Wednesday, February 25, 2015

REVISITING THE THIRD REICH

If you are a student of history you will remember the warped view Adolf Hitler had of life. He had this opinion that the Aryan race was a superior race of people. He seemed to believe that tall, blonde haired, blue eyed, people were better than anyone else. That’s strange since he himself was a squat little man with dark hair, but I digress. So strong were his opinions that he set about killing off anyone who wasn’t what he called pure.

He carried his insanity even further by establishing a stable of Aryan breeders. He selected young, healthy Germanic types and set them up in quarters with the goal of breeding Aryan babies. Their only job was to produce babies. These offspring were to become the foundation stock for the new world populated by tall, blonde haired, blue eyed, Germanic types. Of course this new world would be under the rule of Adolf Hitler.

In addition he established what was called “The Hitler Youth.” These were young people, children, who were gathered up and separated from their families to become soldiers of the “Third Reich.” They were trained militarily and fed a steady diet of propaganda of Hitler’s nonsense. These were to be his next army.

Of course, as we know, his whole world came tumbling down when the rest of the world decided that we had had enough of “Der Fuhrer.”

I point this out because of the marked similarity between Hitler and his gang of thugs and that group of social rejects known as ISIS. Just this week we were shown large groups of children dressed in military uniforms standing at attention in formation learning the propaganda of their leaders. I am sure that the leaders of ISIS see these children as their next army. It must be working because just yesterday a ten year old girl blew herself up killing and wounding several people in Africa.

We are also learning of young fifteen and sixteen year old girls flying to Syria to become “jihadist brides.” They are recruited online. What they don’t know is that what they become are not brides, but sex slaves to baby killing murderous thugs. As was the case in Hitler’s plan, their job is to produce babies for the next army of jihadist thugs. These events are eerily similar.

So, what do we do about this? When Hitler reared his ugly head, the world smashed him and his ideas. The same thing needs to happen to this latest attempt at world domination by these few morons.

As was the case with Hitler, there can be no negotiation. There can be no “peace treaties.” There can only be annihilation of their entire machine and all their warped ideas. The so-called moderate Muslims have had ample opportunity to rein in these radicals and they haven’t. Because of their failure, their whole way of life is now at risk. Maybe even their religion.

We have been told by this Administration that we cannot kill our way out of this. As for me, I’d like to try. Dead terrorists can’t fight back. Leveled cities can’t house fighters. Weapons melted down by bomb blasts are useless.

In the forties the world said no way to an insane maniacal leader and put him and the world out of misery. The time has come and gone for us to do it again.

Ron Scarbro

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

DO CHEATERS REALLY WIN?

If I have a choice between winning or losing, I prefer to win. I played sports in school and we were all taught that winning was good. However, we were also taught that good sportsmanship was more important than winning. You had to play fair. You didn’t cheat. “Cheaters never prosper” was the mantra of the day.

Has that all changed? Just today the Little League team from Chicago which won the Little League World Series was stripped of their title because of cheating. It seems they violated geographic boundaries when fielding their team to make it a better team.

I am a big fan of Little League, especially their world series. Teams from all over the world come to play and show off their tremendous talents. I understand that these are twelve and thirteen year old youngsters and definitely include young ladies. Early on when this first got started, some of these thirteen year olds showed up with full beards but I think the International League has gotten a better handle on that issue now.

All of the members of the Chicago team were black which added to their uniqueness and let me tell you, they were very talented. They probably would have won even without cheating. Because they are all black, Jesse Jackson is now claiming the team is being discriminated against because of their minority status. No, Jesse, being black doesn’t give you the right to cheat any more than being white. Cheating is no respecter of race.

Let’s consider the New England Patriots. They just won the Super Bowl making them the best team in professional football. Did they cheat to get to that position? Many say they did. In fact there is an ongoing investigation into their practice of deflating the football illegally to make it easier to control when passing. Again, they were so good they would have probably won without cheating. A final determination has not yet been reported but it probably will soon.

