SCHOOL SHOOTINGS – WE CAN STOP THEM !!

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Grandpa

THE CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

 

CONNECTICUT HAS NEARLY 1200 SCHOOLS.

CONNECTICUT HAS 176,446 MEN AND WOMEN LICENSED TO CARRY CONCEALED WEAPONS. NONE WERE ON THAT SCHOOL GROUNDS.

ONE MAN OR WOMAN WITH A CONCEALED WEAPON IN THAT SCHOOL COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE MASSACRE OF OUR SCHOOL KIDS.

GUNS IN SCHOOL? ABSOLUTELY!

LET STANDUP AMERICANS PROTECT THEIR OWN SCHOOLS.

I am convinced that the possibility of incidents such as the most recent school shooting will never be completely eliminated from our society.

Considering that we have roughly 132,183 schools in the USA (yr. 2009-10), including private schools <Fast Facts> these atrocities are still relatively rare in our society. But, I am convinced that we can make them even more rare without turning the responsibility for the safety of our children over to our famously incompetent Federal bureaucracy.

These crazy student murderers come into the schools knowing they are the only ones with a gun on the property, and this gives them a sense of immense power. Once on school property the killer is free to commence firing knowing he can kill a large number of people before anyone with a gun can show up to confront him.

So, how do we stop this. We could put a uniformed armed guard in the school but unfortunately that uniform would just light him up as target number one for the next deranged shooter. Once the guard is disabled the mass murder would commence just as if there was no guard.

So how about this possibility, a private corps of stand up volunteer Americans, licensed to carry concealed firearms who would dedicate a few hours of their time to “hanging out”, with concealed weapons in the schools.

If we did this, our crazy murderer would walk in with his concealed weapons. He would look around and see the usual students, a man waiting to meet with an administrator, maybe a woman talking to a teacher and all the other usual everyday activity in a school.

But, the minute the depraved student exposed his intentions he would find himself confronted by the “waiting man” or the “woman talking to a teacher” with a drawn gun pointed directly at him. He would then have to decide if he wanted to die immediately or surrender. Either way he would be denied his thrill of murdering dozens of kids and teachers and most likely would surrender.

Once it became clear to all the depraved murders that there are men and women carrying guns defending the students in school, and you can’t tell who they are, the idea of shooting up a school becommes a far less attractive way to make a big splash in the media.

A program to use armed civilian volunteers such as this will work. It involves the local community and would be supported to the maximum if it is well formulated. 

It will require leadership, organization, and co-ordination with law-enforcement at each school. There will have to be rotation systems to maintain the anonymity of the defenders. And much more. But it can be done, and I believe it will provide better security than having an identifiable, armed federal agent in the school.

In general, government is largely incapable of operating a system such as this where there are 132,183 schools each unique in so many ways. The only way for the government to do this is if they take full control of everything outside the class room. and then we, as a nation, have to consider the cost.

If all 132,183 schools fell under Fed. Government control, and each school needed at least three guards on rotation, it would result in a force of 396,549 armed guards.

Each of these men or women would most likely be paid a $50,000,+/-, salary which totals up to just under $200,000,000,000 ($200 Billion) in annual salary costs, not counting benefits. In addition to this there would, of course, be the costs and boondoggles of a typical, monstrous bureaucracy.

I’m sure the “guns are evil” crowd will wail about the chance that a non-government guard will get excited and shoot an innocent. For these people, I urge you all to get your facts straight by experiencing the process of obtaining a concealed carry license.

It will transform your image of Americans who own and carry guns. If you take the class, you will find yourself in a class full of very serious men and women from all walks of life, well aware of the fact that they are taking on a tremendous responsibility in owning and carrying a gun.

I took the Concealed Carry class in Charleston , SC, and was very impressed with the professionalism and intensity of the entire process. In my class one man who had completed the course was denied a license because he foolishly made a joking remark, saying something like, “Now, can I shoot somebody?” The instructors decided that this man didn’t understand the seriousness of what he was doing, and he was denied a license.

If you take the class you just may come to the conclusion that the idea of Americans standing up for themselves and protecting their kids is entirely workable and entirely preferable to creating another gigantic over-bearing, and incredibly expensive Federal Bureaucracy.

Take the class, I dare you.

 

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TAKING THE OATH vs LIVING THE OATH

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Grandpa

THE U.S. CONGRESSIONAL OATH OF OFFICE   Oath of Office

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

If you think your Congressman takes his oath of office seriously, think again. Here are a few of the many ways almost all congressmen and women, including yours,  routinely fail their oath.

