No Fly Lists And Guns

Last night, along with many others, I watched and listened to the Presidents speech. I didn't hear anything particularly new so I'm not sure what the point of it was. He did say one thing though that caught my attention and it surprises me that my liberal friends don't seem to have a problem with it.

The president mentioned no fly lists. More specifically the idea that he'd like to see measures taken that would prevent people on the list from being able to purchase a gun. On the surface it sounds great,though it wouldn't have prevented the California killing, but then I started to really think about it.

Who is on this “no fly list?” Who is the person or entity that makes such arbitrary decisions? The answer is that no one knows. The people who are on the lists don't know that they are on it unless they have tried to fly somewhere. What is known is that there are something along the line of 700,000 people just on that one list and, from what I understand ,there are actually 6 lists.

Whatever happened to due process? What ever happened to the concept of meeting your accusers in a court of law or having the right to appeal? To the best of my knowledge once you are on it there is no appeal process this based on cases of mistaken identity of totally innocent people finding themselves on the list.

The founders of this country understood all to well what it was to be on lists and arbitrarily have what few rights they had removed ,that's why the wrote the Constitution the way that they did, so that the rights of the individual would be protected.

Now,along with secret lists, we have a president openly encouraging congress to enact a law that would take rights away from people, who have never been charged or convicted of anything.

You may not like guns, and that's your right, but are you really comfortable with the government removing a right from a person based on an list with no evidence of wrong doing? Whats to stop them from putting you or me on the list for no other reason than we made someone powerful mad or uncomfortable?

Even more, if we allow this to follow it's natural course, whats to stop the government from going after all of our rights based on lists? How could you stop it? The door would be open, it would only be a matter of time. Freedom of speech has been under attack by the PC police for awhile now, if I make someone in power mad are they going to come and take my computer so that I can't write anymore because what I write might be offensive to them?? The AG has said that she would go after people who spoke out against Islam in a borderline violent way, so if I say I don't like Islam or that I utterly despise the Koran and Sharia, are they going to arrest me or put me on a list that prevents me from ever buying a computer again simply for speaking my own mind. Is that considered “borderline violent”?

Do they come and arrest me for trying to blog. Where does it end?

Bottom line; you don't have to like guns. You don't even have to agree with the second amendment but you want to be real careful of just how far you want to allow congress to go. You may find yourself on a list someday.....

Syrian refugees

There has been quite a not so friendly debate as to the fate of Syrian refugees. If you err on the side of caution you are accused of being bigoted and racist and you have no heart.

I have a heart, I am all about helping those that are in need, but I have a heart that is full of much caution, not from a political point of view, but from a personal point of view.

My own personal experience was during my time in Iraq. One of the things we learned rather quickly was just how fast our enemies could disappear into the crowds and the market places. One minute they were standing there and the next they would vanish into doorways and crowds. Sometimes we had no idea at all that they were even there until they started shooting at us or someone would tell us that they were there and where to find them. The other thing about them is that they had no qualms about using women and children as shields or mosques and hospitals. They would do this because of our rules of engagement. We couldn't fire on mosques or in heavily populated areas with out permission and they knew it. They used our own rules against us.

The president mocked the idea of women and children being used as weapons of war shortly before a woman blew herself up during one of the raids in Paris. Apparently he doesn't watch the news or pay any attention to history. In Israel Palestinian women and children attacking civilians is a common occurrence. When you teach them hate, and that martyrdom is to be desired, this is what happens.

When I went to boot camp my drill instructors were Vietnam vets. My seniors ,every where I was stationed ,were Vietnam vets, and I heard many stories of the Vietcong using women and children to kill and torture American troops. This is simple history and fact Mr. President.

One stat that I read the other day is that 77% of the “refugees” are military aged men. I don't know the truth to that because I am not there but I can say that I have seen a lot of videos out of Europe that do seem to show a great majority being male. How do we begin to know who is safe and who is a Jihadi terrorist?

The one thing everyone needs to keep in mind is that the end game for ISIS is our destruction and a world wide caliphate. They have said so and they have proven that they will use any means to do it including using our own laws and our compassionate hearts against us.

