tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63006409515665601332024-03-05T04:03:09.356-05:00Alice In Blogger - LandRETIRED JOURNALIST, AUTHOR, WORLD TRAVELERA.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-33618163906833264212024-02-02T15:03:00.000-05:002024-02-02T15:03:48.966-05:00<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">REMEMBERING
ROD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is a day for remembering –
remembering the call that informed me he had died on this day two years ago,
and for peering back in time to 1963. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
was the year he was born, a healthy eight pounds, thirteen ounces in a small
Catholic hospital in Paris, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St.
Joseph’s Hospital is remembered now only by a placard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to, is he.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two bronze placards atop the marble mausoleum tell of the man buried
there, in a Catholic Church he helped build in Honduras, just steps from the
pristine beach where the assure blue waters of the Caribbean lap gently over
the bleached sand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was my son, the third of my five
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like the waves of the
Caribbean, memories lap softly over me this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recall his first outing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was just him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His two siblings were spending a week-long
sleepover with grandparents in Fort Worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We bundled him in a soft blanket, put a bottle of milk in a plastic
warmer, and took him to the only movie theatre in Paris at that time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To Kill a Mockingbird was playing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a line outside the ticket
office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We paid our fifty cents each and
walked inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most who stood in the
line did not enter with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went
instead to a wooden staircase on the side of the building that ascended to the theatre
balcony where the outside door was marked “Colored Only.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim Crow laws were still enforced in Texas in
1963. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later that year, Dr. Martin Luther
King would stand before a quarter-million people on the Washington Mall and
declare he had a dream that one day all of us would judge each other not by the
color of our skin, but by the content of our character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No work in American literature better
depicts the brutal unfairness of segregation than To Kill a Mockingbird.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It should be required reading for every
American student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were so moved by
the movie that we left only long enough to warm another bottle and return
minutes later to watch it a second time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Four-day old Roddy Scott lay cradled in our arms, sound asleep, through
both showings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sleep well, my son, sleep well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-92190456243386223602023-02-27T17:22:00.000-05:002023-02-27T17:22:30.352-05:00<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;"> </span><b><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">OUR
GALILEO MOMENT</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Covid 19 almost certainly resulted from a leaked virus
experiment at the Wuhan Laboratory in Wuhan China. That is the conclusion of scientists at the
Department of Energy and investigators at the FBI after nearly three years of
research; results that were leaked to the Wall Street Journal. Worse, the researchers suspect the virus was
engineered in the Chinese lab.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank God for leaks.
Covid claimed more than a million Americans and nearly eight-million
people worldwide. Victims of the virus
are still dying. These victims and their
families deserve the truth.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The conclusions of the American researchers are a win for
common sense and another black eye for the American media. Led by the New York Times, the Washington
Post, and trumpeted by reporters and anchors at CNN and MSNBC and the legacy
networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, those who dared suggest China was at fault were derisively
dismissed and denounced as racists.
Worse, their views were banned from Facebook, Twitter and other social
media sites. Call it America’s Galileo
moment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There was widespread support of such censorship by
mainstream media outlets. To their
credit, Facebook and Twitter have since revoked those bans, but not before the damage
to our sacredly held freedom of speech, enshrined in the second amendment, had
been done. Worse, this comes after the
American media has suffered yet another embarrassing episode for paralyzing the
Trump Administration in its early months with near constant headlines about the
former president’s alleged involvement with Russia. That story has since been debunked. For its erroneous reporting, both the Times
and the Post were jointly awarded journalism’s most coveted honor, the 2018
Pulitzer Prize. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Facts and truth are stubborn things. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p></p>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-36536777444998901482022-11-24T13:53:00.002-05:002022-11-24T13:53:59.068-05:00<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">Baseball Memories</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Watching Ken Burns’ superlative documentary, <b><i>Baseball</i></b>, these past few weeks has transported this octogenarian back to my wonder years in the post-war 40’s. On any summer day but Sunday, unless it rained, kids from all over Peacock Park in Fairmont, West Virginia would scramble down the dirt path to the holler below my Aunt Alice’s house where someone had laid out a scruffily defined baseball diamond. The bases, including home plate, were defined by an X dug by someone’s shoe heel. Most days we played until lunch and often returned in the afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">My playing prospects were generally uncertain. I was a scrawny first grader when I initially descended to that holler. And worse, I was a girl, the last to be chosen and only then if my cousin John Freeman or one of his friends picked me in a show of sympathy or if there weren’t enough kids to fill out a team. Either way, I was quickly banished to the outfield - my throwing skills being imprecise, my catching skills even more lacking. But I could hit. And I could run. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Money being scarce in those days, baseball gloves were shared. So were bats and balls.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">When we got home after a day in the holler Aunt Alice would be sitting on her wooden stool in the kitchen. I can still see her there as if it were only yesterday, kneading bread dough or stirring whatever was cooking for the evening meal. A radio would be blaring out the play-by-play whenever the Pittsburgh Pirates took the field. It was from her I learned to love the game. For that I will always be grateful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">In 1956, the summer between my junior and senior year in high school, we returned to Kansas City, where, for a buck and a quarter I would sit along the first base line in the old Blues Stadium and see the likes of Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto come to bat when the Yankees were in town. Defending in right field was Harry “Suitcase” Simpson, a tall, gangly alumni of the fabled Negro League who became my favorite on the old KC Athletics. Sadly, he is the only A’s player I can even recall. In those days, the Athletics were mostly a major league farm team for the perennial pennant winning Yankees.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">While a sophomore at the University of Tulsa trying hard to win a place on the school newspaper’s roster, I covered an appearance by St. Louis Cardinal veterans Enos Slaughter and Pepper Martin. Martin was once a charter member of Dizzy Dean’s “Gashouse Gang.” Enthralled and regaled by their twangy accounts of baseball past only deepened my love of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Moving to Texas in 1960, I switched my allegiance from the Pirates to the Cardinals, a move forced by practicality, since St. Louis was the only team broadcast I could find on my transistor radio. While the ballplayers played, I would take the sprinkled starched shirts from the refrigerator to iron while being treated to the best baseball play-by-play team ever – Harry Caray and Jack Buck, and for a couple of those years, the gregarious and funny Joe Garagiola. Years later I met Garagiola when I was fortunate enough to be seated between him and astronaut John Young at a ceremony honoring Gus Grissom at Spring Hill State Park in Indiana. He was even funnier in person. And Garagiola came with an appetite that rivaled his sense of humor. At his insistence we both went for seconds in the buffet line. I could finish only a small portion of my second serving. Garagiola pointed to my plate and asked, “You want any more of that.” When I nodded no, he reached for my plate and quickly cleared it. Then made another pass at the buffet line returning with yet another heaping plate. Despite that hearty appetite, Garagiola maintained his playing days weight well into his later years. Oh, to be endowed with such a compassionate metabolism! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The last time I played baseball I was 65. It was on a makeshift ball diamond at my son’s home in Indiana during a family reunion. Armed with a new bat, fresh off a rack from Walmart, I approached the plate and with shouted encouragement from my teammates, mostly grandkids, I hit the second ball thrown. Up, up and away it went. Outfielders scurried after the ball while I lumbered around the bases, slowed by bad knees, a couple dozen extra pounds and a regrettable abhorrence for exercising regularly. I jubilantly crossed home plate thanks more to the benevolent slowness of the rival players than my baserunning skills. But it remains among my greatest moments close behind the birth of my children and grandchildren.