Life On The Rockpile

An Example of Lefty Logic

2009-08-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

My column about orchestrated leftist lying brought a lengthy rebuttal from RealEstateGuy. What was interesting is that the writer, thinking they had skewered me with their dynamic prose, wound up proving my point.

Here is the first riposte: “And this is where I stopped reading."one that says if we cap the amount a business can earn we will also increase prosperity."See... A corporation is the child of the state --- a creation of the state. Can someone please explain to me what the justification is that as a child of the state that liability can be limited but not profit?”

Right off the writer makes an error in logic (a usual with the lefties). I used the word “business” for a reason, not corporation. Business, the way I use it can mean any legal occupation entered into for the purpose of honest gain. Now, if I have to define every term I use simply to avoid confusing people with their own agenda I may as well give up now…not! It’s too much fun watching them trip all over their perverted logic. “Child of the state” is another lefty term. To them we belong to the state and live according to its sufferance. According to the documents of the founding fathers the opposite is true…well, it used to be. Actually, corporations are the creation of lawyers as a way of avoiding taxes and personal responsibility.The next clumsy bit of illogic: “And with regard to the present situation, are any limits being suggested for any company that did not go to the government asking for money? I thought that the mantra of free market capitalism is that he who has the gold makes the rules. “

There is nothing in our constitution preventing any individual or business from making as much money as they can…honestly. Those businesses that went crawling to Obama with their hands out for the most part deserved to fail. They created their problem and should have had to deal with it without stealing from the taxpayer. The so-called stimulus package stimulated nothing but CEO greed and a willing Democrat-controlled congress went right along with them, every one of them with their own hands out for a taste. The free market does not give anyone the right to lie, cheat or steal...unless they are a Democrat campaign contributor.

"Am I missing something here?”

No, just the entire point of every column I’ve written.

Here is the big lie, call the truth a lie and keep on doing so until the masses believe it:“And I actually went on --- Came to this lie(see what I mean?)... Ayers and his terrorist organization. Because terror means threatening peoples lives and or killing people. But Ayers avoided that, though one of his associates did deviate from the no harm to humans concept and killed herself building a bomb.”

Waaay too much material to cover this egregious piece of leftist tripe in one column. This link, http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/3/obama-and-the-weathermen
will take the reader to an excellent article on the subject. Simply because Ayers preached violence but never practiced it does not mean he did not believe in terrorism. Check out the agenda of his organization. The link lists a number of books that go into very well-documented detail on what Obama was absorbing as his core beliefs. It certainly wasn’t pride in his country. I suppose to the liberal world view that planning the execution of at least a third of the population is fine dinner conversation and not terrorist at all. Shouldn’t that at the vbery least be considered threatening people’s lives? Or maybe it’s because Ayers was promoting a Marxist philosophy. Perhaps that is why he should be given a break. At least he wasn’t a Nazi or a KKK member. Oh, that’s right. The Democrats allow clansmen to become senators.

The commenter goes on: “Here is what the lead federal prosecutor of the weather underground said, William C. Ibershof, formerly the lead federal prosecutor in the Weather Underground case, wrote in 2008: "Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen." [61] But you can't trust those lefty federal prosecutors.”

I guess, based on this assertion all those former Nazis that were hunted down shouldn’t have been after all. Didn’t they also become “responsible citizens”? I can go so far as to point out that some of them did not actually kill anybody, the commentary’s own phrase, "But Ayers avoided that". That alone would remove them from prosecution if RealEstateGuy were king.

Here is his wrap-up: “Then there is this: Obama Administration is actively taking over every possible aspect of American life.Can we get some specifics here? I mean which areas / companies that have not come to Obama with their hands out?”

No, that filter will not be allowed. The auto industry is too large a factor to not be included. Control of the populace, a prime piece of the Weather Underground’s agenda, included the ability to move around. Read the books. Healthcare, which includes access to doctors, the ability to recover from illness or injury in order to continue making a living is a huge specific. For every snippet praising socialized healthcare in other countries there are a dozen tales of horror. The media just doesn’t publish them. I could relate what a friend of my sister-in-law experienced in Canada, but that friend died before her appointment came around.

This is a typical of lefty pseudo humor, arrogance and all: “Just think of the horror of the government taking over Health Care like they do in horrible Europe. Why then our companies would not be saddled with paying all those insurance premiums and would be in a better competitive position. Oh... The horror.”

Horror is exactly what we hope to stave off. You do not prosper as a country by replacing a troubled system with a failed one. Every country that has gone into socialism has reduced their standard of living, and/or increased the gap between the haves and the have nots. Why do you think China has expanded their capitalist experiment? The Soviet Union, a darling of Ayers thoughts, crumbled because they could not compete economically. And yes, I do credit Reagan with that one...mainly because you shudder at his name. Allowing the government to take over healthcare is not only economically idiotic but a violation of the constitution. Of course the left only believes in bits and pieces of that inconvenient document. Check out the constitution. It’s a short read, and then take a look at the 10th amendment. We are supposed to be a Republic of free states, not a federalist oligarchy. That republic is supposed to be a sovereign country, not just another member of a collection of failed monarchies. We are, or should be, better than that.

Remember one extra special right this republic still allows; if you think Europe is a better place than here you are free to move. If you don’t…well then, the word hypocrite comes to mind.

Lie Until They Believe It

2009-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

There seems to be an ongoing procedure in the Democrat Party. Lenin first proposed it when he was busy destroying the people of Russia,

"A lie told often enough becomes truth" Vladimir Lenin.

I first noticed this back in the 60’s when I was in high school. This was during the Vietnam War when a number of my classmates were carrying around copies of Mao’s little red book. They were the true believers of the liberal message coming from the communes and the leftist professors at the local college. Very little of what was put forth by these self appointed gurus had any bearing in either truth or reality, but boy, did they like to pass it along. Businessmen, especially prosperous ones were pigs. Anyone in authority was the man and you couldn’t trust anyone over 30. They forgot that at that time most of the people over 30 had saved their ungrateful butts in World War 2.

Today the big lie is that raising taxes will increase prosperity. Along with that lie is another one that says if we cap the amount a business can earn we will also increase prosperity. Obama has convinced the true believers, many of them running the news corporations, that his policies have increased the number of jobs. Isn’t it interesting that the unemployment rate has continued to rise? Where are all these jobs?

Remember the Weathermen and Bill Ayers? Apparently the media doesn’t. Obama refuses to repudiate a single stand taken by Mr. Ayers and his terrorist organization while at the same time he calls citizens of the US who oppose his takeover of the health industry “Right Wing Domestic Terrorists”. Well, I guess you can add me into that group. Some of the stands the Weathermen took included a long-range plan to control the populace which included access to healthcare, control of business practices and elimination of portions of the population considered inconvenient to the new administration. Isn’t it interesting that the new Obamacare bill includes an “end of life” provision?

As I pointed out in my last column, the Obama Administration is actively taking over every possible aspect of American life. We have placed a true follower of Lenin onto the American throne and removed any real opposition to his policies. All you have to do is read the new arrogant tones in online rags such as the Huffington post. They know they are in complete control and are not bothered at all by any poll numbers.

A while ago I wrote that raising the Nevada Room Tax was not a bad idea. Well, even I can be wrong. Further study has shown that raising any tax outside of those necessary to maintain constitutionally mandated services becomes oppressive and eventually leads to a worsening of the problem, not a solution. Human nature is too large of a factor. The best solution is to increase revenue by increasing prosperity. Wal Mart proved this a long time ago by selling more goods at cheaper prices and getting rich on the volume. Is it any wonder the liars on the left hate that company?
The problem the Republicans have is getting past merely protesting Obama’s policies. We have to be able to say more than just no. It isn’t enough to just be opposed to something, you also have to stand for something. I am not talking about compromise here. Ronald Reagan learned that lesson. It’s a pity his Vice President wasn’t as intelligent. No, I am talking about fighting bad ideas with good ones. We have to be able to answer questions about our opposition with logical, common sense solutions to today’s problems, and they do exist. I have expressed many over the past several months. Does any one else have an idea or two?

Ayatollah Obama

2009-08-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

The Ayatollahs of Iran consider any individual critical of the way they appointed Adiminawhackjob to a second term an enemy of the state. In Turkey, anyone critical of the ways things are done is jailed for offending “Turkishness”. Here in the US, we now have an administration that is acting more and more like its Middle Eastern friends than what our founding fathers envisioned.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has gone as far as comparing critics of the healthcare plan to Nazis. Other members of the Democrat leadership have called those who don’t trust the plan “shrill”, and “fringe group fanatics”. News organizations, supposedly nonpartisan, have affixed the labels of “small mobs” and “rabid right-wingers” to those with the temerity to ask their representatives if they even bothered to read the bill.

Are these people merely members of shrill fringe groups and other bits of minority flotsam the administration should ignore for the good of the country? George Pucine of Las Vegas was able to get this bit of statistical evidence to the contrary past the usually left-leaning guardians at the Las Vegas Review Journal:

-- Quinnipiac poll: Three out of four Americans don't believe government-run health care will be deficit-neutral and 59 percent of Americans are against health care reform if the measure is supported by only the Democrats.

-- Gallup poll: Sixty-three percent say the president's plan will worsen their personal medical care.

-- National Public Radio poll: Forty-seven percent oppose Obama's plan and 42 percent support it.

-- New York Times/CBS poll: Seven-seven percent of Americans fear costs will increase under government-run health care.

-- Time poll: Fifty-six percent fear losing freedom to choose their own doctor/plan under government-run health care.

Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll: Forty-two percent say Barack Obama's plan is a "bad idea" vs. 36 percent saying it's a "good idea."

I don’t know about you, but the above numbers say majority, not minority. The problem is Pelosi and her Democrat fellows do not believe in representing the majority. They have an agenda and it is being followed to the letter and any who swerve from the orthodoxy will be punished. Remember Joe Lieberman and his one tiny slip?

Can any one remember who was President before Jimmy Carter? Not many do. Most think it was Nixon, but the answer is Gerald Ford, a man most remembered for being a bit clumsy. This is because Ford did almost nothing where the economy was concerned. It was ok, not good, just ok. The problem with that is that a mayonnaise economy allowed the election of a Jimmy Carter. You would think that the American people would learn from history. Unfortunately, we never do. Carter’s policies, eerily similar to Obama’s, produced the worst economy since the great depression. Taxes were raised to the point that an affordable mortgage was nearly impossible to obtain. Small businesses went out of business faster than they opened. Interest rates skyrocketed to over 20% and the price of gold hovered around $1000 per ounce. Sound familiar?

Brian Greenspun, the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun recently lamented in an editorial that it was terrible that Nevada did not adopt the tax policies of more progressive” states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, California and others. Let’s see…checking on the economies of those “progressive” states, they appear to be progressing right into the toilet. California, our neighbor to the west has progressed into bankruptcy and a recent ad campaign luring small business from California to tax-backwards Nevada appears to be working better than anyone thought it would.

Socialism never generates public wealth. It never has and it never will. After Jimmy Carter came a true progressive, not the lie that Democrats push, Ronald Regan. Reagan systematically dismantled Carter’s metastasized bureaucracy and began using policies that were time-tested. Ignoring the shrill screams from the left that he would be throwing the elderly and the sick onto the street, he cut taxes and encouraged business to expand. The elderly got a better deal and the sick got cheaper healthcare. Ignoring the rabid left-wingers, he went after the Soviet Union and won, despite the claims that such aggressiveness would trigger World War 3. Reagan’s policies generated an economy that set a record that still holds. It was the most robust economy we have experienced in the last seven administrations. This is based on US statistical data, so why is the Obama Administration hell bent on duplicating Carter’s mistakes? The answer is not economics, it is power.

Just as our major news outlets have risen to the defense of Obama’s policies and have attacked the concerns of the American people, so has the administration grown in its arrogance. Why would Obama feel so comfortable issuing the threat that his administration would “hit back twice as hard” at anyone broadcasting a criticism of his health plan? Does he really believe that the news is his to control? Perhaps it is.

A little known story surfaced a while ago and was quickly pulled. ABC turned the control of its reporting of White House news over to the Obama Administration. The last time something like this happened it was in Iran. Remember, if you can control the news that is one domino tipped over, if you can control the peoples’ access to healthcare…that is another. Several states already consider the second amendment more of an inconvenience than a mandate. The appointment of Sottomeyer to the Supreme Court adds another nail in that coffin. The last domino to fall will be the food supply, and based on several reports, Obama is already working on that one.

Obamacare, The Coming Nightmare

2009-08-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Guy By The Door said...
After two months, where is Bob Beers, The Lesser yet Brighter?

Not sure what this person means by “The Lesser”. I have been dealing with a very serious health issue, one that, if I did not have decent insurance, probably would have either completely crippled me or killed me. Based on the tone of the comment, this must be good news for the Guy By The Door.

The good news for me is that this last treatment seems to be working. What is going on attacks only the body, not the brain, so, at least for now, I am still “The Brighter”.

Obama’s Health Plan, base on the few scattered pages I have been able to glean would have considered me too old to save. The Democrats pushing for this Soylent Green style healthcare pish-tosh the people concerned about the bit Tom Daschel snuck in by saying it is only a tiny part of the entire bill and nothing to be upset about. I have a question for these Democrats, how many Supreme Court decisions affecting our rights have hinged on one word, much less an entire passage in a bill?

Rising costs of healthcare are a real and ongoing concern, especially with the boomer generation entering AARP territory. I happen to be one of them. I also happen to disagree with Washington’s single-payer solution.

Imagine the worst possible HMO. Now imagine that HMO on steroids. The picture you come up with won’t even be close to the eventual reality if this bureaucratic Frankenstein’s Monster is passed. One thing the media and the majority of the bloggers fail to consider is the sheer immensity of graft and corruption that permeates our political class. Those in favor of Obamacare believe all the taxes taken to pay for this “benefit” will be used just for that. The reality is that after all the skimming takes place only a tiny percentage will actually pay for care. Does no one read history any more? Or do you all think Congressman Jefferson and his frozen assets was an aberration?

A small amount of research reveals that the single greatest expense in healthcare is insurance against litigation. Not just the ever-rising cost of policies, but all the other attendant costs arising from the procedures doctors and hospitals put in place to prevent litigation from ever happening. We have become a sue-happy society. In some neighborhoods, children are raised with the idea that they are responsible for nothing. If something goes wrong, sue. Here's a question, what would happen to the cost of healthcare if that way of doing things changed?

The average ambulance chaser takes 30% to 33% of every award. Most take it off the top and add their expenses to the bill. In many cases this can reduce what the injured party eventually gets out of the award to 20% or less. Is there any wonder why trial attorney associations fight tooth and nail every time tort reform raises its ugly head?

There are four simple common sense solutions to the healthcare problem. They will never see the light of day because far too many people in power are reliant on the status quo, but I will list them regardless.

Number one is real tort reform. By reducing the award percentage to 10% and disallowing the carryover of costs, we would all but dry up frivolous suits. Attorneys can live very nicely on less than $600 per hour.

Number two is forcing Congress to live within the laws they pass. For far too long have those in Washington been given the prime cuts while we have to be satisfied with the gristle. If a pampered Senator or two had to wait in line for an examination, the lines would become shorter over night. Congress should not be allowed one health plan and us another of far lesser quality. Better yet, keep Congress out of the healthcare business.

Number three is allowing the free market to actually be free. Insurance, doctors and hospitals should be allowed to compete honestly for our dollars. The elimination of monopolies and allowing those who cannot compete honestly to fail would force prices back down to reasonable levels.

Number four is the most controversial, build the southern border wall. Go deep enough so that it cannot be tunneled under and higher enough so that it cannot be climbed. Use several independent contractors so that all sections are built at the same time and ignore every complaint from Mexico, the UN and the left. Place an Ellis Island style structure every fifty miles or so and allow those who truly wish to work come in, but only after they have been proven healthy and honest. Work visas can insure they pay their way like the rest of us. Those who are caught not carrying legal visas can be sent back across the border to get in line. What part of “illegal” do you not understand?

Global Cooling. Where is Prophet Al Gore?

2009-05-26T06:27:00.001-07:00

Brit Hume published this in February:

“Tuesday we told you about several areas around the planet experiencing record cold and snowpack — in the face of all the predictions of global warming.

Now there is word that all four major global temperature tracking outlets have released data showing that temperatures have dropped significantly over the last year. California meteorologist Anthony Watts says the amount of cooling ranges from 65-hundredths of a degree Centigrade to 75-hundreds of a degree.

That is said to be a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. It is reportedly the single fastest temperature change ever recorded — up or down.

Some scientists contend the cooling is the result of reduced solar activity — which they say is a larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases.” Al Gore has no comment.

Noah Wyle has been appearing in a series of commercials about the fable of Global Warming. He contends that if we do nothing about this looming disaster the polar bear will fall into extinction. Noah, wonderful actor that he is, knows nothing or has done no research on the aforementioned bear. There are more polar bear now than there were during the time of Napoleon, which was at the end of the little ice age. Al Gore has nothing to say about that.

During 2008 several accredited climate researchers began publishing nonpolitically correct studies on climate change. In these studies they found that “greenhouse gases” had little overall effect on global climate. Man’s contribution was negligible at best. The largest contributor of so-called greenhouse gasses was and is the active volcano and man has yet to find h a way to deal with those. Al Gore remains silent on this point.

Some less than credible scientists have posited that the general lowering of temperatures are in fact an indication of global warming. That is like saying that the current credit crisis is in fact a sign of global prosperity. It is doublespeak. All it proves is that they too read George Orwell. Humanity has the ability to destroy its immediate environment. That has been proven time and time again. Humanity’s ability to destroy the earth is suspect and frankly best left for science fiction. The earth has recovered from celestial impacts that rivaled the sum total of every nuclear device every made...and it is still here. Not sure what Al Gore has to say about that.

Homosexual Left supports Obama Hypocrisy

2009-05-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

After thinking about it, the title for this column isn’t accurate. It isn’t just the homosexual left supporting hypocrisy; it is every member of that side of the aisle, regardless of their sexual proclivity.

Think back during the last couple months of the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama stated that he felt that “marriage should be between a man and a woman.” The record is very clear on this, he did say exactly that. Does anyone remember even a whisper of controversy from the media or even one homosexual rights group? No, of course not. Obama can say anything whether it be pure or profane and his supporters will swallow it as if it came from on high. But let a woman who seems to be a Christian say such a thing and she is spewing hatred from the very depths of hell.

Sarah Palin has to be conflicted right now. Carrie Prejean, Miss California 2009 has become the new ground central for every last drop of far left hate speech, and do not mistake it, what is being said qualifies as hate speech. If the same were being said about Rosie O’Donnell or even Ellen DeGeneres, calls would be issued for an in-depth investigation at the Congressional level. I doubt even the most strident opponent of Prejean can dispute this...honestly. They will dispute it, but a close examination of all their arguments will reveal the lie behind the words.

Both of these women have committed a gross sin in the eyes of the press, they spoke their minds without asking whether or not what they were about to say was politically acceptable to the media at large. The press lives each day sheltered behind the first amendment. I doubt many are capable of even quoting that passage accurately much less describing the conditions under which it was written. According to those who are currently heading our political system, Carrie Prejean and Sarah Palin do not have the same rights as an O’Donnell or a DeGeneres because they choose to live outside of what has become the mainstream. They choose to honor their spouses and choose to bring their children up to respect virtues such as personal responsibility...and that flies in the face of what is acceptable, and is the lifestyle lived by most who deliver our news today.

I am an American, not a Republican

2009-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of the most striking impressions I gained while serving as a state representative was that Party, not State, not Country, was placed in a position of much higher importance than anything else. Even campaign donations (read bribes) took a subordinate position. One member of my caucus stated his primary purpose for being in office. “I want to #@!! them,” he said. He meant the Democrats. It did not matter if the legislation had any merit, not even if it saved the taxpayers money. Beating the enemy was all. This attitude also ran rampant throughout the other side of the aisle. Four of my bills were taken from me and given to the Democrat leadership because I was a member of the minority party and my bills were viewed as a violation of a cardinal rule: a freshman legislator shall not propose legislation good enough to pass, especially if it is better than their leaderships’ bills.

Many questions have been asked why our government seems so inadequate in solving our ongoing problems. The simple answer is that the parties are too busy fighting each other to actually accomplish anything. Compounding that is the fact that they also don’t want to upset any of the big money people who typically donate to their campaigns, even if it is the right thing to do.

I have always believed that if an elected official becomes aware of a wrong being perpetrated, that official should take steps to stop it. I did so when I was approached by a group of casino employees upset over their tips being stolen from them by the casino owner. In researching this I found a state law that forbids the taking of tips. My own party attacked me over this, claiming I was violating the “free market”. The fact that a law was being broken was beside the point. In reality, the party in Nevada is owned by the gaming industry and they were told to remove an irritant.

Anyone who has ever watched the TV series The West Wing is familiar with the character Wesley. That character, throughout the series, consistently argues against allowing the Republicans to win anything, even if that win benefits the country. The unfortunate truth is that that attitude prevails in American politics. Elected officials are Democrats, not Americans; Republicans, not Americans; and it doesn’t end there.

Ever hear of Affirmative Action? It is a nasty piece of legislation that legitimizes discrimination because someone’s ancestor may have been discriminated against by someone in the past. In essence it is Washington saying that in this case, two wrongs do make a right. What it has actually done is keep the division going. In the US we do not have Americans in a variety of colors, we have African Americans, Mexican Americans, and so on…We are so busy creating and maintaining socio-political walls to divide our populace that we have become antagonistic toward those who try to scale the wall.

Like our government, our education system is in rapid decline not simply because we refuse to pay for the tools to do the job properly, but because we have surrendered to the politically correct forces who insist on maintaining the walls. The school board in my area has members who actively fight against those methods proven to work in the classroom because those methods are not politically popular with their party leadership.

The Democrat Party will not support anything that upsets the fanatic left. As a result, the party of John F. Kennedy seems to support international terrorism, the killing of healthy, living babies via partial birth abortion, the granting of amnesty to the vilest of serial killers, the removal of personal responsibility, the removal of any right that promotes self-reliance, the destruction of heterosexual marriage and the core family unit, the elimination of Israel as a state, and the dissolution of America as a sovereign nation.

The Republican Party, the party of Lincoln and Reagan has metastasized into a party that openly supports massive corporate theft, human trafficking, the resurgence of plantation style slavery, the elimination of small business and the destruction of public education.

Either way we lose, simply because the American voter no longer cares about who runs their party.

In Kalifornia, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to Christians.

2009-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

This exchange occured at the recent Miss USA pagent between the moderator and Miss California, Carrie Prejean.

Perez Hilton: “Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?”

Prejean: “Well, I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.”

Carrie Prejean, Miss California, was the frontrunner and the favorite to win the Miss USA pageant...and then she committed the deadly sin of self-expression. She forgot where she was and what demographic comprised the majority of her audience. Hollywood is run and policed by the homosexual lobby.

(Note: I will not use the term “gay” to describe a male homosexual. Gay is a state of mind. It means to be happy. It was co-opted by a group with the full intention of twisting the dialogue to their terms.)

In the space of a few seconds, Miss Prejean went from crowd favorite to crowd goat, never mind that the same people loudly expressing their hatred were the same people with an extensive history of standing on the first amendment. The hypocrisy is that they don’t believe it extends to anyone who disagrees with their side of the issue. Some have actually called for Miss Prejean’s arrest and conviction on a hate crime charge. I doubt those individuals even know how to spell hubris.

The only group whose world view is affected solely by how they copulate is the homosexuals. They are the only people who insist on bringing what they do in the bedroom to the fore of the discussion. They the only people who use a sexual activity as the template for defining who they are.

Every group has its fanatics and the homosexual community is no exception. But the fanatics are controlling the dialogue which makes the possibility of a progressive, logical debate a non-starter, but someone has to try. One place to start is the hatred the homosexuals seem to have for Christianity while at the same time demanding that Christianity treat them as something other than what they are, same sex couples engaging in an activity the Christian Bible condemns.

This is typical of the homosexual lobby. They have mastered the “do as I say not as I do” gambit. What is dismaying is that nearly every elected official and media outlet has swallowed that lie hook line and sinker. They see no hypocrisy in homosexual couples demanding that a religion accept them as non-sinners while actively engaging in what that church views as sin. They see no hypocrisy in using the first amendment to further their aims while denying its protection to that church.

For the Christian church, marriage is to be a rite of commitment between a man and a woman. Not between a man and a girl, a girl and a boy, a man and a man or a woman and a woman. The secular world already has avenues for those arrangements, including such things as power of attorney and other documents that give a domestic partner all the access and privileges of a spouse. So what’s the problem with allowing church marriage to stand as it is?

The problem is the word “sin”. Anyone who has ever been involved in a discussion with a homosexual activist will have noticed the demeanor of unrepentant aggression that permeates the one they are speaking with. This demeanor is typical throughout the demographic. Whether the media and the politicos want to admit it or not, the homosexual community is at war with the Christian church. They view Christianity as one judging them and what they do. They consider Jesus’ admonition to “go and sin no more” as something hateful. The word “love” only means one thing, sex. The argument goes nowhere. When the terms of the discussion means different things to the participants, only confusion can result.

What this all comes down to is this: As Americans, we all have a right to express our opinions freely and without fear or repercussion...even if we happen to be a Christian living in Kalifornia.

America, land of the free, home of the illiterate.

2009-04-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Alan Stock is the morning host on the Las Vegas station KXNT 840 AM. Alan is a typically entertaining, well-spoken, conservative host who is usually right in line when it comes to separating the hyperbole from the pragmatic when it comes to political discussion...until he gets to the subject of education. Sadly, on that topic he marches lockstep with almost every other conservative host in the country. For some reason not one of these people have ever explained, they refuse to differentiate the teachers’ union and its aims from the working teacher. In this column I will discuss why Alan and his compatriots are embarrassingly and tragically wrong in their opinion, and why this opinion is rapidly ruining this country’s future.

“All public school teachers are commie-leftists!”
This is the typical rejoinder from conservative talk hosts when pushed into a corner where anything other than private or home-school education is concerned. The problem with this is most of them have never been in a classroom since they left high school. Information about public school comes to them from what they read in Talkers Magazine and from what they hear on other likeminded shows. This is not what would be considered an in-depth investigation of the problem.

As a member of Nevada’s State Government I sat on the committee on education. After the session I acquired a teaching license and entered the classroom as a substitute teacher. A substitute is able to sample a variety of classrooms and schools. In this way I learned first hand what actually went on in the schools, what the teaching staff did and felt about a variety of issues and how the students did and didn’t learn. The reality within this country’s schools is so far removed from what talk radio dispenses that the word “fiction” is beyond inadequate as a description. In all honesty, I cannot use the word “lie” because hosts like Alan Stock, Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and others really believe the tripe they are dishing out.

The truth is that most public school teachers, kindergarten is the exception, are not left leaning in their politics at all. Many of the teachers I spoke to were somewhat more conservative than I, and I received the highest rating on the conservative voting scale in the last legislative session. I was 12 points more conservative than Mr. Stock’s favorite State Senator. The teachers told me that they were, for the most part, disgusted with the decisions of both the union and the school board and they could not understand the hatred that people like Alan continuously expressed toward their chosen profession. Frankly, neither can I.

“Teachers are paid too much already! And their benefits make up for it anyway!”
Yes, I suppose earning less than $35,000 a year while working an average 60 hour week attempting to inject some relevant knowledge into the minds of spoiled brats with no hope of any acknowledgement from the system for your accomplishment is reward enough. Talk show host continuously bleat out the lie that teachers only work a 6 hour day and get 3 months off every year with pay. Why, teaching is really a part-time job, why should we pay them any more?

I would expect such statements from someone who never paid a moment’s attention in school. But these people claim to have graduated from college. Of course, we are discussing talk show hosts here. In essence, they are the mirror image of micro minds like Michael Moore and Al Franken. The typical teacher begins their day waking up before 5am in order to get to school in time to prepare the classroom and that day’s lessons. They stay at least 2 hours past the time the students leave, so there is an 8 hour day, but it isn’t over yet. Once at home they have grading and more lesson-planning to do, in addition to any other paperwork the administration has palmed off onto their already overloaded shoulders. Merit is not considered here because of the seniority-based union leadership, and woe betide any upstart who tries to be innovative ahead of their time. And the talk show hosts wonder why so many teachers are retiring early.

“Why don’t they teach what is relevant any more? Kids are graduating and they can’t even balance a checkbook!”
You try to deal with a class that has 15 more students in it than you have chairs. It is amazing that some teachers can even get a partial lesson through to some of their students. One of the major problems with this scene is that talk radio has not moved with the times. To them, the classroom is still what they experienced. They have no realization what 15 to 30 years of union and school bard meddling has done to the teaching profession. A teacher cannot discipline properly because the parents might sue the school. The students have little or no respect for their parents; much less the teacher because they have no fear of any consequence for acting badly, and most administrations will not back up the teacher who attempts to keep a proper decorum in the classroom. There are a couple schools in my area where the administration does this and they have been targeted for budget cuts by the district.

Right now, in my state, much needed funds are being redirected from education to autism programs. In the legislature’s vast wisdom it is far more important to treat autism than to teach little Johnny and Janie to read. In the last legislative session we tried to get additional funding into Vocational Education, but where did the school superintendents want to put the money? All Day Kindergarten. Daycare for yuppies was more important.

“Private school and home schooling is far better than public school!”
No, they are not. The class sizes make the difference. In many ways the curriculum may be far worse than that of a public school. The variable is who is doing the teaching. The parent or private teacher may be good or not. It is completely possible that that teacher may be turning out the Ronald Reagan, or the next Adolph Hitler. It’s a crap shoot, not a sure thing.

It is not the teachers’ fault that America’s literacy rate is falling faster than the value of the dollar. The fault lies squarely on the shoulders of those who continuously badmouth teaching without doing a blessed thing to help the situation. In a city of over two million, it is going to take a busload of money to teach the hundreds of thousands of children who desperately need to know how to read, write, and balance a checkbook. The job cannot be done in your kitchen and it cannot be done part time and it is going to take everyone chipping in some of their money to pay for it. If we put forth the effort we could have the best educated populace the world has ever seen. The problem is, we would have to stop being narrow-minded to do so. In some cases that would mean developing a mind.

Is it racist to disagree with Obama?

