THE NEW NORMAL?????

Where will it all end? When New York City passed an ordinance forbidding trans-fats usage in private restaurants owned by free private citizens I thought, oh well what else can you expect from a bunch of northeast liberals? The state of Minnesota has passed a law forbidding smoking in any public facility regardless of whether it is a private business or not. Again, just another bunch of lefties with no regard for the Constitution of The United States. I am sure that other states have also passed such laws. Of course there are the seat belt laws and the cycle helmet laws that pervade our culture. In Mississippi a lawmaker has proposed a law making it illegal to serve fatty foods like french fries and hamburgers to obese people. After all it is for their own good.

Most of these morons believe that the laws that they conjure up are for the good of the people. What they fail to understand is that Americans have the constitutional right to smoke tobacco, eat fatty foods, or ride in their cars unbelted if they so choose. It is none of the Legislature’s business. These are not the matters that government should be dealing with.

The left coast, not to be outdone, has just passed a law recently signed by the Governator, to outlaw the use of trans-fats in any restaurant in California. We are going to be protected from ourselves regardless of how many of our liberties we have to give up. That seems to be the mantra of these liberals who are growing in numbers. We the people cannot be trusted to take care of ourselves.

My question is simple. What is next? How much of my freedom am I going to have to give up before I say no. My life is my responsibility. My choices are mine. I don’t smoke or use tobacco nor would I even think about getting on a motorcycle, but that is my choice. I do not need nor would I seek permission from any so-called elected leader. By the same token if my neighbor chooses any of these vices for their own pleasure it is none of my business.

What is happening in the new normal? How is it possible that laws are being passed with no regard to the constitutionality of those laws. I am sure that 9/11 had something to do with it. We are now expected to submit to extensive, warrantless searches just to get on an airplane. But Ron, you scream, it’s for our own good. If we don’t do these things the bad guys will kill us all. People will die of lung cancer. People will die of obesity. People will get heart disease from trans-fats. What other choice do we have?

I have a few thoughts on that issue. My grandmother lived to one hundred and died at three hundred pounds. My father smoked most of his life and is in good shape now at ninety. He also lived the majority of his life as did his mother on bacon grease and gravy. Everything they ate was fried. Do you think they are genetic mutations? No, they just drew the right genetic straw. How many people have you heard of who exercise regularly, eat the right foods, look for all the world fit and trim and then fall down dead during that exercise. It happens.

Now for a few final thoughts. Freedom is messy. I love that expression because it is so true. Freedom is allowing people to make their own choices even if those choices are, in your opinion, wrong. By the way, your opinion has no more or less value than theirs. We pass laws for sure and we should as long as they are constitutional, but the problem is we are far less inclined to punish those who would violate the law. We must punish offenders and if necessary take them out of the gene pool forever. This is where we fall down and fail in our responsibility to the American people.

As a free American citizen all I want is accurate, unfiltered information with no agenda attached. I will make my own decisions as I am free to do as an American. The absolute last thing I want or need is the opinion of some elected representative/lawyer who may well be on the payroll of a number of outfits who are trying to sell me something. Quit trying to take care of me. I’ll do it myself. That is my normal.

Ron Scarbro July 28, 2008.

THE LEFT WING MEDIA

I have said before that I wouldn’t wrap my dead rotting fish in the New York Times for fear that the fish would be contaminated by the process. Never has that been more evident than the latest antic this rag has tried to perpetrate on the American people.

Senator Obama wrote and had published an essay as a letter to the editor a couple of weeks ago. In it he criticized Senator McCain and his plan for Iraq. When McCain wrote a rebuttal piece and sent it to the Times, it was rejected for publication. Their comment to the McCain campaign was that they would have to re-write the piece to be more in line with the thoughts of Obama and, as it turns out, The New York Times. This was the ruling of the moron who is the opinion page editor. It is clear the Times doesn’t want any opinion on their opinion page except the opinion of the Times. So much for a balanced reporting.

