Why I Am A Conservative

  This past Friday was the third anniversary of the death of my father. I still miss him every day. He is the reason I am a Conservative.
  Jerrold Fain was not a complicated man. He certainly was not born a rich man. He may not have been considered financially wealthy, but he was rich in all the ways that count.
  He was the oldest of six children. In a 3 room house that included all those siblings and two parents, and no indoor plumbing. He liked to tease my Mom that he thought he was marrying into a rich family because she had an indoor toilet.
  At 19, he was drafted into the Army and spent the next two years in Germany. He told my brother and I many times how he hated every minute of it, but it made a man out of him. When he came home, like a lot of other young men newly discharged from the Military, he was broke. So he went to work. He and my mother married in 1959. Their first home, an apartment in South St. Louis. They bought their first house in 1963, and two years later, this blogger made her debut.
  My Dad went to night school for a while. He would try to study while a curious four-year-old just wanted to keep him company. He never got his degree, but he worked. I never remember him being unemployed at any time. He got promotions within the companies he worked for, many times over others who did have degrees.
  He taught my brother and I that the world did not owe us a thing. If we wanted something, we were going to have to work for it. His heroes, William F. Buckley Jr., and Ronald Reagan. He marveled at Buckley's brilliance when it came to anything regarding Conservatism, and he loved his "Blackford Oakes" spy novels. I was a teenager and just starting my working life when Ronald Reagan became President. My Dad said in his quiet way, that he was the right man at the right time. When I brought my first paycheck stub to him , and pointed to two vastly different numbers, the lower one being what I got when Uncle Sam was done with me, I got my first tax lesson. "Remember that when you vote", he would tell me. I am also reasonably sure that no one else's father , as they went off to work, told them to go "discover the joys of Capitalism." He had that dry sense of humor that those who knew him best understood completely. "Don't be a sheep!", was also a favorite nugget of advice so I would not do whatever everybody else was doing, whatever "it" might be. Translated, don't follow the crowd. He also took me to my first Tea Party. Little did I know that it would be the only one we would get to together.
  It has been a hard three years without him. I know that he would be silly proud of all that I have accomplished in those three years. I know he knows that I am just getting started. Because of him , I know there is nothing I can't do.
 It's those early lessons in Conservatism that made me who I am today.
 Thanks Dad.
        
  

Can America Survive?

  I have started to write this blog at least five or six times. But each time did not seem to do it justice. So I will write about how I feel about all that I saw last week each time I turned on the television.
  I am still not sure where to start. I know first of all, I am DAMN sick and tired of watching the flag of the nation I love burned by animals! I refuse to tap dance around it any longer. They are animals who have no respect for anything and anyone. But I am supposed to be intimidated every time they are offended?! They are offended every five minutes! I can't keep up! What I want is for the world to be intimidated when AMERICA is offended!
  I know, however, that that will not happen until at least November. I am tired of having a President who is ashamed of this nation. I am tired of him putting himself and his re-election before the safety of Americans who put their lives on the line in places that are not friendly to America. How many more American Embassies have to be taken over and how many more Ambassadors sodomized and killed? How many more American flags must be torn down and replaced with Al-Quaida flags?
  I am tired of a useless whorish media, who will prostitute themselves at every turn, and do whatever they deem necessary to not only prop up this inept, incompetent President, but also decide for me and every other American, what they think I should and should not know. They are guilty of criminal negligence.
  There are reports that the State Department had credible knowledge of possible violence and did nothing. is it more important that our enemies not be offended than keeping American citizens safe? More important than keeping them alive?
  I can only speak for myself, but I suspect that I also speak for millions of other Americans. I am outraged, offended, pissed-off. The fact that my country is being looked at as weak , and ready to cave to the first band of two-bit terrorist cowards that comes along, is simply unacceptable.

  There is no way in hell that all of this was over some stupid-ass YouTube video. No. It was calculated and planned just like 9/11. And like 9/11, it was an act of war, and we must treat it as such. It has visited our shores before, and it will do so again, if we don't remind the world, and quickly, what happens when Americans, are offended.        
  
    

9/11 What Has Changed?

  Tomorrow, we remember September 11, 2001. This year, it falls eleven years to the day exactly. Like my parent's generation, who knew exactly where they were and what they were doing when John Kennedy was shot, my generation remembers where they were and what they were doing that warm sunny morning, when the world was changed forever.

