GET TO THE PROBLEM; QUIT TREATING THE SYMPTOMS

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The big arguments on The Hill yesterday were gun control and immigration reform.  The dim-witted left-wing establishment wants to treat gun violence by making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to own guns without addressing the criminals, the mentally unfit and the sociopaths.  They also want to treat the problems of illegals in the country by making them legal.  

Just like the debt issue, no one in Washington seems willing to tackle the important issues anymore because they are too interested in re-election and in abiding by the wishes of the lobbyists who provide  the funding for them to run.  All we Americans continue to hear is an over-abundance of grand-standing rhetoric.  

Anyone who thinks that building a wall along the border will solve the problems of immigration doesn't understand human nature; if they want to come here, they will find a way and the worse things become in Mexico, the bigger the incentives are for them to get here.  They'll all dig under the fence, sneak in by boat, or travel to Canada and start coming in over that border.  And as long as they get rewarded when they get here with jobs, with amnesty, with health care and other attributes of our society, they are going to keep coming.  

They cry that they want heir families reunited.  Well, then, move back to Mexico.  Now, I'm not saying that we can ship them all back, but we can address the problem and reduce future illegal immigration the same way that we can resolve the issue of violence, and gun violence in particular.  Let's get to the questions of why someone becomes compelled to get his hands on a gun and start shooting as well as how he picks his targets.  In the process, you just might discover that the shooter in Colorado displayed all kinds of mental problems prior to the theater shooting and that the theater where the shootings took place was the only theater in the area that banned carrying of concealed weapons by permit holders, although there were other theaters showing the Batman movie closer to his home that allowed permit holders.  

In the same manner, you might discover that illegals flock to Los Angeles because they are well-received and protected there.  Allowing a path to citizenship here should be tougher than it is for people who migrate here legally, through the system.   No illegal should be given anything; they should be made to earn it.  And, we should be working more closely with the government of Mexico to help it improve socio-economic conditions in that country.  

Only when you cure the disease will the symptoms go away.  Let's not get buffaloed into making rash decisions that don't get the job done completely and in the right way. 


That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

WOULDN'T YOU LIKE A GOOD STORY FOR A CHANGE?

Even in this dirty, rotten rat-infested liberal-left country of ours, there appears every now and then a story that really pulls at your heart strings.  My God, there still is a good side to life!  This is an ABC NEWS story:

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Army National Guard Maj. Shawn Fulker is thousands of miles away serving in Afghanistan, and when his wife's birthday came around, he decided he wanted to do something very special.  Josephine Fulker loves Mellow Mushroom pizza, so her husband emailed Mellow Mushroom's corporate website on Thursday to ask whether one of the company's Jacksonville stores could deliver a pizza and a $50 gift card to his wife at their Jacksonville, Fla., home. If they could, he said, he would call the store and pay for it with his credit card. Mellow Mushroom did one better. 

Unbeknownst to Shawn Fulker, a local Mellow Mushroom franchise was working to make his request even more memorable.

"We had the cook make a heart-shaped pizza, and then we stopped by the nearest Publix (supermarket) to get flowers and then we picked up balloons, just to kind of make it special," Brooke Chafee, a manager at the Jacksonville store, told ABCNews.com on Monday evening.

Chafee and another employee of the store made the special delivery - which included the $50 gift card to Mellow Mushroom - in person to Fulker's home on Thursday. They didn't charge Shawn Fulker a thing.  John Valentino, the Mellow Mushroom franchisee who owns that location and others in Jacksonville, said his store was happy to have made the day special for the couple. 

"Of course we weren't going to charge him for anything," Valentino told ABC. "Him being a serviceman and his wife being home. … Hopefully in her husband's absence we were able to help her have a great birthday while he's over in Afghanistan serving our country."

Josephine Fulker had just finished Skyping with her husband when the doorbell rang and she saw the two Mellow Mushroom employees at her door on Thursday. "I don't know their names exactly, but they had a pizza and a big butterfly balloon and a vase of flowers with a gift card for $50 and they told me that it was from my husband. I said 'Oh my goodness.' I was surprised and excited and overwhelmed and all of that. It was so nice," she said. 

It was especially nice because Shawn Fulker had already sent his wife flowers and candy earlier that day. Since he hadn't been able to check his email for a while, he had no idea that Mellow Mushroom had been working on his initial request. 

Josephine Fulker told ABC News that the even the slices of pepperoni on the pizza were cut into the heart shapes. The Fulkers have been married for seven years and have a 5-year-old son, Ethan. They were both touched by the company's gesture. 

"He was just really overwhelmed with their thoughtful act of kindness," Josephine, 41, said of her 46-year-old husband. 

