Equality Vs Fairness.

     The world is an imperfect place. One if it's imperfections is the inequality of human beings. For a long time people were held to the station in life to which they were born. Moving up in the world just was not going to happen. It didn't matter if you had intelligence or the drive to work hard. Who, and what you were, was pretty much set from birth.  This was excepted, and no one really made too much of a stink over it. That is, until the birth of a county based on freedom.

    America is a great country. It has striven to give more freedoms and opportunities to it's people than any other country in history. With that said, we are not perfect. We have had racism and sexism and all the other "isms", just like everyone else. But it is our truly exceptional desire to be fair that has pushed us to always try to fix any problems that our citizens face in the hope that one day all Americans will live in a truly equal county. Affirmative Action was to put in place to help minorities who had been held down by institutional oppression be able to go to good schools, get good jobs, and therefor be able to move up in life. Sounds good, right? The Equal Pay Act was put in place to ensure that all people would be paid the same amount for the same work. Still good?  Now, there are laws to help those with mental or physical disabilities or religious or sexual orientation differences, so that they too will never have to compete on anything other than an entirely even playing field. Wow! That sounds like a real utopia! 

    Problem. As mentioned, the world is an imperfect place. And as cold and heartless as it sounds, that is often a good thing. Imperfection and inequality breeds struggle. It separates people who have natural abilities from those who do not. It then further separates those who have the personal motivation to work hard from those who are just plain lazy. It's been a very long time since there has been institutionalized inequality in America. Now the problem is forced equality. Governmental attempts to force the equalization of unequal people only lowers the standards for everyone. If a school or company must have a certain number of woman or blacks, will white men try their best? I doubt it. The deck has been stacked against them. They know they can't get in, so they don't even try. What if you are Asian? Will you be turned away because there are already "enough" Asians in the medical school you are applying too? If Affirmative Action has anything to say about it, you might want to ask yourself if being a doctor is really what you want to do. How about pay and advancement? There are laws that clearly make it illegal to pay woman less than men for the same job. So why are people always going on about women getting paid less? The truth is that woman work less hours and take more time off than men. Should a company promote the women and pay them the same wage even if this is the case? Shouldn't the time you put in, and your reliability count for something? It sounds like a dumb question. Right? But some people are so hung up on equality that they can't see the terrible unfairness that is right in front of their faces. 

    We, as Americans, should not strive for equality. It is an impossible goal and we should have learned by now that it is not even right for humanity. What we should work toward is achieving real fairness. Were all American's are given equality of opportunity, but are never guaranteed equality of results. To succeed or fail on ones own merits. In a fair America. Were all people are equally free. 

VOH

     

Why All Americans Should Love Our Second Amendment.

    It has been almost two hundred and twenty-five years since America's founders ratified our nation's Bill of Rights. Of these first ten amendments, it is to the second, that we owe all our liberties. For those who aren't familiar with our Bill of Rights (shame on you by the way), the second amendment is written as follows. 

    A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the     people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

That's right, y'all. It's the gun one!  As a massive constitutionalist, it's hard for me to talk about it without totally geeking out on every single amendment. But when it comes down to it, I always pick our second amendment as my favorite. And, the truth is, that everyone should. As I have already mentioned, if you have ever enjoyed even a single moment of the sweet freedom granted to a citizen of these United States, it was bought for you at the end of a gun barrel. 

    

    Despite this fact, there are many people today that seem to be very unclear as to how much gun ownership is vital to our nation's continued freedom. It's their belief that it is that very gun ownership that puts people in danger in the first place. Which is pretty odd considering that as private gun ownership goes up, violent crime goes down. But I guess it's hard for them to realize that because they are hooked up to a twenty-four hour Kool Aide drip courtesy of the liberal media. Our friends in tv, movies, print media and the internet are Hell bent on making people see that guns are the problem. And that it's important that there be very strict gun control laws enacted to keep people save. Without guns, there would surely never be another death in America again. Right? They talk about violence on tv and in movies (that they make) causing our children to be more prone to violence. About how many children are killed each year in accidental shootings. And about mass shootings like Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech or most recently Orlando. There are however things they never talk about. In some cases because they don't know about them, but mostly because they don't want us to know. How the gun laws are already very strict.  How there is no evidence that kids are any more violent than they ever were. How kids who get guns and shoot them almost always have never been taught any gun safety. How most gun violence is perpetrated with illegally bought guns, to more laws wouldn't prevent them.  And how mass shootings are never, ever, EVER about the guns. They are ALWAYS about the shooter. Because it is the person's intent that makes a gun either a weapon of death or an instrument of salvation. 

