Thomas Sowell: Misinformed Electorate, Not Trump, Is Real Danger

BY THOMAS SOWELLInvestor's Business Daily

 

Tue, Sep 15 2015 00:00:00 EA13_

 

 

Tomas Sowell

In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one — Donald Trump.
What is even more remarkable is that, after six years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally, under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.
No doubt much of the stampede of Republican voters toward Trump is based on their disgust with the Republican establishment. The fact that the next two biggest vote getters in the polls are also complete outsiders — Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — reinforces the idea this is a protest.
It is easy to understand why there would be pent-up resentments among Republican voters. But are elections held for the purpose of venting emotions?
No national leader ever aroused more fervent emotions than Adolf Hitler did in the 1930s. Watch some old newsreels of German crowds delirious with joy at the sight of him. The only things at all comparable in more recent times were the ecstatic crowds that greeted Barack Obama when he burst upon the political scene in 2008.
Elections, however, have far more lasting, and far more serious — or even grim — consequences than emotional venting. The actual track record of crowd pleasers, whether Juan Peron in Argentina, Obama in America or Hitler in Germany, is very sobering, if not painfully depressing.
The media seem to think that participation in elections is a big deal. But turnout often approaches 100% in countries so torn by bitter polarization that everyone is scared to death of what will happen if the other side wins. But times and places with low voter turnout are often times and places when there are no such fears aroused by having an opposing party win.
Despite many people who urge us all to vote, as a civic duty, the purpose of elections is not participation. The purpose is to select individuals for offices, including president of the United States. Whoever has that office has our lives, the lives of our loved ones and the fate of the entire nation in his or her hands.
An election is not a popularity contest, or an award for showmanship. If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on Election Day is stay home. Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation.

All the hoopla over Donald Trump is distracting attention from a large field of other candidates, some of whom have outstanding track records as governors, where they demonstrated courage, character and intelligence. Others have rhetorical skills like Trump or a serious mastery of issues, unlike Trump.
Even if Trump himself does not end up as the Republican nominee for the presidency, he will have done a major disservice to both his party and the country if his grandstanding has cost us a chance to explore in depth others who may include someone far better prepared for the complex challenges of this juncture in history.
After the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, we are entering an era when people alive at this moment may live to see a day when American cities are left in radioactive ruins. We need all the wisdom, courage and dedication in the next president — and his or her successors — to save us and our children from such a catastrophe.
Rhetoric and showmanship will certainly not save us.
Donald Trump is not the only obstacle to finding leaders of such character. The ultimate danger lies in the voting public themselves. All too many signs point to an electorate including many people who are grossly uninformed or, worse yet, misinformed.
The very fact that the voting age was lowered to 18 shows the triumph of the vision of elections as participatory rituals, rather than times for fateful choices. If anything, the age might have been raised to 30, since today millions of people in their 20s have never even had the responsibility of being self-supporting, to give them some sense of reality.
We can only hope that the months still remaining before the first primary next year will let voters get over their emotional responses and concentrate on the life and death implications of choosing the next president of the United States.

Jonah Goldberg takes on Donald Trump to save the integraty of the Conservative Movment

