Things I Can't Figure Out

After giving this some thought, I figured I'd try out a new format for a change - something along the lines of the "Random Thoughts" thing I do, only dedicated to one topic. Just for kicks - and because it sounded like a good idea to me and that's what counts - I decided to call it "Things I Can't Figure Out."

Needless to say, I've got a lot of topics that I can write about, and more pop up each and every day. Actually, anytime I go a long period of time between posts - say, like the past 10 days - it's because there's so much going through my head that I have a hard time figuring out just what to write about. And then the challenge becomes finding the time, because between my Masonic Lodge, the Shrine, the Widows Sons, and trying to get as much saddle time on my Road King as I can I'm pretty busy these days.

But I've got the time today, and to start this whole thing off I figured I'd start out by writing about a big one - THE big one, actually. So without further ado, here's the first "Things I Can't Figure Out."

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

I really can't figure out the American people these days. I mean, I remember a time when the American people were hard-working, honest, tough, inspired folks whom the rest of the world looked up to. We were up to the task of facing and handling any adversity with dedication and grit, not letting anything get us down. Just look at what the American people did in World War II, for example. The American people scrimped and saved, sacrificed more than anyone in this age can imagine, threw their time, efforts and money into the war effort, and ended up giving the American armed forces the men and material they needed to defeat the most evil regime in the history of the world (up until that time, that is). And they did it without complaining, without whining, and most of all without being asked. They VOLUNTEERED.

Today's American people are a vastly different breed, and I daresay that it's not for the better. The American people as a whole today are pretty much living the motto of "It's all about me!" We have become a self-centered, selfish, lazy, easily offended, distracted bunch of whiners and complainers who would rather demand things that they don't deserve than go out and earn them. Today's generation of young Americans have been taught that they don't have to work for anything - all they have to do is complain about it and it'll be given to them in much the same way that a whining, crying baby will be given a bottle or a pacifier just to get the little ankle biter to shut up. The American people have been taught that what THEY want and what THEY think is ALWAYS right, especially if they're OFFENDED. And thanks to the liberal news media, I don't see this particularly disgusting trait getting any better any time soon.

The American people's priorities these days are badly screwed up, so badly that it almost defies description and belief. We have become a people that will take a tragedy of innocent people being killed by one lone lunatic and blame it not on the lunatic himself but on a flag that he was photographed holding. Talk show hosts get on national TV and get all teary-eyed because a dentist kills a popular and loved lion in a game preserve where the lion was supposed to be protected to the point where the dentist is now in hiding because he fears for his life. In the mean time a woman, a HUMAN BEING, was killed by an illegal immigrant who was supposed to be deported but wasn't thanks to our liberal government, and no one bats an eye. No teary eyed monologues, no death threats to the illegal immigrant, no Twitter campaigns, no celebrities tweeting out information about the immigrant (screw you, Mia Farrow), nothing. Guess a human life isn't as important as a lion's life, huh?

We have become a people that will cry out in outrage and anger at the very idea of deporting illegal immigrants because they broke the law by even being here instead of putting them on a bus or on a boat and sending them back where they came from, demanding instead that these "undocumented aliens" (which is THE BIGGEST bullshit term in the entire history of bullshit terms) be provided with FREE housing and health care. In the mean time we have legions of homeless veterans who'd give their lives for a warm place to sleep at night; we have droves of veterans who fought for their country and now can't get the health care they earned with their blood and sweat because our liberal President and his band of merry idiots can't figure out how to run the Veteran's Administration, and we lose 27 of these veterans to suicide EVERY DAY for the same reason - yet no one says a thing. The liberal news media won't run the story for whatever bullshit reason they choose to stand by.

We have become a people who expect to be paid maximum wage for minimal work, giving no thought at all to the fact that an income such as that should be EARNED and not AWARDED. Never mind the negative impact that such wages will bring, the havoc that it will wreak on a society - just ask Spokane, Washington about that.

We have become a people who expected to be rewarded just for showing up. And we have become a people that will become "offended" by almost any damned thing, all the while believing that being "offended" makes you RIGHT.

