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.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Graduates Should Focus On Clarence Thomas's Address @ Hillsdale - Not BO's @ Rutgers

Earlier this month BO & Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas gave commencement addresses @ Rutgers (May 15) & Hillsdale College (May 14) respectively & there couldn’t have been a bigger contrast in messages to the graduating classes.

Click here to hear BO’s address @ Rutgers – it was very reminiscent of Owl Gore’s address to the class of 2000 @ West Point that Carol & I attended for the graduation of our nephew.  After all the extraordinary work the graduates had done @ the United States Military Academy the Gore speech did not focus on them @ all but rather presented political points that Gore thought would enhance his chances of election in the fall.  How rude.

BO doubled down on this type of approach @ Rutgers in thinly veiled attacks on Donald Trump saying, to applause from the students & faculty, that building a wall is not inclusive - without mentioning that the people Trump wants to keep out are the poorest, least educated, lowest skilled people in the world who are taking advantage of America’s 126 welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute.

There was plenty of pandering by BO who brought up income inequality, raising the minimum wage, & making college more affordable.  People did not rack up college debt @ Rutgers to get minimum wage jobs so they could complain about income inequality – & yet you would not have noticed that any one in this enthusiastic audience had thought of this.  One day the audience may wake up to ask themselves if they had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt so that they could get a minimum wage job.


BO got in the groove to the point that he told the graduates that the good old days weren’t that good saying that by almost every measure America & the world are better off than they were even eight years ago.  Of course this ignores that since 2008 employer business startups have been exceeded by business failures (400,000 new business startups & 470,000 business failures in 2011 according to Gallup), the April U-6 unemployment rate is still 9.7%, the GDP is growing @ a weak 2% rate (0.5% first quarter of 2016), wages are not growing & those who return to the employed ranks are working for a fraction of their former pay, the highest percent of 18 to 34 year olds in decades are moving back into their parents’ basements thereby not contributing to the growth of the economy let alone improving their own standard of living, BO’s approval of handling the war on terror with Islamic Fascists is underwater, & the great majority of Americans say race relations are worse than ever & deteriorating further every day.  In brief if the graduates bought it @ the commencement ceremony they won’t be buying it after measuring drapes in their parents’ basement.  In fact a recent FNC poll reported that only 26% of respondents feel they are better off then when BO took office.

Just like millenials do not know the devastating features of socialism under Sanders they also have no idea that in cheering BO’s comments against Trump wanting to ban Muslims from entering America they were supporting Islamic principles like American women never driving cars again & dressing in Muslim garb where only their eyes are visible – all in accordance with Sharia law that many poorly educated graduates never heard of.

BO did throw a few bones to decency regarding his remarks about disagreeing with Rutgers disinviting Condi Rice to make the commencement address two years ago but as we all know if the enemies of America never make it look like they are for America their hatred for our way of life will be even too obvious for people like Bill O’Reilly to ignore.

Click here to hear Clarence Thomas’s address @ Hillsdale College – it focused on freedom, patriotism, reverence for the Constitution, admiration for religious faith, & the graduates going forward making contributions to preserve liberty.  Justice Thomas demonstrated why he is the most consistent “originalist” on the Supreme Court believing that the Constitution’s meaning (like any other legal text) is fixed as of the time of enactment. 

Some selected quotes from the Thomas address:

“At the risk of understating what is necessary to preserve liberty and our form of government, I think more and more that it depends on good citizens, discharging their daily duties and their daily obligations.  In addressing your own obligations and responsibilities in the right way, you actually help to ensure our liberties and form of government.”

“Today, we rarely hear of our personal responsibilities in discussions of broad notions such as freedom or liberty. . .there is much more of a focus on our rights as citizens and what we are owed. . . not often [does] one hear of our obligation or duties as citizens, unless of course there’s talk of our duty to submit to yet another new policy being suggested or proposed.”


And making the connection between liberty & personal responsibility - “. . .hallmarks of my youth, such as patriotism and religion, seem more like outliers, if not afterthoughts. . .of a bygone era.”  When the great justice asked the graduates to bring back that bygone era he was asking them to return the United States to excellence & world leadership.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Transgenders Must Take The Lead In Solving Bathroom Problem

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I have received several messages from RTE subscribers regarding the transgender bathroom situation – first, the controversy of the North Carolina bathroom law requiring people to use public restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates that is being challenged in court by the DOJ, & second, BO's administration extending antibias protections to transgenders seeking healthcare followed late Thursday night by BO's legal guidance letter to educators saying public schools must allow transgender students to use bathroom & locker facilities of their choosing - according to a student's current gender identity. 
 
