The Brouhaha over Trump and McCain

I never thought much of Donald Trump in the past, nor did I watch any of his TV shows. I guess, like most Americans, I let the media define him for me. Then came the brouhaha over illegal immigrants and John McCain. I too accepted the media’s interpretation of his words, at first. Big mistake. Then I dug down and discovered what he actually said and put it in context.

I realized the media, lead by the NY Times, was doing a hatchet job on Trump with lies and innuendo, just like they do with most Republicans and especially conservatives. Politicians should never be candid only politically correct to satisfy the media. Trump’s candid remarks, may at times be a bit troubling, but they certainly are refreshing. They certainly are not nearly as bad as the hate filled commentary of our liberal President and his allies. Of course, the media never mentions that or their bald faced lies.

I have gained a lot of respect for Trump as a result. He has gone way up in my opinion. Would I vote for him against Hillary? Of course. But then I would vote  against her anyway for almost any other human that breathes. The guy who mows our lawn for example. If Obama and his far left cohorts haven’t already destroyed this country, Hillary would most certainly apply the coup de gras.

Here’s some of the reasons:

Politics - The New York Times - HJ Note: I have marked all of the lies of the NY Times by marking them bold italics. My own comments, corrections and clarifications are in italics.

Donald Trump Says John McCain Is No War Hero, Setting Off Another Storm (NY Times lie. He never said that or anything similar.)

By Jonathan Martin and Alan Rappeportjuly 18, 2015

AMES, Iowa — Donald J. Trump has made his name in politics with provocative statements, but it was not until Saturday, after the flamboyant businessman turned presidential candidate belittled Senator John McCain’s war record, (Another NY Times lie. He never belittled his war record.) that many Republicans concluded that silence or equivocation about Mr. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric was inadequate.

Mr. Trump upended a Republican presidential forum here, and the race more broadly, by saying of the Arizona senator and former prisoner of war: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” (The NY Times lied big time when they  added their own words, He’s not a war hero. Trump did not say it.)

Mr. McCain, a naval aviator, was shot down during the Vietnam War and held prisoner for more than five years in Hanoi, refusing early release even after being repeatedly beaten.

Mr. Trump and Mr. McCain have been engaged in a war of words over the past week, since the Arizona senator said that Mr. Trump was riling up “crazies” in the party with the inflammatory remarks about illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Yet Mr. Trump’s comments on Saturday drew condemnation from his rivals and senior officials in the party at a scale far greater than the response to his portrayal of Mexican immigrants as rapists. (That last is patently untrue. He did not portray Mexican immigrants as rapists. He said that there were rapists and other criminals among the illegal Mexican immigrants. A statement that is true. The NY Times deliberately left the term illegal out.) The response was an indication of the reverence many Republicans have for military service and sacrifice. But it was also something more: their best opening yet to marginalize Mr. Trump. (Another NY Times deceptive trick. Every politician of any persuasion tries to “marginalize” every one of their opponents every chance they get.)

After weeks when many of them treaded lightly around Mr. Trump, who once again Saturday refused to rule out a third-party run, Republican leaders seized the opportunity to unambiguously speak out against a candidate they see as effectively hijacking their primaries. (Trying to win is not hijacking.)

Yet for all the outrage among party elites, some attendees at the Christian conservative conference where Mr. Trump made his comments were not nearly as offended, a reminder of the chasm between the Republican power structure and its grass roots. (Not so, it’s a reminder that some of the attendees actually listened to the remarks and did not accept the NY Times edited version, which the rest of the media immediately picked up and repeated verbatim without checking the facts.)

With his attack on Mr. McCain, Mr. Trump, whose caustic (factual) language about immigration has lifted him in early polls, created a new, revealing litmus test for how the Republican presidential hopefuls are handling the bombastic real estate mogul.

Several of Mr. Trump’s Republican opponents immediately denounced his comments, and one said the remarks disqualified him from the presidency.  (They must not have heard the actual comment but accepted the NY Times revision of his words as gospel, which it certainly was not.)

“Donald Trump owes every American veteran and in particular John McCain an apology,” said Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, upon taking the stage. Mr. Perry argued that Mr. Trump’s comment made him unfit to be commander in chief.  (He too must not have heard the actual comment but accepted the NY Times revision of his words as gospel. Methinks he could have damaged his chances by speaking out without checking the facts.)

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that anybody serious about being president would not be disrespectful of prisoners of war, and predicted that the early nominating states would render an unmistakable verdict on Mr. Trump’s candidacy. (If that happens, the lies of the NY Times and the rest of the media will be largely responsible, as usual.)

“Here’s what I think they’re going to say: ‘Donald Trump, you’re fired,’ ” Mr. Graham said to laughs and applause.

For Mr. Perry and Mr. Graham, both retired Air Force officers who have struggled to get traction in the race, Mr. Trump’s comments represented an opportunity to highlight their own military service and demonstrate to primary voters that they would not tolerate any impugning of a veteran. (Trump did not impugn McCain, even though the NY Times lied and said he did.)

As telling was the difference between how Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas reacted to Mr. Trump. Both are running aggressively in Iowa and pursuing the sort of conservative voters who are now considering Mr. Trump.

Mr. Walker, who leads in early Iowa polls, had previously resisted criticizing Mr. Trump. But in a sign of how quickly Mr. Trump’s provocation reshaped the expectations of how candidates should treat him, Mr. Walker immediately changed course after Mr. Trump questioned Mr. McCain’s military record. (He did not question McCain’s military record. Another NY Times lie, repeated by Walker, a bad mistake, trusting the NY Times.)

“I unequivocally denounce him,” Mr. Walker said at a campaign stop in Sioux City, Iowa. (He too, must not have heard the actual comment but accepted the NY Times revision of his words as what Trump said, which it certainly was not.)

Mr. Cruz, who poses a threat here on Mr. Walker’s right, was more cautious. He told reporters before his remarks here that Mr. McCain is “an American hero,” but added that he would not “say something bad about Donald Trump.” (He may have been one of the few who actually listened to Trump.)

Mr. Cruz’s reluctance to confront Mr. Trump was perhaps best explained by the reaction to Mr. Perry’s denunciation: While many in the crowd applauded, the ovation did not last long and nobody in the audience of nearly 3,000 stood to show their approval. (They must have heard Trump correctly.)

“It was not important to me,” said Rose Kendall, an attendee from Burlington, Iowa, of Mr. Trump’s comment on Mr. McCain. “He said that because John McCain talked him down.”

Many Democrats noted that there had been far less opprobrium for Mr. Trump after he began his candidacy in June by saying of Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.” (All of which is very true of illegals. Note the NY Times did not say illegal immigrants. This makes the quote a lie. The quote has also been edited and not reported correctly.)

Republicans also treated the businessman more delicately in the 2012 campaign, when Mitt Romney, the party’s nominee, sought and publicly accepted Mr. Trump’s endorsement even after the businessman had questioned whether President Obama was born in the United States. (A question that has never been adequately answered and certainly not proven.)