    Our founders new this point first hand. They had lived for years under a tyrannical King who systematically chipped away at all their freedoms. We all know the drill. They were taxed into penury for all kinds of goods and services, with no say in the matter. They had their ability to conduct trade with foreign with lands infringed upon, greatly limited their economic power. They had their own governing bodies abolished, putting them at the King's mercy in all things, even local. And on and on. But the thing that sent our founders over the edge was when it became clear that they literally had no choice but to fight, or be slaves to the King. He sent his troops in to make sure that the colonists could never gather together and speak of their unhappiness. And when they protested, he had their guns forcibly taken and moved his troops into their homes. And that's it right there. Our revolutionary forbears understood that without their weapons, they would have never been able to break free from a tyrannical government. That a personal weapon can literally make the difference between freedom and subjugation. Between liberty or death. Luckily for us, they didn't wait until it was too late and declared their independence in 1776.  

     Having won their (our) freedom in a long and bloody war, it wasn't won until 1783, it was important to our founders that everything they knew was necessary to liberty be protected for all future Americans. It should come as no surprise that after freedom of speech, the right to protect oneself is at the top of that list. Without it, all our other freedoms have no protection. And so, the second amendment was born. But what about nut cases that buy guns and use them in mass killings? Surely they never wanted that? Of course, they didn't want that. Who want's that?! But they didn't live in Care-a-lot, and were not nieve to the existence of bad guys. They just fought a war remember? Bad people who have bad intentions will aways find a way to inflict their evil on others. They understood better than anyone that the only to limit the power of evil is to strengthen the power of good.  

    With the rise of threats like Islamic terrorism, good has never been in greater need of some strengthening. The police are always there when we need them. But they are only people, and can't be everywhere at once. People who choose evil almost always make "gun free zones" their targets? Why? Because they know that the people there are sitting ducks. Schools, movies theaters, malls and night clubs. No guns and the police minutes away. It's a blood bath waiting to happen. I don't know about you, but I am not holding my breath to hear about a retired FBI agents reunion party being shot up. But what about the ease in which these weapons can be bought? Shouldn't there be tighter restrictions? No. There shouldn't be. Because it is already very hard to buy a gun. Every person who wants too has to fill out a mountain of paperwork and have a full background check done before they can get anything. What about watch lists? Those people shouldn't be allowed guns, right? Why not? If you have committed a crime and been tried and convicted, then you don't get a gun. If you have a history of diagnosed and verifiable mental illness that makes you a danger, then you don't get a gun. That's it!  If you think otherwise, you might want to take some time and peruse the other amendments. Seriously, you need too. Due process, you're going to love it. 

    It's pretty much like this. You, American citizen, have the right to be free and life in a nation where you can fight any person or agency that tries to take your freedoms away. Whether it be a home intruder, a crazy ex, a monstrous terrorist or even your very own government. You can arm yourself and stand your ground. You are powerful. So on behalf of all lovers of freedom everywhere. Say a prayer of thanks to our brave founders and all the sheepdogs that came after them. And then, lock and load. 


VOH

Dancing With The Devil: Terror, Lies and Denial In Orlando.