BO feels that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bars discrimination against transgender students – & a recent federal appeals-court in Virginia upheld that view so there already is one precedent.
 
Some subscribers told me exactly what they felt about the transgender matter & a few even asked "what do you and Carol think?"
 
One strong view from Economics 501 thinks BO is sending up a transgender trial balloon & if the apathetic American society lets it pass without a whimper much more will follow "to complete as much radical change as possible in his remaining months" – I think that will happen right up to 12 noon on January 20, 2017.
 
Economics 501 goes on to say "A few years ago this transgender policy would have been laughed at.  Not any more.  The Jesse Watters numb skulls, shrinking middle class, constitution-ignorant, gay marriage supporting, entitlement loving (Dependent on Government) class (and expecting more entitlements from the ever shrinking high income and middle class), now are against cops, conservatives trying to speak at colleges, bakers refusing to create cakes for gay marriages, Wall Street, capitalism, etc ....  They feel they are victims.  So what about identifying with another victim class - transgenders?  May be no big deal."
 
One of the many doctors in the RTE readership wrote during his lunch hour concerning the transgender matter in NC "The media makes it sound like the vast majority of the country is outraged.  I grabbed a screen shot of a poll taken on MSN.com. This is not scientific.  It is just people on the webpage who decided to vote."  See subject poll results below.
 
 
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The doctor points out a perfect example – in this case imagined outrage - of the hostile anti-American media telling the poorly educated people what the news is – but the poll shows people are not buying it.
 
Now my natural inclination is that transgenders have the right to do with their bodies whatever they choose as long as they do not infringe on any rights of others.  But having 35 year old people, designated as men @ birth, who now think they are women - allowed to use rest rooms with ten year old girls seems like it is looking for trouble that could be a tragedy for the young girls.  We have to ensure that the government solution to this common sense worry is not determined by lunatics instead of libertarians.  BO's guidance letter mentioned above indicates the lunatics are in charge.
 
Please refer to the following graph to see the magnitude of the problem
 

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The 697,529 transgenders approximates the 843,260 registered sex offenders in the United States (2015) according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).  I am not equating transgenders with sex offenders but do note that each group is less than 1% of the population.

In doing the research for this post I found that many doctors believe that being transgender is not a mental disorder.  Many transgenders suffer from Gender Dysphoria -

the condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one's biological sex.  Dysphoria is
a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life so hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer from this – but having transgenders use public restrooms & locker rooms as described hereinabove is not the answer to their problem.

Suspicions run high that transgenders are prone to sexual problems in bathrooms & locker rooms because only one third of transgender people have reported undergoing some form of gender-confirming surgery & 14% of transgender women & 21% of transgender men say they are not interested in ever having genital surgery.  From 2002 to 2013, the Social Security Administration required proof that genital surgery had been performed before sex changes would be made in official Social Security records.  B
ut since 2013 it no longer required such proof meaning to me transgender is recognized as much or more by the government as being a state of mind as it is a male-female essential physical feature.
 
The second inclination I have is to ask the party with a problem how they got the problem & what they are doing to find a solution. 
Now I don't know what the perfect solution to this transgender problem is for either transgenders or all of the other citizens of the country.  But I do know that the best solution will be determined when transgenders take the lead, not as victims, but as people who acknowledge they have a problem whose solution they are not only willing to participate in but lead.  Transgenders would be wise to preclude participation from the lunatics in government & work with libertarians who would be concerned about transgenders' liberties & rights as well as the liberties & rights of all the rest of transgenders' fellow Americans.
 
Below is an excellent write-up from another long term subscriber who wrote to me regarding the transgender matter.  As I thought about all of this I could not help but think about how much of the transgender problem is mental – what people think about themselves.  One of my favorite lines from the Bard applies - "nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so."
 
To many who still can think, we have the distinct feeling that the country is leaving us – the DOJ is more concerned about transgenders' bathroom selection than they are about sanctuary cities or anchor babies.  These are two of the issues I am counting on Trump turning around after years of their going the wrong way.
 
Message sent from long time subscriber:
 
The Obama Administration sent letters to all public school districts threatening that if they don't allow "transgender students" to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice they

 

are subject to lawsuits, fines and loss of aid from the feds;

 

 

Some thoughts:

 

 

What is going to happen when young male students suddenly realize they "really think of themselves as female" and start using the girl's locker rooms?

 

Then realize besides being "females"  they are also "lesbians".

 

 

Now our "deep thinkers" in Washington will have to determine:  Can or should they prosecute the young "women?"

 

If they prosecute:  Are they anti gay or simply homophobic?