Speaking to reporters after his turn on stage, Mr. Trump tried to soften (Trump said clarify, NY Times said soften, the meanings are quite different) the remarks, saying that any United States veteran who was a prisoner of war was heroic. He also shifted his comments to assuage (appease, mollify, pacify, placate, NY Times word meanings)  veterans, saying that Mr. McCain had failed to address their needs. (Trump has worked to support veterans.)

“I’m with the veterans all the time,” he said. “I consider them heroes.”

Asked about his own military draft status, Mr. Trump, 69, said that he received medical deferments from the Vietnam War because of a bone spur in his foot. Mr. Trump could not recall which foot was afflicted.

Yet Mr. Trump’s awkward and ill-suited remarks about religion and marriage here may have done more damage to his candidacy, at least with Christian conservatives. (The man is too candidly honest about his beliefs and person to be a politician. Unlike politicians, he does not cater to the PC crowd. Also, he’s one of those hated businessmen, a capitalist.)

“I’m a religious person,” Mr. Trump offered. “I go to church. Do I do things that are wrong? I guess so.”

Mr. Trump also struggled to answer if he had ever sought forgiveness from God, before reluctantly acknowledging that he had not. “If I do something wrong, I try to do something right,” he said. “I don’t bring God into that picture.” (If he were a true politician, especially a liberal one, he would never have been so candid admitting that, or any of the admissions that follow. This is quite refreshing in anyone seeking elective office. If he behaved like virtually all politicians, he would have lied and given the PC answer to appease the media. I really like that in him.)

And Mr. Trump raised eyebrows with language rarely heard before an evangelical audience — saying “damn” and “hell” when discussing education and the economy — while also describing the taking of communion in glib terms. “When we go in church and I drink the little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and I eat the little cracker — I guess that’s a form of asking forgiveness,” Mr. Trump said. (Candid once more.)

If all that was not enough to roil the button-downed crowd, he also described his three marriages in starkly frank terms, conceding that he had difficulty finding a work-life balance.

“It was a work thing, it wasn’t a bad thing,” Mr. Trump said. “It was very hard for anybody to compete against the work.”

Despite his marital problems over the years, Mr. Trump said that he was always available to his children and that he did his best to have dinner with them on most nights even when his work was grueling. He worked hard, he said, to instill good values and steer them away from drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

“I was actually a great father,” Mr. Trump said. “I was a better father than I was a husband.”

It was these comments, not his attack on Mr. McCain, that prompted the most muttering and unease in the audience.

“Well, I was turned off at the very start because I didn’t like his language,” Becky Kruse, of Lovilia, Iowa, said of Mr. Trump, not mentioning his comments about Mr. McCain. Ms. Kruse said she likes Mr. Trump’s hard line on immigration and came to the event considering him. “I was not too impressed,” she said, noting Mr. Trump’s comment about not seeking God’s forgiveness. “He sounds like he isn’t really a born-again Christian.” (He said he was a Presbyterian. He never ever professed to be a “born again Christian.”)

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook,Twitter and the First Draft newsletter. (If you can wade through all the BS.)

A version of this article appears in print on July 19, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: No Hero, Trump Says of McCain, Stirring Outrage. (More lying words by the NY Times.)

A last HJ comment: It’s a sad commentary that Americans get by far the largest portion of their news from the media. For most Americans, the media defines people, events and opinions. Few people bother to check the accuracy of the nightly news or ever hear about the things they deliberately do not mention. I should more accurately say deliberately suppress. I have also noted that apologies and corrections for erroneous front page stories are always buried deep in the bowels of later editions, never given front page status. This is especially true if the correction is beneficial to Republicans, conservatives or any on the right, or detrimental to Democrats, liberals or any on the left.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
Letters to the editor, St Augustine Record, July 25, 2015

Threat’s not immigrants, It’s Ann Coulter’s vitriol

Editor: On July 13 Ann Coulter pounded out another inane and vitriolic column against illegal immigrants. Out of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants (more like 20 million) in our country, she managed to select about a dozen alleged murderers, rapists, drug dealers and burglars as proof of the overwhelming crime wave emanating from immigrant people who are not her idea of deserving. (She said illegal immigrant, he did not. Big difference.)

She and Donald Trump may rant and rave about these people. However, I doubt if they have any first-hand knowledge of them and their families: their wishes, anxieties and dreams.

I do!

For the past 12 years, I have worked as a volunteer in a farming community largely populated by Mexican immigrants. (Legal or illegal?) I have literally met thousands of these folks and have gotten to know many families quite well. They are no different from the Italian, German, Irish, Oriental and various religious groups that left (their countries) for a better life. Their kids are as American as apple pie, with the added benefit of a second language. The people I have met are hard-working, honest and family-oriented. I am sure somewhere in their community there are some law breakers. Doesn’t every community have its share?

But the hate-filled paragraphs of Ann Coulter are meant to inflame, not to inform. This column was particularly misleading and mean, covering millions of innocent people with a broad brush of evil. Comparing immigrants to ISIS is the true evil. (No, it did not compare immigrants to ISIS. It compared illegal immigrants to ISIS. A completely different meaning.)

HJ Note:  If he had been referring to legal immigrants, he may have been right, but Coulter and Trump were referring strictly to illegal immigrants. The actual crime statistics of that group are appalling and well documented. Of course the media hides those facts routinely. But then since illegals saw nothing wrong with breaking the immigration laws to get here, why should they then see anything wrong with breaking other laws they wish to abrogate? What’s an occasional robbery, drug deal, murder or rape anyway? No big deal. They do that all the time in Mexico. (Or Venezuela, or Honduras, or Columbia, etc. etc.) I responded with my own letter to the editor.

Editor: On July 25 you published a letter from Al Moser berating Ann Coulter and Donald Trump for their comments about illegal immigrants. About illegal immigrants he said, “They are no different from the Italian, German, Irish, Oriental and various religious groups that left (their countries) for a better life. Their kids are as American as apple Pie.” That’s balderdash. There is one huge, obvious and irreconcilable difference. They are illegal! They are criminals who disobey our laws to get here and stay here. They are clearly scofflaws. The high school kids in California who took down the American flag, stomped on it, and raised the Mexican flag, cursing in Spanish and shouting “Atzlan (most of the southwest, TX, NM. AZ, and CA) is Mexican.” as well as all the members of MECHA, are certainly not, “as American as apple pie.” Sure, there may be some illegal immigrants who might become good American citizens, but they still broke the law to get here. That’s a monstrous insult, a slap in the face to all the legal immigrants like the Italian, German, Irish, Oriental and others including Mexicans and Latin Americans who did obey the law, entered the country legally and applied for citizenship. Ask them what they think of illegal immigrants.

Seventy-one years ago today - December 17, 1943

                     My First Love, Dolores

I don’t remember when it started, but sometime during the eighth grade, when I was in Roxboro Junior High, I fell for a girl I thought was the most beautiful girl in the world, Dolores Osborn. I pursued her for some time in spite of her lack of interest. Oh, she was pleasant enough with me, and I did manage to take her to a movie or two, but I knew I was not on her list.

