Lies, Threats, and Empty Promises

          Sitting around a lunch table with a group of friends on January 29^th, I asked if anyone had watched President Obama’s State of the Union message.  Not a single one had.  I suppose that says something about the enthusiasm people have for listening to someone whose word can no longer be trusted. 

          I hadn’t watched it either, but I did read the transcript of the speech, line by line.  It was pretty much what I expected: warmed-over ideas that haven’t worked, small-ball proposals with insignificant goals, misleading statistics on inequality and unemployment, and many boasts of accomplishments the president had nothing to do with.  The most dishonest among these, in my view, was taking credit for an energy policy that is creating jobs.  The brazenness of this lie is stunning, considering Obama’s refusal to approve the Keystone pipeline, the denial of permits to drill on public lands, the attempt by the EPA to impede exploration and drilling on private land, and the move to shut down a coal industry that employs many thousands in some of the poorest areas of the country.

          The centerpiece of the president’s speech was a threat -- no, a promise -- to exercise unlawful executive authority to bypass Congress to achieve his progressive agenda.  Like the fools they are, the Democrats in the chamber rose to their feet to applaud the consequential loss of their constitutional prerogatives.  

          Elsewhere, the president’s defense of ObamaCare was laughable, his solutions for creating jobs misguided, and his claim of progress in the Middle East embarrassing.  On the other hand, nowhere in this speech did the president accept responsibility for his failed economic policies, for this country’s crushing debt, for the multiple scandals of his administration, or for America’s loss of prestige throughout the world.

          But the president did say something I agree with.  He said, “There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments.”  That was a perfect description of how the majority of Americans view his incessant speechifying, and the principal reason America has tuned him out.   

          President Obama deserves his miserable poll ratings.  It’s a pity we didn’t turn him out when we had the chance.

Equality vs. Liberty

            The catchword “equality” is all the rage these days.  Leaders in all domains elbow each other to get to the TV cameras to proclaim the primacy of equality over all other civic virtues.  Pundits, not to be outdone, cheer at our leaders’ singular wisdom.  But how many give serious thought to the cost of this unattainable goal or even to its desirability, given the consequences of efforts to achieve it.

            Take ObamaCare, for instance.  The laughably misnamed Affordable Care Act seeks to provide equal health care for all, but in the process takes away our right to choose the insurance policy we think best suits our needs, or to choose not to have any insurance at all.  As a result, the law has taken away more coverage than it has provided and is poised to fine anyone who refuses to join the ranks.  Furthermore, those who have managed to keep their coverage are faced with much higher costs so that the government can subsidize coverage for the uninsured. 

            What the champions of equality fail to see is that the true cost of mandated coverage, coerced membership, and redistribution policies is the loss of our liberty.

            Is our liberty to be sacrificed on the altar of equality?  Is our freedom so unimportant that it must take a back seat to the equality of results?  Have we not seen enough of this misguided policy in the dumbing down of our schools, in our ever-expanding entitlement programs, in the revision of gender roles in the military, and in the erosion of our 1^st and 2^nd Amendment rights?  And ObamaCare?

            Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French observer of American mores, warned us about placing equality above freedom.  He said, “…there exists… in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.” 

            Socialism’s goal is equality for all, even if it is at the expense of freedom.  Do we have to become like the Soviet Union for de Tocqueville’s lesson to finally sink in?

Impeach?

            Some 420 pages of previously classified documents on the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack have finally been released.  These documents are the transcripts of secret testimony before Congress by high-level military personnel who had intimate knowledge of the facts surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Stevens.

            This testimony establishes incontrovertible evidence that President Obama and key members of his administration knew that this attack was planned and executed by terrorists, and not the result of a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamic video.  Defense Secretary Panetta and Joint Chief Dempsey, in fact, told President Obama of the nature of the attack less than two hours after it began. 

            One obvious conclusion can be drawn from this crucial testimony: blaming the attack on an anti-Islamic video was a lie.  The lie was uttered (perhaps unknowingly) by Ambassador Susan Rice five days later on five different Sunday talk shows.  It was repeated by Secretary Clinton not only on camera in a message to the American people, but also in the most disgusting way to the parents of the deceased as their caskets were being received on American soil.  As we all remember, the lie was repeated by the president on several occasions, including in a speech to the United Nations.  And Jay Carney, the president's smirking toady, regurgitated the lie to the press corps without a hint of shame, then and now.

            It is more than mere speculation that the purpose of this lie was purely political.  The truth would have shown how wrong the president was when his campaign speeches proclaimed that Osama bin Laden was dead, that al-Qaida was on the run, and that terrorism -- thanks to him -- was no longer a threat.  Had he told the truth he might have lost the election.

            Questions still remain.  Why did Dempsey and Panetta remain silent when they knew Obama, Clinton, Carney, and Rice were lying?  Of the two, Panetta is more culpable because he was a civilian and not in the military chain of command like Dempsey.  Anyway, who came up with the idea of blaming the video? 

