If John McCain was not officially representing the United States with authority from the President, he should be tried for treason. This  increasigly senile old man has been sucking on the public tit way too long. Even if his mission was authorized, he is a bad choice to send into the fray.

The following letter was in the May 18, 2013 edition of the Wichita Eagle.

READ CONSTITUTION

There have been a large number of inaccurate or misleading positions in The Eagle and other media recently that contribute to ignorance in our community.

One is the position of some separation-of-church-and-state zealots that only one provision of the First Amendment should be considered, with no regard for the other provisions. Banning references to God or religious holidays would violate the First Amendment and its intent. The founding documents include references to “nature’s God,” “their Creator” and “divine Providence.” Clearly, the founders who wrote and approved these documents had no problem recognizing God.

Another common misconception involves the term “democracy.” The Constitution actually states in Article IV that “the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government.” I did not find any such reference to democracy and certainly no mention of using polling to justify support for a legislative proposal or policy.

Finally, there is the assumption that earlier Kansas court decisions on school funding settle that the courts are the authority on amount of dollars for our public schools. But the “make suitable provision” portion of the Kansas Constitution allows multiple sources of revenue for school funding, such as bond issue money approved locally.

Bob Wine, Wichita

*****

This is my rebuttal which was published in the Eagle on May 22, 2013

NOT IGNORANT

After reading Bob Wine’s letter to the editor, I may be one of those people he thinks of as being ignorant of the constitution. However, when he then refers to ‘nature’s god’, ‘their creator’ and ‘divine providence‘ he is culling these from the Declaration of Independence, not the constitution. The Declaration of Independence is not the basis of our government, or our laws.

Legislatures of the late 18^th century did not have the benefit of polls. However, in many areas there were newspapers that provided a venue for public discourse, and such discourse may well have provided insight into the popular mood of the public at large. Personally, I would like legislators to be aware of polls as part of their individual assessment, regardless of how they ended up voting. That, to me, is superior to lobbyists influencing legislative votes and corporations writing our legislative bills, ala AT&T

Finally, this question. If a bond is proposed to help school funding in a specific community, and that bond proposal is rejected by the people, shall we just say: “Sorry Constitution. We gave it our best try.”

John R. Maxwell, Wichita

*****

There is an opinion in this morning’s paper.

“One of the best stories after the tornado in Oklahoma was of the teacher who said she started praying out loud to her students, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to. Isn’t it amazing how your soul knows whom to turn to?”

My response is that one shouldn’t pray to their students, rather their god. But that is merely nitpicking. The fact is that there would have bee others who prayed – some died, some were injured, some lost their friends and family members, many their houses and most of their worldly possessions.

Religions began when forces of life and nature were too immense, and too over-powering; defying explanation. Being hopeless and hapless forces us to look outside of our own inadequacies in desperation. That doesn’t mean there is a god or gods, or any recourse or resource to be found, just that we know things are beyond our control.

If there were a god who created everything, that god would have produced all the dynamic forces that we evidence in hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and the like. Those forces would be beyond the intervention of said god.

The editorial below is from the desk of Lane Filler, Newsday, It was published in the Wichita Eagle on May 19, 2013

You are a financial supporter of the Westboro Baptist Church. You know, that posse of full-blown whackdoodles from Kansas that descends on our nation’s most tragic moments, particularly military funerals, waving signs that say “Thank God for dead soldiers.”

You don’t (please say you don’t) support Westboro by sending cash for its placard ‘n’ Magic Marker budget. What you do pay, infinitesimally, is that church’s taxes, because it, like all houses of worship and so many other institutions, is exempt. You also pay the taxes of its contributors, because the money those folks fork over is tax-deductible.

Why is this now notable? Because the Internal Revenue Service got caught trying to crash the tea party, punk the patriots and deny conservative groups their 501(c)(4) status. Such status exempts groups’ income from taxes. It also allows “nonprofits” to do political activism without disclosing donors, as long as the organizations also promote social welfare.

