Dear “Concerned”

As a columnist, I find it always nice to receive feedback. You know at least someone is reading your stuff. Whether negative or positive, feedback can be interesting if not always constructive. And although I usually don’t respond directly to either type, occasionally something comes across my desk that just begs to be addressed.

This time it is a letter from a “Concerned American Citizen.” This letter stood out because it wasn’t criticizing or praising something I wrote. Actually, it was more of a plea for help with a distinct tone on frustration and despair.

Mister or misses (could not tell the gender) “Concerned” was retired from the Perris School District after thirty-five years of service, owned a home, had a mortgage, and was now being forced out of that home by the loan company. No, this is not unusual; foreclosures are still rampant in the Inland Empire.

What caught my attention in this situation was that the bank had foreclosed on the home and sold then it to illegal immigrants. Although I have no way to corroborate this claim or the immigration status of the buyers, I find this type of action occurring so often that I have no reason to doubt the allegation.

No. Wait. It gets even weirder. “Concerned” had tried to re-finance the home, but was denied – for what reason was not stated. The letter said that “Concerned” was told by the bank that he/she was the “wrong type of Mexican.” That “had [he/she] come from Mexico”, he/she would have been able to keep the home. Presumably, the bank was telling “Concerned” that they would have been able to qualify the re-finance had he/she been in the country illegally!

Bizarre as it sounds, this is probably true. For years, there have been reports that many loan companies are soliciting and giving preference to illegal immigrants for mortgages. Proof of citizenship is not a requirement to own property in this country, and most loan companies will accept the ITIN (taxpayer number) in lieu of a Social Security number for a loan.

“Concerned” blames the situation on Obama, and with Obama’s executive amnesty, it’s tempting to accept this excuse. Unfortunately, this was going on long before Obama officially blessed illegal entry into our country,

The banks like getting money from any source and pushed the government to create the ITIN for those that don’t have a Social Security number. The government likes getting income taxes so they created the ITIN so people could file a tax return in spite of not having legal residency or a legal right to work here. Everyone just gives a blind eye to illegal border crossers saying, “it ain’t my problem; it’s the Border Patrol’s problem.” They just want the money.

Well, “Concerned” is now paying rent while people who have no legal right to be here or even work here are living in what was his home. In the vernacular, that sucks!

During the Great Depression, banks were shown to be heartless beasts driving families from their homes and farms. Almost a century later, the only change seems to be that after taking the family homestead they now give preference to ownership by those who have no right to even be in the country.

I’m no Ann Landers, but my reply to “Concerned” is: I can truly sympathize with your plight, but the near future doesn’t look too rosy with Obama’s illegal executive amnesty. My only suggestion is what the Democrats would tell you – suck it up. Apparently, America is no longer for Americans.

Stay Healthy, My Friend

 The other day I was with a good friend when me to look at a medical bill he had received. He had studied it for days, but still couldn’t figure it out.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s have a look.”

He handed me a bill from a billing company for a local hospital. The only entry on it was that he owed $170 for a visit to the emergency room. I knew that his son had insisted on taking him there after a scratch on his arm from his dog’s claws would not quit bleeding. At the Emergency Room, they bandaged the arm, gave him a Tetanus shot, and sent him home. The whole visit took about two hours with the actual procedure taking a mere 20 minutes. “Looks about right,” I said. “A hundred-seventy bucks isn’t all that bad for an Emergency Room visit.”

“Look at this.” He said handing me a statement from Medicare.

It turns out the visit had actually cost $2700! Only his share of the bill was $170. A further study of the Medicare statement revealed that Medicare actually only paid $90 of the hospital bill. Who paid the difference?

I’m no CPA, but even I could see something didn’t make sense here. We decided to call the hospital billing company and ask for a detailed statement to see who paid the difference.

“ We don’t have a detailed statement to send.” I was told. Well, we chased our tails for several turns while the person at the billing office kept repeating the same thing.

“You are telling me that the hospital charged my friend $2700 for the ER visit, Medicare paid $90 and you billed my friend for $170.”

“That’s right.”

“Well this must have something to do with the new math because my figures show about $2440 floating around somewhere that still remains to be paid.” I said.

For the third time she said, “There was an adjustment.”

This time it dawned on me what she meant. “Do you mean the hospital ate the difference?”

“Yes.” She said in relief. “The hospital has a contract with Medicare that allows them to make an adjustment.”

I told my friend, and he still didn’t understand. “What was the two-thousand dollars for?”

I looked at the Medicare statement again. They had charged $1073 for bandaging the arm (actually applying one large bandage), $1136 for just putting his nose through the Emergency Room door,  $197 for a Tetanus vaccine, and $300 just to “administer” the shot.

It looks to me like the government tells hospitals they can charge whatever they like for services but will only receive a set amount from Medicare. That’s great! But if the original charges are valid, how can the hospital afford to eat $2440 in this case? And what do they do with other Medicare cases?

Questions? Yeah, I still have a few. Like is it valid to charge a thousand dollars for a band-aid? Why does it cost $300 just to give a shot, when they give them free at most pharmacies? Then why does it cost $1000 just to set foot in the Emergency room?

Well folks, here’s the bottom-line. If you don’t have Medicare or health care insurance, you are paying for the hospital to eat the difference on every visit of this nature. If you are fortunate enough to actually have healthcare insurance, you are still paying with your inflated premiums.

Oh, but you have Obama care? Well check out your premiums and compare them to those who are paying little or no premiums. Yep, you are making up the difference.

Is there a reason health care has to be so expensive? That is the question we should be asking. Not who will pay for health care.

Working the Con

There are famous con men, people who swindle for a living. Frank Abagnale kited some 2.5 million dollars worth of bad checks while posing as an airline pilot, doctor, and eventually a lawyer and a teacher. Abagnale’s life story was made into the movie Catch Me If You Can. Then there is the infamous Charles Ponzi – the one they named the Pyramid Scheme after. One modern day practitioner of this scheme was Bernie Madoff, the ex-NASDAQ chief who bilked investors out of an estimated 68 billion dollars.

You might recall the movie The Sting where con men were portrayed as heroes who bilked the mob out of a pile of money. That may make for a great Hollywood story. In real life, though, these people are merely thieves who pull the wool over the eyes of trusting and unsuspecting individuals. Although many people admire the way these con men gain the trust of their victims, the practice is in fact a despicable and highly illegal practice that leaves the victims with a traumatic sense of being violated.

Now comes Professor Jonathan Gruber, who, along with his accomplices Nancy Pelosi and Barrack Obama, may have pulled the greatest con in America’s history.

Let’s examine Gruber. He is currently a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1992. He is also the director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a research associate. An associate editor of the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Health Economics, Gruber has been heavily involved in crafting public health policy, including the Massachusetts healthcare policy aka. “Romneycare.”

Why is Gruber important? Well, it turns out the good professor helped write and promote the 905-page Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare that President Obama signed into Law in 2010.

Yes 905 pages of “tortured language” that very few in Congress bothered to read, let alone understood. The then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, stood at the podium of the House and told Congress they will have to “pass the bill to find out what’s in it.”

Well we did find out – the hard way. As the newly minted law began to be implemented, the American public found out they had been scammed. “If you like your doctor, you can keep it -- if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it” soon became the lie Obama could not overcome or explain away. As insurance premiums began to grow and the official Web Site rollout proved to be a disaster, Americans started to wonder just what the government had gotten us into.

Well we found out what those 905 pages were all about when the well-paid consultant, Gruber, appeared on television and explained that the bill was intentionally written in a way to deceive the “stupid voters.” Even more significant was the revelation that the law was written to avoid the appearance of it being a tax – one of the first controversial points that went before the Supreme Court.

Of course, the White House and Nancy Pelosi denied even knowing Jonathan Gruber. Another co-conspirator HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius denied knowing the professor, even though they both sat on the same committee, and she signed his paycheck for several hundred thousand dollars.

