A Few Thoughts On 2015 And The New Year

This is a little long. I guess I got carried away. But the wishes at the end are sincere.

It's the last day of the year 2015. I'm sitting in a dark house because the power just went off for some reason. Fortunately the house is warm and well insulated. I'm thankful for that.

The electric company says they are aware of the problem and it should be fixed within a couple of hours.

Tomorrow it will be 2016. How is that possible? I remember as a kid talking to my friends about the year 2000 and how far away it was. Now it's 16 years behind us.

I guess it's true what they say – that when you're a kid a year is a very large fraction of your life but when you're older that fraction is smaller. When you're 10 years old a year is 1/10^th of your life. When you're 50 it's 1/50^th of your life. That's why time seems to speed up as we get older.

Well... that and the fact that everything has speeded up in today's society. The internet brings us information instantly. The same thing we can find with just a few key strokes on a computer used to take hours or days, depending on how deeply you wanted to research it and what research materials were available to you at the time.

We used to have to go to... the library. That's where information was stored. In books.

Today the information is stored on the web and is available instantly.

Travel is faster now. In less than 24 hours you can be halfway around the world. And if you're lucky you can sleep on your way. (Personally, I don't sleep well on a plane.)

Food is faster. And no, I'm not talking about fast food restaurants but about already prepared foods that you can buy at any grocery store. Many are already cooked and ready to eat – just add heat or water.

And how do we heat already prepared foods? In the microwave oven, of course. In minutes or mere seconds, depending on the item.

I remember the very first time I experienced a microwave oven. One of my friends had it in his home. I was a young teenager. His mother showed us how she could boil water in about a minute. We were fascinated. Today there is hardly a kitchen anywhere that doesn't have one and we don't think twice about them. They're even in gas stations for public use.

One thing that has not increased is the intelligence of our young people. In the 60s and 70s college students were demanding freedom of speech and expression; freedom to voice their opinions and disagreements with the government; freedom to do what they wanted whether or not everyone approved.

Today our college students are demanding that freedom of speech and expression be curtailed so they don't have to worry about having their feelings hurt. Some of the professors and deans support this movement. I thought colleges and universities were places of learning? It seems to me they are becoming places of growing ignorance.

2015 was a year in which a large “racial equality” movement grew out of a lie and became disruptive to the point where a majority of Americans no longer have any sympathy for the cause. I'm talking, of course, about the Black Lives Matter movement – built on the lie that Michael Brown had his hands up and was surrendering when he was killed by Darren Wilson.

The investigation into that case, even the one done by the Justice Department, showed that Brown had assaulted Wilson, tried to take his gun, and was charging him when he was killed. The notion that he was on his knees with his hands up was a fabrication by his friend and partner in crime – who now works for the city government in St. Louis.

Imagine that? Tell a huge lie that goes nationwide and spawns an entire activist movement and you get a cushy job with the city. Maybe Mike Brown should have lied instead of stealing...

The BLM movement these days is mostly about intimidating white people. That's pretty much what they do. Invade restaurants, shopping malls and other public places to harass and intimidate people who don't look like them. In many cases they don't even want white sympathizers to join them – at least not where they can be seen.

The movement is about expressing anger at a perceived wrong but the method is more destructive than helpful. They want whites to understand and sympathize with their grievances but their actions are more divisive than uniting.

In Washington, 2015 has been a failure. Republicans took over the House and Senate in January and immediately gave all of the power to President Obama and the Democrats. They made a deal with the devil.

Then Speaker of the House, John Boehner, declared that no matter what happened, Republicans would not allow a government shutdown to occur. And in doing so he gave the President all control. The power of the purse is really the only thing the House controls that can stop President Obama's radical, left-wing agenda. Boehner gave away that power. Replacing him with Paul Ryan didn't really change anything because the first thing Ryan did was pass a budget bill that gives Obama everything he wanted.

Republicans lied to get elected in 2014 – promising to fight executive amnesty, Obamacare, etc., only to go on and completely fund Obama's agenda. And they wonder why people are angry and why Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls.

Speaking of Trump – his rhetoric on the campaign trail has him leading the once very large pack of Republicans seeking the Office of the President. And why shouldn't he be leading? He's the only one saying what angry Americans, who are fed up with Washington politicians, want to hear.

