Hope for the New Year

          Some might remark that we are in quite a mess as we begin a new year.  While our insouciant president vacations in Hawaii, people are dying at the hands of fanatics both on our streets and in many countries beyond our borders.  Yet, there is reason for optimism.  Some of the progress, like the normalization of relations with Cuba, may be delusional.  But one happy development, the drop in oil prices, is having a salutary effect worldwide, not the least of which is on a belligerent Russian, suddenly beset by financial woes that threaten to derail its military ambitions.

          Closer to home we have reason to cheer the progress in our home state of North Carolina.  The Left may not be happy with Republicans having control of both the executive and legislative branches of government.  But this monopoly has had its positive effects.  We now have a right-to-work state that is advancing free-market policies, rushing past weak unions to foster a pro-growth agenda, reforming a bloated government, encouraging private-school vouchers, and advancing pension and tort reforms.    
          It is no accident that North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country.  It is promoting economic growth with sound tax policies and a business-friendly atmosphere.  Even Perquimans County is now seeing a promise of growth in water-related industries like boat building and repair.  As Baby Boomers age, they will increasingly look to our area and its moderate climate as a prime area for retirement.  Even professional golf is now discovering the attractiveness of the Albemarle Sound area and its friendly people.
          North Carolina and Perquimans County in particular are, as some people have proclaimed, a slice of paradise.  Those of us who have made this our permanent home have many reasons to smile and welcome the New Year.

Random Thoughts

          Some random thoughts on the issues of the day:

          Racism.  It had to happen.  A crazed gunman assassinates two police officers after announcing his intention to kill two policemen for one black man.  Race-Hustler-in-Chief Al Sharpton is scrambling to deny that his inflammatory cries for justice had anything to do with it.  I recall reading that the latest group he incited to protest hit the streets shouting, “What do we want? Dead cops!  When do we want it? Now!”  So much for justice.
          Cuba.  Marco Rubio charged that Obama’s normalizing of relations with Cuba is a betrayal.  He described this president as the worst negotiator ever, giving everything away without getting anything in return.  In his first speech to Cuba’s National Assembly after Obama’s announcement, Raul Castro announced that nothing will change.  I guess that means Cuba will remain a Communist dictatorship, an avowed enemy of the United States, and a denier of basic human rights for Cuba’s people.  Nice bargain.
          North Korea.  The FBI has identified North Korea as the perpetrator of the cyber attack on Sony.  Many have called this a matter of national security, some going as far as to label it as an act of war.  President Obama was quick to play down the belligerent nature of this attack.  Instead, he asked the Chinese to tell the North Koreans to play nice.  Well, the president did say earlier that we would respond at a time and method of our choosing.  Now we know.
          Education.   Jeb Bush has thrown his hat in the presidential ring, but his path to the White House may hit a few bumps.  One of them is his support for Common Core, federal educational standards for the nation’s public schools.  Conservatives like me acknowledge that standards are necessary, but we insist that federal government bureaucrats have no business imposing one-size-fits-all standards on states and local schools.  North Carolina was correct in repealing Common Core and leaving it to the State Board to adopt standards appropriate to North Carolina students.
          Energy.  Russia’s economy has been driven to its knees by the collapse of oil prices, not by ineffective sanctions or unserious threats from the West.  How ironic it is that this was brought on by the boom in oil and natural gas on private lands in the United States, at the very time that the Interior Department, at Obama’s direction, has blocked exploration on public lands, and the EPA has waged war on fossil fuels in favor of wasteful spending on renewable energy projects. 

Hating the Police

          Several years ago I was stopped by a Hertford police officer on Burgess Road where it ends at Holiday Island Road.  It was dark, and because I had not seen headlights coming from either direction (or the police car in the shadows), I turned left without making a full stop.  I was wrong and prepared to be ticketed.  When the officer came to my open window and asked if I knew why he had stopped me, I admitted the violation, but I also asked that he keep his voice down, because my two granddaughters were in the back seat sleeping.  He checked.  I guess the sight of the little girls tugged at his heartstrings: he let me go with a warning.

          I thought of this incident while viewing pictures of rioters and protestors accusing police of racism in Ferguson and New York.  I asked myself if I would have been ticketed for my transgression had I been black.  I suppose I’ll never know.  But what I do know is that in dealing with local police officers on several occasions over the last 12 years, I have always been treated with fairness, courtesy, and efficiency.  I can also say the same for judges, prosecutors, and court personnel, even when decisions didn’t go my way.  Come to think of it, I couldn’t be more pleased with local public servants in other branches of the judicial system and Social Services, as well as with school officials and teachers in Perquimans County.
          This is not to say that there aren’t any problems with police actions elsewhere or that all our local public servants are without blemish.  But before we excuse arsonists and looters as victims of discrimination; before we claim to understand why rioters march under the banner of civil rights; before we vilify law officers as racist oppressors; before we empathize with race hustler and presidential advisor Al Sharpton as he flouts the rule of law and justifies violence in the name of justice; before we find ourselves inclined to do any of that, we should stop and think about how we are blessed to have people who serve us with unswerving dedication and who would unhesitatingly sacrifice their very lives to ensure our safety.    
          We do not live in a police state.  God forbid we should be forced to become one by the haters and the radical extremists among us.

