteers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Barack Obama that have made themselves wealthy and powerful by inculcating in the members of their community the notion that their status as an authentic black depends on having a racial discrimination story similar to the woman in the video I alluded to earlier.
     The recent manufactured racial issue of voter ID laws is illustrative of the stoking of the racial fires done by those who profit off such divisions. The pros of voter ID laws have been discussed to death. They run the gamut from protecting the legitimacy of the voting process to benefiting holders of such IDs in many other areas of their daily lives. The only argument against voter ID seems to be that it is considered by those in the race business to be discriminatory. But in order for a law or policy to be discriminatory, it needs to require that of a particular group of people which is not required of the general population, or it needs to exclude those of a certain group from that which others are not excluded. Under any sensible definition of discrimination, voter ID laws do not qualify as discriminatory. Blacks and other minorities are not being required to provide any information that every other voter in states with such laws are required to provide.
     The real racist and discriminatory position on voter ID laws is the one occupied by those who are against them. They are, in essence, saying that they do not want blacks and other minorities to obtain IDs that would help them cash checks at a bank, have access to airline tickets and a myriad other activities in our society that require some sort of ID. The opponents of voter ID laws are also saying, by their position, that blacks and other minorities are in some way less capable than whites in procuring a driver's license or state ID. This is ridiculous, especially since the states that have voter ID laws also offer IDs absolutely free, some states will even send someone to a person's home to sign them up for an ID.
     Finally, if voter ID laws are so discriminatory, why do all the countries that the Left says we should emulate, have them? All of Europe, and much of the rest of the industrialized world, require their citizens to prove who they are, via some sort of an official ID, before they vote. But those on the Left, and especially in the Democrat party, desire to not only perpetuate the voter fraud that helps them win elections, but they also aim to keep one of their key constituencies from freeing themselves from the plantation of ignorance, dependency and societal marginalization.  

Everything I Know About Life I learned From Golf

     It is a shame that for most of us, time living on this planet is the only thing which increases our knowledge of the best way to live. It seems by the time you have it figured out, you can be too old to reap the benefits of your hard fought wisdom. I love the game golf and play as much as I can. I was recently reflecting on how those things which makes one a better golfer, can also make one more successful in other aspects of life as well. Following are some things I have learned that contribute to a good round of golf, but can also contribute to a better life as well.
     In the game of golf, as in life, it is important to live in the present and stay focused on your current task at hand. In golf, one must focus on the present shot and the swing needed to execute it. The last shot, whether it was successful or not, is in the past and can not be changed. The next shot may be dependent on what is accomplished with the present one. So it is with life, one can not change the past and can only affect the future by the actions taken in the present. 
     One of the most common errors that people make when golfing is taking their eye off the ball during their swing and looking up. This results from a tendency to look where the ball is going before the club head makes contact with it. Looking up during the swing can result in the club not making solid contact with the ball, causing a bad shot. The same is true for life in a way. If one substitutes a focus on today's requirements for tomorrow's promise of success, i.e., "looking up", failure may be the result. 
     When I was a child, learning the game of golf from my father, he always told me to swing the club slowly and evenly and let it do the work. I relate this advice to life in as much as success is built over time and can not be rushed. One can not hurriedly execute the requirements of success, for that will almost always lead to failure and disappointment. In Golf, as in life, one must find a certain rhythm and timing that allows for consistent execution.  
     One of the hardest lessons of golf and life for me has always been not allowing myself to be affected by previous failures or successes. A bad shot must be learned from and then forgotten, otherwise it could affect the current one. Conversely, a great shot must be modestly celebrated and put in its proper perspective. Allowing one's emotions, whether it is anger over a failure or joy over a success, to dominate the present, is the best recipe for losing focus on the current task at hand, whether one is playing golf or living life.
     And finally, to achieve success in golf, one must keep one's feet firmly planted on the ground. Firmly planting the feet far enough apart to achieve balance and strength is important to a good golf swing and in living life. The things in golf which contribute to a solid stance are quality golf shoes and strong legs. In life, a solid stance is achieved through strong adherence to principles, values and faith. Life is also like golf in one more aspect, both are to be enjoyed, but that enjoyment comes as a result of hard work and practice and is not just bestowed as a gift.     
    

Who Is Really To Blame For ObamaCare?

