All Dogs go to Heaven

There was an animated movie we saw many years earlier with the name of the title of this blog.  We now take comfort in these words as we prepare for our dog, Lola, to go to heaven tomorrow.  Nearly 15 years ago this little bucket of love was brought into our lives.  She was joined by her half-sister, Zena, who arrived a year earlier and left us for heaven two years ago.

Both were Yellow Labs, but very different.  Zena, was an over-weight puge-cake with a square face and had to lay atop us.  She never saw herself as the 80lb pooch she was, but a 7lb puppy.  She would run from a Chiwawa, but demand her spot on the bed or couch.  Comfort was her motto and love her mission.  She also fancied herself an Olympic athlete…a swimmer or track star, though her body was more of the sumo wrestler variety.

Lola, was brilliant and masterful.  As a puppy, we had contained her to the entrance area of the house during her house training. However, whenever we left the house we would return to find Lola had done the great escape and left little presents – evidence of her Houdini-like abilities – all over the house.  But how?  She was too small to jump the fence and too big to slip through the fence openings. One day, as we returned home, the question was answered.  We peered through the glass door to watch Lola climbing the fence!

Lola was the athlete.  Always 10lbs lighter than Zena - she was Air Lola.  She would hurdle over a 4ft wave as she jumped to fetch the toy in the ocean.  She was never on top of us like Zena, she always lay by our side.  She was the first to learn and the first to please.

As time passed, the jumps became hops and runs became long walks that are now short.  She is thin, but not frail.  Alert and not deaf.  But she has a large tumor to which nature calls.

There are tears as we write this as a burdensome sadness washes over us.  Our hearts ache and fingers shake, but we know it is time.  Any longer is but our selfish desire not to let go.

We brace ourselves for the morrow, but rejoice her life today.  The weekend we have.  The long goodbye we take comfort.  With this writing we share the blessing of her life.  The wonders of a family.  The joys of so many memories.

So, dear Lola, we’ll be gathered tonight, as so many before, around the television with you at our side.  We’ll watch a movie, stroke your head, and give you an extra helping of kisses for tomorrow morning you’ll depart, and with tearing eyes, we’ll press our lips to your head for a final goodnight. All this while remembering that all dogs go to heaven!

Real Character vs. Pretenders

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article of a woman, Autherine Lucy Foster, in the January 5th article by Bob Green, The University of Alabama Earns a Victory Over an Ugly History, that mentioned a plaque of Foster that was unveiled on the campus of the University of Alabama. 

In 1956, Foster wanted to become a teacher and go to the University of Alabama.  She believed this school to be the top in the state and, from that degree, she would gain a full-time teaching position. UA accepted Foster, but upon learning she was not white, rescinded the acceptance. 

Foster went to court and won the right to attend and, on her first day of class, was met with angry and threatening crowds.  Three days later, she was suspended for “her own safety”.  Undeterred, Foster went back to court, but UA now expelled her based on her arguments in court.

As the story unfolds, she did work as a teacher and eventually did go on to and receive a Master’s degree from the University of Alabama in 1992 . . . and on the same day her daughter graduated as well. 

Courage, yes. Determination, unquestionably.

Now Compare Foster to Ashley Judd and those of her ilk who are “Hollywood Hero’s” after they came forward…but only after the brave had cleared the path.  Once they’ve gotten theirs, with strong voices and shaking fists, they speak against the “evil” that once lay before them, but said nothing about.

So, let’s raise a glass to toast real character and courage.  This is one statue we admire, not for the color of skin or gender of body, but of spirit of character and determination.

Enemy of the People

Patrick Caddell, a former Democratic Party public opinion pollster who worked for Democratic President Jimmy Carter, gave an impassioned lecture on September 29, 2012, at a conference sponsored by Accuracy in Media, where he decried the media, for its bias in elections, as a threat to democracy and said: 

The press’ job is to stand the ramparts and protect the people from organized government and governmental power, when they desert those ramparts and go to (one) side they decide to become active participants … to decide what truths you may know and what you may not … then they have made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy and made themselves an enemy to the American people.

