Posts
It is time for Americans to get over our collective obsessions with cults of personality and the Imperial Presidency.
Constitutionally, the President's duties are fairly limited in scope and should provide an easy framework for the ideal candidate.
1. The President is Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces. You don't put a supply clerk or the mess attendant in charge of the Normandy offensive, so why should we put someone with limited real-world military experience in the position to be "the most powerful man in the world"?
For a time there was a real dearth of talented, driven, men willing to trade their military careers for a life in the fishbowl of national politics. That, however, should no longer be the case. There are plenty of men, and women, who are now in their late forties who served honorably and well in the military of the 1990's. If, somehow, none of these veterans care to serve their country once again, there are plenty of civilian DoD employees and strategists with intimate knowledge of military procedures and capabilities.
2. The President is America's figurehead for meeting with foreign leaders. Foreign policy experience is an incredibly important qualification for a President. You cannot craft the modern version of the Monroe Doctrine if you cannot name the countries bordering Afghanistan.
3. Head of the Executive Branch. In a conservative dream world, this job category would be far easier, since most of the Executive Branch would be pared down or eliminated. What would be left must be handled with the kind of people skills and management outlook that a military career teaches. A good understanding of Constitutional law should be considered a bonus, since so many Executive Branch activities are on the.. shady.. side of Constitutional precedent.
4. Finally, the ideal candidate has to have a working knowledge of the "powers that be". He, or she, has to know the top judges in the country in case he needs to make an appointment to the Supreme Court. He, or she, has to know that Harry Reid plays brinksmanship like a bloodsport. He, or she, has to know the best "players" to advise him, or her, and the best "players" to ignore or out-right banish.
We do not need an economic guru. Economic policy is the responsibility of the Congress. We do not NEED an attractive, telegenic, superstar. There are far more "craptastically ugly" Presidents than there are "hunk" Presidents. Furthermore, superstars have super-egos that must be petted and feted on a daily basis - usually through involvement in issues and policies the President has no business being involved in.
As for social conservatism: keep in mind that the President does not write laws governing abortion, what is taught in our schools, freedom of expression, or the legalities of marriage. The writing of those laws falls to the Congress and the States. The President can appoint judges that share his, or her, outlook on social issues, but aren't we, as conservatives, against the practice of law via judicial fiat? We should be content with the man, or woman, possessing the moral fortitude to know what is right and what is wrong and showing that through the actions of his, or her, life. The signing, and/or repudiation, of empty pledges as a litmus test of Presidential candidates is just one more bit of populist theatre that has no business in the serious business of electing one of the country's leaders.
And that, right there, is my parting thought. "ONE of the country's leaders". The Presidential election garners far more attention, and money, than that of the people who directly affect our lives: school board members, state officials, and Congressmen. That needs to end. THAT is the real change we need.
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Friday, February 11, 2011
Just Get It Done
During our latest snowstorm, the snowplows skipped our neighborhood. This meant we had four inches of fresh powder atop five inches of packed, wet, snow. I do not own a four-wheel drive vehicle. My minivan did fine until I hit an intersection where I had to turn, at which point I lost all momentum and traction. The first time I got stuck in the road several neighbors stopped and gave me a push. The second time there was no one around. I retrieved my preschooler from his car-seat and trudged the block to our home. Snow shovel in hand I went back and freed my van. Then I spent half an hour, in seven degree weather, shoveling that intersection by hand.
There are other mothers in our neighborhood who would have to get through that intersection in order to retrieve their children from school. We have elderly neighbors. The snowplows obviously weren’t coming anytime soon.
Yes, I could have called the town or the homeowners association and complained.
I could have finished freeing my van and left everyone else to their own devices. They probably all have four wheel drive anyway.
But I wasn’t raised that way.
I was, am, a military brat. We moved quite often and always several hundred, or thousand, miles from our previous home. Despite the constant uprooting and lack of stable friendships, my brother and I were always taught the value of community. Neighbors looked out for each other. We shoveled neighbors driveways, helped the folks across the creek cut back the kudzu and poison ivy, and unloaded groceries for the young mom across the street.
