Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Worth the Fight

Bringing the Heat                                                                        Source
Sarge is “In a Black Mood” and the other day he said “The political stuff leaves me gasping for fresh air”  So while he's out enjoying some fresh air for a day or two, I’m breathing some of the hot air that makes the political environment so intolerable.  More on that in a bit. By the way, that picture doesn't have much to do with the post, but those Warthogs are ready for a fight.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned that my son is autistic, and raising a special needs child had its ups and downs.  Nothing is ever easy and when it seems like you’re getting ahead, something will undoubtedly come up to keep you humble.  When it came to his education, we were often reminded to not become complacent, but also to count our blessings.  We learned that fairly early in his upbringing, not through failure, but by realizing a success.  When we moved from Bremerton Washington back to San Diego, we put him in the neighborhood elementary school for him to finish Kindergarten.  Being autistic, we knew it would be a tough transition for him, especially since it was a mid-year school change, so he wasn’t able to keep up.  They didn’t have a special education class though so we were advised by the wife of a former squadron-mate, an early intervention education specialist, to ask for an aide.  We did and he had a one-on-one aid for the rest of the year which helped.  A couple years later at a better school, one with a resource teacher and special education classes, the aide was still there.  We met the mother of another classmate who was well behind and falling further.  She asked us how we got the aide and we just said we simply asked for it.  They were of Mexican descent, there was somewhat of a language barrier, and so she had no idea that anything like that was possible.  The school district must to provide a child with the necessary accommodations, but we then realized that a kid would only get additional help if it was requested, assuming the parent knew what was available.  Even if it was written into their Individualized Education Plan (IEP),  a parent had to sometimes forcefully advocate for their child to get help.

My "wife" is on the right.  No resemblance whatsoever though.

From then on, my wife was a street fighter when it came to my son, and everyone else had one hand tied behind their back.  When I was able to attend the IEP meetings, I was always impressed.  It’s like she was sparring with a bunch of scrubs.  She not only knew our son, but she knew what services were available.  The IEP team was bringing a knife to a gun fight. 

So about that heavy breathing.  While Sarge waxes political only so often, it’s kind of my schtick.  I figured I could pick up a little slack around here since it’s been a while and sarge deserves a break from the heavy lifting.  So where was I going with that street fighter stuff?  Well, sometimes we have to fight for everything we get and it might get a little bloody.  Politics is often a fight, and it can be very tiring, but we have to keep going into the late rounds.  There are plenty of examples of the fight today- gun control, the war on women, abortion, fiscal responsibility.  Whoops, my bad, apparently NO ONE is fighting the fiscal fight.  The rest are being fought in the media, with a narrative being shaped and cultivated without the whole truth.  Look at the push to ban assault weapons.  I know those shootings are tragic, and I’m truly sad and sorry that they happened, but I am sure they won’t be stopped by banning a specific weapon.  Some people want to throw out the tired old trope- “But we have to do something!”  They think that that “something” must include an assault weapons ban.  I have a few problems with that: 

1.  The Constitution
2.  Guns aren’t the problem, culture and mental illness are (along with illegal weps)
3.  Logistics- How’s this going to work?  Will they demand we turn them in, go door to door to confiscate them, or is it just a ban on future sales?  If it’s the first two, see #1 above.  

Confiscation of over 150 million guns from American citizens is about as likely as deporting 20 million illegal aliens.  Presidential Candidate and Texan Robert “Beto” O’Rourke has flip-flopped on his previous position, doubling down on stupid:
At the Democratic-primary debate in Houston last night, Beto O’Rourke formally killed off one of the gun-control movement’s favorite taunts: The famous “Nobody is coming for your guns, wingnut.” Asked bluntly whether he was proposing confiscation, O’Rourke abandoned the disingenuous euphemisms that have hitherto marked his descent into extremism, and confirmed as plainly as can be that he was. “Hell yes,” he said, “we’re going to take your AR-15.”                                                                                                                                                     Source
To be honest, I sort of like his honesty.  It's a breath of fresh air to hear a politician not mince words, and say what they actually think.  I don't like the message at all, and it's political suicide to discount the beliefs of millions of voters, and the rights of all of them, but it's definitely a refreshing change of pace.  And while I appreciate his honesty, it's unconstitutional and it won't stand. 



But that's where the fight comes.  The left doesn't care one bit that what they want is unconstitutional.  The Constitution is supposed to be an institution, a "paragon of virtue" per se that is sacrosanct, that shall not be trifled with, but it is always under attack.  What is right and fair and constitutional is irrelevant if it gets in the left's way to achieving what ever it is that they want.  What is that?  I have no idea.  Chaos and anarchy?  Quite possibly.



