YOU DON'T HAVE TO DANCE

I have no intention of trying to defend Rush Limbaugh. He has fared pretty well so far without my help and he will probably do okay without me now. That having been said, I thought his recent comments were stupid. His choice of words was ridiculous. If you didn’t hear, he basically referred to a young law school co-ed in very unfavorable terms. In her testimony before Congress the girl tried to point out that young law students just couldn’t afford to pay tuition and be expected to pay  for their birth control too, and that is why the government should. Limbaugh’s point was that if the tax payers have to pay for her birth control, she should be required to make available to those taxpayers films of her sexual activity. He called her dirty names and in so doing failed to make his point about free contraception. Limbaugh has since apologized for his comments and well he should.

This sort of activity and rhetoric does very little to advance the conservative position that we should be self-reliant and responsible for ourselves. To this young lady I would just say, if you are going to dance, you should have to pay the band. After all, you don’t have to dance. If you are mature enough to have sex, you by all means should be mature enough to cover whatever expenses you may incur and responsible enough to deal with the outcome of your activity.  Personally I don’t care if you choose to sleep around. I don’t care if you see higher education as party time. I don’t care about any of this as long as you pay your own way. If your parents are financing your education, what you do is their problem, not mine. The idea that taxpayers should fund your sexual activities is arrogant and just plain stupid.

I wonder sometimes how and why we have come to the place where we now are. How have we come to the decision that pregnancy is somehow a disease? When my wife and I were expecting our first child in the 60s, pregnancy was not even covered by our health insurance because pregnancy was considered normal, certainly not a disease. How is it that birth control is now considered health care? I just heard Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Obama Administration, say that birth control reduces health care costs because fewer babies are born. It would appear that this administration doesn’t see these new people as possible contributors to our society or to our economic engine. I guess, be fruitful and multiply is just ancient philosophy.

I have written before that we today have the government we chose. These people we have in positions of importance and power are people we have chosen. If, as it turns out, they are morons, what does that say about our ability to choose?

Fortunately we have the opportunity to fix the mess we have gotten ourselves into. That is what elections are all about. Every two years we get to change out the House of Representatives and every six years we have the opportunity to get rid of the Senate. Each four years the President has to face the voters for their approval. We are rapidly approaching that time again. We absolutely must not fail. Another four years of what is going on now may just be the straw on the proverbial camel’s back. The world is counting on all of us.

Ron Scarbro March 14, 2012

THE PROBLEM WITH OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT

In my working life I had to hire and fire many employees. I took my responsibility seriously. After I hired someone, I then had to make sure they were trained. Some employees just couldn’t learn the job. Ultimately after much effort at training and re-training, some had to be fired. That’s life and that’s business. As the employer I was responsible for the actions or lack of action of my employees. That, of course, is how business is run. Our form of government is not a business however. So then the question arises what is our responsibility as a citizen of this country?

Today, I am sure you would agree, we as a country are in trouble. We have huge debt problems. We are fighting two separate wars. We have energy issues and rising gasoline prices. We have unacceptable unemployment numbers. Real estate values have sunk to their lowest levels in years. Social Security and Medicare are rapidly running out of money. All of us would have to agree we are in trouble.

If you believe the national media, one would conclude that all of this is our fault. Senior citizens are too greedy. We should all pay more taxes. Etc, etc, etc. Well, guess what? None of this is our fault. If our government was a business maybe. But we’re not. Unless you are a Member of Congress or the President, none of this is your fault. Your responsibility begins and ends at the ballot box. That is where we hire our employees to represent us. How they perform their jobs is their fault.

This then is where the problem starts. There is no opportunity to train this new employee. There is no monthly evaluation report. We don’t even know when or if they show up for work. Were they prompt? Were they tardy? Did they sleep at their desk? Did they have a three martini lunch? The only way we know anything about their performance is what they tell us. It seems to work like this. Joe Blow from Cornbread Crossing, Kentucky is elected to Congress. He moves to Washington DC. In just a matter of days, he is no longer a Kentuckian. He soon becomes a Washingtonian. He becomes a member of the elite good old boy’s club. He manages to maneuver a second term, then a third, and before you know it he is a career politician who cares only about his own self interest. He has never seen himself as your employee and now he sees himself as invincible. The only time he shows up in Kentucky is at re-election time. As a citizen, your only option is to fire him.

You know, of course, that Congress now has an approval rating in single digits. Why on earth are these morons continually re-elected? Why do voters seem to always blame someone else’s Congressman for the problems? The facts are clear. The Congress does not represent the people who elected them. Not yours and not mine. They represent themselves. They choose up sides, select their own leaders, and vote for their own pay raises and holidays. They vote for their own benefits and they are responsible to no one except at re-election time. Then they rely on the fact that the majority of the electorate is too busy trying to survive in the screwed up economy which they the Congress created to feel the heavy hand of government picking their back pockets.

