Be Careful with Your News!!

There’s been a lot made of the 24-hour news cycle, false social media news, opinionated journalism, shock-value journalism, and major cable news services in the pocket of one party or the other. To an extent, it’s all true.

But it doesn’t have to be.

I have a close friend who is a newspaper man. He and I have been friends for years even with our differences on many political issues. I consider myself right-of-center to his left-of-center. At one time, we were on rival sides of the political fence as far as holding office as Party Chairs for our small Central Texas rural county. It was the most harmonious of times two party chairs could enjoy as far as working together to ensure smooth elections. Then he moved and…. well that’s another story.

One common issue we both have is where people get their news and how what they perceive a talking heads position as actual news. Twenty years ago, and before, most people got their daily news from three main sources: a local or regional newspaper, the nightly news, and the radio.

Today people are bombarded with news from a variety of sources beyond the aforementioned traditional sources. Twitter, E-Mails, Facebook, Instagram, Talk Radio, text-messaging, Snapchat, and cable news organizations are a wealth of information….AND Disinformation.

I was talking to a gentleman the other night and his line of reasoning came right from the ultra-conservative, conspiracy-theorist, talk-radio game plan. I’ll not mention what programs or sources he had gotten his “news” from, but obviously they came from “news” programs hosted by today’s brand of typical opinionated talk-show hosts – NOT real newsmen.

Listening to him talk I realized how much people rely on all these forms of news and how much they are impacted by this over-saturation of “news.” It made me want to share where I get my news and information and what I feel are good news sources.

First (and foremost), I have subscription to both of our weekly county papers, and I generally read one of larger daily papers as well (Houston, Austin, or Dallas). This gives you the local and regional news.

Lastly, radio and TV news. I know everyone has their preferences but here are mine. Along with our local radio news programs, I watch or listen to three radio/TV programs fairly consistently as I feel they offer the most honest coverage and present viewpoints from both sides of the political spectrum. In the morning, I prefer “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. In the afternoon, I listen to Jake Tapper’s program on CNN and Bret Baier’s program on Fox News. If those programs aren’t on I listen to a mix of the BBC news and Public Radio news with a smattering of C-Span. Yeah, I’m a news junkie/nerd.

And while I am a news junkie/nerd, thanks to my friend the Newspaper Man, I also closely watch what is reported to make sure I know what the truth really is. I do browse the internet for stories, but it’s not hard to get tripped up on a false story from the web, an e-mail, Facebook, or the other web-based sources.

In closing, I often keep this in mind. My Grandfather always told me to be careful and don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. Basically, in regards to the news, what he was saying is if you want to know the truth go out and get it. Don’t be lazy and wait for someone to bring it to you.

As a concerned citizen, gathering honest news is an active process. If you want the truth you will go get it. If you want to be ignorant…. well that’s pretty easy these days.

Extra, Extra…..

Bill

Does your service equal your wants?

It's always amazing to me how those who have done the least for their communities, their states, and their country tend to be the ones crying for more benefits they are "entitled" to, raging against those who don't agree with them, and/or are whining about how unfair things are.

If you haven't done anything to be a part of the solution, help your fellow man, and/or serve your community or country, then you are part of the problem.

No one can do it all, but everyone can do something to make things better. So ask yourself what you have, or are doing to make things better. If the answer is nothing or you have to think too long about it, well you're probably part of the problem.

Rant for the Week

I had suspended this blog site and thought about deleting it in order to concentrate on sports, but I can’t let it die. Especially since there are so many ridiculously clueless folks out there who need some education on common sense and personal responsibility.

Normally when I do a rant I like to go through five or six items currently running in the news. Today I really want to touch on one general subject and let it rip….RESPONSIBILITY!

Like most responsible people, I am sick and tired of hearing about how unfair life is in the United States and how little the government does for us. Actually, if the government only did what it is constitutionally responsible for it would be more than enough.

Nowhere, and I mean NOWHERE in the constitution nor in the Declaration of Independence did our fore-fathers ever agree to provide you with anything more than the opportunity to allow you to make a future for yourself in this country. They guaranteed Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (not the guarantee of happiness).

There was no promise of a free college education, a minimum wage, paid-family leave, welfare, unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid, or any of the other idealistically socialist endeavors taken up by past or present elected officials. Sure there can be valid reasoning or purpose for some if not all of these; however, these were never guarantees we have ever been given, nor should they be seen that way.

Currently the United States is not hovering on the brink of bankruptcy – WE ARE THERE.

As a country, our path is corrupt, ineffective, and completely unsustainable. To think anything else is pure insanity. For the most part, our elected officials want to believe that they have long-term solutions and ideas that will ease the pain associated with correcting the path to destruction this country is currently on.

Unfortunately, I am not sure there are enough responsible folks out there in elected office to correct this problem. Too many politicians claim to have a handle on the issues. They “know” what we need to fix what ails us as a country. Of course this is complete bunk because if they actually did then they WOULD HAVE DONE IT.