Also this recent past saw Obama finally make his long awaited trip to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Accompanying him are the anchors of the big three networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. FOX was denied permission to go with this group of intrepid reporters. It doesn’t take a mental giant to figure out what is going on here. The big three are in the tank with Obama. This act only serves to further alienate at least fifty percent of the American public.

The network news programs are losing viewers at a rapid pace. This is certainly one of the major reasons. The New York Times has had to lay off a large number of staffers due to reduced ad revenue and lowered circulation. I understand that there is serious competition from the internet but the response of theses so called news agencies is to further entrench themselves with the left wing of the Democratic Party. As a salesman in my former life, I can tell you that the way to certain failure in selling your product is to alienate half of your potential market. We may well be witnessing the demise of network news and hopefully The New York Times.

While I am on the subject of the media, we recently watched as they dealt with the deaths of Tim Russert and Tony Snow. Personally I admired both of these reporters. Of course I didn’t always agree with them but I still admired them. Hell, I don’t agree with my wife all the time either. The point I wanted to make was to point out their response to the loss of these two men. To me, their response was shocking. These two news readers became more important than the news they were reporting on. This then points to another problem with the media. The anchors and the on air reporters become stars and take on a pseudo importance that mitigates their reportage. They become bigger that the news. It reminds me of Walter Cronkite who used to say “well that’s the way it was”. What he in fact was saying was that’s the way I wish it was, or that’s the way I want you to believe it was. He was saying that if I get to be a big enough star, you will believe that’s the way it was if that is what I tell you. What a sad commentary.

This brings me to my final point. It wears me out trying to watch network news programs because I have to spend too much energy trying to figure out which part, if any, is true. I long ago gave up trying to read the Times for the same reason. I can’t be the only person who just wants the agencies to report the news. I don’t want or need them to tell me what they think I should think. I will do that for myself. If all of the so-called big media disappeared overnight I would not be unhappy. Maybe it is time for these stars to go out and find a real job.

Ron Scarbro July 22, 2008

PROBLEMATIC NEWS

This week revealed some strange and at the same time problematic situations which we will soon have to deal with. This is a big world but it seems to be getting smaller with the twenty-four hour news cycles and the presence of news gatherers in every country on this earth. I will discuss a couple of situations which I believe may become a problem for us if we do not get a handle on them.

The first seems silly on its face, but a closer look identifies a dangerous situation. In merry old England a judge in his wisdom has decided that Sharia law is compatible with English law. What? Are you crazy? You may know that Sharia law is the governing law of fundamentalist Islam. While I recognize that England is not America, this ruling nevertheless has far reaching effects. I am not a Sharia scholar but I just know what I am told and what I see in the news.

In America a Pakistani living here just killed his twenty-five year old daughter. This was ostensibly a so-called honor killing. It seems the daughter, who had become somewhat Americanized, objected to the pre-arranged marriage her father had set up for her in Pakistan. Her punishment for this disobedience was of course death at the hands of her own father. This is apparently rather common in Pakistan and other areas of the world where Sharia law is practiced. He killed her by strangling her with his bare hands. Pretty nice, huh? He has since been arrested and is on trial for murder. So far we don’t accept Sharia law as our law. If he is found guilty he should be hung by his male reproductive parts until the buzzards pick his bones dry. That would be a true honor killing. Other so-called honor killings have happened in Canada and in South America. It is getting closer all the time.

The next problem I want to discuss has to do with a cab driver in Atlanta, Ga. He and his wife are green card carrying Pakistanis. They have two boys who were born here and are therefore American citizens. The father decided to send his children to Pakistan to a Madrassa school. He apparently believes, according to the purveyors of this news, that if his children memorize the Koran, he and his wife will be guaranteed a place in Heaven. Madrassa schools are notorious for indoctrinating students into fundamentalist Islam. They are taught that infidels, all those who are not Muslim, must be eliminated. They are also taught that the only law is Sharia law. Well it seems, again according to the purveyors of this news report, the boys wanted to be brought back home. They were homesick. A huge effort was begun with publicity and pressure on the Pakistani Government. At last the precious little future terrorists have been returned to America. I have a simple question. Why? Why do we want them back here? We will have to deal with them soon enough.