Jonah Goldberg the Conservative commentator at National Review has taken on Donald Trump much as William F. Buckley Jr. did against  the John Birch Society in 1962. Today Jonah wrote the following: Dear Reader (and those of you with better things to do), There have been times in the past when I’ve gotten crosswise with certain segments of the conservative base and/or with the readership of National Review. And, because, like the Elephant Man, I am a not an animal but a human being, I have always had at least some self-doubt. That’s as it should be. People who share principles should not only hear each other out when they disagree; they should be able to see each other’s points and hold open the possibility that one’s opponents have the better argument. This is not one of those times, at least not for me. I truly, honestly, and with all my heart and mind think Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are making a yuuuuuuge mistake. I think they are being conned and played. I feel like a guy whose brother is being taken advantage of by a grifter. I’m watching helplessly as the con artist congratulates him for taking out a third mortgage. Anger Is Not an Argument Now, before I go on, let me clarify a few things. I get it. The base of the party is angry. They’re angry about Obama’s lawless chicanery on immigration. They’re angry about the GOP’s patented inability to cross the street without stepping on its own d*ck and then having to apologize for it. They’re angry that the Left’s culture warriors are behaving like an invading army that shoots the survivors even after they’ve surrendered. They’re angry that Republicans have to bend over backward so as not to offend anyone, while Democrats have free rein (and at times free reign) to do and to say as they please. Enter Trump, stage left. He makes no apologies. He’s brash. I can understand why some see him as a breath of fresh air. If you want to give him credit for starting a worthwhile debate about sanctuary cities and illegal immigration, fine. I think that argument is way overdone, but certainly reasonable enough. Maybe you just like him. On that, we can respectfully disagree, as there is no accounting for taste. Perhaps you just like his musk and the way it assaults your nostrils, which is fitting, given his line of cologne. Fine. I, on the other hand, find him tedious, tacky, and trite. He’s a bore who overcompensates for his insecurities by talking about how awesome he is, often in the third person. Jonah can’t stand that. You see the next Teddy Roosevelt and all I see is someone who talks big and carries a small schtick. ‘Sup Britches? In words George Will shall never write, this is a good moment to talk about my pants. Earlier this week, Donald Trump attacked Charles Krauthammer and me. By the way, I don’t blame Trump one bit for his hostility. I’d hate me too, if I were him. Still I do marvel at how this supposed Master of the Universe can be unnerved by such criticism. If it takes so little effort for me to set up shop in his head, by all means, let’s give him thermonuclear weapons. Anyway, when asked about me, he said: I’m worth a fortune….I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune… bigger than people even understand….Then I get called [a failure] by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names? As the intern said to Bill Clinton, this puts me in a weird position. I don’t like to brag, but I’m actually quite adept at buying pants. I don’t enjoy it. But I can do it. It never occurred to me to put it in my bio or anything — “Jonah Goldberg is a senior editor of National Review, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a successful pants-buyer” — but maybe I should. Now, I will say that I sometimes choose not to wear pants, and not just because I’m so fond of my spaghetti-strainer codpiece (which affords me the satisfaction of telling really attractive women, “Hey, my eyes are up here. Thank you very much.”) But these are my choices. If I want to identify as a pantless American, who are you to say otherwise? More to the point, what I find so gaudy about Trump is his constant reference to the fact that he made a lot of money, and his expectation that it somehow makes him immune to criticism or means that he’s a better person than his GOP competitors, never mind yours truly. The Trump-Pets Blare. Moreover, I find it horribly disappointing that his fans like this about him. If you met someone in real life who talked this way, you would think he’s a jerk. But somehow he’s awesome when he does it on TV? His biggest fans disappoint in other ways as well. I marvel at how they can simultaneously despise Obama’s arrogance but revel in Trump’s. (I chuckle at all of the people who tell me he’s a heroic truth-teller for “telling it like it is” and “calling it as he sees it” but who at the same time fume at me when I tell it like it is about Trump and call it as I see it.) But most grating of all are the people who sincerely think he should be the Republican nominee for President of the United States. On this, I’m afraid we’re going to have to disrespectfully disagree. First of all, he’ll never be President of the United States. I won’t go into all of the reasons I think this, but a few off the top of my head: his enormous negatives, even among Republicans; the Midas’s hoard of oppo-research material that surely lurks beneath the surface; and his comments about women, which alone would turn the gender gap into a chasm. To borrow a line from Mark Steyn, a President Trump would have more ex-wives than the previous 44 presidents combined But my objection isn’t to the political analysis of Trump supporters. It’s their judgment of the man that stews the bowels. The Purest RINO Which gets me back to the grifter thing. I’ve written many times about how I hate the term RINO because conservatives should consider themselves Republicans in Name Only. The Republican Party is a vessel, a tool for achieving conservative ends. It’s nothing more than a team. Conservatism is different. It’s a body of ideas, beliefs, and temperaments. The amazing thing is that Trump is both a RINO and a CINO. I’m sure he has some authentic and sincere conservative views down in there somewhere. But the idea that he’s more plausibly conservative — or more loyally Republican — than Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, or any of the others is just flatly absurd. It is vastly more plausible that he is a stalking horse for his dear friend Hillary Clinton than he is a sincere conservative. Trump supporters need an intervention. I want to sit them down at the kitchen table, reach into a manila envelope, and pull out the proof that he’s a fraud. The conversation would go something like this: Immigration: You seem to think he’s an immigration hardliner, and he’s certainly pretending to be. But why can’t you see through it? He condemned Mitt Romney as an immigration hardliner in 2012 and favored comprehensive immigration reform. He told Bill O’Reilly he was in favor of a “path to citizenship” for 30 million illegal immigrants: Trump: You have to give them a path. You have 20 million, 30 million, nobody knows what it is. It used to be 11 million. Now, today I hear it’s 11, but I don’t think it’s 11. I actually heard you probably have 30 million. You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that. Question: Just how many rapists and drug dealers did Donald Trump want to give green cards to? Abortion: In 1999 he said, “I’m totally pro-choice. I hate it and I hate saying it. And I’m almost ashamed to say that I’m pro-choice but I am pro-choice because I think we have no choice.” Man, it’s like he’s channeling Thomas Aquinas there. Now he says he’s pro-life. But I’ll spare the mocking on this because at least he’s flip-flopping in the right direction, and I don’t like to second guess peoples’ professed religious convictions. Obamacare: The man wrote in his own book and said elsewhere that he was in favor of Canadian-style socialized medicine — which would put him to the left of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and on pretty much the same page as Bernie Sanders. Hillary: Speaking of her, Trump praised Hillary Clinton and her healthcare reform plan — in 2007! She attended his (most recent) wedding. He donated to her campaigns and to the Clinton Foundation. In 2008, he couldn’t get his head around the fact that Obama didn’t pick her for VP. “I’m a big fan of Hillary. She’s a terrific woman. She’s a friend of mine.” Economics: People tout the guy’s business record. But he represents almost exactly what his supporters think he opposes. He’s a crony capitalist par excellence. He gives to whatever politician can grease the skids for his next deal — and he makes no apologies for it. He’s an eminent domain voluptuary. He abuses bankruptcy laws like a stack of homemade get-out-of-jail-free cards. Parlez vous Conservative? The most troubling defense is this claptrap that he “tells it like it is.” Well, first of all, no he doesn’t. He tells it the way you want to hear it, which is an entirely different thing. He is like William Jennings Bryan, only his cross of gold has an all-you-can-eat buffet under it, and looks remarkably like a capital “T.” 'The people of Nebraska are for free silver, and I am for free silver,' Bryan announced. 'I will look up the arguments later.' That is Trump’s approach. He’s saying what understandably angry people want to hear him say. He reminds me a lot of Mitt Romney, at least in one respect. I always said that Romney “spoke conservatism as a second language” (a line some people ripped off, btw). That’s why Romney called himself a “severe conservative,” talked about how he “likes to fire people,” and anathematized the “47 percent.” Trump is even less truly conservative, but he’s trying to speak in an even grubbier dialect of conservatism. And, having grown up in the tabloid politics of New York, he’s better at faking it. Eventually, I suspect, this will be the cause of his undoing. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know about conservatism, and at some point he will say something that even his biggest fans will recognize as a damning revelation about the real man beneath the schtick. The only question is whether he implodes before or after he does permanent damage to the GOP’s chances in 2016. The Conservative Heart Look, these are rough times for conservatives, for reasons too lengthy, and all too familiar, to go into here. But none of our problems — demographic, political, cultural — can be solved unless conservatives take the cause of persuasion to heart. All of our problems can be fixed by convincing people to join our cause. That is what politics is about — persuading people that their interests and concerns are better addressed by coming to our side. And, given the degraded nature of our culture, I won’t deny that having a celebrity on our side has its utility. But it’s only helpful if that celebrity convinces people to switch sides. As a purely mathematical proposition, it is insane to believe that Donald Trump will convert more voters than he will repel. For those who are interested in persuasion, I heartily recommend Arthur Brooks’s new book, The Conservative Heart (full disclosure: He’s my boss at AEI and a friend). I’ll be writing more about it in the future because I think it’s an important book. But I will say for now that it is almost a mirror image of Trump’s approach. It’s thoughtful, humble, fact- and data-driven, and informed by a deep moral case for conservatism. It won’t satisfy your desire to scream at the opposition, but it will equip you to explain to the opposition why they are wrong.

Historic Speech to the United States Congress

 Today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a historic speech to both houses of the United States Congress and showed the world a man of true courage and resolve in a time of crisis. Some excerpts from that speech:

Because America and Israel, we share a common destiny, the destiny of promised lands that cherish freedom and offer hope. Israel is grateful for the support of American -- of America's people and of America's presidents, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama..........

My friends, I've come here today because, as prime minister of Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people: Iran's quest for nuclear weapons.......

