Social Security – Lookout!

Here we go.  On the Social Security Bypass.  Taxi on to this new runway, bring up the power of your engines and proceed on take-off roll.  But. . . .

Well, it begins with the Air traffic controllers.  They’re laid off.  Some of them.  Their still-working compatriots begin dragging through the regulations.  Everything is being be done TOTALLY  by the book. Everything slows down, especially the take-offs.  Delays happen.  They build up. They backlog each other.  The public is unhappy.  They sit around with nothing to do.  They sit in waiting rooms and get bored.  They use their cell phones to call their  representatives and senators – and they’re mad as hell!  

The Republicans blame Obama. They say when he responded to problems of the sequester, that he “intentionally” picked on the controllers to lay-off so that would make the public unhappy.  Boehner and Cantor and  McConnell are going to march to the White House, seize Obama by the political throat and “make” him put the controllers back on duty, and lay-off some body else instead.  

Well, by now we all know where this is heading.  Somebody else may well be laid-off, before that builds up pressure, then another group, but pretty soon Obama won’t be able to cut ANY program under the sequester restrictions because that shows he is trying to hurt the Republicans.  So eventually he will have to take all the cuts out of Social Security and Medicare.   At any rate, that’s the new Republican plan.

Well, we’ll see.  Meanwhile, it wouldn’t hurt to contact the White House (1202-456-1111 or http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact)  Also call your senators – mainly Burr (1202-224-3154), and also call Hagen and congratulate her for her fine work. (1202-224-6342).  Your representatives also might need some guidance.

Fly Swatter Award this Week goes to . . .

Lindsey Graham!

What?

No Miranda Rights reading?

Suspend the Constitution?

Come on, man . . . you’re leading us down a rough, rocky trail that leads to the only way that this guy can ever be set free!

You’re saying that our constitution can’t handle things like Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)?  You’re saying we need two constitutions (or more) to handle “really serious” problems?  

If we try this guy and convict him, and with all the evidence that is available he HAS to be convicted, but even THEN, if the trial is not according to American law, he could someday be ordered released because his trial was not done legally.  And in that case it would not take him two days to be plucked from this country to another where be would be hailed as a hero.

Did he use a Weapon of Mass Destruction?  Well, that same week there were two horrendous events: the explosion of a fertilizer plant inside of a small-town in Texas, and the two bombs set off at the Boston Marathon.  Bad as they both were though, they STILL killed fewer people than the killer in Newtown with HIS Weapons of Mass Destruction.  

And  now since the U.S. Senate has just decided that THOSE Weapons of Mass Destruction, those military-style assault weapons capable of delivering “Covering Fire” don’t even require background checks, and they clearly then are not Weapons of Mass Destruction, maybe the senate will decide to require background checks of people who buy pressure cookers, or of owners of fertilizer plants.  Of course we could check first and find out how many people are killed each year by pressure cookers or fertilizer plants, or guns.  Yeah, then the senate would be better able to make a rational decision.  Some people don't do well when they're under pressure.

Open Letter to Senator Burr

2013.0419Fr1150.  I called Senator Burr's office (202-224-3154) about his vote Wednesday against gun control.  With 90% of the American people, even 85% of NRA members wanting background checks , why did he vote NO?  The woman staffer who answered the phone said the Manchin wording was not clear, and it was confusing in several points,  she said Manchin had an improper way of classifying people as mentally incompetent and there were other problems with Manchin's wording too.  When I tried to respond  she kept interrupting me.  I wanted to tell Senator Burr that I felt his vote was to please the money behind the NRA , that it was in response to threats from Wayne LaPierre,  and it was a request for Money and a vote cast by Burr for Burr.  I wanted her to tell Senator Burr that I thought his vote It was a vote against the people of America and NC and an invitation for future massacres.    But I couldn't begin to get through so I asked several times to speak to her supervisor and she finally agreed - I asked her for her name and she didn’t answer.  After about a minute a man answered and listened as I explained my thoughts.  No interruption.  I asked if he would relay that to Senator Burr, and he said “yup”.   I asked him what he meant by that comment and he said he was saying that he would tell Senator Burr.  I told him I thought that the use of “yup” was demeaning. Then he interrupted me.  Finally, I asked him his name and he did not respond. I identified myself and told him that I felt that the first person was trying to keep me from speaking to my senator, and now this person was treating my attempt to communicate with my senator as stupid and childlike.  

So this open letter is another way of trying to communicate with my senator.  

Fly Swatter Award with Bat Honors - to . . .

FLYSWATTER AWARD

With Aluminum Bat Honors!

is presented to , , ,

RICHARD BURR

Senator from North Carolina . . .

who, when informed that 30,000 Americans are killed by guns each YEAR – in America – by American Terrorists – which means more Americans are being killed every two years by guns than were killed in the Vietnam War! – And that since the Vietnam War started, Americans  have lost 25 TIMES that amount, 1,5000,000 Americans – and that we would like to try to do something about controlling guns in America,

Senator Burr said he didn’t want to talk about it.

He has more important things to do?

He’s following his leaders, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio?

