About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Removing The Influence Of BO, de Blasio, & Sharpton Is Key To Solving Race Problems

"The (anti-police) rhetoric this time is not from the usual suspects, but from the Mayor of New York City, the Attorney General of the United States, & even the President.  It emboldens criminals & sends a message that every encounter a black person has with a police officer is one to be feared." - Howard Safir, former NYC Police Commissioner from 1996 to 2000 under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, writing online for Time magazine on December 21, 2014. 
 
The Thin Blue Line Emblem used by law enforcement to commemorate fallen officers.
 
Even the least discerning among us must sense that BO has raised the stakes for America since the 2014 midterm elections with his executive actions regarding 1) the biggest rewrite of U.S. immigration policy in decades that removes the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants & 2) the normalization of relations with Cuba that will do nothing but aid the Castro brothers who will wind up with any tourist or trade money as the general population remains tyrannized.  In addition BO has escalated the release of prisoners from the Guantanamo prison & has consistently worked to harm race relations during his entire term as former Police Commissioner Safir describes above. 
 
These are not the type of issues we faced with Jimmy Carter when he told us to put on a sweater in the winter, raise the thermostat setting in the summer, & comply with voluntary wage and price controls – in short the good old days.
 
After becoming Mayor of NYC in 2014 Bill de Blasio joined BO @ the top of the most committed anti-American communist leaders elected to high office by We the People of the United States.  Such politicians @ this level clearly plan to confiscate the wealth created in America through any one of several methods – the most stunning involving the takeover of the military & police.  Think NoKo or Cuba except with infinitely more wealth to confiscate - & that is why the focus is on America & not Darfur for instance.
 
However, de Blasio never thought things could go wrong this quickly for him but the murders of two NYC police officers on December 20 jeopardizes his plans to make everyone in NYC wards of the city except for a very few elites. 
 
After all in November 2013 de Blasio had won the Mayor's race 72% to 28% after clearly campaigning on anti-police priorities such as reining in the "stop & frisk" police technique that had been so successful in cleaning up NYC crime.  In addition de Blasio had campaigned on raising taxes on high income earners, stopping the practice of closing low performing schools, & slowing the growth of charter schools.  The new mayor was sworn in by Bill Clinton with Hillary on stage nodding & clapping approvingly in a sign of things they hope to see nationally.
 
Recently de Blasio & BO along with their joint top aide & adviser, Al Sharpton, had all encouraged the on going anti-police protests centered around the grand jury decisions to not indict policemen in the Mike Brown death in Ferguson, Missouri last August & the Eric Garner death last July in Staten Island.  Because of these protests New Yorkers have had to tolerate bridge closings, department store "die-ins", & street blockages – all unsafe incidents themselves that could produce violence.  As the protests became more hate filled – calling for the death of police officers – a deranged man in Baltimore was motivated by these events & came to NYC & murdered the aforementioned two NYC policemen.
 
Now if a man has a killer dog on a leash & he unleashes the dog from time to time to kill babies do you blame the killer dog or do you hold the man responsible who let the dog loose?  BO's, de Blasio's, & Sharpton's support of the protesters represent the man with the leash in this analogy.  Turgot answered the question over 200 years ago – "One ought to execute the author & not the project."
 
This is the issue for reasonable people in America (& particularly NYC) to decide as the stakes for America keep getting higher as BO's term in office winds down.  We are desperate for leadership that can bring peace & stop those intent on destroying more of America than they already have.  De Blasio & Patrick Lynch (President of The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York) have informally agreed to stop arguing until the two slain police officers are buried – but de Blasio's erstwhile pal Sharpton will have none of it & has continued to egg on the protesters. 
 
The continuance of the protests, as Sharpton (& BO & de Blasio) prefers will inevitably lead to the killing of both more blacks & police officers thereby keeping the cycle going.  Until people on both sides can get passed emotions & try to see the points of view of those on the other side there will be no end to the disorder. 
 
Following the principles of the Constitutional Convention each side should appoint delegates to a convention who are thought to be capable of dedicating themselves to determine the kind of society they wish to live in.  Getting these type of people into the world of ideas may quickly result in any number of solutions that will clearly distinguish right from wrong thereby ending the strife & accordingly exposing BO, de Blasio, & Sharpton as the agitators who are causing all of the trouble.
 
The best thing that can happen is for blacks to realize BO & by extension de Blasio & Sharpton have been working against them all along.  The sooner that blacks discard these agitators from their lives the better for everyone.
 
For instance, if BO's recovery had been as strong as the average Reagan-Clinton recoveries, per capita GDP would be $6,678 higher & 15.8 million more Americans would be @ work today.  -  Source Phil Gramm & Mike Solon. 
 
