This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Politics

  • The politics of guns

    Claymore sends us a link to Twitchy that reports Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton from Massachusetts and a former Marine with four tours of the Iraq War according to Wiki has decided that Americans shouldn’t own “weapons of war” like he carried in the Marine Corps. Of course, the weapons of war that I own only look like the gun he carried in Iraq – it isn’t fully automatic;

    Aside from my AR-style rifles, I also own several 1911s – also weapons of war – one of which even has arms room time since I bought it from a Texas veteran who brought it back from the Korean War. I happen to like guns, mostly because I spent most of my adult life carrying one everywhere I went. When I feel anxious, something about holding that pistol grip makes me feel better. I’ve never committed a crime with any of my guns, none of those guns has ever had another human in it’s sights.

    Moulton has a problem saying things that aren’t true. In March, in the Boston Globe, he compared the rise of Donald Trump to the rise of Hitler;

    He said voters should read up on how the German people elected Hitler in the 1930s, to gain a better understanding of how an educated society “can elect a demagogue.”

    “I’m not saying that Donald Trump is necessarily Hitler,” Moulton said. “I’m not saying that.”

    But he is saying that AR-style rifles are “weapons of war”.

    In the pages of the Rolling Stone, David S. Cohen, who claims to be a constitutional law professor says that it’s time to repeal the Second Amendment because “sometimes we just have to acknowledge that the Founders and the Constitution are wrong.”

    The Second Amendment needs to be repealed because it is outdated, a threat to liberty and a suicide pact. When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791, there were no weapons remotely like the AR-15 assault rifle and many of the advances of modern weaponry were long from being invented or popularized.

    Sure, the Founders knew that the world evolved and that technology changed, but the weapons of today that are easily accessible are vastly different than anything that existed in 1791. When the Second Amendment was written, the Founders didn’t have to weigh the risks of one man killing 49 and injuring 53 all by himself. Now we do, and the risk-benefit analysis of 1791 is flatly irrelevant to the risk-benefit analysis of today.

    Well, if they think the founders were wrong, they should just go ahead and try to repeal the Second Amendment. Quit yapping about it and just do it.

    In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick says that we should repeal the Second Amendment “for the children” after a brief discussion with her son.

    Freedom in America also means that we are free to wake up every morning hoping that it’s not our kid who gets shot with a weapon of war, and free to wake up hoping it’s not our kid who shoots someone, and free to wake up praying it’s not our kid, or our spouse, or our neighbor who shoots herself. In this freest country on earth, we also happen to be in a perpetual hostage situation, in which one false move—or merely the choice to go to class, or to dance with friends—means you may wind up dead.

    Of course, Ms. Lithwick won’t admit that the reason she enjoys her freedom is because of braver people than she who do own guns and remove criminals from her path through life everyday.

    It’s funny how these people are quick to blame the NRA and it’s millions of American members for what is clearly a threat from radical Islamists.

  • Six magic words for Donald Trump

    Whoever came up with Donald Trump’s reverberating campaign theme about making America great again hit a nerve with mainstream Americans, and it has served the campaign well. Mocked and ridiculed in the mainstream media, which is never to be equated with mainstream America, making America great again is a theme that can be appreciated not only by those who have had the misfortune to be personally affected by the decline in this country’s manufacturing base or its technical jobs being shipped offshore to third-world wage-savers, but also by those millions of Americans who stand and watch as their very own president, supported by his lockstep-marching Democratic Party and their adoring mainstream media, takes every opportunity to demean our country before the world. So yes, “make America great again” resonates across this great country and among the millions of citizens out there who want the leadership to make that happen.

    But if Donald Trump wants to hit the red-hot nerve that runs through those tens, maybe hundreds, of millions, he simply needs to adopt as his secondary campaign theme the words he recently spoke, “I refuse to be politically correct.” The pundits can pontificate all they want about the number one election issue being the economy but I think they are as wrong about that as they have been about every other aspect of this election season. Too comfortably ensconced in their politically correct bastions of elitism to have any idea of what is important to those hundreds of millions of ordinary folks struggling to make a living between their coastal havens, they are no determiners of truly correct political thought and speech.

    It’s that last term, politically correct speech, that more than any other can be counted on to elicit angry responses from virtually any gathering of citizens who have come together to hear Donald Trump speak. Yes, they are angry that a clueless and incompetent federal government has allowed their jobs to be taken away, but what really riles them to the boiling point is for some effete liberal academic, bureaucrat, or media fool to tell them, “You can’t say that!” The natural response in most of America is, “The hell I can’t!” with a jaw jutted forward and fists tightly bunched at the sides.