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">My fondest baseball memory though, takes me back to an early spring morning in Joplin, Missouri when I was nine. For Christmas I had received a baseball bat and ball. No gifts were more welcomed. As I tossed the ball in the air to take a swing as it descended my mother walked over. She started pitching the ball to me and went darting after it if I managed to connect bat to ball. She was tall and lithe. I had never seen her run, or throw a ball, or catch a ball. From my earliest memory she had gray hair and always seemed older than mothers of my friends. It was only after she passed away that I learned she had been a star basketball player in high school in rural West Virginia and for a time, played women’s semi-pro basketball. She had simply never mentioned it. Katherine Mary (my mom) is the reason I feel such a connection with Kevin Costner playing catch with his on-screen dad in Field of Dreams. It’s a scene that never fails to summon tears.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">It’s been half a century since I last attended a major league baseball game. To sit in the stands today would require mortgaging the house and maxing out the credit card just to buy a hot dog and soda. So, I’m content to remember sitting on the first baseline in the old Blues Stadium for a buck and a quarter and watching Mickey Mantle hit a towering ball to right field and Suitcase Simpson stretching out his long arm in hopes of turning a sure double into an out.</span></p>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-8333481500084098362020-06-13T21:13:00.002-04:002020-06-13T21:13:35.855-04:00A Problem of Pigmentation In this summer of America's troubled discontent, we should all be urged to view the 1967 film classic, <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.</i> During his impassioned summation of the problem he is facing, newspaper editor Spencer Tracy looks out at his white daughter and the man she intends to marry, a prestigious Black doctor, played by Sidney Poitier and declares simply that "what we have here is a problem of pigmentation."<br />
Screenwriter William Rose encapsulated the challenges his young lovers would face in a world with little tolerance for interracial marriage. And our struggle as a nation, then and now, is mirrored in that short phrase.<br />
If, as Christians, we believe what the Bible instructs us, that <i style="font-weight: bold;">all</i> men are created in the image of God, it absolutely amputates the argument by those among us who harbor bigotry in their hearts that a dark complexion makes a fellow American somehow inferior to an American with a lighter complexion. Biblical teaching underscores the simple truth of Rose's screenplay.<br />
As I watch the protesters marching through the streets of our major cities, night after night, I wish we could channel some of their energy to secure racial accord and equal treatment, and use it to bring about meaningful change to elevate the poorest among us to a better economic future.<br />
It begins with education. I live in a suburb of Indianapolis. Inner-city schools in Indianapolis are failures. Children attend but only a fraction leave school at the end of the day with anything gained. These schools are a poor investment for the children who have the greatest need. Most are African-American. Less than a third of these children are reading at grade level by third grade. It is a sad indictment of every Hoosier, nee, every American that we have allowed this to happen.<br />
School boards should be petitioned to approve school choice. Most of our poorest children are born to single mothers who must struggle to support them, often with low paying jobs. The obstructive teachers unions should be shunted aside. Our children are priority one. But salaries for inner-city teachers should be raised to attract the brightest teachers. These professional educators could become the biggest catalyst for the implementation and success of education reforms.<br />
Microsoft, Dell, Apple and other computer makers could step forward and insure that <u>every</u> child in our inner-city schools has a digital device on which to learn. Stop the tokenism of big tech. Step up and take responsibility for a country that spawned and fostered your success.<br />
Institute school uniforms. Give each child a level learning field. No child should go to school in clothes that might invite ridicule from other classmates. Dignity is as important for the smallest among us as it is for adults.<br />
And finally teach history, unvarnished and accurate. However disturbing it may be, our history is the base upon which we can build a future that secures the underpinnings of our republic and serves as a guide to not repeating the mistakes of our past. <br />
<br />
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-2258749867901354072019-01-25T22:10:00.002-05:002019-01-25T22:16:34.869-05:00A SHAMEFUL DISPLAY OF POWER... As a retired journalist I was appalled this evening when I turned on the news to see video of a dozen FBI agents in full military garb, carrying automatic weapons, rushing into a Florida home to arrest a political operative charged in the Russian collusion investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.<br />
Why appalled? Because this is the United States of America, not a third world country or an autocratic dictatorship where such behavior is common place. Whatever our political persuasion, no American should tolerate such a scene.<br />
The subject of this pre-dawn arrest was a 69-year old man with a long record of being a sleazy political operative but not of any past criminal behavior according to news reports on CNN and Fox News. He is charged with lying to investigators, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. None of the charges involves any act of violence. However egregious, all are white collar crimes. And yet he was apparently considered such a threat to society that he appeared in court with his ankles and wrists shackled. The federal judge did not seem to share the special counsel's fear of the man because she allowed him to be set free on a $250,000 surety bond, a type of bond where the accused does not have to put up any cash, but could be sued if they renege on paying off the bond plus interest.<br />
If he is found guilty of the charges, I fully agree he should face appropriate prison time. No one is above the law.<br />
If being a sleazy politician is criminal then I was a witness to such criminality as a reporter for an Evansville television station. Covering a polling place in that city's inner city in the 1970's, I filmed Democrat poll workers handing out five-dollar bills and pints of liquor to African-Americans in return for their vote. No arrests followed the airing of that bit of political chicanery. It must have worked, because the democrat mayor, the late Frank McDonald, remained in power until he chose to retire from city hall. Next I saw a campaign manager for McDonald's successor, the late Russell Lloyd, ordering workers in the county clerk's office in Evansville to sell tickets to the annual Republican Lincoln Day Dinner on county time, something assuredly against the law in Vanderburgh County.<br />
Both men served successful terms as Evansville mayor through the 1960-70's. No one was arrested or charged with a crime. In fact, the son's of both men followed in their father's footsteps and were elected Evansville mayor for multiple terms.<br />
I was born just twenty years after women procured the vote. I followed with horror the blood letting era that won civil rights and equal rights for both people of color and women in our country. Ours is a democracy that has withstood many challenges and changes in our relatively short life as a nation. But viewing the arrest of a political sleazeball in a manner befitting the most violent criminal is terrifying. The FBI was only following orders. It is the people with unbridled investigative and political power that I hold accountable. They are the ones we should fear most.<br />
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-13251567466365231682018-08-15T17:46:00.000-04:002018-08-15T17:46:38.537-04:00TIME FOR A NEW REFORMATION The latest revelations of child molestation by 300-plus Catholic priests in Pennsylvania parishes is the latest shocking and sad commentary on a beloved institution in desperate need of reform. A major reform would be to allow priests to marry - a reform steadfastly rebuffed by popes over the centuries.<br />
While Catholic scholars vary on the subject, it is generally believed celibacy became a common practice among priests as early as the fourth and fifth centuries, in the same historical period that the seat of the church was established in Rome at the site where St. Peter was buried. But the practice of priests marrying was not banned until about the eleventh century. Here again scholars disagree on just when the Catholic Church formally imposed the ban.<br />
Historical perspective aside, with the current state of the Church and the ranks of priests so thin that many parishes are without a permanent pastor, it may be time to consider allowing priests to marry. Young men are traditionally recruited to this celibate life at a time when they are at the height of their sexual potency. Nature dictates celibacy is for the old - not the young. (To which many red-blooded men might cry, <i>speak for yourself</i>, although I can't do that because I'm female.)<br />
While allowing Catholic priests to marry would hopefully solve psychological needs, such a reform could create another problem for the Church at a time of declining participation. That would be the cost to support a man with the additional burden of a spouse and children. Protestant sects have managed to pay such costs since the Reformation began in 1517. Allowing priests to marry was a principle tenant of the Reformation.<br />
Supporting a priest with a spouse and family would impose a greater financial burden on parishioners, but it could save Catholic dioceses the more prohibitive costs of lawsuits. You can already hear lawyers circling over Pennsylvania. Legal settlements imposed by courts have bankrupted some American dioceses. More than a thousand victims of child molestation were identified by prosecutors in Pennsylvania. For the majority of these victims the civil courts offer the only redress for the crimes they suffered as children since the statute of limitations for child molestation has elapsed.A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-11864626546362046902018-05-19T14:10:00.000-04:002018-05-21T16:15:36.523-04:00PREVENTABLE CARNAGE<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ten dead –
