Bump's Stump

. I know that it's a heck of a lot easier to criticize than to initiate. Never-the-less Mr. Obama just delivered one of his patented teleprompter readings called the State of The Union Speech. If graded from A to F - Mr. Obama's speech got an F. He covered everything from obese children to underarm deoderant grease, but failed [big time] to describe how his billion dollar give aways would be paid for. His overall theme was condesending, overbearing, and made up of more nonsense about  Bush-Made-Me-Do-It.   I think most everybody turned him off when they heard that again. The guy has failed in just about everything he has done . . . but he's NEVER going to be responsible. The speech was loaded with CAMPAIGN RHETORIC that everybody in the room knew was either an outright lie or a badly bent fact.  Over and over he told the audience that he alone was smarter than everyone else and therefore would not listen to plain old stupid citizens. You know, the peopl...

. WHO IS THE ENEMY America is at war with radical groups of Islamic fundamentalists who have gained control over the religion of Islam.  This enemy has adopted [terrorism] as their weapon of choice.  America is  at war with an enemy that has a medieval and uncivilized view of the world. They do not, for example, value human life as highly as the rest of humanity does. WHY IS THIS ENEMY DIFFERENT The rules of war are very different with this kind of enemy.  I will quickly run down a partial list describing why. The enemy has; no defined territory, no political connections, no uniforms, no superior weapons, no naval or air power, no artillery, no tanks, no headquarters, no overall military direction, and no advanced communication systems. By having none of these they are indeed a different kind of enemy. IS THE WAR CONFINED TO AN AREA  Radical Fundamentalist Muslims have declared war on everyone who doe...

. Christian churches are losing members and there are many reasons why this is so. The most worrisome is that many members don't trust religious thought anymore. Century after century they have heard so much theological rubbish that they've become skeptical.  Sadly, but not  too surprisingly, Christians themselves have become their own worst enemy.  Our experience is that science reveals more and more of the past. Science also  relentlessly leads us to the future.  In a broad sense, the everyday changes are reflected in how we look at ourselves.  The Christian story, initially spread by Christ and his desciples, made it's way from one generation to another.  At the time of Christ's birth this included; traditions, education, family relationships, religious practices and etc. As Christianity was essentially passed from "mouth to ear", its many elements were necessarily interpreted and edited. In time societies began to rely on a cl...

. E very American President inherits the difficulties of the previous administration. In the past they have dealt with them and moved on. In 2009  we elected an ultra-left President who has surrounded himself with the same kind of people. His  administration does not listen to words of wisdom, and has no use for American traditions. In their effort to Introduce change they have, from their very first day in office, blamed all of their difficulties on the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld troika. They accept no responsibility for their own actions and monumental mistakes. It would be laughable if not so blindly arrogant. The man we elected as a Liberal Democrat turned out to be an Ultra-Liberal Extremist who has given birth to programs intended to make our government larger and more powerful.  He has gone too far left - too fast.  Today I had a real chuckle. The hapless Robert Gibbs , President Obama's over-bur...

. Am I the only one that watches the liberal roar caused by the soccer mom . . . and laughs?   I suspect Sarah is a nice and decent person who will eventually prove to be a better political critic than elected official. But who knows. She projects an effervescent personality, a better than average intelligence, and solid conservative values. Still,  as a political leader of consequence I suspect she is a female Peter. You do remember THE PETER PRINCIPLE don't you. Dixon

GRANDSONS ON THE MIDWAY IN SAN DIEGO BAY . One of my daughters teaches 7th and 8th grade science classes at an inner-city middle school. Approximately 75% of the student body is of hispanic origin, and most are not  proficient in the english language. The total school population is about 1,800 students. Admittedly many of my concerns have been stirred by Susie's comments after school. In my eyes she has chosen to teach a difficult age group at a difficult school. . . . but SHE thinks her little gang-bangers are the neatest kids anywhere. Language is a major impediment but Susie tells me that the most significant obstacle in her attempt to teach these kids science, is THE GENERAL LACK OF PARENTAL SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT . Most Mexican young people do not finish high school. They are removed from school to work and earn money to contribute to their family. It matters not whether they are legal or illegal, it is the way their parents were brought up, etc. In their ...

. For some reason there is anger in the air. It's Sunday, a day of peace and tranquility, so why take it out on our public schools? Because they are not performing competitively, that's why. Most schools from grades 1 to 12 fail to teach our kids much of anything. They are producing a product that is uncompetitive in the marketplace. Somewhere between kindergarten and 12th grade youngsters are supposed to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Instead they are producing high school graduates that can't read, can't write, and can't add 2+2. These graduates arrive at college unable to sign their own names, so they are immediately put into REMEDIAL classes. This is a joke. Most of these college freshman underachievers drop out the first year. Half of the rest drop out the next year, and only a small percentage, very small percentage, actually graduate from college. Let's get rid of PUBLIC SCHOOLS .  They are very expensive and they don't get good resul...

. AIRLINE SECURITY AND HAITI. Strange bedfellows to be sure, but hold that thought. Since 9/11 our defensive response to tighten airline security, despite throwing millions of dollars at it, has remained a bit of a joke. Our knee-jerk reaction is understandable, but we can do much better if we just think about the problem. Let's start with HOMELAND SECURITY.  I suppose a shaky case can be made that we needed it for psychological reinforcement, but I think not. It's creation was just another stupid political blunder.              (1) WE HAVE THE F.B.I. management, structure, and power             in place to protect Americans within the national borders.              (2) WE HAVE THE   C.I.A. management, structure, and power         ...

