War And The Cultural Divide

Over the past year, thanks to the in your face reality brought to us by today's technology, we've watched time and again the slaughter of civilians by their leaders.  It is gut wrenching to say the least.  Even more so when we are shown the mutilated bodies of women, young children and babies.

Those leaders have fallen like dominos. Now it seems to be Syria's turn.  We've involved ourselves in some of the conflicts but not others.  Why is this?  Political expediency and self interest for the most part.

As difficult as it is to watch I wonder if we should have been involved in any of them.  None directly threaten our national security, not even the ones pending like Iran.  Iraq was entered into under false pretenses as was Afghanistan.  The pretenses being supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan - where he wasn't, but rather being sheltered by a supposed ally, Pakistan.

What happens in war?  People get killed.  All ages, sexes, religions and a myriad of other charateristics too numerous to list.  Entering into one should be one of the most difficult decisions ever made by our leadership.  Why is it then that the last time the government actually declared war as laid out in the constitution was in 1941?  Everything since then has not been a declared war but rather an armed conflict or as in the case of Korea, a police action.

If the constitution had been followed perhaps many of the conflicts could have been avoided all together and thousands of our young men and women would still be alive.  Let's face it, we have not accomplished much.

Setting aside Korea and Vietnam, let's just look at Iraq and Afghanistan.  Neither country nor any of their neighbors like us.  We've put into political power people who have never intended to live up to our expectations, but rather their own.

Take the recent burning of Korans.  They supposedly contained extremist inscriptions intended to incite those who passed them among themselves.  So they were confiscated.  What was to be done with them?  Put them in storage?  It would have been the only acceptable way to get them out of circulation and even at that Karzai would have found a reason to call his people to riot - and kill ours.

Well, that's what happens in wars.  People get killed.  The reasons for them escape us these days.  The people we're fighting for don't want our presence in their land.  All they want is our money of which we seem to have a bottomless supply.  They're making their own pacts with the devil as we sit haplessly by. We cannot appease these people.  We do not understand their culture, how they think or why we can't make them come around to our way.  It's really pretty simple.  They don't want to.

This is what happens when we have no set foreign policy, no set guidelines to follow on the road to war and no congressional debate to determin whether or not a war may be a worthy one. If there is such a thing. The President may be the commander-in-chief but he does not have carte blanch when committing us to war.  It's time we elect one who not only realizes it but respects it and will follow the protocol of the constitution.

Our military deserves no less.  What they don't deserve is an apologist.

Thumbs Up? Am I Crazy?

While  the presidential candidates are consumed with showing us why none of them should be nominated, it's refreshing to be able to reflect a bit on two members of Congress who are actually doing their job - for us.

An odd couple indeed, Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat and Representative Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican have formed a two man coalition to get something done, especially when it comes to Medicare issues.

More important than the subject of their efforts is the fact that they are making one, together, including compromises, that work for all sides.  I was going to say both sides but realize there there aren't just two sides.  Congress just wants us to think that way.  It's the gray area in the middle that matters most.

In Kimberly Strassel's recent Wall Street Journal column, The War on Wyden , it's obvious Mr. Wyden is taking his lumps from fellow Democrats.  He's been called a 'useful idiot' by Paul Krugman, to wanting to help Mitt Romney get elected to no longer being a Democrat not to mention he was taking away a key argument from the Democrats.  It's obvious to me that Mr. Wyden gets what his party does not.  Without effort and compromise, nothing gets done.

Mr. Ryan, too, has taken his lumps and is often dismissed as being little more than a numbers wonk.  The description is probably more accurate than not but it should be worn as a badge of honor rather than derision and I think that's just how Mr. Ryan feels.

So here we are. Two men out of the entire House and Senate doing what they were all elected to do.  I wish I could be more positive when I say it's a start, but I can't.  It's only two men.

Unless the tea party adherents realize they must do the same rather than digging in their heels and the remaining Democrats are willing to follow suit nothing will move forward.  Especially when leadership won't bring bills to the floor for a vote or if they do they're filled with extraneous rubbish.

This stubborness is shared by both parties as well as a payback mentality when the majorities change hands.  It's what the people are so angry about.  Even the President does it.  His way or no way.  Until this behavior is changed we will forever muddle on just as we are now.

Can two men as diverse in nature as Ryan and Wyden light the way?  Perhaps.  One can hope.  Because at the moment there is no light at the end of the tunnel.  Just a dark dead end.

Religious Values And The Presidency By What Standard?

Remember back when JFK was running for President?  One of the biggest fears was that he was a Catholic.  A rather moderate one at that.  He certainly didn't adhere to all it's dictates especially when it came to fidelity.  That's another story.

Now we have another Catholic running for President.  More than one actually, but one is young, personable and extreme in his beliefs.  Yet according to the polls people are flocking toward Rick Santorum.

I'm not one to tell a person what he should or should not believe. In this blog, what I say is strictly opinion.  I don't disparage anyone who doesn't understand or doesn't agree with my point of view.  I certainly don't claim to know what's right over and above all others.  Mr. Santorum does when it comes to his religious beliefs.  It makes me wonder how much of that would carry over to his presidency should he be elected.

In this country we not only have freedom of religion, but freedom from religion should we so choose.  When a candidate is talking more about constitutional amendments to change what he and his followers believe to be true I view it as an intrusion into my right to disagree - especially when it comes to religious beliefs.

Just like the contraception issue.  I don't agree that a religion running a business that hires those of other faiths should be exempt from providing what private sector businesses are required to provide.  What I do question is whether contraceptive devices should be covered at all.  It's not a health issue to my way of thinking; it's a choice therefore not subject to insurance.  But then I must admit the definition on 'insurance' has changed a great deal over the years.

