Tag Archives: truth

Dec 3 2016

Bad For Thee, Good For Me

 

I have made the public statement that I daily hope and pray that President-Elect Donald Trump will continue to prove me wrong. To this point, the overarching consensus from the TMCV (The Maine Conservative Voice) is that the future President has done the just that. I use the word “overarching” so the reader can assume the caveats implied.

For example, General Mattis is a fantastic pick for defense. He brings back the sense of a disciplined, tempered, steely, ferocity in our military that Americans are desperately needing to see in the forces that protect this Nation in the face of the unspeakable horrors that surround us. In contrast, if not just slightly, I think the jury is out on Betsy DeVos, for education. Much depends, sadly, on whether she was lying when she said she opposed common core or lying when she supported it.

This brings me to my final thought for today. A critique of not only of the President-Elect, but of Conservatives also. Let’s just call it, if I may fall back on some lingo from my birth state of Arizona, a burr or a bullhead in my saddle.

Under the file of “Bad for Thee,But not for Me”, the Carrier deal is crony capitalism plain and simple. You can’t slap Republican on something and somehow think it makes it right. That’s called hypocrisy….plain and simple. We railed against liberals for this. But now we celebrate it because it’s “our side” screwing with Free Market? It was wrong for Solyndra, it was wrong for GM, and it’s wrong for Carrier.

Again the pendulum swings and we are not trying to stop it. This is the burr in my saddle. We have always as Conservatives preached against the “end justifies the means” approach of liberals, yet much to my chagrin (I speak for myself), it seems many Conservatives had no problem employing said approach this election cycle.

The response I consistently hear as of late is “Hey, we won!” While I feel increasingly in the minority among those who profess to be my conservative allies, I still contend that, for me, social and fiscal conservatism is not a campaign tactic, but rather, a reflection of my core convictions. Perhaps I am a relic of the past that deserves to be kicked to the curb as some assert, but a quick perusal of history will confirm that the “end justifies the means” ascent to power only assures a destructive exposition in the end, of this I am certain.

I understand give and take. I understand compromise is essential to effective statesmanship. I probably break with many fellow conservatives when I say I think Mitt Romney would make an excellent Secretary of State. His calm, measured demeanor is sorely needed on the world stage. Yes, I am fully aware that he certainly lacks in his conservatism.

I differ with many of my learned and far more talented contemporaries, such as Matt Gagnon, when I say Sarah Palin would be a great pick for the VA. I think we have forgotten what propelled her to the Governorship. Remember, her dogged investigation of the corruption in the oil companies in Alaska?

This I say simply to point out that I understand the give and take among the conservative ranks. What I cannot fathom however is how some so easily abandon their professed convictions for “Hey,we won!” Yes, I am aware one former Governor of Alaska certainly was the first to seemingly toss conviction to the wind for “the win”.

So there is contention within the conservative ranks that must be resolved. Can a candidate be a person of conviction and be successful? Or must the candidate simply profess conviction as tactics to be removed and reinstated as political atmospheres dictate? Is there really a right or wrong? Or does it have to be the present cycle of “bad for thee but not for me”? I foresee some soul-searching in my horizon. Is soul-searching allowed in politics?

Jul 29 2015

The Fiction We’ve Become

The ruling has come down on the Tom Brady suspension and, no surprise; the NFL is trying to save face by keeping the suspension in place. The so-called “save the integrity of the game” ruling is nothing more than a sham to cover the lack of integrity repeatedly exhibited by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Remember, this is the man who tried to let Ray Rice, running back for the Baltimore Ravens, off with a mere slap on the wrist for the crime of beating his pregnant fiancée senseless in plain sight of a video camera. Goodell changed his ruling to fit the crime only after a major outcry, starting with a scathing public renunciation from Governor Paul LePage, created a messy PR disaster for the Commissioner.

Ah yes, Roger Goodell, such a shining example of conviction for the youth of our Nation. For all his bluster about defending the integrity of the game, no one individual has done more to damage the integrity of the NFL than Roger Goodell. Still, he knows how to make a stand on air pressure, because we all know ball pressure is far more important that pregnant women…right??

And the Wells Report was so definitive about Brady’s ba….I mean, air pressure. Mr. Wells stated emphatically that he was pretty sure that probably Tom Brady maybe knew about the possibility that somebody somewhere was doing something that might be bad without any real proof of how the bad thing was done but everyone knows that Brady knows so we know that he most likely did something that we are not sure of… Doesn’t that just make you want to shout Truth, Justice, and the American Way? Really? Because I don’t!

But this is where we are as a society. We have become a people who would rather make decisions based upon what we want truth to be rather than discover what truth is. Brady’s…air pressure aside, the NFL is determined to destroy the legacy of the greatest quarterback who has ever played the game because he wins too much, plays for a coach who pushes the limits in all directions to find every edge to win, and they both don’t give a rat’s diseased riddled hindquarters what the NFL thinks of them.

Still, we love fiction over fact. For years we’ve exhorted children to believe in themselves. We’ve preached the virtues of being happy and validated in their own unique self. There’s no one like them…right? Unless you are superstar Olympic athlete who’s decided he’s not happy with who he is and wants his he to be she or a white female whose not happy that she is white and wants to be black, now that’s courageous according to the new world view.

Imagine all the children we’ve been teaching to “be happy with who they are” that must now face a new dilemma in their young minds, as if they needed a new dilemma, but here it is. Should I be happy with who I am or courageously unhappy with who I am? My, the contortions and convolutions we will go through as a nation not to face the truth.

Even our Supreme Court has contorted and twisted itself so that it might conjure a “right” that does not exist. In order to render a decision they deemed satisfactory to the gay community, the Justices of the Supreme Court have trampled State Sovereignty, Religious Liberty, and the Freedom of Speech, clearly defined in the Constitution, to create a “right” not clearly defined in the Constitution. If history is a lesson, those who make a decision based upon “Well everybody knows its true” more often than not end up in the category of “My God, what have we done?”

Feb 13 2013

Stating the Obvious

The truth has to be told. The truth deserves an audience. Much has been made of the Governor’s recent comments referring to newspapers as his greatest fear. While most in the media have mocked this statement with much derision, it would be wise for us as citizens to pause and take stock in the message the Governor is trying to convey to the State. The media has a vested interest in their disdain for the Governor but the residents should take a much more unfiltered and less prejudice view of his words.
Even a grade school study of history renders many stories of such great civilizations that have fallen by the manipulation of knowledge. Oftentimes what is told to the populace is not so dangerous as what is not. There is a great ideological battle waging for the freedom of information we take for granted. Truth and knowledge is the pivot on which this battle turns.
The 1960’s and 1970’s saw rise to great social turmoil. The “establishment” was questioned and reviled at every level. Our capitalistic society was demonized by the youth on many of America’s college campuses. Many of those youth now hold the power in our country. Many now control the print and visual media of our Nation. Much of their intent in legislative work and through the media is to tear down the capitalist framework of our nation. It is a framework most of us hold dear, but something that the “me generation” despises.
So, ironically, these that now hold power over information have become guilty of committing the very sins against their fellow man that they accused the so-called establishment of during riotous 60’s and 70’s. The media blocks anything in print and in video that could cause disruption to an established agenda set by the Democrat Party. There is much evidence to prove this, too much in fact, to fit into one column.
This is simply the introduction into what will be a several week series on the many blatant omissions by the major media outlets in Maine and nationally. The Governor was merely stating the obvious and soon it will be clear to any that read these subsequent columns, that many in the media have put their own political interests above the futures of the people of Maine. And, yes, Mr. Governor, that is indeed something to fear, not what we do know, what we don’t know.