We have become a people who have turned our backs on our country, our Constitution, and our God - all in the name of "liberalism" and "political correctness."

The good news is that not everyone in our nation is like this. Actually, I think there are more people out there like me than there are of the kind which I've just described - it's just that you never hear about us from the liberal news media because, well, we don't fit their agenda. But thanks to that very same liberal news media, the image that I've just described is how the rest of the world sees us - and they're laughing at us.

But things will change - at least, I hope they will. Sooner or later there's gonna be a second American Revolution, and then the "Three Percenters" and other folks like me are gonna take our nation back and make it strong again. Our nation will once again be admired by the rest of the world, a nation that will be trusted by our allies and feared by our enemies. We will once again be the true leader of the free world, and both the nation and our world will be better off for it.

I love my country with all my heart, and there's no other place in the entire world where I'd rather live. I consider myself a patriot in every sense of the word because I love and support my country over anything else, including the government that is ruining it. As a wise man once said, "Patriotism means being loyal to your country, not your government," and I believe that. I also believe what Thomas Jefferson said when he penned the line, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

That time is coming. And when it does I'll be standing there on the front lines.

Will you be standing next to me?

Deo Vindice.

IHC

Leading From Behind - NObama In Action

I'm so disgusted with the President that words nearly fail me. Never in my life have I seen a sitting President who shows such obvious scorn, disregard and dislike for the members of the United States Armed Forces as NObama. I lived through the Jimmy Carter years and was active duty Air Force during this time period, and up until now I thought it was bad then. In retrospect that was nothing; all Carter did was kill the B-1 program and deny us pay raises for 3 of the 4 years of his presidency. He also almost caused a massive walkout by all active duty military personnel when the budget was nearly not approved in 1977; that would have been a violation of every enlistment contract for every enlisted member of every branch of the Armed Forces, and the base legal office had already put out the word that we could walk off the job at midnight of the day the budget was due without fear of repercussion because the Federal government would have been in violation of the contract. I'm glad to say, however, that never happened because the budget was approved - without a pay raise, as usual.

But I digress.

My opinion of who the worst President we've ever had changed not soon after The Buffoon In Chief took office. He told a bunch of lies during his campaign, making promises that I knew damned well he had no intention of keeping (such as, "My administration will be the most transparent ever!"), and his slogan of "Change we can believe in!" still makes me wanna vomit to this day. And ever since he took office it's been one disaster after another, one embarrassment after another, one lie after another, and one disgrace after another.

The latest took place this past week after the shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee in which four Marines and one Navy sailor were killed by one of NObama's fellow Muslims. It took nearly a week and a public outcry by the American people for The Great Pretender to finally order all American flags flown at half staff, and that only took place at 2PM today. Any other president, even "Slick Willy" Clinton, would have ordered that to take place immediately. I dare say that order should have been the first words out of the President's mouth; after all, the President is the Commander In Chief of our nation's armed forces, right? So it only seems natural that the first thing the Commander In Chief would do upon hearing the news would be to order the flags flown at half staff, right?

Not in NObamaland. No, the Buffoon In Chief waited FIVE DAYS before giving the order, and even then only because of the public outcry.

This is, to me, a clear and concise example of the disdain and disregard that this President has for the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect his sorry ass 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I speak both as an American citizen and a United States Air Force retiree when I say that this man is a total disgrace to the office of the President, to the nation, and to the human race as a whole. There is absolutely NO excuse for not lowering the flags the moment he heard the news, and you know damned good and well that he had droves of people in his own administration calling him up and telling him, "Yo, Barry, you really need to lower the flags!" I'm sure his military advisors did it; I'm sure John McCain did it; I'm sure the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did it, and I'm sure the Secretary of State did it.

Okay, well, maybe not on that last one. But I'm damned sure the rest of them did.

In any event, the actions of the Buffoon In Chief have once again brought shame and embarrassment to the nation in the eyes of the world. Never in the history of our nation has a sitting President shown such utter contempt for the members of the Armed Forces. He is a total disgrace, and I rue the day that he took office. I only pray that the next President is a Republican who is elected for his/her qualifications and not the color of his/her skin or his/her sex. We need a leader, a REAL leader, not a ruler like the Buffoon In Chief.