Deception upon deception, this fraud was foisted upon the American public – many of whom bought into it in good faith – just to learn that it was a scam promoted by unrepentant con men, including the Speaker of the House and President of the United States.

Do you feel violated and taken advantage of? I do. But then again, I never believed any of Obama’s lies. This bill passed without a single Republican vote and was signed into law by a Democratic President. Since the Republicans gained control of the House, they have tried some 40 times to repeal this fraudulent law only to be thwarted by Democrats in the Senate. It’s apparent that it will take a Republican controlled Congress and Republican President to set the Affordable Care Act right. Until then folks, you will just have to put up with being taken for a ride by the Democrats, and being the victim of the Great American con called Obamacare.

Trial By Media

I am writing this before the Saint Louis County, Missouri Grand Jury decides whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown. It really doesn’t matter which way this goes, though. The news media have already indicted Officer Wilson and judged him guilty of murder.

Every mainstream newspaper and Television News program has told the story of a poor angelic black boy with his hands raised being shot in the back by a vicious racist police officer for no reason other than the boy was black. Whenever pictures of victim Michael Brown are shown, they are of a much younger Brown – before he became a low-life street thug.

Wilson is the latest victim of “Trial by media.” We may as well dismiss every criminal court and let the media decide a person’s guilt or innocence. As an added bonus, we won’t even need criminal attorneys.

The hapless Darren Wilson is not the first person to be tried and destroyed in the media. Recent high-profile cases include George Zimmerman (Trayvon Martin case), O.J. Simpson, and the officers in the Rodney King case. It seems the media aren’t happy without at least one every month or so.

I remember a woman (can’t remember her name, though) who drove her car into the ocean and drowned her three young children. The media did all but draw horns and a tail on her picture. It’s been a while, but I seem to recall that she was eventually convicted in a real court and received a relatively light sentence. When she got out of prison recently, she had to change her name and appearance then move to another state to keep from being hounded by people with hatred in their hearts. Of course, the media finally found her and publicized her location, new name, and even her picture. After all, they wouldn’t want the public to think she had paid for her crime.

By now, you might be thinking that I am trying to justify people getting away with crimes. Nothing could be further from the truth. I simply don’t believe that people should be tried in the media even before a crime has actually been determined. Especially by the left leaning media – which is most of them.

In the Wilson/Brown case, there are two radically differing stories being told of the occurrences that day. Each report of the happenings is slanted to one side or the other but mostly toward Brown’s side. What is the truth? Does it matter? A Grand Jury panel was convened August 20 to determine if there is enough evidence to try Officer Wilson for killing Brown. A decision was announced as forthcoming on November 24. It took that long to weigh all the evidence.

Nearly every day that this Grand Jury worked on the case, the news media had to shove the case in the face of the public. “Any day now the Saint Louis County Grand Jury will release its findings.” Every day this case festered and kept the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri in the front of the news. Every day some new “community organizer” would put his face out there and tell the crowd to be peaceful – wink, wink.

Ain’t riots grand? The rioters get free stuff, the print media sell more newspapers, contractors get paid to repair the burned and looted stores, more people watch TV news, Al and Jessie get more air time, talk shows have something to talk about, everyone makes money off them except the poor store owners that will take a big hit on their insurance premiums.

I have to wonder just how many other killings – Black-on-Black, White-on-White, or Black-on-White – have occurred during this time without the media stirring the pot of discontent. Maybe the news media didn’t think there would be enough emotion to stir up a good riot.

As I said, why even bother having courts? We could simply let the news media decide who is innocent or guilty. After that, vigilante justice could take over and lynch whomever the media decides is to blame.

Maybe I missed something when I read the first Amendment. Is there anything in it that gives the news media authority to try people for perceived crimes?

The Fifth Amendment says, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury…” Then again, the Forth Amendment is quite clear on the issue: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

I guess the constitution only applies in cases that don’t pique the attention of the Liberal media. Then again, Mr. Obama seems to think the Constitution is just a suggestion for the current ruler anyway. But I digress.

Emperor Obama the Not So Great

 I watched Obama’s address to the American people trying to justify his illegal executive action giving some five million illegal aliens amnesty. I have to say he did look regal with the red carpet and opulent furniture in the hall behind him. The only thing missing was his crown. Let’s face it, he is not just our country’s first black President, he also acts like America’s first Emperor.

When George Washington was asked how he should be addressed, he had to think about it. The country had just fought a hard and costly war for freedom from monarchical rule. Washington decided it would not do to have any trappings of royalty. He said simply refer to the holder of the presidential office as Mr. President.

Such has been the address of 43 Presidents. Will we now need to refer to Obama as Your Highness or Excellency? I’m sure he would like that.

Okay, nearly every President has used executive orders and executive actions. Why is this action by Obama special? Even Obama has on several occasions stated that he did not have authority to take immigration actions of this nature.

This is not the first time Obama has ignored the law and acted on his own. This June he traded five high-level terrorists being held in Guantanamo for an Army deserter being held by the Taliban without the consent of congress. The law says he has to confer with congress before he can make such a trade.

Now he has circumvented congress and taken illegal actions to give illegal aliens immunity from deportation, i.e. amnesty.

He then told Congress they could submit their own bill to reform immigration. In other words, Obama has flipped the bird to congress and dared them to do something about it. This, my fellow Americans, is the act of an emperor. When a tyrant wants to strengthen his position, he dismisses peoples’ representatives. Caesar did it. Hitler did it, and Stalin did it.

Even if the new Republican controlled congress does manage to pass an immigration reform bill, without any language giving current illegal immigrants amnesty and an easy path to citizenship, Obama is certain to veto it.

Why are Obama and the Democrats so keen on amnesty? Votes! Sure, we know there are some illegal aliens voting in elections – and prosecution has been unbelievably lax – but by giving these people amnesty and a easy path to citizenship the Democrats can instantly get millions of legal votes. This would give the Democrats single party rule in our country.

So, Obama has given the finger to congress and the incoming Republicans. According to polls that I have seen, he may even be giving the finger to the majority of citizens in the country. What can be done about it?

The obvious solution would be to simply impeach this wannabe emperor. Would there be enough votes in the house and senate to get it done? Probably. Will they do it? I don’t see any movement in that direction. Even if the House votes to impeach, getting two-thirds votes for impeachment in the Senate is a very unlikely possibility. Would it make a difference? Think about it. The next in line is Joe Biden. Even if he could get his foot out of his mouth long enough to take the oath of office, there would be little hope the man with sub-room temperature IQ would ever sign any bills from a Republican controlled congress.

The ace-in-the hole for congress may be to overrule Obama’s executive order. Can this be done? It not only can be done, it must be done. Whether Obama likes it or not, ours is a constitutional republic. Obama needs to learn that there are three branches of our government. No matter how narcissistic this man is the people of this country will not stand for imperial rule.

One Joyous Occasion

 It has been 25 years since the notorious Berlin Wall fell and Germany became one country again. The media reports of joy and relief of the former East Germans doesn’t begin to tell the story. And those living in other countries cannot fully understand the ramifications of this action.

In the beginning, the NAZI regime managed to turn the suffering and starvation the of German people were experiencing at the end of WWI into a time of prosperity for most of the citizenry. This came at a horrendous price, however. Many of the German people were forced into what is today called the Holocaust. While ordinary Germans went about their lives giving little thought to what their government was up to, the Nazis, led by a dictator and his fanatics, consolidated control and undertook expansion of the borders. The result was WWII – an alliance of nations against the collection of fascist nations named the Axis.

As the Axis nations sought to expand into neighboring countries, many horrors were wrought upon the unfortunate population of their targets. When Hitler set his covetous eyes on the Eastern European countries and Russia, he set in motion a military action that he could not win. As the German army consolidated eastern territory, the fanatical aims of the Nazi party wrought havoc on the concurred people.