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THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  The Congress and ONLY THE CONGRESS CAN MAKE LAWS (ART. I, SECT. 1).

 The “health-care law” is commonly referred to as “Obamacare”, but no President can make or repeal any law. Actually, it is HR 3962, titled – “Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010”. It was written by a multitude of mostly unknown authors and despite having little or no knowledge of its cost to the nation and complete indifference to its impact on American life it was PASSED BY THE CONGRESS.  Health Care Act  

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 THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  All revenue bills must ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (Art. I, Sect. 7).

CONGRESS AND ONLY CONGRESS is responsible for all taxes including the 72 thousand incomprehensible pages of loop-holes and special rules it calls the tax-code.  2011 72,536 pages .  No President can create or repeal a tax.

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THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  The President may make appointments to the various federal offices, ONLY WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE (Art. II, Sect. 2). 

Our current President has made Cabinet appointments for a crowd of his Chicago political cronies. Van Jones has resigned under media pressure about his radical activism and Atty. Gen. Holder is being held in contempt of Congress for his refused to answer questions re: the gun running issue. Many other appointees are of questionable backgrounds, but THE CONGRESS APPROVED THEM ALL.  Atty. Gen. in Contempt

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THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  CONGRESS establishes ALL federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court (Art. III, Sect. 1), (Art. I, Sect. 8).

The 9th Cir. Court of Appeals  invited11 FOREIGN COUNTRIES to submit “friend-of-the-court briefs” in a suit opposing Arizona’s immigration laws. A few Senators “introduced legislation” to block the original suit but THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES DID NOTHING about the court’s invitation to foreign participation.

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 THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  ONLY CONGRESS has the power to “declare war” (Art. I, Sect. 8).

Since WW II we have fought nine wars with NO DECLARATIONS FROM CONGRESS. Nine undeclared wars since WWII .

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 THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:  :  The president shall have power to make treaties, ONLY WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE (Art. II, Sect. 2).

 Our current President is recorded saying to the President of Russia, “This (2012) is my last election. And after my election I have more flexibility.”. The statement seems to promise future concessions to a foreign country. CONGRESS BLUSTERED IN THE MEDIA BUT DID NOTHING. U.S. President to Russian President.

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 THE CONSTITUTION SAYS:   Supreme Court  judges are appointed by the President, ONLY WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE (Art. II, Sect. 2).

In the Congressional hearings to approve or disapprove Judge Sonia Sotomayor for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court the Judge declares her bias saying, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences (meaning herself) would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”. CONGRESS APPROVED HER APPOINTMENT. openly biased Supreme Court Justices .

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 These are but a few examples of Congressional abandonment of its role as representative and protector of the Constitution, the States and the People.

The most powerful members of Congress would have us believe that the problems of the nation are caused by the Administration and the Courts. They are deceiving us.

The Constitution makes it clear that very little government can be imposed on the States or the People without the full complicity and direct action of the Congress. Congress writes the laws, raises or lowers taxes, approves all spending and borrowing, commits us to war, approves the Administrations Cabinet and Supreme Court nominations, and creates or dismantles federal courts.

Clearly, whether these elements of our government are performing well or failing miserably it is the responsibility of the Congress of the United States of America.

And, if Congress is failing to perform responsibly . . . it is the fault of We-The-Voters. We had better get our act together, very quickly.

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THE U.S. CONSTITUTION IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Grandpa

The aforementioned “Plain English” version of the U.S. Constitution is posted at last (Whew!).

It’s easier to read, and easier to understand. Lots of looooong paragraphs are broken into simpler structures. Where possible bullet points are used instead of repetitious verbiage. Archaic words or language are replaced with current usage and/or parenthetically clarified. For instance:

Article I, Section 1., reads like this in the old English:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

and in the plain English, like this:

Only the Congress of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives is allowed to make laws.

I learned a lot doing this. It made it perfectly clear to me why our government is failing and what we need to do to fix it. (More about that in the future.)

Take a look, let me know what you think.

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HEY, IT’S THE CONGRESS

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Grandpa

Picking up where I left off . . . after a very long hiatus.

Election 2010 – “there we go again”. With national polls giving Congress a job-approval rating of something around 10% to 15% We-The-Voters reelected 86% of our legislators to office. These are the same dysfunctional legislators that year after year give us crushing federal deficits, bloated government, incompetence, corruption, etc.