If my concerns and caution means that I am bigoted and have no compassion then I guess I will have to live with that label, meanwhile I am going to run down to the store, that's owned by a Syrian family who did the whole process some 15 years ago, and get some Ice Cream, yup me the bigot....

What if: Missiles in Texas

Imagine this for headlines in the United States.

In the south; residents of Arizona and Texas came under missile fire from the Mexican border for the third time today, a day after Mexican border leaders called for the destruction of both Arizona and Texas because their residents are “Christian” and because they are building more housing in the southern border areas.

In the north; Canadian officials are cheering the recent stabbings and killings of dozens of New Englanders' sighting New England residents are “occupying” the land and are nothing but animalistic “Christians” who deserve nothing but total annihilation.

At the UN; UN leadership condemned the US security forces for the killing of many of those carrying out the attacks in New England, as well as the “disproportionate” response of the Texas and Arizona security forces as they flew into the Mexican border and destroyed several missile batteries.

Earlier today, as the United States tried to appeal to the UN for help in stopping the terrorists at an emergency security council meeting, 90% of the delegates walked out on a visibly angry US representative. When asked by this reporter, most of the delegates blame the US as being an “Apartheid” state and that it was their own fault because they are continuing to build on their own territories.

This is what is happening in Israel.

Every day, from Gaza, missiles are being fired at civilian population centers in southern Israel.

Every day,especially in the last few weeks, there have been literally dozens of attacks on Jewish people, including babies, women and children, by terrorist thugs. They have killed with everything from cars to hatchets, they have killed with rocks and knives, yet when they are killed by Israel security forces for the killing of innocent Jews, Israel is blamed for the violence.

John Kerry came out and said that this is because Israel is building or is threatening to change things on the Temple Mount, yet the fact of the matter is that Hamas, the PA and their leader Abbas, have openly said that they want nothing more than the total destruction of the Jewish people, they don't care one iota about the land, they want to kill and that's what they are doing.

And while this has all been going on the leader of the UN has called for Israel to restrain themselves, this coming after a huge chunk of reps, including our own, walked out on PM Netanyahu when he came to the UN to make his appeal.

As for calling Israel an “Apartheid” state, you need to go back and look at what real “apartheid” was in Africa and then try to explain to me how Israel fits the bill. Israel is willing to let anyone from any background live among them as long as they become citizens and obey the laws. Abbas has said that he will never let any Jew live in his territories, that he would drive out each and everyone, so tell me again about apartheid in Israel.

Go back to my original “headlines”. Would we put up with it if it was happening here? Not likely, so why do we expect Israel to do so? Gutless, cowardice leadership both in the US and the UN only encourages more killing on the part of terrorists. Israel needs to stand up for itself and our leadership should back them, to hell with what the rest of the world thinks.

Violence is in the heart

Another mass killing. Another battle over guns. Nothing solved. Why? Because the heart of the problem, as always, is being ignored. Blame is assigned to objects when the blame should clearly fall on hearts and minds. Not just the killers heart and mind but all of our hearts and minds.

If I have a heart full of hate and violence and I want to kill, I am going to find a way to make it happen. There isn't any law on any books that would be able to stop me. If my heart doesn't change nothing will stop me. If I can't have a gun OK fine, I'll use a baseball bat or a chain saw, or drive my car through a crowd it doesn't matter, if hate is whats in my heart and killing is my intention I will find a way.

You want something to blame, rather then the person? OK try our so called entertainment industry for starters.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV but when I do, I see the commercials for all the great “entertainment” that I am missing and it makes me sick. The most popular shows involve wholesale violence.”Game of Thrones” is probably one of the most graphic shows of them all yet it's one of the most popular ever. I saw the preview for “Gotham” while watching football yesterday and what do you have? Someone who is crazy, I'm assuming it's a young Joker, taking a knife to some old man tied up in a chair. We glorify violence and we make it look sexy. We laugh as a “Joker” type character's kill and maim as they live in the lap of luxury. We glorify gang life in music video's, showing money, gold and sexy women all the while promoting violence. Even the most popular games out there are usually in some way war based.

You think the gun is the problem? Not hardly, it's the indoctrination of violence that we have raised our youth in that's the problem.