Inevitably, Germany simply ran out of resources and manpower to support Hitler’s drug-induced unrealistic plans. As the eastern front collapsed and began to shrink back on Germany, the Russian dictator, Stalin incited the Russian army to inflict horrors on the German civilians and captured prisoners. As the Russian army advanced into Germany, many of the civilians tried to head west into the arms of the Americans or British troops.

The German people, especially the women and girls, had good reason to fear the onslaught of the Russian army. Various accounts of the number of rapes exist, but most figures put it in the millions. The Russians would not just rape a women they would subject her to repeated rapes by gangs of men, then shoot her when they had to move on. In a small village of Strasburg, in the Ukermark, 175 women and young girls gathered in the town square and slit their wrists rather than be taken by the approaching Russians. Babies were killed by smashing their little heads on walls and concrete. Huge numbers of townspeople were simply rounded up and shot to death.

After the war, the Allies, of which Russia was a member, divided Germany into various sectors. Germany’s capital, Berlin, had also been divided into controlling sectors. The Russian dictator, Stalin stripped the Russian sector in the east of Germany of any useful industrial facilities and left the people to the devices of devout communists.

Although the Russian communists were convinced that communism would one day cover the world, they shut off their German sector from the “corrupting” influence of the West. Not content with controlling only the eastern portion of Germany, Stalin gobbled up most of the countries in eastern Europe that Germany had occupied, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, the Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the newly minted East Germany. The result was named the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Although rebuilding Germany was not high on the Soviet list of priorities, the German people dug themselves out of the rubble and by the ‘60s had become the most productive country within the Soviet sphere of influence.

In 1948, Stalin decided that since Berlin was completely enclosed within the Russian sector, that the entire city should be part of East Germany. He closed the borders in an attempt to starve the western sectors into submitting to his will. It didn’t work. The Americans airlifted food and supplies to the western sectors of Berlin.

In 1961, Stalin’s successor, Khrushchev got a bug up his rear, and decided to put a stop to the bleeding of young, productive people in East Germany to the West. Overnight, he closed all borders and erected barbed-wire barriers surrounding West Berlin. Not to keep the West Berliners out, but the keep the East Germans in. Eventually the fence was replaced with a fortified concrete wall. Mines and machine gun emplacements formed a kill-zone demarcation up to the wall on the East German side. All doors and windows along the border were cemented shut with concrete blocks.

Although the face of the East German government was that of Germans, the power behind it originated in Moscow. East Germans would dance to the communist tune of the Soviet Union until 1989. In that year, communism collapsed of its own repressive policies. The Soviet Union died along with the communist governments of its satellite nations.

The immediate events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall saw huge streams of people leaving East Germany for the West. Realizing the acute loss of manpower on the east would leave East Germany in tatters, the government collapsed and capitulated to form a unified Germany.

At last, families on both sides of the border – and there were thousands, maybe millions – could once more be united. It was a joyous time.

But how do you reconcile the unification of a prosperous modern nation with a depressed and relatively poor one. The infrastructure, industry, and total government had to be rebuilt in the East. The wage and income disparities had to be addressed.

Now that Germany was one nation, the people were now free to move wherever they liked. And they did. Today the lands of the former East Germany are all but devoid of young people. They crowd the cities of the west where education and employment opportunities abound.

Reconciliation would not be easy, but if any people could do it, the Germans would. And they have.

The anniversary of the fall of the wall may not be celebrated worldwide, but it should. That day symbolizes the death of failed Marxist-Leninist communist doctrine. It is a day the remaining communist leaning countries should take good notes on. Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, communism, socialism – whatever you prefer to call it – can not and will not work.

The people of Germany have good reason to rejoice on this day.

The EMP Threat: Real or Imagined?

 Here’s an idea. Let’s climb into our mental time machine and travel back to when our nation was being formed – say a nice summer day in 1776.

Here we see the horse being used to power most activities, transportation, industry, agriculture, and occasionally food. Speaking of food, in 1776, most of what is consumed is grown locally and distributed in the local market square in town. Water, that essential commodity for life, is usually drawn from a well by hand. The news comes from newspapers printed by hand, and communications take place in person or by a carrier on horseback.

Hop back in the time machine and travel to September 1, 1859. The industrial age brought many advances to our lifestyles. Natural gas lights the homes and streets, steam powered trains transport goods and people to and from far away places, giant steam powered machines turn out mass-produced items from wood and metal, food comes from places we have never been to, and water is pumped by steam engines to faucets inside our homes. Electricity has made communication much faster and over longer distances by using the telegraph.

On this particular date, an amazing phenomenon takes place. The night sky is filled with a glow of red, purple, and green that seems to dance among the stars. The Aurora Borealis is seen at all ends of the earth. Suddenly telegraphs throw sparks, some operators are electrocuted, telegraph wires and metal pipes emit “lightening”, and power supplies explode.

You have just witnessed the power of an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) created naturally by massive coronal ejections from the sun – i.e. sunspots – aimed at earth. The effect happens when X-rays and Gamma rays strike oxygen atoms in our stratosphere. Most of the time, the solar rays are deflected by the earth’s magnetic field. Sometimes a small amount gets through and creates the beautiful Aurora Borealis seen in the far northern areas. On rare occasions, huge solar flares produce enough energy to overwhelm our magnetic field and an EMP is generated that is large enough to completely fry electrical and electronic devices.

The next time stop is the atomic age. As nuclear tests profierated, scientists observed some unexpected phenomena. In 1958, nuclear tests in the Pacific caused streetlights to fail hundreds of miles away in Hawaii, and disruption of radio signals happened in Australia. They determined the effect to be that of an Electro Magnetic Pulse generated by gamma rays from the atomic blast striking the stratosphere.

The discovery sparked research into weaponizing EMP.

Let’s bring our time machine back to today. Both Russia and the United States are known to have EMP weapons. They are considered humane because they won’t cause death directly, while disabling enemy activities that rely on electronic devices. There are nuclear EMP weapons and non-nuclear EMP weapons. The non-nuclear EMP weapons produce a focused small to medium sized (about city wide) EMP. The high-altitude nuclear EMP devices can affect a much wider range, perhaps enough to cause widespread electrical damage to an entire country.

When we leave the time machine, we see people everywhere with cell phones communicating not just with other people but also with computers that produce all sorts of information, both useful and entertaining.

At home, we have devices that bring us televised shows and video communications with each other. The comprehensive information on everything in the world is stored as data electronically on computers. The Internet is, by now, so common that we take its presence for granted. The vehicles we use for transporting goods and ourselves all rely on computers and other electronic devices to make them run.

Electricity powers all but very few of the things we need to survive in this day and age – the gas pump, refrigerator, freezer, air conditioning, heating, water pumps, and industrial machines. Cars, trucks airplanes, and trains all rely on electronic devices to make them go.

One good EMP attack would take all of that away from us and leave us in conditions not seen since the 18^th century. People would starve or die of thirst. There would be no transportation of any kind. Chaos would rule.

Are you ready for this scenario? Consider this: North Korea, ruled by what no one would believe is a stable dictator, has the atomic bomb. It’s a fact. According to Peter Vincent Pry, a member of the former Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack (2001-2008), North Korea tested an EMP bomb last year by exploding a nuclear satellite over the South Pole.

Just recently, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told reporters at the Pentagon that North Korea has succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear devices. While a miniature nuke is useful in a number of applications, its small size and light weight would make it ideal for an EMP bomb in a satellite.

Are you prepared for this? Is the US prepared for this? Congress has been warned. The reaction of most of our politicians has been to poo-poo the idea as a sci-fi dooms-day, Armageddon scare.

Well, folks, the threat is real. If our government can’t/won’t protect us from Ebola, what do you suppose they are planning for EMP bombs? And no, a tinfoil suit and foil on your windows won’t save you either.