More of the Same from Obama

          A flurry of news items have grabbed the public’s attention since the mid-term elections.  Several deserve our consideration.

          President Obama insists on going through with an unconstitutional executive order to give de facto amnesty to five million illegals, and Republicans vow to fight him any way they can.  Some have even uttered the “I” word.  But the GOP leadership insists that impeachment is not in the cards.  Congressman Trey Gowdy gave one reason for not wanting it when he asked, “Have you met Joe Biden?”  Another congressman agreed, describing Biden as two floppy shoes short of a full clown outfit.  So much for respecting the vice-presidency.
          The president is also moving forward on his global warming agenda by, on the one hand, negotiating a deal with China on pollution control, and, on the other, pledging $3 billion of taxpayer money to help emerging nations fight climate change.  The first is a symbolic farce, and the second will get little support in Congress or among developed nations that have better things to do with their money.
          Then there’s that familiar target of Conservative pundits, ObamaCare.  Among reports of glitches in the new start-up period, we have embarrassing videos of Jonathan Gruber revealing the extreme cynicism and dishonesty of ACA architects like himself.       “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” said Gruber.  “Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.”  In other words, let’s not tell the people the truth.  Let’s make promises we know we can’t keep (“If you like your doctor…If you like your plan…”).  The stupid people out there won’t know the difference.  What’s important is that we know what’s best for them.   
          Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are on record praising Gruber’s brilliance, although Pelosi now claims she didn’t know the guy.  And Obama says Gruber wasn’t part of his ACA team.   Then why, we ask, did he visit the White House so many times, and what did he do for the $400,000 he was paid?
          Charles Krauthammer said it best: “But now we know what lay behind Obama’s smooth reassurances—the arrogance of an academic liberalism, so perfectly embodied in the Gruber Confession, that rules in the name of a citizenry it mocks, disdains and deliberately, contemptuously deceives.”  Amen.

 

New Battle Lines

          When Republicans put up losers like Sharon Angle, Christine O”Donnell, Richard Mourdock, and Todd Aiken in Senate races they should have won in 2010 and 2012, Democrats rubbed their hands in glee at the prospect of further destructive battles between conservative and establishment factions within the GOP.  They can now stop chortling…the Republicans have finally put their act together.  Worse, the shoe is now on the other foot.

          The blame game has already started and it is revealing a deep division among Democrats.  One side, as described by Daniel Greenfield, is “the old corrupt party of thieves and crooks…the products of political machines [who] believe in absolutely nothing [and] will say anything to get elected.”  This is the faction headed by Harry Reid whose political action committee produced some of the most despicable and disgusting ads we’ve ever seen in any election cycle.  On the other side is the radical left, progressives like President Obama who want to fundamentally transform this country.
          The smashing victory of the Republicans on November 4^th has effectively removed Harry Reid from the seat of power in the Senate.  But, judging from the president’s first news conference on November 5^th, he is not about to give an inch.  He made it clear that he intends to use his veto pen and executive orders in pursuit of his agenda.  Compromise is simply not in his vocabulary.
          It remains to be seen how a Republican-controlled Congress lacking a veto-proof majority will be able to deliver on its own agenda.  Or how both parties go about reforming their battle lines for 2016.

 

 

Another Kind of Veteran

          I have never served in the military, but others in my family have. My brother Phil fought in Vietnam in the late 60s, and two of my sons were career officers in the Navy.

The first family member to serve was my uncle Emile who enlisted in the Army in 1917.  He wanted to go to Europe with America’s Expeditionary Force in WWI, but he was diagnosed with tuberculosis during basic training at Ft. Devens and was sent home. His youngest brother, my uncle Vic, served as an Army chaplain in Burma and India during WWII. I remember the souvenirs he brought back, including an ebony elephant, a gong, and a tiger skin with a head that had marbles for eyes but real teeth.  My dad is another story.

          In 1943 Dad tried to enlist in the Navy, but was turned down because he was too old and the father of two children with a third on the way. Instead he went to work for a Goodyear plant in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, that had been recruited to do secret work for the Army. Before the war Goodyear made sneakers in that plant. Then someone came up with the idea of making inflatable rubber decoys—planes, trucks, tanks, landing craft---and deploying them in England across the English Channel from Calais to fool the Germans into thinking that the allies would invade there instead of Normandy. I believe General George Patton was temporarily assigned to this fake army to convince Germans it was real. History tells us that the plan worked when the Germans concentrated much of their defenses around Calais. 
          In this odd way my Dad did his part in WWII.  Unfortunately, when the war ended, so did the need for Goodyear’s rubber tanks. Dad, in fact, told me he had been the last one to lose his job. He literally closed the door of the plant on its last day of operations. 
          It wasn’t until 1956 that he returned to government service with the State Department in Vietnam. Even after he retired in 1975 he retained a soft spot for the military. I was sitting next to him in 1985 when my son David was admitted to the Naval Academy. I turned to look at him during the induction ceremony. He had tears of pride rolling down his cheeks.

         

Saluting a Hero

           Last month I took my grandson Matthew for a haircut in Wilmington.  While I hung around waiting for him to be sheared, an old man walked in and sat down to wait his turn.  When I noticed that he was wearing a cap identifying him as a WWII veteran, I went over and sat next to him.

