Earlier this week, Michael Jackson, known as the "King of Pop", died at the age of 50 from what appears to be heart failure due to an overdose of a sleep-inducing drug. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this, so I will try to be as fair as I can to this deceased superstar.
First, given his childhood and background, there is little chance that he could have grown up to be anything other than a troubled, disturbed man. He was driven mercilessly to great success at a very young age, he was beaten and abused constantly by his father, and he became so famous that he literally could not go anywhere without being mobbed to the point of nearly inciting a riot. That may not sound like much in the cell phone, internet, and paparazzi age, but Michael Jackson was suffocating under the glare of the media and the crush of his fans 15 years before the 24 hour news cycle. He was easily the most famous musician since Elvis Presley, and there may never be another performer and entertainer like him.
There can be no doubt that Michael suffered from self-esteem issues (see his numerous plastic surgeries), racial identity issues (see his constant skin lightening), stunted emotional growth (see his preference for hanging around children as opposed to grown ups well into his adulthood), sexuality issues (see his farce of a marriage to Lisa Marie Presley), and medical issues (see his constant self-medication and addiction to prescription drugs, which ultimately appears to have killed him), among many other things. It is nothing short of a miracle that he became, by all accounts, a good father to his 3 children, and that he was able to successfully shield them from the intense media glare that caused him to wilt and suffer so badly throughout his life.
Musically, there was no one like him. He was to pop music what Elvis Presley was to rock and roll. I remember songs like "Thriller", "Bad", "Billie Jean", "Man in the Mirror", and "Smooth Criminal" vividly and fondly from my own childhood. Perhaps my favorite Michael Jackson song of all time was "Beat It". To this day, I remember the surge in my young blood the first time I heard the distinct sound of Eddie Van Halen ripping those now immortal guitar chords into the chorus of "Beat It", and I still enjoy playing that song on "Guitar Hero" on Nintendo Wii way more than I should. Everyone from early rap artists to Chris Brown to Justin Timberlake and a hundred other artists most people recognize were influenced by him musically, lyrically, and in their style of dancing.
Unfortunately, no memorial post about Michael Jackson would be complete without mentioning his two child molestation cases. In 1993, a 13 year old boy came forward with allegations that Jackson had molested him repeatedly. Despite a thorough criminal investigation, no criminal charges were ever brought against Jackson. However, in order to avoid a civil trial, Michael Jackson's insurance carrier agreed to a settlement of over $20 million dollars against Michael's wishes. Because this case was settled prior to trial, there was never a finding that Michael Jackson molested this child, but paying out an 8 figure settlement in a case where nothing supposedly happened doesn't look entirely innocent either. Later, in 2005, Michael was criminally charged with child molestation in California. After a trial where the accuser's family turned out to be shady criminals and the accuser's testimony appeared inconsistent, Michael was found not guilty on all charges.
Here is my final take on Michael Jackson: 1.) He was a once in a lifetime talent, who dies entirely too soon, and I thoroughly enjoyed his music; 2.) He seemed to be a wonderful father, and his children loved him very much; 3.) He had an entire encyclopedia worth of personal problems that most of us could never even begin to understand, some of which manifested themselves in odd, dangerous, and self-destructive behavior; 4.) As Glenn Beck said on his radio show, no one truly knows what did or didn't happen with those children except Michael Jackson and God, and the only way we will know if he did anything bad to those kids is when we get to heaven and see Michael there or if we (God forbid) get to hell and see Michael there.
As a lawyer, the system in which I work and believe found him innocent of criminal charges, and he paid a settlement to settle a heavily disputed civil claim, so I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt about his guilt or innocence and let God sort it out. In closing, I guess I would say that Michael Jackson is finally at peace...no more leeches sucking him dry, no more physical pain, no more mental and emotional distress, and no more of anything that hurt him while he was alive. I truly hope his soul is in heaven right now, and that he is teaching some angels how to moonwalk as we speak. Rest in Peace Michael Jackson, we will miss you.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
A Novel Father's Day Idea
This is something I have been thinking about for a while, and I finally came up with something unique that is based on an idea my dad had regarding his father which, unfortunately, never came to pass because my grandfather died sooner than we expected. My idea is to have an e-mail exchange of life experience and lessons about fatherhood with my dad. He's far from an old man (even though I affectionately call him that sometimes), and he still has all his marbles, so now is as good a time as any to see if this is something he'd be interested in. It would be invaluable to me for guidance in my own journey toward and through fatherhood, and my prayer is that it would enrich his life as well. Here is the text of the first of what I hope will be many e-mails between us...enjoy!
Dad,
I know I wished you a Happy Father's Day yesterday at the hospital after we were done visiting with Vickie, but I wanted to reiterate it on the actual day itself.
I also had an idea I wanted to run by you to see if it's something you might be interested in. I remember you once said that you wished you had been able to have Grandpa Whittaker sit down and record some stories from his lifetime so that you could listen to them after he passed on. We may do that ourselves someday if you'd like, but I don't think you're THAT old yet. :) My idea is that, since I am now officially a stepfather and hoping to become a dad of my own someday soon, I'd like to exchange e-mails with you Dad to Dad, just on Father's Day to start, but maybe more often if it works for both of us. My thought is that I could tell you some things about what I have learned as a dad-type person so far, and you can give feedback, share memories of us growing up, or anything else you'd like to say. So, I'll get us started with my take on my first year of being a step-dad and a married man and we can go from there.
Year 1 of the step-dad experience has been interesting to say the least. I know you will find this impossible to believe, but I have found myself channeling you quite a bit. For example, if I had a nickel for every time I said things like "No ma'am!", "Absolutely Not!", or "Go say (insert appropriate nice thing here) to your Momma" to Grace, I would have already had more than enough money to ride out a lengthy stretch of unemployment...alas, such is not the case.