13 wounded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again flags on public buildings across
the nation fly at half-staff in memory of the students gunned down in the
latest school massacre by a disaffected classmate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He
was a quiet guy </i>one distraught student told a television reporter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He never
caused trouble</i> was the response of another student.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But 17-year old Dimitrios Pagourtzis was
clearly troubled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a day when it was
89 degrees with matching humidity in south Texas, the student who inflicted
this carnage on his fellow students and teachers at Santa Fe High School was
wearing a <u>trench coat</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had been
wearing that same coat for weeks and never took it off during school hours reported
another student. Pagourtzis was also described as a loner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point he was approached by a coach who
talked to him about the body odor emanating from the coat he wore every
day despite the heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the shooter
was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i> required to take it off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a tragedy that should have been
prevented. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A loner, refusing to take off
a trench coat, even in summer-like temperatures, should have been an obvious red
flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did we learn nothing from the
Columbine carnage?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students must be allowed to express their
individuality insisted one talking head on a 24-hour news channel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Surely there is a better way to express individuality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers and administrators are hesitant
to restrict such apparel for fear of lawsuits from special interest groups and
ACLU attorneys who often circle like vultures over cash-strapped school districts
when any attempt is made to impose even reasonable dress codes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everywhere I have traveled in the
world—Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East—students wear uniforms, even in
desperately poor countries in South Asia and Africa, where students often walk
considerable distances to school without wearing shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we need to rethink advocating, if not for
school uniforms, at least for common sense dress codes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then there is another obvious question—where were
the parents?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did they not question why
their son was wearing a trench coat mimicking the Columbine mass
murderers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why was the key to a gun
safe not hidden from their troubled teen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some states impose felony penalties on
adults who fail to secure their firearms from children under 18.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This should be either a federal law or
uniformly imposed by all states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
the NRA advocates securing firearms from minors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Banning guns is politically not viable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Metal detectors might help detect a student
bringing a firearm to school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Afterall, we can't board an airplane without going through such scrutiny. </span>But the
best thing we as a society can do is to confront a troubled young person who
exhibits obvious mental health issues and allow school officials to intercede
if parents won’t, without educators having to fear lawsuits. The recent Parkland massacre should have been our lesson learned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many more students and teachers must
die—how much more heartache must we endure as a nation before our elected
officials, both state and federal, finally take action to address these issues and provide educators with the funds and common sense legislation to help solve these problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-48289801692664207712018-02-22T16:14:00.000-05:002018-02-22T16:14:26.307-05:00 Does God Speak To Us? When it was reported Vice-President Mike Pence said Jesus Christ spoke to him, he was roundly and acerbically ridiculed by Joy Behar on NBC's The View. This came after disgraced Trump aide, Omarosa Manigualt, reportedly voiced the same vicious ridicule of the vice-president to fellow reality show contestants.<br />
Behar is infamous for mocking anything religious or republican, especially someone who is both.<br />
Many Christians, most especially Evangelicals like Pence, espouse a belief in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship is built on following the teachings of the man Christians revere as God made man and a close adherence to Biblical teaching. Those of the Jewish and Muslim faiths honor Jesus as a holy man and/or prophet, but do not recognize Jesus as divine.<br />
Each time we pray we talk to God. Prayers are simply petitions. And if those petitions are answered, is that God speaking to us?<br />
I believe it is. And I believe that is true for all who pray to a higher Being. I have taken my shoes off in temples in Thailand and China and Tibet and watched Buddhist light candles, leave offerings of bread and fruits, and kneel with bowed heads and clasped hands to seek a blessing. I have seen men in mosques in Indonesia, Oman, Turkey, Morocco, among other counties, wash their faces and feet before kneeing on rugs to bend and touch their heads to those rugs to pray to their Deity, Allah.<br />
It is one of the great privileges of traveling the world to see people speaking to God and seeking his answer in a number of religious cultures.<br />
I was watching a 1957 movie the other evening - <i>Heaven Knows Mister Allison</i>. It features Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum as a Catholic nun and hard-bitten, non-religious Marine, trapped on an isolated Pacific Island in World War II. When the island is invaded by Japanese, Mitchum's character ponders how he can lessen casualties for Marines set to retake the island at dawn. He looks whimsically at Kerr's character and says he may know a way.<br />
"Did God tell you to do that?" the nun inquires.<br />
"I believe so, ma'am," the Marine replies, shaking his head in affirmation.<br />
The film was honored with two Academy Award nominations. It is well worth viewing. Curse words are non-existent and the violence non-graphic.<br />
And there was no one like Behar around to ridicule the Marine for hearing God speak to him.<br />
By the way - it was Marines 1, Japanese 0.<br />
<br />
<br />
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-10253903044345567322017-10-25T08:25:00.000-04:002017-10-25T09:58:25.223-04:00A MAJOR STORY THE NEWS MEDIA IS OVERLOOKING The first hint of the story to come was Fox Business Anchor Maria Bartiroma walking onto the stage in the massive auditorium in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia Tuesday morning sans hijab. She was in the Kingdom to lead a discussion on the building of a futuristic Saudi city that will have more robots than people and be powered solely by solar energy - a project that is attracting investors from around the world.<br />
That newsworthy story was largely overlooked by the American and European news media. And there was an even larger story ignored - one with perhaps, far greater ramifications for the future. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud quietly, and without fanfare, announced his country would begin to practice a more moderate form of Islam. Even Fox News made only a short, cursory mention of the new city and no mention of the move away from Wahhabism.<br />
Saudia Arabia is the seat of Wahhabism, an ultra-conservative practice of Islam that found its genesis in the beliefs of an itinerant Islamic Imam, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, in the eighteenth century. al-Wahhab's beliefs and Shari'ah law were espoused by Muhammad bin Saud, the founder of the House of Saud, which has ruled the desert kingdom for more than two centuries. It became the state sponsored form of Islam in Saudia Arabia, which proselytized its radical tenants throughout the Middle East and the West.<br />
It was adherents of Wahhabism who brought down the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. And it was adherents of Wahhabism who established the ISIS caliphate in Syria, and opened the world's eyes to many of the more cruel tenants of the ultra-conservative belief. Non-Muslims were publicly beheaded, including American journalist Daniel Pearl. The Wahhabi prohibition against revering "idols" may have led directly to the destruction of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the glorious ruins of Palmyra in Syria by ISIS.<br />
Wahhabism adheres to a strict interpretation of Shari'ah law. Thieves have hands amputated. Non-believers are beheaded. Homosexuals are put to death. Defacing or insulting the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is punishable by death. But perhaps the greatest punishments under Shari'ah law are meted out to women. A female accused of adultery can be publicly stoned to death. If a woman is raped, there must be four male witnesses to the crime, and then she is prohibited from testifying against her accuser. A woman cannot venture outside or go shopping without a male family member accompanying her. If unmarried, a woman must wear a hijab; if married, her head and face must be covered by a burka. Until now, women in Saudi Arabia could not drive.<br />
That changed a short time ago when the young crown prince of Saudi Arabia proclaimed women will be allowed to drive. And Tuesday came the far more reaching change that his oil-rich kingdom would embrace a more moderate form of Islam.<br />