          I began a conversation by telling him about a good friend of mine who had been a bombardier flying missions from England.  The old man asked, “He wasn’t the one who bombed St. Lo, was he?”  St. Lo is a town in Normandy that was turned to rubble as part of the D-Day invasion.  “Were you there?” I asked.  He replied that he had landed on Utah Beach with the Army’s 5^th Infantry Division at 6:00 a.m. on D-Day, wading ashore with water up to his neck.  He pointed to a ribbon pinned to the back of his cap.  It had five stars on it and what looked like a grain of sand.  He said proudly, only those who landed on the beach that day have one of these.”
          For the next several minutes the old veteran kept me spellbound with tales of the liberation of France (and St. Lo) and the dash across Germany.  When he paused, I chimed in with a tale of my own.  I told him that I had been a student in Belgium in the early 60s and that one day an American friend of mine and I decided to take a break from our studies to visit the great cathedrals of northern France.  Our first stop was in Amiens, which is in the northwestern part of France and not all that far from Normandy.  After checking out the cathedral we stopped at a local bar for a late afternoon beer.  We were alone in the place except for four older men seated at a table across the way.  They kept staring at us.  Finally, one of them came over to our table and asked, “Are you boys American?”  When we told him that we were, he stuck out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for what you Americans did for us in the war.”  I remember how that sent shivers up my spine.
          When I finished my story, the old veteran looked at me in the eye and said, “Many people thank me, but very few take the time to talk to me.”  He was pleased that I had.  I told him I felt privileged for having had the opportunity to meet a real hero.
          By then my grandson had gotten his G.I. haircut and came over to us.  Matthew has always been interested in the military, and when I told him that the man sitting next to me had been part of the D-Day invasion, his jaw dropped and his eyes grew big as silver dollars.  He shook hands with the veteran and thanked him.
          We celebrated the 70^th anniversary of D-Day this year.  Veterans Day celebrated this week reminds us of the debt we owe to those heroes who risked their lives for us on that day.  We should never pass up a chance to say thank you. With so few WWII veterans remaining among us, we may soon not get another.

 

Response to a Regulator

(This is my response to a letter to the Editor criticizing my view of government regulations)

 

 

 

        I am grateful for Nancy Theodore’s lucid explanation of Washington’s rule-making process outlined in her October 22^nd letter to the editor.  She obviously knows a lot about that, having spent 31 years writing regulations and policy for the federal government. 

          That’s the difference between her and me: she sees everything from inside the Beltway where over 2,700,000 federal employees insulated from the real world collectively think they know how Americans should lead their lives.  Of course some of the rules and regulations are good and necessary.  But, it’s not the legitimacy of the process that Ms. Theodore praises that I question so much as its excesses.  Contrary to Ms. Theodore’s assertion, this is not the system the framers of our Constitution had in mind.  But there’s more.
          When Ms. Theodore in an earlier letter defended President Obama’s executive orders by pointing out that President Bush had issued far more, she missed the point entirely by ignoring the scope and import of Obama’s orders.  When the president refuses to enforce laws he doesn’t like, re-writes legislation that he had already signed into law, and threatens to by-pass Congress to advance his agenda, he crosses constitutional lines.  That, Ms. Theodore, is indefensible.
          Is it any wonder that America’s trust in government is at an all-time low?  Ronald Reagan had it right when he said, “Government is not a solution to our problem, government IS the problem.”

Corruption -- A Family Affair

          “Not a smidgen of corruption.”  These famous words uttered by President Obama in a Super Bowl half-time interview in answer to a question about the IRS have haunted the president as the facts have proven otherwise. 

          Is corruption endemic to politics?  How many mayors, congressmen, and governors have to go to jail before there is any doubt that power corrupts?

          Bill Clinton was perhaps the most disgraced president ever.  A serial abuser of women, he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, although not a single Democrat voted for conviction.  One of his final acts as president was to pardon Marc Rich, a crook who was indicted on 65 criminal charges and fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution in the biggest tax evasion case in history.  The pardon was given in gratitude for generous political contributions from Rich’s wife.  Yet, Democrats treat this morally corrupt man as an idol.

          Without any embarrassment whatsoever, NBC News gave Chelsea Clinton a $600,000 a year job as a journalism correspondent, without her having any journalism experience at all.  According to one sardonic source, she was “never NBC’s most prolific correspondent, nor its most widely praised.”  Chelsea quit the job to have a baby, but she won’t be hurting for money; her millionaire husband is Mark Mezvinsky, who just happens to be the son of Edward Mezvinsky, a former two-term congressman from Iowa who spent five years in jail after pleading guilty for cheating investors out of $10 million.  Corruption, it seems, is a family affair.
          And now, Vice-President Joe Biden must be wondering why the spotlight is suddenly on him.  A former Chief of Staff of his, Ron Klain, a political hack with no medical experience, has just been appointed to the newly minted position of Ebola Czar.  Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, the vice-president’s youngest son has been booted out of the Navy Reserves for cocaine use.  We can’t blame Joe for that, but there is a question about how Hunter Biden became a naval officer in the first place.  It seems he got two waivers.  One was a direct commission, which waives the usual requirements (Naval Academy, ROTC, or Officers’ Candidate School).  The other waived a youthful drug incident that would have barred the door to an ordinary mortal.  Would Hunter Biden have been commissioned if he had not been the son of the Vice-President?  Welcome to the family.