In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran's aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow.

So, at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.


We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest, subjugation and terror......

This deal won't be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control. And the Middle East would soon be crisscrossed by nuclear tripwires. A region where small skirmishes can trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox. 

If anyone thinks -- if anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the road, think again. When we get down that road, we'll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've come here today to tell you we don't have to bet the security of the world on the hope that Iran will change for the better. We don't have to gamble with our future and with our children's future.

We can insist that restrictions on Iran's nuclear program not be lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and in the world......


... no country has a greater stake -- no country has a greater stake than Israel in a good deal that peacefully removes this threat.

Ladies and gentlemen, history has placed us at a fateful crossroads. We must now choose between two paths. One path leads to a bad deal that will at best curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions for a while, but it will inexorably lead to a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war. 
The second path, however difficult, could lead to a much better deal, that would prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences of both to all of humanity

You don't have to read Robert Frost to know. You have to live life to know that the difficult path is usually the one less traveled, but it will make all the difference for the future of my country, the security of the Middle East and the peace of the world, the peace, we all desire. 

 

My friend, standing up to Iran is not easy. Standing up to dark and murderous regimes never is. With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel. 


Elie, your life and work inspires to give meaning to the words, "never again."


And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past.


Not to sacrifice the future for the present; not to ignore aggression in the hopes of gaining an illusory peace. 

But I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over.

We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves.


This is why -- this is why, as a prime minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand.


But I know that Israel does not stand alone. I know that America stands with Israel.


I know that you stand with Israel.


You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history's horrors.


Facing me right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this (inaudible) chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land.

And before the people of Israel entered the land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today, (SPEAKING IN HEBREW), "Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them."

My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength and hope.

May God bless the state of Israel and may God bless the United States of America.


Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all. 

You're wonderful. 

Thank you, America. Thank you.

Thank you.


 Full test of speech here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/03/03/full-text-netanyahus-address-to-congress/

Looking for our Churchill

Peggy Noonan in todays Wall Street Journal:

Republicans this year are not looking for Reagan. They’re looking for Churchill. They’re looking for the guy who knows the war is already here, not the guy who knows the war can be averted if we defeat the guys who would wage it. What is “the war”? Everything from scarily sluggish economic growth to long-term liabilities and deficits; from the melting away of the post-World-War-II order to the Mideast to domestic terrorism. Every four years there is frustration and argument; this year there is urgency........

 a passionate desire to lead America out of the morass, a fiery—or Churchillian—

http://www.wsj.com/articles/sorry-jeb-the-race-is-wide-open-1424994157

Rudy Giuliani is in a way, the child who yelled, "the king has no clothes"

In November of 2008 upon his election as President of the United States I wrote on this blog the following:

The victory speech of President-Elect Obama was also very well done and gracious and time will tell whether he will truly try to lead as a moderate and reach out to all Americans. As anyone who has read this blog for any time will know I have been a vigorous critic of Barack Obama.

Martin Luther King had a dream that one day all Americans would not be
"judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

That is how I judged Barack Obama by his character that I found wanting!

For the sake of the country I love, I hope I have been wrong about him and I intend to give him the benefit of the doubt unless events prove otherwise.

Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama

Well, after 6 years of the Obama Presidency I have reluctantly reached the same conclusion as Rudy Giuliani, President Obama does not love America and has acted in  ways to hurt the nation I love. This is not easy to write or say!
It is possible to disagree with people politically and still view them as wishing  the best for the United States. I give Giuliani credit for being the first major public figure to voice what many of us have felt for some time.  It takes courage to face the wrath of the liberal elites in the media and academia in this country who have been propping up this fraud!

 Ferguson, Missouri  was just one example where Obama poured gasoline on race relations in this country.  He could have been a calming influence but instead he played to the mob and made a bad situation worse.  Time and time again he has divided black from white for short term political purposes. A man who loves America would not have done this.

Time and time again he has apologized to the world for the alleged faults of his own country. He has brought up slavery and "Jim Crow" more than once but neglects to point out that thousands of Americans died at places like Gettysburg and Antietam to end this blemish on our honor.

On foreign soil he has called America "arrogant" when it was the United States who has been the bulwark of the free world since the end of World War II and has given its treasure and the blood of its sons in the defense of liberty around the world.

He has encouraged and abetted thousands of foreigners to cross our borders illegally. Debating and passing new emigration laws are one thing but to disregard the law to allow illegal immigration is another.

He has at the least been passive at best when the IRS has illegally intimidated and harassed honest American citizens exercising  their constitutional rights.


Jonah Goldberg of National Review discuses the issue in the following excerpt:

More from Jonah Goldberg:

More than any other president, Obama was raised with a detachedly critical view of America. He grew up abroad and in Hawaii, which is as close as you can get to growing-up abroad and still be in the United States. (Sorry, I love Hawaii, but it’s true.) At school he hung out mostly with the foreign-exchange students from Pakistan. “For years when Barack was around them, he seemed to share their attitudes as sophisticated outsiders who looked at politics from an international perspective,” David Maraniss writes in his biography of Obama. “He was one of them, in that sense.”

Byron York writes in his piece on the Maraniss book:

But Obama was ambitious. Appalled by the “dirty deeds” of “Reagan and his minions” (as he wrote in “Dreams from My Father”), Obama became increasingly interested in, as Maraniss writes, “gaining power in order to change things.” He couldn't do that as an international guy hanging around with his Pakistani friends; he needed to become an American.

So he did. One of those Pakistani friends, Beenu Mahmood, saw a major change in Obama. Mahmood calls Obama “the most deliberate person I ever met in terms of constructing his own identity,” according to Maraniss. The time after college, Mahmood says, “was an important period for him, first the shift from not international but American, number one, and then not white, but black.”

Mahmood, Maraniss writes, “could see Obama slowly but carefully distancing himself as a necessary step in establishing his political identity as an American.”

His early political years involved similar strategic positioning, from joining Jeremiah Wright’s Church to (according to David Axelrod) lying about his opposition to gay marriage. And it paid off. And when he finally burst on the national scene, he could use his detachment to his advantage. Indeed, his whole approach to politics has been, “People of Earth, stop your bickering. I’m Barack Obama and I’m here to help.” The slogan “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” implies the building-up of a seething desire to make this country different than it is and throw off the dead weight of the past. Whenever he talks unapologetically about patriotism, it is invariably in the context of trying to get the country to rally around some new government endeavor (and, more importantly, himself).