And we need it NOW. I only wish this was an impeachable offense.

I need a beer.

Deo Vindice.

IHC

Random Thoughts on a Sunday Evening

Got a lot going through my mind right now, so as usual I figured the best way to get 'em all out is to just do a "Random Thoughts" post. So here it is, in no specific order.

Thanks to Nikki Haley, it's now open season on any white man who displays a Confederate flag in South Carolina. I'm referring to the video that's making the rounds of a gang - and I use that word intentionally - of black men who attack and beat a white man who was holding a Confederate flag in Columbia yesterday. Of course, the liberal news media has given this ZERO coverage, which doesn't surprise me at all. And I'm not holding my breath waiting for Haley to order an investigation, or for the DOJ to investigate this as a "hate crime," because we all know that only white people can be racists, and only attacks on blacks by whites are true hate crimes. Which is, of course, total bullshit. Thanks again, Nikki.

And speaking of things the liberal news media won't cover, did you hear about the "new" Black Panther party rally at the State House in Columbia yesterday? You know, the one that was taking place at the same time the KKK was having their rally on the other side of the State House grounds? No? But you heard about and saw footage of the Klan rally, didn't you? What you missed on the other side of the State House was the leader of the Black Panther party leading the chants of "Black Power" and "Death To All Whites." Amazing, isn't it, how a white person can say something off the wall and immediately be labeled a racist by idiots such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but when a black man gets up and leads a chant of "Death To All Whites" no one says a damned thing. But then again, we all know that only white men can be racists, right? At least, in the South Carolina and United States of 2015, that is. Which is, of course, total bullshit once again.

The ignorance of the American people both black and white in regards to the real causes of the War Between the States continues to make itself seen. Of course, considering that all of the text books being used to teach US history are written in the North and published in the North, why should I be surprised? Someone once said that "the winner gets to write the history books," and that sure as hell is proving itself to be true these days. And for those of you who think you truly know the history of what exactly caused the war, here are some questions for you. If you know the answers, fantastic; if not, you need to do some research because what you've been taught so far is Yankee bullshit. Ready? Here they are: 1) What was the Missouri Compromise of 1858? 2) How would the Missouri Compromise affect the balance of power in Congress, and what effect would that have? 3) What were the "Tariffs Of Abomination?" 4) When Lincoln issued the call for 75,000 volunteers after the firing on Fort Sumter, what specific reason did he state for needing the troops?

Meanwhile in Tennessee, 4 Marines and 1 Navy sailor are gunned down by an Islamist terrorist, and the Buffoon In Chief has yet to order the United States flag to be lowered to half staff. To me, this just demonstrates once again the total disdain that this disgrace of a leader has for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect the nation he's supposed to be leading. NObama is a total disgrace of a President, and I'm counting the days until he's out of the White House and out of power. This is what happens when you elect by demographics instead of qualifications.

And speaking of electing by demographics, I find it utterly astonishing that people will actually admit that they will vote for "Billary" Clinton just because "it's time we had a woman president!" To me, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The nation elected a black man President just because of the color of his skin, and the past 7 years have proven to be nothing but one disaster after another due to the total lack of experience and capabilities of NObama and the band of merry idiots he picked for his administration. Now the nation is poised to do the exact same thing with Clinton, and this is even more astounding due to the plethora of bad crap that's come out about her in the past couple of months. She's proven time and time again that she has ZERO honor, ZERO integrity, ZERO capabilities, and ZERO experience. The lies she's been caught in alone would be enough for any sane, rational person to realize that she has ZERO business leading anything more significant than a Girl Scout troop, but people are seriously gonna vote for her just because she's a woman. I can think of only one other way that you can squander your vote in a more repulsive way, and that's already been done. Twice.

