Guns DO NOT Kill People!

The Republican's Must Quit Imploding if they are to Win IN 2014.

Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

This is the time for New Year’s resolutions.  So here’s one for the Republican Party.

The Party resolves to stop or quit imploding in 2014.  The exact time a deadly virus started this implosion of the GOP--the Grand Old Party of small republican forms of government guaranteed by the Constitution that stay off the backs and out of the bedrooms of people--is the morning of Jan 22, 1973.

That is when the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Roe vs Wade.   That seven to two decision decreed that the Texas law prohibiting abortion was unconstitutional. 

The Republican Party had been the stalwart for free enterprise and keeping the government at bay and was thus an illogical nesting place for any movement to reinstate abortion and intrude into bedrooms.  Nonetheless, that is where the virus to control women’s lives established its home.

The virus is so virulent that it has turned Republican against Republican.  No longer are contests for Republican votes based on issues of governance like the economy, national security, a fair tax, and the environment.  Now the contests are about which candidate is the most conservative; i.e., who is the staunchest opponent of abortion, gay rights, and citizenship for illegal aliens.

This social agenda was most apparent in the 2012 contests for the Republican nomination of a candidate for the Presidency.  In the debates, the candidates literally slaughtered each other in trying to prove which one was the most opposed to abortion under any circumstances.  

The virus was also deadly in down ballot races.  Two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate blew their excellent chances to unseat Democrat opponents by not taking the usual tactic of obfuscating or refusing to answer questions designed to trap them.  When asked about their stance on abortion, instead of answering that that was not an issue in the campaign and segueing into a discussion of the fair tax, they would expound on their beliefs that, regardless of the circumstances, when a sperm meets an egg in a woman’s uterus, the union must be borne to term.

Republican candidate Todd Akin was expected to unseat a weakened Senator Clair McCaskill for the Missouri Senate Seat in the 2012 elections until he let himself be drawn into his beliefs on abortion.  To make sure he was in with the Republican social base, he claimed to be against all abortions, even if rape is involved because, in his view, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”  The result was that McCaskill retained her seat.

Similarly, in the race for an open Indiana Senate seat, Republican candidate Richard Mourdock blew his lead in the polls by claiming, "And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."  The Democrat candidate Joe Donnelly went on to win the race.

Until Republicans learn to delete these issues from their platforms and to avoid any mention of them in debates, the chances of the party becoming the majority party are slim to none.

There are already indications that the lessons mentioned above are going to be ignored.  In a recent campaign solicitation letter for a Republican candidate for a statewide office in Texas, the very first plank in his platform or argument was his strict opposition to abortion.  He got around to things like the economy, the budget, and education way down on the bottom of the page.  

Conversely, the mail also brought an indication that serious work is being done to maneuver the virus into remission.  A letter from the College Republican National Committee almost went immediately into File 13.  On a whim, however, I decided to see what the youngsters are up to and opened the file.

What a refreshing breeze that brought.  The opening statement is, “Today I want to share with you some of the results of our report ‘Grand Old Party for a Brand New Generation’.”  Then the letter focuses on these five action points.

Focus on the economic issues that affect young people today: education, the cost of health care, unemployment. Capture the brand attributes of intelligence, hard work, and responsibility. Don’t concede “caring” and “open-minded” to the left. Fix the debt and cut spending, but recognize that messages about principle and “big government” are the least effective way to win this battle of ideas with young voters.  Go where young voters are and give them something to share.

There was not a single word about those social issues that are strangling the grey beards and blue hairs now controlling the party.  That gives some hope that the patient will survive and that the virus can be controlled.

So here’s the perspective.

New Year’s Resolutions normally are observed and followed for about two weeks.  The resolution suggested above for the Republican Party to quit imploding in 2014 probably will not survive that long.

That would require putting social issues on the back burner.  The Republican campaign literature already circulating for state wide offices indicates that is not likely to happen.

