So you'd rather live next door to a convicted sex offender than a Democrat.

Those Lowdown, Lying, Stinking Liberals!
By Joseph Walther



The current displays of conservative moral outrage over I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby’s indictment, along with the simultaneous liberal claims of moral superiority, make me sick. Within 24-hours of the President Bush’s press secretary last week referring to any impending indictment as “the legalization of politics”, every nationally televised conservative political talking head began incessantly incorporating the phrase into the preemptive condemnation of the potential indictments. The liberal vultures were no better with their shameless salivating over the prospect of a feeding frenzy resulting from potential Bush Administration carcasses. Adding stupidity on top of the already absurd, a local conservative radio talking head has decided to cash in. Rick Jensen of The Rick Jensen Show on WDEL, 1150 on the AM dial, decided to nail Senator Joe Biden and simultaneously accuse the lefties of bringing us to the point of collapse.

Personally, I think that Jensen overrates his analytical abilities. Anyway, here is a verbatim post, including the enlarged font, which Jensen made to his web site for Friday, October 28, 2005.

Senator Joe Biden released a statement on the indictment of Scooter Libby. Here's the statement and "What he really meant!" Senator Joseph Biden Statement Following Indictment of I. Lewis Libby“I take no satisfaction in learning of the indictment handed down today by the special prosecutor. It is a sad day for Mr. Libby and his family, and for the country. But in our system, the rule of law prevails, and those who break the law will be held accountable, even if they work in the White House. My greatest concern is that America faces enormous challenges at home and abroad, and I worry that the credibility of the Office of the President is diminished at this critical time when we need it most. Now... "What he really means" continuation by Rick:***With this in mind, it’s time to reinvigorate the special prosecutor’s office and indict as many Republicans as possible so we can effectively diminish this lying-ass President to the point where our country is at the brink of collapse in every way possible! Remember, it doesn’t matter if they’re really guilty of anything. Once we get them in front of federal prosecutors, we can get them on something! That way, we Democrats have a better chance of winning political offices in the next election cycles no matter how badly we have to destroy our economy, families or world stature to get this important goal accomplished!

First, Jensen’s web page is one of the sloppiest, discombobulated messes I have ever seen. It is a virtual monument to the world of inept web site design. Take a peak if you think I am exaggerating. Click here to see what I mean. It makes Jensen appear dumb and unprofessional. He is neither of these.

I have known Joe Biden for 56 of my 63 years. I seldom agree with him politically. His personal and professional integrity, however, are unimpeachable. It is true that he suffers from occasional and costly bouts of vocal impulsiveness. Overall, though, he’s candid and on target more often than not. He has consistently supported George Bush’s decision to wage a war in Iraq; something that Mr. Jensen failed to mention in his large-font tirade. You see, the senator’s criticism of the Bush war policy has always stemmed from the ineptness with which the president has conducted the war, not the war itself. If Mr. Jensen took the time to examine all of Mr. Biden’s statements regarding the Iraqi War, he would readily see that everything the senator said has come to fruition.

I agree with Joe Biden on the war critique. But, let me take it further. In my opinion, George W. Bush is a textbook example of managerial ineptitude. The execution of this war is just one example of numerous failures to act from a factual base instead of emotional investment. His aversion to paralysis by analysis, his attempts to oversimplify complex issues, his habit of flagrantly appointing unqualified cronies to critical positions, as well as his stated conversations with God, scare the hell out people capable of critical thinking.

Countless numbers of schizophrenics have admitted to hearing God speaking to them. I suspect that many of us, on a few occasions, may think that we’ve heard the voice of God guiding us in one way or another. However, the smart ones keep it to themselves, thus avoiding the suppressed, eye-rolling snickers of their friends, an insurmountable supply ammunition to their enemies, and perhaps avoiding the ultimate inconvenience: having the nut patrol confine them to a padded cell. God may speak to us in mysterious ways; but I don’t think it’s in our president’s best interest to go into vivid detail.

I listen to the Jensen show whenever I have the chance. He was a breath of fresh air when he emerged onto the scene of Delaware talk radio. He replaced a long-standing liberal whacko who favored governmental intrusion into every aspect of human endeavor. Jensen’s show was an instant success, with his popularity growing exponentially. His latest hissyfit at the lefties, Joe Biden in particular, may go a long way towards leveling off both of these trends.