We do have evidence of that same community spirit in our current area. A kind, and as yet anonymous, neighbor used his snow blower to clear all of the sidewalks on our street during a previous storm. We live so close to the local elementary school that most of our children walk to school. We watch out for those kids whose parents work and make sure they get home safe- and promptly. Every morning and afternoon four parents volunteer their time to serve as crossing guards- rain, snow, or wind we’re out there looking out for the neighborhood.
Perhaps that is why the issues of the un-plowed intersection so irritated me. Perhaps it was the fact that while I worked so hard shoveling all that snow off the road, a gentleman ten feet away was using a snow blower on his driveway and pretending to ignore my presence. I think, however, what so irked me was the fact that so many folks drove through, or pushed themselves out of, that intersection but didn’t stop to think about clearing it.
It is evidence of what I like to call the “Katrina” effect. Remember the interviews of rescued New Orleans residents following Hurricane Katrina? There were so many elderly unable to move from their homes. They, and apparently all of their able-bodied neighbors, thought the government would send someone to move them out of harm’s way. Other refugees cursed the government for not providing adequate emergency shelter or methods to escape the city. What happened to community? What happened to providing for ourselves?
When we depend on a nebulous government entity for our own safety, we are doomed as a country and as a species. We must re-develop that integral sense of self preservation and self sufficiency. We do still have the capacity to care for our community, despite the separation provided by electronic media, big-box stores, and super highways. That spark of involvement and caring must be nurtured in our children and fostered for future generations. We must ask not what our government can, must, or should, do for us. We must ask what we can do for each other without having to be told, or taxed, to do.
If the little old lady down the street is bedridden and there’s a hurricane coming, make room in your car for her. If the mother of three down the block has lost her husband in the war, make sure she has food to put on the table and someone to watch the kids. If your road is un-plowed and folks are in danger of being stranded, grab your shovel and get to work.
We’d accomplish a lot more in this country if we spent less time whining about government failures and more time working to help ourselves.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Just to Clarify
Just in case my prose was a bit too obtuse in my previous entry, I feel I should point out a few key facts:
1. I never said I hold all of Islam responsible for 9/11. I do, however, find the association between well-funded Islamic organizations and international terrorism to be disturbing and something that should be investigated further.
2. The government will not, CAN NOT, prevent the construction of the mosque. Once the zoning board ruled in their favor, the mosque has every legal standing. The point, of course, is not CAN they build a mosque there, it’s SHOULD they.
3. In my opinion the construction of a mosque in that location is inciting ill will, even violence, towards that specific house of worship as well as against other Muslim Americans. To build an Islamic cultural center in that location smacks of public opinion tone deafness. The President, by voicing his support, again shows how out of touch he is with the majority of Americans.
4. Read my post, below, again. I was, I am, protesting the construction of the mosque and the fact that anyone who speaks out, in the negative, about this issue is attacked. To call me racist, bigoted and un-American is patently unfair. I’m doing a very American thing- using words and ideas to protest.
Yesterday an MSNBC reporter compared those who disagree with the mosque construction location to the 9/11 hijackers. When I read Norah O’Donnell’s comments I said some very unprintable things. Then I read that Speaker Pelosi believes that those protesting the mosque are doing so for political aims and the “funding of those people” should be investigated.
Those people, Madam Speaker, include Harry Reid: the Majority Leader of the Senate and one of your party cohorts. Those people include as many as 70% of the American public. By insinuating that there must be some vast conspiracy going on that would allow Americans to vocalize their opposition to such an emotional issue, you show your own tone-deafness. Americans are blessed with good schools, cheap forms of communication and the 1st Amendment. That 1st Amendment that protects the right of crass individuals to build an inflammatory symbol at the location of a national tragedy also allows Americans to protest that self-same construction. We should be able to do so without threat of investigation and without being compared to mass murders.
We are the people. We are making our voices heard. You can stomp your foot and refuse to listen, but keep in mind what happens to recalcitrant toddlers who employ such actions: they get sent to their rooms for a time-out. We the people may very well send you home.
