I knew they were dumb, but not so dumb as to equate buying a gun to prescription drug usage

On Sunday the fish wrap ran its first in what promises to be a very long line of gun grabber letters.  It was such low hanging poorly reasoned fruit I thought I’d let it slide.  I’ve decided that I would respond to every one of the gun grabbers’ letters in the hope of presenting a counter argument to at least one person at the JG.  Here goes:

Re: Letter from Emily Hollenberg, JG Feb 25, 2018

After the FL school shooting I was certain that the gun grabbers would rely on their usual canards to demand a ban/confiscation of certain weapons.  They fall into one of three areas: 

One: they equate guns with the requirement to register automobiles.  Bad example because automobiles are not protected under the constitution.  The primary purpose of car registration is a state fund raising scheme - nothing more. 

Two: shouting, no one needs an AR to go hunting.  Actually the AR is a very popular platform for hunting small game and varmints. Aside from that, of the 27 plain words in the Second Amendment none of them refers hunting.

Three: they swear the second amendment applies to the militia (National Guard) not average citizens.  Actually it doesn’t.  The Second Amendment doesn’t give anyone the right to keep and bear arms.  That was assumed to be an inherent right by the founders. The Second Amendment is directed at congress by restricting it from infringing on the peoples’ inherent right to self-defense from their neighbors and/or a tyrannical government.

So imagine my surprise when the first gun grabber letter to hit the JG’s pages was juxtaposing the procedure for prescription drug usage to buying an AR. 

Given the current news about the carnage prescription drugs are visiting upon the nation, I thought it an odd comparison.  In 2016 374 people were killed with rifles of all types not just the dreaded, but as of yet still undefined, “assault weapon”.  By comparison in 2015 there were over 17,000 over dose deaths from prescription opioid pain relievers.

Oddly, no one is calling for a ban on oxycodone or Demerol.  Merck and Pfizer are not public enemies, and no one is vilifying the membership of the American Medical Association as murderers.  Neither does everyone who has ever watched an episode of House think he’s qualified to offer up the solutions to the opioid drug problem.

Evil people will always find a way to terrorize the public. It may be true, no one has ever killed 59 people with a knife in two minutes. It is just as true that 5 times more murders are committed with knives as rifles. Other means of mass terror off the top of my head include: trucks, airplanes, fertilizer, poison Kool Aide, pressure cookers etc.

No.  Gun store owners will not violate your right to privacy by interrogating you about what you intend to do with your purchase, but they are going to run your name in the NICS system to determine if you’re a felon, wanted for a crime, are the subject of a restraining order, have been reported to have severe mental issues etc.  One interesting thing about Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza is that he did not undergo a background check, because he stole the weapon he used. Hmm, is that a background check loophole?

But I agree.  Enough is enough.  Let’s stop the slaughter by ending the sale and use of prescription drugs!    

   

Time to turn out NRA-bought politicos feb  25,2018

Twice a year, for my prescription to be refilled, I need to make an appointment with my doctor for a full examination. When he's done, he will ask me whether I feel like harming myself or others. Then he will reluctantly give me another bottle of 30 pills, reminding me of how many refills I have until he sees me again to do the same evaluation, all to continue to take a medication I have been on for nearly five years.

All in all, it will take almost an hour. This is normal and, compared to other medications, relatively painless.

When I'm done with my appointment and I have my medication, I can go buy an assault weapon. No one will ask me what I want to use it for. No one will ask whether I feel like harming myself or others. No one will even bat an eyelash. Then I can drive to an elementary school with my assault weapon, shoot my way in through a window and kill 20 schoolchildren the way Adam Lanza did in 2012.

What happens next will be the same. Politicians like Marco Rubio, our own Todd Young and dozens of others who have received millions in NRA donations will make public statements about this tragedy, offering their thoughts and prayers.

These politicians will then sit on their hands and refuse to help craft or push sensible gun-control policies. There will be a vigil, the American people will shake their heads at this senseless tragedy, and we will wonder what could have prevented it, although we already know.

And then someone else will buy an assault weapon tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and they can shoot into your child's elementary school. There have been 1,606 mass shootings since Sandy Hook.

