American Women in Combat-Letter to the editor

I have waited since the announcement for reaction from the public in opposition to this decision. Nothing, therefore I will provide my own. I am 84 and of the WWII generation. In my world it was the man’s responsibility to do the fighting and dying. We would not contemplate staying home and reading about the death or capture of American females. I realize my kind are old fashioned and out of step with the new world. So be it. America today is willing to send men and now women into wars as long as they are someone else’s children. How different it would be if their sons and now daughters were drafted and sent into harm’s way. Would we still have soldiers dying in Afghanistan after 12 years of useless squandering of lives and Trillions of dollars? I think not. Jack B. Walters

It is time to pay the Piper-a letter to the editor

As a nation we cannot continue to go deeper in debt. I for one am willing to go over the cliff rather than keep adding to the curse of debt we are passing on to our children’s children. Let the Bush tax cut expire. Our country was coming out of deficits with the Clinton tax rates. There of course will be repercussions but it has to happen sometime, why not now? Bring our troops home. Twelve years of trying has not changed the basics of Iraq or Afghanistan. Trillions wasted and precious lives lost. Face the reality that those people want to live the way they want. It is not Democracy nor will it ever be. Stop giving Billions to those nations who hate us and hope for the day we collapse. Stop the bleeding of the giveaway programs that are turning our people in to takers rather than givers. Jack B. Walters December 7, 2012

The Looming Tower by;Lawrence Wright- a book report

Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11 A longtime friend Glenn Puncochar advised me about this book. He knows my concern about the threat to world peace, which in my opinion, is the rapid spread of Islam into all parts of the Earth. I immediately ordered it and have been reading for three weeks. This is an outstanding effort by Mr. Wright. I can’t even begin to contemplate the research necessary to accomplish such a monumental piece of work. After reading I have a much clearer understanding of how the events unfolded over the past 70 years which culminated in the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11. As I have been reading and researching for the past eleven years I have learned a lot about Islam and Muslims. After 9/11 occurred I went to the Library and brought home three books about Islam. I read them and became more confused as I read any number of good things such as caring for widows and orphans and treating people with respect. As the years progressed many new books were published about how Islam really works and the evil it personifies in our present world. To name a few; “The Grand Jihad”, Cruel and Usual Punishment”, Marked for Death” and “Infidel”, they inform the reader of the harsh reality of Islam today. Whether you read this review or not, I am taking my time to write and it will of necessity be long. It is far too complicated to give it it’s just due with just a few words. I would certainly be happy to find that a few of you would be interested enough to buy and read for yourselves. I’m not optimistic that you will. Islam has been revised and adjusted over the centuries. Until the advent of the discovery of oil in Arab lands, these customs and practices were known only to themselves. Their barbaric treatment of women is a well-documented fact. Just this week a Pakistan father killed his 16 year old daughter by pouring acid on her. Her perceived offense was turning her head on a bicycle to look at a boy. My oldest granddaughter turned 16 this month. She is a beautiful, intelligent young girl with a bright future. It is inconceivable to me that there exists in this world a so-called religion that supports, defends and encourages this type of behavior. They are allowed up to four wives. Osama bin Laden had as many as six and produced between 20 and 26 children according to Wikipedia. In this book, just a few months before 9/11 to took another bride. She was 15. The purpose of this book is not to denigrate those aspects of Islam but to clearly show how violence against the West began with a few individuals who learned to hate Western culture and started the organizations that culminated in 9/11 and exist today, more capable than ever, dedicated ever more to the destruction of America, Israel and subverting Europe to their way of life. It began in 1948 when a young man, Sayyid Qutb came to America from Egypt on a scholarship. He learned to despise American culture with, in his opinion, obsession with sex, materialism and racism. He, himself experienced racism due to his dark skin color. He said “The white man in Europe or America is our number 1 enemy. The white man crushes us underfoot while we teach our children about his civilization, his universal principles and noble objectives… We are endowing our children with amazement and respect for the master who tramples our honor and enslaves us. Let us instead plant the seeds of hatred, disgust and revenge in the souls of these children. Let us teach these children from the time their nails are soft that the white man is the enemy of humanity, and that they should destroy him at the first opportunity,” Upon his return to Egypt he joined forces with Hasan al- Banna, the founder of the Muslin Brotherhood which was dedicated to convert to Sharia Law. Banna said “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” Qutb was thrown into prison and tortured. He was hanged on August 29, 1966. His legacy continued to advance. The next person of interest is Ayman al Zawahiri. He successfully built up a cadre of like-minded people. On October 6, 1981 followers of him assassinated Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt. Zawahiri was captured. He was released in 1984. He emerged a hardened radical whose beliefs had been hammered into brilliant resolve. Osama bin Laden developed into the terrorist he ultimately became. There are many pages devoted to him. It starts on page 72. We learn of his birth in January 1958. He was the son of Mohamed bin Laden’s fourth wife. The 300 pages of the rest of the book chronicles his life. Early on he became a successful construction manager. After the Soviets occupied Afghanistan Osama gathered together Islamists mostly from Egypt in Pakistan to aid in the fight against the Russians. In February 1989 the Soviets withdrew. The fight now was against the Communist Party left in control. The Taliban were the primary force. They tolerated bin Laden and allowed him to stay. He joined forces with Zawahiri and created al-Qaeda whose goal is to lift the word of God and to make His religion victorious. Bin Laden stated that his hatred for America started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American fleet helped them. As an aside, on page 149 a paragraph is devoted to the Saudi Arabia government which set out to evangelize the Islamic world, using billions of riyals at its disposal to construct hundreds of mosques around the globe. Music disappeared in the kingdom creating a joyless environment for their citizens. At this point I have concluded that it would take too many pages to do justice to this book. Suffice it to state that bin Laden and Zawahiri are responsible for the growth and intensity of terrorist acts throughout the world. This includes the first attempt to destroy the World Towers 2/26/1993 by followers of the blind sheik, the suicide bombing of the American Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on 8/7/1998. Also on October 12, 2000 a fishing boat approached the USS Cole and blew itself up while blasting a huge hole in the Destroyer. The culmination of their combined efforts occurred on 9/11/2001 with the destruction of the Towers and damage to the Pentagon. It is stated on page 272 that bin Laden’s goal stated in 1998 was to lure the United States into Afghanistan. Even though he has today been killed his legacy lives on. We still have Americans in that country sacrificing their lives while America is bled financially in the vain attempt to eliminate the fanatics who continue their single minded purpose of converting the world to Taliban government. The purpose of this book and my attempt to review is that Islamic terrorism did not always exist at least to the extreme extent it now does. I consider it the greatest threat to world peace. It must be stopped somehow. No government, including our own seems to understand the threat or are willing to put forth the effort to stomp it out. This book needs to be read by persons in authority. I also recommend it to you. Jack B. Walters December 2, 2012