Jensen’s reaction to the Libby indictments took me by surprise. The Grand Jury indicted Libby on five counts, comprised of two counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury, and one count of obstructing justice. I listened to every word of the special prosecutor’s press conference concerning the investigation process and the nature of the charges. He did not sound vindictive of anything other than Mr. Libby’s conduct. His press conference left me with the impression that he was upset with Libby’s lying under oath and nothing else.

Maybe I’ve misinterpreted the legal principle; but I thought it was the lying that was bothersome, not the subject of the lie. The liberals did the same thing when they tried to justify Bill Clinton’s lying under oath over sex with Monica Lewinski. “It was only about sex”, they said. I also seem to remember the rightists going berserk with glee over Clinton’s predicament and the prospect of rendering him politically impotent.

So, I think both the left and right must be confused. Let’s repeat it. My understanding is that the act of lying under oath is the crime. What you lie about is irrelevant. I don’t think that concept is complicated at all. Besides, if Libby believed that he had done nothing wrong, why did he decide to lie about it? Talk about irrational behavior.

I also listened to Joe Biden’s comments regarding the indictments. I read and reread his statement. In spite of my effort, I failed to derive Jensen’s hidden meaning behind the Senator’s words. For the record, I fail to see how the Libby indictments have anything to do with Joe Biden. The Grand Jury indicted Mr. Libby for lying. Had he not lied, a Grand Jury could not have indicted him. The special prosecutor went to great lengths to make sure that people understand that neither Mr. Bush nor the war in Iraq were factors. Opponents and proponents of the Iraqi War should not read the indictments as anything more than the fact that a witness, giving testimony before a Grand Jury has been accused of lying. The prosecutor reiterated this several times in response to reporters’ questions.

Finally, I also failed to spot anything in Joe Biden’s statement supporting a plot, even remotely, to diminish “this lying-ass president.” Furthermore, “bringing this country to the point of collapse in every possible way” would require unprecedented vested interest and collusion on everyone’s part. Where is it? I just don’t see it. I think we’d all have to be brain damaged to want this to happen. I can’t speak for Jensen; but count me out!

Jensen wears blinders relative to George W. Bush. He continues to defend the president’s actions to a fault. He sees honest criticism of this president, particularly as it pertains to Iraq, as nothing more than the left’s persistent attempts to impugn Mr. Bush’s integrity. While I admire loyalty to principle, I think that unquestioned loyalty to a person, even when that person does silly, irrational things is just plain stupid. Mr. Jensen’s paranoia has become obvious and it’s beginning to make him look silly. What a waste.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send email to: publisher@thetruefacts.com

How about that weasel poop?

You Drink What?
By Joseph Walther


How many of you have ever heard of a palm civet? Here’s a picture. Looks a bit like a weasel, but it’s really a marsupial. For those of you, especially the coffee drinkers, with more money than common sense, palm civets should be special creatures. I’ll tell you why in just a little bit.

According to a Financial Times of London report in 2004, approximately 167.1 million Americans drink coffee and 40% of them drink it black. Currently, we Yanks average 1.64 cups a day, which is a significant reduction from the 3.12 cups per day that we drank back in 1962. The reason for the decrease, I presume, is all of the scary reports about caffeine consumption that come out of the United States Bureau of Undo Alarm.

I consume 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day and that’s between the hours of 9:30 PM and 1:30 AM, seven days a week. Don’t worry; I’m not bucking the trend referred to above. You see, during my late 30s, I used to drink 2 to 3 pots a day beginning about 7 PM and ending around 2 AM. It was the good old-fashioned caffeinated high-test stuff, too.

The reason for my cutback in consumption stemmed from a minor respiratory problem about twenty-five years ago, i.e., I couldn’t breathe. Of course, I drove myself to the emergency room as best I could (my wife couldn’t because she was watching Dallas).

Anyway, the doctors in the emergency room asked me about 15,000 (though it might have been only 14,000) questions about what I had been doing at the time of the attack. They wanted to know what I had eaten, about my drinking habits, and any other habits that may have had a role in the problem at hand. None of my answers was correct, however, because they still had no idea of what was causing the problem.