One thing I thank God every day for is Grace herself and how God has made her. Is she developing into a full-blown teenager with all the attitude and know-it-all mindset that comes with that? Yes. However, she is very intelligent and willing to listen to reason if you can make a good case for what you are trying to explain, which is helpful. Also, I think because Althea has had to be both mom and dad for so long, which includes yelling and raising her voice as a dad normally would. Because of Althea's past relationships, she has a chip on her shoulder and a sometimes bad attitude when it comes to men giving her grief. Grace has picked up this attitude, and therefore goes right back at Althea with gusto when Althea slips into dad mode, which makes Althea insane and sends her into orbit. In a somewhat large irony, I often find myself in the role of the person who defuses the situation and lowers tempers and temperatures. I have also found that Grace will calm down and listen to me when I put a little bass in my voice, speak strongly and quietly without getting angry, and when I make good logical sense. I am hopeful that this, along with the volunteer work I am putting in with the children's ministry at church, will come in handy when my son(s) come along.
On a somewhat separate note, I am already discovering just how hard it is to be a parent. Specifically, kids think parents are invincible, that they have all the answers, and that they should be perfect. Parents are just human, no more and no less, and they simply aren't perfect. My two biggest goals as a parent are: 1.) to get the big things right; and, 2.) to be honest. If I don't have the answer, I won't lie or fake it, but I will look into the question, find the answer if at all possible, and report back to the child. I think they respect that. One of the biggest reasons I have so much respect for you, Dad, is because I look back and see that you did the best you could with the sometimes jacked up hand you were dealt, and because you got the big things right. Stylistic and implementation disagreements aside, you always stressed to us the things that would make us quality, successful men: honesty, integrity, politeness, hard work, giving great effort, and giving us all the support and space you could for us to discover and pursue the things about which we were passionate. Great job Dad, thank you.
In closing, since I am likely to be coming up on the baby phase of fatherhood in the near future, what would you say are the hardest thing(s) and the coolest thing(s) about being a dad to a baby? Any fun and/or interesting stories and memories from our childhood would be valued and welcomed. Again, Happy Father's Day old man, I love you, and we are always praying for you.
--CR
Dad,
I know I wished you a Happy Father's Day yesterday at the hospital after we were done visiting with Vickie, but I wanted to reiterate it on the actual day itself.
I also had an idea I wanted to run by you to see if it's something you might be interested in. I remember you once said that you wished you had been able to have Grandpa Whittaker sit down and record some stories from his lifetime so that you could listen to them after he passed on. We may do that ourselves someday if you'd like, but I don't think you're THAT old yet. :) My idea is that, since I am now officially a stepfather and hoping to become a dad of my own someday soon, I'd like to exchange e-mails with you Dad to Dad, just on Father's Day to start, but maybe more often if it works for both of us. My thought is that I could tell you some things about what I have learned as a dad-type person so far, and you can give feedback, share memories of us growing up, or anything else you'd like to say. So, I'll get us started with my take on my first year of being a step-dad and a married man and we can go from there.
Year 1 of the step-dad experience has been interesting to say the least. I know you will find this impossible to believe, but I have found myself channeling you quite a bit. For example, if I had a nickel for every time I said things like "No ma'am!", "Absolutely Not!", or "Go say (insert appropriate nice thing here) to your Momma" to Grace, I would have already had more than enough money to ride out a lengthy stretch of unemployment...alas, such is not the case.
One thing I thank God every day for is Grace herself and how God has made her. Is she developing into a full-blown teenager with all the attitude and know-it-all mindset that comes with that? Yes. However, she is very intelligent and willing to listen to reason if you can make a good case for what you are trying to explain, which is helpful. Also, I think because Althea has had to be both mom and dad for so long, which includes yelling and raising her voice as a dad normally would. Because of Althea's past relationships, she has a chip on her shoulder and a sometimes bad attitude when it comes to men giving her grief. Grace has picked up this attitude, and therefore goes right back at Althea with gusto when Althea slips into dad mode, which makes Althea insane and sends her into orbit. In a somewhat large irony, I often find myself in the role of the person who defuses the situation and lowers tempers and temperatures. I have also found that Grace will calm down and listen to me when I put a little bass in my voice, speak strongly and quietly without getting angry, and when I make good logical sense. I am hopeful that this, along with the volunteer work I am putting in with the children's ministry at church, will come in handy when my son(s) come along.
On a somewhat separate note, I am already discovering just how hard it is to be a parent. Specifically, kids think parents are invincible, that they have all the answers, and that they should be perfect. Parents are just human, no more and no less, and they simply aren't perfect. My two biggest goals as a parent are: 1.) to get the big things right; and, 2.) to be honest. If I don't have the answer, I won't lie or fake it, but I will look into the question, find the answer if at all possible, and report back to the child. I think they respect that. One of the biggest reasons I have so much respect for you, Dad, is because I look back and see that you did the best you could with the sometimes jacked up hand you were dealt, and because you got the big things right. Stylistic and implementation disagreements aside, you always stressed to us the things that would make us quality, successful men: honesty, integrity, politeness, hard work, giving great effort, and giving us all the support and space you could for us to discover and pursue the things about which we were passionate. Great job Dad, thank you.
In closing, since I am likely to be coming up on the baby phase of fatherhood in the near future, what would you say are the hardest thing(s) and the coolest thing(s) about being a dad to a baby? Any fun and/or interesting stories and memories from our childhood would be valued and welcomed. Again, Happy Father's Day old man, I love you, and we are always praying for you.