The Framers Got It Right

          In the October 8^th edition of the Perquimans Weekly, a lady named Nancy Theodore took me to task on my understanding of how the federal government works with respect to administrative agencies.  She even asked where I get my information.  Here's my answer.

          My primary source of information is the Constitution, which states explicitly that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”  The Framers meant the emphasis to be on the word “All” precisely to prevent the kind of problems that had arisen in English constitutional history when monarchs circumvented Parliament by issuing binding proclamations.   These proclamations were an exercise in absolute power, and our founders were dead set against any sort of absolutism.  After all, they had just fought a war to free us from England’s absolute rule.
          Unfortunately, the rise of Progressivism in the United States in the 20^th century has moved us in the wrong direction.  Briefly, progressives are unhappy with the separation of powers; they prefer the consolidation of the three powers of government—legal, executive, and judicial--in administrative agencies under the direction of a central authority, the president.  While they claim that this is a pragmatic and necessary development, the fact remains that it is unconstitutional. 
          Contrary to Ms. Theodore’s belief, the Constitution does not permit Congress to delegate its legislative powers to administrative agencies.  When I say that Congress is powerless to stop these agencies from issuing extra-legal regulations, it is because a bitterly divided Congress, such as the one we have now, is ineffective in protecting its constitutionally mandated authority; as we have seen, it has not been able to prevent the EPA from piling on regulations that have the force of law, or to stop HHS from changing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, something it has done more than two dozen times.  Interestingly, when this Administration has gone to court to defend its circumvention of Congress, for example in its recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, it has lost.
          I do understand how government works and, more importantly, how it should work.  With constitutional powers increasingly devolving to administrative agencies, I’m afraid our government resembles less and less what the Framers of our Constitution had in mind.  

Politicized Justice

          On October 3^rd Thomas Sowell wrote, “The erosion of Constitutional government over the years has become, under the Obama administration, a deluge of arbitrary edicts and defiant lawlessness protected by a grossly politicized Department of Justice.”

          Now if I had written that, I’d be instantly accused of racism by my critics.  But Sowell has long been one of the most astute and respected commentators on the national scene and can hardly be accused of racism, since he happens to be black.  Sowell’s point here, however, is not about racism, but about candidate Obama’s promise to fundamentally change the nature of this country.  The president has delivered on that promise with multiple violations of his oath of office and by politicizing every aspect of government under his control.  And he has done it with the collusion of his Attorney General, Eric Holder.
          The president’s incompetence on both the domestic and international scene is bad enough; he’s not the first incompetent president we’ve ever had.  But he is the first one, in my view, to have placed his ideology and political interests above the good of the country.  Every federal agency under his control, from the IRS to the EPA, has been radicalized to advance his agenda.  And Eric Holder has been right there to make sure that every scandal is covered up, every access to the truth denied, and every congressional investigation thwarted, even to the point of being cited for contempt of Congress.  Meanwhile, our supremely arrogant president takes responsibility for nothing, holds no one accountable, blames all his failures on others, and proves his untrustworthiness with empty threats and unrepentant mendacity.
          In a recent speech President Obama boasted of his inviolability by saying of the coming elections, “My name is not on the ballot.”  But then he added, without a hint of remorse for the damage he’s done to this country, “but my policies are.”  Indeed.
          The latest polls indicate that voters intend to register their opposition to Obama’s policies in November.  Those who have consistently supported the president and his agenda will face the wrath of the people.  Of course, I may be wrong.  But I have more faith in the concerned citizenry than I have in Obama and his henchmen.

         

Property in Rights

          In 1792 James Madison wrote, “"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."

          What Madison meant is that we “own” our rights, just as a farmer owns his land and what that land produces.  This idea, first expounded by English philosopher John Locke in the 17^th century, played a very important part in the rebellion of the American colonies.  While loyal to the British crown, Americans prized their liberty, including the right to govern themselves.  When faced with taxes, fees, and tariffs imposed by England’s Parliament without their consent (“excess of power” in Madison’s words), they began to conclude that a fight for independence was worth the risk.  That’s what the words “unalienable rights” and “consent of the governed” in our Declaration of Independence mean. 
          The Bill of Rights spells it all out: free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, etc.  It should be the duty of every American who prizes liberty to read the Bill of Rights periodically, so as not to forget what our founders fought for, and what we should all be ready to defend.
          The violation of the10^th Amendment in the Bill of Rights is, in my opinion, the gravest danger to our democracy and therefore to our liberty. 
          “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
          If Madison were alive today, he would be aghast at the attempt by this Administration and its Progressive supporters to control every aspect of our lives.  He would be screaming at the top of his lungs upon hearing President Obama announce his intention to circumvent Congress via executive action; he would demand to know upon what authority the EPA, the IRS and the departments of National Security, Energy, Interior, and Education regulate American lives; and he would ask where in the Constitution does the President find the right to redistribute income, to control health care, and to wage war on fossil fuels.
          The Declaration of Independence also says:
          --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [securing our rights], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
          Our forefathers fought for liberty in the American Revolution and won the freedom we enjoy today.  It is our duty to preserve that freedom.  We can begin by doing our part in the voting booth…while we still can.