They did know that I was having breathing problems, though. I heard them talking about it and I think the blue lips and elevated heart rate of 340 tipped them off. Not much gets past emergency room doctors, you know. I just wanted them to let me die. If nothing else, it would have ended the angst from not being able to breathe! But oh noooo, they just wanted to probe, probe, probe, and probe some more. “Relax”, they said.

Finally, one of the doctors said to give me a shot of (something) to slow everything down. About 30-seconds after the shot of whatever, my heart rate began to drop towards the normal range. A minute or two later, I was the mellowest dude on the face of the earth. I told them that I was ready for a cup of coffee.

Suddenly, a bright light engulfed the doctor. He and the intense light became one. The light, mesmerizing and powerful, immersed the entire room in its brightness. I swear that I heard a thunderbolt and then the words. “How much coffee do you drink, Joe?” I said, “a lot.” The light grew in intensity, only this time I saw its eyes turn crimson red and multiple lightning-like bolts shot towards me. There was another, even louder thunderbolt followed by, a deep, authoritative voice that seemed to echo throughout the entire hospital, “how much is a lot, Joe?”

“About a pot a day”, I said as quietly as I could. Then came the loudest thunderbolt I’ve ever heard. The light swelled to an all-encompassing intensity as it morphed into a facial expression contorted by anger of the worst degree. The eyes were bloodshot-red and seethed with contempt. The last time I had seen such enraged eyes was back in fifth grade when I asked Sister Leticia why nuns wore habits that made them look like penguins. This time, however there was so much more contempt. As the lightning bolts hit my chest, a penetrating voice oozing with self-righteous indignation asked, “HOW MANY CUPS, JOE?” Shielding my eyes from the brightness and cringing in absolute fear, I mumbled, “about nine.”

The ground began to vibrate; objects throughout the emergency room began to move. The windows rattled and people tried to keep themselves from falling. The light’s intensity reached the divine stage. The eyes narrowed as blood shot forth and a deeply guttural voice full of condescension hissed, “WHAT? HOW MANY CUPS? DID YOU SAY NINE?”

With a single glare, the light condemned me to 20-minute purgatory of listening to a lecture on the evils of too much caffeine. According to the light, excess caffeine causes kidneys to explode, livers to disintegrate, blindness, high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, ingrown toenails, weight gain, weight loss, the disintegration of joints, nightmares, insomnia, homosexuality (unless you’re already homosexual, then it causes heterosexuality), increased divorce rates, impotency in men, vaginal dryness, communism, socialism, bipolar disorder, narcissism, male baldness, female infertility, cancer, shingles, venereal disease, and morning sickness. The doctor told me never to drink caffeine again.

I stopped drinking anything with caffeine. I refrained from drinking caffeinated drinks until about 5-years ago, when I began to have a few problems similar to those of 25-years ago. They were, however, not as severe this time.

This time, thanks to the expansion of medical school curricula, the doctor came up with a new and improved diagnosis. I was suffering from Depression Disorder. This is not to be confused with anxiety attacks, which were popular as far back as 40-years ago. Anxiety attacks were in the “mind” and only a $180 an hour shrink could help. Depression Disorder, on the other hand, is physical.

It seems that the brain posses chemical neurotransmitters. These chemicals permit nerve cells to communicate. The current fall guy is serotonin. If this guy becomes unbalanced, look out. Apparently, nerve cells pass serotonin on to each other. Sometimes, the sending nerve cell reabsorbs some of the serotonin. This is when all hell breaks loose. The nerve cells hate it when this happens.

Technically, the serotoninergic system modulates mood, emotion, sleep and appetite and thus, we suspect excess serotonin in the control of numerous behavioral and physiological functions. Further, we suspect that decreased serotoninergic neurotransmission plays a key role in the aetiology of depression.

In plain English this means that, the brain cells become confused and release the adrenalin guys, causing the heart rate to increase rapidly. You feel afraid, only you have no idea what you’re afraid of. In the meantime, some nerve cells in the brain attempt to calm things down by communicating with other nerve cells by transferring some serotonin to them. The receiving cells, already full of leftover serotonin from the last time, say no thanks and the return it to the sending cells. This rejection makes life begin to suck big time and getting out of bed begins to seem so futile.

So, instead of lying on a shrink’s couch trying to figure out why you hate your family, you take a pill. Not just any pill works, however. It has to be selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. In other words, it has to be an expensive pill that only a doctor can prescribe. I know you’ve heard the commercials.