--CR
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Unexpected Blessings of Married Life
When men read the marriage brochure, typically what they see are things like love, sex, stability, security, and someone to provide for. As great as all that stuff is, that's not all there is to it. When I was growing up, my biological mom's second husband (Keith) played a very important role in my transition from being a teenager into young manhood. My marriage to Althea is my first (and hopefully only) marriage, but that is not the case for Althea, who has a now 12 year old daughter (Grace) from a previous marriage. My prayer coming into this marriage was not to replace Grace's father, who loves her very much, but to be another source of love and support to her and to make as much of a difference in her life as Keith did in mine. Father's Day is this weekend, and tonight I took Grace shopping for a gift for her father because Althea wasn't feeling well. At the store, Grace started looking around the store and asked me the following question:
"What would you want (for Father's Day) Chris?"
I am sure that wasn't something that Grace thought much about at the time, and it's unlikely she will even remember it as she grows up. That said, it meant absolutely the world to me to know that she thinks of me as a dad-type person, and that she values my opinion enough to ask my opinion as a man about what to get her dad for Father's Day. It warmed my heart and gave me some hope that my efforts to sow good things into Grace's life and to help her grow into the amazing young woman I know she can be are seeing some success...good times indeed.
"What would you want (for Father's Day) Chris?"
I am sure that wasn't something that Grace thought much about at the time, and it's unlikely she will even remember it as she grows up. That said, it meant absolutely the world to me to know that she thinks of me as a dad-type person, and that she values my opinion enough to ask my opinion as a man about what to get her dad for Father's Day. It warmed my heart and gave me some hope that my efforts to sow good things into Grace's life and to help her grow into the amazing young woman I know she can be are seeing some success...good times indeed.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Manifesto for The Silent Majority
This is the text of a letter Glenn Beck read on the air yesterday. Via the Gunslinger blog, although it's a little less forceful on cap and trade and health care nationalization than I would like, it is a great start for the Manifesto of the Silent Majority which I hope and pray will ultimately sweep self-interested political whores of all stripes from office one by one. This warning shot across the bow says the silent majority comes not in violence, but just because we aren't coming in force now doesn't mean we have forgotten how...warrants mentioning to the corrupt gang of bipartisan thieves destroying our country and stealing our freedoms at record speed. The letter is so good, I posted the entire text below...read the whole thing, it's that good.
"I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me.
Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?
Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.
Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal health care. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some non-politicians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course.
What happened?
You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance.
Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.
From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us.
We want our voice back.
You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington.
Our president often knows all the right buzzwords. His favorite is 'unsustainable'. Well, no kidding! How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words.
Stop treating us like we're morons.
We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you—not for long—because we are coming.
We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you.
You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust.
We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish.
We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.
Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now.
We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back.
We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired.
Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.
If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are.
If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one.
We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming.
We the people are coming."
"I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me.
Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?
Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:
One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.
Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.
Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.
Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.
Five, universal health care. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!
Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.
Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some non-politicians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.
I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course.
What happened?
You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance.
Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.
From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us.
We want our voice back.
You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington.
Our president often knows all the right buzzwords. His favorite is 'unsustainable'. Well, no kidding! How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words.
Stop treating us like we're morons.
We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you—not for long—because we are coming.
We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you.
You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust.
We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish.
We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.
Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now.
We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back.
We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired.
Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.
If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are.
If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one.
We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming.
We the people are coming."
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
So Much for Sonia Sotamayor's Sense of Empathy
President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee is Sonia Sotamayor, a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who would be the first Hispanic justice in the history of the Court if confirmed. Her infamous remarks that a wise Latina would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white man will make confirmation more difficult, but not impossible due to the sheer number of Democrats in the Senate.
Laying aside her blatant endorsement of reverse discrimination against a group of white firefighters from New Haven, CT in the Ricci case, here is another case that calls into serious question her alleged empathy for those who appear before her in court. Via Politico, read the heartbreaking tale of Jeffrey Deskovic, who was wrongly convicted of rape and spent 16 years in prison before finally being freed. When he appealed to Judge Sotamayor on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, she never even considered his appeal of actual innocence because of a clerical error. Read the whole sorry story and then tell me if this woman should be anywhere near a courtroom, let alone the Supreme Court.
"Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up poor in the South Bronx, has worked hard to get where she is.
In a career that took her from a Bronx housing project to Princeton University, Yale Law School, various jobs and now the federal bench, she has said that she tries to keep in mind the real-life implications of her rulings when meting out justice. Such a high-minded moral standard is what we, as a society, should expect and seek from all our judges, especially a Supreme Court justice. But considering that we are talking about a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court, we should see if, in practice, her rulings reflect that. A review of her record in my case shows that Sotomayor’s practice does not live up to her promise.
At age 17, I was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape, despite a negative DNA test and hair found on the body that did not match mine. My conviction was based upon a coerced, false confession, the fabrication of other evidence, prosecutorial misconduct and fraud by the medical examiner. I was cleared 16 years later — almost three years ago — when further DNA testing reaffirmed my innocence while identifying the real perpetrator, who subsequently confessed and was sentenced.
Since my release, I have made it my life’s mission to battle against wrongful convictions in an effort to bring about legislative changes that would minimize the chances of what happened to me happening to someone else.
The Westchester, N.Y., district attorney assigned four experts to study my case and, though the study in some ways was flawed, they did say that the system failed on every level, including judicially. All seven of my appeals were turned down. Two stops along the way were in Sotomayor’s courtroom.
I had filed a habeas corpus petition in the court below hers, arguing my innocence based upon the DNA evidence and that the fact that my Fifth Amendment rights had been violated by the manner in which the police interrogated me. The court clerk gave my attorney inaccurate advice regarding the filing procedure, and as a result, the lower-court judge said my petition had arrived four days too late. Then Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office argued that those four days were somehow prejudicial to the people and that the court should refuse to even look at my issues. The court sided with the D.A. My claim of innocence was never considered.
