Friday, August 31, 2012

Similarities between the Issues of Abortion and Slavery

Dear Al and Randy:

I’ve read your various posts about Roe and Griswold with great interest.  I think that Al is right about two things: 1. Griswold is about an overly zealous state trying to control people’s private behavior, 2. While Roe was manufactured – the right to personal privacy is not in the 14th amendment.

What bother’s me about the Pro-Choice stance is that it’s gutless.  Take a stand, please!  The real issue is whether abortion should be legal; once it’s legal the question of choice is secondary.  Since 1985, I’ve argued that the abortion issue is similar to the issue of slavery.  Let me give an example.  In West Hartford Center I saw a bumper sticker that said: OPPOSE ABORTION? – DON’T HAVE ONE!

I was so incensed at this logic that I wrote a similar slogan and put it in the person’s car:
OPPOSE SLAVERY? – DON’T OWN ONE!

In the 1850s the Northern Democratic Party dodged the great issue of the day, a gutless move by proclaiming support for Popular Sovereignty.  It sounded great, let the people decide – the only problem was that slaves were people, they were human beings.  Therefore…”(w)e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (including slaves) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The abolitionist may have been disagreeable and even fanatical (Torrington’s John Brown comes to mind) but they were correct.  Stephen Douglas was wrong to embrace this faux argument of the people’s choice and fortunately for us, Lincoln came in with the Democratic vote split three ways.

Today is it virtually the same.  People hide behind the word Choice; well that only works if you posit that developing humans are only tissue like a pancreas.  These choice people are just as gutless and wrong in my opinion as Stephen Douglas.  Take a stand and say you support the concept of abortion and see nothing wrong with a woman exercising this medical procedure – a procedure that kills the unborn child.  The problem is that most Choice people cannot do it.  Remember that everyone is Pro-Life at some point in the pregnancy, I am Pro-Life at conception.  I don’t think that anyone in the IDC Blogosphere is Pro-Choice at the 8th or 9th month.

Randy, I respect you as a good and decent person but the following statement is about as radical as it gets: “When you make laws that specifically restrict rights for females only, who are already still oppressed in society, I believe you tread on dangerously immoral ground.When you make laws that specifically restrict rights for females only…”, Randy - this doesn’t even compute- the law is against anyone having an abortion, it just so happens that only women can get pregnant.  With all do respect, your language sound like your pandering to women, and of course you’re refusing to take a stand.  If you think human life in the womb is up for grabs, please just say so.  If you think that your two children were just globs of tissue in your wife’s womb and nothing more than a choice, then just say so.  I don’t think you can look your children in the eyes and say, you know you’re both lucky because you were just a choice in Mommy’s womb, and Mommy could have aborted you at her pleasure.

Today, more people are Pro-Life than Pro-Choice for the first time since Roe.  One reason is the advances in technology.  Babies born prematurely are now able to survive and of course we can see unborn children as they develop, sucking their thumbs and stretching while their little hearts beat.  Again, all that I ask is that people take a stand.

Best to both of you, Geoff

Word Total: 610

Monday, August 27, 2012

Sandra Fluke, Traditional Marriage, etc. - A Letter To Randy

Dear Randy:

Thank you for your thoughtful response to my posting.  You raised many points and I’ll to answer them.

  1. I was unaware that Fluke suffered from a hormonal issue.  Her testimony seemed to suggest that contraception should be available for any woman who wanted it.  Remember, even dollar that does go for birth control does not go to more important issues like controlling ovarian cancer.
  2. Also, you now claim that Paul Ryan is the leader of a band of crazies – that, to use your own analysis, was unnecessary.  Ryan is probably the most seasoned and competent legislator on budgetary issues in Congress.  Why should Akin resign just because of his faulty reasoning?  Let the voters of Missouri send him packing.
  3. You do not have to criticize every vulgar utterance that comes from the political world but I think our friends in the general IDC Blogosphere need to know that their outrage is solely directed to the political right.  Randy there’s a reason no one mentioned Palin being called a c---.  They don’t really care about her because they disagree with her.  The president should be ashamed of himself not criticizing Bill Maher for his comments during the same press conference that he criticized Rush Limbaugh’s slut comment.
  4. You’re correct that the vegan comment was a cheap shot but I find it amazing that the left can embrace a vegan platform while condoning unfettered access to abortions even those into late pregnancy.  What is more vulnerable that child developing in the womb of its mother?
  5. As to the issue of homosexuality, I disagree with your positions.  We’ve reached a point where having a gay relationship is legal and where gays are protected in the workplace and in living accommodations but marriage is an area to be reserved for a husband and a wife for the betterment of society and of the child.  Although homosexuality runs contrary to the Judaic-Christian bible and teachings, and it does, I see it more as an unnatural union.  It is impossible for this type of union to produce children without artificial intervention.  Every child has a mother and father and deserves to be raise by his real parents if possible.  If, as the left contends, that love makes a family and that two same-sex adults should be allowed to be legally married, than what is to stop two adult family members from marring?  Should a father and his adult son be allowed to marry?  Are they second class citizens?  3% of the population is the tail wagging the dog in my opinion.  Talk about cheap shots – everyone who supports a traditional view of marriage is homophobic?   Really?  How about the left being homomyopic?