You can say that evil people will find a way whether there is a gun or not. But I ask you this: When is the last time an evil person killed 59 people in less than two minutes with a knife? They haven't, and they can't. Only assault weapons can do that.

Now is the time to talk about this. We need to talk about how it is harder to get life-saving medication than it is to buy an assault weapon that can kill 59 people in two minutes. We need to discuss the failures of our policymakers as they take millions in NRA donations to keep assault weapons in circulation and to perpetrate lies that the government is coming for our guns. We need to write to our legislators and demand they take action. And if they won't, we need to turn up at the polls in November and vote in legislators who will listen to us and who will not be bought by the NRA. We need to make our voices heard.

Enough is enough.

Emily Hollenberg

Fort Wayne

FedEx backs the NRA! Sort of.

 
FedEx released a statement saying that they will not break ties with the NRA. That’s great.  The precursor to that good news was this:

FedEx Corporation’s positions on the issues of gun policy and safety differ from those of the National Rifle Association (NRA).  FedEx opposes assault rifles being in the hands of civilians.  While we strongly support the constitutional right of U.S. citizens to own firearms subject to appropriate background checks, FedEx views assault rifles and large capacity magazines as an inherent potential danger to schools, workplaces, and communities when such weapons are misused.  We therefore support restricting them to the military.  Most important, FedEx believes urgent action is required at the local, state, and Federal level to protect schools and students from incidents such as the horrific tragedy in Florida on February 14th.

This is so stupid on so many levels.  Where to begin? FedEx supports the “right of U.S. citizens to own firearms subject to appropriate background checks…”  Hoopty doo.  Broward’s Cowards never entered the FL school shooter's name into the system after more than 40 visits to his home, expulsion from school, a Facebook page loaded with threats and at least two FBI tips.  

A good question for Chief Wiggum down in Broward County would be, “Chief have you now entered the Fl school shooter’s information into the NCIS system?”  “No, Lou, we haven’t. There have been so many threats on that boy’s life he needs his guns now more than ever.”

The doofus who shot up the TX church was crazy as a March hare but the Air Force didn’t report it as they were required to do.  The Sandy Hook shooter stole the weapons used in his crime.  The Columbine shooters used a straw buyer to get their weapons.

Here’s a tip.  If you are relying on the government not to get shot.  You are going to get shot.

“FedEx opposes assault rifles being in the hands of civilians.”  What’s an assault rifle?  An AR?  An AR is simply a semi-automatic rifle.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  So is the goal to ban/confiscate all semi-automatic rifles?  Why yes, I believe it is.

Now, look at your first line of home defense, your handgun.  How does it operate?  Chances are that it is also a semi-automatic weapon.  Annually, handguns are used to kill far, far more people than rifles.  So do you seriously suppose when the gun grabbers are done with ARs that they will not see the order of magnitude larger deaths created by handguns and not move to ban/confiscate them as well?  If you think not, you’re an idiot and I need $10,000 to get my 1.6 million dollar lottery winnings out of escrow.  I’ll repay you $20,000 when I get my winnings if you transfer the money to my numbered Swiss account.

“…FedEx views assault rifles and large capacity magazines as an inherent potential danger to schools, workplaces, and communities when such weapons are misused.”  YGBSM.  Isn’t just about anything a “potential danger” when it is “misused”?  “Yeah, tried to use my chain saw to stir that pot of soup.  Made a hell of a mess, ruined the pot and the soup tastes like sh*t.”  “Yup, lost control of my car when I tried to get up enough speed to see if she'd fly. Tore her all to hell.”  “Yep, used my power drill and a #7 screw to try to hold those two sheets of paper together.  It didn’t work.”

Bless FedEx’s heart for not caving to the mob.  They should have stuck with just the second paragraph which reads:

FedEx is a common carrier under Federal law and therefore does not and will not deny service or discriminate against any legal entity regardless of their policy positions or political views.  The NRA is one of hundreds of organizations in our alliances/association Marketing program whose members receive discounted rates for FedEx shipping.  FedEx has never set or changed rates for any of our millions of customers around the world in response to their politics, beliefs or positions on issues.

