Peace Within Reach?

The administration of Barack Hussein Obama is offering Israel a Hobson's choice of territorial concessions to Palestinians determined to end the presence of Jews in the Middle East or having the Jewish State face international isolation as the new apartheid pariah state. Obama and his foreign policy team believe it is not Arab incitement but theft of land by Jews that is the cause of turmoil in the Holy Land. Obama, Kerry, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power really think a Sudetenland solution will advance the cause of peace. Look how good that worked out last time.

Commissioning More Degeneracy

That pornography is so prevalent, that it is in the faces of our children in music videos and even computer games, that the appeal to the prurient exists at all, is a shame. Using our tax dollars to pay for it should be a crime. I read here that is precisely what we are being forced to do in this Patrick Howley piece for The Daily Caller: http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/29/obamas-federal-government-funded-hardcore-porn-project/. This project funded with your dollars confiscated by means of taxation could be considered a "literal obscenity". Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano would be proud.

The Crypto Canadian

We must all beware of the US Senator who purports himself to be American but may be hiding his true Canuck stripes. Yes, we are all in danger of having "real" maple syrup replace "maple-flavored" syrup on our breakfast tables if Ted Cruz is ever permitted to become President of the United States of America. We may have hockey (or worse yet curling) be declared America's national sport. We have a son of a Kenyan in office now and and are surviving that. I bet the USA could survive (and would even thrive) under a son of a Cuban and an American-born citizen mother who happened to be residing in Canada when Ted was born.

Stand with Russia

After two suicide bombers staged murderous attacks in Volgograd, those who oppose the nihilism that is jihad must denounce the murderers, those who financed the terror, those who sent the bombers, and the warped mentality that seeks to advance a religion by massacring innocent people. No nation is perfect, and that includes Russia, but the world must now recognize that Russian President Vladimir Putin must and will do what is necessary to eradicate the terror threat confronting his country. Civilization itself is at risk in the coming battle, and just as in the Great Patriotic War (World War II), America must stand with Russia.

Israel Under Fire

Just days after an Israeli worker was shot to death on the border with Gaza, which followed a failed bus bombing near Tel Aviv, two Katyusha rockets have just been fired into Israel from Lebanon. Israel has shown considerable restraint (too much holding back) to preserve peace talks with the Palestinians, and has forfeited any notion of deterrence. Turning the other cheek does not advance peace but displays weakness that invites further attacks and makes regional conflagration more likely. Israel can not leave their security to multilateral bodies like the United Nations (a body that has never given the Jewish State a fair shake) or even to the US (which under Obama does not seem like a stalwart ally of Israel). To reestablish a posture of deterrence, Israel may soon need to launch a devastating attack against those terror organizations and nations who remain determined to drive Jews from the Middle East.

Looming Death Panel

Computer glitches are only a minor flaw of Obama Care when measured against the care rationing component of the Affordable Care Act about to take effect with the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board that will deny what otherwise would have been life sustaining care for critically or chronically ill patients who are expensive to treat. Many vulnerable people will be subjected to medical murder under "medical futility policy" where that which sustains life including nutrition and hydration will be deliberately denied to hasten death. If you think I am exaggerating, I will tell you I witnessed the deliberate murder of my own father Seymour Goodman by Vanderbilt doctors and a so-called "care team" in a precursor of Obama Care on January 29, 2012. The death panels are real and are or will be a threat to everyone you love.

Decadent Decline Devastates

America was founded aiming to be a moral nation. A virtuous people spread the virtue of liberty. We have fallen from that high perch and are now venerating slovenly behavior in pop culture. No more kiss and hug and "little brown jug" or "slow boat to China" or possibly suggestive but still tame "Louie Louie"- now we are treated to or have to turn away from naked Gaga and the self-exploration of Cyrus- Billy Ray must be so "achy breaky" proud. Where are pastors and guides leading us away from this Gomorrah? Where are the outraged parents demanding that children are not exposed to this filth? Where are the better angels leading us back to Biblical belief and practice? What are you doing to arrest this cultural rot?

New Year Care

Maybe the Democrats can re-brand Obama Care in the coming year. If they take New Coke, another marketing effort that fell flat as a model, then they must find or create a medical insurance product that will be seen as the health care access equivalent of Coke Classic. I am not sure that such a scheme is possible and I know the consequences are much higher than labeling decisions about soft drinks. You see for the policies that were withdrawn as not meeting Affordable Care Act guidelines, and therefore, according to the government "substandard", there is no reformulation on a bottling line that can take place, and replacement insurance policies with universal coverage for substance abuse and pregnancy (for the millions who need neither) will inevitably cost more. It will take more than lipstick to make the pig that is Obama Care a beauty queen.