I appealed that procedural ruling to Sotomayor’s court, arguing the error was caused by the court clerk and was not of my own doing. I argued that, in light of the evidence of my innocence, it would be a miscarriage of justice to refuse to even hear the evidence because of this procedural error and that reversing the ruling would open the door for more sophisticated DNA testing.
Sotomayor and a colleague upheld the lower court’s ruling, writing that “the alleged reliance of Deskovic’s attorney on verbal misinformation from the court clerk constitutes excusable neglect that does not rise to the level of an extraordinary circumstance. Similarly, we are not persuaded that equitable tolling is appropriate based upon Deskovic’s contentions that the four-day delay did not prejudice respondent, petitioner himself did not create the delay, his situation is unique and his petition has substantive merit.”
A second appeal to her court resulted in the same decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear my case. I remained in prison for six more years, with no appeals left, before — miraculously — I obtained legal representation and got lucky that the real perpetrator’s DNA was in the database.
Despite Sotomayor’s rhetoric, her ruling in my case showed a callous disregard for the real-life implications of her rulings. She opted for procedure over fairness and finality of conviction over accuracy. Many of the victims of wrongful convictions serving long sentences had exhausted their appeals long before they were exonerated. In how many of those cases did Sotomayor vote to refuse to even consider evidence of innocence?
My case is far from unique in an age when the reality of wrongful convictions is well-established. We face the prospect that Troy Davis, an innocent man on death row in Georgia, faces imminent execution, absent intervention by the high court or by President Barack Obama.
I would like an opportunity to testify at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings to let the senators — and the country — know that we need a Supreme Court justice who understands the problem of wrongful convictions and is ready to correct them where the facts deem it necessary. Procedure should never be used as an excuse to override justice. The state must not be permitted to take away an individual’s liberty and later argue that his or her actual innocence is no longer relevant. Truth-seeking is central to our understanding of justice.
In my case, Judge Sotomayor did not demonstrate that understanding. If that is her idea of “empathy,” a trait that Obama sought in his appointee, then God help us all, especially those who are wrongfully convicted and possibly sentenced to death. Innocence can never be ruled as out of order in court. It is not about politics, nor race. It is about justice. Those of us concerned with wrongful convictions and justice should get the opportunity to verbalize our opposition to her confirmation."
Laying aside her blatant endorsement of reverse discrimination against a group of white firefighters from New Haven, CT in the Ricci case, here is another case that calls into serious question her alleged empathy for those who appear before her in court. Via Politico, read the heartbreaking tale of Jeffrey Deskovic, who was wrongly convicted of rape and spent 16 years in prison before finally being freed. When he appealed to Judge Sotamayor on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, she never even considered his appeal of actual innocence because of a clerical error. Read the whole sorry story and then tell me if this woman should be anywhere near a courtroom, let alone the Supreme Court.
"Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up poor in the South Bronx, has worked hard to get where she is.
In a career that took her from a Bronx housing project to Princeton University, Yale Law School, various jobs and now the federal bench, she has said that she tries to keep in mind the real-life implications of her rulings when meting out justice. Such a high-minded moral standard is what we, as a society, should expect and seek from all our judges, especially a Supreme Court justice. But considering that we are talking about a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court, we should see if, in practice, her rulings reflect that. A review of her record in my case shows that Sotomayor’s practice does not live up to her promise.
At age 17, I was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape, despite a negative DNA test and hair found on the body that did not match mine. My conviction was based upon a coerced, false confession, the fabrication of other evidence, prosecutorial misconduct and fraud by the medical examiner. I was cleared 16 years later — almost three years ago — when further DNA testing reaffirmed my innocence while identifying the real perpetrator, who subsequently confessed and was sentenced.
Since my release, I have made it my life’s mission to battle against wrongful convictions in an effort to bring about legislative changes that would minimize the chances of what happened to me happening to someone else.
The Westchester, N.Y., district attorney assigned four experts to study my case and, though the study in some ways was flawed, they did say that the system failed on every level, including judicially. All seven of my appeals were turned down. Two stops along the way were in Sotomayor’s courtroom.
I had filed a habeas corpus petition in the court below hers, arguing my innocence based upon the DNA evidence and that the fact that my Fifth Amendment rights had been violated by the manner in which the police interrogated me. The court clerk gave my attorney inaccurate advice regarding the filing procedure, and as a result, the lower-court judge said my petition had arrived four days too late. Then Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office argued that those four days were somehow prejudicial to the people and that the court should refuse to even look at my issues. The court sided with the D.A. My claim of innocence was never considered.
I appealed that procedural ruling to Sotomayor’s court, arguing the error was caused by the court clerk and was not of my own doing. I argued that, in light of the evidence of my innocence, it would be a miscarriage of justice to refuse to even hear the evidence because of this procedural error and that reversing the ruling would open the door for more sophisticated DNA testing.
Sotomayor and a colleague upheld the lower court’s ruling, writing that “the alleged reliance of Deskovic’s attorney on verbal misinformation from the court clerk constitutes excusable neglect that does not rise to the level of an extraordinary circumstance. Similarly, we are not persuaded that equitable tolling is appropriate based upon Deskovic’s contentions that the four-day delay did not prejudice respondent, petitioner himself did not create the delay, his situation is unique and his petition has substantive merit.”
A second appeal to her court resulted in the same decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear my case. I remained in prison for six more years, with no appeals left, before — miraculously — I obtained legal representation and got lucky that the real perpetrator’s DNA was in the database.
Despite Sotomayor’s rhetoric, her ruling in my case showed a callous disregard for the real-life implications of her rulings. She opted for procedure over fairness and finality of conviction over accuracy. Many of the victims of wrongful convictions serving long sentences had exhausted their appeals long before they were exonerated. In how many of those cases did Sotomayor vote to refuse to even consider evidence of innocence?