I disliked and disagreed with  JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton but never questioned their love of the USA, but I do for Barak Obama!

Coos Bay/ North Bend History & a Reunion

Now that football season is over I thought I would start posting more on my blog that has been dormant since last September. 

The link below is to a history of the Coos Bay- North Bend, Oregon area from 1940 to 2012. Having grown up in the "Bay Area" from about 1956 till I left for college in 1967 I found it very interesting. The article is written by a Coos Bay attorney who is not a professional historian but more of a reminiscence of the Bay Area over the years

.  
http://www.oregonbayproperties.com/mydata/The%20Coos%20Bay%20Area%20From%201940%20to%202012.PDF

On a related note, later this year I will be returning to North Bend/Coos Bay for my 50th high school reunion from North Bend High. The reunion of the Class of 1965 will be at The Mill Casino which when I was in high school was a real mill owned by Weyerhaeuser. At that time the mill was running three shifts a day during the Vietnam War. Little did we think that we would return 50 years later for our reunion at Weyerhaeuser. The Marshfield class of 1965 is also holding their reunion at The Mill Casino the same weekend and after our separate dinners they will fold back the wall separating the two banquet rooms so we can have a joint dance. Since my parents died I have had little reason to return to Coos Bay so it will be a nostalgic trip for me back in time. Go North Bend Bulldogs!

It's "too late" for Obama to fix the damage he has caused the United States!

 

 

Article by Jonah Goldberg on the damage Barak Obama has done to the United States internationally:

This gets us to the heart of the damage Barack Obama has done. A superpower can cruise on perception for a very long time. Perception is relatively inexpensive. Sure, you gotta float some ships around. Yeah, you might have to run some military exercises. But as long as people think you're sustaining a Pax Americana you are, in fact, sustaining a Pax Americana. But once you let that perception waver, you're suddenly faced with a terrible set of choices. You can't tell the world you're still in charge, you have to show them. If you just talk about red lines and then do nothing to enforce them, further talk becomes worse than useless, it becomes provocative. If you opt to demonstrate your power, you risk failing and confirming weakness. You also risk a horrible escalation as the bad actors respond not with surrender but with even more testing. Does anyone think Putin would be the first to blink at this point if Obama sent troops to Ukraine?

Obama could do everything right starting today (Stop laughing!) and in a sense it would still be too late. It's always more expensive to put down a riot than to prevent it. And it's not entirely clear to me that the American people are willing to pay that price right now. It's much clearer that this president has no interest in asking them to.

 

Everyone mocked George W. Bush for his "I'm the decider" shtick. I never particularly liked the locution myself. But it did get to the truth of the matter. The president has to make decisions. These days, even Dianne Feinstein is willing to admit that this president has problems making decisions. That's all fine and good. But one thing bothers me. A lot of people don't seem to realize that not making a decision is, itself, a kind of decision. President Obama's passive aggression (for want of a better term) has never gotten the attention it deserves. This is, after all, the guy who voted present whenever he could in the Illinois state legislature — not exactly the most high-stakes arena in the world. He's been voting present on a global scale ever since. As John Fund wrote almost exactly a year ago:

Since then, further evidence has piled up that Obama is a dithering, indecisive leader willing to deflect making a decision because of what many see as political calculation. It's one thing when this happens domestically, like when his administration delayed meaningful action by BP and the state of Louisiana to clear up the Gulf of Mexico oilspill in 2010. It's another when it happens in foreign policy — especially in the Middle East. Obama stood aloof during the Iranian street protests of 2009. In Libya, he delayed a decision for weeks until choosing "to lead from behind," in the famous words of one adviser. In Egypt, the administration was caught flat-footed not once, but twice, by uprisings.

 I tried to make this point on Fox News yesterday. Everyone's talking about what the president should say. The assumption is that saying something will reflect a policy of doing something. But that isn't how Obama sees the situation. He wants to say something that will take the pressure off of him to do something. This has always been his M.O. When the IRS scandal looks really bad, he says it's a big problem and an outrage. That takes the pressure off the White House and frees him up from having to do or say any more about it. Now he dismisses the whole thing as a "phony scandal." Obama didn't lay out those "red lines" for Syria because he really meant it. He warned of red lines because doing so liberated him from having to act. When Assad called Obama's bluff he folded. Obama didn't order the surge in Afghanistan to win, he ordered the surge in Afghanistan to free himself from the hassle of having to talk — or think — about Afghanistan.

 

And what is amazing to me is how so many people mistake dithering, buck-passing, and political cowardice for sagacity and strategic genius. Just last week I mocked the ridiculous notion that Obama is a "chess master" always thinking ahead of his opponents. Just this week, Jonathan Alter proves this incandescent idiocy will not die. He writes: "Obama is what was once called a "long head" -- a leader who patiently tries to think a few moves past everyone else. This is a good thing. Thinking hard before reacting is usually the wiser course."

Will someone please provide some examples of where Obama has outthought America's adversaries? The man cowers behind his desk and his fans hang a sign reading "Genius at Work."

 

 

A Sorry Excuse for a President!

This a repost of a post I made almost one year ago and the years events  have only reinforced my opinion of the man as  expressed at that time. I could add the words ISIS, Iraq, Crimea, Ukraine, beheadings, Libya as additional  evidence  he is a man in over his head but it was all there to see a year ago as it is now!

The British have a vote of "No Confidence" when the members of English Parliament  have lost faith in the Prime Minister and his government and want to force a new election.  The United States Constitution has no similar procedure,  but I believe members of Congress should vote NO on President Obama's request for military action against Syria.   Regardless of the merits of an attack on the evil regime in Syria and their use of chemical weapons on their own people, the U.S. Congress should vote NO because it has no confidence in President Obama's leadership in any such  attack.

He has shown himself to lack courage, decisiveness and judgment. Short of a direct attack on the United States no American soldiers, sailors or marines should be placed in harms way under his leadership. Why place American Armed Forces at risk when he will not back them up?

It could be argued that a failure to act on Syria will embolden the Iranian's in their development of nuclear weapons. However, they and we have already determined he will do nothing and  Israel is on it's own.  President Obama will be our President for three years and four months so American's better be hunkered down because, with or without, an attack on Syria, it will be a dangerous time because the bulwark of democracy has a weak, indecisive, self centered leader who lacks courage. I believe in our Constitution and he was constitutionally elected and America will have to live with it's democratic decision and hopefully learn from it's mistake.

He is a sorry excuse for a President  of the United States of America!

A Duck Fan "Comming Home" sung by Mat Kearney

Guaranteed to bring a tear to your eyes if you are an Oregon Ducks!!!

