jimmy6165's Blog

  As the new year approaches, bringing with it a new president-elect of the United States, to be inaugurated on 20 January, let us remember the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt, President from 1901-1909. 
  "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."  (Theodore Roosevelt, 1918)

  In all reality, this has always been true. Regular readers of the Condo News may remember that this quote used to be a regular feature. Just because a man is President-elect is not a reason to shy away from critical writing of what his promises were. After all, the general first sentiments are to wish him well. We hope the president does well so that the whole country does well. But, whose "well"?

Below are some of his plans for the country.
  * Expand (federal) Hate Crimes Statutes  
  * Advance (embryonic) Stem Cell Research
  * End Racial Profiling

  Additionally, and one which is near and dear to my heart, he supports the troops. Of course, this is an easy one. There will never be a serious contender for the Presidency who will declare otherwise. I support a Constitutional Amendment which will forever forbid veterans benefits from coming under the federal budget knife. The veterans of the United States are owed a debt of blood which can never be fully repaid. This applies to all of them whether or not they "saw the elephant". Because, when they enlisted, signed on the dotted line, they became willing to lay down their life for their country's cause. Whether or not they see combat is entirely up to the service, not themselves. Cooks, chief bottlewashers, tailors, paper-cut makers, medics, "sawbones" and nurses - they all deserve our undying gratitude. And all the free medical attention they will ever need.

  But, the President-elect says something this writer does not at all agree with. And, what he says will affect national policy. Q: Do you personally believe that life begins at conception?
       A: "This is something that I have not come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question. What I know is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates." Source: 2008 Democratic Compassion Forum at Messiah College Apr 13, 2008 
To this writer, the answer should have been easy. "To those who say human life does not begin at conception, human life can not begin without conception!" Barack Obama dropped the ball on this one. He also is in favor of embryonic stem cell research. This means the death of a human embryo, a man or woman in the formative stages of development inside the womb of the mother. Our country will one day be judged by how the unborn were treated. 

  This writer believes so-called "hate crime" legislation is an open door to thought control and an assault on American liberty. It used to be that insulting, hurtful words were handled personally, face-to-face. The laws on the books were more than enough to handle actions committed with emotion. But now, one can be arrested and put in jail for hurting someone's feelings. My mom and dad used to have two words for me, whenever I came home crying because of hurt feelings, "GROW UP!" Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones,..."? All "hate crime" legislation ought to be repealed.   

   He wants to remove a very useful weapon of the police in their fight against police. Profiling is a very potent police weapon, one that has proven so useful over the years. The police have learned from years and years of collecting data that certain races of people are likely to commit certain crimes under certain circumstances. to tell the police to turn a politically-correct, blind eye to any given circumstance is madness, looney. There was even a local TV station that once stopped informing the public of the race of a perpetrator during its public service announcements. They were soon disabused of that idiotic notion.   

  There are millions upon millions of Americans who have an honest disagreement with the philosophies of Barack Obama. What the President-elect wishes for the country is in opposition to them. If they wish him well, are they contradicting themselves? Everyone is always urged to pray for the President. If one is for him, it is easy. But if not, what to pray for is quite a problem.

  So, I say, pray for the country, the United States of America. THAT is easy.

    All the recent gaffes at the Elections office, the exposés of corruption in local county and city government has made it necessary for legislation and ordinances to be enacted to attempt to restore public faith in their government. I view these attempts as temporary annd futile because the effects will not last.

   For there to be any meaningful, longlasting reform in governmental integrity, there needs to be a fundamental change in how government is viewed by the average citisen. And, this must begin at birth and how the child is raised.

   By whatever name He is called, when man rejects God as his final judge, he inevitably succumbs to his base nature. Man without God is lost. Hence, if he aspires to elected office, he begins to view government, not for any high-minded purposes, not for any noble-minded ideals, not to improve the lot of his fellow man, not as a way to serve the public, but as a way to enrich himself.

    By trying to control and regulate human nature through government legislation and ordinance, man is once again showing how ultimately futile his attempts are. Prostitution is probably the oldest example of government attempts to control human nature. In spite of this, it continues and thrives. Until people recognise their folly in abandoning God, again by whatever name He is called, corruption will continue. Until we return to the faith and ways of our fathers, faith in government will continue its downward spiral.

   The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office has embarrassed us yet again. This time, they have shown to be lacking in the one most basic, yet the most important, aspect of every election - counting ballots. Incredibly, they lost ballots in a local judge's election.