Only the future can show us how deeply this new embrace of moderation by Crown Prince Salman Al Saud takes hold in both the Middle East and among Muslims throughout the world. It will undoubtedly take time for nearly three centuries of Wahhabism to be cleansed from Islam. But a forward thinking leader in Saudia Arabia has taken the first courageous step toward restoring one of the world's great religions.<br />
This is a story the world's new media should not ignore. A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-6755556599143577892017-10-20T00:24:00.000-04:002017-10-20T00:34:54.613-04:00The Wisdom of General John Kelly<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> It has been many months since my last blog. The reason - despite having only about 200 or so followers, I had one such follower that frightened me - WH.Gov. - the White House. For the first time in my seventy-plus years as a citizen, I felt intimidated. It was my Wizard of Oz moment as the cowardly lion, a moment that has silenced me far too long. Especially after today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Retired General John Kelly make his second appearance in the White House Press Room Thursday afternoon in as many weeks. What he said moved me to tears and left me seething with anger - tears for the brave son he lost in Afghanistan in 2010 and angered that something he considered inviolate was being demeaned; veneration and respect for young American soldiers killed in the line of duty. General Kelly said, "I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die in the battlefield; I thought that might be sacred."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> It is, Gen. Kelly; it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But not for Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. She was privy to the telephone call made by President Trump to the widow of a soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four American servicemen killed in a terrorist ambush in Niger earlier this month. Mr. Trump had asked his chief-of-staff, "what do I say." Paraphrasing Gen. Kelly, the President was advised to tell the families of the four fallen soldiers that they are among the one percent, the best this country has to offer, who volunteered to join the Armed Services, that they knew what they were signing up for and yet still chose to don the uniform of the United States and set out to far places around the world in an effort to keep terrorism from our shores. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> No fan of President Trump, the vocal and often vitriolic congresswoman, know for her colorful hats, declared Trump's words to the widow were "disrespectful and even questioned Mr. Trump's mental stability on CNN. This follows her several speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives calling for his impeachment. I'm waiting for evidence of Mr. Trump's "high crimes and misdemeanors" from the good Congresswoman. She will find that the basis for such an action in the U. S. Constitution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Gen. Kelly, now White House chief-of-staff was also listening. He took great umbrage with the Rep. Wilson, dismissing her vitriol spewed against the President on CNN and other liberal leaning media outlets as "an empty barrel makes the most noise."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Before he took to the press room podium, Gen.Kelly had gone to a place from which he draws great strength and humility, Arlington National Cemetery, and walked amidst the hallowed stones that mark the final resting place of many of our nation's heroes, some of whom Gen. Kelly noted sadly were there because they were carrying out his orders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> A grieving Gen. Kelly and his wife never received a call from his commander-in-chief, President Obama. Mr. Obama did send a letter acknowledging his son's sacrifice. The General did not perceive getting only a letter as "disrespectful" in any way. He said some past presidents have made calls, though not many. Mostly they wrote letters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Since the loss of his son, General Kelly has continued to serve his country with great distinction, and still does in his new civilian role.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Sadly, the empty barrel analogy speaks to the state of our divisive politics and race relations in this country. Sgt. Johnson was African-American as is Congresswoman Wilson. I can only believe that Dr. Martin Luther King's heart is heavy tonight as I write this. He, who gave the ultimate sacrifice to win civil rights for Americans of color. And equality in the workplace for a white woman like me. I was prohibited by AT&T policy from advancing above a supervisory position with the telephone company. His civil rights movement changed that. And I have been privileged to see Dr. King's legacy benefit my daughter and my granddaughters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But my greatest heroes are my sister, Kathey, and her husband, who, when faced with not being able to have children of their own chose to adopt two bi-racial children. That was in the late seventies, long before it became more fashionable to adopt a child of color. They remain doting parents to their son and daughter and to their daughter's son, who is the light of their life and a young man who now makes his parents, grandparents and aunts, especially this aunt, very proud.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Black lives matter, white live matter, all lives matter. When actor Spencer Tracy must come to terms with his daughter marrying a man of color in the 1969 movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, he delivers a profound soliloquy in which he tells the young couple, what we have is a problem of pigmentation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> As a Christian, I believe we are all made in God's image. Just as the earth is extraordinarily tinted with a plethora of color, so to are the people who inhabit this planet. It is the beautiful diversity God gave us. Let us champion and celebrate that diversity. It is a gift. And if we must kneel, may it be in a house of worship where we pray for those who cannot embrace this gift of diversity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-10172604591669967592016-12-23T22:57:00.000-05:002016-12-23T22:57:24.752-05:00A SHAMEFUL STAIN ON A PRESIDENCY Barack Obama is ending his eight years in office with a shameful stain on his historic presidency. Because of Mr. Obama's personal animus toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States, for the first time since the founding of the United Nations, abstained in a vote of the Security Council that censored Israel for allowing the continued building of settlements which encroach on land claimed by the Palestinians.<br />
While the vote has no hope of being overturned, it will likely have little impact. Netanyahu vows to continue building settlements for Israel's expanding population. And the UN vote may only prove a further impediment to peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.<br />
Criticism of the vote has been blistering from both Democrats and Republicans and well it should. While Israel is not without fault in the continuing conflict with its Palestinian neighbors, it is our most reliable ally in the most dangerous area of the world. Some members of Congress are calling for an end to funding the UN. Since we pay the biggest tab, if that threat becomes law, the UN will likely follow the League of Nations into historic oblivion.<br />
But the most important reason for supporting Israel is this: Israel has preserved the holy sites of the world's three great religions and allowed Jews, Christians and Muslims to freely visit these ancient and holy places in the old city of Jerusalem. For those of the Jewish faith, there is the Western Wall (Wailing Wall), all that remains of the ancient temple on which invading Muslims built the magnificent Dome of the Rock (Al-Aqsa Mosque), the third holiest site in Islam. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old city is considered the holiest site for most of the world's two-plus billion Christians. It is believed built on the site of Calvary, where Christ was crucified, and the tomb in which He was buried.<br />
Prior to the recapture of Jerusalem by Israel in 1967, Christians and Jews were barred from these holy sites. I have been blessed to visit Jerusalem six times and always have had access to all the Christian sites within the old walled city where Jesus Christ spent the last days of his life.<br />
Only once have I been able to visit Bethlehem where Christ was born. That visit occurred during the same week Hamas, a group which remains on the U. S. terror list, took political control of Gaza. Bethlehem is in the West Bank, some distance from the Gaza Strip, but only a few kilometers from the old City of Jerusalem. Our Israeli guide was not permitted to accompany us to Bethlehem, so our small group of ten was welcomed by a Christian Arab. He took us to the ancient Church built on the site where Mary is believed to have given birth to Jesus. We then went to an enclave where about 40 artisans were hand carving Olive wood into beautiful works of art and we were just sitting down to lunch in a restaurant within that enclave when a spontaneous and dangerous demonstration erupted outside. Hundreds of men and young boys flowed past in the wide street fronting the compound where we were eating, many waving Hamas and Palestinian flags, many others shooting rifles into the air. <br />
Fearing for our safety, our host brought his large van around to the back of the restaurant and while we huddled on the floor, he drove us along a bumpy dirt road that skirted the main area of Bethlehem back to the separation wall that divides Jerusalem from the West Bank. Israeli soldiers had been alerted and were waiting to pull us through a narrow gate to safety.<br />
I do not know what happened to that brave Christian Arab. I learned on my next visit to Jerusalem that his restaurant and artisan workshop had closed.<br />
Like most Christians, I pray for peace for the peoples of the Middle East, most particularly since seeing the barbarism of ISIS and the genocide inflicted on the Syrian people by a ruthless regime supported by Russia and Iran. Most of all I pray for the continued viability of Israel and thank God it is in charge of the religious sites that are sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-84697471280105276102016-10-25T14:55:00.004-04:002016-10-25T14:55:57.480-04:00WITH JUSTICE FOR ALL<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> Like most Americans, I will be glad when this
most distrustful and distasteful of all political campaigns finally ends Nov.
