The Truth

I have been trying to keep myself under control when the kooks are talking about secession.  For the US, that question has been asked and answered with a resounding NO as the final verdict which was voted on by over 600,000 dead Americans.

As I am fashioning a heavy duty aluminum foil chapeau, I do have to wonder of the extraordinary dump of inflammatory information which occurred over the weekend.  I guess it is true, "Mister Obama, you got some esplaning to do!"

So many sacrificial sheep are currently falling out of the sky that I may mold my hat into a hardhat in order to save my cranium from physical damage.  At this point, I don't care who falls and who stays; or who resigns or who may be impeached:  I want the full unadulterated truth on why we lost four Americans on September 11, 2012.  And why there was a massive cover up after the incident. In addition, what type of parole violation would place an American in jail for a year.  How must this man feel about the United States when he his attacked by the present administration for exercising First Amendment rights.

I guess we have seen it before.  I remember a previous administration attacking a religious compound under the guise of saving children from reported abuse.  The horrific result was that the Justice Department shot and burned all the members of the sect, including the children they cared so much about.  I remember cringing in disgust and anger when a reporter asked President Clinton about the gruesome result and he simply referred him to Attorney General Reno, because after all, she was in charge of the incident.

The scales of justice shine brightest in full sunshine.

A good thorough, objective and bipartisan look at this matter of American dead in Libya is needed and the avenue in which to do it is a Congressional committee.  The executive branch has shown it cannot be trusted on this issue.  With America split 50/50 on support for Obama and Romney, this panel should be easy to form.  Truth is what they should seek and let the chips fall where they may. 

Presidents should be less concerned about their legacies and more concerned about the  proper governance of all the people they represent.  Their legacy will not be determined now, in the present, but fifty to one hundred years hence when the emotion of the moment has dissipated and the public and historians may review their administrations in excruciating detail.

Congratulations on your reelection President Obama.

Now show us how you can measure up to the current demands of the office of President of the United States.

Some Are More Equal Than Others

I feel bad.  My feelings have been hurt.  For the second consecutive presidential election in Pennsylvania my wish for president has gone unfulfilled.

I have also discovered that as a white male, I am now, an official minority.  So as recent American trends have developed, I want to impose my wishes over the ruling of the majority.

In Pennsylvania, the results for the presidential election were as follows:

            Barack Obama - 52% of the popular vote at 2,894,079

            Mitt Romney     - 47% of the popular vote at 2,610,385

These figures make it a fact that I and 2,610,384 other Pennsylvanians are minority voters.  The majority has paid no attention to our needs or wants but has cast their votes for a candidate, we in the minority, don't want.  This will prompt the 20 electoral college voters to cast their vote for the majority approved president elect.  IS THAT FAIR!!  NO!!

There are 67 counties in the Keystone State and 55 counties were Red (82%) and only 12 (18%) were Blue.  This is absolute proof that we Romney voters got the shaft.  But don't you worry, I have a solution to ease the guilty conscience of the Obama voters.

The electors should cast their votes as dictated by the number of counties for each candidate.  So if we used yesterday's results, the 20 electors would have to cast their vote for Romney because he took the state by a county count of 55 to 12.

This new system would strip the oppressive counties of Philadelphia, Erie, Allegheny, Dauphin, Luzerne, Lackawanna, Monroe, Northampton, Lehigh, Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware of their powers to subjugate us 55.  Domari Nolo!

Write the governor.  Write your legislative representatives.  How long will this tyranny last?   

The Fate of Man

What causes man to war?

What causes man to hate?

What sparks his bent to evil?

What sparks his bent to malice?

What lessons must he learn,

to avoid the great mistakes?

What suffering must he endure,

to find it's his own fate?

                              Jerry Desko

War will always be with us since it is part of the human condition.  

At times, we could at least, contemplate its cost.

American Cemetery and Memorial at Normandy

Treason and Civil Rights

In  Benghazi, Libya, the American Consulate was attacked and four American diplomatic workers were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

In Cairo, Egypt, a crowd of 500 demonstrators breached the outer perimeter of the American embassy and set a vehicle on fire.  A statement by Ambassador Anne W. Patterson blamed the violence on people who said bad things about someone's religion.

Ambassador Patterson's statement is a direct attack on First Amendment privileges.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

Both incidents happened on September 11, 2012.

The Egyptian government is controlled by an organization called the Muslim Brotherhood.   During the "Arab Spring" the Obama administration sat back and did nothing to stop this group from taking power and allowed our alley, Hosni Mubarak to be taken away to jail.  Many security experts warned at the time that the Muslim Brotherhood is a cover for radical Muslims throughout the world.

The Obama administration ignored these warnings and has even gone further by giving Egypt foreign aid money.

It occurs to me that the present administration has the same foreign policy acumen as the Carter administration. 

The administration's failure to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from taking power resembles the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain when he dealt with Adolph Hitler. 