I remember walking her home along Fairmont Boulevard after we had a soda at the Dairy Bar, one of the kid’s favorite hangouts. She told me about pididdle, a word one says when a car with one headlight appears, an invitation to a kiss, much like standing under mistletoe. If the other one of the couple repeats pididdle, it means they would also like to share a kiss. No sooner had she told me this when a car with one headlight appeared. I bravely said, pididdle, but there was no response. I struck out again.

The ninth grade dance was the social event of the year at Roxboro. To have a date was important, and needed to be arranged early or all the girls would be taken, at least all of the popular girls. At least two months before the dance I took Dolores to a couple of movies and worked up the nerve to ask her, “Would you go to the ninth grade dance with me?”

“Let me think about it for a day or two,” she replied. “I’ll have to ask my parents. They don’t want me to date as yet.”

Apparently, her parents did not consider going to the Dairy Bar or movies as dating. I didn’t know if this was her way to say no or not, so I would have to wait for her answer on Monday. I thought the day would never come. I sat with Dee at lunch and soon had my answer, yes. I was ecstatic. I now had a date for the biggest event of the year with my dream girl.

Two weeks before the dance my dream was scuttled. Dolores came up to me and said, “I’ve been going out with Freddie (my buddy Fred Hunziker) for some time now, so I can’t go to the dance with you. I’m going with Freddie.”

How could any girl be so cruel? Easy, I guess. It was now far too late for me to get a date. All the available girls had long ago been asked. I did get even in a way. Dolores loved to dance and Freddie did not dance. During the evening, I danced every dance, many with close friends of Dolores. She sat at their table with Freddie and never did get to the dance floor.

After the dance, I went with a group of friends, mostly female, to the Dairy Bar for an after party soda. There was one couple and two girls who did not have dates because their parents did not permit them to date. (Shades of a bygone day) I was seated between the two girls who were being quite chummy when who should walk in but Dolores and Freddie. The two girls knew how I had been shafted (as did everyone at school) so they both became, shall we say, amorous—right then and there.
One of the girls, a close friend of Dolores’s, put her arms around my neck and called out to Dolores, “We’re sure glad you dumped Howie for the dance. We’re having a great time with him.” It was not long before She and Freddie left.

When I started at Cleveland Heights High, one of my dreams was to sing in the choir. Even though I played an instrument and was in band and orchestra at Roxboro, I joined the chorus, a prerequisite to being in the famous, Heights High School A Capella Choir. When I auditioned, I earned a spot in the second tenor section. I was thrilled, knowing I would be in the next Christmas concert. Another choir member was my old crush, Dolores Osborn. Though I had taken her to the movies a few times, she was not interested in me. I had given up asking her for dates and was reduced to admiring her from afar.

December 17, 1943—everything changed. The choir was to sing downtown at Higbee’s department store, an annual event. Given permission to drive the family car, I asked several members of the choir including one girl who lived near Dolores. When she asked if I had room for one more and told me Dolores needed a ride, I, of course, agreed.

After the performance, the choir was treated to a short party with refreshments in a room at Higbee’s before we headed home. I sat with Dolores during the party where she did not seem so standoffish as before. As I took everyone home, I happened to end with Dolores as my last passenger. We spent the next two hours in the car in front of her house. I told her how I had felt about her since we met in the eighth grade. Before long we shared our first kiss. After some amorous conversation and quite a few more kisses, I walked her to her door. My feet wouldn’t touch the ground, my mind was whirling, uncontrolled, and I was deliriously in love.

At the choir party after the annual Christmas concert, I gave her a card with the words “A penny for your thoughts” and enclosed a bright new penny. Sometime later, she returned the favor and the penny. I still have that penny.

We were to share many Christmases together. We would also walk onto the stage together at Heights as choir alumni many times, sing Emitte Spiritum Tuum, and share memories with choir friends. We managed to sing Emitte one last time in 1996 at our fiftieth class reunion with about forty choir alums.

In September 1949, we were married. I got even with her for standing me up for the ninth grade dance. I never did let her forget that. In the years that followed, we had five children and then were divorced after she betrayed my trust by having an affair with one of my friends. Ironically, our divorce was final on our twenty-fifth anniversary. After our divorce, she married her long time boy friend. I eventually got over it, and we had a friendly relationship for many years, something of great benefit to our children. Fortunately, I am blessed to be one of those who remembers the good parts of life and can forget or minimize the bad. Her husband died of a sudden illness a few years later, after they moved to Detroit.

She passed away some twenty years after our divorce. In a testimony to how positively we had dealt with our children, they asked my wife, Barbara, a Methodist minister, to conduct the memorial service for their mother. Dee and Barb had grown to be such good friends they often went Christmas shopping together for gifts for our children. The service was a celebration of all of the positive things in Dee’s life.

In later years I often thought our problems and subsequent parting were a bit of a blessing in disguise for me, once I recovered from the resulting emotional trauma. Had that not happened my life would have been very different. I would probably not have had the several spectacular relationships that I have experienced. There are several stories about these women in my book of memoirs.

Who Can You Trust?

I think you should all read this Outsider Club report. I would have copied it into my BLOG for all to read, but it is copyrighted. It's on the Outsiders Club web site. To view, click on the link below.

http://www.outsiderclub.com/report/who-can-you-trust/1016

Thank You Democrats

It has been nearly a year since I have posted a rant to this blog. I have decided to post a sincere thank you.

I want to thank all of you liberal Democrats for your efforts on behalf of all of we American seniors who have dropped below the poverty line. Using myself as an example, and I am one of those working people who for their entire working life paid the maximum into Social Security and Medicare. I was moved below the poverty line by the huge medical expenses of my late wife’s final illness not covered by insurance.

What prompted this email message was a recent headline “U. S. Deficit will cause government to pull back on senior benefits.” That’s certainly nothing new. It’s been going on for at least the last fifty years and especially since 1993. Another thing that prompted this rant was the incident about my Rx costs.

I take several medications since my heart attack and heart surgery. One of those, Effient, an Eli Lilly product, cost me just $6.25 per Rx all of last year. The first time I went to pick it up this year the price was $129 for the same Rx. I didn’t have enough money to pay for it. When I contacted the SS office I was informed that my “Extra help” had expired and I would have to reapply. I went to the SS office and waited four hours to see a lady who helped me fill out a new application. When she told me it would take three or four weeks for my application to be processed I asked her how I was to pay for these critical meds during that period she informed me politely that I would have to pay for them. Then she made a suggestion that I ask my cardiologist for some samples to use until they processed my papers. That was the best thing she did.

What a blessing it was. My cardiologist gave me a month supply of samples. I also found out that unlike most major drug companies, Eli Lilly does not provide even temporary help on the cost of their drugs for poor seniors. When I went to pick up my next Rx of Effient, the price was $6.25. Recently, when I went to pick up a new Rx for Effient, the price was back up to $129. My druggist told me to call my insurance company to find out why. I called them and was told to call Social Security. I called SS and they told me I had to call the Medicare office. Medicare said I would have to call the State Medicaid office. I called them and they said they could find no reason why the price went up, but that I should file another request for Extra Help. Other than the call to my insurance company, each of the calls to government agencies took several days of constant calling at all hours and hearing, “We are experiencing an unusually high volume of calls. Please try your call later.” I could not get through to anyone, so I gave up trying and went on the Internet and reapplied once more. Of course by this time I had been without the critical heart medication for nearly two weeks. I finally called my cardiologist and explained the situation. Once more he very kindly supplied me with another month supply of samples.