    That is the vein of fed up, righteous anger that Donald Trump should feed into, starting every speech with, “What you’re gonna hear today isn’t gonna be politically correct!” and ending it with, “We’re gonna make America great again, and a great America is sure as hell not a politically correct America. We’re gonna make America the land of free speech again!”

    You do that, Donald, and I promise you, son, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Australian Army boots politician

    Australian Army boots politician

    Andrew Hastie

    One of our fans in Australia send us a link to the story of Minister of Parliament Andrew Hastie. He was using a picture of himself in uniform in his campaign for office. The Australian Defense Force asked him to stop using that image, he refused, so they booted him from the Reserves;

    Australian Defence Force members, including reservists, are banned from taking part in political activities while in uniform.

    The ADF says its policy is designed to ensure the armed forces remain apolitical.

    The image shows Mr Hastie in desert camouflage in Afghanistan in 2009 but also shows him holding newborn son Jonathan alongside his wife, Ruth, and is emblazoned with the slogan ‘not another politician’.

    He has not taken down the image, which troops he commanded had taken, from posters and billboards.

    ‘It’s just a hint at, Hey, for the past 13 years, I’ve been serving in uniform’ and my formative experiences as a leader were with the Australian Defence Force,’ Mr Hastie told 6PR radio on Thursday.

    ‘I’m proud of that and I think it’s good to let taxpayers know that their money – a lot of it has gone into my professional development – has been well spent.’

    Mr Hastie said the ADF had ‘used a bit of policy to try and push me around, basically’.

    ‘I had to decide whose authority I answered to. It was the people of Canning. As a federal parliamentarian, I don’t take orders from the military.’

    The ADF is also trying to convince another politician of another party to do the same.

  • Hippy hates the sound and sight of freedom

    John Avalos

    John Avalos, a member of the board of supervisors in san Francisco wants to ban the Blue Angels from flying over his city, according to the Washington Post.

    “It’s about them crashing and hitting a building — a place where people live,” Avalos told the Chronicle. “It’s about the terror that they cause in people when they strafe neighborhoods. That’s something I hear about all the time when Blue Angels fly overhead.”

    Yeah, the Blue Angels are “strafing” neighborhoods in San Francisco. In my dreams.

    He pretended that it was a safety issue, but, we all know that isn’t it. Last year, he complained about them, too;

  • Cristina Jackson punished for exposing a fraud

    Cristina Jackson punished for exposing a fraud

    c.j.-jackson-ts600

    We talked about Darryl Lee Wright last year when he was charged with defrauding the government of hundreds of thousands of dollars in veterans’ benefits for his “disability” which resulted from hearing an explosion once while in Iraq. He parlayed the explosion into a Combat Action Badge and a Purple Heart along with some disability benefits and caregiver payments to his sister.

    He was exposed by Cristina Jackson, a Federal employee, and of course, she became a target, not only of Wright, but also the agency that she worked for because she exposed the thief, according to Military.com;

    Wright joined the Economic Development Administration, a job-promoting agency within the Commerce Department, in 2008. His absences quickly mounted, and he announced he was dealing with PTSD stemming from service in Iraq.

    Jackson, the office’s administrative director, oversaw his attendance records.

    Late in 2009, Wright asked to convert missed work into paid leave for “emergency” National Guard duty. The orders he provided were unsigned or didn’t have his name.

    Jackson, who previously worked in administrative roles with the Navy and Army reserve, asked for more documentation. He told her to check with the Washington National Guard.

    With permission from her boss, that’s what she did. The Guard determined Wright “purposely falsified Washington Military Department orders to defraud his civilian employer,” according to a December 2009 investigation report .

    On top of all of that, Wright and his sister were racking up benefits from the VA and the Social Security Administration that totaled about 10 grand per month. Jackson’s investigation put an end to that.

    Wright, 48, pleaded guilty to federal charges in February, more than six years after Jackson told her bosses that he had submitted fake National Guard orders to be paid for a week of missed work. He’s due to be sentenced in August. Through his lawyer he declined an interview request.

    “Cristina Jackson’s willingness to come forward was critical to uncovering the truth,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Reese Jennings said. “But for her actions, law enforcement would not have had what they needed to uncover the fraud.”

    Despite the fact that she helped bust a thief who was defrauding the federal government, she has also been battling to keep her own job for more than six years. She should be a national hero.