As you can tell this is going to be a pivotal election.

Best, Geoff   

Word Count: 468

Friday, August 24, 2012

Voter ID Laws, Acorn, and JFK - Reason to Pause and Verify

Dear Mike C. (from Connecticut):

I do not know you but your post landed up on my FB wall and your rhetoric caught my attention, particularly your salvo towards Republicans: You ARE NOT a Representative OF THE PEOPLE. You are a thief, a thug and unAmerican.”  Really Mike?  So who appointed you the new Napoleon of America?

Your feverish rhetoric is unfortunately all too common among the Right-Thinking Left-Leaning liberals.  Here are a few things to ponder. 

1.According to a October 15, 2008 article in the Washington Times by S.A. Miller and Christina Bellantoni, “Three weeks before Election Day, more instances of fraud connected to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN) now are surfacing, including Mickey Mouse registering to vote in Florida…ACORN, which is under investigation in 10 states by either federal or state officials over tens of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations, including applications with duplicate names and fictitious addresses… Team Obama called Republican accusations “cynical,” but it was forced to get fully engaged in defense of the $832,598 payment it made to ACORN and answer extensive questions from reporters.”
2. Legislation for government issued photo-IDs are issuing them for free to poor people. 
3. The integrity of the elections must be maintained.  I am a big fan of JFK but most historians agree that the election was stolen when the Cook County results were submitted by Mayor Richard Daley and team.
4. As for Ted Frier, he needs to go back to school because his rhetoric is based upon faulty history.  Listen to his ranting about Republicans, “So, why would we think the neo-Confiderate (sic) GOP would think twice about destroying another democratic traditions -- the vote -- to win power?”  Teddy, The Democratic Party was the Slave Party that provoked the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth was a Democrat who assassinated a Republican named Abraham Lincoln.  The KKK was founded by Democrats after the Civil War who wanted to terrorize both white and black Republicans.  My party not only opposed slavery but also saw to it that the 13th (No more slavery), 14th (the right to citizenship), and the 15th amendment (black male suffrage) were passed.  I could go on defending my party but I think I’ve made my point here. 
5. Your type of vitriolic rhetoric may provide a catharsis for you two but it does very little to advance the political discourse in this country.  Please believe me when I tell you that I have a few choice labels for the both of you but I will maintain the proper decorum and keep this dialogue civil from my side at least.

Sincerely,

Geoff Fisher (UConn’s IDC 1974-1977) 

 Word Count: 433

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a certified history teacher working in southwest Florida as a guest teacher.  He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter.  Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com.  

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Todd Akin and Rush Limbaugh versus Bill Maher: A Blatant Double-Standard

It’s hard to know where to start this response to the buzz surrounding Representative Todd Akin from Missouri.  During a taped interview for a local affiliate station – Akin infamously said women were less likely to get pregnant during a legitimate rape.

The statement was stupid and reckless.  It was pure scientific malarkey.  I’m not upset that he is being criticized but as predicted the left fringe has latched onto this story to promote abortion rights and to vilify Pro-Life advocates.  The cry is now resign or else.  No one gets to stay in office and to be gainfully employed if they utter an opposing view – a modern Jacobin construct. 

Further review of the postings of my friends from college reveal no outrage, no call for new legislation when it was reported on August 16, 2012 that a radical and violent supporter of homosexual rights barged into the Washington DC offices of the ultra conservative Family Research Council (FRC) and starting firing away at an unarmed security guard, hitting him in the arm.  Mr. Floyd L. Corkins II (the 28 year old shooter), made it known that he did not like the views on FRC on Gay matters.  You would think that one of my college friends would come out and say, I may disagree with your politics but I deplore this type of violence – a direct assault on the first amendment.  I you listen closely you won’t hear a thing except some vegan soup simmering on the stove and some murmuring about carbon foot prints that were avoided.

All of this brings back the media storm over Rush Limbaugh’s comments vis-à-vis Democratic Activist and law student Sandra Fluke.  The bombastic Rush Limbaugh went too far and called this activist a slut because she wanted the federal government to pay her contraception bills.  Rush can be an idiot at times and this was a classic example of that but the left had fun with this episode calling for Rush to be boycotted, silence Rush – basically, anyone who offends the left must be muzzled. 

