IT'S A MATTER OF TRUST

I am writing this on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the State of the Union speech. I will not be watching the speech. I will not watch the Republican answer to Obama’s speech either. I will learn about it all tomorrow through the many news sources that I trust. Some of you will ask why I don’t want to listen to the address live. It is really quite simple. I don’t trust Obama and I am very leery about the rest of them.

Over the years I have sat and intently listened and watched as the “Leader of the Free World” let us all in on what was happening in Washington. It has now become an exercise in nonsense. If a Democrat is giving the speech, the Democrats jump up on cue and cheer while the Republicans sit on their hands. The reverse is true when the president is a Republican. Frankly I get a little tired of the whole affair.

I long for the time when our public officials could be believed and trusted. That ship has unfortunately sailed. There used to be a time when politicians would at least give the semblance of honesty and truthfulness, but sadly, no more. Barack Obama is a liar. I think his lying goes back to well before he was elected as our president. I believe he lied during his campaigns and he has been lying ever since. I know he is not the first politician to lie in order to get elected, but what I don’t understand is why must he continue to lie in order to govern. It is all going to catch up with him. He will soon be out of office and the next president will cancel most of Obama’s “executive orders.” I also believe Obamacare will be disposed of in favor of a better actual workable plan. And as soon as the Republicans once again get back in power, Obama’s past will be exposed from his birth to his education to his source of funding during his early life. It will be interesting to see how the leftist media handles that bit of intrigue.

When you read this, the State of the Union speech will be history. The Democrats will have sore knees from jumping up and down to applaud with gusto every time their hero makes a point. He will have promised more free stuff to the voter base which elected him in the first place. He won’t explain the scandals, Benghazi, the IRS mess or anything else. He will, as he has in the past, pretend all is business as usual. In their response the Republicans will scoff at the speech but will offer nothing of substance in rebuttal. In other words, this will be just another waste of television time and my time.

Maybe in the past I was just naive. I actually believed in what my president said. I even believed it if the president was a Democrat. Well I don’t believe them anymore. It has become a matter of trust. Politicians have violated my trust. We have turned over this great country to a bunch of thugs and criminals. We are being governed by people who care nothing about America.

No, I will not be watching the State of the Union address. I refuse to be a part of the charade. Maybe I’ll find something else of interest to watch, like reruns of Storage Wars, or maybe some game show or professional wrestling. You know, something I can trust.

Ron Scarbro January 29, 2014

WHAT DID OBAMA'S SUPPORTERS THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?

In 2008 the voters fell for a line of nonsense and elected Barack Obama  President of the United States. He promised to “fundamentally change America.” I think we all can agree that is exactly what he has tried to do. This essay will try to examine some of those changes and how it is all turning out.

The first observation I would offer is that Obama was the most ill prepared individual ever to have been elected to such an office. He presented himself to the voters as an untried and unproven candidate who had never served in the military, held a real job, or accomplished anything of note in his entire life. Whatever there might have been to help identify his past was skillfully hidden from the public and left covered up by a media who became his partner in crime because they had apparently decided that he was their guy and they were not going to let anything or anybody stop him. It is clear today, however, to even the most liberal among us that his presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. To those disappointed supporters I would ask, “What did you think was going to happen?”

Obama has surrounded himself with like minded toadies who never question him. Consider Eric Holder. Last week he decided that public schools had to stop disciplining young black male students. He believes they are singled out and disproportionately punished. Yeah, and the prisons are disproportionately loaded with black prisoners. The reason for this punishment is clear. They commit most of the offenses, period. I think Obama and Holder and their ilk seem to be engaged in a “backdoor reparations scheme.” It’s as if they intend to get back at white America for past wrongs and perceived wrongs, but after all, what did you Obama supporters think was going to happen?

Obamacare appears to be another “reparation.” It was sold as insurance for the thirty million low income people who had no insurance. It is now collapsing as many expected and it is going to take years to recover from this particular government intrusion into private business. The Administration refuses to tell the truth about the program or its failure preferring instead to continuing lying to America in an effort to save this dying turkey. Didn’t Obama’s mother ever tell him that liars always get caught? He is tweeting that six million have signed up for Obamacare but of course that isn’t true. The smart money says the number is something less than two million and most of those are among the most heavily subsidized. The young people, whom this program absolutely must have, are not signing up. So what we have here is a failed government program and a president lying about it. My question is, should anybody really be surprised? Was somebody expecting a different outcome?  