That’s pretty clear. The first paragraph serves only to muddy the water.  Before any conversation on “common sense gun control” begins, we should demand the working definition of “assault weapon”.  If we do that, that’s pretty much where the conversation will end.  Gun grabbers have been trying for as long as I can remember to define the term “assault weapon” in manner that does not expose their ultimate endgame - banning/confiscating your guns. 

The NRA should release a statement today that expresses a willingness discuss any measure of “common sense gun control”, and states that a working definition of what exactly constitutes an “assault rifle” must be rendered prior to the debate.  The Lefty Lib definition will be the same as a judge’s famous definition of pornography. “I’ll know it when I see it.” 

The face of MSD school shooting survivors is that of rabid dogs out for their 15 minutes of fame

Wow a lot going on.  The JG did an editorial piece on  Marjory Stoneman Douglas the namesake for the FL scholl shot up last week.  The title of the piece was “Student’s strength namesake’s legacy.”  Stoneman was an early environmentalist credited in part with saving the FL everglades.  It was the lead-in to Stoneman’s bio that  riled Lex enough to respond below:

Re: JG editorial of Feb 24, 2018 “Students’ strength namesake’s legacy”

 

The editorial starts with the notion that everybody “has to be impressed by the poise and maturity exhibited by students who survived the [Marjory Stoneman Douglas School] shooting as media attention descended upon them.”

Color me unimpressed.

In a CNN interview (where else), Stoneman shooting survivor David Hogg called the NRA “child murderers”.   Poise?  Maturity? 

This paper once condescendingly congratulated Right to Life marchers for not calling abortionists murderers.  Now, according to the JG, it demonstrates “poise” and “maturity” to label an entire organization of 5 million members “child murderers”. It’s doubtful anyone at the JG possess the self-awareness to appreciate the paper’s epic hypocrisy on this point. 

Anyone who watched the mob scene that was CNN’s town hall on the Stoneman School shooting saw nothing of poise or maturity.  The feral pack shouted “murderer” and “burn her” at NRA representative Dana Loesch before rushing the stage forcing CNN to ask if she had security to protect her from the rabid crowd.  Poise?  Maturity?

Survivor Cameron Kasky equated Senator Marco Rubio with the evil shooter who had just murdered 17 teachers and classmates.  Think about that one.  Poise?  Maturity? 

Kasky’s Facebook page proliferates hate by cheering the assault on Senator Rand Paul, threatening to punch Republicans, threatening to destroy electronic devises on which anyone mentions “god” and hoping for the deaths of all NRA members.  Poise?  Maturity?

During the town hall, Jake Tapper stood by while the juvenile mob ran his show.  Afterward, in a Variety.com interview Tapper asked, “Who am I to tell someone that just lost a daughter or a friend, ‘Don’t talk that way’?”  Uh, the moderator. 

If you weren’t up to the job, Jake, you should have acted like the cowardly Broward County Sherriff’s Deputies and hung out in the parking lot until the all-clear was sounded.

Poise?  Maturity?  I am sure they are there. Too bad the loud and ignorant were able to elbow their way past anyone possessing those qualities and park themselves in front of CNN’s cameras.       

Why can’t everyone be as smart and articulate as Dana Loesch?

       

Broward County, FL needs a new sheriff

As far as I know, there is no requirement that cops be brave.  There is no test to determine if they are. There is no law requiring that cops protect you or defend you with their own lives.  That might be the public expectation but it’s not the law.  Hence all of the Broward Cowards (AKA Broward County sheriffs) hiding out while the shooting was in progress will retire with full benefits.  

There is an old Marine Corps axiom: Always provide for your own security, or as the Griffin puts it: If you see something, take care of it. Then say something. The reaction of the Broward Cowards tells us one thing, you cannot rely on the cops for your personal protection.

PDJT’s immigration policy is working!
A bunch of Mexicans have decided not to cross the US border.  Okay they are the Mexican President and his entourage boycotting a scheduled meeting because PDJT still insists that the Mexicans are going to pay for the wall, but still – progress.

The Demo-Dopes are throwing PDJT into the brier patch on gun control

After the FL school shootings, there are all kind of gun law proposals on the table.  One thing is certain, none of them will have the intended effect of keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals.  If gun grabbers succeed in banning the dreaded “assault weapon” what exactly will happen with the 10 million or so such firearms already in possession of American citizens?