         

 

The Tyrannical EPA

          Congress is not very popular these days.  That’s not surprising, considering hardly anything gets done under the Capitol dome when our national legislature is divided into two partisan camps.  Whenever the Senate sends bills to the House, they are routinely blocked.  When the House sends bills to the Senate, it is even worse.  Not a single jobs bills, ObamaCare fix, or domestic energy development bill has been brought up for a vote in the Senate.  In fact, over 350 House bills are sitting on Harry Reid’s desk, even as President Obama accuses Republicans of being obstructionists.  

          With our dysfunctional Congress powerless to stop them, federal agencies meanwhile are routinely putting out regulations that have the force of law. These agencies, in fact, function as lawmakers, enforcement officers, and judges, compelling businesses and individuals to comply with their regulations, or else--damn the consequences.

          We all know about the excesses of the IRS, but there’s an agency that’s even more out of control, and that’s the Environmental Protection Agency.  Its war on coal, for instance, is a major job killer.  Tens of thousands of workers in the coal industry have already been thrown out of work, and the worst is yet to come.  Even though the United States has done the most of any country to control air and water pollution, the EPA is never satisfied.  As it ups the ante, coal-fired plants have to close and plans for new ones must be shelved.
          When we think of coal, we normally think of West Virginia, but North Carolina will not escape the wrath of the EPA.  According to a report by the National Association of Manufacturers, if the EPA puts through regulations to reduce ozone concentration from the current 75 parts to the proposed 60 parts per billion, 24% of the state’s coal-fired generating capacity would be shut down.  The NAM estimates that this would cost North Carolina 127,000 jobs and $150 billion in projected annual growth, with the manufacturing sector being the hardest hit.  Skyrocketing costs of electricity would reduce household buying power $1,820 annually as a result.
         This wouldn’t be so bad if the Administration pursued an aggressive policy of energy independence.  But it frowns upon nuclear energy, seeks to find fault with fracking, and discourages off-shore exploration and drilling on public lands, while pouring subsidies into solar and wind projects that produce relatively little energy but kill lots of birds.
          Let’s hope that a new, unified Congress in January can begin to put a stop to all this nonsense.

A response to a Personal Attack

As a frequent contributor to my local paper I often get responses from people who don't agree with me.  Since people are entitled to their opinions, I never bother to reply. However, a letter from a particular critic went too far, and I couldn't let it stand.

 

Dear Editor:

          In a recent letter to the editor I was accused by Catherine Poropatic of writing as if I have never listened to anything President Obama has said since he first entered the White House.  In one sense she is correct:  I have never been taken in by Obama’s masterful oratory or his elegant reading of a teleprompter script.  But I have taken notice of the repeated lies, the empty promises, and the embarrassing pronouncements on the international stage.  Normally, I wouldn’t bother with such an unfounded accusation.  But Ms. Poropatic went on to say that perhaps I don’t like Obama because “he wasn’t experienced or smart enough to understand that White House really means ‘white house.’”  This is nothing less than a scurrilous insinuation of racism on my part, and it must not stand.  The use of the race card by anyone is shameful and dishonest, and doesn’t belong in any debate on issues that affect all races.
          Typical of the Left, Ms. Poropatic prefers to launch personal attacks on those she disagrees with rather than making a case for her point of view.  In this letter she not only implies that I am a racist, she also accuses Calvin Lacy and Warren Boiselle of being haters and sanctimoniously recommends they do some soul searching before facing divine judgment.  While she was at it, she also included State Senator Bill Cook and the Perquimans Board of Elections in her broadside.  Ms. Poropatic is an intelligent and articulate person who should know better.
          By the way, Cathy, I did hear part of President Obama’s Labor Day speech in Milwaukee in which he said, “…by almost every measure, the American economy, the American workers are better off than when I took office.”  In my opinion, that was a grotesque falsehood: poverty is up, household income is down, welfare payments are up, participation in the workforce is down, healthcare costs are up, full-time employment is down.  If you think the President was telling the truth, would you care to debate me on this issue? 

         

Vouchers Shot Down in NC

          A news story out of Raleigh on August 21st should concern everyone interested in education.  The lead paragraph read: “A judge’s ruling on Thursday declaring North Carolina’s school voucher program unconstitutional threw hundreds of families into chaos and struck a blow against the Republican education agenda in North Carolina.”

          Once again we have the Left and the Right doing battle on ideological grounds.  Only this time the victims are children.
          Last year North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed an education bill popularly known as “Opportunity Scholarships.”  The bill, signed into law by Governor McCrory, provides vouchers worth up to $4,200 to low-income families that would enable qualified children to attend private schools.  Compared to public school enrollment of 1.5 million students in the state, this program is tiny, offering vouchers to just 1,900 families.  Moreover, the $4,200 cost to the state treasury is less than half the average cost per student in public schools.  So why the opposition?
          Reading the hyperbolic statements from opponents of the program, you would think that Republicans are out to destroy public education.  Organizations like the NC Association of Educators, the left-leaning advocacy group NC Justice Center, and the NC School Boards Association all went ballistic and sued.  Superior Court Justice Robert Hobgood, a Democrat, agreed with them.  His ruling, coming just days before the start of the school year, was particularly cruel to the families who had been approved for the program, leaving them wondering how they would be able to afford the tuition.  The latest news is that most of these families will still send their children to private schools in the hope that the judge’s ruling will be reversed.  They have reason to be optimistic, since other courts have ruled in favor of the constitutionality of school vouchers.
          There are no private schools in Perquimans County, so it not affected by the voucher decision.  My limited experience here has been more than satisfactory, a credit to the administrators and the teachers in this school district.  But this is no reason to be complacent, nor to viscerally oppose new ideas, especially the ones that benefit the poor and the disadvantaged. 
          The North Carolina Legislature is paying attention.  So should we all.

