Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Is America racist, or is it a country where racism exists

Is America racist, or is it a country where racism exists;
I know some of you are going to read that first line and say, is there a difference? I think there is, look there is no doubt that racism exists in our country, that is not something that is unique to the USA, racism exists all over the word, the question is does our country enact laws that suppress a specific race or people, the answer to that is no, you can spin it and bring up examples of racism but that is not the question.
There is no doubt that at one time in our country we enacted laws that targeted specific races. But again it is not unique to Black Americans, I remember my grandfather telling me stories about the great depression, he told me he once went looking for a job as an elevator operator, yes in those days they had those, he said when he got there, there was a sign on the door that read “Jews need not apply” could you imagine a sign like that today, or better yet a sign that read, Blacks need not apply.
I am not trying to somehow diminish the struggles of the civil rights era, I know black Americans were held back by not only evil laws but absurd cultural beliefs; during WWII it was believed black people could not swim so they were restricted to jobs in the Navy, like cook and steward, “are you kidding me”, how about this one, black people are better at football and basketball because of their African roots that makes them more prone to running and jumping, “wow”. Ok so for those of you that don’t know why so many Black Americans play in the pro’s let me clue you in, it is because sports is, in many cases, seen as the only way out of the inner city’s so they work hard at it to escape poverty and gangs.
Ask yourself this; why is there so many youth sports programs sponsored by government, and not near as many arts or advanced academics programs, I know why but we will get into that latter.
I want to share this with you first; back in the mid 90,s I was still a soldier and working as a leadership instructor at Ft. Hoods Non-Commissioned Officers Academy, I remember this one student, he was in the Air Defense Artillery, and a good troop, he was a black man, and after returning from a weekend pass he related a story to me about being pulled over the night before, when he asked the officer why he pulled him over, he was told “I was just checking you out, because we are not used to seeing Black Men in this neighborhood” can you believe that, I remember being so incensed I wanted to go with him down to the police station and raise hell, he talked me out of it.
I know now my anger came from a deep pain in my soul to think an American Soldier could be treated that way.
I want to just real quick tell you about Darin Elis, Darin was a 6’3” black man for Pittsburg Pa. we had nothing in common Darin and I, he was the gunner on my platoon sergeants Bradley during the first Gulf war, what I remember most about Darin, is our first contact with the enemy, I remember fear, I remember excitement, but I mostly remember Darin’s voice coming over my squad radio and saying don’t worrie Sarge I got your back, I’m not going to let anything happen to my brother, and to this day he still is. So you can see why I just could not believe one of my brothers in arms could be treated that way.
Ok we can all agree that racism is real in this great country of ours, I won’t argue that point, but look around, we have elected a Black American President, minorities serve at the local, state and federal levels of government, so come on can we stop with that, when do we get to all be Americans first. Look am proud of my heritage, I am not ashamed of being half Jewish, of half Bohemian, it’s who I am, but first I am an American, and I am not only proud to say that, I am humbled to a part of this great democracy, I am thankful to the Lord for putting me here, the greatest country in the history of the world.
So ask yourself this question; are minorities still oppressed, economically and socially in this great country, “well yeah” they are, the question is why?
Consider this the Democratic Party needs the minority vote to obtain power, maybe that is why they want to extend unemployment and welfare and spend billions on community projects, a lot cultural anthropologists believe these government help projects hold people down more than they help.
Look here is the deal, if every Black American in this country voted for the current president, and every non black did not, then guess what, he would not be president, so when people say he won because of the black vote, that’s a little disingenuous, he won on a progressive change platform with a message that resonated with all races, now has he done what he said he was going to do, that’s for another day.
Ok I know I rambled more than normal, (it is the name of the blog) my point is twofold, one is that this is not a racist country, it is a country where we still struggle with racism, but we have made great strides over the last fifty years, again look at the current president, and two, the party with the most to gain form keeping minorities oppressed is the democratic party, and oh by the way, most Black Americans I know are family oriented, church going and hard working, sounds pretty conservative too me.