   During the campaign season of the previous election four years ago for the Elections Supervisor's office, the battle cry was "a paper trail!". So, at the urging of a local favourite son Congressional Representative, the Elections Office received a new Supervisor, who promised this much demanded "paper trail".

   So, now when he finally delivered on his promise, they lose track of thousands of ballots.

   To try and combat this incompetence, one of the County Commissioners has suggested the office be turned into an appointed position. To do this is to expose Palm Beach County to the same sort of debacle we experienced with the hiring of Joan Kowal. Does anyone remember her? The School Board fired Monica Ulhorn, bought out her contract, and started advertising for a replacement. They stated what their financial compensations were and resumes from all over the country started pouring in. After finally settling on Joan Kowal, then Mrs. Kowal started with her list of new demands for additional financial compensations and benefits. After a few contentious years, she too was fired and her contract bought out. The last I heard, she was spreading her brand of misery over on the west coast of the U.S. with that school board buying out her contract. Is this the sort of potential problem the county government wishes to impose on us? It would be one thing if they would buy out a contract gone sour with their own personal money. But, when they do this with my money, taxpayer money, then they need to re-examine their position.

   I have a suggestion. Why not lower the filing fee for the office, but require the candidates have experience with elections. Lowering the filing fee ought to attract those who work in Elections office. We require that those running for judge to be lawyers. Why not tack on a requirement for the Supervisor of Elections Office?

    Does anyone realise that there will be thirteen candidates for President listed on the Florida ballot? Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning has certified 13 candidates. Why, then, is it that the MainStream Media (MSM) constantly ignores them? Is there some sort of conspiracy to deny to the American people the right of chioce? How can we pick and choose who we think should be our elected officials if we do not know about them? Does the MSM think We The People are so stupid and lazy that we will accept whatever they put before us? Or is it true and we are but one election away from a dictator?

   In the past two general elections, I did not cast my vote for either of the two major party candidates (MPC). I believed that neither of them were worthy of my confidence. And to me, earning my confidence is no small matter. Still, I have had people tell me that I wasted my vote, that only one of the two MPC had a chance of winning. But to me, that choice was a choice of the lesser of two evils. But folks, that is still choosing to vote for evil. Why should my vote be reduced to such a choice?! There are other options, you know. Thirteen of them will be on the Florida ballot. But you know why none of them will receive enough votes to be a factor, right?! Partisan politics.

   Partisan politics is truly the path to ruin. At least in this day and time. Time was when the major political parties were mostly interested in the good for the nation, not party. To be sure, there has always been petty concerns, for after all, parties still consist of human beings with all their strengths and weaknesses, the high road and the low road. President George Washington, in his Farewell Address on 17 September 1796, warned us about partisan politics, though not in plain language which we would easily understand today. To wit:
   All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.
   However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

   Which brings us to, us. How many people relinquish their duty to vote for the best candidate by voting a party ticket? Are we really so lazy, so disingenuous, so unwilling to study the candidates and issues that we give over our authority to partisan politics? As though we have no real interest in the activities of our government? If this has been the way of some, or the many, it is to the ruin of our nation. This is what we must turn from, consider all the candidates and, someday, WE THE PEOPLE ought to through a wrench in the works, express our deep, abiding dissatisfaction with the status quo by electing a third party candidate for President, vote out all the incumbents, truly take back the nation for WE THE PEOPLE.

   Lastly, read the words from the 1838 Florida Constitution, ARTICLE I, Section 2. That all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and established for their benefit; and, therefore, they have, at all times, an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter or abolish their form of government, in such manner as they may deem expedient.

Last week, I became aware that the Palm Beach County School Board has removed Veterans Day from its list of observed holidays. In fact, it is not even mentioned on its calender.
Though I served not in the armed forces of these united States of America, my father did and my ancestry in this country's wars goes back to the secession from Great Britain. Lastly, two of my sons served in the army, one being deployed to Iraq two times, the other three. The last one was nearly killed about 1 1/2 years ago while leading a platoon of men on a dismounted patrol at night. He stepped on a land mine and threw him high into the air and removed his right arm and leg, causing him to bleed out. But for the Grace of God, and the skill of the medics and the sawbones in Baghdad, he would have died. In fact, I was told that a Chaplain was twice called to be ready to pray the prayer for the dead. He survived minus his right arm just below the elbow and his right leg about 6-7 inches above the knee. He was recently discharged from WRAMC in July and is now visiting his uncle, a former marine, in California.