8. But it is the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>distrustful</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>part of this campaign that could
linger and diminish our democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> There is no better example of the corruption
that permeates our political system and government at the highest levels than
that revealed in a front page story in The Wall Street Journal, no fan of
Donald Trump. The newspaper reported
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a close friend and ally of Hillary Clinton,
had supported the state senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe last year with a whopping
$675,000. Despite McAuliffe's largess, McCabe lost. Her loss parallels the loss of integrity in our American system of justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> Shortly after Dr. McCabe's defeat, her
husband, a career FBI agent, was promoted to deputy director of the agency and
given oversight responsibilities for the investigation into Secretary Clinton's
use of a private server and possible abuse of national security provisions.
We all know the result of that dubious and recondite investigation. It has only affirmed the politicization of
the FBI under President Obama’s already politicized Justice Department, and become a
reminder of the dark years of the Nixon administration when his attorney
general, John Mitchell, was forced to resign and sent to prison for corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> It appears now Secretary
Clinton will become the first female president of our great nation. But she
will ascend to the highest office in the land under a cloud of both alleged and
proven corruption. She will be sworn in to uphold the laws of our land
and the constitution upon which those laws are constructed. It is something she has shown in her years of
public life an inability or outright refusal to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> This nation has
survived one Clinton. We can survive
another. Afterall, we survived Nixon and Watergate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> More worrisome than the
corruption on display in this campaign is the lifting of the blindfold from the
eyes of lady justice. This symbolizes a
double standard of justice – one standard for those like the Clintons and the politically connected ilk of both national parties and another standard for non-connected Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> It will take good people, with courageous
voices to address upholding that which is right and lawful and wrap the blindfold back
around the eyes of lady justice. It will
be done. We are America and when we
Americans place our hand over our heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we
end that pledge with these prophetic words, <b><i>with liberty and</i></b> <b><i>justice
for all</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-11380564002092685382016-09-24T15:29:00.000-04:002016-09-24T15:29:14.480-04:00HUGS, NOT HATE<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> It is often the most simple kindness that marks our humanity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> In all the chaos that ensured in Charlotte this week, one all too brief moment stood out...when a young African-American man walked up to a white policeman and gave the startled officer a hug and patted his shoulder. A broad smile lighted the officer's face as he lifted the visor of his riot helmet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> On the back of the man's T-shirt were the words 'free hugs.' </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Those words are priceless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> And those words instantly devalued all the shouted words of accusation, of bitterness, of anger that were lifted to the ears of massed protesters by megaphones. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> That one young man told us more about what we should be as Americans than the hundreds of protesters, some of whom veered into lawlessness, looting and pillaging. In the melee of the second night of protests a man was shot to death; not by police, but by one of those who were breaking windows of storefronts and carrying away their ill-gotten loot. The accused murderer in now in jail thanks to video that recorded his heinous act.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Keith Lamont Scott, the African-American man shot by Charlotte police, should have justice. And the wife and children he left behind should be assured that whatever the result of the investigation into his death, it is fair and truthful. As Americans all, we should expect no less from those whom we entrust to protect us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> While this is being determined, we should follow the example of that young African-American man. The next time we see a police officer, smile. And if we have the opportunity, thank them for the protection they provide us. And the next time we see an African-American neighbor, or friend, or fellow worker, or teacher - give them a hug. A hug will bind us together far more than anger. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Long ago in catechism class, I was told we are all created in God's image. The other lesson I learned from that nun so many years ago - God sees His beauty in all of us whether our skin is dark or pale, or somewhere in between.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-23940114744197278622015-11-14T23:19:00.001-05:002015-11-14T23:19:03.714-05:00LEST WE BE NEXT...<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Well into the wee hours I watched with horror and sadness<b> </b>the carnage wrought by so few on so many in Paris. Before even a day had passed we learned at least two Americans were among the victims brutally gunned down by a small band of well-armed Islamic terrorists. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The United States reacted as it always does when confronted with the latest horrific tragedy inflicted by Muslim jihadists on those who do not share their twisted religious beliefs; proffering condolences to the survivors of those killed and disingenuously pledging to do something, without specifying what that something will be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> We did light up some of our great skyscrapers with the French Tri-colors. A colorful gesture. President Obama reaffirmed our shared beliefs in <i>liberty</i>, <i>equality</i> and <i>fraternity</i>. A rhetorical gesture. At best, sentimental, timid responses which may </span><span style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;">only embolden ISIS and its ilk.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"> Weakened by eight years of placating and leading from behind we need to infuse strong new marrow into out national spine with common sense measures. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"> If I may be so bold, Mr. President and members of Congress, here are a few suggestions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"> 1. Immediately stop issuing visas to enter the United States until we locate every person who has overstayed their visa and been duly accounted for and sent back to the country from which they came. Remember the 9/11 hijackers - most were in this country on overstayed visas. In addition, require a trackable visa for <u>everyone</u> entering this country, but only after we have a proven, secure visa system in place. This would create some considerable consternation with our European allies and undoubtedly invite retaliatory measures on the part of some. But it would help keep our shores safe from the lax measures that are clearly responsible for the lack of security within, and between, European countries. Let the hue and cry begin from multi-national U. S. companies that park large sums of capital offshore to avoid U. S. taxes - and higher education institutions in the U. S. that rely on the tuition largess of foreign students. Pass the earplugs please!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> 2. Declare a one year moratorium on new immigration, political asylum, etc., including NOT allowing any Syrian refugees or other refugees from the middle east chaos to enter this country until our visa system is overhauled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> 3. Pass an immediate federal law outlawing sanctuary cities and cutting off all federal education, highway, and whatever other federal funds a sanctuary city has been receiving until it abides by the new law. Such a law would affect over 300 U. S. cities. Mayors and municipal governing boards which continue the practice of sanctuary should be held personally liable, as elected city officials, for civil and punitive damages payable to we the people of the United States.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> 4. To offset the draconian economic impact of some of these measures how about Congress passing common sense tax reform. Lower corporate tax rates might go a long way toward abating the sting of tightened visa controls and bring jobs and investment back to our shores. Mary Poppins said it best; a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"> Last, but not least, let's issue a 24-hour warning to civilians and then try a little "Trump" and bomb the hell out of ISIS in all its lairs in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, the Sinai, etc. and especially any oil fields from which this pseudo-caliphate of terrorism derives its wealth. We pulverized German and Japanese cities in World War ll with much less sophisticated warplanes. It worked then. It can work now.</span><span style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"> </b>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-44981359856307114092013-10-09T20:43:00.001-04:002013-10-09T20:53:00.419-04:00IT ONLY GETS WORSE.... It was a moving scene at Dover Air Force Base this morning when the flag draped caskets of four fallen American service members arrived home. They were welcomed by tearful family members and also by a saluting Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The relatives were there thanks to the benevolence of private donations by empathetic American groups. Taxpayers footed the cost of Hagel's chauffeured ride from the Pentagon to Dover, Delaware, which, by the way, was his first such trip to that base since becoming secretary of defense in February.<br />