To a politico, the distinction between “promoting social welfare” and “promoting the ideas and candidates that we believe will improve stuff” is a line about an atom wide. But that’s an outrage for another day.

The IRS admits it’s been obstructing and scrutinizing right-leaning applicants for 501(c)(4) status. This deployment of the IRS is seriously nefarious. We should fire everyone involved and highlight their sins on a televised reality show called “So You Think You Can Screw Over Conservatives!”

After that, let’s change the tax code so Americans don’t have to fund movements and religions they don’t agree with.

No institution, organization or individual should be exempt from taxes, nor should any donations be tax-deductible.

Nonprofits, hospitals, colleges, houses of worship and charities are sometimes the richest institutions on the block. Yet they generally don’t help pay to sweep that block, or to extinguish it if it catches fire, or to fight off another nation’s army or fund school districts. And when their contributors throw them $100 or $1 million, these folks deduct those contributions off their tax liability, too.

Many tax-exempt institutions and organizations do wonderful things. When you identify one, support it with your cash. Why, though, should that entitle you to pay less into federal or state coffers, and thus force everyone else, who may hate the college, church or charity you’re contributing to, to pay more?

You can argue that a soup kitchen or other charity does work that governments can’t afford to handle, thus saving taxpayers money, but it’s a circular argument. The government is broke in the first place because of all the tax exemptions.

Beneath the political skulduggery of what the IRS did in targeting these conservative groups lies a flawed question: What groups in America deserve tax-exempt status, and tax-deductibility for their patrons? The answer is “none.”

Republicans had no difficulty putting America deep in debt for the war in Iraq. In fact, Ronnie Regan grew the government more than any other president in history, but the past doesn’t matter. Dick Cheney saying that deficits don’t matter is part of the past that no longer matters. Mitch McConnell saying that the job ahead was to defeat Obama. That was the day after Obama won in the 2008 election.

Today, only ideology matters. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma – a physician and a avowed Christian, should be a man of compassion. Instead, he won’t vote for any federal funds to be used to help some of his constituents in Moore, Oklahoma; unless there are counter-balancing savings elsewhere.

That ass-wipe looks as wild-eyed as John Brown of old. These people would use Jesus on a cross to pound the shit out of folks who disagree with them. I suspect it has to do with their drinking water straight from the Red River. That, or having their brand of faith so far up their respective asses that they can no longer use their brains to think, or eyes to see, more than the taint in their own cold hearts. Tom Coburn is one of those folks who make decisions on how a woman should control her own body. Needless to say, the Tom Coburn’s of the world make me sick to my stomach.

The governor of Oklahoma, when asked what was needed right now in Moore, OK, she stated: “Prayers.”

Really! Prayers?

Wichita was under a tornado watch for several hours yesterday afternoon. A tornado touched down SW of town. It did damage to about three rural homes, but only partial damage – a carport demolished, trees pulled up by the roots.

In my area, there was hail and high winds that resulted in leaves on the ground. I had just finished mowing four yards when the storm hit. I mow all the neighboring yards, six in all, about 4 acres worth. The peony patch was flooded, but the flowers are ok. Usually, we harvest the peonies before Mother’s Day. This year, the flowers weren’t ready until a few days ago. Late snows and cold days retarded the growth of most trees, plants and bushes.

The aerial map shows my house and garage (A & B) and the peony patch is C. The read border shows the properties I mow. The one in the top left corner only shows half of that yard. There are 60 years among all the properties, and just as many bushes.

Panera is advertising that from now on the will have only all-natural, anti-biotic free chcken. There TV ad goes on to say that this is an attempt to provide more healthier ingedients.

The use of the word ‘more’ implies that they still have some ingredients that are not healthy.

So much violence in the world. Three girls released from captivity in Ohio, and a man at a news conference thanks god for their release. Would that be the same god that did nothing to prevent their captivity in the first place. Or the god who waited a decade to free them? Or the god who didn’t answer the prayers of the families of these girls? Or the god that allowed the girls to be held in capitivity all that time, abused and frightened and in danger all that time?