2009-03-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

In their unending quest to prove that they are more equal than conservatives, the left have established the talking point of calling anyone who disagrees with their anointed king “racist”, and if that dissenter happens to be black, “Oreo”, or Bill Cosby's name for Clarence Thomas, “Brother Light”. The assertion is that there can only be one political world view for anyone wearing a dark melanin on their epidermis. For the Democrat readers, that means a dark skin tone. I have shocking news for the liberals; you can disagree with Obama and not be racist. In fact, it would be un-American to not disagree once in a while.

The recent news of the Obama Administration actually telling a private business who they can have as a boss is an example of just how far to the left this country has swerved. If this had happened during the fifties, an impeachment trial would now be an ongoing event. What is the most dismaying part of this drama is the sanguine attitude of the GOP regarding the President’s illegal action. Perhaps none of them have read the constitution lately.

That brings me to my core point. Would you be shocked to find that many who call themselves conservative are actually more liberal than most Democrats? No, I am not writing hyperbole to prove a point. Sadly, I am writing actual fact.

The country of Columbia was at one time the murder capital of the world. A few years ago they elected a non-politician/non-soldier to be their president. This new leader came from an education background and immediately moved to change the way things were done in his country. Educational spending went from a tiny percentage of the gross to 40%. The few elite private schools now had real competition and that competition had all the tools the private schools used to consider theirs alone. Columbia went from murder capital to one of the safest countries per capita in the world. What about the social services, the military? They found that an educated populace becomes more self-reliant and more willing to be a part of the country’s production rather than a drain. What a concept!

Here in the U.S., we spend about 1% of that 40%…and we complain about doing that. Many in the GOP consider the teaching profession an enemy, placing them ahead of Islamic Terrorism in the list. Some have even gone so far as to try to logically prove the necessity of a dependant class as an important portion of America’s labor force. In that, they are marching lock step with the extreme left in this country. They want, in essence, to have their cake and eat it too. When I was in State Government, I had a fellow Assemblyman tell me that my bill to curtail illegal immigration would bankrupt the state. This same Assemblyman had, a few days before, lauded Oklahoma and Arizona for passing similar legislation.

The hypocrisy taps are running wide open. George Bush trumpeted his “doing the jobs American’s won’t do” tripe. Newspaper publishers in my state, on one hand, decry the cost of illegals, while using them in their own printing facilities as a cost-saver. Our black messiah, Barrack Obama, chides the same industry he forced, as a member of ACORN, to issue unsafe loans, for issuing those loans. Here in Nevada we have a governor who called for more emphasis on vocational education, and then tries to cut the education budget in his state, in some cases by nearly 50%.

Can America afford to do what Columbia did? Of course we can. Will we? Not with our current leaders. We don’t have a single political leader with even a microbial amount of courage. We do have some politicians with courage to spare, but in Washington, they are the ones issued the basement offices.

Does Limbaugh have Rights?

2009-03-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Since that magazine cover came out with Rush Limbaugh's mouth taped shut, I've been thinking about the intriguing shift in the social dynamic of this country. The same demographic that has, for decades, called for everyone's right to dissent to be respected, is now acting like the congress that passed the sedition act back during the John Adams Presidency. It seems that when that group speaks of "people", they actually mean "people who think and speak like us".

Have you ever wondered why Barrack Obama never brings up Martin Luthor King's speech where Doctor King speaks of racial equality? The reason is that that speech calls for all races to treat each other with respect. Doctor King would have refused to pass any program such as Affirmative Action because he would have considered that program racist based on its discrimination for skin color.

Rush Limbaugh's sin is his admission that he wants to see Obama fail. Apparently all those Democrats and reporters who expressed the same desire in relation to George Bush had a get out of jail free card. It is ever that way with the left and their sycophantic media supporters; free speech isn’t quite as free as politically correct speech. Who cares about that inconvenient First Amendment? Besides, how dare he insult America’s Black Messiah?

Try as I may, I cannot find any hint of deity in Mr. Obama. As far as I can see he is, frankly, more fallible than most humans. He just has a more prominent job. It doesn’t place him on any higher of a plain than the rest of homo sapiens. He has none of the traits one would expect of a messiah. He hasn’t healed a single disease or injury. He hasn’t fed a multitude with a few loaves and fishes. He certainly has not walked on water or even turned water into wine. What about parting the Red Sea? Well, he is drowning us in a sea of red ink. Does that count?

No Cancer...at least not in me.

2009-03-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

As of today, I've spent more time in the tube of an MRI scanner than in my car. The last test I had was a PET scan, which is an interesting experience if you've never traveled that route.

The test begins with the filling out of several forms detailing the assorted dangers of radioactivity. This is because prior to laying down in the scanner, the nurse will approach you with a needle the size of a Desert Eagle handgun. The vial holds, I'm not kidding, a glowing green fluid that belongs on the set of The Incredible Hulk. You see this green fluid through a small window in the vial. The rest of the structure is a lead container nearly identical to a radioactive waste container.

The stuff they inject is radioactive enough that you become the power that runs the scanner. Anything suspicious will show up as a dark spot in the printed scan. Precautions after the test include sitting down when you wee and avoiding standing near children and pregnant women.

The small spot in my lower right lung barely lit up. The area in my cervical spinal cord did not show any activity at all, so whatever is going on there, it isn't cancer. What lit up a lot was the collection of lymph nodes near my bronchial tubes. So, yesterday they went in and took out a few. The surgeon immediately pronounced them to be granulomas. A granulnoma is one of a number of forms of localized nodular inflammation found in tissues. The fact that a granuloma is localized is important. So is its nodularity. Granulomas have a typical pattern when examined under a microscope. The really important bit is that they are not cancer.

On another front, it appears that socialism has metastasized in Washington D.C..
The US House and Senate are about to vote on bill that will outlaw organic farming(bill HR 875).
The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto. Monsanto makes chemical fertilizers, go figure. The husband of the Congresswoman who dropped the bill just happens to be a Monsanto official. Hmmm.

This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and insecticides dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales. Can anyone remember the text of George Orwell's 1984?

Henry Kissinger put it this way: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people." The Obama Administration is an amalgamation of the Clinton Administration and all the assorted far left radicals that made the 60's and 70's worth forgetting. Obama has never rejected his Weatherman connections nor those who called for the execution of millions of US citizens when they achieved power. He is systematically dismantling our economic system, and it appears that the big news networks are going right along with his plan.

I wonder is any of them remember what Pol Pot, Mao and all the others did to their friends in publishing when the revolution was over?

Last Post...for a while at least.

2009-03-02T05:53:00.000-08:00

This is my last post for what could be a very long time; possibly forever. You see, I may have cancer.

In September, I began experiencing a creeping numbness, beginning with my feet and eventually encompassing both legs and hips. As I type this I feel some of it in my right hand. The MRIs show a mass in the spinal cord in my neck that may or may not be malignant. There is every possibility that in order to continue living, I will have to have micro surgery. Unfortunately, my insurance may not allow me to go to the one clinic that knows how to perform the operation, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Good doctors are leaving Nevada en mass. The primary reason is that the legal community, along with gleeful help from the insurance industry, is driving them away. The only growth industry in Nevada right now is that of the ambulance chaser attorney. Because of that, and a tendency of the courts to not want to hold anyone personally responsible for their own idiotic actions, liability coverage for doctors has skyrocketed in Nevada.

One of the first effects of the doctor exodus is a lessening of options for patients seeking medical help. When you are the only provider, customer service isn't a priority.

Health Insurance is another problem. Most coverage offered in Nevada isn't worth the time it takes to fill out the forms. HPN is the largest provider and the worst in providing coverage. The problem is that those running the company see the premiums their policyholders as a path to personal wealth rather than payment for services rendered. Unfortunately, most insurance companies have this attitude. The loser is us.

In my quest for a medical solution to my problem, I have run into incompetence, corruption, self-serving rapaciousness and laziness that, in any truly civilized society, should lead to jail time for the offenders. In this state there will be no movement from those empowered to protect the populace because they are owned by those reaping the financial rewards of corruption. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie is chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee. During the last legislative session she prevented a bill that would have stopped hospitals from charging a patient for non-delivered products and services. Guess who donates large amounts to Assemblywoman Leslie’s campaign.

Sheila Leslie is only one example. As a Nevada State Assemblyman, I saw literally dozens. Hers is actually less hypocritical than most.

Here is a question for you. Why is it that nearly every power that be in Nevada goes out of state for medical care?

The Recipe for Prosperity

2009-02-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

Everyone and I mean everyone is wringing their hands, wracking their brains in an effort to find a solution for this recession. The Obama administration is at least attempting action while they wring, but an FDR buy-out will only devalue our already weakened dollar. Because of the content of some of what Obama has said, I think a good portion of that weakening is intentional. Our sitting President does not like the idea of common people being able of afford gasoline, but that is a subject for another day.

The way out of this mess is so simple and straight forward that it is not at all surprising every single political leader missed it. One good reason is that part of the recipe demands a lessening of the greed factor. Right there we have ruled out a significant portion of corporate and political America, but, believe me, it is necessary.

In order to get through this we have to hit the problem from both ends, both in the reduction of costs and in revenue growth. A huge factor is the cost of fuel, which is directly related to infrastructure. If we spent the time to put in place the infrastructure to handle and distribute alternative fuels, gas prices would plummet. Nothing balances a market like competition, and building that infrastructure would add thousands of high quality jobs. The greed factor could be handled by adding in real oversight that included stiff fines and even jail time for corruption, including that of politicians. If such oversight upsets some of the powerful and prevents certain multinational corporations from participating, so much the better, who needs ‘em? This country has plenty of smaller and smarter firms willing to step in and grow. This could be a chance for Obama to put his pen where his mouth is and prove he actually is for the little guy.

Another area is education. Our elected leaders claim they are for excellence in education, but they just don’t want to pay for it. If we diverted one tenth of the money we send overseas and put it into education, not administration, we would have enough to pay teachers what they are really worth, build schools large enough to accommodate all of the students and put every text book and tool they need into their hands. Imagine what we could do if we raised that amount to 20%. It’s high time the rest of the UN paid its portion of the freight any way.

Have you ever heard of the Toyota Volta? It is an electric car that looks good and can travel upwards of 250 miles on a single charge from a standard household outlet. Ever wonder why it isn’t offered for sale? How about the Mini Cooper Hybrid that gets 85 miles to the gallon with no loss of acceleration? It isn’t allowed to be sold in the US. Ever wonder why? The answers to these questions can be had in Washington, if you can get them to talk.

Just north of Las Vegas, up I15 before you get to the town of Mesquite, there is a long stretch of BLM land that would be ideal for an industrial development. Imagine putting in plants to build cars like the Cooper Hybrid and the Volta. Do you think the companies would have problems selling them? Absolutely not. Of course, we would have to deal with the greed factor again. This means that executives would have to trim their wages back far enough so that factory workers could be paid a real living wage without the crippling financial effect the unions had on Detroit. It can be done if all sides can actually work together.

In the Armagosa Valley there is a dairy. Because of milk price controls (the price is kept high, not low), the dairy is not allowed to sell all of its production. A deal was worked out so a gourmet ice cream company could build a plant across the street from the dairy to turn the overproduction into ice cream. Nevada and California sued to prevent the plant from being built because of “environmental concerns”. Now Utah has yet another prospering concern adding to its fortunes.

Ever since gambling was legalized in Nevada, tourists have been crowding I15 as the flow in from California. Train tracks run along that route for most of the way. A commuter train has been discussed without resolution for about as long. The problem is that no one can decide who pays what. This is where the heavy hand of Washington is needed. The same way the legislature is being forced to fund education if they want to get federal dollars, the same can be used to bring commuter travel into this century. Force a joint state public private partnership. Do not allow corruption of favoritism to enter in by jailing anyone, regardless of who they are, and that includes mayors and governors if they break the law, and begin building. The cost can be paid by the use of tickets and tools. Commuter choice can be enhanced by also maintaining a free travel highway for those who don’t mind traveling at a slower pace.

Home ownership is one of the big ones right now. With so many banks crumbling because they allowed themselves to be sucked into the ACORN ponzi scheme, a radical restructuring needs to be done. Even if a mortgage holder is upside down, there was a point where they were able to pay the monthly freight on the mortgage. A great number of the failures, excluding those idiots who purchased multiple homes hoping for a quick flip, were brought on because the bank raised the interest rates and refused to back down on that rate even when it became apparent they would have to eat the loan. All they have to do is reduce that rate down to a level where the original mortgagee can again make a payment, even if that level is below prime. A little profit is better than a loss. This is again where greed has to take a back seat. There is nothing wrong in flying coach instead of buying an over-priced private jet.

The recipe is, education, enforced corporate and governmental honesty, public-private partnerships, the ignoring of bothersome environmental suits only intended to prevent growth, and common sense. That last component is the rarest of all.

The United Way? United for whom?

2009-02-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

The inability of some executives and organizations to recognize certain facts amazes me. In the world of politics, for example, the average citizen is viewed by politicians with about the same respect they reserve for deep fried shrimp. To political office holders, John Q. Public has roughly the same intelligence level as lint. In actual practice the reverse is true. The public isn’t stupid; they’re just treated that way.

Take the current financial crisis we are going through. A few weeks ago, several hundred teachers in the Nevada School System were given their walking papers. As contracted employees they will finish out the year, but then they will have to find new jobs. Have any of those firing these teachers taken cuts in salary to save a job or two? The cynical answer is the right one. To compound the insult, a few days ago these teachers had to attend a mandatory meeting with a United Way representative asking for handouts.

Whoever planned this had to have been at such a rarified level of administration that their brain has atrophied from lack of oxygen. You do not tell employees you have just fired that they now have to donate a portion of the penny-ante salary you pay them. The United Way tells every one that every cent of their donation goes to charity, that none of it goes toward administrative costs. The one telling this manages to say this with a straight face while wearing a very expensive suit and showing a Hollywood quality video. Yes, and politicians always tell the truth.

The Nevada Legislature is now in session. At the top of the discussion is what to do about the mandate attached to Obama’s stimulus package. In order to qualify, Nevada has to replace nearly 300 million of the dollars it just took away from education. To hear some of the GOP leaders like Bill Raggio, you would think Washington was asking them to give up drinking.

I told these leaders how to solve their budget problem. I told them over two years ago. They didn’t listen and I doubt they understand how to solve it now. The problem lies in an inability to think pragmatically. To them, the public consists of a flock of sheep. Their constituencies are the campaign donors and the businesses paying for all the little perks that make political office so attractive. The flock gets sheared and the donors and politicians reap the rewards. This is the way it has always been…until now. The public has begun to hold back their dollars and the legislature is running scared. Their greatest fear is that they might actually have to do their job and do it honestly. Obama’s mandate was a superb piece of manuvering.

Nevada Needs a Lotery

2009-02-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

As of 2008, when Arkansas joined in, a total of 43 states have amended or re-written their constitutions to allow for a legal lottery. Two protectorates, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands each operate a lottery along with The District of Columbia.

If you go to Wikipedia and search for states with lotteries you will see a concise list and the style of lottery game they play. There is also a site maintained by the American Gaming Association that displays a list of U.S. States participating in Commercial Casinos, Indian Casinos, Lotteries, Pari-mutuel Wagering, Racetrack Casinos, and Charitable Gaming.

All of these lists are easily cross-checked. A search for Nevada will show that outside of commercial casinos, the state has almost no presence in any other style of gaming. A search of states with lotteries will show quite the opposite. States with lotteries also share the wealth with Indian Casinos, Pari-Mutual, Racetracks and Charitable Gaming. It takes a bit of digging, but the diligent searcher will discover that those states with Indian Casinos, Commercial Casinos and lotteries are also states where the companies behind commercial gaming in Nevada have a strong presence. You will also find that those states charge far higher gaming tax rates than Nevada. This begs the question, why, if those companies can easily afford to maintain casinos in a state with both higher taxes and a lottery, does gaming in Nevada claim that Nevada cannot afford a lottery, much less a raise in the gaming tax?

Besides having a run in the Nevada Legislature, I worked for nearly 20 years in gaming design as a graphic artist. I learned from the inside just how much intensity goes into gaining a gaming license in states outside of Nevada. Many of the major players on the Las Vegas strip have effectively gotten down onto their knees and begged to be allowed to build a property in places like Gulfport, knowing full well that they would pay a tax upwards of fives times higher than that in Nevada. When Governor Jim Gibbons suggested taking a half-cent from the room tax given to the resort association’s tourism board and using it to pay for road repair, the association nearly had a stroke.

The careful reader will notice a distinct disparity here. Gaming has run Nevada for so long that it cannot conceive of any other situation. If this state’s economy is to ever recover, it has to rely on other sources of income, but it also has to use pragmatism rather than favoritism in its tax policy. If a company can prosper in a state with a lottery while paying a higher tax rate, than it can certainly do so in Nevada. A rough run of the numbers shows that Nevada could increase its tax income by a half billion dollars simply by allowing a state lottery. Approximately half that amount goes to neighboring California and Arizona each year because they have lotteries and Nevada does not. The reason Nevada’s Legislature has not voted to allow a lottery? Key leaders in the State Senate and Assembly have been told by gaming that their campaigns would suffer if they allowed that to happen.

Right now Nevada’s Governor is suggesting that the state has to slash the education budget by nearly 50% in order to balance the budget. He has suggested this without even once looking at the end result of such an action. He has also refused to consider any common sense solutions that consider the raising of revenue. Allowing a future generation to suffer in order to save the present generation a few pennies is not being conservative, it is being foolish. Allowing the tax payer to choose whether or not to pay a tax is common sense and fits right in with the thinking of the founding fathers. Allowing Nevada to have a lottery is a good first step.

In A Recession Being a Politician Pays

2009-02-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

Near the end of the 2007 Nevada Legislative Session, Richard Perkins, the City of Henderson’s Police Chief paid a lobbying visit to my office in the Assembly’s wing of the Nevada Legislature. When he left, I had a feeling I should take a shower to wash off the corruption. Yesterday an article appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal that confirmed that feeling.

The Henderson Chamber of Commerce refused to support my reelection because I stood up to a corrupt casino owner. Terry Graves, on of the officers and a chief lobbyist for the chamber was particularly upset about that perceived betrayal of Republican values. To today’s GOP, there is little difference between Republican and Democrat. They both value campaign dollars above human life. As the Assembly Speaker, Mr. Perkins cost Henderson Businesses millions more by raising taxes that what I would have by forcing some honesty into the system. Perkins is the one they hired at a retainer of $10,000 a month.

Politics has developed an ingrained system of corrupt behavior and corrupt deals. All of these dealings and doings violate the law, and in some cases the ones doing the violation wrote the laws they break. If that sounds monumentally cynical, it is. It reminds me of a story of two politicians arguing. In the middle of the argument, one stands and shouts at the other, “You’re a liar!” The one accused nods and replies, “Of course I am, but hear me out!”

In the Nevada Revised Statutes there is a provision that forbids a public servant from acting as a lobbyist before a certain period of time has elapsed. This is a sort of “cooling off” period. During his time as Assembly Speaker, Mr. Perkins expressed concern over those who violated that rule. Apparently the rules do not apply where he is concerned. We have yet another case of a politician following the “do as I say, not as I do” doctrine.

As reported, Richard Perkins left the Henderson Police Force with a lifetime pension of $99,400 a year. The City of Henderson, paying that pension, seems to have money to burn because they granted their ex-police chief a one time separation payment of $242,132 and will be paying him $120,000 per year to lobby the legislature. The legislature only meets every other year, and only for 16 weeks, but Perkins will receive his salary every year. Not bad for part time work.

What is remarkable is that according to Nevada law, it is illegal part time work. Remember, according to the law, public servants cannot be hired as lobbyists right out of retirement. The City of Henderson and Mr. Perkins claim to have gotten around the law by hiring a corporation, not a person. The corporation? Richard Perkins, Inc.

Workers Compensation? Not if you’re the Worker.

2009-02-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

NRS 616D.030 Limitation of liability of insurer or third-party administrator; administrative fines are exclusive remedies.
1. No cause of action may be brought or maintained against an insurer or a third-party administrator who violates any provision of this chapter or chapter 616A, 616B, 616C or 617 of NRS.
2. The administrative fines provided for in NRS 616B.318 and 616D.120 are the exclusive remedies for any violation of this chapter or chapter 616A, 616B, 616C or 617 of NRS committed by an insurer or a third-party administrator.

The above provision in the Nevada Revised Statutes is a nasty bit of legislation designed to allow an insurance carrier to lie, cheat, steal, and even commit third-party murder and get away with it. Section 1 says that the policy holder cannot sue the insurance company or any of its agents even if they act in bad faith. Section 2 says that the fines the administration, read insurance commissioner, a politician reliant on the industry for his office, is all that can be done.
So, if a health insurance company or a workers compensation carrier decides that cheating a policyholder is more profitable than paying for desperately needed care, there is nothing the injured party can do. The Nevada Legislature, slave to dishonest business interests, said so.
As a Nevada Assemblyman, I was given a tour of the executive offices of Health Plan of Nevada, the state’s largest HMO. The office of HPN’s CEO was a single room larger than my house and outfitted in a splendor that would have embarrassed royalty. That is where the majority of your insurance premiums go. Why do you think the legal profession has made itself rich by building a business squeezing out a slightly larger award than what the insurance company wants to hand out?
An insurance policy is a contract and in any other circumstance a contract binds both parties equally. Somehow, in this case, the odds have shifted over toward one side. Now insurance is not a promise of coverage but more of a ponzi scheme. The policy holder saves a tiny percentage over what they may have paid for their loss while the CEO of the company issuing that coverage buys a new corporate jet.
One of the most prestigious hospitals in the world is the Mayo Clinic. That clinic is non-profit because those who started it felt that it would be immoral to profit off of peoples’ suffering. I tend to agree. In fact, the medical profession should no more be a path to wealth than being a pastor in a church. Health Insurance and Workers Compensation Insurance should also be non-profit industries. I ran a quick check of the numbers. If health insurance and hospitalization went non-profit and its staff was paid a decent wage, the cost of healthcare would drop by over 50%.
Some claim that if such a program were implemented, we would descend into the same morass that Canada’s socialized system endures. Not true, people would still have to pay, but they would be paying less for more. Not more for less, which is what we have now. All we would be doing is removing the sharks from the pool, and that is not a bad thing.

New Stimulus Package, Same Old Limp Results.

2009-01-30T07:57:00.000-08:00

The U.S. House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1, on Wednesday. The vote was 244 to 188, with several Democrat members joining the GOP rebellion.

Most of the money would come through the government's two largest grant programs, Title I (for educating low-income children) and IDEA (aid for the learning disabled). The 2009 allocation also contains a large dose of money for building schools and fixing old ones. What the bill does not contain is any money for teachers, and there is a nasty little loophole that allows Washington to withhold the funds at a whim.

That loophole is a matching funds provision. States, such as Nevada, that are trying to solve their budget problems without real reform will be forced to come up with funding that matches what Washington is preparing to give. If they don’t, those monies are withheld. Governor Jim Gibbons’ budget, one that he put together without consulting a single affected entity, bases the majority of its core budget solution on reducing the state’s obligation to education by over 50%. This move is typical of the personalities that have taken over the power structure within the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan would never have condoned such a “solution”.

Today’s Republican Party, at least in my state of Nevada, has allowed itself to be co-opted by radical elements that claim to speak for all conservatives but don’t even belong to the party and by office holders who have gladly sold their ethics and honor for the promise of campaign funds. What is the saddest point of all is that the voters don’t seem to care about this. They consistently vote for whoever sends out the largest volume of ad material; especially if those ads promise the voter something for nothing. In the end all they get for that vote is nothing.

Where education is concerned, Nevada’s conservative pundits seem to have a huge blind spot. They write on a regular basis about failing to learn the lessons of history where tax policy is concerned, but at the same time they fail to see what we have done to our schools.

Few people remember now, but there was a time when the American Education System was the envy of the world. Back then teachers were allowed to teach without also having to be a secretary for the administration. They were allowed to exact real discipline without the threat of a lawsuit being held over their heads. Textbooks were thick and held real knowledge, undiluted by politically correct censorship.

Teachers’ wages were low, but so were the administrations’, so they all shared the same boat and they worked together to put out the best product they could, a student prepared to enter the working world.

Those who attack our public schools in the media offer little in the way of solutions, but this is typical of the type. For them, reaction is all they have, but like Governor Gibbons, they refuse to even discuss the issue with those they perceive as the enemy. So what do we do?

Private schools and vouchers are no solution. All those do is exempt the pundits and their supporters from the same burden of citizenship everyone else shares in. If we are to keep our country sovereign, we have to have a citizenry capable of meeting the challenges of this world head on, and they cannot do that if they cannot read, write, or think. In order to succeed in this work we will have to upset and offend a significant portion of our population.

Groups that focus on a narrow band of human sexuality, either to the right of the left, will have to be told that their opinion does not matter where education is concerned. Groups who feel that the US Government is fascist or worse will have to be told much the same. Groups who feel that the color of a persons’ skin is paramount will have to be removed from the discussion. Most especially we will have to prevent the legal community from having anything to do with education. The only part any group should have in education is what they have left for the historical record. Policy, procedure and regulation that deal with any form of political correctness should be stringently outlawed, complete with penalties for any person or entity attempting to reestablish what has proven to be disastrous.

Uniforms, similar to those used by airline stewards and stewardesses, consisting of slacks, business casual shirt and sensible shoes need to replace the costumes typical to today. This would remove the focus in the students’ minds on how they look to what they are doing. Vocabulary should be stringently regulated, even outside of the classroom. I pods, cell phones, and other electronic distractions should be forbidden to be on campus. Those students who simply cannot abide the fact that others in the class may be learning something, will be corralled together with the rest of the Sweathogs and only allowed to learn the core subjects; reading, writing and arithmetic. Outside of the Sweathogs’ den, every school, from middle school on up, will have to teach education tracks relevant to a variety of careers with hands-on labs similar to the shop classes of days gone by.

If we can do this, we will again be the envy of the world. That may up set some, but honestly, would anybody care about that?

Half-full or Half Empty? How about Broken?

2009-01-27T07:55:00.001-08:00

Yesterday hundreds of teachers in Nevada were told that their jobs were gone. Not because they were incompetent or violating any one of school regulations. They were fired because the State of Nevada considered politics more important than education.

Nevada’s Governor, Jim Gibbons, an ex-fighter pilot and by training a geologist, made a campaign promise back in 2006 when he ran for that seat. He promised that he would not raise a single tax. Of course when he made that promise the economy was accelerating skyward and houses that originally sold fore $140,000 were being appraised at twice that amount. Just prior to his run, the state has issued a tax refund to nearly every citizen because of a massive surplus. And then the bubble burst.

As an Assemblyman, I saw the public face the legislature shows when they are on stage and I saw the other one they reveal only behind the scenes. Very few, Democrats or Republican, actually care whether or not the succeeding generations can read or write. What they care about is whether or not their next campaign is funded, and right after that, whether or not they can takes the reins of power by attaining a majority. Education? It’s not even in the top ten. To make matters worse, some on the GOP side actually consider public school to be dangerous for children. Not because of the prospect of drive-by shootings, gang violence or school bullies, but because of what they think may be taught. To them, every public school teacher is a flaming liberal and actively pushes the communist agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth, but these people live with the persona of the J. Edgar Hoover fifties imbedded within their persona. To them the Berlin Wall never fell and the Red Menace is running rampant through the halls of academia. I know dozens of teachers who supported Ron Paul and one of them is an official in the teachers’ union.

If that attitude weren’t so tragically cataclysmic, it would be laughable. The education glass in Nevada isn’t half empty or half full; it has fallen to the ground and shattered. The Governor is quite satisfied to allow million-dollar gifts to private citizens, to allow the Senate Majority Leader to violate the state constitution, ethics regulations and Senate Rules in order to grant waivers to campaign donors, and to claim a 300 million dollar rainy day fund does not exist, but he won’t spend a penny to save a teacher’s job. The mining industry pays only a half percent a year in taxes. Gaming, the other financial giant in this state pays less than 7 percent. The average worker and homeowner pays more than twice that, and many of them are teachers. What is wrong with this picture?

In Southern Nevada we pay the Superintendent of Schools over ten times what a beginning teacher is paid and he does less than half the work. The School District administration offices are a literal marble-lined palace while some schools have sections that have been listed as unsafe for occupation. The media is no help. One story on our local TV news stated that the average teacher in Nevada makes $52,000 a year. They got that figure by taking beginning teacher pay and adding it to what a PhD with 30 years of seniority would make and dividing by 2. What the report said was a lie. Most teachers make under 40 thousand a year and many are on food stamps while their principals are dining on fillet. Most teachers work over 60 hours a week while their principals may sometimes get up to 40. The 3 month vacation is another lie. The students get that. Teachers still have to work on preparing for the next school year, or did you think those lesson plans appeared by magic?

The system is broken. The position of teacher should be one of the most coveted jobs available. They should be teaching in palaces, not broken down portables. They should be making 6 figures a year, not the administration, and we should consider education to be as important to this country as National Defense. Because, if we don’t, we can kiss this nation good bye.

Let’s Play Political Football

2009-01-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia offers this definition: A political football is a political topic or issue that is continually debated but left unresolved. The term is used often during a political election campaign to highlight issues that have not been completely addressed, such as the natural environment and abortion.

I have an addition for the Wikipedia page. A political football is also a topic that generates more hypocrisy than any other form of discussion. During my first few months in the world of politics I discovered that particular sport was not specific to any one of the political parties.

My first example is Illegal Immigration. On the Democrat side the football becomes one of so called “human rights” where the people breaking the U.S. immigration laws somehow have been granted rights above and beyond those of natural and naturalized citizens. On the Republican side, those violating our border are criminals, unless they suddenly become a valuable resource in protecting the bottom line of big business by working under the table. The reasons are quite different but both parties are refusing to resolve the issue, much less even come close to it. The real issue is that the United States is a sovereign country and should act as such. Immigration has rules for good reasons and the U.S. labor laws are also in place for good reasons. The hypocrisy of both parties on this issue has no good reason.

The second example is capital punishment. The left views capital punishment as cruel and unusual and claims the state has no right to kill people. At the same time they champion the killing of unborn children and support terrorist organizations overseas actively involved in the killing of innocents. The right is no better. They have allowed the laws involved around capital punishment to metastasize into a cancerous tangle that has reduced the effectiveness of the punishment to a moot point. Execution is not there to provide entertainment value or even revenge. It is there to act as a deterrent just as every other law with a stick attached to it is put in place. Our government isn’t interested in exacting punishment, it is interested in promoting good behavior, and yes, there is a difference between god and bad behavior.