It also has been reported that there are hundreds of American kids in these Madrassa schools in Pakistan and in other parts of the world. They are dutifully learning at the feet of Taliban instructors. They will graduate with degrees in murder of women and children. They are learning the fine art of beating defenseless women for improper dress. They are learning the reward of honor killing and of becoming a martyr.

These American citizens with non-citizen parents will return here unfettered and prepared to carry out their missions.

Is this what we want? I suspect not. At best these children are not being educated in any way to prepare them for a life in this country. They do not learn even the most basic of our educational requirements. They will also have to be monitored for the rest of their lives because they will return as explosions ready to go off at any time. It is time we put a stop to this practice. If people from other parts of the world want to come and live here, they had better be prepared to live as Americans. That includes preparing their children for life in a free country. There already are enough of these young terrorists in training for us to have to deal with without creating ones with American citizenship.

Ron Scarbro July 14, 2008

THE FACE OF AMERICA

I was recently involved in a heated discussion with a very nice gentleman, who happened to be a white man, regarding Barak Obama. He intends to vote for Obama. When I asked why, it boiled down to the fact that it will be because he is a black man. Out of curiosity I asked about what positions of the Obama campaign was he particularly fond of? Silence. Okay how about any position he has taken? More silence. During the entire conversation, the only thing he could come up with was the fact that he was a black man. It is his opinion that this is the first time in our history that we have an opportunity to elect a black man and then to show the world his black face as the face of America. His reasoning is that this will prove to the world that we are past our previous racial problems. Any further discussion with this gentleman proved fruitless as he had made up his mind.

There are a lot of reasons to either vote for or against anyone but I think race should be the absolute last one. First of all Obama had a white mother and a black father. As far as I am concerned he is as white as he is black. His race, his gender, his height, nor his religion should influence anyone’s decision. My problem with Obama is not his color, it is his politics. He is a socialist and an inexperienced one at that. He and his ilk on the left will do everything in their power to change America and try to bring about a socialist system like all the failures in Europe. I say failure because socialism has never worked and I doubt that it ever will. It is contrary to the nature of free men and women.

As a senior citizen and a veteran I should favor democrats. They seem bent on giving away the treasure of this great country to us as well as all the other folks among us who do not choose to work for a living. The problem of course is paying for all these wonderful subsidies. That will be left to our children and grandchildren.

They seem to be anti-war. They are no more anti-war than I am. But, there are just times when we have to stand up. Pacifism is almost a guaranteed loss of freedom. I would rather die as a free man than live as a slave. The democrats need to look at where they stand on the matter of defending this nation against her enemies. On Independence Day I watched as hundreds of our military men and women stood to re-enlist in the service. They did it in a war zone. Perhaps those on the left should consider why these soldiers would do such a thing. I doubt it was for the money. Just a thought but I wonder how many of those re-enlistees will be voting for Obama.

If this wasn’t such a dangerous world and if our economic situation weren’t so serious, it would be fun to watch liberals confront reality as leaders of this great nation. Our enemies are not going to quit until we kill them. If that is their choice, it’s okay with me. Increasing taxes will do nothing more than stifle an already over burdened business world. America is facing a shortage of energy. We must start immediately drilling for new sources of oil and gas. We must immediately start building nuclear power plants. New ways of using coal must be introduced. This is no time for the pie in the sky by and by attitudes of leftist liberals.

As to the face of America, the world doesn’t care what the color of that face is, they just want it to be strong in the face of terrorism. They want it to be smart in economic decisions. They need for the U.S. military to be strong enough to deter would be despots and thugs who have visions of grandeur.

As for me, I don’t care what color the face. I just want it to be on the same page as all Americans. End this war but as a victor, not as a coward. Stand up to the nitwits who would destroy America by stopping exploration for energy. Keep our military the strongest in the world. I don’t care whether the world likes us. It is far more important that they know we will take care of business anywhere in the world we are called upon. After the smoke clears, then we can have a tea party.

