Some things I think I think

It is astonishing that John McCain is being supported by so many Republicans since he has been an anathema to Republicans for the entire Bush administration. Apart from supporting the war, McCain has been on the wrong side of too may issues; immigration, amnesty, taxes, global warming, judicial appointments, freedom of political speech, Guantanmo, rights of enemy combatants, interrogation of the enemy, and many, many more. Did you know that the Hispanic outreach director for Senator John McCain's presidential campaign is a dual American-Mexican citizen known for his "Mexico first" declarations to immigrants in the U.S.? In an appearance on ABC's Nightline in 2001, Hernandez said, referring to Mexican immigrants in the U.S., "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first.'" (How many things do you need to be convinced John McCain is not a Republican, and certainly not a conservative?)

It is also astonishing that no better candidate has emerged to represent conservatives in the presidential run off than we now have. A socially liberal Giuliani is out but so are some conservatives like Duncan Hunter who left early; in their place is another pseudo conservative, an incompetent Southern Baptist minister with no chance of winning a national election but an opportunity to assure McCain wins the nomination. Conservatism wins national elections when it is tried but the Republican Party thinks it has to move left and preempt liberal ideology to win; disgusting.

I would like to have a pet; a dog or cat would be something to come home to and is non judgmental. But both need to be ‘toilet trained’ and I don’t have the patience or flooring for that and I don’t want to join the ‘plastic bag’ brigade to walk a dog around the neighborhood. (Picking up and carrying poop just isn’t something that appeals to me.)

Another bewilderment to me is the silence of the American people when the government dictates what light bulbs we can use in our homes. How can we accept without a whimper, except for a few iconoclasts like me writing some articles about this, that we must replace incandescent light bulbs that have served us well because they are cheap, do a good job of lighting our homes, and are readily disposable, with compact fluorescent lamps that are expensive, don’t provide equivalent lighting, require a hazmat crew to clean up when one is broken in the house, and special disposal sites to throw away when burned out.

What is with a national Latino group, National Council of La Raza, that advocates Mexico’s takeover of the American southwest, saying it's fighting back against what it considers hate speech in the national immigration debate and elections? Some of the phrases the Hispanic group identifiy as ‘racist’ include referring to immigrants as illegals, claiming some illegal immigrants bring crime and disease to the country and trying to take back the southwestern U.S. which La Raza itself is committed to. This is the same thing Democrats do; accuse opponents of lying when they tell people the truth about what Democrats really do and believe.

How can American Jews continue to support Democrats almost with religious zeal despite the fact that it is mainly Republicans and Christians that have a history of unequivocal support for Israel’s right to exist against a hostile Arab world? They also don't seem to remember it was Democrat FDR that failed to acknowledge the holocaust and take action to protect as best as possible the Jewish people from the Nazis.

The African-American population’s continued huge support of the Democrats in another conundrum. The Civil Rights Act is credited to Lyndon Johnson but it couldn’t have passed without major Republican support in congress since almost all southern Democrats were against it. Not only that, but the ‘war on poverty’ by Johnson was a colossal expensive failure and merely kept the black people in servitude by the government instead of giving poor people an opportunity to help themselves to improve their lives. Walter Williams says that black families as a whole were much better off before the Democrats' lavish handouts made them dependent upon the government.

And what’s with gambling monopolies for Native Americans? This idea was supposed to help the American Indian population “pull themselves out of poverty”. However, Native Americans have been in the country for the entire life of the United States and have enjoyed the same rights of all Americans, and more, yet as a group they remained in poverty while incoming immigrants elevated their economic condition without special privileges. How can awarding gambling monopolies over all other citizens be justified in a country that has the 14th Amendment that requires all people to be treated equally under the law? To add insult to injury, some states, California for one, seems willing to allow extending their gambling monopoly ‘off the reservation’, in every sense of the phrase.

There are now Sovereign Wealth Funds in six Persian Gulf countries – including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – they have amassed $1.7 trillion in petrodollars resulting from the happenstance that these countries have oil in addition to camel dung. This money is being used to buy the United States, one business and acre at a time. For some reason congress objected to the Dubai ‘take over’ of some port functions but all such objection has evaporated in proportion to the wealth accumulated by the Arabs. When all the Sovereign Wealth Funds are fully invested in the United States, perhaps it would be a good time to adopt the same practices the Arabs used (and Chavez) and nationalize all their American property and then return it to Americans.

Does anyone seriously believe giving taxpayers $300 or $600 will actually have a beneficial affect on our economy? The ‘bipartisan’ Economic Stimulus Bill is merely a public relations fraud to make us believe congress and the president ‘feel our pain’.

Support by many Americans for Socialized Medicine (also called ‘universal health care’) is an example of ‘not seeing the trees for the forest’. Clearly anyone understanding the ramifications of this socialist scheme should realize that health care in our country would be destroyed when the government mandates everyone to become part of a government-prescribed health program. Perhaps not enough people know what a disaster the socialized health plan in Canada regarded by advocates as the example for us to follow, really is. There are a plethora of examples of Canadians coming to the US for medical treatment not available in Canada on a timely basis. If we adopt universal health care like the Canadian plan, where would Canadians go for their health care when their lives are at risk?

I don’t necessarily believe that global climate change doesn't exist. We all know the hot era of the dinosaurs later gave way to the frigid Ice Age. Throughout recorded human history, with and without the presence of factories, cars, incandescent light bulbs and other factors blamed for today's alleged rising temperatures, there have been many warming and cooling trends. But the role man actually plays in climate change is misstated and exaggerated for a political agenda; fueled by many that think Americans have it too good. It is easy to be skeptical of the man-made global warming hysterics when the scientific data is contrary to ‘accepted theory’ and the evidence shows uncontrollable events, such as volcanic eruptions, can do more harm to the atmosphere than man. All our liberties are at the peril of this absurd theory. We cannot afford to elect a president that subscribes to this nonsense.

All this thinking makes my head hurt; I have to rest now.