Obama has given TWO BILLION dollars to Brazil to assist in off-shore drilling, something he won’t permit done off the United States shorelines. By agreement, all oil discovered will go to China. Why we are providing money, and jobs, to Brazil may be explained by the fact that Mr. Soros is a major stock holder in the company doing the drilling. Soros, of course, is a major contributor to Obama and the Democratic Party.

Page A5 of the Wall Street Journal (November 14-15) had a headline “War-Zone Counselors in Short Supply” which speaks to a shortage of mental health professionals to work with the troops in combat areas. War has certainly changed. In my day, the only counseling we were provided came from experienced Sergeants on how to stay alive. 

During O. J. Simpson’s trial there was a general belief among people I knew that any Black on the jury who voted “guilty” would be unable to again live or walk in a Black neighborhood. Now we have Islamic terrorists, or, to be politically correct, human disaster providers, on a public trial for the murder of over two thousand people. How would you like to be on a jury that found these killers guilty? In the past few years, we have had Islamic radicals in the United States who indiscriminately killed innocent peOople from California to New York to the Carolinas – anywhere they chose.  The jurors and their families would be promising targets.

Considering Obama’s expected cuts to Medicare and the establishment of a board to determine the “value” of medical treatment I look at other members of the Cardiac Club and wonder how many of us would have received treatment as persons “of value” to society. My heart surgery cost a combination of Medicare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield approximately two hundred thousand dollars.  To date, that has given me three additional years of life. During this time, I have participated in community events and supported a family. How many years must I do this to justify the cost? Worse yet, I have been surprised by the number of our members, mostly in their seventies and eighties with one couple in their nineties, who have had replacement knees and replacement hips. These are expensive also. Are they worth the cost? But there is also a cost in not doing surgery. Nursing homes would be required for those persons whose knees and hips no longer operate. They could live for years. That would be very expensive to society. So how does this balance? On one side of the scale we have years of nursing home treatment. Perhaps the surgery is cheapest.

Each day, I tune in to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity to hear what they have to say. Today one of them, I believe Hannity, said that our Democrat controlled government’s plans will take away the money of the wealthy.  He was wrong.  It won’t. The wealthy, the Kennedys, Pelosis, Clintons, Soros and other multi-million and billionaires have so much of their money tied up in tax exempt “foundations” and other tax exempt situations that the government could take away all of their salaried income and they would still be wealthy. The plans our government is making will only PREVENT others from becoming wealthy in addition to impoverishing the middle class.

President Obama has made his decision. He will send thirty thousand additional troops to Afghanistan (instead of the forty thousand requested by his generals) and withdraw them in three years. Great! All the Taliban and Al Qaeda have to do is lie low for three years and then take over. It is an extended dithering. In the meantime thousands of American soldiers will have their lives up-ended or destroyed, to go with those who have had that happen during the six months before this decision. There is certain to be criticism following these three years, whether for not sending the needed fighters or for not withdrawing immediately, I don’t know. But I do know it will be Bush’s fault.

I like Sarah Palin, I like her background and her history, my sole problem concerning her is that she is the only conservative Republican taking leadership at the this time.  We don’t need one, we need many. Where are the others?

I don’t want to change our culture.

I like the fact that in our nation all citizens have the right to participate in the selection of their leaders unless they, themselves, have lost that right by some action of their own, such as violating the law and being in prison. There was a time when many did not have this power through the vote. At one time, only property owners could vote. At another time, Blacks and American Indians could not vote.  Now all citizens have the right.  I don’t want to change our current system of voting, even though I know it is abused by some political machines, its basis is sound.

I like the fact that the laws are to apply to all people. If I get caught speeding, I get a ticket. If my friend, Mr. Murphy, who owns the grocery store is caught speeding, he gets a ticket. Even professional football players get tickets! I know there are some whose wealth and privilege permit them to avoid tickets, the Kennedys come to mind, but such abuse does not make the system wrong, its basis is sound.

I like the fact that all people are given the same rights before the law, to equal treatment in the courts. All can request a trial by a jury of their peers and the poor receive free legal advice.  While any person who follows the news knows that being wealthy, or having wealth and fame (certain football players come to mind) often results in special treatment, this special treatment is against the law of the land. The basic law is sound.

I like the fact that all children receive a free education and that it is possible for a child of the poorest background to attend and receive the highest education that his or her talent, interest and willingness to work permits. It is obvious that some schools are better than others at preparing children for life in our society, but that doesn’t change the basic premise, which is sound.

I like the fact that all citizens have the right to choose what vocation they wish to enter, the only true restrictions being their talent and energy, there being no way, anywhere, of ensuring opportunity. There have been nations in the past, and probably still are, in which the vocation and status of the father determines the vocation and status of his children. Sorry, but I like our current system, which is sound.

I like the fact that our Constitution specifically forbids enacting ex post facto laws and laws designed to punish specific individuals. This is under current attack in Congress as they seek to punish officials of AIG for accepting the bonuses that Congress itself authorized. I hope this fails. I don’t want my local County Council or State Government to decide that I should have paid more taxes than the legal ones I have already paid and confiscate my home in reprisal. Sorry, I like our current, constitutional, laws, which are sound. 

I like the fact that I can attend, or not attend, any church without punishment, the only coercion being that employed by family members and friends.  I am a Christian and approve of Christianity, which has given us the current culture and laws under which we live, but this same culture permits people to worship in other systems if they so desire. I may not approve of those, or of segments of those such as the subordination of women to men under Muslim law, but if there are men who need religious justification for this and women who are willing to accept it, why not. It is simply that I have no wish to change the culture which gives me, and them, the power to worship as we please.

Why would I wish to change our culture? What culture on earth is better? The implementation of laws written in accord with our culture have their flaws, as illustrated by the sorry arrogance of some members of Congress, but to the extent they reflect our culture, they are good. Why change them? Why change our culture?