Why I Cancelled My New York Times Subscription (and You Should Too)

I am a creature of habit. Doing certain things at a certain time on a regular basis gives my life order. My wife thinks I may take this to extremes sometimes and she’s probably right, but it is what it is. I’ll be the first to admit my behavior may border on OCD, but I like doing things the way I do them. My daily routine is something I’ve developed over many years and I wouldn’t do things the way I do without purpose. The reason I spend a portion of every morning reading newspapers is to stay informed. Not the CNN or Fox News versions of informed, but the in-depth, behind the scenes version one can only get by reading quality periodicals. The periodicals I read frequently fall into three major categories; daily news, monthly news and specialty publications. It’s the daily periodicals, the newspapers, that make up a large portion of my routine and those are the ones I’ll address here.

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It Should Be Harder to Vote, Not Easier

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
Winston Churchill

It’s difficult to express my feelings more succinctly than by citing those two quotes. But, I’ll try anyway.

Have you ever watched any “Man on the street” interviews televised by popular talk show personalities? You know the ones. An interviewer takes to the streets of America’s cities and asks random passers-by questions like, “Who won the Civil War?” or “Who bombed Pearl Harbor?” or “Who is Vice President of the United States?” and only one-in-four people can answer the question correctly. Well, guess what? Those three imbeciles who gave the wrong answer get their votes counted the same as you and I. I think there’s something basically wrong with that. (Of course I'm counting you in. If you're reading this, you are obviously intelligent and well-informed.)This is obvious testament to the complete failure of our country’s education system. It is a fixable problem, but one that will take quite a while to resolve. More on that in a moment. In the meantime, I think we should do something to prevent our country’s destiny from being decided by uninformed morons.

I think obtaining a voter’s registration card should be handled much the same way as obtaining a driver’s license. After all, immigrants are required to pass a test on basic American history and civics before being granted citizenship. A test, by the way, that only 3 in 10 Americans would pass. One could argue that with a 97.5% pass rate, immigrants are more qualified to vote than native-born Americans. They certainly have a better grasp of what’s happening in America than your average Kardashian-swilling couch potato that seems to make up the majority of the American electorate. We need a way to disqualify potential voters who can name every winner of “American Idol”, but can’t describe what the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution is about. No, democracy isn’t easy and American citizens should have to earn the right to participate. Sadly, the opposite is happening. All too often, judges strike down even the most minimal local voting requirements like a valid driver’s license or other proof of residency, citing discrimination. It looks like the trend favors letting anyone with a pulse cast a ballot. (Worse than that, the 2012 presidential election saw more votes cast by deceased persons than ever before. But, I won't be discussing voter fraud here.)

A conspiracy-minded person might argue that our government is purposely “dumbing down” its citizens by promoting a school curriculum exclusive of Constitutional principles, our Founders and basic economics.  All this in an attempt to keep Americans so ignorant they won’t recognize how badly their government is screwing them. With a near $20 trillion deficit turning our dollar into a peso, terrorists running amuck within our porous borders and politicians acting as puppets for big money special interest groups, an ignorant populace is required to avoid a revolution. What better way to keep most Americans ignorant than never teaching them what matters in the first place? Far-fetched? You decide.

So, should we allow uninformed dullards to cast their votes with the same weight as those of us who understand the workings of our government and take the time to keep up with current events? I say no. There should be at least some minimum level of understanding required to obtain the right to make decisions about the future of our country. I’m not suggesting that only college grads or even high school grads be allowed to vote, but that there should be some minimal requirement for issuance of a voter registration card. To keep numbskulls out of the voting booth, we need a simple test that asks questions like “Who is the current Secretary of State?” or “How many senators are there?” or “What is the term of a Supreme Court justice?”. Not too hard, right? Hell, make the test multiple choice. Anybody should be able to answer simple questions like that, or at least enough of them to score a passing grade, right? Guess what? Over half of America can’t! In my opinion, they don’t deserve to make critical decisions about who governs us.

I say,

“If you can’t point to Washington D.C. on a map, then you shouldn’t be allowed to help determine who works there!”
Joseph Kelley

It is Time for a Purge!

When will we set political correctness aside and admit there are people living among us that do not deserve to inhabit civilized society.

