THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO END BADLY

Like most of you I watch a little television. While watching news from virtually any station we are invariably treated on occasion to the Los Angeles freeway car chase. Somebody will steal a car or try to run from an accident or just have warrants. Whatever the reason, they decide to run from police. Well the news and police helicopters go up and record every move made by the perpetrator. Usually a battalion of police cars get in on the chase. Speeds often reach over 100 mph and other drivers on the freeway system are put at risk. I think to myself as I watch the drama unfold, this is probably going to end badly. And, almost without fail, the inevitable happens. The subject of the chase either stops because of car failure, tire failure, or worse case scenario, car crash. In many cases people are killed or maimed in these car chases. One could almost predict the end result well before it happens.

The point of all this is the situation we are facing today in the world. ISIS or ISIL, whatever you want to call them, are like the car being chased on the freeway. It is going to cause some mayhem. It may even cause some to die, but in the end it is  going to end badly for them. The reality is that groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda are like ants at a picnic. They, in light of the bigger picture, are little more than irritants. And, like the ants, they will be squashed like the bugs they are. The world is not going to put up with murderous thugs running around killing and beheading people. For a time they will be news. They will cause many to fear. But, like the killer thugs before them, they will disappear from the earth and be relegated to the dung heap of yesterdays killers like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein and so many others. The world has not been kind to killers in the past and they are not likely to in the future.

Instead of wringing our hands and worrying about this latest bunch and others in the future, there are things we as a country can do to mitigate this threat. ISIS is being funded by petrol dollars. Countries like Saudi Arabia and others of their ilk are using their oil money to fund groups like ISIS. What if we got off our duffs and began a serious effort to become energy independent? Drill our own oil. Extract natural gas from the deep recesses where it is hiding. Open up the Keystone pipeline to move the oil already discovered more cheaply to the refineries. Get off the backs of coal miners. Let them produce the energy that is basically at our fingertips. If Sheik Abdullah What’s-His-Name had to face life without his oil billions, he might be a little more reluctant to fund terrorist groups. Even Vladimir Putin would have to reconsider his position of trying to take over the Ukraine. His only power comes from the fact that he provides the Europeans with natural gas. How much power would he have if Europeans had other sources for their energy?

The inconvenient truth is that we have such energy reserves. We have the oil and the natural gas. Additionally, we have the brainpower to continue to find and produce alternate forms of energy and better products with better energy efficiency.

ISIS’s reign of terror will end badly, and soon. Al-Qaeda will disappear. The car chase will come to an end. Smart choices on the part of our government can speed that process along.

Ron Scarbro

TRUE JUSTICE IS BLIND

Racial injustice is a term that is being thrown around a lot recently. Our Attorney General has even weighed in decrying treatment of young black men by the judicial system. He has opined that black youngsters are arrested more often and incarcerated more often than their Caucasian counterparts. He even implied that black people were being treated unfairly by the judicial system.

It is true that our prisons and penal institutions are disproportionately populated by minority convicts and many of them black. The question is, is this because black people are being treated unfairly or is it possibly that black people are committing the majority of the crimes?

In Brunswick, Georgia recently there was a fight involving at least eight black middle school girls. The word fight doesn’t do it justice. It was more like an all out brawl. Several teachers were injured trying to break it up. Three were hospitalized for a brief time. Five of the girls were arrested for assault and  permanently expelled. They will not be allowed to return to public school. They are now being educated through a taxpayer funded home school program.

These girl’s parents along with some community leaders are protesting. “It was just a squabble.” “Kids will be kids.” “Let these girls return to school.” This, they claim, is racial injustice.

If this is racial injustice, what would racial justice look like? Isn’t that a fair question? I remember a bank robber who, when asked, “Why do you rob banks?” replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Why are so many black youngsters arrested and jailed for crimes? Because they are committing the crimes.

Some will say that black people are the victims of a white dominated society. Still others might believe that black people are owed because of their treatment in the past. The truth is that they are in the state they are in because of their choices and their actions, period.

If anybody chooses not to get the free education that is available to all citizens, and then run rampant in the streets using and dealing drugs and committing other crimes, they deserve the justice they get regardless of their race.

Nobody is picking on black people. We have elected a black president twice. He has surrounded himself with other black people of prominence. We have a black Attorney General. This victimhood business is getting tiresome.

It is really simple. We are all responsible for our actions and our choices. We all need to be respectful of law and law enforcement officers. And we all need to obey the law. When we don’t we face the consequences. Contrary to popular liberal thinking, we are not arrested because of our race. We are not convicted because of our skin color. We are dealt with by our criminal justice system because of our choices and our crimes. If you don’t want to be treated like a criminal, don’t commit crimes.

Of course all black people are not criminals. In fact the vast majority are not. I believe it is extremely painful to them that many of their children are so out of control. I am sure that most black parents wouldn’t choose for their own children what many of these kids are choosing for themselves. They would opt for, as most would, a good life, a happy life, a productive life.

True justice is blind. It is also color blind. When individuals, regardless of their race, take responsibility for themselves and the choices they make, they rarely have to deal with the Justice System.