The last example is abortion. It ties in with capital punishment because of a particular hypocrisy of the left. It is almost a certainty that most of the supporters of abortion know that a human life is being destroyed each time an abortion is performed. They also know that well over 99% of all abortions occur without a medical necessity. They simply cannot acknowledge that realization because of political necessity. The party agenda is far more important than human life…check that, human life that cannot vote.

I received several rather incendiary comments on this topic because I used the example of a woman’s unborn child being killed and the killer not being sentenced for the murder of that child. The point was missed, and I doubt it will ever be got. The person who pulled that trigger should be sentenced just as stringently for the killing of an unborn child as they would be for the killing of a 50 year old man. The age, sex, race, or economic status of a life should not matter. Wanton killing is wanton killing, regardless of the circumstance of the victim. Where are NOW, the ACLU and every other abortion rights group on this issue? They are silent as is to be expected, because the life of a child in the womb is nothing to them. They have their own agenda and that is the furtherance of their own political power. This football is simply a means to an end.

The right has its own problems where this issue is concerned. A few churches and several individuals have acted with the same fanaticism as members of the Taliban. The bombing of clinics and the killing of doctors have done nothing but place their cause in a bad light. Breaking the law is not the answer. Committing murder certainly is not the answer. Education is and it is going to take a long, long time because, though individuals may be intelligent, people are stupid. Just take a look at what we think is good television if you don’t believe me.

The Pro-Death crowd is back.

2009-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

I was going to write about another subject but a series of comments I received pushed that idea back for a day. They were all directed at one of the columns with regard to abortion. As anyone who reads this column will know, I am an unashamed proponent of life. I know (which is far stronger of a stance than mere belief) that life begins at the moment of conception. There is far too much science that proves this. The question is really when do any rights of humanity become endowed upon this life?

That question I posed is enough to send many of the pro-death crowd into a screaming frenzy because if what we now call the de-humanizing terms of zygote, fetus, etc, is recognized for what it really is, what they now see as a fundamental right becomes rather an act of legalized murder. What is really interesting is that many of this group will also stand vigil protesting the execution of a serial killer whose primary target was children.

If anyone will notice, I have not once said that an abortionist or their “patient” does not have the right to do what they do, yet these comments fairly shrieked that accusation attempting to shame me into silence. One comment was not allowed to be published because it used profanity, in spite of the prohibition for that sort of language clearly posted in the comment box. Apparently some folks can write but not read.

Throughout all the columns on this subject my single push has been to inject honesty into the discussion; honesty based on actual science and biological evidence not politically correct terminology. The problem, as exhibited by the comments, is that at least one side of the discussion cannot deal with such honesty, so I will, with glee, express it yet again.

I want a member of the pro-death camp to answer this question honestly and without rancor: what is the result of human conception if it is not human? I can almost guarantee that not one of them will give a well-reasoned answer because the only correct answer is “human life”. There are stages within the growth of this life that it has yet to achieve sentience and there are stages where it is completely reliant on the mother for sustaining that life, but if not human, what is it?

You see, when the rhetoric is broken down and the discussion is brought to fundamentals there is no room left for semantics and this is what really bothers the fanatics on both sides. Where abortion is concerned, most of the fanatics live on the left but not all of them. Those who shoot abortionists are just as wrong as those doctors who violate their oath by hiding behind contracts. The Hippocratic Oath as translated from the Greek is,

“I swear by Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath.
To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.”

There is no room in the oath, if it is followed honestly, to perform an abortion. If the comments to my blog are read, you will see that the writers did not bother to do any research, they simply reacted because I was disputing an article of their faith. They call for tolerance, but react with intolerance when someone disagrees with them. The comments give ample evidence to that, but if you will notice, I published them…except when profanity is used.

For those who didn’t pay attention in school, profanity is the four-letter dialogue you commonly use when your mother isn’t listening.

We Don’t Need No Steenking Education!

2009-01-16T07:48:00.001-08:00

Last night Governor Jim Gibbons of Nevada issued his State of the State address. Because Governor Gibbons made a promise of not raising any taxes at all, Nevada’s economic woes grew right along with its population while revenues went down. Governor Gibbon’s solution to this pressing need for more money? Fire teachers.

Before I go into just how imbecilic his suggestion is, let’s explore the region of common sense. Nevada is a unique state. It is the only one where gaming is allowed state wide. New Jersey has Atlantic City and a few others have Indian Casinos, but they are not Nevada. To build a casino anywhere else other than Nevada, a gaming company has to convince that state that allowing them in is a good thing, translate that as “profitable”. The gaming taxes for the successful bidder can be as high as a full third of the gross profits. In Nevada the gaming tax is less than ten percent and it is not calculated on the gross, but the net. For some of the companies this winds up as less than one percent a year. It is no wonder that a good portion of the gaming CEOs in Nevada own their own jets and commute from their Oceanside estates in Southern California.

Mining is the other primary business in Nevada. More gold comes out of Nevada’s ground than any other state in the union. The mining industry pays an effective .5% a year in taxes while the sale price of gold continues to skyrocket. Barbara K. Cegvaske, the State Senator for District 8 in Nevada told a group of teachers being threatened with the loss of their careers that if the state raised taxes on mining to save the teachers’ jobs, mining would leave the state. I’ve had the misfortune to speak with Senator Cegvaske. You would not be blinded by her intellect. It is very likely she actually believes what she says. More’s the pity. Gold is found deep within the ground. If mining left the state, where will the mineral they seek be? Mining technology has improved since the gold rush, but I doubt it has climbed to the level where they could take the mountains with them when they go.

Governor Gibbons has a problem he did not mention in his address; he has no veto power. The last election eliminated the Republican leadership in the State Senate and gave the Democrat Speaker in the State Assembly a veto-proof majority. The power shift in the Assembly can be placed onto the shoulders of one man, George Harris, publisher of a poorly written rag called Liberty Watch. Harris never forgave me for defeating his anointed candidate, Kris Munn for the District 21 Assembly seat. That made me the 15th vote in the Assembly on the Republican side. Because of that position, I was able to block a couple of measures that would have severely impacted small business’s ability to survive in Nevada. Harris spent a fortune attacking me in the last primary. Because of that and a record low Republican turn out at the polls, Harris’ puppet got into the general. I was quite happy to help the Democrat Candidate Ellen Spiegel win the seat. Because of Harris, the Governor has no power over legislation at all. The question is whether or not the legislature has the wisdom to do what is right.

Most legislators have more than one face, the one they show in public and the one they wear in private. While in the legislature, I learned what most Republican legislators think of public education. They consider teachers in public schools the enemy. A few of them actually think teachers are a danger to their children. They make the error of confusing the teachers union and its political agenda with teachers. It is impossible to convince them otherwise. I’ve tried.

If the Nevada Legislature does the right thing and raises revenue properly, we have a hope of becoming a better state. If they act as they have in the past and continue to kowtow to the spoiled industries of gaming and mining, we run the risk of becoming incapable of educating even a tiny percentage of our children. Vouchers will not solve the problem because they still involve state monies and private schools have the option of refusing any child that may present a problem.

Right now more than half of the students leaving high school cannot read or write at a functional level. Business, small and large continues to complain about the quality of applicants, especially in the technical trades. I wonder what they will be saying when they cannot find applicants even capable of writing their own name?

Nevada Could Teach Illinois Lessons in Corruption

2009-01-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

Most of the major news networks are continuing to run stories on the corruption overseen by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. To recap, Governor Blagojevich was charged, and eventually impeached, with the crime of attempting to sell a seat in the US Senate. Based on the reaction of the currently seated members to Roland Burris, the man he eventually appointed, it appears that more than a few of them think the good governor succeeded in his auction. Since the state of Illinois has the city of Chicago, and since Chicago has a less than savory reputation where its political life is concerned, the folks from that part of the country have begun to act almost smug about the quality of their corruption. Well, I have news for them.

Here in Nevada we have elevated political corruption to an art form. Chicago had Al Capone and other assorted mobsters. Big deal, we still have the mob and a number of them are so deeply ingrained into our politics that a witnessed brutal assault only brings probation. This would not be so unusual except that the order came from the same judge that hammered O.J. Simpson with hard time for using armed associates to get some of his stuff back. Those weapons were not used, by the way.

The judge, Nancy Glass, went out of the way to keep Dominic Rizzolo out of prison, even so far as calling up the defense council, Tony Sgro and advising him to come by in two years, and request she withdraw Dominic's felony plea and replace it with a gross misdemeanor. American Mafia writer, Steve Miller noted this in his column: Even Judge Glass' criminal defense attorney husband disagrees with her coddling a dangerous criminal: "People convicted of violent crimes have their prison sentences impacted by the harm done to their victims." "Any person who uses a... deadly weapon... in the commission of a crime shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term equal to and in addition to the term of imprisonment prescribed by statute for the crime." - From the website of attorney Steve Wolfson.

Our District Attorney, David Roger, is no slouch either when it comes to corruption. He is supposedly the one who urged Judge Glass to go easy on his favorite mobster of the week. In the neighborhood of Nevada’s Mr. Rogers, you can only commit a crime if you are a normal working citizen and not a potential or past campaign contributor. Several people have told me that the response from Metro, when they call to complain about a possible crime in progress and they happen to live in a gated community, is that the police cannot respond because it is in a gated community. This is of course a lie. The police have full authority to enter any community they choose to stop a crime. Guess what sort of community the Rizzolos live in.

Here in Nevada we elect our judges. If that isn’t a recipe for corruption, I cannot guess what is. An elected judge is always weighing their decisions on whether or not actually serving justice will get them unelected. Therefore we develop one justice system for the rich and another for the rest of us.

I can name less than a handful of current serving legislators and judges I could trust to do the right thing. Based on the last election, the electorate does not want judges and legislators known to be honest. They will vote for whomever puts out the largest amount of hate mail. We now have another judicial election cycle coming up. God help us all.

Just What is a Dollar anyway?

2009-01-12T08:32:00.001-08:00

According to a monograph written by Edwin Vieira, Jr., even those who purport to print our money don’t really know what a dollar is.

No statute defines - or ever has defined - the "one dollar" Federal Reserve Note “FRN” as the "dollar,” or even as a species of "dollar.” Moreover, the United States Code provides that FRNs "shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States…or at any Federal Reserve bank.” Thus, FRNs are not themselves "lawful money" - otherwise, they would not be "redeemable in lawful money.” And if FRNs are not even "lawful money,” it is inconceivable that they are somehow "dollars,” the very units in which all "United States money is expressed.”

People are confused on this point because of the insidious manner in which FRNs "evolved" - actually, degenerated is a more appropriate verb - from the late 1920s until today. FRNs of Series 1928 through Series 1950E carried the obligation "The United States of America will pay to the bearer on demand [some number of] dollars.” Prior to 1934, the notes carried the inscription "Redeemable in gold on demand at the United States Treasury, or in gold or lawful money at any Federal Reserve Bank.” After 1934, the notes carried the inscription "this note…is redeemable in lawful money at the United States Treasury, or at any Federal Reserve Bank" (post-1934). Starting with Series 1963, the words "will pay to the bearer on demand" no longer appear; and each FRN simply states a particular denomination in "dollars.”

People have written to both their representatives and the Treasury Department asking for a definition of just what a “dollar” is. The replies reveal just how confused this situation is. Being a man who considers his word his bond, I would have to say that the FRN is and remains a contract; whether or not the government chooses to admit this…they printed the things. At the top of the contract they proudly proclaim it to be a Federal Reserve Note. At the bottom they declare the value, as in the dollar bill as One Dollar. The value of goods or services the note may purchase has changed, albeit not for the better. However, if you hold a 1900 $20 gold piece, you can still purchase what that coin could buy when it was minted. For example, back in 1920, a $20 gold coin would pay for a good suit. You can still do that today…if you have a $20 gold coin. A 1920 silver dime would pay for a decent breakfast…you can see my point.
The situation with coinage is more complex, but equally (if not more) confusing. The United States Code provides for three different types of coinage denominated in "dollars": namely, base- metallic coinage, gold coinage, and silver coinage.
The base-metallic coinage consists of "a dollar coin,” weighing "8.1 grams,” "a half dollar coin,” weighing "11.34 grams"; "a quarter coin,” weighing "5.67 grams": and "a dime coin,” weighing "2.268 grams.” All of these coins are composed of copper and nickel. The weights of the dime, the quarter, and the half dollar are in the correct arithmetical proportions, the one to each of the others. But the "dollar" is disproportionately light (or the other coins disproportionately heavy). In this series of base metallic coins, then, the questions naturally arise: Is the "dollar" a cupro-nickel coin weighing "8.1 grams"? Or is it two cupro- nickel coins (or four or ten coins) collectively weighing 22.68 grams? Or is it both? Or is it neither, but something else altogether, to which the weights of these coins are irrelevant?
In regards to the silver dollar...back when we actually minted silver coins for everyday use, the dollar coin weighed .999 troy ounces of silver. I would say that particular coin is the closest to anything as far as actually being a dollar. The value was there, the trust was there and the value of that coin has not varied through the years. If you currently have a silver dollar of nominal numismatic value (not one of the rarities) you can still purchase roughly the same value of goods or services you could back when the coin was minted, as stated in the examples above. Now we do still mint “Liberty Dollars”, but they are minted as collectibles more so than money.
Similarly, the gold coinage consists of "a fifty dollar gold coin" that "weighs 33.931 grams, and contains one troy ounce of fine gold"; "a twenty-five dollar gold coin" that "contains one-half ounce of fine gold"; "a ten dollar gold coin" that "contains one fourth ounce of fine gold"; and "a five dollar gold coin" that "contains one tenth ounce of fine gold.” The "fifty dollar,” "twenty-five dollar,” and "five dollar" coins are in the correct arithmetical proportions each to the others. But the "ten dollar" coin is not. Therefore, is a "dollar" one-fiftieth or one-fortieth of an ounce of gold? It appears to be undecided.
The US Government has not upheld its part on a contract begun back when it first began printing monetary notes. We still trade the notes for goods and services, but the trust is no longer there, in fact, based on the current crisis, the lack of trust is completely justified. If we had an administration with the courage to place the U.S. back onto the gold standard, we would see the value of the dollar skyrocket, whether or not enough gold exists to do so is beside the point. Experts disagree on both sides of that issue. What would be important would be the willingness to actually declare a foundation and to keep a promise...something our government hasn’t been willing to do for nearly three quarters of a century.
This brings me to a loosely connected point. Hollywood has expressed in film the idea that Uncle Sam trusts its citizenry about as much as they trust him. The background stories in the movie The Rock and Men in Black are an example. There is no love lost in either direction, but the greatest violator is the government. The current and ongoing mess was caused primarily by the government fouling up yet again…and apparently those in power are satisfied with the status quo. The reaction of the GOP leadership over the possibility of Sarah Palin is a very telling bit of evidence. If we are to ever regain our prosperity with some stability we need to begin being an honest, ethical nation. Being honest in our money would be a good start.

How about we honor our veterans?

2009-01-09T06:55:00.001-08:00

Yesterday evening the Clark County School Board chose to finally join the rest of the United States in honoring our nation’s veterans. The decision only came ten years late. There used to be a sense of patriotism in the Las Vegas Valley. People who lived here used to feel pride in the men and women who laid their lives on the line for our freedom. That isn’t the case now; not any more.

About two years ago I stood in front of the school board and asked them to consider naming one of our schools in honor of our veterans. Some of the members said we already did. The school they referenced, Cimarron High School, used to have such a name, a decade ago before the board changed it. The claim was that the district had decided to give all the high schools western-style names, but insiders tell me that certain elements in the administration and on the board did not like “glorifying war”.

This is how cynical such an attitude on the part of bureaucracy is: the Clark County School District has a number of schools named after individuals of incredibly dubious character. One school is named after a past Assemblyman who narrowly escaped jail time for corruption. Several of his friends are currently inmates. That school’s name hasn’t been changed. It seems glorifying a corrupt public official isn’t as bad in the eyes of the school board as “glorifying war”. Oscar Goodman, the Mayor of Las Vegas, has been lobbying Congress, fervently trying to find financing for a Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. He somehow considers that a far more important project than spending a tiny fraction of the money to dedicate a defunct city park for the veterans.

Every airport in America of any significant size has an Armed Services club for the benefit of those men and women in uniform who come through. McCarran International Airport is the only airport of its size without such a facility. Over a quarter of a million military men and women pass through that airport each year. Many of them have layovers of several hours and nowhere to rest, check emails, etc...I spoke with Randy Walker, the manager of the airport about this problem and he agreed that something had to be done. He even went so far as to guarantee matching funds and an existing lounge as long as the county came through with its part. Clark County’s commissioners could not be less interested. In contacting the USO, the service organization that at one time had clubs for our soldiers popping up like mushrooms, was actually hostile to the idea. Apparently the idea of having one of their clubs in Las Vegas is pretty distasteful.

One of the few jobs that pay even less than teaching is military service. A very large number of enlisted personnel have to sign on for food stamps to feed their family. The conditions they work under can be horrendous and, in many cases, fatal. Once their term of service is over, the least we can do is honor that service.

New Server, New Email, same old internet

2009-01-07T06:17:00.000-08:00

As a child of the fifties I will never be one to move within the arcane world of computer code. HTML makes as much sense to me as the squiggles used in Arabic writing. I do, however, know how to use a search engine as well if not better than your average teenager; just don't ask me to program one. As far as I’m concerned, back slash and forward slash are hockey terms.

When I landed my first job as a courtroom artist I was 18 years old, fresh out of High School and art was created with either pen, pencil or paint onto paper and canvas. Computers were massive complexes of tubes and wire and filled entire rooms to create less computing power currently found in a chip smaller than my little fingernail. Wonders such as the LED, CD, DVD, Bluetooth, laser mouse, and the PC did not exist except in science fiction and under different names.

I am writing this while sitting in my home office. To my right is a Sony component stereo system that I turned on by remote control. It plays either over-the-air broadcasts in several formats or a selection of choices from the carousel CD changer; all with the tap of a button on the remote. My computer is a Toshiba laptop. It is nothing fancy and, to be honest, slightly underpowered when compared to this year’s crop. But if I were able to step back in time to when I first began my artistic career, taking either product with me, I would be able to command any price for the wonders they contained. What will I consider commonplace tomorrow?

We take all of this incredible technology for granted now, to the point where, when flying from one city to another, on a trip that would have taken our ancestors weeks of months of hardship, we complain about being served stale peanuts as a snack. I have no idea why Jobs, Wozniak and Gates used the language they did in creating their programs, but I’m glad they did. I am currently illustrating a series of children’s books for a publisher using Adobe Photoshop as the primary program. If I were to do the job using only hand tools, and I could certainly do so, the work would take almost ten times the amount of hours.

The cartoon strip you see below this column was drawn the old fashioned way using pencil, paper, brush and ink. What technology has allowed to happen is to enable me to share it with a vastly larger audience than what its original publisher intended. This is the world of the internet; which brings me to my point. Because I am an artist, I work in files that can easily become not just huge but massive. My old email and DSL server did not have near enough bandwidth to deal with that size. I had to move up, but in doing so I had to get yet another email address. If you want to contact me, comment on this column and I will send you the new listing.

Thanks for reading.

Mosab Hassan Yousef

2009-01-06T07:28:00.000-08:00

One of the most extraordinary things happened this week and the only News network to report on it was FOX. Every other news outlet has been as silent about this event as if such an occurrence was as embarrassing as Dan Rather campaigning for John Kerry with his phony report on George Bush. The event was the explosive announcement that the son of son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the most influential leaders of the militant group Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef converted from Islam to evangelical Christianity. According to the FOX report, Yousef not only repudiates Islam, but slams those who have used the religion to foment terror throughout the world.

I watched the broadcast and was singularly impressed by this young man’s obvious courage. Without batting an eye he stated that those who follow the Koran are “insane”. He was raised as a radical Muslim and taught to hate the Israeli and the West as natural enemies of Islam. He helped organize protests and was indirectly responsible for a number of terrorist acts that caused the deaths of innocents. To be able to come forward as he has is an incredible act. The fact that he is still alive is simply a miracle.

With the current war going on in Gaza, the apparent one sided view of the major media is again obvious to all but the most naive viewer. With rocket after rocket lifting into the air toward Israeli suburbs, the MSNBC reporter continues with his/her report on how many Palestinian civilians the Israeli military has killed. Qassam rockets and Grad missiles rain down on Israeli civilians by the hundreds, and the images shown everywhere except FOX are those of Palestinian militants dressed in Hamas green demonstrating around an unidentified man holding what could either be a child’s body or a sack of laundry; the package is never revealed.

I have yet to be convinced of any legitimate claim the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Lebanese, Egyptians or any other Middle Eastern group has on the land of Israel. Leaving off Saul, who is recorded as being a rather ineffective ruler, the reign of King David is reckoned to have begun around 1050 BC. Any reasonable, thinking being would consider that a rather solid claim. What makes the thought of giving the Palestinians any portion of Israel as theirs to own absurd, is that they have never before lived there, not even in the distant past. They come from the eastern side of the Jordan. The Mexicans who want to claim portions of the American Southwest have a stronger claim on what they desire than that. Of course, if Mexican terrorists began lobbing rockets and missiles into San Diego, we would see much the same response from the news media as we do where Israel is concerned. To them, there are only two great evils in the world, Zionist Israel and Imperialistic America. The only thing that would shake that view is if one of the rockets landed in their Oceanside estates.

Yousef is a unique young man. He has the courage of his convictions and a personal history no pundit can argue against. He has come though experiences many of us would consider to only be the stuff of action movies. The news media think Islam is as valid as Christianity, though, where Christianity is concerned, they only reference those who has misused the faith for their own selfish goals; the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials were not Christian in origin, despite the trappings. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find God admonishing the follower of Jesus to murder a daughter because she married a man of her own choosing, to send a child into a crowd wearing an explosive belt, to saw the head off an innocent man, to push a helpless wheelchair bound man off a ship into the ocean, or the other innumerable atrocities committed in the name of allah (the lack of a capital here is intended). Far too long the world has allowed this abomination of a religion to exist. Far too long have the peaceful citizens of this globe stood by silently while these monsters have terrorized the innocent. Finally, one young man has come forward and spoken the truth. Sadly, only a few noticed.

What price honesty?

2009-01-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what would happen to our lives if all of a sudden people decided to stop being dishonest? The cynic would claim that such an event could be the beginning of mass violence, murder, suicide and economic collapse. They would claim that our society, nay, the entire world is deeply rooted in a culture of deception. People have been conditioned to not only accept the little lies we consistently tell each other, but have come to expect them to the point that, when confronted with actual truth, they cannot process it.

When Bill Clinton faced the news camera and shook his finger at America while lying about his affair with Monica Lewinski, it was apparent, even to his most fervent followers that he was not being honest. Later, it was revealed that very few of his published honors and accomplishments were based in actual fact. That revelation has done little, if any to harm his ongoing career after the White House.

George Bush the elder also lied to America in much the same way. The only difference was that his lie was economic rather than lurid, but being a Republican in a country controlled by liberal media and thought police, his punishment was swift and politically devastating…for about four years and then the previous-mentioned liar came in.

Al Gore has to be the champ when it comes to spinning falsehoods, though John Kerry and his imagined heroism comes in a close second. Global Warming is simply the greatest hoax pushed upon the world stage…period. Nothing else even comes close. The most recent guffaw is how Gore and his fellow Warmingites explain that the current cooling trend is nothing more than a prime example as how “warming” is affecting the earth. Yes and, Glen Beck said it best, “Exxon’s massive profits are simply an example of how little money they are making.” Try telling the people in Fargo they are in danger of dying from global warming. The last temp there was several degrees below zero.

I remember the Spotted Owl brouhaha. One of the last jobs I did as a sign shop owner involved a Circle K store with an occupied owl nest in its sign. Seems Spotted Owls can only survive in old growth Circle K forests.

Here in Nevada, I tried proposing an immigration reform bill. It wasn’t the Democrats who opposed it, it was the Republicans. They claimed I was trying to bankrupt the state. These legislators are also people who claim to love the constitution. They claim to be moral and to love the law. They lie. They are not concerned about business being able to make ends meet as much as they are concerned about the next campaign contribution and their ability to spend it in nonpolitical goodies.

The truth is expensive and it can be inconvenient, but it will never disappoint and it will never cheat. So we kick out all the liars. Will that ruin our country? What do you think would be the economic picture if every politician upheld the truth and went after those who cheated, lied and stole? So we wouldn’t have Bush, Cheney, Reid and Pelosi. So what? Is any one so naive to believe they are the best we can get?

Thoughts on 2009

2009-01-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

The continuous boom of fireworks woke me up last night. As per long-standing tradition I went to bed early New Years Eve. I have yet to regret that old decision.

2009 has a number of unique promises to fulfill. Whether or not it will is yet to be seen. We could either be witnessing the dawn of one of our most prosperous decades beginning with 2010, or the inexorable advance of Armageddon; the potential swing of the pendulum is that wide.

President-elect Obama has already shown himself to be less of a puppet of the liberal left than a lot of pundits feared. His willingness to work with people his typical constituency view as blood enemies shows an inner core of character I was unable to see during the campaign. It will be interesting to see how his middle-income tax cut fares and what, if implemented; it will do for the economy. American big business has become quite reactionary when asked to share their plunder. I personally know of instances where a business owner has actually taken steps that harmed his credit rather than reduce his own personal income to save the business his father began.

As is typical to the Middle East, the millennium-old conflict between the sons of Abraham rages on, but for the past several hundred years the fault lies on Ishmael’s side, not on Isaac’s. I have yet to get a real handle on the problem with the Palestinians. Their heritage is Jordanian, not Israeli. They hail from southwestern Jordon, not from the western side of the Jordon River. Not one accomplishment toward bettering humanity or society, or even themselves can be attributed to any of their disparate groups, and yet the world seems intent on blaming Israel, the real victim, for the Palestinians’ troubles. It seems to me that when someone gives you thousands of acres of arable land, you develop it; you don’t spend all your time developing weapons. The followers of the Babylonian moon god allah don’t care about logic, obviously.

Because of the vast Democrat sweep of nearly every significant office, the Reid/Pelosi cabal has been clamoring to move even further toward socialization. They envision American healthcare as being a mirror of what is offered in Canada. There are so many errors in that form of judgment that space is simply not sufficient to even cover a tiny percentage, but let’s just look at a couple right now. Both Pelosi and Reid happen to be independently wealthy. Over the years I have noticed that those who proclaim the socialist agenda to be the best are often the least generous with their own wealth when they have it. Both Pelosi and Reid share the trait of being dictatorial. They do not work well as the member of a decision-making team; they have a drive to be the one and only decision maker. Every socialistic leader in our world’s history has shared the same trait.

In Canada, it is true, you can see a doctor without paying a co pay. Of course, you have already paid 60% in taxes and had to wait for upwards of half a year while your condition grew worse, but that $20 didn’t leave your wallet. As in the UK, Canada’s health system has morphed into a two-tier system. Those who can afford to pay for extra privilege, get it and the government, used to privilege, does nothing to halt the trend. Do you really think that if it came to it that Reid or Pelosi would be waiting in line with you to see a doctor?

About a year ago my humble house was worth about $250,000. Now it is worth about $150,000. I have actually worked to improve the property, but the price went down. Fortunately the taxes also went with the price. Some economists are warning of hyper-inflation while others are screaming about the coming depression. I think a different scenario is possible, if Uncle Sam will get out of the way. My house was never actually worth a quarter of a million. It simply is too small and in too normal of a location for that price. As with all the other homes around my neighborhood, it was caught up in a short term economic frenzy and far too many scam artists got into a feeding frenzy. The balloon has burst and now things are beginning to stabilize...as long as greed is kept out of it. Gas prices are just about where they really belong along with a great many other commodities. If those businesses who failed were actually allowed to fail, better run companies would take their place. It has happened before and it will happen again. Simply because the owner of a business has a friend in Washington, it does not mean that my taxes can be used to cover up his failure. At least it shouldn’t mean that.

So, welcome to 2009. It should be an interesting year.

What is a Republican anyway?

2008-12-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks a number of letters to the editor and several articles have appeared in my local papers about the ongoing disarray within the GOP ranks. Some writers have called for the firing of the state party chair and others continue to nibble away at the makeup of the rank and file like flesh-eating bacteria…but to compare those people to bacteria is to insult the germ.

While recovering in the hospital last week, I was visited by Ellen and Bill Spiegel. She is the new State Assemblywoman for my district, taking my place. She and her husband also happen to be Democrats, he more than she. I am still registered Republican, but I have often wondered aloud in conversation with Bill as to whether or not I should change my registration. The party has changed and not at all for the better.

Bill told me in no uncertain terms that I should not register Democrat. He is a consistent reader of this blog and in his opinion I am a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. It is his feeling that I would feel even more out of place in the Democrat ranks than in the GOP. Why is that? What is a Republican?

It used to be that to be a member of the party; one had to share certain common beliefs with the other members. Some of those beliefs were in the reality and rock solid foundation of our constitution. The constitution and not the casual interpretation of it by activist judges was the law of the land. To be a Republican you had to stand for freedom and civil rights, and for those rights to be available for all…equally. One group could not have additional rights or freedoms above another, period and regardless of politics.

You had to be in favor of allowing the market to do its job without governmental encumbrance. A business failed or succeeded on its merits, not because it was a better thief than the others. Understanding that the free exercise of religion was a paramount item in the formation of this country was also very important. How that religion was practiced was not so important, just the freedom to do so…and it did not matter where you did so, regardless of who became upset over your praying.

For myself, I believe that being a Republican means being honest, forthright, compassionate and pragmatic. Simply because someone has more than someone else does not mean they are a better person or have more rights and privileges within our society than anyone else. We are supposed to be a nation of law, not of lawyers. As for the free market, it is meant to be survival of the fittest, not survival of the fattest. The government has no place in commerce outside of general regulation to keep everyone honest. Anything beyond that is a direct violation of our constitution.

Tammy Bruce opined the other day that a lot of people in Washington deserve to be behind bars. I tend to agree with her. She only mentioned Democrats, but I say that the crimes are bipartisan and we have more than enough villains in both parties to go around. Money has become the chief arbiter of power and legislation these days and today’s Republican Party cannot abide an honest man. I may not fit in the Democrat niche, but it is certainly no picnic here in the GOP closet either.