  • Out in the back yard

    I do not know if there are any surgeons among you, but if so, have you ever tried surgery with a weed eater. It is not a precision tool. Some weeks ago up in the backyard, I buried some bleeding hearts. To my astonishment, many of the roots I stuck into the ground are actually growing. A couple of them have flowers. Cute little red, heart shaped flowers. I have used caution while mowing and trimming the lawn. Unfortunately, because weed eaters are so indiscriminant and imprecise, some of those burgeoning plants will need a second start. Sort of like some flaming out talk radio hosts and neo conservative magazine editors.

    Several years ago, I planted a persimmon tree from root stock. Suzie-Q’s all time favorite fruit. Two actually, well four if you count the first attempt. In spite of my efforts, one has survived. For several years, it has been little more that a twig with a few oversized leafs on it. I learned through several minutes of intense study, that this tree is supposed to produce fruit in its fifth year. I told Suzie-Q she better have a chat with it, because if there is no fruit come summer time it may not warrant keeping and I would put a dogwood in the hole. Even I can grow a dogwood. I saw her taking a look. Her back was to me and her hands were on her hips. I cannot say for certain whether or not she was giving it a talking to. Maybe it was one of those Spock Vulcan mind things. While wreaking havoc on the bleeding hearts and also trimming around the tree, I noticed it now covered with tiny little persimmons. So if the tree rodents that you may call squirrels and the allied antlered rodents are kind, by fall Suzie-Q should have persimmons. For which I will take all of the credit. Sort of like the politician whose policies destroy three jobs while expecting praise for the creation of one when truthfully it was God and the cycle of nature that did all of the work.

    From a distance, I noticed my rose bush looked a little sickly following its grand start this spring. Like the stock market, but not quite as sick. A closer investigation revealed a spider mite invasion – unwanted visitors sucking the life right out of a beautiful plant. Another familiar thought entered my mind just now. As I was about to unleash chemical warfare and prune the rose down to a few inches above ground and begin anew, I made another discovery. Right in the center of the thorny rose bush was a tiny bird’s nest with four little eggs in it. It made me wonder if mama bird might have smuggled these vermin into the roses aboard her nest makings. Suzie-Q and I discussed it and decided we would give mama bird and the eggs a chance. I have inspected the nest daily. It does not look like mama has returned to the nest seeing as dying rose petals partially cover the eggs. A friend of mine who knows such things tells me they should hatch in a week to a week and a half if the mama bird tends to her job. So they have another week before they go into the compost along with the spider mites and rose bush remnants.

    As the day’s work ended, it was time to fire up the grill and stare out across the fruited plain of my back yard. It was rather pleasant. Sipping a cool drink while the aroma of barbequed baby back ribs and smoked sausage swirled around my head. I may not make the best barbeque you have ever eaten, but it will rank right up near the top. I would give you the sauce recipe, but it is a closely held secret. It is so secret in fact, I never committed to memory all of the ingredients. That is just in case I am ever water-boarded. Suffice it to say that when it is being concocted nothing in the kitchen from the horse-radish mustard to the dish washing soap is safe. You can be assured that when all of these varied ingredients are stirred together with a single focus in mind the results are amazing. Sort of like that American melting pot we once knew.

    © 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved

  • Awakening

    This is an important time for our country. It is the time we set aside to remember and show respect to the men and women who gave their lives in our nation’s wars. The men and women who in their hearts knew they were fighting for our foundational values. Fighting for the principles without which we would not be the world’s exceptional nation.

    Families across our land have sacrificed great numbers of loved ones ensuring the freedom of what truly is the world’s greatest nation.

    Barak Hussein Obama does not deserve to be their Commander-in-Chief. He is unfit to lead this nation or our Armed Forces. During this, thankfully his last year as our leader, he has stopped pretending to be Christian. He has stopped pretending to embrace the freedom and opportunity offered here. He has stopped pretending respect for the men and women who serve or have served in our Armed Forces and their families who throughout our history have sacrificed so greatly. He is a man who can send a delegation to the funeral of a thug but offer no condolences to the family of a murdered American hero. No, he would probably prefer to apologize for what evil America did to the people who openly call for the death of America, as by action does he.

    He has bowed to the Saudis. The image of mass murdering Chairman Mao once adorned a Whitehouse Christmas tree. He signed a deal with Iran that is nothing short of a pact with Satan. His disdain for Israel is plain to see. He has embraced the Cuban communists and posed with them before an image of mass murderer Che Guevara.

    This Memorial week however he reached the crescendo of his apologetic hate America tours. In his ideological world view formed in a mind clouded with communist progressive indoctrination since childhood, he believes he has accomplished great things while fundamentally transforming America.

