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2010-11-01 13:31:00

Cattle guards…life…dabbling…and the biggest ponzi scheme

Answer: Thank you. I always like to be asked. This month, I want to share with you something that happened a few months ago, but just surfaced recently. It’s a little “lighter” than the rest of my column. The second part is what I believe to be the biggest difference between most of Americans and our President. The third part is a comment about our wonderful and ever-so-intelligent media, and the last part is from our, “Something to think about” segment. For those of you who have never traveled to the west, or southwest, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways (sometimes across highways), to prevent cattle from crossing over that area. For some reason, the cattle will not step on the “guards,” probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails (sometimes called cattle gaps). A few months ago, President Obama received and was reading a report that there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado. The Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the cattle guards immediately! Before the Secretary of the Interior could respond and presumably try to straighten President Obama out on the matter, Vice-President Joe Biden, intervened with a request that...before any cattle guards were fired, they be given six months of retraining for Arizona border guards. “Times are hard,” said Joe Biden, “It’s only fair to the cattle guards and their families!” This next part of my column could be given to little Johnny as the answer to his question, “Daddy, you keep talking about the how the Obama administration doesn’t represent the true feelings and values of most Americans. What do you mean?” The following column appeared recently at www.dickmorris.com following the release of the new book by Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, which details the input, decisions and actions that went down when a new plan was being drafted for the War in Afghanistan. I am not that fond of Dick Morris, mostly because he flaunts his website and his books between nearly every statement he makes…but every once in awhile, he comes up with an analysis that is “right on.” In my opinion, such is the case with this column. Obama’s essentially European world outlook has no better illustration than his comment to Bob Woodward during a July, 2010 interview that said, “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever...we absorbed it and we are stronger.” The essence of the differences between the European and American view of terrorism is the deeply felt, but often unstated opinion on the Continent that terrorism is normal and that it would be a mistake to over-react to it. In the United States, terrorism cuts very, very deeply into our national psyche. But in Europe, its often just one of those things. After all, Europe has seen a lot worse than the relatively naive American public has ever had to witness. The last serious bloodshed on American soil came in the Civil War. The Pearl Harbor and 9-11 attacks stand out as landmarks in our history precisely because we have shed so little American blood with the boundaries of the United States. Britain lost 50,000 people in the blitz during World War II. France lost about one-quarter of its military age men in World War I. Germany saw seven million die in World War II (not counting the German Jews the Nazis killed). Next to these horrific casualties, 2400 dead at Pearl Harbor and 3,000 lost on 9-11 pale by comparison. Basically, Europeans say to America, “Get over it. Grow up. Welcome to reality.” But Americans refuse to accept the idea that random death and massive violence are inevitable concomitants of the modern world. We demand that government emphatically reject this as a norm and move heaven and earth to stop it from happening. The President of the United States is supposed to reflect American views and priorities, but he so clearly indicated how the European view shapes his thinking in the Woodward interview. The practical consequences of such an outlook are profoundly disturbing. Obama told Woodward that, “We’ll do everything we can to prevent” another 9/11, but his confidence that we could “absorb” an attack, clearly implies that he won’t. If preventing an attack on the scale of 9/11 or greater is the absolute priority it was for George W. Bush, we will indeed do “everything we can” to stop it. But if it is something we can “absorb” preventing an attack is but one of a number of competing priorities. The Obama worldview also demands that we avoid racial profiling, protect the civil liberties even of non-citizens who are not in the country, and limit interrogation techniques well short of torture. If a president has a basic confidence that 9/11 could be “absorbed”, these competing priorities are likely to loom large in his thinking and attenuate his efforts. His comments also indicate a total lack of realization of the escalating nature of terror attacks. In 1993, we lost a few people when terrorists hit the Trade Center. By 2001, they had refined their techniques and demolished the buildings and killed 3,000. The next attack is not likely to be “another 9/11.” It is far more probable that it would be a dirty bomb or even a nuclear device or some other weapon of mass destruction, dwarfing the casualties of 9/11. These things escalate. And, unless we realize that they do, we are not likely to really do all we can to stop it. If the stakes are the total obliteration of New York City, we will obviously do more to stop the attack than if they are “merely” another 9/11. And Obama’s view that the threat we face is of the order of magnitude of 9/11 indicates a blindness to the danger we face. Finally, the Obama comments indicate a cold and inhuman view of the likelihood of 3,000 new deaths. He says we can “absorb” such mayhem. Can the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children of the dead “absorb” the attack as easily? Obama’s comments remind one of the notion of acceptable casualties in warfare. This is World War I thinking at its worst. Americans do not count on “absorbing” an attack of this magnitude. We see it as a unique horror to be avoided at all costs. But Obama, like Mao calculating how many Chinese he could afford to lose in a nuclear exchange, seems to focus on how much we can “absorb” as a nation. This is chilling stuff indeed. As I go back to the first time I ever saw Barack Obama, when he delivered the Keynote Speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, all the way to present day, I cannot recall a single time that I ever witnessed anything he said or did that he wasn’t playing politically to some group, issue, policy or legislation. Maybe he did…I just cannot recall an instance. I never thought about this until I began to read this new book by Bob Woodward. It seems as though if he wasn’t playing to or trying to rally his base, he was always pandering in some fashion to another faction. I am sure there are those of you who will think I am mistaken, but so help me…I cannot recall one time. Can you? Isn’t that something? Even if you can recall a time or two…isn’t that still something? Not one time have I caught any tone of sincerity or understanding or reasoning, without it being connected politically in some way, shape or form to some group, issue or legislation. I am sure he is very close to his wife and children. But other than these…I wonder…who is