1. I never said I hold all of Islam responsible for 9/11. I do, however, find the association between well-funded Islamic organizations and international terrorism to be disturbing and something that should be investigated further.
2. The government will not, CAN NOT, prevent the construction of the mosque. Once the zoning board ruled in their favor, the mosque has every legal standing. The point, of course, is not CAN they build a mosque there, it’s SHOULD they.
3. In my opinion the construction of a mosque in that location is inciting ill will, even violence, towards that specific house of worship as well as against other Muslim Americans. To build an Islamic cultural center in that location smacks of public opinion tone deafness. The President, by voicing his support, again shows how out of touch he is with the majority of Americans.
4. Read my post, below, again. I was, I am, protesting the construction of the mosque and the fact that anyone who speaks out, in the negative, about this issue is attacked. To call me racist, bigoted and un-American is patently unfair. I’m doing a very American thing- using words and ideas to protest.
Yesterday an MSNBC reporter compared those who disagree with the mosque construction location to the 9/11 hijackers. When I read Norah O’Donnell’s comments I said some very unprintable things. Then I read that Speaker Pelosi believes that those protesting the mosque are doing so for political aims and the “funding of those people” should be investigated.
Those people, Madam Speaker, include Harry Reid: the Majority Leader of the Senate and one of your party cohorts. Those people include as many as 70% of the American public. By insinuating that there must be some vast conspiracy going on that would allow Americans to vocalize their opposition to such an emotional issue, you show your own tone-deafness. Americans are blessed with good schools, cheap forms of communication and the 1st Amendment. That 1st Amendment that protects the right of crass individuals to build an inflammatory symbol at the location of a national tragedy also allows Americans to protest that self-same construction. We should be able to do so without threat of investigation and without being compared to mass murders.
We are the people. We are making our voices heard. You can stomp your foot and refuse to listen, but keep in mind what happens to recalcitrant toddlers who employ such actions: they get sent to their rooms for a time-out. We the people may very well send you home.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Never Forgetting, Not Yet Forgiving
I’ve been told, by the President of the United States, by the Mayor of New York, by the Governor of New Jersey, that protesting the erection of a mosque less than half a block from “Ground Zero” is not the American way. That, as Americans, we live the beliefs of religious freedom, cultural tolerance, and forgiveness. That opposing this center of religious worship is racist, bigoted, and jingoistic.
My religion teaches me to turn the other cheek, to forgive those who have sinned against me as they forgive me when I sin against them. My God is a loving God, his son and prophets espouse love for all mankind, even the most flawed among us. As a lover of this God, as a lover of the Constitution that shapes our government and ensures our freedoms, freedoms I believe to have been handed down quite literally from our Creator, I should forgive the Islamic radicals who visited death and destruction upon my country- upon me.
I’ve also been told that time heals all wounds. I’ve been told I’m educated enough to differentiate between radicals sects and peaceful brethren of the Book.
But, you know, I cannot recall anyone lecturing the survivors of the Bataan Death March about forgiveness and American support of multi-culturism. I don’t recall a Shinto temple being erected anywhere near the watery grave of the Arizona. I don’t recall liberating forces looking into the emaciated faces of Nazi death camp survivors and telling them to suck it up and cease their whining.
There are some wounds that take generations to heal- lifetimes, in fact. Those who lived through the horror have to fade from the Earth before the trauma of the event can be allowed to weaken. Before the grass can grow green over the scarred land and the hatred can dim in men’s eyes, there has to be a generational disconnect.
We are imperfect beings, humans. We do not forgive easily. We struggle with fear, irrational hatred, and bitter memories. We kneel in prayer, before many gods, seeking the Grace to be better, holier, more forgiving.
So, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Governor, you may try to lecture me on the American way and Christian forgiveness, but if the Lord God Almighty struggles daily to teach me that lesson, just how successful are you going to be?
When you have run into a shattered, burning, building to save complete strangers, or wrestled with knife wielding madmen in a vow to live, and die, as you chose, then you may lecture us on the American Way. When you have served one single day in a hostile foreign land, shot at, maimed emotionally and physically in dogged pursuit of the human abominations behind terrorism, then you may remind us of the duties of a citizen.