Both the Republican and Democrat campaigns are interesting – in a bizarre kind of way. Establishment Republicans like Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Lindsay Graham, etc., are failing. Their poll numbers are so pathetic it's difficult to understand how they can convince themselves to stay in the race.

Newcomers like Trump and Ben Carson are polling far higher than the establishment candidates. And the more the establishment candidates attack Trump the higher his numbers go. Carly Fiorina, who is an accomplished, intelligent woman, doesn't seem to have the right stuff for this election.

Ted Cruz, the only true conservative with a record of keeping his promises to this constituents, is doing well, slowly and steadily moving up in the polls. And Marco Rubio, the young, well spoken and obviously intelligent Senator from Florida seems promising, particularly on foreign policy. But he is too much like an establishment Republican for most conservatives.

On the Democrat side you have a criminal, a socialist, and an unknown. Democrats like to chastise Republicans as being “old white men.” But while Republicans have a black candidate, two Hispanic candidates and a woman in the race, the Democrats offer only Hillary Clinton, a proven liar and possibly the only Presidential candidate to be under investigation by the FBI for criminal activity while actively seeking the Office of the President; Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialst who wants to turn America into an economically and financially equal society for all – using your money to do it; and a third candidate that no one really cares about.

Three white people, two of them old. And they are the diverse party?

2015 has been the year of completely failed foreign policy and completely failed leadership from the White House.

President Obama also made a deal with the devil when he decided to form a nuclear agreement with a sworn enemy of the United States. In a deal where we get nothing and Iran gets everything they want, even Obama says it won't prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb. Yet he praised the deal and John Kerry was mentioned for a possible Nobel Prize for giving away the store.

ISIS has done well in 2015. They have gone from the “JV team” to a force that has worldwide reach.

President Obama hasn't done well on this front either. As he tells us ISIS is not an existential threat, Americans watch as thousands upon thousands of innocent people in Iraq and Syria are executed on a regular basis.

One day after Mr. Obama declared ISIS contained they killed 126 innocent people in Paris, France. The day after Obama told Americans that ISIS wasn't a threat to them here in the States two wanna-be ISIS members killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.

Here's an idea – maybe the President should stop making comments about ISIS and how safe we are. It seems they have an agenda to prove him wrong.

Obama tells us that going to war with ISIS plays right into their hands. Really?

For the sake of argument let's say that's true. Let's say ISIS really believes they want a war with the United States. If we went into that war with the intention of destroying ISIS it would be over fairly quickly. ISIS has bravado (and a lot of captured U.S. weaponry and vehicles.) The United States has muscle, intelligence, strong military leadership and the know-how and capability to annihilate their “army.” We have the experience and the power to completely destroy their major forces. Up until now President Obama has been playing patty-cake with them.

Certainly there will be consequences since ISIS is recruiting terrorists around the world. But that is our world today. We will never again see a world without Muslim terrorists and they will increase in this country over time. And through that reality the Democrats are trying to take guns away from law-abiding Americans. Yeah – great leadership there, Mr. President.

The President and the Democrats say that climate change is causing terrorism. Really? If that's true – where are all of the Christian terrorists? Where are the Israeli terrorists? Where are the Buddhist terrorists? Hindus? Sikhs? Why does it seem that only Muslims are affected by climate change to the point where they need to kill innocent people? Please explain that one to me.

The President likes to tell us that 2015 has been a great year, that the economy is booming and unemployment is down. The truth is that the median income for the middle class has dropped by $2500 a year and that nearly one third of the working age population is out of work. Food stamps and government subsidies are at an all-time, record high. Obamacare – that great piece of legislation, is failing.

Obama promised taxpayers that they'd see their health care premiums drop by $2500 a year. Yet most people have seen their health care premiums go up instead of down.The fines... excuse me – the tax... for not having health care is increasing yearly. Those who cannot afford health care insurance are being forced to pay the government for not having the money they need. Makes perfect sense, huh?

I could go on but this is getting rather long and my laptop battery is getting low. Yup – still no power. It did come on within that promised two-hour window, with about 10 minutes to spare. Then it went off again.