They instruct you to ask your doctor if Feelgoodinall is right for you. You then see all sorts of people laughing and wild with glee because of taking Feelgoodinall. Unfortunately there are some minor side effects.

For some people, taking Feelgoodinall causes kidneys to explode, livers to disintegrate, blindness, high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, ingrown toenails, weight gain, weight loss, the disintegration of joints, nightmares, insomnia, homosexuality (unless you’re already homosexual, then it causes heterosexuality), increased divorce rates, impotency in men, vaginal dryness, communism, socialism, bipolar disorder, narcissism, male baldness, female infertility, cancer, shingles, venereal disease, and morning sickness. In fact, pregnant women should not be reading this at all.

The point is that after all of those years without the pleasure of caffeine, I learned that I was just another medical oops. I was free to imbibe again.

Now, let me get back to that weasel look alike, the palm civet, aka luwak. The luwak lives in Indonesia and eats coffee berries. What is another name for coffee berries? That’s correct, coffee beans. The palm civet or luwak eats the berries/beans and excretes them intact. The Indonesians figured out that many Americans with lots of money would buy and consume anything as long as it is expensive.

You’ve probably guessed it by now. They are processing weasel poop and naming it Kopi Luwak, coffee that sells for $300 a pound. The thing is that some of us are buying this stuff. Maxwell House and Folgers had better watch out.

Gimme another Paxil, for God’s sake. Tomorrow, I’m going out and buy larger sized underwear just to be prepared for my next diagnosis.

Have a great week.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send email to: publisher@thetruefacts.com

A whole lot of jerkin' goin' on!

Jerks!
By Joseph Walther


Do you work for a jerk? Some people do, you know. I’m not talking about the run-of-the-mill kind of jerk that most employees complain about as a matter of routine. If you are a manager, some employees are going to classify you as a jerk no matter what you do. Get over it because it comes with the territory. No, I’m referring to real jerks. These are technically clueless people with industrial-size egos, the empathy of slugs, and the charisma of potholes. These people manage by manipulation and fear. They can elicit projectile vomiting just by walking into a room. They are not in the majority but it only takes one of them to damage morale beyond repair. Perhaps you are not sure if you work for this kind of person. Here are some clues.

First, this kind of jerk is in charge by direction. The direction comes from another jerk with similar personality traits, only with more authority. Such jerks do not know the difference between formal and informal authority, nor do they have any idea of the relationship between responsibility and authority. They always attempt to pee down people’s backs and tell them it’s raining; something that never works in the end.

Members of this crowd never learned that responsibility must be assumed, not delegated. We can delegate authority only. Great leaders also know that true authority is always informal. It results when peers and subordinates willingly follow. It’s authority born out of mutual respect. Good leaders always demonstrate leadership ability. No one needs to announce it. Whenever someone attempts to announce it, be leery. It’s a con and if it smells like urine, it’s not rain.

Second, this kind of jerk lacks mission passion. There is a lack of fundamental self-awareness. It never occurs to such people that others may have legitimate reasons for questions. It never occurs to such people that great ideas come from all directions and from all occupations. It never occurs to such people that “style” is the province of a follower destined to be forever average. It’s simply impossible for such people to break some of the unwritten rules. Process always trumps substance for such people. They are compulsive tidier-uppers, perpetually in need of a catastrophe and willing to climb any size molehill to solve a non-crisis.

Mediocrity abhors excellence in the same way that nature abhors a vacuum. Excellence makes mediocrity stand out like a swollen zit on a teenager’s forehead. The difference is that the teenager sees the zit and is mortified. The mediocre do not and continue to perpetuate the fact that ignorance is bliss. Fortunately, the teenager can relax. The zit will go away with maturity. For the rest of us, unfortunately, mediocrity will not. The jerks will always be jerks because they have no idea that they are jerks.

Third, jerks like this can speak coherently only from prepared manuscripts. They can voice opinions as long as someone else writes them, there is no need for animation, and there is a teleprompter nearby. Impromptu remarks, long or short, are the bane of such people. Such remarks are usually comprised of 50% stupidity fillers as, “ya know” and “um” and 50% mindless blather. Overall, these otherwise healthy adult bores continue to consume three and a half times their own weight in other people’s patience. They are the most superficially profound people you will ever know.