When you have stood and watched your co-workers and the people you passed in the hallways burn to death in a man-made hell on Earth, you can lecture us on forgiveness. For shame Mayor Bloomberg, for you personally. Can you not recall watching bodies plummet from the skies? Many may have forgotten that particular horror in a sea of cataclysmic images- the American press is too “sensitive” to publish those pictures any more. But you, a citizen, a LEADER, of that scarred city should never, ever, forget.
When you have made a call to your mother telling her: “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know where they want us to go. I have to go now. I love you.” Then you may preach to me about “moving on”. When you’ve smelled the smoke, for days, drifting across the Potomac and known that you smell the bodies of servicemen, flight attendants, pilots, and middle school children on a field trip, then, maybe, just maybe, you can tell me that Americans share the blame for 9/11.
Until you can do these things, until you have made more than a token effort to understand that nine years does not heal the emotional scars of abject terror, you may not look down your sanctimonious nose and tell me about bigotry, hate, and love of freedom.
Someday the Lord shall teach my soul to love and heal the battered psyche of everyone who personally lived through that day. Until that day I shall pray for his guidance and struggle against oppression and terror. I shall serve my country and God- my God, the loving God, the God of forgiveness and righteousness.
You, sirs, are not God.
My religion teaches me to turn the other cheek, to forgive those who have sinned against me as they forgive me when I sin against them. My God is a loving God, his son and prophets espouse love for all mankind, even the most flawed among us. As a lover of this God, as a lover of the Constitution that shapes our government and ensures our freedoms, freedoms I believe to have been handed down quite literally from our Creator, I should forgive the Islamic radicals who visited death and destruction upon my country- upon me.
I’ve also been told that time heals all wounds. I’ve been told I’m educated enough to differentiate between radicals sects and peaceful brethren of the Book.
But, you know, I cannot recall anyone lecturing the survivors of the Bataan Death March about forgiveness and American support of multi-culturism. I don’t recall a Shinto temple being erected anywhere near the watery grave of the Arizona. I don’t recall liberating forces looking into the emaciated faces of Nazi death camp survivors and telling them to suck it up and cease their whining.
There are some wounds that take generations to heal- lifetimes, in fact. Those who lived through the horror have to fade from the Earth before the trauma of the event can be allowed to weaken. Before the grass can grow green over the scarred land and the hatred can dim in men’s eyes, there has to be a generational disconnect.
We are imperfect beings, humans. We do not forgive easily. We struggle with fear, irrational hatred, and bitter memories. We kneel in prayer, before many gods, seeking the Grace to be better, holier, more forgiving.
So, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Governor, you may try to lecture me on the American way and Christian forgiveness, but if the Lord God Almighty struggles daily to teach me that lesson, just how successful are you going to be?
When you have run into a shattered, burning, building to save complete strangers, or wrestled with knife wielding madmen in a vow to live, and die, as you chose, then you may lecture us on the American Way. When you have served one single day in a hostile foreign land, shot at, maimed emotionally and physically in dogged pursuit of the human abominations behind terrorism, then you may remind us of the duties of a citizen.
When you have stood and watched your co-workers and the people you passed in the hallways burn to death in a man-made hell on Earth, you can lecture us on forgiveness. For shame Mayor Bloomberg, for you personally. Can you not recall watching bodies plummet from the skies? Many may have forgotten that particular horror in a sea of cataclysmic images- the American press is too “sensitive” to publish those pictures any more. But you, a citizen, a LEADER, of that scarred city should never, ever, forget.
When you have made a call to your mother telling her: “I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know where they want us to go. I have to go now. I love you.” Then you may preach to me about “moving on”. When you’ve smelled the smoke, for days, drifting across the Potomac and known that you smell the bodies of servicemen, flight attendants, pilots, and middle school children on a field trip, then, maybe, just maybe, you can tell me that Americans share the blame for 9/11.