Any effort to collect up the existing weapons could – and I’m serious about this – lead to a no sh*t shooting Civil War.  Even if law abiding people relented and peacefully surrendered their 2^nd Amendment rights by turning in their weapons, those are the only ones that will be turned in leaving the criminal element with the upper hand when it comes to firepower.     

In a post several under, Lex notes that the ARs are flying off the shelves ahead of anticipated restrictive actions by congress.  I am considering an additional buy myself*. I’m weighing the cost of an additional rifle against the cost of buying additional ammo for the existing rifles.  I know, why not both?

NOTE*:  I have to weigh the purchase against Mrs. Lex’s mental health.  Having one more gun the house that I do not shoot will drive her nuts.

There is also talk of bumping up the minimum age requirement to buy such weapons to 21. So I suspect that it’s the 18-20 crowd that is leading the way in the surge of AR gun sales. 

Back during the Vietnam conflict, the movement to lower the age for voting to 18 was born.  “If you’re old enough to die for country, you ought to be old enough to vote for the Pols sending you off to war.”  The logic was unassailable. 

Since we’ve lowered the voting age, we’ve increased the age for purchasing alcohol and cigarettes.  So apparently you’re now old enough to get shot up in defense of your country and get hooked on opioids while recovering from your wounds, but you are not old enough to have a beer with your buddies while discussing your war wounds.  You are old enough for Uncle Sam to put a rifle in your hands but you’re a criminal if your Uncle Billy buys you one for your 18^th birthday*.

NOTE*:  Uncle Billy would run afoul of the law as well becoming what is known as a “straw buyer” – someone who buy a gun legally then transfers the weapon to someone else.

We now have 40 year olds living in mom's basement.  So it is not much of stretch to want to start treating 18 year olds like 6 year olds.  For the record, I got my first rifle, I think, when I was 12.  Still have it.  Still haven't shot anyone.

Prediction:  “Common sense” gun laws will end up the exact same way DACA is ending up.  PDJT offered a doubling of DACA recipients and an extended pathway to citizenship in exchange for a border wall, an end to chain migration and an end to the visa lottery.  Dopes demagogued* PDJT’s offering demanding instead amnesty free and clear for anyone in the world who can wonder across an open American border.

NOTE:  Bill Gates is telling me “demagogued” is not a word.  I happen to know that it is.  I’ve heard it on TV.  Anyway you know what I mean.  

With regard to gun laws, PDJT will make what seem to be major concessions while proposing things that will actually make schools safer: arming teachers, locking doors, cameras, cops, mental health screening etc.  Dopes will refuse to budge on any school safety legislation until it includes an “assault weapons” ban and confiscation.

By their petty recalcitrance, PDJT now owns the DACA issue and is on the way to owning the gun issue.  The genius is in the way he is doing it.  He gives the Dopes what they want while demanding what most Americans want in return.  The Dopes do not want any of the problems facing Americans solved.  They want the issues not solutions.  So, they will not budge on "common sense" gun control coming from the White House with NRA backing.

Riddle me this Batman:  A scenario you’ll never hear on CNN:  The cops were at the FL shooter’s home more than 30 times.  The shooter was expelled from school 2 or more times.  The FBI was warned about the shooter at least two times.  A county sheriff was on the scene while the shooting was in progress and refused to engage the shooter.

 

How is what happened at that FL school the NRA’s fault?

Marines fall in line: Lower the standards ignore the results.  That sound is my heart breaking.

Update on the unintended consequences of an AR-15 ban:  An AR-15 isn’t the most effective weapon for creating mass casualties in close quarters.  Banning the weapon might actually have the unintended consequence of driving mass murderers to more effective weapons for their ultimate aim and lead to more casualties.

It is time to vilify Driver's Education

Charles Krauthammer once said, “Conservatives think liberals are stupid.  Liberal think conservatives are evil.” Krauthammer’s assessment is correct on both counts.   

Take teen media sensation David Hogg - please. Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland, FL school shooting, calls the NRA and by extension its membership – “child murderers.”  Yes, he’s that stupid, and yes, he thinks conservatives are that evil. 