 

 

If they claim the young person by their appearance was just claiming to be a girl to gain entrance into the girl's locker room does that mean they are commenting on their masculine

 

looks, which can be construed as discrimination or putting an overemphasis on looks?

 

 

And just so no one accuses me of gender bias, a young person, formerly thought to be a girl can suddenly realize she is a boy and start using the boy's locker room and come to the

 

realization that she is a gay male.

 

 

And forget the kids, what if Bill Clinton finally realizes that he is a woman, do these new Obama guidelines allow him to use the ladies room and women's locker rooms? Think about

 

the mischief Bill would get into there.

 

 

On Wednesday the Feds & ACLU announced they were investigating gender bias in Hollywood (a/k/a the land of the liberals) over the fact that most successful films have been

 

directed by men.

 

 

They were urged to do this by rich white women such as Patricia Arquette, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence.

 

 

Couple of thoughts come to mind.

 

 

How do they know that most of these films were directed by "men"?

 

 

Maybe most of these directors think of themselves as "female".

 

 

And if so would that not mean that most of the successful films were directed by "women".

 

 

Then the ACLU and Justice Department will have to change course and investigate the fact that most successful films were directed by women.

 

 

And once our intrepid investigators at the ACLU and the Justice Department complete and litigate this investigation it will be time to investigate why the NBA is biased against

 

white players and why many sports owners are old Jewish men (unless of course they now think of themselves as "Christian or Muslim women").

 

 

The possibilities and comedy routines are endless.

 

 

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Hillary's Three Strikes

To many, if not most, RTE readers Hillary Clinton is one terrible presidential candidate – regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders – the two remaining major political party presidential candidates.   Mrs. Clinton has shown she is a double talking, issue evading, obfuscating person.
 
For those still inclined to support Mrs. Clinton I present below three URLs for you to consider – hopefully with an open mind.  
 
First, click here to see a pitiful dodge regarding the release of the transcripts of her three speeches to Goldman Sachs that fetched $225,000 per speech.  Please notice the tenacity of the CNN reporter in trying to get an answer that in & of itself makes the point that something is not right with these speeches &/or their fees.
 
Second, click here to see Hillary disingenuously address the concerns of West Virginia coal miners following her earlier statement that she was going "to put a lot of coal miners & coal companies out of business."  Mrs. Clinton later explained to WV senator Joe Manchin that she had been "mistaken" about her view.  But the only coal miners who could possibly chance to believe this are the ones who would see their wages replaced by government cash benefits via one of Hillary's policies – which if promised to enough people may suffice to win the electoral day.
 
 
 

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

"The Trump Family That I Know" By Lynne Patton

Following his landslide Republican primary win in Indiana on Tuesday, coupled with his previous electoral record of winning 996 bound delegates, & his commanding prospects going forward in the states that have not yet conducted presidential preference polls Donald Trump is the presumed Republican nominee for President.
 
Even before Tuesday's victory, testimonies of Trump employees have come forth affirming the quality of Mr. Trump, his family, & his entire multibillion dollar organization.
 
Click here to hear Lynne Patton, a black female executive for the Trump Organization since 2009, explain how Donald Trump relates to his employees & others in a video she wrote & narrated entitled "The Trump Family That I Know."  Miss Patton is a Director of The Eric Trump Foundation & Assistant to Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, & Donald Trump Jr.
 
Look @ the difference in substance of the people in Miss Patton's above video compared to the people Hillary Clinton panders to. 
 
It is obvious that Trump's business success is not the result of politically correct racial, religious, or gender allocations or distributions, quotas, or other limitations that have tied America's hands behind her back far too long.  Trump's professional success is based on finding excellence in all his business endeavors – like he did with Lynne Patton.  The people who voted for Trump in the primaries believe he will return that excellence to America.
 

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Police Officer's Pitch Accepted @ Philly Opener

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The above photo was featured in the January 11 RTE posting entitled Sharia Law Prohibits Muslims From Assimilating Into American Society.  The photo shows a man, allegedly Edward Archer, engaged with a police vehicle.  A video of the incident shows Archer fired a weapon 11 times @ Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett (in the police car) & ran after hitting the officer 3 times.   Officer Hartnett unbelievably gave chase & Archer was apprehended.  Archer is a convicted felon, who admitted to "acting in the name of Islam" & repeatedly confessed "I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to Islamic State, & that's why I did what I did" (tried to assassinate Officer Hartnett) according to Homicide Captain James Clark.
 
The Philadelphia Phillies were honored to have Officer Hartnett throw out the ceremonial first pitch of their home opener baseball game.  After tossing the first pitch Officer Hartnett was joined on the field by his girlfriend Lily Abdullina.
 
Click here to see what happened next