Their Christmas Greeting

Jihadists in Baghdad heralded what should be a time of joy and peace by slaughtering their Christian neighbors. So far this time, thirty-seven Christians have been massacred. It is a terrible irony that under the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, Christians were safer than they are after George W. Bush "liberated" Iraq. Bush's contention (echoed by Barack Hussein Obama) that Islam is a "religion of peace" rings hollow in light of the bloody course of events not only in Iraq but across the Middle East. American intervention destabilized that troubled region and compromised the very existence of the oldest Christian community in the world.

Everyone Signed Up?

The deadline for Obama Care coverage that was to kick-in January 1, 2014 was supposed to be yesterday (December 23) but has "generously" been extended until today by the Obama administration. In the event, many more people have lost their existing coverage than have signed up for it, and most of the few who have successfully signed up are selecting the least expensive plan- that being the Bronze Plan- which will become a catastrophic care only plan for many as it has a deductible over four thousand dollars per year. Unless someone is afflicted by a serious illness or injury or in need of surgery, all their routine medical expenses will be out of pocket under the plan with the premiums that are the most affordable. Very few people will ultimately be satisfied with Obama Care which will cost them more and cover them less.

Churched, Unchurched, Retreating

Somehow, asserting Biblical morality has become verboten. Talking about the beliefs that have civilized humanity is now a taboo act in our corrupted, perverted public discourse. We see in the "Duck Dynasty" debacle what were until recently societal norms are now "controversial". I will say this loud and clear- a nation that advances the homosexual agenda while silencing those attempting to hold onto traditional belief structures will soon forfeit Providential favor and protection. I think it is long passed time that believing Americans assert God Pride.

Obama's Good Ideas

Tell me which of the programs instituted by Barack Hussein Obama have not done more harm than good? Has removing welfare to work requirements and expanding the Food Stamp rolls halted the dissolution of the black family? Are more or less Americans working today in Obama's land of ninety-nine weeks of unemployment benefits? Will more or less Americans be medically insured on January 1, 2014, when Obama Care goes (or at least was scheduled to go) into full effect? If the Affordable Care Act was the cure to what ailed uninsured Americans, then why has Obama had to modify the law fourteen times by fiat since Congress passed it? Do you think Obama's Snowden-revealed surveillance state might be intruding on your communication that you had formerly presumed to be private? With Obama in office, most Americans have lost ground in terms of freedom and economic well-being.

Obama Visiting Hawaii

Barack Hussein Obama needs a vacation. He is spending millions of our tax-confiscated dollars to take one. He is returning to his birthplace of Hawaii. Maybe he will like the hula girls and luaus so much that he abdicates and leaves Joe Biden to fix the Obama messes, but that is a joke and is not going to happen. In any event, Biden could be even worse. Many Americans wish for a vacation from Obama.

The Bitter Reality

For many years, including during this administration, the United States has given Israel repeated security assurances. Israel had reason to trust previous US Presidents when they pledged their support right through the last President Bush. Barack Hussein Obama voiced all the same words about "Israel's right to exist in secure borders" and about Iran not being allowed to go "nuclear", but to Obama, America's promises were only rhetoric. Obama is increasing pressure on the Jewish State to give land away to the Palestinians for what will prove to be no peace. The US President has decreased sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran despite the fact that Iran is extremely close to being able to produce nuclear weapons that will clearly have Israel as their first (but by no means the last) target. Israel relied on America's promises, but under the Obama administration, Iran is no longer a pariah state, Israel is being isolated as an apartheid regime, and the Jewish State is left to rely on herself.

More False Symmetry

Contrary to those who want to boycott Israel, there is no apartheid in the Jewish State. Arabs and Muslims have more voice, more rights and freedom in Israel than they do in Saudi Arabia. Israeli Arabs vote and sit in the Knesset. Israeli Arabs have access to and protection of the courts. Muslims in Israel are far safer than their counterparts are today in Syria and Iraq. The route to lasting peace is not paved with boycott, divestment, or sanctions against the Jewish State, but through persuading those who seek to drive Jews out of the Middle East that they must give up incitement and stop their mission to drive the Jews into the sea.