Until you can do these things, until you have made more than a token effort to understand that nine years does not heal the emotional scars of abject terror, you may not look down your sanctimonious nose and tell me about bigotry, hate, and love of freedom.
Someday the Lord shall teach my soul to love and heal the battered psyche of everyone who personally lived through that day. Until that day I shall pray for his guidance and struggle against oppression and terror. I shall serve my country and God- my God, the loving God, the God of forgiveness and righteousness.
You, sirs, are not God.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Proposed Campaign Commercial!
I have a proposed campaign slogan for opponents of the health care reform travesty:
Why do Democrats Hate Our Children?
Cue sympathetic female voice from somewhere off camera:
Senator/ Representative (insert name here), why do you hate our children? You voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that caps the amount families can spend each year through their pre-tax “Flexible Spending Accounts”. We can no longer effectively use these accounts to pay for little Maggie’s occupational therapy.
Cue: picture of darling Maggie, confined to a wheelchair
Maggie has cerebral palsy, which is a result of her premature birth. We are lucky to have Maggie, thanks to the wonderful life saving devices in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. You voted against an amendment to stop the added tax on these devices. Now they will be more expensive to create and use.
Dear Senator/representative X: why have you made it more expensive to treat and care for our children? Why did you vote against measures meant to help our children and for federal subsidization of Viagra to convicted child molesters?
-----------------------
Think this is an exaggeration or over-reaction? Shocked that your Senators and Representatives could be so crass, so stupid, as to vote for a cap on FSA’s and a tax on medical devices? Think again.
Cap on FSA’s as stated in the bill: page 1960 lines 5-16
Senate Amendment to exempt pediatric devices from medical tax
Senate Amendment to prevent subsidization of Viagra to rapists and child molesters
Why do Democrats Hate Our Children?
Cue sympathetic female voice from somewhere off camera:
Senator/ Representative (insert name here), why do you hate our children? You voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that caps the amount families can spend each year through their pre-tax “Flexible Spending Accounts”. We can no longer effectively use these accounts to pay for little Maggie’s occupational therapy.
Cue: picture of darling Maggie, confined to a wheelchair
Maggie has cerebral palsy, which is a result of her premature birth. We are lucky to have Maggie, thanks to the wonderful life saving devices in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. You voted against an amendment to stop the added tax on these devices. Now they will be more expensive to create and use.
Dear Senator/representative X: why have you made it more expensive to treat and care for our children? Why did you vote against measures meant to help our children and for federal subsidization of Viagra to convicted child molesters?
-----------------------
Think this is an exaggeration or over-reaction? Shocked that your Senators and Representatives could be so crass, so stupid, as to vote for a cap on FSA’s and a tax on medical devices? Think again.
Cap on FSA’s as stated in the bill: page 1960 lines 5-16
Senate Amendment to exempt pediatric devices from medical tax
Senate Amendment to prevent subsidization of Viagra to rapists and child molesters
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Constitutional Challenges to health care "reform"
In case you haven’t heard, 11 state attorneys general have signed on to a lawsuit declaring the recently passed health care reform act to be unconstitutional. If you’ll recall, I mentioned just such a concern a few weeks ago: An Apple a Day...
Defenders of the bill claim the Congress has a Constitutional right to regulate interstate commerce. They are correct. With such a right, and responsibility, comes the ability to regulate health insurance companies and large multi-state health care providers. What the regulation of interstate commerce does not cover is the right to tell Americans that they must be insured or what form that insurance must take. Health care is not, on an individual level, an economic activity- it is a personal choice. The bill itself acknowledges the personal choice of individuals when it exempts from fines those with religious objections. If a person is guaranteed the First Amendment right to follow his religion, and thus refuse health care services or insurance, the decision to sign up for health insurance is, de facto, a personal freedom choice and not an economic activity.
