If NPR Cannot Deliver More Balanced Content and Tolerate Views that Differ From Theirs, Then They Should Not Be Receiving Public Funding

National Public Radio has been under very close scrutiny the last several days, due to their very public firing of Juan Williams, a senior NPR correspondent and occasional Fox News contributor, over his expressing his viewpoint about Muslims on commercial airliners.

Williams was appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox, and said that he was nervous about flying on commercial flights with Muslims in “full garb.”

Thank you, Juan Williams, for expressing the viewpoints that MANY others have felt since 9/11.

Think about this:

A couple of years ago, there was a man who went crazy on a Canadian Greyhound bus.  He pulled out a knife and started stabbing the guy sitting next to him; the screaming caused the bus driver to pull over and the other passengers to scramble off the bus as the screaming continued.  Minutes later, police boarded the bus and found the guy eating his victim.

A few days after that, I was on an overnight bus here in the U.S., and guess what my reaction was?  “Don’t trust ANYBODY!”  I sat right behind the driver and wouldn’t have allowed ANYONE to sit next to me.  Fortunately, there were only about a dozen passengers on this large bus.  Still, I  didn’t sleep a wink.  I was aware of the location of every single passenger on that bus at every moment of the 22 hour ride by looking through the driver’s inside mirror.

Was my reaction any different than Juan Williams’ reaction that he expressed on the O’Reilly Factor?

There’s no other explanation: NPR fired Williams for expressing his honest opinion.  And this kind of intolerance of people expressing their views cannot be tolerated at a taxpayer funded operation.

Since NPR is partially taxpayer funded, NPR should have more of a balanced viewpoint.  But instead, they present the liberal version of everything, are anti-American and go out of their way to discredit Fox News.

NPR’s funding should  be scrutinized.

GOP Hopeful Says Overthrow of Government is on the Table; WRONG!

A GOP candidate in Texas went on the record and said that a violent overthrow of the American government is “on the table” if new leadership isn’t elected.   WRONG!

This man is not fit for office.

For the record, I will support NO American government that comes to power by means of violently overthrowing a previously and legitimately elected American government, no matter how much I disagree with that elected government.   The Constitution needs to be protected from rabble rousers like this.

Nor will I support any subsequent government that comes to power if it contains traitors who supported or participated in a violent overthrow.  They are not fit for office either.

It is the duty of all American citizens to uphold and protect our Constitution.

Now, having said all that, if an elected government interferes with holding regularly scheduled elections, or tries to remain in office, illegally,  then it’s the duty of all Americans to turn out en masse to protect the Constitution and force the government out in favor of a newly elected one.

There are Constitutional means to throw politicians out of office, as we will see in early November, and without firing a shot too. 

But instituting a civil war will only turn our country into a third world country.   We don’t need that kind of trouble here.

Bush Added $5 Trillion to National Debt in Eight Years: Obama’s Added $3 Trillion in 22 Months: When Will This Madness Stop?

The Treasury Department announced that the Obama Administration has added $3 trillion to the national debt so far, with no end in sight.   That’s after 22 months in office, compared with Bush’s addition of $5 trillion over eight years.   As of October 15th, the total stands at $13.666 trillion.  Obama is spending at a much faster rate than Bush did.

How long will this madness continue?  This is totally unsustainable.

If the budget is $1.7 trillion out of whack, then they need to make  a minimum of $1.7 trillion in government spending cuts.  Discretionary spending needs to be cut, and they need to stop this talk of printing up more money to artificially prop up the economy.

If they want more Americans back to work, then they need to renew the Bush tax cuts for businesses.  Small business owners aren’t hiring because they don’t know what the Obama tax rates will be.

If the Republicans win big in a couple of weeks, and they DON’T take IMMEDIATE steps to stop the out of control spending, then they’ll be voted out AGAIN!

And their tax cuts had better not include borrowing money from the Chinese to pay for the cuts.  If they want to cut taxes by $700 billion, that needs to be cut from the government budget…no more of this “cut taxes but don’t cut expenses” business that both the Democrats and Republicans have engaged in while they were in the majority.

And the Obama Administration needs to cancel/stop whatever they’re planning on with 401K Plans.   Those should stay in the private sector.  Federal, state and local governments have made a mess out of their own retirement plans, so they should stay out of the 401Ks.

Start cutting!

Peace Between Israel & Palestinians Will Be Impossible: Israeli Settlements in Palestinian Zones Make This View the Reality

Israel will never be able to reach peace with the Palestinians, and this is what the Israelis had in mind all along.

Below is a map showing Israel, the West Bank, and the locations of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as effective areas of Palestianian Authority control.

The Palestinians will need access to the Jordanian border in order to receive the kind of non-military aid that their economy and people need, but the sheer number of Israeli settlements effectively control Palestinian access to Jordan.

And some of those settlements have been there for decades. They cannot be removed without starting an Israeli civil war.

Israel has known for decades that these settlements, which have been in dispute under international law as long as they’ve been in existence, will make it very difficult to return Palestinian lands to the Palestinians. That’s what they’ve had in mind all along.

The Palestinians want their area of control (in green) to expand to include the entire West Bank. The Israelis want the map above to stand.

Those stands doom any chance at a land-for-peace deal, unless one side or the other makes extraordinary concessions. I don’t see it happening without major fallout.

What is the Military REALLY Fighting For: Our “Freedoms” or To Destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban?

This post might get me in some trouble, but I don’t really care.

I’ve been listening to common folk and to our politicians talk about thanking the military for “defending our freedom” while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, but let’s take a step back and consider this.

The military deserves our undying gratitude for their service to our country, and for all the sacrifices that they and their families have made during this long war. 

But defending our freedoms?  From who, exactly?

The Taliban and al-Qaeda can’t vote to curtail our freedoms, such as suspending habeas corpus and parts of the Constitution.  Congress and the President CAN.

Our idiot politicians are FAR more likely to curtail or suspend our freedoms based on what kind of plot that al-Qaeda hatches in our midst. 

If we REALLY want the military to “defend our freedoms” then we should deploy them to WASHINGTON DC!!  Specifically, to the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court.  THEN they’ll be truly “defending our freedoms” from the politicians who are likely to pass freedom-ending legislation in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack.

Let’s get this straight: the military is in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and to prevent them from launching attacks on us and our allies.   They ARE keeping us safe, and I sleep a lot better at night knowing that.  Thank you, U.S. military.

Give it some thought.