NevadaBrad

I find it interesting that during Bush’s two terms most of the critical comments made toward President Bush centered around his ability to speak, his intelligence, his supposed dodging of military service and so on. There were a few attacks that could be argued legitimately, such as the war in Iraq; however, this constituted the minority of attacks on President Bush. Now that Obama is in office the exact same attacks continue on the man that is no longer president.

For example, while cruising Facebook I recently viewed a picture of Barack Obama talking on a cell while walking across the tarmac. One person commented on the photo as follows: “So thankful we elected a president who not only can communicate in complete sentences, but knows how to use a cell phone!”

Right-wingers have attacked Obama on matters of substance with very few attacks lowering to the level of malicious and unfounded personal attacks. Yet again, the left and the right set themselves apart. While the left spent eight years calling Bush a bumbling idiot (a tactic which was not eliminated, just shifted to Sarah Palin), our current president is trying to fundamentally change our country by destroying everything good that America stands for. And the left has nothing to say about that. In fact, they can’t wait to help.

What’s more, the left constantly demanded records on Bush’s military service, univeristy transcripts and more. They jumped on the forged documents like they were candy because they were so eager to have some dirt on the president. If I remember correctly, I don’t think it took even 24 hours for the documents to be proven false. When Bush’s university transcripts were finally released, lefties dropped the subject fast because it showed that Bush (the “dummy”) actually had higher scores than John Kerry (the “intellectual”).

Now, when a legitimate question about Obama’s citizenship comes up they refuse to press the matter. If Obama is a citizen, simply release the birth certificate and end the debate. The continued denial and secrecy about the matter only makes President Obama look guilty.

While the right generally seeks to hold both sides accountable, the left will support any corrupt politician on their side and denounce any opposed. If we could work together instead of divided, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now. We aren’t going to get out of this mess until those on the left recognize Obama for what he is.

I don’t think I’ve seen a single marmot at all this year. I think they sense what Obama’s doing to our great republic and they’re hiding. I bet that if we get rid of Harry Reid all the marmots will finally come out of hiding. We’ll see them shopping at Wal*Mart and stuff. I just hope they stay out of the self-checkout line. I bet they’re slow…

I’m not one to watch local news on TV (as much as I love a good flub), but I saw two separate stories recently that were enough to make my brain ache. First, the question was asked, “Why is it easier to get a conceal carry permit than it is to get a driver’s license?” The second story asked, “What can we do in Reno to bolster our local economy during this economic downturn?” I believe the CCW story was on two different stations and they both asked the same thing. I’ll give credit to the reporter I watched, although I have no idea who she is. She took the CCW class at Scheel’s and the story was fair. I didn’t perceive it as positive or negative, with the exception of the one ridiculous question. I’m not an expert and I’m certainly not a journalist, but let me take a stab at answering the question. The reason it is easier to get a CCW than it is to get a driver’s license is…(drumroll)…because cars are far more dangerous than guns.

Here are some rough numbers pulled from the web. Death statistics were acquired from the NCHS (CDC) web site and other statistics were collected from Wikipedia (I know the information may be incorrect, but this isn’t a scientific study – it’s just a goofy blog entry). In 2005 (the most recent statistics I could find) there were about 45,000 motor vehicle related deaths. This comes from about 199,000,000 drivers. That should put the accident death rate at about .023%. That same year there were about 800 deaths as a result of accidental discharge of firearms. That is with about 80,000,000 gun owners. That puts the accident rate at about .001%. The only way to make guns to look more dangerous is to include all gun-related homicides (about 12,000) and suicides (about 17,000). This brings the total to .037% - just slightly higher than the car accident death rate. This is not fair, though, because this makes the assumption that all gun-related suicides and homicides would not happen if guns were not available. This may be true in a limited number of cases, but not in general.

Of course, these numbers slight the real issue. 1) Gun ownership is a consitutional right and 2) carry permits deter crime and make our communities safer. To speak as though there is imminent danger in allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons – after required training, background checks and registration, mind you – is ridiculous. It’s difficult to argue since both sides of the discussion have their own statistics to point to. Of course, holes have been repeatedly poked in the gun control crowds statistics, but that won’t change their minds.

In case you want some good reading on the issue, here is a link to a brief interview with John R. Lott, Jr., author of More Guns, Less Crime:

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html

I should preface this article by saying that some are sure to be offended and others will agree. To be more specific, of the two people who read this the reaction will be split. That’s assuming that both people are still reading.

I don’t follow local news and I certainly don’t go out of my way to find out what’s going on in our area. I am inadvertently exposed to local news occasionally and I never find myself wanting more. If it’s important I usually hear about it on the radio. Today I glanced over the RGJ Neighborhood paper that they send in the mail every so often (weekly maybe?). They featured an article about an art-piece that the city council was going to install at Virginia Lake. The link to the article is here:

Council rethinks Virginia Lake sculpture

The article contains a picture of the proposed sculpture, but since the RGJ has a practice of extorting money for articles beyond a certain date I have also saved the picture for future reference should this link break.