With regard to blacks Steve Moore reports that the median black household income fell by nearly $3,000 from June 2009 to June 2014 – all so called recovery years.  The BLS reports black unemployment in November was 11.1% & teenage black unemployment was 28.1%.
 
To help us all in this regard – black or white, Hispanic or Asian, man or woman, straight or homosexual – just ask yourself to name one of the policies, practices, or executive actions listed hereinbefore that will help anyone in America?  Even make it wider - is there one initiative that BO has ever proposed that would help businesses grow & invest so that high quality jobs would be created?
 
BO has clever distinctive techniques that he uses on all of us – for blacks it is to keep them discontented with their perceived circumstances so that they are made to feel they are victims in a white world where everything is stacked against them.  The above results show just how ineffective BO has been in helping blacks & of course that is by design so that fifty years from now America will be facing the exact same problems as today & a hustler like BO will be there to carry on with identical deleterious results.  BO's only fear is that blacks catch on in which case it is game over for him & people like de Blasio & Sharpton.
 
But BO, de Blasio, & Sharpton have come too far in their destructive pursuit of evil.  Their plan is to demoralize the police & military so the type of officers who were murdered in cold blood on December 20 will leave the force & new people of their quality do not replace them.  BO & de Blasio could never force a takeover of the country as long as the military & police are served by men of the caliber of the two officers who were slain in Brooklyn on December 20.  But when enough of the replacements are of the caliber of the current protesters you will have a condition ripe for take over of America.
 
It could be a long road to travel before this is over but it doesn't have to be - as described above.
 
Meanwhile click here to hear the late Paul Harvey's recording entitled "The Policeman" that was originally played for Mr. Harvey's radio audience in 1970.
 
Paul was three when his father, a policeman, was murdered in 1921. 
 
 

Monday, December 22, 2014

USAF Band Provides Christmas Doubleheader

The Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum has been the site of the U.S. Air Force band's flash mob Christmas celebration the past two years.
 
Click here for the 2013 performance & here for the 2014 performance.
 
 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Safety Awareness Insights

Upon receipt of the excellent safety suggestions below that were sent to me from a long time subscriber to RTE I in turn sent them to my friend – the Somerville Chief of Police - for further insight. 
 
Chief Manning, who also is a subscriber to RTE, called & told me that the points of the message are basically good but that readers should use them mostly to increase their awareness of potentially dangerous conditions – not as a universal panacea for every specific unsafe situation that could cause physical harm.
 
The Chief explained that probably all of the points below have been used somewhere @ sometime (example he gave – elbow is the strongest part of your body) but it is best to read the entire message to see & understand the principles involved to help become aware of your personal surroundings like when you are going to your car that is parked on the outskirts of a large parking lot that could be fraught with danger.  Being able to anticipate danger & act preemptively is the key to remaining safe.
 
The Chief thinks the point of messages like the one below is to make people think so that they know how to deviate from specifics as need be to remain safe.
 
As such, please read the points below with the insight provided above by the best policeman I have ever known.
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Democrat Report On Alleged CIA Torture Part Of Concerted Plan To Disarm The Military & Police

After learning last week that MIT Professor Jon Gruber would be hauled before the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform this past Tuesday to testify about his remarks regarding the stupidity of the American voter & the advantage BO obtained in passing ObamaCare by the lack of transparency of the entire process I was certain that @ least some of the news media would have been full of reports on Gruber's testimony immediately upon its completion – if not before.

How wrong I was because the long delayed Democrat majority Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA detention & interrogation practices in the wake of 9/11 (over thirteen years ago) was released simultaneously with Gruber's testimony.  It is a reestablishment of Gruber's stupidity comments about Americans to think that the citizenry would believe that the $40 million 500 page summary & the 6,700 page report just happened along @ the very moment that Gruber's damaging testimony would dominate some airwaves.  We find out more & more every day just how stupid BO thinks we are.

As we all know it was, is, & will continue to be the aforementioned Democrat majority report that dominates the airwaves as Gruber fades into oblivion.  MSNBC, not even mentioning Gruber that I saw, was all over the possibility that Americans used torture against Islamic Fascists who would behead Americans as soon as look @ them while other outlets like FNC & the WSJ offered scant coverage of Gruber.

Now while everybody these days is offended @ the least little old thing I am offended to think that it is possible that the U.S. government did not do everything it could to protect the country not only after 9/11 but any time or does not conduct interrogations to obtain the most information possible by whatever means.  I don't think it is a political winner for BO to think that Americans are more concerned about the safety & comfort of hard core terrorists intent on killing us than it is to protect the country by whatever means possible.