Save our returning heroes the mockery of a detached secretary of defense saluting. What he should do is resign. I hope a national chorus of outraged voices will force Hagel to do just that after lawyers at the DOD cited was they claimed was a "loop hole" in the special bill passed by Congress mandating active duty military continue to get their paychecks and family benefits during the government shutdown. Somehow, the benefit that pays grieving families to cover travel and burial expenses for their fallen loved ones was not "spelled out" for DOD attorneys and their boss.<br />
Oh, Pleeease!!!!<br />
If that was not outrage enough - there was this. Iowa congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, carped during a radio interview that there was no towel service in the congressional gym since the shutdown. And poor Congressman Braley said he was having to laundry his own towels. <br />
Aaaahhhhh, poor baby!!!!<br />
Braley, of course, blames Republicans. When asked why the House gym was even open during a government shutdown, Braley said it was not his fault. After all, it was the House Speaker's office which signed off on the gym staying open. Braley might have elicited at least a modicum of respect had he said having the gym open was wrong, even in hindsight, and not just throwing the blame back on the shoulders of Republican John Boehner. That gym should be closed tomorrow, Mr. Boehner, and remain closed for the duration of the shutdown.<br />
Pray for those who are grieving their loss. And add a petition to the Almighty that this country can endure the dearth of leadership until the 2014 elections arrive.<br />
<b>Term Limits</b> are beginning to have the ring of <b>Nirvana</b>.<br />
<br />
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-77432750658963030332013-10-08T23:45:00.001-04:002013-10-09T13:48:21.705-04:00CRY FOR MY BELOVED COUNTRY... My anger know no bounds. <br />
The bodies of five fallen American service members - four men, one woman - are returning home from Afghanistan in caskets, but the Department of Defense has notified the grieving families it cannot release any funds with which to bury these fallen Americans. Nor are there even funds available to bring the grieving families to meet the return of their loved ones from the battlefield when they arrive at Dover Air Force Base.<br />
My God, what has this country come to? Where is the leadership - at the White House - at the Pentagon? In fitting military parlance, they are MIA - missing in action.<br />
Not the President, nor the Secretary of Defense can blame Congress or the Republicans this time. When the government shutdown first began, Congress, in a rare bipartisan vote approved continuing to pay both our military their paychecks and benefits for their families. But the Department of Defense, when confronted with this shameful situation, proclaimed there was a loop hole in the legislation that prohibited it from providing the money that is promised to every military family to cover the burial of a fallen loved one. This is a deplorable display of bureaucratic doublespeak.<br />
I doubt such a loop hole exists. My suspicion is the DOD was following White House edicts in order to impose greater pressure on Republicans in the House to capitulate and force them to yield to White House demands to send a "clean" continuing resolution (CR) bill to the Senate and reopen the government. It has backfired.<br />
Americans are outraged as evidenced by tweets, angry calls to congressional offices and even Democrat pundits who have dropped their talking points long enough to question why such an ignominious decision could have been made by the Pentagon. And the man who is the Commander-in-Chief of everyone inside that geometrically famous five-sided building and all other Americans, has finally gone one step too far in the shutdown standoff. Instead of taking his much traveled and familiar road of placing blame on anyone and anything besides himself, Mr. Obama could have quickly quelled the outrage with one of his famous left-handed signatures. He could have issued an emergency order mandating the DOD provide the funds to bury the five fallen Americans with the same ease with which he has issued countless executive orders.<br />
Mr. President, you deflected your responsibility. And worse, you have proved yourself to be a Commander-in-Chief with callous disregard for those who served under you and paid the ultimate price for their brave service.<br />
Fortunately, other Americans have stepped into the void. Two patriotic groups are providing travel funds for grieving family members and burial funds for the fallen. The actions of these two groups have reignited pride in my country. Thank you and God Bless You.A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-62408471117372023812013-06-16T19:06:00.000-04:002013-06-16T19:10:28.906-04:00OVERALL OVERHAUL NEEDED...<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> If we were appalled at how evasive IRS officials were during recent hearings before congressional oversight committees, then stunned has to be the adjective of choice after watching the Director of the FBI before the house judiciary committee this past week. Robert Mueller defended the NSA surveillance program, but when grilled by a Texas congressman about why the program seemed not to have worked in identifying the Boston Marathon bombers prior to that terrorist attack, Mueller was circumspect, evasive and even combative. And when grilled by an Ohio congressman on the FBI's investigation into political targeting by the IRS, Mueller did not know who had been assigned as lead investigator in the IRS probe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Mueller is scheduled to step down in September, but appears to be taking his retirement a bit early.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> If what we had in the Clinton years was a "bimbo explosion" then what we see in our federal government now is a far more alarming "leadership implosion." President Obama appears detached and clueless. And worse, the lack of leadership from the White House is being reflected by many in top government positions. Mueller is only the latest example.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> What is a country to do?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> How about an overall overhaul of the federal bureaucracy. Congress could start the reforms by decertifying work rules imposed by federal employee unions like the American Federation of Government Employees which boasts a membership topping 700,000. Outrageous work rules allowed by past congresses make firing a federal employee nearly impossible. Example: Lois Learner. She was director of exempt organizations, the IRS department which politically targeted Tea Party, pro-Israel and conservative religious groups (nearly a thousand by the latest count) seeking tax exempt status. Whether a member of the AFGE or not, Ms. Learner is still covered by the same work rules bargained by the union and approved by congress. So, when asked to resign, she refused. And to this date remains on paid leave and continues to receive her six-figure salary. We should all be so fortunate when we lose our jobs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"> The next step would be to appoint a three to five member committee of top business leaders to do a crash study of government overhaul and present it to the congress by the end of the year. Donald Trump comes to mind. And Mitt Romney might be another sound choice to tap for such a committee. He has a impeccable success record as a business leader and according to his critics was able to streamline many companies and close others that were not profitable - an approach we should demand to trim some of the largesse and waste that is wrapped around the federal bureaucracy like juicy fat ringing a sirloin steak.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"> American taxpayers deserve better than what the federal government is currently serving up.</span>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-28780392921973777882013-05-27T00:47:00.000-04:002013-05-27T00:48:15.556-04:00FOR WHOM THE FLAG IS FLOWN Today, American flags drape poles on porches throughout the neighborhood. It is Memorial Day. A holiday. Smells of hotdogs and hamburgers waft across our pond from neighbor's grills. The subdivision pool has opened. It is the start of summer.<br />
From my porch a special American flag waves in the gentle breeze. It is a flag presented to me by an American veteran at the graveside of my dearest friend. I remember the words the man in the V.F.W. hat spoke so softly to me. "We present this to you as a final tribute to Mr. Carter's service by a grateful nation." The presentation of a folded flag is a simple ceremony, one repeated countless times each year when an American veteran is buried.<br />
I had known Howell Carter nearly three years before learning he had been in the military. I recall that fall day in 1994 when he first spoke of the time he spent in the Army Air Corps during World War II. We had stopped to meander through a small cemetery near Leiper's Fork in the rolling hills of beautiful Williamson County, Tennessee. Some of the weathered gravestones dated back to the mid-1800's. One though was more recent. A small, somewhat faded American flag poked out from the side of a newer granite marker. My friend stood silent over that grave for long moments, at one point reaching for my hand. It wasn't until we were back in the car and heading back home that he first spoke of his time in service. Like so many of his generation, those years, those experiences were kept silently within; never mentioned.<br />
We spent many a Sunday afternoon after that driving through the picturesque countryside of Williamson County. And he began to reveal more of his wartime experiences. He said I was the first person he had ever told of those years. They are conversations I cherish all the more, now that he is no longer here to tell me more.<br />