We've seen the way they fight through the weaponizing of the IRS.  A former squadron-mate of mine had a very strong social media presence which focused on conservative values and the racism within the democratic party across the decades.  As a black man, he was noticed by people active in conservative politics and in 2011 or so, in the middle of Obama's first term, was asked to consider running for congress.  As soon as he filed paperwork, he was hit with three separate IRS audits.  This is a guy who never made more than $150K in a year and had absolutely nothing in his tax filings to warrant a single audit, much less three.

All over the country, the Pro-life advocate David Daedelin revealed the brutality and greed of Planned Parenthood through some undercover videos.  He was hit with one indictment after another, despite precedent showing that his investigations, like so many others before him, were perfectly legal.  Countless investigations into President Trump and his team, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, all based on reports they knew were false, also shows the length to which they'll go to advance their agenda and shore up their power base.




Illegal campaign donations, election fraud, partisan FBI officials allowing investigations, audits, indictments, fraud, bogus news stories, etc.  These are all tools of the left to suppress the truth, to subvert their opponents, and maintain political pressure on Trump and suppress the truth.  They'll also use the courts, shopping for sympathetic judges who  order injunctions against his executive orders, or even standing law, as we've seen with the current border immigration/asylum crisis.  Precedent and standing law mean nothing to the left, with everything up for interpretation by liberal courts and judges.


For a party that preaches diversity and tolerance, they aren’t even tolerant to the members of their own party.  Candidate Marianne Williamson was recently caught on a hot mike talking about that-  “What does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties are?”  What it means is that they want what they want, and won’t stand for anyone or anything getting in their way, to include moderates, and the constitution.



The left doesn't actually care about you and me, whether or not we're their constituents.  They don't care about the constitution, what it means, what it stands for, what it says.  It's all just temporary fungible language that is open to not only constant reinterpretation, but able to be consistently ignored if it goes against what they want at the particular moment.  

My son would not be where he is today if my wife hadn't constantly fought for him.  She was only fighting for what might have been some limited special education resources, but the political fight is to preserve our inherent and God-given rights and freedoms.  Yes, it can be tiring, and those Facebook posts or rebuttals may not result in changing the opinions of the other person, but someone paying attention may be positively influenced.    
You've probably heard the saying- “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”


Source
I'm not doing nothing.  It doesn't have to be an aggressive fight, but it must be a consistent one.  The longer truth is suppressed, the more likely that uninformed minds will believe that the conservative values we know to be good and fair and true, are actually greedy, without compassion, and evil.  I fight back by being well informed, calmly discussing my points of view without personal attacks.   Sometimes it works.  Anybody up for a fight?  Who's with me?


31 comments:

  1. Find it interesting that someone charged with burglary is advocating that the government confiscate firearms, eh? The Left wants total unfettered power and anyone that opposes that is racist, homophobic, misogynistic, Islamaphobic, et al. It's way past time for the Left to hear and see more push back against them. Being retired I have plenty of time and so......(post "in" gif).

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    1. He's never going anywhere. He's a novelty among libs in Austin, but he won't make it until Spring.

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  2. Agreed with you. In theory, but, the left and the right have been calling for a change in the Constitution of our states. Each have an agenda. And it's not in the publics interest. Each, take us closer to a dictatorship. Both sides are funded by the same people, just to create strife. Which means the people loose their power, by adopting their metrics. Our common Constitution means power to the people, not the few. But the heritage foundation is predicated off the BIRCHERS definition of power, not those who escaped the king.

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    1. Jim, what Constitutional change is the right seeking? I'm not familiar with the Birchers.

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  3. What I'd really like to see is a few Meejah types go to prison. Their lies and misinformation give aid and comfort to the enemies of freedom everywhere.

    I've heard the people in Hell want ice water as well.

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    1. I think Trump has so many problems to deal with that holding the media accountable is too low on the list. This latest NY Times butchering of the truth might get some libel traction.

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  4. Day in and day out, the most important thing a son or daughter of liberty can do develop and define their principles and then suit up and show up every single day. Without such principles a person might just be another amoeba in the mob.

    Good stuff Tuna.

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    1. It's a lousy state of affairs when we can't just relax and know that the Constitution will protect us, especially with a judicial bench that loves the power, and not the law.

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  5. Well said, Tuna! I do feel we are at a tipping point - and when Trump is re-elected, the left is going to get even worse! I'm popping the popcorn soon!

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  6. My oldest is now 49, autistic, and leads a fairly normal life (works as a dishwasher, uses public transportation, etc). When he was three-four, we were advised to put him in an institution and forget him. His turnaround was the result of a teacher deciding to teach him the three R's and ignore the behavior model. the more he was treated as normal, the more he became normal.