The NRA is made up of nearly 5 million members who, according to Hogg, are guilty of or accessories to “child murder.”  Yes, he’s that stupid, and yes, he thinks conservative are that evil. 

As far as I know, no NRA member has ever shot up a school.  The NRA is the #1 advocate for the lawful use and safe handling and storage of firearms.

How in the world does an organization that has as one of its prime directives the safe handling and storage of firearms get blamed every time some evil criminal shoots up a school or movie house?  It’s like blaming driver’s ed every time there’s an automobile accident.

And if it is not the NRA being dammed, it’s an inanimate object - an “assault rifle” - getting the blame.  In the previous analogy now it’s not only the driver’s ed instructor’s fault, it’s Chevy’s or Ford’s fault as well.

The kids at high schools – like kids at all high schools – are flocking together wearing the same clothes, using the same worn out phrases to express their “individuality.”  

It’s nothing against these kids.  We were all high schoolers and know what it was like to be the real individual - like a kid at Stoneman breaking with the pack to say, “I dunno we all knew the kid was possessed by evil, maybe the cops should have taken the threat more seriously.”  Or a kid who shows up on CNN wearing an NRA T-shirt and tells Fredo Como, “My dad’s an NRA lifetime member and never killed anyone.  David Hogg is a self-serving moron for saying my dad's a child murderer.”  Instead all we get is collective weeping – the NRA (sniff) sucks - and moaning - AR-15s (sniff) kill people - to see who can get on CNN the longest.

Who are you going to trust your personal safety to, the boy with the skinny arms or the man who was a Navy SEAL for 12 years? The truth about ARs is here.     

Unintended consequences

As seems to always be the case when politicians step in with “common sense” this (gun control) or “common sense” that (immigration reform) things start to slip off the rails. Azzbag pols once decided to sock it to the rich by taxing the crapola out of high end luxury yachts.  That’ll show the rich bastards! The unintended consequence of the  pols’ BS move was that rich people simply stopped buying yachts.  That led to a whole industry of middle class craftsmen, suppliers and their employees hitting the skids while the rich, as always, got richer by keeping their money in their pocket.  

You can be sure that when dumbazz BS pols aim a tax at the rich they are going to hit the middle class square in the wallet.  Lex’s philosophy on the rich is that, for the most part, they are rich because they work harder, have more talent, are better educated, just plain smarter or have a better business savvy than most of us. They, for the most part, should not be demonized.  They should be admired and studied.

The unintended consequences of government social welfare programs are obvious and well documented.  Over the years it has about a 75% failure rate for moving people out of poverty.  Yet the programs grow, receive more and more money as poverty continues at the exact same rate in the exact same places.

Government recently got its oily hands on the healthcare system and what happened?  One disaster after another.  One patchwork rob Peter to Paul fix after another.

Now, after the latest school shooting and as predictably as the sun rises in the east, the pols want to “do something.” The “something” will be a fix that does absolutely nothing to address the underlying problem.  The fix will focus on the instruments of violence rather than the real causes. It will be like banning hammers because a carpenter installed your kitchen cabinets at a horrific angle.

Just the talk of banning “assault weapons,” whatever that is, has had the unintended consequence of increasing AR-15 sales in Cape Coral, FL by 30% after the FL shootings. 

The AR-15 has been the most popular rifle sold America for the last 10 years.  There are many reasons, among them: accuracy, easy of firing, the platform is easily modified to accommodate about any shooter’s desires, stopping power etc. As a result there are currently about 8 million of the weapons in the hands of American citizens.

8 million is as likely as not to be 9-10 million as gun grabbers inspire many Americans to make their purchase before the harebrained Pols decide to ban the platform.

So even if a ban is affected today, there will still be well over 8 million of the rifles out there.  

What is the likelihood that one or two of the 8 million will fall into the hands of another crazy and that the FBI and local police departments will sit on their incompetent azzes rather than do their jobs?  Pretty good I suspect.

So the reality is that there are 8 million “assault rifles” out there.  How do you stop one from coming into the local school?  Collect up the rifles?  That, Mr. and Mrs. America, could have the unintended consequence of leading to a no sh*t shooting Civil War.  People are not going to sit by and let the government come into their homes to confiscate their ability to defend themselves and their families.