Now I am waiting for notification that my application for Extra Help is being processed. That will probably take at least a month if all goes well. I hope it comes through before I run out of the samples.

Oh yes, thanks again for the wonderful reductions in Medicare benefits. Visits to my family doctor that cost $17 just four years ago now cost me about $90. One hospital x-ray and tests for my spine that I have periodically were free four years ago. Now they cost me about $60. Well of course, we have to find the money to pay for all those hard-working Obamacare bureaucrats somehow. That now falls on those least able to pay, seniors with low or no income. As Obama said about seniors in their eighties (paraphrased), "Take a Tylenol for pain. Your too old for expensive medical treatment like knee replacement or a pacemaker."

That Democrats have gutted SS payments big time while shouting, “Seniors, Republicans want to cut your SS payments. We will protect your Social Security.” In 1993 Democrats in control of Congress made some huge cuts in future SS payments and Democrat President Bill Clinton signed these changes into law. What they did was to change the way the Cost of Living Adjustment, the COLA, was calculated. They removed food and fuel from the calculation of the COLA. Apparently they think seniors do not need food or fuel. My current SS monthly payment is $1250.10, an amount lower than what I have been receiving since March 2013. If Democrats had not made those cuts, my current monthly SS payment would be $2,575.81. The same reduction has been proportionally made to all recipients of SS payments. Thank you Democrats.

You would think the public advocates in the media would be screaming about this legislation that so damages seniors, but since they are firmly in the pockets of Democrats, the media never mentions it. In fact, they do their best to hide it from the public while screaming, “Republicans are planning to cut your Social Security.” That’s what Democrats have already done, gutted Social Security for seniors. Most seniors are either too ill-informed or stupid to understand that.

The VA has been in the news recently for the atrocious way they have been handling health care for veterans. This is nothing new, In the late 1960s and early nineteen seventies. There was a very similar scandal in the VA system where several veterans died awaiting treatment that never came.. I know because at that time we were supplying goods and services by bid to the VA hospital on Brecksville Road in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Ohio. I personally went to the VA Hospital dental clinic to service some of their equipment. The red tape we had to go through to do any work was unbelievably tedious. We had to examine the equipment and then submit a bid for the repairs. That meant two trips for one of our servicemen. As a result, most repairs were bid and then billed at twice our usual rate. Any new problems the dentists pointed out to our men while they were there had to go through the same bid procedure. We tried to work out a system where we bid two hours without knowing what the problem was, but then there was the problem of parts. It also took the VA at least 90 days to process any payments after they were billed.

We doubled our bid prices and included estimates of parts. Even then we were awarded most of our bids for repair service. Another problem was access. Our men often waited an hour or more to gain access to the clinic, even when we had an appointment. Then they had to wait for someone to sign off on the work order, sometimes wasting another hour or more. Actually, I looked at what we were doing and found the delays, paperwork and red tape were costing us more than the actual work. This brought about another increase in our bid prices for repairs. After a few particularly aggravating (and expensive) episodes, I quit biding on repair service. The dentist finally called and begged us to bid on repairs since no one else would.  I worked out a system that basically bypassed the red tape and worked well for everyone without all the aggravation. Within a month of putting the system in place I got a call from one of their bureaucrats who accused me of cooking up a “sweetheart” deal for us. I tried to explain why and show that it worked well for both the hospital and us, but he would not listen. I finally told him we would no longer perform any repair service for them at any price. In spite of the begging of the dentist we refused to bid. The VA finally hired a full time dental repair man (from our competitor). We continued bidding and getting contracts on parts and supplies.

I checked our total billings for service labor. It had averaged about $2,000 for the previous three years and probably would have been lower under the last system I worked out. We set the dentist up in private practice as soon as his contract with the VA was over. He told me what a mess their practice was at the hospital and how the dental repair man, who was paid about $17.000 per year, spent most of his time reading books and watching TV in the break room. They still had to issue a work order and get it approved for any repairs their own man did. That was more than fifty years ago and it looks as if nothing has changed since. I can just imagine what a bureaucratic nightmare our healthcare system will become under Obamacare. There will probably be more bureaucrats hired to check on other bureaucrats than there will be workers. Of course, that will mean more bureaucrats paid to do less work and the rolls of government workers will swell accordingly. Since they will be voting to keep their jobs they will  overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Isn’t that the whole purpose of the government bureaucracy, to provide jobs for Democrat voters who are unable to or don’t want to work anyway? And all of that featherbedding paid for by workers in the shrinking private sector.

These are all facts I have experienced or have calculated from Federal Government records. Of course, like all good liberals, you will probably adhere to the liberal mantra, “Don’t try to confuse me with facts. My mind’s made up.”

Subject: THIS IS A TRUE STORY...and a dirty one!

This was sent to me by my cousin below,  it is a verified true story on Benaghzi as written by Cynthia Myers who's cousin was one of the ones killed there. The second part was written by Dr. Charles Roots--Senior Pastor, US Navy Chaplin Corps ( ret). They are heart breaking story's of the events that have been covered up. Dear God, please be with our brave men and women serving our country over there.  Walt

Read carefully and please pass it on. May the truth be told.

Herman "Woody" Hughes, Ph.D.
Captain, USNR, Retired
Professor Emeritus, Pepperdine University

You need to read this true account of what happened to our Ambassador Stevens and the other 3 who died. If this doesn't make you mad...............Cynthia Lee Myers Wanted to share the truth of what happened over in Libya, you will not find this in the media yet but it airs tonight on FNC.....please read....

"Here is my story. A week out the Embassy in Tripoli began receiving multiple tips about an Al Queda cell in the area planning an attack on 9/11 in response to to the killing of Bin Laden. For the next several days, the state dept and WH were asked for a security force and were denied at least six times. Ambassador Stevens and his team were given the all clear that the Consulate in Benghazi was safe and there was no need for a security force other than his 3 personal guards(One being my cousin) and a few Libyans who were not armed.
 
"Then the attack and murders occurred. Immediately the WH claimed it was a protest gone bad over a you tube video. Obama made a quick speech in the Rose Garden on Sept.12 before catching a plane to Vegas to campaign. He made a generic statement at the end of his speech after placing the blame on an overheated protest over the video. He said "No act of terror will shake the resolve of America. Later that day and over the next 2 days, the liberal media began saying Ambassador Stevens and the other 3 men died of smoke inhalation. This was not the case. Out of respect for my cousin, I'm not going to be specific about his murder. However Ambassador Stevens was brutally murdered. His genitals were cut off, he was sodomized and beaten and cut and stabbed and burned. He was drag thru the streets and left for dead. This is eyewitness testimony of a local Dr. who found the Ambassador in a ditch and tried to save his life. He had no idea who he was. The other 3 men, including my cousin, met similar fates. And deaths due to smoke inhalation is a 100% fabricated LIE. The next week I drove my aunt and Uncle and 2 others to DC to receive his body. We met with Hillary, Panetta, and Susan Rice. ALL of whom apologized and said it was a protest gone bad over a video and exited the area. Next Obama entered with the same story and didn't apologize and wasn't sympathetic. My aunt cried to this man and all he did was hand her flowers and walk away. I tried to get his attention, but didn't. I got upset and yelled liar to him, he kept walking. Then a secret service agent grabbed my arm and led me to a room where I was held till the proceedings were over.