My case is far from unique in an age when the reality of wrongful convictions is well-established. We face the prospect that Troy Davis, an innocent man on death row in Georgia, faces imminent execution, absent intervention by the high court or by President Barack Obama.
I would like an opportunity to testify at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings to let the senators — and the country — know that we need a Supreme Court justice who understands the problem of wrongful convictions and is ready to correct them where the facts deem it necessary. Procedure should never be used as an excuse to override justice. The state must not be permitted to take away an individual’s liberty and later argue that his or her actual innocence is no longer relevant. Truth-seeking is central to our understanding of justice.
In my case, Judge Sotomayor did not demonstrate that understanding. If that is her idea of “empathy,” a trait that Obama sought in his appointee, then God help us all, especially those who are wrongfully convicted and possibly sentenced to death. Innocence can never be ruled as out of order in court. It is not about politics, nor race. It is about justice. Those of us concerned with wrongful convictions and justice should get the opportunity to verbalize our opposition to her confirmation."
Sunday, June 14, 2009
One Time
I am involved in a ministry called "The Encounter". This experiential ministry is commonly referred to among Encounter alumni simply as "the training", and I went through my training back in 2006. I think that's a little ironic and somewhat of a misnomer because unlike most training of any kind that I have ever received, I still participate in this ministry as a graduate to sow into the lives of others, and I still use many of the tools and principles I learned in the training in my life today. Although what I am about to share isn't something specifically articulated in the training exercises, I would like to think of this as a piece of the good fruit of my learning over the years I have participated in this ministry.
In the movie "Little Giants", the plot of the movie centers around a small town with 2 football teams, the Cowboys (who have the best athletes in the area and a former college football star as their coach) and the Giants (who have only two quality athletes on their team and an athletically challenged local businessman, who also happens to be the little brother of the Cowboys' coach. as their coach). The climax of the movie results in a high-stakes game between the Giants and the Cowboys in which the winning team gets to be the town's sole pee-wee football representative and the winning coach/brother gets to take over the losing brother's business. At halftime of the Giants-Cowboys game, several of the Giants' players tell about the "one time" they were able to win when they faced long odds or achieved something others thought they couldn't. This inspired the Giants to a furious second half comeback where they won on the game's final play.
The "one time" principle has larger application and greater implications on all of our lives than as a plot device in an enjoyable but predictable kids' movie. "One time" is actually two things at once, the inexhaustible source of a divinely inspired sense of hope and the omnipresent source of mortal danger. We as Christians can take great hope that God does not forgive us when only one time if/when we screw up, but in fact, commands us to forgive one another as He forgives, up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). Taking it a step further, even the secular agnostic can and should take comfort from the concept of one time. It only takes one time to win at something at which we have spent our entire life losing...it only takes one time to make a decision that can change our life path for good and forever...you get the idea. Better still, if we string together enough positive "one time" occurrences, very soon patterns of credibility, victory, and healing, can take hold and form a sturdy foundation on which a wildly successful life can be built.
Conversely, both the Christian and the non-Christian must recognize that while "one time" has the awesome, life-changing ability that can do immeasurable good, it also possesses the danger of being able to take away everything we value in relatively short order. It has been my experience that great falls, massive loss, and almost unfathomable disasters typically happen very quickly. For example, when we forgive someone who has hurt us, the resulting freedom feels so great because the suffocating emotions of guilt, shame, and regret are gone. However, just as it took one time to forgive that person, humans are not God, and as such, forgiveness is sometimes an ongoing process during which we must forgive. In such cases, it only takes one time where we fail to forgive to put us right back in the old, familiar place of sadness which comes with unforgiveness. Similarly, it only takes one time of doing the wrong thing to completely obliterate a career or lifetime of good work, to destroy the credibility of a ministry that sows the best of things into the lives of others, or to wreck a marriage. Finally, and perhaps most lethally, enough occasions of sinning, doing the wrong thing, etc., "one time" can cause our heart to grow so calloused, our conscience to grow so silent, and our course to be so far from God that we risk never being able to find our way back to a life of integrity.
The advice here is fairly simple: have respect for the might and power of "one time", use it to do good in your own life and the lives of those you love, and always be on guard to avoid allowing the enemy or anyone else in life to make you believe the lie that one time will be OK.
In the movie "Little Giants", the plot of the movie centers around a small town with 2 football teams, the Cowboys (who have the best athletes in the area and a former college football star as their coach) and the Giants (who have only two quality athletes on their team and an athletically challenged local businessman, who also happens to be the little brother of the Cowboys' coach. as their coach). The climax of the movie results in a high-stakes game between the Giants and the Cowboys in which the winning team gets to be the town's sole pee-wee football representative and the winning coach/brother gets to take over the losing brother's business. At halftime of the Giants-Cowboys game, several of the Giants' players tell about the "one time" they were able to win when they faced long odds or achieved something others thought they couldn't. This inspired the Giants to a furious second half comeback where they won on the game's final play.
The "one time" principle has larger application and greater implications on all of our lives than as a plot device in an enjoyable but predictable kids' movie. "One time" is actually two things at once, the inexhaustible source of a divinely inspired sense of hope and the omnipresent source of mortal danger. We as Christians can take great hope that God does not forgive us when only one time if/when we screw up, but in fact, commands us to forgive one another as He forgives, up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). Taking it a step further, even the secular agnostic can and should take comfort from the concept of one time. It only takes one time to win at something at which we have spent our entire life losing...it only takes one time to make a decision that can change our life path for good and forever...you get the idea. Better still, if we string together enough positive "one time" occurrences, very soon patterns of credibility, victory, and healing, can take hold and form a sturdy foundation on which a wildly successful life can be built.
