Break In The Weather

Two Views
In the course of the recent presidential campaign, the media and even the candidates themselves told us that we had a choice between two competing views of government. President Obama presented the view of a benevolent government that plays an active role in righting social wrongs, closely watching over potential malfeasance in the business community, and dialing down the country’s aggressive foreign policy. Candidate Romney stood for a less activist government that promoted individual responsibility, unshackling business from onerous regulation and an unapologetically strong role for America on the world stage. Incessant hammering by the Obama campaign, abetted by a supportive press, was successful in painting Romney as another rich Republican white guy, thereby casting doubts on his message and derailing his bid. 

What if there could have been another spokesman for the views that Romney espoused who would allow for a more objective comparison? 

Fortunately, the country has been given the gift of just such a comparison. With Dr. Ben Carson's address at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month and President Obama's recent State of the Union address we have the clearest picture imaginable of the two predominant visions for America. That the spokesmen are two African Americans, each at the top of their respective professions, should be enough to dispel the notion once and for all that America is a racist country.  (It should be, but sadly won't for those whose life's work is beating this drum.) Barack Hussein Obama and Benjamin Solomon Carson (even their middle names give us pause), both raised by single mothers, espousing viewpoints that cannot co-exist. You either believe that more government (or more effective government as Obama clarified) and a collective approach is the answer to America's problems or that the solution is less government and more individual responsibility. The comparison could not have been clearer. 

It is impossible to know what Obama was thinking as he listened to Carson speak. It is dangerous to try and read someone's body language, but others have spoken of his clenched jaw and tense appearance. It could not have been an enjoyable twenty-seven minutes. And what next for Carson? Like Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, Herman Cain, Allen West and other black conservatives before him, he exposes himself to a potential onslaught by the Liberal media. Fortunately he has a really good day job. 


Fruitful
During a search of the Lanza home after the deadly school shootings, police found thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games.
...
If they had found a book by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, or Glenn Beck, I bet we would have heard about it weeks ago with it making headline news across the fruited plain. (Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters.org, 2/18/2013)

The revelation above ("thousands of dollars worth of violent video games") would - in a just and logical world - immediately end all discussion of guns, assault weapons and magazine capacities. Such discussion which would then immediately shift to the role of video games in nurturing violence in society. It won't happen. Liberals just want to rid the country of guns. Newtown is their excuse.

To repeat: We have a mentally ill teenager, a product of a broken home. Who owns and watches thousands of dollars of violent video games. Whose mother inexplicably uses target practice at a local firing range as a way to bond with her troubled child. She does not secure the guns from his reach. And the answer is outlawing some guns and gun clips?


Throwdown
Friday, Feb. 22, 8:00 a.m. Governor Shumlin and RGA Chair Governor Bobby Jindal discuss and debate challenges facing states as part of Politico’s State Solution Conference, 901 K St. NW – 12th floor, Washington D.C. (VTdigger.org, 2/17/2013)

Vermont Governor Shumlin goes toe-to-toe with Louisiana Governor Jindal. We'd pay to see that one! (And put our money on Jindal.)