One of these things…

The Time Has Come…

This travesty must end. Please sign the petition here.

“The division between your three campaigns [Cruz/Rubio/Carson] is a primary reason Trump is poised to win the Republican nomination. Immediate unification is the only way to avoid this travesty and save America.

“Therefore, we the people respectfully call upon you three principled men and Patriots to immediately set aside pride, personal ambition, and any past hurt feelings. We call upon you to unite immediately to avoid the imminent destruction of the United States…”

It’s almost too late. But not quite.

Stoutcat

After Iowa, Thinking About Trump

No, I’m still not a fan of Mr. Trump. But here’s some food for thought from the inestimable Bill Whittle on the man who wants to Make America Great Again. It’s well worth the time, and you may find yourself thinking a bit more highly of him… or you may not.

As for me, Cruz is my guy, always has been. But should the unthinkable happen, I’m a bit more comfortable considering a Trump presidency after seeing this video. At any rate, it’s a far preferable choice than a White House with a Clinton/Sanders/Biden occupant.

Stoutcat

The Revenge of the Football

You know, I’m not a yuge Rubio fan (He’s #3 of my top three choices), but I give the man credit, he surely knows how to respond to press criticism!

You have to love a candidate with a sense of humor.

Stoutcat

Here’s A Question for You

As it is seeming more and more possible that Donald Trump may become the Republican candidate for President (and you have no idea how much it pains me to type that), I’m starting to look to a future Trump presidency, and one question looms very large: What kind of Supreme Court judges would he appoint?

Maybe we should find out before it’s too late.

Stoutcat

A Guy Writes a Letter to the Editor

…of the Boston Globe. It might be going viral, so here’s my little bit to help it along.

To the man I sat next to on my way in to Boston:
When I boarded the commuter rail, you were already in the midst of a spirited phone conversation and didn’t seem to care about how loud you were talking. You were talking with someone about the Paris train attack and the growing epidemic of gun violence in America.

Read it all and share it. Please. Also, read the comments, both good and bad. This is what society looks like today, folks.

Full disclosure: this gentleman is a member of a gun forum of which I am also a member. He put the text of his letter up on that forum the day before it was published in the Globe. The amazing thing to me is that the Globe published his letter nearly verbatim, with little to no editing.

Stoutcat

Advice for our Republican Candidates

Welcome to 2016, folks, the year that will make or break America.

As I slowly come back online, I have three pieces of advice that I’d like to share with the field of Republican candidates. I’m sure these suggestions will be ignored, but they must be stated.

1: It’s time to thin the herd.
From now on, we need just a few faces that will represent the Republicans. Several good candidates have already left the race, and it’s time for the vast majority of the rest of you to bow out, for the good of the country. So if your name isn’t Trump, Cruz, or Rubio, it’s time to say goodbye.

Personal note to Jeb Bush: you don’t need to prove anything. You are as good a man as your father and your brother; you don’t need the Presidency to validate that.

2: The media are not your friend.
They never has been, and they never, ever will be. The mainstream media are and have been firmly in the tank for the Democrat party for decades. As Evan Thomas famously Freudian slipped back in 2004,

“Let’s talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win and I think they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards I’m talking about the establishment media, not Fox… [T]here’s going to be this glow about them, collective glow, the two of them, that’s going to be worth maybe 15 points.”

And folks, you know it hasn’t gotten better since 2004. In order simply to appear equal in the press, we’ve got to garner at least 15% more decent coverage in the media.

As far as the indie media go, well, they’re not your friend either. They’re actually doing the job the press should be doing, which is asking the hard questions. These folks may not be your enemy, but they are still not your friend. Remember that.

3: You are not running against Obama.
You’re also not running against the other Republicans still in the field. Concentrate your fire where it will do the most good, at the Democrat candidates. You will likely be running against Hillary. If you can’t find enough fodder to destroy her credibility at the polls, you absolutely shouldn’t be running. Same goes for Bernie.