    Like a lot of news junkies, I almost always reach for my phone as soon as I wake up. I'm not proud of it. But, in that respect, this past Sunday was no different than any other. What made it different, but sadly all too familiar was what I saw when the light from that little screen hit my face. The news I was squinting to see was that there had yet again been an attack on innocent people in the name of Islam. I would later find out that at least one evil monster had entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and murdered almost fifty carefree revelers and wounded over fifty more. Like all decent people, I was devastated. But that devastation would soon be transformed into an even farther reaching disgust. It took no time at all before the anti-gun opportunists started using the dead and injured as ammunition (pardon the pun) in their ongoing battle against the second amendment. Their opinion seems to be that there are no bodies too fresh to be used as gun control propaganda. In this, as in all acts of evil, they lose total sight of some very key truths. The first being that guns are not capable of having intentions, evil or otherwise. They can be just as powerful a force for protection as for death. The second being that real evil does, in fact, exist. The third is that (in this case anyway) a hate crime can also be a terror attack. And finally, that as much as they want to demonize Christianity as the religion that hates gays, the real hate is coming from one place, and it's Islam. 

    As I'm following the news coverage, I find that (totally unsurprisingly) the commentary not so slowly, but ever so surely moves to the weapon used as opposed to the motive behind the attack. The peanut gallery is absolutely rabid with its desire to show that if this person (I won't use his name) had been unable to buy his gun, surely this attack would never have taken place. They are sure that the best way to keep bad things from happening is to totally disarm law abiding citizens. Make no mistake. That is indeed what they want to do. Because as much as this guy was on people's radar, he had not, up to that point, committed a crime. So any background check on him would have cleared him to purchase any legal gun. The anti-gun crowd thinks that's the whole point. There should be no background check at all. The type of weapon he used should be totally illegal for anyone to own. There, problem solved, right? Wrong. There are these things called the second amendment and due process. Yeah, American citizens have the right to be armed and the right to not be treated as criminals unless there is evidence that they are. Both of those are clearly violated if a US citizen is denied a weapon when he has no criminal background. Period. There is also the issue of illegal guns. What? Well, why should anyone think that a person who is more than happy to commit mass murder would have any moral opposition to buying a black market gun? Think about it. Making guns illegal for everyone only disarms the good guys. Bad guys don't care about laws. Get it? 

    Another theme that the talking heads seem to be totally fixated on is, why? I think we all get that. Of course, we want to know why a person would go on a murderous rampage. If we had the answer we might be able to stop it from happening again. Or so we like to think anyway. But with this guy, they actively push aside the flashing neon lights of evidence about his motive and start looking for other reasons. He goes on to everyone he knows about is radical Islamic beliefs, he's been investigated twice by the FBI because of them, his father is a radical Islamist, he worships under a radical Imam and he calls 911 to declare is allegiance to ISIS. But that can't be it. It must be something else. Like maybe he's gay and his personal self-loathing is what pushed him to do it. There's lots of evidence that he was. Trying to pick up guys and using gay dating apps does seem to point in that direction. So maybe he was. Maybe he did hate himself for it. But, hello!? I mean really. He did all but leave a note telling the world what his mind set was. Why can't the liberal press just call a spade a spade? That's the 'why' I'm focused on. My best guess is that moral relativism has run so rampant that these people just can't admit that he was motivated by an evil ideology. That would mean admitting that there really is a spectrum of good and evil. Right and wrong. Doing that would throw so many other stanses into question. They just arn't ready to go there. 

    Now we can't talk about this attack without mentioning that it was against a nightclub that catered to gay patrons. So what? People are people. Victims are victims. Yes, that is true. But come on, this club was targeted because it was a gay club. Anyone with brains knows that. So if there were no other elements, it would be classified as a hate crime right away. And rightly so. But the shooter going on about Islam has gotten some people a little confused. Terrorist act or hate crime? Which one is it? At the risk of sounding like a jerk, it's both morons. Show me a terrorist attack that was not motivated by hate and I'll show you the corpse of Jimmy Hoffa that I keep frozen in my basement. Seriously. Why is this even being talked about? The 'either-or' of it is ridiculous. 