Time and time again, outrage is expressed when a notable conservative can be served up on the alter of justice, but there are never any similar outrages when it’s a notable liberal doing the same action or worse.

A case in point: no one in the IDC (Intentional Democratic Community - my college political residential hall) cyberspace has yet to post anything about Ed Schultz of MSNBC when he aired the following statement on The Ed Schulz Show (radio air date) May 23, 2011.

“And what are the Republicans thinking about? They're not thinking about their next-door neighbor. They're just thinking about how much this is going to cost. President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday. But you know what they're talking about? Like this right-wing slut, what's her name, Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she's a talk slut.”

This one hit home since Laura was a student at Glastonbury High School during my student teaching assignment.  This Dartmouth grad received a JD before becoming one of the most brilliant political commentators on cable.  At least Schultz was suspended without pay by MSNBC.  And what happened in the IDC blogosphere?  Nothing.

Democratic consultant Kirsten Powers has penned two articles about Uber liberal Bill Maher when he posited “that the real name of then-20-year-old Bristol Palin’s book should be ‘Whoops, There’s a Dick in Me?’ ” Where was the feminist outrage?  Asleep at the switch. 

And of course, President Obama has declined to condemn TV comedian Bill Maher for calling former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a “c-nt” during a live show in Dallas.  Really?  During the Fluke episode the president pleaded that in criticizing Limbaugh he was protecting his daughters from Rush Limbaugh’s big stumbling mouth calling a law student a slut but the president then at the same press conference refused to protect Mrs. Palin when she was addressed as a c---.  Obviously, the president really is more interested in the $1 million dollars Bill Maher contributed to a friendly super-pac rather than women who might disagree with him politically.  This is a N-LOW: National Organization of Liberal Women mindset.

Where is the IDC outrage towards Mr. Maher?  The C word has always been the worse word used against a woman since the 1970s – make that the worse word used against a LIBERAL woman.  It’s time for civility and integrity in our political discourse.  
Word count: 740

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a certified history teacher working in southwest Florida as a guest teacher.  He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter.  Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com.  

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

“CHICKADEES” STAND FIRM FOR OUR CULTURE

                              August 8, 2012

On Wednesday night I joined a political movement at a Chicken shop – it’s a movement dedicated to traditional values and the concept of free speech.  I answered the call to support Chick fil-A in its battle against political correctness run amuck.

This movement started with an interview in the Baptist Press on July 16, 2012, when Chick Fil-A president Dan Cathy stated, (w)e are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit".  For a country founded on basic Judaic-Christian principles this statement should have been seen a principle well within the American fabric.  Yet, the onslaught from the Homosexual Lobby was both predictable and regrettable – Cathy was a homophobe and Chick-fil-A must die.  The largest national homosexual advocacy group (Human Rights Campaign) could not pass up the opportunity to launch their blistering attacks.  Here are just two:
1.      HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz wrote, “Chick-fil-A supports organizations that demonize LGBT people on a regular basis…(groups like Focus on the Family, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, i.e. QB Sam Bradford of Oklahoma University, and Heisman Trophy Winner, QB Tim Tebow formerly of the University of Florida.
2.      Your chicken sandwich comes with a side of Homophobia.

Fortunately, the collective judgment of the country was quite different.  Cathy is supporting the teachings of the bible and was voicing his opinion about traditional marriage.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech
Cathy was simply exercising his free exercise of his religious beliefs through his free speech.  The Gay lynch mob’s call for a boycott has had just the opposite effect on the American psyche.  The Chick-fil-A in Sarasota, Florida resembled a pep rally with the drive-through clogged with cars circling the restaurant and going all the way off the property.  Inside was just a frantic.  We all had to wait 20 minutes to get our order, but no one complained because everyone knew what was at stake.  I looked around the tightly packed area in front of the registers and I saw democracy at its essence – people were demonstrating their views through their pocketbooks.  There was a collective sense of enough is enough!  Nearly 70% of Americans support traditional marriage as the preferred form of the family unit.  Until now the fear of the Gay political flamethrower has cowered most Americans, but Cathy’s eloquence and sincerity has had a galvanizing effect on average Americans.  A collective “C’mon, give us a break” rippled across the country.  All the past rhetoric from the far left, Anti-gay, homophobic, et cetera was falling on deaf ears.  If there is a derisive term for this debate it would be Homomyopia: A desire to see the world only through a lens of homosexuality.    