Conversely, both the Christian and the non-Christian must recognize that while "one time" has the awesome, life-changing ability that can do immeasurable good, it also possesses the danger of being able to take away everything we value in relatively short order. It has been my experience that great falls, massive loss, and almost unfathomable disasters typically happen very quickly. For example, when we forgive someone who has hurt us, the resulting freedom feels so great because the suffocating emotions of guilt, shame, and regret are gone. However, just as it took one time to forgive that person, humans are not God, and as such, forgiveness is sometimes an ongoing process during which we must forgive. In such cases, it only takes one time where we fail to forgive to put us right back in the old, familiar place of sadness which comes with unforgiveness. Similarly, it only takes one time of doing the wrong thing to completely obliterate a career or lifetime of good work, to destroy the credibility of a ministry that sows the best of things into the lives of others, or to wreck a marriage. Finally, and perhaps most lethally, enough occasions of sinning, doing the wrong thing, etc., "one time" can cause our heart to grow so calloused, our conscience to grow so silent, and our course to be so far from God that we risk never being able to find our way back to a life of integrity.
The advice here is fairly simple: have respect for the might and power of "one time", use it to do good in your own life and the lives of those you love, and always be on guard to avoid allowing the enemy or anyone else in life to make you believe the lie that one time will be OK.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
A Deficit of Trust
On several of his recent radio show broadcasts, talk show host Glenn Beck has partially attributed the recent economic meltdown in the U.S. to a deficit of trust. His theory, which I believe to have some merit, is that as recently as a few decades ago, someone's word was his/her bond, and any paperwork, contracts, or other evidence of that person's promise was more icing on the cake than anything else. Back then, people operated from a place of trust in assuming that a person, business, or even a government would keep its word. Now, we as a nation have unfortunately become the complete opposite. Because people generally distrust one another and have seen companies and institutions once thought to be invincible fail (GM, Citibank, etc.), they now attempt to substitute in the place of someone's word and honor a bunch of laws, paperwork, etc. Then, to add to the vicious cycle of cynicism and mistrust, many people use the legal system and the courts in an attempt to rig the outcome in their favor when the (what they see as likely or inevitable) breach of someone's word or failure of an agreement occurs. In addition to economic stagnation, such distrust leads us to experience mass quantities of stress and a lack of rest.
I wondered how such a trend might be relevant in the spiritual realm, and then I came across this blog post from Pastor Rice Broocks at Bethel World Outreach Center (full disclosure: I am a member of this church). On Day 38 of his "40 Days of Faith" podcast/blog series, Pastor Rice offers this simple, yet profound insight:
"Any time I find myself lacking in the peace and rest that God promises, it's because I have fallen short in trusting the Lord. Trust brings us into rest. Children can sleep soundly at night because they believe their parents can protect them and keep them safe. In a greater way, our Heavenly Father is watching over us."
This simple truth hit me like a ton of bricks. Much of how life turns out depends on who God is to us and what we believe about Him. If we believe he is an angry parent/deity wagging his finger at us from a thousand years ago threatening to spank us if we misbehave, rest and peace will prove forever elusive. Not only are we all fallen, fallible humans who can never be perfect, it is impossible to trust or make sense of a deity who claims to be perfect while acting like the angry, rigid disciplinarian of a human father that far too many children experienced growing up. If, on the other hand, we believe that God is a loving father who desires the best for us, who longs to give us the desires of our hearts according to His promises and love for us, and who is rich in mercy and quick to forgive our mistakes and shortcomings, it is much easier to trust that God and to experience the peaceful rest He promises.
I spent far too long in my own life thinking of God as a merciless sadist who enjoyed watching the suffering I had "earned" as a result of my sins and shortcomings. That was a hard, disillusioning way to live. In the Bible, Paul didn't ask God for riches, glory, or anything of the sort...he asked God for the grace and patience to be content no matter his circumstances. God doesn't promise us an easy road when we walk with Him, but he does promise us love, that he wants the best for us, and that our salvation is assured. The circumstances of my life have seen both ebb and flow, but now, because I know God's heart and how great He is, I don't get too high (and think more of myself than I should) or too low (and condemn myself where God refuses to). That change in perspective has made rest and peace much easier for me to come by, and I would recommend it to anyone.
I wondered how such a trend might be relevant in the spiritual realm, and then I came across this blog post from Pastor Rice Broocks at Bethel World Outreach Center (full disclosure: I am a member of this church). On Day 38 of his "40 Days of Faith" podcast/blog series, Pastor Rice offers this simple, yet profound insight:
"Any time I find myself lacking in the peace and rest that God promises, it's because I have fallen short in trusting the Lord. Trust brings us into rest. Children can sleep soundly at night because they believe their parents can protect them and keep them safe. In a greater way, our Heavenly Father is watching over us."
This simple truth hit me like a ton of bricks. Much of how life turns out depends on who God is to us and what we believe about Him. If we believe he is an angry parent/deity wagging his finger at us from a thousand years ago threatening to spank us if we misbehave, rest and peace will prove forever elusive. Not only are we all fallen, fallible humans who can never be perfect, it is impossible to trust or make sense of a deity who claims to be perfect while acting like the angry, rigid disciplinarian of a human father that far too many children experienced growing up. If, on the other hand, we believe that God is a loving father who desires the best for us, who longs to give us the desires of our hearts according to His promises and love for us, and who is rich in mercy and quick to forgive our mistakes and shortcomings, it is much easier to trust that God and to experience the peaceful rest He promises.