Words of the Day

As a writer, I find it important to learn new words and expand my vocabulary. I subscribe to dictionary.com to receive a daily selection from word of the day. Many of the words are so esoteric that I have never heard them in use or even read them in print. Occasionally, though, a word – new to me – stands out as so appropriate to the time that I am surprised I have never heard it used.

Take the word deiform for example. Deiform, adjective: godlike or divine in form or nature. After the past six years, one might expect this to be a word used by Obama supporters to describe their idol. Well, maybe the reason we haven’t heard it used is that the lamestream media just aren’t all that literate. They use a more simple vocabulary of words like “great”, “wonderful”, and the biggest lie of all; “a leader.”

Here’s another word, more appropriate to the description of both Obama, and the lamestream media: mythomane. Mythomane, noun: a person with a strong or irresistible propensity for fantasizing, lying, or exaggerating. Yep, fits the occupant of the Oval Office to a Tee.

Let’s use these new words in a sentence. Barrack Obama describes his office in deiform terms, but in reality, he is simply a mythomane. Works for me!

Although other Presidents may have exercised the power of executive orders more times than Obama, he is the only one using his authority to circumvent Congress and the Constitution. Obama, in his deiform position deems the US Constitution old and outdated. This probably stems from his years of close association with subversive radicals.

Our constitution may have been drafted over 200 years ago, but it is a dynamic document capable of being amended. Since the Constitution’s ratification in 1787, it has been amended 27 times, the latest in 1992. The Constitution of the United States is anything but an old and outdated document. It’s just too constraining for Obama’s deiform personality and socialist designs.

As for being a mythomane, well, what can I say? Did he tell the truth about Obama care, Benghazi, the current Ebola problem, the IRS scandal, the Ukraine situation, etc, etc? And I am still not convinced about his birth certificate.

As tit-for-tat, his supporters always point to Bush 43’s waging war in Iraq over what they claim is non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It’s the big lie that the left says caused us to wage war against Saddam Hussein. Well, the “big lie” is that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Our troops had been finding chemical weapons since the beginning of the war. The chemical weapons used in Syria were manufactured in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Did other presidents ever lie? Of course! Nixon lied about Watergate, and Clinton lied to congress about having sex with Monica Lewinski. Clinton and Nixon may have been pathological liars and sociopaths, but they didn’t intentionally mislead the people of this country into signing up for a destructive bait-and-switch tactic that will need to be undone by a future President.

If you have kept up with me this far, you are likely thinking, “this guy hates Obama.” Hate is a strong word. I hate driving the freeways. I hate airports. I hate Marxism disguised as socialism. Sometimes I hate getting up in the wee hours of the morning. It could be rightly said that I have a strong dislike for Barrack Obama and his brand of big government. I am certain he has earned the tag, worst President ever. The race-baiters, alla Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, would call me racist for my views of our Commander-in-chief. In truth, though, race aside, I actually believe our country is acephalous, and the guy in the White House is a pretentious deiform mythomane.

There you have it folks, two more words you can use in reference to Barrack Obama. I also use other words in that reference, but they won’t print them in family newspapers.

Government Working in Our Best Interest?

 Ebola. The very name sends shivers up my spine. To catch Ebola is a death sentence. And like so many of the lethal diseases in the last 100 years, this too comes from Africa.

The director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Tom Frieden spent hours at a press conference trying to assure Americans that the spread of this horrendous disease can be stopped. When asked why he has not called for a halt to travel to and from the African nations where this disease is prevalent, he said it was not necessary and even claimed it would be counterproductive.

Are you convinced? I’m not.

I don’t want to be a fear monger, but didn’t the CDC make the same claim regarding AIDS? Yet, it spread from its origin in Africa to every corner of the world leaving a deadly path in its wake. Even Frieden admits that, “the only thing like this [Ebola] has been AIDS.” To which I might add, they not only failed to stop, they also continue to fail to control the spread.

According to the web site Avert (http://www.avert.org/), AIDS started in Africa some time between 1884 and 1924, then traveled to Haiti around 1966. Fifty-nine years later, we find AIDS in every village and hamlet in the country.

Can they really stop the spread of Ebola? Despite the Pollyanna attitude of the CDC, I’d have to say no to that too. At least our government hasn’t shown any positive steps to keep the disease out of our country.

The CDC recently announced steps taken at New York airports to screen for Ebola, but what about the hundreds of other international airports in America. And their idea of screening is limited to taking passengers’ temperatures. So, if you’re entering the country with the flu or having hot flashes, you’re going to the isolation ward.

Are there even effective screening procedures in place? According to an article from NBC News in New York, federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are saying they are not prepared, and have not been trained to implement the government’s new screening procedures. Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/health-workers-federal-agents-blow-whistle-nations-emergency-preparedness-prepared/#8Oza6HSJ5wspaAU2.99

And what is the World Health Organization (WHO) doing about the spread? Near as I can tell, that would be zilch. There are no restrictions on travel to or from the African countries where Ebola is epidemic.

And what about leadership from the Oval Office? Obama says, “you can’t get Ebola from setting next to someone on a bus.” Yet, the CDC advises to avoid public transportation.

This is yet another incidence where our chief executive has placed our country at serious risk. His refusal to disallow visitors from African nations with the Ebola epidemic, refusal to effectively secure our borders from terrorists or disease carrying illegal immigrants, and by allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country without health screening has opened the country up to horrendous consequences.

Should we be scared? Well, I’m not going into doomsday mode – not yet. But we need to realize that our government is not always looking after our best interest, as it should. And when the government says everything is peachy, check the peach for worms.

One Good Man

 The other day I had a nice chat with Nathan Westphal. Nathan is the current President of the community group in my area called Residents Association of Greater Lake Mathews, RAGLM for short, and he has been a dynamic presence in our community. Nathan created and maintains the highly informative web site and on-line forum (www.raglm.org) that gives everyone in the community an opportunity to voice their concerns whether a RAGLM member or not.

RAGLM is a great organization that works to maintain a quality of lifestyle within the unincorporated areas of Lake Mathews, Gavilan Hills, Gavilan Springs, Mockingbird Canyon, and Woodcrest. Their motto is: "To keep the rural lifestyle, protect the open spaces, and to preserve the wildlife in our area known as Greater Lake Mathews." Their goal is to give our community a voice at the county level, and they have done an excellent job of it.

But Nathan Westphal is more than simply another community organizer. He has genuine concerns about many of the larger problems that face our county and state. Not just content to point out these problems, Nathan is one to take an active part in creating solutions for them.

A major problem within California and certainly within our county is water. Most of Southern California is served by a quasi-governmental agency, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and it’s sister agencies the Eastern Metropolitan Water District (EMWD) and the Western Metropolitan Water District (WMWD). An elected board of directors controls each of these agencies.

Beyond the serious issue of water scarcity due to the drought, there are major issues of agency administration, water quality, and rates we all pay for the water we use. Nathan followed these issues with the WMWD very closely, and decided to run for a seat on the WMWD board of directors in this upcoming election.

The issues he finds with WMWD include (from his website http://nathanwestphal.com/):

Cost of Water:

The cost of water in our region is getting out of hand. Just since 2009, we have incurred two new charges on our bills (Water Reliability Charge, MWD Readiness-to-Serve Charge) as well as a new tier structure and pumping zone charges. In this same period, WMWD has built two new facilities as well as holding more than $14 million in customer reserves. I would ask if these charges are supposed to be set aside for emergency purposes, why then do we build elaborate facilities and continue to increase pay of employees? I will stand for the customers and fight these unnecessary fee increases to make sure your money is going where it is supposed to go and not just to the expansion of WMWD.