The political climate today is excellent for the Republicans to regain control of the Senate. The only hope for Republicans to do so, however, is to follow the lead of the College Republican National Committee.

Unfortunately, however, it appears that following that lead has about the same chance as any New Year’s Resolution.

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. 

Politics

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

The Stupidity Continues!

Please send a copy to all taxing authorities of the "Goose that laid the Golden Eggs".  Phil Michelson wins a bit over $2,000,000 for his work in the UK at the Scottish and British Opens in the last few weeks.  After being taken to the cleaners by the UK, California, and US Phil nets a little less than $900,000.  The taxing authorities confiscated over 61% of his earnings.  Phil has options, much like John Galt, he can move or simply leave the profession.  Who could blame him!

What makes me laugh?

Anthony Weiner looking into the camera, lying to the folks he wants to elect him Mayor of New York City, while continuing his disgusting sexually perverted habit.   What makes this funny is that  intellectual nincompoops in NYC may well elect him!

For all Liberals, all History begins Tomorrow AKA the Stupidity of Political Correctness

Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

The light flicker of common sense early last week was quickly snuffed out by the end of the week.

The flicker of hope was the announcement by the Suffolk, Virginia, School Board that it was canceling the zero tolerance policy that eliminated the discretion of administrators in some cases of “misconduct.”

This sensible action was a response to the two day suspension of Driver Elementary School second grader Christopher Marshall on May 3. 

Marshall’s misconduct?  He pointed a pencil at a classmate and made machine gun noises.  The classmate, who was also suspended, then pointed his pencil at Marshall and mimicked a rifle shot.   

In my school days, that every day occurrence was called playing war, cops and robbers, or cowboys and Indians.  No one was ever hurt and many who played those games went on to become The Greatest Generation in defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

The Virginia incident was just one act of craziness in a string of lunacy. 

In January, an elementary school student was sent home for building a gun out of legos. In February, school administrators in another Virginia district suspended a youngster for bringing a toy gun to school.  In the same month, a Colorado grade schooler was suspended for pretending to throw an imaginary grenade and trying to save the world from evil.

The same thing happened in Massachusetts and Colorado in March. In the latter case, a seven year old was suspended because his teacher thought the breakfast pastry he was eating was shaped to look like a gun.  The boy claimed that he was merely shaping his strawberry pastry into a mountain, but the teacher believed it looked more like a gun and took him to the principal’s office.

Calmer, saner heads began to realize the absurdity of the actions about 18 months ago. The first to return discretion to administrators may be the Philadelphia public school system.  In September, 2011, that district removed the "zero tolerance" policy from its student code of conduct.

Other districts began to follow Philadelphia’s lead and the Suffolk, Virginia, board joining the crowd was that flicker of hope welcomed last week.

On Friday, however, political correctness (PC) stormed right back in.  This was the absurdity of the Paula Dean saga.

Dean was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1947 and now lives in Savannah.  Hearing just two words out of her mouth will convince anyone that she was bred, born, and reared in the South.

Through grit and determination, she built a successful business empire of a TV  cooking show and a restaurant chain and has published a number of cookbooks.

Recently, she was sued by a former restaurant employee for failure to promote or  improper termination.  In giving a deposition in that case, she was asked if she ever used the “N” word.  Without hesitation, she answered, “Yes, some years ago.”

Dean’s acknowledgment that she had used a common word of her day that is now taboo went viral on the internet, and her TV contract is not being renewed because of her “insensitiveness.”

This craziness is due to the PC crowd’s disdain for history.

History is a record of facts.  As some facts are unpleasant, those hooked on PC urge that they be ignored.

This is the history or facts of Dean”s early years that some wish to ignore.  

Humanity was considered to be composed of four races:  Caucasoid (white + south west Asian people), Negroid (black people), Mongoloid (east Asian + indigenous American people), and Australoid (Aboriginal Australian + south Indian people).  