Most major news outlets are at war against President Donald Trump, as is he with them.  Trump speaks of fake news as anything from the press that is unflattering about him.  The press speaks of fake news as anything that does not originate from them.  The former is ego and the latter is arrogance.  The former is for the consumption by a political base, but the latter, as shrouded in bias, is the sophistry of deceit.

For example, MSNBC was reporting this week on the Fusion GPS dossier with the caption: No fact in the dossier has been proven incorrect.  Let’s examine this phrase regarding the dossier that is a collage of allegations regarding Trump’s activities with Russia.  First, an allegation is not a fact, meaning it has not been proven correct.  However, the caption positions the dossier as factual, which has not been proven.  It then follows with a negative proof: there is no proof that anything in the dossier is wrong.  A negative proof means that everything in the dossier is therefore correct until proven wrong.  This reasoning is both faulty and dishonest. The press puts on display their blatant and extreme bias developed to mislead an audience to a conclusion that has not been supported by fact.  And accordingly, as Caddell writes, the press is an enemy of the people.

In the end, the media is not bound by law or oath to be fair, complete, or correct . . . and they are not nor have been since the beginning of the Republic.  The press has always been a hot bed of prejudice.  Therefore, it is and always has been, our responsibility, and vigilant citizens, to find the facts and reason a judgment . . . that is the requirement of responsible citizenship.

SEC Football Championship

With the College Football National Championship on the line this coming week, we compliment the selection committee for their choice in the final four.  After all the bowl games were completed, their decision to put two SEC teams in the finals against the Big12 and ACC were justified…and certainly correct.

We viewed - with much delight, we might add - as the SEC underdog, South Carolina Gamecocks, dealt the Big 10 its only loss in bowl games.  South Carolina came back from a 19 to 3 score with only some 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter to force 5 turnovers and pound Michigan with 23 unanswered points to win the game 26 to 19.  Not to mention, it was a repeat Outback Bowl win over Michigan…Go Gamecocks!

We make no effort to hide our SEC roots, so gleefully, we join the PAC 12, Big 12, Big 10, and ACC Power Conferences who will be at home to watch an all SEC championship match-up tomorrow . . . the way it should be!

Happy New Year!

As we step into the New Year of 2018, we leave a curious 2017 filled with economic and political contradictions.

Unemployment as presented in the media (U3 index) was about 4% but the broader measure of unemployment (U6) was double that of 8%.  Workforce participation remained fixed at 62.7% which was the same as in January 2016, as well as, December of 1977.  The election of President Trump was supposed to create a stock market collapse, so said Nobel economist Paul Krugman, but since the election the stock market has risen 25% and, GDP in 2017, had two quarter of growth over 3%, an accomplishment that was last seen in 2014.

Politically, Republicans were at their zenith in January, but their inability to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act infuriated their base.  Then the struggle with the tax bill allowed Democrats and media to rebrand it as a give-away to the rich.  Accordingly, some polls show Republicans would lose to generic Democrats.  Keeping one or both chambers of Congress in November will be challenging.  However, in political time, the mid-term election is a dog-year away and Republicans believe the economy will be more the barometer of things to come politically.  But while Republicans scoff that the Democrats have no message, Democrats do have an energized based, which the Republicans currently lack and, the base is crucial to win elections.

Of all the things President Trump was not expected to do well, foreign policy was it. Yet, it can be argued that he has been the most consistent, controlled, and effective in this area, especially, when compared to his predecessor.  He has made the U.S. military more lethal, given pause to dangerous regimes, and inserted America leadership back onto the world stage.

For the New Year we constructively suggest a resolution for the president to put his Twitter account on a Jenny Craig diet – this could help him be more effective in governing.

With this perspective on 2017, let’s ring-in 2018 with a tone of optimism and our wishes for health, happiness, and prosperity.  Be vigilant.  Be free.

Liberal Triad

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for the resignation of Senator Al Franken saying “we need to draw a line in the sand and say [no sexual harassment] is acceptable . . . we as elected leaders . . . should be fundamentally valuing women.”  With the righteous sword of justice in her hand, Gillibrand saw fit to stab Franken.  Curious though how Gillibrand’s hand had no such moral compass when it came to the Clintons who, for many years, have supported her campaigns.