Dances with Dunces

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/12/17/barbara-walters-obama-we-thought-he-was-going-be-next-messiah. This Noel Sheppard article confirms what I have long suspected . . . that the main stream media is just another organ of the unthinking left and that they not only sought to support Barack Hussein Obama and to shield him from scrutiny and criticism in an effort to help him to succeed, but that more than backing Obama, the dinosaur press worships him. Do you think Walters had such astounding regard for Ronald Reagan or either President Bush? Do you think so-called "journalists" filled with such fervent admiration for Obama ever gave the GOP a fair shake? The pervasive attitude toward Obama in the legacy media is why I rely on talk radio and Drudge for reportage that does not slant left.

Republicans Left Me

The first vote I ever cast was in 1984 for Ronald Wilson Reagan. Reagan was a Democrat early in his political life, but he famously declared, "I did not leave the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party left me". I was glad to support the Republican Party based on its fidelity to bedrock conservative principles. If Reagan were alive today, I do not think he would recognize or could countenance the new GOP. I will never again vote for Alexander or Corker, my woeful Republican US Senators, but I will not call them RINOs because they are not Republican in name only but exemplify exactly how progressive the GOP has become today. The Democrats are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Left and are mostly socialist with some like New York City's new mayor being essentially Communist in their outlook. The Republican Party though is thoroughly infested with progressives who are hardly different from Democrats. Reagan would weep to see what his Party and his nation are becoming.

Jihad in Action

An Israeli soldier was shot and killed along the border with Lebanon yesterday, apparently by a lone gunman who was a member of the Lebanese Army. In a region already about to ignite, do you think this unprovoked attack might have been inspired by Iran's Hezbollah proxy, or was it the act of an al-Qaeda sympathizer, or simply a Lebanese soldier opening fire because he had gone mad? In any event, Israel is surrounded by neighbors who want to see the Jewish State gone and many Muslims will hail the shooter as a hero, no matter what his motivation was. Time will tell if this murder was a one-off ambush or the start off a wider campaign to obliterate Israel.

War on Women

If I was accused of rape and happened to be a six-foot, four-inch quarterback, my defense, if I am not guilty because the sex was consensual, is not a claim of mistaken identity because the alleged victim says her assailant was between five-foot, nine and five-feet, eleven-inches and I am much taller than the alleged attacker. My defense would simply be that the alleged victim said "yes". A man who engaged in intimacies with a willing partner does not claim mistaken identity to exonerate him in this age of certainty by means of DNA testing but asserts from the very beginning that the woman was just as willing a participant as he was. On another front in the war on women waged not by the GOP but by football players, the Kansas City professional linebacker who slaughtered the mother of his daughter and then shot himself could not simply have been a violent person, but now must be exhumed to see if a history of brain injury provoked his irrevocable act of murder. Then too, there was former superstar running back O.J. Simpson walking away free after his wife and a hapless waiter were stabbed to death a few years back. You see, being able too throw an oblong ball better than others or run really fast or tackle well means to far too many people that you are immune from blame for vicious acts of misogyny.

An Accomplished Liar

Bill Clinton was thought by many to have mastered the art of prevarication and taken it to levels transcending even Nixon. Some thought Barack Hussein Obama was that rare bird of an honest politician, but in the event, he has shown less candor about matters much more important than anyone's peccadilloes regarding personal conduct with an intern. Obama said that under the Affordable Care Act, families would pay twenty-five hundreds dollars less a year for their medical insurance. That would be nice, but it is not happening. Most families find their medical insurance costs are rising. Obama said if you liked your doctor, you could keep him. That appears to be another falsehood as well. Finally, and most egregiously, Obama said if we liked our existing medical insurance plans we could keep them. Eighty-five percent of Americans who had medical insurance coverage did like their coverage but very few of them are being allowed to keep those plans which Team Obama now calls "substandard plans". I think Barack Obama can hold his own when it comes to deliberately deceiving the voters with any politician.

The Ryan Budget

Paul Ryan (Republican Congressman and failed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Vice President selection) either never was a conservative or is now a total sellout if he ever did believe in fiscal restraint. Twenty-three billion dollars in cuts over a ten year budget cycle measuring in the trillions of dollars and almost all of the reductions in the last two years is not a responsible plan. It is the punchline to a bad joke, or rather a cruel hoax perpetrated against US taxpayers. America is trapped in a cycle of spending money we do not have on a Federal government larger than we need that continues to metastasize in ways that were heretofore unimaginable.