            I remember pundits early on saying that if President Obama is ever proven to have lied about this, he should be impeached.  Now we have the proof.  Will he be impeached?  Of course not.  Republicans know that even if they succeeded in impeaching the president in the House, he would not be convicted by the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Republicans know they would pay a political price for that defeat, as they did with Clinton's impeachment.

            The repeated lies, the multiple scandals, the political shenanigans, the extra-legal actions, the disregard of the Constitution, all these violations of his oath of office define this president as a tyrant who places his personal power above the good of the country.  He won't be impeached, but he deserves to be.   We'll just have to wait for history to render the final judgment.   

I, Troglodyte

            The other day I marveled at my son Marc's ability to put together a  superb Power Point sales presentation.  Although I spent the major part of my career in Marketing, I never possessed the computer skills that he enjoys almost as a second nature.  Even now I know I am way behind the times.  I keep a Tracfone in my car for emergencies, and I do all my writing on a desktop, but I don't carry a fancy phone on my hip, nor do I have a laptop, a tablet, or any device beginning with the letter "i".  When my son asked me what word might describe my backwardness when it comes to modern electronic conveniences, I said that I may very well fit the definition of a troglodyte.

            Well, I might not quite be a caveman or a Luddite, but as someone who learned how to type on an old Remington 55 years ago, I might qualify as a curmudgeon when it comes to comparing today's customs and values to the ones I acquired growing up. 
            Sometimes it's just the little things, like holding the door open for my wife as we enter a restaurant, or holding her chair as she sits down.  I never wear a hat in a restaurant, much less with the bill on backwards or to the side.  And I never wear shorts or jeans in church.  I resent the ones who use parking lots to empty their car ashtrays.   Or who dump their trash along roadways.  Last week I even saw a young man drop a bag out his driver-side window before he had even left McDonald's driveway on Ehringhouse Street.
            I don't mind drivers who exceed the speed limit a little -- I used to do that myself when I was young -- but I do mind those who pull out onto the left lane of a highway and stay there, especially if they drive under the speed limit.  In my old commuting days I kept my distance from the guy with a newspaper spread across his steering wheel.  Now, I fear becoming the victim of someone texting while driving.
            I was born before Pearl Harbor, so I inherited my values from the Great Generation.   But times have changed.  Teenagers in my day might have engaged in necking, but never sexting.  Every kid I knew had two parents at home, but hardly any had a TV, and we played our games outdoors, not in front of a screen.  Few kids failed to graduate high school, and, with only the rare exception, girls put marriage and pregnancy in the right order. 
            Yet, looking back at the decades since, I have to marvel at the advancements in the fields of science, medicine, and technology.  We only dreamed of the luxuries that most people now take for granted.  But perhaps there are dormant seeds of corruption in all this abundance.  It's the growing sense of entitlement among people today that makes me worry about the future.  The spirit of self-reliance and hard work has been replaced by the right to free food, free housing, free medical care, and welfare; independence and free enterprise by dependence on government largesse; and equal opportunity by the demand for income equality. 
            Let's HOPE that this New Year will bring CHANGE for the better.

Mental Health

            Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has granted an injunction against the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate.  It is only temporary, but it prevents for now the requirement that religious institutions buy coverage for contraception and abortifacients.  Forcing nuns running charitable organizations to promote what they consider sinful is even sillier than making seniors buy coverage for pediatric care.  I cannot imagine that an appeal to lift the injunction has any chance of succeeding.

            Such is the wisdom embedded in ObamaCare.  Another one is the mandate to cover mental health care.  It's a fine idea, but unrealistic.  A person seeking the care of a psychiatrist, for example, would have little chance of getting it under the payment provisions of ObamaCare.  The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that nearly half of psychiatrists will not accept insurance payments; they will only treat patients who can pay cash.  That's fine for entertainers, professional athletes, and Wall Street tycoons, but not for the average citizen who can't afford to lay back on a couch to the tune of $1,000 an hour or more.
            The effective treatment of the "mentally-challenged" cannot be delivered by ObamaCare.  There are people roaming the streets today who should be in psychiatric care institutions.  But committing such people these days is almost impossible since the official government policy of deinstitutionalization has closed so many of these facilities.  There simply is no place for them to go for treatment and to keep themselves and the public safe. 
            In 2007 Seung-Hui Cho, a Korean college student suffering from severe anxiety, selective mutism, and a major depressive disorder, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at Virginia Tech.  His treatments had been discontinued.  In December of 2012 Adam Lanza , a severely deranged and possibly schizophrenic young man, killed 28 students and teachers in Sandy Hook Elementary School.  His murderous obsessions were never recognized or treated.  In just the last three years there have been 99 shootings resulting in 160 fatalities in schools alone, most of them by individuals with mental disorders.  Yet, anti-gun zealots scream for more gun control instead of focusing on the consequences of deinstitutionalization and the inaccessibility of psychiatric care.
            If we're going to stop these slaughters in our schools and on our streets, we need to get serious about fixing our broken mental health system. Well-intentioned laws and regulations will not do it.  They are no more effective than spitting in the wind.