I keep seeing stats talking about the last 20 or 30 years and how much “gun violence” there has been. Has it ever occurred to anyone that there just might be a correlation between that and our declining standards and morals? Oh I know that makes me an old fashion stick in the mud but I don't remember so many mass killings back when I was a kid. Sure you heard about crimes in the “big cities” but nothing like what you see today in places like Chicago and Baltimore. Whole sale killings every day.

This is a direct reflection on our society and how Hollywood and our media glorifies it.

Not only is it a heart problem it is quite literally a mind problem.

The one thing that all of these shootings have in common, at least the big ones that make the news, is that everyone of them had mental and psychiatric problems that were ignored. by parents or colleagues. And even doctors. It used to be that it only took a doctor's word to determine if someone was a danger to society and have someone committed to a facility. Now they are just given psychotropic drugs , which seems to make them worse, and they are turned loose on the world. In today's PC world A doctor or any mental health provider can be sued and lose their right to practice if they, without permission, send out a warning to law enforcement. How do you prevent something like this from happening again if mental health workers are not allowed to warn anyone?

The last thing is that we have a serious morals issue. You don't believe in God or you don't want to go to church or synagogue, that's fine, but how about we go back to teaching our children, from a young age, that there is right from wrong instead of just moral relativism. Teach them that are consequences for doing wrong. I was playing with matches one day and my grandfather saw me, he picked me up by one leg and wailed in my back side till I couldn't sit. I have never forgotten that and I stopped playing with matches. I learned that there were consequences for what I was doing and some of them could be quite painful. I know our society is against spanking and now look at what our youth are doing to themselves and each other. Bottom line; How about we teach them that violence is not acceptable and how about we stop supporting the glorification of it in the media?

You can make all the gun laws you want. You can ban certain weapons and magazines until you are blue in the face but it won't stop mass killings. You can tighten the rules and make gun ownership harder ,if it will make you feel better, though the only people that will hurt is legal gun owners, but until you address the real issues, our societies glorification of violence, and very careful changes to mental health laws,as long as there is a way to, and a will to kill, it will happen.

A Jailed Clerk

From what I understand there is a great deal of rejoicing going on over this clerk in Kentucky going to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. What I am trying to understand is why she is in jail. What laws did she break? She didn't. As a matter of fact she was upholding Kentucky law. The law in Kentucky says that a marriage license shall only be issued to a couple that consists of one man and one woman. She broke no laws.

I know what you are thinking,and it's sad to know this, you are going to say well yes but the supreme court ruled that gay marriage should be legal in all 50 states. Indeed they did. But here is the sad part.

The supreme court doesn't make laws. If you read the Constitution you would know that only congress can create and pass laws. Article 1 Section 1 “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.”See also section 8 right at the end.

So while the supreme court may have made a ruling, there have not been any laws legalizing gay marriage passed by congress, and because they have not done that it falls to the states (see amendment 10) to pass such laws. This also has not happened in most states, some have made it legal legislatively but most have not, so in fact this woman has committed no crime. She up held the laws of her state and her only “crime” is for expressing her faith as being her reason.

If you want to go to extremes with this, which for arguments sake I will, if you are going to arrest and jail a clerk for breaking a law ,which does not exist, then you should have to arrest and jail the president for violating and not upholding laws that do exists simply because he doesn't like them. The defense of marriage act ,just as an example, we are talking marriage after all, was passed by both houses of congress and signed into law by President Clinton. President Obama was against it so he instructed his staff not to defend it. He has also ignored or violated immigration law and yet no one is sending him to jail for it. Just to name in example or two.

The bottom line is that all that has been accomplished is that you have created a martyr and you have ticked off quite a large number of Christians. Good luck with that.

While We.....

I think we are living in the twilight zone. I fully expect that some morning I am going to wake up and there is going to be Rod Serling, smoking a cigarette, standing in his suit, with the music playing in the back ground, informing me that I have just entered a new dimension of sight and sound known as the twilight zone.

While we have been focused on the Confederate Battle Flag as somehow being responsible for the death of 9 black church members, 7 blacks were killed by other blacks in Chicago, not to mention the 47 others wounded, over the 4^th of July weekend. Barely a word about that, but that flag has to go.