    The final madness that is being thrown around (mostly on the interwebs) is people going after Christians and conservatives as if this act of heinous murder was their fault. Anytime someone comes out and says 'this was an act of Islamic terrorism' there is someone else right there to tell them that's a bigoted thing to say. Even some in the LGBT community are jumping to the Muslims defense. Which is one of the most wack-a-doodle things ever, if you really think about it. Yes, there are a lot of Christians/conservatives that are not, shall we say, huge fans of the gays. But, come on! It is an actual tenant of the Islamic faith that being gay is a sin to be punished by death. In Islamic countries, gays are put to death every day. But here in America, what really works our gays up into a tizzy is not having a cake made for their wedding by the shop of their choice. Oh, the humanity! Being slaughtered en mass is apparently A-Okay. What?! When did we all fall down the rabbit whole? At this point, I'm just waiting for my invitation to the Mad Hatter's tea party. 

     Okay. So, here's what really happened. Islam is an ideology of hate and domination. Maybe there are good parts of the Koran, but sorry, I'm stuck on all the killing, raping and servitude. Any "good" Muslims need to break from this madness now. Have a reformation and expunge this evil madness from your teachings. If you do not, you make it clear where you stand. People who follow the Koran to the letter are a danger to everyone. This has been shown time and time again. This guy used guns. But they use guns, bombs, knives, fire and anything else they can. The only way to push this evil back is to call it what it is and arm ourselves to the teeth. Everyone, us and them, needs to understand in no uncertain terms that we are serious. We will not be their victims. Fifty people will never go home again. But they are only the latest. This ideology's victims should not be used as pawns in a PC game of misdirection. It's an insult to their memories, and it only emboldens our enemies. Truth doesn't care about what is easy to face. It only cares about reality. This will happen again. And again, and again. They will not stop until they are made too. That's our job. Are you ready?


VOH

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/homosexuality.aspx

Pride. What Can Be Bad About That?

    Seeing as this is Pride Month, I was asked by a reader if I would write an opinion on Pride Parades and their pros and cons. To my mind, there aren't really that many cons at all. Pride parades, whether they be LGBT, Irish, Cuban or what have you, are simply about a group of people expressing their happiness in their shared affiliation. Having pride in one's self is generally a good thing and I for one am happy for them. The only real con, however, tends to be a pretty big one. When the pride people feel and their desire to share it morphs into aggressively pushing their differences in others faces with the purpose of gleefully reveling in their discomfort, then I stop being a fan. Do men need to wear g-strings and ball gags as they walk down the street to show that they are not ashamed of being gay? Do Cubans need to also disparage America in order to praise their heritage? Do the Irish need to be fall down drunk on St. Patrick's day to pay proper homage to their ancestors? Uh, no. No, they don't. 

    It is said that pride cometh before the fall, and that is generally true. Most people don't have any problems with the pride others feel about themselves. If you don't share something with someone, that doesn't mean you don't like it. But the quickest way to turn people off is a neener neener style of over the top bravado. No one likes a hatefully delivered message, even if the message itself is just fine. More and more, people are finding that when they say they don't want to watch two dudes go at it, they are labeled as homophobic. That if they don't like cultural pride parades because other cultures are degraded in them, that means they are racists. It gets very tiring. What happened to being able to appreciate one thing without having to push something else into the gutter? If you are gay and go on and on about how being straight is gross, don't be shocked if straight people don't love that. If all your pride as a black person is built on your believe that white people are the devil, well you get the point. 

 It pretty much comes down to common sense. Pros: Personal and shared happiness. Cons: Divisive obnoxiousness. If everyone can just make sure to stick to the pros, we can be proud of the selves we were born as, and the selves we choose to be. So be proud, wave your flag, but just make sure that you aren't screaming at anyone and that you're always wearing pants. Words to live by. 


VOH

Trump Vs Hillary. It's A Real Pickle. Or is it?

     So it comes down to this. The final two. It has been a very rocky road to get to this point. Election seasons are always ugly. But we tend to romanticize all those that have come before as more civilized somehow. The one we find ourselves in at the moment always seems to be the worst. And this go round has been no different, with one clear exception. Donald Trump. The GOP's electorate has possibly never seen such a bombastic and un-PC candidate be so wildly successful. But Trump's success will be all for not if he can't win in a general election. The question we have now is, should he? 