Thanks for sharing your time with me
Rick

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Lately I have been struggling to find a subject to cover on my blog; normally I just wait for something to inspire me and then I start doing some research and putting my thoughts down on paper, however until today nothing was forth coming, then a friend sent me an email about amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Funny during the long year of health care drama we heard very little about this subject, we did hear a lot of rhetoric during the election campaign about bringing the nation together, reaching across the aisle, and a lot of other falsehoods, “no more” now the administration is boldly circumventing traditional procedures and pushing for what he wants by whatever shameless venue he can (but I digress).
Ok so let’s talk a little about amnesty (and no I am not for it) it rewards individuals for breaking our laws and punishes those law abiding citizens that patiently wait their turns in their own countries. My wife of almost 21 years is one of those, she is so proud of being an American; I think some of that is because it did not come easy for her.
And then there is my 19 year old daughter who is working full time and enrolled full time in collage because she does not want me to pay tuition, (and yea I am ok with that) but the point is, she is not asking for a hand out from me or anyone else. What does this have to do with illegal immigration? The President’s plan will give in state tuition to illegal’s, and “ok” make your argument for that, but my daughter can’t get that break, and why, because she made the mistake of being law abiding American.
Ok, ok; yes I am a little passionate about this, but I am not a throw them out of the country guy, here is what I am; I am a “border security” guy, let’s start there, and then we can talk about what to do next. I don’t think we need to throw out anyone who has live here for years and has not been in trouble with the law, yea, yea I know but let’s be honest, if you were living in a mud hut in South America I am pretty sure you would try to get here too, and yes I understand the argument about them breaking our laws, but ask yourself this, if your family were starving would you steal a loaf of bread to save them, and morally you would be wrong, but you also have a moral obligation to care for your family, if you see it different then we will have to agree to disagree, oh and one other thing, we are a nation of immigrants.
Ok; so if you have broken a law in this country and you are not a citizen then you need to go, I don’t care about any argument you may have, I am not buying it, every nation on this “blue marble” deports criminals” as they should.
So what to do; here is a thought, lets secure the border, lets evaluate the ones that are here and have been here for some time (say 15 years or better) look if a carpenter snuck his family across the border fifteen years ago and then raised those kids here, do we really need to punish them because he wanted to give them a better life, come on. Let’s try this help them with their residency and get them on, I say again, get them on the path to citizen ship.
But it must start with security of the border, nothing fancy, a fence will do it, that’s it, it works in every other country in the world, a fence, build us a fence. During the cold war days in Europe I was a border patrol soldier, we were assigned to protect the East/West German border, do you know how they kept the citizens in the East, wait for it, yes, a fence, they built a fence.
So here is my view on illegal immigration in a nut shell, build a fence, secure the border, kick out anyone who has committed a felony in this country, then we can sit around a table and have a civil conversation on how to handle the ones that just came here for a better life.
But for hell sake could we stop with the incentives and the talk of amnesty, just once I would like to see someone say we have laws in this country and like the ramifications or not, we are going to follow those laws. Rick

Monday, April 5, 2010

My Opinion of the Westboro Baptist Church

I was talking to a friend last week about this whole “Westboro Baptist Church” and the horrible things they do; it hits close to home for me being a retired soldier and a combat vet, I for the life of me just can’t figure out what causes people to become this deranged, were they not loved as children or neglected or beaten, who knows, I know they aint right in the head, and this smacks of cult behavior.
I was dumbfounded to find out that an applet court had not only over turned a ruling by a lower court, but then the ordered this father of a fallen hero to pay the court costs, to the tune of $16,000, can you believe it? I would like to give a shout out to Bill O ‘Riley from Fox News for offering to pay the cost, say what you want about him, agree or disagree with his opinions that was a stand up thing to do.
If you know anything about the law and how civil law works, and I don’t pretend to be that guy, but historically, when a civil case is thrown out whoever brought the suit has to pay the court fees, but whatever happened to moral right and wrong?
Ok so let’s get to the meat of this conversation and since I am not Theological Scholar I will be forced to paraphrase most of what follows, these people from the Westboro Baptist Church believe that because we in this country tolerate gay’s that we are doomed, so they pass judgment on everyone, but I thought only the “Good Lord” had the right to do that, their judgment of us is harsh to say the least, but somewhere in the bible I am pretty sure it says “Judge not least you be judged”, so what about that?
So once again I went to the source; I read Leviticus, then I googled the Westboro Church and read where their belief stems from, I am including them in this blog, just in case you want to know.
Now again as I have stated I believe this “Cult” is the true abomination, I believe the courts that not only allow this practice of intrusion into the shattered lives of families whose sons and daughters have “Heroically” made the ultimate sacrifice are not only “not” upholding the spirit of the 1st Amendment, but are cowering under their desks and should be kicked out of office.
Ok so real quick, here is my problems with these monsters; they focus on the gay issue but Leviticus also says that if you touch the flesh of a dead pig, or eat pork you are unclean and cannot find redemption unless you offer animals as sacrifice to a priest, what are the odds that they don’t, practice that one. Also if you are a women and it is your cycle you should be segregated from men because you are unclean, yea tell that one to my wife, my guess is they are a bunch of hypocrites, but that’s just my opinion.
Finally to the gathering of angels; they are mostly Vietnam Veterans that travel to funerals on motorbikes and create a wall of American flags to shield the families from these idiots (again my opinion) I say god bless you brothers, and lastly while I am here I want to say to my big brother (not related by blood, but by love and respect) Larry Rodgers, a Vietnam Vet who rode with this group and was a true patriot, he went to be with the Lord a few months ago, have no fear Big Brother I am keeping up the good fight and I love and miss you, I will see you on the other side.