"America, I saw firsthand how cold this man is. What kind of liar he is. Most of you haven't a clue about this tyrant and yet you support him. And act like every word he says is Gospel. These murders and the fast and furious cover ups make water gate look like, a kid who told his bff's secret to the class.

 "We must stop this man, and please pass this story along.
                                                                                                                          -- God Bless America!"


    THIS PART YOU DON'T KNOW, BUT SHOULD.
    AMERICAN VALOR, BENGHAZI, LIBYA:

The stunning part of this story is that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty killed 60 of the attacking force. Once the compound was overrun, the attackers were incensed to discover that just two men had inflicted so much death and destruction.

The news has been full of the attacks on our embassies throughout the Muslim world, and in particular, the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi, Libya. However, there's a little known story of incredible bravery, heroics, and courage that should be the top story.

So what actually happened at the U.S. embassy in Libya? We are learning more about this every day. Ambassador Stevens and Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, along with administrative staff, were working out of temporary quarters due to the fact that in the spring of 2011 during the so-called Arab Spring, the United States cut ties with then president Moammar Gadhafi. Our embassy was looted and ransacked, causing it to be unusable. It is still in a state of disrepair.

Security for embassies and their personnel is to be provided by the host nation. Since Libya has gone through a civil war of sorts in the past 18 months, the current government is very unstable, and therefore, unreliable.

A well-organized attack by radical Muslims was planned specifically targeting the temporary U.S. embassy building. The Libyan security force that was in place to protect our people deserted their post, or joined the attacking force. Either way, our people were in a real fix. And it should be noted that Ambassador Stevens had mentioned on more than one occasion to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that he was quite concerned for his personal safety and the welfare of his people. It is thought that Ambassador Stevens was on a "hit list".

A short distance from the American compound, two Americans were sleeping. They were in Libya as independent contractors working an assignment totally unrelated to our embassy. They also happened to be former Navy Seals.

When they heard the noise coming from the attack on our embassy, as you would expect from highly trained warriors, they ran to the fight. Apparently, they had no weapons, but seeing the Libyan guards dropping their guns in their haste in fleeing the scene, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty snatched up several of these discarded weapons and prepared to defend the American compound.

Not knowing exactly what was taking place, the two Seals set up a defensive perimeter. Unfortunately Ambassador Stevens was already gravely injured, and Foreign Service officer, Sean Smith, was dead. However, due to their quick action and suppressive fire, twenty administrative personnel in the embassy were able to escape to safety. Eventually, these two courageous men were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers brought against them, an enemy force numbering between 100 to 200 attackers which came in two waves. But the stunning part of the story is that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty killed 60 of the attacking force. Once the compound was overrun, the attackers were incensed to discover that just two men had inflicted so much death and destruction.

As it became apparent to these selfless heroes, they were definitely going to lose their lives unless some reinforcements showed up in a hurry. As we know now, that was not to be. I'm fairly certain they knew they were going to die in this gun fight, but not before they took a whole lot of bad guys with them!

    Consider these tenets of the Navy SEAL Code:
    1) Loyalty to Country, Team and Teammate,
    2) Serve with Honor and Integrity On and Off the Battlefield,
    3) Ready to Lead, Ready to Follow, Never Quit,
    4) Take responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates,
    5) Excel as Warriors through Discipline and Innovation,
    6) Train for War, Fight to Win, Defeat our Nation's Enemies, and...
    7) Earn your Trident every day

(http://www.navyseals.com/seal-code-warrior-creed ).

Thank you, Tyrone and Glen. To the very last breath, you both lived up to the SEAL Code. You served all of us well. You were courageous in the face of certain death.
 
And Tyrone, even though you never got to hold your newborn son, he will grow up knowing the character and quality of his father, a man among men who sacrificed himself defending others.

    Dr. Charles R. Roots
    Senior Pastor
    Former Staff Sergeant,
    USMC Captain,
    U. S. Navy Chaplain Corps (Ret.)

    This should be passed on and on and on.

    NO TRUE AMERICAN WOULD OBJECT TO RECEIVING THIS MORE THAN ONCE ... SO PASS IT ON

    And Let us never forget the  Hillary Clinton Comment
    "What Difference Does It Make?"
    And she wants to be our next president!

    " The Beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it"
                                                                                                                                  ---Thomas Jefferson

BBC News -  6 February 2013 Last updated at 07:31 ET

French forces are embroiled in a "real war" with "terrorists" around the Malian town of Gao, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said.

Islamist militants were swept from Gao last month, but Mr Le Drian said clashes were continuing in the area.

French forces were deployed nearly a month ago to combat al-Qaeda-linked militants who had taken over Mali's desert northern regions.

Al Jazeera TV reported the following additional information about this action:

(Paraphrased) When French forces in Mali overran an Al Queda headquarters near Gao, they captured a computer that had been used to communicate with the Al Queda attackers of the US embassy in Benghazi. In one interesting communique, it said among other things that there would be no US military response to the planned attack, none.

Add that to the fact that several of our military  units within an hour of Benghazi were ordered to “stand down” when they initiated a response. There is only one source where those orders could have originated.

I wonder why none of this was reported in the American main stream media? Hmmmm??? I have found Al Jazeera broadcast over British TV to be a much more honest and accurate source of information about events in the Middle East and Africa than American TV. I wonder why this is so? Hmmmm??

Then there was the constant stream of lies about the attack by Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton and Obama. They were most certainly not misinformed. They knew exactly what had happened. They flat out lied to the world and especially to the American public. Obedient slaves in the main stream media continued to spread these lies for weeks, even after it became obvious to most thinking individuals that it was a well planned attack of several hundred Al Queda fighters.

An angry response to a factual posting and my responses.

The following is a facebook exchange that brought a lot of flack my way from a number of very upset people. All told, I actually received more positive reactions than negative, but the visceral anger expressed in the negative reactions told a far more significant story. This pointed out to me how poor a communication system sound bites, or any comments of few words are, particularly in emotionally charged situations.  Even well intended comments of limited size are poorly understood or totally misunderstood in these emotional exchanges.

News media and political sound bites are the tools of those who try to incite anger and violence in support of their agenda. These tiny messages are often turned into hate messages by all sides of any controversy. Slogans, placards and signs carried by demonstrators of all kinds are typical, a few words intended to stir emotions. They are simplistic comments that say little or nothing of the realities of extremely complex situations. They are the human equivalent of the barking dog serving only to incite anger or hatred. They are used because they are easy and require little effort. Real communication requires sometimes painful and serious effort. Few people are willing to do so. Much easier to let others define things for us and simply do as they tell us. That is the basis for the power of all politics and religion. Don’t think, react like the PC or SC or FC crowd decides for you. Thinking requires work and most people are intellectually lazy. They would rather follow the follower than go out on their own.