While we have been focused on the ramifications of the SCOTUS decision to legalize gay marriage, The bakers in Oregon have been fined 135K for standing on their religious convictions by not providing a cake for a lesbian wedding, While the two woman sited pain and suffering as the reason for such damage amounts, ISIS has being throwing gay men off of roofs and killing them for being gay and other countries are simply hanging them. Not sure that a cake should be the focus of concern...

While we were enjoying our BBQ's and fire works the Russians were flying bombers within firing distance off the coasts of Alaska and California, even as Vladimir Putin was calling President Obama and wishing him a good and happy Independence Day.

While the Army has announced it's going to be cutting it's forces back to pre WW2 levels, the Chinese

are building a massive military that already dwarfs ours in size( military personnel ,we still have better tech for now) and they are building islands out in the Pacific as advanced bases.

While everyone and their mother has a cow about the things that Donald Trump said, they are ignoring the truth of what he said. The border is dangerous and it is largely the fault of the Mexican government as well as our own. Where is the lie in that? And while the point is argued by those easily offended, a woman is killed by a man who had been deported 5 times and was only on the street because the city he was in refused to hold him.

While we are speaking of truth vs lies. Hillary Clinton. Enough said. At least you can trust Bernie Sanders to tell the truth. Yet everyone is fawning over the liar and ridiculing the one who tells the truth. When you can trust the socialist one to speak the truth, you have a big problem.

While the government wants to be bigger than ever and have us trust them as knowing whats best. Even as more and more people trust the Fed with their info,they prove just how incompetent they are by not being able build a system that protects 22 million of us from having our info and clearances stolen by a foreign government.

While we are anticipating new operating systems, new cell phones and other electronic gadgets, the world starves and is in poverty. We could end all poverty today but we don't because it doesn't pay.

While the world condemns Israel for defending it's self against terrorists, terrorists are attacking those very same nations that are condemning Israel and calling for jihad against them.

While a nation such as Iceland arrests bankers and crooked politicians for nearly destroying their economy, we keep electing the politicians who are in bed with the bankers that are destroying ours..

While all the above is going on our nation becomes dumber. I watched several on the street interviews, where people were asked simple questions regarding our history,especially as it pertains to Independence Day, and 99 percent of them couldn't even tell the questioners what it was we were celebrating. The only person who knew was an Italian tourist. We can waste time teaching our children about sexual orientation but we can't teach them basic history?

While our nation becomes dumber we are also becoming less patriotic. Polls show that many of the “millennial” generation are not proud to be American and honestly who can blame them. What “history” is taught makes us all look like we are evil and our current President and administration re enforces that perception by putting everything in the concept of race and gender or political positions, dividing us along every kind of line possible, and if you don't tow the line or speak the correct PC words then obviously you are a bigot and a homophobe or quite possibly both.

There is more that could be written. But because most of us have short attention spans I won't bother, but I hope you can see what I mean. It seems like we are living in the Twilight zone or possibly the Matrix...that would be a subject for another day.

Cue the music....

What We Have Taught Our Children.

As all of you know by now, there was another mass killing, this time in SC at a historical black church in Charleston. As all of you likely know by now is that the killer, who is not going to be named in this post, is a depraved racist and what you also likely know is that he bought the gun when he was 21 and it was his weapon of choice. Likely you know the caliber of the gun.

These facts have been all over the news.

You have also likely heard various politicians using the rhetoric of blaming race issues and lack of gun control.

While it is true that this was clearly a hate crime,and he used a gun ,the real issues aren't even being discussed.

Has anyone even had the nerve as to ask why he had such hatred? We have accepted the fact that he did, but no one is asking why.

Seems it's easier to blame the gun or the skin color of the person doing the killing rather than addressing the real problem.

That problem is us. We, as a society, have created monsters out of our children.

We have taught them moral relativism. If it's feel right to you do it.

We have taught them that killing is glorious. Look at any of the real popular games and movies. They are laced with violence and for some of them violence is the only purpose of the game.

We have taught them that life really doesn't matter. It's perfectly OK to kill babies before they are born or to terminate an elderly persons life because they aren't deemed productive members of society.

We have allowed fathers to disappear from families and for family units to brake down.

We have taught them that any kind of sex is OK and how to use a condom or get an abortion yet we haven't taught them any kind of morals.