    I think that question would be easier to answer for a lot of people if it weren't for Mr. Trump's opponent. You see this election isn't the old run of the mill contest of Republican vs Democrat. Make no mistake, this is Donald v Hillary. That's right, Hillary Clinton. One of the most viscerally reviled people in politics today, or maybe ever. She has always been seen by those on the right as cold, calculating, elitist and out for herself. But in recent months and years, it has become all too clear how deeply those traits truly run. As those in the Never Trump camp are saying they could never and will never vote for him, let's look at why we must. 

    This is the first time I have openly said that Mr.Trump should be supported by conservatives. I have made no secret of  the fact that, as a presidential candidate, he does not light my fire. Indeed, I have never been one of his feverishly supportive fans, and at this point, I don't see that ever happening. The alternative, however, a Hillary Clinton presidency is not an option. With that said, there are a couple of things we must do. We must ensure that Mrs. Clinton does not win the White House. We do this, of course, by voting for Mr. Trump. We must also, and this is very important, hold Mr. Trump to his conservative and constitutional promises. 

    But why is Mrs. Clinton so objectionable? How could she be so bad that people should vote for someone they don't even like, just to avoid her? Well, there are so many things that are wrong with her, it would take a Russian novel to go through them all. So let's stick to the finer points. She's a morally devoid, traitorous, pathological liar who thinks that the rule a law does not apply to her. Wow! That's a bit extreme. Not really. Here are the facts. 

    Every person who was in Benghazi, Libya on the night that four of our people were murdered, says that Mrs. Clinton is lying about what happened and what she knew in real time and afterwards. She repeatedly blamed the attack on our embassy on a video when it has been proven that she knew from the very beginning that it was a planned attack with no connection to the video. She also lied to the faces of families of those killed as to what happened. They have all come out and told the same story and it boils down to her lying for political reasons. As to her belief that she is above the law, her scandals go back to the 70's. But just in the last few years, it has come to light that as Secretary of State she used The Clinton Foundation as a pay to play for foreign governments to buy influence with her State Department.  This is clearly a conflict of interest and as far as I know, not strictly legal. But that is nothing compared to her usage of private email addresses and servers that were not secure or even known about by the government during her time as SoS. She knowingly allowed our nation's top secrets to be at the mercy of foreign governments and civilian hackers alike. She then deleted over 30,000 emails instead of producing them as she was ordered to by law. Last time I checked those actions are all illegal. And all but handing over our secrets on a silver platter to anyone who's interested is treasonous. Is this the kind of person we can allow to be our president? Someone whom it seems doesn't have a decent or honest bone in their body?  Uh, no. 

    I can hear the Never Trumpers yelling at me now. But he's not conservative. He's a flip-flopper. He's racist. He's sexist. He's a bigot. As to him being racist, sexist or a bigot, I have seen no proof of that. Most of what he says on those topics is spun, or out right lied about in the press. Such as him saying all Mexicans are rapists and murderers. He never said "all". He was referencing people who have made their way through our ever more porous border and do commit crimes. The stats on that back him up. What I'm more concerned about is his temperament, his knowledge of important facts and issues and if he will stay true to his word. Which is the reason why he needs to feel pressure from the conservative, libertarian and constitutionalist camps. His Supreme Court nominee is of vital importance. His choice of Vice President and cabinet appointees are also vital. The answer to "making America great again"( as is Trump's moto) is not casting a ballot and walking away. It should never leave his mind that he needs to earn his right to live in America's house, and keep earning it. 

    We, as American's have an obligation to cast a ballot for our president. But we are often not given a choice that we are happy with. Many see sitting it out as the right thing to do. They have a clear conscience because they feel they are not to blame for whatever wrong is done by the winner. But the reality is that a nonvote is a vote for the worse of the two. Hillary will run loose with the progressive agenda in a way that I don't think we can even imagine. She will weaken us in the eyes of our enemies and in so doing put America and the world in ever more danger than we are in now. In spite of Mr. Trumps flaws, I can't shake the knowledge of what a Hillary presidency would mean. It just can't be allowed.  

    So get yourself involved in more than just the election for president. Whether it be a local, state or federal election, we must remember that we do not elect dictators. Those who win our votes must continuously earn it, and always be held to account by we the people. That's what made America great in the first place. 


VOH