How do we fix this? Well, the first step is to hold those whom we have elected accountable for their actions. Don’t let them get away with blaming someone else. We recently heard a Republican candidate for President say in a debate that sometimes in the Senate he voted for things he didn’t believe in to “take one for the team.” What? That, ladies and gentlemen is a load of BULL. That is not what I am looking for in a leader. Congress has only one team and that is the American people.

If, by some miracle, you get the opportunity to talk with your elected representative before this next election, ask him to read this piece or, better yet, tell him yourself. Let’s fix this mess.

Ron Scarbro March 7, 2012

TEN DOLLAR GASOLINE

Do you know who Dr. Steven Chu is? Chu is our little known Energy Secretary. With little effort one can learn much of his biography. He is a strong advocate for the unproven junk science of “global warming.”  He famously said that he longs for our gasoline prices to reach the levels of European prices, now approaching ten dollars a gallon, which, he opines, would force us to abandon big cars and suburban sprawl requiring us instead to live as Europeans stacked on top of one another in big cities. He is cheering as the prices continue to rise. He is Obama’s main man.

Obama and his liberal crowd apparently don’t consider the fact that rising prices on gasoline takes away trillions of dollars consumers could and would be spending to help us out of this economic malaise we’re in. In fact the biggest single factor afoot today to stall our recovery is rising gas prices. Why do you think Obama  refused to allow the Keystone pipeline to be constructed? Why do you suppose he has forced closure of offshore drilling and exploration? Do you really think he cares about the environment? No, ladies and gentlemen, this is about social engineering. This is about enforcing a leftist idea and attitude on the unwashed masses who are too busy watching “American Idol” and texting their BFF to pay attention to the fact that their pockets are being picked and their futures are being destroyed.

A short time ago I wrote that Obama had the opportunity to show true leadership by approving the pipeline. He also had the opportunity to fail in that leadership by doing what he did. The rising gasoline prices are laid at the feet of Barak Obama and no one else. He cannot blame anyone else and he cannot spin his way out of it.

What is it going to take to wake up the American people?  Is it going to take ten dollar gasoline to get their attention?  If you think grocery prices are high now, what do you suppose will happen with ten dollar gas? You want to fly somewhere or ship something? You want to take a vacation?  Do you want to do something as old as the American people and just take a road trip? That may disappear forever unless we change out the bunch that has taken over our government in Washington. Can you imagine what would happen to small business when they cannot afford to pay to ship? Of course they would have to either downsize or just close down. Folks, this is serious. This isn’t just another election. This may well determine whether or not we, as a country, continue to exist.

Dr. Steven Chu is wrong. The Obama administration is wrong. We doubtless are experiencing global climate change, but this has been going on since the beginning of time. It is nothing new. The response and reaction by these few extremists could very easily set into motion a chain of events which may be irreversible. Wake up America. We have to stop this nonsense now.

Finally I would ask this question. Is this what you want? Are we headed in a direction you would choose? Will you be comfortable paying ten dollars for a gallon of gasoline? Are you ready to forever give up your American dreams and live like the stacked Europeans? Is it your desire to live under the dictatorship of a bloated government? If you think a trip to the DMV is bad now, imagine when everything you deal with is controlled by government. It will be the Post Office and the DMV all rolled into one.

We have a choice. We can change the direction of this country. We have the opportunity to once and for all to get rid of these morons who are ruining our way of life. It is up to you and me. If we don’t fix this mess, God help us.

Ron Scarbro, February 29, 2012

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, A DEFINITION

I remember when the term “politically correct” first started. It seemed simple enough. It was like your mother or your grandmother saying to you, “Don’t say things like that, they’re not nice.” Or “Don’t call people names because it just isn’t a nice thing to do.” Now who could object to this softening of our language? What could be wrong with not objectifying certain groups or certain ideas just because they were out of the mainstream? Well, like so many things that start out with good intentions, the rest of the story has now to be told.

There is a difference between objectifying and identifying. I’ll give you an example which happened recently. A bad guy was ripping off ladies in a shopping center parking lot by telling them they had a problem with their car. He would volunteer to repair it for a sum of money. To make a long story short, he didn’t fix anything and took off with the money. The police asked the TV station to broadcast his description so they could catch him. The station did the broadcast but refused to say whether he was white, black, Asian, or any other identifier that could possibly be construed as politically incorrect. The bad guy was eventually captured but not because of the broadcast. He just got too greedy and got caught. Identifying him would not objectify him. But even if it did, what is wrong with telling everyone he is just a low life crook who preys on women? Telling the viewing audience his race would  only serve to help identify him.