 

Let's All Make Sure

          When I watched NBC’s Chuck Todd interview the President on Meet the Press, I was struck by the number of times Mr. Obama used the locution “make sure,” as in “…make sure we got eyes on the problem…” or “…make sure that the public understands…”  Out of curiosity I went to the full transcript of the interview to see just how many times he used it.  I don’t know if I missed any, but I counted four times when the President spoke about ISIL, six times when discussing his immigration policies, and three more on his relations with Congress.

          This wasn’t the first time Obama used this expression; he uses it in practically every speech he makes.  More than an odd habit, I think it reveals something about his mindset that I find very disturbing.  For instance, when Todd asked Obama if he was preparing the country to go back to war, the President answered, “I’m preparing the country to MAKE SURE that we deal with a threat from ISIL.” 
          What does this answer tell me?  First of all, it evades the question, just as State Department spokesmen have been evading the same direct question from the press.  It denotes a lack of forcefulness, an indecision on policy and tactics, a vagueness that does not reassure us that the President is committed to action—or to anything at all. 
          The President also said we have to “MAKE SURE we have a good policy.”  But you, Mr. President is the one who sets policy.  How long will you continue to dither before telling us what your policy is, or whether you even have one?  Was it part of your policy to admit publicly, to everyone’s cringing embarrassment, that you have no strategy for dealing with ISIL?   
          MAKE SURE, then, is a sign of hesitation, weakness, and timidity, and an inability to deal with reality in concrete terms.  And that is not something we want from the leader of the free world when asked if he is preparing the country for war.  If the President leads, we will follow.  But first he must lead.

           

Let's Convene

          Congress’s popularity ratings are down in the dumpster, yet we don’t seem to be able to throw the bums out.  Taxes and spending are out of control, but no one is capable or willing to rein them in.  National debt is unsustainable and threatens to bankrupt this country, yet it keeps growing.  The economy is stifled by thousands of pages of regulations written every year, but no controls are placed on regulators.  The president should be impeached for making his own laws and ignoring the ones he doesn’t like, but politics makes impeachment unrealistic.  So the people are powerless to stop the insanity.  But are they?

          What if we could impose term limits on Congress?  What if we could require a balanced federal budget?  What if we could prevent regulators from governing every aspect of our lives?  What if we could make the president accountable for his unconstitutional actions?
          These measures would require constitutional amendments, but that route is blocked by Congress, because we could never get three-quarters of self-interested legislators to commit political suicide.  But there is another way that puts the power in the hands of the people.  And that way is spelled out in the Constitution.
          Article V of the Constitution gives the states the power to call a Constitutional Convention to propose amendments.  Two-thirds of the state legislatures are required to call the Convention and three-fourths are needed to ratify proposed amendments.  This would take the power out of the hands of Congress and place it squarely in the hands of the people through their elected state legislatures.
          Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have been talking about this for years, but what we need is someone to take charge and rally the troops.  And now I think we have just the man in Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.  Senator Coburn, who is suffering from cancer, has decided not to run for re-election.  Instead, he is going to devote his remaining energies to persuading states to approve a Constitutional Convention.  Florida, Georgia and Alaska have already done so.  Only 20 more states are needed.
          It’s never been done before.  But, as the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything.  Just imagine a giant earthquake shaking Washington to its very foundations: term limits, a balanced budget, control of regulators, executive accountability…Just Imagine.

Asians and Education

          When my wife and I lived in Michigan in what seems like ages ago, she spent time tutoring two elementary school students in Spanish after school.  The boy and the girl were children of Chinese immigrants who were committed to giving their children the best and broadest education.  The kids spoke Chinese at home, English in school, and Spanish with my wife.  In the evenings the girl practiced the violin for two hours and the boy piano.  By now I imagine they have completed high school and college, and are well on their way to being productive members of society.

          My neighbors Primo and Rose Viray survived the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, went to school to earn degrees in nursing, and then emigrated to the United States.  They raised seven daughters and managed to scrape up enough money to send them to college.  All seven now enjoy distinguished careers.
          I thought about both of these examples of parents who were determined to see their children succeed, when I came across some stunning statistics.  High school graduation rates for blacks is 62%, for Hispanics 68%, for whites 80%, and for Asians 90%, with some Asian sub-groups as high as 96%.  Some 50% of Asian-Americans also have bachelor’s degrees, and 21% advanced degrees.  No other ethnic group comes even close.
          When we look at family income by race, we see the same kind of disparity.  Asians earn an average of $68,636, whites $57,009, Hispanics $39,005, and blacks $33,321.  It would be difficult to deny that there is a direct correlation between education and income levels. 
          Race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would have us believe that the playing field is tilted against blacks because of discrimination.  Perhaps it is to some degree.  Yet other blacks like Bill Cosby, Thomas Sowell, and Dr. Ben Carson point to fatherless families, the high rate of births to unwed mothers, and the influence of drugs, gangs, and street violence as causing the deterioration of family values.  For them it’s not a racial issue, but a social issue.  At the same time they point to education as the salvation for these kids who have such a difficult struggle against the odds.  Education is not a “white thing,” they say.  It is the secret to success. 
          Ask any Asian family.        

