TIDBITS AND THOUGHTS

Have you seen this classified ad under “HELP WANTED?” Help wanted. Individuals with strong backs needed to carry very heavy baggage for soon to be anointed Democrat Presidential candidate. This is not a temporary position as the baggage continues to build up and increase in weight. Those individuals who are successful in the carrying task can then be promoted to the position of “Hard Drive Eraser.” This very important position requires persons to be skilled at eliminating any and all incriminating evidence from a personal server. Future advancement could include high paying government appointments in this candidate’s administration. Female applicants should be advised, however, that their pay will be 77% of male salaries.

Of course no such ad is running nor would one be run but, when you consider the facts, Hillary’s baggage is building. I believe Democrats are getting worried. And, guess what. The campaign hasn’t even really begun. Mainstream Democrats are so invested in Hillary that they have no alternative candidate. They have good reason to be concerned. Most of Hillary’s problems have yet to hit the fan. Personally I don’t care who the Dems run. I think they are going to have serious problems with the mess that has been created by the current administration.

The Supreme Court left Wisconsin’s law requiring voters to show identification alone. They wouldn’t even hear the case. The liberal left is just going to have to get used to the idea that if they are to win elections, they will have to do it legitimately. One has to be registered, alive, an American citizen, and be able to prove those facts in order to vote. Wow, what a concept.

Sen. Ted Cruz has announced his candidacy for President. I like Sen. Cruz. Can he win a national election? I don’t know. I hope, but I don’t know. Gov. Scott Walker and Gov. Jeb Bush are waiting in the wings. Any one of these fine men would be a great choice for the country, but honestly, I don’t know if our next President has even come forward yet. I will just be patient. In the last election for President some voters sat it out because they didn’t get their choice of candidate. I would equate that philosophy to sitting down to dinner with three choices in front of you. The first is nutritious, healthy food but not your favorite. Choice number two is poisonous. Your third choice is to starve. Facing those choices, which one would you choose? Sitting out an election is like dying from poison or starvation. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Not only do you suffer but so does the entire country.

Finally, if we were really serious about illegal immigration, we could fix it very quickly. Instead of chasing down poor Mexican and Central American families, we should just make it illegal to employ anyone who cannot prove their American citizenship and then hold any employer liable for hiring them. I mean really hold them liable, like jail time for offenders, not just a slap on the wrist. The reason these people come here is obvious. If we removed the incentive, they would probably deport themselves, stay home and fix their own countries instead of coming here and screwing up ours. A workable guest worker plan could then be established that would supply needed workers. We have the technology to do this in a very short time. Oh well, it’s just a thought.

Ron Scarbro

IT'S TIME TO MOVE OFF THE PLANTATION

If you have been listening to Attorney General Eric Holder recently you would probably come away with the opinion that there should be separate rules for white people and black people. The law, according to him, should allow for nuance. If you are a black man you can or should get away with crimes that would land a white person in jail. He recently opined that young black students are disproportionately disciplined in school and that prisons are disproportionately filled with black individuals. We need to remedy that situation by what? Giving black criminals a pass? Allowing young black students freedom to disrupt school? Look the other way when these punks and thugs patrol the streets selling and doing drugs? Is that his idea?

I know that the populations of prisons include a lot of black people which should lead anyone with common sense to the conclusion that black people commit a disproportionate amount of crimes. Is that so hard to understand? We absolutely cannot have separate rules and laws for separate groups of people. When someone, regardless of their race, breaks the law, he should be dealt with as the law prescribes without regard to their race or ethnicity.

I recently went on a ride-along with a police officer. It was the night shift. I noticed when he stopped anyone for a traffic infraction he had to note in his record book the race of the individual he had stopped. When I asked him why, he replied that it was the policy of his department to make that notation so that his traffic stops were not weighted too heavily toward any one race. It was impossible to know the race of a driver at night when the blue lights went on so I wondered why this silly policy was in place. The law was broken or the traffic stop wouldn’t have been made. What absolute nonsense.

The race baiting and race pimping that has happened in Ferguson, MO. since the young black thug was killed by a white police officer has virtually destroyed that city. And all for a lie. Michael Brown asked for the punishment he received. Every investigation that has been done has borne out that fact. We are left with only one conclusion. If you don’t want problems with law enforcement, don’t break the law. Don’t defy the authority of law enforcement.

From time to time I consider the plight of the black community. I ask sometimes, what do regular everyday black citizens think when they see what persons of their group do. In the area where I live the news every night starts with all the shootings that occur. You don’t have to see pictures to know who is perpetrating these crimes. And it is getting worse not better. Black groups gather and scream that the killing has to stop, but it doesn’t. Black mothers mourn the loss of their children, but it doesn’t stop.

I know there is no simple answer but one wonders if maybe a different approach might help. Many of these black people live on the government plantation. They live in government housing, eat government food, receive government checks and talk on government phones. Their actions seem to be condoned because some two or three hundred years ago some of their ancestors were slaves.

Well I don’t condone any of it. I have never owned a slave nor do I ever plan to. In fact, had I lived during the slave period it is far more likely that I would have been a slave than I would have owned one. If black people want to truly join today’s society, they have to move themselves off the plantation.