Ron Scarbro July 7, 2008

ON THE SUPREME COURT

Personally I have a problem with anything man-made being called supreme. That will be fodder for a different essay however. Today I want to talk about the recent rulings handed down by this august body.

The Supreme Court made news this week in a long sought ruling regarding the second amendment. The news they made was that in this group of nine otherwise intelligent jurists with over five hundred years of combined experience and education, we find that apparently four of them cannot read. It is difficult for me to believe that anyone with basic reading skills could not find with the majority in their five to four ruling regarding hand gun ownership. What second amendment were these four reading? The troubling part of this is that rulings from the so-called Supreme Court are little more than political opinions based on the Judges’ personal political philosophy. While I wasn’t there when the rules were being established for this country, I’m pretty sure that the Supreme Court was to be an apolitical body. Fortunately this time they got the opinion right. That is good for them and it is good for this country.

It also now appears that the mayor of San Francisco doesn’t believe that this ruling affects his city. Why would I think any other way since this same city won’t even allow members of the US Military on their streets. Mayor Gavin Newsom is about to get a rude awakening. Whether he believes it or not, San Francisco is a part of the United States and is subject to the same laws as everyone else. As of this writing, the NRA has already filed a lawsuit against the city and their hand gun ban.

The second ruling I want to comment on is the finding that a child rapist cannot be executed unless someone is killed in the process. To them, the Jurists, that would appear to be cruel and unusual punishment. I thought long and hard about this one and have come to the conclusion that they may be doing us a huge favor. This is what we should do with child rapists. When they are convicted by a jury of their peers, and sent to prison, make sure they are required to serve their time as a member of the general population of the prison. Don’t allow them to be hidden away from other convicts. Secondly, make sure everyone in the prison knows what they were convicted of. We may find that prison justice is much swifter and a lot surer than justice handed down through our courts. It would for sure be a lot cheaper than what goes on now when a person is sentenced to death.

Most crimes, I am convinced, are crimes of arrogance. The arrogance that allows an individual to take from you what is yours without having to work for it. The arrogance of taking someone’s life because they chose to. The arrogance of rape because someone wants to feel power over someone else even a child. On the grounds of most prisons, I’m pretty sure that child rapists do very little bragging.

Our system with all its flaws is still the best system available on this planet. Justice is usually served at some point in time. Perfect justice, however, awaits us all. That, for me, is a comforting thought.

Ron Scarbro June 30, 2008

TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL

I just saw the results of a nationwide poll today asking the question “To drill or not to drill?” 70% favored immediate drilling wherever oil might be found. 20% did not and the rest were not sure. 54% favored the immediate opening of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. I hope our lawmakers are paying attention. Those who choose to defy the vast majority of the people in favor of a few loud mouthed financially well healed contributors do so at their peril.

We all would like to see alternate sources of energy. I wish I could operate my car using fuels other than gasoline. That will probably be a reality in the future. But it is not reality today. If left unchecked, energy cost will continue to rise until our very standard of living is threatened. Heating our homes, feeding our families, flying across country for business or pleasure, delivering goods to all parts of the country, the mail, anything and everything is being negatively affected. That would all change if our Congress gathered up some courage and opened up the necessary areas for oil exploration.

So who is standing in the way of this vital opening up? Who stands to gain if America is brought to her knees? How is it possible that a few morons in Congress who are financially beholding to the environmental lobby can so negatively affect our country? Right now most of them are hiding. With the poll numbers now available, an accounting will soon be made however. They will no longer be able to hide.

What is the argument for keeping the status quo in Alaska? Some say the caribou will die off. Absolute nonsense. Today with the Prudhoe Bay pipeline, caribou are flourishing. They have even chosen to do their calving near the pipeline because it is more comfortable for them. They argue that this is a pristine area of the country. It is pristine in the same way the surface of the moon is pristine. It is pristine in the same way the floor of Death Valley is pristine. It is pristine because it is uninhabitable. Ask any Alaskan what they think about drilling in ANWR. They will quickly tell you to get at it and soon.