So, ask yourself, is it easier to collect up 8 million rifles or harden the target?  Is it easier to collect up 8 million rifles or put an armed guard in schools?  Lefties will say, “you cannot put weapons inside the school, unless they are in the hands of a deranged lunatic.”  They are not serious about protecting the children inside the school. 

It really is no more complicated than that. If Lefties will not allow people capable of protecting the school inside the school, it is obvious that they really don't give a crapola about who gets shot up inside*.  Their agenda is to grab guns and restrict gun ownership NOT school safety.

NOTE:  A cynic might claim that they even want a certain amount of gun tragedy to further their cause of grabbing guns.  I'm about there.

JG letter writer admits Robertscare is a failure demands single payer

This letter appeared in the morning fish wrap*:

Single payer solution to health care woes

We need to have a conversation about our health care system. I'm frustrated, fed up and we, as a nation, deserve something better. The issues we ran into for a single medical event related to my son cost us significant time and money and delayed his care. This is unacceptable. My son's experience was not indicative of the “greatest health care system in the world.”

A great system should include:

• The freedom of choice of providers. No preauthorization, no networks.

• No ties to employment. Insurance should not be a factor for leaving a great job or sticking with a bad one.

• No postponement of care because of finances.

• Coverage for everyone.

We spend more on health care than other developed nations yet see no gain in quality or quantity of care. Insurance companies are a primary culprit to the added cost and hassles with our care. Their loyalty is to stockholders, not you.

What if you were able to get all the care you needed without worrying about your finances or playing games? A single-payer system where health care providers remain in the private sector and the government collects and distributes payments could do this. People go bankrupt or, worse, die because of our current system. If you're on the fence, maybe the idea of saving money and not dealing with insurance companies will convince you.

This is a human issue, not a political one. Let's make our health system as great as so many say it is. The next time you vote, do your homework. Who's lining your candidate's pockets? You can bet they intend to look out for the interests of the hand that feeds them, not the one that votes.

Nicholas Claypool

Fort Wayne

NOTE:  I gotta stop looking at the rag.

Re: Nicholas Claypool’s letter “Single payer solution to health care woes” Feb 20, 2018 

So Mr. Claypool is admitting that Democrats fiddling with our healthcare system and calling it Obamacare has been a total disaster, a fraud, a lie, a scam and a total swindle.  

Remember when President Obama assured us our healthcare insurance premiums were going to be reduced, healthcare services improved, if you liked your doctor you could keep your doctor, if you liked your healthcare plan you could keep your healthcare plan? 

Does any of that sound vaguely familiar?  

Why in the world would we need a single payer system?  Rejoice!  We have Obamacare.  

Does anyone seriously suppose that single payer means uniform high-quality care for no cost?  Single payer will be the healthcare equivalent of the public defender in our court system.  People who can pay get Johnny Cochran and get away with murder.  People who can’t get railroaded for crimes they did not commit.   

Here’s how single payer healthcare is going to work out for the masses.  We’ll all be standing in a long line outside the emergency room with sucking chest wounds waiting for a nurse in training to issue us an aspirin while the swells like mayor-for-life Henry illegally park their cars with expired tags at the head of the line and are whisked off to see the top flight surgical team for their botox treatments. 

If you are interested in quality healthcare, why in the world would anyone trust the government?  Because government gave us Obamacare, and it’s such a huge success?    

Shocked, shocked I tell you. Russian meddling!!?? Who knew?

Lex is taking on the local fish wrap over the “bombshell” news that Russians meddled in the 2016 election.  The only bombshell in that scenario would be if it could be proven that they didn’t.

Re: JG Headline: Charges: Russians meddled

The Feb 17, 2018 JG headline shouted: Charges: Russians meddled.  What’s next: Sun rises in the east: JG staff baffled? 

Falling back my Marine Corps leadership training that taught me to try to start out a counseling session with a positive observation, let me congratulate the JG on the outstanding picture of Mrs. Clinton that accompanied the article.  Perhaps the only better photo would have been of her in a stylish extra-wide prison-orange pantsuit inside the cell of a federal penitentiary where she so desperately belongs.