It is a wonder how sexual harassment has spontaneously combusted.  We postulate this is part of the movement toward liberal utopia, where elites rule.  In this land no one has too much, only the elite.  Life’s strife is melted by the fair hand of government.  Crass consumerism gives way to what’s needed vs. what’s wanted.  We are now in Phase II of the liberal triad.

Ah, but you ask what is the triad?  Simply stated it is racism, maternalism, and communism.

Racism, is the foundation that provides liberals moral and intellectual justification.  Maternalism is a world run by women (vs. paternalism a world run by men) that ensures a woman’s nurturing instincts will breed peaceful coexistence.  And, communism is the economic and political structure that rations what people receive and secures power for elites.

Upon the election of President Barak Obama, one would imagine that liberals would have taken a bow.  In their minds, they transformed a nation with a deplorable past of slavery and elevated it to elect a biracial president.  For a moment it appeared we had achieved a post racial society and liberals could now tend to global warming, gay marriage, and income inequality.

But those other items brought no moral superiority.  There just weren’t enough folk who saw global warming a priority and too many didn’t believe that man was the primary source.  Gay marriage was quickly embraced, and the issue was over.  Income inequality didn’t register in a land where freedom of opportunity, by its nature, breeds inequality.  So liberals responded by resurrecting racism.  Only now it would be permanent and Obama would put his stamp on it by declaring that racism was in Americans’ DNA.

Racism made liberals morally superior, which was then conflated to be intellectually superior.  The latter means they never have to explain or justify a position.  Branding you – the opposition - a racist is sufficient fact, conclusion, and verdict.  As such, with Obama in office, liberals white washed all Americans who did not agree with the president as racists and resurrected the scourge of past slavery with vengeance.

With racism reestablished, the movement is now toward maternalism.  The time is ripe, as there are no powerful Democrats, a la Bill Clinton, that need protecting.  With the road clear, sexual harassment can now be politically weaponized.

The Democrats at first hesitated to “eat their own”, but the calculus changed when President Trump backed Roy Moore.  Congressman John Conyers and Senator Al Franken were irrelevant politicians to be sacrificed in the name of women and the elevation of Democrats to the moral high ground.

While it may be shrewd politics, this is a dangerous situation of conviction by allegation.  Merely complimenting a woman can become grounds for misconduct and removal.  But, as one-woman feminist said on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight, “if some men get wrongly blamed that’s OK, it’s a small price for the decades of abuse women had to endure.”  However, this attitude is opposed to how justice works.

Judge Roy Moore is no saint.  But did he molest underage girls?  From a jurisprudence stand point, he is innocent until held guilty by a jury of his peers.  If we deviate from this, then anyone can be blackmailed into a discordant act.

If sexual abuse abounds for women, why have so many women risen beyond it?  In Hollywood, of all places, think Mary Tyler Moore, Oprah, and Tina Turner.  Then there are Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg, CEO of HP Meg Whitman, or Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.  All these women in high places has nothing to do with their gender.  They are just good at what they do, and in a free society individuals can rise to their level of talent and ambition.

Sexual harassment can be real, demeaning, and at the extremes criminal.  But allegations are unproven accusations.  Permitting the media to act as judge of whether an allegation is credible and then proceeding to trial by social media, is a path that will eviscerate centuries of established due process for justice in a free society.  

Lois Lerner – The Gift That Keeps Giving

When hundreds of conservative political groups were targeted by the IRS, preventing their formation during the 2012 election, the opposition to the election of President Obama was blunted.  Lois Lerner was at point in this dubious effort.  Her punishment: a “well earned” retirement with full benefits after decades of loyal public service.  Lois can now fade into the sunset at the taxpayer’s expense.

But not so fast.  Lerner is back to argue that the closed-door testimony she gave should not be made public because she could be exposed to grave bodily harm if it were.

So how is it that a woman who famously told us that she did nothing wrong – after, of course, pleading the 5^th.  Maybe folk in her department were a bit zealous but, as President Obama stated, there wasn’t a “smidgen” of corruption.  So how do we square Mrs. Lerner to the threat of grave bodily harm?  We can’t because, most likely, both positions are false.

It is far beyond time that taxpayers have light shed on what happened behind the IRS Curtain, the deeds that were done, the finger pointed to the guilty, and maybe, just maybe, some justice dispensed.