I spent far too long in my own life thinking of God as a merciless sadist who enjoyed watching the suffering I had "earned" as a result of my sins and shortcomings. That was a hard, disillusioning way to live. In the Bible, Paul didn't ask God for riches, glory, or anything of the sort...he asked God for the grace and patience to be content no matter his circumstances. God doesn't promise us an easy road when we walk with Him, but he does promise us love, that he wants the best for us, and that our salvation is assured. The circumstances of my life have seen both ebb and flow, but now, because I know God's heart and how great He is, I don't get too high (and think more of myself than I should) or too low (and condemn myself where God refuses to). That change in perspective has made rest and peace much easier for me to come by, and I would recommend it to anyone.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Obamanomics 101 and the Resurgence of Hillary-care on Steroids
Stephen Green of Vodka Pundit is doing the job the Obama-mania media has so far refused to do, namely providing context in reporting. In "The Grand Unification Theory of Sucking", we get the context needed regarding the exacerbation of the current economic recession. While no one in the camp of former president George W. Bush is rushing to take credit for the economic situation in the last year of his presidency (2008), the old days of 5% unemployment don't look quite so bad now, do they? At any rate, if the Obamessiah succeeds in nationalizing health care where the Clintons failed, we will indeed have a health care system with the compassion of the IRS and the competence of the Katrina response (and just about every other government run program for that matter). Mr. Green's phrasing on the upcoming health care debacle (in bold) is hilarious in the laugh to keep from crying sort of way, but do read the whole thing...it's all good stuff.
Reading Drudge can be so entertaining. Or educational. Edutational? Anyway, check out this series of headlines on your right, presented by Drudge without context. The media critic’s job is to provide context, so here we go. Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.
First headline - Big government spending programs — having opposite desired effect…
The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market. But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.
Well, duh. Some of us have been warning you about this since before Obama was even sworn in. Look, stimulus spending can’t work, because of one of three things happens:
1. That extra spending means extra taxes which means the whole thing is a wash. (Government spending having some “multiplier” effect unknown to consumer or business spending is a big, fat lie.)
2. That extra spending means extra debt, which drives up interest rates, which chokes off growth.
3. That extra spending means extra money being printed, which means inflation which means any growth is illusory.
Of course, there’s no rule saying you can pick only one result. Mix and match up to all three to suit yourself! If I had to bet, I’d say we will indeed get all three.
Next headline — Unemployment Rate Gallops Ahead of Expectations… :
The White House says America’s employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years. U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent prompting this comment by Austan Goolsbee, a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors:
“The economy clearly has gotten substantially worse from the initial predictions that were being made, not just by the White House, but by all of the private sector,” said Austan Goolsbee.
Here’s the missing context: The Obama people are the ones making it worse, those stupid idiot dumb-dumbs. What, with the printing of the money, the driving up of the interest rates, and the impending raising of the taxes. Look. When you hire an employee, you’re betting on the future. You’re betting your own money that there will be enough new business to justify your new hire. And to put a human face on it, you’re making a commitment to another human being who will be counting on the power of your judgement to put food on his table.
Are you going to take that risk and make that commitment when the dumb-dumbs are in charge?
Next headline, sans link: NYT MONDAY: TENSIONS GRIP OBAMA ECONOMIC TEAM… DEVELOPING…
Well, duh.
Let’s pretend for a moment that, god forbid, you break your arm. And somehow you end up with a team of doctors all trained at Obama University. As you lie there on the table in the ER, one doctor treats your arm by banging on the unbroken one with a ball-peen hammer. The second doctor takes the unusual course of setting your hair on fire. And the third one uses leeches.
Undeterred by your arm’s stubborn refusal to set, soon the doctors start blaming one another. And even though all of them are doing nothing but compounding your injury, none will take any blame. In fact, the louder you scream, the harder they go to work on you.
That, apparently, is what’s going on in the West Wing these days. Our economy is being managed by Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Howard. (The Three Stooges --Ed.)
So now in walks a fourth doctor. This one has some Percocet and a splint, and when you see him you think, “Oh, at last, someone who knows what they’re doing!” At which point, Hospital Administrator Obama shoots the fourth doctor in the face with a pistol. And wait until you see the hospital bill - they’ll charge you for everything, including the bullet.
Last headline, again no link yet: OBAMA PLANS FOR NEW BANKING REGULATIONS… DEVELOPING..
Are the banks too scared to move? Then threaten them with an all-new regulatory environment, one which might leave them as screwed as a GM bondholder! Add up all the headlines and here’s what you have: The certainty that the government will screw up the markets, and uncertainty as to what new rules the markets will work under. Everyone is too scared to move, and for good reason. So there will be no new jobs, there will be no growth. Until Team Obama gets its collective head out of our asses, all we have to look forward to is bumbling incompetence and pointless arguments, which might be entertaining if they didn’t result in taxes, stagflation, and the Francification of a once-great nation.
Reading Drudge can be so entertaining. Or educational. Edutational? Anyway, check out this series of headlines on your right, presented by Drudge without context. The media critic’s job is to provide context, so here we go. Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.
First headline - Big government spending programs — having opposite desired effect…
The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market. But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.
Well, duh. Some of us have been warning you about this since before Obama was even sworn in. Look, stimulus spending can’t work, because of one of three things happens:
1. That extra spending means extra taxes which means the whole thing is a wash. (Government spending having some “multiplier” effect unknown to consumer or business spending is a big, fat lie.)
2. That extra spending means extra debt, which drives up interest rates, which chokes off growth.
3. That extra spending means extra money being printed, which means inflation which means any growth is illusory.
Of course, there’s no rule saying you can pick only one result. Mix and match up to all three to suit yourself! If I had to bet, I’d say we will indeed get all three.
Next headline — Unemployment Rate Gallops Ahead of Expectations… :
The White House says America’s employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years. U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent prompting this comment by Austan Goolsbee, a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors:
“The economy clearly has gotten substantially worse from the initial predictions that were being made, not just by the White House, but by all of the private sector,” said Austan Goolsbee.