So, I say that to say I take huge exception to the School Board dropping even the mention of Veterans Day from its calender, let alone dropping it as a holiday. Essentially, it is a slap in the face of all living veterans in this country, telling them that their sacrifices are not worth honouring, that it did not count, counted for nothing. On their list of holidays, not even Christmas or Easter is listed by name. They are called Winter holidays and Spring holiday. With the exception of CHRISTMAS and Easter, which is supposed to be a celebration of the birth and resurrection from the dead, of our Lord Jesus, nothing on their list is as important as Veterans Day. This is the day for the living veterans. Memorial Day is for the deceased veterans.
I am calling for anyone reading this to bring pressure to the school board to reinstate Veterans Day this year, not to wait for next year and to cast it in stone that this will never happen again. They are the school board and they CAN do this if properly motivated. Call anyone who may have some influence, email the school board or write letters to express your outrage. Strong language is called for here, not words like sad or too bad. For this is an outrage than men like my son, his sacrifice, is unworthy of acknowledgement, of telling him THANK YOU FOR YOUR SACRIFICE, and to all those who went before him and those who will follow after him.
"Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but beggared is the nation that has and forgets them." -- Unknown


Secondly, there is one particular Black County commissioner, a former State legislator and school teacher, Addie Green, who has become the very thing Black people used to claim they despised- a bigot. Remember when they used to speak in platitudes about prejudice and equality, treating everyone the same? Ever since the county went to the district method of electing officials - done JUST so they would have a Black official - she has done all she can only for Blacks and nothing for Whites. But worst of all is her constant verbal lashing of the police. A few years ago, in her capacity as commissioner, she publicly advocated all Black youth run from the police, if approached, to a lighted, crowded area so as to protect them from possible brutality. And, like an arrogant b***h, she held a press conference and, backed up by some of her cronies, she not only refused to back down and apologise to the police, who were there in force to protest her, but accused them of murder in the case of a Black boy who did just what she had advised. Afterwards, she said of them, "The only thing they left at home was the sheet." The boy was running from the cops in a car, driving with no license, on crowded school grounds. A cop on the scene shot at the car and killed him, thinking the boy might run over a crowd of school kids if he was not stopped.
Earlier this month, she again accused the cops of murder, in her capacity as an elected official. A Black boy, again but this time in a car which had been reported stolen, was trying to run over a cop while backing up and the cop shot and killed him. Bear in mind, these accusations are done in the press and always directed toward Whites, cops they may be.
This commissioner has no sense of honour else she would be ashamed of herself and, at the very least, offer to resign for conduct unbecoming of her office and becoming an embarrassment to the county. She has done this not and will be termed out of office. Even though I oppose this ideal of term limits, in her case I am glad for it.
One of the things that is most frustrating is that the local media will not bring her to task. It has become a given that if any White politician even gives the vaguest, most ambiguous hint of criticism of Blacks at anything and can be remotely thought of as racist, the press will pounce on him like a flea on a dog. Trent Lott comes to mind.  The golfer "Fuzzy" Zoeller, Jimmy the Greek were also victimised this way.
It is wrong of the press to treat any elected official with kid gloves, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. It is more wrong for any elected official, whether a councilman from a small town of 100 to a commissioner of a large county of 1.5 million to say things that comes from the streets. The dignity of the office precludes repugnant behaviour, whether it is corruption or crass talk. Such behaviour would not be tolerated from the Governor of any State, it should not be tolerated from her.

  Are real people as frightened as I am about the future of our country? I say this as a grandfather who is as impotent as the next guy when it comes to being able to play a real part in the future of this once great nation, the United States of America. Anyone who can see the past and the present clearly, knows of what I write.
  How is it that many people can continuously sing "God Bless America", when "America" has turned away from the precepts of God? Such as about 39 million abortions performed in the U.S. between 1973 and 2000 (on average, 1.4 million per year). The adoption of the pro-homosexual agenda. The general acceptance of pornography in the so-called "polite society". While our churches go wanting in membership and strong men who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are unafraid to speak the truth to man, and the truth of God, our legislatures are filled with men, and women, who are so weak that they always first check to see which direction the political winds are blowing before they cast a vote or even go outside. Am I the only one who sees something fundamentally wrong here? Am I the only one who sees something wrong with the choices for President reduced to Barry Bama and John McCain? Granted the President of the United States is not a ruler but a leader. At least he is supposed to be.
  Neither one of them are inclined to make ALL their decisions based on their oath of office!? Though this is not new (begining with abraham lincoln, most presidents have violated the oath of office), how do we the people take back control of what is suppose to be OUR COUNTRY? Or has this been a pipe dream all alone?!!