I stand with Israel

History Repeating Itself In Iraq?

Last night on Fox News a retired general who had served in Iraq suggested that with all of Iraq including Bagdad  in danger of falling to an Islamic terrorist group named  Isis that the United States should put retired General David Petraeus  on an airplane for Bagdad to see if he could turn the situation around as he did before during the Iraq war without having to commit "boots on the ground" from the United States.

This sounds very like the situation in the Sudan in 1884. A radical Muslim group under a leader called the Mahdi were terrorizing the Sudan and threating it's capital of Khartoum. An Egyptian army under the command of  British officers had been wiped out by the Mahdi  and the British people in Victorian England were outraged and demanded that the British government send an English Army up the Nile river to save Khartoum. England's Prime Minister, William Gladstone, didn't want to commit British troops to such a relief effort up the Nile from Egypt so he sent General Charles "Chinese" Gordon,  who's exploits in the British colonial empire were well know, to evacuate the Europeans trapped in Khartoum.

General Gordon being the character he was got to Khartoum and mounted a defense of the city that was successful for a number of months. Gladstone hearing of Gordon's defense was then forced to send a British Army up the Nile to "save" Gordon but it was too late. In the end, Gordon  and 10,000 people in Khartoum were killed by the Mahdi and Gordon's head was brought to the Mahdi and his body mutilated.

There have been numerous reports that the Isis in Iraq have been beheading their captured foes.

Some things never change in the Middle East!

35th Anniversary of John Waynes Death

John Wayne died 35years ago today. I still remember what I was doing when I heard the news.

Has it really been 35 years?  "Hard to believe, isn't it? Hard to believe."
Spoken by Wayne to his wife at her grave in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."

He lives on in my DVD/Blu-Ray Library.

Obama's Worst Nightmare !

New Links for my Law Office

I keep my work as an attorney separate from this blog; but, if you want to check out the  Facebook page for my law practice you can find it here:

https://www.facebook.com/jameswickreattorney

And the link to my Law Office Blog:

http://jamesawickreattorney.blogspot.com/

Jerry Norton's Funeral at Arlington National Cemetary, April 11, 2014

From The Barron:

On a clear, cool and bright spring morning, when Washington’s cherry blossoms were at their peak, dozens of family and friends gathered to memorialise former Reuters colleague Jerry Norton on Friday at Arlington National Cemetery, one of America’s most revered places, writes Greg McCune.
The 30-minute ceremony in Section 60 of the famous cemetery, which is located on what was once the estate of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was led by a military chaplain who spoke of Norton’s valour in serving his country, and read scripture passages.

“You cannot buy your way into this hallowed ground,” he said to the mourners, led by Norton’s wife Kim and son Michael. “You have to earn it.”

Surrounded by a sea of white tombstones, a seven-member rifle squad fired the traditional 21-gun salute, and a lone bugler intoned “Taps”. Then a Marine honour guard holding an American flag carefully folded it into a triangle and presented it to Kim.

Army Specialist Norton earned the right to be interred at Arlington because of his service in the Vietnam War, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded during a mortar attack at Song Be. Kim said he dived out of a window during the rocket attack to save his life. He was hit with shrapnel in his shoulder, wrist and back, and a piece was lodged in his arm for the rest of his life.

Typical of self-effacing Norton, he never mentioned to some of his friends that he had been wounded in battle and won the Purple Heart, as well as other commendations. Kim said he kept the medals in a drawer and when she asked about them, he mumbled something and put them away.

Several family and friends remarked about this humility and reticence during a reception at the National Press Club that followed the solemn graveside ceremony. Friends and family remembered Norton as a father, brother, uncle, friend and journalist – including comments from former Reuters colleagues Peter Bohan, Greg McCune and Brian Bain.

Norton died at age 67 in December after an inoperable brain tumour was discovered within months of his retirement from Reuters in 2011. Several people who spoke at the reception remarked how he had been taken from them too soon.

He served in the US Army from 1968 to 1970 including a one year tour in Vietnam and was first assigned to an artillery unit, where he sustained the injuries. His great Army friend Terry Turner was not able to be at the memorial, but wrote that he believed both their lives were saved because they could type, which qualified them to be assigned to public information units. Norton became editor of the division magazine, a coveted post because it involved a 30-day trip to Tokyo to assemble and print the magazine.

Such was Norton’s devotion to fairness and balance in journalism that many of his colleagues at Reuters never knew of his avowedly libertarian political views, or that he had once run for the Virginia legislature as a Republican. He won the primary but lost the general election in a heavily Democratic district. He also worked for the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom both after leaving the Army and again after he retired from Reuters.

Journalism took him back to Asia where he would work for Unicom, the South China Morning Post and then Reuters. In Asia, he also met and married Kim, who was born and raised in Vietnam.

He joined Reuters in 1986 as a filing editor at then regional headquarters in Hong Kong, and over a 25 year career was news editor in Japan, bureau chief in Singapore and Indonesia, deputy desk editor and deputy political and general news editor for Asia. He returned to Washington in 2010, where he worked for the startup Reuters America service aiming to compete with AP. He retired at the end of 2011.

Peter Bohan, the Singapore bureau chief before Norton, and his last supervisor before Norton retired, spoke of the important part he played in launching a new service in the United States in 2010 and how he quietly mentored journalists and stringers.

Brian Bain noted how Norton distinguished himself covering and directing the coverage of some of the biggest stories in Asia over the last 20 years including the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Bali bombing.

Bain read out comments from colleagues who had worked with Norton in Asia including Kim Coghill, Tony Winning, Rodney Pinder and Eric Hall.

“The frequent and controlled, curved smile could have meant a few things, but the crow’s feet at the corner of the glistening eyes always told you that Jerry Norton was on your side, if you wanted him to be,” Bain read from a note written by Hall, a longtime colleague of Norton. “Perhaps Jerry would not mind if we said he was a great American, with all the values and disciplines that phrase imparts in the best sense,” Hall wrote.

Wish I could be there for the Ceremony old buddy!

