Opinion: Why School Shootings Will Continue

In the aftermath of the recent Newtown Connecticut school shooting, in which 26 people were slain by a deranged gunman, the entire nation is mourning and asking what can we do to prevent these incidents from happening.

More often than not the proposed solution is to enact more gun bans, to make it harder for criminals and mentally ill people from getting guns.

Many are even calling for the outright ban of private gun ownership, despite this right being guaranteed by our Constitution. The logic is "if people couldn't get guns, then this couldn't have happened."

The only problem with this thinking is it won't work.

This logic is simplistic and wrong, because it fails to deal with the root cause of gun violence. It just is a feel good solution... something we do when we are frustrated and want to do something. Even though we all know it will not prevent these tragedies. We just want to do something.

The only gun control laws that have reduced crime are the right to concealed carry laws. All the others are just cosmetic laws that do absolutely nothing to prevent a determeined criminal or mentally unbalanced person from using a gun illegally.

We already have 25,000 gun laws. More laws won't stop this problem. We need to ask outselves what has changed, because 40 years ago... when guns were MUCH easier to get.... this sort of thing never happened.

Something is causing this besides "it's too easy to get guns." Because right now, it certainly isn't that easy. There is almost an inverse relationship. As guns get harder to get, we see more school shootings. And the places these things happen are the states with the toughest gun control laws, not the weakest. (Note... Conn. is rated as having the 4th toughest gun laws of all 50 states.)

If gun bans stopped gun violence, then LA, NYC, and DC would be the safest places in America, since they have the toughest gun laws. And Utah, Wyoming and Montana would rife with gun violence, since they have the laxest laws. But just the reverse is true.

So, what can we do about this problem? Making it harder for honest citizens to own guns won't solve the problem. Clearly, there must be some other cause for the alarming increase in gun violence.

The answer is simple, but will be very unpopular. In order to revesse this we need to change our culture. We need to raise children with stronger and safer values. This means we need to think hard about:

1. Violent video games (Grand Theft Auto, for example)
2. Violent rap music lyric
3. Medicating children rather than disciplining them
4. The glorification of violence by movies and TV
5. A permissive culture where anything goes
6. The erosion of parental rights
7. Our failure to teach ethics and civics in schools
8. Our failure to keep dangerous people locked up in prisons and asylums.
9. Boys growing up without fathers are much more likely to become criminals.

High School Rifle Club, 1946

While it has become harder and harder for honest citizens to buy and own guns, all those nine things have happened too. The biggest problem with "lets pass another gun ban" is that it won't work. It is just the knee jerk reaction of people who cannot think or who simply don't want to deal with the real problems.

Forty five years ago, when I was in High School, kids would bring their rifles to school on Thursdays for Rifle Club Meetings. And this was in NYC. No one got shot. 

The Barack Obama Depression Finally Hits NYC

"You didn't build it"

NYC, Dec 2, 2012. After four years of being relatively untouched by the Obama Depression, New York City is finally feeling the effects of the poor economic policy decisions made by this administration.

Despite the fact that NYC has a relatively modest unemployment rate of 9.9% the city seems to be struggling with rising costs.

Higher costs make it hard for businesses to stay open, because their customers just can't pay the higher prices.

The latest victim of President Obama's economic policy was the famed NYC landmark restaurant The Stage Deli, who closed their doors last week after being in business for 75 years.

The Stage Deli told us they just couldn't keep up with rising costs, and had no choice but to shut down. "We sell a very nice corned beef sandwich for only $23 and some people felt it was too much to pay for a sandwich and a pickle" one of their managers told us. "It even comes with a small side order of cole slaw. At that price, it's a real bargain here in NYC."

Even local billionaires are starting to complain about high prices in NYC. Thomas Merhman, a retired Lehman Brothers CEO told us "it's getting so you can't find a decent parking place for your Bentley for under $100 a day."