The problem over the decades is that America has fought too many wars not to win.  Whether it was seeing our troops killed in Iraq by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) with signs on them that said "made in Iran" or currently having our citizens humiliated @ airports by assuming they are guilty until some TSA screener pronounces them innocent using a government scan is just another sign of the complacency & apathy that overrides our country.

Over the past week I have gone through stores & heard Brenda Lee sing Rockin Around The Christmas Tree or Bobby Helms sing Jingle Bell Rock so many times I am certain we are losing the war on Christmas if we haven't lost it already.  The constant playing of these songs, nice as they are, represent a movement away from the traditional Christmas carols we used to hear all month long this time of year including after December 25. 

People hear Brenda & Bobby sing these songs & think it is Christmas when it is Christmas that is being taken away with no one noticing except our enemies.

But getting back to Gruber, before even I forget him, the deliberate news drop @ the time of Gruber's testimony of the Senate report that has become known as The Torture Report removed Gruber's damaging testimony about ObamaCare from the news cycles & ensures it will fade in memory. 

This emphasis on alleged torture by the CIA is part of a concerted plan by our enemies that includes disarming & hampering the military & police.  Who would want to be in the military, border patrol, or a policeman, where the morale has to be very low, with all the vilification they have encountered as evidenced by the three recent police cases where unarmed people, none of whom were cooperating with the police, were killed?  Extend this to CIA officials where not only is the morale also very low – @ a known dangerous time – but their concern down the line is very real especially when they remember that one of BO's promises made to John Conyers was to indict Bush officials for war crimes – including Bush & Cheney.

I have listed on RTE The Five Points Of Citizen Control.  We lost the first four points a long time ago – poor government school system,  hostile anti-American media, judges who cannot tell right from wrong, & Hollywood where a weak, free with no responsibilities, & non-wealth creating society is portrayed as the norm..   The fifth point of citizen control is to gain control of the military & police forces so that the people will have no choice but to capitulate any remaining rights not already lost under the first four points.

A lot of what we see today in Ferguson, Staten Island, Cleveland, airports, department stores, the Democrat Torture Report, & our healthcare system under ObamaCare continues the undermining of America – if we let it.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

BO's Plan To Ingrain A Permanent Underclass Can Be Overturned

"Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them.  We took their mandate & put all of our focus on the wrong problem: healthcare reform.  It wasn't the change we were hired to make; Americans were crying out for an end to the recession, for better wages & more jobs, not for changes in their healthcare. . . only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote – about 5% of the electorate . . . to aim a huge change in mandate @ such a small percentage of the electorate made no political sense."  - NY Senator Chuck Schumer speaking @ the National Press Club last month.  Schumer went on to say that Democrats must focus on the presidential race of 2016 by specifying policies "that, if enacted, would actually improve lives & incomes. . . had we started more broadly, the middle class would have been more receptive to the idea that President Obama wanted to help them" correctly implying that none of BO's policies did this.
 
***
 
Now the first part of Schumer's remarks above are completely true.  But regarding the last statement, Democrats may run for political office pretending to "help improve lives & incomes" but that has been the farthest thing from BO's mind as well as anyone else's mind who joined up with him the last six years - like Schumer.  BO's plan is, & continues to be, to make people totally dependent on government - both financially through taxes & physically through universal healthcare.  BO has virtually accomplished this & now Schumer worries about the next election which for him comes up in 2016.
 
From the very beginning BO has had an agenda designed to ingrain a permanent underclass of government dependent people on the citizens of the American republic.  Until everyone, especially his political opponents such as congressional Republicans, start to clearly articulate an eloquent, effective, & persuasive understanding of this we are working @ a disadvantage.  For instance, recently Charles Krauthammer laid out an excellent commentary on BO's immigration lawlessness but when asked if he thought BO was dishonest he replied "no, of course not," thereby losing all credibility @ least with me.  Only Jon Voight & RTE (& possibly Democrat pollster Pat Caddell) consistently express the reality of the destructive lie that has been perpetrated on America the last six years – those who make excuses for BO, give him the benefit of the doubt, or do not recognize what has been happening after six years in plain sight of one example after another are either complicit or are just trying to build ratings for some TV program by changing positions from time to time.
 
But getting back to Schumer's remarks – both Schumer & Ringside Reid took losing the Senate Democrat majority & therefore control of the Senate to Republicans very badly.  Many Dems believe that BO's delay in processing the executive action on immigration hurt Hispanic turnout in the election – meaning Republicans won since low turnout is the most reliable way for Republicans to win any election.
 