This essay seeks to pose the question, “What is really going on?” Rarely are things as they seem. Especially when it comes to the Congress.

Is this an environmental issue or is it strictly financial? Is there a movement afoot to bring America down? Who owns these congress people who would stand in the way of our very security? What do they stand to gain? Do people really think they can turn this country into Europe and everybody would get around on bicycles? Do they see the future as cities swarming with people but with no exhaust fumes? Do they see the mountains as quiet streams and trees solely there for their pleasure?

I have a big reality for them. This is not and never will be Europe. If Europe is so great, why are their citizens trying to escape and come here? Our cities are not built in circles around the train station. The vast majority of our citizens cannot walk or bike to work. We could not begin to provide public transportation sufficient to handle the numbers of people it would have to move.

Are these liberal congress people who would defy the will of the majority of U.S. citizens in the pockets of the oil companies? I don’t know. I just know that something is definitely wrong with the system as it is right now.

To those who say that even if we did start drilling today, it would take ten years for the oil to reach the market. That is probably true but if we started today, oil prices would tumble until all of the speculation was eliminated from the price. OPEC can’t drink their oil and they also can’t stand the competition of our producing our own. If you care about the future of this country, put some heat on your Congress person. There are no more acceptable excuses. The new mantra is open it up and start drilling now.

Ron Scarbro June 23, 2008

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

The democrats are in a trick bag. That is what we used to call situations which usually wound up with tricky endings. First they have accomplished something they have wanted for some time. They have a black candidate for President. Their second accomplishment is they have a female candidate for President. This is where it gets tricky. These two candidates are of course opposing each other, and they are doing it vehemently. One of them has to lose.

Let’s look at the problem. To date, in this primary, Hillary has been able to hang on to her accepted constituency. Those would be blue collar, lower income, older, union members, etc. Obama has been able to attract the young, upperly mobile, college educated, liberal, etc. The problem is that elections for President are based on the votes of the Electoral College, not the popular vote. That means states must be won in order that their Electoral College votes go to that state’s winning candidate. The primaries should serve to identify a candidate who can carry big Electoral College states in order to win a general election.

A close examination of this primary shows that Hillary has won the big states but Obama has won the others. To date he has a majority of the pledged delegates to the convention, which would make him the presumed candidate for the Democratic Party. So vicious has their contest been however, that many Hillary voters have said they wouldn’t vote for Obama under any circumstance. The same is true of course for Obama voters regarding Hillary. Hillary has said that Obama cannot close the deal. He cannot carry the states he must carry in order to win a general election. Obama supporters have clearly said though that if Hillary pulls a fast one in order to get the nomination, they will either stay home on Election Day or, heaven forbid, vote for McCain.

So now the talk is of Vice Presidential selection. Consider that you are Obama and you had to choose Hillary for the second spot. Can you imagine a White House with Bill Clinton sitting on the sidelines with his wife as Vice President? Me either. Can you imagine a White House where Hillary is just a quiet subservient member of another Presidents cabinet? Me either. What is much more likely is an all out battle at the convention for the top spot.

The democrats have gotten themselves into this mess for some very honorable and high minded reasons. It just wasn’t supposed to happen all at once. Based on the aforementioned facts neither can win a general election. Hence, the trick bag.

For me and other like minded people it is a great show to watch. I suspect that John McCain is smiling all the way to the election. I am smiling with him.

Because this is my blog I will now offer my opinion of this next election. This world is too dangerous to turn over the reins of this government to a very young, untested, first term liberal senator. It is also way too dangerous to hand to an inexperienced junior senator with no military background and no track record of any success at anything. To me the choice is clear. I will go for age and wisdom every time over youth, exuberance and inexperience. While John McCain would not have been my first choice, compared with the other two, he is the only choice.

Ron Scarbro May 26, 2008