I want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, prosperous and safe new year. May it be filled with love and blessings.

Thanks to all who read through my stuff. I'd write them anyway because I enjoy writing. But having readers makes it so much better. I'm grateful to each and every one of you for taking the time to see what I have to say. Perhaps one day I'll write a best-seller book and actually make some cash from my writing. Hey – I can dream, can't I?

May God bless each of you and bless the United States of America. We are still the greatest country in the world, despite the efforts of the current administration to change that. And we will remain so as long as we don't replace the current administration with more far-left idealogues.

Happy New Year!!

Putting A Hold On Muslim Immigration Is NOT Racism

I hear it all the time. I read it all the time. People are calling Donald Trump a racist because he wants to stop Muslims from entering the country for a period of time until the government can figure out a way to properly vet them.

His idea stems from the fact that it is already known there are Muslim terrorists in the United States and from the fact that the heads of the FBI, the NSA, and other agencies have stated publicly that currently there is no way to properly vet Syrian refugees and that ISIS has already made it known that they are infiltrating the refugee groups to gain access to Western countries.

How people can't see that it's a no brainer is beyond me. But there it is. Here's the problem with calling Trump the R word.

Islam is not a race. Islam is a political ideology and religion rolled into one. And while Muslims do believe they are superior over all others, it is not based on skin color or ethnicity. It is based on their belief in Allah and Mohamed. So those who toss around the R word saying if you don't like Muslims you're a racist are actually showing their ignorance of what the word means.

The data isn't complete yet but I would venture a guess that most of the terrorist acts committed in the last few years are related to radical Islam. They are killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people around the world. Our President wants to bring Muslim refugees from Syria into the country without proper vetting – even has he rejects the idea that Christians from the same region be allowed to enter the U.S. Once again he favors Islam over anyone else.

Of course, he says they will be properly vetted. But guess what? Tashfeen Malik, the female terrorist who helped to kill 14 people and wound 21 others in San Bernardino, was “properly vetted.”

I'm not going to say the government screwed up (although there is evidence that they did). What I'm saying is that this woman was vetted by Obama's Department of Homeland Security and cleared for entry – even though there is now evidence that she was already radicalized before she was vetted.

There is simply no good way to properly vet these people – but the President has ordered that they be allowed in anyway. Trump's idea is not so far fetched.

And Trump's idea is not only nothing new – it has been done in the past. The only difference is that Trump is calling for a temporary moratorium on Muslim entry as opposed to nationality.

During World War II, FDR banned Germans, Japanese and Italians from entering the country. During the Iran hostage crisis between 1979 and 1981, Jimmy Carter banned Iranians from entering the country.

The entire Middle East is not a threat to the United States. Nor is any one country at this time. Only Islamic radicals are the threat. But since our government has failed to devise a screening process that can determine who is and is not radicalized, it only makes sense to suspend entry into the country for all Muslims until a better system can be worked out.

Exceptions certainly could be made. Someone pointed out that the King of Jordan would not be allowed entry under this ban. But heads of state would certainly be the exception, as would diplomats and trusted others who have already been vetted and have been here before. This ban would mostly be on Muslims who have never been here and those attempting to immigrate.

And again – the ban would be temporary – only until the government creates a better vetting system. Given that President Obama loves Muslim immigration to our country, it would give his administration incentive to actually create that vetting process within a reasonable time.

One must ask why the Obama adminstration is rejecting Christian refugees from Syria. Are they not in as much danger as the Muslim refugees? To my knowledge, no Middle Eastern Christians have committed acts of terrorism in the United States or elsewhere. Doesn't it make sense to bring them first? Or is it just me?

I'm sure some will call me a racist for agreeing with Trunp on this issue. But they will simply be proving the point I made above – their ignorance of Islam and what the word “racist” means. But it's really not surprising given the way the R word is tossed around so easily these days.

Just about every disagreement with the Obama adminstration will get one labeled a racist. And criticizing any group of people, from Muslims to those crossing our borders illegally, earns you the same label. Some people cannot have an intelligent discussion on the issue and instead try to make the issue about hatred and bigotry.

But that's just my opinion – I could be wrong.