They know the lyrics of many songs glorifying gangs,drugs and killing, yet most of them can't read or write.

We have taught them to hate the police to the point of where they are actively attacking the police.

We have thrown out religious principals, that there is a God ,and there is a standard that we are to live by.

Finally we have taught them division. We have (or should I say the politicians have) divided ourselves up by race, religion, gender, color,rich, poor (there are way to many to list) rather then looking at each other as worthwhile human beings.

As long as we continue to be divided and as long as we continue down this upside down path nothing is ever going to change.

Free Speech Means Free Speech

Free speech.

Last weekend, as I am sure most of you know, there was a contest in Texas to see who could render the best drawing of Mohammad. Two Muslim men, who allegedly had a tie to ISIS, tried to rush in and kill those people only to be killed themselves. The media went nuts, suggesting that this was too provocative, and that we really need to curb this kind of language that might cause hate or violence. I disagree. The Constitution of the United States makes it very clear that we have the freedom of speech/expression. “ Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech..” It does not say that you should be careful of what you say. It doesn't say to not speak of things that will anger or offend and it certainly does not speak against so called blasphemy. Yet the talking heads, both conservative and liberal, those who make a living using words and depictions, were suggesting that we need to curb this because someone might get killed. Really? I am sure when our fore fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence they knew that it was putting a noose around their necks, yet they wrote it any ways and later gave us the same right. More importantly; Why should we allow terrorists to dictate what we say or do in our own country? If they don't like our freedoms ,they are more than welcome to go to the 57 countries that are living under Sharia, no one is stopping them.

What seems to be happening, in my humble opinion,is that Americans are becoming so weak ,and soft ,that the only language, the only type of speech that can be handled by the PC crowd, is that which does not offend or is politically correct, and it's being taught to our students. Colleges across the country are filled with little more than PC nonsense but if you think differently, say your pro Israel or anti gay, then you are bigoted and you will be silenced or banned from speaking at campus events.

If the only type of speech that's ever going to be allowed is politically correct or soft and fuzzy than you do not have free speech. You have little more than regurgitation. You cannot have an exchange of ideas if only one point of view is allowed. No one said you have to like the other persons ideas but they are still allowed to have them and express them.

A few years ago I defended the rights of the Chick Filet owner to speak about his belief in traditional

marriage and the protest that ensued. I never mentioned one way or another as to whether or not I agreed, but because I defended his right to speak I was hammered by many and even some who are near and dear to me.

So if your reading this be prepared; I am about to do it again.

Yesterday I read about a school in Pennsylvania that had a week long celebration of various groups and cultures, culminating in GLTB awareness events on a Friday. It was suggested, though not required, that students come that day in multicolored or rainbow colored shirts to show their support. Most of the students did ,with two noticeable exceptions. Those two chose to wear Chick Filet shirts instead. As you can imagine, those two students were met with much outrage and were reportedly bullied and threatened by other students via Twitter and personal encounters. They were told beyond a shadow of a doubt, by fellow students, that their rights didn't give them the right to be “assholes” and yes that's a quote. So, if I am understanding this correctly, they have no rights because they take a differing view of the GLBT community? Really? Where is that written? It struck me then, as I was reading this, that the trend, PC free speech, is being taught to our school age kids now and that's why they would say something like that. You can't speak or express yourself because it's not politically correct or not what I believe so get in lock step with the rest of us.. This, as a small time writer and user of words, seems very sad to me.

I really shouldn't be surprised. We have been trying to make everything PC for a long time now and we have spent much of that time pandering and coddling to one of the most whiniest generations to ever come around. We have gone from calling our enemies out on a carpet to being afraid that what we say or draw might offend. How pathetic we have become.

In the end Freedom of Speech stands or falls depending on what we do with it. If we give in to the PC crowd it will eventually disappear and we will become a nation of mind numbed robots who only regurgitate that which we are allowed, but if we all buck that trend, and really celebrate the diversity of opinions (notice I didn't say agree with each other) we can put an end to all this PC silliness and fear, and once again truly embrace freedom of speech.

What Is Justice?

What exactly do you consider “justice” to be?