Jerry Norton, 67, longtime journalist, National Press Club member, and Vietnam war veteran, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 11.
His family invites friends and colleagues to join them at Arlington at 9:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. service, followed by a reception in his memory in downtown D.C.
Norton was a Commodity News Services/Unicom News reporter in Washington before becoming regional editor in Hong Kong and executive editor in London. He spent 25 years in Reuters as a senior correspondent or veteran editor in Hong Kong and Tokyo; was bureau chief in Singapore; bureau chief in Indonesia; and lastly, editor in Washington.
He joined CNS and the NPC in 1974, soon after gaining his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University. Before that, he served in the Army in Vietnam, after having graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon. He left Vietnam with shrapnel in his body and with a purple heart and other decorations.
Between his UNICOM years and his 25-year career at Reuters, Norton served as business editor of the South China Morning Post. He was twice based in Singapore and twice president of Singapore’s Foreign Correspondents Association, besides being a member of the FCC in Hong Kong and the FCCJ and Overseas Press Club in Japan.
Norton worked for Phillips Publishing in Washington at one point early in his career.
After retiring in 2011 from Reuters in D.C., he worked as executive director of the Young America’s Foundation National Journalism Center until he became ill. He had served on the Young Americans for Freedom national board while at the U of Oregon and was active in YAF after his Vietnam service until his journalism career began.
He died Dec. 15, 2013, after a 14-month battle with a brain tumor. Norton is survived by his wife, Kim, and son, Michael.


Next time I  am in Washington I will stop by to say goodbye in person.  Not bad for a "kid" from Coos Bay, Oregon.

Picture of Jerry when he was an undergrad at the University of Oregon featured in a Eugene Register Guard newspaper story dated Sunday, Feb 25, 1968. Jerry is quoted as saying: on politics" the majority of YAF members support Gov. Reagan for the 1968 Republican nomination"  Jerry was ahead of his time.  Reagan wouldn't get the nomination for 12 more years until 1980!

Great Ted Cruz Video

 

Not your timid politician! This man is a LEADER! He may be too "hot" for the general public but if this country continues on it's downward spiral the times may be so desperate the nation will look to Ted Cruz!

"Nothing is too good for the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"

Last night I watched this 1962 movie on Blu ray.  I originally saw the movie as a kid at the Egyptian Theater in Coos Bay Oregon when it was first released. Now with 52 more years of experience I truly appreciate it.  In the intervening years I have seen it on TV and I own the VHS tape and the regular DVD.  However, blu ray made it come alive.  A lot of times blue ray movies are only a little better than the DVD version; but, this is a vast improvement for a black and white movie.  It has not been released in blu ray in the United States but it has in the United Kingdom in a format viewable in both countries. I was able to get the British import through Amazon and it is a welcome addition to my John Wayne/John Ford video library.

This was director John Ford's last great movie and has the usual John Ford "Stock Company " of actors.  John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart are both too old for their characters but this doesn't matter because this movie is about lost love and the coming of civilization to the American West. The story starts in 1910 when a United States Senator, Jimmy Stewart, and his wife (Vera Miles) return to the town of Shinbone somewhere in the American West for the funeral of the John Wayne character. The story then goes into flash back to when Jimmy Stewart is the new young lawyer in town and he and Wayne are both in love with Vera Miles. Lee Marvin plays the most villainous man this side of the "Picket Wire" river. Ford uses his usual broad humor much as Shakespeare did. "Ann Rutledge's Theme" used by Ford in Young Mr. Lincoln in 1939 is used again here to represent the lost love aspect of the movie.

Don't expect the grand scenery of Monument Valley. Much of the movie takes place at night and many scenes were filmed in a studio back lot . Blu ray does make it much less dark pictorially  than prior releases with a crisp clear picture.

The movie has been referred to "as an old man's film" and I agree considering my reaction in 1962 verses last night. Ford was an old man when he made it.  Many have critiqued the move as "imbued with cynicism, pessimism, and irony" and it has all of that but it also looks back to the past with nostalgia. As one character states near the end: "Sir this is the West, when legend becomes fact print the legend"

Republican War Against Tea Party

This is a great segment on Sunday with Pat Caddell on Fox News that the reason the Republican leadership in Congress has not pushed for high level investigation of the IRS for targeting the Tea Party is because they want the IRS to go after the Tea Party.

 

 

 

These are the same establishment types that led us to  defeat with George H.W. Bush for a 2nd term and the defeats of Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Good men all, but not good candidates. I  fought them in 1964 when they tried to defeat  Goldwater( both in the nomination process and the general election) and 1976 and 1980 when they tried to defeat Reagan. I abandoned the cause in 1968 for Nixon which  I deeply regret.

I will support the nominee of the Republican Party but it's time to take on the establishment Republican party one more time.

I support Senator Ted Cruz because he wants to take the fight to the Democrats.

Jerry Norton & Vietnam

I have posted on this blog before (http://jimwickre.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-friend-jerry-norton-rip.html) about my high school/collage friend and political mentor, Jerry Norton, who died too soon late last year; but, I have just discovered a wonderful reminiscence by one of his army buddies who served with him in Vietnam. I reproduce it here:


How the Ability to Type Saved the Lives of Two Skytroopers!" I first met Jerry Norton in the second week of February, 1970, in the tropical paradise of Phuoc Vinh, South Vietnam. How we got there is a story for the ages and the fact that we both survived Vietnam came down to a unique weapon--the typewriter, proving once again that words are mightier than the sword. Both of us were drafted, he from Oregon and me from Ohio. Jerry did basic training at Ft. Lewis, Washington and artillery school at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. I did basic at Ft. Dix, New Jersey and infantry/81mm mortar school at Ft. Lewis. We both were assigned to the lst Air Cavalary Division. Jerry to Vietnam several months before me and was assigned to a lst Cav artillery battery in Song Be. (The Cav operated in III Corps with brigade headquarters in Son Be, Quan Loi and Tayninh. The division commander operated out of Phuoc Vinh), Jerry was part of a l05mm howitzer crew and fired that gun daily as the enemy constantly blasted Song Be and sent the bad guys through the wire on a regular basis. Jerry's first lucky day came when he learned the battery commander had no clerk who could type. Jerry quickly volunteered, being a renowned typist, and he came off the line. However, he was not completely safe, which became apparent one night when the VC attacked Song Be yet again. Jerry grabbed his M-16 and headed for the Green Line, but incoming rockets splashed schrapnel every where and Jerry was hit, but not very badly. He won the purple heart and I believe he carried at least one piece of schrapnel forever. Jerry's second lucky day came shortly thereafter when he read a recruitment ad in the Cav's weekly newspaper, advertising for people with journalism degrees and real-world experience for assignment to the Cav's Public Information office in Phuoc Vinh (In its infinite wisdom, the Army never trained enough people to be clerk/typists or PIO types, which is why they had to be recruited in Vietnam). Jerry sent a resume to the PIO commanding officer, Major J. D. Coleman, was interviewed by Coleman and bingo, Jerry was out of the artillery and sitting pretty in the PIO office in Phuoc Vinh. Having dodged rockets and survived, there is no doubt his assignment to Cav PIO saved his life. Likewise, being able to type saved my life. I was two days away from being sent to the "boonies" with an infantry company to kill the bad guys. A personnel corporal appeared out-of-nowhere and announced that if anyone could type 30 words a minute and had a college degree, come see him immediately. I did. The corporal reviewed my personnel file, saw that I had a BA in journalism from Ohio State; a MA in journalism from Wisconsin plus real-world experience working for the Wisconsin State Journal and a secondary Army job title of 71Q (Information Specialist) and called the very same Major J. D. Coleman in Phuoc Vinh. I didn't even have to interview. The next day I was in Phuoc Vinh, out of the infantry and the mortar platoon--all because I could type. It saved my life! Jerry and Terry, both saved because they could type .Because of that bond, we remained friends for 44 years. Life in the 1st Cav PIO was interesting and boring.  We had reporters, photographers, artists and broadcast people preparing stuff for the weekly newspaper and four-color magazine. We had PIO offices in Phuoc Vinh, Song Be, Quan Loi, TayNinh and Bien Hoa. All of us competed to get stories, pictures and art work in the weekly newspaper or our four-color magazine. The broadcasters did taped interviews with "Skytroopers" and sent them to hometown radio stations, which was a big hit. There were four "plum" jobs in Cav PIO:  1) 90-120-day temporary assignment to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network in Saigon; 2) 90-120-day temporary assignment to the military newspaper "Stars & Stripes" (to the bureau office in Saigon; 3) editor of the weekly newspaper which put you in Saigon every Thursday and Friday to put the newspaper together for printing and, the most coveted job of all--editor of the division magazine, which included a 30-day temporary assignment, usually to Tokyo, to assemble and print the magazine.  There was never any doubt in my mind that Jerry would get the magazine job and he did. And absolutely nobody complained. Jerry let me write one of the stories for his issue. I got the job as editor of the newspaper and later, when I extended my tour in Vietnam to qualify for an immediate discharge, I got the magazine job.  The money had finally run out, so I was down-graded to 30 days in Taipei, Taiwan. While in Phuoc Vinh, Jerry and I learned just how boring it was being stationed at a base in the middle of nowhere. The base was several hundred acres, complete with its own airfield for countless helicopters and three-different Air Force prop planes (no jets). Only helicopters were allowed to spend the night. We only had "outhouses" and bathing took place standing below a 55-gallon drum of water with one spicket. Entertainment consisted of drinking (beer, liquor and cigarettes could only be bought with a GI ration card); your own 8-track tape machine and you own radio; one television in the 1st Cav Press Camp (complete with a bar (beer only sales) and the infamous "After Chow" jungle volleyball games (no rules-kill or be killed). We had a large press contingent pass through our press camp, including reporters from ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times, Washington Post and just about every big-city newspaper.  More times than not, we sat in our editorial shop, talking politics, going home and what we missed the most.  Jerry always headed up the political talks and his conservative outlook was not always appreciated but everyone soon learned that if you want to argue politics with Jerry, you had better have your facts well in hand. In fact, if you wanted to talk about anything with Jerry, you had to be up-to-date and relevant in your thoughts. One night Dave from Michigan tried to argue with Jerry (Oregon) about which state was the better to live in and which was better to visit as a tourist--kind of a Chamber-of-Commerce shoot-out!  Dave never understood that his gun wasn't loaded and he didn't have a chance against Jerry. Those of us who witnessed this epic battle of words were convinced, when the smoke cleared, that when we returned to the "World" we should move to Oregon.  Lesson learned:  don't mess with Oregon or Jerry! When I left the Army, a friend helped me get a journalism job in DC (bad recession in 1971) and Jerry and I were roommates He in two different apartments in Alexandria. He was working for YAF at the time in various editorial positions. Politics was his love and he ran for the House of Representatives in the Virginia legislature. I had moved on to work in the national trade association world with the lobby for the distillers. My generous boss passed along some of the "good stuff" and I sold cocktails at fundraisers for Jerry's election. He won the Republican primary but lost the general election. If he had won, I am convinced Jerry would have remained in politics forever. His focus changed and off he went to the Columbia School of Journalism and his second wife. Believe it or not, after escaping Vietnam, Jerry went back to gather material for his thesis. His wife was a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines and he flew at virtually no cost. Jerry arrived back in Vietnam after U.S. forces pulled out and before the North Vietnamese took control of the entire country. Jerry rode buses all over South Vietnam, most notable Route l, the only north-south paved road in the country. How he could go back there is beyond me, but Jerry had a nose for the story, the travel and adventure. I believe the Foreign Correspondent bug invaded him during this second posting to Vietnam. Jerry got his MA from Columbia and returned to DC where he took a job with Phillips Publishing Company as vice president and chief editor. But he wanted to be a daily reporter and he wanted to write about business and economics. A fellow Buckeye, Linda Vance, bureau chief for Commodity News Service, gave Jerry his first daily reporting job and the career began. He moved to London with CNS and then on to the Far East, highlighted by a 25-year career with Reuters. It was hard to stay in touch with Jerry (no email), but we crossed paths in the 80s when I passed through Hong Kong and Jerry was the Business Editor the South China Morning Post, the most prominent English-language daily in Hong Kong. The first night, Jerry gave me a tour after work (the job and the story always came first). My second and last night, we were to going to have dinner at one of Jerry's favorite joints. But a story came up and he didn't get to my hotel until 9:00 p.m. So we sat in my room looking out over Hong Kong Harbor, eating $15 burgers and fries with countless bottles of Heineken. We told more stories and lies then most mortal men could imagine; talked about all our buddies from the lst Cav and laughed until we cried. At one point, I just stopped, looked at Jerry and said, "Norton, we are a one hellua long way from Phuoc Vinh." Ever the suscint reporter, Jerry simply said, "No Shit!" And then we laughed until we could no longer breathe. The Bond of theTyping Fools of Phuoc Vinh had been reconnected, re-established and reconfirmed despite years of not seeing each other. I didn't see Jerry again until 2011 when he took a Reuters job in DC but Email kept us up to date. I was visiting my son and daughter and Jerry and I had lunch together in Shirlington with another old buddy, Dave Collogan, who had just retired as the 40-year editor of the publication, "Business Aviation." The stories, the lies and the BS were endless, but priceless. I talked to Jerry regularly after, exchanging emails, too. But little did I know that it would be the last time I would see him. There is no doubt in my formerly military mind that Jerry is sitting up there at the right hand of the Editor-in-Chief, writing his speeches, proclamations, press releases, blogs and all social-media material. Maybe Jerry can get me a job on his staff when my time comes? Not likely, as Jerry rode the "Up" escalator and I think the "Down" escalator has my name inscribed in fire and brimstone. But I learned long ago to never underestimate Jerry. He could work with anyone and  accomplish anything! Jerry was a tremendously talented journalist and reporter, but more importantly, he was a great guy. Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee and nobody didn't like Jerry Norton. His sense of humor, his wry smile that covered his face when he cracked off yet another pun and his ability to get along with everyone are rare qualities in this divided country. Jerry and I are tied together at the hip because we were brought together reluctantly by our Uncle Sam and the simple fact we could both type. The typewriter, I firmly believe, saved out lives Out of those old Royal and Remington typewriters came a story of brotherhood that lasted 44 years but should have lasted much longer. If ever one man deserves to rest in eternal peace in the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery, it is Jerry William Norton. Rest in peace Skkytrooper. Gary Owen, mo fo!