this man close to…really close to? How can anyone be close to anyone when everything one says or does has a political overtone to it? Let me give you an example. Suppose I want to go with some of my golfing buddies on a two-week golf trip to Florida. I ask my wife a couple of months before the trip if she minds. She is not in favor of me going as I had just gone on a fishing trip earlier for a couple of weeks. I don’t have to confirm with the guys until two weeks out from the trip whether I am going or not. For those six weeks, everything I say or do, either outwardly states something to do with this golfing trip, or there is a heavy, implied undertone of it. All that I am interested in this golf trip. If a moment or occasion arises that should be personal, tender or sincere, with my wife…a member of my family…or with friends…it is always accompanied in some way, shape or form with something to do with this golf trip, trying to use every angle to get her to say it’s okay if I go. Nothing I do or think about is about others. It’s all about me and what I want and what I think should happen. This goes on for six weeks! This is what I see with President Obama…only I’ve witnessed it for six years! Mr. President…you are my President. I respect you as such and your office. Sometimes it might not sound as though I do…but I do. However, you need to know…being President doesn’t mean you are infallible. In my opinion, you need a good “spanking” for your total preoccupation with politics in all that you have said and done. Hopefully now, that the mid terms are over (I have no idea how they will turn out as this publication is going to press well in advance of the same), you will think about something other than politics in everything that you say and do. God’s most precious gift to this world is life. No other planet that we know of has it. If there is such life somewhere else in the universe, I promise you, it is God’s most precious gift to that planet as well. I don’t want to live in France, or Germany, or Sweden, or any country that treats the loss of any life, however young or old it may be, any different than with the tremendous amount of care, concern and respect that loss of life deserves, because of Whom that gift is from. I don’t want my President to go around the world apologizing for America and its citizens for what we’ve done and had to do for freedom, and for the protection and preservation of this wonderful gift of life. If you still do Mr. President, and if you think that life can be toyed with like chips at a poker table, please take the next plane out to the world that you seek. You don’t need to come back. And just so you and others don’t call my attitude racist…I’m not asking for this, or to have my county back, from a black man. Frankly…whether you believe it or not…I haven’t seen or noticed the color of your skin since I first saw you in 2004. I want my country back from your ideas, policies and politics. I want it back to the values…the way of life…and the respect for life that made this country the greatest country in the world. Next, a comment on Christine O’Donnell, the lady from Delaware who is running for the US Senate, and the mainstream media’s total preoccupation with her “witchcraft” comment. Please refer to this each and every time anyone…for any office…is hit with this kind of “caw caw” from the media. I only use her as an example. The American populace must look very stupid to have this “fed” to us on so many occasions…from all media…whether left or right, and people of the same persuasions. I have no idea of this lady’s makeup, her qualifications, what she’s for or against, nor will I spend much time investigating to get answers to these things. She said in interview with Bill Maher in 1997 that she “dabbled” in witchcraft. She hung out with some kids in school who practiced it. After a few months, she had nothing to do with it any longer. Since then, the mainstream media has been having a barbeque with her being the “main entrée.” Well, I would like everyone to know right now that my younger brothers…Tim and Rory…and I “dabbled” in being cowboys and outlaws when we were young, growing up on the farm. Unlike Christine, we did this for about 5 years. At times we took on the personifications of Roy Rogers, Hop Along Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, Matt Dillon (I always made Tim be Chester), and several others including “Bad Butch,” Doc Holiday and Jessie James. We would have gun fights; rob banks and trains; and have make-believe fist fights (we learned how to swing with one fist at the other guy and have the other hand hit our chest open-handed at the same time…sounding like a real “smack”). But…after 5 years…we put away these things and began playing baseball, basketball and football...and soldiers…and race car drivers…and a host of other things. That is, when Dad gave us time to play…which wasn’t too often. Although I can’t remember the exact moment, somewhere along the line, we decided we were through “dabbling” in these things. We put away the things of our youth and picked up the things of adulthood. Tim has been Postmaster at Sharon, KS for many years, Rory has been Division Manager for Cox Machine at Harper, KS for many years, and I came to Wichita and have been in media, marketing and publishing for the past many years. In addition to their other duties, they both still run the family farm. So, I guess it is possible that someone can “dabble” in some things that aren’t quite right or acceptable, and come out okay. I would think however, that there’s a far bigger story about those who “dabbled” in things when they were younger…and are still doing them…and trying to get others to do them…you know…like Sol Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and The World Socialist Movement based upon Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto? But then, what do I know? I’m just an old, make-believe Hop Along Cassidy. Lastly, from our “Something to think about” segment, consider this…Bernie Madoff went to prison because he told people he was going to invest their money and didn’t do it. Instead, he took their money. As new investors came in, he took their money to pay old investors. Finally there were too many old investors and not enough money from the new investors coming in to keep the payments going. The whole scheme collapsed. Bernie did to his investors what the government has been doing to us for more than 70 years with Social Security. There is not meaningful difference between the two schemes, except that one was operated by a private individual who is now in jail, and the other is operated by politicians who enjoy perks, privileges and status in spite of their actions. My father’s generation was known as the “greatest generation.” Somehow, I think my generation is going to be known as anything but. We’ve pretty well messed up the environment; we’ve left the younger generation with a debt of nearly $14 Trillion that can’t possibly be repaid by taxes…it can only be repaid by printing new dollars thereby decreasing the value of the dollars we already have; deficits into the next 10 years (unless they’re changed) of $1.5 Trillion per year; a dollar worth 1/3 of what it was worth when we were young; and a social security program that resembles Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme more and more each day, as soon there will be no money to pay the old investors. And it all has happened on our watch. What were we thinking?