Magic Negro funny...if you’re not a Democrat

2008-12-29T18:35:00.001-08:00

Paul Shanklin wrote a song parody to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon” about the March 2007 opinion piece by LA Times writer David Ehrenstein. The title of Ehrenstein’s piece was “Obama the Magic Negro”, about how voting for Obama would alleviate the collective white guilt built up about all the wrongs the white race has committed in the past.

What is not written in the variety of liberal columns decrying this latest example of conservative hate is the list of parodies and outright vicious slanders written about Republican candidates and Presidents. Where is it stated that Democrats get a pass in their behavior? Who decreed that the 98% of the media who slavishly follow liberal dictates get to not only anoint our leadership, but also are given the power to destroy the reputation of anyone who disagrees with their political opinion.

Barrack Obama is not God; he isn’t even god with the little “g”. He is a fallible human animal, just like all the rest of us. A number of people reading this reading may consider that last statement as blasphemy of the highest order. I’ll go along with them if Obama can pass one little test. All he has to do is be born of a virgin, follow God’s law implicitly while performing several verifiable miracles, be crucified unjustly, killed and then rise again after three days in the presence of witnesses and then rise into heaven. If he can do that, he’s got my vote for deity status.

Another example of liberal heavy-handedness is the uproar over Obama’s invitation of Pastor Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life”. That book wasn’t the unforgivable sin for the liberals, though it wasn’t taken as an example of proper teaching. No, Warren’s sin was to say he agreed with California’s Prop 8. He didn’t campaign for the proposition’s passage. He didn’t spend much time discussing it, not even from the pulpit. All he did was exercise his constitutional right to state an opinion, but as far as the liberals are concerned, only they have that right.

If Pastor Warren is allowed to be involved in the inauguration of America’s first President of color, according to the liberal, a crime against the constitution will be committed. To be accurate, Obama is not black, he is not Negro, he is of mixed parentage; black and white. In spite of this glaring inconsistency, the liberal media considers Barrack Obama to be the leader on their short list of historic black American political figures. Figures such as Justice Thomas and Secretary of State Rice need not apply. According to liberal dogma, they surrendered their black identity when they “gasp” joined the conservative ranks.

Liberals have somehow gotten the idea that Black American can only go one way, to the left. This flies in the face of statistical demography. In my own Assembly district in Nevada, more black voters than not voted for candidates the liberals would have said not to. A number of these candidates were not Republican, and to be completely honest, they were not Democrat, even though they ran under the label; they were representatives, not politicians.

America’s voting public comes in every skin tone imaginable, not just the pale peach we call white, or the sienna brown we call black. In all colors, including the ruddy American tones and the ocher oriental, they operate under a constitution that was written by men well aware of what an oppressive governmental system can and will do. If the voters allow the media to make their decisions for them, they deserve every loss of freedom that will occur. It is obvious to any observer with half a brain that the ownership of today’s media considers the First Amendment their sole property and that all others, especially those few in the media who do not share their socialistic dictatorship agenda, have no such right. Paul Shanklin and Rick Warren, and yes even President-elect Obama have placed themselves directly into the crosshairs of this conflict by standing up for their beliefs.

I wish more Americans would do the same.

This Christmas

2008-12-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time when nearly every person in the western world wants to be home with friends and family gathered around. The mental picture of the first Christmas brings a warm scene of Mary holding her newborn to her breast while Joseph looks on. Peering over Mary and Joseph’s shoulders are the animals lodged within the stable. Since that first Christmas, that feeling is what we all strive for. Friendship, the communal sense of family and of belonging, these are what make Christmas, Christmas. The presents, the food and the never-ending carols are all simply additional window dressing.

This Christmas is the first where I am the oldest living member of my family. It is a strange and rather lonely feeling being the “older generation”. Let’s face it, people of my age were the generation that brought along tie dye, long hair, patchouli oil masquerading as hippie perfume, and the free-form twitching we called dancing. We are the generation that vowed to never grow old and to never trust anyone over thirty. Now, I have socks older than thirty and underwear that qualifies for AARP. But I have never lost my love of Christmas.

Some folks consider only the gifts where Christmas is concerned; the larger, the more elaborate and expensive the gift, the better the Christmas. All right, let’s consider that criteria: The first Christmas present wasn’t gold, frankincense, or myrrh, it was far more valuable. The creator of the universe, the one who stands outside of time and space and envisioned the utter incomprehensible complexity of the web of life, stepped out of heaven and entered base humanity as a helpless baby, and not just a baby, but one born to a family on the poor side of the tracks. The reason for that gift comes along every Easter.

This Christmas is especially poignant for me, and not just because of the reason I mentioned earlier. For the past few months I’ve been dealing with a progressive numbness that began with my toes and now extends upwards to my hips. Because of a family history, I was worried about the possibility of MS or even cancer, but that turned out to be a needless fear. It seems my body doesn’t metabolize all those B12 vitamins I’ve been taking all these years. The result is the formation of an inflammation within the cervical spinal cord similar to that caused by Transverse myelitis. The difference being that this form doesn’t come along with the agonizing pain of the other. Treatment is a course of steroids over a period of three days and several B12 shots.

So, I get to spend the three days after Christmas in the hospital. If any one wants to visit, I’ll be in the St. Rose facility off 125 and Eastern just outside of Anthem. Just be forewarned, I’ll be a highlands Celt on steroids.

There is no First Amendment Right to Lie

2008-12-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

The news about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his retailing of Obama’s Senate seat has spread across the news media at light speed. What is most surprising about this is the number of people shocked at this revelation. Apparently quite a few people in this country are still under the impression that most politicians are honest, decent people. We are still, obviously, a nation of Pollyanna’s. Of course, the election of Obama proves that contention.

In the past a few courageous representatives had the cahonies to offer up bills that would have mandated honesty in political speech. The reaction of their peers was, to say the least, telling. In strident tones akin to how Obama’s pastor delivers a sermon, these men and women were dressed down as fools at best and traitors to the American way of life at worst. Illinois is not the only bastion of corruption in the country. Washington DC has been offering graduate courses in the discipline for nearly two centuries. Here in my home state of Nevada we have a sign dedicating a government building. On the sign are the names of the County Commissioners that were sitting in office at that time. Of the seven on that list, four are now serving prison terms.

When I served in the Nevada Legislature, I worked up the number of legislators I felt could be counted on to keep their word, regards of the financial or political cost. The list was considerably longer at the beginning of my term than at the end.

Expediency now rules that day. I have been told more often than not buy sitting politicians that unless I am willing to compromise my integrity, I have no hope of ever gaining another political office. The big campaign donors will not support someone who has standards. Sadly, I have come to believe them.

The First Amendment to the Constitution reads thusly: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

You will notice that speech is the third clause in this contract with the American People. The Founding Fathers felt that dealing with religion was more important. (That revelation alone would cause a riot in some universities.) You will also notice that “false speech” is not mentioned. Simply because lying is not listed does not mean it is included in the freedom of speech. Some lawyers are paid per day what most if us consider a nice quarterly wage to research contextual intentions in our country’s founding documents. A very brief read-through will show that lying was condemned by every member of the constitutional convention. In fact, “dealing falsely” was one of the reasons for the seceding of the Americas from the British Empire. So why do our governments, State and Federal, bend over so far to protect liars? Why do they react so violently when honesty is suggested as a mandated item in political performance?

The reason is that dishonesty has become an ingrained part of the American way of life. We begin with the “little white lie” to protect someone’s feelings, and when enough of those have numbed our conscience, we move on to larger and larger lies, including the ones we tell our spouses and the IRS. Perhaps this is why Sarah Palin was so viciously attacked by women’s groups and continues to be so, including in the funny pages.

Some say a politician who is “too honest” is a danger because of the diplomatic repercussions. People are forgetting the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He refrained from telling even the little white lies, managing rather to place the uncomfortable truth into true diplomatic terms, adding a touch of humor and thus adding to his respect.

Today our broadcast media is filed with lies…most of them commercials for items that we not only don’t need but could be potentially fatal if used. The purveyors of these products hide behind their perverted view of the First Amendment as protection and those whose duty it is to police the airwaves sit back and let the crooks get away with their crimes. It was once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to believe it. That day has indeed come and I don’t see it getting any better until the American Voter wakes up.

We do not need Ideologues, we need Idealists.

2008-12-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

I have found that it is an understanding of the subtleties of the English language that is the last item on the learning list, especially if that learner is a member of the media; doubly so if that learner is a political pundit who believes their own hype.

This lesson is no more apparent than in the ramblings of the right wing fringe that piloted the ship of the GOP onto this last election’s iceberg. The general topic of conversation from these ideologues has been about how the so-called moderate republicans were the ones who caused the current situation. For the life of me, I cannot see how those who thought the Bush agenda of talking conservative while spending and acting like Harry Reid’s evil twin was the wrong way to go, could be the source of the GOP’s current lack of power.

It must be pointed out that these same ideologues were the one’s who saw no dichotomy in proclaiming John McCain their perfect candidate, even though the good senator’s voting record and bills suggest he is far from what any intelligent observer of history would call conservative. These same pundits saw no hypocrisy in supporting McCain while in the background they worked overtime to trash the reputation of his running mate, Sarah Palin. In my opinion, it was the Alaskan Governor’s unfailing and effective opposition to corruption, even when it arose within her own party, which set these so-called bastions of conservatism against her.

In my own state of Nevada, I experienced a similar reaction. As a freshman State Assemblyman, I was attacked by my own party leadership because I wrote a bill that would have forced a business leader to obey an existing law protecting employees from theft by those employing them. For those reporters reading this, I will restate it in simpler language. My bill would have stopped the boss stealing from his workers. Because of this bill, every leading member of the Republican Party in Nevada began working to remove me from my Assembly seat. I was even warned by a sitting State Senator, a State Senator who attends nearly ever bible study held during session, to remove my opposition to this businessman’s theft. My Canadian readers will notice the obvious hypocrisy.

An ideologue will follow the party line regardless where it leads. Corrupt, illegal, even immoral actions are of no consequence. Only party loyalty matters. Those who step out of line, especially those who effectively clean up corruption within the party, are considered traitors to the cause. An idealist is an anathema. An idealist cannot be corrupted and is therefore untrustworthy to the corrupt. Even worse, an idealist cannot be bought. The phrase, “He’s too honest, we can’t trust him,” was spoken by the Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman concerning my own political future after I proved I wasn’t for sale at any price. This was the same chairwoman who violated both state and federal law by ordering the state convention closed before the final vote could be counted. This order came after Ron Paul won the majority of delegates. His wasn’t the prevailing ideology the leadership could afford to support.

To be fair, both major parties are rife with corruption. In fact, corruption has become the common state of affairs; the recent Senate Seat for Sale affair in Illinois is an example of Democrat corruption. Ted Stevens’ 30 year reign of selling his vote in Alaska is a prime example of GOP corruption. Between these two towering infernos of graft stands the thinning herd of idealists. To the idealist, the constitution should be the final arbiter of any concern within and without this country. The Founding Fathers set up hard and fast rules as to how this country should treat its citizens and how the citizens should act out their citizenship. Party ideologues find the constitution an inconvenience at best, and an enemy to be thwarted at worst. They will place the welfare of governments openly hostile to America before that of Americans if there is money to be had in the deal. The ongoing negotiation with Mexico in regard to the US/Mexico super highway is an example. The arrest and conviction of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean because they had the audacity to stop a Mexican drug runner from completing his mission, is another. The Bush Administration’s firing of every federal prosecutor who appeared to be competently honest, is a glaring third. For an ideologue, honesty is not a virtue.

We need Idealists in this country, not Ideologues…whether they be right wing or left wing makes not difference. The past eight years has shown us the result of ideologue leadership. Ronald Reagan asked a very pertinent question of America when he was debating Jimmy Carter, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” I can ask the same now, but let’s change the number from four to eight. Carter’s ideology evaporated the last vestiges of a robust economy like the summer sun on a snowflake. Bush’s ideology has produced an even more devastating result simply because he was granted twice the amount of time.

An idealist functions within the framework of what should be, not what is. The Founding Fathers gave us a template of what should be. Within that framework is the principle of fairness regardless of you circumstances. Everyone, regardless of sex, race, age, or position should be given the same consideration and the same opportunity. Position, power, wealth…none of these should matter in the eyes of the law. That is the world of the idealist and it is adamantly opposed to that of the ideologue.

At least, that’s how it should be.

Right Wing Insanity

2008-12-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Nevada Legislature held a special session this last Monday, December 8th. The minimum cost of this special session was $100,000 per day. The reason for this lavish waste of the taxpayers money? To cut costs. A brief skim of the Nevada Constitution will show that the power to do this rests in the Governor’s hands, but our Governor, “Thumbs” Gibbons (over 800 text messages to his girlfriend while he was cheating on his wife), didn’t want to do the hard job of deciding where to cut cost and to raise revenue. So he called in the legislature to do the dirty work for him.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. During the 2007 session of the legislature, the Mayors of Reno, Sparks and Carson City wanted to have the Legislature ok the formation of a Northern Nevada Water Authority, even though they had full authority to do so on their own. They didn’t want to do so because it was more expedient for the voters to be mad at us than them. It is interesting to note that honesty in politics, real honesty, is as rare as hen’s teeth. The media, the pundits, the politicians and yes, even the voters, will attack honesty whenever it rears its offensive head.

Yesterday an article was printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal entitled “We Need More Right Wing Ideologues”. The author of that article is know for strident criticism of anyone he considers to be less than his idea of pure Republican, even though he is not a member of the party. During the last election, the GOP received a total shellacking and lost any semblance of power they may have had during the last session. RWI’s (right wing ideologues) like as this writer (I will not name him because he has done nothing to deserve such acknowledgement) have done more to hurt the Republican Party than corrupt governors have hurt the Illinois Democrats.

Cheap shot though it is, the statement is true. If the radicals are allowed to take over any organization, logic and civil discourse leave. I have tried to speak intelligently to the writer. Doing so is impossible. An ideologue cannot carry on a conversation, much less a debate without emotion taking over. Compromise and consensus are concepts totally alien to them, and if forced to participate, only result in frustration for all involved.

During the last eight years the Republican Party experienced a nearly fatal combination of Ideologue fanaticism and Democrat-style spending. The mix of the two have given us Democrat supermajorities in both Washington and several states. One would think that an intelligent person would see history in action and learn from it. Apparently that is too much to expect from the writer. A basic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time. What does it say about a person when they insist on not only repeating the disastrous action, but doing more of it?

Right Wing Insanity

2008-12-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Right Wing Insanity

2008-12-10T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Death of Common Sense

2008-12-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Memorial to Common Sense:
Common Sense died this year in a tragic mishap. Common’s best friends, Responsibility, Morality, Ethics and Virtue seemed to have also been victim’s of the tragedy. Civil Rights, a close associate of Common Sense is currently in the ICU; the prognosis is not good.

An obituary such as this may seem cynically comical, but in actuality, it is not. Consider the current climate in Washington. Many think the election of Barrack Obama to the Presidency signifies a new era in American government. They see the elimination of poverty, sickness and corporate greed. Somehow, simply putting a black man into the seat of power solves all our problems. The Arabs will no longer hate the Jews. Slavery and oppression will cease to exist and every child will have what they desire waiting for them under the tree on Christmas morning. To many, Obama is not merely the President-elect, he is the Messiah.

The Democrat landslide that swept through this year’s electoral cycle removed even the pretense of bipartisanship that existed last year. Current stories in the press about Nancy Pelosi’s recent moves as Speaker give a good indication of what will be coming our way after the 2009 inauguration.

As a junior Senator, Barrack Obama had the most consistently liberal voting record in American history. Even Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could not bring themselves to support some of the radical causes championed by their soon to be new boss. Partial birth abortion, friendship with terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, and the elimination of the Second Amendment, all have a place at Obama’s table. His proposed tax policies will not create the universal wealth he claims, but drive the current recession we are now experiencing into a full blown depression.

There was a time in recent history where the state of New Jersey was one of the least taxed states in the nation. At that same time it was one of the few states where the Governor had the unique pleasure of dealing with an ongoing budget surplus. The New Jersey legislature, in an attempt to assuage certain special interests, decided to raise taxes on business. Surprisingly, to some, revenues went down, not up. The legislature was unable to learn from history, no surprise there, and raised taxes. Revenues fell a bit more and now New Jersey, rather than being one of the most prosperous states, is one of the least. They function in a state of continuous deficit.

There are some who think all our problems would be solved if the situation were reversed and the GOP held the reins of power. The problem with that sort of thinking is that we have already experienced that scenario and the end result was, after a brief economic expansion, a long steady slide into laissez-faire greed and corruption that culminated in the great depression of the early 1900’s. Now it appears that we are repeating history.

Common Sense would dictate that if doing things one way results in failure, then it would be wise to try something else…possibly in the opposite direction. Two problems with that sort of thinking are, one; it means admitting you were wrong, and two; being able to work outside of your own self interest.

So Obama may not be a native-born U.S. citizen, so what?

2008-12-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months a quiet controversy has been brewing about the possibility that the President-elect, Barrack Obama may not be entitled to hold the office. The reason is not that enough people did not vote for him or that he is guilty of any exclusionary crime. No, the reason is that the circumstances of his birth may exclude him from being able to take office.

The Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens of the United States who are at least 35 years of age and have resided in the United States for 14 years. Though earlier versions had restrictions for race and sex, those have long since been removed. The birth thing, however, is still in force.

World Net Daily has a story up with a very disturbing embedded video. It can be found at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82503 The item I find most disturbing in watching it is I know how to produce counterfeit documents like that. In the days before digital technology, such fakes were far more difficult to make and detection of professional quality counterfeits even more so. Now, anyone with a good quality scanner and a decent graphics-ready computer can get in on the action.

Every scanned image is made up of “pixels”. A pixel is a tiny square that can either be in grayscale or color. The size of the pixel depends on how fine the scan, or how high the camera definition is set. It is not inconceivable that President Obama’s birth “proof” was faked, if what World Net Daily reports is accurate. An image that is pasted into Photoshop will show a border, even if done in the highest of definition. Only an expert in such techniques could mask that pasting with any surety of no detection. It must be noted that the liberal left tried, convicted and hung Sarah Palin on far more flimsy evidence than that, and they were not gentlemanly about it at all.

So what happens if this is true? Nothing. Obama has a legislative branch that is overwhelmingly on his side. Congress will not overturn the election and the Attorney General will go right along with them. Even if they have knowledge of the fact, they will continue on with business as usual. Is this surprising? Not at all. Our constitution has been shredded by our politicians so often that it more closely resembles a collection of knitters' mistakes. Would Obama have done this? Would he have run for our highest office with the full knowledge that he was not qualified to legally do so? Of course he would. As a Nevada Assemblyman I saw far worse done for far less power. The only thing more attractive to both sexes than money is power.

Now I know that there are those out there who will consider this column to be a direct attack on Barrack Obama and nothing more than hate-filled sour grapes rantings from a sore loser. All that will be said even though a search of the text will show only a reporting of the controversy. The liberal left does not want equality, they want domination. President-elect Obama can silence the controversy by simply producing an original hard copy of his birth certificate, college transcripts and the other assorted documents he has steadfastly refused to show. If McCain had won and had committed the same refusal, we would still be watching every single evening news program with a lead off story concerning what the Republican President-elect is hiding. Assumptions would be presented as facts. Sarah Palin had accusations made about her that were far more egregiously unfounded and she produced the demanded proof. The left has refused to believe it and the attacks continue on a daily basis, even though the election is over.

As of now, Obama has done nothing. He has presented no specific solution for one single problem this country currently faces. His message of change, based on his cabinet choices, seems to mean change back to the Clinton Administration. This may or may not be a good thing; we have yet to find out. I did not vote for him, but that means nothing. He now hold the elective office. If he succeeds in improving our lot as a country, well and good, if he fails, those attacking Sarah Palin will blame the GOP.

But the real question still remains, is he qualified?

Make English our official language and build that wall.

2008-12-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

This morning on the BBC World News I heard a cholera patient from Zimbabwe describing what he went through to reach the hospital where he was being treated. This man spoke perfect English. His syntax, grammar and use of vocabulary were impeccable. This is because in countries like Zimbabwe, English is used as the connecting language, bringing some sense of unity to the various tribes that make up that country’s population.

Over here, in the United States, we have gone the other way. Some might used the term “degraded”, and in some way they could be correct. There was once a time when immigrants to this country had to learn to use the common tongue in order to achieve citizenship. Now there are those in power who want to see an unencumbered flow of immigrants, regardless of situation or intent, pour across the border. One problem with this is that a significant percentage of these “immigrants” is not only unable to understand the English language; they do not even know how to read or write in their own.

Several decades ago, when this country had an actual immigration policy, those who were allowed access to this country brought something with them the United States could use; marketable skills, talent, and education. They may have colored the English language with their own unique accent, but they knew how to use it, in both speech and writing, to communicate ideas and to share wisdom. Now they bring cheap labor, drugs and disease. In addition, another cost few people consider is added to the bill; printing.

Here in Nevada, it cost $10,000 each time a bill or an amendment to a bill is printed. That is because of the number of copies mandated. Now multiply that $10,000 by every single form, pamphlet, booklet, etc the government has to print and then double it because they all have to be printed in both Spanish and English. Now we are talking serious money.

The United States is one of the very few countries who spend a good sized portion of their budget accommodating foreign speakers. Mexico does not. France has not and just added a law requiring fluency in their official tongue for consideration of residency. In Turkey you can be jailed for being “Turkish”. While we do not want to emulate Turkey in any way, it is foolish to allow our country to dissolve under a wave of influence and illiteracy.

Of course many will call such a statement as being bigoted, shortsighted and unfair. No, being practical has no relation to bigotry. There is a way to have our cake and eat it to; it is called thinking outside of the box. Even though the government is not the best organization to do anything, sometimes we need bigger, not better. The southern border wall is one example. We should finish that wall sooner, not later, and make it deep enough so that it cannot be tunneled under and tall enough so that it cannot be climbed; then, about every fifty miles or so, construct and staff an Ellis Island style complex to filter those wanting entrance into the country. Those with communicable diseases can be stopped and treated. Those with drugs, weapons, etc. can be jailed, and so on. People who make it through the filtering process can be treated for noncommunicable problem and also taught a rudimentary knowledge of the English Language. Those who do not want to become citizens, but only find a job can be issued a traceable temporary work visa. Work visas and a way of tracking and taxing temporary workers is a far better method than what we have now.

Of course, a plan such as this will be opposed, and not surprisingly by the GOP leadership. They have created a vested interest in the corruption that currently abounds. How many companies friendly to the Bush Administration currently have illegal immigrants doing jobs citizens won’t do (at that price)? The CEO attitude we saw at the recent Congressional inquiry about the Detroit bailout is far more common than people want to believe. To them, this plan is a nightmare that would force them to pay a legal wage. Too bad.

We have a budget crisis that has become a certified recession. Some think it will grow into depression. We need to begin saving costs now, not when it no longer inconveniences politically sensitive groups. Printing costs is one way. Bringing a massive underground economy into the light and taxing it is another way. Causing pain to those whose greed helped bring this recession upon us...just icing on the cake.

Sarah Palin's faith

2008-12-01T06:54:00.000-08:00

One of the chief complaints the detractors of Christianity have against Christians is that they apparently, actually believe the content of the Bible. This was one of the big knocks against Sarah Palin. Leaving all the manufactured attacks against her intelligence aside (the liberal elite cannot fathom that anyone disagreeing with them could possibly be intelligent), let’s examine those beliefs.

The one constant jibe concerns the creation of the earth. “How could anyone possibly believe that this world took only six days to make!” I could question the equally incomprehensible belief that man is descended from monkeys. The same amount of evidence exists for either, which is none. It takes the same amount of faith to accept a theory as fact as it does to believe in a religious text. But what about the text; the passage from the Old Testament book of Genesis reads. “On the first day…” Is the passage really describing a 24 hour period of time or an epoch? For the liberal elite, an epoch is a period of time that denotes the beginning and ending of an event, often geologic in nature. By description, each of the six days of creation could be construed as six individual epochs, each possibly lasting a billion years. For an eternal being, that length of time is nothing. Therefore, it is quite reasonable for a believing Christian, even by liberal standards, to take the Genesis passages on faith.

Another bone of contention is the divinity of Jesus. All right, let’s do a comparative study. The same people who sniff at that fundamental plank in the Christian faith spend an inordinate amount of time making sure the furniture in their room is aligned just so. To my mind it takes more faith to believe that the placement of a Lazy Boy will affect your future than to believe in God’s ability to father a son. What about the Islamo-Fascist belief that blowing up innocent women and children will send a terrorist to a paradise staffed with 72 virgins? And they call Sarah Palin dangerous.

Search any of the myriad religions throughout the earth and you will find something to ridicule, but a search through basic Christianity will show nothing that is a danger to anyone but the corrupt or the immoral. Is it corruption and immorality the liberal elite are desperate to protect? The horrors credited to the Christian Church are done so through errors in understanding and were actually predicted in the New Testament. Just as the defenders of Islam attempt to point out that the 911 terrorists were not representative of the Islamic Faith, the bureaucracy that carried out the Spanish Inquisition and ordered the crusades was in no way representative of Christianity. The main difference is that Christians will condemn the inquisition and all other so-called “Christian atrocities”, a Muslim will never condemn the acts of Hammas, Al Quaida, et al.

To many detractors it is more basic than a collection of beliefs. It is that even believing in a Christian style creator is a danger. In a perfect world, to them, all those who hold such a belief would be stripped of all rights and placed into reeducation centers until they came to their senses. To many, such a statement is extreme hyperbole. Unfortunately, it is not. When all the arguments, snide commentary, derogatory sniffs and other assorted expressions of disgust over a woman of faith having the temerity to even think of seeking high office are cast aside, that is what the atheistic liberal elite truly believe. They are not interested in accommodation. They do not want to live side-by-side. There is no desire for honest discussion or discourse. They have bedrock, fundamental belief that their faith is the true faith and everything else is a lie.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Governmental bigotry

2008-11-27T14:03:00.001-08:00

Our current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice along with the First Lady-Elect, Michelle Obama have yet again made statements that this country has moved toward true maturity by electing a person of color. They both have qualified that statement by saying that we still have a ways to go until racism is forever gone from this land. What surprised me was the quality of the debate that followed. I did not hear one mention of Dr. Martin Luther King. Have we moved along the path of political correctness so far that his words, "by the quality of his character and not the color of his skin" have now vanished over the horizon? This is all only a symptom. If you have skin as pale as mine and you question Obama's continued lack of any substantial plan, you will be called a racist. If you wonder if Jesse Jackson will ever get a real job, you are accused of bigotry. Character is ceasing to matter and color is in. Well, today's culture could not be more wrong. Character does matter, regardless of your race, regardless of the circumstances you were born into, regardless of your peer group and regardless of your parents, or lack thereof...character matters. How you speak matters. How you treat your neighbors matters. How you add to the lives of the people around you, rather than taking away matters. Color should have to do with art, not politics.

Of course, this is all wishing upon a star. Bigotry exists and it is growing. Bigotry and racism are not simply the opinion of a white southerner concerning uppity blacks. They also encompass the opinions of blacks concerning whites, Hispanics concerning Orientals, everyone concerning Jews and so on. And, every combination there can be mixed and matched depending upon which bigotry is at the fore. It has been said that the media, that bastion of compassion and fairness, has its own preferred scapegoat, White Christianity. They will of course admit to that prejudice when hell becomes a hockey rink.

Giving preferential treatment to any group is simply wrong. This country, even though the founding fathers did not notice their own failure in this regard, was intended to be a place where fairness prevailed. Programs that give preference to minorities, simply because they are minorities are violations of that principle. Affirmative action only affirms that some people are recognized by the government as having privileges the rest of the population do not. That is bigotry in action. It would be far better to simply hire the best person for the job regardless of what they look like or how old they are. Higher education should have the same criteria. Those who show they have the capacity and the drive to succeed in school should be those enrolled, even if they have pale skin, blue eyes and testosterone.

If you object to this opinion, you are a bigot.

Politics protects Child Porn

2008-11-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

A child pornography operation in the Las Vegas Valley was finally dealt a serious blow the other day when police arrested nine men involved in the photographing and distribution of that disgusting material.

Terry Ziegler, Tom Krattenmaker, Paul Smith, Michael Ward, Juan Vega, Hector Gonzalez, Daniel Combes, and Anthony Flores were the ones arrested. The men lived and operated their ring in both Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada. Hoping to keep the level of public anxiety down, the police administration went on to deliver the usual big lie: "after discovering the images and videos on the suspects' computers, police said Tuesday they want to ensure the public that there are no additional victims within the Las Vegas Valley. "

Right, and no one gambles or smokes in Las Vegas either. A close read of the story will show that only those holding copies of the porn were arrested. They still have not gotten a hold onto the ones doing the filming, or did these videos just appear by magic? No additional victims? The ones doing the victimizing still have to be found, you idiot!

It is interesting to note that the story was published in the Las Vegas Sun, a left-leaning paper that in many ways is little more than a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party. The Las Vegas Review Journal, the Republican mouthpiece owned by a publisher, of who it has been said has bragged that he staffs his printing facility with mostly cheap illegal alien labor, is silent on the issue. This is because stories that may cast a shadow on the business community in the Las Vegas Valley are typically quashed. Sex is a huge business in Southern Nevada, and illegal sex even more so. The underground trade in human slavery has been estimated to bring in nearly 2 billion a year in untaxed dollars. A fair amount of those dollars find their way to the pockets of those politicians and law enforcement officials willing to look the other way when it comes to little things like human trafficking and child porn.

I have a friend who expereinced the trauma of child abuse in a horrible, personal manner. His name is unimportant to this, but he was subjected to a failed, prepubscent forced castration attempt back in New York for the purpose of keeping his voice from changing. The stage producers of that day didn’t like spending money on child performers and then have their voices deepen. It gave him a very distinctive vocal characteristic. He is one of those people who just cannot sit by when something wrong is being done. It’s too bad so many others don’t feel that way. Over a year ago, he noticed signs of something “hinkey” going on in his condo community. Because of his theater and film background, and the fact that people associated with the company that used to manage his community had aproached him about the possibility of doing voice overs for child porn fims, “kiddie looping”, he recognized the signs. The trouble was, no one in authority, other than my office, was interested in listening. I made some calls, including to the FBI, but the general attitude I got was, “Yeah, we know, but we can’t do anything about it.” Well, after more than a year something has finally been done. I guess he was right.