We’ve tried playing nice. We’ve opened our countries to these animals with all perks included and for thanks, these pigs drive trucks into crowds of innocent men, women and children. They assault crowded theaters and slaughter innocent, civilized people with automatic weapons. They bomb crowds at marathons. They open fire on newspaper offices who dare to question a God who condones such inhuman acts. They publicly behead people, drown people in cages or set them on fire and then post their animal acts for the world to see. I’m tired of hearing about their grievances. I’m tired of hearing about their holy cause. I say fuck them and the dirty sandbox they came from. It’s time to hear the grievances of the civilized persons in our societies. First or which: We are tired of counting the dead bodies of innocent men, women and children! We are at war. We didn’t ask for it or declare it. They have thrust it upon us with acts of barbarism. You can argue that our intervention in the middle-east is at fault, but that point is now moot. No matter what the cause or what justification or excuse the jihadists use, it is time for us to go to war and stop them. It is time to remove this jihadist cancer from our societies. Stop beating around the bush, people. Our world-wide law enforcement and intelligence communities know who the vast majority of these animals are. We watch them cheer and recruit on-line. We watch them gather in public and chant “Death to America”. It is time to remove them from our midst. Today, the French police have begun a much needed process. They are arresting every person suspected of having ties to ISIS. Any person who tweets or posts support for terrorist acts like the one committed in Nice should be immediately jailed. If they are residing with visa status, said visas should be immediately revoked and that person should be deported to their country of origin along with their entire family. If that proves too difficult, then they should be sent to Gitmo until they rot. Additionally, any mosque determined to be preaching support for this caliphate should have its Imam given the same treatment. If this sounds harsh, well, it is. Can you imagine the people of the 1940s tolerating German immigrants cheering on Hitler while they car-bomb a 4^th of July celebration?

Sorrowfully, the time has come to cast a wide net. We no longer have the luxury of simply policing our way out of this. The cancer has metastasized. It’s time for chemotherapy. Unfortunately, like chemotherapy, many good will be purged along with the bad. That is inescapable. I would never recommend such drastic action were it not absolutely necessary. ALL the people these animals target are good, peaceable people. The dirtbags who support ISIS are far too impotent to actually target our militaries and they know it. It is time for “an eye for an eye”. It is time to bomb Raqqa, the capital of the ISIS caliphate, until there is nothing left standing. It is also time to deprive ISIS of revenue by completely destroying the oil infrastructure that feeds them. The nations of the civilized world could do this in hours without a single casualty…to themselves.

Next, we should immediately withdraw all troops from the middle-east and Afghanistan. The western world should not shed one more drop of blood in the region; oil be damned. I’m tired of living in a world where organizations like The Wounded Warrior Foundation need to exist. The ExxonMobils, Royal Dutch Shells and other petrochemical companies of the world are just going to have to live with it. Let people of that region of the world jihad within their own borders and leave the rest of the civilized world alone. They have demonstrated their inability to live among the people of peaceable, civilized nations. As far as their oil; let them drink it for all I care. I’m tired of financing the very people who have vowed to kill us. The only time we should act in the region is when we have solid, actionable intelligence against those sponsoring or supporting terror in any way. Then we should take unilateral action to surgically remove (kill) those terrorists and then leave immediately.

Wake up world (and I’m including the governments of the middle-east). We are running out of time. It won’t be long until even chemotherapy will not be able to rid us of this cancer.

Xenophobic? I think not.

Recently I’ve felt like politicians and members of the press view me as a xenophobe. Well, not directly of course, but they have called people with whom I agree xenophobic. I’m used to being called names and it generally doesn’t bother me because there is usually a grain of truth involved. Like when someone says I’m a “blowhard” or “loudmouth” I don’t get too bothered because I can see how someone might come to that conclusion. I do, after all, tend to state my opinions openly and frankly. I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said, “Tell us what you really think, Joe.” As a libertarian, my participation in political discussions often earns me the “crackpot” moniker, especially when I say things like “all recreational drug use should be legalized” and “a person should be free to marry anyone they choose as long as both parties are willing and of legal age.” As you might imagine, some of my friends here in Texas think I may not have both oars in the water.

I try to explain to people that we libertarians have a novel way of viewing the world. You see, I believe freedom should be legal. What a novel concept, right? As long as I don’t harm any other citizen or infringe on their freedom, I should be free to do whatever the hell I want. If that makes me a crackpot, so be it. I’ll wear the label proudly. One label I will not wear is xenophobe. Firstly, we live in a nation comprised almost entirely of immigrants. My father was the first in his family to be born in the United States. Two of my best friends are now citizens of the U.S., but one was born in Iran and the other in Mexico. Both legally migrated to the States as children. Guess what? Our country is better for having them both. By definition, were I a true xenophobe, I could not make that statement nor count them as friends, correct?

The key phrase in the above definition of xenophobia is “irrational dislike or fear”. Yes, there are immigrants to our country whom I fear and dislike. They are the murderous drug smugglers and coyotes who deal in poison and human trafficking along our southern border. They are jihadists who openly disdain all homosexuals, Jews and other non-Muslims and declare they should be killed simply because they don’t conform to sharia law. They are also the men who believe it is OK to discipline their wife by beating her and that there is no such thing as marital rape.

Yes, I do dislike and (in most cases) fear these people. They simply do not fit into our society. One can even make the case that they don’t fit into any civilized society. I don’t dislike and fear them because they are from another country. I dislike and fear them because of their beliefs and behavior. I fear for my children not being able to live in a country unwilling to protect them for fear of being politically incorrect. There is nothing irrational about that. So call me a xenophobe all you want. It doesn’t change the fact that we simply cannot allow these types of people to continue pouring into our country. It goes against everything this country stands for. Unfortunately, we don’t have an effective way to determine which of the millions of potential immigrants attempting to get here are the murderers, slavers, drug smugglers, wife beaters and rapists. I vote we err on the side of caution. We’ve already proven that once here, keeping track of or removing these animals is next to impossible. Too often we learn of their bad intentions only after we count the bodies left in their wake.