In an email to ABC News on Monday, Shawn Fulker described how much the company's gesture moved him.  "I miss my wife and son so much, and seeing that photo of them smiling at my front door brought tears to my eyes," he wrote. "When I received the email and photo from Mellow Mushroom I was sitting at my desk, and had to get up and leave the room to compose myself. I am very grateful for that moment." 

He posted a summary of his interaction with Mellow Mushroom on the store's Facebook page on Thursday.  "I got an email from my wife saying that Mellow Mushroom just delivered a special heart-shaped pizza along with a $50 gift card and some balloons and flowers! The GM, J.P. Morgan, emailed me and said simply 'We got you bro' … Thank you so much for this J.P., and please pass my thanks along to your team," he wrote.  

As of Monday night, Fulker's post has been liked more than 65,000 times. More than 2,000 comments poured in from admiring Facebook users.  

"Well done MM! Reason # 55 why you're my favorite!" Jason Schalk commented.

"What a great thing for the restaurant to do!!!" added Tricia Robinson Tinsley.  

Yes, there is hope for this country yet! 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.  

FULL COURT PRESS LOOMS ON GUN CONTROL

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President Obama and the liberal left kicked off their full-court press on gun control yesterday when the Omnipotent One called police chiefs from towns of recent gun violence to the White House for photo ops and grand-standing.  This was quickly followed by a volley of communications from the left calling for cities, counties and states to pull any investments in any company that has anything to do with guns.  Banks are being admonished to cancel lines of credit dealing with gun and ammunition manufacturers and retail outlets.  It’s all about orchestrating the repeal of the Second Amendment. 

Nowhere is there real talk about investigating and resolving the real causes of violence of all types in this country.  It is therefore abundantly clear, that Obama doesn’t give a damn about anything except getting our guns.  And having stirred the pot and fomented an angry response, Obama has jumped on Air Force one and headed to Las Vegas… again. 

I believe that this President has no idea how close he is to having throngs of Americans pulling down fences and storming the White House lawn.   I don’t believe he understands that this country is not going to tolerate anyone, including him, messing with Second Amendment rights. 

My advice to you is to buy a gun if you can find one to buy, get some training on how to use it in self-defense, and join the NRA, the primary protector of gun ownership in America. Don't just think about it; do it today.  He needs to get the message.  

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

GUARDS IN SCHOOLS; WILL THAT BE ENOUGH?

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In the aftermath of Newtown, almost before the echoes of gunfire left Sandy Hook School, the cries for gun control spewed from every Obama disciple in the country.  Shortly thereafter, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA suggested that what we need is armed guards in every school, an idea so repugnant that even Obama cringed.  

From the beginning, I was advocating that it is not the guns at fault, it is society, mental illness and the constantly repetitive depiction of violence in video games and movies directed at young people. It wasn't long before this stance was being taken up by everyone involved, not because I was one of the first to say it, but because reason dictates that it is the proper conclusion.  And so it is that we need to examine the probability of armed guards in schools with some reason and some caution.  

First of all, we cannot even think of turning our schools into armed bastions of defense for longer than a very few years.  Doing so in the long run is likely to produce a more severe psychological problem for society than I care to contemplate.  Secondly, arming school guards is not going to solve the problem; the sickos will simply switch venues to movie theaters, shopping malls, sporting events or other stages where tremendous shock can be instigated.  Third, there will be a tendency for government authorities to declare the danger resolved once every school is defended.  Yet, reasonable conjecture says that even if we took away all guns from all people, the danger would not subside; sickos would just use a bat, an axe, a knife or explosives to fulfill their violent fantasies.  

It is for this reason that I propose that we curtail our lavish spending on pork-barrel projects, that we stop feathering the nests of political supporters and that we put some money toward finding the true causes of these acts of mass violence and seeking some meaningful longer-term cures for whatever it really is that ails our society.  

And no, it's not 32-ounce soft drinks, either.

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

FEAR NOT THIS HORRIBLE GOVERNMENT

I was watching the Glenn Beck Show yesterday and one of the audience participants said that he was afraid to join the NRA for fear that the list of NRA members would one day be seized and used by the government against gun owners.  Already, it has begun: the attitude of the Omnipotent One’s government toward the citizens is now such that people have become afraid.  When you fear the government, you are nothing more than their puppet. 

Yet, we all know that the government has been gathering information about us from all sorts of data bases and other resources.  I am sure that my name is on a list of people “too patriotic” and who write blogs against the Administration.  Although it is against the HIPPA law to release medical information to anyone without the patient’s permission, Obama wants doctors to forward the names of anyone they deem to be a mental risk to a national database which would prevent such patients from buying guns.  Do you suppose the government would also ask for a list of overweight patients so it could assess a “fat tax?”  Nawwww. 