     In every poll since its passage in 2010, the vast majority of Americans do not like ObamaCare and want it repealed. But the onerous and despicable beast known as The Affordable Care Act was not only breathed to life by power-hungry Leftists in and out of our government, but by the unwillingness of the American people to be responsible for their own health care costs. This slide into the abyss of paycheck-sucking health insurance premiums and health care rationing has been happening for decades. One of the most dangerous and dastardly effects of Leftist ideology on the American culture is the voluntary transference of individual priorities and responsibilities to someone else. And now that that someone else is in the process of being regulated out of business, we will all be required to live at the mercy of the centralized government that did the dirty deed.
     What has caused government-run health care to get a foothold in this country is not Obama. Nor is it even an intimidated, politically correct Supreme Court. What has lead us to the brink of health care disaster is the fact that Americans have become so inculcated with a sense of entitlement with regards to their health care that they scream bloody murder at the prospect of having to pay five thousand dollars for a medical procedure to correct a health problem, but think nothing of paying twenty thousand dollars for a new automobile. Americans will not spend three or four hundred dollars a month for health insurance to protect them from a health care catastrophe, but they will spend that much or more for cable or satellite television and smart phone service for the entire family. Americans have become so dependent on third parties for their health care expenses that they refuse to spend a hundred dollars on a prescription drug that will help them alleviate a health issue, but they will spend on average three thousand dollars a year eating out or ordering take-out food. Americans will complain vociferously if they have to spend their money on a wheelchair, walker or other medical appliance, but see nothing wrong with spending thousands of dollars every year on lottery tickets or at the local casino.
     Americans will spend decades over indulging in tobacco products, alcohol and fatty foods and then expect someone else to pay for their coronary problems and diabetes resulting from their self imposed obesity. They will refuse to exercise, instead choosing to spend thousands of hours plunked down in front of the TV watching the sewage that is spewed out from the filthy orifices of the Hollywood elite, and then expect their neighbor to cover the cost of a heart attack brought on by having to lift their fat butt off the sofa to get some more ice cream and potato chips.
     We have stood silently by as medical costs rose, because after all, we did not have to pay for it. We let ourselves be talked into perceiving health care as a right instead of our own personal responsibility. We allowed government to convince us that it was compassionate to make the elderly and poor more dependent on taxpayer dollars for their health care, thinking that we would not have to pay for ours when we grew old. The statists in government offered to shoulder our health care responsibilities if we only signed over the deed to liberty's soul, which we did without regard for those who spilled their precious blood in payment for that liberty. Yes, my friends, it is we the people who have allowed the barbarians of the left to crash through the gates of our liberty and bring us to the age of a new tyranny.

The Hot Air Of Wind Farms

     Currently, in Cleveland, Ohio, near where the Small Craft Advisory headquarters are located, they are discussing whether to build a wind farm seven miles off the shore of Lake Erie. The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, a "non-profit" created to suck up 46 million dollars in hard-earned taxpayer dollars to fund the project, has already made plans for a meeting with residents of Cleveland where they will ask them to sign a pledge to pay higher energy bills to help fund the remainder of the project. I just wonder how much money the president of Lake Erie Energy bundled for President Obama in his two presidential bids?
     The wind turbines that populate wind farms have many negatives that their supporters refuse to acknowledge and few benefits which they insist on exaggerating. The amount of energy produced by one wind turbine is calculated assuming continuous operation, which no wind turbine even comes close to achieving. Even if the windys' estimates were accepted as accurate, it would require turning the entire state of Connecticut into a wind farm just to provide the energy needs of New Jersey. Factor in the number of endangered birds that wind turbines have senselessly slaughtered, and I am surprised that animal rights groups are not more outraged by the proliferation of these horribly inefficient monstrosities. Of course, I am not surprised because most Leftists, whether they are animal rights people or so-called environmentalists, are all anti-capitalists first and foremost.
     I remember Mike Rowe, host of the show Dirty Jobs, once did an episode where he became a wind turbine maintenance worker. Two things were glaring about wind turbines from this episode. One was how much maintenance these purveyors of higher energy bills require and secondly was how much filth they generate. Not to mention the enormous contribution to noise pollution that is made by this 15th century technology to which the Left seems insistent on returning us.
     I am all for finding better ways to produce energy, but given the negatives of wind turbines, it is obvious to anyone with even a modicum of sense that these inefficient, bird killing, filthy, noisy and expensive throwbacks are not the answer. Hydraulic fracturing can produce cheap and abundant energy with far less obtrusiveness to the environment than wind farms. The Left is against hydraulic fracturing because it is self-supporting and needs no taxpayer dollars to exist, and therefore is not controlled by Leftist politicians. If the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, as well as others, believe in wind farms as a viable alternative to fossil fuels, then let them risk their own money and convince other investors of the virtues of wind power and keep their greedy little fingers off taxpayer money. But alas, the object of the wind farm exercise is not to efficiently and inexpensively provide the energy for a growing and prosperous free economy, but to mitigate capitalism with a limited supply of energy for the purpose of creating a Utopian society that replaces prosperity with poverty and individual liberty with collective misery.