Bump's Stump

THE AMERICAN CAESARS Just returned from my monthly book club meeting. It's a curious group of old guys, all retired and all avid book readers.We tend to choose non-fiction to read and discuss. Oh, now and then a novel slips in but not often. It's a guess, but I think more than 50% of the books we review are "political", and of that group about 95% have a left-liberal political slant. There's only eight of us right now and it's a comfortable number. We each get an opportunity to venture our opinion, and we each are free to suggest a book for future discussion. Our meetings are from 12:15 to 2:30 pm. It's interesting, at least to me, that all of the club members are opinionated and intellectually curious, and all are worried about our current geopolitical world. The daily media disturbs everyone. We seem to be on the cusp of war again.  If so, there will be terrible consequences. ROOSEVELT FDR took the helm when our economy was barely starting to re

Am I the only one that is tired of politicians. All of 'em. American politicians have painted themselves in a very poor light. We would probably be better off with Disney characters running the country.  The Bush and Obama Administrations are the last straw with their abysmal record of stupid decisions. Admittedly, they've made a few good ones, but very fe w. The good ones are overwhelmed by the huge number of mistakes. Our citizens, both liberal and conservative, are afraid for their country! Governing has become difficult if not impossible. The idealogical extremes (left and right) no longer cooperate for the common good, and the government has all but come to a stop. This is not what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they set the stage.  The Founders insisted on oversight (two branches over one). They did their best to balance the power of each, and it worked well for a few hundred years. The division of political power coupled with oversight provisions was largel

The far left is apparently getting desperate. People like Morgan Freeman are now claiming the Tea Party is racist . Mr. Freeman is an accomplished screen actor and well known left wing Democrat. He would be expected not to  support many of the Tea Party positions - but I can't find ANY reason for him  to call the Tea Party racist.    This kind of mis-speaks is normal coming from people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Louis Farrakhan. It's well below the dignity of Mr. Freeman. The Tea Party is, more or less, from America's grass roots.  Members are voters who are fed up to their eyeballs with their poor representation in our Federal and State Governments. The Constitution responsible for centuries of growth and prosperity is being attacked without mercy by selfish fools.  This is not a partisan complaint.  The Tea Party, by definition, is the conservative right of the Republican party. It was initiated as an effort to stop the trend toward socialism. The ulti

A  Baptist Pastor has decided that Mormonism is a cult.  This arrogance presumes that Christianity is the only acceptable religion, and doesn'tt this kind of thinking make it easy for atheists to convince people that NO GOD is better than ANY GOD?  Rick Perry is a good ol' boy from Texas where he is known as a   good executive leader. He does not fit the national or the international stage competitively. He might be a better President than Mr. Obama but that's not good enough. Mr. Perry's campaign is dead in the water. The TEA Party is universally scorned by the liberal elite even though they know that the TEA Party represents the majority of Americans. The (extreme) far-left crowd still insists that it knows what is best for America. How they keep a straight face is amazing, but they do. The ROLE of the Federal Government  is   described very well in our founding documents - which also describes LIMITS to it's power.   There is no statement in the ent

The Obama Administration has decided that any healthcare organization, public or private, must make contraception devices available. Just when you think this arrogant administration can't be more wrong, it it finds a way.  Their continuing attack on religion is repulsive to the majority of Americans. They are trying to apply a disagreeable, controversial, and definitely not wanted philosophic axiom on a significant part of the religious American public. The public resistance indicates that most Americans see their effort as contrary to the Constitution, Catholic teachings, and destructive of centuries old traditions. These people, the Obama Administration, prove their stupidity once again. No surprise.

Finally, Santorum has risen to the top! There may be hope for the GOP yet! Either he or Romney would be an improvement! Each political party has winners and losers. The Democrats are currently stuck with a big-time loser.  Obama has had no positive accomplishment since his election. None. Not one. Every issue he has addressed has had an overriding negative. He keeps telling us that his complicated and unreadable Obamacare is a major accomplishment. Nooooo. It is not. The by-product is the  unsustainable  cost of the program. That alone is enough to disqualify him to serve as President.  The opponent to Pres. Obama will be the nominee of the Republican Party. There is no single favorite yet.  The media says Romney is tentatively ahead of Gingrich. Santorum and Ron Paul. Any one of them would be an outstanding improvement and would mark a return of common sense. Alas, the GOP has allowed their prospective candidates to destroy each other attempting to win the primaries. They ha

Airplanes have been on my mind forever. While others studied and took tests in elementary school, I looked out the window hoping to see a plane flying over. It was World War II then. Reminders were all around. Life magazine, Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, newspapers, Movietone News, reminders everywhere. We played war games after school. There was always one of the kids on the block that had a dad or an uncle in the thick of it. Probably becoming a hero like we saw in comics: Terry & The Pirates, Steve Canyon, Willie & Joe, and others.  The "Allies" were mostly British and American. All of the others w ere in second place - and of course, the Allies were good guys. The Germans and Japanese were the bad guys. Newspapers were headlined with bomb pictures, firestorms, ugly damage and cruel death. SPITFIRE, HURRICAINE AND LANDCASTER  WINNERS OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Families at home saved grease from the kitchen and took the cans to the local butcher