New York City is unlike most places in the country. Prices are so high here that you could qualify for food stamps if you earn less than $89,000 a year. A modest one bedroom apartment in NYC will often rent for $5,000 a month, A hot dog and a can of soda can cost as much as $8 from a street vendor.

Both the wealthy and the poor New Yorkers don't seem to mind the high prices, and they continue to support the Obama policies of higher taxes and spending. Obama carried NYC with a whopping 80% of the votes in last month's election.

Don't forget the Parking Tax

Stephen R. Goldman, another retired Wall Street billionaire told us "I really feel President Obama is right. Our taxes should be much higher. Just as long as he keeps giving us those wonderful green energy loopholes so we can avoid paying any taxes. I have a wonderful tax attorney, and he makes sure I never have to pay any tax."

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been hard at work making the city a nicer place for it's residents by banning smoking, sugar, salt, transfats and large servings of soft drinks.

"The city needs to be a great place for both rich people and poor people" he told us. "All the middle class can just move to New Jersey if they don't like it here."

Opinion: It Just Doesn't Look Good for the Republicans

Clearly, this election wasn't about the issues. It was about demographics.

The nation has changed a lot in the past few decades, and the GOP has been slow to catch on, and adjust their pitch accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have been right on top of it, and have campaigned on a theme that says "we represent you, and they don't."

And that's why Obama won despite all the historical precedent that says "a president cannot win if unemployment is so high."

Obama won because the issues didn't matter. Who you are is now more important than anything else.

The polls told us that most people thought that the economy was the most important issue, and that most felt the nation was heading in the wrong direction. The same polls also told us that most people thought Romney was the candidate better suited to deal with our economic problems. Yet Obama won.

Bill Clinton's "It's The Economy, Stupid" campaign theme in 1992 worked in 1992, but it just didn't work in 2012. Because we have a different group of voters today than we did twenty years ago.

 According to the NY Times and CNN exit polls, Obama won:

93% of black voters (which is actually LESS than he got in 2008)
85% of Muslim-American voters
80% of non-white voters
76% of gay voters
73% of Asian voters
71% of Hispanic voters
70% of people who say they have no religion
68% of Jewish voters
62% of unmarried voters
69% of urban voters
60% of young voters (aged 18-29)
60% of poor voters (incomes under $30,000)

In every group above, Obama won a huge landslide victory. Add them all together, and you have 52% of the vote, or a slim majority. But majority does rule, so that's all that counts in our system of government.

Obama had to win most of them, because merely winning half of them would not have created an electoral majority. He did what he had to do. He ran the table for every minority group and created a slim majority out of it.

If you aren't in one of those groups listed above, then there is a 90% chance you voted for Romney. The problem is our population has changed so much that a huge majority of Americans are now in one of those groups, so the Democrats can win every close election for the foreseeable future.

If you look at the very same exit polls you will see that the vote was evenly split on matters involving issues rather than identity. Roughly an equal percentage of voters though Obama would do a good job on foreign policy as thought Romney would. The same thing is true for handling the deficit, healthcare policy, the economy, "saving medicare" or tax policy.

So Obama forged a coalition of people who could identify with him, based on their personal situations, rather than on any political issues. A slim majority of our electorate voted for Obama because "he is more like us," rather than because they were happy about the last four years and his performance.

The nation that rejected Jimmy Carter's reelection bid in 1980 by a huge margin, narrowly reelected Barack Obama 32 years later in 2012. But the voters have changed a lot since then. The issues mattered more in 1980, and identifying with the candidate matters more in 2012.

The implications of all this are profound for the GOP.  Because they simply cannot change our culture with a clever election campaign.  It took the Democrats 40 years to move the nation to the left, and you just can't move it back with a few months of smart campaigning.

The campaign theme that worked best

This means that the GOP cannot campaign on issues anymore, because the issues might not matter. And if they try to run on an identity campaign ("we are the old white people") then they will surely lose in the future.