I know managers whose only skill consists of stretching undoubtedly thin, transparent talents over a seemingly interminable number of years. In both the private and public sectors, this seems to be sufficient more and more of the time. What makes this possible is the sponsorship of similarly gifted superiors and society’s willingness to put up with it.

Give it some thought. Follow your gut feelings. Do you feel that your boss is a foul ball or perhaps a called third strike in the baseball game of life or maybe a miscue in the pool game of life? These are jerks. Make no mistake about it. Whether we classify them as shanked nine irons on the eighteenth fairway of life or seven-ten splits in the tenth bowling frame of life, they are losers who are ruining our lives.

If you want local proof, just tune into local talk radio, your state General Assembly, school boards, as well as secondary and post secondary academic administrations. On the national level, listen in on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Air America Radio. These entities should terrify you. For the ultimate in terror, however, nothing beats the United States Congress.

Have a great Halloween. I hope the Great Pumpkin brings you everything you’ve asked for.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send email to: publisher@thetruefacts.com

What filth!

My God, That’s Filthy
By Joseph Walther


As shocking as it seems, gloom and doom are in the headlines again. First, there have been an unusually high number of suicide bombings in Iraq because of the upcoming constitutional referendum vote. Second, Pakistan experienced a devastating earthquake that has killed an estimated 18,000 people so far. Third, George Bush, holding to his usual “ready-fire-aim” mentality, nominated Harriet Miers to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court, thus sending conservative backers into catatonic states. Finally, New York City’s mayor placed the city’s subway system on red alert, simultaneously flipping the symbolic bird to the Feds, by publicizing a credible terrorist threat.

Make no mistake about it; this stuff is important to all of us. I have no desire to minimize its impact. However, it pales considerably when compared to an event that reared its ugly head this past week. Trust me on this. If what the nuns told me about masturbation is true, this is something so vile and morally reprehensible that male blindness could increase exponentially. By some accounts, civilization’s very survival may be at stake. Get thee on thy knees and pray for guidance, heathens. The new Victoria’s Secret Lingerie display was unveiled at a Virginia mall! Prepare yourselves. It’s coming to New Castle County’s Concord Mall next February.

The News Journal immediately created an online poll to deal with this issue. The polls run on line for twenty-four hour periods and, of course, are statistically useless. If you read the “Our View” section of the paper, you now know where they get their views. Here are the results of the poll as of 3:00 AM on 10/7/05.

Poll question: Would you stop shopping at a mall because of a racy lingerie display?

Yes
67 responses
10.3%

No
487 responses
75.0%

Would shop more
95 responses
14.7%

Totals
649 responses
100.0%

I am part of the 14.7% and I’m proud of it. So there!

According to a Washington Post article, the crux of the complaints seems centered around the scantily clad mannequins in various “suggestive” poses. Tysons mall management claims that mall customers have lodged “many” complaints. This seems strange in light of the store’s sales receipts since unveiling the display. The accounting figures show a brisk business to say the least. However, Tysons may use a different definition for the term, many, than the rest of us.

Mall customers walking past Victoria’s Secret expressed a range of emotions. One man said, “I’ve been shopping here for 10 years, and I won’t come back until they change that window.” Of course, I’m not sure whether “here” means Victoria’s Secret or the mall. Another shopper said, “I’ve been walking the mall for nine years. This is shocking. This is semi-pornographic. This is insulting.” She said that she had three grown children. A 40-year-old mother said, “My 13-year old daughter is going to come here and shop for a bra? Come on. I’m appalled. That’s like sending her to a street with a strip joint. Is this the kind of message we want to send to our children, that this is what they should look like?”

On the affirmative side, another woman said, “I love it. I like the dark side of Vicky’s. Every woman has a little dark side in her. They can do this. The mannequins aren’t real. I have a husband and I know he would love this. This is what keeps you happily married.”

Let me say a few things about these comments. Mannequins are things, not humans. They can’t suggest anything. Humans do all of the inferring and implying. Somehow, I cannot get myself worked up into a sexual frenzy over molded paper machete donning cheap wigs and clad in panties and garter belts. If the implications from viewing these things are “dirty” thoughts, then they are dirty thoughts originating in your own mind. Blame your own sexual repression, not Victoria’s secret.