He had just graduated high school when he and his best friend enlisted. They both returned home mercifully unscathed by a war that claimed so many. Like millions of other veterans, they went to college on the GI Bill. Graduated. Began their careers. Married. Started families. For Howell and his wife starting a family did not happen. They chose to adopt and came home with a six-week old son they name Robert. A year later they would learn their child had cerebral palsy. You can give him back the rural Georgia judge who had approved the adoption assured them. He would find them a new, healthier baby. They declined. No child was ever more loved. <br />
The flag that hangs from the pole on my porch is a tribute to a good and solid man, whose values were grounded in the Great Depression; whose courage was validated in World War II; whose life was lived for family and work, without complaint or fuss.<br />
On this Memorial Day I feel great love for that flag on my porch, for the country it represents, and most of all for the man whom that flag honors. <br />
<br />A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-37998227562501272822013-05-17T16:40:00.000-04:002013-05-17T16:40:21.036-04:00"HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE"...REALLY!The congressional hearing room was packed. All the witnesses were in attendance. So were the House members who summoned the witnesses. The only thing missing at today's long hearing was the <u>truth.</u><br />
The committee's star witness, outgoing IRS Director Steven Miller called the harassing of conservative groups applying for tax exempt status "horrible customer service." Some in Washington who are familiar with IRS law are calling it "criminal." <br />
After watching the performance of Miller and the Treasury Department's Inspector General, J. Russell George, I felt Shakespeare summed it up best in <em>Measure for Measure </em>when his character said "You seemed of late to make law a tyrant." I feel certain the 100-plus groups targeted by the IRS because they disagreed with Obama Administration policies felt that the tax agency was wielding tax law like tyrants.<br />
Miller was not fired as President Obama intimated in a hurried statement before the microphones this week, but is simply stepping down as planned at the end of the month. So he was on the public payroll when he repeatedly told house members, "I have answered all questions truthfully." <br />
Really, Mr. Miller? Your memory was so devoid of pertinent information that you should take this opportunity to get tested for Alzheimer's before your federal health insurance coverage lapses. Especially egregious was Miller's denial that any group was "targeted" by the IRS, even though the Inspector General's report used that very word 16 times to describe what was being done to the conservative, pro-Israel and other groups not in "goose step" with the Obama Administration.<br />
Oh, our tax dollars at work!<br />
But, alas, this is but the first act of what may be played out as a long drama before the American public. Miller's replacement is coming directly from the White House staff. How reassuring is that? Will the agency now be forced to admit to its political practices which are patently prohibited by current law, like sharing information from the donor lists of conservative applicants with pro-Obama groups? Forgive me if I have doubts!<br />
And then there is the appointment of Sarah Hall Ingram to head the IRS department in charge of enforcing the provisions of ObamaCare. Where was Ms. Ingram before her recent promotion? She headed the IRS Tax Exempt Division. Yes, the same division that oversaw approval of the application for tax exempt status by the newly formed Obama Foundation in just weeks, but was<br />
still dawdling over approval of the 100-plus applications from Tea Party and other conservative groups for similar tax status, many pending since 2010. <br />
I fear the fox is already in the henhouse!<br />
Let's cut to the chase. A special prosecutor should be appointed and the FBI brought in to investigate. For a change I agree with House Speaker John Boehner - people should not just be fired or demoted, but should go to jail. A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-16384567209784215232012-09-29T16:02:00.001-04:002012-09-29T16:02:42.660-04:00REMEMBERING ROBERTDear Robert,<br />
It has been a long and lonely time since you left on that Saturday evening a year ago. In a voice weakened by the infection robbing you of life, you had told me calmly the week before, it would not be long. Somehow you knew, and with the kindness of spirit with which you were blessed, I know those words were meant to prepare me for what was approaching all too soon. God was calling you home. As you had laughingly told me some years back, when God calls you don't hang up. <br />
Still, I remember stepping outside your bedroom to weep. It could not be. You could not leave me. It was a while before I returned to your bedside. Tears have always been a sign of weakness to me - a giving in to hopelessness. Hopelessness is most surely what I was feeling in those moments.<br />
You had appeared to rally briefly when Rosemary and Robbie came to visit shortly after the doctors told us they had done all they could. Your dear friends since high school, they helped lift you into your wheel chair and roll you out to the sunroom - your favorite room - for one last time to sit and enjoy the view of the tranquil pond behind our home.<br />
How many countless evenings we awaited the descent of nightfall in that very room, talking about whatever, as we gazed at ducks and geese, occasionally a Blue Heron, swim leisurely on the tranquil water, and occasionally wave to neighbors drifting slowly past our view in paddle boats and even a small pontoon boat. <br />
After three trips to view homes in Indianapolis, we had narrowed our search to two. When I ask which one you liked best you replied without hesitation, "The one with the pond, Mom."<br />
And so the home on the pond became our new home, far from Franklin, Tennessee, where you spent more than thirty years of your life. You left behind the two people who had adopted you as an infant; who loved you so much they refused a Georgia judge's offer to trade you for another baby after learning why you were not walking as early as other toddlers or speaking even simple words. You were born with cerebral palsy and macro glacia, which made it difficult for you to form words even after years of speech therapy.<br />
I never met your mother. She died of cancer the same month I moved to Franklin. Shortly after my arrival you came into my life along with you wonderful father. Eight years later we both held him in our arms and wept together when he left us in April, 2000. <br />
He left a will. His worldly goods he gave to you. And you, he gave to me. There could have been no greater inheritance.<br />
I remember the scepticism of the judge when I requested to adopt you. He appointed a Guardian Ad Litem to insure you wanted me as a mother as much as I wanted you to be my son. After interviewing us both, the Guardian Ad Litem recommended the adoption. <br />
Driving away from the courthouse, your adoptions papers in hand, I asked you how you wanted to celebrate. "Let's get a coke at Sonic, Mom." It was the first time you called me mom.<br />
You lie beside your first parents now, back in Franklin. Here in Indianapolis our home is so quiet and so empty without you. <br />
In those first weeks after you left I railed at God for taking you from me. A parent should die first, I reasoned. God seems to have overlooked my early anger and bitterness. He has comforted me with memories, wonderful memories of our eleven years together. I still go to Sam's nearly every Monday. <br />
Like clockwork, every Monday, we went together to Sam's to buy a movie DVD and enjoy a hotdog and coke. We hardly ever missed a Monday at Sam's even when your legs were failing you, making a wheel chair necessary.<br />
Sam's isn't the same without you. On the Mondays I drive there, I feel you are somehow closer. But then I must drive back home, the seat empty beside me.<br />
I loved you dearly, Robert. You became the purpose that filled my life. You were not a child of my womb, but a child of my heart. You were a blessing I never expected, and for which I will always be grateful.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-25281388963913390372012-09-26T23:26:00.002-04:002012-09-26T23:26:56.793-04:00A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-18996740856205326512012-09-22T21:30:00.001-04:002012-09-23T10:24:23.620-04:00AN ARGUMENT FOR ISOLATION... As the truth surrounding the murder of American Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans is grudgingly affirmed by a recalcitrant Obama administration, the horror of what happened on that dark Libyan night two weeks ago, has become appallingly clear. Stevens was the face of America in that troubled country. He was also a man, a good man by all accounts, whose last hours were filled with horrific pain and humiliation - his battered body dragged through the streets of Benghazi after some, who had inflicted death, had also inflicted the humiliation of sodomy. What happened in Libya was a terrorist act.<br />
The duplicitous denials of terrorism by administration spokesmen, from our ambassador to the United Nations, to the White House Press Secretary, to the Secretary of State, to the President himself, should be enough cause to fire Obama. It should also be enough cause for this nation to reconsider our involvement in some parts of the middle east. <br />
We are the most current of a long list of nations - the British and French among others - who have attempted to implant western ethics and values that the overpowering influence of centuries of repressive, and often barbaric tribal traditions, have so far resisted. <br />
The Russians came to Afghanistan for a decade during the 1980's. How did that work out?<br />
We exited Iraq last year. Once the last of our tanks and troop carriers crossed into Kuwait, those who govern Iraq quickly cozied up to Iran. The Taliban continue to exact casualties and treasure from us while they await our long-announced withdrawal from Afghanistan next year, when they will no doubt reemerge as a dominant force in that weak and corrupt nation.<br />