At some point all people make moral judgments, for instance would the Homosexual Lobby endorse an incestuous homosexual union between a father and his adult son?  Hopefully your revulsion of that scenario will give you a glimpse into how Middle America feels about your agenda.

We “Chickadees” are beating back a bully who continues pushing an offensive agenda on the American public.  Tolerance of Homosexuals does not equal support nor endorsement of their actions.  Mayors Thomas M. Menino of Boston, and Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, have proven themselves political hacks racing into this storm to proclaim their unwavering support for a social union that is unnatural in its essence and one that runs afoul of biblical teachings.  Sir Elton, Zachary actually does have a father and mother regardless of your financial and political influence.

Hopefully, this Chick-fil-A controversy will right the ship of state because the basic wholesome values of our country need to be protected and cherished.  Power to the People! 

Word Count: 629

 
Geoffrey G. Fisher is a certified history teacher working in southwest Florida as a guest teacher.  He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter.  Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com.  

OBAMA, JUST ANOTHER CHICAGO POL?


By GEOFFREY G. FISHER
July 2012

With the recent statement that Mitt Romney is a felon, President Obama’s 2008 cherry veneer has now separated and what remains is warped wood from a Chicago lumber yard.  Mitt Romney has been vetted so many times during his political life that he might as well be a Poster Boy for the Boy Scouts of America.  Yes, he is successful and wealthy (part of the American Dream), and yes he has sought to minimize his tax profile (just like every other American tax payer) but he is an exemplary family man and a pillar of his community.

The political slush coming out of Team Obama makes for a very poor Slurpee – the president already has a Bain Freeze of historic proportions.  Let’s look at the facts impartially as Challenger Romney prepares for his 2012 nomination:
      !. The Founder and former President of Bain Capital, a leading equity firm
      2. The managing hero of the Utah 2002 Winter Olympics
      3. The former tax-cutting governor of Massachusetts

Compare that record to Candidate Obama in July 2008:
  1. Former Community Organizer
  2. Civil Rights Attorney: 3 years
  3. Adjunct Law Lecturer
  4. Illinois state-Senator: 7 years
  5. First term US Senator

This is how the venerable Dan Balz of the Washington Post handled this issue in October of 2006, just four months prior to Mr. Obama’s presidential announcement:

Party strategists said that, if voters are looking for change in 2008, Obama would symbolize it better than many of the other possible candidates. But having served just two years in the Senate and seven in the Illinois state Senate, Obama has a thin résumé upon which to build a presidential candidacy. (Balz continued) He was asked yesterday on "Meet the Press" whether he was ready to be president.  "I'm not sure anybody is ready to be president before they're president," he (Obama) told moderator Tim Russert
  
That self-serving statement summed up the situation perfectly.  Mr. Obama was more of a show horse than a work horse. 

The fact is, any American can run for president (after meeting basic requirements) and Mr. Obama won the 2008 election fair and square but it’s now clear he was not prepared to be president - his present criticism of Mitt Romney’s private sector experience is therefore a joke and a clumsy smoke screen.  The political pundits are now suggesting that Team Obama has decided to destroy Mr. Romney now because it may be too late after labor day with a worsening economy.  In other words, the president is going to throw everything at Mitt Romney now similar to the Germans throwing everything at the 82nd Airborne and the 3rd Army Corp in the Ardennes Forest during WWII.  If the president’s Battle of the Bulge fails so may his re-election bid. 

University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business economist Steven Kaplan has said "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses”.  That model - invest in companies you’re trying to turn around. 

Professor Kaplan also wrote in “The American” an online journal (January 19, 2012):
Fast forward to today. By the end of 2011, Staples had about 89,000 employees. Sports Authority is now a private company. The last time it reported employee numbers, in 2006, it had 14,300 employees. In addition, Gartner Group had over 4,400 and Steel Dynamics had over 6,000 employees. Using the most recently available data, these four companies alone employed almost 125,000 total employees… Overall, then, the companies Bain Capital funded under Romney have created tens of thousands of jobs using any measure.

Kaplan’s figures do not take into account other Romney success stories like Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, Corning Incorporated, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, and Artisan Entertainment.  Nearly every American has patronized at least one of these American companies cited here.  No one can patronize an Obama company because there are none to patronize.

Mr. President, your 2008 election to the presidency only emphasizes that America is a fair and decent country – yes, a mixed-raced Harvard trained lawyer did become President of the United States, but sir, you’ve had your chance.  The American people believed that you might have risen to the challenge of the moment but with all due respect, you did not.  Run on your record and don’t insult our intelligence by criticizing a good man with a fine record in the private sector.  The American people deserve no less.

Words: 742

Geoffrey G. Fisher is a certified history teacher working in southwest Florida as a guest teacher.  He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter.  Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com.