Restriction of Resources:

With ever expanding development in western Riverside County, it is imperative that we find new ways to deal with our already scarce resources. I believe that new developments should be held accountable to existing residents when it comes to resources. We cannot allow business as usual. We must stop planting high water use lawns in medians simply for cosmetic reasons. We need to partner with developers to find ways to develop smart ideas while continuing to expand our local economy. We cannot just continue to rezone and pack homes into areas already suffering from restricted resources. Currently, 'Will Serve' letters do not go through the board of directors for a vote, but get automatically sent upon request to new development. I would argue that will serve letters should be voted on by the board and will work hard to make this a reality.

Accountability:

Recently the board voted to give their GM a 2% pay and pension increase. The board just voted to increase sewer rates in the Murrieta area as well as adding an annual property tax in some areas to collect monies on top of the collections they already take in from ratepayers. Currently WMWD is working to implement a new ordinance to allow further restrictions on water usage, as they did in 2010. These new restrictions are more severe than the ones originally implemented by WMWD. Additionally, these new restrictions, as well as the previous ones, only affect residential ratepayers as commercial ratepayers are not subject to the same-tiered structure. Should we not all be treated equally? In August of 2013, when the Riverside Grand Jury recommended the board tie stipend decreases to rate increases, the current incumbent stated, "I do not make enough money to support my family. All the work we put in, we do not get paid for." Last time I checked this was a public service and not a career. Changes must be made at Western and I will fight to make positive changes without the prospect of increasing my own stipend or increasing rates.

Well, there you have it. Nathan Westphal has my vote. I am confident he has a thorough grasp of the issues and will fight to make a difference. On Tuesday, November 4^th I urge you exercise your right to vote, and if you are within the WMWD Division 3, please vote for Nathan Westphal.

Course Corrections

Ships at sea do it; Space ships and satellites do it; even aircrafts do it. When a vessel is off course, a correction must be made to hold it to a true course. Our country’s ship-of-state is way off course. November fourth we will have a chance to make a crucial course correction.

The approval rating for congress is at an all-time low, and the President’s isn’t much better. In California – the land of fruits and nuts – things are getting nuttier by the day.

Ever since the October 2001 high of 84%, the approval ratings of Congress have been in the toilet. Today it hovers around 18 percent. One amazing factoid is that during that high in approval both the Senate and House were controlled by – you guessed it – Republicans. In fact, the oft-maligned 43^rd President George W. Bush was in the Whitehouse during that period. How soon we forget.

True, Republicans wrenched the House leadership from Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in 2012, but the Democrat controlled Senate and the head Democrat in the Whitehouse continue to kill any worthwhile legislation coming from the Republican controlled House. At present there are 352 bills sitting on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) desk, awaiting action.

Here’s another interesting factoid; 98 percent of those bills languishing on Reid’s desk – or possibly in his round file – passed with bipartisan support, 50 percent of the bills passed unanimously – with no opposition, 70 percent of the bills passed with two-thirds support in the House, and over 55 bills were introduced by Democrats! Clearly, the blockage in this process is not with the Republican controlled House of Representatives. The Democrats in the Senate that are holding up the works!

But what the heck, even if a bill could squeeze out of the Senate, there isn’t much of a chance Obama would sign it unless there were some political advantage for the Democrats.

Why are the Congressional approval ratings at an all-time low? There you have it. The Democrats are fouling up the works.

Then of course, we have the great Blue State super-majority in California running things into the ground. The California unemployment rate, while dropping, is 7.4 percent, still higher than the national average of 6.2 percent. Now look at the unemployment rate of Texas, at 5.1 percent. Could the fact that Texas is so easily sucking businesses from California have anything to do with the difference in unemployment rates?

This state is leaking jobs faster than a cheesecloth patch on the Hoover dam. And it is only bound to get worse. Not only has the state not done anything to stem the leak, they continue to make it worse with more asinine regulations and additional taxes disguised as “fees.” The trend toward much higher minimum wages, the ban on plastic bags, and the state grab of motor vehicle fees from cities are but a few examples of the hostile – there can be no other word – actions taken by the Democrat super-majority and Governor “Moonbeam.”

Folks it’s payback time. Time to reverse this assault on normality. Drive the Philistines out. Purge our government of the foul insidious virus that is destroying our state and the country at large. Help change the catastrophic direction of our ship-of-state away from the rocks we are now headed for. On November 4, vote the Democrats out, and restore some sense of reason to our government. The course correction is in your hands.

Tarnished Gold

I was born in California. All my life it was known as “The Golden State.” In 1968, that designation became the official nickname of California. Today most of the real gold is gone and what is left is akin to iron pyrite, aka “Fools Gold.”

I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. There may still be real gold in “them thar hills”, but politically and economically this state has definitely lost its luster.

At one time California was the economic powerhouse of the nation. It was said that if California were an independent country, it would have the world’s seventh largest economy. I don’t know how true that is, but today it seems more like a third-world country.

The blame for this sets squarely on the shoulders of California voters. This is not just a blue state it is deep blue – as blue as the California sky on a clear day. And while many may say, “what’s wrong with that”, they might want to just open their eyes for a moment or two.

California used to be the address for a business to have. Today other states, Texas in particular, find it far too easy to pluck businesses – and jobs – from California. And who could blame a business for leaving? This state has become like the airlines; there is a fee for every little thing you do and then there are taxes and additional taxes, and regulations and more regulations.

It’s safe to say that California has a hostile attitude toward business and industry.

Wait a minute, something about this just does not compute. California is a blue state run entirely by Democrats, but don’t Democrats claim to be champions of the working class? Where will the working class work when the businesses leave the state? Oh, I see they will work for the government. And where will the government get the money to pay these workers, from businesses? But the businesses are leaving the state.

What will the additional workers actually do? Aah, they will police the new regulations and fees the state will impose on remaining businesses to increase revenue. Well that will solve everything.

Okay, wakie, wakie, time to see the daylight. As one very popular Californian once said, “government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.” Thank you Ronald Reagan.

The sole function of businesses is not to provide jobs. It is to make a profit and increase the wealth of its shareholders. But guess what, no business can function without workers – duh! Jobs are created when businesses thrive. Profit is not a dirty word. It doesn’t even have four letters. In a capitalist system, profit is what makes the world turn. Don’t discourage profit; embrace it.

Is there hope for California to regain its luster? Maybe, but it won’t come easy or quick. Losing businesses is like a squandered youth, once it’s gone it’s gone and not likely coming back.  Fortunately, there are new businesses and industries being created every day – just not many in California. We can lure these businesses – and jobs – to California if our state government has the will to do so.

First, we need to clean house in Sacramento. Get rid of the obstructionist Democrats. That includes governor Moonbeam. You have the opportunity to make a dent in obstructions blocking new businesses in November. “Throw the bums out!” Or you can stand by and wave good by as more and more jobs leave the state.

It is your choice. Do you want to live again in the Golden State or reside in the “Fools Gold State”?

Is Vladimir Putin The New Joseph Stalin?

Well … maybe. There can be no doubt Putin is giddy with power. Here is a man who started his career in the old Soviet KGB and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before moving on to bigger and better things when the Soviet era came to a screeching halt. Since 1999 Putin has been alternately President and Prime Minister of Russia – the part left when all of the former Soviet satellites left the communist system. I think it’s safe to say he thrives on power. It is also safe to say he is a communist who at one time was and still may be loyal to the Soviet communist system.

Joseph Stalin – that is not his real name, by the way, he was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili and went by a number of aliases – was the son of a poor Georgian cobbler who was seldom home during his son’s childhood. Stalin probably would have remained a dirt-poor peasant had he not been able to obtain a position in the seminary. He was never ordained, probably due to his reputation as a troublemaker in school.

Stalin had ambition, but could never quite bring himself to perform his own misdeeds. He always enticed others to do the dirty work. Somewhere in his early years, Stalin became a dedicated Marxist, and believed he was championing the cause of the simple workers. Eventually Lenin and Stalin came together in their common cause, but Lenin never trusted Stalin.