Despite the roiling political turbulence of America's formative years, our founding fathers were always guided by Judeo-Christian ethics, and the additional influence of the English Magna Carta, in drawing up the Bill of Rights enshrined in our Constitution. There are no such beacons to guide middle eastern societies from fractious tribal dominance to the unity required for freedom and democracy.<br />
Congress just re-upped billions in aid to middle eastern nations including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Pakistan, even as the ashes of burned American flags still smolder in the streets of those nations.<br />
How masochistic can we be, especially since America is broke. <br />
A new policy of isolation is in order. Close embassies in countries that revile America and our western ethics. At the least we save on fire insurance costs. Let the Swiss represent our interests as we do in Iran. It's cheaper, and what's more, there would be no American ambassadors to torture, sodomize and murder.<br />
<br />
A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-55091275276235533882012-09-17T22:36:00.000-04:002012-09-18T07:17:07.808-04:00THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING...Children are a gift - God's greatest gift.<br />
I remember when my first such "gift" was two weeks old. She was on my bed, looking up at me with eyes that were only beginning the turn to a permanent azure blue. It those moments, as I peered down at her, I remember feeling the awesome swell of love that comes from knowing this little heap of hairless, pink-skinned infant, whose hands and feet seemed never still, is yours. <br />
The bond between mother and daughter - it is born in those simple moments.<br />
Her introduction to life outside the cushioned environment of the womb was a firm slap. I remember thinking it a rather cruel introduction to her new existence. She appeared to agree and bellowed her resentment loudly. And she would bellow even more loudly in those first formative years when her little behind felt the sting of a human hand for her not infrequent infractions of house rules. I fear she harbors a resentment of such spankings to this day. <br />
The times outs ushered in by her generation of parents are a kinder, gentler, more effective discipline.<br />
As she lay on the bed that sweltering late September afternoon, in the bedroom of a cramped garage apartment in Jacksonville, Texas, I decided to try on her first little feminine outfit. <br />
The dressing of my little doll went fine until I attempted to put a matching bonnet on her head. No Hedda Harper this one!!!<br />
Her little fist balled up in rebellion and after several futile efforts, finally gripped the gay bowed ribbon I had so carefully tied under her chin. In one pull she loosened the bow and in her attempts to rid her head of the pesky bonnet she managed to roll over on her side, something such "newly borns" aren't supposed to do until some weeks later, at least according to my Dr. Spock book. <br />
I snapped a number of photographs before finally relenting and freeing her little head of the bonnet, which she had managed to struggle part way off already. And in the more than half century since that day her attitude toward hat wearing remains little changed. <br />
I to dislike hats. Hat aversion must be a genetic code mothers pass on to daughters. <br />
Happy birthday my darling daughter. Only God could bestow such a gift as you.A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-53816148853044930142012-09-11T23:23:00.002-04:002012-09-12T09:49:09.319-04:00The Poisoned Spring<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Arab
Spring has turned to a cesspool of radicalism and violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual, the religious fanatics, who
underpin the continuous upheaval in the Middle East, directed their violence at
America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
In Egypt and Libya mobs overran our
embassy and consulate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tragically, our Libyan ambassador and three other Americans were killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, on the same day when,
here in the United States, we hung out our flags, stood silent for a few
moments in prayer for the nearly 2,800 people killed on
9/11 - and remembered that beautiful cloudless day eleven years ago when we watched in horror
as American planes were flown into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a
rural field in Pennsylvania, piloted by 19 middle eastern terrorists. <br />
As I watched the American flag that
had flown over our embassy in Cairo being shredded and desecrated by the
intruding mob, I was even more appalled to hear the lame response to that scene
by the Obama state department. No surprise in Obama's America.<br />
Congress is set to return to work
briefly before recessing again until after the election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first order of business should be to cut
off all American aid to both Egypt and Libya.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Immediately and emphatically!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
We dole out nearly two billion a
year to Egypt, mostly for its military, and millions in “humanitarian” aid to
Libya.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America is broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a ballooning debt that now tops
16-trillion dollars and grows daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here is a way for Congress to begin the trimming of federal spending we have
been promised by both political parties.<br />
Egypt’s newly installed government
blames the mob violence on the writings of an Egyptian Coptic Christian living
in America which insult the Muslim faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
There was, of course, no mention by those who now govern Egypt about the killing of Coptic Christians in their country or the destruction of Coptic churches since the onset of the Arab Spring.</span><br />
In the United States such “insults”
are protected by free speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So is
booing the reinsertion of God, and recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of
Israel, into the platform of the Democrat Party. We may cringe at the booing, but respect the right to boo even God.<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In America we<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> can give voice to our dissenting beliefs without fear of violence. It is this constitutionally protected right of free speech that makes America a true democratic republic. </span>It is what sets us apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is one of our great strengths. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It is a reason to thank God each day for the
privilege of being called an American. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> Now we mourn four Americans who died because free speech is a right practiced only by a murderous mod and religious freedom belongs only to those adhere to Muslim beliefs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300640951566560133.post-83440406068654214882012-08-07T00:04:00.000-04:002012-08-07T00:06:43.022-04:00PUTTING PINOCCHIO TO SHAME<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is enough to make Pinocchio blush - Harry Reid's pernicious charge that Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney did not pay income taxes for ten years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">The story of Pinocchio should be required reading for the Democrat Senate Majority Leader. It is apparent from his shameful, blind-sourced accusations of tax evasion by Romney, Reid has not had his "long" nose in any book of any merit lately.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Most shameful of all is Reid used the sanctity of the well of the Senate to declare he had been told by an "unnamed" source of Romney's tax evasion. As a senator, speaking within the sanctuary of the senate chamber, Reid is immune from being sued for libel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Romney promptly repudiated Reid's charges and said indeed he had paid his income taxes for the ten years referenced by Reid, and had paid a lot of taxes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">If, by some stretch of Pinocchio's long nose, there was any truth in Reid's allegations of tax fraud by Romney, why is the Internal Revenue Service not investigating? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">I did not hear Reid call for such an investigation. Did you? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">He is the leader of the Senate and an attorney, who took oaths in both capacities to uphold the laws of this country and its Constitution. </span><span style="font-family: Times;">After all, Romney <em><u>is</u></em> rich. God knows the country needs the money.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">And why are other Democrats not demanding an investigation by the IRS.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">The silence from the Democrat side has been deafening. Except, of course, for "puddin head" Pelosi, whose vacuous mind is rivaled only by the inanity of the words that pour forth through her well-botoxed lips whenever a microphone is close - like the memorable and ever enlightening statement that Obamacare would have to pass in order to know what was in it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Reid's accusation is a new low for American politics. To recognize how low, instead of calling something like this "dirty politics" in the future we should simply say that a victim of such scurrilous lies has been "dirty Harry'd."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">There is one book I would like to recommend the Majority Leader read - The Bible. In Exodus he will find one of God's ten commandments given to Moses - the one that commands "Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor." (Harry, that's Biblical jargon for DO NOT LIE.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Reid could also take a few pointers from Pinocchio on how to shorten his nose.</span><br />
<br />
<br />A.A. Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13835378268283205889noreply@blogger.com0