Abortion and Gun Control

“Anybody breaks into my house to take what I got, is gonna get some of my prize bullets!”  This is a very American statement coming from a good man who would also be glad to invite someone he liked or even loved, to visit his house and come into his home and share with him some of the finest things that he owns.   This is a man’s point of view and it is shared by many men.  

A woman has a different viewpoint about some other things.  Her body, for example is not completely unlike the man’s “house” spoken of just now.  And a woman’s body is also capable of being “broken into”.  Some of these people may be welcomed with open arms, and loved and treasured and showered with the finest “gifts” that she has to offer.  Others may be intruders, not invited in, not welcomed.  And this choice or hers, just like that of the man spoken of above,  is not up to ANY government OR religion to make – it is her private choice.  Maybe this break-in will take not just her material possessions, but also her job, perhaps it will seriously impact the lives of her other children. Perhaps she was broken into in a moment of seduction or perhaps it was an act of force, and the person who did that may well pay a price for his actions but it will be far less the price paid by his victim.  

And you might say, “Perhaps it will all work out and the new child will grow up and be a fine person”.  Perhaps.  It may well be different though, not only for the new child but for its siblings.  The point is that each of us has an obligation to try to plan our lives and provide for our children.  And to say “Treat it as if the unwanted child was a gift from God”, would make no more sense than for the man who spoke in the first paragraph above, to take an intruder who broke into his home as a “gift from God” and to feed the intruder and show him where his great treasures are hidden, to protect him, to provide him medical care and education for the next 20 or so years – and   why?  Because God intended for the thief to break in to his house? 

Fly Swatter Award for Week 14

FLY SWATTER AWARD OF THE WEEK 

is proudly presented to :

 NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATURE!

For their incredible performance of the past week in which they introduced bills to:
1)  Establish an Official North Carolina Religion (HB 494)
2)  Determine which United States laws North Carolinians had to obey (HB 494)
3)  Exempt all firearms and ammo made in NC from ALL United Sates laws. (HB 518)
4)  Require parents to forfeit claiming their child as a tax exemption if the children vote where they attend college. (SB 667)
5)  Require married couples seeking divorce to remain married for two years even if they are involved in an abusive relationship. (SB 518) This by Catawba Co Senator Allran
6) Remove Charter Schools from state jurisdiction, let their corporation decide if the teachers need to be licensed and eliminate criminal background checks for teachers and school workers. (SB 337)

That's wonderful!  Big round of applause!  Call them up and tell them what you think of them!

Here are some numbers:  They all begin with 919-733-  , then choose:   Allran Sen 5876, Wells Rep 5988, McCrory (Governor) 5811, Tillis (Speaker of House)  3451, Berger (President Pro Tempore of Senate) 5708

NC Legislators Need Help. Call Them Up. Give Them Guidance.

North Carolina legislators submitted a house bill 494 which would allow the state to establish its own state religion, and to and refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer, or indeed on any constitutional issue.  The bill reads in part:  "Each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion."  Well, HB 494  is "Dead on Arrival" according to Phil Berger, President Pro Temp of the NC Senate, although it did pick up 12 House sponsors.   But wait – it gets worse.

Here are the latest bill proposals to begin their road toward becoming law:

HB 518, if guns & ammo bear the inscription  “Made in NC” then they are exempt from all federal law.

SB 667 “Equalize Voter Rights”  Intended to restrtict college student voting.  And if those students are NC residents and are attending a college away from their parent's home, then their parents lose their state income tax exemption if their college children want to vote.

SB 337 Charter Schools - Will take the charter schools from the state jurisdiction and leave it up to their parent corporation to determine if the teachers need to be licensed and if so, how many need to be licensed, and also eliminate criminal background checks for teachers or workers at schools.

SB 518  “Healthy Marriage Act”  proposed by Senator Allran OF CATAWBA COUNTY.  If you and your spouse decide to get a divorce, you will have to remain married for 2 more years.  

Wow.  Talk about BIG GOVERNMENT. So what to do?  My take is that I have started calling them on the telephone and telling the clerk who answers their phone what I think about these proposals.  I get the number of the bill (HB xxx or SB xxx) and maybe the name of the sponsor, plus a "name" of the bill (Healthy Marriage Act), and tell the clerk what I think and what my recommendations are.  Mostly it comes down to 1) the imposition of big Government, 2) discrimination against a group of voters, 3) being unable to enforce (such as a state religion, or local guns being OK to carry anywhere) 4) appealing to ignorant emotions, and 5) trying to divide the people of the state against each other 5) just being "dumb and stupid" and making NC look like a bunch of stupid, backward hicks who revel in the fact that the rest of the world is laughing at them. 

BUT – I think it is important to let them know.  They can only try such tactics if they think we really don't care.   Call them up, talk to them, let them know you DO care, and give them guidance.  

Here are some numbers to begin:  They all begin with 919-733-  , then choose:   Allran Sen 5876, Wells Rep 5988, McCrory (Governor) 5811, Tillis (Speaker of House)  3451, Berger (President Pro Tempore of Senate) 5708