My friend now has the unique opportunity to say “I told you so”, and be completly right in his estimation. The law enforcement leadership have had to admit he was right. When they were first approached they refused to believe such a disgusting activity was going on. I have news for them, listen to your officers; this isn’t Mayberry RFD. A number of officers who work in both Henderson and Las Vegas have communicated to me their frustration at what politics has done to their jobs. Far too often they have been called off cases because someone near the top has gotten nervous about what could be uncovered. I have to note that the vast majority of police men and women are caring, civic-minded people who only want to do their jobs and they are frustrated beyond description with the status quo. It will be interesting to find out who these nine name as their contacts in the child porn industry, if the officers involved are allowed to ask.

A final question; if the police department had listened and investigated from the first warning, how many children would have been saved from the trauma and abuse they must have suffered?

Can Johnny read? Apparently, nobody cares.

2008-11-25T07:31:00.000-08:00

As a member of the Nevada Legislature, I was placed onto three legislative committees; Government Affairs, Health and Human Services and Education. Of the three, Education was my favorite. Government Affairs primarily existed to massage the egos of the various municipalities around the state and Health and Human Services was run by a chairwoman so corrupt she makes Ted Stevens look like a Boy Scout.

One of the things a member of the Education Committee gets to do is see how a state administrates its schools from behind the curtain. Here in Nevada, we had and continue to have a real problem in both the lack of evenhandedness of administration and the perception of what the job of a teacher entails. Top administrators in Nevada’s schools can earn upwards of $300,000 or more. A classroom teacher begins at about $30,000 and has to apply for food stamps just to eat. A top Administrator works an average of 45 hours per week, shifting most of the actual hands-on duties to their staff. A teacher will put in over 60 hours with no staff help at all. Administration can retire with nearly no loss in the shift from salary to pension, including all the additional benefits. Most teachers wind up having to take on a part time job after retirement to make ends meet. Teachers are not allowed to keep their Social Security. No, I’m not kidding. That is what happens and it is a matter of law.

Well, you say, teachers only work 9 months out of the year, don’t they? No, that is a media and talk show host lie. Today there are nearly as many 12-month schools as there are 9-month schools, and even if a teacher is contracted to work at a standard 9-month school, it is only the classrooms that shut down in summer. For the teacher, the job continues. There is summer school, lesson planning, meetings, continuing education to keep up with all the changes that happen if every discipline, and so on. Those who say that teachers have it easy and are overpaid for what they do, know nothing. In every single case these commentators are parroting a lie in the hopes that if they repeat it often enough the people will believe it. Unfortunately that is exactly what has happened.

To the vast majority of Americans, teaching is viewed as an easy high-paying job. So, can Johnny read? As far as the American public is concerned, who cares? It is obvious to anyone willing to look that most parents don’t care. Politicians seem only to be concerned about their own campaign and Swiss bank accounts. On the Republican side of the aisle, they don’t want to expend any resources to support the teacher, unless it is for the staff in an exclusive private school their spoiled children are attending. On the Democrat side of the aisle, they are more than willing to raise taxes for schools, but they will only allow the money to go into the hands of the Administration who then let only a tiny fraction of what they have acquired trickle down into the hands of the teacher.

Nevada has pundits on both side of the aisle. It is interesting to note that those of a libertarian bent who continuously denigrate public education, have never had a child in school. The liberals are the same. These fountains of endless wisdom either home school or send their kids to an exclusive private facility. So when you read their rants, read them with the understanding that they are making everything up and have no experiential knowledge whatsoever.

You may scoff at this, but there are far more conservative teachers in the classroom than not. Most of the liberal elitism comes from the School Board, school administration, and union leadership. Many of these teachers have corresponded with me about what they face on a daily basis, and in spite of vast inequalities, these men and women continue to do a job far beyond the pay they receive. Many will purchase school supplies that they give to children in their classroom. I have seen teachers buying cases of paper because their school will not supply it, while at the same time demanding that the paperwork be done. Numerous teachers have detailed additional paperwork being handed down from the administration, paperwork that rightfully should be handled by the office and has nothing whatsoever to do with teaching.

So, it comes down to this question: what would you do to improve education? Should teachers be paid a wage that matches what they do? Should administrators take a cut to help? What about making parents responsible for their kids? The comment box is open.

California's Prop 8, no big deal.

2008-11-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

The homosexual demographic in the US is the only group I am aware of that has a sexual activity as its primary source of identity. Blacks use race whereas Orientals use family and Hispanics value their ancestral homeland. Whites seem to be the only group that places what their occupation is before any other factor as an identifier. Within the Caucasian race, the Celts, like Hispanics, use the homeland.

Homosexuality is not a right and it is not a race. It is, in fact, an aberration from the normal template of nature. Any scientist worth the title will tell you that nature’s primary purpose is to propagate itself, in essence, “go forth and multiply”. A homosexual couple can try from now until the sun goes dark, but until one of the chromosomal ingredients changes, no child will be created. Lawsuits can be thrown at society ad nauseam, but that fact will not be changed. Don’t blame society, blame nature’s template. It takes a male and a female to propagate. Adoption is not propagation.

This brings us to the current hysteria over the passage of California’s Proposition 8 cementing marriage as being an official recognized ceremony between a man and a woman. When the counts were tallied, homosexuals across the country went ballistic. Riots erupted and some homosexuals took their anger out on people and property, even to the point of physically attacking an elderly black woman because the Black Church, along with the Mormon Church was one of the larger groups voting for the ban. It is interesting to note that when Christian groups were on the losing side of voter issues, no riots ensued, they didn’t even commit a single act of littering.

I spent some time living in San Francisco and, as a professional artist, had the opportunity to work in fairly close quarters with a number of homosexuals. I have even been hit on by a few. In most cases, I found these people to be gracious and competent, but as a demographic they tend to be far more egocentric than others, even more so than heterosexual artists. Reports of the reactions to proposition 8 tend to support my personal sampling. The passage of the California initiative has been taken as a personal attack. To them, their lives had been irreparably harmed from one day to the next, even though not one physical or fiscal item had changed.

Charges of racism, hate, bigotry and homophobia flew like grapeshot through the media, the airwaves and now the courts. It did not matter that the majority of the people of California spoke and 52% of those voters decided to keep marriage between a man and a woman. Domestic partnersships are still quite legal, and if two consenting adults in California choose to live together, even in a homosexual relationship, they have a right to. And, the law is quite specific; they even have a right to marry…as long as the partner in that marriage is of the opposite sex.

In answer to the charges, it is impossible for someone who disagrees with any portion of the homosexual agenda to be committing an act of racism. A sexual activity is not “race” or even a factor in static physical appearance. Bigotry…possible, but it is stretching the definition of the attitude, and charging homophobia is simply being ridiculous. As a recognized psychosis, homophobia is way down on the list of fears. Arachnophobia, agoraphobia, and many others are far more common. Simply disagreeing with a person’s political position is not being phobic, and it certainly is not an expression of hate. Quite frankly, the way our country’s laws are written, the passage of Proposition 8 happened exactly the way the founding fathers envisioned things. The 10th amendment to the US Constitution states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Thomas Jefferson said, “The States should be left to do whatever they can do as well as the federal government."

We have strayed so far from that ideal that many US citizens are not even aware that the 10th amendment even exists, and yet it does, often as an irritant to the more socialist-minded politicians and community organizers. The Supreme Court Row vs. Wade decision is one glaring example of the Federal Government stepping way outside of its bounds where that portion of the constitution is concerned. The law of the land is not there to cater to every select group that comes down the pike. Homosexuality happens to be an aberration from the natural way of things in the same manner that kleptomania, pedophilia, and compulsive eating disorders are. Should society offer up laws that accommodate every human disorder simply because they have banded into political action groups? If a store owner stops a kleptomaniac from shoplifting, is that an expression of racism, bigotry and hate? The comparison is ridiculous for a point. Giving preferential rights to homosexuals simply because of the way they choose to act is equally ridiculous.

All right, so California has stated that within its boundaries marriage is left to heterosexual unions. That does not mean that other states can choose to rule differently. The US Constitution says they have that right, and because we are a union of individual states, you have a right to move to the state of your choice. You do not have a right to riot. You do not have a right to assault. You do not have a right to commit destruction of property, and you do not have a right to not be offended. The Declaration upheld only 3 rights as being self-evident: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness, by itself is not a guarantee, only the pursuit of that goal is guaranteed.

There is no guarantee of prosperity. There is no guarantee of satisfaction and there is no golden parachute issued by the government to guarantee easy street to every citizen. The law is supposed to affect every citizen equally, and when it doesn’t, we call that corruption.

Palin for President!

2008-11-20T08:17:00.000-08:00

The GOP needs to change. This phrase isn’t by any degree new; nearly every conservative and liberal writer has said the same, but I doubt many have said it in relation to what is really needed. The drubbing McCain took in this past election and the ascendancy of the liberal left into every seat of power this country has to offer is a lesson yet to be learned by the Republican heads.

Obama’s campaign team hit a nerve when they continuously attacked McCain’s ties to the Bush administration. The recent developments in this ridiculous bailout scam are only yet another symptom of the disease that riddles the beltway. The ones making these decisions are so out of touch with everyday America that when an issue is brought forward with a common sense solution, they cannot understand what is being said. In many cases the one offering the solution is ridiculed as being naive. This happened to me while solutions were being discussed with regard to my state’s fiscal problems. Now, those who did the ridiculing are being forced to implement what I suggested two years ago. Will any credit be given where it belongs? Not on your life. This is the world of politics after all.

Infighting within the Republican ranks has been escalating since the first ad hit the airwaves for the Presidential elections. This tells us that change is not something the Republican party wants to consider, at least not the change it truly needs. Consider Mike Huckabee’s attacks on Sarah Palin. What they boil down to is what the GOP says about every party member who stands up against the corruption within the party, “She isn’t Republican enough.” Apparently Governor Palin, in order to be a real republican, should have gone along with outgoing Senator Ted Stevens’ corruption, and not stood against him. To many in the party it is better to have a politician who breaks the law on a daily basis than to have them replaced with a Democrat. To the Republican Party leadership change means not having to say you’re sorry.

Governor Huckabee needs to learn the lesson of the electorate. American is not so interested in moving to left as it is interested in cleaning house. Average America wants honorable leadership. They want “Read my lips” to be a statement of truth, not a lead-in to a broken promise. When they are watching their bank accounts dwindle, they do not want to see those who oversaw the demolition of the economy get a golden parachute. They want honesty, even if it inconveniences the wealthy and the powerful. Sarah Palin gets that and so does Mitt Romney.

It is already obvious that Obama’s promise of change only went as far as the occupancy of the White House. He is busily building his staff out of insiders from the Clinton and Carter Administrations. Governor Huckabee apparently believes Sarah Palin’s climb into the spotlight is more dangerous to our nation than what President-elect Obama is preparing to do. Here is why; Governor Palin struck a chord with the American people, and if she had been coupled with Romney rather than McCain, the result of the election may have been quite different. GOP insiders are almost as afraid of what Palin portends as are the liberals.

Sarah Palin, in spite of what my Democrat acquaintances say, would make a great President. What many of them forget is that much the same arguments against a Palin Presidency were also made about Ronald Reagan before he trounced a totally incompetent Jimmy Carter.

Yes, the GOP needs to change. It needs to embrace Middle America and it needs to embrace the truth, even if the truth costs them money. Rather than driving out those members who stand against corruption, the GOP leadership needs to grit their teeth, wave goodbye to the bribe money, and stand with them. America wants representation, not politics as usual. And remember, the news networks have no relation with real America.

The Religion of Global Warming

2008-11-19T07:04:00.001-08:00

If a teacher admits to praying, especially if it is a Christian prayer, they can lose their job in some school districts. Sarah Palin admits to consulting God in the big decisions and she is pilloried by the press. Some talking heads at MSNBC actually went ballistic over that one. If you say that human evolution is still only a theory and not established fact, you are derided as being absurd, nonintellectual and possibly a danger to modern society. Declare that abortion, whether legal or not is still the taking of a human life, and you are called every name in the book, few of them printable, but not one of the protesters can offer scientific evidence to dispute the declaration.

The separation of Church and State is one of the primary mantras of the left. Before I continue, I have to make a point. By the left, I do not mean Democrats. The left is fairly inclusive and has adherents from every party except possibly the Independent American Party whose plank, by its very nature excludes any liberal thought.

Elitism, such as the left expresses, considers the Christian Church to be the greatest danger America has ever faced. The very idea of a politician even associating with Christianity is anathema to the left. They cannot wrap their tiny little minds around the concept that there may exist a being who is the creator and who may judge their actions. Even discussing the subject causes anger, and in some cases rage. But then comes along Al Gore and the Church of Global Warming, or the GW church.

Christianity’s detractors consistently bring up the Catholic inquisitions and other heinous acts by those who purported to be church leaders. They also consistently forget that Christ himself warned of wolves in sheep’s clothing. So why do these same detractors so avidly follow the church of Global Warming? Archeology has proven many times over that the bible is not a simple work of fiction, but there has yet to be a single scientific proof to the claims of Global Warming’s chief prophet. In fact, in a recent article published in the Telegraph in the U.K., the numbers used by the GW church were based on lies.

Within the article are these paragraphs: “So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerized temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.”

The Telegraph article goes on to describe the fanaticism of one Dr. Hanson. Dr Hansen almost single handedly began the Global Warming scare in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Later on Hanson was forced to admit that the Global temperature in the 1930’s was warmer than it was in the 1990’s. In fact, rather than gaining a degree, as the GW church prophesied, the earth has cooled by a third of a degree. But facts do not affect religion. For example, polar bears are actually breeding faster than humans. Those famous photos of a bear on a “shrinking” ice berg, do not show the endless ice sheet a few degrees to the right of the photo. When an elementary school teacher was given a report detailing facts contrary to Global Warming’s claims, she said. “That’s nice, but I know what I believe.” That is a statement of faith, not of knowledge.

Global Warming adherents are expressing a faith, not facts. Far too many truly reputable scientists have brought forth evidence that nature and the universe, not humanity has had a far greater affect on earth’s global climate. Volcanoes, the sun, meteorites and comets have all left their mark on the archeological record. For those in the Global Warming Church who scoff at this fact, I just have one question. How many SUV’s did prehistoric man drive?

The so-call Fairness Doctrine

2008-11-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

This column was posted a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating, with an update at the end.

Why is it that the fundamental American way of life is the only thing left on earth that can be ridiculed, offended, belittled and discriminated against with impunity? The world’s best known talk show host, Rush Limbaugh read the regulations our neighbor to the south has in place for those who are not Mexican citizens wishing to build a business or purchase property.

The law is in essence: If you immigrate to Mexico, you have to speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor; unskilled workers are not allowed. Bilingual education is not taught in the schools, and there are no special ballots for elections. No government business will be conducted in any language other than Spanish. Foreigners will not have the right to vote or hold political office. Take that Arnold.

Immigrants to Mexico are forbidden to be a burden to taxpayers. They are not entitled to welfare, food stamps, or any other government social program. Investment is a requirement to immigration: an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. However, there are restrictions on the purchasing of land and where foreigners can own homes. Beachfront property is limited to Mexican citizens, and foreigners must relinquish individual rights to the property.

There is no right to protest. No right to demonstrate. Only the Mexican flag can be flown. Political organizing is forbidden and speaking ill of the administration can land the speaker in jail. Also, entering Mexico illegally is a direct route to prison.

When Limbaugh read those laws as if they were his suggestion for the US, the protests were deafening, and not one of the protesters changed their opinion after it was revealed where the law originated. After all, only the U.S. can be at fault.

The same occurs in regard to the Middle East. The only Middle Eastern country where women hold equal status with men is Israel. Yet because Israel’s constitution closely mirrors that of the U.S. and America has consistently upheld that tiny country’s right to exist, Israel has become a target for contempt right along with fundamental America. Israel is also the only Middle Eastern country where you have a right to worship as you please, as long as you allow Israel its right to exist. The other countries, Islamic to a fault have a real problem with that existence. Neither America nor Israel should be here. Because of them, Islam’s spread has no been as fast, nor as complete as it should have been.

All of the deriders manage to miss the fact that within Islamic countries, women are little more than property and are not even as important as a prized camel or sheep. In many of these countries female children are sexually mutilated in a disgusting ritual disguised as a rite of adulthood. They are, in essence, treated as foreigners within their own country. They are not allowed to own property, achieve anything resembling an education, or even defend themselves if attacked. In fact one of the most common crimes a woman under bondage to Islam can commit is being raped. Where are the feminists? They are amazingly silent on this issue. Could it be that Islamic women, not being able to further the feminist agenda, have no importance to the cause?

Here in the U.S. we jailed a pedophile who claimed to be a prophet. His name is Warren Jeffs. He attempted to use religion as a shield for his crimes. Fortunately for future children who may have come under his influence, fundamental America was there and Jeffs is now sulking behind bars. Unfortunately for millions of Middle Eastern children, the false prophet Mohammed was not stopped. There was no country established whereby all were granted self-evident rights. A minor Babylonian moon god called Allah was given far more importance than the cult deserved and the rest sadly is history.

Now we have a left-leaning majority in power and the first thing many of them want to do is further tighten the restrictions on American free speech. Enter the so-called Fairness Doctrine. What the doctrine says and what it will do are two entirely different things. On the surface, any broadcast medium must have a “balance” of opinion; both sides of a given issue must be allowed equal time. As an example, the FOX network must reformat every single one of their talk shows into a Hannity & Combs clone where both the conservative and liberal opinions are offered up for the listener to digest. The same would have to be done at MSNBC and CNN, but do you really think that would happen? Remember, this would be overseen by the likes of Whorehouse Harry Reid and Nancy “give me your guns” Pelosi. Can you imagine either of them allowing a conservative voice into the diatribe at MSNBC? Not a chance.

What will happen is that the only network left in the world that gives an alternate world view to all of the others will be silenced. That is what the left calls fairness.

It Shouldn't be That Way.

2008-11-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

NRS 608.160 Taking or making deduction on account of tips or gratuities unlawful; employees may divide tips or gratuities among themselves.
1. It is unlawful for any person to:
(a) Take all or part of any tips or gratuities bestowed upon his employees.
(b) Apply as a credit toward the payment of the statutory minimum hourly wage established by any law of this State any tips or gratuities bestowed upon his employees.
2. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prevent such employees from entering into an agreement to divide such tips or gratuities among themselves.

Every state has laws that protect working people, and in every state there are those who consider these laws to be inconvenient at best. It is their belief that any law that prevents the employer from being able to take money from those who work for them at a whim is wrong. In plainer language they consider such protections to be “socialist claptrap”, “communist propaganda”, and other assorted descriptions. The fact that such laws exist, are on the books and are enforceable…let’s put it this way, to them it is extremely ill-mannered to even bring them up in conversation.

Terry Graves is one of the board members of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce here in Southern Nevada. I have known him for over 2 years and in all that time, even though I strongly support business and he knows it, he hasn’t forgiven me for introducing AB 357, a bill that would have stopped the violation of the above law.

According to Terry and every other Republican in any position of leadership, any politician who stands against businesses violating employee protection laws is, by definition, an enemy. It is the same mentality union members run into when they refuse to steal from their employer by the various assorted methods their associates have cooked up. It is the same mentality Frank Serpico ran into when he decided to refuse the offered bribe money his fellow cops were taking. It is the reason Sue Lowden, the Nevada State Party Chair said of me, “He’s too honest, we can’t trust him.” The world of politics has become a sewer and the rats are running the system.

Not every politician is dishonest or hypocritical, but damn few aren’t, and it is up to the voter to do the weeding. Unfortunately that requires work and the ability to read. Why do you think politicians talk so loudly about improving education but rarely do anything to do so?

When I stood up and declared my intention to represent all my constituents regardless of their race, age, sex, income or power, I immediately alienated every member of my Assembly Caucus except for two people, Lynn Stewart and Garn Maybe. It should be noted that Garn retired and was replaced by yet another hypocrite NeoCon. The party tried to replace Lynn but lost badly. Sometimes good people actually get a second chance.

Employee protection laws exist because for too long employers considered those people working for them to be little more than just another one of their possessions; beasts of burden at best. Well, the law says different. If you don’t like what the law says, change it through the legislative or initiative process. You do not have the option to simply ignore it…or you shouldn’t have. Two of my fellow Republican scholars agreed with that attitude wholeheartedly, that is until I proposed a law that would have inconvenienced them; immigration reform that would have targeted those employers who knowingly violate America’s immigration laws. It seems they were enjoying the benefits of hiring illegal aliens at a small fraction of the minimum wage and since the people working for them were illegal, they were also profiting by not having to pay taxes, benefits, etc. Isn’t it interesting that folks who call themselves constitutional scholars can so readily violate the constitution when that violation puts cash into their pocket?

The problem is that we as Americans have become so used to our representatives being lying two-faced hypocrites that we don’t know how to handle it when we actually get one that doesn’t fit that mold. The media certainly can’t. They have used the line “We can’t find anything,” meaning scandal, “So they must be hiding something,” and then go to press with the assumption that that individual is guilty before proved innocent. We saw this with the treatment of Sarah Palin. The political parties are very aware of this and will treat those who run for office accordingly. They will decide who may upset those business interests and organizations that donate to the party and work to trash that person’s reputation all for a few more campaign dollars. Whether or not such action is moral or even right is beside the point, its politics.

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. The sad part is that it has become accepted.

As long as we're changing, make pot legal.

2008-11-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Paraphrased from a Wikipedia article: “Salvia Divinorum, also known as Diviner’s Sage, or by the genus name Salvia, is a psychoactive herb which can induce strong effects. It is a member of the sage genus and the Lamiaceae mint family. The Latin name Salvia Divinorum literally translates to “sage of the seers”.”

Cannabis Sativa is so far the onlyherb outlawed in the United States. Because of it’s similarity to Cannabis, hemp is nearly as illegal though the only thing smoking hemp will do to you is cause you to smell like burnt rope. Hemp was outlawed because the cotton lobby didn’t want competition. It isn’t fair when hemp won’t rot like cotton. Cannabis Sativa is illegal for a number of stated reasons, but the basic is because it was the favorite drug of blacks, and making their favorite drug of choice illegal was one of the ways to control a populace the powers that be wanted kept at a rung below theirs.

Tobacco contains a drug far more powerful and addictive than Cannabis or rather marijuana could ever deliver, even with laboratory help. Nicotine is so powerful and so dangerous that in other forms it is used as an insecticide. One drop placed into the mouth of an animal kills, and yet cigarettes, a nicotine delivery system are legal and tobacco growers are protected and subsidized by Washington. Talk show hosts continuously complain about the anti-smoking lobby and the damage they are doing to our freedoms. So where are these people when it comes to an herb far more innocuous than nicotine, alcohol or salvia?

Let me tell you about salvia. It is legal in most states and cheap. Some forms of the herb have been engineered to the point where smoking it can produce effects even more powerful than LSD. It delivers a dissociative high that makes marijuana seem like a couple of aspirin. John Kennedy’s father made his fortune smuggling bootleg alcohol and then cornered the market on scotch imports. Isn’t it interesting that JFK was one of the loudest voices in maintaining the marijuana strictures? The thought of regulating and taxing the herb never entered into their minds.

We are missing a bet here. More than enough medical and scientific evidence has been entered into the record to prove that if anything Cannabis Sativa should not be outlawed. It is not even close to methamphetamine as a danger and in fact, alcohol is more of a gateway drug. Tobacco could also be considered as such and yet Washington smiles and cashes those tax receipts. So why not do the same with pot? One sure bet is that our prison system and the courts would become less crowded if the more innocuous drugs were legalized, regulated and taxed the same as alcohol and tobacco. The monies collected could go into giving teachers a much-needed pay raise with perhaps a few billion bucks left over to do some other needed jobs.

There would be a blow back, but not from American citizens. The loudest complaints will come from organized crime outside our borders. Mexico, whose income is largely derived from illegally feeding addictions, would consider it an act of economic war. So would Indonesia. So what? It is high time America cared more for Americans than it did for those who consider us ill-mannered at best. For far too long we have shipped our income overseas and garnered small returns. We had our revolution. Let them have theirs if they ever find out they have a spine. America has long been a nation of free choice. We have the right to be stupid or not to be. We should not, as citizens, be forced to pay for the stupidity of others or the damage they do to themselves. If you choose to get high and then turn yourself into a vegetable, that should be your choice and your cost, not mine.

For disclosure purposes, I don't smoke anything, never have and don't want to. Neither do I like being around people who do. In my opinion the scent is nauseating, but more nauseating is the abridgment of freedom of choice. I outgrew nannies when I was in elementary school. I don’t need one now.

Let the insanity and backpedaling begin!

2008-11-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

I have to preface this column with a background story. During the 2007 legislative session in Nevada, I was approached by a group of card dealers who worked in the casino at the Wynn Las Vegas. They had written to nearly every single member of the Nevada legislature trying to get one of the Assemblymen or Senators to even listen to them about their employer confiscating a portion of their wages.

Steve Wynn is the owner of this casino. For decades he has built up a network of politicians who owe him favors. One is Bill Raggio, then the Senate Majority Leader and a long-time legislator from Northern Nevada. Raggio is also a lawyer whose law firm happens to have a number of gaming concerns as clients. Can anyone spell “conflict of interest”? I was the only member of the legislature to respond. One out of 63.

In 1971 a state law came into effect that plainly stated the illegality of any employer taking any portion of an employee’s tips. Card dealers, like many other workers in Nevada subsist almost entirely on tips, and a few make a pretty decent living. Apparently Wynn thought his employees were making too good of a living because, in violation of the standing law, he instituted a policy that took 20% of the tips, excluded any of the dealers from being present when the tips were counted, and used those confiscated monies to boost the pay of managers being paid an hourly wage several times greater than the minimum wage paid to the dealers. Because a few of the dealers took home the occasional paycheck greater than that of their manager, Wynn called his policy fair, new, and refreshing. To the people losing 20% of their pay off the top it wasn’t refreshing at all. To the Nevada Revised Statutes it was a clear and direct violation of the law as it was written. But when you have a few Senators, Assemblymen and judges in your pocket, the written law is no barrier, especially when you can get a judge or two to say that the law doesn’t mean what it says.

I wrote a bill that would have forced the state to actually enforce the law. Wynn went ballistic and Bill Raggio shouted at me for 10 minutes about attacking his good friend. It’s amazing how much “friendship” money can buy. Prostitution isn’t an exclusive female occupation.

Now comes the elections and Raggio no longer has his big office, the leadership position or the majority. He is relegated to just being one of the boys in the minority and can no longer tell people what to do. So, what does he do? He issues a press release saying that the Republican Party must move to the middle and abandon the far right attitudes that obviously caused this electoral calamity. As is usual, Bill Raggio could not be more wrong. What caused the problem wasn’t Republican conservative ideals, what caused the problem was years of broken promises, greed and infighting. The party doesn’t need to move to the middle, what the party needs to do is go back to the days of Ronald Reagan and reestablish a set of core principles that benefit all citizens regardless of age, race, sex, religion or income. Then the party needs to stick to those principles even if it inconveniences their leadership or the rich and powerful. Of course, several members of the party would have to step down to do this, because one of those principles would include being principled.

They Only Have Themselves to Blame

2008-11-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

It is not surprising after the solid butt-whipping the Republican Party received at the hands of the Democrats in last week’s election that a number of stories about party disarray have surfaced. Some of them are bitter-edged recriminations that blame the voters for their lack of trust. Some, like what I have written, hold a tinge of gloat because the neocons who stole the party got what they so richly deserved. As a Republican Assemblyman who was recently defeated by the rigorous efforts of the Republican leadership, I have a personal interest in those stories. My contention is that while there may be some party disarray, this really is the end result of a concerted effort on the part of the leadership to purge the Republican Party of any and all moderation.

I lost my primary in August to a candidate (John Ozark) who did not even live in my district until shortly before primary voting ended. The “ideologues” in my own party wanted me out of this seat badly enough to ask as many as eight people to run against me. Last winter, I received a call from Heidi Gansert, the Nevada Assembly Minority Leader, asking me to step down in favor of Bob Seale, the man who held my seat before me, and I refused. Not one of the eight, including Seale, agreed to run, until they found Ozark, a candidate who has been trying to get into the Assembly through “district hopping” for the past 4 years at least. When Ozark agreed to run, the campaign of lies and deception started. The overblown yellow journalism that George Harris (publisher of Liberty Watch), Chuck Muth (a political blogger and not a Republican) and Ed Vogel( a Las Vegas Review-Journal stringer) cooked up about my forgetting to turn off the contribution page on my website during the special session this summer is a prime example. The story did not once mention all of the other Republican Assemblymen and Senators who, in the intense confusion of a special session being on, then off and then on again, also forgot to turn off their own websites. That incident, along with many other lies and half-truths, was used as a direct attack during and after the primary as a purging effort and to ensure that only the “ideologues’” mouthpiece was elected. The level of hypocrisy shown by these people is staggering. They complain about “ethical challenges,” but a check on the financial disclosures of John Ozark will show an interesting disparity in what he declared and what was spent. Just how much does it take to send out over a dozen high-end mailers in a primary? These “ideologues” ignored their own polls that showed that I had the highest fiscally conservative voting record in the Assembly, choosing instead to back a totally untried candidate, agreeable to anything they said and willing to be led about by the nose, as long as he got to play Assemblyman. But as history now shows, this strategy backfired terribly for them, causing the loss of a Republican seat and a Democrat supermajority in the Assembly.

There are similarities between a number of races race and mine. Many moderate representatives are honest and interested in representing all of their constituents, not just the “pure” Republicans. The problem is, the leadership may not be as ethical or as interested in representation. The GOP Nevada State Party Chairwoman, Sue Lowden said this about me, “He is too honest, we can’t trust him.” And if you go back and check the campaign literature, the Democrat attacks regarding these representatives were along the same lines. They never questioned the candidate’s honesty, but merely claimed he or she couldn’t be trusted. Isn’t it interesting that the GOP leadership never came to any of these folk’s defense? I believe it is because they are statesman, not politicians and where the GOP stands right now, statesmen need not apply.

Because of all of this “cannibalism,” I chose to support Ellen Spiegel, the Democrat Assemblywoman-elect in District 21. This is not because she isn’t a Republican, but because she was the only ethical candidate. Ellen will represent all the citizens in District 21, and not just those who reflect “party purity.” Now Harris, Muth and the assorted members of their cabal blame me for the Nevada Assembly’s Democrat super majority. Perhaps they should look into a mirror to fix blame.

Nevada Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley should send them a large, expensive fruit basket as a thank you for their efforts in the Democrat majority’s victory.

Africa is a Continent, and Palin knew that.

