King Obama Is Upset

          Comedic genius Mel Brooks turned 88 last week.  I remember him mostly for “Blazing Saddles” and “History of the World—Part 1.”  There is a scene in the latter in which Brooks, playing the part of a French monarch, fondles a female attendant and then, looking straight at the camera, boasts, “It’s good to be king.”  Barack Obama, who waved from the steps of Air Force One as he prepared to fly off to his next golf game while Iraq burned, could have played the part.        

          But it’s not quite working out for King Barack.  He’s upset that he isn’t getting his way.  In a Minneapolis speech last week he accused his opponents of failing to “do anything except block me and call me names.”
          Well, the last part is true.  Colonel Ralph Peters exploded on Bill O’Reilly’s show when he called the president a liar and a coward for not taking action in Iraq.  Michael Savage went even further by saying that Obama was insane.  Over the top?  Sure.  But understandable under the circumstances.  Frustration with Obama’s failed leadership does get some people’s blood boiling.
          As for blocking the president, his opponents in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have every reason to persist in their intransigence.  Obama’s logic in pushing for a hike in the minimum wage, for example, has been consistently refuted; it’s a bad idea that will hurt business and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. 
          Obama wants comprehensive immigration reform that would lead to amnesty for illegals, yet he has done nothing to protect our borders from the swarm of “undocumented aliens” who invade our country every day.  Worse, he has released criminals from our jails, halted deportations, and virtually invited Central American countries to overwhelm our border agents with their unwanted children.
          On the energy front he has waged war on coal, prevented offshore drilling in Alaska, encouraged the EPA to find ways to prevent oil and gas production using fracking, and blocked the Keystone pipeline.  America has enough resources in the ground to become energy independent, but the president prefers to squander billions of taxpayer funds on eagle-killing windmills and renewable energy failures like Solyndra. 
          Worst of all, President Obama has repeatedly failed to execute his sworn duty to uphold the laws of the land.  He ignores or changes the ones he doesn’t like and arrogates to himself, through executive decrees, the legislative power that our Constitution assigns exclusively to Congress.  When Republicans announce that they will take action to stop this usurpation of power, Obama cries out like a bullied child, “They’ve decided to sue me for doing my job.”  Excuse me, Mr. President.  They’re suing you for doing their job, not yours.  Your job is to follow the law, not make it.
          Unlike Mel Brooks, you cannot act like a king, Mr. President.  Americans dumped their last king in 1776 and they don’t want another one.

Surprise, Surprise!

          It’s absolutely amazing, and sad, to see President Obama’s world collapsing around him.  Scandal after scandal, crisis after crisis, just when we think we’ve seen it all, another one pops up.  Surprised by most, the president appears incapable of dealing with any.

          Take Iraq, for instance.  The country was at peace when Obama moved into the White House.  All he had to do was negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement with Baghdad to maintain a small but meaningful military presence in the country to keep the peace and give Iraq the time to build a functioning democracy.  But he failed.  Instead, he pulled all of our troops out of Iraq.  The result was predictable: jihadists are back in full force and threaten to overtake the country.  Yet, as late as his May 28 speech at West Point, Obama claimed that his decision had been correct. 
          To someone as naïve as the president, the invasion by the ISIS terrorist army must have come as a complete surprise.  Now he is faced with a choice of either an emergency military intervention or doing nothing.  Incredibly, news reports have him talking to Iran, our avowed enemy, about what to do.   Now that’s what I call bold action from the leader of the free world.
          At home we have another IRS bombshell, the revelation that two years of Lois Lerner e-mails have been lost because her computer crashed.  “Mom, the dog ate my homework!”  This claim is so ridiculous, even liberal journalists won’t defend it.  It is clear to everyone that the IRS simply won’t give Congress the subpoenaed e-mails, no matter what.  With Lerner having taken the Fifth, this is a further indication that her e-mails likely would implicate the White House in this scandal.  But computer experts tell us that those e-mails are retrievable from backup systems required by law.  If it turns out that the e-mails were removed from those systems, someone should go to jail. 
          Will we ever uncover the truth?  Considering this administration’s record of cover-ups, obstruction, and outright lies, we shouldn’t bet on it.

 

Reflections on the Sacred

          As I move well into the fourth quarter (in football terms) of my life, I find myself wondering more and more about what awaits me in the end zone.  I have always been a firm believer in an afterlife, but I haven’t been privileged with a mystical vision or a near-death experience to give me a preview of coming attractions.  Yet, I sense that we don’t have to see beyond our earthly horizon to connect with the spiritual realm.

          The sacred is all around us; like for a favorite radio program, we only have to tune in.  For me, I see the divine in a glorious sunset, a Gothic cathedral, a Beethoven symphony, the Sistine Chapel, and the many examples of creative genius all around us.  More and more, though, I find it in people and their capacity for selfless devotion to others. 
          Still, the daily news pummel us with stories of atrocities in Africa, murders in our inner cities, greed in our boardrooms, corruption in public office, and a growing culture of drug abuse and sexual predation.  Sometimes I wonder if human nature is defined more by hate, violence, selfishness, and concupiscence than by innate goodness.
          I have to believe, for my own sanity, that human nature is deeply flawed, but not irredeemably corrupt.  I suppose that its legacy dates back to the time when man evolved into a moral creature who discovered the difference between right and wrong.  But I also think that despite our depraved proclivities, we humans have been blessed with extraordinary individuals throughout history who have shown us that love and kindness raises us all above the morass.  Their example taught us that we can encounter the sacred not only in nature, art, and religion, but also in mercy, compassion, loyalty, devotion to duty, and personal commitment.   Few are called to acts of heroism, but all of us are capable of experiencing the spiritual side of our beings even in the most ordinary aspects of our daily lives.  
          Like I said, we only have to tune in.

Strange is our situation here on earth.  Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.  From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men – above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.  – Albert Einstein