RIP Republicans!

Adds some Clarity to the Current State of Affairs in the World Doesn't it!

Class Warriors

Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

Last week’s column was a play with words.  Under discussion was the news media’s unabashed preference for “progressive” movements toward total government control under socialist principles in lieu of “radical” beliefs in individual responsibility and freedom under smaller governments.

Fair, another word, also fits into this discussion.  This is another favorite of liberal or “progressive” class warriors.  Oddly, however, it rarely stands alone.

In progressive terminology, there is always a modifier like “un” or “not,” as in unfair or not fair.  So to be fair, let’s define the basic term.  The simplest definition is that fair is just or appropriate in the circumstances or is in accordance with the rules or standards.

For progressive class warriors, the distribution of wealth of this country is unfair.  In their opinion, the only way that wealth can be distributed in a fair way is to tax it. Bring in the tax money from the greedy wealthy, give 50% or more of it to bureaucrats to study how to distribute it fairly, then pass the remainder to those who pass muster with the bureaucrats.

Under this philosophy, the wealthy never pay their fair share of taxes.  The better off among us indulge themselves with money that should go to the government in taxes.

Rarely will this group acknowledge that those whom they disdain often do a better job of distributing their wealth in a fairer way than could ever be done by bureaucrats.  This better sharing of wealth is frequently illustrated in this paper.

Just last week, for instance, there was an account of the Ed Kruse family’s gift of over 100 acres of expensive land to the city of Brenham for development into a multi-use public park.  How much of that property would end up in a park to be used by citizens from all walks of life if it first had to go through bureaucratic hands?

This gift is just the last of a long list of Kruse benevolence, including Brenham Blue Bell Aquatic Center, an athletic field at Texas A&M, and support of Texas Lutheran University.

A few days later, the $200,000+ donation of Gary and Sandi Applet to construct a permanent home for the Washington County Healthy Living Association.  This association is better known as the Senior Citizen Center, and has been moving from pillar to post for several years.

The new, permanent center will be built on four acres of land previously donated for that purpose to the city of Brenham by the John Kenjura family.

About the time that the Kenjuras were donating land to the city, Dr. Wilfred Dietrich donated the quarter million dollar Dr.Bobbie M. Dietrich Memorial Amphitheater at Hohlt Park to the city of Brenham.  Then, just a few months ago, Wilfred received the Distinguished Service Award from Sam Houston State University in recognition of his gifts of endowed scholarships at seven universities.  As Wilfred noted, “all of us know the act of giving gives a greater pleasure than receiving.”

Not to be forgotten are Leon and Mimmie Toubin and their gift of a lot in the business district of Brenham for the construction of the historically significant Toubin Park telling the story of The Burning of Brenham.  The Toubins are also single handily preserving Brenham’s Jewish Synagogue, the oldest Orthodox Jewish Synagogue in the state, and the Jewish section of Prairie Lee Cemetery.

These are just five local families who are giving generously on a continuing basis to help or comfort all of their neighbors without regard to circumstances. There are countless others quietly assisting in different ways.  Consider, for example, the numerous lists of benefactors adorning the entry halls of Scott and White Hospital, Brenham.

All of this in just one small city in one of the 254 counties in Texas.  How much is it replicated in other small towns and counties around the nation?

Many, if not most, of the donors of this largesse are among that group disdained by “progressives” as unfair because they do not pay their fair share of taxes.  They are, however, among that 53% of taxpayers who pay taxes to pay the salaries of bureaucrats to decide how the taxes will be spent.  Only part of what is left over after all the bureaucratic decision making winds up helping the “less fortunate.”

So here’s the perspective.

Progressive class warriors are fighting a losing battle.  They are striving to make the world fair.

That is not possible.  The world is not fair and never will be.  It is not fair that some are born in wealthy countries like the U.S., much of Europe, and Japan while others are born in countries impoverished for various reasons.  It is not fair that some are born with natural athletic abilities while so many others are just klutzes.  It is not fair that some are born with healthy bodies and minds while others are never able to care for themselves.  It is not fair that some are born and reared in loving, two-parent  families while others have to endure an abusive single parent household.

This list could go on and on.  Enough has been written, however, to paint the picture.

There is no amount of taxes or wealth controlled by any government that could change this picture.  Trying to change it by taking more money out of the pockets of philanthropists through taxes might result in even more unfairness, as too much would go to making government even bigger.

Let’s leave it to those who some believe are not paying a fair share of taxes to decide which group or program would benefit most from their largesse.

Who is really to blame for the Healthcare debacle?

The National Anthem - Suggestions from the Battlefield on how to Sing it!

FROM A MARINE CORPS COLONEL IN AFGHANISTAN .