Following Lenin’s death Stalin weaseled his way into becoming the head of the Council of Supreme Commissars. Stalin had always been Paranoid by degrees and had no qualms about steamrolling over friends and colleges to achieve his goals. In later years, that included having friends and colleges killed or condemed to gulags at Stalin’s whim.

Had WWII not broke out Stalin might have been just another footnote in Russian history. He took the reigns of the military and through little real military talent of his own managed to allow his generals to fight a war that nobody gave the Russians a chance of winning. The Soviet people were duped enough to believe Stalin had accomplished this feat, and with the ruthless elimination of his top generals at war’s end, no one could or would set them right.

With Europe in a volatile state of flux after the war, Stalin had little trouble gobbling up countries that Hitler had invaded then abandoned. Thus the Soviet Union was formed.

Fast forward to Glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Boris Yeltsin taking the reigns of the Soviet Union. Up to this point the communist state existed as Stalin had left it upon his death. Yeltsin brought an end to the one-party system and opened the country to western ideas. Communism collapsed of its own oppressive weight, and countries under the thumb of the Soviet system were able to finally achieve sovereignty.

Okay, the communists didn’t just dry up and blow away. They gave themselves new titles and assimilated into the reorganized Russian government. Sixty some years of communist indoctrination didn’t just flip a switch and disappear. It remains as an insidious virus within the new Russian government.

Putin is a large part of that holdover from the old Soviet system. In the last fifteen years, he has solidified his power base, and now appears to enjoy the same degree of power Joseph Stalin wielded.

But is Putin another version of Stalin? The personalities may be different – Putin doesn’t seem to be as paranoid as Stalin, although he may be just as ruthless – but you can bet Putin has the same desire to restore the old Soviet Union. The question is what lengths is he willing to go to achieve his goals? He has recently shown that may have no hesitation at using atomic weapons, and even test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine.

Taking Obama at his word about being flexible, Putin took Georgia and the Crimea with only hollow protests from our Commander-in-Chief. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the full Ukraine is next on his shopping list, and he is certain we will do nothing more than impose sanctions that he can circumvent.

After the Ukraine falls, what is next, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, maybe even Poland? This guy is only 62. Imagine the damage he can do with the rest of his years.

Putin may not be Stalin, but he is certainly following in his footsteps. Are you ready for another cold war?

Do We Need More Laws?

Do you have any idea what laws govern your life, or even how many there are? I’m not talking about the immutable laws of nature and physics; I mean the manmade laws that are imposed on our everyday life.

This is the land of the free – as long as you follow the laws, rules, and regulations of your local authority, county authority, state, and federal government. Of course, if you leave the country, or deal with foreign countries, you have more laws and regulations. Even if you take a boat off shore, you still have to deal with Maritime law.

You are quite likely breaking several laws or regulations at this very moment – and you don’t even know it.

I spent some time at the computer trying to figure out just how many laws pertain to my particular life. It’s an impossible task. Believe me, there are thousands, possibly millions of laws pertaining to virtually every aspect of your life. And for any holes those codified laws might not cover, there is this nebulous thing called common law.

If you are doing something right now, or even if you are doing nothing, there are laws that govern that.

When I was younger, I worked as a police officer in a small community. One of the first things I learned was the power of selective enforcement. It’s a term that cover’s an officer’s rear when some laws are not enforced. (“I choose not to arrest that jay-walker because I’m busy with a bank robbery right now.”) The truth is, there are just too many laws to enforce every one of them uniformly all the time.

That doesn’t seem to deter lawmakers, though. Every year they crank out ever more laws – even knowing that many will never be enforced.

At what point are there enough laws on the books? When are there so many laws that one more can’t be written?

I think I found the key to this problem. As long as we have lawyers, there will be lawmakers. As long as lawmakers turn out laws there will be lawyers. Guess who the vast majority of lawmakers are – you guessed it, lawyers. It is a self-serving vicious circle. And one for which we pay dearly.

It’s called the Justice System, but where is the justice in being arrested for breaking a law you don’t even know about? And we are told ignorance of the law is no defense. True, many of the basic laws are simply common sense for any moral person – don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t assault others – just common sense. But even within these core values, there are so many definitions attempting to cover every detail that one could easily break the law without ever realizing it.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and venture a guess that not one person knows every manmade law that governs our lives. Oh, they are codified somewhere, and I am certain someone could find a law, rule, or regulation to cover virtually any circumstance. I just don’t understand how a nation that prizes freedom as much as we do can have so many laws, rules, and regulations.

Yet, we have full-time governmental bodies that continually turn out more laws, rules, and regulations in volume every year. When do we say enough? When do we tell lawmakers to clean up the legal code? Get rid of old laws that no longer fit in today’s environment. When do we say that if a law isn’t taught and clearly published to the citizenry, it is not a valid law?

C’mon people, after 238 years of constant lawmaking, shouldn’t there be enough laws already? Do we really need more?

What, Me Worry?

These are the immortal words of Mad Magazine’s iconic Alfred E. Newman. I can still see his brain-dead smirking face. These days, this also seems to be the apathetic attitude of the American public.

Thirteen years ago, a group of crazed Muslims kicked us in a soft and sensitive spot. We came out of our apathetic stupor for a moment or two when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon came under attack. These Muslim thugs had poked a sleeping tiger, or so we thought.

After a few months of air strikes, we had Al Qaida on the run. Unfortunately, for us, they ran straight for what we considered a “friendly nation”, Pakistan. Pakistan turned out to be a very friendly nation – for Al Qaida. Our leaders had little stomach for storming a country that has atomic weapons. So, we picked and poked at Al Qaida locations taking their leaders out one-at-a-time.

Meanwhile the other Muslim radicals in Afghanistan, the Taliban, kept us at bay for thirteen years, until our president decided to turn-tail and leave the Afghanistan people to their own devices. Well if you don’t have the will to win, you might as well retreat.

On September 11, 2001, Al Qaida showed the world America’s vulnerability. Many theories have been floated as to just why Al Qaida attacked a nation that had no ax to grind with them. My theory is that like a dog licking his rear, they did it simply because they could. Once again, as in December 7, 1941, our leaders knew of the threat but were not politically motivated to take preventative actions to protect us.

Today – in good part because of our lack of resolve to win in Iraq or Afghanistan – there is a cancer metastasizing in the Middle East. No matter what name they go by, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al Qaida, Taliban, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, or any of the myriad of aliases these Muslim thugs come up with, they all have one thing in common: they are groups of murderous and extremely dangerous tyrants. And they are out to eliminate – read kill – all men, women, and children that are not of their ilk.

No, these animals are not interested in negotiating peace, cease fire, or even discussing reasonable cohabitation. They have but one goal, and that is to murder everyone that does not subscribe to their version of Islam.

These vermin destroy mosques and kill fellow Muslims that are not of their particular sect or radical views. If it were a matter of race or ethnicity, it would be termed genocide or at the very least ethnic cleansing. Yet, the one body that pretends to be caretaker of the world, the United Nations, has done nothing to stop the killing and devastation being wrought on people in the Middle East. Of course, what can they do? The UN is merely an item in the expense column of Western country’s budgets. They never really do anything but carp about funding, the climate, and try to foist their socialist agenda on other nations.

Many other nations, including the US, have citizens willing to fight alongside these radicals. It’s not a novel situation. Americans fought alongside Russians in the Bolshevik revolution, also in the Spanish war. This time, though, these people are being indoctrinated with ideas that could very well result in attacks on our own country.

True, Lenin’s unfulfilled goal may have been to spread communism to the entire world, but there is no indication that he advocated killing every non-communist man, woman, and child. ISIL, or ISIS, or Islamic State – whatever they want to call themselves – is a murdering bunch of radical thugs with no moral compass or sense of decency.

As the Commander-in-Chief of all of our country’s military, one might reasonably believe he would have some inkling how to handle the situation. Yes, one would think. One would be wrong. Obama confessed on live TV that he has “… no strategy for dealing with ISIL.”  It seems Obama believes a strong tongue lashing and name calling will get the job done.