Since I have no one who will listen to my petty gripes, I thought I may as well post them here for all the world to see. They often vex me to my very core. Therefore...

Pedestrians and traffic
Why is it that there seems to be a trend that people are not looking out for themselves when they are in harms way? Lately, in the past two to four years, I have noticed this growing trend, to wit: when I am entering onto a street/roadway I immediately start looking all around me to be sure that I am not about to get struck by some car driver who is not looking out for me. The way I figure it, is this - car versus human, human loses. It matters not the least if the law is on my side. If I am crossing the street all legal and proper, and just because I was not paying attention, someone runs me over and either damages me or kills me, "the law" will not restore me to my previously undamaged condition or life.
I notice people who, when they start crossing, they fix their face, and eyes, only on the direction they are going and are not looking around as if everyone else is fully aware they are on the street, therefore, they WILL not get struck and hurt. What about those who run the redlight? What about those who are running from the cops? What about those who are not paying attention? Accidents happen and it behooves all of us to do our part to minimise our chances of participation in them.

South versus north
Why does it bother some northerners (yankees) whether or not we fly our Confederate flags? Why do they move here then get their panties in a twist when they see our noble banners flying from our homes, on the streets, specially on State property? After all, the main purpose the Southern States seceded in the first place was to protect the Constitutional right of the State to manage its own affairs as they saw fit, without interference from the general government. So it is fitting and proper for that glorious banner to be placed and seen on State property.
Hey, I have a thought for them. How about this, "You won, we lost, YOU get over it! And leave us alone!!"
Yet, the yankee sees nothing improper about moving here than proceeding to tell us how we should live. They have always done this. You know how it is when a smoker gives up his 'light', is OK for a while but inevitably will begin to harass those who smoke, first urging then demanding, that they quit smoking? This is the yankee attitude. If they do not get their way, they go and provoke a war. They owned Blacks as slaves. When it proved to be a more economic liability than they bargained for, they abolished it, slowly with conditions so they would not lose their investments. Then, by the 1830's-40's, they began demanding the Southern States to set their slaves free immediately, not only losing THEIR investments, but without preparing the Black race for the responsibilities and duties of free men.
So now, they not only have moved down here in mass, they do not assimilate and turn our fine smalltown cities into yankeefied versions of what they left behind. Sort of a miniature version of New York City/Boston/Chicago.
To this I use a slogan from the 1960's, "yankee go home!!!"

  I stated on my opening post, if I quote another, that those thoughts reflect mine and is therefore my post as well.
  To wit:Thursday 03 July 2008 by: Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers
 
 Early next week the US Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

    That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

    That a majority on both sides of the aisle - not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties - intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus - which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you - recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Now these bad actors are prepared to set aside your right to privacy - written into the Constitution as a key part of our Bill of Rights - with hardly a nod in the direction of the true patriots who rebelled against an English king and his army to guarantee those rights.

    That they will do this while the last empty phrases of the political windbags at the Fourth of July celebrations are still echoing across a thousand city parks and the bright red, white and blue bunting and blizzard of American flags still flap in the breeze is little short of breath-taking.

    How dare they?

    Those denizens of the White House and Capitol Hill and all those gray granite buildings that line avenues with names like Constitution and Independence in the nation's capitol would have us believe that we must trade our rights, all of our rights, for some measure of security from the terrorists.

    They would have us believe that a nation of 300 million people must surrender what a million other Americans gave their lives in war to protect in order to protect us from a couple of hundred fanatics hiding in caves in Waziristan.

    Benjamin Franklin himself wrote of such a debate:

    "Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

    The fact that British troops, operating on flimsy general warrants handed out by local magistrates, were kicking in the doors of ordinary Americans and rifling through their pantries and papers in search of smuggled, untaxed goods was a prime reason why our ancestors rebelled against their king and went to war.

    This is WHY we celebrate the Fourth of July. This is why the vote on renewing the expanded version of FISA and whitewashing the egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment for seven long years by our government is important.