"SO WITH ALL THE KINDNESS I CAN MUSTER, I GIVE THIS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO

THE NEXT POP STAR WHO IS ASKED TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AT A SPORTING EVENT:

SAVE THE VOCAL GYMNASTICS AND THE PHYSICAL GYRATIONS FOR YOUR CONCERTS. JUST SING THIS SONG THE WAY YOU WERE TAUGHT TO SING IT IN KINDERGARTEN -STRAIGHT UP, NO STYLING. "SING IT WITH THE CONSTANT AWARENESS THAT THERE ARE SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN AND MARINES WATCHING YOU FROM BASES AND OUTPOSTS ALL OVER THE WORLD.

DON'T MAKE THEM CRINGE WITH YOUR SELF-CENTERED EGO GRATIFICATION.

SING IT AS IF YOU ARE STANDING BEFORE A ROW OF 86-YEAR-OLD WWII VETS

WEARING THEIR PURPLE HEARTS, SILVER STARS AND FLAG PINS ON THEIR CARDIGANS AND YOU WANT THEM TO BE PROUD OF YOU FOR HONORING THEM AND THE COUNTRY THEY LOVE - NOT BECAUSE YOU WANT THEM TO THINK YOU ARE A SUPERSTAR MUSICIAN. THEY COULD SEE THAT FROM YOUR COSTUME, MAKEUP AND YOUR ENTOURAGE.

SING 'THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER' WITH THE COURTESY AND HUMILITY THAT TELLS THE AUDIENCE THAT IT IS ABOUT AMERICA, NOT YOU. AND PLEASE REMEMBER, NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE SUNG AS A NEGRO SPIRITUAL.

WE'RE GETTING A LITTLE WEARY OF THAT. FRANCIS SCOTT KEY DOES NOT NEED ANY HELP."

SEMPER FI

Truth!

Speaking of Insanity

Capitalism

Responsibility Starts with Ourselves!

Kyle Field Says to Goodbye to John Manziel

This is just too good.  Thanks Goodbullhunting.com for a great video!

Gig Em!

Texas One Ups Obama - Again!

Texas A&M Fly-by at Mississippi State Game

Since the sequester funding kicked in early this year, “Fly-Bys” at sporting events have been banned by the Obama Administration as a way to, in my opinion, punish the conservative public.  Not surprisingly, since that time Texas A&M has continued fly-bys at its home football games using volunteers flying vintage aircraft from the Commemorative Air Force or privately owned restored aircraft and experimental aircraft.  This last weekend (November 9,  2013) at the last home game for 2013 Texas A&M played Mississippi State.  The plane below did the pre-game fly-by during the National Anthem. 

  

At first blush, during the fly-by my thought was, “well I guess with the new budget deal and no debt ceiling, military fly-bys have returned.  It wasn’t until the end of the third quarter when the air crew was introduced did we learn that this was the ultimate in your face by Conservative Texans and Texas A&M.  The plane is not a US Air Force plane, it is owned by a private citizen and fellow Texan  H. Ross Perot, Jr. and was flown by one of his pilots with Texas Governor, Rick Perry sitting in the back seat as co-pilot!  God I love being a Conservative Aggie and living in Texas!

Gig Em!

Marc '72

An Epidemic of Stupidity

by Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

Anne Murray”s song “A Little Good News” is a lament about the prevalence of bad news in 1983.  If penned today, the longing for a little good news would be even stronger, because bad news has become even more dominant.  

The little good news that does exist is being pushed further back by the growing evidence that stupidity is contagious. 

The contagion has spread to Texas.  The outbreak of the affliction in the state dominated the national news last week just below the coverage of the tanking of ObamaCare.

The severe case of stupidity in the state is being treated in Aledo. That is the home of the football coach whose team beat the Western Hills team 91-0.  The coach pulled his first string after the first 21 plays, played the last strings of his team for all of the second half, and the game clock was not stopped through much of the 3rd and all of the 4th quarter. 

So what is stupid about that?  It is not the game or the coach.  Stupid comes in as the father of a player on the losing team.  He accused the Aledo coach of bullying.  Even though the coach of the losing team has no complaint with his competitor, the Aledo school system was still required to investigate the complaint.

If Mr. Stupid, the father, is ever identified, there should be no objection to picketing his home with signs reading simply “STUPID.”

On the other hand, maybe there should be more sympathy than signage.  After all, as mentioned above, stupidity is contagious.

The bullying complaint was filed just after the publicity of sheer stupidity in another state.  That is the case of honors high school student Erin Cox, who was captain of her volley ball team in a school near Boston.  She went to rescue a friend who had become wasted at a party and realized that she was too drunk to drive.  So she called her friend to come and take her home.  The sober friend did so in her own car.

The not so brilliant administrators in the school of those two young ladies took disciplinary action against both.  Among the punishments of the girl who kept her drunk friend from being a danger behind a steering wheel is removal from her leadership position on the volley ball team and suspension from five games.

This news was being broadcast over radio stations that are airing the Ad Council’s “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” ads involving the young girl whose arm was broken in an auto accident caused by her friend who is “just buzzed, but not too drunk to drive.”

Are the administrators who disciplined one of their sober star students for “associating” with other students who are drinking, stupid or just caring?