2008-11-10T08:43:00.000-08:00

The other day I had one of my typical discussions on politics with my neighbor Jerry. Jerry is a great guy, a construction supervisor for our school district and he bleeds Democrat blue. One of the things that separate him from the liberal elite is that he is capable of deciding an issue on the facts, not on rhetoric or talking points, except where Sarah Palin is concerned.

Let’s take a look at what the elites have said and are continuing to say about this woman: she must be a terrible mother because her daughter became pregnant. Ok, so Sarah Palin is facing what a vast majority of mothers with teenage daughters is facing or does this only happen in Republican families? She decided to keep her downs syndrome baby, so she must not care about women’s issues. They still talk about that notorious interview with Katie Couric but Ms. Couric deliberately misquoted Henry Kissinger. Earlier than that, ABC News misquoted the Bush doctrine in an obvious attempt to throw off Palin, their chosen scapegoat.

Sarah Palin surprised everyone in the debate with Biden, including those McCain staffers who are working overtime to trash this woman’s reputation, Joe Biden was wrong about that restaurant he claimed to go to in order to learn about the middle class. It closed down in 1986. Biden doesn’t have a time machine nor has anyone in the elite media done a live broadcast from the nonexistent Katie's Restaurant to point out that Joe Biden is just out of touch with reality. On the other hand, Sarah Palin has received just that sort of treatment and unlike Biden she didn’t lie. There were approximately 14 “factual mistakes” uttered by Biden in that debate but the media hasn’t even mentioned one. Let Sarah Palin utter a single malaprop during a private rehearsal and suddenly she thinks Africa is a country and not a continent.

The liberal elite love the sort of libel that is coming from the McCain staffers. They saw that Palin was a far better candidate than McCain could ever hope to be…and she was better in a debate than Obama’s best showing. This woman had to be silenced. So the stealth attacks and the phony leaks began. In one egregious incident Sarah Palin heard that Bill O’Reilly wanted her on his show. Palin called O’Reilly and agreed to go on. McCain’s staffers heard about the call and, behind Palin’s back canceled the appearance. They then told her that O’Reilly had cancelled her appearance, which was a lie.

Republicans, just like Democrats have their own elite snobbery. McCain made the fatal mistake of filling his campaign staff with people of that stripe. If anyone was out of touch, McCain was right there along with Obama and Biden. Sure, he may have had a hard time in Vietnam, but he has spent far more time living the good life in Washington. He has been pampered and coddled to the point where it is the norm. He would no more recognize middle class America than Joe Biden would. For him, eating at a truck stop would now be torture. This is why people like Adams, Franklin and Jefferson instituted term limits. They saw the danger and hoped to prevent its occurrence. For the Republican elite in McCain’s campaign Sarah Palin was a contamination not to be tolerated.

Now, the liberal elite attacking someone like Palin is understandable. The fact that Michelle Obama can make a statement about how important her children are to her and that they will be her chief focus in Washington…the fact that that becomes a point of honor by the media, but when uttered by a Republican woman becomes a concern…we can all recognize and understand the obvious hypocrisy. Biden lies and it is ignored. Obama stumbles during a debate and it is called a “thoughtful pause”. Sarah Palin has a moment of anger behind the scenes about her treatment by the media and she is a shrill, spiteful monster. What really gets me is that so many Democrats are totally blind to the lopsidedness here. Judgments are made about an individual with regard to her home life, her character, her intelligence and even her thought processes and they have never even met her nor done one single bit of research on their own. Here is the capper; they call that “fair”.

A message to the GOP

2008-11-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I heard the talk show host Laura Ingraham complain bitterly about the so-called “moderate republicans” ruining it for everyone. In her estimation, John McCain lost because he wasn’t republican enough. As much as I respect Laura, she couldn’t be more wrong and her attitude is just digging deeper the hole GW and the rest of the party purists dredged out with their 8 years of drunken sailor spending. If you add up all the debts every administration since George Washington and combine them with those of the Clinton administration you will not even come close to the back breaking deficit Bush junior has put us into. Every gutless pundit, every sycophantic talk show host, every liaise fair neo con, all have had their part in both the fiscal crisis we currently find ourselves in and in the distrust the American electorate showed for the GOP label.

Some are saying Obama won more so than McCain lost. In one thing they are right, Obama did win, but not because McCain lost, but because the Republican Party lost. You can’t make promises for 8 years while lying through your teeth and then expect people to believe you when the chips are down. Sure you may have cost a CEO or two a bonus here and there if you kept your word, but you’d still be in office. Sadly, I think this is yet another one of history’s lessons you won’t catch on to.

Ronald Reagan never made a campaign promise he did not at least try to keep. That is why he is remembered so fondly. Being a man of your word is not a weakness, my late GOP acquaintances ( I can no longer use the term friends), it is a matter of honor. Because the law says something that may cost your business a portion of its profit margin, that doesn’t mean that you as an elected official can ignore it. As you see, the American people can and will do something about it. Your problem is that if a Reagan came along today, you and yours would pan him as not being Republican enough, when in reality, it is you who have lost your way.

Excuse me if I gloat

2008-11-05T05:34:00.001-08:00

Excuse me if I gloat.

Anyone who has read my blog will wonder at the title, especially based on who we now have as our President-elect. In my humble opinion Obama is going to administrate an economic and civil rights disaster of historic proportions, especially since he now has a congress and senate amenable to his stated Marxist policies. My friends, America is on the verge of losing its vaunted freedoms and you handed our country over, and that is partly why I’m gloating.

Here is Nevada, I was the target of the Liberty Watch crowd, an odious group of party Purity Republicans who attack anyone who disagrees with a single splinter in their plank. Rather than support a conservative who can cross the aisle to get things done, they published and circulated lies about character, voting records and even what was said in a televised forum, all in an effort to put their puppets into office; puppets who would support their ongoing system of corruption and favoritism. The reason I’m gloating is because that effort here was done against me and it is symbolic of what the Republican Party did for the past 8 years nationwide.

This does not mean that the Democrat Party is even one iota less guilty of the same tactics. One of the best representatives I know is Rosemary Womack, a Democrat. Her own party drove her out of her Assembly office because she had committed the sin of disagreeing with Barbara Buckley, the Assembly Speaker. Rosemary wanted to be an actual Representative, not just another drone politician.

Back onto the Republican side, an obsequious little kid by the name of John Ozark was put in against me by Liberty Watch. Never owning any home in Nevada and not even living in my district when he began proclaiming that he knew my constituents best, Ozark began parroting the lies written for him by the magazine’s publisher. What was published about me would be actionable as libel, fraud and even slander if it were done in any state other than Nevada, but here we do things a little differently. We put our crooks into office…well, not this time.

Ellen Spiegel is woman who reminds me of Rosemary. She ran as the Democrat for my Assembly seat and I supported her. Yes, I supported a Democrat and you Party Puritans can kiss my rosy red rump. Compared to Ozark, Ted Stevens is an innocent man. Ellen was not supported by her party, which tells you something. She is not a puppet and she is actually willing to study the issues that affect the district. We have talked about several ideas and what bills could be used to move them forward. These ideas would make it easier for small business to prosper and remove some of the burden from the economic backs of the taxpayers. Does that sound like Nancy Pelosi to you? To me, it’s a reason to gloat.

I am also gloating because so many of the Liberty Watch crowd got their clocks cleaned in this election. Many of them were Assembly members and Senators who joined in on the lies and corruption I saw behind the scenes in Carson City. Sometimes it doesn’t matter who gets into the office, just as long as who was there is out.

America cannot afford Obama

2008-11-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Just as Jimmy Carter was no friend of the United States and crafted his economic policies to favor his European friends, Barrack Obama prefers the Middle Eastern theocracies. He has praised Islamic Terrorist as prime examples of humanity. He has ignored and even sniffed at memorials of the holocaust. While his wife was damning the country that kept her wealthy and free, Obama was doing everything he could to ignore the mutilation of prepubescent girls in the Sudan. His share-the-wealth Marxist philosophy is well known, but the media has worked overtime to hide the true persona of their chosen messiah. His recent comments in regard to coal-fired power plants are a wide open door to the real Obama and his plans for the destruction of the American way of life.

Oh, you think that last bit was overstated? A little too shrill? Unfortunately I may be understating just how bad things are going to get with an Obama administration. He has proudly stated that he plans to put policies in place that will cause electric rates to skyrocket. Under Obama, it won’t matter whether or not you can afford to buy that big screen TV, you won’t be able to afford to turn it on. Obama’s glowing praise of the PLO leadership, his friendship with the founder of the Weather Underground, his calm declaration of how his carefully chose Marxists, Communists, and social activists as his friends all give you a picture of the man behind the media. He does not want you to be able to afford to live as a free citizen. He and his fellow Democrats in Washington want you to have to depend upon them for your very existence. That is why Joe the Plumber has been attacked so viciously. Under any other circumstance, what the Democrats have done to that man would be, quite literally, a felony. If you can afford to go grocery shopping now, pay your bills and have a little bit left over, they consider you to be wealthy.

Obama does not want to just control the American economy, nor even the lives of the average American, he wants to control the world…and he just may have an avenue toward that goal. His buddy, George Bush, the only Republican President nearly as incompetent as Jimmy Carter, has laid the groundwork with NAFTA and the Mexico to Canada super highway. Obama loves the idea and so does Europe If the US becomes nothing more than a portion of a European style union, the last of the superpowers has lost its sovereignty and any hope of preventing a UN domination of the world governments will have died. Israel will be the first to go under Obama’s leadership over the UN. Pleased with that gift, the Islamic nations will pledge fealty to the Obama administration. The few remaining American patriots will have no avenue for protest because the fairness doctrine will have eliminated the FOX network and all conservative leaning publications. Shortly after that any criticism of Obama or his administration will be punishable as an act of treason, most likely punished under the provisions of Sharia law.

This is all speculative, of course. For those of you a little faint of heart, I would council against reading current news and cross-checking it against the book of Revelation.

You Can't Vote Your Choice in Nevada

2008-10-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

An Assembly Caucus meeting was held in the spring of this year. At that meeting the bill I was proposing to address the problem of illegal immigration was ridiculed by two people I thought were my friends. Today, I know better. One began the dismantling by telling the caucus that my bill would bankrupt the state. The other agreed wholeheartedly. The bill would have mirrored the law passed in Oklahoma and gone after both illegals and those who knowingly hire them.

Remember the famous catch phrase that Bush Jr. proclaimed while he was raking in millions of dollars of bribe money from Mexico, “…doing jobs that Americans won’t do.”? He uttered that bit of rubbish while at the same time his friends in corporate America were firing American workers and shipping those lost jobs overseas.

Here in Southern Nevada we have developers building massive billion dollar resorts. In nearly every case the contractors doing the work have dozens of illegals on the job site. Many of these illegal workers carry the same phony social security ID as their buddy. Big business loves the idea of being able to pay upwards of ten wetbacks for the price of one American. Bush should have said his catchphrase a little differently, “…doing jobs that Americans won’t do at that price.” It’s a funny thing about the United States, we citizens insist on being treated fairly. Here in Nevada, it appears that the Republican Party considers fairness, real fairness, not that phony liberal nonsense, unfair. I suppose that is why they have worked overtime to remove Nevada’s citizens from the political process. You see, if the voter cannot have a direct impact on the fundamental decisions that affect their daily lives, the corrupt have an additional layer of protection.

The Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution reads thusly: Section. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Two brief paragraphs and one huge impact. It is no wonder that in recent history several states have had highly contentious court cases over what this amendment actually says. As far as the English language is concerned, the most important word in this right is the word, “abridged”. That means that if any person, entity, agency or government does anything to prevent a legal voter from voting for the person of their choice, they have violated the constitution. If a state passes a law restricting the ballot process, that state has violated the constitution. Well, here in Nevada, we apparently love illegal immigration. We even register them to vote as the Acorn story proves. However, we don’t want the legal citizens to vote freely, we only want them to vote for what the political parties say they can. Even though a write-in ballot is provided by federal law and you can go online and print one out, Nevada won’t let you use it. I know the 10th Amendment gives certain rights to the states, but it doesn’t do that.

Unfortunately, try to get your rights reestablished in a state that has nearly every legislator and judge bought and paid for by those businesses profiting from corruption.
Bankrupt the state? Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.

Say Goodbye to Israel

2008-10-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Rashid Khalidi, William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright…two of these men received glowing praise from Barrack Obama. One he declared as being central to forming his beliefs and world view. Khalidi, a high ranking member of the PLO, instrumental in planning and carrying out attacks against Israel, quite probably one of the most virulent terrorists in the world today since the death of Arafat, was praised during a dinner in Las Angeles by Obama. Ayers is an admitted domestic terrorist, personally responsible for the deaths of several innocent Americans and proud of what he did. For some unexplained reason the government did not prosecute him. Ayers wrote a book condemning the country that gave him the freedom to publish and Obama added a gushing review to the book. Wright has given sermon after sermon for the past 20 years damning the United States. The man is a frothing-at-the-mouth bigot whose hatred of his own country is unmatched. He has spoken of dreaming of the day the last white man is put to death. He has asked the heavens to rain fire down on America for its crimes against the black man, all the while ignoring the tribal genocides in Africa. The only other country that has received similar vitriol from Wright’s pulpit is Israel, the birthplace of the one Wright claims to worship. Obviously the good reverend is a hypocrite of the highest caliber.

Obama’s alliances are not just ill chosen, they are dangerous to the point of being traitorous. Every one of these men is an admitted enemy to the country Obama wishes to lead. Does anyone with the ability to reason believe that those relationships will not have an impact on an Obama administration?

Look at what happened to the Bush presidency. The junior Bush grew up as a child of privilege and formed friendships with individuals who considered ethics to be a character flaw. Those friendships followed Bush into the White House and had a direct impact on what has been the worst administration this country has seen since the days of Jimmy Carter. With the associations he has formed, an Obama administration has every possibility of making the Carter and Bush presidencies look golden in comparison.

The United States has been the lone friend of Israel since that country defied all odds and regained its sovereignty. The hatred of that tiny country escapes rational explanation, but the fact of that hated cannot be denied. Because of his associations, there is little doubt that Obama shares that hatred. There is also little doubt that he is intelligent enough to disguise his feelings until he has the power to act with impunity.

Outside of Israel, the country with the largest Jewish population is the United States. It has long been a conundrum as to why that community so consistently votes a liberal ticket when the liberals are aligned so closely with those who hate the Jew. Yet the vast majority of Jews in the United States are declaring their undying support of Barrack Obama.

I wonder if they will continue to do so when he joins the Islamists in their joint attack on Israel.

The First Amendment

2008-10-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

A lot of people have issued opinions on what the above paragraph actually means. The majority of the opinions, including those psychotic ramblings from the Warren court, have been agenda driven. So, let’s take a look at the words from outside the box. The English language, especially during the late 1700’s was direct and to the point. If you approach a statement written by a personality such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or John Adams with the assumption that these men were not writing in code, but wishing to make their intention as clear as possible, you are most likely going to wind up exactly where they were.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,”
During the time of the American Revolution, England had a state religion, the Church of England, established by King Henry the 8th for the sole purpose of allowing the King to divorce and remarry. The writers of our constitution wanted to ensure that Congress could not do what Henry did. They understood that a theocracy and freedom were incompatible concepts.

“or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
They also understood that in order to be truly free, the citizens of this new nation had to be allowed to worship as they saw fit. The Puritans and the Quakers of Pennsylvania were the last to sign off on this concept. They saw groups such as the Anabaptists and the Catholics as heretics and wanted nothing more than to tell them how to pray properly. We have much the same attitude going on today, but it is groups such as People for the American Way, the ACLU, NOW, and other atheistic organizations clamoring to remove that right. To them, all they see is the first half of the sentence. Whether they choose to agree or not, this statement is utterly true, it is not the American way to live without faith. The freedom to worship, or to not worship, as one sees fit, is one of the chief stones in the bedrock of our country’s foundation.

“or abridging the freedom of speech”
This is the big one that every armchair lawyer and their cousin quote, as if it is the only sentence within the amendment. You will notice that the writers of the constitution did not get to this portion until after they dealt with the freedom of religion. Sequence of thought is as important to the English language as is context. Being able to express oneself as a free citizen was important, just not as important as being able to worship without the government looking over your shoulder.

If you look at the letters of John Adams, Franklin, and the other founders, you will see them exercising this freedom with free flowing prose and quite often biting criticism. What you never see is the outrageous lie that today’s media and politicians are fond of using. Freedom of speech does not give us a right to lie. If Madison and his compatriots thought lies were a virtue, lying would have been mentioned. No, what is being said here is that congress cannot write a law that puts barriers in the way of Americans being able to voice their opinion in open and honest debate. When a citizen is sued over expressing an honest opinion or a student is either failed or thrown off a campus for being politically incorrect, those individuals’ rights have been “abridged”. In today’s language, they have been trampled upon. Political correctness is not American in any way shape or form and if the founding fathers were alive today, those who exercise political correctness would probably be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

“or of the press;”
This portion is another sentence that many place over the religion clause, and again, you need to be cognizant of sentence structure. Regardless, the ability to report freely on what is happening, even if such reporting embarrasses the wealthy or the powerful, such reporting can not be constricted by any law. Those media heads that have fired writers and reporters because they have chosen to report the truth have violated this clause of the constitution. This clause does not give the media the right to lie. It is their duty to report the truth and to let the people choose what to believe. Many in today’s media would consider that an undue infringement on their freedoms.

“or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,”
Every 60’s radical, especially William Ayers, knows this clause. They quoted it ad nauseum while fling bottles, rocks, and fecal matter at the police during the Vietnam War era riots. A riot is not a peaceful assembly and therefore, by definition, is removed from the protection of the First Amendment. What the framers of our constitution had in mind was to prevent congress from being able to send troops to a gathering of townsfolk, whether it be in the village square or in a home to break up the meeting.

A meeting of employees in any given company to discuss whether or not they should create or join a union is covered under this right. Sending the boys out late at night to plant a burning cross onto someone’s lawn is not.

“and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In my state of Nevada, I am ashamed to have been a member of the political party that has worked overtime to eliminate this right from Nevadans. The ability of the people to have a say in the fundamental decisions that affect their lives is, by its placement as the capstone in this amendment, one of the most important rights we have.

The current Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert and the Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, worked together to craft a bill that greatly restricted the ability of an initiative petition to be approved for placement on the ballot in any given election. They did so under urging from the GOP party leadership because of the growing power of the Democrat party in the state’s two urban areas, Las Vegas and Reno. What was surprising is that the Democrat party leadership went right along with them, forming a Nevada version of the axis of evil.

We are seeing more and more moves in this direction and it is happening all across this nation in both local and national politics. The powerful elite in politics do not want the citizens of this country to have a voice. They care nothing for your wants, needs, desires or rights. What they want is for you to vote for them and to then shut up.

America needs to wake up. If the percentage of already registered voters who actually voted increased by only 25%, we would see a dramatic shift in the political picture of this country. If that percentage doubled, we would probably have begun the process of getting our country back. At the very least, the politicians would begin to listen.

Obama and Biden are liars

2008-10-27T06:36:00.001-07:00

Lying. That means to cover or hide the truth. People lie to cover up a fact they do not want the listener to be aware of. People lie to hide weaknesses in their character, to avoid the responsibility for a wrong they have done, and to cheat their way into or out of a situation, always for their profit and the loss of those they are cheating.

If we were attentive parents, we taught our children not to lie and we punished them if they were caught doing so. In today’s world it seems that lying is being taught in the home as a viable tool for advancing in society and in business. In the political realm, lying is now seen as an attribute and the office holder who is caught being honest instantly become a pariah.

You think I’m spewing hyperbole here? Look at Joe Biden. The good Senator has a history of being an unrepentant plagiarist. That means he took the published words of someone and called them his own, when in fact, none of the work was his at all, and he did it more than once. I brought this fact up before an Obama supporter. The response? They could not have been less concerned. Here we are, readying ourselves to give this man the second highest office in our land, and he’s a proven liar and a thief. It used to be that those traits were considered a flaw on a man’s character. Today, if you point those out, you’re “judging”, or you’re being narrow-minded. All right, when little Johnny breaks something valuable and tells a Biden, are you going to spank him, or are you going to look on him with pride because he’s emulating the good senator.

Obama is on record as voting to drastically curtail our second amendment rights. He has called babies a “punishment”. He has indicated a preference for criminals over their victims. He wants to punish small business for succeeding and he plans on immediately restricting the right of free speech for those who disagree with him upon taking office. Every single one of these charges are an established fact taken in context from either an Obama speech or a statement. They have been said in discussions, interviews and on the Senate floor. Now, when it appears that the country may not be all that thrilled with his true Marxist leanings, Obama has turned his message around a full 180 degrees and began advocating the exact opposite of what he has said before. A cynical man would call that lying.

A politician would call it “growth”.

Darwin was wrong, Part 2

2008-10-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

The definition of theory from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

1: the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
2: abstract thought : speculation
3: the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art
4 a: a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action b: an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances —often used in the phrase in theory
5: a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena
6 a: a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b: an unproved assumption : conjecture c: a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject

My article in regard to Darwin and his theory of evolution generated a number of enraged comments from the atheist community. Grudgingly, they acknowledged my right to my opinion, but one even went so far as to state that I had no right to my own facts. Apparently only those who adhere to the atheist orthodoxy have a right to state facts.

Here are some additional facts with regard to what the atheist elite hold as their faith. I use the term faith because that is exactly what it is. The assumption that this universe is nothing more than a happy accident is no more provable than the assumption that it was created in a 168 hour period. Both assumptions have to be taken as a matter of faith. Note definition 6 from Webster.

One commenter argued that australopithecines and other fossils proved that the missing link had been found. Obviously they did little research beyond visiting agenda-oriented websites because R. Leaky, one of the most prominent scientists in archeology, had a problem with that very fossil record. One major problem was the community using adolescent fossils as adult to prove the link.

The paragraph below comes from a highly respected argument involving the problem of calling human evolution anything more than a supposition.

“It really is unnecessary to any longer extend coverage of the australopithecine fossil record. The fact is true humans appeared in the fossil record before the australopithecines and lived as contemporaries with them throughout all their history, revealing that australopithecines had nothing to do with human origins. Matt Cartmill of Duke Univ., David Pilbeam of Harvard, and Glynn Isaac of Harvard observe: "The australopithecines are rapidly sinking back to the status of peculiarly specialized apes...."

The evolutionist’s case for australopithecines as human ancestors was based on three claims: 1. big brained 2.bipedal 3. Appeared in the fossil record at a relevant time. Contrarily, brain size is less important than brain organization, evidence of bipedality is controversial but irrelevant as bipedality does not prove a human relationship, and as shown by the Laetoli footprints, when australopithecines first appeared in the fossil record, true humans were already walking.”

During the middle ages, the Roman Church was also the chief political power in the civilized world. Despite the atheist claims, it was not a Christian organization and the tortured were more often than not actual believers in Jesus Christ as well as observant Jews. The record is there if you choose to look. It is not unusual for the atheist community to attack the christian cummunity on flimsy evidence that really doesn’t even rise past the level of hypothesis. When an emotional response is all you have to go with, very little is surprising.

Today, the attacks on Sarah Palin from the Obama camp have never risen past that level. Today it is the clothes she wears. Yesterday it was her health records. Yet the Obama campaign has yet to release one piece of paper regarding their messiah or his background. They claim he is a Harvard graduate but we have no transcript. They claim he is an American-born citizen, but we have no birth certificate. They say Sarah Palin is dangerously unqualified for high office because of her faith, but they insist on the American voter to take Barrack Hussein Obama on faith. An interesting dichotomy, isn’t it?

Obama’s record places him in the true center of the atheist elite’s perfect candidate. He has consistently argued for legalizing the murder of babies while they are being born. He has argued that citizens who successfully defend themselves against an attacker in their homes be declared the criminal, not the attacker. He says he will immediately activate the so-called fairness doctrine, thus censoring the opinion of millions of Americans, and he has declared that anyone who successfully builds a business must “share the wealth” or be declared an enemy of the state.

What the atheist elite consistently fail to realize is that the moment this country adopts what they hope for, they will be the first to go. A Marxist Dictatorship has always eliminated the intellectuals, whether they were right or not.

The Dishonesty of the polls.

2008-10-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

The CNN reporter works her way though the crowd asking the members the same question, “What are your feelings about Sarah Palin. Do you think she is qualified to be a heartbeat from the Presidency?” Most answer in the negative. A few quibble, and a couple shock her by saying they think so.

A roving reporter with a CBS logo on his lapel asks another crowd much the same question with similar results. A flip of the dial and NBC is seen working the same poll. In a matter of minutes headlines are splashed across the ticker running along the bottom of the screen, “Majority of America finds Palin unqualified for office!”

What the cameras did not show and what none of the Obama News Networks will ever say is that those polls were taken at events where the crowds are typically antagonistic to someone of Sarah Palin’s philosophy. A NOW meeting in New York, a GLAD gathering in San Francisco, A MoveOn.org rally in Chicago…these are not places where an equitable sampling of American opinion can be had, but they are typical of where the major news networks go, except FOX. And, Mr. Murdoch’s maverick network seems to be the only one willing to report all the news. No wonder the liberal elite are desperate to bring back the un”fairness doctrine”.

At no other time in our history has a presidential candidate had the vast majority of the news media backing their candidacy to the point where what used to be a profession sworn to truth and objectivity, became a unified political machine willing to lie, cheat, steal and even slander to put their chosen candidate into office. If the truth were to be revealed, we would see conference room and bullpen discussions centered on spinning the latest bit of news. Slanting went out the window halfway through the conventions. Now they are into full-fledged pandering to the point where any article printed that shows McCain or Palin in any degree of positive light is now called racist. This blog has been called racist, absurd, and a few other non-printable adjectives because of its uncompromising stand on the fundamental belief that we are all created equal, including white Christianity. Every network except FOX will call those last three words an example of racism and hate speech.

Middle America is hated by the major networks and derided as being out of touch, intellectually deficient, unsophisticated and inbred. You will not find their reporters asking questions about Mrs. Palin of the crowd at a Sooners football game or at the Sturgis run in South Dakota.

This is an old story, but it needs to be repeated because what I witnessed is indicative of what reporting has become in the US. During the 2007 legislative session, Ty Cobb, a fellow Republican Assemblyman had the courage to vote no concerning the confirmation of the Democrat Speaker of the Nevada Assembly. Later, Molly Ball, a political reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal interviewed Garn Maybe, the Assembly Minority Leader at the time as to whether or not Assemblyman Cobb would be “taken to the woodshed” over his no vote. Assemblyman Maybe gave Ms. Ball a thoughtful, considered answer that essentially said no action would be taken and that Assemblyman Cobb had every right to voice his opinion. I was standing next to Garn during the entire interview. I heard the reporter’s questions and I heard the Minority Leader’s answers. What I read in the Las Vegas Review Journal the next day was a work of pure fiction. Not one quote, not one question, not one item of the interview was reported either in context or in part. The paper had an agenda and it was not going to allow the truth to get in the way.

The editorial management of the Review Journal have defended incidences such as this by declaring that their reporters have the right to report the news as they see it, and to opine as they see fit. That defense would have weight if that same management hadn’t fired reporters for writing uncomplimentary articles regarding those the paper wanted to support.

Unfortunately, my city isn’t the exception that proves the rule; it is part of the rule. If Obama and Biden get in, Reid and Pelosi will immediately move to bring back the so-called fairness doctrine. Shortly after that we will see the conservative message removed from the news media. To a liberal, fairness means that any opposing view is silenced.

Darwin was wrong

2008-10-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

It seems that the mere act of a Christian expressing an opinion that disagrees with the atheistic orthodoxy of the liberal left or the anti-God Ron Paul right is enough to send some of those folks into a typing frenzy. They will swallow, hook, line and sinker, any pseudo-intellectual claptrap that anyone puts up onto a site and declare it as truth as long as it supports their contention that this universe is nothing more than a happy accident.

According to them the idea of a vast eternal omnipresent intelligence is nonsense and anyone who ventures over into possibly believing otherwise is, at best, deluded and at worst, a danger to society.

CS Lewis used to believe in the absolute preeminence of the human mind. He was an atheist of the highest caliber, convinced that Darwin was right and that Darwin’s theory was not a mere theory but an established fact. Then his logic got in the way. Mere Christianity (1952) is an interesting read on that subject. What the atheist elite forget is that evolution as they use the word is only a theory and that theory has yet to be proven. I am sure I will be inundated with web links about that, but the fact remains that no link between humanity and the lower primates has ever been found. That is why they have the phrase “the missing link”. While there is a form of evolution within species, the teaching of extraspecies evolution, including human evolution as a fact is a lie. It is as much a lie as teaching Islam as a peaceful religion or teaching socialism as a path to prosperity. Or even worse, teaching global warming as being caused primarily by human development.

Whether or not they choose to believe it, Christians, even evangelical Christians have a right to express their opinion. To my mind they have even more of a right to do so than the so-called shock comics who deluge their audiences with grossly detailed profanity. The idea that this universe has a creator is not a danger to anyone’s life style. If Sarah Palin becomes the Vice President, no one is going to begin purging the strip clubs and bars. School curriculums will not change and daily life in America will continue to go on. So what if some of us choose to believe differently than you? Apparently, to some, that difference should not be allowed to be expressed.

Well, this is one politician who is going to express it and do so proudly, because this country was built on the idea of freedom of expression, and if homosexuals can march proudly down the streets of San Francisco, than I also have the right to proudly declare my opinions, even if they make someone uncomfortable. I believe this universe was created and I believe that the evidence is there to prove it. I also believe that the vast majority of the scientific community is too self-deluded to notice. I believe in the idea of American sovereignty and the freedom of expression being there for every individual regardless of their race, sex, age, or creed, and that does include evangelicals. I believe this country is our country and not a suburb of Mexico or a subordinate of the UN. Whether or not the Supreme Court agrees, the Constitution of the United States is the highest law in this land and the rights in that constitution apply to every legal citizen, and it ends there. If you want those rights, become a citizen…legally. Those rights include self expression and self defense…even in New York and California. The one right I do not have is the right to not be offended, but I do have the right to tell the one who offended me what I think of them.

It looks like America is racing headlong into a time where those rights will be taken away. The liberal elite in both parties are pushing into power a man who does not agree with the rights I just expressed. The pursuit of happiness should be left up to the government. Freedom of expression is all right, as long as he agrees with that expression. Freedom of religion is ok too, just as long as you leave God out of it.