Many are afraid of Mitt Romney, not because he doesn't seem to articulate a vision nor how to attain it, but because he's Mormon.  I have one reader who has pointed out why she fears his religion but would he adhere to that particular issue any more than Kennedy let this Catholicism interfere with his governance?  My guess is he would not.

But Mr. Santorum worries me.  He gets so exercised when he talks of these issues I cannot help but feel they weigh disproportionately on his mind as a candidate.  He has a lot to defend as we will begin to see more and more now that he is the flavor.  He'd be better off leaving his religious, conservative beliefs out of the mix.  The fact that they are already out there may make it too late anyway.

One thing about having the heavily conservative states lead off the primary season tends to skew actual public opinion at the outset but by sheer force of early results people are swayed by wins rather than what the candidates really are.

Or maybe the country as a whole is suddenly getting tub thumping religion on a grand scale.
Time will tell.  I just don't think my religious beliefs should have any bearing on who I support for president.  It should depend on how he stands on the issues that are important to the country as a whole.  My bedroom is off limits.

There is No Free Lunch - Nor Insurance Benefit

Finally, we have a prime example of what happens when government oversteps and what we need to know before we let any more all encompassing government programs become law.  Especially when no one reads the bill and the "Secretary shall" is the most often used term.

Fortunately the Catholic church is a large enough organization to have some clout.  Whether you agree with their premise or not, it is an intrusion by government into not only a relgious organization holding specific beliefs but also into private sector business.

I am of course talking about the contraception flap.  What many of us may not realize is that anyone who has health insurance has been paying for benefits they neither want nor need for years.  Many of those so called benefits have nothing to do with health care at all but rather are lifestyle enhancements.

It started with state insurance commissioners demanding certain benefits be included in all policies.  I first became aware of it when we were mandated to have maternity benefits.  I was in my 50s at the time.  I neither wanted nor needed them yet was forced to pay for those who did.

Things went from bad to worse.  Some states require that hair transplants be covered as well as viagra.  Neither have squat to do with a persons well being.  If you claim it's an esteem issue than there would be no stopping it.  That's what government mandates can and will do.

Keep the government out of health care.  If their is sufficient a demand for a benefit, insurance companies will come up with packages to cover it.

In the same vein we need to keep government out of investing in 'green' companies like Solyndra.  They obviously won't keep politics out of it or they'd have never invested, as they like to call it, in a company already failing and about which they had been forewarned in the first place.

Re-electing Obama will only bring about more of the same, not less.  When it comes to companies being able to plan for the future, government mandates are a huge problem.  If Madam or Mister Secretary shall mandate the payment of contraception in this administration, there is nothing to say that in a following administration under a different party or even the same party but different leadership it has to remain.  How can you plan insurance coverage around that without it getting prohibitively expensive?

Maybe the Catholics will win this one.  They seem to be digging deeply enough to find even more flaws than those already exposed.  Obama, I suspect, will dig his heels in as he likes to do and pronounce it will be his way or the highway.

Actually, the highway(s) need more help than insurance companies anyway.  Maybe he should start putting his money where his mouth once said he would - into infrastructure.  At least we'd then be able to drive to a hospital!

Calm Before The Next Storm

Ah, CPAC.  The two one time leading candidates are struggling mightily to reinvent themselves.  Another isn't even there and the last is now the first.

It will be fun to watch next week to see how it all shakes out.  I feel more calm than usual today because I read where Jeb Bush's name is already being bandied about in case of a brokered convention.

He too, however, has baggage. I won't list it all because the press will when and if.  The worst is obvious.  He's a Bush.  Are we ready to accept that he's not his brother? On the other hand it might be poetic justice of a sort.  Obama and his administration keep telling us all our problems are because of brother George's administration.  Who better to fix them than another Bush?  I'm not holding my breath.

Rick Santorum continues to look good to the devout conservative.  One thing about the man whether or not you agree with him, like Paul, he really believes in the positions he's taken.  Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to write them off.

Now is the time to look at other aspects of the elections.  All the promises are for naught if the Congress isn't squarely behind the President no matter who he is.  Obama is finding that to be true.

Whether or not the dynamic of the House and Senate changes sits squarely upon our shoulders and all the speech making and blogging in the world won't change that. Each state and district within will elect those of their own personal choice.  Each has control whether or not they will be ideologues, obstructionists, liberal or conservative.  Hopefully there will be some moderates in the mix so the field is more level than it has been.  It's definitely buyer beware.

There will be no budget, again, from the Senate.  Harry Reid has already said so.  The deficit is to go up another trillion or so.  The President has already said so. That should be an indicator that compromise is unlikely.

Will the tea party types mellow?  Probably not.  Things have gotten so bad in Washington that Democrats and Republicans won't even patronize the same restaurants for fear of running into one another.  How much more sophomoric and petulant can you get?

And so it goes.  I'm beginning to worry about myself.  I find myself laughing at so many of the headlines yet they are far from funny.  It really is more than just jobs and the economy you see.  People in Syria are being slaughtered daily by the dozens and Ahmajinedad is getting ready to dog and pony show Iran's nuclear accomplishments to date.  Israel will be watching, if not acting.  It is imperative that we pay attention.

Meanwhile we worry about the finger flashed at the Super Bowl and whether or not Gisele is detrimental to Tom's performance on the field.  And the President is busy shooting marshmallows across his office.

Why not?  A bit of levity may be all that's keeping us sane.