  But really, what is different? What has changed since that terrible day? One could point to the biggest thing, Osama Bin Laden has gone on to his just rewards. I am willing to bet it does not include paradise or virgins. Most of Al Quaida's top henchmen are either dead or used to life in the Caribbean in Cuba at Gitmo.
  These are fantastic accomplishments, and we have the finest people in the world, the U.S. Military to thank. They continue to keep our nation safe in the face of an enemy that will never cease to give up on conquering the United States, and ultimately, western civilization.
  Everyday life has changed in ways we might not have foreseen a decade ago. Airline passengers are subjected to invasive searches and scans. A process that many experts in the security industry believe could be done a lot better had we just made a call to the Head of Security at El Al Airlines.
  Mosques seemed to have popped up in more places since 2001. It is a tough line to balance for a lot of Americans. The very founding of our nation was the result of different people coming from different lands, with different customs, all in search of a better life in America. We try so hard to be welcoming to Muslims who move into our neighborhoods. We want to treat them the way we ourselves would want to be treated. We weigh good intentions against natural feelings of wariness. Because even though they are innocent, they look like and share the same faith as the people who murdered 3000 Americans in one morning.
  Americans have changed as individuals. Something was taken from us that day. A sort of innocence, for lack of a better word. We were not prepared for the evil that was visited upon us, and it left a permanent scar.
  Eleven years later, we hope that we are much better prepared, for whatever people who wish us harm would do to us. Americans are a unique combination of strong will, stubbornness, resilience, and just plain hard-core.
  If the rest of the world has forgotten that, we should remind them.   

A Quick Look Back

  First of all, Happy Labor Day to all those hard-working Americans out there. You know who you are. You manage to schlepp yourselves out of bed every morning and go do whatever it is you do because, well, what else would you do? So thank you to everyone who runs a business, and yes, you did most certainly build that, goes to work, and basically keeps America moving.
  As we get ready for the Democratic National Convention this week, complete with all the rhetoric, stretching of the truth, and that's putting it mildly, and just general grade school type, sophomoric antics put on by America's Liberals, let's take a look back at last week's Republican National Convention.
  When Hurricane Isaac decided to put in an appearance, Monday's schedule was postponed and put off until Tuesday. Tuesday night's keynote address came from Ann Romney. And it was worth the wait. She spoke of how she and Mitt Romney met, a classic American teen-age tale of meeting a boy who made her laugh at a high school dance. She talked about their first apartment, complete with a kitchen table made of a door atop two sawhorses. But she also said what great times those were. She went on to describe what kind of man Mitt Romney is. How he never shies away from helping those in need, of years of work done on behalf of the Mormon Church, and his love of America. "This man will not fail!" She said.
  Wednesday was just as exciting, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice giving a rousing speech. She talked about the leadership role the United States plays around the world. She spoke of the inherent greatness of America, and on a very poignant personal note, spoke of growing up in 1950's Birmingham Alabama under segregation and Jim Crow laws. "Even though I couldn't go to a movie theatre or eat a hamburger at the drugstore lunch counter, my parents made sure to tell me there was nothing I could not do, even be President of the United States, and so I became the Secretary of State." She received a standing ovation.
  The man of the hour, however, was Vice-Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan, who accepted the Party nomination for Vice President. Ryan talked about living on the same street he grew up on in Janesville Wisconsin. Of working at waiting tables and McDonald's. "It did not occur to me that I would remain in the same station in life for the rest of my life." He spoke of his Mom, Betty, who, after she became a widow when Ryan was 15, she went back to school and eventually started her own business. He also brought up the fact that so many college graduates today cannot find jobs in their fields and are forced to move back in with their parents. Paul Ryan gave the best line of the night when he said," People should not be forced to live out their 20's in their childhood bedrooms staring at faded Obama posters. On a humorous note, he acknowledged the generation between himself and Mitt Romney, talking about their ipods. "My play list starts with ACDC and ends with Zeppelin!"
  Thursday night's run up to Mitt Romney's acceptance speech began with what many said was the best speech of the convention, given by Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He talked about his parents. Cuban immigrants escaping revolution in Castro's Cuba. They knew a new life in America would not be easy at first, but they new that perseverance and hard work would pay off and they would be able to give their children opportunities that they never had themselves. Rubio got emotional as he spoke of his Father's death just months before his election, and his Mother turning 80 the same night. He spoke of the endless opportunity for success that every American has before them. The chance for education, entrepreneurship and a chance at the American Dream await not just natural born Americans, but those who come to her shores in search of a better life.
  Mitt Romney accepted the Republican Party's nomination for President of The United States. He talked about the struggle that Americans have lived with the past four years. The struggle with an economy that is not getting any better, despite billions of dollars in stimulus money, and month after month of anemic job growth. Twenty three million Americans out of work, some for more than a year, some just giving up looking for work. He talked about weak foreign policy and disappearing influence abroad. he said that we would help our allies in any way possible, and make it clear to rogue nations that misbehavior would not be tolerated by a Romney/Ryan administration. He talked about a strong middle class, and getting government out of the way to better help small businesses grow and prosper.
  Will we hear chants of "USA USA USA!!" this week in Charlotte? Will we hear "America The Beautiful" and "God Bless The USA"? Or will we just have to endure a week of hearing what a disaster Barack Obama inherited and Chris Matthews giggling about a tingle up his leg?
 Let's hope that the contrast will be loud and clear for voters.