Party Purity? What Party Purity?

2008-10-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin kicked Dem butt during her appearance on Saturday Night Live. The fact that Alex Baldwin, the rabidly liberal member of the Baldwin brothers, mistook Palin for Ms. Fey, is just icing on the cake. Unlike Obama, Palin can handle herself in any crowd and she has proven that.

Unfortunately, some in the GOP feel that Mrs. Palin has made her self unclean by doing the SNL appearance. Where the liberals have their religion, apparently so do some in the conservative ranks. For them, in order to be considered a “true conservative”, one has to adhere to a narrow interpretation of what the Republican credo should be. This bunch also considers Joe the Plumber to be unclean…for what reasons, I can’t imagine. Perhaps they think because he’s a regular guy he’s supposed to shut up and let his betters speak for him. The GOP, just like the Dems has it's own elitists, but where the Dems want to use Marxist philosophy to further its aims, the GOP elitists prefer the NeoCon, Laissez-faire capitalism message, where the corporate board replaces the sheriffs department. Both extremes have been proven disastrous to the average Joe.

The Paluxy River in Glen Rose Texas runs through the middle of Dinosaur Valley State Park. This park is famous for its dinosaur tracks. Those who deride Christians like Sarah Palin would rather not have this park mentioned because human tracks have also been found, not only in the same formation, but on the same bedding plane and in some cases overlapping the dinosaur tracks. Both sets of tracks have to been placed into the mud where they were formed at nearly the same time because of how fossils are made. It is somewhat like putting footprints into a wet concrete slab. Once the concrete dries, that’s it. No more prints.

What is sad is that there are both liberal and NeoCon elitists out there attempting to “erase the footprints”. Here in Nevada laws have been created to further remove the general public from the political process. Members of the Republican Party have been driven out because they made the unforgivable sin of attempting to represent every member of their constituency instead of just the rich and powerful, and the same has happened to a few Democrats. I personally know if members of both parties who have experienced this purging. Is there any wonder why an average of 15% of registered voters bother to vote?

The media elite, the old-line politicos in Washington and the phony experts in the universities have no idea as to what is going on outside of their country club existence. After nearly 60 years of observing human behavior, I can say that I have met more than my share of PHDs who knew nothing. The focus of this collective of idiots is so narrow that they are incapable of seeing reality. Alec Baldwin’s tirade about Sarah Palin, when he thought Palin was Fey, is a prime example. An orthodoxy has to be followed. Whether or not it actually works is beside the point. If you are a Democrat, you have to be for taxes and spending and silencing any voice that disagrees…in spite of that inconvenient first amendment. If you are a Republican, you have to be in favor of treating board members as above the law and everyone else as a serf…in spite of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.

These people react, they don’t think. Unfortunately, a significant portion of voting citizens does the same.

How dare you question the messiah!

2008-10-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye to the first amendment as you know it. Sure, it doesn’t resemble much of what the founding fathers envisioned, but when the Obama Administration, run by the puppetry of Pelosi and Reid, get through with it, only the elite will be allowed to say what they truly feel.

Yet another absurdity by Rockpile, you say? I don’t think so. Already the elite media is acting as if the prediction is a reality. Consider Joe the Plumber. He had the temerity to question Obama, the black messiah. His second and even more grievous sin was to show the fallacy of Obamanomics. Now media goons are digging through the guy’s garbage. The slightest chink in his background is blown up into a massive example of his terrible character. If this were the middle ages, he would be in the stocks right now, paying the price for blasphemy.

Colin Powell, who thought it was just fine to go after Islamic terrorists, as long as we didn’t win, has moved into the position as the messiah’s prophet. I have been asked how I feel about Powell’s endorsement of the socialist associate of a domestic terrorist. That one’s easy to answer. Powell’s endorsement of Obama is right in character. Powell may have been the Secretary of State for a Republican administration, but just like the President he served with, Colin Powell was no conservative. Just like Bush Senior and Junior, he has no desire for American to remain a sovereign nation. He has no concern for all the Joe the Plumbers out there; he has his sights set on the socialist Promised Land, with himself as one of those at the top. He is member of the liberal politics ponzi scheme that has put us into the crisis we are currently experiencing.

Laura Ingraham called Powell a born again liberal. I think she’s giving him too much credit, he always was a liberal. While in the military he was bound by protocol and tradition. As a politician he could and did show his true colors. Under his watch the State Department moved record distances away from representing the rights of Americans overseas to kowtowing to foreign nationals in favor of America’s enemies. No wonder the media loves him and hates Joe the Plumber.

Every bit of baggage in Powell’s closet will be glossed over or ignored, while at the same time, dangers to the socialist agenda such as Plumber Joe and Sarah Palin will have the slightest sign of human frailty magnified beyond all belief. The media will never acknowledge nor admit their lack of objectivity. Here in Nevada, our two drunken reporters, Ball and Ralston (both have dui’s on their record), find plenty to complain and sneer about conservatism. I imagine that if the same spotlight being shone on Joe was positioned onto the media, we’d find that Ball and Ralston were the rule rather than the exception.

When the first amendment is repealed by the Obamanation, will they still worship him?

Should we forgive William Ayers? Hell no.

2008-10-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

The other day I was sent an email with a link to yet another ultraliberal article about how evil and hypocritical it is for conservatives to hold Obama’s associations against him. This one focused on his association with Bill Ayers, our suddenly famous retired domestic terrorist. The sender asked if I was willing to state as to whether or not I forgave Mr. Ayers, and if not, why. You should note that Obama lied during the last debate when he stated that he did not launch his campaign from Ayer’s home, and no, I am not going to load my essay down with links. The facts are there if you need to look them up.

At first I said I would not answer the question because typically that question, especially from that specific source is the beginning of a “have you stopped beating your wife?” exchange. It all becomes a circular argument that does nothing but satisfy a personality that uses argument for fun. It goes nowhere.

Liberals who hold hard and fast to the far left agenda find nothing wrong in alliances with people such as Ayers and the hate-monger Reverend Wright. The fact that those individuals hate fundamental America is enough. Anything done for the cause is justified because it all heads toward the greater good. Ayers may or may not have killed or injured anyone, the jury is out on that one. He was never prosecuted for his crimes, so what? He has also never recanted his beliefs and has indicated a quiet support for the Saudi Terrorists who took down the World Trade Center towers on 9-11. For me, that is enough to indict Obama’s judgment. Obama said in a recent statement, “…to avoid being labeled a sellout, I chose my friends carefully.” If this is true, we are looking at our first affirmed Marxist Presidency. Obama, by his own admission, has aligned himself with people who believe in the Marxist philosophy. Obama doesn’t want to be a “sellout”, a phrase deeply ingrained into cult-like, socialist, ultraliberal circles. They agree completely with Obama’s share the wealth plank in his platform. Under an Obama regime, any one who begins to achieve a middleclass income will be forced back into the ranks of the poor. Small business growth will stagnate and medium to large business will die on the vine.

Another statement by Obama is in regards to partial birth abortion, “…I don’t want her punished with a baby…” Think about that phrase, “punished with a baby.” At least he didn’t use the politically correct phrase, pre-viable fetus. For those of you unsure, partial birth abortions involve partially delivering the baby and then killing it by stabbing his/her brain with a pair of surgical scissors. Liberals kept it from being called what it actually is, murder, by insisting that some abortions of that type may have to be carried out for the health of the mother. This, of course is medical nonsense and any doctor worth his degree would have to agree. In order to “partial birth”, the mother has to go through every stress that would be of any danger. At the point of the murder, she would be just as safe if the baby were allowed to live. But, remember, Obama is well aware that babies cannot vote. The Marxist agenda is tied into NOW, NARAL, and all the other radical pro death alliances that depend upon a culture of depravity, hopelessness and dependence.

Sarah Palin became the “most dangerous woman on the earth” because she is a believing Christian. Those who have embraced Obama consider Christianity to be an extreme religion, somehow even more dangerous than radical Islam. Arguments such as the one presented to me really center upon this belief. The fact that we who are more than the two-times-a-year nominal church goers do not immediately reach out and invite people like Mr. Ayers into our households is somehow evidence of our communal hypocrisy. They forget the policy of forgiving the sinner, not the sin. They also forget that even though people may have a faith, it does not mean that they are stupid. Naive, well-intentioned Christians have been attacked, robbed, raped and even murdered in their homes simply because they thought they were fulfilling God’s love by inviting the one who had a history of those actions into their home; it not hypocritical to practice common sense.

If issues such as abortion, economics and alliances are considered carefully in relation to personal faith, it becomes pretty evident that the real problem the liberal have is the existence of Christianity. Even though other religions such as Judaism and Islam also contain the idea of God only allowing true believers into heaven, it is Christianity that is the one singled out by the liberal for condemnation. The simple act of having that faith is enough to remove you from consideration for elective office, at least where the liberal is concerned. On its face, that is pure, unadulterated bigotry. If you are pro-life, than you must somehow think that those who are not are evil sinners whom God is going to punish in eternal fire, if you are pro-(fill in the favorite amendment here), the same indictment applies.

All specious arguments aside, what it comes down to is this: you can and must judge those who want to govern you by their associations. If I learned anything during my time in office, that is the most important. It is a test that is 100% accurate, and you can take that to the bank every time.

Real Pain

2008-10-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Liberal politicians on both sides of the aisle want to control every aspect of the average citizen’s life. How you think, work, play, worship, and relax, those should not be your choice...not according to the liberals. The elite in the liberal camp firmly believe they are far better suited to make those decisions, and the liberal drones agree with them. To the drone, it is far easier to shift the responsibility over to the government.

Responsibility. To the liberal mindset, if you add the word “self” before responsibility, you are speaking blasphemy. A populace of independent, self-reliant citizens is a vision of unspeakable horror to the liberal. One reason is that the independent need no one to tell them what to do. The independent make their own decisions. They deal with problems as they come along and they succeed or fail on their own. They are the ones who make the fundamental choices about their own lives. The liberal elite want to remove that ability, even to the point of telling you how to travel or at what temperature your home will be kept.

Pelosi, Reid, Dodd…to the liberal elite, the pinnacle of established wisdom...to the true conservative, a new axis of evil; a tri-liberal committee. Because of the policies and laws these three stooges have put in place, the ability to be self reliant has become an endangered dream. One of the favorite tools of the liberal is healthcare, specifically the arena of pain management.

Pain is a reality of the human condition. Bruises come with the territory. Pain is nature’s way of telling us to “not do that again”. Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong and pain becomes a constant unwelcome presence in our lives. The pain management specialty is made up of doctors who have studied and in some cases perfected ways to allow the pain sufferer to live a functional life while dealing with that pain. Liberals somehow think that is wrong. They point out the tiny percentage of patients who act irresponsibly as an indication of the whole. Rush Limbaugh’s problem with pain medication is one of their prime examples. They ignore the fact that Mr. Limbaugh has dealt with that problem and seems to be doing quite well right now. To the liberal, a middleclass working American dealing with chronic pain while supporting themselves and their family is as much a danger to society as a meth addict in the gutters of skid row.

The Las Vegas Sun, the liberal newspaper in my area, had an article this morning about a doctor who prescribed pain medication in an irresponsible manner. Well, doctors happen to be human, and humanity does act irresponsibly, sometimes more often than not. That does not mean that in order to solve that problem, you eliminate the ability of those doctors who do prescribe responsibly to help their patients. If you are liberal, that is exactly how you deal with the problem. You punish the patients. You create laws that make it illegal to even think about doing what caused the actual harm. Punish the wrongdoer only? What do you think we are, conservatives?

The best way to solve the healthcare problem and to lower costs is not by adding innumerable layers of regulation, but by making a few responsible changes to how things are done.

One: remove the profit motive. It is fundamentally un-American for a few people to become wealthy off of the misery of others. A hospital or a health insurance company can offer their employees a very good living while supplying their patients with high quality products and services. The Mayo Clinic is a prime example of this. In healthcare the profit motive is what prompts the greedy to order their employees to eject patients from their hospital rooms the second the coverage lapses, or to force nurses to use needles on more than one patient. The profit motive is what causes insurance carriers to refuse contracted benefits on the flimsiest of excuses while granting their board members multimillion dollar bonuses. If you think these examples are absurd, every one of them happened right here in Nevada over the past few years and every one of them was defended by the liberal elite in my legislature. One of the chief supporters of the companies that committed these atrocities was Nevada Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, the recipient of the Consumer Advocate award. Now that is irony. To the media, it is not what you do that counts, it is what you say.

Two: allow doctors and patients to develop a true working relationship where prescribed medications and procedures are concerned. A doctor has enough to do without spending additional hours filing multiple copies of reports to faceless bureaucrats. Don’t remove avenues of help simply because some people may abuse the medicine. People can be idiots, but don’t punish the responsible for the actions of the irresponsible. And don’t make medications that work unavailable for the same reason.

Three: pull the weeds. Sometimes people turn out to be bad, and that includes physicians. The liberal elite think that the best way to deal with that problem is to tighten the regulations so that it is harder to do the bad things. This is the way they deal with everything. The ridiculous gun laws are an example. Making it harder for a doctor to do the job only makes it hard on the patients. If a physician violates the oath that begins with “do no harm”, and it turns out that this was done intentionally, yank the license. There will be plenty of candidates to fill those shoes. We will not have a shortage of doctors if the profession is regulated in a responsible manner. We will though if we allow the liberal mindset to run our lives.

It’s too late for McCain

2008-10-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

It’s too late for McCain.

Real conservatism has taken a death blow and the one swinging the blade is the GOP. If you are a citizen who voted for Reagan then you should feel betrayed. John McCain has been around Washington for over a quarter of a century. He has styled himself as the maverick, the reformer, and the anti-politician. It may play well in Arizona, but that is also where McCain’s big campaign contributors own large farms and factories in need of really cheap labor. You know, those people who need labor that will do the jobs Americans won’t do.

McCain rose high enough in the senate ranks to be well aware of the shenanigans going on the cloakrooms in relation to the gestating Wall Street disaster. He saw who was paying off whom and for what. He didn’t say or do a thing then, and he hasn’t now. He has no plans to do or say anything about going after the real criminals in this enterprise. Wrongs have been done and where is McCain?

We know where Obama was and it is understandable why he’s silent on this issue...he was one of those who caused it. Obama is in this up to his big ears and he has made a fortune off of it; he’s loving this. McCain was actually catching Obama and it was beginning to look like he might pass him, and then the crash came. The numbers reset and McCain has stayed an average of 6 points behind.

Sarah Palin could have saved McCain’s bacon, but she made the fatal mistake of being so superior a candidate she embarrassed her boss, so she was silenced, except for the occasional inconsequential interview. Allowing Palin to do the talk show circuit and blanket the country with her message was too dangerous, she is far more charismatic than McCain could ever hope to be, and she identifies with a demographic he never will, Middle America.

I predicted a McCain/Palin victory, but that was when I still thought the GOP would allow Palin to do what she is so capable of doing, bringing in the independent voters. Obama will get over 90% of the black vote regardless of what he has or will do. That is a racist attitude no amount of charisma can break through. You should vote for someone because of how they will handle the issues, not the color of their skin. Oh, and “change” is not an issue, it’s a slogan.

We are very likely going to see the first black, socialist American president. Obama is a dead cert unless something miraculous happens in the McCain camp. But since the GOP has little more than contempt for independent America, I see small chance of that happening.

Are you better off now?

2008-10-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

How well off are you with the “experienced” running the country? Are you paying less for a gallon of gas than you were 8 years ago? How’s your saving account? Do you feel prepared for retirement? What about the kids? Can they read? Are they giving you a heart warming feeling as you see them stepping out to take over where you have left off?

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that we are in a world of trouble and the floor is just about ready to drop out from beneath us. George W. Bush spent this morning attempting to sell the idea that printing nearly a trillion greenbacks will help the economy and that allowing the government to become the majority shareholder in private business is good business. Yes, and the government’s takeover of the education system has done so well.

This message is coming from the same “conservative” that insisted that an open, unsecured border is only good business, that we have to allow millions of wetbacks across the Rio Grande because they are willing to “do those jobs that Americans won’t do”. He failed to add “at that price”. This is the same “conservative” that has continued to ignore T. Boone Pickens’ message about how to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. We do not need a government more attune to foreign voices than those of its citizenry. Unfortunately, since Ronald Reagan, that is all we’ve had.

Obama and McCain are both bad choices. The primary difference between the two is that McCain is slightly less bad. Neither one of them believes in a truly sovereign America. Both have a vision of a world government. McCain wants to further Bush’s plan to unite Mexico, Canada and the U.S. into one European-style union. Obama wants to hand the reins over to the UN. The only bright spot is Sarah Palin. I’m not sure what McCain was thinking, but in this one he struck gold. Any time the party heads go into cardiac arrest over a candidate’s choice of a running mate, you know they’ve chosen well. Palin is that rare combination of spirit, experience and faith. She not only understands what is needed to make America work, she has proven her ability to step on all the right toes to get it done.

Here in Nevada we have term limits. I think they still allow far too many trips to the trough. Each politician gets to serve 12 years in each office. That’s a lot of graft. In 2012, Nevada gets a clean slate. Every chairperson in the legislature will be kicked out that year. A couple of suits brought to the state Supreme Court challenging the limits have already failed. The people spoke, not just once, but twice according to the constitution. Being in the legislature, I was privy to what the politicos really think about the people. The opinions are not complimentary. They think the voters are at best, fools. Party leaders like Senator Bill Raggio and Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert have forced through legislation intended to remove the people’s ability to make fundamental decisions about their own future. Both are deeply invested into the culture of corruption and both believe term limits are somehow unconstitutional. Perhaps they also believe they are somehow better than you, just like those porkers in Washington.

I was asked yesterday by a member of the mortgage industry how we could get ourselves out of this mess. I told him that we needed to begin with a new governor. He agreed. As long as the voters stay away from the polls, the crooks will continue to win and we will continue to lose. Sarah Palin, for my money, is the only bright spot in this entire presidential race. How’s that savings account looking?

A Tiny Acorn Grows…

2008-10-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Look for charges of massive voter fraud from the Obama campaign when McCain and Palin win this November. The race will be tight, but Middle America, the forgotten voter, ignored by both parties where legislation is concerned, will not be able to swallow the lack of substance in the Obama message. It will be Sarah Palin who gives the White House to McCain. If he had gone with the running mate the party leadership desired, McCain would lose the race for the Presidency by over 20 points. If the McCain campaign would allow Mrs. Palin to be herself and let her campaign as she has already proven she can…Obama would be the one losing by a landslide. He knows that and has already prepared his plan B.

Obama has approximately 9000 lawyers in the wings with briefs already prepared to file when McCain/Palin win. They are going to claim racism, poll-fixing, intimidation and fraud on the part of the GOP. The intimidation charge is the interesting one. Apparently it is intimidation if you have oversight at the polls, especially if that oversight actually does its job by making sure that those voting are legally entitled to do so.

Here in my local region of Las Vegas, Obama’s Acorn grew into a clone of the Dallas Cowboys. The Democrat voter rolls in Nevada grew exponentially as Acorn workers managed to sign, in some cases, several people with the same identities as the football players. According to Acorn, the quarterback, Tony Romo, was so enthusiastic for Obama that he registered a number of times.

Just like Obama’s support of Bill Ayers, even after such support went far into the arena of interest conflict, his Acorn has continued to work against the interests of America in favor of a socialist agenda. Breaking the law, to them, is not immoral if you do so for “the cause”. This is roughly the same mindset as what is held by those who send children out to blow themselves up in the middle of open air restaurants.

Obama’s fingerprints are all over this current crisis, but so is most of the Bush Administration. People are angry in this country for a reason, and the McCain camp is ignoring them. If McCain’s handlers do what they know they should do, that anger will be focused properly and the thieves at Acorn, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac and the Fed will go to prison as they should.

Don’t look for any changes in the McCain camp. Too many of them are also guilty of enabling this mess. The truth be told, they do not like Palin’s honesty, hence her muzzling. Good old-fashioned common sense and the principles this country was founded upon, things both the D’s and the GOP have forgotten, could erase this crisis overnight, therefore, look for it to drag on, and on, and on. This Acorn has produced exactly the oak Obama wanted.

The Case Against Sarah Palin

2008-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Sarah Louise Heath PalinA privileged White American, who has not shared the black American experience, a 20 year member of a church with a history of preaching hate, a woman whose upbringing and associations separates her from any understanding of the struggles of middle America, much less the poor, a woman who began her political career by associating with and maintaining alliances with domestic terrorists, and whose dealings have a direct tie with the current financial crisis. A woman who has accomplished nothing while holding government office and whose only political attraction seems to be her poise and appearance, a woman completely unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the highest office in this land.

Many people would read that above paragraph and nod their head in complete agreement. The only problem is, where Sarah Palin is concerned, none of it is true. Every one of those attributes can be laid at the feet of Barrack Hussein Obama. All I did was change the association to make a point. If all of that baggage did exist in Palin’s closet, we would see it plastered across the media in every possible form 24 hours a day. The same news anchors who either wink at Obama’s past or ignore it completely, would be howling for Palin’s blood. A “Palin Watch” would be established and Dan Rather would be resurrected to report on the impending indictment. Every one in Wasilla City, Alaska right down to the town drunk would be interviewed ad nauseum in the search for more dirt on the “most dangerous woman in the world”. But, you hand that baggage to a young black man with a D next to his name and it could not be more inconsequential.

Isn’t it wonderful that we live in a country with such an objective media?

Taxes Cause Deficits

2008-10-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

Taxes cause deficits. Believe it or not, that is a historical reality. Every time taxes are raised, the state, or country that raised those taxes has increased its margin of loss.

Don't believe me? Let's take a look at my own state, Nevada. During the 2005 legislative session our “Democrat” Governor, Kenny "tax 'em till they weep" Quinn put forth a bill to raise taxes by almost a billion dollars. That may seem small potatoes to some of you, but for a state with only two cities of decent size, this was a backbreaker. Nearly every business, from mom and pop up to large corporations, was affected; except for the sacrosanct gaming industry. He even went as far as violating the state constitution by taxing business and private properties at different levels. The constitution has an equality clause stating that you can’t do that. However, Kenny never allowed the law to get in the way of adding some cash to his coffers. He called himself a Republican, but a lot of people do in this state…what they really are is crooks. A real conservative follows the constitution, even if doing so costs them.

Two years later he had a, supposed 300 million surplus and the legislature nearly went to war over deciding where those dollars went. Eventually some of it went back to the taxpayers, but they got back considerably less than what they had put in. It is not an attractive investment program. The problem came when all those businesses being charged higher taxes began to pass them along to their customers, adding an addition cushion for the administration costs. This means prices went up. The customers responded as they always do, they bought less and the sales tax revenues went down. Those corporations with the financial power to do so began hiding more of their assets and instead of adding to the state treasury, the level of contribution dropped. In a very short time the surplus had become a shortfall. If the tax raise had not occurred, the economy would have remained somewhat stable and no “surplus” would have been distributed. Shoppers would have continued to shop and the sales and corporate tax revenues would have remained stable. Sure, some of Kenny’s pet projects would have gone unrealized, but not one of them was even close to being a necessity.

Let’s look at the east coast. New Jersey was at one time a state that enjoyed the problem of having to deal with a treasury surplus year after year. Governor Jon Corzine took over a state that had taxed and spent itself into a combined deficit exceeding 30 billion dollars. Now, New Jersey is a state with negative growth and Governor Corzine refuses to consider any solution that does not include a “revenue enhancement”. It was those enhancements and all that socialistic spending that put his state into the morass it is currently in. Raising taxes, especially on those businesses that create jobs always hurts you in the long run. You don’t grow when you whack of the head of the golden goose, you wait for those eggs to be laid.

If we want to get out of this current headlong slide into depression, we have to make a few hard choices. One of those is that we have to immediately reduce taxes on the producers and eliminate some. The inheritance tax is a good place to start. Property taxes are another one. If we put more money into the hands of the people who earn it, history shows that they always reinvest at numbers large enough to grow the economy. If we punish achievement, we punish ourselves.

How much pork can you handle?

2008-10-07T05:36:00.000-07:00

During the last day of the Nevada legislative session in June of 2007, two bills were brought forward. They consisted of all the special favors various Assemblymen and Senators had promised their friends, large donors, employers, and assorted puppet masters. I was one of the few Assemblymen who voted against it. My namesake in the Senate, State Senator Bob Beers, did not.

Senator Bob is not stupid. Actually he is one of the least stupid people I know. He was able to wrangle a multimillion dollar gift to Payroll Solutions, the company he served as vice president of sales. To cushion himself from conflict of interest charges he resigned that post. A further cushion from charges came when he got Senator Randal Townsend, the Reno clotheshorse/car salesman who represents his constituents from a penthouse condo in Las Vegas, to author the bill with another senator, Warren Hardy. With this bill, Payroll Solutions, a company deep into the accounts of the Nevada Casinos and developers, was handed the ability to run as a health insurance company without haveing to go through cumbersome licensing protocols, as well as its normal accounting business. Without the bill, it could have faced heavy fines and penalties for violating the law, which it was guilty of doing…until the after-the-fact legislation. Sound familiar?

What happens in Las Vegas does not stay in Las Vegas. The same goes for Nevada. On a far grander scale are the machinations that led to the current financial meltdown. Barack Obama and Acorn had a willing accomplice in Bill Clinton to begin this process. It makes Obama’s mention of McCain’s ties to the Keating five look like small potatoes.

Just how much pork can you handle? It seems the folks in Washington can’t get enough. We are finding out that those who couldn’t have their votes to pass the bail out bill bought were threatened. The Bush Administration even threatened some members of Congress with martial law if they refused to back the bill. Several accounting experts have tallied the actual liability to a mere 200 billion, rounded up. So where is the two trillion we’re hearing about coming from? Why did Bush have to twist Congress’ arm to write off nearly a trillion?

Well, it takes a lot of money to buy a vote. That’s why the Senate bill is so loaded with pork that it is dripping all over the taxpayer. I’m not sure what kids’ wooden arrows or Puerto Rican rum have to do with the US housing market, but I am sure we’ll hear about it. If you can get through the legalistic doubletalk in the inches-thick bill, you’ll find that nearly every U.S. senator added an earmark to it. They used the opportunity to pay off campaign favors and to cement future donations. Now Washington is the biggest mortgage holder in the country. Karl Marx actually wrote about that scenario as one of the needed actions to cement a socialist government. Early on, when I warned about this, a commenter said my assertion was absurd. No, I wasn’t being absurd; I was understating the potential danger.

Wall Street CEOs have committed crimes that would put ordinary citizens into federal prison for life. Most of congress has gone right along with them. The president of our country has now used threats of martial law to help protect his buddies in the penthouses and “conflict of interest” is obviously a natural condition in the senate. Senior citizens who were children in the early 30’s must be experiencing deja vu right now.

A Sarah Palin Knockout

2008-10-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

I would be interested in knowing what your opinions are about the Vice Presidential Debate held last night. We have all seen the polls and I consider every single one of the posted results, except one suspect at best. First of all, the samplings were of less than 500 people as in CBS’ poll and secondly, it would be like asking Al-Qaeda for an opinion on Judaism and then posting the result as a world view.

Every major network except Fox has Biden winning decisively over Palin. The problem is that every major network except Fox is owned and run by people who have declared their support for Obama. The Moderator of the debate published a book proclaiming Obama’s superior leadership qualities. Frankly, Palin was not being put in front of a friendly audience. She was supposed to be the sacrificial lamb. She did not go along with PBS’ plan.

She came across as a woman with a Ronald Reagan style sense of humor. She upset the media elite terribly by not going along with the question bombs of Gwen Ifill. She has endured slander, libel, threats of violence, and denigration. The network talking heads looked and sounded furious because Palin, in spite of Ifill’s leading questions, stuck to the issues with a down home folksy attitude that has born incredible results in real America. The Drudge Report poll has her leading Biden 226,563 to a puny 92,471. Those are numbers that have a far more viable impact than MSNBC’s silly instapoll.

You thought the left hated her before. Just think what they are feeling now? They thought the Katie Couric interview had showed the real woman that was hiding behind the GOP’s teleprompter. To their horrified shock, the real woman was the one of the convention and not what Couric’s editing had produced. The comments posted on the networks’ forums tell the story, “…rude…condescending…didn’t listen to the moderator…” Of course they’re upset. They had a nice juicy target all set up and ready for the kill…and then she, not they, attacked. It’s not fair. Oh, just for the record, Biden, the admitted plagerist, is also a liar. If anyone remembers the Democrat debates, Obama not only said that he would meet with Iran's leader, but he also included North Korea in that offer. Biden's assertion to the contrary was not just politics, it was a lie.

What do you think?

An Objective Media? Not a chance.

2008-10-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

Webster’s Dictionary has a definition of the term “objective” as this: expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations.

The news media of today needs to learn to use that resource. Based on Webster’s definition we do not have an objective media. Since the days that brought us the term “yellow journalism”, publishers have played fast and loose with the truth simply to further their own personal agendas. An example of this was William Randolph Hearst’s response to illustrator Frederic Remington's request to return from a Havana that was quiet, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

Bill O’Reilly writes that around 80% of the media is nonobjective. I disagree. Bill is only looking at the left side of the equation. The figure is much closer to 100%. The amount of objective reporting is so minute that it isn’t worth considering. Most of it is reserved to the comics page.

In the upcoming Vice Presidential debate, the Democrats would not even consider allowing a moderator with a history of fairness. The Republicans insisting on someone outside of the liberal media as moderator would have made the debate a non-starter. If they had said Fox News or nothing, we would have seen the end of presidential debates for the foreseeable future.

I find the lefties version of fairness sadly lacking in the equality quotient. To them, an 80-20 split is somehow grossly weighed over to the 20% side. The right has Fox. The left has CBS, NBC, MSNBC, TNT, ABC, etc., nearly all the radio networks and over 80% of the newspapers. Yet somehow the right has an unfair advantage. True equality, to them, is discrimination. To the left, the ability to answer their arguments with one of your own is not fair.

There is no truly objective reporting any more. I witnessed that first hand as a Nevada Assemblyman. Ed Vogel, a reporter with the Las Vegas Review Journal, teamed up with the Treasurer of the GOP in Nevada to phony up an ethics charge against me. If this had been done outside of a political campaign, those individual would have been guilty of a crime...but we are talking about the media here. Molly Ball, a reporter for the Review Journal and Jon Ralston, a columnist for The Sun, both have drunken driving citations on their records and both have gone after representatives for assumed misjudgment. The “pot calling the kettle” squared. Reporters with no experience whatsoever in public education regularly trash teachers in these rags, while at the same time they are earning easily twice the salary of those people they lambaste…while working half the hours.

