Thought on the Border Crisis

So according to the Left, the current border crisis is the result of the poverty, drugs, and gang violence in Honduras and Guatemala. Things are so bad that parents are willing to spend thousands of dollars to have coyotes (human traffickers) take their children unaccompanied, hundreds of miles, across dangerous terrain, on the top of the "Death Train" where they are dumped off by themselves on our southern border. So why aren't the parents from south Chicago loading up their kids and sending them to safety? Do Honduran parents love their children more than the parents in south Chicago? Are Guatemalan parents smarter than Chicagoan parents? Maybe the parents of kids from south Chicago should load up a bus with their children and send them to let's say Bethesda, MD and then have them just dumped off. They could create a crisis there and demand the good, caring residents of Bethesda house, clothe, and feed their kids. Or maybe they could send them to Honduras or Guatemala. I'd be willing to bet there was less murder and mayhem there last weekend than on the South Side!

Your thoughts are invited.

A Few Thoughts on Sgt Bergdahl Situation

1. As a policy, the US military doesn't try to apprehend AWOL service members or those who desert yet we tried to find Bergdahl who seemingly was either a deserter or AWOL - there is a disconnect here. 2. With all the evidence that he willingly left his post, the news media compulsively questions the honor of the soldiers who did their duty but who are critical of Bergdahl. They also speculate about the leadership of Bergdahl's commanders without any hint of there being a problem. 3. Susan Rice says Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. Really? He left his guard duty post endangering his fellow soldiers. He willingly sought out the enemy. The enemy's effectiveness suddenly increased after Bergdahl disappeared. Coincidence? Maybe. Who did he served with honor and distinction? Certainly not the US! 4. Two of the Taliban prisoner released were accused of crimes against humanity by the UN for killing thousands of people. Do you think the media would let a Republican president get away with that? 5. If Osama bin Laden had been taken to GITMO rather that turned into fish food, would the Obama administration have traded him as one of those returned for Bergdahl? Think about it. Honestly think about it you liberals out there!!! 6. This administration couldn't even track the guns they illegally sold to Mexican drug cartels in the Fast and Furious fiasco. Do you really think they can track those 5 released terrorists? 7. The Taliban immediately released a statement saying they would make abducting Americans to use as bargaining chips for other prisoners a priority. Surprise!!!! 8. The story about why the trade was made, in typical Obama administration fashion, seemed to change every other minute. All parents recognize this as an indication of lying. These are just a few thoughts. I could go one but why bother. This scandal has already been replaced by another.

Underserved High Self-esteem + Reality = Elliot Roger

Once again we have had a young man who has gone on a murder spree. Unlike our dishonest media, I say murder spree instead of shooting spree because Elliot Roger killed some of his victims with handguns but he killed an equal number with a machete and attempted to kill still others with his expensive European sports sedan. The media won't tell you this because they have an agenda but that is another discussion. For now, I'd like to propose what is wrong with our society that causes young men in their teens and early twenties to go on these murderous rampages. This was nearly unheard of 40 years ago when I was a young man and guns were just as plentiful then if not more so. What has changed? I blame the shift in American parenting techniques. Over the last 40 years, prompted by PhDs in psychology, sociology, education, etc. Americans have stopped allowing their children to fail, prevented them from competing, kept them from doing anything that might end up causing them to scrapping their precious little knees, placed developing their children's self-esteem above achievement, prevented any and all playground scuffles, and stopped spanking their kids when they do something wrong. It is easy to tell your child, regardless of what they do, how wonderful and special they are but that is the lazy, easy way of being a parent. Never having to deal with a child who is disappointed because their team lost; telling your child that it is unacceptable to get poor grades instead of worrying about boosting their self-esteem; avoiding ever having to put Merthiolate and a band aid on a cut or scrape or ice on a bruise, and avoiding the guilty feeling after giving them a well-deserved swat on the butt when they misbehaved is laziness on the part of American parents. Moreover, it is neglect and it is costing us dearly. Our children are unable to deal with reality. They never learn to deal with disappointment in a responsible way. They never learn to empathize with others especially when it comes to someone else's pain because they have never experienced even the most minor of injuries or corporal punishment. Bullying is now an epidemic because those being bullied are never allowed to give their tormentors the bloody nose they deserve and as a result, bullies continue abusing others. Life doesn't give us timeouts. Conflict resolutions techniques might be fine for John Kerry but they don't work with children because they aren't intellectually or emotionally equipped to approach problems that way. Children need to learn how to vent their frustrations in a controlled manner. They need to learn the world isn't going to end because they struck out and that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow even though they got a couple less Valentine's Day cards than some of the other kids. Elliot Roger needed to be told by the other kids in grade school that he was kind of a creep and maybe by the time he got into high school, he would have started acting appropriately. Today parents treat their children like little adults - they are not! Childhood is an incremental process to prepare kids to be adults. It is when disappointments can occur; mistakes can be made, and failures can happen but without severe consequences. It is a time to learn how to deal with setbacks and persevere and build self-esteem through success as a result of hard work not from being told, regardless of our lack of achievement, how wonderful we are. With all the newfangled child-rearing techniques, our kids are reaching adulthood ill-prepared for the harsh realities of being a grown-up. When they face their first real-life, major set-back like being fired, being rejected by a member of the opposite sex, not getting all A's, their Starbucks order isn't right or whatever, they snap. Today we teach our kids that anything that goes wrong is someone else's fault and none of their own. Unearned, undeserved high self-esteem plus reality equals Elliot Roger and Adam Lanza and James Holmes and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold...It's easy for American parents to blame guns for all the violence - especially when it is the parents' fault.

