Thank You Letter to the Left

Dear Left:

It is always nice to hear your sweet and consoling words whenever a person of the right passes away. It’s refreshing to hear the kind words about those with whom you disagree.

However, these kind words are always missing while those people are alive or in a position to influence. People like George HW Bush and Mitt Romney are dismissed as racist, sexist, homophobic haters when they are in or running for office.

After leaving office, the ignoramus you compared to Hitler, George W Bush, was lauded as thoughtful, restrained and even a genuinely nice guy. Heck, he almost rose to genius status when he assessed Trump's abilities by saying, "Wow, this guy really doesn’t understand the job of president." Amazing how tolerant you became of this hating, racist, bigoted, sexist pig when he was no longer in a position of power.

This is a problem. You demonize and seek to destroy when you should be battling ideas. Everyone you disagree with is bashed as stupid, ignorant, mean-spirited, war-mongering, selfish, greedy, hateful, nativist, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, bigoted, intolerant, fascist, misogynistic and hypocritical - until they die or are no longer in a position of influence. Then you praise them.

This is a big part of the reason we have Trump in the White House. Because you can’t help yourself and have to be mean demonizers instead of talking about the issues. And I get it. It works. There are fields full of sheeple out there who hear your accusations and don't dig deep enough to know better. But your Johnny-come-lately hagiographic accolades shed light on your unprincipled tactics.

As always, thanks for the nice compliment frosting on a cake of venomous hate. Reaching across the aisle to shake the hand of the former hate-filled bigot is really big of you. But shame on you for giving us Trump.

Affirmative Action Obama

In this article by Matt Patterson, he looks at President Obama's unimpressive resume.  Patterson quotes Norman Podhoretz:

To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass.

Patterson then notes, "Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -- held to a lower standard -- because of the color of his skin. Podhoretz continues:"

And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?

Debt Ceiling Vote

Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) said this about the vote:

I was angry about this vote because of the process, the process of bringing our country right up to a default and scaring seniors and making our active military worry they may not get a paycheck. In terms of the ultimate agreement, it's a strong fiscal plan. It goes out 10 years and puts a real framework on managing our expenses. I would have liked revenue as part of the plan, but that wasn't meant to be.

So who exactly was he mad at?

Not raising the debt limit does not necessarily mean a default. President Obama's Treasury Secretary would have to make that happen. (Sen. Pat Toomey's article on this.)

It was the President who was the one who threatened those on Social Security with withholding their checks.

And as for it being a "real framework on managing our expenses," apparently not so much:

Washington Times

U.S. debt shot up $239 billion on Tuesday — the largest one-day bump in history — as the government flexed the new borrowing room it earned in this week’s debt-limit increase deal.

That increase puts the government already remarkably close to the new debt limit of $14.694, which means one day’s new borrowing ate up 60 percent of the $400 billion in space Congress granted the president this week.

Founding Fathers and Slavery

Did the Founding Fathers work against slavery? Thomas Fleming has an answer.

Independence Day

Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.
~Joseph Story

It is unfortunate that Indepedence Day is often reduced to fireworks and barbeques.

America is a collection of humans facing an ideal. No person, and therefore group of people, is perfect. And we will never be perfect. But we establish ideals to guide us and act as guardrails for our behavior. Just because the humans within the system of ideals have stumbled along the way, doesn't mean the system is faulty. Those that are constantly judging the American system by the behavior of some of the participants seem short sighted to me. Complaining that Thomas Jefferson was a hypocrite for having written that all men are created equal and yet held slaves in a time when no other system existed seems to miss much of the nuance of the times.

Would they rather that he and the other founders not have made the statement at all, thereby lengthening the emancipation timeline? Or do they expect perfection from everyone at the end of their pointed finger while forgetting that they themselves may fall short of ideals from time to time? Dr. King, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are all imperfect progenitors of the American ideal. So are you and I. It is hard for me to imagine that those that think in this way will ever have a spiritual leader, mentor, or country to which they look up to since they will forever be fixated on the imperfections of those who aspire.