The number of food stamp recipients has exploded due to Obama’s lowering of  the requirements. Disability claims among able bodied individuals is also rising to dangerous levels. Welfare receiving unwed mothers are increasing at alarming rates. Should anybody be surprised?  

Prior to the election of this charlatan, many warned of this outcome. But we were ignored. Now we have to survive his last few “lame duck” months. The best way to do that is coming in November. We will have an election wherein we can take away his cohorts in the Senate and make certain we have a House that respects the American people and our Constitution. I believe the American people are going to take back their country. In the face of all that has happened during Obama’s presidency, and considering his total lack of preparation for the job, what did you think was going to happen?

Ron Scarbro January 22, 2014

WHAT IS AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN?

I was asked some time ago why I refer to black people as black people rather than African-American. I will explain my choice. And after all it is my choice.

When I last watched the Olympics, one of our intrepid “politically correct” announcers referred to an athlete from France, who incidentally was black, as an African-American athlete. I doubt to this day he has any idea of how stupid that was. Obviously, in his mind, he was being true to the correctness of the day. Wouldn’t he have been more correct to refer to the athlete as African-Frenchman? Had the athlete been from Peru, he would have to have been an African-Peruvian, using the vernacular of the day.

This has caused me to wonder at the whole idea of how we refer to different Americans and how they wish to be known. If one were black and didn’t want to be known as a negro, or a black, but preferred the hyphenated name, wouldn’t it make more sense to be called an African-North American? You know, continent to continent. French blacks would be called African-Europeans and Peruvian blacks would be known as African-South Americans.

Maybe, instead, Sudanese people who live here and are black should be known as Sudanese-Americans. Or Kenyan black people should be known as Kenyan-Americans. But what about the white people who come from Africa? I have a sister-in-law who, by today’s standards, should be called African-American. She was born in Morocco. She is not black but she did originate in Africa since Morocco is a country in Africa. Maybe she should be referred to as a Moroccan-American. Or maybe, just maybe, she and all others who choose to live in America and become Americans should be just referred to as Americans.  That’s all, just Americans. She was naturalized and became an American citizen. Not only does she speak English, she became a teacher of English. She is an American through and through.

The story goes that when Columbus encountered natives upon landing in the new world, he called them Indians, thinking he had landed in the Indies. That worked for many years until someone somewhere decided that was incorrect. They should be known by the hyphenated name, Native-Americans. Well now that’s a problem. You see, I too was born in America so am I also a Native-American? I have a double problem. I have American Indian heritage. There is Cherokee Indian in my bloodline. So am I a Native-American Native-American? You can see the dilemma I face. I think I am having an identity crisis.

In the final analysis it doesn’t matter what you call yourself. Who you are is far more important than what you are. Where you are is far more important than where you are from. And where you are is in America.  I believe if you choose to live in America you should choose to be an American. You don’t need to hyphenate yourself. That only serves to divide us further. I don’t care where you came from, I only care about who you are. If you would prefer to be an African, then move to Africa. We won’t miss you. I am an overweight, aging, white, male. No politically correct name or identity will change that. To some each one of those identifying characteristics is bad. Oh well. I am what I am, and I am okay with that.

Ron Scarbro

FOR OUR OWN GOOD

We are a very fortunate people. We are a people who have chosen a system of government wherein we the people select those who would serve as our “leaders.” Our “Founding Fathers” decided that we the people would be in charge. To further insure that Americans would stay free, they passed an amendment to the Constitution that guarantees our right to own and bear arms. That alone makes us citizens and not subjects.

In simple terms this means the people who are in positions of power serve solely  with our consent and without that consent they do not serve. Whatever power they have is power granted to them by we the people and that power can be withdrawn at any time we choose.

It is clear however, that from time to time some of these “leaders” decide they know what is best for us and from time to time decide to enact laws or regulations for “our own good.” We then have a choice. We either go along with these “Nannie types” or we stand up to them. Whether it is the size of our soft drink or the type of cooking oil we use, it should be up to us what we choose. What we eat or when we eat it is none of the government’s business.