Truth is, far too many people in the United States don’t have that sense of responsibility and look to focus the blame for their shortcomings or societal woes squarely on……on…..on….well, anyone else but themselves.

From the plight of the oppressed to the welfare of the poor; politicians and activists groups prey on those willing to blame anyone and everyone for their place in the world. In the next few weeks I hope to hit on individual topics that touch on all these issues; however, first we must all be in agreement that we are responsible for ourselves and our own actions. Until responsibility is taken, we cannot begin to focus on those issues we need to address and repair.

So the next time you begin to say to yourself, “I could/would do that, but I can’t because……”, stop yourself and find out what it is you’re a limiting yourself with. Nine times out of ten it is you who is doing the limiting.

Are you an advocate and active member of a constructive change like in Charleston, or are you a member of the self-perpetuating problem like in Ferguson. Ask yourself, will I be an asset to my cause like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mother Teresa, or a leader of violence-inducing, hate-spewing reactionary activism groups like the Black Panthers or the Klan.

Each of us must make a decision to be a responsible and respectful person of character willing to make the tough choices to make things better. We must approach these issues from a standpoint of personal responsibility and quit looking for easy outs that allow for that responsibility to be shifted to another person, group of people, or the government.

My Grandfather’s were greatly responsible for my beliefs and values; and they both were similar in this piece of advice. If everyone took care of their own back yard and if everyone would help at least one other person to a better place in life, this world would be fine.

I know I’m still working on mine, but how is your back yard and how many people have you helped out?

Later,

Bill

Never let a tragedy go to waste!!

I try not to go political so soon after a tragic event; however, since POTUS already has, I feel a need to point out that contrary to what President Obama believes, the fact is that making guns illegal WILL NOT affect the ease with which someone can get a gun to commit a horrible act.

AND to use this tragedy to go after a political agenda less than 24 hours after the tragedy occurred once again shows POTUS to be nothing but an ethically challenged political hack.

God Bless the folks of Mother Emmanuel AMC....you are all in our prayers.

God Speed to the departed, God Bless the survivors...
Bill

Rant For The Week!!

Here is a little rant on a Tuesday evening for everyone to enjoy.

1. With all the commotion about the Duggar family scandal, I find it ironic that the press is giving Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee a hard time for his friendship with this family when Democrat Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton has been married to an accused sexual predator for 40 years…….HMMMMM!!

2. Sad anniversary as today marks one year since the JV….err…..ISIS took control of Iraqi city of Mosul.

     

3. In case you were counting, this year the Senate has already voted on 31 bills. That’s impressive since last year, under the supreme rule of Harry Reid; the Senate was only able to complete votes on 12 pieces of legislation.

        

4. Before Hillary is crowned the Democrat’s successor to Obama, take a look at a recent Wisconsin straw pool which Hillary barely won 49% to 41% over Bernie Sanders.

        

5. Remember last month when everyone in DC was going crazy about Amtrak funding? Wonder what happened to that?      OH YEAH…that Caitlyn chick…….

       

6. This week a Pakistani Court acquitted 8 of the 10 men who took part in the attack on 14 year old Malala Yousafzai. You remember her; she wrote a women’s rights blog and was shot in the face by this group of adult men while sitting on her school bus. Yeah….Pakistan….They’re our friends!

     

7. By the way, when President Obama starts to give President Putin advice about how to make his people happy he might want to check on that. Putin’s approval ratings by Russian voters are in the 80% range as polled by third party sources and not by the Russian media. Just to get an idea of how big that is, it’s twice as high as Obama’s own approval rating by American voters.

       

8. Lastly, today I was in a conversation discussing the rough handling of the disrespectful young lady who caused much of the problem in McKinney, Texas. I was asked how I would have reacted had that been my child? I simply smiled and let them know that my child would have had enough respect for the authorities and themselves to NOT be there.

Phew…..eight items and they’re short enough to read quickly….Just some things to think about.

Later

Bill

Obama – The Private School Hypocrite

I don’t mean to keep picking on President Obama but when he makes it so easy I just can’t help myself. Don’t get me wrong; I do find him to be an Arrogantly Ignorant Blowhard. So I don’t mind pointing out his complete ineptness as he makes it far too easy for a smart-aleck like myself to find the humor and irony in a situation to pass on the opportunity to point out his hypocrisy.

AND he does make it easy.

Yesterday, at Georgetown University, the President was part of a discussion panel and decided to attack the rich and privileged for living in elitist neighborhoods and sending their children to private schools. He said that by doing so they live away from poverty and as a result never have to deal with the same issues that those of us in the masses have to.

Well that all sounds like a guy who came from the masses, who is living with them and fighting for them!

Only one problem – HE’S NOT!

Obama came from an upper middle-class background and attended mostly private schools growing up including high school at the elite Hawaiian Punahou School; a school that currently costs over $22,000 a year to attend.