    This week he posed before a bust of Ho Chi Minh while shaking hands with the Communist leadership of Vietnam. Why not continue showing disrespect for those who served in that war? It is after all a Democrat tradition. There is no accounting for the American lives lost in that war. No acknowledgement whatsoever for their service and sacrifice. No consideration of the atrocities committed by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese against Americans, Prisoners of War and the indigenous population. No accounting for the South Vietnamese who were abandoned by liberal American politicians the likes of which were mentors to John Kerry. No accounting for the millions who died after these same politicians made it possible for the communist takeover of the country and the millions more who died in the Cambodian killing fields. Just as in Vietnam he continues the Democrat tradition in the Middle East of turning American military victory into a defeat with no regard or compassion for American lives lost and indigenous people left at the mercy of murderers. Nope, just more apologies for American evil.

    At Hiroshima, he again apologized for the evil America unleashed on the world and brought upon the Japanese people. That is a simply breathtaking disregard for the millions of lives destroyed and atrocities committed across Asia by the Imperial Japanese even before their Sunday morning attack on Pearl Harbor. There was no acknowledgment of American lives lost defending America and defeating the true evil that was Imperial Japan. Not a mention while back home Americans are left to ponder the mistake of putting Obama into the highest office in the land while he repeatedly spits in our faces.

    It must be a miserable existence living a totally made up life behind a façade hiding who knows what and being chosen to lead a nation you despise from her very roots. To all things there is a purpose. Barack Obama’s purpose was not the fundamental transformation of America. It was the awakening of Americans to the realization of who we are. Mission accomplished.

    © 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved.

  • Hanging Hillary with her own ugly words

    Donald Trump would do himself and this country a huge favor if he would do to Hillary what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to John Kerry in the 2004 election: bring together the people from her past who know the off-stage, off-camera, hard-focus Hillary, and let them share with America their experiences with this woman who would be queen. Those people are the state troopers in Arkansas and the U.S. Secret Service agents who once served on her protective details. Like those brave sailors who served with John Kerry when his true lack of character was on full display, these state and federal protectors have tales to tell about the former first lady when she wasn’t on camera, and those stories aren’t pretty.

    Because the Clintons have required protection details from their early days in Arkansas in the governor’s mansion, right up to the present, there is no shortage of sworn officers who have been in position to observe this pair of grifters up close and personal. A few have made public disclosures to book authors, with Bill’s sexual dalliances being their primary focus, but according to one of Bill’s former mistresses, many of the Arkansas troopers were afraid to come forward for fear of losing their state jobs and pensions. Likewise, several former Secret Service agents from the White House protection detail have been quoted anonymously in books on the topic of the Clintons’ truly bad behavior, both in the White House and post-presidency.

    What I’m suggesting is that Trump should send out investigators to interview some of these people to see if they would be willing to come forward and talk about their experiences with the Clintons, but with particular emphasis on their dealings with Hillary. The Trump campaign could schedule an initial event in Little Rock in a venue that could accommodate thousands and assemble former state troopers onstage recounting anecdotes from their days of guarding and transporting Hillary.

    I absolutely hate attending large events, but that’s one I’d go to in a flash in the hopes I’d get to hear the trooper who was in attendance at the 1984 Easter egg hunt for developmentally disabled children at the governor’s mansion when an exasperated Hillary, angered over the time it was taking the children to find the eggs, reportedly stormed up to a state trooper and raged, “When are they going to get those f****** ree-tards out of here?!”

    I can assure you that to witness, with my own eyes and ears, a trooper who was there affirm that quote would be truly priceless. It could also be deadly for Clinton’s presidential aspirations if the Trump campaign could incorporate the retard reference into endless television ads.

    Similarly, Trump should stage the first of several huge campaign and media events, perhaps debuting in one of the large Midwestern swing states, but with secret service agents there on stage to describe their professional experiences with Hillary while providing her personal security. Again, the one I’d love to see up there telling his story is the agent who reputedly said to the first lady, “Good morning,” for which he received a totally classless but pure Hillary “f*** off!” Television ads featuring that nasty bit and that “effing ree-tards” remark would wake up a lot of Americans as to the sort of really dreadful person they are so eager to make their first female president.

    Sorry for the crude language in this piece, but it is necessary, just as those troopers and Secret Service agents accurately quoting the foul-mouthed Hillary Clinton is, to show how the woman is simply too profane, hateful, angry, and unseemly to occupy the Oval Office. In that context, Hillary’s former bodyguards most likely can relate a string of such incidents, and enough strings can be braided into a rope. It would be good to see Hillary’s foul mouth and ugly personality provide the rope for her own political hanging.

    Crossposted at American Thinker