Posted by J. Terry Turner on 01/24/2014

Since hearing of Jerry's passing I have seen many of his friends from    various times in his life  come forward with their wonderful  stories about Jerry and their friendship and how he touched so many people. That speaks well of a man!

 

 

Un Cover Oregon "Drinking Game"

The Oregon Collage Republicans have come up with a satirical and humorous "drinking game"  as the Oregon Legislator,  controlled by the Democrats, attempts to "cover up" the disaster that is Cover Oregon. The Cover Oregon website has been in "operation" 4 months( yes 4 months) and still has not registered ONE person in Obamacare.

 

Abortion!

I often feel guilty about not doing more to end or at least limit the number of abortions in this country.  I sometimes feel like those that hated slavery before the Civil War but didn't want to speak of it in "polite society" because it was such a divisive subject. Brit Hume of Fox News gave this commentary yesterday on abortion:

 

BRIT HUME: This is the 41st anniversary of the day the Supreme Court found that a generalized right to privacy it had basically invented, meant that a woman has a constitutional right to snuff out an unborn life, a human being with a beating heart. That's what a fetus as young as six weeks is.

Small wonder these protesters still come every year to register their continuing objections. Some estimates are that as many as 55 million abortions -- 55 million -- have occurred since the Court acted. In that time, science has given us an ever clearer picture of just how much of a baby a fetus is. At 20 weeks, we now know, these tiny creatures can hear, even recognize a mother's voice. Their toenails are growing and their hearts beat loud enough to be heard by a stethoscope.

The moral case for allowing such beings to be killed grows ever weaker and its advocates resort to ever more absurd euphemisms to describe what they support. They're not really pro-abortion, they've long said, they're pro-choice. This isn't about killing unborn babies. it's about reproductive health. And the biggest chain of abortion clinics in the country refers to itself as Planned Parenthood.

In 2012, this organization says it carried out -- quote -- "abortion procedures" 329,445 times. Whatever that number represents, it's not parenthood. These protesters here today understand that there is something deeply false and wrong about all this. They come each year to remind the rest of us.

Yes, it is wrong and I am against it and it is evil and barbaric !

Home for Christmas

One of the best part of the Christmas Holidays is having our adult children come home. Since they both live in the Eastern time zone we don't get to see them that often during the year. Last night we arrived back in Medford at the Rogue Valley International Airport with our son after visiting Lexington, Kentucky to see him receive his PhD in History from the University of Kentucky.  We  will go back to the airport  tonight to pick up our daughter who is coming in from Washington D.C.. (She drove to Lexington for John's graduation but then back to D.C. as her flight had already been booked) I love this time of year and the trips to the airport !

My Friend Jerry Norton RIP

Jerry Norton who died in Maryland, a week ago on Sunday, of brain cancer  was my friend,  political mentor and hero.  From afar Bill Buckley was my mentor however I only met him once. On a personal level it was Jerry Norton.

 

Jerry was in the class of 1964 at Marshfield High in Coos Bay, Oregon. I was in the class of 1965 at North Bend High a few miles away. We met in the heady days of the draft Goldwater campaign in 1963. Jerry formed the first chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) in the Coos Bay area. I followed him as President when he left for collage at the University of Oregon. At Oregon he formed another chapter of YAF and I followed him there and again  succeeded him as president.   After graduation from the U of O he entered the Army and I followed him a year later after my graduation. In the years that followed when he worked overseas as a journalist  I treasured the phone calls, letters and brief visits we had. Jerry was my mentor and I will miss him and his quiet wisdom. Being a conservative on a collage campus was very lonely during the turbulent 60's but having Jerry on our side made all the difference. The fight goes on for individual liberty.

 

Here is the obituary from the YAF website:

 

 

Early Sunday morning on December 15, Jerry Norton lost his battle with brain cancer. He fought for 14 long months but was unable to overcome the pneumonia that developed during these past few weeks.
Jerry most recently served as the executive director of Young America's Foundation's National Journalism Center from 2012 to 2013 before he became ill. We will miss his sharp mind, great sense of humor, half crooked smile and mild-mannered presence.
Jerry served on the board of Young Americans for Freedom in college after working on the YAF staff as college chapter and publications director, and also served as editor of YAF's New Guard magazine from 1971 to 1973.  
He had been a Reuters bureau chief in Indonesia and Singapore, Reuters news editor in Japan, and one of its editors in Hong Kong, Singapore and Washington. He traveled on assignments for Reuters to China, East Timor, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines and other countries.
As Asian deputy editor in charge for political and general news from 2007 through 2010, with a brief for South Asia coverage, he oversaw coverage in India and the rest of the Subcontinent, reinforcing in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and several times in Pakistan.
Prior to his career of more than 25 years with Reuters, Norton was the business editor of Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper; worked in Asia, Europe and the U.S. for another news agency; was vice president and managing editor of Phillips Publishing in the Washington area.
An Oregon native, Norton graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon Honors College.  After service in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he won a Purple Heart and other decorations, he attended Columbia University, earning a master's degree from its Graduate School of Journalism.
He was a long-time member of the Philadelphia Society and was twice elected president of the Singapore Foreign Correspondents Association.


Jerry is survived by his wife, Kim Thoa, and son, Michael Norton.

Jerry will be buried as he requested at Arlington Cemetery.