Of course the Russians meddled in the 2016 election just as they have been meddling in every US election to varying degrees for the last 40 years.  

President Obama knew the Russians were meddling in 2014 and famously told his old buddy “Vlad” to “knock it off.”  For some reason the hardened former KGB colonel wouldn’t take the warnings of the feckless drawer and then ignorer of Syrian “redlines” seriously.

So the DOJ has indicted 13 Russians for interfering in the US election.  Hoopty doo.  They might as well have indicted old Vlad himself or the Man in the Moon for that matter for all the likelihood that any of them will ever stand in the dock inside a US courtroom.

Here’s some news that will have lefty libs worried about foreign interference in elections heading for their fainting couches. President Obama interfered in the Israeli election spending over 300,000 US taxpayer dollars to do so.  He also interfered in the Brexit vote by threatening the UK with trade sanctions if they withdrew from the EU.  He also endorsed German Chancellor Merkel ahead of the German vote.    

Of course all of that means less than zero to a leftist hypocrite.

 

Then there was a bit on vouchers for private schools in this morning’s rag.  So for, what, the 50^th time I tilted at that JG windmill.

Yeah, Idunno, couldn’t sleep and was up before 5am. The original halfwit letter is below my brilliant, unassailable, logic filled response which follows:

Here’s an easy word problem that even my publicly educated mind can solve.  Indiana has 10 students enrolled in public schools.  Indiana spends $100 for public education.  The cost for a public education in Indiana is $10 per pupil. If Indian paid 5 students between $5 and $9 to leave the public system for a private education, will the funds left over to educate the remaining 5 students increase or decrease the cost per pupil?

The figures for Indiana public education are, of course, much larger in actuality, but the principle is the same.  It cost Indiana a bit over $9,600 per pupil to educate a student in a public school.  Indiana allows between 50-90% of that cost per voucher (75% of which go to low income and disadvantaged students).  So for every student that leaves the system, the cost per pupil in the public system should actually increase.

On a larger note, traditional brick and mortar schools, like print newspapers, are dead.  They just don’t know it.  On every snowday we hear the radio guy announce schools are closed and today is an e-learning day. So why isn’t every day an e-learning day? 

Why in the world are we still crowding 25-30 disparate kids into a classroom to learn the same stuff at the same pace?  Why not make 4 of 5 days e-learning days for the fast learners, 3 of 5 for slower students and so on?  Kids who need the most help can be in school every day. Here’s an even crazier idea, if a kid needs extra help with math but is doing well in other areas, he comes in for that class alone.

Staggering classes based on ability would reduce class  sizes in public schools by more than half allowing the teachers more time with the students who need the most help.

In their free time, fast learners could move on to other things of interest, maybe even a college course.  Talented people could pursue their talent music, art etc. Vocationally minded people could get jobs and learn a skill.  

Here’s the undeniable truth that all the newsprint and ink in the world cannot cover up:  Fort Wayne secondary public schools are not very good. Why not try something different?

Private school students have other options

I am writing to respond to “Choice Scholarships give Hoosier kids a future” (Feb. 7). Reyna Rodriguez, a Bishop Luers graduate, supports the scholarship/voucher program. Rodriguez, who used voucher money to complete her private school education, wrote to object to an op-ed written by Phyllis Bush (Jan. 22).

Bush ended her piece (supporting public schools and objecting to vouchers) with a rhetorical question: “Whose choice is it, anyway?” Rodriguez insists choosing Luers was her personal decision but, in truth, the voucher school itself has the choice. If Rodriguez had had a disciplinary record or was a child with difficult learning or physical needs, Luers might not have accepted her. The private school has the choice. But every public high school in Allen County would, by law, accept this student and do its best to accommodate her needs.

In 2015-16, Bishop Luers used $1,626,778 in vouchers or choice scholarship awards. This money, taxpayer funds, was taken directly from the public school fund of the state budget.

In 2016-17, $146 million was spent on school vouchers across the state. This was money meant for public schools but moved, instead, to private schools.

In Allen County, 97 percent of schools receiving voucher funds are religious schools.