The viability of this nation rests on this election. Let’s try not to blow it.

Stoutcat

What So Proudly We Hailed…

Well, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed down a decision of overwhelming arrogance. Apparently, schools in the Morgan Hill school district may now forbid students from wearing tee shirts with the American flag depicted on them. It’s not clear whether this order only applies to Cinco de Mayo, or whether it will spread to St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, Bastille Day, and other ethnic multi-cultural celebrations.

From the summary:

“The panel held that school officials did  not violate the students’ rights to freedom of expression, due process, or equal protection. The panel held given the history of prior events at the school, including an altercation on campus, it was reasonable for school officials to proceed as though the threat of a potentially violent disturbance was real. The panel held that school officials anticipated violence or substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities, and their response was tailored to the circumstances…

“On Cinco de Mayo in 2009, a year before the events relevant to this appeal, there was an altercation on campus between a group of predominantly Caucasian students and a group of Mexican students.^2″

And this footnote tells you everything you need to know about the school district, as well as the 9th Circuit Court:

²We use the ethnic and racial terminology employed by the district court (Caucasian, Hispanic, Mexican). For example, the district court at times referred to students of Mexican origin born in the United States and students born in Mexico collectively as “Mexican.” (emphasis added)

The salient points here for me are:

In order to avoid violence, school districts may punish potential victims of violence rather than the expected perpetrators.

Also, it is now appropriate to refer to children born right here in the United States as Mexicans.

We used to be allowed to fight for our flag. That impulse is deliberately being punished out of us, legislated out of us, bred out of us. How much longer will we be allowed even to sing this:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Stoutcat

H/T: HotAir

Education

The invaluable Bill Whittle does it again. In his guise as the Virtual President, Mr. Whittle takes on the topic of education and makes his case as only he can.

Nicely done, Mr. Virtual President!

Stoutcat

The Economy: From Bad to Worse, Courtesy of Obamacare

Let’s set up a hypothetical situation: I have a spouse, a family, and a job. I am reasonably well-compensated for my work. My small company gives me health insurance that meets my family’s needs at a price that fits our budget.

Obamacare goes into effect.  My employer decides that he can no longer afford to offer health insurance to all his employees, so he cuts my hours. I no longer qualify as a full-time worker. As a necessary corollary, I no longer have my health insurance.

Exploring the Obamacare website (assuming I actually can access it), I find nothing that meets my needs or my budget, as I still make too much to qualify for a subsidy. This actually is a sop to my pride, as I would be mortified were I to ask my fellow tax-payers to pay for even part of my insurance.

But in order to get health insurance that I can afford–even with tax-payer assistance–I must cut my hours and my salary even more, and I must swallow my pride so that I can qualify for a subsidy for a plan that doesn’t really meet my needs but is all I can afford, even with assistance.

However this cut in hours and pay means that I have far less income to spend on anything other than the very basic necessities for my family–food, mortgage, school clothes for the kids, etc.) I’ll cut back cable TV and internet access, skip my morning stop at the local coffee shop, drop music lessons and after-school sports for the kids, back-burner plans for a Disney vacation (thank goodness we hadn’t mentioned it to the kids yet!), and hope that the grandparents can afford to come and visit us this year, instead of us traveling cross-country to visit them, as is our yearly habit.

Yes, as I look at it, there are lots of ways we can cut the budget to cover the income loss; it’ll be very tight, but I know we can make it. And we’re not the only family tightening our belts. Neighbors, colleagues, even family are all facing similar situations.

So what if the coffee shop goes out of business? They only employ six people–and they’ll probably qualify for unemployment. So what if the music teacher loses most of his students? That’s what welfare is for, right?

All this is doing is creating more dependency… not just those who need the subsidy for their required-by-law, law-of-the-land Obamacare coverage; but also for all those folks who are becoming the casualties of the all too predictable unintended consequences of a very, very bad piece of legislation.

Repeal it now.

Stoutcat