    The landmark case, Luke vs Arizona, held that if the state taxes everyone to support public education, then every child must receive "an adequate and appropriate education". As you well know, that doesn't happen without parents fighting tooth and nail to make it happen.

    Want better service from public, tax supported agencies? Be prepared, and willing, to fight. It isn't fun, isn't pleasant, and victory hard to achieve. For me, the fight is worth it.

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    1. We're trying to get there with our son. He's not understanding the work ethic required though so he's not hire-able quite yet. Local agencies are generally easy to work with- just takes time and determination. The Fed though is a tougher beast to work with. Too many incumbents.

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  7. Something must be done! Something! And that is...

    1. Reform the mental health industry, address negative behavior early on, properly, not by drugs alone, but by behavior modification.

    2. Quit treating 'young adults' as children who have no understanding of their actions. Sorry, a felony is a felony. After the first 2-3 'child felonies' then treat it as an adult felony. If the person is so broken they can't learn properly after the 2nd or 3rd time, they are unwilling or unable to learn. Treat them as such. Especially if it a more violent assault resulting in serious bodily harm (not just a simple fight, no. I'm talking about assaults with weapons from rocks up to nukes, or that cause serious damage (using real martial arts attacks to break bones.) (Hey, I survived many a beat-down, and I learned a lot from them. But the unwritten rule was 'stop at blood.' 'Blood gets the adults involved.' and such.)

    3. Bring back personal responsibility. And one of those ways is to, surprisingly, bring back firearms training early on. Or archery. And 'winners get trophies, losers don't.' (Hey, I sucked at sports. Seriously. Until I was an adult I had no sport that my spaz hands and slow running speed actually worked. Okay, I was relatively good as a center in touch football, but for some reason I still got tackled and kicked and... I knew I was physically different than other kids. So? I also knew I could outlast them on a bike, as I regularly did 20 miles or more every other day on a bike stuck in high gears (I'd keep it around 7 or so.))

    4. Ifn you shout out 'Deus Vult' or 'Admiral Ackbar' or 'Die Cracker' or something while killing and injuring people, you will not be treated as a mental health issue, but as a hate crime. We are gonna double down the pain, and act accordingly.

    5. The Constitution is Law. Any lesser law that violates Greater Law should be struck down. Thus, well, any gun control law or regulation or edict or.... Screw it. Greater Law says that My Right To Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed. Guns, machine guns, cannon, pikes (the long spear thingies, pikes (the fish, ever get hit with a fish?,) swords, maces, brass knuckles, stilettos, switchblades, boxcutters, hammers, sledgehammers, power hammers, trip hammers (heck, if I can carry one, I wouldn't actually need it, you know what I mean?) and any other object or device that serves as arms. Screw you, I'm gonna carry what I want. See personal responsibility about not using said arms in an non-responsible manner. I want to carry my sword into Wally World, it might get people to leave me alone.

    6. If you stop reporting news and start reporting slander, expect to be called on the carpet for it. Legally, morally, physically. If the President wants to walk into the NYTimes and give the recent head of the anti-Kavanaugh or anti-Trump attacks a thump on the nose, well, I'm for it. Seriously. You have the right to say anything you want. You have the responsibility to say what you want to say correctly, and expect someone to kick your ass if what you say isn't true.

    7. On that note, I'm also somewhat in favor of bringing back judicial combat or dueling. Fruck it. Your ass should pay for the check your mouth wrote. Something most of us learned in school by all the other self-expressionists out there.

    8. If you're a parent, and you force 'treatment' on a child who thinks it is something it isn't, well, CHILD ENDANGERMENT. Lotta studies, real studies, verifiable studies with actual repeatable results, show that the human brain really doesn't know what it really is until around 25yoa. Quit messing with our kids.

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  8. 9. Veganism is okay if you choose to do it. Children, cats, dogs, ferrets, other carnivores and obligate carnivores cannot do the vegan thing. They must have meat and animal fats to live, to grow, to survive. Get over it.

    10. Okay, you want to smoke your marijuana? But you deny the guy next to you the right to vape or smoke tobacco, or whatever? Consistency, my friend. And I'll let you smoke your carp, as long as it doesn't affect me. Oh, you had an accident because you're stoned, well, me and Mr. Hickory Axe Handle get to work over your ribs and head because that's what calms me down. I used to be for just smoking it at home, but some jackasses always have to take it to far and screw it up for the rest of you. And the weed today ain't the weed of the 70's. Just grow some personal responsibility and use responsible, and if you can't act responsible, then STOP. Or else the full force of Enforced Personal Responsibility will come crashing down on your sorry butt, not for smoking, but for what you did for the smoke, like stealing, killing, driving 'stoned' and causing an accident. You should pay for your actions, and 'being stoned' and 'being addicted' should not be a legal cop-out from the legal ramifications of your actions.

