Month: June 2014

The economy is slowly picking up. And do you know where it is getting a nice boost? Agriculture. Farming is still a tiny piece of the overall economy, but in states where it is a big piece, like Iowa and the Dakotas, those states are recovering more quickly. So three cheers for our highly productive farmers. And maybe offer a prayer that 2014 continues to be a good year for crops and livestock.

As if the problems around the world weren’t challenging enough for the President, we’ve got a flood of children crossing the Rio Grande into Texas. The Border Patrol is overwhelmed and is putting them on buses and airplanes to Arizona and other states. Arizona says they have enough immigrants of their own to deal with, and don’t want any more. Here’s an idea: instead of Arizona, send them to the White House and let the First Lady feed them “school lunch” food. In a week they will be begging to be sent back home.

Seriously, the problem developed since President Obama openly stated we would not deport any immigrant youth, regardless of how they got here. Now, he did not mean forever. But everybody in Central America saw an opening and figured if they could get across Mexico and wade the Rio Grande they would be taken care of and not deported.

Here’s another idea. Remember when the President and Secretary of State Clinton went on television in the Middle East after the Benghazi attack and apologized profusely for the offensive video. Well, this time, the President can make a video where he says clearly, forcefully, unequivocally, “Illegal immigrants, regardless of age will be deported. Period.”

Then show it as a commercial during World Cup games broadcast in Mexico and the other Central America countries. They say everybody in the world watches all the World Cup games (except us) so this might stop the thousands of boys and girls from leaving home.

Of course, the apology in September 2012 for the “objectionable video” did not stop radical Islamic terrorists. If fact, it got them riled up. Another unintended consequence of Washington decisions.

Iraq has blown up in our face. We’ve spent more than ten years trying to help average Iraqis improve their lives. We believed that they would treat us like the French did seventy years ago on D-Day when we stormed ashore at Normandy. But Muslims are different.

Maybe 20 years ago, Americans knew there were about a billion Muslims in the world. Most of us knew some Muslims and they were (and continue to be) good people.  We assumed that a Muslim is a Muslim is a Muslim. But it has become clear that a Muslim is not just a Muslim. There are Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Shia Muslims and over 100 other sects of the Muslim religion. And many of them seem to hate each other almost as much as they hate Christians, Jews, and the civilized world in general. Christians have many denominations (sects), but you don’t hear about “radical” Methodists organizing an army and going on a rampage to slaughter women and children of the Baptist faith. In geography class we learn some of the country names in the Middle East, such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan. But the boundaries of those countries are artificial; the real boundaries are those of Sunni, Shiite, Shia, and whatever other sect has the majority of the population in a geographic area. And those boundaries will be temporary because there’s always a radical few who prefer to spend their time killing instead of improving civilization.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

    “We will stop those Chinese [Muslims?] from fighting among themselves if we have to kill them to do it.” DT #160, Feb. 4, 1927

“(A war) over religion is really the most bitter.”  WA #350, Sept. 8, 1929

#800   June 8, 2014

Here’s a headline in today’s Columbus Dispatch: “Country stagnating amid political fighting.” The story had a quote by an economist, “People are just holding their breath. Until the political uncertainty is resolved, a lot of people do not want to invest.”  Wow, does that describe our economic problems? Then I read further. The article was not about the United States; it was about Haiti.

Fortunately, we’ve had some good economic news. (We’re not really as bad as Haiti.) Our economy is getting back to normal after suffering from a severe case of frostbite during the winter.  We are back up to the same number of workers we had six years ago. The bad news is that’s the slowest job recovery since the Great Depression 80 years ago.

In the six years since 2008 we added more than 10 million people, so we have a long way to go to add enough jobs to keep up with population growth.

You might point to the stock market for good news. Yes, the Dow Jones is close to 17,000; but it has only gained 3 percent a year since it peaked in 2007.

President Obama asked the Amir of Qatar to negotiate a trade, getting one American soldier returned by the Taliban in exchange for 5 top radical Islamists held at Gitmo. Can we get the Amir to negotiate a trade for our Marine in a Tijuana, Mexico jail? You may ask, what can we offer in return? Well, maybe we could offer to return a few million Mexicans.

This deal for Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl may be the worst “trade” since the Boston Red Sox sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a measly $125,000. Of course we’re glad Bergdahl is free. But we released 5 Islamists who are responsible for killing Americans and thousands of Muslims. Yes, they killed women and young girls of their own religion. We’ll be out of Afghanistan in a year or two, but the Afghans will still be there, including plenty of terrified women and girls.

I’m happy to see Joni Ernst win the Republican primary for Senate in Iowa. I don’t know anything about her Democratic opponent, so my “happiness” is based on her experience at “cutting pork.” For comedy purposes, if nothing else, we need more hog farmers in Congress to debate the best way to castrate overly fat budgets. They also know how to shovel out waste.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

    “I am glad for once in our lives we got our Marines back home. I know they are laying off, waiting for some war somewhere. There is one in Afghanistan. But we got nobody in Washington that knows where it is, so the Marines will have to stay till Hoover tells the War Department where this place is.”  WA #335, May 26, 1929