Ken's Comments

I'm attaching a link to an article describing a report by Megan Kelly of Fox News.  This appeared in early December after the shooting at Planned Parenthood by a nut job. http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2015/12/01/megyn-kelly-takes-left-media-task-double-standard-placing-blame Ms. Kelly points to a number of instances where an event occurs that is viewed as "right wing" violence and the Media reacts harshly.  But when "left wing" violence occurs, the Media circles to find other reasons why the event occurred - absolving the "left wing" from blame or blaming the victim themselves. The event in San Bernardino occurred after this broadcast by Ms. Kelly but I remember commenters on CNN immediately suggesting the event was another act of "right wing"violence before any facts were known about the shooters.  Credit goes to a couple of the moderators who, when one of their experts said something like that, were quick to point o

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of this picture

" My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government." - Barack Obama in a memo to the heads of Departments and Agencies. So what happened? Professor Jason Ross Arnold of Virginia Commonwealth in an article that appeared in the Washington Post said Taken together, [the Administration's] record suggests progress toward transparency, but it arguably falls short of what Obama promised. An interesting statement as his article provided a paragraph or so in support and then offered a lengthy list of examples suggesting just the opposite.   That article can be found here.   http://tinyurl.com/qbog7sl Nevertheless, many in the media - including the liberal media - would disagree with Professor Arnold's position. The New York Times pointed out at least 20 investigations across the government that have been slowed, stymied or sometimes closed because of a long-simmering dispute between the Obama administration and its own w

Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Here is a wonderful parable that Paul Harvey broadcast years ago that is very meaningful at Christmas time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddai8rkXWRs

Lost internet service for a while there. Back East, it would have been called a tropical storm and would have been named.  Out here its just a bit of high wind - 68 miles per hour - and it knocked out the wireless internet receiver. Have a lot of ideas and thoughts piled up.  I'll try to post them over the next few days.

The corporate tax rates in the U.S. are the highest in the industrial world.  The tax code is ridiculously complex.  Business decisions are made half based on what is good for the business and half based on what enables the company to reduce taxes. Is it any wonder that companies are leaving America to evade taxes?  Companies are using a process called inversion to transform themselves from American companies to foreign companies, moving to countries with lower taxes. The ones that aren't leaving are investing money made off shore into plants and R&D in other countries because taxes on bringing the money back to the US make that impossible. So what do you do to stop this exodus?  Well Hilary Clinton's idea is to make the tax code worse not better.  She wants to create a penalty to deter companies from leaving the US. Gee whiz.  Great idea.  Don't take the simple approach of making the tax code simpler and lowering taxes.  Oh no, keep the taxes high to keep the

It is interesting to read this comment by Ben Carson. Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson says he's faced more discrimination because he's a black conservative than because of his race alone. http://tinyurl.com/p3gm5xu Having seen similar remarks made about Justice Thomas and other conservative African Americans, Ben Carson put words to what others have experienced. If Ben Carson were elected President, could we label all the hosts on MSNBC as racists if they disagree with his views?

Today Donald Trump suggested that all Muslim immigration be halted.  Here is what I think is wrong about that: 1. Blatant bias against a single religion and the people who believe is not appropriate anywhere and especially not in the United States, given our history. 2. It is not the correct approach to the current problem.  We do have a problem with immigration controls.  It's clear that we have no control of our borders - both under the current Administration and under the Bush Administration to be honest - and the process of vetting people entering the country, both newcomers and our citizens who leave and come back, does not identify folks like the ones in California that just committed acts of terror.  But the solution is not banning Muslims.  We are seeing people from a variety of backgrounds going to the Middle East and getting converted.  Even that statement - that are borders are porous and we don't vet well - is an oversimplification. There are many aspects to b

Now this is an important question to resolve.  Which do you agree with?

Absolutely no excuse for the actions of the individual who attacked the Planned Parenthood clinic. I have not yet read any stories today that might provide details on why that event happened but there is no justification for anyone to attack any kind of medical operation or clinic or business or anything else. If it turns out the perpetrator did it under the guise of "pro-Life" then he or she is as bad as the terrorists who perpetrate atrocities under the name of Islam.