NOTE: In this copy of the postings, I used numbers to represent names of three different responders to protect the identity of the author. Several people who knew my email address chose that method rather than use facebook. Probably that was done to keep from being railed at by angry liberals. I understand perfectly, but since I consider being chastened by angry liberals a complement and testimonial to my integrity, I invite comments.

Here’s the comment I posted on facebook and probably could have worded much better:

    I've seen a lot of static about young black men being killed by police and auxiliary police since the Zimmerman verdict. Here's a reality check. In the first half of 2012, there were 120 black men killed by police. During the same period there were more than 3,000 black men killed by other black men, not police. Where's the hue and cry about that statistic?
Howard Johnson  -  July 15 at 8:58pm ·

#1 -  Come to Fort Wayne there is an uproar about the number of black men being killed by black men. At least one shooting a day if not more.
July 15 at 11:28pm via mobile

#2 - so does that make it all right? I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything better from bigots like you.
 Tuesday at 7:50pm via mobile

Howard Johnson So the new liberal definition of a bigot is any one who sites factual data about anything that disagrees with the liberal agenda. Come on. You can do better than that. Name calling is a poor excuse for an argument or attempt to make a point.
 Tuesday at 10:42pm

#3 - The media, Hollywood, the Obama administration, and most liberal Democrats are in lockstep in denigrating the police, the military, religion (except Islam), business, white men, and, when things don’t go their way, the judicial system. They ramped up their hate rhetoric and sensationalized this one trial while completely ignoring an infinitely more serious problem. In fact, there were a number of killings of black men by other black men in Chicago while the trial was going on. Where is the outrage, the sound bites, the protests, the public outcry about that?
Via email, Tuesday at 11:20pm

#2 - A piece of isolated data (if in fact true) taken out of context is not a valid argument or justification for any behavior. What is your point anyway? Is it to justify some trigger happy misguided scared white guy shooting an unarmed black kid in a hoody? "After all blacks kill each other anyway!"
Wednesday at 8:02am via mobile

Howard Johnson The point of my first posting that #2 did not like and probably couldn’t understand is that, at least numerically, the epidemic of black men killing other black men is much larger and more devastating than the problem of police killing black men by a factor of about 27 times. There doesn’t seem to be a proportional response from the public, probably because this single incident has been blown to huge proportions with intense emotional reactions by people with an agenda to promote who are screaming for revenge, not justice. This is amplified by the media who use it to sell their product. Apparently there is no profit to calling attention to the realities of life in the black community. Could it be that this hue and cry serves to divert public attention away from a much larger and more serious problem?
Wednesday at 8:56am · Like · 1

#2  You missed the point. People like myself are not screaming for revenge we are screaming for the end of racial profiling as well as laws like you have in Florida "stand your ground with a gun to kill" I wonder how the public would have reacted if the colors were reversed???
Sunday at 8:40am via mobile

Howard Johnson Sure sounds like revenge to me. I too wonder how the liberal public would react if the racial situation were reversed. Added: (When you say “public” I assume you mean those of the public who think the way you do. It is obvious your opinion does not reflect an overwhelming majority of the general public.) Probably just like the liberal public did to the four black teens in Atlanta who beat up a white guy and threw him into traffic where he was killed. Google the Murder of Joshua Chellew. Incidentally, You are way off base about Florida's "Stand you ground law." It is used almost twice as often in the defense of black men than white. Total lack of accurate information never stops a liberal opinion.
Sunday at 12:40pm via mobile

#2  I am ending this conversation and not dignify your comments with a response.unfortunately ignorance and hypocrisy such as yours is still too pervasive.
Sunday at 1:15pm via mobile · Like · 1

NOTE: more name calling and accusations without shred of substantiation.

#1  Never stops the conservative opinion either. I have become more liberal since leaving Leesburg and I am a happier person because of it. There is a public outcry about the blacks shooting blacks in Indiana. Are you not paying attention.
Sunday at 1:19pm via mobile

Howard Johnson (for #2) Typical!
Sunday at 2:10pm

Howard Johnson  #1:  Where did you get the notion I was a conservative? Do people have to dichotomize everything? Is it always "them against us?" I am pleased to report that to my right wing friends I am considered a flaming liberal and to my far left family and friends, a fundamentalist right winger. I live in Florida now and have a pretty good idea what's going on down here as I am actively engaged in the community. I hear virtually nothing of what is going on in Indiana. Another point: You have absolutely no comprehension of my racial attitudes and beliefs. I have marched in protest with my black friends in the Urban League as far back as 1960. In my business I treated everyone equally as far as pay, promotions and all else was concerned. In our industry, I put the very first full time female salesperson on the road and was given an award for it. My opinions are my own and are based on my understanding of the facts. I am rarely if ever swayed by the emotional diatribes from any position right, left, or a thousand others. Should you want to know more, email me at hobarb@yahoo.com and I'll give you links to a lot of information. I don't feel like posting my BLOG address. Maybe I'll send you one of my books.

Some information I wish I had thought to add to the previous post: I took a young black man who worked for us in delivery and encouraged and trained him to become a service man earning more than twice the pay he had in delivery. Several years later, he asked me how he could become a salesman. I was pleased to train him and give him a territory where eventually he was earning still more. I gave a single, black mom a supervisory position instead of a white man who had been with us longer and felt he had earned the promotion. He had not. He exploded at me in ire, but I did not fire him. Later he begrudgingly admitted he had not been doing his best . As a result and working under the woman as his boss, he became a much more productive employee. He was rewarded with a raise in pay because he was worth it. As a direct result of these efforts, six bright young people were able to go to college. They were the children of the ones I mentioned above.

Here’s my response to the above exchanges. It will be in this article only and not posted on facebook---no barking dog:

I have been cursed, called names, reviled, chastened, lied about, denigrated, ridiculed, and subjected to a lot of other emotional diatribes by people who did not like their understanding of my positions and/or comments on a number of things. These were almost all liberals, many in my family. Honestly, I consider those comments as badges of honor—as compliments considering their sources. I cannot remember a single instance where a rational argument was presented in response to any of my political comments by these people. In a similar vein, I cannot recall a single rational proposal made by any liberal politician in any political campaign. Apparently liberals are totally devoid of constructive ideas and must hide this lack by screaming epithets as arguments. They are masters at accusing those with whom they disagree of all manner of terrible actions, most of which they themselves are far more guilty.

One classic example of this is Howard Dean’s screaming, “I hate Republicans! I hate conservatives! I hate Rush Limbaugh!” when he was the chairmen of the Democrat party. As a result of this, and for other obvious reasons, I have renamed our two political parties the Hate party and the Stupid party. Which is which is obvious to all but the most stupid, biased, or hate driven among the public. The Hate party because that is almost all they ever do or use. The Stupid party because they recognize the effectiveness of Hate party rhetoric, but only use it  against members of their own Stupid party in primary elections.

I will not spend any time justifying my positions or providing data to back them up. There is a great deal of information available on the Internet, some good, some bad, and some pure non sense. Look it up and find out for yourself. Of course, many of you liberals would not do that as you rely on the liberal media and politicians to do your thinking and research for you. The PC crowd defines most people and situations for you since you seem unable to think for yourselves.