Then he followed that up by attending college at Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard – All Private Schools. I won’t go into the whole “how all the tuition was paid for” and “what all happened to get him into these schools”; that’s covered enough by others.

But of course private schools in how he was educated. Surely after being forced to attend those dreaded private schools and with his current philosophy on social correctness he wouldn’t expose his own children to this continued hypocrisy…..RIGHT?

WRONG!!!!

First of all, the Obama’s live in a house in the elite Kenwood area of Chicago. A house they purchased for a measly $1.6 million, but there’s nothing elitist about that!

Then there’s the option of where to put his two daughters into school; surely the Obama’s do as they preach and have their children in public school?                  

NOPE!!

Now this is not a slight or a picking on of their children, but POTUS can’t tell the public how screwed up things are and then not walk the walk. Nope, the Obama’s have always had their children in private schools.  AHHHH….the hypocrisy continues.

Now I’m not picking on the Obama’s for living the life they can or for where they were educated or where they live. I believe it’s everyone’s right to live where they wish and educate their children as they have the means to and how they see fit.

I have lived all over and attended both public and private schools; and would never think of passing judgment because of where someone chooses to live or where they send their kids to school.

Neither Should the President.

As POTUS you can’t use the “do as I say, not as I do” argument; or at least you’re not supposed. Unfortunately this President does it all too often and no one ever seems to call him on it.

Just sad!

Bill

Failed Foreign Policy

This week Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with his Russian counterpart and today even made a trip to Russian President Putin’s home in Sochi. The Russians have been laughing at us for the last few years once President Obama made his famous open-microphone remark to Putin-Puppet and former Russian President Medvedev. You remember that remark…the one where Obama said once the 2012 election was over he would be able to do whatever he needed to ease the Missile defense woes of the Putin Regime.

You know; the missile defense network that is in place to help protect the west from Russian aggression.

Of course the Obama chuckleheads have been under the impression that Russian aggression is a thing of the past – Tell that to Crimea and Ukraine. It’s just hard to believe that there might be someone on earth who honestly believes this current administration has even the slightest clue as to how to handle anything when it comes to foreign affairs. Just look at their track record.

Shortly after Obama comes into office there is a student uprising in Iran that could have tilted the balance of power there and overthrown the Iranian government putting the U.S. in a position to influence the future of Iran. What does the White House do – Wait for it – NOTHING. Nothing done by a new president who could have immediately set a high mark but instead dropped the ball and left thousands of students and revolutionaries out-to-dry (i.e., executed and imprisoned).

Then there’s Obama’s first Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “Reset” button with the Russians in 2009. We should have known this would be a failure when the button actually had the Russian word for “Overcharged” on it rather than the planned “Reset.”

You would think the State Department might have one fluent Russian Speaker – I mean at least ONE!!

Then President Obama exercises his delusions of grandeur and gives the OK for a SEAL Team strike on Osama bin Laden’s family rather than just bomb the tar out of the terrorist leader’s home. So, for this stroke of the President’s Ego, several of our finest were risked and we lost a Top Secret Helicopter. THEN the Pakistani Doctor who helped our Intell folks find OBL’s actual location gets left behind and is jailed by the Pakistanis……You Know, our allies.

Then there’s the Chinese takeover of several atolls in the Spratly Islands. The Spratly Islands are a set of reefs, atolls, and small islands in the South China Sea that is both strategic and oil-rich. They have been disputed property between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia for years. Until the Obama Regime took command the balance of power in this strategic region had been kept mainly by the U.S. Navy to maintain the peace and allow for free use of international shipping lanes. Since 2009 the Spratly Islands have been highly militarized by the Chinese as they have been dredging and building up the islands with airstrips, piers, and other permanent structures. Ahh…..who cares about freedom of navigation?

Next is the Arab Spring. Remember how that was supposed to create peace, stagnate Islamic extremism, and allow for greater freedoms while cooling extremist terrorism………How’s that working out?

Of course then there’s:

-          -ISIS

-          -Benghazi

-          -Crimea

-          -Ukraine

-          -Fighting alongside the Iranians in Iraq and against them in Yemen

-          -Fighting again in Iraq

-          -Trading five terrorists for a traitor

-          -Failed Iranian Nuke Deal (be honest, there is no deal)

-          -Allied Arab leaders not coming to DC this week even at Obama’s request

There isn’t one significantly positive foreign policy item the President can hang his hat on – AT ALL.

Al Qaeda is still alive, ISIS is not the junior varsity, Russia is stronger than at any time since the cold war, our European Allies are extremely leery since the NSA leaks, and the prestige and clout of the United States and the office of the President has gone to absolute zero with all the failed “redlines” and all the ambiguously diluted “Let me be clear on this” statements made in the last six years.

Just Sad, and that’s just his Foreign Policy; unfortunately it’s also our foreign policy.

19 more months to go…….

Bill