Ferguson Bias

          Would anyone be surprised if our left-leaning media continues to obsess about the Ferguson incident until the November elections?  Why not?  Time needed to cover a white on black killing is a perfect excuse for not digging into the Administration’s multiple domestic scandals and its failures in Ukraine and the Middle East.

           In the same weekend as Ferguson we had 26 shootings in Chicago.  Did Al Sharpton rush to Chicago?  Of course not.  Chicago has blacks killing blacks, but Sharpton’s eyes can only focus on Ferguson, because it has a white police officer “murdering” a gentle and unarmed black teenager with his hands up.  As Jason Riley (who happens to be black) of the Wall Street Journal said, “Al Sharpton didn’t head to Chicago.  He headed to St. Louis because he has an entirely different agenda, which is to continue to blame whites.”           
          What was CNN’s Andrea Mitchell’s response to Riley?  “That is not actually his agenda, because he’s actually there on a peace mission today.”  How ridiculous a response is that?  But how typical of biased media?
          Let’s face it.  Too many journalists are just as bad as the race hustlers.  They give us round-the-clock coverage of looters and haters, but have little interest in peacemakers and those who cry out for the truth.  When the governor of Missouri demands a vigorous prosecution before the facts are known, and Eric Holder, a racist in a class by himself, is fanning the flames of racial injustice, reporters on the scene give them full coverage, while studio talking heads wallow in their prejudice.
          Meanwhile, black teenagers are dying by the dozens in Chicago, but nobody goes there.  After all, it’s only blacks shooting blacks.

Re-inventing Hillary

          It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Hillary Clinton.  Her history before and during her husband’s occupancy of the White House is less than flattering; her reported vulgar treatment of the Secret Service and people in uniform is especially troubling.  We also have to recognize that her record of accomplishments as U.S. Senator and Secretary of State is rather thin.  But now that she is running for high office in 2016, she is trying very hard to put on a new face.  I think we are seeing the re-invention of Hillary Clinton.

          I am pleased to see Mrs. Clinton take a hawkish stance on foreign affairs.  She mocks the President on his minimalist policies, while advocating a stronger stance against terrorism in Syria and Iraq, getting tough on Iran, supporting Israel, and taking pride in America’s universal values.  All these positions are in sharp contrast with Obama’s and signal Hillary’s decision to distance herself from her former boss.  But is her latest metamorphosis genuine?
          As Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal has said, “The political opportunist always lacks the courage of his, or her, convictions.  That’s not necessarily because there aren’t any convictions.  It’s because the convictions are always subordinated to the needs of ambition and ingratiation.” 
          That last word—ingratiation--rings true.  The mainstream media is flooding us with images of Hillary smiling and waving as she strides to a podium or to a seat next to yet another late show host.  Book signings and interviews with left-leaning reporters are all meant to erase the public’s memory of her defiant testimony before Congress (“What difference, after all, does it make?”) and enhance her new phony image as a warm, affable, all-loving woman.  Even President Obama, whom she has never forgiven for denying her the presidency in 2008, gets hugs from her now.
          For those of us who see her as a power-hungry politician we have one wish: Will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up!

         

Muslim-American: an Oxymoron

          The Washington Post reported recently on a call for the resignation of Bob FitzSimmonds, a Virginia GOP official, for questioning whether or not Muslims have contributed to American society.   FitzSimmonds had called “pure nonsense” a statement by President Obama that praised Muslim-American contributions to “building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.”

          “Exactly what part of our nation’s fabric was woven by Muslims?” asked FitzSimmonds.  Rather than castigate him for asking such a politically incorrect question, as did his detractors, I challenge anyone to come up with facts to support Obama’s claim.  Further, I challenge anyone to demonstrate just how Muslims have strengthened the core of our democracy.
          What is the core of our democracy?  The best answer to that question can be found, I think, in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  We need go no further than the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion.   Muslims are free to follow the Quran, just as Christians and Jews are free to follow the teachings of their sacred texts.  But there is a big difference between the Quran and the Bible in their treatment of non-believers.  The Quran, I submit, is antithetical to the spirit of freedom and democracy in that it is intolerant of all other religions.  We see examples of Islamic intolerance in the persecution of Copts in Egypt, the expulsion of Christians in Mosul, Boko Haran’s slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, and the unbending commitment of Hamas to the destruction of Israel.  Hardly evidence of a religion of peace.
          To be sure, the majority of Muslims are not jihadists, and there are prominent Muslims who make positive contributions to society.  But even in this country most Muslims would prefer Sharia law to our system of laws and institutions.  We only have to look at how Muslims treat their women to make the point.
          There are no observable Muslim communities in Northeast North Carolina that I know of.  But for twelve years I lived near a large cluster of Muslims in Southfield, Michigan.  I can personally attest to the fact that those Muslims were insulated, by choice, from their neighbors.  They did not participate culturally, socially, or politically in their local community and did not, from what I saw, contribute anything positive to the “fabric of our nation” or the “core of our democracy.”  I would bet that this is the rule rather than the exception in other Muslim communities around this country.
          What troubles me the most about Muslims is what they preach in their mosques and teach in their schools.  Everything I’ve read on the subject tells me that these institutions do not promote freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  In fact, we rarely hear a Muslim-American speak out against Islamic extremism abroad or in favor of assimilation here at home.  Somehow, I would love to be convinced that “Muslim-American” is not an oxymoron.