As for the display being “semi-pornographic”, the woman needs to be more specific. I saw the window display. It consisted of five not very convincing mannequins clad in bras, nylons, thong panties and garter belts, and the nastiest wigs I have ever seen. Besides, what in the dickens is “semi-pornographic? There is nothing semi about pornography. If whatever makes an image pornographic is present, then the image is pornographic. Even the Supreme Court of the United States can’t absolutely define this.

The woman concerned about sending her 13-year old daughter to a street with a strip joint needs to revamp her thinking. Whether her daughter visits a strip joint will ultimately depend on the level of her curiosity. The louder mom screams in opposition, the more intense will be the daughter’s curiosity. I am a bit confused with respect to the message she thinks we are sending to our children. I never encouraged my daughter to “look like this” in public. However, there is nothing wrong with it in the privacy of a bedroom with a committed partner. But for God’s sake, don’t be so mannequinest about it and lose the hideous wig.

This is a case where mother and 13-year old daughter should be shopping at the mall together. I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the 13-year old already understands that “looking like this” is not appropriate in public. She’d probably be mortified to find out that mom thinks she’s too stupid to figure it out. Mom should talk to her daughter about this stuff. I’ll bet that daughter would be more than willing to explain things to her in clear, simple terms that she can understand.

We have more sex hang-ups in this country than Carter—of Carter Little Liver Pills fame— has pills. Sex under the proper circumstances is supposed to be fun. Nature intended it to feel good so that we’d do it and perpetuate our species. Let’s stop all of the foolishness over who’s sleeping with whom and what they’re wearing. We have people in this world killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend. With all of the legitimate guilt in our lives, we don’t need to create more over Victoria’s Secret. Again, they are just molded paper machete figurines clad in women’s underwear. Any deprivation you find in this is the result of your own repressed, filthy thoughts. Get a life, for goodness sake.

Another matter, though indirectly related…

The Intelligent Design folks are in the news again. They’re still trying to get some judge to say it’s all right to teach Intelligent Design along side of Evolution in Biology classes. I intend to write more on this in later issues. For now, though, I am developing some core classes that should be included in any self-respecting Intelligent Design Program.

Here are a few that I have in the development stages.

Theological Physics
Scriptural Biology
Miraculous Anatomy and Physiology
Divine Chemistry

I will be sharing a synopsis of each of these core courses with you readers as part of future columns.

Have a great week and be on the lookout for my new website, www.thetruefacts.com.

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send email to: publisher@thetruefacts.com

So, you want fair and balanced.

Oh, How Unfair!
By Joseph Walther


This past Friday, a friend of mine said to me, “I am a social liberal but a fiscal conservative.” A couple of days earlier, I listened as a local talk radio host bemoaned a lack of fair and balanced reporting by the mainstream liberal media. My friend sounds confused to me. I’d like to know how socially liberal he is. He makes me think that he wants the government involved in social issues but he doesn’t want to pay for it. The talk show host, though sincere, is just as confusing. He confuses defending a position with objectivity. Absolutists see things as either black or white. Relativists see things as shades of grey. The electronic news media always paint issues as either red or blue. I don’t know about any of you, but I think that all of this misses the mark by miles.

I asked my friend to give me a couple of examples. He said, “Working class parents should have free day care, paid for out of federal taxes. This would be a tremendous help for single parents.” His second example pertained to Social Security. He does not want it discontinued but he thinks that people should be able to divert part of their FICA withholdings to private investment accounts. He claims that it’s “our own” money. He also stated emphatically that he would not support a federal tax increase to cover the free day care. “There’s plenty of government waste. Let them find the money there,” he said.

The former is extreme social liberalism at its core. The latter tries to disguise social liberalism as fiscal conservatism. It also points up how much people misunderstand the purpose of social security at its root. Being a pragmatic SOB, I thought I’d test my friend’s logic.

I asked him what he thought about state mandated, all-day, public school kindergarten. Is he pro or con? His response floored me. “That’s one of the ways the government wastes money. This kind of program is nothing more than the teacher unions trying to get more money for nothing,” he yelled. I then told him that all of the academic experts have said that education only accounts for about 20% of what goes on in day care. He not only agreed with this, he used it as further justification for shooting the idea down. “But you support free day care for working parents,” I replied. “I do! What’s your point,” he asked.