Just a Coincident- Letter to the Editor

In just over one week after the re-election of Obama the Stock Market plunged, there were riots and massive strikes in Europe, Hamas in Palestine decided the time was ripe to start raining thousands of rockets into Israel, A House Committee is finally allowed to see the real time video of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi. Obama, Clinton, Susan Rice, Petraeus knew that this was a coordinated attack. They all spoke only that it was provoked by a stupid video made by an Egyptian living in California. They were directed by the President in my opinion. Action could have been taken but wasn’t. Petraeus and Allen are found to have been guilty of being involved with women when they should have been taking care of their soldiers. It was known by the FBI last July but of course they wouldn’t tell a President until after the election. Keep watching, this is just Act I. Jack B. Walters November 16, 2012

Critique of election results 2012

All of the pundits are mouthing words to explain what happened this week with the overwhelming victory of President Obama over Romney. You, who know me, will not be surprised that I would want to add my own thoughts as well. Romney’s chance to win was compromised during the Primary process. The new Republican Party is so far right in its philosophy that he had to relinquish his more moderate positions to even be considered as their candidate. He was labeled a flip flopper as a result. During his contest with Obama he tried to be more attractive to moderates in the party or Independents but the label stuck. The fatal blow was the taping of him in a private meeting asking for contributions. He said “47% wouldn’t vote for him” The inference was about lower income people including those receiving government checks. A good friend on Social Security took this to mean his comments referred to him personally. This election could be the last opportunity to return to some type of fiscal sanity. Just today I read that Puerto Ricans had voted to accept Statehood. Those millions would automatically become Democrats. Should Obama be successful in granting citizenship to the millions of Latinos in the country illegally, those millions would also become instant Democrats. Even if the candidate in 2016 is not black, I believe blacks will continue to vote as a block as they have in recent times. Those receiving unemployment benefits, welfare, Social Security disability insurance or food stamps will not bite the hand that feeds them. There are many other programs similar to the ones named that also provide checks for people who are not contributing to the general good of society. Unions can be counted on and the multitude of Federal employees who are enjoying the good life. If the Republican Party is ever to become a viable alternative it must return to its original credo of fiscal conservatism not moral or “family” as it was transformed into back in the 70’s. I watched it unfold while living in Iowa. It was during these years that evangelical Christians decided that the Republican Party was their best chance to influence government. Let me be clear, I never saw it written down or openly discussed but it was obvious to any observer. They started at the bottom with school boards, local offices of all kinds with the goal of infiltrating like-minded persons into government. As the years went by they incorporated their agenda into the process until it became the basis for the party platform. As I tried to convince family members to vote for Romney, I was told that no Republican will ever get their vote as long as their platform is anti-women’s rights. The country is running out of white folks. Whites are no longer the majority of the population. There is nowhere to go but down. Unless the party finds a way to be inclusive to gays, Latinos, etc. it will decline to irrelevance. It is perceived now as the party of fat cats. By signing the Norquest “No tax increase” pledge they are seen as standing up for those at the top. Their attacks on Social Security and Medicare are not welcome by seniors or those hoping to have those benefits when they reach retirement age. Reducing death taxes to zero allows those with fortunes to pass their wealth onto following generations creating a permanent class of super-rich. We might as well be a monarchy; it amounts to the same thing. I fear for the future of our country. With Obama installed I have no faith that the nightmare of annual trillion dollar deficits will be reduced. Now that the elections are over “thank God” the news media is drumming up how catastrophic the “fiscal cliff” will be if it goes into effect at the end of this year. Unemployment will sky-rocket and lay-offs will increase; the stock market goes into free fall, etc. Let me ask you, are you so selfish that you are not willing to pay your share today rather than leave it