Here’s the missing context: The Obama people are the ones making it worse, those stupid idiot dumb-dumbs. What, with the printing of the money, the driving up of the interest rates, and the impending raising of the taxes. Look. When you hire an employee, you’re betting on the future. You’re betting your own money that there will be enough new business to justify your new hire. And to put a human face on it, you’re making a commitment to another human being who will be counting on the power of your judgement to put food on his table.
Are you going to take that risk and make that commitment when the dumb-dumbs are in charge?
Next headline, sans link: NYT MONDAY: TENSIONS GRIP OBAMA ECONOMIC TEAM… DEVELOPING…
Well, duh.
Let’s pretend for a moment that, god forbid, you break your arm. And somehow you end up with a team of doctors all trained at Obama University. As you lie there on the table in the ER, one doctor treats your arm by banging on the unbroken one with a ball-peen hammer. The second doctor takes the unusual course of setting your hair on fire. And the third one uses leeches.
Undeterred by your arm’s stubborn refusal to set, soon the doctors start blaming one another. And even though all of them are doing nothing but compounding your injury, none will take any blame. In fact, the louder you scream, the harder they go to work on you.
That, apparently, is what’s going on in the West Wing these days. Our economy is being managed by Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Howard. (The Three Stooges --Ed.)
So now in walks a fourth doctor. This one has some Percocet and a splint, and when you see him you think, “Oh, at last, someone who knows what they’re doing!” At which point, Hospital Administrator Obama shoots the fourth doctor in the face with a pistol. And wait until you see the hospital bill - they’ll charge you for everything, including the bullet.
Last headline, again no link yet: OBAMA PLANS FOR NEW BANKING REGULATIONS… DEVELOPING..
Are the banks too scared to move? Then threaten them with an all-new regulatory environment, one which might leave them as screwed as a GM bondholder! Add up all the headlines and here’s what you have: The certainty that the government will screw up the markets, and uncertainty as to what new rules the markets will work under. Everyone is too scared to move, and for good reason. So there will be no new jobs, there will be no growth. Until Team Obama gets its collective head out of our asses, all we have to look forward to is bumbling incompetence and pointless arguments, which might be entertaining if they didn’t result in taxes, stagflation, and the Francification of a once-great nation.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
RNC Bus Bomber Charged with Multiple Felonies Gets...56 Days?!
During the 2008 presidential campaign, a harmless little anarchist lamb joined up with some of his buddies and proceeded to drop 50 pound bags of sand and cement onto buses which were transporting delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN. This is domestic terrorism and attempted murder, plain and simple. People who drop heavy objects from overpasses and kill or maim someone would normally face serious consequences.
Now, as a criminal lawyer, I am not opposed to plea deals for suspects charged with a crime, especially when there is clear videotape evidence of the crime (as was the case here). But never in my experience nor in my wildest professional wet dreams would any of my clients have ever gotten a deal like the one that was given to domestic terrorist Dave Mahoney today. Mr. Mahoney was facing up multiple felonies that could have landed him up to 20 years in prison, but instead, he will serve 56 days in jail and then be allowed to return to England. No, that is not a typo, no matter how much it should be one.
First off, if this were a Republican operative bombing a bus full of Democrat delegates, the mainstream media would be howling at the ridiculousness of such a plea bargain. Second, the press would have kept such a story on the front page from September of last year until the end of the world as proof that Republicans are inherently evil and violent. Third, not only has the mainstream media not uttered a peep about this story, none of the local outlets that cover it would even identify the now convicted felon as a Democrat, which he certainly is. Fourth, and finally, shouldn't this guy be forced to stay in the States for some kind of professional help, forced medication, therapy, or at least minimal supervision?
This plea deal smells to high heaven, and just like most other smelly pleas to which I have been a witness, this guy a.) has the best legal team since the pastor's wife who murdered her husband in Tennessee got her 7 months for cutting her husband in half with a shotgun as he slept; b.) is well connected politically with friends in high places in the judicial system or political arena, or, most likely, c.) some combination of both. Shame on the prosecutors who offered this deal, the judge who accepted, and on this felon scum who will ultimately face true justice, be it in this world or the next.
Now, as a criminal lawyer, I am not opposed to plea deals for suspects charged with a crime, especially when there is clear videotape evidence of the crime (as was the case here). But never in my experience nor in my wildest professional wet dreams would any of my clients have ever gotten a deal like the one that was given to domestic terrorist Dave Mahoney today. Mr. Mahoney was facing up multiple felonies that could have landed him up to 20 years in prison, but instead, he will serve 56 days in jail and then be allowed to return to England. No, that is not a typo, no matter how much it should be one.
First off, if this were a Republican operative bombing a bus full of Democrat delegates, the mainstream media would be howling at the ridiculousness of such a plea bargain. Second, the press would have kept such a story on the front page from September of last year until the end of the world as proof that Republicans are inherently evil and violent. Third, not only has the mainstream media not uttered a peep about this story, none of the local outlets that cover it would even identify the now convicted felon as a Democrat, which he certainly is. Fourth, and finally, shouldn't this guy be forced to stay in the States for some kind of professional help, forced medication, therapy, or at least minimal supervision?
This plea deal smells to high heaven, and just like most other smelly pleas to which I have been a witness, this guy a.) has the best legal team since the pastor's wife who murdered her husband in Tennessee got her 7 months for cutting her husband in half with a shotgun as he slept; b.) is well connected politically with friends in high places in the judicial system or political arena, or, most likely, c.) some combination of both. Shame on the prosecutors who offered this deal, the judge who accepted, and on this felon scum who will ultimately face true justice, be it in this world or the next.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)