I believe this new attempted restriction on human interaction has a more insidious motive. It has become a mechanism for control. If any group can control your speech, they can also control your thoughts. Consider, for example, hate crimes. How ridiculous is that? If a person kills a homosexual because he is a homosexual, it really doesn’t matter whether the killer loves or hates the victim, the victim is still just as dead regardless of the emotion of the killer. Murder is a crime and it doesn’t need any other description. The killer needs to be dealt with because of his actions, not his thoughts.

Recently a family of Muslims in Canada was found guilty of murdering their children because those children had, in the families’ view, become too westernized. The family felt justified in killing them because of their strict religious conviction. Our national media refused to identify the family as Muslims because they thought that would be politically incorrect. Let’s face it, did anybody think these were Baptists?  This was a so-called “honor killing.”  Identifying murderers as murderers is not politically incorrect regardless of their religion especially when their religion is also their motive. Stupidity under any guise is still stupidity and failing to report stupidity for any reason is equally wrong. The inventors of political correctness should be ashamed.

The real troubling part of this is that it is not going away. Normally ridiculous concepts like this die under their own weight. Not political correctness however. The self proclaimed arbiters of what is right and good for the unwashed masses will not let it. By the way, you will not likely find many of them at a Tea Party rally. You probably will not see them at any function of the Republican Party. No, this is definitely a liberal leftist concept. Conceived by and propagated by the liberals, they see political correctness as their crowning achievement of control.

I try to be careful when I write or talk. I try to be fair. But, the only control on my words is the control I place on myself. If some person or group is offended, that’s just too damn bad. I have freedom of speech and thought and so do you. I refuse to cede my freedoms to a bunch of people who believe they know what is best and neither should you.

Ron Scarbro February 22, 2012.

THE CONTINUING WAR AGAINST RELIGION

I continue to be amazed by the Obama Administration. This time they have really stepped in it. Initially they decided to dictate to the Catholic Church that they and their associated businesses and schools must offer health insurance covering contraception and abortion.  It’s all a part of Obamacare. Well, all hell broke loose. So, they backtracked and just decided that insurance companies would have to provide these coverages for free. Never mind that they do not have the authority to make these requirements. No, they just made a decision. I guess they thought this would make this matter go away. Wrong. Contraception and abortion are sins according to the Catholic Church. Such actions are against the Catholic Church’s tenets and doctrines.

This essay will not offer an opinion on abortion or contraception. No, this essay will deal only with Obama’s dictatorial desires and his latest power grab. What you believe about abortion is your decision. What you think about contraception is your choice. This is still America and we are still free people and we will not sit still for this latest attempt by Obama  to become supreme ruler.

Once again I need to offer Mr. Obama and his assistant, Joe Biden, a Catholic by the way, some proper reading material. It is called the Constitution of the United States and the Bill Of Rights with particular emphasis on the first amendment, “freedom of religion.” We the people did not elect an emperor, we elected a president. Your so-called executive powers do not include dictating to a worldwide religion what they must think or believe. You, Mr. Obama, are not the arbiter of thought to the billions of people who disagree with you. You are a politician who will soon enough, not soon enough for me however, be back on the street looking for work. Most, if not all, of your executive orders will be rescinded by your successor. Your services to this country will be a footnote in history somewhere just below Jimmy Carter and whoever follows you will have a huge job of fixing the mess you have created. They will have a completely legitimate reason for blaming their predecessor for the problems they face.

Here is some reality for Obama and the new lefty Democrat party. The huge middle of this country which incidentally produces the food for the entire country, and where the majority of the guns owned in America dwell, and where people live out their lives minding their own business, these people are not going to sit by and watch their country being turned into a European-style socialist state. It just isn’t in our nature. Today you may control the media and you definitely have your supporters, most of whom are on some sort of government dole, but, and this is a big but, you don’t have the people you would need to pull off what you have in mind. Most of the people in this country still love freedom and liberty and still believe in personal responsibility. Most still work for a living and are not on the government dole. These are the people you will never convince to give up their freedom and their way of life.

There is soon going to be an accounting. It is called election day. I firmly believe the gig is up. The American people will not be duped any longer. It is clear to any thinking person that Obama is just not qualified to serve as President of these United States. I believe it will soon become clear to the Democrats as well.

Never in the history of this Republic has there been such obvious and overt attempt to subvert the Constitution and try to overthrow the government by an elected official. This war on religion is just the latest attempt to grab power and usurp the freedom and liberty we enjoy as free Americans. It must and will come to an end.

Ron Scarbro February 15, 2012

THE PC PATROL AND ITS AFTERMATH

Have you heard what is happening at Vanderbilt University? The PC Patrol is alive and well at Vanderbilt. This is the latest from this bastion of correct thinking as seen by elite education scholars. Vanderbilt has decreed that any club or group or gathering on the University campus must be open to include anyone who would want to join that group. The most cited example is a Christian group who must allow the entry of atheists if they want to join. If a prayer group starts up, they must allow any person to join that group that chooses.