America aspires.

Most nations are formed by tribalism – association by ethnicity or race. In America the association is based on ideas. Look around and try to identify an American by race and you will quickly see the living example of America's motto, E pluribus unum – from many one. Research how cultures that respect familism prosper if you don't think this is huge.

In America, anyone can voluntarily join the country based on shared ideals. Where you come from does not matter. What matters is where you are headed.

What does an American look like?

The American founders established some ideals. Those ideals were good and they are still good to this day. Part of the American ideal says that every human being is precious irrespective of your origins. Tribalism is no longer the criteria for citizenship.

The founders asserted that every human being is created in God's image and therefore is infinitely precious. That their rights come from a creator not from the creation. That some other human is not the grantor of your rights.

This country created something new.

It is easy to forget the ideals or to believe they are something else. Many are busy twisting and bending the ideal into an ugly cousin of itself. Why not allow the ideal to stand? Can we celebrate the ideal while striving to better our fellow man?

Maybe this 'cup half empty' attitude comes as a result of birthright. We forget to teach the next generation about the ideal and how each and every one of us is responsible to lend a hand in making progress toward that ideal. Sometimes I wonder what this country would look like if US citizenship by birth was not allowed for anyone – that each of us had to return to our ethnic tribe and then apply for US citizenship. Would gratitude be more prevalent? Would we be better at imparting patriotism and the American story to the next generations? Would we be more willing to give than receive? Are those who grapple to get in more appreciative?

Do we look a gift horse in the mouth?

America was and is an aberration in the world. America can and does die for other's liberty like nobody else on this planet. America is unique and should be treated as a precious gift to humanity. Each and every American should express gratitude for the luck of being born into it.

America is bigger than you and it is bigger than me. Let's humble ourselves a bit in remembrance of all those that have participated in this idea that is America.

Let's not take for granted the extraordinary experiment that is the United States of America.

Hockey Stick... Not.

Climategate 'hide the decline' explained by Berkeley professor Richard A. Muller.

Let's use Mike's trick to hide the decline.

This justification would not have survived peer review in any journal that I am willing to publish in.

Who Voted For The Iraq War?

YEAs ---77
Allard (R-CO) Allen (R-VA) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Bennett (R-UT) Biden (D-DE) Bond (R-MO) Breaux (D-LA) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burns (R-MT) Campbell (R-CO) Cantwell (D-WA) Carnahan (D-MO) Carper (D-DE) Cleland (D-GA) Clinton (D-NY) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) Daschle (D-SD) DeWine (R-OH) Dodd (D-CT) Domenici (R-NM) Dorgan (D-ND)	Edwards (D-NC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feinstein (D-CA) Fitzgerald (R-IL) Frist (R-TN) Gramm (R-TX) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Harkin (D-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Helms (R-NC) Hollings (D-SC) Hutchinson (R-AR) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Johnson (D-SD) Kerry (D-MA) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lieberman (D-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN)	McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Miller (D-GA) Murkowski (R-AK) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Nickles (R-OK) Reid (D-NV) Roberts (R-KS) Rockefeller (D-WV) Santorum (R-PA) Schumer (D-NY) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Smith (R-NH) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK) Thomas (R-WY) Thompson (R-TN) Thurmond (R-SC) Torricelli (D-NJ) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA)

NAYs ---23
Akaka (D-HI) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Byrd (D-WV) Chafee (R-RI) Conrad (D-ND) Corzine (D-NJ) Dayton (D-MN)	Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Graham (D-FL) Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (I-VT) Kennedy (D-MA) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI)	Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Reed (D-RI) Sarbanes (D-MD) Stabenow (D-MI) Wellstone (D-MN) Wyden (D-OR)

Source: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 107th Congress - 2nd Session