Last post for the night.  I'm moved to write this because of the previous post about Mr. Saadiq Long who was arrested in Turkey. While I'd have preferred to say he's a terrorist and gloat over the mistake of the liberals who originally supported him, the reality is he's just been arrested, the charges are not clear (two media sources gave different reasons for his arrest), and he has not been convicted. Whenever I see someone charged with a crime or bad behavior - whether it be charged in the Court of Public Opinion like Bill Cosby, or charged in an actual Court of Law - I just remind myself of two things: 1. Duke Men's Lacrosse Team 2. Richard Jewell 3. Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity The Duke Men's Lacrosse Team was charged with raping a black woman.  They were accused, they were investigated by the local District Attorney and they were indicted by a Grand Jury.  And they were completely innocent.  The whole thing was a fraud. Richard Jewell was a hero.

There should be a new game - is it Islamophobia or is it the truth? Saadiq Long, a US Air Force veteran living in Qatar is put on the No Fly list.  In late 2012, he wants to fly back to the US.  A stink ensues and liberals and American Islamic groups get up in arms.  So the Govt. takes him off the list long enough to fly home.  He was put back on the list so to get back to Qatar, Mr. Long had to take a bus to Mexico and fly from there. Fast forward to present day.  Mr. Long and 8 or 9 others are now in jail in Turkey.  Some media reports are saying he was part of an Isis cell.  Others are saying he was arrested for being in Turkey without a visa. What's the saying?  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people are not out to get you?  Also - at the time Mr. Long wanted to fly, there was massive media attention.  Now that he's arrested, those same media outlets who supported Mr. Long are remarkably silent. https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/2015/11/24/ms

So Donald Trump wants a database with the names of (insert a group here - Muslims, immigrants, illegal immigrants, whatever).  Is it really that bad? Governor John Kasich's campaign has an ad with a minister comparing the idea to Nazi Germany registering Jews.  Gov. Jeb Bush, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Secretary Hilary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders also were critical of Donald Trump's comments.  Carson said that singling out a specific religion is a bad idea.  Cruz said that a registry of Americans is wrong. First of all let's clarify.  Originally, Donald Trump was calling for a registry of illegal immigrants.  Now he is now saying he wants a registry of Syrian immigrants.  I've not seen any clip of him saying all Muslims or American citizens of any religion. But let's consider the question of whether a database is a bad idea.  Is it like Nazi Germany registering the Jews?  Well, if it is then Hilary Clinton is a Nazi too.  She called for a database in

I am not a huge fan of Donald Trump.  I'd put him somewhere between 5th and 9th if I was ranking the candidates in order of my preference.  But I can't help but be outraged at how the media misrepresents what he says. At first, the media did not take him seriously.  Now the liberal media does take him seriously and they often misrepresent what he says.  From their behavior, I have to conclude that the liberal media wants to damage Trump's candidacy. To give a single example (so this article does not get too long) - the Associated Press incorrectly reported that Donald Trump said we need to create a database of Muslims.  First of all, that is not what Donald Trump said.  At that time, what Donald Trump really said was that he wanted a database of people in the country illegally (now he is talking about a database of Syrian immigrants). But when the Associated Press sent out a story, every paper in America subscribes to the AP and many of them run the story verbatim T

So says Sean Illing of the liberal leaning Salon.com website.  Truer words could not be spoken.  As Mr. Illing said: "All religions are not the same. All faith traditions are not equally wise or equally tolerant or equally peaceful….A devout Quaker and a committed Wahhabist have very different ideas about justice and equality and morality" I will take a step back from the generalization Mr. Illing and the folks who excerpted his article at the Newsbusters.org side made.  There are liberals, like Bill Maher, who don't shy away from saying the words "Islamic terrorist."  Not every liberal has this problem but the Democrat candidates for President do. We'll get a real discussion about this next year in the Presidential election where the Democrat candidates have been very clear about not saying the words "Islamic terrorist" while Republicans have not at all been shy in this regard. If you want to read more, Mr. Illing's article is excerp