Students like Rodriguez have various paths available to fund their private education. Probably the best way would be through a state-sponsored program called the Scholarship Granting Organization, also referred to as the Tax Credit Scholarship. Enacted in 2009, this program awards a donor 50 percent of his donation as an Indiana State Tax Credit. And, there is no limit on the amount of the donor's gift. A graduate of Luers could donate to the organization and help give the gift of a private religious education to a prospective student.

Bush and I, along with educators, parents and grandparents across the state, support public schools that accept all students. We object to taxpayer money funding private and religious schools. We are concerned about the depletion of the public school fund, which continues to lose more money each year to vouchers. As retired public school educators, we are committed to saving public dollars for public schools.

Kathy Candioto

Fort Wayne

Idiot pols and institutions

Here’s a Dope acting like a dope.  Stupid, willfully ignorant or a f*cking liar, you chose.  They are all probably accurate to some degree. We’ve been at this for as long as I can remember and these dumb azzes still cannot even bother to learn the terminology.

How in the world can they be taken seriously when they talk like total morons?  So you’re looking to hire a football coach and during the interview you ask your perspective hire, “what’s your overall football philosophy,” and he tells you, “I’m not interested in stealing bases or icing the puck, what I want is an overpowering serve and a solid scrum.”  Hank Kimball, Professor Erwin Cory and Slip Mahoney make more sense than many of these anti-gunner “experts.” Yet they blather on.

The media, Dopes and “entertainment world” are awash with bogus claims like 19 kids are killed every day in shootings and that there have been 18 school shooting this year*.  Then they blame Reps for the made up carnage.

NOTE*:  Those figures include gang shootings, justifiable homicide, suicides and negligent discharges.  

The azzwipes conveniently leave out the fact that The Empty Suit and the Dopes ran EVERYTHING but were more willing to use their political capital to ruin the economy and the healthcare system than to do anything about immigration, gun control or race.  They ignored it all because they’d rather have the issue than solve the problem.

One solution might be to return to the good ol’ days when crazy people were locked up.  Sure I can see the danger.  Conservatives are one TES appointed judge away from being locked up in a mental institution.  But it seems to me that if the parents, teachers and police cannot control these nutballs, maybe they need to be institutionalized and try to figure out what makes them tick. 

We used to this on a fairly regular basis until the Dopes did away with involuntary institutionalization.  Now the cray guy has to admit he’s crazy or present a clear and present danger to the public or himself (yeah, it’s always a guy, right?).

My guess is that if the crazies were to be institutionalized a lot of homelessness and school shooters would get the help that they so desperately need.  The fact that loons make up a rather large swath of the Dope voting base means the Dopes will resist this at every turn.

The next thing we have to ask ourselves is, why are children forced into concentrated killing fields – i.e. brick and mortar schools – in the first place?  Every time a local school is closed due to snow or ice the guy on the radio says, “it’s an e-learning day.”  Why isn’t every day an e-learning day?

Brick and mortar universities and secondary schools are dead.  They just don’t know it.  When Lex jr. went to IU to study history, my first comment was, “you can study history on the Internet for free.”  That is an undeniably true statement.  History can be studied for free and without all the leftist commie crap that floats about on a college campus.  

The cost of building, running and maintaining a brick and mortar educational institution has to be several 100 times what it cost to run "click" based classes.  

Another thing that needs to be looked at is the idea of “mainstreaming” every kid into set disciplines.  College bound kids need college prep.   The rest of us need to learn a marketable skill.  Classes starting a 7:30 and running until 3 for every kid is nuts. 

No proposal that weakens Dope/commie control of schools and universities will ever see the light of day.   In fact it will be the opposite.  The Dopes and commies will demand more and more control of our children because after all, it takes a village to indoctrinate our children, don’t you know. 

Amish kids go to school up to about 8^th grade.  Then they are off to learn a skill.  There are very few Amish kids shooting up their schools.  The last Amish school shooting was by a – wait for it – crazy outsider.

I do not know what school model will work best.  I do know that the current model of sending everyone into one building to learn the same stuff – much of it worthless - at the same rate is an inefficient BS model.

Who knows, maybe the frustration of being trapped inside a BS institution for 8 hours drives a certain percentage of young men nuts.