So, what is going on? I know that winning is important, especially in professional sports, but is winning at any cost what we are talking about? Are we supposed to look the other way when cheating and lying happen? Where is the honor in that? And, is honor important anymore?

Consider Brian Williams of NBC News. He apparently concocted a story about being shot down in a helicopter while in Iraq. As it turns out, the story was a complete lie. Now here is a respected newsman whose job and future were secure. He didn’t need to make up nonsense to make him look good. Today he has been suspended for at least six months while his employer, NBC, looks to see if there have been other embellishments of stories on which he has reported. No one, including Mr. Williams, knows what his future holds. I am sure NBC hopes this all blows over.

I could fill these pages with other stories of liars and cheaters from bike racers to politicians, to a point of pure boredom, but I think you get my point.

Is fairness dead? Is honor a thing of the past? Do cheaters really win now? Do they prosper? Does the end justify the means even if the means is dishonest?

I hope not. I long for the time when there was honor in sports and in business. I long for honesty in politics. I believe in winning but winning only has value if it doesn’t involve cheating.

Ron Scarbro

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

WE SHOULD HAVE HAD A DISCLAIMER

I was watching a TV commercial recently and it was for a smoking cessation medication. I once was a cigarette smoker and I know how difficult it is to quit smoking. This particular medication was available by prescription only. The disclaimer was unbelievable. Taking this medication could cause all sorts of maladies including, but not limited to, thoughts of suicide. I considered this as I watched the disclaimer unfold. Wouldn’t it be better to smoke than to commit suicide? In fact most of the possible side effects of the medication were much worse than smoking itself. Why would anyone expose himself to such a situation?

The second thought I had was, since this is a medication only available by prescription, why is it necessary to spend the money it takes to advertise on TV? Now I have read that pharmaceutical manufacturers say that their ads are very effective and that they can trace increased sales to the ads they run on TV.

So, are you telling me that patients go into the doctor’s office and tell the doc what medication they should take? Wouldn’t that be a decision better made by the doctor himself? And, if the disclaimer were true, why would any doctor prescribe such a medication? I wonder if the medications we all take might be cheaper if pharmaceutical companies didn’t spend so much money advertising them. Medication decisions should be made by the doctor and not based on TV advertisement.

While we are on the subject, how much do you suppose car insurance companies spend on TV advertising? You cannot turn on the television without being inundated with auto insurance ads. I wonder how their advertising budgets compare with the amount they pay out in claims. I wonder if they work as hard to keep down their advertising costs as they work trying to get out of paying legitimate claims. Also I wonder how much car insurance would cost if they didn’t spend so much advertising their product. Some conspiracy theorists have opined that these large insurance companies spend so much on their ads that they can and do control some of the programming on television. Could be, could be.

Have you seen the recent spate of ads for Obamacare? If this is such a great program, why do we have to advertise it? How much is that costing the taxpayers? I am told that our government also advertises in Mexico the fact that we give out food stamps and free medical care to needy people. Why, if you have to be an American citizen to qualify for these benefits, would we advertise in a foreign country? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

I understand and am okay with the right of private business to advertise their products. The U.S. Government is not a private business. The “inconvenient”  truth is that Obamacare is bad government policy and no amount of advertising is going to change that.

A final question. Have you had enough of Barack Obama yet? He was sold to us a slick, glib, intelligent, law professor. One thing is certain. He is slick but that’s about it. The advertising was good, but the product left much to be desired. Maybe the message here is, don’t believe the ads. Too bad Obama didn’t come with a disclaimer, but who would have paid any attention to it anyway?

Ron Scarbro

Thursday, February 5, 2015

WISDOM FOR LIVING

As noted in the title of this blog, there is wisdom in living. There is also wisdom in taking the week off. Accordingly I have decided to take a week off and post a new column next week.

Ron Scarbro