Lamar Is "Disappointed"

Tennessee's Republican senior US Senator Lamar Alexander said he was "disappointed" that his chief of staff has been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. If someone in my employ was alleged to have done something so horrific, I would not say I was "disappointed". Instead, I would say I was "sickened and filled with a sense of absolute revulsion that someone working in my service had 'allegedly' engaged in acts so damaging to children". I am "disappointed" if my team loses a close ballgame or if I do not receive my hoped-for Christmas bonus. If someone I have interacted with for a couple of years is stealing the innocence of children, I would frankly say: "that person, if the charges prove to be true, deserves the death penalty".

Sense of Moment

Because of his support for terror before his imprisonment, I was not taken with Nelson Mandela, but I still believe in respectful and appropriate conduct at funerals. I would contend smiling "selfies" like the ones Barack Hussein Obama took with a couple of other "world leaders" at the ceremony for Mandela are inappropriate at any such somber occasion. I also think it was wrong of Obama to exchange a cordial greeting with Raul Castro while American Alan Gross is still held captive in Cuba. Of course, this conduct is precisely what I expected of America's current leader.

The New Logic

If you support Barack Hussein Obama, you are a patriot. If you oppose Obama, any part of his leftist agenda, or even call the Affordable Care Act "Obama Care", you are a racist (even though Obama himself called it "Obama Care" before it became apparent what a disaster it was). As for the right of dissent even Hillary Clinton asserted was patriotic when she was haranguing Bush over the Iraq War, that no longer exists when it comes to criticizing our infallible leader.

Our Obama Prosperity

For their unwavering loyalty, reverence, and votes, the African-American community now suffers higher unemployment under Barack Hussein Obama than they ever did under either President Bush. According to an Andrea Elliot article in The New York Times (not exactly a conservative organ), there are more homeless children on the streets of New York City than any time since the Great Depression. What has the fealty of the vast majority of blacks to the Democrat Party earned them? Certainly not enhanced economic opportunity for most African-Americans, who are not any better off, and often worse off economically, than they were under the GOP leaders who so many blacks believe are working to keep them down.

Glory Is Gone

The apex of American power, when adversaries trembled at the thought of confronting the USA, was at the conclusion of the Second World War. The Korean Conflict, fought to a draw under Democrat Harry Truman, put paid to that power. The notion of our greatness was further sullied by our loss in Vietnam. Then, Iran brought us still lower by seizing our embassy. The nadir had to be Jimmy Carter's attempt to rescue those Americans held captive in Tehran that failed tragically and monumentally. Ronald Reagan rekindled our "can do" spirit, and we emerged, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the world's last superpower. Democrat Presidents Clinton and Obama squandered that by asserting a peace dividend and under that rationale, gutting our strategic advantage. We may now be a second-rate power, unable even to defend ourselves from rising Communist China, and allowing Iran to become a menace to the Middle East. America was once the economic and technological powerhouse of the world. That dynamism is gone now as well. I know our decline could be reversed but am waiting for the leader to reverse that course and put America back on the path to greatness.

America Bleeding Out

The United States of America is becoming a nation drowning in government debt, cowering to Red China after gutting our own strategic defense in the only real cuts Barack Hussein Obama has made, being overwhelmed by a horde of Latin invaders, and having lost sane restraint in the course of public discourse and indeed, even public conduct. As for the Federal debt, which is already more than sixteen trillion dollars (not counting obligations including Social Security and pensions), do you think the red ink will grow or shrink with the additional burden of Obama Care? Communist China unbelievably has become our largest single foreign creditor and the US is now letting the People's Republic throw Red weight around Asia and have their way on the Senkaku Islands. As to public debate, I could never imagine a US President calling his domestic opposition "tea baggers"- in a reference to a demeaning sexual act. Do you think Johnny Carson or Ed Sullivan would have permitted Miley Cyrus to exhibit herself back when America still had standards on what was broadcast on television? What was wrong with the days of Eisenhower, when the dollar was still a dollar, when the border was a real boundary, and the family could sit and watch TV together? If that sounds jejune or quaint to you, you do not remember all there was to cherish at the time America dominated the world.

Our History, Lost

I am not sanguine that Americans are remembering Pearl Harbor today as vast swathes of our populace do not seem to recall a much more recent event. How can our citizenry commemorate December 7,1941 when they seem all too often to forget September 11, 2001? It is a shame that as the World War II generation fades away that the level of ignorance about America's past (in our Information Age, when learning history should be so easy) has never been higher.