Moving to the national stage, we have seen article after article about how dangerous Sarah Palin is, while not one paper writing that has brought up Obama’s connection to Acorn and Clinton’s executive order beginning the process that melted down our economy. Not one of those papers has brought to mind Biden’s plagiarism. In Obama and Biden’s cases, those items are public record; everything they have against Palin is supposition at best. The elite hate conservatism. The elite media hate conservatism with a depth of loathing that surpasses what the Islamists feel about Israel, and they will do what they can, short of violence, to destroy it utterly.

I never owned a slave, did you?

2008-10-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

My wife is a school teacher in Nevada. Yesterday one of her students said it was racist for him to not be able to sit where he wanted. This would be ludicrous, if there were not people living in this country completely willing to take that statement on its face value. The accusation of racism has become a default reaction to any inconvenience whatsoever for a significant portion of black America.

When Katrina devastated the gulf coast, it did so, somehow, because the white administration in Washington was racist. When others began to rebuild their lives on their own, those who cried “racist” sat on the rubble of their houses and did nothing, claiming that the government was supposed to do it for them. When young black thugs are caught committing a crime, they are prosecuted because the cops are racist, even though a good portion of the men and women in uniform wear the same skin tone. It has become a badge of honor among young black men and women to claim illiteracy. Speaking with appropriate diction and being able to read is now acting “white”. Insisting that a black student actually listen in class has become racist, even though Bill Cosby says much the same thing. When the end result of that attitude is unemployment, the prospective employer is racist.

All of this is sheer stupidity, and in most cases it is based on intellectual laziness. Every boy and girl in the United States has the same opportunity to learn from history as any other, regardless of their circumstances. It takes work. Yes, “work” is a four-letter word and to most of those crying racism it is a far more foul expletive than other common curses. The Declaration of Independence says this in its second paragraph, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The fact that slavery existed then, that some of the founders of this country owned slaves, is not applicable to the reality of today. The rights expressed as an ideal during the writing of the declaration in the eighteenth century are solidly established in the twenty-first.

I don’t know about you, but neither I, nor my great grandparents ever owned slaves. I do know that a good number of my Scottish ancestors experienced far more severe oppression than any of the complainers today. I would also suspect that not one black American born in this country was ever enslaved. What is needed is a solid grasp of personal responsibility. Don’t sit on your hands and complain that the government is oppressing you. Learn to read. Become an educated help to those around you. Produce something good, and hopefully get rich honestly. That is how you “stick it to the man”.

A bit of history people like Jesse Jackson choose to ignore is the fact that nearly all the slaves shipped from Africa were captured by competing tribes. The men purchasing them for shipment were in most cases either Dutch traders or Muslim pirates. So, then why the cries of American oppression, why the claims of American racism? Don’t blame people like Gingrich or Reagan. Blame those who depend upon a culture of victimization for their livelihood. Blame Jackson, Sharpton, and the entire black caucus in Washington. Unlike Ronald Reagan, not one of them has done anything of significance to make the good life a reality for all Americans.

Believe it or not, if you only focus your kindness on one race, you are, in fact, being racist.

Bailout? What bailout?

2008-09-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the congress wisely decided not to go along with King George and his exchequer "Shifty" Paulson on the bailout scam. Republican and Democrat both, they shocked several of us in the blogsphere by listening to the people outside of the beltway elite. The President was not at all pleased and could not understand the concern Congress had over his plan. What is so wrong with giving CEO’s millions of dollars in treasury funds for their personal use? Who needs oversight anyway?

Special rights and privileges, in a country where everyone regardless of race, creed, or income is supposed to be equal, leave a bad taste in the average person’s mouth. Unfortunately Americans, through their lack of concern, have shifted the responsibility to insuring that state to those who feel different; the media and the elite. These groups wanted the bailout bill to pass. The media, because they believe in Corporate Socialism. The elite, because they believe it isn't your money, it is theirs. Special interests, corporatism, shifting of responsibility...all these are a priority.

If a congressman wrote a bill mandating that no special consideration in hiring was to be extended to any citizen of this country, that only their qualifications to do the job mattered...that congressman would be branded as a racist, homophobe, fascist, etc... You see, to some groups on the left, being treated as equal is an insult to them. They have been told so often that they are special, or that somewhere in the past their ancestors were oppressed, that they have an ingrained need to redress that imagined wrong. One way to redress that was to take out loans they had no intention of being able to repay.

On the elite side(both right and left mingle here), they believe that they are above the law. They believe that their income or their inherited wealth places them into a strata where they have rights and privileges superior to those of the unclean masses. How many times has an individual of this group uttered this phrase, “Do you know who I am?” Often it is said to the cop arresting them for drunken driving. For them, the ability to steal from the masses is a given. That house your grandfather built on land he tilled by hand? It's not yours, it's theirs.

Obama, though the offices of ACORN and as a radical community organizer, had a large hand in the credit meltdown. The government he lobbied helped to start this mess, and the government he worked with as a Senator lit the fuse for the blow-up. Since I wrote my blog about how racism had a hand in creating the crisis, several writers of far more public stature have chimed in on the same note. All the evidence is there. On the sub prime side you have pressure being levered against lenders to give loans to people with no history of being able to repay. On the elite side, you have speculators dipping into those loans because they have been granted an oversight-free status. One side is being forced to violate every established economic principle and the other side is gleefully violating the law; resulting in a perfect storm.

Now King George and Shifty Paulson want to bail out their criminal buddies with our money, place massive tracts of American property into the government’s hands, give obscene monetary golden parachutes to CEO’s guilty of running their corporations into the ground, and do so with no watchdog. Thankfully congress couldn’t stomach this bitter pill. Given an honest chance, the free market (not the one the neocons like), will reestablish itself. Just like the 1920’s a false balloon was created and it popped. Now all those people who were profiting through graft and greed have lost. Many of them are Bush’s buddies. The financial security he mentions is not that of the average blue-collar worker, but the puce-collar CEO. Any wonder he pushed this bill so fervently?

The Free Market Myth

2008-09-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

“The party is over”.

That phrase in all of its assorted guises is being bandied around Washington right now, sometime with the drool of extreme relish dripping down the chin of whichever politico or media wonk is speaking at the time. They are salivating over the prospect of this particular economic meltdown because they see the possibility of it being a golden gateway for a 16 year Democrat rule just like the Roosevelt administration. The fact that the Bush administration seems to be bending over backwards to help this dream become a reality is not lost on them.

“Free Market”.

This phrase is repeated even more than the previous one. When it comes from the mouth of a leftie, it is uttered somewhat like #@!!. Lefties do not like the idea of a free market at all because it means that sometimes people lose. It contains evil words such as competition and responsibility. Neocons like the phrase, but only if it is used with their own particularly twisted definition. To them “free market” means free from the responsibilities of the law, ethics and personal responsibility. The left wants to be able to control every personal and financial aspect of your life. If they can control where your money comes from, they have every thing else. That is why they continuously push for ever broader and higher taxes. That is why they will never allow the second amendment to be interpreted as the founders intended.

Neocons do not necessarily want to be able to control every aspect of your life, but the end result of what they want will essentially be the same thing. They want absolute control of the money supply, but not through taxes. They want it through the establishment of a tiered social structure such as what used to exist in feudal England. A royal class is being constructed right now. The gentry are not answerable to the same law as you and I. This is no more exemplified than by the clause that “Shifty” Paulson wants placed into the trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street. Only the lords of this country would consider the granting of hundreds of millions of tax dollars to men and women responsible for driving their company’s stock into the cellar as a right and proper thing.

Right now we do not have a free market. Small business has to fight both the economy and the political machine that is owned by big business to survive. The free market does not mean that you are allowed to hire illegals over citizens. It does not mean that you can lie to, cheat and steal from your employees. It does not mean that you can cheat on your taxes. It does not mean that you can ship jobs overseas simply so you can buy yet another Lear Jet. It does not mean that you can create TV ads that lie and mislead. It means that you should have the same chance as everyone else to succeed or fail without special rights and privileges given to you or your racial group.

Do you want to be the most hated individual in the US? Take on the responsibility of doing actual, honest and timely oversight of the so-called free market. Every time a CEO tries to rob his company, every time a board acts unethically or dishonestly, every time a business tries to skirt the law protecting the consumer from fraud, use your authority to stop them. In a very short order you would have achieved that status. Right now the American public does not want honesty, not the majority any way. They don’t even bother to vote. We have the exact government and the exact results we asked for, and if you are one of those who couldn’t be bothered to vote, you have no right to complain.

Extreme Right-Wing Idealogue

2008-09-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

"Extreme right-wing ideologue who’s grossly under qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency."

That is the quote from the cartoon strip Over the Hedge about every left-wingers' nightmare. For those of you not familiar with the feature, it is a moderately well drawn animal strip that rarely causes a laugh. It's not Peanuts or Bloom County, but whose material is? In the strip the cartoonist uses a Canadian goose to spew his DNC talking point. As with every other left-wing ideologue, he has no direct knowledge of anything Sara Palin has done to be a danger to America of the American way of life.

One commentator demanded that I check out a long list of links he sent me that proved how dangerous this woman was. The material in the links? Every one of them a rehash of MoveOn.org and DailyKos innuendos and rumors.

What makes this woman so dangerous? From the social lefties: 1-She has a distinct view of good versus evil. 2-She is unembarrassed about expressing her Christian faith.

And that is about it. All the arguments against her can be distilled down into the two categories listed above. A sub category, her lack of qualifications is barely worth mentioning except for the fact that the left continues to hammer away at it. John Kennedy, the Democrats version of Ronald Reagan, had less executive experience than Mrs. Palin, and he ran for the Presidency. Obama has served less than a complete term as a freshman Senator. He has less executive experience than a 7-11 manager. So what makes Sarah Palin so extremely unqualified?

One factor alluded to in several failed attempts at humor by left-wing commentators and Hollywood Mensa rejects is where she comes from. Alaska is not a state most people mention when they talk about great shopping and haute cuisine. For the left it is far more important to know how to discern between a fine pinot grigio and a chardonnay than to be able to run a state, especially one as riddled with wilderness as Alaska. The woman knows how to shoot a gun for God’s sake! She prays before meals!

About that good versus evil thing, doesn’t she know that there is no such thing? Everything is relative. Well, ok, there’s evil, but it’s all contained within the right-wing fringe that still believes in a living, active, creationist God. Those girls who have their genitals cut away without anesthetic in Muslim countries? That’s cultural and nothing to do with us. 911? That was our fault, and if we hadn’t been so imperialistic and just let the Imams destroy Israel like they wanted to, it wouldn’t have happened.

Evil exists and it is growing in strength. All the rationalizing in the universe will not change that fact. One of Palin’s greatest strengths is her ability to see a clear world view, and that scares the bowels right out of people like Nancy Pelosi.

The left seems to have forgotten that John F. Kennedy was also a Christian. He was the only professing Catholic ever elected. What bothers the left is not so much that Sarah Palin admits to being a (shudder) Christian, but that she is not a Democrat and a Christian. All the rest is simply hyperbole and semantics. The people writing the talking points know all about the separation of powers. They know the constitutional separation of church and state was put in place to protect the believer from the state and not the other way around. They know that life is a miracle and they know that an intelligence far greater than anything they could ever imagine had a hand in their existence, and they can’t stand it. That is the main reason they hate and fear people like Sarah Palin. She is the mirror that exposes every one of their glaring faults.

What is a dollar

2008-09-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

I was asked to define what a dollar is. When I began researching this subject, I had no idea just how murky the waters were. According to a monograph written by Edwin Vieira, Jr., even those who purport to print our money don’t really know what a dollar is.

No statute defines - or ever has defined - the "one dollar" Federal Reserve Note “FRN” as the "dollar,” or even as a species of "dollar.” Moreover, the United States Code provides that FRNs "shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States…or at any Federal Reserve bank.” Thus, FRNs are not themselves "lawful money" - otherwise, they would not be "redeemable in lawful money.” And if FRNs are not even "lawful money,” it is inconceivable that they are somehow "dollars,” the very units in which all "United States money is expressed.”

People are confused on this point because of the insidious manner in which FRNs "evolved" - actually, degenerated is a more appropriate verb - from the late 1920s until today. FRNs of Series 1928 through Series 1950E carried the obligation "The United States of America will pay to the bearer on demand [some number of] dollars.” Prior to 1934, the notes carried the inscription "Redeemable in gold on demand at the United States Treasury, or in gold or lawful money at any Federal Reserve Bank.” After 1934, the notes carried the inscription "this note…is redeemable in lawful money at the United States Treasury, or at any Federal Reserve Bank" (post-1934). Starting with Series 1963, the words "will pay to the bearer on demand" no longer appear; and each FRN simply states a particular denomination in "dollars.”

Citizens have written to both their representatives and the Treasury Department asking for a definition of what a “dollar” is. The replies reveal just how confused this situation is. Being a man who considers his word his bond, I would have to say that the FRN is and remains a contract; whether or not the government chooses to admit this…they printed the things. At the top of the contract they proudly proclaim it to be a Federal Reserve Note. At the bottom they declare the value, as in the dollar bill as One Dollar. The value of goods or services the note may purchase has changed, albeit not for the better. However, if you hold a 1900 $20 gold piece, you can still purchase what that coin could buy when it was minted. For example, back in 1920, a $20 gold coin would pay for a good suit. You can still do that today…if you have a $20 gold coin. A 1920 silver dime would pay for a decent breakfast…you can see my point.

The situation with coinage is more complex, but equally (if not more) confusing. The United States Code provides for three different types of coinage denominated in "dollars": namely, base- metallic coinage, gold coinage, and silver coinage. The base-metallic coinage consists of "a dollar coin,” weighing "8.1 grams,” "a half dollar coin,” weighing "11.34 grams"; "a quarter coin,” weighing "5.67 grams": and "a dime coin,” weighing "2.268 grams.” All of these coins are composed of copper and nickel. The weights of the dime, the quarter, and the half dollar are in the correct arithmetical proportions, the one to each of the others. But the "dollar" is disproportionately light (or the other coins disproportionately heavy). In this series of base metallic coins, then, the questions naturally arise: Is the "dollar" a cupro-nickel coin weighing "8.1 grams"? Or is it two cupro- nickel coins (or four or ten coins) collectively weighing 22.68 grams? Or is it both? Or is it neither, but something else altogether, to which the weights of these coins are irrelevant?

In regards to the silver dollar...back when we actually minted silver coins for everyday use, the dollar coin weighed .999 troy ounces of silver. I would say that particular coin is the closest to anything as far as actually being a dollar. The value was there, the trust was there and the value of that coin has not varied through the years. If you currently have a silver dollar of nominal numismatic value (not one of the rarities) you can still purchase roughly the same value of goods or services you could back when the coin was minted, as stated in the examples above. Now we do still mint “Liberty Dollars”, but they are minted as collectibles more so than money.
Similarly, the gold coinage consists of "a fifty dollar gold coin" that "weighs 33.931 grams, and contains one troy ounce of fine gold"; "a twenty-five dollar gold coin" that "contains one-half ounce of fine gold"; "a ten dollar gold coin" that "contains one fourth ounce of fine gold"; and "a five dollar gold coin" that "contains one tenth ounce of fine gold.” The "fifty dollar,” "twenty-five dollar,” and "five dollar" coins are in the correct arithmetical proportions each to the others. But the "ten dollar" coin is not. Therefore, is a "dollar" one-fiftieth or one-fortieth of an ounce of gold? It appears to be undecided.

The US Government has not upheld its part on a contract begun back when it first began printing monetary notes. We still trade the notes for goods and services, but the trust is no longer there, in fact, based on the current crisis, the lack of trust is completely justified. If we had an administration with the courage to place the U.S. back onto the gold standard, we would see the value of the dollar skyrocket, whether or not enough gold exists to do so is beside the point. Experts disagree on both sides of that issue. What would be important would be the willingness to actually declare a foundation and to keep a promise...something our government hasn’t been willing to do for nearly three quarters of a century.

King John is laughing

2008-09-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

Even though the term ‘civil rights’ is disproportionatly linked to the struggle for equality of American blacks during the mid twentith century, the term does in fact cover much broader ground. The aim of that struggle was on its surface to cement equal protections under the law; to receive equal treatment regardless of one’s skin tone.

Civil rights are the basic legal rights an individual receives from the government. In the US those rights include personal, political, and economic rights. They are supposed to be the rights of citizens. Later discussions will cover the extreme broadening that some groups desire. Since the civil rights act of the early 90’s those rights cannot be legitimately denied to a person on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or disability.

Martin Luthor King established what should be common ground where discrimination is concerned. But there is a broad gap in the debate over how far and how deep these principles should be implemented in law and policy.

Adding to the confusion, sub groups such as GLAD are fighting to include sexual orientation as one of the catagories covered under the law.

In 1215, the Magna Carta required King John to establish the first set of citizen rights. It forced the gentry to respect certain legal procedures and, this is the big one, accept that the king’s will could be bound by the law. It was also the first formalization of the writ of habeas corpus, forcing the gentry to prove a reason for the imprisonment of their subjects.

Our constitution owes much of its creation to the Magna Carta. The great document also established that a man’s home was essentially his castle. Regardless of the position of the guest, even in the lowliest cottage, the host had prominence. Now, due to the pressures of the ultra liberal left, with complete and willing assistence from the media and Congress, the constitution is in danger of becoming little more than a moot point, and one of the biggest weapons being used is the twisted maze of tax law.

The Democrats do not want the average working man or woman to be able to control any of the money they earn. To them, government knows far better how to handle your life and you should rely soley on Father Washington for your needs. On the Republican side Father Washington is replaced by the corporate board, and you should be happy to simply have a job and be a good little worker drone because Big Business knows best, and if a prisoner in China can do your job for less money…too bad, and if you complain about either circumstance, wait for the IRS letter.

The second paragraph of the Declaration of Indepence reads:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

The preamble of the constitution says:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Men who have dared to read either document in certain US Courts, and sadly, within certain halls of Congress, have been declared in contempt.

Somewhere, King John is laughing.

Palin too good for McCain, she's one of those.

2008-09-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

When John McCain first revealed his choice for Vice President, Sarah Palin revitalized a dying campaign. A significant portion of conservatives decided they could finally hold their collective noses and vote for the GOP ticket. Suddenly the republicans were not watching the Obama train disappear over the horizon, they were leaving it in the dust.

So, what happened? Why is Obama out in front yet again? He has done nothing different in his campaign from the beginning. Change is still the only item on his plank. What sort of change? He's not saying and you're a racist if you need any more information. Palin was the only change in the McCain campaign and it was a huge one. The voters did not want someone who had a history of being too cozy with the UN. They did not want someone who had essentially the same circle of friends in his stable as Bush Jr., but they were willing to go with him if he had a running mate with a history of actually representing the middle class...and winning the fight.

Apparently Sarah was too much for McCain's buddies. She has been shoved into the closet with a rag stuffed into her mouth. The old boys club, emphasis on "old", Palin had become almost as much a danger as Obama. The race had become Palin versus Obama. Didn't this Alaskan skirt realize who the presidential candidate was? As clueless as ever, the McCain campaign decided to silence the only weapon in their arsenal.

If Sarah Palin was allowed to take the lead in the campaign, Obama would now be 20 points behind and falling. She had exactly the combination of wit, wisdom and poise that America loves to see in leadership. The problem is, she is not John McCain. She is supposed to be the running mate. She is supposed to be tagging along on McCain's coattails. It is not supposed to be the other way around. Shame on you Mrs. Palin! Get into that closet and shut up.

Well, that is one way to lose an election.

Corporate Welfare

2008-09-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

$700,000,000,000.00.

It would be impossible for any family, and this includes the Gates, to spend that amount. The $700 billion bank and mortgage lender bailout proposed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would be spent literally over night. This scenario, a massive takeover by the government of the US mortgage industry will make Washington the single largest mortgage holder in the world. Uncle Sam would, in essence, become America’s landlord.

Whether or not this step needs to be taken, and I don’t believe it needs to be done, the amount does not need to be any where near Paulson’s proposal. That Washington thinks 700 B is not large enough gives you an idea as to how out of touch the beltway has become. Paulson has also indicated that a significant portion of the money has been locked away to give promised salaries and bonuses ranging from 10 to 25 million a year to those executives who worked so hard to drive their companies’ stock into the cellar.

The Free Market is a marvelous tool and it works properly every time it is allowed to operate honestly. What we are experiencing right now is a corruption of that system; a twisted blend of socialism and corporate welfare. The depression of the late twenties will look like a bull market once Paulson is done, if he is allowed free rein in this matter.

The bank owns you if you owe them $200,000. If you owe the bank $2,000,000,000, you own the bank. What would happen if all those homeowners got together to boycott this plan? What if they all refused to send in their payment until a real solution, one that doesn’t reward incompetence, is found?

Allah is not God

2008-09-21T09:34:00.001-07:00

Why is it that the fundamental American way of life is the only thing left on earth that can be ridiculed, offended, belittled and discriminated against with impunity? The world’s best known talk show host, Rush Limbaugh read the regulations our neighbor to the south has in place for those who are not Mexican citizens wishing to build a business or purchase property.

The law is in essence: If you immigrate to Mexico, you have to speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor; unskilled workers are not allowed. Bilingual education is not taught in the schools, and there are no special ballots for elections. No government business will be conducted in any language other than Spanish. Foreigners will not have the right to vote or hold political office. Take that Arnold.

Immigrants to Mexico are forbidden to be a burden to taxpayers. They are not entitled to welfare, food stamps, or any other government social program. Investment is a requirement to immigration: an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. However, there are restrictions on the purchasing of land and where foreigners can own homes. Beachfront property is limited to Mexican citizens, and foreigners must relinquish individual rights to the property.

There is no right to protest. No right to demonstrate. Only the Mexican flag can be flown. Political organizing is forbidden and speaking ill of the administration can land the speaker in jail. Also, entering Mexico illegally is a direct route to prison.

When Limbaugh read those laws as if they were his suggestion for the US, the protests were deafening, and not one of the protesters changed their opinion after it was revealed where the law originated. After all, only the U.S. can be at fault.

The same occurs in regard to the Middle East. The only Middle Eastern country where women hold equal status with men is Israel. Yet because Israel’s constitution closely mirrors that of the U.S. and America has consistently upheld that tiny country’s right to exist, Israel has become a target for contempt right along with fundamental America. Israel is also the only Middle Eastern country where you have a right to worship as you please, as long as you allow Israel its right to exist. The other countries, Islamic to a fault have a real problem with that existence. Neither America nor Israel should be here. Because of them, Islam’s spread has no been as fast, nor as complete as it should have been.

All of the deriders manage to miss the fact that within Islamic countries, women are little more than property and are not even as important as a prized camel or sheep. In many of these countries female children are sexually mutilated in a disgusting ritual disguised as a rite of adulthood. They are, in essence, treated as foreigners within their own country. They are not allowed to own property, achieve anything resembling an education, or even defend themselves if attacked. In fact one of the most common crimes a woman under bondage to Islam can commit is being raped. Where are the feminists? They are amazingly silent on this issue. Could it be that Islamic women, not being able to further the feminist agenda, have no importance to the cause?

Here in the U.S. we jailed a pedophile who claimed to be a prophet. His name is Warren Jeffs. He attempted to us religion as a shield for his crimes. Fortunately for future children who may have come under his influence, fundamental America was there and Jeffs is now sulking behind bars. Unfortunately for millions of Middle Eastern children, the false prophet Mohammed was not stopped. There was no country established whereby all were granted self-evident rights. A minor Babylonian moon god called Allah was given far more importance than the cult deserved and the rest sadly is history.

The Status Group

2008-09-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Scotsmen are a different breed of animal, stubbornly independent, unfailingly intolerant of disloyalty; they will back a true friend until their spine caves in. Hard-drinking, hard-fighting, a Scotsman will tear up at a Disney movie and then go out and lead a full-throated highland charge into the face of overwhelming odds…and win.

My great grandfather on my mother’s side was a McDonald from the highlands around Glencoe Scotland. Delving into the family background gave me the unique opportunity to become friends with a fellow Scot by the name of Robert Freeman. Robert is the general council of The Status Group, a gathering of strategic business advisors with over 300 years of collective experience. Robert introduced me to the board of directors. Impressed would be a vast understatement. Check out their website, www.statusgroupllc.com

The Las Vegas area is replete with businesses and corporations eager to grab a slice of the big business pie, but The Status Group is focused on helping small business maneuver through the maze of laws, regulations and financing that cause so many people with good ideas to fail where they should have succeeded.

Big businesses come with an established executive team, high salaried professionals who are constantly available to the CEO whenever needed. Many of these teams come with a seven figure price tag. Small business simply cannot afford that luxury. Typically they are left with the choice of either attempting to do it themselves or seek out professional help at an expensive hourly rate.

Not any longer. What I have learned about The Status Group is that the incredibly extensive experience contained within their offices is available to address the specific needs of the small business entrepreneur, owner or manager. The Status Group provides these individuals with their own executive team, a Status Council made up of entrepreneurs who had already been there. It’s much easier to explore the wilderness is you have a guide.

One of the most important features of The Status Group’s expertise is their ability to produce top quality business plans. Small business, in order to begin on a proper footing, requires capital. Banks will not consider a request that is not thorough and well thought out. The Status group is able to create a business plan that is, quite frankly, impressive. One plan I saw was for a man working on building a car wash. The business plan created for him has already generated interest from three financial institutions.

I am pleased and honored to be considered for partnership with these men and women. As my fellow Scot, Robert would say, “It’s a pleasure to watch a master at work.”

Racism caused the mortgage crisis

2008-09-19T06:07:00.001-07:00

Yes, you read it right. Racism, not corporate greed, is the cause of the mortgage crash. During the days of the Clinton administration there was a young fiery community organizer/lawyer by the name of Barack Obama lobbying the Clintons to open up the mortgage industry for more minority loans. Since he liked the idea of being called the first black president, Bill Clinton thought this was a good idea. Disregarding the protests of the mortgage lenders, the Clinton administration began the process of altering the practice that had stood banks well for centuries. It took time and it took getting a few of the right politicians into power. California’s gift of Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi was invaluable. Adding into that the greed of men like Harry Reid and Duke Cunningham, Obama’s vision for the mortgage industry was well on its way.

With a few reworded bills, it soon became racist for a lender to tell someone with no credit and no job prospects that they could not have a loan. The Fed got into the mix and set up procedures whereby a lender actually had to practice fiscal insanity in order to keep their good rating.

A few smaller banks protected themselves by remaining insular and dealing only with their local community. Massive conglomerates such as BofA diversified so the crash they saw peering up over the horizon would be an irritant rather than a mortal blow.

Well, the crash came just as many analysts predicted it would, but rather than the corporate greed and lust for ever quicker profits, the cause was misguided “community organizing” and racism of the highest order. A bank is not racist merely because it will not lend money to someone unqualified to borrow. Isn’t just the smallest bit of responsibility on the prospective borrower’s side? Should they not have a valid way of raying that loan in a reasonable amount of time? Not according to the Democrats. Apparently fiscal wisdom is tantamount to racism, even if there is no color quotient applied to the loan.

You are a racist if you require a steady job for a borrower. You are a racist if you require a history of paying back loans on time. You are a racist of you take the steps you both agreed upon in the contract to recoup a default. But if you do all of this with a white customer, it is simply being a good businessman. In Obama’s world, we have to have it both ways. If we don’t, we’re being racist.

Obama as Jesus??? Give me a break!

2008-09-18T05:57:00.001-07:00

Hyperbole is not a lost art where the Democrat party is concerned. Over the years the ability to overstate, exaggerate, and obfuscate has been honed to an exceptional talent. If this were not so the latest dismissal of Sarah Palin by the gurus of the left, Susan Sarandon, Matt Damon, Barbara Streisand, all vast intellects I’m sure, would never have been uttered; “Pontius Pilot was a governor, Jesus was a community organizer.”

I knew Obama had been placed onto a platform so high by the Democrats that JFK would have to use a telescope to see it, but to put this do-nothing on a level with the Son of God…please. Let’s looks at Obama’s career for a second. He has been nothing but a mouth his entire political career. Where is the single accomplishment outside of being elected to the Senate? What wrong has he righted? Where is the corruption he has exposed and then abolished?

Ok, he speaks well…when he has a prepared script. When he’s hit with a surprise question he makes George Bush look absolutely eloquent. Palin, on the other hand, is so far better than Obama at speaking off the cuff that it isn’t even a contest. With Obama we are treated to a long sequence of “…but…but…but…but…” Yeah, that sort of leadership will bring about change.

Jesus offered solutions, even if those solutions were not all that popular with the ruling elite of his day. Hmm, sounds more like a Palin than an Obama to me. Jesus saw the corruption in the temple and rolled up his sleeves to clear it out, with a whip. Obama saw the corruption and entered into partnerships with The Nation of Islam and assorted Politicians while he was “community organizing”. Does the name Judas Iscariot come to mind? Palin went after the bridge to nowhere, a plumb project for Senator Stevens of Alaska, one of the most powerful Republican members of the senate at the time, and a member of Palin’s own Party. Pilot would not have done that, not as a loyal Roman.

Seems to me that if comparisons are to be offered, the similarities should be switched. Obama is a loyal Democrat and has a voting record consistent with party purity and is absolutely partisan, in spite of the rhetoric. Palin, on the other hand, has a record of battling her own party when it comes to a matter of right versus wrong. Unlike others who have done that and lost, she won, and the Sanhedrin, the media elite, cannot stand that.

Jesus was a fighter of corruption, he did not partner with it, unlike certain freshman Democrat Senators.

Campaign hysteria

2008-09-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

It is interesting to watch the various campaigns attempting to poke holes in each others potential ships of state. Even more interesting are the assorted talking heads in TV news and on talk radio adding their two cents, occaisionally devalued through party agenda.

Of course Sarah Palin is the topic du jour on the majority of shows. The lefties attack, being completly worthless on the issues, has now moved to their default fall back, pure nastiness. According to the feminists, Palin cannot be a real woman for a number of reasons. Her most egregious crime has been multifold, staying married to the father of her children and compounding that by apparantly being quite happy in her marriage, getting pregnant and actually keeping the baby, being a strong woman without being a Democrat, and worst of all, not fitting into the caricature they have built within their diseased minds of what a christian woman should be.

Isn't it a bitch when reality spoils your rant?