I always understood that justice was the process of fact finding before judgment was passed, you know the concept of innocent until proven guilty, instead of just guilty because of the color of your skin or occupation. Seems though that we have come to a place where if you are a police officer and you are white, you are immediately guilty of murder, or attempted murder, as soon as you attempt to do your job in dangerous circumstances.

Yet the flip side to this is that if you are a black teen age male ,or young adult, that you are innocent of everything, no matter how many crimes you have committed, if you are killed while resisting arrest. Or you are called “children”, rather then thugs, as you riot, loot and pillage, destroying others lives and livelihoods. Strange world when that is considered to be justice.

Please don't waste you time with the idea that I am speaking from some sort of “white privilege position” When I was the age of many of those “children” of whom I like to refer to as “punks or thugs” (though I will refrain lest I offend the more sensitive in the crowd) I was a part of that privileged class known as “white trash” I broke laws, took drugs, and was arrested on numerous occasions. Never convicted of anything of any importance but I was hassled by the police for things I didn't do and yes, just walking down the street was enough to get me stopped by them. Granted, this was in a small town, yet it never even occurred to any of us young punks, no matter how many times we were arrested, or stopped for something, to think of looting and burning down our own homes and neighborhoods, nor did we try and resist arrest, it seemed rather pointless because they knew us and they had the guns and badges.

But now, at least in the cities , it seems that this kind of behavior is considered to be justifiable. Sorry, I don't buy it. If you are violently resisting arrest, you should expect to get hurt or killed, and if you are rioting and looting you should expect to pay the price no matter what the skin color.

One person commented that you couldn't possibly hurt or arrest all those “children” ( the rioters) Why not? Those same “children” committed arson, attempted murder , vandalism, destruction of property etc. They stopped being “children” when they started doing these things. Some have argued that they were under the influence of adults. Fine, arrest them too,but don't excuse bad behavior with the notion of “the devil made me do it”, it is still no excuse. They destroyed lives. They destroyed businesses and homes that may never return and all this over a drug dealer who died in police custody , under unclear circumstances. Don't take me wrong, I am not routing for the police if there is a provable case against them, I am saying all the rioting and looting should have been stopped without all the BS excuses. Two injustices don't make either one right.

The sad part is that no justice is being served. The Green family is not being served justice, the innocent people, including the police officers, are not being served justice and even if it is proved that there is wrong doing it still does not justify destruction and chaos, that is not justice.

I Am A Traitor

I saw one of those “Meme's” that you see everyday on Facebook. Normally I ignore such things because most of them don't really get my attention, as I am more interested in whats going on in my friends lives than I am about unhappy cats and laughing babies. This one though got my attention and it actually concerns me a bit.

The basic idea behind this particular one is that you are a “traitor to this country” if you dislike the president and or his policies. I have a bit of a problem with that because,by this definition, that makes me a traitor to my country, because I fit the aforementioned description. I like very little of what he has tried to accomplish, I am glad that he has failed at most, and I don't like his arrogant manner. For this you would call me a traitor? Funny when President Bush was being hammered and run over by the left it was called “patriotic” and all part of your 1^st amendment rights. I agreed that it was at the time and I spoke loudly against those in the republican party that tried to say other wise or called it unpatriotic. This time though is different; You are suggesting that because I don't care for a sitting president or their policies I am now a “traitor.” Perhaps we need to review just what a traitor is.

Traitor: Noun, One who betrays one's country, a cause, or a trust,especially one who commits treason.

Not sure which part of this applies to me. I haven't betrayed my country, I have served it in both peacetime and war in the Marine Corp. I received several personal awards and was injured in the line of duty, in a war zone, while serving my country overseas, hmmm I guess that one doesn't apply...

My “cause” has been freedom and liberty for all people, as defined in the bill of rights, from an oppressive government, that seems bent on destroying that same bill of rights. I have consistently spoken out against both parties and their policies for violating those rights, so I guess that can't be it either....

“A Trust” I don't trust the folks in DC, as is the case for a large majority of Americans, so if that's it then I am guilty, however they don't trust us either so I guess that evens things out...

So I guess it must be that I am committing “treason.” According to the dictionary Treason is as follows:

“The betrayal of allegiance towards one's own country,especially by committing hostile acts against it or aiding it's enemies in committing such acts”

As I stated before ,I served my country honorably, I kept my oaths and though I haven't cared for the last couple of presidents, I have not acted in any way to aid or abet the enemy nor have I committed any acts of violence against the country or government.