Most of the statistics I use or site, including those in my triggering comment come from the US government. The “isolated data” came from the US Department of Justice. By the way, the comment “Is it to justify some trigger happy misguided scared white guy shooting an unarmed black kid in a hoody?” is not supported by any of the evidence brought forward by the prosecution in the trial. Didn't the author really mean to say, "That poor little innocent black boy was shot down in cold blood by a wanton white Hispanic racist." Apparently that liberal knew exactly what was going on in the minds of both killer and victim, far better than those involved in the trial or the jury. Too bad they weren't available to the court, that is true of course.

Since my antagonists and most liberals seem to know everything about everything, why is it that since liberals dominate government bureaucracies, control our government schools, predominate among college professors, and have run the government for most of the last fifty years, things are in such a mess? Why has our education system crashed, our economy gone to hell, and our middle classes lost almost all of their wealth? Why is the population of Detroit, that marvelous testimonial to the power of liberalism, now down to about 700,000 and is one of the poorest cities in the nation? Before liberals and the union goons took over, its population was around 2 millions and it had the highest per capita income in the nation.

Oh yes, remember the famous and prophetic words of that great liberal, King Lyndon Johnson: “Detroit will be our model city, a shining example of the “fairness” of our policies.” Well, he was right on the money. Drive through Detroit on I-75 and you can see some of the burned out homes and factories right from the Interstate. If you are brave and can protect yourself from a car jacking, drive into the city itself and you'll find it looks like a bombed out third world city. Johnson's liberal buddies and followers under Obama are now doing their best to bring about the same result in the entire country. Unless there is soon a drastic change in America, they will probably succeed. They have the blessings and support of virtually all of the black community, the Hispanic community, Hollywood, and the main stream media.

As part and parcel of the damage to be done is what I think may happen to America in the near future, another civil war. As the left wing fanatics rachet up their hate rhetoric, the white supremacists and other right wing fanatics do the same, MECHA agitates for the take over of Atzlan, the Muslims create general chaos, and our government actually and deliberately incites “their people,” sooner or later the lid will blow off. This one will make the last civil war look like a tea party and not the political one. This is merely a conclusion from observations. It is most certainly an event I do not want to happen. It is an event that I believe our current administration and its supporters are working for. I believe they think that during the conflict, the complex food and fuel distribution system will fall apart, the power structure will then break down completely, and they will gain power.

What can we do to prevent this catastrophe that so many seem to be pushing for?

1. Reduce the size of the federal government by initially reducing federal employment to half of the current level. Reduce the cost of federal employees by cutting all pay and benefits to 95% of the pay of equivalent positions in the private sector.

2. Revise our education system to tell the truth about what made America so successful in providing a high standard of living for most people. Reignite that spirit of American can do and excellence that our President so despises.

3. Remove a great deal of the power government has usurped from the people. I have no good idea of how to do this, but electing constructive people rather than the self-serving frauds that now populate so many of our public offices would be a start.

4. Remove the power from the labor unions by making a right to work law national so that union membership is no longer compulsory. Outlaw government employee unions. Make unions subect to the sam anti trust laws as companies.

5. Replace Obamacare with a combination of government and private insurance with government providing basic services and private insurance the rest not bounded by state lines.

6.  Replace the IRS with a taxing system like the Fair Tax which removes politicians from the power to rake off the system for their own benefit. Make no exceptions and no immunity for any one or any company. While at it institute a negative income tax to replace all welfare, unemployment compensation, and social security.

7.  Replace existing corporate law with laws that don’t favor huge corporations. Provide decreasing controls and reporting requirements as corporations grow smaller. Do everything we can to help and protect small business. The Fair Tax or something like it would take care of the financial part of this.

8.  Return to strict rule of the Constitution as it was written, approved, and amended. We have a process for amendment. Use it and not the courts to make necessary changes.

9.  Enforce our existing immigration laws. Change the law to prevent gaming of the system. Do not allow the children born of illegal aliens to become citizens.

10.  Provide a work permit for aliens so that they can work legally, but must pay taxes to cover the additional costs of their health and educational services for their families.

CHANGE OF SUBJECT: For those who really want to know the realities of firearm violence here are some websites.

Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 - Statistics on violent crime from the US Department of Justice. Check out the graphs at this site.  http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf
About 70% of arrest related deaths were white males including hispanics. About 30% were black.  -  http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardus05.pdf

My thoughts and ideas have been affected by many people over many years. My parents, my grandparents, my sisters, the Christian church and my entire broader family were the forces that first taught my mind and helped me to develop my ideas. Since my youth, there have been many influences, mostly ideas and people I learned to at least partially trust and respect. Lately, since I began organizing my thoughts, writing, and becoming active in a number of discussion groups, I have recognized a number of current influences that have had a lot to do with how I think about almost everything. It is interesting that most of the members of these groups are quite liberal in the current, and I think erroneous sense of the word. The following is a sort of credo I am trying to follow in living my life.

In nearly all of my voting, which I do religiously, I am forced to take the lesser evil of the usually two choices on the ballot. In my voting lifetime, a considerable number of years, I have worked and voted for a candidate only five, maybe six times. Two of those were Democrats, Harry Truman and mor recently, Evan Bayh. Harry worked out. Once he went to Washington, Even abandoned his laudable Indiana principles and persona and became a career liberal leach. My mistake. The others were Republicans, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Francis P. Bolton, Representative of Ohio’s 22nd district and a staunch Republican who fought the excesses of King Lyndon Johnson. I voted sort of for George Bush, becoming a staunch supporter after the Daly brothers (the Chicago Democrat machine) came to Florida and tried unsuccessfully to steal the election from him. I noticed they were up to their old tricks in the last election, but were more successful this time.

ANOTHER CHANGE OF SUBJECT:  A Personal Creed . . . and a few other thoughts . . .

I am a believer in myself and those individuals I trust.

I trust no politician, political operative, political activist, government official, celebrity, elitist intellectual, or media reporter or talking head I do not know personally, and very few of those I do. I trust no Muslim, ever.
I trust and admire the rational opinions and logical judgements of those so looked down on by elitists, the so-called common people. Their wisdom is far greater than that for which they are given credit. However, I do not trust their opinions or judgements when based on emotions, as they are too often influenced and persuaded by those described in the previous paragraph.

I do not expect anyone to understand any of that which they do not know. I do not even expect them to understand much of that which they do know.

I see politics, religion, pseudo science, ethnicity, and culture as powerful belief systems often used by unscrupulous individuals to influence and control others for their own purpose.

I am not a follower of or beholden to any ism, group belief system (religious, political, cultural, or other), political party, union, corporation, peer group, boss or officer (political,  union, corporate or other organizational at any level), grant committee, dean or head of faculty, or any similar person or organization. This is why I am free to express my own opinions without disrespect, concern for, or apologies to anyone or any group. I will change my own beliefs to fit new realities and knowledge when and if the new information requires it.

I consider myself a truly independent and quite liberal individual, a realist who knows what it means to conserve, an equal opportunity supporter or detractor. As such, I know my words and opinions may offend, but it is never my intent to do so. There are exceptions, of course.