The one thing that the GOP cannot do is to try to pander to those groups that Obama won by large margins. Because if they do that, then they win very few new voters, and lose a great many of their existing voters.

I'd say that the Republicans are pretty much screwed now.

He won: America Has Been Fundementally Transformed

President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, has narrowly won his reelection bid as President.

A slim majority of the American people have voted for higher budget deficits, more national debt, more entitlements, higher taxes, same sex marriage and legalizing recreational marijuana.

The President promised us in 2008 that he would "fundamentally transform America" and he has delivered on that promise in yesterday's election.

Even if it was the only campaign promise he kept, he has really done it.

President Obama could not have done this alone. He had plenty of help from the fawning media, who successfully buried the news about his poor economic results, his staggering debt policies, and succeeded in playing down his many foreign policy blunders, especially the most recent one in Libya.

The media also did a great job of demonizing Republican challenger Mitt Romney, and portrayed this very decent man as a liar, and a "vulture capitalist" someone who was waging a "war on women" by opposing forcing  churches to distribute birth control pills. They had less criticism for radical Muslims who shoot 14 year old girls in the face for wanting to go to school in Pakistan, then they did for Mitt Romney for failing to want churches to provide free birth control pills.

Somehow a slim majority of the voters have been convinced that every bad outcome from policy initiated by the Democrats was "Bush's fault" and that without Obama's leadership "things could have been much worse."  It really makes you wonder how they know this, but they truly do believe it.

America has truly been transformed when a majority... even a slim majority... is so arrogant that they think "obstructing the president's wishes" are now a criminal offense. They didn't feel that way when they obstructed President Bush's policies for eight years, but they feel that way now. In fact, back in 2006 they claimed that "dissent was the highest form of patriotism" although once they got into control it is now considered an act of high treason.

America has truly been transformed when a majority... even a slim majority...think that we can continue to borrow, print and spend more money forever. Even though none of this seems to be working, they are convinced that this is the right way to go. A nation that used to care deeply about their children's future now passes massive debt onto newborn babies, so they can have more government benefits today. They have elevated selfishness and greed into an art form.

America has truly been transformed when a majority... even a slim majority... think that it is in our best national interest to have a submissive foreign policy that ignores our allies and apologizes to our enemies. Even going so far as to give a higher priority to aid for Hamas and the Moslem Brotherhood... over economic aid for Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

America has truly been transformed when a majority... even a slim majority... think that the biggest problems facing our nation today aren't jobs and economic growth... but legalizing marijuana and gay marriage rights. This just isn't the same America we grew up in anymore. It's like living in an alternate universe.

But the people have spoken.

Our system is based on majority rule, and a slim majority has decided that it likes this newly transformed America. So we will continue on this path for the next four years. And when things continue to get worse they Democrats and their allies in the media will just tell us "it could have been worse."

And it will probably work again in 2016, because America really has been fundamentally transformed.

Ten News Stories That the Media Might Rediscover

Today is election day. This election is very close. Either candidate could win it. It could go either way.

If the Republican Mitt Romney, R-MA,  wins the election, then the leftist "mainstream" media will rediscover some of their news items that they used to report.

These are the things they have been ignoring for the past four years in their zeal to protect President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya.

But once we have a Republican president again... then these things will become newsworthy again:

1. The Sad Plight of the Homeless
2. Inflation is Killing Our Middle Class
3. Afghanistan War Drags On - Cindy Sheehan Was Right!
4. Where are the jobs?
5. Highest Poverty Rate in 50 Years
6. More Soldiers Killed in Fighting
7. Nation Crippled by Record National Debt
8. College Graduates Can't Find Jobs
9. OWS is Back - And This Time They Mean It!
10. Illegal Immigrants Pour Across Borders

Of course, if President Obama wins, then these stories will be suppressed for another four years.
Because that's just the way it works.

The problem with our media today is they no longer see themselves as journalists or even reporters. They are now advocates. People like Chris Mathews will freely tell you "my job is to make Obama a success." Somehow, they never felt that way about President Reagan or either President Bush.