    If neither John McCain, the Republican, or Barrack Obama, the Democrat, can find the courage to oppose such a violation of so basic a right then what are we to do for a president, a successor to George W. Bush, The Decider, who has since 9/11 decided what rights you are entitled to keep, what laws he will or will not obey, and whether you will be protected by these words of the Constitution:

    "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

    That's it. That's the Fourth Amendment. That is what these folks in Washington, D.C., have violated continuously and in secret for seven long years.

    Somewhere across an ocean and a desert, hiding in his cave, a man of hate named Osama bin Laden is laughing up the sleeve of his dirty robe at the thought that he and a small handful of fellow fanatics could tie a great nation in knots - knots of fear stoked by our own leaders.

    We have done incalculably more and greater damage to ourselves since September 11, 2001, than a thousand bin Ladens and ten thousand al Qaida recruits could ever have done to us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." Now it would seem that we have no one to fear but ourselves and our leaders.

    The questions I pose are these:

    How can even one senator on either side of the aisle in good conscience vote in favor of this law that does nothing to enhance our security and everything to diminish our rights as a free people?

    How can both men who seek to become our next president cast such a vote when both should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder declaring that they would govern by our consent and with our approval, not by wielding the coercive and corrosive and corrupt powers that King George III and his latter-day namesake from Texas thought are theirs by divine right?

Karl Marx is supposed to have written or said, "A people separated from their heritage are easily persuaded". Regardless of who said it, it makes a lot of sense. As long as Americans have historical heroes, there is hope for the future. And, as long as these are real heroes and not propped up by the press/media.
Martin Luther King is a modern day example of this. A check with snopes.com will confirm that there is several items of some concern which tend to diminish his importance. Because, at one time, not more than forty years ago, most Americans held George Washington as "the Father of our country". No more, thanks in part to the forces of political correctness. Now, he has had his name removed from schools, fom streets, from places of honour and prominence. Why? For the so-called "unforgivable sin" of being a slave owner. So, no matter that but for him, our nation might never have been or maybe it may have come about much later as many other English colonies were simply "given" independence. Therefore, even as modern day moralists hold the behaviors of past people to todays principles, we ought to hold todays people to todays morals. As one ponders the fate of George Washington, consider this: "poor is the nation which has no heroes. Poorer still is the nation which has them, but forgets."
According to Snopes.com, M.L. King was an adulterer, a plagiarist, was never even legally named "Martin Luther". As a plagiarist, it is most significant that this he did while working on his doctorate. But, because he was a "teachers pet", the college simply overlooked this most dreadful crimes of intelligensia.
According to Ralph Abernathy, who succeeded King, after his assassination, as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Confederence, in his autobiography And The Walls Came Tumbling Down, 1989, King did indeed commit adultery on his wife, Coretta. By pigeonholing King to one speech while disregarding the rest of his flawed life, the media has conspired to manufacture an artificial hero for the American Black, raising his status to artificial sainthood. If the Founding Fathers can be removed from their pedestals, and well it is to make an honest appraisal of their lives, King is just as fit a subject.

This is my first blog. My written word is mine alone. Even if I quote someone, the sentiment is mine.
Barry Bama and Johnny Mac are all wrong for this country. Neither of them understand the Constitution. How can any one even bring up the subject of universal healthcare if they understood the Constitution. Else, it should be scrapped in favour of a new, updated version. I am tentatively in favour of this idea. Only the best minds should be applied to the rewriting. A panel of ordinary citisens would be empowered to interview the rewriters. This is because we are the ones who hold the most diverse philosophies across the political spectrum. I for one favour public executions, preferably hanging. Others are totally against capital pubishment.  I favour the sentence being carried out no more than 5 years to the day of sentencing. The biggest argument against it is that it is no deterrent. This is largely because of the endless delays in executing the sentence. The surety of five years, and bringing it out from closed doors to the public square will instill the fear of God in most people, though there will always be those who kill.
There are other areas of concern that I will address later.  Just bear in mind this. Barry or Johnny  will swear an oath to abide the Constitution and protect it. That is all.  these two things. That they do not fully understand the Presidential limitations, being eroded since the dictator lincoln,  is a monumental failure of the whole educational system of our country. Instead of producing the best minds in the whole world, most of them have been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Therefore, the best minds for the rewrite of the Constitution will not be as good as they ought to have been.