The terms  Black and African-American had not been invented. Both white and black southerners called members of the Negroid race either coloreds or niggers.  With the rare exception of someone saying Negro, there was no other reference recognizable for them.  Colored was normally used in reference to a group or organization, such as the Colored Methodist Church.

The fact that this now maligned word was common in every day conversations  is best illustrated by the American literary classic, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.  The book first published in 1885 is a scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. 

Nonetheless, and despite the fact that both Huck Finn and the tenor of the book, is anti-racist, because the word nigger is used more than 200 times, the unedited book is anathema in public schools today.  Youngsters must not be capable of learning the real history of the country.

With that history, asking anyone who was reared in the South during Dean’s young years if she ever used the word nigger is like asking anyone six years old or older if he or she ever used the word Mom or Dad.

Even worse than asking the question, is firing or refusing to renew the contract of someone who admits to using that word when it was common among both whites and blacks and is still in use in the black community.

So here’s the perspective.

This is not an argument to accept the use of words of any kind that are considered offensive to others.  It is an argument, however, that punishing someone today for using a word 60+ years ago when it was a common expression is equivalent to suspending grade schoolers for pointing their pencils at each other.

So let the hackles rise over repeating or acknowledging facts, but let common sense reign when someone admits living through those facts. 

The Fox is Guarding the Hen House!

Bill Neinast

IN PERSPECTIVE

This is a hard decision.  What is the best opening cliche for today?

“The buck does not stop here; heck!, it does not even get here,” fit last week’s news perfectly.  This week is different.  There are just too many pithy descriptions of what is going on. 

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil might describe some of the displays at news conferences and in Congressional hearings.  All this questionable activity at the State and Justice Departments and the IRS came as a complete surprise to the upper echelons of the government.

Who?  Me? Could also apply.  None of these things were important enough to be brought to the attention of the White House.  The disaster at Benghazi just was not a photo op for the President to be seen in serious contemplation of whether to send help.

President Bill Clinton’s “it depends on what the meaning of “is” is” also comes to mind.  How about the meaning of “if” as in the statements of President Obama and other administration spokespersons that “if” the acknowledged facts in a number of fire storms are established as facts, the situation could be serious. 

What about the most transparent administration in history promised by Barack Obama in his first run for the White House?  Last week was consumed by reporters, investigators, and Congress trying to peel back the dark shades shielding the Justice, Treasury, and State Departments, among others.

The worm turns could certainly apply to the press finally beginning to hold Obama under the spot light.

The worm turned, in part, because the Obama administration bit the hand that feeds it.   A compliant press had been feeding the administration all the fawning praise it could wish for.  Then it was disclosed that the Justice Department secretly monitored the Associated Press’ phone logs and those of about 20 reporters.  That was too much for most of the press, and the hand with the food was jerked back.

Two old timers, however, are at the top of the list today.  That would be the Nixon years and “What did he know, and when did he know it?”  Right behind that is Schultz, who just might provide the best cliche.

Remember Sergeant Schultz in the TV series “Hogan’s Heroes” in the 60s mad 70s?  One of his most often repeated lines was, “I see nothing, nothing.”

The sergeant’s fat jowls came to mind every time Attorney General Holder and Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller are shown testifying before a Congressional committee.

They have answered “I don’t know” so many times that next time around they might automatically mouth that response when asked to identify themselves. 

Miller actually said “I don’t know” when asked to identify the person he said he had talked with about a certain matter.  After being pressed with two more questions about that person’s identity, he finally did identify her.

Likewise, Holder played dumb repeatedly on questions about the things he had been summoned to testify about.  Watching his evasive “I don’t knows” to questions on subjects that he should have inquired about before going to the hill stretched my credulity. 

If Hillary Clinton is subpoenaed to testify again about Benghazi, “I don’t know.  I saw nothing, nothing” should be anticipated as the prevailing answer.  That, however, would not be an appropriate response to questions about her derisive earlier tirade of “What does it matter now?”

A good bet might be that, if she deviates from “I don’t know,” her responses will include, “It’s the Republicans fault.  They cut the budget and we did not have the money to beef up security.”  