When a Republican is elected President they feel their job is to turn the public against them. When a Democrat is elected President they feel their job is to prop them up, and make them more popular by selectively spinning the news for them.

The proof of this is that we have a President running for reelection today who has failed miserably, even at meeting his own goals. Yet he still has a 50-50 chance of being reelected.

Journalists or Obama Campaign Workers?

Without his solid media support, he would have absolutely no chance to win this election, given his poor job performance.

If Obama loses this election, then the media will continue spinning the news to make him look good, and ignoring all his blunders and failures. If Romney wins, then they will go right back to attack mode, like they did when GW Bush is president.

Every single item on my list will become news again.

President Obama Finally Releases School Records

Barry Soetoro (circled in red) and his classmates

Washington DC. Nov 2, 2012. After months of intense pressure from Republican critics, President Barack Hussein Obama. D- Kenya, has finally agreed to  release his school records from the kindergarten he attended in Indonesia.

According to the records just released, Barry Soetoro (the name he was using at the time) was a reasonably good student and was popular with his classmates.

Barry was also well liked by his teacher.

There are usually no grades given for kindergarten work, but the teachers do leave comments for the parents. Among the comments on Barry's kindergarten report card were:

• "Barry works and plays well with others as long as they do things his way"
• "Barry does an excellent job redistributing the crayons among all classmates evenly."
• "He is highly religious and prays five times a day"
• "Barry is forceful and assertive, and even told the the head master "you didn't build this school."
• "Barry is ambitious, and plans to run for school president next year."
• "He is very fond of dogs"

Unfortunately, President Obama is still withholding his Occidental College records and transcripts, his Columbia University records and transcripts, his Columbia Thesis paper, and his Harvard University records and transcripts, for reasons of National Security.

Of course, the most important report card for the President is the one for his performance during his past four years in office, and those results just aren't very encouraging.

President Obama has received failing grades in the Economy, on Foreign Affairs, in Job Creation and in Leadership Skills.

However, there was some good news for the President. He scored highly in Campaign Fundraising, Golfing and in Wealth Redistribution.

And he did win a Nobel Peace Prize immediately before escalating the war in Afghanistan and bombing Libya into submission.

Michelle Obama calls fat people a national security risk

Candy Crowley, 362 pound CNN Reporter

Washington DC, Oct 25, 2012. First Lady Michelle Obama has repeated her claim that fat people a national security risk.

The First Lady sees obesity as a greater than the threat of terrorism or the threat of rogue nations getting atomic weapons. 

Many objective observers have noticed that the First Lady is a hypocrite for dining on lobsters swimming in melted butter and ribs slathered with barbeque sauce while criticizing others for being overweight.

Michelle Obama prefers pants with elastic waistbands, and her waistline clearly shows that she does not practice what she preaches.

Her critics have pointed to Michelle Obama's spread at her Super Bowl party last year, which was almost exclusively foods high in sugar and salt content. Another example of "do as I say, and not as I do."

The net result of her forcing public schools to serve food that children refuse to eat was a doubling of trash collections from school cafeterias, and a huge increase in children smuggling snack foods into our schools.

Michael Moore slimmed down to 418 pounds

If nothing else, the people on the radical left like Michelle Obama are hypocrites who demand that others follow rules that they themselves refuse to follow.

Former Vice President Al Gore, a professional global warming hoaxster, wants you to stop driving SUVs, because they emit too many unburned hydrocarbons and are bad for Mother Earth. But then he flies around in his private jet, which emits more greenhouse gasses in one trip than you car will in 30 years of driving.

But at least one Democrat Activist takes Michelle Obama's advice seriously. Michael Moore went on a crash diet recently and dropped 22 pounds to bring his weight down to a more flattering 418 pounds.

Mr. Moore says he plans to continue the diet until he reaches his goal of weighing "under 400 pounds."