Ron Scarbro

AMERICAN HISTORY/CIVICS 101 REVISITED

Here’s something you may find interesting. The following is a verbatim quote from the US Constitution. It is from Article II, section 2 and it deals with the Executive Branch of government. In other words, the president. “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur…..”

Now let us consider what is happening in Iran. This Administration is currently   negotiating a treaty with Iran which is right and proper, but right and proper only with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate. Without that advice and consent it becomes an illegal act. This could be fixed by simply involving the Senate. Forty-seven Senators sent a letter to Iran informing them that any treaty signed but not approved by two-thirds of the Senate will be invalid when Obama leaves office. The liberal news media are calling these forty-seven Senators traitors. I suggest that the news media take a moment to read the Constitution before they make such accusations. Isn’t this President supposed to have been a Professor of Constitutional Law? How could he have missed that part about the Constitution  requiring two-thirds of the Senate before any treaty could be legal?

Here’s another little tidbit from the Constitution, Article II, section one, the Presidential Oath of Office. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

That seems pretty clear to me, no nuance, how about you? And I am not even a professor of Constitutional Law.

Some will say that the President can do anything he wants by “Executive Order.” The problem with that argument when it comes to treaties with foreign governments is they don’t always understand that once the President is out of office, his proclamations are invalid. His “Executive Orders” are then worthless. The forty-seven Senators who signed and sent the letter to Iran did them and the world a favor.

As I have said on so many occasions, we don’t elect emperors. We elect Presidents and they, like all the rest of us, have to obey the law. Failure to do so can and will result in prosecution.

We have three co-equal branches of government. They are the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. They have equal power with each other. The Congress, the legislative branch, has the responsibility and the duty to rein in this president. The failure of the Congress to do their job could create a catastrophic situation in the Middle East that will doubtless be exported to our shores.

If you think Obama is going to rein himself in, history tells us he has no intention of doing that. So, how far will we let him go? He has two years left on his term so does he think he is above impeachment? Do you have any idea how much damage he could do in a two year period?

What needs to happen is for the Democrats to make a little visit to Obama and let him understand clearly that he will not be allowed to continue on the path he has chosen. After all, the Democrats will be the ones to suffer if Obama isn’t brought back to reality.

We have a rule book. We have a set of laws. We have a President who has sworn to “faithfully” uphold those laws. We also have a Congress who must make certain that he does.

Ron Scarbro

RELIGION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

I’ve heard a lot recently about moral equivalency. Loosely translated it means if you do something to someone and then someone does something similar to you, that is equal, or equivalent. Continuing in that theme, if a thousand years ago individuals traveled from their homeland in Europe to the Middle East killing and maiming along the way calling it a crusade, does that mean that here in the twenty-first century individuals from the Middle East can travel anywhere in the world they choose killing, beheading, burning, and slaughtering, and call it equal? In other words is there a moral equivalency to their actions? Regardless of what the President says, there is not.

To me that is about as silly as the State Department suggestion that what we need to do is provide jobs for Islamic terrorists and improve their economies and they will stop their murderous activity. I am of the opinion that once these disaffected thugs become baby killers and rapists, they would have a difficult time going back to any normal, moral, human behavior. I am of the opinion that the rise of ISIS is because they are recruiting young, disillusioned, social rejects who get a thrill from baby killing and raping. Many come from well-to-do homes. Some are even well educated. Granted many are goat herders, but for the most part, jobs and economies mean nothing to them. These are bloodthirsty thugs who think they are going to Disneyland.

And so now, they have threatened Americans on our homeland, more specifically the Mall of America. These worthless punks have decided they will attack innocent shoppers in the Mall. What will be our response? Will we just stop shopping at the Mall of America? Will we let the terrorists win? Or will we continue to shop there, being vigilant and careful, thereby showing the cowards that they cannot frighten us?

And what should our government do? Will they just wait until an attack happens before they respond? This Administration has recently sent out a tweet asking everyday Americans what would they do to combat this terrorism. They want you to tweet your suggestions. Seems to me a strange way to conduct foreign policy, but whatever. Here’s mine.

First of all, face this fact. Radical Islamic terrorists are a cancer on the world. Were you to have a cancer in your body, your surgeon would cut it out. Then he would poison the area around it so that the cancer could not reoccur. That is how we must treat this cancer. We cut it out. We kill any possibility of it ever recurring. As is the case when chemotherapy is prescribed to humans, collateral damage can occur. Collateral damage also is the nature of war. Remember, we didn’t start this mess. It will just be left to us to end it.  

There is a lot of conversation in the media about what we call these thugs. The President apparently doesn’t want to call them Islamic terrorists. I personally don’t care what the media calls them, or what the President calls them. They are baby killing, blood thirsty, social rejects who will all soon die horrible deaths. They are not religious zealots. In fact religion has nothing to do with it. They are just thugs and killers.

Finally, this is not just going to go away. We can’t just bury our heads in the sand and have it all disappear. For it to end, we must end it. And the sooner the better.

Ron Scarbro

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

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

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