Category Archives: culture

Shootings and Schools

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One answer to school shootings is to maintain our schools and school grounds as gun free zones and thereby keep our children exposed to the risk of butchery.

Another answer is to have government limit who is allowed to have guns in our nation and determine the purpose for which we’ll be allowed to have them and thereby, in addition to keeping our children exposed to the risk of butchery, exposing our families and ourselves to that risk.

Another answer is to train and arm school personnel.

Butler County [Ohio] Sheriff Richard Jones wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he will offer a concealed and a carry class, along with training on school shootings.

Jones added

We can’t be like ostriches and have our heads in the sand. We’ve got to protect the kids, period.

Jones is right.  We can’t wish our individual responsibilities or our parental responsibilities off onto government.  Our children are not wards of the state, and neither are we.

Consider: how many of those 17 murdered children in Parkland would be alive today had there been someone or someones on scene and able to shoot the shooter?  How many of those many injured would be unharmed today had there been someone or someones on scene and able to shoot the shooter?

The gun control persons of the Left don’t care about that.  They just want the ego-stroke of being able to tell other people what to do and not do.  The Progressive-Democrats in Congress don’t care, either; they’re just virtue signaling.  Dead children don’t mean any more to them than vote harvesting machines.

Good for Them

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Former Olympic gymnasts, including Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, won’t participate in the US Olympic Committee’s investigation into the sexual-abuse scandal surrounding former national team doctor Larry Nassar, saying they don’t trust the body to conduct a thorough and independent inquiry.

They’re right not to trust these…persons…who sat on years of complaints of sexual abuse instead of acting on them.  Nor can they, in the end, trust any other organization with the judgment to have these on its payroll or consulting list.

“For 31 months, I heard nothing,” Ms Raisman said in a statement to The Journal. “I find it hard to believe after all this time that the USOC is genuinely concerned about anything other than the scrutiny it’s now facing.  …  This investigation needs to be bigger than Nassar. There have been countless allegations of abuse for years and years. Anything other than a full investigation just isn’t good enough.

She’s right.  This USOC is only looking to whitewash its role in this routine of abuse.  Nothing useful will occur unless and until the USOC, and USAG, are completely erased and new agencies built de nihilo.

The Veterans Administration Is Not Getting Better

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VA Secretary David Shulkin, according to an IG report, has been misappropriating VA funds for his and his family’s personal benefit, and he’s been abusing his authority to require a subordinate to act as his “personal travel concierge.”  He

improperly accepted a gift of Wimbledon tennis tickets….

And his Chief of Staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, apparently tampered with evidence:

made false claims to a VA ethics official by altering an email to get official approval for Dr Shulkin’s wife to take part in the trip as an “invitational traveler,” a status that meant the VA would cover her expenses. Her airfare cost taxpayers $4,312.

Shulkin and his fellow travelers (not only his wife) spent an exhausting 3 and a half days in business-related meetings out of their 10-day trip.  That’s some jet lag.

Of course, Shulkin and his staff denied all of this and complained that the week the IG gave him to respond was, somehow, not enough time.  Must have been still jet lagged.

He’s paid the money back?  He should have known better in the first place.  If the leadership cannot be counted on to perform, how can anyone else be?  Reallocate the VA budget—every single dollar of it—to vouchers for our veterans.

 

Veteranos Administratio delende est.

Progressive-Democrats and Free Speech

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The DoJ and several States are moving to protect free speech on college campuses, with three States moving to pass legislation explicitly for the purpose, and ten others with legislation already pending.

Liberals and their Progressive-Democrats object.

Many Democrats say the Constitution already protects free speech, and that states have no need to micromanage how colleges handle student demonstrations and speakers.

This is just cynical, though.  Or, 8th-grade Civics wasn’t a safe space for them, and they were triggered into not listening.  These Progressive-Democrats are ignoring the fact that the mere existence of our Constitution is no protection at all; it must be actively enforced.

And:

Many also object to the penalties some measures are calling for, such as fining or firing—in the case of professors and other college employees—those who are deemed to have deprived the free speech rights of a person or group.

No, we can’t hold Liberal professors or others favored by Progressive-Democrats accountable—those folks are special.

Welfare Reform: MIA

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Senate Republicans and Progressive-Democrats agreed in principle to a two-year budget deal that sets outer bounds on spending allocations that are yet to be debated and passed in the two Houses.  The deal increases defense spending by $165 billion over the next two years, and it increases domestic spending by $131 billion over those two years.

But at what price?

One price is the potential for a return to $1 trillion deficits.  To an extent, that’ll be reduced by a growing economy as the tax reform law begins to take effect.

The larger price, though, by far, is the lack movement on the big three budget failures: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid transfers.  These remain not on any track toward privatization, or with that last item, not on any track toward reducing to zero transfers.

In 2016, the Federal government spent almost $950 billion on Social Security payments and a bit over $590 billion on Medicare.  Federal Medicaid transfers to the States in 2016 ran some $325 billion.

Fixing those would be produce a large reduction in deficits to the point of budget surpluses, which could be used to run down our national debt.  And the fixing would produce a large return to the personal responsibility that has contributed so strongly to our nation’s greatness and prosperity.