So to whomever put out that MEME you really need to go and look up the word “traitor” before you throw out such a large blanket statement. Many of us who don't like him, or his policies, are just as honorable as those that do, and having a different political view does not make one a “traitor.” It means that I have a differing point of view that's all. If by your definition that makes me a traitor so be it. I wouldn't want to be loyal to anyone who really doesn't understand the meaning of the word.

It Is Cold!!!

Welcome to the new Ice Age! Just in case you have missed winter because you have been in a warmer climate, such as the Arctic circle for instance,those of us here in New England have been getting hammered with one snow storm after another. We are so buried in snow, that trying to get out of the driveway, to go anywhere, takes massive intestinal fortitude,skill and no small amount of craziness, along with a point man to step into the road to see if anyone is coming. Not saying it's deep or anything, but the tops of trees are starting to look like bushes and I have had some offers to rent out my snowbanks by various ski resorts.

The piece of this weather that has seems to have gotten lost in all the snow drifts is the extreme cold. It has been deadly cold across a major portion of the country, so bad in fact that Yale had to cancel, wait for it, their annual global warming protest. This post isn't about that but I have to say perhaps summer might be a better time.....

O yes back to the cold. I mention the extreme cold because, from a personal perspective, I am cold. Scratch that, my whole family is cold. Our apartment is just shy of being a freezer with uninsulated floors and leaky windows. It is so cold that we considered putting water down on the floor to freeze so we could just skate from one room to the next, saving time and allowing us some easy exercise. I am exaggerating a little but not by much.

It is however a fact that in order to stay warm we are having to wear extra clothes and shoes on our feet even while indoors because of the cold and because of the costs to heat. We have to keep it down around 62 or less during the day and turn it just above freezing so that pipes don't burst at night. We are not alone.

I talked with a friend yesterday who told me that she has to keep her temp down around 60 otherwise her heating cost would be as much as her rent and another who can't afford to heat at all so she's piling on the blankets to stay warm. This is insane.

For those of us living on fixed incomes this has been a tough winter. Imagine my joyful delight when I opened up my latest heating bill to find that it had increased by 75%. Not because we are using that much more but because they are charging us 75 percent more! Not only was that such blessed news, but then came the bonus, it is going to continue to go up for the foreseeable future. What joy! Now, not only do I get to be cold, but I get to pay a lot more for the pleasure!

Now I understand that companies need to make a profit, after all whats the point in going into business if you can't make any money at it, but a 75% increase and counting? I also understand the law of supply and demand. Right now there is a lot of demand for fuel, however,as a nation, we are not dealing with a lack of supply.

Most of the time I tend to lean towards the conservative end of the aisle when it comes to politics ( I know that comes as a complete shock) but this is one of those time where I have to reach over to the Liberal/Socialist aisle and even to my conservative brethren and suggest that we have to fix this.

There is no reason that in this country anyone should have to be cold in the winter because of price gouging and greed. Maybe I'm wrong and that's not whats happening, but if we are not lacking in fuel, and nothing else has changed, outside of it being colder, how else am I supposed to see this? Just a simple minded question.

Today Equals 1939

Today I saw the video of the Jordanian pilots brutal execution by ISIS. I thought the beheading of other hostages was bad enough but this brought this evil to a new all time low level. It was so bad that I had to turn off the volume because of the screaming. So why did I watch it you might wonder; I wanted a fresh reminder of the full blown evil that is waiting to destroy all of us because we will do nothing to stop it, by we I mean the western world, more specifically,our government. Mr. Obama makes statements, his people speak many words and still they do nothing. Sure they have been doing some bombing missions, sure we have some troops on the ground trying to train the Iraqi's, again, but we are still virtually doing nothing to stop them. Words don't matter to them, power does, and right now they are in the drivers seat of power. Does anyone really think that they couldn't be stopped by the combined forces of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, among others? Why are we letting them get away?

Does anyone here reading this remember what happened to Iran and Libya when Reagan took office? First the Iranians immediately released the hostages because they knew better than to mess with him and later we bombed the snot out of Libya. Both of those nations got very quiet for a long time after that. It was the combination of both the threat and the actual use of force, that stopped them.