A family member shared the post copied at the bottom.  In it, Mr. Atassi says: "Attacks like the ones tonight in Paris are committed to purposely trigger an Islamophobic backlash." Really?  So the real motivation is not to discourage France from participating in the fight against ISIS?  Why would ISIS think such a strategy is a good one after what happened to Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the attacks against the US on 9/11.  Both of those organizations are now a shadow of their former selves after the US responded. That said an Islamophobic backlash in Europe is possible.  The way for people of the Muslim faith to prevent that from happening is to unite and openly oppose ISIS.  Force clerics who preach violence out of the Mosques and teach children that hatred of Christians and Jews is wrong, and stop treating women like they are cattle or chattel.  Arab countries can also help by not mistreating Christians, announce that they no longer seek the destruction of Isra

Wow - saw this on a website.  There is a documentary due to be released soon about Cristiano Renaldo - hailed by many as the world's best soccer player. During the documentary we learn that his Mother tried to have an abortion rather than give birth to him. Powerful point can be made about what the unborn who are aborted could accomplish.

So we are a few years into the Health Care Reform that President Obama is happy to lend his name to and what is happening so far? Good news - Many people have coverage who did not have coverage before Healthcare.gov works reasonably well Bad news - Almost no one got to keep their health plan and many did not get to keep their doctors, contrary to President Obama's promises. Premiums are going up, which is driving enrollment down.  That is going to cause more premium increases in the future because guess who is cancelling their coverage - sick people who need insurance or healthy people who don't? The Federal Government is combating this by trying to artificially hold down insurance premium increases.  Unfortunately, nothing in Obamacare holds down the price of health care, which is driving the insurance premiums upward. Meanwhile, competition among insurers is diminishing and less competition is not the way to lower prices either   Aetna is buying Humana.  

Interesting "poster" that a friend sent to me. Actually, the subtitles should be altered to say "If I agree with these black men" above the photos on the left and "but I don't agree with this one."  I have nothing against President Barack Obama as a person.  I just disagree with most of his policies. The point I see in this poster is it is time people are allowed to disagree with something without the response being name calling.  And that should apply to people on both sides - liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats.

Great idea from the NY Times. Instead of the Government spending $300 billon to fund education as Hillary suggests, why not make schools use endowment money to help students instead of paying "lavish fees" to fund managers.   Op-Ed Contributor Stop Universities From Hoarding Money By VICTOR FLEISCHER They pay lavish fees to manage their wealth, while tuition keeps rising.

This is the best description of Trump's popularity that I think I've seen.  This is a quote from Frank Luntz, a pollster who used to be featured on Fox and now is on CBS (I think). Mr. Luntz did a focus group with just Trump supporters and said this after the event: "I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don't realize how the grassroots have abandoned them. Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots." I don't know if I'd use the word punishment but I Mr. Luntz believe correctly points out a key reason - not the only one but a key reason why Trump has the core of popularity that he has in the Republican primary.  The Republican Leadership has not awaken to the fact that the grassroots have been rebelling against them since 2006.  I have a feeling this election is going to be another message to them.

Got off the road, got the move to Montana done.  Things are slowing down to a routine and there is an election next year.  What better time to pick up with my blog. The Primaries are quite a contrast.  The Democrats all white older men and one woman.  They are all liberal and each is racing to the left in hopes of winning the primaries. The Republicans, the party that is supposedly racist, has people of all ages and colors and genders and ethnicity running.  They have quite a diverse political perspective too and also a mix of candidates Party bigwigs support and people who are completely independent of the party leadership.  Many of the Republicans were already deemed conservative, a few are posturing more in that direction (like Jeb Bush, who I think of as more moderate like his father). Got a few posts saved up, so I'm going to drop them all tonight and then start commenting more regularly going forward. Feel free to give feedback.