Rick






1: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. 3: After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 4: Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. 5: Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. 6: None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. 7: The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8: The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. 9: The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10: The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. 11: The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 12: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman. 13: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman. 14: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. 15: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 16: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness. 17: Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness. 18: Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. 19: Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. 20: Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. 21: And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. 22: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23: Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24: Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26: Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28: That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29: For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30: Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an Independent Baptist church and hate group known for its hatred of gays.[1][2][3] It is headed by Fred Phelps and located in Topeka, Kansas, United States. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of Sunday, November 27, 1955.[4]
The WBC is not affiliated with any known Baptist conventions or associations. The church describes itself as following Primitive Baptist and Calvinist principles, though mainstream Primitive Baptists reject the WBC and Phelps.[5]
The group is best known for its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and stomping on the American flag.[6]


Calvinism stresses the complete ruin of humanity's ethical nature against a backdrop of the sovereign grace of God in salvation. It teaches that fallen people are morally and spiritually unable to follow God or escape their condemnation before him. It is seen as the work of God (divine intervention) in which God changes their unwilling hearts from rebellion to willing obedience.
In this view, all people are entirely at the mercy of God, who would be just in condemning all people for their sins, but who has chosen to be merciful to some. One person is saved while another is condemned, not because of a foreseen willingness, faith, or any other virtue in the first person, but because God sovereignly chose to have mercy on them. Although the person must believe the gospel and respond to be saved, this obedience of faith is God's gift, and thus God completely and sovereignly accomplishes the salvation of sinners. Views of predestination to damnation (the doctrine of reprobation) are less uniform than is the view of predestination to salvation (the doctrine of election) among self-described Calvinists (see Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism).
In practice, Calvinists teach sovereign grace primarily for the encouragement of the church because they believe the doctrine demonstrates the extent of God's love in saving those who could not and would not follow him, as well as quashing pride and self-reliance and emphasizing the Christian's total dependence on the grace of God. In the same way, sanctification in the Calvinist view requires a continual reliance on God to purge the Christian's depraved heart from the power of sin and to further the Christian's joy.[6]
[edit] Five points of Calvinism

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Health Care v The U.S. Constitution

Since the congress passed by a narrow margin vote mandating national health care it has been much on my mind.
You see; I have my own perspective that centers around the fact that I do not believe the Federal Government has the power to mandate whether or not I carry medical insurance, nor should they have the right to tell me which plan I have to carry.
I know the people that come down on the left of this say none of that is going to happen, that if you like your insurance you will be allowed to keep it, but that argument does not bear out, if a small business is given the choice between high priced insurance or opting for the government plan, guess what.
I have a real issue with the fact that over the next ten years it will cost the American people about one trillion dollars, but the coverage does not start for another four years.
I have a real issue with the fact that the federal government is going to hire 16000 IRS agents to oversee the program.
I have a very real issue with the way this went down after the President promised us a transparent and bipartisan effort, and a Speaker of the House the promised to run the most honest congress ever, then went on to bribe, threaten and make back door deals. I know some are going to say it is the Republicans fault for refusing to get on board, but if that is true then why couldn’t the President include the two main issues that the Republicans put forward, Tort Reform and making insurance more competitive by allowing us to go out of state.
I also have an issue that my tax dollars are going to fund abortions, something I am morally opposed to, yes, yes I know this is a very touchy subject and I don’t want to get into a discussion of right or wrong, I do not stand in judgment of women who make that choice but I also have a right to what I believe.
Ok here is part of my dilemma; I had a correspondence with my sister who is a devout liberal, who is very intelligent and informed, in addition to being very active in politics and who’s opinion I value very much, (Love You Sis) she believes this is a historic law, ranked up there with the civil rights law, I have a hard time with that point of view in that I kind of feel my civil rights are being infringed on because of this heath care bill, of course as a white male I am not allowed to have civil rights, anyway if her point of view is so far from mine then what is the reality, or is it just beliefs.
So here is what I decided to do, I went to the source, I read the constitution and the bill of rights, below is the preamble to the constitution and section 8, that outlines what congress is mandated to do, in addition to that I have added the paragraph that states the reason for the bill of rights is to protect states from the federal government, I did not make it up it is printed on the bill of rights, I also included Amendment X, that says it all.
Nowhere in either document could I find where the government has a right to mandate me to spend my hard earned money on a government program or be panelized if I fail to do so, now the constitution is the law of our land, like it or not it is, so here is my question, if I had no trouble finding this and understanding it, then why is congress having so much trouble.

Rick Burian



We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Whatever;, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.