Effective with the first of this year, we can no longer buy incandescent light bulbs. You see, they are not good for us. So instead of buying a light bulb for less than a dollar, now we must pay ten dollars for a light bulb “for our own good.” I believe if you followed the money you would see just what exactly is behind this particular bit of nonsense. What was the pay off that precipitated this new regulation and who collected that bribe?  

Now we have a new government instituted health insurance mandated by law known as Obamacare. This was sold as being “for our own good.” We now know that the big insurance companies were behind this new law and worked to bring it about. What we don’t know yet is how much money was paid and to whom to create this monstrosity. Time will fix this mess but not the situation that caused it. That will be left to the people.

In just the past few years more and more of our freedoms have disappeared. The system of government that has existed for over two hundred years is eroding. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t agree to this new form of government. It has come about because the good people of this country have sat out the last few elections. Traditional Americans, the productive class, have ceded their responsibility and allowed the dependent class to pick our “leaders.” Clearly that hasn’t worked.

Also, today we have a group of people who seem to believe they are somehow owed a living and that they should receive a living wage whether they work or not. Teenage hamburger flippers should be paid the same as college graduates. Unemployed people, whether by situation or by choice, should somehow be paid a “living wage” to sit on their butts well beyond the original intent of unemployment benefits. They don’t care that any dollar they receive doing nothing is stolen from a productive person who contributes to society. That, they reason, is not their problem.

These situations exist because the wrong people have been put into office by a dependent class who most benefit from their elections. If our government is to survive, productive people have to act. We are the governed. It is up to us, and that, ladies and gentlemen, would seriously be for “our own good.”

Ron Scarbro January 8, 2014

THIS WILL BE A VERY INTERESTING YEAR

Did you know that 98 State Legislators from 32 different states met in December in Mt. Vernon, Va. to discuss the possibility of the states calling for a “Constitutional Convention” for the purpose of amending the US Constitution? To remind you of high school American History, our constitution can be amended by a two thirds  vote in Congress and then ratified by three fourths of the states. But you may not remember that according to Article Five of our constitution, if two thirds of the states call for a “Constitutional Convention” they can make amendments to the Constitution with the ratification of three fourths of the states without the involvement of Congress. Neither the Congress nor the President can stop it or do anything about it. The amendments then become law.

You might be interested to know that two of the proposed amendments by these State Legislators are term limits on Congress and a required balanced budget each year. It is obvious that Congress would never pass such legislation on their own so it will be left to the states under Article Five to handle it.

Reaction from the liberals is typical and expected. “These are just disgruntled “Tea Partiers” and “This will all go away.”  They had better hope that this will all just go away. My opinion is that even if it doesn’t get off the ground, it is at the very least a “shot across the bow” not just to the Democrat Party and their agenda, but to the entire Congress as well. Polls today are not good news for any of them. They will all be held accountable for, among other things, Obamacare and the runaway spending. Not a very good position for any of their reelection bids.

Of course Obamacare will continue to dominate the news. The success or failure of this gigantic effort to “fundamentally change America” is going to be interesting to watch. The smart money sees Obamacare collapsing under its own weight. As people discover the costs as well as the restrictions not to mention the increasing lack of medical care providers, what little popularity it has had will fade quickly.

This along with other noteworthy scandals will continue to be thorns in the side of our elected “leaders.” The polls are showing Obama sinking faster than the Titanic. Politicians will be politicians which means they will abandon Obama like rats from a sinking ship for their own political futures. Polls today have the Republicans defeating the Democrats in the next election primarily because of Obamacare. This brings us to the next interesting event for this year, the 2014 elections.

There is a strong move all across this country to get rid of all sitting Congressmen. Throw all the bums out and start over. In reality I don’t think that is going to happen, but there will be some surprises from this next election. Members who believe they are secure in their jobs will be unemployed. Many, many people are fed up. We expect more from our elected representatives. We expect oversight which has been missing. We expect integrity which has been absent. Most believe we are not getting our money’s worth.

The big news coming out of the 2014 election is how 2016 is going to look. If the Republicans do well, that portends well for their Presidential hopes in 2016. Of course they are going to have to put forth a candidate who reflects the values of all America, not just special interest groups.  

Any way you look at it, 2014 is going to be a very interesting year.

Ron Scarbro January 2014