Which brings me to Donald Trump. I've never really been a big fan of his because I always thought he was a pompous, egotistical ass, but you have to admit that he's also one smart son of a bitch. After all, you don't get to be a millionaire several times over by being the village idiot, do you? And he's also not afraid to call a spade a spade and speak what's on his mind regardless of who's tender feelings get hurt. I've admired him for this even though I didn't really care for him, and up until yesterday I was all for voting for him just because he'd get shit done and all of the nations who are laughing at us now thanks to the Buffoon In Chief would all be going, "OH, SHIT!" if he got elected. But then he had to go and make that statement about John McCain and then refuse to apologize for it, so now I'm thinking about whether or not to throw my vote his way in November of 2016. I've got plenty of time to think about it, so we'll see what happens.

A couple of things to end on a positive note: I participated in a very enjoyable ride today with members of my Masonic Rider's Association, the Wayfarers Chapter of the Widows Sons. We rode from Pontiac to McBee, SC for a meet and greet with the officers of the Grand Chapter of the SC Widows Sons. We had to run from the rain on the way back, but all in all it was a great time regardless of the threat of rain and the heat.

Lastly, one of my best friends got married yesterday and I was honored to have been one of his groomsmen. I met Dan Hill when he was hired into Loss Prevention with Lowe's and got to know him when I was appointed as one of his trainers, and we've been fast friends ever since. He met a woman named Cheryl Tedford while working with Lowe's, and yesterday they tied the knot. I'm very happy for the both of them, and I wish them nothing but love and laughter for the rest of their lives. Congrats, you two!

And that's it. Y'all take care, and pray for our great nation.

Deo Vindice.

IHC

Some Lessons Learned

To say the past two weeks in South Carolina have been interesting would be an understatement. I wish I could say that there's been a lot of positive lessons learned by myself during this time period, but that would be a lie. I've learned several lessons about the public in general and some folks I know personally in particular, and unfortunately none of them are good.

I've learned that the most rude, hypocritical, insulting, belligerent and bigoted people in the world are liberals. Of course, this is something I already knew but the events and discussions of the past two weeks have just driven this knowledge home. Without fail, every single conversation I've had with a liberal over the past two weeks has ended up with the liberal exhibiting one or more of the traits I listed. And in nearly every instance, this was brought about by my using facts, the truth, or posing questions which would cause the liberal to realize that their "logic" is very badly flawed; once that happened, the name-calling and rudeness began.

I've also learned that liberals don't care about your opinions, they don't care about your feelings, they don't want to hear about them, and they are so bigoted in their own opinions that they'll do anything they can to drown you out or shut you down - all the while preaching "tolerance" and "equality." They want things THEIR way, period, and will stop at nothing do get it.

I think the saddest lesson I learned this week is just how shallow the knowledge of the Confederate Battle Flag and what it truly stands for is among liberals; that, and the fact that people have the intelligence to learn the truth but refuse to do so because it will conflict with their own personal agenda. I'm not naive enough to expect everyone to agree with my opinions, but up until this week I thought that at least people would be fair and intelligent enough to at least attempt to learn the other side's views and the reason for them. Sadly, I am badly mistaken in this aspect. I've had it shown to me that those on the "other side" of the great Battle Flag debate don't give a rat's ass for any opinion other than their own, and don't care whose feelings THEY hurt while doing something they say will keep THEIR feelings from getting hurt.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most is the hurtful way I was treated by a couple of folks I thought were my friends. I'm a passionate debater when it comes to all things Confederate, but I also pride myself on being open-minded enough to listen to and evaluate the other person's opinions, and respectful enough not to talk down to or insult them. I've always said that when it comes to opinions there's no such thing as "right" or "wrong;" opinions are just "different." I've been told by more than one of my "friends" this week that my opinions - not the facts I presented but my opinions - are flat out wrong. While I've gotten over it by now, it still saddens me that it happened. I don't use the word "friend" lightly, and it hurts when someone turns out to not be as good a friend as you thought they were.

But sometimes, that's life. And life goes on.