Gun Control Sit-in? Gimmee a F*#king Break!

I have to hand it to the democrats in congress. They’ve found a way to take a horrible tragedy and turn it into a soapbox to showboat their political agenda. This is the most blatant “bait-n-switch” I’ve ever seen. While the entire country is reeling from the brutal massacre in Orlando, democrats stage a sit-in to bring attention to their leftist, anti-2nd Amendment agenda. This is despicable on so many levels I hardly know where to start. So, I’ll start by pointing out how idiotic it is to blame what happened in Orlando on the gun that was used. 

Yes, the dirtbag in Orlando used an AR-15, semi-automatic rifle. Anti-gunners demonize this weapon as an “assault” weapon when the truth is you can get the exact same capability in a rifle with beautiful inlays, hardwood stock and high-power scope. The described is simply a deer rifle. If a rifle is painted black and has a lightweight composite stock there’s no reason to categorize it as an “assault” weapon. It’s just a matter of design taste. The deer rifle has the same rate of fire and is the same .223 caliber. It’s easy for some demagogue to stand up and shout to ban all “assault rifles”, but how do you write a law that makes this possible? Ban all semi-automatic firearms? Ban all rifles under a certain weight? Ban all rifles painted black? See where this goes? There's no way this murderer should have been able to legally purchase an AR-15. It turns out the FBI had investigated him and his family on more than one occasion. A fellow member of the mosque he attended reported his suspicious behavior to the FBI and they ignored him. If you congress persons are genuinly anxious to pass laws to prevent this type of murderous event, then pass some legislation that assures these types of red flags do not go un-heeded. 

How ridiculous is it to think that passing a weapons ban will have any effect on the behavior of jihadist criminals? By definition, laws only affect “law abiders”. How stupid is it to expect jihadists to behave differently because some congress persons pass a law requiring citizens to give up their guns? How ridiculous does this sound?: 

A. “Radical Islamist murders 50 people in Florida.”

B. “Let’s pass a law to disarm law-abiding citizens.”

Have you ever heard such a non-sequitur? Sure, the liberals’ stated aim is to “make it harder for criminals to acquire weapons”, but time and again that has been proven not to be the case. It just doesn’t work. Paris, France is, by law, a totally gun-free city. It is illegal for its citizens to own, sell, carry or transport ANY kind of firearm, yet the ISIS scum there managed to kill 130 people in that gun-free nirvana.

The 2nd Amendment of the Constitution guarantees our right as Americans to arm ourselves. No one gets to tell us we can’t unless our Constitution is changed. The Founders, in their infinite wisdom, provided for this as a final check against a tyrannical government, not for any other reason. Not for the right to self-protection. Not for hunting. They knew the possibility existed that government could get out of control and that tyranny cannot stand against a fed up, armed populace. Period. You may think that this is the stuff of conspiracy theorists and nut jobs. I admit it is far-fetched, but that’s usually the sentiment right up to the point where it becomes true. In any case, it doesn’t matter what you or I think. This is the law of our land. If you don’t like it, change the law. That means amending the Constitution. Good luck with that. Until then legislators, get down off your morally superior high horses and quit preaching to me about what arms you think I should and shouldn’t have. You don’t get to tell me.

So, instead of participating in congressional sit-ins, why don’t members of Congress do something to prevent people like this Orlando scum from murdering their constituents? We’re not so stupid as to believe some half-baked gun ban will do it. As citizens, we give government over half of what we earn to do one thing above all others, protect us. All they seem to do is ask us for more and more while they continue to do less and less of what’s important. Our feckless government is busy directing us toward the correct bathroom and treating us like criminals at airports while letting shitheads like this Orlando scum flood into our country unchecked. Yes, I know he was born here, but his radical parents were not. They are Taliban sympathizers who immigrated from Afghanistan. They should still be there raising poppies like the rest of their countrymen and their murdering son should be there with them. Were that the case, he might still be alive. Certainly, 49 Orlando residents would be.

Note to government: Do your job! Our country is like a trauma patient who’s bleeding out on the gurney and you’re worried about his hair style. If you want to sit-in to protest something, why don’t you adopt a worthwhile cause like finding a way to get 49 million Americans off food stamps?  How about preventing the TSA from making us miss our flights? You know good and damn well that your sit-in was an effort to promote legislation with absolutely zero chance of doing anything effective or even passing, yet you persisted. I think you were simply making noise as a diversion. Your efforts to protect us are so impotent that you have to put up a smokescreen in the form of a sit-in to hide your total incompetence. Guess what? It isn’t working. 

Enjoy your summer vacation.

November is coming.