The darker, and politically more volatile, constitutional dispute over the bill comes from its specific exemption of illegal aliens from fines or fees associated with mandated coverage. The 5th Amendment concludes:
....nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation
The 14th Amendment states:
Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
One of the primary money sinks of our health care system is that hospitals and associated health care providers have to provide treatment to individuals regardless of their immigration status. From a humanitarian perspective this is a very good thing. We do not want, nor should we ever advocate, persons to suffer when care can be provided. There are also very real public health benefits to treating all residents, even non citizens. Contagious diseases do not stop to ask for immigration documents before jumping from one host to another. So, we currently treat all persons needing immediate medical care, and if they cannot pay then the government picks up the tab. The government pays that tab with tax dollars.
Many of the new fines and fees on uninsured individuals as set forth in this new legislation specifically exempt illegal aliens. Obviously it would be hard to enforce such fines on undocumented and transient persons. However, by paying for the treatment of these individuals the States, and the Federal government, effectively have jurisdiction over said persons. The states must, by the 14th amendment, treat all persons under their jurisdiction equally. There is an inherent inequality in creating an exempted sub-class of persons. Add to that the taking of private property: income, and using it for public functions (paying for the health care of those who do not pay into the systems themselves) without the just compensation of equal benefits and consideration, and you have a violation of the Constitutional “fairness’ clauses.
Defenders of the bill claim the Congress has a Constitutional right to regulate interstate commerce. They are correct. With such a right, and responsibility, comes the ability to regulate health insurance companies and large multi-state health care providers. What the regulation of interstate commerce does not cover is the right to tell Americans that they must be insured or what form that insurance must take. Health care is not, on an individual level, an economic activity- it is a personal choice. The bill itself acknowledges the personal choice of individuals when it exempts from fines those with religious objections. If a person is guaranteed the First Amendment right to follow his religion, and thus refuse health care services or insurance, the decision to sign up for health insurance is, de facto, a personal freedom choice and not an economic activity.
The darker, and politically more volatile, constitutional dispute over the bill comes from its specific exemption of illegal aliens from fines or fees associated with mandated coverage. The 5th Amendment concludes:
....nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation
The 14th Amendment states:
Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
One of the primary money sinks of our health care system is that hospitals and associated health care providers have to provide treatment to individuals regardless of their immigration status. From a humanitarian perspective this is a very good thing. We do not want, nor should we ever advocate, persons to suffer when care can be provided. There are also very real public health benefits to treating all residents, even non citizens. Contagious diseases do not stop to ask for immigration documents before jumping from one host to another. So, we currently treat all persons needing immediate medical care, and if they cannot pay then the government picks up the tab. The government pays that tab with tax dollars.
Many of the new fines and fees on uninsured individuals as set forth in this new legislation specifically exempt illegal aliens. Obviously it would be hard to enforce such fines on undocumented and transient persons. However, by paying for the treatment of these individuals the States, and the Federal government, effectively have jurisdiction over said persons. The states must, by the 14th amendment, treat all persons under their jurisdiction equally. There is an inherent inequality in creating an exempted sub-class of persons. Add to that the taking of private property: income, and using it for public functions (paying for the health care of those who do not pay into the systems themselves) without the just compensation of equal benefits and consideration, and you have a violation of the Constitutional “fairness’ clauses.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Healthcare links
I’ve been really ill for the past few weeks, so please excuse my lack of updates.
I have joined a group on Facebook named “Vote No on healthcare or we vote YES for your opponent”. If you’re a Facebook member, join up and then tell your friends.
While I work on catching up, feel free to browse the links below regarding today’s news about the health-care boondoggle.
Malkin: A wrench in Dem’s Wreckonciliation Plans
IBD: Democrats Stop Trying to win over Stupak, Pro-life Dems
Washington Post: Student Loan Overhaul likely to join Senate healthcare bill
CNN: Health Care Reform Deadlines: DOA
I have joined a group on Facebook named “Vote No on healthcare or we vote YES for your opponent”. If you’re a Facebook member, join up and then tell your friends.
While I work on catching up, feel free to browse the links below regarding today’s news about the health-care boondoggle.
Malkin: A wrench in Dem’s Wreckonciliation Plans
IBD: Democrats Stop Trying to win over Stupak, Pro-life Dems
Washington Post: Student Loan Overhaul likely to join Senate healthcare bill
CNN: Health Care Reform Deadlines: DOA
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