So life will go on in South Carolina, despite the Battle Flag being taken down from its place of honor at the Confederate Soldier's Monument. The governor got what she wanted; the legislature got what they wanted; the NAACP got what they wanted, and the transplanted Yankees who now live here got what they wanted. The true Southerners who understand the real, truthful reason why that flag was there didn't get what they wanted, yet still the governor gets on TV and crows "It's a great day in South Carolina!" If you consider that the NAACP will now lift the economic boycott they set in place 14 years ago solely because of the Battle Flag at the State House grounds, then in that aspect it's a great day. (The jury is still out on whether the NAACP will now lift the boycott, but I got ten bucks says they'll find something else Confederate to bitch about and will keep it in place. After all, they lied to us once in 2000 so why not again in 2015?) The state will now be able to host a myriad of sporting events and bowl games that the collegiate sports collective wouldn't let take place here because of the flag, so in that aspect it's a great day. So now there will be more money flowing into the state, and that's what truly makes it a great day.

See, that's what it's really all about - MONEY. It's not about "healing" or "equality" or anything like that. It's all about money. The governor saw her chance to get rid of the flag to bring more money into the state, so she took it. The legislature saw the chance to bring more money into the state and into their own pockets, so they took it. Yeah, it's all about money.

But it goes a hell of a lot deeper than that, and I have a feeling that none of the "intelligent" people we elected to the legislature gave this a second thought. What the State of South Carolina has done in removing the Battle Flag is this: they have given the first significant victory to the forces in our nation that seek to re-write history by removing ALL reminders of the Confederacy from public view. This one act will now serve as the impetus that will give the nationwide anti-Confederate movement enough momentum to really get rolling - after all, if you can get that one lone flag in South Carolina taken down, there's nothing you can't accomplish, right?

I have a feeling that the destruction is going to be very, very bad by the time it's all over. I don't think the Feds will ever pass a law banning the display of the Confederate Flag at all like the Germans did after WWII, but it won't be far from it.

But there is an upside to all this that I don't think anyone on the opposing side has realized. What all this has done is to cement the love of the Battle Flag even deeper in the hearts of those true Southerners who display it for all the right reasons, and it has given us more reason than ever to display it. And we are, by the legions.

Need proof of this? Go on almost any web site that sells Confederate flags and you'll see the same thing: SOLD OUT. It's very hard to find a web site that has Confederate flags in stock because loyal Southerners bought them all out once the great flag flap started.

It's also motivated me to rejoin the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I let my membership lapse a few years back because I had lost faith in the organization, but the events of the past two weeks has shown me that the South needs all of her native sons to come to her defense. So I'm sending in a check and renewing my membership. This is one fight I intend to be a part of.

And I don't intend to lose.

Deo Vindice.

IHC

An Open Letter to the Governor and Legislature of South Carolina

Madame Governor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Legislature,

To paraphrase the Governor, it's a sad day in South Carolina. On this day the members of the State Legislature have given in to political pressure and "political correctness" and have turned their backs on both the history of the great state of South Carolina and the men who fought and died in defense of the State from 1861-1865. Today the Legislature voted to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from its position on the flagpole adjacent to the Confederate Solider's Monument, a position of honor and gratitude that was voted on and approved by the State Legislature in 2000 with the cooperation and approval of the NAACP. Now, 15 years later and 14 years into the economic boycott called by the NAACP to protest the placement of the flag which they had agreed to just one year earlier, the State Legislature has kowtowed to the whims and whimperings of these select few and have voted to remove the flag.

As a born and bred Southerner with three ancestors who fought for the Confederacy in the War Between the States, I can think of nothing more dishonorable and disgusting than to remove the Battle Flag under which those brave men of South Carolina fought and died. You have sent a message to the world that South Carolina doesn't care about its war dead; rather, they are more concerned with public opinion on how the state is viewed by those who do not live here. This, in my humble opinion, is cowardice of the worst form. How long before South Carolina turns its back on its dead from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, or the war in Iraq? To say this will never happen is a lie as the events of the past week have proven that, if subject to the right pressure from the right people, the leaders of this state absolutely will turn their backs on their honored dead. And they'll do it all in the name of "equality" or "a new start."