I am not ever in any way controlled, intimidated or cowed by any kind of political correctness. I believe it to be a creation of the many narcissist members of the entertainment world and in particular the TV news media. These self serving hypocrites use PC to coerce people into speaking and thinking the way they determine. It is merely one more system that elitist intellectuals use to try to control others, mostly the gullible, unthinking lemmings so many people, including especially Americans, have become.

I will not accept as a fact, any words, concepts or ideas that do not meet the tests of logic, reason and/or hard science as I understand them. My opinions and beliefs are subject to change when and if new information makes a change necessary. I see the inflexible, closed mind—the mind of the fundamentalist of any flavor: religious, political, social, cultural, or other, right, left, or in the middle—as an evil curse on the individual whose mind is closed for any reason.

It is clear to me that thousands of free and independent individuals and groups working in a favorable competitive environment, under a capitalist system with limited government in a democratic republic, are infinitely superior to a central decision making collectivist body or government of any kind. The bigger and more powerful the government, the less freedom individuals have to grow and improve their life and the lower will be the standard of living under that government. Examples of this reality abound now and throughout history for at least the last 3,000 years. Freedom works. Collectivism works only for those running the system and eventually will lead to impoverishment, dependency, and ultimately some form of slavery for the masses.

I believe in treating every individual with respect and honesty. These both deserve, and I will and expect, respect and honesty in return. However, I see no reason to be bound to do the same when faced with disrespect or dishonesty.

I try to deal with every person with consideration in all of these things.

—Howard Johnson 2004, Rev 2013

“There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.”

—Eric Hoffer

For more reading that seemed to make sense to me, try the links below or Google the names. I placed them in alphabetical order so my actual preferences would not be obvious. Each one was an influence in hs own way.

Ray Bradbury - http://www.raybradbury.com/
Jared Diamond - http://www.jareddiamond.org/Jared_Diamond/Welcome.html
Stephen J. Gould - http://www.stephenjaygould.org/original.html
Stephen Hawkins - http://www.hawking.org.uk/
Eric Hoffer - http://www.hopepubs.com/Hoffer/Hoffer-Books.html - http://ehoffer.blogspot.com
Thomas Sowell - http://www.tsowell.com/
Robert Louis Stevenson
John Stossel - http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/
E. O. Wilson - http://www.ted.com/speakers/e_o_wilson.html
Jules Verne

I would say that Eric Hoffer probably speaks the closest to my opinions of any one on the list.
There are many more, particularly those quoted in my book, Memoirs from the Lakeside.

To see an excerpt of my memoirs books, goto http://hjwls.blogspot.com 

The Mindset of the Left

On the forth of July, our paper posted an opinion piece by Thomas Sowell, one of the columnists I most admire, and I have posted a copy here..

Sowell is the author of one of my favorite quotes, “Socialism has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”

I then wrote my own similar comment, “The liberal Democrat party in the US has a record of hatred, failure, deception, corruption, and greed so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”

PERSPECTIVE  -   The·Mindset of the Left
THOMAS SOWELL  - Inserts in bold italics are comments added by Howard Johnson

When teenage thugs,  are called "troubled youth" by people on the political .left, that tells us more about the mindset of the left than about these young hoodlums.

Seldom is there a speck of evidence that the thugs are troubled, and often there is ample evidence that they are in fact enjoying themselves, as they create trouble and dangers for others.

Why then the built-in excuse, when juvenile hoodlums are, called "troubled youth" and mass, murderers are just assumed to be "insane"?

At least as far back as the 18th century, the left has struggled to avoid facing the plain fact of evil — that some people simply choose to do things that they know to be wrong when they do them. Every kind of excuse, from poverty to an unhappy childhood, is used by the left to explain and excuse evil.

All the people who have come out of poverty or unhappy childhoods, or both, and become  decent and productive human beings, are ignored. So are the evils committed by people raised in wealth and privilege, including kings, conquerors and slaveowners.

Why has evil been such a hard concept for many on the left to accept? The basic agenda of the left is to change external conditions. But what if the "problem is internal? What if the real problem is the cussedness of human beings?

Rousseau denied this in the 18th century and the left has been denying it ever since. Why? Self preservation.
If the things that the left wants to control—institutions and government policy—are not the most important factors in the world's problems, then what role is there for the left?

What if it is things like the family, the culture and the traditions that make a more positive difference than the bright new government "solutions" that the left is constantly coming up with? What if seeking "the root causes of crime" is not nearly as effective as locking up criminals? The hard facts show that the murder rate was going down for decades under the old traditional practices so disdained by the left intelligentsia, before the bright new ideas of the left went into effect in the 1960s — after which crime and violence skyrocketed.
What happened when old-fashioned ideas about sex were replaced in the 1960s by the bright new ideas of the left that were introduced into the schools as "sex education" that was supposed to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases?

Both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases had been going down for years. But that trend suddenly reversed in the 1960s and then hit new highs.

One of the oldest and most dogmatic of the crusades of the left has been disarmament, both of individuals and of nations. Again, the focus of the left has been on the externals — the weapons in this case.

If weapons were the problem, then gun control laws at home and international disarmament agreements abroad might be the answer. But if evil people who care no more for laws or treaties than they do for other people's lives are the problem, then disarmament means making decent, law-abiding people more vulnerable to evil people.

Sowell neglects to mention the huge and violent evil that disarming also generates. Laws that control or remove supposedly evil things from law abiding people also make it extremely profitable for criminal organizations to fill the void. Didn’t we learn the lesson of prohibition? Wasn’t that debacle a clear proof that the left’s positions on disarmament are seriously flawed? The Capone syndicate and its deadly offspring were a direct result of this ridiculous idea put into law. Now we have huge and deadly criminal organizations supplying drugs, prostitution, and guns as gun control laws go into effect. They funnel billions of dollars into the campaigns and pockets of lawmakers who write these control laws.

Since belief in disarmament has been a major feature of the left since the 18th century, in countries around the world, you .might think that by now there would be lots of evidence to, substantiate their beliefs.
But evidence on whether gun control laws actually reduce crime rates in general, or murder rates in particular, is seldom mentioned by gun control advocates. It is just assumed in passing that of course tighter gun control laws will reduce murders.

But the hard facts do not back up that assumption. Gun control laws merely disarm decent, law-abiding people while providing a huge financial bonanza for criminal organizations. That’s the hard reality the left totally ignores. That is why it is the critics of gun control who rely heavily on empirical evidence, as in books like "More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott and "Guns and Violence" by Joyce Lee Malcolm.

National disarmament has an even worse record. Both Britain and America neglected their military forces between the two World Wars, while Germany and Japan armed to the teeth. Countless British and American soldiers paid with their lives for their countries’ initially inadequate military equipment in World War II. But what are mere facts compared to the heady vision of the left?

The very vocal leftist critics of our “military, industrial complex” who greatly exaggerate the cost of the defense budget, seem to ignore the realities of history and of the violent enemies free nations have. Or maybe they just are doing what they can to destroy what was the most free and viable nation the world has ever known.