I explained to him that if the “experts” are correct, then mandatory all-day kindergarten amounts to nothing more than taxpayer-sponsored day care. You should be absolutely giddy with joy, I told him. The feds, however, would not have to raise taxes to pay for it. By classifying the issue as matter of local education, the states and counties would be raising property taxes to cover it.

Now, let’s discuss social security from a factual perspective instead of an emotional one. The Legislative Branch, at both the federal and state levels of government, has the authority to levy taxes. Once the legislature levies a tax and defines its terms, those covered owe the money. It is no longer our money in the possessive sense of the word. It is only our money in the sense that, in a democracy, the citizens are the government.

Those who continue to claim that collected FICA is their own money are using the same flawed logic as gamblers. They win some amount of money, continue gambling and lose it back to the house, and then rationalize their stupidity by stating that they were using the house’s money. Once you win the money, it is yours. If you gamble it back, you’ve lost your own money. The house laughs all the way to the bank.

Congress enacted Social Security as a minimal financial safety net for those people in financial difficulty later in life. No one ever intended FICA to be a sole pension source, but rather a supplement to a pension.

FICA is a tax. Working people owe it. It’s a bill. It is not a personal investment account opened in our individual names. The federal government collects the money from us workers during any pay period and transfers it to legally qualified recipients. The federal government then transfers any funds left over to the slush… I mean general fund for other worthwhile projects, like paying $600 for toilet seats.

Granted, we may not like this situation. We have a constitutional right to petition our respective congressional delegations to repeal it. May I suggest that the complainers either do this or shut up?

Let’s talk about fair and balanced. I think that we should have the right to electrocute anyone who uses this phrase in the same context as opinion. Radio opinion talk show hosts, TV political analysts, and print media editorialists are not fair and balanced. Those who attempt to be so do not stay in the public limelight very long. If you’d like to conduct your own research, here’s how.

Every major news outlet with Internet access conducts online polls. The mainstream outlets of ABC, NBC, and CBS publish weekly opinion polls on their respective web sites. The same is true of the cable networks: FOX, MSNBC, CNN, and TNN, along with a variety of those specialty shows. The locals do the same thing. Here in the thriving metropolis of New Castle County, Delaware, the News Journal places its daily poll on its web site, www.delawareonline.com. A local radio talk show on WDEL places its polls on at www.wdel.com.

Statistically, the polls are meaningless. Such online polls are devoid of randomness, a fundamental tenet of statistical validity. They serve no other purpose than to find the pulse of their respective audiences. Log onto either of the two sites listed above and check the results. The News Journal’s poll will have distinctively liberal results, while the WDEL poll will have distinctively conservative results. Oh, did I mention that the News Journal is Delaware’s print media liberal Mecca and that WDEL is just another way to define conservative? Here’s an example of what I mean from the local people.

This past Friday on WDEL’s Rick Jensen Show, the “lefty” half of the show, Gerry Fulcher, referred to a quote attributed to William Bennett, former Federal Secretary of Education. The News Journal quoted Bennett as saying, “If you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.” Fulcher blasted Bennett directly. Had Fulcher been fair and balanced, he would have questioned the context. His counter-part was not as quick to judge. Jensen, the “right” side of the fair and balanced equation, questioned the context in which Bennett made the quote. However, he was not being fair and balanced. He was just defending a fellow conservative.

Jensen was correct. I am not a member of William Bennett’s fan club. However, he is a card-carrying member of the pro-life movement. There is no way that this man would advocate aborting a fetus for any reason. Neither is he a racist in any sense of the word. He is, on the other hand, difficult for a “lefty” to stomach simply because he states the obvious is such an inflammable way that I wonder if he has all of his own teeth.

The bottom line of this is that if you want to read the entire conversation in context, just go here. The point that Bennett attempted to make is obvious. His words, however, gave his political enemies some great ammunition. I, admittedly, was ready to lynch him! Is Bill Bennett a racist? Of course, he’s not. Is he stupid for saying what he said? YES!

People tune into FOX because they are conservative and want to listen to similar views. Listeners of the other new networks do the same thing for the same reasons. So please, stop using the phrase: fair and balanced.

Have a great week.
Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Send email to: publisher@thetruefacts.com