If this is your idea of a "new start," then all I can say is we have vastly different opinions on just what a "new start" is. A "new start" for what? Equality? Really? You remove a flag which I and thousands of other people in South Carolina love and support for all the right reasons in order to placate the vocal few, and you call that "equality?" How is denying me the right to do something over the wishes of someone else "equal?"

The Battle Flag didn't jump down off of the pole and shoot those innocent people in Charleston; a man did. To fall victim to the gross extrapolation of events and irresponsibly lay blame on an inanimate object for the actions of one man is ludicrous at best. The blame for the killings lies at the feet of the man who pulled the trigger, not at the base of a flagpole. That flag had absolutely nothing to do with the killings, was not responsible for it in any way, and I would have thought people intelligent enough to be elected to public office in this state would have been intelligent enough to see that and to place the blame where it belongs. Unfortunately, I am wrong.

I am ashamed of you, Madame Governor; I am ashamed of the members of the State Legislature who voted for political correctness over honoring South Carolina's war dead, and I am ashamed to be living in this state. Rest assured, neither you nor any member of the Legislature who voted for the removal of the Battle Flag will get my support and vote for anything for the rest of my life.

Shame on all of you.

Deo Vindice.

IHC

The Questions No One Will Answer

Over the course of the past week or so I've been involved in numerous discussions about the anti-Confederate mania that's been sweeping the nation, with the main focus of those discussions being the display of the Confederate Battle Flag both on the State House Grounds in Columbia and across the nation. In each of these discussions I've posed two questions to the folks who want the Battle Flag and all things Confederate done away with, and so far not a single person has even attempted to answer them. To me, this speaks volumes as the questions are relevant, pointed, and logical - they also point out the big flaws in the "other side's" viewpoints, something that so far no one wants to admit.

So what are these two earth-shattering questions, you ask? Well, here they are, one at a time.

#1. Just what will removing the Battle Flag from the Confederate Soldier's Monument at the State House solve?

The answer I get most often is that "the State House and the grounds should represent all of the people of South Carolina, and with the flag there it doesn't." There is, admittedly, some logic in that statement, but my answer to that has always been as follows: "Well, if you remove the Battle Flag then it won't be representing me, will it? So who's right and who's wrong?"

In the first place, the Battle Flag is placed at the Confederate Soldier's Monument to honor the men who fought and died for the state in the War Between the States. It's there to represent THEM, not us, and was placed there to honor THEM, not us. If anything, the flag at that location represents the grateful people of South Carolina who refuse to ignore or forget the sacrifices of the citizens of the state who died defending the state. Removing the Battle Flag from the monument would be tantamount to removing the American flag from Arlington National Cemetery. (I can almost hear the liberal eyes rolling now...if any liberal reads this, that is, which I doubt.) The main thing is that removing the Battle Flag from ANY location absolutely will not solve the racism problem our country faces. The ONLY thing that will solve it is EDUCATION. No one is born a racist, they are TAUGHT racism by someone somewhere along the way. Until we as a nation start teaching our children NOT to be racists, the problem will continue - in both the white community and the black community. In case you haven't been keeping up with current events, black people can be racists, too. It's not just a "white thing."

And here's the other question, the really tough one:

#2. You say that removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the State House grounds will "ensure that everyone will be equally represented." If the flag is taken down because YOU want it down but I want it to be displayed, how is that "equal?"

In every discussion I've ever had over the past two weeks, it is always at this point that the other person gets nasty and starts slinging labels (such as "racist") or insults. This, I have found, is the usual liberal reaction when confronted with a question that makes sense and/or proves their "logic" to be drastically flawed. As of this writing I have not had one single person attempt to answer this question when I posed it to them.

The one statement that was made last week which I think is the biggest crock of horse dung I've ever heard was the one made by NASCAR officials at Daytona when they released their statement in which they asked all NASCAR fans not to bring a Confederate flag to the tracks. The nice folks at Daytona Speedway said:

"As members of the NASCAR industry, we join NASCAR in the desire to make our events among the most fan-friendly, welcoming environments in all of sports and entertainment."