So, it’s natural for us to worry about what the government is going to do with all of this information it is gathering. Just to show you how they think, they have been working for several years on a system where your car will send it’s identification to a satellite if your orange “Check Engine” light is on; the light usually comes on when the emission control system is not working properly.  Your name and identifying information will be forwarded to the state and you will be issued a ticket.  This is an outright violation of your privacy, justified I suppose by saying that driving is not a right, it is a privilege. 

But, the moment we become afraid of being on some list, we lose.  It is through our silence that the government can be oppressive and can seize our freedoms and liberties from us.   Only when we stand up and get in their faces do we stand a chance of retaining our democracy.  Of course, they will immediately attempt to marginalize what we have to say by labeling us in negative ways.  That’s already happening! 

If you think things are going to hell in a hand basket, you’re right on target and unless we stand up and push back now, in four years we could well be saying a permanent goodbye to our Constitution and our way of life.  Fear not, because there is a whole country of people just like me who will stand up with you. 

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

 

INVESTIGATION INTO INSANITY

If a person believes that his views are right and that anyone who disagrees with him is wrong, is that a sign of mental illness?  That is, if 85% of Americans think the President is wrong on gun control, but he believes he is correct, is he mentally ill?  If the majority of Americans believe we need to get our debt under control, but the President ignores them and spends what he wants, does that mean he is mentally ill? 

If a person believes that, in order to control his life he must control every single person and detail of things around him, does that make him mentally ill?  If an individual refuses to acknowledge his mistakes and runs and hides when events go against him, does that make him mentally ill?  If a person tells lies in order to get out of the lies he has told before, does that make him mentally ill? 

I'd just like to know the answer to these questions, because I'm thinking that our President is an absolute lunatic. 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

COLORADO SCHOOL: BOMB THREAT

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North Denver’s Bruce Randolph School, which serves grades six through 12, was closed yesterday while police investigated a bomb threat.  

This story barely made the news, probably because guns were not involved.  Certainly, a bomb could create more damage and loss of life than a gunman.  But, I thought such bombs were illegal.  It would be against the law for anyone to use a bomb against the school.  Gosh, does this mean that if we make guns illegal there could still be gun crimes?  

Oh my!  

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.  

THE GREAT BENGHAZI EVASION

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My first impression of the Senate hearings yesterday was that the whole thing was well choreographed, that all of the questions had been determined ahead of time and that Hillary Clinton was responding with prepared answers.  Indeed, she would receive a question and look down to her papers and read her response.  Had the person been testifying been Barack Obama, I could have expected teleprompters in the room.  That was my first impression and, to that extent, I had to wonder whether or not this whole scenario was just smoke and mirrors with window dressing. 

It was clear from the beginning that the Democrats in the room were there to feather their own political nests and that the questions they were delivering were inherently designed to make Clinton appear to be lily-pure-clean with respect to what happened at Benghazi.  As a side note, one could gather from the way she was treated by the Democrats on the panel that she has already been anointed as their 2016 Presidential candidate; they were tip-toeing through the tulips. 

There were some moments of challenge however, and some sparks did fly over the purported “cover-up.”  Clinton defiantly suggested that we should quit looking into those questions and concentrate on catching the perpetrators.  “What difference does it make?” The way the Senate hearings eventually unfolded, the Republicans asked the pointed questions and the Democrats defended Clinton from those attacks while asking their own watered-down questions.   

Does it make a difference?  Absolutely it does if another wrong was perpetrated on the American public and deliberately covered up, or if there was misfeasance or malfeasance.   

The House hearing was somewhat similar.  She ducked the query of who put Susan Rice out there to answer questions.  The Republicans asked some very pointed questions, but it was difficult to determine whether or not they were orchestrated.  She again dodged on the question of why the misleading statements originally came out and a cover-up started with the “What’s the difference?” tactic.  And she successfully evaded many questions by pointing out that the matter was still under FBI investigation. 

After the hearings were over, news headlines insisted that Hillary had blown her cool at least once and that angry words were spoken, as if a bloodbath occurred on the floors of Congress.  At most, I would label those moments as being “skirmishes.”  And, at the end of the day, I don’t think we know anything more about the Benghazi Massacre today than we did the day after it happened.  These hearings certainly did not shed any light on the events and were, as far as I am concerned, a complete waste of time and an opportunity for a lot of political grandstanding. 

As far as Hillary's performance goes, who could expect anything different?   Remember the Rose Law Firm scandal?  

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.