To repeat, stupidity is contagious and is spreading rapidly.  The rare day of news is one in which there is no case of applying rules without exercising one iota of common sense.  

The senseless or stupid actions frequently occur under policies of zero tolerance.  

This altering or closing of the thinking process leads to actions like suspending two students from school for playing with air guns that shot soft plastic balls.  They were not on school grounds but were in front of the home of one of those “dangerous shooters” that the administrators thought was too close to school. 

In another recent case, a high school student was suspended for bringing his fishing tackle box to school.  The box was locked in the trunk of his car in the parking lot, but nestled with the tackle was his fishing knife.  That’s it!!  Another case of zero tolerance.

That case could possibly be fodder for a spirited discussion about what is essential to protect school kids left under the wings of school authorities.  If the conclusion, however, is that there can be no exceptions, even for fingernail clippers in one’s pocket or purse, avoiding use of the word stupid becomes increasingly hard.

Less difficult to place in the stupid column is the case of suspending the two youngsters for playing the ageless boy’s game of cops and robbers and pinging each other with their hands cupped in the form of pistols.  Right beside that one is the suspension of the young boy who ate his pop tart into a shape that looked like a gun to his teacher.

The peak of stupidity, however, is reserved for the federal government.  The brains in Housing and Urban Development spent 2.6 million of your dollars to build a complex of 75 apartments specially designed and equipped for the hearing impaired in Tempe, Arizona. Wait a minute, however, denying residency in those apartments for people who can hear would be discrimination.  As a result, only 18 of the units will be made available for the deaf.  

So here’s the perspective. 

The spreading rash of stupidity can be traced directly to the current passion for political correctness.  Everyone is a winner, no one can be a loser.  If a student gets a failing grade, his or her self esteem may suffer, so do not let anything put anyone else in a losing column.  Treating individuals differently, like recognizing some of their unique abilities, would be unfair and politically incorrect.  So everyone always wins an “A” and “F” and thinking is banished from the dictionary.

This list of idiocy proves the validity of the adage of stupid is as stupid does, meaning that an intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid. 

Obamacare and the Edsel: A Tale of Two Lemons

With the government shutdown you may have missed the press (what little there was) about the problems www.healthcare.gov.  So let me ask a question, if the government after spending over a $500 million dollars with a Canadian firm, can't design and implement a web site that works, how is the world do you think they are going to provide healthcare more efficiently that private providers, whose web sites work, do now!

David Carton at The American Spectator wrote a great article that you might enjoy!

Marc

A Grand Compromise for consideration by the GOP

Offer up a bill that:

1. Eliminates the debt ceiling.  It is a false number anyway, provides no real control, is never enforced, and allows the idiots to aggravate themselves and the taxpayers with their stupidity.
2. Enact zero based budgeting effective immediately, no further automatic increases for anything.
3. Sunset all current legislation and government programs over the next five years.  All programs will have to be re-jusified every five years including welfare, food stamps, and income taxes.
4. Require every American and illegal immigrant, including those on government assistance (welfare, food stamps, AFDC, etc) pay a minimum 5% tax on all funds received from all sources.
5. Since the Democrats have yet to pass a budget, we revert to the 2006 budget levels upon passage of the bill.  
6. In future years require a firm budget to be passed prior to the start of the fiscal year.  If a new budget is not passed then the prior year budget, cut by 20%, automatically takes affect. If Congress fails to pass a budget automatic budget reductions will go into effect and no one in the House, Senate or White House (or their staffs) will be paid until the next budget cycle.  If they can't live with that, they can resign and get a real job!
7. Once a budget is set Congress & White House must live within the budget, no exceptions.  If extraordinary measures (direct attack on the US mainland by some idiotic nut cases) require a budget increase, Congress must pass a clean budget approval for the specific event.  No other amendments, special projects, ear marks or other non related attachments.
8. Stop all multi-topic bills.  One bill one topic, vote for or against.  Amendments related to the bills topic will be allowed but no none related amendments or ear marks!
9. Revoke all special provisions for Senators, Congressmen and the White House, and their staff members, starting with all Obamacare subsidies. Force them to live under the same laws, same benefits as our military.
10. Let Obamacare continue to evolve, let all delays and waivers put in place by the White House stay, except for the congressional subsidies (see 9 above).  Obamacare will fail on its on, once the low info voters realize they actually have to pay for healthcare.  Let next years congress take up the fate of Obamacare.

 Marc

Inarticulate Republicans!

"The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats’ intransigence, and walked on away. . . and yet, with multiple television-network cameras focused on Speaker Boehner as he emerged from the White House, he couldn’t be bothered to prepare a statement that would help clarify a confused situation, full of fallacies and lies.

If Republicans want to show some seriousness about articulating their case, they might start by deleting the abbreviation “CR” from their vocabulary. As has been said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That journey is long overdue."

The above is an excerpt of an article in National Review by Thomas Sowell, the most brilliant economist ever to have lived.  Read the entire article here! - Marc