the coming generations to deal with. Is that the legacy we think is right to burden our children with? I say no. Funding for all wars must be paid for by us. If we don’t like it then stop the fighting. It seems simple and straightforward to me. There may be a snippet of co-operation between the Parties but I don’t believe it will amount to anything other than providing sound bites for the Media to talk about. The deficits will continue unabated, the old wars will continue for two more years at a minimum, new wars will be started with Iran, if not some other country like Syria. Obama will continue catering to the Muslim community as he has done for the past four years, Israel will be left to fend for themselves, and China will continue taking our industry for their people by using the same strategy that has been so successful to date. We have already started the ongoing, never ending process of preparing for the next election, the Corporations will once again spend untold millions influencing Congress to do their bidding, As low as the approval rating of Congress gets the people still re-elect their Congress person or Senator. We could be energy independent but Obama will keep putting in road blocks to assure it doesn’t happen, I will stop now with the above optimistic report. Jack B. Walters November 8, 2012

1% - Twilight of the Elites - a book report

America after Meritocracy By Christopher Hayes I have a good friend who currently is of the opposite political persuasion. We banter back and forth. I share books and articles with him. He lent me his copy of this book. I have just finished reading. He will no doubt be astonished that I agree almost totally with this author. It has been my contention right along that those on the right and on the left are all dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. Where we should be collaborating, the powers that be are content with us battling back and forth while the Elite among us continue to enjoy outstanding wealth and privilege. To start with a definition of meritocracy is required. I was going to quote my Webster Dictionary but it isn’t even mentioned. Perhaps my copy is too old. The author’s general definition is that those in the meritocracy are the cream of the crop, natural born leaders, and highly intelligent, hard charging persons regardless of sex or race. Some came to power from wealth or privilege. These are the people who generally make the decisions that affect all others in the world. This is not a bad thing as we want the best and brightest to make those critical decisions necessary to keep moving forward. The problem as he and I see it is that in recent decades starting in the 1980’s in America there has been a disconnect between these leaders and the rest of us. Without regard to the general prosperity of the average citizen, these Elite have made decisions that have had the direct effect of lowering our standard of living while increasing their wealth astronomically to where it is incomprehensible to even imagine. He spells this out in great detail. He covers many different areas such as Wall Street, Congress, the Catholic Church, Corporate America and even Major League Baseball. All of these institutions have failed in their responsibility to citizens by ignoring our needs while protecting and enhancing their grip on power. He points out the disastrous effect of the Supreme Court decision to allow Corporations to spend unlimited funds on political elections thereby assuring their continuing dominance regardless of which party is in the majority. All politicians are deeply indebted to those Elite who shower funds on their behalf. On page 181 he quotes Thomas Paine on the importance of the proximity of politicians and those who elect them, “That the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often, because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured…. On this….depends the STRENGHT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.” The author doesn’t mention the following but I wish too. The above has become meaningless as Congress has become a career instead of service. Something over 90% of Senators and Representatives are re-elected time after time. This in my opinion creates the distance between them and not being able to understand the lot of our citizens. He is convinced as I am, that the ELITE are so far separated from the populous that they just don’t care. As this separation intensifies sooner or later a backlash will occur as it does today in countries like Spain and Greece. To say it can’t happen here is denying the reality. He points out how countries like Brazil have quietly and successfully closed the gap with the rich still getting richer but the rest catching up. It is possible to accomplish but we need the will to get it done. Let us hope it does happen. This is a worthwhile book to read. Jack B. Walters October 17 , 2012