Managers Good and Bad

          During my 30-plus years in the world of business and industry I reported to over a dozen managers and observed many others.  Some were good, some were poor, some were just plain awful.  I learned from all of them.

          Among the good ones was one executive who gave me valuable advice on how to improve my writing skills.  Another challenged me to solve problems creatively (“thinking outside the box” in today’s vernacular).  Yet another deliberately assigned me work I was not qualified to do, so that I would experience what it means to “sink or swim.”  I never forgot these lessons.
          The bad ones included a consummate salesman who, as the saying goes, could sell snowballs to Eskimos.  He had risen through the ranks on the strength of his personality, but he had no expertise beyond his ability to shake hands and make speeches.  He hired an MBA to “do the numbers” for him so that he would look good.  When it became clear that he was nothing more than a smiling impostor, he was fired.  Ironically, the MBA was promoted in his place, but immediately proved that an ability to manipulate numbers is not much help when you have the people skills of a clam.
          Another manager was brought in to inject new life into a moribund division.  I really liked this guy.  But he never quite understood that a mandate is not a free hand to  change the nature of the business.  When he made up his own rules, spent huge sums without authorization, and exposed the company to potentially ruinous liability, he was sent on his way. 
          And then there was one guy who was worse than all the mediocrities and abject failures I ever knew put together.  No words can adequately describe this miserable human being:  arrogant, brutish, mean-spirited, abusive, these are just a few that come to mind.   Everyone who worked for him despised him.  A narcissist of the first rank, he spent lavishly on himself and demanded that his vendors pay tribute.  But that’s not what did him in.  Personality aside, he proved to be unethical, dishonest, without any scruples whatsoever in his business dealings.  When top management found out he had refused to honor a contract, he was fired on the spot.
          I’m retired now, so I don’t have to deal with losers like these anymore.  But wait!  Don’t they remind us of some of our leaders in Washington?  If only we could fire them on the spot, too, for overspending taxpayer money, for masking incompetence with smiles and oratory, for refusing to enforce the laws of the land, for abusing political opponents, for shameless mendacity, for trying to fundamentally change this country into something our Founders never intended.
          One of the worst aspects of our federal government is our inability to get rid of the crooks, the incompetent, and the corrupt.  Look at the IRS and the VA.  As for our elected officials, we only have ourselves to blame for voting them in. 

Parades and Heroes

            Fourth of July fireworks over the Albemarle Sound reminded us that we have a lot to celebrate in this country.  And we have every reason to honor the heroes who marched in our parades. 

            When I was a little boy I couldn’t wait for the parades.   Our small Rhode Island town featured two bands in our parades, an award-winning Boy Scout drum and bugle corps and an excellent brass band that practiced in a tiny meeting hall up the street.  When the windows were open on hot summer evenings, the sound of trumpets and trombones would cascade down the hill to entertain me.  My grandfather had played the cornet in that band and had also briefly served as the town sheriff when the meeting hall long ago doubled as a jail.
            One of the earliest parades I can remember honored the town’s last surviving veteran of the Civil War.   These days parades honor the last survivors of World War II.  It won’t be long before they are all gone.  One of them is my good friend and former neighbor, Fred Fletcher. 
            At the age of 19 Fred joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to England where he became a bombardier on a B-17 flying missions over Germany.  On June 19^th, 1944, his plane was shot down over France.  Fred parachuted to safety and was found by a French farmer who hid him for days in his barn.  Eventually, the Germans found Fred and held him in the magnificent medieval cathedral of Chartres.  He was later transported to a German POW camp where he managed to survive until he was rescued after the war ended.
            Fred came home, married Cel, his childhood sweetheart, and went to MIT on the GI Bill and got a degree in chemical engineering.  He and Cel then devoted their lives to raising  three sons, followed by four daughters.  It wasn’t until after they retired to Lake Canandaigua that Fred finally did something for himself: he bought a sailboat and named it “After Seven.”
            Last June my wife and I helped celebrate Fred’s 90^th birthday.  He was surrounded by his seven children and a passel of grandchildren and great grandchildren, plus many friends like us.            Next year Fred and Cel will celebrate their 70^th wedding anniversary.  I mention the anniversary, because such a milestone is very rare; seventy years of married life sets a standard that few can ever hope to match, not only for longevity, but also as examples of commitment and fidelity.  Having seen their children grow up, I can say that they had superb models to emulate.   Among other reflections on their parents’ values, there has not been a single divorce in this large family.
            As we celebrate our country’s independence in this month of July, we can honor the heroes that have made this country great.  Some became heroes through their valor on the battlefield, but many others, like Fred Fletcher, earned the honor through a life of dedication to their country, their families, their communities, and the ideals passed on to us by our Founders.          Here’s to you, Fred, and all our heroes.  Thank you.