Fan-friendly and welcoming environment, sure - unless you're a Southerner who wants to wave a Confederate flag to show pride in the South and support for the sport that was born in the South. If that's the case then the atmosphere will not be very "friendly."

So I guess it should be no big surprise that at the Daytona 500 this past weekend the stands and the infield were awash with Confederate flags. This has been called "Southern Thunder" in the news media, and it's a warning shot to those who would tell us Southerners that we can't fly the flag of the South. And y'all better pay attention.

As I'm typing this the South Carolina legislature is meeting and discussing whether or not to remove the Battle Flag from the State House grounds, and as much as it saddens me to say this I think it's going to end with the legislature voting to remove the flag. There just aren't enough South Carolina politicians with the balls to tell the NAACP and everyone else to grow the hell up and get over it, and leave the flag there. No, they'll cave in because they fear the continuation of the boycott by the NAACP, or they're considering running for President, or they're coming up for re-election soon, or for some other silly damned reason. But what it boils down to is that not enough of them have the cajones to stands up for Southern and South Carolina history and tradition.

And that's a shame.

Deo Vindice. (Look it up.)

IHC

The Age of Misplaced Responsibility

I've been sitting back for the past fifteen years or so, give or take a few years, watching our nation fall deeper and deeper into the abyss of political correctness. I'm not exactly sure when it all started or who exactly got it started; all I know is that it has now reached a level which can only be called ridiculous. Pretty soon it'll degenerate more into tragic, and then into hopeless. And to be honest, I hope I'm not around when the Age of Hopelessness sets in.

Right now I'm just struggling to survive in what I've come to call The Age of Misplaced Responsibility.

I call it that because to me, that's exactly what it is. Once upon a time in this nation we used to hold those who committed a heinous or evil act responsible for their actions, and we exacted whatever justice was necessary on them and not on those who had nothing to do with it. Not so very long ago we had a really bad problem with drunk drivers, so the nation as a whole went on a nationwide campaign to combat it. We did it by disseminating information, educating the public, providing assistance when needed, stiffening laws and - most importantly - punishing the people who actually committed the act. We put a LOT of drunk drivers in jail, and the statistics have shown that drunk driving has been on the decline as a result.

We didn't blame the cars the drunk drivers were operating, we blamed the drivers. The ones holding the wheel, the ones pressing the gas, the ones actually committing the offense. We didn't make it harder to buy cars, we didn't install governors on the engines to reduce speed, we didn't include limiting devices in the engines to reduce horsepower. We punished the drivers, not the cars.

We can't say the same about guns, can we? No, in this country when a madman picks up a weapon and goes on a shooting spree, instead of blaming him we blame the gun, as if the gun jumped into his hand, took control of his mind, and made him do those evil deeds and kill all those people. The liberal media and the gun-grabbing liberals start spewing more and more nonsense about how "common sense gun laws" would have prevented the crime, something that anyone with an ounce of true "common sense" would know is pure bullshit. And to really be honest, since "common sense" differs from person to person there really is no such thing as "common sense" gun laws, are there? No, to liberals like Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, "common sense" gun laws are those which outlaw guns entirely. They seem to think that making guns illegal will solve the problem, never mind our Constitutional rights.

Yeah, that really worked well for heroin, LSD, cocaine and meth, didn't it? We don't have a drug problem in this country because drugs are illegal, right? We won't even talk about murder already being illegal because God knows we don't want to bring logic into the conversation.

This kind of thing about gun control has been going on for longer than I care to remember, and to be honest I don't ever see it going away. This fight is always going to be with us because the liberals think they're right and won't give up, just as the conservatives know they're right and won't give up.

But I gotta tell ya, the latest flap that all started with a shooting in Charleston last week has mutated into something so utterly ridiculous that it almost defies description, and I place the blame for the conflagration squarely on the liberal news media. When the suspect (whose name I refuse to put in type) walked into a church, sat for an hour amidst a bible study class, then got up and started shooting, the headlines all read something to this effect:

"WHITE GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN HISTORIC BLACK CHURCH, KILLING NINE BLACK MEMBERS."