. Enviro-humbug.  My grandson Devon is a tree hugger. A born again enviromentalist. He and I have had a few interesting discussions about the number of people who TRY to be enviro-friendly - - and fail because much of their effort is a waste of time. This afternoon I took about 150 empty pint sized, clear, plastic water bottles to a machine in front of our local food market. I fed the machine bottles, bottoms first, until it had eaten the the last one. Then I pressed a button and received a slip of paper I could exchange for $7.50 cash if I redeemed it with the market cashier. What's wrong with this story? The 150  bottles cost less than $7.50 to produce BRAND NEW. From China of course.  

Did you ever have moments when you mind wandered for no reason at all. I was just reading my morning e-mails when a thought went by quick as a wisp.  Particles wafted after it like the tail of a comet. Time passed while tried to erase it from my mind, but the damn thought kept returning. For what it is worth, here 'tis. If you were to have an imaginary box in the air right in front of your nose. Pretend it is a one square foot cube. Okay, now tell me what is within that "empty" imaginary space. Make a list and you may be as amazed as I was. Air / atmosphere / moisture / thousands of radio signals / thousand of TV programs / cell phone signals / satelite broadcasts / the smell of pine or grass or paint or whatever / the barking of the dog next door / the sound of cars on the distant freeway / the silent signal of my mouse to my computer  - and so on and on. An empty box of nothing is a contradiction in terms.

. I've been reading LIBERTARIAN literature and I have to admit that it makes one re-think some of the things once considered set in stone. Pretend there is an acre of ground surrounded by a fence. a hundred people live within the fence and a hundred live outside the fence. Those within have a meeting and develop rules they all agree to follow in order to live in harmony. They appoint 20 people to write down the rules and enforce them. The 20 are called the GOVERNMENT. The rules (laws) are quite simple. Essentially they are the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule, and the responsibilities of the GOVERNMENT to enforce the rules  and defend the people and property within the fence. The land within the fence is called the STATE , and the people within the STATE are called the CITIZENS . Every person within the STATE agrees to be policed, protected, and defended by the GOVERNMENT they selected. When the CITIZENS agree to the rules an...

. The REPUBLICAN PARTY is doing it's very best to self-distruct. This fellow Michael Steele needs to get his head screwed on straight and start pulling an agenda and a team together. We have before us sky rocketing spending, an unsettled  war in Iraq, more troops headed for Afghanistan-Pakistan, and the idiot Democrats trying to ram a stupid, expensive, poorly thought out, partisan health care legislation through the Congress. SO WHAT DOES THE GOP CRITICIZE?   A ridiculously unimportant kind of almost racial comment made by Harry Reid way back when. He probably shouldn't have made it, but nobody cares anyway. Not even Mr. Obama.  It's old and unimportant news. Let's drop it and move on. Granted, I do not like this fellow HARRY REID and admire his politics even less. But partisan bickering over his poor but irrelevant choice of words is truly dumber than dumb. We don't need our GOP leaders distracted by this kind of non...

. People worry that American schools no longer prepare students to compete. New fangled communications have challenged our educational system to graduate students prepared to meet INTERNATIONAL  vocational standards. We don't. Instead we are graduating high school students that can not form a proper sentence or spell three words in a row correctly. This is not acceptable. We must recognise that this DUMBING-DOWN of American educational standards has happened. It's a fact. Now let us deal with what caused it and why. I suggest that you and I are at fault. We've allowed POLITICAL CORRECTNESS to supplant good judgement. At some point (near 1950) a liberal idiot convinced new parents to support a NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND policy. The idea caught on, invaded the schools, and changed  the way students were taught. Henseforth every student was passed from one grade to the next REGARDLESS OF MERIT , and class lessons were re-designed ...

. Read an article yesterday. Kept me up half the night. I think all of us take a few things for granted. I can't remember a time when I questioned whether or not America might fail. All of a sudden I discovered that it's not a sure thing. It seems that most nations have a life cycle just like we all do individually. The Etruscans came and went. The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians also. More recently Great Britain had a pretty good run - but we've seen their zenith and their decline in just the last century or so. Is America following the pattern? Maybe so. World War II got us off the farm and into the factory. When it was over and a few years went by, the Korean Police Action was a down and muddy-cold activity that began to sour the American population on the subject of war, and before it came to a inglorious end, the Viet Nam crisis was here. Viet Nam crystalized our national disgust with the horror of killing people. Students ran from the draft, rioted on school grounds,...

. HISTORY AND POLITICS have become my favorite sports but, unfortunately, both tend to drive me up the wall once in a while. When I take the time to think about why, I end up reflecting on the following: There's no good reason I am registered as a Republican. My father was - and I suppose I just followed his example. Over the many years since I signed on,  I've been upset with people in both political parties more or less equally.  Dad's only advice on the subject was to  vote for honest men . Perhaps he wasn't just a rubber stamp Rebulican. The first politician I was aware of was F.D.R., a very liberal Democrat who took office in the midst of a depression, at a time of conflict that was soon to become a war, and he was a man who really believed a bigger government could do more for America.  My father didn't agree with F.D.R.'s steam roller politics - but his complaints stopped the day we...

Over some years the name Blackwater shows  up in the news. It is, by their own estimation, the largest mercenary group in the world. I think I first noticed it when reports from Iraq mentioned they were employed (by whom?) to escort and protect members of the Iraqi government from place to place. Then I became aware that they had joined several of the firefights between our marines and Iraqi enemies. I wondered just how these mercenaries (that supposedly came from the United States) were  hired by someone (who?) to fight? That led to the question of just who would be responsible if a situation involved the accidental killing of an innocent bystander? It  might be a little sticky for an unauthorised mercenary contracted by the United States but not a member of our military forces.  Or suppose a Blackwater type killed a military Iraqi combatant and was then captured by the enemy. Would he be treated as a spy, or as a American combatant, or whatelse...