Our leaders are asleep at the wheel, and we are apathetic enough to let them be that way. Action is needed NOW!

What, me worry? You bet! You need to start worrying, before Mohamed’s misguided horde shows up at your door with machine guns and bloody machetes, and the latest fashions at the mall are suicide vests with designer labels.

The Gimme Generation

 Somewhere along the way, we started naming our generations. We had the Greatest Generation, the ‘ 50s Generation, the Hippie Generation, the Now Generation, the Me Generation, the X Generation, the Millennial Generation, and probably others I can’t recall. Now, I don’t know exactly who decides these names or even how they are determined, but the generation surviving the Obama years could rightly be called the Gimme Generation.

A noble American hallmark is that we try not to let the needy suffer. There are myriad of religious and private charitable organizations that help those in need. Through the years, a benevolent congress has seen fit to create government programs to help those unable to help themselves. Like everything else in government, these programs have spawned increasingly more give-away programs. All funded, obviously, by taxpayers.

In 2007, we entered what some term the Great Recession. Americans all felt the pinch – some more than others. Falling housing values, disappearing jobs, high unemployment, foreclosures, loan defaults, and bankruptcies put a real hurt on a wide swath of the population.

Even more government handout programs were spawned in the name of economic recovery. Companies, and individuals were crying for help. The federal government handed out some 17 trillion dollars more than we had, and put us in monstrous debt.

Many of the bailed out companies have reportedly repaid their debt, and many of the individuals that were helped by government programs were indeed thankful and are on the road to economic self-sufficiency. Although the government claims the recession is over and millions of new jobs have reportedly been created, the poverty level keeps climbing even while the national debt is increasing. How could this be happening?

I saw a report from FoxNews.com titled Food Stamp Fraud Rampant: GAO Report. The piece centered on a Government Accounting Office report from August 5. Apparently, Americans receiving food stamps were caught selling and bartering their benefits online for art, housing, and cash.

I checked it out. Even though claims that the recession is over, the amount of food assistance is incredibly rising. According to data I obtained from the FDA, the total cost of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2007, the reported recession beginning, was 33.172 billion dollars. In 2013, the cost jumped to 79.923 billion dollars. That’s a 140% increase! In 2007, there were 26.136 million people receiving SNAP; by 2013 that had jumped to 47.036 million. If the recession is over, why aren’t these numbers going down?

Now enter the fraud factor. The government calls them “overpayments.” This doesn’t begin to describe the nature of this abuse of taxpayer money. People have sold and bartered SNAP funds to buy items unrelated to food, and many ineligible people are receiving SNAP money. Payments are going to dead people and prisoners.

Just how much fraud is there? Good question. The GAO report uses data from 1997 and 1998, and has conspicuously not shown current fraud data. In 1995, there were 12,000 prisoners in four states receiving food stamps. There is nothing in the report to show that this condition has improved, or that the number of ineligible recipients has dropped. To the contrary, since 2002 all states are required to issue EBT cards that work like bank debit cards. Now it is even easier to spend our tax dollars on things not intended for the SNAP program, and certainly not essential for sustenance.

Consider SNAP is but one government program handing out free stuff. From cell phones to free breakfast and lunches at schools, Americans are getting ever more stuff at taxpayer expense. What will happen when there are no more taxpayers left to foot the bill? Ain’t socialism grand?

I have to wonder. Are government figures lying to us about the recession being over, or are we simply becoming the Gimme Generation?

Why Is Life Still Black-and-White?

 It’s still a black-and-white world. In the ‘50s, we had a black-and-white TV, movies were in black-and-white, our cameras mostly used black-and-white film, and our buses and lunch counters were divided by black and white, so were our communities.

When color television came out, our world suddenly took on a new depth. Color film became available for the masses. The movies were in “living color.” But until the ‘60s our buses, lunch counters, and communities were still separated by black and white.

When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964, the expectation was that the last black-and-white part of our lives would finally be changed. And to some extent, it was. Blacks and whites could finally sit wherever they wanted at lunch counters, our segregated neighborhoods began to take on new color, and anyone that still rode a bus could sit wherever there was room. At last, our country would be a fully integrated society.

Whoa, wait a minute. That last part didn’t really happen, did it? After 1964, some things did change, and great strides were made to affect a color-blind society, but we are still plagued by complaints from the “Black Community” over perceived racial injustices.

In the late ‘60s, we had race riots. Today, we still have race riots. Why?

For decades, affirmative action has been placing under-achieving minorities in classes to the detriment of overall education. Despite anti-segregation laws, minorities still group together in their own communities, and sit together at lunch counters and on buses. Blacks who have risen above the poverty level and become productive members of society are looked down on by other Blacks. For the first time in the history of our country, we have a half-Black President, who was elected, not on his record of achievements, education, or proven competent leadership, but because of his race.

Why, if technology can add color to the way we view the world, can legislation not eliminate the boundaries of a black-and-white society? Why, after fifty years are we still having race riots?

I believe the answer lies simply in human nature. We do not have a color-blind society because the minority side doesn’t want a level playing field. High-profile rabble-rousers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton thrive on race baiting. And, unfortunately for the Black communities, they are not the only ones. Whites and Blacks poke at the hornet’s nest of racial animosity. From the time they are born, Blacks are fed the propaganda that they are being beat down by Whites. It is no wonder so many blacks suffer from a serious inferiority complex that they mask by a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.

Anti-segregation laws and school busing were supposed to create an integrated society. To a small extent, these laws produced the desired effect. Why, then, do we still have minority communities? Why are there still schools with predominantly minority students?

Again, it comes down to human nature. People of like-mindedness will always seek each other out. They will find a way to congregate with others of the same stripe. Laws cannot change human nature. There is no country in the world that is truly integrated and, where communities contain a well-distributed population of diverse colored citizens.

The latest incident of rioting instigated by race baiting comes from Ferguson, Missouri, where the National Guard has been sent in to quell the rioting. The match to this powder keg was a black teen named Michael Brown.

I bring this incident up simply to illustrate my point that the race-baiting rabble-rousers are keeping Blacks in their self-pitying wallow.

Like Trayvon Martin, Rodney King and other rioting flash points, Michael Brown was no choir boy. Brown was a street thug. Footage of a convenience store robbery just before the incident that got him shot by the police, show Brown stealing items from the store, and when a customer points this out, he grabs the customer by the throat and picks him off the ground. Later, Brown and a friend are walking in the middle of the street, When a police officer pulls his marked cruiser up to ask why they are in the street, Brown rips the door to the car open and assaults the officer.

According to police reports, Brown tried to get the officer’s gun and was shot. When the officer got out of the car, the wounded Brown turned and charged the officer. At that point, the officer rightly feared for his life and put some five rounds into Brown, killing him.

This is the point where the race baiting begins. Michael Brown is Black and a teen in a predominantly black neighborhood. Brown’s accomplice in his walk in the middle of the street says Brown had his hands up saying don’t shoot. Suddenly, the neighborhood is full of “witnesses” claiming the police shot an unarmed Black teen. Next, the high-profile rabble-rousing race baiters stir up the Black community and rioting breaks out.

Of course, what’s a good riot with out an ample amount of gratuitous looting? Free stuff for the down trodden. Hell, you don’t even need food stamps.

Still black-and-white? You bet. And our communities will remain black-and-white until everyone understands that we are all members of the same species – Homo Sapien.

Thousands of years ago two species inhabited the earth at the same time – Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. The Neanderthals are no longer with us, yet many of us have Neanderthal genes. Did we interbreed the Neanderthals out of existence, or did the species baiters finally drive the Homo Sapiens to kill off the Neanderthals?

The consistent attribute of history is that it always repeats itself.