I single out members of Congress, Senate and House of Representatives, for this attention because Congress is by far the most powerful of the three branches of our government, and if We-The-Voters fail to hold them accountable they can, and will, destroy our government. They are well on the way to doing exactly that.

Here is a very brief summary of the constitutional powers and duties of the three branches.

Legislative:  The Congress and ONLY the Congress can make laws. Congress has approval over ALL presidential appointments. Congress establishes ALL federal courts except the Supreme Court.

Administrative:  The President is Commander and Chief of the armed forces, but ONLY Congress can “declare war”. The President can make appointments to the various federal offices, including Supreme Court Judges, but ONLY with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Judicial:  The Supreme Court is established by the Constitution and its judges are appointed by the President, but ONLY with the advice and consent of the Senate. All lower federal courts are established by Congress AS THEY SEE FIT. 

A President cannot raise or lower taxes, impose fees or special conditions, make insurance mandatory, ban drilling for oil, outlaw light-bulbs, etc. etc. Only Congress, through legislation, can do these things, and if it happens – Congress did it.

So, my advice is don’t waste your time getting all lathered up over the President throwing his political weight around, or federal courts that go completely nuts. The Congress can stop it all whenever they decide to do it.

Just get up every morning, look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Hey, it’s the Congress.” Then get busy throwing out all the existing congressmen and replacing them with people who really mean it when they swear to “. . . support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; (and to) bear true faith and allegiance to the same . . .”

I spent a lot of time with the Constitution coming to the previous conclusions, and I found the best way to understand it was to read it then write out what it said in plain, modern-day American English without all the tortured old English sentence structures, but keeping as best a possible the same, exact meaning.

So, as a result of all this thrashing around, I am about to post a Plain English version of the U.S. Constitution on this website. I hope you will check it out and let me know what you think . . . about both, my conclusions and the Constitution. Watch for it.

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YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Grandpa

(Please check out the two previous posts for relevant info) Here’s a well-reasoned prediction: Three days from now “We The Voters” will go to the polls, good citizens that we are, and will vote a few Democrats out of office and a few more Republicans into office. In the process, we will RE-elect 85% to 90%, or more, of the incumbent representatives right back into office, just like we always do.

I’m also betting that a few months or maybe a year later we will be outraged to find that nothing has changed. Every Republican is working to stay in office and to get more Republicans into office in the next election, and every Democrat is working to stay in office and to get more Democrats into office in the next election – just as they always have. And, you will find that the Administration is working to grow the power and influence of the federal government and get the President re-elected in the next election.

Here’s a well-reasoned comment:  HEY, IT’S YOUR GOVERNMENT. “We The Voters” got ourselves into this mess, and only “We The Voters” can get out of it. In the words of the immortal Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”.

We have put these politicians in office over and over and they have failed us over and over. There is a word for people who keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Its “crazy”.

I’m crazy in a number of ways, but that’s not one of them.

When I look at my ballot in the voting booth I will not see Republicans vs. Democrats vs. Independents vs. whatever. I will see only Incumbents vs. Not-Incumbents. The Incumbents have failed miserably for decades, and I will not even consider voting for them. My votes will go to the best of the rest.

You should vote for whomever you like. You have that right . . . at least for now. But I hope you will remind yourself as you enter the booth – HEY, ITS YOUR GOVERNMENT.

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THE BROKEN ELECTION SYSTEM – HOW TO FIX IT

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Grandpa

Year after year we give our Congress dismal performance reviews and then re-elect 85% to 98% of the incumbent members right back into office (see chart in previous post). In the previous post I wrote about how the politicians have rigged the system to make this happen, and now I want to tell you what we have to do to fix it.

It’s simple – just vote. The vote is our one and only tool, and of course, you always vote. So do I. But the professional politicians are so good at manipulating the campaign/election system that “We The Voters” have been  unable to affect the changes we need.

The problem is we get to the voting booth with no real information. We see the results, but we never really know what’s been going on in government, who is responsible or how much it actually will cost us. All we have to go on is the millions of dollars worth of professional mud-slinging, slanderous innuendos and in-your-face lies our politicians call a “campaign”. Most of the time we wind up just voting for our favorite party candidates or just sticking with the incumbents. And that’s exactly what they want us to do.

But, we don’t have to let this continue. If we change the way we vote, we can fix it. Here’s how.

The professional politicians, have made it nearly impossible for us to learn the truth about how they, as individuals, are spending our money or, for that matter, anything else they are doing in Washington. So, let’s simply stop asking them. Let them blather away and spend their tens of millions of dollars on their campaigns, but let’s ignore them.