Do Nothing House or Do Nothing Senate? You Decide!

Amid the growing Veterans Administration scandal where allegedly veterans were placed on secret waiting lists and at least 40 reportedly died before receiving treatment, the highly partisan, do nothing, obstructionist, Republican-lead House of Representatives (paraphrasing President Obama here) passed a bill 390-33 to give the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the power to fire anyone found responsible for gross violations. Perhaps something like, oh I don't know, creating secret waiting lists to get the number of those awaiting treatment down in order to meet department goals and receive bonuses? The bill was passed yesterday with both Democrat and Republican support. It was only 3 pages long but when it went to the US Senate, it was immediately tabled. The Senate didn't have the time. Understandably, Senators are very busy and have many issues competing for their time so they have to use their judgement to prioritize what they act on. So what was a higher priority for the US Senate than fixing the Veterans health care crisis? Well for 50 of the 100 Senators (all Democrats), it was writing a letter to the NFL urging them to force Washington Redskins owner, Dan Snyder, to change the name of his football team. Keep in mind, Congress has no say or responsibility for dealings with a private business like the Redskins. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a self-proclaimed socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, explained that they didn't have time to hold hearings or read the bill - the 3 page bill! That didn't stop them from passing the Affordable Care Act without reading it. So have the Democrats learned their lesson or are their priorities just out of whack or both? I'll leave it to the reader to decide for themselves. I think you can guess my position. In the meantime, perhaps some money should be invested in Evelyn Wood Speed Reading courses for all the Senate Democrats so they can get through those pesky 3-page Republican bills coming from the House. But that's just me!

Armed Conflict Narrowly Avoided in Nevada Grazing Rights Stand-off

In case you missed it, last week a potentially deadly stand off between Nevada rancher, Cliven Bundy, and the US federal government was resolved peacefully when the armed Bureau of Land Management officers withdrew from the vicinity of Mr Bundy's ranch. I'm not sure of all the details surrounding this case but the gist of the dispute is over grazing rights on federal land and fees the government says Mr Bundy owes. Regardless of who is ultimately found to be in the right, what I find troubling is that the Bureau of Land Management can muster a paramilitary response to a dispute over cattle grazing. Admittedly, the government claims Mr Bundy owes a million dollars in unpaid fees which to an ordinary citizen might seem like a large sum of money but in the grand scheme of things is a insignificant and it certainly should not have nearly come to bloodshed.

So my question is: Are you comfortable with the Bureau of Land Management (a part of the Department of the Interior) having a SWAT/Special Operations-type law enforcement capability including snipers that they are willing to use against ordinary citizens over cows eating grass?
I know I'm not!

Why Should Anyone Pay One Penny More?

On 20 March, a report was released by the Inspector General that disclosed that its investigation found that the Department of State under Barack Obama could not account for $6 billion in funds in the 6 year period it looked at mainly during the tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Regardless of whether or not they can afford it, why should any American be asked to pay one cent more in taxes when things like this are happening? If she runs for president in 2016, do you think this will be an issue for Hillary Clinton?

Democrat High Fives All Around for Meaningless ACA Enrollment Number

There is an old military saying, "When you are up to your ass in alligators, it's easy to forget that the original mission was to drain the swamp." For the Affordable Healthcare Act this seems very apropos. The liberals won't remind you but the original goal of healthcare reform was to insure the alleged 40 million Americans who didn't have health insurance. Now for a little math: 7.1 million divided by 40 million is 17.8%. Would most reasonable people consider this success? This is just one of the many ACA "alligators". Even if one believes the number provided by the Obama Administration, there is no way to draw any real conclusions from the enrollment number reported Monday following the end of the first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) but that didn't stop the President and his fellow Democrats from crowing and doing a victory dance at a press conference. Funny how Mr. Obama didn't take any questions from the media - as if they would have asked any tough ones. In order for the number to have any meaning, we need to know the details. How many of the 7.1 million didn't previously have health insurance and how many of that number had to replace the insurance that they had and were happy with but lost because the new law 'declared' it inferior? Well the Administration won't tell us. There are many reports that millions of Americas were in this situation. Rand, the highly respected think tank, has determined that 6.3 million Americans lost their insurance due to the ACA. That would mean that only about 900,000 of the 7.1 million are actually newly insured. And how many of those who had to replace their insurance now have higher premiums and higher deductibles? Uh, well we don't know. How many of the supposed newly insured have actually paid their first premium? Again, we don't know but can one really be consider enrolled if you haven't paid? What about the percentage of the 7.1 million enrollees are having their new insurance subsidized by the government or how many people have been added to the Medicaid rolls? Again, no answers are forthcoming. Why not? When you have a program that encompasses one sixth of the U.S. economy, it is essential to set up a mechanism to accurately assess its effectiveness. You need metrics and getting those metrics would have been easy to get, if they had only asked these questions on the website but they didn't? Why? The answer is because they didn't want to know. This is precisely why conservatives hate big government programs like this. One would have to be ignorant, profoundly stupid or an ideological zealot to believe that the enrollment figure is any indication of success at all. If you are among the believers, you now have the facts, so you are down to two choices. So which one are you?