In addition, in this election year, the President is campaigning as a champion of women's rights.  The irony is, radical Muslims don't believe women have any rights.

To financially support the new Egyptian government is treasonous in that it lends aid and comfort to our enemies.

The failure of the State Department to tighten security at foreign posts on an anniversary of September 11, 2001, smacks of total clueless incompetence.

That's the way I see it.

The Charters of Freedom

WHAT????

FIRED FOR ONE'S POLITICAL BELIEF'S?? 

How intolerant, prejudicial, bias and racist is that?

Are we living in a democratic republic or a totalitarian state?

ERMEY FIRED

A CAPITOL DUD

I have just finished watching, excuse my language and for lack of a better phrase, a huge Suck Fest on PBS.

It was billed as A Capitol Fourth : America's Independence Day Celebration.

It ran for one and a half hours.  The first hour and fifteen minutes was nothing but a concert which featured mediocre talent from the past and present that sang tunes from the seventies through the nineties.  

None of it was entertaining and there were no headliners which appeared in the performances.  I guess the entire tone for the whole program was represented by the melba milk toast, little known host, Tom Bergeron.  PLEASE!!!!!

Let me get this straight, to celebrate the 236th birthday of the United States we'll entertain a national audience with singing talent, no one knows and a host, most Americans have never heard of!  WHY?

The last fifteen minutes was filled with orchestral music that included Souza marches and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture intermixed with a visual background scene of a giant fireworks display.  Fine, the martial music is appropriate for the celebration BUT why would a piece of music that celebrates the Russian victory in defense of the French taking Moscow, have to do with our thirteen colonies in North America, separating from the control of England in 1776?

Why do we celebrate national holidays?  To remember seminal events in our nation's history and give thanks to those who sacrificed for us as well as to understand the experience in the context of the past and how it shapes our future.  So where was any allusion to historical events? 

There was none.

The Declaration of Independence was never mentioned or discussed.  There was no allusion to our Founding Fathers or reference to the American Revolution.  The significance of the event of July 4, 1776 was never related to any event that took place that was part of our nation's history or identity.

Has the July Fourth holiday just become a reason for a day off, or a reason for a barbeque, or a reason for a sale of merchandise or the cheapest reason for a mindless celebration?

It is a national disgrace that we as a society have lost our reverence for and our honoring of those who have come before us and who sacrificed so much. 

How sad, how very sad.

How about the following.

"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, ..."

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Thank God, some of us remember. 

Thank you, to those of you, who came before us and have had the vision to create the greatest country on the planet. 

May God bless the United States of America.

BUREAUCRATIC BRAVO SIERRA

Well I almost said something nice about The Gettysburg Foundation this week.  Alas, almost!!

A friend alerted me on facebook that The Gettysburg Foundation and the Gettysburg National Military Park were offering a plethora of talks about the Civil War.  When I checked it out, there were to be three days of talks, all for free on June 29, 30 and July 1, along with book signings.  WOW! GREAT!

When I looked the schedule over I found most of the ones I was interested in were set for the afternoon of June 29. 

Earlier today, I traveled to the visitor's center and even found parking in the regular lot.  What a great day, in spite of the heat, history lectures and good companionship, what else would you need?  (At my house the temperature was 102 degrees in the shade!!)

As I approached the visitor's center I heard the muffled sound of a voice on a loudspeaker.  As I got nearer the building, I realized the talks are being given outside under a tent!!!!!!!!!!!  One hundred and two degrees in the shade!?!?!?

I was incredulous. 

The programs are being presented in a marquee adjacent to a multimillion dollar temperature controlled boondoggle!  I paused for a moment and listened to a few words that speaker was saying during his talk on the Maryland Campaign.

I found the heat stifling in spite of the fact at least a half dozen fans were set on full blast.   I immediately thought of the Ford Motor Company Lecture rooms.

As I entered the building, I noticed a noted author basking in the temperature controlled climate.  He had a total of one person in his queue. 

I went to the back of the building and checked on the lecture rooms.  The large room had the divider up, both doors were locked and NOT ONE PERSON WAS IN EITHER ROOM!!

Upon returning to the front of the building I noticed the author still had only one person in the line.

As I left the building I was furious.  Is it just me? 

As a taxpayer I was outraged at the National Park Service.  And as for The Gettysburg Foundation, this is exactly why I now hold my monetary  support.

"This event is free."  Indeed it was.  The question is, should it have been located in the empty air conditioned classroom instead of outside in the oppressive heat.

Needless to say I did not stay for the lectures.  As I traveled home I calmed down.  I began to realize that the Gettysburg National Military Park is about the men and women who sacrificed and suffered there.  It is not about the incompetent bureaucratic bunglers that have been placed in charge of caring for and overseeing that hallowed ground.

I hope everyone has a meaningful and satisfying July Fourth holiday. 

May God bless the United States of America.