Let us take this out to its inevitable conclusion. As an example, Mensa, an organization of geniuses, would have to allow the entry of less than intelligent individuals. Today, to join that group, one must pass certain intelligence tests to determine one’s IQ. Only high IQ’d individuals are allowed in.

Another example might be a Muslim group. That group would have to allow infidels if it met on the campus. Can you just imagine how that would go down? At Muslim Prayer time the devout Muslims would get on their hands and knees for prayer and the infidels would be over in the corner having a kegger.

If the young Republicans wanted to have a rally, they would have to include the Democrats, the Socialist and even the Communists. After all, we don’t want anyone to feel excluded or isolated even if, by their own choice, they are isolated.

This essay will not even get into the problem this policy creates for the Greek groups. Can you imagine someone wanting to be a part of a society but was not acceptable to the group as a whole? Some Greek societies have GPA requirements for membership. That would have to be eliminated. Fraternities and sororities would have to be co-ed. Under no circumstance could there ever be exclusivity at any level.

So what do you suppose is really going on here? What do you imagine is really the aim of the University administration? I suspect this is a move on their part to eliminate religion from the campus. This is clearly another example of the liberal war against religion. It is just that simple.This started as a move to require the entry of atheists into a prayer group who just wanted to cause trouble in that group. Now, because of the policy, which clearly was not thought out, all kinds of mischief is afoot. This again is an example of political correctness run amok and its inevitable outcome, and as usual it seems to find its origins in the ivory towers of big colleges and universities.

When is this nonsense going to end? I have a simple explanation for the PC Patrol. There can be equality without sameness. To further explain my thesis, which seems to be necessary when dealing with the college crowd, everybody is not the same. That doesn’t mean they are not equal. Everybody doesn’t want the same thing, or to worship under the same religion, or to unite with a group with whom they have nothing in common. Birds of a feather do, in fact, flock together. The last thing a group of hummingbirds want is a crow in their midst. And judging from these latest pronouncements from Vanderbilt, the last person I would want in my group is a University policy setter. My group has no place for morons.

Ron Scarbro February 8, 2012

TO BE OR NOT TEBOW THAT IS THE QUESTION

There has been a forward floating around the internet recently showing a group of Muslims on their hands and knees in prayer along with a picture of NFL quarterback Tim Tebow in his prayerful position. The question was asked, “Why was it okay for the Muslims to be shown in prayer but not Tebow?” Is Tim Tebow being subjected to criticism and mocking for attempting to live his conviction? Is the media being fair? They would never mock the Muslims.

I have followed Tim Tebow from his years at Florida where he was a winning quarterback for the Florida Gators to his ascension to starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  I am a fan. He seems to be just as he appears, an individual who lives his life as his religion dictates. He is charitable beyond belief. He has paid for and built a hospital in the Philippines for the poor and needy children of that area. He invites ailing people, mostly children, to his games and pays all their expenses. He also arranges to spend time with them tossing a football around and just generally making real human contact. In the off season he visits prisons ministering to people who have made bad choices in life. He is truly a positive influence. The press never reports this, do they?

His reward in this country seems to be a mocking media and mocking fellow players. His very name has become a verb and not a nice verb either. Tebowing has become a joke. To kneel and pray as he does has become fodder for some to make fun of.

I don’t know today if he will become a successful quarterback in the NFL. I doubt if he cares nearly as much as the press would have you believe. To me he is already a successful man. I have seen reporters dumbfounded by Tim’s seeming lack of concern for the non-football criticism he has faced. As far as football is concerned, he led his Denver Broncos to the playoffs and even won the first game against a heavily favored Pittsburgh Steeler team. He has since lost to New England and his season is over, but I suspect Tim Tebow has his priorities in order. I believe he will come back next season a better player and will win even more games. But football is football and life is life.

Here is my idea of what Tebowing should be. Instead of mocking his lifestyle, perhaps other NFL players should consider contributing to charities that help poor children. That would be true Tebowing. Instead of blowing millions on parties and fancy clothes, how about concerning oneself with the sick and ailing children who would love to attend a game. In the off season, instead of getting into trouble with booze and drugs, how about becoming a positive influence on one’s fellow man. Those are the kind of things I think of when I think of the word Tebowing.

Making fun of Tim Tebow is not funny. You don’t have to like him or like his choice of religious expression. The media wouldn’t mock women in burqas or men in yamakas. Nor would they mock nuns in their traditional habits. Why then, in a country where polls consistently show most of us professing Christianity as our religious choice, do they feel it’s okay to mock Tebow?

We all have to make our choices as to how we will live our lives. We all choose our heroes. I am pleased to tell you this kid is my hero.

Ron Scarbro February 1, 2012