Shut the Door!

"Hey! Golly Gee! The Horse has gotten away, and the Barn has burned down! We'd better shut the door! Oh, No! Too Late! They've Repossessed the Farm!"

         You gotta hand it to the Federal Bureaucrats, they really know how to do Damage Control.

         You've probably heard about how the FBI is missing hundreds of guns, computers, cars, interns, state secrets, buildings, and even candy bars from the Hoover Building. Well, now the Justice Department is wanting to conduct an inventory of everything to find out what they are missing.

         First President William Jefferson Clinton sells nuclear weapons secrets to the Communist Chinese for campaign donations, then Bob Hanssen gives away everything including the recipe for Monster Cookies, then you hear about State Department people leaving laptops full of sensitive information in taxi cabs until you have to wonder if the US has any secrets left.
         The FBI is wondering where their missing machine guns are? They should ask North Korea or Iraq.
         School kids on a field trip to DC are not allowed in the Treasury building. Yet foreign intelligence agents are probably running a tab at the lunch counter there.
         The exact location of major US warships is kept secret from the families of the sailors on board, yet the Russian news service shows pretty pictures of the fleet as it cruises around in the Arabian Gulf.

         Something is wrong in the Nation's Capitol.

         Eight years of Bill the Lecher has dropped our standing of the world almost as much as his zipper.
         The country's borders have allowed so many illegals in the government is seriously considering declaring an amnesty for them. The military is in such a state now as to be unable to win a street fight. The Coast Guard doesn't have fuel for its boats, the Army needs more bullets, but they do have rather stylish black berets... formerly modeled by some fat chick for a President.
         Now don't misunderstand this. The USA is still the Greatest Nation on Earth.
         Yes it is.
         Now think about that.
         Even in the mess we are in... An Army that can't fight, an Air Force that can't fly (how many accidents in the last year?)... Kids that can't read, but feel good about saving the ozone... People that panic because some bimbo wants to garden in a swimsuit... The judges take God out of the classroom, then pray they don't get mugged in the parking lot... The highest rated TV show is some British Bitch calling Americans names... An economy that's in the tank, and a government that regulates how much water the tank uses to flush...
         Even in the mess we are in...
         This is still the Greatest Nation the World has EVER Known.

         It is not too late.

         It is NOT too late for America.

OK... a lot has been said to the Desk about how it points all these things out... but doesn't suggest what to do about it. So....

• ONE! Nevermind what the screaming-head wide-eyed liberals say. This Country was founded by God-Fearing Men. Yes it was. Get over it. America needs to take a giant step BACKWARD and thereby make three steps forward. It Must Return To The Principles Upon Which It Was Founded. You don't have to go to church, no. Nobody is going to require you to be a Methodist or Catholic or anything else. But don't get all bent out of shape because the couple at the next table in the restaurant wish to pray over their dinner before eating it. Freedom OF Religion. Not From. Read the Constitution sometime. There is no 'Wall of Separation between Church and State'. Sure Washington owned slaves and brewed beer, and Franklin liked the ladies... They Were Humans, but they felt that when they were gathered together to conduct the people's business they had a Higher Power guiding them and that together they became more than they were individually. And they were.

• TWO! America needs to stand in her place and Demand the rest of the world figure out a way to at least TRY to solve some of their own issues. It is NOT Our Problem that the flop-flower crop in Outer Gofizz failed, yes we will help, but we are not going to make every flop-flower farmer independently wealthy, No. The US sends Foreign Aid to almost every country on Earth in some form or another. Do Not cut it all off, this is Not a call to return to Isolationism. But we need to get our own house in order while still maintaining something of the world presence we now exert. Not every brushfire and fourth world bully is our business. And every time in the last couple of decades that we have stuck our nose in where it doesn't belong we've got it bitten by the very dog we're trying to help.

• THREE! Mind Your Own Business. This country is up to its armpits in busy bodies and social do-gooders. Too many people have too much time on their hands and want to protest whatever social or environmental ill catches their fancy. If some lady with extra spending money feels like wearing a fur coat, she has the right to. Without worrying that some nut is going to hose her down with spray paint. If somebody chooses to smoke and is not blowing smoke in your face, go lay down someplace. It is none of your bees-wax. Maybe smoking on an airliner isn't a good idea, but in your own car or kitchen? What consenting adults want to do in the privacy of their own house is also none of the government's (or any body else's) business. Overall: The Regulation of Morality is a dismal failure. It Takes A Village to... collect the garbage or something. Parenting, under normal circumstances, is not a Public Works Project. Nobody wants to Nuke a Rain Forest, but there also aren't too many people that want to spend stupid amounts of money to protect the very forest that the natives that live there are busily hacking down and burning either. If you have some extra time and are all socially hot and bothered to do good deeds... go paint the bedrooms at a homeless shelter or something. Leave me and my coffee and cigar alone!

• FOUR! Put Education back in the Schools. Yes. Put EDUCATION back in the SCHOOLS. If that takes moving the unions out, so be it. How many high school kids could read this commentary and offer a meaningful rebuttal or statement of agreement with it? Make it easy on them, we won't take off for spelling. OK, to be fair... How many of their Teachers could... Adults in general? Literacy in America is in desperate straits. We have successfully raised a generation of dummies. They cannot read past basic functionality, they cannot do even basic math, critical thinking is a lost art to them, basic creativity is beyond them. Yet they have excellent self-esteem, and feel good that dolphins aren't trapped in tuna nets any more. Look at the TV game shows. Basic questions based on the US Constitution or geography are considered tough. References to Classical Literature are missed wholesale. Take a clipboard and go to the mall, ask people yourself...

  How many Branches of the Federal Government are there? Three, Four, or Five.
  Which State was NOT one of the Thirteen Original Colonies? Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia.
  Jason and the Argonauts were searching for what? The Holy Grail, Seven Cities of Gold, The Golden Fleece.

  EXTRA CREDIT: Who said the following? Paul the Apostle, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Ted Kennedy...
  

  The things that will destroy us are:
  politics without principle;
  pleasure without conscience;
  wealth without work;
  knowledge without character;
  business without morality;
  science without humanity,
  and worship without sacrifice.
  Answers at end of article

• LAST! Take responsibility for yourself and your actions. Get used to the idea that your car can be the safest mode of transportation ever manufactured but if you can't drive, you're going to die. Don't go out of your way to be offended. If you see a Confederate Flag or Joe Camel or a real meat hamburger, don't have a tizzy fit over it. Turn off the TV and read, you do NOT have to be entertained 24/7. Don't look to the Government, a charity, other people, with a chip on your shoulder and your hand out. Most likely it won't kill you to work for a living, even if it is saying 'you want fries with that?' America is the Land of Opportunity, but when opportunity knocks, you have to get off the couch and open the door.

OK... so how's that for a list of ideas to start with?

If you disagree... email the author. Dr_Leftover(a-t)themediadesk(-dot-)com email scrambled to screw with spammer robots

now the answers.
1. There are THREE branches of the Federal Government. Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.
2. Georgia, fourth state, ratified Constitution in 1788. Rhode Island, thirteenth state, 1790, Vermont, fourteenth state, admitted in 1791.
3. Jason and his crew sailed on the Argo searching for the Golden Fleece in the Ancient Greek Legend.
Extra Credit. This Great Truth was spoken by Gandhi (1869-1948)

Selah.