Straight Talk from Rand Paul

Ferguson, Missouri, USA is downright scary.

I think nearly everyone in America who is aware of the police shooting of an unarmed 18 year old boy, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri and the aftermath of riots and police confrontation is terrified by what is happening there.

This level of racism in the midwest was unexpected.  And the attitudes of the police in their interactions with the public and the press after the shooting is frightening.  We have a police force that is genuinely out of control and we don't know what to do about it.

Unfortunately 99 percent of the nations politicians are busy staking out their old, worn-out, pre-programmed, hackneyed political positions.

Imagine my surprise this morning to find one politician is actually, "gasp," telling the truth.  Even more remarkably, it is a Republican, telling truths his fellow Republicans generally don't want to hear.

My hero today is Senator Rand Paul.  Writing in Time Magazine he attacks the issue of Racism head on:

Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.

If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot.

More importantly Ron Paul attacks head on the over-reaction, military style response from the police who are attempting, unsuccessfully, to address the reaction of the people of Ferguson.

Republicans generally want to defend the police, but here their actions are indefensible. Paul knows that and takes the issues head on.

The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm. It is one thing for federal officials to work in conjunction with local authorities to reduce or solve crime. It is quite another for them to subsidize it.

Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security. This has been a cause I have championed for years, and one that is at a near-crisis point in our country.

It is incredibly refreshing to hear a politician, especially in an election year, tell people the truth and address the issues affecting our nation. We don't need sugar coated, focus group tested, platitudes. We need to be able to handle the truth. I urge you to read Senator Puals full essay here.

Dan Quayle Was Right, Dammit!

In the age of Joe Biden it's hard to believe that Dan Quayle was easily the most mocked and ridiculed Vice President of all time.  Quayle's gaffs, misstatements and foibles make Joe Biden look like a Rhodes Scholar (although based on some recent Rhodes Scholars, that's no high praise).

Dan Quayle was the ill chosen Vice Presidential nominee of George H.W. Bush (the elder).  Improperly vetted and hastily chosen for all the wrong reasons, Quayle spend four torturous years bouncing from one gaffe to another.  And if Quayle didn't misspeak, the press dutifully made up stories and situations to keep Quayle looking bad.

No moment is Dan Quayle's failed Vice Presidency is more famous than his attack on the fictional television character "Murphy Brown" on May 19, 1992.  It really was not so much an attack on the Brown character as on the "Hollywood" values that put unmarried mother's on a pedestal to be praised, revered and even emulated.  His reference to the Brown Character was brief, and not even by name, but Hollywood turned on Quayle and attacked him with a ferocity never seen before or since.

The "Liberal Media" certainly joined in and, in fact, the most respected journalists actually appeared on the fictional television series AS THEMSELVES to point with pride and passion to the fictional Brown as a role model for all modern women. Among the icons who lent their strong voices and integrity to the ideal of the unmarried mother were Katie Couric, Joan Lunden, Paula Zahn, Mary Alice Williams and Faith Daniels, a veritable who's who of women in journalism.  All appeared on the series!

Feminist leaders loved the character of Murphy Brown as an example of how "a woman can have it all," a career, children and a wonderful fulfilling life without needing to be married.

And Dan Quayle the buffoon was, well, Dan Quayle the buffoon.

Fast forward twenty years and the Murphy Brown legacy (among  many other factors affecting our social fabric) can be seen in our society where many if not most children are born to single women.  In the black community the birth rate to single mothers is today nearly 80%.  As a society we made men unnecessary except for the actual act of procreation.

A friend of mine just told me just yesterday,  "Men only want one thing....  and in today's society they only have to do that one thing."

If you go back and read Dan Quayle's speech to the Commonwealth Club in 1992 he actually never mentioned Murphy Brown by name and spoke only of the need to have a father figure in a child's life to help rear, guide and financially support the child.

Dan Quayle was right.  And today we reap as a society the seeds we sewed in the sexual and feminist revolution.  Without the financial and personal time investment by the father, single mother's are stretched to the absolute limit in their effort to raise a child.  Many are simply unable to do it.