What the headline should have read is something like this:

"GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN HISTORIC CHURCH, KILLING NINE CHURCH MEMBERS."

Both headlines convey the same basic facts, that a man opened fire in a church and killed nine innocent people, but the latter does it without unnecessarily fanning the flames of the smoldering fire of racism that has been burning in our country for the past 239 years. The main point is that nine innocent people died, and the man who did the shooting must now be held responsible. That's the only way that justice can truly be served.

But no, that's not what happened. When I first heard the news the first thought that ran through my head was, "Great, now NObama and the liberals are gonna be screaming for more gun control," and within hours of this thought that's just what happened. The Great Pretender held a news conference in which he proclaimed that better gun control laws would have prevented it, and that no other civilized nation had "this particular problem."

Sorry, Barry, but the Charlie Hebdo victims weren't available for comment.

The second thought which ran through my head when I saw the picture of the murderer holding a Confederate flag was, "Great, now all we're gonna hear about is the flag on the State House grounds and everyone is going to be calling for it and every other Confederate flag in the nation to be taken down."

And dammit all, that's exactly what happened. Thanks to the race baiters and liberals throughout the nation, chief of them being Al Sharpton, the calls for the removal of the flag from the State House grounds began almost as soon as I had the thought. And to make matters worse, the next day the South Carolina governor caved in to the pressure and announced that it was time to take the flag down. Never mind the state law which says it stays there, or the agreement that the state made with the NAACP 15 years ago which also, by the way, resulted in a monument to African Americans being built on the other side of the State House.

But I never in my wildest nightmares thought that the wave of anti-Confederate feelings would run this far, this long, this deep, and be taken to such ridiculous and downright stupid levels.

I won't go into the details of what's been going on because if you're reading this then you already know. What I will do is ask a question, one that I'd really and truthfully like someone who supports the removal of the Confederate flag from anywhere to answer. Here's the question:

Just what, exactly, will removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the State House grounds solve?

That particular flag and all others just like it are nothing more than symbols; meaningless in their own right until someone applies a meaning to them and uses them as symbols for that meaning. The Battle Flag flying from the State House grounds had absolutely nothing to do with the shootings in Charleston. Those shootings were the result of someone teaching racism and hatred to someone else, using the Battle Flag as a symbol of that racism and hatred. The flag didn't pull the trigger, a man did. And honestly, if the man pulling the trigger had been black or if the people he shot would have been white, this story would have never gained the nationwide media attention it did and it would have dropped off of the nation's radar in about a day. (Need proof of this? Okay, how's this: when's the last time you saw a story on the national news about the killer, his upbringing, and his racist roots? Now when's the last time you saw a story about taking down a Battle Flag or renaming a park?)

Everyone in this nation has a right to be mad as hell that this shooting took place. Any loss of innocent lives is a tragedy, but for it to happen in a church, a house of God, gives it a particularly heinous tint that inflames the passions more than anything I can think of. And unfortunately, the race baiters and liberals in our nation have seized this opportunity and perverted it to suit their own goals and agendas. All across the nation there's talk of renaming parks that are named after Confederate heroes, taking down flags, changing state flags, and anything else which can eradicate any form of Confederate and Southern history from view.

This, people, is nothing short of stupid. Removing the Confederate flag from the State House grounds won't prove a damned thing, nor will it solve any problems. All it will do is keep the responsibility and the blame from being placed on the person who truly deserves it, and piss off a whole bunch of Southerners along the way. But it won't solve anything. Neither will renaming parks or roads or bridges, and neither will Wal-mart, e-Bay and Amazon removing Confederate flag products from their shelves (while still selling Nazi and ISIS related items).

The blame and responsibility needs to be placed where it belongs - namely, on the head of the man who pulled the trigger.

The Age of Misplaced Responsibility needs to come to an end, and it needs to come to an end NOW. And while you're at it, get rid of all of this "politically correct" bullshit as well.

Hang on to your underwear, friends and neighbors, because I have a feeling it's gonna get a little more bumpy before it's over.

IHC