Monday, February 20, 2012

Unburdening Myself

Unburdening Myself
by Burt Prelutsky
Monday, February 20, 2012

We all realize that the members of the media, including several of the talking heads who appear regularly on Fox News, have one thing in common; namely, that Barack Obama plays a leading role in all of their favorite wet dreams. But, still, wouldn’t you think that just once, some reporter would ask Obama to explain why Warren Buffet and all of his other millionaire and billionaire chums, the guys who plunk down $35,000 to hear him deliver a campaign speech, don’t simply send more money to the IRS?

We all know that there is a certain amount that every tax payer has to cough up on April 15th, unless you’re one of the 47% who pays no income taxes at all or someone like Timothy Geithner or Charles Rangel, who regards himself as a 47-percenter at heart; but there is not a maximum amount. There’s nothing in the tax code that compels anyone to take deductions. If, like Obama, you believe that the federal government spends your money far more wisely than you do, feel free to write a bigger check. After all, we all know that the best way to lead is by example. But the only example that Obama and his fat cat cronies set is one of blatant hypocrisy.

Talking about lousy examples, what is going on with our military? First, we had Major Nidal Hasan’s superiors at Fort Hood turning a blind eye to his doing everything but decorating his bunk with pin-up pictures of Osama bin Laden prior to murdering 14 people. Now, we have the administrators at West Point rescinding the invitation to retired Lt. General William G. Boykin to address the cadets at a prayer breakfast.

It seems that Boykin, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart with oak leaf clusters, is a plain-spoken Christian who has ruffled Muslim feathers along the way. He has done this by quite rightly pointing out that, unlike Mohammad, Jesus Christ not only helped to civilize mankind, but also inspired our Founding Fathers in the creation of the United States. As a result of setting the record straight, he was targeted by a group called Vote Vets.org. It describes itself as “the largest progressive group of veterans in America.”

When Vote Vets isn’t attacking people like Boykin, Sean Hannity and Col. Oliver North, it finances political campaigns against such conservative stalwarts as Rick Santorum, George Allen, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, John Thune and Mark Kirk. It has also poured millions of dollars into promoting the global-warming hoax and opposing oil drilling in America.

It seems to me that if West Point is allowing itself to be pressured by these left-wing louts, we can expect they’ll next start taking their marching orders from the Occupy Wall Street anarchists and the loony ladies of Code Pink.

Speaking of the military reminds me that although I find Ron Paul’s cavalier dismissal of the threat posed by a nuclear Iran to be irrational, I share a few of his concerns about our role in the world. For instance, I think it is high time that we let Europe protect itself against Russia. No reason on earth why we should be borrowing money in order to do for them what they can do for themselves.

I would also suggest that we cut way back on the number of mutual defense pacts we have. Although we have a few actual allies in the world, including England, Canada, Australia, Japan, Israel, Poland and Czechoslovakia, I think we should at least be able to count on the support of a nation when it comes to U.N. votes before we enter into mutual defense pacts that are obviously “mutual” in name only. For instance, in what bizarre universe do you think we could actually count on the likes of Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Argentina, Kuwait, Bahrain or Turkey, to come to our aid? The answer, I’m afraid, is when Hell freezes over or the cow jumps over the moon.

Finally, I understand that there are some people who are convinced that Christian evangelicals might stay home on Election Day if Mitt Romney garners the GOP nomination. I truly hope that’s not the case. Not only because it would enable Obama to win a second term, but because it would mean that a significant number of my fellow Republicans are so religiously intolerant that they would spurn a presidential candidate simply because of his faith. For one thing, we don’t live in a theocracy and, for another, I think it would be pretty hard to find two more decent patriots in public life than Mitt Romney and his fellow Mormon, Glenn Beck.

On the other hand, honesty compels me to mention that a third notable Mormon is Harry Reid.

Which only goes to prove that no religion is perfect.
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To read another article by Burt Prelutsky, click here.

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