Yearning for Warming

As we endure an early winter deep freeze, I am hoping for some of that man-caused global warming Al Gore promised was coming our way. I had hoped with all the hysteria about how man was killing the planet, that I would have beach-front property up here in Nashville by now, but alas, no such luck. It was just cold enough last night that the doors of our old gas-guzzling Honda Odyssey froze shut. Maybe, to warm the earth up a bit, if every human in the world runs every light bulb, every appliance, and all the vehicles simultaneously, we can raise the global temperature one-tenth of one degree. I hope old wooden Al is right one of these days- it will spare me a trip to Florida when I want to take a dip in the Gulf- I can just step off the porch to use my snorkel.

The Great Deceivers

If the main stream media (or dinosaur media which is the term I coined for them) heralds someone unequivocally, that person most likely is or was a scoundrel. If the legacy media lambastes someone (like Reagan or either President Bush or Romney) that person is likely honorable. The press lauds terrorists in many instances and will vilify the victims of terror as we now so often see in the context of Jews injured or killed by jihadists in the so-called "occupied territories". Because someone does not dispossess and murder whites immediately and overtly like Robert Mugabe has done in the former Rhodesia, that does not necessarily make them a great humanitarian and champion of justice. Never allow yourself to be deceived, Nelson Mandela was a Communist and the leader of a violent movement. If you want an icon, lionize the non-violent Mahatma Gandhi.

China Courting Confrontation

The People's Republic of China is asserting herself as the region's hegemon with her aggressive actions regarding the Senkaku Islands. Red China is an economic force but still has huge numbers of citizens living in poverty unseen elsewhere in most of the developed world. Red China is riven with corruption and capricious rule. There is nothing a Westerner would recognize as due process or justice available to the people of the People's Republic. Red China now believes the rest of the world is so weak that their aggression will not result in catastrophe for the Red leadership. I agree with the assessment by Red Chinese leaders that the rest of the world lacks the will to thwart Red China in becoming the leading power in Asia, and with Barack Hussein Obama shuddering in Washington, supplanting the US as the only superpower in the world.

The Self-destruct Button

The Republican Party, at least as it is embodied in its DC leadership, is about to complete the destruction of the GOP with whatever iteration of illegal alien amnesty is passed under the guise of "comprehensive immigration reform". Ohio's John Boehner, the hapless Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and the weak as water Congressional second-in-command for Republicans, Virginia's Eric Cantor, are determined to go against the will of the American conservatives who gave the GOP the majority in the US House, and give Barack Hussein Obama a signal victory by granting legal status and a path to citizenship (and voting rights) to somewhere between eleven and forty-five million border breakers. Those who have invaded or will invade from the South will never vote in significant numbers for the GOP who are now welcoming them in, and Democrats can not believe their great good fortune to have supine doormats as their current opposition party. I have never seen an American political party racing toward their own destruction the way Republicans are now. Instead of chastising the Republicans, Obama should thank them for playing into his hands.

America Becoming Detroit

Detroit for years spent above the means of the city's tax base. The city government gave generous pension benefits that tallied in the billions of dollars to city employees. The Federal government has trillions of dollars in unfunded obligations. The difference between the administration of Detroit and that of the Federal government of the United States of America is that Detroit does not have the ability to print money while America can print ever more worthless US currency at will. Under Barack Hussein Obama, the USA has had Federal debt rise more than under all previous American Presidents put together. Obama by temperament and inclination would have made a fine mayor for the Motor City.

Ukraine's Lost Freedom

Ukraine, for a brief moment, basked in the light of liberty. An appendage of Putin has grabbed power, and now, Ukraine is nothing more than a satellite of Russia, just as it was in the bad old days of the Soviet Union. Brave Ukrainians are protesting in an attempt to regain independence for their country and their human rights, but they are being met with brutal force. The saddest aspect of this wave of repression is the craven silence of the free nations of the West including the United States, who are not speaking up for liberty in the Ukraine and who are turning a blind eye to a the growing cloud of tyranny emanating from Moscow.

Actors and Porsches

On September 30, 1955, James Dean (who ironically had recently made a public service announcement for road safety) crashed his Porsche (a literal racing car) and left this world at the tender age of twenty-four. He had only made three theatrical release movies but was, in death, about to become a cultural icon. Paul Walker will likely never climb the heights of fame the way the dead Dean did, but he too was a highly paid star of motion pictures who had ample resources to afford a really fast Porsche. I am certain those who loved Paul Walker now wish he had not fallen prey to the "fast and furious" lifestyle portrayed in his most famous role.