Now we have a president with no backbone. He can't even bring himself to identify them as Islamic terrorists, never mind use force to stop them. He says we are doing things in a smarter way. What way is that sir? Please explain to all of us of how your policies of looking the other way are saving lives over there. I suspect that there are a couple of dead Japanese , not to mention, thousands of Muslims, as well as the pilot, that might disagree with you.

We are being told by our own government that it's wrong to offend Islam by drawing pictures of Mohammad or by telling the truth of him being such a pedophile and a mass murderer. It's perfectly OK to attack Christians and Jews but to insult Islam could get you thrown in Jail. It's OK to paint swastikas on Israels flag, or boycott them for defending their own land from Islamic terrorists, it's perfectly OK for someone to put a cross in a jar of urine and call it art but heaven forbid you draw a cartoon of Mohammad. That might earn you jail time or get you killed.

This whole mess reminds me of Neville Chamberlain getting off the plane in Britain in 1939 waving a piece of paper and saying that there wouldn't be a war with Germany because Hitler had signed that piece of paper. No one in Europe wanted to acknowledge the real danger that they faced so they turned a blind eye and 5 years later millions were dead and Europe was all but destroyed. Apparently we haven't learned.

ISIS is growing by leaps and bounds. They have money , they have sophisticated weapons, they have some of the best recruiting tools, using modern equipment, to show their horrific deeds and they have the will to kill all who stand in their way.

We need to stop this now before they start here.

I Am Leaving You My Love

Well this is it my love, I am leaving you. I know that this is a shock and many of our friends will not understand, but I am guessing that you are not really surprised.

We have been together more years than I can remember and to me you have not lost any of your charm or beauty but still I must go. Once I dreamed that we would be married, joined together for the rest of our lives, but alas this is not meant to be.

So what has changed? You have. At one point in time we were both poor and content to be so, we could be together enjoying what life has to offer for little to nothing and we were happy, but all of that has changed.

Even when I was a long ways from you, my heart was always with you. Even when I knew I could be with you for only a short period of time, I would rush home, into your arms, rejoicing, and only be able to look forward to the day when I could stay in your arms forever, but alas forever is not meant to be.

How have you changed you ask?

You have become greedy and selfish. You have taken your beauty and used it against me, you have used your charm to lure in other lovers to you who have given you a promise of greater wealth, so to you, I am but a poor man and though I love you more then my heart can express you are driving me away with a demand for money and wealth that I cannot provide. I cannot compete with the other lovers with their promises of gold.

I know that you won't miss me, others have already come along to take my place, so I must go and watch your beauty from afar, for I no longer posses that which you seem to need the most; money.

The above has nothing to do with me and my wife. This, instead, has everything to do with New England.

We are moving back to North Carolina, and will not likely return, other then to visit, because it is simply to expensive for us to live here anymore. With every tax rate raise and higher prices for damn near everything, this entire region of the country has left us struggling to keep our heads afloat. We have crunched numbers and cut back on everything, to the point of there being no where else to cut.

Some have suggested that my wife should go back to work, well I have a surprise for you, and she has kept this to herself for her own reasons, she has been getting paid to take care of me for the last three years through the VA. This pilot program is likely to end this next year, it won't change the care that I need, but because I am not as bad off as some others, and while congress gives billions of dollars to nations that hate us, rather than taking care of it's own poor , we will likely loose that money. Second whats the point in her going back to work if the only reason for it is to stay in such an expensive area? We can't do much of anything now, so nothing would change.

So we are moving back to North Carolina. We spent 4 years there and still have friends that live in the area and a few others that are heading back that way as well. The cost of living is much less expensive, the weather is more favorable to my bones, and the housing market is much better, and because of my disability rating I will be able to get a huge tax break on housing and I will have access to base facilities. Over all this will be a good move for us.

Some folks who have been notified about this have become angry, Why? Because we are attempting to do what we can to survive? Because we are tired of living on the edge, filled with more stress than is healthy? If you believe that I am being selfish, you are right! I am selfishly in love with my wife and children and I want the best for them and I can't provide it here.

So there it is, we are going and folks can either accept or or not, it's your call, but we are going.