The Fine Print- a book review

How big companies use “Plain English” to rob you blind By David Cay Johnston Mr. Johnston is a financial investigative reporter. This is his third book. The first two were “Perfectly Legal” and “Free lunch”. He has appeared in a documentary and is often interviewed on news channels relative to financial matters. Several years ago I placed reviews of his books on my blog. It is jackbwalters.blogspot.com. In searching the Internet for reviews of his books he discovered mine. He was pleased enough to write to me. We kind of became pen pals. He lives in Rochester, N.Y., my sister lives in my home town of Lockport, N.Y. which is about 50 miles from Rochester. I try to visit her every year. For two years I was able to combine these visits with a drive to Rochester to have breakfast with David. He was kind enough to sign my copies. Since I am also an author, I gave him copies of my three books. He was complimentary but at the same time advised that they would never sell. He was correct. Over 90% were just given away to friends and family. His books on the other hand were best sellers. After those two years we were never able to co-ordinate my visits so we could get together. What with his writing and interviews he is just not available. I still treasure those two opportunities. He is doing a great service for America. If only those in power would read they might become more responsive and start the financial recovery of our country. You and I know that is not going to happen. They are too busy raising campaign funds to worry about actually doing something positive. Now about this new book, if anything it was more depressing than the first two. In chapter after chapter he spells out the mismanagement of our tax dollars not only at the Federal level but also State. It was very hard to read. I could only take a chapter at a time. I would put it down and start again another day. The money being given to politicians is mind boggling and the largess given in return inflates the profits, particularly of the largest corporations by providing ways to hide profits so little or no taxes are paid. One issue happened in 2004. The corporations that had moved American jobs to China and elsewhere were required to pay 35% tax on profits but only when returned to America. The Congress in its wisdom granted them a special tax of 5%. The bill was called “the Jobs Creation Act of 2004”. It was passed with 205 out of 221 Republicans and 75 of 199 Democrats. The corporations brought home $312 Billion. While there was a promise of American jobs, nowhere in the bill did it specify nor was there any provision to monitor. In actual fact thousands were laid off. As an example Pfizer closed whole factories. The workforce at the end of 2004 was 115,000. By 2009 it was down to 75,000. Hewlett- Packard immediately fired 14,000 employees. Other industries did the same. Astonishing that such a disgrace could occur under the guise of helping American workers. Believe it or not in 2012 these same corporations have accumulated $1 Trillion in untaxed profits. I am well aware that consideration is being made to repeat this once again which will deny proper tax payments and destroy several hundred thousand more jobs. Once again it will be the Republican Party most in favor. Regardless of who becomes President, this will be approved. Keep in mind that all the while American manufacturers producing in America pay 35%. Can you not see how wrong this is? There are specific chapters about abuses in pipe lines, railroads, waste removal, telecommunications, film production, etc. Each time he clearly states the facts which beg for correction. His final chapter is entitled “Solutions”. The most important concerns the 2010 Supreme Court decision to grant corporations unlimited expenditures to influence elections. He particularly chastises Chief Justice Roberts for giving them vast new rights. He mentions previous bad decisions by the Court such as the Dred Scott decision that stated that slaves were not persons protected by the Constitution. He pleads that the Congress take action to overturn or that new justices might reverse. Since the decision was 5 to 4 that could happen but in the meantime untold damage will have occurred to our election system. I will end here by imploring others to read this and his other two books and do what you can to restore a Congress that truly cares about American workers. Jack B. Walters October 10, 2012