Forget about Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, Liberals and all the other boxes they like to put us in. Instead of basing our vote on what the politicians say, let’s base them on our evaluation of the overall performance of Congress.

Then, if we think Congress as a whole is giving us good results, we vote the incumbent back into office for more of the same. But, if we think Congress is not getting it done we “just say no” to the incumbent, and cast our vote for whichever of the other candidates we have decided is “the best of the rest”. Simple.

If enough of us do this we can make a very big, very positive change in Congress very quickly. If we do it in successive elections “We The Voters” will regain full control of our government. We will then be able to reverse many of the asinine things Congress has done in recent years and remind our congressmen of their Oath of Office.

Ultimately, we will also be able to make the changes needed to get us out of the dangerous situation Congress has put us in and prevent it from ever threatening us again.

And yes, I do believe we are in danger of losing much of our liberty, our capitalist economy and much, much more.

(more about that next time)

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THE MYSTERY OF PERPETUAL RE-ELECTIONS

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Grandpa

This blog is intended to make you think . . . think about how you vote in federal, state and local elections, and here’s an item that should get your attention.  In October 2008, a few weeks before the elections, national polls indicated that “We The Voters” gave our Congress a 10% to 15% job approval rating. Then, in November “We The Voters” went to the polls and re-elected 95% of them right back into office. In any other (non-government) organization in the world an across-the-board 10% job approval rating would likely result in 95% of the group being demoted or fired. But in the U.S. Congress 10% approval equals 95% re-elected . . . it’s a mystery.

So, I went looking for information and found the chart shown below. It’s an eye-opener. Since 1964 “we the voters” have always re-elected 85% to 98% of the incumbent House members.  I’m old enough to remember all those years, and I can say without reservation that Congress’s approval rate was never above mediocre. And yet, despite wide-spread incompetence, corruption and failure to perform, come election time,”We The Voters” march into the voting booth and faithfully vote for the same good-ole-boy to whom we just gave a 10% job approval rating without it ever entering our minds that he/she could be part of the problem.

Center for Responsive Politics www.opensecrets.org

 

So, having given this a fair amount of thought I am making the prediction that despite our unprecedented level of dissatisfaction with Congress, Tea-Parties (which I attend), 9-12 groups, Glenn Beck, etc., etc. “We The Voters”, in November, will once again re-elect 85% to 90% of our incumbent congressmen – thus assuring that NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

This has been happening every election for decades, and here’s why I think it’s about to happen again.

1.  GERRYMANDERED POLITICAL DISTRICTS - Designed to allow a politician to tailor his re-election campaign to a very narrow segment of society.

Electoral districts are gerrymandered into groups of like-minded people with similar political party affiliations, ethnic backgrounds, religious affiliations, family circumstances, finacial circumstances, education level, entertainment preferences, web-browsing favorites . . . and every other thing they can learn about us via the census, tax returns Social Security records, Medicare records, the mass of personal data on the Internet, assorted polls and who knows what else. This means that the vast majority of voters in a given candidate’s district are overwhelmingly inclined to have the same political outlook and to vote the same way. All the candidate has to do is position himself in the middle of this majority. Presto! Re-election is nearly guaranteed.

2.  SENIORITY BASED POWER STRUCTURE IN THE CONGRESS – A play-along to get-along, seniority based power structure in Congress secures re-election for incumbents.

The power base in congress is built on seniority. Those who have held office for years have lots of power over newly elected members. Those who have held office for decades have immense power throughout the entire government - federal, state and local. New congressmen who arrive in office with their integrity intact, their heads on straight and their ethics in the right place soon find that they must serve the party line. They must vote on legislation the way the party leaders instruct them to vote or suffer the consequences. The consequences are:  They get no support or approval for their treasured earmarks, no important committee memberships, certainly no committee chairmanship, no attention (i.e. money) from lobbyists, no re-election support from influential congressional members or party leaders and no campaign funds from the party coffers or the powerful special interest groups. A new member of Congress will toe the party line or he/she has little chance of being re-elected.

3.  PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS - A social class of professional politicians who by definition must put re-election above all else in their career.

Our U.S. Congress is owned by professional politicians, and the most critical over-riding priority for professional politicians has nothing to do with performance in office. It is re-election. They must win re-election or they will be failures in their chosen career. Every meeting, every vote on the floor, every speech, every hand-shake, every step of every day and every night is viewed through their re-election campaign scope. Will it help gain re-election? Will it be detrimental to re-election? It is always the first question that must be answered before any action is taken.

. . . more in the next post.

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