BO knows that over 30% of Hispanics under 65 in the U.S. lack healthcare insurance – the highest rate for any group.  BO is making a major effort to sign Hispanics up for healthcare in 2015 after their small participation in 2014 – thereby once again revealing his two major goals of universal healthcare & comprehensive immigration reform.  Right from the start in 2008 BO promised that he would reintroduction comprehensive immigration reform during his first year with all of its welfare laden benefits thereby building up additional future votes for himself, his wife, or other like minded statists.  BO didn't deliver, even though he had control of Congress his first two years in office, and now he has decided to act & accordingly has painted Republicans in a corner with his unlawful executive actions.
 
Sooner or later deceits like BO's catch up with the perpetrators.  During the past six years Ringside Reid has blocked literally hundreds of bills from reaching the Senate floor for a vote thereby providing BO (& Democrat senators) with the luxury of never having to make a decision on anything – giving the appearance of non-involvement & innocence to the poorly educated disengaged citizenry.  This should change in 2015 with Republican control of Congress especially since all of the promises BO made six years ago have not been kept to labor unions (card check), the anti-war movement (shut down the Guantanamo prison & pull all troops out of Afghanistan & Iraq), environmentalists (cap & trade's huge energy taxes), Pelosi (seizing IRAs like Argentina did), & Conyers (indicting Bush officials on war crimes).
 
Schumer's comments above makes it appear that there are divisions in the Democrat Party – but it could be as simple as the lifers like Schumer realize they have ridden BO's horse as far as he thinks it will carry him & his colleagues so they go back to a faux position of acting like they want to help middle class Americans after spending the last six years trying to destroy them.
 
All of this gives Republicans an opening if they can develop an agenda they can clearly convey especially by showing they believe it themselves – an agenda based on the libertarian principles the country was founded upon & originally followed.
 
 

Monday, December 1, 2014

BO Is No Ordinary Lame Duck

BO's recent executive action – the biggest rewrite of U.S. immigration policy in decades – has taught Republicans, & for that matter the entire country, that BO is no ordinary lame duck content on just living out his days in the White House the last two long years of his presidency.  BO is intent on continuing his destructive anti-American plans right up to 12 noon on January 20, 2017.
 
BO's latest onslaught will allow over four million illegal aliens who are parents of children born in America, who are claimed to be American citizens – but not by me, to obtain work permits that allow them to apply for work legally.  The executive action removes the threat of deportation for these people.  An additional 270,000 people are eligible for protection from deportation under the Deferred  Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) expansion that is also part of BO's executive action.  All tolled almost five million illegal aliens initially benefit – more to come.
 
So much for the sensitivities of the people who are following the legal steps to become citizens & are still waiting in line or the concerns for low income working Americans who have been out of work for many months & now face additional competition for the few jobs that are available from the illegals who will come out of the shadows on January 1.  Like the rest of us, these people who are trying to follow the rules, are all pawns to BO.
 
Now just what steps can the Republicans take to counter BO's executive actions?
 
1.  Republicans can't pass a comprehensive immigration bill because BO cannot be trusted to enforce the parts of the bill he does not like such as securing the border – whatever that really means – just think, what does it mean?  Accordingly passing a bill, as he dares Republicans to do, leads to BO's checkmate of the Republican Party in that the floodgates open for future Democrat voters as BO lets in only those who please him.  If Republicans do not have enough firepower to stop this latest offensive they will be even more disarmed after getting in deeper by passing a legal bill enforced @ random by BO. 
 
2.  Republicans can't withhold funds from BO's plans because U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS), the DHS agency that will finance BO's programs, is self funding in that it collects fees for its services – i.e., - Congress has no power of purse control over them.
 
3.  Republicans have the option to take BO & his obvious unconstitutional actions to court but we all know how that worked out in 2012 with the legal challenge to ObamaCare.  Republicans could lose again thereby setting another dangerous legal precedent as if we need another dangerous legal precedent.  Courts supposedly don't want to get involved in battles between the two elected branches – they often dismiss the lawsuits as "political questions" to be decided by the electorate – I wish someone would have told that to Roberts in 2012 in the ObamaCare case.
 
4.  With none of the above options viable (& throw in the fool's errand impeachment option as another) it is best for Republicans to work with their own agenda like the Keystone XL pipeline & spoon feed any immigration bills one @ a time thereby constantly drumming home BO's unconstitutional executive actions.  Elections have consequences & this is the best way for Americans to learn them – the hard way.  It is best to let the next two years play out with Republicans taking the most positive action possible on all of the issues.
 
BO has obviously painted Boehner & McConnell in a corner – for now.  To come out of this corner every action they take should be to present an agenda of optimism & prosperity where freedom is the supreme principle.