Ron Scarbro

LEAVE MY S'MORES ALONE

Some people like to burn their marshmallows. Some just like them toasted a golden brown. Others just want to warm them. For me the chocolate has to be Hershey’s milk chocolate. It should be room temperature so it melts some when the hot marshmallow touches it. I don’t like to char my marshmallow until it is black, just golden brown. The cracker has to be a graham cracker. I’m not picky about the brand, just crispy and fresh. Of course I’m talking about s’mores. S’mores are a great treat that virtually everyone who has ever roasted hot dogs on an open fire or camped in the woods, or even in the backyard, has enjoyed. S’mores are a staple for Boy and Girl Scout cookouts. I am confident that adults enjoy them as much as kids.

It seems the government, in its wisdom, has decided that s’mores must be changed. They have decided that the chocolate must be removed. Why, you ask? Because they have decided its bad for you. You should use fruit instead of chocolate. What? Are you crazy? Oh, and they have also decided that the marshmallows should be cut back considerably. You see, you just can’t be trusted to make your own decisions about what you should eat or how much.

This kind of reminds me of Michelle Obama’s war on children using the school lunch program. She sent out an edict that schools must make their lunchroom offerings healthier. No more pizza. No hamburgers. No desserts. Well guess what. Kids who would normally buy their lunch at the school lunchroom have stopped. Lunches are being sent back to the kitchen uneaten only to be tossed into the trash can. Sounds like a big fiasco to me.

There are lessons here. There is information to be gleaned from all this. First and foremost, government and her bureaucrats and politicians are not my mother. They are not my father and they are certainly not my big brother. In fact they are my employees. I hire them to do certain jobs and trying to decide what my eating habits should be are not on any job description. And if they were truly doing their job, would they really have the time for this nonsense?

I never cease to be amazed by the arrogance of individuals who, when put into positions of government officialdom, come to believe that we are their subjects instead of free citizens. They begin to see themselves as the all knowing, all seeing arbiters of what is best for you and me. Well I have a simple message for these would be big brothers. BUTT OUT. I will decide, as a free citizen of America, what is best for me and my family. When I want your counsel, I will ask for it. Until then, just do the job you were hired to do.

Some might think that there are people in this country who are just too stupid to know what is good for them. If that is the case, that’s too bad. It is none of the government’s business. We, the people, are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

If, in pursuing your happiness, you choose to make yourself a s’more with chocolate, or marshmallow, or peanut butter, or whatever, it is absolutely none of the government’s business, period.

To any and all bureaucrats who might someday hear this message, do what you have been hired to do. Nowhere in your job description is messing with my s’mores. Leave my s’mores alone.

Ron Scarbro

IT SEEMS WE HAVE ANOTHER SMOKING GUN

Oops. It seems the missing e-mails from former IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner aren’t missing after all. All the lying and misleading statements from IRS Commissioners past and present are proving to be just ruses designed to put investigators off track. As required by law, the Justice Dept. has copies of the e-mails and will be soon turning them over to investigators.

All of this reminds me of scandals past and how they all fell apart and how the cover-up turned out to be worse than the original crime. Do you remember Richard Nixon?

In the Nixon case there were months and months of allegations and accusations leading up to his “smoking gun.” Nixon and his henchmen lied, misled and tried to change the subject. Their arrogance got them. That gun turned out to be tape recordings actually recorded in the Oval Office by Nixon himself which he thought he could hide from investigators. He even had his secretary delete portions of the tapes to hide his guilt. It didn’t work. The truth came out. Nixon was told by members of his own party, Republicans, to resign or he would in fact be impeached. Resign he did and the nation was better for it.

How about Bill Clinton? We were treated to months of lies, denials and all manner of obfuscation. Accusers were defamed and liabled. How dare anybody accuse the President of sexual misconduct. Move on became the mantra. It even sparked a new liberal pact, “MoveOn.Org.” Hillary said it was all a part of a “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.” Well sorry Hillary, but again there was a smoking gun. The blue dress. When Clinton heard about the blue dress, he knew the gig was up. He was impeached but the Senate didn’t have the courage to kick him out of office. Perhaps it was because Al Gore was waiting in the wings. Just my guess.

Fast forward to today. It seems we have another smoking gun in the IRS “lost e-mails” case. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge knows you can’t just delete e-mails and have them disappear. Somebody somewhere has a copy of those messages. In this case it just happens to be the Justice Department. Of course there are probably many more copies. We all knew this would have to come out.

So now what? Does Lerner continue to try and claim the Fifth Amendment to keep from admitting to crimes which could well send her to Federal Prison? Does she get support for her position from other high officials in the IRS who themselves could be in trouble for lying to Congress?

Any way you look at this mess, it is going to be interesting. Government employees are civil servants. Regardless of their position they have to obey the same laws as everybody else. As previously discussed, the IRS belongs to the people. It is not a tool for any politician or any political party. Their work is vitally important to the security of the nation. Their integrity must at all times be above reproach.

I don’t know where this will lead. I don’t know how high up it will go. I just know the truth needs to be told. We the people demand that this be cleaned up and we demand that governing bodies be put into place to insure we never again have to deal with this type of dishonesty from our government.

Ron Scarbro