Although that response would fly in the face of the sworn testimony of the State Department Official who made the decisions on security that money constraints were not the reason for denying the requests for more security.

Topping off the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil cabal has to be President Obama.  It took real chutzpah for him to maintain a straight face like Sergeant Schultz when he told the American public that, “I saw [knew] nothing, nothing” of an IRS Inspector General investigation of his IRS playing politics until he read it in the news.

So here’s the perspective.

Two occurrences last week indicate clearly that none of the above should be cause for concern.

First, Sarah Hall Ingram, the so called low level IRS supervisor in charge of the section harassing conservative groups seeking tax exempt status, was given a bonus and promoted to be in charge of the section that will monitor compliance with Obamacare insurance mandates. Certainly a person of that character would not condone auditing a business that claims exemption from insuring its employees.

Next, Attorney General Holder recused himself from participating in the investigation by his subordinates of why the phone lines of the AP and its reporters were monitored.

Those two events made this search for the right cliche a lot easier.  Nothing could be more appropriate than closing with the oldie about the fox guarding the hen house door.

Wasserman-Schultz: My Aides on Brink of Starvation

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: MY AIDES CAN'T AFFORD GOOD MEALS

By MIKE FLYNN  | Breitbart.com

On Tuesday, FL Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her colleague VA Rep. Jim Moran openly whined about the impacts of spending cuts on their personal office budgets. Moran fretted that, with the looming sequester cuts, he may have to cut one staffer from his office. Wasserman Schultz upped his ante, however. She, almost literally, suggested that her staff were on the brink of starvation, due to the cuts. 

Speaking at a hearing of the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, Wasserman Schultz worried that prices of meals in House restaurants are getting so high that aides are being "priced out" of a good meal.

At the carry-out cafe in the Cannon Office Building, where Wasserman Schultz has her office, you can get an 8oz bowl of Ham and Bean soup for $2. You can buy gourmet sandwiches and wraps for around $5. Both of these are cheaper than I can get at delis down the street from my house. 

Her aides could walk across the street to the Longworth Building, which has a large sit-down cafeteria. Today, it is featuring a roasted stuffed Chicken, with asparagus and mashed potatoes, for around $7. Or, one could opt for a heaping 12oz bowl of Chicken Chili for $3. 

There is also the tried and true method enjoyed by millions of workers around the country: a brown-bag lunch. 

Wasserman Schultz's top aide earns around $160k a year. She pays two additional aides around $120k a year. She has five additional aides who earn between $60-100k a year...

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/rep-debbie-wasserman-schultz/2013/03/22/wasserman-schultz-my-aides-brink-starvation#ixzz2OLkbQebR

And it is worth pointing out that none of these looming sequester cuts (reductions in spending increases) has even hit yet. 

Is it any wonder why Americans simply don't believe what Congress tells them?

And we wonder why there are security leaks from "inside the beltway"?

If you are in the military in this country you must go through a rigorous security clearance process before you can be exposed to, work with, see or handle any classified information that could impact the security of the United States.  It takes weeks and sometimes months for security professionals to check your character and background before a security clearance can be granted.  Not everyone who is screened is granted a clearance, there are many reasons for denial of a clearance!  As I understand the process if you happen to have prior illegal drug use, or perhaps have been engaged with former known terrorists you would be denied a security clearance.

Ironically, if you are elected to the office of President, Vice President, or one of the other 435 seats in Congress and/or Senate or you are appointed to a cabinet position you do not have to undergo a background check or security clearance investigation.  Yet these folks have access to all levels of security information and there are more than a few instances where "loose lips" have cost American lives!

Wouldn't it seem reasonable that anyone running for a national office should be required to obtain a security clearance before they could even enter the race for a national office?

I would bet serious money that if this were the law we would see an significant improvement in the quality of applicants and leaders who run this country and a much needed improvement in the security and safety of this great Country!

Just a thought!