When will we wake up to the wonders of reality? There is sufficient need to be happy and cooperative without believing in supernatural nonsense.

My grandson, Tyler, graduated from High School this year. I attened the graduation ceremony yesterday. There were 144 students in his senior class. 16 students were Honor graduates. 15 were National Honor students. 6 were Kansas Board of Regents State Scholars. Ten of the students received one honor. 8 received two honors. Three students merited all three honors, my grandson and two other young men. Obviously, Tyler got his ‘smarts’ from his parents.

Pictured above: One each proud old fart, my grandson, Tyler, and my son, Creighton.

Tyler’s sister, Jenna, is just as smar as her brother, but she has a few more years before she graduates. My youngest granddaughter, Kaitlyn, is only 7. It will be some time before I get to attend her high school graduation.

*****

In the paper this morning, these opinions:

“It is obvious to me that Mother Nature is simply going through “the change,” as evidenced by the hot flashes followed by the cold spells.”

“Whenever I want the light to turn greeen, I reach for my cellphone and start a text.”

Someone posted an opinion in today’s Wichita Eagle:

“Seeing the four ex-presidents and current president together last week. all I could think of four rich white guys on government welfare, and one black man with a full-time job.”

88888

Dialogue from the film, Across the Universe:

Army Sergeant: “Is there any reason you shouldn’t join this man’s army?

Recruit: “I’m a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung.”

Sergeant: “As long as you don’t have flat feet.”

PROCESS WORKED

It doesn’t matter what President Obama wants or what the media and the National Rifle Association say and want. It matters what the people want. So the bottom line is really simple: The senators who voted “yes” on gun control did so because the majority of their constituents told them to vote “yes.” The senators who voted “no” did so because the majority of their constituents told them to vote “no.” That is what they are supposed to do; that’s how they keep their jobs.

The media and the NRA don’t elect politicians; people do. And Obama is not a dictator yet, so the process worked the way it was designed and supposed to work.

After Obama won re-election, his supporters told others to “get over it and deal with it.” The people have spoken again, and they do not want more gun control, so “get over it and deal with it.”

Our esteemed senators from Kansas voted the way most of us wanted them to vote. If they hadn’t, they would not have been elected.

This is Kansas. Most of us like God, guns, babies and law-abiding, hardworking, taxpaying citizens who support themselves and their families. If any of you liberals don’t like any of these things, feel free to move on. There are plenty of states that would welcome you with open arms.

Todd Robinson, Wichita

Todd Robinson would have to muscle up mentally to be a stupid as a stick. For one, he thinks a system that produces 46% of the registered voters actually taking time to vote, means the process works. In the recent count-wide election, the turn out was 6.9%.

Secondly, he assumes that legislators get feedback from voters in sufficient number to know what their constituents want. And he assumes that lobbyists, ideology and personal convictions have no impact on how a legislator votes. He’d be wrong, of course, but he has a right to his own ignorance.

To Todd Robinson, I say:

“You interesting views, namely that the people elect our public officials. Sadly, only 6.9% voted in the April 2, 2013 county-wide election. In 2010, out of 1, 706,798 registered voters in the state, only 46% voted. From that number, 795,035 voted for a person to represent us in the U.S. Senate. Jerry Moran got 587,68 votes, or 70.3%. Maybe if one consulted the 215, 270 people who voted for Johnson (26%), and add number to the more than one million who didn’t vote (54% of Kansas registered voters DID NOT vote), and also polled those who voted for Jerry Moran, we’d still find self-supporting, tax paying citizens who don’t ALL hold the same opinion about guns, god and babies. If Mister Johnson disagrees with any of those people, I don’t suggest he leave Kansas, but that he stay here, and learn how we might all relish our heritage, our diversity, and our love for Kansas.”