    11. Alcohol. Use it wisely. You drink, get drunk, get in a car, kill someone, that is not 'vehicular manslaughter,' nope, that's 'Murder in the First Degree.' Which requires intent to do the action. What? Knowing you can get drunk, knowing driving drunk is bad, all shows intent. Screw YOU! See personal responsibility and also #10 above about Enforced Personal Responsibility by society on your ASS. With a Soccer or Golf Cleat!

    12. White collar crimes ain't. They kill people just as often as that Stop-n-Rob convenience store murder. Monetary equivalents should be established to equal physical harm. So Ms. Huffman and the sad Hallmark Lady should be facing the same time as that Bank Robber or Convenience Store Murderer.

    ETC.

    I am pissed. Why does one party have to play by the rules, and the other parties don't? Fairness, that's all I'm asking, along with a little personal responsibility.

    And.. I really want to see WWE run the next Democratic Debate.

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    1. Should have saved all that for your own post! Good stuff. Mental health is a tough one. It's probably tough to enact, but forcing a greater connection between mental health pros and the background check/licensing system is probably needed. Now I wouldn't want a gun owner going in for some stress, depression or sleep therapy to have the police confiscate his/her guns, so some controls would need to be in place. We also don't want a person to avoid getting help because they're worried about their guns being taken. Fully agree with you on pers. responsibility, consequences, merit awards, slander in the media, and such. Thanks for joining my team!

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    2. Oh, and those Antifa bastards deserve to be sent to Gitmo. They are domestic terrorists and deserve the worst.

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    3. Gitmo, or lying in the streets. Either works.

      Sorry, but participating in a riot is grounds for getting sloshed by the local equivalent of Martini (-Henrys, that is... Old School English method of riot control...)

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  9. As to screwing up your life and everyone else's with drugs, Baby, 1 Free shot of Narcan. After that, you've chosen to commit suicide, Good Bye! See Personal Responsibility.

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  10. Great post.

    I suggest reading today's post at Cedar Sanderson's Blog.
    https://www.cedarwrites.com/2019/09/17/keep-the-home-fires-burning/

    And as far as the United States Government doing anything unconstitutional, remember that the Supreme Court said it was OK to put American citizens in detention camps because those US Citizens had Japanese ancestry.
    https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a-controversial-order-leads-to-internment-camps

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    1. Relying on the Supreme Court is a bit like relying on the "your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device" announcement "in the even of a water crash."

      I've mentioned Dred Scott before as well, do you think if the Progs got to stack the Supreme Court we'd have any rights at all?

      Right, and pigs can fly.

      Good stuff John.

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    2. And which party supported internment camps in both WWI and WWII? And it just wasn't Japanese Ancestry that got people interned. Italian and German Ancestry and naturalized citizens also got locked up in WWII, while only Germans and Austrians got locked up in WWI.

      This is why it is very important for RBG to quit the Supreme Court soonest, so we can get another Constitutionalist on it. I don't care if the person leans left or right or backwards, as long as they first serve the Constitution, then their personal beliefs.

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    3. The Left believes that they get to decide what rights are. That is perhaps the scariest thing about them.

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    4. Yep, it's legislating from the bench, vice upholding the constitution.

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  11. Just realized I've spent the day reading this over, and thinking about all your comments, instead of commenting myself...

    Great post Tom, great comments.

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    1. You've been kinda burnt out. Working on a post, should have it ready by Thursday.

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    2. Thanks Sarge. Now if we could just get the left to start reading the Chant!

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  12. Hey Tuna;

    Excellent post and it is good that the spousal unit goes "to the mattresses" for your kid. Most parents won't do that, but y'all do and that says volumes. As the politics goes, I tend to agree, it is getting worse. In the past if you disagreed, well we still got along,now if you don't accept the latest "grouphivethink", you have to be punished. This isn't good for the body politics. When people can't speak their mind anymore, then they look for other ways to show their discontent and that ain't a good thing.

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    1. "Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe, say, or do.
      Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” –Dave Chappelle

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  13. Tuna, A most excellent post. Truly appreciate how you used the story of your wife (and your) efforts to fight even when exhausted for what your son rightly deserved. It's true the fight in politics can be exhausting and sometimes we are tempted to just change frequencies and tune it out for the sake of our sanity; but when we do this we do it at our own peril and on the graves of our Founders who sacrificed everything that we might know the taste of liberty.
    We would do well to remember the words of Thomas Paine: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
    Thanks for a great post, keep'em coming.

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    1. Much appreciated. I'm practically a temp though. My posts are very periodic, and requires a perfect storm of free time, raised ire, and thinking coherently.

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