Thank God for Anesthesia

I was in the kitchen the other night when the wife hollers from the living room, “come watch this. Doctor Oz is operating.” Not that I watch such things, but because she thought I would find it interesting, I stuck my head in.

For those three or four people in the world not familiar with the good doctor, here is a short bio lifted from Wikipedia: Oz was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982, he received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University. In 1986, he obtained MD and MBA degrees respectively at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Wharton School. He was awarded the Captain's Athletic Award for leadership in college, was class president and then student body president during medical school.

Oz has been a professor at the Department of Surgery at Columbia University since 2001. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and health care policy. With his collaborators, he has authored over 400 research papers, book chapters and medical books, and has received several patents.

This night, he was appearing in a show about things that go on in New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Oz was doing open-heart surgery on a woman with a hole between the chambers of her heart, and his daughter would be accompanying him in the operating room.

The show was a little annoying since it consisted of a series of flashes of different procedures going on that day. Finally, the segment came on to show a patient on the operating table with a crowd of people all in blue scrubs gathered around a cover with a slit in it that revealed the woman’s beating heart.

Everyone – except the patient – looked alike in their head-to-foot garb, but we could tell by the voice that the man poking around in this woman’s heart and describing the operation must have been doctor Oz. Suddenly and without warning you hear, “what’s that?”

My eyes popped open. What’s that! These words are right up there with “oops”, and “oh damn” that you never expect to hear on the operating table – especially from your surgeon. Mercifully, the woman was deep under anesthesia. Had I been the patient and not under anesthesia, I might have shouted something like, “What is that! Did you drop your watch in there? How many of these operations have you done doctor? You still don’t know the anatomy of the heart? Is it too late for a second opinion? Nurse, put me back together. I’m checking out of here!”

They got the woman’s heart repaired, but we never learned what prompted the doctor’s query of what must have been an unusual finding in her heart. You would think that a seasoned heart surgeon and celebrated television host might know better than to utter a phrase like that while poking around in someone’s heart on national television.

I have undergone a number of surgeries, and I have to wonder if this sort of thing is commonplace in operating rooms. If so, the doctor and I both have an additional reason to be thankful for anesthesia. If the surgery doesn’t kill you, the mindless chatter in the room might.

Military Un-intelligence

 Imagine you are in the Army and involved with heavy fighting in Afghanistan. Along comes a messenger. Instead of carrying a critical message on enemy positions, he hands you a pink slip. You are fired!

It’s a joke, right? No joke. This is what happened to 48 Army Captains this week in Afghanistan.

These are not your normal non-critical rank support troops. Captains are normally company-level command officers. They have a full compliment of men and women under their command – depending on them for life-and-death decisions in a war zone. Now some genius in the pentagon decides to just pluck them out of the war zone and send them down the road.

Was there any thought of what the troops under them will do without their commander? At best it would destroy morale. At worst it will lead to deadly confusion leading to unnecessary risks and possible combat casualties. Remember, we are still at war in Afghanistan.

And what of those officers suddenly canned? They aren’t going to get a lot of time to look for a new job. “I’m sorry. I can’t come for an interview right now. I’m in the middle of a firefight.” Yeah, that’s going to go over with a prospective employer.

It is blatantly obvious this draw down and military cost-cutting is not just misguided but gotten completely out-of-hand and insane. How many officers are on the chopping block at the pentagon? Most of those serving there are merely paper shufflers and pencil-pushers. They spend the entire day in boring and mundane meetings where nothing of consequence gets done, and shuttling paper from one office to another.

At the General and Admiral level, there are far to many still serving. We have never had so many top-level officers even during the Second World War. Many of these Generals are merely shining the seat of their pants, and are far beyond retirement age.

Another factor that makes no sense is a report by the World Tribune. Officials said the ‘Defense Department has been keeping records and tracking Muslims so they can encourage their presence and continued advancement in the military.’

We need more Muslims, not combat experienced Captains in the Army? The inmates are seriously in charge of the asylum! Sure, bring on another bunch of Muslim officers like Major Nadal Hassan, the Fort Hood murderer.

I am a strong proponent of cost-cutting, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. This administration is hell-bent on doing it the wrong way – a dangerous way for our nation. The draw down in Afghanistan is a prime example of incompetent administration at its worst.

Instead of storing perfectly serviceable weapon systems or selling or even donating them to friendly armies that desperately need them, we blow up equipment we have paid billions for. Some of our best weapons such as the A-10, “Warthog”, are to be scrapped with no suitable replacements,  even though both the Marines and Army say they are critically needed. The F-22 production is terminated in favor of the troubled F-35. On, and on, and on…

Now we have military commanders being fired while still engaged in combat. I guess this is what happens when you have a “community organizer” for Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s military. My solution to the problem would be to fire the man at the top and every unqualified civilian beneath him, then replace him with someone who knows which end of a gun the bullet comes out of. Put a qualified professional military man in charge.

I have to wonder what other idiotic actions might be planned for our servicemen and women of the front line. Will they suddenly take their weapons and ammunition in the middle of a firefight? I never thought anything that outrageous could happen, but I’m not so sure these days.

The AWOL President

When the sun is high on 100-plus degree days, there is only one thing to do – go get something cold and refreshing. So, I’m sitting on this barstool and the guy next to me sees something on the TV that he feels the urge to comment about.

“The world is going to hell in a hand-basket.” He says. I pretend to ignore Captain Obvious.

“We have Israel bombing he Gaza Strip, Russians shooting down airliners in the Ukraine, kids and women streaming across our southern border, civil war in Syria, Iraq and Syria being taken over by Muslim terrorists, and people in this country that still can’t find work but are no longer on the unemployment rolls.” He took a sip of his beer before continuing. “How is our president going to handle all this?” He asked.

“He’s not!” I replied. “The leader of the free world is far too busy fundraising and golfing to be bothered with serious matters. John Boehner said it best, ‘Our president is AWOL.’ That’s military speak for absent without official leave. Another fitting military saying is SNAFU. That means situation normal all fouled up – or something close to that.”

“But isn’t Obama doing anything about these problems?” He asked. “Didn’t he go to Texas when their Governor wanted to put National Guard troops on the border?”

Has this guy been brainwashed by the Lamestream Media, or just stupid? “Obama did go to Texas but not to do anything about the border crisis there. He went to raise money for the democrats. He was miffed when Governor Perry declined to meet him at the airport for a ring-kissing. Perry told the president he would be happy to sit down for substantive talks about the border crisis. Obama put that on the back burner.”

His face scrunched up, and he said, “But the president already has a plan to take care of the children coming across the border, doesn’t he?”

“Right, a plan that will cost us 3.7 billion tax dollars for healthcare and foster parents for these kids. Do you consider these kids are your problem? Do you feel obliged to pay for them to be here? What we need is a plan that will stop them at the border and not let these kids on US soil. We need to fund the border fence already approved and waiting for money to finish building. We need increased border security – more Border Patrol agents and maybe armed National Guard troops to stop the invasion.”

He shook his head. “The Republicans are blocking any immigration reform plans that come up.”

“Not really. They block any plans that call for amnesty. That didn’t work the last time we tried it. We now have twenty million more illegals that want amnesty. Where does it end – when the last person leaves Central America?”

He shook his head. “That is just one problem our president is working to resolve, but what can he do about the other problems in the world? How can he stop Israel from bombing the Palestinians? And what about the Ukrainian crisis?”

“Forget it.” I said. “The only way Obama would pay full attention to these and the other crises in the world would be if he could do a fundraiser there or had a golf date in those countries. Even if he would devote some time to these problems, he doesn’t have the experience to even guess what to do about them.”

My new friend continued to blather on about Obama’s abilities, but after nearly six years of watching our Commander-in-Chief, flounder from one crisis to another with no tangible result, I knew he was beating a dead horse. I think he knew it too, but couldn’t admit he voted for the wrong person – twice.

I can’t decide which is worse: to have Obama AWOL or taking charge of a situation just to screw it up.