Let's mind our manners, OK

In the age of the Combover, this is a hard sell, of course, but I did some thinking after ESPN's recent firing of Curt Schilling for an obnoxious "tweet" about transsexuals using bathrooms that don't correspond to their birth sex.  Now from all appearances, Schilling is a decent family man, a brother in Christ, with a hint of outspokenness and bluntness.   Regarding that last bit, it wasn't--see a previous one about Muslims and Nazis--his first "adverse encounter" with a hasty, poorly thought out note to the world.  For that matter, the collapse of his video game business probably has something to do with hasty thinking on his part, as well as the government's.  He's got a history, and admits it.

And with that, we really have a way that we can be salt and light in the world, and not get fired or otherwise socially disgraced.  We simply need to start using well sourced information and make that public to the world in a becoming way.

Concerned about radical Islam?  I'm with you.  Concerned about perverts in the ladies' room or locker room?  So is my health club, which prohibits cell phone use in ladies', men's, and family locker rooms.  But let's tone down the adrenaline and cheap shots, and remember what Deming told us:

In God We Trust, all others must provide data.

Again, if it weren't for the left,

....I wouldn't know half the racial and ethnic slurs that I know today.  And that would be a good thing.  Latest example is a Harvard Law [sic] student who apparently approached an Israeli speaker and asked him why he was so smelly.   I guess it's more subtle than some of the other words and phrases I've heard addressed to the sons of Jacob, but if the student is not identified and disciplined, we have to assume that they're OK with this.

Why things are bad at the Secret Service

I've written before about issues confronting the Secret Service, from solicitation of prostitutes by officers to, well, solicitation of prostitutes by officers,  along with incidents where the Secret Service abjectly failed to stop someone who made it across the White House lawn (at least 100 yards) and nearly into the living quarters before being stopped.

Now while certainly they're not John Parker yet, it's certainly troubling, and I'd like to suggest one possible reason; they've been watching the likes of Bill Clinton and dope-smoking rappers for a quarter of a century.  Forced to look the other way as rappers brought weed into the White House and as the former President visited "orgy island", I'm guessing that men of honor are starting to take a pass on what was formerly a very prestigious job, and that those who are left are willing to look the other way because they're willing to participate.

If you doubt the importance of character in selecting a President, look again.  It appears that the bad character of a former President and the current President is endangering the safety of everyone under Secret Service protection.  And yes, this is a great reason to vote against Hilliary Clinton or Combover Drumpf.

Update: this can't be helpful in retaining high quality agents.  It boggles the mind that President Obama does not see the problems inherent with letting a person accused of kidnapping, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery into the White House.  For that matter, it boggles the mind that he apparently thinks that rappers have the keys to managing criminal justice. 

Yet another reason that you don't want a pothead, or the wife of a pothead, in the White House, I guess.

Now this is interesting

Apparently there is growing evidence that state attorneys general have illegally conspired with each other, and with environmental groups, in attempting to prosecute lawsuits against fossil fuel producers and users who have funded research critical of the global warming hypothesis.

Interesting, and ironic, since their behavior falls into the same legal bin that they're trying to use to prosecute fossil fuel producers--RICO.  Moreover, unlike the work of fossil fuel producers and users, there appears to be an abundance of evidence to prove the case.

Throw the book at them.   We need robust debate before implementing actions to deal with climate change, not intimidation tactics. 

A right of the militia?

I was reading my sweet wife's copy of American Rifleman this weekend, and in light of the dissents from the Heller and McDonald decisions, something struck me about their, um, "reasoning".  Specifically, if the right to keep and bear arms is the right of the government to arm the militia--citizens conscripted into the army in time of war--what significance does it have?

Seriously; would anyone at any time in history have questioned the right of a sovereign government to arm those it sends to war?  You will of course get anarchists of various stripes who question the government's right to exist at all, and assorted pacifists who will deny the propriety of war, but once you've got a war on, it's pretty much understood that it's a good idea to actually provide weapons to the men whose lives are on the line.  To draw a picture, one of the chief groups in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis were Mennonites.  They wouldn't take up arms themselves, but they'd certainly be happy to make sure the men who didn't have that objection were taken care of.