Today many children are actually left to raise themselves.  I'm guessing no one in a position of power or responsibility in our society today ever read or learned the lesson of the book "Lord of the Flies." You know that book was required reading back when I was in high school, but I digress.

Real life examples abound this week.  Most horrific was the bludgeoning murder of the 88 year old World War II hero Delbert Belton by two 16 year old children.  And the murder of the Australian baseball player Christopher Lane in Duncan, Oklahoma by three teens who were "bored" has captured International attention with Australia actually threatening a tourism boycott.

In both cases (and hundreds more each month), the murderers were children with virtually no parental supervision.  Fathers are not in the picture for any of these kids.

I'm not looking for a return to the 1950's era of "Leave it to Beaver." Feminists were right, we DON'T NEED to condemn unmarried mothers, but we do need to educate the next generation to avoid the pitfalls of the single mother fairy tale.  We now need to increase the self image and self worth of young women and the responsibility of young men.

Children need parents. Two or more parents.  Men or women.  The child can grow only with guidance, supervision and love.  Dan Quayle was right.

Crying Out For Those Alone....

The horror of 12 senseless murders hit the television, radio, newspapers, blogs and social media yesterday in an inescapable fashion.  The live, non-stop coverage of the frightening assault on a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado was relentless.  Everyone knows of the events and the name of the obviously deranged murdered, and many of the individual heartbreaking stories recounted on Facebook and the national news networks.


It's estimated over one thousand law enforcement officers from local, state and national agencies are involved in the investigation and in the search of the assailant's booby trapped apartment.


Certainly there are many thousands of journalists, bloggers, investigative reporters, pundits, experts, politicians, religious and civic leaders analyzing every tiny detail.  Like similar events in the past, it will be dissected for months and tens of thouands of pages will be written.  Books and even movies are likely to follow that.


I am raising no objection to any of this.  It is as it should be.  I pray for comfort and healing for the suffering and know, in many cases, there will be no relief from the relentless grief.


But, even as Aurora captured the news, there were dozens more murder victims this past week nationwide that gathered no attention.  There will be few, if any, law enforcement officers investigating.  There will be no national task force, no F.B.I., no forensics, no new laws, no  great discoveries. Many of the murderers will never be identified and many will murder again.


For all these murders there will be no national press coverage.  Probably no local press coverage either.  The victims family will never be interviewed by Piers Morgan or Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity.  We won't know their story, experience their horror or feel their pain.


Facebook entries might be made, but you and I will never see them.


Neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney will make a speech, say a prayer or suspend campaigning in respect for their tragedy.


And the worst part? Next week it will all repeat.  Roughly eighty to one hundred bright young people will be senselessly murdered.  You'll never notice.  You'll never know.  And, as a society, we won't do a damned thing to stop it or even slow it down.


Maybe that's the scariest part of the genocide happening in our country right now.  Because every story is a small piece, we can ignore it.


Because of Aurora our movie going experience will change.  There will be ample extra security, cameras, alarms on doors, maybe even metal detectors.  There will be security guards, probably armed security guards. 


Even though there have been virtually no murders in movie theaters over the last 100 years, we will have massive protection going forward.


But the national genocide will continue unabated, at the rate of 6 to 7 Aurora's every week, 80 to 100 people murdered every week, most in senseless acts of violence every bit as horrific as Aurora.  But nothing will be done.  Nothing.


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As you remember the twelve people killed in the Aurora movie theater this week, please also remember these twelve people killed in Chicago this past week, too. They'll get no press coverage and you'll likely never see their names anywhere but on this blog.


Nathaniel Gonzalez, age 16


Marshall Knights, age 21 


 Ricky Hankins, age 49 


 Daniel Green, age 21 


 Mark Carney, age 26 


Andrew Jackson, age 27 


 James Bell, age 26 


 Martin Tejeda, age 16 


 Elle Mills, age 53 


 Maurice Wilson, age 22 


 Phillip Finley 


Anthony Collazo, age 21