EDIT: The link broke. Here’s the picture:

The article indicates that the council wanted a sculpture that “represent[s] Hispanic culture”.  The debate seems to center around whether the sculpture appropriately represents Hispanic culture or whether it presents a “‘goofy’ caricature of Hispanic culture.” First, why does the city council think we need to spend $67,439 representing Hispanic culture? I believe public art should represent the public. Art should represent Northern Nevadans and Reno.

This leads to my second question: why does it matter how the Hispanic culture is represented? It seems that generally speaking there is little respect shown by Hispanics – especially illegals – toward America in general. They don’t respect our borders or our language. Based on the number of illegals in jail for felony crimes, it is obvious they don’t respect our laws. There is a flood of illegal immigrants coming to our country and they want to make America just like the country they are fleeing. To thank them for what they are doing to the United States, we try to be nice and make a statue to celebrate their culture. So, again, who cares how they are represented?

Immigration is what made this country great, but it only helps the country and the immigrant if assimilation is part of that process. Illegal immigrants certainly show no desire to assimilate and it’s certainly not legal immigrants that are flowing into our country like water through a broken dam.

I don’t think I’m that different from other Americans when I say that I don’t have a problem with Mexico generally. I can’t begin to thank them enough for Del Taco – it’s really delicious. I don’t appreciate having the spanish language shoved in my face on ballots, tax forms, Burger King wrappers and so on. I don’t like having downtown shut down for Cinco de Mayo when we don’t show the same respect to our own great country. Least of all, I hate that illegals from Mexico are forcing Americans to adopt a caste system, which we have been free from since the founding of our country.  Everyone deserves better than that – Mexicans most of all.

It’s time to weigh-in on Obamacare. I speak with a little bit more experience than a lot of people because a) I lived in Canada for a couple of years and b) I experienced their health care firsthand on three different occasions. I can say from experience that socialized health care is LAME.

I could go on all night about this, but I’m going to try to keep it simple. Because it’s always a pleasure, I’ll start by pointing out yet another example of Democrat inconsistency, if not outright hypocrisy. During a press conference I saw one lady who talked about how her life is in ruins and she has lost almost everything because of cancer. She only had “hit by a bus” insurance, not cancer insurance. Every time I’ve heard a democrat talk about health care they talk about cancer. They like to talk about how much treatment costs and how awful it is. All of this is certainly true and I agree completely. My issue is that, as near as I’ve been able to tell, the United States spends about twice as much every year on AIDS research as they do on cancer research. I would think that bringing some of the AIDS money back to the US to work on cancer research would certainly help to lower costs and perhaps even find a cure. It just seems strange to me that we would spend so much more on a disease that is primarily spread through lifestyle decisions and spend less on a disease that mercilessly attacks innocent children. Democrats are the champions of fighting AIDS until they want socialized health care and then they are the sworn enemies of cancer.

Back to Canada! The things I heard most from Canadians were that taxes to pay for “free” health care were outrageously high, the best doctors didn’t stay in Canada – they moved to the United States and abuse of the system is rampant. I knew one person who regularly went to the emergency room to complain of a headache so that he could get Tylenol 3 (contains codeine).

As for my own experiences, I had surgery there after catching a foot in the face and having my nose broken. I saw a doctor and had the surgery completed without any issue. I really have nothing bad to say about the experience other than I wish I wouldn’t have been kicked in the face (it was an accident). I think the care was better because I’m American and they were getting paid with American dollars. My other experience occurred when I got an ear infection. The pain was so excruciating that I didn’t think there was any way that I could tolerate it. I was living second by second. I’m probably just a wuss, but it hurt. I went to the emergency room and there were at least 40 other people waiting for care. One guy had cut off one of his fingers, but because it wasn’t a “life threatening” injury he had to wait in line. After many hours I finally made it to the table. The person before me was seated on the other side of the curtain and I could hear his conversation with the doctor. This guy had come to the emergency because he twisted his ankle. While I’m there thinking I’m going to die, I have to listen to the doctor tell the guy to try not to walk on it, wrap it up, try to keep it elevated, blah, blah, blah.

This experience helped me to understand why Canada has such tight gun control laws. I can’t imagine people having to deal with that while they’re packing. Anyway, my ear drum ruptured while I was listening to this drivel, curled up on the table, blood running down the side of my head.

It seems obvious that we need to deal with the legal side of health care, not the medical side. Class-action lawsuits and frivolous malpractice suits need to be stopped. Take care of the legal problems with health care and you will have made the best health care system in the world even better.