So the "collective right" theory regarding the 2nd amendment is not merely a grammatical and historical absurdity, but also a basic logical absurdity.  So with this hat trick of absurdity, I've got to suggest that the behavior of the dissenters is not merely worthy of scorn, but also impeachment and disbarment.

A thought for elder care

It's been on my heart for a long time--really since I came to Christ about 28 years back--that we ought to be taking care of our elders-the seasoned citizens, as Rush would say--much differently than we do today.  And so it's joyous for me to see this column by Lenore Skenazy, one of the most brilliant columnists about family life in my view, pointing to an effort by a doctor named Bill Thomas to create retirement homes where a degree of risk and reward is still operative.  It's called the Green House Project, and in a nutshell, it's a nursing home for a dozen people or less where the elders are allowed and encouraged to be in the kitchen, outside, and elsewhere.  In other words, it's a walker and wheelchair friendly home, similar in notion to one I'm proud to say one of my cousins started and operates. 

Now of course "Green House" is a business, and they're not terribly cheap, but it strikes me that Dr. Thomas might be honored if we learned about how he does it and engaged the most sincere form of flattery: imitation.  Although I don't have a lot of people in my own family to care for at this point, there are a bunch of elders in church who might benefit.

If it weren't for liberal Democrats.....

.....there are so many racial slurs I would never have learned.  And, ahem, that would have been a good thing.   Catch the optics on that one--you've got a African-American man dressed up more or less as a servant, and the mayor of New York City makes that crack, revealing that he not only knows that term, but also that he's willing to use it while on camera and with a black man on stage in that get-up?

With friends like liberal Democrats, African-Americans don't need enemies.  As for me, I'm working hard to forget some of the racial and sexual slurs Democrats have taught the world. 

Translation: Obama will be interfering

In a breathtakingly dishonest interview, President Obama has claimed that he will not be interfering with the investigation of Hilliary Clinton for exposing state secrets, and also that he did not believe that the emails involved exposed "really top secret top secret" information.

Now for him to know this, that would mean he had personally viewed the emails in question--22 of which have not even been made available to Congress--and he is also prejudging them, instead of letting people in the State Department, CIA, FBI, and other interested parties judge their significance.

In other words, he was being breathtakingly dishonest by interfering with the investigation by the vary fact he gave that interview.  No surprise, but still stunning, given that exposure of this kind of information gets people killed.

This is scary

Powerline links this quick blurb of former President Bill Clinton more or less shouting down Black Lives Matter activists as a sign of what to do, and of a sign of general Democratic Party meltdown, but I see something very different.  Slick Willie seems to be smiling as he talks about the tragic murder of a 13 year old girl in Washington, DC.  He is animated at playing the game, but he shows no sign of compassion for the girl who was killed.

I guess he's a good match for the woman who ginned up a cock and bull story about Benghazi and kept classified data on an unsecured private server without any apparent remorse, but my goodness, this is scary.

Yes, remind BLM activists that if they intimidate the police into not doing their jobs, it will be black people who pay the most brutal price.  But darnit, slow down and show some real sorrow.

Democrats on the loose!

It turns out that a North Dakota Democrat running for Congress, Chase Iron Eyes, has been exposed (pun intended) as someone who has sent nude selfies to someone, possibly someone with whom he admits an inappropriate cyber relationship.

Now to be fair, it's not certain where it came from, but just for fun, let's imagine that his explanation that it was a "fitness check for a triathlon" is true.  What do we have? 

Well, we've got a guy who takes nude selfies of himself for use by himself, and we could assume that he's got a good healthy dose of narcissism.  Moreover, the best fitness check for the triathlon is called a stopwatch, not a camera.  Nude selfies make as much sense for the triathlon as a colonoscopy, really.

So the best possible spin here is that we've got a narcissistic fool running for Congress who's admitted "cyber" adultery, instead of a narcissistic fool running for Congress who's committed both cyber and physical adultery.   The difference, of course, is night and night.

I should have guessed

April Fools' Day appears to be a holiday for Chicago teachers.  Given that the teachers' union didn't figure out the horrendous optics of pulling this stunt today, I've got to suggest that this is more appropriate than they'd have ever guessed.